agt_spooky: (Glass heart)

Wow, where did the weekend go?? Can I have it back, please??

Saturday was kind of crazy, at least weather wise. I had no more than gotten into the car and started driving to meet my best buddy Chris for breakfast when it started SNOWING. Seriously?? It just kept getting worse and worse and the wind was blowing until it was a mini-blizzard. It was nuts! WTF, Mother Nature? It's April for crying out loud!

Finally made it through the snow and had a delightful breakfast with Chris. We always have the best conversations about everything. :-) The reason we got together was so that we could head back to our glass studio and pick up the pyramids we made two weeks ago. OMG, they turned out so good!We're both really pleased with ours. Here's a few photos of mine:


Pretty cool, eh? I love taking these classes. Can't wait for the next one in a few months!

One of the things Chris and I talked about was Wizard World here in August. We decided to go ahead and bite the bullet and get the VIP passes. So as soon as we each got home we did that. Chris got the Sebastian Stan pass and I got the David Duchovny one. OMG, I'M GOING TO MEET AGENT MULDER! I might not survive the encounter. :-)

Spent the rest of the day pretty much just getting caught up on a bunch of TV shows I had on the DVR, plus a bit of computer work, still promoting my new book.

Made yummy pancakes for breakfast for John and I on Sunday, then we headed out to run a bunch of errands. I hate doing that on the weekend, taking up hours when I could be doing something much more fun. We had lunch out, then back home to put away all the groceries we'd just bought and do laundry, then vacuuming and dusting. Oh, did I mention it was 73 degrees? Snow on Saturday, shorts on Sunday. [shakes head].  Then I had OT work to do at home, so sat down and got that done, too.

And that was about it. Too much busy-busy! I want one more weekend day to just sit around and read or something. :-)  How was YOUR weekend?

agt_spooky: (Christmas-snowman)

Picked up my finished glass Christmas ornaments last night at the park district. Santa turned out adorable, even with one black eye and one green eye (sometimes all raw glass looks the same before it's melted~) and I really like how all the greens melted together on the tree. The things are so darn big though they'll probably break the tree branch! LOL!






agt_spooky: (Glass heart)
Hey all! So I finally got my glass Easter egg over the weekend and it looks FABULOUS! I'm so pleased. I think it's my favorite piece I've ever made. I chose two colors I normally never would because I wanted to do something completely different. And it turned out amazing! I will definitely take this class again because I loved working with the glass with a different technique and also the type of glass we used this time. Love the results! Want more eggs! LOL!

Here are a few pics I took of it from different angles…






agt_spooky: (Colored pencils)


Gosh, is it Monday already? Ugh. Not quite ready for another week to start.

Let's see, what did I get up to over the weekend?

Saturday was our running around day. Got up early and the hubby and I went out to breakfast at a new place. It's a restaurant that's actually inside a local hotel. We got an advertisement from them in the mail with a Buy One Get One Free coupon for their breakfast buffet. $13.00 for both of us? Sure, we'll check it out! The service was excellent and the food was…good. I would've said "great" but everything was just lukewarm. Nothing was hot. Everything tasted great but barely warm pancakes and waffles was a bummer. I doubt we'll go back.

We hit the road after that to head back to the glass studio one more time to pick up my pendants. I was irritated once again because they said they'd call last Tuesday and by Friday I still hadn't heard from them and had to call them again. Terrible customer service. They're lucky that this time the pendants turned out the way they were supposed to and I'm pleased with them. Here is the before and after pics:





John wanted to head to World Market after the studio to pick up some international foods he's been enjoying. I started wandering around and ended up finding a large pillow I wanted for the living room. John found everything he was looking for, plus quite a few extras from the display of Irish foods for St. Patrick's Day. One of which was a mix to make Irish soda bread. Somehow we ended up in the furniture section and we both fell in love with a sofa and chair set. I've always wanted a sofa with a chaise lounge. And this one can flip so that the chaise can be on either side depending on your living room set up. John hates the couches we have now and would prefer a couple of regular chairs. So this met both our needs. I thought it was a reasonable price but John said he gets fantastic coupons from them via email for furniture all the time. So we're going to wait a bit. I think I know what I'll be spending those gift cards from work on!

Back at the house we unpacked and I ended up taking a nap. Woke up to the wonderful smell of bread baking. Yep, John had made the Irish soda bread. It turned out fantastic! That was pretty much our dinner - fresh warm bread with real Irish butter. Melted in our mouths!

Sunday was a lazy day. Caught up on TV shows, did the laundry, made butterscotch pudding and finished reading Insurgent. Good book. I'm ready for the movie now!

Forgot to mention that the weather was just gorgeous out. It was in the mid-60's. We opened up the living room windows for the first time! Bean about lost her mind. :-)  She was on the windowsill plastered up against the screen, watching the squirrels run around on the grass in front of the house.

So that's what I did. How was YOUR weekend?

agt_spooky: (Glass heart)

Spent a lovely day on Saturday with my best buddy [livejournal.com profile] charityflint. We had one of our glass classes. This time we were doing fusion and making jewelry. We could either make three pendants or a pair of earrings and a pendant. I chose the three pendants and Charity made a matching set of earrings and a pendant. This was a new studio we went to and it was really, really nice. And it's also the closest one to my house that we've been to, so it's very convenient. The woman who runs it was really great. Very friendly. I can see myself taking more classes there. Charity and I both signed up for their mailing list. It was funny because for the first time, Charity and I were the only two out of a class of fourteen, who had ever worked with glass before. We were being called "the professionals". :-) It was nice to help out the other four gals at our table when they had questions. When we were finished everyone walked around and took a look at everyone else's pieces. It astounds me how different everyone thinks when given a blank canvas to create something. Some of the pieces were very good, and all from first time students!

Here's a picture of mine, of the raw glass. We pick up the finished pieces hopefully this coming weekend. I was very excited because we finally got to work with dichroic glass. It's the big multi-colored block on the left. I can't wait to see what that looks like when it's all melted.

Charity and I went out to lunch afterwards, then I did a bit of grocery shopping and headed home. I left the house at 11:15 am and didn't get home until 4:30 pm! Busy day!

On Sunday the hubby and I headed out to my comic book store to pick up my monthly stash of books and then we had lunch out. Got back to the house and spent the afternoon reading all of my comics, plus starting a Doctor Who book. Ended up taking a nap for about an hour then while we ate dinner we watched The November Man with Pierce Brosnan on On Demand. We missed it when it was in the theater and we're both big fans of Pierce (since his Remington Steele days!). It was a good action movie but had a few plot holes.

I also watched the two hour series finale of The Mentalist. When that show first came on I was such a huge fan. But the Red John storyline just dragged on and on and ON for six freaking years. When the show got moved to Sunday night at some point I ended up stopping watching because it was constantly pre-empted by football. But when I heard the Red John storyline was finally coming to an end I tuned back in for that one episode. And it was completely anti-climactic. Then when I heard that there was going to be this big time jump, both Rigsby and Van Pelt were leaving the show, pretty much everyone was leaving the CBI, etc. I once again stopped watching. Then when I heard this was going to be the final season I tuned back in to see how it all was going to end. And honestly, it was the most boring season ever. I really never saw the romantic chemistry between Lisbon and Jane. But somewhere along the way they fell in love and then got married in this last episode. AND she's pregnant. [shrug] I won't miss the show, but at least they were given a proper last season to tie everything up. Unlike many shows I've really liked and have gotten canceled.

And that was my weekend! How was YOURS?

agt_spooky: (Glass heart)

So I got to pick up my finished glass fusion piece yesterday afternoon. It turned out nice! I'm quite happy with it. I think the only thing I would've done differently was put the circular ones at the top closer together so that when they melted they would've touched, creating a better looking rainbow. Bu other than that I'm pleased with how the frit worked using the cookie cutters to make the leaves and flowers.

Here are the before and after pics:



Next class is February 21st, making glass jewelry!

agt_spooky: (Artist palette)

Had another glass class last night at the park district. Been too long since I've done one of these, so it was great to go back again. This time it was cold glass fusion and we made a 6" x 6" trivet using cut square pieces and ground up glass called frit, which we filled cookie cutter shapes with. It was completely free-form, so I went with a spring/Easter theme. Instructor said it was one of the best she'd seen!

This is what the raw piece looks like. I'll be able to pick up the finished, fired piece next Wednesday:

agt_spooky: (Colored pencils)
Some very disconcerting things went down at work on Friday, which I'll post about later after I get my thoughts together, so it was perfect timing that I had another glass class that night, where wine was being served. :-) My buddy [livejournal.com profile] charityflint took the class with me and she couldn't believe how many glasses I had! LOL! So she felt it necessary to snap photographic evidence of how relaxed I was, with my flushed face.


Unfortunately, since I'm not a drinker, I paid for it on Saturday. Ugh. Had a pounding head pretty much all day and didn't do much but nap and watch TV.

Sunday was a bit more productive. Hit the comic book store and then the hubby and I went to see the Veronica Mars movie. LOVED IT! It was so cool how they brought back so many characters from the series. And OMG, Logan in Navy dress whites?? [thud] Thank god that Piz wasn't in it nearly as much as I thought he would be. It was a great two-pronged mystery that involved both Veronica and Keith, which was great.

All I can say about the ending is: VERONICA AND LOGAN 4 EVER!

Oh, and that it's completely set up for a sequel, which is awesome. And I'd donate to Kickstarter again to make it happen.

So that was pretty much it for me. How was YOUR weekend?
agt_spooky: (Glass heart)

So I finally made it back up to the glass studio over the weekend to pick up my piece. I'm not thrilled with it but I'm not surprised. If the photo on their website had been accurate I wouldn't have taken the class in the first place, because clear glass is boring.

My rectangle came out more rounded than I would've liked. My buddy [livejournal.com profile] charityflint said it looks like a giant ice cube or lava lamp. I kinda like that description. The only thing that saved this piece is the tri-colored LED light box we all got. I took a couple of pics with the lights on:


Not my best piece, for sure, but not horrible. We're looking to go back later this month to make an Easter egg, which should be quite fun.

agt_spooky: (Glass heart)

Had a great day on Saturday. My buddy [livejournal.com profile] charityflint and I headed back to our new glass studio to tackle another project - mouth blown Christmas ornaments. This would be a first for us both and we were both excited and nervous.

It truly was a nerve-wracking experience when we first got started, listening to all of the instructions, learning how to work with the propane gas flame, knowing you only had five seconds to pull the hot glass out and blow the ornament. Yikes!

Thank goodness we were given 10 blanks to make, because I didn't start off too well. It's a learning process to know the exact precise moment the glass is hot enough to remove from the flame. My first two I was barely able to blow, so they're kind of…mini ornaments. My third was a complete disaster and my only true reject. By that time I was getting really discouraged, watching Charity and everyone else having such an easy time of it right from the start. I was honestly ready to just throw in the towel and leave. But Charity and Mike, who owns the studio, kept encouraging me to not give up. And I'm glad they did, for suddenly on my next try everything worked perfectly! And the next six after that!

Charity snapped a couple of pics of me. Here I am heating the glass up over the flame:

And here I am actually blowing the ornament:


We get to pick up the finished, cooled, ornaments on Thursday. Can't wait to see how they turned out! I'll be sure to post some pics of them.

agt_spooky: (Glass heart)

Man, is it Monday already?? Though this week shouldn't be too bad, as my boss is only in for one day. Yay!

How was your weekend, guys? Do anything fun and exciting?

Best thing I did was take my last stained glass class with my buddy [livejournal.com profile] charityflint. We were both able to complete our project in three weeks instead of four. And here's the finished piece!


Here's what it looks like all framed out and soldered. The solder was originally silver, but I used a patina on it that turned it instantly to copper. So cool!


And here's what it looks like in the sun. Can't wait to get it hung in the kitchen window, which gets the morning and early afternoon sun.


All in all a very successful class! I've learned yet another new skill. :-) And we found out that the glass studio is now offering hot glass classes, making Christmas ornaments. This is true mouth-blown glass, which neither Charity or I have ever done. Needless to say, we signed up. :-)

Hmm…let's see, what else? I worked on Sunday morning and got all the edits done for my new eBook and will be sending them back to Dreamspinner when I get home tonight.

I love the show "Justified" and my friend at work surprised me by finding a book based on the show, called "Raylan" that she gave to me a few weeks ago. Finally had a chance to sit down and read the entire thing on Sunday. Was a strange book, like a bunch of deleted scenes from the actual show put together like short stories. Not bad, just…odd.

And that was about it for me. Your turn!

agt_spooky: (Glass heart)

Hey all, happy Monday! How was everyone's weekend? Do anything fun?

On Saturday, myself and my buddy [livejournal.com profile] charityflint had the first of our four-week stained glass class. This time we got to pick our own pattern and colors of glass. I decided on a tulip!

It's a good size, about 8" x 10" and it took nearly three hours to cut and grind all the glass. The white areas are actually clear glass with a neat pattern that you can see when you hold it up to the light. Next week we'll use the copper tape and then we'll start soldering it the week after that. I'm excited to see how it's going to turn out!

Sunday was a slug day. I finished reading a book, made some notes on my next Enterprise story and watched two movies. One was Far East, with Connor Trinneer. It was a TV movie he made for PBS shortly before Enterprise started. That was one strange movie. Connor was, unfortunately, the co-star and I hated the actual star of the movie after about 10 minutes. Connor's sub-plot (a gay naval officer being blackmailed into giving up top secret documents) was waaay more interesting, but it was so disjointed from the rest of the movie. It deserved its own movie! But Connor looked way hot in his Navy uniform. :-)

The other movie I watched was Phantom, with David Duchovny. It was out earlier this year but I missed it at the theater. It was very much like The Hunt for Red October, with a rogue Russian nuclear submarine. David plays the KGB agent that takes over the sub from the captain to start a nuclear war with the United States. It was a good movie (even though I predicted the end) but it was so weird because no one spoke with a Russian accent! WTF? So it was like Americans wearing Russian navy uniforms. That was a strange directoral/writing choice.

And now here we are, Monday again. With me being at DragonCon, this will be the first full week I've worked in two weeks. Ugh.

So what fun and exciting things did all of YOU get up to?

agt_spooky: (Glass heart)

I got to pick up my finished glass mosaic butterfly last night and I'm really happy with how it turned out!

Okay, this was the "before" picture, prior to being fired:



And here's the "after". Amazing how the colors change, isn't it?



The class wasn't what I was expecting, but in the end I enjoyed myself and I've got another skill under my belt!


agt_spooky: (Glass heart)
Had a great day on Saturday with my best buddy [livejournal.com profile] charityflint, learning how to make stained glass. After doing so many hot glass blowing classes it's been great to learn cold glass as well (fusion, mosaics) and this was no exception.

We made a sun catcher, which doesn't sound too difficult, but it took just over 2 hours! Well, when you don't know what you're doing...

Anyway, we started off with a pattern and had to pick out 5 different pieces of glass. That's always the hardest part!

Here's what I chose and how I laid it out. You can see part of the pattern off to the right.


We had to cut out each part of the pattern and trace it onto the glass then cut each piece, then grind them down so it had smooth edges. Cutting glass is tricky. You have to apply enough pressure to score it but not too much or you'll shatter it. I only messed up one piece!

After all the cutting it was time to assemble and wrap each piece in copper tape to get it ready for soldering.


Then came the hardest part - soldering. Especially when you've never done it before! Like our instructor said, "It's not IF you're going to burn yourself, it's WHEN."  Yep, she was right! I'm now sporting a blister on the middle finger on my left hand. [sigh] It was tricky, working with the iron and solder, and in the end it wasn't very pretty, but I got the job done:


All in all we both had a great time and learned another skill. We liked it so much that we took advantage of the studio's 50% off discount if we booked another class, so we're taking a four week stained glass class next, making a much more complicated piece. We'll be going every Saturday in September from 1-4 pm.  Can't wait!

So what fun and exciting things did YOU do over the weekend?
agt_spooky: (Glass heart)

Had another glass class last night, this time making a mosaic. It wasn't what I thought of as a true mosaic, but I still had a good time making it:

It was a lot of work, though! The molds were just white ceramic and first we had to paint TWO coats of white glaze in all of those openings where you see the colored glass. Then we had to paint TWO coats on the back, sides and front with the colored glaze. Mine looks kinda pink, but it's actually going to turn a deep purple with little shiny specks after it's fired. The painting itself took well over an hour.

Then we had to take the powdered glass and carefully pour it into all those openings. Let me tell you, that wasn't easy! We had to use Q-tips and little brushes to remove the powder if it got into any of the other openings.

All in all, the class took nearly 2 1/2 hours. I did the butterfly and the other women did a dragonfly, a frog, a cross and a Welcome sign. We're all eager to see what they're going to turn out like. It's hard waiting an entire week! I'll be sure to post another pic when I pick up the finished piece.

Speaking of glass classes, it's a busy week for me, as I have another one on Saturday. My best buddy [livejournal.com profile] charityflint and I are going to learn how to do stained glass! Now that should be fascinating.

agt_spooky: (Glass heart)
I got to pick up my glass plate that I made last week and it turned out awesome!





All of the raw glass melted so beautifully and perfectly. The instructor left a note on mine that said "One of my favorites in the class. Well done!" Put a smile on my face. :-)

I took it into work on Friday to show my friends and all of them were like, "That would make a perfect candy dish!" And while I agree, I kind of don't want to cover it up, you know? So I'm going to get one of those little easels and display it like that, standing up. Couple people said that it looked like something they'd buy at Pier One!

My next two classes are in August - one is a stained glass class and the other is a mosaic class. Looking forward to both of them!
agt_spooky: (Glass heart)
So I had my glass fusion class last night and it was a lot of fun. The description of the class said we were making a bowl, but in reality it's going to be more of a plate, as it was a square piece of glass we used as our base.

I ended up choosing just a clear piece of glass for my base, as I didn't really care for the color choices of the opaque ones. And when I found the hearts I knew I'd found my theme.  :-)

Here's the raw glass piece. We won't be able to pick up the finished plates until the 29th. I'll post another pic then. I'm excited to see how it's going to turn out!

agt_spooky: (Rainbow flower)

In the midst of the craziness that was my weekend from Hell, I had to go up to the glass studio to pick up my flower bouquet that I made last weekend. Turned out AWESOME. I'm really, really pleased with my first effort at true free-form glass design. Each flower turned out very unique and I'm happy with my color choices. Got myself a vase, sand and colored stones and brought the whole thing into work yesterday. Gotta keep it there because you know, I've got these two cats…. *g*

Check it out, what do you guys think?


Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.

agt_spooky: (Crayons)

Morning, all! How is everyone on this fine Monday? Have a good weekend?

Mine was pretty good. On Saturday the hubby and I went to see Hansel and Gretel and we both really liked it. Especially John, which surprised the heck out of me! I think he has a thing for the gal who plays Gretel. That's okay, I've got a thing for Jeremy Renner so it all works out! LOL!

Had a lot of computer/online work to do on Sunday regarding my pro writing/ebooks, but more on that in another post.

Best part of the weekend was actually Friday night. John and I went out to the glass studio to pick up my heart and the ones my friends at work made as well. They all turned out so good! Check it out:



Here's mine. It turned out SO much better than the one I did last year.

This is my friend Birute's:

And my friend Sharon's:


Pretty cool, huh? I was glad that we all picked different colors to do. Both of my friends really enjoyed the class and want to do the next one with me in the spring. We're going to be doing flowers. Should be fun!

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.

agt_spooky: (Heart)

Morning, everyone! And a happy Monday to all of you. Did you have a good weekend? I had a fantastic one!

It started Friday night, when I went with a friend of mine from work to a special yoga class my park district was having. It was called Girls Night Out. My regular instructor Julie was giving the 45 minute class, which was then followed by wine and cheese tasting and presentations by a chiropractor and a life coach.

OMG, what a blast! I was so happy my friend Sharon decided to go with me. We had a great time! Sharon loved the yoga class and is probably going to join as a member. The cheese was very tasty but the wine was fabulous. This is coming from someone who rarely drinks, and doesn't like wine. But I found one that was super yummy - a riesling from Germany. I had two glasses! And Sharon had two as well of one that she also liked. We ended up getting super giggly and probably annoyed the life coach, but she was awful, reading from these 3x5 cards and sounded like a robot.

At the end of the night the photographer from the park district was walking around taking pictures of people at the tables. Everyone was just kind of sitting there, smiling. But when he got to Sharon and I we put our arms around each other and pressed our faces together. Everyone was like, "Aww, that's a great picture!" So who knows, we may end up in the next newsletter! LOL!

Then on Saturday I got together with Sharon again, and our other friend from work, Birute. They decided to take a glass class with me! Again, what a great time we had. It was neat watching the two of them do this for the first time and they both did very well. I snapped a couple of pics of them:

I also got a really good close up of Sharon's heart:

Then it was my turn. I've done this six times now, so they all know me, and this time they let me do everything by myself. No helping hands! We had to do this twisty thing with the glass in the furnace where you let it nearly drip off the rod then quickly spin it to swirl the colors together. Not easy to do but I did it flawlessly. Tim was very impressed with me and told me that I have a natural ability for this. Woot!!

Sharon grabbed my camera and snapped this one of me as I prepared to use the jacks:

We all went out to dinner afterwards and had a great time just hanging out together. At the end of the night we decided that the three of us need to do this more often. :-) I pick up our hearts on Thursday so hopefully I'll have a pic of mine to post on Friday.

Ran a bunch of errands on Sunday and one of the places we went was to the winery that brought the samples so I could get a full bottle. :-)

So yeah, a busy, fun weekend! What did all of YOU do?

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.

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