Friends, Breakfast, and a Challenge

Look who showed up on my doorstep Sunday morning! Nancy Schindler brought her friend Daniele Vick, another Ceramics artist who I know from Facebook and blogging, and the three of us went out for breakfast! It was so cool meeting Dani in person finally!

The three of us had fun talking shop, being silly, and had some good laughs. After breakfast, we headed to Michaels- YUH! You KNOW I had to get them all involved in another little Michaels Challenge- and Dani is participating too!  We picked out our beads and headed back home to get some pics in the studio. We weren't really feelin' the Flip but the girls got lots of great stills, like this one that Nancy took, above.

Look how cool my studio looks in this shot! I love it. We had a blast. It's so nice to get together with friends once in a while. I am starting to feel a bit better now after a few days of taking antiobiotics for this sinus infection. I just about drove Joe insane while lying in bed last night, coughing non-stop due to the post nasal drip going on. it's AWFUL! Luckily I was able to find a decongestant and that seemed to help and I slept all night soundly.

Anyhoo, on to the good stuff. The Michaels challenge is going to work the same way it did last time. We chose several strands of beads/chain- we can bring in 2 additional beads or colors- and choose our own focal. Any clasp will be fine. We are doing necklaces.  The beads with the green tags, regularly priced $5.99 are on sale for 40% this week. We took advantage and bought mostly in this category. Except the chain.

Peacock freshwater pearls, gunmetal chain, faceted mother of pearl ovals, chunky black nuggets, and some glass that is transparent with silver edges. The pretty blingy toggle below is something I found during our trip, that I thought would work well with the beads we picked.  The theme is wintery (but with these colors, I'm thinking Stormy. I am really excited to see what we each come up with and I hope that if you have a Michaels nearby, you should definitely play along too! We'll be revealing our finished designs Friday December 17th.