Austin, TX

I’m the first to admit that I’m spoiled rotten. My sweeties gave me flowers and chocolates and a shiny new 8Gb pink iPod nano as well as a brand new iDog amp’d with two little winter outfits for my multitude of other iDogs. Yes, I’m a grown woman who collects iDogs. I have almost every color and I have American ones and Japanese ones. Red ones, blue ones, pink ones, spotted ones and tattooed ones. Hey, I’m a geek girl, we likes our toys!

I didn’t get dinner out tonight because I had a beading class. I’m still sort of surprised they didn’t arrange the class around Valentine’s Day but I enjoy the class and my sweetie didn’t mind. The weekend is ahead and the restaurants really do gouge you on Valentine’s Day, don’t they?

I take my beading classes at Blue Moon Glassworks in Austin. If you’ve ever wanted to take a beadmaking class, I’d highly recommend Blue Moon. Not only are they simply the nicest, friendliest and most helpful people on the planet but they also have a great workspace, they aren’t stingy with their supplies and offer excellent classes. My current class is with instructor, Ann Ricketts, who is a published beader who is well rounded and able to teach many different techniques.

My partner teases me that I only take the classes so I can play with the torch, to which I say, “Your point?” Well, duh, of course I like playing with the torch. The torch is cool!

They also teach classes in stained glass and glass fusion. The local “Fireflies” beadmaking club meets there once a month and quite often guest instructors give a demonstration. I’ve seen demonstrations by some incredible beaders. The kind of beaders whose classes I can’t begin to afford!

Tonight, being Valentine’s Day, we learned to make hollow heart beads. They are so cool and I hope the two I made turn out good. We learned to make regular hollow beads as well. I made two and I hope they came out as well as I think they did.

I can’t wait to see what we learn next week!

I hope you all had a great Valentine’s Day.

Blue Moon, Glassworks, Beading, Ann Ricketts, hollow heart bead, Austin, TX, beads, classes, Fireflies