Not exactly traditionally Christmassy but they definitely qualify as merry and bright! Like my wishes to you all, for the whole season (heck, all the time): be merry and bright. Floral is optional.

We’ll be at Skyswept Designs which is a studio in the Entrepreneurial Centre, on 6th Ave and George Street in Swift Current. The plan is to have nibbles, too, and a selection of lower priced items for the kiddos to shop from.

My Tooaquarius shop on Etsy has Free Shipping until Tuesday, at least. In addition to that you can get 10% off with the coupon code THANKSSN. The cane shop hasn’t got Free Shipping (alas!) but with the same THANKSSN coupon you can get 20% off.

I’ll share some of the wonders I hunted down on Etsy after the weekend!

If you use Facebook, I’ve gone and made a Facebook event for it so you can see some of the other folks who are going, chirp up about ride shares and share (please, pretty please) with your friends.

The very next week is my first Fall Into Christmas at the stockade here in Swift. This is a two day show organized by Cyndi Tasche, a local watercolour artist, and has dozens and dozens of artisans from all around the prairies. There’s a Facebook event for that, too, so have a peek!

Come visit me! I’ll be in booth 120, which is the last row to the right when you walk in the front doors.

Next weekend – October 15 & 16th – I will be participating in the Christmas Show at the Western Development Museum in Saskatoon, SK. The museum is a nifty place to visit even without the show and with the show it will be packed full of holiday goodies and early shopping ops. If you’re going to be in the city that day, stop by and visit!

Here are some of the excerpts from my week of class. I had returning students and all new ones:

One of my regulars is a die-hard football fan (the local team is the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the team colour is pretty much Premo’s sea green):

One of the adult classes we covered small bottles to make wish bottles. Combinations of embellishment, canes and imagination were on the docket. One of my first time students whipped up something awesome right to order of course!

A rerun of a popular kids project class for a local day camp were the Turtle Rocks. We had neon turtles, winged turtles, fanged turtles… and lots of fun:

Of course, after all that over-planning and over-preparing for a “slow summer” it hasn’t gone slow yet. Go figure. How’s YOUR summer going?

The area is beautiful with a big lake nestled in the hills – for a flat province, Saskatchewan has a freakish amount of hills – and the show is in the community hall.

I was a dope and forgot a whole box of my stock which ended up not being a big deal. I had plenty of my bread and butter small show pieces and those went over well. Of course, I spent a big chunk of my proceeds on local baking and farm food but we’ll eat well for days yet.

My friend Cindy was at the show with me since doing them with friends is much more fun.

Now back to the regular week! My Christmas in July sale on Etsy and ArtFire runs until the end of the month. If you’re looking for beads or canes to use in your fall designs give it a peek!

I headed to Calgary – my hometown until last year – for the Lilac Festival. The show was well attended, I did well, the booth was spiffy (I can’t recommend a pop up tent enough) and I saw tons of old customers and Etsy team members.

The only downside? It was cold! We had a few snowflakes fall, a few raindrops, lots of cloud, a little wind and temperatures under 10 degrees Celsius the whole day. Le sigh.

A local TV crew wanted to interview me but I made my mom do it since I have a speech issue. I can’t find the video online but there’s a little text blurb too. Mom’s semi-famous.

Speaking of Mom, here’s a shot of us for posterity’s sake:

And there’s a few more pictures of the show in my Flickr album.

I am a firm believer that putting things in writing gives them a much better chance of coming true, being successful. Putting them in writing out where people can see them even more so. So with that in mind here’s what’s up in the next few months:

• The Lilac Festival, May 30th  in Calgary. I’m at the NW corner of 14th Ave. and 4th St. Visit me please! And pray that the weather is lovely
• In June I teach classes at the Art Gallery in Swift Current. For the grownups we have Millefiori in Colour and for the smaller folk we have Turtle Rocks. You can sign up with Laurie!
• Of course, EVERY Tuesday we have Tuesdays with Laurie at the Art Gallery. It’s a drop in sort of thing for creative folks. Everyone is welcome. I’ve been semi-chronicling our activities over here
• The Bead Oasis Show, June 18, 19 and 20th in Calgary! If you love beads and you’re in Alberta this is the place to be. Let me know you saw my post or my blog and you can have a free pair of beads! I’m booth 110 which is just down the row from the entry way, on the left.
• Frontier Days – I’m thinking I’ll take a booth at the Stockade. Give it a shot. That’s June 30 to July 3rd.
• Summer Salon at the Art Gallery from July 10 to August 8. There’s a wine and cheese on July 17th which you should definitely come to. More than 20 local artists will have work in the show, including me if I get stuff done!
• Then there’s the Highway 1 Studio Tour at the end of September. I’ve been invited to play along and I’ll be stationed at the historic CPR station in Herbert.
• And the weekend after the Studio Tour is the Fall into Christmas which I am toying with. If I can get in I will do it! I’ve heard nothing but awesome about it and it’s local which is a total plus.

The last few are not all fleshed out yet so I’ll save the links and details until a little later. Feel free to ask me as the summer goes on how it’s all going or how it all went!

* the introductory picture has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the post. He’s just cute.

I’m toasting my little blog’s 4th birthday this week! It doesn’t seem so long ago when it was just a not-yet-conceived bit of software and hopeful thought.

I’m also cranking my way through a lot of clay blended to my specs by my helper and turning it into mucho canes. So, pics of that tomorrow hopefully. Until then raise a glass for my precocious preschooler!