Bead-o-Rama! or Get Your Craft On This Weekend

Here a few of my glass beads - I got most of the antique ones locally at Knittn' Kitten and Beads at Dusti Creek, and got some of the fancy handmade ones while I was in Venice last year. (See the little balloon-looking ones with the white stripes? Wow!)

I pulled these out to remind myself that I do not necessarily need to go down to the Portland Bead Expo at the Convention Center this weekend and buy even more beads . . . no matter how tempting it may be! Especially since my copy of Bead Simple, the new book by local craft luminary Susan "West Coast Crafty" Beal is on its way to me as I write! Must . . . practice . . . self . . . control . . .

Other cool arty-crafty happenings this weekend include the local celebration of SWAN Day - Support Women Artists Now Day - as part of the Energy Trust Better Living Show down at the Portland Expo Center. (If you visit the SWAN site, there's a cool video with actress Sandra Oh talking about how Bjork has inspired her.) And yes, I'll be there from 2-5 on Saturday, March 29th along with a bunch of other great local artists, musicians and performers! Check out the whole local line-up here - it's all free! I'll have a table set up so that women artists, the people who love them, and the people who want to be them when they grow up, can come by and make their own collage! (Did I mention this was all free? Unlike the beads?)

And if that's not enough, the artists who make these amazing things will be there!

Tammy Paladeni - visit her site here:


And Lauren Black - check out her work here:


Of course, I may still have to drop by the Bead Expo on my way over . . .

Now, my Sunday will probably be spent with the Sweetie surfing blogs . . . and I just wanted to send a special shout out and thank you to the folks over at the Craftzine blog (if you haven't seen this blog or read the magazine - do! Very inspiring stuff!) and Leah at Creative Every Day (who helps me remember that all the little things add up to a very creative life - and who keeps recommending cool books I need to read!). Both of these folks had nice things to say about my recent Bicycle Inner Tube Jewelry DEMO! Thanks!