Well I am off in just a bit for Omaha and the Bead Bazaar. I hope anyone that is close can come it is a very nice bead show with lots of talented artists. If you can't come I hope you at least get to spend part of your time this weekend beading. Here is a link to the show if you need it.
http://www.geocities.com/nebeads/Omaha2007.html

On another subject my summer show applications are finally starting to come back. Most of the summer shows are juried which means that when I apply I don't always know that I will get to do the show. I am very excited with a message yesterday that I got into the Grand Cities Art Festival in Grand Forks, North Dakota and it's sister city in Minnesota. Here is a link to that show if you want to go look.
http://www.downtowngrandcities.org/artfest.shtml

Well I had best get a move on it is almost time to go. Have a great weekend.

Well here are just a few more beads before I have to leave in the morning. Omaha is about 5 and a half hours away so I have to leave the day before. This goldstone set sort of shows how sparkly it is but I promise in person it is so much better I almost had to keep this set for myself.

And this is one more of the great big lentils that I have been making. I just love what the copper green glass did in the heat it turned a reddish color that some of the glasses turn and I so love the effect it had on this bead.

I will be gone for several days but sure hope that if you are anywhere near Omaha Nebraska that you will come out to the bead show Saturday.

These just would not photograph. They are so sparkly and pretty in real life and they really just do nothing for me in the pictures. The are a new spin on an old idea of mine and they were so much fun yesterday that I really really want to make more. I am sure they will be a big hit.

These flower topped lentils are similar to one that I wear all the time. A friend really wanted it off my neck off the other night and she must have asked in a special way because other people have wanted it and I never tried to make more but I have made her a couple so she can choose.

These are the new spiky beads I have been working on. I have made lots of colors and the more of them I make the more ideas for jewelry I have using them. I have a plate full for the Omaha show this weekend then I am going to make a bunch just for me to use.

Well that was a lot of pictures for today but I had been trying to get them all photographed for the last couple of days.

Well I have been working hard all day and it is now 9:47 and I just sat down to do email and try to post to the blog and frankly I am too tired to go take pictures. I think instead I will try tomorrow especially since I have some cool (or at least I think they are) new focal beads in the kiln. Hope everyone had a great day our warm weather sort of went away but at least it has not been snowing.

Hi! I made it too the barn today and worked for a long while making more of those spiky beads. I will try to get a picture of those tomorrow. But for today here are a couple more bead sets to take with me to Omaha for the show there this weekend.

Here is a link to a map if you need one http://www.geocities.com/nebeads/Omaha2007.html and drop me an email if you need any other information.

Well good afternoon. I have to tell you that I still have not made it too the barn. I started a book that I borrowed from my friend Jodie called "Me and Emma" this morning when I got up and was trying to be a bit quiet as I had children all over the house sleeping because they had stayed up all night and because my hubby was still sleeping. Well even with all the other stuff I have done today I just finished it. It is a little too late to go make beads as I get too sleepy to be playing with fire this time of day so I am going to do some other things I need to do before leaving for Omaha on Friday but I thought I would show you a couple of the sets I have been making to take with me.

Hi again, I just kicked out the house full of kids I had all night long. They were up playing D&D (yes I have one of those geeky kids) and eating until about 7 this morning I got up and they went to bed for a couple of hours then I got them up and fed them and shipped them off. Now I am off to the barn to make some more beads. Have a good day.

Hi there! It is such a rainy Saturday afternoon and I am so tired I may just have to go read a book and take a nap. I borrowed a new book from my friend Jodie when I was there a week ago and have not started it because she says I will be reading all night long it is that good. Sounds like a good Sunday thing to do. These are a few of the new great big lentils I have been making this week. I just love making them so hope you all like them.

Hi I have been promising you some pictures of the lilies that the article uses. They are really hard to photograph because they are very shiny and have lots of depth. I love them hung with crystals in the center as a pendent.

Well good evening. I have wanted to post some of the lily style beads like was used in the magazine article all day but instead there were 5 extra children at my dinner table making a total of 8 people to cook for. Now I had known ahead of time so we had spaghetti which I put the sauce in the crock pot this morning and then I made fresh bread and pie. Any way it was a little wild with 6 teenagers dinner was a bit noisy. I had fun with them all here trough and am just a bit tired so I guess you will have to wait maybe tomorrow.

Well I just have to show off again. Boy are you going to get tired of this! But I just have too. On the way home Sunday I stopped and picked up a copy of the April issue of the Jewelry Crafts Magazine my friend Carole Rodgers writes articles for some of the magazines and she used a bead of mine in this one. The yellow and orange focal bead is mine and the article gives me credit and my web site is mentioned Yeah! Okay now I will stop. Just click on the pages for a larger view and to read the artical.

Opps! I was sure this was on my web site on the necklace page. That is what I get for assuming I can remember anything at all these days. This is the petal necklace I was talking about that won the honorable mention on Saturday. Sorry everyone.

I have to show off just a little bit. The bead show in Kearney this weekend had a judged show of jewelry and I entered two pieces, this one took first place and the other, the petal necklace that you can find on my web site www.tanyamcguire.com or click the link to the right, took an honorable mention.

It was a good show and people seemed to have fun. And of course I had fun running around in Lincoln with friends and visiting at the Nebraska Bead Society meeting.

HI! The photo table is all set back up again so now I can take pictures without so much fuss. Of course this comes just in time for me to leave tomorrow for Kearney Nebraska for a bead show there. I did get some more flowers made so my one little one is not so lonely and then there are more cubes. I think the black and white ones remind me of a Black Tie dinner or cocktail hour.

If you are any where near Kearney and want to check out the show the web site is listed on my site just click on the link to the right then go to the schedule page and you can see where all I will be in the next few months.

Hope you all have fun this weekend and I promise to get back in the swing and post more pictures after I get back next week.

Well I have to tell you all that I thought I had the nasty pieces of glass that pop off from the rod when you are torching go everywhere that they could burn me. I have had them on my lips and up my nose and of course down my shirt and shirt sleeves but today it surprised even me. I have some extremely nasty turquoise glass that will be totally melted on the end then break off an inch down so there are great big pieces popping off. Well one popped right down my boot. It of course wedged itself between my ankle and the boot and would not come out on its own. So the bead got dropped on the table the stool went over and I am fishing in my boot with pliers trying to save my leg. Lucky for me it is still cold enough I am wearing my wool socks so it burnt but slowly so while there is a melted spot in my boot and a hole in my sock my leg only has a small blister. Got to love that glass. Pictures later I have to rest now. Too much excitement.

Well Hi again! I have been busy getting some more beads made. And cleaning the ones from yesterday. Maybe some pictures in the morning the sun is gone for now and the silly lights are still packed up. It took longer than normal to clean the beads as I had to preform CPR on my little Dremel. I have two Mini Mites and one of them is pretty old. I would just go buy a new one as this is the second time I have had to take it apart to the guts to get it to run again but the new model takes a different style of battery and I like having two just alike to switch out the good batteries when they get tired.

Any way I promised to tell you about last week. The big thing is that I spent most of the week trying to get some answers about my van and they finally late Thursday decided they will fix it but because it took them so long it will have to wait until I come back from Nebraska next week. I was so whinny and grumpy I just did not want to bore all of you with my junk. Sorry for not posting for so long though.

Well it has been a while since I posted. Sorry about that it has been a strange week. Hopefully I will get back in the groove here soon and have more fun things to look at. Today we have some Rainbow Ice and a new waffally thing that kind of looks like a flower. I think it is lonely though so I am off to the barn to make some more and I will stop back by later to tell you more about what has been going on around here.

Good morning! Sorry for being so grumpy yesterday. The van is still drivable, the side door is funky but I can still get to my shows until they find a new door (that will be cheaper than fixing this one, they say). My son got some exercise in the very cold weather when he had to walk to school and as the cop who wrote it all up said there was no blood spilled so it was a good day. I have one errand I forgot in the mess yesterday and then I get to come home and make beads. And since my hubby has an evening work meeting I am not cooking so sub sandwiches it is yeah! No dishes to wash either.

Well it has not been a very good day around here. On the way to take my son to school I got hit so I have spent the day going to the insurance agent and body shop and looking at new cars, vans, trucks, and guess what just like the last time I do not like the new cars. I like my van for the things I do with it.

Any way no new beads got made but at least I have a picture from what I brought in yesterday. These are really tiny triangles they are only about a quarter inch across and I think they will be really fun for dangles on a charm bracelet.

I am off to a hot bath and I just might go to bed and hide for a while to get over the very grumpy way I feel.

Thank heavens the storm appears to be over and thank you for good neighbors. Louie who is 85 years old came over more than once in the last two days with his snow blower to help Jeff out with the driveway. Because they kept it beat down it was not bad getting it dug out this morning. I think it took Jeff longer to dig me a path to work. Now maybe Jeff will get around and fix the snow blower that is on our big tractor. He says he forgot he broke it durring the last bought of snow we had. But the kiln is now full of bead babies yeah!

Hi I thought I would show all of you why I am not going out to make beads today. Jeff was trying to dig a path out to that left hand door and it was up over his knees and blowing in right behind him to where it was filling in just about as fast as he dug. So I called him in. I do not need to make beads bad enough to give him a heart attack. Take a look at the difference from the last pictures when you look at the grill and that is with the wind blowing off a good deal of what came down yesterday. Guess I will go find some other trouble to get into. Hope everyone is warm and dry.