CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!

I wanted to post a few big shout outs to some of my IVF (invitro fertilization-a medical procedure for those of us who are fertility challenged) buddies who recently had their babies!!!

Congratulations to Laura D on the birth of her baby boy(baby #2 after I think 8 or 9 IVFs)

Congratulations to Leslie on the birth of her girl (a fortunate freebie and we still adore her, lucky duck!)

Congratulations to Lisa on the birth of her girl (ivf #5?)

And Margie-congratulations on the birth of your twin boys who are almost six months old now! This was IVF#7 for Margie.

My daughter Keelin was IVF#6 for us...........

I keep threatening to tell you the story of the CLAMS. We are a group of women who started doing IVF together in 2004. These women SAVED MY LIFE! We are from all over the country and we have kept in close touch with one another for three years now while struggling with infertility. It is such a blessing to get "take home" babies and we all know it. Here is a group of women who take nothing for granted and count blessings EVERY DAY.

You all rock-

Laura

Skeleton Head

Hi to all-this guy was done as part of the Etsy Glass Artist's "GOTH CHALLENGE"-create something goth out of glass. He is goth all right. I decided he looks hungry! Beware! He is 5" by 5" art plaque on a wrought iron candle stand. He is available in my etsy shop currently. Perfect for Halloween or if this is your every day decor.............heh-heh!

In other news, Keelin was at CHOC Emergency room on Sunday night/Monday morning. SOme kind of virus causing profuse barf and a 104 degree fever. With her history we can't take chances. We were there for 9 hours trying to get her fever down. They got it down to 102.8 and sent her home after a bunch of blood work and IV fluids. Poor thing. She has a cold now and is running me ragged.............but hey! It is what it is!

Jared is off track for a month so that ought to be fun. Entertaining a 4th grader and a toddler. TOo bad he doesn't like Go Diego Go. I could kill to birds with one stone-

XOXOXO

Laura

The boy genius!

Here's my other part of the duo, Jared. Yes he is fabulously funny and amsuing as the picture notes! He just got his state testing back and scored crazy high in Math. Looks like he is in the top 5% of math students in the entire country(grade level). GO JARED!!!!

Also-Jared is starting winter baseball and has his first game this Saturday. He is on the Angels. Wish him luck. And for all of you Pokemon fans(and there are lots of you) Jared would like you to know that he caught a Giratina-which is a legendary Pokemon. Did you hear me??? I said LEGENDARY! heh-heh!

In terms of glass-I missed the deadline to enter a local one day show-oh well. I have the Great Women's Expo in a few weeks at the Anaheim Conventon Center and als Artistic License in October(so jazzed about that one). I have had bronchitis and miss K has been sick to so I have been out of the loop for a bit.

As Boy George would say-"I know you miss me, I know you miss me, I know you miss me bli-i-ind!"

I promise to be better!

Laura

Have a nice day!!!!

Just wanted to say to all of you, if you are having a rough day (and I am and have been the last couple of days)-find someone to give you a smile like this. It will fix almost everything. I promise.

And if you can't find someone to give you a smile like that-come here and I will.

Peace to all-

Laura

Butterflies are free........

and so am I!!!! At least free of most of my surgery pain. Almost! It's been awhile since I posted-I know you have all missed me terribly (admit it). So I am still bleeding through my nose every once in awhile but that has slowed down majorly! Think about that---ewwww! The kids are well. The pets are well. The husband is fabulous (as always)!

This pretty butterfly will soon be up in my Etsy shop. If you like it, I can do it in almost any color-so contact me and let me know what you want!

I was VERY busy in the studio today and will be posting some of the newer stuff I did once I slump it. I picked up some really cool slumping molds and should have some interesting plates and bowls out of the kiln by the end of tomorrow!

Well-it's late, and I am tired! XOXOXO

I survived the Surgery

I don't know why people would elect to have a nose job. I had a septoplasty to correct a deviated septum and the recovery SUUUUUUUUCKS! Can you say suck? I knew you could.

SO, my best friend Sherri was driving me home from the surgery center-all a bloody mess. and in pain. I kept thinking to myself "can I take it back?" " this hurts-I shouldn't have done it". And thgen I thought about how many actors and actresses do this electively.

CRAZY! NUTTY! WHY??????? I can't tell you how much this thing hurts all so I can breathe through my nose again(deviated septum). And these people do it "just because". Ummmm yeah-sign me up! NOT!

Sorry to post and run. My days have consisited of nausea, bleeding, not sleeping, being in pain and oh yeah-posting this blog!

XO

Designed with a friend in mind

I have an IVF friend (go clams!) that is madly in love with lime. I have a lime plate set in my etsy store-http://talisman.etsy.com , but it might be too big for her. So Anjie, here is a smaller gem for you. This is a lovely 4" by 4" candle holder. It is in a streaky lime glass and has the kelly green stripes for drama. I will be listing it in my shop later, but you know you want it so email me!

Or as they say in Hollywood-"Call me-we'll do lunch". Of course, everyone does lunch these days so why does Hollywood think it's so special?

In other news....I am having surgery for a deviated septum tomorrow! Tomorrow? YIKES! Fairly routine so all should be fine. I hope!

Be good, people!

one half of the duo!

This is one half of the duo that keeps my occupied outside of my glass life. This was taken today-before she had a major melt down-someting about how I wouldn't let her out past curfew and why won't I let her borrow the car? Look how happy she is. She is our IVF miracle-adored by her father, her brother and me. Not to mention the grandparents, aunts and uncles! And all of my IVF buddies!

She turned 15 months old yesterday! What a doll!

Dresser disaster!!!!!!

OK-so on top of my already hectic week (don't ask), my cat inadvertently almost committed kitty suicide. For those of you who don't know, my cat Tana is a black and white Tom cat that weights 21.5 lbs. He is HUGE. So, Mr. Wide Load decides that he doesn't like his normal day, which consists of sleeping and sleeping-and maybe some eating(ok- lot's of eating, but I digress). My son left the second to top drawer of his dresser open yesterday.

Tana thought that it would make a lovely place to hang out. The dresser disagreed with him. When Tana jumped up, his massive weight landing on the edge of the dresser drawer tipped the whole thing.ALl the drawers out and the dresser face down like a drunken sailor. I am lucky I didn't have a smushed cat! That would have been terribly tragic. Tana needs to go on a diet. Tried 'em. They don't work for him. He is going to be "big boned".

Now-in terms of glass, I made this fabulous bowl titled "in the city". It is a 12" by 12" and 3" deep. It has great weight to it and is GORGEOUS in person! I hope you get a good sense of it from the photo!

More great glass to come!
Less almost dead cats!

Laura

The "LOVE" is back!

OK-glass addicts-and I know who you are-well most of you, at any rate.

My limited edition love series from last year is back. I know I have had lots of requests and these are in process, as we speak! Last year's series "Love 2006" was an ediiton of 20. Because of popular demand I am doing a series of 35, titled "Love 2007". All will be dated and signed. I am anticipating a late august release date. I have 7 completed so far, but these things take a long time! Detail intensive and ohhh there's a lot of life thrown in there, too. Hopefully the picture I posted shows up!

Speaking of life-Our little miss Keelin decided that it's ok to sleep. We hold our breath every night but she has managed about 5 good nights of sleep in a row. GO to bed at 9-wake up at 5:30. I know it sounds harsh-but it is such an improvement. THings continue to progress on the medical front for her. Will write when I have news.

Jared is enjoying 4th grade. He says it's lots of work. Ahhhh-the innocence of youth

And on that note, I am a slave to glass this weekend. Although my good friend Debbie is coming ot watch Keelin this afternoon so I can go see Hairspray with my husband! YES DEBBIE!

The Plane is DONE!!!!!!!!!!

Yahoo-got my Dad's plane finished. What a learning experience. If you look at the Flickr mini to the right, it should pop up in there! I will let you know how much it was loved and adored!

(as soon as I find out myself)

Remind me to tell you of the birthday party gone bad----my poor boy.

Our daughter still thiks sleep is anathema!HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyone with good sleep suggestions feel free to comment.......no bourbon, though. We like to keep her off the sauce!

Will write more later!

Laura(queen of glass)

I just published a picture of a lime bowl set. The bottom platter is 9" by 9" and the little top platter is 4.5" by 4.5". Check it out on my website at http://talisman.etsy.com. Today is the day that I assemble my Dad's plane and fire it up! Yeah baby!

Have I mentioned that my daughter doesn't sleep and my son-the birthday boy-has a fever now. He is doing "cosmic bowling" this year for his party. Fevers on the day of your party stink!

Note to children: Quit passing around your germs!
Note to Parents: This too shall pass, you can sleep when you're 60

Have a great day, y'all!

New Lime Goodness

Birthdays and Blood

Hello from the edge of insanity! Really crazy? Nope-just crazy busy!

Today is my son's 9th b-day! Happy B-day Jared! That would account for the "birthday".

My little miss Keelin(14 months old) is having some testing done that involves bloodwork. That's fine excpet they took THIRTEEN vials. How do you get THIRTEEN vials from a baby? Lots of screaming and tears, though I will say that once they found the vein-she is a hard stick- and got the needle in, she was a champ. She was interested in how the shook the vials to mix it with the preservative. Remind me to avoid blood draws for her in the future-

GLASS-I am working on a new line, please tell me what you think. Glass butterfly pendants. I have some done in several colors and the one I am posting a pic of is already sold. I think they are pretty groovy! These are cut out by hand on my ring saw and then fired with frits and rods to get the look. I can do almost any color you need!

Thanks for stopping by-check the link down at the bottom to my etsy store!

Hello from the land of better sleep!! SOme of you must have been sending some sleep vibes to our little girl because she is sleeping marginally better.........

So, I won't throw myself in front of train and I won't steal Ambien from a pharmacy-I almost feel like a real human again!

Work on my Dad's plane is going at a steady clip-I did the majority of the cutting and grinding on the body of the plane today. That was good. I tried to tell him he wants a lot of detail work. He told me that artists usually have tortured souls and the more difficult a project is, the better for their pained humanity(or something along those lines.......) Thanks, Dad!

After this, I have to get back to some special orders and the limited edition Love series (pictures forthcoming), as well as some of this juciness.... the face down firings! There's a picture of some cypress trees I did in a class. Roger Thomas is my hero!

OK you fabulous people-gotta run!

WHHHHHHY? Oh the humanity!

My lovely little girl has been on a bender lately. Swilling milk with great disregard for her health? Refusing to have a diaper changed when the surgeon general insists that it's better for her health if she does?

I WISH!

No.........Sleep........til Brooklyn!

I don't know what it is with missy, but let me tell you sleep is not in her vocabulary lately (nor any other word for that matter!).Ugh.

This does not bode well for glass! How can I be uber creative when I am barely functioning? How?

Speaking of uber creative-I am working on a project for a dear man-My Dad. He has commissioned a fused glass replica of a friend's airplane! It's a 15" by 15" project and it's a time eater, for sure! But ohh it will be so gorgeous! Did the test fire on the colors to make sure they fire correctly and don't shift. They don't! They are perfect!

So-to all of you in internet land.......say a collective prayer for sleep!

TIA and I mean it!

Welcome to my Blog

Holy Cow, Batman! I have a blog! It's titled " How Glass Saved My Life" for a reason. No, I wasn't walking down a street when a big piece of dichroic jumped in front of a stolen SUV barreling down the side walk to save me. That wasn't it-

I found glass during a time in my life where I needed a focus other than infertility and the extreme lengths we were going through to try and get pregnant. Glass became an outlet for the creative side of me that was dormant through the years of shots, surgeries and five failed In Vitro Fertilization attempts. Count 'em.............five.

We got lucky on cycle # 6 and have our little girl who is 14 months old. She has her own medical challenges that tie me up pretty often, but I digress. This is about glass!

I love glass, I adore glass and I will write about glass and my life-

I am interesting and funny, I swear! Ask anyone! It will be a good read!

So the basics-my glass company is Talisman Art Glass and I will link you to my Etsy site. I started Talisman when I needed some luck. And Talisman has been lucky for me-

Thank God