Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Scarry Stuff....

So, it is almost Haloween....and the ghosts and goblins are appearing everywhere.  Makes me think a bit about fear.   Now I'm only going to get a little philosophical here, I promise.

The other night while channel surfing I ran across "The House on Haunted Hill", the original 1959 Vincent Price classic.  I love this movie....and one of the reasons why I love it is because it scared the you-know-whats out of me when I was around 10 or 11 years old. For some reason skeletons turned me into a snivelling scardy cat hiding my eyes and not ever wanting to go to bed. 

Watching it now I see how simplistic and silly all the effects were..the rat skeleton bubbing up in the acid, fully intact and perfectly bleached.  The completely connected anatomy class human skelaton that emerges from the vat (I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen this chiller thriller....) completely undid me as a child, and causes chuckles now.

So I got to thinking, how different is that from what frightens me now? 

Well, putting myself and my work out for sale at The Heart of California Bead & Design Show had me nearly paralized.  There is so much outlay of money before a show, without any guarantee of income.  I'm still pretty new at selling my instructions and kits, so much of what I do right now is testing the market.  I had similar feelings before BeadFest Texas this past week.

But doing what scares me, and getting to the other side of the fear (a la shutting the lights out and getting to sleep) goes a long, long way to conquering it.  Both shows were very successful, great fun, and worth all the effort.  Looking at the fear from this side I can see that much of what I was afraid of was just as silly and simplistic (and fake) as the 1959 special effects.

I won't tell you to go jumping into doing what scares you the most...our fears can often be good signposts for us....but I can tell you, that for me, looking at the fear from the other side, like watching a campy old horror movie, is a lot more fun!

ps...if you are an architecture fan, the movie was filmed at the Ennis Brown House in L.A. designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.  You can read more about it here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ennis_House, and there are some cool pictures on the official website here:  http://ennishouse.com/.  If you are in the Los Angeles area, it is a fun sight to see.

And also, credit where credit is due...the original HOHH poster image is from the Wikipedia site, and was designed by Reynold Brown -- who did a lot of other iconic horror-movie posters.

Oh...and how about trying some of the very spooky and scary Swarovski Elements designs on the CREATE YOUR STYLE website...scary can be fun!

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Texas Terrific!

Well, I'm on my way home now from BeadFest Texas, and I must say the trip was Terrific!  The show is a small one, but with some very special vendors: Beyond Beadery (once again Betcey gets to go home with much of my money) the ever-so lovely and talented Jill Wiseman (Tapestry Beads), Beth from Kabela Designs (can't wait to get started on some of my new filigree pieces...thank you so much!) and my almost neighbor from San Diego, Jeannette Cook (Beady Eyed Women), to name my favorites.... and some very, very special attendees.  Had great fun at Meet The Teachers, and I must admit I was a bit overwhelmed with everyone's response to what I was offering.  Thank you all for your support and purchases!

Also got some very quick hug and catch-up time with my Sparkle Sisters (fellow Ambassadors) June Beach and Deb Simon.  There is never enough time to spend with them.

I should have taken more pictures...only took 2 from dinner Friday night at Pappadeux (yum!!), and with the lighting we all looked a bit zombie-ish, which is how I must look right now after about 4 hours sleep, and a 5:50am shuttle pick up.

So, my first time BeadFest and first time Dallas experience was wonderful! Dallas people are all so very friendly....and chatty, two of my favorite qualities. I know this won't be my last trip here.

Oh...and of course, we played with lots and lots of Swarovski Elements in my "C'mon Let's Twist" class. The ladies really liked the Rhombus Pendants and Kreinik's Custom Corder.

I do love my life, early morning flights and all.
Sparkles and smiles, ya'll