I have been working on a stained glass lamp shade. I should finish up with it next week. Here are some pictures of my project...

These are pictures of the panels. There are six panels in all, three are shown below. Each panel took three hours for me to put together.

 I have a couple more panels to put the finishing touches on and I also have to patina it (which turns the silver soldering black). Below are two pictures of the almost completed project. One without light...

And one with light....

I like how it changes color with the light.

This is the last project for the summer. We will start up again in the fall probably September. It's been fun.

Yep, it is almost that time again. The Montana Women's Run is scheduled for May 9th and I have been practicing. Last year, I averaged a mile in 16.03 so that is my goal to beat. My time last year was 1:21:47 so even if I shave one second off that, I will feel like I accomplished it.

I am up to three miles a day now which takes me around 50 minutes. That averages out to about 17 minute miles. This is better than I did last year when I was only doing two twenty minute miles. So I feel that I will do better than last year with no problem at all.

I thought of different ways of motivation. First of all, I started out watching some DVD's that I had of old television shows. I went through one season of the Monkees, then moved on to two seasons of Twin Peaks. This was great motivation because that show is one of my all time favorites and to re watch it was a joy. Then I moved on to season one of Millennium. No one remembers this show but it has become a cult classic. However, it is really difficult to get motivated while watching a show about killers and profilers. I found that sometimes I couldn't even finish walking because I just wanted to move on to something else. Don't get me wrong, the show is awesome just not very much of a motivation. So I moved on to music. This seems to be the best motivation of all. I started out watching every concert video I have. At least five times over. Now I have moved on to my ipod only without watching anything and this seems to be the best. Right now, I am listening to Hot Chip, Muse, Daft Punk, Booka Shade, Franz Ferdinand and dance remixes from anyone, including Ditto and Mika. This seems to work best. I get lost in the music and before you know it, I have gone three miles and I'm not even tired! I seem to walk to the beat so dance music works the best.

Another plus, I have lost around 15 pounds since the beginning of the year!

What can I say? This concert was amazing. We had great seats and I was able to stand through the whole set...a big thank you to the people standing in front of us. It is alright to stand if people stand in front of you...not too cool if you are the only one standing.  :-)

I didn't take my camera because I am always afraid they will confiscate it but I found a video on YouTube which was taken at about the same seat as I had, only across the arena...

One of the opening acts was also amazing. He is a Brit by the name of Jon Hopkins and he plays solo electonica. His act was a combination of music with art and was simply amazing. Spellbinding. The video I found on YouTube is from another concert and it is only part of his act (he played for 45 minutes). I have found that this is an act you either really like or you really don't care for.

For the last month or so, I have been working with stained glass. I always thought it would be cool to do some stained glass art without realizing the time, equipment and effort that is involved. I don't know if I would do enough of it to justify getting the equipment for myself. I have been going with a friend to one of her friend's who does a lot (and I mean lots) of stained glass and has all the equipment to mess around with. We only go work on the glass once a week for about three hours. My first attempt was this butterfly...

The main thing I learned from this piece was that it is very difficult to do anything with stained glass that is curved. Straight lines work the best. It is also a very dirty, smelly and painful art. I have already burned myself with the soldering iron. And I know eventually I will cut myself on the glass. Probably not the best type of art for a klutz!

My next attempt was a candle with holly but it was worse than my first. I am using patterns that someone else has drawn and I think I would like to do my own pattern rather than using a pattern by someone else. So this weekend, I am going to devise a pattern of my own.

With all the bad news going 'round now-a-days with the election, debates, and the loss of everyone's money, I have decided to totally emerse myself in music in an attempt to drown out the screams. Yeah, like I wasn't into music before. Anyway...

I found out that one of my favorite groups, Starsailor, are going to release their fourth album early next year. Supposedly, this album was to be released in September of this year but the band had a change of record labels which lead to the delay. Their last album was released in 2005 which wasn't that long ago but feels like an eternity. Here is an awesome video of James Walsh, the lead singer of Starsailor...

Emma Laine arrived yesterday. Check out her vblog for all the details and her computer screen debut!