The tornado took the roof off of some homes, snapped off trees, and destroyed fences, garages and sheds. Thankfully no one was hurt. Our house is 1.5 miles from where the tornado hit. We also had torrential rains that caused some major street flooding. There was other wind damage around also. My parents live a couple miles east of town and they lost a bunch of shingles off their garage, had some big branches down, and part of the fence around their pool is bent in.

On a happier note, I was able to get some clay on sale at Michaels yesterday.

Don’t worry, it’s a temporary thing. I’m in the process of making my daughter’s wedding dress. Seems like it was just yesterday that she was the cute little miniature bride in the photo below.

Anyone know of a good cry-proof mascara? I’m feeling weepy already.

I’ve had someone ask me about doing color recipe ebooks for FIMO (they are currently done for Premo!). So, let’s see a show of hands for those of you who would like to see color recipe ebooks done using FIMO. Just leave me a comment if you are interested.

What’s up besides the heat? My pottery beads tutorial is listed my Etsy shop and ArtFire shop.

I’m also working on an inspiration/color ebook, which I’ll talk about more later. Just getting started, so we’ll see how it shapes up. I had another idea to challenge myself to make a focal bead a day. However, after thinking about our crazy summer schedule and the fact that my daughter is getting married next month, I decided that would have to wait until this Fall….I suppose I could shoot for a focal bead a week. Hmmmm….

I think I will work with some cool colors today while I stay inside and enjoy the air conditioning. Sounds like a good plan to me.

I enjoyed some much needed down time, but now it’s back to work. Today I’m working on editing some photo retakes for my pottery beads tutorial. The tutorial should be finished in the next day or two. Still need to complete the written instructions and get it all put together. I need to rethink my work space as it is not ideal for taking photos, which means I go back and forth between my work space and photo set-up…..

sneak peak at upcoming tutorial

Tutorials take quite a bit of time and effort. You need to plan out the steps that need to be photographed, take the step by step photos, edit the photos, possibly retake photos that aren’t clear or perhaps a different angle would be better, more editing, format the tutorial, write out a materials and tools list, and write step by step instructions that go with the photos. Then there’s proofreading for typos and to make sure that the instructions are absolutely clear.

Time to get back to work.

Summer is in full swing here, which means that we spend quite a bit of time at my parents pool. I usually swim a while and then sit and visit with whatever family members happen to be there at the time. While this is a great way to spend a summer afternoon, it’s not so great for my productivity. I have photoshop on my desktop, but am looking for a free or at least cheap photo editing software for my laptop so that I can get some work done while on the go.

If you know of any or have any experience with any free or relatively decent priced photo editing software, please leave me a comment…..as I will be at the pool.