harder. softer.

My mom and sister were up yesterday...they came to see me but really they came to cash in their Christmas gift certificates to blow their own glass ornaments.

We had a great time tooling around town yesterday...I took them by the houses we are interested in and let them walk around so I could get their opinion.

Their favorite is my favorite too...

Then I had my interview (more on that later) then we went to the glass studio then I made dinner then they went home.

How was that for a shortened version?

Anyway...I did take some pictures and now I will share!

The first thing you have to do is choose what color you want your final glass ornament (lovingly referred to as "ball" from here on out).
Then the glass man gets a wad (technical term) of glass out of the super fiery furnace (think Daniel and his friends)...

Then he rolls his fiery wad in crushed up colored pieces.

These were the coolest...and made for my favorite pictures of the day.
Then there is some reheating, some blowing (I won't embarrass anyone, including myself, with those pictures), some more blowing, some "harder", "softer", "stop!" instructions, and then you have this...

This one is my sister's ball. She picked cobalt blue and jade green for her colors...she does love cobalt blue glass!

The colors are really starting to show here...

when it is really hot still, all the colors sorta look the same.

This one is mine, getting it's little hanger on top. When it cools, mine will be bright orange, red, and yellow. I wanted blue too but since we already did a blue one, I went with these so we could see something diferent.

This is one of the containers of the crushed glass. I took a bunch of pictures of these and they are so neat I think I might get them blown up and framed!

I was so thrilled to see my mom and sis. I miss them so much and don't get to see them nearly enough. My mom even did the dishes after dinner - she is so awesome.

I did cook and she understands about "the deal" - if you are the cook, you shouldn't have to clean (though that never happens in her house I am quite sure!).

I made PW's Chicken Piccata (which she had on her website yesterday) - it is a pasta dish with a creamy (unhealthy but wonderful!!) lemony sauce.

It was yummy.

What a great day!

can't wait!

I only have to work one day before I get to see my mom and my sister!
They will be here late tonight after my Sis gets off work and then will hang out with me until probably dinner time tomorrow night. We have our appointment to blow our own glass ornaments (I have my 2nd interview at 1pm!!) and hopefully our real estate agent will be able to show us the two houses that top the list. She hasn't been feeling well so I emailed her and asked if she felt better, could she maybe show us those two so I can get an opinion from my mom and sister.
Everything I planned on getting done this weekend pretty much got finished - with the exception of cleaning out my car which got about half done as I watched the Oscar's last night (those were pleasantly short commercial breaks!) and finishing cleaning up our bedroom. I folded and put away a bunch of clothes yesterday so I just need to clean off the 2 chairs in our room (which stay that way for about 6 hours once it gets done) and it will be done!
Beth's baby shower invites are going in the mail today - I think they are really cute! I will show you a picture as soon as people start getting them in the mail.
And for the sake of pure honesty here, I would like to report that I just busted my lip on the edge of the desk. Yep. I'm super clumsy this morning. Don't ask me how that just happened but I was trying to take something from the cat and I guess I was looking at her instead of where my face was located and now I have a fat lip (and it hurts so bad I thought I broke a tooth...that is how hard I hit my mouth). Awesome. "Hi, My name is Paula. I would like to work for you. And no, I don't normally have an huge lower lip". Cool.