My Year in Photos? Thought you would never ask!

This post is part of the 2013 Think Kit Challenge, a blogging project by SmallBox. I thought long and hard before committing to this project. A challenge always comes in handy when one is trying to motivate oneself, so I selfishly accepted this challenge for that purpose. Besides, when I saw the first prompt, I knew I had the material.

My year in pictures seems to be the same year after year. It involves my family and friends, which make up the bulk of my time and energy, leaving only enough time and energy to make a wholehearted but half-a***d pursuit of the Arts. In my opinion, you cannot pursue the Arts - the Arts pursue you. For the purposes of this blog post, I narrow it down to family.

This past year has been a year of challenges for our family, so that is my focus. The pictures below are not for the purpose of bragging, but for the purpose of congratulating these amazing people that have accomplished so much in spite of their difficulties. So I would love to highlight some of their successes.

My youngest granddaughter, Lena, accepting the 2nd place trophy in her school talent showcase. She was in Kindergarten and competed in the K, 1st, & 2nd grade division with a solo tap dance. I am not only proud of her talent, but of her courage and composure. Her Division 2 Young Champions Cheerleading team also took 1st place in the State Competition.

My oldest granddaughter, Carys and her Level 4 Young Champions won 1st place in the state competition and competed at the nationals in Virginia Beach, VA. She also completed her first 5K in August - the Elvis Presley 5K run at the tender age of 9. 

My only grandson, Gabriel, the one who bears the blame for making me what I am today (Grandma), beams with pride over his 1st place Spelling Bee trophy. He competed as a 6th grader in the Arlington Middle School competition with such composure and confidence! He heads to the county competition in February, 2014. In addition to being smart, he is one of the kindest 12 year old boys that I have ever met. I would be remiss if I did not brag on his gaming skills also.

How does a grandmother get so lucky?

My daughter accomplished a lot this year. She had surgery on both of those beautiful eyes, taught school, taught yoga, redid 3 bedrooms, all while raising my wonderful grand kids. She somehow managed to have a bit of a social life in addition to all of her responsibilities.

My son also accomplished a lot in the past year. He moved back to midtown (his favorite place to live), rebuilt a long-neglected social life, lost weight (so proud and so jealous), worked at his job, worked on his music, and remained an all-around good guy. This guy is my wings!

How does a mother get so lucky?

I did my first juried art show in many, many, many years. It was the premier show of Art2Wear in Germantown TN. I have to admit that I loved the attention, the adoring crowds (wink, wink), rubbing elbows with all of the creative people.... But it gives me pause to consider what I really want to do, and I really enjoy rubbing elbows with my tight knit little group at Memphis Melange Etsy Team and Indie Style Market. They keep me artistically stimulated, give me creative criticism, high fives, kicks in the butt when needed - you know, like family. 

There is one more picture I have to throw in, just because there is a lesson here to be learned.

Never, never, never accidentally fall asleep around my family.You are fair game for a practical joke.

PMC is my new love - and my old love. I have loved PMC since 2004 when I first read an ad inThe Memphis Flyer for PMC classes. I signed up right away and attended with 2 other ladies that knew very little about the product or the process.

My instructor was knowledgeable and inspiring. She had lots of samples of things she had made. I knew when that class ended that I would take another and another and another until I was sure of my proficiency with the craft. spent two hours, one night a week for 4 weeks immersing myself

That was 7 years ago. Little did I know at that time, that PMC was in it's infancy - with new variations and new products coming quickly on the heels of the original. When I first laid eyes on the product, I that PMC3 was new. Now there is PMC Pro. There is gold PMC, copper PMC, bronze PMC, steel PMC. Add to that, glass clay - yes, glass that can be formed as a clay, fired and become colorful pieces of glass. Think of the possibilities.

I took one more class and delved deeper into the most fascinating medium that I had ever worked with. Being an art major in college (eons ago) the only classes taught were

drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics, design, and printmaking. I had independently taken a copper jewelry class and loved it. PMC brought together so many of the things I have loved to do over the years.

Unfortunately, before I could take another class, my instructor was killed in an automobile accident. I didn't know that at the time, so I kept emailing her and trying to call her to arrange to pick up a couple of pieces of mine that she had kept to fire and to arrange for that next class. I finally gave up and started looking on the internet for classes. I learned that I could take a 3 day certification class and be qualified to teach. Obviously a teacher was needed in my community.

Since I couldn't find an instructor locally, I signed up for the certification class in Chattanooga Tennessee - three days of classes that would take me to the level that I would be able to teach classes. At the last minute, the class was cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances.

Back to square 2.

I found an instructor outside of Nashville Tennessee, signed up, and showed up at Mudpuddle Pottery for my 3 day certification class. The rest, as they say, is history. I was (and still am) hooked.

The great thing about PMC is that it can compliment any other art or craft that one is interested in - especially jewelry. Enameling can be done on the PMC as well as mixing of the metals. This is something that I haven't tried yet, but cannot wait to dig in.

I will be, over the next couple of weeks, finalizing my first lesson plan for an introduction to PMC. I will start with an informative demonstration and set up a basic class from the interested parties in attendance. The class will be small (4 or 5 people) and, at the end, everyone will take home a piece of fine silver jewelry.