Calendar Girl

As some of you will recall, I made a little book with a beaded cover for this year's Bag of Bead Challenge held by the Toronto Bead Society.  Here's my blog post on the subject, written back on March 12th:  Bag of Beads Reveal. 

Here's a close-up picture of the cover:

Since then, I have been remiss in telling you the ultra exciting news that my little book was chosen to be featured in the TBS 2011 calendar!! My book is one of the six items featured on the page for the BOB Challenge:

Okay, it's not the same as being able to say, "Hello, I'm Miss January"  (that particular honour goes to Anne Marie Desaulniers, with her stunning bead embroidery piece that was my absolute favourite piece from all those who participated in the challenge.  You can see a photo of her creation here: Anne Marie's blog.)  Nevertheless, I am quite honoured to have been chosen, seeing as they only picked 28 pieces altogether to include in the calendar (one item for each of the 12 months, 6 on the BOB page and 10 more so fabulous they couldn't be left out) out of about 300 entries!  Plus I am thrilled to featured on the same page as the other talented artists whose Challenge pieces are shown:  Sue Dolynskyj, Andria Knowles-Muller, Jennifer Morris, Sonya Elliot and Christina Defrene. 

For the last few months, my little book has been on display at various TBS events, such as Bead Oasis, The Creativ Festival and the TBS Bead Fair last weekend. But the excitement continues! I found out this week that they would like to take my book to display it at the Tuscon Gem Shows in February - how exciting is that?? I have never been to the shows myself, at least not yet,and it's kind of weird to think my book would be going somewhere that I have never been myself. The February Gem Shows are akin to Mecca for all beaders and now that my book is going to be there, I am seriously tempted to go, especially since I could also combine it with taking part in a workshop with Kate McKinnon and Andrew Thornton at the same time - you can read more about that here: The Kate and Andrew Experience).  I'll have to give that idea some thought.

In the meantime, the 2011 TBS calendars are available for $10 each, or 3 for $25 (details here: TBS calendar info).  All of the profits made from the sale of these calendars will be donated to The Native Women's Resource Centre, "an Aboriginal culture-based organization dedicated to delivering programs and services that empower and enrich the lives of Aboriginal women and children" in downtown Toronto.  You can learn more about them here:  Native Women's Resource Centre.  If you'd like to support this worthy cause by buying some calendars (Christmas is coming, after all), contact Sue, the TBS calendar coordinator or me but don't wait, there are only a limited number available and they are selling fast!