It's Gonna Be Another Week

Before I get beads cleaned, photographed and listed in my shop.  There are still some discs in there that are feeling a bit lonely.  I am going on my fourth week of being friends with bronchitis.  Yesterday, I started in on round two of steroids and have noticed I'm breathing a bit easier today which is sooooo. very.  awesome.  Because being short of breath for a month = no fun.  

Panting Pony.  He doesn't look like it in this photo.  He looks like a calm sweet boy.  But he is on my Naughty List right now and not just for panting at night when we're trying to sleep.  He has been peeing on my deck.  Mellisa, I may be sending him out to you before the month is over.

My doctor even said I should be on bed rest for the next week to let my body heal.  I'm becoming one with my couch.  For the most part.  At least while the kids are in school.  In the afternoons after homework, we have karate and I am crocheting a blanket for the boy child during that time.

Ruby is settling in nicely.  She tries very hard to be good, but is still learning some manners.  Like to not snatch muffins out of Todd's hand as he walks back to his office.  She still likes to grab her water bowl, dump it out and then carry it around the house to clatter on the floor. 

And last night (while being one with the couch), I pulled out my external flash and played around while shooting the animules.  At first, Jezzie wasn't very cooperative and jumped right as I took this picture.  Thanks Jezz.

But then she sat still for a minute and I got this one.  And then that was enough for us both.

I love the catchlights in her eye.  It is the backsplash of my flash on the ceiling and wall behind me.

I have 7 sets of beads sitting above my kitchen sink that are waiting to be cleaned.  Most were made in the last week or two.  I'm excited to share them.  Next week.  When I'm more vertical than horizontal.  I promise.  And then we can finally move along to a new shop update.  Finally.

Meet Ruby!

We have a new member in our household.  We brought Ruby home with us last week and have all been adjusting to each other quite well.

Ruby is the sweetest boxer and we are so glad we were able to rescue her.  Her previous owner moved to a location that didn't allow dogs.  Rather than surrender Ruby or find her a new home, Ruby was walked into the woods and crated before being covered up by a blanket throughout the summer.  She lost 12 pounds and got very sick as a result.  So now she is on the mend and regaining weight quickly.  

Ruby is two years old and does a good job of acting like it.  She doesn't realize that she weighs 58 pounds now and isn't the ideal candidate for being a lap dog.  She also doesn't realize that she looks pretty silly squeezing herself into the kids' car seats when we go for rides.  Ruby is very smart and learning quickly that lack of manners do not pay in this household, so she is pulling less on her leash when we go on walks, doing better at staying off the sofa and beds with fewer reminders to get down and sitting to say please before eating meals or getting attention.  Last night when she emptied the water bowl in the kitchen, she picked it up and brought it into the family room to let me know it was empty.  And she mastered the pet door to go out to the backyard in no time.

Little Horse is feeling out the position of alpha dog and has growled at her a few times, which has been interesting.  He was always the dutifully submissive hound when Maggie was with us.  I think these two dogs will become fast friends.  They attempted to play together this morning and that was funny.  They both looked awkward as they tried to jump and bounce and then backed off from each other.

I am taking Ruby into the vet in a little bit.  Her left eye is red and swollen and I'm not sure why.  Want to get that taken care of before we have two one-eyed girls in this family!

Day One of Vacation

Today is the start of over two weeks of vacation for me.  I enjoyed sharing the breakfast table with my kids this morning.  I also enjoyed the fact that I didn't hear any noise complaints from them as I unloaded the dishwasher or used my dremel to clean beads....because they were getting a rare, but special treat of watching cartoons this morning.

I photographed beads once I got them clean.  These are two special sets for a friend using the ashes of a family pet, but I need to remake one set using a different glass.  There were either temperature issues or compatibility issues with the glass and ashes (I think the latter, as I rarely deal with thermal cracks due to temperature probs) which showed cracks once out of the kiln.  Most of the cracks cannot be felt (you can see a major crack in the worry stone on the far right below), but I would not want to make jewelry with the beads for fear they will break later.  Sigh.

Little Horse survived his two months of crate rest and has now been on three walks this week.  Fifteen minutes of walking wore him OUT to the point that the ground didn't even have to reach up to grab the drool hanging from his mouth.  Utter grossness that I'm sure you wanted to know about, right?

I had hoped to make more beads to do a shop update before leaving for Minnesota, but work and life got in the way and it's just not gonna happen this week.  So here's your warning....if there's anything in my bead or jewelry shops which you have had your eye on, go ahead and get it now.  I'll be closing down both shops this Friday night for two weeks.

My mind is still rather jumbly, so I will stop for now.  Just wanted to share a little since it's been awhile :)

Lately

I have been distracted.

So many things running through my head and not one them wants to stay put long enough for me to gain much of any focus.

I burned my fingers on the grill last week when I wasn't paying attention and grabbed the lid, instead of the handle to close the top.  Ouchie.  Thank goodness for my tube of unguentine that I keep next to the torch.  By the next morning, the band-aids were gone and there were no blisters.  No pain.  That has really been a miracle ointment for me!

I have several countdowns in my head.

Four more days until Little Horse is done with his heartworm treatment and he can run and be crazy again.  I can't believe we are almost through this two months of crate rest and am so thankful.  After he chewed through his leash in week one and took off running the length of several football fields, I was certain he would kill himself before we got through this.

Eleven more days until I drive the kids to Minnesota where we will all be spoiled by the grandparents.  This is always my favorite part of the summer.  To relax and not have my blackberry with me.  To fish.  Or not.  To enjoy my children and my inlaws to levels of happiness that are truly off the charts.  I feel undeserving.

I am inching closer to two photography workshops in August and so stoked for these upcoming opportunities to learn from photographers I greatly admire.

My boy child will turn nine in 95 days.  He now has very little hair as I gave him the routine summer buzz cut.  He does not look like my boy with so much missing hair.  But he loves it and that's more important, I think.  Combined with the fact he'll grow it out for the school year for me.

I will celebrate my 11th wedding anniversary in 101 days.  Wow, where did the time go?  Soon I will tell you how much this man loves me by what he is willing to give up.  It involves football.

And only 103 short days until my baby turns 7.  I did not authorize this and am very much opposed to her leaving six behind.

My blogging has been sporadic at best over the last several months.  That will change.  But not quite yet.  My apologies for shoddy blogging, torching and shop updates.  I am really looking forward to getting back into a weekly routine where I can combine all of these, yet still take care of work and home.

On a fun note, I will be taking off Wednesday through Friday of this week to use up some vacation time and help clear my mind.  Previously, I had not thought I would find time on the torch before leaving for Minnesota or be able to get in a shop update, but now I can.  Woot!

A couple of weeks ago, I had two friends reach out asking if I could make some beads for their family members who recently lost their family dog using the ashes.  I was honored and humbled.  Here are a few of the beads which I made for the friend whose package arrived in my studio first.  I will be starting on the next round for my other friend tomorrow.

My friend Keirsten just made this bangle with my Azure Island beads.  Awesomeness, right?

And Erin Prais-Hintz used one of my purple & green headpins in the flower focal of this great design.

That's all for now.  I hope that you all are enjoying warmer summer temps and NO tornadoes.  There have been some horrible storms sweeping the States, leaving much devastation and some flooding in their wake.  I pray you all (and your loved ones) are safe.

TGIF!  

Yesterday was a rough day between work and the home front (we found out Little Horse has heartworms).  I feel drained and still have yesterday's adrenaline running through me.  I'm ready for tomorrow to be here.  To run away from my realities, if only for 36 hours.  To see one of my best friends and hang out with my girls in New York City.  I can't wait!

Please think good thoughts for me as I will be braving the bus and subway system alone on this trip.  When I used to fly into NYC on a monthly basis for customer meetings, I always took cabs because work paid for them.  But this time, I think I will save my thirty bucks and I'll just spend $2.50 to figure it out on my own.  The last time I did this, I wasn't even 20.  I had flown up on a buddy pass to see a friend.  I was so exhausted, that I fell asleep on the subway and was woken in Harlem by a kind woman telling me "Honey, I think you missed your stop."  I didn't know any better that falling asleep on the train was ill-advised.  I don't normally drink coffee, but I may be filling up on it tomorrow to stay awake.  I'll be leaving the house tomorrow for the airport well before I normally wake up in the mornings and I won't see the sun rise until after I reach my gate.

I can't wait until next week to share all of the photos I'll be taking this weekend.   I hope you have a lovely weekend and are staying warm!

And with that, I leave you with this unconventional marriage of sorts :)

Snow Days

The kids will likely be out of school all week.  The roads are still pretty crummy and not very safe for school buses to be out running.  One of the downsides to working from home is I don't get snow days (as rare as they may be).  But one of my conference calls got canceled yesterday and I was able to take the kids out sledding with friends over the lunch hour.  They have never been sledding before and had an absolute blast!

There was rough housing among the boys while the adults decided on the best hill in the neighborhood.

We don't have any sleds, so Owen chose to slide on his belly half the time, rather than waiting on friends to share their sleds.

He also tried surfing down while standing up.  My brave boy.

Someone brought a real surf board, which was a favorite for adults to ride down on with multiple kids on their back.  Chloe was THRILLED to get a chance on riding down on top of Mr. Shannon and several girls.  (This is the same Mr. Shannon who spotted Jezzie Monday morning and called me :)

Chloe also hitched a ride while squatting on the back of a sled and hanging on tight to Ms. April.  Note the tutu flying out behind her!

After two days back at home, Jezzie was finally brave enough to venture outside.  But she stayed close to the back door on her first trip outside.  

These are some of the beads that have been cleaned, but there are gobs more waiting in the kitchen sink.

This is my snow-covered bead photography studio.  The sun has melted some of the six inches that were originally piled on top of my tiles, but not all.

And this is one of Little Horse's favorite snooze spots in the house.

Hope to have more bead pics to share with you tomorrow!

My Weekend Recap

We started off the weekend with my Mom's birthday celebration.  Of course my kids were right there to help blow out the candles.

  

Saturday morning we went to the meet and greet for the boy child's new indoor soccer game.  It is on a basketball court inside a Presbyterian church gymnasium, so it's smaller than a normal soccer field and the ball moves fast.  The boy child is very excited for this indoor season to start and can't wait to live an breathe soccer again each week.  We are thankful they will not be holding practice, so that's more time together for us as a family.

Chloe asked if she could take my picture.  How cold do I look?

When we got home afterwards, I pulled all of the Christmas decorations out of the attic.  The kids couldn't wait to put together the tree and were big enough to everything but the top.  The girl child is wearing her Santa dress from last year over her other clothes.  She is my little fashionista.

Saturday night I took the boy child to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra to hear Handel's Messiah.

We got the cheap nosebleed seats up in the balcony.  I had hoped my boy would be as enchanted with the music and the singing as I am, but he was bored.  I think he may have been more interested if we could have sat closer and he could have seen the instruments being played.  Perhaps not.  He fell asleep during the last 30-45 minutes of the performance (and missed my favorite part!) and wasn't willing to go backstage with me afterwards to speak with one of the musicians.  He had been a champ all night using his manners, being quiet and generally on his best behavior.  I couldn't bring myself to force him into staying longer and took him home.  When asked if there was anything he liked about the evening, he replied "The brownie you brought for me to eat during intermission."  I love his honesty.

Today we met my friend Cas at the Chattahoochee River and walked along a trail through the leaves and always within sight of water.  I was well bundled and didn't have to whine about the cold (because I freeze when it goes under 85F/30C) and truly enjoyed this time out with my honeys, kids and friend.

I like this shot of Cas.  She's not a real photographer.  She just plays one on tv. ;)

I'm not sure if it's possible for siblings to get through a day without arguing, whining or intentionally irritating each other, but we had a banner time with lots of fun and even cooperating when standing in front of my camera.

They both had to bring special leaves to show me throughout our walk.

So many cool things I saw.

We even found a few caves that the kids had fun running into and playing in, climbing the rocks and hiding to jump out and yell "BOO!"

Before dinner, we walked up to the tennis courts with Little Horse.  It was still very cold, but such a gorgeous day!

Sunday afternoons are normally quiet at the tennis courts, so if they're empty we can close and lock the gates and then let Little Horse off his leach to run.  He had so much fun running, as did the kids.  Here's my little fashionista again.  I don't dress like this now, but I made very strange clothing choices as a child.  Apparently this runs through our blood.

I filled up the kiln last night with beads to use in filling a couple of custom jewelry orders.  Which means I will be sitting down and making jewelry one evening this week so a few lucky ladies will hopefully be surprised and very delighted come Christmas morning.  Not sure which nights I will be on the torch, but I definitely want to have new items to put in the shop this Friday night!

I hope your weekend was just as wonderful as mine, only warmer.  Unless of course you love the cold and snow, in which case please keep all of the cold and snow to yourself and I will smile knowing you are happy.

Weekend Loot and a Trip to San Diego!

Yesterday I got close to four hours on the torch.  Woot!  I made a TON of headpins.  Forty, to be exact.  

I thought you'd like to see what a jumbled, tangled web they look like when I take them out of the tumbler.

I think it's interesting that the copper and sterling wires are both 20 gauge, but the sterling remains relatively straight and the copper can't curl up tight enough in spirals.  I need to cut up more wire so I can keep making more headpins this week.

I also made some beads.  And a few eggs.  I have two custom orders for eggs and made extras, so the extras can go in the shop during my update this Thursday.  Because if I list everything Friday night, I won't get the time to package up and ship out orders before I leave for San Diego on Saturday morning.  I didn't think that would be fair to make you wait until the end of next week....cause I won't be home until the evening of next Wednesday, the 10th.

Little Horse came out on the deck with me while I photographed the headpins.  This was the first time he didn't act like a Nancy boy out on the deck after I shut the door to the house.  Progress, my friends.  He's making it.  On some days.  :D

So.  I'm flying out to San Diego and am totally stoked!  My good friend Sara is having her second baby on the 9th, if she makes it that long.  The boy child was already measuring at 42 weeks when she was only 36 weeks.  I think he's going to come out walking in the next day or two.  She has family lined up to bombard the homestead, but was so kind to ask me to come at the very start and guaranteed me a queen size futon while staying with her.  I'll get to load up her three year old on hugs and kisses and I can't wait to do that.  As well as hold and kiss and photograph her newborn.  And soak in her humor and practicality.  Sara is one of the most no-nonsense people I know.  She doesn't hold back in her thoughts or feelings, but finds kind words to get her point across without calling names.  I love her to pieces and wish that the distance from Atlanta to San Diego wasn't so far.  I miss my friend and can't wait to see her.

The bonus is that I will get to meet Mellisa of Chinook Jewelry and spent a fun part of the weekend with her.  I am absolutely thrilled!  I'm sorry Mellisa, if I tried to pack Little Horse in my pocket or the seat next to me, I think he'd be scarred for life.  You'll just have to cope with pics on the blog :)

I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween.  We had self-made drama from our kids and last minute costume changes.  Todd and I just looked at each other and said "I remember when I was a kid and Halloween was fun."  Sigh.

I'll have more bead and headpin pics up this week, as well as pics and links to other jewelry designers using my beads (can't wait to show you what's happening with some of my eggs!).

Don't forget...next bead update in the shop will be after 8pm EDT on Thursday, November 4th.

Friday Randomness

This makes me happy.  Lots of packages to be delivered to my customers and TWO packages coming next week to me.  Woot!

I am moving more quickly through the rest of the egg orders and this makes me happy and excited. Both to get to people on the wait list, but also because I am getting closer to sitting down at the torch without an agenda. And getting to the point where I can designate one or two nights a week to working with metals and/or making jewelry again.

I saw these guys up in a bucket truck when I ran to the welding shop for more stainless steel rods to cut into mandrels.  It made me so very thankful that all of the strike duty training I went through a year and a half ago in Dallas was never put to the test and I didn't have to get out in a bucket truck or climb telephone poles!

Sometimes I think my Little Horse looks as big as a wolf all sprawled out on the floor.  I love that I can see his speckled, freckled skin, even if it is because I gave him a shoddy haircut.  And need to finish it because his haunches have grown so long that now I have to shave his rear end.  Trust me, you don't want details.

I saved a chipmunk from Henry this morning.  The poor thing was most humiliated as Henry carried him around the backyard upside down by his TAIL.  I opened my office window to yell at him to drop the chipmunk and then took off running through the house and then the backyard to make him release the frightened creature.  As I was running, I thought I should have grabbed my camera to take pics because Henry really did not want to drop the poor guy.  But I was more concerned about freeing the chipmunk from the impending torture Henry would have delivered in his attempt to play (because Henry is not a hunter and does not kill the creatures, he just bats and bites in play as they try to run away and then tails or feet are hurt and then there are tears). 

You haven't met Jezebelle yet.  She is a hard one to photograph because she is ALWAYS moving.  So the pics are ALWAYS blurry.  Jezzie is the biggest sweetheart ever.  Last night I brought Little Horse into her room (she's quarantined until Sunday when she can be released in the house) and she just purred and purred and headbutted him the whole time.  He just sniffed her and then ignored her after he laid down next to me.  I can see Jezzie walking on top of him and then curling up for a warm nap!  And no, she isn't winking at me.  Jezzie only has one eye.  The other was removed after the vet's office (where someone left her!) was unable to treat her eye infection through meds.

Tomorrow I am going white water rafting with my friend Tabitha and four husbands from my street.  Get the feeling the majority of the wives are content with less adventure and more of having their feet on the ground? :)  It is going to be such a FUN day and I can NOT wait!  This is the first time in about ten years that I have gone white water rafting.  I used to go once or twice a year in my late teens and early twenties.  I have missed it.  

Check out this bracelet that Lorelei made with my eggs!

So what's on your weekend agenda?  Resting?  Adventure?  Productivity?  I wanna hear!

Oh, and don't forget about my BOGO 1/2 sale going on in my jewelry shop through the end of the month! :D

Friday Randomness

It is Friday again already, can you believe it?  Another week down and now we are all healthy.  Maggie is off her antibiotics and painkillers.  Look, her face no longer has a bump the size of a plum growing out of it!  Poor girl had to have two roots drilled out that went bad long after the tooth had been removed.

Although we are still hitting the high temps like this (and this is in the shade!)...

I am fooled into thinking fall is just around the corner.  My willow is shedding her leaves by the dozens.

Her branches are becoming bare in spots.

Eggs?  Did somebody say eggs?  

I like the teal and purple mixed together.  I also like how the white pushes the grey out of the way, but it's not exactly looking like ivory speckles, is it?  So I will be trying another route and color combinations this weekend.  Because there will be torch time this weekend.  I'm due some free time!

Here we have a cute little egg...

However, it became a casualty during the cleaning/dremeling process.  I etched it anyway, just so I could show you all the color combination of speckles on the grey.  And also to show you what most of my bead casualties look like....the dremel touches upon a week spot in the glass close to the hole that likely would break if the bead was dropped several feet onto a hard surface or with extremely rough handling/wear.  While it makes me sad for beads to not survive the annealing and cleaning processes, I would much prefer it happen while they are still in my possession and not after they have flown to new homes.

This is a cool bug I saw on the nature trail last weekend when Lorelei was here.  I have never seen anything like it.  Anyone know what it is?  Tabitha?  :)

The bug then inspired some of these beads.  Will have to work on replicating the white on black spots.  Couldn't get any of my normally reactive white frits to form the dark brown rings like on the ivory beads.

We also saw this strange, fat-legged bug.  That's the real name, too.  Fat-legged bug.  I wonder if his antennae cause him headaches.

And now, what at least one of you (Mellisa) has been waiting for for weeks...Pictures of Little Horse.  He was making silly faces at me as if to say "Stop taking my picture already, Mom!"

Seriously, enough already.

This is getting boring.  I'm going to nap.

Ok, if I smile, will you please put the camera down and come rub my belly?  Please?

Hard to see that he has a real shoddy hair cut and how uneven it is, other than his spotted skin is showing through on his side.  This is what happens when the girl child 'helps' me with hair cuts! :D  Perhaps this weekend I will get to do the final touch up so he is more respectable.

And one last shot of all the grey eggs etched.  No shiny-ness here!

I know I said there was a giveaway coming soon for one of my blog followers, but soon is relative.  Maybe next week.  I need to finish updating my spreadsheet with all your names and links first before I can do the random number generator to find out who the lucky winner will be.

Ok folks, that's it for pics and not as much randomness as I thought I had in me.  I hope you all have a most excellent weekend!  We will be recovering from our first week back to elementary school and 6am alarm clocks.