Back to the Normal Routine

After two weeks of soaking up time with my kids and a little over a week of having my honeys home, our little at-home vacation has come to an end.  Alarm clocks rang this morning.  Lunches were made and put in new school lunchboxes they received for Christmas.  Todd took off early for the office and I drove the kids to school.  I love our morning time in the car together.  This morning we talked about how cold it was (22F  brrrr!) and how the kids hoped and wished for snow.  The first thing I did this morning when I came downstairs was flip the switch to my studio space heater to help burn off the chill in there.  Today will be my first day back on the torch in weeks.  Woo hoo!!!

I am so excited about this new year and what it holds.  One of the things I will be working toward is getting more torch time than I did in 2011.  What's on your list?

New Year's Giveaway - Take 2

Ok, Bianca had a week to claim her $50 gift certificate and she didn't respond to me. :( sniff.

But! That gives a new shot to my currently loyal 67 blog followers :)

abeadaday
Alison Kelley
Ames Mama
Artisan Clay
Beads On Fire
Becky, yep
BIANCA
BlueStoneOfOrcasIsland
Brenda Hayes
ChatElaine
Creative Treasures by Donna
Diana
Eileen
Emi_FTLOB
Evie's Tool Emporium
gaffergirls.com
GemmaBeads
gunilla.back
Heather
Higgins Design Studio
hint
How Charming by Michelle - Jewelry Design
Indian Creek Studios
Jan and Shane
Judy
kat
KimberlyRies
kristinann
Lauren
Leslie
Lisa Lutz
Lorelei
Lori
Lucid Moon Studio
lunedesigns
Luthvian
mandywillard
Marbella Jewelry Designs
mari nilda aparicio
Marsha Neal Studio
Mary Ann Carroll
Metallo Bianco Jewelry
nomadcraftsetc
PAM
pearlandpebble
Pink Quartz Minerals
PolymerClayTutor
PowersArtGlass
prettylittleshop
rmar261783
Rosanne
rosebud101
Sarah
sassyglassdesigns
Silver Parrot
SmuTopia Jewelry
Stacey Graham
Stefeny Stanyer
Stephanie
SummersStudio
susikdesigns
Tabitha W.
The Bead Stylist
The Beading Gem
Tosha.jewelry
Veda's Beads
wiredmetal

Number 55 is Silver Parrot! KJ, I think your bead porn stash is about to increase nicely in size. :)


On another note, this is the new boy we are adopting within the next week! Isn't he handsome? He's a two year old Great Pyrenees that I found through a rescue for these gentle giants.

Right now, he is getting over a case of kennel cough and is scheduled to get neutered on Thursday. I'll be bringing our Maggie dog up to the vet's office on Friday for a controlled introduction between the two dogs and hope to bring him home on Saturday. I am so excited!!!!

We are still throwing around names, but have narrowed down the possibilities to Beau, Jack(son), Isaac, Samson, Simon and Wilson.

New Year's Giveaway ~ $50 Gift Certificate!

I wanted to hold a giveaway for my loyal followers, just for dropping in and seeing what is going on in my studio. No contest open to the masses. No hassle with leaving a comment. You were entered just for following.

Just to say Thank You for visiting and a Happy New Year to you.

The giveaway is for a $50 gift certificate with a coupla options. The winner needs to email me with her (yes, her because I know who the winner is) choice. The $50 gift certificate can be used on my beads or my jewelry. If you want beads that you don't see in my shop (a set you found looking through my sold items, perhaps?) then just let me know and I'll make up some new ones just for you! Or if you like a previous piece of jewelry, I may be able to create a new, but similar piece. You can look through my portfolio of jewelry work at www.kelleysbeads.com because there are years of pieces there that are not captured in my Etsy shop.



I couldn't find any easy way in blogger to show all of my blog followers in a sequential order from when each person started following. Nor could I find any gadgets through google that would show this. So, I went through all of my followers and sorted them alphabetically. If you have a blog, then it should be linked by clicking on your name.

Look at all of my 66 wonderful blog followers!

abeadaday
Alison Kelley
Ames Mama
Artisan Clay
Beads On Fire
Becky, yep
BIANCA
BlueStoneOfOrcasIsland
Brenda Hayes
ChatElaine
Creative Treasures by Donna
Diana
Eileen
Emi_FTLOB
Evie's Tool Emporium
gaffergirls.com
GemmaBeads
gunilla.back
Heather
Higgins Design Studio
hint
How Charming by Michelle - Jewelry Design
Indian Creek Studios
Jan and Shane
Judy
kat
KimberlyRies
kristinann
Lauren
Leslie
Lisa Lutz
Lorelei
Lori
Lucid Moon Studio
lunedesigns
Luthvian
mandywillard
Marbella Jewelry Designs
Marsha Neal Studio
Mary Ann Carroll
Metallo Bianco Jewelry
nomadcraftsetc
PAM
pearlandpebble
Pink Quartz Minerals
PolymerClayTutor
PowersArtGlass
prettylittleshop
rmar261783
Rosanne
rosebud101
Sarah
sassyglassdesigns
Silver Parrot
SmuTopia Jewelry
Stacey Graham
Stefeny Stanyer
Stephanie
SummersStudio
susikdesigns
Tabitha W.
The Bead Stylist
The Beading Gem
Tosha.jewelry
Veda's Beads
wiredmetal

I've got 66 public followers (apologies to you anonymous ones!) and then entered that into random.org.



BIANCA is the lucky winner! Please contact me at kelleysbeadstudio@mac.com if you have a custom request for beads or jewelry. Otherwise just check out through my Etsy shop as normal and I will send you an adjusted invoice if you happen to spend more than $50. Apologies, but the difference will not be refunded in cash...we can save that amount to be applied at a later date, if you wish.

Happy 2010

I can't believe I have been blogging for over a year now. Time just continues to speed up on me and disappears in a blink. Apparently, so have the last 2-3 weeks, as is seen by my lack of blogging over the holidays.

While I have neglected my blogging duties, I have been busy in other avenues. My sister-in-law moved out, after living with us for close to a year and a half. I have spent time reclaiming our guest room and refilling that closet with all of the stuff I pulled out to make room and eventually just sat in lonely piles over the past year. It feels good to have carpet space back in my closet and in our bedroom. Less clutter around the house is helping me think clearer, too. Along with this room, I have also spent mucho time cleaning out my office/studio, my bedroom closet and the one and a half problem counters in the kitchen that seem to always be heaped with mail, AA batteries, Christmas light bulb replacements and kids' art projects.

I washed and put away Keeters's food bowl and haven't gotten over how empty and lonely the top of the dryer looks now (all our cats' food bowls are in the laundry room, either on top of the counter or the washer and dryer). I still see Keeters out of the corner of my eye in the kitchen, like he's on top of the counter being naughty (the last 6 months, he was so naughty and was constantly being shooed off the kitchen counters where he knew full-well he was not allowed) or near the pantry door, waiting for me to get a scoop of dog food out so that he could snatch a piece.

I cleaned out the kids' toy cabinets and dresser drawers and now have a ton of stuff to take to Goodwill once they start accepting toys again. The kids got mostly clothes for Christmas, which was much appreciated over a boatload of toys that will not be played with after the initial novelty wears off.

I have learned how to shoot in manual mode on my camera and now feel comfortable adjusting the f-stop, ISO, shutter speed and white balance. I also have deleted hundreds of pics as I work my way through the various adjustments in each of those settings, but it has been instrumental in learning hands-on how each little dial notch makes a difference. My next step is to learn how to adjust the light metering and focus points. As well as the white balance lens cap that my honeys gave me for Christmas. I don't know how to set the custom settings on WB after using the lens cap.

I didn't make any New Year's resolutions, but have renewed old goals. Exercise more. Take time to breathe. Just Say No to cookie dough (because that, along with the 250+ cookies I made this Christmas, I'm not digging the eight extra pounds I put on. neither are my jeans). Find more patience and exercise it. Lose the sarcasm. Be kinder. Up my random acts of kindness. Find more time on the torch. Find more time for me. For my blogs. For making jewelry. For my friends. For my kids. For my husband.

I had a fantastic 2009. I'm really looking forward to 2010!

To you and yours, I wish you all the best! Health. Contentment. Peace of mind. Love. Joy.

Come back tomorrow, I'll be posting a new giveaway! No entry necessary. You just have to be one of my loyal blog followers :)

Christmas & New Year's Resolutions

Here is Owen smiling ear to ear. He woke me up at 5:10am on Christmas morning "MOMMA!!!! This is the BEST DAY OF MY LIFE! Come see what Santa brought me!"And here is the Bean, sporting 3 of the 4 things Santa brought her....Dora umbrella, princess helmet, pink scooter & furry crocs which got cut off by the photographer (thinking I need to fire that photographer!)
And here are the kids scarfing down a package of Pop Rocks that my Dad gave them for Christmas. They had fun listening to and feeling the popping & crackling in their mouths.

I had a wonderful Christmas with both my Mom and Dad, my Grandma (who turned 90 yro last year!), Todd's Mom and his sister with Todd, Owen and Chloe. We were missing another set of Grandparents who stayed up in Minnesota this Christmas. But the house was filled with love, laughter, good food and an abundance of gratitude as we share the holiday and each other's company.

New Year's came and went quietly. We stayed at home and relaxed with the kids, rather than braving the roads with crazy drivers. There was no discussion of resolutions, but I'm pretty sure we adults are all wanting to get in better shape. For myself, I am resolving to work on my brain-to-mouth filter and reacting first with kindness & patience. I also want to expand the reaches of my beads & jewelry hobby that I hope will become my full-time job at some point within the next five years. I am still waffling between keeping www.kelleysbeads.com or switching over to blogger completely (continual problems with posting pics like I'm having tonight are not making me lean towards this forum. grrrrr), but whatever I stick with...I want to spend more time finding & promoting other artists on my website.