I'm Still Alive

I can't believe it has been a month since I last blogged.  Time has slipped through my fingers.  Thank you to those of you who have reached out via text, email and facebook to check on me.  Who have randomly sent me messages encouraging me, telling me you don't know how I manage to keep up with so many things in my life, asking me how I keep up with so many things (gosh, how I wish I felt I were keeping up!) and to just do the best I can do.  You don't know how much I appreciate you.  And others, I see faithfully hitting my blog to see if anything new posted that might not have shown up in your blogroll.  You all really are just the best!

We'll play a quick catch up.  The last week in March, I got a little over 31+ hours of sleep in one week.  It was miserable between nightly storms with Little Horse's panting and late work nights.  I got sick and spent six days with a 102+ fever.  That carried into our spring break, which meant I did not participate in the Taekwondo camp with my family and spent over half sleeping in our cabin.  Up until that weekend, I had refused to go to a doctor because I knew I would just be told to keep doing what I was doing....alternating advil/tylenol, sucking down fluids and getting lots of rest.  But I broke down on Monday morning because Tuesday we would be starting our roadtrip to Florida and I didn't want to be sick through our entire vacation.

The doctor in North Georgia told me I had the flu and she thought I was on the tail end of it.  If we hadn't been leaving for Florida the next day, she would have told me to suck it up and come back in 2-3 days if not better.  So she prescribed my antibiotics and steroids, which kicked my fever two days later and had me feeling back to 100% on day six when we drove home.  I lost eight pounds in the process.  Two weeks later, those pounds have not come back.

We visited a rather cold Jacksonville Beach and had the pleasure of meeting up with one of my friends from work who is just THE best.

And a crowded Disney World (note-to-self -Thanksgiving is SUCH a better time to go to Disney if we go again) where I was thankful I had long lines to rest in, which gave me breaks from walking from one ride to the next.  I loved that throughout the parades, Chloe would shriek "She KNOWS me, Momma!  Snow White KNOWS me!"  I heard that for every Disney princess we saw.  And then, "And there's the Princess and the Frog and that Princess does not know me.  But she will."  She was so matter of fact about this and would not back down when her brother insisted that the princesses did not know Chloe.

Our last day was spent at Clearwater Beach.  The kids had a blast and I had so much fun just sprawling on my beach towel photographing them playing in the waves.  Another note-to-self - if changing clothes and applying sunblock in a restaurant bathroom before hitting the beach, do NOT miss the backs of the knees with the sunblock.  At the end of the day, we drove into Tampa and met my good friend Chel.  I have known her for almost 20 years and she was my maid of honor at our wedding ten years ago.  We rarely talk on the phone and are bad at keeping up through email.  But no time has passed and we can pick up right where we left off and catch up quickly when in person.  I wish she lived closer.

We drove home on a Saturday and spent most of Sunday doing laundry, straightening the house, driving to the trainer's/kennel to pick up Little Horse.  I was so thankful my Dad had called during our vacation to offer to drive up and cook us dinner Sunday night.

The next day, I took Little Horse to the vet's to start his heartworm treatment.  He came home two days later with steroids and valium to get him through storms, along with strict orders for no exercise jumping and four weeks of crate rest.  Then he can start round two of the heartworm treatment and another four weeks of rest.  Yegads and leetle fishes.  Twenty-one more days of rest until round two starts.

This past weekend, I took the kids out for a mini-photoshoot.  I was a bit crabby because they took FOR-EVER to get several things done I had asked, so we were off to a late start.  During the middle of the photoshoot, Little Horse chewed through his leash and took off running for close to a half mile at top speed.  And I lost my cool, yelling at the kids asking why I don't have problems with other kids listening to me when being photographed.  Really not one of my finer moments.  I was thankful when Monday arrived this week.  I had planned on re-washing my fabric and ironing to prep for cutting before piecing and then quilting.....because this boy thinks it is the best nap spot in the house.

I have these beads clean right now, although I still need to photograph each set individually to go into my Etsy shop.  I have another 50+ beads hovering over my kitchen sink waiting to be cleaned.  It has been over a month since I torched and am pretty sure my torch is giving me the stink eye every day.  My goal is to have the beads ready for a Saturday shop update (as in April 23rd, the day before Easter).  But I'm not making any promises and will firm up a date/time as I get closer to having all the beads cleaned/photographed.  The eggs need to be etched.  And the buttons on the bottom mandrel are already off to a new home where some of you may see them grow up on another blog.

I promise to not let another month go by.

Goodbye 2010 - Year in Review

We were busy in 2010.  Grab a cup of tea or coffee, because this may take awhile. :)  I wrote this like I write most every other post.  As a reminder for myself of what is happening in my life and at my torch.  I'm always shocked to find others interested in what I have to say and then come back for more.  You guys are swell.  Thank you to those who have delurked, I always knew you were totally awesome.  And thank you to the rest of you who have shared bits and pieces of your own lives with me, who have offered encouragement and so generously shared compliments.  You all rock!

JANUARY

The first week welcomed us in with a bit of snow.

The kids were in heaven catching snowflakes on their tongue and snow angels in the driveway.

My girl got the walking pneumonia and missed almost two full weeks of school before she kicked the fever.  Note the tattoo on the forearm.  Only tough girls get Hello Kitty tattooed on themselves.

We welcomed Little Horse into our family and enjoyed sleepless nights filled with panting, whining, crying and barking.  For months.  True story.

I played with silver glasses and got some cool blues to come out.

FEBRUARY

Little Horse began feeling a little more at home and started causing a bit of mischief.  He became a toy thief and would sneak various belongings of the kids' out to the backyard.  If busted, he ran away with his head held high and giving the impression he had no clue how Carebears and books ended up outside.

Hungry little birds lost their normal fear and came within a few feet of me to beg for food during the snow.

The kids were in heaven again, marching through our snow covered neighborhood.  It was a true winter wonderland for them.

A week later it was warm enough for shorts.  That's how we roll in Atlanta.

I started hosting naming contests with freebies, but wasn't as good at keeping up with these throughout the year as I had hoped.

I received this beautiful glass from a friend and had a hay day making dot-on-dot beads in many different shades.

I made worry stones.

And white cored nuggets encased in luscious transparents.

I made more nuggets and swirled raku around parts.

And I made swirling eggs magnified under gobs of clear.

I also began putting together orphan bead sets and keeping them regularly stocked in my shop.

We found a nearby dog park and brought Little Horse to it.  It was amazing seeing that boy run.

MARCH

I organized my glass and took inventory.  I think I counted over 500 pounds of glass in this cabinet.  It sounds like a lot, but it never feels like enough.  :)

I played with more of my silver glasses and loved how they stretched through the ivory to create dark crackles on focal beads.

Little Horse continued his thievery...

pulling ceramic drawers out of little chests on top of tables.  What on earth about this appeals to a dog?

We loaded up the kids and flew out to Arizona for a week with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.  I went to Beads Galore and loaded up on supplies for my personal stash and also for a major five pound giveaway!

The weather was warm enough for swimming...in the heated pool.  Again, the kids were in heaven.

And I got torch time with my Aunt Gail, who taught me lampworking over five years ago.  And then I was in heaven.  :)

We hiked to the top of Papago Park with the kids and saw more cacti than we could count.

We came home and I made more shiny beads.

Built some shelves for the boy child.

And played with fire as much as I could.

We started a year of Saturday morning soccer games.  Coincidentally, this was also when I started taking hundreds upon hundreds of pictures in one weekend. 

We also made fashion statements.  In public.

I also finished painting the shelves I built and got them set up in the boy child's room.

APRIL

Here are the five pounds of beads given away.

My Henners boy.  I love his pink nose.

We took walks on the nature trail.

The largest bullfrog ever visited our backyard.  Even with two hands, I had a difficult time picking up this big guy.

I made more worry stones.

And started in on the etched eggs that sparked a wait list that ran for six months until I cried Mercy.

I had fun making more shiny beads.

And bumpy beads.

And purple lusciousness.

More worry stones (I was having fun trying out all of my different silver glasses and seeing how they reacted when encased in clear).

And nuggets.

And shiny on ivory.

We made a rare trip to a local mall as a treat to the kids for extra good behavior so they could ride on the large carousel.

I started branching out in different colors for eggs that wouldn't have been found in nature and was amazed at the response.  I couldn't believe that people would be willing to wait (and oh-so-patiently) for weeks on end before their names reached the top of the wait list.  But you did.  And you were the absolute best!

MAY

Brought weather warm enough for the kids to swim.  How is it my 7 year old looks like he's 4 again here?

This 15+ pounder snapping turtle showed up in our backyard and hissed at the cats.

The boy got the buzz cut he'd been waiting for all year once school ended.

The girl child abandoned her teammates to play with dirt and paid no attention to the soccer game continuing around her.

My echinacea/cone flowers grew up in front of my dining room windows.

My little girl graduated from pre-Kindergarten complete with a cap and gown ceremony.  So many graduation ceremonies.  I didn't have my first until I finished high school. 

We also had smaller box turtles come visit us.  Dragging their cute little tails behind them.

And dozens of eggs were made and photographed.

JUNE

My boy learned how to ride his bike.  After many tears and accusations that I was making him fall.  It was a tough process, but I admired his determination and persistence.  He did not give up until he mastered it!

There was water fun in our backyard.

And in the front.

We watched my honeys play tennis.

And played with fire as a family.  ;)

We took a road trip up to Berry College in Rome, GA with my friend Tabitha and her boys.

At the end of the month, we made our annual trek up to Minnesota.  I love these bridges in Missouri!

The kids love the playgrounds along the way and this one with the gigantic see saw is their favorite.

The kids and I visited my friend Heather and watched our kids become monkeys on The Best Tire Swing.

We traveled even farther up North to find the perfect spot for relaxing.

And fishing.

This was the year that my boy learned how to take fish off his hook.

 

JULY

Found us soaking up our last bit of time with days like this.

 We celebrated the 4th of July with fireworks and S'mores.

 

Todd and I drove home childless, enjoying the peace and quiet and never once letting an hour pass without wondering what our kids were doing at that time.

I went on another photo walk with Tabitha in an old cemetery in downtown Atlanta.

Before heading over to Little Five Points and finding more interesting architecture to photograph.

I made a ton more of brightly colored eggs and sparkly nuggets once home and without any parental responsibilities outside of the normal work hours.

 Todd and I went to some pro tennis matches leading up to the US Open and watched Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish play doubles.

Then the time came at the end of the month to fly back to Minneapolis and retrieve my chickadees from a month of spoiling with the grandparents.  They were so filled up on love!  These umbrella projections would break into pieces if you moved in front of them and then they slowly re-assembled themselves.  Fun for the kids :)

Lorelei flew down for a weekend and we had the pleasure of hanging out with Lori of Waterstone Studio.

The time came for the kids to meet their teachers for Kindergarten and 2nd grade.  This is how my Beanarina dressed to meet her teacher.  I haven't told you before that she marches to the beat of her own drum, but you may have guessed that already.

More time was also spent at the pool in the evenings and the kids had fun blowing water out through the other end of the noodles they sat upon in the water.

AUGUST

School started and this is what my kids had to say about their first day.

We drove up to the Chestatee Nature Preserve and saw a baby Zedonk.

And I petted a couple of zebras.

I organized a white water rafting trip with Tabitha and several of our neighbors.  It had been over ten years since I last went white water rafting and made a note-to-self to make it an annual habit.  Too fun to let a decade pass between trips.

Tabitha invited me to help photograph a benefit ride for a Georgia Power employee, so I spent the morning photographing Harley's and listening to a bunch of bikers wonder if I would be hopping on my own bike.

We enjoyed our share of dinners at our favorite Mexican restaurant, even though I made my family sit outside in the sweltering heat each time.  The lighting outside was perfect and I wasn't going to throw that away!

Little Horse spent much of his time inside in August and this is how he felt about the heat.

A custom jewelry order found me returning to my kitchen jewelry studio to make a few new pieces.

This was the custom piece that got me back into the swing of making jewelry again.  Kinda.

Eggs galore were made and photographed.

I took advantage of child labor and found myself a willing assistant with shipping duties.

Cas and I flew up to Philadelphia for a weekend filled with beads and bead/jewelry artists with incredible talent.

Two floors of booths filled with beads overwhelmed and delighted us for 16+ hour days on our feet spent oooohing and ahhhhing.

I had the pleasure of seeing Marsha of Marsha Neal Studio and meeting her little ones for the first time.

We hung out with Lorelei, Nancy Schindler of Round Rabbit and Kerry Bogert of KABS Concepts.

And Diane Hawkey and Melanie Brooks of Earthenwood Studio.  I was humbled to be in such talented company and felt like a child tagging along with the professionals.  I loved hearing about how other mediums are used to make beads and learning that these other highly respected bead artists and jewelry designers are as down to earth as you can get.

I found my way into an ad space in Stringing magazine.

 

I went back to making my other eggs and fell in love with this blue frit.

 

SEPTEMBER

Brought an end to my custom wait list for eggs.  I had to call Uncle and find time at the torch making new beads.  It was a lot of fun, but I was also starting to get burned out and didn't want to begin dreading eggs.

I started making these headpins, but kept their purpose a little secret by taking sneaky photos that didn't show the wire.

I had fun encasing.

I celebrated my 10th anniversary with the phone company and my 10th wedding anniversary with the love of my life.

I played with new glass.

And revisited making hollow beads again.

I still had a hard time pulling away completely from eggs and made the hanging clear ones like these.

I used my smashers and made squares.  It felt sooooo good to smash and use tools after months of using gravity to shape eggs!

I took the kids on a hike at Amicalola Falls with my friend Wendy and sweet talked them into the 425 steps down and then back up.  Can you tell she was pleased with me at the end?  We ended up climbing more like 850+ steps down and then the same back up.

We celebrated my Grandma's 92nd birthday.

I started making buttons after having the special mandrels in my drawers for a good two years.

I played with new frit.

We celebrated our baby turning 6.

And the boy turning 8.

OCTOBER

We found alternate means of entertaining ourselves during the boy child's soccer practice.

Enjoyed spectacular sunsets.

Experimented with new color/frit combos.

I flew up to New York and spent a weekend with Lorelei.  I enjoyed hanging out in her studio and seeing how she beaded.  I took tons of pics of her studio and gorgeous home and will hopefully get around to sharing them with you in 2011 with an interview.  :)

I started making pendant necklaces with beads I have hoarded for months years.

I made beads specifically for orphan sets to coordinate with the incoming buttons and headpins.

We visited an orchard/farm in North Georgia and the kids had fun holding farm animals.

And I made more headpins.

And got addicted to various frit combos on ivory.

And found I couldn't STOP making headpins.

We also took a short, whirlwind weekend roadtrip to St. Louis.  I was thrilled we had the time to take the kids to the Magic House.  They had so much fun making bubbles bigger and surrounding themselves, making their hand stand on end and participating in so many more fun science experiments.

I fell in love with parts of St. Louis that I didn't know existed and wished were closer to home.

Just don't find siding like this in Atlanta....

I had the honor of photographing my Aunt Judy's wedding and watching her ham it up afterwards with her eldest daughter's mustache.

Lest you think we have the perfect children, we do not.  There is bossiness and snippy-ness galore at times.  It's nice when one of them can ignore it and at least try to smile for their mama behind the camera.

NOVEMBER

Flew me out to the West Coast.  I walked in the Susan G Komen 5K with Mellisa of Chinook in the midst of a wonderful weekend where she ushered me around the suburbs of San Diego and played the superbest tour guide ever.

It felt so good to see and hear the ocean again.  It had been too long since the last visit to any sand lined beach.

I met my good friend Sara's baby boy Andy less than an hour after he was born and loved every minute I spent with her family!

Her three year old Jack was such a treat and I had a blast playing with him on Coronado Beach with Sara's mom.

There was just a week or so of downtime to celebrate my 35th birthday and build a new deck with my father-in-law.

Before we packed up the minivan and drove South to Florida for Thanksgiving on Clearwater Beach.

And the next three days at Disney World.

At some point during the month, the kids went bungee jumping.

And I had a productive weekend or two at the torch.

DECEMBER

Landed me with a clean office and around a dozen bags of paperwork shredded, recycled and kicked to the curb.

I pulled together new sets of orphan beads.

And went back to encasing solids again.  Because I love them so.

My boy earned himself an orange belt in Tae Kwan Do.

I got to see incredibly thoughtful sides in my children as they picked out Christmas presents for their grandparents and then wrapped them.

As in years past where I made multiple double batches of cookies each weekend in December, I waited until Christmas Eve to break out the mixer.  I made a note-to-self this year, that even though I waited until the day before to make two double batches of cookies, it was still two double batches too many.

I upgraded my camera and am loving how well it performs in low lighting and am excited to see where it may take me in the coming year.

I continued my obsession with frit on ivory.

With as many kinds of frit as I could pull out of my drawers.

I took my boy to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra to hear Handel's Messiah and was told the best part about the evening was the brownie at intermission.

I got his great shot of my kids at the Chattahoochee river on a little photowalk with Cas and realized I need to bring the kids back on at least monthly basis because it was good exercise and great fun!

And exercise is good for everyone involved.

I managed to make even more jewelry for custom orders and had fun doing it.

And throwing more beads into the shop.

The first frost found its way into our world shortly before Christmas.

And the kids told Mr. and Mrs. Claus that what they wanted for Christmas was a trip to the North Pole to see Santa's elves.

We spent time with my friend Tabitha making Christmas ornaments with her boys.

And spending time with family.

At the end of 2010, it is the time spent with family and friends that makes me smile the biggest.  Family, specifically my husband and children, is at the top of the priority list for 2011.  Beads and photography will be intermingled as much as possible, but not ahead of my family. I am moving my weekly shop updates to Saturday afternoons and that will go into effect January 8th, provided I find time at the torch this week.  

I hope you can look back at 2010 with as much fondness as I have found in the 4+ hours it has taken me to put together this post.  And I wish you all the best for 2011!