Getting Ready to Leave. Again.

I am getting laundry done and ready to pack up and go come Monday.  I'm leaving for Colorado Springs for a 3 day photography workshop with two wedding photographers I love --> The Parsons.  I am so excited to meet them in person and to learn from them.  I've heard their workshops are life changingly phenomenal and I'm expecting no less.  My flight gets back late Wednesday night and I will pull into our driveway early Thursday morning.  Only to turn around a few hours later and head back to the airport to fly up to Jersey for a work meeting.  I am excited about meeting this customer and other phone company folks in person for the first time.  Always so nice to put faces with voices.

And while I am traveling, I will be missing my kids' whole first week of school.  I have threatened Mr. Wenzel within an inch of his life if he doesn't take pictures of the kids every morning.  I have missed my children for the last three weeks and I can't get through another week without pictures.  Every day.  Hoping for good wi-fi while I'm gone so we can Skype, too.  That makes the distance soooo much more bearable.

So this also means my beads shop will be closing from Sunday, July 31 through Friday, August 5th.  If there are items you have been keeping your eye on, you better get them now.  The beads in these pictures were a custom order, but I have other similar ones waiting to be cleaned.  Hoping to get the rest of the beads cleaned this weekend (and possibly photographed) so I can get them listed next weekend.  It's about time for a shop update, don't you think?

I hope you all have a FaBuLoUs weekend and I will be checking in with you in another week!

Digging Out

We have been home for over a week now, but I am still digging out from underneath my long To Do list.  I have been busy, but haven't felt like I have accomplished much.  Yesterday was different.  I did some major cleaning in and outside the house.  We washed both our cars and I said a final farewell to the Minnesota bugs gracing the front of mine.  I wasn't sad to see them go.  Following up that burst of productivity, I awoke rejuvenated this morning and finally pulled almost 500 pics off my camera before starting my work day.  I got through most, but didn't have time to set up a blog post until now.  Because five o'clock somewhere has finally reached five o'clock here.  Yay!

While we were in Minnesota, we jumped.

We ran.  Or rather, Todd ran and I rollerbladed next to him.

We enjoyed the view.

I enjoyed watching my boy grow up a little bit more as he was allowed to navigate.

We enjoyed some fabulous sunsets.

Did a little kayaking in the wannabe kayak.  I wasn't brave stupid enough to bring my camera in that.  Especially with a girl child on my lap.  We did not tip, but water coming in from the oar got us a bit wet.  Made a note-to-self to not be brave next time and leave my camera on the shore.

And we put our feet up.  My feet were up a lot, actually.  The kids were off and running with grandmas, aunts, uncles, cousins and new friends.  They were wound up and high on life, stretching the days well past darkness (and boy did darkness come late Up North) and playing volleyball or basketball until they could no longer see.  I caught up on some reading, as well as cleaning out my computer of photos that were not needed which freed up close to 20 gigs of space.  So even though my feet were up, I still managed to be productive.  Yay me.  :)

I have been on the torch twice since coming home (once each weekend) and have made a total of 40 beads.  With the exception of four, they're all sitting in the sink waiting to be cleaned.  I'm not sure when my next shop update will be, but not setting a date so I don't have to offer up lame excuses later.  Getting the beads cleaned and then photographed would be helpful.

And on a parting note, I had a Sally Field moment of "She loves me, she really really loves me!" this morning after I read Mallory's post.  Mallory has been in my thoughts a lot over the last few months as she has stood by her daughter's side fighting off cancer.  Her daughter was just declared 100% cancer free last week.  After living through multiple cancer battles in my own family over the last two decades, I rejoiced with Mallory like she were my own family.

Back Home

Todd and I arrived home late yesterday afternoon after driving 450 miles (we conquered 850 miles on Wednesday after leaving Northern Minnesota!) to a broken AC unit and a car that wouldn't start.  Plans that we thought were going into effect this month have been delayed.  So in the meantime, I am listening to this song again.

This weekend I hope to upload the 400+ photos I took over the last two weeks (really, that's it?!) so I can share a bit of our vacation with you all.  What I can tell you right now is that there was plenty of relaxing, not enough fishing and too many desserts!  My belt is really not happy staying at the same notch and thinks it should be loosened one.  I'm fighting that and vowing to eat nothing but healthy now that I'm back home.  Somebody come flog me tonight if I touch the desserts at my husband's tennis match, ok?

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.

Beads All Over

My mailbox was so full Monday morning.  Just look at this!  It was packed from the back to the front with all the beads scooped up during my last minute update Sunday night.  I have THE best bead customers!

Really, you all rock!  Look at my tracking app.  A full page and more!  As of today, one package has been delivered to Virginia and many more are out for delivery around the Eastern half of the country.

Not many new items are left in the shop, although there are two sets of eggs and a couple of lentils. 

I really like that crackled ivory egg and then the sweet little mustardy one with lavender speckles.

And more eggs.

One etched ivory lentil.

Two swirly encased blue and raku lentils.

I was really loving these swirly beads and made several sets.  The blue ones were scooped up, but not these ochre ones.  They're not getting any love.  Did you miss them? 

The strawberry ones are still looking for a good home, too.

These green ones look like gumdrops to me.  I really want to eat them.

I also have a few barrel beads left that were newly added.  First in topaz.

One in seagrass green.

And then a sweet little set of textured barrels.

And two baby blues.

I think I need to re-take the pics on this bicone as the teal looks darker than it actually is and I can see more detail under the color in the ivory with my eyes.  It's a really cool bead and would be a perfect dangly focal!

I have a couple of special projects I am working on in the evenings this week for friends, so it will be another week or two before I get to play and make new beads at the torch to share with everyone.

This week is flying by.  Can't believe it's Wednesday already!  I have 11 more workdays until vacation and I'm not too far from counting the hours.  :)

I hope you are having a fabulous week!

Shop Update Tonight!

Here are all the beads, eggs, lentils and barrels coming to the shop tonight after 8pm EDT.

These lentils are the only ones are etched.

Only the lavender egg is etched.  I like the eggs left shiny when there are transparent designs on them.

These and all the other lentils will be sold individually.

I like the added depth when the beads are partially encased in clear swirls.

Almost mangolicious!

These two black and one blue barrel beads will be sold as a set.  I'm having a hard time putting these down because the bumpy swirls from one hole to the other are just so fun to touch!

I really like this bicone and how the transparent teal looks like water on the ivory.

And the same transparent teal on smaller ivory rounds.  I love not only the depth in the teal, but how it feathers out to the ivory where the two colors touch.

I want to eat these!

Who doesn't need clear spacers?

I really love these ochre beads.  And the swirls!  Oh, the swirls.  I'm in love with these swirls and want to keep making more.

Yay for four black and raku lentils!

Only one ochre and raku lentil.  I ran out of time on the torch.  Or rather, I ran out of awake time on the torch and couldn't stop yawning.  

More swirls on baby blue beads.  This shade of blue just makes me happy.  Especially when these were lined up next to the ochre beads above and the strawberry beads below.

Strawberry swirls.  Yum!

I will be starting to list the beads after 8pm EDT and expect to be going non-stop for a few hours to get all of these in the shop.  Hope to see you there!