Playing Catch Up

I had planned on getting on the torch today, but the morning is already half gone and I still need to dip mandrels.  So the game plan for today is being revised.  Instead, I am spending time cleaning and straightening up the house so everything is done & set for the week.  Tomorrow will be a full day on the torch with very few breaks.

This weekend went quickly, but I enjoyed the time with my kids.  I took the boy child to a surprise birthday for a friend and we got to race in a go-kart together (poor boy child inherited his momma's midget genes and had legs about 8 inches too short for reaching the pedals, so we got a two seater and I drove).

Atlanta has been hit with clouds pouring cats and dogs over the last few weeks.  There is much grumbling about all the rain.  But I just smiling, thinking to myself "I'm so thankful this isn't snow!"  I do feel bad for my honeys, though.  It has eliminated any chance for going to the courts and hitting a tennis ball, which is a huge stress relief for him.  And good exercise.  And I love his tennis buddies and that he can spend time with them.

After months of fighting friends about joining Pinterest, I have caved.  And as I suspected, I got sucked in.  Quickly.  I created a board to showcase jewelry using my beads because I 1) love seeing my beads grown up and 2) love to showcase and support other artists.  So if you have used any of my beads and have them displayed on your blog or in your shop, please shoot me a link so I can add them to my board!

I was asked to speak at the Southern Flames Demopalooza yesterday morning about photographing beads.  For forty five minutes.  I agreed and then wondered if it was possible to talk for 45 minutes about photographing beads.  But I ended up speaking for closer to an hour.  Wow.  I shared comparisons between photographing beads and photographing people (and there are many) that help make an interesting photograph.  I should have known the time would go by fast when speaking about two of my favorite things!

New changes are coming.  I'm not sure what they are, but I can feel it.  The same anticipation and nervous/excited energy are filling my body similar to what I felt in the months prior to leaving the phone company last year.  Perhaps part of it stems from my trip to Miami a week ago and I felt my spirit just get charged up.  Part is knowing that several friends and family members will be exchanging vows this year and I couldn't be any happier for them.  And I will be there to photograph they day of a few of those.  There are other things in the works (mainly with my photography business) that are moving me towards reaching my personal goals.  And part is filling a pinboard with so many crafts that I want to try with my kids.

Like this one might just have to happen this week.

I know I've been quiet on the blogwaves over the last two weeks.  Catch me up.  What'd I miss that's happening in your world?  What are you looking forward to next?

How Is It?

That I left corporate America and life is getting even more crazy hectic?  How did I fit it all in before?  I'm not sure, but I can tell you I like THIS pace much better as so much of it is being spent with my family.  Friday morning, I hopped on the torch and made these beads.

Before I shot this wedding.

Saturday morning, I drove up to Durham, North Carolina with my Mom to attend this wedding.

We drove home Sunday morning and had a surprise stop with LeAnn of Summers Studio.  I think we chatted and laughed for close to an hour and a half.  I was sad when we left.  I wanted to stay and talk and laugh the day away with LeAnn and her husband.  They were so lovely.  Just as wonderful as I had always imagined she would be in person.

This morning was spent cleaning up the kitchen, packing up beads and headpins to ship out around the country and then making a few pieces of jewelry.  And now it's just about time to meet my kids at the bus stop.  We will be working on homework, heading to the library and then testing for new color belts in Tae Kwon Do this evening.  Once they are in bed, I will be cozying (yes, cozying is a word) up with my laptop to start pouring through the 1500+ images I took at the Friday wedding.  I'm so excited.  I feel so fortunate to be following my dreams and know that I'm in the midst of big changes in the course of my life.

I will be back on the torch tomorrow and will be making more beads and headpins in preparation for a shop update this Thursday afternoon.  I hope you all had a fabulous weekend with perfect weather!

Friday Came (and went) So Fast!

Much was accomplished this last week (this was written Friday morning, but the post got derailed when my card reader died and corrupted my camera's memory card in the process, losing many photos.  boo.  hiss).  I made close to 250 beads in three days last week.  Even more miraculous, I cleaned all of those beads in three days.  My dremel died and was replaced.  I removed multiple snakes from the house.  I saved multiple chipmunks.  Or I saved the same one three times in one day.  One was being carried around upside down with his heinie in Jezzie's mouth.  I aided in the completion of a diorama.  I received a shipment of glass...the first one in well over six months.  Sigh of contentment.

I made a couple more eggs and this time shipped some off to Canada.  So exciting sending my beads off hundreds/thousands of miles away when I apply shipping labels and postage.  

This weekend, we celebrated the girl child's 7th birthday with a few friends at the tennis courts (she asked for a tennis party and we were lucky enough to have my Dad up visiting and helping with feeding the balls over the net!). 

Amy of Copper Diem is coming close to celebrating the end of her bead fast.  You can read about it here and how I (along with other bead makers) have been torturing her during this fast.  I can relate to bead fasts and other fasts that have my check card under lock and key.  I apologize for teasing you with my beads.  But thank you Amy and so many others for not only blogging about my beads, but to those of you who have shared links to my beads/blog/shop on facebook.  You all are just the best!

Happy Monday!

This was another weekend of celebrations for us.  Besides disbelieving we just hit our 11th anniversary and have been together for thirteen years, we also celebrated our youngling turning seven years old.  Apparently you wear your pants on your head when you turn seven.

She chose carrot cake for her candle holder and I made a double decker of it in a heart shape for her.  I'm not sure what she wished for and will have to ask her later.  I'm betting it was not anywhere close to her brother's wish last weekend to not be aggravated the rest of the birthday by his little sister.

So many wonderful folks scooped up the batches of eggs last week that now there are only six sets left in the shop.  If you like any of the colors schemes, go grab them now.  Tomorrow they will be pulled from the shop to be re-arranged. 

Kids are off to school and the animals have been fed.  Even though there is a dishwasher full of clean dishes waiting to be put away, it will wait some more.  I'm running off to my torch.  I was so enchanted last week with the the transparent speckles on eggs that I feel the need to make some sets of rounds that could coordinate with the eggs or be just as great on their own.

I hope you have a fabulous week!

TGIF!

My days have new meaning to me now.  Fridays used to mean that the work week was almost over and I would have two very short days to rush and get the house straightened up, grocery shopping completed, laundry done and maybe a little time to relax with my kids and husband if I was lucky.  

Now Friday is my last day to rush and getting everything done around the house that I need to get done so the weekend can be much more laid back with my family.  I have steadily been working at cleaning off my desk and my torch table in my office/studio.  As of this morning, my torch table is completely free of all junk and everything that should have never been set there in the first place.  It just needs to be wiped down to get rid of all the dust.  And a sizeable amount of real estate is now visible on my desk top.  It feels so good to finally be reclaiming my office and studio from all the clutter!

These are all of the eggs that came out of the kiln last night.  There are twenty four new bebes and I am LOVING them!  Aren't they delicious?  More are in my kiln now, but I'm not sure if I will get more torch time today.  I have errands to run....namely spending time at the elementary school.  The boy child turns nine this weekend and I will be surprising him at lunch time with a special cookie cake to share with his classmates.  And a little later, I will be reading to the girl child's classroom.

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend and are enjoying the autumn temps that have been blowing in over this last week.  I am enjoying having all the windows open in the house and NOT running the air conditioning!!

p.s.  there is one set of eggs left in my shop waiting for a good home  :)

p.p.s.  I have added a poll up there on the right to see how many eggs you all think should be listed together.  Tell me what you think is the perfect number!

This Weekend was Filled With....

The boy child's first baseball game.  It was two hours looooong.  He had fun (which is what's more important, I keep reminding myself.  this is about him, not about me....another reminder to self) and scored two runs.  The husband did yardwork.  I enjoyed a house with open windows. 

Sunday afternoon landed us in South Carolina.  We stopped twenty miles into the state to meet my friend Cindy for lunch and then trucked onto Greenville to the Indie Craft Parade.  The place was a zoo!  So many talented artists and a very pro-Etsy environment, which was a nice change from so many of the online forums I see.  I think I finished my Christmas shopping there.  But the highlight of Greenville was definitely meeting Barbara Bechtel of Second Surf (and her beau!) in person.  She was even more lovely in person and I was thrilled that she was able to catch a break from her table to walk around with me for 20 minutes!  She inspired me to find a cute dress to wear for our family photos (we haven't had any taken since the week before the girl child was born...how sad is that?!) being taken next weekend by Blue Lily.  And do my hair up nice, so I need to find that curling iron of mine that gets used once every six years.

Cindy and me :)

These are the beads that came out of the kiln Friday night.  It felt soooo good to be on the torch during the day with my windows wide open and music blasting.  I think I can get used to this new life!

The theme for this week will be encased.  Will see what else I do that looks cool under clear.  I love that this bright orange has a bit of variation with hints of cream and lemony yellow peeking out.

And surprise, eggs are coming back for the Thursday shop update.  I think the shop needs a little more protein, don't you?

Weekend with Blue Lily in Deer Valley, Utah

I flew out to Salt Lake City last Thursday and was so happy to see the mountains again.  I have missed them so much!

I lived at the base of these mountains in the second grade in the neighborhood to the right of where I shot the above photo.  I would not want to go back for the winters, but the summers are gorgeous.  Even if the sunflowers do become a little shriveled.

My girl Marti picked me up at the Salt Lake City airport and then we drove down to Sandy to visit a scrapbook store before driving into Cottonwood Heights to see the house I lived in.  Then we took the scenic route up through the mountains, driving by Solitude and Brighton ski resorts.

We stopped over a dozen times along the side of the road to check out the stream, photograph flowers and do a little hiking.  And of course, admire the gorgeous views.

Before we even reached the top, we knew we would be stopping here!

We hiked to the top of this hill, which felt much steeper than it looked.  And it looked pretty steep!

But the view was worth the long climb and being completely winded by the time we reached the top.

We reached Deer Valley after 7p and drove into Park City for dinner (DeLiCiOuS!) and a little grocery shopping after we unloaded our bags.   A killer game of spoons ensued around the large dining table after we returned as most everyone had arrived.  It was after midnight Mountain time when I crawled into bed.  I was beat!

The next morning was laid back, with a late breakfast, a fun Q&A session and then we drove out to a Deer Valley ski resort.  We took two different ski lifts and hiked up a little hill before finding this great location.

In the evening, we drove out to Kamas to photograph a bride and groom.

They were fabulous!

How lucky are they to now get such great location shots?!

Saturday morning started off with a newborn shoot. 

This baby was an amazing sleeper! 

Saturday afternoon, we drove out to Heber and played with Hindu holi powder.

The models didn't show up, so the photographer participants became the powder fight participants.  It was awesome.

I'm not sure if it was more fun behind the camera or pelting each other with the bright colors.

Wendy is totally tribal, screaming and jumping.  I love this woman.  She does everything 100%.

After an intense 30 minutes of shooting the powder fight, we photographed a couple of families with piglets, bunnies, chickens, Don King ducks, ponies and goats.

Mandy loved this piglet.  He was so cute!

See?  Don King duck. His afro matched Sandi's before she pulled her hair back when cleaning up from the powder fight.

Saturday night ended with a glow stick group picture and then morphed into all glow sticks getting wrapped around Sandi.

And then she danced for us.  And it was awesome.

I love the Blue Lilies.  Wendy and Tyler are some of THE most positive people I have ever met.  Not only do they attract more of the same, it seems they generate that positivity and encouragement exponentially.  And boy do they know how to have fun.  I had an absolutely fabulous weekend with them and came home so inspired and content.

I will be posting more photos on my photo blog this week, but now I must go to bed.  I am still recovering from late nights in Mountain time and a Monday morning alarm clock that buzzed much too early.

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Blog posts from other participants are linked below (as I see the posts) :)
Crystal ~ Friday and Saturday
Meg ~ Friday and Saturday

Flying Home

This week hasn't been as busy as I had expected it to be.  Last Sunday, the day before I was to fly out to Colorado Springs...my photography workshop with the Parsons was canceled.  Shortly after they arrived in Colorado, their newest son began having problems breathing and was rushed to the ER.  After being in the ICU, their son Zion underwent brain surgery.  He is now doing very well and was released from the hospital yesterday with the instructions to get back to lower elevations FAST.   And so they went.  They are now back home.  This family has had more than their share of emotional ups and downs since adopting this boy, but I am in awe.  He is a miracle baby in so many ways.  You can read their story here.

I am thankful that their son is healthy enough to be back home now.  I have been so worried for them this week!  I was also thankful to not miss my children's first day/week of school.  And get extra sleep, because getting up early to leave the house by 4am on Monday...was not looking forward to that.  I did fly up to Newark yesterday and had a great customer meeting.  I so love getting to put faces with voices and these folks were just great.  There were a few jokes that I was shorter than expected because I sound so authoritative on the phone.  I was amused, since I hover at just three inches over five feet.  And more that I didn't pick up on the fact one of the ladies was pregnant because I didn't think she sounded pregnant over the phone.  I have worked with all of these people for well over a year (probably close to two years) and was thrilled to finally be able to meet them.  I was bummed that this was as close as I was going to get to New York City.

Yesterday, I started/finished reading Heaven is for Real on my two flights.  I was asleep before 10p and slept until after 7 this morning.  I feel so rested now and ready to start my day of travel back home to my family.  I have a layover in Pennsylvania and will get home just in time to cook dinner tonight.  I can't wait to see my kids and husband!

No other pics to show from my mini-trip to New Jersey.  I brought my camera along, but haven't used it once (the shot above was taken with my phone).  However, I did sit next to another photographer on my flight up to Charlotte yesterday.  And was surrounded by well over a dozen photographers over breakfast this morning before they left on their tour bus.

This weekend, I will be cleaning and photographing beads for a shop update.  I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

New Beads!

This weekend was so quiet for me.  The kids were gone from Saturday afternoon through Monday afternoon.  My honeys was up in Minnesota visiting his Mom.  It was just me and the hounds and the cats and the ferret and the hamster and two tanks of fish.

I spent Saturday and Sunday evenings on the torch, as well as much of Monday morning.  Here are the spoils from Sat/Sun.  The beads from Monday are soaking in the kitchen sink, but there are many more lentils waiting to be cleaned out.  It felt soooo good to sit down at the torch and create again.  Watching two months slide by without firing it up once was hard.  I don't like being that busy.

Besides torching, I cleaned out both fish tanks and moved one from the kitchen back to the girl child's room.  We'll see if she's grown up enough now to keep her hands out of the tank because her fish want to visit Owen's fish.  I gave a thorough cleaning to all four cat boxes.  That was exciting.  I framed and hung up pictures.  I saw Kung Fu Panda 2 with the kids and my Mom.  I took Little Horse to Petsmart to get out of the house.  I started reading a book suggested by a friend that is helping solidify a current course of action within our family.  And I thought about both of my grandfathers and how they served in World War II overseas and wondered about what they saw and experienced.  How they felt leaving their families behind as they fought to protect the freedoms of their country and others.  I stayed up way late and took advantage of being able to sleep in.  I enjoyed my freedom with no schedule and found myself eating breakfast at 2pm and dinner after 10pm. 

And.  I missed my honeys.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!  I can't believe it's almost Wednesday already.  This week is screaming by me.  I'm trying to get it in gear so I can do a shop update on Friday evening.

Family Expansion and New Eggs!

Last week I hinted that our family had expanded, which initiated a few emails from family and friends --> Are you pregnant?!  The answer to that is a big no as Todd seems to feel he's too old for more and we're done.  Sniff.

But.  We did get a new pet!  One of our Tae Kwon Do friends mentioned to Todd a few weeks ago that his neighbor had an old ferret in need of a better home.  Since Todd shared that with me, I considered that to be consent and promptly brought this boy home.  Meet Ernie.

It has been four years since we have had a ferret in the house.  Our last one was Sammy and she was 8 years old when she passed.  Todd and I vowed to wait until the kids were grown before we took in ferrets again because the passing is just so hard.  But this one needed a good home.  He was old and sick and not getting any attention.  Ernie was extremely underweight (to the point that I could easily see his ribs through his skin) and very dehydrated.  The vet visit last week confirmed adrenal disease (which I expected with his bald tail.  adrenal disease is very common with ferrets and we fought it with many of our other ferrets in years past), his dehydration was gone (yay!) and that he has neurological problems which are disabling him from walking normally (his back end gives out on him).  She said she didn't expect him to walk normally or be able to climb again.  I felt so defeated.

But last night, I found Ernie trying to climb.  He didn't make it into the hanging hammock just above his head.  But he tried and that made me happy.  And this morning, I heard him making noise and when I walked around to see him....he had climbed up to the first level in his cage.  Rock on, Ernie!

This weekend went extremely fast (I can't remember the last time we had a slow weekend, but maybe this coming Memorial Day weekend will be since the kids will be spending time with each of my parents Saturday - Monday).  We spent many hours cleaning up and straightening the house and doing laundry.  A karate festival was in there (complete with a dunk tank where they made sure that the kids got to dunk the instructors, even if their pitch wasn't strong enough to make it happen), a soccer banquet and a get together with friends (which included a walk down to the creek and a cookout).  I also squooshed in time to make 20 new eggs.  :)

I will be making more this week (I hope!) so I can have multiple sets to throw into the shop for the next update.

Can We Extend the Weekend, Please?

We had absolutely gorgeous weather in the 80s this weekend!  Today is back in the 60s and cloudy.  I want more sunshine, please.

Saturday was filled with driving around on backroads with the kids, one soccer game, two photo shoots and an adult dinner out with friends (from the second photo shoot) while our kids spent the night with my Mom and Grandma. 

I had planned on being so very productive on Sunday, but it just didn't happen.  I was asleep on the couch before 9pm on Saturday night.  And was soon back to sleep soon after waking Sunday morning until lunch time.  Apparently, I needed the rest.  I don't recall the last time (years n years ago) where I slept away a whole morning. 

I had planned on spending much of my quiet time on the torch on Sunday, but that didn't happen.  Nor did quality computer time sorting and editing the 1000+ pics I took the day before.

At this pace, I'm not sure if I will be able to do a shop update on Saturday, March 26th.  But it is my current goal.

I am doing heel clicks while my head is spinning with the thought of our upcoming vacation over spring break.  We will be attending a karate camp as a family.  And then going on a road trip to/through Florida.  Driving to Jacksonville to spend an afternoon on the beach and then dinner with old friends.  Next morning, we'll be making the two hour drive to Orlando to spend TWO WHOLE DAYS AT DISNEY!!  I'm so excited.  I really didn't think we'd be able to go back so soon (as in anytime sooner than 2015), but it worked out for us and I couldn't be happier about it.  The last day of vacation, we'll be driving to Clearwater Beach to spend the day playing in the sand and the gulf before having dinner with a good friend of mine I have known since college.  The drive back from Tampa will be a long one, but so worth it after so many days of non-stop fun as a family.

And I'm betting I will be able to finish my afghan and maybe start a couple of smaller ones for the kids since they haven't stopped asking me to make them their own blankets.  :)

The screws in the top hinge on our pantry door have pulled loose.  I suppose I have too many spices in the spice rack on the inside of my pantry door, so now we have to lift the door up to get it in the door frame to close it securely.  I need to do something about that.  Meanwhile, I'm lifting up on all doors as I close them out of habit from shutting the pantry door.

Promise I'm will be on the torch at least two evenings this week to make new beads and buttons to share with you all.  Hold me to it, please.  Someone come flog me with wet noodles if I don't, ok?