Happy Halloween!

Myself as Frida

tonight

This is the second in a new series of images I'm working on for some Christmas ideas.

keep on shining

this little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine

Aaaarrrgh

Swine flu...do we have it?...I'm not sure...

Where's the Lysol?

things are happ'nin'...ready or not

Bye-bye Santa

Today was filled with a little flurry of activity from several directions at once regarding consignment sales, both local and out-of-state.

Holidays are coming, and one of my sales today was even a Santa pendant. Fun!

Thank you to a new customer P.C., and to M.L. !!

You're the best!

aren't I the motivated one today?

I tried something new today, and exercized at 8:00 a.m., instead of at 8:00 p.m. It actually felt cooler, or at least cool enough, and a breeze even blew a little. I've always preferred the heat over the cold anyhow.

So - that's out of the way, and now I'm off to Bead World for sterling silver chain and a large bale, to alter the length of a necklace for a customer. She's my "mystery customer" so far. We had a very pleasant conversation by phone, but I haven't met her in person yet. That's for tomorrow!


I'm on the hunt for a large, chunky silver cross, or blossom, or bird, or whatever else catches my eye to be the focal point for these beads:

turquoise and garnet knotted on silk

it's been a while

Oak Creek in Sedona, Arizona

Well, it has been quite a while. I have been on the computer a lot for work and for my own amusement, and beading only some, and painting not at all...and evaluating what parts of technology I want to keep or let go...

My thoughts are:

blogs -wouldn't mind keeping on with this blog as an online journal for myself.

camera -keep practicing, need to take a class.

email -tool, speedy, not as nice as old-school correspondence, I'm sick of seeing the abbreviation "LOL".

Etsy - keep trying, it's always going to be at my own pace, nice community in general.

Facebook - sort of like feeling unpopular in high school all over again.

Flickr -Yes! How I travel since I can't afford to. Nice.

Twitter - I'm too old, don't need it, don't text anyone about anything, nothing about my life is THAT urgent.

You Tube -how? Probably will figure it out. Crashed my CPU trying to burn a movie to DVD.

website -fun to create for someone else, maybe someday I might need one.

creating with my hands and talking face-to-face...Make the time, take classes...DO IT!

late night television

This is a self-portrait. My big dog is usually quite stand-offish. I was glad to capture this moment.

photo illustration self-portrait with my dog pack

Happy Fourth of July

Yum !

slow summer days

I have been enjoying my pleasantly slower summertime schedule.

muffin and latte painted clogs

Wall-E and robot birthday cake

grackle at the pool

spending time with my camera

I have been looking at these sunflowers blooming in my neighbor's front lawn for weeks. Yesterday I finally wandered down and took some photographs for fun.

my sad car

Well, here it is in all its humiliating glory at the body shop.

little expensive getaway

I went camping to get away from my routine, and had a car accident on the way.
Thankfully, no one was hurt.
Here are some photos from the weekend.


horny toad



pine trees on the mogollon rim in arizona



"finn" the irish wolfhound


me


east clear creek near knoll lake

i've been acting knotty

Here is a glimpse of recent projects I've done for practice, and to build a little inventory up. The aquamarine necklace was a gift for my daughter's teacher as the school year ends.
turquoise and garnet

velvet for jewelry display in an antique store












_________________________________________________________
aquamarine knotted on silk

small steps every day

Slow and steady, that's me lately.
Here are some of my latest online listings in my shop.



Agate and jade necklace

Swarovsky and Czech glass bracelet

what i'm working on today

________________________turquoise

I have been extra busy with blah blah blah (who isn't?). Here's a tiny project I started to get my creative ideas flowing again. I knew I was out of practice when I had to untie the very first silk knot I made at the start of this necklace. These are turquoise...my favorite! I'm happy with how this photo turned out.

run for your life ! ! !

______________________Godzilla finger puppet

up and running again

Well, it took this many days since my last entry...and I'm happy to say that I have my computer back, and that ALL of my data was recovered thanks to the extremely generous help of a friend, and that my desktop and software look normal and are installed thanks to the help of my husband.

...Whew!

I didn't realize how much I would miss using it until it was unavailable.

...my dead hard drive

uh oh

My computer hard drive suffered catastrophic failure over the weekend, and I was not able to re-start it.

Now it needs diagnosis and data recovery help.

I probably need to buy a new CPU.

I knew better, but did not have all the latest/greatest info. on there backed up, so I will lose some unless it can be recovered.

Most of what wasn't backed up I don't care that much about, except for some photos.

It seems that this will be an expensive and somewhat time-consuming lesson for me to learn.

...posting this from someone else's computer...

(sigh...)

here comes another pet portrait poster

Bighead

That's his name, and this is his poster!

that was bonnie; this is clyde

Here is the mate to the other poster below. It was harder to get his eyes to show up because of less contrast.

________Clyde

messing around with photoshop

I spent some time experimenting with artistic filters in Photoshop, and came up with this result. It is a portrait of a family member's dog. I had to create her left eye color where none showed due to lack of contrast. It's not perfect, but not bad for a first attempt, I think. It may make a nice poster if I ever decide to print it out in large size.

Bonnie

little camping getaway

My family had a mini-reunion of sorts at Bartlett Lake near Phoenix, Arizona.

Here is our weekend story as told by pictures...

hello little blossom

__________hello

I spied this tiny flower way down low to the ground while I strolled down the sidewalk yesterday. All the desert wildflowers are starting to bloom.

i've been tying knots lately

vintage german glass beads

I have created four necklaces in a row that have beads knotted on silk. It has been kind of relaxing. I don't really like the little sterling clamshell knot cover that lets me join the strand to the toggle or clasp or whatever other findings I want to use. I need to research what other options are available...or engineer my own solution.

60,000 mile tune-up

Welcome to middle-age, and thank goodness for health insurance!

Well, I'm feeling fine, and everything seems the same as ever, but within the past 48 days following my routine annual physical I have...

been to that certain doctor because I'm a girl for a checkup,
seen the dentist for a cleaning,
cracked a tooth and saw the dentist again for so he could make my first crown (temporary right now),
taken my dog to the vet twice,
had ultrasound scans of 3 separate body parts,
been to another doctor so she could look at everything (where the sun don't shine...),
seen the urologist 4 times for a humiliating scope and tests that I hope I never have to repeat,
taken my son to the pediatrician and two ear specialists prior to ear tube surgery,
taken my son to the hospital for outpatient surgery to have ear tubes put in,
been to the gastroenterologist for a consult,
swallowed a radioactive pill,
had 3 separate appointments for a scan of some other body part,
had blood drawn twice.

I am still looking forward to...

getting my permanent crown,
having a preventative scope of another of my body parts,
having two more of my body parts squished and scanned,
taking my son for a follow-up check on his ear tubes,
taking my dog for a follow-up procedure at the vet.

I am thankful to live in the age of modern medicine, and I am REALLY thankful that I can say "so far, so good!"

today i made a treasury

Whoo-hoo!

Today I was lucky and for the first time secured a spot in the treasury pages of Etsy.com . The curator of the treasury may select twelve items from various sellers and showcase them on a treasury page. The treasury shows a photo of each item, and links the viewer to each vendor's shop. Viewers may post comments.

My treasury has a forest theme, and features mostly paintings and prints filled with beautiful trees, birds, flowers, and various animals.

Here is the link so that you can go and take a look. Enjoy!
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=42562

This treasury will expire at 10:57am on Tuesday, 2/10/2009. If you don't get a chance to see it before it expires, here are the links to the featured artists:
http://www.Sascalia.etsy.com/
http://www.SavageArtworks.etsy.com/
http://www.libertylove.etsy.com/
http://www.artiryna.etsy.com/
http://www.shelleyroze.etsy.com/
http://www.vedaarts.etsy.com/
http://www.gallerialufrano.etsy.com/
http://www.artofandrewdaniel.etsy.com/
http://www.chickory.etsy.com/
http://www.karenfieldsgallery.etsy.com/
http://www.rozart.etsy.com/
http://www.lesliemacon.etsy.com/

can you see me now?

Yesterday I changed the template of this blog from "minima stretch" to what you see now after feedback in the forums that informed me that my blog was s-o-o-o wide it couldn't be read all at once, and the reader had to keep turning her head to the left to read it all, and that my little green border outlines weren't lined up. Hmmm...strange. It all looked great on my screen (PC operating MS Windows XP software). I had gone to the stretch format because that allowed me more room to post photos within my blog entries, and made the sidebar...well...to the side.

I'm glad to live and learn. It's all trial and error by the self-taught method over here, so I REALLY appreciate the feedback. Hopefully this looks cool.

Now...if only I could figure out how to get my little captions under my pictures to go where I want to place them. The best solution I have come up with so far is to underscore a line in front of my caption long enough to push my words out far enough so they are lined up under the image, then change the color of the underscore to match the background color of my blog so it becomes invisible and leaves only the caption showing. Sometimes it works fine, but heaven forbid if I try to move things around later. Even at that, when I view my blog from someone else's computer it doesn't always look the same as what I see from my monitor at home.

Hopefully, I'll look back on this an laugh at my own inexperince. In the meantime, if things look out of whack....well, it's me...not you!

spring cleaning for the soul

I have been doing housecleaning of sorts, trying to evaluate how I am spending my time creatively, and looking ahead to what I want to be achieve in the next 5, 10, and 50 (if I'm lucky) years.

Maybe it's my age or my hormones or who knows what, but I feel so much like I'm spinning my wheels, not doing what I SHOULD be doing, in terms of living a life worthy of all I have been given...my health, family, artistic talent, an absolutely idyllic childhood, supportive family and friends. I told my mom the other day that I don't feel like I am doing my "best" at anything anymore.

Balance those thoughts with the little voice inside my head that tells me that, of course, I am doing largely what I envisioned and hoped for long ago every time I do chores and cook dinner, help the kids with homework and field trips, take the pets to the vet, pay bills, do laundry, grocery shop, and all the other occupations that fill my time. Mom bolstered my spirits by saying that I was doing my best at raising two nice kids!

So...


Can I paint and draw more?
Make more interesting and beautiful jewelry?
Go to bed earlier?
Improve my metalworking skills?
Market myself to sell better?
Be more patient and kind?
Exercize more (way more)?
Maintain genuine friendships?
Pray more?
Spend less time on the computer, and more time in the studio?




...I am trying, and I am trying to "do my BEST."