My Cutie

I really don't think it is possible for Lauren to look cuter then she does in this picture, do you? Look at her curls! Can you tell it's hot and humid here? I was helping my Mom with my Dad's father's day gift yesterday when I snapped this shot. The gift is 3 photos of my kids golfing. My Mom has some antique window sashes that she will frame the photos in. It looks really cool finished. She has one in her bathroom with a shot of each of them in the bathtub. I will share how it turns out. Oh, by the way... check out that photo of my sister from a few weeks back, that's where Lauren go those curls, LOL! My hair is straight as a pin! And see her necklace? She never takes it off, it is vintage glass beads, too cute.

In the meatime, I am heading out to the torch after dinner. I am going to work on beads for this Saturday's Open House. I made a new wire necklace that is oxidizing at the moment and that's I will show ya tomorrow. Other then that, I still can't hear out of my ear. So I will go see my doctor tomorrow if I can get in. I sniffles are gone thankfully, just a cough left now.

I will check in with ya'lll tomorrow!

Back to work

Did you guys like the theme I came up with for the Bead Box this week? "Back To Work Blues"! I sent out the email just a few minutes ago. If you didn't get it and want to be added to the list, let me know. Just send me an email with "Subscribe" in the subject. I hated the first pictures I posted so I am reposting new ones, please refresh your page to make sure you are seeing the right ones. I love these beads. The orange and turquoise just rock and the b&w just makes everything pop! I see loads of fun things being done with these... bracelets, pendants, mismatch earrings... endless possiblities. If there are any left by Friday, I will be stealing them for myself, so get them now before they are gone :)

Thanks to all of you sending me get well soon wishes. I would love to say I feel better, but alas, I don't. Things have moved into my ears. My right ear feels like I have cotton stuck in it, I can't hear anything, everything is muffled. If I still can't hear tomorrow I will go to see my doctor. This happened once before, it turned out to be a rare kind of ear infection the forms a bubble between your eardrum and the membrane on the outside of it. I will let you know tomorrow if I end up going in.

Anyway... we had a good day yesterday. In the early spring we got a free pool. We went and took it down from the previous owner. And we spent yesterday preping the ground where we will put it up. Now we just need to order a new liner and the sand. The kids spent the day in the sprinkler, and man are we all sunburned... I mean really burned. Lobster red kinda burned. And that was with sunscreen on. We had hots and hamburgers on the grill and then I made beads all evening. All in all, a great holiday weekend.

Today is HOT! It was already 81 degrees in the house at 9am so I actually put the window air conditioner in. It is helping a little. You wait all winter to open the windows and then bamm... you gotta close 'em again!

In the midst of all the holiday hullabaloo, I forgot to pick a free beads winner. Lauren picked the name this morning and congrats goes out to Tara! Thanks for your votes, as always! And the new free beads have been posted!

Memorial Monday

Morning Chickas... I hope you all are enjoying your long weekend. Today is going to be a gorgeous one in my neck of the woods. It was 86 and sunny yesterday and today should be the same. Tomorrow it will hit 90!

I got up early this morning, still sniffling my brains out, warmed up the kiln, made some coffee, and headed out to the torch. I don't know if it is all the decongestants or what but I can't find my groove. I made about 10 beads of which only 5 actually made it to the kiln. The rest erked me in one way or another and got set down in a humf of frustration. So here is what I plan to do... I have a file on my conputer called "Inspiration", it has more then 1000 photos of things that made me drool at one point or another. I am going to sit here and browse my beautiful photos until inspiration strikes.

I am already thinking I am going to put purple on the back burner. I think I am just not feeling the purple at the moment. I am not sure what I will pull out instead. Hmmm.... maybe something retro-ie like turquoise and black with some pink... or maybe I will do orange and red.... uuooo... maybe something really colorful with EVERY color! Check in with me tomorrow and see what happens.

Back from our get away

***sigh*** what a nice weekend we had!

Ron and I had a wonderful trip to Bristol Harbour this weekend. The weather was if-y most of the day Saturday but the evening cleared up beautifully and today was GORGEOUS! We dropped the kids off early on Saturday. And arrived around noon. The resort is on Canandaguia Lake and the view was spectacular. There is such ambience there. The rooms were so nice, all woodsy and rustic. There was a gas fireplace and a complimentary bottle of wine. The boys had fun golfing in the afternoon while Julie and I went to all the little shops in the town. One shop we really enjoyed was Wick-edly Sent the make all their own lotions, soaps and candles. I got a bottle of Grapefruit & Mimosa body lotion. It smells heavenly. We all had a wonderful dinner. And stayed up late chatting, just enjoying the quiet kidless environment.

Only two bad parts of the trip... first our room got really really hot, and we couldn't figure out how to get the air or fan to turn on. So we didn't really sleep well. Second bummer... I have a terrible cold! Aweful, can't breathe out of one side kinda cold. It was terrible, half way through dinner I had Ron run back to our room and get me some sudafed because I couldn't breathe and chew my Filet Mingon at the same time, LOL! Up until that point I had been really good about keeping myself well medicated, and I really didn't feel bad, I was just not 100%.

We had a wonderful breakfast, one of the best belgin waffles I have ever had. We went to Naples NY, and visited a small craft fair. I got a little sunburn but it feels good to have some sun finally. We had a nice sceenic ride home then went and picked up the kids. MAN OH MAN are they in a mood, they have been bouncing off the walls since they got home. The weekend really caught up with me this afternoon. I was so tired. I tried to make beads but just felt crappy. But I have all the rods pulled, all the mandrels prepped... so I will be making loads tomorrow. I just need to get a good night sleep and I will be ready to go in the morning. I have lots of ideas! LOTS! I think this week's theme will be "Visiting Grape Country"... I am thinking beads will be ready for Tuesday, but hey, you never know, if I make beads early they will finish in the kiln by 3 or 4 and I can put them up in the evening, we'll see.

Our friends Pat & Julie took a wonderful photo of me and Ron with the lake in the background. Pat is going to email it to me, as soon as I have it, I will share it here. I am off to an early bed time. Lots see if I can't get the right side of my nose to get unstuffed first, lol!

Bad Bitty Kitty

Yesterday, while watering the garden with Lauren, Bitty was playing in the backyard with us. Now, I have never had an outdoor cat. Every cat I have ever had has been indoor only. But Bitty insists on racing outside everytime you open the door. I have been trying to get used to this idea by letting her out with us. NEVER AGAIN! She got stuck in a willow tree yesterday. I have never seen a cat climb a tree so fast. She got stuck about 20feet up. I had to climb up the tree and get her down. The first 3 times I climbed up I could only get about 15 feet up. And she was so scared, she wouldn't climb down to me. I understand, it is hard to climb down facing down, she felt upside down. While she was up there I called my friend Lindsey who loves to climb trees, while we were chatting Bitty finally moved down to a branch where I could reach her. Only took 45 minutes. Jacob could have had her down in less then 10, he climbs that tree almost everyday. But alas, it was noon when she went up and he doesn't get home until 3:45. I couldn't have a 4 month old kitten up a tree for 4 hours, lol. She would get sunburned. Bad Bitty Kitty!

Anyway, that was yesterday's adventure. I had to share.

Today,, I will be working on the beads for tomorrow's Berry Wine class at Studio 34. Then Sunday afternoon I plan to work on Bead Box Beads for Monday. I am thinking still purples, this time lentils. I will let you know how it goes. I didn't get anything done yesterday, I thought I would work on some wire stuff but just never got to it. Maybe this afternoon!

Beady Update

*sigh* thank heavens the boys went back to school today. LOL! Noone else is feeling sick either so I have my fingers crossed that everyone can stay healthy for at least a little while now. Thanks for all the well wishes to the kids. They are definately back to themselves!

In beady news... here is my plan... I have had a couple of last minute emergancy orders and I also had a bunch of people sign up for my Berry Wine class at last minute. SO I need to get the beads done for orders and the class tonight and tomorrow. What does that mean for you all? Well, I am pushing back having Bead Box beads a couple more days. I am thinking Monday afternoon. I know it is another holiday and you will be barbaquing your brains out, but you can always check in on Tuesday right.

I would do it sooner but Ron and I are taking a much need retreat to Bristol Harbor this weekend. What is Bristol Harbor you ask? Well it is a golf club/restuarant/bed&breakfast about an hour and half south of here. It is a gorgeous place on Canandaguia Lake. We are going with another couple, Pat & Julie. Pat and Ron been friends since grade school and their birthdays are just 2 days apart. So the two of them have a 1:00 tee time at the golf course and Julie and I have a 1:00 wine time with the local wineries, LOL! AND NO KIDS ALLOWED! This will be the first time in the 12 years that Ron and I have been together that we have ever taken a trip together just the two of us. Following the golf and wineries we have a 7:00 reservation at the resturant and then we are staying over at the b&b. I can't wait. The trip will be such a treat for us. With the craziness of ROn's classes and my business and just the day to day life we three kids, Ron & I sometimes feel like we haven't seen each other in weeks even though we sleep in the same bed every night, LOL! So needless to say... we are both looking forward to it.

Anyway... nothing else exciting going on here. I will probably spend some time today working on some jewelry that is lampworkless, lol! Aka, wire stuff. I will share photos of anything that turns out particularly wonderful.

Free Beads 5/22

CONGRATS to Kathy H, this week's free bead winner. Lauren picked Kathy's name once before and she was lucky enough to have her pick it again! Thank you so much for your support Kathy, and everyone who votes. I really appreciate it! I posted the latest free beads... check 'em out. Just a few more purples I had around.

The past couple of days has been crazy! I did finish the big Oregon order and that shipped out today, I am all caught up on orders and as soon as I can find a free couple hours I will be working on bead box beads. I am hoping for beads in the box by Thur-Fri? I will let you know for sure when time gets closer.

Andrew and Jacob are both sick.. fevers and vomiting set in about 7:00 last night so needless to say, I am too tired to do much of anything today. Their "sickies" started about 15 minutes after I went out to make beads. I took a break, cleaned then went back out. Andrew started it and Jacob wasn't until 6am. Ugh... I hate cleaning vomit. But at least with all the hardwood floors we put in a few years ago, it is an easier clean up. I will be washing laundry until I am blue in the face tomorrow. (Andrew just so happened to be resting in my bed when he got sick.) Ron has his class final exam tomorrow too so he has had his nose buried in his books for the past few days studing. I will be so relieved when that is done. More time for me to focus on making beads instead of keeping the kids quiet for him to do homework. I love that he has gone back to get his Masters and I support him 100% but I do love summer breaks, LOL!

Anyway... I am off to try and relax. A hot bath after the kids get tucked in sounds so nice right now... then a bowl of ice cream... watch the finally of 24, too... *sigh* I can't wait for bed time!

Saturday Afternoon

Hey gals... check out the latest 3 bracelets heading out to Distant Shores. "Beach Towels" (told you they would make something cool), "Live Love Laugh" (I hand stamped that sterling disk!)and "Blue Moon". The order is now nearly complete. I will definately have it done by Monday so I can get back to making BeadBox beads. I feel like I have been making loads of jewelry lately, which is great... but with it all going out to Oregon, I don't feel ready for the Open House yet. We will just have to wait and see how it goes. I am not going ot push it.

Anyway, the new necklace finally has a name... "Spinning Top". I have had several requests to see what it looks like on someone so I will try and get a photo of that before it goes in the shipping box on Monday. That and "Waterfall" people want to see on too.

I tell my husband all the time about the wonderful emails you all send when you get your beads. He thinks I need to add a "Customer Testimonials" page to my site... what do you think? Anyone what to know what others are saying? If you are okay with your comments being added send me an email!

I am heading out to a movie (The Davinci Code, of course) this afternoon with my sister. So that's all for this update... I will check in on Monday!

(Sorry... I can't seem to get "Beach Towels" to load... check it out on my website! It's under "Bracelets" in the "Jewelry Shop").

The 20 minute bangle

How do you like my latest bracelet? This is "Waterfall". It is one of the bracelets in the new books I told you about yesterday. I used different stones of course. These are the amazonite stones left from when I went to Virginia. When the bracelet is flat (not wound into the oval shape) the swirls at the bottom remind me of the mist that raises from the base of a waterfall. I made this right before baseball last night. It really only took about 20 minutes. Then I tossed it in the tumbler for 3 hours and it was rigid and shinny... you should see it on a wrist! I need to take pics of this and yesterdays necklace actually on.... they look so different.

I made beads all day on tuesday and here it is friday and I feel like I haven't made beads in weeks. I have lots of ideas... lots! But I really need to get the order for Oregon finished. Once it is done (hopefully by the end of this weekend) I can focus on getting you all a fresh bunch of bead box beads. I am sure you all have your hands full with the goodies from Mother's Day but isn't there a saying somewhere that you can never have too many beads?

Something different I did today... I made myself a little "kabs bag". I will get a pic for you to check out. It is a little purse/tote. I am going to embellish it with some lampwork and it is just the right size for my wallet, some sunglasses, a few beads and a bottle of water. I have lots of different brightly colored fabrics like the one I used on my bag so if you want one... you'll have to let me know... but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

Book Clud gets trumped by Golf Tournament

Yes, yes.... I am in a better mood now. The house got cleaned yesterday AND I finished a new necklace so I am in much better spirits. I don't think the name "surfacing" fits the new necklace, it turned out nothing like I was planning. I still like it just the same but I am saving the name for the other design in my head. This one I think I will call "...." I can't think of anything at this very moment but I will let you know when I come up with something. Aren't the disks fun! And I stayed with the "Beach" color scheme. All the pieces going to Oregon are going to be in the same color pallet so they all coordinate in the lighted case they'll be in. Lots of blues and greens. I would love to hear your thoughts on the new necklace... send me notes :)

Today was a nice day... Lauren and I went to visit my friend Lindsay and her daughter Laurelle. Lots of "L"s... we had a nice visit at her house (Lauren had to go to time out twice for pushing Laurelle). We had planned to go to the playground or Highland Park to see the lilacs but that got rained out. So we just visited for a while and then went to Barnes and Noble for a some book shopping. Lindsey and I gravitate to the same area of the store... crafts. Knitting and Jewelry books just happen to be right next to each other. She loves to knit. She made me some fingerless gloves for when I make beads in the winter and she made Lauren a crown out of knitted crate paper. I just can't get the knack of knitting. Anyway... I got two new wire books, I have lots of ideas from the projects! I got Bead & Wire Art Jewelry by J.Marsha Michler and WOnderful Wire Works by Mickey Baskett. I am especially excited about the second one because it isn't "just jewelry" there are lots of different wire art projects like candleholders and frames. But nice ones... not "crafty" ones.

I am anxiously waiting to hear with there is going to be a baseball game tonight for the boys... it has been raining pretty hard on and off today so who knows. Tonight is my Book Club meeting. We are getting to gether to talk about "This Life She's Choosen" (which I didn't care for). I am so excited to go. But Ron recieved a phone call yesterday inviting him to golf in a tournament today with lunch dinner and prizes at a private club for FREE so I had to let him go. Hopefully he gets home in time for me to arrive fashionably late... we'll see. I hear the bus pulling up now, boys are home... I will check in with some beading new tomorrow!

Good Morning from the land of Toshiba...

First of all... HAPPY BIRTHDAY RONNIE! Today is my husband's 36th b-day. I was teasing him this morning that he is close to 40 and before he knows it he will be 60 with an even bigger bald spot! But he'lll alsways have a young wife so it all levels out, LOL! If you want to send him happy birthday wishes, and promise not to add him to address book to send him spam, send me an email... I will give you his work email and you can send him hellos.

Now to the good stuff... gu ess what I am doing right now... writing this blog on my new laptop. Yeah baby! Well, it's not new new, but it is new to me. Turns out it was a good thing Ron talked to that guy in the office next to him at work. He did want to get rid of his laptop... it has everthing I need and then some, encluding a newer version of Adobe Photoshop! I was even able to fix my website in about 15 minutes instead of the hours I thought it was going to take on the boys slow monster computer. What is nice too is that I am standign in my kitchen at the moment while the boys are eating their breakfast... no up and down the stairs a million times to access the "family" computer. I am in heaven! Just afew days of hell before getting here... but I seem to have survived.

Yesterday was a great and very productive bead making day. Lauren was sent to my Mom's for the day and I torched torched torched. I finished all my current orders and I worked on the beads for my new "Surfacing" necklace too. The new necklace reminds me of the rippling circles in the surface of water when something breaks through or drops into it. I made about 15 beads for it yesterday and need to make about 20 more. I am still working out the kinks in the design, but I really think it is going to be a beauty! I may share a few work in progress photos if I get a chance to snap a few.

I don't know why but even though yesterday was such a great beading day... I was in a foul mood. Miserable, mean, rotten, don't-talk-to-me-I'll-snap-your-head-off mood. I even stared a nasty ranting blog update then thought better of it and deleted it. I think I am in a better mood today but hey, it could go down hill at any moment so I am going to try my best to be nice and clean the house from top to bottom. See I think that was what created my bad mood. I was getting overwhelmed with kids, beads, the house and computer. But today half those things are resolved and hopefully by the end of the day the rest will be taken care of too.

Alrighty... my coffee is getting cold, I need to get a load of laundry going and Luren's room cleaned for the speech therapist to come... I will check back when I have a photo of the new necklace to share. (aka tmorrow)

Free Beads 5/15

Hey gang... send Cindy W. congrats on winning this weeks free beads! I have told everyone who's won that they are welcome to keep voting and they can win again... hey... it's all up to Lauren who's name gets drawn. If your a nice enough to keep voting and lucky enough to be drawn again WOO HOO! Anyway... the latest free beads have been posted. All "leftover" purples... I think you'll like 'em.

Lauren will be spending the day with my Mom tomorrow and the day will be devoted to bead making. I have a couple of orders to work on and I am still putting together that big retail order for Distant Shores. I have some great sketches in my idea book... something "stellar"... something "disky"... something "hollow"... you'll have to stay turned for the results!

Lauren and I spent this afternoon out in my garden planting some new goodies. We added two kinds of daisies (shasta and goldstrum), deep purple rose bush, some bulbs and a lovely primrose. I will take photos for you all as everything starts to bloom. Oh, and we put in lots of morning glories. Lauren started the seedlings with her Great Aunt Katie, and they are finally big enough to be planted... she is so proud!

Things suddenly got very quiet around here... kids must be up to something. I better run! I;ll check in with ya tomorrow.

A Mother's Day Bouquet

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY LADIES!

Just a quick update before I head off to watch the Survivor Season finally... I have good news and bad news. First the good news... you all seemed to LOVE the beads! I am so glad you did. There are only 2 sets left. Now for the bad news. Updating the website off the old hard drive via the 'G' drive totally messed up all the page links in my website! I was able to fix the Bead Box link and the Free Beads link but everything else is going to have to wait until tomorrow. It will probably take a few hours to do it. I have to reboot each and every page. Between the Glass Gallery and the Jewelry pages thats going to be more then 50 pages being redownloaded. It will take some time. I will let you know how it goes.

HAVE A GREAT NIGHT!!!!!

___________________

Is everyone getting pampered and spoiled today? I hope so! I am, a little... with nudges and reminders. For example - "Hey honey, you wanna go start my coffee for me?" and "Were you thinking you wanted to make the bed today?" LOL! My husband tries but needs help. We went out to breakfast this morning with my Mother-in- law. The kids had fun, they can be a handful in a resturant though. They are all at curious ages. Jacob wanted to read the menu and order for himself. Andrew was playing with the little jellies the whole time and Lauren was crawling under the table. But a nice breakfast just the same.

We went a did a little computer "browsing" after breakfast. I think you have figured out by now that my husband can be a bit of a Scrooge with money and extremely anal about big purchases. He wants to "research" everything. He loves websites like eopinions.com where you can find out customer reviews on everything. Plus he wants to ask all his work buddies about what features to look for and that kinda thing. He thinks the guy in the office next to his has a laptop he doesn't use anymore and may buy that... so here I am stuck on the kids computer. The slowest computer ever invented. Ron did figure out a way to get portions of our old hard drive on to the G drive of this thing. So I can open things like Photoshop but not Excell. I am downloading Yahoo!Sitebuilder right now. I can see my website but can't open it because the software isn't there.

Which brings me to my next bit of info... BEADS! I have a bevy of beady beauties for you all today. NINE sets in all. And each named for a different purple flower. I have Impatience, Petunias, Phlox, Wisteria, Lilas and more! As soon as I have the software downloaded I will update my site with all these purple and green goodies... I am thinking about 2 hours should be enough time. I will send out an email to let you know when they are ready. Hopefully while all your husbands are cooking you dinner you can grab yourself a glass of wine and shop for some beads :)

I had such a good time making these beads last night. I went out to my torch around 7:30 and suddenly is was 11:15pm! I realized how late it was because I started to forget what beads I had made already, lol! I was thinking "Did I make one like that already? I can't remember." That's when I knew it was time to go in. Purple and green is one of my all time favorite color combinations! And on Thursday I got an order of glass in that had a new violet color from Moretti. It is one of their handpulled colors. It is a little more expensive per rod but I think well worth it. The tradional "purple" can tend to reduce and go a little metallic sometimes. And it can get a brown hue. There was none of that with this new color. Any beads that you see in the sets looking black are actually dark transparent ink. Hold them up to the light and they are a rich lush purply blue. I think I will stick with this color another week or so. Maybe do some purple and brown or some purple and blues. We will see!

Hope everyone enjoys their day!

here is the latest...

Last night while having fun with my class... Ron tried to reboot the computer and all hell broke loose! Our hard drive completely crashed, totally unrecognizeable... no saving the sucker. So here is the thing... for the moment I am using the kids computer that really isn't good for more then playing video games. I am using it with an older version of my dial up software. Basically... I have to get a new computer tomorrow. No ifs ands or buts about it. So you know... I can see all your emails (Susan I am working on your order Niki yours is ready and Jessi yours too) but I can't send any emails. Every other screen is a red x this page is not available screen. Anyone realize what else that means.... I don't have my website software anymore. I am hoping when we get the computer home tomorrow I will be able to download it... get the website reloaded and then I can add all the beads to my BeadBox for you. I am thinking it won't be until late afternoon or evening.

My Mom and Dad came by for a Mothers Day dinner tonight... and the each made a bead! I am so proud of them. I will show you photos when I get photoshop installed again and all that... yikes this is going to be worse then I thought. Oh well, I know you all understand. Hang in there with me. We will get it all figured out.

One fun note... my Mom got a peak at the bad bead jar scarifices and she pulled them out. She says they aren't bad and she strung them up for you guys. So watch for "Mom's Misfits" tomorrow :)

No Beads Today

I just finished cleaning all the beads from yesterday and there are a lot of great ones and a LOT that will be going to the bad bead jar. With some of them I found myself thinking "why did I do that?" I decided since there are only 3 sets, I will wait and post them on Sunday. That way I will have more time on Saturday to complete these sets and get a few more done too. You all can show your husbands' your favorite sets and say "Ppppppllllleeeaaaaasssssseeee!" If you are not a Mom... you can still get yourself an "un-mother's day" treat! I got one for my sister, lol.

Today is going to be a crazy day of running around! Lauren's speech therapist will be here in a few minutes then off to Lauren's playgroup. I need to make a "Berry Wine" bracelet for the "class examples case" at Studio 34... plus I have to sort and pack up all the tools my student bought. Somewhere in there I need to get the house cleaned and some laundry folded. *Sigh* see why we get a Mother's Day!

Nearly total system failure

I thought while I have a good connection, I would come and give you an evening update. I got LOTS of beads made today! I don't know how many sets they are going to turn into... that will have to wait until morning when the kiln is ready. I finished a couple of orders, worked on some "Berry Wine" beads for my class in 2 weeks and made lilac inspired sets.

For now the computer is working so-so. We are still going computer shopping this weekend. The thing is definately on its way out. So we are taking preemptive action. We are getting a new one while this is halfworking so we don't lose everything. I backed up all our family photos and files. All the jewelry business spread sheets and photos too. Hopefully it will be a smooth transition. Only one thing... if you voted yesterday and today... don't worry... I GOT YOUR VOTES, but I am not sending my usual response to you. Starting tomorrow I will send the note when I get it butt with out the computer there were just too many to respond to each one. Thanks for understanding!

The boys had a great baseball game tonight. Unfortuately about an hour in it started to pour! Coach didn't stop though, no we played/watched in the pouring rain. I was soaked when I got home. But Ron had started a batch of chicken chili before we left so we had a nice warm meal to come home to. It was so yummy!

OH.... as I was writing this... I just won some beads on EBAY!!! EEKKKKKK!!!! I am so excited. You know www.theroyalbead.com I was telling you about? I just won a set of her handpainted ceramic beads. AREN"T THEY PRETTY!?! I wonder what I will make with them? Hmmmm. I am thinking they will need some matching lampwork!

See ya for the afternoon BeadBox update!
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This update is going to be short... I don't know how much longer my computer is goign to last... yesterday, out of the blue, the keyboard stopped responding, then suddenly the mouse. It took me 3 hours to get the mouse and keyboard to come back then the modum failed. Ron worked on things for a while last night and got the computer to connect once before dying again. He just got it to connect again this morning but... the thing is definately dying! I will be trying to back up files today after making beads.

OH YEAH! I am going to be making beads today, but I have to go to the city and get me fuel tank refilled. I will probably do a late afternoon beadbox update while at me Mom's tomorrow. I downloaded all my site software to her computer so I can do updates from there as well. I have all your orders written down... I can see your emails... I just can't respond at the moment, so hang in there. Ron isn't one of those "take it to the repair place" kinda guys so we will be computer shopping this weekend!

I will check in again soon!

8 years already!

Today is our 8 yr wedding anniversary! I can hardly believe it has been that long already. It seems like only yesterday and then again ages ago. Have I ever told you all how Ron and I met? It was in 1994... we were both working at Webster Golf Club at the time. I was the snack bar girl and he was the proshop guy. I actually had a big old crush on the other proshop guy, John. But John was dating some girl that was having an affair with a married man... not gonna go there. We had worked together for a couple of months. John had asked Ron if he had seen the "New Girl" yet. John said "She looks like Olivoil but she's got a nice a$$" LOL! I did... I had hair half way down my back that I always wore in a bun and I was skinny as a rail (prior to having 3 kids). John convinced Ron to ask my to the local Fireman's Carnival... I had a miserable time. He was so boring, he didn't want to ride the rides. But for some reason we just kept doing things together. I would tag along and caddy for him when he golfed. We would watch movies, go to the lake... all kinda things. It was the first serious relationship I was ever in. And you are gonna think this is bad... but at the time I was 16 and he was 24! EEEEKKKK! Now 12 years and 3 beautiful children later it doesn't matter. You can hardle tell there is an age gap. My parents were the same way. They got married when my Mom was 17 and my Dad was 23. In July they celebrate 30 years together! What a great example for us :) Oh and the photo is one from a couple of summers ago when we went to a wedding. It was right after I had Lauren and Ron insists my cheeks aren't that chubby anymore, LOL! And my hair is nothing like that now but Ron looks the same, LOL! Makes me think we should get dressed up and take a better couple photo.

Alright on to bead things... nothing new to report! I did NO BEADING yesterday! We have had laundry issues and that had to be dealt with. The washer broke last week and the replacement came yesterday. Lauren also has another cold and she spent the day runing around saying... "I got buders", she can't say boogers. LOL!

I drew the winner of the free beads yesterday... CHRISSIE CONGRATS! I posted new beads, the photo is terrible but the beads are beautiful! Check them out and don't forget to vote!

Monday Morning

What an eventful weekend for my Andrew. See what he is missing?His two front teeth. He lost the first one last night and the second one this morning while waiting for the bus. He is so excited. They have been wiggling for ages but he wouldn't let me pull on them. Yesterday he used his Nerf Blaster to blast himself in the mouth and made them really wiggly! LOL! I don't know why blasting yourself with a Nerf Blaster hurts less then Mom wiggling but hey... that's what he said. It wasn't until a few hours after the blasting that the first actually fell out. The tooth fairy will be making be popping in tonight to make her second appearance in two days. She is collecting teeth for new babies that haven't grown theirs yet, did you know that? The tooth fairy recycles!

Anyway... I decided to take the weekend off from the internet. So as off about Noon on Saturday, I stopped turning the computer on and just relaxed. I did make beads though. I am all caught up on orders and everything is getting mailed out this afternoon. If you have been holding off and sending me an order because you think I am too busy... I am free now. I am just working on my jewelry collection to send out to "From Distant Shores" and making things for the Summer art shows. I ended up running out of gas while making beads yesterday so I was on the phone first thing this morning to the welding supplier for a refill. I had to run to the hardware store around the corner and pick up a small 1lb tank to hold me over until Wednesday. I can blow through 1lb in about an hour and a half... so I won't have any new beads for the bead box until at least Friday again. Rochester's "Lilac Festival" is starting next week so I am thinking lots of purple! Don't you love lilacs? They are my favorite smelling flower/bush.

So... that is that... I am just hanging out, thinking of new things to make... avoiding the terrible dier laundry situation and waiting for fuel for the torch. I will let you know when something exciting happens.

Settle down now class!

What fun we had last night! I ended up having 4 women in my class, Judy, Karen, Sue and Michelle. All were great, and said they learned a lot. We completely scrapped the "lesson plan" and just kinda went with the flow. I started out telling them about tools and what were for doing this and what were for doing that. Then I showed them the "supposed to" way of making loops and then "my" way of doing loops. They all agreed that my way is way easier! I bought them bulk glass beads at Michael's... the perfect beads for playing with. They are so junky it doesn't matter if you waste copper wire on them and then toss them out later. I taught loops, wire wraped loops, how to make a quick headpin, links and how to make a simple swirl clasp. We did everything in copper. At the end of the session... I told them for next week I was planning on doing this again but next time we will do it in sterling and with "good" beads. Then I said "OR I can teach you how to make caged beads, a couple of link shapes, coiling and maybe a few ear findings..." they all said, "yeah, we wanna do that!" So should be fun next week too. I think we are going to be doing this intro class once a month now. AS I was teaching there was also a intro to lampwork going on and those students were wanting to sign up for my class to. So there is definately a lot of interest. And I really did love getting to share with them what I know. Did I ever tell you when I was in High School picking colleges I was either going to be an Architech or an English teacher? Well then I got a scholarship for Graphic Design and went with that but I do really love to teach!

I am sooo glad you all liked the Bead Box Beads! I have made myself a note to NEVER fill the bead box and go get a teeth cleaning again. You all went nuts... one set sold 3 times, and two others sold twice! I will be making all the "extra" sets later today. It should be no problem at all, I already have all the colors sitting right on my desk. There are 3 of the 7 sets left. I will try and get a better photo of "Beach Towels" because those are really my favorite out of all of them. Apart from the orders, I have another new idea inspired by a bracelet I saw in the new issue of Bead & Button Magazine. Of course... you'll see the results here first!

Today's flower is another from my garden from a summer gone by. This was a sunflower Jacob grew for me in his kindergarten class and brought home for Mother's day. We put the little guy in the garden and it grew HUGE! Hope it brightens your day!

Bead Box Busting With Beads!

JUST A QUICK UPDATE!!!!!!

I am at my Mom's unable to update my site... "Beach Glass", "Big Umbrellas", "Racey Reading Material" have sold! I am trying to download my editing software to my Mom's pc... hopefully I can make it so I can update from here as well as home.

My teeth are very healthy no cavities! Check ya later :)

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I made beads till I was blue in the face last night! The Bead Box is loaded with 7 sets for you all to choose from. I LOVE these colors! I think next weeks beads are going to have to be viberant reds and oranges... the results of our "Day At The Beach", a sunburn, lol. I sent out a group email letting everyone know about the beads, then went to my BeadBox page and half the photos had nasty red x's... I fixed it and everything is now as it should be. Let me know if there are any photos still misbehaving. There is a set of "Beach Towels" that are really cool retro stripes inspired by "The Royal Bead's" stripes. I sent Lori an email about them a few weeks ago and asked her for tips on how to do them... I hope I did them justice. Go check out her work, it's gorgeous and she is on a hot head torch like me too. She also does handpainted ceramic beads too, some of which you'll be seeing me bidding on! The stripes were actually very time consuming and kinda difficult. If no one buys them up this weekend, I will be raiding the bead box myself to make something with them.

I am being a bad Mom today... and Lauren and I are skipping her playgroup this morning. I just have too much to get done today. Plus I have to go to the dentist for a clean too, lol. Talk about over scheduled! I will let you know first thing tomorrow how my class went. And to those of you that said "YES!" to having me make up some project kits... I am on it. I will probably have them up end of next week or early the week after. I will put them in the Bead Box. I will start with "Berry Wine"kits and see what happens from there.

Alright... I need to get a shower before Seasame Street ends... be back soon...

What was I thinking?

I guess thinking positively really works... Tuesday when I was going wild making beads all day, I made a bunch of these "spree" shapes in solid colors. Very simple beads yes, but together the colors all just poped. As I made the beads, this circlar link came into my head. Yesterday, after all the beads were clean, I started to play a little bit with the link design. And hour later the necklace was done! I LOVE THIS! It is rust the right length to sit flat around your collar bone and look like it is floating. I can't think of a name for it though. The beads remind me of beachglass so I was thinking maybe, "Seaglass Creation" but that sounds so blah! Send me your suggestions! AND here is where my post title comes in... on a whim I decided to send the photo to Step By Step Wire magazine. I thought, maybe Denise, the editor, would like it for the Spring 2007 issue. In less then 30 mins, I had a response that YES she wants it and can you have the tutorial written and to her by mid-June for the Fall 06 issue. Now the "Berry Wine" tutorial ended up taking me 5 months to get done. (I couldn't get my husband to take the dang pictures.) Now all a sudden I am going to do this one in 3 weeks? As if I didn't have enough to do, LOL! But I think if I just spend one whole day on it from start to finish I will get it done. A beading frined sent me an email asking if I had any kits left over after teaching my class on the "Berry Wine" bracelet this month, could she buy one. I was going to wait and offer Berry Wine beads once the magaizine came out but if anyone else wants it earlier, send me an email... I will let you know kit costs and all the details.

Today is going to be spent doing a bit of running around. I need to go to JoAnn Fabrics and get tissue papers... they have this great bulk set that has about 4 sheets of 3 dozen different colors. I love using all the different colors to wrap my beads and jewelry. Also want to pop into Micheals and pick up a "bulk glass bead soup" for my students to play with tomorrow. I swore I would never buy that junk but I think it is the best for practicing with copper wire. I am also heading over to Heidi's for a visit and to work the kinks out for the Open House June 3rd. Then... the boys will be at baseball so this evening is devoted to BeadBox bead making... I will be working with these greens and blues like the new necklace and maybe I can squeeze out a few more purples too.

Catch ya tomorrow~

Prep Time

As promised... here are a few photos of what I have been working on. The bracelet I am calling "Classic Rock". I ended up raiding my own BeadBox to make this... see I told you the "Call Me Classic" beads would make something cool, lol! Have you all noticed me trying to have a more positive attitude about what I make? It totally "isn't me" to be so confindent, but I thought if I practice progecting a more confident attitude my confidence in my work would grow. So hopefully you aren't thinking "man she is getting cocky" and instead thinking "yeah that is cool!" It is terrible to say but it doesn't matter how many times people email and tell me "your work is beautiful" I still look and think "but see that tiny little dot right there in that one bead...." It is my perfectionist tendencies underminding my artistic security... but don't worry... I am dealing with it, lol!

The other photo is of one of my most recent knobs. I am still diligently working on getting my client's 34 knobs made. Her kitchen is really going to be gorgeous! As soon as she sends me photos I will share them with you. Currently we have 18 of the 34 knobs done. I try to make at least 1-2 a week. Each one is so unique.

Yesterday I ended up getting lots done. I made more then 50 beads, which for me is a lot! It was enoung for a project I have been contemplating for a while and also some beads for my Oregon order and a custom order. Plus I think there may be a few left over for the Bead Box too. All cool crisp aquatic colors. I think you will approve. One the home front... Bitty Kitty has been being very bad the past couple of days but we are working on that. Lauren loved her day with Grandma and can't wait to go again. The boys both did great a baseball practice. Jacob is a real slugger and Andrew is really fast around the bases. Ron is working on his class project that is due on Tuesday, then he'll study for is his final and be done till Fall. Only problem with that is if he isn't in class it means he will probably be on the golf course! But I will try to limit him to once a week, lol!

I will be spending the majority of today preping for Friday's Wire Class at Studio 34. I am writing up a little "How To" packet and putting together the project kits. So... gotta run! Lots to do! I am planning on having beads in the BeadBox on Friday so come check them out then!

Breaking for lunch...

I have been trying to update this miserable blog for 3 days now! How frustrating! It seems blogger, the company supporting this site, has been doing system updates on and off for several days now. When they update, I can't post anything. But hopefully the updating is done and I can get back to my usual sorta daily reports.

I had to sit down and create a "To-Do List". At the moment it is currently a page and a half long. But everything has been prioritized and I am already checking things off. I actually hired my Mom to start taking care of Lauren for me one day a week because of my sudden increase in work. Don't get me wrong... I am not complaining one bit! I am one of those woman that thrives under pressure. I am feeling a lot of it at the moment so I think you are going to get a peak and some pretty cool things soon. I have been torching for about the past two hours. I am working on an idea that I just couldn't get out of my head. I think the results are gonna be very unique. I am taking a quick break to eat some lunch, check email and then it is back to business. If you are waiting for an email from me... I will be answering them all this evening... today's child free time is for work work work!

I am hoping to have a fresh set of bead box beads by Friday. So be sure to stay tuned for that! I will check in tomorrow, first thing, with photos of what I am been up to these past 3-4 days.

Free Knob 05/01

WAHOOO CONGRATS goes out to Lori O... this weeks freebie winner. As always, thank you so much for your voting support. Thanks to all of you my ranking has gone up and my work load has increased too. I have a sort of Christmas in May set of beads for you this week. I hope you like 'em and keep voting for me.

I hate to post and run but the kiln is on and beads need to be made! I have loads to share with you so I will come back with a bigger better update in the morning!