Post Christmas Recovery

The tree was taken down this afternoon, along with all the other decorations hung up inside our home.  Our family room has been restored to its normal state and that feels good.  We had a fabulous Christmas which passed by in a flash.  This project was the only one involving yarn that was finished in time.  The rest will be a bit late.

The boy child proclaimed this as THE best Christmas ever.  With the exception of not having all the grandparents in our home for this weekend, I will agree with him.

And the girl child continues to wonder about Santa bringing her a bicycle after how naughty she's been.  We talked about the fact that he likely took into consideration her behavior for the whole year and not just the week leading up to Christmas.  When there may or may not have been discussions of coal, stockings and naughty lists.

This was the first Christmas in over a decade where I didn't have a blackberry to check.  Can I tell you that in itself was wonderful?  Because it was.  It was fabulous being able to soak up time and crafts and more time with my kids and not feel pulled by work, even in the off hours.

My honeys is on vacation for the rest of the year and I am excited to be spending every day with him and our kids.  I'm not sure if there will be time spent on the torch before the new year.  But if there is, you all will be the first to know!

Finding My Balance

Why am I so scattered lately?  I finished my Christmas shopping before Halloween, yet I am still rushing to get so many things done.  I feel like I'm getting next to no time with my camera or my torch.  How did I get everything done when I worked full time?  We got our Christmas tree up last week and decorations inside the house set out.  It's looking like the outside of our home may not get decorated this year.  Thankfully we have a gorgeous home across the street to gaze upon from our dining room and bedroom windows.  :)

This post really makes me smile.  I love hearing/seeing when goals are reached and dreams become reality.

Love LOVE LOVE this post and encouraging people to grow from failures.  But then, I just love encouraging people.  I think we are all capable of more than we know and having our own cheerleader helps us get closer to our goals.

This has been my week for catch up on so many fronts.  Laundry.  Cleaning out cabinets.  Family blog posts and photo/file organization.  Photography orders.  Family calendars designed & ordered (the one year I didn't do it, I was threatened within an inch of my life by multiple grandparents.  note-to-self, do NOT make the grandparents angry by failing to deliver calendars.  ever again.).  My mind is clearing as many things are crossed off my mental To Do list. 

The kids will be out of school for the next two weeks and I can't wait to spend every minute with them!  We will be taking a little roadtrip with friends to a nearby canyon in Northwest Georgia.  Baking cookies.  Christmas crafts.  Playing outside (bless the South and temps in the 50s and 60s and sometimes the 70s in the month of December!) on bikes, rollerblades, scooters and tossing around footballs, baseballs and hitting a tennis ball back and forth.  Family is flying and driving in.  Another roadtrip up the coast to visit my best friend in North Carolina may work out (fingers crossed).  We will be painting a couple of chairs and making cushions for them so the kids have their own special desk chairs.  These next few weeks are going to fly by.  I just know it.

Those beads above will all be going into the shop at 2pm EST this afternoon.

All Things Round

My mind has been a bit scattered this week.  I have been thinking about all things round.

What goes around, comes around.  Incidentally, a suspect was arrested earlier this week in the murder of that little girl last week.  Hoping they caught the right person and that justice will be served.

My laundry has been spinning round and round.  I caught up this week with close to a dozen loads.  That was fun.

I've been making discs.  And beads akin to discs.

And beads akin to flying saucers.  And doughnuts.  And roundish triangular disc-like flying saucers.

I have also been singing "The Wheels On The Bus".  Because, you know, they go round and round.

It's a sickness.  More so than any leaking gas in my studio.

TGIF to everyone.  I hope you have a fabulous weekend!  Mine is off to a fabulous start after having had a delicious lunch with Lori Plyler of Studio Waterstone.  Always such a treat visiting with her!

My shop will be re-opening next Thursday afternoon with all the beads above and more!  I still have another 50+ to clean out that are sitting in my sink.  And I'll be back on the torch at the beginning of next week.  happy dance :)

Random Tuesday

So after weeks of NOT being on the torch, this morning I am.  And working with my windows open in my studio.  I love winters in the South and that there are so few weeks spent in the 30s or below.  And that there are days in December where we are graced with temps in the 60s or above.  I'll stop gloating now.

After weeks of being away from torch (even though I carry my lighter in my pocket to feel closer to my flame, because I'm a dork like that), I am enjoying being back on it today.  I'm making discs.  And flying saucers.  And other non-traditional shapes, just because they are fun.

My eyes don't normally look like bug eyes.  But my hair is long enough to pull through the back of a ball cap, which is cool.  My hair hasn't been this long in a few years.

This past weekend, a little girl in the next town up went missing.  Highways were shut down.  Her body was found yesterday.  I won't share details, other than my stomach hasn't stopped churning.  And that I continue to shed tears for this family I don't know.  I am hugging my kids tighter and longer.

This morning, we kissed and hugged my in-laws goodbye before they started their trek back to Minnesota.  There were tears as we drove away to take the kids to school and not just from the back seat.  They stayed almost three weeks and couldn't convince them to stay longer.  It was three weeks of awesomeness.  I just LOVE having them here.

We will get our Christmas decorations up this week.  After I clean up the downstairs.  The kids were thrilled Todd pulled out one of the boxes last night to retrieve their advent calendars.

If you follow my facebook page, then you already know I gave away all of my bead inventory.  That's right.  All.  Of.  It.  I had originally thought after deactivating everything in the shop after my little Cyber Monday sale that some sets would make reappearances in a few months with new photos.  And that I would break up some matching sets and create new mixed sets.  But now that possibility is long gone.  Clean slate delivered in a jiffy.  So now I have a BIG fire under my feet to make more and quickly.  My goal is to be on the torch every day this week and next.  After that, the kids are on Christmas break and torch time will come to a halt as we break out the craft projects, hot chocolate and daytrips to see friends and family.

I'm ready for the UPS man to drive down my street.  He's not arriving quickly enough today for my liking.  He has an important package with a wedding album I designed and I don't want to wait anymore to hold it in my hands!

If there is something you want to see in the shop, leave a comment and help me plan my time at the torch for new items.  I'm not a fan of senseless obligations, so there won't be any strings attached for you to buy it just because I take up your suggestion.  :)

I believe all of my beads from the Cyber Monday sale have been delivered now, with the exception of one worry stone that took a trip across the pond to Great Britain.  She may be waiting a few more days.  I've heard from a few folks with squeals, so that's neat.

Happy Tuesday!  I'll be back soon with pics of what comes out of the kiln tonight!

One More Hour and My Shop Will Be Empty!

Last chance!  My shop will be emptied of all items in one hour when my Cyber Monday sale ends.

Just use CYBERMONDAY50OFF in the coupon field upon checkout to get your goodies for half price.

The Sale Goes On

Until I get back on the torch.  It didn't happen today as it took more than HALF the day for me to package up all the beads everyone scooped up yesterday in my Cyber Monday sale.  But I got them all carefully wrapped and handed off to our postal service this afternoon.  Not sure if I will get back on the torch tomorrow as I still (it didn't happen today and the priority dropped when I found there was enough leftover spaghetti to heat up for dinner tonight and get us through to tomorrow) need to go grocery shopping.  And I really need to get through piles of paperwork on my desk so everything is filed away neatly 1) to make sure all bills are paid and 2) a set of missing beads isn't buried beneath all the paperwork.

Since all of the remaining beads will be disappearing from the shop once this sale ends (I'm really ready for a clean slate!), I thought I would share my favorites that are still waiting for their new home.

Teal & Amber tablets

Etched Holly & Ivy

Purple On Honey

Mint Julep

Mustard Yellow Speckles

Ocean & Kelp

Bumpy Sunset button

Oasis Spiral focal

Yellow & Purple nuggets

Creamsicle button

Take 50% off on everything in my beads shop by using this coupon code:  CYBERMONDAY50OFF

Cyber Monday Sale!

I hope everyone stateside had a FABULOUS Thanksgiving with your friends and family members.  This is my most favorite holiday of the year.  I LOVE cooking BIG meals and having a table FILLED with people I love.  We were fortunate enough to come to Florida again this year and enjoy warmer temps.  Like short-sleeve shirt temps (at least for me)!  The kids and my honeys and my favorite father-in-law were all in shorts.  And now I'm in such a good mood after doing things like this:

that I thought I should share the love and host a serious sale for you all.  And it would be serious if it was anything less than 50% off EVERYTHING, would it?  See?  I told you this was serious.

So what do you need to do to take advantage?  Shop to your hearts content in my beads shop and then plug in the coupon code at checkout.  Etsy is kind enough to do the math and recalculate the total purchase price for you to half off the whole order.  If that total purchase price is $40 or higher, I will still be refunding your shipping charges.  Woo hoo for you!

Don't feel guilty.  Just take the coupon code below and go clear out my shop for me!  Make some room for new beads and headpins cause I'm ready to jump back on the torch this week!!!

CYBERMONDAY50OFF

Taking Stock

Wow, has it REALLY been three weeks since I last blogged here?  So much for that daily blogging and torching plan, right?  Because I haven't been on the torch, either.  Sigh.  

I think by now, we know that when I disappear from the blogosphere it is because I am learning to juggle new things in my life.  And we also probably know from my past history that this learning curve takes me time to figure out where everything fits and how to keep the various balls up in the air while others get dropped temporarily.

Mustard Speckles

It has been two months since I left that corporate world for my family.  I can't believe two months has flown so quickly, but it has.  And it has been absolutely wonderful!  One of my fears before finalizing that decision to leave the phone company was "Will I like this new life of essentially being a stay-at-home-mom?  Will I enjoy the constant company of my kids?  Will I have more patience once the 24/7 pressure of that blackberry is gone or will the little things still stress me out?"  The answers have been yes, yes and yes.  So thankful that 1) I got what I wanted and prayed for and 2) truly do love what I thought I had wanted for so, sooo long.

Raku on Black

So what have I been juggling?  Not so much the kids activities and homework and going to the library (woo hoo!  we are ALL loving going to the library every week!!!), but I have spent hours upon hours working on my photography business.  Before I left the phone company, I spent money and gobs of it on products and tutorials and workshops like it was my crash course through college to get what I needed as quickly as possible and while there was still a bit of a disposable income.  Now that that income is gone, I have been spending time reading books, practicing and watching video tutorials to learn even more so I can be as proficient as possible at delivering the products and services I want to to my photography clients while keeping track of costs and all the red tape that is needed to run a successful photography business.  I am getting closer to getting all my balls back up in the air, but it may be a few more weeks before I get into full swing.  I am so excited about how everything is moving and where I am headed.

Etched Holly & Ivy

I am also excited that I got to photograph the primary model for Studio Waterstone and she even allowed me to photograph her face!  If you're interested in seeing those photos, you can click over here.  The model is just as lovely as her mother.  And even better, she wears the same shoe size as me, so I may be able to steal borrow those awesome boots on her feet!

My Dad came up this weekend and cooked me an early birthday dinner (barbecue baby back ribs, my favorite!).  It was a great day together and a very productive weekend all around.  Much cleaning was going on in preparation for my in-laws arrival tomorrow.  The girl child came running into my bedroom this morning before 6:45am yelling "Grandma and Papa are going to be here in ONE DAY!  Yaaaaaayyyyyyyy!!!!"   I'm on the same page as her and have been yelling the same each day as we have counted down over the past few weeks.  :)

I am now getting teased that I'm sooooo much closer to 40.  Which I find amusing, as the teasing is coming from those who are pushing 50.  I'm good with it.  Age is just a number and it's not something that grips me.  Most of the time, I have to stop and do the math when I'm asked my age (can you tell I don't think numbers are a good form of measurement?  I don't believe age or salary are good indicators for a person's character.  At all.).  This isn't a monumental birthday or an entrance into a new decade.  But it still makes me reflect on whether or not I'm where I want to be, as well as where I thought I would be.  I can tell you that five or ten years ago, I NEVER would have guessed this is where I would be in my life.  A stay-at-home-mom.  A photographer.  A self-employed business owner.  None of those.  I couldn't be any happier.  

But I also want to keep growing.  I want to be a better wife, making things easier for my husband with fewer household responsibilities so his free time can be spent enjoying our family.  A better mom, helping my kids grow into more independent, responsible, kind and thoughtful people.  A better photographer, as that really is where my passion resides right now over beads and playing with fire.  But also a better friend and daughter, taking the time to write (and send! so often they get written and then get lost on a kitchen counter waiting for a stamp) thank you notes or pick up the phone to catch up (even though I really loathe talking on the phone).  I want to make a difference in other people's lives, whether it is encouraging them to do and be more, inspiring them to chase their dreams or just to be kinder to themselves when a mark is missed.  Because ultimately, I would not be where I am now if it weren't for friends and family members who have planted the seed that my dreams WERE possible, they COULD become a reality and that PURSUING them would be so rewarding.  There encouragement and belief in me has meant so much to me.

So I leave you with one question.  

Who/what impacted you to make a change in your life that you are thankful for now?

Meet Ruby!

We have a new member in our household.  We brought Ruby home with us last week and have all been adjusting to each other quite well.

Ruby is the sweetest boxer and we are so glad we were able to rescue her.  Her previous owner moved to a location that didn't allow dogs.  Rather than surrender Ruby or find her a new home, Ruby was walked into the woods and crated before being covered up by a blanket throughout the summer.  She lost 12 pounds and got very sick as a result.  So now she is on the mend and regaining weight quickly.  

Ruby is two years old and does a good job of acting like it.  She doesn't realize that she weighs 58 pounds now and isn't the ideal candidate for being a lap dog.  She also doesn't realize that she looks pretty silly squeezing herself into the kids' car seats when we go for rides.  Ruby is very smart and learning quickly that lack of manners do not pay in this household, so she is pulling less on her leash when we go on walks, doing better at staying off the sofa and beds with fewer reminders to get down and sitting to say please before eating meals or getting attention.  Last night when she emptied the water bowl in the kitchen, she picked it up and brought it into the family room to let me know it was empty.  And she mastered the pet door to go out to the backyard in no time.

Little Horse is feeling out the position of alpha dog and has growled at her a few times, which has been interesting.  He was always the dutifully submissive hound when Maggie was with us.  I think these two dogs will become fast friends.  They attempted to play together this morning and that was funny.  They both looked awkward as they tried to jump and bounce and then backed off from each other.

I am taking Ruby into the vet in a little bit.  Her left eye is red and swollen and I'm not sure why.  Want to get that taken care of before we have two one-eyed girls in this family!

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!

Beads Coming Soon

How did a week go by without me blogging?  Somebody is stealing my time and it was not approved.  I have had very little time on the torch over the last week, so not much is going in today.  But here are the two sets of headpins and new sets of beads.

These will all be going into the shop in less than an hour.

Wednesday Beads

Here are the beads that came out of my kiln last night. 

How wonderful is that purple???  I am loving that glass.  It's a new one.  And I'm loving the swirly pink glass, too.  Another new one.  And that yellow?  Yep, that's new, too.  In rod form, it was a transparent dark amber.  But it turned opaque and reminds me of honeycomb.  Finally a yellow I can love!

I also made a few headpins, but don't have any pics as they aren't clean yet.  Seriously Kelley?  What do you do with your days?  Thbbbt.  Can't even clean a few headpins!

Random Wednesday

Today is being spent cleaning up the house, doing laundry and playing with fire.  Headpins will be going into the kiln, in addition to beads.

I just found out my in-laws have decided to come a little earlier than previously planned, which means they will be here in time for my birthday.  Over.  The.  Moon.  Happy to know the people who mean the most to me will all be at my dining room table for my birthday.

There are already a dozen beads in the kiln and all of my new shipping boxes have been stacked neatly on my shelves.  Most of my new glass has also been put away in my glass cabinet.  My supply of boxes had severely dwindled to just a handful, so I ordered a hundred new boxes last week in three different sizes.  I think that will help with holding smaller amounts of beads better and it is also spurring a change in shipping pricing (I'm eliminating the additional $0.50 riding each extra item.  I will still waive shipping fees for purchases $40 and up).

Faith is an easier concept for my children to grasp than death.  Thank you for all of the kind comments and emails you have sent my way regarding Maggie.  The house feels empty without her, especially at meal times when she would have been the first one lined up and waiting at her food bowl.  Or her nightly ritual of making two rounds around the downstairs before heading upstairs to her crate.  Her protective presence is greatly missed.

I am getting made fun of for my love of the papyrus font.  I'm waiting to hear suggestions on alternative fonts that I would like just as much, but so far those airwaves are silent.  I am still snickering at this website that was shared with me, though.

Jezzie is still just as much of a snuggler and company keeper.  She was on the arm of my chair while I was melting glass.  By the time I got my camera app opened, she was climbing the back of the chair and giving me a kiss on the nose when the shutter closed.  And this picture freaks me out because it flipped everything from right to left like my office/studio is laid out completely different than it is.

Today, I am replacing toilet seats.  Exciting stuff.  I also cleaned the half bath from ceiling to floor.  Walls and baseboards included.  Before I left the phone company, I hated cleaning.  But now I am embracing it and finding a strange sense of accomplishment in my days.  No, this is not your opportunity to invite me over to your house to clean.

I will be photographing a wedding in a little over a week and am very excited about this.  This weekend, I will be going back to the location just before sunset to better scope out perfect spots for the bride and groom.

I love these boots, but think it may be awhile before I can save up for them.

Due to not being on the torch at the end of last week or beginning of this, I have moved my shop update from tomorrow to next Thursday.  There are reminders of the date/time at the top of this blog and my shop that show the next update, too. 

My hair is growing out and is now past my shoulders.  I've got an itch to cut it, but don't know what I would do with it.  Plus my year from the last hair cut isn't up yet (cause I typically only get my hair cut once a year).  I'm just thankful that it's not giving me headaches.  Yet.  Cause I'm a wuss with my thin hair.

That is all.

Good Night Sweetheart, It's Time To Go

Today we said goodbye to our Maggie girl.  We rescued her when the boy child was barely six months old and he is now nine.  At the time, she was 2-3 years old and had boobs hanging down to the ground from the six puppies she birthed days after being pulled from the pound by the rescue.  She went through mastitis (I could relate painfully well, as I was dealing with that at the same time) after we brought her home.  She had seven BB's under her skin from being shot at by who knows what hateful person.

Maggie was a boxer bulldog, but was routinely mistaken for a pit bull with her brindle coloring and distrustful growl/bark, although she was good with the cats.  She assigned herself the post of guardian dog and took her job seriously.  When Owen was first learning to crawl, she repeatedly moved herself between him and the stairs so he could not go down them.  After Chloe was born, Mags routinely kept post in the hallway just between the two kids' rooms.  Rarely did a day go by where she didn't bark at someone walking by the house to make sure we knew who was around.  

Maggie had manners.  She was rarely a crotch sniffer.  She stayed out of the kitchen or dining room during our mealtimes.  She sat before she was allowed to eat her meals.  She was smart and knew hand commands to sit, stay and go (finger pointing OUT of the room).  She loved car rides and walks.  Maggie was also the stinkiest and noisiest hound I have ever known.  If she wasn't barking, she was farting (in her younger days, her gas would wake her up and she'd take off running like someone shot her in the butt, but slept through it in her later years).  And if she wasn't farting, she was snoring.  She has kept me company for a good nine years while I worked in my office every day with her sweet disposition and all of her noisiness.

Last night, she was unable to get up from her pillow and didn't make her nightly 7:30pm trek upstairs to the crate she so loved.  She was on the pillow, unmoved this morning.  A simple check by the vet found that there was a problem with her mid-spine.  X-rays confirmed that, but also showed a large mass on her spleen.  This last year has not been easy for her to get around.  Our stairs and hardwood floors have caused her to struggle and slow down.  And so this morning, we made the decision to have her put to sleep and we said goodbye through tears streaming down our cheeks as she laid in a patch of sunlight on a thick blanket.

Good night sweetheart, good night.

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!

Shop Update Today! (pssst. eggs are included!)

Here are pics of all the sets going in the shop in just under two hours!

And these sets of eggs are also going in the shop.  :)

This week has flown.  It feels like today should be Friday.  I made close to 250 beads in just three days.  I got close to 250 beads all cleaned in just three days!  The boy child finished a diorama of the Piedmont that is due tomorrow.  The girl child finished reading her first real chapter book after starting it last week.  Two of my photos got published in a Minneapolis magazine which you can read about here.  And I rid our bathroom of a nasty stink that was lingering for a few days after I found a dead snake underneath Todd's sock bin in our bathroom (thanks Jezzie).  All in all, a rather productive week!

I hope your week is going just as swimmingly!