Ghost of Christmas Past

I started a project back in July that I couldn't post because it was intended as a surprise for my sister-in-law. I was almost finished when my last beading needle broke. Everyone got sick before I could get more and get it finished, so I finally finished it and sent it out as a Christmas gift.

I apologize in advance because it's a crappy photo taken with my camera as I was rushing to get it mailed out to be delivered on time.

Bat bead embroidery done on Lacy's Stiff Stuff and backed in ultrasuede. Mostly size 11 seed beads. The two necklaces are inter-changeable  - the orange and yellow is twisted tubular herringbone stitch and the blue is chenille stitch. The bat measures about 5 inches from wing tip to wing tip, I think (I mailed it before I could measure it). The cabochons are from Cobra Graphics; the two small ones are bats and the big center one is a grim reaper. 

For the record, she was thrilled and said it was the coolest thing she owns. So worth the wait if you ask me. 

Overwhelmed

I haven't made a post here in four months and it's never even occurred to me that I needed to do so. Things in our house have been utter chaos the last few months. I will give an abbreviated update with the hope that things will settle down soon and I'll be able to post a little more often.

Three weeks into the school year, Youngest Daughter got sick and developed pneumonia. It eventually spread to Oldest Daughter and myself, while Husband and Son didn't seem to get quite as bad. Right as everyone was getting over being sick, Grandmother developed an infection in her toe. The infection spread to the blood and eventually to her blood. She developed a massive staph infection following this and was admitted to the hospital. Her toe was amputated and then she had an emergency valve replacement in her heart after the staph infection trashed a valve. She spent five weeks in a rehab facility before coming home. She has now been home since just before Thanksgiving. Her recovery has been slow and I'm not optimistic that she will bounce back fully from this.

Son is running in 100 Mile Club this year and should be passing 60 miles today. Youngest Daughter has been thoroughly enjoying preschool even though she comes home exhausted every afternoon. Oldest daughter is miles ahead of the rest of her kindergarten class and is excelling in reading and beginning math. Husband asked for a promotion to a new position that will be opening up in the late summer, so fingers crossed that it works out.

We went on a tour of the local preparatory charter school last week and dropped off Intent to Enroll paperwork for all three kids, then this morning I heard that the principal there resigned this morning fairly unexpectedly. I'm confident that the staff there can get things back on track and straightened out before Winter Break is over, or at least shortly thereafter. At any rate, my friend who does not enjoy the holidays may welcome the chaos as a distraction (she's a founder at the school).

In the midst of the ongoing situation at our house, I haven't worked at all since.... July? This year I even spaced out on teacher gifts so I spent the last two days working as quickly as possible to put together a necklace for Oldest Daughter's kindergarten teacher. I finished it last night around 11:30 pm. Son chose a jar of homemade jam to take to his teacher. Amazingly, we have all of our gift shopping nearly finished. Anyway, here's the necklace I sent to Daughter's teacher, and it will probably be my final project of the year.

Back to Cool

Son started 4th grade yesterday. Youngest Daughter started preschool two days a week this morning. She walked in and looked around, met the teachers, then went to the playground without saying goodbye. Two years ago when Oldest Daughter started daycare she cried like I was abandoning her forever - she went to Kindergarten testing this morning and her shyness won the day. She did write her name but she refused to count and then she wouldn't draw a picture. She starts school tomorrow.

Husband and I went to St Louis over the second weekend of August for the WheresGeorge.com 10th Annual National Gathering. We met a lot of people we've known only through the forums and facebook, and then we left early. We don't do so well in crowds and thankfully most of the people there understood that and were okay with us leaving early.

My really exciting news is that we finally decided that Youngest Daughter was never going to be potty trained if we relied on PullUps to get her through it. We went out and bought "big girl" underwear for her last week. After a couple days of accidents, she's finally made the association and has started coming to tell us when she needs to go. She had one accident yesterday morning and was good the rest of the day. Not sure how well things will go at school because she's in a new situation in a new place with new people, and she's wearing PullUps just in case, but I'm cautiously hopeful.

As for work, I'm in the midst of a project that will be a gift, and I have a couple more things planned out. Also, I've been working on my competition piece for the HBS Creatin' Contest since I'm down to about four months left. Here's where I was as of yesterday.

So that's all I've got for now. Planning to work on the roof this afternoon if I get a chance. 

Lace Parade

I finished my latest bead embroidery project yesterday. It is a 21" Chenille stitch necklace and a bead embroidered pendant that is 2 1/2" wide by 4" long.

It is up for auction here for the next 29 hours, if you're interested :-)

My next project is already in the beginning stages but I can't post pictures as it's a surprise for someone.

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Independence Delay

Been almost two months since I posted so I guess it's time to catch up. The mystery sickness I had for so long has finally been determined to be fatty liver. Most likely hereditary and the explanation for a lot of other problems. Drastic diet changes and more exercise will hopefully take care of it relatively quickly. I had a spot in my right kidney when I went to the emergency room a few months ago, and I went in for an high definition CT scan and it's not cancerous. I still have to have an endoscopy done to make sure that I don't have and am not developing esophageal cancer, but I'm not worried about that.

Today is Independence Day in America and a phone call I had has brought to my attention that you can tell a real  American holiday by whether people wish you to be safe or to have a good day. Everything about Independence Day and New Year's is always bid to be safe- today meaning not to blow your fingers off or burn down your house.

We spent the first two weeks of June visiting family in South Carolina, so I wasn't home to work on any projects. I did, however, learn peyote stitch and made a small bracelet for my mother-in-law.

After getting back home, I decided I was finally going to teach myself to do bead embroidery, so I have two in-progress pieces. The first is a blue pendant with a druzy agate center focal and a faux pearl, and the necklace is my first attempt at twisted herringbone peyote stitch. The second is a piece I started last night. The large focal is a Czech glass button and the two smaller buttons were in an old can my grandmother had.

We found this zombie troll out in our front garden a couple nights ago. We think someone left him here last Halloween. We left him out there because he fits in. 

Husband and I will be celebrating our sixth wedding anniversary in 11 days. He got me a Lego Castle set because I never had Legos as a kid and I've recently taken up and obsession with them. My favorite thing is to put the characters in compromised situations (where they're usually prisoners or dead) and posting photos to facebook. I was very proud of myself for getting most of it put together without looking at the book. So here's a picture of my cat as she was waiting for me to look away so she could chew on the wizard's hat. 

Anyway, that's all that's happened lately. I've been feeling much better and it's nice to be creating again. 

April Showers bring May Flowers. Mayflowers bring smallpox.

Haven't updated much lately because I haven't felt like I've done anything. Mystery sickness is still hanging around a little bit, but I'm working on getting back in the creative saddle. So here are creative happenings from the last couple weeks.

Daughters turned 3 and 5 last week (they share the same birthday, two years apart). These were their cakes - ying and yang, light and dark, half and half, flora and fauna. They were happy and I was satisfied with my first ever attempt at drawing a koi fish. The cakes were marbled Devil's Food and butter cake with raspberry filling and vanilla buttercreme.

Next comes jalapeno peach, and jalapeno strawberry jam. We were out after mailing a bunch out as Pay It Forward and Christmas gifts, and they make an amazing glaze on pork or chicken so I had to make more. 

Third grade at Son's school did a mini-society project where every kid had to make something worth selling, then they earned fake money for a couple weeks and sold their stuff and bought goods from the other third graders. His project was a pillow box with three glass beads in it, tied with a ribbon. Each one was different. 

I've spent the last week or so working on seed bead projects. These are peyote stitch. I've now made three similar sets and have moved on to starting a spiral tubular piece that will be turned into a bracelet if I ever finish it. 

This table and chairs set was found by a friend in North Carolina as she wandered an antique shop. So I plan to take the stain off and re-do the upholstery. It will make a perfect addition to my Painted Lady house. 

So that's that. No updates don't mean no work, though it feels that way to me. Thanks for stopping by :-)

Uh oh! Guess What Day It IS?!

Guess. What. Day. It. Is.

Hump Daaaaay!

There is a nest of tiny birds somewhere right outside my office window and they have quite a story to tell this morning. I am glad they waited until the sun was up before they decided to sing the song of their people so loudly.

Today we are doing laundry and trying to get the house somewhat ready for a large birthday party this coming weekend. The carpets need cleaned anyway since they haven't been cleaned since before the floods last fall and I'm sure the dogs have tracked in obscene amounts of mud over the winter. I also really need to throw out a bunch of stuff that's been sitting around forever so now is as good a time as any.

I made one bead yesterday but it took five tries for me to get the core finished without my bead release breaking for no apparent reason, and I'm so glad I didn't give up on it because it is technically the best bead I've ever made. It even slid off the mandrel like melted butter. It's currently on a 24 hour auction on the facebook page Lampwork Beads for Sale but here picture collage of all sides of it. It did take three tries to get the cubic zirconia to stick but well worth the effort, I'd say

Also, congratulations to my little sister who ran off and eloped over the weekend. We were all starting to wonder if she and he were ever going to get married, so there was that surprise. 

Anyway, that's what I've got for today. Thanks for coming by.

Pretty in pink

Yesterday I wrapped my new rod of goldstone in a striking pink before pulling it into stringer. This is the result.

I'm very fond of this new purple and the pink together, so I may be expanding upon this idea. I also have some French renaissance ideas to combine with some gothic elements that I'd like to experiment with translating into glass. So maybe some new stuff coming soon. 

Splitting Hairs

I have a friend who got married back in October. When she met her to-be spouse, she had VERY short boyish hair. She grows it out really long and cuts it all off every few years. She has done so as long as I have known her. She grew her hair out long for their wedding and now that they're back from their honeymoon, she wants to cut all of her hair off again. Her spouse is saying "no" to every style she's chosen. It makes me wonder; if her hair was acceptable when they were dating, why is it unacceptable now?

Anyway, I made some beads yesterday. Nothing too spectacular as I've been away from the torch for months and I'm very out of practice (and I had to force myself to get started in the first place), but I've finally got some goldstone that I actually LIKE, and I've got some ideas for dichroic additions to my beads. I made a small dread slider yesterday, and a bunch of small beads for Beads of Courage, and this cone-y tube thing.

Shaped a little strangely at the top because I'm out of practice but I like it anyway. I had a couple people remark that it reminds them of butterflies or dragonflies and that has given me some interesting ideas that I want to play around with. I may add it to my Release A Bead stash, or save it to send out as a bonus for Etsy sales. I'm undecided. 

Anyway, we celebrated Son's 9th birthday on the 26th and this weekend we're having a big birthday party for him and my aunt and my grandmother. Husband and I went to the Avalanche v Sharks game on Saturday to see the Avalanche clinch a playoff spot. I'm waiting on frit and purple glass and a couple other things to be delivered today. Not a whole lot else happening around here, it's mostly the same thing day in and day out. 

Cold Fish

One of our fish died the other day - not surprising as we can't seem to keep them alive since we moved into this house. On the way to flush it down the toilet, Oldest Daughter asked me why we flush fish down the toilet and not the other animals (she's aware of death since one of our birds died a couple years ago and we hand-raised abandoned kittens, losing two in the process). I didn't really have an answer for her since it's never seemed strange to me, but then I started thinking about it a little more and I'm realizing that we've never been consistent with animal remains aside from disposing of fish.

When I was 8, I begged my grandparents for a cat. Finally, they relented. We got K.C. a few days prior to Halloween. She was a beautiful ragdoll Siamese and I tormented her constantly. She lived to be 19 years old and a few days prior to her death she laid down next to me outside and I noticed she was only skin and bones. She was still eating, she was just ancient so she didn't keep weight on. At that time I had ten cats (because I'd had two when I moved back home, my grandmother had two, my husband moved in with two, and one of mine inadvertently got out and had kittens), so she was missing for a couple days when I realized she was probably dead. We went for a walk and found her in the neighbor's yard. I told my grandmother that I'd found her and she called animal control or roadkill pick up or whoever, and they came and took her. Seems fucked up to just leave her there for the trash, right? Yeah. The other cat, Kiki, disappeared and I didn't even notice for months, though other people had. We assume she was eaten by a fox, though my grandmother insists another family took her in.

Well, I'd had a cat a few years prior named Tilly. She was a three-month-old black and white kitten my ex-boyfriend had gotten me during a terrible bout of depression. My depression was worsened when I discovered I'd killed the cat by rolling a treadmill on top of her. I noticed in the evening that I hadn't seen her since the morning, so I moved the treadmill to see if I'd locked her in a rarely-used closet. She was crushed and had been killed instantly. I totally lost my mind, so then-boyfriend sent me and the kids out of the room while he gathered her body up in a trash bag and threw her in the dumpster. I was furious with him but... I never went to get her out. I like to think it was because I was in such shock at what a horrible person I'd been to kill her and not notice.

One of my husband's cats was hit by a car. He was at work when it happened, so I wrapped the cat up and left it in a box out in a never-used playhouse in our backyard until he got home. The next day we took it to the pound and had him cremated, but we didn't get his ashes back. A little less heartless I suppose, but still not the best send-off.

Buried in the yard of our old house are also two mice and a rat named Locomotivation that died when I was a teenager. Two rats I'd had in Wisconsin died and were thrown in the trash. The fourth, named Mascera de Poncho, had a big tumor and was put to sleep and my mother left her to be cremated or thrown away at the vet's office in Laramie, Wyoming.

We eventually sent all the other cats to new homes because Husband and Son were experiencing allergies. We moved, and eventually I wanted another cat. We got Shadow. Shadow got out one day and never came back. Based on the huge number of foxes, coyotes, and birds of prey around where we live, I assume Shadow was eaten. We'd hand-raised some abandoned kittens just a few months before Shadow went missing, so we had one little kitten named Ghost left. The two kittens that died are buried in my front flower garden. The other kitten that lived is now a behemoth named Spectre (yes, 'r' before 'e') and he lives with my sister. If he dies before she buys a house, she is perfectly welcome to bury him here.

We had a bird that got her wing stuck in the cage bars and died shortly thereafter from trauma. She is buried in another flower garden on the other side of our front yard. There is a rock marking the grave of a previous owner's pet name "Chip" out in our backyard by the trash barrel storage corral. It will be there when we move, too. I've painted rocks for the other animals we've buried.

I don't know why we've had such varied and sometimes heartless reactions to the deaths of animals we've loved like family. Maybe it's shock or stress that surrounds certain situations. To end a rather depressing post on a humorous note, I told Husband about Oldest Daughter's question and he said (jokingly, of course) "Because the other animals are too big to flush down the toilet".

Anyway, thanks for bearing with me while I reflect a little on the mistakes I've made and the animals I've missed over the years :)

Repairs From Within

Just a quick update for those of you following Oldest Daughter's burn saga - it's been 10 days since the burn and tonight she let us dry it after cleaning and said touching it didn't hurt. We have it wrapped lightly in gauze so it can breathe and hopefully it will start drying out and tightening up by morning.

I've spent most of today working on my competition piece for the HBS Creatin' Contest, but nothing I can post. I'm quickly learning why miniaturists say that private builds are such a downer :-/

We beat the record sales total at the book fair by almost $2,000. I clearance priced almost all of my Etsy stuff last week and a lot of stuff got snapped up. Hopefully getting rid of older stuff that's been kicking around too long will help spark some new ideas. That's all I've got that's fit to share for now. Maybe new stuff in the next few days - my muse has been hanging around a little lately, so we can hope. Thanks for stopping by :)

The Never Ending Story

I didn't get much work done yesterday. I glued two pieces of wood together and then that was the end of that. I did, however, get in contact with one of my closest friends that I haven't been in much contact with for the last ten years. I met her and her husband through one of my ex-boyfriends. We went to their wedding in January of 2004. That boyfriend and I broke up in the summer of 2004 and that was mostly the last I saw the friend and her husband. I've talked to her a couple times on facebook over the years, but nothing that lasted. Well I looked her up yesterday after getting a nagging feeling that I needed to check on her. She has three beautiful little girls between 2 1/2 and 7 1/2... and her husband got very sick and died pretty suddenly in December of 2012. I'm still stunned by this news and so saddened for her and the girls. Also, I'm suddenly painfully aware of the passage of time. So we're friends on facebook now and I'm discovering that no matter how much time passes, we always seem to pick up right where we left off.

Shortly after talking to her I got a call from Son's school saying he was "acting strangely" after an incident where they noticed him laying on the ground outside but he seemed to be fine and they'd watch and see what happened. They called about an hour and a half later and said that things weren't improving. Husband and I went to pick him up when they said he'd been laying on the ground with his eyes twitching and when they checked on him he got up to run but ended up getting dizzy and falling back to his knees. Then they took him inside and they noticed his eyes weren't tracking what he was supposed to be looking at on a computer screen. He was very angry with us for having to miss the Valentine's party at school.

We took him to the doctor right after we took him out of school. So far, things are pretty inconclusive. The doctor seems to think he had a seizure, but there isn't anything they can do about it unless he starts having repeated occurrences. Some people have one and then never have another. It might also be a heart problem or a virus. He will go in for an EKG next week to eliminate the possibility of a heart problem and we're watching him closely this weekend to see if he displays any signs of illness. So I dunno. He seems fine now though, whatever it was.

So that's what I've got today. Still hoping for a quick cessation of the recent string of injuries and illnesses plaguing our house. Thanks for stopping by :)

Feel the Burn

Yesterday was my final day at the Scholastic Book Fair at Son's school, and we had a parent-teacher conference at the same time. Mostly good news, thankfully. We'd met (or very nearly) the sales goal for the year by the end of the night and there is still all day today and tomorrow. So YAY!

While Husband and I were gone, Grandma cooked dinner. She took the chicken out of the oven and for some reason, Oldest Daughter grabbed the pan. Her had has a pretty bad burn and we're going to the doctor this morning as soon as we can get in. I didn't know about it until I got home because I'd forgotten my phone when I left. So this is what we're dealing with this morning.

I worked most of nap time yesterday on my house, but not tons of progress because I glued a couple pieces together wrong and had to go back and fix mistakes. It was probably better that I had to quit and go to the school since it wasn't going so well anyway. 

In the interim of all this book fair and kids hurting themselves, I've completely spaced that tomorrow is Valentine's Day. Thankfully we never actually celebrate it on February 14 so I'm sure it doesn't matter that it will be late, especially since I already told him. We have stuff for both girls and we'll have to find something for the boy and Grandma and then we can call it good for what HAS to be on time. 

That's all I've got. I'm off to call the Dr's office and see if we can get in soon. Thanks for coming by :)

Foghorn

Youngest Daughter and I just got home from Children's Hospital North where she got her pinkie finger x-rayed after getting it smashed in the fire door to the garage this morning. The bones are fine but there may be a lot of bruising and her nail may blacken and fall off over the next few days.

I've worked some more on my Victorian yesterday, and you can read about my progress here. It was the first time in months that I didn't have to force myself to get started after finding tons of excuses to do other things. In a short while, I'll be putting the kid down for a nap and I'm very excited to get back to it - even doing mundane things like cutting tons of pieces of wood and priming more stuff.

So that's that. Thanks for coming by :)

I like to move it, move it

I've made a separate blog for my dollhouse and miniature stuff, which you can find here.

Husband cut his finger with a meat knife yesterday and had to go to urgent care and get it glued and bandaged closed. I spent Saturday modifying a necklace for my neighbor. Other than that, it was a pretty uneventful weekend.

This is the last week of the book fair and my only commitment is to work on Wednesday night for five hours or so and go to a parent-teacher conference. I'll be glad when it's over with for the year. Tonight I'll be driving Grandma down to Littleton so she can go to the Colorado Center for the Blind tomorrow - she's taking braille classes every week and goes to a blind seniors support group on Tuesdays.

Not much else to report. Thanks for stopping by :)

Glass Cabinet

My competition kit was delivered late yesterday, and after discovering that it's MDF (medium density fiberboard) that's hard as the dickens to cut, this will be the telling factor in whether or not I ever willingly participate in the construction of another house made of the same stuff. I may have to make some major modifications to it just to get it to open up enough for photos and furniture placement, so now I'm debating whether or not to continue on with my plan for it.

My gloss glaze and my India Ink came yesterday also, so I can start on my stained glass and rolled glass windows for my San Franciscan as soon as I get the leading done (which is way harder than it looks). I started the leading on the front door the other day, but I've scrapped it and will start again. I've got some thinner, more flexible acrylic to take the place of my plexiglass, and I'm going to modify the pattern a bit so it isn't so full of fussy little triangles and steep angles. Husband and I went last night to get door hinges (because I don't want to use the pin hinges that came with it) and a cutting mat and some parts for the competition piece. I'm going to have to decide on colors soon, because the San Franciscan is supposed to be painted as it's being built.

The Scholastic book fair started on Monday. I dropped my cactus off, finished except for top flowers, on Monday afternoon and by Tuesday night someone had broken it. Of course. So fixing that is at the top of the list of things I have to do when I go over this afternoon. Husband is taking Son over tonight so that Son can use some of his piggy bank money to buy some books he wants. Then Husband and I will pick out more books for the boy and both girls either tonight or next Wednesday night when we go for our parent-teacher conference.

I actually got all but two of my loads of laundry done yesterday and I've loaded the dishwasher and swept and mopped the kitchen this morning, so in theory, Youngest Daughter will take a  nap and I'll have a large portion of this afternoon to look at projects or take a nap or....

With that, it's time for me to let the dogs out and make lunch for the kid. Thanks for stopping by :)

A Painted Lady -

Here's a picture of my dollhouse box, and a cat that was very curious about this new thing. Husband and I opened it up and took inventory last night and amazingly it has all the pieces except one little chunk of siding. I'm going to ask my brother-in-law if he can make me a couple pieces if I send him one to copy. We have colors picked out (none of which are the pale blue or bright red that everyone seems to have used when I pull up a Google images search of the house). It's going to be gothic-y, because that's what I do best.

We have some small changes planned, like for the brick work around the foundation (which in the directions is made by mixing up a sand paste and smearing it over a brick pattern template and pulling the template away) and different, stronger glass for the windows and doors. As it were, the whole thing smells like it's been sitting in a smoker's house for 20 years (which is very possible) so I'm really looking forward to sanding and priming it at the very least. We're also going to build a bigger support board for extra support, outside landscaping, and (most importantly) to house the lighting components. Also, we're not using the flooring strips that came with the kit - it's awful and has no creative design to it. 

I will say that the people I bought it from made it painfully obvious that they've never built a dollhouse before. They said they'd recently bought it so they could put it together for their daughter for Christmas, they were amazed at the number of pieces, and they apparently had no clue of the potential resale value. So their loss is my gain and I'm more than a little excited by that. 

So there it is. I can get started on it early next week, in theory, after I'm done with the cactus and the jam for the book fair. 

Building Foundations

A couple exciting things to share today. First, I checked craigslist on a whim and found a dollhouse kit that I'd never heard of. I looked it up and found that it went out of production about 20 years ago and sells for around $400 on ebay on average. The person on CL is asking $75 and I'm going to pick it up tomorrow sometime. It's very similar to the first kit I put together when I was a teenager. It may be the same one for all I know. I don't recall what that one was called - it was just a kit that my grandmother had started and never finished. Anyway, if I never get it put together, I can list it on ebay since I'm getting it for a steal. But I'll probably put it together and give it to my daughters.

The Scholastic Book Fair is starting at Son's school on Monday. I have this weekend to make a 10' tall cactus for a prop, and a couple batches of jam so I can donate gift sets to the bake walks, and a book sales meter in the shape of a Chinese dragon. I should have started a few weeks ago but a lack of communication meant I thought my spot was taken and the other mom who helps run the book fair thought I was ignoring the whole thing. So... yeah.

Part of the book fair every year is a big fundraiser where the kids donate their change to buckets to vote on a crazy hair color for the librarian, and all that money gets donated to help libraries in need. Two years ago the funds went to buy new books for a school in Ghana. Last year, hundreds of new books were bought for a school library in Sandy Hook to help with rebuilding efforts. This year we're trying to organize the funds to be sent to the Kenya National Library System to help with their mobile library system. The mobile library system uses camels to travel around and take books to people who wouldn't have access to a library otherwise, and the KNLS has said they'd like to expand their camel .... uh, collection, I guess... to include a female so they can breed new camels and become self-sufficient in their mobile service.

I decided to enter the 2014 Hobby Builder's Supply Annual Creatin' Contest. This year, the project is the Starting Point Garage Kit. You don't HAVE to make a garage, of course. Considering how long I had to stare at the building to see anything other than a garage bay door or a restaurant that opened onto patio seating, part of me wonders if they chose this set this year just because no one buys it and they're trying to either get rid of stock or spawn ideas to draw more sales. Either way, I did finally come up with something and I'm actually excited to get started. I may or may note end up starting a separate blog for dollhouse posts.

That's all I've got for today. I should go get started cleaning the kitchen so I can make some jam and load up the dehydrator. Thanks for stopping by. 

Independent Artist feature

It's not often that I find a jewelry piece that sets my heart all a-flutter, because frankly I'm not a jewelry girl. That said, I have a piece today to share just because looking at it gives me one of those rare "Oh my gosh look at that!" moments.

This ring, called "Calyx", was made by Stephanie Aust. People who know glass artists by artist names know her as "copperrein". It has one of her glass beads as the focal point, accented by glass micro beads and wire wrapping that she did by hand. It's a really impressive piece and a steal at $26. You can buy it here. So shop independent and fuel the creative flame!

Tiny Troubles

Anyone who knows me knows that dollhouses and miniatures are one of my favorite hobbies. This year, I'm thinking about entering the HBS Annual Creatin' Contest. This indecision comes about because of my recent burnout and severe lack of inspiration or motivation. I started looking at small dollhouses on a whim a couple days ago and I've found a few I think may work for my apothecary / potion / witch's shop. I don't recall whether or not I've ever posted about it here but it's been a plan between Husband and myself for a couple of years and it always ends up being moved to the back burner and forgotten about. Anyway, I've gotten it down to the following three choices in my order of preference;

Sugarplum Cottage by Greenleaf

Buttercup Cottage by Corona

Orchid Dollhouse by Corona

It is necessary to note that by the end of the project the shop won't really look anything like the houses shown in the pictures - it will be the shell, but many design and color modifications will take place. In the mean time, I've been sporadically working on pieces to go in the shop, potions and powders and things like that. They're all currently strewn about my desk so I will have to gather some up and take in-progress pictures in the near future. 

"Union" should be pronounced like "onion"

Over the course of the past week or two I've met some of my grandmother's nieces and nephews on facebook. They're in the process of trying to organize a family reunion in Denver, but none of them live in Denver. I have one cousin in Golden who's trying to help, but the rest of them live in Arizona and the far reaches of Wyoming. They're determined that they need to have the reunion in Denver because the aunts (my grandmother and her sisters) are old and rickety and.... Yeah. So they wanted suggestions for places to have the reunion - I gave them suggestions that my grandmother thought would work. They don't like any of those ideas. I suggested a few other places. Again, not acceptable. They want to contact all their long lost cousins. I look up phone numbers, but none of them will make the calls. It would seem that the extent of their internet knowledge is getting on facebook to ask me to do everything for them, then arguing with me whenever I say something. So I've decided I'm done helping and I'm not going to the reunion - I have social anxiety anyway.

I restarted my Assassin's Creed IV game last night to see if I could meet a bunch of objectives I'd missed the first time around - I was only 13% of the way through anyway so it isn't a great loss - but I'm discovering that it didn't give me some of the opportunities it did the first time through. I dunno. Anyway, somehow I've almost caught up to where I was the first time and I'd played for about 18 hours total the first time and six hours this time... So I don't know what I was doing the first time to waste so much time.

We bought a frog terrarium about a year ago and got a couple things for it, then set it aside and ignored it. Over the weekend we went out and got all the rest of the stuff, put it together, and got some frogs. We have three green tree frogs now named Morpheus, Apollo, and Nyx. They spent most of yesterday hiding at the top of the background and not moving. This morning they're lazily crawling about getting ready to go to sleep, and at least one of them ate some crickets last night.

Son is rather obsessed with football because all the kids at his school are, so he and Husband watched the Broncos game yesterday and Husband explained the different parts of the game as it went on. Son was mostly fixated on the Broncos getting a trophy, though neither Husband nor I had said anything about a trophy in the first place. Everyone in Denver is determined that there's no way the Broncos will lose the Super Bowl, but their lackluster defense may be a problem against Seattle. *shrug* I won't be watching the game - I will probably use the opportunity to play video games.

I ordered some glass over the weekend. It should be here on Thursday or Friday and hopefully by then I will be halfway motivated to go turn on the torch. I have some ideas for sets of hair falls and tiny hats or fascinators and beads that match. It might be a decent thing come the next Christmas shopping season - I just have to hope that I can get them made and be found by people who have weird friends to shop for.

Speaking of product lines... ComicCon. Yeah. I don't know where that's going or if it's going at all. I have plenty of ideas, but no motivation. None of the ideas feel like "me", if that makes any sense. I have no doubt that they'd be great ideas and would sell well, but the thought of making the stuff and putting my name on it is a serious downer and... I don't know where to go from here. Anywhere would be better than this deadlock I seem to be stuck in.

So that's what I've got. Nothin', basically. Thanks for stopping by and giving me a few minutes of your time.

Flu Threw

Oldest Daughter woke up in the middle of the night to tell me she had a fever. She didn't feel warm, so I sent her back to bed. Every half hour for the rest of the night she came in complaining she had a fever. Then, around 5:45 we heard her feet pad into the room and stop, then a wet splattering noise. She threw up on the carpet. I told her to hurry and go to the toilet while Husband cleaned up the carpet mess. She threw up the whole way through the loft, all over her bathroom floor, and finally into the toilet. Then she went to lay back down. A few minutes later she was back, and I told her to hurry up and go into my bathroom. More vomit all over the floor. It seems to have mostly subsided now (knock on wood), and she's laying on the couch with a blanket. I gave her some flat ginger ale and turned on Sesame Street. Hopefully she'll stay laying down without too much fight.

Not much else to report. I've been kicking around some ideas for mini pirate hats and fascinators, but no time creating anything the last few days. Hopefully that will change soon. Thanks for stopping by!

Update on Hallie

Hallie Marie White was found alive in San Antonio on January 8. She is home in Florida with her mother and now begins the long road to recovery from her ordeal and repair of their relationship. Please keep your thoughts with the family in the coming weeks as they try to get back to a healthy frame of mind.


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I have't been feeling much creative drive the last few weeks, so I haven't been working. I do have some good news to report though. We have a new niece through my brother-in-law and his wife. Her name is Loretta Melinda and she was born on January 7. Mom and baby are doing great and went home a few days ago.

Son has been home since Thursday with Strep throat. He's been on antibiotics since Thursday night though, so he's past the point of being contagious and he's feeling much better than he had been. 

Youngest daughter decided this morning, two and a half months after the fact, that she's no longer scared of her Cookie Monster costume from Halloween so she's been wearing it all morning.

Oldest Daughter is officially registered for Kindergarten and will be starting in August, hopefully in a full-day class setting. We'll have the final news about that at the end of the month.

Not much else has been happening. Hopefully next time I write something there will be some exciting news. Thanks for stopping by! 

When A Child Disappears

Yesterday my friend's 14 year old daughter took her suitcases and got into a car with an unidentified white male in his mid-20's in Florida. She left her phone at home and no one has seen or heard from her since. She is considered an endangered runaway. So here is her Missing Person's poster. If you're reading this page and you live in or have friends and family in the southern part of the United States, please share it on facebook and instagram and tumblr and anywhere else you think it might get seen. 

Hallie Marie White is 14 years old. She was last seen wearing a black and white t-shirt, blue jeans, and a black headscarf like the one in the right hand picture. She has dark blond / light brown hair, blue eyes, is 5'5'' tall and weighs approximately 160 lbs. She was last seen getting into a white 4-door Hyundai sedan with Texas plate BSF-8801 which is registered to Enterprise Rent-a-car. The police have not yet gotten the record of who rented the car. If you see this girl or that car, PLEASE call the Escambia County Sheriff's office at (850) 436-9630 or Klass Kids at (855) 733-5567 with any information!

First Report

So some rather exciting news to share today :-)

First off, Husband has got a new facebook author page for his book of short stories he'll be releasing later this year. You can follow him here to stay on top of news about release dates and other exciting things that will be happening in the future. Tentative plans for the book are to release it on kindle and nook and smashwords for $1.99 and I'm planning on talking to him about giving away free copies to a people through contests and things on facebook. Right now we're planning out cover art (which I'm in charge of) and waiting on a few things to arrive. I'm doing initial read - throughs and rough editing now and he's been working like mad on getting the last of the stories put together. I'm very excited for him to get his work out for the world to see.

Also, I've been working on a fairly large custom electrical outlet cover order - four zebra print plates and four cheetah print plates. Most of the zebra plates are baked and in the initial stages of coloring. Cheetah plates will be started once the zebra plates are colored, sanded, and sealed.

Yesterday started the Pay It Forward facebook campaign for 2014 and I've got seven people on my list instead of the standard five. I think in the four previous years that I've participated, I've only actually received something once but I keep signing up because I like sending things out to other people.

Today I'm going out to dye someone's hair various shades of blue and purple and tomorrow Husband and I will be going to watch the Avs V Sharks at the Pepsi Center. Hopefully sometime this weekend we'll find a bit of extra time to start taking Christmas decorations down and work on getting the house back in order.

I hope the new year has started out on a good note for you. Thanks for stopping by!