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can't sleep..

Friday, September 5, 2008 - 2:36:32 EDT

I'm still taking Prednisone... Still can't sleep. I'm tapering off of it at least...but still can't sleep. Last night I was desperate and took a benedryl so I could get some sleep. I slept for a few hours. Got up, fixed Josh's lunch and coffee, then went back to bed for a few hours. I did get a few more hours of sleep, but since it was drug-induced sleep, so to speak, it really didn't feel like I slept at all! but I got up and got some good work done today. I don't want to take another benedryl because it just makes me so groggy/dizzy.

I thought that tonight, for sure, despite still being on the meds, that I'd be able to sleep (cause I am so tired!). but no dice. I just can't shut my mind off. I got up around midnight and have been getting some good work done. Maybe that will help alleviate my anxious mind and allow me to sleep later? Maybe? Please?

Since 10 this evening (when I hunkered into bed to knit and relax) I have finished knitting the cutest hat ever for Desi. And I made a set of crowns. And I wrote a letter to the Mayor's Action Center (we still have barricades in our backyard from the sinkhole work this spring). And I printed off new address labels. And put together some samples for customers. It's now 2:45am. What can I do now that doesn't make too much noise (don't want to wake up Josh)? Maybe I'll go ahead and go make his lunch. And I do have some sewing that needs to be done. I have a ton of website/computer business work to do. I could also go can some more veggies from the garden (is it really wise to operate a pressure cooker at 3am?) Can you tell I'm in a drug-induced hyper-active state yet?

I even went and "Zumba"ed this evening to burn off this anxious energy!

Gah!

Ooohs and Aahh's

Thursday, September 4, 2008 - 13:32:55 EDT

Oooohs: Yesterday I attended my first Spinning class. Spinning class as in Spinning on a bike a the gym...not making yarn.

OOOOOh am I sore today!!

But it's a good kind of sore, so I'm ok with the pain.

A few weeks ago, after realizing that i was "suffering" from cabin fever from working from home all the time, I decided that I need to get out more. And since I just can't seem to make running work in my favor any more, I decided that joining a local gym was a more than justified expense. I found a great place a few miles away. They have tons of neat aerobic classes, Spinning, Pilates, etc... Josh and I got a joint membership, so now he has a place to lift weights too.

I am using the weights as well, but I think the classes are good for me. Human interactions. Exercising. Double whammy. It's a little out of my comfort zone, as I'm just a kind of anxious person naturally. So making myself get out for something other than running errands is a good exercise in and of itself.

What's today's exercise? Zumba! I did it a couple days ago too. it's a fun salsa-like aerobic thing. If you've never done a group aerobic class before..it's kinda silly if you really think about it. It's like being in on of those Jane Fonda workout videos my Mama used to do all the time....She's gonna get me for telling everyone that she used to work out to Jane Fonda. hehehe.


Now for the Aaah's....No, not a pix of my sweet Nephew Desi. Instead, my tabby cat Rufus. I was photographing some materials for a crown customer a bit ago. As soon as I turned away to send off the pictures, Rufus jumped up and made himself a happy napping place on my photo stand among the fabrics. Stinker. He's lucky he's so cute.

Desmond!

Saturday, August 30, 2008 - 8:58:57 EDT

I have a little nephew! have a busy morning planned, so details later, but wanted to show pix now!

Desmond Dale. 7lbs 8 oz. 20.75" long. 3 weeks early!

at the hospital...

Wednesday, August 27, 2008 - 10:17:42 EDT

my sister went into labor yesterday afternoon. her water broke around 3:30. They were at the hospital around 5:30. I got the call at 6. waiting for them to get checked into a room, showed up at 8. stayed till 3am. Things surprisingly are not progressing quickly. for how fast things were moving pre-water breakage, we thought for sure that this kid would slide right out. They had to induce, because of the water breakage, and then from the pain of contractions, she had to get an epidural (was trying to avoid that). things weren't progressing any, so we went home at 3am this morning...back by 8am. didn't sleep at all. finished knitting a sweater. Alisa has progressed just slightly since getting the epidural at 7am. She's having lots of problems with low blood pressure. She's really hanging in there though. Baby is doing fantastic, though...great heart rate. no problems.

Poison Ivy, oh my

Tuesday, August 26, 2008 - 6:25:03 EDT

Last week I woke up with what has turned out to be poison Ivy....spreading poison ivy. (rash is/was mostly on legs, so don't worry customers-- products didn't come anywhere near my itchy rash). Cortisone cream was not helping, so Sunday morning, rather than being a good little girl and going to church, I went to an immediate care place to get some meds to dry up the rash. I was just hoping for a shot of prendisone/steriod....but Dr gave me a full 2 week course of the pills. Ugh. And I've got a wicked antihistamine to help me stop itching at night so I can sleep.

Few things to note: 1) even though the poison ivy is not contagious at all, since the plant oil is long gone...there's something psychological about having a spreading rash on your own body....and with a little Nephew about to be born any minute now, I knew I had to get this taken care of pronto, so that I can hold him and not be itching like a madwoman.

2) I don't sleep well while on prendisone. I was on this stuff years ago for an AWFUL break out of poison sumac or something. Both my mom and I were just COVERED in that rash. It was crazy. and I recall not sleeping well then.

3)this wicked antihistamine does definitely takes care of the itching and make me sleepy. But it's the kind of sleepiness that you know is drug induced (super dizzy, heavy eyes, moving at half speed kind of thing). But despite that, I still am not sleeping well. I don't know if it's because I just can't shut off my mind to allow myself to sleep (a common problem for me anyway)...or what!

The night before last, I took a full antihistamine at 11....I slept off and on until about 6am. talked with josh a bit before he went off to work. Went back to bed, and slept straight through until 11am! Soo yeah...late start to yesterday. So I thought that last night I'd take just have the antihistamine. So i did...around 9:30 this time. eh. it made me dizzy, heavy eyes...thought I'd sleep like a log last night. No dice. I did definitely get some sleep...but I was awake when josh got up, so I thought I'd get up with him and make his lunch (which i got out of doing yesterday!)...And now a morning round of business emails and updates, so that maybe I can go sleep off the rest of this antihistamine in a bit, guilt free. We'll see.

update

Saturday, August 23, 2008 - 12:47:56 EDT

alisa hasn't popped yet. The subaru plant tour was awesome!

Nephew Update

Tuesday, August 19, 2008 - 10:55:20 EDT

Well, Alisa is not due until Sept 15th...but the Dr. told her she had a 50/50 shot of going into labor this week. Ali has had all the pre-labor "labor" and honestly, that woman should be having mundo contractions right now......but she's not. So she's not officially in labor right now...But my guess is that by tomorrow night, something should be happening.
I hope so for her sake. That kid is riding LOW LOW LOW in her belly...and quite frankly, he's really not in the belly any more. And Alisa is beyond uncomfortable with this kid's current position. So for her sake.. I hope something happens tonight!

I just hope it doesn't happen Thursday evening. Why? Well.....Josh and I made plans several weeks ago to go to Lafayette, IN. As Indiana Subaru owners, we were invited to a plant tour at the supposedly really cool Lafayette plant. They're offering 2 tour time slots, and the tour is limited to 100 in each time slot.

As soon as Josh got that email the other night, he called me in, we made a super-duper quick decision (YES! DUH!) and emailed back for the Thursday night time slot (rather than Fri morning...and we got in!

And Supposedly, we get to test drive all their new cars on their closed track! Legally, Subaru can't let us drive the cars...but there will be sales people there allowing "test drives". And no pictures are allowed.

And Josh being..Josh/engineer. And Me being.....well....me (grew up watching mr. rogers: seeing videos of factories and how things are made (love that show on discovery, by the way), we're just fascinated by that kind of thing. So we're really excited to go.

But I had no idea Mr. Nephew might pop out on the ONE weeknight Josh and I have plans. HMMMMMM

Rest assured that I will keep you posted of my riveting week.

A-A-C

Tuesday, August 19, 2008 - 10:28:41 EDT

Anti-Aircraft-Cat

For his birthday, Josh's grandparents gave him a cool little remote-controlled helicopter (that kind that's super easy to fly, and has a Styrofoam body, so it's fairly damage resistant).

Josh has had fun getting flying the thing around the house...and it turns out the cats LOVE it! We thought for sure they'd be freaked out. Nope. Mickey is a menace when that helicopter comes out to play. And Josh loves teasing him with it (no we don't go chase the cat down with spinning blade. We're not THAT mean.). Mickey runs up to it...or will actually sit and study it......and then POUNCE!

He has gotten SO good at knocking this thing out of the air. I got a cool sequence of photos with the 'multi-burst' option on my camera..below sis just one scene of Mickey actually hitting the helicopter. But if you click on that image, you'll see the full scene play out in pictures.

And then once the helicopter battery wears out, so do the cats....

The business world

Friday, August 8, 2008 - 10:56:15 EDT

Over the past 5 weeks or so, I have born witness to more ways of running a business than I ever thought possible. The real kicker here is that, almost all of them were unethical, predatory, advantageous, or down-right stupid ways to run a business.

I do not claim to know the "proper" way to run a business (haven't taken a single business class in my life), nor do I think there is just one way to run a good business. But after having my own business for over 8 years now, I do know that there are a lot of wrong ways to run a business.

Earlier this week, after breaking down when I realized I was being scammed by what I thought was a reputable company, I just completely lost my faith in people. I always thought that you know what, overall people are good. Businesses are trustworthy (otherwise, how would they stay in business?). But an event earlier this week was just the "straw that broke the camel's back."

I did finally have 2 good encounters with businesses yesterday, which is starting to slowly restore my faith in money-making endeavors. But I can't even tell you how suspicious I now feel when I hear commercials toting "great deals!" But you know, that probably is a good thing...you can never be too careful now...literally everyone is out to get you.

And I guess I just wanted to do this posting, not because I feel like a ton of people come to my site and are just on the edge of their seat waiting to read what I write next...But I wanted to do it for those few customers who do stop past from time to time. I want to reassure them that I feel like I run a very trustworthy, ethical, fun, straightforward business.

If you ever have a problem with one of my products, call me. Email me. Tell me. I won't be mad. I will be sad that something didn't work out, or that my item(s) didn't meet your expectations. But it's never directed to you. And while of course I tend to new orders ASAP, I promise that I tend to any problems just as quickly.

My success is directly dependent on you, the customer. I can't even IMAGINE treating any of my customers the way that I have been treated over the past several weeks by various places.

And whether it was just bad timing on my part, and just got hit with all these experiences at once... Or maybe it was something on my part, my behavior, that invited these experiences..I don't know. I'm not objective enough to figure that out. But what I do know is that I have learned quite a bit these last few weeks. And that can only help me to be a better business-woman, right?

Timing is everything

Tuesday, July 22, 2008 - 10:46:40 EDT

We had a really strong storm move through our area around 1:45 am last night/this morning. This was the first storm in a really long time that actually scared me. The thunder was so incredibly loud, josh and I were having to shout to each other to hear each other, even though we were laying right next to each other. the lighting was so strong and frequent. It was just insane. All i could think was "I am SO glad that dead tree was taken down today, I'm So glad that dead tree was taken down today". But I couldn't stop wondering and just waiting for one of our other huge trees to get struck by lightening and fall in on us. But they're all very healthy, and lean away from the house...but that's how scared I was last night.

Below is a really neat shot of yesterday's tree work that I just discovered on my camera.

Baby Shower

Monday, July 21, 2008 - 17:07:04 EDT

so, I've been talking for weeks and weeks about the baby shower I was throwing for my sister, Alisa. It finally happened on Saturday, and I think it went pretty well. Most everyone showed up, and she got a lot of really crazy-cute things. and several things from her registry. I opted to not get her something from her registry, even though I should have...instead, I got her more of a decorative/keepsake item.

You may have heard me talk about Ray Rickert before..the very talented woodworker in Terre Haute. He just so happened to have the sweetest piece in his inventory over Christmas, that as soon as I found out Alisa was pregnant, I contacted Ray to buy it! It's an Instarsia piece of Noah's Ark.

the other picture here is of a little cousin named Sophia. She was a very good--and patient--little helper at the shower. She assisted Alisa in opening up all those gifts. I love this picture--her little hands clasped behind her back, waiting so patiently until Alisa had another gift to open. It was so cute! (you can see a sophia arm in the intarsia pic..helping alisa clear the piece off her lap to make room for the next gift!).

Timber!

Monday, July 21, 2008 - 16:58:02 EDT

We had a big ole Soft Maple cut down this morning. When we moved in last year, that tree seemed a little sickly, but not overly worrisome. This year, it did get leaves, but very very few, and very late in the Spring. We noticed all of a suddenly, while hanging out in the backyard the other day, that all of the greenery on the tree was DEAD! This big tree is also right in line with the middle of the house, so we decided we had better have it taken care of pronto

Turns out, carpenter ants killed it. We've been treating the tree for a few weeks with ant poison, so the carpenter ants don't go after our house, or other trees in yard once the tree is cut down. We'll see what happens.

Anyway, the tree was taken down today. a guy shimmied all the way up, and used a chain saw to cut off all the branches. and then they just cut down the whole thing. Crazyiness! We have some really cool tree slices now...and lots of firewood...and lots of little tree stump "chairs" :).

Summer Vacation?

Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 10:19:45 EDT

I am currently taking my "Summer Vacation" this week--seemed a like a good time between busy wedding seasons...and a good time to get things in order before Alisa's Baby shower on Saturday. But I tell you what...I'm gonna need a vacation after my vacation! I had some work from last week spill into this week, and Monday was josh's b-day. and some house projects are taking longer than i had anticipated. Oh well.

I'm having fin with my new CNC machine...except that I can really use it for work until some new parts arrive. The machine is currently set up for use with a Bosch router--the router spins the engraving bit--the cnc machine run the router. But for the uber fine detail work I need to do, Runout (measurement of how off center your bit spins)because a concern. And my current set-up has an unacceptable amount of runout to it--making lines too wide and very messy. So I have a really neat fine detail spindle on order that is crazy balanced....plus a motor to run it...plus a mount to get it all attached to the machine. The stuff won't be in until the end of next week. So in the meantime, i'm just going to work on designs and also order in some really nice engraving bits.

Haven't played with glass stuff yet this "vacation"...but I'm determined to do so, even if it's just on my last day of vacation that i find time to do so.

Below are pix of silly-floppy kitties. We've had the windows open a lot lately, since the weather has been pretty decent. As you can see, mickey enjoys the window sills. His belly just barely fits in the window! And Rufi is my continual office helper. He's sleeping on my desk right now as I type this. He wasn't happy that I was taking his picture earlier though...

Yo may now resume your cable service

Tuesday, July 8, 2008 - 10:12:36 EDT

If you read my previous post, then you realize that we may have had some daggers directed at Comcast the past few days. Well, Knock on wood, Comcast is actually stepping up to the plate and taking responsibility! I met with the Supervisor from our local office this morning. he said that he will hand-deliver me a check this afternoon for our out of pocket expenses...and I just called and gave all his info to the company that did the clean-up service. Soooo....keep your fingers crossed.....and don't cancel your cable just yet. (because I know after reading my post everyone went and canceled their service. I know. And I do appreciate your support. :) )

Assuming they follow-through, then everything will be fine.

Joshy Boy is out of town for several days on a business trip. So it's just me and my work, and more work, and more work. And the cats.

Don't let Comcast into your crawlspace

Sunday, July 6, 2008 - 6:34:55 EDT

Last week, some Comcast guys came out because we were having trouble with our cable. They went down into our crawlspace "because everything looks fine outside, the problem must be where you line comes in."

So,I let the guys down there. they didn't fix the problem (Josh and I figured out on our own that night that it was the cable box and went and switched it out at our local office)...but when they were down there, they did something else.

They broke our sewer line.

Yep. Our plumbing has been acting funny the past week, but we didn't put two and two together...until Yesterday when Josh happened to hear splashing water down in the crawlspace while I was running the kitchen sink. The sewer line broke RIGHT underneath the cable junction. I would post pictures, but it's quite gross.

and when I was on the phone with comcast (telling them that they are paying the bill), they actually told us to wait until MONDAY before having a plumber come out and fix the pipe..so that they had a chance to investigate whether or not their technicians actually caused the damage.

You see, because it was a holiday weekend, it wasn't convenient for them to get someone out to look...so we needed to leave our broken pipe for 2 days, with its mess intact.

You can guess who well that went over.

The good news in this is that, we found the broken pipe at about about 2:15...and by 7pm the pipe was fixed and the mess cleaned up. But it definitely put a damper on our holiday weekend. And while we had to pay part of the bills upfront, the companies are nice enough to give us until Monday to figure out billing info for Comcast...so they can be billed directly. So we're just out a couple hundred, rather than a couple grand right now.

So again I say to you, don't let Cable techs down into your crawlspace.

I got up this morning around 4:30 because I couldn't stop thinking about what i was going to put in my letter to Comcast....so I just got up and wrote the letter this morning. Hopefully things will --for the most part-- be resolved on Monday, once Comcast makes itself available. But I have a letter allll ready to go, should they start trying to pull more stunts.

So, here's to having a better day today!

I may already be a winner!

Wednesday, July 2, 2008 - 14:03:55 EDT

but we knew that already. Right?

So I got an interesting phone call last night (as I was stripping paint off our back door. one of the umptine items on our to-do list before my sister's baby shower). Publisher's Clearing House called. Her name was Katie. Her supervisor called me back to verify that I understood what was going on. her name was Brittany.

Apparently, I am a finalist in their "Dream of your Life (or something like that) contest". Apparently, one of my CC companies entered me. Hmm.

I am in the running for 25K or a trip for 2 to Australia. The drawing is on Dec 31. But they had to call last night to tell me that I'm (supposedly) a finalist, and that I'm being sent a diamond watch (with a 2 year warranty, mind you). And I'm getting 6 free magazine subscriptions for 2 years.

Hmmm

Yeah, I'll be sure to keep you posted on that.

I know you really don't care about my contest entires...I'm sure you'd rather here when I'm going to be getting back to the torch!? I have my "summer vacation" planned for the 12th to the 21st. I will be making glass pretties that week, if not before then (spring wedding season is finally starting to settle down. I might *Actually* have some free time next week! craziness). Now, I will have to use some free time and vacation time to learn how to use my new engraver (ya!), but there should be time for all of that fun.

what's not fun: Just realized one of our many big and beautiful trees is going to have to be removed. it's a maple. and it's dead (so it's really not so pretty anymore). ugh. we just thought it was sickly, as it did still have leaves. within a matter of days, all of the leaves have died.

I'm waiting to hear back from some tree service companies--I guess i had better get back to work so we can afford to save our house from our dead tree (I have heard it's quite expensive to have a tree removed).

My own Engraver!

Monday, June 30, 2008 - 16:51:18 EDT

Actually it's a mini CNC machine...that can do engraving (and is a heck of a lot cheaper than an actual "engraver")

After 1 too many disagreements with the guy I was paying to do my engraving (don't get me wrong, he's a very nice guy--he just doesn't follow instructions well), I decided it was time to get my own set-up.

And here it is....not yet set-up, though!

Josh is currently working on getting it unpacked the rest of the way. We've got a lot of testing and experimenting to do. We'll see how it goes!

Staring the week on the right foot

Monday, June 30, 2008 - 8:39:09 EDT

Last week was one of those weeks where you feel like you're working non-stop, but you made zero progress on anything! Well, I'm trying to make sure that this weeks goes better!!

Joshy came down with a really bad cold on Thursday. He actually came home from work early, and stayed home on Friday. By Sunday, the cold symptoms started to lift, just as a massive migraine hit him (he's a migraine sufferer, and as a male, he gets "cluster Migraines". 1x a year or so, he gets the kind of migraine that makes him ill to his stomach (rather than just neck and head). So he's still fighting off the migraine, plus the cough the cold gave him, and all the sneezing and nose-blowing, which, of course, doesn't help his head. He's a mess! Needless to say, he stayed home from work again today.

Luckily, I think I have that super-mommy-magic where I don't think I'll be getting sick (knock on wood). Plus, he's been very considerate about keeping his germs to himself, and away from me and my office, and my kitchen!

I'm going to be making a fun purchase for my Crown business later today...but I'll wait and tell you about it, once I have it in hand...just in case something goes wrong :) I'll post pictures.

Last week I did manage to finally finish my new "photo-booth" for my new office set up. So now, once I clean up the office, I'll post pictures.

And it's T-3 weeks until my sister's baby shower. We're having it here...and we have a laundry list of projects to complete before then. But that also means, I'll have more house pictures to show you...since things will actually be DONE!!

And now, it's time to work.

house pics

Wednesday, June 18, 2008 - 8:31:52 EDT

I realized that I hadn't posted any pictures of the house with its new paint! So the first picture is of the house Before (yellow paint). the 2nd pic is of the house after. I realize the pictures aren't from the same angle, so the house actually looks really different between the 2 pictures...i'll post better pictures later.

the glass weekend with my sister-in-law went well, but I ended up teaching the whole time and not having a chance to make anything of my own! but the studio is all set up, and I'm going to start scheduling time in day to go out and play.

I'm hosting my sister;s baby shower here on July 19th, and I've got a whole list of house projects to finish before then...but what that means is that the house will be just about done, and I can show you really great before and after pictures.

Today is Josh's 1 yr anniversary with Rolls Royce! how quickly a year can go by!

Ok, I have got to get to work now--lots to fit in today before Josh gets home. It's been gorgeous weather here this week, and today is another beautiful day, so we have a long bike ride planned for tonight, as soon as he gets home.

Spring wedding season is starting to calm down, so I'll be better about posting more often now!

hmmm

Thursday, May 22, 2008 - 20:06:32 EDT

well, this has been an interesting week. It been incredibly stressful, and to top it off, I just got a call from a couple who wants to return a set of crowns (my other business -orthodoxweddingcrowns.com). This is my first return ever, and I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later. Apparently the crowns weren't quite what they expected, despite the 9 photos I sent the bride over the course of 3 days. I know that you can't always make everyone happy....but it still doesn't feel very good to have someone say they don't care for your work (Or say, "The crowns look OK from a distance, but not up close"). Apparently they spotted some fraying fabric on the crown...I believe them, but also know that I thoroughly inspected those crowns before shipping them.

So to that I say HARUMPH!

And we've had a hell of a time with the company we hired to paint our house. A lot of mis-communications. So that's just been incredibly stressful.

and we have a really big weekend coming up---very busy with family visiting, and I have soooo much cleaning to get done.

Will this week ever end?

Fully Domesticated

Monday, May 19, 2008 - 10:29:36 EDT

Well, I guess you could say that I'm fully domesticated now. Or rather, a full-blown home-owner. Either way, we're having new gutters installed as I type this out. and the house is getting painted on Wednesday. For whatever reason, that really makes me feel very "soccer-mom" like. Regardless--the house is going to look so much better once this is all done (and the gutters are the big 6" ones with a nice leaf screen...as opposed to the literally falling apart screen system on the rickety small gutters we did have!

I'll be sure to post before and after pix.

Also, I'm organizing my glass studio this week!! I know, you're shocked. But get used to it, as I'm going to be posting some really fun photos over the next few weeks. My sister-in-law/student (see previous posting) is coming this weekend for a marathon glass session...Can't wait!!!

Good News!

Thursday, May 8, 2008 - 17:30:11 EDT

I have official plans to get the glass studio back up and running!!

What prompted this sudden case of decisiveness? Well, my sister-in-law is an Art teach up in Ft. Wayne, IN. She applied for and received a Lily Grant to further her art education. This summer, she is road-tripping along route 66, for once-in-a-lifetime photography oppertunities, and meeting up with silversmiths and tradespeople all all kinds across the country! And it's getting kick started this memorial day weekend-with me. Even though she has some experience with lampworking (and a lot with slumping and fusing, I'm so jealous!), she will be my "student" over Memorial Day weekend. It's great motivation, and a perfect situation for me to brush the dust off of not only the glass, but my glass manipulation skills as well. I'm really looking forward to getting to post new pretties here on the site, and to find new stores across the country to sell to.

And this is all coming at a great time, as I'm finally getting a-hold of my crown work (my other business orthodoxweddingcrowns.com). The past 6 weeks have been a total blur for me with the amount of work that I have put into that business. The success of this spring season is not anything I am about to complain about---it's every small business owner's dream! But it also reinforces the fact that it is a very difficult job (being a small business owner, that is). The number of responsibilities is innumerable, and it always seems to be an ever-growing list. On the best days, it's gratifying and fulfilling. On the worst days, you're running around like a chicken with its head cut off, but still not getting work done, and you just wonder to yourself "What the hell am I doing running my own business?!". But then somehow, you pull it all together and you continue on. So to all you other small business owners (esp. those that have to manage employees-I don't envy you)-I salute you.

And have I mentioned that I'm going to be an Aunt?! My sister is 21 weeks pregnant. I'm going to have a nephew! be prepared to see lots of baby pictures soon :)

Store Closing

Monday, April 7, 2008 - 14:01:08 EDT

A really beautiful and eclectic Gift Shop that carried my items has just closed it doors. The Painted Daisy Artique in Eureka, MO just a few years ago was distinguished as one of the top 100 retailers in the US for unique hand made items...i.e. the kind of store that all artists wanted to have carry their work. So, I'm pretty sad about this.

But because of this, I have all my inventory back from the store now, and I will be listing it on the for sale page....it will give my site a nice needed boost of new inventory. I"ll get those things posted as soon as I can. I have a lot of deadlines to meet with my other business (Orthodoxweddingcrowns.com), but hope to get to this very soon.

Dinner with the President

Saturday, March 29, 2008 - 19:45:42 EDT

...or maybe not.

I received a very interesting piece of mail today. The past few years, I have worked on a couple of events with the National Museum for Women in the Arts. This year, I was invited to their Spring Gala (first time I have actually been invited to an event, rather than donating a glass item for their silent auction that always accompanies their Galas).

It's a beautiful invitation, and on the front it says
"Under the gracious patronage of
President George W. Bush
and Mrs. Laura Bush
the board of trustees of the
National Museum for the arts
requests the pleasure of your company
at the 21st Anniversary Gala , etc....."

Now doesn't that initially read as thought the President would actually be at this event?

But I think we have decided that it just means that W. and his wife support the museum (Laura Bush has supposedly been to the Gala's where my work has been shown and auctioned off). And inside the invitation is says that the Distinguished honorary guests are Ambassador of Portugal and his wife.

It's a Black tie event (fun!), but it's also $500 a ticket. And since we don't live in D.C. anymore, there's also the cost of the plane ticket, etc... So, I have no plans of going, but it was really neat to get this invitation.

And I do have every intention of submitting work to the upcoming Swope Art Gallery exhibit....And while that's not a big National Art Gallery , that's ok. It's a locally famous place, and that's good enough for me. A "gala" event there would be just as fun.

Finally...some art news!

Friday, March 28, 2008 - 14:28:14 EDT

I just found out that the Swope Museum of Art in Terre Haute (my hometown)currently has a call for entries for the upcoming Wabash Valley Exhibit. Deadline for entires is April 12. I think I have a few show-worthy things to try and submit--and I might have just enough time to make one or two more, if I get my studio uncovered fast enough!!

Frist run of the season

Wednesday, March 26, 2008 - 14:28:35 EDT

I mean, fIRst run of the season...still having problem spelling over here.

You might recall me mentioning that I had to take a break from running for a little over a month because of all the neck problems. Apparently, I'm responding really well to the neck and back adjustments, so I get to start running again. I went out and just did a quick mile on Monday. That went pretty well. I was allowed to do 1.5 miles yesterday. That one was only OK. I felt great during the run. But my back and neck and very fatigued today. So even though it is gorgeous today, I think today has to be a rest day.

We've got an electrician scheduled to come and do several projects around here, while will allow us to finish up many of our outstanding house projects, so that's all going well.

On the business front: my other business is keeping me extremely busy still. everyone is getting ready for those late spring wedding right now.

As we finish up some of those outstanding house projects, that we will now be able to do because of the electrician coming over tomorrow, we will be continually pulling materials out of the garage for use in the house (i.e. shower walls, shower door, drywall, light fixtures, bed frame). And all of that stuff is currently trapping my glass studio. So as those materials get put into place, my glass studio will once again be free and ready to go! So we're almost there....just a wee bit longer.

Last week, I mentioned that we were re-doing my office, so to speak (i.e. I bought new office furniture)..and all of it is now built and has been put into place. I'm still loading everything else in, so i don't want to post pictures of the whole office yet...but i have to leave you with this sneak peek. This is Rufus testing out my new storage system. He's very thorough as you can see.

Mystery Solved

Thursday, March 20, 2008 - 15:40:39 EDT

Those mystery bulbs are: more Tulips (looked different than some others I have growing), a yellow crocus (which has already opened up this afternoon!), and hyacinths. Thanks, Diana (my friend back out in MD)

SPRING!

Thursday, March 20, 2008 - 11:19:10 EDT

Today is the fist day of Spring! The rain stopped sometime last night, and it's actually a sunny day. I'm so excited to finally have my own yard for the start of the spring/summer season! I have already started on some simple garden plans--leaving enough room in places so that if I see some really neat plants at a random nursery, I can still get them and have a place for them!

Also, a very nice surprise is that the previous owner planted lots and lots of bulbs. They're all popping up now---all over the place! It's such a fun surprise. I know that we have MANY Lily beds (all different varieties). We have lots of Lily-of-the Vally starting to pop up, and even some tulip greens are peeking out. But there are some bulbs that are emerging, whose leaves I can't yet identify. I'm anxious to see the blooms to finally identify them. Here are some pix of those mystery bulbs.

It's too early for Hostas to start coming up, but we have a lot of those. I also plan on stealing some Hosta starts from Josh's Aunt, who has an extensive shade garden...but gotta wait till those start popping out. We also have some Semi-Deciduous ferns in the front...they die back late in the fall. But already, they're getting these cute little green-curl fern fronds forming on their stumps. I for got to get pix of those this morning--but will later.

(...cont'd) SPRING!

Thursday, March 20, 2008 - 11:16:57 EDT

Another patch of interesting bulbs...not sure what these will become. I love the mystery!

and a picture of our lovely sink hole in the back yard, with the city's barricade over it.

(...cont'd) SPRING!

Thursday, March 20, 2008 - 11:07:45 EDT

Couple more pix of the sink hole. A close up, and a view from the East side of out house looking South. That pool of standing water is right next to the sewer grate, and then the sink hole is a few feet North of that grate. What we thinking happened is that some drainage tiles cracked...so water is leaking out of the sewer drain and into the surrounding ground, washing it away, thus a sink hole formed. So it's going to be a mess to get this fixed.

In the wide-shot picture, you can see that there is a very large tree to one side, and our backyard fence along the other. The space left between is not wide enough for a truck. So either the City is going to have to come through someone else's yard (eek), or our fence is going to have to come down. We're not particularly attached to the current fence--we think the previous owner installed it himself. But still, if the City takes it down, the city has to put it back up. We'll see!

rain rain go away

Wednesday, March 19, 2008 - 7:43:29 EDT

At least it's not snow...

Spring is finally in the air in Indiana, and we're already getting those April showers. I haven't mucked my way through the back yard and all its pools of water to see how our sink hole is doing. I don't think I want to get too close with how saturated the ground is right now (raining for 2 days straight with another full day of rain predicted). I'm currently having nightmares of the city coming out tomorrow or Friday to fix the sink hole...but the ground will surely still be muddy. And they are going to have to drive through our whole yard to get to the very back where the sink hole is. In big. heavy. trucks. argh.

Well what's the news on the business front you ask? Well I have the same ole answer for the glass stuff---"not yet". But I reiterate that it's not for a lack of desire, just a lack of time. I'm actually just excited that my hair is finally long enough, again, that I can start to kind of twist it up. And that means I get to use my fun little glass-hair pins to pull back my wild mess-o-curls. I chopped off my hair in August to donate to Locks-of-Love (or is if Locks for Love?). Anyway, I donated it....and it's been at an awkward length for a while, but I'm almost back to looking "normal" again :).

On tap for the day: crowns, crowns, and more crowns (my other business www.orthodoxweddingcrowns.com). It's definitely wedding season, but I'm not complaining...just busy. Also, have I mentioned that Josh has been helping me to make my office more 'ergonomic' since I developed my neck problem? Well he is! We should be done with my office re-do by next week, I'll post pix then!

And I leave you with cute kitty pix. Mickey and Rufi acting as bench-top inspectors. When Josh and I were raising my work surfaces (as part of my new ergonomic plan) I had to clear everything off of them. And so Mickey and Rufi had to hop up there and inspect everything. And you'll notice that Rufi also had to help himself to some of my Pineapple plant. Stinker.

Sink hole = big sand pit?

Friday, March 14, 2008 - 14:21:21 EDT

I'm teasing!

Seriously, though, we have a sink hole in our back yard! All the snow has finally melted off around here and the weather was so nice the past few days that I've started to kind of take survey of everything for the upcoming spring. I was walking all around the house and around the backyard in the easement and saw a 1 ft diameter hole. There's no dirt or anything around it. just a hole in the ground. I looked down, and it goes on FOREVER. Not good! This sink hole is about 2 ft away from a drainage pit that has a grate over it....but I'm wondering if something is wrong with the drainage pit and caused some major erosion around it.

I just got off the phone with the Mayor's office and they're sending someone out to look at it. Hopefully it is close enough to city property or because of the city drain that the city will pay for fixing it....not us.

In other news:
Neck update: My neck locked up a few weeks ago because my neck is too straight. So it's not exactly a disc problem that I have going on, but more of a whole spine-alignment thing. I fell and injured my back when I was 9yrs old. All the PT I did as I was growing up was really only for pain management, not really to realign things. And now it has come back to haunt me. What's wrong you ask? Well, my hips are uneven --> so I have been compensating for about 20 years, which has cause my spine to curve out to the left (should be straight from side to side, when then has whipped my neck too straight. Yes, my neck is WAY too straight...And the neck muscles which are already having to work overtime to support my head (since it's not cushioned back in the curve of the neck, but rather sticking way out), got strained when I was wallpapering. Which made the muscles lock-up and bulge.

What does this mean? It's means I have to see a Chiropractor 3x a week for a month, then 2x a week for a month, then 1x a week for a month, all in an effort to straighten things back out.

Who knows, by the end of my treatment, I may be a little taller (says the 5'2" lady)!!! But this also means that I can't run right now :( It's too jarring. Only low-impact stuff for Annie right now. And I'm really having to watch how much I'm at the computer now, too. Using the mouse (I'm right handed), tenses up my neck...isn't that pathetic?? My immediate pain is now gone, but i'm still pretty tight...but I'm getting much better, and starting to feel a lot better. so that's good.

It's a very busy crown season right now (my other business orthodoxweddingcrowns.com)....but warm weather is almost here...which means I will INSIST on getting the garage studio set up so I can make some pretty glass things for all of you. Soon, I promise.

Wallpaper advice

Monday, March 3, 2008 - 18:02:44 EST

The past few weeks have been a hodgepodge of work and play. I'm getting incredibly antsy to get the glass business back up and running...and am definitely getting closer to that reality. Josh and I have made a lot of headway on the house these last 2 weeks. So much so, that we see the light at the end of the tunnel of our remodel. In fact, the space that I allot on my mind for "home remodel thoughts" is starting to allow room for thoughts of my spring garden planning!

Crown work has been keeping my busy otherwise...it is the upward slope to the Spring wedding season. I actually went out and bought a new toy the other day to aid in my efforts. I purchased Craftsman Bench Grinder. The Grinder wheels will be nice to having to shape really thick silver or copper. But what is even nicer is that I got some large polishing wheels that I can swap out with the grinder wheel. So now, I can do some heavy duty polishing like the pros!

Now the not so great news: I did something to my neck! Last weekend, I was hanging a huge wallpaper mural (8'x12' map of the world), and ever since then my neck and back have been hurting. And the neck pain has actually gotten WORSE over time! I have a bulging spot on the back-right side of the neck that is just pure pain. It hurts to lay down, it hurts to sit up, it hurts to move. So I went to the Dr. today. He took some x-rays, but didn't say much else, other than to ice it 4 times a day. I go back tomorrow to see what the x-rays show. hopefully it's just a mass of knotted muscle, and not a disc problem.

But some buts of advice I have learned from this regarding wallpaper:
1)If you really really insist on hanging wallpaper (really not a fan of it, but this was a huge map of the world!! It was a Christmas gift from years ago), hire someone else to do it. 2) Don't want to pay someone to hang wallpaper? Then make sure that you are a tall person. Tall people will have much greater success in hanging wallpaper, are much less apt to over-strain themselves. 3) DO NOT hang a wallpaper mural (whose panels are wider than normal wall paper widths) if you are 5'2" and your name is Ann.

Morning

Monday, February 11, 2008 - 7:34:53 EST

Joshy-boy fixed my sewing machine! Turns out it was a fairly easy fix, so all is right in the world again.

we got a bit of housework done this weekend, but not a whole lot, as I was doing business work all of Saturday (and into Sunday morning...). The most exciting part of what we got done yesterday included hanging a new light in our bedroom closet, putting down baseboards in the kitchen, and I've started over-hauling a china cabinet.

Josh and I are not formal people by any stretch of the imagination. But now that we have a house, and a dining room table (well, it's the everyday table, we don't have a formal dinging room...), and new chairs, I did have to be all weird and insist that we have a china-cabinet of sorts. Our dining room is a very open space that connects the open kitchen to the open living room-type area (i'll be posting lots of before and after pix once we're done with the space). So we needed something of a very specific style. And we just couldn't find anything. But I wouldn't back down, as I have some pretty pottery and we do have china, that I want to store and display properly.

After having repeated bad luck with all of the traditional methods of buying furniture (i.e. stores where the furniture was too expensive-wrong color-not good quality-not right style) we turned to craigslist. We found a family who was going to be moving and didn't want to mess with taking their china cabinet. And as luck would have it, it was PERFECT! perfect price, style, amount of storage, overall size...everything! So we went and picked it up last week. We're doing some work to freshen it up (it's nice and old), and I will post some great before and after pix once we're done with that piece (I'm starting the work on it today).

But i have to get some business work done first before I can go play with furniture. So I leave you with a pic of a sleepy, fuzzy kitty:

Close-up

Saturday, February 9, 2008 - 23:14:00 EST

Close-up of grumpy helper kitty :)

the crazy life i lead

Saturday, February 9, 2008 - 23:06:21 EST

Do you recall me mentioning some months ago about how I was starting to do some sewing for my Brother-in-Law's hovercraft business (slipstreamhover.com)? Well, I am. I sew the skirts for the hovercrafts (the thing under the vehicle that holds the air and allows it to hover). So, hovercraft sales are picking up this time of year (as are crown sales (orthodoxweddingcrowns.com), so I've been pretty overloaded with work lately. You could say, I've been burning the midnight oil lately trying to fill a couple skirt orders.

And my sewing machine, knowing how stressed out I am already, decided to completely jam up on me :( It won't work! It's also JUST OVER 1 year...so out of warranty. So seeing as how it's no longer covered by warranty repair, I'm letting Josh take a crack at fixing it for me. Josh has his phd in aerospace engineering....and I kinda figured that fixing a sewing machine wouldn't require a rocket scientist, right? Yeah, that may not be the case here....not too sure, yet.

Pictures below are of Josh and his little helper kitty, Mickey.....and my sad sad sad skeleton of a sewing machine. I have since run out to target and purchased an inexpensive back-up machine to get me through. I have rationalized this but thinking that if I'm going to be doing this much sewing on a fairly regular basis, it may not be a bad idea to have a back-up machine.

amusing business story

Friday, February 1, 2008 - 9:23:48 EST

so this story is about another business. I always get a laugh when I experience, first hand, the breakdown of communication that can occur in the business world. I know stuff like this happens...and especially the larger the business, the more potential for mis-communication...but here's the story nonetheless:

Some of you may recall that over the summer, I switched from wearing contacts full time back to wearing glasses. I purchased a cute new pair of glasses from a frame store that I've never used before. This store is a chain, and seemed reputable enough. Aside from the fact that this store didn't have the lens lab right in the store, and I had to wait about 2 weeks to get the lenses, I was pretty satisfied with the deal I got. And while the lenses were fairly well made/good quality, they didn't have quite the polished edge finesse that I had noticed on my lenses from other stores.

after about 4 months, I started having problems with one lens continually coming loose in the frames. Repeated in-store adjustments, a larger screw, and a lot of "gimmie a break, people. I should not be having this problem with 4 month old (actually by this time 6 month old) glasses! Finally the manager agreed that the frames were a lemon and said she'd re-order them

over a week goes by, and I don't hear anything. I call the store and I get an "Oh, yeah, we can't get those anymore. come in and pick out a new pair." OK --while I'm bummed that I can't get these same glasses (which is probably ok, as I might have had the same problems), I'm happy they immediately offered me a new set altogether.

I went in about 2.5 weeks ago and picked out a new set of frames. The people were great, they efficiently put my order together, and didn't give me any hassles. I got a call the other night saying that the glasses were ready. Yeah!

I went in yesterday to pick up the glasses. I put the new frames on and couldn't see anything out of them! I have a very strong prescription (-9 in both eyes + astigmatism) and so it's more than obvious when something is off with the lenses. I immediately said "there's nothing in here. These are not my prescription, in fact these are blank lenses."

The guy helping me looked at me like I was a total idiot. And I told him to look for himself. And wouldn't ya know, I was right. He pulls out the invoice for the frames, and says that no prescription was included in the order. So I asked, "So what did I wait over 2 weeks for? Did you actually ship these glass off to have a pair of blank lenses made for them?" "Uh. I guess so."

The Manager comes over. It was finally figured out that THEIR computer system does not contain my prescription...but the lab's system does have my script on file. So somehow or someone wiped my script from the store's computer file. and the labs, rather than verifying the script with the computer system, just made a new set of blank lenses.

All I can think is -wow-what a waste of time and money and material!

Supposedly, the company is going to try and do a rush-turnaround for me. I'm supposed to hear from them in 1 week. We'll see.



Zen Cat photo of the day:

Ann, why so many cat pictures these days?

Wednesday, January 30, 2008 - 8:57:04 EST

Well, I figure I need to show you all something. and since i don't have any new beads to show you, i figure kitty's are the next best thing. and if you like kitty's, and don't know about http://icanhascheezburger.com then visit that site, and you'll love it. Trust me, though, I'm really trying hard to make sure I don't turn into a crazy cat lady. Just slightly over-excited cat lady.

So, about this picture. Last night, I had been doing some knitting. I stopped and thought I put things away well enough (knowing that Rufus is the biggies yarn thief there ever was!!). I was working on putting clean sheets back on the bed (because as you can see from Micky's pix, yesterday was Laundry day)when Josh noticed in his periphery that Rufus had walking into the room.

Josh thought Rufi had a toy mouse in this mouth and was laughing because Rufi walking in so calmly and went into his "caboose"--huge kitty carrier that we use on road trips, but leave set up under a window for the boys to sit on and play in. But the more Josh thought about it, he realized that they didn't have a toy mouse quite as large as what he thought he saw just then. and he went and looked in the caboose, and started cracking up. I went to look for myself and there it was: Rufi found my yarn stash and tried to slink into his hide-out with a ball of yarn. Little yarn thief was caught red-handed. or rather, pink in this case.

1-29-08

Tuesday, January 29, 2008 - 14:12:49 EST

Rufi Says...

Monday, January 28, 2008 - 12:24:05 EST

Friendly Reminder

Monday, January 28, 2008 - 7:42:40 EST

This is just a friendly reminder about my policies. If you have ordered something off my website, but have not yet received it...it's because I have not yet received payment. I cannot ship items until payment is received. This policy is upheld regardless of who you are: friend, aunt, retail store, the president...you get the idea (ok,ok, I do make an exception for my mom....).

All other (online) business operate in this same fashion: You pay, and THEN you get your item. So please have the same respect for me and my business that you show to all other companies. I may be small, but that doesn't make me any less official. Thanks for understanding!

Good Morning

Monday, January 28, 2008 - 7:18:22 EST

There's a lot on tap for today, including a little more recuperation.

Last week I was dealing with a cracked molar. The molar has been cracked for awhile now, and I have had a bit of pressure-type pain associated with it. I have been to see my Uncle Sam multiples times in trying to fix the tooth in a very conservative fashion. You see, I really didn't want a crown. And for what it's worth, my Uncle Sam truly is the best dentist--ever! http://www.slcdentistry.com/default.aspx. It was actually another dentist (out in MD) who cracked my tooth, and is now the reason that I will never see any other dentist, only Uncle Sam. So good thing we're back in IN...but I still have to drive a few hours to get to Uncle Sam's office. But I digress.

Well, unbeknownst to me, during this whole time, the nerve in that molar was starting to get pretty irritated. I didn't really feel the nerve pain during all of this. But it was decided that a root-canal should be done to get the nerve out, and then go from there--whether I get a crown, or we figure something else out. Well, it turned out to be a MONSTER of a root canal. My tooth was very unhappy.

4 numbing shots and a few hours later I had a perfectly packed molar with the most wicked little insert you've ever seen. Uncle Sam has a mini CNC machine in his office. He's got a device that takes a 3-D pic of the tooth, and in my case, the huge hole I had in my tooth after the root canal. A computer programs maps out how your tooth should look (all the hills and valley's of a molar), and it sends the pattern wirelessly to this CNC machine. A small ceramic blank is put into the machine, and 2 little diamond bit drills go to work milling a perfectly shaped component. The ceramic blanks come in dozens of shades, so it matches your teeth perfectly. And in my case, this little insert was bonded into my tooth for a perfect fit, and you can't even tell that anything was even done! I got to watch the piece get made, so that helped take the 'sting' out of having to get all of this done.

And while I am SO happy I didn't have to get a crown, I was still left in a lot of pain from the long root-canal procedure/unhappy tooth. So that's why i was on pain meds and antibiotics. I'm just on Ibuprofen now, and still finished up the antibiotics.

What's really funny is that during all of this, Josh came down with Strep throat on Thursday. So we were a pathetic couple for a few days there. But Josh is 100% better (in fact he was 100% better on Saturday, when he had just been to the dr Thursday night (we caught the Strep symptoms really early).

And of course during all of this is when crown orders started picking up again. Go figure. So I'm way behind in my work.

news on the glass front: Well, I know that Valentines day is nearing. I'm not any closer that I was last week to having my glass studio set up, so I'm not sure when I'll get to make more glass hearts for all of you!

more info on all that later.

Update

Wednesday, January 23, 2008 - 21:47:31 EST

Well, I guess I didn't start the year off very well on this site...I've been severely lacking in my updates the past few weeks, haven't I? Well, I guess a lot of that can be attributed to the fact that not a lot of glass 'stuff' has been going on.

Josh and I have made a lot of progress in recent weeks on the house. Things are finally starting to take shape with the whole-house remodel. And even better: We spent all of MLK day working out in the garage. It was flippin' freezing, but we unloaded the garage, hung up a bunch of shelving, set up some temporary work tables for josh, and then loaded everything back into it....and everything has a space now! We're even able to park his car in the garage now!

As for the glass studio, well, it's seen better days. It's still mostly dismantled. Have i told you how we changed our mind about the master bathroom vanity. If you recall, it was going to be taken out and put in my studio, and an unused door was to be it's work top. and it was going to be perfect working and storage space. Well, after the first attempt of removing the vanity, we realized the pluming had the cabinet locked into place, for lack of better way to describe it. so that idea was thrown out. BUT now, it's back on the table. We ARE taking out the vanity and it will be going into my studio. it just hasn't happened yet. I have moved all of my stuff out of the way in preparation of the vanity getting moved in....we just haven't done it yet.

So, once the vanity is moved in, the i will have a place to put everything, including all the glass. Now having said that, once the vanity is in place, does not necessarily mean i will be able to get right to the torch. Garage temperature has started to play a large role in my glass work. When the garage is below about 50 degrees, it negatively impacts the pressure in my fuel tank (i.e. cold = low pressure = low, cold flame = long working times on even small pieces, burnt glass from trying to speed up the process, and most importantly: a very cold Annie). But I'm working on a blanket system for the tank to keep it insulated. So i will definitely keep you posted on that that progress.

And I hope this update has made sense. I'm not entirely coherent this evening...which may have something to do with being hopped up on pain meds. Why am I on pain meds? Well, that's a really long story, so I'll just say that after a long day, I still hurt. So I'm getting ready to take some more pain killers, an antibiotic, and then it's to bed with me. see you in the morning.

Work update

Monday, January 7, 2008 - 12:17:17 EST

While today is eerily warm, I don't think that I will be doing any torching. Instead, I need to work on straightening the garage/glass studio. We're switching around my work-top surfaces out there...but don't have all the pieces yet. So, even though I had a functioning studio a few weeks ago, things are currently torn down and a bit of a mess. The good news in all of this, though, is that the web cam is mostly ready to go. I just need to get a tutorial on how to use it again!

I am going to be moving my 'photo studio' inside today, since I really need to photograph things for my other site (orthodoxweddingcrowns.com), and don't have a work surface due to the switcher-ooing.

I don't have a good answer as to when I'll be torching again, it just depends on how things line up schedule wise with getting my studio set back up (again). I'll keep you posted on that.

On a more personal note, Josh and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary last Thursday. It's very strange to put a number to how long we've been married! we celebrated by eating Chinese food leftovers and watching a movie. We're exciting people :). But actually, last night we went out for a very nice dinner and came home and worked on out wood floor some more.

we had a very productive weekend with regard to the house...we're all done with the flooring in the kitchen, and just have a bit more to do in the the rest of the living room..then it's to the hallway and bedrooms. Everything looks really great so far!

Also, this weekend, we acquired a treadmill (mother-in-law was storing it for her friend, it wasn't being used, and I'm going CRAZY with the cold weather and not being able to run everyday). Josh and his dad and brother got it moved and all set up for me yesterday! And of course that reassured that today's weather is record setting-ly warm, but it's getting cold again next week, and I feel so lucky to now be able to run indoors and maintain my sanity.

And speaking of running, I've been out for today's run already, and am now going to go eat some leftovers from last nights yummy Italian dinner!

Ocean/Galaxy/Outerspace/Funky

Wednesday, January 2, 2008 - 7:51:34 EST

Not sure what to start calling this style, but I sure have had fun with my initial results...and plan on doing a lot more.

New experimental piece #1

Wednesday, January 2, 2008 - 7:38:51 EST

She didn't turn out quite as expected, but I feel like I'm heading in a good direction. I had a very specific color in mind for her face, and did a custom color blend. Her face ended up with some color striations, which I kind of enjoy, but the color wasn't quite what I was going for.

In person, the shaping of the face and nose come off really great, but I need to work on the eyes some more. The Dense black in this piece didn't photograph well in the eyes, and shading around nose. In person, though, it comes off nicely. I need to work on the eye shaping to get the real look I was trying to go for...things got a little blurred on one eye. I'm really pleased with the lips, though!

Sometimes the very first piece of a new idea is the hardest...You're putting into hard form ideas you've had floating around in your head for days, weeks or even months. Sometimes you luck out and can create your exact thoughts on your first try. But more times than not, it take a few iterations or accurately represent you imagination. and I feel like I'm getting there, but still have a lot of work to do.

Good start to the new year

Wednesday, January 2, 2008 - 7:19:22 EST

The holidays were a different experience for Josh and me this year. In the past, since we lived in MD, we would have to do some pretty hefty traveling over a pretty condensed amount of time. All of our family lives in IN. And Josh would have limited time off from Grad work to do all this visiting. Plus the fact that since we didn't see our family that often because of our distance, it made the trips that much more anticipated, stressful, emotional, you name it. But, now that we're in IN ourselves, things were what you might call "NORMAL!". Bizarre, huh?

Josh now works for Rolls Royce Aircraft Engines (performance engineer), and the plant has a winter shut-down. So he automatically had Friday before Christmas through yesterday off. But today, it's back to the normal schedule with a super-cold day to greet him.

Our break went by so quickly, and we didn't get nearly everything done that we wanted to....but it was a good time. and I'm happy with the little bit of progress we made on the house during the past week and a half.

So what's in store for Clo Glassworks in 2008? A lot more than what happened in 2007 I can tell you that. Because of our move, i was knocked out of commission for quite some time. Things are starting to continue on in a normal pattern, more projects are getting completed, and more time is getting freed up for me to start devoting back to glass work. I did have some time before Christmas to do a bit of torching...but I couldn't post the pictures of those items, as they were Christmas gifts! But now Christmas is over, and you can see the direction that I'm starting to head with my work. pics to be posted in the next entry.

so there is a lot in store for this next year...including my almost ready torch-cam dedicated computer!

cutest mouse ever!

Friday, December 21, 2007 - 8:06:24 EST

There's this wonderful woodworker that I know, his name is Ray Rickert. He's located in Terre Haute, IN, and I met Ray and his lovely wife, Shirley, waaay back when I was "Designs by Ann Corey" and doing local shows. Ray makes some of the most beautiful wooden toys, not to mention all of his great functional pieces for the home as well. He also makes these very interesting and often intricate pieces made in the Intarsia style.

Well, every year, I have a standing order with Ray for an airplane. This wooden airplane is always my gift to Josh at Christmas, and this gift has become quite the anticipate item each year, "OH, I wonder what this year's plan will look like??!" Each year he outdoes himself....not only with design, but also with his choices of wood (he uses fun touches of exotic woods).

Well, this year, Ray has something up his sleeve. Apparently, he's doing something a little different-a little surprise, shall we say, and it's driving me nuts not to know!! I got an email from him the other day saying that he was putting the final touches on the design and said he attached a pic of the piece.

But, of course, he "accidentally" attached the wrong picture. Which really got a laugh out of me...and it's fine, as it just adds to the suspense of getting to see this year's plane. But I had to show you all the pic he emailed me.

This piece shows you the Intarsia style---specifically the mouse. All those detail lines in the mouse are actually seams. The mouse is made up of several pieces of extremely well fitting, sculpted, individually sanded pieces of wood. Crazy, huh? Now tell me that Mouse doesn't make you smile!

Last day of work for 2007!

Friday, December 21, 2007 - 7:52:34 EST

Sort of...

It's been a busy week around here. Lots of last minute orders to ship out for both the glass business and the crown business. I've also managed to make 20 lbs of caramels (yes, 20 lbs) in the past 2 weeks, plus a double batch of gingerbread cookies and some gingersnap cookies. My family is celebrating Christmas this weekend and we'll be back in Indy in time to spend Christmas day with Josh's family.

Josh has until Jan 2nd off from work, so we're looking forward to getting some really solid house-work time between Christmas and New Years. We have definite goals of what we would like to have finished by the end of his break. I'll try and stay current with fun house-work photos during this time.

As for my work: Well, there are several things to say here:
1. Torch Cam--for the most part, it's up and running!
2. Over this break, we're going to re-vamp my glass studio a wee-bit. And at the same time, we'll officially set up the web cam!
3. As I posted on my crown site (orthodoxweddingcrowns.com), I'll still ship orders for things that are in stock, but I will not be working on custom orders until after the New Year. I want to use this "free time" to play around with some new crown designs...which will in turn free up time during my normal schedule to get more torching time in.
4. I have had some really really fun ideas running around my head for some neat glass pieces, so I really hope to bring those to you early next month.

Ok, I guess that's it...it seemed like a lot more in my head!

Merry Christmas!

Snowy Saturday

Saturday, December 15, 2007 - 16:38:51 EST

we woke up to a dusting of snow on the ground this morning, and it continued to snow for a few hours. We've got a few inches on the ground, with more predicted for tonight. Starting to feel like Christmas...

And last night was Josh's office Christmas party. I finally got to put faces with names last night, and the party was held at the Indiana State Museum It was a nice dinner and evening, and we were easily one of the youngest couples there. But all of Josh's co-workers are great, and I really enjoyed getting to meet them...finally....I wonder what they think of me??

But I know you're really just curious about what I've done work wise the past few days. Well, honestly, it's been a lot of 'behind the scenes' type work. Fill orders, shipping packages, and re-ordering materials. All the fun details of a business. I'm doing a few hours of office work today to prepare for a busy week ahead. I really am looking forward to getting to the torch at some point. I had some really crazy fun ideas for some 'critter' pendants. But not critters in the sense that you may thinking of... You'll just have to wait and see! I think that all day Monday will be crowns work, but maybe I can plan for Tuesday to be a glass day. Honestly, a lot of it depends on how cold it's going to be next week.

Even though my shop is in the agrage, the outside temp really impacts the way the fuel produces the flame (how hot and intense the flame is)...which substantially impacts the glass (they way it melts and if it burns or reduces). So i need it to be at least above freezing outside for the garage to have a temp of about 45 degrees. Temps any lower than 45, and things just don't work well (and it's just TOO COLD to work out there anyway). So we'll see what the weather is like next week.

Tonight, Josh's brother is supposed to come over and assist us in installing more wood flooring. With any luck at all, we'll get the kitchen completed this evening! I'll post pix later!

sticky

Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - 7:43:41 EST

So, I made the first batch of caramels last night. And unexpectedly, making caramels on an electric range was much different than making them on a gas range (like i had been doing that last 3 years).

How different you ask?

boiling over different.

Yeah, the caramels boiled over, but i saved them just in the nick of time! But wow.....can you say sticky? And then not 20 minutes after I finished the caramels, I got a call from josh. He was back in town and in his office parking lot and the VW engine light was flashing, engine running really rough, and smoke was pouring out of the back. So i ran out to pick him up. And this was my first time driving to his office, but I managed to find it, despite it being a very very dark and very very rainy night. So Josh has the Subi today and is arranging to have the VW towed to the dealer. We'll see what comes of all that. But that also means I can't run to the bank and do some super-secret Christmas shopping like I was planning! Guess that means I have to actually WORK all day. Novel Idea.

..or...

Tuesday, December 11, 2007 - 18:59:33 EST

i had it right the first time, and my website was just playing tricks on me. sorry.

whoops

Tuesday, December 11, 2007 - 18:55:53 EST

i guess i already have pictures on the webserver by the same name as the new flooring pictures!....here are the current flooring pix...really.

Tuesday evening

Tuesday, December 11, 2007 - 18:45:59 EST

Josh had another overnight trip to start off the week...and he's due home late tonight. I'm going to attempt to make my first batch of caramels for the year this evening...and fun thing for him to get to come home to. Since Josh was out of town yesterday, and I had work mostly under control, I scooted over to T.H. to have lunch with my Grandma and meet up with my friend Sarabeth for dinner..and of course to see my mom and dad!. I came home this afternoon and have been playing catch-up since!

Torch cam update: Josh has the part we need for my laptop on order. Once this part arrives, then Josh will set up the laptop as the web cam 'host'. So we're almost there!

I have several crowns to make tomorrow (my other business: orthodoxweddingcrowns.com), and some Melting Hearts to ship out to some of you lovely people. I'm not sure what else tomorrow holds, But I would like to get some more glass pretties made to show all of you! Until then, you'll have to settle for pictures of how much wood flooring we have done thus far:

Yar, there be more snow!

Friday, December 7, 2007 - 11:44:06 EST

said the snow pirate :)

We got an additional 2 inches or so of snow last night. so I just got back from a run in it :). Out in Maryland, when i would go running in the snow, it was just a figure of speech, because the city did a ridiculously good job of keeping even the sidewalks consistently shoveled. so i was more or less, just running amongst the snow for the most part. Well, out here, our neighborhood does the normal street plowing, and if any sidewalks are cleared, it's at the discretion of the homeowner.....and so needless to say, the sidewalks are all covered with 6 inches of snow. And in my unprofessional opinion, running is snow is similar to running in sand--you have a squishy under-layment and more resistance, and so the side muscles have to work more to keep you steady, so it's a lot more fatiguing than running on a clear normal day. But it's still really fun, because you're running in the snow! But really, it's only fun if it's fresh snow. If it's well used snow, then there are foot tracks frozen in it, and it's really easy to tweak an ankle or slip. So stay in the fresh stuff, and wear cuffed tights to keep the cold snow off your skin, and you're good to go!

Ok, enough about snow-running. Tonight our priest is coming to bless our house (it's an annual even in Orthodox Christian homes, not sure about other religions...it's normally done around Easter, but you can have it done when you move into a new home, or other special circumstances). So I need to clean around our construction mess as best as possible (nothin' like accidentally leaving underwear out for your priest to see..ugh).

this weekend, Josh and I are accompanying my sister and her husband to a Ball! It's a Christmas Party/Fundraiser for charity that a co-worker of Alisa's started. And it's quite the event. so after cleaning, I'm going to run out into the garage and make a really fun pendant that I just thought of (nothing like getting to make your own jewelry on demand!)

Am i good, or what

Wednesday, December 5, 2007 - 7:46:56 EST

So was it just yesterday that I said I needed to pray for snow? my word of honor, I didn't know snow was predicted for our area last night until around 7pm. and we got a solid 4 inches of snow over night! Once the sun actually rises, i may try to get out for a little bit.....

Updates all around

Tuesday, December 4, 2007 - 10:44:04 EST

* I have my morning business work and emails under control, So I am going back to work on that master closet and try and get it done before Josh gets home tonight!

* I also have a big date scheduled with the torch. I have hearts of many colors I need to get made!!

* we haven't forgotten about the Torch-cam. Josh is ordering a new part to make my old laptop function again. And once that is up and working, it will go out in the garage with me and host the webcam from out there (rather than running wired from my office out to the garage like my hair-brain scheme entailed). But, I'm waiting for Joshy-boy to order that part :)

*It's flippin' cold here, and I don't like it! Out in D.C., being close to the ocean kept the weather and temperatures pretty moderate. That isn't to say it got very cold and snowy on occasion out there...but not until February. So I'm having to re-adjust big time to Indiana winters again. My rule used to be that I would go out for a run if it was 30 degrees or above. I have the winter gear to make running in that weather bearable. But man, the wind chill factor here in the midwest is brutal! ...besides the fact it's been under 30 degrees for the past 4 days. yuck. Once there's snow on the ground, it feels warmer, so I guess I just need to pray for snow, eh?

and last, but not least: look at this dog! Is he not adorable? My friend just sent me a picture of this little guy---he's the newest addition to their family....and I just want to eat him up!

Ye of little faith

Monday, December 3, 2007 - 23:15:05 EST

I got nearly everything on my list done the other day...all but the torching, that is. Just had to let you know :). Josh is out of town on a business trip today/tomorrow. I'm finishing up the master closet while he is away...I'll post pix tomorrow of the finished masterpiece...and then I will get back to my main job: melting glass.

Good Morning

Friday, November 30, 2007 - 8:04:53 EST

Well I'm sure you've been wondering where I've been for the past week or so, since my updates have been so sparse. Surprisingly, I've been here--but just busy! I'm having fun being able to get back to my torch in the afternoon, and am trying to be really good about photographing things and posting them right away. So on that note, I will be posting 2 more hearts for sale in a bit. I've also been experimenting with some other 'products' and also some other designs/styles. so lots of fun going on here!

Also, we're making quite a lot of progress on our house, for those of you who are interested. We're moving right along on installing the wood floor, and have about 1/4 of the hallway/livingroom/diningroom/kitchen area completed.

On tap for today? I've already photographed glass and am getting ready to post it. I going to make a set of crowns, photograph those and email my customer. Then I'm going to go repair drywall in the master bedroom closet, then go for a run. and then rip out carpet from master closet and start painting. and then i really want to get some more torching in today. Josh and I already have a 'date' to install flooring when he gets home..but I don't know what time he'll be home today. Anywhere from 4:30 to 7:00. Hmm...think I'll get all my projects in today?

Mickey is here meowing at me telling me 'no way', but it's worth a try!

New Melting Hearts for sale

Wednesday, November 28, 2007 - 9:21:49 EST

I just got done posting several new Melting Hearts on the 'for sale' page. Take a look and let me know what you want! Colors-cheme wise, I know they're mostly blues and green. And I know many of you want purples and pinks and red and yellows....So I'll be working on those today, with hopes of posting them tomorrow.

Mickey Says...

Friday, November 16, 2007 - 11:11:57 EST

...Turn on the light!


Can you tell my kitties are goofy today? Must be the weather...

For Sale

Friday, November 16, 2007 - 10:21:36 EST

I've been in the process of uploading lots or more fun items to the for sale page and gallery page. A "new" product is the set of the 3 bobby pins. I've done hair pins before, but never as a set of 3, or with these fun toppers. I've done floral and animal themes ones, but somehow it didn't occur to me to just make fun colored discs! So I've got some fun sets listed (FYI, I DO combine shipping costs). I'm also getting ready to add more Melting Hearts, but I'm not sure how many I will get posted before my Mother-in-law arrives to whisk me away for a fun afternoon of lunch and shopping.

Good Morning

Friday, November 16, 2007 - 9:46:43 EST

Rufus wanted to say "Good Morning" to everyone. He's currently helping me edit some photos to post on the for sale page....

workin' on it

Thursday, November 15, 2007 - 11:22:49 EST

On that fabulous new work top that Joshy helped me build the other night, I have my new photography set-up all situated....but I'm working on my lighting. I need to re-photograph some things in better lighting and then will have those posted today. Yesterday I went out and got a big ole tank of propane, so I'm going to be torching up a storm this afternoon. Now that I'm relegated to the garage, temperature is now a concern. especially today, as It's really cold here in Indy!! We found a great safe and efficient space heater that I will be testing for the first time today. more soon.

Oh and, Josh has a solution for getting the torch cam set back up!! Not sure when it will happen...but it will happen!

house pix

Wednesday, November 14, 2007 - 13:25:23 EST

Then it was my turn, with Alisa's assistance, to sand the floor while Jason and Josh were moving appliances in the kitchen and pulling up that plywood. When the boys got all that plywood up, we unveiled what was a really poor sub-flooring job in out kitchen. The builders had apparently pieced together several bad pieces of split/cracked plywood, and just glued it all together. It is all structurally sound, just uneven, and big gaps. It wasn'y a big deal to them since they were adding another layer of plywood...but for us, we needed to fix it. So that's me (a very dirty and tired me) smoothing thinset into the cracks of the floor to strengthen and fill in chips and cracks.

we then rolled out our felt paper underlayment for the wood floor, and Josh and I are working on that installation. We have good motivation to keep us going right now: The oven is in the garage, until the kitchen is done. I need my oven by Thanksgiving!! Think we'll get the kitchen done in a week?

house pix

Wednesday, November 14, 2007 - 13:21:57 EST

On Saturday, my sister, Alisa, and her husband, Jason, came over for such much needed assistance in getting up the rest of the plywood underlayment in the kitchen. The previous day I took up the tile floor and the fiber board underlayment, which revealed it's plywood underlayment--so many layers! The kitchen cabineted were installed on top of the underlayment (underlayment is different from subfloor, so we had to cut the plywood away from the cabinets...that's Alisa working on that task. Me in the kitchen and Josh standing in front of the camera.

house pix

Wednesday, November 14, 2007 - 13:17:53 EST

I posted pictures earlier showing the progression of carpet in this house. I finally got all that carpet up and out of here. But that glue-down brown and yellow carpet that was original to the house left quite a bit of foam and glue residue. Additionally, taking up the 1/4" plywood underlayment in the dining room and kitchen uncovered glue residue from that flooring. At first we thought that belt sander would make work pretty decently for smoothing out the floor. Well, that proved to not be the case....belt sander kept getting guncked up, which lead to belt breaking right and left. So we quickly rented a floor sander.

Oh! P.s.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007 - 7:23:42 EST

Josh's dad called last night as we were sitting down to dinner. There is a store here called Gander Mtn...it's sports store, but more themed for hunting and fishing. But they had a bunch of snow boots, and hiking shoes and boots on 75% off marked down prices. So we went there after dinner. I got the cutest pair of pull on rubber rain boots (black with a yellow stripe) for mucking around in my garden this spring for $3.00! When I saw them, I was so excited, but worried because they only had kid sizes. As it turns out, I'm a Youth size 3 (yes, I have small feet). Then, Josh found me a great pair of snow boots--again cute!--they're a tad large, as they didn't quite have my size...but that just means i can wear lots of socks underneath. Those were like 10$. and then we found a great and comfy pair of hiking shoes for $12.00. so what would have normally cost us like $250, cost us $24.83! Josh didn't find anything :( they didn't have his size.

Roughin' It

Wednesday, November 14, 2007 - 7:13:27 EST

So yesterday was an interesting day. I was out in the garage, setting up my glass studio. And I had gone in and out of the house through the garage doe several times already that morning. And in an attempt to go back into the house at one point around 11:30am, the door had locked....and I had no keys. and all the other doors to the house were locked. Yes, I locked myself out of the house. And I had no phone....but that wouldn't have helped anyway. Josh was in meetings all day, and wouldn't have been able to come home to let me in. What happened, you ask? I think the door lock jiggled itself closed after many of my ins and outs.

So, I tried not to panic, prayed that i didn't have use to the bathroom any time soon, and that I didn't get too hungry. The good news is that I was 'forced' to spend some time torching! I got some good work done, but started burning myself repeatedly. And when I get more than 2 burns in 5 minutes, I have a rule that I walk away from the torch before something really bad happens. So I broke into our shed (I couldn't break into our house...i tried....repeatedly....) and grabbed yard tools and got a lot of yard work done yesterday. And luckily, Josh got home at 6:00.

So, we now have a contingency plan for if I ever get locked out again (i.e hidden spare key!). and I will be photographing TONS of stuff to day (on my new handy dandy work table that has my permanent photo set-up!). And I will be posting tons of pictures today. Including some fun house pics from our work this past weekend.

all in an evening's work....

Monday, November 12, 2007 - 21:29:21 EST

Josh and I just got done building a my work table! What does this mean? It means I can finish photographing things and post them, and it means that i have a place to put all of my glass..so that i can start torching! I'm going to go pick his brain about how to get that torch cam set back up....

new items coming soon!

Monday, November 12, 2007 - 13:21:25 EST

I just unpacked some more glass inventory that I can list on the site for sale. It's not a whole lot. But it will hold ya'll over until I can get more things made (hopefully later this week!). I'm going to photograph and list them this afternoon...but first, I have to get our for my run. It's too warm not to get out and play this afternoon!

Adding a new gallery to the list....

Monday, November 12, 2007 - 13:13:15 EST

I will be adding a new gallery to my list of stores that carry my hearts. WICKWIRE fine art/folk art is located in Henderson, NC on Main st. I'm going to wait to list them officially on the website until I've shipped out their order.

And on that note: making and shipping new things. Here's the latest. Josh and I tried to move the vanity out of the master bathroom but hit a big sanfu! The sink plumbing lines come from out of the floor-rather than the wall...and those lines were drilled THROUGH the vanity. So essentially, the vanity is plumbed in! So there goes our grand scheme for replacing that vanity, because it really is not worth the hassle. Like I said before, it's in great condition, just not our dream vanity. BUT, having this puppy being plumbed and fully and permanently situated...well, it will do and be one less expense for the bathroom.

So josh and I have come up with another solution for my workspace. The door that was going to serve as the vanity work top, is still going to be the worktop, but Josh is going to build me a base out of a bunch of scrap 2x4s that we have. It's nice and warm today (Freakishly warm for Nov!), so I'm going to see if we can't build that base tonight, so that I can fire up the torch tomorrow. Because, I"'m serious, I've got some wicked fun things to make and show all of you!

It's cold!!

Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - 7:19:35 EST

Need I say more? I got our pretty fireplace all cleaned up this weekend, and we've got some firewood ready to go...I may need to light a fire tonight (yay!). That's the only good thing about cold weather--getting to have a fire in the fireplace.

And up until now, I was fine with running in the cooler weather, seeing as 50-60 degrees is perfect running weather temperature wise...but today it's going to be in the 40's. I know that doesn't sound that bad, but it's psychological thing for me. It SEEMS a lot colder today. But I hopefully have a remedy to keep me motivated: I get to go buy a new pair of running shoes today. New toys keep the running fun :). You can put a couple hundred miles on a pair of shoes before the go ka-put. And last week, I noticed the padding was feeling flatter and the shoes just weren't that good feeling, and I was getting hot spots on my feet...and I did the math and realized that It was just about time for a new pair of shoes. I was hoping to hold out until Thanksgiving before getting a new pair. But man, when when your shoes start to go downhill, they go downhill FAST! It's like when you tank of gas gets past that halfway point. It seems like you always burn through the last half of the gas tank faster than you did the first half. And yesterday I hit empty: I got 2 blisters on my foot from my run. So yeah, new shoe time!

Work wise, on tap for the day is a lot of crown work, and a lot of house work. I'm still waiting on Josh to help me move a vanity out into the garage as part of my workspace. I need that vanity to put my glass rods onto....so until that happens, I still can't torch. So someone email Josh for me and tell him to help me move the vanity! :)

Busy bee

Saturday, November 3, 2007 - 6:03:18 EDT

It's been non-stop action around here since last weekend. Rufus is sitting here with me right now and agrees with that statement!
Glass news: the past few days i have been working on hanging wire shelving in the garage in my 'studio space'. I got all the shelving up and finished yesterday afternoon, and have started loading them. The only thing I am waiting on-so to speak-in order to finish my studio is the double wide vanity from the master bathroom that will be moved out into the garage as part of my work space. Our M-bath has to be completely re-done (for those of you who aren't aware, we just moved into a great house, but the master bath is a mess and has to be completely gutted). The vanity is in great shape, but not something that we want to re-use in the space if we're getting the opportunity to do our 'dream' bathroom. So it's going to become very valuable work and storage space for me. The door from that bathroom happens to be the exact dimensions, so that will be the 'table top' :). it works out a little too well, eh? So anyway, hopefully we'll move that out to the garage this weekend, then i can finish storing everything, and have a place to set up all my glass. and then i can start torch in my permanent new studio!!! This couldn't come soon enough because yesterday i had the coolest idea for something and I'm itchin' to get to it!

House news: i started taking up the lament wood floor in the dining area of the kitchen. And have also started taking up the 1/4" plywood that was laid down for the original linoleum floor in the dining area. That was surprising not that bad. You get a pry bar under the wood, and the glue and staples just pop-pop-pop. The tricky thing is that plywood sheets are 4X6. I am 5'2"....so these plywood sheets pretty much eat me up. so it's been tricky. Josh has been doing some electrical projects this week, making sure everything is set up properly, installed a new outdoor garage light, put in a really freakin' cool 'smart' dimmer switch in our entry way, and finally patched that hole in the wall from where we took out the half wall. I'm not sure what all will get done this weekend, but I'll be happy if we finish taking up the kitchen floor, move my vanity into the garage, and finish getting carpet padding residue off the living room floor so we can start on the wood floor in there. Keep your fingers crossed!

Halloween Party

Monday, October 29, 2007 - 7:05:25 EDT

This past Saturday was the 8th Annual Halloween Party hosted by my sister and her husband. However, this was the first Halloween party that Josh and I have ever gotten to attend...as we always lived too far out of town to travel in just for the party. But now since we're all in Indy, we were pretty exited to get to attend this year's bash. Josh was Wolfman and I was a Raven. My outfit was a complete and utter rip-off of a Martha Stewart idea. Below is a cute snapshot of Josh and me. i would post pix of my siblings outfits, but I think they would kill me if I did that!

one more pix

Wednesday, October 24, 2007 - 16:17:30 EDT

right after I took josh's pic with Rufus the other night, Josh took a picture of me and Rufus (yes, rufi stayed in the box during all of that). And i just found that pix of "mommy and rufus" --it got filed away into a glass picture folder...so here's one more post with picture of rufi and me. In this picture you can see my new glasses and short hair-do (it's already grown over an inch since I chopped it off 8 weeks ago).

Fun with Rufi

Wednesday, October 24, 2007 - 16:10:26 EDT

2 of my 3 cute boys: Josh and Rufus. Rufus is the cat.

Total 70's

Wednesday, October 24, 2007 - 15:56:54 EDT

I know you love this carpet as much as I do (is my sarcasm coming through?). In our living, the original carpet--which is in surprisingly good shape-is of the glue down variety. When the previous home owners re-carpeted the place, rather than taking up the old carpet...they just laid the new stuff on top. So yesterday, I spent the day taking up turquoise berber, its padding, and then the brown carpet. The original brown carpet also got stapled down courtesy of the carpet padding getting stapled. I was literally grunting as I ripped that carpet off the ground. It felt so good that get that stuff up and out of here. The house smells infinitely fresher now! I have all the tack strips up too. There is quite a bit of glued carpet residue left on the floor, which I am having to scrap up by hand. Next is to tackle the dining room and kitchen floors. I don't have the energy right now to describe all that needs to be done there...but I will next week when I start on it. I'm going to work on posting pix now.

why?!

Wednesday, October 24, 2007 - 11:30:19 EDT

I avoid going into the post office as much as I can...but there are a few times where a shipment requires that I go ship it in person (rather than leaving it for my mailman). so WHY is it that I always get the same incompetent lady at the post office those oh-so-few times I go in???? OH she drives me CRAZY! You know how they always ask you if your package has anything liquid, fragile, perishable or potentially hazardous. So, to err on the side of caution, since what I am shipping usually is fragile, is always reply with "would you please mark it as fragile?" And she always gives me the same rant (yes rant) of "well, do you have it wrapped and padded well..because it don't mean a hill of beans for me to put fragile on this box. so you better have wrapped it well. 'Cuase those machines can't read this stamp. THEN WHY ASK IF IT IS FRAGILE???? I always nicely replay with, yes I have it wrapped well, but i would also like it marked as fragile. So then as she begrudgingly stamps fragile she start going on about how "ok, it better be 'cuase this stamp don't mean nothin'." So then today I just said, well maybe it is for the carrier's benefit, so they know not to throw the package. Well that just opened up on whole other can of worms. "well you do know that your package gets thrown before it ever even gets delivered. those machines toss your packages around. it gets dropped out of a machine onto a conveyor. so this fragile don't mean nothin'...oh yeah, this package will get thrown around.." and this just went on and on..she continued to mutter this as she stared at me and wouldn't continue to process my package until i admitted defeat. I just said "Fine! Just ship it, please. It's wrapped well!" But of course, she kept going on and on and on. There was a huge line behind me. And I'm getting lectured about how they WILL be throwing around my package that is marked fragile, because even though they ask if it is fragile, that stamp "don't mean a hill of beans". Can I just pay for my package and go??! Honestly!

Bah! I'm going out for a run. Then I'll post some hearts for sale.

late sunday night excuses

Sunday, October 21, 2007 - 23:19:36 EDT

so, I know that I haven't posted more things for sale, as promised earlier this week, on my for sale page. My excuse for that this Sunday night is that I was busy this week with house stuff. Tomorrow I am going to be shipping out one more order to a store, and then I WILL start to list the rest of my inventory on the site. I've gotten some emails about additional Melting Heart options...and I know you want to get cracking on your Christmas gift lists...so I'll be able to help you out soon!

This morning I woke up to the phone ringing, thinking that I had overslept and was late to church, and in the middle of a really WEIRD dream. So this morning got off to a rocky start, so later this afternoon i had to take a nap. and because of that, I haven't passed out in bed like I normally have at this time. So right now, I'm lounging in bed, with my incredible fuzzy black cat, Mickey, curled up next to me, snoring his head off. He's got his little head dug into my hip, and his paws wrapped around my leg. It's quite adorable. I love how pets make you feel so loved!

Also this afternoon, I got to visit with my Aunt and Cousin, who came in from out of town. My cousin Gail (whose picture sometimes pops-up on the homepage--she and her friends are wearing melting hearts) just had a baby about 7 weeks ago. And Gail brought Ava Marie to town so family could meet her. And of course Miss Ava is just the sweetest little thing. She has the sweetest disposition--rarely cries and loves to be cuddled. she's still just a little bitty munchkin. So meeting Ava was was a fun change of pace in the middle of the day.

but I think now, it's probably time to try and get some sleep. There's a lot on tap tomorrow: grocery store, carve pumpkins (i want toasted pumpkin seeds!), mail out glass things, paint the living rip, finish ripping out carpet in living room, and then there is possibly my meeting up with an arborist to grab some oak tree parts from a huge oak tree that is being taken down near us. My brother is a firewood addict (that's how he and his wife heat their home during the winter), so he knows all the right people to get free firewood from (even though he is up in Ft. Wayne, and we're in Indy)...and so he's trying to encourage me to go grab some oak logs....do i have to? that's a boy's job! ....but my boy works on the other side of town all day... harumph!

Stormy Day!

Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 7:17:47 EDT

It is a very stormy day in Indiana today. It started yesterday evening, and is supposed to keep up until tonight. everyone in my family loves thunder storms...we're fascinated by them....and enjoy the sound. Which is very funny for me to also like, seeing as how I used to be deathly afraid of storms.

I remember once when I was a little girl, going over to my Aunt Barbe's new house. She and Uncle Mark (the wonderful man who made some wicked bead molds for me) had just gotten married, and she was showing us her house. And it must have stormed the night before or something, for the topic of storms to be on my mind. But I just couldn't fathom someone not being scared of storms. And when you're scared of storms you need Mommy! But Aunt Barbe was married now, and out on her own with her husband....and I remember asking her if she got scared during thunderstorms. It just seemed logical to me that since she was no longer living with her mommy, that she would suddenly become scared of storms...and she only had Uncle Mark to protect her...wasn't she scared? Of course she said "no", she wasn't scared. Silly me.

anyway, at some point I became 'ok' with storms, and now I love them. Granted, everyone in my family has been lucky enough to never have a bad experience with a storm (i.e. tornado, flooding...), so that probably also helps me feel at peace with them. So I'm looking forward to a fun stormy day. Yesterday was really fun,too, as the bad weather was starting to roll in. I didn't get out for my run until late in the afternoon. So by the time I did get out, the sky was starting to get that fun dark, eerie glow. and the wind was blowing... Yeah. Good times :)

The one bad thing about storms and our move to Indiana--or rather the house in which we moved is: out in MD we had a gas oven and range. So I could still cook if the power went out. I had a morning of cooking some yummy Syrian food all planned out...but our power keeps threatening to go out this morning (very strong wind!) and our oven is electric. I don't feel like getting all kinds of stuff baking just to have the power go out right now. But I can at least go make the dough for some of the goodies. There's supposed to be a break in the weather in a few hours, hopefully I can get the baking done then....

Did someone say Melting Hearts?

Friday, October 12, 2007 - 13:23:10 EDT

I'm getting ready to go make Melting Hearts until I run out of fuel. I'm low, but I should be able to get a nice collection of them made....I'll post pix tomorrow. Also, I will be posting some of them, plus some other items on the 'for sale' page soon. We have a lot of projects planned for the weekend already (house remodeling stuff, of course), but I think I'll have a chance to post things a few at a time throughout the weekend.

this will also be the first time that I am torching with contact lenses in since I got that wicked eye infection a while back. Until now, i had been wearing my safety glasses over my regular glasses (the safety lenses have a special tinting that help me see the glass through the torch flame)...and that was really uncomfortable...and not very handy. I couldn't see very clearly to boot. so anyway, i finally got some new contacts in. I will only be wearing contacts when I torch now...otherwise I'll be wearing glasses because I like them so much :) And because it's weird being back in lenses...everything looks so big! To the torch!

Good News!

Thursday, October 11, 2007 - 13:28:50 EDT

Yesterday I received an email from the National Museum for Women in the Arts. Last year, they asked me to donate a piece to their silent auction fund raiser. They have asked me to again participate this year. I was worried that I wouldn't actually be eligible to donate something, since we have moved to IN. Last year, I thought that they were specifically feature local artists, and at that time I was a D.C. "local"....and so I was worried that I wouldn't get to participate this year. So I emailed back asking whether or not I could still participate. Luckily, they aren't concerned about my location...they are more concerned that the pieces they feature in their Silent auction are made by women artists/jewelry designers.

I was laughing to myself that, yes, I'm actually excited to be able to GIVE a piece away. and not make a cent off of it! But I love being asked to participate in worthwhile events and fund raisers. It's especially nice to be asked to participate in an event year after year. Especially D.C events. Not that events elsewhere in the country are any less worthy or grand...it's just that I have first-hand experience with the DC scene--that whole, you really never know who you are talking to when you meet someone on the street-experience. I have encountered so many very powerful and influential women (and men) at my shows in that area...so it's just fun to think about them wearing my pieces. And with the NMWA silent auction event...well, that just seals the deal even more. It's a Gala event, by invitation only to all sorts of 'bigwigs' in the city. And it's not that I prefer these people as my customers over others...it's just the idea that my work is getting seen. My name is being read, and comprehended. It's a nice feeling. I have a few ideas of what I would like to make/donate. I'll post pictures as I complete those projects.

more torching?

Thursday, October 11, 2007 - 6:26:23 EDT

I'm not sure. I think yesterday I got enough things made that passed inspection, so I may not need to do any torching today. I will probably make more hearts later in the day to make sure i have a nice variety to choose from when sending off my packages for stores...but I'll be sure to post the rest on this site :).

This morning I'm going to work on assembling pieces and packaging. Then I'm going to go meet my sister for lunch downtown. after that? Well, I don't know. There's always house work, yard work, and tons of business work to do....we'll see what I feel like tackling after lunch.

Good Morning

Wednesday, October 10, 2007 - 7:07:02 EDT

I have another full day of torching ahead of me. Yesterday's torching session got a little rough as I was unsure what to make! I often have fun ideas and inspiration throughout the day, but when i sit down at the torch, I draw a kind of blank. Or, maybe I'll have a vague idea of something specific--a good starting place, but again, lose it once I'm working. Yesterday that kind of frustration was combined with a shear lack of decisiveness of what kind of glass things to make (beads for necklaces, bracelets; pendants; etc...). But I finally had some good breakthroughs, made some executive decisions, and completed some experiments, and I'm back on track now. So now that I have a focused game plan of what pieces to make--I would like to get everything made today. We'll see if it will happen....

So we meet again?

Monday, October 8, 2007 - 8:02:52 EDT

eh, Monday morning? Well this Monday is going to be a good day. After a mad rush with some crown orders over the last few weeks, I suddenly have a lull in in my orders. But that comes at the perfect time, as I've got some more stores anxiously awaiting for their shipments of glass items in preparation for Christmas. Yes, Christmas. Many stores like to have things by the end of Oct/beginning of Nov, so that they can have time to inventory and arrange displays. I think most stores put out Christmas items before Thanksgiving now....But I prefer it when stores wait until after Thanksgiving to put out Christmas things. Luckily my hearts aren't Christmas-specific, so I don't mind them getting put out early. So I've got some major amounts of torching to do today.

I also have some household projects to get done: stain baseboards so Josh can nail them into place tonights....Which then means we can finish clearing out our living room (move stuff into a finished room with baseboards), so that we can proceed with laying our wood floor in the main part of the house. I also have some painting touch-ups to attend to so that we have have 3 completely-completely done rooms by the end of the day (cross your fingers!!).

I also have some yard work that I want to do (big surprise :) ) Over the weekend, I re-set some sidewalk stones in our back yard. I added some other kinds of stones to create a kind of cobblestone walkway that leads from our deck to our side yard. The stones were originally set in a similar fashion, but had become buried in the dirt of the years, and the path was all over-grown with weeds and uneven ground. It was a mess. And now that I've additional stones that I have found laying in the landscaping (leftover stones from when the builders were doing the facade of our stone house?) the stone walking path looks like a real path! But I still have some tweaking left to do--like leveling out a few of the stones, and adding in more dirt to 'set' the stones in.

But right now, I'm going to go water some plants, as we have one more hot day on tap before the cool weather rolls in tomorrow. and I don't want some new plants to die during this one last hot day....So off to water, and then back inside for some work. Depending on how productive I am, I might get to play outside later today. We'll see.

peach tree!

Wednesday, October 3, 2007 - 12:45:08 EDT

I have tried before in many vain attempts to get a peach pit to sprout. But that hard pit covering makes it very very difficult for water and sun to get down to the baby seed in the center so that it will actually sprout.

Well several weeks ago, as I was cutting open a peach, the pit split open and out came the little seed! It actually looks just like an almond (same concept as a almond and its shell actually). So I potted it right up and It has sprouted!! It took awhile for it to emerge out the top of the soil, but now that it has, it's growing very very quickly. And of course, even though my camera was on "macro' mode, the camera focused on everything but the seedling, but here it is, nonetheless.

My mom also found a split mango seed the other day--well actually two of them. Mango seed are HUGE, and again, very tough...so once you find one that has already split, then the chances of getting a seedling are greatly improved. My mom potted hers up, and it's growing like a weed. My mom kept my seed in water until I arrived in town last weekend. We potted it up, and now I'm just waiting!

Now, for those of you who don't know about my pineapple plant--I've also attached a pix of that here. Cut the top off a pineapple (leave about an inch of fruit meat and skin and such attached to the bottom) and plant it in some potting soil. Keep it very well watered initially to help it form roots. But then stand back and be amazed at how long and big the leaves will get!

In my experience, this pineapple plant will not produce a fruit again--as the condition aren't quite right in a pot, but the leaves will thrive. And did you know that pineapples actually grow in the ground? I used to think that pineapples grew on trees. But I quickly realized my mistake when Josh and I honeymooned in Maui and we saw fields covered with what looked like pineapple tops.....low and behold, that's what they were! Pineapples are actually a conglomeration of lots of little fruits...that's why pineapples have that diamond pattern to their exterior. A bunch of little fruits grow underground and they fuse together to form a great big pineapple. Cool, huh?

"for sale" page changes

Wednesday, October 3, 2007 - 11:18:08 EDT

Hey folks, this week I am going to be updating my for-sale page with new items. Also, some of the current items will be going off to stores, and I'll list that info in their descriptions. So, please wait a few days if you're wanting to order something, as I'm not sure how accurate the current page is. And if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. And if you have any special requests, feel free to let me know!

spider-pumpkin

Monday, October 1, 2007 - 10:07:22 EDT

Anyone see the Simpsons movie a few months ago? I can't help but look at this thing i put on our porch without thinking of the spider-pig song.

Now, having said that, isn't this the cutest thing ever? This is the first year we get to have pumpkins...seeing as we now have a porch to display the pumpkins. At the farm where I got the pumpkins, they had this spider holders, and it was just too fun to pass up. I can't wait to carve the pumpkins, but I'm not sure when that will happen.....

car pix

Monday, October 1, 2007 - 10:01:56 EDT

Here are a couple of pictures of our new car, as promised

Monday morning, again?

Monday, October 1, 2007 - 7:15:58 EDT

Over the weekend, Josh and I went over to Terre Haute. Josh's undergrad Rose-Hulman was having Homecoming festivities over the weekend. Since Josh has been in MD for the past 5 years, he could never go to Homecoming (he was an RA, and most of his friends were also RAs). So now that we're back in IN, he really wanted to go. So we went--but only to the open house for his department, so that he could see some old profs. (that was really fun, actually). And then we went to the RA luncheon. There were some old-timers there from the class of '52, so that was also really neat. We only saw a few of Josh's old friends, but it was good to see some familiar faces.

After those festivities, we high-tailed it to Marshall, IL where Josh's paternal grandmother lives. We try to go and visit her as often as we can, as she's just the cutest lady. She gave us, as a house-warming gift, a table that her grandparents bought right after they got married in 1908. So it's a 100 year old table with the fun scroll/rung legs. It's well suited as a side table to stack books and hold a big lamp and some potted plants. there's a shelf underneath that is perfect for a kitty, if the table is placed near a window. Grandma Bert also gave me the most beautiful crocheted doily, I guess that's what you would call it, that HER mother made, and has always had a home on top of that table. This doily is just so cool, and has broken in a few places..that we're considering just framing it in a shadow box rather than using it.

After Grandma Bert's house we went to see my Grandma Norris ("Grammers") where we were forced to eat yummy snacks and veg in her crazy-comfy couch. after getting caught-up on