It has been a while since my last post.  It has been super hot here this week and the air conditioner is straining under the pressure.  We are definitely going to have to get it upcharged.  It has been raining here nearly every day and for a while there it was nonstop.  Flooding all over the place here and the stream in the backyard was creeping up.  It makes it very difficult to get to the torch as I am not able to torch when it is raining, though I have gotten some torch time in to try to keep up with the orders.  On top of everything else, my laptop has croaked.  Something with the hard drive.  Mark has been trying to get it working.  It will work for an hour or two and then the hard drive goes to a blue screen and I can’t get WinXP to boot again.  I think it is time to get another computer. 

Mark has been working an internship for the last month and I have barely seen him.  Have been taking that time to continue this decluttering of our house.  It feels good to let go of some of the stuff.  The other day I litteraly shredded 6 garbage bags of old bills and papers that I had been hanging on to.  With all we have gone through in the last nearly 10 years, it was very cleansing to shred all that and kind of just let it go.  I went from 3-1/2+ filing cabinet drawers to 1. 

We also decided it was time to get better furniture that worked for our lifestyle.  Our first purchase has been new end tables.  The ones we had were kind of student style basic black with 4 silver legs.  No storage whatsoever.  I am an avid couponer and like to have all my stuff close at hand and it seems like it is forever lying around in the living room.  We found a great deal at JC Penney on what they call a Bill Payer’s Cart.  It isn’t the best looking for the location table we could have gotten but it definitely is working out so much better.  There is a lot of space in that.  The bottom is a full filing cabinet drawer, middle is a drawer you would use for remote controls and pens and such, then an open shelf, a pull out extendable table, and the top with a removable basket area.  Take a look  It originally was $259 and we got them 2 weeks ago for $59 each on sale with free shipping.  And of course they are on wheels so you can pull them out to vacuum and such. 

Still on the list is to go through a royal ton of photographs and trash the silly ones and possibly send the rest to get transferred to a DVD so I can reclaim my shelves.  I am not the sentimental type when it comes to photos, so just as long as I have a copy of them somewhere I will be good. 

Anyway, now that I have kind of rambled on…  I was kind of appaled to see my ranking on google drop, so I thought it was time to update.  Will get back at blogging again more religiously again.

Night beadies.

It has been a while since I last updated the blog.  It has been pretty crazy around here or the last month or so.  Mark had been sick and then immediately after he got sick, he started having mouth pain and problems.  Three weeks later and over $2000 worth or oral surgery and dental work, we are finally on the other side of it.  Well now except for finals.  I can’t wait for tomorrow to be over and the last class is done and no more school for him for the whole summer.  It won’t be without its craziness though.  He gave up summer classes to do an internship, possibly in hopes that it might turn into a full time position down the road.  I sure hope so.  There is a lot riding on his school and it would sure be great to get him out of retail.  Lots of praying and fingers crossed. 

I also had an influx of custom orders and am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel as I only have one order left.  I love getting custom orders and I love being able to do my own thing.  It sure is a balancing act to not get too bogged down that your creative spark goes.  After this next order is complete, I am going to take a torching session to just create. 

A couple weeks ago, I did get a chance to try out a tutorial I had purchased.  Silver glass and I have a love-hate relationship.   Sometimes, It just sings for me and other times I am hating myself for wasting the super expensive glass.  The tutorial I purchased finally made more sense out of it.  Pictures speak a thousand words..  This is the same exact bead in make up - Opal yellow, silver glass, and vetrofond clear pretutorial and posttutorial. 

While I find the first one beautiful on it’s own, it is not what the second one is.  I would guess I would have to say it had not reached its full potential.  I absolutely love the second one.  You would not believe the opalescence in it that you can’t see in the photo. 

Anyway, Mark took a break from studying and we were watching a new DVR’d episode of Greensberg on Planet Green.  It is a town that was destroyed by a tornado that is rebuilding energy efficient and responsible.  While I don’t get involved in all the hype about global warming and such, I do get the fact about being responsible for your own consumables and doing what you can to be energy efficient.  We grow as much as we can of our own veggies and do our best to recycle and keep our gas/energy consumption low.  

Anyway, I started thinking about after receiving the most beautiful package of beads from a friend that lordy, my packaging looks pretty meager in comparison.   She had the beads in a ziploc bag, then put into a bubble bag, then into a chiffon drawstring bag, then into their own box, the box placed into a larger outer box filled with those according folded picecs of paper, with an invoice, business card, and a coupon.  It was packaged beautifully but seemed a little overkill and wasteful.   My packages are not that pretty but my beads get there safe and sound and knock on wood, to this date I have not had any break in transit.  If I have it, I will reuse it.  If I don’t have it, I try to get it free from someone else that wants to recycle.  If I can’t get it free and have to purchase it, I do try to buy the most economical environmentally sound product. 

After thinking about it, if a customer was looking for this kind of thing, they surely would be disappointed receiving my package.   My standard is a bead - bubble wrap eggroll, wrapped in tissue paper, business card, and either a bubble mailer or a box. 

• Bubble wrap - Not the best thing for the landfill but I most of the time have recycled bubble wrap and the person who receives my package can take the bubble wrap and re-recycle it.  It also is the best for padding so I don’t have to go to far more extremes for padding.
• Tissue Paper - I used to have a store and purchased thousands of pieces of tissue paper for it.  I do like to give some nice packaging but once this tissue paper is gone, it will be gone.
• Business Card - I do need to have some sort of identification and this seems to be the smallest, best way.   If you were looking for an invoice, I don’t normally provide them.  You get e-mailed one and you have paypal.  It saves a piece of paper.
• Bubble Mailer/Box - All my boxes unless I am shipping priority comes from Mark’s work and are recycled boxes.  Bubble mailers are recycled from packages I receive or I get free.  I do occasaionally have to buy some but I find that the next people often reuse these and the cycle continues. 

Anyway, I decided that I needed to let people know that I really don’t have frilly, fru-fru packaging and there is a reason behind it so I have been working on a webpage explaining it and a graphic for my home page.   Thought you might like to see.  Will be working on it more this evening. 

Anyway, it is getting to be that time that I have to get to work and think I am going to take a 20 minute catnap before I have to start transcribing.  Have a wonderful evening.

A new bead from me just listed on etsy.  I broke out some oddlot glass to make this - Effetre’s Sunny Mango Coral.  I wish I had more of it, it has such a beautiful glow about it and variation in color.  Effetre makes a lot of coral but they never seem to come out the same twice - sometimes more orangy, sometimes more rosey, sometimes pinkish.  It really is a crapshoot to get the same color twice so if you want lots, better order it the first time it comes out.  I have about a pound total and hoard it like its gold.

The hibiscus is new for me and I like it.  It will take some more practice to get it perfect but I think its a pretty decent start. 

Well this has been a long time in the making.  I purchased my bead liner back in November, then the tubing and mandrels in January, and thought I was good to go but the tubing I purchased needed a larger dye for the liner, so I had to wait until I had the mullah to purchase that which I finally got.  There is a learning curve to lining them.  It definitely takes loads of practice.  My next step is getting hubby to bolt it down to the desk as I think I lost some beads because it wasn’t.  But I did get some really nice beads that I am really happy with plus a larger slider bead.  I have some prices listed if your interested in purchasing before I get them listed. Drop me a line if your interested.

$15.99
 

$15.99

$18.99

$16.99

$19.99 with free stainless steel ball chain

Well I just got through watching American Idol and I thought it was time to do a blog post.  By the way, who is your favorite?  Mine was Matt Sarver but now that he is gone, Danny Gokey or Adam. 

Anyway, I just wanted to post about my new category on my website that I will be adding to - Less Than Perfects.  Beads that I would normally put into a large orphan lot.  Perfectly fine beads with no sharp edges or cracks or anything just small color problems, etc.  Since I am not doing eBay anymore, I don’t think large orphan lots would be good on etsy, so thats my compromise.  I am offering them at a real discount.  I started with one of my Northern Lights Marquis focals that I got some of the wrong frit on and not good color. 

Anyway, off to plan tomorrow.  I am trying to declutter my office some more since my charms are nearing their end and reclaim my space.  I also need to add the bails and photograph my new polymer, scrabble, and photo pendants. 

Been extremely busy around here.  I am closing out the last of my italian charms and it has been a ton of counting and packing.  I am down to a few lots.  It feels like I am losing a safety blanket but sometimes you have to let go of something to get a fresh start.  I have never been able to give glass and my handmade items 100% while my time was occupied elsewhere.  The italian charms did give me a living for years, redid my whole kitchen with my sales, and built well over 10,000 feedback with it.  For that, I am very, very thankful. 

I was able to get some time on Saturday to play with some polymer clay, glass tile, and Scrabble pendants.  I plan on adding them to my etsy store.  They just need some more acrylic and they will be ready to go.  I am trying to find a good place that has some nice papers and reasonable shipping, anyone have any ideas?

They say admitting you have a problem is the first step.  Problem is, I am not sure if I really want to treat it.  I have a problem.  Since I started working at night, I tape everything.   It’s so bad that I make sure they are scheduled before I go in the office to work.  So, what do I religiously tape now and when they are on(this is going to be embarassing)…  Here goes…

Amazing Race, Cold Case, Celebrity Apprentice, The Unit, That’s Clever, NCIS, The Bachelor, Survivor, Without a Trace, The Closer, Leverage, Saving Grace, American Idol, Project Runway, Little People Big World, Jon and Kate plus 8, Top Chef, Real Housewives, Top Design, Next Food Network Star, Next Design Star, the Law & Orders, Friday Night Lights, Criminal Minds, Hell’s Kitchen, Ace of Cakes, America’s Next Top Model, Iron Chef, Beads, Baubles, & Jewels, Bones, ER, Life, Lie to Me, Eleventh Hour, The Mentalist, Make Me a Supermodel, CSI, CSI: Miami, and Private Practice.

That really is a problem isn’t it.  You can see my interests - mostly Realityand Cop/Medical type shows with a little DIY thrown in..  What does that mean about me.  There has to be some psychoanalysis babble that would say I have issues with reality but I definitely know the difference between reality and fake.  I did make a conscious effort not to start recording Dancing with the Stars this year.  I guess you have to start somewhere.  I know there has got to be others out there that DVR everything.  I watch some when I get done working and the rest I catch up on during the week most of the time just listening as I work.   I say this in some jest though as we all have our vices and I don’t plan on fixing it any time soon but I surely don’t want to get into any more programs as what do you do when there are too many programs on at the same time and your DVR will only record 2 at a time.  Is there any way to jerry rig a external hard drive, anyone know?  I sure would love to record movies and keep them permanently but I am sure that is against copyright laws or something.  Anyway, I am watching Saving Grace now..  LOL..

I am having my etsy store featured on http://audreyscountrycrafts.blogspot.com.  She found my blog through Entrecard and etsy and hosts an etsy store every 2 weeks.  Check it out. 

I also was able to create a Treasury on etsy today which I haven’t done in a really long time.  Check it out.

I hope everyone is having a great Wednesday.  Mark is off school this week for Spring Break so we had the day to spend together.  Spent the morning relaxing and then working on bead photos.  It was so hard to photograph some of the transparent beads.  My Minolta camera is on its last legs.  We have another digital camera but it has no optical zoom and just  isn’t made for taking photos of beads. Take a look at the new photos..

I also just entered Lori Greenberg’s giveway for Val Cox’ Frit book with my Aurora Lentil/Rounds bead set.  Its my absolute favorite set of frit beads I have ever made. 

I have kind of been a little more quiet than usual.  It has been a pretty busy week or so.  I have had some orders to catch up with and a few birthdays to celebrate.   If you were interested in ordering, now would be the time as I am all fully caught up..  All custom orders are done and all packages are shipped.  Hurray!

It is also a sad time for me.  March 5th four years ago my grandmother passed.  She was really the only grandparent I ever knew.  My paternal grandparents died when I was just a baby and my maternal grandfather died when I was about 3.  My grandmother was an amazing lady.  At the age of 41, she had a massive stroke because her damaged heart valve from rheumatic fever as a kid threw a clot.  She was paralyzed on the left side.  After 10 years of physical therapy and my mother’s sacrifice and help, she became quite self sufficient.  For all you ladies out there, can you imagine getting on a pair of pantyhose everyday without fail with just one hand and one working leg.  Try it someday.  It’s difficult sometimes for those of us with 2 hands.  She had her own way of doing things - opening jars with one hand, getting her laundry done, cooking meals, etc. 

I remember as a kid, my mom would drop me off at her apartment before work and she and I would walk down to the corner and catch the public bus.  She could walk with a cane but was always slow but I was a patient kid and loved shopping.  It was something for me to do with her.  We would go to the mall and be dropped off at Wag’s (Walgreens then restaurant chain) and then we would walk from one side of the mall to the other.  It was about a half mile.  We never really knew how she was able to walk it but she loved her sales.  Those are some of my best memories with her.  When she was in her mid 60s, an irresponsible disabled transport driver did not tighten her scooter in and she fell.  To make a long story longer, after losing nearly all her blood, a splenectomy, and about 2 months in the hospital and rehab, she was never really the same.  She must have hit her head because she got pretty vulgar and very funny but it also took a lot of her independence away.   A few years before she passed, we had to move her into an assisted living facility and eventually a nursing home.  She could not stand being there.  Hated every second of it.  They still allowed her to go to K-Mart in her wheelchair once a week and she used to come home with microwaves and toaster ovens thinking one day she was going to break out of there and get her own apartment again but I think eventually she realized it was never going to happen.  She passed at a time of her own choosing.  For lack of a better term, she went on a food strike.  I think her goal was to get through one more Christmas and she did that and it was actually one of the best Christmas holidays she had in many years.  At the time I had a really hard time dealing with it.  I felt like she was just giving up but now I am very glad that we didn’t have to at one point make that choice for her.  She always said she couldn’t wait to be with the Lord so she would be a whole person again with full use of her body.  She is really the only close family member I have lost (Thank God) and really have nothing in my own life to gauge the mourning process by.  Four years later, it is still right there under the surface.  

One day, I will write about the weird happenings that happened after she passed.  I will leave that for another day.  

Anyway, enough sadness.  I think in the morning I am going to go sit at the torch and just create..  Create without purpose.  I love custom orders but if you don’t take time out to just be one with the glass and just play, it can get pretty stifling.  I have some beautiful beads I need to get some photos of to add to the website and I tried to siler line some beads today but that didn’t turn out too hot.  There is a learning curve. 

I hope you have a wonderful rest of the week and I will post my new beads soon.

I just got finished watching The Bachelor.  What a crazy turn of events.  I wasn’t happy with either of the girls as I liked Stephanie and Jillian.  I hope either of them become the next Bachelorette.  Anyway, on to what happened over  the weekend.

I spent some time this weekend torching before it got cold and then I went to town cleaning.  My studio had gotten far to dirty as far as loose glass rods and random things lying around.  My husband also built me two more PVC glass storage units which I desperately needed.  I thought that while it was clean it was time to take some photos to update my website studio page.  You can find more of the particulars on my studio page on my website as far as what torch I use and the type of bead kiln I have, etc.  Anyway, welcome to my world.  I like to affectionally think of it as the ghetto redneck version of a lampwork studio.  I would love to have a fully decked out perfectly made for me studio but right now it is not feasibly possible.  I do what I can do with what I have and would rather put money into glass than a beautiful work table.  I am very blessed to have what I have.  So here it is…