Gryphonkessira

2011-06-25T14:51:00.001-04:00

Also, check out my new Art Blog, Treasured Toad Designs:

http://www.treasuredtoad.blogspot.com

2011-06-25T14:26:00.008-04:00

First Camping trip of the year! Matt, Sara and I headed down to Allegheny State Park last weekend. We rented a cabin (Matt kept complaining about setting up the tent all the time). The park is HUGE, and absolutely beautiful. We had a little rain heading down on Thursday, but things cleared up by the time we arrived. At check in here is the first thing I noticed:

Yep, Allegheny park has a good sized and active black bear population. Makes me glad we got the cabin!!! Here is a view of our cabin.

This is the inside of the cabin as we were unpacking. There were 4 twin beds, pushed together to make 2 full beds. there was also a wood-burning heating stove and a gas stovetop/oven. At least we had warm food, because all the firewood was wet and it took us until the next day (and buying dried wood at the store) to get a fire going.

The area behind our cabin. Sara LOVED the stream and she and the two girls from the next cabin over spent most of their free time playing in the water.

Here is the Red House beach area. There is a second beach area (Quaker area)but it was closed until the beginning of July. Sara had a blast swimming and playing in the sand. Matt and I enjoyed the chance to sit and relax and catch up on some reading.

We did a couple hikes over the trip. The first one was supposed to be a 3 mile "easy" trail, which ended up being ankle deep mud, steep climbs and 6 miles (since the trail ended on a road, they did not count the mileage to walk back to where the trail started, which is where our car was parked...3 miles out and 3 miles back). By the time we got back to the car, we were covered head to toe in mud. Thank goodness there was a laundromat at the camp! We were sore and tired.

This is a flower we found on one of the shorter trips. No clue what it is, but it was very pretty.

Sara climbing on one of the rock structures we found along the Bear Springs trail. On the way back on this trail we found a bear pawprint in the mud which I SWEAR was not there on our way in.

Great time, and I would definitely go back!

2011-01-11T10:06:00.000-05:00

New Year, New Toys

So with the gift certificates and Christmas money I received last month I went on a spree and equipped myself with a very basic metalworking studio. This is something I’ve been itching to try for awhile, ever since I really got into the mixed media jewelry. So many times I’ve wanted a certain piece, and just could not find it (that is ALWAYS my problem lol) My solution, just learn to make your own stuff!

I spent all weekend learning to saw and drill metal (here’s a tip for all you aspiring metalworkers out there: If your drill is going the wrong speed when you drill through the other side of a pice of metal, the bit will catch on it, cause the whole piece to start spinning around. And of course, since you are holding it with your other hand, and you have not sanded the edges yet, you will slice the heck out of your fingertips….next on my shopping list: Leather gloves!!!)

I managed to make a couple pendants I’m quite proud of! I love mixing the metal, clay, resin, and whatever else I have to make exactly the piece I want! Pics will follow when I get home tonight 
I really really wish I could find some classes on metalworking and enameling in the area...there are so may basic techniques which are really hard to teach yourself off of youtube videos and books. Just a few hours of hands-on learning with someone who can show me what I’m doing wrong would really be a big help.

2010-12-26T09:29:00.002-05:00

It's been a very merry Christmas! Santa was very good to us this year! Sara got a slew of toys, which should keep her happy for awhile. I got gift certificates to my favorite jewelry websites. So, I bought everything I'll need to set up a basic metalsmithing and enameling workshop. I've been putting together my list for weeks now lol. Now, I just have to find somewhere to set it up! My current Jewelry table is an old nightstand with a scrap piece of countertop screwed onto it. I have a large ceramic tile on it for working clay, and a stacking storage cube to hold my tools and beads. But there is no room in this set up for all the stuff I've bought for this new setup. Plus, since I'll be using a mini-torch for soldering and enameling, I need somewhere that is fairly fire-retardent. Ug, I really look forward to the day when I can have a dedicated room for my studio again. I have a notebook I keep with me that I use to jot down ideas and inspirations for new pieces and I'm hoping that my jewelry orders slow down enough that I have some time to practice with my new toys for a bit!!! Now the hard part, waiting for everything to arrive in the mail!

2010-11-21T08:03:00.003-05:00

I am SO bad at updating these things sometimes. In my defence, work has been crazy (I LOVE it, but it's crazy). I've also started volunteering for the American Red Cross as a Military Caseworker. Basically when soldiers' families need to get emergency messages to troops the red Cross handles that. I do overnight shifts. It's pretty cool.

The Jewelry buisness has been crazy! The women I work with love my stuff, and have been buying jewelry at a rate that I can barely keep up with. The extra income has allowed me to get some new tools and I'm looking into a few new techniques, mainly metalsmithing and embossing. Jewelrymaking is like art, there are an infinite number of techniques and tools, and you have to narrow your focus down to just a few if you really want to get good at them, or have any sort of artistic style. I suppose you COULD be an artists who does sculpture, oil paints, japanese watercolors, lithography, Conte Crayons, and photography...but if someone looked at the body of your work in all those mediums, could they see a unified "style?" (plus, unless you're 105, do you have time to master the subtlties of each one?).

I have been dabbling in a few things here and there. I see a piece made with a certain technique, I try a few and move on. I really want to focus on a few things because there is SO much to learn about even a single medium/technique.

I love, love, love my polymer clay. But I am really leaning towards mixed media. I can't make a solid-clay peice anymore and not feel like it's missing something. There are just some things clay cannot do, plus I just love the asthetic of the mixed media pices I've done so far (mainly clay/steampunk pices, with bits of metal and beads in the clay). I want to expand on that, so I'm asking for gift certificates for christmas!! lol

In the same vein as this, I want to re-open my etsy store and look at getting a website up again. However, I don't think my store name of Firesprite Beads really fits my current pieces. That was the name I came up with when I was doing glass beads, but it doesn't really fit anymore. So, I am racking my brains trying to come up with a new buisness name. I know a lot of artists just use their own name, but that's just not me. I want something that invokes an idea, or a feeling, or an image related to my work..my name just doesn't do that lol. So, once I can actually hammer THAT out I plan on starting a purely jewelry-blog that I can link to my website and stuff. (Yea, Yea I know...7 months and I can't even post in ONE blog, how can I do two?" Well, in the art blog I won't feel like I'm cheating to just post a picture or two as my blog post without saying anything further. Plus, if people do start finding my blog through my buisness site or messageboards, I do';t think they care if my cat threw up on the rug last night, or that Sara got an A in math this marking period :-).

2010-04-29T21:37:00.009-04:00

As promised, now that I've found the cord to mom's camera here are some of the pieces I've done in the last couple weeks

A very spring-inspired flower-and-pixie necklace

Another spring-ish bird necklace (I've really been inspired by the season!)

Here is an ocean-themed necklace inspired by the glass turtle bead I bought at the big Bead show we all went to a couple weekends ago (luckily I only brought $45 in cash, otherwise I would have spent WAAY too much money there. On the upside the show comes back to Syracuse in October so I have a couple months to save my pennies!) the shades of the necklace and turtle are a wonderful variety of blues and pearls, which are all sort of yellowed by the lamplight I took the pics in ><.

And lastly a Sun and Moon piece I've been trying to create for awhile, I just could never get to come out right once I sat down to put it together. I'm still not 100% happy..I may go back and make a new focal pendant..I think it needs to be larger.

2010-04-28T19:44:00.004-04:00

Holy crap, a month and a half! In my defense, I've been very very busy. I started a new job at Syracuse Behavioral Healthcare, which is an alcohol/substance abuse facility. Right now, I'm spending most of my time doing inpatient admissions. When we get new patients into our 28-day inpatient program, I help do their billing, medicaid/public assistance applications, and other reams of paperwork. I'm learning a few other facets of the facility like records-keeping, a little on the out-patient groups, and I help at the front desk early in the morning when it is crazy-busy. Mary (my boss) has some ideas as to what she wasnts me to be doing long-term, but most of it will have to wait until my 3 month contract with the temp agency (Comforce) is up and I come on as an official SBH employee. I really enjoy the job. The work is varied enough to not be boring and with only one exception everyone at the place is incredibly friendly, helpful and outgoing. There is ONE person who is a real harpy, but luckily I have limited contact with the person..and really I can put up with anyone in small doses.

I've also managed to carve out some time for my jewelry. In fact, now that I need "grown up" outfits to wear to a professional job (as opposed to my last work-at-home job where I could conferance call in my pajamas if I wanted) I've been inspired to make a bunch of jewelry to wear to work. I have a couple pieces I am VERY pleased with. I WOULD have posted pics, but I cannot find our camera. So, I borrowed mom's, took the pictures, then found out her camera will not work with our camera's computer-hook-up-cord, and I cannot find the one that goes with HER camera. Sigh. Once I can find a camera/cord combo that works I will post pics.

On another creative note, due to the fact that matt and I re-did our budget, and we have a tiny bit of spare cash I went out and bought a few books to get me started on something I've wanted to try for quite some time: Chinese Brush Painting. I absolutely love the look of the style! Chinese brush painting has two schools of styles: the detailed and the free. In the detailed style, very fine brushes are used to paint the outlines of the subject and then painted in very meticulously, like this painting:

The second style, which I favor, is a much looser, abstract style where the goal is to capture the essence of the subject without having to paint every tiny line and detail, such as this painting.

Chinese brush painting is done with special brushes, traditionally made of animal hair. The black in the paintings is hand-made ink created by grinding an ink-stick (a charcoal and glue stick made specially for this) against your ink-stone. then you add a small bit of water to create your black/grey ink. Colored inks can be made by a similer process of mixing water and powdered mineral pigments (though you can also use chinese watercolors, or just plain western watercolors as well). I have the paint kit (comlplete with ink stick and stone) and a few books on technique and motifs. When someone begins to learn chinese brush painting, they generally begin my practicing "The four Gentlemen": Bamboo, Orchid, Chrysanthemum and Plum Blossom. These four plants require the full range of basic brush strokes to do well, so they are a great way to learn and practice the basic brush forms. I'm hoping to actually be able to open up and use my kit this weekend :-). Pics may follow, depending on how recognisable they are from 2-year old finger painting lol.

The weather is supposed to be beautiful this weekend, so I want to try and get out to do a daytrip somewhere to one of the nearby state parks. We've been out a couple times this year when spring has given us a nice day here and there, and I really enjoy getting out, getting some excersise and enjoying the beautiful upstate NY wilderness. I'm not sure what my vacation schedule will be, what with the new job and all, but I'm hoping to squeeze in at LEAST one camping trip this summer.

2010-03-15T11:52:00.002-04:00

Well, busy few weeks to start March off. I took my national certification test for my medical coding, and I passed! yay! 5.5 hour test..it was greuling! I had to take it out in cooperstown. Since the test was at 8 am on saturday, Matt and I drove out Friday and spent the night. Since Cooperstown is pretty much a tourist town, most of the restaurants and things were closed, but we want to go back sometime this summer and bring mom and Sara.

Since then, I've been job hunting with a passion. I've had about a half dozen interviews in the past week and a half, so we'll have to see what comes out of this.

On another hopeful note, I was taking Ladybird out this morning when I saw these white flowers starting to grow in the garden. No clue what they are, but it must mean spring is on the way!

2010-03-02T06:19:00.002-05:00

Random Pic of ladybird looking cute on our bed. It's been a long week. It started off well. I got a lot of cleaning done, and felt very productive. Sara and Matt had Thursday and Friday off, due to snow. 4 days of everyone being home made the place a mess again (luckily Matt helped get the dishes and laundry done while I was at work yesterday). I'm getting a bit antsy about my big certification test this weekend, PLUS we just got a letter saying Matt won't be getting anymore unemployement as of NOW..so it's getting critical I find a job, like yesterday. I love the office I'm interning at, too bad they're not hiring lol. I'm trying not to freak out about everything that's going on...but it's hard. Fall is coming up so fast, and graduate school is going to be SO expensive. Going to make an appointment for Matt to go talk to the student financial aid people up at SU, and meanwhile I'm scouring the web for grants/scholorships.

2010-02-21T09:36:00.005-05:00

This was a very nice week. Mom and Bob were out of town for the beginning of the week, and Sara spent Sunday night at a friend's house at a sleepover. So Matt and I had a ncie quiet Valentine's day. We rented a movie (Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, which was very sappy and romantic). I made roasted fingerling potatoes and my first attempt at Beef Wellington (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/the-ultimate-beef-wellington-recipe2/index.html). The pastry came out a bit soggy, but other than that it was really realy good!

I started my new job interning at the Pulminary Phsician's Group in Syracuse, and I LOVE it. The job is interesting, and the women in the office I work with are incredably patient with my constant questions, and great to be around. I'll be interning there at least until I take my certification test on the 6th of March. After that, I'll be in job search mode (but still working there 'till I find something permenant).

I did actually have time to do some clay work this week. I finished a cute little lizard necklace, which I think I may keep for myself, since a few of his toes got a bit darkened in the kiln.

I also worked a bit on my Dragonfly necklace. The clay part is finished, but I cannot get a pattern of beads I'm happy with for the rest of the piece.

I have a few ideas on what I want to do, now that I've gone out and gotten some more seed beads.

2010-02-08T11:42:00.002-05:00

Wow, another one of those month long Blog gaps. Well, the time HAS been put to good use. I've been spending most of my free time studying. I have my national certification exam on March 6th. The test is in Cooperstown (which is a couple hours away) at 8 am on a saturday. So, Friday after Matt gets out of class we're heading over to Cooperstown. We're going to go sightseeing (mom says there are a lot of nifty antique/collectable stores there to browse), have a nice, quiet dinner (mom is ALSO watching Sara while we're gone) and staying at a hotel for the night. 51/2 hour test...ug.

I also have an internship I am straing this week, so hopefully by the time I pass my test I can have a job lined up. Matt starts SU in the fall which is NOT going to be cheap. We want to get him through his master's with no student loans, which means searching for financial aid, and saving everything.

Last week was my birthday, which was very nice. Mom got me an ice cream cake and Sara wrote (and sang) me a song...it was SOOOOO cute! I wish I had had a video recorder!

We rented and watched Cloudy with a Chance of meatballs last nigth for Sara, and I must say it was one of the cutest kid's movies I have seen in awhile. Not only does it have Mr. T in it (which automatically makes anything awesome!) but it was really sweet and didn't have a ton of those "stupid" scenes/moments that seem to pollute most kids movies, where you have to be 5 to enjoy the raw retardedness of what is on the screen.

I'm finishing up some housework then mom and I are going clothes shopping. Seems I can't work in a medical office wearing sneakers and t-shirts ><. Blech, I HATE to clothes shop (and I don't even wat to start in on the fact I have to go get my hair cut/styled too). At least I don't have to start wearing make up...I draw the line there!

2009-12-29T18:50:00.002-05:00

So, Since I recieved my totally awesome stand mixer for christmas, I've spent the last 3 days trying to bake the perfect loaf of bread...getting closer. My 1st attempt was barely edible (once you chiseled through the 1/2 inch rock-hard exterior, the inside was pretty good lol). Next couple were better, but still a bit burned on the outside...we'll see how tonight's expiraments turn out. Bob helpfully bought me FIFTY pounds of bread flour.....I shall be baking bread till next christmas, it seems.

Today is Matt and my 10th anniversarry..wow where DOES time go? We wanted to go see the new Sherloc Holmes movie, but it is too freekin cold to go out tonight!

2009-12-26T09:32:00.002-05:00

Christmas was wonderful this year.

It was so nice to be able to see all the family, and not have to worry about driving back to PA in the snow, cramming all the gifts in the car, etc. Sara got a boatload of toys, which she has been happily playing with since yesterday morning. Santa brought our family a Wii, which Matt set up. It has a ton of multi-player games, so we spent a good deal of yesterday playing Wii Sports Resort...bowling, playing frisbee, swordfighting, golf...it was a lot of fun lol. Matt seemed happy with his presents, though I know he's really excited about the new computer he's building. He bought all the parts the day before yesterday, so he'll soon have a brand new toy to play with. Mom and Bob got me a brand new Kitchenaid Stand mixer..it is NICE! I can't wait to start cooking with it!

On the downside, my brother Joe (who was SUPPOSED to be on leave till January 6th) has been called back early. He's leaving to go back to his base today, and they're shipping out to Afganistan very, very soon. I'm glad he got SOME time at home, I know a lot of soldiers this year didn't even get that. We'll be heading over to see him off sometime today.

2009-12-11T10:23:00.008-05:00

Christmasy-stuff

Lots and lots going on this past week! Since we moved, this (unfortunately) has been my book-storage system.

I call it "Piles of books everywhere" So as an early Christmas present, Matt built me a WONDERFUL set of bookshelves.

I know, it looks like a lot of shelves, but we own a disproportionally large amount of books (even given we got rid of approximately 1/2 of them in the move).

Only a couple free shelves, lol. I'll have to be careful about getting any new books, don't think Matt will build me more any time soon :-).

While working in the garage on the shelves, I scrounged around and found the materials to make myself a fairly nice workstation for my clay, too!

I have an old countertop for space, an old nightstand for storage, and a really nice large ceramic tile to actually work the clay on. Wednesday (while watching the finale of Top Chef (michael?? Really? I mean he's a very talented chef, but Bryan or Keven were MUCH better choices, in my opinion)) I actaully got to start on a new piece. The theme is "Dragonfly in Spring." We'll see how it turns out.

Last weekend we also got the all-important Christmas tree up! We watched a Christmas Story with mom and Bob, had a really nice dinner, and we all decorated the tree.

And to top off the Christmas season we have snow...ug. Actually the snow isn't so bad, it's the 40-50 mph winds...it's freekin cold! I'm half tempted to try and teach Ladybird to use the catbox, just so I don't have to go outside :-).

2009-12-01T06:23:00.002-05:00

We've just gotten back from spending Thanksgiving in PA with Matt's family. While the holidays are a time of getting together with family, I really don't want to do that again unless I have large quantities of highly illegal narcotics. Going into detail would take pages and pages, but suffice to say that having 4 adults and 3 kids under 5 all living in very close quarters, none of whom agree on how to raise/discipline said children makes for very tense and confrontational times.

We got back Saturday and then did a small family Thanksgiving with Mom, Bob, Matt, Sara and myself. Everything came out great. I did a roast turkey (we will be eating it for DAYS), both vegetable and my apple-cashew stuffing, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, and apple/caramel and pear/vanilla/cinnamon tarts. Thank goodness Matt and Mom stayed home from church to help me! I had them chopping and peeling...without them it would have taken a LOT longer to get everything together. I want to try and do a goose for christmas (another one of those never tried it, but I want to be able to say I've done it at least once things).

I also need to work out better time management. I have SO many things I want (and have) to do. It seems everyday I wake up, and only a few hours later, it's time to go to bed..where has the time gone and what have I done with it??? I'm planning on sitting down and getting some sort of schedule down on paper. I need to set aside time for things like my clay, or it will just NEVER happen. Especially once I finish my class and get a "real" job I'm going to have even LESS time available.

2009-11-16T18:29:00.004-05:00

Random musings.

Here are pics of Sara's school halloween parade and her costume on Haloween night (yes, I know I'm almost a month late).

It has been such a busy week (still)...don't think I'm going to make the craft show, since I have had NO time to work on any stock. I think I'm just going to wait till school is over and I can stock up for the spring craft shows.

Over the weekend I did mange to do something I've been wating to do for awhile, I cooked a lamb roast. I haven't ever tried or cooked lamb, but I've wanted to for quite some time. I found a nice recipie on foodnetwork.com..roast lamb with sour cherry sauce. I also made (ok, I cooked up a premade mix) of Basmati Rice Pilaf. The lamb came out really well, but it has a very distinct flavor. Honestly I much prefer beef, so this will most likely be our last lamb. The rice was good (it's made with dried fruit, veggies and mixed nuts), if just a tad spicy. But, at least I can cross it off my list of things I want to try someday.

2009-11-12T06:07:00.002-05:00

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. These past few weeks have been insanely busy. My Grandfather passed away Oct 23...he's in a much better place now. We're all having to adjust to not having him here now, he'd been living with mom for about 5 years now. The funeral was beautiful, though it rained cats and dogs the day we buried him.

Standing in the freezing rain managed to exacerbate the colds we were all coming down with, because the last week of October Matt, Sara and I all had the martian death flu. I think we spent 3 straight days in bed.

For halloween Sara was a skelanimals cat. For those of you without children, skelanimals are basically cute, skeletonized animals popular with young teens. There kind of a goth-gateway product. They're cute, though (http://skelanimals.com/). I do have pics, which I will post when I can find the camera.

As a result of being sick, I'm several days behind on my studies, and scrambling to catch up. I literally spent 7 hours yesterday doing homework. Plus, mom tapes all her lectures for me on my digital recorder....which is nice, but I have 9 hours of classes to listen to still.

Matt turned 32 on the 2nd of this month...birthdays are always a wonderful excuse to go get carvel ice cream cakes! I was planning a super-secret gift for him, but all the pieces didn't come in on time, so it will be moved to a christmas gift.

Yesterday I went out early to run some errands. Mom took Ladybird out while I was gone while she was hanging laudry, and she decided to squeeze out of the fence and go running all over the neighborhood. When I got home, Matt threatened bodily harm to her if I didn't teach her to come when called. Seems he spent a good deal of time chasing her through our neighbor's yards ><. So we're working on that. I'd really really love to get her into an obediance class, I just do NOT have the time right now. I try to work with her 10-15 minutes a day, but on the big list of things to do obediance training the dog always seems to come near the end.

Mom and I want to do a craft show at the end of the month...so I'm trying to get a collection of new pieces together. I have a goodly amount of my old stuff together, but I really want to get more clay pieces made. That and I have to make some sort of display devices for them all, too. If only I didn't need to sleep, this would all be so much easier.

2009-10-23T11:07:00.005-04:00

Toasty Flowers...

Ever since I got my clay, I've been sketching ideas for jewelry pieces I want to do..last week I settled on a design and have been planning out the piece. Tuesday I started making the intricate flower beads that would've been part of the necklace. Because they were 3d and delicate, I built a wire hanger to hold them up off the ground until they were fired in the kiln. After 3 days, I had them the way I wanted them, and started the kiln. Unfortunately, when I went to put the beads in the kiln I had to keep the door open to position the wire hanger...this caused the heating coil in the kiln to turn up very high, trying to heat the inside while the door was open (something I didn't realize till it was too late). I closed the door, and in a matter of minutes, the alarm on my kiln goes off (the alarm is set to go off whenever the kiln temp gets over 100 degrees higher than what the firing program says it should be). In a matter of 5 minutes my beautiful flowers are reduced to shrivled, blackened lumps.

My Mcguyvered bead hanger (post Kiln)

My little black lumps.

So, today we have learned to put the bead hanger in BEFORE we turn on the kiln.

2009-10-17T09:06:00.002-04:00

We had the 1st snow of the year yesterday..ug! Ganted, it was about 1/4 of an incha nd was gone by noon, but still it's the principle of the thing. School has been super busy, so I haven't had much time to play with my clay. I'm hoping to get all my studying done today and have tomorrow after church to work on some pieces. We're going out to get Sara's Haloween costume today...she wants to be a skeleton cat. I guess it's a big chance from the fairy princess she's been the last 4 years!

Poor little Ladybird got stepped on by mom's rottie, Annie last night while they were running around the yard..she was limping and crying all night. So, no more play-dates with Annie. I KNOW she doesn't mean to hurt Ladybird, but when you weigh 100 lbs and your playmate weighs 4 lbs, accidents WILL happen. Luckily Ladybird is all better this morning!

2009-10-08T15:28:00.007-04:00

Well Tuesday I finally broke out the clay (yay!!). I (attempted) to make some pumpkin earrings for my mom. They didn't come out TOO badly (though I forgot to take pics before I gave them to her). Making them, however I discovered I really hate Kato Polyclay (the brand of clay I bought). Clay has a workability----->durabilty scale. The softer a clay, the easier it is to work with, but the less durable the finished product will be. Firmer clays will make much more durable items, but they are stiff, and can be difficult to soften and condition without something like a pasta machine to use. Kato is at the far end of the durability spectrum, and since I have no specialzed clay kneading machines, it took nearly an hour to get a few square inches of clay soft enough to mold into earrings. So, I will be returning the clay. Luckily, my second choice was Premo brand clay, which they sell at AC Moore. I went down and picked up a few bars to try out at home before buying a large amount over the internet (again lol).

I LOVE it! It's great...here is a folk-sy cat pin I made mom. (all these pic will be slightly yellowed because I used our lamplight to shoot in, as we have no real sunlight in NY in Oct.

A close-up of the pansy decoration (mom LOVES pansys)

Here is a turtle pin I made for myself inspired by the art of Cristi Friesen who I think is a PHENOMINAL artist! (http://www.cforiginals.net/)

I am much less pleased with how this came out. The wash came out very, very sloppy and pretty much makes the whole thing look dirty (it's hard to tell in the pics, but trust me, it's not pretty). Next time I'm going to water down the acrylic paint a bit..it was a bit lumpy and tended to clump and streak on the piece (I think I didn't wait for the clay to completely cool, so that may have been a factor as well..I was just so impatient lol).

I DO need to find somewhere to set up a mini-studio..just somewhere I can lay out all my tools and not have to keep picking them up and taking them out..this is what our living-room coffee table has looked like for the last 2 days:

I'm really excited about this new medium, hopefully I can get started on a few of the big jewelry pieces I have in my head soon.

2009-10-05T06:05:00.002-04:00

Well, my new clay arrived last thursday, and it sits there, mocking me. I haven't been able to play with it yet, because I have rather unexpectadly gone back to school. A BS in Biology doesn't really open any doors to finding a job in the biological sciences..rather it's a stepping stone for getting a masters or PhD in your chosen field, which WILL get you a job. I have been hunting for a job for two months, with very little luck. Then I kind of fell into a course in medical billing/coding. When I get certified I can find a job that is at least not minimum wage, and jobs in the health care field always have great benefits...this way I can much more easily help pay for Matt's graduate school. Unfortunately I came into the course a bit late, so I have a couple weeks of catching up to do this weekend, hence my inability to play with my clay.

However, I'm pretty well caught up, so once Sara and Matt leave for the day, I am busting open that clay! My only concern now is can I remember how to program my kiln still? Lol, clay bakes at about 210 degrees, as opposed to glass at about 900. I told mom I'd do her a cat pin and a pair of pumpkin earrings, so at least I have a goal to practice on today..wish me luck :-). I'll post pics if they don't come out too laughable.

2009-09-26T07:30:00.004-04:00

The Leaves they are a changin'.
And the weather is getting cold...bah! We managed to move up to NY just in time for winter, my LEAST favorite season.

On a completely differant note, I have been thinking about my jewelry lately. Since we've moved up here, I have been making some pieces, and as I was taking pictures the other day to update my ETSY store, I realized I was profoundly unhappy with the direction my jewelry has been going. They are not BAD pieces, mind you...just not what I picture in my head when I think about my "style" of jewelry crafting. After some thinking I realize what the problem is. Back in PA I had my own glass studio. If I needed a bead in a certain size/shape to complete a piece, I could just go make it.

Granted, even after a year, I was still a VERY beginnner glassworker. Glass takes a very long time to learn and become proficient with. But still, now I have very generic beads, and in turn I am putting out very generic jewelry. Obviously, right now I have neither the time nor space to recreate my studio from PA.

I happened to be browsing some of my favorite bead websites when I saw this catalog cover piece:

THIS looks like what I want to be able to put out! Something COMPELETELY unique, stylized and vibrant. I found out this is mostly made with polymer clay...so I've ordered some lol. I know that I'm back to square one, learning a new medium...but I need to be able to express my own style in my jewelry if I am ever going to be happy with it. Plus, clay is much more space and time friendly than glass. Now comes the hardest part, waiting for the delivery from the beadsite! (always the worst part!)

2009-09-17T15:57:00.003-04:00

Oh, and I forgot:

For ANYONE who reads this and has a Nintento DS you MUST get Scribblenauts!
http://games.kidswb.com/scribblenauts/index2.html#/?cc=en&page=home

No matter how cool it looks on the site, I can tell you it is infinitely more cool! We're fighting over the DS to play it lol.

2009-09-17T15:45:00.002-04:00

The truth about kittens.....

So my mother runs a cat rescue group called wayward paws (www.waywardpaws.org). A few weeks ago she got a group of three kittens who were very young, and needed round-the-clock-care. So, since she's working, driving out to see grandpa at the nursing home everyday, and generally running around like a chicken with her head cut off, I volunteered to take care of them. The first week was rough...we had to bottle feed them every two hours around the clock. Plus, while cats are very tidy and clean creatures, young kittns poop on everything, including themselves..so we were scrubbing poop off them several times a day, too. They're down to a few bottles a day, supplimented by canned food ( which stinks, and makes their poo stink, too). I don't remember where I read it, but I remember hearing somewhere that young animals are cute because otherwise their parents wouldn't put all the effort into taking care of their needy-arses. Man, I agree with that! Plus, after seeing how they crod and bite and claw at my hands and bottle at feeding time, I have decided that the worst job in the world is to be a mother cat!

2009-09-08T14:12:00.005-04:00

Goin' to the Fair.

So Last tuesday we went to the Great New York State Fair. Matt and Sara had never been to a state fair, and it was LOTS of fun (though Matt complained about the overpriced food and games...I probably should've warned him).

We decided to park and ride from Shoppingtown Mall rather than pay 10 bucks and fight traffic by parking at the fair....if you look closely you can see the line wrapping around the parking lot for everyone waiting for the bus behind Matt (we're at the end of the line...of course!)

Matt and Sara in the Dairy building (where we got some NUMMY ice cream).

We saw a lot of livestock. Sara loved the rabbits and chickens, and I was happy because it was Draft Horse day at the horse show ( I LOOOVE draft horses!)

Sara got to hold a chick at the Youth building (Where we also picked up some info on getting her into 4-H if she wants to).

Sara was upset because we missed all the Duck Races, but she liked the birds of Prey exhibit near the center of the fair. We looked for Jen's work in the arts and crafts displays but all we saw were quilts (Jen later told us we had to go up to the 3rd floor..we'll know for next year).

After some really good, really greasy, and really expensive food we headed over to the midway where Sara had a ball spending $15 to win a small rubber ball and a tiny stuffed fish. Then she went on the rides :-).

Her favorite was the Giant-Plastic-Slide-you-Ride-on-a-Carpet-Down. She also wanted to go through one of the funhouses..I was surprised when she went all the way through all on her own.

Some Fried-dough-with-apples and a short walk later and it was back on the bus to go home. We had a great time, though next year, I want to spend more time watching the horses, no matter how muh Sara and Matt complain.

2009-09-06T10:42:00.005-04:00

Big Ol' Update

I know it has been a long time since I posted. In my defense, we moved up to NY and just got our internet up and running this week. Matt has started school, and I'm still in the process of looking for a job. Luckily we FINALLY started getting unemployement, so that's helping a lot.

Here are a few pics from our camping trip on August 8-10 at buttermilk falls in Ithica. We had to cancell 2 of our planed trips after Matt lost his job, so once we got up here and unpacked I figured we'd do one small trip before the summer ended. The campground was very nice, though the campsites were far off on one side of the park so we had to drive to get to the swimming areas and walking trails...plus a few of the access roads to get deeper into the park were gated off, so we couln't get to the remote trails we wanted to do.

The swimming area is the coolest part of the park..it's a man-made pool, cut from the shale under the Buttermilk falls.

And this last picture is of some flowers we saw along one of our walks..they were very pretty and EVERYWHERE.

I'll have to see if mom can ID them for me.

I had a bunch more pictures of the trip, but I had to delete them, because we couln't find the camera cord to transfer them to the computer, and we needed free space for the pics of our state fair trip (which I will put up in the next post).

My next goal is to get all my new jewelry photoed and my etsy store back up and running.

2009-07-25T08:12:00.002-04:00

I know, it's been awhile...this month has been crazy, crazy, crazy. Matt has had several interviews (we never did hear back from CT, when we called to get a timetable for their decision they said they were still intervieinjg (this was on 6/17) and did not know WHEN the decision would be made). After a lot of thought, we have decided to move back to NY. Matt will be going to graduate school and getting his masters in applied statistics from SU. We're renting the truck monday and will be leaving here tuesday or wednesday...it's good to finally have a direction and to not just be forced to sit around waiting!

2009-07-05T13:32:00.002-04:00

Well we're back from CT. Matt had his interview Wednesday, and he said it went well. It was an all-day interview, so I spent the day touring the area. CT is beautiful, I must say. If Matt gets the job we'll be packing up and moving as soon as we can. If not, we've decided to go to NY and have him go back to school to get some training and make it easier to find a non-direct mail type job. We should know in the next 2 weeks, right now we're just getting the last stuff boxed up and taken care of since we know one way or another we're going to be moving by the end of the month.

2009-06-25T17:53:00.002-04:00

Who thought pastry could be so funny? (check out some of the "best of"..I thought I would wet myself!)

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

2009-06-24T21:36:00.012-04:00

So, according to Yahoo! maps, driving from York, PA to Canoe Creek, PA is about 150 miles and should take about 2.5 hours. Well, not so much. I've been dying to go up and see the bats in what is supposed to be PA's largest bat colony for awhile, so yesterday we set off. We left at noon, so I figure we'll be there 2:30-ish, Matt and Sara can do some fishing while I read, we'll take a nice nature walk, let sara swim, eat dinner, see the bats and go home. Me, the genius that I am, looked at the map and saw we could take route 30 most of the way, instead of the major highway. 30 is more scenic, so that's the way we went, completely forgetting that all those scenic little towns have 30 mile an hour speed limits. Plus the road winds right through the Blue Mountain reagion of PA so there was a lot of going straight up, only to come straight down...I'd hate to live there in the winter! Couple that with summer road work and it was 4:30 when we pulled in the park.

I had hurt my back earlier in the week, and 4 hours in the car with no back support left me barely able to walk. SO, we went to the swimming area and Matt and I sat at a picnic bench while Sara swam for awhile.

Sara managed to pack her pockets full of pretty rocks she just HAD to bring home...though I didn't protest TOO much, I remember at her age coming home from Verona beach with buckets of "seashells"...at least her rocks didn't smell like dead fish :-).

We grilled dinner, and I must say fresh corn on the cob grilled out is one of the best things in the world!

I know a lot of these pictures are a bit blurry, but because of my back, I was shaking a lot when I stood up.

The bats actually live in a church which is located off the park grounds, so after dinner we headed over to get good seats.

The black square in the church is an open hole into the attic, where the bats spend their day.

We got there early (about 8-ish) and a few more groups joined us as it got darker (Ladybird would not stop jumping around and dancing until we let her go over and meet each person as they joined us on the lawn...luckily they all liked dogs!

I TRIED to get some pictures as the bats streamed out of the barn, but by that time it was dark, the bats were flying very fast, and my camera is not that good. Here is one where a bat (the white blob) got caught in my flash..I tried to mark the bats with arrows (and I did make sure it was ok to use my flash before I took any pics of the bats).

I know, pretty crappy, but as we were leaving I did see this little fella on the wall of the church:

We left about 10:15, but even taking the highway route back, we didn't hit home till 1:30 am...ug, what a LONG day! I loved seeing the bats, though as Matt pointed out we could've stayed home and just viewed the park's bat-cam here: http://www.pennfuture.org/bats/canoecreekbatcam.html

2009-06-22T08:21:00.004-04:00

It's been a nice week. We went walking at a few more parks and we spent Thursday night watching movies and putting together a puzzle.

I used to do puzzles all the time when I was younger, but haven't done one in years. In fact, in April when I helped my mom clean out the attic we found a whole bunch of my old puzzles I had finished and framed.

In other good news, Matt got a callback from a company in CT. They saw his resume on monster and called to have a 2 hour phone interview. They were impressed with what he had to say, so they want him to come in next week for a face-to-face interview. I've never been to CT, but it seems like a nice place, so that may be our next home if this works out.

This week I plan on going up for a day at Canoe Creek state park, which has one of the largest bat colonies in PA, and on summer evenings you can watch them come out :-). I've wanted to see them for awhile now, and depending on how stuff works out we may be moving soon, so I want to get up there before I miss my chance.

2009-06-14T08:20:00.007-04:00

It was back to Gifford-Pinchot Saturday (this time I DID remember the camera!). Sara and Matt started out the trip by spending a few hours fishing, while Ladybird and I were content to sit on the other side of the trail and read (the area areound the lake was absolutely COVERED in goose poop, so we had to keep well away from it to prevent a certain naughty puppy from eating and/or rolling in it...yuck!

Matt caught a large stick, but that was about it. Since we were sitting near the beginning of one of the hiking paths, Ladybird got to meet everyone who walked by, which made her day :-).

Her watching the path for more friends.

After that we went on a walk along a differant section of the lakeside trail. The lake was full of sailboats, they were like bright butterflies on the water.

We also saw some basking platforms full of turtles!

The honeysuckle was in full bloom, and you could smell it during the whole walk.

And at the end of the path, Sara found this really red-colored toad which she INSISTED I take a picture of lol.

Then we packed up and came home (ladybird collapsed on our bed with her favorite Sock Monkey).

2009-06-09T10:41:00.002-04:00

Saturday was the 1st sunny day we've had in weeks, so we decided to go take a nice nature walk at Gifford-Pinchot state park. We went camping there last august, but didn't get out on the trails. Since it's less than a 1/2 hour from here, we packed a lunch and headed over. The trails were very nice and most were graveled, so we weren't ankle deep in mud after 2 weeks of rain. We walked the interactive trail, with signs along the way pointing out various natural features (Sara loved to run ahead and read them out loud). I forgot the camera, unfortunately. I must say, the trails were not very well marked at all, no trail names at intersections or anything. Luckily we had a map, and sorta stayed on course. Then 2/3 of the way through the walk we found that the trail had flooded. And not a little, "oh, there's some water we have to hop over" I mean the "Lakeside Trail" was now the "Lakebottom Trail" as the weeks of rain had caused the lake to expand and engulf the land where the trail used to be. We debated going back, but we all had on old shoes, so we just waded through the water. Sara was estatic, after having me constantly harrassing her for the past mile to stay out of the water and mud constantly. The water was COLD and came about mid-shin in places. After we found land again, we dripped and squelched our way to the picnic area where we had lunch and went home.

Later that evening, Sara came in from the bathroom saying there was some sort of animal in one of the trees in the backyard. We all went and looked out the window, and saw something large, brown and furry in a small maple tree behind the pool. I couldn't see what it was but it was about the size of a watermelon. It didn't have a tail, so I knew it wasn't a raccoon (the only thing I could think of was it looked like a baby bear). So we all slowly went outside to try and get a better look. About 1/2 way through the yard, a LARGE woodchuck (who had been eating the leaves) jumped out of the tree and ran under our shed. Holy cow!! Did anyone else out there know woodchucks could climb trees??

2009-06-07T06:51:00.002-04:00

Well, it's been a hell of a week. Tuesday, the day after Matt stayed until 1:00 am to get work done that "had to be done asap" they let him go. It wasn't anything he did, they pretty much let the entire department go, they're moving all the work to their other facility in Jacksonville, FL. That leaves us in the fairly awkward position of having gotten rid of our home, packed up everything we own, and now are renting an apartment near where Matt no longer has a job. Luckily he got a severance package, and with unemployement we're going to be ok for awhile but it's still a scary position to be in these days. We're looking for a new job in the Baltimore area so we can keep the apartment...but we'll have to see. I honestly think that this happened for a reason, and that God is using this as a catalyst for a big change in our lives...we just have to figure out where to go with it.

2009-06-02T00:10:00.002-04:00

A cute pic I tried to take of Ladybird..she WAS sleeping under the blankets on our bed, but as I took the picture she woke up lol. Our little lady goes into be fixed tomorrow..she'll have to stay overnight and the house will be quiet and lonely again.

On another note, I was pleasently surprised to read this while aimlessly wandering around the internet tonight:

http://www.akc.org/news/index.cfm?article_id=3810

I've never held it against the AKC that their focus has been almost entirely on pure breed dogs, that's what their club decided they wanted to dedicate their efforts to. People who get upset at the akc for not accepting mixed breed dogs are like people who would get upset at a Harley-Davidson club for not accepting their Yamaha. But, in a purely selfish way I'm happy they are expanding their sights so that I can look forward to doing events with Ladybird.

Matt's on his way home (it's already past midnight) so I am off for now.

2009-05-28T08:39:00.017-04:00

Memorial Day weekend..continued. We arrived at the campground about 4:30-ish, and when we pulled into our campsite I couldn't believe it...the place was (literally!) a giant pile of rocks! There wasn't a square foot that didn't have some football-sized rock in the ground! (good thing I packed the air matresses!)

It didn't take TOO long to get the tent up, and while Matt and I assembled it, the girls went exploring in the giant field of rocks. Turns out it was an absolute haven for toads and chipmunks. You couldn't walk anywhere without seeing a toad hopping around, or a chipmunk scurrying over the rocks, trees (even our car!)

After we set up camp, we found there was very little in the way of firewood. So I made a run to a nearby wal-mart, hoping to buy an axe..no such luck..they sell guns, but no axes. So I had to buy a couple stacks of firewood from the locals along the road to the park, who all seemed to be selling stacks of firewood lol.

Sunday morning we were up fairly early, and decided to take a nice nature walk before it got too hot. We drove over to the trailhead, and on the way found this Eastern Box turtle slowly making his way across the road.

I stopped the car, picked him up, showed him to the girls, and then put him safely away from the road on the other side, where he could continue on out of harm's way.

We reached the trail after only passing by it 3 or 4 times (it was not very well marked). It was a nice, easy trail for the most part, gently winding through the forest. We found this old well? Cistern? It doesn't show well in the picture, but it was a deep, circular hole in the ground, that I didn't let the kids get TOO close to.

About 1/2 way through the 2 mile trail we found a hillside covered in huge rocks, which, of course, the kids wanted to go play on.

Then we reached the 1/2 way mark of the trail and found it went straight UP. There was about a 600 foot elevation we had to go up, then back down. I must say my calves are STILL feeling that climb! The kids, of course, were running up and down the whole time. Ah, to be 8 again lol. Ladybird handled it very well, too. She was just as energetic at the end of the trail as the beginning (though she did drink a lot from the doggie canteen I brought). Though when we got back to camp and I put her in her x-pen, she immediately zonked out.

A really beautiful fern-covered rock at the end of the trail.

We finished about 11, and got back to camp to rest a bit. After lunch I took the girls swimming. Sara had to have a rubber glove taped onto her hand to keep her stitches dry, which didn't make her happy, though I pointed out she could just NOT swim, which at least made her stop complaining. Even though the park has 2 lakes, you are not allowed to go swimming in them, and have to go shell out 7 bucks a person to use the pool. It was a very nice pool, but still if we wanted to swim in a pool, I have one in our backyard that is free. Anyway, the girls had a great time, and I brought a folding chair and a bag of new books, so I got to spend a few hours reading, which is something I don't have a lot of time to do anymore.

Sunday night was cold, with awful thunderstorms, and a lot of rain (we found the tent has a hole in the roof, somewhere, which I'll have to patch up before our weeklong trip in july).

Monday we learned a good lesson. Always read the campground rules CAREFULLY. We were almost out of firewood, so Matt took the hatchet and chopped down a very dead, but still standing tree at the back of our campsite JUST in time for a nice park ranger to come and give him a ticket. Seems standing trees, even if dead, are off-limits. Which makes sense when you think about it, but we didn't. The fine will be set by a judge...hopefully this will not be a horrendously expensive lesson.

We packed up and headed out about 4 on monday, got ice-cream on the way home, and ate leftover chicken from Sunday for dinner. I managed to get everything put away and all our laundry done, before collapsing in my nice, warm bed.

I really had a good time, and can't wait to do it again. Our next trip is a five-day stay in the adirondacks in mid-July when we go up for dad's annual pig roast/family reunion.

2009-05-27T08:19:00.002-04:00

What a way to spend a Friday night. Sara, while trying to close her bedroom window, managed to put her hand through the glass. She was bleeding quite a bit and I couldn't tell if she had glass in her hand, so we put a towel around it and drove down to the emergency room. After 6 hours, a couple x-rays, and a package of starburst, Sara came home with a few stitches.

But we didn't get in till about 5 am, which meant our Saturday departure for our camping trip was delayed. I got up about 10 am, and had to run out to do a few errands (like hit the bank, get ice and bandages for Sara). It's a good thing we have the station wagon, because everything I wanted to bring would NOT have fit into my poor, old focus. To be honest, everything I wanted to bring didn't fit into the station wagon (maybe if we had a van....lol). But I got most everything into the car, with enough room for the 4 of us and the dog (Sara ended up inviting her best friend Mia to come with us). So we got on the road about 3:30, and luckily the campground was only about an hour away. I'll post about the camping trip (along with pics) as soon as Matt gets home tonight and I can remember to get the camera out of the car.)

2009-05-21T15:25:00.009-04:00

Here are the two necklaces I have done so far, Jen.

This one is gradiated shades of amber chips, african copper beads, and various glass beads, with a focal bead of a frog on a rust-colored ball. I know you said 18", but since you originally said you were looking for a "longer" necklace I made them just a little bigger. This one is 22". (I know the focal bead is a bit fuzzy..still trying to figure out how to get good, tiny pics out of my camera).

This one is alternating patterns of light and dark amber shell beads, coconut beads, and betel nut beads with a wrapped copper disk accent. The inner strand forms a 20" neckline.

2009-05-20T15:46:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I had to go down to the new apartment for our new furniture delivery. Luckily, the delivery men were prompt and finished quickly, so I had quite a bit of time to kill before I had to get back home before Sara got home from school. Since I was near Baltimore anyway, I decided to head into the city and visit Beadazzled, a bead/jewelry making store I had heard about. Thanks to Yahoo maps, I found the store easily. What I could not find, though was parking. I figured I would drive around the block, and see if I could find somewhere to park. Unfortunately, most of the roads in the area were one-way, so I drove around the area...getting lost, finding it again, getting lost, etc. Luckily I eventually found parking.

The store was great, a nice-sized store full of big, round tables. Each table had rows and rows of cups set into to top, and each cup was full of beads, organized by color. Plus a ton of bead strings on the walls. A lot of the beads were ones I could get online through jewelry suppliers, but it was really nice to be able to see them in person. Plus there were some (like the laquered origami pendants) that were entirely new to me.

When I design a piece of jewelry I start by picturing it in my head. I break down each part of the piece in my head, and then go searching for beads that fit what I see in my head. sometimes I find pieces that do not go with thigs I have already picked out, so I have to go back and forth, deciding which ones fit my mental image the closest. Needless to say, this takes a lot of time...I must have spent three hours pacing around beadazzled. Of course, sometimes I find beads so unique, or so interesting I have to revamp my whole design just to incorperate them (or I have to finish my orignial design, as well as coming up with a second design for the new beads). In the end, though I came out of Beadazzled without spending TOO much money.

Today, I had to go BACK to the apartment to meet with the comcast guy who was going to hook up our phone/internet/cable. I brought my beading supplies and got a good bit of work done in the 5 hours I was sitting there. I hope to finish and have pics up before I leave to go camping this weekend.

Also, while browsing Etsy I came across this shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5093490. I LOVE these beads.... if they weren't $45 I'd get some just to make somethng for myself. (Not that they aren't WORTH $45, the time and skill to make these must be increadible...it's just Matt would kill me lol).

2009-05-13T15:18:00.003-04:00

I'm starting to get together all our stuff for our plans for memorial day weekend. We're going camping at French Creek State Park (http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/parks/frenchcreek.aspx). I'm excited to go out camping again..we had so much fun last year. I need to run out this weekend and get an excersize pen for Ladybird, as well as a new cooler. Apparently, when I left the cooler outside last fall to drain and dry, the children thought it would be fun to fill it with grass. When I went to the shed to get it out, it was filled with rotten grass-sludge. I tried several rounds of bleach, but I CANNOT get the stench of rotten vegitation out of the plastic....sigh. Since we have a couple pretty long trip planned this weekend, I'm looking at something like this (http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2246929) which is big, and says it can retain ice for 5 days. I also want to get a compass, since French Creek has a large orientation course. I used to do orientation in high school, and it was a lot of fun..I think the family can have fun wandering through the woods with me :-). I got Matt's fishing licence today, so he can spend as much time as he wants fishing on the trip.

Still working on getting the last of the stuff packed for the move. Matt helped me get the tread mill and large cedar chest downstairs last night. I'm going to start on the utility room this afternoon, and hopefully get another carload of stuff down this saturday when I go to meet the cable guys who are coming to hook up our cable/internet/phone. I got our new furniture ordered (our current livingroom set will not fit in the apartment well)...so things are coming together.

2009-05-11T19:50:00.002-04:00

I can't believe it has been 2 months since my last post...well, I can, I guess. The past few months have been insanely busy! Our big news: about a month ago we decided to move. Matt works in Baltimore, so that gives him about a 3 hour commute daily. After 4 years, it's just gotten to be too much. Plus, looking at our finances, we realized we could be saving a LOT of money if we downsized our housing. So, we're picking up and moving to scenic Reisterstown, MD. It's only about 40 minutes south of here, but it's 25 minutes from where Matt works. We're renting a lovely apartment (though downgrading from 3000 sf to 1200 sf means I have a LOT of stuff to sort through and get rid of). The place has a very nice pool and playground for Sara, and is extremely pet-friendly (it has a dogpark, which I will have to check out before I bring Ladybird...I've heard a lot of small-dog horror stories about dog parks, and at a whopping 4 lbs she just barely qualifies as a dog and not a dust bunny lol).

So I have been running around like a crazy person trying to get ready to move (we're officially moving out somewhere around the 20th of june), plus I'm still working, keeping house and trying to help Sara with the last of her school-work before summer starts. She just finished up her science fair project (her topic was "Do cats have a paw preference (ie are they right or left "handed" like people?)). She got an A+...though in true cat nature, none of the four cats we tested cooperated very much :-).

As for my art, I am sad to say I will have to pack up the glass studio, for now. There is a place I can rent torch time in baltimore, so I can still go and bead every once in awhile, but I'm going to focus more on jewelry-making for the time being, because it is a lot more space-friendly. I'm keeping my kiln and supplies (they don't take up THAT much room) and hopefully down the road I'll have a studio again.

2009-03-09T13:45:00.002-04:00

Gotta love spring weather...last weekend it was bitterly cold and we had 6 inches of snow, this weekend it's been sunny and in the mid 60's. My pussywillow is starting to bud and my crocuses are coming up, winter can't last much longer!

Ladybird is doing great, though it's been 10 years since we've had a puppy. I'd forgotten how much "fun" housebreaking and puppy-proofing everything can be lol. I took her out when I ran some errands on saturday...she got to go to the comic store, the pool supply store, and then to PetCo. Everyone thought she was SO cute, and it's good socilazation for her. Eventually I'd like to take a few obediance classes with her, and maybe register her with the UKC (they allow limited registration for mixed-breeds) so we can do some obediance competition. I remember doing it when I was younger, and it was always so much fun. We'll see :-).

Sara is off school today, so when I get the last of my housework done, I told her we could do some baking together. She has a children's cookbook that Babbaci gave her, and she's really excited to start doing some cooking.

2009-02-23T07:21:00.005-05:00

Of Poodles and Puppies....

The house was too quiet on Thursday...I'm so used to the background noises of our two dogs. The sound of their nails on the linoleum, the sound of their breathing as they lay by my feet as I worked, the sounds of them asking to be let outside. I knew I couldn't take much more of being in an empty house. Yes, we have 3 wonderful cats, who will climb on your lap at the slightest provocation to be pet.....but it's not the same. So we had a family conferance to decide what we wanted in our next dog. Matt didn't really have a preferance. Sara wanted a poodle (a black one..or if we couldn't find a black one she wanted a pink one)..I really hadn't put much thought into it, but the more I considered the idea, the more I could see myself enjoying a poodle. I knew I wanted a rescue dog, so I got on petfinder.com and looked to see what was out there. We were in luck (kind of)..there was a miniature poodle only 3.5 hours from us. So I rented a car and at 5:30 Friday morning I headed off to get our new dog. It's funny how fate works. Yes, the shelter had our poodle..however, he had some sort of liver problem, which meant he had to be on medication everyday for the rest of his life. That's just not something I felt I could deal with right now. Looking around, I found they also had a large selection of chihuahuas/pomeranians from a hoarder/breeder they had confisacted a few months ago. There was a lovely little longhaired chihuahua that I seriously considered...but looking at him just reminded me of Snort, and I couldn't handle that right now, either. Eventually, I settled on a lovely little girl named Ladybird.

2009-02-19T07:50:00.002-05:00

http://www.petshealth.com/dr_library/antifreeze.html

Please read and remember the symptoms, it may save your dog's life. Unfortunately it is too late for us, as we lost both our dogs yesterday when they got out of the fenced yard and into someone's garbage. I am completely numb at this point, having spent the last 16 hours in hysterics. I think I may try to sleep.

2009-02-12T17:22:00.002-05:00

Just a few random thoughts that I want to jot down before the washing machine goes off:

I recieved the heart beads from my Love is in the Air exchange on WetCanvass the other day...they are wonderful! I recieved this one heat pendant that I just HAVE to make into a necklace...the colors are amazing (this necklace I'll keep for myself :-) ).

It was SUCH a windy day today, I went out to get the garbage cans to bring them in (it's trash day) and they are gone! I walked up and down my street, but can't find them anywhere!

I saw this website in readers digest: http://upsidedowndogs.com/ perfect for someone who needs a good chuckle.

2009-02-09T13:18:00.003-05:00

It was a long weekend, full of drama...however, everything seems to have calmed down AND we found a car. It's a mercury sable wagon, only 55k miles on it. It will be nice to have a wagon again, they are so conveniant for trips to NY, camping, and taking the dogs for trips!

I'm excited to watch the westminster dog show tonight..I used to tape it religiously when I was younger, and for the past few years I've just been too busy and missed it. Sara loves to watch the dogs on TV, too (though she gets VERY bored VERY fast at the actual shows, which is why I will be going alone to any shows this year, just so I can sit and enjoy myself).

This saturday is valentine's day. Matt and I have a nice little dinner planned. Sara is going to spend the evening at nannies. We've decided to stay home, instead of a dinner and movie out. Matt's going to cook dinner (something he does about twice a year lol). I'll be doing dessert (have to think of what to make). We're going to rent a movie, and just enjoy a quiet night, just the two of us.

It was a beautiful day yesterday, reached the upper 50's. the dogs loved the weather, and spent a good time outside (tracking mud EVERYWHERE I might add). eh, but that's the way it goes in spring I guess. A little mud from dags and kids isn't going to kill anything.

2009-02-02T15:32:00.004-05:00

Well, I found out Friday that our poor ford focus needs more repair work than it's worth. So, we find ourselves in need of a new car. We went out car shopping on saturday, but didn't find anything but a salesman willing to sell us a 9 year old car for 3x it's kelly blue book value ><. We're going to do some more searching this week, but we only have Matt's aunt's car till Sunday, we pretty much need wheels by then.

Since I spent all weekend trying to find a car, I find myself here on monday afternoon with a houseful of laundry, dishes, and cleaning to do. Sigh, I worked last night so I didn;t get started on it all till about 2. Have to work tonight, too..but I have the reast of the week off, so I'll be able to buckle down and get some housework done.

I'm still tossing around ideas for the winter bead exchance I signed up for. Matt suggested snowmen, which I thought was a great idea, until I saw my stock of white glass...maybe pale blue snowmen? I could take the easy way out and just do an abstract bead of winter-y colors, but I do a lot of abstract beads (I just LOVE mixing some colors and watching the glass swirl and melt). But the whole point of signing up for these exchanges (at least for me) is to stretch my creativity and try new stuff. And I STILL have to get my new jewelry photographed and up on my etsy store. If only I had a few more hours in each day.

2009-01-28T07:40:00.002-05:00

Finally finished and mailed out my beads for the Love is in the Air glass exchange. It was a lot of fun, and I've already signed up for the Depths of Winter exchange. Though this one is giving me a bit more of a problem. I'm trying to figure out what I want to do for my winter-themed beads that is both unique and within my modest skill. Since I actually have a month for this one, I may just go into the studio and play around, see what happens.

Matt was working from home yesterday, so I could take the car into the shop. We have an oil leak somewhere, so they put dye in the oil, and I have to go back Friday to see if they can find the leak. Since inspection is due at the end of the month, if they can't fix it friday, we prett much have 2 options. 1. Leave it at the dealership until they CAN fix it or 2. drive around and risk getting a ticket :-/.

We got a few inches of snow last night, so Sara has a snow day today...so much for getting anything done. I REALLY need to do some laundry and dishes.

2009-01-24T11:49:00.000-05:00

Well, I did finally get some studio time last night. Of the two beads I made, one shattered while I was cleaning it, but the other one I deem good enough to go on to the exchange.

I know, the picture is fuzzy...I just CAN'T seem to get good pictures of anything smaller than a few inches..not sure if it's my camera (although I am using the "taking pictures of tiny items" setting) or if it's just me. Was trying to take the picture on the windowsill in my studio, so what little sunlight we have would pick up the layers of color in the translucent glass. Well, that leaves 4 more to do...I think I can get a couple done today after I run my errands (I hope).

2009-01-23T16:21:00.000-05:00

Ooops...

Well, this morning I woke with one heck of a headache. After everyone left for the day (Matt to work and Sara to school) I took some aleve and went back to bed. I slept through the alarm going off at 9, and woke some time around 10:30 (still with a headache) SO, I took a few more aleve and when I woke at noon, I could at least function. I took the car into the shop, hoping to get the inspection done before the end of this month, but the check engine light came on (again...I've been trying to get the car inspected since the end of december). So, I had to make an appontment on tuesday to take it into the dealership to be repaired before it can pass inspection. When I got home, Sara was there, and fairly upset. Seems she had a 1/2 day of school today (I could have sworn it was NEXT friday) and had come home while I was gone. I settled her down, gave her a snack, and now she and one of her little friends from next door are playing upstairs happily.

I really wanted to get some studio time in (despite the cold weather..though it was up to 50 today). There's a Valentine's Heart Glass exchange going on in the WetCanvass glass forum that I'd like to be a part of (though I'm not signing up officially till I have the pieces done....I've nevr done hearts before and the deadline is next weeek lol). Maybe since I slept in so late this morning, I can get some studio time in late tonight...we'll see.

2009-01-22T09:00:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm a few weeks late in my New Year's Resolution to start blogging again, but better late than never. I'm moving over here from livejournal, so we'll see how it goes.

Now that Sara is back in school after Christmas break, I FINALLY have some time to work on my jewelry again. I've gotten a couple pieces done that I'm quite proud of, I just need to get some decent photos of them now. I really want to get back into the studio and do some glasswork, but we had a cold snap this week..and since (with the vent on and the window open for make-up-air) my studio is the same temperature as the air outside, I go into the studio and turn right back out :-). Well, spring can't be THAT far away, can it?

In other new, I happen to be at PetSmart the other day, just browsing and I ended up picking up a copy of DOGS USA (which I haven't read in years). Browsing through it, I noticed there were quite a few ads in the back for French Bulldog kennels Growing up my dream was to own a frenchie, and I may get one someday (Though right now, Matt, Sara and I try to go walking as often as we can which means a couple miles in state parks in the summer...something I don't think a frenchie could handle in the heat we see here). Anyhow, I went over to the AKC website, and was surprised to see Frenchies have movied up in the populatity rankings quite a bit in the past decade. (http://www.akc.org/reg/dogreg_stats.cfm). There's a big 4-day dog show here in York in mid-March I want to go to, though I've learned that if I want to be able to go and enjoy myself, Matt and Sara stay home (for some reason they get bored and figity watching dogs run in circles for hours). My big goal this summer is to do at least some obediance training with our two pups.... at 6 and 11 pounds respectively, it's not the disaster that an untrained rottie or great dane can be, but I really should have done it with them when they were younger, and it's something I enjoy doing. Plus, Matt wants them to know at least basic commands, which I think is reasonable.