Recovery

Sorry I've been incommunicado for the last several days. Last weekend was my birthday and my honey came to visit me. We had a great weekend together, and now I am recovering from all the birthday fun.

I've been very tired this week and not feeling at all creative. It was all I could do to drag my butt in here and sit down to write this post. Nothing's been exciting me or revving me up to create. And that's ok.

I've learned in all my years of living that this is the natural flow of things. There are times when I can barely sleep I have so many ideas in my head and I spend every moment I can making things, painting, etc. Then there are times like this. Times when I feel exhausted and dry.

I never know how long the dry spells will last, but hopefully it won't be too long. I'll hope for a return of creative juices this weekend, since it's a long one.

In the meantime, I've just finished an incredible book by River Jordan (yes, that's really her name) called "praying for strangers; an adventure of the human spirit". I got it for free from work and thought I'd give it a whirl. I'm so glad I did! I wasn't sure what to expect, if it was going to be a story with heavy religious overtones. It wasn't. It was spiritual, but not religious. And the stories she tells about connection, the universe, and our energy and power to influence the lives of others fills the heart. I highly recommend it. 

Beautiful Interiors

I'm one of those weird people that loves to take a walk in the evening during the fall/winter months and see the lights on in the homes I pass. I love to look at their decorating schemes, to see how they have fashioned their interiors. I imagine what the occupants of the house are doing. Maybe making dinner, talking about their day with their spouse, petting their dog or cat, or just reading by lamplight.

And another one of the things I love is seeing blog posts with photos of the author's home, how they decorate, and what inspires them. So very soon I will do a post of photos of my little apartment and talk about what makes it home to me.

In the meantime, here's a little eye candy of a necklace I made for me. I love it! It combines the Vintage Groove line and the Industrial Chic line from Michael's. Enjoy!

Bead soup party beads have arrived!

Let me first start off by saying what a small world it is. As you've seen, I'm doing the bead soup party through Lori Anderson's blog. The gal that I've been partnered with is currently living in Peoria, AZ and is here in Portland this week visiting her sister. Out of 360ish people and random match-ups, what are the odds that I would be paired with someone from AZ (where I lived for 10 years) who is here in Portland now. It's amazing!

We got together this week to have a treat at Peet's coffee house on Broadway and exchange beads. Here we are smiling for the camera...

And here are our delicious treats. I got a trail mix bar and caramel frappachino thing and they were delish!

Here are pics of all the luscious beads she put together for me:

 Here is an overview of the beads, and not one, but two toggles!...

Here are the blue beads, in ceramics, stone and glass. Tribal and earthy...

J

Look at that handmade toggle Joyce made; exquisite!

Joyce treated both of these charms, and stamped the word "create" on the copper disc...

 Here's the second toggle. I got not one but two!  How cool is that?

And here is the focal bead in glass; aren't the mix of colors lovely?

I'm looking forward to getting started!

photos and more photos!

 
Today was all about taking bunches of photos for my etsy shop, and trying to organize my stock a bit. It's a big job and I made a dent, but still have much more to go. I really wish I had one more day at home before having to go back to my 9-5 job tomorrow, but I am extremely grateful that I HAVE a job to go to. So many people, especially in Oregon, don't have the good fortune that I do.

It is amazing, though, how quickly the weekends pass. It seems it was Friday night about 10 minutes ago! I always have so much more I would've liked to accomplish before the commitments of the week begin.

Today I signed up for a basic bead stringing class with a friend of mine who is just getting into making jewelry. Even though I've been making jewelry for several years now, I never really learned technique, so figure I can pick up a few pointers to make my pieces more polished. I'm also hoping to take a metal clay class and resin class as well.

I'll leave you with a photo of one of my necklaces that was part of the big photo shoot, plus a very blurry picture of my kitty "helping". She thought head butting the camera and pawing at the necklace I was trying to photograph would be great fun. I love kitties! :)

I hope you all had an excellent weekend and I'll be talking with you soon!

So many blogs!

Today I spent some time happily perusing several wonderful blogs out there in blogland and updated my links. I will be adding more as the days progress. So many talented people, so much beauty to be enjoyed. In these  uncertain and turbulent times, it is a real comfort to see people (many women) chronicling the beauty in their little corner of the world. Thank you to each and every one of you who choose to focus on the good and beauty in the world. It's a real inspiration to me.

I'll leave you with a bracelet that I made that reminds me to see the joy in every day...

Bead soup party

I'm very excited to be participating in my very first bead soup party, hosted by the wonderful Lori Anderson! Miss Sweet Pea is also excited...can't you tell? Here's the link to her blog for more info: http://www.prettythingsblog.com/p/bead-soup-blog-party.html

I'm already planning which beads to send out to my bead partner...

A busy week and blog frustration

Sometimes computers frustrate the h-e-double hockey sticks out of me. I just spent about 20 minutes putting together a post, and when I wanted to edit the pics, it went wonky on me and I lost the whole thing. Sigh. Anyway, this week was spent designing new marketing materials for my etsy shop and business. I have a new logo, new business cards that I have to get printed and a new banner for my etsy shop.

There's so much to do and consider when doing online selling. I admit it's a bit overwhelming to me. Sometimes I don't know where to start so I don't start at all. I'm not a big fan of the business side of selling one's wares and I tend to avoid it. So I was proud of myself for getting at least some of the things I need to do done.

 I'll leave you with a bit of eye candy, and a promise that I will post more frequently this week...enjoy!

P.S. Blogger changed the way to do a post and add pics. I've added these pics three times now and they aren't coming out in the order I want. ARGGGGH!!! So I apologize for the order they are in, but frankly I am so frustrated right now that I want to throw my computer across the room. Therefore I will not mess with them any further...