Thoughts and ramblings

Wednesday May 7,
No specials today, but I should have enough beads ready for specials tomorrow.
I had a few busy days here doing things other than glass so I'm running behind...story of my life lately! LOL! Not enough time, seems like the days are flying by faster than ever!
Yesterday I had a dentist appointment (something I hate hate, to do. Creeps me totally out having anything done with my mouth. I took the I Pod and earphones and tried to escape into the music. It worked pretty well, almost fell asleep at one point, but I still don't like having my teeth worked on. I do love the all white filling stuff they use now. I had some old fillings that needed to be replaced and I was so surprised when I looked and saw nice white teeth where the old silver fillings used to be! Shows how long it's been since I've had any new fillings! LOL!
As for beads, I've been busy working on black and white beads, and hopefully they'll be just what people are looking for in beads since it seems to be a big trend in fashion this year. There's a few pink sets for the specials almost ready and some starfish and beachy beads that will make great summer jewelry.

The cupcake Earrings that Julie from RockerJewlz made with my cupcake beads were mentioned at Cupcake Bites, a really cute website that's all about everything cupcake. It was so nice to see such a nice little write up and picture of the cupcake beads and the earrings that Julie makes from them are just perfect (as all her jewelry is)

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Did I say I'm totally hooked on audio books? I checked one out from the library and have enjoyed it so much that I'm looking on line to find the best place to download some on my I Pod. I'm technically challenged so it might take some trial and error in figuring out how to do it. Anyone have any recommendations for good places to buy the audio books to download? Or something really good they've read or listend to lately?
Of course I'm always interested in what beads people would like to see me make, so if you have any suggestions I'd love hear. Thursday May 1,
The class I took last weekend with Leah Fairbanks was absolutely wonderful! Her beautiful garden beads were some of the very first lampwork beads I saw and were instrumental in starting my obsession with melting glass. It was amazing to watch her at the torch and she brought a huge number of beads to class for us to ogle and buy. I couldn't buy any...just couldn't fit it into the budget right now. The dentist appointment looms...next Tuesday and it will take a huge bite out of my budget (bite...LOL, didn't intend that to be a pun) I thought about canceling the appointment but....had a dream last night that I bumped my teeth and lost the four front teeth on the bottom. Yuck! Guess I better bite the bullet and go to the dreaded appointment.

I've been listening to a book on tape (actually on a series of CD's) and am really enjoying it while I'm torching. My DH picked up an extra long extension cord for my headphones so when I'm at the torch I can listen to the CD player or TV with my headphones on. I love the headphones because I seem to be even more in my own little world where just the flame and the melting glass exist.
He's often at his computer with his headphones on so it's kind of funny in our house. Someone could walk in and make themselves at home and neither one of us would notice unless they made an effort to get our attention. Now if I could just get something for him to wear when he's watching TV to keep the volume at a level a little less than a deafening roar!

I found my old magnifying visor with the higher powered magnification and made some really teeny tiny beads. I have a super mini set for the specials, and also a fun cupcake set with a tab shaped cupcake focal. There will be some bunny sets and a couple cat sets and a really different cat focal bead. I'm debating putting one of the cats into an auction on eBay since it's been a few days or more since I've had anything on eBay.

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Wednesday, April 23,

Wow, Have I ever gotten behind in both the bead making and website updating!
I spent a few days back in Turner last week and came back to Rockland on Sunday with my daughter, son-in-law, and the three grandsons. They stayed till yesterday afternoon and headed back to go to a baseball game today in Portland, the Seahawks! They were very excited and really are starting to understand the game since they've been playing ever since they could hold a bat and ball. Zeph went to meet them since he's a big sports fan and wanted to see them at their first real game.

We did a ton of walking around town while they were here and throughly enjoyed the wonderful weather. It's perfect right now and I'd love to keep it just like this all year long! Cool enough for light layers with a nice breeze!

I've been making sweets at the torch lately. I couldn't get off the sweet kick I've been on. I made lots of chocolates and cakes and should make a glass version of the cinnamon swirl buns we get at the Atlantic bakery for breakfast when my daughter is here. We get up with the kids and walk to town for coffee and breakfast and have to split a cinnamon bun.
This year the baby happily devoured almost all of ours so we got another and he dove into that one too. I feel a little responsible for him and his sweet tooth since I'm sure his little carb craving sweet loving appetite came from my side of the gene pool. He looks like a miniature version of his Grandma Sue but has my mother's disposition and my carbaholic tenancies...and also has my love of anything miniature and the patience of of Jobe when he's handling tiny things.
He may turn out to be the best candidate for a shop assistant of all three of them!

Look for some new specials later this evening or tomorrow, depending on how long it takes me to get the pictures ready and the web page typed and uploaded.

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Saturday, April 5,
It's been a week since I updated. I've been enjoying the spring weather and running back and forth between Rockland and Turner, so aside from last weeks Specials and getting shipping out, I haven't been spending as much time on the website and getting new auctions up as I'd like. I went to see a couple movies at the strand, In Brugge, which was absolutely wonderful, different but it really took me on a trip down memory lane. We went there in 1984 with the kids and my hubby's parents, early in the spring. I loved the medieval city and it's amazing architecture and all the canals. The art was incredible and they actually filmed some of the movie in the hotel we stayed at right in the old part of the city! We also saw Married Life which was good in a Film Noire sort of way, but not as good as In Brugge.

As for bead making I've been on a chocolate kick this week. I have lots of cakes and chocolates finished and some cupcakes too. A set of lime and turquoise with butterflies came after I browsed a few of the spring clothing catalogs. Lime and turquoise seem to be strong in spring fashion.

I got a set of DVD's by Louise Hay, very good. One of the sets are meditations for morning and night and I fell asleep to the night time one and had it on repeat so it was still playing when I woke up. I should be full of positive creative energy now! It was really relaxing and I slept better than I have for ages with the soothing affirmations playing in the background.

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Saturday, April 5,
I thought I was over the cold/flu thing, but it's back with a vengeance. Yuck. I sent my DH off to the store to buy custard(actually he was going grocery shopping anyway)
Custard is my comfort food, something my grandmother and mom always made for us when we were sick and to this day I crave custard when I'm feeling under the weather. Funny how things like that stick with us. I even got up and made myself custard the morning my daughter was born. She was born about a month early so I had no idea why I was feeling strange that particular morning. Needless to say, even custard didn't make me feel better that day! LOL!
On the bead front, I'm really excited and working on a special project for beads that may possibly be used in a runway show for a fashion designer!! Julie from RockerJewlz is designing jewelry for the show and I'm so pleased that she thought of using some of my beads! It's so much fun to look at some of the designers styles and use that for inspiration when I'm at the torch. It's a different way of working for me and it's really given a jump start to my creativity.
The colors are black and white, so I cleaned off the worktable and laid out all the different kinds of black and white glass I have. Different blacks are good for different things, and you'd think that white is white, but there are differences in that from different manufactures as well (though not as much as the black!) I did some plaids that are some of my favorite beads ever, and some flat disks made off mandrel that I love love love! I have to decide just how to finish them off so they can be used as beads (no holes since they're off mandrel) I have a few ideas to try but I think this may be something I make a lot! Hope people love them as much as I do! I can just see a big flat bracelet made with them, or a few spaced along a long necklace....or just one as the focal of a choker.....or a collar of them ....
Can you tell I'm excited?

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