Hello!!! I’ve been enjoying the weather lately, including a much needed family picnic last Sunday, and haven’t spent a lot of time in the studio. I must get in there this week though – I’m feeling like such a slacker! LOL But I have done a few things, in fact I dropped off these two rings at the gallery (please excuse the CRAPPY pics – I almost forgot to take pics at all and these were taken at the gallery at the very last minute!)

And a customer’s custom family ring. She had a certain style she wanted and this is what I came up with. She was thoroughly thrilled, tho I certainly wasn’t! LOL The bezels would NOT stay put when I was trying to get them in place – needless to say I had to keep reminding myself to have patience!!!! But it got done, she loved it, all is good!

Other than those three, nothing! Nada! Zip! Zero! I should quit playing on the computer and head into the studio, shouldn’t I?! Have a great day!! Cheers!

New Goodies! Yay!!

Well, the gem show was great! I had a blast, thoroughly enjoyed seeing lots of familiar faces, buying a few gemstones, and what not. Wanna see what I bought? Of course you do! LOL

From left to right – baroque freshwater pearls (two strands!), labradorite, ammolite, garnets, rutilated quartz, and rainbow moonstone. I have no idea what I’m going to do with any of them, but they all caught my eye so I had to have them! I wish I’d been able to find more like the little garnets in different stones like amethyst, peridot, iolite, etc. I’ll have to do a little internet hunting. I have a style of earring that I make that requires a few of these in each pair – and I want a pair for myself eventually! LOL The moonstone is quite colorful, some of the nicest stuff I’ve had in a while and the labradorite has some spectacular color to it. I can’t wait to get into the studio to create!! But it will have to wait until either Cody son) or Randy(dh) get home as they didn’t bring my tools in from the car last night, and they’re too freaking heavy for me to maneuver them safely down the basement stairs (though I did manage to get them in the house! LOL).

Other than a fantastic time at the gem show, my weekend was pretty good. Randy was home on Friday, so we ventured off to the garden store to get some annul flowers for the deck – came home with this gorgeous basket that is happily hanging just outside the kitchen door…

We have flowers that not only look pretty, but the iguanas and bearded dragons can eat (gotta love vegetarian pets! LOL) and they attract hummingbirds too. We’re thinking of getting another basket or two next payday – the colors are so inspiring.

I guess I best get on with my day. I’m sure I can find other things to do that don’t involve working in the studio – though that’s where I want to be. Hope Cody comes home early from school! Cheers!!

Gem Show Weekend! Woohoo!

There’s a gem show locally this weekend. I set up a bead show advertisment in one of their display cases (as I do every year), so was there on Thursday to install it. I chatted with one of the vendors there that also does my bead show and had a heck of a time concentrating on our conversation because I was totally distracted by all the beads he had hanging on the wall behind him. He has some nice amber cabs too, which I will probably pick up while I’m there. If you’re looking for a steel necklace mandrel, he has one there – for making solid metal neck collars. I got mine form him a couple of years ago. Love it (hardly use it, but I do love it!). I’ll be at the show most of Saturday afternoon, shopping, visiting, having fun and spending money.

Dh went to the tattoo show tonight, bought himself some incredibly expensive books and had a nice time, so I will not feel guilty for spending the day a the gem show and he won’t be able to grumble about me spending some $$$ on ’stuff’! LOL A guilt free shopping trip – SWEET!!

Hope you all have a great weekend! I’m off to relax before hitting the hay – tomorrow will come early enough! Cheers!

Another week goes by…..

Happy Monday – Easter Monday for many. We had our Easter celebration on Saturday, all the kids were here, except for Mark’s g/f Cecili. She was babysitting her aunt’s kids, so we sent a plate of turkey goodness to her afterwards. Other than that busy day, it’s been pretty quiet around here. Oh, our grandson Dayton (9 months old) took his first steps yesterday – 5 of them. I got a text about it from his mom – lol. I remember the olden days when you use to have to actually speak to a person on the telephone to convey a message. My how times have changed! ROFL! Seriously, we were talking about technology the other day, and it was horrifying to realize that I remember way back when cordless telephones didn’t exist, computers filled an entire floor of a building and were reserved for government and large companies (my Dad started computer programming in 1969!!). I remember when we got our first color tv (I was in grade 6 and we were the first ones on our block!). I remember back in the early 70’s my best friend’s dad worked for Motorola and we were amazed by his car phone!! It was HUGE, attached by a cord to the unit on the dash. We just couldn’t imagine why you would need a phone in the car! LOL It was very James Bondish and we all thought she had the coolest dad ever. LOL I remember moving to Vancouver from the Prairies in 1981 and looking for a job. There were tons and tons and tons of jobs for ‘word processors’ and I had NO idea what the heck a word processor was! NO CLUE! LOL I applied for a job as an executive assistant (though where I had come from it was still termed secretary) and ended up learning word processing. Amazing technology! ROFL!

Now my household has no less than three cell phones, two computers, 5 televisions, and a token cordless landline telephone that no one ever uses! We don’t need car phones as we have the cell phones. Word processing is now considered a basic learning skill – my 6 year old granddaughter is amazing on the computer. But the truly amazing thing is that when I go downstairs into the studio, aside from the color tv with the remote control, tucking my cell phone in my pocket, turning on my fluorescent lights, I will step back in time and pick up my jeweler’s saw to cut silver sheet. I will grasp my hand files to smooth the metal and remove little imperfections. I will light my propane hand torch and join the seams with solder. I will pound the metal with hammers on smooth steel blocks. And on and on. Techniques that have been around for centuries are still the tried and true methods used today, techniques that I happen to be pretty darn good at. That gives me just a little comfort that while so many things in life change, there are still many more that stay the same!!

Have a great week, I feel the need to create! Cheers!

A new day dawns – or maybe lots of days!!

Sorry to take so long to get back here and catch up. It’s been an interesting week. No, my bad mood didn’t last long – just til the next day then I was fine. I do have some jewelry to show – just let me babble for a few minutes. I had a minor trauma last night. Dh & I went to Staples to get some stationery stuff, and while there he was checking out laptops, I was looking at cameras. I took off my engagement ring (you know where this is going, don’t you), put it on the shelf, focused a couple of different cameras, dh came along, annoyed me (he’s good at that some days!), and I totally and completely forgot that my ring was sitting on the shelf at Staples until we’d gone out for dinner then home. I was sitting in the kitchen about two and a half hours later and realized it was gone. I phone the store, nope, no one turned it in. The staff looked on the shelf. No ring. My poor little ring is gone. It had the tiniest of diamonds, and the gold wire ring shank was very thin. Dh bought it for me when we had no money, three kids at the time (this would have been in 1988), we were the poster family for poor. And somehow, some way he managed to scrape together $90 to buy me this second hand ring. I loved that little ring. I wore it almost non-stop for 20 years. And now it’s gone. But I still have dh, and we have a mortgage, kids, grandkids, vehicles, stuff, and a zoo’s worth of critters. I highly doubt he’s going anywhere anytime soon! LOL But it was my ring

I had a really good class at the house today though – one day for now as it was a mom/daughter team. Mom has breast cancer, just finished chemo, goes on Monday for a double mastectomy then radiation. It was kind of tough at first knowing she is so sick (the cancer has matasticiszedlslejr???? I have no idea how to spell that!!) but it didn’t take long to realize she’s just taking one day at a time and staying positive. Her daughter is going to stop by tomorrow morning to pick up their rings (they managed to finish them, I just have to tumble them), and I’m going to send over a stack of Lapidary Journals for the mom to go through while she’s recouperating from surgery. You know, after spending the day with the two of them (the only child/daughter doing something with her mom so they can spend precious time together, patiently listening while her mom and I told stories back and forth, or her mom asked the same question a million times because the chemo has fried her short term memory, etc) makes me realize that a silly little ring going missing is so not the end of the world. I am humbled.

And now for the jewelry parade!!

First is a white titanium drusy, multicolored dichroic, pink tourmaline and amethyst pendant.

This is a green tourmaline pendant

This is a titanium drusy and pink tourmaline Pathways pendant

This is a bangle bracelet I made for me!! The leaves have lime green and magenta resin in them. Pretty, huh??

This is a similar bangle bracelet that I made but didn’t put any resin in it. It’s at the gallery now…

Labradorite and mystic topaz, reticulated silver pendant

Resin pendant – such rich colors!!

Now, this one is different for me! Here is a massive bundle of leaves and chains. The chains vary in length, 2ft, 3 ft, 4 ft and finally 5 ft long!! The shortest one (2 ft) has two smallleaves and a larger leaf focal. The 3 ft chain has a huge 2 1/2 inch leaf hanging from it, and the 4 ft chain has 9 (or it might be 11, I can’t remember and it’s at the gallery!!) small leaves spaced out along it. The last chain has nothing attached. This is quite the massive chunk of chain. Sure looks cool when worn but also sounds cool too – like wind chimes!!! Not for the faint of heart! LOL

OH!! I almost forgot!! I finished a Geo Cosmo necklace for the show – check it out!!

And matching earrings of course

And finally, a set of three domed pieces (Geo Cosmo style!) filled with rich amber hues….

That’s it, that’s all. Hope you enjoyed the show & tell!! I’m off now, need to work on flyers for the bead show. There’s a rock & gem show locally in a couple of weeks and I have to set up a display case for the bead show there and I can have flyers for people to pick up. It’s always a good marketing opportunity. Hope you have a good week!! I’m going to count my blessings and enjoy life. Can’t complain one little bit! Cheers!

Have you ever had one of those days?

Seriously? I am so grumpy right now, that I could spit nails (one of my Mom’s favorite sayings!). I’m not particularly angry, just completely grumpy. And at no one and nothing in particular. Must be PMS! I tried taking jewelry pics today, and you know what? My jewelry is BORING!!!! Well, the new stuff anyway. Totally boring. I must have about 30 leaf pieces (*yawn*), a few of those ‘geo cosmo’ domed circle pieces (okay, there’s one that’s pretty but really, who’s going to wear these stupid things?), and that’s it. I think I need some new inspiration. Or a holiday. Or something. Sigh ……………… maybe I’ll feel better tomorrow. I will post pics, but the thought of uploading and what not is too daunting at this minute. Especially considering the double sinks full of dirty dishes I have to wash. As much as I love dh (and everyone that knows me knows how much I adore Randy most days), today I could strangle him!!! ARGH! Would it kill him to wash more than just his dinner plate? Someone should tell him that cutlery is considered ‘washing your own dinner dishes’. I hope I snap out of this before he gets home from work or it’s going to be a miserable evening! LOL I better go find something to munch on – something completely unhealthy and satisfying.
Hopefully I’ll be back tomorrow with a much better attitude! Have a great day!