Dewdrop Falling

This blog is closed!

2007-06-12T07:47:00.000-07:00

Blog is now here.

I have decided to downsize a bit on the blog thing. I was publishing to three places and now I am taking it down to two - the OT blog and the MySpace blog. It will just make blogging a little less time consuming. I do the MySpace blog to keep up with my family. So, I hope everyone will follow me over to the new location above. And I hope my friends will keep commenting. I turned the comments on on the OT blog. I don't know why I never did that before. If I have your blog listed on the side bar, please let me know if it is alright to list it on the OT blog side bar. It is a little more public being that it is connected to my website so I don't want to put a link over there if anyone is uncomfortable with it. Okay, enough rambling out of me!

Kerbey Lane and Yard Work

2007-06-05T09:02:00.000-07:00

My jewelry is on display at Kerbey Lane Cafe (the location on Kerbey Lane) in Austin for the entire month of June. For anyone who isn't from Austin, Kerbey Lane Cafe is an Austin mainstay. It's been here forever, it stays open 24 hours and has the best queso you've ever eaten! They saw my work at Blue Genie last December and invited me to exhibit and sell my work there. Yay!

My friend Sarah Eastep has just launched her latest line of jewelry on her updated website. Be sure to check it out! Maneki Collection. It's gorgeous! Sarah has a great eye for lovely little pieces.

We spent all day Sunday working in our backyard. We got one of those big tent things from Target that has the mosquito netting and built it in the middle. We moved our vinyl aqua couch and our hand-me-down lawn furniture into it. We also hung a light in it that I bought from a thrift store a while back. It is so nice!! We got one of those mister setups and tried it out but it was just too misty. It made everything wet so we took it out. We might try putting it on the back porch later on. We also planted more flowers, cleared more beds, mulched, transplanted some flowers and turned our compost pile. It was a tough day of work! You can see more of the results on my flickr page.

Exhibit and Forest's first college course

2007-05-31T20:05:00.000-07:00

I thought this necklace up last week, made it yesterday, popped it up on the website last night and awoke to find it sold this morning. I wasn't ready for it to go. I will miss you little owl necklace! I didn't even get a chance to bond before I dropped it off at the post office this afternoon. I am sure it will be happy in its new home though. I have more owls, I will just have to make more.

Last Friday I got together with my mother-in-law, Linda. We visited the latest exhibit at the Harry Ransom Center here in Austin. The current exhibit is all about the 1920's - one of my most favorite decades. It was great, highlighting all the amazing art, literature and societal changes that happened during that decade. There was a letter from Ernest Hemingway's mother, to him, chastising his behavior. There were tons of great photographs and original manuscripts with the writer's notes in the margins. One super neat picture featured of all these ladies in their fancy full coverage bathing suit ensembles. Why can't we still have bathing suits like that? I came away with a long list of books I need to read including Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis. I really enjoyed all of the first edition books they had on display. The cover art was beautiful and inspiring. Then, at some point in the exhibit I was reminded of prohibition - it's amazing what you can accomplish without alcohol in your life! Just kidding, I know they were all drinking bathtub gin at the speakeasy. Afterward Linda took me to lunch at Bess. I had yummy crab cakes and we shared a strawberry shortcake for dessert. The food was good and the restaurant is lovely and cozy.

Today I met with a bookkeeper. Oh, I am so happy at the thought of having someone to help me with accounting. I don't mind doing it so much but sometimes I run into problems I just don't know how to solve!

My son started his first college course this evening. He is still in high school but is able to take courses at the local community college for dual credit. It was really a proud and exciting moment for me as a parent. He is taking US History I.

Oh, and one more thing, last Saturday I tagged along with my husband on an errand and we stopped into one of my favorite antique malls where I found these lovely gold charms. Can't wait to cook something up with them!

2007-05-29T14:27:00.001-07:00

Man, Mondays are tough. It's even worse when they fall on Tuesday. We had too much fun this weekend and I am totally worn out! Friday night James and I made enchiladas and margaritas and hung out in our backyard. Heaven! Saturday night we went out to celebrate Victoria's birthday with dinner at Chez Nous and drinks at Long Branch. While we were at Long Branch, I practiced some time delay photography. The above photo was my favorite of the evening. The rest are on my flickr page. Sunday we hung out with our friends, Kristin and Scott. Kristin made awesome pizza and Scott made great margaritas. After dinner we played games on their WII (is that how it's written?). I want one of those gaming systems! Monday we had our rotating game night with friends. Clint and Dixie hosted this time and bbq'd for us! We played Scattergories. It was a fun fun weekend.

This morning I got up super early and Forest and I went down to the community college to start getting him enrolled to take classes for the summer. He can do dual credit courses where he gets credit for high school and college. So cool! On the way home we stopped in for a few items at Target and he filled out an application for a summer job. He is growing up!

Today I am working in the studio, making new necklaces. I am hoping for some good dry weather this week so I can do another resin batch. The last project was so fun. They sold so quickly I didn't even get them on the website. Maybe this time I will make more! Resin projects are so fun. But, resin really stinks so I won't be making this a long time line.

I actually did get around to soldering in my studio last week. I wasted so much fuel before realizing that I needed softer solder. I am at least glad that I can have the patience with myself to realize that it will just take time to figure out how to make my ideas a reality. It is such a learning experience. Yeah, another one of those. Damn!

Since the Sopranos is coming to a close, we have been rewatching the series from the beginning which has been pretty cool. I can't believe how many story lines come full circle in that series. What an amazing show!

long time, no blog

2007-05-23T07:31:00.000-07:00

Look, I got some new glasses!

Good grief, I haven't blogged in a week. I have been busy working and having some fun. Trying to balance the work and the fun. I am starting to think I may be a workaholic! I am kind of serious. Well, the work is actually fun for me right now. I just feel super passionate about my work lately!

Last Wednesday night I met up with Sarah for drinks and then we took a little excursion to the local craft store which was super fun. This weekend I didn't really have any big plans. I just enjoyed hanging out with James all weekend. And, in between, got lots of little jobs done like making rings and organizing my jewelers bench. I pulled out all the equipment I have been collecting over the past few years. I feel like I am pretty much totally set up to solder now. Just need to take the big step to start. Why is that part so hard? Maybe it will happen today? I worked hard yesterday to get a bunch of piddley stuff caught up so that today and tomorrow can be reserved for creative work. You gotta organize this stuff!

Had a nice lunch with Wendy on Friday. It was a nice day to sit outside.

I took my first actual trip to the Blanton Museum yesterday. I met up with my friend Brooke for coffee first and then we walked over to the museum together. We had a great time. I found it inspiring. I loved the new temporary exhibit of the works from the Dahesh Museum. There were some really beautiful and vibrant oil paintings. There is something about oil painting that really excites me. It has such depth. I also really liked that a lot of the paintings were of daily scenes. One of the explanations on the wall was saying that more common life scenes developed when the patronage shifted from religious to merchant class and middle classes commissioned works. I enjoy seeing these almost photographic images of normal life from another time period. We went upstairs and explored a little of the 20th century area but we ran out of time. I look forward to my next trip!

Forest has been introducing me to a lot of rap music. When we get in the car, he always plugs in his Ipod and says "Mom, you gotta hear this song." He is really good at seeking out music. Anyway, about the rap thing - I have never really listened to much because - and I don't mean to stereotype - but often the stuff you pass by on the radio, though it may have a cool beat, the lyrics are sometimes just so sexist and offensive. But he has played some really great stuff for me lately. Let's see, I am enjoying Immortal Technique, Dead Prez and Mos Def. I love learning about new music but I have never been the kind of person to actually seek it out. I always need to have friends who do and can tell me about it! It's a good thing I have James and Forest around. James is mighty prolific in his mix making, I can't even give a comprehensive list of the mixes he's made lately. It's too crazy. This weekend when we were hanging out he gave me a history lesson about the hambone beat - and played a Bo Diddley song, where it started, first and then played all these songs that have that beat right up to present day music. Did you know that song "I Want Candy" has the hambone beat? It was pretty cool to hear the progression of something like that.

Alrighty, I better get back to work!

Blanton Show, Studio Work and Tomatoes

2007-05-16T07:10:00.000-07:00

My show at the Blanton last weekend went nicely. My newest designs were well received. The show was held in the main room near the entrance of the museum. It is a very pleasant room to be in for 8 hours. There are windows on the high ceiling and long white walls so the room is very bright and open. It has a very neat effect. When a cloud passes over the sun, it changes the entire room.

This week I have been working on applications for some shows in the Fall, ordering new supplies and sorting through old supplies. I am patiently awaiting delivery of the last of what I need to start soldering. I hope to get my jeweler's bench organized and ready to use today. I want to get out all the pieces that need soldering so I will be prepared to start. Fingers crossed that everything works alright.

We ate the first tomatoes off our vine this weekend! They were really sweet and good. Hooray! There are tons of green tomatoes too. It gives me hope that I can maybe grow other vegetables in the future.

Met up with Victoria yesterday, we ran errands together in her new car and had mojitos at Opal Divine's before heading home. Her new car is so cute. She's been without a car for so long. I am so happy for her!

New Jewelry, Pain and Hot Weather Pledge

2007-05-11T10:57:00.000-07:00

This week has been full on creative (with a little pain - see below). I have made SO much new jewelry. Fun fun! Today I am sitting my butt in my chair and putting new stuff on the website. I swear!!

I have been having some trouble with my neck and shoulders again. I have been taking this body pump class with my friend Hope at my gym and I think I just pulled a muscle or something. I am sure my profession doesn't help matters. Anyway, it's been giving me a lot of pain this week. I've had to visit the massage lady, take loads of magnesium, do hot and cold compresses, pop muscle relaxers, moan and complain. It's been tough! Oh yeah, I have also had to relax and not do anything at certain times, which KILLS me. I cannot stand to be idle. I am feeling super behind on some of my duties this week! Also, due to my stupid neck and shoulder pain, I was really sad to have to miss Hope's art show at the Hideout last night. I find her work delightful and I was dying to see "Biggie goes to Dairy Queen" in person!

Had coffee with Kristin on Wednesday and lunch with Liz on Thursday. Both times it was so nice to sit outside enjoying the last of the good weather. Soon it's going to be evil hot. I am going to try to continue my zen attitude this year about the heat. I am just going to be okay with it. I am going to dress light. I am not doing any outdoor shows this summer. It's going to be okay! Also, I pledge to go swimming more often this summer. I did not do enough of that last year.

Speaking of organizing (were we?), I just found a great use for these two vintage drawer liners that my mom gave me last year! They are perfect for holding all my little jump rings, head pins and other findings. I love pretty storage solutions.

Cinco de Mayo Fun

2007-05-08T06:48:00.000-07:00

It was a fun weekend! On Friday night we went out to dinner and celebrated Melissa's birthday which actually falls on Cinco de Mayo. She had a full weekend of celebration planned. We had dinner at Habana and got to sit in one of the little thatched huts out front. The food was yummy and they make awesome mojitos! The best part of the evening was when Nel sang a birthday song for her in Spanish. So sweet!

On Saturday night I went to a Cinco de Mayo party at my friend Jennifer Perkin's house. I had a good time. They had the toughest pinata I have ever seen. That thing would not break! Eventually people were just madly whacking at it without the blindfold. It was so funny.

I spent the rest of the weekend sorting through my back stock of old beads, charms and supplies. I have so much stuff! I came to terms with the side of myself that likes to sort. My mom once told me that when she was little they used to enjoy sorting her mother's buttons. (My grandmother was a seamstress and made all her seven kid's clothing, right down to their underwear!) Anyway, I don't know what it is but sorting things is so relaxing and fun. I was going through all my stuff and I just suddenly had this realization of "wow, I am having a blast!" ha!

This week I have got to get my ass in gear and produce jewelry. I have a show at the Blanton this weekend and I have been selling so much jewelry at P&L that my stock is pretty low. Good problem to have, right?

Yard & Website

2007-05-04T07:19:00.000-07:00

This rain is making everything in my yard so green. I am pretty sure that I planted cherry tomatoes because of the way they are growing on the vine. Hope the squirrels don't get them. I am a little worried about this webby stuff that appeared on the grass this morning. I might have to treat it - hopefully there is a natural product for it. From my little search on the internet, it might be some sort of fungus. Oh no! One of the website I looked at recommended not watering at night. That's not good. It's not ecologically sound to water during the day, not to mention that the city doesn't want you to. I will just have to study the issue more.

Man, I have had my head buried in my website all week spending every spare minute on it! I finished the shopping cart conversion last night. It's so exciting! There is a search feature, there next and previous buttons so you can just flip through all my products. I will be able to add things quickly. I am kind of excited to add the next round of new products. I am sure that will wear off soon enough! It is so empowering to figure out all the technical stuff. I actually found the add on modules, installed them and figured out how they worked all by myself. James came in a few times and helped me figure out some html issues. I am so lucky to have such a smart husband. He really gets how computers work!

I got a big order of supplies in yesterday including my new torch. I am excited to actually be able to solder in my studio soon!

King William Fair

2007-04-29T11:16:00.000-07:00

My show yesterday was so much fun. My friend, Anne Marie, told me about it. It's been going on for many years and coincides with Fiesta, a week long celebration in San Antonio. There was a fun parade in the morning. People were wearing colorful head dresses and exchanging funny medals. They were cracking confetti eggs on each other's head so everyone had confetti in their hair. The fair is held in this neighborhood of big old beautiful mansions on tree-lined streets. My friend Liz and I requested booths next to each other and it was so much fun to hang out with her all day! I posted a bunch of pictures on my flickr page.

Today I am feeling super inspired to make new jewelry. I cleaned my studio this morning. It seriously needed it.

Friday night was nice. Hung out with James and he played me two of his latest mixes, old country music and do-wop. We practiced dancing to the country music. I taught him the two step. It was really fun.

Websites and Mix Tapes

2007-04-26T07:14:00.000-07:00

When I start doing a project I can really get obsessed with it. This week I finally had a chance to get James to sit down with me and figure out how to get into my shopping cart software. Working with Etsy has made me realize how much easier it would be to add products to my website if I used the shopping cart storefront. I just couldn't figure out how to get it started. Once he got me in, I started messing around with the configuration, figuring out how it works. The one I have is an older version that came free with my web host but I think I will be able to make it work out pretty well. There are issues with the spacing but it will have to do for now. I have developed the look of it and now I am in the process of adding images and descriptions to all my products. I hope to take it live really soon. I think it will make me a little more efficient in my business.

James also has a special talent for making music mixes. He once made me the best Dylan mix tape ever. You might not think Bob Dylan could be romantic but you'd be wrong. ;) Anyway, ever since he got his new Ipod he has been back to making mixes. They are so awesome! This week he made one with all songs from 1972 (the year I was born). It makes me so happy. It has some great songs like Saturday in the Park and Ventura Highway. He also made a mix of 80's New Wave which has me saying "OMG" every time a new song comes on in the car. His mixes are really fun.

I have also been busy working on my latest website project. Along with it I am also helping the lady out with some marketing stuff like designing a postcard for her and getting her set up for mass email campaigns. It is kind of fun to use the knowledge I have developed in my own business experience to help someone else. Plus, it challenges me to learn more when someone tasks me with coming up with a new design. I find her enthusiasm for her business inspiring.

This weekend I am looking forward to my show in San Antonio, King William.

A very fun Saturday night.

2007-04-23T06:31:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness, Saturday night was so much fun. We had drinks at the San Jose where two of my friends were staying and dinner at Uchi where we had a celebrity sighting! We were sitting outside having drinks and out walks Jake Gyllenhaal. It was so exciting. He is just as beautiful in person as on the screen. And Jake, if you're out there, I am so sorry I yelled your name out. I am rather embarrassed at my crazed fan behavior.

In the picture above, we all have that "I just saw Jake Gyllenhaal" glow. From left to right, Steve, Steve, Barry, Me & Katy. I have known Katy since Kindergarten, ran around with Barry in high school. In college I introduced them and they got married. The Steves (how adorable, a couple in which both partners share the same name) moved to Brownwood about 10 years ago and opened a deli downtown (Steves Market & Deli - seriously good sandwiches if you are ever passing through). This was the first time I had ever really gotten to know them and how fun they are. We had such a good time. As Katy said, I don't remember the last time I laughed that hard. A night like that is good for the soul. And congratulations to my friend Barry. An MBA is quite an accomplishment!

Crafting was fun on Sunday. Instead of working on a craft, I just worked on making earrings while chatting with my friends. Soon there will be some new earrings up on the site. I always get excited when I make a bunch of new earrings. They are like tiny little mobiles. You have to make sure they are not too heavy and they have to be interesting. I just don't like to make boring earrings. I used a bunch of the vintage beads I found in the Paris flea market.

Oh yeah, and I scored pretty big at Citywide this weekend. Lots of neat old jewelry and coins. I enjoy talking to the old man who sells the coins. He is full of interesting facts about coins. I love hearing people talk about their hobbies. I also scored a beautiful vintage black eyelet dress for myself! Hooray!

New Display at Parts & Labour

2007-04-20T09:03:00.000-07:00

I got my new display up at Parts and Labour. Check it out. It's the old kitchen cabinet door my brother dug up for me:

I found the little hands at the Warrenton flea market.

I decided to give Etsy another try. I tried it about a year ago with no luck but recently I have been hearing rave reviews from several friends and yesterday a customer wrote me to ask if I sold there. So, I guess I need to try it one more time! We'll see. It shouldn't be too hard to just add new stuff there when I put it on my website.

Yesterday I got busy making new earrings. Came up with a bunch of prototypes which will probably sit on my bulletin board for a few days until I decide what makes the cut.

We went to see Grindhouse on Wednesday night. I actually liked it! The first movie was definitely gory and I had to close my eyes a few times. Loved the Tarantino movie. His movies have great female characters. I have always been a fan. Plus, I really like his connection with Austin.

Looking forward to Citywide Garage Sale this weekend! Also, my friends from high school, Katy and Barry will be in town. We will be celebrating Barry's graduation from the UT MBA program. And, a little crafting get together with a few close friends. It's going to be a fun weekend.

Family Time

2007-04-17T08:13:00.000-07:00

Have been enjoying hanging out with my sister. She is coming back from a short trip to Houston today and will have to leave for home tomorrow. It's been nice to hang out with her. I just love my sister. She is one of my favorite people on earth. Such a righteous chick.

We went home for a couple of days last week so Crystal could see my parents. I went to my parent's back pasture in search of some new display piece for my shelf at Parts and Labour. My brother, Jeff, climbed through a pile of old wood and found an old cabinet door for me. Perfect! I will post a picture when it is up.

My niece is so cute! I "helped" out a lot by holding the baby as much as possible. She is just the sweetest little baby ever! Yes, I am gushing. She gets these very adorable, thoughtful looks on her face. And, I love the way she moves her arms and legs around. Sigh.

Spent a bunch of time in the studio on Sunday coming up with new silver charm necklaces. Will put them up on the site soon.

Had to go to the eye doctor yesterday. I got the idea to take a bunch of pictures of myself in the glasses I liked so that I could look at them at home and decide. It is always so hard to pick out glasses because you can't see how you really look in them - well, if you are as blind as I am, you can't. So anyway, I am excited because I picked out a really cute pair. I am cannot wait to have new glasses. I am so tired of the ones I have been wearing and repairing for the last three years!

Old Symbols

2007-04-14T16:11:00.000-07:00

These two necklaces are made from old symbols. The Pegasus is from the Mobil Oil logo. I remember our family friends having an old Mobil sign in their backyard. As a 5 year old, I thought it was so neat.

The other is an old Girl Scout Brownie pin. I am not sure what Brownie pins look like now. They may be the same. I am sure a quick internet search would tell me. I found this one at a flea market. I have no idea what happened to mine. Finding this brought back nice memories of being in the Girl Scouts when I was a kid. I remember going to Girl Scout camp. One night we all pulled our cots outside to sleep under the stars. In the middle of the night our counselors woke us up to see that there were fairies dancing around our campfire. It was magical! I am sure it was the older campers but it is a really special memory for me.

Emergencies, Family and New Necklaces

2007-04-11T06:15:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy few days! Yesterday I dealt with emergencies all day. My poor dog has a bladder infection and had to go to the vet. My washing machine is not working properly and after the repair guy left I forgot to make sure the hose was reconnected when I pushed it back up against the wall and ended up with about 2 inches of water all over the floor when it started draining. Thank goodness for wet vacs! Beyond all that I managed to actually get housework and laundry done yesterday. I laughed when I looked at bedraggled myself in the mirror around 6 PM.

In the studio I have been working on pairing up the vintage charms in my inventory for the charm necklaces like the one above. I really enjoy the process of findng charms that form a theme and work well together. I have been making the necklaces a little longer because I think it is kind of fun to be able to see the charms you are wearing. Hoping to get some new necklaces on the Parts and Labour shelf and my website very soon. I also have a bunch of rings lined up to make just as soon as the weather gives me a nice day. Could be today! The glue I use to make the rings seems to set better when the weather is nice.

The weekend was nice. Kristin and Scott came over Saturday night and brought yummy food from Marakesh. We had fun. I enjoyed hearing about Kristin's past travels to Hong Kong and Japan. On Sunday we had James' mom over for brunch and board games. I made a breakfast caserole that had brie and vegetarian sausage in it. It turned out really good! We played a game called Shadows Over Camelot in which there can be a traitor. The traitor is a secret and is based on a card you draw at the beginning of the game. Linda got it on the first round and I got it on the second. When I drew the traitor card, I was kind of sad! I didn't want to be the traitor! ha ha.

I did my own Bust ad this time. With my regular ad, I also get a little ad on the website so I had to figure out how to make an animated gif. That was pretty cool!

My sister gets here today for a week long stay. We are going to go home and visit with my parents. My brothers are also coming in. And, I will finally get to meet my niece, Madaleine! I am excited!

Flea Market, Day Two

2007-04-07T09:34:00.000-07:00

Had so much fun at the flea market with my girlfriends, Dixie, Sarah, Melissa and Kristin! Found some really great jewelry. I was so excited that I came home and sorted it out immediately. I found some great pieces I can work with. It's fun to go with other people to a flea market because you end up seeing things might not have. Dixie kept pointing out all the different coffee grinders and I swear, I had never seen them there before.

After a bit of a hiatus from advertising, I decided to advertise in Bust again and the universe sent me sign by way of a customer testimonial from a woman who found me in that magazine. (Thanks Karen!) I love when you get signs like that. Also, it seems like people are really getting excited about the recycling aspect of my jewelry. That makes me happy!

Oh man, this week has been so busy with the flea market and trying to keep up with all of my other duties. I still feel like I have so much to do to get caught up! Today I will be restocking my Parts and Labour shelf. Then I have to sit down and really get busy on my next website project. Also, I met with my model, Angie, on Thursday and took some pictures of my jewelry on her so I need to get those on the site. Plus a bunch of other piddley stuff that is still unmarked on my lists. Whew! I am tired already.

Got my response on Renegade this morning. I didn't get in. I am kind of bummed about it because I would have really loved doing it. And, I was excited to have another opportunity to go to NYC. Oh well, I guess I could just go anyway! Who needs an excuse?

Warrenton, Day One

2007-04-05T07:11:00.000-07:00

Had so much fun at the Warrenton flea market yesterday with my mom and her friend, Beverly. I took a lot of pictures. Posted them on my flickr account this morning. I love taking pictures of old design elements that inspire me. Ran into my friends Jennifer and Hope Perkins with their mom, Freda and Karly Hand out there as well. They are really troopers, going all three days!

I found lots of jewelry out there. Bought a lot of cool old earrings for turning into rings. For myself I bought a cast iron griddle. I have been wanting to convert over to cast iron cookware because the whole teflon thing is just getting on my nerves! They start flaking and have to be replaced every six months. Cast iron pans can last forever if properly seasoned and cared for. I am excited! I also bought a set of hands for displaying my rings on my shelf at Parts and Labour. They're pretty neat.

I am excited to go back on Friday with my friends! The place is just so big. It would take days to see it all.

weekend: show, cold, game night.

2007-04-02T06:27:00.000-07:00

The first day of the garden fest was truly awful. My sales were virtually nothing. I was feeling pretty crappy all day too, having taken nighttime cold medicine the night before which made me feel disconnected and groggy all day. I was entertaining thoughts of packing up my tent and not coming back. However, the second day was great! I was feeling better and I sold a lot of jewelry! Yay! I love when things turn around like that. The weather was really beautiful both days which made it totally nice for sitting outside. My spot was under a big beautiful shade tree.

One of my customers made me so happy! She got really excited about the recycling aspect of my jewelry. She told me about all these changes she's made in her life recently for the environment, like using natural products and buying things that come in recycled packaging. That just made me feel really good.

I also got inspired by my friend Angie who acts as my model for my website. She came by my booth and we were planning another photo session and she was planning it around exercise! I just really admire that she was already planning it into her schedule instead of just going when she had time like I do. It encouraged me to plan out my exercise this week. Yay for friends who inspire us!

Saturday night was game night at my friend Sarah's house. Despite feeling pretty under the weather from cold medicine, I had a really fun time! I think being around good friends can make you feel better. Maybe that's why I felt better on Sunday! We played Apples to Apples which was really fun and Pass the Bomb which was super funny. You have to think of words that incorporate the three letters on the card and sometimes you just get the funniest non-words in your head while you are trying to think of something. Mersplefer.

Anyway, so that was pretty much my weekend, doing the show and game night. This week: busting everything out so I can spend two whole days at Warrenton!

Goals and Garden Shows

2007-03-30T17:15:00.000-07:00

Today I crossed a big goal off my list. I transferred my mailing list over to one of those mass mailing services. It is so cool! It gives you stats on how many have been opened, clicked through, bounced and who has unsubscribed. I love it. It took me quite a while to import and add all my newest addees and to learn how to do the html stuff. Before this I was having to send them out 10 at a time and it was taking me forever. I am so glad to have this done. Feels good.

I am doing the Zilker Garden Festival this weekend. I had to set up my tent this afternoon. Here's hoping it doesn't blow away! The forecast says that the winds could get up to 25 mph tonight. I anchored it with my homemade weights and tables. It is supposed to be rainy in the morning but should clear up by the afternoon and Sunday is supposed to be sunny and gorgeous. I am excited about the festival. From the looks of it this afternoon there are going to be tons of great plants for sale there. Maybe I can do some shopping too!

Had lunch with Celia today who may be interning for me next year. I really hope it works out. She has a great energy and I could use the help.

I feel like I have a cold or something. A few days ago, I did a major dusting in our house, including the lanterns in the living room. I thought maybe I was having an allergic reaction to the dust but today I feel that stuffy, confused feeling in my head. No, no, no!

Home from San Francisco

2007-03-27T08:27:00.000-07:00

San Francisco was such a great trip! The show was on Saturday. I spent most of the day doing that. Sold some pieces and met lots of new people. Made friends with all the designers at neighboring tables. It was a lot of fun. I was so tired after the show. I wanted to go out for dinner and maybe see a play but I was afraid I would fall asleep! I looked up a neat restaurant but unfortunately they were all booked when I got there so I just walked around and took pictures.

On Sunday, one of my neighbors at the show, Jennifer, had invited me to join her and some friends to go see the Vivienne Westwood exhibit at the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. That was so much fun. I didn't know much about Vivienne Westwood before but, wow, what an amazing woman. The show was super inspiring with tons of great clothing, footwear and videos of her fashion shows. It was neat to hang out with Jennifer and her friends, Sandra and Amelia. Jennifer has a store in the Mission area called Porcelynne. She has her living quarters and studio in the back which was really cool. She makes lingerie! It was fun getting to ride around in the back of Sandra's car, seeing the city.

After the show we had lunch at a neat little cafe and then I had to catch my plane home. It was such a nice trip, made even better by the making of new friends.

Met Amy B. and Victoria for coffee again yesterday. We are definitely applying for Renegade! Fingers crossed.

My poor pup is not feeling well. He started limping last week so I took him to the vet before my trip. The vet gave him some medicine for arthritis which didn't sit well on his stomach. This morning I woke up to some rather disturbing business on the floor so having cleaned that all up and completely disinfected the area, we are going back to the vet! Poor thing!

Lovely day in San Francisco

2007-03-23T20:56:00.000-07:00

Today was lovely! I boarded my plane at 8:00 and got here around noon. Despite mean bus drivers and a bird that pooped on me, I managed to have a great day walking around Pacific Heights area, taking pictures. I walked up and down Filmore Street, going in and out of amazing stores. I had coffee at an outside cafe, walked through a beautiful park from which I could see the bay. There were all kinds of people out enjoying the beautiful day, playing with their dogs, lying on a blanket, reading a book. I wandered over to Japantown and went into the Japan Center which is this really cool indoor mall of Japanese restaurants and stores. Most of the restaurants had plastic representations of their food in the front window. I had a great dinner - Uno Don, eel on rice! Then I walked back to the hotel in the dark. Just a really super nice day.

In praise of pants.

2007-03-22T06:24:00.000-07:00

This morning I had that really great feeling of putting on my pants and having them fit perfectly. You know how sometimes they're kind of tight and you have to sit around in them so they stretch out, well, not this morning. Pants are just the greatest thing. I have worn skirts for so long and now I am just starting to wear pants again. I think they are a good gauge for where your body is, like they let you know if you are on track or not. Another great thing about pants is pockets! It is so awesome to have a place to stick things. Hooray for pants!

I am pretty excited about my trip to San Francisco. I leave tomorrow morning. I will have a full day to hang out and have fun on Friday. On Saturday, I will have the show from morning until about 6 pm and then I will have the evening plus the first half of Sunday to enjoy the city. I think it will be nice. I have got my jewelry all picked out. I am not taking everything. Instead, I am trying to present a more streamlined, themed display. I am not taking the beaded stuff because it's really just not selling right now. I am going to try to figure out what I need for my display today by laying it all out. It needs to be super compact and fit in the big suitcase with my clothes. I am going to pack up the jewelry in plastic baggies and carry it on.

It would be super nice if James or a friend were accompanying me but I will be doing this trip solo. I think that can be nice too. I think it is kind of fun to be in an unfamiliar city on your own. I remember Melissa once telling me that artists needed solo vacations, so this should be nice. It's good to be alone with your thoughts sometimes and do things on your own terms. Well, anyway, whatever the travelling situation happens to be, I think it's good to make the best of it!

Had coffee with Melissa yesterday and got to meet her new pet toad, Lolly. She is just the cutest thing. Melissa and Nel have made her a little terrarium. It is so cool! It has a little coconut house and plants and logs and a dirt floor and also, a little pool of water. So cool! She was just hanging out in her little house, looking out at me. See pictures here.

No book for me.

2007-03-20T08:17:00.001-07:00

Well, my book proposal was not accepted. In the email the editor I worked with said that the group was looking for more precious stuff, like doing projects with heirloom quality jewelry, which my jewelry definitely isn’t. She said they really liked the organization of my table of contents and that they thought my pieces were fun but that ultimately it just didn’t fit in with their list right now. She expressed that she was excited about the ideas I had come up with and that she was disappointed that it didn’t get accepted.

I feel okay about it. I think it was a really good experience. It made me really think about how I spend my time. It helped me pinpoint some bad habits like spending too much time on the internet! ha! It got me focused. I think I learned something from the experience. It is also cool just to see the process of writing a book proposal.

My friend Julie who has written a craft book mentioned getting an agent. That would be an option, to shop it around, but if I follow my heart, I just really want to make jewelry and have as few impediments to that as possible.

Yeah, I am so glad I tried!

6th Anniversary!

2007-03-18T12:16:00.000-07:00

On Friday James and I celebrated our 6th anniversary. Time goes by fast! We went out for dinner at Carmelo's downtown. The food was yum! Afterward we walked around and checked out the SXSW crowd. We wandered through the lobby of the new Hilton, found a baby grand piano on the second floor and James played some songs. It was a nice evening. On Saturday we went down to S. Congress to see all the happenings. Had pizza at Homeslice and went to see a movie, 300, which was pretty good. Then came home and watched Peter Pan. That was a good palate cleanser after all the blood and gore of 300. ha ha. It was nice. I took an entire day off and really enjoyed it. No better way to celebrate an anniversary. The picture above is from our wedding day, in Greece. What a lovely day that was!

My book is getting presented on Monday so I will know in the next day or so if they decide to make an offer on it. I am still feeling like I can go either way on it. If it happens, it could be really exciting, a fun project, and if it doesn't, well, I can put that same energy into something else.

When I went to the dermatologist last week to get that thing removed, I also got him to give me a prescription for some stuff for my face. I am using some type of wash and retin A. At first it was seriously drying out my skin, like it really was painful but I think my face is settling down now. My skin seems like it is already getting better. Yay!

New leaves, crazy thrifter & getting waxes cast

2007-03-14T07:51:00.000-07:00

I am thrilled to see that there are new leaves on the trees we planted in the backyard. The loquat looks like it's springing upward, the desert willow has sprouted a bunch of new leaves and the crepe myrtles have leaves on their underside. Yay! The rain has also helped the weeds. Looks like I am up for a few more weeks worth of weed pulling. At Natural Gardener they told us about corn gluten that you can spray on your yard in the winter to keep the weeds down. I am putting a reminder in my computer to do it next winter!

I had a successful thrifting trip on Sunday. I went out to try and find more drinking glasses but ended up with three new shirts, one skirt, a cool swag lamp, some vintage jewelry, a vintage white planter and a cool metal tray. Oh, and I did find one drinking glass. I would have had two cool swag lamps but the other one got sniped right out from under my nose. There are some hardcore thrifters out there. I was looking at this set of lamps and just forming the thought that I wanted to buy them and this woman and her daughter walked up and were like "this lamp is nice, it's $15, let's get it." And she just took it, even though I was clearly standing in front of it, looking at it. I couldn't believe it. So, I grabbed the other one and walked away quickly. I was afraid she would wrestle me for it! Crazy!!

I finally got an email back from the book people. She liked my table of contents but had a few suggestions for me. What a relief! So, I will keep plugging away on that.

On Monday I took my first batch of waxes in to get the professionally cast into sterling silver. I am just having so much trouble getting to class to do the casting right now and that seems to be slowing down the progress on putting out a sterling line so hopefully this will work out. I am anxious to have them back and see how they come out. I should get them back mid next week.

Had a lovely coffee date with Victoria and Amy B. yesterday. We are discussing the possibility of applying to the Renegade Craft Fair in New York this year. It would be a lot of fun. Hope we get in!

Cheatsheet

2007-03-12T08:20:00.000-07:00

Okay, I've made up a cheatsheet for those of us who have the problem. Feel free to print it up and keep it in your wallet for easy reference. I am glad I am not alone in the problem! I used to have the problem telling Hoffman and Deniro apart until I started recognizing Deniro's distinctive eyes. I am not denying that these guys are amazing actors! They've been in some of my favorite movies! I especially love Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon, Serpico and the Godfather movies. Anyway, enjoy!

I don't feel old

2007-03-10T14:26:00.000-08:00

Well the mole thing wasn't even a mole. It was a seborrheic keratoses, that's kind of what I thought too. heh. Anyway, it's benign and he just scraped it off and put on a bandaid. He said people start getting them when they get older. The brochure he gave me to take home had pictures of really old people on it. I am only 35! I don't feel old.

I just watched Stranger Than Fiction and it is going on my favorites list. I loved it! It's one of those movies that makes you feel really good about life and it was really pretty, visually, which is also something I like in a movie. And, I loved the cgi computer stuff that represented his thinking. I love when a movie does something fresh like that. I also loved that the wrist watch was an important character. In short, I recommend it. When we were in Paris, there were signs for it everywhere but it had a different title: L'incroyable destin de Harold Fricke.

It is time to come clean though, I have this problem of not being able to tell Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino apart. James thinks it's crazy. Seriously, they look a lot alike!

I submitted a bunch of info to the book people so I am waiting to hear back. What if they just drop it? That thought hadn't occurred to me. I am going to email her again when it's been a week.

Marisa's bachelorette party was fun. She was so giggley and happy. We had a balloon blowing up contest and I accidentally let mine go and it smacked her in the face. It was pretty darn funny. How exciting to go to Thailand to get married!

I had a really good creative day yesterday. I worked on new jewelry designs from 9 in the morning until midnight when I collapsed into bed, exhausted! I made necklaces and new earrings using a bunch of the beads I purchased in London and combining them with odd little vintage things from all different places. Earrings are fun to make. They are kind of a challenge because you have to make something that involves all these different parts but they have to be small and light enough for someone to wear. It was a very good day.

I am starting to look forward to Round Top flea market! I am getting a plan together to go with some friends. I will probably be making more than one trip. My mom also wants to go. I went twice in the Fall and it was awesome!

new restaurant and mole

2007-03-07T06:59:00.000-08:00

Last night we had dinner with James' mom at Zax. I was pleasantly surprised. The food was great and the atmosphere is really nice and cozy. We had a chocolate torte (sp) for desert that was awesome!

I have this newly sprouted mole on my stomach that I have to go see the doctor about today. I got my appointment moved up when it started to peel off. It is freaking me out! It is red and dry. It stings a little where it is starting to come off my skin. What the hell is going on?

I tried out my new photolights yesterday and I think they worked really well! Hope to find the time to finish out my photography and get my website updated today. Taking a bunch of new stuff to P&L today for SXSW. I am thinking about applying to ACL this year. Crazy!

Looking forward to Marisa's bachelorette party tonight!

Yardwork makes me happy.

2007-03-05T12:30:00.001-08:00

Another fabulous weekend. On Saturday morning we went out to drink our coffee in the backyard and ended up working out there the whole day! We watched the sun go from one side of our yard to the other. It always starts with pulling a few weeks out of the grass and then we start getting ideas about other stuff we need to do. We cleaned out more beds and started a compost pile. We went to the Natural Gardener to get some new plants. We planted rosemary, lavendar, a tomato plant in the side and in the back we planted some lovely little ground cover plants, ruellla and something else. We also planted the two crepe myrtles that the city gave us. I felt so peaceful and content after a full day of outdoor work! It is good for the soul.

Saturday evening we made impromtu plans with Adam and Victoria, they came over and we grilled out and drank some wine. Victoria hung out with us while Adam went over to play with his band at a coffee house nearby. We had such a fun time. I laughed so hard!

Sunday I worked on my book proposal, replicated coin necklaces and cleaned house.

Today I am working on my latest website project. I seem to be building a side career as a web designer! I have been asked by another person to make a website for their business. This project would involve doing similar websites for three other businesses and maintaining them as well as creating and sending out their email promotions. I think I am going to do it!

You know what's so cool and I totally forgot about? When you squoosh the dish soap and bubbles float up out of the top. That happened this morning and it totally made me happy.

I won't ever regret not trying

2007-03-02T07:30:00.000-08:00

Man, I had one of those days yesterday when my body made me go slowly. I didn't accomplish as much as I wanted to. My muscles were kind of sore all day! I think it was from tensing up during my dental appointment on Wednesday. It has been so long since I have had that kind of work done. All the drilling and burnt tooth smells are really taxing! I cannot imagine having that work done without anesthesia. The drilling super creeps me out. I have one more session to do the fillings on the other side of my mouth and then he wants me to have my last wisdom tooth pulled. Yikes!

It turned out that Forest went around talking to different senators on Wednesday. They had 30 minute meetings and Forest was there to explain how much his charter school has helped him. I did a little research on it this morning and it looks like there is a bill to change the regulations for charter schools in Texas. It could end up closing under-performing schools. I don't really understand much about it beyond the few stories I was able to read this morning but I do know that the school Forest is in now is the very best school experience we have ever had and that he seems to be very focused and engaged for the first time ever on succeeding in school and thinking about his future. It is sad to think that the school could be shut down because of a few kids who don't care about attendance or performing well on TAKS. Public school just doesn't serve the needs of every student and not everyone can afford private school.

I made some new coin necklaces yesterday. I used old francs that I bought in the Paris flea market. I love coin necklaces! I bought some new lights for my jewelry photography that I need to test out today. I have been having shitty luck with my photographs lately. I have been experimenting with all the different settings on my camera to try to make my pictures even better and I just haven't found the magic formula yet. So, I am going back to working with lights. Hope I have more success with my next round of photos. My shelf at P&L is going really well. I was just a little short of my goal for this month and I didn't expect to get anywhere near it since February is always so slow. I feel super good about that! I am just trying to figure out what designs and price range sell best there.

I am developing a website for one of James' clients right now. It is the first one I have ever done for pay! I kind of like building websites. I wouldn't mind taking more classes and learning more about it. I would like to take a lot of classes - photoshop, photography, dreamweaver, etc.

I am also working on a book proposal for a vintage jewelry making craft book. I was contacted through my website by someone from a major book publishing company to write a book proposal. I am working on gathering the information right now. I have really gone back and forth on whether I wanted to pursue it but after having a good conversation with Kristin L. about it I have decided to go ahead through the process and just see what happens. I won't be completely heartbroken if I don't get an offer but at least I won't ever regret not trying. Speaking of which, I really need to get busy on it.

Teeth are really gross that close up

2007-02-28T07:48:00.000-08:00

I am slowly going through my house and cleaning out clutter. Last night I cleaned out my pantry. I had decided to move the silver shelf into my office for bead storage so I had to clean everything off that shelf. That meant I had to find a place for it. I started going through my pantry and realized that I wasn't using half of what was in there. There were whole shelves that I never even search anymore because I know it's all stuff I don't need. It felt so great to get rid of it. I have a growing pile of stuff that I either need to sell in a garage sale (my last one wasn't worth the effort) or just drive over to goodwill. I would try to freecycle it but people are just so flaky when they say they want something. I am thinking, better to just be rid of it in one action. I still need to do the bathroom cabinet and the linen closet. I have already done my closet and half of my laundry room. Organization is not something that comes easy to me. I have too much of a tendancy to keep things that other people are throwing out, thinking I may have a use for it someday. It's hard to let go sometimes!

Yesterday I had lunch with my friend Liz. We sat outside at the Uppercrust Bakery and enjoyed the sunny weather and I drank too many iced teas! It was glorious.

Today Forest may be reading a letter in front of the Texas Senate about his school. I guess they have a lot of absences at his school and because it is a publicly funded charter school, that puts it in danger of being closed. It is quite sad considering it is the last chance for some kids to graduate from high school. Anyway, they asked the kids to write a letter in English class stating why the school is so important to them and they picked the best letters to be read at the capitol. It's very exciting! Forest borrowed a button up shirt and dress shoes from James for the occassion. He looked quite handsome when I dropped him off this morning.

I have a dentist appt today to get fillings. I have deep ridges in my teeth and they are just going to fill them in with white bonding to keep me from getting cavities. First they have to drill out all the black stuff that is in the ridges. Oh joy. The last time I was there, they took pictures of my teeth close up and gave it to me. Teeth are really gross that close up.

Forest's learner's permit

2007-02-22T06:03:00.000-08:00

Forest got his learner's permit yesterday. It was so exciting. After we picked it up, I let him drive me around for a while. We have done that in May but never in Austin. He did a pretty good job. I was trying very hard not to be too critical, remembering my mother yelling at me when I first started driving. ha ha. He said he was nervous. He wanted to practice certain navigations like an unprotected left and so forth. He had good use of signals. There was one incident where he started pulling into the next lane and almost hit a motorcycle that was in his blind spot. That was a little scary. Overall though, it was a very successful first experience! I am excited for him. Last night when I was saying goodnight, he asked if he could drive to school tomorrow. It reminds me of what a great feeling it is when you first start driving. While we were practising yesterday, we went to Sonic to rest and have a snack and he saw some friends there. I am sure he felt great sitting in the driver's seat!

gym, weekend, metals, niece.

2007-02-20T11:01:00.000-08:00

I am quite pleased with myself for going to the gym three times last week, two of which were weights plus cardio. I am slowly building my gym routine back up. Also, one of the days, I actually got my husband to come along.

We had a great weekend. After going to the gym on Saturday we relaxed and watched taped tv shows all day. We totally got caught up on all the HBO shows we have been missing, Rome, Extras. We worked in the yard on Sunday. Yard work makes me feel good. The weather was gorgeous. We have been pulling weed after weed, for like the last few months. Man, the weeds are bad back there. They are coming up through the cracks between the sod squares. My mom says the best way to get rid of weeds is to pull them out by the root so that's what we do. Anyway, it was a super great relaxing weekend.

Finally getting some things accomplished on my metal line. Have three ring styles and three necklace styles. Am in the process of making sure I can reproduce them while also working to come up with more styles. I have high hopes of debuting them at the show in San Francisco in March. Fingers crossed!

My niece was born yesterday! I spoke to my brother 45 minutes after she was born and he sounded so happy and tired, having been up all night. She is healthy and cute and so is the mama. Can't wait to meet little Madeline. Why is it so exciting when babies are born?

Muscles and Closets

2007-02-06T09:04:00.000-08:00

This weekend I had a muscle spasm. It started in my shoulder on Friday and by Saturday morning it had spread through the left side of my neck. It was so painful I had to go to the minor emergency clinic. They gave me muscle relaxers and the doctor said that strengthening my back muscles would help the situation. Kind of makes sense because I took a month and a half off during December and January. I have been back at the gym the past few weeks but you can bet I will be working my lats on a regular basis now. The doctor said that our bodies need regular maintenance. That's probably something I need to hear to motivate me! I am feeling much better now.

Forest is taking drivers ed. It is so exciting that he will be driving soon. Texas has a new law that requires he have a learner's permit for 6 months before he can get his license. That is probably a good idea. I have to say, I really look forward to the day he can drive himself to the skatepark!

I really need to organize all the storage areas in my house. I think I will start with my closet. I am thinking there must be some tips out there that can help me. For instance I have heard one rule that says if you haven't worn something in the past year you should get rid of it. I think it's a year. Anyway, I need some information before I can begin. I am storing too much stuff that I never use. It is hard to get rid of things. It kind of puts me in a quandary about going to flea markets and buying new things. I bet a lot of the stuff I get rid of is stuff I bought at flea markets. Oh well, maybe if I cycle it, it is okay, right? Am I justifying? ha ha. I like old junk!!

We are enjoying the backyard so much now that we are having some nice weather!

New Car and School

2007-01-27T11:59:00.000-08:00

We bought a Prius this week! It is Toyota's version of the hybrid. The gas mileage is supposed to be around 50 in the city. The car is super cute. James will be the primary driver which means I get the Cruiser as my car and the Intrepid shifts down to Forest when he gets his license this summer. He is starting driver's ed this Monday.

Anyway, the car! We were in the market for a new car and were considering our options when An Inconvenient Truth came up in our Netflix list and arrived in our mail box. It really helped us make the decision. If you haven't seen it yet, you must. I was afraid it would be a lot of stuff I already knew and would leave me feeling even more depressed (like The Corporation - a good movie but very depressing). Surprisingly An Inconvenient Truth ended with a very hopeful note that we can make changes to turn the situation around!

The car has GPS, satellite radio and blue tooth. All the technical stuff really appeals to James. He is having fun with it. I made him promise to watch the road and not the little screen. When it turns on, it is super quiet. One of the screens you can chose will tell you when the battery is charging and when it is using gasoline. It also shows you what gas mileage you are getting at different stages. Another cool thing is that you get a tax credit, insurance credit and free parking at meters in downtown Austin. Hooray!

Forest has started at a new school. It is a public charter school that focuses on small class sizes, developing bonds between teachers and students and helping students like Forest who are bored in a regular classroom situation to re-engage with school. The homeschooling just did not work out for us. We were not able to help him enough with Chemistry and Math. This school also has some really cool affiliations with groups that do different types of projects like green home building. If he completes one of the programs, he can get a scholarship for college from it. Another affiliation they have is one that helps kids with their job skills, resume writing, job searching and interviewing techniques. Fingers crossed that it will be a good experience for him.

Last Days in Paris

2007-01-08T06:01:00.000-08:00

Paris was so amazing. The train ride was nice and they served a great meal. We did a whirlwind tour of the city in about 48 hours.

We arrived the afternoon of Thursday and first walked over to see the glass pyramid in front of the Louvre. We met up with James' cousin Elizabeth and her family who were vacationing there also. We had a great dinner in a little market area and then walked over to the Eiffel Tower. The tower was amazing and huge. People had warned me but I was still dumbstruck by how big it is! The lights were on and soon after we got there, it started its hourly light show in which it twinkles all over. It was beautiful. After that we walked along the river and saw the barges that people live on. We saw the exterior of a new museum where the walls of the building were alive - it was neat, like a terrarium (sp) there was actually grass and all sorts of plants growing off the walls of like a 6 story building. I couldn't get a picture because it was too dark. I wish we'd had more time so we could visit the museum. It is supposed to be American, African and another culture which I can't think of right now's art. The court yard had the most interesting little lighted tubes.

On Friday, my birthday, Forest slept in and James and I boarded one of those sight seeing buses that you can get on and off of. It was such a great way to see the city in a short time. We got off and went into the Notre Dame cathedral which took my breath away. James lit a candle and said a prayer for me since it was my birthday. I don't know what happened next but I was staring at the Rose Window and I was suddenly very emotional, feeling all this amazing gratitude for my life. Just thinking how fortunate I am to study the Rose Window in school and then to come and see it. How fortunate my life is in so many ways. I began to cry. It was such a beautiful and warm place. It was a very special experience.

We continued on the bus and saw the Place de la Concord, the Arc de Triomphe, and so many other beautiful buildings and streets, booksellers along the Seine. We got off at the Eiffel Tower where Forest met up with us. He so impressed me getting around on his own in both London and Paris. We all had lunch around the corner. We got back on the bus and rode it up to Monmartre where we took the steps up to the Sacre Coeur. After looking in the church and admiring the hilltop view of Paris at night, we walked to the courtyard area of Monmartre. There were portrait artists. Forest had his portrait done. After shopping around we had dinner in a little restaurant called Chez Eugene that just had the most perfect atmosphere. The decor was super kitschy and there was a two man band, comprised of a guitar and drum, who played the most happy music. Our waiter grabbed some spoons and kept time with the band as he bustled around. They played that song from Triplets of Belville. We had champagne and then a bottle of wine. The food was great. I felt very happy. This is how we celebrated my birthday!

The next morning James and I got up very early and headed to the outskirts of Paris to the St. Quen flea market. We only had a couple of hours but it was heaven! I could easily spend an entire day there. Serendipitously, the first booth I came to was selling old beads and findings. Score! In other booths I found some great old religious medals for earrings, some beautiful vintage glass cabachons that I hope to use in my silver work. It was such a successful venture.
We headed back to the hotel to check out and get Forest. We took a cab over to Arc de Triomphe because Forest really wanted to see it. We walked the steps to the top and admired the view.

Then it was time to leave Paris. We arrived back in London, packed everything and had one last meal at a restaurant nearby. Unfortunately, in my tired state I mis-set the alarm clock and we missed our flight the next morning but it all worked out because they got us on the next one. Now we are home! I have a long to-do list. I am happy to get back to my life! I was beginning to get a little homesick.

London Days 12 & 13

2007-01-03T23:27:00.000-08:00

1/04/06

On day 12 we finally got to take Forest to the Tower of London! Last time we were here James and I went to the Tower twice! It is such a great experience. But I have to say that hearing all the history, it is easy to start getting very mixed up about all the kings. The only thing you can definitively say is that being in line for the throne is very deadly! We also saw the crown jewels on display at the Tower. They are quite sparkley.

After the Tower we had dinner at the Wagamama noodle house. Another place that James and I remembered fondly from our last visit. So yummy.

On Day 13 Forest went out on his own adventure in the morning. I was excited for him to have this experience. It is always exciting to be on your own for the first time in a large city like this. I remember how thrilling it was the first time I was out on my own in NYC.

James and I went to Westminster Abbey. It was overwhelmingly ornate! Every surface was covered in some beautiful wood or marble carving. It was really great to see the tomb of Elizabeth I. The Lady’s chapel had the most beautiful ceiling I have ever seen. We also saw Poet’s Corner where they memorialized many great English writers such as Jane Austen, William Shakespeare and Alfred Lord Tennyson. Westminster was an amazing experience.

Forest met up with us for a late lunch at a sushi place called Matsuri. Yummy!

We headed over to Covent Garden for some shopping. I had some bead shops I wanted to search out. They ended up being in a great little area called Seven Dials. While I found some amazing beads for earrings, James had coffee in a really neat little courtyard outside the bead store called Neal’s Yard. It seemed like a set for a play! Forest found a great skateboard shop there where he finally found the elusive white belt he had been looking for. Down the street we went into a vintage store called Rockit where James found a great vintage leather jacket. I found the second bead store and James bought some cool t-shirts from a street vendor. James said he was glad that I wanted to seek out those bead stores because it led us to such a neat area for shopping.

After that we came home, made ourselves some spaghetti and packed for Paris. We leave this morning. Can’t wait to see the Eiffel Tower. I dreamed about it all night!

London Days 10 and 11

2007-01-01T22:38:00.000-08:00

On New Year’s Eve day we visited the Tate Modern Museum. It is such a great museum. My favorite thing there was this piece by Christian Marclay called Video Quartet. He took all these musical and lyrical clips from movies and keeping their original sound and placed four at a time side by side so that they make up an entirely new piece of music. It was mind-blowing!

They also had all the Guerilla Girls posters up in one room and I had noticed that they had a pretty fair representation of women’s art hung in the museum as well.

That evening we went down to the Thames to watch the great fireworks display, make our resolutions and drink some champagne. Getting home was crazy with throngs of people pushing through the streets.

On New Year’s Day James and I got up early and went for breakfast at the Patisserie Valerie. I love that place! We had lattes and eggs benedict. After that we took a walk in St. James’ Park and fed the birds. We stopped and had tea at a little restaurant in the park.

After the park we visited the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms which I found incredibly interesting and informative. The Cabinet War Rooms were the original rooms from which he conducted the war and were restored from old pictures to look exactly as they did in the 1940’s. There was a museum attached which had five sections focusing on his life at different times. I never realized what an amazing character he was. It is one of the best mueums I have ever visited.

This New Year's Day was so relaxing and nice!

London Days 7, 8 & 9

2006-12-30T20:10:00.000-08:00

On Thursday, the 28th: Harrods was a lot of fun. The store is a feast for the eyes. It is so beautifully decorated with different themes in each room. I split off from the guys. I wandered through the jewelry section where they had some beautiful and inspiring jewelry. I also visited their homewares section. It is so vast, room after room, it is easy to get lost in there. I wanted to look at clothing too but by that time the guys were feeling overwhelmed so we left and had lunch at the Bunch of Grapes Pub which is right down stairs from the flat. We walked down to the Victoria and Albert Museum afterward but were too tired to really explore it. We tried a tour with a docent but she was super boring so we ducked out of the tour.

On Friday, the 30th: James and I got up super early in the morning to go to the Bermondsey flea market. I was surprised that James wanted to come with me. I thought I would be doing it on my own. It was nice to have him along. It was dark when we got lattes and headed for the tube station. I enjoyed seeing the early morning commuters reading their papers. The streets were pretty in the sunrise. The flea market was a lot smaller than I thought it would be but I managed to find some great deals – some old buttons for rings, Siam silver pendants, gifts for friends, beads, old silver coins. We spoke to one vendor who told us she’d been coming to the market for 40 years. She had a great selection of vintage jewelry. She had a beautiful Victorian Souvenir Brooch of the Eiffel Tower. James bought it for me.

Afterward we came back to flat to pick up Forest and head over to the Science Museum where they had a cool exhibit on computer games. Before we went to the exhibit we saw the ocean movie in 3D on their Imax screen. It was so great! James and Forest had fun at the games exhibit. They had actual copies of games from 1952 (I think) up to the present game box that had people lining up around the block a couple of months ago. The guys played a lot of games but I only played the Ms. Pacman game. I kind of rock at it.

Saturday, the 30th: James accompanied me to Portobello Road. Forest stayed home to rest for the day. We had so much fun. There were booths on the street and many stores that had booths inside them. I found quite a lot of old jewelry to use in my work and talked to a lot of interesting characters. It is amazing how knowledgeable the vendors are about their product. It was starting to look stormy so we ducked into a Thai place for a yummy meal and a few glasses of wine. Afterward we walked through the rest of Portobello road which changes from antiques to stalls that sell very hip clothing and jewelry. The street is so different from one end to the other.

On the tube we decided to get off at Sloane Square stop and walk a different way home to see some other areas of London. We had read a funny article in the newspaper that morning about Sloane Rangers so we were curious to see the area. It was very posh with tidy little brick lanes and emaculate doorsteps. There were private gardens which you had to have a key to enter. It started pouring rain on us. We were running through the streets. Looking into the private gardens, through the gates, in the rain, they seemed really magical. The rain was crazy. I couldn’t stop laughing.

The winds have been very strong the past two nights. They rattle the windows which make noises like chickens clucking. They howl! They wake me up and make me worry!

London, Days 5 and 6

2006-12-28T00:32:00.000-08:00

It is hard to believe we are just half way through our trip. It is so nice to take such a long vacation. On the 26th, Boxing Day, the 5th day of our trip, we took Forest out shopping. He had Christmas money that he was excited to spend. He wanted to buy some clothes. James is such a great guide on vacation. He does the research and finds the best places to go. He took us down to Oxford Circus and led us directly to a place called Topshop which was perfect for Forest. There were throngs of people there shopping. This is the time of year when all the stores have massive sales. It was hard to even move around in the store but Forest managed to find a hoodie with a sort of Bauhaus design on it that he really liked. I was surprised to find that the store also had a vintage clothing section. The crowds were too thick to really do any intense shopping. Seriously, I have never been in such a crazy shopping environment. It was neat to see all the hip young kids in there shopping. I found a shirt I liked but didn’t take the time to try it on because it was just too crazy.

After Topshop we ate dinner at a pub called Argyll Arms and then walked down Carnaby
Street where there lots of cool little shops, half of which were open. After shopping we had tickets for Mousetrap, an Agatha Christie whodunit that has been playing for 55 years. It was a really good classic mystery play.

On the 27th, the 6th day of our trip, we set out for Harrods to do some shopping only to find out they weren’t open yet so instead we walked the other way down the street to the Natural History Museum. I am finding so much inspiration here! There is so much beauty all around in the buildings, metal railings, lampposts, etc. Everywhere you look there is some beautiful thing to make you happy. Even at the Natural History Museum, the building itself was so ornate. There were carvings of foliage and animals on every corner. The ceilings were covered in paintings of trees and vines. There were stained glass windows with organic designs. We saw a dinosaur exhibit. They had an awesome ecology exhibit stressing the cycle and interdependence of all living things. I loved the bird exhibit. We took a break and had tea and scones mid afternoon. So British! Ha.

We are having some strange luck with our electric appliances. We have burned out Forest’s ipod charger and my battery charger so far. Smoke, popping noises, etc. It is kind of scary! Fortunately the laptop has been fine! But if I suddenly drop off, you’ll know why.

In the evenings we have just been lying around, tired from all the walking, watching television and eating our snacks from the grocery store downstairs. I am really enjoying watching tv here. There are four chanels on the television in the flat and they are all pretty excellent. On Christmas day there was a great program researching the coverup of the family of Jesus Christ. Just try to find that on American tv. We have seen shows with Ricky Gervais interviewing Christopher Guest and Gary Chandling. Last night they had a great show on about the Cirque de Soleil show, Love. There have also been a lot of great gameshows on. I love watching tv in another country. Also, they can say the f word on tv here. Scandalous!

Today we are going to try to hit up Harrods. I am really in favor of putting it off after our experience the other day but James and Forest want to check it out and if it is too crazy, just move on to Tower of London. We will see what happens!

London, Day Three

2006-12-24T14:02:00.000-08:00

Today was full and great. James and I powered through while Forest went back to bed around 6 AM. We woke him at 9:15, 9:30, 9:45 and then went back one more time to find he was finally up and getting ready. We had ham and cheese croissants and lattes from the Patisserie Valerie and headed out to see the London Tower. When we got there we found it was closed so James quickly devised another plan. We walked across the beautiful Tower Bridge and went to the London Dungeon which was way more entertaining than I thought it would be. It was a really creepy tour of all the foul things that have happened in London’s history – plague, jack the ripper, the great fire of 1666. They led us through dark, scary rooms where actors entertainingly told us about London’s history. Really fun! The best part was this dark room they left us in that had all these mirrors, you would walk in a direction and see twenty of yourself. We got really turned around!

Next we walked around the St John's Wood neighborhood where James’ family lived when he was little. We walked by his old school, his house and Abbey Road Studios. We had lunch and then came home. We were feeling pretty tired.

I took a nap and then we went back out to see Borat at a theatre in Piccadilly Circus. I have to say the movie made me laugh pretty hard. It is a little painful to watch in certain scenes and it is also kind of weird to watch it in another country and to think the people in the move are representing Americans to the rest of the world.

Now we are back for the evening and looking forward to lounging around tomorrow. Everything will be closed down. We are not really doing anything special for Christmas. This trip was our Christmas gift to ourselves so it’s really not necessary to do much more. Before the trip we each bought something to serve as our Christmas presents. We are going to give Forest some spending cash. He wants to shop for clothes here. He also has cash from both his grandparents so he should have fun in the next few days. We are kind of looking forward to the after-xmas sales!

Goodnight and Merry Christmas!

First two days in London

2006-12-23T22:50:00.000-08:00

Hello from London. We are really on a weird sleep schedule! It is 5 in the morning of our 2nd night and none of us has been able to sleep since 2. We are just waiting on the sun to come up so we can go out. Today we are going to force ourselves into a schedule! Yesterday we slept until 3 in the afternoon – 12 hours. Very strange!

Here is a little synopsis of our trip so far… arrived at 7 am on Friday morning (midnight our time). We went down to a little place called Patisserie Valerie where James and I had eaten many breakfasts the last time we were here. We all had English Breakfast which is basically baked beans, sausage, egg, tomato and toast. It was so yummy! We were so tired we took a long nap and when we woke up the sun was already down. It goes down here at 4 PM. We went out to see the Christmas lights near Piccadilly Circus and walked over to Leicester Square. Lots of people were out having fun and partying. We ate dinner in a little café and then came home. On the way home we went to a grocery store and bought food for the flat. James stocked up on British candy like Double Decker candy bars, Maltesers (like Whoppers but better says he), Fruit Pastilles and other stuff. James has a fondness for British candy because he ate so much of it growing up here! Anyway, it is kind of fun to grocery shop in another country.

Saturday after waking at 3 PM, we made reservations and took a ride on the London Eye. It’s this huge ferris wheel that was built for the millennium celebration. It has glass capsules from which you can see a panoramic view of the city. Since we went up at night it was very nice to see all the city lights below. I thought I would be a little scared of the height but it didn’t bother me. After that we walked across the bridge past roasted chestnut vendors, by the parliament buildings and up to Trafalgar Square where there were carolers. We had dinner in a pub and Forest had a pint of beer! James and I had Pimms which were really good and seemed very festive and seasonal. We came home and I relaxed and read my book, The Namesake, which is very good so far. Oh, one cool thing – in the pub there were these books stacked by the door that said “free” so I took two of them, Sue Grafton novels, I have never read her stuff but my mother-in-law likes her and I used to love reading mysteries! Anyway, they are part of this program called Book Crossing in which books are read and released to be found by another reader. You can go on the website and log where the book has been and see its history.

So far it’s been fun and relaxing but I really hope to see London in the daylight today!

Worn out.

2006-12-19T21:52:00.000-08:00

I am so tired! I can barely think. I just have to push through one more day of errand running and packing and then I am homefree for two and a half weeks of lounging around the flat, reading my new Jhumpa Lahiri novel and also my collection of Alice Munro stories that I have been saving up. And also walking around a foriegn city and being inspired and excited by new things. Also, gong to flea markets. And, going to Harrod's down the road and getting yummy cheese and crackers from their fancy food section. And, visiting the Tate Modern. And going for walks in the park. Also, pub food and pints. And then finally going to Paris and shouting "I'm 35" from the top of the Eiffel Tower! And then coming home and getting down to all the goals I have for 2007. I am just saying all this to help me remember that this horrible part of the year is almost over. I am so freaking tired.

I am taking the laptop so hopefully I will be able to blog and upload pics from the trip.

BG has been so great. The other shows were good to me. I am almost out of stock. I am getting a shelf at Parts and Labour. The museum store has asked me to do another trunk show in the Spring. I am excited to work on metals in January. I am excited to do new things in the next year. I guess this part of the year is not so bad because it is also when you start thinking about all the new stuff you want to pursue. I take New Year's Resolutions very seriously.

But for now I am about to fall out of my chair...

Time is flying by.

2006-12-05T08:30:00.000-08:00

Holy crap, did another week go by? I am in show mode right now. Trying to stay very focused on keeping the minimal amount of housework done and getting ready for shows. Last night I set up for bg. I am pretty happy with my booth. In my display I am using this whatnot shelf that my grampaw made for me when I was little. It has my name carved in the top! Today I am going to set out all my jewelry. I also have shows Thursday through Sunday. After that I will have about a week and a half before we leave on the trip. I plan to try to spend some evenings up at the bg show to meet and greet customers. And, I will have to be figuring out what to pack. I really hate packing. It comes with so much anxiety that I will forget something important - no matter how many lists I make. I think we are all ready for a vacation around here! My show up in Dallas last week was successful, if not a bit of a debacle due to the weather. It was freezing the night of the show so it had to be postponed. Fortunately I got word of it before I started driving. They just had it the next night and the turn out was fantastic!

Also, coming up next week is Forest's play - he is taking a class at a local theatre and they are putting on Othello. Forest is playing Othello! I have been running lines with him. I am amazed that he can memorize so much.

Better get back to it. Just wanted to log in and report. I feel so isolated, haven't seen many of my friends in a long time!!! Could use a little girlfriend time but that will have to wait until January!

Thanksgiving weekend

2006-11-27T08:56:00.000-08:00

Our Thanksgiving weekend was really great. My sister was in from Colorado and my mom had her usual Thanksgiving day where she invites friends and family from both sides. It is huge. Mom makes the best dressing! Forest and I made some chocolate pecan pies from a recipe we saw on Martha. There was so much good food. In true Thanksgiving tradition, we all stuffed ourselves! Friday night we went to a football game. We had a really fun domino game going all day Saturday and Sunday. Saturday night James and I went over to hang out with some of my high school friends at their house where we had pizza and margaritas. It was a really nice weekend! I posted pictures on my flickr account.

We bought this couch for our back porch at a little antique store in May:

Isn't it neat?! We got a great deal on it.

Today I am playing catch up and getting myself to the gym to burn off the weekend. Thursday is my show in Dallas and after that, a flurry of events including setting up for bg and a couple of shows. I am excited and ready!

the big show and the busy week

2006-11-16T07:17:00.000-08:00

Well, things are finally settling back down after Saturday night's show. It was such a great show. I had so much fun seeing all my friends and I doubled my sales from last year. That was nice!

Sunday morning I got up and picked up Melissa from the airport. Then I spent the rest of the day building a website for one of James' clients. I think it came out pretty good! The customer was pleased. James thinks I should go into business making websites. Sometimes I think about it - I would definitely need to take some classes to amp up my technical skills but I feel I have a good grasp of what a good website entails. I actually get a lot of emails through my website asking who did my website. Maybe I could turn those around into business?! ha ha. Maybe when I get tired of making jewelry, I will have a new career designing websites! The good thing is that James understands all the super technical stuff about ftp and shopping carts so we could be business together.

I spent Monday and Tuesday catching up on household chores. Tuesday night we made dinner for some friends who are going to keep our dog while we are on vacation. I feel so good knowing that he will be in a house with people who will take such good care of him. Yesterday was busy with taking Forest places and going to the bg artist orientation.

So today is my first day to get back to the jewelry. Hopefully I get to work through until next Wednesday when I go home for Thanksgiving. I need to PRODUCE some jewelry! The first part of December is going to be crazy! But, I do love to make money. I heard this old interview with AmySedaris on FreshAir where she was talking about how much she loved to make a buck - she would have a party and put out a bunch of stuff she wanted to get rid of and sell everything for a quarter and she also has a small business making cheese balls. She said she just really likes the feeling of making money. I feel like that when I sell jewelry. I just really like to make money! ha ha.

Man, I am seriously listening to a lot of old episodes of FreshAir lately. They have them all archived on npr.org and you can just go back and listen to all the interesting interviews. I like listening to stuff like that when I am working. I like music okay but I really like talking wordy things - like AlFrankenShow, FreshAir, audio books.

Okay, so I am going to work on jewelry today, go to yoga, meet up with Melissa for lunch and then work on jewelry some more! Tomorrow night I am having a couple of friends over for dinner. Then I am going to work all weekend on jewelry - and maybe go on the EastAustinStudioTour if I feel I have time. And, that's my week!

Oh man, bg orientation last night was super neat. I am really amped for the show! The organizers seem so nice and earnest in their attempts to create a good show. I am so excited to be a part of it.

PS: Since I have been getting googleAlerts for my own business, I feel so self conscious about using the names of things on my blog because I know that they come up in google searches sometimes. Does running the names together help that? That's so weird!

Getting Ready for Shows & Vacation

2006-11-04T09:13:00.000-08:00

I went to the Settlement Home Garage Sale yesterday and picked up a whole bunch of new pieces for my display for very little money! Man, the stuff there is so cheap. The money goes for a good cause, the Settlement Home for abused and neglected kids. I only know this because they keep saying it over the loud speaker. It makes you feel good about spending money. Didn't find much jewelry though - just a few more things to make rings out of. The show is all this weekend - here is the website: http://www.settlementhome.org/GarageSale.asp

I have been so focused on making earrings for the upcoming shows that I realized last night I really need to make some new necklaces. That's cool because they are my favorite thing to make. Unfortunately, they are not what I sell most of. So, it's a good thing that I made so many earrings! However, I really need to diversify the colors - I made so many blue and aqua earrings. It's hard to strike a balance. I just end up making what I think will sell based on past experience. I made an assload of rings too.

After getting rejected for the last two years, I finally got accepted into wheats*ville this year and sadly I think I am going to have to turn them down. Two years ago I would have killed to do this show but at this point I just feel I will be doing a dis-service to the shows I am already in if I take on anymore. I can't afford to run out of product for bg! I have really had some good fortune with show entries this year. I only wish I knew I was going to be accepted into all these shows in the summer, I could have been prepared to do all of them. I wish they would do the applications earlier in the year. But, oh well! I also got asked to do a stitch after party show at a gallery the week after the event and I have to turn that down too because I already have plans on that evening.

*I am misspelling this word on purpose. ;)

Okay, now for the BIG news! We are going to London for a two week vacation, Christmas through my birthday. We are also going to take a side trip to Paris. I am going to turn 35 in Paris!! What better way? I am so thrilled! A friend of James' family has a flat in London where we can stay. We stayed there when we went to London for the 2000 New Year. It is really beautiful, up on top of a building so that you can see all the chimney tops from the balcony. It is going to be so cold there. I will have to take all my NYC clothes. Hope we can stay warm. Anyway, after all the struggling we have done this year, it will be really nice to have an actual vacation. I am really looking forward to it.

Alright, guess I better hit it today. I have my booth set up in the dining room. I am trying to get it all worked out plus it just helps to see what I need to make next. I wish I could work faster!

Feeling better, family visit and cool goodwill find

2006-11-01T09:02:00.000-08:00

My parents dropped in this weekend for an impromptu visit. My brother and his girlfriend, Courtney, were also in town so it was a fun family weekend. Mom and I did some shopping at the hardware store and thrift stores on Saturday. We had to go to a funeral in Killeen on Saturday for my aunt Linda's father. On the way out of town Mom and I stopped into a Goodwill store and I found this little gem:

It is very long and just barely fit in the back of the cruiser! I am going to hang it in the living room over the desk. I just have to find a home for that file cabinet first. In our shopping expeditions I ended up getting the light fixtures for the front porch which my dad and brother installed for me and some roman shades for my office which James installed for me. Yay! Two major house jobs, done!

Sunday we all went to Magnolia for breakfast. The secret to getting a table there without waiting 2 hours is to get there early, around 8 am. We had lunch at Hills Cafe and then went to the Texas History Museum. I wasn't really ready for company having just barely gotten over being sick but it was a lot of fun. My family is pretty spontaneous and fun.

Other than that I am just working on jewelry, trying to get my inventory ready for all the shows. I have a little high school holiday bazaar up north this weekend and then Stitch next weekend. I think the high school bazaar will be a good opportunity to lay out my stuff and see what I am missing for Stitch. Here is what my desk looked like this weekend:

Monday I got it all cleaned up!

Okay, well better head out to jewelry class! I feel antisocial because I haven't been able to see any friends recently! Being sick and then busy getting ready for shows makes it difficult to see friends but I really want to soon!

Lost Week.

2006-10-26T12:16:00.000-07:00

ugh, it's been a tough week! I got sick last week and then I got sick again this week! I am just coming out of the fog. I feel like I have lost a week of my life! Somehow I have still managed to come up with new jewelry pieces for upcoming shows and stay on top of my list. But, I just slept for 12 hours straight. Isn't that crazy? It makes me feel kind of weird and surreal to wake up after that much sleep.

Yesterday I received a package of old jewelry I ordered from ebay. It makes me so happy! Right now I can't conceive of ever completely quitting the beading/costume part of jewelry making. The silver work is kind of on the backburner since getting into blue genie and cherrywood, (and also, possibly, a trunk show at the museum) I feel I need to concentrate on inventory. However last time I was in class I got out all the little pieces I have designed and cast and started putting them together and I just felt like maybe I figured out a way that I can work in silver. More on that later but I am super excited about it.

My house is filthy! I really need to clean, maybe if I get started it will help me come out of my tylenol pm hangover. ha!

I put my stitch swag together and I must say I am super proud of it. It's so pretty! Now I just gotta drive over to East Austin and drop it off. I am also contributing a necklace to the raffle.

I have GOT to put some kind of window covering up in my studio. I feel like I am on display at night when I work so lately I have been putting my big cardboard cutting board up against the window to block view. It's such a pain in the ass. It would be much simpler to just get some blinds. Why do I put stuff like that off? Maybe because hanging blinds is one of my least favorite things to do in this whole world??? Not very diy of me, I know. But lately, I am not even sure I am a diy'er.

Last weekend I went to a vintage jewelry show with my friend Kristin A. Most of the stuff was collectible and expensive so I only bought a few things from people's "bargain baskets" but it was so inspiring just to view the incredible designs from the past. The weekend before that I went to the Citywide Garage Sale with Liz and Sarah where I found quite a few things for charm bracelets. So, along with roundtop and ebay, I have been pulling together a lot of new supplies for designs. When we were at Citywide, Sarah found this little gem for me:

Okay, I think I better go lay back down. I feel kind of dizzy.

Blue Genie

2006-10-14T06:43:00.000-07:00

I got accepted to Blue Genie!!!

Round Top, Backyard and New Equipment

2006-10-10T20:19:00.000-07:00

Ug, I hate that I haven't blogged in so long. It just seems harder, the longer I wait.

I had a great weekend. The grass got installed Friday and it is so beautiful. After a fun day at Round Top on Saturday with Lisa I came home and the guys were gone for the evening so I just had a glass of wine and sat on the back porch for a long time thinking. It was wonderful! Now that it will be less dusty out there, I look forward to more lovely outdoor time.

I have had some good stuff with my business recently. I sunk the money from the two wholesale orders into a bunch of equipment I have been wanting. I got a drill and a wax pen and a bunch of other small tools to help me make silver jewelry. So fun! I am casting a bunch of stuff in class but I don't want to show any of it just yet. I feel I am getting close to an idea for a line. But boy do I have a lot to learn! Lately I am trying to wrap my mind around how to make rings. I get so confused when I look at the metals catalog I start getting all these new ideas and getting off track. Not to mention how many different choices there are for wire and silver sheet. I just have to have patience with myself to learn and to get advice from my prof. On Monday I started making molds of some of my designs. I love that I can make something in metal and totally reproduce it.

Round Top was such a great time. I went by myself on Thursday for jewelry purposes. I still want to make stuff with vintage pieces! I had fun walking around by myself and I enjoyed the drive out too. Texas has such beautiful scenery. It is just so amazing. Saturday I went out with Lisa which was so awesome. Lisa is such a cool person - so positive and smart. I really enjoyed my day with her. We had great discussions on the drive - christianity and politics and family stuff. She had my brain going! Most of what I bought was jewelry again but I did get a goofy 70's tree decoration with animals and flowers in it. I think someone had one on their wall when I was a kid because I have very fond feelings about it.

Have a long list of stuff to do this week. Getting some emery boards printed for my Stitch swag bag giveaway. They're going to be so cool! My list is funny because it is such a mish mash of stuff to do around the house, in class and for my business. I am probably the only person in the world with "laundry" right under "writing a press release" followed by "figure out how to make rings." I wonder what goofy things other people have on their list. (hint hint: comment and tell me).

There are more pictures of the backyard on my flickr account.

Sunday I went out and bought a skirt and pair of pants. It is so cool to shop in the normal shops now and not be restricted to the "Womens" section or the big lady store! Hooray! I got a cute new blue jean skirt and some brown velvet pants on sale.

Backyard Progress, etc.

2006-09-07T11:29:00.000-07:00

The backyard is so sparse. The trees have all been cut. Bamboo and Crepe Myrtle are being considered for the back fence to block out the thrift store. We've gotten a quote for the grass install. It's all going along nicely. I am so excited that I am going to have a nice backyard. I've never had my own nice backyard though I've certainly admired other's. Plus with the nice weather lately, I am really looking forward to spending some nice time outside. I have been looking at landscaping pictures on the internet and saving ideas that appeal to me.

Business is going well. The show last night was really cool. I met a lot of great people! Including a store buyer who I am super excited about! I have also been working with a woman who is just starting to rep. It has been such a great experience so far. It is so cool to meet someone who can help me make sales. This week she is going out of town to see some store owners in another city. She is taking some of my bracelets. Fingers crossed! My sales have been pretty good lately on the website and at p&l. I seriously love selling the stuff I make.

Bodywise, I am still maintaining the 15 pounds lost. I am fairly steady with the gym and the good diet. Last night, I put on a dress I haven't been able to wear in years and it fit so well! Very exciting. I love this dress. It is a red silk, classic shape. I think it will always be fashionable! Oh, I really can't wait to get a little smaller and buy new clothes!

Today is a lazy day - finally! Things have been busy around here. I have been getting up at 7 lately and I have to say, there is so much more time in the day! I have been feeling really focused. Just trying to keep my mind on what I need to accomplish everyday. Trying to realize the importance of small gestures. It is funny how many opportunities come at you everyday in life and business. I like to try everything and hope that something works out!

We have been watching James Bond movies for the last few weeks. It's really fun to watch for the formula and running jokes. Anyway, I think we have about exhausted the entire series and I feel very well-versed in Bond. James loves those movies because he grew up in London where they were always on tv. Now I think we are going to return to the 70's thriller theme we were running before this detour. Although, last night he was coming up with a list of Bond spoof movies to watch next so we'll see. It is really neat living with an film major.

lucky to have an opportunity

2006-08-19T12:51:00.000-07:00

It has been such a good week for me. I have been feeling really confident and together. Yeah, that's a rare feeling for me! I am usually freaking out about something. But it's nice to have a good week - where you just feel like you accomplished everything you wanted. I got my press release out and put the bracelets up on the site, my orders picked up, I kept the household going fairly steadily, I got back to the gym and I didn't sleep late too much! Also, it looks like the home school thing is going to be awesome. He basically does everything online! They have a very organized system. We also have a lead on a theatre class for him for one of his electives and I am going to take him to the gym with me for p.e. which will be his other elective. We found out about a cool alternative school in East Austin that we are going to start researching for next year.

I have been thinking a lot about the word housewife. I have been using it to describe myself and I am not sure if I should anymore. Yeah, I just need to re-think it. Seriously, my thoughts on this are deeper than what I am indicating while I am sitting here typing! Like the other night I was at a party and when asked what I do I listed, among other things that I "take care of the household stuff" and it just sounded so much better in my head. I think when I label myself "housewife" it comes with all these negative connotations and self-expectations that I should just really be on top of the housework when I am really not! My attempt at "owning" the word failed! I mean, I definitely find value in my part of our partnership but I struggle with ideas about losing ground in the career world and losing autonomy. On the other hand, I think I am so lucky to have an opportunity to pursue jewelry as a business. Anyway!

Monday a man starts cutting down the trees in our backyard. We are clearing out the bad trees and planting good ones, installing grass. It's going to be a very long process as we will be having to save up for certain parts of it and doing as much of the labor ourselves as possible!

Having a few friends over tonight to hang out and play games. I am very much looking forward to it!

A good movie to see...

2006-08-18T07:32:00.000-07:00

Conversations with other Women, a movie that my brother-in-law worked on, is finally out in theatres! If you live in New York, San Francisco or L.A., go see it! I think it comes out in Chicago and Seattle later on this month.

It is such a great movie. It stars Helena Bonham Carter and Aaron Eckhart and the movie is done in split screen. It is really interesting to watch how they pull it off.

Here is a link to more info: http://www.conversationsthemovie.com/ Check it out!

Look at the reviews it's gotten:

“One of the best films of the festival” - Roger Ebert at the Telluride Film Festival

“Volatile and unpredictable” – NY Times

“Sad and funny” – LA Times

“Smart…sexy” – San Francisco Chronicle

“It’s Brilliant” – New York Post

“Funny…wise…” – Village Voice

“I found the film powerfully erotic…” - Salon.com

“Fine acting and sexy chemistry” – TV Guide

"Sly...Sexy!" – Vogue

“If you have ever been in love… see this film. In fact, see it twice. The acting by Helena Bonham Carter and Aaron Eckhart is flawless.” - Katherine Leis, efilmcritic.com

“Conversations is a smart, sassy, sexy, brilliantly written and observed film, a wise, sharp and all too honest look at modern relationships, featuring two, raw, wonderful performances by the great Aaron Eckhart and Helena Bonham Carter. This is one of the most undiscovered treats of the summer.” - Paul Fischer, Dark Horizons

“Innovative” - Compuserve

I have a new haircut and fantastic friends.

2006-08-09T12:59:00.000-07:00

I finally did it! I got my long hair cut. I was going to wait until I was at my goal weight but damn, it is so hot in the summer! Also, the woman who does the long shag haircut really well has quit working to start a family so that seemed like a sign. From 7th grade until a few years ago I have always had a bob-style haircut so I am basically returning to my roots. So, here are the pics, I did a before and several after. Of course, this is salon hair - the real test will be what it looks like after I wash out all the fancy product!

My awesome new hairstylist is Danny at Anne Kelso Salon. I love him.

I am donating my hair to Wigs for Kids, http://www.wigsforkids.org/.

Also, I am just overwhelmed at what wonderful friends I have. I sent out my press release to a few friends for review and suggestions and I have gotten so much amazing advice and support back. Thanks you guys!!

Now I better get back to work on it.

I heart productivity

2006-08-02T08:48:00.000-07:00

Wow, I am feeling really on top of my game this week. I have been accomplishing so much! Hopefully it lasts! I have also been having some serious fun lately. Friday night Sarah and Shea came over and we had fun playing Dictionary with them. Sarah writes very good fake definitions! We totally relaxed this weekend and Monday night we went out for sushi with friends. Last night my friend Amy came over and after a few glasses of wine we went over to a local Italian dive to have a quiet dinner only to find that the place was rockin with someone's birthday party. We had a drink there and took in the scene and then went to a Thai dive for some yummy curry and Pad Thai. I realized that we have some great little restaurants in my area! DK, Gino's, Sawadee and Bakehouse. It's pretty cool to have so many great little places like that in the local area. That's not even counting all the great Mexican food restaurants we have around here. I love it. South Austin has got it going on!

In other news, we are working on a new budget for the household to strip everything down to the bare essentials and pay off all of our debt. Our goal is to find free entertainment and host potlucks and game nights and watch all movies on dvd through netflix until we are debt free. We have that quicken software on which you can download your stuff from the bank and categorize it and it is amazing to see how much money we blow on entertainment and dining and paying off old debt. We could be going on fabulous trips if we'd planned better! Man, debt is like the curse of our generation or something. My mom told me that when she and my dad were in their early twenties they couldn't even get a Texaco gas credit card - and they owned a Texaco gas station at the time. It was hard to get a credit card back then. With our generation, they were practically giving away credit cards. And, I have to say, James and I began adulthood with virtually no knowledge about money and budgeting so this is totally a new thing for me to learn. Hence our new goal. I'll keep you posted. I am totally excited to learn new stuff.

In work related stuff - I am working on finishing up the charm bracelet project and the marketing for it. I have written a press release but I am totally unsure about it. I plan to get a few friends to look at it and give me feedback. I want to get it out soon.

I learned a new word from the youth yesterday - it's "steez" which means style as in "he's got steez." I learned it from my kid.

The dishwasher is fine.

2006-07-28T14:23:00.000-07:00

It's not actually broken. I had accidentally pressed the cancel/drain button and you have to press it again to turn it off ... so, everytime I turned on the dishwasher it was just trying to drain instead of wash. Hooray!! Of course I didn't figure this out until I had handwashed every single dish we own.

I am pretty proud of my poker game

2006-07-27T08:05:00.000-07:00

Omg, poker was SO much fun last night! I did not expect to have that much fun. I finished in second place. I had a huge stack by the end. I am pretty proud of my game. It was pretty tight for a beginner! I practiced before we left on James' computer game. James has been reading all these books and gave me some pointers on strategy. I have to say though, all that strategy just confuses me in the end. I am excited to go back and play again. Okay enough poker talk.

I watched Project Runway on the tivo when I got home. I can't believe that curly-headed lady is still in the running! Someone told me about Tim Gun podcasts or blogs or something where he talks about all this extra stuff that happens on the show. Who told me that and where do I find it? Anyone?

Our new dishwasher is already broken. Should I return it? It has a year warranty but what if we got a dud?

The Birds Are Learning to Fly!

2006-07-20T13:23:00.000-07:00

The baby birds are learning to fly! The mother and father are hanging around watching out for them and feeding them. They are so cute! I looked it up and with cardinals both parents look after the nest and the young (maybe all birds do that, I don't know). The website said that the baby birds should leave the nest within 9 to 10 days of being born. They grow up so fast. ;)
Here are some pictures:

This one hasn't ventured from the nest yet: This is the brave one:

He or she climbs up the screen and starts falling backward and flapping her wings and then lands on the window sill and starts all over again.

The mama bird:

Okay, I should seriously get back to work now.

oh my goodness

2006-07-18T11:07:00.000-07:00

We went to DK Sushi (our quiet little neighborhood sushi joint) last night for Karaoke night and -oh my goodness - it was bawdy! We were celebrating my friend Jim's birthday. The owner dresses up in an afro wig and a 70's disco suit and calls himself the sushi pimp. It was so funny! If you haven't gone, I recommend it. Just hang back and get the lay of the land before you call attention to your table or volunteer to sing. The sushi pimp makes dirty jokes and slaps women on the ass. It's pretty funny. It is quite an experience.

This morning I got to see the mother bird feeding the little baby birds. The male bird also came up to the nest, it seemed like he was bringing more food. It made me wonder if male birds also take care of the babies. I saw him protecting the nest last week. I would have taken a picture this morning but Forest had borrowed my camera and I couldn't find it. I did manage to get this picture this afternoon. These pictures are making me realize how horrible my windows are!

My sticks came out great in jewelry class yesterday. Some of the little buds even came out. I am so proud! I am casting two more rings on Wednesday and then the class is over for the summer. I am really happy with what I have accomplished! Note: they are still that white color because they haven't been polished yet.

funny bumper sticker

2006-07-14T10:31:00.000-07:00

James saw a funny bumper sticker yesterday. It said: 78745 - when you've been priced out of 78704. That made me laugh and also gave me a good feeling that people are looking to buy in our zip code!

There is this little bird's nest in the shrub outside my studio window. I watched the mother bird build the nest, then I saw the eggs and yesterday I realized that the babies had been born. I didn't want to disturb them but I did manage to get this picture through my dirty window:

Also, the cats are still living in our backyard so if anyone knows of someone who wants a cat, please send them my way. We found a bunch of information on the internet about finding a home for them but I appreciate advice. They are really sweet cats. Very good natured. And, the kittens are so curious and playful.

Have just been busy making a bunch of charm bracelets with vintage materials and finishing up with my casting class. I put some pictures on my website blog. I have so many ideas of things I want to create but it will just take time to make it happen. Perhaps there will be a silver line in the Spring? Here's hoping! I am casting more sticks on Monday. I am so glad the class is ending next week though. Jeez, my time! I am going to take the Special Projects class in the fall to keep me focused. I am going to go into the class with several designs I want to complete. I feel like if I don't continue, I will never find time to work at home and end up putting all these ideas off and getting further behind in my goals. It will definitely be better because it will be less hours per week in the workshop at school.

I have not really lost any more weight but I have been able to maintain the 15 pounds already lost. I have not had as much time to make it to the gym because of jewelry class but I am really proud of the maintenance.

Forest has been at my Mom's house for the past couple of weeks. He is coming home this weekend. We have enjoyed our parenting vacation but I have missed him!

The toad on my porch

2006-06-27T19:12:00.000-07:00

I figured out today that this little toad is living in my plants on my front porch. I thought that squirrels were digging holes in the planters. There is always dirt all over the place and I am constantly cursing the squirrels for digging up my plants. Now that I know what's up, I won't be mad at the squirrels anymore. Yesterday I watched him eat some bugs as we was hiding down in the flower beds. One of them looked like a roach so that made me happy.

I am sorry I haven't posted much in the last two weeks - not that I think I have legions of readers but I know I like to check my friend's blogs and am sad when they don't write for a long time! Lots of cool stuff has happened but also I am just feeling so unable to accomplish what I want to do. I am always struggling with the time management issue. I am practicing with the focus thing, something I figured out I learned from training. When I am working a muscle and it gets tired and another muscle starts to compensate, my trainer tells me to try to re-focus and I realized the other day that I am starting to do that in real life. Another thing I have been trying to do is let what is most important bubble to the top of my brain and just work on stuff that is pertinant. Unfortunately, I am feeling a little frustrated in most areas right now. I am not one of those super-women who can do 18 different things. My mind is so one-track!

Anyway... I did get about 20 line sheets mailed out to stores week before last and last week on Tuesday, Vic and I drove to San Antonio and went around to stores looking for places to sell our stuff. I overcame a huge barrier in talking to store owners. I was really nervous about it. My stomach hurt, my hands were sweaty, I couldn't breathe as I waited at the first store to talk to the owner. He was so nice! It really put me at ease for the rest of the stores. I am glad to have done it. Vic told me when we were planning it, "don't worry, it's a good experience." She was so right! Hopefully someday I will have my stuff in a store in San Antonio!

Jewelry class is really eating up my time right now. 10 hours per week! It's going well though and helping me to think more about making metal jewelry, as I hoped it would. You know what's going to be so cool? When I don't have to go out looking for beads and vintage baubles to make my jewelry, I can just order some silver sheet and wire. That's going to be nice.

I love how the Paramount does all the cool movies in the summer. We saw the Dog Day Afternoon / Serpico double feature on Sunday night. We double dated with Forest and his girlfriend, Margot. Afterward we had knishes at Katz's. Yum.

Alright I am tired from an entire day of playing housewife catch-up.

PS: I got my bookcase painted!

My backyard is huge.

2006-06-10T20:58:00.000-07:00

Man, this was actually a pretty good week for me. I managed to stay pretty calm and get a few key things done:

mailed out orders
mailed out line sheet to a new store I met on MySpace
took pictures of jewelry on Angie and got them onto the website
carved one of my designs in wax
learned about different methods of casting
talked to my teacher about mass production - basically giving him an idea of where I want to go. It is good because he is very supportive and will probably keep it in mind when he teaches me new stuff. I also liked that he suggested another way to achieve the design I was making. I think I need to try the method he suggested next week. It may seem like a slow process but learning always is.

I am happy with my website right now. I have stuff ready ahead of time. It is good to have a backstock of new things. Gives me time to make sure I like the design.

Today we worked in the backyard pulling up weeds and ivy. Talked to our neighbor about going in together in the Fall to buy and install a new fence. Very excited about getting our backyard looking good. I really like spending time outside. We had dinner at Kristin and Scotts on Thursday night. We ate out on their back porch and it was sooo nice! We have been thinking about this yard project for a while and that was definitely a good inspiration for us - realizing we would like to do the same in our own home! I contacted a tree guy about meeting this week to get an estimate on removing all the crap trees back there. Can't wait to have a nice backyard to sit it!

I also spent a lot of time today working on some logo and website designs for my brother-in-law who is starting his own production company. Clint helped me out bigtime! He and Dixie came by to borrow our wet/dry vac for their floor project in their new house (yay!) and I was pulling my hair out trying to figure new stuff out in photoshop and he show me how to do it! He said I could call on him and he would be my photoshop help desk. Hooray!

I have a good attitude.

2006-06-03T19:34:00.000-07:00

I have been totally engrossed in my business this week with some fun along the way. I worked all day today with a brief break to run out for supplies and a quick coffee/laughing break with Melissa! It's weird though - I think I get the most done on the weekend days sometimes. I got so much done today! I have been working on my plan to start soliciting more stores. The line sheet is really coming along and with any luck I will be sending it out to a small number of stores early this week. I am excited and scared! Also, I have come to the realization that I have got to get every single one of my designs re-produced and ready to go. It takes me twice as long to get an order out when I have to make things to order. This week that is going to be my other big goal! I am standing on the precipice of getting organized! Yay!

Getting back into jewelry class was great. Since it is summer the classes are so much longer and I almost finished carving my first class project in the first class. My goal in there is to knock out the required class projects and have time do work on some of my own little projects. I want to really explore wax carving for casting in sterling silver. Here is a picture of what I did on Wednesday:

This is a project from a book, someone else's design. My teacher was pretty impressed with what I accomplished in the first class. I felt like I was back home sitting at my grimy work bench in the smelly jewelry lab, filing away at wax. My neighbor introduced me to some new tools to help me work faster. That was so cool! Sometimes I can be so intimidated in there with all the other jewelers who are working away on these really amazing pieces. It is nice when you meet someone and they want to help you along! I appreciate the kindness.

Swimming last week at Barton Springs was another wonderful experience. The smell and the cold clear water, lying in the grass drying off and looking up at the trees, I love it all! I always forget how beautiful it is there. The water was very cold and invigorating. we swam across and back to warm up. James and Forest jumped off the diving board. Then we ate hamburgers at the snack bar up on the hill. Very relaxing day!

That night I met Sarah for coffee. She had been sick a few days before and wasn't up to Hatha Flow yoga that night. We looked at fashion magazines and talked about jewelry and other fun stuff. Then I stayed a little while after she left, listening to the musician who was playing and planning out my week.

Thursday I met Jennifer P. for lunch at dk sushi and came away super energized about business. There are some people in life who just give off good energy!

Thursday night I went to a meeting for a new feminist critique group that is forming. It is mostly made up of other women around my age who are graduating art students from UT. All the women were so nice and I found we had very similar thoughts on the subject of feminism. They would like for the group to meet every couple of weeks and alternate a sort of feminist book club and an opportunity to show their work and receive feedback. I am excited to go to more of the meetings and see how it works out. I got a lot of great feelings at the first meeting. A weird coincidence happened too - one of the women had just moved into a new house the night before and as we were talking I realized it was the house I used to live in on 51st Street between '93 and '96. Gave me chill bumps!

On the weight loss front, the exercise is still going very well. I am so close to being in the 180's I can taste it. Just gotta keep plugging away. I just try to concentrate on the fact that I am stronger and that I am strengthening my heart muscle and that every time I get on the elliptical or treadmill for 30 minutes I am working off another smidgen of fat around my waist! Persistence.

Speaking of persistence, here is a cool quote that James was reminding me of last night as we plotted out how to achieve our goals:

"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race."
-Calvin Coolidge

gross, but also kind of fascinating

2006-05-28T08:06:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness. What a crazy week. Here are the highlights:

Monday: I did end up cleaning house all day.

Tuesday: I worked on earrings all day.

Wednesday: Took Melissa out for lunch to celebrate her birthday since I'd missed it while I was in May. Afterward, we walked through some of the 2nd Street stores. I was so amazed at my first visit to Eliza Page. What a beautiful jewelry store! We also found an Art-O-Mat at the back of a super neat store called Mercury. Art-O-Mats make me so happy. I got Melissa a token for her birthday and she got some really cool bottle cap art.

Thursday: Dropped off jewelry at Parts & Labour. That night I went to the Babes in Biz meeting and had a good time catching up with friends. I enjoyed talking jewelry with Lisa C and Marisa! Also, during the day I got a wholesale order. Hooray!

Friday: I had a massage in the morning which was so awesome! I had to go to the doctor in the afternoon because my ear had been clogged up all week and was starting to hurt. They irrigated it (I know, gross, but also kind of fascinating) and it feels much better now. It is nice to be able to hear again. Damn allergies! It had me feeling a little confused and dizzy the rest of the afternoon. That water rushing through your ear throws off your equilibrium. Friday night we went to see the opening of an exhibit at the Texas museum with our friends Lisa, Dixie and Clint. It was really fun and I found stuff to be inspired by. I put some pics on Flickr. We had a nice dinner afterward at Vivo's and I really enjoyed the good conversation. And to top off the nice evening, I came home to another wholesale order. Two in one week - whoa!

Over the weekend I ran family errands and played some serious Mom taxi. Forest was hanging out with some friends who spent the night on Friday and they kept wanting a ride here and there all day Friday and Saturday. I think I understand how it works now - you have to drive your kid around so much that when it comes time for them to have their own license you are like glad to let them go in their own car! Maybe? We'll see how I feel about it in six months, right? But, man these kids are resourceful! They managed to get on the bus and have an adventure downtown. They call it a quest. My kid is really growing up. He said it was the most fun weekend ever. His friends said "your parents are cool."

Man, it was just kind of a crazy week and it was hard to fit in all the work I needed to get done. I had a serious talk with myself on Saturday and realized that I really have to start being more organized during the week! I know I always say that. But, I have some small projects I am trying to do within my business to move it forward and I really can't let myself get sidetracked by other projects. I already have such limited amount of time to devote to my business projects that if I piled anything on top, they would surely just fade into the background. I feel bad about letting a friend down this week but sometimes things happen so fast and you feel pressured to make a commitment before you've even had a chance to think about what it will mean for you. I had to make a decision based on what is right for me. Anyway, I have apologized and now I just have to move on from it.

Oh! And one exciting thing is that I got use the design area of my office over the weekend - I had set up my storage area so that there would be space in front for laying out ideas. Sometimes when I am going through my supplies looking for something I will just see two things together and come up with new ideas from it. I wanted to lay my office out in such a way that I would have a place to put these ideas out so that I can walk by them several times to see if they still seem like a good idea a few days later. So, I am really excited to make that happen!

Okay, I am going to go swimming with my family today and tonight I am meeting up with Sarah for yoga. I am going to relax and meditate on a very productive week coming up. Tuesday I start back up with jewelry classes. Yay!

Fun Weekend

2006-05-22T10:04:00.000-07:00

It was a very fun weekend! A friend came by with a box of vintage jewelry for me to take a look at on Friday. It was all great stuff so I just made a deal for the whole box. Can't wait to start making stuff with it. That night James had heard about this group called Strings Attached playing the White Album at a church downtown so we went to that on Friday night. The music was amazing and it was a great opportunity to hear Austin musicians that I might never have heard of otherwise. We looked a bunch of them up on Saturday and hope to get out to see more local music.

On Saturday I was finally able to sleep in for the first time in ages! I slept until 11. Oh glory! Lately I can't sleep past 9 on the weekends. Forest and I went shopping for clothes for him in the afternoon. When he asked for some new clothes I was like, how much money are you asking to spend so he came up with an amount and when we went to the store, he pretty much stayed within that budget and got a lot of clothes. We were trying to be aware of where the clothes were made. I recently watched that walmart documentary and don't want to buy anything made in China anymore. I know there are bad conditions in other places but you have to start somewhere with being a better consumer. So, there was this one pair of pants I was thinking of buying for myself but when we looked at the label they were made in China so Forest was like "are you going to be a superhero?" and I decided to put them back. He gave me a high-five. But, here is the super great news! The pants were a size 16. I haven't gotten my ass into that size in many years so I was thinking of buying them for myself just as a little reward. It's cool though, just knowing I have lost down a few sizes is reward enough.

Saturday night Adam and Victoria came over to hang out. I got food from Marakesh downtown and we had a good time drinking wine and talking about how old we are getting.

Sunday I worked on updating my website and making a line sheet for my jewelry. I chauffeured Forest and his girlfriend on their date in the afternoon. They went to Kerbey Lane for lunch and then to a movie. I goofed off at the local bead shop while they were eating and found some fun little beads for earrings.

This morning I had coffee with Kristin and now I am looking at what to do next. Do I go to the gym, clean my house or just blow all that off and make jewelry? Decisions, decisions.

recycling computers & funny kid

2006-05-19T08:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we loaded up all the stray computers James has taken in and took them to Whole Foods because a company called EWS (E-waste Solutions) was there recycling old electronics. It took three carloads! He had the shed in the back yard full of them. Yay, these computers won't go in the landfill and contaminate ground water! The guy there told us that one cell phone can contaminate 40,000 gallons of drinking water. Crazy!

Then we went to Curra's for margaritas and mole enchiladas. Yum. Our drunken conversation(on my end at least - man you can't eat like a bird all day and then expect not to get drunk from one margarita on an empty stomach!) produced the idea that I should consider going back to school to get a graduate degree in design. Okay, I am considering it in the back of my mind. Far far back. School is not far enough in the past for me to be okay with going back yet. It was hard for me!

Then I organized my work desk. I am taking a picture for posterity because it will be a huge mess within a week. Bet me.

I got my issue of Bust and my ad looks great even if this picture does not! I am so excited!! Melissa did such a good job!

In conclusion, my kid is funny. Look what he made on his computer. Where does he get his fantastic sense of humor?

Studio Progress, if you can call it that.

2006-05-16T20:11:00.000-07:00

I worked really hard today to get my office organized. I really need to get back to work on my little business so I had to get it back to some kind of working order. The storage table is makeshift until I can find something I like and the bookcase still needs to be finished but it is good enough for now!

It's possible I have too much junk. I have been trying to throw stuff out but even just the stuff I need around is hard to organize. It doesn't come easy for me folks. I have to say though that all this cleaning is making me look around at all the crap I keep in my kitchen and don't use. When am I ever going to use brandy glasses? I feel another Spring Cleaning coming on. G'night!

I am home!

2006-05-14T17:57:00.000-07:00

Mom got a good report at her doctor on Monday so I stayed just a couple of extra days to make sure she was alright. I came home Wednesday night. I was pretty tired from the previous 10 days so I spent the next two days being a vegetable and reconnecting with my family. Saw Victoria for coffee on Thursday. Had a massage on Friday morning. Friday night James, Forest and I all went out for sushi at the neighborhood sushi joint. Saturday James and I went grocery shopping and also looked around for a new table for my office. No luck. There were some cool old doors at the Habitat Restore. I considered making one of those into a table but I am going to keep using the foldout for now and hold out for the perfect table. After that we all went outside and jumped on the trampoline. Then, James and I went to see MI3 - a pretty exciting movie. Today we had my mother-in-law over for a mother's day lunch and then we all went to see Poseiden. It has been a big weekend for action movies in my house.

Tomorrow I will get back to the gym. I did get to work out with my brother a few times at the high school weight room but overall I didn't really get enough exercise over the last two weeks. The good news is that I kept my weight down at 192 so I will be picking up where I left off. I will also be starting back up with the trainer this week. Hooray!

I really appreciate all the nice emails and comments regarding my mom. I feel really fortunate to have such amazing and caring friends.

Now I am going to try to whip this junky office into shape!

Oh, and here is something kind of creepy. Here is a one-of-a-kind necklace I made about a year ago:

And here is something I saw in a magazine last week:

I'm just sayin! It's weird.

My mom's surgery

2006-05-04T21:14:00.000-07:00

We got up on Monday morning at 4 a.m. to go to Abilene where my mom had her surgery. She was in surgery for three hours. I waited in the lobby with my dad, and an aunt and uncle who had come to be supportive. After surgery, she was in a recovery room for one and a half hours before we could see her. We camped out at her room waiting. She was so sick from the anesthesia and pain medicine for the entire rest of the day. She had trouble talking and saying what she meant. She got sick a lot. I had to keep putting cool wet wash cloths on her head. I spent Monday night at my aunt and uncle's house and my dad stayed in the room with her. They put an oxygen measuring machine on her which would beep every time her oxygen would get down below a certain point which kept her from sleeping. When I got there Tuesday morning, she was afraid to take anymore prescription pain medication because it had made her so sick. Imagine being in so much pain and being nauseous - the worst. She said the pain felt like the worst menstrual cramps she had ever had. So, she just tried to take Tylenol and the pain came back really hard. They finally figured out to give her anti-nausea medicine 10 minutes before giving her the pain medicine. That seemed to help a lot but she still couldn't hold any food down for the rest of that day. She was much more coherent though than the day before. I stayed in the room with her that night sleeping in a reclining chair. They let her come home on Wednesday. The ride home was extremely uncomfortable for her. The doctor is making her keep a catheter in until next week. So, now she is home. She has a bed in the living room and is not supposed to do any lifting, driving or strenuous activities for a few weeks. My job is to watch over her and get her whatever she needs and to make her comfortable. The hardest part of my job is to keep her from doing anything that might hurt her. My mom is a go-getter. She always thinks she can just do whatever she wants to. She is a very strong woman and not used to having to ask anyone to do anything for her. This morning I walked around the corner to find her with a brush in hand scrubbing around the base of the sink in the bathroom. Crazy! She just likes to be busy and taking care of what needs to be done and I supposed that is a very hard habit to break. She just saw that that area needed to be cleaned and thought "I will just do that real quick."

I am so tired! I have not been getting very much sleep and I am constantly running to get her something or make sure she doesn't try to shove a table over or move a plant. I am also just a little emotionally exhausted from watching her go through this process. I love my mother so much and I really admire what a strong person she is. It is also neat to see how my dad wants to take care of her and comfort her. One night in the hospital while she was walking around the room with my dad's help I looked over and saw him just holding her while she rested standing up and I thought, "that is real love."

Today she had a very good day. The pain level has dropped some but she still needs to take a little pain medicine. We walked around outside and looked at all her flowers and I moved pots around for her. She mostly rested today - and tried to clean the bathroom floor.

One very cool experience I had over the last few days was staying the night with my aunt and uncle. They have a little farm outside of Abilene where they have horses and goats. He had a goat that had lost her baby but still had a full sack of milk. The baby had been killed by a coyote. My uncle had a friend who had a goat who had stopped feeding her babies so they were having to be bottlefed. My uncle had an idea to "graft" one of the babies onto the mother to nurse. We picked up the baby goat on the way home. The next part is amazing and a little gory. My uncle skinned the dead baby goat and put the skin on the back of the baby goat we had just picked and put him in a pen with the mother. The mother goat smelled her own baby's scent on this other baby goat and they bonded. Isn't that neat? My uncle is a retired ag teacher so he know so much about animals. I really enjoyed spending time with him and my aunt. They are the ones who went to Africa last summer. They are such neat people.

I am not sure how much longer I will be here. I just really want to make sure my mom is okay before I go home. Sooner or later she is going to get sick of me bossing her around and send me packing!

PS: In case you look at my flickr account and wonder what the hell I am doing messing with that bird's nest, here is the story. My dad had to cut down a dead tree and the bird's nest fell out of it. They saved the nest for me to see.

The past exhausting week and good stuff too.

2006-04-30T10:28:00.000-07:00

My husband is a freakin' genius. He set up a separate computer and consolidated all of our itunes libraries onto one. Between us we had like 4000 songs or something. We were getting to the point where we were having to give each other cd's of stuff we were downloading so we wouldn't be buying anything twice. So, he loaded everything onto one main server and put it in the living room. He just set up wireless internet in our house so he put a laptop on the desk in the living room and hooked the computer up behind the tv so it comes through our speakers. Now we can play our itunes on the stereo speakers. It is so cool! He is basically just taking the knowledge he uses in his everyday job and applying it in a different way.

Now we are all hearing new stuff around the house. It is so cool because we are totally sharing all the new music we have each found in the last few years. Forest has a lot of good new music too. Actually for a kid his age, he has a really varied tastes in music. He seems to give everything a good listen from rock to rap and all the other scenes in between and take what he likes. It is pretty neat. I definitely think ability to explore new genres and his tastes in music are inspired by James.

This has been a pretty exhausting week. I have been getting everything caught up. I have been totally out of sorts with my office in transition so basically I have just set up the desk and all the tedium that goes with it. The jewelry stuff is all still scattered around on the other two tables. I have so many ideas in my head right now for jewelry but I can't make it so I just sketch it out and hope the inspiration comes back in the future!

I am leaving today to stay with my mom for the next few days. I don't know if it will be 3 days or a full week. It just depends on how she is doing after the surgery. I must confess that I am a little nervous about it all. I know millions of people have surgery every day but you just don't think so much about it until it's someone you know. I also know that this is a fairly common surgery for women so I should not be so worried. I also think being so busy all week and out of sorts has made me skip some of my exercise over the last week plus I am in between training sessions with my trainer so maybe I just needed that outlet and it was missing. I only made it to the gym twice this week. I am not worried about it though as we are due to start up as soon as I get back.

Anyway, I did get to hang out with Jennifer and her girls and see Melissa for a bit. I also got into P&L to drop off and pick up. Unfortunately I missed getting together with friends on Thursday night. It was something I was super getting excited about but when the time came I just realized I wouldn't be good company because I felt physically exhausted and mentally stressed out.

Man, James keeps making references to music videos from the 80's and I realize I have no reference for that. We didn't have MTV in my small town. All we had was this show called Friday Night Videos. I totally stayed up to watch it! But, I don't know if I want to remedy my lack of reference. Do I really want to start a whole thing of watching 80's videos? I recently noticed that VH1 is showing a lot of 80's videos during the week day. Maybe I should check it out. Some of these videos he mentions sound interesting. I feel like I missed out on some cultural milestone! ha ha

My hometown has come along with the technology. Now they have cable and fast internet connection there. So, I will be keeping in touch over the next week.

Making Necklaces with Chloe and Olivia

2006-04-26T15:28:00.000-07:00

My friend Jennifer came over yesterday with her girls, Chloe and Olivia and we made play jewelry after they jumped on the trampoline!

The girls picked out their beads and I strung them. Chloe strung one for her friend Nicole all by herself. Very talented!

Chloe and Olivia are cool sisters! I had fun!

Weekend with my family

2006-04-24T11:37:00.000-07:00

After waiting 72 hours for the floor to fully dry I moved all my stuff into the new space and realized I had no idea how to arrange it. So, it may be a little while before I "unveil" it to the world! Right now it looks like a big junk pile. But, with all the stuff in the room, the orange is not quite so overwhelming. Thank goodness.

Spent the last few days at my parents house. My sister was in from Colorado so we all got together. Drove up through an eerie thunderstorm on Thursday night. On Friday my mom, sister, mammaw and I went to a flea market up near Fort Worth. I took my newfound toy, my digital camera, and took pictures of design elements that inspired me. Man, I am totally in love with the camera right now! I bought a disk to hold more images before I left. I took 204 pictures over the weekend! It is so fun when you know you can erase the bad ones. I played around with the settings and used macro and av settings to get close up images of the flowers around my mother's house. Unfortunately, I didn't figure those things out until Saturday so some of the images I took at the flea market came out a little fuzzy. Those pictures are mostly for inspiration anyway. While I was there I bought some great old jewelry including some neat old beads that are red, white and blue. I also got a cool vintage clock for $2 and a pair of horn rimmed glasses for $3 that I really want to have my prescription put into. I have been wanting some cool new glasses but everytime I find a pair I like, they are too expensive. I recently found this guy down the road who repairs glasses so it gave me the idea to find some neat old glasses and have them fixed up for me. I think it will be cheaper. Ideally it would be neat to have multiple pairs of glasses and change them out like accessories. Someday I will get the surgery for my eyes but until then, I think I really need some fun glasses!

On Saturday Crystal, mom and I hung out around the house all day. I took tons of pictures and we made a fun lunch together. We started off the morning with the whole family having coffee together on the back porch. My parents have such a nice place for that! It is so beautiful there in the morning. There are birds and a nice breeze, my mother's flowers and yard are all so lush. They really have a little piece of paradise! Later on I went up to the high school weight room with my brother. That is one cool thing about small towns - people trust each other to just give the key to the weight room to former students. Anyway, it was fun to work out together. My brother is in such great shape! He gave me some good advice and showed me his workout. I did a couple of sets and then just played with my camera. In the evening there was a reception for my dad's cousin's son who just got married. We had so much fun! It was held in an old American Legion hall where I remember going when I was little for family reunions. I danced with my dad, sister and brothers all night. We danced the waltz, two step, cotton-eyed-joe and Jeff taught me a new dance called the half step. They had kegs of beer and barbeque. It was such a great experience and brought me back to my roots. I love that I have a family I can go out and have fun with like that. I feel very fortunate. When we got home my parents went to bed and the four of us kids stayed up pretty late drinking and talking and laughing our asses off.

I came home on Sunday, tired as hell, moved my stuff into the new space and laid on the bed the rest of the day!

This week I really need to accomplish a lot. Next week I will be back at my parents house as my mom is having a hysterectomy and I am going to spend the week with her just to be there in case she needs help. Hopefully I can get the rest of the book case painted and the room kind of organized before I leave again next Sunday.

I set up a Flickr account with all my pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dewdropfalling/

Painting Progress

2006-04-19T09:18:00.000-07:00

Got the first coat of paint on the floor last night. It looks so neat, I just had to post a picture...

Painting is hard work

2006-04-18T08:09:00.000-07:00

Uhg. I am so tired and achey from all the painting. I forgot how labour intensive it is! How did I ever paint a whole house full of walls, edges and corners? I finally finished the walls. It took three coats of the orange to cover the light blue underneath. I still have to finish the bookcase but can do it later on. I need to move on to painting the floors today. I mopped the floor 10 times yesterday and still came out with yucky water. I guess I will just hope the primer helps it stick. Otherwise I will have one of those peely floors.

I think it is a good sign that you are hanging out with the right crowd when you announce you are painting your studio orange and everyone thinks that is a good idea. Here are some pictures of the progress for ya...

Ta Da!

2006-04-15T20:55:00.000-07:00

This is James' new office!

And, this is mine!

I am tired! I will finish painting tomorrow. G'night!

Moving this weekend.

2006-04-15T08:09:00.000-07:00

We are moving the studio space this weekend. Actually my stuff is all going to be moved to the dining room holding area because we have to do a lot of painting and ripping up carpet to do before we can put my stuff in there. Unfortunately, the rest of the concrete floor wasn't so great so we decided to paint the floor. I was having so much trouble figuring out what colors to use. I don't want to repeat any colors I have already used in the house so I was thinking of purple or cobalt but wanted to used a color that would inspire me. Melissa came over for coffee yesterday morning and we came up to look at something here in my studio. Suddenly, I was pulling stuff out of my closet to find a frame for the print she brought me from Mexico. I was picking her artistic brain about color meaning so she looked up color theory on the internet and when she read what orange meant, I was like, that is exactly what I want! I have always secretly loved orange....

"Orange combines the energy of red and the happiness of yellow. It is associated with joy, sunshine, and the tropics. Orange represents enthusiasm, fascination, happiness, creativity, determination, attraction, success, encouragement, and stimulation... Orange increases oxygen supply to the brain, produces an invigorating effect, and stimulates mental activity...orange is symbolic of strength and endurance."

Later on we went over to the hardware store to picked up some paint samples and look at flowers. I decided to paint the floor dark green. Once I settled on the color scheme, I started seeing green and orange everywhere!

Okay so she left and I kept working on cleaning out my craft closet. Man, I had a lot of stuff in there. I started making a box for goodwill and setting aside fabric to give away. It felt really great to get rid of things. I made piles of things I still want to pursue and got clear plastic storage boxes to organize them: collage paper, collage objects, quilting stuff, sewing & embroidery notions, frames, etc.

James came home and we looked at the paint samples together. We decided to base the colors on my shoes. He started ripping out carpet and tack board in his old office and bringing his stuff up to his new office closet while I continued to bring my stuff downstairs. Last night we went to the hardware store and picked up supplies and paint. I am so excited to see how it turns out! More to come...

On the home front, Zaphod is feeling much better. It just turned out to be a case of dog diarrhea that cleared up in two days. I read up on it and I guess it is pretty typical because dogs eat such weird things.

However, Forest hurt himself at school on Thursday trying to do a skateboard trick. We had to take him to the minor emergency clinic. They did an ex-ray and found that he had a minor fracture on his fibula. It was so swollen! He has to use crutches and wear a boot for two weeks. Poor kid!

Getting caught up and Forest's Books

2006-04-12T20:33:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness. I have been catching my shit up this week! While I was having so much fun last week stuff was piling up here. Today I spent the entire day going through mail from the last month. Please tell me other people do this too. There is just so much junk mail, that I can't deal with it on a daily basis so I just let it pile up in the big red bucket. It's always a nice feeling when it's done and your bills are paid!

I updated the website, did some marketing work and cleaned a little more around the studio. Scrubbed the shower (the most dreaded job), cleaned the house. I also worked a little more on organizing my workspace for the move. Also had Emily over for more photos. Contacted another customer who will be modeling for me in the future.

I did a huge brainstorming session over the weekend and wrote a lot of notes. I made myself some pretty cool lists regarding my business. I am trying out a sort of weekly business to do list. Will keep you posted.

Today started off pretty tough. Zaphod got sick and pooped all over the carpet in James' office, the one that I am moving into. He was sick all day so we may need to take him to the doctor tomorrow, poor thing!

The mess was pretty gross! We ended up cutting out the squares of carpet and just throwing them out. One good think about cutting them out is that I got to check out the floor below. The concrete looks pretty good. I was planning on ripping out the carpet anyway and putting down a clear coat. James thinks we may still have some stain but I really don't want to go to that much trouble! I just want to slap up a new coat of paint, do the floor and move in. I just don't feel like I want to take a lot of extra time because it will be distracting from my biz list!

I have to weigh in with the trainer tomorrow and I dread it because I am just at 193. Finally back down to what I was at the end of February. But, I guess that is good since it is only the midway point through the month. It means I am halfway to my goal of 190 by the end of April. I just convinced myself it is okay.

Sunday night I went to Hatha Flow with Sarah. It was such a great class! It feels so good to be challenged. I can definitely feel my body getting stronger. I was pretty sore the next day too. Man, if you would have told me a year ago I would enjoy getting sweaty and athletic so much I would not have believed you. After yoga Sarah and I went for coffee and had a really nice chat. She is so cool.

Tonight while James cleaned his office out I went through Forest's old books. It is kind of hard to let some of them go. When he was little I was so interested in influencing his mind with really cool art. Some of the illustrated books we got him were so neat! We also got him cool learning books about tools, bugs, history, knights, etc. Oh! And the cute little Maurice Sendack books and Shell Silverstein (keeping those). I also kept some of the older vintage ones for collage. I kept a couple for sentimental reasons and the rest are going! I am giving them away so other kids can enjoy them. I just have really great memories of reading to Forest every night at least until he was old enough to read them to me.

Moving to a new workspace

2006-04-08T12:19:00.000-07:00

A note of warning - this blog entry is pretty dry. Sorry for that. I lost the first two extensive blogs I wrote while trying to post them. This is the best I could do on my third try. From now on I type everything out in Word before putting it here! It was a pretty frustrating experience.

This has been an interesting and busy week. I spent a lot of time with friends this week which is always restorative. Lunch with Kristin, dinner with Wendy, flea market with Melissa and her friend Mary Ann, lunch with Dixie and Lisa and brainstorming session with Victoria. It wasn't a typical week, social-wise. Anyway, I enjoyed myself a lot this week. The only hard part was that my trainer seems to have gotten me mixed up with another of her clients who is into body building because she really stepped up the weights this week. It was a little overwhelming! I was so sore for the entire following day after both sessions this week.

We are considering home school for Forest next year. He is a bright kid but has some trouble ignoring distractions in school and unfortunately his grades suffer for it. We think it might be very good for him to study in an environment where there will be no distractions. He has a big social network so we don't worry about him socially. He has friends from his old school and this school as well as some other high schools. He is a pretty socially networked kid! We are looking at a few different curriculums. What is cool is that he will be able to take classes at ACC or other places around town for some of his electives. We are pretty excited about this and feel it is the very best thing we can do for him right now.

I will have a new studio soon because James and I are going to switch offices. I have been going through the process, mentally and physically of organizing everything for the move. So far it has been an excellent exercise for me! You know I am always struggling with balancing everything and being more organized. This whole process has made me think about how I can lay out my workspace to be more conducive to getting a lot more done in a day. I have also been writing down all the things I would like to cover in a weeks time for my business to kind of figure out what to focus on each day. Anyway - it's just good! My floor is already cleaner since I have moved all my show props to a downstairs holding area and shredded the stack of credit card bill, offers and financial statements that were piled up under my desk. The open space in my office is already clearing out my thinking. Sometimes I think it is just hard to work in a cluttered environment so hopefully I can correct on that!

Disappointment and Inspiration

2006-03-28T19:34:00.000-08:00

Alright, let's start with an update on the weight loss issue. Unfortunately, this was not such a good month. I hate to have to admit it but I have gained a few pounds back. I feel I should be honest about my accomplishments as well as my setbacks. My exercise was pretty steady but the eating was off. It was a tough month, with in-laws in town the first half of the month and a trip to the parents house last weekend (seriously, here's a partial menu: corn casserole, green bean casserole, squash casserole, all made with "cream of" soups). Plus, that pizza last night couldn't have helped. In between times I really tried to follow the good eating patterns but it just didn't work out so well this month. I weighed in today at 196. The good news is that my lean mass (muscle) has increased and my fat mass has stayed about the same so basically I just maintained this month - which is good. I am disappointed but I am trying to just examine everything and move forward. I will try to follow the same patterns in April that I did in February when I lost 4 pounds. My new goal is to reach 190 by the end of April. My trainer gave me some new tips today about eating protein. Within my 300 calorie allowance at meals and snacks, I should try to get in 20 grams of protein. It is a new thing to think about. I am glad she gives me this information a little at a time. She is so smart!

As I mentioned, we went to my parents house over the weekend to celebrate my grandmother's 77th birthday. It was a lot of fun and we got to play 42 with my parent on Sunday before we left. It is always a grudge match and this time James and I won. Hooray! I really enjoyed talking to my Aunt Shelia. She went to Africa on a three week missionary trip last year and had a lot of interesting stories. The foremost thing I got from her is just how weird she felt coming back and realizing all the conveniences she takes for granted. She is a teacher and will retire in three years. She and my uncle would love to go over there and work when she retires. Very inspiring. What a rich experience.

I finally made it to yoga last week. It was so nice. I don't know why I let myself slack from that. Plus, I have to say that now that I have been exercising and getting stronger (and smaller in some places) the poses have a new feeling to them. It is amazing.

My business has been pretty slow this month but it has really given me the opportunity to think about new designs and what direction I want to go in. One of my ads is coming out on April 1st so hopefully that will draw in some business. I had a wholesale order last week from a previous customer. It is amazing how things work out. I really needed some cash to do another ad and then that order came along! Also, my consignment customer that I had to "get tough" with finally paid this week. It's nice to get results. heh. I also spoke with a pr person and got a quote for pr work. It is still quite out of my price range but sometimes just gaining new information can help you along. I have been working on a lot of new jewelry ideas in the last week. Lately I am finding it is really helpful to sit down and sketch out my ideas before diving into the supplies. I can always go back to my drawings for inspiration for new stuff. That is not to say that my drawings are great though! I would never want to show them to anyone! I started to get more serious with the drawings in NY and now I am so glad I did. I would never have remembered all those little architectural details if I hadn't sketched them. I am toying with the idea of putting a business blog up on my site. Melissa finished my print ad and it is just so beautiful. I can't wait for it to come out!

Went out for pizza with the crafty girls last night. It was a lot of fun. But too loud! I left feeling like I hadn't really gotten to visit with anyone. Hopefully I will see them all again soon to catch up.

What's up with banana chips?

2006-03-20T18:56:00.000-08:00

I was eating some dried banana chips yesterday thinking about how much healthier it was than eating chocolate cake. Then I happened to look at the nutrition facts - 11 grams of saturated fat per serving, 58% of your recommended daily allowance of saturated fat. What the hell is going on here, I ask you?

the week in review

2006-03-17T10:27:00.000-08:00

Heh, this blog is becoming weekly! Okay, for the last week...

The in-laws got here on Friday. My niece is so much bigger now and talking! She is so cute. We had a great time. Brenda and I went shopping at the outlet mall on Saturday. I got a rug from the pottery barn store. Check it out:

Sorry the picture is kind of crappy. I am finally learning how to use my camera when it is not connected to my computer. But, I am so proud of the rug! Zaphod ruined our old one and we have not been able to find one we could afford and liked.

I spent a lot of time hanging out with family over the last week. My niece really impressed me when she thanked me, without prompting from any adult, for a necklace I had sent her months ago. She wears it a lot. I made it out of junk jewelry to go with the princess dresses I know she likes to play dress up in. Her good manners earned her more necklaces! I brought over a bunch of junk jewelry and made her a bunch of necklaces, clip on earrings and a charm bracelet. I let her string a necklace as well. She was so into it. She was lying on the floor rolling around, putting beads on the string and singing a "la la" song she was making up as she went along. My mother-in-law asked James if that was what I did when I was making a necklace. I think I will have to try it out as a creative exercise. Anyway, I really like making play jewelry with all the junk jewelry I will never be able to use on my pieces that I put on the site. I want to make more play jewelry for all the other little girls I know.

On the last night they were here, we got a call from Glen to go rescue Brenda! We took her out for margaritas and tex-mex at gueros. It was a lot of fun. Then we met up with Glen at the four seasons hotel bar. Good times.

Yesterday was James and my 5th wedding anniversary. He is so sweet! We agreed the rug would be our wedding anniversary present to ourselves but he also brought home some beautiful flowers with a note that almost made me cry it was so sweet.

We went out for sushi and had champagne. It was a super great evening. Forest spent the night with a friend so we had the house to ourselves. We came home and hung out for a while and then watched Howls Moving Castle. It was a pretty perfect date!

Other than that I have just been spending way too much time on MySpace. It is so addicting! I made Wednesday and Thursday my weekend because I was so exhausted from the family visit. Yesterday I ran about a thousand earrands and got tough with one of my consignment places on late payment issue. That was empowering. I got a consignment request from Taos and I think I am going to do it. They have good policies. I took Melissa to the airport on Wednesday morning - She is in Mexico this week, living it up! I think I am about to make another wholesale order to an existing customer and that is exciting for me. I really need to spend some quality time at my workbench soon! My mom is coming tonight so we can go to citywide tomorrow.

Now I gotta go do some laundry and get to the gym! I have seriously been slacking on the exercise this week. That is bad!

there's no real theme for this entry

2006-03-09T18:50:00.000-08:00

Wow. What can I say? I was totally wrong about Santino winning Project Runway. Chloe did a great job and her collection was beautiful! I am going to be so sad next Wednesday night when there is no Project Runway to watch!

Some highlights from the last week... last Thursday I had lunch with Kristin, Rachel and Donna at Whole Foods. Saturday night we went to some friend's house for a very good dinner and great conversation. I got my accounting caught up from last Fall. I started updating my website. I have gotten a few orders now from the myspace page which is nice considering how much time I have put into it. Also made a decision to advertise in rare this summer since they are doing that special for the Austin design community. I am really amped about all the advertising.

Today was a super busy day. I met with my trainer this morning, had lunch with Jennifer P., went by p&l to drop off items, mailed orders, went by the bank, picked up office supplies and had a facial. The facial was a very interesting experience. I have had one other facial. It was so relaxing! Today was quite different. I started asking her a lot of questions about my adult acne problem and the scars I still have from my teenage acne. She said that micro derm abrasion would help that and offered me a free treatment. Holy crap. It was like she was rubbing sandpaper all over my face. Then she got out this electric thing and zapped my face in all these places to help my face not break out. It was like I was in some old frankenstein movie. Kind of funny. A little pricky feeling. I am sure it was all for my own good. No really, I am griping about it but actually I am really excited to see the results! She followed all this up with the relaxing part - neck and arm massage and fancy stuff on my face. I came away smelling all aveda-y. Nice! Fun experience. She said it would take about 8 micro derm treatments to make the scars go away. I kinda want to do it! I hate the pits in my cheeks.

Lunch with Jennifer P. was great. I came away super excited and inspired. We caught up and talked about a lot of biz and marketing stuff and she was very encouraging about my ideas. She has so much cool stuff going on. I am in awe!

Man, it has been such a crazy week. I think it is because I had to do so much accounting work. Every night I found myself wishing for more hours in the day. Even tonight after my busy day I am doing laundry and cleaning house and hoping to sit down at my jewelry desk to work for a while tonight. I don't know if I have a balancing problem or just load myself up with too much work. I do think that having all that accounting work done has freed up some creative energy though. It feels like a monkey off my back!

Short rant: I had a weird experience on Sunday. I was asked to lead a girl scout badge-getting thing where they would make stretchy bracelets. I was supposed to talk to them about jewelry and show them stuff I had made and discuss all the different types of jewelry. I was just doing it because my friend who usually does it had to be out of town. Now remember, I was totally volunteering my time. So everyone got there and I was talking to the kids and they were all cute and fun and then we started and I got really nervous. I just ended up talking so fast through my talk and forgetting half of the stuff I was supposed to say - All the mother's were sitting on one side of the room and they just made me feel really nervous. So then I got the girls to pick out their beads and I was going to show them how to do it but they all already knew how and finished really early and then the mother's were all griping saying that this activity was supposed to last an hour and a half. I was like, "I'm sorry, the girls just worked really fast." *smile, nervous laugh* In hindsight I totally should have talked slower but seriously folks, public speaking is really not my thing - especially with a bunch of helicopter moms staring me down. They were just so freakin' rude! It was a horrible experience. I wish I hadn't agreed to do it. *shutter* Shake it off!

Looking forward to a fun weekend. Tomorrow I am having lunch with my new friend Liz. And then my in-laws are coming into town for sxsw. Glen, my brother-in-law has a film in the film festival - Conversations with Other Women, I totally recommend it. I am excited to see Brenda, my sister-in-law and Charlotte, my niece. I haven't seen those two in two years! Brenda and I are going to try to slip out to go shopping at the outlet mall. Fun! Charlotte who is now almost four has grown so much, I can't wait to see her at this age. She is really cute! I am interested to talk to her and see what she is into.

Next week on Thursday is my 5 year wedding anniversary. We wanted to make some kind of super cool trip but once we started looking at trip we realized that everything is really expensive right now because of Spring Break. So, we are just going to go on a nice date and then do something really cool this summer, like go to San Francisco with Forest for a long weekend.

Alright, I suppose that is it for now. Back to the grind.

Best Show Ever

2006-03-04T11:35:00.000-08:00

Lately on Saturday mornings we have been getting up late, making breakfast or picking up breakfast tacos and settling in to watch Best Week Ever while we eat and have coffee. It is so fun! I love this show. In case you haven't seen it, they pull a bunch of crazy clips together from all the shows during the week and they have comedians and other guests making comments. This weekend's guests were Santiono Rice and Daniel V. from Project Runway. Really funny. It's on VH1 and they rerun it all weekend so you can probably catch it if you want.

And, on Project Runway, I have officially changed who I am rooting for - for a while I thought it would be Daniel V., but after last week's episode where we saw a bit of their collections, I think it's going to be Santino. Yay Santino!! Who's with me?

Ladies who lunch

2006-03-02T07:12:00.000-08:00

Okay, I don't have anything mindblowing to say today but I want to keep up the journal, at least on a weekly basis. Here is a rundown of the last week...

Last Friday night I went up to Jennifer R.'s to pick up a changing table - I had loaned her the changing table I used with Forest and now her girls are just about grown out of needing it so now I have it back. It is such a funky old changing table. My mom used it with us kids. Now I need to find a new home for it. I might just use it for storage in my office. Anyway, she and Chloe and I went to a tea place in downtown Round Rock. It was really cool! We had yummy scones with clotted cream and a pot of really good peppermint-y tea. It was fun.

On Saturday I saw Munich at the alamo with James and Forest. It was such an intense movie. We went for tacos afterward and I was really amazed at how much Forest had paid attention and enjoyed it. After that I had an appointment to meet a woman who had posted that she had some vintage seed beads to give away. She also had this huge box of old jewelry that a friend wanted to sell. We arranged a price and I spent the entire evening combing through it. Omg, such treasures!! I hit the jackpot. James was out with friends for the evening so while I went through the new goodies I watched In Good Company and then followed it up with The Big Chill. Forest was grounded for some transgression he had committed during the week so he watched the movies with me and cleaned old jewelry for me. Big hint to parents - if you want your teenager to spend more time with you, just ground them. Works like a charm! ;)

Sunday, Jennifer R. came over and let me take pictures of my newest jewelry on her for the website and then we went to Michael's to get embroidery notions and then to the glitterati meeting. The meeting was so fun! The usual cast of characters plus some fun new people. Love that group of girls. Dixie and I could not stop talking about Tim Gun on Project Runway. Carry On.

Monday was housework all day long. Seriously, at least 12 hours. Plus grocery shopping.

Tuesday I met my friend Tamsen for lunch, did housework and worked on jewelry.

Wednesday, yesterday, was pretty much biz stuff all day. Melissa came over and brought lunch and I looked at all her new work and gave her some feedback. Her new stuff is really neat! Such an artist.

I managed to cook dinner three nights this week. That is like some kind of record for me! I hope I can keep up this new habit.

On the weight loss front: By the end of the month, I was only able to lose down to 194. But - I am fine with it! I am so happy. I think I set my goal a little high at 190 but I think it really kept me motivated. I also learned a lot from trying some new things with eating this month, like that if I think of meals as snacks rather than meals, they tend to be lighter. My trainer said I should be trying to do 300 calories at each meal which is almost impossible. So, that kind of informed my decision to make my meals lighter. Anyway, I am starting to figure some things out! Hooray! My new goal for March: to reach 188. That is 6 pounds. I am going to follow the same things I did for February. Will keep you posted!

Okay, time to head off to meet my trainer. Today is our weigh in and measurement. I can't wait to see if I have lost more inches.

Reading back over this, I think I am really liking to "lunch" these days. Ladies who lunch. ha.

2006-02-24T09:23:00.000-08:00

Wow. My trainer worked me so hard yesterday. My ass hurts today! But, it's weird, I woke up with so much energy today. Last night I came in from exercise, showered and put my pj's on immediately. It was 7 o'clock! I was just so tired afterward. I made a stirfry for dinner and then we went to bed early to watch Project Runway and Ghandi. Interesting mix, eh? I am amazed at how great I feel today from the exercise.

Yesterday I was watching the good morning america and they were doing a story on the whole stay-at-home-mom vs. working mom. It kind of frustrates me because I feel the middle ground is so not represented in that argument. Where is the "email from a viewer" saying that "thank goodness women can make that choice now?" I kind of feel it was a hard won battle. It really irritates me when people take either side as if anyone could say what is right for them is right for all women. The core of feminism is that women have equal rights, among them, the right to choose whether to stay at home or work. The self righteousness bugs me. Also, there are so many women who have to work to support their families. I guess I err more on the side of working mothers because I understand the need to fulfill yourself and feel challenged and viable. However, I would never say that I think all women should work. I totally get that some women are really fulfilled by raising their children. I don't know - I am not exactly eloquent on these matters which is why I don't often write about political stuff. But, I just wanted it out there for the record that I feel it important to respect the choices that other people make for their lives. And I'm a freakin' housewife! ha.

The balance thing has worked out pretty well this week. I have gotten a lot of housework and business stuff done this week. Forest talked me into setting up a page on MySpace to try to get people to come to my website. He really had to help me a lot! I wouldn't have been able to figure out all that stuff if he hadn't been here. Kids are so smart about technical stuff these days! He sent a bulletin out to all his friends to add me. Isn't that sweet? What a great kid I have. Speaking of him, he has been sick with the cold, poor thing. I let him stay home from school yesterday to rest and take nyquil. I think he is feeling better today.

Had lunch with Victoria on Wednesday. It was fun to catch up. We walked around S. Congress and had lunch at Magnolia. I love her new t-shirts!

gotta cut loose, footloose...

2006-02-19T20:01:00.000-08:00

It started out a kind of tough day. My glasses broke just as I was stepping on the treadmil and I had to drive home with one eye shut. James was extra nice to me when I got home, giving me pity and a footrub, which made me feel better. Funny how a little kindness can improve your mood. We had lunch at Cosmic Cafe this afternoon. It was great. We split the Herban Renewal sandwich and the Cosmic Stir Fry. Both really yummy. The food is Indian-inspired vegetarian. It is where the old West Lynn Cafe used to be. Tonight we watched the documentary, Murderball. It is about the paralympic rugby team. I worried I might find it depressing but I came away with a really inspired and hopeful feeling. It is a really touching documentary. I like seeing people overcome obstacles.

I have been thinking a lot in the last few days about marketing for my little business. My friend Amy was telling me on Friday night about the stages of change and I was imagining them in terms of the marketing ideas I have right now and am starting to incorporate. I would list the stages here for you but I was a bit inebriated at the time and I might not remember exactly how they go. heh. Friday night was fun. It was nice to be among such supportive friends and catch up on jobs and lovelives.

Downloaded and am listening to some Brad Mehldau songs I didn't yet have. I love the way he covers old standards as well as contemporary stuff, like Paranoid Android. I also got Black Bird, Dear Prudence, and Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered. His piano playing really makes me happy. I love acoustic music - piano, guitar...speaks to my soul.

Saturday was a nothing day. I mean that in a good way. It is nice to do nothing and not feel guilty about it. The guys were both doing other stuff so I just played around with jewelry, worked a little on my website and then googled a bunch of random stuff on the internet, including people I used to know. That is always fun. Oh yeah and I stayed up late watching Footloose on HBO. That was fun. I totally remember seeing it the theater with my aunt and talking about how hot Kevin Bacon was on the way home. I think at the time we said he was "kick ass." That was a brand new phrase in the mid-80's, right?

random stuff

2006-02-16T07:57:00.000-08:00

I am really enjoying reading my horoscopes from dailyom.com. They are just generally full of good advice about self confidence, positive thinking and assertiveness.

I was in Target yesterday and noticed that the sewing notions have gotten a bigger display - almost a half an aisle. Also, they are selling sewing machines there now. That is amazing. I guess it is due to the rising popularity of crafting. I remember that last time I had to look for the sewing notions in Target, I had to walk all over the store and finally found them on a tiny endcap. Yay for crafts! I think it is cool to see other places where they are having an effect. At Nordstom's, they have shoes with crocheted flowers on them.

I have completely given up on the regimented schedule. I just can't do it. Instead I am going for balance. - like half a day on housework, half a day on biz. Or if I have to spend an entire day on one, then the next day I work on the other. Balance. That is my new goal.

Went to yoga last night with Sarah for the first time in weeks. My body was doing that gripey thing it does when I haven't been in a while. The poses feel very uncomfortable and difficult. Afterward though I was really glad I went. Angela always dispenses little bits of wisdom. Last night she was talking about how the way we hold our head affects so much in our back and is a result of how we work or feel. We did a lot of poses for help those areas. I always have a lot of neck and shoulder pain so it was good for me.

On the weight loss project: I haven't gained at all this week because I have been watching my diet very closely but I am having trouble getting below 196. I have a very stubborn body! My trainer said I should only be pumping iron on three days of the week so I have made that change. I must have misunderstood her at first because I thought I was supposed to do it every day - just changing out the part of the body I was working on each day. I have to admit I am really relieved though. It was wearing me out. Now I am just doing cardio 6 days per week and weights 3 days.

There is this big show that I wanted to apply to and I invited three other jewelry people to do it with me. They all declined and I have to say I was kind of relieved at that as well. As soon as I emailed to ask them, I was like "omg what am I doing?" I am not even sure I want to do shows this year! This one I am sure would be a good one but it would also be a ton of work and additional costs, like hiring help, buying insurance and paying extra for electricity. I still think I might apply for some of the big established fine arts festivals around the U.S. I get the emails about them and think, maybe I should just try. It would be cool to go to Colorado in the summer. I could visit my sister. Anyway, I was also worried after I sent the email because it would be inviting another group project into my life which I am not really sure I am up for. I think I work best solo.

Today I am having lunch with Melissa and tomorrow I have plans to hang out with my friend Amy and some other girls at her new condo. It is kind of like her house warming. So, I am excited at the prospect of being with good friends in the next few days. That is always nice.

I made about 10 new pairs of earrings this week and I think two of them will make the cut! It takes a lot of re-working to get something right!

Oh, and one more thing - on Valentine's day when James was teaching me how to make a face, I wanted to explain. He makes the funniest faces. I have never been able to do twist my eyebrows or mouth to make a face so he was helping me figure it out. We started with the character I wanted to be: a wife who is doubtful of her husband's driving (which is so close to home! heh) . So, we worked out the eyebrows and the mouth. He said it was pretty convincing. I had had just enough wine to do be doing this in a crowded restaurant. Yeah, we talk about deep stuff when we are together.

Happy Valentines Day

2006-02-14T18:50:00.000-08:00

What a nice evening it was! James took me out early to beat the rush at the sushi restaurant which gave us a nice hour of drinking wine. He is so smart! While we were waiting James helped me figure out how to make a face. Now we are home and about to watch The Bob Newhart Show. What a great valentines!

Emily's pictures

2006-02-11T13:01:00.000-08:00

My friends Emily came over on Thursday and I took pictures of my jewelry on her. I think the pictures came out pretty good. And it was fun. She was a very good and patient model. I am excited to get them on the website! I would ultimately like to have several women's pictures for the website.

brown was popular in the 70's too

2006-02-07T12:10:00.000-08:00

We have been watching the dvd's of the Bob Newhart Show from the 70's and I am totally tripping out over the set. It is so funny how brown was popular back then but it was so different. Like now, it is paired with pink or blue or aqua but in the 70's they paired it with yellows and oranges and avocado green. It makes it look so different. Also, I suppose, it looks different because it also showed up in that fake wood paneling which is all over the set. Anyway, the show is a feast for the eyes. I love seeing all the weird dishes she uses and the clothing and hair styles she wears. That show is quintessential 70's and kind of makes me feel like a little kid again. That is not to say that I watched it as a kid. The visual environment gives me flashbacks. Also, it is a very funny show.

I didn't actually even go out to the movies like I thought I would this past week. James recently upgraded our netflix account to six dvd's so we ended up having a bunch of good stuff to watch this weekend - Corpse Bride, which was so beautiful and Closer, which was just weird, kind of clever in some areas but also just kind of annoying. We watched some other stuff but I can't recall at the moment. Plus, we are still watching Mash - we are in the second season. Did you know you can turn off the laugh track? It is much better that way. It is still pretty good in the second season. We are watching for the 'jump the shark' moment.

I was watching the travel channel at the gym without sound this morning and she was in Austin. I find this host very annoying. Anyway - she was all decked out in her jeans and cowboy boots - 'cause, you know, that is what we all wear here. I didn't see the whole thing but the outfit was cracking me up.

On the weight-loss front: I was thinking this morning that maybe I am not so amped up about my biz because it is not my main focus right now. I only seem to be able to focus on one project at a time and right now I am losing weight. It is my main project. Case solved. I am excited to say that the project is coming along quite nicely. I have set a goal to reach 190 pounds by the end of February. I am a little embarrassed to reveal my weight but maybe it will help me to just put it out there. I am now at 196. I started out this process at 205. I am feeling really focused right now and if I can maintain the focus, I think I can reach this goal for February. I have finally learned that I have to combine exercise and eating right. It just doesn't work any other way. I have never been one to yo-yo diet or anything like that. My previous three attempts at weight loss were all centered around eating better and exercise but always came to a halt after a vacation or big event when I didn't return to it. This time, having that awareness, I can understand how important it is to hit the gym my first day home. It feels really different this time around. I just feel so much more committed than I ever have before. Also, working with a personal trainer is so helpful. I have always been so confused by exercise. She gives me an education. The tools she has taught me have really helped and I can see a difference. Anyway, this kind of change happens so slowly. I have to exercise patience as well.

Four Things

2006-02-04T10:12:00.000-08:00

Corn tagged me....

Four jobs I've had:
Realtor
Secretary
Frame Shop Manager
Waitress

Four movies I can watch over and over:
Hannah and Her Sisters
Out of Africa
The Big Chill
Before Sunrise

Four places I've lived:
May
Dallas
Austin
That's it!

Four TV shows I love:
Lost
Arrested Development
The Office

Young and the Restless (guilty pleasure!)

Four places I've vacationed:

San Francisco

London

Greece

NewYork

Four sites I visit daily:

friend's blogs

my own website

dailyom.com

airamericaplace.com

Four places I would rather be right now:

Watching the sunset on Santorini, Greece

Delphi, Greece

Sitting on a beach watching the waves roll in

Working on jewelry

Four bloggers I am tagging:

Young and With It

Textile Fetish

Random Thoughts

Wendy

cool movie

2006-02-01T07:50:00.000-08:00

I forgot to mention that the Friday before I went to NY, we saw Jesus is Magic - and omg, it is good! Sarah Silverman is so freaking funny. I was re-reading some Dorothy Parker stories at jury duty the other day and thinking that their humor is kind of similar - like the story called Diary of a New York Lady. Both of them speak from the point of view of a nauseating person in such a funny way. Anyway, I am no professor or anything but Jesus is a very funny show and I recommend it highly. And Dorothy Parker's short stories also rock.

I love getting the emails from Alamo. There are so many great films at the S. Lamar location that I want to see right now! Munich, This Land is Your Land, Matador, Matchpoint (big Woody Allen fan) and Good Night and Good Luck. I already saw Brokeback Mountain and loved it. I am so excited it got nominated for best film Oscar. I think I am going to be seeing a lot of movies this week.

My allergies are killing me. It's like I have a cold or something. I am all sneezey and have to blow my nose a lot and also I am lightheaded. Plus, my ears are all ringy and clogged up. Very pleasant. I am taking a lot of otc cold medicine.

Made earrings yesterday. I feel like I am on a roll with the earrings right now. There is a tool I need though. It is called a flex shaft, pretty much a dremel with a slimmer handle on a flexible shaft that you operate with a foot pedal. I want it so bad!! I am pricing them out and hopefully will be getting one soon.

And lastly, I have this tiny little pet peeve. Let me preface it by saying I know I am such a hypocrite because I am not always so great with the spelling (I have dictionary.com bookmarked) but -- when people use the wrong spelling of things like sale when they mean sell. Or they're when they mean their. It just bugs the holy living shit out of me. That's all.

all in a day's work

2006-01-30T20:13:00.000-08:00

went in for jury duty
deposit at bank
packages mailed at post office
went by bead store for supplies
saw Melissa for lunch
cleaned the kitchen
straightened downstairs
cleaned bedroom
four loads of laundry washed and put away
mopped the floors
cleaned the downstairs bathroom
cleaned the kitchen again

Fortunately the case was settled while we were waiting for all the people to arrive and we didn't even have to stay very long! Hooray. I had to sit on a jury less than 9 months ago. I can't believe I got called up again so soon. I know people who never get called up. What demographic do I fit that looks so attractive to these people?!

I am trying switch over to natural cleaning products but so far I am not very impressed with the two automatic dishwashing detergents I have tried. If anyone knows of a good one, please let me know.

It has been a productive day. So far I am not following my new ideal schedule. It's just so hard for me to do that. I get so caught up in what I am doing that I just want to barrel through and get it all finished. This is like a life-long struggle for me. I am either functional or creative. It hard to switch back and forth for me.

New York was awesome.

2006-01-29T15:57:00.000-08:00

Quick recap of my trip to New York -

Monday night, we got to the Algonquin Hotel in time to see Talk of the Town - a little musical about the hotel's history. It was cool and covered important highlights over a ten year span. It was kind of like a dinner theatre too because we had dinner while we watched. It was a great start to the week. Linda stole a piece of silverware for me!

Tuesday, we went up to the Frick museum - old rich steel magnate who collected art and had his home built as a museum to display his collection. Afterward, Linda had plans with her girlfriends so I window-shopped my way over to the Whitney only to find it was closed. The restaurant was open so I had lunch there - yummy chicken pot pie that really hit the spot on a cold day. On my way out I stumbled upon an Art-o-Mat. I had read about these before and was so excited to see one! I bought my token, inserted it into the reclaimed cigarette vending machine and received a small cigarettepack-sized painting! Took the subway back to the hotel, napped, then got up and went out to a metals store nearby to start supply shopping. That night we saw Sweeney Todd - it was so so good. Very creepy. And it was really cool that the entire cast was also the orchestra. They all played an instrument when they weren't part of the scene. We had dinner and drinks at Ruby Foo's - a really cool sushi place near Times Square. Linda is a good drinking buddy.

Wednesday, I spent most of the day walking around to bead and metal wholesalers buying supplies. In the evening we went down to Union Square and had dinner at the Union Square Cafe and then saw a play called Dog Sees God. The gist of the play is that the gang from Peanuts are now teenagers and, let's just say, it is pretty updated. It was pretty cleverly written and I really liked it. Also visited Strand bookstore and bought some art books, one on Art Nouveau and another on illuminated manuscripts.

Thursday, we saw the Rauschenberg exhibit at the Met and then a fashion exhibit at the Cooper Hewitt National Design museum. I super enjoyed the Rauschenberg works. I don't know what it is in collage that appeals to me! I found the headphone tour to be annoying so I dug out my Ipod and listened to some Miles Davis. Spent the afternoon supply shopping. That evening Linda went to the opera with her friend and I had dinner by myself and went to see another show called Putnam Co. Spelling Bee. It was okay, not my favorite show of the week but Linda had kindly bought me the ticket.

Friday morning I hit the streets early and finished up my supply shopping, then we shopped around in Soho, walked through Grand Central Station, the lobby of the Chrystler building and then Linda gave me a really good tour of the New York Public Library. That building is so amazing. I was glad she was there to tell me all about it. She is a good tour guide. They also had an exhibit of illuminted manuscripts dating back to 1200 and older. It amazed me that after so many years, the colors are so brilliant and the marginal designs so fresh. After that we got on the airplane and came home.

Okay so that wasn't a very short recap but I just wanted to record everything we did. It was such a nice trip! I loved getting to stay at the Algonquin. Dorothy Parker is one of my favorite writers and it is inspiring to be in that environment.

Speaking of inspiration, I really just felt so much inspiration from the entire city. I was thinking a lot about working with metals and sketching beautiful ornamentation from buildings and ceilings. Linda seemed to understand where my head was, I think that is why she kept leading me into old buildings.

I was really tired when we got home. I spend all day Saturday resting and sorting through my new supplies. Oh yeah, and trying to set a new goal for myself - I really want to try to be more regimented. So - for this week, I am going to try to actually work on a schedule. I am just trying to work through my time-management issues!!

My energy is back!

2006-01-22T20:23:00.000-08:00

Hooray! It has been a great week. I got so much done including cleaning out closet, getting both cars cleaned - all superfluous stuff in addition to the house stuff. Felt good.

Made a decision to have a big sale on my website to get rid of as much stuff as possible to make way for the new things I have been making. I am excited to get new stuff up. Have decided to stick with beads for a little while and experiment with the metal stuff on the side. The workshop is still in the back of my brain.

Tomorrow I am heading for NYC with my mother-in-law for the week. Should be a fun trip. I look forward to just walking around!

Nice weekend

2006-01-15T14:30:00.000-08:00

It has been a nice weekend. I think my three-day weekend is over now though. Today is like my Monday. Have to get back to work. I swear I don't know how a house can get so dirty in just a couple of days.

Yesterday I met up with my friends Tonda, Jennifer B. and Amy for coffee and fun conversation at a new cafe in S. Austin called Buenos Aires Cafe. Then Jennifer and Amy and I went to Citywide Garage Sale. I found a stool for my antique vanity dresser. Now I can put all my "getting ready" stuff on my vanity dresser and do it properly. It is kind of cool to use something for its original purpose. It came from my grandmother's house. It has a big round mirror and an opening where your legs go, surrounded by four drawers. I have always wanted to sit there but could never find the right stool. Jennifer didn't find anything. Amy got a planter to put her toothbrush in. Afterward I drove around with the windows down and walked around S. Congress going into antique shops. I went by P&L and found I had a big check waiting for me. I sold a lot of stuff in December. Yay!

Last night I made jewelry and watched movies on HB0. I watched four movies in a row! Ice St0rm, The Terminal, War of the R0ses and S0me Kind of W0nderful. Man, that last one was bad too. I can't believe I thought it was so cool in the eighties. 1) the acting sucks, 2) the plot is so stupid - he is going to spend all his savings on one date with a popular girl. Actually, it's kind of all the eighties movies in a nutshell.

Today has been nice. I woke up and went straight to meet up with my friend Wendy for yoga. That was a nice way to start the day. Then we went over to the bookstore for coffee and she gave me super great inspiration for cooking. She recommended these magazines. I was telling her how much I really hate cooking. She showed me magazines and gave me advice. I am kind of excited about it again. Will keep you posted. Yay Wendy!

Afterward, I went to the gym with James and ate lunch. Okay, well, my mask is dry now so I better hit the showers and then get this damn house cleaned! Soon I am going to write about why I am trying to lose weight.

I am doing the best I can

2006-01-13T13:04:00.000-08:00

Ugh. I am so tired for some reason. The energy comes and goes and right now it is definitely gone. I just thought I was sore on Tuesday - Wednesday my trainer worked me so hard I could barely move the next day. I had read this article about how you should "work your muscles to failure" - meaning that on your last rep you should barley be able to complete it. So, I tried this and it almost killed me. I don't know if that hardcore work out is for me. Think I will just stick with the medium-version of the workout. It made me not even want to go to the gym on Thursday. I decided to just go with that feeling. I had a massage that morning and just decided to take the rest of the day off. I laid around and watched The 0ffice on dvd. Such a great show. I felt pretty useless by the end of the day. I did actually do a little jewelry work last night so that was something.

Another thing I did get around to yesterday was seeing a studio space that is for lease. They had three units available. Fortunately I liked the smallest and cheapest the very best. It has windows, green walls and an a/c unit. It is about the same size as my office but with more wall space. I think it could totally work for me. Dad said he could help me rig a ventilator. I can do it month to month so I wouldn't be bound to anything. I just gotta consider it a little more. If it gets rented while I am thinking, that's cool. I will take it as a message from the universe. Or whatever.

Still today I am having trouble with the energy. At least I made it to the gym today. I don't know why I am surprised. January is always a tough month for me. Just a lack of motivation and energy this time every year. Melissa suggests I am cocooning and gave me a birthday card with butterflies on it. Dixie gave me a photograph she took of a caterpillar for my birthday. I put them both on my bulletin board to remind me. You can't always be a butterfly. Sometimes you just gotta be a stupid caterpillar lying on your couch in your sweats watching tv shows on dvd. As long as I keep the house clean, I am fine! :)

Ouch!

2006-01-10T13:20:00.000-08:00

On the exercise front: my ass and legs hurt. Yay! I exercised 6 days last week and this week I have been to the gym on Monday and Tuesday. It's looking good for another full week since I have training on Wed and Friday. I am just so excited to finally have time to make a routine. I can really feel the changes in my body. It feels good.

On the biz front: I am still working on catching up my accounting. I have to reconcile my biz bank account for the last three months. Crazy, huh? Wish me luck.

This week I am trying to learn more about getting a workshop outside my house. I have pretty much decided that is the best way to do it for now. I am just too nervous to try setting up all that stuff in my home office. It is upstair, sharing a hallway with the rooms we sleep in. Not a good idea. Maybe I can find a partner to share an outside workshop.

I am getting a massage on Thursday. It was supposed to be today but got delayed. I could really use it. My back is still giving me trouble.

Okay, back to the grindstone... :)