Thankful

I am so thankful for every one's prayers and healing energy for my DH while he has been in the hospital. He is still there and recovering slowly. Since I have been driving up to Seattle to the VA Hospital everyday, it has given me the opportunity to spend some time people watching while there. It really is amazing and humbling to be surrounded by so many veterans. Quite a few are older but I have been surprised at the number of younger vets. It really does hit home when you are surrounded with them everyday and understand the suffering and life changing experiences they went through for our freedom.

Needless to say I haven't been in the mood or even home much to do a lot of crafting or jewelry making. I did come home early from the hospital today to take the dogs to the groomers. They were stinky dogs and now they are clean... won't stay that way but for right now this moment, clean.

The spaniel, Buddy, never looks that different but the Shitzu, Leo gets shaved when he gets groomed and always looks so much smaller. Now when they want to sleep with me tonight I won't cringe due to their muddy paws and smell. I had to bribe them the second time to get them to sit still for the photo. What you can't see in the photo is a couple of treats on the table. Amazing what they will do for a treat.

What a Fun Day

If you are looking for the Bead Soup Party post, click HERE.

Well I had a wonderful visit with a friend of mine from Chicago. She flew in to teach at the Art & Soul retreat in Portland this week. Since I won't be around for it, I was able to pick her up at the airport, have lunch and visit with her for a few hours.

I think we are getting closer to being ready to go on our trip but do you ever feel you are completely ready and packed? I still have to check my kindle and make sure I have enough reading material, some games are packed such as the farkle dice and playing cards so I think the relaxing times are covered. Hubby did try to lift one bag tonight and I think it will weigh out over 50 lbs.... cr@p. Okay, so now that plan is to redistribute the weight between the two bags. Maybe I'll move all the shoes to the lighter bag. Good thing we are taking two big bags versus our usual one large and one medium.

Our leave you tonight with a picture of Buddy our spaniel mix dog. He tends to guard toys, bones and in this case a pig ear.

Tough Day

If you are looking for the Bead Soup Blog Hop Click HERE.

It was a tough day for the little guy today as he went to the groomers. He is always so happy and full of energy after but during they say he lays flat on his tummy and won't move. I can just see him doing that. Right now he is sound asleep next to me on the couch laying on a pillow. Boy to have a dogs life.

I always find it difficult to pack for a trip and I'm still trying to figure out what to take for a 19 day cruise. I hear we will have 5 formal nights, good thing I can wear things more than once and there is a laundry on board. Then the planning to make sure you have taken everything you will need for that many days. It's not like I can just run out to the mall to pick up something I forgot. So, I have lists, lists in my head and on paper, not that it will help me any as I'm sure I'll forget something.

We have one more fair day tomorrow and I'm looking forward to scones and raspberry jam for breakfast. I hope everyone is having a great day and if you are from the Bead Soup party, thanks for dropping by.

My Symmetry is Asymmetrical

There is so much going on around here that I'm not sure where to start.

First off I would like to offer my hope and prayers that those who have family in Japan, find their loved ones and no further damage will come to that country from the aftershocks and tsunami's. We've had the TV on more these past couple of days than we normally do and it is really just so sad to see all the devastation.

I haven't had Internet much this past week as our office is undergoing a complete remodel but that has been good for me as it forced me to get in the craft room and start getting jewelry ready for upcoming shows. I have one the first week of April where 30% of the proceeds will go to benefit the Westgate Orthopedic Society which raises funds for Mary Bridge Children's Hospital. This will be my focus this year along with finding my niche in jewelry.

For months I've been playing with art charms, ATC's, mixed media projects and all kinds of hobbies but not my business so now it's time to focus. That's not to say I won't be doing those projects but they will be fit in and not the focus.

I've come to realize after years of making jewelry that I personally do not like symmetry in my jewelry so most of my newer items look like a mis-mash of beads and chain. It does take a different kind of person to feel comfortable with this style but I think it looks so good.

In this next group of photos you will see two of my newest multi strand necklaces, the start of a round robin chain with art charm dangles and a few of my Winged Jewels art charms.

The Turquoise, Apatite, Coral and Sterling silver came about as I found 3 Turquoise and mixed bead necklace that hadn't sold. I took them all apart and then grabbed some additional beads and created this one. I love it and it feels good on, not too heavy.

The black and white necklace is actually Black Spinel, Freshwater Pearls, Black Onyx, Crystal Quartz, Fine Silver links and Sterling silver chain. This is one of my preferred styles to make as I love fine silver chain and the layered look, so why not combine it into one necklace.

The large link chain is fine silver links that I made and combined with some leftover sterling silver chain. This will be a round robin necklace with the additional links for my team mates to add their charms. I can't wait to see how they interpret my start on this "Found Objects" piece.

Last but not least are the little charms that look like butterflies. These are for an art charm swap titled Winged Jewels. I've combined iridescent leaves with crystals on a black wire base. They are kind of fun.

Along with all the jewelry and charm making, the dogs did get a bath yesterday. Here is Buddy not looking too happy.

Still Remodeling

This week has been an up and down week. We are planning our office remodel...what you say do you remodel in an office. Well, this is our only spare bedroom and guess what? No bed. So we are hiring a furniture/cabinet maker to make a Murphy bed with a small wardrobe along with a built in desk and overhead cabinets. To do this we must empty that room, rip up the carpet, take the paneling off the walls, repaint and then refinish the hardwoods. Now we won't be doing all this, we do have a contractor, but we haven't contacted him yet. We will get the room emptied out and rip up the carpet ourselves but we will have the contractors do the rest.

So much to do and then today our new blinds and drapery panels were installed in the living room and dining room. Unfortunately the valance did not come out quite right so they took it back and will be fixing it, but that didn't stop me from taking photos to share with you.

Before - tackie sheers in the living room as we took the heavy drapes off years ago and  nothing in the dining room including privacy.

Now - we got the type of blinds that you can draw from the top or bottom and, as you can see, the reason we did this in the living room on top of the sofa. This is Leo's favorite place to view the world and keep intruders out. I'm not sure where Buddy was when I took this but there was some snow on the ground so he was probably outside,

The color of the drapery panels is actually a tiny stripe with rust, green and gold but you can't tell from a distance.

Just had to throw in a doggie picture. Leo decided to attack Buddy for a some reason. Who knows but that was our day.

Mother's Day at the Beach

This weekend we took a little trip to the beach for the second motor home outing. This time we dry camped...in other words, no electric or water hookups. It wasn't as convenient as having full hookups but we survived and we learned a little bit more about the coach. So, not having any internet access I couldn't blog, tweet or play my facebook games, so sad...I think I'm really going to have to get me an air card.

The dogs wanted to share a few pictures from our weekend with you.

Mom, the sun is really bright today.

Wait, I know I buried it here somewhere.

Look, I found dinner.

Finally home.

A Day for the Dogs

Today the dogs got to go to the spa. They had the full treatment, bath, clipped, teeth brushed, nails filed, the works. Now they are all clean and full of energy. The little one is asserting his dominance, while the spaniel is stealing all the chew bones. I guess we are back to normal. We sure did miss them while we were on vacation. I'm told they were perfect angels while at grandpa's house for the week. It's hard to be away from them for too long, but it looks like we will be again next month when we go to Napa. Buddy the spaniel wasn't too happy that I was taking his picture while he had a chew bone....he didn't even want to look at me for fear I would take it away from him....well it was Leo's bone. Oh and don't you just love the 70's vintage gold carpet. We have yet to remodel our house. That's next on the list.

I just ran across a Creative Blogger friend Marsha's Etsy shop and blog Spinal Fusion. What cool earrings.
I love the funky disk ones in the middle. Check out her Etsy shop for all kinds of goodies at reasonable prices.

Hope you had a good Monday.  Cheers, Dana

Friday Wrap Up

Well I made my first sale on-line of my book today, yea, and I only had it listed now for a couple of days. This is a good sign. I'm hoping that more people will find the value of making these little gem trees for themselves and for gifts. So, I'm excited.

I spent the morning finishing a tutorial to put out on my Etsy and ArtFire shops of the Standard Gem tree, so it is complete and ready to go. Those not wanting to purchase the whole book with 8 tree designs can just purchase the tutorial and I'll e-mail them the .pdf file. Simple for me and great for them as it is the same instruction as what is in the book plus a few color photos vs. the B&W.

This afternoon my husband and I took the boy to see the new Harry Potter movie. It was good. It had been awhile since I read the book and it seemed that there were parts missing....maybe I need to re-read the book. After that it was back to the house, where the boy spend a good 30 minutes playing with our dog Buddy and the water hose....I kind of forgot to have him change into his swim trunks. Oh, well, both dog and boy dry well.

Speaking of the boy, we went to the waterfront a couple of days ago with the dogs and I snapped a couple of shots to share with you.

Hope you all had a great week and I look forward to what the future holds.

The Never Ending Journey

Back from fun at the Beach. We finally purchased an air bed for the trailer so now we can sleep better and also a more comfortable chair. We have been putting off going to the beach property because we haven't been comfortable sleeping. Problem solved. We had a great few days, made it back for the 4th here at home since the dogs don't like fireworks. The beach is just one giant bang on the 4th as we have witnessed the past several years, so to give the dogs a break we came home early. Hopefully everyone remained safe through the 4th of July holiday.

We've been relaxing today along with doing upteen loads of laundry and I finally started on one of my competition gem trees that needs to be completed by the end of this month. It's not going as planned as the briolettes holes are too small for the tree wire, so now I'm rethinking what to do. If I remake the tree using smaller gauge wire then it will be too droopy. My husband suggested making loops on the ends of the tree branches and then dangling the gems off by wrapping them with smaller gauge wire....hummm, this might work, but not what I had envisioned. I guess I'll give it some more thought.

I just found a message from my publisher of the BOOK that they have finished the 2nd version, now back available on their web site and now hopefully this will be the last version until I have some major edits. I also received an e-mail from FedEx that a package had been sent to me from Morriss Printing, so yea this may be my proof and I can finally get these dang things printed. The last proof I reviewed had printer errors, so sent it back. What a run around that was.....note to self publishers everywhere, be prepared to review everything at least 3 times and then have someone else review it for you.

On another note, I'm glad everyone liked my featured artist (Bedazzled of Oregon) last Thursday, she is an amazing artist. If you haven't read that post, be sure to check it out HERE.

Here are a couple of pics from our few days at the beach. Me with Leo and Paul walking on the foggy beach one morning with dogs.

At Summer's End

As the Summer is ending, and all the things I wanted to get completed weren't, I realize that I'm probably not the only one in this predicament. We have adopted a very cute dog, had our grandson and his mom out for a week vacation, set up jewelry and gem tree demonstrations at two shows and made it to the beach almost twice a month for a weekend. I really wanted to finish writing my book, garden a little more, remember birthday's better, walk the dogs each night, create new jewelry designs, update my web site and generally be more relaxed. Everything just got away from me this year, although I do plan on finishing the book this Labor Day weekend....it's still Summer, so maybe I can still do some of these things. Alright who am I kidding, we really didn't have a Summer here in the Pacific NW.

Now is the time to plan for Fall and Winter. So, I put on my list: update web site, create new jewelry designs, walk the dogs each night, remember birthday's better and relax more. Yes, I know those sound like my plans for the Summer, but since I really didn't complete them I have to add them back in plus add more. What that more is, I don't know yet, but I'm sure that it will be more than I can accomplish.

Here is a new picture of both dogs playing. I'm not sure where they get all their energy, but I wish I had some of it.