Uninspired. . .

My husband and I cleaned the kitchen table (my work area) for my daughter's birthday party and now I can't work. All that neatness and order drives the creativity right out of me. I really do need chaos and disorder to create anything. I don't know why. I can't stand a neat work area. I need a great big huge mess. The bigger, the better. When I had the entire table covered with beads, I was making and listing between 1-3 pendants a day. Now, I've come to a screeching halt. I need to find a place where I can make a mess and leave it. I can't clean up every day. It's counter-productive. Of course, half the time I can't find anything in my big mess, but I certainly can't find it when it's put away either. I need to find a balance. Or a new area that I can leave a little messed up. I wanted to get a big roll-top desk and have my mess on that and then just shut it when company comes. But my husband had to have this little useless antique secretary's desk. It's too small for anything. Now, I have to find something else to mess up.

That's Show Biz

My son fell asleep about a half an hour before the skating show and he was soooooo crabby, so we let sleep and thought maybe he could come for the second act. My mom stayed with him and I brought my daughter. Meanwhile, my husband shows up at the show and asks where he is. I explained that he would probably be here for the second act. Well, he never came. My husband was so mad at me because he had to sit through a whole skating show and NOT see his son. Of course, he got to see our daughter. And the roof or something was dripping on him the whole time, so he got really wet, so he was crabby too. After the show, I went to my mom's to find out why she didn't come. She said when my son woke up, he wouldn't stop crying and he said his ear hurt. (He does get a lot of ear infections.) She gave him some Tylenol and about a half an hour later, he stopped crying. So I told her that my husband was mad at me because he never showed up at the skating show. Sheesh. I hate being stuck in the middle. But I took both kids home and we ate, took more Tylenol and went back to the show. My husband reluctantly went to the show again. The thing is, he had to pay another five dollars. My son was excited that Daddy was going to watch him skate. My husband called his mom to go with him too. I brought the kids there and I went in the skater's door, so I basically snuck in without paying, but I earned my keep. Parents aren't allowed in the locker rooms and were supposed to be people in there to get the kids ready, but there weren't, so good thing I was there. I got my son ready and lined up and ran off to check on my daughter and there she was without her skates on. I hurried and got her ready and lined up and sat down just in time to watch my son. It was really cute. He had two ladies drag him all over the skating rink. I videoed it. He was Winnie the Pooh. Then I had to change him ito his chipmunk costume. I tried to cheat and change his pants without taking off his skates, but it was not to be. I had to take those darn things off and put them back on. I hate doing that. While this is going, on I'm missing my daughter's performance. Then he can go sit with daddy and grandma while I go do the next costume change. Her hat was gone. We put her shirt on and I was able to cheat with her and just pull her pants over her skates, although there were two points where I though the pants were going to rip. We finally found her hat down the hall on the floor. Hmmmmmm. . . Somebody did that on purpose. I had hers hung up nice on a hanger with her shirt. Anyway, we got to watch for a little while and then they both had to line up for the chipmunk number. That went fine. Then they stayed back there for the finale. All was going smoothly until my son's coaches gave him a teddy bear. Well, the skating club had purchased these teddy bears to sell and I told my daughter not to ask for one, but today was her birthday and her brother just got a bear, so I had to get her the crappy teddy bear because she couldn't not get one if he got one. I also got them flowers because they are star skaters. And I never buy that crap. Ever. But it was her birthday and I didn't really get her anything. We couldn't even have her party because of the skating show. We are having a family one tomorrow. After the last skating show.

Life Is a Cabaret

Went to go see the musical Cabaret tonight. I had never seen it before. I thought it was a little more happy-go-lucky. I didn't realize it was so full of Nazis and abortion. It opened my eyes. I thought it was more of a feel-good musical; not a political statement. But, oh well. One of my students was in it. He was the Emcee. There was a lot of controversy about him playing that part because it is a role for a mature person and he's a teenager. Well, he showed them. He was awesome. He's also gotten to grab more boobs and butts than he's ever gotten to grab in his tender sixteen years. His grandma was at the show and I think she was a little shocked.

Reminded me of my stage days. My best high school role was when I played the Cobra Woman in "Hurricane Smith and the Garden of the Golden Monkey." I had a red cape, a crown, really funky make-up, and long gloves. I was sooo cool looking. We put that play on for all the grade school kids and for awhile, I was a minor celebrity. The little kids would come up to me for awhile in stores and places and hiss at me with little their snake hands because in the play, I had a snake pit and I would threaten people with it. On cue, the sock snakes would pop out of the snake pit and hiss. I was soooooo powerful. I had the lead in my senior class play too, but that role wasn't as cool as the Cobra Woman. The Cobra Woman rocked! Hssssssss. . .

I just made these two pendants. I have always loved Leopardskin Jasper, but Red Leopardskin Jasper, in my opinion, is the cream-of-the-crop. The color of the stone had such richness and depth. The Golden Jasper has been complimented by a Dark Amber 6mm nugget bead, a 4x6 pyrite rice bead, and 4mm greeen onyx. This truly brings out the colors and makes for a stunning piece.

Tastes Like Ass

So, I looked up some of the side effects for my new medication (Topomax) and one of them was that it made carbonated beverages taste funny. That sounded like such a dumb side effect. I didn't believe it. Sure enough, today at lunch when I went to drink my diet Mt. Dew, I grimaced at the taste of it. It tasted like ass. . . serious ass. Blech! How can that be a side effect? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. But if if helps my headaches, I can handle it. I'm also feeling a little spacey. I almost forgot to make my lunch. I did forget to eat breakfast. Anna Nicole Smith was on Topomax, so that explains a lot. My head feels fuzzy and funny, but it's not a headache, so that's good. My mouth is also very dry, but I can't even drink my flippin' Mt. Dew. I hope this is worth it.

Ice Ice Baby

One of the joys of living in "Big Snow Country" is the weather. It was a beautiful day the other day. I took the kids skiing, the sun was shining, and life was good. The next day, it rained. Not that big of a deal. But then, the temperature dropped to eleven degrees and everything that was wet, froze. Not good. School was delayed two hours because the roads were extremely icy. I took three steps onto the three degree incline I have to walk up to work and I slid back down in slow motion. I took three more steps and slid back down again. I wished somone was taping me for funniest home videos because I think I could have won.

More about ice. The Ice Show is this weekend. I painfully did sell most of my raffle tickets. Grrrrr. My son, who was a pretty decent skater before ice show practice, seems to have forgotten how to skate. He's going to be the last one in the line that everyone has to wait for and that they finally have a helper come and drag him to where he's supposed to be. Guaranteed. I think they already have someone lined up to be there. And I will be there in all my glory to capture it all on video. Three times.

My Headache is a Headache

I had to go see a neurologist today because I've been getting these horrible migraines. Like, "Mommy, why won't you get up off the floor?" migraines. They started about two years ago when I started getting horrible cramps. Well, I ended up getting a hysterectomy for the cramps and I thought the two might be related, but no. The cramps stopped (obviously), but the headaches continued. Some months, it was sixteen days in a row I would get them. Utter misery. My neurologist is this little lady from Poland who talks really fast and talks a lot and about everything. I liked her 'til she started hitting me with her little metal hammer. Then, I wasn't so sure. She gave me a prescription for Topomax which she referred to as "preventive therapy" and Relpax which she referred to as "abortive therapy," but with her rather heavy accent, it took me awhile to figure out what exactly she was saying. She was worried about prescribing the Topomax because one of the side effects is weight loss. "And that is bad because. . . " She didn't see my humor, but she made it very clear that she will take me off it if I lose too much weight. I told her that I just lost a bunch anyway. She also ordered an MRI. Yipeeee. Now, I have to take another day off from work. I really do hate missing work because it just makes more work.

The good news is my husband's biopsy came negative! It wasn't skin cancer. It was just some freakishly disgusting mystery lesion, but it's history now.

I made and listed this sweet pendant last night. This Red Green Garnet is one of the most interesting stones I've ever seen. The red and green together is just so rich.

Doubled Booked?

I didn't think our banker was going to be able to pull it off. Well, I don't know if he really pulled it off, but he had us sign an awful lot of papers. There is one thing he still may not have a handle on. Our mortgage payment for the house we just sold is automatically taken out of our account every month. We don't need to make that payment anymore because the house is sold, so that autopayment needs to be stopped. Auto-payment is scary. We cancelled our auto-payment for out dial-up internet (Yes, dial-up) and they still took it out and are still taking it out since November. When my husband called they said, "I'm sorry sir, we have no record of that." Grrrrr. So, needless to say, we don't have much faith in the cancelling of the auto-payment. But, our banker sent an email, but apparently, that wasn't good enough. Then he gave us a number to call. When we got back from the bank, the realtor was waiting for us at our house. He said we were supposed to meet him at the title company today at 4:00. I said it was tomorrow because I knew we had the bank today. I wrote it on the calendar for 4:00 tomorrow as soon as I spoke with him. Any way, here he was- with more paperwork. So, we signed more paperwork, handed over the keys and the garage-door openers, and we were done. The house was sold. Two months from listing to closing in this crappy housing market. Certainly a record! Then my husband was going to go to the house and move the last few things, but then realized he has just given the realtor the keys. Duh! He had planned to go and do this, but we both thought the meeting was tomorrow. Luckily, we bought some doors for the old house and had them all keyed the same and we didn't use them all. We sold them to my husband's brother, so he went and borrowed their keys so he could get into our old house. What a thinker!

When he got back home he called the number the banker had given us to cancel the mortgage payment. . . "Hello, you have reached the New AT & T. For English, dial one. . ." The banking genius has struck again. Sheesh.

Wanna Buy a Raffle Ticket?

Fundraising. Need I say more? My son's preschool just sent home a cookie dough fundraising form. I never do any of their fundraisers. I pay tuition there. I don't want my son selling door-to-door (He's three.) and I don't have time to do it. Who wants to pay $12 for a little tub of cookie dough anyway? We can only bring healthy foods for snacks, so it is kind of hypocritical.

So last night, I thought I was being so stealth. I went to skating show practice late because I had to sign the papers with the cognitively impaired banker. There was a big sign near the table where the organizers sit. I thought I was hidden by the big sign. As I thought I was already in the clear, I heard a voice calling my name. Slowly, I turned. "You are the only one who hasn't picked up your raffle tickets yet." CRAP! "You have to sell 40 because you have two kids in the show." Forced smile. "Thank you," I said. I hate selling stuff. I have a hard enough time selling my jewelry and that's money that I get to keep. I don't want to lose all my friends by selling to them. At least if I sell them jewelry, they are still my friends.

These are my final entries in the one-a-day challenge. I'm sad that it's over. Although I got a lot made and listed, I got very little sleep. As a matter of fact, my head keeps dropping inbetween mouse clicks, right here. It was worth it, though. I was featured in two blogs and two treasuries which is absolutely cool!

If He Only Had a Brain. . .

My banker needs a new brain (see previous post "My Banker Needs a New Calculator"). And a new profession, apparently. We close on our old house tomorrow, I hope. My fingers are crossed. He called the other day and said, " I need your last two paycheck stubs by tomorrow." Is he totally stupid? I have had my paychecks directly deposited into that very bank for the past eight years. Does he not know how much I make? It really shouldn't be a mystery. I have no faith in the guy whatsoever. We go sign papers at the bank today and we sign papers at the title company tomorrow. I am baffled by the title company's involvement in this whole process. I think I understand the title company's initial purpose when we bought our land; to make sure the people who were selling it really did own it and really could sell it to us. That makes sense. During the construction process, however, their function became unclear. They seemed to be doing things that the bank should have been doing. Like when our contractor would finish a part of the job, we would go sign at the title company, they would give the info to the bank, and the bank would release the money. Wouldn't it have been easier just to go to the bank, cut out the middleman, save some money, and be done? Nope, everybody needs to get a piece and being cost efficient doesn't really seem to have anything to do with it. Maybe I'm the one who needs a brain.

Melanoma or Pimple

My husband had this little red pimple thing on his collarbone. One day at a meeting, it popped and started bleeding. It never healed. It just kept popping open and bleeding and it wouldn't stop bleeding. It looked like an ugly bloodly big huge mole. He finally went to the doctor and the doctor tried to cauterize it, but it still wouldn't heal or stop bleeding. He got it cauterized again and it still didn't work. He went back to the doctor and the doctor tried some kind of electric treatment on it, but that didn't work either. Well, now the dreaded "C" word comes up. Or the "M" word. However you want to look at it. The doctor said it might be skin cancer or Melanoma, so yesterday they cut it out. They will send it to the lab to test it, but I've never heard of anything like that before. They cut pretty deep. He's pretty sore today. He didn't even tell me that the doctor mentioned those key words until I asked him about it. Did he not think that it was worth mentioning? Now, I have something else to worry about.

Kick in the Pants

I have entered the "One-a-Day Challenge" where I have to design something new every day. This is the kick in the pants I needed. I have been spending too much time on Etsy in the forums (Only promoting, I swear! ;) and not enough time creating. The Etsy forums are so addicting and the people are so helpful and fun, it can be extremely difficult to tear yourself away. I have taken this challenge very seriously and have created something (actually, two things) and listed them every day since I entered. This puts a bit of pressure on me, but in a good way. It might get a little rough when practice for the skating show gets a little more rigorous, but I'll try to keep up. I don't have to make two things. I only have to make one. The designs submitted to the challenge are posted daily in this blog: http://craftintersect.blogspot.com/

Today, I'm just excited. I have been working my butt off at Etsy trying to promote my store and my jewelry and it is starting to pay off. I have been featured in a blog: http://nyxenchantments.blogspot.com/ . I just think it is so great that these Etsy good Samaritans take time out of their days to promote the rest of us. It is incredibly sweet. Hats off to both of these great people who are doing their best just to help out others. Thank you.

Put Your Bottom In

My three-year-old son got a CD player and some cheap CDs for Christmas. We, along with my six-year-old daughter, were dancing around in his room listening to some of the songs. We did "Ring-Around-the-Rosie." He loves that one. Especially the falling down part. He also really enjoys "If You're Happy and You Know It." Then came the show stopper. The "Hokey Pokey." Well, we put our right hand in and out and our left hand in and out and we put our right feet in and out and our left feet in and out. Oh yeah, and we shook them all about. We put our head in and our head out and our head in and we shook it all about. We did the hokey and we turned ourselves around. That's what it's all about. Then came the glitch. We put our bottoms in. We put our bottoms in. We put our bottoms in. Apparently, the CD was skipping or stuck or something. We put our bottoms in. We put our bottoms in. We were puzzled, but laughing like crazy and still sticking our bottoms in and sticking our bottoms in. This went on for a good ten minutes, never getting old and never getting any less funny. I think the kids would have gone on all day sticking their bottoms in. Finally, through teary eyes, I walked over to the CD player and turned it off. Then we all collasped on the floor together in a big group hug. That's what it's all about.

I've been thinking about Swimmy and how Etsy has kind of taken him on as a mascot. Here is the children's story about Swimmy: http://www.etsy.com/storque/section/etsyNews/article/etsys-first-five-years/1119/So, I made some earrings to commemorate Swimmy's friends and Swimmy's cousins. I think these are also the best photos I've taken which is good because my photos are something I really need to work on.

Tooth Fairy Tizzy

My daughter was the last one in her class to have a loose tooth. I almost didn't believe her when she told me her tooth was loose because we had had so many false alarms. But, it really was loose this time. And she was a total wimp about it. She would cry about how much it hurt when she was eating pudding. Yes, pudding. When it finally fell out, she put it in a paper towel and put it in a ziploc bag. When it came time for her to go to bed, I made sure I know exactly where it was for tooth fairy purposes. I snuck into her room, grabbed the ziploc bag, and left a dollar under her pillow. When she woke up, she said, "The tooth fairy forgot to take my tooth."

I was baffled. I was certain the tooth fairy had taken the tooth, but didn't know how to approach the situation. "Well, the tooth fairy took the little bag. Wasn't your tooth in the little bag?"

"I put my tooth on top of the bag," she said.

"Oh, " I said, "Well, it must have fallen off when the tooth fairy took the bag."

"I'm going to put my tooth under my pillow again and get more money."

"The tooth fairy isn't stupid," I said. "You already got your money for that tooth. I'm sure you won't get any more."

Tastes Like Nose!

My three-year-old son likes to eat some of his food and save some for later. So, he was on his second bowl of oatmeal and we had to leave to go to his pre-school and he said he wanted to save the rest of his oatmeal for when he back got home. He has a really ,really good memory, so I left it on the table. It coagulated and got nice and gooey. When he got home, he remembered it and went to go eat it. He sat down at the table, took a bite and said, "This tastes like nose." I couldn't stop laughing. I personally have never tasted nose.

I finally finished the pendant I've been working on. This is the most awesome Chalcedony I've ever seen. I've never seen Chalcedony this big or clear. It took me forever to put together the colors to cascade down the front of it. I love the way the colors compliment each other. It took me three days to finish. I love it. I almost hated to list it. It just represents spring.

Almost Crashed into the River!

So I'm half asleep, driving to the gym at 5:30 a.m. and driving rather fast because that's what I always do, when I turn the corner by the river and I lose control of the van. It had just snowed and they had just plowed, so the road had a nice solid freshly packed layer of slick snow. I veered left, tried to correct, thought I had it, then spun all the way around and hit the snowbank right next to the river. My heart was beating so fast, I thought I could see it through my jacket. I was only about a foot away from the river. My door was buried in snow and I could barely get out.

Next dilemma. I was about halfway between home and the gym. Which way do I go? Do I walk home or do I walk to the gym. The gym is also a car dealership that has a tow truck (very small town), so I walked to the gym and called the tow truck, did my workout, and by the time I was showered, my car was waiting for me outside. I learned my lesson. I drove slower on the way home.

All things Handmade: Jewelry, Strung & Knotted

All things Handmade: Jewelry, Strung & Knotted

No School 'cuz the Bar Burned Down

Sounds really dumb and embarrassing, but it's true. School was cancelled for the past two days because the bar, called the Booby Hatch(sounds like an appropriate establishment to have next to a grade school), right next to (Yes, I said right next to) our elementary school burned down. There was so much smoke that got into the school that they wouldn't have been able to have class. It was still billowing smoke yesterday. The high school couldn't have school because without the elementary school in session, there wouldn't enough kids there for the day to count. Today we drove by and although the firefighters had buried the whole thing in snow, it was still smoking. The bad new is, we'll probably have to make these days up because I think we've exceded our allotted emergency days. We had one lice day, one snow day, one extreme temperature day, and now two fire/smoke days. I think that's too many. If they were smart, they would have had all the teachers come in for an inservice and then cancel one of the other inservice days and have regular school. At least I got to be supermom for two days. I drove my kids to school, just because I could. It was a big treat for them. My mom's van broke down, so I had to spend much of my day off dealing with that and then picking up my son and going out to lunch. Then, my husband was mad because I didn't get much cleaning done. As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, he put his stuff on the shelves that were supposed to be my bead room and now he's mad becasue there are beads everywhere. He has not yet purchased the alternative receptacle for them, so there is really no place for them to go. He did buy two dressers with little, tiny drawers which are fine for the things I have little, tiny quantities of, but I'm not unorganizing everything I have organized so they fit in the little, tiny drawers.

Snowmobile Fest

Well, it was a nice day for a Snowmobile Fest craft show. Last year, I guess it was 30 degrees below zero. In addition to the pancake feed, they also had chili for lunch. They also had bad kareoke that was too loud, a silent auction that was at least, well. . . silent, and raffles, regular loud auctions, and something I've never really seen at a craft show before. . . men. Lots of men that smelled like exhaust. And beer. It was at the Legion Hall, so there was a bar attached and people were walking around with beer. It was just different. There was another jewelry person there, so that wasn't so great for me, but it almost wasn't worth my time to be there. I handed out my business cards and my super cool Etsy mini coupons that plugged my website, my galleries, and my summer flea market. I made enough to pay daycare for the month, so that's good. Some people recognized me from the flea market. The lady next to me sold chocolate and toffee hearts and had some kick ass samples. The best part happened on the way home when I was almost falling asleep and the temperature dropped ten degrees and the wind picked up 20mph. I stopped at a little gallery and asked the lady if she would sell my jewelry there and she said. . . YES! I'm so pumped! She loved this pendant. She won't until May though and she doesn't consign, she just buys it for wholesale. I've never done that, but OK. Still exciting!

Craft Show Countdown

Four days until my first craft show of the year. Am I ready? No flippin' way. I have no idea what to expect because I've never done this one before. I guess there are only about ten tables, so there certainly won't be a lot of competition. It's at a Snowmobile Fest, so I really have no idea what to expect. Perhaps people will buy out of boredom. I would certainly be bored at a snowmobile fest. There is a pancake feed during the craft show, I believe. I have to drive an hour to get there, so it better be worth my while. I'm bringing a larger quantity of my lower priced items; my $10-$15. I'm hoping that is the way to go. I'll bring some of the higher priced stuff, but I'll put out more of the lower priced items. I'll also be testing out my new display. I bought this three tiered thing for holding plates, but I'm going to use it for holding necklace boards. I hope it works and doesn't tip over. I've also got some neat chinese-knotted turquoise and Tagua Nut pendants that are really unique. Will they be too unique for Northern Wisconsin? We'll see.

Etsy a Cult?

Mom thinks Etsy is a cult. Like Amway or Scientology. I love Esty and the Etsy community has been helpful and supportive about all my shop problems and questions. My mom really needs a life. She sits at her computer and spies on all my forum posts. I posted one time at work and as soon as I went to pick up my kids, I got to hear about it.(In a nasally voice) "You can't be on Etsy at work. It says the times of the postings. You could get in trouble. You just can't do that. . . " Of course it went on for about ten minutes. She keeps poo-pooing Etsy because I haven't sold much. Well, I signed up during the summer, but I only really started listing in the middle of December. Apparently, success should happen overnight in her book. She thinks the forums are just, "I like your stuff." "I like your stuff, too." And there is a lot of that, too, but it's nice to hear that once in awhile when your sales aren't going anywhere. She poo-pooed my shops, the craft fairs, and the flea markets too and those paid off really well this year, so I'm not giving up on Etsy because my mom cannot be right.