Playing Catch-Up

This week I have been running around busy. Whew - nothing like trying to make up for lost time. Errand running, studio work and a lot of cleaning around the house was all packed in with a rescheduled class and a printing session with Jan. Oh and emails that took me hours to get thru... did I mention the shipping marathon, yeah. I'm a little backed up. But surviving.
I didn't take many pictures at all this week... thus the lack of blogging... but today I took my camera to the studio and took a few shots (shown above). A kiln-load of printed glass (soon to be plates - I love the 3 birds) that Jan and I made on Wed - we were busy! We're trying to print a bunch of glass to have for the holiday season... Then Thursday Aimee and I cut 2 zillion wires (I made a new jig that is so very exciting to me - I will blog about that later) and she bent me hundreds of U shaped hooks... no pictures of this but you can see me using some of those U-hooks with glass circles today...

I had a little bit o' fun with the Picassa collage program, making the collage of the pictures from today... then I made another collage of pictures from the Japanese Garden a few weeks ago. I like Picassa... I started using it because that's how my dad shares his photography with me. Its free and easy to use. I recently discovered the collage part of the software.

Etsy Stalker Shopping

Today I met Violet and Beatrice the curators of EtsyStalker.com

We were all at Corinna's lovely house having tea EtsyTeaTime style! It was lovely. Thanks Corinna for hosting! And now tonight I came home to see that I've been stalked on EtsyStalker! What fun!

Violet created a whole collection of mobile makers on Etsy and I actually did a bit o' shopping due to her keen eye. I love me some mobiles! I had to nab up a little diddy from Salty and Sweet. Oh yeah, I couldn't resist.

O-Rings and my new magnetic tray

A few weeks ago there was a big sale at Harbor Freight... I bought this magnetic bowl for something like $1.50. It was such a crazy deal and I like the idea of it. Today I was opening o-rings... one of the duller tasks required of my work... I use these little tiny o-rings in my mini mobiles and its much more convenient when they are open and ready - so I occasionally sit around with two little pairs of pliers and a pile of these freshly cut o-rings and I open them. Its exciting. Today I used this magnetic tray. I can sculpt with the magnetized o-rings, which is pretty neat - they defy gravity now. Although now these two little pliers are magnetized and its impossible to let go of the little o-rings when they get stuck to the tip of the pliers. Ah well.

Sick v. II

Holy crap I am finally feeling better! I have been sick for a week now, 8 days actually!! That is just ridiculous if you ask my opinion.... although its not as if I've been dying over here or nuthin, just the flu... just enough to really get my whine on and feel like crap for a wasted week of my life.
The Portland Saturday Market went on without me this weekend, and I avoided the Halloween kiddos last night (I didn't think giving them the flu would be a nice trick-or-treat). However, I woke up yesterday determined to do something productive with myself. A girl can only sleep so much! So Tim and I went down to the Farmers Market. Then I went home and did laundry. That was enough to lay me up for the rest of the day.
Today I continue my climb out of this sicko hole: cleaning and shipping. Two things that need desperate attention in my life. Tim helped me pick up in the backyard, getting ready for winter and whatnot... putting away chairs and tables and umbrellas... sweeping leaves and cleaning the windows... now he has left for work and I am determined to box up a few orders that need to go out.
This last picture is for my Mom - she has always loved chestnuts and we'd roast them in the winter. I feel terribly that I got her sick as well.. but she told me yesterday she's on the up and up.

Its nice to be feeling better... feels like I'm getting my brain back and my will. The flu is simply wrong.

Sick

I wish I was not sick, I wish my brain would work (all it seems to tell me for the past 5 days is sleep - when the to-do lists and schedules of my world are getting piled up and disorderly).

I went out of town this last weekend... for my cousin's baby shower. The plan was a long weekend of fun times and visiting with family - I brought two cameras with me and lots of extra memory cards and battery chargers.

And then I caught some damn virus on my outgoing flight. It was a red-eye, I left at 10pm Portland time and got into Cleveland 9am Ohio time. There was a screaming child on my flight, she wasn't even a baby, just a screamer, and judging by her parents I don't blame her... if I had been that child I would have been screaming too. Instead I was the adult a few seats back shooting them nasty looks, cuz I am an ass like that. Yep. No one successfully slept on that flight and I doubt I am the only sick bastard dealing with the aftermath.

So my trip was ridiculous. Within a day I was full-on raging sick and had to be quarantined from the pregnant cousin and my elderly grandmother. I hid out at my mom's house, she took care of me with her magic healing ways, and I thanked her by leaving behind my virus for her to enjoy for the next few days. Wasn't that kind of me. I am sorry Mom, you deserve better :)

So... in the end I didn't take a single picture while I was gone. And it was so beautiful there - fall weather and the colors of the changing leaves. All my beautiful family members and my cousin's cute belly. It pains me that some virus made me so useless that I couldn't even come back with pictures. Ridiculous.

Okay, my whining is done. I just had to share.

My Friends at Splurge

My favorite boutique store in town - Splurge - has had a facelift! Oh my goodness Naomi and Yed (and their friends and family!) have been hard at work for the last week or so. I visited tonight and took some pictures - may I say how amazing my mobiles look against the pale blue wall! I love that, its very eye catching. Makes me think I should do some display with like this sometime for a show.

Oh and check out this saweet soap display. Oh yeah baby - gotta love the ReBuilding Center!
So go check out Splurge and consider some early holiday shopping. They represent a large selection of local artists - and have a great stock of unique one of a kind gift items.

Fall Sale!

click the link above to see all the participating stores!!

And get a little holiday shopping done early: 20% off anything in my shop!!

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