New Website Launched

Come visit me and my new WordPress blog at http://www.blackberrybeads.com.

Is it Friday…that’s a good thing…

I'm hiding from the world, you can't see me here...

I’m tired and ready to take a break…but I need to keep working…I’m very happy with the beads I’ve been making, and am thinking I will leave these un-strung so folks can dig thru a bowl and make their own strands…what do you think? Do you like diggin thru bead bowls for treasure? Or is it tedious and a drag?

I need to get up, walk the dog, get a shower, change the cat box and get to work…I need to stop staying up till 2am…tired…but its Friday, maybe I’ll sleep tomorrow…or maybe I’ll just keep working…I think I need more earrings…if its not one thing, its another…but I did order a cool looking carrying case to take the beads to the show in…I hope I like it…I’ve been looking for display stands as well, I need to order more of those, or find a variety of display stands…Its gonna be an interesting month, I tells ya!

I’m feelin a bit groggy in the mornings

My work day has been taking me from noon to 2:00am…so in the mornings, I’m a bit groggy..now, that doesn’t mean I’m WORKING NON STOP from noon till 2, it just means I get to the studio and then return home at those hours…I do have to clean beads, and order stuff and clean up after the mess Joe makes, and water plants and check email and junk like that…I finally get to really starting underway around 5:00pm and then work as much as I can…last night I played a little MarioKart on the Wii against ppl in other cities (last night it was Andrea Guarino)…we have a great time busting into each other, throwing bananas and turtle shells to stop one another, and pretty much running off the road and hitting walls…its a good thing we don’t drive like that in real life, I suppose…

so each morning I’m a bit more groggy than the last…i slept hard last night, once I finally got to bed, until this morning when Clementine hit me on the mouth with her big fuzzy paw…she doesn’t like me to stay in bed too long, and she lets me know there’s pettin to be doing, and I’m not getting it done…she ‘helps’ me make the bed by running all over it while I pull the covers up and its quite entertaining…

I ordered a marble mold, and some new glass and its being held hostage at the post office, so I’m heading over there after walking the dog…I think I might just have to make some marbles today…that sounds like fun…

Hello creatures…

Do you have HUMAN fever too?

I’ve been working long and hard…last night till nearly 1:00am again..kiln full of beads…I have some marbles to make as well…they are really ugly right now, I’m using old cobalt blue glass that I don’t particularly like, and I made unintentional indentions in the marbles when I removed the punty (the rod holding the marble) and heated the end of it into the marble…got it a little TOO hot and it allowed the marble tweezer to leave a slight indention…der…gotta work on that…I have a new marble mold on its way, tho, and I look forward to using it…sweet…

I tend to come home a bit wired when I work late, I don’t get sleepy until I hit the wall around 2:00am..poor Brian woke up when I got home and I made him listen to me rattle on and on…he has to get up at 5:00am…at least he can nap when he gets home…I, on the other hand, get my sleep in the morning and don’t nap during the day…maybe I ought to…

Rain makes weird things happen

Its been raining almost non-stop the past 48 hours and i’ve been enjoying it, but the rain always makes the weirdos come out of the woodwork…Shoeless Joe is racing around the studio, probably from feeling cooped up and not able to go outside…I let him out yesterday and he proceeded to run around in the street – traffic and all….I let him back out last night while it was quieter, much less traffic and he was lost into the night for hours…he finally showed up again when it was time to shut the place down…I wasn’t sure he was going to stay inside or out, but he chose inside…every day is something new with him – this morning I found Bullseye from my backstock rack that was tossed on the ground…and busted…he likes to splash his waterbowl after he uses his litterbox, so I get to clean it up…I’ve stopped putting water in the bowl now, (doesn’t take much to train me) cause he also gets water from various bowls/glasses I keep stocked for silversmithing and beadmaking…

I spent last week on bright colors and this week, yesterday, I just couldn’t look at them anymore…i don’t know what to do with bright opaques, it just doesn’t speak to me…I will tackle them one day this week, I know I will, but instead I shifted gears back to my neutrals and the beads just popped into the kiln one by one…its funny how I can feel blocked by one thing and inspired by another…I guess I just work in what I like and what I enjoy…bright colors aren’t it…I love to look at them, but working with them is not my forte…noted…

I feel like making some pendants again, the ones I used to make on the end of the mandrel, and add the little loop ring for hanging…with all the new info I’ve learned since I first made those (2004?), I think I could come up with some groovy new ideas…we’ll see…I need to clear all these bright colors off my table first, and I’m not quite ready to give up on those yet…I see a LOT of studio time in my future…

My right hand is a mess

I thought this was a pretty pic of marbles…they aren’t mine, tho…

Joe has been doing what kitties do and taking bits of me with him…i woke up with my new scratches hurting, even tho I’ve washed them…and he took a nice chunk out of the heel of my right hand, which lays against the keyboard when I type, so its painful, blah blah…cats…

I made a few marbles yesterday, just to keep in practice so I don’t lose what I learned in class…I’m one of those ‘note takers’ who writes it all down, but then needs to actually DO the project or I’ll forget what my notes are telling me…I also bought some of the small bits to make some marble holders in order to transport the marble from my torch to the kiln…I had been using the marble mold, but if the marble sits in it too long, it’ll explode. the new tweezer like tools work great, except when the marble I make is too small and rolls thru the tweezer hole…hilarity ensues…

cleaning up the place

Brian has been doing lots of backend work on the website, and he hopes to have it published one day this week…the blue will be gone, the cocoa color will return, the menu buttons are back, my green front door is back, and not all the links work yet…still, it’ll be easier to maintain and update from afar and I’m looking forward to it…

I’ve been looking over all the blathering I’ve been doing of late, and man, I sure do type a lot…ugh…I need to post MORE PICS and LESS WORDS…seriously…

I need a new camera, tho, something I can take with me and something that doens’t eat batteries so fast…I’ll be on the lookout for that, it’ll make posting pics here much easier…i’ve hated my Sony camera ever since I bought it…stupid camera (and stupid me, I guess)..

We have a pair of nesting Carolina Wrens in the top most portion of our ceiling fan that’s on our front porch…its wonderful..I’ve been watching them take nesting material in and out…they land on the fan blades and bounce into the nest…needless to say, we aren’t running the fan now, and we turn the light off at night so they can sleep…I love these little birds, and am so happy to have a pair to entertain us again…Brian is going to get on a ladder and take pics of the nest and hopefully clutch of eggs…since the cardinals don’t come around any longer, it’ll be nice to have some teeny birds for spring…

I’m heading to the studio to hang out w/ Joe and make some marbles…and more purple beads…its gonna be a good day…I’m ready for some breakfast…

Maru is back…

I’ve posted videos of Maru and his magic box shenanigans before…well, he’s back with a bigger box to conquer…I laughed so hard I was crying…I find it hilarious when cats jump in and out of boxes…why aren’t my cats this talented…

Pics from camera aren’t posting

There must be a bug in the WP app for the iPhone, cause it allowed me to post yesterday’s followup post just fine, but when i tried adding pics, it rebooted and said ‘no no no no no’…could be a bug in the app, that’s my guess…so for now i have to add photos from the computer…rats…

Joe was a little more accomdating yesterday afternoon, once he got all greasy from climbing under cars and trucks in the street…he came inside, ate, and napped, then layed down next to my chair and snoozed..he seemed calmer than he’s been…we’ll see what today brings…

I didn’t get much done yesterday as far as beads made, but I got loads of stuff strung and built…I had 12 bracelets to string, and found some beads I had forgotten about and made 4 additional strands out of those…I guess today will be a bead-MAKING day since there’s very little to clean…I started making some troll beads, but got bored with them…they were kinda plain and boring, and after 18 of them, I moved onto a new squeeze set…nothing fancy, just some simple stuff but it was easier than staring at the boring ones…

The studio is getting HOT during the day, the kiln and generator are really steaming the place up…I’ve been putting off using the a/c as long as I can, and just leaving the door open for cool air (if you call 86 ‘cool’)…looks like summer is here…at least the water is back on…the other day the water just stopped running…we didn’t know what had happened…turns out the city was working on the main line and had to turn it off…eventually it came back on…its troubling to be w/out water, but even worse to be w/out power…bah…

can i have multiple posts in one day?

I’m still feeling my way around word press learning it’s secrets and endless halls of puzzles. I think I might be able to post multiple entries in the same day. let’s give it a shot.