How long will this last?

hmm.

I just read chapter 4 of The Artist's Way and received my tasks for this week in the mail. Since I was too wiped out to go to class last night the teacher was nice enough to mail me the papers.

**Let me start out by saying this is going to be a very long hard week for me. It's all about reading deprivation. I read that and thought "pfft, no problem-I'm not reading a book right now anyway!" then read further where it talks about how much of a time-suck reading emails, blogs, facebook...you get the picture. Eek. I like checking in on my fave blogs. This is gonna bite!

It even discourages tv. I haven't been watching any tv lately and only occasionally I get to hear Barney or Seasame Street in the background for noise. That won't be too much of a problem. Now I will say that I did kind of count on being able to rest up and lay on the couch and read SOMETHING while I'm trying to recover here. I get the whole "if you're not reading or watching something you'll get busy doing something else" gig-but I'm sick! This is gonna be f.u.n.

LOL-k-I'm done ranting. guess I need to turn off the computer now. See ya next week and wish me luck.

*sick*

Hmmmmm-I thought something was amiss but couldn't put my finger on it...

Just another way I tend to feel the universe is working against me. Or maybe just telling me to slow down and relax.

A visit to the doc this morning ended with $76 of antibiotics and him telling me I have pneumonia. That's always lovely. Right lung hardly had any movement-nice. No wonder I feel like this!!

He claims swine flu is in the area and a big surge they saw around labor day-which is exactly when we all came down with our illnesses. He seems to think that is more than likely what we all had but still urged us to get the shots when available just in case. I hate feeling like this. In bed around 8pm dragging myself up stairs thinking I'll have to sit and rest 1/2 way up.

Eh...I have shipments I'm waiting on anyway so I guess I just need to figure out how to lay around and try to get some rest. I can't wait to feel normal-I'm on day #18 of this!!!

Soccer cuties

**Chloe soccer fall 2009 **

There's not too much to gab about here these days. I've been keeping really busy seeing how much inventory I can crank out before filling out the application papers for these 2 shows coming up. I think I'll be ok. Just had to make 3 supply orders yesterday so I'm more or less at a stand still waiting for it all to arrive to put things together. In the meantime I'll be making beads, beads and more beads whenever possible!

**Gabe (wishes he was in soccer) fall 2009 **

It's been slow-goin around here. We were all sick last week and this time I really felt like I could just curl up and die. Gabe was really bad off as usual and it's kind of reared it's ugly head again this week. It all started with Chloe-which is very unusual since she's our healthy kid who brings school germs home to share so to speak...

**Had to add this one of Gabe because I love how he smiles with his cheeks so much that they squish up into his eyes making them all squinty-like. **

So-Trav took the day off today to buy his dad's truck and go to the dr. He's got a raging sinus infection and no voice. He just called a few minutes ago to say the dr said it sounds like we all had the swine flu. Hold the phone-say what????? Are you sure? Says we sound like the classic case and it started hitting around here over labor day weekend. Well, don't I feel special? Well, if that was it-it really sucked but we all survived. lol

Shopping to do...

I went on my Artist's weekly date today (that's part of the whole deal with taking the class) so I decided this week I will go to an antique mall to see if I could run across any spinning necklace racks. I didn't find any BUT-I rounded a corner in one room, looked up and the booth right in front of me was chock full of new jewelry displays (why were in the antique mall I'll never know...) I was so excited! I bought a few things and a neat little antique cage thing to display earrings on. Great prices too!

I set up my tables tonite in the dining room to see how I am in the display department...I wanted to check heights and placement to see how much else I'd need. I think I've narrowed it down to what I need. I'm excited! Now that I can see it all laid out I can totally picture it all now. I really need to get to work!!

Sneaky Peek

Here's a little something I made for myself this week in the midst of everything else. It's a mix of a fine silver ring that I fused and textured with the letter disks in sterling. I love it-and the little jingles I hear when I move around. Gabe likes to play with it and find his G-hey at least he's starting to recongize his abc's because of it-huh? lol

My torch went kaput last night so I bought another one today. I had 3 of those flower rings laying there ready for solder when it fizzled out so I'm to get those finished up. Have a good day!

Monsters

My Artist's Way class last night was really quite good. There were alot of exercises we went through and shared-lots of great comments were made.

One assignment was to draw/paint/sculpt our "monster" that we talked about last week. Since we've all been sick I kind of waited til the last minute not knowing how I wanted to do it-then when I made a crack about wishing I'd done it with paper mache Chloe ran and got a balloon, blew it up and said well, just use the balloon then! Hey-great idea chickie!

So here without further adu (is that how you spell that?lol) is my 5th grade teacher.


If anyone who I went to school with visits on here they'll know right away who this guy is...lol. I don't think he was nice to anyone-just a very unhappy man I think...

I do think it's ironic that where I set it for the picture you can see a photo of me close to the age I was when I was in his class...I honestly sat it there so the fan would stop blowing it over-afterwards I looked and thought wow-it's like he's still there yelling at me over something. hmm.

In my tray this week:

I found this neat metal tray at Goodwill last week for .75-it still had it's Pier One price tag on the bottom for $10. Sweet!

I was going to use it for candles or something in the dining room, possibly paint it or something...then a couple days ago decided it would work great to contain the piles that were scattered all over my workbench. Perfect!

So here are a few of my immediate projects. A couple custom wax seal pendants that are heading out in the mail tomorrow, a couple pair of copper earrings that are waiting for a coat sealing wax, more copper disks waiting to be made into something, a few cab beads ready to be made into pins, a drawer full of hollow and focal beads for some lariats.....more wax seal pendants waiting for a coat of paint.......

Today was a really bad day sickness and energy wise. I forced myself to nap but I'm glad I did. The boys naptime is my time to get things done so it bugged me but I got over it-lol.

I think I'm going to go ahead and do both the Holiday Art Fair at the country club and the Holiday Hall (3rd year to participate) at the Art Association. That's a fair bit of pressure to put on myself concidering I don't have much inventory at the moment, not many chances to torch and working around kids naptimes...not to mention I don't have anything for displays figured out yet....sigh. I guess I tend to work better under pressure-but if this virus is any indication of what kind of winter this will be for us it's gonna be a tough one! Let's just hope we all stay healthy and I can get back on track...

Just curious-if anyone's still reading this after all my babble.....I'm looking for ideas of items that would be great gift ideas since both fairs are centered around x-mas shopping. What do you think?

The big 3

We've been all under the weather here for the last couple of days...Just in time for a nice long holiday weekend.

**bahhhh**

So I thought I could post a few pictures of Gabe's birthday party last weekend. The family party was supposed to be tomorrow but is now postponed due to all the fevers,etc.

All the kiddos decorated their own cupcakes.

Chloe

I love this shot of Gabe-one of my fave's ever. Goofy toothless grin...

Sawyer experiencing the bounce house for the first time. lol

If I knew he'd be so stinkin happy with his plastic giraffe I got him I wouldn't have bothered with all the other gifts! I should have just gotten all the Madagascar animals and called it a day. Man -I've never seen a kid so into animals! He talks about animals that I doubt I knew about that young. He'll be off talking about platypus's, wombats, pheasants...he said one the other day that floored me but I don't remember now. What a smartie.

Today's accomplishment

I went to The Artist's Way class last night. It was interesting. First off-I was the only loser who showed up late since Travis was running behind getting back here from Chloe's soccer practice. There was alot of "sharing"-one time in particular I wished I had taken a pass on...things get brought up in there suprisingly that bring up alot of buried emotions. I guess really when you think about what this coarse is all about-it gets all that crap out that you bury and blocks you and hopefully opens you up...like I said-interesting. We'll see how next week goes. This is 12 weeks long! Our assignment this week is to draw,paint or sculpt our "monster"......hmmmmm.

I finished my ring! I LOVE it! It's so dainty and comfortable! I wasn't able to wrap up the earrings tho-got a call from the school nurse that Miss Chloe was in her office with a fever and headache. I was hopeful the dr would said it's a sinus infection but nope-she said there's a nasty virus going around. Gabe has cried on and off all night-how much ya wanna bet he's next in line?

So back to the ring- what do you think? Should I bother making more of these little buggers? Would it be worth it to make more for art fairs? Do you think it's a keeper? Throw me some thoughts!

Prepping~

Remember way back after Christmas last year when I mentioned I received the book The Artist's Way? I did it on my own for awhile and I DID find myself becoming more inspired...but then it faded out over time. (guess I decided I didn't want to set my alarm 1/2 hr earlier anymore to do the journaling that goes along with it each morning...)









Anyyyyyhow...I was flipping thru our fall festival guide and found an advertisement for an Artist's way coarse here in town! I'm so psyched...I'm all registered and it starts tonite. So not only am I excited about getting motivated to melt more glass and make more jewelry but it's also a night *to myself* which I don't seem to get very often...

I received an invitation to participate in a 1-day indoor holiday art fair at one of the country clubs here in town. I haven't made a decision on whether to do it or not. I feel I would really need to buckle down and crank out some inventory and also I'm not sold on whethr it would be worth it or not.

I got to the studio for a couple hours today...and while working I was trying to come up with a goal for myself. I'd love it to be "make a piece a day" but I know that's nowhere near feasable in a 2-3 hour nap window for the boys. So maybe I can make it like today-I got a pair of copper earring componants made (just not the ear wires) and a good start on a ring for myself. Not bad...So I think if I can just get in here and get a good start on something and finish the next day I'm good to go. :)