An interesting few days...

That's putting it mildly!

So on Monday I went in to the allergist to have a CT scan done to just get a good look at my lungs and see how things look with this newly diagonsed asthma. Over 3 hrs later I leave sobbing convinced I have lung cancer.

My scan showed a small mass in my lower right lung along with mild emphysema. I have of coarse been on pins and needles, crying and nauseated ever since then. I don't do well with health drama concerning myself since I've had kids.

Somehow I was able to slip into an appt slot with a very busy pulmonologist this morning. Things he said made Travis feel much better-me? A little better-not 100%. Apparently because of it's nice shape and roundness he feels it doesn't look like "nasty cancer" as he called it and I will be getting a PET scan done next week and a follow up CT in 3 months to watch for growth.

Ok-so that should make me feel better, right? I mean-I already had the scenario in my head of him saying immediately "this doesn't look so good" so I do have some relief in not hearing those words... I guess just the fact that there is something IN me and I don't know what is IS is driving me berserk. To top things off he says it's in a spot that cannot be biopsied if tests come back bad. That is always lovely to hear. Maybe that's why I didn't leave with warm and toasty thoughts...

So anyway-if you're reading this please send me some good healthy vibes.
:)

Goodies in the shop!

I've been busy finally listing items from the sale. Here are a few cuties I put on Etsy last night.

These post earrings are a fun alternative for people who don't like to wear danglie earrings

Purple and Teal dots

Teal and Ivory dots

Petite periwinkle flowers

A great Christmas gift idea!......Just sayin'....;)

Let the listing begin!

Ok so I've been pretty lazy about listing on Etsy lately...Now that I've got some settings down on the camera and got some decent pictures I've decided it was time.

Just love this bracelet...:)

Maybe I'll trickle in some more listings tonite if I get a chance.

Cuteness!

I've been meaning to show this all week! Here is the kid's picture from the halloween photo shoot that my friend Angela Wright had. What a great idea...and looking through her gallery from that day there were quite some imaginative costumes! I loved looking through them...

photo courtesty of Angela Wright Photography

This picture is so stinkin' cute...Of coarse I'm biased...

If you're from the area I recommend you checking her out!

Holiday Hall

I had a great time working at the Art Association on Saturday! I loved wandering in there~I swear I'd see something different each time around. It was neat to see what different people would pick out. There's some really neat handmade stuff in there!



I was so busy talking to the nice man working with me the entire time I forgot I had my camera until we were closing up for the day-oops. So I took this quick shot on my way out the door...I should have run over to take pictures of where my items were displayed! Oh well-live and learn.

Ahh-to go there again...

We rented My Life in Ruins last night. Looooooved it. Not really for the story line-although it was kinda cute...but the scenery! Ohhhhh the scenery!!

Anyone else who's been to Greece knows what I'm talking about. I almost felt like I was there...And they showed so many places we'd been. I wanted to cry. I wanted to be there again. And I swear the crappy hotel scene was the nasty place we'd stayed in-lol.

In other news: I'm working at the Holiday Hall at the Art Association today. If anyone local is out and about today stop by to say hi between 12-3 :)

I'll be the one wearing the black A wax seal necklace ;) hehe

While I'm at it~

I keep putting off taking pictures of my jewelry since I end up getting frusterated...but me thinks me figured out the settings on the camera! (hope I'm not jinxing...)

Anyhow, here are a handful of wax seal pendants I have leftover from the show. I *love* these!! I wear my teal one all the time...but I'm thinking about snagging the black 'A' up in front there...hehe.

If anyone is interested they run $17 as well. Have a great evening! :)

Just the beginning...

Well, we're quickly jumping into winter. My dreaded season. I'm already mourning my last class for the Artist's Way- which ended last night. The 2nd session picks up in mid-March. I was so looking forward to it jumping back in in January but the group decided to hold off a few months.

Jan-March is my yucky time. Easy to admit. I get the winter blahs like nobody's business...

One thing the class has really helped me with is finding joy in the little things. I plan to work on this daily. It's also helped me to organize my thoughts a little better, prioritize my time and get in touch with myself-seeing myself from the outside-in.

On that note~ I love this quote from my notebook...

"In order to have self expression, we must first have a self to express"
Pretty much sums up alot.

And because I hate blogging without a picture here's a peek at a few of the little initial pendants I whipped up for the Panther Creek show. I've gotten quite a few orders for these for Christmas. If anyone's interested give me a call or email. They average half inch give or take with a sterling saucer on the bottom, a swarovski crystal to top it off and strung on sterling wire. These are the ones I have left right now but could always make others in your choice of color. They run $17.

perfect*day

When I'd heard this past weekend was going to be in the 70's we jumped at the chance to spend the entire day outside. We had planned to go to Allerton Park in Monticello for Trav's birthday a few weeks back but that's when I ended up with pneumonia so it got sidetracked-then got cold. The only thing that could have made the day better was if leaves were still on the trees. It made for lots of great crunching as we walked the trails though :)

Here are some of my favorite pictures of the day....

What a perfect spot to choose to have our picnic, huh? Ahhh....

I think this was called the Fu Dog Garden.

Love this. Just love it.

I'm missing one...Guess he was in the stroller.

I just loved this shot of her.

Gabe was so proud of walking on fallen trees. He had a blast in the woods but was a little bummed he didn't come across any animals.

Creek.

We scaled way up on a huge tree that had fallen. A good photo spot evidenally-a photographer had been staked out there as well.




Here's the daredevils now on the tree......

Just love this shot of them. Wish we could have gotten one with all of us up there-but honesly I just can't move that fast for my timer-lol. (honey-I really need a wireless Canon remote for the camera! *hint*)

Sweeties. The garden we were in at the time was absolutely covered in those biting japanese beetles. Those suckers were all over us for most of the day chomping away. This garden had huge white pillars in the sun as you walked in from all four sides-and they were coated with those bugs...Gabe has now conquered his fear of the ladybug.

Here's a shot of the whole family. Glad we finally found a spot that we could do it-I'm always behind the camera. I really have no pictures of me with my kids!

I'm so glad we jumped at the chance to slow down and spend the whole day together. It's really been awhile since I've gotten out and been close to nature like that. It makes me want to explore other options for hiking around here-although I admit I was pulling up the rear just like in Gatlinburg when we hiked up to the falls-lol...

I survived!

The fine arts boutique at Panther Creek went off without a hitch. This was my very first official show. I've done 2 years at the Art Association's Holiday Hall but since that is a month long sale w/o working the entire time I don't count that so much...

Luckily I had my friend Cindy there to help me out. She's so much fun and a really hard worker.(I call her my "muscle") I'd had my tables and displays set up in our dining room ahead of time so I was able to just zip through setting everything right where I wanted it. We breezed right through set up and were there from 9am-7:30 pm. Long day. An interesting learning experience that's for sure! I'm sure I'll be changing up my displays as I go...

Here's my table...My old friend from high school, Christy Freeman, was at the table to my right. it was a blast having all day to kick back and talk about old times and catch up. It was like no time had passed at all. SO much fun!

Here's a picture of Cindy. She'll kill me for putting a picture of her on here-lol. It's so blurry tho. The lighting was a bit dim but it was a cozy atmosphere. It was quite busy right after they opened so I tucked the camera away-meaning to get some of me and Christy, a shot of her booth and around the room but I totally forgot I had it with me!
I was approached by the NICEST woman about joining Prairie Art Alliance. I'm curious what it's all about and need to look into it. She sent an invite for a gallery opening this evening but I couldn't make it...But it would have been the perfect opportunity to check it out.

I have to work on my inventory for the Art Association Holiday Hall due by Monday. I always have the hardest time choosng what to send since it's a limited amount of items they'll allow into the sale. Better get to work......

It's time!

I know I've been really bad at blogging lately. I've been super busy building inventory for my first offical art sale.

Tomorrow is the day!

I started this whole journey filled with tons of anxiety. Now I'm actually pretty excited about it! I think that says something...

BOO!

It's that time again!


We had a full day yesterday-always so much to do on Halloween.


First off was a photo shoot over at Angela's. She was nice enough to ask me to set up a display of my jewelry over at her studio space during her Halloween shoot. I can't wait to see the kids' picture-it's gotta be 100x better than mine. I can't get them all to look at me at once and someone's always fussing...
Case in point:

Chloe had a big halloween/birthday party to head to afterwards and got to do lots of fun things-including playing fear factor-lol. She made it sound like she didn't really participate much and was pretty grossed out.
"Arrrrrrg!!"

The best part always is to meander around the neigborhood with neighbors then letting them play outside in the dark for awhile before heading in. The night always ends with grandparents stopping by before the pj's go on.

Do anything fun for Halloween?

He's a big boy now!

Today was the first day of preK for Gabe.


I suppose he did ok. One of my biggest fears was what if he was allowed to go to the restroom alone and wandered out a side door? Well...apparently today a boy hit him in the head with a toy and he became upset. He decided he wanted me. He was going home. Now. Luckily they caught him before he left the building. Honestly I'm not sure how far he got. Not sure if I want to know.

I got there early to pick him up so i could observe them on the playground-first thing he did when he got to the swings was fall off backwards onto his head. It took all I had to not jump out of the car and run to him. BUT I forced myself to sit and watch and see how the teachers handled it.
I walked with him and his new friends to the bus so he could see how it was done for tomorrow and he insisted on riding it today. He was soooo excited! I was waiting at the end of the driveway when they pulled up and he peeked up and saw me and waved and stood up. That bus monitor was on him like a flash and sat and gave him a talk about what you can and can't do on a bus (think they should've done that FIRST?? perhaps??) Well, needless to say he gets off the bus bawling since she reamed him and said they're mean and he's never getting on the bus again. Later when talking about his escape plan today he said he's never going back to Sissy's school again he doesn't like it. Sighhhhh. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

*i have the blahs

Ok this is the umpteenth day in a row of rain and dreariness. No, I'm not posting any jewelry photos as there is no sunlight to take them...so you'll have to wait. :P

I did a couple new things whipped up today though. It's always a good day when I feel like I got something accomplished. There's still so much to do to get ready for this sale though! Stess!

In other news: I received the call that Gabe got into preK starting on Monday! He's excited---I'm a nervous wreck. Will he fall down the steps? Will he be the little turkey in the class always in trouble or the good kid? Will he end up sick all of the time? Too many what ifs and I just need to chill out-I know...

Handmade Christmas

We purchased a new tv cabinet at Ikea the other day and thought maybe it was time to get into this century and get a flat screen to go with it...So I had a thought: how about we make that into a "family xmas gift" and (besides Santa's gifts of coarse) anything else exchanged between us be handmade...

Ok-why am I doing this to myself? lol

That means I have roughly just over a month after completing this art fair to whip thru an already long list of things I'd like to create for all of them...this is going to be tough. Worst part? I can't blog about any of what we make since Chloe knows how to get on my blog now-stinker.

How about tomorrow I start a show of a few pretties I've been making lately...

Happy anniversary my dear...

We ran up to Bolingbrook yesterday for the day. Shopping at Ikea for our 13th anniversary. I know -how romantic!! lol. Fighting with the kids all day inside of that hell hole...I forgot how they heard you thru like cattle w/ those stupid floor arrows...I don't remember the one in Shaumburg being as annoying. In this one you couldn't go back to the bathroom (3 kids remember? *cough cough*) without going all the way back thru against the flow of traffic to the beginning. Can you say NEVER AGAIN????????? I did about 10 million times yesterday. 5 hours inside that place. Happy Anniversary my dear- here's a massive coronary for you-lol.



What made it all worth is was our dinner afterwards over at Bass Pro. I didn't even know they had a resteraunt! I've never been to one before but wow-that place rocked! The prices were good too. As a rule we never eat seafood unless we're on vacation on the coast so it's good and fresh so I was a bit skeptical. WOWWWW was it good! Trav got his old standby-a grouper sandwich- and I got blackened mahi mahi. yum yum yummmm it was perfect! What was even more awesome was the massive saltwater aquarium they sat us right by so the kids could gawk at the gorgeous fish and the baby shark that kept swimming by...

Oh boy-a new love...

Have you met these little guys yet? Oh this new show is the cutest!! If you have a little one 2-4 surely by now you've been sucked into Dinosaur Train by now.

Every morning it's like Gabe knows somehow when it's 8:30 and he starts jumping and dancing waiting for it to come on. I always chuckle at the silly theme song they have and we almost all have it memorized by now. It's like a contest to see how many words we all get right.

Now that I've done my public service announcement...lol.

Beading news: Got lots of beads made today! Bad news is I probably won't be able to get to making anything until Monday since we've got so much going on all weekend. In my tray ready to go are the maings of a new lariat, ring, bookmarks, beaded bangle, keychain, pin and a pendant. I love it when I can whip thru a great batch of beads and know I can get a big chunk of stuff whipped up when I'm ready.

Random...

I survived my week of reading deprivation. I took it very seriously and didn't get on the computer, read mail-anything. I did have to help w/ homework but what's a little math work, right? I did get to spend 8 hrs at the E.R. one of those days! Evidentally (they think) the med I was taking from my pnuemonia caused my esophogus to get all inflamed. My sternum hurt SO bad. The nurse called me back and said to get in (she was more gloom and doom saying it sounded like a blood clot-greeeaaattt) so off a ran...

Back to the no reading-Honestly-I've got to recommend it! After the first few days (and dreaming I was writing emails-lol) I really got busy and got some stuff done! I made gobs of new jewelry-a few necklaces, 3 bracelets, maybe 8 pr of earrings, bookmarks, a keychain and a couple bezel set rings-cuuuuuuute!

I'm excited that I feel I'm building up my inventory. My tables are still set up in the dining room so I can add to the displays to get a feel of what I still need. This weekend will be shot as we've got another wedding saturday then Sunday/maybe Monday looks like we'll be up in Chicago for our anniversary. Nothing exciting-I just want to go to Ikea-lol.

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. :)

*Butterflies*

I bit the bullet and purchased one of these the other day....



Next year you'll see me (hopefully if I'm accepted-lol) in a few art fairs around here!! Ever since I was little my mom would drag me around to art fairs and festivals and I thought it would be the COOLEST to be one of those artists sitting in their tent with their stuff on show....

So to get to this point is very exciting to me-yet twists my stomach in knots!

Been busy...

Well, yet another summer is coming to a close. Everyone's outside as much as possible trying to soak up every moment before heading back to school in just over a week. I can't believe it went by so fast! Even worse: I can't believe I have a 3rd grader!! Gabe still needs to do his pre-K testing to see if he'll be accepted into preschool...

As you can see-the entire front sidewalk in front of our house is covered with sidewalk paint...there is even more behind where I was sitting...
A new way to use stencils...make chains!
Figuring out some new tricks...ouch!


I'm thinking maybe once school starts I'll be able to finally get around to working with my new photo tent, get some good pictures and get some things posted on etsy.