Road trip...

Go west young lady!.... That's what I did this weekend.

One of my friend's daughters missed the deadline for taking her ACT exam here in SLC, and her clever mom did some research and discovered that the test was being given this weekend in Elko, Nevada, 240 miles away. I was in the mood to get out town so I volunteered to tag along and keep her company. It was just a quick trip; we left Friday afternoon and headed back right after the test was done Saturday afternoon since her daughter had a date for the homecoming dance that night.

In general, I think that most people dread driving through desolate Nevada. I'm the odd ball. I love the open spaces and find the vistas just beautiful. Desert vegetation fascinates me. Rock formations fascinate me. It's especially nice in the fall while the weather is cool and the golden sagebrush flowers are in full bloom.
If you're not into the casino scene, there doesn't seem to be much to do in Elko. We had a nice dinner at a mexican place Friday night and soaked in the hotel hot tub. The exam started early in the morning so we retired early for the night. Saturday morning, while my friend's daughter took her exam my friend and her other daughter and I headed out to Lamoille Canyon in the Ruby Mountains and went for a short hike on the Ruby Crest Trail. What a beautiful area! It's a large glaciated valley, the formation and topology seemed different from what we have here in the Wasatch. I just love getting to hike in new places!

I have to share this road sign that was in the parking lot of of a Utah rest area we stopped at. I'd never seen that sign before. I'm bummed though, I didn't see a single snake or scorpion!

Would you?

If your friends jumped off a bridge would you jump too? I guess my son would. Yup, that's him in the picture. Actually, he went first. Apparently jumping off the Baker Bridge is one of those things kids do in Durango. I wonder how many of them send their mothers pictures of their antics? My first question was "How did you know it was deep enough?" He said they swam and dove and checked it out first. Hopefully they really did and that's not just the story you tell your nervous mother! Maybe I shouldn't have let my baby go away to school....or maybe it's best I did so I don't know what he's doing on a daily basis!

Show time!

Well, I survived my second little jewelry show yesterday. Unfortunately, it was pretty much a bust, financially at least. I did make back my booth fee, but not much more. I guess street fairs are better if you are are selling food or perhaps something inexpensive geared to kids. I did have fun talking to my friends that stopped buy, and I had a nice time talking to some strangers.

I especially enjoy the kids. A group of boys about my daughters age stopped by, and I really wowed them by explaining how lampwork beads are made. I bring my hot head torch, some colorful rods, canes, coated mandrels and beads still on mandrels to use as audio visual aids while I explained lampwork. It's fun to have kids think what you do is really cool. I also had a lovely young girl, jr high school age I think, who claims that she's know since she's small that she wants to work glass. She was really interested in the lampwork process, and was pretty excited to find out that it is something that you can do in a home studio.

The other highlight of my day was having a little helper for a while. The girlfriend, who convinced me to participate in the street fair's, little girl. She the one "modeling" a necklace in todays picture. She's a spunky little kid and I really enjoy hanging out with her.

Selling jewelry is difficult because there are so many people selling jewelry at festivals, and it's hard to be "competitive" price-wise when you actually make your own beads. I don't think my prices are at all out of line with those of other jewelry makers, and considering each piece has one or more original handmade beads my prices are probably actually reasonable. Of course not everyone grasps or appreciates the difference between handmade lampwork and store bought components. And "reasonable in the lampwork world is rarely "cheap". I'm also the first to realize that everyone is on a budget, and jewelry is a luxury item. I know that I do much more looking and admiring than I do buying when I attend a fair. Perhaps the local street fair isn't quite the right venue for my work.

I have wondered if having a tent would have improved sales. I thought my display was attractive, but perhaps that big white canopy would have imparted a feeling of professionalism and desirability to my work. Or would it have just been a waste of a few hundred dollars all for naught. It would be nice to be able to answer that question.

My display actually received quite a bit of attention. I used a pretty cross stitched floral table cloth that I thought nicely complimented my work. I had many, many people come up and admire my table cloth. Is it better to use a plain, less noticable table covering as to not take away from your beads? Or is attention getting with booth decoration a good thing? It would be interesting to know the answers to these questions... although I suspect the answer is "it all depends" on the day and the show.

It's a good learning experience.


You can catch a glimpse of my pretty tablecloth in this picture. My sister bought the table cloth while she was in St. Thomas V.I. on her honeymoon and later gave it to me. It's all beautifully handstitched... (probably by children in a third world sweat shop, but beautiful work non-the-less!)

The perils of sleeping...

Am I the only person who can mange to injure myself in my sleep? I have been miserable for two days due to a sleeping accident. I must have slept in a funny position or used the wrong pillow or something weird because I woke up Tuesday with the worst crick in my neck. Agony when ever I moved my head, worse yet when I turn my head to the left. You sure never realize how often you turn your head, especially when driving the car until you have a bad neckache. Of course I had to get the last parking space at work, one I had to parallel park my way in to ... OUCH! ... and leaving work a road was closed because of an accident so I had do do a bunch of merging in traffic... double ouch! Yesterday wasn't much better, on top of the neckache I had a killer headache. All this from SLEEPING! Maybe I should be happy I'm normally an insomniac!

Shows again

I decided to try another show. A friend of mine has been bugging me for over a year to sell my bead jewelry at the Avenues Street Fair. It's a neighbor hood fair in one of the nice old neighborhoods near the city. Last September I attended the fair with her to scope it out, I was really surprised at how big it was for a neighborhood fair; I think there were a couple hundred booths. Since I have plenty or wares left over from the last little show I did I figure I may as well give it a try. I sent my application and pictures of my work a few weeks ago and got an email back stating that I was approved to participate.

Friday I got a message to call the coordinator. I assumed she was going to give me information about my booth location, but when I called she had something else to say. She had called to tell me that weren't accepting sellers of purchased jewelry which I think I was going to do. I think by the time I called her back she realized that my jewelry clearly wasn't store bought. (I guess she looked more closely at my picture!) I assured her that I actually make my beads. From what I read on the forums competing with cheap imports is a common problem at art fairs, so it is nice to know they are trying to limit vendors to actual artisans. It will be interesting to see how this show compares with my first one.

School...

School started. It's my daughter's first week at the high school, and, unfortunately no amount of new school clothes and nice new hairdos makes up for being "Matt's little sister". Matt just graduated in May, so he still has friends at the high school so everywhere Sarah goes she hears the "Hey, your Matt's little sister aren't you?" or, perhaps more ominously, from her teachers: "Do you have an older brother?" I know my daughter, she wants to shine on her own, not in her brothers shadow. Knowing my daughter, she won't have any problem doing so.

The down side of Sarah being in high school is that I have to drive her there in the morning. I hate dealing with all the crazy drivers in the school parking lot, you'd think that you'd have to worry about all those fledgling drivers, but more often than not it's the parents who's driving makes me nuts.

And another thing that makes me nuts... high school students driving up to school in BMW convertibles. Not that I want to begrudge any other family their monetary success, but high school kids driving luxury cars just seems so wrong to me! At least Sarah is smart enough to know that she's not going to be the cute blond in a convertible come January when she gets her license!

Bye for now Matthew!

The view from campus...

I just got back from dropping Matt off at college. He's starting his freshman year at Ft. Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. Durango is a small historic western town in the San Juan mountains of Colorado. The Durango Silverton Narrow guage railway, a popular Colorado tourist attraction, boards there, Purgatory Ski resort is 25 miles up the road, the mountains there are perhaps the most spectacular in the country. The school sits up on a high mesa just above town and has spectacular views!

I can see it will be much different than my college experience at Miami University, but it seems like a perfect place for my outdoorsy boy. There are mountain bike trails just out side the dormitory doors and deer roam around buildings at night. The dorm rooms, unfortunately, are pretty small, but they have a huge walk-in closet, a good thing as it will house a couple of the 4 bicycles Matt and Kory are trying to keep in their room with them. They have a high wooden ceiling where they put hooks to hang 2 of their bikes. All in all the dorms remind my more of a summer camp than a college. There is even a nice picnic pavilion outside the dorms. I think it will be a really fun place for him to go to school, that is if between mountain biking and heading into town to the skatepark he remembers to study!

I'm excited for Matt to be starting off on this great new adventure, although I know I'm going to really miss him. As a mom you always worry a little bit; you want them to fit in and succeed and be happy. Luckily, I don't think I have much too worry about, the night before he moved into the dorm he headed off to the skatepark for a while. He returned with tales of meeting a few locals, including the owner of the local skateboard shop who gave him a copy of their skate team DVD. Less than 12 hours in town and he's already made friends!... I think he's going to do just fine!

Matt and Kory moving in...

The family...

Donut Falls

Something unusual happened on Sunday. My daughter and couple of friends asked for me to take them to Donut Falls. Hiking. In the mountains. Nobody, except my dog Daisy, ever wants to go hiking with me so I was happy to accomodate them. I guess one of her friends had told her that that Donut Falls was a cool place to go so she wanted to give it a try. It is also one of those "you never do your own backyard" things for me, one of those places I should have taken my kids years ago, but hadn't.

There are three recreational canyons on the east side of Salt Lake. Millcreek Canyon is nearest my house, and dogs are allowed there so that is where I usually go hiking. Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons are home to our 4 ski resorts, so I go up there in the winter, but rarely get up there in the summer. The main reason I don't hike there much is that dogs aren't allowed in those canyons, and it makes me feel bad to go hiking and not bring my dog. This means I miss out on some beautiful local hiking, such as the hike to Donut Falls.

It only a short hike from the parking lot to the base of the falls, then a pretty good boulder scramble up to falls themselves. The creek comes down the mountain, where it flows through a donut shaped hole in the rock, where it cascades in to small cave. It really is a pretty cool little water fall and the girls has a lot of fun playing in it.... and that water was COLD!

My baby....

I am finding this incredibly hard to believe, but as of about 11:58 last nigh I am the mother of an 18 year old. I will swear I just birthed that adorable boy the other day, but here he is, 18 years old, a high school graduate, ready to head off to college next week. I guess it's it time to turn the page to a new chapter in life, for both he and I.

The picture of him is one taken in front of the Morrison Hotel In New York City. A fitting spot since his last name is Morrison and he's a big fan of Jim Morrison and the doors. He and a few buddies went to New York for an after graduation trip. Rather than seeking out all of the typical tourist activities they looked for places like the Morrison Hotel and really cool places to skateboard. It was fun to see his vacation pictures - lots of shots of skateboarding under New York City's finest bridges and viaducts with kids from the city. I glad I have a boy who know what HE likes to do and can go anywhere and be at home!

Happy Adulthood Matt!

My pond again,,,,

Can you tell that I'm totally enamored with my water lily blossoms? I was thrilled when my latest bloom occurred on the weekend when I could enjoy it. I hope the next bud does the same.

My pond building came about because I really needed to do something about the eyesore my kids outgrown sandbox had become. Truth be told I was really, really sad to get rid of it. It was really important to me to build a nice sandbox for kids when they were tots. We had lots of great sand toys and tonka trucks. We added shells and coral that we found on our beach vacations. The kids and their friends had a lot of fun in it. It's funny, I'm not only one who is a little sentimental. I had dinner at my friends house the other night. We talked about my little pond, and upon realizing that the pond replaced the sandbox my friends 17 year old daughter sighed and said "But I played in that sandbox. I had a lot of fun in that sandbox." She was sad that it was gone. Then I told her about my sandbox shrine. In homage to my beloved sandbox and my kids childhood I took a very rusty old tonka trunk filled it with sand and seashells from the sandbox and placed it the garden next to the pond. My friends daughter, and my kids too, were really pleased about that. And I'm glad I decided to replace my kids play place with something beautiful, it takes a bit of my sentimental sadness away.

Maraschino Cherries

What the heck are they anyway??? I often have a small jar in my fridge, ready for the occasional cocktail or, more likely as a treat for kids. I can't remember the last time I actually made a cherry requiring cocktail, my maraschinos are much more apt to end up in a kid's Shirley Temple. My daughter and her friends rediscovered the jar in my fridge, ate them all, then wished for more. So the other day when I was grocery shopping (I needed some club soda for my arpres-torch Mojitos!) I noticed the maraschino cherries and remembered that Sarah wanted them. Being the frugal type and thinking that they all taste the same anyway I decided to buy the big 28 ounce jar of generic brand cherries. I was sure that would be a nearly life long supply until I came home from work yesterday and found the EMPTY bottle on the kitchen counter. My daughter and her friends, in one afternoon, had eaten the entire jar of maraschino cherries. It gives me a stomach ache just thinking about it!

Back to my original question... What is a maraschino cherry anyway? According to the Wikipedia they are cherries preserved in a brine solution, soaked in sugar syrup, dyed and flavored. Red ones are flavored with almond (that's what I like about them) and green ones are flavored with peppermint (news to me as I've never eaten a green one). I found another article that explains they originally where made from a small sour black cherry; the marasca, that where preserved in a liqueur called maraschino, made from the juice, pits and leaves of the marasca. Reading this article made me realize that there is a whole science and industry involved with making maraschinos.

Now I wonder if they all really taste the same? Is there a gourmet version available? Can you actually buy one made with actual marasca cherries anymore? I may have to do a little searching. Perhaps when and if I replenish my supply I buy a couple jars and do a taste test. Probably not too soon, as seeing an entire 28 ounces consumed in afternoon sends up a red flag that says, "No more for a while" to me.

Scintillation

Today's bead style is an offshoot of the beads I designed for the Gathering's (the International Society of Glass Beadmakers annual conference) bead show. I've written about my show submission (pictures too!) on Watch Me Create!

My new babies...

I bought a water lily and four $0.26 goldfish for my pond last weekend. I have since learned two things about ponds. First, when they advise you not to put your pond pump in the lowest part of your pond they are right. I came home the other night to a half empty pond. One of the water hyacinths I had floating in my filter bucket clogged the waterfall pipe, causing the pump to overflow the filter out onto my lawn! Fortunately, the fish seemed to survive having half a pond full of ice cold tap water added.

The second thing I've learned is that waterlilies, at least the "Georgia Peach" hardy lily I bought, opens mid morning and closes late afternoon. A lousy schedule for this working person! But yesterday I got home early enough to take a couple pretty pictures. I can't decide which shot I like better, so even though they are about the same here they are!

I guess I'll have to investigate "night blooming" water lilies. Hopefully there is a hardy one out there!

Meet Bruno, Cedric and Milo

Who? Bruno, Cedric and Milo are the three beads I put up on ebay yesterday. Why? I came home from work to a house full of teenagers, so when I went to list my auctions I asked the kids what I should name my beads. Cedric got named first (hmmm - did someone read Harry Potter?), then came Bruno and Milo. I couldn't tell you how they arrived at those names, but I'll happily use any name I don't have to think of!h

I am beginning to wonder about these kids. I found two of the boys wearing my daughter clothes yesterday. One was running around the house in a big blue t-shirt that must have been his, and pair of turquoise tights of my daughters. The other boy was wearing a pair of black capri tights, and a black spaghetti strap tank top. It seemed a bit strange to me, until I realized that they had been playing down in the gully, gotten soaked in the creek, so they were wearing Sarah's things until theirs dried. Maybe I'm not running a home for wayward children after all; maybe my home's become a transvestite training center.

Is it a Neil Young sort of day?

Apparently, it is!

I admit it, I am an NPR junkie. Much to the chagrin of my children, I keep the car radio tuned to NPR. According to them NPR radio personalities all talk in "headache inducing monotones". I think there needs to be a a new measure of time, a "radio second" perhaps, that measures the nearly instanteous amount of time between my car radio coming on the kids demanding in an impatient, irritated tone; "can we PLEASE change the radio station?" So much for the driver's preferences. Oh, well, at least they say please. So except for the left hand button that is always on KUER, the universities public radio station, the kids are given free reign to car radio buttons.

I played chauffeur last night, so when I left for work the car stereo was tuned to one of their choices. An oldies rock station. Neil Young's song "Old Man" was playing. I really like Neil, so I certainly couldn't complain about that. So I waited until the end of the song to switch to Morning Edition. I stop at my favorite coffee shop, (my morning ritual!) and what do I hear as I step in the door? More Neil Young! The barista is playing his "Harvest" CD. I guess it's a Neil Young kind of morning! What a nice way to start the day! I haven't listened to Neil in a while. Now I'm really in the mood for Neil, I really wish I had some of his music at work, but I guess I'll have to wait and get a Neil fix when I get home. Me thinks it will be an oldies music weekend at my house.

Oh yeah, I should mention, in addition to being a Neil day it's one of my days over at Watch Me Create!

Happy Pioneer Day!

What, it's not Pioneer Day where you live? Today is a state holiday here in Utah, celebrating the Mormon Pioneers arrival in Utah. As a non-Mormon living in Utah I feel pretty left out of the pioneer day festivities, but I'll never complain about a day off of work! I'm not sure god is favoring the pioneers today, because, to quote Pooh "Tut tut, it looks like rain". Or maybe he is shining on the pioneers as the bad weather has cooled things off a bit. It's nice to have temperatures of less than 100 degrees! It actually poured rain for a short while last night; I even had use my windshield wipers - I'd almost forgotten how to turn them on. I would welcome more rain! My gardens, which I worked so hard on this spring, are down right crispy!

So on my day off from work I'm trying to get caught up on a few things, including my blogging! I've been a bit distracted lately; I started an outdoor project a week ago or so. I decided to replace my kids decaying sand box with a goldfish pond. It'a not all quite done yet, but done enough that I can show off a little picture. I've been a little obsessed with the project, because I knew if I didn't actually bust my butt to get it done it would become a big dirt hole blighting my back yard and yet another badge of my advanced procrastination syndrome. It still needs some work, but here's the sneak preview:

Ten...

Yup, another numbers day. 10, today is the 10th day this summer the temperature is supposed to go above 100 degrees. Have I ever said I'm NOT a fan of hot weather? It makes me feel like a total unmotivated sloth. I just remind myself it could be worse, the air could still be full of smoke from wildfires like it was last week, I could still be living in Ohio where where it could be 90 degrees and 90% humidity, live in a place like Arizona where 110 is not uncommon (I couldn't live there!) or live somplace without air conditioning. So I'm not really complaining, right?

Here's my silly amusement for the day. As per usual my inbox is rife with junk mail, most of which I ignore and later delete. Yesterday an email from a store where my daughter buys clothes had a subject which caught my eye:

FREE Boy Tee with Your Favorite Jeans Purchase!

I first read it as:

FREE Boy TOY with Your Favorite Jeans Purchase!

That's what we all really want, right? LOL. So I've left it in my inbox, just because it amuses me.

Fish Pond

Apparently it was 105 degrees here in Salt Lake City yesterday... so what did I do? I ripped out my kids decaying sandbox and dug a huge hole to make a small backyard pond. It certainly semed like a huge hole while digging, but as far as ponds go it's just a small one. After some landscaping I'll post pictures. Meanwhile, check out todays blog at Watch Me Create for a fish story!!

Cyber world quandries

I did something a little silly this week. I made a MySpace page. I realize that MySpace is is passe' and so, well, yesterday (I've heard Facebook is now where it's at) so I guess I'm just good at being the last to the party.
My kids of course have had MySpace pages forever. In my daughters eyes they are the "mom forbidden zone". The last thing she wants is her mom poking around her page or those of her friends. She has in fact stated many times that she thinks it's "creepy" when "old people" have MySpace pages. It might seem like I'm trying to irritate my daughter by creating a page, but that isn't why I did it. My friend got tired of having her daughters geeky teenage boyfriends treat her like she is a cyber-illiterate, so she decided to make a page for herself to prove them wrong. Having sat around her table talking geek with these boys, and seeing their utter shock and amazement when they realized that I (old stupid woman I guess!) knew some html and understood what "binary" was, I could understand her desire to rise to the challenge. My friend needed an MySpace friend, so I made my page.

This MySpace "friends" business is sort of weird. Perfect strangers write you and ask to be added as friends. Why would I want to be "friends" with someone I don't know or have anything in common with?

So my cyber-quandry:
How to decide who to "add as friends"?

1. People you know in real life?
2. Internet buddies that you don't know in real life?
3. Internet acquaintances?
4. Friends of friends?
5. Strangers with common interests?
6. Famous people (musicians etc) that you like?
7. Random strangers who want to be your friend?

For me, numbers 1 and 2 make the cut. # 7 doesn't. I'm too lazy to look up "fan" pages, I doubt I'll do number 6. But I'm less sure of #3-5. I've been thinking about this because of an add request I got two days ago. A girlfriend of mine who's in cyber-dating mode has made lots of friends through MySpace. Some she just cyber-chats with, some she's actually met in real life, a few she's actually dated. One of the guys she's been chatting with, and has actually met once in real life sent me a friend request. So do I add him or not? I can't decide. He actually seems like an interesting guy. Mountain biker, guitar player, wood turner who lives 40 miles north of me. He seems like someone who I'd enjoy being friends with IF I knew him. But I don't. But my friend does. Hmmm... I can't decide.

I realize that in a week I'll probably forget I even made the silly MySpace page (gotta limit my cyber addictions and lampworking forums are plenty!) But what do you think? Do I add guys like this or not? Comments?

Tag, your it!!

A couple of weeks ago I was "tagged" by Lori Greenberg. It took me a while to answer all the questions, and deciding who to tag was tough. Now I need to get over the feeling that I'm forwarding a chain letter (something I never do). Anyway, here goes:

First I must nominate 5 other bloggers about whom I want to learn more:
1. Ellen Altamore - Ok, Ellen doesn’t have a blog, but if Lori can tag a non blogger so can I. I’ve been reading Ellen’s forum posts since my beginning bead making days in 2003. I always thought she seemed like such an interesting person. Beadmaker, sign language interpreter, dinner theater singer, fan of the blues, person with a wonderful attitude. Everything about Ellen screams “cool woman” to me!!! I can’t tell you how thrilled I was when I began blogging and Ellen started commenting on my blurbs. She makes me feel special on a regular basis! I hope we get to meet someday, but for now I’ll just play tag with her.

2. Val Cox - Another forum person from my beginnings as a beadmaker. One day on the forum I mentioned that even though I was making them I had no exposure to “real” lampwork beads. Val offered to send me one. I was so thrilled and surprised that some one would volunteer to send something to a stranger! She posts great pictures on her blog. I especially like it when she posts her pinhole camera photos.

3. JC Herrell – I met JC at the Michigan cabin retreat a year ago. She’s a wonderful beadmaker, and an insightful, introspective and open blogger. I enjoy reading her ramblings! Oops, I see she got tagged by someone else and answered the questions this week. Here are her answers

4.Kerry Bogert – I don’t know Kerry, but I think she makes really cool beads and jewelry. She’s very innovative. Since she started blogging on Watch Me Create I’ve been following her personal blog, and she’s someone I’d love to learn more about.

5.Heather Armstrong - Now I’m stepping away from the bead world! A while back Lori posted a link to “Dooce”, Heather’s blog. She’s a professional blogger, who just so happens to live here in Salt Lake. Among other things she often posts about the quirkiness of living Utah. As a transplant to Utah, (as I tell my kids, I’m not a Utard, like they are) I enjoy the jokes and silly anecdotes about life in our fair err, I mean fairly different, state. I hope she doesn’t mind being tagged by a perfect (I wish!) stranger.

What were you doing 10 years ago?
I was living like a refugee in my own home. The kid’s toys had multiplied to the point where they were taking over our house so we had decided to add a floor to our little 1160 square foot home. I can assure you, that no amount of careful planning can make up for hiring a crappy, scam artist contractor (he seemed so perfect when we signed the contract ha, ha!) So in July of ’97 I was in my third month of living in a house with no solid roof, where 1/3 of my existing ceilings had fallen down, and my wood floors were so warped in places that you couldn’t walk on them. Fun huh?


What were you doing 1 year ago?
Pretty much the same thing I’m doing now!

Five snacks you enjoy:
1. Rice – Yup rice! My Korean babysitter gave us a rice cooker when the kids were little, and warm rice from the rice cooker is a great snack… add a little butter and salt and pepper, or lemon pepper, or sesame oil and soy sauce and sesame seeds, or sumac ( a middle eastern spice), or cheddar cheese and dill, or butter, milk, sugar and cinnamon…mmmm …can you tell I like rice?!
2. Ice cream – especially Breyers all natural - try the vanilla bean with a squeeze of fresh lime and shredded coconut!
3. Anything with butter. (My worst vice!)
4. Cheese – especially exotic cheeses I’ve never tried!
5. Pretzels

Five songs to which you know all the lyrics:1. “Rag Time Cowboy Joe” I have to say this one because Nancy did! It was one of my Girl Scout camp songs…. OK I’m lying a little, now that I looked up the real lyrics I see I don’t know them all
2. Eddie Brown - you might know him as Eddie Koochie-kachie-kamma-toesinarra-toesinocah-samma-kamma-waukee Brown
3. Flea - Lets just say my version was similar to this one!
4. The Fly Song once again my version is a little different then the link I found. My fly: “Wiped his feet on the ham and stuck his tongue out at the grocery man”
5. The Flea Fly Song Is it obvious I picked my songs from my scout camp days at Camp Ross Trails?!


Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:
1. Selfish things first. I’d own a pool (and have someone else care for it!….and maybe a cabana boy! hee,hee )
2. I’d travel the world
3. I’d pay for all niece’s and nephew’s college educations.
4. I’d pay for under-funded scientific research, like ecology. Perhaps I’d fund graduate student research projects.
5. Donate more to favorite organizations, like The Nature Conservancy

Five bad habits:
1. Procrastination (Notice many of mine are the same as Lori’s)
2. Not finishing projects- there’s always a loose end that needs to be tied up!
3. Getting grumpy with my family
4. Not answering my phone or checking messages.
5. Too much time on the computer.

Five things you like doing:
1. Beadmaking!
2. Skiing
3. Gardening
4. Hiking
5. Eating

Five things you would never wear again:
1. Polyester
2. High heels
3. Tube tops
4. Toe socks
5. Ballet costumes

Five favorite toys:
1. Tops (I really have a small top collection!)
2. Blocks (I’m never getting rid of the kids blocks!)
3. My skis.
4. My torch.
5. George, my bear. He’s almost as big as me, no longer has eyes, and leaks at few seams. He was a gift from my Aunt Linda when I was a baby. I still have him.

Buying time...

I need (meaning I have a deep seated emotional need!) to make some beads. Getting ready for my show cut into my glass melting time, so now I'm craving some serious torch time.

Unfortunately, between refusing to do any domestic chores for two weeks prior to my little show, creating the huge jewelry making mess I wrote about recently in one of my Watch Me Create posts, and the fact that entropy has acted on my studio again I feel I can't allow my self to light the torch until I corral in some of the chaos.

I did cheat and made a few on Friday night, spent Saturday on my eagle adventure, and swore I'd catch up on the cleaning Sunday.

On Sunday I manged to get most of my beading supplies reorganized and put away, and started my studio cleanup. I took a break for a short mountain bike ride on the Pipeline Trail and cooked an actual "real" meal for my kids. Last night I managed to clean the master bathroom and to dust and vacuum up all the felted fur scatter rugs that have been decorating my bedroom. Maybe tonight I can finish cleaning up my dining room table mess and get the studio cleaned up enough that I can allow myself to torch. I really want to torch!!!

Does any one know the secret for creating more hours in the day???

Can I buy some time somewhere?

Fly like an eagle!

A good friend of mine and her daughter spend a huge amount of their free time volunteering as bird rehabilitaters at the Ogden Nature Center. On Saturday they invited me on a little adventure. They were going to be releasing a Golden Eagle, something that is a pretty big deal in the bird rehabilitation world.

Birds are well-protected animals with the exception of some birds that can be hunted and a few “nuisance” birds (starlings, pigeons and house sparrows) it is illegal to harm or own any migratory bird. In fact it’s actually illegal to own bird feathers, and eggs and nests. Knowing this I shouldn’t have been too surprised that eagle rehabilitation is pretty regulated. The Ogden Nature Center where my friend works is a licensed rehabilitation center, and while their rehab program is growing, they are lacking in some facilities for doing eagle rehab, namely a flight cage. Any raptor that needs to spend time in a flight cage prior to being released must be taken to another facility. In the case of eagles, they must be shipped back and released in the same area where they where found.


The eagle that was to be released yesterday was being flown back from a rehab in Denver. One of the Colorado rehab-ers neighbor is a doctor, who recently got her pilots license and her own plane. A trip to Utah would be a good chance to practice her mountain flying so she volunteered to fly the eagle to Utah, and bring some Utah birds to Denver to the flight cage. Early on Saturday morning we headed out to the tiny airport in Morgan, Utah, to meet the plane and exchange birds. We were at the airport for a while as they tried to figure out the logistics of loading all the birdcages into the plane for the trip back to Denver. They decided to switch an eagle into a smaller crate, and got permission to go into a hanger to make the exchange. It is pretty amazing to watch them handle the huge eagle, those beaks and claws look very scary to me, yet they handle the birds with ease.




After they the plane was loaded we headed about 10 miles away to the release site. This is where the day took an unfortunate turn... Delynn pulled the eagle out of the carrier and spread it wings to examine the bird before releasing it. As you may be able to see in my poor picture, it wing feathers were damaged; some primaries were missing, others looked broken off. She had to make the hard decision not to release the bird, so it wasn’t eagle release day after all. The big question became whether the bird had damaged it wings in the carrier, or if the wrong bird was sent. I had assumed that they banded rehab-ed birds, but it turns out that’s not allowed, so it is possible they caught the wrong bird in the flight cage. It would certainly be interesting to see how they actually capture the eagles that are free to roam in 100 yard long, 18 ft tall flight cage! Nothing about rehabilitating eagles seems easy! It will be interesting to find out what the story was with the eagle. It was slightly disappointing not to see it set free, the at least the day was interesting and educational. I’m looking forward to going on the future release.

July 4th

Happy Fourth of July!

So "why the snowman?" you ask. Mr Snowman has been sitting out in the hallway at work. I'm not sure, but I think he's someone's idea of wishful thinking, as it has been extremely hot here this week.

I have no big July 4th plans. I slept in, surfed the web, "discussed" religion with some Jehovahs witnesses while in my PJ's (low cut, spagetti strapped polkadot, cotton shortie - I bet that suprised the evangelical door knockers - Hee,Hee!), went out to breakfast with my family and made some beads. If the local country club shoots off fireworks I'll watch from by deck. It's too hot to be motivated!

I hope everyone else is having an exciting holiday!

A little help from my friends!

The hardest thing about doing a show was the need to actually put prices on my creations. It is hard to put a value on my own work. Am I arrogant and conceited if I ask a high price? Am I being foolish and insecure and not valuing my work by pricing too low? If I'm willing to accept a low price for my work am I actually devaluing not only myself but my artist colleages as well? The last question is an interesting one that I never would have thought of had I not spent a lot of time on internet forums with professional artists. As a hobbyist crafts person, it is easy to think "I'd be making it anyway, so selling for peanuts is better than not selling at all" with out thinking how undercutting other artists prices can contribute to undervaluing the entire field and negatively influencing the earning potential of the professionals artists who are trying to sell their wares to put food on their table. I guess asking a decent price not only says you think that your work is worth it, but that you respect other artists in you field. Heavy huh?

Since this whole subject stresses me I decided to take the easy way out. On Friday night I invited a few good friends over for a pizza (and wine) and pricing party. I was hoping they would give my some guidance, and like good friends do they went beyond the call of duty. Instead of giving me the ball park prices I'd hoped for, they sat down and priced every single piece for me. Tori would suggest a price, and April, who is my partner in crime at the Gem Faire would say "but those earrings have expensive silver bead caps" so it should be more, or Traci would say "I really like that bead so I think it should be more" etc. etc.. Before you knew all my cards had prices written on them, and I didn't do any of it. I Just ordered the pizza and poured the wine! I actually went to my show not knowing what my prices were. You have to really love getting a little help from your friends!!

Show time!

I survived my first show. It was a hot day, the gardens were lovely, the food and music was good. I wish I could say it was a big money maker, but I think business was pretty slow for most vendors. I did make back my booth fee, plus a bit more, so for a first show I was pretty happy. People did seem to like my pieces, but I think it was one of those shows where nobody was buying. Everyone was eating the free food though (LOL!).... and it was yummy!

I was happy how my little display came out; I didn't really want to spend a ton of money on display things, since for all I know this would be my first and last show. I bought a $10 fireplace screen at a thrift store and used paperclips as hooks to hang my carded items. I put some bent sticks from my yard into styofoam in pretty metal tins from the dollar store, added some wire hooks and covered the styrofoam with dollar store pebbles and voile', I had displays for necklaces and bracelets. I also found this really cool 3 sectioned wooded bowl at the thrift for a whopping 49 cents. Necklaces look really nice laying in it. I also made a little sign explaining lampwork and brought some rods, twisties, frit and beads still on mandrels so I could educate anyone interested in the art of beadmaking.

I did get put by my friend Elizabeth, heres a picture of her and her mosaic stepping stones. It was nice to have someone to chat with!

Watch Me Create!

Today you can see more about my frantic show preparations by reading my entry at
Watch Me Create!

Show Preview!

I'm home this morning with the plumber because the pipe under my kitchen sink started leaking. I'm thankful that this year we, after 20 years of home ownership finally stumbled upon a nice, affordable, competent plumber. As plumbing problems always do the timing stinks as I've frantically been getting ready for Saturday's show, although maybe the timing is actually good because I managed to get two more simple necklaces strung when I normally would be at work.

Here's a quick preview of my wares for the show. I don't have a lot, but for only two weeks (remember I have a full time job!) of prep time I'm happy. Fortunately I'd already made the beads so it's just been a 2 week string-wirewrap-create a display-athon. I still have no idea about pricing, having never sold jewelry it's a bit of a mystery. I think I'll have some friends over for a pizza and pricing party to help me decide.

If you're in the area, the show is 11th annual "Art in the Garden" party at Traces, a local boutique-ish garden shop located at 1432 South 1100 East here in Salt Lake City!

It's happening Saturday, June 30th from 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

My weekend...

How about a quickie catch up... I had a busy weekend trying to get ready for my show (first ever!) on Saturday. Went to the a dinner for a friend who's moving away, went to the Utah Arts Festival, and took the "Fun Bus" to Wendover. That last thing on my list was something a bit out of my element. Wendover is Wendover, Nevada, which is the closest gambling town to Salt Lake. A friend of mine started playing internet poker this year, then joined a local poker group through meetup.com, who organized a Wendover trip for Friday night. I'm not exactly a big gambler;in the 20+ years I've lived in Utah I've only gone to Wendover a few times, and have never taken the fun bus.

The fun bus wasn't terribly fun, but it was definately a great way to go to wendover. For $15 they drive you there, and you get a coupon book with a free cocktail coupon, a $5 in cash coupon, and a free dinner at the buffet coupon. Not a bad deal considering the Friday night seafood buffet costs $22. The good thing is not having to drive over there, and better yet, not having to drive the two hours home. The only downside is you don't get back to Salt Lake until 4 AM so I was pretty darn tired on Saturday.

My night of gambling consisted of dropping $6.00 worth of nickles into a video poker machine while my friend dropped $50 in a poker tournament. We ate the buffet dinner, drank 2 cocktails and hung around a craps table where some nice guy attempted to explain the game to us. (I still don't understand!) Then we headed to the poker room, because my poker playing friend wanted to watch live play. We managed to get "invited" to observe a table were a couple of guys from the bus were playing. We were mostly invited by Matt, a gregarious guy who must have weighed about 500 lbs, who was downing shots (he was up to 22) and rather drunk. A number of the guys were happy to talk to us while they played, and one was rather interested in flirting with my friend while he played. Considering that they had pony up $100 to join the game I'm surprised they let us talk to them at all. We had a bit of a raucus conversation...nothing like a few drunk guys to liven up a place, especially when you are quite sober. Funny, we didn't take up the offer to use his room keys LOL. Like I mentioned before... I'm not exactly a much of a gambler or party girl, so I find it amusing when I venture off into this foreign world where people are really into the party life! I guess I'm a voyeour of sorts.

Happy Feet!

My daughter and I went for pedicures this week. Lest you think I'm a self indulgent spoiled brat, I will admit to you that I have horrible, horrible feet. Gross, thick, cracked, heel calluses that regenerate faster than you'd ever believe. So a couple times a year I spurge for a $25 pedicure. I really should do it every month in the summer. As icky as my feet are, it ought to be covered by health insurance! LOL. According to my mom, my grandma had the same kink of feet, so I guess it's genetic. Unfortunately, my daughter seems to be afflicted with the same problem

So this week Sarah and I went off to the nail salon and had our feet done. I now have happy feet with bright pink "Kinky in Helsinki" toenails.

I think Sarah is the spoiled one. She's only 15. I never had a salon pedicure until I was over 40. Three of my high school friends and I spent a weekend in Las Vegas, and my good friend Linda and I spent an extra night. Since it was Sunday, and the rates were (comparatively!), low so I splurged and got us a night at the Bellagio, where Linda I went for pedicures. My first, nicest and most expensive pedicure. After doing the extra wax treatment and paying the tip it was about $100! Yikes! Being the undecided type, I let the pedicurist pick my polish color. She was thrilled to get to pick something other than the more conservative colors her normal clientele tended to use, so she picked "Kinky in Helsinki". I loved the color, and the name, and it reminds me of great weekend with friends, so I still use that color sometimes!

So what color are YOUR toes today?

Watch Me Create!

I've joined a blogging team!!!
Lori Greenberg started a great new team blog, Watch Me Create , that is aimed at documenting the creative process of lampwork beadmakers. My intro was a week ago or so and today my first "creative" article was published. I think this will be a fun endeavour. It's a great group of beadmakers and it will be interesting to see how they go about creating their fabulous beads!!!