On the Health of Blogging

Somebody showed me a really compelling blog today about how/why some bloggers can be so thoroughly honest in their blogs. It touched me, and it made a lot of sense, so I am reposting it here.

http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2009/07/21/how-to-decide-how-much-to-tell-about-yourself-on-your-blog/

I think the thing I identify with here is that THIS blog, is meant to help folks with invisible illnesses deal with the ugly stuff that can happen to them, physically, with their families, with their lives. It's therapy for me to write honestly about these things as they happen to me, just like it's therapy for someone who is having something similar happen to them see that it's happening to others, and they are NOT alone.

The best part, writing about it gets it out of the system and works it out in the mind so you can see whatever it is more clearly.

As to the little things in life, like being honest that you're behind in bills and stressing out on that, or angry at your partner for something minor like not putting the cap on the toothpaste, it helps get it out so instead of becoming a fight it's dispersed.

I have been reading the Randy Pausch book, The Last Lecture. I don't know how many of you are familiar with that book, but it's written by a very brilliant and sweet man who was dying of pancreatic cancer, and decided he wanted his last lecture, given at Carnegie Mellon, to be a message to his kids about what was important to him to impart to them before he left this earth. Needless to say it's a tearjerker, but it is funny and joyful in other places, and deeply insightful. One of the things he talks about is that his wife Jai was told to enjoy her time with him more by not worrying about the little things they always bickered about, like Randy leaving his clothes on the floor. So instead, she'd go write in a journal about it and they'd be able to move on and enjoy their day.

When I was a teen, with a lot of troubles MY journal helped me a lot. I have 5 or 6 journals full of angst that preserved my sanity.  I think blogging is now a natural extension of that sort of catharsis and sorting of emotion, except that it's now shared so that others  get to see and feel those same things and see they are not alone. They are not an alien. There is someone to talk to, reach out to, or just relate to, who might understand.

Anyway, I had planned to write about epiphanies this week, but this article above inspired me, so this is what you all got. ;)

Maybe you'll hear more from me this weekend. At any rate, enjoy the last few days of 2011, and may 2012 be better for EVERYONE!

Ever have a tough day where you feel like the best thing you can do is shut up and color? Today is one of those days. Things just happen sometimes and there's not much we can do to prepare or change them.

Other than that, things are going well. I am slowly getting my act together for a craft fair at Temple Emanu-El here in San Diego. This will be my first one, so I have to remember all of the things to bring, and all of the tricks I saw vendors using at art and wine fests over the years. My Uncle used to sell cartoons in those for years and I spent a lot of time wandering around them as a kid. I am wishing for a metal lunch box to keep money and change in like he did! :)

The fibro is only bothering me a little bit, but I think when I come off the anti biotics I may get sick again. My youngest child is just off of hers and has a huge cough and a raging fever. She may end up in peds doc after I see my rheumatologist tomorrow since they share a space.

Anyway, now that they are all asleep except for husband I am going t go out and see if wind knocked any branches off the Maples across the street. I need a good one to display necklaces and don't want to hurt the tree.

After that, more just shutting up and coloring, ;)

I am just making a short but sweet post tonight. We are getting ready to clear out for Thanksgiving so I am not sure how great my connectivity will be.

Today we are one of the featured Jewelry artists in an online Christmas Shopping stroll that is there to promote not only our work, but also to encourage people to buy from small businesses and home grown artisans this year, rather than supporting the big box stores like Walmart who import most of their products from China!

To see the stroll go to: http://blog.designs-by-debi.com/2011/11/exploring-handmade-holiday-shopping_23.html?spref=fb

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone and enjoy every minute that you have with your family. Life happens, and you never know how much time you have with anybody.

Secondly, please be safe out on the roads this year. I want to be wishing you happy Turkey day next year!!

A very beautiful tribute written about a dear friend that I and many others recently lost to Ovarian Cancer. http://karenrbrooks.com/blog/?p=375&cpage=1#comment-34702  This lady was her BEST friend. We all are sharing some of the grief, but Karen was our hero, and Sara's too. She was there for her and showed what true friends do for each other, even when family can't or won't.

Ok, it's official, we've all caught "it". Baby girl is really sick tonight and on antibiotics and fever meds. We think she is treading the fine line between cold and pneumonia because she sounds a lot like our older one did the three times she's had it. If she's not drastically improved shortly we are going back to the doctor.

We have had pouring rain all day so I have not been out photoing any work, but I have a bit of quiet time to work with some lovely Bastille Bleu beads tonight and make something special. (if the baby stays asleep).

What are you all working on? It's definitely scarf and hat weather.  I hope to be doing a chemo hat for a friend here shortly if she can find a pattern she likes!

Anyway, weekend is over. It's been extremely short, but interesting. We had a great turkey dinner last night, and today I spent a lot of time either laying around because I am sick, or to get the kid to sleep. My older daughter went to Lorgeland Music arts and did a bunch of fun thanksgiving projects. Hooray Mrs. Lorge!

Doing better

So, on to happier things! Oddly I should be moaning and groaning about catching my 1 year old's cold but I am in a good mood tonight and feeling better after sleeping for about 18 hours. I think sleeping killed the bug just by simply giving my body mega power to kill it by my lack of movement and allowance of fever to do it's thing.

Anyway, I feel better tonight and now husband is in bed starting to feel like he's catching "it".

We went tonight and had some turkey dinner with some family and things seem better than they did a few days ago which is good.

I am really excited because next week we are going up to Fresno (yeah I know Fresno is NOT an exciting place) to see my cousins and Aunt and Uncle so that my kids can get to know them more and appreciate having a great aunt and uncle, as well as the myriad cousins and second cousins that I have not seen since I was about 16. In fact, this is the first time I remember in my lifetime that anyone from the rest of my family has gone to Fresno for Thanksgiving, and the last time we had turkey day together was sometime in the late 80s in San Jose at another Uncle's house. So anyway, I'd say it's about time we had family time and turkey day there and it's exciting for all of us.

The other cool thing is that I get to make Baklava to bring to the dinner. This is an honor in my eyes since the family there is half Lebanese and have their own delicious version of this dish. Anyway, I will share my Baklava recipe here sometime this week after I dig it out.

As far as projects go I completed a couple of them in the last few days, Here are a couple of photos. One of them is not ready for primetime as I had a bead fall off during the shoot and have to redo the photos when the sun finally appears.

Nightsky plus Earrings.

This was the easiest one for me to make because I'd been thinking about how to use these cobalt beads for months. The focal bead is one I had custom made to match them, and it has silver dots melted into it all the way around to imply stars in a night sky. The beads are all mystical night beads, stardust beads, Lapis Lazuli, Rainbow Moonstone, and Opalite.

It's on etsy at: http://www.etsy.com/listing/86448919/necklace-and-earring-set-nightsky-cobalt

The second thing I made this week is a sweet little bracelet (Pearl Garden) can be worn year round but still manages to be sort of christmassy. The rosebuds drew my eye when I bought the bead set.

This is a great stocking stuffer because it is small. cute and not so expensive. It's on Etsy at: http://www.etsy.com/listing/86597695/bracelet-pearl-garden-freshwater-pearls

OK, this last one doesn't look very christmassy, I just liked it so I made it. I had not done chain dangles on earrings and felt it was about time so the earrings hang a bit low and brush the collar. Asyou can see, these are the ones I will have to re-photo because there was a missing bead and I did not notice that while I was keeping the 1 year old from getting her hand on them while I was taking pictures. Rowan is a VERY helpful little girl. LOL.

So one of the earrings is missing a bead, but this is what I have been up to at about 3 am. :) These won't be in my shop for a few days. I have also been working to revamp some of the styles on the pandora style big bead bracelets I had. I am trying to add more unique touches because I find that many of them look fresh off of a retail shelf which is definitely NOT the look we're going for!

So anyway, that's all that's new from me today! I hope you are all having a great weekend that will stretch into next week and turkey, turkey and more turkey!!!!!!

For my Aussie friends: Eat some turkey anyway. You'll just feel better.

There's something really bothering me

There is something bothering me, and something I want to make clear.

First, this blog is somewhat anonymous as I do not announce or name myself or my family members in detail, you'd have to dig to get more information, and most of you don't want to do that, you'd just like to hear what I have to say, especially those of you with Fibromyalgia or some other silent disease who are trying to find their way through it and cope, and find hope!

I posted a couple of days ago, very generically about how the fibromyalgia, and abuse of one of my children has affected me and my immediate family here in the house, and how we were disowned by a wing of the family because of some of those issues. The issues were so overwhelming and significant to me that they stopped me from blogging for two months as I dealt with grief.

I posted the story about it, hoping to show other people with fibromyalgia or lupus,or other silent diseases that they are not alone in their struggles. The common story of family rejection linked to these illnesses happens to others and is echoed in many forums for these illnesses around the internet community! I also posted about several other unrelated topics in the same post.

Since that post, I have been harassed by a couple of family members, who were NEVER identified by name. Apparently they feel that even if they cannot be linked to what I am posting about, without some serious effort from one of you, that they can censor what I put in this blog. I just want to state, for the record, that I won't allow bullying to silence what I have to say, especially as it relates to how Fibromyalgia has changed my life and distorted relations with friends and family. That would run counter to the actual purpose of this blog which is to discuss living with that illness while raising a family, and crafting a small business. (see the statement at the top of the blog where it says this)

So anyway, to those of you wonderful followers who read my posts and appreciate that I am trying to help others by sharing some of these panful stories in a generic fashion, thank you. It's hard to go through the experiences and very hard to write about them, but I am very grateful that you lend an ear or words of support, or just your thoughts.

To the ones who are angry because you feel guilty that you perpetrated some very nasty acts against me and my family unit this year due to your misunderstanding of my illness and your failure to protect an abused child over abusers, please remember that the internet is like the television set. If you don't like what I have to say, you can change the channel. I am not naming any of you by name and I have family all over the US so I could be talking about anybody, so I am not defaming you, and it's NOT being posted to the pages of your friends unless YOU put it there.

Furthermore, passing around links of the post to family who knew nothing about the blog topic because they deliberately aren't followers or friends, or fans, just to raise trouble and cause pressure or strain, is totally uncalled for, and certainly does not facilitate healing of the family that I have worked for and you profess to want.

I'll continue to write what I feel and what I'm thinking about because I have the freedom in this country to do so. It's also therapeutic to me and for others, based off of the responses I get.

This is very sad, because this blog is not meant to be a battleground and I won't allow it to be.
I am sorry the rest of you had to hear this very unhappy post, but I guess it illustrates again how difficult it can be when relations go bad in a family due to these invisible ailments.

Now that I've made THAT clear, let's get back on to happier subjects, eh?

We're Featured Artists Today!

Today we are a featured artist for crocheted goods in an online Stroll that is part of a movement to help people shop handmade items for this Christmas and Hannukah so they can give unique and special gifts to their friends and family!  The link to the Stroll is:  http://blog.designs-by-debi.com/


We will be in it again in a couple of days, featuring some new pretties that I've made.

Andy and Women over 40

Hello there!

I just thought I would share this divine bit of humor from Andy Rooney. I don't think I have ever heard it put better than he has here, but it certainly describes many of us females in an accurate and complimentary manner!  ( I am 39 but it still describes me to a tee) Click the enclosure link to read it. http://www.divinecaroline.com/22323/34969-andy-rooney-forty

I hope that you all are enjoying the week. I have a teething baby who is trying very hard to keep me in bed with her, so have snuck out to make a post. We all need some humor now and again. :) If I can stay out of bed long enough I am going to try to get some crafting done but I am not optimistic. She's waking up about every 20 mins or so looking for Mama. I have Dad in there taking my place since it's his bedtime, but if she wakes up enough that may not suffice.

I sold my first ring this week, so am in good spirits. I am also happily awaiting some beads in my mailbox, and supplies for the upcoming "first" craft show. Fire Mountain has this neat thing called "The Bosses Bead Bag" which is one pound of random beads, findings and settings that they scoop into a bag for $6.00. I got some awesome stuff last time, so am excited to see what this one has!

I still haven't managed to grab some sunlight time for pictures of jewelry or handbags, but have a ton of new inventory to put in my shop, including Vera Bradley bags in my ebay shop, and Lands End shoes. The link to that shop is: http://stores.ebay.com/skyemberr . In a day or so I should have a couple more Veras in there including a big, perfect Vera Bradley  2011 Winter Collection Mandy Safari Sunset tote bag that I will probably not have for long. I just need to get it photo'd! :)

Fall is going nicely

I know it's been awhile since I've posted. We've had some things to settle. We got the house moved, got stuff out of storage for the first time in 3 years, had some nonsensical battles with family, and have generally worked pretty hard as a family in the last three months!

I have been continuing to make jewelry and crochet (though did that less while it was so warm). I am getting much better at my wire wrapping and have made a lot of friends through the facebook community that are both jewlery makers and people who craft beads. I've learned a lot and been inspired by so many of them. I had not suspected that the community would be so welcoming, but it is, and a lot of the petty squabbling you would expect between people who are basically selling similar items is not there for the most part. There is a great group, called Color Combo Challenge, (look up CCC in search on facebook) and they have been amazing. Every week we select colors, then by the end of the week we all post up pictures of what we made using those colors. There are advanced artisans as well as beginners in there and everyone is really helpful!

My fibromyalgia has been having it's typical ups and downs, but overall I am feeling a bit better since I started trigger point injections in my spine and my calves.  The injections are a long acting drug that is similar to lidocaine, called Marcaine. It doesn't make me goofy, but it numbs up those big knots long enough for them to release (about 18 hours), so I am having far fewer problems with my shoulders, arms, hands and legs. I can start to feel it wearing off by week 3, and then I am eligible to have them again in week 4. Really the biggest problem I am having is insomnia and the lack of sleep from that. I find myself dropping off to sleep instantly in odd places and positions with no warning. I just don't feel sleepy and WHAM! I am out cold. We're still working on that. I get to see a new doctor for that at the end of this month and I hope he has some ideas or answers.

As to the family problems, we had some issues with our oldest daughter being emotionally abused over the last couple of years. It got steadily worse until finally we had to leave (that's why we moved) to get away from the abuse. Some of my husband's family got very angry with me for stating that it had happened publicly, without naming who the abuser was. In a nutshell, between the fibromyalgia problems and that issue they decided that I must be insane. Meanwhile, my 9 year old was put in the middle when all of them elected not to show up for her birthday for various reasons. I VERY unoffensively asked on facebook to reschedule it so my daughter would not be crushed, but they turned that into a huge fight, attacking me and my skills to mother my child in front of about 300+ people on my facebook page, and then as a group defriended me. From that point on most of them elected not to speak to me at all. Then in September I tried to get the person who had done the smallest amount of attacking to apologize for her actions, and I was told that me, my 2 daughters and my husband were no longer part of the family. 

Normally, I would tell ANYONE who did that to go take a long hike off of a short pier and drive on with my life, but since my husband and daughter loves them, I tried very hard to mend fences. I apologized 3 times for things I didn't even really do, and was told my apologies were not good enough, meanwhile none of them have apologized at all to date. I am at the point where no more apologies will be forthcoming from me. My husband feels the same way. This makes things awkward since we used to have 30+ person family functions but now we will no longer be doing that. Christmas this year will be interesting (though much cheaper!).

We attended our first (tense) event with all of the family who has been nasty to us present tonight and managed to get through it without bloodshed. We ignored them and vice versa, but my daughter was still hurt when they came in the door and all of her cousins had been told not to play with her. That was fixed and things were ok, but I don't see us being in close proximity again soon until someone gets married. The reason we all got together tonight was to congratulate my brother in law on his engagement!! :)

So anyway, my point of telling this long story was to talk about the ways in which fibromyalgia can effect our lives. They decided that since I have to take non-opiate drugs and have a sleep disorder that I am a terrible mom and am insane. When I did what the National Fibromyalgia Association recommends, which is to write a letter and explain my disabilities, the entire family ignored it, and some of it labeled it my "Manifesto to Justify My Actions" as if I am the unabomber for saying publicly that my kid is being abused so it will STOP. I am not sure if that happens a lot as well in families where abuse becomes an issue, where the rest of the family gangs up on the parent who leaps in to stop it, but I suspect that might be the case. Of course the stress and crazinesss and disrespect from the family highly aggravated the fibro for a few weeks there, but I did lose about 10 pounds! ;)

My daughter is doing much better now that she is in a safer place and talking to a counselor. She even has friends that live all around her here and after school this house becomes the romping ground of 3 to 4 kids. She's never had that before and needs it. She's having some challenges at school because she's hearing impaired and 2 of her teachers are not well educated about how to work with a hearing impaired kid. Plus, after what she's been through this fall she's very prickly and could give a damn about what an adult says if she feels they are out of line. This is not great for a 9 year old because it gets her in trouble and makes it harder for her teacher to gauge how to deal with her. I am trying to be patient, and let her heal and let her know that we love her, no matter what.

On the business side things have been pretty good! My fan page on facebook is up to nearly 550 and I am getting regular sales from both my ebay and etsy shops which pay for my supplies and a bit more. I have been working my tail off trying to get ready to do my first craft show in December. I've never done one before but think it would be neat. It's a good way to get my feet wet and see if I can earn a little bit of money to spend on my family this christmas. I am enjoying the jewelry making and will be learning soldering and chain mail jewelry in December. After that I may do some stained glass classes with whatever else tickles my fancy thrown in. I am very interested in lampworking beads, but have not found a good place/time for a class, plus I am not equipped here to do it, though I have some great role models!

Here are some pictures of my recent work:


Sea Gifts

 Cobalt Ice

 Angie's Heart

 Turquiose Stardust

Autumn Glory

 Tree of Life

Swirls and Dots

Some of these are still up for sale in my etsy shop which is at http://www.etsy.com/shop/WindscryDesigns

Anyway, as you can see, I've been a busy bee! I am working on christmas designs now, and also on making rings. I just learned how to make them. here is one of my first ones. The stone in it is called Candy Jade.

To all of my followers, I am sorry it's been so long snce I posted, but as you can see we had some issues to work out and a lot of unpacking to do. I love our glorious new house. I had wanted a garden and this one came with about 20 fully mature rose bushes ringing a fountain. I have saved and dried many of the petals for making sachets and will be selling those along with ones made from lavender I start in my greenhouse this winter.

Farewell for now, and hopefully it won't be so long until I post again!

We've moved!

So sorry it's been awhile since we've posted, but the whole family has picked up and moved!

We found a lovely house with a big rose garden and fountain in the back, and enough room to make us comfortable. (once we unpack all of the boxes.)  I am so happy. We are finally getting stuff out of storage that has beeen in there for 3 years while we got back on our feet after I became disabled from this stupid fibromyalgia.

Speaking of the fibro, it's been present, but held mostly at bay by trigger point injections from my doc. It's enabled me to paint, and do quite a bit more stuff than I had expected I could do, though towards the end when we prepared to move all of our stuff in, I felt as if I had been hit by a truck.

Now we are firmly into the unpacking stage and I have a working kitchen with pots and pans, food and dishes. We even did a big Ikea run and got both daughters outfitted with new items for their bedrooms and 3 bookcases for us. We've never actually had real bookcases, just the brick and board ones, because we have so many books. Our youngest daughter, Rowan, has never had her own bedroom either, so she got all sorts of stuff. Now she just needs a nice dresser and a curtain rod so I can finish the basics and put pictures on her wall. It's a big transition for her. She is so used to being in a room with another person when she sleeps, that it has taken us days to slowly get her used to being by herself for a bit.

I've not been doing any jewelry or crochet because of the move. Plus, this week I sprained my whole arm and shoulder badly while tryine to soothe Rowan in her crib. Chair slid out from under me and I hit the ground while still holding top of the crib. At first we thought I had a broken arm.

So anyway, now we are running around trying to get the rest of the way unpacked. I am doing some of it 1 armed, and not gotten much done for the last 3 days. My mother in law very graciously watched the girls and took them to school so I could take pain meds and rest my arm. It's helped, but when I have the one year old in the evenings she tries to use my arm as a trampoline because she is jubilant to be home, and it kills my arm. LOL.

Anyway, at some point shortly here I will blog more, and expect the flavor of my post to change a bit because the environment has changed. Once I clear the space, I even have a workbench of sorts to use!

I hope all of you out there are enjoying the last bits of summer. I think I just talked my sleepy husband into sangria and steaks with potato salad on sunday or monday.

Comic-con!

I seem to be posting about once a week here between baby and everything else. It  gives me time to think about what to write I guess!

I have finished the Sara Shawl and it's off in the mail to Australia. Hopefully it will get there this week. Crochet wise I have 3 open projects.:

Michaela scarf: Ready to be finished now that the Sara is done
Gryphon baby boy blanket: About 70% done, and going to try to stitch on some dinosaurs in felt  when I am done, just because I have never done it before and little boys like them.
Fibromyalgia wrist warmers. I think I finally have found the right yarn for this, question will be how to put on a butterfly that looks cool and does not hurt the skin of the wearer. We fibromites are sensitive in the skin dept.

On the jewelry side of the house I am doing a challenge every week to make a project in certain colors. You can look up the group on facebook by typing CCC into the search bar and it should come right up. Beginners are very welcome and there are a LOT of very experienced people in that group that teach, help, etc.  I am skipping the challlenge this week, which is called "Monkey Business" so I can hang out with my cousin and go to comic con!! An angel gave us 4 free tickets.

I'll probably write about what we see ( and who) in the next blog.

I have also been busy doing catch up work on some projects. Here are 2 of my polymer clay creations:

This is a bundle of polymer lilies with silver wire wrap on top and a swarovski crystal. I may but something cute on the leaves on the front there like a tiny flower or a bug, or crystal. Undecided on that so far. but at least I stopped wobbling on it and made a pendant rather than a pin.

This is my first set of polymer beads made as a set to go together to make a necklace or earrings or something. Am happy with how the berries turned out. Ok with the hearts.... leaves need work,. I have a lot to learn, but am having a great time with it. Soneone told me you can varnish polymer clay by using future floor wax, so I have baby food jars of that sitting around my kitchen table.


Hope you are all having a great weekend!

Listia and other free stuff

Hi everyone! I hope you had an amazing Fourth of July! Ours was wonderful. We somehow ended up front row for an REO Speedwagon concert at our county fair.

We have been busy this week looking for a new house to rent so we have a bit more room to breathe, and room for my jewelry making and crochet. So far we have only found a couple of houses that we like but I figure that as we head into August more will come into the market as people rush to move their kids before school starts.

I've been crafting. I finished the Sara Shawl and will be doing pictures tomorrow now that the dress dummy is dressed and the heat outside has subsided to a dull roar. The shawl is beaded with misc. gemstone beads all the way along the collar and down to the bottom edges where there are some fun lampworked frogs capering in the center of a spiral.  I have also made a few other things. Last night I made some swarovski pendant earrings with gemstone quality amethyst briolette drops in the center. I have not photo'd them yet, but when I do I will link. them so You can see them. I am waiting for a very cool photocube that I bought to arrive so the pictures will look better.

What I wanted to talk about today are a couple of the "free" trading apps out there that I have found recently which are very interesting.

1. Listia.com:  I have put  a click though link somewhere down at the bottom of this page.  You basically can take any item in your house, from old socks, to necklaces, to purses stuffed with misc items and people bid points on them. High bidder pays the shipping. There is no cost to post items in there at all. It's a very good, free way to get access to beads and yarn, virtually for free, and get rid of objects you could not get rid of on ebay. Your account also starts with around 500 free points to spend, so  you can shop right away.

2. Swagbucks.com   I use this app because it lets you earn points for every time you buy a groupon or other similar deal and use those points to buy gift cards, ipods, etc. It condenses all of the groupon type pages into one menu so you can see ALL of the daily deals for your area. Also if you use their search engine to search you get points. If you take the daily 1 question poll, you get points. If you print coupons and use them in any grocery store, you get points. They have trusted surveys, and if you complete those, you get points. If you watch their "swagbucks TV" you get points, and they have DIY network and food network, etc. on there. You can also get points by playing games they have on their site which are similar to Scrabble, Bejeweled, Tetris, etc. So anyway, it's not hard to get points and the site is fun. Getting free gift cards is also fun! They also have daily scavenger hunts for points that you follow through twitter, FB and the swagbucks site.

Anyway, check them out if you want to, and have fun earning. I was never much of a couponer, but swagbucks has encouraged me to save money!

Contest for free beads! (and 4th of July)

My friend Bastille Bleu is having 3 contests this month to give away free lampworked beads! http://bastillebleu.com/contests.html

Good luck winning, and I hope your fourth of July was as good as mine. I ended up accidentally taking my 9 year old to her first concert and we got to stand up by the front row for REO speedwagon. It blew her mind. Then on the way home, some family member of the band ran into us and gave us a signed guitar pick. Needless to say, it was a great day! I hope you all had a wonderful time too!

Sara Shawl almost done!

So the biggest news I have is that I have finally started the beading portion of the Sara Shawl. It's lovely, and I have some more beads, and a charm to put on it before it's done, but here are the latest pics of it. I am hoping to get it totally done this weekend.

It looks a little bit crooked up there on the stand because I had a helper. I can't believe we start week 52 this week! It does not feel like she's a year old! It's flown.

I've also done a couple of other projects this week. One was a chocolate brown strand of pearls wound around copper chain and rhinestones, with a wire wrapped copper watch at the bottom. It was from a class and I am not entirely happy with how it was done so you won't be seeeing it til I've adjusted to my specifications. :)

Tonight I did a gorgeous copper necklace using pink, heart and flower shaped lampworked beads and swarovski crystals in rose and green, and sort of a moonstone color. It has matching earrings. I'll take pics when the sun is up tomorrow, in the natural light.

I've been getting a lot of joy from the jewelry making. I remember a point in time when I was about 18 when I had really wanted to start my own business making jewelry with paper beads and whatever else I could find. My family totally shot me down, told me it would never work. I had wanted to call it Windscry Designs. Funny enough, here I am 21 years later, disabled, in a new phase of my life, and husband and I are opening jewelry company of the same name! I can't work all the time but once I am actually able to finish something and get it up on etsy, it's great. I don't even necessarily care how fast it sells, I am just so happy one of my creations is out there and someone is appreciating it!! It's sort of like having creativity in a bottle for 20 years and suddenly it all comes gushing out. It's a rush. Funnily enough, I come from a family that has many successful artists so I am not sure why I was told it would never work for me, but here I am.

For all of you with fibromyalgia out there, remember: at some point you will get to the butterfly phase. When you get there you'll know. It's not that the pain goes away, but you find ways to work your life around it, and that is that. If you have toxic people in your life get them out! Find your way through the dark and out of the cocoon, and blossom.

New stuff to do as ever!

I finally got silver bales and the right kind of sealant in for those scrabble tile pendants, so in about a week I should have some cured ones to show that look more dimensional than the last ones I was working on! I'll let you all know if the resin I got is the right one so you don't waste time if you are trying to do scrabble pendants. It is also useful to use in empty metal cabochons if you wish to turn interesting silk paper or something into a pendant.

My project this week has been a wire crocheted necklace which I have named  "Moonlit Sea". It's covered in moonstone crystal beads, violet beads, and black and smoky pink pearls. I had a terrible time getting a good picture of it because my camera luminesced on the moonstone no matter what I did. I forgot and wore one of these necklaces out on errands today and people kept stopping me to ask me where I'd gotten it. The whole thing is on silver wire. It was not difficult to make, but it took a couple of hours.

I put it up on my etsy and artfire shops. I may have to redo this project in copper and green just to see how it comes out!!! :)

As far as the fibromyalgia goes, I have been having issues with my hands and arms so am going in tomorrow for trigger point injections. Let's hope it helps because I want to craft more!

Also, have just been through big, traumatic, but necessary cycle of explaining to extended family what fibro does to me. It was sort of a scary experience to send out all of those envelopes. I am still waiting for some sort of reaction from them, if any. Any fibro folks on this page who can relate to that?

Jewelry and Clay and Crocheting, Oh my!!

I've been a busy bee. Here's a pic of my workspace tonight.

I have been working on my first scrabble tile pendants, which are curing near thetop of the blue board. Here's a closer pic of them:

I made the mistake of putting them in a bag after they'd only been drying for 24 hours and some of them stuck together a bit. Not good. I think they need about 3 days to cure corectly! All I have to do now is order the bails to go on the backs of them and we have pendants. :)

I've also been playing with Clay this week and not much to show you there because I need to wait til there is some daylight before I take a picture of a project I used some clay roses in. They are useful for all sorts of things but hard to make small. My 9 year old daughter is extremely enthused about the clay and has been doing a bit of clay work every day. I taught her to make roses and now I need to watch some more tutorials so I have more to show her. :)

Jewelry wise, I've been busy tonight. I took a class on making triple stranded  necklaces. We did not get time to finish the project before the store closed, so I ended up making the last strand here at home, then as I was trying it on, one of my other strands had a crimp bead fail, so I had some work to do. It just goes to shoe what happens when I rush. (that or maybe I was just having issues because my hands were hurting a lot tonight. Bad fibro night.) The necklace is made of silver wire and silver plated findings, freshwater pearls (in white, pink, black and cream,) crystal and hematite. The only pearls on it that are not natural are the very large ones on the outside, and that was becaue they were the only beads we could find that were large enough to suit what class syllabus called for. So those pearls are glass.

Here are a couple of pictures of the necklace in progress:

Had to add a picture of the clasp even though it's a bit sepia toned here. I was playing with camera settings.

Anyway, putting the whole thing up on Etsy in a day or two here when the sun is good. :)

As for the crocheting, I am almost in the final stages of the Sara shawl, with maybe 2-4 rows left before I will edge it and bead it. I can't wait to finish it!  The Michaela scarf is nearly done too, with just a 1/2 of a side of beading to do and then it's done! :)

Hope life is good for all of you out there.

Wrinkles making me happy!?

I knew the day was coming when I would look in the mirror and see my first wrinkle. I am 39, so generally when I look in the mirror my face is very smooth. I take good care of it because I am allergic to sunlight, so it does not get a lot of sun damage or exposure.

Then last night I was getting ready to go off to the Silent Auction for my older daughter's school. She was standing in the bathroom joking with me and I smiled at her in the mirror, Suddenly I had tiny crow's feet! I was delighted! This was not the reaction I had expected to finding my first real wrinkle, but what a happy way to welcome aging.

My daughter was amazed when I pointed them out to her. She thought I would be upset and I said "No no Honey! These are happy lines! They mean I smile a lot!" So anyway, If I am going to have a line on my face I'll take those any day over a frown line. I actually treasure the crow's feet on the faces of people I love.

Speaking of smiling, there's been a bit of that around here this week. Daughter got an award at school today for her talent with academics and her sketching. She was thrilled.

Family is calming down and things seems better all the way around than they did 2 weeks ago.

I've been crafting. I spent last night playing with Fimo clay, trying to make tiny rose beads to go on some of my jewelry creations and was only partially successful. I see potential there. I did make a funny heart with Fimo last night that made it onto a bracelet/earring set I crafted using some of my hand rolled paper beads and some czech crystal and freshwater pearls. I named it "I left my Heart in the Garden" since the paper beads were named "Pink Peony" and the other charm on the bracelet is a silver ladybug. I added a couple more charms since these pics were taken, just to balance the bracelety out a bit more.

I have it up for sale now in my etsy shop. I am on Showcase for bracelets all day today, so thought I'd offer a deal for the 2 as a set.

I hope you are all having a great Memorial Day weekend.

Back in the saddle (so to speak)

It's been an adventurous two weeks. My family has been going through some stuff, coming to terms with the fibromyalgia and the sleep disorder, and also there's been some tussling and strife over my daughter. I think we've ironed it out. Sometimes the knots and bumps in the road a family takes are the hardest to iron out, so the last week hasn't been easy.  On the bright side I think we're doing better for it. Funnily enough, I think there is as much change to get used to for my family as I come out of my fibro funk and begin to reinvent my life despite the illness, as there was getting used to the illness in the first place.

This week I am doing double showcases on Etsy.com for my crocheted items. This has lit a fire under my behind to get 2 of my shawls up, photo'd and DONE. Here they are. :)

So there has been lots of crafting going on over here. I have also taken a few more jewelry making classes and I am starting to get good at wire wrapping. I've been doing some of that with turquoise, which I don't have a good picture of yet, and some more earrings and memory wire bracelets.

 I am torn now between wanting to make jewelry and wanting to crochet and am finding myself now combinging the two. I have 2 projects coming up now that I've taught myself to bead. I am liking this juxtaposition!

Ok, so today did not start too well. I got up with the baby and had one of those terrible, skull crushing sinus headaches that was so bad I could not keep my eyes open. I ended up putting baby in her rolling chair with come cheerios to munch on, putting one hand on the chair and peeking at her intermittently through squinty eyes while I waited for either the excedrine, the caffeine and or the sinus pressure medicine to kick in. Throughout this, there was a guy right outside with a chainsaw trimming a GIANT tree we have in front of the house. The noise was not helping, but the tree looks really good now, and potentially we could build a 2 story treehouse in it.

I was rescued by my mother in law who had just come in from her knitting class, and she sent me up to bed with ice packs to put on my sinuses. It worked! I'd never done that before. Anyway, I was able to get back up after 2 hours, drive to get my older child and start watching the baby again. Crisis averted.

Spent this evening watching The King's Speech, which  is essentially a story about courage.  It was very good. I sat through the entire movie, stringing some very tricky little ribbon through the Michaela scarf that I keep talking about.  The project is now at about 90% completion and I have a sneak peak photo.

It's hard to see the sparkle of the moonlight mohair yarn in this pic and it does not show the laciness of the ribbon well, but gives an idea of the stage we are in the process. :)

Hope you all are out there happily crafting, or sleeping at this hour.

Spent this afternoon with my older daughter teaching her how to make beaded bracelets on elastic cords with crimp beads. She made me a beautiful purple and black one for mother's day. I think she enjoyed the extra time and attention, and I loved the time with just her.

Tonight we went and had great sushi and frozen yogurt, then we hit the bookstore. I got a great book that has quite a bit on wire wrapping copper and crocheting with beads.  ( can't remember the name of the book now!!)  Going to get off of the computer a bit earlier tonight and play around a bit with my new beads and findings, may even finish a project!!

Hope you all enjoyed your sunday (or monday depending on where you are. ) :)

I haven't posted in a few days! It's been a very busy week over here. On top of my normal Mommy duties I have had a teething baby, and have been doing some crafting as time permits. I've been taking some Jewelry classes over at Michael's Craft Stores and also getting my shawls and scarves squared away. I finally got my dress dummy so I've been able to determine what needs more yarn and what's ready for other stuff, like beading, ribbon, etc.

Michael's has been doing crafting classes again finally after a 3 year break in their classes. All this time they've limited it to wilton cake decorating. Finally they are branching out again. I am the sole student in the beading class so am enjoying the one on one time with the very nice instructor.

This week I took a wire wrapping class that left me with lots of inspiration as to how to use my funny paper beads on earrings and pendants. Next month the class is on how to make memory wire bracelets. Here are some pics from my first wire wrapping efforts at this week's class:

Anyway, it's fun, and I am starting now to develop a huge fondness for copper wrapped jewelry (the ones above are silver or gold wrapped) because I love copper, and I think it's very neat that you can recycle electrical wire to make something beautiful.

The beading all ties to the crochet as well because I am getting more and more interested in adding beaded embellishments to my crochet projects (not on items for babies!!!!) and I have to get used to working with beads again.

Family is being ever more supportive as they understand my sleep disorder and my fibromyalgia better. It's easing the stress in the house and making us all generally happier. This is sometimes not an easy hurdle for fibro patients to get over, but I am finally starting to get there.

My family is happy to see me doing some art/crafting that makes me light up inside and brings some joy to my life. Fibro patients go through a phase where they can give up on everything, and I am leaving it finally.

It's so important to do things that bring joy to us and express our feelings, be they good or bad. If you're creative those feelings can come out in an artistic format.  So often we're all so concerned about our everyday pressures and stress that we forget or neglect to make that time for ourselves. It's important, even if it's only 20 minutes a day. Do something that makes you feel great.

It nourishes the soul and well being. I've had my creativity stuck in a bottle for 20 years and am enjoying surprising myself, and my family by what I am seeing flowing out. I hope I'm teaching my daughters to create too.

If you're not taking this time for yourself, to do something that gives you joy and peace, find it. Force the time if you have to. Life is way too short!!!

We are having fun over here this evening drinking Mojitos and getting the easter baskets ready for the little ones. Yesterday I stuffed eggs and there was  nothing left for the golden egg so I was up until 5 am making a beaded bracelet to go in  there. It turned out pretty cute and easter-ish looking.

Nothing fun and crafty to say in here tonight. I just hope you all have a wonderful Easter, or any other day you may be having this weekend. Most of all I hope that you have family close to you and that you are enjoying time with them!

Purple bag done!

So yesterday I started messing with some purple yarn and came out of it at the end with a ice 6 inch tall drawstring bag, that I hand beaded with some pretty iridescent japanese seed beads. I'd never beaded a crocheted item before so it was all new to me. It actually came out looking pretty good!

Anyway, it was a practice run for the beading I would like to do on the exploratory shawl. So now that beading should look very nice. :)

Spent the rest of my evening stuffing easter eggs for Sunday.  We have a big party here with the whole family and eat lots of yummy stuff, and watch all of the cute kids run around all over trying to find their eggs while the adults drink mimosas. I ended up making a hemp bracelet to go inside of the golden egg, because I did not have a 5 dollar bill,  which was what I thought would go well in there.


I also got my sewing dummy today so now I can finally progress on a couple of projects that have been at a full stop :) I think this weekend is going to be fun!

I wish you all a Happy Easter!