back to blogging, Yay!!!!

I absolutely cannot believe that almost a year has sped by since I have blogged! My store has been somewhat busy, my two girls aged 3 and 11 are keeping me on my toes, and their school always needs something.

I have been steadily trying to rebuild stock in the store. I had a buyer who became a good friend buy a lot of my fancier stuff, so I am restocking items of like quality, and adding some of the new designs we came up with together. I would put up a pic or two but do not have them here on the kindle.

I was also slowed down in a big way this summer by a big abdominal surgery that was supposed to be minor exploratory laparoscopy. The docs found a massive amount of scar tissue, endometriosis, and 3 cysts. It took me over a month to recover from that, and now I am on a cancer drug called Lupron to make some of those cysts stop appearing. Since June I have had at least two large ones come back that we know of. They are all non cancerous, but they hurt like the devil. No worries, I am cancer free, but I get to experience menopause for six months, which may be interesting.

Consequently I am spending lots of time in bed and not much at the torch making beads, or at my workbench making new stuff for fall. Oddly, I did get some vintage looking rose earrings done, but people won't be so excited about those until spring. ;)

I have been working on a huge "garden granny" Afghan, that is in about twelve colours. I like it but have trouble making some of the squares if the color combo does not catch my sense of deliciousness. Recently some of the antique rose in the design had been quite yummy and encouraging. Do you guys ever feel that way about yarn in large projects?

I will put up some pictures if I get my kindle here out to visit the workbench.

I am also doing some chain maille, on the small scale, working my way up to dragonscale, but it's going to be awhile, since I am just really doing Byzantine and romanov.

Anyway, it's great to talk at all of you! I think blogging is a joy and need to get back to it. I am also on pinterest as skyemberr king if any of you would like to check out my boards. I have a lot of stuff in there that you will probably like and I am interested to start following you all!

I hope your weekend had been full of "fun" back to school stuff.

I am excited, stressed, sort of pulling hair out, and jumping up and down today trying to get my taxes done. It's been so busy for the last month that I had only gathered the papers and not actually sat down to do them!  I managed to get about 60% of the way through last night and am now twiddling thumbs because the 21 month old REALLY does not want me to do taxes unless she's "helping" me. (Though who knows? Maybe that's a good thing when it comes to IRS forms)

The good news is that it was busy due to an awesome wedding, my 40th birthday, and tons of sales in both shops!

Next weekend I get to attend a beginners lampworking class here and learn the basics of glass bead making with torch and kiln. I have really come to be fascinated with that art as I use lampwork more and more in my work. I love to look at beads now and try to figure out how they were done. Then I got to have a "play date" with a torch a couple of months ago and loved it. So that is my 40th birthday present. Friends and family chipped in so I could take the class.

Am I upset about 40? Not really. I actually feel pretty lucky at present. I am retired. I get to see my kids all day and randomly take them to the beach.  I get to make creative things and occasionally sell them. I captain my own ship and if somebody annoys me I don't have to work with them. I really don't feel different crossing the 40 line, just probably less stressed than when I crossed the 30 line. It's pretty nice.

I would say my only gripe is still the Fibromyalgia and zillions of accompanying physical problems, but I have reached the stage where I have found the lemons I was given, made lemonade out of them, and most of the time am on the porch sipping lemonade. If I take things VERY slowly I can get some things done, like planting a garden.

That's what life really is anyway.  It's a garden and as the old saying goes, you reap what you sow. You get out of it, what you put into it. "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make."

Love you all out there that are trying to "plant your gardens" or even get through your own personal lemon grove just so you can make lemonade. There's hope. If you are newly diagnosed with one of the silent illnesses that rage through our bodies, you're not crazy. Listen to yourself. Listen to your doctors, but with a grain of salt. You know what's best for you and with many illnesses the management is unique to the individual. For instance, I take lyrica, and that med makes some people really sick, others not.

Just keep trying and you will eventually find ways to manage parts of your illness and things DO get better. 

Again, if any of you want to message me on FB under windscrydesigns, or here on blogger to talk about this, or if you just want to post, please do!

Spring is here!

Spring is here, and my garden outside is blossoming. The roses are slowly coming back with gorgeous shiny foliage and tiny buds that are exploding into lovely blooms.

My peach trees are covered in tiny fuzzy baby peaches that are about the size of a fingernail. Here is a pic of the first peach blossoms:

I have been out weeding all of the beds and trying to get a handle on what sort of space we have back there. I can sow a lot of seed directly into the ground here due to the climate, as long as I keep up on my watering. So far we will be growing:

Dwarf Nastutriums in mixed colors
California poppies for my daughter's grassy slope that she loves to play on
Cucumbers (straight eight variety)
Velvet Queen red sunflowers
Mammoth Russian Sunflowers (yellow)
Scarlet Emperor Runner Beans
Early Golden Bantam Sweet Corn
Ruby Queen Sweet Corn (red)
Grandpa Ott Morning Glories (dark purple with pink centers)
Sweet Onions
Catnip
Nasturtiums (rambling variety)
Yellow summer Squash
Zucchini
Sugar Pie Pumpkins
Crimson Sweet Watermelon
Petite sweet carrots
grapes
apricots
peaches
guavas
pomegranates
Lemons
dwarf oranges
Kumquats
Yams
Red Potatoes
Aloe
Tomatoes
Strawberries (TONS)

Herbs:
African Blue Basil
Thyme
Basil
Greek Oregano
Parsley (flatleaf)
Garlic
Rose petals and hips
Lavender
Yes, I know, it's quite a list but seeds were 20 cents a pack so we went a little nuts, and some of the other stuff we already had in place. We are also adding Pink Jasmine on a trellis, Lantanas, Hibiscus, and Purple calla lilies.

We hope to make lots of Jam out of the fruits, eat and/or can or freeze the veggies. The garden came with many mature fruit trees and a green house so we already have a leg up! The Zucchini will turn into a lot of zuchini bread for family and friends.

Other than being obsessed about planning the garden, things have been ok. My ebay business selling Vera Bradley bags has been doing well this month, and I am having to restock to keep something in shop!  My spring items that over wintered are ready to come out and be sold,

The jewelrymaking has progressed. I got a GORGEOUS workbench for Christmas, so have a space to organize and work. I am hoping to take a beginner's lampworking class in April and then expand and ventilate the space in the garage a bit and use it to make some beads.

I went through a pretty tough month last month, which is part of why I had not blogged. I don't have depresion most of the time, but the sleep doctor put me on Zoloft, which actually made me depressed and made me feel like I was too weak to get out of bed most of the time, though I did not sleep. ><

I even felt like my creative juices were cut off so I stopped making things for about 3 weeks!!! It also caused what I think is a tendinitis (or at the least a fibro flare) in my left shoulder that has been killing me, so I am having to take Lorcet for pain 1 to 2 times in the evening. I am hoping my doc can fix the shoulder issue on Friday. :)

Now I am on Lexapro on the tiniest dose they can give me. I feel no anxiety, but it's not helping me go to sleep, LOL. Here I am at 5 am typing this.

Family matters still are what they are. No fences have been mended. We have a wedding coming up for my brother in law next week, so we will be there. I am a little anxious about that because , after we went to the engagement party someone in the family was posting nasty things about my 9 year old. I don't think they will do it again, but we will be studiously ignoring that part of the family and instead, focusing on experiencing the joy of seeing our brother FINALLY marrying the right lady.  We love you Ang. :)

So anyway, that's what I have been up to. If you would like to see my new jewelry it is at http://www.etsy.com/shop/WindscryDesigns

My Vera Bradley Handbags and Lands End stuff is in my Ebay store at:

http://stores.ebay.com/skyemberr

I should be getting some very cool new Vera Bradley patterns in within the next week. I am expecting Rhapsody in Hue, Tea Garden, Twirly Birds in Alice, Makes Me Blush in Alice, and possibly some Carmody and Mocha Rouge. :) Please feel free to ask me if you are looking for a Vera pattern in particular and I can try to get it in stock at a good price.

Please post below and tell me how YOUR garden is doing. Are you making any plans? Do you want chickens this year?

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!

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.

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! :)

More Beads and some shawl

Today I made beads by myself, as the daughter was behind due to having to go and pose in a pink dress at Picture People with her 9 month old little sister. She liked everything about it except for the pink part. She is absolutely NOT a girly girl. I was not unhappy about the solitary beadmaking. It's sort of like pulling weeds in the backyard, it gives you quiet time to reflect.

I went out and invested in some clear, spray on acrylic which has greatly sped up the process, and I notice that my bead rolling has improved, but I need to work on some other forms. The spherical paper beads intrigue me.

So anyway, I made bright yellow with bits of green peeking in here and there, green with bits of watermelon pink, brown with red and turquoise, and violet of  course. That's my favorite color but I think they are the blandest of the bunch tonight. I'll put up some pics tomorrow after the varnish dries.

My Fibromyalgia is keeping me nice and awake again like it's 3 in the afternoon, so I am about to pick up the Sara Like Tiara Shawl, practice shawl and work on it for a bit. Here's a pic of it in progress so far. I think it needs a bit of soft mohair woven in and a little bit of  sparkle, but I am still loving this yarn which is  Lion's Amazing in Ruby.

I get to take off the annoying wristwatch I have been wearing for two weeks after tomorrow, and turn it into the sleep clinic on Monday. Maybe they'll finally figure out what, if anything they can do to put me on daytime hours so I can spend more time with my baby girl. In the meanwhile I'm going to suck up the quiet time here and enjoy having the silence to create. :)