Curveballs

My Etsy design team has been hit with a lot of curveballs lately. Eliat's mother is ill in Israel. Eliat will travel halfway across the world to be with her soon. Marie just lost her father - in- law. Other members have been ill. We carry on, and work together as a team, supporting each other, lending an ear, a message, a cyber arm around the shoulders as we can to let each other know that we are there.

My husband was laid off from his job today. We did not see this coming, even with the economy stinking as bad as what it is. Paul is the only one doing the job that he does for his company/division. But wouldn't you know it, the company that own's Paul's foundry has decided to outsource Paul's to outside shops. Doing so makes that part of the job more expensive, but then they are not paying salary and benefits. This becomes our 4th layoff since November 2001, which occured just two weeks after I had my first brain surgery. At least I don't have any major surgeries that I know of planned for this year (although my back needs to be fused, but I am putting that off).

We thought, that after four years, we were safe. That we could settle. We could breathe. We were finallygetting back on our feet from the last round of layoffs. And here we are again. In utter shock and disbelief.Paul is 56, back on the job market again on Monday.

We are putting our faith in God that he will sustain us during this time, and build up our strength. That He will not let us stumble, and will carry us when we are weak. But I am human. And I worry. This is all too much for me to handle, so I appreciate your thoughts and prayers too.



Thanks a lot, my artisan friends and sisters...

Elizabeth

Love In Bloom

Ah, what female does not love to receive two dozen roses, ANY color, from her beloved on a special occasion? That was my inspiration for the February design challenge for the Etsy BridalDreamTeam "Favorite Things".

I had purchased three different styles of handmade glass roses almost two years ago,
but had not known what to do with them for all of this time, except make two pairs of earrings and a necklace. The little dearies had not spoken to me until a few days before the challenge deadline that this tiara was what they were meant to be.

I love designing with floral motifs. Whether it is making silk roses, like those that I have used on several wedding gown projects or headpieces, or making flowers from gemstones, pearls and Swarovski crystals. This must be an influence from my mother, since our home always had a floral arrangement on the table, for any occasion, not just special ones. Mom does beautiful arrangements, even now in her 80's. But no flowered wallpaper. That is just too much. That is another story.

A Day in History

Did you watch the innaugeration on TV today? It was breath taking! I have never wanted to see an innaugeration so much, or found one more meaningful. It was exciting to see history being made today. To realize, that in the USA,anything is possible. The innaugeral speech was amazing. I really loved how Pres. Obama is holding all of us accountable, not just the government, for the future of the USA. The news coverage has been really interesting. The invocation and benediction by the pastors was wonderful too.

And watching the family, to see Michelle and Barack's interaction with those two lively little girls, that was so endearing. There was a picture of the littlest one, giving her dad a thumbs up. What an amazing day this has been. The interviews of the crowd of bystanders has been so interesting. Everyone there has been so excited to witness history. To have a have their own place in this day of history, to be able to tell their children, "I was there when the first African American man became President". Today was a day, when race did not exhist. We are all Americans. Not just white Americans, African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, Latin Americans, and the list goes on. We are United Americans. Ah, God Bless America!

Feathers and snow...

There are feathers everywhere. The carpet of course all around my work area.
I think my poodle has been snorting them. They are caught in her fur. The feathers are on my clothes, my tray, a few have even made it to my bedroom!

They are fun! Michele tried to convince me several years ago to use ostrich feathers. I said it would never "fly". Oh my. Was I wrong! They are beautiful, and I enjoy creating with them. They are beautiful for this winter theme, for the BridalDreamTeam Winter Magic Challenge. I have heard that other artists in our group are using them too, so I can't wait to see what else is represented! Feathers add such a sense of playfulness, glamour and drama all at the same time. I see now, why my mother enjoyed making feathered hats. I remember the pheasant feathers that she would have arcing off the side of her hat towards the back.

Meanwhile, I am looking forward to designing more headpieces with feathers in the coming weeks. Our local television station even said they were fashionable this year. Even Erie, with our record setting year of snow, is catching up to fashion!
My back yard looks like is the downy white feathers of pillows that have lost the fight. And the blue spruce along the fense are elegant, with the snow laying on top of the branches like ostrich wing feathers.

So, now it is time to get ready for the next challenge. But shhh....! It is a secret! At least I have something to do until we are dug out from all this snow!

New Beading Area

Its done! My new beading area is finally set up! I have been reorganizing for the past few days, and I finally have everything set up just about the way I like it. Maria wondered if it would stay this nice, and I do think it will. My beads were never that messy, and had always stayed organized. It was just that there was no lace for everything else.

I was going to take before pictures. BUT...while Paul was working on the new shelves, he decided to use the big "pounding commander" an antique wooden block hammer that sits on top of the filing cabinet behind the tub where the beads were sitting, to pound in the wooden tabs that covered the screws. Well, he DROPPED the block hammer on the beads. Two of the containers shattered, the top jars, and crystals went FLYING everywhere. Paul was just horrified. Literally. I remained calm. It was only two containers of beads that had spilled. I have done much worse. I told him that he just needed to pick everthing up, since I couldn't get on the floor. And so he did. He put the beads in a container, and even put the broken bits of plastic on my tray. I don't know what he thought I was going to do with the pieces of
plastic...

Anyway...these shelves are great. The assembly was so easy. The shelves just simply fold down! There were wooden plugs to go over screw holes. I was able to bring almost everything in from the front room, except for a few things from the hutch where the beads had been stored. Yippee! Then, in the front room, I moved my books from the shelving unit, which had these awful shelves that were very hostile to books, over to the hutch. All my books just fit. Then my yarns went up on the shelf, from the bags that were on the floor, and into the bottom of the hutch. Ok, now I can really see just what my yarn stash is now! Uh oh. Its there for all the world to see. Well, at least it can be organized. And compared to a lot of knitters, it is a very small stash. When I told Maria about an upcoming sale, she said "Resist, Resist!

So, above, is a picture of my revised beading area. Next project is to clean off the coffee table, and find it! There are a lot of books, magazines and projects on it. I knit on the couch, and bead in the beading area. And sew in the front room. Photography in the diningroom, drill glass in the kitchen. Office is also in the family room. The mannequin is in the guestroom. Ha ha, very little
of this house is untouched by my endeavors. The beads have taken over.

Getting back to designing

Well, the vacation time is over, now it is time to get back to dividing my time between designing for the next challenge (shhh!!!!!!!!!! its a secret!!!!!!!!) and getting ready for Christmas!

So, how does the home artist do this? Spend one day working on Christmas, and the next day working on business? Divide the day in half? Move as the spirit leads, or as the projects for Christmas (22 days from now) complete themselves? Ever the procrastinator, I am no where near done. I have just finished Mom's gift. Joanne's and Beth's are done. Dad's is halfway done. Cathie's is not started. This is what happens when a knitter knits for Christmas. I may have to change some plans. Cathie will not mind getting jewelry for Christmas, and her knitted gift for her birthday. Hmmmm....problem solved. Ok, that will work.

But that means that the jewelry project that I had started for her, a bead weaving project...whoops, cat partially out of the bag...is rather complex and a time eater too. I love my sister, and I can't imagine this project done any either way. What to do?

I do this every year at Christmas. Well, I must love doing Christmas this way, or I would not be repeating the habit. So this elf will hop between her knitting needles and her beading tray and pliers. As her hands or shoulders complain, I guess that will be the timing to switch projects I guess.

But Christmas would not be the same by shopping at the mall. I would rather shop for beads, stones and yarns, and then get real busy instead. OK, I might bitch and whine about how far behind I am. But that is just part of getting ready for Christmas. Paul will have to take over a few dinners. Or buy a few rotisserie chickens. I'll keep on knitting and beading.

Thanks Glamorosi, the leader of the Bridal Dream Team, for including the picture of the hair pin that I have included here on our team blog, http://www.bridaldreamteam.blogspot.com/ . I really appreciate it!

Antique Desk

I saw the most perfect desk. Absolutely perfect. I had seen it before at the antique shop and now I had come back to negotiate the price. I knew that the antique dealer would go down at least 10%. I figured I could afford at least that much. This would be a great piece to use for my
beading work station in the living room.

Then, I saw a chair. I started unloading stuff from the chair to get a better look at it. The chair was little wobbly, not quite the right color, but it could work. Hmm, could I afford both? And the next question was, these pieces were way to large to fit in our Nissan. But I knew that Paul would know how to get them home. There was so much stuff on this chair. The dealer had it decorated for who knows what. Doilies, pins on the doilies. Tons of crap.

Time to negotiate and find the dealer. Where was she? Uh oh. The regular dealer wasn't here. A lady with long hair and a plaid shirt came waddling into the shop. So, I asked her if she could do anything on the desk. She said that she didn't know, it wasn't her shop. But the dealer had left her a list. She looked up the desk on the list. 60% off! My heart lept! The perfect desk was about to be mine. Now for the chair. But before I could ask her, the phone rang, and she excused herself.

I woke up. Damn. What a great antiques dream.