Amazon.com: Books: The Adept (Adept)
Okay, so, time for me to admit that my personal "library" has gotten totally out of control. Our small house just can't contain all of these books so, sadly, I must give up my dream of hanging onto all of them until one day I have a room entirely devoted to housing my collection. I had this pipe dream of a room with deep, plush carpeting, a comfy armchair recliner, a good light and all four walls having floor-to-ceiling bookshelves (except for the one spot for the fireplace). Most people would probably add a cat or two to this dream but since I'm deathly allergic to them, my dream-library is a pet-free zone. Actually, thanks to a dream-lock on the dream-door, it's also a husband, child and phone free zone as well :-) This is a REALLY BIG room, too, so there are probably some free-standing shelf units in the middle of the room as well and interesting cases of valuable knick knacks from all of my world travels, oh, and as long as I'm at it, I might as well throw in one or two of those sliding ladder thingies for reaching the books on the top shelves...except how will those work on the carpet? Hmm...well, it is a dream after all so just shut up and go with it ;-)
Anyway, the point is, unless I suddenly win the lotto, this dream ain't gonna happen sooooo....since we'll be having a neighborhood garage sale in two weeks, I've got to go through and cull out what books I can before then. Sob! Any leftovers will go to the local library.
As I'm culling, I'm finding time to re-read some of my special favorites that I'll be keeping and that includes "The Adept" series by Katherine Kurtz. I love her "Deryni" series as well (actually, just about anything by Ms. Kurtz is on my list of "cannot get rid of unless I'm dead" books).
In "The Adept" series, Sir Adam Sinclair is both a psychiatrist and a consultant to the Scottish police on matters of the occult (and, turns out, he has more than his fair share of occult powers as well). I know the occult dectective has been done a lot recently ("Angel", "Buffy", etc.) but this series has a lot more in common w/ Sherlock Holmes while still maintaining a good, fast pace and interesting action. Ms. Kurtz provides a lot of detail on Scottish history and I really enjoy the way she weaves knowledge of famous battles, castles, etc. in through the book.
She owns and is restoring Holybrooke Hall in Ireland and if you'd like to read more of her adventures, here's a link to her own website:
http://www.deryni.net/derynihome.html
It's not quite as up to date as one might hope, but it does have some interesting information and a list of all of her works.
I get so jealous reading about the house she's working on. I was so born in the wrong age and on the wrong continent...I really, really lust after having a castle complete with ghosts LOL! I bet if I had one, it'd have room for a library! Oooh...and secret passages, too. I need me a coupla those along with a hidden treasure room (and treasure to put in it LOL!)
Aah well...a girl can dream.
Take care all!
KJ
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
And today's picture (because I'm too lazy to write a complete blog entry) is of some earrings I made out of lampwork hummingbirds by Ginger Sanders w/ some Bali vermeil spacers and Czech crystals. Ginger works w/ Pyrex glass and a technique called "fuming" to get the vibrant colors. I just love her work and will be bringing more of it into my jewelry - hummingbirds, flowers, leaves, dolphins and more!
Monday, April 18, 2005
Same ol', same ol'
Well, things are finally starting to get back to normal around here after the last three CRAZY weeks! No shows, no trips, no unexpected accidents or deaths, etc. Warning...I'll probly be sad about my grandmother's death for a while and when I'm sad, it tends to translate into dark (and kinda inappropriate) attempts at humor so iffen that bugs ya...well, check back in a few weeks/months. Otherwise, read on ;-)
Took Ryan to the swimming pool at the club on Saturday morning. "The club" btw refers to the neighborhood association clubhouse in my parents' neighborhood. But since that's the same neighborhood I grew up in and there was only one clubhouse at the time...well, we just call it "the club." And I guess I got spoiled because I thought all planned neighborhoods w/ associations had recreational clubhouses (what are association fees for after all?) but apparently I was wrong as we pay TWO different association fees (neighborhood and city) and live in one of the most planned (and desirable) communities around and WE DON'T HAVE SQUAT! It really bugs me. I basically spent half my life at that clubhouse between swim team practice, Girl Scout meetings, tennis lessons, and just basically hanging out over there on summer afternoons. It was local (easy walking distance) so it was one of the few places that my friends and I could just take off and go to w/o needing a ride or parental supervision. I'm glad my parents still live there so I can use their membershipt to take Ryan...otherwise, there wouldn't be anyplace except a little inflatable pool in our driveway to take him :-(
Anyway...back to my story of Saturday. We couldn't go in the kiddie/wading pool because out of all 3 pools...that's the one they don't heat. BRRR! It was FREEZING! So, we ended up over at the adult pool (which I'm sure the other adults just loved) but there were several parents over there with little ones because it was the only one that was warm enough to entice the kidlets into it and no one seemed to be complaining so I figured we'd go until we got kicked out. Ryan of course didn't want to even play on the steps at first...then he saw somebody do a cannonball into the deep end and decided THAT's where he wanted to play. So, I ended up standing on the edge of the deep end, holding him by the wrists and dunking him in up to his waist (and before anyone freaks out...he was wearing a flotation vest so even if he'd somehow managed to squirm out of the deathgrip I had on his arms, he'd've been fine until I could get to him). We did that for about 30 minutes which turned out to be all my back could take so my dad came and took over and dunked him for another 20 minutes. He loved it. Gonna have to look into some actual swimming lessons real soon, I guess.
I got some of the new merchandise (which I REFUSE to call "show leftovers" LOL) scanned and I've been working on adding them to the website, but I probably won't do an upload until I have everything done. There are just too many links back and forth between matching items and other complications that have to all be completed before I upload anything or visitors are going to get really frustrated, really quickly. So, more scanning on the horizon for me tonight...that's if I get dinner done quickly enough as DH informed me this morning that he'd like an occasional home-cooked meal if I thought I could fit it into my busy schedule (see aforementioned list of bead shows, vacations and death) sometime before he divorces me LOL! So, time to pull out my old stand-by of porkchops & orange rice. This was one of my favorites when I was growing up and I just LOVE that it's so easy to make. We're talking 6 ingredients (and that's only if you count salt and pepper separately), 15 minutes of prep time and then shove it in the oven and walk away to do something else for the next hour while it cooks. Plus, I love that you get main course and side dish all-in-one. Cut up some fruit or dump some salad out of a bag (yeah, we eat bagged salad, so what...wanna make somethin' of it? LOL!) et voila! Bon appetit! Or as I like to say: "Stand back, Rachael Ray!"
The only sad thing is that I really do enjoy cooking (and I think I'm not half bad at it as long as I have a recipe to follow) but I just don't ever have the time to really do it justice. I just don't feel like getting into a big production when I get home from work in the evening (and that's assuming that I actually HAVE all the ingredients on hand and don't have to go to the store) because you know there's all the prep work, then the actual eating, then the cleaning up of the kid/kid's area (which depending on his mood can be a MAJOR undertaking) and then all the dishes and general clean up to be done. And then it's time to go to bed and I hate that feeling of not having accomplished anything except work, cook, clean, sleep, get up and go back to work. Sigh..every working mother's complaint, I suppose.
I'd tell you what I did on Sunday, but it turned out to be absolutely NADA! I didn't feel too great and I took some medicine which knocked me on my butt for the rest of the day. I kept thinking about trying to get up, but it seemed like too much effort. Maybe the last 3 weeks finally caught up with me or something (or maybe it was the 37,000 loads of laundry I had to do?) Anyway, it was a wasted day - dang, I hate when that happens!
I guess that's about it for now, although I'll try to add a new picture later today. Until I get all the website changes done, that's the best I can do so bear with me.
Take care all!
KJ
Took Ryan to the swimming pool at the club on Saturday morning. "The club" btw refers to the neighborhood association clubhouse in my parents' neighborhood. But since that's the same neighborhood I grew up in and there was only one clubhouse at the time...well, we just call it "the club." And I guess I got spoiled because I thought all planned neighborhoods w/ associations had recreational clubhouses (what are association fees for after all?) but apparently I was wrong as we pay TWO different association fees (neighborhood and city) and live in one of the most planned (and desirable) communities around and WE DON'T HAVE SQUAT! It really bugs me. I basically spent half my life at that clubhouse between swim team practice, Girl Scout meetings, tennis lessons, and just basically hanging out over there on summer afternoons. It was local (easy walking distance) so it was one of the few places that my friends and I could just take off and go to w/o needing a ride or parental supervision. I'm glad my parents still live there so I can use their membershipt to take Ryan...otherwise, there wouldn't be anyplace except a little inflatable pool in our driveway to take him :-(
Anyway...back to my story of Saturday. We couldn't go in the kiddie/wading pool because out of all 3 pools...that's the one they don't heat. BRRR! It was FREEZING! So, we ended up over at the adult pool (which I'm sure the other adults just loved) but there were several parents over there with little ones because it was the only one that was warm enough to entice the kidlets into it and no one seemed to be complaining so I figured we'd go until we got kicked out. Ryan of course didn't want to even play on the steps at first...then he saw somebody do a cannonball into the deep end and decided THAT's where he wanted to play. So, I ended up standing on the edge of the deep end, holding him by the wrists and dunking him in up to his waist (and before anyone freaks out...he was wearing a flotation vest so even if he'd somehow managed to squirm out of the deathgrip I had on his arms, he'd've been fine until I could get to him). We did that for about 30 minutes which turned out to be all my back could take so my dad came and took over and dunked him for another 20 minutes. He loved it. Gonna have to look into some actual swimming lessons real soon, I guess.
I got some of the new merchandise (which I REFUSE to call "show leftovers" LOL) scanned and I've been working on adding them to the website, but I probably won't do an upload until I have everything done. There are just too many links back and forth between matching items and other complications that have to all be completed before I upload anything or visitors are going to get really frustrated, really quickly. So, more scanning on the horizon for me tonight...that's if I get dinner done quickly enough as DH informed me this morning that he'd like an occasional home-cooked meal if I thought I could fit it into my busy schedule (see aforementioned list of bead shows, vacations and death) sometime before he divorces me LOL! So, time to pull out my old stand-by of porkchops & orange rice. This was one of my favorites when I was growing up and I just LOVE that it's so easy to make. We're talking 6 ingredients (and that's only if you count salt and pepper separately), 15 minutes of prep time and then shove it in the oven and walk away to do something else for the next hour while it cooks. Plus, I love that you get main course and side dish all-in-one. Cut up some fruit or dump some salad out of a bag (yeah, we eat bagged salad, so what...wanna make somethin' of it? LOL!) et voila! Bon appetit! Or as I like to say: "Stand back, Rachael Ray!"
The only sad thing is that I really do enjoy cooking (and I think I'm not half bad at it as long as I have a recipe to follow) but I just don't ever have the time to really do it justice. I just don't feel like getting into a big production when I get home from work in the evening (and that's assuming that I actually HAVE all the ingredients on hand and don't have to go to the store) because you know there's all the prep work, then the actual eating, then the cleaning up of the kid/kid's area (which depending on his mood can be a MAJOR undertaking) and then all the dishes and general clean up to be done. And then it's time to go to bed and I hate that feeling of not having accomplished anything except work, cook, clean, sleep, get up and go back to work. Sigh..every working mother's complaint, I suppose.
I'd tell you what I did on Sunday, but it turned out to be absolutely NADA! I didn't feel too great and I took some medicine which knocked me on my butt for the rest of the day. I kept thinking about trying to get up, but it seemed like too much effort. Maybe the last 3 weeks finally caught up with me or something (or maybe it was the 37,000 loads of laundry I had to do?) Anyway, it was a wasted day - dang, I hate when that happens!
I guess that's about it for now, although I'll try to add a new picture later today. Until I get all the website changes done, that's the best I can do so bear with me.
Take care all!
KJ
Friday, April 15, 2005
Finally had a chance to start scanning new stuff last night. I think it's going to take forever to get it all done and uploaded to the website, but here's a pair of David Christensen furnace glass earrings to tide you over in the meantime. As usual, the colors are much more vibrant and pretty in real life. What IS it about my scanner and the color lime? GRR!
Thursday, April 14, 2005
I'm BACK!
Returned from the funeral in New Mexico yesterday. The trip went smoothly (okay, it snowed one day, but other than that...)and the service was sad, but moving and beautiful. My grandmother was a devout Christian and had kept extensive records of her favorite scriptures and hymns so we were able to incorporate all of those into the service. Thank you to everyone who sent their condolences - I really appreciated all the support.
Silver Parrot is open for business again (I put all orders temporarily on hold via our shopping cart while I was out of town) but I wanted to thank everyone for their patience while we dealt with this family emergency.
I will say it was nice to visit Santa Fe again. I spent a lot of time there growing up as we visited my grandparents several times a year every year until I was in my late 20's! It really is such a terrific town with so much rich history to it - if you ever have a chance to visit, I highly recommend it. Of course, it made it extra special to have my mother taking us around and pointing out interesting tidbits of information. Since she grew up there, she has a unique perspective on the place. We had a brief chance to go by my grandparents' house, too. It was hard to see the changes that the new owners are making to what used to be their home (especially since my grandfather was the one who originally designed and built it). They've made major additions to both the front and the back so it really looks different.
I'm still hoping to start putting the new merchandise left over from the show up on the site, but probably won't get a chance to start scanning until MAYBE this evening (probably more like the weekend).
Take care everyone!
KJ
Silver Parrot is open for business again (I put all orders temporarily on hold via our shopping cart while I was out of town) but I wanted to thank everyone for their patience while we dealt with this family emergency.
I will say it was nice to visit Santa Fe again. I spent a lot of time there growing up as we visited my grandparents several times a year every year until I was in my late 20's! It really is such a terrific town with so much rich history to it - if you ever have a chance to visit, I highly recommend it. Of course, it made it extra special to have my mother taking us around and pointing out interesting tidbits of information. Since she grew up there, she has a unique perspective on the place. We had a brief chance to go by my grandparents' house, too. It was hard to see the changes that the new owners are making to what used to be their home (especially since my grandfather was the one who originally designed and built it). They've made major additions to both the front and the back so it really looks different.
I'm still hoping to start putting the new merchandise left over from the show up on the site, but probably won't get a chance to start scanning until MAYBE this evening (probably more like the weekend).
Take care everyone!
KJ
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
Bad News...
Just an FYI...
Silver Parrot Designs will be temporarily closed and I will be going no-mail as of today due to a death in the family. My grandmother passed away this morning - she was in her late 80's and had Parkinson's so I know she has gone to a better place where she's no longer suffering, but I loved her dearly and she will be very missed.
I'm not sure yet when the funeral will be, but she lived in New Mexico and will be buried in Santa Fe next to my grandfather so I expect we'll be taking off to go there some time soon.
Take care everyone and I'll announce when the store re-opens. In the meantime, if you'd like to see pictures of the recent show, feel free to visit the site and click on the blue star on the home page for pictures.
Take care all and be sure to hug your loved ones tonight or give 'em a call if they aren't in hugging distance!
KJ
Silver Parrot Designs will be temporarily closed and I will be going no-mail as of today due to a death in the family. My grandmother passed away this morning - she was in her late 80's and had Parkinson's so I know she has gone to a better place where she's no longer suffering, but I loved her dearly and she will be very missed.
I'm not sure yet when the funeral will be, but she lived in New Mexico and will be buried in Santa Fe next to my grandfather so I expect we'll be taking off to go there some time soon.
Take care everyone and I'll announce when the store re-opens. In the meantime, if you'd like to see pictures of the recent show, feel free to visit the site and click on the blue star on the home page for pictures.
Take care all and be sure to hug your loved ones tonight or give 'em a call if they aren't in hugging distance!
KJ
Booth Pictures from the Ladera Ranch Spring Festival
Ladera Ranch Show
Well, here they are...the pictures from my first (and hopefully not last) show! Thanks to DH and Laura for all their help and support and super thanks to Jenie for making the "drive from hell" to show up and support me!
KJ
Well, here they are...the pictures from my first (and hopefully not last) show! Thanks to DH and Laura for all their help and support and super thanks to Jenie for making the "drive from hell" to show up and support me!
KJ
Thursday, March 31, 2005
T-48 and counting...
Well, here I am with less than 48 hours to go til the show and I'm doing pretty well. Haven't majorly freaked out (yet). The credit card machine arrived yesterday and worked when we tested it. I confirmed with the credit-card acceptance service that my account is up and running and even got to do a test transaction that went just fine! Those were my two biggest worries so that's a huge relief.
Finished all the pricing last night and got the final display set up on the table. Tonight I plan to take some reference pictures and get some paperwork done and then tomorrow I'll be running last minute errands and packing and then Saturday is SHOWTIME!
Can't believe it's finally here and I'm trying REALLY hard not to think about the horror of being there all day and not selling anything after all this work LOL! Nope, not gonna think about it, not, not, not!
After all, I've managed (so far) not to get Ryan's latest cold so things have to be looking up, right?
If I get the pictures done, I'll try to post something tomorrow if time allows.
That's all for now. Wish me luck!
KJ
Finished all the pricing last night and got the final display set up on the table. Tonight I plan to take some reference pictures and get some paperwork done and then tomorrow I'll be running last minute errands and packing and then Saturday is SHOWTIME!
Can't believe it's finally here and I'm trying REALLY hard not to think about the horror of being there all day and not selling anything after all this work LOL! Nope, not gonna think about it, not, not, not!
After all, I've managed (so far) not to get Ryan's latest cold so things have to be looking up, right?
If I get the pictures done, I'll try to post something tomorrow if time allows.
That's all for now. Wish me luck!
KJ
Monday, March 28, 2005
"Wonder Woman" Movie!
MSN Movies - Wonder Woman
So, I have to admit up front that I'm a comic-book-hero-movie junkie...sigh. I'm nuts about Spiderman and the X-Men and all the rest so I'm glad to see they're finally going to make a "Wonder Woman" movie. Remember the old TV show with Lynda Carter? I just loved that as a kid! My friends and I would repeatedly make ourselves dizzy enough to fall down trying to emulate her spin ;-)
And Joss Whedon is just the guy to bring this to the big screen in the way it deserves, but I have to SERIOUSLY disagree w/ the author of this article on his suggestion of J-Loser to play the part. Can you say "blech!" with a capital B?
Well, anyway, it'll be interesting to follow the development and see who gets the part.
In the meantime, can't wait to see "The Fantastic Four" and "X3" when they finally come out!
KJ
who has less than a week to go to her first show and should really, really not be wasting time on the computer right now...
So, I have to admit up front that I'm a comic-book-hero-movie junkie...sigh. I'm nuts about Spiderman and the X-Men and all the rest so I'm glad to see they're finally going to make a "Wonder Woman" movie. Remember the old TV show with Lynda Carter? I just loved that as a kid! My friends and I would repeatedly make ourselves dizzy enough to fall down trying to emulate her spin ;-)
And Joss Whedon is just the guy to bring this to the big screen in the way it deserves, but I have to SERIOUSLY disagree w/ the author of this article on his suggestion of J-Loser to play the part. Can you say "blech!" with a capital B?
Well, anyway, it'll be interesting to follow the development and see who gets the part.
In the meantime, can't wait to see "The Fantastic Four" and "X3" when they finally come out!
KJ
who has less than a week to go to her first show and should really, really not be wasting time on the computer right now...
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Spring and Easter Specials and Earring Pages Revised!
Silver Parrot Designs Spring Specials!
Okay a tad bit late (the show prep madness has taken full hold as I made my FIFTH trip to Kinko's last night...ARRRGH!), but the Spring/Easter specials are finally up on the site. Just follow Mr. Easter Bunny!
Also, I've revamped the earring pages so you may notice some changes there. All the items are still available (except one pair that sold this past week), but I've divided up the items into 4 pages so they're more organized and the pages will all (hopefully) load more quickly for everyone.
And yes, I know the Ear Threads page doesn't have anything on it yet - that's a bit of a tease for an upcoming addition. I've made quite a few of these for my show on April 2nd and anything that doesn't sell will be added to the website after the show. If they ALL sell...well, I'll just have to make more, won't I? What are Ear Threads you ask? I've put a description on the page at the site so you can go check it out if you want to. Otherwise, you'll just have to wait a couple more weeks..Bwahahahahah!
Oh, and Happy Easter everyone!
KJ
Okay a tad bit late (the show prep madness has taken full hold as I made my FIFTH trip to Kinko's last night...ARRRGH!), but the Spring/Easter specials are finally up on the site. Just follow Mr. Easter Bunny!
Also, I've revamped the earring pages so you may notice some changes there. All the items are still available (except one pair that sold this past week), but I've divided up the items into 4 pages so they're more organized and the pages will all (hopefully) load more quickly for everyone.
And yes, I know the Ear Threads page doesn't have anything on it yet - that's a bit of a tease for an upcoming addition. I've made quite a few of these for my show on April 2nd and anything that doesn't sell will be added to the website after the show. If they ALL sell...well, I'll just have to make more, won't I? What are Ear Threads you ask? I've put a description on the page at the site so you can go check it out if you want to. Otherwise, you'll just have to wait a couple more weeks..Bwahahahahah!
Oh, and Happy Easter everyone!
KJ
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Found these cute little dichroic glass pendants in a shop in Monterey, CA, while on vacation there with DH last year. I've added sterling silver box chains for some simple necklaces with a bit of unusual flair. The top piece is actually a pretty aqua color and the bottom left is lime green and yellow but they didn't scan too well.
Monday, March 21, 2005
Andre Norton
CNN.com - Sci-fi and fantasy author Norton dies - Mar 17, 2005
It's taken me a couple of days to post this because it made me so sad. Truly one of my all-time favorite authors and inspirations. She'll be sadly missed and I can't believe there won't be any more "Witch World" books. I still remember the very first one I picked up in the library of my junior high school. I used to hide in there at lunchtime so the kids who liked to pick on me couldn't find me (because heaven forbid they step foot into gasp! a library!) and I made some wonderful discoveries while hiding out in there. In addition to Norton's books, I picked up the very first volume of Anne McCaffrey's "Pern" series there, too. This was back when there was only 1 book and she wasn't a bestseller yet! I miss those days (well, the book discoveries...not the junior high tormenting LOL!)
KJ
It's taken me a couple of days to post this because it made me so sad. Truly one of my all-time favorite authors and inspirations. She'll be sadly missed and I can't believe there won't be any more "Witch World" books. I still remember the very first one I picked up in the library of my junior high school. I used to hide in there at lunchtime so the kids who liked to pick on me couldn't find me (because heaven forbid they step foot into gasp! a library!) and I made some wonderful discoveries while hiding out in there. In addition to Norton's books, I picked up the very first volume of Anne McCaffrey's "Pern" series there, too. This was back when there was only 1 book and she wasn't a bestseller yet! I miss those days (well, the book discoveries...not the junior high tormenting LOL!)
KJ
Amazon.com: Books: Mystic and Rider
Amazon.com: Books: Mystic and Rider
I had to share this...am reading this book right now and LOVE it! I've read some other works by Sharon Shinn and liked them but none of 'em have knocked me out until now. If I didn't have a job and a kid to get up for in the morning, I'd've stayed up all night reading this! THAT's how good it is. Anyway, just thought I'd share. I have more pictures to post, too...maybe later today!
KJ
I had to share this...am reading this book right now and LOVE it! I've read some other works by Sharon Shinn and liked them but none of 'em have knocked me out until now. If I didn't have a job and a kid to get up for in the morning, I'd've stayed up all night reading this! THAT's how good it is. Anyway, just thought I'd share. I have more pictures to post, too...maybe later today!
KJ
Friday, March 18, 2005
Another of the new pieces for the show. This one features a gorgeous lampwork set by Sandi Misenar in shades of moss and teal w/ accents of copper and gold. I've added Bali vermeil spacers and some genuine garnet rondelles and finished it off with gold filled chain and a vermeil clasp with a genuine garnet set in it. The picture doesn't do this lampwork justice - it's truly one of the most outstanding sets I've ever seen and I paid WAAYYYYY more than I could really afford for it on e-Bay because I just HAD to have it so I could offer it to my customers. Enjoy! KJ
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Contest Winners Announced, St. Patrick's Day Special and a li'l bit o' gossip!
Naming Contest Page - Free Earrings!
That's right - the contest winners have been announced on the website so head on over via the link above if you want to read the details.
There's also a 1 day special going on today in honor of St. Patrick's Day so be sure to check that out as well (you can get to it from a link on either the page above or the home page).
And last but not least, I found this little tidbit of gossip on MSN and (being a mom) just had to share it:
"And finally, just so we end on the same dirty diaper note on which we began, Liz Smith reports that Brooke Shields committed a parental faux pas recently at an L.A. eatery when she changed baby Rowan on the same table where she and husband Chris Henchy had been enjoying their meal. The worst part: Once the baby's bottom was spic and span, the couple ordered dessert. Say it with us: Ewwww."
Okay, darn right "EWWWW!" That's just SO wrong, people. Get a babysitter (and heck, these are rich stars we're talking about - don't they have a nanny or an au pair on speed dial?)and don't take the kid to the nice restaurant to begin with or at the very least, excuse yourself to the restroom and use the changing table there. Sheesh!
Wrong, wrong, wrong!
Okay, I'm done ;-)
Take care all and Happy St. Patrick's Day!
KJ
That's right - the contest winners have been announced on the website so head on over via the link above if you want to read the details.
There's also a 1 day special going on today in honor of St. Patrick's Day so be sure to check that out as well (you can get to it from a link on either the page above or the home page).
And last but not least, I found this little tidbit of gossip on MSN and (being a mom) just had to share it:
"And finally, just so we end on the same dirty diaper note on which we began, Liz Smith reports that Brooke Shields committed a parental faux pas recently at an L.A. eatery when she changed baby Rowan on the same table where she and husband Chris Henchy had been enjoying their meal. The worst part: Once the baby's bottom was spic and span, the couple ordered dessert. Say it with us: Ewwww."
Okay, darn right "EWWWW!" That's just SO wrong, people. Get a babysitter (and heck, these are rich stars we're talking about - don't they have a nanny or an au pair on speed dial?)and don't take the kid to the nice restaurant to begin with or at the very least, excuse yourself to the restroom and use the changing table there. Sheesh!
Wrong, wrong, wrong!
Okay, I'm done ;-)
Take care all and Happy St. Patrick's Day!
KJ
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Irish Baby Names
MSN Family/Baby & Pregnancy
Some more Irish-related fun just in time for St. Patrick's Day! Don't be forgettin' to wear a bit 'o the green tomorrow lest the leprechauns fair pinch ye to death ;-)
Erin go bragh!
KJ
Some more Irish-related fun just in time for St. Patrick's Day! Don't be forgettin' to wear a bit 'o the green tomorrow lest the leprechauns fair pinch ye to death ;-)
Erin go bragh!
KJ
Monday, March 14, 2005
Another piece for the upcoming show. It's also part of the naming contest so if you'd like to participate and win a free pair of earrings, go to: Silver Parrot Designs
Friday, March 11, 2005
I promised some sneak peeks at the new show inventory and here's the first one. Faceted ocean quartz rectangles w/ Bali silver and garnets. I hate the name, tho, so I'm running a contest on the website to re-name these. Prize is a free pair of Silver Parrot earrings! Go to http://www.silverparrotdesigns.net
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Chinese curses.
Well, I had an interesting weekend. Interesting as used in the Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times."
I woke up Saturday morning to discover that my jaw was locked shot. Completely. Couldn't open it at all for about 20 minutes then got it to open a bit after putting hot compresses on it and taking some Advil. It didn't hurt as long as I wasn't trying to open it, so I tried to convince myself that it was just that I slept wrong or something and that it'd go away soon. Yeah, right.
However, there was a bead show that day and never let it be said that I let ANYTHING stand between me and getting new beads LOL! So, I went to the show and stocked up on some "needed" items (Bali silver and vermeil spacers and sterling silver headpins...all of which I seem to go through at an incredible rate) and then wandered around looking for anything new and interesting to jump out at me. I found a great deal on some coin pearls so I should have some fun earrings w/ those and maybe a necklace coming soon. Also found a great deal on some big tumbled nuggets of really gorgeous labradorite with lots of blue flash to them! I have no idea what I'm going to do with these yet, but they were so gorgeous and the price was so perfect, I had to get them ;-) I found some cute Japanese lampwork beads, too. I'd been kinda turning my nose up at this stuff for a while, but they are really getting good with their beads and the price is definitely nice so I bought a few strands...some Easter bunnies and a couple different styles of cats (already used some to make a pair of earrings for my sister-in-law whose name is...Cat. Perfect, eh?) Lastly I went by the Via Murano booth and drooled all over their gorgeous glass. I love that stuff but usually don't have the money to afford much of it. I bought a few pieces of cane glass from them - really beautiful David Christensen beads! Can't wait to get those made up into earrings.
So the whole time I'm walking the show I'm trying more and more to work my jaw farther open and it's not cooperating so when I finally got home, I decided to call my doctor who sent me straight to the ER :-( I spent 3 hours Saturday night sitting alone in the ER and getting my jaw X-rayed. Just how I dreamed of spending my Saturday night...NOT! Anyway, turns out I have TMJ syndrome (X-rays showed inflammation in the jaw joint on the left side) and there's not much to be done about it other than taking ibuprofen to keep the inflammation down and trying to de-stress my life. Yeahhhhhh...right..that's gonna happen. If I'm still having problems in another week or two, I'm supposed to go see an ENT. Whoopeee! More fun with doctors (as if I haven't had enough of that in the last few months) Ugh.
Sunday we took Ryan to a b-day party for one of his daycare buddies. He did pretty well although there were a few disagreements over toys and Ryan REALLY wanted to help the b-day girl unwrap her presents LOL! Then Sunday night we had a b-day dinner for Dean which mostly went okay except there was a fountain outside of the restaurant and Ryan kept wanting to go out to see it and at one point he fell partially in it and got his jacket all wet. I ended up leaving the party early to take him home and get him changed and put to bed. I didn't mind that part so much as it was kind of a bummer not to get to talk to anyone...oh and I missed out on dessert :-( I've decided we've got to start looking into babysitters for some of these family events. Ryan is very well behaved for a 2 year old, but still, he only has a limited attention span and we can't expect him to be good all the way through a 3 hour dinner and it really makes it impossible for whoever is watching him to enjoy their meal or partake in the conversation.
Finally, the show is growing ever closer and I'm starting to feel like I'm in pretty good shape as far as inventory and displays are concerned. The tent arrived and DH practiced putting it up over the weekend. It seems like it'll do the job and since it cost less than $50, I'm pretty happy. If this show goes well and I decide to do more of them, I'll invest in a better quality tent. I've just got to take care of a table and signage and I've got to sit down and put price tags on everything. That'll probably take a while. Then I just have to hope people will show up and spend $ LOL! That's really my only nightmare is that I do all this and then don't make a single sale out of it, but I'm trying to think positively!
Oh, and if you haven't gone to play the contest, be sure to go to:
Silver Parrot Designs
Free earrings, people!
Take care all!
KJ
I woke up Saturday morning to discover that my jaw was locked shot. Completely. Couldn't open it at all for about 20 minutes then got it to open a bit after putting hot compresses on it and taking some Advil. It didn't hurt as long as I wasn't trying to open it, so I tried to convince myself that it was just that I slept wrong or something and that it'd go away soon. Yeah, right.
However, there was a bead show that day and never let it be said that I let ANYTHING stand between me and getting new beads LOL! So, I went to the show and stocked up on some "needed" items (Bali silver and vermeil spacers and sterling silver headpins...all of which I seem to go through at an incredible rate) and then wandered around looking for anything new and interesting to jump out at me. I found a great deal on some coin pearls so I should have some fun earrings w/ those and maybe a necklace coming soon. Also found a great deal on some big tumbled nuggets of really gorgeous labradorite with lots of blue flash to them! I have no idea what I'm going to do with these yet, but they were so gorgeous and the price was so perfect, I had to get them ;-) I found some cute Japanese lampwork beads, too. I'd been kinda turning my nose up at this stuff for a while, but they are really getting good with their beads and the price is definitely nice so I bought a few strands...some Easter bunnies and a couple different styles of cats (already used some to make a pair of earrings for my sister-in-law whose name is...Cat. Perfect, eh?) Lastly I went by the Via Murano booth and drooled all over their gorgeous glass. I love that stuff but usually don't have the money to afford much of it. I bought a few pieces of cane glass from them - really beautiful David Christensen beads! Can't wait to get those made up into earrings.
So the whole time I'm walking the show I'm trying more and more to work my jaw farther open and it's not cooperating so when I finally got home, I decided to call my doctor who sent me straight to the ER :-( I spent 3 hours Saturday night sitting alone in the ER and getting my jaw X-rayed. Just how I dreamed of spending my Saturday night...NOT! Anyway, turns out I have TMJ syndrome (X-rays showed inflammation in the jaw joint on the left side) and there's not much to be done about it other than taking ibuprofen to keep the inflammation down and trying to de-stress my life. Yeahhhhhh...right..that's gonna happen. If I'm still having problems in another week or two, I'm supposed to go see an ENT. Whoopeee! More fun with doctors (as if I haven't had enough of that in the last few months) Ugh.
Sunday we took Ryan to a b-day party for one of his daycare buddies. He did pretty well although there were a few disagreements over toys and Ryan REALLY wanted to help the b-day girl unwrap her presents LOL! Then Sunday night we had a b-day dinner for Dean which mostly went okay except there was a fountain outside of the restaurant and Ryan kept wanting to go out to see it and at one point he fell partially in it and got his jacket all wet. I ended up leaving the party early to take him home and get him changed and put to bed. I didn't mind that part so much as it was kind of a bummer not to get to talk to anyone...oh and I missed out on dessert :-( I've decided we've got to start looking into babysitters for some of these family events. Ryan is very well behaved for a 2 year old, but still, he only has a limited attention span and we can't expect him to be good all the way through a 3 hour dinner and it really makes it impossible for whoever is watching him to enjoy their meal or partake in the conversation.
Finally, the show is growing ever closer and I'm starting to feel like I'm in pretty good shape as far as inventory and displays are concerned. The tent arrived and DH practiced putting it up over the weekend. It seems like it'll do the job and since it cost less than $50, I'm pretty happy. If this show goes well and I decide to do more of them, I'll invest in a better quality tent. I've just got to take care of a table and signage and I've got to sit down and put price tags on everything. That'll probably take a while. Then I just have to hope people will show up and spend $ LOL! That's really my only nightmare is that I do all this and then don't make a single sale out of it, but I'm trying to think positively!
Oh, and if you haven't gone to play the contest, be sure to go to:
Silver Parrot Designs
Free earrings, people!
Take care all!
KJ
Friday, March 04, 2005
Watch out for leprechauns!
The History Channel - The History of St. Patrick's Day
Faith 'n begorrah! 'Twill soon be time for St. Paddy's Day and the wearin' o' the green and in honor of the blessed saint (and to keep the leprechauns from doin' their mischief) Silver Parrot is proud to share a few things Irish this month.
With a name like Kelly...I just have to do something special for St. Patrick's Day! Which reminds me...keep your eyes and ears peeled for some website deals between now and March 17th!!
Think green!
KJ (hey, what did you think the K stood for, anyway? LOL)
Faith 'n begorrah! 'Twill soon be time for St. Paddy's Day and the wearin' o' the green and in honor of the blessed saint (and to keep the leprechauns from doin' their mischief) Silver Parrot is proud to share a few things Irish this month.
With a name like Kelly...I just have to do something special for St. Patrick's Day! Which reminds me...keep your eyes and ears peeled for some website deals between now and March 17th!!
Think green!
KJ (hey, what did you think the K stood for, anyway? LOL)
Sunday, February 27, 2005
Oscar thoughts...
Since my last post was so depressing, time for something a little bit lighter! I've missed the Oscars for the past few years for one reason or another but I managed to tune in tonight for a little while...at least long enough to see some of the fashions and jewelry, etc. Is it just me, or was it kind of blah? Lots of strapless, sweetheart necklines and lots of column dresses w/ mermaid tails or trains. Lots of black but the "in" color seemed to be that deep teal or midnight blue that first showed up at the Golden Globes on Charlize Theron and Nicole Kidman (neither of whom did I see at the Oscars tonight). Good thing I recently bought that deep teal strand of apatite ovals ;-)
If I had to pick a best dressed...I'd say Cate Blanchett. I don't think a lot of people could pull off that pale yellow, but she looked radiant in it and I loved the unusual broach she was wearing and the unexpected pairing of the deep maroon sash and bag with the pale yellow. Never would have thought of putting those colors together, but I liked it.
Some almost rans:
Hilary Swank's dress was the most perfect fit I've ever seen on a dress and she has a truly stunning figure. I loved the back of the dress, but I wasn't as crazy about the front. I thought the neckline was up a little too high and also...hmmm, how to put this politely...I think she was a bit cold if you know what I mean. Hilary, honey, they make these nifty shield thingies nowadays that work wonders (or you can always go w/ my mother's secret weapon...bandaids...trust me...they work wonders!) Also thought she could've gone with slightly bigger earrings since the front of the dress was so covered up and severe.
Virginia Madsen's dress was just stunning and her hair and makeup looked great. Now, as much as I love the big earrings...I wish hers had been just a TAD smaller. I thought they kind of overpowered her face and got tangled in her hair.
Renee Zellwegger...beautiful ruby-colored dress and kudos for being able to walk in that Morticia Adams-like mermaid tail. I have NO idea how she managed to do that, not fall, and also not look totally ridiculous with those little mincing steps. I'm not crazy about the dark hair on her, though and Renee, seriously EAT SOMETHING occasionally okay? Sheesh! Your collarbones could slice bagels!
Beyonce...loved the neckline and fit of the dress and the earrings were to die for. If you have to go with basic black, this was the way to do it.
For jewelry, I loved the pearl lariat that Laura Linney was wearing (but I hated the color of her dress...looked like drab prison gray) and Annette Benning had on an interesting necklace also that from a distance looked like some netted beadweaving w/ peacock pearls, but I'm sure it was something more spectacular than that. And BTW...what is UP w/ Warren Beatty? The way he behaved while Annette was giving interviews was totally weird...he was either drunk or he's got some early dementia going on (and I don't mean that to be funny...I was seriously worried about him).
The worst things I saw...Scarlett Johanssens's hair looked like it was done by Courtney Love...blech! And WHY can't Gwyneth Paltrow EVER get a dress that fits her on top? Either they're way too big (like her pink dress from the year she won the Oscar) or see thru (like the disastrous Goth/chicken cutlet year) or they're way too tight and all smashed looking like this year. I don't get it. Oh and Star Jones REALLY REALLY needs to have her cameraman shoot from a different angle! They were shooting over her shoulder all night so every time she moved it was a straight shot down the front of her dress. Soooo not attractive. And someone just make Kathy Griffin go away. Not funny and didn't add ANYTHING to the broadcast. I've got to remember to always watch this stuff on mute so I can just see the fashion and ignore the inane blathering from the commentators.
On the medical front...we're all still stick and to make matters worse, Ryan came down with an ear infection yesterday and was up most of the night screaming. Dean ended up driving around in the car with him in the middle of the night trying to get him to fall asleep. They made it all the way up to Long Beach before he finally calmed down!!
We got him in to the urgent care today and they confirmed the ear infection (duh) so we got to go back to Sav-On again GRRR! Oh and just for the cherry on top of our weekend...we're stuck in some kind of insurance limbo hell since Dean left the company in January and we switched all the coverage over to my name but apparently the big insurance bureaucracy wheels haven't turned quickly enough so we're having to pay cash for all these visits and medication until it gets straightened out and we can get reimbursed.
Okay, time to go and crawl back into my maximum strength Sudafed nightime sinus pill haze. Wheeeee!
KJ
If I had to pick a best dressed...I'd say Cate Blanchett. I don't think a lot of people could pull off that pale yellow, but she looked radiant in it and I loved the unusual broach she was wearing and the unexpected pairing of the deep maroon sash and bag with the pale yellow. Never would have thought of putting those colors together, but I liked it.
Some almost rans:
Hilary Swank's dress was the most perfect fit I've ever seen on a dress and she has a truly stunning figure. I loved the back of the dress, but I wasn't as crazy about the front. I thought the neckline was up a little too high and also...hmmm, how to put this politely...I think she was a bit cold if you know what I mean. Hilary, honey, they make these nifty shield thingies nowadays that work wonders (or you can always go w/ my mother's secret weapon...bandaids...trust me...they work wonders!) Also thought she could've gone with slightly bigger earrings since the front of the dress was so covered up and severe.
Virginia Madsen's dress was just stunning and her hair and makeup looked great. Now, as much as I love the big earrings...I wish hers had been just a TAD smaller. I thought they kind of overpowered her face and got tangled in her hair.
Renee Zellwegger...beautiful ruby-colored dress and kudos for being able to walk in that Morticia Adams-like mermaid tail. I have NO idea how she managed to do that, not fall, and also not look totally ridiculous with those little mincing steps. I'm not crazy about the dark hair on her, though and Renee, seriously EAT SOMETHING occasionally okay? Sheesh! Your collarbones could slice bagels!
Beyonce...loved the neckline and fit of the dress and the earrings were to die for. If you have to go with basic black, this was the way to do it.
For jewelry, I loved the pearl lariat that Laura Linney was wearing (but I hated the color of her dress...looked like drab prison gray) and Annette Benning had on an interesting necklace also that from a distance looked like some netted beadweaving w/ peacock pearls, but I'm sure it was something more spectacular than that. And BTW...what is UP w/ Warren Beatty? The way he behaved while Annette was giving interviews was totally weird...he was either drunk or he's got some early dementia going on (and I don't mean that to be funny...I was seriously worried about him).
The worst things I saw...Scarlett Johanssens's hair looked like it was done by Courtney Love...blech! And WHY can't Gwyneth Paltrow EVER get a dress that fits her on top? Either they're way too big (like her pink dress from the year she won the Oscar) or see thru (like the disastrous Goth/chicken cutlet year) or they're way too tight and all smashed looking like this year. I don't get it. Oh and Star Jones REALLY REALLY needs to have her cameraman shoot from a different angle! They were shooting over her shoulder all night so every time she moved it was a straight shot down the front of her dress. Soooo not attractive. And someone just make Kathy Griffin go away. Not funny and didn't add ANYTHING to the broadcast. I've got to remember to always watch this stuff on mute so I can just see the fashion and ignore the inane blathering from the commentators.
On the medical front...we're all still stick and to make matters worse, Ryan came down with an ear infection yesterday and was up most of the night screaming. Dean ended up driving around in the car with him in the middle of the night trying to get him to fall asleep. They made it all the way up to Long Beach before he finally calmed down!!
We got him in to the urgent care today and they confirmed the ear infection (duh) so we got to go back to Sav-On again GRRR! Oh and just for the cherry on top of our weekend...we're stuck in some kind of insurance limbo hell since Dean left the company in January and we switched all the coverage over to my name but apparently the big insurance bureaucracy wheels haven't turned quickly enough so we're having to pay cash for all these visits and medication until it gets straightened out and we can get reimbursed.
Okay, time to go and crawl back into my maximum strength Sudafed nightime sinus pill haze. Wheeeee!
KJ
Friday, February 25, 2005
Hell...thy name is Sav-On Drugs
Well, it's been a fun (not) week at our house. I would say that Ryan is sick again but A. that's redundant and B. it's really that he's STILL sick.
We had about 5 good days after the last round of antibiotic and then the cough came back. This time it brought runny nose and fever and a severe case of "cranky, whining kid" along with it. Soooo...back to the doctor we went on Wednesday which of course caused me MORE missed time at work. They're really starting to love me there, sigh.
This time doctor said the pneumonia is gone (good news) but that now Ryan has something called "reactive airway" meaning that his airway is irritated and somewhat constricted from all the illness and coughing, etc. Well, duh...*I* could've diagnosed THAT (and not charged $100 an hour to do it, either). So, she prescribes an albuterol inhaler for him which means I've got to go to the pharmacy to get the prescription filled.
I had initially planned to go there right from the doctor's office, but Ryan was just absolutely losing it by then. He was mostly good during the examination, but towards the end he just had a meltdown. I suppose I can't really blame him - he was tired and feeling crappy and just wanted to go home and I know I felt the same way. I had no energy at all and was starting to suspect that his germs were about to take me out as well.
So I decided to head home and give Ryan a break and see if DH could get home a little early to watch him while I went out to the pharmacy. I think he heard the desperation in my voice when I called him at work so he agreed to skate out a bit early (his new job is 45 minutes away from home) to beat the traffic.
He finally gets home at 5:30 by which time Ryan and I are both just climbing the walls. I can't get him to rest but he feels too crappy to do anything else...even treats such as stickers, etc. are making him cry (and I was wanting to cry, too, by this point). So DH takes over and I head out to the pharmacy. Drop off the prescription and they tell me 20 minutes. Great. I'll go run by the bookstore and treat myself to something to help me feel better.
I do that and go back to the pharmacy...order still not ready...come back in another 20 minutes. Okayyyyyyyy.......fine. Call DH and ask if he wants me to pick up dinner since I'm out and have more time to kill. He agrees so I go grab some Chinese, put it in the car and head back to Sav-On.
I stand in line there for another 15 minutes (all the while surrounded by a crowd of coughing, sneezing, wheezing, germ-spreaders) only to get up to the counter and be told that they DON'T HAVE THE RIGHT SIZE INHALER MASK FOR RYAN'S PRESCRIPTION! They will have to order it and it won't be in until the next day. Okay now I just waited AN HOUR for you to tell me that??? I THINK I left the store without strangling anyone, but I'm not sure as it's all a big blur. I remember flashing lights and a buzzing sound and someone yelling (maybe me?) but that's all. I just know I suddenly found myself out in the parking lot with a strong desire to bang my head against a wall. ARRRGGHHH!
And what makes it all worse is that the doctor's office offered to sell me a mask for $20 while I was there, but I (stupidly as it turns out) declined because I wanted to get it at the pharmacy so it would be covered by the insurance. So really, I did this to myself...double ARRRGGGHHHH!
Meanwhile, DH is calling me on the cell wondering what's taking so long and I finally arrive home with cold Chinese food for dinner and no inhaler for our son.
We finally got the darn thing last night and started him on it but so far it just seems to make him cough more. I guess the results take a few more days. He has to get dosed 3 times a day so I have to remember every day to pack it up and send it to daycare with him. At least he seems to be pretty good about letting us dose him with it. Bribing with Thomas the Train stickers seems to help, too ;-)
To top it all off, by the time I got home last night, I had a sore throat and was shaking with fever. I had such a bad chill that I had to put a heating pad in the bed w/ me last night. But this explains why I've been feeling so rundown all week and like I just couldn't get going on anything. I've done no work at all getting ready for the show (and precious little else around the house, either). The only bright spots have been all the packages of supplies for the show arriving, but I've been feeling too crappy to properly enjoy opening them or doing anything with them. They're all sitting forlornly on my work area still in their packages.
I dragged myself to the office today, but I'm not sure how long I'm gonna last although I know it's not going to go over very well if I go home sick..again.
I've seriously got to look into bubble suits for Ryan and I. Obviously our immune systems are just NOT up to all the viruses out there. I really think this "constant illness" thing is really the toughest thing about being a mom.
Well, now that I've written such a happy, uplifting message for everyone to read...LOL! Sorry about that, but sometimes ya just gotta vent. I'm sure we'll all be better in 7-10 days but if not, I'm starting to consider more radical solutions like pulling Ryan out of daycare for 2-4 weeks until he's REALLY 100% well. No idea how I'll pull that off, but I'm sure over the next few days as I lay in bed wanting to die cuz I feel so cruddy, I'll have plenty of time to think about it.
Take care all and STAY WELL!
KJ
http://www.silverparrotdesigns.net
We had about 5 good days after the last round of antibiotic and then the cough came back. This time it brought runny nose and fever and a severe case of "cranky, whining kid" along with it. Soooo...back to the doctor we went on Wednesday which of course caused me MORE missed time at work. They're really starting to love me there, sigh.
This time doctor said the pneumonia is gone (good news) but that now Ryan has something called "reactive airway" meaning that his airway is irritated and somewhat constricted from all the illness and coughing, etc. Well, duh...*I* could've diagnosed THAT (and not charged $100 an hour to do it, either). So, she prescribes an albuterol inhaler for him which means I've got to go to the pharmacy to get the prescription filled.
I had initially planned to go there right from the doctor's office, but Ryan was just absolutely losing it by then. He was mostly good during the examination, but towards the end he just had a meltdown. I suppose I can't really blame him - he was tired and feeling crappy and just wanted to go home and I know I felt the same way. I had no energy at all and was starting to suspect that his germs were about to take me out as well.
So I decided to head home and give Ryan a break and see if DH could get home a little early to watch him while I went out to the pharmacy. I think he heard the desperation in my voice when I called him at work so he agreed to skate out a bit early (his new job is 45 minutes away from home) to beat the traffic.
He finally gets home at 5:30 by which time Ryan and I are both just climbing the walls. I can't get him to rest but he feels too crappy to do anything else...even treats such as stickers, etc. are making him cry (and I was wanting to cry, too, by this point). So DH takes over and I head out to the pharmacy. Drop off the prescription and they tell me 20 minutes. Great. I'll go run by the bookstore and treat myself to something to help me feel better.
I do that and go back to the pharmacy...order still not ready...come back in another 20 minutes. Okayyyyyyyy.......fine. Call DH and ask if he wants me to pick up dinner since I'm out and have more time to kill. He agrees so I go grab some Chinese, put it in the car and head back to Sav-On.
I stand in line there for another 15 minutes (all the while surrounded by a crowd of coughing, sneezing, wheezing, germ-spreaders) only to get up to the counter and be told that they DON'T HAVE THE RIGHT SIZE INHALER MASK FOR RYAN'S PRESCRIPTION! They will have to order it and it won't be in until the next day. Okay now I just waited AN HOUR for you to tell me that??? I THINK I left the store without strangling anyone, but I'm not sure as it's all a big blur. I remember flashing lights and a buzzing sound and someone yelling (maybe me?) but that's all. I just know I suddenly found myself out in the parking lot with a strong desire to bang my head against a wall. ARRRGGHHH!
And what makes it all worse is that the doctor's office offered to sell me a mask for $20 while I was there, but I (stupidly as it turns out) declined because I wanted to get it at the pharmacy so it would be covered by the insurance. So really, I did this to myself...double ARRRGGGHHHH!
Meanwhile, DH is calling me on the cell wondering what's taking so long and I finally arrive home with cold Chinese food for dinner and no inhaler for our son.
We finally got the darn thing last night and started him on it but so far it just seems to make him cough more. I guess the results take a few more days. He has to get dosed 3 times a day so I have to remember every day to pack it up and send it to daycare with him. At least he seems to be pretty good about letting us dose him with it. Bribing with Thomas the Train stickers seems to help, too ;-)
To top it all off, by the time I got home last night, I had a sore throat and was shaking with fever. I had such a bad chill that I had to put a heating pad in the bed w/ me last night. But this explains why I've been feeling so rundown all week and like I just couldn't get going on anything. I've done no work at all getting ready for the show (and precious little else around the house, either). The only bright spots have been all the packages of supplies for the show arriving, but I've been feeling too crappy to properly enjoy opening them or doing anything with them. They're all sitting forlornly on my work area still in their packages.
I dragged myself to the office today, but I'm not sure how long I'm gonna last although I know it's not going to go over very well if I go home sick..again.
I've seriously got to look into bubble suits for Ryan and I. Obviously our immune systems are just NOT up to all the viruses out there. I really think this "constant illness" thing is really the toughest thing about being a mom.
Well, now that I've written such a happy, uplifting message for everyone to read...LOL! Sorry about that, but sometimes ya just gotta vent. I'm sure we'll all be better in 7-10 days but if not, I'm starting to consider more radical solutions like pulling Ryan out of daycare for 2-4 weeks until he's REALLY 100% well. No idea how I'll pull that off, but I'm sure over the next few days as I lay in bed wanting to die cuz I feel so cruddy, I'll have plenty of time to think about it.
Take care all and STAY WELL!
KJ
http://www.silverparrotdesigns.net
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Update on Jonathan
Here's the latest (as of late last week) on my cousin Jonathan:
"On the medical front Jon's transfer to rehab is delayed a few more days. They have had to put two new catheters into him to drain fluid that has accumulated around his heart and lungs. One is already out. The other one could come out tomorrow. Jon is eating well with a good appetite. He was able to hold a glass of water, bring it up to his mouth and drink on his own."
We hope he will be able to transfer to rehab soon. Keep up those thoughts and prayers!
KJ
"On the medical front Jon's transfer to rehab is delayed a few more days. They have had to put two new catheters into him to drain fluid that has accumulated around his heart and lungs. One is already out. The other one could come out tomorrow. Jon is eating well with a good appetite. He was able to hold a glass of water, bring it up to his mouth and drink on his own."
We hope he will be able to transfer to rehab soon. Keep up those thoughts and prayers!
KJ
Sunday, February 20, 2005
Hearts away...
I promised pics of the new things I'm working on so will post a pic shortly. I taught myself some new wirework and these wrapped hearts are my first attempt. I plan to hang them from brightly colored silk cord and embellish the pendants themselves with a single crystal dangle at the bottom.
Enjoy and hope everyone is staying dry out there...we're about to build ourselves an ark!
KJ
Enjoy and hope everyone is staying dry out there...we're about to build ourselves an ark!
KJ
Thursday, February 17, 2005
A bit of business...
Just wanted to let you all know that in addition to credit cards, Silver Parrot now accepts Paypal via the website shopping cart! Just shop the site as usual and as you proceed through the checkout process, you'll be offered the Paypal option alongside all the credit card options and you can select your preferred method at that time!
I'm glad my shopping cart company has made this option available because I think having more flexibility built in to the process for customers can only be a good thing.
Oh, and I have a vacation day tomorrow (whoopeeeeee!!!) so expect some new goodies to show up over the weekend. Most of it'll be inventory for the upcoming show, but I'll at least share pictures and MAYBE, if you're all good, you'll get chocolate milk. Oh wait, I'm channeling "mommy mode" again. What I meant to say was maybe if you're all good, I'll get around to putting some stuff for sale on the site.
And yes, I know, I'm a tease...LOL!
Take care everyone.
KJ
Silver Parrot Designs
http://www.silverparrotdesigns.net
I'm glad my shopping cart company has made this option available because I think having more flexibility built in to the process for customers can only be a good thing.
Oh, and I have a vacation day tomorrow (whoopeeeeee!!!) so expect some new goodies to show up over the weekend. Most of it'll be inventory for the upcoming show, but I'll at least share pictures and MAYBE, if you're all good, you'll get chocolate milk. Oh wait, I'm channeling "mommy mode" again. What I meant to say was maybe if you're all good, I'll get around to putting some stuff for sale on the site.
And yes, I know, I'm a tease...LOL!
Take care everyone.
KJ
Silver Parrot Designs
http://www.silverparrotdesigns.net
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
More internet fun...
Got this from one of my lists and thought it was a really fun, neat idea:
http://www.nationstates.net
And if you want to see the nation I built, "The Commonwealth of Delphinidae" then here's the link to that:
http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi/target=display_nation/nation=delphinidae
I haven't checked out the guy's book yet, but I'm definitely intrigued. Heck, he gets kudos just for developing this cool, unique game (for those of us with too much time on our hands anyway...)
Enjoy!
KJ
http://www.nationstates.net
And if you want to see the nation I built, "The Commonwealth of Delphinidae" then here's the link to that:
http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi/target=display_nation/nation=delphinidae
I haven't checked out the guy's book yet, but I'm definitely intrigued. Heck, he gets kudos just for developing this cool, unique game (for those of us with too much time on our hands anyway...)
Enjoy!
KJ
MSNBC - Mommy Madness
MSNBC - Mommy Madness
Wow! I was really impressed with this article and thought I should share it both for all the moms out there and for all women, really. Even if a woman doesn't have children, I still think all of us are responsible (or should be) for how the next generation turns out. After all, when we're older, they'll be the ones running the country and deciding how much (if any) Social Security, Medicare, etc. we get ;-). Although I've somewhat avoided falling into the severe scheduling trap (so far, Ryan is too young for many activities and my job doesn't require much in the way of OT) I can see the pitfalls coming in the next few years. Plus, I always tend to be on the perfectionist side anyway so this really hit home.
I especially liked this quote: "...the harsh realities of family life in a culture that has no structures in place to allow women—and men—to balance work and child-rearing." Boy, ain't THAT the truth! I found out about this firsthand during my own maternity leave (a chintzy 6 weeks paid which is TOTALLY inadequate). While the FMLA act does add some additional time, it's unpaid, which for a household like mine where both salaries are required to keep things running, isn't a whole lot of help. And what happens when, like in my situation, there are post-delivery complications (in my case requiring a total of 3 weeks in the hospital, plus surgery and recovery time)? There's no additional time for that or additional paid leave and it doesn't fall under disability because it's considered related to the pregnancy which has ALREADY used up your disability allowance for the year. So I missed out on spending a big chunk of my maternity leave with my son and that made it all the more difficult for me when I had to go back to work. Thank goodness I am lucky enough that my parents live nearby and were able to provide some care for him before it was time to take him to daycare. He was already eating some solid food (okay, baby cereal) by then so the feeding schedule wasn't as rigorous...I can't imagine having to go back to work when your child is still on a full breastfeeding schedule! I found it difficult to pump at work and I only had to do it twice a day! And don't even get me started on the (lack of) "facilities" that my company provided...what a joke!
At least I've been lucky in the daycare department. Ryan goes to a wonderful place and I have complete trust in them, but soon it will be time for pre-school and I'm dreading trying to find a place that I trust as much as I trust his daycare! So for all the women out there, whether they are moms or not, give yourself a pat on the back and try not to be so hard on yourselves!
KJ
P.S. After reading a bit further, I found a couple of related articles that I thought were also good. Here are the URL's:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6960127/site/newsweek/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6960732/site/newsweek/
Personally, I think I'm going for "slacker mom" myself ;-)
Wow! I was really impressed with this article and thought I should share it both for all the moms out there and for all women, really. Even if a woman doesn't have children, I still think all of us are responsible (or should be) for how the next generation turns out. After all, when we're older, they'll be the ones running the country and deciding how much (if any) Social Security, Medicare, etc. we get ;-). Although I've somewhat avoided falling into the severe scheduling trap (so far, Ryan is too young for many activities and my job doesn't require much in the way of OT) I can see the pitfalls coming in the next few years. Plus, I always tend to be on the perfectionist side anyway so this really hit home.
I especially liked this quote: "...the harsh realities of family life in a culture that has no structures in place to allow women—and men—to balance work and child-rearing." Boy, ain't THAT the truth! I found out about this firsthand during my own maternity leave (a chintzy 6 weeks paid which is TOTALLY inadequate). While the FMLA act does add some additional time, it's unpaid, which for a household like mine where both salaries are required to keep things running, isn't a whole lot of help. And what happens when, like in my situation, there are post-delivery complications (in my case requiring a total of 3 weeks in the hospital, plus surgery and recovery time)? There's no additional time for that or additional paid leave and it doesn't fall under disability because it's considered related to the pregnancy which has ALREADY used up your disability allowance for the year. So I missed out on spending a big chunk of my maternity leave with my son and that made it all the more difficult for me when I had to go back to work. Thank goodness I am lucky enough that my parents live nearby and were able to provide some care for him before it was time to take him to daycare. He was already eating some solid food (okay, baby cereal) by then so the feeding schedule wasn't as rigorous...I can't imagine having to go back to work when your child is still on a full breastfeeding schedule! I found it difficult to pump at work and I only had to do it twice a day! And don't even get me started on the (lack of) "facilities" that my company provided...what a joke!
At least I've been lucky in the daycare department. Ryan goes to a wonderful place and I have complete trust in them, but soon it will be time for pre-school and I'm dreading trying to find a place that I trust as much as I trust his daycare! So for all the women out there, whether they are moms or not, give yourself a pat on the back and try not to be so hard on yourselves!
KJ
P.S. After reading a bit further, I found a couple of related articles that I thought were also good. Here are the URL's:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6960127/site/newsweek/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6960732/site/newsweek/
Personally, I think I'm going for "slacker mom" myself ;-)
Monday, February 14, 2005
More miracles...
Here's the latest information I have about Jonathan:
Jon will be moving to an in-patient rehab center soon. He's got lots of work ahead. His memory is very sketchy. He can remember a few names but that's about it. His parents spend most of their time calming him down. He wakes up in a state of terror. He's totally disoriented and can't see anything but shadows. His location is being kept as confidential as possible as he is considered a witness in the criminal case that will (hopefully) extend from the incident that caused his injuries. We continue to find out more about the miracles in this case. Not only was the paramedic who saved his life a friend of his, but he was not officially called on the case. He just happened to be walking by the house where the stabbing happened at the right time! Instead of being taken to the closest hospital trauma center, there was some type of traffic re-routing going on and Jonathan was flown to one of the top trauma centers in the country (I can't disclose the name). At the time he arrived, one of the nation's best cardiac surgeons was just finishing up there and leaving for the day (he doesn't normally practice there, but had come in to work on a special case) and when he heard of Jonathan's situation, he agreed to stay and perform the repair surgery on Jonathan's heart. He told the family that Jonathan is the first patient he's aware of who has survived this type of ventricular injury! Our family is so grateful for all the prayers, good wishes and support that we've received...as you can tell from the story...they are obviously making a difference!
In other news...
We celebrated my dad's birthday over the weekend. Had dinner at a GREAT restaurant in San Juan Capistrano called The Sun Dried Tomato Cafe. Now, normally, I'm not a big tomato fan, but the cream of sun-dried tomato soup was to DIE for! Can't recommend it highly enough. As an entree, I had a filet of beef on a portabello mushroom w/ caremalized onions and a cabernet balsamic reduction sauce. Wow, was it fantastic. And don't even get me started on the incredible chocolate cake we had for dessert. In fact, I'm getting hungry just thinking about it :-) Apparently, the place has been featured on The Food Network, too. Anyway, it was awesome and you might want to check it out if you're in the area. It's right by the train station in the same building as the Ruby's
Spent most of the weekend working on stuff for the upcoming show. Oh, yeah, and I did tons of laundry, too, but no one wants to hear about that LOL! I haven't had a chance to scan anything yet, but I did a lot of turquoise and coral combos and also some coral w/ freshwater pearls and vermeil. In fact, I used up ALL my vermeil spacers and I've got to run get more. Also did some pretty faceted ocean quartz "pillows" w/ garnet and sterling silver. I wasn't sure how that color combo would work out, but I love it! Pics soon, I hope!
Take care all!
KJ
Jon will be moving to an in-patient rehab center soon. He's got lots of work ahead. His memory is very sketchy. He can remember a few names but that's about it. His parents spend most of their time calming him down. He wakes up in a state of terror. He's totally disoriented and can't see anything but shadows. His location is being kept as confidential as possible as he is considered a witness in the criminal case that will (hopefully) extend from the incident that caused his injuries. We continue to find out more about the miracles in this case. Not only was the paramedic who saved his life a friend of his, but he was not officially called on the case. He just happened to be walking by the house where the stabbing happened at the right time! Instead of being taken to the closest hospital trauma center, there was some type of traffic re-routing going on and Jonathan was flown to one of the top trauma centers in the country (I can't disclose the name). At the time he arrived, one of the nation's best cardiac surgeons was just finishing up there and leaving for the day (he doesn't normally practice there, but had come in to work on a special case) and when he heard of Jonathan's situation, he agreed to stay and perform the repair surgery on Jonathan's heart. He told the family that Jonathan is the first patient he's aware of who has survived this type of ventricular injury! Our family is so grateful for all the prayers, good wishes and support that we've received...as you can tell from the story...they are obviously making a difference!
In other news...
We celebrated my dad's birthday over the weekend. Had dinner at a GREAT restaurant in San Juan Capistrano called The Sun Dried Tomato Cafe. Now, normally, I'm not a big tomato fan, but the cream of sun-dried tomato soup was to DIE for! Can't recommend it highly enough. As an entree, I had a filet of beef on a portabello mushroom w/ caremalized onions and a cabernet balsamic reduction sauce. Wow, was it fantastic. And don't even get me started on the incredible chocolate cake we had for dessert. In fact, I'm getting hungry just thinking about it :-) Apparently, the place has been featured on The Food Network, too. Anyway, it was awesome and you might want to check it out if you're in the area. It's right by the train station in the same building as the Ruby's
Spent most of the weekend working on stuff for the upcoming show. Oh, yeah, and I did tons of laundry, too, but no one wants to hear about that LOL! I haven't had a chance to scan anything yet, but I did a lot of turquoise and coral combos and also some coral w/ freshwater pearls and vermeil. In fact, I used up ALL my vermeil spacers and I've got to run get more. Also did some pretty faceted ocean quartz "pillows" w/ garnet and sterling silver. I wasn't sure how that color combo would work out, but I love it! Pics soon, I hope!
Take care all!
KJ
Friday, February 11, 2005
"It never rains in Southern California...
...but girl, let me warn you. It pours, oh man, it pours."
Sing along everyone! Okay, cheesy 70's pop tune time. See, when I was growing up, my dad would always sing certain songs for weeks (sometimes years) on end (and never the whole song but just 1-2 lines) and this was one of 'em so whenever it rains, I get this darned song stuck in my head. Don't even ask me about the YEARS that he was stuck on "Hey, Jude" by the Beatles.
Not that this is related to anything of substance...just that it's been pouring rain here all day. Have you ever tried to keep from getting wet all while managing a purse, an umbrella, a diaper bag and a recalcitrant two-year-old (complete with toys and giant parka his grandmother bought him for Christmas so he wouldn't ever catch a chill despite the fact that we live in Southern California) all while trying to get out of a car with only 8" clearance to the next car because one of the daycare dads is a jerk who hogs all the parking space at the house? Well, I'm here to tell you that it's totally impossible to do. I arrived at work looking like a drowned rat thanks to dropping the umbrella because I had to grab for Ryan who had dashed off to jump in the nearest puddle with the result that he got delivered to daycare with soaking wet shoes, socks and pants. And of course, today would be the day that I forgot to put extra socks in his diaper bag (duh, mommy). Not that the extra clothes in the diaper bag are all that much dryer since I dropped it into the standing water on the ground at the same time I dropped the umbrella.
Fortunately I had a package of new merchandise arrive in the mail last night that I didn't have time to open so I just shoved it in my purse and forgot about it until lunchtime today. So, I got the nice surprise of opening new beads while at work in the lunchroom which cheered me up considerably. I have to say this stuff exceeded my expectations in every way: gorgeous jumbo ovals of Apatite (a peacock-blue stone w/ veins of dark brown running through it). Think Nicole Kidman's dress from the Golden Globes. Also got some 10mm rondelles of Kyanite (silvery-blue w/ brown and darker blue flashes). I can't WAIT to start playing with both of these as I already can seem them with smoky quartz and freshwater pearls...and that's just for starters. These are some of the best quality, prettiest stones I've been able to afford so far and I'm really excited about being able to incorporate higher quality materials in my work!
Oh, and I saved the best news for last. I bit the bullet and signed up to do my first ever arts and crafts show so Silver Parrot Designs will be a vendor at the Ladera Ranch Spring Festival on April 2, 2005! So far I'm pretty excited about it, but I expect the panic to kick in at any moment! This probably means there won't be much new stuff posted to the website for a while as I'll need inventory for the show, but everything that's left will get posted as soon as the show's over. I will try to post a few pictures here along the way, though, so if you see anything you just *have* to have that's not on the website, e-mail me at stamparrot@hotmail.com and we'll work something out :-)
Have a great weekend everyone and stay dry!
KJ
http://www.silverparrotdesigns.net
P.S. Okay how many of you have that song stuck in your heads now? Bwaaahahahahah! ;-)
Sing along everyone! Okay, cheesy 70's pop tune time. See, when I was growing up, my dad would always sing certain songs for weeks (sometimes years) on end (and never the whole song but just 1-2 lines) and this was one of 'em so whenever it rains, I get this darned song stuck in my head. Don't even ask me about the YEARS that he was stuck on "Hey, Jude" by the Beatles.
Not that this is related to anything of substance...just that it's been pouring rain here all day. Have you ever tried to keep from getting wet all while managing a purse, an umbrella, a diaper bag and a recalcitrant two-year-old (complete with toys and giant parka his grandmother bought him for Christmas so he wouldn't ever catch a chill despite the fact that we live in Southern California) all while trying to get out of a car with only 8" clearance to the next car because one of the daycare dads is a jerk who hogs all the parking space at the house? Well, I'm here to tell you that it's totally impossible to do. I arrived at work looking like a drowned rat thanks to dropping the umbrella because I had to grab for Ryan who had dashed off to jump in the nearest puddle with the result that he got delivered to daycare with soaking wet shoes, socks and pants. And of course, today would be the day that I forgot to put extra socks in his diaper bag (duh, mommy). Not that the extra clothes in the diaper bag are all that much dryer since I dropped it into the standing water on the ground at the same time I dropped the umbrella.
Fortunately I had a package of new merchandise arrive in the mail last night that I didn't have time to open so I just shoved it in my purse and forgot about it until lunchtime today. So, I got the nice surprise of opening new beads while at work in the lunchroom which cheered me up considerably. I have to say this stuff exceeded my expectations in every way: gorgeous jumbo ovals of Apatite (a peacock-blue stone w/ veins of dark brown running through it). Think Nicole Kidman's dress from the Golden Globes. Also got some 10mm rondelles of Kyanite (silvery-blue w/ brown and darker blue flashes). I can't WAIT to start playing with both of these as I already can seem them with smoky quartz and freshwater pearls...and that's just for starters. These are some of the best quality, prettiest stones I've been able to afford so far and I'm really excited about being able to incorporate higher quality materials in my work!
Oh, and I saved the best news for last. I bit the bullet and signed up to do my first ever arts and crafts show so Silver Parrot Designs will be a vendor at the Ladera Ranch Spring Festival on April 2, 2005! So far I'm pretty excited about it, but I expect the panic to kick in at any moment! This probably means there won't be much new stuff posted to the website for a while as I'll need inventory for the show, but everything that's left will get posted as soon as the show's over. I will try to post a few pictures here along the way, though, so if you see anything you just *have* to have that's not on the website, e-mail me at stamparrot@hotmail.com and we'll work something out :-)
Have a great weekend everyone and stay dry!
KJ
http://www.silverparrotdesigns.net
P.S. Okay how many of you have that song stuck in your heads now? Bwaaahahahahah! ;-)
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
New set of lampwork & Bali silver. The lime beads look funky in the scan, but they are actually a true lime color in real life and not this funny yellowish-green and the teal is a lot brighter. You'll have to take my word that the colors match LOL! Actually, I'm a little unsure about this set so I haven't put it up on the website yet. Comments anyone?
MSN Women - SlideShow
I already posted today but couldn't resist adding this link in: MSN Women - SlideShow
I admit I'm a fashion junkie...even if I don't have the figure to wear most of the clothes, I still love to look! The first two dresses with the beaded accents by Monique Lhuiller I think are particularly yummy. Oh, and they say 80's trends are back in! Yay, my teen years are coming back to haunt me LOL! But at least that should mean big earrings are still good and you know how I feel about those!
I admit I'm a fashion junkie...even if I don't have the figure to wear most of the clothes, I still love to look! The first two dresses with the beaded accents by Monique Lhuiller I think are particularly yummy. Oh, and they say 80's trends are back in! Yay, my teen years are coming back to haunt me LOL! But at least that should mean big earrings are still good and you know how I feel about those!
Miracles DO happen!
First, thank you so much to everyone who sent the wonderful messages of support for my cousin, Jonathan. I've really appreciated hearing from all of you! Here's the latest update from my uncle as of this morning:
>Jon is totally off life support. He has one IV for morphine and >antibiotics but that should come off tomorrow. We have all been >secretly worried sick that Jon would be blind from the loss of >blood to his brain. We talked to the neurologist today and he >said the he could see in one eye. He can't describe what he sees >yet because his speech center needs to recover from his time >under medications. His brain damage is general and not area >specific (except for the vision). He can not walk today or >control the movement of his arms. With extensive therapy these >functions can be restored. His memory is beginning to come >back. Tonight he could remember the names of his mom dad and >half of his siblings. He could also remember his phone number. >His speech is garbled at times but getting better. He will be out >of ICU soon if all goes well. Also, next Monday there will be a >blood drive for Jon. He required more than 30 pints of blood. >The bloodmobile will be in the Von's parking lot in Solana >Beach.
If anyone is in the San Diego or Solana Beach area and wants to go give blood, I'll post the blood drive information when I have it. If you're not in that area, please take this as a reminder of how important it is to give blood so that our supply is maintained. You never know when you or someone you love might need it!
In other news, Ryan is doing MUCH better! Although I kind of panicked after seeing how rotten he looked last Thursday when I picked him up from daycare, I'm happy to report that his doctor said his lungs were clear when he had his checkup on Friday. He's been sleeping a lot better (hooray!) and his cough isn't nearly as nasty sounding or frequent as it was. Last night we sat and watched an old, animated Disney version of "Johnny Appleseed" that I hadn't seen since I was a little child. He loved it and I was reminded of a childhood favorite! Oh, he also wiped tapioca pudding in my hair that I didn't find til it was nearly bedtime and I tried to brush my hair and couldn't figure out why the brush got stuck. Ah, the joys of mommydom ;-)
Oh, yes, how about some jewelry news? I've been invited to do my first ever arts and crafts show with my jewelry! It's thrilling and horrifying all at the same time LOL! With a full-time job, a husband, a household and a 2 year old child...well, let's just say that my free time is pretty limited so getting ready for a show in April will be a major undertaking. I haven't 100% decided to do it yet as I'm really not sure I've got the time, but I have to make a decision by the application deadline next week so I'll keep you posted. A lot depends on whether I can cajole/bribe/drag my friend Laura into being my helper. Not only does she have a lot of craft show experience from her days on the rubberstamping show circuit, but she brings the added benefit of being able to do math in her head (unlike some of us..okay, me...who are totally PATHETIC at anything to do with numbers). Plus we just generally make each other laugh and we don't get to see each other very often since she moved to that godforsaken wilderness (aka Riverside) with all those wild animals (aka 11-something Huskies...and no, I'm not kidding).
Today's teaser: I got one new bracelet/earrings set done over the weekend but haven't had a chance to get it up on the website or post a preview here, but I'll try to get that done later today. Just to whet your appetite...it's got gorgeous lampwork beads in juicy shades of teal and lime mixed w/ Czech crystal and some BIG Bali silver beads. VERY beach-y and ready for summer.
Take care all!
KJ
>Jon is totally off life support. He has one IV for morphine and >antibiotics but that should come off tomorrow. We have all been >secretly worried sick that Jon would be blind from the loss of >blood to his brain. We talked to the neurologist today and he >said the he could see in one eye. He can't describe what he sees >yet because his speech center needs to recover from his time >under medications. His brain damage is general and not area >specific (except for the vision). He can not walk today or >control the movement of his arms. With extensive therapy these >functions can be restored. His memory is beginning to come >back. Tonight he could remember the names of his mom dad and >half of his siblings. He could also remember his phone number. >His speech is garbled at times but getting better. He will be out >of ICU soon if all goes well. Also, next Monday there will be a >blood drive for Jon. He required more than 30 pints of blood. >The bloodmobile will be in the Von's parking lot in Solana >Beach.
If anyone is in the San Diego or Solana Beach area and wants to go give blood, I'll post the blood drive information when I have it. If you're not in that area, please take this as a reminder of how important it is to give blood so that our supply is maintained. You never know when you or someone you love might need it!
In other news, Ryan is doing MUCH better! Although I kind of panicked after seeing how rotten he looked last Thursday when I picked him up from daycare, I'm happy to report that his doctor said his lungs were clear when he had his checkup on Friday. He's been sleeping a lot better (hooray!) and his cough isn't nearly as nasty sounding or frequent as it was. Last night we sat and watched an old, animated Disney version of "Johnny Appleseed" that I hadn't seen since I was a little child. He loved it and I was reminded of a childhood favorite! Oh, he also wiped tapioca pudding in my hair that I didn't find til it was nearly bedtime and I tried to brush my hair and couldn't figure out why the brush got stuck. Ah, the joys of mommydom ;-)
Oh, yes, how about some jewelry news? I've been invited to do my first ever arts and crafts show with my jewelry! It's thrilling and horrifying all at the same time LOL! With a full-time job, a husband, a household and a 2 year old child...well, let's just say that my free time is pretty limited so getting ready for a show in April will be a major undertaking. I haven't 100% decided to do it yet as I'm really not sure I've got the time, but I have to make a decision by the application deadline next week so I'll keep you posted. A lot depends on whether I can cajole/bribe/drag my friend Laura into being my helper. Not only does she have a lot of craft show experience from her days on the rubberstamping show circuit, but she brings the added benefit of being able to do math in her head (unlike some of us..okay, me...who are totally PATHETIC at anything to do with numbers). Plus we just generally make each other laugh and we don't get to see each other very often since she moved to that godforsaken wilderness (aka Riverside) with all those wild animals (aka 11-something Huskies...and no, I'm not kidding).
Today's teaser: I got one new bracelet/earrings set done over the weekend but haven't had a chance to get it up on the website or post a preview here, but I'll try to get that done later today. Just to whet your appetite...it's got gorgeous lampwork beads in juicy shades of teal and lime mixed w/ Czech crystal and some BIG Bali silver beads. VERY beach-y and ready for summer.
Take care all!
KJ
Friday, February 04, 2005
In an instant...
Today I am (sadly) reminded how it only takes a single instant to completely change a life. A cousin of mine was stabbed at a party over the weekend and is now in extremely critical condition and fighting for his life. He's already "died" twice and been brought back. His name is Jonathan and he's only 23. If you're so inclined, he and his family can use all the prayers, good thoughts, etc. that they can get.
I had planned to write today about how Ryan is still dealing with pneumonia (headed back to the doctor this afternoon) and the darned Santa Ana winds are just KILLING my sinuses and a few other equally inconsequential things, but it just seems rather pointless. So I'll save that stuff and some new pictures for another day.
To those who've been reading and commenting...thanks for taking the time and please know I appreciate all your input!
Have a great weekend everyone...and don't forget to take the time to tell those you love how you feel about them. Life is unpredictable!
Take care,
KJ
I had planned to write today about how Ryan is still dealing with pneumonia (headed back to the doctor this afternoon) and the darned Santa Ana winds are just KILLING my sinuses and a few other equally inconsequential things, but it just seems rather pointless. So I'll save that stuff and some new pictures for another day.
To those who've been reading and commenting...thanks for taking the time and please know I appreciate all your input!
Have a great weekend everyone...and don't forget to take the time to tell those you love how you feel about them. Life is unpredictable!
Take care,
KJ
Thursday, February 03, 2005
Artist's Statement
I've been posting a lot of pictures lately so you can see I've been busy churning out new inventory and adding it to the Website, but I thought it might be time for an actual blog entry ;-)
There's been a lot of discussion lately on jewelry artist message board community that I belong to about "artist's statements." What are they? Should everyone have one or are they pretentious and to be avoided like the plague?
General definition is that an "artist statement" is sort of like a "mission statement" for a company or an overall guiding philosophy. Although some people look at it more as a place to post their artistic resume or more specific descriptions of what inspired particular pieces.
I haven't put one up on my site at this time because I'm not sure I have an overall guiding philosophy that I work under as I create my jewelry. I'm more of a "this appeals to me TODAY so I'll do it" person. Plus, I do think it can have the tendency to slip over into pretentiousness.
Honestly, how do you KNOW the public is interested in what's in your head, your pet causes and peeves, etc. Maybe they just liked one thing you did, thought it was cool, bought it and that's the end of it? That's one reason I like using the Blog to communicate with my clientele. Anyone who's interested can click the "Blog" link on my site and come here to read. If they're not interested, then they don't have to click.
On the other hand (can you tell yet that I'm a Gemini and therefore have to always argue both sides of any issue? LOL) I personally like it when I have some type of clue what went into a particular piece by an artist. I think it's interesting how real life events and issues can get translated through an artist's brain into their work. The way I handle that for my own customers is in the written description of each item on my site...I try to give some little tidbit of information of what I was thinking of at the time, or what the bead colors remind me of, or why I gave it the strange name, etc. Sometimes knowing a bit more about a piece can help a customer make more of an emotional connection with it.
So for now, I'll keep up with my little item descriptions (which I hope people enjoy) and save my bio for my real-life resume. And as for an "artist's statement"...I guess the closest I can come to describing my style is "Whatever floats your boat!"
Take care all!
KJ
P.S. New items up on the site today - earrings accented w/ amethyst tear drops and an unusual Thai silver pendant accented with chrysoprase and citrine...yummmy! Is summer here yet? See it all at http://www.silverparrotdesigns.net
There's been a lot of discussion lately on jewelry artist message board community that I belong to about "artist's statements." What are they? Should everyone have one or are they pretentious and to be avoided like the plague?
General definition is that an "artist statement" is sort of like a "mission statement" for a company or an overall guiding philosophy. Although some people look at it more as a place to post their artistic resume or more specific descriptions of what inspired particular pieces.
I haven't put one up on my site at this time because I'm not sure I have an overall guiding philosophy that I work under as I create my jewelry. I'm more of a "this appeals to me TODAY so I'll do it" person. Plus, I do think it can have the tendency to slip over into pretentiousness.
Honestly, how do you KNOW the public is interested in what's in your head, your pet causes and peeves, etc. Maybe they just liked one thing you did, thought it was cool, bought it and that's the end of it? That's one reason I like using the Blog to communicate with my clientele. Anyone who's interested can click the "Blog" link on my site and come here to read. If they're not interested, then they don't have to click.
On the other hand (can you tell yet that I'm a Gemini and therefore have to always argue both sides of any issue? LOL) I personally like it when I have some type of clue what went into a particular piece by an artist. I think it's interesting how real life events and issues can get translated through an artist's brain into their work. The way I handle that for my own customers is in the written description of each item on my site...I try to give some little tidbit of information of what I was thinking of at the time, or what the bead colors remind me of, or why I gave it the strange name, etc. Sometimes knowing a bit more about a piece can help a customer make more of an emotional connection with it.
So for now, I'll keep up with my little item descriptions (which I hope people enjoy) and save my bio for my real-life resume. And as for an "artist's statement"...I guess the closest I can come to describing my style is "Whatever floats your boat!"
Take care all!
KJ
P.S. New items up on the site today - earrings accented w/ amethyst tear drops and an unusual Thai silver pendant accented with chrysoprase and citrine...yummmy! Is summer here yet? See it all at http://www.silverparrotdesigns.net
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
Friday, January 28, 2005
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Rant 'n Rave!
I'm up in arms over a couple of things so thought I'd spew about them here before my head explodes!
Last weekend, we had a birthday party for our 2-year-old son. It went well (no food disasters or kids whining/crying/fighting, etc.) except for one incident. For the "entertainment" portion of the party, we took all the kids over to the large neighborhood park to play on the playground equipment and we also had a
pinata filled with candy and stickers and little toys.
All is going well and the kids are politely (considering they are all age 2 - 4) waiting their turns to take a whack at the pinata when these two dogs WHO ARE NOT ON LEASHES come racing through our group and jump all over one little boy.
Now, the dogs were only playing, but they were completely wild and romping around and in the process knocked the boy down and jumped all over him before any of the adults could react to pull them off. I look up to see the idiot owner halfway across the park WATCHING THIS HAPPEN AND NOT DOING ANYTHING ABOUT IT!! Finally as he realizes that we have grabbed his dogs by their collars and are dragging them back over to him he finally stops conversing with whoever he was talking to and comes ambling over meet us and
demands to know what the hell we are doing with his dogs.
DH says he always thought the whole "Exorcist head spinning thing" was a movie trick but he swears up and down that I accomplished it for real at that moment. Now, I am a serious dog lover and will go to a lot of lengths to keep dogs out of the clutches of the dog catcher, but I told this moron that if he didn't leash his dogs right that minute that I was going to be on the cell phone to
animal control faster than he could say "lawsuit." He has no idea how lucky he is that the child was only frightened and not injured in any way...although I would count it as an injury if the poor kid ends up being phobic of dogs for the rest of his life. He also tried to argue that the leash law didn't apply to the park...dumbass apparently can't READ as there's a giant sign right at the park entrance explaining that dogs must be on leashes or owners are subject to tickets and fines.
OK..that's one, now here's the other...
We have a 2002 Saturn VUE (our other car is also a Saturn) and we've been loyal customers since 1997. Now, our VUE started behaving a bit strangely in November in that it would just not start or else would lose power while being driven. So, we took it in to the dealership (still under warranty at this point) to have it fixed. They (supposedly) looked at it and said they couldn't find anything wrong with it but that they had been having similar
problems due to the "winter additives" that are put in fuel to keep it from freezing during this time of year. Uh, okay, yeah, whatever.
Take the car home and drive it a few more days and problem happens again. Take the car back, pitch a fit and demand that it be fixed. So they keep it for 3 DAYS, replace 1 damn sensor and tell us it's fixed.
Okay, fine. Drive car for another 3-4 weeks which brings me to last Friday night where I'm in rush hour traffic w/ my little one in the back seat and the car TOTALLY dies in the middle of an intersection. Not only does this put us in danger of being smashed by all the traffic around us, but now I have to worry that some pissed-off wacko is going to do more than honk and scream obscenities at us for being stuck in the intersection.
DH is an hour away stuck on the freeway coming home from his new job and my parents (who live nearby) have ONCE AGAIN forgotten to turn on their cell phone so I can't contact them either.
Miraculously, after 20 minutes of sitting there while I'm frantically calling tow trucks and friends to try to get help, the
car finally starts (thank you, God!) and I make it home.
Now DH has to take time Saturday morning while we are in the midst of party preparations to take the car down to the dealership again. He calls them to find out what time they open and gets their normal greeting with their hours listed. So, he heads down to the dealership and what does he find when he gets there? Our dealership is GONE...as in skedaddled, vamoosed, slunk away
like a thief in the night.
There's no sign saying they've moved or providing info on another dealership to contact, etc. DH is now incredibly pissed off...which is the mood I want him in as a horde of toddlers are
about to descend on us for a birthday party...uh, NOT!
So, we decide we can't do anything about the car today, come on home and we'll handle it on Monday as car does now seem to be drivable. Sunday he takes it to put gas in it and the damn thing dies at the gas station. We call Saturn headquarters to find out THEY DON'T EVEN KNOW ONE OF THEIR DEALERSHIPS IS GONE! They refer us to the next closest location which is 40 minutes away (oh joy) so he calls them and they say it will be an hour to get a tow truck to him. I can't go pick him up because I've got the kidlet
and the car seat is...you guessed it...in the VUE.
He finally gets the tow up to the new dealership and asks them for a loaner car (which our old dealership always provided as part of the warranty) only to be told "nope, sorry, we don't do loaners, but you can go to Enterprise tomorrow and rent a car and we'll reimburse you for it). Now how the hell is he supposed to get home?
I end up having to call my poor dad and send him up there to pick up Dean and bring him back. Great - everyone's day has now been totally ruined as this pretty much took the entire day to get worked out. Plus, now dad has to come over at 7 am on Monday
to pick up the kidlet and I and take him to daycare and me to work. Dad is thrilled about that.
Get a call from the dealership around noon today that car is fixed and I should come pick it up. Dad drives me up there where they tell me that our full warranty expired 11 days ago and that we are now on the extended warranty that we bought and therefore we have $100 deductible and can I please whip out my credit card and pay them the $100.
I flip out. I'm normally pretty meek and mild-mannered and in a lot of situations I probably would've just said okay and paid the damn $100 but after the dog incident and all this other crap, I've reached the end of my fuse. It's a long fuse, but trust me, you don't want to get to the end of it. Dad actually had to take me out into the service bay to calm me down and tell me he's never seen me behave like this before and do I need to get a drink or something.
I calm down enough to go back inside and explain through gritted teeth that no, I'm not paying $100 for something that is a recurring problem and that it's not my fault the other dealership never fixed it properly and that at this point I'm a very unhappy customer and what can they do to make me a happy customer. The service manager actually has the guts to look me in the eye and tell me that he can offer me a free oil change next time we come in.
WHAAAAAATTTTT?????!!!
Yes, that's right, this dimwit actually thought that the privilege of driving 40 minutes for a free oil change (which my DH does for free in our garage at home anyway) would make up for all the crap we've been through for the last couple of months. Uhh...don't think so, Sparky! He had NO IDEA how close to total death and destruction he was at that moment but fortunately for him, my dad intervened and said "I don't think that's going to do it for us. You've got 5 minutes to think of something else."
I have no idea what was going to happen in 5 more minutes besides me going even more insane, but I guess it worked because Vince skedaddled his big, fat hiney back to his boss's office while my dad continued to try to talk me down off the ledge of insanity I was on. They finally agreed to call Saturn corporate to see if
they could waive the $100 which Saturn agreed to do but "not because the problem was re-occurring...only because you're just a few days past your warranty." Yeah, whatever, just give me my car keys, asswipe. Oh, they also tried to charge me $30 for the rental car that I never even had time to go get...got that taken off, too.
Needless to say I am no longer a Saturn proponent, but one thing I can say about them (at least for this week anyway)...Saturn's ma bitch :-)
Normally I wouldn't make a big deal out of this, but since I'm usually not someone who stands up for herself too much, I'm kinda proud of this (maybe you could tell?) Anyway, more jewelry news to come, shortly!
KJ - don't mess with me!
Last weekend, we had a birthday party for our 2-year-old son. It went well (no food disasters or kids whining/crying/fighting, etc.) except for one incident. For the "entertainment" portion of the party, we took all the kids over to the large neighborhood park to play on the playground equipment and we also had a
pinata filled with candy and stickers and little toys.
All is going well and the kids are politely (considering they are all age 2 - 4) waiting their turns to take a whack at the pinata when these two dogs WHO ARE NOT ON LEASHES come racing through our group and jump all over one little boy.
Now, the dogs were only playing, but they were completely wild and romping around and in the process knocked the boy down and jumped all over him before any of the adults could react to pull them off. I look up to see the idiot owner halfway across the park WATCHING THIS HAPPEN AND NOT DOING ANYTHING ABOUT IT!! Finally as he realizes that we have grabbed his dogs by their collars and are dragging them back over to him he finally stops conversing with whoever he was talking to and comes ambling over meet us and
demands to know what the hell we are doing with his dogs.
DH says he always thought the whole "Exorcist head spinning thing" was a movie trick but he swears up and down that I accomplished it for real at that moment. Now, I am a serious dog lover and will go to a lot of lengths to keep dogs out of the clutches of the dog catcher, but I told this moron that if he didn't leash his dogs right that minute that I was going to be on the cell phone to
animal control faster than he could say "lawsuit." He has no idea how lucky he is that the child was only frightened and not injured in any way...although I would count it as an injury if the poor kid ends up being phobic of dogs for the rest of his life. He also tried to argue that the leash law didn't apply to the park...dumbass apparently can't READ as there's a giant sign right at the park entrance explaining that dogs must be on leashes or owners are subject to tickets and fines.
OK..that's one, now here's the other...
We have a 2002 Saturn VUE (our other car is also a Saturn) and we've been loyal customers since 1997. Now, our VUE started behaving a bit strangely in November in that it would just not start or else would lose power while being driven. So, we took it in to the dealership (still under warranty at this point) to have it fixed. They (supposedly) looked at it and said they couldn't find anything wrong with it but that they had been having similar
problems due to the "winter additives" that are put in fuel to keep it from freezing during this time of year. Uh, okay, yeah, whatever.
Take the car home and drive it a few more days and problem happens again. Take the car back, pitch a fit and demand that it be fixed. So they keep it for 3 DAYS, replace 1 damn sensor and tell us it's fixed.
Okay, fine. Drive car for another 3-4 weeks which brings me to last Friday night where I'm in rush hour traffic w/ my little one in the back seat and the car TOTALLY dies in the middle of an intersection. Not only does this put us in danger of being smashed by all the traffic around us, but now I have to worry that some pissed-off wacko is going to do more than honk and scream obscenities at us for being stuck in the intersection.
DH is an hour away stuck on the freeway coming home from his new job and my parents (who live nearby) have ONCE AGAIN forgotten to turn on their cell phone so I can't contact them either.
Miraculously, after 20 minutes of sitting there while I'm frantically calling tow trucks and friends to try to get help, the
car finally starts (thank you, God!) and I make it home.
Now DH has to take time Saturday morning while we are in the midst of party preparations to take the car down to the dealership again. He calls them to find out what time they open and gets their normal greeting with their hours listed. So, he heads down to the dealership and what does he find when he gets there? Our dealership is GONE...as in skedaddled, vamoosed, slunk away
like a thief in the night.
There's no sign saying they've moved or providing info on another dealership to contact, etc. DH is now incredibly pissed off...which is the mood I want him in as a horde of toddlers are
about to descend on us for a birthday party...uh, NOT!
So, we decide we can't do anything about the car today, come on home and we'll handle it on Monday as car does now seem to be drivable. Sunday he takes it to put gas in it and the damn thing dies at the gas station. We call Saturn headquarters to find out THEY DON'T EVEN KNOW ONE OF THEIR DEALERSHIPS IS GONE! They refer us to the next closest location which is 40 minutes away (oh joy) so he calls them and they say it will be an hour to get a tow truck to him. I can't go pick him up because I've got the kidlet
and the car seat is...you guessed it...in the VUE.
He finally gets the tow up to the new dealership and asks them for a loaner car (which our old dealership always provided as part of the warranty) only to be told "nope, sorry, we don't do loaners, but you can go to Enterprise tomorrow and rent a car and we'll reimburse you for it). Now how the hell is he supposed to get home?
I end up having to call my poor dad and send him up there to pick up Dean and bring him back. Great - everyone's day has now been totally ruined as this pretty much took the entire day to get worked out. Plus, now dad has to come over at 7 am on Monday
to pick up the kidlet and I and take him to daycare and me to work. Dad is thrilled about that.
Get a call from the dealership around noon today that car is fixed and I should come pick it up. Dad drives me up there where they tell me that our full warranty expired 11 days ago and that we are now on the extended warranty that we bought and therefore we have $100 deductible and can I please whip out my credit card and pay them the $100.
I flip out. I'm normally pretty meek and mild-mannered and in a lot of situations I probably would've just said okay and paid the damn $100 but after the dog incident and all this other crap, I've reached the end of my fuse. It's a long fuse, but trust me, you don't want to get to the end of it. Dad actually had to take me out into the service bay to calm me down and tell me he's never seen me behave like this before and do I need to get a drink or something.
I calm down enough to go back inside and explain through gritted teeth that no, I'm not paying $100 for something that is a recurring problem and that it's not my fault the other dealership never fixed it properly and that at this point I'm a very unhappy customer and what can they do to make me a happy customer. The service manager actually has the guts to look me in the eye and tell me that he can offer me a free oil change next time we come in.
WHAAAAAATTTTT?????!!!
Yes, that's right, this dimwit actually thought that the privilege of driving 40 minutes for a free oil change (which my DH does for free in our garage at home anyway) would make up for all the crap we've been through for the last couple of months. Uhh...don't think so, Sparky! He had NO IDEA how close to total death and destruction he was at that moment but fortunately for him, my dad intervened and said "I don't think that's going to do it for us. You've got 5 minutes to think of something else."
I have no idea what was going to happen in 5 more minutes besides me going even more insane, but I guess it worked because Vince skedaddled his big, fat hiney back to his boss's office while my dad continued to try to talk me down off the ledge of insanity I was on. They finally agreed to call Saturn corporate to see if
they could waive the $100 which Saturn agreed to do but "not because the problem was re-occurring...only because you're just a few days past your warranty." Yeah, whatever, just give me my car keys, asswipe. Oh, they also tried to charge me $30 for the rental car that I never even had time to go get...got that taken off, too.
Needless to say I am no longer a Saturn proponent, but one thing I can say about them (at least for this week anyway)...Saturn's ma bitch :-)
Normally I wouldn't make a big deal out of this, but since I'm usually not someone who stands up for herself too much, I'm kinda proud of this (maybe you could tell?) Anyway, more jewelry news to come, shortly!
KJ - don't mess with me!
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
New Pics
I promised a few new pics and just uploaded them. One of my goals for this year was to stop hoarding all of my gorgeous lampwork beads that I've spent the last few years collecting and actually USE some of them! I'm so glad I did because I think the results are pretty spectacular (even if I do say so myself). There really are some fantastic lampwork artists out there and I just love having the opportunity to create with some of their work. I've taken a few lampworking classes myself and would love to do my own beads some day...but since it requires quite a workshop set up for safety as well as a kiln...well...a girl can dream! LOL!
Enjoy the new pretties and of course, everything is for sale at http://www.silverparrotdesigns.net
I'm sure everyone wants to come buy and make some purchases to support my kiln dream, right? LOL...yeah, that's what I thought!
Take care all!
KJ
Enjoy the new pretties and of course, everything is for sale at http://www.silverparrotdesigns.net
I'm sure everyone wants to come buy and make some purchases to support my kiln dream, right? LOL...yeah, that's what I thought!
Take care all!
KJ
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Much ado about nothing...
...'cause that's what's happening around here...a whole lot of NADA! Which is why I haven't written in *gasp!* 8 whole days! Nothing to write about :-) I was going to continue ranting about the Minnesota Vikings, but since they lost this weekend (and good riddance) I suppose it's rather pointless. I did read something today that says perhaps there's a chance they might trade Moss for some decent defensive players (which heaven knows they REALLY need) but I'm still not sure I see them giving him up because of his talent. Even if they're sick of him there...not sure they'd want anyone else to have him LOL!
Lessee...what else? Ryan turned the big 2 years old last Friday! Can't believe the time has gone so fast, but he's really a big boy now! We're having a party for him this Saturday...should be fun. I'm going to try to get a "Thomas the Tank Engine" cake design for him as that is his favorite.
Made a sale on the website yesterday...goody for me :-) Also got a few more new designs up and will post a picture here shortly.
That's it...oh, except Ruth Warrick who played Phoebe Tyler Wallingford on "All My Children" died over the weekend...very sad!
Take care all!
KJ
Lessee...what else? Ryan turned the big 2 years old last Friday! Can't believe the time has gone so fast, but he's really a big boy now! We're having a party for him this Saturday...should be fun. I'm going to try to get a "Thomas the Tank Engine" cake design for him as that is his favorite.
Made a sale on the website yesterday...goody for me :-) Also got a few more new designs up and will post a picture here shortly.
That's it...oh, except Ruth Warrick who played Phoebe Tyler Wallingford on "All My Children" died over the weekend...very sad!
Take care all!
KJ
Monday, January 10, 2005
Another week, another website!
The website is all up to date for 2005 as promised. I've gort an entire new section devoted to all the holidays/seasons of the year starting with Valentine's Day. I did a lot of work with pink, white and red getting ready for the upcoming "day of romance" and now I'm working on a whole "green" series for St. Patrick's day. Here's the link to the site: http://www.silverparrotdesigns.net
It's soooo nice (and amazing) to be ahead of schedule for a change. It helps that kidlet has managed to stay well for a while now (knock on wood!)
And....we haven't washed away yet, either, despite essentially a week of relentless rain. I don't think I ever remember so many days in a row of rain with no breaks the entire time I've lived here. Thanks, El Nino!
Despite all that, I took kidlet to the Aquarium of the Pacific on Saturday and we had a great time. He really enjoyed looking at all the "big fish." And he was such a good boy, too. Slept in the car on the way there and back and never whined or cried or caused any problems at all...even when I accidentally bonked his head on an exhibit window as I was trying to lift him up to give him a better view. Poor guy. Here he's such an amazing kid and yet mom is such a lame-o LOL!
On a sad note...I'll have more time to put in on jewelry-making as my two post-season teams in the NFL BOTH lost their Wild Card games this weekend. ARRRGGHH! San Diego and Green Bay are both out :-( Minnesota is still in and normally I would root for them (except when they are playing the Packers, I root for the Vikings to support my DH who is from Minnesota) but after seeing Randy Moss's idiotic behavior the last couple of weeks, I think I'll be rooting for whoever is playing AGAINST Minnesota. Take the 'fro and go, Randy! You are an immature, classless brat and I have NO IDEA why your stunt yesterday didn't earn you a flag for unsportsmanlike conduct. Brett Favre has more class in his pinky toe than you have in your entire body! Such a nice example you set for your younger fans...NOT!
Okay, rant over.
Don't forget to go check out updated website at http://www.silverparrotdesigns.net
Take care all!
KJ
It's soooo nice (and amazing) to be ahead of schedule for a change. It helps that kidlet has managed to stay well for a while now (knock on wood!)
And....we haven't washed away yet, either, despite essentially a week of relentless rain. I don't think I ever remember so many days in a row of rain with no breaks the entire time I've lived here. Thanks, El Nino!
Despite all that, I took kidlet to the Aquarium of the Pacific on Saturday and we had a great time. He really enjoyed looking at all the "big fish." And he was such a good boy, too. Slept in the car on the way there and back and never whined or cried or caused any problems at all...even when I accidentally bonked his head on an exhibit window as I was trying to lift him up to give him a better view. Poor guy. Here he's such an amazing kid and yet mom is such a lame-o LOL!
On a sad note...I'll have more time to put in on jewelry-making as my two post-season teams in the NFL BOTH lost their Wild Card games this weekend. ARRRGGHH! San Diego and Green Bay are both out :-( Minnesota is still in and normally I would root for them (except when they are playing the Packers, I root for the Vikings to support my DH who is from Minnesota) but after seeing Randy Moss's idiotic behavior the last couple of weeks, I think I'll be rooting for whoever is playing AGAINST Minnesota. Take the 'fro and go, Randy! You are an immature, classless brat and I have NO IDEA why your stunt yesterday didn't earn you a flag for unsportsmanlike conduct. Brett Favre has more class in his pinky toe than you have in your entire body! Such a nice example you set for your younger fans...NOT!
Okay, rant over.
Don't forget to go check out updated website at http://www.silverparrotdesigns.net
Take care all!
KJ
Thursday, January 06, 2005
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
Happy New Year!
Hmmm...got kind of behind in posting over the holidays, didn't I? Oopsie. Between vacation and company holidays, I was lucky enough to have a nice, long Christmas break, but I spent most of it in a flurry of preparations (cooking, cleaning, gift wrapping, etc.) We hosted Christmas Eve at our house and then went to my parents' house on Christmas Day.
I got to hit the 50% off sale at the local bead store on 12/26 and that was lots of fun. Super crowded and long lines, but the deals were worth it. I stocked up on lots of the "essentials" such as wire, chain and findings. Then I came home and placed a few on-line orders with my favorite vendors to get me set up for the coming year. This included some more of the great bead storage boxes from http://www.beyondbeadery.com I just love them, but am starting to bust out of the ones I already have and need more storage. Or, I could stop shopping...naaaaahhhh....no fun in that LOL!
DH and I made it out to the movies once to see "Ocean's Twelve." Not as good as the first movie, but still had some funny moments so worth seeing, I guess. Some of Ryan's friends came over and had a play date with him and we all went to a New Year's Eve party at my brother's house. One of his friends is a gourment cook so we had excellent munchies! Ryan kinda ran out of steam around 8:30 PM, though, so we headed home. DH had an early tee time for the next morning so he was in bed by 10:00 and I crashed before midnight as well. We continue in our efforts to be the dullest family on the planet LOL!
We all managed to stay fairly healthy through most of the holidays, but Ryan finally came down with some type of stomach thing on Saturday night and was quite sick all day Sunday but seemed to rally and be a lot better by Monday. Unfortunately, by then he'd give the bug to me and I've been struggling with it since yesterday.
But, in amongst all that, I did find quite a bit of time for beading and will have new items up on the site as soon as I can get them scanned and get the webpages updated. I lost some time as DH used the holidays to completely wipe our computer and re-build it and this put the scanner out of commission until late last night when he finally got it running again. I did a lot of pink and red stuff for Valentine's and some pastel stuff for Spring.
I also tried to have more of a range of prices so there are definitely some bargains for those who are looking for them. In general, I prefer to work with higher quality materials (14kt gold and sterling silver, etc.) but quality costs $ and I know that I need to have something to appeal to the "bargain hunter" as well. Pewter is an excellent alternative as it is cost-effective and wears MUCH better than "plated" items. I use very few "plated" beads, findings, etc. because they don't wear well over time. The plating wears off and you're left with whatever base metal color was underneath. Even bargain hunters shouldn't have to put up with that! So, I made some items with pewter beads and findings - watch for them in the "Bargain Basement" section of the website. Just follow the "Mr. Piggy Bank" icon at http://www.silverparrotdesigns.net !
I'll post an alert here when the new items are up. Going off to work on the updates right now.
Happy 2005 everyone!
KJ
I got to hit the 50% off sale at the local bead store on 12/26 and that was lots of fun. Super crowded and long lines, but the deals were worth it. I stocked up on lots of the "essentials" such as wire, chain and findings. Then I came home and placed a few on-line orders with my favorite vendors to get me set up for the coming year. This included some more of the great bead storage boxes from http://www.beyondbeadery.com I just love them, but am starting to bust out of the ones I already have and need more storage. Or, I could stop shopping...naaaaahhhh....no fun in that LOL!
DH and I made it out to the movies once to see "Ocean's Twelve." Not as good as the first movie, but still had some funny moments so worth seeing, I guess. Some of Ryan's friends came over and had a play date with him and we all went to a New Year's Eve party at my brother's house. One of his friends is a gourment cook so we had excellent munchies! Ryan kinda ran out of steam around 8:30 PM, though, so we headed home. DH had an early tee time for the next morning so he was in bed by 10:00 and I crashed before midnight as well. We continue in our efforts to be the dullest family on the planet LOL!
We all managed to stay fairly healthy through most of the holidays, but Ryan finally came down with some type of stomach thing on Saturday night and was quite sick all day Sunday but seemed to rally and be a lot better by Monday. Unfortunately, by then he'd give the bug to me and I've been struggling with it since yesterday.
But, in amongst all that, I did find quite a bit of time for beading and will have new items up on the site as soon as I can get them scanned and get the webpages updated. I lost some time as DH used the holidays to completely wipe our computer and re-build it and this put the scanner out of commission until late last night when he finally got it running again. I did a lot of pink and red stuff for Valentine's and some pastel stuff for Spring.
I also tried to have more of a range of prices so there are definitely some bargains for those who are looking for them. In general, I prefer to work with higher quality materials (14kt gold and sterling silver, etc.) but quality costs $ and I know that I need to have something to appeal to the "bargain hunter" as well. Pewter is an excellent alternative as it is cost-effective and wears MUCH better than "plated" items. I use very few "plated" beads, findings, etc. because they don't wear well over time. The plating wears off and you're left with whatever base metal color was underneath. Even bargain hunters shouldn't have to put up with that! So, I made some items with pewter beads and findings - watch for them in the "Bargain Basement" section of the website. Just follow the "Mr. Piggy Bank" icon at http://www.silverparrotdesigns.net !
I'll post an alert here when the new items are up. Going off to work on the updates right now.
Happy 2005 everyone!
KJ
Monday, December 20, 2004
And then there were meatballs...
...or at least there will be if I can ever find the recipe I'm looking for. Each year at Christmas I seem to be mostly on top of everything that needs to get done (except for last year...but that's another story) but I always end up on a last minute hunt for ONE elusive thing. Usually it's a gift item but this year it's a recipe...for sweet and sour meatballs made in a crockpot.
I'm hosting the Christmas Eve festivities for the whole family and thought I'd add something different to the menu. We usually go to church services and then head back to our house for some punch, heavy hors d'oeuvres and dessert and I always seem to make the same exact things each year because that's what people ask for but I'm getting bored. So, I had these meatballs at a party several months ago and thought they were really awesome and I've been trying to get the recipe for them ever since (don't know the person that brought them that well). There seem to be quite a few versions of this particular dish - apparently I'm the only one on the planet who's never made it before LOL! Yeah, okay, I know...LOSER. But I'm not going to let that stop me :-)
Now my only problem is choosing between all the versions I've found as to which is the best (and I don't have time for a lot of taste-testing between now and Xmas Eve). I think the grape jelly/ketchup version sounds the best. The others use chili sauce and I'm afraid that might be too spicy for a few of my guests who have acid reflux problems...but we'll see. Maybe I'll make two versions.
The other new thing I'm trying is a cranberry chutney recipe that's to be service with cream cheese as a spread for crackers. I thought it sounded fun and pretty easy to whip up. In addition to cranberries it's got apples, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and brown sugar...mmmmmm! I thought I might try adding some orange zest, too, but not sure if I'm brave enough to do it or not.
Tomorrow's my last day of work for the year - WOO HOO! I'm taking Wednesday just to relax and get ready for the "holiday storm" and then Thursday will be last minute gift and grocery shopping and probably baking day as well. And then Friday morning I'll make up the last couple of things and get the table set. Fortunately the daycare is open this week so I'll be able to have Ryan occupied and cared for while I whip around to get all this stuff done and then we have him home with us for the entire next week.
Next I've got to start planning his birthday party and getting the invitations out. He turns two on 1/14/05. Can't BELIEVE he's getting so BIG!
Wish me luck on the meatballs and Happy Holidays everyone!
KJ
I'm hosting the Christmas Eve festivities for the whole family and thought I'd add something different to the menu. We usually go to church services and then head back to our house for some punch, heavy hors d'oeuvres and dessert and I always seem to make the same exact things each year because that's what people ask for but I'm getting bored. So, I had these meatballs at a party several months ago and thought they were really awesome and I've been trying to get the recipe for them ever since (don't know the person that brought them that well). There seem to be quite a few versions of this particular dish - apparently I'm the only one on the planet who's never made it before LOL! Yeah, okay, I know...LOSER. But I'm not going to let that stop me :-)
Now my only problem is choosing between all the versions I've found as to which is the best (and I don't have time for a lot of taste-testing between now and Xmas Eve). I think the grape jelly/ketchup version sounds the best. The others use chili sauce and I'm afraid that might be too spicy for a few of my guests who have acid reflux problems...but we'll see. Maybe I'll make two versions.
The other new thing I'm trying is a cranberry chutney recipe that's to be service with cream cheese as a spread for crackers. I thought it sounded fun and pretty easy to whip up. In addition to cranberries it's got apples, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and brown sugar...mmmmmm! I thought I might try adding some orange zest, too, but not sure if I'm brave enough to do it or not.
Tomorrow's my last day of work for the year - WOO HOO! I'm taking Wednesday just to relax and get ready for the "holiday storm" and then Thursday will be last minute gift and grocery shopping and probably baking day as well. And then Friday morning I'll make up the last couple of things and get the table set. Fortunately the daycare is open this week so I'll be able to have Ryan occupied and cared for while I whip around to get all this stuff done and then we have him home with us for the entire next week.
Next I've got to start planning his birthday party and getting the invitations out. He turns two on 1/14/05. Can't BELIEVE he's getting so BIG!
Wish me luck on the meatballs and Happy Holidays everyone!
KJ
Friday, December 17, 2004
Mmmm...candy!
Or as my toddler would say "CANDY! It GOOD!" Thanks, by the way, to his daycare for teaching him that...sigh. Just posted a picture of the first piece I created after coming home from the bead show this weekend. I've called it "Cinnamon Candy" because of the colors used and the way the main pendant reminded me of cotton candy.
It was a better show than usual and (unlike last time) had moved back into the main building so that was really nice. Last time it was partially outside and partially in a building with no A/C! I kept having to run back outside in between booths just to cool off. One poor vendor had sent her husband to Home Depot to get a fan to set up in their booth because she couldn't take it any more. But, like I said, this show was better.
I found all the "must haves" I was looking for like more of the glass leaves and re-stock on the silver and vermeil Bali caps and spacers that I need to finish off any of my peyote tube creations. That was a huge relief because I'd been looking for that stuff (especially the 8mm silver spacers) EVERYWHERE and couldn't find them. Everyone had 6, 7 or 9mm but no 8's and the peyote tubes just really have to have the exact right size or they don't come out right.
Just to show how much of a frenzy I was in...I found this great vendor selling really nice stone pendants for CHEAP! and bought a bunch of stuff from him and then completely forgot to pay attention to the vendor NAME. So, for future shows, I have NO IDEA who he is...will just have to wander around, I guess.
I got two really nice faceted "chunks" of pink Peruvian opal (the first I used as a pendant in the picture that was just uploaded). Haven't decided what to do with the other yet - maybe a bracelet, double-stranded with some pearls? Hmm...have to think on it. Also picked up some really stunning ocean jasper pendants in various shapes and colors, a nice piece of sodalite and a magnificent botswana agate.
Other purchases include some faceted rectangular jade dyed a deep cherry color, lots of small, faceted briolettes in various colors (mostly quartz or dyed jade), some large, irregular pastel chalcedony slabs and some really gorgeous Thai hill tribe silver flowers and butterflies. These flower pendants are going to be just outstanding with some of the bigger, chunkier chalcedony I've been buying lately.
And, when I got home, what was waiting for me in the mail? Last week's e-bay purchases! I got a great deal on some large, circular fluorite pendants and countered that by spending WAAAYYY too much on a truly stunning set of lampwork beads featuring a large pansy flower. But, hey, the pansy is my sorority's official flower so whenever I see one I just HAVE to have it! On top of which, this one is particularly outstanding in shades of blue and the lampwork artistry on it is just top-notch. Don't believe me? Just wait til I get it made up into something and post a picture! But don't hold your breath - it's so incredible I might have to hoard it for a while. I'm sure my fellow Tri Deltas will understand the bond I feel with this particular set of beads, LOL!
But don't despair - I'm moving forward on having a section of "greek"-related jewelry on my site. I found a supplier for sterling silver alphabet beads (like those I use in my regular "brag" bracelets) but this is the greek alphabet! I've already made up and sold an Alpha Gamma Delta (AGD) bracelet to a friend and she loved it so I'm definitely moving forward on this. It's one of my goals for 2005 to get this section up and I've already got the beads for Kappa Kappa Gamma, Delta Gamma and Delta Delta Delta so those will probably be the first up. But feel free to e-mail me at stamparrot@hotmail.com if you're interested in any type of Greek bracelet. I'll definitely take custom orders until I get that section of the site up and running!
Let's see...oh yeah...we're going to try to take kidlet to see Santa tonight and hopefully sneak in before the crowd (yeah, right). Oh, and last but absolutely not least: HUGE CONGRATS TO MY DH WHO JUST GOT A NEW JOB!!! Way to go, honey!
Lastly, today's the last day of my "free shipping" holiday sale. It runs til midnight so if you need last minute gift ideas be sure to head over to http://www.silverparrotdesigns.net I've got more new designs up there than what is posted here in the blog!
Happy Holidays to all!
KJ
It was a better show than usual and (unlike last time) had moved back into the main building so that was really nice. Last time it was partially outside and partially in a building with no A/C! I kept having to run back outside in between booths just to cool off. One poor vendor had sent her husband to Home Depot to get a fan to set up in their booth because she couldn't take it any more. But, like I said, this show was better.
I found all the "must haves" I was looking for like more of the glass leaves and re-stock on the silver and vermeil Bali caps and spacers that I need to finish off any of my peyote tube creations. That was a huge relief because I'd been looking for that stuff (especially the 8mm silver spacers) EVERYWHERE and couldn't find them. Everyone had 6, 7 or 9mm but no 8's and the peyote tubes just really have to have the exact right size or they don't come out right.
Just to show how much of a frenzy I was in...I found this great vendor selling really nice stone pendants for CHEAP! and bought a bunch of stuff from him and then completely forgot to pay attention to the vendor NAME. So, for future shows, I have NO IDEA who he is...will just have to wander around, I guess.
I got two really nice faceted "chunks" of pink Peruvian opal (the first I used as a pendant in the picture that was just uploaded). Haven't decided what to do with the other yet - maybe a bracelet, double-stranded with some pearls? Hmm...have to think on it. Also picked up some really stunning ocean jasper pendants in various shapes and colors, a nice piece of sodalite and a magnificent botswana agate.
Other purchases include some faceted rectangular jade dyed a deep cherry color, lots of small, faceted briolettes in various colors (mostly quartz or dyed jade), some large, irregular pastel chalcedony slabs and some really gorgeous Thai hill tribe silver flowers and butterflies. These flower pendants are going to be just outstanding with some of the bigger, chunkier chalcedony I've been buying lately.
And, when I got home, what was waiting for me in the mail? Last week's e-bay purchases! I got a great deal on some large, circular fluorite pendants and countered that by spending WAAAYYY too much on a truly stunning set of lampwork beads featuring a large pansy flower. But, hey, the pansy is my sorority's official flower so whenever I see one I just HAVE to have it! On top of which, this one is particularly outstanding in shades of blue and the lampwork artistry on it is just top-notch. Don't believe me? Just wait til I get it made up into something and post a picture! But don't hold your breath - it's so incredible I might have to hoard it for a while. I'm sure my fellow Tri Deltas will understand the bond I feel with this particular set of beads, LOL!
But don't despair - I'm moving forward on having a section of "greek"-related jewelry on my site. I found a supplier for sterling silver alphabet beads (like those I use in my regular "brag" bracelets) but this is the greek alphabet! I've already made up and sold an Alpha Gamma Delta (AGD) bracelet to a friend and she loved it so I'm definitely moving forward on this. It's one of my goals for 2005 to get this section up and I've already got the beads for Kappa Kappa Gamma, Delta Gamma and Delta Delta Delta so those will probably be the first up. But feel free to e-mail me at stamparrot@hotmail.com if you're interested in any type of Greek bracelet. I'll definitely take custom orders until I get that section of the site up and running!
Let's see...oh yeah...we're going to try to take kidlet to see Santa tonight and hopefully sneak in before the crowd (yeah, right). Oh, and last but absolutely not least: HUGE CONGRATS TO MY DH WHO JUST GOT A NEW JOB!!! Way to go, honey!
Lastly, today's the last day of my "free shipping" holiday sale. It runs til midnight so if you need last minute gift ideas be sure to head over to http://www.silverparrotdesigns.net I've got more new designs up there than what is posted here in the blog!
Happy Holidays to all!
KJ
Cinnamon Candy
First piece using purchases from this weekend's beadshow - the center stone is pink Peruvian opal and it's paired with rhodonite and rose quartz.
Friday, December 10, 2004
Bead Show Tomorrow!
I'm an addict. I admit it - I need a 12-step program for beads. "Hi, I'm Kelly and I'm a bead slut." Sigh.
Okay, enough wallowing, back to being excited about the show tomorrow. I just LOOOOOVE shopping for beads. All the sparkly gemstones and gorgeous, classy pearls and stunning artist glass - and it's all clamoring to come home with ME! One of these days when my business picks up, I'll go to a show with enough money to make that happen, but for now I have to be satisfied with just bringing home a few exciting things here and there.
Usually when I shop the shows I just go by "want." Whatever looks good, different, interesting is what I go for.
But this time I've got some specific "needs" that I have to take care of first so that'll probably blow a good chunk outta my budget but I've got to do it as I have half-finished pieces waiting for me to re-stock things I've run out of so I can finish them. I've been searching all over the place for 8mm Bali silver daisy spacers to finish my next set of peyote tube jewelry. Used to get them at my local bead store (LBS) but they've been out of 'em for months now and can't seem to get them back in stock. I've tried ordering on-line only to get the order in the mail and it's not exactly 8mm and so won't work. I'm taking my half-finished peyote tubes that have spacers on them already to the show tomorrow to try to match. I'm also totally out of the spacers and caps in vermeil that I need to START the next peyote tube project which definitely calls for gold vs. silver. And I've used up all my vermeil clasps, too, so will have to buy some of those.
THEN I can go play after I take care of all that stuff. Maybe some coin pearls and some new artist glass and I've got a coupon to use at Via Murano for some Venetian glass beads...yummm. That ought to about clean me out.
In other news...kidlet and I are still well! Wahooooooooo! His grandparents are going to babysit for us tonight so DH and I can go out to dinner. We've had a gift certificate to a local restaurant that we've been hanging onto for ages waiting for a chance to use it so tonight's the night. Tomorrow I'm taking Ryan for a haircut before I head off to the beadshow and I've also got to get some Christmas presents wrapped so they can get mailed out this weekend to some of DH's relatives in Texas and Minnesota. Then it will be time to get going on Christmas cards. Get me being all on top of stuff...I'm so proud! LOL!
And yeah, I know, I live the most boring life ever and yet still I dare to write about it here for all and sundry to see. I've exposed my extreme boringness to the entire world wide web. I'm so brave LOL!
That's all for now - take care!
KJ
P.S. Does anyone else out there watch "All My Children?" If so, I'd just like to add a little note about yesterday's episode: "AAAGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!" I cannot BELIEVE Bianca finally found out about her baby only to get pushed over a balcony (oh and nice job on the "fight" with her and JR...man was that ever badly choreographed!) I hate AMC for doing this to me! Why do I keep watching this stupid piece of crap that I've been addicted to since 1983? Well, okay, I love Tad and Ryan...but still...wit and rippling abs can only make up for so much frustration with incredibly stupid storylines and bad acting (not on Tad's part...he rocks!). AMC...give a poor girl a break!
Okay, enough wallowing, back to being excited about the show tomorrow. I just LOOOOOVE shopping for beads. All the sparkly gemstones and gorgeous, classy pearls and stunning artist glass - and it's all clamoring to come home with ME! One of these days when my business picks up, I'll go to a show with enough money to make that happen, but for now I have to be satisfied with just bringing home a few exciting things here and there.
Usually when I shop the shows I just go by "want." Whatever looks good, different, interesting is what I go for.
But this time I've got some specific "needs" that I have to take care of first so that'll probably blow a good chunk outta my budget but I've got to do it as I have half-finished pieces waiting for me to re-stock things I've run out of so I can finish them. I've been searching all over the place for 8mm Bali silver daisy spacers to finish my next set of peyote tube jewelry. Used to get them at my local bead store (LBS) but they've been out of 'em for months now and can't seem to get them back in stock. I've tried ordering on-line only to get the order in the mail and it's not exactly 8mm and so won't work. I'm taking my half-finished peyote tubes that have spacers on them already to the show tomorrow to try to match. I'm also totally out of the spacers and caps in vermeil that I need to START the next peyote tube project which definitely calls for gold vs. silver. And I've used up all my vermeil clasps, too, so will have to buy some of those.
THEN I can go play after I take care of all that stuff. Maybe some coin pearls and some new artist glass and I've got a coupon to use at Via Murano for some Venetian glass beads...yummm. That ought to about clean me out.
In other news...kidlet and I are still well! Wahooooooooo! His grandparents are going to babysit for us tonight so DH and I can go out to dinner. We've had a gift certificate to a local restaurant that we've been hanging onto for ages waiting for a chance to use it so tonight's the night. Tomorrow I'm taking Ryan for a haircut before I head off to the beadshow and I've also got to get some Christmas presents wrapped so they can get mailed out this weekend to some of DH's relatives in Texas and Minnesota. Then it will be time to get going on Christmas cards. Get me being all on top of stuff...I'm so proud! LOL!
And yeah, I know, I live the most boring life ever and yet still I dare to write about it here for all and sundry to see. I've exposed my extreme boringness to the entire world wide web. I'm so brave LOL!
That's all for now - take care!
KJ
P.S. Does anyone else out there watch "All My Children?" If so, I'd just like to add a little note about yesterday's episode: "AAAGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!" I cannot BELIEVE Bianca finally found out about her baby only to get pushed over a balcony (oh and nice job on the "fight" with her and JR...man was that ever badly choreographed!) I hate AMC for doing this to me! Why do I keep watching this stupid piece of crap that I've been addicted to since 1983? Well, okay, I love Tad and Ryan...but still...wit and rippling abs can only make up for so much frustration with incredibly stupid storylines and bad acting (not on Tad's part...he rocks!). AMC...give a poor girl a break!
Thursday, December 09, 2004
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
So many beads, so little time...
Ah...the lament of beaders everywhere. As you can see, I've been pretty busy. Posted a couple of new earring designs today and I've got more to show, too.
Plus, there's a bead show in town this weekend. Woo hoo! Time to stock up! I know I need more vermeil bead caps and clasps...for some reason I tend to always go for silver and forget to get any gold. Plus I've got to get more of those beautiful glass leaves and the vendor that sells them will be at the show. I've got another version of the leaf necklace I posted just about done, but ran out of leaves :-( Plus, they're so pretty, I just want to have a bunch more because I've got lots more design ideas.
Then (if I have any $ left) it'll be time to hit the gemstone vendors. I've really gotten a lot of use out of the stones I got at the last two shows so I'll be looking for more of that type. You can see the synthetic blue topaz briolettes in some of my newest earring designs. Hoping to find some good deals on wire and chain, too, as I'm going through those at a frightening rate
Let's see, what else? Kidlet has been healthy for about 2 weeks now....yippeeeeeee!! Of course, that means I've been healthy, too! Double yippppeeeee!!! I'm ahead of the curve (so far) on Christmas stuff - got a big chunk of our shopping done this past weekend so now I just have a few work gifts and stocking stuffers to finish up with. One thing I'm bummed about is that I got some really cute Xmas shirts for Ryan at Old Navy last year...for him to wear to some of the more casual social events of the season...and this year, they didn't have any :-( So I've got to come up with something for him to wear (including a nicer outfit for Christmas Eve church services, etc.)
Next I've got to figure out the menu for Christmas Eve. DH and I host a little hors d'oeuvres and hot, spiced cider gathering at our house after church each year. This year, DH's brother & sister-in-law and some of their kids will be joining us so we should have a nice grouping. Then on Christmas day it's over to my parents' house (or "grumagrum" as Ryan refers to "grandma & grandpa) for presents and feasting. I just love the holidays and it's even more fun now that Ryan knows a little more about what's going on. He's learning about Santa and can even sing along to a few Christmas carols. Such a doll!
Now I've just got to wrap and ship the out-of-state gifts and get the Christmas cards done and mailed and all should be well. So much better than last year where I was WAAAYYYY behind schedule and had to scramble like crazy to pull everything off.
At this rate maybe I'll even be able to go to the amazing day-after-Xmas sale that my local bead store (LBS) puts on every year. 50% off the entire store!! And hopefully I'll have some Xmas cash from Santa to spend, too!
And with that happy thought...I'm signing off!
KJ
Plus, there's a bead show in town this weekend. Woo hoo! Time to stock up! I know I need more vermeil bead caps and clasps...for some reason I tend to always go for silver and forget to get any gold. Plus I've got to get more of those beautiful glass leaves and the vendor that sells them will be at the show. I've got another version of the leaf necklace I posted just about done, but ran out of leaves :-( Plus, they're so pretty, I just want to have a bunch more because I've got lots more design ideas.
Then (if I have any $ left) it'll be time to hit the gemstone vendors. I've really gotten a lot of use out of the stones I got at the last two shows so I'll be looking for more of that type. You can see the synthetic blue topaz briolettes in some of my newest earring designs. Hoping to find some good deals on wire and chain, too, as I'm going through those at a frightening rate
Let's see, what else? Kidlet has been healthy for about 2 weeks now....yippeeeeeee!! Of course, that means I've been healthy, too! Double yippppeeeee!!! I'm ahead of the curve (so far) on Christmas stuff - got a big chunk of our shopping done this past weekend so now I just have a few work gifts and stocking stuffers to finish up with. One thing I'm bummed about is that I got some really cute Xmas shirts for Ryan at Old Navy last year...for him to wear to some of the more casual social events of the season...and this year, they didn't have any :-( So I've got to come up with something for him to wear (including a nicer outfit for Christmas Eve church services, etc.)
Next I've got to figure out the menu for Christmas Eve. DH and I host a little hors d'oeuvres and hot, spiced cider gathering at our house after church each year. This year, DH's brother & sister-in-law and some of their kids will be joining us so we should have a nice grouping. Then on Christmas day it's over to my parents' house (or "grumagrum" as Ryan refers to "grandma & grandpa) for presents and feasting. I just love the holidays and it's even more fun now that Ryan knows a little more about what's going on. He's learning about Santa and can even sing along to a few Christmas carols. Such a doll!
Now I've just got to wrap and ship the out-of-state gifts and get the Christmas cards done and mailed and all should be well. So much better than last year where I was WAAAYYYY behind schedule and had to scramble like crazy to pull everything off.
At this rate maybe I'll even be able to go to the amazing day-after-Xmas sale that my local bead store (LBS) puts on every year. 50% off the entire store!! And hopefully I'll have some Xmas cash from Santa to spend, too!
And with that happy thought...I'm signing off!
KJ
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