New Computer

Well, I had yet another computer melt down and rather than sped money to get the old one fixed again I decided to get a new one. I bought my first laptop and I really love it but I don't love Windows Vista. I'm sure you've heard a list of complaints so I won't bore you with mine. I've spent the entire day on the computer trying to get things organized and start a couple Ebay auctions, (click the "Occasionally On Ebay" tab at right to see), which isn't easy when files aren't where they're supposed to be. So I finially finished but I don't have my address book to alert all you bead lovers. Sorry about that. I'll try to retrieve the address tomorrow. I really hope my address book isn't lost again. It's really a challenge to try and recreate. It's been a long day. Nighty night y'all.....

More Painting Practice and Custom Orders...

I'm having a ball with these cute little girl paintings. This one is my favorite althought I've only done 3 so far. I didn't put a layered background in this one because I just wanted to practice the face. I'm not sure that the layered background does it for me anyway. I'll try some more collage and stuff on my next painting and see how it goes.

Meanwhile, I had a full plate of custom jewelry orders this week and I couldn't paint until I finished them, which I did today. This bracelet is from my "Summer Softly" design. I think it's gorgeous!

Halloween is not too far off so my next bead set for auction will be a Halloween theme or maybe just Halloween colors. So stay tuned for that auction next week sometime.

Have a great weekend y'all!!!

Happy Birthday To You!!!

Today is my son's birthday and yesterday is was my good friend's birthday so in honor of birthdays, I made you a cake....sort of.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMIE AND DIANA!!!

Yesterday Norm and I spent the afternoon at my son's mother-in-law's home for a barbeque in honor of his 35th birthday. We had such a good time. We don't get to spend much time with the boys all together in one place with their families and friends. And it gives us such a sense of pride to see what great friends they have. We are so blessed.

I'm taking an online painting class with Suzi Blu and this is a painting I did for practice. I'm not finding a whole lot of time to paint what with beadmaking and grandkids and a home and husband to take care of but I took some time this weekend to play with paint. I love to paint and I've done painting of one sort or another for periods throughout my life. I'm not as good at it as I am at beads but maybe I could be if I practice more. We shall see.....

Happy Labor Day!...

This has been a rather sad weekend for me. Honey, my friends Greyhound that we love so much passed away Saturday night. We will all miss her so much. RIP Honey.... You can see a picture of Honey in better days further down this page.
It's also sad that Labor Day, for me, marks the end of summer. We certainly haven't had much summer weather the last few days. I've been turning on the electric heat in the mornings to warm the house up and we just had our first load of firewood delivered. Soon we will be building that first fire of the season.

The deck is finally finished! Now it's on to other projects. One of them being a fresh new paint job for the exterior of the house. It's looking pretty shabby. You can really tell we use our gas grill a lot. We need to figure out some sort of hood or panel so the smoke doesn't stain the paint. And we need some new landscaping around the deck. It's looking pretty bare without colorful flowers.

Tomorrow is the first day of school for the grandkids and Morgan, who's 5, is starting kindergarten this year. I can't wait to see how she likes school.

My "Hey Cupcake", (picture below), Ebay auction is starting this evening at 7 pm Pacific. Click on the "Occasionally on Ebay" link at the right to view, after it starts.

Summer Storm

The deck is so close to being done. Norm tried to finish but the weather turned really crummy. This is a shot I took just before dusk, right after the storm. The light was amazing. The bright sun shining through the last of the black rain clouds and a rainbow over the rooftops.
This shot marks the end of a very stressful day. It's over now and I'll spare you the details. We will have a nice and relaxing weekend to mark the end of summer. The sun is not expected to make another appearance for awhile but we will make the best of it. I think my torch is calling me.....

End of Summer Days....

How sad that summer is almost over. Labor Day is just next week and then the kids go back to school. Especially since we, here in the Pacific Northwest, we got cheated out of a large part of our summer. We didn't have near enough sun. Just take a look at the sad state of my vegetable garden...no wait, don't look.

My daughter had a birthday party for Norm this last Sunday at their house. He will be turning 60 this week. The whole family came to celebrate with us. Even Norm's brother and our sister-in-law came from the other side of the state. How great to see them, it's been years. The only damper was the downpour outside, (just more of that great NW summer weather). Our 3 sons and their families, everyone seems to be doing great. Happy and relaxed. My daughter-in-law, Leslie, the one that's about to be a new mom was complaining of a little queasyness and we all sympathized with her. She's hoping it doesn't last long.

You may have noticed the link at the right of my page to Suzi Blu's online mixed media class that I'm taking. I don't have a lot of time to practice drawing and painting but I snatch some here and there. If you are interested in this sort of thing you may want to check out this low cost online class. It's 8 weeks and you can join anytime during those 8 weeks. It's really not hard at all. Lots of fun. Suzy is lots of fun too. Even if you don't want to pay for the online class she does vlogs on YouTube. And I'm not connected with her in any way I just liked her style of painting so I started watching her vlogs.

"Hello Cupcake!", (photo at top), will be starting on Ebay in the next couple days, I think. The timing is not so great right now with the long weekend coming up so I wanted to wait a bit. I'm still working on the pinafore beads. Tweaking here and there. In fact, I've just started the kiln so I'd better get busy.

Come next April..........

Psst!..... A little birdie just told me Jamie and Leslie are going to have a baby! Yep, come next April I'm going to be a grandma again. I'm so happy they decided to have a baby. This family is excited!

My "Posies and Pinafores" auction is closing this evening and I have another auction starting at 7 pm (Pacific), that you aren't going to want to miss. New for me, never before have I done this.... A studio clearance sale. Yep, 114, Grade A, handmade beads. It will be on Ebay. Go check it out!