BTW



A pile of sorters in front of one of my inspiration boards,
again, piles of stuff hanging around needing to be
photographed individually.

Not a lot going on up in the studio this week, I've been torn between family stuff and out at estate sales, I'm also in a semi-holding pattern because I have a bunch of stuff that needs to be posted, and I need to get my act together to photograph them.

I'm also looking into craft fairs coming up, I almost feel like I have "too much" to post online. 

My plans this weekend is to hit a bunch of sales on Saturday and to devote Sunday to photographing my current stockpile of beauties and posting on Etsy.

I think I need to clean up what is hanging around my table before I can get back to making new things - I'm not feeling very motivated.  Partially it's because I have so much on my mind as far as household projects.  I have closets to clean out, big bags to donate to Goodwill, and I'm planning on painting the living room and building "built in" shelves in there.

Our whole house could use a solid decluttering.  As does my mind...I read somewhere once that there was some kind of symbolic gesture in cleaning out the "old" to make way for the new.  I need to do that not only in my studio but in my "real" life as well. 

In the mean time, once I buy shelving material and paint I can let myself get some serious beadshopping done, I have seen some really cool beads on other people's blogs that have made me catch my breath and want to use them as focals or incorporate them in a cascade.  I can't wait to have that extra cash!  I guess I could tap into my "estate/tag sale - thrift store" stash, but that's a small enough stash to begin with. I think the main reason why I even hope to sell any jewelry is so I can flip that cash to buy MORE BEADS! But hey, isn't that the norm? Ha!



Sad pile of rejects - either air bubbles or just general dislike.  Even the
weird sea angel is sad to hold this bowl of uglies.





Resin drying in pendants - I really love that cricket cage/butterfly paper
and the white/blue flowers on the green background.





A bunch of cascade pendants are hanging
around waiting to be photographed for Etsy



A Crafter's Worst Nightmare (but not as bad as it could have been)

Last night I was roasting some potatoes at 400 degrees.  I opened the oven to add a pan of fish to bake during the last 15 minutes of the timer, when a ball of steam heat came out and burned my right hand.  I didn't jerk my hand back from the heat fast enough because I was afraid of dropping a whole pan of deliciously marinated pollock, so it was pretty bad.

Not As Bad As It Looked Last Night

As I was running cold water over my whole hand, trying not to cry from the pain, I began to freak out a little.  I really really need my right hand.  I play guitar, I play piano, I type all day at work, I make jewelry, I scrapbook (sometimes), and I decoupage guitars and other strange things.  As it was throbbing and swelling, I was unable to bend my fingers and all I could think about was how I just received a bunch of great pendant blanks and I wouldn't be able to work on them.

Randy is the bomb, though - he kept a cool head while I devolved into drama queen territory.  He ran to CVS and hooked me up with gauze and burn cream and ice packs and dressed my hand like a combat medic.  Thanks to him, my blisters are minimal and as of this morning, I can bend my fingers.  DISASTER AVERTED.

This just brought home to me how important it is to me to be able to have a creative outlet, and I realized too that it isn't exactly the finished product that does it for me.  Sure, I might have a glimmer of accomplishment, but for me, the true joy is in the process.  The actual "making" of whatever it is I am making.  I am known to lose myself up in my studio for hours and not notice how late it's getting.  I have to tell people to come get me if I'm not downstairs by a certain time or else I could easily be up there all night.

What was driving me crazy was the thought of losing my clearest path to sanity.

I should be back up in the studio and working/playing again in a few days, and until then, I am going to take very good care of my hand.