Where has the time gone?

A month has past with little or no update to my blog. As it turns out I am having a very difficult time maintaining business with personal life. Such a busy time for me and no relief in site. I have only manged to make it to the studio a small amount of times the past month. Usually I'm out there every day.

I'm planning to include another tutorial on making little bear beads as soon as time permits. I have managed to add some new listings to my Etsy store, so if you have a chance check them out.

Storm of the Century

Some time during the night a blizzard rolled in. Our nice spring like weather disappearing. Temperatures plummeted into the 20's with a wind chill of 0 and the wind gusting up to 50 mph.

Schools, Post Office and all roads leading into and out of my town are closed. My kids have not had a snow day for 6 years!

The thing about living in the Texas Panhandle is "If you don't like the weather, wait a couple of hours and it will change." Conditions can look like this one minute and clear up the next. According to the local weather station. By Sunday we should be in the 60's.

These are pictures looking out my front and back doors. The accumulation of snow is not significant. The wind is blowing for too much coverage. When I went out to feed and check on the mules. There were drifts over 4 feet. My foot prints disappeared as quick as I made them!

Looks like today will be a lazy day. I've got a fire in the fire place, a big pot of beans and cornbread on the stove and enough hot chocolate to last until the storm breaks. Life is good!

One of those days!

Some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed! Yesterday morning I got the kitchen cleaned, took some pictures, posted on my blog then headed to the studio. This was my first mistake. I should have just stayed in bed.

I had worked on a new bead style, using a cone mandrel I had purchased and was anxious to see how it turned out. It turned out great until I went to remove it from the mandrel. Grrr! I had inadvertently wound the glass on the bottom of the cone mandrel, so of course the bead wouldn't come off. Okay, lesson learned. I chipped the bead off and chalked it up as a stupid mistake. A mistake that I spent 30 minutes on.

The previous day I had made a set of beads using what I thought would be spring colors. Peach, violet and green. I've used the peach color before, several times, in fact and it has always yielded a very light peachy color. Well, I guess the moon and stars were not lined up in my favor because what came out of the kiln was not what I had hoped for. Not even close to what I expected. The same glass I have used countless times before came out of the kiln a deep, dark Orange! Really? Now, I know that different flame chemistry will produce different colors in some glass, but I hadn't done anything differently. Why now? Okay, so I don't have a spring set, I have a Halloween set. Whatever. At this point in my day, I'm really trying to be optimistic. So, I'll chalk another one up and be happy that I've got a jump on my Fall beads.

On to another task. I need to clean some beads. Yeah, well not going to happen, as my diamond bit decides to lose all of the diamond coating. I've used those same brand of bits for over 2 years now. Never had a problem before. To top it off, it was my last 1/16" bit too. Now I'll have to make a trip to the store to get some. I figure this will have to wait because quite frankly the way my day was going I was afraid to get behind the wheel.

I'll admit at this point my optimism is really starting to wain but I'll plow through it. I fire up the torch and make some beads. I'm in the zone, life is good again and I'm on a roll. About the time I finish my 9th bead and go to put it in the kiln, I realize I never turned the kiln on! Yep all 9 beads lost. No more optimism here. I'm calling it a day. The only silver lining on that day? I still had 1/2 a quart of Moollennium Crunch ice cream in the freezer.

10 Useless Facts

I think the reason it took me so long to jump on the blog bandwagon is because I find it extremely hard to write about myself and my work. Of course this mentality is not a good thing if you're goal is to have a thriving business. I'm going to step outside of my comfort zone and divulge 10 things about myself. Totally useless and probably of no interest, but it will serve two purposes: (1) Keep my blog updated, as I promised myself I would. (2) Over-come my social limitations, which is cheaper than counseling.

1. I'm a contradiction in terms: I collect cookbooks but hate to cook. I enjoy looking at jewelry but never wear any. I like gardening/flowers but can't grow anything.
2. I hate being the center of attention. Yet, I'm such a klutz and the most embarrassing things happen to me that more times than not, I am.
3. I'm 5'11" and was the tallest girl in elementary and junior high.
4. I've only flown in a plane 4 times.
5. I've never seen an animal give birth in real life. (Talk about useless facts!)
6. I have no sense of direction and get lost in the town I've lived in all my life.
7. My secret dream, as a child, was to be a farmer when I grew up. (Just plain weird, I know.)
8. I'm an only child.
9. I married my High School sweetheart. Still happily married.
10. Pink is my favorite color.

That was harder than I thought. But it did serve it's purpose for the day. Hopefully by tomorrow I'll have something better to post. Off to the studio!