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Hey look! This time I'm
only five days late with a blog update. Today I want to talk about friends. I think throughout a large portion of my
life I underestimated the importance and value of friends. One can only go forward, though, so I won't
wallow in regrets. I would, however, like to honor my friends by mentioning some of
them here. My in-person buddies start with one of the most compassionate
people I've ever met (other than my daughter). He is the one who is not me… the other
Laura B. Amazing person in many
ways. I'm incredibly lucky to get her
company as often as I do. Also in-person, but much less frequently, are two south bay
gals, Alex and Patrice. Smart, sassy,
talented and again, I'm incredibly fortunate to know both of them. I feel like these are the kind of friends
that I can have comfortable silences with.
The kind of friends who would give me their last nickel if I needed
it. The kind of friends who would (and
have done!) drive hours out of their way to help me with a situation. SOON-TO-BE in-person is yet another Laura… this time H. Someone with whom I feel a great kinship in
many ways. So far we've only bonded
online, but she recently moved within reach.
So as soon as one of us has the funds for a visit (ha!), we'll get
together. I'm nervous, but can't wait! Not in person, I have some friends that I still consider the
kind who would give me the shirt off their back (having nothing to do with
how easy they are or aren't… ha!).
Seriously, if I asked, I know these people would hop on a plane and be
here for me in an instant. Just for
the asking. That's how much they
care. Scary, huh? Karen and Patty. Karen actually DID fly here from 3000 (or
more) miles away just to help me organize my beads. Ha ha ha! Well, okay, to
meet me and Alex and Patrice and to hang with Donna too. Patty wasn't able to make it that time, but
soon. BTW, if you aren't familiar with
the awesome articles on my Woman's Resource website… Karen is the author of
those. CHECK THEM OUT.
Karen is very down-to-earth and yet has one of the best spiritual
minds of anyone I've ever met. Patty,
although not overflowing with self-confidence, would kick anyone's ass to
protect a friend. She's super tough
when it comes to being an advocate of someone she cares about. She is also one of the best metalsmith jewelry artists I've even met. What a talent! If she could only find more hours in the day
to express that creativity. Ah well,
maybe someday. Aside from super close buddies online, I also have
acquaintances. People I might not ask
for a loan if needed, but I know they're there for me if I want to talk or
vent or if I need a small favor… and vice versa. There is a lot of emotional support to be
had from online friends. I'd also like to mention some of my steady customers. I have gotten to know, through my business,
some of the coolest people. Although
they are customers of my jewelry, over the months and years we have let part
of our private lives show to one another.
I can't believe how fortunate I continue to be in the kind of people
who I consider my "repeat customers". They are nice and compassionate, full of
compliments for my work and yet also showing other sides of themselves that
take things to another level. I am
indeed VERY lucky to know some of the coolest people on the internet. I have some friends at work, but no one I'm overly close
to. I have lots of friends I've met through
my kids' hockey teams. Much closer to
those people, but they, just like me, have busy lives and we rarely get a
chance to get together at times other than hockey practice and hockey games. I do think, however, that that is one of
the reasons (one!) I really enjoy going to hockey events with/for my
children. I get to socialize with some
awesome people while I'm there. Too
many to name. You know who you are! I also consider Mike one of my best friends. I want to see him happy, and he wants to see
me happy. Our life can sometimes be a
struggle (almost always because we live in such a money-driven society and
America is losing its middle class in favor of the disparity of a few rich
people and many, many lower income people), but we try to make the best of
it. Well, that's all. I mean,
I'm sure it's not all… I'm sure I've left off some very important group of
people, but most of my good friends know that on occasion (*cough*sputter*),
I can be a little absent-minded. Now, regarding the here-and-now… turns out (if this is
hereditary) I've passed along the traits of somnambulism (sleep walking) and somniloquy (sleep talking) to my darling daughter. Gabe informed me that last night Monica was
talking (loudly) to her I've seen and heard her do this on many previous occasions. Sometimes I have to gently wake her up
because she's talking cockamamie and about to get out of her bed (since it's
a bunk bed, I prefer that she's awake when she gets out of it). I grew out of the sleep-walking, but apparently I still sleep
talk. We'll see if Monica's lasts. Oops. A whole week. My bad. I heard a comical news story this morning. It seems a robber broke into a house in BTW, why does my spell checker not work in here? Is it because this is an html document? Wanna show you something interesting… Sorry, I don't yet know how to embed videos in here so you'll
just have to go there and see it then you can come back. Dove's
Perception of Beauty Video Now, have a look at some popular "before and after"
photos and you'll see that without the make-up, the air-brushing, and the
expensive outfits… most of today's celebs look very
much like people you see every day.
1. Added more hair 2. Got rid of her crow's feet 3. Thinned out the cheeks 4. Decreased the depth of mouth lines 5. Removed shadows and lines from neck 6. Removed part of her back 7. Removed clavicle 8. Removed the fat from under her armpit 9. Added an arm 10. Chopped her butt from the photo 11. Skinnied up her arm, removed her
tan, and removed the moles from her upper arm Are we having fun yet? Wouldn't it be sinful to let men think women are SUPPOSED to
have pores?
Heaven forbid anyone find out this gorgeous beauty has the teeniest,
tiniest bags under her eyes. Eek!
Hey look! Real
women!!!
So please, women and girls, feel
good about yourself and do not try to reach a non-existent standard. Don't worry about
what men think or feel regarding women's looks; worry about what YOU think
and feel regarding women's looks. Oh, and I found this great website for pregnant women or women
who ever were pregnant or anyone else who just wants to be ejamacated to reality.
TTYL! Okay, I'm a weinie. I'm supposed to go back to the courthouse,
pick up the papers, and refile (my request for temporary
full custody was declined because I didn't want to serve him BEFORE knowing
if they'd grant it to me or not). I
looked at the forms today... it's all so complicated and confusing. I'm thinking now that I'm going to put it
off until Monday. I should take care of
it today because I don't have the kids to deal with at lunch time, but it is
the first rainy day and I think traffic will be dreadful (how's that for an
excuse?). Ah well. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!! (That's a good yell, btw) I found the thing I was looking for for
the past few weeks. Yay! And I really
mean YAY!!! What a relief! Anyway, before I found it, when I was still looking for it, I
was going through different areas of the house. And my mind was seeing all the potential
for cleaning up, streamlining and organizing.
Can't wait! Thursday will be my
first chance. Although I'm behind on
picture-taking too now. So I might
have to do that Thursday instead. BTW, I did find an astrology site (wow, whodda
thunk... I was able to find an astrology site on
the internet... ha ha ha!). Anyway, here's what my horoscope is for
today: Do you need to solve a
puzzle, find a solution or get to the bottom of something? When
Mercury—planet of communication—pedals backward in intense Scorpio on October
11, little will stop you from acting out your deepest desires. Reviewing past
conversations and agreements is important. Remember: everyone is feeling just
as passionate as you are now! This review period lasts until Mercury turns
direct on November 1, giving you plenty of time to mull over the pro and cons
of all decisions that you need to make. Double-check everything before you
respond to anyone about anything to make the most of this retrograde period. Oh, that is tomorrow's horoscope. Here's today's: You may be tempted by
new offers, but today is better spent sticking with what you know. If you're
starting to feel restless, try to look in a new direction and think about
moving out there another day. Okay, I was perusing Lampwork Etc. And I have to share some
photos from a link on one of the threads about odd animals...
Red Panda (I totally want
one!!!)
Oh, never mentioned my kids' hockey this past weekend. Heh Let's see... Mon missed her Saturday PeeWee game due to overlap
with U14 stuff. And she didn't get to
play in the U14 game on Sunday because her dad wouldn't let her go to the
practice (no practice, no play... this is Triple-A hockey, not recreational). Actually, she wasn't allowed to go to the
team-bonding lunch session before the game either, but she DID get to sit on
the bench during the game and got to watch her team go to another
victory. Yay! After a short break, she played a game in As for Gabe, since there are so few Midget-16 teams in NorCal,
they don't really have too many preseason games to play (and all the teams
have to be Midget-16 A). Anyway, after
getting stomped on the previous week by someone else (I think it was He's 15 now, I'm not going to try to
talk him out of that. He's had all the
"goalie" pep talks over the years; I wouldn't be telling him
anything he doesn't already know. If he
feels responsible, that's how it is. This weekend they'll play Alright, that's it for now.
I could have mused more, but I took care of other things instead. TTYL! I think the two (unfortunate) keywords for today are
"anger" and "chaos".
But everything in life is a learning experience, right? ARGH! Actually, I'm so mad at myself I don't even want to talk about
this. Hmph! Ah well.
Okay, so it seems I may have
lost a bag that had some very, very important stuff in it. A couple of checks, some jewelry, and some
beads (and god only knows what else).
Why? How? I guess my life is not organized. But moreso,
there's just too much in it. I want to
streamline. I've started... little
bits here, little bits there. But
sometimes for every step forward I take, something pushes me back two
steps. And so, I have to start LEAPING
forward instead. Ha! Ahem... I started this blog entry
about seven hours ago, but I got swamped with other things so... I'll have to
expound more tomorrow. Suffice to say, aside from making dinner I'm getting some LARGE
garbage bags ready in my house tonight. Oh, and I need to remind myself that maybe I should have a
routine in my JM business... like creating on certain nights, photoing on a specific night, and then listing on a
specific night. I can think about it. TTYL! Wow! Monday? Again?
Already? Ah well. This week, I'm adding to my repetoire
of jewely medium as I experiment with plastics and several
forms of artwork (digital, collage, and my own creations). If I get something kinda
cool, I'll post it. So far I have a
tribute to Horus, a necklace with my own artwork,
and a charm bracelet representing courage. Several weeks ago, I printed some stuff to do polymer clay
transfers, but then after reading the directions of how to actually MAKE the
transfers, I had to postpone that project until a time when I had a larger
block of uninterupted time. Those of you who know me well, know
that I study Buddhist philosophies.
And I said "philosophies" because I just can't come to grips
with the idea of "religion"... any religion. There are so many that have philosphies that I agree with, but what I see put into
practice that is supposed to represent these organized religions... well,
it's nothing that "clicks" with me.
I tend to be a very "gut-level" person—do things mostly by
intuition, and so if something doesn't feel precisely right to me, I'm not
that interested in it. Doesn't mean I
won't be interested in it at a later date, though. I embrace the idea that any of us can
change how we think and/or feel about anything at any given time. So anyway, I decided to read a bit about Taoism. And from the little bit that I've read so
far, it seems pretty "up my alley", so to speak. I think I'm going to have to (soon or eventually) decide,
however, if I believe in the randomness of the universe (chaos?) or if I
believe in Fate/destiny. Can there be
something in between those? It's really pretty depressing to believe in a random universe,
and yet that is currently what my heart/head tells me makes the most sense. At the other end of the scale is Fate or destiny. I can't wrap my logic around the idea that
"things happen because they're supposed to happen". Not to an extreme extent, anyway. I think, perhaps, I'm searching for the middle ground. Something that states that the universe is
not as chaotic as I believe it is, but our lives also are not plotted out for
us either. Instead, it'd be more like:
there is an underlying order to the universe, not as in Fate or destiny, but
more like puzzle pieces that fit together well. And when you go WITH the flow, things work
out better for you; and when you go AGAINST the flow, life is harder for you. I don't know. I guess I
just have to keep studying, musing, and living. Don't know if I'll ever know... the answers
to my questions. I am not even
convinced I'll have any answers when I die.
I mean, if I can't comprehend what a soul is and/or how our thoughts are
related to anything that lives on beyond this life, then maybe all this
musing is beyond retarded. And yet, at
that point I have to ask myself: Why would we HAVE the ability to muse like
this if not for a reason? Wha IS man's purpose? The whole Tao thing, though, seems a bit in contrast to
Nietzsche and maybe even Darwinism (but I guess that would be a little more
on how one interprets "survival of the fittest"). By the way, Mom, that section you had
me listen to on the cassette tape is Taoist through and through: Winning a
fight by giving in. Now here's something from the Tao that I (personally) believe is
true and very important: Rigid behaviour will kill
you. When alive, the body is supple, yielding. In death, the body
becomes hard, unyielding. Stubborn people are disciples of death, but flexible people are
disciples of life. In the same way, inflexible soldiers cannot win (a victory). Oh, now here's a Taoist thought that I really need to embrace:
One should plan in advance and consider carefully each action before making
it. Anyway, I'm out of time.
More later. TTFN! Thurday, First and foremost, I want to thank a fabulous lady and artist
for making the coolest set of cards for me!
Her name is Lea and her Etsy store is LeakArts. Anyway, I'm madly in love with her style. She sent me a set of original art cards and
there's NO WAY I'm ever using these as notecards to
send to other people. Ha! Instead, I'm going to arrange them nicely
in a frame and hang them up as inspiration art. I'll show you when I've got a picture of
the arrangment.
Thank you, Lea! Okay, things I'm behind in: Still need to pick up a battery for my camera. Still need to list the things I took pictures of LAST week. Still need to resize a bracelet for a customer (ssshhhh! Don't let
THAT get around 'cause you KNOW how I feel about resizing jewelry) Still need to finish my photo inventory. Still need to repair a friend's jewelry. Rough day yesterday.
After work and other things we had to take care of, we went to Barnes
and Noble and picked up Clive Barker's Thief
of Always for Monica (she has seven book reportst
due this year), then dropped Gabe at the Oakland rink, took Monica to the San
Jose rink, watched a one-hour video and got goalie instruction (I took
copious notes), left Mon with the assistant coach so she could finish her
practice, stopped in Milpitas to visit with mike, drove back to Oakland, took
Gabe home after his practice, made dinner for Gabe, drove to assistant
coach's house to pick Monica up, took her home and made dinner for her,
crawled into bed, couldn't fall asleep, woken up at 6-something this morning
by Gabe who wanted a haircut before he goes to his dad's. If I was supposed to do anything else between
yesterday morning and now, it didn't get done. BTW, the goalie instruction Monica is getting is
phenomenal. I keep feeling, though,
that like in the past, it will all end too quickly. Previously when a club thought to develop
the goalies just as much as any other part of the team it was always a very
short-lived intention. And so, in
practice, the goalies are more of a target for the shooters than anything
else. Yes, I do pay to have them
"develeoped" as much as I can OUTSIDE of
their clubs, but it's obviously a pricey endeavor. Skaters don't seem to require this kind of
"outside" development, but I see that goalies are a different
world. They have benefits and
struggles that other players don't have.
I wouldn't trade my little goalies for anything, though. I adore everything about them! This have (or soon will) change at the I want to re-impliment the contests I
was having on my website. I need to
take some photos of the prizes first, I guess. Oh, I joined a new site: Fine Art America Here's my page, but don't give me
grief over the fact that I used on old photo of myself; I like that photo...
I remember that night well. I'm narrowing in on the system I want for a full-scope inventory
(of past designs). There are lots of
times when I need reference an old piece and sometimes finding them is a real
PITA. I worked with a few systems, but
I think I finally found one that will be the most practical. Anyway, in doing this, I am (of course) seeing designs that are
years old. And it's so exciting! A lot of pieces are "ho hum", and
some I look back on with great fondness, but every once in a while I see one
and go, "Yeah, I need to revisit that theme... that was a great
idea!" Okay, somewhere in my thick brain I need to understand that
"good intentions" + "bad follow-through" = unacceptable. Here's the latest example: Two extremely nice artists invited me
to take part in a project (first mentioned in my Sept '07 blog). Cindy Gimbrone and Bridgette Tucker made beads and shared
with each other and with me, and we were all to make jewelry and post the
results in our blog. We originally had a target date of Sept 23
(not even sure if that was the first target date!), but I was away in In a mad scramble to keep up with my full-time job, my business,
and three hockey teams, I get behind... again. I made and got photos of the piece I made
with Cindy's beads (after one of my cats decided to "help" me with
the creation by taking one of the fragile lampworkbeads
and batting it off the table so that it was now two non-usable pieces of
bead. ARGH! Worse yet, that was
a bead that had a mate... so now TWO of those gorgeous beads were
unusable. Total design change from
what I was originally going to make. Hmph! Anyway, I
did make the piece and got it photographed). In the meantime I got Bridgette's FABULOUS enamel pieces in the
mail. Yay! But Murphy's law basically said, "Hey Bracken! If you leave this until the last minute I
will totally mess with you... mwa ha ha!" And sure
enough, all I needed to do was get a couple photos. So of course... my camera battery decides to
die. Not just run out of juice, but
DIE! (Did I already say
"ARGH!"?) I feel like the biggest dweeb on earth. L Today
we are supposed to be excitedly sharing our creations (ala blog) and I am half-staffed (or is that half-assed, in
this instance?). In my report card of life, I'm sure there's a note that says,
"Doesn't play well with others", or something like that. I don't blame the camera battery... That wouldn't have been an
issue had I not waited until the last moment.
I blame the fact that I have no sense of what I can and cannot take on
with my current schedule. It's like, I
want to do everything... but I obviously can't. Blah! Well, for what it's worth, I'm going to go on with what I have
for today, and I'll try to stop at BTW, when I was half-way through making the piece with Cindy's
beads, I realized (D'oh!) that I had forgotten my
plan to take a photo of the beads BEFORE making anything. Ah well, just realize that every lampwork bead you see in this necklace was part of the
set Cindy sent me (with the addition of two awesome beads that my cat
killed).
If you click on either of those photos, you should be taken to larger versions of them. I title the piece "The Flight of Man" because the lampwork beads have a "cosmic" feel, as far as
I'm concerned, and then I tried to give the piece a bit of an avant-garde or
futuristic feel with the design and the spirals, etc. And I just went over to Cindy Gimbrone's blog and see that I think
I totally misunderstood what I was supposed to do. Wow, what a bonehead. Cindy made an AMAZING piece combining her
own beads with those of Bridgette.
I really (REALLY!) love that piece. Bridgette is posting her pieces
(she said "pieces" in her blog!... maybe she made separate pieces like I did!) shortly
(I'll come back and update this entry). But if you look at Bridgette's Monday entry, you can see what I
was GOING to show you; the sets of
beads as we received them. Anyway, I feel I let these fabulous artists down and I profusely
apologize for that. I will get a pic of my "Bridgette" creation asap. In other news, the forum is going along better
than I could have hoped. People are
asking questions, sharing tips and info, and posting the most amazing
creations... wow! In our eBay group (The Mellow Bead), Patrice posted the
most inspring autumn photos yesterday and then she
made a contest Whoohoo! I
can't wait to try something. But
wait! Didn't I just learn my lesson
about over-extending my intentions?
Yeah, I said I'll In news regarding new pieces, I'm putting some from my "bling" line up for auction. Ha! I make a lot of
Swarovski beads bracelets for my reps. You see, they get to show the pieces
in person and it's hard to resist an in-person offering of Swarovski
crystals. But since these bracelets do run a little less expensive than some
of my gemstone and Lampwork pieces, I like to also offer them occasionally on
eBay or in my store. So here ya go!
If you click on any of those pictures you'll be taken to the
auction listing (and larger photos). I have more to list today, but I'll show those in tomorrow's blog posting. Y'know, I get the nicest emails from my
customers. Just had to say that...
they really make my day! Oh, I thought I'd share a couple of really cool internet
resources with my friends. These are
things I find very handy; maybe you will too: Beads Per Inch Chart: Tells you how many
beads there are in a strand. Very
helpful for quick "price per bead" calculations. Example: 8mm beads in a 16" stand = 51
beads. So if I'm considering buying a
16" strand of 8mm Smoky Quartz beads at $40, I now know that each bead
costs about 78 cents ($40 divided by 51 beads). And that can help me comparison shop. Shape Chart: Shows diagrams and
photos of various common bead shapes. Swarovski Shape Chart: Shows diagrams and photos of various Swarovski
bead shapes. Gemstone Information: Although the
internet has a plethora of sites dedicated to gemstone information, this one
by Rings-Things is comprehensive and easy to use. Some information on Metals: Articles on solder,
base metal, precious metals, allergies, plating, and more. Stringing and Threads: Articles on wire,
cord, elastic, and more. Swarovski Color Chart: Again, there are
many Swarovski color charts available via the internet, but this is one of my
favorites. Well, that's enough for now... don't want to overwhelm you. In hockey (family) news, the Midget-16's lost their first game
for good reason. They had 8 skaters
(which means five on the ice and three on the bench) until Monica, however, played her first full game in net for the
girls' team. It was in In looking at this weekend's SJ schedule (posted yesterday), I
see that she is going to miss another (the third in a row) Bears' game. I feel really terrible about that and only
pray that her dad makes things easy for her on Sunday when she needs to get
to both games (SJ and In school, Gabe mentioned yesterday that the Chemistry teacher
announced in class that Gabe was the only student to get 100% on a test they
took. Yay
Gabe! He's also
still loving Engineering, but they are now using Auto-Cad and he wants
to know if we can get it for our computer(s) at home too. Hmph! Later! |
Angora
Rabbit
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