Gems, Gems and More Gems

I am on a MAJOR destash frenzy right now and there are lots of beautiful gems to be found in my shop Destashables on etsy. I will be listing gems for the next several days so be sure to check in frequently. I have some gorgeous Swiss Blue Topaz focals, many different cuts of ruby and there will be sapphires down the road.

I also have London blue topaz and really pretty carved amethyst briolettes.

Today I put up some really beautiful rose quartz in different cuts and sugilite which is not found that often.

If there is anything you might be looking for drop me a line in the shop and I will see if I have it on hand. I am listing for what I paid for these beads so the prices are good!

Feature! Etsy Artisan Caties Blue for Stunning Jewelry

As I have mentioned in the past I belong to a wonderful group of beaders call The Artisan Beaders Street Team. Each member has a unique style and I would like to introduce you to the uber talented Brandi from Caties Blue. Her tagline is Jewelry Inspired by Color and boy is that the truth! You enter her shop and you are hit with bold, bright, beautiful color on every page. I particularly like this handmade necklace for it's bold lampwork bead with the complimentary gemstones above. It would go with your jeans or to work and then out to dinner later. A perfect piece of artisan jewelry! I love the asymmetrical placing of the three beads - such an unexpected touch!




Brandi's signature earrings are also a delight. She clusters sparkling gemstones with beautiful lampwork to create unique artwork to adorn you. You will feel so very special as you walk out the door wearing artisan earrings like these:






Brandi also has a special section where you can Design Your Own handmade earrings! How cool is that? Create your own unique wardrobe of earrings to suit your needs. Wow!

So I suggest you click on over to Caties Blue for wonderful, colorful shopping experience. Brandi has also just opened a shop on Artfire. So you can have double the shopping pleasure. She also blogs about her life and creating at Brandi Girl.

Peace

Yesterday was a glorious day. It reminded me of why I love it here so much. The air was crisp, the sun was shining. There is still snow/ice on the ground but the day was so lovely that didn't even bother me too much. I took the goats out for a little walk and while they were munching on a Ponderosa Pine I just looked around at the mountains.

Having grown up in Philadelphia and then moved to the Jersey Shore I had lived in areas with nothing but flat. I had traveled a fair bit, mostly to Hawaii thanks to a father generous with his frequent flyer miles. (This was back in the days before it became so complicated to fly.) My husband had lived in Vermont for 10 years so he had taken me there to see his old haunts. Therefore I had been in mountainous places before, but there is something about the Rocky Mountains. I don't know what it is and I have heard this from others as well so I know it is not just me.

When we decided to settle here in Montana my one and only requirement to my hubby was that I see a mountain when I look out my window. Well, I got that and so much more. No matter where I look I see a mountain and I revel in it. I know I complain about the winters; about the unceasing grey. It doesn't matter when I look at my mountains. He also managed to find me a river view too but that doesn't mean as much to me as the mountains.

I have had conversations with people who feel claustrophobic in this valley. It is a very tight valley; there are the mountains, the interstate, the river and the mountains. But me, I feel embraced. When I head down to Missoula and it opens up and spreads out I lose that feeling of comfort. Our house is being built with lots and lots of windows so that I can see "my" mountains no matter where I stand or sit.

(This is the view out my back windows)

So today I share with you my mountains - in spite of today's grey skies.

My peace, my beauty, my serenity.

Oh and to top it off the eagle was there yesterday sitting in his favorite tree watching the river. He comes almost every day now to constantly scan the water looking for his next meal. The mountains, the river, the eagle.

To me each day is another little bit of glory.

Stupid, Stupid HughesNet

Ok, this is going to be a rant. A rant directed at HughesNet the satellite provider for my internet. Last night I went to do something on the computer and it was slower than death so I went to check to see if the dish had shifted. This is happening now due to the melting snow. What do I find but that I have supposedly exceeded my Fair Access Policy again. For those of you not familiar with this nifty policy (and trust me I am no expert on the details) it has to do with the amount of bandwith available to all of the customers on Hughesnet. It limits how many videos one can watch or download, etc. The funny thing is my husband and I very rarely download or watch any videos at all and have learned not to because of this stupid policy.

When it first happened we, of course, called HughesNet to find out what was happening. The customer service representative read his script. His only answer to our questions was that we could OF COURSE purchase the next level of plan. We just wanted to know why we had exceeded the limit when WE DON'T WATCH VIDEOS OR YOUTUBE? This was not in the script so we could not get an answer. Even better when we asked when we had supposedly exceeded our limit the times he gave us we were OUT OF THE HOUSE. He had no answers for that because it was not in the script. I have to admit, though, that he did read well, he just could not go off script.

After our complaint it did not happen again for a while but now seems to be cropping up a fair bit lately. Twice this week, although my hubby did watch a couple of youtube clips the one night. He is the fire chief in our town and the fires in Australia caught he attention and he wanted to learn more. Oh, the horror of wanting to educate oneself and then having your internet access slow to, I don't know even slower than dial up is just absurd to me.

The hubby is a research maven and did some digging and has learned that there is only so much bandwith. OK, I can understand that. It seems that with HughesNet when the bandwidth has been used all of the folks in the lower pay level get punished. I just don't think that is right. Why should I lose my fast access because others are downloading videos. I pay my $70 a month. I don't download this stuff and yet I sit in purgatory for random 24 hour periods because of the actions of other customers. I could understand if I sat here and watched youtube all day. OK then I should be subject to this policy or pay more. But I don't.

We are so going DSL when we move into the house. I am not going to give HughesNet one more cent than I have to.

I'm So Excited.....not

So as I mentioned in a previous post my husband is sloooooooowly building our house. Up to this point there has been little I could do to help him other than move things around to facilitate the sheetrocking. I have been wanting to help if only to try and speed things up. But with all of my health problems there really isn't much I can actually do. I know I can paint and I assume I can lay tile and help with the flooring - bamboo, very nice. But as to the heavy lifting there is not much for me to do.

Well last night as we are going to bed he told me there was finally something I could do to help him. Hooray I thought. A nice Valentine for me - helping the hubby in the house. Me, the eternal optimist.

Should have known better. I do this to myself all the time.

He said I could clean up after him. Sweep. Vacuum. Pick up the little pieces of sheetrock.

Hooray?

Valentine

I am a hopeless romantic. I married a pragmatist. This has not always worked out well. I have always wanted the grand gesture, the big surprise; heck I would settle for a daisy behind his back. What I usually get is, "oh, it's Valentine's Day? Order yourself a book." And they say romance is dead. Not that I have anything against ordering myself a book, I love books. They are one of my favorite things. BUT WHAT I WANTED WAS A BOUQUET OF TULIPS, A BOX OF CHOCOLATES, crap even a card would be nice. Last year for the third year in a row he forgot my birthday. You see what I mean?

But, but he is the most wonderful husband in the world. He has stayed with me and taken care of me through two brain surgeries and a progressive brain disorder that is only going to get worse. Obviously this is not what either one of us signed on for. But this is what we got. Many other marriages dealing with this same problem have completely collapsed under it's demands. But my pragmatist just deals. And deals with love. So I guess I am living one long grand gesture.....
That is far better than the card that will fall apart and the tulips that will die. He loves me when I can't get out of bed in the morning and am still there when he gets home after work. He loves me when my pain killers are not doing their job and I am about to kill anything that gets in my way. And he loves me on my good days - we both look forward to them.

I do lie. He pulled off one huge grand gesture. For my 39th (?) birthday. He conspired with my girlfriend and put together my dream trip; he took me to Italy for two weeks. I should explain - my major in college was Art History with a concentration in the Renaissance. Where better for an art whore to go? Two weeks, on our own. No tour group. He found everything. It was wonderful.....he loves me. And I love him. For 27 years now and counting.

Organizing

I am one of the most organized people in the world. I live in a fifthwheel trailer at the moment and I can fit an amazing amount of stuff into an astonishingly small amount of space. My house is being built by my husband and rumor has it that I will get to live in it in my lifetime. Whether that is this lifetime or my next lifetime I really don't know. He has been building it for two years now. He has had help but stubbornly plods on. He is sheetrocking now. Oh, he couldn't pick a normal house. It is a yurt. It is circular. You would think for his first attempt at building his own house.....

I am one of the most disorganized people in the world I live in a fifthwheel trailer that right now is full of the canning I did last summer, my soap making supplies, my jewelry making supplies, three cats and one husband. Plus all of our clothes, books (I won't even begin to go into the number of books we have. It is just plain scary. I think he could have built the house out of books and we still would have some left over for furniture.) We also had to move some boxes out of the basement of the house into the trailer to facilitate the sheetrocking of the basement ceiling.

I am both of these people and it creates an interesting dichotomy in my life. While I an usually put my hand on anything I need at any given time right now I have to climb over a stack of boxes to do it. I am going slowly crazy. Well, I have been crazy for a while now but this is not helping me. I really, really, really want to get into my house. I am tired of being cramped into a 400 square foot trailer with all of those supplies, three cats and a husband. Thank heavens the goats have a barn.

My joke has been the house will be done in 2012. I fear it is not a joke.

The photos show the yurt from the back side and the river side.

An Etsy Poll

I have learned of a poll on etsy for "Lovey Dovey" items. One of the choices is a soft sculpture lamb from JudyElizabethsFlock. Judy Elizabeth is a fellow Montanan and her lambs are truly adorable. I am lucky enough to own one and can vouch for their construction and total cuteness. It is easy to vote; just go to this link and search for her Valentine's Day Lamb. I've included a photo here to make it easy for you to identify it. Click on the vote button and you're done!

My foot continues to improve. I still can't get my shoe on, though, so I am shuffling around with my shoe on one foot and my husband's shoe on the other. I look ridiculous. But that generally has nothing to do with the shoes.....

The Best Laid Plans

Yes, it is true, the best laid plans oft time go awry. I was going to spend Saturday in a frenzy of delightful design and sparkling gemstones. I was looking forward to tackling the beautiful sketches my friend had sent to compliment some of the necklaces in my shop. But I fell. I have some disabilities and one of them is the inability to feel my feet or to really know where they are. Well, I know they are down there somewhere but I don't always have an exact feeling for their location. For example; sometimes I THINK I have lifted my foot higher than I actually have and I will trip up a step. Or I THINK I am placing it on one place on the floor and it really comes down somewhere else. This is what happened yesterday. I thought I was stepping into the open space on the floor but I actually stepped onto my shoe which caused me to lose my balance and fall. (I also have a very poor sense of balance which does not help things.) There was this really nasty cracking sound. Fortunately it does not appear to be serious. My foot is rather puffy on one side and quite colorful at the moment. Perhaps it will lead to a new color combination for a pair of earrings; I could call them Falling......

I spent most of yesterday with my foot up and a bag of ice on it. It does feel much better today. The colors have deepened on the bruise. * sigh* First the hay pile got me and now my shoe. What's next? A tissue? At least my goats were gentle with me this morning. They all behaved and went right to their cages without any fuss or bother. Good goats.

My Fridays

I think I mentioned in a past post that I volunteer at my local food bank on Fridays. I really enjoy my time there. It is not overly taxing work; filling bags of food so they are ready for the customers and making sure the shelves are stocked with food to fill the bags. See, an endless circle of basic tasks. Plus waiting on the customers that come through the door. I have been volunteering there for just short of two years and about have things down. But of course, things keep changing. Isn't that the way of, well, things?

It is difficult at times because there is so much need and we can only do so much. I live in a very small, very rural, poor town. The recent economic changes have not helped the area. It was at one time dependant on the timber industry and that collapsed and shrunk to almost nothing years ago. What was left is truly struggling now. But this is an area of such scenic beauty it is almost incomprehensible. This is, of course, why my husband and I settled here after our three years of vagabonding in our trailer after retiring from New Jersey. The county is trying to promote tourism but that isn't going to work in the current economy. When things get better it will because there are miles and miles of National Forest, a beautiful river full of trout and mountains for miles. I hope the town survives the downturn.

I look forward to my food bank time. I enjoy my fellow volunteers and I have fun with most of my customers. But I really, truly wish there was no need for it.

Ahhhhhhh....

Today I took baby steps. I sat down with my beads and managed to design and make two pairs of earrings and a bracelet. I was happy with this since it has been so long since I had made anything at all. None were overly complicated but I am very pleased with the color combinations I used. One pair of earrings has smooth labradorites and pink sapphires the other are just sterling silver and natural ruby. It's the bracelet though, that sings; it has chalcedony in summery shades of pink grapefruit and orange sherbert with accents of sparkling peridot. All wirewrapped onto a sterling silver bangle. It made me think of summer. I think I am going to use it as my header photo on the blog going forward - it will be a great seasonal change.

Over the weekend I hope to tackle some more challenging designs. I have a friend who makes incredible jewelry. She has fallen and broken her arm and cannot make her jewelry right now but she can still sketch. She has designed some earrings for me to compliment some necklaces currently in my shop. They are challenging designs. They are beautiful designs. I hope I can bring them to life. Wish me luck....

Where Has my Muse Gone?

I was so very productive before and right after Christmas. I had a myriad of ideas, most of which I brought to fruition. And now - nothing. I lack enthusiasm, creative drive anything to try and make something with all of my beautiful gems. It happens. I know it happens. I have been through this before and know I will go through it again. It is just frustrating. The other day I received a box full of beautiful stones; smooth labradorites, spring green peridots, sparkling citrines and richly colored amethysts and rhodolites. The colors just sing, sparkle and flash. They are still sitting on my desk and they ARE beautiful. And yet, yet I can think of nothing to do with them. Now. But I will. It will come. Perhaps I need a walk outside on this beautiful day. The sun is shining and it is starting to warm up. Maybe, just maybe the worst of winter is over. But those of us that live in "winter" climates know that Mother Nature always saves one last blast for us. The beginning of February is much too soon to even start thinking that Spring is on the way. I can hear her laughing at my even thinking that. There will be at least one more snowfall if not more. The ice clings too. It melts, but slowly. Maybe my muse is under that ice and will return with the spring mud season. Now that is a slimy, disgusting thought as anyone who has a mud season will understand.

But I persevere because what else is there to do. I envy my colleagues who seem to be able to create without end. I do find though that when my jewelry designing fails me I am especially creative in the kitchen so perhaps my muse just needs variety?

The Perils of the Hay Pile

So today I fell off the hay pile. Usually I just scramble up there, cut open the bale of hay and move the flakes of hay to a lower level so I can reach them easily. No muss, no fuss; well, almost. I do end up covered with hay. Today I was up at the top and I looked down and noticed that some hay had fallen from when my husband was up there moving a hay bale for me. They are just too heavy and I can't move them so he usually does it. In fact he tends to insist since I am very off balance and am no supposed to be climbing. But today he was not around and the goats needed their hay. I was supposed to starve the goats ?! I don't think so....

So in looking down at the hay on the ground I lost my center of balance and very soon I have a very close up view of the hay on the ground because I was now on the ground. Nothing was seriously damaged; my knee is rather banged up and cut and my left side is very stiff and sore. My husband isn't happy but the goats were quite amused. I swear I saw them laughing. Goats like entertainment. I am now again warned off the hay pile....I may listen this time. Falling is not fun.

The only photo I have of the hay pile includes my goat Michael. He was on one of the lower levels eating (what else) the hay. He's not supposed to be there either but for different reasons. Goats are very agile so falling is not a problem. Pooping is. They poop anywhere and everywhere. We don't want poop in the hay pile.