I've been a little fragile this week and more than a little overwhelmed. I'm still trying to let go of Maxx's ER experience. It was so frightening and I was alone with him and the doctors - Bry and MB had stayed home because when I left the house with him Saturday, none of us were terribly concerned about his breathing being a big deal.

I've always considered myself a caring person, but I now have a totally new and intensely uncomfortable level of compassion for parents who go through this sort of experience and don't get to walk out of the hospital with their baby.

So - I've been trying to decompress a bit this week.


Thursday we scrambled out of the house early for our first walk-through. I went to work and was almost completely unproductive all day. After dinner, I sat down and did some window shopping on Etsy. I love to look at handmade glass beads. Glass is such a beautiful and magical media - I hope to work in it more someday when Maxx is bigger and less likely to unintentionally demolish my studio with exploding propane cylinders. Here are a few that caught my eye. BTW - artisan beads are a great preferred gift for Luna anytime!


Ice Crystals by ADKlampwork




















River Rock Marquis by airwynglass

C'est Si Bon- Dotted Disk Beads by Meital in Israel

Raku Splash with Electric Blue by Art by Lisi







Yesterday, I took MB to a doctor's appointment in Saranac Lake which had a good outcome and I enjoyed the drive between Saranac Lake and Malone immensely. We listened to Paul Simon and America in the car and enjoyed scenery that probably hasn't changed too much since the 1950's. I love NY State's brown and yellow forest preserve signs and there are lots of them on that route as well as lots of tidy roadside stands where you can stop and buy firewood for your camping excursion. So nostalgic.

Then I came home and made some jewelry. More decompression - whew! I really love how this this piece came together. The large filigree piece is so dramatic and the swallow so elegant.

Today, Bry has taken the kids fishing with the cousins and Aunts & Uncles visiting from Wisconson and North Carolina. I don't like being chilly and wet, so I've been working in my stores all day. You'll notice that I now have a Rapid Cart for my ArtFire shop right here on my blog. I'm pretty excited about that - especially since Etsy seems to be sinking into the smelly mire of big-business branding which seems to be hurting traffic to individual shops, including mine. They keep tweaking their SEO tricks, so maybe the kinks will work out soon and everyone will be able to see my beautiful supplies again. I've taken some of those great filigree charms and added enamel colors to them. They look pretty nifty.

I've been also really enjoying my Pandora station today. I stopped listenig to mainstream radio about 10 years ago because all of our local DJ's seem to have a chronic case of potty mouth so I'm very unfamiliar with newer music and haven't had many opportunities to discover new artists. Pandora is helping me overcome that problem. Every now and then they throw something in that I have to thumbs down but in general, I'm getting lots of wonderful new music. I'm amazed that I like Rufus Wainwright this much and it is great that they filter in the sweetest Dave Mathew's and Wilco music for me without the harsher stuff that my nerves can't handle right now. If you want to hear my Pandora station - leave me a message and I'll e-mail you an invitation to listen.

Kids are home and Maxx is asking for a story - so I'm off for some Mommy time.

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