Splendid Caterpillar bracelet in Turquoise Luster

(Coupon Info at the bottom of this post!)

We are leaving in 11 days for a cross-country road trip.  I'm both excited and terrified.  Financially, this trip make NO sense but it is Molly's last summer at home and Maxx is old enough now that he is excited about seeing new things (like Mt. Rushmore and the Grand Canyon) We've been putting it off for far too long and it is just time to GO.

large acanthus filigree motif

I'm nervous about a lot of things - you know, getting in a wreck, having our money run out too fast, one of the kids disappearing - but realistically, those things could happen here at home.  In fact, the money running out too fast happens all the time around here and I just deal with it!  :)


But one thing I am really concerned about is living without my beads for 4 weeks.  EEEK!   I'm having SO much fun with Right Angle Weave making Splendid Caterpillar Bracelets.

The Jeep is pretty big but I really can't justify taking everything I want to have.  Plus I'm not sure how much work time I will actually have.

Green Twisted Drop Beads

I am putting together a small batch of beads, threads, pre-pieced crazy quilt fabrics and hand dyed stuff to work with on the trip.  I'll post photos of my travel palette before I pack them in the Jeep.

I bought a beadalon tacky mat from Shipwreck beads.   It looks pretty nifty - they are made of the  same sticky stuff as those gum-dispenser toys that you throw against the window and watch them slowly "crawl" down.

They are tacky without being sticky and are supposed to hold a layer of beads in place without getting adhesive on them.  They are also supposed to be "rechargable" by washing with water.  We'll see how well it works on the trip!

beadalon tacky mat

lavender opal 4mm firepolished rounds

I've gotten a bit behind on listing new inventory in my shops.  Things got piled up this winter and I'm just now starting to get stuff sorted out.   I am planning to re-vamp GoblinsMarket over at ArtFire when we return to accommodate traffic from GoblinsMarket.org.  Yes - I plan to actually put that url to use in 2012 - finally!    

Anyway - what you're really looking for is coupon info, right?  (I hope so!  I want to send out a few more sparklies to be well loved this summer before I put them all away for a month.)




So here's the deal.  I will be closing all of my ArtFire and Etsy shops for the month of July starting Monday or Tuesday next week so the coupons are good for this weekend. 


Over at ArtFire, use the coupon code ROADTRIP for 20% off orders over $30.00.  (Don't forget to sign in and comment on items to get additional discounts!)


At Etsy, use the coupon code ROADTRIP2012 for a 10% discount on your total order, regardless of the amount spent.   


Neither of the shops is fully loaded so if you see something in one that isn't in the other that you would like to purchase, let me know and I will set it up for you.   But hurry!  After this weekend, My whole will be bent towards getting us out of the house and on the road on time.

Molly will be blogging the trip over at the Beorningstead blog and I will try to keep you updated about how creation on the road is going now and then.  Have a gorgeous summer!

It started with growing frustration with the same items and same sellers featured on the front page over and over again.  It escalated with a low but growing level of discomfort with the tone of admin in the forums and more & more underground reports of  previously successful sellers being shut down for arbitrary reasons after publicly complaining about a problem with Etsy.

It got really bad when my sales tanked this April - worse when after weeks of rude Admins insisting that there had been NO CHANGES so we were ALL IMAGINING the drop in our exposure and sales, news of a top-secret change in search function came to light.

Then the Etsy Hacks stopped working.  (Etsy Hacks were these wonderful little tools that allowed for quick re-listing of sold items, searching prior sales, managing inventory and just generally tracking all sorts of crucial business information that was impossible to do without them.)  They were created by a non-Etsy engineer who was later hired by Etsy to make the whole site function better but the only thing that has happened is that Etsy has managed to disable all of his original tools and has completely failed to institute replacements.

Then they changed the page width and lay-out, obscuring seller information in favor of the "Etsy Brand."  They also have failed to implement any changes to protect sellers from scammers, evil games from bitter competitors and non-paying buyers.  They also fail to prevent re-sellers from taking over top search categories and have actually been been featuring them on the front Page more and more recently.
In the midst of this, they spent the  time and energy to produce an embarrassingly adolescent ad for  new coders.  This was a real "help wanted" video.  I kid you not. 

And now they have rolled out a tax tool that will basically make it impossible for sellers in several states to actually OBEY the TAX LAWS!!!

I am so totally done with Etsy.  My shop will be in permanent vacation mode beginning today.
Maybe I'll consider coming back if they fix search, bring back the Etsy hacks, create a tax tool that won't put NYS sellers at risk of audits and tremendous fines, begin to enforce their TOU in a fair and uniform manner and hire some admin who treat honest sellers with some respect.

In the meantime, you can see my supplies and sparklies over at ArtFire - right there in my sidebar.  They SHOW how much they value their sellers in so very many ways.  I'l write about that someday soon but right now, I need to go dye some Alchemy scarves and work on a Gorgeous little Purse/Tarot Card envelope.

Since I'm obviously feeling confessional this week, having posted a photo of my epic cake FAIL of last week over at the Beorningstead blog , I thought I would let you all take a look at my latest bead fail.

Pretty weird, right?











The latest Beadwork magazine has a short tutorial on making sparkly beaded rings so I played around with the project a bit yesterday. 

I made a sort of fun little orange spiky flower ring.


And I beaded a setting for a scintillating rivoli and then decided to see if the duck bills I bought with the latest mega box of beads would work with this  design.





Ummm....






I was shooting for something floral but it certainly didn't turn out that way.  I think it looks like some bizarre sea creature gone horribly wrong.  Molly says it looks like a butt.  (If you have a large, short haired dog, you will instantly see what she means.  It is rather sphincter-ish.)

If only I had made it in pink.






Speaking of butts.  I'm so disgusted with Etsy.   They had full frontal female nudity on their front page a couple of weeks ago.  Oh - the artist's photographer had airbrushed out some specific anatomical details on top and the models hands were covering her groin area but it was still nudity on the Front Page.  The item in question was a hoop skirt support made to be worn under period costumes or alone as a "futuristic design statement".  The seller makes latex clothing.  Most of the images for the clothing available in this shop border on or qualify as soft p*rn.

You know what?  That's FINE.  If someone is having fun making a living selling titillating little costumes - go ahead.  I have no problem with that.  I don't even have a problem with them using racy images in their shop to sell their wares.  It's their shop.  I do not believe in trying to censor other artists and I think that there should be a place on Etsy and other venues for all kinds of  art - whether that art contain happy unicorn, Christian iconography or images designed for a mature audience.

I DO have a HUGE problem with Etsy putting those soft p*rn images on their Front Page and I'll tell you why.   

For those of you who don't know much about FAS/FAE, one of the major challenges kids with this disorder have is a more than average level of difficulty making good sexual choices.  These kids are at a higher risk for STD's, teen pregnancy, date rape - etc. because they have an overwhelming curiosity about sex and intimacy, very little to no impulse control and very poor decision making skills.   I thought that we would be dealing with this issue in - oh about 10 years or so, during puberty.  But no.  It is here NOW. 

Maxx is hyper-interested in breasts and other lady parts.  He has already been exposed to p*rn on the school bus.  He asks inappropriate questions quite frequently and tries to engage in inappropriate touching with me and Molly.  We have had incidents of inappropriate tickling with other female family members that we have had to address with him.  We try to dress him in jeans because if he wears softer pants he runs around all day grabbing his goods.  We have had numerous discussions about biology and male vs. female anatomy, respecting people's privacy and what sort of touching is appropriate and what is not.  He levels off sometimes for weeks at a time until something sets him off - like seeing magazine covers in the grocery store or a scene in a film or on TV that shows a lot of skin and/or cuddling. 

Now some of you might say - "Oh, he's just a boy - boys are just interested in girls!"  Yes.  Boys are interested in girls.  As they should be.  Maxx is Obsessed with female bodies.  There is a difference.  His behavior and manner change when he is obsessing.  It is very troubling.  We work hard to keep questionable images out of our home in order to make at least this space safe for him.  He has enough issues to work through that he shouldn't have to be grappling with that particular obsession right now.

I left work at Creative Spirit because the owner was preparing for a new exhibit containing several "adult" images.  I was fine with that until he made it clear that he intended to hang one of the largest paintings front and center at the bottom of the stairs leading to the only bathroom in the building.  His intention in hanging the piece there was not to draw attention to a particularly masterful painting but in his own words, it was to "shake up the moral foundations of this community a little bit." 

Never mind that we had several parents visit the store with their children and if a potty stop was needed, these kids would have to be brought down through the gallery - right past the 'mature' content.  With no warning whatsoever.  I don't know if this guy ever actually hung that show that way or not.  I left and didn't look back. 

Etsy's front page is on our drop down navigation bar menu for Firefox because I stop into Etsy every day to manage my shops there.  I can no longer trust that opening Etsy with Maxx sitting on my lap or hanging out around the computer is safe.  I'm strongly considering shutting down both of my Etsy shops.  My supply shop has tanked over there.  Either something is STILL broken in the search or I've made some sort of blacklist as a result of speaking too bluntly in the forums about the numerous problems sellers have been having since March.   Either way, that source of income is drying up has dried up.  Pair that with not being able to trust Etsy to follow their TOU/ Dos and Don'ts and NOT put nudity on the front page makes me think that never clicking on that Etsy link again might be a good idea. 

Sigh.  Thinking about Etsy lately makes me depressed.  Thinking about FAS makes me feel overwhelmed.  I've had to think about both of them in one morning - I guess Ziggy and I should go walk off that Nutella on a rice cake I just ate and then try to figure out what on earth to do with these stupid duck bill beads.  Any ideas out there?






.....

I have some gorgeous new colors for my Dragonflies and other enameled brass piece in my shops this spring!
There's Mossy



and Saffron






and Shimmery Copper



and Shimmery Fuchsia.





They are in my Etsy shop now but ArtFire will have to wait 'till Friday.  Allergy boy is home today so I can monitor his breathing - snot rocket, big cough, poor peak flow - nebulizer treatments all day.  I love spring.


Oh yeah - and I neeeed to have one of these cameras someday.  We had a Polaroid when I was a kid and I was so sad to hear that they discontinued their instant cameras.  Now Fuji is picking up that market with a teeneency camera that prints teeneency pictures.  What fun!















. . . . . . .

Allow me to say a few words about socks. 

I hate socks.  I wear them.  I enjoy wearing them.  They keep my feet warm and prevent my shoes from stinking.  But I hate being responsible for them.  Especially Maxx's.

With all of the socks Maxx owns, one would think that I could easily find a pair that reasonably matches.  No - I am not OCD about two socks needing to have exactly the same degree of grey-ness or stainage, but Maxx and I do insist that the socks be about  the same length & thickness and have the same sort of toe seam. 

It would help if he would remove his socks in the same place.  I don't necessarily mean removing both of  his socks in the same place every day - I mean removing both of his socks at the same time and place on any given day.  His normal mode is to come home and kick his boots off - one usually goes in one direction while the other flies off into the opposite room.  Eventually he takes one sock off.  He travels about a bit, indoors and out.  Then he takes the other sock off.  I have not done any studies about which sock he tends to remove first.  I'm not sure that would help. 

Sooner or later both socks end up in the laundry.  But not necessarily in the same load.  Not even necessarily in the same week.

Not 8 weeks ago, I bought him some little black socks, - 6 pair, 12 total -  thinking this would make it easier to find him a pair in the sock basket.  Can I find more than one of those socks at any given time? 

No. 

I can find any number of grayed white socks with holes in the bottom, but only one of the new black socks.  Sigh.

I have some mesh laundry bags I my Amazon shopping cart.  (Why can't I find these things when I go shopping in a real store?  Why must I pay shipping for them?  Should I just go to JoAnne Fabrics and buy some mesh to make my own bags?)   

I think that if I had 4 mesh laundry bags, everyone could be responsible for putting their own socks in their own laundry sack (or I could go around the house of a laundry day and gather up all manner of socks, placing them each in their designated bag) - wash the whole sack at once and then I would not have to sort socks anymore.   When children (and husbands) whine for socks, I could just chuck a mesh bag full of socks at them and make them choose a pair for themselves.

I may be delusional.

But I am reluctant to push the buy button because my Etsy shops are dead.  (And because I have several other things in my shopping cart.)  Very few sales this past week - just enough to pay my Etsy bill.  I am becoming disgruntled but am loathe to murmur about it too much, lest the Etsy Gods take vengeance.  Perhaps they already have and this is why my shops are dead.

Oh, how I wish people would learn to shop on ArtFire.


Meanwhile it is 49 degrees and raining outside.  The rain is O.K.,  I suppose the 49 degrees is really not all that bad - but it has, in general, been too warm.  My lilacs look like this. 

They should not look like this until May.  They are at least 3 weeks ahead of schedule - along with every other growing thing right now. 

Craziness.  We could still get a blizzard - or an ice storm - or at least a very heavy frost - and then where would my blossoms be? 

Blighted, that's where. 

Curse you, Global Warming and Climate Change!

While I'm cursing people, I shouldn't forget our dear Governor Patterson who now intends to lay off all the construction workers in NYS, along with the over 150,000 teachers across the state who are slated to lose their jobs come June.  That will be a nice change for our laborers - a big summer vacation.  It will be handy for NYS too, considering that they have been on the job just long enough to cause their unemployment to expire but not long enough to earn another round. 

Sigh. 

At least the Arts Council is making progress.  New classroom spaces in Old Snell Hall  - Dance Classes coming right up!  I hope someone will be able to afford them.

Keep yer socks on.  I'm off to do laundry.

Several weeks ago, RoseWorks Jewelry nominated me for a sunshine award and featured my Buttercup earrings.  It was so very sweet of her and I've been meaning to do something reciprocal for her and my other EtsyBloggers teammates, who I have neglected for at least the last 6 months. 

Ruthie created her fun spotlight over on byhand.me so I thought I would go over and see what that site is all about.  It seems to be another social media outlet for artists and crafters - the site is very clean, easy to navigate and quick to join.  It took me maybe an hour to create my profile and put together a spotlight of my own.  The really cool thing is that you don't seem to have to wait and play any lottery games to get a chance to create a spotlight (which is much like an Etsy treasury) AND you can include items from ArtFire, Zibett, Etsy and many other handmade venues in the same spotlight.  Yay!

I'm really struggling with my online shops, particularly Etsy.  They keep tweaking things in ways that might make sense for their admins abut that continually throw wrenches of every size and type into shop profits.  The latest debacle involves searches (again) and their dropdown menu, which recently was adjusted to eliminate "supplies" from the options.  They fixed it after much rabble rousing in the forums, but it just doesn't sit well with me.  They seem to be trying but I continually get the sense that they are out of touch with their true customer base. 

Last year, I paid Etsy  over $670.00 - they represent my third largest vendor expense category and that amount represents approximately 10% of my income from Etsy sales.  I categorize these payments as "advertisement expenses" since the bulk of it is listing fees, but when I pay listing fees, I have no guarantees about how many people will see the items or for how long they will stay near the top of searches.  This is the big problem with jewelry sales online - so many sellers are out there that your items are buried before anyone sees them. 

I really want to move more of my business over to ArtFire and eventually onto my own website.  ArtFire charges me $7.00 a month for an annual total of  $84.00.  If I want to spend more on targeted marketing on or off site, I can do so under contracts that guarantee either a certain number of views or a specific length of time on a specific  webpage.  I would much rather spend a few hundred a year on targeted advertising than keep shelling out hundreds that I have little control over to Etsy. 

BTW - I have removed several items from my Etsy jewelry shop and discounted them by 50% over on ArtFire.  Go take a look!

Anyway,

Here's my pretty sunshine spotlight - composed of items from other EtsyBloggers' shops. I included one of RoseWorks' lovely necklaces - I'm so jealous that she has the time and patience for doing an entire necklace in spiral helix stitch!  You can see the spotlight in person and even clicky on links over here.

Now I have to go get some cleaning done and enamel some dragonflies so I can ship them tomorrow!  I've been fighting off a cold so a morning in front of the computer felt like a good idea today.  (Ug- have to do taxes, soon, too!)



. . . .

So - Etsy has got a terrible bug right now.  Apparently, for some sales where a buyer purchases items from multiple sellers at one time, only one seller will get paid but they will get paid for ALL the items the buyer purchases.  Not cool.

There's confusion about whether this is an Etsy or a PayPal bug.  I haven't purchased from multiple sellers in a long time so in order to refresh my memory on how the interface works, I went shopping for a few low ticket items from multiple sellers. 



I bought some wonderful seed beads from beadologistkelly who has great TOHOs in new colors and finishes at great prices.  I've purchased from her before and I'm always horribly jealous of the selection of colors, sizes and shapes of seed beads in her shop! 

Then I discovered this shop.

Oooooh how pretty!

I got Maxx a big beetle and I got Molly a Butterfly.  When I ordered it, I thought she might want it for her locker but while in town today, I bought her a stainless water bottle to take to school and maybe she'll want to put it on that instead.

















I'm going to have to have this Fairy Door for my studio when I move in.  And maybe a set of dragonflies.  And a Luna Moth for sure.  And maybe a Porthole or two for winter. . . . .

I hope that both Kelly Angeley and Wilson Graphics get paid in a timely manner and that my packages arrive very soon!

What a week! 

Life is more hectic than usual as we adjust to having a busy drama club high schooler in the house.   Maxx is sick with a cold again already, which is about right - it has been 3.5 weeks since his last sick!  But worst of all, Bryan was attacked by a Kamikazee deer Thursday night that may have totaled out lovely little Honda Fit.  Luckily, Bryan is fine.  We're waiting for the insurance company to give us a list of options before we panic about the Fit.  I really don't want to start over with a new vehicle loan at this point.  The plan was to pay the Fit off and enjoy driving a very well cared for car for several years before making another purchase so that the Fit could become Molly's college car.  Let's keep our fingers crossed!

I did manage to make some progress in my shops.

Over at GoblinsMarket - Etsy, I have a number of bead strands on sale.  Remember I mentioned finding a new wholesaler with slightly higher prices but smaller minimums in the last post?  Well, I'm waiting for my first shipment from them and I'm eager to move out some of the extras I had to order from my old wholesaler last summer.  They are beautiful beads but now that I have played with them a bit, I don't see myself designing with them much and my new philosophy on bead inventory is to focus on stocking things that I want to design with.






I have also posted 6 gorgeous Alchemy scarves in my ArtFire shop.   I have such a hard time selling my Alchemy scarves because I end up wanting to keep them all to myself.  They're so sumptuous and colorful.  You can wear them with anything (or with nothing) and they look great.  They're long enough to wrap around in several different ways and they're quite warm and durable in spite of being such a lightweight silk.  I made my first Alchemy scarf over 6 years ago and it is still beautiful and wearable.  They are wonderful for gifts - remember that Valentine's day and Mother's day are coming right up!

While GoblinsMarket-Etsy is fully functional right now, I still haven't re-opened my LunasBaublebilities shop. I  am concentrating on uploading scarves and jewelry designs to my ArtFire shop right now.  There are a lot of reasons for this shift in focus but the main one is that I hope that my work will be found faster on ArtFire.  I'm waiting to see if Etsy fixes their PayPal link and how many of Rob Kalin's new bright ideas actually get implemented over at Etsy before I decide whether or not to re-open LunasBaublebilities over there.  For the past year, I've felt like almost every minute dedicated to that shop was time wasted because of low visibility for jewelry and accessory sellers on Etsy.  I'll be doing some advertising experiments for both my ArtFire shop and my Etsy shop(s?) in the next few months that I will let you know more about as results start to come in. 

Onward!  Saturday is almost over and there is much left to do before we  have friends over for games tonight.








. . . . .

Molly and I often stop by this shop to oooh and aaah over the multitude of spectacular creations available at damselinthisdress.

Not only do I wish that I could afford some of these beautiful costume pieces, I wish I had the time, talent and access to the incredibly lush fabrics she uses so that I could create my own. I also wish I had a place to wear such clothes. (I know, Suzy, I should come to Pensic!)


I love that these are made to fit women's bodies. That means that while skinny girls like Kate Moss would look pathetic in these corsets, ladies with figures more like mine would look great. You can check out Michelle's website to see more photos of real women wearing her garb.












Michelle Thorstrom's story makes me happy. She decided, almost on a whim, to make a few corsets and sell them at a Renaissance Festival. Now she and her husband are supporting their family with this business. I think that's wonderful and incredible. I hope the magic continues for her!













. . . .

This weekend, I had a customer ask me some questions about Brass stampings. In composing an answer for her, I realized that this would probably be a good blog topic as there seems to be a lack of honest, concise information out there about these pretty things that so many people are buying and using these days.






The first place to start would be what Brass is made of. Wikipedia has a good explanation
that needs no extra babbling from me. Copper and Zinc. No lead. Yay!






Part of the confusion around all of those pretty filigree pieces out there today is the question of whether they are truly "antique" or "vintage" or not. Based on my experience with these items, I believe that most of them for sale today on Etsy and elsewhere are actually newly manufactured items. There are some out there that are obviously old - left over from old boxes stored in warehouses for decades but those show significant oxidation beyond the simple patinas that modern jewelry artists are applying. The truly old stuff is often dirty and pitted and have come from some auction house clearing out old, unclaimed stuff.




All of my brass pieces are newly made from vintage and antique dies by manufacturers in the U.S. (Yay for American manufacturing jobs!) For basic information on the manufacturing process, we turn to Wikipedia again. In many cases, these dies were put away for decades until the recent fashion trends in vintage style, Steampunk, and retro Victorian jewelry came into vogue. Then the old dies were pulled out and put to work again to create new findings in vintage designs. Thus, you can buy a brand new filigree piece of the exact same design used in a brooch your great-gramma wore. Molly Byn was excited to learn this as she was recently allowed to claim some goodies from her Great Gramma's jewelry box - some items needed repair or repurposing and she discovered a treasure trove of possibilities in my studio. (I'll post some of those creations later on.)

Raw brass items are just that - brass charms, filigree and findings that are unaltered from their original state. These pieces will age and darken, sometimes in a very unlovely fashion and will probably leave a green mark on your skin unless they are sealed in some way. Floor wax, jewelers sealant, clear nail polish and furniture wax (like Renaissane micro-crystaline wax) all work well for this purpose. Brass reacts with all sorts of chemicals unless sealed - amonia will quickly darken brass and will actually eat away at it if exposed for too long. I have started using a jewelrs grade sealant for my patina items so that my customers' creations remain stable and clean.

Because brass reacts with many chemicals, there are many solutions that can be applied to create a patina on the brass. The most usual patina color is a brown-gold color that makes the piece look aged. I recently learned how to apply a green-blue verdegris patina that will start appearing in my shop soon and I have seen a few other colors that I'm intrigued by - chartreuse, deep purple - but I'm intimidated by the chemisty right now and will have to wait until I have a studio with beter ventilation and running water for safety's sake before experimenting with those.




















. . . .

Things have been so busy lately and my stress level with Maxx's asthma issues has been pretty severe and I have missed creating and blogging very much! I've decided to try to do a Wednesday Wishes post each week, featuring some of my favorite handmade stuff online.



This week, I'm looking at MandalaArts' shop. This shop is all about color and is filled with beautiful window stickers at about $3.00 a piece. Molly Bryn wants to buy one or two but she can't narrow the choices down enough. Boy - do I know how that feels!

I've been in a very funky retro groove since Lue gave us the Sesame Street Old School DVD's for the kids to enjoy. I've been remembering how much I loves all of these bright, psychedelic patterns and designs that flashed across the screen back in Henson's day. MandalaArts shop has all that bright, happy color in one place.


I love these dragonflies.


And can't you just imagine a troop of faeries popping out of that little door to perform choreographed acrobatic alphabet poses at any moment?


He even has a beautiful Pegasus sticker but I'm not going to post it here. You'll have to go over to his shop to look at it!










. . . . . . .

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.

. . . .