Luna's Baublebilities

As previously mentioned, I have 54 yards of silk waiting to be dyed in my studio.  I haven't been able to keep the kitchen studio sink clean long enough to mix up some chemical water to get started.  Maybe this weekend?  Next week?

We're undergoing some serious upheavals in the kitchen in preparation for cupboards coming on the 16th.  They aren't the cupboards of my dreams but I sure am fantasizing about them.  No more dusty spice bottles!  A place to put glasses and plates and bowls and food!

Plus, I get a real kitchen sink & a dishwasher and my studio sink becomes mine - all mine!

It's going to be awesome.

I think I recall that the map to a real kitchen includes a detour through Hades, though.

I need to be patient.

I have beads coming next week, too.  I'm very excited about them. Many of them will mesh well with Pantone's Fall 2011 color forecast.  These are yummy colors.  (But I think I want to hang onto this summer's aquas & teals, too.)

Well, it's officially over. Bry pulled out of the driveway almost 20 minutes ago to head to work, Maxx goes to Kindergarten Thursday and Molly will be starting in on her homeschool schedule Friday.

It is very strange having everyone start back to school before Labor Day. We all feel cheated - especially since Christmas break this year will be a scant week and a half and there is no indication that Spring break will be longer or that regents week will be sooner in June. Somehow the state or the local districts have managed to squeeze another full week into the school year here but there has been no information about a corresponding bump in teacher salaries. Maybe they think that they throw in a bunch of half week extras, the teachers won't be able to do the math and figure out that they are overworking their contracts?

Last night I spent some time contemplating my schedule and how I'm going to get everything done. I'm just not very prodctive on the best of days but I have really got to learn how to be. I hit 40 this winter and I've got to learn how to care for my body a little better. I need it to last at least another 40 or 50 years! Molly's homschool curriculuum this year is her most rigorous yet and while half of it will be done online, I will still have a serious time comitment reviewing History and ELA work. With Maxx in full day kindergarten, I will have more time for exercise, homeschool and studio work and I intend to bring in some serious cash this year to supplement Bryan's income. I'm just not sure how much I can really get done. What I really like to do is slack off most days, exploring nifty things online like this Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef project. I mean - how cool is that!? I want to make one.

Plus we have to get the new house ready to move into. We got our commitment leter from the bank three weeks ago (still no estimated closing date) and we have begun work on the Beorningstead, hoping and praying that we can move in before truly cold weather arives. We've already discovered some small unexpected and unbudgeted surprises over there so my studio will have to take up that slack. We are still very excited about it, though - my studio is going to be SO BIG! Expect a new blog about reniovating the Beorningstead soon, moderated by Molly, Bry and me.

Now - I'm off to see about dyeing some new tee shirts & scarves, creating a silk screen design for my new Yudu machine, photographing and uploading new filigree and beads to my Etsy and Art Fire stores, packaging orders from last week, cleaning the house, ordering MB's AP Bio Class, playing with Maxx, getting some exercise . . . O.K. on second thought, just wake me up around dinner time.

Today, instead of doing responsible things like exercising & balancing the budget first thing in the morning, I changed my blog template and started tweaking my index and widgets. I was tired of that heavy purple and I wanted to go to a 3 column layout.

Please tell me what you think. I'm thinking that I may grow tired of the exuberant rainbow of floral stuff in the corners but today, I'm happy with it.

I'm worried about my Etsy minis on the right margin. Is there too much visual information there? I'm thinking of bring those down to two columns instead of three - If you don't see something that really grabs your attention in ten thumbnails then I'm doing something wrong and an extra 5 is not going to make a diference, right?

I'll also be paring down my index labels, I feel like there is a lot of duplication in my tags and that if you (or I) really want to find something in these archives, having a more general index would be helpful.