It's Stress Free Thursday...

so I'm destressing. :)

I'm sitting here concentrating on what matters most....



These





and this





and them


I just realized I don't have photos of any of my friends from church (unless I steal them from their sites and they might not be ok with that....) so please imagine a picture of the most wonderful people in the world right here. Christian Church Buckhead

I also don't have pictures of all my bead friends, unless I pirate them from their facebook pages! SO... please imagine lots of FUN, creative, brilliant, supportive people here. I don't have enough room for all the links... sorry.

and the non-people-y (that's a word cuz I say so) things that make me happy...




the fact that I made this

and have taught or inspired LOTS of people to make their own things too!




So... that's much better than a fake shiny-happy posting isn't it??? It's a real one.

I'm truly truly truly blessed to have the life I have.... and I need to remind myself of that as much as possible!




tiny blah blah blah....

coffee moment, brought to you once again by Alice!!! THANK YOU!!!

Coffee - yummy cinnamon dolce latte made by Omar, the greatest barista in the WORLD! :)

Music - forgot my ipod, so I'm listening to the radio. Just played Kings of Leon's song that I can't remember, but is sort of spooky... good, but spooky. (I miss my ipod)

Tuesday Takeover

It's a quiet Tuesday because I still don't feel great.

In bead news... there has been a coup in the studio. It's been taken over by junior beadmakers!!!!!! I met G at the bus stop and he immediately said "I want to go make beads." I told him "you have to do homework first" (thinking this would give me a little time in the studio myself) and he said "already finished it" DRATS! I should have said "you have to do your chores" FIRST!!!!!

SO I let him make a few beads in the studio while I worked on my Head Over Heels sample (more on that in a minute). He seemed to get it a little better today, but is still really stubborn and impatient. He wants to do it HIS way and I'm trying really really hard not to correct him too much. I'm used to correcting students who WANT to be corrected, so when I see his bead getting too hot or too low in the flame I REALLY want to say something, but have to hold my tongue because he won't hear it as helpful, he'll hear it as mom telling him what to do. (this is why I didn't want to be the one who taught them and found someone else to give them lessons. They listened to him WAY better than they would have me.)

While he was in the middle of making his 3rd bead, H came home, came straight to the studio and said "when is it my turn?" I said the same "when you finish your homework" and found out that HE didn't have homework either!!!!! This is rare. They ALWAYS have homework!!! So, G finished his bead and H got to make beads for a while.

H is really really patient and his bead shapes are really pretty good for a beginner. He wants to be corrected so that they'll be better, so I'm a little more vocal when I see him doing something that's easy to correct. It's mostly the difference between being 13 and 10, but also a little bit of their personalities.

I don't have aspirations of my kids becoming beadmakers, but I'm happy they are having fun at it for now. They just have a bit of a skewed view of beads... beads are money to them. They grew up in an environment of "if we want to go to Disney, mom has to make enough beads." (There was also the "if we want to pay the bills......mom has to make beads" part, but the fun stuff like Disney was what would have been important to them!)

So they understand beads as currency. My favorite mothers day card was one that Harrison made in pre-K. It cracked me up. It was one of those fill in the blank things that the teacher had made and the kids filled in the answer. It said...

I love my mom because.........

She makes beds to get us money.

(beds=beads. The teacher thought I was a maid I think.)

That was exactly how things worked at our house, so he was quite observant for a 4 year old. I'm wondering if they are learning to make beads because they see it as a way to make money OR if it's just fun for them. Hard to know.

guess it's the same question I ask myself a lot. Am I doing it for the love of the art or for the money??? What money????? Guess I answered that! LOL


In Head Over Heels News - I finished the bracelet... of course I'm still embellishing. I tend to get a little carried away with that part. If I didn't embellish it, I would have been done on Sunday!! I just started decorating it before it was all the way assembled. I couldn't resist!!! She's SO SO SO cute!!!! And it's inspired me to do some follow-ups! YAY!!!


tiny blah blah blah

coffee - nope. Still on an iced-tea thing. Feels better in my throat

music - I'm in a rut!!! 2 days of Corinne Bailey Rae!!! Going to make her the song of the week for that reason.

Strep Throat Thursday. :(

I'm home for the 3rd day with a sick kid. That's kind of put a monkey wrench in the beady progress... but that's also part of being mom. Bad thing is that once they told me it was strep throat, MY throat started hurting. Hopefully it's just something that's in my head and not real. HOPEFULLY.

I have been working on my website though! I have things in my store now!!!!! And I've got more stuff on its way. I've been taking inventory in the studio and then editing photos to make things fit the etsy format (etsy.com is the website where my stuff is listed. I'm adding a link in the sidebar here.)

So even though we're home sick, there is still beady news. I even did a little beading last night, working on my Head Over Heels revival sample. It's cute. :)

tiny blah blah blah...

Coffee - nope. It's a tea day. We stopped on the way home from the Dr. at a place that has great iced tea because that was the request of the sick child.

Music - nope. We're watching re-runs of The Big Bang Theory on Tivo. He seems to appreciate the smart boy humor.

Happy Thursday!!!

A friend and I call it "stress-free Thursday" mostly trying to think positive because Thursdays rarely are for some reason. Maybe it's because you're trying to get everything done so that you can relax on Friday??? Not sure, but in my positive thinking mode, I'm calling it "Stress Free Thursday!" Please feel free to join the trend.

I have nothing beady to report other than the fact that I'm now DYING to get into my studio and work. I'm letting life stuff get in the way (some of it I'm LETTING, others are just necessary, can't help it stuff.) BUT the fact that I'm DYING to get in there is huge. I haven't felt that way in a long time, so it's kind of exciting.

We'll see what happens tonight.

Yesterday evening was spent on computer stuff. I had to go to the Mac store to get a new mouse and keyboard for our desktop computer. I also had wanted to have them take a look at my laptop computer because it's being weird. I can't use it without having it plugged in, which makes the whole idea of a laptop computer kind of moot, huh? PLUS the plug for the laptop is this little magnetized thingy and it is easily UNPLUGGED meaning that as soon as someone jostles the computer user (which is normal in my house... either a kid or a cat or a dog), the computer turns off and you have to start whatever you're doing all over again.

Not fun.

BUT now I at least have a functional mouse for the kitchen computer, so the kids can use it again and I can try to put up with the laptop until I can get back to the mac store on a day that they are not swamped. It was CRAZY in there yesterday. I think all the college students are getting their computers before going away (they're giving away an ipod if you buy a computer... probably that's why they're so busy right now).

SO, I spent my evening doing computer things THEN helped my kids get facebook accounts and send each other "flair." (if you don't facebook, that won't make sense, but they absolutely LOVED it and that made me happy since it was something I introduced them to." I even got an ALMOST unsolicited "my mom rocks!" (ok, it WAS solicited, but they meant it when they said it AND I got a hug from Griffin, so that was pretty huge!)

After kids went to bed I watched Project Runway and THAT is the topic of the blog entry today (not all the assorted nonsense in the above paragraphs! LOL)

Here's what I think...

The guy who is making the shredded wheat outfits just HAS to go!!!!!!!!!! He is SO full of himself and even though he is a little innovative and a couple of his designs have been cool.... the one last night was HORRID!!!!! It reminded me of a black and white version of Sigmund the Sea monster from the Sid and Marty Croft show of the same name!!!!! AWFUL!!!!!!!

And the tan kid? The one who says "licious" after everything... he's only on there for comedic value right now... that is the ONLY redeeming quality he seems to have right now. His Pterodactyl Mardi-gras meets tacky Pinata design last night should have put him in the bottom group. I have no idea how he survived!!!

The guy who got voted out was boring, sure, but those other 2 were just plain AWFUL!!!!!!!

People I do like...

The 2 African American women designers. I can't think of their names off hand (but will have to go look because I really like them.... hold on.... Korto and Terri!) I love them both. Each has a different aesthetic, but they are both SO talented and so NOT weird!!! In the past, for some reason, each season they have had some bizarro African American woman who just didn't represent style to me the way these women do. I have NO idea why. The exception to that would be Kara from the first season.

ANYWAYS both Terri and Korto made really really cool stuff last night for the drag queen costume designs. Terri's was over the top wonderful design-wise, and you could tell she totally expected to win... and maybe should have if the contest had not been about drag-queens. The winner just represented his queen SO well and you could tell how happy she was with the design. I think that's why he won. You could tell Terri was disappointed though. We'll see if that was a little bit of fore-shadowing!

ok... that was totally non-beady, but was what I was thinking about today. I always wanted to be a fashion designer when I was little and that's probably why the show is SO interesting to me. I think I ended up doing something just as interesting and challenging though. If I'd ever get back in the studio and DO it!!!!!!!!

time for the tiny blah blah blah...

Coffee today - totally Starbucksing - Cinnamon Dolce Latte - 3 pumps WITH whip

Music today - NOTHING! gasp! Need to put the ipod in the speaker and listen to something... QUICK!

Here we are... it's already Wednesday!

(editor's note: this is a really goofy entry because I am in a total goof-ball mood today)

And I haven't made any beads this week!!!!!!!!!! aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! I should just end the blog entry there since that's all the beady info I have for today. BUT instead, I'm going to do what I always say I'm not going to do and talk about other stuff.

Today's topic is... stupid things suggested by the elementary school...

I went to the Curriculum Night at school last night and while we were there to talk about what the kids are learning and what's expected of them this year, they also talked about some general information stuff for 5th graders. One of the topics was "snacks sent from home."

First, I have to say, that neither of my boys has wanted a snack since 3rd (?) grade. I would put things in back-packs and they would stay there for months. OR I would find them in their desks when I went for a conference. (yuck)

That said, they handed out a "suggested snack list" because they are no longer letting the kids bring "unhealthy" snacks from home. Now, every family has their view of what is healthy and what is not. I think we can all agree that a Snickers Bar is unhealthy (but yummy), but once you get into which granola bar is healthy and which might as well be a snickers bar, it gets kind of dicy. So, they made it clear for us, distributing a list of "approved healthy snacks"

I just about cracked up!! All the normal things were there Fruit, Nuts (although they can't bring nuts because someone might have an allergy), carrot sticks, goldfish crackers, etc. They ALSO had some new suggestions (which is where I started to snicker)

Here are my FAVORITE suggestions...

• Hummus (every 5th grader's FAVORITE snack!!!)

• A Can of Tuna Fish (again, a favorite... especially just PLAIN tuna. PLUS I think that a can-opener could be considered a "weapon" and cause them to be expelled)

• and my very favorite for personal reasons... Hard Boiled Eggs.

Now, I'd like you to imagine my child, who leaves snacks in his backpack for MONTHS, with a hard-boiled egg sent in as a snack! (you getting the picture? or rather the "fragrance" the faint... ok not so faint aroma of WROTTEN eggs????)

Who made this list???!!!!!!!!!!!! Someone who evidently does NOT have a 5th grader! Or ANY kids for that matter. I'm sure the kindergarten moms, whose kids actually DO eat snacks will just be overjoyed at the prospect of their little ones opening cans of tuna for their snacks!

Glad that my kid doesn't want a snack in the first place, BUT I'm very tempted to put a few cans of tuna in his backpack (without the weapon-like can-opener) just for laughs.


What happened to cookies and Kool-aid???? I think I turned out just fine!!! (as we can tell, that might actually be the reason for the changes... look at what happens when you allow your child to eat cookies and koolaid... they have to write a blog that documents their terrible food/drink habits!!)

and on that note... the tiny blah blah blah

Unhealthy Snack of the Day - Starbucks (yeah, i'm totally off the make the coffee at home thing already) Cinnamon Dolce Latte AND (I really was bad today) a slice of their lemon pound cake

Music - My Long Mellow List - Right now I'm listening to "Stay" by Lisa Loeb and Nine Stories. One of the best things about the movie Reality Bites was the music. This song in particular is one of my favorite things from the movie. (that and Janeane Garofalo's character talking about working at the Gap..."I'm late for a jean folding seminar!")

Oooh! Now Elton John's "Your Song" is on. It's the song that my college roommate said she loved so much that any guy who sang it for her, she would probably marry. (I had my own song...of course no one sang it, but I'm still not going to say what it was. It IS pretty funny in the context of my life AND I should have picked a different one now that I look back. I'll think on what my new one would be.)