Life -- Don't Sweat the Small Stuff

Wow it has been months since I've posted anything on here! Hmm...I guess an update is in order....I lost my Aunt to liver cancer the week of my birthday in January. In November she was given 6 months. Her health deteriorated quickly there after and she was gone in 2 short months.  A week and a half later my dad had surgery to remove the upper right portion of his lung where the 2" mass of cancer was located. He is doing really well and they didn't find cancer anywhere else in his body so chemo is not needed. Two days after my dads surgery my mil found out she had uterine cancer. Unfortunately they weren't able to remove all of her cancer so she will need to have chemo treatments over the next few months. It has been an extremely tough time on the family as a whole. Nothing can prepare you for the loss of a family member.

As anyone who's been through a life changing ordeal....this is the time when you do some real soul searching. Your own life is now viewed under a microscope of your own creation. You begin to realize what really matters. I've taken a really long hard look at myself both internally and externally. I don't have it all figured out yet but I can tell you that I've changed. I'm ridding myself of some not so good qualities, I will be true to myself and by the Goddess I will no longer sweat the small stuff. "Don't sweat the small stuff" -- it's a saying you hear throughout your life but it's never something you really follow. Life is too short and I'll be damned if I'm not going to enjoy every minute of it while I'm here! Life is what you make of it....and I'm going to make mine fabulous, something out of fairy tales....it's going to be beautiful!

Can I wake up now?

I've been away and feel like I'm in a nightmare that won't end. Life has thrown some serious curve balls this way and well I don't know anymore...I don't know which way is up, down, left, right...all I can say is thank the Goddess for auto-pilot mode.

As for the curve balls...well my dad was feeling really sick, problems breathing so my mom took him to the doctors. Next thing I know the physician is calling me asking me if I can come down and convince my dad to go to the hospital. After rushing down there he reluctantly agreed to go. He was in the emergency room for an hour when they told him they'd have to transfer him to another hospital. They said he had pneumonia, but they also believed that he had a heart attack and he needed to see a specialist. So I packed up my mom and rushed to meet my dad at the other hospital. They of course did a series of tests and indeed he had had a heart attack -- but they saw something else so they needed to do a CT scan. They found a mass in his lung and after having a PET scan they've determined that the mass is a malignant tumor - lung cancer.

During all of this my Aunt (my dad's sister) is having a battery of tests done as well because she's been in a lot of pain and she doesn't know why. Her results came back after dads and she has stage 4 liver cancer, they've given her 6 months. Dad keeps asking me what "stage 4" means. It saddens me because each time I answer I can see it sink in a little bit more. so sad.

Needless to say our families have been turned upside down. My mom isn't sleeping because every time my dad moves she's wide awake with fear that he's going to suddenly die. I'm just trying to be strong for them. I don't know what else to do. I don't even feel like I'm attached here...it's like I'm floating...just going with the motions of day to day life. I don't show my emotions to my family...I can't. I have to be the strong one.

Will someone wake me up please?

The Night's Sky

Wow...tonight's sunset was like having my own personal light show in the sky -- love the colors!

Tonight's Moon

I just love the moon.....

Finding My Creativity

It's been awhile since I've updated my blog...sorry! I've been re-adjusting to my kids being out of the house and trying to come up with new creative designs. 

One of the things I want to get back to are making pieces that come from the heart, pieces that represent something important in my life. So here's a picture of the Triple Moon pendant that I recently made and will be listing in my shop soon. This one is made using a lab grown Alexandrite set in fine silver.

 

Also, I'm so excited to announce that I successfully taught myself how to solder fine metals...woot woot!! Up until now all of my previous attempts ended in some messy glob, so I'm happy to show off these new rings that I made for myself out of scrap sterling, one is a London Blue Topaz, and the other is a Signity CZ.

I swear after that first successful solder I couldn't stop myself. Before I knew it, it was 2am and my focus was blurry but dangit I made 8 rings and all of them turned out great! Actually that's a fib -- the next day when I looked at the rings again one of the wide band rings was not to my liking because the solder and flowed into part of the pattern...so it's scrap now and I don't care cuz the rest of the rings turned out fab!! :D

Hopefully after I practice a bit more I'll start getting some of these listed in my Etsy shop so keep an eye out!

What I've been up to...

I've been away for awhile working on custom orders, spending time with my kids, working and getting ready for the FaerieWorlds Festival!! My best friend will be arriving in town this weekend and I'm seeing a lot of fun to be had here shortly.

I've been busy working on my outfits for the fest, revamping, repurposing clothing, making jewelry for each day as well as feather facinators. I've included some pics of the facinators:

This is for Friday's outfit, I'll be in mostly black with silk rainbow colored wings and other bright colored accessories.

I made 2 of the rose facinators for Saturday which I'll be in more of a steampunk victorian style outfit

I'll post the earrings I made for these 2 days later...I'm still working on my Sunday's outfit and all the accessories...I'm just having a blast and feeling the creative juices flow knowing there's no limitations!!

With everything that's going on -- here are the dates that I will be closing my Etsy shop:

~~**Shop Closure Dates**~~

July 23rd - Aug 4th (FaerieWorlds Festival, Eugene, OR)
Aug. 20th - 22nd (Kids College Move-In)
Aug. 27th - 29th (Kids College Move-In)

Dates are subject to change due to the amount of custom orders that I have...but I'll keep you posted!

Another Treasury :)

Yay, I'm excited to be included in another treasury! Love the soft honey colors in this one!

I can't believe June has come and gone already! We've only had a few days of nice weather so it really hasn't felt much like summer. I've got so many things going on right now I think I need to make a list so I can keep track of it all. I have 9 jewelry commissions, sewing clothes for the FaerieWorlds Festival at the end of this month, making hair accessories, painting, replacing carpet, reupholstering furniture, repairing some drywall caused by a rather large piano getting stuck in my stairwell...and it feels like the list goes on and on. Hmm...funny...I didn't feel overwhelmed until I typed all of that down..LOL...well I guess that means I should start working on knocking some things off my list. I'm off off and away :)

Etsy Treasury

I'm so excited to be included in another Etsy Treasury!! Woot Woot

Beach Pics

I just realized that I haven't posted any pictures of my Lincoln City beach trip so I thought I'd better get on it.

When we got there the girls at the desk said there was a problem with our room so they bumped us up to the largest suite they had....SWEET!! I swear this is the only hotel I will stay at when I visit Lincoln City...they are right on the beach, best views, the rooms are great, service is even better and the rates are the best bar none!

I used the panoramic feature for the 1st time and kind of got the right side all wonky :)

The view of the rest of our room (behind the closed door was our huge bedroom)

This is a large tree root that almost stood taller than me!

The white caps were awesome

I love watching the ebb and flow of the ocean

Do you see it? A cloud imitating the moon :)

A closer view...they say imitation is the best form of flattery...I was impressed!

Well that's all for now..I took so many pictures that it would take days to upload them all! Okay so that's an exaggeration...let's just say I'm to lazy to upload them all right now :)

Another Treasury

Yay...one of my Labradorite necklaces made it in an Etsy Treasury! 

Honored

It's always an honor when someone includes me in a treasury on Etsy!!

A big thank you to the curator of this one: shannonbatescreates 

Happy Dance!

 

 

Yay...another milestone has been reached...800 sales!! Big thank you to all of my wonderful customers!

Custom Made for Mom

Just wanted to share a picture of the pendant that I made for my mom. My dad purchased a whopping trillian cut Citrine gemstone and asked me to make a pendant with it. She doesn't wear silver and that's pretty much all that I work with -- so to accomodate her love of gold, off to the side of the pendant is a flower and... two leaves which I accented with 24kt gold. It needs a bit of polishing, but I'm pleased with the results!

 This whole piece is made using PMC3, and 24kt Accent Gold.

Another Day in Paradise...

Sipping on a much needed mocha, the sun is shining and life is really good!

It's been awhile since I've posted on Facebook or my blog...it's been a busy few weeks with my best friend visiting, day job, Etsy and preparing for my college kids homecoming for their summer break.

Business has been steady and I've been working on some new designs and perfecting some old ones. So I'll be listing those in the upcoming weeks.

I'm just 3 sales away from reaching a milestone of 800 sales!! Whoohoo! Tonight I will be making a Fine Silver (made of precious metal clay) Necklace for the lucky 800th customer and I'll post pictures of it tomorrow!  ~Have a wonderful day!

Busy Having Fun!

Sorry that I've been away! I've also failed at the "Listing-A-Day" Challenge. It started out with a seminar that I had to go to for my day job, then just 2 days after that my best friend arrived!! Needless to say we've been going non-stop...shopping, seeing family, shopping oh and eating...I think I've gained 10 lbs since she's been here, and I thought wine and cheese was good for you! Maybe not in excess huh? Oh well...I'm having an awesome time visiting with her, and this weekend we're off to a girls trip to the beach *yay*

I do however have a new Labradorite piece listed--

Blazing - Labradorite, Peridot, Carnelian and Sterling Silver Necklace

 

So I'll be closing up shop for my weekend trip, until then I'll be listing a few more items! I hope everyone is having a great week--I sure am :)

One short week to go...

then my best friend will be here and...tomorrow is Friday...woot woot! I've got so many things to do around the house in preparation for her arrival...eh...it'll still be waiting for me tomorrow--I'm such a terrible procrastinator. I've made a list of things to buy (comfort food) while she's here....Hummus-check, coconut shrimp with mango chutney-check, lumpia with sweet and spicy sauce-check....and the list goes on an on--so excited!

Anyways I can't forget about the listing challenge on Etsy so here are my newest listings to my shop:

Nectar - Vintage Glass and Sterling Silver Necklace

Hibiscus - Sterling Silver Hoops

 

Day 13

Wow..I don't think it ever ceases to amaze me how fast time fly's...it's already day 13 of the April Challenge! If you want to check out the other sellers who are participating in this challenge you can see their listings in this Etsy forum thread. You may find something you can't live without :)

Dew Drop - Peruvian Opal and Sterling Silver Necklace

BFF'S

I think I forgot to mention that my best friend is coming to visit...woot woot! I have missed her terribly!! Since she moved last year life has not been the same. I went from talking to her and seeing her every day to talking to her once maybe twice a week. She isn't just my best friend, she's my sister in every sense of the word. My parents call her daughter and my boys call her mom...she is family. When she left, she took part of my heart with her. I'm not whole without her near, I'm not me without her. It reminds me of a conversation in "Little Women" when Jo comes home and Beth is ill -- an excerpt of what Beth says to Jo:

"I've missed you so. Why does everyone want to go away? I love being home. But I don't like being left behind."

Okay...so you get the point...I miss her! Anyways...she's coming to visit for close to 3 weeks and I can't wait. We'll once again sit up til all hours of the night drinking coffee, talking about everything, anything and nothing at all...just enjoying every minute we have with each other! All will be right in the world again :)

April Challenge

I'm still trying to keep up with the listing challenge for April. I missed yesterday not so much because I feel bad, but more because I was just being lazy :P I am feeling better though...my ears aren't clogged anymore but for some reason my sinus' are burning like I've been swimming and snorted water up my nose...yuck! Other than that life is just grand! So here's my two newest listings:

Lemon Drops - Citrine and Sterling Silver Hoop Earrings

La Luna - Pearl and Sterling Silver Necklace

It's Saturday....

Not much planned for today...I'm actually feeling crummy *sigh* I didn't feel so hot yesterday either, but I didn't want to get too far behind on the challenge so I worked through the fogginess that's lingering in my head and got two items listed in my shop. I'm determined not to let this cold get the better of me!!

Reflect - Quartz and Sterling Silver Necklace

Ice - Topaz, Pearl and Sterling Silver Necklace