Saturday, September 30, 2006

Growing Up

My daughter would kill me if she knew I were making this post. At 17 she is one of the most talented articulate teenagers I have ever met. I can honetstly say that I'm very proud of her. We have been through many ups and downs (with more to come, I'm sure). Right now she is learning about how to balance life, work, and school & I can honestly say that it isn't an easy lesson. The kids of today, no matter how we raise them are somehow influenced by the times. My Aunt (my other mother) gave me a time article about a year ago about how the teens of today are all about themselves....well I thought...."that's not my daughter, I've raised her different than all of those other parents".....well guess what, she is one of those kids. I have no idea how it happened but I do remember certain moments......her not wanting to work......her thinking she was entitled to something specific for "some reason" (I'm still not sure what the reason was).....anyway she is learning a hard lesson and it's not easy for me to watch her learn it. She knows that she has to continue working if she wants to continue driving. She also has to keep up with all of her school work if she wants to be on debate this year (her passion). The year has berely begun and it's becoming quite the challenge. At this point I'm giving her a shoulder to cry on but that's about it. I've watched her get screwed over by a co-worker and work extra hard to keep up with the school work. At times it's all I can do, not to say "quit your job and live at home forever" but ya know what. I DON'T WANT her to live at home forever. I want her to FLY on her own with the other birds. DAMN!!! It's hard raising kids. So far, so good! It's been a rough few years since her father walked out but she's finally figuring it out but BOY is it a tough road.
Even with my Art my kids are my life! I know....no one ever said it was going to be easy but no one ever warns you JUST how HARD it really is.

Charlotte

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

New Venues

I'm looking into new ways to sell my wares. Etsy is at the top of the list & I signed up with them today although I don't have anything up yet. Ebay sales are slow so I'll be dropping prices there. I have a wonderful fan/customer who keeps coming back for more and I appreciate her more than she can imagine. I'm going to add a link to her ebay & website this week. She makes the coolest jewelry and is a Reiki Master. I'm hoping to get to meet her next Summer when we make our excursion to the ocean since she will be living in that area.

I'm still working on clearing out my house. I know it sounds rediculous that I still have more stuff to get rid of but have you ever heard of getting rid of the old to make room for the new. A new house is at the top of my list. We literally have soft spots in parts of the house and I'm not sure why, other than that this mobile has out lived its time. I'm going to look into the logistics of what it takes to see about getting approved to build on another part of the property while this house slowly deteriorates. Older mobiles are tough to repair and this one is really not repairable without ripping the whole thing down. We have maybe.....1-2 years left & we don't want to leave the area with the schools (for the kids) and property values slowly rising.

I'm taking one of the cars in for work tomorrow and going to pick up a alto sax (rental) for Dakota to start band next week. These kids are growing so fast is scares me. Dakota can hardly wait to get this sax and apparently made up his mind last year (I didn't have a clue) that he was going to play. He has already decided that he's going to be in the Jazz Band next year. This will be interesting to watch. Jim thinks it's cool and would like to rent two sax's but I don't think he could squeeze in the time for pracitice. We're just going to see how Dakota does and go from there. Did I mention that I love jazz so this is going to be very cool!

My daughter is on her way home so I need to free up the computer. I hope you all are enjoying your evening.

Take care.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

I'm such the Dork!

I just realized that my ebay was linked to my old blog. Damn!! I thought I had remembered to update everything.....oh well. I have taken care of it. I have new glass up in my arts one and a bunch of craft books in the other. I find that listing eats up quite a bit of time but I'm trying to start getting it done first thing in the morning so I can do other stuff (Art) during the day. The bummer about a computer is that you can get so caught up in going to these other sites that before you know it half the day is gone. Soooooo, I'm now limiting myself on the computer to mostly work and a little surfing. Easy to say, harder to do, but I'm getting there.

No glass work today with listing & I've been neglecting my clay for too long. Tonight is curriculum night at the school so I need to get ready for that also. The teachers explain what they are going to teach for the year and their teaching style. I haven't missed one yet since my daughter's been in school. My oldest boy wants me to check out the band program too since he wants to play the Sax. I love jazz so that would be really cool.

I'm going to try and shampoo the living room carpet next week. It's a cream covered in brown and black splotches. I know it's not wise to have that color with kids but I prefer to lighten things up with the carpet since it's an older mobile with dark (YUCK!!) paneling. I can hardly wait for a new house!!

I'm off to get a few things done before I have to head out. Our Fall has begun early with lots & lots & lots of rain. That's what I get for living in the Pacific Northwest.

Enjoy your day!

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Reading

I ran into my first adult non-reader the other day. I'm not talking about someone who doesn't want to read but someone who didn't know how. I was standing in the foil, plastic & baggie section at Wal-Mart when this young man asked me which bags were the quart ones??? I'm thinking, "Wait, it says quart and gallon right on the box." He was standing in front of the gallon bags and pointed right to the word gallon but didn't know that's what it said. I pointed out the quart bags to him and he thanked me and went on his way. I was shocked! I knew it exsisted but just really didn't think about it. I can't imagine not being able to read. All my kids read and I'm very strict that they (the younger kids) spend 20 minutes a night reading after school. My daughter is a voracious reader and being on debate, she spends hours reading about politics and whatever the daily news is to keep up on the current topics. Debate is run like a government so they need to know everything that's going on in the news. She's very frustrated that she won't be able to vote in this up coming election because she'll be a month shy of 18.

On the art front I have gotten back to making a few beads/vessels every (most) day(s). It took awhile to back in the groove but I'm finally there. I left another 6 bags out for the blind today. I bet you're wondering just how much crap one person could have in there house?? Well, I have to say that this stuff can hide well and yet be in plain view, especially when you don't feel up to going through it. Each area of the house is getting a thorough going through and if I really start restling with what to keep and what to get rid of I have a glass of wine and out the door it goes. You think the wine would make me want to keep up but that's not the case because deep down I want the house "livable" and not to be embarrassed when someone shows up. Call it preperation for a new house. It's both mental & physical. In some ways my life was a mess for while (after divorce & some other "stuff") up until a couple of years ago & things have been coming together nicely so it's time to get everything else together....does that make sense??

Anyway, I'm getting an early start today so I thought I would swing by this way and drop a line. I have some auctions to get up and running on both Ebay's so check them out if you get a chance.

Enjoy your day :)!

Saturday, September 16, 2006

Lost The @#$% Post

I had a whole post dissapear into cyber space!! I'll be back tomorrow to try updating you again. My teen is patiently waiting for her turn on the computer.

Take care all!

Monday, September 11, 2006

A Little Space

Friday afternoon I began cleaning out my sewing area, which other than the occasional hem project had lain untouched since before my divorce over 7 years ago. I began to go through the piles of "stash" upholstery fabric that was taking up so much room I could barely move (first glass of wine). I figure if I "loosen" things up a bit I won't have so much trouble parting with this fabric that can be used for any number of projects that come to mind. I start sorting through the shelves that are overflowing with "stuff" (denim, pillows, various garment fabrics). Second glass of wine......My garbage pile and blind pile are growing. I have made enough space to move in a small table (my new claying area) from another part of the house. Now that I'm done (for the most part) I have a ton of stuff for the blind and a couple of huge bags of garbage. My sewing area is up for sewing again along with enough space to easily convert into a painting area and my new claying area are all set up. I did do some claying saturday and boy is it nice to have most of it nestled into one area.

However, I now have a bunch of boxes and bags that are in the way in the dining room waiting for the blind to let me know when they'll be in the area again. I do feel like I made quite the accomplishment.

I'm off to do some finishing up today and to get the rest of the house straightened up. I hope you all enjoyed your weekend. We are back to sunny, but cooler weather. There is definetly a Fall nip in the air.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

School!!

They are back at it today. Almost feels like we never had a Summer. Dakota was happy to go back to school. Duncan however, I think had mixed feelings. He doesn't like change in the least and it's that fear of a new teacher and different kids that gets to him. After he gets past the first day he loves it but he is my child that's the most resistant when it comes to change. Connor is back to being "on his own". No big brothers to follow around. He'll be fine. We are going to work on getting him started at reading this year. He loves books!!

Today I'll be working on getting some more auctions up and getting a new area set up for my sculpting. I'm half way there on getting it set up. I have the table up and most of my supplies on it but I'm not quite finished clearing out that area. I need the Blind (GoodWill) to make another pick-up. They just came about 2 weeks ago and usually call once a month. I'm going to have another huge load ready for them.

I was so sad to hear about Steve Irwin (The Crodile Hunter). That is life. Makes you realize that you could be here one minute and gone the next. Make the most of it, he certainly did!! He will be greatly missed!

I'm off to continue my organization journey. Hope you are enjoying your hump day!

Monday, September 04, 2006

Labor Day

The kids are seeing the dark hole at the end of the tunnel. I think they refer to it as school :). Boy did this weekend fly by! We are heading out to visit one of my nieces who is in town from the Boston area. She'll be leaving at the end of the week and this is really the only chance we will have to spend some time with her. She's a couple of years younger than my daughter (15). Last Summer my sister sent out her oldest who's the same age as my daughter (17). Plus we will be stopping for the last clothes item, shoes & a quicky stop at Barnes & Noble. Just to browse...ok, so it probably won't be that quick but it's so much fun to stop there.

It's really hard to believe that Summer is coming to a close. I'm really going to miss the warm weather and yet I'm looking forward to a little cool down. It does make working in front of a torch a little easier.

I've finished crocheting two toy nets for my boys. I need to make one more. I used two different patterns and I'm going to make the third out of the tighter weave (pictures later). They are made from a heavier duty carpet yarn so they don't stretch as much. I tried making one from regular worsted weight and it had a little too much stretch to it.

I've just started scuplting with Super Sculpey and I love the feel. The color is a skin tone so I'll have to either paint it or add color another way but for scuplting it's excellent. It holds the form well and isn't too soft but it does take a little conditioning to get it ready though not nearly what regular fimo does. I still have some Kato clay that I need to try and I hear it's also an excellent sculpting clay so I'm looking forward to trying it plus it comes in several colors and is very economical. Fimo soft is too soft for almost anything, in my opinion (unless mixed) but the kids love it and they have a cool selection of colors. Good old scupley is right in the middles somewhere but their Premo is a great sculpting medium.

How did you like my clay assesment?? LOL....sorry I got a little carried away but who knows the information might be useful to someone.

Well I have the kiln heating up since I won't have time again until Wednesday to play with fire.

I hope you're enjoying your three day weekend.
Stay cool!!

Friday, September 01, 2006

Hot Again!

The weather has heated back up again. This weekend is the local Seattle Bumpershoot Festival. I heard on the news that this is the first time in a long time that it hasn't rained at the festival. Did you know that a bumpershoot is an umbrella?? Having lived in the Pacific Northwest for most of my life I have to say that the last couple of years have proved to be a little drier, at least it seems that way to me.

I got back on the torch today. Didn't get a lot of beads done but it did feel like sitting down with a friend that I haven't talked to in a couple of weeks. That's a great feeling to have! I have a few things up in my art Ebay. Some horses and flowers. And an assortment of stuff in my Dolphina Ebay.

I'm still re-arranging things around here but it's slowly coming together. I'm trying to consolidate more things into one area so that it's not spread so much throughout the house. My torch will stay right where it is (behind me) since it has ventilation and everything else I need set up already. A lot of things "follow" me around the house depending on my focus at the moment. The main chair I sit in at night has an assortment of things surrounding it...yarn, clay, sketch pads...various craft books (for learning new techniques & inspiration). Maybe when I get brave I'll snap a picture of that spot and you can get an idea of what my mind looks like sometime. I'm working VERY HARD to become more organized!! REALLY!!

The picture of the last hat I crocheted and my little guy too. I'm off to find a cold drink. Enjoy the long weekend~