Another Busy Day

I'm focusing on getting the Halloween beads finished and shipped first, could you tell? Now I'm done with everything Halloween-related except the spacer bead sets. I'll be working on (and hopefully finishing) those today!

Monday Morning Update

HalloDotties for orders

I just realized this morning that it has been a week since I last posted - oops! I didn't mean be silent for so long, it's just that when I've got orders to fill, I don't really think about doing anything else. I suppose there are worse things than being single-minded, right?

On the home front, things are very much as they always are. There is one notable exception: Elinor and her partner won their doubles match this Saturday, 8-2!!! It's her first win of the ALTA season and we are quite proud of her! *grin*

Okay, my conscience is beginning to tug at me. I guess I'd better get busy making beads!

Happy Birthday, Elinor!!

Today at 12:34 p.m., Ella, my darling middle child, turns 10 years old. I have always thought that the time of her birth was cool but as she grows older, it's obvious that the universe was trying to tell me something.

Elinor is a fantastically different person than me and I'm in awe of her. She's a highly logical person who likes things to go from point A to point B (I usually fly by the seat of my pants.). She prefers when everything is put away and her immediate surroundings are clutter-free and has even been known to spontaneously start cleaning things. (When my work bench is clean, I feel as though my brain has somehow been thrown out with the clutter.) She likes to plan everything out ahead of time: she lays her clothes out - sometimes days in advance, she wants to know what I'm planning for supper before she's even finished eating her breakfast and she always knows what the school schedule will be at least a week in advance. (Uh...me? I roll with the punches and work with what I get on any given day.)

And yet, Ella is still very much my child. She is a voracious reader and spends nearly all her spare time devouring books. She has a fabulous imagination and is very creative, always making art projects and coming up with ideas for new things. She has a hot temper and a sharp tongue but also quickly forgives or apologizes. She's got an amazing sense of humor and has a tremendous talent for voices and mimicry. She can make me laugh even when I'm furious, which is no easy feat! Elinor is definitely the most self-reliant (I guess you kinda have to when you're the middle child!) but she's also the most loving of our 3 kids. She'll snuggle right up to you on the sofa or in our bed or - my favorite - walk up and give you a hug 'just because'.

It is absolutely amazing to watch Elinor grow up. I love seeing little glimpses of Dean and me in her, but I'm fascinated by the way she blends the familiar and the foreign in her unique personality. I can't wait to see what the next 10 years bring!!

She has requested chocolate zucchini cake for her party tonight, so I'd better go pick up the stuff I need to bake her cake.

Check out her main birthday present:

It's the Trek KDR 7.2 FX - a hybrid bike (kinda half road, half trail bike)
She's been working so hard to master riding the last bike she got so that she could graduate to a "big girl bike". This one is niiiiiiiiice!!

Internet Issues

Apparently, Comcast is having issues today. We get bundled services from them: cable, telephone and Internet and they have been up and down (unfortunately, mostly down) since last evening. I've already called the trouble in (using my cell phone, of course - I'm no dummy!) I'm trying to get this notice posted quickly, while the Internet is still working, in case I can't get back on later.

Hopefully, they'll get whatever is wrong fixed by this afternoon - I've got more beads to mail and I need Paypal shipping to be accessible!!

Giveaway Update - UPDATED *grin*

In the interest of wrapping up September's giveaway, let's re-cap what we've got so far, ok?

I bought 7 glass colors, 6 of which have been guessed.

The 6 correct colors are:
clear
white
black
lime green
orange
red

There is ONE more color that hasn't been mentioned yet.

What is it?

Hint #1:

It is an opaque color, NOT a transparent.

***********ding, ding, ding***********

And we have a winner!!

Congratulations to Mikala for correctly guessing that the last unnamed color was ivory!
Send me an e-mail through my webpage with your address and I'll ship your hula bear out.

A Good Read

In my spare time, I've started reading the "Twilight" series by Stephenie Meyer. Don't laugh, I do occasionally have spare time. (Not often, I'll grant you, but it does happen.) I've finished reading the first two books: Twilight and New Moon. Now I'm just waiting for an e-mail from the library that Eclipse is available to pick up. I'm 4th on the waiting list, so hopefully I'll get it before the weekend. (By the way, I was 189th in line when I first put it on my wish list - yikes!)

Anyway, I'm really enjoying the series and despite the fact that it is marketed towards the young adult/teen market, all the other adults I've spoken to have thought it a good read also. Meyer is no Jane Austen (my hands down favorite author), but she is an excellent author with a good feel for pacing, dialog, and of course - vampires.

Ya know, it's funny to see all the vampire stuff coming back into mainstream popularity again. Well...not that it ever left, really. But one of my new favorite shows is HBO's True Blood, created by hometown boy Alan Ball, and based on The Southern Vampire series by Charlaine Harris. I've seen 2 episodes so far and I have to say that I'm hooked! Having read all the available books in the series, I have to say that the show does a fantastic job in bringing the written word to life and then building on it.

Okay, I've yammered on long enough and now I've got to go get busy making beads. Oh yeah - speaking of beads, I've got 2 things to mention before I sign off here:

1. I'm still running yesterday's bead giveaway contest. No one has listed all 7 colors in the same comment yet, although all the colors have already been mentioned in the comments I've approved so far. So c'mon - keep guessing!! Okay... apparently I can't count. There is ONE color I bought that hasn't been mentioned yet. Sorry y'all!!

2. I sent out an e-mail to my mailing list yesterday about the sale I'm running between now and next Tuesday. It's for 20% off of bead orders, excluding silver. Just thought I'd mention it again!!

Hope everyone has a marvelous day!!

Jenagirlbeads September Giveaway!

Okay... I'm a little later than I thought I'd be, but it's still Tuesday and here I am!

So, like I said, I've been running seriously low on some of my favorite and most-often-used glass colors. Last night I made up a quick list of the colors I absolutely HAD to have and then this morning, I headed out to FlameTree Glass to pick them up. Wow! What a store!! Their glass inventory is fantastic and I can't wait to go back when I've got much deeper pockets. Plus, I met the owners, Lance and Maureen. They seemed really nice and I wish I'd had more time to hang around and talk to them. Maybe next time!

And now onto the giveaway portion of this post! I bought 7 different colors of glass today. I'm looking for the first person to guess all seven colors in order to win the hula bead with two-toned lei. And yes, I will "defuzzify" it before mailing it to you!!

Please limit your color guesses to 7 per comment, ok?

So...start guessing!!

It's Monday - Let the Whining Begin!!

I've got tons of "Monday"-type stuff to do. Grocery lists to make, laundry to fold and put away, supper to plan out, beads to clean and ship, dishwasher to run and so on and so forth. The fun part kicks in because it just occurred to me this morning that this is conference week at the elementary school, which means the kids will be picked up at 1:10 instead of their usual 3:30. That just means there's less uninterrupted time to get all the normal chores done - fun!!

Plus, I'm running low on nearly every color of glass I regularly use, so now it's time to sit down and make out a shopping list! Luckily, Flame Tree Glass is a only couple of towns over, so I'll just make my (long!) list then scoot over and pick up what I need. (There's a local shop I can visit if I need just a rod or two, but they charge by the 13" rod and glass gets really expensive if you have to buy it in quantity that way!)

I've got some fun stuff planned for tomorrow, so check back!

Getting Into the Swing...

...of things.

Now that we're a month into school, things are beginning to calm down as we settle into our new routine. Interestingly enough, I find that I actually have less time to work in my studio now that the kids are back in school than I did over the summer! It mostly has to do with the middle and elementary school schedules, but my daily exercise routine and the kids' tennis drills (*sigh*... of course) also play a part. I've never been very good with time management so it's turning into a kind of "trial by fire". What fun! And why yes, that is sarcasm.

My birthday was this past Sunday - wahoo! I celebrated turning 36 in my normal, low-key style. Dean and I went to the movies and saw The Dark Knight - LOVED it! Then we picked the kids up from my parents' house and went out to dinner as a family. Dean wanted to go to Longhorn (and I didn't have strong feelings in any particular direction), so that's where we ended up. I ordered the salmon, which was delicious, and a pomegranate margarita - Yum!! After that, we came home and put a serious dent in my b-day carrot cake and then fell into a food-induced stupor.


I also got an awesome card and this giftie in the mail from my dear friend, Kate. (Thank you again, for the five hundreth time!!) She is a world-class knitter you know, and she made this absolutely lovely shawl in the prettiest color of green. She took much better pictures than I've been able to, so I'm "borrowing" them from her blog. Isn't it gorgeous? Now I can't wait to feel a nip in the air so I can start wearing it!!


Can I just tell you, Kate, I adore that mirror! Am I correct in assuming that's sea glass all around the frame? B-E-A-utiful!

Alive!

I'm still here - alive and kicking! It was just a ridiculously busy week and weekend and I didn't have any extra time to speak of.

I'll do a real blog post either later today or tomorrow. See you soon!!