Stuck

I'm just not feeling it lately. The beads, that is. I see status updates from my beading designer friends who are just awash in ideas (and time), and I start to feel a little worried. I know that dry spells are always part of the creative process - you just can't be tuned in all the time, every day - but I feel like this latest dry spell is lasting waaaaay too long for my tastes.

That said, I took a little break after receiving a fabulous order of gemstone beads from Lima beads and made myself two pairs of earrings from Marcia DeCoster's book Beaded Opulence:

I got the cubic zirconia teardrops from Lima Beads, too. (I'd been waiting for them to come back in stock over at Artbeads, and they finally just disappeared altogether from that website! Ack!) I love the black and fuchsia pair - it makes me want to take Tom out for dinner so that I can dress up.

We had a fabulous day for Father's Day yesterday. We all went to the Keene farmers' market for opening day, and Colden loved the kites from the kite festival and seeing all the dogs. I loved catching up with the friends I'd made the last few years, and we came home with way too much food - French breakfast radishes, homemade organic berry jam and gourmet cupcakes. Colden fell asleep in the car on the way home and let me tuck him into bed when we got back, so Tom and I had a quiet lunch and then we started cooking for dinner with his folks. Dinner was fun (again, way too much food!) and then we had a relatively uneventful evening as I put Colden to bed.

So this morning it was back to work (which isn't a bad thing, ha ha ha!) and in a little while I'll take a break and start throwing together some dinner.

I keep thinking about this huge ammonite necklace that I saw at the farmers' market yesterday. It was made by one of my favorite local silversmiths, a woman from St. Regis Falls. I bought a bracelet and a pair of earrings from her yesterday, but I might have to go back and get that necklace next week... It was at "old" silver prices, too, before all this madness with price increases...

How Long Has it Been?!

It has been a really, really long time since I worked in an office setting with  more than one person. I'm becoming painfully aware of that fact this week as I try to keep up with my deadlines and not drive my new co-workers completely bonkers.

I'm absolutely in love with my new job right now. I get to write - which I've always been good at and enjoyed - and I get to write about beads. I can't decide which part is better, the beading or the writing!

Yesterday I had my appointment to re-check the cysts that they found on my remaining ovary 6 weeks ago. The good news is that the two huge fluid-filled cysts have totally disappeared and the remaining dermoid is still too tiny to really worry about. The bad news is that because I'm still having weird symptoms with the dizzies, arm pain, jaw trembling and other junk, it's time to go to the neurologist to rule out things like MS.

One thing that I did yesterday was to see my massage therapist. It's been way too long since I had a massage, and anyone who tells you that things like massage therapy, chiropractic adjustments and acupuncture don't work has obviously never tried any of them. The massage was wonderful - I left feeling refreshed and optimistic, and my other symptoms seemed to have eased up today. So I'm going to try to schedule a monthly massage and see if that gives me some relief, while I continue the chiropractic and acupuncture treatments.

The weather has been really weird this spring, too, and I feel like that's been throwing me a bit off balance as well. We had snow for what seemed like four months straight. Then it was freezing cold and rainy and damp for another month. Then for the entire months of April and May, it just rained - and rained and rained and rained. We had flooding like we haven't seen in over 20 years. Our basement (and my office) were completely trashed. And we have never had a problem with water in our basement. Ever. Now we're swinging back and forth between boiling hot temperatures in the 80s and 90s one day with dramatic drops back down into the 50s and 60s the next day. It's like my body can't figure out what to do next.

Maybe that's why the massage therapist recommended to me that I try to stay grounded yesterday. At one point before she started the actual massage, she was doing some energy/body work with me. At one point when she was down near my feet, I found my thoughts swinging violently back and forth between two extremes. It was sort of weird, but I just went with it and let my mind go where it wanted to go. After my mind had sort of quieted down a few minutes later, she said to me, "Are you feeling a little more balanced now? I felt your energy swinging back and forth between your left and right sides there for a few minutes." Totally weird. I hadn't spoken a single word during that time, instead allowing my mind to just go where it wanted to go and observing it. But somehow she had sensed that my thoughts were swinging back and forth between one extreme and the other. Sort of cool in a freaky kinda way.

Yoga tonight after dinner, and maybe a walk through the backyard with Colden and his little red wagon.

Blog, Take 2

Okay, so I tried to do my blog over on my newly-designed website, VanBeads.com.  And unfortunately, I got slammed with so much spam it made my head swim!  Oy!  What is with those spammers?!  Do they really think that there are people out there dumb enough to fall for those "Check out this website where you can marry a millionaire" links?  Double oy.

So, what I've decided to do is move my person blog back to this site and I'll maintain the blog on the Vanbeads site with stories about my work. 

What have I been up to since December?  Yikes, more than any one person should have to recap in the space of one blog post!  I've been busy.  New job, new projects, and we're almost ready to start a new farmers' market season.  We're now almost halfway through June, and I can't believe that it's been a year since I did any markets or shows.  I know there is probably no way that I will be prepared to set up shop at the first Keene Valley farmers' market on Sunday, so Colden and I may just head over there as buyers and peruse the vendors, visit with friends, and enjoy the sunshine.  (If the sun decides to come back out!)

For now, I have other blogging and writing to do.  Spent the morning working on two beading projects that just didn't turn out.  That's the nicest way I can think of to say it.  They just didn't turn out.  The good thing is that I can take that Fireline and stretch it out and reuse it for something else that hopefully WILL work out. 

Back to it!