Well…

When it comes to weather in the United States at the moment, we have three choices: horrible, terrible or Seattle. I know I’ve been talking about the weather a lot lately, I suppose I’m an old lady that way. But I feel absolutely defeated by it, much like the way the blizzards have made me feel the last two years. I have to wait another week to go before we see anything good around here, but I guess I can deal until then.

4warn.com

In other news, I’m reluctant to announce that I’m 85% sure that I have a new cat. You guys may have figured out that I’m gaa-gaa for cats, but my cat limit was bumped down to two after my Sugar died in April of 2008. It was so awful to lose her that I swore I wouldn’t get another one until Mo and Fred were both gone, and even then, another cat was a very iffy prospect. So many cats have been all up in my life this summer, and I just recently decided to take it as a sign that maybe I do need another cat. I’ve been resisting, due to the expense and how things went with my step-daughter’s cat Gelly. In 2010, Gelly stayed with us for about 4 months when Spawn first moved back, and that was just awful – calico Mo terrorized him. She stalked him, screamed at him and drew blood every opportunity she got. Mo also hated the orange cat we saved from the meth head down the street a couple of months ago. But considering how the last few days have gone, this little guy might be a different story. He’s very well behaved, and he has a story, but I’ll have to fill you in later. Meanwhile, here are a couple of photos:

lounging...

This little guy is pretty relaxed and behaves like a gentleman – uses the litter box and doesn’t bite or scratch – but when he wants to be let out of the powder room, he gets pretty bratty. He emitted the longest “mew” ever yesterday. I don’t blame him for not wanting to be confined, but he’s underweight and we can’t have Mo stealing his food.

 

see full size bic lighter for scale

 

Anyway, more on this subject later. I have a buttload of beads to pack up. Thanks for reading!

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ETSY!

Surprise! Etsy three weeks in a row. Could I be getting my act together? We shall see. Meanwhile…

Click HERE to visit my shop, or each thumbnail below for the individual item.

marmalade melange - click me

    

atomic daffodil bullet pendant - click me

    

tie-dye tide-over - click me

    

ultramarine bullet pendant - click me

  

If you like either one of the rings still remaining on Etsy, they’ll be available in my shop until August 31st.

I think I’ve gotten some pent-up creativity out of my system, and now it’s time to work on orders.  I’m hot (again) and tired and need to go to the store. Bleh. So I’m gonna cut out… thanks for checking in!

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ETSY!

Well, look at me! Making stuff and putting it on Etsy, two weeks in a row.

Click HERE to visit my shop, or each thumbnail below for the individual items.

contrary coral dot on a stick - click me

    

MISC no. 12 - click me

    

pastel smooches - click me

    

raspberry flames - click me

    

Oh, and the two rings are still available. Wouldn’t it be a tragedy if I had to keep them for myself? That would be terrible, truly. I’ve been resisting the urge to wear Blue Cake all week long…

pajama blue octa ring - click me

    

blue cake ring - click me

So, that’s Etsy for this evening. Like always, I’ve put off eating until after the computer work is done, so I’m about to fall over from hunger. Hope you guys like everything, thanks for checking it out!

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RAIN!

Yes, rain! But what would relief be without disaster? It started on Monday night at Dad and my Aunt Joane’s birthday dinner – it was about 106 outside and then the sky grew dark, almost a green color, and then it rained like mad for about 10 minutes with lightning, thunder and big wind. Dad’s recycling bin (and all of its contents) went blowing down the street and we had to go retrieve it because it was blocking traffic. The temperature dropped about 15 degrees. But we got lucky in OKC – several areas around us had terrible wind damage and some folks were without power for the next two days.

(I want to tell you about Dad and Aunt Joane. Their birthdays are on the same day, August 8, and were born eight years apart. Isn’t that wild!? They spent their childhood in New York and the family moved here some time in the 1950’s. Joane gave Dad a book of photographs of Oklahoma City and they and they spotted themselves in a photo! Nanny, (Grandpa Moran’s nanny, who was his mother for all intents and purposes and moved here with them) Joane and Grandma Moran’s sister, Aunt Myrtle were in it. I was skeptical at first, but was able to recognize Nanny’s piercing gaze right away. And my cousin Tiffany showed up for dessert. I didn’t know anyone was expecting her, and when the doorbell rang, I saw a lovely young lady standing outside and wondered who the heck she was, it’s been years since I last saw her. Tiffany is Joane’s youngest granddaughter and is truly a gem. I remember her as a youngster, very calm and responsible, always reading a book. She’s gorgeous and smart, college educated, and is doing art, working and pretty much behaving herself in Dallas, TX. We got to talking, and she even makes a little bit of metal jewelry in addition to her painting. Tiffany has a website, check her out: http://tmacstudio.com/ These days, it’s more unusual to find a twentysomething who is actually doing something, rather than sleeping in some poor sucker’s tool shed with a needle hanging out of their arm or an eight ball up their bum.)

 

my cousin Tiffany - tmacstudio.com

 

Tuesday,  Mom came by late in the afternoon. It was hot, about 100 degrees. We went to the post office and as I was walking in, I could feel chunks of cooler air here and there. By the time we got to her house, crimped a necklace and came back out to leave, it was about 91 degrees at 6:30 in the evening. By midnight, another storm had arrived, bringing even more comfortable temperatures with it. I even opened up the windows for a few minutes, but it was too moist and not quite cool enough to leave them open for long, but the few minutes of fresh air inside the house was so nice. There was an awful lot of lightning with this storm, but not a power flicker.

 

Wednesday’s weather was fairly even tempered, with a high of about 95 – 95 never felt so fantastic! But it wasn’t until about 3 or 4 this morning when the biggest rain of all came through. It rained for at least an hour, dwindled, and returned at 9AM. There were puddles! Lots of lightning, too, and that always makes me worry about my kiln. Luckily, there were only a few vague power flickers and Mr. Blue ran his entire cycle uninterrupted. And today’s high was 82!!! This is how August has been over the last several years – mostly pretty hot, but only a handful of days of excruciating heat, and days of relief here and there. I can’t count all the “cold” fronts we’ve had over the last several days. They say that dreaded heat dome will return later next week, but it won’t be quite so terrible. Either way, I’m still very ready for September.

 

And you know what all of this means, right!? I’ve been making beads, quite a few of them, and comfortably. By the look of tonight’s temps, I won’t even break a sweat. So I’ll have more excellent bead selections for Etsy tomorrow. See you then!

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ETSY NOW!

Hiya! It’s Etsy time!

Click here to visit my shop, or each thumbnail below for the individual listings.

blue cake ring – click me

      

pajama blue octa ring – click me

       

purple poofballs - click me

       

sandy mini – click me

       

hyacinth smooch bouquet

I don’t know what the deal is with the large grey box around a few of those thumbnails. But they link correctly and this template is hinky, so I’m not going to attempt to fix it. I’ve been hard at it all week, it’s time to relax with some buttons and seed beads!

Thanks for checking in…

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100 is the new 85.

I guess it’s time to wash my winter sweaters and wooly socks. Next Wednesday’s gonna be a cold one! Without sweat pouring all the way down my back and into my crack for two whole days, I won’t know how to act! Then again, I’m thinking this is probably too good to be true and I shouldn’t get my hopes up.

http://www.4warn.com

I’m a problem solver. I don’t want to cry and whine and get sympathy – I want to quietly, stoically fix it, never to revisit the problem again. I have things to do! And when all I can find is a brick wall, I get pretty wacky with the sledge hammer. But I finally lost my grip and cried over the weather Tuesday night. I was feeling so dumb about it that I kinda sorta blamed Mr. Sarah for  picking a fight with me so that I would appear to have a legitimate reason for being so tearful. (I didn’t exactly admit that to him, because it’s absurd, and he doesn’t read this drivel anyway, so he never has to know.) I mean, it’s somehow more logical than crying over the weather, right? I would have rather died than endure another day of this. There must be something we can DO!  

It’s hotter here than it is in Arizona, for crying out loud. At least those people knew what they were signing up for. They even get rain! But not us. Mr. Sarah, as he often does when I’m being irrational, gently put it in perspective for me: Do I REALLY want to die? Do I REALLY want to move to Alaska? Stuff melts and freezes over millions of years, earthquakes and tornadoes don’t give a rat’s ass about me, and we can’t do anything about the heat dome. Really. Obama isn’t screwing with the jet stream, and we haven’t angered any higher powers.  August is August, and September is next. It will get better. (I have yet to completely see things his way, but I’m slowly coming around. Disclaimer: I don’t actually think Obama is screwing with the jet stream or that we’ve angered an imaginary friend in the sky. I’m not that irrational.)

So, I’ve put my big girl face back on, I’m back to the beads and I’m getting some stuff done!  I will have those two rings plus some beads on Etsy tomorrow, for sure. It would have been today but last night’s beads are still much too warm to pull out of the kiln. And that means I’ll have time to make a few more beads tonight, but with an earlier start… See you tomorrow!

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My new friend at the bench.

thanks, Tom Collins

I’ve been in the mood for a Tom Collins for weeks now. After watching the 7 day forecast on Saturday evening, I said “frig it, I need some gin.” I’ve never been much for alcoholic escapism, but for the first time in my life, the sense of doom and hopelessness over this relentless heat sent me straight to the liquor store. My cravings for alcoholic beverages are few and far between. I love the taste of alcohol, but not its incapacitating effects, so I usually just brush off the cravings as soon as they appear. It’s not easy to get alcohol any old time in OK – the stores close at 9PM, and they aren’t allowed to refrigerate anything. The grocers and convenience stores sell the watered down stuff until 2AM, but only beer and malt liquors. At least they’re allowed to refrigerate it. Anyway, the guy at the liquor store recommended Beefeater when I told him that although I’m not really a drinker, I knew I had a preference for London Dry gin.

My first Tom Collins was so refreshing that I downed it in less than 3 minutes. I guess the fresh new bag of ice and the lemon, lime and clementine slices and the taste of alcohol made me too glad. Instantly, my spirits were lifted and my nerves were calmed, so I figured, why not have another? This is the best gin I’ve ever had and I’m not even feeling spinny. So halfway through my second one, it hit me, and reminded me of Mom’s story about time she accidentally got very drunk on gin. I recall that she was at home, at least, just like I was. However, I was still able to make a perfectly good bezel in half the time it normally takes me, and the few following pieces of the mammoth ring it goes to went swimmingly. Not unlike my eyesight for a few minutes. (But don’t worry, I saved the fire stuff until after my extra strong green chai tea.)

this one's titled Blue Cake - find out why in the description of the sale listing later

I had two more Toms on Sunday evening, and I’ll be damned if the silver didn’t fall into place more elegantly than it ever has. Stone setting, the most nervewracking chore – and the most rewarding, if it turns out well – went better than I could have imagined. Is Beefeater my lucky charm? I hope not. Drinking every day, or every weekend, even, is a slippery slope. It makes me sweat a little extra, but the better to catch the breeze with, my dear. And yes, I’m having plenty of extra water with my citrusy potions and spiced diuretics.

pajama blue ring

I spent 5 days on the silver and only have two rings to show for it. I would have had one more, but that one went terribly awry and I don’t really want to talk about it. So, although it will be hotter this week than it has in the history of man, I have to get back to the glass. I’m back to my late night schedule, so the glass will be more manageable heat and time wise. I have Etsy bead freaks to please and orders to fulfill, and I hate to disappoint. I also have tons of email to catch up on. Since it’s been so hot and my electric bill so high, I’ve left the computer, plus lots of other lamps and things I really enjoy, off for the last several days. And it’s so hot and stuffy in this room that I feel better leaving the computer off for its own comfort and longevity. Even answering email makes me want to take a nap, so I’ve pretty much been reserving all of my energy for work. So, if I owe you an email, it’s coming.

look for us (and some beads) on Etsy later this week!

Thanks so much for checking in.

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