Ransom note

I've been going through my stash of magazines (I have Elle and Vogue from 2000 - its a serious problem). As I was tearing out articles and pictures I liked, I started cutting out letters. I made a little ransom style love note for the wee one who thought it was funny.

I had a few letters leftover so I decided to make some initial pendants with them. These are my first draft. I'm going to coat them and hang them on a chain to see how they look.

Sick Days

I have now learned that when you are a stay at home mom, you don't get sick days. When I was working in my old job, if I felt the way I did today, I'd stay home. Both for the my sake and for the sake of those around me, but I can't do that anymore.

So here I am with a cough, sore throat, stuffy nose, a voice like a career smoker and a head that feels the size of a racing sausage. But I can't just lay on the couch watching soap operas and Lifetime movies like I want to. I have to figure out a way to entertain a two year old without infecting her and without causing myself too much distress. Fun times.

Maybe we'll build a fort that mommy can hide in or perhaps we'll do some art projects or maybe sit on the couch and read all of our books 10 times. Or maybe we can beg dady to come home early. Yeah that last one sounds good.

Resolutions part 2

Well its been 4 weeks since the new year started and I've been hit or miss on keeping up with my resolutions.



So far I've lost 8 pounds. Yeah me! So I've stuck to that one.

But I haven't been making that much jewelry and I haven't been posting much here either. So that is bad. I'm still trying to figure out how to fit everything in my day. It seemed like I had so much more time to post when I was working and was sitting at a computer all day. Now I only have a limited amount of free time and don't always want to be sitting at a computer.



But here are two of my latest creations. The first is another take on the crocheted bangle using fine silver wire and garnets. I love the way it looks.

The second is an ACEO using magazine images and subscription inserts. I've had a lot of fun doing these and have a few more in process. Not sure if they are any good but I like them.

Happiness

Its safe to say that I am much happier now than when I was working in the corporate world. Its hard not to be happy when you are being served the best imaginary coffee and treats by someone who only wants your smile and hug as payment.



I think that happiness is translating into my jewelry creations. I feel that I am creating from a place of joy rather than a place of obligation. I still look critically at my work - thinking is this good enough to send out in the world. But I am finding that the joy of creating is making my work better.

Routine

I used to view routine as a bad thing. Something that I would do over and over. Get up go to work, come home, make dinner, play with baby, put baby to bed, hang with hubby, go to sleep. Wash, rinse, repeat.

But now that I am not working in an office, I am craving a routine. Doing something fun with my daughter, working out, cleaning the house, making jewelry. These are all basic things but I am having trouble fitting them all into my day. And of course I also need to sneak a shower in there somewhere (for my sake and for the sake of others).



I've joined a mom's group and there are a lot of activities that we can do during the week. We've also signed up for a music class. So we are now trying to figure out where this all fits. But of course when you are working for a two year old, what you think is a great idea is not always what she thinks is a great idea.

Right now we are in the experimenting stage, finding out what works best for us. So far its been fun but there have been a few tears both mine and hers.

New jewelry take two

I love stacking rings. I love the way that tiny rings can be layered to create a great effect. I have lusted after a few on Etsy, especially the ones created by Gemmafactrix

So I decided to try my hand at some. Working with wire, I crocheted three rings.
I like the way that they've turned out, they have the effect that I was going for. However, I'm not sure that they are durable enough. I'm afraid that they will get caught on things so I'm road testing them now. So far so good.

In keeping with my goal to make more jewelry, here is my first post for 2008:



I've been working on wire crochet and this piece is one of my first success stories. It is crocheted with red craft wire and red seed beads using a 2.00 mm crochet hook. I think it turned out beautifully.