Wednesday, September 29, 2004

saksfifthavenue.com

saksfifthavenue.com

Wow....could this BE any cooler? Love, love, love this jewelry and as a newbie designer myself I am soooo totally jealous! And if you read the story of how he got famous...talk about LUCKY! Well, and of course, he's talented, too. LOL!

Thursday, September 23, 2004

I'm a bad, bad blogger...

Ooops...didn't realize quite so much time had passed since I posted. I've been busy working on my article idea for the bead magazines and that's been sucking up a lot of time. I haven't even been doing any beading so I could concentrate on writing! The article is going well - rough draft of the written part is almost done. It's the photos and diagrams that are time consuming! I'm looking forward to being done with that part for sure! I road tested a finished piece by wearing it to work and got a lot of compliments on it and people asking where they could buy one which was kind of neat because most of them know I make my own stuff, but they thought this piece was "store-bought." Cool...exactly what I was going for!

Ryan is sleeping SOOO much better! He's just awesome and is learning so many new words every day now. Gotta be REAAAAALLLLY careful what we say around him LOL! Still, he's just a precious joy to be around...we are really lucky! We're taking him to look for his Halloween costume this weekend (some friends have opened a Halloween store just for the season) so that should be fun and in a few weeks I'm hoping we'll get to take him to a pumpkin patch for the first time.

Meanwhile, in other news, I'm so sick of hearing about the upcoming election! As I've said before...I don't like EITHER guy and now I'm stuck having to listen to crap about both of them on a daily basis. Blech! Iraq is such a total mess and I think Bush has really screwed up by putting the focus over there instead of on our economy and on finishing the job in Afghanistan and getting Al-Qaeda (including Bin Laden) but I think Kerry will only make things worse so again, I'm stuck. Now that we're IN Iraq, seems like we'll have to stay until things are stabilized and we have an organized plan for pulling out and still maintaining the stabilization. Oh, and we need to get that Zarqawi a--hole before we go, too. He needs to not be taking up oxygen any more. If Bush wants me to feel "safer" as an American with him as president...why am I not hearing anything about what he's doing to get that guy...instead of how time and resources are being wasted pulling Cat Stevens off an airplane in Maine???? Stupid.

See what happens when I don't write for a while...all this crap piles up LOL!

All for now,

KJ

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

Gee, my life is boring...

I do try to write an entry a day, but sometimes there just isn't anything interesting going on at all. The last few days have been that way. Ryan's sleeping better at night, the giant spiders haven't gotten us yet (nor have I made it back to the park to take pictures) and I've been too busy with general life stuff to bead anything new. Oh, last night I did have the enjoyable experience of stepping on a piece of banana on the kitchen floor (thanks, Ryan) in my bare feet. Yeah, that was fun (not). Blech! Isn't my life just endlessly fascinating?? Don't answer that LOL! I also slept weird last night and now the left side of my neck is all screwed up - can't turn my head in that direction and the muscles are spasming and I've just taken my 3rd round of Advil...ouch!

There is one other tidbit of news, but I'm trying not to get too excited about it so I guess I'm not really counting it as "news" yet. I've had a nibble of interest from a new beading mag about publishing some of my finished work in their gallery section and possibly being interested in that article idea I mentioned a few posts ago. Nothing definite at all yet and in fact, I'm still in the very early, rough draft stage of writing the piece and trying to figure out which steps need photos and which need illustrations, etc.

Will keep you posted on what happens. In fact, you won't need this Blog because you'll hear me screaming from here if this works out ;-)

That's it for now. Maybe I'll get to go spider hunting tonight.

KJ

Friday, September 10, 2004

What's That Bug: Spiders

What's That Bug: Spiders

See my previous post about my spider experience. In an attempt to identify the particular spiders involved, I found the above website that's lots of fun to look through (well, only if pictures of spiders and other bugs don't freak you out!) I'm okay with pictures, just not the real thing.

DH and the kidlet and I are going back to the park tonight with our camera to try to get pictures and submit them to the site to see what they say.

KJ

EWWWW...Spiders!

Okay, I'll be the first to admit it...I have a SERIOUS case of arachnophobia. Spiders just freak me out big time. I know they're good at keeping the population of other creepy crawlies down, but still...ewwwwww!

Having said that, I'll relate a little story from last night...

In the area where we live, there's a large park right across the street from our house and we usually take Ryan there in the evenings to play on the jungle gym and swings. Part of the park is manicured and has equipment, etc. but it borders a wilderness area that runs all the way down the canyon to the beach and has trails for mt. bikers, etc. So, it is not unusual to see various wildlife (owls, rabbits, coyotes, possums, skunks and the occasional deer). The sun is setting and Ryan is playing on the jungle gym when I notice that hanging from one corner of the top of the gym is an absolutely ENORMOUS spider! I mean this sucker was HUGE! We're talking escapee from the jungles of deepest, darkest wherever type huge!

I get a little shiver down my spine but then I get a hold of myself and figure that as long as this thing stays up where it is and minds its own business I'll be fine. So the kidlet and I continue our running around and playing and eventually end up next to one of the corners of the tent/pavilion thingy that covers the entire play area when I look up and danged if there isn't ANOTHER of these gigantic spiders slowly spinning a web that slants down on an angle from the corner of the pavilion out to a nearby tree. Now of course, Ryan has seen this thing and is FASCINATED by it and wants to run up to it and I'm torn between my total panic at the size of this spider and trying to be a good mom and let him see and experience things. I manage to maintain control enough to walk up to within a couple of feet of it with him.

Now, as he's fascinated with looking at the web-spinning monstrosity, I'm looking around and realizing that there're more than just two of them! There's a giant spider at EVERY corner of the pavilion and dangling from several branches of the nearby trees! Okay now I'm REALLY freaking out! It's also getting quite dark and I'm slowly looking around and realizing we are the only people left in the park.

Here's where things get even creepier. I'm starting to think about how I'm going to get Ryan back to his little "car" that he rides in so we can start to get out of "giant spider heaven" without him having a tantrum (have you ever tried to interrupt a 20 month old at what he really wants to be doing and get him to do something else? doesn't go well too often) because I've interrupted his hypnotized gazing at the web-building creepy-crawly when I suddenly become aware that I've been hearing this weird clicking noise for a while and hadn't really noticed it amidst the background of evening birdsong and frogs peeping. As I pay more attention, I realize that the clicking is coming from multiple sources all around us.

I look up at the spider that Ryan is watching and realize THAT IT'S THE SOUND OF THE DAMN THING BUILDING ITS WEB! There's a little "snick" sound as it is starting and ending web threads and the reason the noise is all around is is because the spiders are all around us.

I have no memory of how I got Ryan into his little car and got us out of there...all I know is we were home about 30 seconds later! It'll be a LONG time before I go back to that park w/o at least taking DH (aka heap big spider killer) with me.

Blech!

Oh, and Ryan's new word for the week? "'pider!" Greaaaaaat!

KJ

Thursday, September 09, 2004


Sea Star Earrings - bead embroidery around moss agate cabochon Posted by Hello

Comments, anyone?

So I've been going along wondering why there haven't been any comments on this blog (maybe I'm seriously dullsville, etc.) only to discover that I didn't have the right setting completed to allow comments. DUH! I think it's fixed now so feel free to fire away!

So what's new? Made lots of changes to the website this week. Put new stuff in the "New Designs" section and took all the older stuff out of that area and divvied it up to the various categories it belongs in. Now the "New Designs" section is a lot smaller, but will hopefully be easier to maintain on a more frequent basis. I like to make sure the site is kept as current as possible as one of my own pet peeves is going to websites and seeing that they haven't been changed in a long time.

I'm still fiddling around with my idea for a magazine article. The first attempt made me re-think some of the supplies so I had to place a new order and that stuff just came in last night...looking forward to playing with it. I'm really excited about this opportunity and hope I can make it pay off.

Ryan is doing MUCH better at night. Hip hip hooray! His eye teeth are in and I guess that was what was bugging him so much. We took him swimming at my parents' neighborhood pool this weekend and he loved it. Ever since then he keeps asking me "water? water?" whenever we drive near the clubhouse. Hope the weather stays nice so we can take him again this weekend.

Here's the link to the newest stuff:

http://www.silverparrotdesigns.net

That's it for now.

KJ

Friday, September 03, 2004

More playing with pendants...

Now I'm so addicted to this pendant design that I can't stop trying different variations. I just uploaded a version made with Swarovski crystals in a bicone shape (instead of round beads) and I think it came out really well even if I do say so myself ;-) This one I had time to finish off by stringing it...the others are still waiting to be strung from something. I might do chains on those as the seed bead necklace I did for this one was kind of tedious to string. Looks like another new section for the website has been born. This weekend should be fun as all the supplies for my "idea" have arrived so I'll be playing with those and if they come out well enough, I'm going to try to write up an article and submit it to one of the bead mags for publication.

I've been fighting a cold all week and cannot wait for it to go away. What is it about holiday weekends...I was sick for Memorial Day weekend, too! SOOOO not fair! I wanted to take Ryan swimming again this weekend and now I don't know if I'll be up to it.

Have a great weekend!

KJ

Green & blue pendant Posted by Hello