Monday, November 26, 2012

Tangible Tidbits 2012 #45: I Saw Her...And Held Her!


Hey, everyone! Well, I finally got to meet my new niece yesterday...and I even held her! :D Mom said that because I was half-way through with the antibiotics, I wouldn’t be contagious…and I promised not to cough on her! :P She’s very small, very pink, and – at least for me – very quiet! :)) Although, she seems to be more prone to taking formula than breast milk, and she apparently can only sleep at night with someone holding her! :-O My sister and brother-in-law have been taking turns. Man, I’ll bet that makes for some long nights! :-/ Other than experiencing cold fingers and toes – which her parents keep covered -- she seems pretty perfect to me. :D

While over there yesterday, the girls made me play the “Smurf Dance Party” Wii game, which they had borrowed from the library. In my four rounds, I was undefeated! :)) At least I got some exercise in the process. ;)

I hope everyone who celebrated Thanksgiving had a good one. Ours included lots of people and lots of food, as it should be. ;) Mom and I brought the girls to my cousin’s house, since the baby had just gotten home from the hospital that morning. She had a quiet Thanksgiving with her parents in her new home. :)

I delivered items to 1978 Maplewood Arts Center for BANG VII (Buy Art Now Guys), which takes place the first two weekends in December (12/1-2 and 12/8-9 from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.). There’s a preview party this coming Friday evening, November 30, from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. that I’m planning to attend. I didn’t go last year because I had messed up my knee that week, so it will be the first time I’ve gone. ;)

Some of the members of the Bead Society are getting together tomorrow night in Tinton Falls to finish the projects we started in the recent workshops with Melissa Grakowsky Shippee. I’ve taken off from the office on Wednesday, since the last time I was down there socially, I ended up getting home at 3:00 a.m.! :-O I really want to finish the bracelet I started in class, and I will also bring the Peyote crystal project from our September meeting, which I have not touched since that night. :-/ Hopefully, I will be able to at least complete the bracelet and get some momentum going on the crystal. :)

With Mercury ending its retrograde period this week, hopefully I will be less frustrated getting on the desktop computer. It seems that whenever Mercury is retrograde, my computer gets annoyingly slow and frustrating to use. I haven’t been on it since before Thanksgiving, but I really have to get some stuff done that I can’t do on my Netbook or cell phone. I’m wondering if a tablet would help…or if that would be as limiting as the Netbook. I really have to find a way to motivate myself more to get online, which my former message board friends will find very ironic! :))

I finally got around to publishing a new social media poster today! Better late than never! :-O

Can you believe it will be December next week? Did this year fly by, or what? :P Until next time, take care and have a great week! B-)



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Monday, November 19, 2012

Tangible Tidbits 2012 #44: Baby Watch 2012

Hi everyone! I am sleeping over my sister’s house tonight so I can get the girls ready for school in the morning. My sister is being admitted to the hospital so they can induce her tomorrow and my brother-in-law, naturally, is staying with her. Hopefully, by this time tomorrow MacKenzie Glanzman Linton will be here! B-) Unfortunately, I caught another cold over the weekend, so I may not get to meet her for a while yet. :P

Last Thursday night, we had the November BSNJ meeting with guest speaker Melissa Grakowsky Shippee. She also taught two weekend workshops, and I attended the one on Friday evening. I was working on a beaded Filigree bracelet, and I am probably two-thirds of the way done with it. I’d like to finish it sooner rather than later, but I have a bad habit of leaving things like that undone for a while. :-o Anyway, I had a lot of fun at these two events, but stayed out too late both nights. :-/

On Saturday, I was at the National Arts Honor Society Holiday Art & Craft Fair at North Warren Regional High School in Blairstown. It was about 1-1/2 hours by car each way, so it was a pretty long day. The gym where the event was held was pretty cold, so that’s how I caught the cold I now have. :( I left a voicemail for my allergist’s office before I left there, requesting they give me antibiotics or Prednisone again. :P I’ve got to get better so I can meet my new niece later in the week! ;) As for the event, it was a bust…but I made friends with the vendor sitting next to me, so it made the day pass more quickly, at least. :) All of the vendors were unhappy with the turnout, so it wasn’t just me. I’ve decided not to participate in any “unknown” events without first checking them out as an attendee in the future. I may have to wait a year to participate in anything worthwhile, but it would spare me the wear-and-tear of vending at an event with very little purchasing traffic. :P

While at the show on Saturday, I made a pair of silver and black macramé beaded hoop earrings requested by a coworker. I was really pleased with how they turned out, and so was she! :D

I heard back from the Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts in San Francisco last week. I was not awarded a scholarship. :-/ However, I did clear up my back fees at Montclair State, and am registering for the 400-level Metalwork & Jewelry class for next semester! B-) The downside is that the class is being taught by the director of the program, whose taste differs from mine. :-/ I suppose I will have another chance to win him over. Wish me luck with that! :))

I didn't have a chance to post a social media poster this weekend, so I will post one later in the week and show it to you next week. :)

To those of you in the United States, enjoy your Thanksgiving on Thursday! ;) To everyone else, take care and have a great week! B-)



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Monday, November 12, 2012

Tangible Tidbits 2012 #43: Hitting the Highlights Post-Hurricane Sandy

I’m baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack! :)) As I’m sure you already know, Hurricane Sandy hit New Jersey pretty hard. Personally, my entire family – aunts/uncles/cousins/sister’s family were all without power for at least eight days. Luckily, the majority of us got it back within a few hours of each other. At one point, my sister had an electrician hook her furnace up to the generator they bought just before the storm, so they at least got some heat. Mom and I do have a gas water heater, so we could take hot showers. Luckily, my cell phone worked and I can charge it in the car without the motor running, so that was my link to the outside world. ;) We went out to dinner every night and went to bed early, simply because it was the warmest place to be! :P However, we fared much better than the Jersey Shore and other areas near bodies of water. The devastation is unreal…some people are still without power, and many are without habitable homes or any home at all. I can’t even imagine finding sand, dead fish, and boardwalk planks in my living room, as have been reported. As much as we were inconvenienced, we were tremendously lucky. It can always be worse. :-/

I was in the middle of publishing my blog post on Monday, October 29 when we lost power. Honestly, I can’t even remember what happened that long ago, much less what I wanted to write. Here’s a basic list of what’s happened in my life since my last post:

• This is the first time I’ve turned on my desktop since the power went out, although I have monitored my email and Facebook pages via my cell phone. ;) Here’s the latest social media poster, albeit a bit late. :-O

• I couldn’t make jewelry during the power outage because (1) it was dark, and (2) my hands were too cold to make anything! :-O

• My doctor confirmed that I started Perimenopause over the summer. I was not surprised because I had a feeling that it was happening, but hearing it confirmed freaked me out a little. I’m 6-7 years younger than my mother was when it happened to her. As I told my psychiatrist recently, I kind of feel like a phase of my life is ending before I got a chance to really experience it. :( C’est la vie!

• Fire Mountain Gems and Beads has featured me as a Success Story on its website! I’m on a roll! :))

• I started a lanyard for a coworker using my Kumihimo disk yesterday while at the 4th Annual Jewels of New Jersey Show. Even though she picked out the cords herself, it’s bulkier than she expected and I ran out of cord before I could reach her desired length anyway. Back to the drawing board! :-/

• I sold a few pieces at the Jewels of New Jersey show; although not as many as I would have liked. The good news is that the two people who were really excited about my work (Hi, Marlene & Dave! ;) ) are employees of the Monroe Township Public Library, for which the event is a fundraiser. Hopefully, that means they will be there every year! :D Dave wanted two of my wax cast rings, but they were too small. I stretched one last night, and the other one this afternoon. He told me if I couldn’t stretch them, I could make something else for him when I go back to MSU next semester. :D

That’s probably more than enough for now. If I remember anything else noteworthy, I will let you know next week. Until then, take care and have a great week! B-)

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