Caffeine Withdrawals Require Patience

Well it has been several days since I have written as it was the weekend and I just seemed to need to hibernate with some good books for a few days. I blame it partially on the caffeine withdrawal. When I need to escape I go hide in books until I can face the world again. I am managing to be patient about it all though, ie; as in hanging in there!
First I'm sleepy in the late afternoon and I know if I nap I won't sleep later so I make myself stay awake.When I finally allow myself to go to bed, Bam-I'm wide awake, tossing and turning until the wee hours. When I finally fall asleep I have a terrible time waking back up. But once I'm awake I'm good for awhile. The other thing is the mood bounces-happy then grey, happy, then grey. I know it is my body adjusting to life with out caffeine but it can be hard to be patient!
And you all know how they say one of the best ways to cut calories is to cut out the soda? Well I've removed about 600 calories from my diet. So now I'm always hungry! I think my body it trying to make those calories up and I know the replacement calories are more than 600 and full of more than just sugar now.
Today I think has been my best yet! I felt really good when I woke up and all day. And now that it is time to be getting sleepy I am. I hope this is a good sign. A good friend of mine says it takes two weeks to clear the system and for the body to adjust.
And since I am sleepy-good night!

Valentine's Day Promo

I hope to set things up so maybe I can hit a local "watering hole" with some of my stuff or make up a promo flyer or a small, portable jewelry display that my dad could take with. That's my best idea anyway.
I'm sorry to be so short but I have a really good book calling my name!

I was looking forward to a nice visit with one of my best friends but she is ill this weekend and unable to make it. Her husband and son were going to help me with setting up some things on my sites, like widgets, windows and other gadgets. But her I came up with another plan. I called another friend to see if she can help and she is going to bring her teenage daughter over tomorrow who should be able to help.

I forgot to mention that I learned this new wire working technique from a tutorial by Eni Oken. My apologies to Eni Oken of jewelrylessons.com

Here is that picture I promised of the project I did last night.

What trips me up the most with computers is that things are set up assuming everyone know a certain amount about how to use and understand them. My school computer learning went something like this back in junior high (middle) school in 1981/82"This is the monitor, the on/off switch is located here on the back of the monitor. This is the drive and this slot is where you insert the (large) floppy disc. Understand, questions? Everyone will line up single file take their turn, turning it on and loading the floppy disc, remove the floopy disc and turn off the computer"

Now I openly admit that I am severely math challenged. Algebra was extremely confusing and intimidating, needless to say I failed it quite spectacularly My high school only offered one computer class, "computer programming". One had to pass algebra to get into it. I only knew one person who owned a computer when I was in high school. He was really into them and of course Dungeons & Dragons! Computers
didn't start being affordable until about the early 90's. I bought a laptop last Febuary with some of my tax return money. I honestly would of never considered it until my daughter got ill. When one has to live "secluded" in a motel for weeks at a time with limited TV a laptop becomes a necessity! It gave us a way to keep in touch with our family hundreds of miles away, entertainment and education. I'm really glad I did. I can't imagine life without it now!

I've been trying to try out some new wire work techniques the past couple of days and was disappointed yesterday. I tried to learn a netted cabochon technique. The tutorial calls for 28 gauge, dead soft wire. As my favorite local bead store only carries it in half hard, sterling and gold filled I decided to try it. Needless to say it didn't work when it came to the netting part. I was disappointed that I couldn't finish the project. The good news is that the half hard works well on the frame.

I hate to have to purchase a full ounce of each, my price $80-$100 (for both). But I will now. I've been putting it off since late September/early October. And the "boss" man said I can. I feel fortunate that there is a couple locally who sell precious metal wire, chain, beads, findings and gemstones. They normally sell at shows and online. They have been great to me. As they live close by it is usually fairly easy to get what I need. Have been unable to get a hold of them but they could be on their way to a show, at a show, or maybe just taking a well deserved break now that the "off" season is here.

I decided to try the netting technique with copper wire. Thankfully I was smart enough to purchase some 28 gauge on my last trip to Azillion beads. It was a fun project. Used a tutorial that I found on Jewelry Lessons.com by Eni Oken. I used a dark, "true" blue round cabochon that contrasted nicely with the copper. Once I got the hang of it I had a lot of fun. I'm lucky to be good with my hands and before electricity and sewing machine I would of been a great seamstress. So I found this technique fairly simple and easy to do. I think it turned out very nicely. Even my son who could care less about my jewelry thought it was cool! I will post some pictures of it tomorrow! I'm happy to have added this technique to my "collection" and look forward to using it more.

As for the Pepsi I've only had two total since I started trying to quit drinking it. I made 60-72hrs this time before the caffeine withdrawal headache kicked in.

I also finally finished fusing the rest of the little cabochons I've been putting off! Tomorrow I have to wash, sort and count them all up so I can figure out accurately how much time I have into them so far.

Aaah, Last Day of School's Winter Break

Thought I'd take a moment and "check in". Getting on the computer can be quite a challenge with my son out of school! Also had company the last 24hrs too. So I haven't had much time or peace and quiet to do anything.
Good news is he goes back tomorrow. Will make it a lot easier to get some work done.
It hasn't helped that I have given up my Pepsi habit for the New Year in the interests of better health and more energy not to mention saving money. I'm not doing to terribly bad either. I made it through the first day with only fatigue. I did break down and have a 12oz bottle at about 8 p.m. the second day due to the lack of caffeine headache. This is day three and so far I'm doing okay, not as tired as the first day and no headache.
I have purchased several new and exciting tutorials so that I may expand my wire working skills. I think I'm going to try another one tonight.
I like to try and combine my dichroic fused glass cabochons with wire wrapping to make beautiful jewelry. I haven't done as much with wire work in the past year as I would like. As I've been listing in my studio I've realized that my stock items or the "bread & butter" pieces seem to have taken over. It's nice to have a good price range, but I've been neglecting my wire worked pieces. It's time to remedy that.
Okay, I feel like I'm starting to ramble! Bye

Yesterday I started learning the techniques of wire weaving. I made a fun setting in purple wire for a white dichroic glass cabochon that had purple and blue fire. I think it would of been quite lovely, unfortunately I didn't have enough wire left over to make a nice looking bail. But, hey that's what an exprimental piece is all about-learning!
I made my first sale of 2009 today on Etsy. The printer was out of ink so I took the "old" set out to be reifilled. One was all dried up and the other one, the color one didn'y fill properly! So I had to go back home and take the set out of the printer! Yes they did work and I finally could go home and print the shipping label. Since I was there I also bought adhesive shipping labels.
Printing that label was fun. All I had to do to address the package was to peel off the label and put it on!

Yesterday's wind storm took out the main trunk of our birch tree. Luckily it fell in the parking lot and not in the street and we are across the street from a tree trimming service! All we had to do was chain it up and drag it across the street.