Today is the first day of the ArtFire Jewelry Design & Jewelry Supply Shops Guild's first promotion!!!

Please check out all the lovely offerings from these shops! http://artfireguildmemberpromotions.ning.com/

There are many other member's also participating besides the ones on this list!

Some members are offering sale prices, others free shipping and more depending upon the artist and studio. Look for this sale banner and Valentine's Day categories in participating member's studios! Be sure to order quickly to allow time for shipping!

I've enjoyed twitting about this all day and have had the pleasure of seeing lots of beautiful jewelry and more from all the talented members here at AJDJSS.

Best Friends

A picture of the pendant I wrapped last night with my new gold filled wire. I am trying to decide on a name for it. Champagne Brunch? Champagne Elegance? Champagne & Gold?
What is your opinion?


Best friends are the sisters we never had. In the past year I have been lucky enough to start re-connecting to my best friends for high school.


For out twentieth year class reunion we all pitched in and rented a room on the coast and got together and had fun. It was so amazing. The only time we had spent together was a few hours at out tenth year reunion. Some of us had kept in touch but I know I hadn't. Yet it was as if we had never been apart!

And last summer one of the first friends I made in high school was looking at stuff in my booth. When she looked at me and I her we recognized each other instantly. "I know you!"

She still lives here in the same town and we have chuckled over the irony of managing to not run into each other for twenty one years. Her ex-husband is the brother of one of my ex's good high school friend and I've know him for several years now. Small world.

Best of all we have come together when we both needed friends. She came over last Thursday and we spent several hours working on my living/bedroom space. She helped me go through at least a dozen bags, boxes and containers of my late daughter's belongings. It's been six months and it is past time to start sorting through stuff. I went through her clothes in August but that's as far as I went.

She is going to come over every Thursday until my upstairs is done. Then we'll probably start somewhere else. It's a great excuse for us to get together. And lucky, lucky me, she is an organizer! I know that when I AM organized I can keep things cleaned up. Every time I've been able to have a well organized home it made keeping that home clean simple and easy. Unfortunately most homes are not well organized for storage and craft nuts!

It was just a few weeks before my daughter's diagnosis that I chose to empty a large storage area and turn it into a small bedroom for her. I am still living in the chaos created by that. I have boxes of stuff stacked that I was not able to do anything with afterwards because we were never home. The little time we did get to spend at home was just enough time to catch our breath so to speak before the next round of hospital and motel stays three hours from home. The last round was July when she went to Heaven exactly seven months to the day of her diagnosis. I have just been procrastinating doing anything at all.

Best friends are a wonderful blessing and I feel they are the sisters we didn't get biologically and I am so blessed with all of my wonderful friends.

I decided to share the photo of my entry for the Artisan Jewelry Guild's challenge "Spring Thaw" Imagine my surprise to see it already posted on our Artisan Jewelry Guild's Blog! Woo-Ho!

This is the second filigree piece with a bezel set, dichroic fused glass cabochon that I've made. I did make some filigree findings first for practice.

I love being part of the Artisan Jewelry Guild. I love how it has already challenging me. Also it has made me stop and really think about where I have been going with my jewelry. I realize that I haven't been true to myself and my vision of what I wish to create. Instead I have allowed myself to gravitate to product that are easier to produce in quantity.

I'm not saying that this is necessarily a bad thing but that I am aware of it and now I can make sure I don't become overly focused on this type of product. Instead I am now back on track and re-focusing on my wire wrapped creations and the realization that I need more wire wrapped products to balance the others out.

So to do so I am planning on giving a good portion of my earring stock a make-over! I will start featuring more wire wrapped earrings styles. So to do what I want requires the use of dopping wax. It will be here Thursday! I am so excited. Once I learn to use the wax properly I will be able to wire wrap even the smallest of my cabochons!

Also tomorrow, Wednesday that lovely 28gauge dead-soft wire will be here. It is going to be so much fun turning my ideas into beautiful, working designs.

Here is another one of my newly listed necklaces!
I love the rich royal blues and purples in this piece.

I had posted previously about trying to get a hold of my local wire supplier. I was a bit taken aback when a friend commented that I'm overpaying for wire. After checking out her favorite supplier, Monsterslayer and Rio Grande I have to admit she is right.

I ended up ordering from Rio Grande. Their sterling silver wire was about two dollars more than Monsterslayer, but Monsterslayer didn't have 28 gauge gold filled wire. Rio Grande does. Including shipping and handling it is costing me for both Argentium Sterling Silver and 14k gold filled, 28 gauge dead soft wire as much as the gold filled would of from my local guy. Unfortunately my local guy is either out of town, on vacation or possibly out of business due to the economy as he has always been reliable in the past unlike the last three weeks of no replies to multiple phone messages and e-mails. I like to be loyal, but sometimes it is just not reasonable to do so.

I did order some other things from Monsterslayer though. I needed dopping wax, a measly two feet of 26 gauge dead soft wire and some chain.

"Amber Rose" A dichroic glass cabochon in a gold filled, wire wrapped setting. Strung with fuchsia and amber crystals, delica seed beads, gold tone beads, gold filled spacer beads and clasp.

This is a picture of the necklace I'm going to go list after I'm done blogging.

I have to admit that I really hadn't planned on blogging tonight as I'm coming down with a cold so I'm tired and rapidly becoming miserable. As I haven't had one yet this fall/winter season I've been lucky. But as today marks a historic occasion I felt I should say something.

America has come a long way. Today we saw the first African American sworn in as the president of our nation. Something that has been a long time coming. I'm glad to have seen it in my lifetime. Maybe I'll even get to see a woman sworn into office in my lifetime too. The odds are a lot closer. So not only does today mark an historic landmark in our nation's history so to does it bring hope to our nation. Our economy is rotten and health care is but a dream for many more than most would believe and the war continues.

It is time to end the war and bring our soldiers home yet leave behind a stable nation that will be able to follow the dream of democracy too. A time for reform of our health care system as well as financial reform. Will things get worse before they get better? Probably. We as a nation will have to hang in there and survive with the grit and determination that has founded this nation and helped us survive many other tough times. Will things get better? I truly believe that they will but it will take time.

My political views? All I will say is that they are rather jaded. I have seen to much bs in my lifetime already. I didn't watch the actual inauguration, but I did read his address. Very well done.

Sunday Drive

Well the freezing fog continues. We went over to Prineville, 35miles away to visit my aunt. The drive was so pretty. I tried to take some pictures with my phone. I hope they turn out well. We had a lot of fun counting Redtailed Hawks on the way as they were all perched on the top of utility poles, trees and fence posts. Some even had their heads under their wings. We counted twenty two of them! At one point the fog and clouds thinned enough to see the sun. It looked like a full moon. Then it managed to burn through for about two hours.

We helped my aunt with her 2000 piece puzzle. We we needed a break it was getting nice out so we went outside and put the halter on the horse, Buddy and worked with him a bit. He definitely needs to be worked with. He kept trying to lead us instead! We've only had him since November. As he needed his hooves trimmed and was about 800 pounds underweight along with the cold weather we have been holding off on riding him. He's "bombproof" and could care less about the dogs.

Afterwards we played Rummycube and then we went out to lunch. When we came back we worked on the puzzle some more. By then the freezing fog had dropped back down, it was getting cold again and was time to go home.

It was really nice to get out of the house and do something different for a change.

The weather here the past week has been gorgeous. Sunny and with temperatures in the upper fifties.

This is a picture of what I woke up to this morning, freezing fog! It is twenty three degrees out (Fahrenheit).

I had originally planned on talking about a very rare disease, Acquired Aplastic Anemia that I experienced with my daughter.

As I have spent close to two hours trying to publish two posts about it I am considering that this is the universe's way of telling me not to.