Friday March 27th

So yesterday got away from me in a big way. I got a good portion of the weeding in the back yard done and will do more today... maybe. But I had a really GREAT idea for setting a glass disk bead the other day and I have been letting the idea percolate (like I do) and I think I have it all worked out so I am actually very jazzed about sitting down at my bench today and actualizing this notion. I am pleased to be working with an artist that has some very concrete thoughts about what she wants to see and I just hope that my ideas meet the challenge.

Now for the humorous part of my yesterday!

Last night I was watching Keith Olbermann and was laughing out loud about his Top 5 List…
I was so very pleased to be informed that New Mexico seems to love a good state song. Not only does it have a State Song, an official Spanish Language Song, an Official State Ballad and an Official Bilingual Song it now has an Official Cowboy Song.

Well Done New Mexico...

1. State Song: "O Fair New Mexico" - Elizabeth Garrett - 1917
2. Spanish Language Song: "Asi Es Nuevo Mexico," - Amadeo Lucerov - 1971
3. State Ballad, "Land of Enchantment" - Michael Martin Murphey - 1989
4. Bilingual State Song: "Mi Lindo Nuevo Mexico" - Pablo Mares - 2004

5. The Official Cowboy Song - "Under the New Mexico Skies" Syd Masters 2009

So instead of showing you the nasty state incest of New Mexico (A WASP) I have chosen to share the states Flower & Bird. Much more appealing don’t you think?

The State Flower - Yucca

State Bird - Road Runner










And finally:
I was given a task of including the word UBIQUITOUS as part of my post yesterday. It was used in a sentence that I had to stop the conversation and ask… definition please! So since I did let yesterday slip a way from me I have decided to let the word ubiquitous, show up ubiquitously in this small portion of my post.

ubiquitous |yoōˈbikwətəs|
adjective
present, appearing, or found everywhere: his ubiquitous influence was felt by all the family | cowboy hats are ubiquitous among the male singers.

Wednesday March 25th

Spring is almost here this year. The way that I can tell is that the water coming out of the tap is not cold anymore. It is cool but not cold and actually comes out of the tap rather warm. I’ll know for sure when summer arrives when the tap water will be all but undrinkable due to the relative warmth of the water. I love to look out my front door, look at the cactus in my front yard and see them blooming. My cacti have the most beautiful colored flowers that are in bloom or are ready to bloom.







There is such joy with spring, the dream of rejuvenation and rebirth. It takes on an interesting quality here with the desert as it bursts with such amazing color and for such a brief moment in time. I am embracing my spring this year; it has a beautiful quality for me, a sense of the possible and of the wonder of life’s offerings. I approach it with reverence and yet with a childish sense of awe and wonder as I can see the infinite variables and possibilities that I are being laid out before me and I am grateful for them.

I know that I have not been posting political views since the elections in November and the Inauguration in January but today I was so pleased to read today that the House of Representatives passed a bill securing over 2 million aches of lush wilderness lands. These lands are in several states and are adjacent to some of them most beautiful parks and wildlife preserves in our nation. This action is in direct contradiction to the previous administrations directives towards our natural and protected lands. I am so very pleased that the choices are now being made to take care of our future. It is just another stroke towards turning back the last eight years of abusing our resources and making sure that future generations will be able to enjoy these treasures.

Tuesday March 24th

I did what has not been done in a very long time. I cleaned my house. Now the reason that I cleaned my house was because I have absolutely NO desire to do the really crappy job of weeding my sad, oh so very sad yard. But as of tomorrow I really have no excuse NOT to go out into the great expanse and start the tedious task of making my house presentable to those who happen to come by or are actually invited in for a visit.

I had a wonderful Saturday this past weekend. I have gotten acquainted with 2 local bead artists JC Harrell & Margaret Zinser. We got together via friends of friends on FaceBook and had a few interactions and another mutual friend actually got us all together for a breakfast about a month ago. Well to say that these 2 gals not only do excellent work they are also extremely funny and very fun to be around. Well they had an open house on Saturday and I stopped by. (Hey there was free mimosas…can you blame me ?) No, really I have wanted to see more of their work and to hang out for a bit and they really did put out a very nice spread and their work was excellent.

Later that evening we hooked up at a local glass house for their open house. Sonoran Glass Art Academy also had a very nice open house and 2 of the guys there were making beer steins that were being put up for auction to help raise money. I got outbid on this really excellent one but at least I helped start a little bit of a bidding war.

Sunday was a day of ½ cleaning the back of the house and bumming around chatting for what seemed like moments but was actually quite a bit of time. So I had a wonderful day on Sunday.

I have been watching the World Baseball Classic and have really enjoyed the entire experience. It is really a very exciting thing to see all of the other countries in the world participating in the game with such abandon. The Asian teams are so kick-ass, once again Japan takes the championship. It give me pause to say the phrase World Series for our fall classic and I love that the pro players are so supportive of the entire thing. I like that Derik Jeter and the entire USA team played so hard and that it meant something to them to represent our country and the entire baseball profession.

I was asked the other day when my love for the game started. It goes back to when I was a kid. My love for the game goes back to the early 70’s and The Big Red Machine. To this day I can name the 8 men on the regular rotation and even one or two of the pitchers. I will always remember my first fall in NYC, it was 1986 when that version of the Miracle Mets took the pennant and the World Series in such dramatic fashion against the Boston Red Sox and the Houston Astros.

I guess the other part of my childhood that also gave me such joy also seems to have revolved around interactions with my father. After church on Sundays we would watch The Avengers…you know…John Steed and Emma Peel...The Carol Burnett Show…The original Star Trek…all of those things are so ingrained as apart of my childhood they are intertwined with all of the loves from that part of my life.

Tom Wait's - Little Trip to Heaven

Just listening to Tom this evening & this morning...

Song Lyrics

Saturday March 21st

Here is your thought for the day to ponder on:

Even those people who believe everything in life is predetermined and preordained look both ways before crossing the street.


Since getting home on Tuesday evening I have pretty much been going non-stop. I did take Tuesday night off and went to sleep rather early but first ting on Wednesday morning I it was back to my daily routines and getting back into the swing of my life. It is rather a hard thing to do after a week and of days with not too many responsibilities. Just get up and sell my wares, teach a few classes and then have good food with friends and everything else that goes along with it.

It really is amazing all of the stuff I can pack into a rental car and the process of unpacking, inventorying, and re-packing for the next 2 shows took almost 2 full days. I am ALL set for the NCSB show that I am adding in April and then I can just quickly re-stock for my trip to Denver. The total was 19 office boxes full to the bursting. The thing that I actually LOVE to do is put my bench back together after I go out of town to teach. It always makes me want to get back to work. Just the jazzed feeling that I get from teaching gets me so in the mood to create.

So, in the 48 hours since getting back to Tucson I am ready for NCBS & Denver…I am going to get to work and make come more lower cost pieces in these next few weeks that sold like crazy at the Gem Show and see how those do in the Bay Area. I am also going to order more PMC-3 and make a few more pendants that I have floating around in my head.

Gail Crosman Moore & I are going to spend an extra day or so in the Bay Area after the NCSB show to have really excellent sushi @ Blowfish Sushi and 40 clove garlic chicken @ the Stinking Rose walk around San Francisco and maybe even spend a bit of time crawling around Otto Frei to see what extravagant tool can be had…

I had a bit of a snag the day before yesterday, I realized that sometime during my trip to New Mexico the pump for my pool stopped working. I scheduled a tech to come out and fix it and was rather nervous about the cost of maybe having to replace the entire motor. I was grateful that it was only a condenser diode that needed to be replaced. Can you believe that it was a $30 dollar part 15-minute repair call and a $125 repair bill? The bummer for me is that I have NO experience with these types of DC motors and it was a repair that I could have SO easily done myself in a matter of moments and the further bummer is that there is NOTHING that I can do to even test for this happening… it just will blow out every so often, at least I did not burn out the motor.

This is for U CL.
Lady Bugs...Lots &Lots of Lady Bugs

Friday March 20th

It has been way to long and way too many things have passed under the bridge in the past week. I had a wonderful time getting to know Santa Fe and spending time in Albuquerque.

Tuesday was the day that the gang arrived. My roomies, Gail C Moore, Michele Goldstein & Stephanie Sersich arrived safe and sound as well as Cris Leonard and Gail Lannum. It was so nice to have everyone around and to get to spend some time with all of them. It is a strange phenomenon, this getting together at shows, catching up, going out for good food and getting all caught up. It is the getting caught up that is the strange part. Most of us hang out on FaceBook and are all in each other’s lives but nothing is the same as having an adult beverage a good meal and just really spending time together. Had a great dinner at The Shed, a local MUST in Santa Fe society.

Wednesday was just an early day of hanging out with Cris L & Gail L. we walked around the square, peaking in all of the shops and galleries and just spending good quality time together. Early in the afternoon I drove off to Albuquerque NM to go see a concert at this really cool theatre. The KiMo Theatre is amazing; it is Southwest to the hilt. The proscenium arch has cow skulls that have red light up eyes and every detail of the space is totally excellent. I spent the first 20 minutes just staring at all of the architectural details. We went to go see a duo named “Coyote Grace”. They are a very unique duo that has a special story and they are very open about the journey that their life has taken them on. It was a very excellent evening and I enjoyed myself so totally & completely.

Thursday was a different story. It was time to get to work…I had to set up my booth and get ready for Preview Shopping Night. I shared my booth space with Cris Leonard; she was selling my tools, books, kits & jewelry while I had to teach on Saturday & Sunday. I could not have asked for a better person to take care of my stuff. (Even if she does not like my tags or the way I had to organize the tools under the table. To say that we were packed into the ballroom like sardines was an understatement. I was rather beat by the end of the day and just crawled into bed a most comfortable bed with warm comforters.

Friday morning was my last day behind my booth. Cris and & tried not to fall over each other and Gail L hovered and made sure that our booths looked good from the view of the customers, she has a great eye and made sure that both Cris & I were lookin’ fine. Had a very..very..very amazing dinner at the restaurant Geronimo that is in the Canyon Road section of Santa Fe. To say that it was a most excellent evening is an understatement.

Saturday & Sunday were TEACHING..TEACHING & more TEACHING. I had 2 ½ day classes on Saturday that were full to bursting. We had such a blast and I think that everyone did SO well and made great strides in accomplishing the tasks that I set before them. Fine Silver Findings & Chain Making is such a blast. Then Sunday was 10 students making the Pressure Setting Pendants and to say that everyone got done and everyone did a FANTASTIC job is once again an understatement. I love teaching and I love to see it when a student grasps a new technique and runs to town with it. Saturday night after classes was the social night. Gail L, Cris L Steph S. Michele G. Terri Caspary-Schmidt & I all went out for a really fun dinner.

Sunday night after classes were done and my booth was all packed up I was off to Albuquerque for a night of comedy once again at the KiMo Theatre and I had a wonderful night.

Monday was for sleeping in, walking around the downtown shops. It is a GREAT game & it was nice to get some sun after spending days inside ballrooms & classrooms.

Tuesday I got to spend some time hanging around before I had to drive off for home. It was nice not to have to drive off at the crack of dawn and I enjoyed my time in NM more than I ever thought that I would.

Tuesday March 10th

I got into Santa Fe in 7 hours flat. It was a beautiful drive and the sunrise in the AZ desert as I drove east was so amazing. It is one of the reasons that I love to drive out so early. I like to see the day wake up and I just feel as though I am getting more accomplished if I can have miles and miles accomplished before the sun rises. People think I am crazy, like when I leave for B&B at 4am. If I do that I am through New Mexico by noon. That just does not suck and I just feel as though I am getting more done.

So, Sunday night there was an excellent dinner that consisted of sushi, sake & beer was had and then an absolutely delightful meandering stroll through the streets of Santa Fe. The huge brass doors of the St Francis Cathedral are well worth taking the time for an up close inspection and there is this very quaint small square, Casa Sena, which is quite delightful and plays music till very late into the evenings. The streets of Santa Fe are really quite deserted on a late Sunday night, what a lovely time to walk around.

I woke on Monday morning in SF to rain and snow…Can you believe that? I was rather shocked by that. A person who could qualify as a native of New Mexico informed me that these conditions are rather unusual. It seems that more of the same is on the way. I had dinner last evening at a wonderful Tapas restaurant in Canyon Road. There are some amazing galleries and lots of very excellent window-shopping. Monday could not have been a better day even if I had asked for one.

I have always called myself a Magpie…I can get very distracted by shiny things. Well while taking a nice stroll before dinner last night we were greeted to Canyon Road by the most beautiful bird I had seen in ages. This bird was a brilliant white and a black that was SO black that it was an iridescent blue. Neither of us knew what the name of the bird was and as I was searching the web for birds of New Mexico it kind of dawned on me that it just might be a Magpie. Here is the Black Billed Magpie that was hopping around and looking mighty beautiful.





















It was super cold this morning and I am excited that all of my friends are arriving today. The 2 Gail’s, Cris, Meesh, Steph will all be here so very soon. That is if the weather holds out.

I spotted a post that my friend Michele Goldstein posted and I feel the real need to pass this one on. Please watch this amazingly very eloquent young lady makes a bunch of adults look really foolish. I was so impressed. Please pass this one on..

The girl who silenced the world for 5 minutes

Saturday March 7th.

I am off to Santa Fe early on Sunday morning. I am looking forward to a few days with friends before the show begins. I have Sunday night and all day Monday till my friends arrive and I am really looking forward to that time. It is going to be such an interesting experience this next week. An experience that I am sure that will leave a lasting mark on me.

2 of my 3 classes are full and the 3rd is just over half full. I hope that a few more people sing up for the full day Sunday Pendant Pressure class. It promises to be a VERY good class.

Here is a little Brandi Carlile singing "Closer to You" to keep you company till I post from Santa Fe. Have a great Sunday and wish me safe travels. I have promised everyone not to total the rental car like I did the one last July in LA. Teaching in Tacoma after that incident was awful and not an experience that I choose to repeat.

Wednesday March 4th

So…I had a very disturbing discovery the other day and to say that I am confused and bewildered is an understatement. Several days ago I received change at Target for a purchase and I was handed a BRAND NEW QUARTER…It was a quarter for The District of Columbia dated 2009. THERE IS NOT SLOT FOR THIS QUARTER IN MY MAP. What am I to do? I spent 10 flipping years collecting the state quarters and placing them lovingly in the appropriate slot and NOW I am confronted with a quarter that has NO home. I mean, come on, the government included the Commonwealth of Virginia how come they could not include the District of Columbia. I just feel cheated in some way, like my 10 years of dedication were for naught.

Okay…I knew it…while grabbing the image to add to this post I was confronted with another series of disturbing facts, not only is the District of Columbia part of this debacle (There are 3 quarters for the District of Columbia) we are also adding the following quarters in 2009…with the release dates to be determined I might add!

* District of Columbia (3)





* The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (2)







* Guam (2)







* American Samoa (3)






* The United States Virgin Islands (3)





* The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (3)




I hope that they can come out with something for me to place these collector coins in or I might not be able to continue to function….HELP ME I am a in surreal quarter collecting nightmare.

The only thing that has taken the edge off of this gruesome discovery was the arrival of a gift from one of my students in Florida. She found and sent me a wooden rainbow cork wine stopper with the Arizona quarter embedded in the top...IT ROCKS and took the edge off for me.

Everlast Saving Grace Theme

Song Lyrics

Last Verse not on Scroller:

One time around the sun
Another year older and my work ain’t done
It’s time for me to write the final chapter

Deal the cards and roll the dice
sex drugs rock & roll are my only vice
try to figure our just what’s here after.

Halleluiah [x6] Amen

Sunday March 1st

Is it really March 1st?
I am pleased that March is here...
Very please indeed...A-B-S-O-L-U-T-E-L-Y...

I have had a very busy past few days. Not only am I getting ready to go to Santa Fe I HAD to schedule in time to go to the opening day of Spring Training on Friday. So needless to say I was absolutely slammed on Thursday all day so I could take those few beautiful 4 hours to go see my beloved Chicago White Sox play against my Against my Arizona Diamondbacks. I have decided NOT to pay for all of the ballgames on my TV this year. Right now it is a $170.00 that I can so use somewhere else. I chose instead to just pay for my baseball this year by only paying for MLBTV on my computer. I have 2 laptops so I can work on one and watch ball on the other and since I am traveling SO much this year I just thought that it was a better use of my resources.

Thursday was day of HUGE organizing and counting and re-counting to make sure that I have all of my ducks in a row, all of my “I’s’ dotted and all of my ‘T’s” crossed. I always get so nervous about shows like this. I am away from my home and I want all of my plans to go correctly and I want all of the my classes to go off smoothly, so I send a great deal of time making sure that I did not screw anything up. It is amazing how often I mess up the amount of silver that I need for a class. I weigh it, I break out the calculator and I do all of my calculations and it is rare when I can come up with the same number twice. I have no idea why it is that way but for the love of any supreme being I SUCK at the math. So I keep doing the math until I get the same answer at least 3 times and then I figure that I may actually have it right.

Friday…I got up with a smile on my face. Today was going to be a really busy and a really fun day. I got up SO early so I could get all of the rest of my tasks accomplished so I can leave the house a 12:15 for a 1:05 start to opening day of Spring Training at Tucson Electric Ball Park. What a great day and what a great way to bring spring back. I had my Italian Sausage with burned grilled onions and my Stella beer and I sat my butt down in the FRONT ROW of the ballpark only feet away from the grass and I was sitting in between REAL fans of the game…I was listening as they were spouting off more stats about each player than I knew existed in the world…

Saturday was a day that I have been so excited about for weeks and weeks. My friend Vicki came in for a visit and she is such a sport, she came out for her visit under the auspices of having the desire to see a spring training game. So I picked Vicki up at the airport and we went off to the park to see the Texas Rangers play the D-Backs. We had such a great day and enjoyed the warmth of the sun with a great number of beers and the requisite Italian Sausage or Polish Dog…
We had a great time catching up and for not having seen each other in close to a year. If people were listening to our conversations I am sure that it would have sounded rather humorous. Vicki is from my old profession and she is one of the most Bad-Ass Lighting programmers that I have had the honor of working with. So we spent a good portion of the day talking about lighting gear and how much work she had to do to make Diana Ross look good and how on earth could those be the colors that were in her contract. What a fabulous day that ended up with a movie on the couch and both of us so tired from the sunshine.

Sunday…. Today is going to be a day of getting back to the reality of getting all of my stuff ready for my show. I am really looking forward to taking a few extra days in NM to just recharge my batteries before I dive into teaching and selling my wears. It is the start of the show season and it is now officially “off to the races” to make as much money as humanly possible to make sure that I can get to the next show and start it all over again.

Song Lyrics