Life Dreams & Scraps

WOW!

It's been a while!!

Quick note to try to catch up on my blog... maybe I should just let it go but I realize there are still a "few" people who check on here every once in a while. And, I learned a couple of days ago that my blog was featured on a jewelry making website.  So, maybe I should post something at least.

Lets see...

Over the past few months, we've had baseball season (both Aidan and Holden), Golf (Aidan), and Football season (Aidan) which is almost over.  The team is in the playoffs right now.  Next Saturday will be the semi-finals, and then the finals here in Farmington the week after.  Go BRONCOS!

We went to San Diego again for Spring Break~ my that's forever ago.  We had an awesome time, and some great friends of ours went as well.  We shared and incredible beach house that everyone loved!  Can't remember any other major vacations over the past few months though...

David started a different job.  That's been a lot more time consuming for him, which leaves us at home without him much more.  He hasn't been traveling as much as he was before, but it's still so tough not having him home as much. He wanted a challenge, and he definitely got it!

Holden turned 5 in April.

Back to school brought the first day of Kindergarten and the first day of Middle School.  UGH!  That was tough for me. Can't believe I have a middle school child.

Aidan turned 11 in September.

I'm still working half-time.  Job-sharing with a great lady.  But, I am struggling to get things accomplished since going back to work.

The usual mix of sickness for everyone, especially lately.  Fall always seems to bring illness around here.  If it's not sinus infection, its strep throat, and recently the flu made it's rounds in our house~ just recovering from it here.

And, through it all there's been jewelry making.  Lots of jewelry making!  It's an ever evolving process, and I am learning throughout it.  I've even begun working more with gold recently, which is fun!  Here is a custom order that I made a couple of months ago for a mother's ring set with ruby, aquamarine, topaz, and white gold

It was a challenge working with white gold, but I love the way that these rings turned out!  The couple who I made them for love them as well~ which makes me so happy!

Here is a picture of David and the boys taken this summer

What a beautiful family I have! 

1000 Hearts

Wow~ I never thought my shop would get here... This morning, I reached over 1000 hearts mark.  Doesn't mean a whole lot, other than people seem to like my stuff ;)

 

This happened mostly because my shop was featured in the weekend sale storque article.  Very cool!  And I've gotten a number of sales because of it... I feel very honored!

So, I'm having a sale, obviously

Buy two or more items and receive 25% off your entire order (before shipping). The code is:

"MARCHMADNESS"

I'll send out an altered paypal invoice after you order.

My favorite Vegas Picture

I just wanted to share my favorite picture that I took in Vegas a couple of weekends ago...

   

and speaking of all things Vegas, wouldn't this ring fit in well there?

This and That

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending a class at Rio Grande... the monster of lovely jewelry supply stores that is actually based in Albuquerque.  At first, I was a little hesitant, because I thought all of the techniques that would be taught in the class are things that I have already been doing or have taught myself.  I was wonderfully surprised at the amount I learned in the class!  It was wonderful!

I have a picture of me that was taken in the Rio Grande classroom (which was awesome to work in) during the class:

 

Yep, that's me in the silly goggles...

I've also got a few new items that I've listed in my shop recently.

 

I love the look of these large white topaz stones!  This one looked so lovely tube set and placed with other bands!

 
This is an impression of a natural leaf in copper~ using the rolling mill.  I set a 8mm labradorite stone on top of the pendant... very cool combination!

 

These are new earrings that I made, mostly using silver scraps... and of course pieces rolled and textured with the rolling mill.

That's all the pictures of new work that I will post for now.  But hopefully I will be able to post more later this week. 

David and I were also able to go to Las Vegas for the NASCAR Race weekend before last, and we had an awesome time!  My guy, Kyle Busch, won, which made me extremely happy. :)

 

   

Go M&M's!

In other news, baseball season has started.  Practice, practice, practice!  So we'll probably be spending lots of time at the ball field with both Aidan and Holden (t-ball) playing this year. 

Before February is over...

Once a month seems to be my pattern of blog posts.  I have been busy making jewelry, taking care of kiddos, and working - of course.  I've been playing with enameling and etching, and with my rolling mill... still not as much as I would like, but there's never enough time in the day.

I also came across these old letter stamps a couple of days ago and decided to use them on a ring.  I love the way it turned out on the band that I patterned and then stamped the letters on:

 

I went to a crop a couple of weeks ago at my friend Beci's house.  We had a great time and I got 7 pages done.  That's the only scrapbooking I've done since mid-December... I've got a new printer/scanner thingy and I'm still trying to get the hang of the scanner, but here is one of the pages that i did:

 

Ok, the random owl chipboard there in the corner is actually a piece off of a different page.  Just noticed it there... LOL!

My dad is getting better.  He is going down to the VA hospital in Albuquerque next month to discuss options as far as a heart valve replacement, and kidney transplant... Geez, he just needs to get strong!!

We are busy making plans for Spring Break.  headed to San Diego to hang out on the beach.  So excited!  Look for lots of beach pictures sometime in the near future.

That's about it as far as a quick catch-up.  Hoping to post more this coming month. Can't make any promises though~ LOL! ;)

Learning new things

Red Enamel Heart3, originally uploaded by CreationsbyCat.

I love learning new techniques... in jewelry making, in cooking, in paper crafting. I've always loved stretching my abilities. I set several goals on new jewelry making techniques that I want to learn this year.

Yesterday, I received a package with my new enameling supplies in it and couldn't wait to dig in and get started. Enameling is one of those things that I promised myself that I would learn this year. The Red Enamel heart necklace is my first attempt at enameling... I'm pretty excited with how it turned out . Not perfect, but pretty nice!

In other news, for anyone wondering... my dad is doing better. He had a heart attack and we ended up taking him to the hospital aftern New Years. It was so hard seeing him doing so bad! He's always been larger than life to me, and it was really pretty touch and go for several days. But, he's back on his feet and recovering as well as could be expected!

I, of course, being worried about him didn't sleep for several days and wasn't really taking care of myself. So what happens? I come down with pneumonia! I've been out of commission for almost two weeks now~ But I'm happy to say that I am finally feeling more human and am ready to join the land of the living!

Hope everyone else's New year started off better than mine. But, I have accomplished one goal that I made for myself~ it's a start anyway!

Happy New Year!

I wish everyone a prosperous and happy New Year!  The past few days, we've spent pretty much doing nothing.  It's snowing like crazy outside today, so we've been inside with the fireplace going, being lazy!

I got a few new things for jewelry designing for Christmas.  One of the biggest things is a new rolling mill.  It can be used for recycling my own silver (not having to send it to a company to have it recycled for a percentage of the silver cost).  And, it can be used to add texture to silver (and other metals) to make beautiful jewelry.  We just got it set up yesterday, and I have created one piece of jewelry using it:

 

See the beautiful flowers and vines texture on the silver?  That was added with the rolling mill!  The hubby also bought me a new jewelers bench for my studio (aka the garage), and I have gotten it pretty well organized in the past couple of days.

Here are a couple more views of the new pendant available in my Etsy  shop

 

Merry Christmas to all!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!!  Ours was great!

The boys got way too many toys (of course), and we went to my parent's house for dinner.  The boys got to go out sledding this afternoon, and wore themselves out. 

So grateful for a wonderful, incredibly blessed Christmas day!!

Here is a layout I did recently~  I've been following along with Shimelle's Christmas Journal class, but not really doing layouts for it.  This one, is for the Gratitude entry though...

Saturday before Christmas!

Why is it that I'm always scrambling right before Christmas?  It seems to be worse this year!!  I have NOTHING done, a million deadlines that keep passing without me filling them, and a ton of good intentions which end up into nothingness.

But, I am so much more into The Spirit this year than I have been in the past.  Despite the stress!  I have been trying to focus on family a bit more, and discover Christ in Christmas.  Now, I know saying Jesus Christ is not always well received.  But, my beliefs are my beliefs and I make no apologies for it!  (

David's surgery went well this week!!  He had a blockage that was causing problems in his prostate, and the blockage was just scar tissue!  Nothing else!!  No other worries!  WOW!  They removed the scar tissue, and he is slowly recovering.  I am extremely thankful!!

That's it for today.

Wow~

The past couple of weeks have been crazy busy.  Holiday seasons are always busy at work, preparing the kiddos for concerts, but home life has been just as crazy lately as well!  Not to mention the jewelry business on top of everything.  It has slowed down quite a bit, but I cannot complain...

Good news for me, one of my pieces was featured on the front page of Etsy today!!  YAY!

That's my amethyst ring in the top center!  It's a beautiful treasury!

David is having surgery on Tuesday, the 16th.  If you could pray for him on that day, I would truly appreciate it!