40% OFF everything in the etsy store:

http://flamekeeper.etsy.com

unless it is already in the clearance section. Sale ends July 5, 2009.

The last performance by the 6th grade band tonight. This is too cool

Right there in the front, my Colby! :D  (hope this works- I need to get a plugin to play WMV files, and the video is 20mb big…

embedded by Embedded Video

And an upgrade for Wordpress. Wheeeee!

Not a whole lot has happened since my last blog post, but I did start my clearance sale at the Etsy store, and have a couple of sets listed on the Bay again (yes, I know, I rant and rave, but I needed a boost! ).  The kids have finished Awana for the year, and I’m not sure they’ll be going back next year. Colby has a few clubs he likes to go to after school, and Lili has cheerleading in Rochester, and with homework, it’s a mess trying to get up to town in time on Wednesdays.   (As I sit here and get prompted by Vista that my activation key doesn’t work, and try typing it in AGAIN) I upgraded my laptop, too! New big shiny 320GB hard drive and 2GB of memory- now I can Photoshop AND check mail at the same time, yippee! (yay, retyping the key worked- whew!)

We’ve been fishing, I finally finished spinning that laceweight Maerchengarten dyed top from Cloudlover69 on Etsy:

That’s 1300 yards there. Holy cow, says I!  I still need to take a class!

The kids have had birthdays, I have not

Let’s see, what other news have I? Not much!  Bead pictures?  Ahhh… How about we do this instead?  A little handy EtsyMini and then links to the new eBay sets

Next up, two sets on eBay. I spent forever pulling murrini canes, but it was SO much fun, I think I’ll keep doing it, and I’m saving up for some graphite optical molds Flowers! (You can click the pictures to go to the auctions )

Calaveras Del Jardin (the backs are SOOOO cool!)

and an Aurae experiment that I LOVE,

South Seas

I’m going to finish my coffee and get ready for Mother’s Day with the kids- we’re picking them up soon, and taking Brian’s mom out to dinner!

First one of spring- of course Brian beat me to it the other day, but I was busy making dinner :P  So, the fishing is on! Yay!

On the beady note, I posted new beads today- I’d hoped to torch today, but with parent teacher conferences and early dismissal today and tomorrow, no torching for me until at least Sunday- the kids are going to Gramma & Grampa’s this weekend, and I have a grown up girl party to attend Saturday! Another YAY!

So, beads are here:

And I’m off to get something to eat before the kids get home. Today we’re exploring fruits. I have prickly pear fruit, hairy cherries, pepitas (I think) melon and a few other exotic fruits for us to try. Hopefully I can talk them into walking with me after lunch, too! Oh yeah… the sale continues! Keep posting the BlogSale comment, keep getting 20% off

(apparently I will even go clean the bathroom to avoid blogging- I had a little detour on the way here, bleach and Fabuloso were involved. And I hate cleaning the bathroom. LOL!)

1. Having a bit of a flood.

The back yard, our boat and the dock

The channel, up about 3 feet

the dry creekbed across the road

2. Piercing my son’s ear- you’d have thought it was going through his toe with how much he cried before I actually got the needle in him. 16g cbr for now- he’ll move up to a manly 14g or 12g when it’s healed.

He's so totally in love with it.

3. Taking my daughter for a half hour full body massage for her 10th birthday.  It would have been an hour, but she’s pretty small! We thought a half hour would do just great, and Lili agreed

4. Being totally addicted to Mousehunt, Hammerfall and SuperPoke Pets on Facebook.

5. Fishing in my back yard- and I mean the YARD, not the channel that runs through it- with the flood, the fish were IN the yard

6. Walking a mile. Ok, so that just started again, but hey, it was winter and I don’t do cold.

7. Making beads. Not always successfully, not prolifically, but I’ve been trying to keep doing it even when I didn’t feel like it.

8. Eating grits and eggs for breakfast (hence the need to walk the mile, yeah.).

9. Spinning. (BTW, Easter grass will not successfully spin on it’s own- it must be added to another fiber or done by someone much more experienced with spinning than myself… )

Now what to knit with it!??

10. Knitting (again, the need to walk the mile comes in- I need to lose weight so it doesn’t take so long and cost so much to finish one stinkin’ sweater, and I don’t even LIKE it because I used crappy yarn and found a dropped stitch in the sleeve, and need to refinish the neckline because I put in too many single crochets and now it’s wavy, and the fabric’s too open because I couldn’t really get gauge without doubling the yarn. Whew.)

From the Fall Vogue Knitting, p 104. They did it so much better...

11. Laundry. Yes, so much of it that it bears listing in this list.

12. Tattooing.  I’ve added new ink to Gerri’s arm garden, and my little naked flying fairy is now on her left shoulder along with some new bugs, vines and butterflies.  I finally dove in and did my little pirate girl on my outer right calf (moo.), and she’s not too shabby for working upside down and bent over for an hour and a half

13. Buying a new van. Hubby’s car just decided it was too tired to start again one morning, so he now has my Kia Sephia, and I have The Black Pearl ( an ‘07 Dodge Grand Caravan with a pearly black finish, which is now my pirate ship).

14. Listening to my son cough for 4 straight days and not making him live outside. I thought I did pretty good considering my lack of patience

15. Trying to get motivated to do ANYTHING. Winter is leaving, but I’m still in the blahs. My muse is no cold weather lover, so she’s in Waikiki or somewhere, languishing in the sun until spring returns here.  I’ll have a few choice words for her when she gets back.  Who am I kidding? I’ll grovel and thank her for gracing me with her presence again.

16. Visiting my LYS (local yarn shop) for the first time- I didn’t even know it was there until I saw it on Ravelry for where to buy a particular yarn locally. ADORABLE shop. Knit meetings the first Saturday of the month. I’m going because I have no life. And yes, I bought yarn. $89 worth. But I did get 3 free back issues of Verena with gorgeous European inspired knit patterns! And sock yarn. Rock!

17. Realizing I have no life! LOL  Did I mention I’m still in the winter blahs?

18. Getting my hair cut for spring. I really don’t like it, but it will grow.

19. Leaving things unfinished. (hah!)

Oh yeah! Sale. Mention “blogsale” in the buyer’s comments when you check out, and I’ll send a revised invoice… for how much? 20% off- anything in the store goes!