Serena's Bead Blog

We have power! 70+ hours with no juice hanging about in less than 300 square feet with 3 inches or so of ice covering everything has been interesting. And even now that we have the entire house to enjoy, the four of us are sitting within arms reach of each other.

I have to say I really enjoyed the time spent with no electronics. I thought I would go stir crazy without my laptop, but I didn't even miss it. Although, I would be completely alright with never having to experience another ice cold toiled seat again. The house is all electric, but my studio has a vent less gas heater so that is where we have been bunking since Tuesday afternoon. Its just a hop, skip and a jump from the back door, but can seem quite far when you have to go potty at 6am. We stayed plenty warm, but space was tight by the time we spread out foam pads for sleeping.

I also pulled out all my beads and findings and stuff and created lots of earrings and a couple of necklaces. I will show everything off in a few days when I get myself back on track. I also hope to have some wild icy images too. Elijah even made some fancy necklaces that I proudly wore today.

Now to sift through an inbox full of unread messages I have been avoiding...... Not quite ready to get back to work.

Just a quick update from a friend's house. We are without power and have been since Tuesday afternoon. My website seems to be down for one reason or another. We got about 2 inches of ice and have lost a few trees. I have no idea how long this will last, but we are alright. I have heat in the studio, just no water. We have ventured out to take showers and get more supplies.

I might be pulling a involuntary disappearing act in the very near future. Besides suffering from the sniffles and feeling sick, we are supposed to be hit by a nice wintry storm. They are forecasting that we will be getting anywhere from 1" of sleet to 2" of ice. So, if I become nonresponsive, don't feel ignored. Just picture me sitting all snugly under a few layers of soft warm blankets with my own personal heater (Elijah) and a cup of tea.

I just finished listing some new special production sets from Bullseye on eBay. I hope to have many more bunches like these in the future. Bullseye produces some wonderful one time colors, but I have a hard time offering them on a made to order basis since they can vary so much from throughout a batch and even from rod to rod. By selling these gorgeous colors in a 'ready to go' format, we both win. I get to play with some of these to die for colors and you get to see them (and hopefully play with them too) more often. So don't be bashful if you like what you see. Let me know if you would like to see more like this and what colors.

Now to see if I can get you some links and pictures! And, it worked. Each picture should link you directly to the eBay listing.

I have to say I was quite tickled to have stumbled onto these earrings this morning. I was hopping around Flickr this morning and found myself attracted to a couple pairs of earrings. Not much of a shocking thing for a self proclaimed earring addict. What was so delightful about these particular earrings was the fact that they were made with my beads. I just LOVE how these look. Estancia, you did a fabulous job of showing off these rather basic beads with fine silver. Yum, yum, yum. Thanks so much for the mention too.

There is going to be a definite slow down in progress of all sorts around here starting tomorrow. DH, Mike, is having his shoulder fixed after a ....ah....um... skateboarding incident last August. Ladies, never forget to tell your guy not to take up skateboarding after 40. Believe me, nothing good will come from it. So, tomorrow, we get to leave out of here by 6:10 to get to Springfield in time for his surgery. He will be in a sling for 6 weeks. We'll see how long that actually lasts, but I can guarantee you, I will not be getting orders out as efficiently as expected. Hopefully, my chief bead cleaner and cook will recuperate quickly (and quietly, without complaints - might as well hope for the best, right?) and I don't go insane from trying to take care of it all myself.

Everything paid for by 10AM on the 4th is in the kiln and should ship tomorrow. The picture is a glimpse of some beads coming up soon.