Next batch of Lower Case Letter Stamps

Greetings all,

Well, it looks like we won't be getting another batch of stamps for a week or so, and we are closed until Jan 5. Hopefully we will get some stamps in before them and I will be able to post them on the 5th....stay tuned.

Happy Holidays to you all....wishing loads of joy, beads and warm fuzzies in 2009!
from all of us here at Beaducation!

...and a Happy New Year

Humm, seems I only have time to write in this blog on Holidays. Today is Christmas Eve Day and I have hauled my kids to work for a few hours. They didn't want to come and now that we are here, they don't want to leave so I find myself with a little bit of time.

So here are a few things to report:

• Workshops and classes are up for browsing at Bead&ButtonShow.com . Remember this is a very popular show and the classes fill up fast. Click here to see my classes :)
• This past month we have launched a bunch of classes at Beaducation.com. Our new Director of Education, Kate Richbourg has been working overtime getting these classes shot and up for viewing. We are SO lucky to have her!

More and more I meet folks who celebrate different types of thing this time of year....so to all of you, no matter what you celebrate, I wish you a wonderful and cozy end to 2008 and a bright and shiny entrance into 2009.

Thankfulness

Today is the day to give thanks, and dive head first into a food comma (in that order). I am thankful that it is 9:37 and I just woke up! I am thankful that my husband slept on the couch because he was snoring. I am thankful that when he left to go sleep on the couch, he carried Izzy to my bed to sleep with me, because he knows I love that (it was Izzy's turn, Lucy will come next time). I am thankful that my kids are old enough to get up early and make themselves something to eat and go watch TV for a bit while mommy and daddy sleep. I am thankful that I am OK with the fact that my kids are watching TV while I sleep. Now that I am up and eating breakfast, I am thankful for cornflakes.....I really love cornflakes.

As the day goes on, I will check in on my website and make sure everything is running smoothly. I am especially thankful that my business is doing so well in such a time of financial unrest.

Further on in the day we will go eat at my moms house and my thankfulness will turn to the really really really important things in life. I am thankful that I will be surrounded by all my siblings and their families. I am thankful that my step father will be feeling well enough to be sitting at the dinner table with us.

This morning, Izzy woke up and went to get her journal because she remembered it was Thanksgiving and she wanted to write down 10 things she was thankful for. All 10, actually it came out to 12, involved family, friends, playing the piano, and learning. As I listened to her with tears in my eyes, I felt an overwhelming sense of thanks.

Latest and hopefully last health report....

Sorry I have been neglecting this blog. I have so much going on, but I will save most of that for future blogs :)

So here is the latest on my health. I finally, literally in the past few days, feel normal. Since my first surgery on August 7th I have been up and down and mostly down. I am not whining, just trying to make it clear how PSYCHED I am to feel normal again. Ya know, when you feel weird and jittery and anxious and panicky and spinny and nauseous and generally yucky for 3 months, you start to feel like this is your new normal. But as of this week, I truly feel better. I even went to a party and danced! I thought I would be in the corner popping my Ativan but I was up and celebrating my friend Dave's 40th birthday watching my husband rock out with his band. It felt SOOOOOO good!

I started feeling better the day after my 3rd Acupuncture appointment last week. I really feel that acupuncture works but I just don't like it. I wish I liked it, but I just don't.....I don't think I will be going back. Too bad too because I am all into holistic medicine and again, I feel like it is helping me (my Acupuncturist is a true healer!) but it just creeps me out. The occasional painful needle just ruins the whole thing for me and I am not afraid of a little pain (2 births with no drugs for goodness sakes). Oh well, maybe it is tied into my anxiety and I will try it again when I feel more at ease.

From my last doctors appointment, all my blood levels are up and good but my Parathyroids are still "asleep". I won't bore you with the details of what Parathyroids are....in short, they control your Calcium absorption and mine ain't working (hence the really scary trip to the ER with dangerously low Calcium). There is some question as to whether I still have Parathyroids??? They are tiny and can sometime accidentally come out during a Thyroidectomy. So, I continue to take 2.5 calcium horse pills 3 times a day with 2 vitamin D's twice a day. Here is the deal though.....life is good, I will gladly take a parcel of pills for the rest of my life. I had Cancer and now it is almost gone and if one of the side effects of that is poppin pills everyday, I am a-ok with that!!!!!!!!

Oooops, I just realized that no where in this blog have I mentioned that I had/have Cancer. Well that is why my good for nothin' Thyroid had to be removed (twice...one side each surgery). I had a 3 centimeter nodule on my Thyroid and 95% of the time they are nothin' but lucky me, I fell into the 5%. I haven't really written about that in this blog because I tend to not get too personal here but what the heck, now that I feel better I feel like spilling my guts :) I really don't like to mention that this Thyroid issue was/is Cancer because, of all the Cancers this is the one of the few that is completely curable. With surgery and one treatment with a radioactive iodine pill (which I will do next month) most folks are cured....when I say most, I mean like really most, like 99%. Personally, I think they should rename it. I mean if it is curable, can we call it something other than Cancer? That word is so scary and it freaks people out....with good reason.

So there ya go....I am feeling well, I hope you are too!!!! :)

New lowercase font....drum roll please

Over at the shoppe at beaducation.com, we received the samples of the new lowercase letter stamps for making stamped jewelry and let me say, WOW WOW WOW. The whole office was jumping with excitement (nothing excites us more than new cool tools). They only sent me samples of a few letters but the quality and precision is amazing. The sets are in production and I have begged and pleaded to get them before mid November so you can all have time to make your holiday line of jewelry with them, or to put the sets on your wish list :)

We still don't have the final price but IT WILL BE LESS THAN $200...woohoo!

So I am finally willing to show you the font.....here it is. PLEASE post a comment to let me know what you think!
This font was hand drawn by me (Lisa, head mama here at Beaducation.com). I learned a lot about how to create a font. We named this font Kismet, because it was so meant to be.....it is so "me".

Each letter was very thought out and edited over and over again. Some letters had a lot more loopiness to them but it got to be a bit much so we turned it down a bit. I am very happy with and hope you are too!

Second surgery DONE....feelin' better!

Well, I am back from my SECOND surgery. I had that one 2 weeks ago and am just now landing back on my feet and really getting back to work. Now my Thyroid has been totally removed and I am on Thyroid hormone replacement pills. I am still getting used to this new thing in my body....I'm a little light headed but that could also be from the surgery.....blah. I'll tell ya what though, I am GLAD to be out of bed!!!

We are launching a bunch of new classes over at beaducation.com. It is worth a peek if ya haven't checked us out lately :)

LNK

Crunch!

We came home from a friends house last night at 11:00PM to a Fire truck and a bunch of firemen in our front yard. After my heart skipped 3 dozen beats, we found out that a big huge branch from the tree across the street, had fallen. It was huge, and smashed my neighbors car (that used to be an Expedition). If we were not out at our friends house for dinner, my car would also have been scrunched as the branch hit my parking spot and landed just shy of our front lawn (10 feet from our house)....phew!


Let it be a reminder to us all that Mother Nature has her own timing but we should all try to keep up with her by trimming our trees and getting them inspected. I will be calling the city this week to take a look at a big ol' Magnolia tree hanging over my kids room that is looking like i'ts dying.

Whew, what a summer

Wow, this summer has zoomed by. My husband took 2 months off (at my insistence) so he got to be the stay at home dad (I refer to him as my wife....he is a way better wife than me!) and I have been working overtime here at beaducation to pay the bills. And I have been able to pay the bills which feels damn good....woohoo for women owned businesses.

I had to take 2 weeks off last month because I had surgery (don't worry I am fine). Thank goodness my husband was off work to be my nurse as well! So if I have been slow at getting back to emails, I apologize! I am trying to play mad catch up....only to get behind again, because I need a second surgery on Sept 4th. Blah! Oh well, I will survive!

I hope you all had a wonderful summer, and I hope your kids are back in school (if ya got 'em). Mine go back next week!

:)
Lisa

...buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks!

Yesterday, we took the train to the San Francisco to go to a Giants game. It was so much fun. The weather was nice (just a wee bit chilly), the croud was great, the food was greasy (aka awesome!) and the park is beautiful. They built the Giants ball park 8 years ago. If you are ever in town, I highly recommend catching a game....and a hot dog of course.

I spent most of my time up at the big coke bottle slide. There are 4 slides in this big ol' super cool coke bottle and boy did my kids enjoy them. They even got me to go down a few times.

The only problem with watching a ball game (with kids) is for the first half of the game, there are a ton of vendors walking up and down the isles and my kids were freaking out wanting every single food item that they carried...."Mommy, I want peanuts! Mommy, I want cotton candy! Mommy, I want a chocolate malt! Mommy, I want beer!" (that was my husband chiming in). Uhhh, it got so old! They even tried the ol' "I am still hungry"...yet they had had a hot dog, snack bar, tons of peanuts and a soft pretzel the size of their head...."I ain't falling for that, let's go ride the slide again!"

Puzzles.... a lesson in patience and healing

I spent a few hours at the Cancer Clinic at Stanford today while my Step Father received "the cyber knife" (crazy fascinating technology) radiation treatment. This treatment will hopefully zap that damn lil' piece of %$#@ tumor on his Pancreas. Keep your fingers cross. If nothing else, this one time treatment will buy us some time with him....we will take it!

At this clinic there is a room where patients wait to get their radiation treatment. We waited there while my step father got his. In the middle of the room is a table with a puzzle on it. When we walked in, there was one woman working on that puzzle. There she was in her hospital gown, her body showed all the signs of chemo and multiple radiation treatments. You could just tell that she ached from her skin down. I found myself drawn to her. She had this gorgeous and kind aura about her. She sat there patiently working on that puzzle with a very slight smile on her face. So I decided to join her. We sat, chatting lightly about nothing much but mostly we just sat in silence and worked on the puzzle. She said that particular puzzle had been finished a few weeks ago and they were starting over. I sat with her, to be near her but at first sight of this puzzle I thought "this looks so hard, it's futile, how will I ever find even a few pieces that go together". It was one of those puzzles with lots of muted color but the colors just blended together with no sharp and easy to define patterns. My new friend worked away and said "it's easy, you just need to be patient and keep trying". I did that. I was patient and kept trying, then one by one I built a row of 6 pieces. It felt like an amazing accomplishment....6 pieces wow! She said another patient who works on these puzzles with her, lets out a little squeak each time she successfully finds and connects a piece. So there we sat, in silence mostly, sprinkled with little squeaks (followed by a giggle of course) every now and then. I enjoyed sitting next to this squeaking lady, who smiled constantly, who took a grueling 2 hour train and bus ride to get to this place of medicine to receive this treatment. She was beautiful and she inspired me.

I'm still here....

Wow, I have been slacking on this blog! Sorry about that! I have been so busy at Beaducation that I hardly have time to eat let alone blog (and exercising is OUT!). We have added a gabazillion new products...and more coming all the time!

I just wrote about our fabulous time at the Bead&Button Show on my beaducation blog. Check it out if you wish!

More soon...
Lisa

Back from Bead and Button

We are back and are madly restocking all our goodies which came back from the show. But there ain't much....it was a very successful show! I will post details and pix very soon.
:)

Canceling Bead Fest

It is with great great sorrow that I have to cancel my classes at Bead Fest Philadelphia. We just found out that my Step Father has inoperable Pancreatic Cancer and I fear our time with him is very limited. I have also withdrawn my applications to teach at Bead Expo Sante Fe in 2009. In the 16 years that I have been traveling and teaching, I have never needed to cancel classes, but this is important. I live 10 minutes from my mom and Step Dad and I need to remain by their side for a while.

I cherrish this man. He is absolutely one of the most incredible people I have ever met....amazing man, friend, husband, father, grandfather and Vet. He has one of the brightest spirits you will ever come across. Please send him some good thoughts!!!!

Rain ain't gonna stop us!

Well, we are back from the Strawberry Music Festival. It rained pretty much the whole time. But thanks to an amazing community of friends and my engineer husband who had a big part in building the covered "lounge" area (with Doug and Will of course), we had a blast.

We were able to head to the main stage and see some great bands....yes, in the rain. Personally, I like dancing in the rain! Two of my favorites that got my cold buns dancin', were JJ Grey and Mofro and South Austin Jugg Band. I was back at camp putting the kids to bed and missed Emmylou Harris but she sounded great from where I was :)

We weren't able to play in the lake but it was beautiful to look at.
We pretty much sat around and did a whole lot of this (see below picture).....playing and listening to music, ok, and drinking home brew and fine wine. Oh and we did get in a bunch of walks between rain bursts. We camped with great musicians including the lovely Jill and her husband Steve of Orange Sherbet.




Just before we left, we were able to get a bite of the famous and traditional "Pamcakes" made by my buddy Pam (below)...she and I have been friends since we were 5!







Pam and her husband Will pretty much bind this community. They are our glue, the wind beneath our wings...all that good stuff. Despite the rain, my kids had a blast made some new "strawberry friends", and now we are home, dry, semi clean and looking forward to next year :)

Work hard play hard

I wrote about this saying a while ago.....I can really relate to it. I mean here I am at work, I have been here since 8:30 AM and I will be here until 8:00 PM when I need to go relieve the babysitter (husband is at work too). Oh and it's my birthday. But that is ok, I am willing to work hard so that we can leave early Thursday morning to the Strawberry Music Festival and PLAY HARD!

This will be our 4th year in a row going to this festival. We camp with about 30 friends setting up a full community complete with a lounge and stocked kitchen. My kids love it. They get to spend the days playing in the lake and the nights snuggled up at the main stage either dancin' or sleepin' under the stars.....ahhh, i can't wait. I will post some pix when we get back.

Winerack

I was given a most excellent present this weekend.
Click here to view it, it speaks for itself. WOW!
It indeed holds a whole bottle of wine, we tested it...hey, I don't get out much!
THANKS Dave!

busy busy

Things around here are busy busy! We just finished shooting Felting classes with Gail Crosman Moore. It was sooooo much fun. Felting is so cool, wow there is a lot you can do with it. Gail was a blast, she is such a fun and cheerie gal, ya can't help but be happy when you are around her. We are lucky to have 3 classes with her...and one will be FREE, woo!

I am crazy busy getting my boxes of kits, tools, wire, blanks and more tools packed up for the Bead and Button Show. It's all hands on deck here....we even have one of my employees coming in with her CUTE baby! He keeps us smiling.

Hopefully we will be launching 2 seedbead classes with Barb Switzer tomorrow...stay tuned.


Lucy came walking in yesterday with 2 of Barb's bracelets on her head, linked together worn as a halo. She looks like a little hippie angel, I love it!

Latest chain article for Step by Step Wire magazine

For 2008, I am writing a chain article every issue for Step by Step Wire magazine. I have already done 2 issues and here is the picture for my latest chain. I am really excited about this one. It is (of course) inspired by my latest obsession with classic wrought ironwork. I love how the weaves and small connecting jump rings give the illusion of a solder/welded join.

Hope you like it :)

Flu yuck!

I don't think I have ever gotten the flu before. But it hit me hard last Wednesday. I have been bed ridden since....ahhh! I rarely get sick and if I do, it is 24 hours and then done, no mas. Not this time!!!I have completely ignored my business and my children because I have been asleep for 20 out of the 24 hours of each of the past 4 days. I am now feeling a little better but I am so light headed I can hardly walk to the kitchen. I saw the doctor today and she said I was at the tail end of the flu. She told me to lay low at least one more day. She even offered me a note for work. That is pretty poignant. I do push myself pretty hard and if I need a note to give to myself from my doctor, well that is a sign to slow down...kinda poetic in a weird way.

Anyhow, I am on the mend. My mom has made me homemade chicken noodle soup and my husband is waiting on my hand and foot. I hope to be back to work in the next few days.

French Quarter Balcony Pictures

I was telling my pal Barb Switzer about my love of wrought iron scroll work and she reminded me of the balconies in New Orleans. I have never been there but of course have seen amazing pictures. So I did a quick web search and look at this. These pictures put me in a daze...look at all that work. I love it!!! Thanks Barb!

Lucy's eye to eye

My 5 year old, Lucy, got quite intrigued with the God's Eye weave I was doing with wire this afternoon. Previously this morning, she was a grump because she couldn't make a spiral as well as her big sister. So I got her weaving a God's Eye. She rocked at it, and we now have 4 of them hanging around the house.

Wirework...stealing my sleep!

Ah, this happens about every 3 or 4 months. I get an idea and design in my head and I obsess! I have to stop everything, including sleeping, and work on that design until I get it right.

Here is my latest obsession. I have always been drawn to classic hand forged wrought ironwork pieces. When ever I go to San Francisco I spend the journey with my nose pressed up against the car window (when I am not driving), focusing on the railings, panels and doors adorned with crazy crazy scroll patterns. It just blows my mind. I have always wanted to sit with my wire and replicate them. There was an amazing gate in the movie "The Other Boylen Girl" that got this idea back in my head. I have wanted to replicate some of these classic patterns for about 10 years, but lack of time kept them from exiting my brain and taking shape on my pliers. Until yesterday.....and last night, and late last night, and early this morning, and after meeting Dallas Lovett (who was in town teaching) for lunch....yes, I didn't sleep much last night. I spent most of the night scrolling and binding and scrolling and binding. The few minutes I did sleep, I scrolled and bound in my dreams. I didn't have any Sterling wire at home so I used some of my kids craft wire. Humm, lovely blue, red and copper....yikes! It made for a dang ugly piece but the structure and design are there. Please ignore the red piece, I kinda lost it down there.

Today I ran to my studio before lunch and picked up some Sterling and continued with my obsession. It is going quite well and I think I have FINALLY figured out my project for Hooked On Wire. I will get a few pix up here soon....for now, below is a practice piece in Sterling.

The work desperately needs to be oxidized and cleaned up a bit (those ugly blunt ends on the inside of the spirals should be hammered and tapered before beginning the spiral). The final HOW piece will be bigger, more intricate and most likely a necklace. I am sure most will say "put some beads on there girl!", and I probably will, but I really like the simplicity of just wire.

Summer Camp

I am up to my ears in summer camp plans. Last night I spent 2 hours with a spread sheet, 3 city parks and rec brochures and 6 webpages opened, trying to plan my kids summer. It is so hard to get the schedule just right. I have to work a full week so the dream summer of sitting by a pool or lake ain't gonna happen. We will squeeze that in, as much as possible but I need to keep my girls busy! They have the coolest camps these days; magic camp, lego camp, sewing/fashion camp (oh yeah we are all over that!) science camp where you grow crystals and my favorite, hip hop camp. Can't I go to some of those camps....why don't they have camps like this for mommys?
Anyhow, we will work it out. I am glad that summer can be a time of trying new things and meeting new friends for them :)...cause mama's gotta go to work and make some jewelry!

New class....I LOVE MAKING JEWELRY

ok, the name of the class is not "I love making jewelry", I just felt like yelling that because I love this new piece so much. This is actually a bead I made TWO years ago. I am just now getting around to embracing it and transforming it into a teachable project. It is so fun and looks great just strung plain on a chain.
It is called "Coiled and Stitched Focal Bead".....whoa creative title huh? Coming up with class names is the worst! Sometimes I get creative, like ShaBangles, and sometime I just hit ya with a straight forward title, like this one. Anyhow, I will be adding this to my circuit of classes.....hope ya like it!!!!

Welcome to the new blog

Hey all....we have re-done my site and decided to use a new blog program. We had to trash all the old posts from the last few years and start a new. That's ok, change is good :) I will be adding to this blog periodically. I will also be adding many posts to our other blog at beaducation.com.
Stay tuned....glad to have ya :)

What have I been doing lately?...trying to finalize my piece for the Hooked On Wire Retreat. Sometimes a new design comes easily, sometimes it is a bit more of an adventure. This one has taken me more time than usual. I have written about this design in a few posts at beaducation.com. I will be reworking my design, which I don't mind....I love the process.

Philadelphia....here we come!

Here is a link to my classes. Hope to see ya there!They just posted the classes and info for Bead Fest Philadelphia. The show is August 21-24. This is a great show. If ya live back east, you should definitely consider coming.

Rising Metals Market

Are you wondering why everyone is raising their metals prices??? I just tried my best to describe how the market works in a post over at my Beaducation.com blog.
Check it out if you wish...blog.beaducation.com...it ain't pretty!

Falling Slowly

Ahhh, did you see the Oscars last Sunday night? I love movies but I am not a one of those “gotta see every movie” people. I wish I was, but I just don’t have the time! Anyhow, my absolute favorite Oscar moment(s) was the performance of the song “Falling Slowly” and the acceptance speeches by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. Oh the performance was so beautiful. And when they won best song, I stood up and yelled. They accepted the award with such grace, gratitude and pure honesty. I have showed that Oscar moment to my kids a few times. It is the perfect example of making your dreams come true. Of course my daughters have heard “dreams do come true” a gazillion times from me and from Cinderella, but here was a real live (not a cartoon and not their repetitive mother) example. I already knew the song but didn’t know it was from a movie. Glen Hansard sounds just like Cat Stevens (don’t get me started on how much I love the movie Harold and Maude!).

Here is a youtube video of them singing it outside, in Sundance, just the 2 of them, one instrument.

Yeh for them, now I need to go rent the movie.