Continuing the Battle

Short and quick today - still fighting the flu. The flu is starting to win. This is NOT good. I'll go to work today, but I know I'll regret it. I slept for 10 hours and could easily sleep for most of the next 24. I'm just grateful that I have tomorrow off to watch the Superbowl and veg out.

Fighting the Flu

The flu has come to my house. My DH has been miserably sick with it for the past two days, and I am fighting to remain semi-healthy. I would say healthy...but I can feel the incipient beginnings of the sickness trying to take hold. The little bits of a scratchy throat. The dry cough that comes from nowhere. I am fighting...I will continue to fight. But this is something that I really don't need. VerLaine is also fighting this. If we all come down with this, it may be one of the rare times in Stormcloud Trading Co history that we will have to close our doors because of illness. Then again - we would all get some rest. Something that we all really need.

My local grocer has reusable canvas bags available for its customers for a very inexpensive price. Using these bags helps reduce the number of plastic bags hitting our environment and landfills. I purchased one for my own several months ago and have been working at decorating the bag with a floral and vines motif. It is not my greatest work, but it's been fun, and I will have something unique instead of fading in with the rest of the grey world. I find myself getting braver with my artwork - more willing to allow it to see the light of day. I don't think it is any better - just that I have realized as I look at what is allowed to see the light of day, that mine is no worse, and sometimes is better, than what is out there. Maybe bravery should have been my word for the year instead of patience....

Tucson Dreams

A lot of my friends are off to Tucson this week. The annual Tucson Gem Show is going on. For those unfamiliar with this show, it takes over the entire town in more than 40 different venues for a month. The bead-oriented part of the show occurs next weekend. I attend the show every few years, and in fact had originally planned on attending this year. But finances being what they are, and the fact that my DH is very ill with the flu...well, I'm not going this year after all. It's just as well. I know I could pick up some of the the merchandise that we really wanted to get for the store, but we'll just have to order on-line later in the year when the economy has picked up. And if we don't get as much....that's OK too. We are over-stocked right now and streamlining things is not a bad idea.

I do feel for my poor DH though. He hasn't been this sick for many years. He's under two quilts and two blankets and is still shivering with the cold. He is coughing, his nose is running, and his muscles and sinuses hurt. I don't think he has taken his temperature yet. I'm not sure he will at all. But I think he's probably running a fever and has the flu. Unfortunately, I have to go to work today, so he'll be on his own. Hopefully he's going to spend the day in bed and try to sleep this off. He doesn't need to be at work today, so he's fortunate in that respect.

New Friends - New Hope

In 2003 the economic troubles of the world were far, far away. In fact, it was an economic boom time for most of the US and the world. In the fall of that year, a happy and friendly red-haired face came through my door asking for employment. Even though I turned her down initially, she was back the next day, and she showed some tenacity and an inner spark that really intrigued me. I hired her, and Meghan became a part of our little family. Since that time, she has had an active life, and fell in love with a very attractive young man in southern Peru. She moved back to the US in the fall, last year, along with the wonderful news that she was pregnant. Last week she gave birth, and here is one of the pictures of her new cutie. Welcome to the world, Sebastian Ray. You're a total cutie and my heart is completely won over.

And, while thinking about the future, I'm also concentrating on my more immediate future - the two conferences that I am planning to attend this year. Bead & Button Show takes place in early June, and Metal Clay World takes place in July. I have my friend "Poo" (Pam) as my roomie again for Bead & Button Show. We've been rooming at these bead shows for more than 10 years now and have become firm friends. Our personal schedules work well with each other - for example, she's an evening shower person, I'm a morning shower person. And we're both married to guys named Jim; one more coincidence :-) I have a new roomie for Metal Clay World - Shruti lives near New Dehli in India. I met her last year at the PMC Conference in Indiana. I'm really looking forward to spending more time with her - she was very fun and is involved in many of the same types of artwork that I am - beading, enamelwork and metal clay. After these two conferences, I'll be totally broke for a while . But it will be worth it to travel and learn new things.

Flowers in Winter

I have a thought. I have some light-weight copper that I use for corrugation and for liquid enamel. I am cutting out some flowers. I have some dapping punches, and I'll try to form the flowers a bit. Because this is light-weight copper, I can almost do some shaping by hand. After I get the shape I want, I'm going to try some opalescent colors on these so that they can be used in a project that I have perched in the back of my mind. Because this particular project actually has a firm deadline, it will creep from the back to the front of my mind before you know it.

I'm already looking forward to tomorrow. Not just because it is Studio Day, but because I might get an opportunity to do some house cleaning. My house is an absolute PIG STY! I spend all day Sunday with my DH, and don't get any cleaning done. So I am supposed to spend some of my Wednesdays doing housework. I do laundry - generally 2 to 4 loads worth. But I don't usually have a lot of time to vaccuum, clean the shower, etc. I admit it - I am a HORRIBLE housekeeper - but with one day off, housework always gets shoved to the back of my schedule. Tomorrow I may allow a couple of hours to make my house happier.

Happy New Year - The Ox Now Rules

It is amusing to me, how many times New Year is celebrated throughout the calendar year. The calendrical New Year appears on January 1. The Chinese New Year, which we celebrate today, comes several weeks after January 1 (I think it is based on a Lunar calendar calculation, so the date is not always the same). I celebrate the New Year on the Spring Solstice, along with many other "pagan" peoples of the world. I'm sure that there are other "new year" dates out there that I am unaware of. All of these times are accurate for a large group of people. This means that there are more opportunities to celebrate new beginnings. More opportunities to have a party or - if needed - to start over again with resolutions, good intentions, etc. Look upon the new Year of the Ox as your opportunity to restate your new year's goals and resolves.

And what will the Year of the Ox bring to us? Paranormality.com says: "The year of the Ox is one in which success will escape without a sustained, mindful effort. The sort of problems that are encountered in the year of the Ox tend to be home front problems that seem to be never ending. The Ox year needs discipline and it is not the time for unruly behaviour or taking short cuts. In this year success is achieved solely through hard work. " It sounds like a reflection of what I had thought the year would be - a lot of hard work, an economy that basically sucks, and not a lot of pay-back for the work. Nice to have my relatively pessimistic outlook verified by an outside source - NOT. So, I need to work on some positive thinking and working towards LIGHT. I do that through my art, so I need to make sure that I continue to create, not just lose myself in work and home obligations. Art is one important aspect of my personal prayers to LIGHT.