One More Day

One more day without Chickie working alongside of me. One more day for me to have to work harder. But between customers, I have had a chance to write a bit, and I have finished three days of the first five days of Back to Middle Earch month. I'm pleased. Things still need polishing though, so I have had a board set up for me with friends of mine who will critique my little tales and from that point I can go ahead and post them publically on a few author boards. It's a new outlet for my creativity and I'm having some fun with it. I'll try to play for this month and then I may allow myself to fade back to the background for a while longer. I have actually been working on longer stories, but I'm not happy enough with where those plots are going and those will remain private for what could be a very long time.

She's much younger than I am, and her hair is a

bit more golden, but that love affair with her

keyboard?  That's me 100%. 

In the meantime I am still dreaming of artwork and wishing I had more time to study how to produce digital artwork. I know I'll have the ability to play, but timing is everything and I only have so much time in my life. My poor husband is always complaining about how he gets no time from me these days. I don't think I'm giving him any less time than he has received over the past few years, but for some reason he thinks it is less. I only have 1-2 hours at night to hit the computer and if I watch a training tutorial, I tend to fall asleep because although the artist is excellent, his voice is very soft and rather monotone. So, despite the fact that I am very interested in the subject matter, I fall asleep over my keyboard . Oh well, I will continue plugging along because I think that working my artwork digitally may be a perfect media for me...at least for now. Have a creative and artistic weekend.

Playing the Fool

So there is an annual event taking place for the month of March called Back To Middle Earth.  Last year's event was confusing for me, although I enjoyed reading the stories that were submitted by the variety of authors.  But this year seems to be much more straightforward and some of the themes have me interested.  So, fool that I am, I will probably participate in this.  But I am NOT an author.  So I'm a bit nervous about putting my own writing "out there" into the public eye.  I think if I had not made such good on-line friends among the authors who write Tolkien fanfic, I would never dream of doing this.  As it is, I will step into that lake very gently, one toe at a time, and I will still try and do some artwork for this month-long challenge since artwork is also acceptable and is what I would feel more comfortable submitting in so many ways. 

I feel like a child writing a story for a class.  Shy, but having

to turn the story in because it is a class assignment.  I can't think

of why I feel that way for a voluntary challenge.  Silly me!

I survived Thursday without Chickie, and here I am ready to dive into Friday.  Even though I went to sleep earlier last night, I'm still exhausted.  I would allow myself to sleep later in the morning, but I know from experience that I would regret that because I would not be able to do those things that I so love in the morning - reading through and responding to my Emails, writing in my blog, and commenting on stories in the works on my various critique boards.  I also leave the house early enough in the morning to read at the shop for another hour, or go to Caribou coffeeshop for a nice cup of coffee and some oatmeal.  I do these things to relax and to keep my stress levels lower, but they are starting to become stress makers in their own right and that is something that I have to watch.  Stress can be a great motivator, but it is also a killer, and I always know when I'm under too much stress because of some physical reactions that I develop.  So I will continue trying to do whatever I can to allow myself to relax and I will try and keep my stress minimal.  I hope you have a stress-free day. 

Wishing For Spring

So many of my friends throughout the world are seeing small plants and the first spring flowers poking their way into their gardens and hedgerows.  And then there is the snowbelt.  Our drifts are up to 10 feet high, our areas where we dump our personal shoveling are more than four feet high, and we are going to get another 1"-2" of snow today.  March is generally our snowiest month, but I am hoping beyond hope, that we will have a very mild March. 

Look at these snowdrifts sculpted by the wind.  They

are gloriously beautiful (in a cold way).  Surely Spirit has

her/his hand on our world and reminds us through beauty

like this. 

Chickie is taking three days of vacation so I'll be short-staffed for three days.  Usually it doesn't come that much into play, but I don't get as much tea as I usually would, and I have to work the sales floor more intensively.  By the time Sunday will come around I will be a puddle of exhaustion.  I'll get my payback when I attend Bead & Button Show in June and my Metal Clay World conference in July.  She'll have to work without my backup then. And she'll attend her family reunion in July which will be the next time I'll have to cover for her.  That will be important because they will be celebrating the life of her Aunt who just passed the Circles of the World last week. Her Mom finally managed to get back to town after spending the last few weeks with her twin before she passed and overseeing the family after her death.  Chickie's been horribly sick with a sinus and chest cold, so in some ways I'm glad she will be gone for a few days.  I have to remember to disinfect the register keys and the phone when I get into the shop today. 

This landscape is digitally rendered.  I love the

sunbeams coming through the forest leaves. 

I spent yesterday working through the first seven chapters of my digital art tutorial.  I am absolutely amazed by what can be done digitally, and realize I have a lot of practice to do.  I ordered four additional lessons which I hope will work on my version of Photoshop.  If not, I'm sure that the principles will work until I can afford a Photoshop upgrade.  I really want to bring my pencil work into the computer for colorizing, patterns, and finalization.  I've been wanting to learn the process of making digital art for years, and just decided I need to take the bull by the horns and teach myself how to do it.  I think it will be very fun. 

Rambling Thoughts For the Day

So CBS went out and purchased several items purported to be anything from 10K to 14K gold and then had them tested where they turned out to be as low as 1.4K (that's 1 point 4 K) gold.  Of course they purchased a bunch of junk that never saw the hands of a true jeweler, just buying things that would more likely be sold at your local Wal Mart, but it was a good lesson.  Personally, 10K is not gold.  14K is barely gold.  My preference is 18K gold because that is true gold.  Just a quick reminder, 24K is pure gold, but it is usually considered too soft for jewelry (although many items in Thailand and other places in Southeast Asia are actually 24K gold).  So other metals are added to the gold, creating an alloy and lowering the karat of the gold.  If I was buying gold in these crazy days, and I wanted that gold to be jewelry, I would see a small, professional jeweler and I would buy 18K gold items.  I'm not going to do that, though, because that's money I simply don't have. 

I am rather amazed by the value that we place

on natural elements.  Gold has an artificial value, as

do diamonds, pearls, and other stones.  Why? 

It is completely arbitrary.  But gold is pretty.

Chickie is suffering.  She is sick, sick, sick.  When most people get chest colds, she gets sinus colds.  She is certainly entitled to sick time, but the only times she has ever taken her sick days have been when she had surgery.  So she showed up for work yesterday, but truly was so miserable.  I banished her to the back where she huddled under her blanket and relaxed for most of the day.  I called her out a few times to help on the floor or watch things while I went down to the warehouse, but let her remain quiet and warm for as long as I could.  I'm off today and she'll have to work the front.  And then she's taking three days off to attend a workshop.  So I hope she's feeling better today. 

I haven't visited Barnes & Noble for a while, so

I think it's about time.  And having a Groupon

coupon to spend - even better!

I am going to try to continue working on digital art today.  Back-To-Middle-Earth, an annual daily challenge project that occurs each March, has begun and artwork is an acceptable medium.  I have other artwork challenges coming up in other months also, so I really need to get digital art under my belt.  I think I'll be at the computer for most of the day today.  I'll also drop by Barnes & Noble to spend my Groupon coupon.  They had an offer a couple of weeks ago - $20 for $10 - such a deal.  And I brought my bead work home from the shop so that I could work a bit on that - I have a choker in the works and want to get more accomplished with it.  I hope that you have a creative and joyous day because every day when we rise to greet the sun again is a day filled with joy. 

Remembering Dad

Today is March 1st and it is my father's birthday.  He died many years ago from cancer, but he was a pretty fantastic guy.  Dad was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia in the early part of last century as the youngest child in a family of three - one older brother and one older sister.  His early life was idyllic, but when he was fairly young, his mother died and his father remarried.  My father and aunt always described their step-mother as evil - the original evil step-mother, just like in the fairy stories.  He lived with his father and step-mother until my aunt was able to afford to move out and took him with her to Vienna, Austria.  They escaped and never returned. 

Prague, Czechoslovakia is one of the most beautiful

cities in Europe. 

My father was a lore-master.  He was someone who wanted nothing more than to bury his nose in a book.  Unfortunately his life and Europe at the time, really didn't allow for him to engage in any advanced education.  But after he finally managed to escape Europe and arrive in the US, his life took a decided shift.  He and my mother moved to Colorado where they took a small apartment and he started to make a living as a door-to-door salesman.  He wasn't very successful at that career, and came down with tuberculosis.  After a long stay in the hospital and rehabilitation, he was trained as a bookkeeper and began a new career that kept him employed, running his own business, until I was in college.  Then he retired and began the life he had always wanted.  He went back to school, earning his BA, MA and PhD in a series of classes, straight-A grades and full scholarships for his advanced degrees.  He devised an education program for Business German and was accepted by Colorado University as a teacher at their Boulder, Colorado campus.  He wrote textbooks on German language that are still in print today, and he loved being a professor.  The last twenty years of his life were spent doing what he truly loved. 

The campus of Colorado University in Boulder, Colorado

is nestled in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.  It's a

beautiful campus in a lovely town. 

My father loved opera, was a great dancer, and was a courtly gentleman.  He had his bad points too, because he was human and not everything is sunshine and roses for human beings.  But those bad points were quite minor.  He worshipped my mother and was always amazed that he was lucky enough to be able to marry her and share his life with her.  I remember and salute you today, Dad.  I love you still, and miss you every day.  So I thought I would take this opportunity to share you with the world - because you were a remarkable man. 

Beautiful Gowns

I am a middle-aged overweight short female who won't be getting any closer to haute couture clothing than the other side of a television screen.  But the gowns at the Academy Awards last night were marvelous.  Oh, there were some bad ones, and some that just were the wrong color for the person wearing them.  But, most of the gowns were wonderful and flowed beautifully.  I was watching the red carpet before the Oscars began and watched most of it on "E", NOT my favorite channel.  Their commentators were some person I had never heard of in a dreadful dress with a horrid hairstyle, and Kelly Osbourne (yes, Ozzy's daughter) who also had an atrocious hairstyle.  Now, when I think of high fashion, I most certainly do NOT think of Kelly Osbourne.  However, for the last hour of the red carpet, I found Tim Gunn doing commentary on another channel and flipped over to him.  At least he knows what he is talking about. 

Halle Berry always looks amazing and this

year's gown was outstanding on her.  



I did take an hour out of the Oscars to watch the Amazing Race, because I happen to really enjoy the show.  But then I spent far too long watching the Academy Awards and couldn't turn them off or go to sleep until they were over.  So I'm a bit tired today and this will be a hard week since I'll be short staffed on Thursday, Friday and Saturday while my Assistant Manager attends a workshop. 

Natalie Porthan looked great and very happily

pregnant.  She won the Oscar for her role in

the Black Swan - a movie that I still want to see. 

And the annual Back To Middle Earth challenge begins again on March 1st.  Last year I found it quite confusing, but I may participate a bit in this year's challenge.  Only with artwork, though.  It's always good to have a goal in mind and since other things that I participate in are running late this year, I might as well concentrate on my pencils, pens and paints instead.  Since this challenge is totally open-ended, I don't feel backed into a deadline corner.  I wish you a great upcoming week!