Technology Has Come So Far!

Wow! DH and I picked up Minion last night (s/he's happily getting used to the garage as I write). Originally we were supposed to pick her up on Tuesday night, but an unexpected funeral called our sales guy out of the shop that day and I didn't want to turn the final step over to someone I didn't know. So we rescheduled for Wednesday night instead. After bringing her home and parking her in the garage, I was bouncing off the walls of 'things I have to do' all night long because there's so much to learn. Technology has moved ahead big-time since my last new car and I'm running in place to try and keep up.

I love classical music - although, I enjoy most music. As a trained
cellist for many years, I gravitated back to classical when I needed
to decrease stress in my life. It provides me with an anchor of beauty
upon which to hang each day. 

I know that the first two things I need to do is install the cargo cover (a matter of opening the box and attaching four ends into their appropriate locations) and set the radio for my Classical Minnesota Public Radio station. After that I'll be settling down with the manual to start working through the many other things I need to know about the car. It's a bit intimidating, but I really like it.

It'll be like being back in college again - lots of late night
studying until I really understand how Minion will talk to me. 

DH hadn't done anything except sit in the showroom sample car before last night, so he was pleasantly surprised at how it rode, the sight-lines and how comfortable the seat was. He loved that he wasn't hitting his head getting in and out of the the car, and also how high off the ground it was. He was an easy convert.

Da Grape was a fabulous car that was reliable and peppy right
through to the end. There were problems, sure, but of all my
cars, Grape was the one I loved the most. Now to see what Minion
can do for me over the next 10-15 years. 

They gave me a good trade-in price on Grape, so we waved good-bye to her as we left the parking lot. There was a bit of a tear in my eye, but the amount they offered me dropped my payments down to a level where I'm much more comfortable, so I'm happy. She was a fabulous car. I loved driving her and she never let me down. But there is something to be said about having a car with a functional air conditioner, has good struts, is stable, and has higher ground clearance for those snowy winter days.

I've always wanted a red car, and now I finally have one. Minion
is sharp looking, inside and out, and surprisingly roomy. I think
I'm going to be very happy, but I guarantee I'll rant on
my blog and you'll know if I'm not - LOL. 

So, this is the one and only "Yippee" post I'm going to write about Minion. S/he's home now, and I have my learning cut out for me. Suffice it to say - I'm very happy and s/he's pretty darned sharp looking. Now to just understand how to sync my phone to the Bluetooth setting....

General Argh - Bouncing Thoughts

So this is just a general "argh" because it just is. For more than a week now, since I got back from the Bead & Button Show, I've been trying to access my store website to do some price updating and product updating. Suddenly it's not accepting my sign-in information. I worked a bit on it this morning and changed my log-in information and codes. I'll give it another try over the next day or two and see if it is working now. If not, I'm not 100% sure which baby step to take next, but I'll have to do something serious pretty soon.

I'm tearing my hair out over my website right now. 

I wanted to double-check my website expiration date for the domain and, of course, this is the one website that I have with a different domain registry. They also are not accepting my log-in information (although it is looking like my notes on that are out of date). I'll phone their customer support within a few days and make sure that things are OK and that the domain is still mine. Shouldn't be a problem, but I like to keep up on these things.

You never know what you may find in a car. Look! I found a guy
hiding in my trunk! 

Tomorrow will be the great car clean-out day. I pick "Minion" up after work on Tuesday and since I'm trading "Grape" in to reduce my purchase price just a little bit more, I need to have my car cleaned out completely. Sunday will be spent checking every little nook and cranny to be sure that I have everything out of my car before Tuesday night comes.

Meet "Minion". S/he's coming home with me on Tuesday night. 

Minion - yes, I'm getting a new car. I've been looking for months, I've been back and forth from the dealership at least eight times, I've researched it up and down the web and in magazines, and I've taken two different test drives. I figured out exactly what options I wanted and there was a single vehicle on the lot that fit all of my specifications, so my sales dude set it aside for me after I took it out for a drive. I arranged for the financing and we'll pick it up on Tuesday night.

The colors used this year are bright and use a lot of surface
iridescence. So far the project is coming together nicely, but
I have a lot of beading left to do. 

I'm working odd times on a beading project for the Toho Beading Challenge 2014. The combo of beads they provided to us this year were odd, but as I'm working with them, they are actually working together better than I thought they would. I wasn't able to finish last year's challenge because of my father-by-marriage's death, so I'm determined to finish this year so I don't let them down again. I have to have it completed by the end of the summer and photos need to be passed on by Halloween.

Good Solstice to all. Here's a pic from a celebration in 2012. Have a
joyful beginning of the next Turn of the Wheel. 

Finally, Good Solstice to my friends. It's the beginning of summer in my part of the world, the start of winter for my friends in the southern hemisphere. Summer or Winter, I hope it is a good season for you and your loved ones.

Artistic Thoughts and an Upcoming Road Trip

I've been writing, and writing for several years now, not really producing much artwork. But I do love it when I dream of projects dealing with metal, chemicals, flame and glass - my media of choice. Something popped into my head in the early hours of the morning today and I want to see if I can get it to work in a way that would make it cost-effective. That's the problem with many of my jewelry and art designs - they take too much time to be able to ask a proper price for them.

Isn't this enamel leaf brooch lovely? A leaf motif was part of my dream
last night, although it wouldn't take this form. 

This particular project would use gemstones that I purchased several years ago for a similar design, but expand the design with more depth and some color. I'm not really sure where this will go, but at least I finally have a direction of possibility with my metalwork, and I've been at loose ends with that for too long. Will it work? Maybe. Maybe not. I'll have to try some samples to see. And given the current state of my kiln, I may have to torch fire or use my mini kiln instead - not as effective or fast, but fine for a trial version.

I love working with faceted gemstones. They're like little pieces of
color that fall down just to be admired by their owner. They
sparkle, they gleam, and I can look at them for hours on end. 

I had my car into my mechanic yesterday for a full check-out and check over. I wanted to know whether it would be safe to drive it to my conference at the end of May, or whether I needed to push buying a new car into a very tight time frame. Fortunately, I got the report that my car is in pretty good shape and perfectly fine to drive to and from my conference. I had to put some money into it, but it was within the budget I allowed before it would be "too much". So I fixed up Grape and she and I will go on one final road trip before I look into replacing her by the end of the summer. I want to trade her in while there is still some value to her, and she's a great car, but there have been some serious safety advances since she first came on the scene.

Although this is not my car, it is a close cousin - same year, same color.
I really love my PT Cruiser. There's a lot of great design in this car, and
it is totally a retro classic and the first cross-over made - starting
an entire category of follow-up cars. I've never regretted owing
my Cruiser and will be sorry to say good-bye later this summer.
At least we can have one last road trip together. 

I'm quite happy, though. I didn't want to be pushed into purchasing the new car just yet. I wanted to take my time, discuss the financing options with DH who will help me figure out the best way to go about it, and I want his opinion on the new car too. I think it is a very good alternative, and he is resigned to the fact that I'm going to upgrade this year. I know he's relieved that I'm not backed into a corner either, though. The pressure is off :-)

Shruti does wonderful mandala drawings. I searched
for one of hers, but wasn't able to find one to show
you. This one, however, is quite close to the type of
wonderful work she produces. 

For those of you who had asked me - my registered letter that caused my schedule to go so haywire, was a small letter and packet from my dear friend in India, Shruti. She's a phenomenal artist in her own right, and was sending me a sample of her newest offerings to see what I thought and what pricing she should ask for them. It was wonderful to hear from her again, as well as getting the ability to hold some of her art in my hands again. Hopefully my answers to her questions were what she was looking for. Next year, if all goes well, we'll room again at Bead & Button Show - she's a really fun roomie.

Look at this completely amazing mandala by Kathy Ahrens. You can
see some really magnificent mandala art on Deviant Art if you follow the link. 

So, as I get ready to go back out into the cold and rain (I hope the snow stopped north of us, although it is cold enough that we might have received a dusting), I'll be thinking of all of my friends around the world who are experiencing sunny, warm days today. Please send some of that warm weather my way. I want a warm spring filled with flowers and chirping birds, not one that makes me want to crawl back into bed.

Oh, a bit more snuggle under the blankets time would be so
welcome, but no ... I have to get going in fifteen minutes. *sigh*

Happy Tuesday!

Driving Through the Snow

So, we're finally going to get some snow. All of the earlier storms that were forecast missed us. We got a little bit of snow here and there, but it was the nicest winter in many long year. However, that's going to be changing, starting today and extending through early evening tomorrow. Now we're going to be dumped on - anywhere from 6-12 inches in 24+ hours. Not nearly as bad as our huge snowstorm starting off last winter's many storms, but a very respectable amount that will make driving hazardous, getting in and out of my parking lot challenging, and will keep me home for most of my day off tomorrow (just most - not all - LOL). Here's a lovely winter scene for you to look at. My surroundings won't look this good until at least Thursday or Friday :-)

And my car turned a big mileage breakthrough last night on my way home from work. I've owned cars that flipped over to 100,000 before, but never on a car that I loved so much or that I intended to keep and go on driving for many more miles.

She's a PT Cruiser and I took delivery of her in early December 2000, so I've had her for many years. She constantly amazes and delights me (except for the more recent repair bills - *sigh*). I've never driven a car that I love so much before. I look out at her shadow when driving to workshops or conferences and just smile. It's a classic silhouette and to me she looks beautiful.

I'm a car fan all the way around. Many of my friends, also my DH, look upon a car as transportation. I look at a car as art. The beauty of the lines, the layout of the dashboard, the arrangement under the hood - I love it all. The old saying is that America is car crazy, I think we're just in love with our cars - our rolling, functional, pieces of artwork.

Lazy Sunday

We had a lazy Sunday, but that's exactly what I needed. I fell asleep early Saturday night (8 pm - that's virtually unheard of for me) and slept until 9:15 am Sunday morning. Guess I needed it :-) My nose is still running, I am still coughing but I feel tolerably OK. I'm happy I'm not doing any detail work right now though.

We ended up with a new/old screen door. One of our doors is in not-so-good shape from a foiled robbery a few years ago. My father-in-law got a new screen door when the insurance paid on some roofing problems and gave us the old door. It's really nice, removable storm windows and all. Of course, we don't have a truck, but we have my PT Cruiser and DaGrape came through for us again. We actually were able to get the door and windows into the car, still closing the back appropriately AND still had room for DH to sit in the car. I love my car, it's so damn versatile and I do put it through its paces.

Today is President's Day in the US, a day to allow students to fudge and celebrate all of the Presidents in a single day instead of spreading them throughout the year. When I was a kid, we had Lincoln's Birthday and Washington's Birthday surrounding Valentine's Day, so we had lots of things we could make and books we could read. Now everything is combined. Rather like throwing veggies into a juicer. Hmmm....

And today is my DH's and my 35th anniversary of when we got together as a couple. We didn't get married until a few years later, but we have always celebrated the 20th as our day. I'm pretty amazed that I'm still in love with my crazy dwarf, but he is likewise amazed that he's still with his pointy-eared elf. I think we balance each other out on good days and combined like oil and water on bad ones. But in general...it's been good. Here's to the next 35 years - LOL.