To Always Be Able To Make Lemonade.

This week, the soldering has been put on hold as next Monday, my eldest daughter leaves for Italy until the end of May. I am mostly excited, as I have a trip planned to visit her in March and the things I know she will learn and experience are beyond anything I can imagine. But....

Sometimes I'm not so excited.

O.K. There. I admitted it.

Now. Instead of having a sob fest on this blog, I'll show you the fun things the girls and I are doing before Lauren takes off on her journey.

Monday was picture fun day. We had big plans to go all over town and take pictures in various settings. Unfortunately, we are having a heat wave and it was up to 85 degrees on Monday, and we were sweating after ten minutes and decided to forgo photography for some iced coffee and iced tea. Very bizarre.

 I know, I know. Boo hoo for us. I'm sure we have zero sympathy from those of you in the South and East coast are that buried in snow and ice. 

Here's our photos:

(Yes, I will share Benna's photos later...)

 Tell me I'll survive four months without this girl.

Miss Party could have stayed all day.

Man, I love these girls.

Have a great day in rain or shine!

It's TODAY!!!

That's right....

The give away is TODAY!!!

All those beautiful words that inspired this:

Who will win?

Here we go....

Shaking up the names in our hat

Brenna, the official name-picker

Picking one out with great anticipation

So much fun!

This pendant will be given to......

Congratulations!

DEB OF MOSAIC MAGPIE!!!!!!!

Deb, my friend,

I'm hoping this will inspire you for your new year and bring you much joy.

Whew, that was FUN!

Dual Purposes

I love how household items can have a dual purpose.

For instance, I have used dental floss wrapped around a stubborn nail to get it out of the wall.

A good, strong wrench makes a nice hammer.

Then again, how many times have we used a butter knife as a screw driver?

Our family has used a belt as a dog leash in a pinch.

Instead of hauling out my food processor, I will pulse bread in the blender for bread crumbs.

And who hasn't used a magazine rolled up to swat at an insect?

I always make sure I grab an old one.

In the art world, dual purposes abound.

Paint brushes are used at both ends, palette knives are for glue as much as paint and paper towels-well! There's a doozy of a multi-tasker if I ever saw one.

I keep little, tiny tasting spoons from ice cream stores for glitter or glue.

Don't even get me started on a pencil....

Now this handy, dandy tool I got in my starter kit for soldering.

I have always known it to be a hemostat, used in the medical world for clamping of various things like veins, etc.

Nice.

Now, however, I use it for holding jump rings, and soldered pieces, as a soldered piece will heat up all the way through in no time at all. I use clothespins for this as well. But there is just something about a hemostat.

I found a new use for it tonight.

For the uninformed, these are rubber bands. Not just regular rubber bands, oh no. These rubber bands are about as big as the tip of an eraser (maybe). Their dual purpose on this earth is to make one's life an absolute misery.

Right now, it's Brenna's life.

And mine.

Sometimes Doug's.

Mostly mine.

They go around two braces on her bottom teeth on the teeniest, tiniest hooks you have ever seen and attach to yet another miniscule hook on a brace on one tooth on the top, both sides of her mouth, in a triangle fashion.

No. This is not Brenna's mouth. I don't know who has a child with teeth this clean and braces, but I can assure you that I don't.

NOR does Brenna's hook on her top tooth look like this. Noooooosireeee.

Hers is clear.

Mmmm-hmmm.

Special, huh?

Guess who gets to put them on and take them off right now?

Considering it took her two years to tie her shoes, that would be my job.

When your fingers get wet with saliva, the rubber bands become very slippery. Add to that the fear from Brenna that I will snap one of these puppies into her mouth which makes her jerk her head back,  and add to THAT the fact that I am going blind and need my glasses each time we do this, and add to that scenario that Brenna has the smallest mouth you have ever seen and, well, we have ourselves a little problem.

Enter the hemostats.

It was a stroke of genius, really. 

Doug and I were taking turns struggling to put the rubber bands in place last night, trading glasses back and forth and Brenna not being the most cooperative I have ever seen, when Doug said, "we need some pliers." To which Brenna howled, "NOOOOOO!"

Being the resourceful, dual-purpose person that I am, I ran into my art room and came back with the hemostats.

I think this poor kid will need therapy soon.

She was backed into the corner of the sink and the wall and I'm coming at her with hemostats in my hand saying, "No really, Brenna. I'm not going to touch your teeth, just the rubber band."

 Lord help us all.

Now, if you get an o.k. grip on these fabulous things, you don't have to snap them shut. If you can't get a good grip, or put the slightest bit of pressure on the handles, they slide together and make a "clickclickclick" sound until they lock into place. After that happened, I just slid the rubber bands around the teeny-tiny hooks and up...around the top hook and....

Hmmmmm.

Sometimes they are a tad bit hard to unlock.

I could have just left them hanging off of the rubber band until morning, when she needs the bands to come off for breakfast, but for some reason Brenna didn't want to sleep with them plastered against her cheek.

So, with a little twisting and a circular motion with my thumb, I unlocked the hemostats and Brenna fled upstairs to bed.

These (the rubber bands, not the hemostats) are SUPPOSED to be worn 24 hours a DAY, with exception of meal times.

Can you hear me laughing?

Me either. 

But maybe I can inspire someone at Vanessa's since I'm linking up for 

Inspiration Friday!

(o.k., maybe now I'm laughing...)

A Little Project.

Before Christmas, Brenna and I went down to San Diego and moved Lauren out of her dorm room. Usually this isn't done, the students come back after break. But not my child. Nope. She's going to spend the spring semester studying in Florence, Italy.

Nice generation to be in, huh?

So, we packed up all her worldly goods and eventually dispersed it into the garage and storage space under the stairs.

Except for this:

This was not taken from my daughter's room. 

I found it on one of my trips to the dumpster in the dorm parking lot.

Well, I found it IN the dumpster.

Yeah.

I did a little diving.

I knew my daughter would be horrified, but she would get over it.

So, I snagged it out of the dumpster and put it in my car.

I had JUST been thinking that I would like to make myself an Inspiration Board, Idea Board, you name it. I knew just the place this would go. I had spray paint waiting for it at home. How could I say no to it?

I was impressed it didn't get tossed to the side, in the pile of "projects to do".  Instead, the day we were putting Christmas decorations away and cleaning and sorting, I went to work on it.

I sprayed some paint on it. And while it dried, I would put decorations away. Then I would come back and spray some more.

Then I took some paper and had it color copied at Staples and stapled it to the cork board.

I needed a way to hide the lines of the paper, so I added brown satin ribbon. I have had these do-bobbies for years and never done anything with them, but they came in handy for this project.

I added this gal in the middle. I love this paper pack-DCWV, vintage collage.

It gave the ribbon some stability as well since I stapled through it.

It's not the strongest bulletin board in the world, but it will do just fine.

I feel very green in the environmental sense.

I even hung it straight-now that's a first!

Now, it's back to soldering. I am having so much fun with all of the words! I can't wait to show you. I've even sold one! (Yes, I decided they are/can be for sale. Contact me if you have any questions.) It was for a friend whose word is "INVEST". As in investing in other's lives and in things that matter and that will make a difference. So cool.

If you haven't all ready, make sure you come by and leave a comment on the 

GIVE AWAY BLOG!

Sharing Our Words

Oh, my friends.

 Your comments from the last post have truly touched me.

So many, many words were shared!!! 

Here they are:

hope 

go  authentic (autentico)

renewal  shine  inspiring  focus 

patience    inquiry   compassion 

playfulness invest trust  wanting

They are beautiful, beautiful words. And the best part is that I have gotten to know most  of you that shared these words, so they mean a LOT. I understand a little of the background in these words and it gives them life.

You have given me some clear inspiration...I am (intentionally) declaring January as soldering month in my art room and I would like to use, with your permission, these words in my soldering.

With that said, I would love to give away this pendant, in hopes that it gives you meaning to stick to YOUR word, that YOUR word comes to life in every way possible this year!!

I feel like there should at least be confetti raining down!

Leave a comment and by 

Monday,January 17,

Brenna and I will pick a name from the old cowboy hat and the winner will be announced.

2011 is off to a great start!

Inspiration From a Fellow Blogger

I have found a blog that I really like called Up In The Attic With Pammy J.. A couple of days ago she did a great post on Naming Your Year. This resonated with me as I am not fond of New Year's resolutions. I have just come to terms with the word "goal" and have allowed it into my vocabulary on a very limited basis, so "resolution" is a lot farther down the road.

My friend, Debbie, on the other hand, puts a color to her year. Pretty cool as well, but I really am partial to blue, so it would be the same every year. Plus, I truly don't think I could pick a color, as there are so many variations. Light blue? Grey-blue? Blue with a red undertone?

Sorry, I'm digressing..

Name Your Year. 

I like how Pammy states it: "Something you would like to work on in the upcoming year. Or at least a fraction of something."

Sounds good to me.

So, she picks a word and puts it where she can see it.

I can pick a word, that I can do.

I've actually been ruminating on a word the last several weeks.

INTENTION.

It's a big word, I'll give you that.

It could be a scary word.

But not when it looks like this:

Especially when I put it into Italian.

So, what's behind the word, you ask?

I have started and stopped in my artwork so many times, I think I have a low ceiling over it that I keep bumping my head on. I so want time to work on it. Then what? I would like to do more with it than just give it away for Christmas presents. Which is nice, but when it's not Christmas, what do I do with what I create? That brought me to a couple more words.

I would like a purpose to my artwork.

I love it when I have passion behind my creations. When something speaks to me deeply, in my soul,

it changes everything when I create. There is a depth to it that is hard to put into words.

I would like to create with Intention. I desire a purpose behind what I create, but I also want a Spiritual meaning to it. Not that decoupaging a box might have deep spiritual meaning, but in the act of creating.

Of course, as I began this project, and really put some thought behind it, it turned into a 3-day project. I couldn't settle down to work. We needed groceries, laundry was screaming at me, and I was so tired the last three days, I could have slept 12 hrs. and still been tired. Oh, wait-I did and I was.

I finally began to focus and my printer jammed. My new soldering iron didn't work. It was time to pick up Brenna from school. Horse lessons. Homework. Etc., etc., etc.

I learned this was going to really take some thought.

I needed to be INTENTIONAL.

I'm learning. 

I'm working on scheduling time. As in "Non-negotiable studio time."

I'm learning it won't come together in a week. 

That I don't have to begin the day feeling like I've been shot out of a cannon.

Each day doesn't need to have the world conquered.

But if I don't try, I won't know what I can do!

I'm learning that the word "process" is not a four-letter word and it's o.k. to have to start over, or (gasp) learn from a mistake.

Life will get in the way.

But I will continue in my intentions toward my artwork, this blog.

Now, if you see me wearing all four of these at once? Please stop me.

Tell me I'm over doing it and surely just for today I have done enough.

Tell me to go take a nap.

Linking this to Inspiration Friday. Come on over and see what's Inspiring others!

The Arrival of Rudolph

Happy 2011!

I sure missed all of you.

Today, I have the pleasure of reporting the Arrival of Rudolph.

to see the orginal beginnings of this saga, look here and here.

Christmas morning began fairly early with a cheery, "Merry Christmas!" from Miss Brenna. She then fled to wake up her sister who reported that she got one good poke in the side and a "It's Christmas!" from Brenna. Down the stairs we went and I will apologize now for the blurry pictures. For some reason, it was not my best Christmas morning for capturing Kodak moments.

Here we go...

The chucking of the paper..

The look of surprise I had waited for when she first spotted Rudolph-so cool!!

I do believe there was even a gasp.

And an "oh yeah, oh yeah!"

Out he came.

Let the winding of the toy begin...

Do you love this picture?

Annnnndd.......

Wait. A Tigger Box. What happened to Rudolph, you ask?

Well, let me tell you.

Brenna wound and wound Rudolph. And wound some more. Doug, Lauren and I looked at each other and said, "uh-oh."

Sure enough, the lid popped open and Rudolph stayed folded up inside the box.

Really?

Seriously?

We just all burst out laughing by then, and we were grateful Tigger worked right on cue.

Do you sense a bit of trepidation in the above picture?

I am happy to report that a little later, Rudolph popped out like a trooper and has worked ever since.

But.

I am so. glad. this. saga. is. over.

many thanks to my Aunt Jerrie and her son-in-law, Ed, the best manager Lowes will ever have.