Blah, blah, blah

I'm sure you know this already, but when you don't feel good it's nearly impossible to get anything done. And pretty much all you can think about is feeling better. On top of still having These Damned Hives, I caught the flu. But I had a flu shot last October! So, maybe I caught a cold and a stomach virus at the same time or something. All I know is I've been one sick puppy and I've felt like the absolute worst thing you could scrape off the bottom of your shoe. My house is a wreck, I have plants that need planting, and it's a good thing I don't have an appetite because I don't think I could even cook for myself right now. My routine over the last three days is: sleep, wake up to pee, take even more drugs, cry for awhile, and go back to sleep.

Geez. I hate to whine. A friend told me today that I don't complain enough, so I thought maybe I'd give it a try and see if it helps. There's certainly a huge lesson for me in all this. I hope it reveals itself soon!!

Okay. Back to bed now. Lola has been enjoying all this snuggle time.

My Name is Zoe

I realized recently that there are so many people out there in the interwebs that have only seen my name in print and have never heard me say it. Therefore, most people, except for my close friends and family, don't pronounce my name "right". I don't say it like the character on Sesame Street does, my name is Zoe. Said ZO.... not ZO-EEEE. Like Joe, but with a Z instead of a J.

I never had a problem with people saying my name wrong until Zoe became a popular name in the last 15 years or so. Keep in mind that I'm of "a certain age" and that growing up I was the kid with the weird name. I was teased, called "Zoo" or "Zuzu" (like the little girl in the movie "It's a Wonderful Life"). When introducing myself I always had to spell my name. Many folks would ask "How did you get that name?" and "What does it mean?" Here's the story - not very remarkable, but when my Mom was pregnant she and my Dad were watching the Olympics and there was a swimmer named Zoe. They liked the name and gave it to me. It means "Life" in Greek, but I don't have a drop of Greek in me. These days so many people tell me that their granddaughter is named Zoe. Or their dog is named Zoe. There's a lot of young girls running around out there with my name, all of them pronouncing it wrong! So if you ever have the chance to speak to me in person, remember to leave off the EEEE. It's Zo(e). Thanks.

My Half Birthday

Yesterday was my friend Leslie's birthday and my half-birthday. It was also the day we decided to celebrate Debbi's birthday, which was back in February, but we never got a chance to pamper her. Oh, it did me so much good to get out and be with my friends! It was a gloomy, rainy day, but we were out in it anyway.

Me, Debbi, Leslie

First we had lunch at Bella's, a lovely little Italian restaurant in Banner Elk. We mentioned birthdays to the waitress and wrangled a free desert! Then we took a road trip right in our own back yards. We took the "back way" through Newland to the little community of Crossnore, home of the Crossnore School. We visited their fine arts gallery (which carries some of my work) and saw one of Ben Long's frescos called "Suffer the Little Children" in their little chapel.

It was too rainy to walk their labyrinth.



Then, we hit the thrift store...

But what we really wanted to do was to shop at one of the best nurseries around. Unfortunately, it was so wet and cold that we only looked and oooed and ahhhhed, but didn't buy any flowers. We vowed to go back later this week when its warm and sunny.

We stopped at another lovely nursery/landscaping place on the way home. Too bad the weather wasn't cooperating. I saw LOTS of things that I would have brought home if it wasn't so wet. And, did I mention it was cold? It SNOWED on top of Beech Mountain last night!

I don't know what to say... literally

Note: I had a really great post drafted yesterday when all of a sudden Blogger crashed and now it's all lost. This makes me very grumpy, as I'm having a hard time coming up with blog post ideas to begin with! I'm going to try and re-create it but I'm not feeling the same today as I was yesterday, so here goes...

Okay folks, I need some help here. I'm wondering about this whole blog thing. I feel like it needs a focus and I'm not sure what to do. I started it two years ago because a friend of mine who's a marketing expert said that if I wanted to be successful with my online sales I would need a blog so that my customers could get to know me personally. Also, so that I could show my work in progress and how a particular design goes from an idea in my head to jewelry you can wear. So far my online sales have been infrequent and, frankly, dismal.

I've been thinking about the blogs I read and what makes them interesting. There are many that regularly post "Look what I made" or "Look at the materials I bought" or "Look how messy my workbench is". These are wonderful. I love reading about what my colleagues are doing. Sometimes they have new techniques that I find fascinating. Their new posts show up in my blogger reading list and I go look. Everyone is SO creative!

Then there are the blogs that I intentionally go to every day and I'm disappointed if they haven't posted. These people are pouring their hearts out online. They're wonderful wordsmiths and seem to have interesting lives that they let me in to through their words. I always read and frequently comment. They're not all jewelry artists, but most are artists in one medium or another. Some examples are Kate McKinnon, Andrew Thornton, Ken Thomas and Rice Freeman-Zachery.

My "Look what I made" posts have been rare, mainly because my time in the studio has been so infrequent the last few months. First, my muse left me and I couldn't come up with any ideas that I felt were worthy of the rising cost of silver. Then, I got these damned hives (which I still have) and dealing with them consumes the majority of the hours in my days. And my father died fairly suddenly and that's been very hard on me emotionally. I've been quite depressed.

So, I've been blogging when I can about other stuff besides jewelry, but I really don't feel like my life is all that interesting. I see that the popular blogs are the ones that are updated regularly and my inner critic (whom I'd like to have arrested) says "If you don't post something, people will stop reading", "People might be tired of hearing you whine", and "If you want to sell something in your Etsy Shop, you'd better come up with a blog post."

I really don't know what to do next. I suppose I'll keep meandering my way through the blogosphere with my blah, blah, blah posts and hope I find something interesting to say. If you have any thoughts on this I'd like to know them. In the meantime, thanks for reading!

Oh... Look what I made three months ago:

Copper and Fine Silver Cuff Bracelet