I Miss My Mom

Photo gratefully borrowed from Anne Taintor

Mother's Day is a hard day for me. I lost my Mom to kidney disease almost three years ago and today, especially, I miss her a lot. She was a brave, smart woman of the 50's and raised two brave, smart daughters. I miss her big smile every time she saw me and her incredible sense of humor. She loved a practical joke and I remember one Saint Patrick's Day when she used food coloring to dye our neighbor's cat's white bib a bright green, then sent him back home. She told us not to tell who did it, that it would be a surprise to our Irish neighbors, but we were little kids and couldn't keep a secret. She could take a joke as well as give one, and April Fool's Day was chaos in our house. Everyone was trying to top everyone else's tricks.

The photo above was something that she would have done. She loved to cook and loved to watch people enjoy what she created in her kitchen. The only time she refused to cook (in later years) was on Thanksgiving. She didn't like the fact that, after spending all day cooking, everyone gulped down the food and ran back to the television to continue watching football. She wanted people to sit at her table for a long time, enjoy seconds, thirds, more wine, and good conversation. She and my Dad entertained often and Dad worked with people from all over the world and brought many of them to our house for some good old home cooking.

She suffered a lot in her last years. Her failed kidneys required that she have dialysis for 3 hours, 3 days a week. It exhausted her. She had to be on a resitricted diet, which frustrated her, but she managed to figure out how to make what she could eat delicious. Her body declined and she made her own decision to stop the treatments. More evidence of her bravery.

So, thanks Mom, for all you did for me and for letting me be who I needed to be. For understanding when things didn't go as planned, and for loving me the best way you knew how.

Baubles, Boys and Baseball

Last Thursday's Trunk Show near Lynchburg, VA went really well. Once Barbara's friends reaized that this wasn't Silpada - that every piece is hand made and most of them are one of a kind - there was a little bit of  a frenzy! Everyone wanted to have something unique that they wouldn't see on anyone else.

I had a basket of clearance items and I sold quite a few of these. Some of them had been around a long time and I'm glad they have new homes and that their owners are happy they got a bargain. Everything that's left in the basket will be going into the Sale section of my Etsy Shop in the next few days.

Trish was particularly amazed at some of the prices!

The boys were out of school on Friday for a teacher work day and it was great to have the opportunity to spend some time with them. Friday night we met another family at the Lynchburg Hillcats baseball game. It was a beautiful evening to be out - the scoreboard said it was 84 degrees, and a light breeze kept us comfortable.  Minor League Baseball! It's so much cheezy fun! I've been to many Durham Bulls games and remember all the good times at the old Durham Athletic Park, as seen in the movie "Bull Durham", one of my all-time favorites.

The kids and their friends ate junk and ran around like little crazy people while Granny Zoe handed out money - just exactly what's supposed to happen! No judgement here. I indulged in a hot dog and beer and kettle corn. It wouldn't have been a baseball game otherwise! And, the Hillcats won 8-2 against the Potomac Nationals.

This week I'll be updating the Etsy Shop and getting ready for my next show (Art in the Park, Blowing Rock, NC on May 15). Also, since I now have some money in my pocket, I want to buy flowers. I'll wait another week to plant anything, though, as it was 28 degrees at my house last Thursday morning.

Virginia, here I come!

My lovely step-daughter, Barbara, is hosting a Trunk Show for me at her home near Lynchburg, Virgina on Thursday evening. I don't know for sure how many people she invited, but I sent her about 130 post cards. This will be either the thrid or fourth time we've done this and it's always a win-win for everyone. I get to visit with her and her family and make some money, and she gets to have a "girl party". She has a husband and two sons, so there's not much estrogen in her house unless she makes it happen!

Side note: If you're interested in hosting a Trunk Show at your house, please contact me. There's always free jewelry involved for the hostess!

So I'm spending this day taking inventory, packing and preparing to leave early in the morning. Since this is my first show of the season I've had to wipe down my display equipment that's been stored in the shed all winter. (There must have been a bird trapped in there for awhile.... yuck!) Going through the big plastic bin that contains all the various asundry things needed to do a show - sales books, business cards, calculator, pens, credit card machine and forms, raffle forms (I always do a give-away.) etc. to be sure I have everything I need.

It's been a long, bleak winter and I'm not just talking about the weather! I'm ready to have some money coming in for a change and to not have to pinch every penny. I'm even taking a basket full of clearance items to this show to try to move some of my old inventory. Whatever's left will go into my SALE on my Etsy Shop starting next week. Let's all visualize an armored car full of money following me home, OK?! And I'll get to kiss the boys and watch soccer games and generally hang out with some of my favorite people. Ahhh... life is GOOD!

Etsy Shop Overhaul

I've had Google Analytics going on my Etsy Shop for a couple of weeks, so I can see who, and when people are visiting. And perhaps get a glimpse of why they go there, so I can hopefully keep doing things that will attract customers. I'm a little bit of a data freak, so it's interesting to see all the tidbits of traffic on the site. So far, I've had visitors from the following countries: Canada, United Kingdom, Denmark, Poland, Austrailia, France, South Korea, Serbia, Slovenia, Finalnd, Romania, Italy, Chile, Russia and, of course, the United States. WOW! That alone makes the geekiness of Google Analytics interesting to me. I check it each day and when a new country lights up on the map I think about world domination... Some of the other data is not too helpful yet, like "Return  Visitors". It makes me wonder how many of those return visitors are ME. I've been tweaking some of the item descriptions and have been on and off the website several times. But they also show me "Absolute Unique Visitors" and that shows a better picture. Pie charts and bar charts and graphs, OH MY!

Knotted necklace of black beads on white thread.

I'm preparing for a complete overhaul of the shop. The necklaces made of glass beads knotted on silk thread will be taken off. I put them up there about a year ago because many of my in-person customers wanted a place to buy them online. Since then I've only sold one, so, sorry folks.  I think they take attention away from my silver jewelry. (And, I'm getting really tired of making them. I make them in 8 colors, 3 sizes, on either black or white thread, so that's 48 different combinations.) If you're a glass beads on silk thread customer you'll just have to get them from me at one of my shows or at Hands Gallery or Main Street Gallery. Or, you can contact me directly to purchase them. (See my contact information to the right.)

As part of this overhaul there will be a big sale going on. Some of the things that are already in the Sale Items secion of my shop will be marked down further and many current listings will be reduced and added to that section.  Starting next month, just in time for Mother's Day and Graduation!

Miscellaneous Mullings

Lots of little stuff to report today:

• The second copper clay firing was a worse disaster than the first one. This stuff is so picky! One day I'll attempt it again but I'm VERY frustrated with it. I used up the package of clay that I had, so it will be a while. Probably a long while.

• I went to Asheville last weekend to go to the Intergalactic Bead Show and met up with Molli Koltun, one of my fellow Etsy Metal Clay Team members. It was nice to meet her in person. Too bad for me that she's moving away from this area! It was a beautiful day for a drive. We went for a cold drink after the bead show and, while sitting at an outdoor cafe, I saw people from Boone. I guess it was National People from Boone Go To Asheville Day.

• Spring is happening here full-force. The pollen is really bad and I've been dealing with major sinus issues. BUT I'M NOT COMPLAINING. After the horrible winter it's wonderful to see that all the plants and flowers that were buried under huge piles of snow didn't seem to mind it at all. I'm itching to do some gardening and have had to restrain myself to only do clean-up projects until after Mother's Day. That's when it's safe to plant tender annuals around here.

• I saw the first hummingbird of the season yesterday! It's time to get out the feeders and invest in a sugar plantation. Last year I went through almost 15 pounds of sugar feeding those little suckers. But I love 'em! According to the migration map, they come back here about the same time they arrive in Pennsylvania, probably because of our elevation.

• Business is still reallllllllyyyyy slloooowwwww.  I need some money to fall out of the sky until the tourist season picks up. I'm thinking about running another sale in my Etsy Shop. Be on the lookout for that coming up soon.

Wandering and Wildlife

After bashing my left pointer finger twice this morning with a planishing hammer (unpublishable words were said), I decided it was time to take a break from jewelry making while I waited to see if my fingernail would turn black. So, I decided to take a walk around the bottom of my property. It's a nice hike this time of year - before the tall weeds and briars make it too difficult to navigate. I started on the southeast side and clearly found the head of one of the springs coming out of the ground:

It's hard to see in this photo, but water was freely flowing up from under ground. Below is a picture of the bog that these springs feed. It covers about a quarter of an acre of low space and it stays wet even in the most severe drought.

This is where the peepers and toads (and who knows what else) live. They've been serenading me in the evenings for the last couple of weeks. Hear the sound of a peeper here, and a toad calling here.

The bog drains into Laxon Creek. All along the banks of the creek are what I call "fugitive" jonquils. In times past someone upstream must have planted some along the creek bank. Over time flooding and erosion have deposited them in various places all the way to the river. Below is the large bunch on my property and there's several more smaller ones down stream.

A nice shot of the creek looking upstream. It runs across the front of my property from east to west and into the New River about 200 yards away:

I spotted a nice-sized trout in one of the deep pools, but he was too well camoflaged to get a decent picture. Below looks downstream to the bridge. (And more fugitive jonquils.)

I was also checking for signs of beavers. They've tried twice to dam up this creek - one time building under the bridge. I don't mind if they stay in the river, but if they flooded this property my house would end up under water. Both times I've had to get Trapper Mike, a Wildlife Damage Control Agent, out here. Beaver were hunted out of this area at one point, but have come back like gangbusters and can really be a nusiance - cutting down trees and other vegitation along the stream banks, which causes erosion and degradation of water quality. The best thing I saw on my morning walkabout was a fox running through the pasture across from me. I'm glad to know that the coyotes haven't completely overtaken their habitat. Foxes don't seem to want to eat house cats for dinner like coyotes do.

Along the way I spotted this piece of tree root. Doesn't the bottom of it look like the profile of a deer? Maybe I'm just seeing things...

Oh, and here's my bashed finger. Ouch.

Gravel meditation

Wow! What a glorious day it is today! The thermometer here at my house showed 82 degrees for a short time this afternoon and I tried to be outdoors as much as I could. I fired the kiln with student work and a little bit of my work this morning and I don't like to be too far away from it while it's simmering at 1650 degrees in my studio. But the windows are open, ceiling fans are running and I'm one happy girl. (It does feel a little strange for it to be this warm and there's still no leaves on the trees, but I'm not complaining!)

After the kiln was finished I spent a couple of hours sitting on the ground in my front yard hand-picking gravel out of the grass that was left there when the snow plow dumped the snow. I need to get the majority of it out of there before it dings up the lawnmower blade, or a stone gets pitched through one of my windows, and before the grass gets too high. I raked and shoveled as much of it as I could, but then I really enjoyed the meditative feeling of doing a mindless task while sitting in the warm sunshine in shorts and a t-shirt. Pick up a handful of rocks, throw 'em in a bucket... pick up a handful of rocks...Ahhhhh.... this is what we dreamed of when there was two feet of snow on the ground. 

During my gravel meditation I was making of metal list of gardening chores - things that need to be pruned and cleaned out and where and what annuals I want to plant. (Tender plants will have to wait at least another month, though, to be safe from any late frost.) I also wandered around the yard to see what was peeking through the ground and what had buds: peonies, Shasta daisies, columbine, tall and short phlox, quince, rhododendron and forsythia. And now, as the sun goes down behind the mountain, I'm sitting here on my back porch enjoying a glass of wine and listening to the spring peepers over in the bog looking for love. Spring fever, for sure!