a girl of glass

I'm claiming it.

Craig has the 4th off and is taking Thursday off too, so it's a 3-day work week for him.  I'm going to put the hammer down and try to log a bunch of hours early in the week so I can take some time off at the end of the week too.  Right now it looks like there may be rain in the forecast for the 4th, but hopefully it won't be enough to stop us from catching the fireworks.  I really love our traditional 4th of July picnic.  :)

This morning started well, despite the "28 Weeks Later" dreams I had *ALL NIGHT LONG*!  (I hate zombies!)  The mailman brought me a crafting book and my glass order early this morning!!!  *SQUEE!!!*  I love colored glass!  Now that I've spent a few minutes lording over my new glass, I'm already jonesing to put another order in!  There are just *so many* colors, ...and I NEED THEM ALL!!!  I really need to come up with a better organizational solution before I buy more glass though, and that means I need to clean up the mudroom and paint it.  Trust me, it does.  Unfortunately.  heh.

Craig's sister and her family were over here yesterday,  They brought the brass bed home for us with their truck.  Craig was showing her his pen collection and the bowls he's been turning (he's getting REALLY good at bowls!), and I wanted to show off too, so I told her, "I've been crafting too!" and I put a string of my beads in her hands.  There was a few seconds of her looking puzzled, and going, "ooooh", as in, "That's nice... you strung beads...???"  *L*  I'm speshull.  :)  I realized she didn't get it, so I told her, "I *made the beads*."  She was suitably impressed then.  *L*  I showed off my torch and my glass and briefly explained how it's done. 

...And now I have these wonderful new colors...  *swoon*  I finally have a bunch of white and clear to work with.  And I can't wait to work with "Petroleum Green" - so pretty!  I need to start a list of all the colors I've use so I can note how they are to work with, where I need to work them in the flame and whether or not they tend to scorch or devitrify, whether they're stiff or very drippy, ..., etc.  Plus, how fun just to have a journal for colored glass!  I should include color pictures.

Oy.  I need to build a better ventilation system for my workspace, because I have a lot of ideas for these new colors, and I just can't work at my torch as long and as often as I want until I've got better ventilation.

Annerism, I ordered some dark red specifically to tempt you into coming over to play!  ;)  Let me get a good exhaust system set up, and we'll schedule a visit.  Hopefully my kiln will be here within the month too!

I was talking with Craig's sister about the turkeys and ducks they're raising this year.  Her sister-in-law lives behind her, and she's raising chickens.  I'm so jealous!  (We really need to move further out into the country!)  My SIL was telling me the chickens are only a few weeks away from laying eggs.  :)  I forget how many she said they lay a day, but it's A LOT.  I need to arrange a deal to buy fresh eggs from them.  She told me their rooster is gay though.  heh.  And she also told me the turkeys totally worship the ducks, following them everywhere and acting all nervous when she let's the ducks out and the turkeys are left alone, duckless.  heh.  ...Someday I'll have some livestock and my own little barnyard dramas.  :)

As a quick aside, I made fresh-squeezed lemonade this weekend, and it's such delicious nectar!  I'm going to keep it stocked in my fridge for the rest of the summer.  I can't believe I've never made lemonade before.  Mmmm!

Ok.  Time to put in some serious hours so I can spend the long weekend having fun with my man.  It's gonna be a really good week!

...it's really not a good idea to help your mother-in-law clean out her storage.  We *FILLED* the car with family photos and *ANTIQUES*!!!  She gave me wonderful old framed prints, a china tea set, blown glass ornaments from Germany, an old chair and folding table (wood, not a cheap, modern card table), ...and I can't recall what else.  It's all fabulous stuff though!  (hoard-hoard-hoard)  Now I just have to find some place to put it all.  I need more teacups to complete my set too, and I can't find that pattern online.  :/

Oh!  We also got an old brass bed, the heavy-as-f*ck antique kind.  That's going to need a lot of TLC to clean it up, but it'll be worth it.

Oy!  What am I going to do with all of this STUFF?!!  (hoard-hoard)

The day is still young and full of possibilities.  I'm trying to figure out how I want to spend my Saturday.  I have a short list of things I "should do" today, but I know from doing what I should do all week long that the day will end and I will still feel empty inside, as if I wasted the day and did nothing of significance.

So, if I blow off my "shoulds", then what do I do?  What can I do today that will leave me feeling like my time was well-spent at the end of the day?  That is the question.  That is always the question.

Good doctor's appointment!  She was impressed with my vitamin regimen, my healthy blood pressure (was elevated last time) and mostly impressed that I'm using my inhaler a lot less and off my allergy meds all together.  Last time I saw her she wanted to put me on maintenance asthma meds but I talked her out of it, just to see if I could get it in control without more meds.  This morning she asked me if I even wanted her to write another prescription for my rescue inahler.  :D  (I said, "Yes, please."  I'm not that inhaler free yet.)

She did nag me about my blood sugar and my weight, but just a little.  I told her, "Hey!  I'm making progress!  One thing at a time here.  *Regular* exercise is next on the list."  That made her laugh and agree that I'm doing very well.  I promised her I'd start exercising more, drop some weight, mind my diet and be in much better shape when I see her next year, and she was pleased.

*Whew!*  That's a load off my mind!  I was worried about that appointment, mostly about the whole blood pressure thing and that she wanted me on more meds last time.  I'm so relieved!

...And motivated.  Time to start getting in better shape. That really was next on my list of new habits anyhow, but if it keeps my doc from having anything bad to say the next time I see her, that's all the sweeter!  :D

Good days only happen once in a while.  Usually, I have to work for a good day.  Today I'm having to work really hard just to keep the day from being a disaster.  :/  ...Is there a "reset" button?

But, I officially ordered my kiln last night, and that pleases me quite a bit.  I ordered it from a very nice man.  Even though I about swallowed my tongue in panic because he needed to talk to me on the phone to complete the transaction, he was very nice to talk to.  It was my first chance to actually talk glass with someone, and that was kind of a thrill in a cheesy way.  And as for the kiln, after much research I'm convinced it's the best kiln I could get, and I got it at the best price available.

Um...  yeah.  That's all I have today.  ...After deleting all the venting and swearing anyhow.  *bites tongue hard*

Ok.  Back to trying not to stew over stupid shit.  Back to trying to work out the kink in my neck.  Back to work.  Pft.

This weekend I practiced pulling stringers (very thin glass rods) and using them.  Saturday I tried to draw with the stringers, but I was obviously getting way too ahead of myself, because that sucked.  Bad.  :)  Sunday I stayed very basic and played with raised dots.  I also worked on getting a consistent size and round shape on spacer beads.  heh.  I still have *A LOT* of practice time to put in, obviously!  :D  These were fun enough to share though.

Raised Dot Practice

I put my first couple loads of laundry out on the clothesline to dry this morning, and it was all dry by lunch time, even the jeans.  There was some interest in my line-drying experiment, so I thought I'd share some quick thoughts.

I thought I might have to deal with more wrinkles than the dryer gives me, but the wrinkles seem to have fallen right out of everything while it dried.

Yes, the clothes are *slightly* stiffer than when they come out of the dryer, but not a lot.  ...Once upon a time people used to starch their laundry, so this is just like an automatic starching.  :)  On the plus side, the dryer is really hard on fabrics; nothing wears your clothes out faster than tumbling in hot air, so line drying should make the clothes last longer. 

I did try a few t-shirts in a load with fabric softener and a few with just a vinegar rinse, and though the shirts with softener were noticeably softer when damp, they feel the same as the other shirts dry, so I don't think that matters much either way.  I might start using a vinegar rinse by default just because it's cheaper and better for the environment than fabric softener.

The only thing I'd consider a "con" right now is that the clothes-pins leave slight marks on the fabric.  I'll just have to make a point of pinning the clothes up where a little pinched fabric won't be noticeable.

One of the biggies in the "pro" column for line drying is that direct sunlight is one of the best disinfectants around.  Line dried clothes not only smell fresher, but they are fresher.

It's kind of crazy, ...but hanging the wash out is kind of ...nice.  It's relaxing in a weird way.  ...I kind of want to go do some more wash right now.  :)

Craig and I just put some hooks up in the house and garage that I can string a clothesline on as needed.  It's a small savings, not running the dryer for everything, but it's getting more and more to the point where every little bit counts, so it'll help.  Better for the planet too, drying with wind and solar energies.  Next weekend I want to build a solar oven.  ...Though I admit that one has more to do with having homemade cookies in the summer without having to heat up the house.  Yeah, free solar energy is better to use than the piped in gas and electricity, ...but COOKIES when it's too hot to turn on the oven!  :D  Cupcakes too.  :D

Craig took the day off Friday, and we started our day by having a nice breakfast (egg and biscuit sammiches) and spending some time walking around the neighborhood checking out the community garage sale.  We picked up some goodies; I tried to stick to only buying the immediately useful things, but *shrug*.  :)  I got a nice stockpot, some really nice pilsner glasses, a couple of heavy vases for my glass rods, a few candles, a CD, a PS2 game, some nice planters and a basket.  I wish we would've got the golf clubs too, but... *shrug*  Some day.  Someone is ALWAYS selling their clubs.

We then set off for the Antique Mall in Maumee to dig through even older crap.  :D  Craig was looking for some old hardware for a new closet door he just bought (trying to match the look of the rest of the house), and I was just looking for treasure.  And boy-howdy!  Did I find treasure!!!  I got a vintage ViewMaster viewer and some lovely green-stemmed wine glasses, but the best find was the baggie filled with watch parts!  See, I have this thing for watches.  I collect them, not necessarily nice watches, nothing worth displaying (for the most part), but I have this box full o'watches that's my secret little treasure chest.  They make me happy.  Fair warning too: I'm not above stealing your watch.  I've done it before.  If you take it off and leave it lying around, I will put it on, and if neither of us notices at the end of the day and it goes home with me, it usually ends up staying with me.  I'm just saying.  So I found this little baggie with almost 50 (47, I counted) broken watches in it for only $10!!!  I squeed with joy and carried it with me the rest of the day.  Check out my loot:

I have WATCHES!

I don't know for sure what I'm going to do with them.  I'm torn between wanting to bust them open and harvest all their pretty little gears for jewelry and crafting, or just wanting to add their fabulous carcasses to my box o'watches so I can open it up and lord over my treasure every once in a while.  I'll probably do a little of both.  There's certainly enough there.  *squee!*

After antiquing, we stopped for tea and scones which, while enjoyable enough, we both agreed is a far more enjoyable snack in Ireland along the Atlantic.  *le sigh*  Then we stopped for clothesline supplies and some fresh tanks for my torch, and came home to straighten up for a nice visit with my Dad.

Dad came over for pizza and chat.  We gave him his belated Father's Day gift, chowed my favorite pizza, and sat out on the deck talking and watching the sun get lower in the shy.  It was a very enjoyable visit.

I spent all of Saturday at my torch making fugly beads and frustrating myself with new-to-me skills.  It was still a really good time, despite the fact that none of the beads turned out anything like I was trying for!  heh.  It's all good.  I need the practice for sure.  Some day I'll be able to create the most amazing beads, but I have to get my lessons and practice in first.

As soon as I finish my entry and my coffee here, it's back to the torch for a while.  Then I'm probably going to do some gardening, take a nice long bath, and who knows what then?  Dinner and some tv/movies/Wii most likely.

I do so love the weekends!!!

I have the fidgets, bad.  I'm very close to being done with another manual, and these very end stages get me wired up to the point that I can barely think and I *cannot* sit still.  It's very stressful, the checking edits against emailed notes against my own notes and trying to get every last detail accounted for.  Makes me want to do cartwheels to burn off this nervous energy.  Why does it seem there's always one last giant blast of chaos before you achieve order?  Chaos is very bad for my nerves.

I'm really freaking enjoying making beads first thing every morning.  It's helped me come to terms with Time in a way I've never been able to before.  I don't know why it took me so very long to figure out that if I did what I love to do first thing in the day for just a little while, the ticking clock wouldn't be able to mock me for the rest of the day.  I've always figured responsibilities first, then "fun".  I hadn't taken into account that my highest long-term priorities in life should be my daily priorities too, and these personal responsibilities matter more than all the other stuff I "have to" do.  Does that make sense?

The way my days have always gone is that I wake up rather bothered by not being able to sleep longer, spend hours trying to get my thoughts in order and my brain functioning, and I procrastinate work and chores until I finally get my butt in gear and get some stuff done.  All day long I feel pressured to hurry and finish stuff, and I'm resentful that there never seems to be enough time for the things I really enjoy.  Then, come the end of the day, I'm burned out, grouchy, have no creative energy, and I just want to crawl back in bed.

Doing the creative stuff first takes all the pressure off for the rest of the day.  I get up looking forward to my first activity of the day, I spend an hour or two doing something creative that really fulfills me, and by the time I'm done, my head is clear, I'm pressure-free, and I don't feel like I have to fight myself to get some work-work done.  I feel like I've done the most important thing, and the rest of the day is there waiting for me to do all the other day-to-day crap we have to do, no pressure, no need to race the clock trying to save some time for later.

I've tried writing first thing in the morning *many* times, but visual arts are much better suited to the way my brain works coming out of sleep.  Trying to write in the mornings, even when it was for pleasure rather than a paycheck, was like trying to walk up the front of a building.  With the right tools and a ton of determination, I could get somewhere, but it was a battle. 

With my glass, I sit down, pull out some pretty colors, fire up my torch, and the ideas flow faster than the molten glass.  No words, just inspiration, pretty visuals and working hands.  No need for higher thought.  It's peaceful and somehow *right*.  I've cried happy tears twice already this week after turning off my torch because for the first time EVER (like ever in my whole life, EVER!), I finally feel like I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing.  I'm an artist that has been trying to get the business of life out of the way so I could create, but the business of life for an artist is creating.  All of that other stuff is just details.  I'm crazy-dense because it took so long for that to sink into my thick skull, but thank the gods it finally broke through!

It might not always be glass, but I'm going to make it a priority to do something creative, just for me, first thing every morning.  I think this is just as important to my mental and emotional wellbeing as breakfast is physically important.  I doubt I'll ever learn to like mornings (who knows?), but this sure takes a whole lot of the misery out of them, and really sweetens all the rest of the day too.

Knitting requires sticks and string.  That's it.  You can buy them, or you can find them.  Knitting safety?  Don't poke yourself or anyone else in the eye with your sticks.

After lusting over some very expensive equipment I'd like to add to my glass-working tool kit, I spent my free time yesterday reading about *just some of the ways* my glass hobbyhabit can poison, maim or kill me (and anyone else standing too close).  We're talking about everything from serious illness due to poor ventilation to the apparently very common experience of twin third degree burns from flying hot glass landing in your cleavage to faulty fuel systems that will take out your house and possibly your neighbors' houses too.  Glass artisans are people who speak way too casually about things like "skin grafts" and "small house/studio fires".

I know I'm hooked though.  The horror stories are coldly sobering, but they just have me thinking harder about safety.  I'm still wanting to save up for the expensive equipment this dangerous hobby requires.

Time to set up the torch for a little bit.  :D