Michelle's blog

On the heels of my rant about self-promotion, I realized I've been thinking of advertising for the last year and for one reason or another, it hasn't happened. My son's troubles at school, the damages to my home by a bad contractor and subsequent loss of my home, moving and setting up a new studio, more assessments for my son and finally some good solutions for him, then the implosion of my web site and having to rebuild it... so many things going on, I was torching part-time at best.

Advance warning: this is a bit of a rant. Sorry!

I was sitting in a waiting room the other morning and I had a few minutes to kill, so I picked up a magazine I would never have read if it weren't for my doctor's strange (to me) tastes in periodicals. The magazine was called Details. It appeared to be some flavor of GQ for the young and hip male. Still, I did learn some important facts about tooth whitening processes.

I was very excited to find my sister, The Beadwife, was featured in the Editor's Top Picks section of Beads 2008, an Interweave Press special issue. Her set Fallen Sky is featured in page 16's Oceanic bead theme, and a set of her beautiful Peach Romance beads (pictured here) and a capped Lilac Romance focal are featured in the Organic theme on page 17.

Yes, it's a quote from Galaxy Quest (I love that movie!) and I'm using it to describe what's been happening with things in general and my website in particular.

I was having a problem with my sales email notifications, and then my Wordpress blog started saving multiple instances of drafts which was annoying as heck, and then I started having a database problem with my orders.

Recently I received a little box of treasures from Bonnie Polinski of Art BuMPs, who makes lovely ceramic beads. I tell you, it felt like Christmas morning and Santa gave me the BEST presents ever! I can’t believe how richly the celadon color glows from these beads. The saucy sea nymph is 63mm tall, and yes, she is a bead! The round focal is 28mm across. Bonnie currently sells her work on Etsy, and I hope to see more of her lovely treasures listed there in the future.

Bonnie's Etsy site: http://artbumps.etsy.com/

Maricoli Beads Rosary: This beautiful rosary was made by Jennifer Sinclair of Miracoli Beads using a set of my Ruby Dapples.As January winds to a close, I look back on the past three months and am amazed at everything I’ve crammed into such a short span of time: a new home purchased and moved into, an old outbuilding converted to an office and studio (still in progress but I’m back to the torch!), three holiday observances (one with events spanning days)

My dad is very near the end of his life’s journey, after battling cancer for the past several years. He struggles for breath, and to raise his hands to gesture. He’s only 64 years old.