Where is the time going?

What a crazy time we are living in right now!

So much has happened since I was last here to share. States all over the country shut down just about everything in hopes of keeping the COVID-19 virus from spreading too fast to too many people.
Our schools here in SC were closed the week of St. Patrick's Day. The restaurants, gyms, hair salons and other "close contact" businesses were not too far behind. They closed retail businesses on April 7th. We worked in the store, with appointments for curbside pick-up as well as shipping that week. We then took Good Friday and Saturday off before Easter. Starting that Monday, we spent a week working from home, filling orders and meeting customers as needed. The state allowed us to re-open on April 21, but we decided that we would limit our days and hours to 4 hours a day for 3 days a week. The numbers are still too high for comfort. Yes, they are probably not accurate, but still, neither of us wishes to be responsible for one of our high-risk family members contracting the virus because we did not follow our instincts.
Just this week, we decided to add one day (still 4 hours only). Restaurants, gyms... are all open again, and attractions were able to open this past Friday.

What we did to help with people who suddenly were needing to find things to do at home was to make up kits for creative things. Most have been greeting card kits, but we have done a simple beading kit as well as face painting on a cloth mask. Each are only $3.00! check them out on our Facebook page or our website.
As of yesterday, we had sold over 575 in 2 months! I spend my working at home time cutting the parts and assembling these kits. The living room has been taken over!

Other than purchasing a much needed new tablet on amazon, most of the stimulus money that I have spent (which is only about half) has been spent with independent businesses. I purchased masks from two friends who have Etsy shops. I purchased beads from an independent bead shop. I buy takeout meals from independent restaurants. I was a strong supporter of the Shop Local/Shop Independent movement for a long time before all of this hit the fan.

I hope whomever happens upon this post is doing well. I am grateful that at this point, I do not know anyone personally that has been diagnosed with the virus. I do know people who have had friends or family members that have.

Be safe. Be well. Be respectful of others who may deal with all of this differently than you do.

Christmas in July Iris Folding

I said that I would show the completed samples of the Iris Folding cards I designed for the Christmas in July class.  Well, here they are!

Well, after seeing the patterns I drew, did you think the cards would look anything like this?  It was so much fun creating these for my students.  I love how they all turned out but, I do have my favorites, which one(s) are yours?

My Dad's 85th Birthday

Yes, my Dad is turning 85 on August 15, 2016!

If you are reading this and want to send my Dad a birthday card, 

his name is Bill Earl and you can send it to him through me.  

My address is PO Box 173, Pendleton, SC 29670

I just thought this would be fun to see where the cards come from.

Thank you!

Has it really been THAT long???

I guess I have been sucked into the easiness that is facebook and not taken the time to come over here and blog...  that is not good.

In the year and a half that I have been absent from here, I have been still creating my pottery, the most recent addition has been the Crimson Velvet Porcelain.

Crimson Velvet Sake Bottle $85.00

This extraordinary color is quite expensive and I will only do small pieces.  The Sake Bottle pictured here has just a clear glaze inside and on the top portion of the bottle, ending just below the shoulder.

I am still teaching a variety of classes at our store along with my sister and a few talented friends.

We painted the inside of the store this summer...

As well as re-arranging the floor plan a bit.  We are quite pleased with the results, it gives us a more open space and more flexibility.

My ex-husband passed away unexpectedly this past summer and I made a quick trip to Alfred, NY for the funeral and to visit with the Higgins side of my family.  Yes, a divorce severs legal relationships, but it cannot sever the feelings of family.  I wish I could afford the time and money to visit them more often.  I just do not want it to be for such a solemn occasion and I definitely do not want the flight headaches I endured on this trip.  (Another story for another time... maybe.)

Dad retired from the store this past Spring, leaving Terri & I both working 6 days a week.  I am glad he has the time to do the things he wants to do.  It does, however, make it a little harder to get work done on projects that require longer amounts of time than an early morning or an evening.  Our friend Phyllis was so kind to come in and work on Mondays through the Christmas & Holiday shopping season so Terri & I could alternate Mondays off and get some things done.  We are ever so grateful!

Speaking of friends helping out.  We have the most wonderful group of customer/friends who come to our aid when one of us is sick (Terri got hit hard with a stomach bug during the holidays) or needs to be someplace (for me, one of the 2 shows I do each year, or this weekend, Terri was at a retreat.)  Our friends who are like family step in to help man the store.  We can only say that we are blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives.  And to all of you, thank you for all you do!

I designed some beaded pieces for classes...

Abstract Narcissus Square Stitch Pendant

Ornament Cover 2013

All in all, It has been a busy year and a half.

I am not going to make any promises about blogging more often.  Let me just say that I will try.

May 2014 be off to a positive start for you and may it continue to the end.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Well, I couldn't work on pottery for a while because of my finger injury (it is healing well - thank you!) and hope to get back to some tonight after dinner.
In the meantime, I created two Valentine cards for a Valentine exchange at Mom's Breast Cancer Support group meeting.
The first one (Purple & green) also included, as part of it's design, a lapel pin I made of copper & silver plated wire with Swarovski crystals.
The second one I made with a paper quilting technique.

I swapped the one with the pin & Mom swapped the quilted one. We had a wonderful time at the meeting, it is a wonderful group of ladies we feel are part of our extended family. So sad that cancer is what brought them all together. The sharing, caring, laughter and tears are so inspiring!

Just checking in...

I'm still here!
I have been creating a lot of cards lately for work. Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures to share.
In my free time, when I have enough energy, I have been casting more stoneware as well as working on new ideas for classes at the store.
I have not heard from the porcelain company lately as to whether they have solved the production problem with the Ebony porcelain or not. I am saving what Ebony clay I have left, just in case I need to make something for an order.
I guess that if I make a promise to take some pictures and post them here before next Monday, then I will have to keep my promise. So... the promise has been made. I will post pictures by Sunday night, May 17th, 2009. And my promise is in writing... I can't very well break that promise, can I?

phew!

What a busy few days it has been...

Sunday, I was working on my porcelain production area and we had the monthly meeting of the Hole in the Bead Gang Bead Club.

Monday I had a big bead order to process.

All day Tuesday we prepared for a short show at the Anderson YMCA for National Women's Health Day. I was folding brochures and pulling together all of the display paraphanalia. Terri made several sets of greeting cards and Mom helped gather assorted other merchandise for the show.

We hurridly set up for the show yesterday morning and had a wonderful time there. We met a lot of fantastic people and had a delicious lunch donated by Chick-fil-A. Then it was back to the store to unpack.

We also had the Crafty Crew Rubber Stamp Club monthly gathering at the store last night. Our customer/friend BP had a wonderful project (photo to come...) for us all to make and M & CD brought delicious goodies for us to munch on afterward. Those brownies were so delectable! We had the company of a group of fun and creative people. This month we had 4 guests joining us and we hope they will come back again.

This morning we have a class for 12 through Osher Lifelong Learning Institute through Clemson University.

I have had so much going on, I have not had the energy at the end of the day to finish pulling together a disc of photos for sister Regina (for the store's web page) or the cards won by Ruth.

I WILL get both of those things out in the mail the first part of next week! And I WILL get some new photos for here and a new post for the store's blog.

Keep those creative juices flowing!

And the winner is...

A drum roll please....... The winner is my long-time pen-pal Ruth.

The names were all put in a hat and hers was the lucky one drawn.

I will consult with Mom and have her help me with the secondary contest as to who had the best reason (it is a tough decision, the reasons are all wonderful!). I still have not decided what that prize will be. I should just leave it as a surprise until the winner receives it.

Ruth and I became pen-pals when I was in 6th grade. Although I used to be really good at writing, I have gotten lax. But we do still keep in touch. She sends me photos of her adorable little girl and when I actually get around to sending them, I send her Christmas cards and the occasional real email (as well as the normal fwd.).

We have never met, and only spoken on the phone once that I recall. But we have kept up with teen-aged romances, jobs, marriages, the birth of her daughter and other life-changing events. I feel guilty that I don't write as I used to (I would to send multi page letters chronicling my daily life). Please don't feel bad, Ruth, I don't write much to anyone.
Her name being the winner gives me a chance to send her something once again through snail-mail!

And Ruth, I hope you don't mind that I snitched your photo from your comment to post here... : )

I also want to thank everyone who entered the contest - it was fun to read your comments and cross comments.

This is fun...

No photo today, still sorting through all of them.

I am having a great time with the comments from people who want to win the cards... Colleen is the only one I do not know. But I did live in Syracuse for a few years (what seems like a lifetime ago...), so I know her hometown...

I have decided that I will come up with a prize for the most interesting comment as to why you should win my cards. That will be a tough choice, they are all great!

At this point, for the original give-away, I am going to just place all the names into a 'hat' and pick one. How much more random can you get?

Card Give Away

I know, I have not posted for over a month. It has been a busy month for me.

I am going to give away a selection of 8 hand made greeting cards, made by me, of course. They will include some holiday cards and at least one using the washi paper quilting technique shown in this photo.

The give-away contest starts now and ends on Saturday, September 20. I will randomly pick the winner Sunday morning 9/21. When I contact you, I'll need delivery information to ship your cards.

Just for kicks, let me know why you feel you should win the cards.

After the holiday season is over, I will do another give-away featuring a piece of my porcelain pottery. Right now I need everything for the show and sales I have on the schedule.

Other interests

I have mentioned that I also enjoy rubber stamping and other paper arts. This is an example of one of the Washi Quilted Cards that I teach at The Mercantile. The company we order the materials from has 10 kits with 4 - 5 patterns in each. And, as beautiful as their designs are, I would rather create my own for class. Each time I teach a session, I add at least one new design. The company has asked if they can post some of my designs on their web site, giving me & the store credit, of course. And I couldn't say no. They were not posted as of Saturday, but I'll keep checking. This is one of my favorite techniques. Washi (decorative Japanese paper) is so wonderful to work with, it is almost fabric like. It is difficult to tell from my photo, but the vase is padded and puffy. I have embellished with gold cord, beautiful ribbon and paper flowers.