Bummer!

Hi Everyone,

I seem to have already broken my promise to be better at blogging about clay. My excuses are that I've been busy and my hobby room is an absolute disaster.

I'm trying to do a number of things in clay. I owe Fiona a pair of earrings since the ones she made me are quite fun and I've been enjoying them. I want to give away something clay like at our guild's New Year's party this weekend, and I want to create some things for the One World One Heart giveaway.

Nothing is cooperating. Lately my "gee, it's almost perfect, I just want to add ONE more thing", has turned into "drat, well that didn't work out at all". Some examples:

I've made a pair of earrings that I would be quite happy to own but I decided that they needed one more thin layer of liquid clay on them. That liquid clay hid a couple of specks of gold coloured dust that are quite noticeable against the beautiful sapphire blue background. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that. I might see about some embellishments, but they really are beautiful just the way they are. I may end up keeping them.

I had another pair of earrings made, again that I would have been quite happy to own, and I had been patting myself on the back for finally doing an antiquing job that I liked on them. But I decided that the backs of the earrings weren't pretty enough so I dabbed some ink on them. The ink spilled over to the front and messed up my beautiful antiquing job. So I had to improvise. I think it ended up OK and these will likely go to Fiona, if she wants them.

Since my hobby room is such a disaster I'm down to about a six inch work space. That is definitely not helping.

Here's a photo of tonight's disaster. Normally I'm very good about capping my pearlex as soon as I'm done with it. But tonight I'm wearing a big floppy shirt to keep out the chill and as I turned around to look at something else I knocked my container over and onto the waiting open box of cookie cutters that I use. This is going to be a pain to clean up. The powder is also on the floor, on my pants, on the counter, and down the cupboard.

Bummer!

Oh well.

Sandy

One World One Heart 2011

Hi Everyone,

I've been participating in the One World One Heart event for the last two years. I'm both happy and sad to say that the event will be happening in 2011. I'm happy to participate but sad that this will be the last year.

For those that aren't aware, Lisa, the Whimsical Bohemian started this project years ago as a way for bloggers to get to know each other. Door prizes are offered by each of the bloggers to random winners. Last year there were over 900 participants. It's an amazing effort and kudos to Lisa for the monstrous organization that it must take and I can certainly see why she would make this year the last year.

Anyhow, the door prize for my blog will be posted on January 30, as well as for all the other bloggers.

All bloggers are allowed to enter. You can read about the rules at the link above. If you're at all interested please do let her know and let's make this final year the greatest ever.

I'm excited but need to figure out what I'm making.

Cheers,

Sandy

Personal New Year's Resolutions

Hi All,

In my last post I mentioned that I would post my personal New Year's resolutions. Right now I have three that I'm willing to share.

1. I want to do the splits. This one may take me all year and I have no idea whether it's possible or not. I'm one of the least limber people that I know and right now I'm not even sure whether I can spread to a 90 degree angle let alone 180. There's no particular reason for this goal, it's just something I've always envied of other people.

I've been looking up a number of websites on how to do the splits. Many of them are intimidating with pictures of young girls that are already flexible. I think I've found the website that I might be using - it's from Run The Planet and is here.

2. To complete a 9 day cleanse from Isagenix. A good friend of mine, Patti, needed a few more people to sign up as part of her Isagenix team and offered the cleanse at a ridiculously marked down price. I bought the system and since at some point this winter we'll be off to the Caribbean for a week I thought it would be good to try this in the New Year.

I'm not normally an herbal supplement, detoxify, etc, etc, person, but I figure I can do just about anything for 9 days straight. Christmas parties and feasting are over and I don't have a lot of work scheduling that will make this difficult so I think I'm good for the next couple of weeks.

Supposedly this will give me more energy, reduce cravings, make me feel good, and of course, the kick start to weight loss. I've decided to log my day-by-day progress. I confess to being a bit of a cynic to the other benefits so it'll be interesting to see whether I notice them or not.

3. Lose between 10-15 pounds. A few years ago before the miscarriage I had lost 20 lbs and maintained that loss for more than two years. Over the last three years 10-15 of that has crept back on. I like how I look 10 lbs lighter and in general I feel better when I'm there. When I turned 45 I picked up five pounds almost overnight and they're not easily budging. I've been reading about perimenopause a lot lately and it seems that I should fight now rather than later.

I've decided to create a new blog for the tracking of these goals and other things. You'll be able to find it at Sandy's This and That, at least for now (though as I write this there are no entries). I have mixed emotions on creating a separate blog. Many of the blogs that I read combine their clay with their personal thoughts and that's a great way to get to know the people. I consider some of these bloggers my friends and am always open to meeting others. There are times, however, when it's simply nice to look at clay things and some of the blogs that I haunt are also along those lines.

I suspect in my case that it might be too easy to turn this particular blog into a "Sandy's life with a bit of clay thrown in" so I'll do the separate blog for that personal stuff and see how it goes.

Anyhow, wish me luck on my goals. I'll let you know how it's going now and then here.

Cheers,

Sandy

My 2011 New Year's Resolutions...

Hi Everyone,

I've had a miserable cold this last week and most of my Christmas vacation was spent moaning and being pathetic on the couch. This morning I woke up with only a trace of a cough and almost 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep. I feel human once again and glad to be so.

It's time for New Year's resolutions. I didn't quite make all of my last year's resolutions. I did get to a total of 32 cane entries instead of the 52. The five pounds that I wanted to lose have now turned into 10. I did make more than 100 Bottles of Hope, but I only published about 80 of them. I stopped blogging for a bit as I succumbed to my addiction to Frontierville, which has now been cured.

This year I'm setting some personal and some clay related. The clay related are:

1. To make 100 Bottles of Hope.
2. To make 3 pairs of earrings to give away in the last ever One World One Heart Event
3. To blog about clay at least once a week
4. To finish my bottle of canes
5. To offer to exchange earrings once a month (the first set is for Fiona that I promised months and months ago).

I have other personal goals that I've got and I'll publish those in another blog entry.

The Bottles of Hope in this blog entry were inspired by Gera Scott Chandler and they're in memory of my Aunt Sharon who passed away within a month of diagnosis of cancer. She was surrounded by family when she went and these seemed appropriate.

My sister's family has been devastated by her husband's mother's battle with cancer so unfortunately it doesn't seem right to wish everyone a Happy New Year since my thoughts focus on them. Instead I will close with an Irish blessing that I found here. It seems appropriate since it's raining here today.

May the blessing of the rain be on you—

the soft sweet rain.

May it fall upon your spirit

so that all the little flowers may spring up,

and shed their sweetness on the air.

May the blessing of the great rains be on you,

may they beat upon your spirit

and wash it fair and clean,

and leave there many a shining pool

where the blue of heaven shines,

and sometimes a star.

Sandy