I can see clearly now...

...all the way from the door to the work area. This is how I've spent most of my day but the room is actually usable again. I'm able to have my laptop on the side desk and work at the main one. I have my jewelry making supplies set up now. More earrings coming soon.

I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!

Happy Mother's Day to me...a little early

I got a large 5 drawer, 2 bin rolling tool box today for an early Mother's Day gift - it is so cool! For the first time ever, I know where all of my tools are - and they're organized. There's an open bin/shelf in the middle. Glues, pens and markers, magnifiers and paper towels are there.
One drawer is just for punches, scissors, tweezers and the other tools I use most for minis.
There's a drawer full of clamps and Dremel accessories.
A drawer for clay tools. There's a drawer for basic household tools, one just for saws and knives. Miscellaneous stuff is in the area under the lid and the large bin at the bottom holds power tools.
And the result of the tool box is a large clear area on the work table. I have more work to do but you have no idea how bad it had gotten in this room!

Not every mom would be excited about a tool box but I definitely am! :)

More earrings

I just had to show you my favorite earrings from todays jewelry making session. I also designed square business cards to use to hold the earrings. I promise I will be back to minis soon. I'm just waiting for some new inspiration. Tomorrow will be a better day and I will figure out the next project. At least that's my goal. ;)

Better, I think...

Thank you all so much for your concern and encouragement. I spoke to my son's school counselor - she's a very special lady who's been the go-between for each of our children - and she clarified the principal's instructions. She said the principal often comes across much more strongly than she intends and even the counselor had to ask questions to figure out what my son was allowed to do. It isn't as bad as it first sounded and I'm hopeful we're going to work out the last of the issues by tomorrow.

Some days just take too much effort...:)

Please excuse the rant!

I'm sorry - I try not to bog the blog down with a lot of real life stuff but I'm angry. I have 3 young adult children with health issues. The oldest and youngest have postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. The disorder affects every system in your body that is supposed to function without your input - breathing, heart rate, pupil dilation, blood flow, vision, etc. So it qualifies as a disability. There are medications to treat the symptoms but it often takes an extremely long time to get the balance correct. My oldest has been fighting her way through college and will finish successfully at a different school than she started with (because of the unwillingness of the dept head to work with the disability) in 6 years rather than 4. My youngest is in high school and was diagnosed his freshman year. All of high school has been a major struggle - this is his 4th year and I think we've finally got the medications right. He's going to need another year to finish. Today the principal banned him from the school. He's working to complete two courses from home but still needs access to the teachers and he has some standardized tests he's supposed to take in May and June. Excuse me, but isn't the goal supposed to be to help the kids get through?

I don't want to have to get the advocates involved again so I'm currently waiting for responses to my plea for an alternate plan. All prayers appreciated!

A Non-Mini Sideline

In addition to making minis, I do many other crafts. One I really enjoy is making jewelry. My daughter has been pushing me to start an online shop for my earrings so I finally did. The shop is called Designs by De. It's a zibbet shop - please take time to explore zibbet. You will find many wonderful artisans - beautiful miniatures, jewelry, art and more.

The new and improved version

I used a different technique on these. I used a smaller bead for the base of the flowers - I used glass beads in baby blue or white.
The blossoms are punched out of coffee filters that I first colored with chalk pastels in blue with a bit of pink. I left a bit of the white exposed.
I got a much more realistic color this way. I punched some hearts to make the leaves. Each flower has 1 or 2 leaves attached just under the blossoms and I made a few stems of just leaves to fill out the arrangement. It's all planted in a mini bean pot.

I think these are a huge improvement over the first attempt. What do all of you think?