Tuesday Morning Rantings

As our smartphones and other tablet devices get more popular and easily accessible, the more I want to purposely “unplug” from the electronic world of the Internet. Despite the fact that I’m trying to sell tangible merchandise over the Internet and have to psychologically provoke customers into buying my jewelry, nothing ever beats that face-to-face connection. We’re human, we crave each other’s company. That’s why it annoys me when I’m with friends who are constantly playing with their phones when we’re out and about. I mean, we’re all guilty of it, and I do poke at my phone while I’m out with Jesse, but most of the time I make a sincere effort to be present in the moment and put it away during our meals.

Living in the moment is a universal challenge human beings have been facing for decades. This is not a new technological advance. Hui.1 has been forcing me to live day by day, instead of fretting about the summer activities and plans for Jesse.1, Hui.1′s birthday, Christmas, and New Years, or reminiscing over the days when all I did was work and make jewelry. That’s part of the reason why I believe the age old prompt of “describe yourself in 5 years” is full of crap. We don’t know where we’re going to be in 5 years. If you had given me a crystal ball to peek at who I am today and all the things I’ve done, I’d be laughing in disbelief. 5 years ago I was on the route of being a crazy old beaded engineer lady. The idea of getting married and having kids was a given, but I never pictured it one day at a time. So yeah, I would have laughed in that person’s face. People change over the course of 5 years. It’s that pesky thing called “growth”.

I’m still making jewelry and my skills have been sharpened and refined enough that I can truly call myself an artist. It takes a lot of time and dedication to be great at something. And making jewelry is one of those things for me. But I don’t remember the last bellydance festival I actually attended. It may have been Gothla 2010. I was too busy focusing on my relationship with Jesse for all those other extracurricular activities that eventually fell to the wayside. I still took classes with Sashi just because that’s what I had been doing since 2007. I made an effort to go to every Pasadena Bead and Design show starting in January of 2009. I haven’t missed a show since, simply because I made it a priority. It’s exactly like when I started yoga 2 weeks ago. Baby steps towards changing habits and realigning priorities.

An interesting observation made by Sashi and I, is that we’re NOT GOTH anymore. We’re too happy to be goth. It’s an evolution, I tell you! If you had told us the troupe would be moving in the direction of alternative tribal fusion bellydance, we also would have laughed in your face. Heck, I’ve finally caught up with the people around my age in terms of emotional intelligence. I admit I was about 10 years behind simply because I lived with Mom and Dad until I got married. Dealing with change has become a heck of a lot easier now that I’m used to it. It’s nice being happy and living a fulfilled life. I wouldn’t trade it for anything right now.

I suppose I should go find breakfast soon…

Still Got It

I’ve become a morning person, so as soon as my body hits the “awake” button, I want to run around the apartment to get all the stuff I need to get done before baby wakes up. Of course, that leaves me ragged and tired, waiting for baby’s next nap. But this morning, I thought I should stay in my nice warm bed and cuddle. I started yoga classes on Monday and I thought to myself, while fighting the urge to jump out of bed, “slow down and savor this moment.” We’re so hard-wired to GO! GO! GO! that sometimes it hard to stop and smell the roses. Besides, when does newlywed status end? While the baby has certainly turned our lives upside down, we still manage to keep the love alive. There’s a stark difference between dating and being married. When you’re dating, you focus solely on your partner. When you’re married with kids, you focus on the baby because the baby is more outwardly demanding. The level of attention has decreased, but silence isn’t as awkward as it used to be. I think the best part about being married is that Jesse knows how to deal with me when I’m in a mood.

I’ve been bitten by the creative bug this week and it’s been really awesome. There are a ton of things I’m finally getting in motion and it’s pretty awesome. Synchronicity at its best! I started yoga this week because Sashi is on hiatus until September (BOO!). 2 weeks ago, I officially started colluding with a friend who is now my official photographer. She’s an obsessive crocheter and it seems like both us and our husbands came out of the same batch of quirky nerds. It’s really awesome to be surrounded by such kindred spirits. I can’t wait to see what awesome chaos we come up with.

A Jewelry Update!

Hey look, I found a picture of the 20g Perfect Ring I mentioned in my previous post!

Yeah, right as I say I’m taking a creative break, baby starts sleeping, and I get creative again.  Oops.  So much for trying to ride a linear curve.  Nope, it’s just as sporadic as baby’s sleeping habits. :-O  So, what’s been crackin’ at the Hui Hui factory?  Let’s see…

Chandara (a.k.a. Biggest Fan/Best Customer) ordered this ruby and rose gold bracelet.  Lucky for me, it arrived just in time for her birthday!  Whoo hoo!  Apparently when I say I’m “getting back to basics”, I default to using beads and chainmaille bits.  Usually in a pattern consisting of CB-Bead-CB.

Fairly predictable, but I yam what I yam.  Wow, I write about this more than I thought…

I was contacted by a lady who was referred to me for custom jewelry.  We’ve been going back and forth via email to figure out the perfect necklace for her.  She likes thick and heavy chains, so some kind of chainmaille is in order for sure.  We just haven’t figured it out yet.  It’s been a fun challenge trying to figure out what suits her best.  I haven’t given my creative juices a hard enough workout for awhile and this fits the bill quite nicely.  Here’s a cool work-in-progress piece I came up with last weekend.  It’s pretty epic with the wall flower and the double sprial in sterling and rose gold.  Be still my rose gold heart.

I found this wire stand at Michael’s and I think it makes a pretty decent earring display.  My only gripe is that I need something to weigh down the bottom of it in the basket.  I’ll probably get some of those glass pebbles in a cobalt blue to match the postcard.  I feel so professional!

Hubby and I have a few errands to run later on this morning, then I hope to spend the rest of the day lounging around at home.  Probably play a few rounds of Dominion, then get him all packed for his trip to Pittsburgh.  Happy Saturday everyone!

Creative Vacation

Baby is on a crazy growth spurt this week. Tonight he woke up screaming bloody murder around 1:30am. Geez, kid, I hope you’re over 6 feet tall at the rate you’re eating and sleeping. Ever since last Friday, he’s been napping from 8am to 11:30am. Strange but I get my “me” time in the mornings. Well, that hasn’t been the case since Tuesday night. So it’s been a grueling few days and all I’ve really wanted to do is stay home and rest.

I’m coming to the realization that I need to just chill and roll with the punches life hands me. Right now I have to focus on my baby and whatever his needs are, without sacrificing too much of my sanity. With that said, I’m tabling any extra creative work for awhile. It sucks, but at the same time, I need to do some creative soul searching and I think a break would be good. I need to streamline my packaging and overall organization of my studio so it’s reaching maximum efficiency. While I have been creative for the past month, I need some new inspiration. I’ll continue to make my most basic pieces… chainmaille, Rock on a Rope, Chinese Knot, etc, but no new designs until I come out of hiding.

Jesse.1 is coming next week for her spring break so maybe I’ll get the creative boost I need from her. We’re going to go visit the Flower Fields down in Carlsbad on Saturday. We’ll go to my favorite German deli and market while we’re there for bratwurst and my highly coveted strawberry filled German chocolate. Apparently I can get it from Amazon… but that defeats the purpose of going down to the deli. It’s the experience that’s the fun part. Oh and the apple strudel. I hope to someday go back to Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. That was a great trip back in high school.

Hello rest and relaxation. Maybe I’ll even pick up the Artist’s Way again. We’ll see. Namaste.

Not Sleeping…

And here comes another summer in the apartment. I woke up hot because the weather is starting to slightly warm up, so I’m sorting through beads and folding laundry. Someday, having my own washer and dryer will be nice. Less giant bins of laundry to fold, but we’ll have to time our loads since it won’t be 7 machines at a time. Haha, that means I’ll also get to do my own laundry again. Oh well, it’s been nice having Jesse do it all.

I went through my kyanite box and realized I have a lot more of it than I thought. It seems that it has been more popular over the years since I’ve been able to get more of it in bead form. It’s just so hard to polish since it has a Moh scale number on both the x-axis and the y-axis. It’s such a pretty blue with faint white streaks that sparkle. The higher gem quality stones have less of the white streaks. I only have a few strands that don’t have the white. OMG, those are yummy. I think my favorite is the faceted blue-green rondelles I got from my crazy pirate rock lady. I’ve only made a pair of earrings with those. I need to think of something else to do with them. Eventually, something will say, “Hey, make that into this.”

It’s hard to focus on what I should make next, simply because there are too many things I can do. Reeling it all in is a challenge. I’m happy with a challenge, but sometimes it’s frustrating. For instance, I should be making more earrings, but I end up not, because the designs I adore are too tiresome because I only have a set amount of time before the baby demands my attention, or only so much energy before I need to sleep before the baby wakes up. I am at least acknowledging this and working through it by making the first earring then slowly working on the matching one. I’m almost done with the matching elaborate Chinese knot earring I posted a little bit ago. In spite of my frustrations, I really love that design. There are so many variations I can do with it. It’ll be epic once I put my mind to it.

All or Nothing

One of the roles Jesse plays among our little household is that he makes breakfast. Jesse.1 will help him when she’s visiting, so I really just need to tend to the baby and peddle around until they’re done. It was nice during her last visit, I called up my mom to get her crepe recipe which is something between a crepe and a pancake that we call “Mommy Made Cake”. We smother it with Nutella and strawberries if they’re in season. Yum yum. That was a fun visit.

When I make breakfast, it’s usually because I’m starving and my chocolate chip muffin from Vons (they make the best commercially available chocolate chip muffins) or cereal doesn’t cut it. So yeah, I go all out. It’s seriously a case of all or nothing because that’s just how I am. Luckily Jesse made nachos over the weekend so there were leftover cut up onion already. I’ve been dying to cook something with Trader Joe’s Peppered Turkey Bacon and this was the perfect excuse. After hanging out with my friend and her husband who’s just shy of being a professional chef, I decided I needed to make an effort to eat more vegetables. When I was at Superior on Sunday, I got green bell peppers to start with. It’s only natural to figure out how to cook with them since I already eat them on pizza. My scramble this morning consists of 6 eggs, 4 slices of bacon, 2 roma tomatoes, whatever left of the onion, and one bell pepper. OMG, it’s really good and the sharp cheddar cheese just makes it perfect. In all my years of Chinese cooking, smothering anything in scrambled egg and eating it over rice porridge is a good meal.

I’ve always been the “all or nothing” type. I think it’s because I’m a chicken and when I jump, I’m going to jump. I won’t settle for mediocracy. Engineering school took me almost 6 years, but I graduated with my degree in Electrical Engineering and no one can take that away from me. As my dad says, “I earned it.” Usually when he says that, he’s pointing to his beautifully shiny 2003 Mercedes SL500.

I don’t half-ass things. I don’t have time to do that. When I’m interested in something, I throw myself into it wholeheartedly, absorbing every last bit of information I can find on the subject. I did it with ribbon embroidery, gardening, and jewelry. Those are the 3 hobbies I’ve poured my soul into and the jewelry turned into a business. I have beautifully framed keepsakes of my ribbon embroidery and a box full of silk ribbon waiting for the day I pick it back up again. My gardening skills have proven useful with my little patio, even though the only thing I’m growing right now are green onions I don’t even water. But when we have a yard, I’ll be out there studying sun patterns and figuring out where I can put my fuchsias.

Heck, I wholeheartedly jumped into my relationship with Jesse from the beginning because I knew, seeing where it would go would be worth the risk of a broken heart. For those of you who know me, I was never the adventurous type until I met him. He awoke something inside of me that was always there and occasionally came out here and there. Now, it’s more predominantly out. And we’re all loving it. <3

To quote the Brady Family motto from Days of Our Lives, “No guts, no glory.”

Finding My Center

13

I did yoga this morning. Baby was still asleep and I had time, so I did it. And it felt amazing. More motivation to do it twice a day like I want to, regardless if I’m exhausted or less than exhausted. I posted this on my Facebook status afterwards:

I welcome the sun and the day with hopes of pleasantries and accomplishment. Namaste.

I’m slowly coming to terms with being a gazillion different things. This is coming from a few things… my body healing and slowly returning back to it’s pre-pregnancy state and a little bit more consistent sleep. 2013 is the year of balancing life and work, which is exactly what I’ve been doing, trying to balance family with the jewelry business and still working for Dad. It’s not an easy task, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Coming into the office 3 to 4 days a week works out fairly well and my sister sometimes comes to the house on Fridays to hang out with her little sweetie pie. Today I’m at least feeling like I’m going with the flow and accepting life for what it is.

Last week was a whirlwind of creativity I haven’t had since before the baby was born. Honestly, I haven’t been that creative since the weekend before he was born. The freedom to be able to pull out all the supplies I needed to manifest everything that’s been stewing in my mind was simply amazing. I can’t wait to harvest the photos off my camera as soon as I can carve out some time. Then post some new Etsy listings too.

The journey of an artist is never ending, just like our thirst for knowledge and capacity to learn new things.

Hello 2013

My baby will be 5 months this week. Oy, I have no idea where the time goes. He’s already rolling from tummy to back. I need to train him to roll over his left shoulder now. Hehehe.

2013 has been pretty chaotically busy. I caught a nasty Australian stomach flu bug which left me out of commission for almost a week. Baby did not like the BRAT diet so we started him on more solid foods because he kept scarfing down boiled bok choy and spinach. Crazy baby. So he’s up to eating baby food now. With the baby food, he’s been sleeping for about 7-8 hours on a good night. I still keep really random hours, making jewelry and cleaning the apartment during in the morning after baby wakes up to eat his first pre-breakfast snack. Or when he’s asleep and I can’t sleep because I’m annoyed I can’t sleep while he’s asleep. Yeah, motherhood is fun.

I realized that I may have to either do drop-ins or skip this session of bellydance entirely. My Sundays for most of February are booked up and I’ve already felt antsy about missing class so I started researching yoga studios. But the I realized I just need a new yoga mat and I can practice here. So while baby was whining about not wanting to sleep, I started clearing out my dance corner in hopes of getting off my lazy bum and back into a exercise routine. 5 minutes of cardio, go through my Sashi sun salutations, then bellydance drills. That’s not asking for too much, but I just have to do it. I need to go back to Zen Habits and get back into my 5 minutes a day thing. 5 minutes to clean, make jewelry, savor my tea, cuddle with my baby, things like that. Then gradually increase it as the habit starts to form.

Jesse cleaned off the eating table and I instinctively gravitated towards it and finally got my Spiral 6-1 pattern going after 4 years of trying it on and off. Nice to know my chainmaille skills are still up to par. I even made a pair of quickie earrings that are super cute and super light. Need to take photos when it’s light out. Whoo hoo! I also started my favorite Byzantine rose pattern in a smaller gauge. While it’s insanely small, it’s delicately beautiful. It truly makes my heart sing. With that said, I need to spend more time tidying the clutter around the apartment. It’s hard but I can’t use the baby as an excuse to be lazy. But being sick hasn’t helped much so I need to cut myself some slack and just get stuff done without over thinking the situation.

All and all, 2013 has started off well and I’m happy to be going back to my chainmaille straight up roots. So long as I can keep the apartment happy and tidy, I should have more creative motivation to create and exercise. I need to do whatever I can to maintain my well-being so I can be the best mom and wife I can be. And apparently my subconscious is nagging at me to get that dance corner back.

 

Kid Adventures

Jesse.1 will be here for a few extra days in February, so I’m trying to think of something fun we can do as part of our adventuring.  So far, we can go to the Getty Center and hang out in Santa Monica, or go to Descanso Gardens and hang out in Pasadena.  Allison apparently recommends this pizza by the slice place in Culver City.  I blame Jesse for planting the seed in my head to go visit the west side of LA.  We’re usually closer to Pasadena and Downtown so this would be a fun trip.  I haven’t been out to Santa Monica for more than a decade so that would be fun too.  Pasadena is my happy place as well as my family’s happy place, but trying to explain/show that to a kid is hard when there’s no bead show going on unless we find a shabu shabu place (she adores shabu shabu).  But even then it’s hard to convey the magic of Pasadena.  Ooooooooooo, we could go to the Scarlet Tea Room for tea.  We’ve never taken her for a proper English tea before.  That’s another fun thing to do and she likes drinking tea.  Hmm… Scarlet isn’t too stuffy of a tea room either.  She probably won’t be here for the next 626 Night Market, but hopefully we can all make it someday.  She would like a chaotic mass of too many Asians in one place.  Hehehehe.

Jesse’s best man said during his toast that Jesse.1 would never be bored between the two of us.  Jesse with his huge brain and eccentric adventures, and me with my love of all things shiny and bellydancing… yeah, our household is definitely far from boring.  It’s just harder to implement when the kid is here and there’s a million and one things to do.  Or maybe that was just the chaos of the holidays poking me down to my last nerve of sanity.  I’ve been better about trying to strike a balance between going out and staying home while she’s here.  Thanksgiving weekend’s constant going out and being on the move killed my immune system, so I made sure to clock in some of both during the Christmas visit.  I’m slowly getting the hang of it though.  The nice thing about that trip was spending the evening hours reading and making jewelry.  I have to pat myself on the back for that one.

Being a mom entails finding creative things to do with kids… not all of them involve staying home and making jewelry for the entire visit.

Quiet Time

My boys are both asleep. For how long, who knows. I am sitting at my workbench, listening to one of my favorite composers (he did the score for Hercules, Xena, Young Hercules, Legend of the Seeker, and the 2002 remake of He-Man). Not much creativity flowing so I’m tidying up and letting my mind wander. I need a trash can nearby. I can’t wait to get a new desk so my wire and scrap bags are within reach. And when I can curl up into my evil overlord chair instead of this obnoxious barstool height chair. Soon but not soon enough.

It’s Christmas Day. We’re going to Mom and Dad’s later. It’s strange to have free time in general, but we’re also in that transition mode of creating new Christmas traditions. Before it would be waking up, getting breakfast, then opening presents. But Hui.1 decided to have a cow last night and screamed until 2am. He’s been fussier for some reason lately. I suppose he can’t tell the difference if he’s hungry or tired and it’s usually both. Being a mom was never meant to be easy.

I have so many ideas and projects that I could work on, it’s hard to figure out what to do first. I have rings to make and earrings to make… Yeah, so many things but where to start? Blah. I’m starting with cleaning and then maybe the juices will start flowing. I need to start beefing up my earring collection and taking photos.

Hmm… I suppose I can go make some simple earrings… Wish me luck. And Merry Christmas.