Grounded

I’ve been working on the floor this week. I just figured out why. Hui.1 is trying to roll over but he hasn’t quite figured out how to roll over from his back to his tummy. He can sometimes roll from his tummy to his back, but he has to be in the right mood for it. Since he’s either on the floor or playing on his gym, he’s down there and I need to be down there next to him too. So I’ve been working on the floor. I feel like a little kid again. I also had Jesse.1 lounging all over the apartment floor for the week she was here, so that also has something to do with it.

I’ve been diligently working on my Rock on a Rope collection. I feel that this is the year of “understated elegance”. Something that can be used for both causal, lazy days and that extra bit of something special for more dressier occasions. We’re busy women, taking over the world and taking care of everyone but ourselves. Some women can’t afford a huge piece of bling and I get that. That’s why this collection is so dear to me. It’s just enough femininity and practicality rolled into a tiny package. And those modern day rock hounds can appreciate my love of obscure, rough stones.

So come on, get your rock on.

A Rorabaugh Christmas

This is Jesse’s favorite grandma.  I call her his favorite grandma because he lights up when he’s with her and he spent a lot of time helping her as a kid.  She’s pretty awesome.  I gave her this awesome necklace of iolite and tanzanite stones from my crazy pirate rock lady because I had to make something special and try to keep the beads together.  I think she would approve.

If you’re ever in the Central Valley, specifically Modesto or Patterson, check out Sunblest Orchards for the best dried fruits and snacks ever.  The best is probably her apricot chili pepper sauce (be sure to get the HOT one for a good kick), mix it with some cream cheese, and spread it over some artisan bread for an epic snack.

Vintage Faire Mall Farmers Market, Modesto – Sundays 9 am – 2 pm

Patterson Farmers Market- True Value Shopping Center-Wednesday 4-8 pm

Downtown Plaza Street Faire & Farmers Market, Brenden Theatre, Modesto-Friday 4-8 pm

This is Jesse’s great grandma and grandpa.  It boggles my mind that he still has a great grandma.  Actually, both paternal great grandmas are alive and still kickin’.  But we only visited this one because the other one is dudded “Granny Grump”.  I got Great Grandma’s fudge recipe.  I should try to make it with Jesse.1 and then call her to tell her we made it and how wonderful it is.  That would make an old lady smile.  Someday I’ll figure out logistics to get Jesse.1 to visit these Grandmas.  And get those rough tourmalines to Grandpa to play with… he polishes and cuts rocks, whoo hoo!  Yeah, I’m the only one who appreciates his rock hounding.  He gave me a chunk of rock from the “Motherlode” mine with gold veins the first time I met him back in May, and then he gave me another chunk to give to Hui.1 when he’s older.  Guess he also knows I’m the only one who appreciates his rocks.

Trekking Along

I just realized I have two tumblers… I just need another barrel and I can be running both at the same time. /ding ding ding

I have a holiday boutique next Friday. It’ll be exciting because I haven’t done this in forever and I have price tags for everything except the earrings. Still trying to figure out a good system but I feel pretty confident. My stock this time around feels a lot more… Streamlined? More collection-ish vs my usual chaotic mishmash. I have my Rock on a Rope collection, the Chainmaille Straight Up, and the Chainmaille with a Hui Twist. Some of them need more specific names but I’ll get to that later. Some designs have become standard, which means its easier to quickly whip out, assuming I have all the right beads. I’m really happy with how everything is turning out. All this hard work is starting to pay off.

Jesse.1 spent Thanksgiving with us and apparently she had a cold and gave it to all of us. Poor Hui.1. But he’s a strong baby and the germs are starting to go away. Jesse and I still have a lingering cough but overall, 95% back to normal. With that being said, I need to schedule more downtime while Jesse.1 visits for Christmas/New Years. That was the real culprit, even though I always get sick during this time of year anyway. Running myself ragged 4 days straight and not enough quiet contemplation time. I’m going to send them to Disneyland without me. That’ll be good bonding time for them, and it will give me a chance to rest from the obligated Christmas socializing that will be done. After this show, I can focus on my winter cleaning and making sure I have all the stringing supplies I need to entertain Jesse.1. I feel bad every time she asks to make something, but I don’t have the necessary tools because I don’t string my beads anymore. Besides, I have a giant bag of bead stuff that needs to be sorted through anyway. Maybe I’ll find my dainty little chain that’s good for dangling.

All and all, I feel like I’m starting to get a good balance between being a mom, entrepreneur, and just plain ol’ me. Telecommuting still has its downsides, but I go in at least once a week to give Mom and Dad their baby fix and to just spend time there instead of staring blankly at the walls of my apartment. When the office slows down for the holidays, I want to spend some time sorting through my stuff and get rid of whatever I can. It’s time to reclaim the space the stuff takes over.

And I’ll leave you with a cute picture. I’ve been better about bringing my camera out and about with me…

Pasadena Bead and Design Show Recap

As I’ve mentioned countless times before, Pasadena is my happy place.  My entire family has been in love with Pasadena for over 40 years.  I have no idea what the draw is, but it’s definitely magical.  Mom’s family settled there before moving to Orange County, she and Dad courted there, and even I fell in love with it as I came into adulthood.

When I arrived in Glendale to meet up with Allison and her mom, I was treated to homemade KFC fried chicken.  Allison had been marinating the chicken in her secret sauce for 2 whole days.  Eating it fresh out of the frying pan was a real treat.  Hui.1 and I were very pleased with the quantity of protein and just a hint of flouring for the outside.  They made it especially for me, since they usually coat it in flour twice, but this batch only had one coating.  Once we finally made it out the door, we stopped at the donut shop for some naughty treats (hey, I only ate HALF of my donut that day), and made our way down the 134 to the Pasadena Hilton.

First stop was the Crazy Pirate Rock Lady, who was thrilled to find me expecting and how well I carry the baby.  I said having gestational diabetes has helped me keep off any excessive baby weight, which is pretty true considering how difficult it is to gain weight from limited carbs and a plentiful amount of protein.  Crazy Pirate Rock Lady had a blast quizzing Allison’s mom about all the different kinds of stones she had, because she has the craziest stash you could ever imagine.  I’m still drooling over the color changing garnets (she was down to her last 2 strands), but I don’t think it could handle 26g wire and it makes me nervous working on anything that requires 26g wire unless it’s earrings.  I have to say the best loot from her this round was the goregous strand of Goeshite, 3 pieces of sparkly golden green apatite, and a very special strand of iolite and tanzanite.  I promised her I would keep the iolite and tanzanite together since she wanted that particular strand to go to a special home. ♥

After we were finished with the Crazy Pirate Rock Lady, we circled the rest of the room and then headed directly to our next favorite vendor with some really AMAZING multicolor tourmaline.  These tourmaline beads came from these guys…

I ended up getting 3 strands… 1 with some awesomely large tourmaline beads (great for focals), 1 that’s a great size for more rock on a rope necklaces, and 1 very special strand of sliced watermelon tourmaline in bead form.  I’ve already put away the other two strands, but I haven’t had the heart to cut the slices yet.  I need to separate out the pairs that would make awesome earrings first.  Still waiting for that moment of, “alright, I’m going to do this!”

After that stop, I decided to sit out the next room and settled at the little Starbucks to finish off the baggie of fried chicken and cantaloupe.  People watching was pretty fun and the couple sitting next to me were very friendly and even offered me a bite of their chocolate cupcake, which was apparently the last one.  I politely declined and eventually made my way back to Allison and her mom.  They were drooling over the wire wrapped stone pendants and the artist was really awesome, interacting with both of them and talking about all of her drool worthy stones.

In the next big room over, I came across my other rock vendor whom I’ve dubbed as my “Mongolian rock people” because the husband has the look of a skinny Mongolian warrior.  Hehee.  It turned out that their daughter’s best friend was my wedding photographer.  I was chatting with the wife about the baby and the Chinese seclusion and customs for postpartum.  It’s weird, but after she said the same things my mom said, yeah, I’m seriously going to be a cow for the first month.  At least it’ll be nice to stay home and mostly in bed.  According to the blog link, a lot of the food on there is stuff Jesse puts in his salsa… I foresee him making a run to Superior for chips and salsa supplies.  Hehehe.  I need to remind him if his family leave is fully paid or not.  But it sounds like he gets a pretty good deal for 6 weeks of working for 2 days a week, then spending the other 3 days at home.  I bought some square kyanite beads that will make great earrings and necklaces (maybe an infinity necklace), some awesome grossular garnets I just couldn’t put down, and more sunstone.  She always gives me a better price than what’s marked, so whoo hoo!  It’s always nice to see them at all the bead shows I go to.  Hopefully one of their kids will keep the business running, or else I’m going to be really sad!

Eventually, we made our way back to the Crazy Pirate Rock Lady for Round 2 and meeting up with a friend whom we befriended at the last Pasadena show.  It was fun, we got to meet her wife and son.  Her son was really shy even though he was completely enthralled with pregnant women.  Beautiful family and we all bought more rocks.  Here’s a shot of all of my rock loot.  I forgot to include the glass beads I got from Grace…

Finally, we made it to the last room, which was also the main room of the show.  Yeesh, it was already 2-something by then. We wandered around and I found a chair to sit in because my feet were getting zonked.  The highlight of this trip and it’s crowning glory was when Allison’s mom found a lucky Chinese dangle of BOK CHOY.  She bought one for me and one to share between her and Allison.  We were laughing hysterically over the fact that it was bok choy.  Even the guy selling it to her was impressed she knew what it was… the pitfalls of being Caucasian and marrying Asian, I suppose.  So yes, this was the epitome of our adventure.

The last stop was seeing all the pretty shiny glass beads from Grace.  As I’ve said before, Grace is a former Computer Engineer gone artist.  She’s awesome and makes awesome beads.  We were jumping up and down in the aisle in front of her booth because of the baby and all that.  It must have been a sight to be seen.  Hehehe.  She gave me a free heart bead for the baby.  Of course, after I carefully picked out all of the beads I wanted.  I was very selective because I’ve hoarded so many of her beads but haven’t used them enough to justify the cost of owning so many and not making/selling enough jewelry with them.  Someday, I will find the perfect equation for it… I have a perfect bracelet design down, now for the rest…

The original plan was to stop at the Scarlet Tea Room for tea and snacks, but the kitchen closes at 4pm to get ready for dinner.  That was disappointing, but we found a cute little coffee and chocolate shop closer to the parking structure.  We took inventory of our loot while sipping our tea.  I love cute little café’s like that. ♥

All and all, an awesome day with awesome company.  Complete with rocks and bok choy.

This morning, Jesse picked up my strand of bok choy (it lives on the Brita pitcher that sits on the table.  I want to attach house bells to it), giggled, and shook his head at me.  He agrees it is the epitome of this Pasadena adventure.

The Power of Love… and He-Man

Yesterday I decided I was going to spend my child rearing years reassessing my style and what kind of legacy I want to leave behind while I focus on my family.  I also decided to focus on my “Chainmaille with a Hui-Twist” collection because it embodies me the most and is what I wanted to do with all of my chainmaille after I absorbed all I could on that basic left brain level.  The next step was to figure out how to adorn it and I was so happy to have Aislyn of Urban Maille as my guide into the next level of ascension.  I’ve mentioned my creative plateau before, but I’ll link to it again for significance.  The early part of 2008 was when I decided to take my jewelry to the next level, and OMG, it really, really did.  By 2010, I got a little lost, but now that my personal life has settled down into married life and soon-to-be motherhood, it’s nice to be somewhat back in action.  Jesse has made a huge difference in my creative mojo.  It’s wonderful to have such a supportive and adoring husband.

I made this bracelet after spending the weekend with Jesse.1 and being surrounded by friends and family.  Embodiment of all the love and mushy stuff that was spewing out that weekend.  I worked on it Saturday night well past midnight if I recall correctly.  I have an idea for another necklace just like this with the rose gold accents, but I’ve been hesitating for some reason.  I should just make it and see what happens.

Last night, I decided I wanted a Double Double from In-N-Out (one of the few fast food items I can eat) and figured Jesse could take care of his own dinner.  It was still really hot so after scarfing down the deliciousness with a tall glass of milk, I decided to take a nap (yay for pregnancy laziness), played a round of Diablo (yay for killing monsters), then eventually got myself settled at the eating table with my iPad perched and ready to watch some He-Man.  Played Emile Autumn to get into the mood while Jesse tinkered with the CD drive he dissected out of my old computer.  Once I got the initial right brain stuff going to the point that I knew what I wanted, I switched over to watching He-Man and explained to Jesse that I haven’t seen ALL the episodes because I was 4 and only remembered probably a quarter of them.  When they were released on DVD in 2005, I was ecstatic and spent a good chunk of time watching them over and over as background noise or zoning out after a long day at the office.  Even my mom figured out whenever I was watching He-Man, I was exhausted and recharging my batteries.  So you can imagine the happiness of being able to watch He-Man and make jewelry at the same time again.

I ended up making this necklace.  The focal bead is a kyanite, and it’s really difficult to polish kyanite like this because it has two different MOH hardnesses on the vertical and horizontal axis.  This was the very first strand of beads I bought from my Crazy Pirate Rock Lady.

Love really is a many splendid thing.  You can’t sustain a marriage solely on love, but it’s definitely more than just icing on the cake.  I know just exactly how blessed I am and I am thankful for everything everyday, even on the days when he’s being grouchy and annoying.

Ooo, Rocks!

Last night I decided to bust out my stone boxes full of iolite, sunstone, and tourmaline.  The idea was to make more earrings, but that idea didn’t pan out.  I did end up going back to work on my “Rock on a Rope” collection.  This weekend, I hope to take photos and start listing them on Etsy.  I also need to calculate the prices too.  I’m hoping this will be a more affordable collection, because I want everyone from any walk of life to be able to purchase a stone that speaks to them.  This collection is also a way of introducing stones and their energy properties to the masses.  It’s also been a good way for me to freshen up on my stone studies.  I just happened to buy a stone book for my Kindle.  That’ll be more helpful than lugging around my favorite stone book everywhere.  I’ll have a baby to lug around in 2 months and a bit.  Yikes.  It’s scary how time flies.

From the left, prehnite, rough watermelon tourmaline, rose quartz, larimar, and pink tourmaline.

From the left, iolite, sunstone, iolite-sunstone waiting for their chainmaille bit and chain. ♥

Sporting my iolite and sunstone necklace with iolite-sunstone focal bead.  Of course, the focal bead is from my crazy pirate rock lady.  And I really don’t look pregnant from the chest up.  Hehehe.

Pasadena Daydreams

Been playing with chainmaille and my favorite glass beads lately.  My heart has been singing because I love these beads.  Grace is an engineer who decided to go creative and started making the most beautiful beads I have ever seen.  She’s awesome.  She is part of the magic that is the Pasadena Bead and Design Show.  There’s something magical about Pasadena that resonates through my entire family.  This trip, I’m hoping to make it to my favorite tea room for tea and snacks.  Mmm, warm scones and cream.  Nom Nom Nom.  Just as yummy as these glass beads and rocks from my crazy pirate rock lady.  ;)

I couldn’t get to Pasadena until 2009.  Previous years were just too busy on the weekends to break away.  But 2009 was the beginning of something bigger than I had ever imagined.  I discovered both Grace and my crazy pirate rock lady.  My sister and I spent a good hour talking to her at her booth.  The only reason I stopped was because I noticed she had some really lovely larimar necklaces.  Yes, it was all downhill from there.  I don’t think she was there for the July show, but she did come back in 2010 and every show after that, so I’ve collected some outstanding stones I never would have discovered otherwise.  Even Jesse has figured out that Pasadena = Crazy Pirate Rock Lady.  Hehehehe.

My dream right now is to make a strong collection of jewelry that incorporates Grace’s beads so I have a good excuse to go on a shopping spree with her.  Mmm, someday.  Definitely someday. ♥♥♥

This is something similar to what I’ve been making with my treasured beads and chainmaille… yeah, once upon a time, I had great ideas.  Need to get back to that mindset again.

Here are some pieces I’ve made with Grace Beads:

And here are some Crazy Pirate Rock Lady pieces:

(The bottom stone is a rough watermelon tourmaline)

Creative Inventory

Gem Faire is back in town… the last one until August.  I’m going to be huge in August and it’s going to be hot.  I already told Jesse after we get back from Georgia, I’m not going outside until the scorching heat mid-day heat goes away.  It’s pretty amusing how he needs blankets more than I do these days.  He needs the cotton blanket and the comforter while I’m perfectly fine with the sheet.  Hehehe.  So yeah, probably going to skip the August show, so I should go to this one.

One of my online suppliers is having a sale, so I’m like, “Ooo, I can buy rocks and wire and wire wrap again.”  But realistically, I need to go home and take inventory of EVERYTHING.  Rocks, wire, chainmaille rings, etc.  I’m pretty set on chain for awhile, so that’s good.  I also need to figure out what direction I should go in right now.  Rocks for sure, but what?  Part of me wants to get back to basics… boring rounds linked together with either a focal point or just a nicely linked strand of beads.  More 4mm and 6mm.  More rectangular stones too.  Those are fun and will help balance out the bump Hui.1 is making.  Need bigger proportions after all.  I miss making chained necklaces like that… been focusing too much on basic chainmaille and pendants that need chains.  Time to make my own beaded chain again.  Like these…

Interesting how these are some of my favorite pieces and they incorporate my favorite glass beads ever.  Guess it’s time to bust them out again.

So… shopping list:

Boring rounds

Puffed rice

Puffy center drilled coins

Interesting Focal Beads that aren’t too heavy

———————-

I’ll un-boring it with little chainmaille bits and maybe some glass beads and crystals.  Muhahahahahaha.

Creative Clutter Gone Bad

I used to have an eye for the little details in my photographs.  I used my silly little bendable tripod every time I took a picture.  My camera has an awesome macro function and I’ve used it well.  I just need to find the motivation to really photograph my beautiful jewelry again.

Part of the problem is probably because my desk has become so creatively cluttered, it’s hit the point of “No, can’t do anything, too messy.”  The only reason I get anything done these days is because I have to.  Not the best way to operate anything let alone a business.  Time to bust out my kitchen timer (or iPhone timer) and do my 15 min cleaning spree.  Yay for annoying FlyLady.  I swear that was the only good thing about her because I’m not one to listen to nagging.  I need to do a general tidying for 15 mins a day instead of spending an hour or two doing a kamikaze cleaning every few weeks.  And figure out how to remain a little bit tidy so the mess afterwards isn’t completely insane.  I’m all for creative clutter, but this has reached the point of ridiculousness.

———————–

I took my lunch break and decided to put away stones into their respective boxes.  I still don’t have a home for tourmaline and sodalite.  There might be one more but I can’t remember at the moment.  I need to consult my stone book to see what gets along with what.  I’d assume to house the Tourmalated  quartz with the rest of the tourmaline, but what goes with the sodalite?  Oh yeah, I have a few bits of spinel here and there.  Spinel actually was used to mimic more expensive stones like rubies before science said, “Hey, those aren’t rubies.”  Very cool stone for sure.

Gem Faire is at the end of the month and after this weekend, August should be a fairly calm month.  Looking forward to some lazy summer days.  Summer hasn’t been lazy for me yet. /sigh