3. Balance. I do tend to overwork myself physically and mentally, so a good day includes a balance of physical and mental tasks. If I use my body and my mind in equal measure each day, I go to bed tired, ready for sleep, but not exhausted or wired. Recent (and ongoing) physical tasks include metal-smithing, field mowing & seeding, weeding & landscaping. Mental tasks include maintaining the books for my studio, drafting listings, pondering design ideas, phone calls (I find making calls fairly stressful), drafting shop listings, and the blog. Taxes are a currently looming mental task.
Today I did some mowing and field maintenance, picked up tax prep software, went to the gym, ran a bunch of errands like going to the grocery store and hardware store, and finished work on a metalsmithed necklace project (and the blog now). Today was good and balanced, and I should have no trouble getting a good night’s sleep.
4. Flexible scheduling. For me this means creating a schedule that’s orderly but not overly rigid. “Make hay when the sun shines” is a guiding principal–almost literally sometimes. But what that really means is time your tasks appropriately–and in my job as farm manager, much of my work is genuinely weather dependent. If you have to work with the weather, you need to be flexible, or you’ll wind up wasting your time mowing wet grass (and spending 90% of your time cleaning clumps of wet grass out of a clogged mower deck). Since my farm work is weather (and daylight) dependent, it gets priority when the sun shines–and the jewelry and wool work gets slotted in around the farm work. In crappy weather the jewelry and wool work gets more priority time. Urgent tasks (like trees falling on the barn in a hurricane and taking out the fencing in every single pasture, huge snowstorms, or large custom orders in the shop) get priority over everyday work.
Flexible scheduling also means having set items around which the schedule can be structured. The post office closes at 4:30 here, and I ship orders same-day or next-day. So if I have an order I haven’t shipped, at 4:00, I’m heading out the door with packages ready to be shipped. This means everything has to be pulled and packed, and labeled before 4:00. It also means that I have to schedule other tasks, like tree removal or mowing or painting with the knowledge that at or before 4:00 PM, I will be going to the post office. On Monday of this week, that meant at 3:55, I stopped mowing, hopped in the car, made the post office run, and was back mowing again by 4:15 (literally). Having deadlines you can’t move makes scheduling easier in many ways, since you can arrange the items you have control over around the one’s you can’t control. Another set point in my schedule is cleaning the house on Sundays. I clean on Sunday (because the trash & recycling are picked up Monday). Having a day each week where you know what you will be doing is helpful if your schedule if otherwise largely in flux. It provides…balance!

5. Take a break. (This is husband’s rule…boss lady is less inclined). Flexible scheduling would seem to indicate that I can take breaks as needed (and it’s true, I operate that way for small things like eating, checking e-mail throughout the day (is that even a break?!) and the bathroom). But it’s harder (for me at least) to take real breaks, where I can actually dis-engage from work and stress–since I see gaps in the schedule and slot in small tasks that have been left undone. When you work at home, it’s hard to leave the office. But breaks are important for mental and physical health. I’m just not great at taking them, or realizing when I need to take them! Husband makes it simple, by planning day (and part-day) trips out of the house and off the farm. So we can have a real break. Because breaks (when you’re not working) are important for balance.

So what’s really in a day’s work? Everything, in moderation. And a constant quest for balance and organization. You know what? I should take a break! Good Night!

At least they don’t charge me for helping. Unless biting counts?

(Does this count as micro-managing?)

At least I don’t get lonely at work! Have a great week!

As I often do, I’ve been thinking about the desert, and how it’s typically muted palette is overrun with color in the spring–a sudden rush of color and life that overwhelms the landscape and subsides as quickly as it comes. Spring in the desert is brief, powerful, and spectacular. The brief desert spring is what I was thinking about when I created this treasury.

I know, I know, I’m impossible to buy for. I get it. So here’s a very last second list of things I like, that would be good gifts (Now or later):

This Purse: http://www.zappos.com/marc-by-marc-jacobs-preppy-leather-natasha-espresso
I recognize that it is rather expensive. I am aware that I have lots of other bags. That does not mean that I A. won’t enjoy or use this one, B. won’t really love it. Because I will. And I do.

This Ball Winder: http://strauchfiber.com/ball_winder.php
I know I have a ball winder already. It is a piece of crap and I hate it, yet I am forced to use it multiple times each week. Each time I use it, it sucks yarn down into it’s gears, gets tangled, refuses to release the yarn, and generally sucks up a bunch of time and energy. And it’s not large enough to wind some of the yarns I use regularly into a ball, so I have to cut the yarn in two. It’s a real bummer, and this one is not. so there.

Yarn. I know this option is surprising, since I have so much yarn, but hear me out. I have lots of yarn because I like and use lots of yarn. I get that understanding my taste in yarn might feel daunting, but it’s not–because you don’t have to. Really. Buy yarn for me that you like, in sufficient quantity for a project you need. And then give me a hint. Like “I saw this yarn and I thought it would make an amazing hat.” Then you have solved two problems–you’ve given me an excellent gift I am excited about, and next year, you’ll get an awesome hat/ socks/ mittens/ tea cosy that you will be excited about (and I won’t have to stress over whether you will like or need your gift)!

Gift cards and gift certificates. I like to shop. I really like to shop. A great deal. And I particularly like to shop at J. Crew, REI, Anthropologie, and Madewell. I also want some new knitting needles, from these fine folks: http://www.dyakcraft.com/needles.htm . But I’m not really sure what types and sizes of needles I need to round out my collection. And if these options fail, cash is always great too, especially if you suggest a way I can use it, like “Have a fun day of snowboarding on me” !

Need more options? Have you heard of Etsy? Not only do I have a shop there, I have an extensive list of shops and items that I adore in my favorites, here: http://www.etsy.com/people/glassmoondesigns/favorites?ref=si_fav And the best part of my favorites is that it includes items of all types and at every price.

So now you know. And also, if you don’t want to give me a present? Thats okay too–we can still be friends!

P.S. If you have other knitters on your list, they probably like yarn too, they might need a an assortment of small things like darning/ yarn needles, tape measures or stitch markers (which I sell in the shop) or they might enjoy learning another craft, like spinning or felting. And if anyone else you know enjoys etsy, they, too might have a favorites list you can use as a perfect, personalized gift guide!

So here’s the knitting update: Today I worked no rows on any gift item, not even the easy, happy scarf. Today, I ripped out a heel-flap and gusset on a pair of commissioned socks, and re-knit it using my traditional, typical, well-beloved short row heel. The short row heel uses a lot less yarn than the flap heel, if you’re interested. I also think it is easier and faster, with a tidier result. But those are my opinions–you can like other heel types better as suits you–it is, after all, your knitting. But in my knitting, the short row heel is king. I have no idea what I was thinking working a flap heel out of the blue on a client order, even if there is no real deadline. Working the flap heel took forever, I didn’t like how it looked, and in the end, I ripped it out anyway. Lesson: don’t suddenly work random flap heels because you want variety. If it’s part of a pattern, sure, go ahead. But hey, if you have a system, and it works, by all means keep with it–even if that’s dull. Dull= happy, right?

Rows worked/ Stitches worked:
A short row heel + 36 rounds/ a number of stitches I don’t care to estimate + 1584

Daily goal to keep up with Kevin’s participation in NaNoWriMo: 1600
Did I make that goal today? Yeah, because while I may not know how many stitches exactly are in the short row heel, I am certain it is more than 16!

Now, there is just one problem. This is not a good time for me to acquire a sheep. Besides my company (which is doing well, actually, and growing, thank’s for asking) I don’t have a normal job–currently I work for my mom (yeah, I know it’s a bit embarrassing)–helping to pack up her house and get her ready to move, doing the landscaping, shoveling a lot of stone–things like that. I don’t make much, and when the opportunity for real work (or going back to school comes along) we need to be able to move, quickly–because my work here, for my mom, is nearly done. And having sheep would complicate things more than they already are–because we do already have four lovely cats. The only problem is, no landlord really wants tenants with four cats–no matter how well behaved they are (the tenants or the cats, take your pick). And so finding a house we can occupy with the family we already have is difficult enough, without adding the requirement of a barn and a yard where I can keep sheep, even if they are very small, with those ears! those faces! that lively gait!

What I want for Christmas, maybe even more than my two front teeth (although I have those, and they are pretty great), Santa Baby, is not a yacht, it’s a flock, and really, that’s not a lot, is it? (Christmassheep? Anyone?)

But a few years is a long time–and the arrangement no longer looked as cheerful. The greenery had dried to a dull gray-green, the stems of wheat had long ago been pulled out by curious cats, and the birds were rather more bedraggled–also due to the curious cats. The stems of fresh berries had long ago dried out, and had finally begun dropping their fruits all over the table. It was simply time for something fresh. With fewer birds to tempt the cats. So I got to spend an afternoon giving the arrangement a much needed update, pulling the old one apart, salvaging what elements I could, and creating something fresh for fall.

So you see? Not all the projects I have to do to get ready for the changing weather are boring–some are really fun! Which is just as well, because I don’t think sealing the deck is going to be any fun at all…

This set of beads (and the finished earrings) I made for my mum as a late Valentines present. I wanted something classic and elegant, and the earrings needed to be on the short side because my mum doesn’t do long dangly things.

To make the beads, I started with a white core, and then put on two rows of blue dots. After melting the dots mostly flat, I raked them into a leaf pattern–making sure to rake the two rows in opposite directions. This gave me a nice pair of simple, visually interesting beads– and the blue and white color combination is classic and elegant.

To take the design from beads to earrings, I first decided on a metal color–I typically work with silver, but since the white and blue are both cool, I chose to work with yellow gold. Yellow gold is not only visually warm, it is also timeless and elegant–which works well for this design.
After selecting my metal, I carefully matched the shade of blue in the leafy beads with smaller accent beads, in this case, faceted cobalt quartz-glass. I then assembled everything with some petit gold ball beads to give everything a very polished look. They look classic, timeless, and elegant to me–what do you think?

One common type of bead is a “white heart”– a white bead with an overlay of a transparent color, placed so that from the side, some of the white is still visible. While I like the idea of white heart beads, I’m not feeling the pastel colors they create right now–so I have been using the technique with other color combinations. So far, my favorites have been a pea-soup-green core with a transparent teal overlay and purple-blue ( translucent periwinkle today) dots, and a bright yellow core with a sky blue transparent overlay.

Shaping beads is another fun way to add interest (in addition to techniques like color play and surface decoration), and one of the easiest ways to shape beads is by gently flattening one or more sides of the molten glass, which is what I have done here. If you flatten a round bead on two opposite sides, you get a flat tablet shaped bead–it looks like a circle instead of a sphere. But, if you flatten a doughnut shaped bead on two sides, you get a nice eye shape–which is what I did here. Once I had shaped my bead, I used some surface decorations as well–I placed yellow dots in the same color as the core on the flat sides, melted them in, and then flattened again, then topped those dots off with the translucent periwinkle I used in the last set of beads–and added another set of dots to the “ends” of the beads for good measure.

These beads a a little odd (all eye beads strike me as odd) but in a fun, primitive way. The ancient egyptians made all sorts of glass beads, and eyes were pretty frequent–so I’m following a seriously long tradition here. I wanted to play up the unusual colors, the primitive feeling, and the sense of whimsy and fun when turning these beads into earrings, and I spent a long time trolling through my collection of gemstones to get beads that had the right combination of color and shape. I finally settled on some circular yellow-green olive jade serpentine and some bright aqua hemimorphite balls. I put everything together on hand-made sterling silver head pins.

In the past I have been reluctant to pair glass beads with fine gemstones, because I thought the relative “values” of the two items were too far apart and would create conflict in a design. I was wrong. Expect to see more designs featuring hand-made glass beads side-by-side with gemstones in the future.