DragonMaster

My newest beaded painting was not done for sale. My son has alway's loved dragons. He is 27 now and still collecting all things dragon so I had to make him a beaded painting. I have to tell you this was my most difficult peice yet and I am not completely happy with it. It was hard with all the little twists and turns in each color. I had to follow through each shape in it's color and try to make the lines "flow". I have decided I do not like using dark background paint, even though I love the color it does not let the beadwork itself pop the way it should. The background should be just that, a background, and the beading is to be the star of the show. So I can say I truly am happy I attempted this because I learned just a few more lesson's to put on my "don't" list.

I can't catch up

Sorry, my picture came out to small. A great deal of stuff going on right now and the cat is in rare form. He has decided he wants bird for lunch. This past week has been so hectic and heartbreaking. My father in law passed away last week and was buried with full military honor's on Monday. If you have never attended a Military funeral I have to tell you, if you arent' sobbing hard enough over the loss of a loved one, the soldiers at attention and the playing of taps topped off with folding the flag and passing it to a family member will turn you into a large puddle of tears. About the same time as all this was going on my sister in law got sick at work. Had to be driven home, my brother called her Dr. who sent her for a catscan and then she was taken by ambulance from the medical center to our biggest hospital. She has bleeding in her brain, the neurosurgeons are having a hard time finding out why and she has been laying in the hospital horribly sick for 8 day's now. And now, the reason for tonights post. My granddaughter has been ill since last September. We have gone round and round with tests, er visits, Dr's and we are doing it all again. So, trying to keep everyone who needs to know up to date on each new test and result we are going to "borrow my blog" for a bit and send everyone here for updates. So please bear with me if you see a number of posts talking about my grand daughter, it is for the benefit of family and friends who need to know what's going on. Every once in a while I will try to post something normal so you don't get tired of lousy news. ;o)

A lighter moment

I haven't had a good laugh for a while. I really needed one and today I got a really good one.
A few day's ago, my daughter broke her ankle. She is absolutely miserable, she is in the middle of job hunting and has a lot of stuff going on in general and this just suspended everything. It is a bad break, going to take alot of healing, may need some surgery after and of course she is hurting. A friend brought her to my house so she could visit and whine and I could see what I could do to help.
Well sometimes I can't help but be a smartass so I went to the craft stash, got out one of my sequined butterfly's and a bottle of glue and went to work. Then to add insult to injury I took a picture , posted it on my facebook with the tag line :"even a broken bone needs a little bling"

I while later she gets on facebook and see's it and after cussing me out a minute she types....
That's it , you got it.....Cast Dazzles by Debsparkles, a bit of bling for broken bones.

Any way this little bit of silliness gave us a much needed moment to forget about all the problems we are dealing with and just chuckle. If only for a few moments.

Finished in Bed

I have been in bed since this past Sunday, nothing major just a huge whack from my Chiari symptoms which happens when I am really overtired and stressed. It drove me crazy , not so much that I could not get up and go to work but I was worried about this custom order taking so much time so I grabbed extra pillows and a food tray and worked as best I could between the constant 2 hour naps. It is done!!! It's very pretty, very big, very time consuming but I do alway's love a challenge when it comes along and can't not try. I did make a seperate neck chain and a 7" wristlet chain so it is way to big to wear, she can carry it. I posted it and sent a convo for her to check it out so we shall see it's what she is happy with or not.

Progress

I know, I know, I go from one extreme to the other. I'm gone for weeks then I'm here two nights in a row. But, I made so much progress on this bag since yesterday I wanted to show you before I got to much farther. The flowers on the bag are pretty easy, just glass leaves and a bunch of different colored glass teardrops stitched randomly around the front of the bag. The fringing is taking a lot longer. Instead of just a straight up and down fringe, I am using branch fringing to stay with the flower garden theme. So that means I have to string through a few times, counting and branching off into little shoots along the way. I know I won't finish tonight but I am going to get as far as I can. Then just fancy up the top of the bag and make a neckchain. I decided because this is going to be a heavy bag, heavy just with beads then add the Iphone, rather than a clasp at the back of the neck I am going to make it so the chain is completely seperate and hooks to the bag on each side. Might even make a second small one so she can carry it as a wristlet intead of around her neck. Hmmmm...

Working again

I do seem to be pulling myself together bit by bit. I am becoming more focused on my Etsy shop and researching some others. I admit, my day job takes a great deal out of me, even though I work only about 20 hours a week so I don't get much done on nights I have worked. On my day's off I tend to ignore things like housework and laundry so I can concentrate on getting items started. I don't normally like the fact that I will have 3 or 4 projects started at a time but do find, if they are started, when I get home and have rested a bit after working I will pick one up and spend a little bit of time on it. A slow way to get stock built up but it is working for me.
That is until last week. I got a message from a sweet lady who liked the bag I made that's in my avatar but she wanted one big enough to carry an Iphone. I have never seen an actual Iphone but I knew it was bigger than the largest bag that I have ever made and it was going to take alot of work. Any way, it has taken a full week of my free time (over 22 hours) just to weave the basic bag. Tonight I shall start weaving the little glass teardrops in to create the flowers. I have to stay focused on it so I can get it done in the time range I estimated to her which is 3 weeks. So this is what I will do until it's done and I will show you progress shots every few day's. Let's see if I finish in the alloted time ;o)

Something to share

No work progress today, no pictures to show but something I want to share. I have said I have been going through a tough time but not shared details. I won't now either but I have shed a lot of tears lately. Tears of pain. But today, my aunt sent me an email that helped me so much and let me shed a few good tears and I wanted to share it with you. I cannot give the author credit because I don't know who it is but I think if your a mom this will touch your heart.

The Invisible Mom

It all began to make sense--the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids would walk into the room while I'm on the phone and ask to be taken to the store. Inside I'm thinking, "Can't you see I'm on the phone?" Obviously not, no one can see if I'm on the phone, or cooking. or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all. I'm invisible. The invisible mom.
Some day's I am only a pair of hands, nothing more! Can you fix this? Can you tie this? Can you open this? Someday's I'm not a pair of hands, I'm not even a human being. I'm a clock to ask, "What time is it? I'm a satellite guide to answer, "What number is the Disney Channel? I'm a taxi for order, Right around 5:30 please.
Some day's I'm a crystal ball, "Where's my other sock? Where's my phone? What's for dinner?
I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history, music, and literature- but now, they has disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. She's going, she's going, she's gone!
One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England. She had just returned from a fabulous trip and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when she turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package and said, "I brought you this". It was a book on the great Cathedrals of Europe. I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given it to me until I read her inscription: "With admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one see's"
In the day's ahead I would read-no-devour the book. And I would discover what would become for me four life changing truths, after which I could pattern my work.

1) No one can say who built the great cathedrals, we have no record of their names.

2) These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished.

3) They made great sacrifices and expected no credit.

4) The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything.

A story of legend in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, "Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof ? No one will ever see it. The workman replied "because God sees.

I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, I see you. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does.
"No act of kindness you'be done, no sequin you'be sewn on, no cupcake you've baked, no Cub Scout meeting, no last minute errand is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great Cathdral, but you can't see right now what it will become.
I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on.
The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree.
When I really think about it, I don't want my son to tell the friends he's bringing home for Thanksgiving, "My mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, then she hand bastes the turkey for 3 hours and presses all the linens for the table." That would mean I'd built a monument to myself. I just want him to want to come home. And then , if there is anything more to say to his friend, he'd say "Your gonna love it there..."

As mothers, we are building great cathedral's. We cannot be seen if we're doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at whate we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible mothers.