A Sad Week

This week has brought the loss of a dear family friend who has lost his several year long battle with cancer. In times like these there are no words to express the sadness that we feel, yet the relief that finally his suffering has ended...he will be missed.

New way to raise money

As I was looking around the web yesterday for new ways to help raise money for the two doxies that we will be taking in that I spoke of yesterday, I stumbled across a website called fundable. It is an online fundraiser website! Very cool indeed! You simply pledge the amount you wish to donate and if the target amount isn't reached in a certain time frame, you pay nothing! I set up an account for our two doggies in need who we have learned are named Crystal and Holly. We get to bring one of them home on Monday so I will try to keep updating as I can as to their condition. In the meantime, if you would like to help please visit their fundable account here. :)

Doxies in Need

So I know I haven't posted in a while, frankly because I have been quite busy. We have a house full still with the 3 doxies, though Zoie is (we hope) close to being adopted. I have several new "business ventures" going now. I began selling with Inspiranza Designs, Monet Minerals, and Gold Canyon all wonderful companies if you are looking for sterling silver jewelry, mineral makeup or THE best candles you have ever smelled in you life! :) Anyway, to get to the point today's post has a very important reason behind it. Our vet called us yesterday because someone brought in two female doxies around 2yrs old, both are heartworm positive. :( They were going to put them down yesterday but one of the technicians that works there asked them to call us first knowing that we work with AADR to see if we could help. The good news is, I got ahold of the intake coordinator for AADR today and they have agreed to let us help these two girls in serious need of attention; the bad news is, the rescue itself is in serious need of attention. We are in need of donations to help us help more doxies in need so if any one has even $2 to give, please click the AADR button you see here on my page and click the donation button, you can even donate via paypal. :) Also if you ARE in search of the products I mentioned above, for the month of May I will be donating my profits from all three of these companies to AADR. Please help me to help these doxies! ;)

Knew it was comming.

Apparently my whole family did anyway. I talked before about the two foster dogs that we got from AADR about a month ago and last week we were due to have their bios and pictures up on the site for them to be made available for adoption. Well, we were having a really difficult time with Chance. We were very afraid that if we were to let him go to another home that it would literally break his heart. He has "grown" so much in the short amount of time he has been with us, not only by putting on weight and gaining his strength; but also in that he is much more trusting of humans in general now. He is still very timid and hides when other people are around, but if it is just my husband and I at home, he is just as playful as the others. He grew just as attached to us as we did to him, so of course we came to the conclusion that the only choice we had left to make was to adopt him ourselves. :) My husband said he knew it was coming from the moment they handed him to me in the parking lot in Arkansas and his parents said the same thing so maybe it was just meant to be. He has put on about 4 pounds and has much more energy now than he did to start with, but he is still just as content to spend time napping on the couch with someone. I will try to get some updated pictures posted soon.

Pictures as promised!

Here are a few pics of the first few days with Zoie and Chance. Chance has filled out a bit, but still has a few pounds to gain. He is learning to play with the others and learning how nice it is to have his belly full! I will try to get a few more pics up in the next week or so. Anyway, here they are, Zoie is the red one, Chance is the darker one with the white "mask" and the smaller dark brown one in one of the pics is my Bobo.

Remember, if you are interested in adopting, check out the AADR website!

Dachshund Stampede!

For the past couple of weeks I have talked about joining the All American Dachshund Rescue and that we were to have some foster dogs coming to stay with us soon. Well, we picked them up on Sunday. Becky Ann (aka Zoie) is a 3-4 y/o red, smooth coat female who has lots of love to give and gets along well with other dogs. She had been staying with the president of the rescue and has been obviously well cared for (at least recently). The other little guy we got, was not so lucky. He came to us with no name. A whopping 11.2 pounds (skin and bones for his frame) we are fairly sure he has been abused, he has the saddest eyes I have ever seen on a dog. They estimate him to be between 7-8 years old and he has a heart murmur; he was a puppy mill rescue. We decided to call him Chance. The first day he hid a lot and walked with his tail between his legs. The second day I got a single puppy kiss and saw him wag his tail once. Now, by day 6 he has put on at least 1/2 a pound wags his tail when he sees us coming, he has learned to bark when he wants to sit in the chair with you and he has learned there is no need to hide from the humans in this house. I was not prepared for what we got in him, but I am glad we have him and I hope we can find him a wonderful "fur-ever" home when he is ready. I will try to get some pictures of them up in a bit but they are on my other computer right now. This has been a whole new experience for me this week but a good one! :)
If you are interested in adopting either of these two or another dachshund, please check out AADR's website for more information!

New listings!

Two new listings today! I spent last night taking pictures so I plan to have a few more up tonight if I can get the pics edited and descriptions written. Sometimes by the time I get through that whole process I forget what I have. For example that first picture was made a while back and I just found them on my bench last night, just sitting there all ready to go! :) Anyway, you can find these two in my etsy shop now.

Still no puppies.

Well, looks like we will have to wait until next weekend again for our foster dogs to get here. They are having some trouble finding enough volunteers to get them from a to b. It probably worked out better for us this way anyway; it was 73 degrees earlier this week and right now there is about 3 inches of snow outside! That is Missouri weather for you!

Maybe this will give me a chance to take some pictures of all those beads that I have piled up in my studio just waiting to be listed in my Etsy shop! I have some lovely big hole bracelet beads that I am really tempted to keep for myself if I don't get them listed soon! I have been having so much fun with silver foil and frits and heavy encasement on them and most of them have turned out just beautiful!

I talked a bit before about my nurse practitioner prescribing me a new medicine for my migraines and being afraid to take it, well I finally did and it worked with no side effects which was great! Unfortunately I was still having headaches almost daily and it had been going on for almost a month even after adjustments from my chiropractor and a round of antibiotics and trying some medicine for allergies so she put me on a daily medicine for the headaches now and it seems to be helping with very few side effects but right now it makes me sleepy still so that is another part of the reason you haven't been seeing very many new blog posts or new beads or anything from me for a while, I am just trying to get back to a good working rhythm. I am getting there, it's just taking a bit longer than I would have liked. But I'm feeling better and the sleepiness is less and less each day so hopefully things will pick up again soon! :)

Busy as Usual

I mentioned before that we had joined the All American Dachshund Rescue and will be fostering dachshunds and the rescue has been very busy of late due to several puppy mill raids. I have been working on one foster member application myslef, unfortunatly the person decided that fostering is not for right for them at this time. We were to get a female doxie a week ago Sunday but she was lucky enough to go to what I am sure will be a wonderful forever home instead. This Sunday, if everything goes as planned, we will pick up 2 *somewhere* as a caravan makes it's way from TN to AZ. It is really amazing to see the way this all works, all of this transportation is volunteer and because there are enough members, usually each "leg" of the trip is no more than 2 hours or so. I have also been working on putting together some things to donate to the rescue to put in baskets to raffle at the picnic that will take place in May in TN. I don't think we will get to make it to the picnic ourselves due to work schedules and things but it sounds like fun!
In addition to all of that, I have been working like mad trying to make new things to put in my Etsy shop, no pics unfortunately as most of it is in the kiln still or hasn't been photographed yet. I took an extra day off of work this week thinking that I would get some of these things "caught up"...not so much. :) Hubby has been sick with a nasty sinus infection so has been home 2 extra days himself. So basically it's been a whole lot of busy but not a whole lot of actually getting anything done! But hey, that's just me! :)

Pigs and Elephants!

It's strange the way my mind works sometimes...ok, if I'm going to be honest it's strange the way my mind works MOST of the time, but here is an example. I've been going along working happily on disk beads and flowers and some big hole beads when all of the sudden I decide to try my hand at making a pig. He didn't turn out too bad, I named him Percival; here he is.

Somehow from that I thought, "Hey, why not try and elephant?!" I know, strange order to work in but it worked out ok and I named here Eleanor; here she is.

I also made another set of green beer mugs, some big hole beads, and some exchange beads for the "Twigs and Berries" exchange on LE. (I'll spare you the pics of those!) :) Like I said, my mind takes me strange places sometimes! :)

Finally Something NEW!

Yep, you read right! I finally got some new things listed in my Etsy shop! I have had a few custom orders over the past couple of weeks, one a very large one. That, along with my full time job has made getting new beads done to list a bit difficult. Not that I'm complaining at all, the custom orders were fun and turned out nice. But sometimes it's nice to not have any clue what I will be making when I sit down at the torch! Over the past few days I have managed to create a new frog bead (see below) as well as an elephant and a pig which have yet to be cleaned or have pictures taken yet.

I have also been looking at going back to school to get my bachelors and then masters in nursing with the ultimate goal being getting my family nurse practitioner licence. I know that will take a lot of time and effort, actually it kind of already has just looking at programs and pass rates and tuition and scholarships and all that goes along with that, but it will be worth it in the end. If I can't be a full time lampworker, this will be second best. :)

My husband and I have also applied to become foster parents (insert look of shock here for all who know us and are saying "Why don't you just try and have your own kid?!")....and the rest of that sentence is for dachshunds. Yep, you read right, foster parents of dachshunds. We have been approved with the All American Dachshund rescue! As some of you may have read from previous posts, we have a mini dachshund named Bobo, and we just fell in love with the breed when we got him so we wanted to be able to help out where we can. These dogs come from kill shelters, or abusive home environments or puppy mills and the like for the most part. I'll keep you updated on how that goes and if/when we get a foster pup I'm sure there will be plenty of pics to post!

Ok, now on with the beads! You can find all of these in my Etsy shop! :)

Custom orders

Custom orders are not something I do a *lot* of, but I do tend to like them. They often push me in ways I may not have gone otherwise. I had a request from a repeat customer for some "flat flower beads" to use with these fantastic little felted containers that she makes. I had never made any flowers like these before so it took me a bit to get the hang of it and the first one turned out....well, not really looking like a flower! I worked at them for a few days and finally learned what I was doing wrong and the ones that followed turned out much better. She also wanted some "large" (2") ones which I had a bit more trouble with but, like anything else, they just take some practice as well.

New stuff

Well I managed to get a few new things put in my shop over on Artfire and got one new listing up on Etsy (see below). I have been working on some custom orders which have kept me happily busy! I did manage to get a few other things done tonight, hope they turn out as good as I think they might! Today was a good day to just stay inside and torch, it has been raining/sleeting/snowing for the past several hours. :( And in the spirit of that, here is the set I put up on Etsy this week; Winter Wonderland!

Again with the artfire...

Ok, I know I have written about this for three days now, but I just wanted to add that I just listed a second item there and after I got the hang of it, I find it to be easier than Etsy (no, I'm still not leaving Etsy) and if the no fees and the easier to use site aren't enough reason for you to check it out I just found this link I will list below because this computer is giving me trouble, that says they (artfire) is going to plant a tree for every member in an area of ecological distress with a goal of one million trees in 24 months~! How cool is that?!

http://www.killerstartups.com/Site-Reviews/artfire-com-handmade-interactive-artisan-marketplace

Art Fire

OK, so I took the plunge and signed up for the "verified" or paid account. So far I only have one listing, but will be adding more. I like that all of your new listing info is entered on one page; much easier than Etsy. So if you want to check out my shop there, it is http://LuckyBunnyLampwork.artfire.com

Art Fire

It seems there has been quite a bit of buzz in the lampwork community lately about Art Fire. So, tonight I took the plunge and signed up; just for the free account so far. I am fairly sure I will go ahead and sign up for the "verified" account but I want to give myself some time to get accustomed to it first. Right now they are having a special and membership is only $7 a month and that price is good for life if you sign up now. Not bad when you consider that they have no listing fees! :) Am I leaving Etsy? Not anytime soon, but this seems like a good way to branch out too. It is also important to note that if you can get 10 people to sign up under you at the $7 a month level, then your membership becomes FREE for LIFE!! How sweet is that?! So, go ahead and sign up, and if you twist my arm I will let you use my link and be one of my 10. :)

Well, some of you may have noticed I've been absent for a while, seems that post-Christmas things got more hectic than pre-Christmas! We did get to go to my brothers house on Christmas Eve, and even though we didn't get to stay as long as we would have liked, we enjoyed being able to spend the time with family. I will try to put up some pictures later of my beautiful niece and oh-so-handsome nephew. :) Lately I haven't felt like doing much of anything, started out with a headache a few days after Christmas that would come and go every other day or so. Finally on Wednesday I made an appointment with my Nurse Practitioner because by then I had had a headache everyday for the past 6 days straight. She put me on an antibiotic, thinking as I did, that it was probably nothing more than a sinus infection; but she also thinks I may be having migraines as some of the headaches cause nausea and dizziness as well as sensitivity to light. She prescribed a medicine that I can take when I have a migraine, but I'm sort of skeptical about taking it. So today is day three on the antibiotic and the headaches are better but I still don't exactly feel well. I did decide to go back to work today and I may even fire up the torch tonight. I have some beads made that I should be getting listed, and more ideas than I can keep up with which is unusual. Next week is my birthday and a friend of mine and I will be making a trip up north, Kansas City area and try to find some lampwork supply stores, there has to be at least one right? If we find one, it will be the first time I have gotten to buy glass from a person rather than over a computer, I'm very excited about that! :)