Work stuff

I don't remember if I talked about my newest "real" job task or not but I'm going to for a bit now as a bit of explanation why I haven't been blogging much lately. I am a nurse in my "real" job, lampwork/jewelry/craft stuff are hobbies for me, a sort of stress relief (very much needed most of the time). For the past year or so, I have switched from working with developmental disabilities to working in home health and I really enjoy it. However, we have a "new" computer system that isn't exactly user friendly to say the least. The agency took on this system before I started and were to start using it the day I started. To make a long story short(er) it has needed some...tweaking for lack of a better term, to get it to work for us. For whatever reason, I picked up on the system fairly easily so I have been assigned to rebuild this computer system. As I said, I am a nurse...they don't teach software programming or whatever this would be called in nursing school. Not that I don't sort of like doing it, just that it isn't what I was trained to do. And sitting in the office, at a computer for 8 hours a day for the past 6ish weeks has made me not very interested in having much to do with computers when I get home. On top of all of that, we have had 3 new directors in the past year, each with different expectations and quirks that have made all of us in our very small agency a bit....edgy...ok, we are just plain bitchy! The most recent of the 3 started this week and seems like he is going to work out well, he has a lot of knowledge and common sense, not a combo you normally see in upper management, at least not in Small Town USA.
Ok, now that I got all that off my chest, I do have pictures of the beads I made with the Devardi glass, but I don't have them edited yet so maybe this weekend (hopefully) I will get them done and uploaded so you can see the pretty colors. I have been very pleased thus far with the results of the glass especially one of the bright pink shades (I forget the name of it, but you will see.)

Glass!

My new Devardi glass arrived today!! Super fast shipping, only took it 3 business days to get here. Packaged really well and, while I have yet to melt any of it, I am excited about the small selection of colors I ordered. Here are a couple of pics both of the packaging and of the glass. The tubes were inside a medium sized flat rate box.

This is the $5/lb of shorts and a ring mandrel.

LOOK at that PINK!!

I am lovin' this green too!

Will be back when I have some test beads made!!

Shoes and Glass

So my hubby and I went out to our local shoe store the other day and we have been looking at the Sketchers Shape Ups for some time now and were thrilled to discover that they were on sale! Typically they are $99.99 everywhere we look but they had select ones marked down to $79.99! We each bought a pair and are excited to see if they are everything we have built them up to be. His aunt has 2 pair and she swears by them. She has some back and knee trouble and says that the shock absorption is great for that. That is the main reason I wanted to try a pair for myself, I have some back issues of my own and when I spend a day on my feet it just makes it worse. They suggest you sort of "build up" to wearing them all day and only wear them for 30 minutes or so for the first few days until you get used to walking in them, there is a difference; sort of like walking in sand all the time. I have them on now and this is day 2. The biggest thing I notice so far is that they do seem to alleviate some of the pain I have been having in my lower back....we'll see how it goes.
Now for the glass....I decided the other day to try some of the Devardi glass that I keep seeing posted on Ebay and discussed over on LE. I didn't order a *lot* but some of the different colors that you don't typically find in soft glass. It should be here tomorrow or Tuesday and I am sooo excited to give it a shot! At $5.99/lb even if I don't really like it, I can't be tooo disappointed! :)

I'm back! :)

After a looooong absence, I am back to blogging! There has been so much going on in life and such that I just haven't had time to update anything really but I am starting to realize that it isn't something that is destined to change anytime soon, so I may as well just "make time" for the things I want to do! Since I last wrote, I now have a new job that I am really happy with; working as a home health nurse at the local hospital. This is a "specialty" that I hadn't really considered before until someone suggested I give it try and I am really glad that I did. We are a very small agency with only a few nurses and most days we all get along great and that just makes for a much nicer working environment than where I was before. Plus now I get to work "normal hours" most of the time.
I wrote before about being part of a dachshund rescue group; for reasons I won't get into here, we have decided to no longer participate with them, however we have added two more doxies to our family....these will be the last as this puts us up to four! :)
I still make and sell beads via Etsy; and I still LOVE it! I have a few new listings up and more to follow soon!