Sadness

So some of you may have read my post a few weeks back about my dog Mighty; he is one of the three dachshunds who let us live with them. Last night we noticed Mighty has a lump on his neck, I had a pretty good idea what it was, he was not showing any signs of pain...but I was hoping it was just an infection. We took him to the vet this morning and they did a biopsy...it's cancer. :( He has been through so much already it's just heartbreaking for us to go through this with him. We had to put our boy Chance down the week after Thanksgiving last year and I just can't make that decision again. They told us there is really nothing that can be done and that he has 1-5 months. He seems ok right now. I just hope he lives out his life peaceful and happy and goes to sleep some night and wakes up on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge where his "brother" is waiting.

Back to work...

Well, I got a job! Super excited that I will be back to the world of the employed! I have really sort of enjoyed my time off and in some ways I'm sure I will miss it, but having money is always nice! I actually don't know when I start yet, they are waiting on the results of the drug screen from today which they said would take a few days to get back. I was sort of surprised after they offered me the job then they said they would need to contact references and do the drug screen...seemed a little backwards to me but I won't complain!

What's with this SRA business??

You may or may not have noticed the Self Representing Artist badge on my blog there to the right but chances are if you are involved in lampwork or jewelry making you have seen the logo many places though you may be wondering exactly what it is all about. I could go into detail about the benefits of buying from SRA artists and what that means, but I recently read another blog post with just that information so I'm just going to give you the link to go check it out yourself! It's a great blog anyway, one that I follow and you will undoubtedly find vast amounts of useful info there! ;) So to check it out, click here.

New Stuff!

I have been working at getting new stuff listed in my Etsy shop in the past couple of weeks. I still have a box full of beads that are ready to be listed but I'm making a dent! I'm also working on my masters degree so that tends to mean LOTS of writing which I'm putting off doing at the moment because the subject is not one that interests me....

Anyway, here is my newest listing!

Castles of Courage

Many of you know that I, among other great artists, donate beads periodically to a program called Beads of Courage. It is an amazing program and I never tire of reading stories by anyone involved with it. I am always looking for new ways to make beads that I think the kids would like and while shopping the other day I came across some great little punches in designs I had not seen before. Particularly a castle. Immediately I thought of the castle nestled into a pink and purple bead, so here are my first two attempts that will go out in a box next week! :)

PS: You can also find Beads of Courage on Facebook where you will read some wonderful stories!