On the cusp of a new year.....

I'm sure I'm not the first to say.....My goodness! This year has just FLOWN by!  At the start of every year I find myself wondering if it's ever going to get going.  Then, before you know it, the summer is over and all of a sudden it's Christmas and a new year is just around the corner.  Then I find myself wondering....where on earth did the year go and what the heck did I do all year???

The highlights of this year include:

Kev not killing himself falling off his bike.  Don't know if you recall that one but he knocked himself unconscious and was transported to Big Duke. Didn't know his name. Talking out of his head. Major concussion.  For a while there I thought maybe I wouldn't ever get my Kev back.  Thankfully he's back to his same silly self with no seeming lingering effects of the accident.

I freaking got into Duke for grad school!!!  YEAH!!!  Please remind me that this was a highlight of my year when I get on here in the coming months and moan and gripe about how school is sucking the life out of me :D

I found some additional creative outlets - incorporating metals and whatnot into my repertoire.  Keep checking back.  I've got some fun stuff planned :)

Thank you everyone for being a part of my life this past year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!

Post Holiday Slump....

I finally feel like things are slowing down. Even though my last day of work was on the 13th I didn't really feel like I was winding down because there was so much craziness going on with the house and then the ramping up to the holidays (even though we didn't do anything!).  But with the start of this week I really am in full-blown veg mode :D

The house isn't completely done yet. Unfortunately they had an issue with one window that's held up the job. I'm hoping that window comes in today in which case it might get installed sometime later this week - maybe after the snow melts - and then they can finish the siding and painting on that one section. Some of the gutters still need to be finished. Same thing with later on this week. Can't imagine anyone wants to get on a 20ft ladder while there's ice and snow on the ground.

In the meantime, DH and I are fortunate enough that we get a full 2 weeks to spend together. This time is super precious because I have no idea how much time we're going to get to spend together like this once the insanity of school starts.  We don't have any major things planned other than to veg together and do whatever we want whenever we want.  It's pretty sweet :)

I've managed to sit down and torch a couple of times. Played with some silver. Got some new ideas cooking. More on that later.  For now here are some house pics for fun.....

Hope you're staying warm and safe this winter season!

Scattered....

Haven't updated in a while.  Kind of been all over the place. Wrapping up work. Trying to get all of my life-support courses renewed so I won't have to do it until close to the end of school.

They're working on the house (siding and windows).  Those of you in-the-know know that this has been a rather extended project and, while we're getting closer to being done, it isn't moving along a quickly as I had hoped.  I think the plan is to have all of the house wrapped up by the end of the week next week. 

My last day of work is Monday.  Haven't quite figured out how I feel about that.  Wednesday I'm officially switching status from worker to student.  Wish me luck as I have to travel to Buffalo to cross the border to get paperwork done. Given the ridiculous amount of snow that's been coming down up there I'm wondering whether I'll actually make it there and back on Wednesday as planned.

In the meantime I haven't really been at the torch but did manage to work on my first ever spinner ring as well as a couple of mini cab rings to go with the stacking bands.

That's all I've got.  Well, actually there's something else in the works but I'll update you on that once it's a done deal :)

Hope you're staying warm wherever you are.  It's kind of freezing here in NC which is very, VERY, unusual!

Ring-a-ling-a-ding-dong....

Yeah....I'm on a crazy ring making spree!!!!

 Love them!  Wear them all the time! Wear lots of them! Truly......the more the merrier :D

Metal? or Glass? Who care so long as i get to use a torch!!!!

This past Saturday I took a quick refresher metals class.  I had taken one a few years back through the local park and recs offerings but didn't really keep up with it and, consequently, really needed to get back into the swing of things.  So, off to my local bead store where I played for a couple of hours and made these:

I just love these simple bands! Round wire, twisted wire copper and silver findings.  It was a blast.  And in the end I walked out with a finger adorned in ring-a-lischousness.  I think I'm addicted.  Not that this means that I'm giving up glass.....oh no.  Just means now I may have a new addiction.  I swear my studio is just not big enough. I think this means it's time to move just so I can have room to really get elbows deep in all these hobbies :D

Although....come January I may just be packing them all up for 28 months while I concentrate on getting through grad school.  Now can you see why I'm cramming as much as possible into the next 2 months?  Next Saturday I'm taking another class where I'll be making another type of ring.  Oh yeah...stay tuned for more silver goodness!

I just want to party all the time.......

Because it's just SO MUCH FUN!!!  They came. They ate. They laughed.  And in the end I wasn't left with a ginormous amount of leftovers so I consider the whole thing a great success.  I can't wait until the next gathering of the Hennies.  Thanks girls.....for making it such a great evening.  I loved eating and laughing with you all!!

Hen Partay.......take 4!!

It's the Hennies!

I don't know how it all got started.  I think Karen was bragging about how good her short ribs were and we decided that she had to prove it by throwing a dinner party where she would cook food for us.  No boys allowed - hence the hen reference.  I think Anna made it official with the glass hen which would then become the mascot for our informal dinner group.

I figured I'd volunteer for the next dinner get-together (it's the 4th one?). My thinking was cunning actually. I knew mom was going to be in town and since she can cook and I can't it would be the perfect time to have a party with food.  I'm also thinking that if I don't do it before January there's never going to be a dinner party at my house once school starts!

So the next Hen meet is tomorrow evening and I think I'm completely worn out running around trying to make sure I have all the stuff I need for this fest.  Today we still have shopping to do and food prep later on this afternoon. The house is still not done (stairs are incomplete due to Kev's recent bike incident) but who needs to go upstairs anyways??

I found out that I don't have enough chairs for everyone who's coming so will have to rectify that sometime today.  Eeeeek....the more I think about it the more there is to do!!

Well, wish me luck! Hopefully the food is good but I'd settle for lots of laughter and conversation. Worst case scenario........we order pizza!!