Cars, and Rick's Birthday

Rick is going to be home tomorrow and Monday, yay! His birthday is on Saturday, so we'll be going out to dinner at one of our favorite places.

Did I mention we had to buy a new car? Rick had been driving my old Mercedes and we'd always said, if something major happened to it, we'd call it quits on that one. It is a '92 and had almost 350,000 miles on it but was running like a champ. But then the A/C went out, and it needed new tires, all to the tune of $2600, so we decided, it's time. I still vividly remember when I bought that car -- I just stood in my driveway and looked at it and couldn't BELIEVE that I owned a Mercedes. We will NOT miss having to put high-test gas in it, or the V8 engine, for Rick's hour-each-way commute!

We ended up buying another Honda Accord, nearly identical to the one we had before I got my van -- same color, even! I loved that car, super-comfie to drive or ride in, so I was happy! Plus I have good memories of that Honda, ripping across the Bay Bridge to the hospital in Annapolis while in labor! :-)

Heading to bed -- books to read! Tomorrow is all about beading.

Comments? Email me at lori@lorianderson.net

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Quick Change

OK, now I feel really bad about those morning when it takes forever to get dressed!

Back from PA

GREAT show in Shippensburg. I was a little worried at first that my jewelry might be priced a little high for the venue (country crafts abound) -- but since we had no hotel or meals expenses (stayed 10 minutes away with Rick's parents) it was worth it, regardless of sales. Well, sales were FANTASTIC and I was busy, busy, busy the entire time. One day shows are rough, in that set up and tear down are all in the same day and it makes for a long, tiring day, but they're also good in that people know they only have that day to buy something. I was also really pleased to have repeat buyers come in to take advantage of their discount!

I do have to cancel this weekends' show in Solomon's Island -- Rick is working and I can't manage the show without him to help set up and then take care of Zack. Bummer, but there's next year!

I put "Sophie's Choice" aside to read a book that came in off reserve at the library, "In the Company of the Courtesan". LOVE it. It's about 1500's Venice, Italy, and as I have spent a fair amount of time in Italy, it's quite cool to have seen many of the buildings and bridges that are mentioned. REALLY enjoying this book -- a must read!



Comments? Email lori@lorianderson.net

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I love this sign

Zack's new shoes

Zack needed a new pair of shoes to knock around in, and I ran out today and bought some. When I got home, he was in the bathtub, and as soon as he heard he had new shoes waiting, that was it, he wanted out of the tub! Here he is – I am afraid we’re going to have trouble getting him to go to bed without them (he’s in his pajamas, as you can tell). He calls them his “skate” shoes, since they are like skateboarder shoes.

XM Radio Channel 44 ROCKS!

Today XM Radio channel 44 (Fred) had an INCREDIBLE 10 hour Club Retro event -- lots of songs I remember from my clubbing days, but remixed or extended versions or what have you, all mixed like you were at a club. LOVED it. Erasure, Electronic, Big Audio Dynamite, Depeche Mode, New Order, Anything Box, Book of Love, Gene Loves Jezebel, Yaz -- oh man. Such a blast from the past. All day I thought about my friends Kristin and Jesse and how instrumental they were in my musical awakening, as it were! Isn't technology great? I don't know what we did before XM and TIVO.

Met my dad in Chantilly, VA today to take him to his first bead, gem, and jewelry show, Intergem. Had a fabulous time, and he's hooked. He's always liked and been interested in how jewelry is made and he bought a few neat things -- some loose stones for setting and a terrific strand of big amethyst nuggets for me to make a necklace for my step-mom. And since I didn't spend all of my money I'd set aside, I stopped in Annapolis and bought a spare pair of glasses -- these new ones are funky-cool, and purple!

SO looking forward to sleeping late..........

Comments? Email me at lori@lorianderson.net

Visit www.lorianderson.net to see what I use all those beads for!

Zack's new sunglasses

Today Zack won a pair of sunglasses at preschool because he could spell his name -- and he is SO proud of them! He made me laugh so hard because they have red spots on them, and he said “my glasses have chicken pox” – I have no idea he even KNEW what chicken pox were!















He's such a ham. And so adorable if I do say so myself!

I'm almost done with "The Cold Moon" by Jefferey Deaver. I love this author, and REALLY love his Lincoln Rhyme series, and this one so far has been really interesting. There have been some major plot twists, and I love when you get to a plot twist that makes you think, oh ok, that's how the book will end, but then you look and you have WAY too many pages to read so you KNOW there's another plot twist coming.

Leaving you with some more jewelry photos -- these haven't hit the web site yet but if you like something, email me to make it yours or for more information!

Comments? Email me at lori@lorianderson.net

Visit my web site, www.lorianderson.net, for beautiful beaded jewelry!

Fun day with the kidlet

Yesterday I was working and SNAP, broke my crimping pliers. Crap. So I went to Zack's preschool early, got him, and headed across the bridge to Annapolis to Michaels in search of a new pair. I could have gotten them locally, but Zack had been carrying around this ad for Magnetix for the past few days, even sleeping with it, and I knew Michaels had them, so off we went.

I've started giving Zack the "Dora the Explorer" list of things to do (if you have never watched Dora, you're lost) -- bascially, saying, here are the three things we need to do, and then listing them like they do on Dora. I'm finding that it works well with Zack, who is so schedule-oriented. So we had our list -- "Pliers. Flowers. Toy!" and we got done with NO problem and I even had time to browse at TJMaxx for some new booth supplies.

Tonight I am heading to ClayBakers with Kelly to paint another bowl for my booth. After this morning (play date at my house, four little kids and a baby) we both need it! Wheeeeee.... big difference from my experience with Zack yesterday. But isn't that the fun of motherhood? It's the hardest job EVER but also the best. Especially when you get those "I wuv you too" whispers.


Comments? Email me at lori@lorianderson.net
See some excellent artistic jewelry at www.lorianderson.net

Back from New Jersey

The Collingswood Art and Craft show was fabulous! I had such a great time, the weather was perfect, the crowds were great, and what luck, my booth was right across from this wonderful independent coffee/music shop called GrooveGround, so I had great coffee and sandwiches and heard super music all weekend.



I am utterly and completely exhausted, so not writing much more, but wanted to leave some pictures of the event. I tried out some new displays (always trying SOMETHING new it seems) and have a great idea for the next show for the ceiling of the tent, but Rick and I have to work it out in our backyard first -- requires some sewing and cutting and who knows if it will work (maybe only in theory!).

Comments? Email me at lori@lorianderson.net

Missed the show? See amazing jewelry at www.lorianderson.net

Another house, and jewelry

Did a drive-by of a house that I've always admired that just now went on the market -- but no-go on that because it's older with wood siding and we don't want to paint it every couple of years. That, and all the yard is in the front. So still looking (leisurely).

I have a big show this weekend, and have been working my fingers off, but wanted to share some of the things I've been doing with the larimar I just bought. Larimar is found only in one square kilometer of the world, in the Dominican Republic, so they estimate the mines will be depleted within the next few years. That makes the stuff very valuable, one of the rarest gemstones in the world, and it's just one of the most beautiful stones ever. I've found pendants before, but never decent quality stones, so I got lucky.

So far I've just used a strand of chips but trust me -- come holiday season, you'll see some really stellar items!












Comments? Email me at lori@lorianderson.net
Want to see some pretties? Visit my web site, www.lorianderson.net

House

Rick and I put an offer on the house yesterday – well, they rejected the offer out right without even a counter offer. It was a strange situation to begin with – they’d only been in the house 3 months but were asking 20K+ over what they bought it for. We offered exactly what they paid for it 3 months ago and had already made the decision that we weren’t budging. Well apparently, neither are they! However, neither of us is really upset by it – we don’t HAVE to move, and we truly believe that the right thing happens at the right time – after all, we met in 1989, spoke maybe three times over the nearly three years we were stationed in Korea, and 10 years later, remet and married! So we have a hard time getting upset over things like houses. At least I SERIOUSLY decluttered our house in preparations for listing it (we’re not now) and that felt good! Things are so organized now!

The boys left this weekend -- Ryan on Sunday and Colin today. I'm going to have a very unhappy little boy for a while. He totally loves his big brothers and they're just awesome with him. And I'm going to miss them, too. We had a great time while they were here.

Time slipped up on me and THIS WEEKEND is a big show in New Jersey, so working working working! I made some really awesome chain maille last night and will be sitting down today making bracelets -- my necklace box is getting heavy enough that I need to get another one or suffer a herniated disc!

Comments? Email me at lori@lorianderson.net
Want to see some cool jewelry? Go to www.lorianderson.net

Cats!

Some people were asking for photos of my two cats, so here they are:

Max is a rescue kitty -- he's the shy one that runs whenever little kids or loud noises appear. He's about 7 pounds if he's lucky, and I got him in 1999. He's a little lover kitty, and given the chance, sleeps with us. He is also the reason we have no house plants -- he will eat them, no matter where I try to hide them.

Buddy is a Himalayan Seal Point that I got from a breeder in Virginia in 1992. He was the runt of the litter and his marking weren't good, so he was the last one left. He's a great cat, weighs a solid 16 pounds (or more) and thinks he's a dog. He is very tolerant of Zack, thankfully. He rules the roost, and is "socially antisocial" -- doesn't necessarily want or need a bunch of loving, but insists on being in the same room with you. We have a baby gate at the bottom of our stairs not to keep Zack in, but to keep Buddy OUT. He's too old and big to jump the gate (unlike Max) and if we didn't close that gate, we'd get woken up at 3am with 16 pounds of fuzz 2" from our noses uttering a very compelling YOWL. Nothing's wrong, he just wants us to know he's there!

So there's the rest of the family -- as you can see, I'm hemmed in my boys!

Comments? Email me at lori@lorianderson.net

Visit my web site, www.lorianderson.net, to see what all the buzz is about.

Trivial Pursuit Night

I love when Rick's older boys come home -- first of all, Zack just adores them, and they're super with him, but second, we get some good family time in. Tonight we played two rounds of Trivial Pursuit and it was tons of fun. I swear I've learned more history from playing that game than I ever learned in high school history class. And I'm always amazed at the random knowledge we end up knowing.

While we were playing I made a really neat chain maille bracelet and started a second -- but there comes a point when you get too tired to see tiny jump rings and it all goes wonky.

Signed a ton of papers to put an offer on the house -- we really don't think they'll take it because we refuse to budge on the price, but that's ok. The right thing ALWAYS happens (you just sometimes have to wait for it!).

My friend Kelly came over today with her son Daniel, and later Christy and her two girls stopped by, and then a customer came by with HER son, so we had a house full of kids under the age of 5 for a while! Is there anything quite as cool as the sound of kids giggling and laughing in sheer pleasure?

Glad it's the weekend -- I have big plans on getting jewelry made, because this month starts the really busy time of year -- many shows, lots of work. And I love it! I was reading some stuff from friends about work in the corporate sector, and I don't miss that one bit.

Comments? Email lori@lorianderson.net
Visit my web site, www.lorianderson.net, for jewelry that you MUST, right NOW, own

Books, Listing the House, and a New Show

I went to Barnes and Noble yesterday and treated myself to some books -- I got Jeffrey Deaver's latest, The Cold Moon -- I love all his stuff but particularly the Lincoln Rhyme ones. I also got another favorite author, Douglas Coupland, J-Pod -- I'm behind a few on his books (this is one of those authors I collect, thank you Luis!) but this one looks to be kind of like Microserfs which pretty much made me fall down laughing, so grabbed it. And then for the classics, I got Sophie's Choice by William Styron.

Tomorrow we sign papers to list our house and put an offer on the other one. Rick and I are very fatalistic about it -- what is supposed to happen, will happen. And I must say, the house hasn't been this organized since we moved in! Of course, I was about 6 months pregnant then, so there was definitely a limit to what we felt like doing as far as decorating. Besides, it's all Early Three Year Old Toy Chest right now!

And I must be crazy, but I added another show to my roster, this one in Solomons, MD. I applied on a whim and got the acceptance letter today!

Hope you all are staying cool -- 101 today, YUCK.


Comments? Email me at lori@lorianderson.net
Visit my web site, www.lorianderson.net, to see what fun I have with beads!

OK Go - Here It Goes Again

This is amazing. I'd love to know how long it took them to 1) choreograph this, and 2) do this without falling off!

Declutter Day

Well I finally got the few photos we had of the house up on yesterday's blog. The real estate agent came by our house today and I spent the bulk of the day doing a massive reorganization. The thing that's been tough here is running a business in three different rooms, with a three year old! If we manage to get this other house, there will be a ton more room for things.

As it was, I filled six huge yard bags full of STUFF (how did we get so much STUFF?) and got a ton done. The shipping closet is totally redone, the craft closet is organized within an inch of its life, etc etc. My desk, well, that remains another subject altogether, but overall I'm very pleased. And if they don't take our offer, it was high time I did a huge clear-out.

Leaving you with a photo of some awesome beads I got a while back -- I was reminded of them because in my cleaning, I found the ones that I hadn't used yet -- they're made by Canadian artist Carrie Hamilton and I waited patiently until she had time to make these for me and let me tell you, they were worth the wait! I made myself a necklace with a bunch of them -- it's a keeper!

Comments? Email me at lori@lorianderson.net
Visit my web site, www.lorianderson.net, for jewelry you may not need but just gotta have! :-)