Ahhh...it's been tooo long! Well, as some of you may remember, my family and I decided to move up to the Pacific Northwest. We moved, but ended up closer to San Diego ;o) DH had been out of work since November, but he promised to get a job before the kids' birthdays. Sure enough, he did, on March 15th, with three days to spare *gg* (Ashley turned 2 on the 18th, Isaac 4 on the 24th). He has an awesome job (he's a "legal hacker";o), and it brought us to a little Orange County town called Aliso Viejo. I *love* it here. It's small (comparatively, about 20K population), really spread out, and get this: there are BUNNIES in my backyard!! Living in big cities for so long has really softened me to having wildlife around. I just sit on the back patio for hours watching the bunnies eat the grass, and the birds playing tag...we even have a friendly racoon that comes around to torment my cat every once in a while (they play, like kittens, actually...it's really cute, albeit a bit scary). I'm embarassed every time I freak out at little noises at night. I keep expecting a moutain lion to jump out at me, or something, LOL. Embarassing, because I grew up in the country, sleeping under the stars in the backyard for most summers, catching snakes, etc....I feel silly, but it's worth it to see my kiddos chasing those little brown bunnies ;o)
Our new place is perfect; the rent is just a little bit higher than we paid in L.A., but we get a lot more for it (they come and take our trash out three times a week...yeah, like, seriously, our kitchens, bathrooms...it's like having a maid, almost! *ggg*) I have a huge walk-in closet in my bedroom that I have (almost) converted into my sewing room. The kids have their own room now, tho the baby still prefers to sleep with us *yawn* We've managed to break our bank accounts decorating, and STILL aren't done, but it's been a fun ride. We've suceeded at making our home look like an IKEA showroom, LOL....we're going out to get some not-so-obviously-IKEA things this weekend ;o)
And, uh, bead-related...I don't have a dedicated "station" for my beading anymore, but we DO have a dining room table now, so I at least have a flat spot to work on. I'm a little baffled (tormented, is the word;o) by how I am going to make my supplies/beads portable, but easily accessable when I need to use them. Right now I have everything in plastic shoeboxes inside a big box out in the storage shed. It's not too hard to get to, but by the time I have everything pulled out and arranged, it's eaten a half hour out of my already-strained time. I'm thinking of some sort of cart on wheels, but I am not sure where I will even put that (the storage shed would be the obvious place, but it is full of shelving).
I have been going through my beads, and pulling out everything that I don't like. So far, I have about 2 pounds of hand-me-down polymer clay beads, and a handful of ceramics. I haven't actually MADE anything in a long time, but I am still making a new pendant for my grandmother every month, per her last year's Christmas gift of (hey hey) a new pendant every month ;o) I'm really short on wire, so that's really putting a damper on my creating. I have been designing in my sketchbook almost daily, though :o)
I've kinda sorta caught up on the last couple days of postings here. I am glad to see everyone doing well, and it has been SO NICE to see all the lovely pics :o) I'm happy to know that my recent beading slump isn't a universal thing (which it sorta feels like, having no contact with others beaders ;o)