***NOTE***
New blog can be found here:
April 25 I see I've been ignoring this part of my site for a month now! Shame on me, but I guess I beleive that it's more important to put food on the table and gas in the car these days so I've been working like crazy this past month. At the end of the day when I am finished with everything I just don't feel like sitting down at my computer and blogging all that much. And I've also decided that when I do blog I would like an archive so I am switching over to blogspot. This might possibly be my last entry here with the exception that I am going to put my new blog address above this post. So for future reference, please bookmark my new blogspot page to see what I've been up to or where I've been! Thanks everyone!
March 23 It's Easter! So Happy Easter everyone! For Alaska, it's a pretty nice day here. The sun is out and it's in the high 30's. Gary is cooking a big ham and I'm going to make beads for awhile. The dogs are out chasing the resident squirrel and the 2 cats are fast asleep. With that, I'll say, BYE!
March 19 Yea! I just introduced my Spring 2008 collection of jewelry! I LOVE it all! Gotta run, more work to do! Ciao, D
March 18 Hey, I hope you all had a fun St. Pat's Day! We didn't do anything, I had to take Boo Boo (my cat) in for a hair cut, grabed a few things at Walmart and visited with my friends that like to congregate at my LBS. After Boo was done I came home and worked on taxes. Other than that I've been BUSY BUSY BUSY! I'm working on a new line of jewelry that I'll be introducing here in the next couple of days. I can't wait to show you because it is so not what I usually do and I'm having the most fun making this stuff! I love it all, I want it all and I am so glad I don't have to shop at my store because I'd want everything! Seriously though, it is different from any of my other jewelry and I guess I'll just have to make a piece for myself too.
I got some new rubber stamps yesterday that I can't wait to try out on some PMC but my gosh, it is so expensive right now that I just don't think I'm gonna buy any. With gold over $1000 an ounce, silver has just skyrocketed too. Last week when I looked the size package I wanted it was over $75. I've been scared to look since then.
I wonder when this whole economy thing is going to turn around? Gas in Wasilla is $3.37/gallon. I'm serioulsy thinking of only going to town one day a week from now on. I know it sucks as far as getting my mailings out for my customers but my post office is 35 miles away! If I do decide to go this route, I sure hope my customers understand. Gary goes to town one day a week too so between those 2 days things should get mailed in a timely manner. I'll just stagger my trip around his.
That's it for now, work is calling.......
Feb. 29 Here are the rest of the pics from the other day!
Feb. 26 Gary and I went on a road trip yesterday in celebration of our new home purchase and a belated Valentine's Day trip. I took lots of photo's but I've ran out of time to get them up here. I have to get to work but I'll try to get them up here later. Here is one for a teaser. Have a great day! D
Feb. 25 Lots of things to talk about today but first I want to tell you about my big secret. Ready??? Ok, here we go! I bought a house! In Wisconsin no less! Yup! This was so totally unplanned! When Gary and I were on vacation down there in January my daughter saw this in a realestate magazine. She pointed it out to me and low and behold, it was a home I had known and loved many years before! I loved it then and still did but never thought in a million years that it would be for sale and that I would ever own it! So we called the realtor right away that evening and got an appointment to see it the next day. I had never been inside the home but OMG, we fell in love with it right away! It is a 1923 Arts & Crafts style home. It has been lovingly maintained all these years with all the original oak woodwork, flooring and built in china cabinetry. It has a huge sunroom which is where I'll probably set up my studio and I am so stoked! I made an offer and it was accepted. My wonderful realtor gave me a great bank to work with and a wonderful loan officer (thanks Jeff and Sandy!) and made all this a dream come true for me/us. Yesterday was closing, so I am the new proud owner of this lovely old home!
So by now your wondering......ah, what is she going to do with a house in WI and she lives in Alaska? Well, Gary and I have this place for sale. He wants to retire and sell this acreage and business. It may take awhile and we know that but we had to act fast on this particular house because the price was fantastic, it was a very desireable piece of property and interest rates are low. So I am bankrolling it for now and I'll keep hoping the glass gods are good to me and eventually we can move down to WI. Maybe this late fall we'll take a load down there in a u-haul and drive one of the vehicles down there and leave it. I hope to spend some time there myself this spring. I am looking forward to nice season's again. Our falls are so short here in Alaska and winter's so terribly long. I miss the fall colors and the nice long growing seasons. This house has nice flower gardens all around the back yard and I really miss that here. I wish I could be there right now! So that is my big news! Here are a couple pics of my new house! And now it's time to get to work! I've a house to pay for! Thanks everyone! You're just the greatest customers I could ever hope to have! Cheers! Donna
Feb. 23 I worked on PMC all morning and just got 4 new things listed in my store. Go check it out! They're very coooool! And it's already going on 3 p.m. and I still want to torch today. I haven't even taken time out for lunch yet! Plus, it's a lovely day, right around 32* and sunny! I'm wishing the snow was gone so I could get out and go for a nice long walk in that sunshine! But, work is calling and Gary is working on his taxes. Plus, on Monday, I hope to have some very interesting news for you! I'm so excited but I've kept this a secret since January when Gary and I were on vacation. Check in on Monday and I'll tell ya! Till then, tata....D
Feb. 19 I just put up a lot of Pandora type beads and quite a bunch of new focals too! Low prices, check them out! It's after 7 p.m., time to go make a late supper! Yes, I was working late again!
Feb. 16 Gosh, what a whirlwind month this has been! I think I am FINALLY caught up on all the jet lag I had. I'm back in full production working on orders, ebay, my store and etsy. THANK-YOU everyone for keeping me so busy!
Happy Valentine's day a couple days late! I got flowers from Gary for the first time in the 7 years we've been together! Ohhhh, they smell so good!
One of my customers asked me to put up some pix of the snow here. I haven't had much time to take any but saw this moose out in the field the other day when I was having breakfast so I ran and grabbed my camera. I took this through our living room window. And now I have to get back to work! Have a nice weekend! Ciao, D
Feb. 7 Just in From Tucson last night. I'll update this later but sterling prices were still pretty decent and I got some wonderful pieces to put in the store that will fit all your Pandora/Troll type jewelry at incredible prices! I'll try and do that later today.
Feb. 1 Heading out for Tucson tonight on the red eye. My store will be open again when I return, sometime on Wednesday! Happy Ground Hog's Day early!!!!!
January 29 We're home and we had a wonderful time visiting family all the way from WI, Iowa, Arkansas and Tennessee. It was great to see everyone again, some of them I hadn't seen for 8 years! But, it's good to be home and back to work. Vacation is hard work too! But, come Friday I am leaving again. This time for Tucson and returning on Tuesday. Then hopefully, I'll be home for awhile. I'm still on central time and can't get into the right sleeping times, waking up at 4 in the morning and going to bed by 8 at night! And I don't like it one bit. Oh well, time marches on and I have to get to work. New things on ebay already, ending tomorrow and new things on my website, though some of it has sold already. Time to grab some breakfast and hit the torch.
January 9 I'm heading out of here for 2 weeks to visit family in WI, Iowa, Arkansas and TN. Take care everyone! More beadies upon my return! Thanks you guys!!!!! Donna
January 5, 2008 The skies were alive last night! I went downstairs at 10:30 to the basement to check on the woodstove one last time. I hung around a bit and did some stuff on my computer. About 11:30 I went back upstairs to go to bed. For whatever reason I looked out the window and there the light show was! Mother Nature was doing her thing at it's best! I stood at the window for maybe 15 minutes looking out and up until my neck hurt. If you've never seen the nothern lights, well, let's just say it's mezmorizing! I can only wonder what they were like up north farther. I've seen some pretty incredible photograph's of this phenomena that were taken up by Denali.
Went to town yesterday and did my mailings and picked up a few groceries. Don't need much because Thursday morning we are flying out for Minneapolis for a 2 week road trip. First we are visiting my daughter in WI, then we are headed down to Iowa to visit Gary's folks and brother. We'll be there for 4 days. Next we drive to Arkansas to see his oldest brother and wife for a couple days, then we head over to Tennessee to see my step-daughter who I haven't seen in 8 years! We talked on the phone last night and she was already sounding excited! I am anxious mostly to see my daughter though. We don't get to see each other very often. I miss her alot and can't wait to spend some time with her. When we leave Tennessee we'll head back to Iowa for a couple more days there then head back up to WI where we'll spend some more time with Cassandra. It will be hard to say good-bye. I am hoping this summer she can come up here to visit. I think it's been 4 years since she's been to Alaska! Way too long.
Time to head over to the torch. Have a great weekend!
Some of my beloved furry friends.........
Lots of pix of Mr. Boo, simply because he LOVES to goof around and have his picture taken!
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