many happy things

So much to be thankful for today ... so many things are making me smile ...

I'm closing in on 100 members to this site!  Can't wait to see 3 digits on that little widget!   

Wo ... update!  Hold your horses, it's official ... I've got 3 digits on the widget!  Suh-weet!  
Thank you thank you thank you!

I spent a lovely day yesterday at the gem show.  Road trip with Cara, chatting nonstop for the 70 minute drive ... Seeing so many jeweler friends, such an amazing community of creative women in our area ... Spending exactly my budget with a few dollars to spare.

I had a vague idea of what I was looking for.  Sometimes I have a detailed list, sometimes I just go and see what catches my eye.  Yesterday was a follow my intuition day.  Here's my modest haul ...

First, I was drawn to yellows.  From the right: citrine nuggets, some very yummy heliodor aquamarine (who knew that aquamarine came in yellow?), sunstone nuggets with loads of copper shiller, and sumptuous teeny chrome tourmaline nuggets.

Then there was the yellow/green/chartreuse strands ... a mixed strand of lemon quartz cubes, teeny watermelon tourmaline nuggets and another new-to-me gem, shah mak sud jade from Afghanistan.

Then on to the blues ... I felt in desperate need of lapis and love these little tubes (2-3mm).  These thin cubes were a new shape so I got a small assortment - in addition to the lemon quartz, amethyst, iolite, blue quartz and paraiba quartz (enhanced colors, but they were inexpensive and I couldn't resist).

And these are seriously yummy ... aquamarine and tanzanite sanded nuggets.  They're a bit bigger, 10-12mm wide by 3-5mm.

And sometimes I splurge on a decadent little something ... like raw diamonds.  I'm such an addict.  Cara spotted these and the price was really quite good and I didn't have any black or red diamonds and, golly, a girl really should have an assortment, dontcha think?  I got 2 strands of each.

Black raw diamonds ... 2-3mm.  Treated, but again, I couldn't resist.

And then there's the red ones ... oh my goodness they're amazing.  Two graduated strands of natural red diamonds, 3-5mm.

And being the obsessive compulsive type that I can be, before leaving for the show, I wanted something new to put on my wrists.  It seemed like a good time to measure out a nice long length from my new assortment of antique brown leather cord, pop on a button and loop clasp and call it done.

And I had this one mostly put together, I just needed to tie the loop onto the end.  Not sure if I could sell these or not ... there's a ton of silver in this one which would make it really expensive.  I do love the weight of it.

Other things on my happy radar ... I've been doing a lot of visualization work in combination with something else that's new to me ... meridian tapping or EFT.  Mostly I've been working on money/scarcity issues and business applications.  I really like the idea of it and feel pretty sure some old patterns are starting to shift.  Lots of work on being open to whatever comes my way.  And talk about sweet synchronicity ... on Thursday this showed up on my doorstep ...

Okay, so I'm always looking at different on-line business blogs and sites and you know I'm a big fan of a couple of them.  Well, on Wednesday I watched an interview with Chris Guillebeau about his new book launch and thought that looked pretty interesting and was going to add it to my wish list.  Thursday, the UPS truck pulls up and plops this on my front porch ... FREE from Amazon!  How crazy is that?  Alright, so I know the 'big brother' implications of this and I'm not real happy about that, but I am pretty psyched about getting the book, so I'm going to try and not think about the big brother part.  I just started it and it looks like it's going to have a lot of useful information.

And then we got a bit of an income tax refund and decided to invest in a super nice juicer.  I was thrilled with the Acme when I got it, but it's turned out to not fit my juicing needs.  I do lots of greens and like to make a lot of juice at one time.  The centrifugal juicers don't get a lot of juice from greens (you have to run the pulp again) and are not so great if you want to refrigerate juice for a day or more.  Anybody in the Asheville area want a deal on a juicer, I've got the Acme listed on Craigslist.  So, here's the newest member of the family.  My Omega 8006 - a slooooow, masticating juicer ... 

I'm itching to get to work with my new gems ... have some ideas about what to do with those diamonds and I'm back to working on my Talismans.  I'm thinking they're going to be my main focus for a bit.  Well, I've got this coming week to work on them before working on a couple of June 1st wholesale orders.  I can see that the Talismans have enormous potential for growth and what I do is fairly different from what's out there right now.  So, I'm going to do something of a re-launch, hence the Startup book and all the business stuff I've been working on.  Moving forward, gettin' things done, havin' a good time ... what more could a girl ask? 

Yes, yes ... many many happy things!

feeling enormously blessed and ever so grateful.

Onward!

l i g a - kvk

p.s.  Thanks so much for those of you who took me up on the My Peeps discount.  

p.p.s.  I found a strange little exercise video that Maia Helles did and wanted to share ...

new member of the family

Okay, so not a living, breathing member, but an important one.  You see it's like this ...

By far, hands down, without a doubt, the most used small appliance in the kitchen is our beloved juicer.  It was an enormously generous housewarming gift from a very dear friend.  Here's the problem, while I was in Nashville, my ever enthusiastic dear husband decided to make some juice on his own.  I say enthusiastic, because really, it's one of my favorite things about him.  He just goes at everything in a big way and juicing's no different.  So like I said, while I was in Nashville, he mentioned his juice making efforts in our evening conversation and that the chute had gotten kind of clogged up and then the motor sort of made this strange sound and then the digital readout came up with a big "E".  That would be "E" for error, "E" for dead - bummer.  The closest authorized repair place was in NY.  With back and forth shipping, it would cost about $120 - $130 to replace the motor.  Major bummer.  And I was on such a roll - making a gallon of juice at a time ... hmmm, guess that makes me kind of enthusiastic as well.  Turns out, when I was talking to the repair guy in NY, he allowed as how, those juicers aren't made for that volume of juicing - well, that's not what the product info would lead you to believe.  Phooey.

So I ask the repair guy, "what would you get?"  He said, without a doubt he'd get an Acme 6001.  And he would be happy to set me up with one for about $200 including shipping.  "Thanks so much for the info.  I'll be in touch." ... or not.  I just wasn't feeling like this was the right time for a $200 expenditure, but I hated not having my juice!  I decided to do some perusing on-line and see what I could see.  Turns out, I found one on eBay - $45 plus $15 shipping = $60 = a whole lot less than $200.  So, it's used, but the repair guy did say I'll probably die before the motor in one of these gizmos gives out. 

Please welcome the newest member of our family - our unknown vintage Acme 6001 juicer ...

Actually, I can probably find out how old it is by the serial number.  I was the only bidder on this one and the seller even had a 14 day guarantee.  I'm quite pleased.

The other thing I like is this - I'm pretty sure this is the same kind of juicer my grandfather used back in the early 60's.  Oh man, so many memories - our family of seven was living in one side of my grandparents' duplex - 2 bedrooms for all of us.  And my older brother had his own room!  We had fold out couches in the living room for my sisters, my little brother was still in a crib and, for the life of me, I can't remember where I slept.  I do remember on cold mornings, standing next to the gas radiator behind a chair in the living room to get dressed.

But going next door to my grandparent's side, grampa was always concocting something.  He was either making some nasty juice mix, you know like beets and onions or maybe working on a poultice of fenugreek and golden seal that he'd put in an old white hankie to put on his head - to grow hair.  He actually did get a bit of peach fuzz going.  Grampa was a small, relatively frail man, bald as a bat with not a tooth in his head.  Apparently he'd had some teeth made at some point and would joke about putting them in for a "Christmas trick."  I never did see those teeth.  He'd sit in a kitchen chair trying to convince my full-figure granny to sit in his lap, all the time saying, "Come on Mama, give me a kiss!"  Granny and me would be laughing to high heaven. 

This is my Grampa - photo by my big brother and master photographer, Gene, the one who had his own room.

Oh golly, I could go on.  Funny thing how something so simple as a juicer can bring back so many memories. Looking back, living in that duplex was probably one of the most influential times in my life.   I'm pretty sure there's a book in there somewhere.  One day I'll figure out how I want to write it.

But for now, hope your weekend was grand.       

l i g a  - kvk