I've Been A Tad Bit Busy!!! Come See!!!!

Tim's NYC Trip

LOTS and LOTS of beautiful NYC trip pictures from the 4th of July weekend......and this is not all of them either! I could not remember all of the places and sites in Tim's pictures so some of them may not have captions, sorry! I hope you enjoy.....or I hope you are not bored to death! He had a great time with his childhood friend Luke. This was a big-deal-trip for my husband as he does not travel.........at all. Mostly because he has never had the chance or means and does NOT like to fly. The few places he has been in his 35 years are Florida (Senior High School Trip) and Washington state with me to visit my family.......and that is it! YEAH for him! I was SO happy and proud of him too! Thank you all for sharing this HUGE moment with us! Take care!

Warmly,

Tim and Leslie

Margot, Jenny and The Moldy Cloud Monster!

The Incredible, the "Impatient", the Sparkly, the "Glamorous and Forever Fabulous", Margot Potter has welcomed into her lair the wonderfully creative artist Jenny Harada. And together they have created a FANTASTIC new craft video! YEAH!!!!!! Check out Jenny's Blog HERE!

I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did and of course I hope it sparks a fire in your creativity and you ALL just HAVE to run out and buy the materials to make a plushy monster yourself!

Have a great Tuesday. Go forth and create!

Warmly,
Leslie

What Do Your Eyes Look Like?

Anyone have Olympic Eyes? You know.......tired, red, puffy, blood shot, dark circles, sleep deprived, chugging more cups of coffee than normal the next morning, needing extra under-eye concealer eyes????.........

I do!!!!!! And I am proud of it! Wouldn't miss watching for the world. No matter how long they run into the a.m.. GO USA!!!!! I LOVE the Olympics!

I am such a nerd.........

Everyday Life.......Can get in the way........

So......Where have I been, you might ask? *sigh* Nowhere, unfortunately. Just here.....at home, at work, at doctors appointments, at health fairs, at senior centers, at......LIFE. It is amazing to me how time goes so fast, and how nothing seems to get done. How each day is a new day, but the same as the others.......busy! You mark one thing off your list and add 2 more.

I must apologize for not keeping my word and coming here to let you all know about our vacation like I had stated before the 4th of July. I am TRULY sorry!

Sooooo, what has been going on you are thinking? In a nutshell. We have all been sick, going now into our 3rd week. Madelyn had Croup, double ear infections, and an upper and lower respiratory infection.......at the same time. Poor little green bean was pretty darn sick. Next came my husband, obviously coming down with the upper and lower resp. infections.....all viral though, so nothing to do but wait it out and treat the symptoms. Today I finally broke down and went to my personal physician, and, to no ones surprise....the same thing, but I seem to be lucky enough to get antibiotics for my symptoms. We are all tired, sick, weak, grouchy, fatigued, not sleeping and praying to just get back to NORMAL.........whatever that is.

My husbands NYC vacation was SUPERB, as he states it. My visit with my mother, sister and my 2 nephews was fantastic. My daughter was very unhappy at her daddy leaving, even though we talked about it long before he left, but she still showed her "Mad Maggie" side for which she gets her nickname from. A bear with a sore tail is how she spent the majority of her time at Nana's house. Not an easy vacation, but we got through it. No blood, just lots of tears......and some from her too. HA!

In other news, we have hired 2 new nurses at work and I have made a huge and HARD decision to let go of most of my hours there. I am now in the store only Mondays and Fridays and the rest "out in the field". I travel for health fairs and our local senior/nutrition centers teaching and doing community education. It may sound like I am actually doing more, but it really is a huge cut back in hours. Which leaves me with a decision that has rolled through my ever busy brain for a long time.......to make jewelry design more of a "career" than my nursing education. Wow, yes, I just wrote that. Hmmm, what does that mean? That I designed jewelry as an outlet before and now I want to change careers? Possibly........! Yup. That is right. Scary huh? YES!!!!!!!! But, wish me luck......this should take us ALL on an interesting ride.

I made the drive up to the city of St. Louis in late July to attended a class on Marketing Your Work and I am looking forward to attending more classes in different medias of jewelry design. It is, with the gas prices, a little tough to drive the almost 2 hours up to the city, but it has been WELL worth it as the studio is just fantastic!! I am also lucky enough to have a "friend" that went with me to the class. Her mother is the supervisor of the respiratory department at the pharmacy and she attends SEMO college for her arts degree. During the summer and on breaks she works in the billing department of the pharmacy and has become a great friend and sounding board in regards to jewelry design. I expect great things from her in the future......watch out world!

Ok, enough drivel, I just wanted you all to know I was still alive, however yucky I am feeling. And that I missed you all! I wish that there was more going on that was super special and unique to write about here. but alas there is not. At least until the new "journey" kicks in........which should be when I can get up and go downstairs to the basement studio without feeling like I am about to pass out. I know I also promised a jewelry giveaway and that should be the next up-and -coming post on the bloggy, so look for that as well!

I hope you all have a great weekend and rest of the week. I look forward to feeling better and coming back to visit with you all! Take care! Go forth and create! Much love and many blessing!

Warmly,

Leslie