Heart-Leaf Ornament for a customer's rear-view mirror

Today I sold one of my Heart-Leaf ornaments, revised to hang from the rear-view mirror of a customer's car. She requested I make it smaller, about 2" across, with blue and pink beads. I think it turned out well! I included some blue ribbon the same color as the darker blue beads, for hanging. I'm thinking mirror ornaments are something I should make more of!

Sold a Custom Order

Yay! Sold a Custom Order on Friday -- a wire art piece I've been working on for awhile. Very excited about that! The customer requested a piece for her son, who is a drummer, and I think it turned out pretty cool! His name is Mason and I was able to incorporate that into the design, too.

Our Homeschool Mom's Retreat was this past weekend -- a good time as always. Something always seems to come up that needs to be dealt with in my heart! My facilitator spoke on "What's in your cupboard". How we can only serve our family what's in our cupboard, literally as well as figuratively. We can't serve them spaghetti when there's no spaghetti in the cupboard, and we can't be someone we aren't as homeschooling moms. We need to be who we are, give out of what is already in our hearts, using our own gifts. It's something I know I struggle with constantly, comparing myself to other moms. The funny thing was that as my friend and I sat there, she said to me "I'm always worried about how I'm doing as a homeschooler because I'm NOT crafty and artistic, I'm NOT wired that way, so I feel like I'm failing!" And I looked at her and said "Oh yeah, well, I'm NOT organized, I'm NOT good at getting the kids to write essays and do book reports, and all my kids DO is arts & crafts, music, and puppet shows! I feel like I'm a failure because I have no bookwork done ... ever!" Funny how we both felt the same way about ourselves, but from totally different angles!

New Project - Hanging Votive Holders for a Wedding

Started working on a new project tonight -- hanging votive holders for a wedding. It's a potential Alchemy bid, but I'm still brainstorming with her on what exactly she wants. I'm good with the wire part of the holders, but I think supplying the glasses would be cost prohibitive. I suggested baby food/sm condiment jars to her, and she said that might be a solution ... I'm pleased with what I came up with, using small juice glasses from my own cupboard. Batteries were dead in my camera, tho', so I'll have to take the pictures tomorrow -- oops! Will post those later ...

Homeschool Mom's Retreat this weekend -- I can hardly wait! It's always just a refreshing time, a great reminder and encouragement that this homeschooling thing I do is really the right thing, that I'm doing ok. Helps me get "over the hump" of mid-winter post-Christmas school blues! Also helps me to realize that all the things I mull over in my head aren't unique to me, that every other homeschooler (if they're really being honest, anyway!) has the same worries, stresses, fears and so on ... Guess what?! I'm not special!

Monday ... again

Ahhh, the first Monday in a month I don't have to hustle the kids out the door by 10:00 am -- honestly, I don't know how you moms who have your kids in school do it! I can't imagine the work involved in getting them out the door on time, with everything they need ... yada yada yada ... every day! Totally stresses me out to think about it. That would have to be my first and foremost reason for homeschooling (shallow, I know) -- being able to sleep in!!!

Wire we here ... wire we here ... hmmm. I have this idea for an art piece -- but I'm struggling a bit with the concept. I want to make a frame of sorts, fill it with wire circles, and then wrap the circles with embroidery floss (such bright colors). It would be a weird mixed-media sort of contemporary artwork (hopefully) -- I'm just not completely sure how to do the frame. Should I use a steel bar frame and wrap wire around it??? Pondering ...

On the road again ... and again ... and again!

I am so tired of driving!!! I feel like I have done nothing but drive all week! All month, actually! I thought homeschooling happened AT HOME -- apparently, I was wrong! I also thought January was supposed to be a slow month, you know, to wind down after Christmas, get one's house in order, yada yada yada ... but no, it's the month to drive to one activity after another! Argh!

This blog is supposed to be about Blackscrapcat Designs -- but I have had NO time at all to do anything remotely wire-related! Argh again! I need some time to breathe!

I have all sorts of ideas, designs spinning around in my head that I want to put into wire ... deep sigh ... so many ideas, so little time!!!

Monday, Monday

The Mommas and the Papas -- great band! Having grown up in this media-manic world, my Sweet Darling and I realized once upon a time that most of our conversation comes from movie, music, or tv shows. So, we play "What's the reference?" I'm hoping it'll keep my memory sharp as I get older ... well, I can always hope :)

Living in an old church has its disadvantages: there are no closets in churches, ever noticed that? Not really any rooms to speak of, especially not for as many bedrooms as we need, and how exactly am I supposed to make use of the foyer? It's this big room that just fills up with stuff because I haven't found a purpose for it yet. Until now! Had a bright idea yesterday to build a big workspace table -- kind of a glorified kitchen island, minus sink or stove. Lots of seating for the kids and their projects, lots of storage too ... you know. It'll take up a lot of space in the middle of the floor, but it will also replace a lot of the miscellaneous pieces of furniture around the outside walls too -- I like it!

Swimming lessons today, thankfully this is the last week! But at least I get to chat with all the other moms as we sit by the pool :)