Thanksgiving - Yum!

Rick and I spent Thanksgiving with Mike and his family in northern Indiana. My Aunt Chris and cousin Kate joined us for the day, while Mom stayed through Monday, and Rick and I stayed through Saturday morning.

Tammy did a great job cooking a fresh turkey. It was simply wonderful - enough so that I will definitely use fresh if I ever cook a full turkey again. I was in charge of the sides and didn't do badly at all - mashed potatoes with lumps to prove they were mashed by hand!, green bean casserole (yuck!, but a hit with those who eat it), and candied yams (again yuck!, but with a hand from Mom there were very few leftovers).

Tammy and I got to spend some good time together - yes, we went shopping, but didn't buy anything that she didn't need. I just love having a SIL. Being the oldest and having only brothers really deprived me of some quality sisterhood stuff. Thank goodness for Tammy!

Rick got yanked on, trampled on, squeezed and hugged pretty much the entire time we were there. The kids really enjoy being around him, and I know he truly loves the attention.

I actually got some beading done! Yes, I was surprised. I did up a few simple twisted herringbone necklaces to match a couple of sweaters. Also got a few orders - one from Tammy and one from Kate. Now I'm on a mission to find delicas in a Green Amber color ? Wish me luck!

No pics at the moment. I'll be posting some new stuff this week, though, so keep checking back.

Terrific ceremony

*sigh* what a wonderful experience to have participated in the vow renewal of such grand people. The crowd was small, but the enthusiasm and support was quite large. Essentially, Katherine and David walked through a ceremony whereby they told each other what the past 28 years have been like and what they hope the upcoming years bring...each speaking quite eloquently about the other. Afterward we took group photos (how I wish I had one to share), and enjoyed finger foods, punch and good company. I enjoyed viewing their original wedding photographs and getting the inside scoop on family members from David. The only glitch to occur was that they forgot the music CD :( How I wish I had known a piano was in the room ... I would have been happy to prepare some terrific music for them. Oh well, maybe next time!

Show not so good but the people were great

Well, the U of L show was a bomb. I sold a necklace. Had I had specific U of L items I am sure I would have sold more. The people were a lot of fun, though. I met some wonderful grandmothers - alumni with grandkids currently enrolled. And I got to hear some interesting stories about 'back in the day'. I also met a wonderful gal who had the booth next to me. Her jewelry designs were quite elegant, using semi-precious and strung seed beads. After numerous conversations (between customers) she may contact me about taking a class. What fun it would be to get back to teaching. It is something I really enjoy doing.

The job has been interesting so far. I spent two days at the manufacturing plant. I would have really enjoyed myself if I could have used some of the machinery. Instead, I stood around, watching someone do their job. I asked as many questions as possible, while trying not to interrupt the worker's rhythm. Whew, am I glad that's over! Nine hours of doing nothing really got to me - just ask my dear husband! LOL

I'm back in the office now and have gotten caught up on paperwork. I'm learning more and more about veneer and its applications - which is good because I can't wait to start selling this stuff! Right now I'm handing sales leads over to my inside reps, but am anxious to start making my own sales :)

Rick's mother has taken a turn for the better. She will be leaving the hospital sometime this weekend (if all goes well). The infection is under control, the bleeding seems to have stopped, and though the doctors can't say for sure what is happening, they're glad that she is healing. Keep the prayers coming because she's not completely out of the woods yet!

Tomorrow my friend Katherine and her husband David are renewing their wedding vows :) Its their 28th wedding anniversary and David has Parkinson's Disease. She's always wanted to renew their vows and kept putting it off. Now that David is showing more symptoms I am glad she's taking the opportunity to celebrate their life together now, rather than later. I'm looking forward to the festivities. She has such a cool range of friends :)

What a week!

First, I start the new job. All is well. The gals I manage are terrific, very knowledgeable and all have a great sense of humor about them :)

So, on Monday evening my hard drive dies. Yessirree, very little warning...thought at first an e-book I'd purchased was infected when I tried to download it. But, no. I have this nasty habit of leaving my computer on ... always ...unless Rick and are going out of town. So, a few power surges, outages and spikes and before you know it the hard drive just kicks the dust. My only regret is the loss of photos. I'm hoping I can download some from my Yahoo album.

Rick's mother is in the hospital. She had a bowel resection done three weeks ago, developed an infection, developed leakage, went septic, got ok, went septic again and just recently has developed a bleeder somewhere. Rick has been keeping vigil with his siblings these past three nights. I'll go to the hospital when he asks me to. Although I think I should be there, I respect his wishes and will not force myself on him there. So, many prayers are needed please for Carol, my mother-in-law. She's 73 and in generally good condition, but tonight is on morphine and diuladid for pain - so its pretty bad. Doc won't do an MRI because the dye would hurry the shut down of her kidneys.

Tomorrow is our 16th wedding anniversary. We're going to dinner at Del Frisco's in Louisville Saturday night, providing we're not at the hospital with his mother of course.

I'm finishing up some beadwork for the U of L show on Monday. No new designs. Due to the loss of marketing material on my hard drive I'm limited on brochures/handouts/etc. But, I am planning to print out really cool price notes instead of actual price tags. I'm curious if they'll make a difference in sales.

Well, back to piecing together beading/business/personal information for my hard drive :)

Oh yeah, I have no e-mail addresses. If you're reading this, please e-mail me so I can get my contact list back in shape.

Until next time...

Couple of new beaded items

Anybody recognize the pendant!?
I'm doing a Christmas Boutique at the University of Louisville Alumni Banquet and needed a few things that used U of L colors - black, red and gold. I'm doing a twisted herringbone necklace of black and gold in the hopes of selling the two as a set. If not, then I'll also have some black leather necklaces, too.

What do you think of the flower? Too cool, heh? Thanks to Barb Grainger for her netted flower instructions. The button in the middle sparkles 100 times more than the photo shows. It measures about 4" in diameter. I think it will look marvelous on a Derby hat! I've done this particular flower in burnt orange, neon blue and neon yellow...so far. I'll let you know how many I end up with.

How to attach to a hat, you ask? Well, after much consideration, shopping and consulting with hat makers, I've picked up some hat pins that will work perfectly. They'll also allow the flower to be used as a brooch...should someone decide that is what they prefer.

I got the Job!

Yessiree, I start tomorrow. I know, starting a job on a Thursday is strange, but what the heck. So, I'll start in the office for a few days, then spend a few days out in the plant manufacturing wood veneer, then back to the office for the real work - managing five people in a customer service/inside sales department! I'm really looking foward to the challenge. Thanks for all the good thoughts everyone!

Now, back to beading. I have a few items I'd like to finish up tonight. This weekend I should be able to post new pictures.

Pendant and musings...

When I was in need of a pendant, just for something different, I came across a fellow beader's site and was inspired to make this. She had used various celtic swirls and knots in her beadwork. I guess the Irish in me just couldn't stop the image as I was working up the pattern for this. I usually wear it on a gold chain.


The hunt for a job continues. I had a face to face interview early this week, followed by a 2nd and 3rd interview later in the week, followed by a request for references...of which two were contacted the day of request. According to the references, it looks like I can expect a job offer. I can only hope they offer the right amount of salary...this is not a job to sell yourself cheap for! A lot of work still needs to happen for the department to tighten up and get into shape.

What a glorious day

My goodness, we couldn't ask for better weather in the Louisville area. Sunny skies, 68 degrees, light breeze....hmmmm. A perfect fall day.

Last week was quite an eventful week for me and the job hunt. I attended a few networking lunches and an evening cocktail hour meeting, in addition to meeting with a gentleman about my resume. I handed out quite a few business cards, met a lot of interesting people, was able to connect a few people with other business owners, and will be sending my resume to a few people to forward to their contacts. I'm enjoying the networking much more than I thought I would. I anticipated being overwhelmed or out of place, but in all actuality I fit right in.

I've had a phone interview and am scheduled for a face to face interview with another company later this week. There should be at least one more meeting scheduled from a different company, though I won't be hearing from them until Monday.

So, in the meantime, I'm resting today. Actually, I'm beading, but that is the same as meditating and resting for me. Either later today or tomorrow I'll be taking photos of my latest work to post here and at an online forum I'm active in. Until then...the beads are calling me!

A new start

So, after over a year of managing a customer service/sales department it looks like I've worked myself out of a job. Well, not quite, but close. I was initially hired to tighten up the business end of the office/department and begin developing sales programs to assist the company in their growth plan. Within six months I had completed the tightening up and was just beginning to present my program ideas when it became apparent that the customer service employees required more of my attention.

After another six months, it became quite obvious that the company was not ready for my position. During this time we unveiled a new division where I was the first contact and also became a design engineer - because the primary design engineer was out for quite a few weeks due to surgery - and a customer service rep in the original division was out for surgery - so I was doing three jobs for quite a few weeks. Yet, we succeeded to provide quality products with excellent customer service to our customers.

So, a few more months passed. I met with my boss and we discussed the company goals, the department needs, my expectations and his expectations. It boils down to the fact that I am being replaced by software and a customer service rep. The company hired me about 2 years too soon.

Now, I am out and about. Meeting new people, networking at business lunches and beading up a storm. Look for new designs to appear on this blog, as well as an update on my job search!

Another bracelet

African Helix, a wonderfully elegant stitch. This bracelet sparkles plenty and looks absolutely wonderful on the wrist!