Zendala post - One of the most relaxing activities for me is Zentangling.  I often put it down for months at a time, because there's alway something more important to do, or I'm too tired, or whatever the excuse dujour is.  I "waste" a lot of time blog-hopping.  Even more than Facebook or Pinterest, I like to follow blogs in my Google Reader - I used to use Brief and loved it but it doesn't get along so well with the latest Firefox versions.  

Like anything else on the internet, one peek leads to another, leads to a photo, leads to a website, leads to looking for what the heck did she make THAT with, leads to etsy, google, and so on and pretty soon 2 hours have passed.  Hmmm, I guess that also is a Zen activity.  

Anyway, I think I found thebrightowl.blogspot.com starting at northernadornments.blogspot.com . How I got there, who knows.  But since I like Zentangles, and like doing them in a mandala version, I downloaded week 38's template:
 
and came up with this:

Even when I do the mandala type, I don't usually follow the same pattern in every section, so that was different.  The dark petal shapes I filled in with Sharpie, not gonna waste my Pigma ink on that!

Unfortunately, I was still in the throes of bronchitis, and added to chronic insomnia, I slipped back into a fog of exhaustion and uncontrollable coughing.  Added to that working at the pharmacy, and seeing a doctor for the first time in years after the palpitation/ER episode, and filling website orders, well, that was about all that got done.  For some reason, in November of last year I decided that I wanted some "time off" from my 3 day a week job, and arranged to work only 2 days a week from mid-November till the end of the year.  Given the nature of my job, though, I was still working the same number of hours, just longer days.  Still, it  was one more day a week of not having to crawl out of bed after 2-3 hours of sleep, coughing fits that brought me to tears, and the gallons of Delsym that only helped a little.

Things stayed like that, and the zendalas faded from my mind for a while.  I didn't always remember to check my Google feed reader, and if I let it go for a few days, I was just as likely to just mark everything as read and not even look through them.

I came back to it at week 42:

I liked this mandala-string, and my finished piece was:

So that's #42, which I did last night AFTER I did #44:








Though I did the round version (and only took a quick photo):

 
 OK, can't stand that photo, so here's a better one:

That was about it for creativity this week, other than the smashed, beaten and tortured hearts I posted earlier in the week during one of my "I don't want to live on this planet anymore" tantrums...

There ya go...that's me about 70 percent of the time, but my glasses aren't as thick!  :-)

Oh HERE is where I put the title. Doy.

Well, it's finished.

As expected, the beads take me sometimes, and sometimes not. There are parts of the piece with conscious meaning to me, and others I was trying a technique or color combo or just keeping going!

The size is 2.5" by 2" (63.5mm x 50mm) approx. For much of the time I worked on this, I shut off TV, computers, printers, monitors, etc to get the room as quiet as possible. Working in a pharmacy there is a constant noise of printers, computers, monitors, faxes, lights...and it makes such a difference to turn them off. Of course, then I can get no work done!

Here at my bench, though, the quiet is nice, and only the Ott Light (desktop-folddown type) is on. I even took the batteries out of my mouse to eliminate the red light! That reminds me, I unplugged something to plug in the Ott Lite and did not reverse the process. Everything I want to work is working though, so maybe it's the old useless printer up on the shelf...

There is never complete silence because I have a lifelong case of earworm. Today, on my own, I came up with the intro to the old Bugs Bunny cartoons (Overture, hit the lights...sorry :-) Then my husband is belting out Copacabana in the shower. Could be worse. It went on for hours (in my head) until I had remembered almost all the lyrics I had forgotten over the past 30 years of not listening to much Manilow. Of course, Dave does not know the lyrics and poor Tony is shot dead in all 3 verses, sad to say.

I have no current inspiration for February. It's cold. Not Arctic cold but cold for Anchorage (low -20F : high -5F). Yeah, minus. No wind though, and sunny like it usually is when it's this cold. I have gloves on with the fingers cut off. Earlier I had a qiviut headband on. There not much on the planet that is warmer for the weight.

I designated this day a "no website work, no housework, nothing but doing what I would do if I could play with beads whenever I wanted" day. Most of last night, too. I wanted to prove to myself that I could at least get one month of BJP completed! Oh it's also a "not wasting hours surfing mindlessly on the Internet and spending money on things I don't need" day. But the day is not over and the computer is back on...

Good night :-)

Ooops! I thought I was writing this on my own blog. I am going to try to move it. Success! But sorry if it shows up in both places. So I will also sign in case it does.

Cindy A.

2012 Bead Journal Project

Well, I am going to try to commit to this again. It did not go so well in 2008 but I have chosen a 2 1/2 by 2 inch piece of Lacy's Stiff Stuff to bead on so that part will be easy. I won't have to worry about getting through leather, or stitching too tightly on fabric, etc.

For January, I have chosen to leave the background white. I am combining a little bit of Zentangling with my beadwork. I thought about coloring the background but as I have not done any stitching for a while, I thought I'd better KISS (keep it simple, stupid!)

I have found that I have trouble with actually "journaling" anything. It's more a matter of where the beads take me, and there's not too much to analyze, I think. I've never kept a written journal (well, once, for a few months), and whenever I have tried to do the freehand journaling of The Artist's Way, I have not lasted more than a few days.

Maybe some of that will come once the process of stitching gets more comfortable, though that has not been my experience in the past. For that reason, I consider myself more of a "crafter" or "artisan" than an "artist"

Well, gotta get up early to work at the hospital tomorrow. Time to try to sleep. Lately, I have started with a bit of trouble sleeping combined with night sweats (I'm 43), and I fear that perimenopause has started. Since nothing else related to my reproductive organs has been "easy," I am not particularly enthused about this development! :-)

Cindy's Wicked Good Beadz - http://www.wickedgoodbeadz.com

Cindy's Wicked Good Beadz on etsy - http://beadybaby.etsy.com

snowy monday morning

Well, it's Monday again, but luckily i don't have to go to work. Last month I took a pharmacist job here in Anchorage that I thought I wanted, but the company has done their best to convince me otherwise. First, the job was supposed to start full time in mid-March. What they didn't tell me was that the other pharmacist (the only other pharmacist) was taking 6 weeks medical leave starting January 2nd, so they asked me to start full time on January 7th. Fine. Second, I was supposed to be opening a brand new pharmacy at a new inpatient facility, 34 adolescent female beds, as opposed to 70-80 at the main facility. So now I'm working at the main hospital. Third, since I was going to be working at the bigger hospital, I was told I'd have at least a part time technician to help me (there is a full time technician there now). Ha. On my first day at work, the full time tech informed me that she was laid off permanently as of 2/29, and if she found another job before then, it would be Sayonara Cindy. (she was still there before I started my time off last week, but I haven't called for an update). So, as a result of all this mess, I have seriously reconsidered this foray back to full time pharmacist employment and less time beady joy.

This past weekend I participated in the Alaska Wholesale Gift Show at the Egan Center. I signed up at the last minute, and last week I spent getting ready for it. Last year, I didn't even get enough orders to pay my booth rent. I did a little better this year: one large order and 3 or 4 smaller ones. What I hope for though, is that these won't be one time only orders, or else it's not worth doing the show. I have only 1 account that orders sporadically from me, from the now 4 years I've done the show. And she doesn't order enough for me to really even notice, maybe $50-100 wholesale once or twice a year. Again, only time will tell if my products will sell well enough for repeat business.

Well, I'm not a writer, and I'm not even sure how anyone would find this blog, so off I go to write up those new orders and get started making some of the jewelry to fulfill them. Most Alaskan tourist venues don't get going until May, so I only have one order I have to ship this week, and she mostly picked out stuff that was already made.

Have a great day!