Feathered Friends Mementos

What can I say?

2010-09-11T22:57:00.002-05:00

So I tried out a new Arts and Crafts venue today and I can officially stated that I will likely never return to this location. The Cypress, Texas Shop til you Drop show. It sounded like a great show, large venue, well established over many years, they 'say' well advertised and while not cheap it was within my fee budget.

I suspected within the first hour that it would be a poor venue for me when I saw the lady behind me setting up small pump hand soap dispensers that were decorated with machine cut decals and selling for $7-10. OK. So it took 3 hours!!!! for me to make my first sale (which was $5, wow) meanwhile I hear these same customers exclaiming to the soap lady "Oh, how adorable! I've never seen anything like this!" And they bought and bought! OMFG! I made 50% of my fee back and was ignored by at least 1/3 of the people I said hello to.

Decalled store made soap dispensers, seriously? At least she could have done was hand paint the designs then maybe I'd call her crafty.

My first pieces for Houston Fashion Week

2010-08-23T12:02:00.004-05:00

Amber and I have been working since this weekend on the new pieces for Houston Fashion Week and since I'm not as young as I was my hands and forearms have been aching a bit more than usual this week. Seriously, getting older sucks. However, I do have my first two pieces finished! I started with the largest jewelry project just to get it out of the way so that the rest should move along much faster. Plus I'm watching on a few other parts on order in the mail which should arrive this week.

Here's my first set, the very bold Neo-Victorian necklace with matching earrings!

I'm so excited!!

2010-08-20T08:50:00.000-05:00

It's official this week! A local friend of mine, Amber; who also makes jewelry and I have been asked to collaborate on a jewelry line for the First Annual Houston Fashion Week!!!! It's this Nov and we have to have all the pieces finished by the beginning of Sept. OMG!

It's a week long, will be located in downtown Houston and will get LOTS of media coverage with many international and famous persons in attendance!! Our local former international model and fashionista Lynn Wyatt is officially connected in producing this event.

Our jewelry will be worn on the catwalk but professional models, I'm totally freaking out! And it'll be offered for sale with our names in the credits (of course!)

This is one of the things I've been working on off line which is why I've been so busy. The last few weeks have been ARGH waiting for the official word if we were in or not.

Just had to toot my horn cause I got the word yesterday and could barely sleep last night.

HAPPY DANCE!!!!

Artfire's new collection feature

2010-08-10T10:14:00.003-05:00

I love playing with Artfire's new feature. You get to browse through the website choosing different items under whatever theme you like and curate a collection of 16 different items with 4 alternates. And this isn't just for showing off other art's work it's also for showing off and promoting your own!

This may seem selfish at first blush but what are we all trying to do? Promote ourselves! Artfire and their mavens had made it clear that this collection feature was create for just that purpose. So promote away! Each other and yourself!

Here are the links to my first collections including a collection of the favorites of my current work.

Summertime sales

Bird Lover's paradise

Flower Power

and my collection

My personal favorites

Enjoy!

My blog has been hijacked!

2010-08-01T16:02:00.002-05:00

I haven't posted lately because I've noticed that ever since my last blog giveaway my blog comments section has been hijacked by overseas commenters. I suspect that the comments are auto generated because even when I don't post for weeks at a time someone will post a comment with some random saying that has nothing to do with my post. And the comments will only be on the most recent post. Very weird.

The post prior to this one has 14 unmoderated posts so far with some very strange comments and some in Asian text that I can't even read without an online translator.

So that makes me wonder if I should continue my blog at all or just use my Artfire blog feature. Any thoughts?

I won earrings!

2010-06-29T23:46:00.003-05:00

Woohoo! I won a sort of threadkiller turned chat thread by being the 3000th poster and these are the totally cool earrings that I won from Wooden Love Affair of Etsy.

How awesome is that?!!

Fringe-less

2010-06-08T19:28:00.004-05:00

Here's my newest 11 x 14 colored pencil artwork, titled "Bright Macaw", finally got it finished!

I've been super busy handling local craft fairs, my full time job, baby sitting my niece and trying to catch up sleep. Plus I somehow pulled my right thumb causing pain during most normal, daily tasks so I've been trying to rest it as much as possible the last few weeks; hence no typing-no blog posts for over a month.

You just don't realize how important seemingly minor parts of your body are until they hurt all the time, lol!

But it's slowly improving so I'm trying to post a short update and I'll be trying to do more update more often. Meanwhile I'm also dealing with my mild depression at the summer break of my favorite TV show FRINGE! It starts it's 3rd season this fall (already been picked up, woohoo!) and I can hardly wait to see what JJ Abrams crew dreams up for us next!

My new necklace design!!!

2010-04-26T23:46:00.004-05:00

I thought of this design last weekend while I was hanging out between sales at my show on Saturday. I sat there drawing it in my sketch book which is usually nearby to help me capture any random ideas. That's how may brain usually works; randomly. Ideas and connections just pop into my head and I can usually figure out quickly if they're doable. I first work out the engineering in my mind then sketch out the basic design in my book.

The book is a combination of assistance factors- helps me not forget a design if I don't get to it immediately and it helps get ideas out of my head so I can forget them temporarily. If I can't make them right away and it's a particularly good idea then it'll rattle around in there for weeks sometimes and keep me awake. Seriously. Cause my brain doesn't like to forget things, my recall is sickening good, and combined with my creativity it makes me HAVE to make things or go nuts. Which is why I've been creative at something since i was a little girl.

I absolutely LOVE my imagination however it can be as much of a curse as a blessing. My brain just won't shut off occasionally unless I make it. The only time it shut down for an extended length of time was this time last year when I had lost so much blood. My brain wasn't getting enough oxygen to function at its normal levels and my creativity basically shut down.

I've never experienced that before! I've had days and even a few weeks in my life when creativity wasn't knocking in my skull but months??? And when I'm inspired I'm positively nonstop, borderline obsessive. I'll skip meals to create (and I don't believe in ever skipping meals!!)

So, overall I'm very grateful to have my normal levels of creativity back; lack of sleep and all because lack of creativity was a frightening thing to experience.

Blogging...

2010-04-19T17:08:00.004-05:00

I haven't been a very good blogger lately. Between medical complications in my life and prepping for and completing my 2010 Spring craft fair season I just haven't been in the mind set to write. I guess that's a big reason why my vague writing aspirations of high school never took off, lol! I love to write but I get so easily distracted from it. Not so with my other artist ventures. When I'm focused on an art or jewelry project then obsession is the name of the game.

Writing always seems so nebulous I guess, it's easier for me to compose an essay in my head and then I'm frustrated when it doesn't 'appear' on my computer. I have a lot of great essays and such that never get written. Or at least they seem great at the time. That's not to say I don't have self discipline. I can sit for hours working on minute details of a 11 x 14 colored pencil piece of work; each line individually sketched and smudged. I occasionally forgo lunch when I'm at my craft table working on new jewelry pieces; and I'm not the type that usually skips meals.

But writing...the drive sometimes just escapes me.

And it's not the lack of topics. Just about any day on the unit throws something strange, amusing or sick my way. Of course I'm very cautious about how I phrase such events due to privacy issues and such but still...you can say a lot without saying anything sometimes.

Like the time a guy tried to break into a convenience store after hours through the grill exhaust/heat pipe and got stuck so bad he ended up asphyxiating himself- complete with feet, legs and torso dangling over the grill and upper body and arms stuck inside the pipe.

Or the very large male who was suffering in pain from a kidney stone so badly that he continuously moaned my name over and over in the back of the unit while we drove him to the ER. Meanwhile my partner can barely keep from laughing his ass off in the front seat at the pseudo-sexual scene it created.

How about the patient that experienced such a bad Gastro intestinal bleed that the hotel room floor was LITERALLY covered in bloody feces which we had to cross to get to the patient in the bathroom. Our boots continued to smell of human waste for days even after several washes.

The fear and anxiety of pushing a large IV needle through a conscious patient's neck vein for the first time because it's the only good peripheral vein they have left and they really, really need an IV and meds now or they just might die. Said a little to prayer to God before that one...please, please, please, God don't let me screw this up...

The physical pain of being woken up repeatedly throughout the night. Yeah, sometimes it really does hurt, bad. And no you never, REALLY, get used to it as I've had patients tell me. "you look tired...but you're used to being woken up..." yeah you try it for 20 years and see how used to it you get. Some nights I can actually feel the years being knocked off my life.

The joy of getting everything right, especially when you meant to, and saving someone's life as a result. You learn to realize and accept at some point that as a human you have very little control over anything and at most you try to do your damnedest to be perfect and hope that God can work through you every day to get whatever he needs done. Unfortunately, most of the public and admin think you're supposed to BE perfect and easily forget that you're human and will shred you at the slightest provocation. And not bother to thank you at all.

Being a paramedic is basically the best job you'll ever love to hate.

1st Annual Fulshear Arts Festival

2010-04-11T20:51:00.002-05:00

After last weeks awful experience with my legs caused me to miss my craft show scheduled last Saturday; it was with great relief that I was feeling well enough to attend my show scheduled this Saturday April 10.

It started off very windy, over cast and ended up being intermittently raining. This had my husband and I very concerned that we wouldn't be able to stay. After all many of my jewelry items are very wind sensitive, lol! and I'd hate to have any of them get blow away.

But we stuck it out even after a few of our 'neighbor's quit and by noon the rain was officially over and it was just gusty with wind. We had to tie the tent off to two separate trees to stabilize it because the cinderblocks weren't quite enough weight and the wind gusts keep trying to launch it. If it hadn't been for the first couple of sales totally $100 the first hour I would've given up by them. But the ropes kept the tent on the ground and the money keep me optimistic so we stayed.

Within the next couple of hours the wind reduced to manageable levels and my sales were very steady and strong! Overall a very satisfying day and much better then I would've expected considering the way it started. I even sold an art print not just jewelry!

Sucky sunburn

2010-04-06T10:38:00.002-05:00

This week has totally sucked for me. I got a bad sunburn last Sunday which I thought was no big deal.

<----------my legs slathered in aloe

But after one shift at work my legs swelled badly and a couple of days later, even after I had tried very hard to treat them at home appropriately, they got infected with cellulitis. Cellulitis is basically a Staph infection that gets into your deep skin. ARGH, pain, swelling, burning, I couldn't even stand-couldn't even put my legs vertical! I had my husband drive me to the ER on Friday night of Easter weekend after it had gone from bad sunburn to infected in just a few hours. My legs swelled so badly that my toes were cold and turning purple. Not a happy camper.

Needless to say I didn't get much sleep this week but after 24 hours of Bactrium-antibiotic-and silver sulfadiazine cream, I already starting seeing improvement. The swelling reversed almost immediately and my legs got super hot and painful- all the blood rushing back to the tissues hurts!

So it's been 3.5 days on antibiotics and I can walk under my own power again. Not for long distances and it's difficult to stand very long but YES, I can walk!

I've always been sympathetic to my patients with similar leg infections; they always looked so awful and painful. But I have a whole new level of empathy for them now. My husband asked me what it felt like to have cellulitis-

Wrap your lower legs tightly in packing tape, just tight enough so that you almost cut of all circulation. Then every time you stand or take a step have someone quickly rip a piece of tape of with your hair and some skin and that's sort of what it feels like. Yeah, super fun.

First Fair of the Spring Season!

2010-03-26T18:40:00.002-05:00

That's right, tomorrow morning is the Gifts Galore in Greatwood of Sugar Land. My first official craft show of the 2010 Spring season. Ugh...the anxiety and waiting and preparing is about to hoping pay off!

I've got lots of new items in stock...many things I've haven't listed online yet but which may end up online if they don't sell in the next 6 weeks. I've got back to back shows scheduled every week through April so I'll be quite busy until May.

Fingers crossed! I'm hoping that the crazy new health bill hasn't scared everyone into not spending any money this season and also hoping that most people's job are more secure right now so that they feel better about spending some of their mulah with me!

Hoarders- they do exist, probably next door

2010-03-23T11:47:00.003-05:00

Ever watch the tv show Hoarders on A & E? It's a "fascinating look inside the lives of two different people whose inability to part with their belongings is so out of control that they are on the verge of a personal crisis."

Ewwww...right? Why on earth would anyone watch such a disgusting, voyeuristic show? Other than the fact that most television is disgusting and voyeuristic these days...well I find it oddly fixating because it is so realistic. I'm sure there's plenty of drama to go around and they add extra for good measure but seriously...I go into these types of home on a weekly basis. People really are THAT disgusting!

We've always called them Stackers in EMS because they stack and stack until there's just a small trail leading throughout the house between mountains of God-knows-what! Some people even have systems of organization in the mess; like all the matchboxes go here, all the scissors go there, etc. Of course, there are 3 dozen scissors and so forth.

The dust is so rampant and old that it looks like dark gray Christmas tree flocking, jars of urine line tables and shelves (why anyone would want to save their urine is beyond me but then these people aren't exactly normal), bugs have entire ecosystems inside the mess and the stench....ugh... you would not believe it!

Sometimes you can't even stay inside for more than a minute because of the smell. Once I was in a house where the cat litter box was at the end of the bedroom hallway in front of a bedroom door! And it was soo overflowing with poop that it was falling over the edges! The bathroom floor was soo dirty that postcard flyers from inside magazines were completely and nearly permanently glued to the floor. I couldn't even shift it with my boot! Can you imagine how long that flyer must have laid there to be stuck that completely?

All the carpet was dark brown...no matter what the original color had been and one room was entirely full of boxes, just empty boxes!

These people really do exist. They're probably your neighbor. Homes which look completely normal on the outside will shelter Hoarders and Stackers for decades and you might not even realize it! But I do. Like the original Colt 45, being a paramedic is the great equalizer~ I see it all, see everyone as God intended~good, bad, happy, sad~ you can't hide the truth of your life and choices from a paramedic!

Why do I love being a paramedic?

2010-03-08T22:15:00.003-06:00

In a word....interesting!

What other job could this happen...at 6pm we're responding to a breathing problems call which is actually back pain which is really an Aortic Aneurysm rupture which is fatal and we quickly realize that the back pain is the primary symptom of this poor patient's largest artery ripping open and flooding insides with blood. Blood which is supposed to remain intravascular not extravascular.

That's bad...very bad. Unfortunately, when an Aorta completely ruptures there's not a damn thing anyone, anywhere can do for you. You can be flayed open on the operating table with the best thoracic surgeon over priced insurance money can buy and you're still dead meat. Yeah, you guessed it, this poor patient did not survive.

Immediately afterwards we respond to another breathing problems call and this one is an anxiety attack. Yep, some anxiety and hyperventilation caused this patient to feel dizzy and experience numbness and tingling in both arms. And, yep...had to be transported by ambulance to the hospital as a placebo to make them "feel better". Which worked because I'm damn good at my job, lol!

I wonder...do you think this patient's anxiety would have been worse if the knowledge that someone had been dying on the same stretcher just an hour ago had been shared?

Nooooo, I didn't but it sure does put things into perspective for you doesn't it?

Yes, I love being a paramedic...where else can you experience such extremes and get paid for it?

Plus it gives me great party stories.

I've been soooo busy!

2010-02-28T16:24:00.002-06:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a couple weeks but I've super busy with my supply/vintage shop the last couple of months. I've been selling gemstones at FFMSupplies since mid-Jan and I'm very happy to announce that I've been quite successful so far! I sold out of my rainbow moonstones in 3 weeks! I'm also sold out of my large labradorite and apatite unique cut nuggets and I'm almost sold out of several more stones- including my some of my kyanite and small Spectrolite teardrops! I've already decided that I need to continue buying gemstones in bulk amounts so that I have enough for myself and to resell. I know many jewelry makers don't have the resources to buy this amounts of stones or the ability to get to large gem shows to being to personally choose their purchase; so I'm happy to be of worldwide service to these jewelry makers who need a reliable high quality gemstone source for either large or small amounts.

Plus it's super fun to have all these pretties to ogle over! Even if it's temporary.

Handmade jewelry giveaway

2010-02-16T15:24:00.001-06:00

Beautiful necklace giveaway until the 21st of Feb!

I'm thinking about getting my gemologist's license

2010-02-05T13:20:00.002-06:00

So I've been doing some thinking, especially after a particular email from another Artfire seller. After I started listing my extra stock of gemstones 2 weeks ago for sale in my supply shop
FFM supplies many of the other sellers finally figured out that Jinx1764 (feathered friends mementos) and FFM supplies were the same person. The new Artfire forums with the randomized sidebar helped get my supply shop noticed, too.

So I, Exquisite Studio's emails me (FFMsupplies) and says "You're the Fabulous Jinx? I'll never have to worry about buying gemstones from you!"

Wow! Well, not only was I extremely flattered but it got me to thinking. Obviously my intention to gain and maintain a high reputation is working but how to I make that more professional and not just word of mouth? So I did some research on gemology degrees/licenses and decided that I would start working on an internet program to get my Gemology License.

For now I'm an official member of the International Gem Society as of yesterday and I will be gradually studying and testing towards my license. The minimum passing grade is 87% and here are a few sample questions that I'll have to pass in the future:

1 If you found a GGG in a diamond band, the GGG would be classed as:

An imitation

A homocreate

Both

Neither

Correct answer, both.
Any stone posing as something else is an imitation. GGG is classed as a homocreate because it has no natural counterpart.
See Synthetic Gemstones and Their Identification.

2 If an opal showed only blue color that was very bright, had a good cut, was only slightly directional and had no imperfections on the top it would be graded as:

Below commercial value

Commercial

Good

Fine

Extra fine

Correct answer, good.
This stone has one factor in the commercial grade and one in the fine category, and two in the good category. See Appraising Opals - Part 2, Applying Value.

3 Hydrothermal grown refers to:

A natural process

Laboratory grown gems

Both

Correct answer, Both.
See Synthetic Gemstones and Their Identification and Gem Formation.

4 Brilliant faceting is determined by:

Optical Performance

Triangular and kite shaped facets

Dispersion

All the above

None of the above

Correct answer, Triangular and kite shaped facets.
There are two basic styles of cutting; brilliant and step cutting. Step cutting, (as in an emerald cut,) features long, rectangular facets. Brilliant cutting uses triangular and kite shaped facets.
While brilliant faceting usually enhances optical performance and dispersion, by definition it is the shape of the facets. Factories often do "brilliant" style cutting, with less than brilliant results.
See "Gem Cutting Terms"

There's no minimum time limit on this so I can take as long as I want...will keep ya'll posted!

First do no harm...

2010-02-01T13:18:00.004-06:00

Doctors are trustworthy right? Authority figures...intelligent...smart...ethical...patient care driven...what's not to trust in a doctor? As Dr. Evil says. "R...I....G....H....T." They're human and flawed just like the rest of us.

So I have a patient yesterday call us for severe hip and joint pain which has been lasting all week. So long that he's been unable to eat and he's taking 4 Alieve every 4 hours on an empty stomach and he's now peeing, crapping and throwing up a little blood.

(lots of painkillers + empty stomach = destroyed stomach/intestinal lining) Always eat something when you take pain meds even over the counter meds (OTC).

Anyhow...So at first I'm thinking what's with this guy calling 911 friggin call your doctor, get an appt like the rest of us shmooes and move on with your life. Turns out he did see his doctor, he did go to his appt and was told he had elevated uric acid and was prescribed Voltarin pain gel which is friggin EXPENSIVE because it's new AND it's ----

Important Safety Information

*Voltaren^® Gel is indicated for the relief of the pain of osteoarthritis of joints amenable to topical treatment, such as the knees and those of the hands. Voltaren Gel has not been evaluated for use on the spine, hip, or shoulder.

It's specifically made to treat osteoarthritis not GOUT (or hip pain duh!) which btw is caused by elevated uric acid.

This patient wasn't told by his doctor that he was diagnosed with Gout, no no, he was told he had elevated uric acid. That's friggin gout moron! Gout will cause similar joint pain like OA but it won't be relieved by the same meds because it's a completely different disease process. HELLO!

You should take pain relievers with Gout but you also have to treat the Gout with medications such as allopurinol and corticosteroids and change your diet, lose weight and exercise. This poor guy wasn't on any Gout medication and was 400 lbs and wasn't doing anything else to treat his Gout. (of course he should be taking some responsibility himself as well like EAT LESS!) But by this time he was in so much that pain lifestyle change was out the window.

So my main grip was with the friggin doctor! This guys insurance wouldn't cover the Voltaren cause it's like $100 a tube!!!!!! AHHHH!!! And the other meds are generic. So I have to ask myself-is this doctor insanely incompetent (which he very well may be) or----------

is he something much worse? Is he deliberately mis-prescribing meds to this guy to get some sort of kick back (like it doesn't happen!) , withholding information that a first year med student would know (gout goes with increased uric acid like peanut butter goes with jelly) and thereby indirectly setting this guy up for more injury by him accidentally injuring himself by taking OTC meds incorrectly out of desperation.

Now this guy should be taking more personal responsibility, absolutely! You are your own best advocate in this mess up system. However, hearing about how totally incompetent and/or unethical this dr is really burned me. Makes me what to march to his office and head butt him, then kick him a few times while he's down just for good measure.

Remember asshole...First do no harm!

Congrats to the winner of the peacock earrings!!!

2010-01-27T10:33:00.004-06:00

Nicole of California is the winner!!!!

Also, here's a link to my Artfire shop blog were I listed the best of the giveaway comments. There were over 280 comments which averages out to about 60 people entering the contest! Wow, and I only recognized a handfull which I referred myself. So lots of new people found my shop and left really amazing comments and feedback. I pasted the most relevant on my shop blog for good PR. What a great site. Here's a great big thanks to Sisi of Handmade Giveaway Blog for giving me this opportunity.

Enter my giveaway on Handmade giveaway blog

2010-01-19T11:18:00.003-06:00

That's right I'm being interviewed and featured on the Handmade Blog starting today! Contest ends Jan 25 so get your booties on over there and enter for a free pair of gorgeous sterling silver and Swarovski crystal peacock feather earrings!

Woohoo!! Who doesn't love free stuff!?

My caique parrot, Royal attacking her micro pet

2010-01-10T10:44:00.003-06:00

Just wanted to share a video of Royal that I recently uploaded to you tubed now that my loading issues with you tube seem to finally be resolved. She loves destroying micro pets whenever we buy one for her. I'm on you tube under the same username~jinx1764

Enjoy!

Chicken Breath and Helium

2010-01-08T17:15:00.003-06:00

I'm back to work or at least I was yesterday. My lungs sound like I'm blowing bubbles through a straw and I'm coughing up enough phlegm to feed a small country; eewwwww, nice thought huh? Ok, yes I'm coughing and yes, my lungs are fluidy but only at the very bottoms so it's not like I'm drowning in my own fluids just yet. But do I feel 10 times better than a few days ago when I had a fever and my remote control arm was too weak to hold said remote control up for more than 10 secs. Can we say dog crap anyone?

So my partner and I run several calls yesterday; not too crazy just steady and serious enough to not feel guilty about earning our paychecks. Well...until we got off shift 2 hours late this morning but I digress. One particular call set off my paramedic humor alarm. We responded to a difficulty breathing call. I walk up and a family member tells me~

"Chicken breath! Her helium no work!"

This was a Hispanic family that barely spoke English and what he was trying to say was:

"She can't breath. Her inhaler didn't work." The chicken breath part is just badly accented English but he actually said helium instead of inhaler. That was a first for me. Never heard anyone call it helium before! LOL! Me being me I made him say it a couple more times just to be sure it really was what I heard before I corrected him. I know I'm evil, hehe!

How much fun is my job? This much fun!

2010-01-02T16:36:00.003-06:00

Just a pic of how much fun I had at work last night. An altered mental patient bit my upper right arm just inside and above my elbow. Fortunately he bit through two layers thick fleece, my sweatshirt and my jacket otherwise he would've taken a chunk out of my bicep because he was serious. Spend several hours at the hospital doing paperwork for insurance, worker's comp, blood work, tetanus booster and an amoxicillian prescription just in case cause human bites are seriously nasty - worse than animal bites. Seriously, retirement can't come soon enough some days.

It took 7 adult males to hold him down while I argued with the ER for sedation orders. We have medical protocols here that are still 1980 and "they" don't feel comfortable allowing us "peon" field morons make these type of decisions- like knowing when a 220 lbs top physical condition adult male who is currently out of his mind for medical reasons needs to be sedated in the field. Otherwise this type of patient tries to kick our collective asses while we (paramedics, firefighters and police) have to humanely restrain them without causing them permanent harm. Nevermind this same patient would be sedated immediately in the ER by the same Dr if this happened in the ER. But apparently us -der- paramedics are too stupid to know when to use this appropriately.

That's a big reason why the public sees recordings of police and medics 'ganging up' on 'helpless' persons in the media and it's assumed that public safety persons are using excessive force. (not that it's never happened, unfortunately) But many services are not allowed to use medical sedation, such as valium, to control persons that are out of control and willing to harm themselves and others because Dr's and government agencies are afraid to get sued (rightfully so) therefore they rely on good old fashion football dog piles and physical restrains to control these patients. (Because the admins don't have to do it, they leave it to the moron field crews!) However, this takes several adults per 1 adult patient to do the job without causing undue harm to the patient and avoid receiving harm themselves. And it's a major pain in the ass! This job is not for the old and I'm feeling more every year.

Post ChristmasTraditions

2009-12-28T14:14:00.004-06:00

There's a pattern to human society and last weekend the Annual Post Christmas Family Beatings were kicked offed; pun intended. Ah, yes after the wonderful spirit of Christmas love and forgiveness has worn thin within 24-48 hours family members begin fist fights and domestic disputes. Over indulgence of alcohol, sugar and the general malaise of spending one too many hours in the company of relatives; which are barely tolerable in the short term, spark short fuses causing tempers to flare and fur flies.

But usually only after dark. Everyone is busy eating, sleeping, partying or shopping during the day so when the boredom of nightfall sets in there's always a fight to pick with your in-laws for entertainment. Or your cousins, or parents, or siblings, or even your neighbors if your desperately bored.

The week of Christmas tends to be either dead or deadly for EMS. We either do not much of anything cause no one (even the frequent fliers) want to go to the hospital on Christmas or we're running lots of dead or dying patients because of the stress of the holidays. A time which is supposed to be happy and fun causes many, many people overwhelming stress and loneliness which in turn increases the death toll through suicide, accidents, poor decisions, and exacerbation of pre-existing health problems such as high blood pressure.

Then right after Christmas day the assaults between family members begin due to everyone's last nerve snapping just after sunset; and we run calls all night.

And here's the real irony of it all. Since everyone wants to believe how wonderful Christmas is supposed to be~ when one of these terrible events happen in their family they're all stunned and exclaim "How could something terrible like this happen on Christmas????"

Guess what...something like this is always terrible and it happens everyday to someone, somewhere. Death and fate don't take holidays and humans create even more of their own stress during this (cue music) most wonderful time of the year.

Don't get me wrong...I love Christmas! I love all my family traditions and spending time with everyone but ya gotta keep it in perspective. Stress is still deadly and you are your own best health care attendant. Things are just things, dinner can be ordered out if need be, don't worry about what someone else is wearing or buying or not buying or giving or not giving....blah, blah, blah. Just be content that you and your family are happy and healthy and be grateful for today. The rest is just commercial Christmas flocking anyhow.

Year End Sale in my Shops!

2009-12-26T10:02:00.002-06:00

That's right! 20% off everything in both of my shops until the end of the year still with FREE shipping on most items.

FEATHERED FRIENDS MEMENTOS ~ jewelry, bookmarks, artwork (free shipping all items)

FFMSupplies ~ Supplies, Vintaj, Destash, Vintage (free shipping on all vintage)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

2009-12-25T22:05:00.000-06:00

Here's to a happy and safe holiday!

Oh man....why didn't I think of this?????

2009-12-21T00:56:00.004-06:00

How far has Etsy fallen you ask? Holy Handmade! I should have thought of selling this and then I too could quit my day job and become an Etsy bazillionairre. That's right; not only is someone selling this comforting reminder of our childhoods as high quality handmade craft but they're selling it for $18 plus $5 shipping! AND on Dec 10 at approx 9:30 pm it made the front page. LOL! OMG! How can any of us hope to compete with this level of talent and originality? Is my hope to achieve financial success through the uniqueness, quality and sustainability of my particular product in vain? Are festive paper chains~no...Handmade Festive Paper Chains the wave of the handmade future? Is this a true example of what Etsy hopes to hold up as handmade artisan talent? *shakes head* Then I am well and truly fubared at Etsy; as if I didn't already know that.

I believe in each to his own and while some artists do quite well at Etsy, even without the favoritism, I know that my future does not lie with them. So I laugh and shake my head at stunning, eco friendly paper chains. Sort of like a B movie that is soo bad it's good. I take pride in my work and I can't possibly feel right about being a B movie soo bad that it's good enough to be on Etsy's front page. But I still love to watch them. LOL!

Busy Christmas season and family stress

2009-12-14T10:22:00.004-06:00

Whew, I just realized today that's it's been 2 weeks since I last posted. Doesn't seem that long. It's been a busy 2 weeks. I've had 3 craft shows, 1 jewelry repair/making class at a Terrace location with CCtexan and I've been keeping up with my full time job and family issues.

What issues you ask? Well! My grandparents are at that stage in life where they don't need a nursing home but they can't really live independently anymore. Grandma would love to move in with my parents (her oldest daughter) and have my mom take care of her and grandpa full time so that she wouldn't have to mess with taking care of things herself anymore. Thing is my grandma is a beotch and not in the good way and grandpa was a bastard (now he doesn't even know who I am so his former personality is mostly gone). I was scared shitless of him all of my childhood and he used to beat and verbally abuse all 9 of his children. Grandma has always been manipulative and weeny-whiney (always playing the victim) and she wouldn't regret sucking the life out of my mom to serve her own needs.

Now my mom is awesome, giving to the point of having no boundaries; which is something my dad and I have been working on with her so that Grandma doesn't take advantage of her anymore. And she would, trust me on this. One night she called mom wanting her to drive over to help her undue her bra strap even though Grandpa was there and perfectly able to help her with it! That's just a small, ridiculous example of the lengths she'll go to get Mom to jump. My grandparents on dad's side aren't much better, unfortunately. I never had the wonderful childhood experience of loving grandparents wanting to spoil my brother and I. Usually we hated visiting them cause we were always uncomfortable or scared.

Anyhow, so we moved them into a higher level care retirement apartment complex which is both farther away from my parents and a social "step down" since they can't afford the nicer place. The staff is very nice and the place is clean and maintained but old and what some people would consider a lower socioeconomic level. Two of my aunts fly in to help my mom (their sister) and it's lots of fun had by all.

Picture it. We all hate moving. We all dislike spending time with my grandparents. Grandma doesn't want to move there. Grandpa is clueless, in a wheelchair and mostly in the way. Grandma hasn't helped pack any small personal items which she is capable of prior to move day but chooses to sit back, watch us pack and give snippy directions to us all. This side of the family is of ALL GERMAN DESCENT just 2 generations removed. My aunts have been living alone too long, don't want to be here and have never really learned how to compromise. So they're busy trying to boss everyone and each other around because we're not 'doing it right'.

Thank God my dad's side of the family is mostly Polish. Dad says I got the best of both sides-German enough to be organized, motivated and have a good work ethic but Polish enough to know when to say Fuck It! it's good enough and chill out. Plus I've learned how not to be bossy and annoying (well, mostly, lol) I really believe in personal autonomy and responsibility and that means not trying to run others' lives.

Up shot, we got them moved without killing each other or anyone else but it'll probably be awhile before we have any family reunions or holidays together. We were suppose to have my aunts visit the Feb and other family but now they're saying that they're probably not coming cause they had such a miserable time. Nevermind that the whole week was a set up for misery! They're going to turn it into relationship issues between us when it's really about dealing with the crappy move and my grandparents. Normally we all get along great (minus grandparents) but I think we all need a break for a bit.

Product Review- 2VirgosDesigns Vegan Soy Lotion Tarts

2009-11-30T15:00:00.008-06:00

Awhile back I reviewed 2 Virgo's Designs Soy Lotion Tarts made with Emu Oil HERE. Jackie has decided to add a vegan alternative to her Tarts and asked me to do a compare and contrast review of her new product with her old product. Book reports of this nature were always one of my best projects in school so I figured, sure! Plus I get to enjoy some more of Jackie's wonderful products!

While I'm not particular about using vegan products (which didn't really strike me until my husband made a point to state that a bird lover like myself is enjoying an EMU OIL based product, hmmmm...good point. Well, I still eat chicken and turkey, etc so I'm definitely not vegan.)

However, I do appreciate that many customers prefer vegan options and since I've a firm supporter of variety to attract a broader customer base I feel that a vegan tart is a really great idea. But how does it stand up to it's non-vegan cousin?

Pros~

The vegan tart is less expensive, the same size, and quality as the non-vegan. It melts smoothly and cleanly on a low heat without any smoke or fumes. The scent is released evenly and Medieval Diva (the scent I tried this time) has a rich, feminine smell without being to "chipper". This is a deeper scent that a mature, confident women would enjoy. Jackie keeps her scent formulas a secret but I think I detected a hint of vanilla. Again my sniffer is sensitive to cloying scents which can give me migraines but like all of Jackie's scents it never bothered my overly sensitive cranial nerves, lol!

As for the lotion opinion for the vegan tarts I found them to be of equal if not better than the emu oils tarts. It felt just a luxurious and smooth on my skin but was absorbed faster and left less residue than the oil tarts. And, of course almond oil is great for any skin type and has these benefits:

Improves complexion and retains glow

Moisturizes better and deeper

Soothes skin irritation and inflammation

Delays aging process

Lightens dark circles

Relieves dry and itching skin

Nourishes the skin. Makes it smooth and soft

Cures chapped lips and body rashes

But then Emu Oil has these skin benefits:

Emu Oil is gentle for all skin types, non-toxic & natural, non-comedogenic (does not clog pores) and hypo-allergenic (non-irritating) so its great for people with sensitive skin and allergies. Emu Oil is effective in its anti-inflammatory properties, and has been found to give a similar effect as prescriptions medication. Its been compared to medication such as imbuprofen, except without the negative side-effects frequently common with traditional prescription or corticosteroid based anti-inflammatory medications. More listed benefits are here.

Cons~Honestly I can't really think of any cons in this comparison.

So which is better? I don't think either one is better or worse. I think they both compete with each other equally well. Both are high quality, no difference in size and both have numerous skin benefits and well as aromatherapy benefits.

It really just comes done to preference. If you prefer a slightly less oily lotion, have a tighter budget or you just prefer vegan products than Vegan soy tarts are the way to go. If you don't worry about vegan or have very dry skin or like a slightly richer lotion than I would choose the Emu soy tarts. Either way you'll receive a great, multi use product from an top notch seller.

Crazy calls

2009-11-24T11:59:00.005-06:00

Just when you think you've seen everything a new experience comes along to "shake you up". And I mean that literally! So we respond to unconscious/unresponsive call which can sometimes mean cardiac arrest. We gearing ourselves up for maximum effort and arrive on location to find a fully conscious patient who denies any complaint. Family assures us that the patient was not breathing and had no pulse; and this time the family seems reputable with their knowledge. A little assessment and a little convincing and the patient is loaded up in the ambulance. Not a few minutes later the patient experiences a pacemaker failure. No major physical symptoms but the heart rhythm is a major abnormal rhythm which is a couple steps away from death.

Now as if this wasn't interesting enough, right? Suddenly the ambulance starts bucking like the proverbial bronco. WTF? The patient complains how awful the ride is and I quote "They shouldn't allow these on the road!" I'm bouncing around so violently that I can barely administer care, my boobs are being whiplashed (not fun!) and I feel a part of my spinal column in my neck jar badly! I realize that not only is this bad professionally but I'm minutes away from a compression fracture in one of my vertebrae.

So I get on the radio and make an executive decision. Another unit nearby is in service and I have them meet us down the road and we quickly switch the patient and necessary equipment into the functioning unit and skeedatle onto the hospital. Which was a really good decision because the patient became severely altered a few minutes later, we started heart pacing but unconsciousness soon followed and the patient was intubated later at the hospital.

Our malfunctioning truck showed up at the hospital about 10 minutes after us. The air ride shock system failed in our usual truck which creates a very, VERY, rough ride!

Early the next morning we're called for the flu, of course! Upon arrival we load the patient on the stretcher and the patient's spouse demands that a blanket is used to cover the patient who is already, red faced, hot to the touch from fever and bundled in a winter coat. We find out that the patient had stopped taking Tylenol early that day because they were on Tamiflu now (Hint, tamiflu DOESN'T treat fevers just helps kill off the virus causing the flu but nothing for the symptoms, der!) No Tylenol + lots of blankets creating more natural insulation = high fever which is what the patient had 103+ and why they called 911.

I attempt to explain to the spouse that the patient definitely does not need a blanket and that a few minutes of cold air will do the patient lots of good. I try to explain basic science of heat+insulation and the spouse says to me, "Use a blanket! I read an article and....blah, blah" at this point between my sleep deprived zombie state and my utter disregard for his insane advice and decided to shut up, turn away and leave before I strangled him; meanwhile the spouse is still trying to argue with me and repeats behind me "I read an article that said...."

I'm sorry! My paramedic experience trumps your stupid article! And if you know so much:

A) why does your spouse have such a high fever
B) why did you call 911 since you've got it handled

You only called 911 so you wouldn't have to drive and your spouse could be coddled since we're (afterall) morons compared to your EXTENSIVE medical knowledge.

ARGH! BTW, we dropped the spouse off in the waiting room per the hospital direction because there's no cure for the flu!

Black Friday

2009-11-17T10:35:00.004-06:00

Black Friday and quickly approaching and I've prepared my shop for the frenzy by offering 20% everything in my shop. Just use the coupon code during checkout ~BLACK FRIDAY to get the discount.

I've also started making men's jewelry such as this cool, steampunk necklace pictured. I've listed several more items and I'm currently making more men's jewelry. I've also started the Fledgling's Line~which is smaller, dainty jewelry designed for young girls and boys. I also take custom orders for both men's and women's items. Don't miss out on a great pre Christmas sale at Feathered Friends Mementos!

I'm featured by the Trading Post, woohoo!

2009-11-15T21:03:00.001-06:00

Just a quick addition, got the word today that my feature is up on The Trading Post blog, yippee! CT did a great job, Thanks!

Be careful what you say on Facebook!

2009-11-15T12:16:00.005-06:00

An interesting call happened yesterday...an young female- who shall of course remain nameless- decided to get a 'rise' out of her boyfriend for some reason or another and posted on her Facebook wall that she was going to "take a bunch of pills" and "end it all" and various other suicidal phrases. She then turned her phone off so when he called he got no answer; thereby escalating his emotions. He was so escalated that he called 911 and once we arrived she was quite stunned by the response. She repeatedly stated that she "didn't mean it" and that she "never took anything" but it was too late by then.

At this point I should explain a couple of legal issues. In the US (it varies somewhat state to state) if anyone makes any statement to the effect of wanting to hurt or kill themselves then they temporarily lose their right to refuse medical care. The logic being that if you want to hurt/kill yourself than you're not in a rational state of mind since rational persons don't wish to hurt/kill themselves. Ergo~if you're not rational than you're not legally competent and can't make decisions for yourself until evaluated and cleared by a physician. And if you're a minor then you can't make any legal decisions for yourself at all; that's your parent/guardian's job.

So when persons make fake, dramatic suicide threats then they get to be legally (sometimes forcibly) taken away against their will to the hospital until it can be determined whether or not they're actually rational. So when she posted on a potentially INTERNATIONAL site she effectively told the world that she wasn't rational and since she's a minor she never had a choice after she made those threats.

Even if we decided to allow her parents to keep her at home what if she had been serious and had taken something or would do so later? I don't want to be that worldwide mascot for negligence because some teen wanted to piss off her boyfriend.

Hopefully, she's learned a lesson about what NOT to post on FB and her parents get to spend several thousand dollars to remind themselves to keep a closer eye on her internet usage. It's the internet age people~ if you choose to forfeit your privacy then be careful what you wish for!

Becoming an "Authorized Reseller" of Vintaj

2009-11-13T16:43:00.002-06:00

I just fine tuned my supply/vintage shop FFMSUPPLIES in order to get a free link on the Vintaj website listing me as an internet seller of their antiqued natural brass jewelry findings. The biggest requirement is that my prices be set at a certain minimum which makes it more difficult for me to be competitive. So I'm going to be having regular sales on Vintaj to stay competitive and qualify for the free website link. If you want to see the link go HERE I'm Feathered Friends Mementos~ ffmsupplies. I'm hoping this brings me some exposure to both of my shops and is worth carrying Vintaj exclusively as the only brass jewelry findings.

What do ya think?

WTF's up with AF?

2009-11-09T15:09:00.002-06:00

Well, it seems the proverbial shit has hit the fan in the Artfire Forums. It all started Sat evening when AF decided to make the forums moderated (not a bad idea but a bit of warning would have been nice). For some God-forsaken, flipped out reason they decided that scapegoating a couple of long term verified AF sellers would do the trick of getting everyone's attention. Sort of like yelling fire in a movie theater or bomb at an airport these days. Yeah, you got everyone's attention but is this the type of attention you really wanted? Be careful what you wish for; I know there's the saying that any PR is good PR but really... I think that only applies to rock stars, hollywood hip and the insanely rich.

If you're running a start up company that "caters" to the handmade community driven 'all for one and one for all' mentality, I'm thinking that screwing said customers over is probably not a great idea. Because we all might like to make things by hand and love being green and one with nature; yadayada but did I mention that I have a spiffy new laptop with all the bells and whistles including wireless broadband, and a blackberry and numerous ways in which to stay in touch with the virtual world. And the rest of the online sellers do, too. Crazy, huh? Reputations take months and years to build but only days, sometimes hours to destroy. Being handmade is only part of the 'lifestyle'. The bigger part, at least for me, is the knowledge that I'm dealing with a human being with the same concerns, worries, hopes as me. Knowing that I'm hopefully creating more good karma by treating my customers and future customers with respect and consideration. Not some corporate backstabber ready to treat me like dirt and tell me I should be grateful.

I thought, and I know many of you thought that Artfire was that venue but I'm having serious concerns now. And since I'm the Queen of Murphy's Law (did I mention that before) this fiasco happened the day after I decided to let my Etsy shop run out. Wouldn't you know it.

So for now I'm going to sit tight, research other venues and bulk up my Etsy again...sigh and see what happens in the near future. They might...MIGHT...be able to pull their asses out of the fire yet but I suspect it'll be a helluva feat and wouldn't that be entertaining.

I'll be leaving Etsy....and here's why

2009-11-05T12:30:00.007-06:00

Guys, I've come to a serious decision. I'm going to be letting all my listings in both of my Etsy shops expire, last one ends in late Jan. I'm not going to close them but leave forwarding info (shh don't tell the Nazis) after the SEO mess up my sales there have almost disappeared. I never really promoted my Etsy shops like I do my Artfire shops but I'm surprisingly unique enough that people tend to find me a few times a month every month since I started Aug. '08. But I haven't made a sell at Etsy since mid Sept and my views have almost stopped when I was getting several new views and hearts almost every day a few months ago without any effort on my part. Splitting my time between two sites is a lot but mainly I don't want to confuse my local customers by sending them to 2 different sites when Artfire is so much better for me at least.

Also on a more personal (slightly evil bitter note) I found something on Etsy which sealed the deal for me. A particular shop there (no names) opened a few months after me, sells feather jewelry which (in my biased opinion) is more primitive, less imaginative, smaller selection and she frigging takes 2 pic with the earrings obviously lying on her couch, wtf??????? And she was FEATURED!!!!! in the DOURKE, storke, stourge, however you friggin spell it a few months ago and now her views are crazy and her sales are double mine.

To be clear I'm not jealous of her, she may be perfectly nice and deserving of success but I'm pissed at Etsy for ignoring their own "rules" of pro pics/listings/ etc and featuring a shop which is in my opinion not top quality. Not saying it should be me but it should definitely not be her. But if she's being featured only because of who she knows and not her talent/product then I'm not wasting another dime there.

(I mean at least her inside friend should have nudged her saying, "Hey, hon what don't you upgrade those pics before I feature you, okeydokey?) That just makes Etsy look as stupid as they obviously are, duh.

whew, rant over....

Some of my new listings!

2009-10-29T19:38:00.013-05:00

Just wanted to show off a few of my newest listing. I'll be taking all of these to my Greatwood Dickson Gifts Galore Fair on Halloween in Sugar Land, Texas and to my other 2 shows later next week. Fingers crossed that people are in a shopping mood this next week!

I got to be a real paramedic!

2009-10-26T11:50:00.003-05:00

You may have wondered why I haven't posted much lately about being a paramedic. It's because the last few months have been BORING not slow, not un-busy but boring. Modern EMS runs a lot of calls but the great majority of those calls are for colds, flus, cuts, scraps, falls, anxiety, minor car wrecks and the always popular - "the patient was choking but they coughed the item up and they're breathing on their own now but can the ambulance come and check them out anyway just to be sure." Because apparently 21 century adults are too stupid to figure out if someone is breathing and talking independently and don't require medical intervention. That and people themselves are too stupid to figure out if they personally require medical intervention to help to talk and breathe and want a paramedic to tell them that they're okay. Well, duh....you were choking now you're not- my medical opinion is- CURED!

But last shift I had a couple patients who were actually in danger of dying. That's right I got to really do the job I trained for and save lives! Woohoo! Course that means someone else had a really bad day but since I can't control that I can only be glad I was in the right place at the right time to be of assistance in the manner in which I trained to be. After weeks, months of being a medical taxi cab I need to run a real call to help remind myself why the hell I keep doing this job - and it's not the money.

Yeah, I get a decent paycheck so I'm not poor (though I was when I was a rookie medic- can anyone say 3 jobs) yeah, I get decent benefits (though like the rest of the county those are being scaled back ;o( ) and yeah when I get enough sleep I get 20 full days off a month rather then those poor schmooes that work 8-5 and only get 8 full days on the weekends (suckers!) but I also get a interactive, front row seat to the crap of the world. I get to see the worst of humanity and we're not even a third world country. Be grateful for small miracles cause I know that I could see a helluva lot worse.

Did I mention that I got racially discriminated against last week? You'll love this. So I'm transporting a young, black teenage male after suffered a sports injury. Nothing major, he'll live. Nice enough young man and we chit chatted on the way in and at one point he asks me-

HIM "You make a lot money as a medic."
ME "I do alright."
HIM "You probably make a lot of money."
ME "Not as much as you think."
HIM "Well, you're white, so you probably don't think it's as much as I do."
ME "Excuse me?"
HIM "You probably get paid more."
ME "No...it's a government position-we're all paid them same. Besides, I don't come from money. My parents nearly lost the house when I was 15 when my Dad was out of work and when I was born we lived in a trailer for the first year; although I don't remember that of course."
Him "Well, we don't have a house."
Me "Look, I had to earn my own way. The Army paid for my college education."
Him "You were in the Army? Did you have to do push ups?"
Me "Yes, I did, the real ones not the fake girly push ups."
Him "Well....you probably didn't have to go down very far because you're chest is so big."
Me "I did real push ups. However you want to rationalize it my family isn't rich, I've worked since I was 15 and I've had to earn every bit of my own way. And this conversation is over."

Seriously, I really had this conversation. I didn't get mad at him and everything was spoken calmly because really he's just an ignorant kid that's been raised in an environment that expects him to believe that all white people are on easy street and that we receive golden tickets at birth. Sheez, I wish! Being a paramedic has taught me that everyone, everywhere is exactly the same. Everyone can be wonderful or crappy. Everyone can be deep or shallow. Everyone can be generous or cruel. Everyone can be openminded or racist. Seriously - everyone is just as good or bad as they choose to be based on nothing but their personal choices.

See ya!

Head colds suck

2009-10-23T08:34:00.003-05:00

I haven't posted all week cause I've been dealing with a bad head cold which has been stubbornly trying to turn itself into a chest cold (haha! Zicam and Tylenol severe cold and flu syrup- take that evil virus!) So I've been a bit fuzzy headed must of the week fighting this cold since my immune system still isn't back to it's usual vigor yet.

In addition I've been prepping for 3 - count'em 3 shows starting on Halloween morning. UGH. 3 in one week, what was I thinking? 1 is a normal craft show and the other 2 are at business locations so those shouldn't be as complicated but still - 3 in 7 days? It's going to be a busy week. That's also why I haven't listed anything new in my shop right now because I want to have enough for all the shows. Whatever doesn't sell by the last show will get listed in my shop. I may also have another show 12/5 but I'm not sure if I'll be off my usual work shift or not. So that another show to prep for....But good news! Whatever doesn't sell at my shows this season before Christmas not only gets listed online but I'm thinking of having a Christmas sale after 12/5 for a couple of weeks. Maybe 25% off? Whatda think? Comments, concerns, questions?

Featured Texas Artfire Shop

2009-10-19T12:18:00.004-05:00

This week's featured studio is A Blond and A Torch. Jenn creates simply beautiful jewelry and loves custom orders.

A Blond And A Torch offers artisan crafted metal jewelry that is simple and organic, yet elegant. Each piece is designed and hand crafted by Jen Nixon in her home studio in Texas with an eye towards wearability. Working primarily in solid sterling silver , A Blond And A Torch creates earrings, bangle bracelets and necklaces in a variety of sizes and styles and welcomes custom orders.

http://ablondandatorch.blogspot.com

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jennixon/

I'm riding the Artife Crazy Train this weekend!

2009-10-16T11:13:00.005-05:00

I'm riding the Artfire Crazy Train Promotion this weekend! Here are a few of a new pieces I've been working on this week from the gorgeous gems I purchased from the Houston Gem show last weekend. I'm in the process of listing them in my Artfire shop today; rainbow moonstone, mystic quartz and lemon quartz to list the ones pictured. These will be a part of my Feathered Elegance line and I'll be taking them to the Gingerbread Market tomorrow so if you like them you'd better act fast cause they might be gone tomorrow!

Sienna Gingerbread Market 10/17 9-3

2009-10-14T10:01:00.004-05:00

For those of you in the Houston area I'll be at the Sienna Plantation Gingerbread Market Craft Fair this Saturday 10/17 from 9-3 at the Sienna Plantation Club on Sienna Parkway/Scanlan Trace in Missouri City. It's free admission and will have lots of great vendors! The earrings pictures are an example of just one of the great new pieces of jewelry that I'll be selling. This is my second fair of the season and my first time at this location so I'm really excited about the turn out; I've got a good feeling!

I also went to the Houston Gem and Jewelry Show last Saturday and purchased some really stunning gemstones which I have been busy making into new pieces this week. All of which will be making their debut at the Fair this Saturday. Whatever doesn't sell this weekend will be listed online; so if you want first dibs on some beautiful moonstone, peacock feather and sterling silver earrings or the most amazing labradorite drops with Impeyan feathers or Peruvian opals and feathers than stop by this Saturday!

We're gettin' the band back together, man! Sid 17 Rocks!

2009-10-11T13:42:00.003-05:00

Last night my husband's band played a reunion show after 9 years of no band and they ROCKED! They're called Sid-17 and they broke up a couple of years before I met my husband, Brad, so I never got to see them live. I listened to their tapes and they were good but nothing like a live show. WOW! And I'm not just saying that because I'm in love with the bass guitarist, lol! My sweetie is on the far left in the pic. You have to understand; I've always loved music but I was never a band groupie or the type of girl that swooned over singers but they rocked and my man was badass! A good sized crowd showed and we we're up 'til 3am, which hurts just a bit now that we're almost 40 but it was totally worth it!!!!. You can see the raw video I shot on you tube HERE.

3zArt Texas Artfire Promotion

2009-10-07T11:03:00.002-05:00

3zart on Texas Artfire Promotion, read about here!

Soy Tarts - product review of 2 Virgos Designs

2009-10-05T15:52:00.003-05:00

Jackie of 2 Virgos Designs makes this interesting Soy Tarts which I had been thinking of trying and finally did a couple of weeks ago. First, here's Jackie's description as she says it better than it can:

You will not believe your eyes! Exciting and unique product! 2.5 ounce 6 individual breakaway soy wax lotion tarts, 2 products in one! Place one cube in your tea light burner or electric burner, and you have a delightful home fragrance. Blow out flame or turn off burner, then lightly dip you fingers in the melted soy wax and apply to hands and skin, you then have the BEST lotion you have ever used with shea and cocoa butter and triple refined certified EMU oil and the warm lotion feels wonderful on your hands. Superb for cracked dry skin and eases hurting hands with its warmth. I get a special buy on my fresh triple refined emu oil and can pass along the savings to you.

If you have used lotion after lotion with little to no benefit, you must try this! One cube lasts for about a week using it daily as a lotion. Soy wax is a green product, clean burning, and melts at a lower temperature than regular wax, no fear of burning yourself, just don't touch the bowl of the burner, it's hot! No wick to sully the wax lotion. Dye free! Only skin safe ratios of fragrance oil or genuine essential oils used. Treat your skin special today, you will wonder how you lived without this!

My Review

Jackie offers these in several of her own custom design scents as well. I ordered Royal Dragon.

Pros:

1. Royal Dragon is a rich, deep scent which is somewhat masculine but not overly so. It's a strong but not cloying scent. I get migraines and one of my triggers are overly cloying scents which is why I don't wear perfume and don't use most air fresheners, etc. This tart burned all afternoon filling my house with a rich smell which never triggered any headache and remained enjoyable to me all day. First thing my husband said when he got home, "What smells so good?"

2. I couldn't wait to try the lotion option because I have chronic dry skin and it worked just as Jackie said. It left my skin feeling smooth and soft but not greasy or oily.

3. Melts quickly and evenly without any type of smoke or additional irritating residue.

4. Scent lasted as long as the votive candle was still lite.

5. Comes in numerous scents and a vegan option if you prefer not to have Emu oil used. Jackie says the tart result is the same.

6. Great artist and seller. I've have several interactions with her both personal and business and I've found her to be reputable and she offers high quality, unique products.

Cons:

1. You only get 6 tarts with each order but since each tart lasts several days if melted just for scent that's not too bad. It's not the cost that really an issue since the product is very high quality but makes you want to horde them. :o)

2. If used for the lotion option you'll go through it quickly since I found I had to dip my fingertips in a few times to cover both hands.

3. While the lotion option works well and doesn't leave an oily residue there is a waxy layer that takes awhile, hour+, to absorb/wear away. So don't do anything grip sensitive, like monkey bars for bit afterwards.

4. Requires a votive style burner to use, but these are common and inexpensive so not so much a con as something to remember when purchasing.

I haven't tried her other scents in the soy tarts but I have smelled her scents in other products and they are all bold, rich, comforting scents. I definitely recommend this product and this seller for unique, interesting products for yourself and gifts for your loved ones!

2 virgos designs

What did I do yesterday? Organized a craft fair!

2009-09-27T15:27:00.002-05:00

That's right, as Guild Master of the Texas Artfire Guild I organized my first ever and Texas Artfire's first ever craft fair. It was small and intimate; more of an experiment but I feel confident stating that it was a success and everyone involved from sellers, customers and venue managers ended up happy with the results. You can read about it on the Texas Artfire Blog complete with pics of the attending Houston area artisans.

I started Texas Artfire with the primary goal of networking Texas artisans. If we pool our knowledge and resources we can create our own low/no cost venues and long term business relationships. Most of us love customs orders and what better why to find and create future business that networking with each other. If each of us has only one great idea think of the potential since great ideas tend to breed environments for more great ideas. That's the mission of Texas Artfire.

2 Belles and a Bead Texas Artfire Promotion

2009-09-21T11:28:00.002-05:00

Sorry folks! I meant to start this promotion last Monday but some personal issues tripped me up and it had to be delayed. But here we are! The first Texas Artfire shop to be promoted is:

2 belles and a bead
Pictured is a beautiful lariat necklace listed in their shop along with many other gorgeous items.
This very lovely shop is run by a mother and daughter team, Karen and Crystal.

In their own words: We started about five years ago (wow, has it really been that long?!), and our passion for the art gets deeper every day. We especially love working with gemstones and metals.

We have a wide variety of items and also do custom jewelry orders of just about any kind. So if you're looking for something specific, ask away and we can probably create it for you. :o)

If you're looking for jewelry supplies, check out our other shop: http://BellesBeadsnThings.artfire.com

Random Acts of Kindness

2009-09-19T15:26:00.002-05:00

Just when I think my head is about to explode from the multiple angles of stress being aimed at me from work, family and life in general; a couple of friends bring me a random act of kindness. The act consisted of a nice visit, hugs, emotional venting and a beautiful bouquet of yellow roses and day lilies.

Sometimes when you're on the edge of your sanity and you know that any moment could be your nervous breakdown someone who cares notices and decides to throw you a lifeline. That's what happened to me yesterday; two friends threw me a lifeline. A very much needed and appreciated lifeline. Thanks, Tama and Kathy. Remember to share random acts of kindness when you can.

Family - Can't live with them...

2009-09-11T10:57:00.003-05:00

I'm sorry I haven't posted lately but it's been an usually emotionally stressful week. Last Friday my brother wanted to meet with our parents and I. There is a long history of broken promises, verbal abuse and manipulation from my brother towards all of us for most of the last 20 years. The last few years he has been working his way back into the family trust and even I, the most suspicious, had reached point earlier this year that I thought he had been really making progress. I was wrong. I was so wrong that I began to not take his phone calls because I couldn't deal with the emotional stress during my medical recovery as well this summer.

That's what this meeting was about, his attempt at damage control. He attempted to manipulate me with a greater amount of covert force then I'd ever seen before from him. A multi-layered verbal attack with a phrase of "You didn't fail me." while using a forgiving voice to imply that I did fail him and fake to to imply that he forgave me anyway. Never mind that the conversation had been about him. He had attempted to twist to around to me.

I immediately jumped to my feet and yelled at him that it wasn't about me it was about him failing himself and him failing his kids. More happened after wards but the upshot is that in all the years that I've been screwed over by my brother this is the worst I've ever seen him. I've been dealing with the physical and emotional stress results all week.

New coupon code

2009-09-03T12:56:00.003-05:00

Haven't had much time to post this week. Been busy dealing with numerous business and non-business related issues.

1. Had my first ever customer complaint - bummer.
2. Artfire started their Facebook Kiosk and coupon codes - yeah! Go to my facebook page become a fan to get the coupon code to use at the facebook kiosk to get 15% of your total order!
3. Trying to makes lots of stuff for my upcoming 4 craft shows this fall.
4. Been dealing with crappy family issues.
5. Can't seem to get enough sleep.
6. Chocolate milk is my new best friend.
7. Have had several custom orders - yeah!
8. Probably am spreading myself too thin., may have to reevaluate some things.

My first anniversary!

2009-08-28T11:07:00.001-05:00

My one year Etsy anniversary is Aug 30 so I decided I'm going to have a 1 day 25% off everything sale in both my Artfire and Etsy shop starting 12am that Saturday night until 12am Sunday night.

Crazy numbers in my jungle

2009-08-27T14:22:00.005-05:00

I'm finally starting to get some of my stamina and stride back from this insane year of medical issues. You know when you think you're functioning normally, you think "yeah I'm doing okay, maybe not great but I'm hanging on to my life." I laugh in the face of past perceived lucidity!

This week two things happened that made me realized just how fubared my life has been this year from my earlier medical problems. I sat down to balance my check book and realize that there is over $2000 missing from my account. Holy Mother of God and WTF!!!! How the hell did this happen and why did I not notice before now??????

Long story short - I go back to the beginning of '09 and check every entry, every penny. I realize that I had moved that large amount to my savings at one point and forgot to enter it so that wasn't really gone. whew! However, starting around the time of my major bleeding and the accompanying brain fog my check book become rather - weird. I'm normally very meticulous about my money. It's not that money is all that important to me in theory but where it is and where it's going is important. It's a tool and it damn well better be working full time for me!

Well, my basic arithmetic became very, very wrong, I entered deposits and withdrawals that apparently never existed. The entries that were there were correct but everything else was really screwed up. It's a good thing I wasn't on the ambulance during that time because who knows what the hell I would have done and not realized it.

Also, my usual chores are trimming and landscaping while my husband does the mowing and edging. Since I hadn't been able to do that for awhile and this was the first week that I had both the energy and the lack of a headache; I decided to tackle the job.

Holy crap! The climbing roses in the backyard were staging a coup on the lantana, the plumeria tree, the bbq smoker, the patio roof and the back door. I hadn't been in the back yard for a couple of weeks so I was quite surprised to notice that as soon as I stepped outside the door I was confronted by a large, thorny, reaching rose branch. Kind in mind that the rose bush is 10 feet away. I schooled that bush with my combat trimmers and leather gloves and am happy to report that it is now back to a modest rose bush.

Both of these things made me realize just how blitzed I've been for the past several months. Not that I could help it. As my mom said: "Honey, you're in survival mode right now." Boy, was she right!

Migraines suck!

2009-08-23T19:04:00.004-05:00

So I was supposed to work on Saturday but instead I got to have one of my mega migraines which started about 6 pm Friday night and lasted until about 6 am Saturday morning. Fortunately, I only get this really bad migraines a few times a year. Usually I just get low grade annoying headaches sometimes monthly, sometimes weekly, sometimes daily. Lately they've been daily until they peaked with a big one this weekend.

I've been suffering with migraines for most of my life. The first bad headache I remember was when I was in 6th grade. The stress of learning to deal with the locker lifestyle was apparently a bit to get used to. The first migraine I remember that presented with serious neurological side effects was when I was 20. My left hand and the left side of my lips went numb and my right eye had a blind spot; these symptoms lasted for several hours and I was freaked that I was having a stroke! Doctor at the time diagnosed me with stress and told me to relax. Over the years my headaches have varied and the symptoms have changed and I learned to cope. I've taken different medications to treat and pre-treat the pain but nothing seems to really help.

When things are really bad you'll find me completely still on the couch, ice mask on my eyes, heating pad behind my neck, bottle of pain killers and a vomit bucket nearby. My husband hates seeing me suffer like that. He's so great about keeping the house very quiet and dark when I'm the worst.

While I certainly don't enjoy the pain it has given me a certain perspective on life. I definitely full in the category of 'chronic pain sufferer' and I can't predict the really bad ones. Those bastards just happen; although I've learned to avoid my triggers. Loud sounds, smells, lights - especially when my head feels a 'certain sensitive way'.

Having this chronic pain makes me very grateful for the days when I feel good. When I'm healthy and active and able to tackle the world. There may never be a cure for migraines but until then I'm taking it one day at a time.

My good day is your bad day

2009-08-20T17:09:00.003-05:00

When paramedics say they've had a great call that means that someone else has had a really bad day. That being said, I had a really great call yesterday morning. For the first time in months I got to be a real medic again and saved someone's life. A patient was experiencing a major heart attack (otherwise known as a myocardial infarction) and not only did I bring him back from the brink but we got him to the hospital in time. A short while after we arrived at the ER and while they were taking him to the cardiac cath lab to fix the blockage he went into cardiac arrest! The ER staff shocked him once and brought him back. He then was able to continue to the cath lab. Had my partner and I not treated him as quickly and appropriately as we had he would have gone into cardiac arrest sooner and probably would not have made it to the cath lab; hence his heart would not have been fixed in time.

Those are the calls that paramedics train for and while we realize that it's good they don't happen everyday it gets to be a real drag to be used primarily as a medical taxi cab.

On a lighter note I've added a new jewelry design to my shop: ear cuffs. What's really great is that I listed my first ear cuff (check the link for a pic) Tues night and sold it Wed morning! How awesome is that? I wasn't sure if anyone would be interested so I'm very happy to be wrong.

And you thought you had a bad day...

2009-08-17T16:02:00.002-05:00

A gentleman was riding his horse this weekend, as he usually did most weekends, when it bucked him off and he fell to the ground; hard. Adding the classic insult to injury, his horse then decided to STEP on his groin! I guess he didn't feel like giving any rides this weekend. This gentleman couldn't even lie completely flat on his back or straighten his legs without a great deal of pain. I was driving at the time so I didn't see the level of physical damage and even if I had writing about that kind of private trauma on a blog wouldn't be appropriate; even if the privacy laws didn't exist. No, some things just should remain in the imagination. Unfortunately for him it was very real.

work, work, work...work, work, work- hello boys!

2009-08-14T12:59:00.004-05:00

I haven't had much time to blog this week. I've been busy at work, taking another continuing education class and making more jewelry for my shop and upcoming fairs. To the left is my latest necklace; trimmed peacock feather with all sterling silver and swarovski crystals on a braided black satin cord. It looks even nicer in person!

At least it's been an easy week on the ambulance. By easy I mean a lot of transports that consist solely of medical taxi rides. You place the patient on the stretcher, load and hook them up to the automatic blood cuff. You ask a lot of personal questions then chill out for 15 minute ride to the hospital. No muss, no fuss, easy shmesy way to earn a living. And I got to sleep most of the night last night. It may sound a bit boring but you learn to be grateful for boring shifts because you next several probably won't be and if things are exciting for medics then they're really bad for the public.

I've also gotten several details worked out with The Terrace in Clear Lake for an upcoming Craft Show I'm organizing for local artisans. It's on Sept 26 and we're all getting really excited about the event!

BTW- who got my reference to Blazing Saddles in the title?

Great Artfire Shops

2009-08-10T17:29:00.003-05:00

Liberty Doll is a great Artfire shop and she makes some really cool bags; like the one pictured. The Artfire Jewelry Makers and Supply Guild is featuring her shop this week. You should check it out!

Settrac Conference

2009-08-08T12:25:00.004-05:00

What, you ask, does SETTRAC stand for? SouthEast Texas Trauma Regional Advisory Council....that's a mouth full and that's where I spend all day Thursday learning and relearning current medical knowledge and interventions.

I thought I might share a few of the more interesting high points from that day of mentally thrilling lectures. Some of this information was already known to me from my own experience and some I learned at the conference. It's interesting to hear physicians and other medical experts discuss aspects of our profession that I have long suspected or believed to be true. I guess that means I'm on the right track!

1. During a cardiac arrest if the victim does not receive CPR or defibrillation (shock) prior to 5 minutes then their prognosis (success) of resusitation is very poor. By resusitation I mean they live to walk out of the hospital. And yet most of the public refuses to perform CPR, even on their own families! We don't usually arrive before 5 minutes because we're still subject to the laws of physics. The lights don't create wormholes or time dilations either. Crazy huh?

2. If a cardiac arrest patient receives CPR for over 4 minutes without spontaneous return of heartbeat and/or breathing then their prognosis is also very poor. Ever watch the Princess Bride? Remember the scene when they're trying to save the man in black? The wizard tells them that there are stages of death: Slightly dead is still mostly alive and mostly dead is still slightly alive. If a patient recieves CPR and further medical treatment in that Mostly alive stage than things can go well, but that Mostly dead stage tends to stay dead. Early and immediate intervation by everyone is known as the chain of survival, without that first link of CPR there's no chain.

3. Patients that are dead tend to remain dead. There is no coming back from dead beceause brain death begins to occur within 4-6 mins after breathing and heart rate has ceased. Even if the heart is started after that time the brain is non functional. (except in specific cases such as electrocution, drownings and cold environment situations)

4. The American Heart Association (the premier experts on heart health and research, google it!) determined in 1992 that cardiac arrests that showed no improvement during EMS resusciation on scene should be pronounced dead at the scene and NOT transported to the hospital. If a patient does not response in a very short amount of time then they won't respond. Their research has determined that once a cardiac patient becomes asystolic (flatline) their chance for successful resuscitation is less! than 1%. Dead is dead. The rest is window dressing for the family and high risk for the EMS crew and innocent traffic. God forbid that people learn how to accept death as a natural and sometimes more dignified state of being.

5. Someone that has been killed because of trauma such as a motor vehicle accident has a .08% of successful resusitation. Assuming that their injuries are compatiable with life; meaning that they still have their head and all their major organs in the anatomically correct locations. Every traumatic arrest (death due to massive injury) that I've worked has never survived. If it's enough to kill you out right then you're staying dead.

6. Tourniquets are really good for stopping massive bleeding. (the medical profession randomly decided years ago that tourniquets are bad). I've seen how our current methods for treating massive bleeding, which don't include tourniquets, don't work well if at all.

7. Unless the patient has a injury that is time sensitive, such as heart attack, then whether they arrive at the hospital in 10 mins or 30 mins won't change their outcome. And most patients don't have time sensitive injuries therefore EMS rarely needs to race with lights and sirens to the ER. Generally speaking racing to the hospital to save 2 minutes of transport time only increases the risk for accidents and doesn't change the patient's outcome what so ever; except in those very small percentage of time critical injuries. And yet everyone assumes that ambulances always drive emergency and get offended when we don't do that for their family member. We do that in less than 5% of our calls and we run over 25,000 a year right now

8. Unintentional injury is the number 1 cause of death for those 65 and younger. I've long believed that about 90% of the things that happen to people are due to their own poor planning, decision making or lack of forethought-that fits the unintentional injury stats. Next time you're doing something that includes an element of risk; stop and think about every step of your plan. Assuming you have a plan. Ask yourself- Is this really a smart way to do this? Do I really need to do this now? Had a guy fall 30 feet out of a tree years ago and shatter his neck causing full paralysis. He was trimming the tree AFTER DARK because he was 'almost done'. WTF? Would you allow your kid to do this? Then you probably shouldn't either.

WOW! My experience has confirmed these statements from the conference. In 16 years I've had 1 cardiac arrest patient walk out of the hospital. Just 1, and I've probably ran at least 1 cardiac arrest call a month for 16 years on average...so that's 192 patients and 1% of that is 1.92...so that's about right. That's not including the calls that the other medics have worked.

We also give false hope to families during cardiac arrests because everyone expects us to work miracles. But for all our education we have yet to equal God in the ability to control life and death. (Thank God for small favors!) We do all these treatments and race to the hospital just so the family can get a huge bill and be told all over again that their love one is STILL dead. These families tend to follow us to the hospital (which is illegal and very, very dangerous because they put their "magic" flashers on and think that this somehow protects them against red lights and they tail gate us through intersections even after we tell them not too. They rationalize that they're 'helping' their loved by doing this although I have yet to see what positive assistance tailgating an ambulance provides the patient since we don't allow them in the back with us anyhow.)

Most families already suspect that their loved has died and are upset but still rational. If we began approaching the situation as a -work at the scene or not- but declare death when death is confirmed then the families can began to deal with the reality in a more appropriate manner. Hope can be a torture when others know that hope is lost.

We have a saying in EMS. It's harsh but oh soo true. Most cardiac arrests are dubbed FPO - For Practice Only. This mean we realize immediately that this patient will not improve, that they've been Mostly Dead All Day and nothing we do will change that. But the thought is we don't want to upset the families or get sued and hey...we can always use the practice. So we toss in the kitchen sink, soak ourselves in sweat and drive like NASCAR champions to the ER (I admit it, driving emergency is a blast!). The family races behind us and coagulates in the ER- "Is he Okay? Is he breathing? Is he alive?" No, no and still no is your answer but at least we 'tried everything'. They thank us for trying (that part is rough when you're thinking FPO) then begin their temporarily delayed grief in the impersonal hospital.

The EMS walks out of the hospital and in the privacy of their ambulance shake their heads and say, "That was a good FPO code...let's get some lunch."

EMS Continuing Education

2009-08-05T16:33:00.002-05:00

What do I have planned for tomorrow you ask? Well, I get to wake up at 6am, drive to the opposite side of Houston and spend 10 hours in medical lectures. Whoopee! The upside is that they're going to feed me breakfast, lunch and a coffee/ice cream bar in the afternoon. Sounds tasty doesn't it? I'll need all that sugar and caffeine just to keep my eye lids open. As far as learning anything....hmmm....we'll see. At least I'm blessed with a scary-good memory and most of the time I tend to learn by osmosis. As long as I'm in ear shot and conscious enough info should filter into my cerebellum. Also, fortunately I tend to like to know things just for the sake of knowing it. Terrible curiosity...drives my friends and family crazy cause I'm always asking questions and watching boring science and education channels. (Not that I don't love watching pointless fluff, too!)

Sometimes you can tell

2009-08-01T11:22:00.003-05:00

For some reason I've been thinking about adding this post regarding the physical appearance of death. Don't really know why it's been hanging around in my head but here it is.

Sometimes when someone dies you can tell if their death has been quick and relatively painless or traumatic and painful. I suppose it isn't necessary to know these things for most people but I've found that when I'm dispatched to a location for either cardiac arrest or DOA I'm curious to see what physical expression the patient's body and face are in. When someone's heart stops (which is known as clinical death) their blood immediately begins to settle (called lividity) and the process of rigor mortis slowly begins. Environmental conditions will effect the speed and duration of the various stages of rigor mortis but it generally takes about an hour for the newly dead to slowly stiffen.

The body will tend to stiffen in the exact pose/position that remained at the time of death. Sort of like when your mom told you that your face would freeze that way if you kept making that silly face; only this effects the entire body.

I've found that most people appear peaceful at their death. Faces are relaxed, body is in some sort of position of comfort and their overall condition appears to be calm, maybe surprised but nothing unusual. I like to believe that these souls passed peacefully.

But then there are those that do not pass peacefully. Their expressions are horrified, shocked and/or grimaced in what looks to be pain or some other type of suffering. These poor souls did not pass smoothly. I believe in most circumstances that it's good to fight to live but I also believe in death with dignity. Traumatic or unexpected death for most people tends to leave its traces and I have seen truly horrific expressions on some patients' faces and occasionally their entire body.

I've had occasions when I've explained to family members that have yet to see their dead loved one, that perhaps not seeing the body in that particular condition is a better idea. If those traumatic scenes stay clearly within my memory (and I never knew the person in life) then how much more cloying would these same scenes be for those who knew and loved them? Usually the family members take my advice and allow the professionals to collect and prepare the body before they view it but sometimes they don't and their expressions tell me that they will never forget how their loved one died.

Sometimes ignorance is bliss and when I don't have to have these memories engraved into my brain (which they will do because I tend to remember most things to the eternal grief of my husband lol) then I will avoid allowing them in. But if I can't spare myself the memory the least I can do is spare the family.

My new work area

2009-07-28T19:18:00.005-05:00

My birthday was yesterday the big 3-9! And my hubbie, parents and in-laws all got together to buy me a new work/craft desk since I've making do with a dining room table. See this previous post. We moved everything into the study; previously known as the computer room. But we've both converted to laptops with mobile broadband internet and since our desktop had become obsolete my hubbie asked me if I'd like to turn the study into my new craft/work room. Hell ya! It also houses large bookcases with tons of books from every genre, etc. But almost half of the room will now be entirely devoted to my work. See that great new table in the left pic? It also inclines forward to faciliate my artwork and lies flat for jewelry and other crafts. It has built in drawers and organization trays, too! I just got it yesterday so I haven't had too much time to try it out yet but I'm sure it'll be great. It's an Alvin Craftmaster II just in case you're interested.

Health Care Reform?

2009-07-24T18:32:00.004-05:00

There's been a lot of controversy regarding the health care reform situation. While I agree that the health care system is SERIOUSLY flawed; and I've had a front row seat for almost 16 years, going to a national Socialism-based system will be a horrible mistake. I've been watching the town meetings, speeches and difference options on TV and if you pay attention the goal of the current administration is to have a Single Option, Fed controlled health plan for everybody. The money has got to come from somewhere and guess where...everyone who makes middle income and above will have higher taxes to support themselves and those who make at and below poverty income.

Don't get me wrong...I'm all for programs to assist those who need assistance. I firmly believe that everyone has the Right (morally not constitutionally) to receive life or limb saving care regardless of race, religion, income, etc. As a paramedic , and personally, I could no more NOT help someone (even if I knew them and didn't like them) then I could deliberate cause someone malicious harm.

However, I don't believe that everyone has the Right to all levels of all medical care. Since when did any health care become an entitlement and not a privilege? Should someone who can't pay receive cosmetic surgery just because they have the right? Should someone who doesn't have a job because they don't want to work (not because they can't) have the right to expect the rest of society to support their medical financial needs or wants because they have the right to any level of medical care?

Daily I transport patients who call for an ambulance (that they medically do not need) to transport them to the emergency room because they want:

1- to be seen faster and don't want to wait in the waiting room at all - nevermind that patients are seen by level of severity regardless of how they arrive. Showing up in an ambulance does not get you to the front of the line but it does get you a large bill and takes that ambulance out of service for patients who do need it.

2- to travel in 'luxury' because they can 'lie down' in the ambulance. It's a 350 truck chassis and thin, plastic mattress; very, very not comfortable and very, very bumpy and nauseating.

3- a free taxi ride because they have medicaid/medicare - but medicaid and medicare will only pay for medically NECESSARY transports which means you'd better be dead, dying or at serious risk of dying or losing a limb

4- to be catered to and spoiled - had a patient asked me if they could get something to drink and where the bathroom was ON THE AMBULANCE! Hello - it's a truck not a bus. Would you like an in-flight movie with that?

Why the rant? If you think that's bad; with socialized medicine it will only get worse. People will realize that they can get a free ride and start calling for even more ridiculous reasons. What does that mean for the serious, law abiding, rational citizens? That means that there will be fewer ambulances available for your heart attack or your grand child drowning or any number of serious life threatening emergencies.

BTW- did you know that there's a national shortage of paramedics. Why? Because they are generally underpaid, overworked, under appreciated and seriously abused by the general public. With the new plan it will be more difficult to get transports paid for which means local taxes will increase to make up the difference to pay for the medics and supplies. You pile on less pay for a career which is already short staffed and more insane public abuse of the system which equals more psychological stress on the medics. (Trust me on this, you try to keep distance from the emotions and frustrations but you can't maintain it)

More medics will quit or not join which means less ambulances for everyone. And this is just EMS. The snowball will definitely roll downhill throughout the entire medical system. Top notch care and staff costs money and if there isn't enough people paying their fair share then there isn't enough money for everybody. Which means higher taxed on those with money.

Ethically it's nice to think we can provide top notch care for everyone regardless of income but it's just not feasible. It will bankrupt an already flawed system. Ideals aside - money makes the world go round and experts in any field need to make a real paycheck. And the more education you have usually the more school loan debt hence the need for a large paycheck. Most doctors spend decades paying off their loans and don't forget the malpractice insurance premiums. There just isn't enough money for socialism medicine.

Bottom line: America offers an unique opportunity to work your ass off and pull yourself up through society. I joined the military to pay for my degree. My parents couldn't afford to pay for my education but they still made just a bit too much money for social assistance. So I got a GI Bill and worked up to three jobs to make my life they way I wanted it. I researched hundreds of programs for minorities to obtain free or low cost education but my low middle income parents disqualified me for them all and I still made it. There are tons of assistance options but the reality is one still has to earn their own way and do the work. If you don't or won't contribute to help yourself then why should anyone else work their ass off to help you?

Remember - God helps those who help themselves.

Goggle Checkout and Revolution Money Exchange

2009-07-21T15:23:00.002-05:00

I've decided to add Goggle Checkout and Revolution Money Exchange to my Artfire payment options. I've already been offering paypal, check and money order with success but I've been curious if having more payment options might make a difference in my sales. Nearly everyday I see various items in people's sticky carts and yet fewer sales than I would hope for. Obviously, I have no way to know why someone decides not to purchase my items but I considered the possibility that some customers would prefer more options; especially non-US customers. I've had numerous international sales and visits to my shop so maybe these expanded options might give certain customers more incentive to finish a purchase. We'll see....I'll let you know how the experiment goes but either way both additional options don't cost me anything if they're not used so why not?

FYI- I've noticed that free shipping seems to increase long term sales. It seems most customers love knowing up front exactly how much they're going to spend without checking the additional shipping costs. Fortunately, my items are generally light weight, small and easy to ship worldwide.

Great Artfire Shops

2009-07-19T20:19:00.006-05:00

I want to tell you about a friend of mine's soap shop, Green Hill Soap Company. She makes the creamiest, vegan soap with pure, high quality basic ingredients. No heavy dyes, perfumes or chemical makes the soap feel rich on your skin with the barest hint of scent. My personal fav is Orange Chamomile. she also makes lip balms and laundry soaps. She's having a 20% sale right now so you should check out her shop!

Also, to the upper right is a matchbook pad that I made for Thank You gifts with my online orders. The idea is from Brandi with Green Hill Soap Co which she posted on Handmade News awhile back. I finally got around to making some and they turned out cute!

SUMMER SALE in my Artfire Vintage/Supply Shop

2009-07-17T12:05:00.002-05:00

That's right! I'm having a sale and most items are marked down up to 50% off at my Artfire shop. All prices have already been changed and included FREE worldwide shipping!!!!!!

Click the link FFMSupplies or checkout my FFMSupplies Artfire Rapid Cart below.

Tragic Fate and Strong Nails

2009-07-15T22:33:00.004-05:00

After 16 years as a paramedic I've learned that the vast majority of tragedies are the end result of poor decisions made by persons unable or unwilling to look towards the future possible consequences of their actions. However, there does exist the small percentage of unlucky persons who just happen (or not depending on your belief in Free Will and/or the Will of God) to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

These unlucky people end up having a piano squash them to death on a city sidewalk, or a stray piece of large metal junk is flung by a large pro lawnmower through the windshield of their car - killing them instantly. (That actually happened, the second one).

Anyhow, so we responded to a call early this morning in which an elderly woman happened to be walking past a large, tall pile of heavy wood beams being stored at their home for future repair. These wood beams, for whatever reason, slipped longwise down from their shelf and struck the woman in the neck. Unfortunately, the beams were several feet long and the hallway she was in wasn't. Essentially pinning and hanging her against the wall by her neck. One can only hope that her death was instantaneous and painless due to a broken cervical spine. Imagine, walking casually through your own home and suddenly BAMMO! your dead for no good reason.

Lesson - always be ready to be dead today or tomorrow or have a loved die because right now is all any of us ever really have and life doesn't come with guarantees, ever.

On a happier note my mom recommended Trind nail repair to me last week. You can only buy it in select stores or online; just google Tring nail repair... So I became a believer in this product in less than 1 week because it is seriously bad ass. My nails grow fast and are healthy but tend to be dry (have dry skin) and so they sometimes break and fray easily no matter what I do. After just one week of using this $20 product my nails are gorgeous and in several situations when I would have normally broken a nail not only did it not break but it didn't even fray/bend/split or chip. I will continue my personal experiment and update as I learn more about this cool product.

First Shift Back and Crappy Environments

2009-07-12T16:12:00.003-05:00

My first shift on the ambulance in 3.5 months was much easier than I expected. I was a bit anxious that I'd be rusty but it's like falling off a bike. No problemo! That's when I realized that I've spent for more time on an ambulance than off. I've been working full-time and OT/second EMS jobs for 16 years so 3.5 months wasn't nearly enough time to lose my edge; fortunately.

Luck was even on my side! My partner and I responded to a minor assault call in our district. During that same time the neighboring unit responded to another call in our district which turned out to be a cardiac arrest. Working an arrest is lots of sweaty hard work, drug calculations and a high level of skill all combined. And the majority of cardiac arrest patients are unable to be revived - so lots of work with usually very little return.

My partner and I cleared our call and decided to stop by with the other unit to help since they were near by and I got to meet a new young, female medic that was hired during my absence. She was very nervous since she was attempting to obtain an airway for the patient (which can be difficult and is the "star attraction" during a cardiac arrest) and her partner was one of our most veteran medics who is known for not being supportive of rookies (especially female rookies). His obvious lack of support and her being the center of attention was making her so nervous that her technique was off and she was unsuccessful.

As I witnessed this I attempted to offer my own support and give her calm, clear advice (which earned me a look of contempt from the senior medic) and she attempted to follow the advice but unfortunately the environment was too far gone and nothing I could do or say ended up helping. The senior medic in charge of the cardiac arrest finished the airway successfully and they left for the hospital.

EMS is a naturally stressful job and senior medics always challenge and harass rookies which seems harsh but is necessary to a degree because the entire team needs to know what the rookie's breaking is and if they can handle themselves confidently in real life stressful situations. However, I've always felt that along with the good-natured harassment there needs to be a mentally and emotionally supportive atmosphere for all rookies. But there will always be those medics that have no patience for rookies even though we were all rookies once upon a time.

Back to work

2009-07-10T16:25:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow is my first day but to my usual full time duties on the ambulance! I haven't been on the truck since the beginning of April; that's 3 1/2 months. I haven't been off the ambulance for longer than 3 weeks at a time since I started working in EMS 16 years ago. It all seems strangely distance right now but at 8am I'll be getting my groove back. I'm also going to be working out again which I haven't been able to do since the beginning of March - 4 1/2 months.

Fortunately I haven't gained any weight but my tone and strength are diminished and my body shape just isn't what is was 5 months ago. Oh well, thank goodness that the human body is so adaptable. I'll be kicking back into shape the rest of '09.

Starting tomorrow I should have more interesting crazy work events to talk about. ;o)

Have you read the Etsy Wars article?

2009-07-07T11:53:00.002-05:00

I'm a follower of Etsy Bitch, sometimes I agree and sometimes I don't but the posts are usually very interesting either way. Here's the latest post about a magazine article that is soon to be published and it's pdf version is readable through on Etsy Bitch, here's the link --

Etsy Wars

Check it out!

Drum Roll Please.......and the Winner is......

2009-07-06T11:21:00.006-05:00

Okay, so the copied web page isn't all the clear but it can be read. To the right of the page is the random number generator with the numbers 1 - 40 as the range. Below the range is the randomly generated number of 13. Woohoo, lucky number 13!

Prior to using the number generator I assigned numbers to each person based on the amount of entries they submitted. Entries were gained by three options: posting comment about a favorite item from my shop = 1 entry, blogging/posting about my giveaway = 2 entries per blog post, purchase = 3 entries per purchase.

Listed below are all the persons who entered and the numbers which I assigned to them. Since all numbers have equal chances to be drawn regardless of position I just assigned them sequentially to ease tracking.

Silver River Jewelry - 1 entry - 1
Evil bendy - 3 entries - 2,3,4
Carapace - x 1 entry - 5
Redcrow x 1 entry - 6
Amber x 2 entries - 7,8
Jerri x 3 entries - 9,10,11
Gym Mama x 5 entries - 12,13,14,15,16
Aik x 3 entries - 17,18,19
2 Virgos x 3 entries - 20,21,22
Patrice x 1 entry - 23
Beadlady x 3 entries - 24,25,26
Larry Hamm x 1 entry - 27
Jennifer Anderson x 3 (purchase) - 28,29,30
Karen White x 6 (purchase) - 31,32,33,34,35,36
Jazzy Jems x 1 entry - 37
Bon Bon Babe x 2 - 38,39
Marion x 1 - 40

If you are unable to read the random screen capture (it is blurry...sorry) The winner number is:

13

Congratulations Gym Mama aka Brandi!!!!!!!!!

Contact me as when you can and we'll discuss the custom aspects of your bracelet!

Awesome Feedback!

2009-07-05T10:34:00.007-05:00

So I just have to brag this morning. I sold this necklace and these earrings to a seller a couple of weeks ago and have been eagerly awaiting feedback of some sort. She finally left feedback yesterday and WOW! I'm so glad she loved them! The choker was one of my favorites and I'm glad it went to a great home. The earrings had been admired by several people; one lady who suggested that they would be better without the feathers. I offered to removed them but she didn't buy anyhow. I considered removing them later but decided they were they design I started with and I would stay with that idea. A month later this buyer loved them and they're now a matching set. Just goes to show you shouldn't change your designs to suit someone unless they're actually buying the product. Here's my awesome buyer's feedback which I cut and pasted from Etsy.

Superlative! I love this necklace -- it is beautifully executed. Quick delivery, safe packing, A++++++

Talented and imaginative seller, these are great earrings. Delivery was quick, packing terrific (fragile items, feathers). A++++++

I'm cleared for duty!

2009-07-02T13:36:00.003-05:00

Just saw my doctor today and she gave me a clean bill of health and clearance to resume my normal life, woohoo! I have my written clearance to return to full duty at work July 11 and I can do everything I'm used to doing without restriction. Of course, I still have anemia but it's improving everyday. I know I'm now 100% yet but I feel like my old self more this week than I have in months, almost years!

I had originally decided to have my giveaway contest run through July 15 but I'm thinking I'll bump it up. So I'm going to give everyone a few more days to enter and do the drawing July 5 for the holiday weekend. So make sure you have all the entries that you want cause you've only got 3 more days!

Who likes steampunk? I do, I do!

2009-06-29T18:39:00.003-05:00

I got these great vintage optical lenses last week and have been excited to play with them. I came up with this cool Steampunk Feather Charm Necklace which is long!! Hangs 14 inches from the neck so that you can use the monocle which has a .5 magnification strength. It's a real optical lens used for vision testing. I added some cool macaw feather (of course!) and a nifty photo frame charm which is ready for your personal photo. Just pop out the plastic and paper insert, size your photo and pop back in with plastic protecting it.

How cool is that?

New designs

2009-06-29T00:45:00.003-05:00

I finally got a few new pieces done and started listing them today. I'll be listing more throughout the week. I've got Swarovski crystal earrings, a steampunk style necklace, a new bookmark and several more pieces in the works. I've also got to restock my layered and feather cage earrings since I've completely sold out of those designs!

New ideas and a custom order????

2009-06-26T17:40:00.004-05:00

Hey all! I know I haven't been updating as much. I've been mostly sleeping and reading some new books from my fav writers. I haven't had time to read much the last few months so this is great.

I also got a message from a potential buyer about drawing a custom parrot collage with specific birds for her jewelry, woohoo! I've been talking to her the last couple of days about her request so we'll see if she decides to go forward with it. I've also got some new ideas in my head for jewelry designs but haven't done to much with them yet. Hopefully, this order will be just what I need to get my butt in gear.

Nice weekend getaway

2009-06-21T11:03:00.004-05:00

My husband and I decided to spend Friday and Saturday in New Braunfels, Tx with my best friend Debbie. I've been feeling stronger and my energy is starting to return so she suggested that we drive out for a visit. We had a great time, which was to be expected since I've known Debbie for over 12 years. The only bummer was that I couldn't play in the Guadalupe River becase my incision is not completely healed and who knows what critters and bacteria lurk in the natural spring waters. ;o(

So you're probably wondering why I posted a picture of supplements on this post. Debbie recommended this energy/stamina/mood boosting supplements from Irwin Naturals to me. She tried them a few weeks earlier and became and immediate believer. Normally I'm not one to use energy supplement because most have awful side effects and can be seriously damaging to one's health. I take my usual multi vitamin, prescribed medications and tried to live a healthy life of varied diet, exercise and sleep. But I tried these and I must say that I felt great all day!

Considering my current anemia I was able to walk around in the Texas heat most of the day and as long as I took breaks and stayed hydrated I didn't feel my usual malaise. I didn't take them the next morning to see what type of difference I felt and I was definitely more tired without them in the same conditions.

The average about $16 for a bottle of 75 and I liked them so much I decided to let ya'll know about them.

And don't forget about my giveaway! You have until 7/15 to enter!

My first Blog Giveaway! Let's Play!

2009-06-15T10:57:00.005-05:00

This is my first blog giveaway! I was going to do it for my one year anniversary of starting my business in August but since I'm starting to feel so much better I decided to go ahead and do it now. My poll showed that most people preferred a bracelet or ring as a prize so I'm going with bracelet.

The bracelet pictured is an example of the type that will be the prize. The actual prize is a CUSTOM bracelet in this style with or without feathers. I used artistic silver plated wire with Swarovski crystals and a silver plated clasp with adjustable sizing links. If you win you get to pick the color and size of the bracelet and you get to choose either non tarnish silver plated or non tarnish brass wire for a gold look. If you decide to include feathers, be aware that while I have numerous colors/sizes in stock some colors/sizes may be limited or unavailable. Let me know what you prefer and I will do my best to match it.

The Rules:

1) Go to my artfire shop Feathered Friends Mementos, pick your favorite item and post a comment about it here. That earns you 1 entry!

2) Post about my giveaway on your blog/twitter/plurk/ etc and post a comment here with a link to that post and that earns you 2 entries!

3) Buy something from my shop and that earns you 3 entries! Woohoo!

FYI- you can do any combo of the above, only one comment entry allowed and multiple entries allowed by posting with a link in a comment or purchasing.

This giveaway will run from today June 15 until July 15. Then I'll randomly draw a name and announce the winner the next morning! Yippee!

I'm going to post a separate link to this post at on the upper right hand corner of my blog and keep this post up for a few days before a update again.

Thanks for all the support and follows! I hope this will be fun and can't want to see who wins!

Teresa Mallen's June Newsletter - I'm featured!

2009-06-11T11:00:00.004-05:00

Okay, enough of the icky news of my life! Here's some good news for a change.

This is Teresa Mallen and she has featured me in the June issue of her Colored Pencil Newsletter! Teresa always has great advice about art, especially colored pencil and loves discovering new artists and their work. She has her Newsletter which is primarily for members (which is free to sign up) and her blog which has loads of great info and advice and links to her website and newsletters. She also offers art classes for those of you in the Ottawa area. A bit to far for me - but they sound like fun! Take a few minutes and read about me on her feature and if you like read about some of the other great artists that she's featured in the past. Loads of talented people out there with plenty of beautiful work to admire.

Brand New Week

2009-06-08T10:18:00.002-05:00

So I'm almost back to normal! The constipation has finally resolved and my guts are nearly back to normal. Eating normal foods but staying away from sodas and anything to acidic right now and eating lots of small meals and resting. Lots of resting! My incision site didn't hurt before because it was overwhelmed with the other pain but now it's really stinging and burning and I have to be cautious how I move but it's slowly improving as well. I can tell that my body is overtaxed with recovery from the surgery, the complications and of course the anemia. I only have so much blood to go around to all these reasons and I have to keep my activity level very low otherwise I bring on more malaise and feel really awful for most of the day. 4.5 more weeks until I'm back to work so I'm trying to take advantage of everyday that I can to build my strength.

I'm hoping to make some more jewelry this week and list a few pieces since my shops are starting to look a bit barren.

I almost didn't survive!

2009-06-04T13:39:00.003-05:00

Okay, so I haven't posted in several days because I've been dealing with complications of my surgery. I tried doing everything right but my guts just didn't like surgery and I had severe constipation start on Monday, the day after I was discharged. I'm doing much better now, not quite normal but no longer in severe pain. I've barely eaten or slept since Monday and spent several hours in the ER receiving treatment Tuesday night. I was a stone's throw from obstruction, (shudder) but fortunately intensive laxatives, etc finally worked and the worst in over now. My system has been completely and utterly cleaned out! I'm currently eating plain cooked potatoes (without the skins), crackers, plain pasta and lots and lots of water!

I've experienced kidney stones, migraines and other high levels of pain and I must say that this is definitely in the top three most painful experiences I've ever lived through. And I hope to never repeat this for the rest of my life!

I survived!

2009-05-31T16:34:00.003-05:00

That's right I made it through the surgery without any problems. I also got to keep my ovaries, woohoo! Although my dr. found fibroid like growths throughout my ovaries. She strongly doesn't think they're cancerous but they're were biopsied to find out exactly whats going on with them. I'll hopefully find out more about my ovaries tomorrow. But for now they're functioning normally and I get to keep them.

Today is my first day home. I was discharged about lunchtime and have been chilling out at my house since then. I'm really, really tired and really, really sore and all I want to do right now is as little as possible.

Womens' Hospital took really good care of me for 3. 5 days and think I'm going to have an uneventful recovery. Thanks again to everyone for all the prayers, support and well wishes. It's easier knowing that others are out there thinking positive thoughts for me.Thanks so much!

Final Countdown!

2009-05-27T19:29:00.002-05:00

That's right, in just over 12 hours I'll be checking into Womens' Hospital of Texas for my surgery tomorrow. I'm anxious about the results but not the actually surgery. I'm ready to get this chapter of my life over!

Of course, after tonight I won't be able to post for a few days. And even if I could I'll be so drugged up who knows what I would write, LOL! As soon as I'm able to get online I will post to let everyone know that I'm still alive and kicking. Well, probably not kicking for a few weeks but maybe moaning or some such activity.

Meanwhile, for your reading pleaseure, two more of my articles are submitted to Handmadenews.org. One about care and prevention of tendonitis for crafters and Part II of my Obsessive Crafter series. They're probably be publised sometime this week.

Meanwhile, take care and I'll talk to ya soon!

Are You an Obsessive Crafter?

2009-05-26T19:15:00.002-05:00

Take the quiz and found out if you have the symptoms of obsession!

Lots of sales!

2009-05-25T11:12:00.002-05:00

Who would ever think it? The last couple of weeks I've made several sales both in my Artfire and Etsy shops. What's funny is that I haven't had time to list much and I haven't bothered promoting my shops because I've been so busy with Handmade News and plain old energy conservation because of my medical condition and my surgery in 2.5 days.

So just when you start to place your energies elsewhere, bammo! Things start picking up. Handmade News is exciting and I know that I've had several references to my Artfire shop from my articles. This makes me very interested to continue writing for them, however, it's a lot of time and energy and I'm not sure how long I'll be able to maintain this schedule. I'm hoping that my recovery will allow me to regain my old energy levels and this will no longer be a concern.

Now it's hurry up and wait time.

What a week!

2009-05-23T10:10:00.004-05:00

I spend all day yesterday pre oping for my surgery next week. I got to have my blood drawn, poked, prodded and taken for hundreds of dollars; and I haven't even had the surgery yet! Another wonderful aspect - the pills are so strong that I've been nauseated for days as if I were pregnant and now the bleeding has started getting heavier again. Sigh...even my doctor said, "It's almost over, just another week." That's right the countdown is: 5 days! Surgery time is 1:30 pm. I appreciate everyone's support and prayers and I will give updates as I can.

On the happier side of things, my Star Trek Quiz is the #3 most viewed article on Handmade News right now and ranked in the top ten most popular! As of this morning it has over 580 hits in less than 5 days! Thanks everyone that has stopped by to check it out and I hope you enjoyed the quiz. While it's mainly for fun I dis my best to make it as coherent and accurate as possible. I love sci-fi and have seen every Star Trek episode and movie. I attempted to incorporate my knowledge of the series and if you're a fan as well you probably caught the in-jokes that I added. If not then one of them was Kirk's favorate color green since one of the big Kirk jokes is that he had relationship with a green woman during one episode, LOL!

Have a great Memorial weekend!

Star Trek Craft Personlity Quiz

2009-05-19T18:43:00.003-05:00

My most popular article yet! It's a 5 question quiz designed to discover which Star Trek Craft Personality you would be.

Star Trek Quiz

It's quick, easy and fun!

A soap maker's commitment to chemical-free purity.

2009-05-18T21:04:00.002-05:00

I recommend that you read Jackie's post about her commitment to chemical-free soap. She has several important personal revelations regarding soap/chemicals and I respect her decision to remain chemical-free even though I sure it increases her costs.

2 Virgos Designs blog - soap maker extraordinaire

PS Her Knights Templar soap smells so nice and it makes my whole master bathroom smell wonderful. It's so pretty I'm careful about using the front painted area so that it remains pretty longer. ;o)

Want to know the difference between truth and accuracy?

2009-05-18T17:32:00.002-05:00

Years of writing professional medical reports has given me an appreciation for the difference between truth and accuracy. Read about at Handmade News!

Truth and Accuracy: What's the difference?

Star Trek 2009 Movie Review

2009-05-17T10:19:00.002-05:00

Only one word echoes in my mind when I think of the new Star Trek movie: AWESOME! Nearly everyone loves Star Trek and the new film is sure to gain a large, new following in the youngest generation.

To start, the running time is just over two hours. Long enough to get in all the important details but not so long that everyone is avoiding a bathroom break. The special effects are incredible, believable and spectacular enough to amaze without detracting from the story or characters. The story line is well thought out, well paced and throws a new twist into the classic Star Trek franchise that opens up future movie opportunities without undermining the core of the original series.

The most important aspect that I’m sure gave the director, J.J. Abrams, the most concern, was the casting. I can’t stress enough what an amazing job all the leading actors accomplished. In my opinion they all stayed true to the original characters’ manners of speech, personality quirks and physical appearance while updating them for a 21^st century generation. Have no doubt that this first installment of the new Star Trek series is not your dad’s or your granddad’s Star Trek but it is the same amazing crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise “boldly going where no man has gone before”.

Do you love your Blackberry? Me, too!

2009-05-16T11:26:00.003-05:00

My newest article is posted at Handmade News. It's called Why I love my Crack-er Blackberry. It's short and fun and won't take much of your time, lol!
And yes, I'm totally pimping my articles!

Long Week

2009-05-15T18:18:00.002-05:00

What a long week! Hours and hours of separating files is the MOST exciting activity ever! UGH! 6 more working days, cause I get Memorial Day off, then surgery time. This will be the first holiday I get off like a normal person in over 15 years. It's a little weird to be working 8 to 5 hours. I haven't done this schedule since I was 22 years old. My entire life is centered around a 24 hours on/48 hours off schedule. It's difficult to adjust to a normal week and in 2 weeks I won't have a work schedule at all while I recover for 6 weeks. By the time I'm back to normal I will have been off the truck for 4 months.

Geez, I'm not sure I'll remember how to be a paramedic! LOL!

Check out my article about Optimistic Realism on Handmade News

2009-05-14T19:37:00.003-05:00

Here's my newest article on Handmade News! It's called
Optimistic Realism and I very proud out it. I'd love for you to check it out and even leave a comment if you have the time. Handmade News has lots of great articles about crafts, business, fun, techniques and many other subjects. The site is new and still growing but has lots of potential with lots of great information. Stop by for a visit!

Great Etsy Shops

2009-05-10T10:17:00.005-05:00

This is an update I've been wanting to post all week but I also wanted to make sure I had the time to write it properly. I met Amber of Amber Dawn Accessories while at the Yale Street Market last Saturday. She's a vibrant young woman working towards her Master's Degree and creating jewelry on the side. She and I spoke at length and she asked if I would be willing to met with her later that week so that she could seek advice on running a jewelry business.

I was flattered and excited to share the knowledge I've gain with another artist. We met at Starbuck's (of course!) a few days later and talked for over 2 hours! Amber has beautiful designs and she's a real go-getter! I believe she's going to be successful in whatever field she chooses to work in. Not just because she's talented but because she has a plan of attack and is committed to her goals. That's a rare trait in most people, I'm sorry to say.

Amber also told me something flattering and a bit disturbing. She wanted to speak with me further because I was the only vendor from approx 50+ that took the time to engage with her and really sell my product in a positive manner. Amber said that the other vendors weren't really engaging anyone much at all let alone being so positive and upbeat. (No hardselling though, ick!) How sad that other sellers weren't taking the time for whatever reason to express their passion for their work. Why bother trying to sell your art at all if you're not going to be engaging your customers. Customers are the financial life blood of the economy and everyone is a customer!

She also told me that my items were far more beautiful and unique in person than online; not because my pictures aren't good enough but because real life offers a vibrancy that computers can't. That sealed the deal for me. I'll be continuing craft fairs as time permits; I'm hoping about 6 a year right now. Selling in person it the best way to go but you've got to learn how to sell people- in a good way- since they're not just buying your product they're buying you ( in a not creepy, prostitute sort of way).

Check out Amber's shop. While she only has a few things listed she excels at custom orders and has a flickr link in her shop for her past work.

Handmade News

2009-05-09T22:08:00.002-05:00

Don't forget to read the awesome articles on Handmade News! I just finished my three articles due this week for the Just for Fun dept. Lots of great advice from numerous artists and business persons. It's just starting out so it's a little buggy but it will improve quickly. Trust me, I work for the government and I wouldn't lie to you. LOL!

My old office and my current office

2009-05-08T18:54:00.006-05:00

This is my old office below and left. That's right...the rear patient compartment of Medic 1. This is taken from the rear double doors. See that big chair? That's called the captain's seat or the jump seat. There's also a bench seat to the left of the picture. Those are the two main areas that I would normally be sitting while I attended to my patients; which I haven't been able to do for a month now. That super comfortable looking "bed" is the stretcher we use to secure and move our patients. It locks onto a floor mount which secures it inside the back of the unit.

All around that area are the supply compartments that hold everything from bandages to narcotics. And the heart monitor is sitting on the floor at the back just to the right of the stretcher which is in front of the side door. Overall a relatively cramped working area with a ceiling just high enough for me to barely stand up and I'm 5'8" with the work boots on.

The picture on the right is my current office for light duty. It used to be a roomy conference room but now it's combination storage/work area so I don't have much more space than usual. However, it's a helluva lot more boring and mind numbing. I have thousands....ugh thousands of files to sort through. Approx 20,000+ dating from the summer of 2007. Since our collections dept recently separated from our medical dept I get to individually separate all the billing info from the medical info. One and a time for about 5-8 hours a day depending on how I feel physically.
Yippee.

It has most definitely made me remember why I quit working as a medical records clerk over 15 years ago and went into paramedicine. Man, do I miss my real work. Filing is soooo mind numbing........

Date with a surgeon.

2009-05-07T18:50:00.003-05:00

Got the word today....my surgery date is May 28 at 1:30pm. It's the soonest they can get me in so that's 3 weeks more. Sigh...But at least there's a plan and I should be back to my normal job and routine by July 9th! Woohoo!

Surgery Time!

2009-05-06T18:04:00.003-05:00

Had my doctor appt today for my second ultrasound and a decision was finally made this afternoon. I will be getting a hysterectomy, probably sometime in the next week or so. They're going to call me tomorrow to schedule it. I have a grapefruit sized fibroid and a mass (which she thinks is endometriosis) growing around both ovaries. Bummer. So we're going to do a full abdominal incision so that she can clean everything out, see exactly what the mass is and be able to save as much of my ovaries as possible to avoid early menopause. We're not concerned about cancer at this point but we don't want anything abnormal left in to create future problems. So, that's the big decision...I'll have a 2 night stay in the hospital and a 6 week recovery.

I'm not excited about major surgery but I'm really excited about getting this resolved and starting on the road of recovery.

Successful Craft Fair!

2009-05-03T10:54:00.009-05:00

My first booth at the Yale Street
Market in the Houston Heights was a great success! I sold more yesterday than I've sold at any other fair to date. A grand total of $329 in about 6 hours. Maybe you're thinking that doesn't sound like too much but since my most expensive item right now is $100 I think that's pretty darn good. That's a total of 6 necklaces, 10 pairs of earrings, 1 key chain, 1 ring, 1 bracelet and 1 rear view mirror hanger. One lady purchased three pairs of earrings for $85!

It's especially gratifying when I heard from the other vendors that they were having bad days. There were over 60 vendors there and many didn't make any sales at all! My friend Diana didn't sell any of her oil paintings. (although she I and traded, ;o)

I suspect that I was successful for two main reasons:

1) My items are very unique and eclectic and I've been lucky enough to stumble onto this niche. I constantly heard from customers and vendors alike that "they've never seen anything like this"- I sold out of my Feather Cage Earrings! And there was something for everyone - large, small, bold, delicate, funky, classic - you name it!

2) My items are priced at a reasonable range so that someone can spend a lot or a little. And since most people are watching their dollars but still want to treat themselves it helps that they can spend $10 on a cute, little, one of a kind item to cheer themselves up. But I'm not underpricing myself - I use the pricing formula of - cost of materials, labor by hours ($10-$20 right now an hour depending on the complexity of work, that will increase as I gain more experience), state taxes - (I price at even numbers and work the taxes into the price so that I can run the numbers backwards at home, quicker, easier, far less stressful during the fair), and 10% overhead for packaging, etc. Depending on the venue I'll add $5-$20 to the prices which gives me a lot of wiggle room for haggling, etc and that still keeps my prices very reasonable.

Of course, it was really hot most of the day and my anemia reared it's ugly head. It was an exciting day which took every bit of my energy and gifted me with a raging migraine by mid afternoon. I sucked it up and put on a happy face, finishing out the day without out my customers realizing my pain; which is exactly what I was doing during the photo taken above by my husband.

AmyDesigns custom vendor aprons

Notice that cute apron I'm wearing? There's a close up to the right. That was custom made for me by Amy Cavaness of Amydesigns of Artfire! See the adorable little birdies on it? She was able to find that cute cloth to fit into my shop theme.

It was very comfortable on, easy to use with two large pockets. The pocket on the right has a large strip of velco to secured valuables inside. That's where the money hid out and my lockbox keys. This was the first show that I've been able to use it at and it worked out wonderfully. No more searching for my pens or my phone ( I use Accept by Phone credit card service, awesome!!!! will talk more about that later), no more losing my keys or my priceless Carmex ( I have very dry skin - need my Carmex at all times). The cloth is already soft and pliable so no "breaking in period" and the ties are extra long to use in front or behind.

I can't think of any cons to Amy's product, it worked out very well for me and I definitely recommend her. She's easy to work with, fair prices and does an wonderful job on custom work.

So my big weekend is on it's downslide and I'm glad. I did a lot of prepping for this show and pushing myself when I should be resting. But there was no way I was missing my first show at this location and while I'm dead tired this Sunday it was all worth it!

I'll be listing lots of new items over the next few weeks. I didn't list anything the last couple of weeks because I was increasing my show stock. I know it's optimistic but I didn't want to risk selling items online and thinning out my stock. So now I have a few items that didn't sell that are new and will be posted soon.

Take care and stay strong!

Yale Street Market May 2

2009-05-01T19:04:00.002-05:00

Okie, Dokie, so my friend Diana and I are prepped and ready to attend our first craft fair together! It's the Yale Street Market in the Houston Heights area from 11am to 6pm. We're sharing a booth and it's a well established fair but small so it should be a good experience tomorrow. So if you live in the Houston area stop by and say hi!

Haffina had awesome interviews on her blog, today I'm featured!

2009-04-30T19:23:00.002-05:00

Haffina's blog with her crazy questions and my crazy answers. She even used my fencing photo! I miss fencing, :o( haven't been able to foil fence in over 2 months...hopefully I'll be back sometime this summer, woohoo!