Sometimes raising a family is REALLY hard

     I travel down a busy highway to go to school everyday and my highlight of the day is couple of events . One event is that I get to pass over a lake , truly it's always beautiful always every day even in the storms it is beautiful. My other favorite site is a nest on top of a light pole that I have watched from its very first beginnings. I first noticed some native floridian spanish moss hanging from it, that was my first sighting of what will follow. Now remember I pass by this light pole which is at a busy intersection of a major highway here in Mt Dora. Then the next sighting was by far one of the most fascinating. Here I am sitting waiting for the light to change , then up from the tree flies this big bird with a 3 foot limb a fat limb at that in his mouth crossing the intersection in the air, he just lands and sorta drops the limb onto the pole that is now becoming a little bit more full with stuff on top. Yes you are right he was building his nest or his wife was. This began my saga of daily birdwatching at the light , I actually hope the light will stop me . lol Now time has gone by most times one bird sits on the nest the other perches just a few light poles away from the nest. They have gone through intense heat and two tropical storms and daily rain and thunderstorms here in florida for about the last month I mean every day it rains and storms with the heat so high.They have endeared all of this daily. They live in a nest perched upon a super high light pole looking down on lots of traffic daily this is their life and they are raising their babies.I finally got a peek at the babies yesterday while stopped at the light. It was an amazing moment in my life. I want a live feed cam up on that pole so I can see them better, they have become my inspiration for life this pair of Osprey's. The babies are getting big now I have seen them approach the edge of the nest and my heart is so scared for them gosh I hope they don't fall out. I continue to watch daily  this lil families struggle to survive in the wild on a high light pole that is probaly not more than two feet wide and a gazillions of miles off the ground , above exhaust fumes and intense weather conditions and still they thrive, they have adjusted to living in our world somehow and we get to share the wonder and the amazement of their struggle to survive .

Finding cool stuff on etsy!

I simply love etsy. I love seeing all the really cool interesting creations people make and love all the old vintage treasures you find there. Etsy is the best entertainment around especially if you live in Mt Dora Fl. Another story for another day. Okay back to etsy , while I was doing my brain downer from homework I search etsy and check out facebook and my flickr and all this cool stuff that keeps me somewhat sane from doing math homework Algebra totally sucks trust me. So here is my coolest  find for the moment   http://www.etsy.com/listing/84586371/25-sprouting-seed-faces  I think these are the coolest thing I have maybe ever found on etsy, I love them gotta have some of these babies , are they the wow or what ? Made me laugh my self crazy I love them . Okay folks not making jewelry these days trying to get through this summer madness of school , for certain the last summer I ever spend at school . Duh? Oh well something else to put on my knownledge list of information in life experiences. Summer school gotta love it. 

Things that make you smile in life

Do you find a little smile sliding across your face ever so often, along with a lil chuckle. I often photgraph  unusual stuff. And sometime I am really lucky in my meandering through life travels to find some really cool stuff like these. I love the lil spotted donkey he is so cute, I have seen a spotted one before. I am working on a series of southwest jewelry and started collecting photos for inspiration, he is part of the series photos I am using to work from for inspiration. The flowers above him are Flocks, they grow wild here in Florida as a child I use to pick handfuls for my mom to set on the table, they always bring back such wonderful memories once I even tried to transplant some of course they didn't live, they have to live in freedom in the unconfined world . The colt and his mom are my cousins , every other year he has a colt  it is so wonderful to watch the baby grow up, he keeps them by the road so all of us in the community can be apart of his growth I am sure his mom just loves us pulling off the road to admire her baby. The tree lined road is the road you turn onto that will eventually lead you to our farm, I have always loved coming home after traveling around in the world to this tree lined road I always felt like I was finally coming home when I turned on the road. I hope you enjoy my photos I am not a photographer oh I would love to study photography don't get me wrong I just don't have any extra time to give to doing it, time is in short order in my life right now. I hope everyone has a wonderful week this week, I am still trying to find my way back to the bench it's been week since I Terrible I feel the loss greatly. Take care. nancy

Ah the summer begins

Oh how I wish I could take off for the summer, maybe just jump in a  car and just travel like a gypsy. Go places I have always wanted to go to. As I get older I think of the famous 'bucket list". Do you have one ? There is so many things I want to do and places I want to go, gazillions of them. I think I should try to accomplish a few of them this summer , this is something I will have to ponder, now that I am a student and just doing my etsy shops money is really tight and darn it always seems to take money to do stuff doesn't it. I will have to think on this one. Maybe just one thing on my list something cheap there must be something. 

I haven't been spending much time in the studio lately. Still messing with my pods, I can't seem to get myself satisfied with them somehow. I look at them and now they seem big for earrings anyhow to me they do. but a group of them in a pendant would be cool, I saw something like them in a design thought way in a zine and I could join them for a pendant, interesting thought, but since I am not into to making replicas of something to many times that may present a problem, they are suppose to be fun an experiment not something to stress over.   The one thing I hope to be able to do this summer is some more experiments on techniques , I am such a mad scientist when it comes to jewelry. I love to experiment see how far my imagination will take me. Time of course is my enemy is it yours too? Does anyone out there have any ideas on how to successfully manage this wild beast called time. I have just started my summer semester in school and once again math is the demon class I have to take. I so wish I could start to enjoy it but not happening ever I don't think , now I do enjoy learning and mastering the formulas of how to solve something. I must admit to this, but since I have two more semsesters of it I had better adjust to it hadn't I. There is so much studying to be done in math class, every day one must give it its due time of study. The college where I go has a fantastic learning center which is where I always do my homework so if I get stuck there is a tutor to help out man is this a life saver. whew. and I have a study group which also helps. The problem is there is no extra time left over and I have picked up this horrible habit of watching Law and Order and all those other shows like that on TV , I don't ever watch TV so what is up with this? Its like brain dumping, no thoughts , just watch no brainer I am getting to like this to much, so no bench time . I must make time for my bench , maybe I need a schedule that could perhaps help. Do you have any ideas you could share with me I would greatly appreciate it if you would send them to me truly . So in the meantime I will just try to discipline myself to making a little bench time here and there this week. After all this is how I make my living , making stones and jewelry duh, Nancy get with it. lol

The Pods in Progress

My lil pods continue to develop, their color has been added now the stamen is being put together, I couldn't stand it any longer I just had to polish them up and make them shiny , this was a hard decision to leave them matte or put a shine on them, the shine won. Oh well. now the stamens are a very pale pink druzy cabs , mine of course , free form sort a round set in high bezels don't know why but I thought this somehow fit the idea, I can not begin to tell you how long I have wanted to make these pods why who knows but time frame is forever they will be a part of my jewelry line, I can imagine all kinds of interesting things to do with them my mind is blazing with ideas, here is the latest photo's , I hope you have enjoyed coming along on this jewelry challenge with me, wait till you get  to see what we create in our next challenge , a lil hint its called the "Pink Cadillac" yeah for real interesting huh? So stay tune as we finish up this challenge hopefully tomorrow as it's my last day to cram for my math final and the last day to complete the challenge so it's work on the challenge take a break , study , take a break work on the challenge its going to be a long challenge, and then after my math test its on to the farm for a little R&R for a few days, got to get the blueberries ready for harvest time which is right around the corner, fresh blueberries my favorite. So check back in tomorrow as we finish up the challenge.  

In the middle of Finals

Oh yes I am in the middle of finals at college, yuck is all I can say for that . Lots of studying , don't know if the newbies who have joined know but a quick update, let's see divorce after a 31 year marriage, on my own for the first time except when I was 18 for a couple of months. I was a hairstylist for part of my life and several other things and tried to do styling again but after a stint with back issues and reoccuring hand issues it was a no go. So with little tools in my toolbox of life I have started back to college at 53 years of age to be independent and to be able to support myself. That about sums it up except for the fact I have two wonderful children both in their 30's , a son who is a kick butt tattoo artist and a daughter who has two degree's one in technical and just got her second one in Nursing, she is now a registered nurse I am so proud of my kids, also have three grandsons . So yes this was my first finals in 10 years whew I have forgotten alot,but that's okay. Just finished up my finals in computer now  I am doing one in math next week.
Now the other half of my life is jewelry artist, silversmith, lapadairy fiberartist, you name it. I love the art side of my life its the best part, Alot of you have followed me on this crazy journey I am on and I always welcome new people with open arms and yes please comment I love comments , love to hear from people.

As most of you know I belong to this fantastic team on etsy called the AspringArtists, they are the greatest of folks we share so much of our lives together. We had a challenge thrown out to all of us to set Druzy, I have never set a druzy so of course I was up for the challenge, now for awhile I have wanted to make this special design in a pair of earrings so I am inviting you along for design , construction and hopeful the great outcome of the earrings these are the step I have taken so far in the challenge , 

Still playing in the cabbing studio

     Today was a cabbing day, oh how I love those days, when I can just go into the zone and nothing else exists. My faithful dog babies hang with me in there while the breeze blows the leaves about for Bubba to give chase  which keeps him out of my rocks ( he like to carry them around in his mouth the nut, very dangerous some could harm him). Daisy just sits as good as gold never gets into anything oh how I love the quiet child, she is my treasure child. Today LULU which is what I call my cabbing machine she is old and tired but keeps on creating treasures with me especially now she has two new wheels to cut through rock with ,  anyhow she and I created some turquoise , drusy cobalto cabochons, hemimorphite druzy cabs, some beautiful BROWN moonstone which I love, weird considering brown is not a color I like to much . Although this is different I bought a couple of small slabs from a vendor at a show I went to. Little small slabs just to play with and some peach moonstone as well . These are fantastic I love them, they just glow and when you put them in the sunlight they have sparkle hidden deep in their depths like a special secret waiting for you to uncover, awesome wonderful pure delight. They were a stupendous find at the show.
     I really like turquoise its my favorite stone next to about a million other ones. lol I do actually sell cabs as well as jewelry in my sister shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/NancysCabochons. Oh by the way umm see if you see a lil sea monster in the Rocky Butte jasper , I umm well see one but my teamies didn't so maybe it s my imagination which is always in full gear, do you see anything be honest let me know I am so interested in seeing if anyone sees him besides me , I see his bug eyes , nose and arms and the lil fins on his shoulders, oh well maybe I am the only one he shows himself too.