Sunday, August 5, 2012

Hello Again!

 LavenderLatteCropThis is a quick blog post while I have a cup of tea with lavender to note that I have not permanently abandoned my blog.  My poor blog has taken a back seat to my increasing business (yes, I might be a workaholic) and to Facebook, Twitter, and now, especially Pinterest.  I love Pinterest!  Finally a place to store tons of recipes that doesn’t take up real space, ha ha…

Anyway, I have been very busy this last year, both on Etsy, and with my own new website and online shop.  I built the site using Shopify last November, and I really love it.  (I highly recommend Shopify if you need an ecommerce solution!)  It has kept me crazy busy since the holidays last year, and I have stopped gardening, cooking, and almost everything else.  I’m now taking a deep breath, and trying to get a bit of life balance going, where I can get back to creating new recipes and pulling my garden back together.

The garden has been doing fine without me, though.  I’ve learned that yes, I did plant way too many perennials too CardinalNest62012close together when I started out.  A few too many trees, too.  I kind of have a forest on my hands now. The birds love it, though – the cardinals raised two sets of babies this spring!  And lots of lovely English ivy (which came from nowhere, I did not plant it!)  preventing the weeds from from growing – yay!  I’m keeping it under control with the lawnmower, so it’s not taking over.  It’s  raining now, or I’d run and take a photo of  the great patch in my front flowerSoulFire1 bed.

I have also made quite a few artisan rings this year with my ever-growing stash of stones.  I even kept my favorite one for myself – I actually have a “signature” piece of my own to wear now!   I used one of my favorite deep blue labradorites, and and Ethiopian opal.  I’m loving the Ethiopian opals, which I think are just as lovely as the Australian ones.   I’m working on new opal pieces for the shop, and one of  the first  is the Enchanted Garden ring.  I think the opal looks really great with brass (or gold would be even better).
EnchantedGarden1SQ

So that’s all for now, a lick and a promise before I get busy on orders down in the studio.  Who knows – I may cook something and post the recipe, or even *gasp* go out in the garden and take some photos one of these days.