A COOLER 2016

It's almost over.... and a fresh new year is almost HERE!  I for one ---  CAN. NOT. WAIT.  With the exception of all the election crap that will be bombarding me - I am looking forward to a happier, lighter, funnier 2016!

And with that - changes to this blog.   Everyone is always asking me if I have an 'online site'.  Like a website.  Or goddess forbid - ETSY.  UGH.  (3 times and out on that disaster....)  But then I realized I DO.  I have this blog.  And I have a PayPal account.  And a Square credit card reader that allows me to hand enter info.  SO....

Instead of BORING all of you with my babbling on and on.... I'm planning to use this blog mainly for JEWELRY POSTING.  With links to options for using PayPal or emailing me info.  May not be as easy as 1-2-3 - but it's a start.

So I'll be getting rid of the separate page for jewelry sales - and just putting some of best and brightest right HERE.   At least until show season.  Which may start in April.  Or not until the end of June.  I have 3 or 4 months to decide....

I'm also putting together an email list for notifying my readers/fans of upcoming SALES (of both bead and jewelry), CLASSES/WORKSHOPS (both here and elsewhere), and also my event listings - where all my art fairs and festivals will be this year.   If you'd like to be included, send me a message.

coolmoon@tds.net.   

Until next year.....  peaceful beading,  and love to you all,

TTFN

GIVING is living

I found my holiday HAPPY!

As you may recall, my last post was sorta semi gloomy - I was feeling all grinchy green

and unable to find my Christmas cheer.

You'll be glad to know that it seems to have finally appeared!

And it appeared in the form of GIVING.
   
             As in being someone's Secret Santa (for about a minute. Guess I'm just too describable!).

                                As in giving necklaces to ALL the girls at the party on Saturday.

                                         As in putting up and decorating my mother in law's Christmas tree while she was out of town for a day.

Now THAT'S Christmas.

So for those of you that may be reading this that seem to think it's 'all about me' (although as I currently live and breathe, it sorta IS) - I CAN be a giving person.  I CAN think and do for others.

BUT that's NOT why I did it.

I didn't do it to make a point - but because it made ME feel good - which again  - 

makes it ABOUT ME.

So I've decided that in 2016, I will make no more apologies for being ME, being excited about what I DO, and creating things that make ME happy - whether they be for ME - or for others.

Read with me.  Or read not.
Bead with me.  Or bead not.
But what ever you do....

Do it peacefully.

TTFN

Just ready for the RIGHT year

SOOO ready for 2015 to go bye bye.  Lots of loss, disappointment, let down and general sadness.  So much so that it sort of sapped my holiday spirit.  Here we are 20 DAYS before the 'big day', and I have not got one gift wrapped - and only an inkling of what needs to be purchased and for who.  The Grinch has been in the house, and he brought his fellow friend the gremlin. 

I suppose it can only go RIGHT from here....

Not sure what to expect from 2016 - other than election CRAP and a year that leaps.  I already know I won't be showing/selling as much artwork, but hoping to sell just enough in just the RIGHT places, meet just the RIGHT people, with just the RIGHT offers of opportunities that will help me follow my dreams....

As I just posted on Facebook - here's what I'm considering my New Year's "Resolution":


Hoping to start 2016 FRESH.... ideas, knowledge, friendships and dreams.... cheers!

I need the hope of all of them if I'm going to get through even the first month of 2016 RIGHT.

What are your hopes for the new year?


Peaceful beading,
TTFN

Contemplating life after beads

For those of you that follow, read, and comment, you KNOW that beads have been my life, and my passion, and sometimes my only saving grace on a dreary day.

So it may surprise some of you that I'm considering life without them.

With just one more show left to do this year, and what a dismal sales year it has been - I'm considering taking a year, or more - away from the bead.

Not sure I can do it.

It's been such a part of me.

What would take their place?  For awhile - organizing, purging, putting my house and life back into some sort of order.  So many things have gotten away from me, gotten cluttered, that I wonder if taking the time to clean - to refresh - might put new perspective on where to go from here - 

whether it includes the bead 

OR NOT.

I still have a book in my head that I should start putting down on paper.  

Image courtesy of Google
I have SOOOO many things in this house - in my life -  that need to be spiffed up, polished and made shiny again.

  My brain is feeling rather cluttered too -  muddled and overflowing with thoughts lately - 

On one hand - I think I could use a break.  On the other hand - I know I'd be fine for awhile, but I'm afraid once my friends, my fellow artists, my PEEPS start the show season come summer - that I am going to feel miserably left. OUT.

Will I be throwing my hands up in despair?  Crying Uncle?  Waving the white flag?

Or just keep on keeping on   

doing what I love, and saving my sanity?

So much to think about over the course of the long, cold winter.
To bead, or not to bead.
To create, or not create.


For now, STILL, as if my life depends on it,

Peaceful beading,
TTFN

Quick and dirty

A quick blog today -

because my house is still DIRTY - and I'm not ready!   LOL.  

Happening THIS WEEK!  EEEEEK!!!!   The 33rd Annual Holt Holiday Craft Show.  Still lots to do, and spaces to prepare.  I've got most of the table displays out, and posed- but as it ALWAYS happens with set up - there WILL be changes and moving things around.  Tomorrow morning is when all that will happen, followed by more sprucing and goosing of floors, corners and walls....

And not only am I sprucing up the house - I'm off to spruce up my 'do too!  It should - if my stylist is her usual magic making self - look JUST LIKE THIS when she's done with me - minus the cute little nose and young face.

I had hoped to have time to COLOR too - but for now - a new do will have to do!





Will try to post a few photos of the place - and MAYBE ME -  all ready for the show - IF I have time and remember (the brain is getting old, along with my knees and my eyesight) to do so.

Just wanted to blog - so you won't forget about me.  :)   And if you DO happen to miss me - there're always my Facebook pages - either my own personal page - Sheryl Mayes Stephens in Holt, Michigan - or my Cool Moon Creations and Beads page.  Those are posted on much more regularly than the blog....


There probably won't be much time for beading for ME - well, maybe a little...

Peaceful beading,
TTFN

The road MOST traveled

 When you live in Michigan, or probably any state where the seasons change - a fall color tour - or leaf peeping tour as we like to call it - is a must.  We weren't sure there would be an opportunity this year, with icky weekend weather, my busy show schedule - and of course, archery deer season all happening at once.

                                           

Fallasburg Covered Bridge, Lowell, Michigan - YES, it is still a working bridge, on a well traveled road - 5 mph over the bridge.  Reminds us of the movies Funny Farm and Beetlejuice every time we pass through....

We managed to find a pretty and unseasonably warm Sunday for a drive, which took us to our favorite spots for fall color.  We always say we'll take a new way - but end up in our favorites every time.  And Mother Nature never disappoints us with lovely color.

 THIS is our absolute favorite fall color stop - Lyons Dam in Lyons, Michigan - just outside of Portland.

2015 - not quite as vibrant as 2014.
   

Once I get these fall colors in my system though, they seem to come pouring out of me in my beadwork as well - this year was no exception:

I think a tribute to our changing seasons may be where my brain is taking me for my next big foray into winter competition pieces.  There's a spark of it up there.  And 3 opportunities - at least - for it to come to fruition:

Battle of the Beadsmith (I know, I know.  So sue me.)
Fire Mountain Gems
                    and BEAD DREAMS

Peaceful beading,
TTFN

Burning the midnight brain

I have vowed not to give you any more blah downer blog posts - so they may be few and far between.

But in the mean time - just so you know -  my brain is churning - and burning, thinking about upcoming shows, and then the downtime that is Mid-December to Mid-June here in what is already chilly, rainy, wet, snowy, blowy COLD Michigan.    

 So here's what's churning and burning up there....

(Courtesy of Google Images)

The three remaining shows I have to do between now and the first week of December.  At both of the shows that I'm doing in other venues (one of the venues is here in my home) - I chose to take it easy on myself, pay the extra $$ for them to furnish me with a table.  Less to haul.  Less to carry.  Less to deal with.  I may start doing that when it's offered every time.  Just easier.
I think I'm ready for the one coming up on the 13&14.  In fact, I loaded the earring racks, looked through the inventory - and pretty much packed it all up and got it ready.
Because as soon as that show's over, I have to set the house up for the show HERE the following week....

why do I do this to myself?  EEK. 

That show, I've decided, is going to consist largely of older pieces that I need to move.
Clearance.  Reprice.  Buy one, get one.  What ever I can to free some of the pieces that have been around forever.  They want homes and someone to love and wear them.
I'm also creating some crocheted items to sell too.  It's not all about the beads this year!

PLUS - 

I have had this idea for a BOOK for awhile - but it needs to be actually PUBLISHED.  And published by a bead and craft related publisher.  Still.  I have pieces and parts and info scattered up there among the beads.  It's a book about organizing, participating in, and attending art fairs and shows from every perspective - organizer, participant AND attendee.  I think there's a need for the info I've got crammed in my brain.  So I should probably start getting it all down on paper - or in a word doc.  Somewhere that it doesn't get lost.
And if that weren't enough....

I am also toying with the wacky idea of entering Battle of the Beadsmith again.   I know.  I know.  Shoot me now.  I swore I wouldn't.  Ever again.  The competition IS super fierce, but this contest gave me one of the best statement pieces I have ever created - and I long to try and stretch my brain some more (which could make the book stuff fall out....)  PLUS - my beautiful photographer friend Jaime has agreed to be the photo genius from the start this time - so a professional photographer is already in the bead bag!

Another winter idea churning -
 Bead Dreams.  Do I have it in me to create not one - but TWO - big statement pieces this winter?  I really don't think I'll need to up my inventory of pieces for sale (but wouldn't that be nice?) - so I'm gonna need to bead.

I've been spending quite a bit of time on Pinterest.  Looking for that perfect photo.  Color.  Scene.  That perfect THING for

All in all - instead of sitting around thinking of what could have been, should have been, what was, and what has happened -  I'm starting to think about

WHAT COULD BE.It's the much prettier side of the brain.  And mostly happier one too.

 

So whatever my brain decides to do to keep me busy over the winter months,
it will most certainly be

Peaceful beading.

TTFN.