Silver Earpiece and Updates

Did you miss me?!?!?

The bottom of this post has a rundown of the last few weeks, but that really isn't why you read this blog so onward ho! My mom asked me for some stuff for a trip, so today I made an ear piece. I haven't made a whole lot of these in the past and I'm not really sure why, but this one is fun enough:

The loop that comes out the bottom is part of the design, but it's also longer because I know for a fact that my mom's ears are bigger than mine.

And hey, remember that piece that I designed and cut out but never put together? yeah...I put that together today!

And it's an inch and a half short on each side. lol. Obviously there are a couple of tendrils in there that need moved into proper alignment with the piece, but it really does need more on the outer edges and I'm not confident enough to tweak the design tonight. Part of why it is as short as it is was that I was having trouble thinking of more to make it longer. It will fit exactly as I meant it to though which is lovely. For now, I've flattened it back out so I can add to it.

I did miss silver-work. There's something very satifying about watching silver melt and flow the way you want it to, and then fishing the tarnished piece out of the pickle pot all shiny and new looking.

Also a new development. Because weeks like the past few are inevitable, and because I DO go on vacation occassionally, I've decided to stop numbering my posts. If I realize that I'm REALLY slacking, I'll consider revisiting the numbered posts, but as long as I'm putting stuff out pretty regularly, I'm not going to guilt myself about sleeping in or baking cookies or going to a movie instead of making something. This project isn't about guilt, it's about creative freedom. In general, I put out better work when I'm not forcing it, and that's how it should be.




Where have I been?

No secret that I took a couple of weeks off from projects. I was working overtime, 6 days a week usually around 12 hours a day. We served breakfast in my restaurant for 2 weeks, and I had a week of coming in from 7-11:30am, going home and napping til 2pm, taking a shower, going to physical therapy from 4pm-5pm and running upstairs for work from 5pm-1am. Then I'd get back up at 6am the next day and do it all over again. I got one day off a week, about 8 days apart. The last thing I feel like doing on my day off is telling myself I HAVE to do such and such. I did some shopping, some eating, and a lot of sleeping. I also spent lots of time at the park with Honey, and we finally gave her a chance off-leash on the nature trails. She's behaved wonderfully and I'm so proud of her. It was relaxing, I had fun, and I don't regret one second of it.

 I've also been spending a lot of time working on my hands, since a lot of the physical therapy I'm doing can benefit my hands overall and is kind of fun. My favorite therapies are Baoding melody balls (little cloisonne spheres with chimes, they come in an asian box), silly putty, and tendon glides (which i affectionately refer to as sign language). I've also been drinking joint juice (which i prefer over pill-form glucosamine supplements- it's basically kool-aid). I'm also on prednisone to speed up healing. Can't say as I really think it makes a difference, but I can turn doorknobs and wash dishes without being in immense pain so something must be working. (If you're curious, the rundown of my hands is as follows: Carpal Tunnel in both hands, damaged cartilage in my right hand, tendonitis in my left hand, and an overstretched ligament in my left hand that is likely permanent from the way I carry trays- the ligament being stretched just means that it doesn't support my joint the way it ought to, making it easier for me to hurt myself if I don't support it in some other way, so I've been given a brace/support to wear on that hand at work, specifically because I carry trays.)

Also, I'm going to be tattooing my damaged hand for my birthday. In general, I know how most of you feel about tattoos one way or the other, and my general reply is this: I've wanted a tattoo for a really long time, I didn't just wake up one day and decide I wanted to go get one. I've known what I wanted (Honey's pawprint) and where I wanted it(on my hand, the final location will be the most damaged part of my hand- the area between my wrist and thumb/index finger) for over a year. I made a stamp and tested the image for several weeks. Between my secret love of makeup, fairy ear prosthetics, and because the hand is damaged and I'll be wearing a support (be it a brace or kinesio tape) at work for medical reasons for the rest of my life, I'm not concerned about the location of this tattoo interfering with my job/future jobs. So what I want you to know is I really thought about it, I made this decision for myself and no one else, and I'm a grown-ass woman turning 25 and quite frankly, my dear, I just don't give a damn ;)