My obsessions and creating.

Have you ever wondered what makes people do what it is they do????

Well Here is a bit about my dark side that makes me always stay busy. If I'm not making jewelry you can bet I'm making something. I'm not one to sit around and enjoy a good long read as in days gone by. I have been awake since early morning. Awoken by the sound of sirens racing past my house. Was it real? I think not. This happens far to often.

I have Obsessive, compulsive disorder, not the kind where you do things over and over again, but the kind that causes me to live in fear of something bad happening to one of my children.

My daughter Tara and her brother Jason went out on the town to what I think was a music festival last night(Tara just moved back home after being on her own for the last year) and I fell asleep before they got home. Which was probably early this morning.lol. I'm sure they had a wonderful time. Although I lay restless with the t.v. turned way to loud, the fan blowing on high, anything to block out noise from the outside world. I didn't want to hear the sound of the sirens racing down the road to what may be an accident that my children could be involved in. Crazy I know, but me.

I think it began several years ago when I was watching the late night news and waiting for my friend to return home as I was babysitting for her son.

On the news was an accident that showed very accurate pictures of a red car that had been involved in a head on collision and two people had been killed. I new at that moment my older brother Dan and his girlfriend Sue had been killed in the accident. I said a prayer and spent the next several hours waiting for a phone call. Well at long last the phone rang and it was my Mother sobbing, a man got on the phone and spoke the dreaded words and said he would stay with my Mother until I could get there to be with her.

I have learned for the most part how to control my fears and have learned that this is irrational thinking on my part. However the panic attacks still seem to creep up on me. My heart races, my body turns cold and I can feel the tingling throughout my body all the way to my toes as my arms go numb. I drive my daughter crazy, calling her at least once a day. She always answers the phone with a cheerful " Hi Mom, what's up? When I say oh nothing just wanted to know where your at. She then says MOM, I'm fine, what happened did an ambulance go by? You need to stop this!!!! It really does drive her crazy. It's just that dreaded thought that sneaks up on me at any given moment of any day when I least expect it. Keeping busy seems to keep panic attacks at bay so to speak.

But you know we all have our babies to love and protect them. I thought when she was grown the hardest part would be over but it really is not. Once your children are grown, you no longer have the control you thought you once had.

I sent my daughter into the world as a young adult with a set of good values and self worth. So innocent and she still is but she has definitely become her own person. I am very proud of her even when she calls me to say" Mom guess what I'm getting my lip pierced!!" I said No don't do it, please. Well she did and now I have adjusted to her new look and yes she is still beautiful.

Last week she informed me after being home just a few days that she was on her way to get her first tattoo!!! Well not only did she get one but she got two. I told her then, "Your Dad is going to have a fit!!" Blame it on the dad ya know. The tattoos did turn out quite nice and I do like them. And like my mom said, Well at least she can cover them up if she wants to.

She occasionally will go to a party, smoke a cigarette and have a drink. Do I like it? no not really. Can I stop it? No not really. What I can do is remind her of the laws and the cost and effect kind of things and continue to guide her to make wise choices, and thankfully she really does.

Do I think something bad will happen to her? or one of my other children? I pray not. But you know, Life is like the blink of an eye. It was only a few short days ago I was holding her in my arms and rocking her to sleep at night.

I have three other daughters much younger than her, and for now I am in control of where they go and what they do. And I like it this way the best. In two short days they will be going to school and I will miss them dearly. I will be very busy passing these days until spring returns and summer is here again and I can keep them tucked safely under my wings. I of course will still have my little Morgan home with me and this will be a blessing to just be able to spend one on one time with her.

Any how in the meantime I will continue to keep my self busy in peaceful and pleasing ways, creating whatever it is that comes to mind and occupying my time in a positive and productive way. Praying for peace and protection to my children from the harms that have fallen upon so many others in this world we live in. And remind myself that all is in God's hands as it should be and that he will never allow me to deal with more than I can handle. Through him we can all be strong and find peace.

Included today are a few photo's of other ways I keep myself busy other than my jewelry making. I am currently working on a third set of fingerless gloves, hats and scarfs to keep my little ones warm this coming fall and winter while waiting at the bus stop. I hope if nothing else from today's entry you at least enjoy the pictures.

I have taught myself to crochet and I love to paint. The painting is a small portion of what once was an entire wall mural on my daughters bedroom walls. We created a story wall. At night we would tell bedtime stories and the next day I would add an element from the story to our painted wall. The wood burning is on rough lumber from a saw mill nearby and I do these free hand with a hot iron. I also love to paint on this wood, and my husband often in the winter months builds using the planed lengths of wood. He built the adorable cradle for my daughter Morgan and several pieces of our furniture. The last photo of course is of my daughters back and her not one but two tattoos that she is so in love with. And I do like them too, I just hope they don't get infected. LOL That part of me that worries again.

I hope you all have a great labor day and if you'd like to see some of my newly added jewelry, feel free to visit my Etsy shop. Just follow the Etsy mini and take a look. I'll be back in a few days to show off some new items as I'll have lots of time on my hands and will be busy making new items to both sell and for myself. I have some beautiful new carved wood beads sent to me from a dear Friend at Rough Magic Creations. Take a minute and visit there Etsy shop. They make beautiful handcrafted one of a kind jewelry using their own hand carved wooden beads and copper wire work. I can't wait to make something for myself using the beads they gifted to me. They are going to be stunning with my copper work.

Have a great day and remember if you have little ones. Love them and treasure them while you can for before you know it they will be grown and fly from your nest. Blessings. Deedee

Copper Domed Disc Earrings and Pendant

In my last post I had talked about my girls and I making jewelry out on our deck and that I had been working on several new pair of earrings. Well here they are.

The steps to making these started with my disc cutter and sheet copper, these required a bit of filing to smooth the edges, I then stamped them using my metal stamps and domed them. I made several head pins with the heat forged tiny buds on the end and got busy putting them together.

I chose a variety of gemstone beads this time and wire wrapped dangles using copper wire. I then made a the earwires in mostly a traditional shape. I love making the earwires and have to tell you that I have had several of my Etsy customers that are jewelry designers themselves give me huge compliments that my ear wires are the best they have ever purchased. (Pat on the back and big grins.)

After the earrings were completed I added the patina using liver of sulfur, sanded them applied more when needed and removed some when needed until I was happy with the overall effect. A final polish and they were ready to go.

This was quite a task and I will rethink adding the patina to finished earrings and instead probably add the patina before assembling next time. Most had to be taken apart in order to do the job right this time, so it was twice the work and took time I really didn't have to spare.

With 5 small children I have to use my time wisely. lol. Any way I am extremely pleased with these earrings and look forward to making more. The best part is one pair sold just minutes after being listed as well as the pendant I will be adding a photo of. Woohooooo.
The pendant (necklace) is another new design that I was really proud of and I will be making more in the near future.

I hope you all enjoy seeing them and please feel free to contact me through me Etsy shop if you ever have any questions or would like to have something you see here made just for you. Or just leave a comment, I love hearing from you!!!!

To see more of my work take a look at my Etsy mini and visit the store, I'm really proud of the items I list in my Etsy store and only list items of top quality. If it is a second or has a flaw it would be stated in the description and at a greatly reduced price.

Copper Rings, Amber and Purple Necklace

I hope this finds you all enjoying the rest of you summer days, We sure are.

Today my girls and I sat on the deck making jewelry ( Our favorite place ). The girls are learning to make there own bead and wire links using beads that Ruby sent them. Ruby is a very talented artist from the about.com jewelry forum. If you like beaded jewelry Ruby offers many free tutorials and many many links to other free sights for tutorial, she has also written a book that you may find of interest. So check out her sight at http://www.rubysbeadwork.com/

Any way my girls are working on a bracelet and necklace for themselves. I spent my day cutting out copper disc for my new earrings that will be listed in my Etsy shop soon and finished two new necklace that I'll be sharing photo's of here today.

The necklace are made using hammered 8 gauge copper wire formed into rings using a 5/8" and 1" mandrel. I have hammered them then soldered them using sterling silver solder and also soldered them together while adding the bail. After they were soldered and the metal was annealed I put them in the pickle pot to remove the fire scale.
The next step was to stamp them and add the copper chain. The chain consist of two lengths of copper chain then bead links made using copper wire and translucent amber and translucent purple glass beads more copper chain and a matching ring and clasp closure with an added 2" extender chain with a tiny purple teardrop bead, wire wrapped using one of my heat forged bud head pins.
The length of the chain is 18" from clasp to clasp and adjustable to 20. The ring closure and extender chain add such a decorative touch to the back of your neck and looks great if you wear you hair pulled up and your neckline is bare. It's a different look than the average lobster claw clasp and it's fun to look good both coming and going. LOL.
The pendant itself measures 1 3/4" including the bail and has an added fused translucent amber charm on one and a fused translucent purple charm on the other, although it appears black in the photo. Both charms are wire wrapped in copper.

I am so very happy with the way these turned out. I liked the first one so well I had to make the second one. These rings work well for so many of my projects. I have used them in necklace, bracelet and earrings. The few stamps I use are my favorites and even though I have a few more stamps I generally stick with my favorite 3 for embellishing the metal.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing them as I have enjoyed making them.

You can view more of my work by visiting my Etsy mini.

Thanks so much for taking time to visit my little part of the world.

Summer Vacation is Ending.

Well less than two weeks to go and my girls will be going back to school. This makes me soooooo sad. I'm not your normal mom that likes to see this happen. Instead it saddens me deeply to know some one else will be caring for my girls during the day and I'll have a few hours in the evening to spend with them before getting them into bed at night.
Not to mention the influence of the other children and what they may learn that I really don't want them to learn.
I have nine years of public school employment experience as a para pro prior to starting the second half of my family and you would just be amazed to learn as a parent what they don't want you to know. Our public school has an open door policy, meaning you can visit your child's class at any time, after first going to the office to check in and while your on your way to the classroom the office will buzz into the class and let the teacher know you are on your way down to visit. So all is nice and peaceful upon your arrival and little Johnny is no longer wiping glue on your daughters desk or scribbling on your daughters papers and the teacher is no longer yelling at the top of her lungs for everyone to put there heads down because the noise level is out of control.LOL. I say this in a laughing manner but have witnessed this all first hand.
If your an involved parent your sometimes considered a pain in the A## and if you're not a volunteer your often considered uncaring and negligent.
It causes me pain just knowing that no one in this world will care for my children as I do and knowing if they need me I am not there, and also the sadness that my little ones will feel if they indeed do need me to kiss that ouchie when they fall and scrape their knee or if another adult raises there voice and it frightens them.

We did have a wonderful last weekend visiting the Michigan City Zoo. My girls love the animals and the quiet time we share walking around viewing the different animals. The Kodiak bear is still a favorite as are the otters and the viewing tunnel you can sit in and watch the otters slide above you as they slide across the top of the tunnel and slip down the other side.
The following day we took a trip to Michigan's Adventure theme park and of all days to go we went while they were hosting three different corporations and had a record sales day. over 7000 people in the small amusement park, and this was after sitting in a 2 1/2 hour traffic jam to get the last 6 miles of the trip. Luckily our girls were extremely well behaved and very patient. I was really proud of them.
They were able to enjoy several of the rides and visit the water park for a short splash in the kiddie pools. Hannah says it was the best day ever!!!! Morgan had a great time driving her daddy around in the small 50's style cars and Katelyn was proud as punch being able to drive her own car. It really was a fabulous weekend and a great way to spend some fun quality time with our girls.

The Seeded Earth Bead Shop

It's been a while since I've added to my blog so here I am. Hi everyone!

True to my word I have been trying to spend more time with my girls and less time on the computer. I have had a great few weeks watching the girls play more in the yard and playing games with them. The water slide is still a favorite attraction to the girls especially in the heat of the day when we are tired of sitting in the house and need a bit of summertime fresh air. This is when I take time to work on a piece of jewelry, sitting on our deck while the kids slide and splash. They have so much fun on this slide. The downfall to it however is the constant running water from the hose, it's freezing cold and keeps me from joining in on the fun. I'm more of a hot tub person and find this is a great way to end even the hottest summer day. Relaxing for a bit late in the evening with the girls in our hot tub is a great way to end a busy day while spending a bit of quiet time with them before settling in for the night.

I have managed to make several new pieces and have added many of them to my Etsy shop. I also sell my jewelry at a local bead shop that is just wonderful.

The Seeded Earth.
It's a small shop filled with items from other local artist. The owner Kathy makes wonderfully scented handmade soaps, shampoo bars, lip balms and lotions. she also specializes in handcrafted earrings and has a huge selection of beads available to local customers. Some of the artist specialize in woodcarvings, mosaic tiles, mirrors and tables. Tye Dye clothing, ceramics, and bead weaving fill her little shop. It's like taking a step back in time and the atmosphere is just wonderful. I am adding a photo of the outside of the shop for now and will be updating over the next few days with items from the inside of the shop, so be sure to stop back and take a look.

My copper work is progressing and I have made several new pendants with chains. yay!!! along with a new favorite bracelet. I love the link pattern for the bracelet and will be using this for other designs in the future. It lays flat on the wrist and is very comfortable and has a nice adjustable fit. I have created a bezel using mill rolled 14 gauge copper wire and soldering it to a copper base. I chose to leave a copper surround that could be a place to drill the small holes and add my chain to. This has eliminated the need for further soldering so I can focus on the bezels for now. The links are connected with small copper jump rings that I made wrapping the copper wire around a regular good ole shishkabob skewer filed the ends and snapped them shut.

The second bracelet is copper stamped rings that were made by me, I soldered these shut using sterling solder paste, It's wonderful for getting the right amount of solder with very little clean up. I have added to the rings Mother of Pearl nuggets and rings as well as goldstone? glass beads and a brass charm that I clipped off the tiny bail and drilled my own holes to use on the bracelet. Just keep your mind open when searching for supplies because they can be easily reworked to fit your needs.

I hope you like them. Have a great day, and parents- remember to play with your children if only for a few minutes each day. It will warm your heart and bring you smiles.