Loribeads - Lori Peterson

My Kingdom for a Card Reader

2008-05-06T06:22:00.000-07:00

I am in Boston right now and having a fantastic time. Wow! What a beautiful city!!! I have a ton of photos to show but no way to get them into the computer. Wah! I knew I forgot something. Oh well, I will have to show you when I get home. Anyhooooo, I had lots of fun walking around downtown Boston. We even took a tour of the state house and learned lots about the history of Boston and the founding of the country. Interesting stuff. I'm glad I'd watched the John Adams series on HBO because I had at least a vague idea of who these people were that the tour guide was talking about. Mary, our tour guide, was a completely adorable lady with a thick Boston accent. She did a great tour and was quite an animated speaker. I want to do that kind of thing when I get to retirement age. She was so much fun.

Today we are travelling up to New Hampshire. I have purchased a vat of Deep Woods OFF! I am going to slather myself with DEET or whatever that chemical is called. I am totally freaked out about ticks and hear that they are out in full force in NH this spring. Ugh.

The saga continues...

2008-04-25T15:08:00.000-07:00

We are still plugging away on the home improvement front. I wish I had taken before photos so I could show you the before/after progress that's been made. I am very pleased with how much we have gotten done in less than a month. I especially love the new color of the kitchen. We went with a shade of pale beachy green called Beach Bum( www.kellymoore.com ) in a very nice, subtle sheen. The kitchen color before was a color that I had originally planned on being butter yellow but turned out to be more of a sunshine yellow that was just a little too bright, a little too shiny and a lot grating on my last nerve at the end. I gussied it up with a kitchy cat border that I actually liked but wasn't much good for selling so it had to go. The recessed lighting really makes the whole kitchen look so spiffy.

Desiree's room is the next room that received a complete makeover. Gone is the blood red enamel wall. That thing always looked like it was bleeding to me. The inside of the closet was painted the same glossy red so it really looked like the portal to hell. She liked it but I think even she was beginning to tire of it. The whole room is now a peaceful shade of sand and it looks amazing. She also got a new light fixture that, thankfully, doesn't hum every time you turn it on. Progress!

Her bathroom has been repainted the same color (pacific sand - again, from Kelly Moore) and is ready for us to install the new light fixtures, mirror and cabinet.

Gee, it's so pretty that maybe we'll just stay...

My baby is no longer a baby

2008-04-20T12:31:00.000-07:00

Desiree is now officially 21 years old. How did that happen? You know the drill...just yesterday she was toddling around, etc, etc. But, seriously, where did those years go? Now she's a full-fledged adult with a driver's license and everything. Eek.

Work on the house is progressing. We got recessed lights to replace the horrible fluorescent light fixture that Mark has hated ever since it was installed. Why did we have it for so long? I wish we had gone with these lights in the first place and city permit codes be damned!

Desiree and I painted the shutters on the outside of the house last week. They look fantastic. Didn't take us long to finish that job, either. We had a great time, too. Laughing and talking while painting makes work easier, for sure.

So. Very. Tired.

2008-04-08T11:18:00.001-07:00

My husband isn't the 'sit around and veg' kinda guy. He's definitely Type A. I'm more of a Type B-. We have been clearing out all excess clutter and stuff from the house (even the stuff you can't see!) and donating it, recycling it or giving it away. So far, it's been nothing but hard work!

Yesterday I went through the metric ton of books we had stashed away. Well, the kid books, anyway. There were books from when I was a kid in there, too. I whittled it down to only the very favorites (I can't tell you how many times I've read The Little Mermaid) and gave the rest to the new library down the road.

Mark did his part, too. He whittled his collection of DVDs down to levels that reflect merely an obsession rather than an actual addiction. :D The man does like his movies.

I used to collect teapots. I had way too many. I got it down to my five favorites. Everything else goes to Goodwill! I am not a garage sale person. I've had one and it was a total PITA.

I managed to get a few beads done here and there. My torching is mainly done in a couple hours each morning before Mark wakes up and starts cracking the whip.

New Beads

2008-04-02T21:03:00.001-07:00

www.loribeads.etsy.com

Desiree and I are back from Sacramento. She passed the written part of her cosmetology exam! She has to retake the practical part. She only missed it by 25 points. We are very proud of her!

Cha-cha-cha-changes

2008-03-22T14:51:00.000-07:00

Oh boy...we have big things afoot at the Loribeads household! I have been quiet because I've been so busy! Desiree has her cosmetology exam coming up on April 1st so there has been lots of panic, lots of studying, more panic, more studying, etc.
Big news on the driving front! Desiree has conquered FREEWAYS! YAY!!! She even drove highway 17 to Santa Cruz - a drive that makes me want to hurl - with barely a bit of nervousness. I'm so proud. Next month, she turns 21. God, help me.

Mark is home with me for a while. We spent last week fixing up the house and getting it ready to put on the market. We had a real estate agent in on Wednesday and got a listing price set, along with a short list of stuff to do before we list the house. Exciting stuff! The market here is still pretty stable, knock wood, so we are hopeful it will sell soon and we can be on our way! Where? Well, not sure yet but we are thinking Washington state. Desiree is out of school and Mark's work doesn't require us to be here, we've no family in the area and we have an urge to make a change. Change is, of course, scary. But I'm so excited about it, too.

New video on YouTube

2008-03-07T16:17:00.001-08:00

I did a video of me making a bone bead - this time it even comes with narration!!!! YAY!!!

http://www.youtube.com and just type loribeads into the search box.

Lots of new stuff

2008-03-06T15:36:00.001-08:00

I've been making beads! http://www.loribeads.etsy.com/ is where they all are.

In other news...Mark and I are thinking about moving. Maybe the pacific northwest - Washington. I know this is a crappy time to try to sell a house but prices in our area have been holding up pretty well, for now. Who knows how long that will last, though. I have been making beads to try to keep my mind off the sheer number of things I have to do before we even think of putting the house on the market. Cleaning out the garage, for example. *shudder* We've been saving furniture for when Desiree moves out into her own place. TV, a desk, stuff like that. It may have to all go to the charity shop at this point. We are going to need the room, I think. Ack! I'm going to change the subject before I hyperventilate. The good news is, though, that in order to procrastinate on the house stuff, I have moved up the bead stuff to the front burner. LOL!

Leap Year

2008-02-29T17:12:00.000-08:00

Today is the elusive 29th of February which only comes once every four years. I think that's kinda neat. This morning I had a doctor appt. at 9:15am which is pretty early for me these days. I don't have to get up early anymore since Desiree graduated and has her driver's lic. so I have been getting up whenever I please. It was hard to roust my rear out of bed at 7am this morning, I tell you! Anyway, the drive was nice, and the weather is amazing here right now. It was a little foggy this morning but it burned off by noon and turned into another absolutely gorgeous day.

I am doing orders right now and, happily, they are all for beads I absolutely love. That makes me a happy little beadmaker. *sigh* I'm a lucky woman.

2008-02-22T16:09:00.000-08:00

Sorry I've been boring lately. Last weekend we got a PS3 and the Ratchet and Clank game. Des and I have been very, very busy with that for the past week. Oh, and we are catching up on the previous seasons of Lost. OMG. How did I miss this show. It's awesome!

I did manage to make some beads though:

Just a picture today...

2008-02-19T11:34:00.000-08:00

Good weather = good beads

2008-02-15T11:48:00.000-08:00

I love making the Puppy beads. They just make me happy.
I finally went to the doctor about my back, got a stronger Motrin Rx for the pain and I finally feel human again. YAY! I was able to make some really cute beads at the torch yesterday. Hopefully I will finish wiring them up today so I can take pictures tomorrow.
The weather has been amazing lately. The sun is shining and the sky is the most beautiful shade of periwinkle blue. For some reason, the beads always turn out just a bit better and come just a little easier when the weather is good. It's good torching weather right now. I think I will go take advantage of the sweet smelling breeze before the gardeners come with their noisy blowers later this afternoon.

Backs are bogus sometimes

2008-02-12T13:47:00.000-08:00

Ok, so, this back thing is starting to get on my nerves. Everything I do takes longer. I look like a 90 year old woman trying to get in and out of the little Eclipse I drive. If you are wondering why it is taking me so long to finish orders, mail stuff out, etc. it is because of this dang back! I am running at least a week behind in everything. Blech! If you need something right away, email me. I am checking my email at least twice a day. Unfortunately, the computer chair has become an instrument of torture for me right now. Every time I sit at it, my back seizes up and when I try to walk afterward, I am hunched over like - you guessed it - a 90 year old woman.

Ok, back to laying down.

OK. I'm older.

2008-02-04T12:32:00.000-08:00

I had a birthday over the weekend (go groundhogs!) and I was not having a problem with it... much... until my back went out. Now I feel old. :( I was vacuuming the kitty condo and it just pulled the wrong way. Blech.

Mark and Des took me to the Tanglewood restaurant in Santana Row for my birthday. It was yummy and we all had great table conversation about science, politics, history and such. It's nice to have family time together and have everybody get along so well.

I also managed to make some beads this weekend...

So. Much. Fun.

2008-01-28T13:29:00.001-08:00

I had a completely fabulous time at Kim's this weekend!!! I feel like my creative batteries are up to full power again. We had a great time and we even made beads. I miss her already.

It's been raining here like crazy and Friday night, when I was driving up to Kim's house (about 2 hrs north of me) they closed one of the freeways due to flooding! I was in the middle of NOWHERE and had no idea how to get around the flooded area. What a mess. I have a GPS (which I have named GyPSy) who just kept telling me to make a U-turn and get back on the freeway. Uh, no can do, Gypsy. What now? I would drive a mile or two down the road and see if Gypsy would re-route me using some other route besides 101, which was closed. Nope, no matter what I did, she just kept telling me to get back on 101. I swore a bit. I swore a bit more.

I should probably mention that I was driving around in the pouring rain, in pitch black hills in an area I am completely unfamiliar with and armed with nothing but a cantankerous GPS, a cell phone and a sketchy route map printed off from Yahoo maps. I have been driving for 2 hours and still have a long way to go. I finally pulled over in between a long line of cars, filled with people trying to figure out what to do now, and called Kim for help. Notice...I am not crying....yet.

Kim manages to point me in the right direction, backtracking a bit and taking another, much smaller highway that circumvents part of the flooded area. Still not crying. Close, though, very close. I backtrack a few miles, feel vaguely sorry for myself but also renewed with optimism that I might actually get to my final destination.

Ok, so on the smaller highway...oh my... kinda narrow, very dark and scary. I finally allowed Gypsy to speak again and she was helpful this time, not asking me to make a gosh-dang U-turn but rather confirming Kim's instructions and promising to do better in the future.

That is the only reason there is not a slightly smashed GPS sitting on the side of the road somewhere in Sonoma county.

I heart my friends!

2008-01-25T12:00:00.000-08:00

I am going up to visit my friend Kim ( http://www.kimbeads.com ) and we are going to spend the weekend recharging our creative batteries. She has two torches set up and we are going to have a good ol' time!

She drives!

2008-01-16T21:26:00.000-08:00

After FIVE (5!) attempts, Desiree finally has her driver's license!!!! YAYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!

Don't worry, she's a good driver - just a horrible test taker. Today, though, she didn't freak out. She took her time and didn't get flustered. There has never been a happier pair of people on the planet than when she ran up to me with that big smile on her face after her test. I don't know which of us was happier. I think it might have been me. :)

I made beads yesterday!!! I have to clean them but I want to give you a little peek at something new I did...

So, the LASIK is wonderful. I can see perfectly. I did have to pick up some reading glasses, though. I used them to finish a book I was reading. Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time is an awesome book, by the way. I really enjoyed it. I mean, it made my head explode a couple times and it was slow reading because I have NO physics education whatsoever but I feel like I understand things a bit better now...and maybe a little less than before as well. Like it causes you to ask questions you hadn't thought of asking before. It was a good book.

I lub hearts

2008-01-14T18:52:00.001-08:00

I do love hearts. I remember last year when I finally learned how to make them consistently well, I was soooo happy! Now I can make them with the hole going either horizontally or vertically. Sweet! I make them throughout the year now, especially since my daughter likes to wear one all the time and has a habit of losing them. :)

Speaking of losing things...she got an MP3 player for Christmas, really cool one that had a spiffy full color screen, played videos and everything. Well, it's lost. Already. She has torn the house apart trying to find it. Anybody out there with any psychic ability?

OMG. I can SEE!

2008-01-09T17:24:00.000-08:00

I had LASIK yesterday and when I woke up this morning, I could SEE! Thank you Dr. Manche & staff!!!

I went up to Stanford yesterday afternoon and the whole thing took less than an hour. It was never more than a bit uncomfortable and when the procedure was done, I sat up and burst into tears of joy! I could see without glasses! YAY!!!

I went back and had my eyes tested today and I have 20/15 vision. That's better than 20/20! It is also WAY better than I could see WITH glasses. Amazing. Totally amazing.

I even made some beads today.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-02T12:32:00.000-08:00

Although 2007 was pretty good, I am looking forward to an even better 2008! Last year was a bit of a holding pattern year for us, waiting for Des to graduate and all. Now I am freed up from driving back and forth for over 2 hours a day and I no longer have to get up at 7am! YAY!!! I am toying with the idea of either making the bead business a full time endeavor or getting a job of some sort to fill the time. Haven't decided yet.

Tuesday I am going in for LASIK!!! I cannot wait to be able to see without glasses or contacts. One of the bummers of having the surgery is that you can't wear contacts for days before the measuring tests and the actual surgery. I feel like I've been wearing these yucky glasses for the better part of a month and it totally sucks!

Well, I got my beads back from the bead shop in Ohio ... practically all of them! Oh well, at least now I have lots of beads to put up on Etsy. I've been putting them up over the holidays and will continue to do so through my eye surgery and recovery. I've made a few new beads over the holidays but mostly I just hung out with Mark and Des.

The holidays were very nice, although I wouldn't call them restful. LOL! Mark is a 'get it done' kind of guy and holiday or no, he wanted to keep busy. We finished MANY lingering household fix up type things. I have beautiful new knobs on all my kitchen cabinets, for one thing.

Anyway, check out the Etsy store and help me pay for the really cute purse I just bought. LOL! Have a great week!

Good Times

2007-12-18T14:19:00.000-08:00

Monday, I went to the pre-op appointment at Stanford. They did about a million scans of my eyes and I am all ready to go! My surgery is scheduled for January 8th. I can't wait! I have just about gone nuts having to wear glasses every day and not being able to torch. Today I have contacts on again!!! YAYYYYYY!!!!

This morning I got to sleep in until 10 am. OMG. You have no idea how good it felt. Desiree got up early and fed the pets for me so I could sleep in. *love*

We went to her school and picked up her official diploma today and I have mailed out her application to take the state board exam. All we can do now is wait. Well, practice and wait. :)

Hiatus

2007-12-13T20:58:00.000-08:00

I'm on a beadmaking hiatus right now. I still have lots of beads to list but I'm not making any new ones for a while. Why? Well, actually, it's quite exciting. I'm getting LASIK eye surgery! I have my pre-op appointment on Monday and I haven't been able to wear my contacts all week. Ugh. I hate wearing glasses. Also, since I don't have Rx flameworking glasses, I can't torch until I have surgery and my eyes are done healing.

I figured it might be good to have some time away from the torch since there is so much going on around here. Desiree graduates from cosmetology college tomorrow. FOR REAL!!! I can't believe how proud I am of her. She has worked harder on this than anything else...ever! She has studied, practiced and stuck to it through thick and thin.

I am just overwhelmed with pride at how much she has matured in the past year, the past six months in particular. There have been the regular young-adult blips in judgement here and there but, finally, she has been learning from them and making changes accordingly.

Next week, she has her driving test scheduled so if you could light a candle for her or whatever you think seems appropriate, please do. We need all the good mojo we can muster at this point. She's a great driver but a lousy test taker.

Well, I wish you all a happy Chanukah and a Merry Christmas! Take care all...

Just pictures again

2007-12-06T08:34:00.001-08:00

I'm doing my books this week and I don't want to kill your holiday mood with my grumpy rants about how much I hate paperwork so just look at the pretty beads and I will be back next week in a much better mood. :)

Festive!

2007-11-28T14:01:00.000-08:00

I've been making holiday beads!

Moral of the story: Simple doesn't always equal easy.

2007-11-27T14:19:00.000-08:00

Ok, so, my friends are a wonderfully wacky bunch of gals. Kim is world famous for her "How hard can it be?" approach to life. This little project was the one Linda, Kim and I tackled on Friday. Cute, huh? Well, it took ALL DAY and three soldering irons. Seriously. Three. The first one Kim had ordered online with the glass slides, solder, and copper tape. It was D.O.A. so we hopped in the car and took a trip to Michael's (and Starbucks...mmmmm) and got another soldering iron-like device that was actually more of a wood burning device, as it turns out. Well, we managed to burn through the tip after only a few passes through the solder.

Off to the hardware store! (And another trip to Starbucks....mmmmm) We got an actual soldering iron this time and *bonus* it was also equipped with a tip meant for jewelry making! YAY! Well, yeah...not so much. The tip managed to crap out on us before Linda had finished making hers.

How hard can it be? Pretty fricken hard, aparently. LOL! Still, we had so much fun and laughed like idiots all day long. I love my friends. They are the best.

More owls at Etsy!