Sterling Bliss

This is a (poor) picture of a beautiful commissioned piece I finished recently – the client had some silver wire, and asked me to make it into chain for her. She came over, we designed it together, and incorporated some of her gorgeous Tahitian black pearls – to represent each of her three children. The chain incorporates her own silver wire and some goldfill wire of mine – the “pendant” of chain and pearls is removeable, and on either side of the necklace you can see 2 pr of earrings, one shorter for more options. She seemed very happy, and I thought it turned out quite nicely. The picture was intended more as a record than an example of photographic excellence, taken with my Panasonic DMC-TZ3 point-and-shoot, but the finished piece is so nice I’m hoping that shows through.

I have been getting into photography, or at least the idea of it, as my pro camera body does not at this time, actually work. Mr. Ken Wyatt generously made room in his busy schedule to come over yesterday and take some AMAZING photographs of some of my things – it was SO exciting to see a professional at work, and he gave me lots and lots of tips and techniques – worth every penny and more besides! (If you’d like to see some of his amazing work, go to www.wyattphoto.com, or check out this photo of my new heat-patinated copper and sterling earrings. Yummy!!)

My new endevours have included burnt copper earrings, heat-patinated copper earrings, and more in the Discs Unite! series (different size options). I have also been experimenting with different metals (Titanium, Niobium, Aluminum) for the permanent color options they offer. No photos as of yet. I was motivated to directly address my image quality when I received the (sad but not yet hopeless) news that I have been waitlisted for the Downtown Denver Arts Festival – my first big show ever, which I got into last year with the same photos that reflected poorly on me this year! Waitlisted means someone else needs to drop out before they’ll let me in, or in other words, I’m on the “B” list. :( I also applied for the Commonwheel Co-op in Manitou last month – very excited about that opportunity, but unfortunately they chose not to choose anyone at this time. The feedback I’ve gotten is that my image quality does not reflect well on my work. The BAD news is that it is, right now, time to apply to all those fun fairs and festivals for the summer, and I have not the photos to do it with, nor the camera body to take them with. Thanks the heavens for Ken Wyatt!! So right now I have some amazing photos, and some not so amazing – I look forward to finding another camera body, and to all of my website looking more professional!

Be well, be happy and fer heaven’s sake be healthy!!

Blessings,

Susan “Sam” Kaffine
Sterling Bliss

So, there’s this new product (well, it’s been around since 1996, but it’s new to me!) on the market that you will be hearing a lot about. The short story is that Argentium silver is tarnish resistant and firescale-free, meaning it is easier to keep clean and it stays shiny longer.

The long, involved and incredibly interesting story is that Peter Johns, a professor of silversmithing at England’s Middlesex University, invented Argentium sterling silver in response to a request from a manufacturer who asked that someone figure out how to use their byproduct germanium. Mr. Johns replaced a small percentage of the copper (which is added to pure silver to make it harder but unfortunately tarnishes and produces firescale in response to heat) with germanium, producing a sterling (92.5% pure silver, remainder copper and germanium) which is tarnish resistant, more malleable than traditional sterling, easier to fuse and weld, and tolerated by some people who are allergic to traditional sterling silver.(1) How wonderful!!

Drawbacks? It won’t take, or is extremely resistant to patinas, which means you won’t see it in any of my hammered or stamped rings. Argentium is slightly more expensive than traditional sterling silver, and has been anecdotely reported (no studies yet) to OCCASIONALLY turn skin black – this is usually related to the use of sunscreen, and by a very small percentage of people who have tried it. We don’t know why yet – the infrequency suggests hormonal or chemical properties of certain people’s sweat. It is fragile to move while under a torch’s heat, and most of the literature recommends keeping seperate files, cutters, picks, soldering boards, pickle pot and sanding paper for your Argentium, so as not to introduce microscopic particles of copper and/or traditional sterling, which may compromise the tarnish resistance of the Argentium. Quelle pain! (I have trouble keeping my two sterlings seperate, especially once they go into the tumber to shine up, but I hope to get a handle on that by tagging, labeling and keeping more records.) The only other drawback I’ve seen is that the “official” Argentium stamp, which you ought to use on Argentium pieces to prove they are truly Argentium, is a esoteric flying unicorn – honestly, does that say “tarnish resistant” to you? – and costs $85, as opposed to a stamp which says “sterling” or “.925” for $14.

On the other hand, the lack of firescale is truly a godsend to people like me, who HATE sanding out the faint reddish tinge that can go layers deep into sterling, in response to a torch’s heat. And it FUSES to itself, whch means, if you are careful with your prep and get your edges perfectly filed flat, there is no need to introduce solder, which is a metal of lesser melting temp, therefor lower silver content, used to “cement” sterling edges together, to make a ring, for example. Having no solder means no filing, or less filing, bumps of excess material, and no seam of another color, which may tarnish at a different rate than the rest of the object. It’s just beautiful, if you ask me.

So how does it work? SO glad you asked. Silver is oxygen permeable, which means that while you wouldn’t want to breathe through it, oxygen does move through it very slowly. So, and I don’t get the technicalities of this, while traditional sterling silver is buffed or tumbled to harden and shine, by subtle realignment of the surface molecules, Argentium sterling is HEATED in an oven to bring the germanium oxide to the surface, forming an oxygen (and therefor tarnish) resistant layer to the surface. As I understand this, and more study on my part is needed, this process takes 20 minutes at 250*, while heat hardening requires 45 minutes at 580*.(2) (There have been different reports, different studies done, but Cynthia Eid is generally recognized as the expert in Argentium sterling, so I go with her recommendations.) But both of these actions simple jump-start the process, as Argentium’s tarnish resistance increases with exposure to oxygen. So the longer you wear it, the more tarnish resistance it displays. I wish the same could be said of MY properties – how cool would it be if your teeth got whiter as you aged, your hair darker, naturally? Hell, why not go all the way – your middle would get slimmer, your joints more flexy – I want to be made of Argentium!!

Well, thanks for listening. You can tell I’m pretty excited about this alloy – I welcome comments and questions, but unfortunately have not yet figured out how to open that application in this forum. So email me at sam@sterlingbliss.com – I’d love to hear from you.

Blessings, and here’s to “younging” instead of aging – my thought for the day!!

Susan “Sam” Kaffine
sam@sterlingbliss.com

(1) “Road Testing Argentium Sterling” by Cynthia Eid, September 2006 (www.ganoksin.com/borisat/nenam/argentium-testing.htm)
(2) ibid

and if you had told me I would EVER use a footnote after leaving college, even incorrectly, I would have told you that you were utterly and completely insane. All right, all right – I’ll admit that SOME of that crap can be useful, after all.

Hi all! Was your holiday season as strenous as mine was? I’d say I couldn’t wait to pack it all away, but in point of fact my cards are awaiting pen yet, so…the tree is down, the wrapping paper is packed away, but I still have Christmas cards yelling at me. After I send out a “post holiday letter”, THEN the holidays will be over for me. Is that a sign of getting older, that the holiday season more resembles a marathon than a wonder-filled treat? I suspect that’s EXACTLY what it is. Eh, so I’m getting older. Only smart people get older, you know. It’s an evolutionary system that works for me, so far!!
I am excited to ring in the new year, hoping that I can use all the things I’ve been studying and learning for a more prosperous, healthier, happier and more peaceful year than the last. What have I been learning, you ask?? SO glad you did – I have taken some accounting classes, some organizational workshops and books, resulting in a more efficient office space. (Also resulting in the concrete goal of hiring someone else to do the books!) I have reached a new plateau in soldering, with the use of an Optivisor (it is truly amazing how much better I am when I can see!), so expect more soldered and fabricated items to appear on the site. I have purchased an entire photography set-up and I CAN’T WAIT to start taking better pictures of my jewelry. Tomorrow I begin – today I am completing an application for Commonwheel Co-op, a highly respected and active local artists co-op – cross your fingers for me!! And I now have a daily schedule, for better focus and productivity. And more frequent blogs, I’m sure. Wednesday is the day for webiste updating, so I shall tackle the inability to receive feedback on my blog, on that day. Meantime, should you wish to contact me for anything – orders, questions, comments, rants, WHATEVER, send it to sam@sterlingbliss.com and I shall post it here for you. Thanks so much, and blessings – Sam

This is a cuff I created for my first project in a jewelry class. I learned a lot, and turned out fairly happy with the end result, although the lessons learned made me happier. The idea was to reticulate some silver, but I didn’t realize reticulation silver is different from sterling – Lesson #1. I took some bench dust and balls of silver, fused them to the sterling, then ran them through the rolling mill to flatten for the “moonscape” effect. (Lesson #2 – I NEED a rolling mill – what a super cool tool!!) Then I domed the silver piece slightly. Next I drilled pilot holes and sawed star shapes into the copper – freehand (Lesson #3 Freehand is for OTHER people. BAD idea) Soldering the metal (don’t remember the gauge but it is heavy duty – Lesson #4 keep production notes on ALL pieces) together was problematic, as the school’s acetylene torches didn’t seem to give me the heat I needed, even ran two at a time. We finally fired up the oxy-acetylene torch that was “too hot” for everyone else and I felt like a brain surgeon – flame being 6500* and the size of a thread. (Lesson #5 I ran out and bought the super-scooby Smith Little Torch kit that I’ve been contemplating for a year. Better tools=happier smith.) The plan was to run a heavy gauge sterling wire around the piece, but I kept burning it up, no matter what torch I used. The copper piece took so long to heat up that the wire just kept melting on me. After 6 tries and numerous curses I recalibrated the plan (Lesson #6 um… Silver melts at lower temp. than copper – SURELY I’ve read that somewhere!) I could have used lighter copper, or tried again, but was running out of time, so it is what it is. Not, I’m pretty sure, the lesson I was supposed to have learned there – smiths I admire would have stayed late, redid the cuff, did whatever to ensure the original version happened. I took the class specifically to get over 8 years of torch phobia – achieving greater torch abilities would have dovetailed right in. Instead I settled. Get over it.
My next step was to patina the copper a deep ethereal blue using ammonia in a sealed container – and here’s where it got interesting. Because of the repeated and I mean REPEATED heating of the copper (??), even though it was pickled clean it didn’t pick up ANY patina – remained copper colored. Instead, the SILVER turned blue (I have read that was an impossible color to create on silver – light blue that is). After much head scratching, the instructor and I decided it must be the bench filings – instead of pure silver, I had used mixed dust, including copper and gold fill – they must have
reacted with the ammonia. Last step – I textured the copper for a “weatherbeaten” look – basically because I’m lazy and I HATE polishing, but also because it seemed to go with the piece.
Well, that’s my cuff. The last lesson learned? Lesson #7 – cuff bracelets are UNCOMFORTABLE – or maybe they just need to be extra long to fit my large bones. I’ll know with the next one.

Why is it that the days fly by faster towards the end of the year? Is it just that the days are shorter, or that there’s more to do w/ school starting, holidays approaching, or is it just the nature of things? I have a feeling it mimicks age – the older we get, the faster the years fly by – that’s how it seems to me.
Well, the days ARE shorter – I had no idea that holiday fairs and festivals fill up by March, so I have less to do than I’d hoped – a lesson for next year. Just returned from burying my paternal grandmother and visiting family – I’m sort of in that in-between place, somewhere between the perfectly rational existence I’ve created for myself and the emotional turmoil that is Family Land. I met a fabulous jeweler in Cayucas, CA – McLean Designs now carries my chain, so I get to add CA to my list of represented areas – what is that now, 7 down, 43 to go? I may have mis aimed that goal – it’s not the states on the list, it’s the money in the mail. Or something like that.
Hubby is doing well, safe but bored in Iraq, and I am house hunting! I’ve also decided I need to go to school. Big changes ahead – I’ll post more when I’m more firmly entrenched in Logic Land. Blessings – Sam

Greetings to any and all. I can’t believe it’s fall already!! I have FINALLY found the wherewithall to rephoto my jewelry – I’m loving the brilliant green backgrounds, but have no idea how I’ll keep this up here in the mountains, where winter lasts… oh, about 8 months. Seriously. My tomato plants are still in bloom (boy are they in for a surprise right quick!!). Yes, school buses are awakening from their summer hibernation, children are crawling out of the woodwork, weekend camping forays are taking on the edge of desperation, and…oh hell, what do I care – I work from home!! I get to wear BOOTS and KNITS and thrift store CASHMERE and VELVET! That’s right – it’s the scrumptious textiles time of year!! (And I am SO into grey this fall – I want grey boots or booties, and grey patent platform pumps, and grey nail polish, and just everything in a rich, medium blue-grey – I’ll even take heathered grey if I have to! To assuage this urgent need, I have purchased….the nail polish. And some eyeshadow called “Dove”. We’ll see where that takes us. Although I bet I could talk my husband into buying me grey booties, just because of the name. Hehe.)
I have some new weaves for your enjoyment (and mine, let’s be honest, I’m forever trying them out), namely the Persian and the European 4-in-1, and the Denver Bead Show is coming to town – always the high point of my season.
In the spirit of the season (cabin fever season, that is), I have purchased a 4 drawer filing cabinet off Craig’s List, and am organizing, starting with anything on paper. My goal is to create a place for every little thing, and my mantra has become, “everything has a home.” Now when I see STUFF lying around, there is a 50% chance that I know EXACTLY where it should be, and I can put it there. I say 50% because I am still in the process of organizing. I tell you what though, I feel (50%) better about my clutter, and the prospect of living amongst it all winter long.It’s a good feeling.

If you feel like getting out, and enjoying our beautiful weather while we still have it, I will be at the Holly Berry House, at Rock Ledge Ranch, Sept. 18-20, then at the Art of Living Show at Rich Living Designs the following Saturday, Sept. 26.

Further shows will be posted here first, emailed out to my faithful mailing list next. Drop me a line if you’d like to be added to the list – I don’t sell or share your info, and I send out show updates 3-4 times a year. Thank so much, and happy harvest!!

Susan “Sam” Kaffine
720.320.8420
sam@sterlingbliss.com

ps let me know if you prefer the leafy backgrounds or the plain white – I could use the feedback. Thanks!!

Hi y’all. I am participating in some pretty exciting art shows and festivals this summer –

May 22-26       Downtown Denver Arts Festival (www.DowntownDenverArtsFestival.com)

May 30-June 3   ACRE, Las Vegas, NV ( www.acrelasvegas.com)

June 26-28      Vail Arts Festival, Vail, CO (www.vailartsfestival.com)

July 18-19      Evergreen Summerfest ( www.evergreenarts.org/summerfest2009.htm)

I have a few more shows that I’d like to attend, notably the Commonwheel Artist Festival in Manitou in September, and the Mountain Artists Festival in Woodland Park, CO in August. I suppose I should go ahead and APPLY if I actually want to participate, huh? I’ll let you know if I get accepted.

If you know of or especially enjoy attending any art fairs or festivals in your area, please drop me a line. There are so many festivals that I only hear about after they’re done, or the day they happen!

Thanks, and I hope to see you at one of these fabulous shows!!

Susan (Sam) Kaffine

WOW – not only is it July, but I guess I missed a few months in there – haven’t posted in awhile. Oops. Well, the Vail Arts Festival was GGGGReat – met some absolutely wonderful people, made a few sales, made a few friends. A wonderful experience, and gorgeous!?! Plus you couldn’t find a bad meal there – even the take-out was amazing. The Las Vegas show for me was more of an educational experience than profitable. I learned a lot, though, and took notes. Tomorrow is the Summerfest, so you know I have plenty to do, but I just wanted to check in and say thanks for reading – I’ll write more when I have the time.

Well, how is YOUR spring going? Mine is, well, abundant. So far this month I have spent a(nother) week in Santa Fe – I was the “Nutha Mutha” for my best friend’s 8 yr. old twins. Being a mom is scary!! All that responsibility – I swear I didn’t get one good night’s sleep – I kept worrying about oversleeping, what to cook for dinner the next night, what if I scar them psychologically, what if the solar panels blow over in the wind, or the dog runs away, or the mice get out of the cage, or…you get the picture. I think probably you get used to it, and sleep, eventually, but as a single person, or “nonMom”, I just never realized the depth of the worry. It must be like the Taos hum – always present to one degree or another, but ignored for the sake of sanity. Or maybe I just think too much – I’ve been told that.
Then I had a week at home, trying to “burglar-proof” it – the theft of my motorcycle last spring has impacted me negatively. My good friend Kati, who is a saint, came by to open and close drapes – she even left footprints in fresh snow so the house looked lived in! I felt so much better knowing she was looking after our house while I was in CA. I went for a week, to spend Easter with my family. It was amazing, especially because I always work myself into a froth before a family visit, dredging up the ghosts of conflicts past, and it’s NEVER as bad as I remember. I split wood with my dad, visited my grandmothers, played with my little niece, talked with my mom – it was the nicest Easter I’ve had in a long time. I got to see my sister’s new house – if you are in need of an excellent realtor in the Sacramento region, I highly recommend Kat Kelly. I just had a great time. I guess we’ve all spent enough time elbowing each other out of our respective spaces, that we know the boundaries now. Or maybe we’re just older and a little more patient with each other. Whatever the reason, I am nothing short of blessed.
What else, you ask? Well, I have signed up with Wholesalecrafts.com – Sterling Bliss will be represented there for wholesale purchase the globe over – I’m also doing the wholesale show in Las Vegas in June – verrry exciting! And I was accepted to the Vail Fine Arts Festival, and on standby for the Telluride Festival. I’ll post show dates on my website here when they’re finalized.
Any thoughts, ideas or comments? I’d love to hear from you – it’s somehow easier to speak when you know someone is listening.
One last thought here on my side. I’ve been thinking about faith. I responded to a post to the Ganoskin blog from someone who was taking a leap of faith in their business, and I wrote (for my benefit as well as hers) that if taking the leap, to follow your heart, were easy, everyone would do it and it would be commonplace. But it isn’t. Because it’s difficult, and it’s scary. I have noticed that the people who make it big, who get rich, who invent things, who make a name for themselves – they’re the ones who don’t quit. They take the big risk, and they pick themselves up if (when) they get knocked down, and they try again. Yeah, we’ve all heard this before. But, you know, you never read that people on their deathbeds wish that they’d been more cautious. So maybe that’s something we could all hear again, and again. Until it sinks in, and we ALL follow our dreams, and support each other in that scariness. It’s like spring in the Rockies, you know. I am TIRED of snow, and hail, and more snow, and it seems like buds and sunshine will NEVER come – except that somewhere under that heavy white stuff, little green spears are already stubbornly inching towards the sun. They have faith that the snow will melt, that the sun will shine, that the world has everything they require to fulfill their life’s mission. I guess I can aspire to the same faith that a blade of grass has.
Happy Spring, and Blessings in your journey.

Susan (Sam) Kaffine
sam@sterlingbliss.com

Well, here we are, at the cusp of spring already. Winter didn’t seem as endless for me this year – perhaps because while it was cold, it didn’t snow all that much, or perhaps because I had an indoor job this winter – that’ll take the edge off, I tell you what!! No chain-saw cutting in the snow, no Camelback frozen solid, no numb ass, well, apart from those long, arduous days making beautiful jewelry, NCIS on in the background, my husband coming in every few hours to kiss me on the forehead. Yeah, I love my new life. Unfortunately, my learning curve has been steep, and while I am oodles ahead of where I WAS, I am not yet where I wish to be. So soon I shall be looking for a part-time job, to bolster his retirement check, to contribute something financial to our lives together. I’m bummed but not broken, you could say. By this time next year, I plan to be a fully self-sufficient jeweler, answerable to no one but you, my customer.

On the YAY!! side, I did speak to a few places in Santa Fe and in Taos when I went visiting last month, and I have a few more venues. Crown Jewels in Santa Fe is a little piece of wonderland – enter this establishment and you are immediately encouraged to don a tiara – how cool is that I LOVE this shop, LOVE the owner Shanna and very much look forward to seeing my jewelry selling like hotcakes there. I sold a few bracelets to Emily Ruffin’s shop in Taos – she called me yesterday to say she may have an order for another, which is just cool-diddly-awesome (my usual expressions of enthusiasm, left over from 8 years of fighting fire and hanging w/ the guys, tend to look somewhat crass in print, so we are exploring new avenues of expression :) – the other shop which really impressed me in Taos has a two page WAITING LIST of jewelers wanting to be represented. All I could do was say meekly “thank you”, and “please add me to the list”. Someday – I guess I have something to look forward to there, huh? Someone here in town mentioned Wholesalecrafts.com to me – I am TOTALLY going to apply for admission there – and do the Las Vegas wholesale show – cross your fingers for me. Could be the big time! And then there is Donalee Designs in WI - I met her in the fall and she asked for some things on consignment for this spring, so I do have work to do, sales to make, and hope to be had. I’ll keep you informed – in the meantime, it’s time to go make stuff! Look for some new bracelets next week, and think of Sterling Bliss for you gift-giving needs, your wedding parties, your presents-to-self – I’m here for your custom jewelry needs!

Blessings, Sam

ps – web links to new venues to appear shortly. Write me with any ideas, requests, or funnies that tickle you – Sam

WOW - I have had the best February in my memory. I drove down to Santa Fe, NM, to my old stomping grounds, to visit friends, restock galleries, attend a Xocai launch, and visit my favorite thrift stores. (I know, but you have no idea how good thrifting can be until you go to high-income areas with great style.) I came home with 3 new venues for my work, two in Taos and one in Santa Fe, a couple of pounds of Xobiotic chocolate (healthy stuff for the guts, dont’cha know), MANY JJill cashmere sweaters which are new-to-me, and a renewed connection to some of my dearest friends on the planet. I wrote in my journal by the side of a beautiful river, sampled some excellent wines (thanks, Black Mesa!), ate sushi and New Mexican food, marvelled at the spare beauty of Los Alamos, Taos, Alburquerque and mostly just enjoyed Santa Fe.
I realized a few things. The first is that I am phenomenally lucky to have some of the nicest, coolest people I have ever met to love and care for me. Claire, Phil, Kathryn, Zoe, Ruth, Suzy, Steve, – I love you guys. You people my happy place.
The second is that I am not a Coloradan by heart, only by circumstance, and while there are few places as beautiful and wonderful as Colorado, at times I need a shot of funky, or my mojo begins to weaken. Apparently right-wing conservatism is my Kryptonite. Not that I mind it on a personal level – I have friends, and a husband, who are right-wing conservative – it’s just that, as an artist, I guess I need an occasional atmosphere of weirdness, of “artsy-fartsy” (as my husband terms it) of acceptance/approval for being different. So I return home, recharged, rebirthed, re-re-re-ready!! to follow my path, make the leaps of faith inherent to being a working artist, to learn and to grow and to create.
And on that note, I’m off! (in more ways than one!) to make some stuff. Happy February, and may your month bring you renewed energy, happy tummies and beautiful moments! Blessings, Sam

Hello out there!! My husband, bless his soul, wasn’t happy with the speed of our computer, so he signed us up for a different provider. Email now takes up 20 minutes of my time, instead of an hour. The computer is so fast and effortless, I am encouraged to keep up with you, dear reader, and to update this site with a wider offering of jewelry, price points and choices. Choices are good, dontcha think?
I am currently fighting my tool addiction – have found a very precise and hot new torch for 1/2 of retail, brand new, here in Colorado Springs, and I WANT IT. Notice I didn’t say that I needed it. I HAVE a torch, not so precise, not so hot, and I hate using it. I am currently working on a custom ring (not my first, but my first to sell) and I want to add rings to my site, but I HATE this torch. So I shall try to make do with some smaller tips – nahhh, F. it, I’m buying a new torch. Yesterday, while fooling around with my old one, I practised fusing fine silver – way more fun than soldering, with no flux, no solder to worry about – at just the precise instant where the silver melts, you pull the heat away, and your PERFECTLY flush ends join on their own. Like buttah, I tell you. I’m averaging one in three success – the other two melt. My learning curve, what can I say?
So, in the interest of catching up, since I last posted I have turned 40 (no big deal), impaled my foot on my bent-nose pliers (OUCH), and had my first grandchild (husband’s a little older than me – his daughter had her first girl, and we have a BEAUTIFUL little baby named Saxon Grace in the family. BIG Happy Happy!!)

Oh, and I got a Wii for my birthday and I am totally obsessed with Rayman’s Raving Rabbids.
So that’s my news – check back here for more next month – I’ll let you know if I possess a new piece of equipment! I have (drumroll please) just enabled the “comments” section of the blog – didn’t know it was disabled, but there again is my learning curve. So, dear reader, should you care to comment on my site, my work, my words, whatevah, do so – after reading your comment to be sure you are not spamming, swearing or spitting, I shall post it posthaste. (Get it, post..posthaste, ummm…. never mind. I’m off to shoot rabbids with musical plungers.)

Well, it’s fall already – can you believe it?? There is snow already on Pike’s Peak – I can see it from my kitchen window as I make tea every morning – and the hummingbirds have either decamped or found better red stuff elsewhere. Where did the summer go?! One of the bummers of selling (the only bummer, so far) is that you have to think three months ahead, minumum. So in my head, I’m thinking Christmas – as in, how to market my products for Christmas, in time to DO it by Christmas. So I guess, in my mind, it’s almost Spring! (Just a few dark snowy months to get through.)
I just participated in Woodland Park’s Oktoberfest; an excellent opportunity to sip (or guzzle!) beer while strolling vendors with the whole family – not the darkened half-shameful bar atmosphere that we seem to do here in America. I visited England a few times, and I am really impressed with their family pubs – Grandma sipping beer with the neighbors while kids play musical instruments in the corner, littler ones playing tag through the garden. It seemed like an extended living room – one you could leave for the privacy of your own home whenever you’d had enough socializing.
I’m rambling, I guess. Nothing much to say, still recovering from doing two shows in 3 days, I made some very happy money but now need to move on to the next thing – doing something with this website!! First order – find out where all my blogs migrated to. Grrr more later,
Sam

Ahhh, the last day of June – a blog is (over)due. Well, my personal life is all drama, per usual, AND I have discovered a new passion!! A new passion? You may well ask, but one moment, and all will be clear!! I have recently been introduced to HEALTHY CHOCOLATE. Oh yeah, you read that right. I have not had chocolate in the two years it has been since Herr Doctor informed me of a possible migraine link. Well, OK, I’ve eaten enough chocolate to notice that, once again, he knows his stuff. And mine, too, apparently. Chocolate does indeed give me 60 blissful seconds of pure nirvana, and some indeterminate time later, 12 to 36 hours of praying to die. I never noticed the link before (although I resentfully suspected) because it’s sort of a cumulative thing – I can eat some one day and be totally fine – eat a little the next and I’m IN PAIN. Or eat a little on an empty stomach and then feel it 20 minutes later as stormclouds of pain. But eat a decent piece on a full stomach and no pain. Well, Xocai is different!! No, I mean different!! Not only does it NOT cause migraines, I have lost 5 pounds and 2 inches off my waist (in 2 weeks!!) I AM LOSING WEIGHT BY EATING CHOCOLATE!! All my prayers have been answered!! And not only is it healthy, it’s soooooo good. Pure quality dark chocolate, cold-processed with acai berry and blueberry. I’ve written more about its healthy qualities – go to the Healthy Chocolate page. Haven’t quite figured out how to offer it for sale here, but I will. If you’re interested, let me know. I see a bright future for something as decadent as chocolate, that’s actually GOOD for you!! Cheers – Sam

Well, I don’t know about you, but I am feeling a little bogged down with dealing with the old life while trying to maintain some momentum with the new life. Perhaps there just isn’t room for two lives in my life! I am looking for a fun little part time job to keep me busy in between jewelry jobs, and trying to say goodbye to 10 years of wildland firefighting – it’s proving more difficult than I had expected. That’s a lot of time to devote wholly to one thing, and then to just walk away…it’s tough. But I know that we all have to quit some time – there are very few 70 yr olds out there hiking for 16 hours a day – at some point you have to count the physical cost it requires. And the hours – it’s been 10 years since I could make plans for the summer, wear dresses, paint my toe nails. One year I racked up 800 hours in overtime – in 6 months! I wish I could do it part time, but I don’t see how – not and get paid for it. So it’s on to the next chapter of my life, and the end of this one. Maybe practising a phrase will give me closure – I used to fight fire. (Such a sad and pathetic little phrase!!) All right, enough with the pity. I am open to a fantastic and fun job to enjoy while expanding my jewelry empire! Yes, I like that phrase much more. What’s your power phrase this month? More power to you!! Blessings – Sam

The theme for this month is REBIRTH! What would you like to see more of in your life? I suggest that you create the experience of already having it. By imagining, in great detail, how fantastic your life will feel once you have more of IT, whatever IT is, you will automatically call more of IT into your life. How many times have we accidentally done the opposite? By imagining how difficult life will be if THAT happens, and being so surprised when THAT does happen? Let’s turn that energy around!! I wish you happy thoughts, thoughts of abundance, creativity, fertility if you will. And if all else fails, bite the ear off a chocolate rabbit. Blessings, Sam

Well, the holiday season was more than usually hectic for me this year. I visited family, moved, and went back to school! How were yours?? I have taken my deep breath, and I have achieved readiness for being a eDiva. Yes, It Is Time To Make the Website Happen. Are you ready for Sterling Bliss, world? Buckle up, because here we go!!