Sterling Bliss

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

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, 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

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!!