So, in the last week, I have had to replace my laptop, lost the USB cord to my digital camera, misplaced my iPod headphones, had 48 songs on iTunes refuse to live on my iPod because I had to transfer the old hard drive from my laptop into a new laptop, and sneezed. A lot.

But–I have found the USB cord and the headphones, I have Benadryl, and I have a new laptop with Picassa.

To celebrate, have a picture of a sunflower!

I took the above picture at the N.C. Renaissance Faire–it’s held in Charlotte, and my husband and I attended this past weekend. We walked through a dungeon showcasing methods of torture, and this lovely scene greeted us as we were on our way out. They’re obviously dummies, but they freak me out nonetheless.

Tomorrow: we’re flying home to Alabama to attend the visitation & funeral of my husband’s grandmother. Back sometime Saturday.

Since the great sickness is finally coming to a close, I’ve had a bit of time to be productive today. Driving two hours to grad school to pick up my masters exam didn’t help, but I did get a couple of things done.

Coming soon to the Etsy shop: more jewelry with the ceramic beads, and a couple of pendants that I’m really proud of (and finished tonight)–tiny glass bottles filled with lovely things (glitter, feathers, dried flower petals) and wrapped with copper wire. No pictures yet, as my digital camera does horrible things under non-natural lighting, but I expect to have at least one of these up on the shop tomorrow.

Also, I’ll be posting another tutorial this week–how to make your own simple wire hooks. There will even be a hammer involved. Stay tuned!

Let me start off by saying that today, I am sick as a dog.

I was feeling kind of icky when I went to bed last night, and I woke up at about three o’clock in the morning to that time-honored classic, the stomach bug. Let’s see, all total, I got up at three, five, six thirty, sometime around eight o’clock, and twice at nine.

And then finally, finally, I got some sleep. After waking up and showering, I weighed myself as I do every morning (except it’s usually earlier than noon) and saw that I’d lost three pounds from my weigh-in yesterday. Three pounds! And this is after eating a huge meal of Indian food for lunch yesterday (I really, really hope that the Indian food didn’t make me sick–I infamously abandoned PB&J sandwiches when I was 8 because I got sick after eating one. In my rational mind, I know that the PB&J didn’t make me sick, but I still can’t eat them).

Anyway, a blurry trip to the grocery store later and I’m now curled up on my couch drinking Gatorade and eating saltine crackers. A quick check of my email has revealed a new Etsy convo–lo and behold, I’ve been mentioned on the Art Bead Scene blog! This is a blog run by a group of lovely artists, one of whom, Elaine Ray, frequently holds trunk shows at the bead store I work at. She makes lovely ceramic pieces that I love to wrap in copper wire.

If you need some cheering up, if you’re curious, or if you just want to check out a great blog, go look at Art Bead Scene–and then check out all the lovely handmade work featured there.

Desire to twist and curl wire at my work table: immense.

Headache: bigger.