Oh boy.......gone a while

My newest picture, 48 pds lost:)

Sorry about that. I was taking a leadership program thru the day job, praise the Lord that is done. Now, I have been sicker than a dog for the past 2 months. I have a dysfunctional Odii sphinter which is located by that gallbladder. Everytime I eat, 30 minutes afterwards, I am in pain. The medication that they have been trying doesn't work so hopefully I will get surgery soon.

Promise I will keep this updated better and I hope all is great with everyone...

Alien dog

Here is my Peaches at Roswell New Mexico, she is just too darned cute!

naughty me.....

I have been as good about posting on here as I was in the past. Day job is kicking my butt and I am in a program that will help me to move up in my day job. That is full of projects and I am tired.........I go into work at least one hr early every other day and with fibro, that is KILLING ME!

TIRED............very very tired. The storms here in Tucson are always making my pain 5,000 times worse than normal as well. Last night was the first night in about 4 days that I actually got to sleep in all night. Of course, goof ball Peaches woke me up but lately she is letting me sleep in until 0515, that is a good thing for her mom.

I have created a grand total of 2 things.....wow.......:( I put one Etsy shop on vacation until I get a better idea of several things:

1. Business plan or at least an outline of what exactly I am going with this..
2. I feel that I need a style or design concept that is uniquely my own.
3. These are the things in jewelery that I like to play with:
a. polymer clay-which I can play with now
b. PMC, which I won't play with until I get a klin
c. Wire work, which I can play with now.
I wanna to do everything and know how to do everything but I am finding that I am getting really chaotic in not being able to create anything because I want to make everything. If that makes sense to you than you understand. I must focus like I do at my day job.

Because of the day job is literally sucking my life away, I am seriously thinking on what I can do to encourage my creativity but take it easy on the etsy site until I can figure some stuff out.

Bad me....

I know......goofy shot!

Jolene by Jolene Hardy

Peaches with over large chewy bone...Picture by Jolene Hardy

Here are some current pics with my new hair color. I have to get it cut again & the eyebrows waxed...it is never ending!!! I haven't been keeping this up at all! sorry.......I actually got into the studio this weekend! I made a rather cute ring & may sell it or I may keep it, oh crap, I could have worn it today because it would totally go with what I have on! dur.....

I cleaned and cleaned & slept this weekend. Peaches usually gets me up around 0500 every day so on weekends, I try to get a bunch of naps in. Luckily, she actually let me nap for a while yesterday. I also watched Harry Potter this weekend & watched the kids grow up. Personally, the Weasley twins are quite cute! I know I am a naughty old woman!

I have lost 45 pds! Now, my next goal is 20 pds. I have signed up for my master's degree and should start school soon. I am very excited about it. Still single but that is okay. not sure if I want to date for a while....it gets old having your heart broken!

Life stuff

My friend Laura from www.marscon.com (the sci-fi convention that I helped start) Picture taken by Jolene Hardy

Well, I have a window unit AC because my central air unit died and you can imagine trying to live without AC in 105 degrees in Tucson is INSANE! So, I am saving up pennies until I can purchase a new central air unit.

Because of the window unit, only a few rooms are cooled. One of them that is not, is my studio and actually my creative fairy bolted out before my AC died, so no creative juices have been flowing for this monkey girl.

Life is good. I am applying for a master's program which will help at day job. Peaches, the goofy doggie is doing well, she is on a "diet" so to speak because her mommy got her a bit too cuddley!

Folks are back in Florida and so far no tar or oil on their beaches. Sad situation...:(

AC problems

My AC in my house died last Tuesday. I had to get a window unit cause central air is super expensive and Tucson Arizona in June/July...HOT is a mild word to describe it.

But at least it keeps most of my house cooler, I had to shut up a couple of rooms including my studio so when I get the creative fairy back into my house, I will have to give her loads of water with ice cubes!

This weekend

Peaches's t-shirt that explains everything.

Peaches at Jeff's house

Well mom & dad left this weekend. I do miss them but happy that I have my really quiet house back to myself. Peaches did walk around the house looking for them most of Saturday but it has seemed to quiet down a bit late yesterday.

Now, if she can get the understanding, NOT to wake up mommie at o darkthirty in the morning for NOTHING...life will be much better!

I put new jewelery into Copper Country and I also need to get the sign in our area stating that everything is handcrafted. Most of the jewelery in there is store brought so I have to show that we make everything and it is pretty and yes, you wants it. (stuffing gollum back inside the hole) it was a quiet weekend which I know that I needed.

Hopefully tonight, my creative fairy will come swinging on down so she & I can bond, it has been awhile for that:)

Tuesday

Hardy clan me on the right, mom, Jeff, dad & Jim

Jeff and his wife D'Nita

*yawns* My dog got me up @0230 to go potty. I love my dog but not so much so early in the morning.

Jeff's retirement from the AF was good. It was nice seeing his family & our family together. He has a very nice home.

Jewelery making....well, right now, mom & I will be making some for us and some for the websites. I still need to get my stupid computer fixed! Dad should be here today, do some more projects and than both of them go home. I am not quite sure how Peaches will react when mom is gone so that will be interesting.

Tucson heat

My temp thing on my computer is reading 106 degrees! holy hanna! Well, all the major test are coming back negative aka on my health so that is a good thing.

My little bro is retiring from the Air Force on Friday so mom, Peaches and I are taking a trip up to New Mexico for that. Should be fun, it is only a 8hr drive.

Stuff...

Well, my cardiac cath went fine, hurt like a bear but I have no plugged veins/arterties or anything like that around my heart, good news. Bad news, still trying to figure out what is going on with me but we are working on it:)

Good news, finally got more pics taken & now the Vivamexico and Funky Monkey Girls Etsy sites are both updated, hooray!

Worked on getting my studio cutier and did some jewelery but my wrist hurt too bad to do a lot. Got some plants potted in my front yard, painted furniture, hung up new lamps....that was mainly thanks to mom & dad.

My diva Peaches is very happy to have mommy feeling better and so is mommy:) We need to purchase more clasps...isn't it amazing that you swear you have a bunch of them and boom, you are totally out.

This weekend

Well, I got some stuff.......cool stuff actually:) I got some pretty things for my studio on the quest to make it a great place & funky place to get inspiration:) I bought a sewing machine, I wanted one for a while so now I can really venture out to mix media creations, I am so EXCITED!!!!

I also got plants/flowers & catus for the yard. IT was so windy on Sunday that we only got a few items planted in planters and put out.

Tonight, I am determined to get more creations & pictures & updating Etsy. Mom will have to bring Ms Diva Peaches out. We have started howling together...it is pretty darned funny. She is starting to play play more & it is so cool to see her sweet & GOOFY personality coming out:)

almost done with work. I am so glad my tests are at the end of this week. I just took a nitro earlier. That stuff gives you a kick arse headache but after you take it, my heart feels much better. The Lord is with me, praise Jesus!

health, wealth & inspiration

Picture from MarsCon 2009...I had to throw a George L in here...

Well, I had my cardiac stress test on Monday....not fun. With women, those can come up with a false postive, which means, it did look like I could have a heart attack or somewhat blocked vessels or it is from my weight. Well, I have lost 38 pds but never had the current weight put into my chart until today.

Because of the false postive, I am scheduled for a cardiac cath on 5/28. Please pray that this procedure goes well & figures out what my next step will be. I am on heart medication so that should begin helping as well.

Wealth....will come thru God along with the inspiration. I am being so calm about everything and usually I am worrying my red head about it. The Lord is so working miracles in my life that it is so wonderful!

Creating, we are aiming for tonight & Ms Peaches will be with us so we will know if she has to pee. She doesn't indicate that very well, just really intense stares, which she does for everything! I need to get her one of those dog translators like they had in "Up", great movie, go see it.

pictures

Well, now you can see what I look like........pic on bottom of blog. I am tired of the look of our blog so I really need to figure out what exactly to do with it?

Hmmmmmm...........had a brilliant thought, mom & I are going to get stencils & stuff to make my studio walls funky! Plus, working on making a valance for both in studio & living room. Mom has also been crafting so I learned by watching her. Her jewelery is beautiful all so! I love you mom!

I hand made a mother's day card for her, that was fun. I am coming into work briefly on Sunday. I have so much to do and my neck is starting to burn so I am switching things to do. It is a great day and I thank Jesus for that!

Stuff

1. I am going to get our jewelery stats into Etsy stores.
2. We are going to take more pictures of jewelery & get them uploaded.
3. Create some
4. Pet, pet, walkies, walkies, pet, pet, feed, feed, potty, potty Ms Diva:)

Have a blessed weekend & I have a cardiac stress test on Monday, keeping fingers crossed that it is good:)

Health Jewelery and more........

Miss Peaches Diva...:)

Well, I had my upper GI on Monday...no ulcer but they are checking if I am gluten intolerant. More testing to come.

Monkey mom is doing great. We actually created last night so the creative fairy was there but got chased out by jealous basset hound who thinks she is the diva of the house and sadly, momma diva thinks so too:)

Day job is getting insane but I can do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If I don't comment in your blog or on my blog it is because this computer is blocking it. I am reading everything but this computer is being rather annoying!

quick post

@Jolene Hardy, can not be used without permission.

Mom is coming into town on Sunday. I have a bunch of tests/etc because my iron and blood work is NOT good at all. Hopefully when they do the Upper GI test on Monday, it will show what the heck is going on!

With mom here, comes her computer which is awesome so we or aka I can get descriptions etc updated at home. No time at day job!

weekend.......

Pictures copyrighted by Jolene/Donna Hardy; Funky Monkey Girls and Viva Mexico

These are some raw and unedited pictures of jewelery that are in Viva Mexico and Funky Monkey Girls, I need to get in & update on Etsy as well.

My body is really tired. I can't just take Peaches out, fall asleep, have her get me back up in hour to go outside again and think I am going to get decent sleep again. That experiment is not working and I felt better if I just stayed up.

We had a yucky weather thing going on here in Tucson, it wasn't fun at all.

UPDATED ETSY STORE....

Go check out the funky monkey girls etsy store, we add some more stuff. Monkey mom bought the business an AWESOME camera BUT my lowely little laptop got bugs on it so I can't update the shops as fast as we want.

I take the pictures, save them on a computer & then e-mail them to mom. The Viva Mexico should be updated soon as well. I am still playing with what this camera can do, main problem is shadows. How do I get rid of the shadows when it is me trying to take the photo...ARGH!

never ending picture battle is it?

Peaches

Well, her time has adjusted to getting me up at 0500-0530 in the morning. Now, I can't just sit down on the couch to watch DVD's or read without petting her all the time as well. She is loveable but a brat all at the same time and I wouldn't trade her in for nothing:)

Creative fairy has hit.........briefly!

All pictures are copyrighted by Jolene Hardy

That darned fairy, if I thought it would keep her in my studio, I would clip her wings but that is rather evil so I have to live thru her journeys. Let me see, I took a bunch of pictures to update Etsy shoppes, monkey mom is working on that. I create something that I am not sure what I am calling it yet.....I made some jewelery and basically hung up more pictures, clean up and moved things around. That has helped.

I quit all my pills that are like motrin etc...tummy feels much better, body aching worse, sigh. I will keep fighting the good fight.

Okay the spark is slowly coming back

I actually made a necklace and some earings!!!!!! hooray! Now, I am developing a schedule with Ms Peaches that will include her walkies at night. SHE LOVES to walk everywhere. Now, she is on full watching for those evil killer bunnies! they are evil bunnies and must be barked at and chased out of everyone's yard. If you have ever seen a basset run, it is funny!

I am anemic as well so health issues are seriously flaring up with me lately. Please pray that they go away, I don't have time for them because I am getting brave and daring & getting myself out of my house more to meet people. I am very outgoing but shy all at the same time and let me tell you, that drives me nuts!

I have a great idea for making more polymer and a cool necklace tie in with it. I am hoping this weekend is sunny so I can take pictures between Ms Peaches demanding walkies. Can't complain about that because I will start losing some weight and getting into shape. Now, if she will quit waking me up at 0430, life will be grand LOLOLOLOL!!!!!

I think the flying monkeys got my creative fairy!

"picture from Wizard of Oz"

Hey, if y'all see my creativity fairy, will you tell her to get her arse back here so I can start creating again..........

I AM SO STUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!

grumbles...grumbles......grumbles.....

New mommy

I am a new mommy of a 10 year old basset hound named Peaches:) I adopted her this weekend, she is a big sweetie. Her personality is slowly coming out. :)

She keeps me walking which is a good thing:)

Postive...

Picture by Jolene Hardy, inside of a mission's chapel in San Antonio Texas....beautiful in it's simplicity!

Well, I finally got one of my heart tests scheduled, so that is good. My computer at home has loads of evil nasty things in it so I have to find someone who can fix it for me for fairly inexpensively.

The new work camera aka for jewelery pictures is the BOMB!!!!! Oh , the photos are awesome. I can not do any type of photo type things in my day job computer so I take the pictures then send them to the Monkey Mom to get them posted in Etsy...what a pain!

Monkey Mom sent in some jewelery pictures in a beading magazine so I hope we get selected! Great for her.

My creative fairy is still in mourning so hopefully I will be able to create more soon. Today is the first day that physically and mentally I am feeling more like myself again, praise the Lord!

Health issues

Picture by Jolene Hardy

They suck. I have to get a cardiac stress test done. Bad hearts both sides of the family and my EKG was a bit off. My provider is awesome getting this type of stuff done so we I get older, they have something to compare to:)

Took a break from posting/editng pictures, stress break as I call it. On top of day job issues, Tom & I broke up.

I am frustated and stressed out but thru the grace of God, I will perverse. Mom bought a kick butt camera for the business so I can continue taking great pictures without relaying on other people's camera. I am really excited about it.

A cold and kind of rainy day at good old Tucson.....where or where has our summer time gone?

pictures in Etsy....

The pictures are getting better, right?

All jewlery made by Donna/Jolene Hardy Funky Monkey Girls

Weekend

I took a bunch of pictures to update the Funky Monkey Girls Etsy site. I inactived a bunch of jewelery and will add when the pictures are better! Still working on lighting, I know it is better taking them outside but with all this wind & dust, I stayed inside most of the weekend cause I am slowly feeling better from my sinus infection.

I will try to post some pictures on here later when I get home. I finally hooked up my stereo, don't ask me why I took so long so it was great to hear some music:)

Tribal Spirits of the Sun

Was a bellydancing troupe at MarsCon & they rocked!!!!!!!!!! Seriously, it was AWESOME!!! I just read AJ's comment on my blog comment over a month ago, okay I was bad, it was totally cool. I totally loved the music, it wasn't traditional bellydancing music, some techno, some other stuff, everyone dug the heck out of them!!!!

I am okay

Thanks AJ for the e-mail, I really appreciated it! I have fallen off the world and recently climbed my way back up LOLOLOL......

I have been totally unproductive with creating/picture taking etc. I have been sick with the world's nasty sinus infection for over 2 wks now. I have done everything possible to get rid of it, at least my teeth no longer hurt much but the swelling in my mouth is finally going down!! Hooray!!!!

Because of the disgusting weather in Tucson, way too much rain/cold days etc, I am HURTING really really bad. Everyone's allergies are bad, bleck.

Day job, horrible stress!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Vacation in MN was fantasic and hopefully can post some pictures on here soon!

Miss you all and promise I will get over this soon. Please send creative fairy to my house soon!!!!

news!!!

The Forever Silver place that copied Green Girls Studio designs, no longer have their work posted on their website. Hooray!!!

I am in agony today. Left shoulder trigger point, which I have already had a couple of injections in it decieded to be evil today!!!!!!! Right before I am flying to Minnesota to see a bunch of friends at MarsCon www.marscon.com

DARN it anyway!!!!! sigh.....Nope, no new pictures thus no work on website. The weather gets nice, then yucky, then nice then yucky. oh it sucks!

Tuesday

Picture by Jolene Hardy

I am still miffed about people stealing other people's products. I consider Andrew Thornton a friend and it makes me extremely angry when people mess with my friends/family. ARGH!!!!! I put our shops on Etsy on vacation mode until we can get really good pictures taken and update the site with the new pictures & our new jewelery:)

Grey and gloomy day

Picture by Jolene Hardy (a beautiful sunny day in Tucson....we miss those!)

another yucky day.......I am going to have to turn on every light etc in my house to take new pictures of our product for Etsy!!!!!!! This is insane!

What is WRONG with people....

Now I just read Gae's blog & her skull design(which is awesome & we use a lot of her designs in our work) was ripped off and actually featured in the back of the Fire Mountain Gem catalog! I would think that the magazines/catalogs etc would double check their sources of items to be sure that they are the orignal designers...

Mom teaches on-line and she has noticed that her students have being plagism everything!! She flunks them...........Is this the "new" thing????

I feel a lot for these people, they make a living from selling their product. This is plain WRONG.

Green Girl Studios

They are being ripped off. They are such delightful and wonderful people who make such magical and wonderful items, I just can't believe it.

Please e-mail/call everyone that you know about this company www.foreversilver.com and let them know NOT to purchase ANYTHING FROM THEM!!!!!

You can see the ripped off Green Girl Designs on the bottom of where they have buddas and hand of fatima designs......Please help us support Green Girl Studios and spread the word!!!!!!

Bull Mastiff

Picture by Jolene Hardy

Well, we think Molly our new goofy dog whom we adopted from the Humane Society is a Bull Mastiff. HUGE dogs but very docile, sweet tempered and a bit bull headed. For females, when she grows up, she will be between 100-120 pds!!!!!! HOLY HANNA BATMAN! Ms Molly and Ms Sadie are doing wonderfully together & Tom & I are happy about that.

Mom is still here and hopefully we can do some more beading tomorrow night & then picture taking on Sunday.

It is a beautiful day here in Tucson and believe it or not, I have a bad case of spring fever!!! I never thought I would experience that here but I am!

Here is a great website with both pictures and information about Ms Molly:

http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/bullmastiff.htm

New stuff to learn

Mom & I are learning how to make our own discs & hammer them into the thing that makes it dome:) That was a lot of fun and got out much frustation. We love the UV resin and since we both live in fairly sunny places, her Florida, me Tucson and it is less smelly than ICE Resin...

This weekend on Sunday we will take new jewelery pictures for Etsy.

making and experimenting.....

pretty flowers on the side of the road in Texas, picture by Jolene Hardy

Mom & I are having a lot of fun making, baking and experimenting with some of the wonderful items purchased from the bead shows here in Tucson. Now, the sun is finally out, new pictures will be snapping with our new marco discovery:) oh boy.............I get my hair cut tonight, finally! I hate it when it gets long & yucky. I am sure I will have to color it as soon as I get it cut cause of all the gray hair I am finding, sigh. I love my wisdom but this old body needs to go away LOLOLOL...

I am actually thinking about putting both Etsy stores on vacation until we can get going on these pictures.....

News...

My sneaky man, gave me a diamond ring yesterday :) I was so excited that I dropped the ring and then it took me a little while to find it. He is such a sweetie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another great day!

Picture by Jolene Hardy

Mom and I hit some more Tucson shows and went back to the ones we were at on Monday:) It has been a great day. Wonderful weather! I am going to chat with the powers that be for MarsCon 2011 to see if they will invite Andrew Thornton to be the artist guest of honor. His work is awesome and I was selling the idea to him today at the Green Girl Table. At MarsCon we usually have the same artists of painted variety so I think it would be horribly cool if we could have a jewelery designer variety. I think they will listen to me, I only started this darn convention anyway!!!

Mom is now working and I have to go back to the grind of day job tomorrow. bleck.

Pictures

Molly's butt (our newest addition) with Sadie hoping that Tom will feed them:)

You won't believe this....we figured out that Tom's camera has macros on it...oh gheesh. I only have been reading about taking better pictures etc, and all the articles are stating about a marco setting. Well, sheesh, mom & I feel like stupid dorks. But now we found it and still feel like dorks!!!!!!! Oh gheesh!!!

Well behold....pictures will start being awesome very soon!!!!

Friday

Picture by Jolene Hardy

Mom is coming in today and then we start at the Tucson Bead shows....drroooolllllsss. I finally cooked my dragons & they look awesome!!!! HOORAY!

To keep up my spirits, I have discovered that I have to do creative things every day. Or if the sun will finally STAY and then do creative stuff a several times per week, I am much better. I really like to know how I could stay so postive in MN with the number of gray yucky days!!! Hopefully I will be able to meet some of you at the various shows here in Tucson, that would be totally cool:)

another day.....

Well, I must be incredily nervous about cooking my polymer clay dragons cause I chickened out again!!!

I got my airline tickets to MarsCon in MN this March. I will freeze but looking forward to seeing everyone! I haven't seen them in 2 years!

Tuesday

It is cold..........very very cold to a former Minnesotian and the blood has thinned out. The mountains are full of snow but the humidity is up so I really am feeling it, yuck. I am cooking dragons tonight. I chicked out until now but I can't wait anymore!!! I want to take pictures too but hopefully will get to that this weekend between beads shows! I can't believe it is the Tucson bead show again! While mom is here working on wedding stuff as well.

When I get home, the sun isn't in a good position and all the pictures, no matter how much I light the piece up still looks really dark.

Quiet and yucky day

Picture by Jolene Hardy

It is 57 degrees here in Tucson and it has been raining. It looks like it may rain again...fun times. I like that it gets stuff green but EVERYONE gets moody when weather like this comes. We are used to sunshine all the time.

Made another dragon, these are fun but it takes me at least a couple of hours to make one. I need to get cracking on more jewelery type items that are much faster to make.

Wednesday

I have been playing with my polymer clay. I purchased a book by Christi F about making dragons so I am using her tips but styling them the way that I like. I am planning on bringing these to MarsCon www.marscon.com where hopefully I have a dealer's table. Going to e-mail again because I haven't heard anything....

I am tired. We had some massive rain storms last night with the wind howling away. The noise kept waking me up.

The Vikings won against Dallas...it was so sweet.

I need to get on the picture taking goal because I am not doing it at all, bad me.

Too long

Man, I have been so busy during the last part of December, I haven't had a chance to blog until today. Holidays are always busy at day job and then we passed an inspection today! Whew...

I haven't made anything new and I need to get going on taking pictures. I have been so busy that I get home, eat, read and go to bed. That has been my life lately, incredibly boring:)

So I need to get back on track on my New Year's resolution so thus me blogging a little:)