forgive yourself each day

I'll act, speak, and think of myself in ways that are not mean, spiteful or rude. I'll give my body the best care and feeding. I'll program my mind with the most wholesome thoughts. I'll take time to nourish my soul with good spiritual food.

I'll not put myself down or arrogantly boast, but I'll speak well of myself. I'm going to call forth the best in myself, not the worst. If I catch myself dwelling on painful thoughts about my past, I'll find a way to distract myself and get my mind on other, more positive thoughts.
Forgiving yourself is something your do day by day. You go forth to face the present and the future committed to treating yourself as God treats you ..... with love.

20% off Easter Sale

how high do you think it will go??

The price of silver I mean. It's starting to bug me. When I was doing my taxes and adding up my receipts I was reminded of the prices a year ago of $22 oz. I thought then that was way way too high. back then I longed for the days of a year before that when prices were $13 oz. I would be overjoyed by anything under $30 at this point. All we can do it pay it. Just like $4 a gallon gas. If we freak out about it all that will accomplish is high prices and a basket case. I'll just stick to paying the high prices, thank you.

Danny is having a really hard time, he wants to come home right now this minute right now right now right now. I pray he can last until his day of completion. Will you pray too? He needs patience, motivation, and integrity from the Lord. He is going to be finishing up the program in about 3 weeks. We thought it was going to be the middle of June, but it's not so we are scrambling a bit on his transition plans etc. It is going to be a hectic couple few weeks for all of us.

I began a round of Insanity yesterday. My shoulders are doing great so far.

Will is home on Spring break this week. His 8th grade trip is next week. They are spending a whole week in Washington DC. Chris finished a job last week and began a kitchen remodel yesterday. I am grateful for a bit of steady work.

This is a custom order. The larimar is so beautiful I wanted to share it with you. I received this piece straight from the Dominican Republic.

I also just received these three beautiful Druzy cabs.

They are all my favorite sizes (around 20mm).

The snow is finally completely gone from our yard and we have buds on the trees! Is spring truly coming?????
I have a couple of great recipes I want to share with you. Hopefully I'll be able to post them this week. I guess that's all for now...

I'm FINISHED!!!!!

I should wear a cape and call myself CAPTAIN DEDUCTION! I feel like a super hero.

Boo!

me actually saying boo..... *scary morning pic

I'm knee deep in taxes and hopefully will finish later this morning. Between changing the pricing method on all of the items in the shop and the taxes, I have not spent enough time creating. Blah

Using a formula for my pricing ended up being quite illuminating. I found that all of my necklaces went up in price and most of the earrings went down in price. I also found I was underpricing most of the items that have higher material costs. The great new is, the most popular "staple" items went down in price quite significantly. I feel like I know a bit more about where my money is going now. I am so glad I did this. I know it's awful that I am just doing it now. I think most are like "duh Lisa, I can't believe you have not been doing this from the start". What can I say?

Guess what time it is?

tax time!

Look! I can be cool with a mustache just like the Etsy folks....
Sorry, sarcasm does not suit me. I've been doing paperwork for much too long.

I'd rather be eating dirt

Better business practices for this lady!

Do you want to know how I price my jewelry? I just look at it and come up with a price. It's not as random as it seems, I do take into account a $5 stone vs a $60 stone or 30 minutes labor vs 4 hours labor. I don't use any formula, I never thought I needed to. I tried a formula out this morning on my Cowgirl Jessie ring and guess what? I was charging $8.90 UNDER what I should be charging. The Spring Personification necklace ended up being $40 over the new formula. I am redoing the pricing of my entire shop today. I think it is a perfect time to do this in light of the price of silver being so disgustingly high and getting higher. I am hoping to find that my "eying it" approach is not much different than the formula method. We'll see, it'll be interesting.

The family is doing pretty well. Chris has some work and that will be ending soon so we hope for some calls real soon. Chris and I have joined a soft ball league this year. Practices begin as soon as the ground is free from snow and dried up a bit. We both love the game and are excited for the season to begin. Our team is brand new and consist of mostly folks from church. The league is not church affiliated, it's a regional thing.
Will is spending a lot of time skateboarding now that the skate park is clear of snow. He and his buddy have been video taping their skating sessions.
Danny is struggling but hanging in with the program at Phoenix House. Recovery is always 2 steps forward, 1 step back. He will make it though this rough patch. Please continue to pray for him. It looks as if he may complete the program by middle June.

I better get going, I have much work to do!

A few new items just listed....

The bail is my very favorite part of this new design.

Spring Personification

Spring Flower and Pearl Sterling Cuff Bracelet


Spring Flower and Pearl Earrings

Petite Gypsy Hoop Dangles ... Moonstone

This ring is now available in YOUR SIZE and YOUR CHOICE OF STONE!
Cowgirl Jessie .... robins egg blue turquoise wide band ring YOUR SIZE



It's supposed to be 70 degrees tomorrow!!
ttfn!

SALE TIME!

A busy day today. Shipping, grocery shopping, a noon Al-anon meeting, super, and small group bible study tonight!

Hopeful for Spring ....

Hopeful for Spring ... aragonite flower and vine ring

I think we got to the bottom of it

The shoulder pain mystery. To update you, the Celebrex worked beautifully. I took it for 9 days as prescribed. A miracle! The 2nd day I was off it, all of the shoulder pain came back. I began taking 4 advil (Doc said it was about the same as 1 Celebrex) every morning with okay results, it helped a bit. These are not long term options, I don't want to take that stuff everyday, it's no good for the liver. This is just a bandaid. So I was thinking I would need to eventually go back to the Doc and begin x-rays, tests, blah blah blah. A few nights ago Chris woke up in the middle of the night to find my laying with my entire shoulder wedged under my chest as I was laying on my stomach! Now we know. This answers why the pain is in both shoulders. Some days the right worse than the left and some days the left worse than the right. I would have good days without much pain and some days were terrible and I could feel "electric shocks" radiating from my shoulders down my arm and back. SO, the big question is what can I do about it?!?!??! How can I control how I sleep? I haven't a clue. If you have any suggestions please drop me an email.

I think I am going to pick my workouts back up in a few days now that I know where the pain is coming from, I am not afraid of injuring myself further by working out (primarily pushups).

I am really ready for spring. I am freezing my bum off in my studio right now.

I am blowing hot breath into my hands to defrost them!

It is coldish and rainly. It keeps snowing every couple of days. There are puddles and cold icy mud everywhere. I long for green anything! At least a bit of the yard is showing earth. It is really ugly outside.

REALLY incredible soup

Ingredients 2 cup(s) escarole, chopped 2 clove(s) garlic clove(s), minced (medium) 1 cup(s) onion(s), chopped 2 cup(s) spinach, baby leaves 2 small zucchini, cubed 1 medium sweet red pepper(s), chopped 1 medium fennel bulb(s), thinly sliced 6 cup(s) vegetable broth 28 oz canned diced tomatoes, preferably fire-roasted 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes 2 tsp thyme, fresh, fresh, finely chopped 1 tsp fresh oregano, finely chopped 3/4 tsp table salt 1/4 tsp black pepper 1/4 cup(s) parsley, fresh, chopped 1/4 cup(s) basil, fresh, leaves Instructions Put escarole, garlic, onions, spinach, zucchini, red pepper, fennel, vegetable broth, diced tomatoes, red pepper flakes, thyme and oregano into a large soup pot. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low, and simmer, partly covered, for about 10 minutes. Stir in salt, black pepper, parsley and basil. Serve. Yields about 1 cup per serving.

I LOVE Sundays

I have Sunday after church off from work ~ cleaning ~ paperwork ~ ALL household duties. We usually come home and eat lunch then look for a good movie (not too good of a movie because I want to be able to drift off into sleep) and just snuggle with Chris (or LuLu if Chris is not here). I do only the thing I WANT to do, like right now I WANT to blog, so here I am. Chris is getting ready to go kyanking with a friend from Church on a local river and I am eying the warm fleece blanket next to me on the couch. My herb tea is steeping as I type. I just wanted to share that, that's all.

No, that's not all. I just wanted to share a picture of a stone I just purchased. I absolutely LOVE IT!!!!!
Okay, now that's all :)

shop update

Cowgirl Jessie ... Robins egg blue turquoise earrings




Turquoise Flower Dangle Earrings



Tweed Bouquet Ring .... butterfly wing jasper




Cowgirl Jessie .... robins egg blue turquoise wide band ring



Blushed ... Pink Mother of Pearl Ring