Nest Feathers and Twine - Formally Artist's Block Studio

The things that make a house a home and the stuff that holds is all together.

Years ago I started this blog with a mindset and goals that I have found have changed direction over time. I am excited to say that this blog has a new name.....Nest Feathers and Twine. I hope you come by and visit often. Feel free to get comfortable and kick off your shoes and join me on this journey of metamorphosis.

Friday, December 26, 2008

hope yours was merry


here is hoping that santa left something special under your tree and in your heart on christmas day.
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Friday, December 05, 2008

new jewels

i have a love of large, chunky, colorful pieces. ethnic pieces. bold pieces. these things i love are all in this neckpiece.
ocean jasper briolettes, citrine capsules, green adventurine rounds, peacock and white keishi (petal) pearls, lilac fresh water pearls, smokey quartz faceted rondells,
and a large half shell that shimmers all of the above colors.


this is the hollyberry wreath neckpiece that is under construction.
this is the piece that i was given sudden inspiration to create the other night. many pieces i create are created with intention, i have been given inspiration, but beyond that i make a conscience decisions on the how's and what's, at least i would like to think. then there are pieces like this one where i feel like i am on auto pilot. to get the look i wanted i created several different combinations of wire wrapped glass leaves and fresh water pearls to give this piece its visual and tactile texture and layers. when i complete a piece like this one and look back at the process of construction i don't know how or why i made the choices i did. i am totally self taught. i know after years of teaching myself, some of what i do is just second nature, but there i times i am left in wonderment of the whole creation process.
going back and reading what i have just typed makes me sound like a nut, but it is just how it works. i am so grateful for the inspiration. oh-so-divine. i would not have it any other way. i am also grateful that i always seem to have the materials i need just when i need them.
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Thursday, December 04, 2008

just breathe......

that is what i keep telling myself....just breathe.....it will all get done.
i would love to be sitting in the middle of this field right now, a million miles away from everything
the warm sun shining down on me
in the middle of a field of sweet smelling flowers
looking at the dark sky in the background i can almost smell a spring thunderstorm brewing in the distance
but i am in my kitchen typing to the rythm of the dishwasher.
as much as i would love to be in this field of flowers, here, home, is the next best place.
bill and the kids safely and snuggly tucked into bed sleeping
the puppies in their crates sleeping
the cat snuggling with max tonight, hogging the pillow and blanket believe it or not
the big birdies downstairs making noise because mommy walked by them and did not say goodnight, so they protest just as a 3 year old would, they are whining.
the little birdies upstairs are snuggled together for warmth and quiet with the exception of one of our little mini doves that tries to woo his mate 24/7 .
'what a girl wants....what a girl needs' being sung by christina a on the radio....how funny that is the song playing
the kitchen floor needs to be swept
the livingroom, which is housing most of our bedroom, is still looking like ....ugh...there is not a word to describe
but this is home
and it is filled with the things i love most in this world
so i am just where i am suppose to be



just where i want most to be
home sweet home.
looking at a picture of oh-so-sweet flowers.
on my new laptop.
on my new old kitchen table i just recently painted.
with my fuzzy and oh so warm slippers on.



bill and steph surprised me tonight and took the few remaining fall decorations downstairs, scratch that chore off the list. yahoo...the list is getting smaller.
most of the baseboards are painted in our room, had to put the paint and brush, sponge brush that is, down so that bill and i could call the help line number again this evening since the laptop said it was not connected to the internet this morning. after discovering the internet was not working i did lose a few games of solitaire before starting up the day. real productive. my to do list was screaming for my attention from the kitchen as i sat tucked in the nice-oh-so-warm-cozy-bed losing those few games of solitaire. found 8 stamps to put on the envelopes for the christimas/holiday cards. off to the post office friday to buy some more and mail them off. then i can scratch that off the list....the doors in the bedroom are painted, just need a few spots touched up....i can scratch that off the list. not sure if i like the color, but bill loves it and so does steph, the boys....they could care less. they were driving each other nuts while we were conferencing on the subject. someday those two......they are night and day. i hope they grow out of this...
while we were waiting for the service rep for the router company to help us i began putting some things away in my studio, cleaning up to prepare for the next piece i am going to make, i grabbed a pile of strung green glass leaf beads to put away and (*&*^*& WHAM *^&^*(* i was given inspiration for a new neckpiece! eeeee! i love it when that happens. and very thankful. off to my drawers of sorted-by-color bead collections and i found some wonderful cranberry fresh water pearls. it is weird how i can remember almost every bead i own, and the number of beads i own is a number so large most of us could not pronounce it, but somehow i do remember each of them.
just like they were created from me
weird
guess it is a bead thing
i started wire wrapping while we were on the phone with the router service guy.
a hollyberry wreath of sorts. wearable.
i can not wait to see how it all looks put together.
so here i sit jabbering, i guess talking to myself in-a-way
the rest of the world asleep
part of me is loving the silence
the peace
the quiet
the stillness of it all
part of me hating the hush of it all
wishing i had another human to talk to at the moment
so, off to bed with me
i am too tired to focus the old eyeballs to wire wrap any more beads tonight, got alot done though.
i am too wide awake to go to sleep.
did not get enough sleep last night.
think i will tuck myself in and put on an episode of big bang theory.
love that show
what better way to fall asleep than with a big smile on your face


thanks for the company.
maybe now that i have a portable means of computering this blog thing might happen more often.

night night.
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Wednesday, December 03, 2008

lost

playing with my christmas present, a laptop....i am a creature of habit, and even though this new piece of technology will make my life so much easier in the long run right now i am flustered and frustrated having to learn how to work this new creature. i want to go sit in my closet and pout like i use to as a little girl, but, i am excited at the same time. learning disabilities, which i don't really think of in that way because i am so use to my way of learning, make reading the pounds of instruction booklets that came with this wonderful beast, and trying to make sense of the online instructions a chore to say the least. i am a hands on girl, so i have learned more by trial and error button pushing. i think i found a program thingy that will allow me to transfer my files and my email from the desk top to the lap top, but not sure if the remains of a virus could or would be transferred as well, and if so i am sure the mcaffe would take care of it.....i think.....blahhhhh.....maybe i should call charter and ask them first how to transfer my email...that in itself will be an adventure. after pressing 1 to continue the call in english, then sitting on hold, then answering 9,000 questions that a computerized service rep will ask i will be transferred to a person, that is i know trying hard to be helpful, whose spanglish is nearly impossible for me to understand, i will politely thank them for their help and hang up with my question unanswered because of the language barrier...didn't i press one for english....and try to call again until i reach the one and only charter customer service rep that speaks plain old english. i find it funny that the company name is 'charter communication' but the communication part....uhh...not so much. my hearing impairment i am sure is partly to blame, but....

soon we will be moving the desktop to steph's room and out of my studio.....a good and not so good thing. finally i will have my studio to myself, but even though steph says she is ok with having to share her room at times with the boys when they are on the computer, i know there are going to be issues. agggg, i will deal with that when the situation comes up.

we spent an hour, 62 minutes and 53 seconds to be exact, on the phone with a customer service rep to help us get the wireless router set up. this router comes with a set of very easy looking instructions, actually ummm...6 pictures and about as many words to tell the truth, and it ended up being a nightmare. thank goodness bill spoke to her, the service center of course was in india, and although the woman he spoke with was very, very pleasant, helpful and friendly i would not have been able to understand her since half the time my ears and brain do not process even the accent-less english language very well.

i tried to install some bundle thingy from a disc that came with this thing, but it says it can't do what it needs to do and i need to contact the company that i received it from, so i am adding that to my already way-to-long-list-of-stuff-to-do-today list for wednesday.

i think i am done being whiney.......for the moment. i will be such a happy camper when i have my photos and emails transferred to this new portable piece technology. i am grateful for this wonderful piece of freedom, just frustrated.

i did complete a new necklace to sell on etsy, and i still need to add the items i made last week onto my etsy shop....ahhh, another thing to add to my long list of tomorrows to-dos. i also got all of our christmas/holiday cards signed with love, the envelopes addressed and stuffed with cards sending happy holiday wishes and love at 3:30 this morning. they are ready to be mailed. i decided to cut myself a break and just buy the cards instead of making them. i ripped up all the tape from around my bedroom that i have been painting like forever and have almost the whole bedroom retaped so that i can paint the doors, baseboards, and ceiling. since our color palette changed just a bit i have to repaint some furniture that will be going back to the bedroom, clear coat a century old armoir that we had stored for 4 or 5 years in the garage waiting for just the right place to put it, we won it at an auction for next to nothing because someone had done a really sad job at clear coating it and it needed to be stripped. i decided not to stain it. the old wood has a beauty of its own. most of our bedroom is still in the living room and i have to have it re-painted, clear coated and moved back into our bedroom by saturday, which means i need to have the bedroom finished by then so that we can decorate for christmas. do you think we could move christmas to lets say january 25th?

okay, i am going to quit rambling. go downstairs to my studio and check my emails on the other computer, and if the hubby isn't chasing bunnies in his sleep tonight maybe i will crawl into bed a little early.
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Quote for the moment



"Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn."

Harriet Beecher Stowe

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