The Magic of Muffins

Happy Sunday to you!

What are Sundays like at your house?  Do you go to church?  Being Jewish, I have never been one to attend church, but I can sure appreciate the value in a spiritual peptalk once in a while.  For me, if I find I am in need of some spiritual advice I can turn to the many books I have on spirituality or turn to the internet.  There are virtual churches and synogogues and what not, if you know what you're looking for.  While I haven't really felt the need to step my virtual foot into such places lately, just knowing that they're out there if I needed one, is enough for me.  I do OK I guess.  I'm basically a happy person and like to think that I am a spirtual person.  I think of, and talk to God a lot.  I even listen and sometimes get answers to the important questions that plaque my dreams once in a while...

But, today was just an ordinary day here.  Foggy out and cool, a typical January day here in the Ozarks.  I woke up to the cries of both my kitties begging for breakfast and got up to feed them to find they already had food on their plates - food that they just didn't like, and they were wanting something else.  I grumbled at them and considered returning to bed, but decided to make muffins for Ginny and me instead.

Sunday mornings are good for making waffles, pancakes, french toast or muffins at my house.  I like to treat Ginny to something special, but here lately she's been favoring muffins.  Good thing those are easy to make.  I buy the mixes where all you have to do is add 1/2 cup of milk, stir it up and pour into the muffin pan.  Easy as pie.  Easier than pie, actually.

Since my non-stick muffin pan is not really non-sticking, I have come to start using paper muffin cups.  That at least makes cleaning the pan much easier, but really, it's still cumbersome to eat the muffins.  The muffins always stick to the paper.  But, this morning, it hit me:  What if someone invented edible muffin cups?  Wouldn't that be da bomb?  I would so buy those!  LOL!

I sat there, considering the awesomeness of such a thing as I devoured my blueberry cheesecake muffins in pure bliss.  I knew, just by eating those muffins, that my day was going to go much better just because they were so good.

It's not a particularly spectacular day, but it sure isn't bad, either.  Thank God for muffins.

Debby

Before and After!

I wish I could say this post was about Before starting a diet and After ending a diet, but nooOOOoooOOOO!  Although I did take Before photos of me when I started dieting last June, I still haven't gotten anywhere NEAR my goal, so the After photos are still waiting... if they ever come at all.  Sigh!

Fortunately, it is much easier to redo an office than it is to lose weight!  Yay!  So here ya go...  I am actually embarrassed to show these before pictures, but to understand the undertaking of such a project, you just have to see what I started out with!

Before:

And now... Are you ready for this?

Drum roll please.............

After:

As you can see, I have MUCH more room now, I can actually back up in my chair without bumping into the table behind me - I don't even have a table behind me now!  And, if I want to switch from computerin' to beadin', I actually have to scoot my chair over a few feet!  Whoa!  I told my sweetie I need to get one of those plastic floor coverings to go over carpet so that the chair doesn't ruin the carpet, and he reminded me that the carpet was already ruined, and then I said I should get one to make scooting over to the bead table easier then!  LOL

Granted, it's still nothing fancy, but it's much more functional and I am happy momma.  The big desk was a donation from my sister-in-law and I love it.  I love that I can stack all my bead storage boxes on it.  I got rid of one of my "bead walls" and am using those cute little plastic storage drawer units instead.  I think I'm gonna find that to be much easier to use.  Now to get started on all the UFOs (unfinished objects) I have stacked there in the corner!

Debby

It's Friday already?  I know, I know, you're probably thinking Thank God it's Friday!  But for me, the week seemed to just fly by.  I have ben redoing my office, which is still not done, but almost there...  I hope to get some pix taken this weekend and show you.  I got rid of one my "bead walls" and am now using small plastic storage drawer units for a lot of my seed beads and delica beads.  Storage is a huge issue to us beaders, right?  I'd love to hear your storage solutions.  I use a lot of those craft boxes, and the stackable bead jars, but I still need to organize a lot more.  Honestly, I just need to get rid of a lot of stuff, but how can I?  Ya never know when you're gonna need that special bead..  Sigh.  I'm cursed... or addicted... or both.  Yeah, probably both.

Anyway, got new stuff up on Etsy, including a set of really special hollow beads.  Be sure to check it out!  Don't forget about the 30% off sale!  :)  Have a great weekend!

Debby

30% OFF SALE!!!

Just a quickie!  I've got a sale going on in my etsy site - everything is 30% off until the end of February!  Go check it out!  Lotsa great deals there!

Debby

Lotus Bead Fun

Here are the photos I have from the "Bead Daze" at Glass Concepts.  We played around with making lotus beads, raked starburst beads (Tom Holland), Laurie's "portal" pendant beads, and played around a little with silver glass techniques...  These photos are of Grace working her magic on the raked starburst beads and the lotus bead I made as instructed by Grace.  It was great fun!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2044796&id=1007088453&saved#/album.php?aid=2044796&id=1007088453

Good to be Home

Boy, am I exhausted!  I can't believe how tired I am...  I could soooo go to bed right now.  I spent the weekend with my daughters in Little Rock plus I had a wonderful afternoon yesterday hanging out with my glass pals at Glass Concepts.  It was so much fun!  I learned some new stuff.  I only made one bead, and when I get it cleaned up, I'll get a photo of it and post it here.  I can't wait to make more of them, and some of the other things I learned.  Thank you Grace, Vicki, Laurie and Angie!  You all are so nice and so much fun to hang out with!!!  :)

Once I was home today I continued working on my office which is MUCH more roomier now.  I love it!  There is still much work to be done on it though.  I'm a long way from finished.  Sigh!

Following the Yellow Brick Road

Well, I'm off to see the Wizard!  Well, not really, but I am off.... off to see my daughters in college in Little Rock and off to see my glass pals tomorrow.  Ginny and I will be spending the night and visiting with her sisters.  They have a new ferret, and I understand that Dookie the kitten enjoys playing with it.  That should be fun to watch.
Tonight it's dinner at my favorite restaurant (Macaroni Grill) and then tomorrow I head over to Glass Concepts for some torching fun with my glass buddies.  I'm looking forward to it.

I wanted to mention here that Chelsea made the Chancelor's List and the Dean's List for her first semester in college!  WAY TO GO, Chelsea!  I am proud of you!!!

I don't have any new beads to show because I have taken on the overwhelming task of revamping my office.  My SIL is giving me her awesome desk, so I have to rearrange everything.  It has taken me two days just to pack everything up, move it to another room, and clean up the furniture.  I will have "before" and "after" pictures when I'm done, so be on the lookout for that!  Wait til you see!  :)  It'll probably be Monday or Tuesday before I'm finished with it.

Right now I'm waiting on a guy to come pick up the freezer, but I still need to pack and would like to be on the road within the hour.  So, I'd better gett off my duff and get on that yellow brick road.

Off I go!

Debby

Well, day two of the blog!  Not sure if I'll blog daily, but that is my hope.  We'll see how it goes.

Today I struggled with that lovely slide show you see to the right.  It was a bear to get it the way I wanted it, but now I'm happy.  Next, I'm going to be tackling the way the etsy and artfire listings show up.  Words?  Blech!  Give me pictures!!!  Yeah!

Other than that, a pretty quiet day in the neighborhood.  We went for dinner to our favorite Chinese restaurant.  There is only one in town.  There aren't a lot of choices for restaurants in Clarksville unless you like Mexican.  There are probably twenty Mexican restaurants and very little of everything else.  I like Mexican, but GAH!  Not THAT much!

Debby

Joining the Blog Bandwagon

Hi all,

Well, here I am... This is my blog! Welcome! I hope you enjoy your visit here and I hope you come back again to see me sometime.

Since I already have a website, (http://www.starlight-beads.com/) you are probably wondering why I am bothering with blogging. Well, a blog seems to be all the rage! Not only that, it seems to be an easy way to manage a website without all the work, so I'm gonna try this and if I find that I like it, I may eventually ditch the website in favor of this. I have plenty of time to make the transition, since I renewed my site in November.

Here I hope to post more often than I do on my site (since it's easier to do) and I hope to post new work, both in lampwork beads and in jewelry to keep you undated better. I'll post sales and specials here, too. Just let me get my feet wet first...

More later!

Debby