Swinging from the trees...

Sorry it's taken me so long to return to my blog. That vacation I spoke about in my last posts got the better of me and it has been hard to get back into the swing of things. But never fear, dear reader! We'll be swinging again soon enough.

Baby Emma is in preschool now. Well, she's not a baby anymore, exactly, but I think I will be calling her that forever, like the girl in Dirty Dancing. She, Emma, had her third birthday a couple weeks after we got back from vacation, and then there was a wedding I was focusing on making a gift for - an elegant white, silver and blue lampwork bead bracelet for the bride. And then the plague visited my household for the last couple weeks, but now I'm all better!  So, back to your regularly scheduled program!

I've been thinking about my blog titles recently, and I'm a big fan of alliteration, so I'm gonna take a little blog planning advice from Handmadology and rearrange my blogging schedule and redo my titles.  We will then have the following line-up: "Monday Madness" - a regular spot to showcase my weekly "Monday Madness" Etsy sale; "Treasury Tuesday" - displaying the weekly treasury I make featuring items I've found on Etsy made with lampwork beads; "Wordless Wednesday" - this will be my own treasury, of sorts, sharing images -  sometimes beads and jewelry, maybe sometimes not - just a few images that strike my fancy; "Pretty Palette Thursday" - ok, not so alliterative, but I want to get back on the wagon with playing with color and using Design Seeds palettes for inspiration... each Thursday will introduce the palette for the following week and show off the beads I made with the previous week's palette... not necessarily in that order :); And, last but not least: "Friday Fireworks" - the day I discuss my week in lampworking... I'll probably discuss all sorts of lampworking related topics, from featuring other lampworker's art, showing off techniques I'm using at the torch, sharing the glass I bought on vacation, etc.

So, seeing as how it's Wednesday, and this is supposed to be "Wordless Wednesday", I will now leave you with some images, and the only words I'll add are these - this is the bracelet I made for the bride, for the wedding I attended the night I was dying from the plague, but had to attend because I couldn't get ahold of anyone to grab the bride and groom's champagne bottle so I could make some commemorative beads out of the glass.

On the ground in Portland...

I woke up several times Monday night worried that I'd woken up late and missed our flight, and by the time seven o'clock rolled around I was wide awake and already getting dressed.  A couple hours later, our awesome friends, Dick and Wendy, drove us to the airport.  Coincidentally, Wendy was taking a flight out just half an hour after our flight and it worked out great for all of us.  We chatted in the airport with some nice people from Cleveland and after I offered my condolences we made our way to our gate to wait for our flight to board.

The Kauai to Oahu leg was a bumpier than normal ride, and Jon lost all sensation in one of his legs as we were landing. I wonder how THAT happened. :^)

In the Oahu airport we had an hour layover, but by the time we got out of the first plane they were already calling preboarding for the second.  The walk between the two gates passed through a neat open air concrete passage from which we could see the planes at their gates.  Zoom in on my glasses and you can see a plane in the reflection.

On the Oahu to Portland flight we got the luckiest of breaks.  Emma fell asleep within a half hour of take-off and we had peace and quiet for a whole hour and a half.

She woke up just as they were serving the meal.  I have to say that Hawaiian Airlines in-flight meals suck.  The free meal was a ham (bologna, really) and white American cheese sandwich on a bun with nothing else.  Jon bought the sushi, I bought a cheeseburger, we got Emma the free sandwich, and gave her our sides.  And Emma watched Jane and the Dragon and Thomas and Friends quietly for the next three hours.  It would have been absolutely blissful if not for the occasional turbulence.

About half hour before the plane landed, all hell broke loose, in a manner of speaking.  Emma became bored with her shows, spilled a cup of orange juice on  herself, and started bouncing around and hitting Jon with a stuffie.  I guess it wasn't all Emma's fault.  Jon wouldn't stop tickling her. Finally, the videos regained Emma's attention and there was peace in the world once more.

Another bumpy landing and we touched down in Portland.  In an ironic twist, it was about 80 degrees with high humidity at 11pm.

We found Jon's dad, Garland, and after a very pleasant interchange with a PDX traffic cop we drove to Garland's house where we unpacked, plugged in all our devices, and went. To. Bed.  Ah, to sleep, perchance to dream.

Just one more sleep 'til Christmas!

Well, maybe not Christmas exactly, but I'm as excited about this trip as I was about watching Emma learn that Christmas morning brings a tree-full of pressies. In fourteen hours we'll be winging our way to Portland. Our bags are finally packed and I'm ready for bed. And so is the little one. :)

I'm so eager for this trip, Emma will get to see so many things, the zoo, museums, a train tour, a boat ride, and even a volcano!

Packing for vacation...

Next Tuesday we board a plane to fly to Portland for two weeks and I am really excited!  Two whole weeks to spend with family, seeing the sights of the Pacific Northwest, and, most awesome-est, going to the International Society of Glass Beadmakers Gathering in Bellevue, Washington for a day.  I'm not gonna get to go to the Gathering for the whole week, but I will get a taste of the fun on Saturday the 29th by attending the open-to-the-public Bead Bazaar and then the Gathering Banquet that evening.  I just hope I'm bringing enough "trade beads" to share with all the friends from the lampworking internet community I'll meet in person and all the new friends I'll make while I'm there.

My blogging calendar tells me today is TGIF Treasury! day, but I'm a little busy packing and getting my day job ready for my absence, and just so excited about the trip that I can't concentrate on any one thing for longer than 30 seconds.  The rest of my regular blog features will also be put on hold - did you notice I never got around to posting pictures of the beads I made with this week's palette (CRAZY BUSY).  But, never fear!  For the next two and a half weeks I'm going to convert this Lampworking Blog into a Vacation Blog and take everyone on my vacation with me.  I've got my camera, my data cable, and my netbook and charger, and my goal is to post at least once a day with tons of pictures.  Yay for unattainable goals! :^)

So, keep your eyes open for the posts, 'cause this is gonna be a WILD ADVENTURE! (Cue Wild America theme music.)