2-rows, 3-rows, 4-rows, we got 'em!

It is always an exciting time when we craftaholics take the opportunity to add new styles to our repertoire. I have been doing 3-row chokers since the beginning, & added 2-row pieces a few months ago. I just added 4-row chokers & sold my 1st one as a custom order!
So cool to be able to build another person’s vision!

Also working on a Design-Your-Own Tribal Choker page on my website at www.WolfLodgeTX.com with a photo of the glass crow bead colors I usually have in stock. Need to add photos of the bone & horn hairpipe sizes & the options for golden deerskin or black leather, & bone vs. leather spacers. Whew!
Wouldn’t it be neat to have a page that would let you play around with components & be able to see a virtual mockup of your finished design? Sort of like how many clothing catalog sites let you see an item in various colors: it can be done, but it’s out of my pricing budget for the foreseeable future.

Built another 4-row custom order in dark red last night, have 1 more to build in a nice aqua/teal color. Hopefully these will be satisfactory!

I found some really neat turquoise pendants about 1 ½” wide; one blue & one green, each with an interesting matrix. Have to find the exact combination of colors to show them off properly.

Still working on my 3rd dice tower with my 1st attempt at abalone inlay – a whole lot more work than I expected!

I have more designs in my brain bucket than I have time to fashion, as well as all those home projects: the brick walkways, brick pedestals for our wolf statues (1 of the 3 still awaits paint), rebuilding the porch for a wheelchair ramp, as well as adding a ramp & screen door to our little screened room. I already have all the brick (free!), and those piles of cedar lumber (free!), just have to haul sand & mortar & my butt out there to get to work (free!). Boy, do I need retirement or what?!?

My darlin’ wife is doing better, 6 weeks out from her concussion. She is up & around somewhat, & is doing the cooking again – woo-hoo! Our zoo is very happy to see her again.

Thank You, Father, for your blessings. May we ever prove worthy of them: amen!

The Process of Family - The Beginning

It may seem otherwise to those who are blessed enough to know all their relations – warts & all – but to me, family is an ever-changing, dynamic thing, more of a process than an entity. My perception of family is a lake into which souls flow, stay varying lengths of time, then flow out again. Some float atop the waves, riding the tempests & foundering in the calms, others dive deep, & most flow out the other end. Some evaporate, a few sink into the depths. And all the while, we are floating in others’ lakes, an unending overlapping sea of transitory human experience.

At the headwaters of my particular stream, (back home, we called ‘em “cricks”), I had 2 siblings, a Mother, an aunt, 2 Grandparents. & asst. drunks. I have searched for years to find my Father, & my 5-6 half-siblings, to no avail. As no trace of this purported parent has ever surfaced, and knowing that my Mum was definitely not a candidate for ’Immaculate Conception II, the Sequel’, I have to accept that I have been misled. Funny that, as Grandma was overly fond of reminding us that the County Orphan’s Home was just down the road & that yes, the “Vacancy” sign was indeed lit! Woo-hoo! One would think that she would be itching to find our lost Pater Familias to rid herself of us. Our sister crossed the pond to Egypt, where she sank. Add her 3 kids & widower to the list of the evaporated ones.

So, how do you build a family when the fish refuse to swim together? You try to become a transitional generation. My son knows the meaning of both love & affection. Other swimmers have joined our little armada, & are closer to us than are our bio-relatives. Here is another incarnation of the Process of Family. The woman I refer to as Mother I met just 10 yrs. ago. Her son – my twin-brother-of-a-different-mother swims deeper in my heart than my sibling bro. It turns out that this Familial Process is the goal, after all. Gather in friends, acquaintances, blood relatives if you must; swim together, & watch carefully for the sharks of dysfunction.

Up Against the Wall, RedHead Fathers!

Well, here we are - smack dab in the middle of September, facing the Gallows of October. As of that fateful month, our jobs require that we achieve 80% of our revenue goals or forfeit all commission pay for the month's labors. In my case that leaves me making less than $8/hour at the tenderly ripe age of 52 years. For 6 months prior to this Doomsday Sword of Damocles, we needed to achieve 60% or go without. My desk has been averaging right around 67%: this month a bit less, & every other desk in our group is doing the same percentage. Of course, some desk have much more revenue in their book of business (much of which used to be MY business) so 'tis not really apples vs. the oranges.
Tack onto this a catastrophic diminution of my driven attitude & my competitive spirit, & the outlook is bleaker than Starbucks' chances of opening a few stores in Darfur.

So what's an Ol' Abbot to do when he is graying without growing earnings? My eBay biz slowed to a crawl & actually shifted into reverse as my fees have outstripped my sales for months now. My sales at etsy.com have been better, but still too few to cover my associated fees. I have revised almost all my photos on etsy, as well as on WolfLodgeTX.com .I am looking into a couple other sites, yessy,com for art , cafepress.com for images on t-shirts, mugs etc., & Elance.com for writing. Now if only I can earn enough for the startup fees to get into them...

Meanwhile I have been busily constructing a dice tower for resale, a castle tower with all the rock work already carved. I carefully hollowed out a niche to inlay an abalone shell only to break the shell after an hour's work. I have another shell, but his particular one was beautiful beyond any I have ever seen. Gonna make lemonade with this lemon as I have wanted to experiment with carving abalone - now I have an excuse! I have several new designs fior these towers ingrained in my brainbucket - oh for time time time!

I have piles of old cedar planks which I have used to surface a 10x12 deck & make a tabletop. A few ideas about that stuff are percolating around also.

My beloved darlin' of 35 years has been having serious health issues. She has taken 3 falls in the past 2 months, the last one incurring a concussion & a particularly nasty head wound. As a polio & cancer survivor, she is adamant that there will be no doctors or EMTs involved. So I am her healer.
Thank the Creator for Reiki & prayer & His healing touch! She has been subjected to my cooking & shopping & laundry "skills" for weeks now. Being unable to travel, I know she is detesting her confinement to the bedroom, & is getting "itchy" these past several days. Perhaps this weekend she can come out to sit in the great room for a while so that our zoo can hang out with her.

Our son is having a tough time with his roomie being unable to work for a while, & then his pay was shorted over 60% this week. Our Blond Bombshell daughter is raising her 4 yr old grandson: now his bio-mother is threatening to take him away.

I am beginning to think we should all change our names to Job! Still, on we slog through the fog of uncertainty, bound by love & leaning upon all the shoulders we can, because we know that the Father's will shall be done, & His rewards are there, somewhere, somewhen...somehow.