Thursday, October 11, 2007

Talents that are not shared are not talents

"Talents that are not shared are not talents."

Got that in a fortune cookie at lunch today, and boy is there much said in that small statement. What immediately comes to mind for me are the designers out there that think they have complete control over their designs once they make directions or patterns and put them out there for sale or in classes. They let you take their over priced class and then tell you that you can only make one or that you can make 3 but you can't sell them. They think of ways to stop you from sharing directions in many ways from plastering each page with copyright info to having you jump through hoops just to get the dumb thing making them inaccessible to many people.

Also, I asked the copyright office and they sid that you can rightfully sell anything you own as long as it is not trademarked. But in truth, even things that are trademarked - made legally, can be sold second hand, so in reality, you can sell anything you own out right.

I'm tickled pink to think that anything I have designed could be sellable.

I love to think that they will sell them and spend more money on beads and patterns, preferably mine! LOL

So I'm sticking with the fortune of the day. The only real talents are those that are shared with others!

Thursday, May 17, 2007

This Week Was...




I'm going to try to write here at least once a week. This week was quiet but nice. I ordered beads. I finished my earrings and have been wearing them all over town. This weekend is the gem show. It's interesting how my opinion of this particular show has changed since I first attended 4 years ago. I thought it small and very pompously dismissed it. As the time passed, it is the only bead type show we get here. And though I get to at least 3 real bead shows a year, it's different when it's close and you get to go from home and not working at a booth does change the dynamic.

Now I go to see the people and pets that are there. I take Smokey and it's a very positive social outing for him. He gets to see other dogs which is good for him. I get to see other bead and jewelry addicts. Sometimes I see friends that I have not seen sometimes since the last show.

I have a huge re-organize planned for my beads and I just hope the schedule goes as planned. I'm not gonna tempt fate by crossing my fingers or toes.

I have been doing things that help me heal as a human being. I went into a bead shop who's owner owes me for a class of mine that she took. I had not walked into that shop for 3 years and it was good to go in and look around. I felt a huge weight lifted off of me after that. It was a very good thing. I have not been overly productive in my beading this week but I have been doing things that are bead related.

I hope the next week is very beady productive. I have 3 pair of earrings on the to do list. 2 necklaces and then the spiral swap pieces.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

What a Beadiful day I had yesterday!!!


And it was very beady!

A friend told me that there was a trunk show in Sacramento - 2 1/2 hours drive from where we live. She said she would drive if I would go with her!

So of course I said I would love to go with her! LOL

What a day we had! I already knew a cool bead shop in Sacramento - U BEAD IT - Yvonne Rivero's shop - she is the author with the bracelet books and one ornament book. I took the 2 bracelet books I already have and bought the 3rd one. Next time I will get the ornament one! LOL

She has the most awesome bead store!!! The nicest employees and a selection of beads that knocks you over when you go in and see them all!

I have been wanting to make this cool knock off pair of earrings. I saw a pair another person designed and I liked them but she used delicas and her fringes were even and I wanted mine tapered - so I got the needed materials and I made one myself!

here is the pic.

http://members.aol.com/pjwelborn/CordDangleEarsAlaPamy.jpg

I finished it in the car on the way to the bead show!
All I have to do is make the match and I can start wearing them! LOL

We hit Sacramento in the morning and I knew a cool bread place - so we had muffins and coffee.

We headed to the bead shop because it opened at 10 and the show didn't open till 12. We filled our trays there and decided to have them hold it all so we could get whatever the show didn't have for us after the show and add it to our orders - I buy wholesale and they have a minimum amount to get the discount - so I didn't want to have to make it 2 times in one day!

So we left there and headed to the truck show. Tables and tables of stone beads!!!! Pearls!!!! baggies of Swarovski!!! Chinese Crystal! baggies of Findings!!!! It was a huge display.

Then back to the bead shop where we filled in where the bead show left off!

Dinner at Cheesecake Factory and back home!

I was so tired I nearly don't remember anything I did after I got home. Head on pillow and had lots of beady dreams!

May all your beady dreams come true!

Pamy

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Rumpelstiltskin ants




I have a fantasy I would like to share...



not that kind of fantasy!



a Beady one...



It started when the annual finder ants started coming in to look for goodness knows what!

They come in - one ant at a time or 3 ants at a time but seldom do they even get near food, they are in the bedroom and the bathroom and the closet... So in my little fantasy, these ants come in and do nothing, so I want to give them something to do. So in the spirit of the fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin, I would leave out all the beads and supplies for a project, the directions and all and in the morning the piece would be beaded up magically by these Rumpelstiltskin ants!

I know... It's a pipe dream but it's my pipe dream!

lol

and I thought you might get a giggle out of it too.

Keep your Friends Close...




And your Enemies Closer.

And that has been my policy for some time but this new outlook I have makes it even easier to do.

Makes them wonder what you have been up to when you walk through a parking lot whistling...

Makes them wonder what you know when they see you with the slight grin on your face...

So that is my theory for today


Keep them guessing!

And I keep my bucket empty.



Tuesday, May 01, 2007

I'm just here for the beads

I'm just here for the beads

I don't want the complications of all the politics

I am not here to win a popularity contest

If you don't like me - fine

If you do like me - GREAT

But I'm still just here for the beads

Monday, April 30, 2007

Calm Month of May

That is all I want - a calm month. I want to fill it with beading and creativity. I'm going to get caught up on the beading I need to get done. I'm going to get the designing I have in my head out of my head. I am reading a book about the Power of Nice and I think all people who enter the business world should read this book before they open up a business.

Nice gets you more the books says and it's right. Were we all not told as children "if you can't say something nice, then don't say anything at all"? Didn't Thumper's mom tell him that in the beginning of Bambi? Didn't most of us see that movie as children? or as Adults? Why can't we all just be pleasant and get along?

Which would you rather deal with? Someone who is working very hard trying to explain away their faults? Or someone who says - Gee, I'm sorry I did that and I will try to do better in the future. I have come to realize that it's much simpler to just own up than it is to find excuses to explain bad behavior. If you can't find anything else to do than talk about other people, then you really need to examine your own life and find what is missing from it.

I always tell my students that I bead for HAPPY. I set my beads up a certain way when I bead. I use certain threads and certain needles. I use certain beads. I don't wax my thread. All these things make beading happy for me. It does not mean that everyone needs to bead the way I do. It means that we can all do different things to get to the same type of outcome. I learned from a my way or the highway teacher. You did it her way or you got ignored. I so work hard not to be that way when I teach classes. In fact I'm often fascinated when other beaders can bead from mixed beads! Jealous even. I'm also fascinated when I see beaders use different things than I do. I learn things by observing the ways other beaders get to the end result.

We all share a love of beads. Why the heck can't we all just get along and share the creativity with the rest of the world?

The cattiness and negativity just suck the creativity out of all of us.

It's time to move forward and in a postive direction.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Busy Busy Busy

As it seems to happen in recent years, the first part of my year this year is VERY busy. I worked Tucson, went to Nebraska and now just finished bead show in Oakland and had a blast!

The trip to Nebraska was an absolute BLAST! I had a better time than I could have ever imagined. The whole thing was just one fun thing after the next. Made the little work setting up and breaking down so easy to put in the back and only think about the fun parts.

What a difference the Oakland show was. It was HUGE! Lots of networking! Lots of appreciating the beautiful work I saw all over the place. Lots of beaders to talk to!

I met several people in the last 4 months that I have known or known of on the net for a long time. Most of them have been so nice to meet. Some are nicer in person than they are to me on the net and some are the opposite. One, I'm quite certain didn't know who I was. Must be the red hair! LOL Oh well. I have accepted that I can't like everyone and I can't expect to be liked by everyone.

Family can be so overrated... and I think I'm going to take a break from some of the family obligations I have taken on in the last couple years. It's time for someone else's shoulders to be carrying this load for a while. The expectations are not expressed in a polite manner and I don't wanna be the kicking post anymore. I have lots of work to get done on my patterns, so I'm going to spend lots of time getting that all moving forward for me.

Monday, March 12, 2007

One Step Closer...




Wow…

It's so surprising that a laptop computer could represent so much to me…


But it does!


I won a Mac laptop – for cheap on Ebay – and now I can design my bead patterns more comfortably. It’s like the birds are singing – the flowers are blooming… wait! They are! We are experiencing a false spring. It's nice but I know it won’t last.

The happy feeling will last though J I hope. 9 days and I will be away and even happier for 2 whole weeks. In a place where calm is the way it happens. I hope I can acclimate faster this year. I want to get the most out of the trip.

Monday, February 19, 2007

Out of the funk

When you admit that someone did something that popped you into a bad place for 3 weeks, are you giving him or her power? Or are you taking the power back? I think it's the latter. I got into the funk by doing something helpful for a friend and it turned out not to have been so helpful but the way I was made aware of it was in a manner that shows extreme bad behavior and was meant to humiliate me and beat me down. All that needed to be said was – you didn't do the work I thought you would do, so we won't be having you do it anymore. It’s simple and anyone who knows how to deal with people would know that. The dressing down was done in front of others in a further attempt to humiliate me but only ended up making this person look just awful. It was also asked of me that I was a still friend… How can you stay friends with a person you no longer trust? I of course in order to have the talking stop, gave an affirmative answer. So I pretty much think that any friendship left with this person to be a lie, whether he or she knows it or not.


On a happier note, I have had the nicest weekend and now am trudging out of the funk to start creating again. I am stealing the happiness I got this weekend to make other parts of my life happier. I am sure the person responsible for the happiness would approve. Of course he would because he loves me. I am gathering other happinesses from contacts with other people who do what I do. Other people, who love beads and happen to make some money back from that love. I have come to realize that the way I do "it" is not the same for everyone. I love beading and my creativity comes from inside me. I dream things that end up becoming reality in beads. If tomorrow everyone stopped buying patterns and kits, I would still bead. I bead because I love it and that I can sell things to make some money back is a good thing. It does not mean that everything I make is something I want to see mass produced by the beading public at large. There are pieces of mine that I wear on a regular basis and I will not part with them even for short periods of time. I recently decided to retire a couple kits and I can't wait to get those samples back because I really miss them. I miss wearing them. I miss being able to hold them and look at them. It's all a joke really – I couldn’t have created things that anyone else would want… could I? Well I apparently do but it’s still all a miracle to me every time I complete something like that. That I am friendly with people who are far more creative than I am at times helps the whole picture happen. If I’m down or confused, I have a small list of people that can help me get on track again. Even give me a swift kick in the butt when needed.

So fake friends or friends who loose it and make me the target, I don't need but I have real friends in my life and they are more than enough for me!

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Tucson '07

Well Tucson 07 was a BLAST!
I got to see my sweetie when I got there and it made the awful 2nd day bearable.
I got to see people I haven't seen in ages!
I met a few people I had known on line for eons and we liked each other in person too!
I worked the bead show and loved the people I met!
I got to stay with a friend, so I could completely unwind after the show each day.
I was enslaved to a kitty who isn't generally friendly to strangers!
I got to see lots of lovely beadwork walking passed me each day!
This trip was a total success!!!
Its going to be a VERY beady year!!!

Monday, January 08, 2007

Turning 40...

I turned 40 last month and the beads turned on me! All of the sudden they are not as clear in my glasses as they have always been!!! What's up with that???? Now I have a cute pair of 1/2 glasses to make the beads clearer for me. I had always been told that it would happen at 40 but did it have to be so automatically?

I have lots of beady things on my horizon. I'm going to Tucson to work at the bead shows!!! YAY!!! If you are there this year - pop into the Bead Ren show - I will be at the San Francisco Arts & Crafts booth, surrounded by lots of Czech glass beads!

I also hope to go to Nebraska in the spring. If I get there, it will be my 3rd time and I just can't wait!

Turning 40 has other effect on me too. It seems like people listen to me a little better now. Though I have chosen not to have children, turning 40 sort of cements that decision for me. I do like to borrow them though.

Gotta go play with the beads now... :-)