The New Floor .... and a little bit of Jet

I LOVE MY NEW FLOOR!  Yes, I screamed that at the top of my lungs.  I feel like a grown-up now that my floors are not made of plywood any more.  We're no longer living in a house known for it's dorm-room-chic qualities.  Alright, we still have some funky things going on, but for the most part, the house is done.  Amen.  It's only been 14 1/2 years.

You probably think this is a nice hardwood floor.  You would be wrong.  It's linoleum.  Yup, linoleum.  The manufacturer uses a photograph of wood and somehow adheres it to some really heavy duty linoleum.  There's even real wood-like texture going on here.

A friend of Rick's, who has installed many hardwood floors over the years, made the comment: "Why would anyone get real wood?"

And here's Jet on his new bed, after his grooming yesterday.  I wuv him.

New Earrings in My Etsy Shop -- Finally!

Now that the Great Flooring Installation of 2011 is complete, I'm finally back to work in my studio.  There's nothing like a little renovation to get me motivated again.  My studio was completely empty for several days as the floor was installed, so I took the opportunity to sort through stuff, clean and rearrange a bit.  While it looks the same (to the untrained eye), it feels very different to me.  In a very good way.

Without any further delay, I'll share with you two new pairs of earrings in my etsy shop.

Midnight Blue Pearls

Concave Cut Green Amethyst

Stay tuned -- I have more earrings to come.  The photos need to be edited, blah, blah blah.  As usual, click on the photos to go directly to the listings in my etsy shop.

A Brief Update

I know you have all missed me and my posts terribly.  And I do feel bad about being absent from my blog lately.  But I actually have some good reasons, which I will cover in a minute.

First, I'd like to report that our Bad Girls of the North craft show in Fairbanks was a huge success.  We think that there was a record turnout on Friday evening.  If I was a shopper, I think I would have left!  I don't do well with huge crowds.

My house is a disaster zone.  In preparation for new flooring (actually, it's my house's first real flooring ever -- we've been living with plywood floors for 13 years.  very embarrassing to admit this here), most of our belongings and furnishings are packed up and living on the deck under blue tarps.  For those of you not familiar with this strategy, it is very Alaskan to use a multitude of blue tarps, wherever and whenever you can.  I'm not a fan of this look, but given what we need to do, this is a necessity.

As many of you know, my studio is located inside my house.  Yes, my entire studio has been dismantled and will not be back to normal for a few more days.  This timing is far from brilliant, as we are in the middle of craft show season.  The actual floor installation will take place on Monday and Tuesday.  It is only after that, that our lives begin to get back to normal.  Rick is certain that I will be searching for missing items all winter long and he's probably right.

No pictures of this disaster are available.  I'm not proud of how our house and deck look right now.  The neighbors are concerned for our mental stability at this point.

On a brighter note, Jet is having a blast running around the near-empty house.  There are few places where his toys can get stuck!

Thanks for sticking with me through my long absences.