Thursday, April 10, 2008

Published - Wow, Twice in One Year

Finally, and it appears true, 1000 Jewelry Inspirations, but I shouldn't get my hopes up until I see the inside of the book. As I've been failed before. But then again, why would the publisher email me to tell me that the book is coming out soon if I didn't get my work in it. Originally I was asked to submit 5 pieces, so we'll see how many made it into the pages. So, published, twice in one year. First it was my six words for my six-word memoir which is pretty hilarious since I am so far from being a writer, but now it's my jewelry, it's what I do. So it's pretty exciting. So that's 2 books with my jewelry in it. I've had my jewelry published in a book in 2006 for DIY's "Jewelry Making" . I guess I may be official now.

Monday, April 07, 2008

Vacation Dress Rehearsal



The kids are growing up so fast, I realized, it’s been years since we went on a real family vacation. Next year my daughter will probably have a full time summer job, so this has got to be the year for that next vacation. I put together a trip to Maui for a week in the summer and we’ll stay in a condo. That will be a first for me. But damn it’s so expensive to eat out for every single meal, especially in Hawaii.

Sneakily I thought we’d do a mini-vacation run-thru dress rehearsal this past weekend. I wanted to see how they act together and with parents. Typically they fight, I get a headache, and life goes on. It’s rare to tell the kids to “get in the car, we’re going to do something as a family”. Usually they are hanging out doing things with their friends on weekends and don’t want to be seen with ‘parents’. So off we went on a day trip to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. It was a really nice day. Great weather, only a few spats, we did and saw it all. I think we’ll survive our vacation for 8 days.
The only thing was when I got back and downloaded my photos from one of the cameras I brought (I had 2, more on that in a minute), I noticed we had a problem. The camera was not working right and the memory card was damaged. The photos that were in the distance were all pixelated. Great. (None are on this blog entry). This was one of the first digital Olympus cameras made. The other camera I brought was my little KonicaMinolta Dimage. It’s great for closeups, but doesn’t take photos in dim light unless there’s a flash, and distance shots are pretty lame. I typically use it for my close ups of my jewelry.

Good thing I went to test out the camera situation. By Sunday, I purchased my necessary and new camera for our trip and all of the time. It’s a Canon DR XT and I got an amazing deal from Adorama. Adorama is an electronics store that specializes in cameras in NYC and has been around since 1975. They pump out the cameras so you can get a great deal.. I actually called and spoke with Frank. He was fantastic. My camera was at least $100 lower than anywhere I’d priced it and even $200 cheaper than Walmart where I saw it there today.