THUNDER IN THE PARK

Life continues to tangle.  The last few weeks have brought major changes into my life.  In the past three weeks my mother has had two right side strokes.  The first was minor and left her with numbness.  The second which was only a week ago was terrifying.  She was taken unresponsive to the hospital by ambulance.  My sister and I stayed with her that night and sent my Dad home because we figured recovery was going to be a very long haul.  Late that evening the nurses came in and gave her water.  The first victory.  She was able to drink.  A little while later my Mom was trying to communicate she was hungry at first she could only get out the word "bowl".  When I asked what she wanted to do with the bowl, she replied "eat".  That seem to open the flood gates and by morning she was able to talk fairly well.  By that after noon she was up and walking again with assistance.
Mom has progressed amazingly and will be coming home today.  I asked her what she could remember and how much of what went on the first day did she understand.  She told me she knew Dad was talking to her and what he was saying as he called the ambulance.  She remembered the ambulance ride.   She even remembered reading the EMT's name tag.  She was aware of what was going on but she just could not make her body move or talk.  How scary would that be??  Many in my family have had strokes and I often wondered how aware they were of what was going on during those times.  My Mom is the first one I have actually gotten to talk to about it.  Often people think just because stroke victims can't talk or move that they lose their ability to think.  Obviously this is not always true.  What I am trying to get across here is if you have loved ones or know of someone with a stroke please treat them with love and respect.  Just because they are unable to get their body to cooperate does not mean they cannot think or understand.

On to other news.  Sometimes life twist back on it's self and you find yourself back where you came from.  I am excited to have a chance to work at this wonderful hospital even though I did not ever see myself going back into the operating rooms.  I am a family comes first person.  My family needs this financial boost so I am doing what is needed by using my surgical skills again but have no fear I will not be giving up my jewelry.  I will find a way to make all this work!

Speaking of making it work,  I will now tell you about the title of this post.  THUNDER IN THE PARK.  On September 1 & 2, labor day weekend,  I will be at Roberts park in Connersville, Indiana.  You can find me with all my handmade goodies in the pavilion.  Would love to see you there.  It starts at 9 am.  I was asked to participate in a special basket the coordinators are assembling for their guest announcer.  What a privilege to create a piece for Betsy Ross.  She is a pioneer in her field of sports reporting.  Here is the necklace I designed for her.

As life continues to tangle sometimes harmoniously and sometimes not so harmoniously I will find a way to turn my face to the sun and keep going.  Thank you for coming along for the ride.  I hope some day in this winding path that we get to meet.  Happy creating to all of you.

Ever Changing & Growing

To stay in business you need to change and grow. You must also learn to keep those things that are working for you.  It is a constant balancing act.  The big test comes from unknown challenges like the one Harmoniously Tangled encountered when a storm wiped out my booth set up at a recent festival. (see the previous post Weathering Storms).  I am determined to come back from this set back.

To help get myself back on track I evaluated the things I wanted to keep.  The first thing that came to mind was MAGPIE GEMSTONES.  I met Szarka and several more wonderful people on a facebook group created as a service by Magpie Gemstones.  This group is very encouraging and informative.  In many groups you find competition and back biting.  That is not the case in this great group of people and I want to thank them for helping to lift me back up and keep me encouraged and inspired with their posts.  They helped to inspire me to create this piece which was done with pearls I purchased from Magpie Gemstones. (This piece was done prior to the storm.)

When I am struggling from creativity block or from a set back I can log into this group and find myself instantly inspired.  Szarka and the group are so giving with many free tutorials and advice.  One of the problems I faced was getting a company to sell to a small business like me.  MAGPIE GEMSTONES saw the need to help small business like mine and they have really stepped in to fill the need.  I am looking forward to doing more business with them in the future.

This necklace contains Yellow Jade beads I purchased from Magpie Gemstones.

When you face a set back it makes you realize that you need challenges to make you grow.  Without challenges and stretching ourselves in new directions we would simply remain the same.  I decided to push myself again to wrap a stone.  This one prove to be very special.  It survived the blown away booth and will remain special to me always.  I will be so excited when the new owner receives it.  I am looking forward to wrapping many more stones and seeing how my skills can grow.

I have also tried my hand at crocheting wire to create pieces like this.  It is so exciting to learn new things.  Learning brings forth HOPE.

Changing and growing can be scary and hard but these steps are necessary to reach new heights.  Sometimes they come from the will to grow.  Sometimes they come from challenges that force us to take new steps.  I am one of those that sometimes needs a shove.  Although I would not wish bad circumstances on anyone what I will wish is that you receive the nudge or guidance you need to spread your wings and continue your journey to the things that make you the happiest.

Weathering Storms

I started this blog to share my journey in creating jewelry.  I have been creating some new fun pieces and I will share that with you sometime soon.  Right now I want to share an experience that is related to my jewelry business and can pertain to anyone who does craft shows, flea markets or festivals.

Last Friday afternoon I began setting up for our local 4th of July Festival.  The weather has been extremely hot and dry here in Indiana.  Our local weather was calling for 100+ temperatures with only 30% chance of rain.  My 9x9 canopy was up and I had my tables where I wanted them.  One of my tables is a solid 6 foot table that does not fold in half for easy transport.  It is plastic but it is made of sturdy stuff.

I placed two of my display boards up on the solid table.  One board is about two feet tall.  It is a peg board that I use to display earrings and there were over 70 pairs of earrings on that board.  The other board was only about a foot tall but contained over 50 pairs of earrings.  I turned to my other table and started to pull more things out for my display but I glanced at the sky.  There were some storm clouds moving in so I decided not to place anything else out and see if the clouds would just blow over.  Suddenly a wind knocked the tallest board to the ground scattering earrings.  Many wonderful people came to my aid and helped to pick up the scattered earrings.  I was standing there trying to decide a better way to display my items when a member of the fire department came by yelling "Take cover!" (or something like that.  I honestly do not remember his exact words).

He no more than got the words out when a gust of wind took my table and flipped it into my arm.  The table then whipped around me and flew several feet back behind me into a cannon that is cemented into the court house lawn.  My other table also took off flying.  At the time this is happening I reached up and grabbed onto my canopy.  There were others that came to my aid but we ended up letting the canopy go and it also blew off behind me.  At this point we all headed for the safety of the court house.

This is a picture of part of the table.  It hit the canon so hard it warped the frame causing the screws to pop out.

When I came out of the court house my jewelry was scattered all over the ground.  My totes that I carried things in were gone as was my cart, tables and fishing tackle boxes that I use to carry my jewelry in when I travel.  Basically my spot was bare except the things that were scattered on the ground.  I began to walk around looking to see what I could salvage.  God was good and the first thing I found was my belt pack that contained all of my change for the weekend and my identification.  It was partly opened and I lost a little change but I was so happy to find it.  At this point it began to rain very hard.  I grabbed what I could and threw it into the court house.  I called my husband.  He had planned to come help me with my set up after he got off work but I began to cry as I explained we would be looking for what ever we could find because it all blew away.  He did not really understand until he made it to where my booth would have been.

As I waited for my husband I made short trips in and out finding what I could and bringing the jewelry it into the court house.  I found my tackle boxes.  They held up well.  If you are looking for a great fishing tackle box I vouch for Plano!  I had only removed one section to start my set up so everything else that was still inside the boxes were unharmed.  My night ended with me soaking wet and throwing what I could find and salvage in my car.

My husband continued to look for things as I headed home to get dry.  He said he found business cards of mine over a block away.  When I got home I began to realize how lucky I was.  I was bruised and my business would take a big loss for the weekend but no one who was there was seriously injured.  Had this storm moved in only a short time later the streets would have been filled with people for a water ball fight between the local fire departments.  The flying canopies and debris would have injured many more people if it would have happened during that event.

The next day my wonderful daughter spent hours untangling the mess.  I am counting my blessing that I was not seriously injured but in equipment and inventory I lost over $300.  Not to mention the loss sales.  I was too sore and my items in too much chaos to try and tend a booth but I forced  myself to go up the the festival the next day to deal with my grief and fear.  I spoke to many who had been there when the storm hit.  A nice elderly couple told me how the man in the booth next to them had a weather app for his phone and he had told them a storm was coming.  They barely got their canopy dropped down on top of their tables when it hit.   "We are 80 years old but we hung on!  That canopy was a flopping but we hung on!" He said with a smile.  I said a prayer thanking God that these sweet people were not injured and for the the two wonderful ladies who had a booth behind where mine would have been.  They had found some of my items and returned them to me when they saw me.

This experience showed me the kindness of people in an extremely bad situation.  I had strangers who helped me and a wonderful young man who offered me his jacket when I was soaking wet and cold.  I am grateful to everyone of them.

What I want to share with you is if you show at craft shows, flea markets or festivals you should have a weather ban radio as part of your emergency kit.  It doesn't matter if your show is indoors or out.  This storm hit so fast that it probably would not have helped in this case but you better believe I will have one next time.  It is a small price to pay for something that may save your life.

A quick after thought.  I can now say my creations can survive storms! ha ha Here is a picture of one of my necklaces.  Notice the earrings that were stuck in it but yet the stone I wrapped stayed in place.

Always try to find the good in every situation.  Makes weathering storms so much easier!

Craft Show Time

I am excited to say it is time to be in a craft show!  This Saturday I will be in Dover, Indiana for their spring craft show.  The time is 9 am until 4 pm.  Come on down and say hello.  I would love to meet you.  My sister Lisa of Creative Kitty Crochet will be there with her hand crocheted items.

Even though life has been chaotic I have been able to create some new pieces of jewelry.  I have been experimenting with using crochet techniques with wire.  Here are a couple of samples.

These are various glass beads crocheted onto 28 gauge wire.  I was very happy with the effect.  A fun summer time piece.

For this piece the pendant is a dyed stoned wrapped in silver plated wire.  The round amethyst beads were crocheted into the piece on 28 gauge wire and finished with silver filigree round beads.

I am still experimenting with Harmoniously Tanged jewelry to decide which direction I want my jewelry to take.  I am looking for those piece that say "Hey Look at Me!"  I want you to be able to look at my creations and say I know that came from Harmoniously Tangled.  How am I doing?

Forgive me friends.

I am not an everyday blogger but it has been way too long since I have visited with you.  At this time my life is not so harmoniously tangled.  Many developments in the wind.  Our oldest daughter and our two grandsons (5 & 4) have move in with us.  Our youngest daughter had married and moved out over a year ago.  Over time we had started making use of our new space.  We had taken a bedroom and placed bookshelves in there and was in the process of creating a game room.  This was sort of  halted when I began my journey into jewelry making.  I then began to use the room and spread my goodies all over the place.  To be more direct, the room was a piled up mess in which everything had to find a new home because that would be the room the boys would be taking.  The move in date was speeded up a week and this caused an increased urgency to make way. 

For those who have moved even in the best of conditions it is still not a fun job.  As they say, "When it rains it pours."  In the middle of the move in week I received a call from my youngest daughter (she is 19).  She was having abdominal pain.  After a trip to the doctor we received orders for an ultrasound.  We are now waiting on the results to see if there will be a surgery.

Although things are not harmonious at the moment I know as things go forward it will again come to that.  My logo for Harmoniously Tangled is surrounded by vines because if you turn a vine away from the sun it will curl its way back around to face the sun.  The sun will shine again here in my corner of the world and I hope all of you will stick with me to see it.  I can tell you over the last few days I have reworked a necklace and I have created another necklace that only needs to have the clasp added.  I will bring you pictures as soon as possible because my desk top computer has also died during all this.   It had the software for my camera on it. 

If you believe in the old wives tale that bad things happen in threes then I should be on my way to being harmonious again very soon.  What ever happens I am sure my family will hold each others hand as we walk through it.

I am pleased to say that I have my first craft show of the year coming up at the end of the month.

SPRING CRAFT SHOW at St Johns the Baptist Church, Dover Indiana
SATURDAY, MARCH 31, TIME: 9am to 4pm

I hope if you are in the area you will stop in and say hello.  I look forward to meeting many new people there.

Whats New!

So many things are going on for Harmoniously Tangled.  I am having a giveaway here on my blog (click on Grateful Extravaganza page) and I am also involved in two other giveaways.  You can find out more about them on my facebook page.  I do these giveaways to thank you for taking the time to visit my page and be a part of my world.

I have also sold my first polymer clay piece.  I was so excited for this wonderful lady to have it.  She has been such an inspiration for me.  I am looking forward to future pieces as my skill grows.

You can see some of my new polymer clay pieces in my giveaway.  Here is a look at some of the pieces available in my online store.  You can get to my store by clicking the link on the right of this page that says Harmoniously Tangled at Storenvy.

Harmoniously Tangled is expanding to give you truly one of a kind items.  Visit often to see what is going on.

WOW! I Am Amazed.

I am amazed and humbled by the many people who have taken the time to visit and like my little corner of the world on facebook.  Behind each of those little numbers is an amazing person.  I thank you for sharing time with me.

To thank you for sharing your time I will host a giveaway here on my blog very soon.  I need a little to time to create special items for this occasion.

Many things are going on.  As you read on my previous posts I am now creating with polymer clay to use in my handmade jewelry.  For the giveaway I want to create some unique items for you.  If you are interested in sponsering an item for the giveaway you can email me at harmoniouslytangled@yahoo.com  Send me a picture of the item with a link to your page and if it will be free shipping.

There is now another place you can find me, Pinterest   If you are not familar with Pinterest it is a place where you can create bulletin boards and put pictures of things that interest you.  Warning!!! This is fun and can be addicting.

Thank you again for sharing your time with me.  Stay tuned for the upcoming giveaway.