Autum at my house

old world bottles with Cindy

after our intense day of jewelry making on saturday, it was nice to settle into a relaxing day where we had fun decorating old bottles. i found this very relaxing (whereas jewelry always gets me a little insane!). basically Cindy showed us some techniques she uses for her bottles and then put us to work.

these are the bottles i made during class

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i've made these bottles since i've been home

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(photo courtesy of pooch.org)

yesterday i had some skin cancer removed on my leg (2 spots right next to each other). it is known as basal cell, the slowest growing form of skin cancer and the most common. this isn't the first time and i'm sure it won't be the last time. i go see the dermatologist every 6 months for a complete body checkup and in between visits, i vigilantly keep an eye on my skin, noticing things,etc. i noticed that many people who don't get their skin checked up ask me, well, what does it look like, what do i need to look for? people think of skin cancer as melonma and involving moles. that is just one form of it. i don't have many moles, so the type that i 've had involves the skin. i look at things that suddenly just appear like discolored areas, itchy, scaly, or red spots. one spot on my arm looked like a waxy clear whitehead. if i do find a spot, i try to notice the size, color, shape, etc. and then just watch it. at the next visit, i'll show my dermatologist areas of concern. these 2 spots i had removed were hit with that stuff they burn warts with - that was done about a year ago. so on my last visit, we discussed how red they still were and decided a biospy was in order.

i think i have a total of 18 stitches between the two spots. i had to keep my leg up yesterday to keep the blood from pooling in the area, so that meant relaxing in bed; something i rarely do! my intentions were to work on some digital collage stuff using my new tutorial sent to me by my friend, Laurel (thanks!), but that didn't work out because ONCE again the dvd player in my laptop is not working. (and you know what that means, another long drawn out phone call with Dell- ugh). so i watched tv and caught up on all my tivo'd episodes of "Desperate Housewives". i have to say though, i was itching to sit down and create something! i'll be up a little more today.

catching up - jewelry class with cindy

on the first day of classes with Cindy Forrestor, we learned how to create how our own bezels using silver sheet and design wire. cindy was so patient and worked her butt off through out the day helping students solder. what a trooper she was.

here's Cindy during her soldering demo

Jamie and Theresa, my seat mates and weekend pals

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here's the fabulous, Heather Bullard. not only is she super talented, but oh so nice and a generous soul.

here's my finished piece from Cindy's class. that's a picture of my mom and grandma in my heart bezel.

happy halloween!

Happy Halloween

this was a few years ago when i went out to a club as a ghoul bride. it was fun.