My First Collection

I guess I should start with what a collection is, and where and why. A collection is a group of items that have a theme that I have picked from artfire. It is a way to promote other sellers on artfire and a way to show off some things I have found that I like.

This is my first collection and I titled it ILY ASL which is I Love You! American Sign Language!

I found a lot of fun items on artfire that are in American sign language and are the ILY hand sign.

Having Gone through Seattle Central Community College and the interpreting program there and having spent a lot of time in the deaf community ASl has always been a big part of my life. All of my children signed long before they would talk and my daughter still signs very fluently.

I would love it if you would take a minute and visit the collection ( Click "View Collection" on the right hand side to see the full collection ) and check out these fun and awesome items. Clicking on the items themselves take you to that persons shop and you can explore more of their items. Leaving comments at the bottom of the collection is always welcomed.

ILY ASL

Curated By: MichelleBallard

ArtFire.com

Handmade Soap

Thank you,

~Michelle

New Creations

I had some ideas the other day on something I could do with the sea glass I find while walking on the beach. I wasn't sure it could be done and if it could I was not sure it would be something I could do. So I started looking for videos about different things on youtube to see if I could find anyone else doing it. There are people doing it but no videos about them that I could find. I did find some other videos about things that had to do with it so I watched as many as I could. I also talked to Dave since he had some experience with the type of thing I wanted to do. After all of that I was thinking that it was something I wanted to try and at least see if I can do it.


Now to find a place to buy the supplies... hmm.. craft store... no... hardware store.. no... a stained glass store.. yes. I needed copper foil tape... what size or color backing I had no idea.. so I bought the stuff the lady said would work great.. turns out it is not so great for everything I want to do.. but I am guessing she had not used real sea glass.

I want to wrap each piece of sea glass in this foil tape and solder around the outside so that it is then wrapped in a pretty silver casing and solder on a jump ring. This sounds so easy.. and watching the videos of people making memory pendants it looked super easy. One thing I did not take into account is that the sea glass is not square or flat or even the same thickness on one side as the other. I also had no experience soldering. In the videos.. they make it look super easy... you just "paint it on" not me... well not when I started... I was going for the "painted on" look.. but was using the dab at it and poke method and it was not working so well.

This was my first attempt... I was so proud of it... now I am embarrassed lol

I have now made a whole lot of pendants... and can really tell a difference from the ones I first made and the ones I am making now. I have learned a lot too... and I see the door open for learning so much more. I need to try some different types of copper tape.. I read there is a black backed one for using with clear glass... I am going to try that next. I have a lot of white pieces of sea glass and the copper tape gives the pieces almost a pink color.. which is beautiful.. but not a true color of the glass. It seems to me that black would show up even more than copper... but I have been told it wont... we shall see :)

I have started listing some of the items in my shop and hope to be listing more soon.

~Michelle

The Beach

"I am not afraid of storms: For I am learning how to sail my ship."Author: Eleanoor Roosevelt

In every curving beach, in every grain of sand there is the story of the earth. - Rachel Carson

"Ocean treasures left on the shore, Nature's gift to adore"

Author: unknown

"The tide always turns"

Author: unknown

"The voice of the sea speaks to the soul"

Author: Kate Chopin

I Did it... Almost

Today I started the second week of the "Couch to 5K" running plan. It is taking me a bit longer to get from one week to the next... so many things happen everyday and getting a schedule going is hard for me. We have 4 day weekdays and 3 day weekends around here.. to keep things balanced I really should be walking on one of the weekend days. I should have at least walked yesterday but I had some paperwork I HAD to get finished and I was just too focused on that. ( I now think if I had walked the paperwork might have gone better ) I seem to have a lot more energy after walking for the rest of the whole day... better than a nap by far.

So today I get on the treadmill and am pretty sure I am not going to be able to do the second week plan.. which is run 90 seconds/ walk 2 minutes, after having so many days off.. but I decided to give it my best and I was very surprised. I was able to do most of the running for 90 seconds.. there were a couple I cut short but they were all close but the last one.. it was just over 60 seconds. I think I did hear a couple of bad words a few times but I had the doors and windows shut so no one heard but me. Would have helped a bit if the music had been a bit better. Most the time I just turn on one of the music stations on the tv.. and have had pretty good luck.. but today I had the slowest songs.. they were just blah with nothing. I am going to need to work on getting some regular music set up.

~Michelle

Bad Commercial...?

There has been a lot of talk on kids and bullies and children who are killing themselves because of being bullied. When I did some reading about all of this online I have learned there is a name for children who kill themselves because of being bullied, Bullycide. That completely breaks my heart and rips at my insides.

There are so many links to so many stories of children who are being bullied and who are then taking their own lives that if I started posting links I would not be able to stop... just google teen suicide bullies and you will see.

I keep seeing this commercial and every time I see it I am more disgusted and disturbed that this company would do this... and that not only did they do it.. but they are still showing it.. from everywhere online I have seen, people are having the same reaction. Not only is it just beyond a stupid commercial that makes no sense.. the fact that this child is being chased by bullies and that mom is clueless is as clear as a bell. Who is this commercial marketed towards and why did they do this? I have spent the last couple of days trying to figure out what I can do to get them to stop showing this commercial and I am going to start by talking about it. Please leave your comments, what do you think about this commercial?