honey & ollie

I’ll be drawing the winner of a $50 Etsy Gift Card via a random number generator at 5pm PST today! So stay tuned…

it’s been a heck of a week. Last Wednesday, my mom and dad drove down to LA to spend a few days. You wouldn’t think this is much of a thing, but, my mom and dad divorced about 41 years ago. I’m 42. They get along great, but they live in different places and so do I. So as you can imagine, the number of times that the 3 of us have all been together in the same place at the same time, since I reached adulthood, are… slim. My wedding day. Oldest grandchild’s culinary school graduation. One memorable thanksgiving dinner when said oldest grandchild was 3. That might be about it, actually. So it was pretty spectacularly cool.

Aaaaaand of course, the day they arrived is the day I went down with a spectacular cold/flu/lurgy. I mean, that virus rolled a freaking nat 20, like whoah. High fevers, horrible cough, you name it, I had it. Flat on my butt. So that was kind of a bummer.

We still managed to have a pretty nice time though. Mom cooked some tasty eats. The Ex Mr. H&O hung out a good bit as did the Cap’n and Pantalones Jr. I got to show Dad my studio. Actually, in woodworker parlance, it’s a “shop” but essentially it’s the same thing. A messy place with tools and a workbench. It was fun to show him all the goodies, like my nifty jeweler’s saw and the tiny vice and anvil. They drove down to San Pedro and saw Crafted on Friday and I got to introduce them to all my vendor friends and show them the new store.

None of this might seem particularly spectacular, but, to me it really was. I haven’t had many chances to walk Mom AND Dad together around someplace and show them off, so I really enjoyed the opportunity. Kind of one for the books, really, and I’ll hold it close.

Can you believe, though, it’s like only the 4th or 5th time we’ve all been together in my adult life and NOBODY GOT ANY PICTURES?

We are, apparently, not a picture taking family.

Then they went home and I basically passed out and was flat on my butt for 4 days. Still not 100%, hence the silence on the blog the last few days, but am slowly on the mend. Today I actually managed a little bit of studio time. Nothing crazy, a few new hoops to throw in the tumbler, and some earwires.

This is “Maia” the newest addition to our Padmavati hoops collection. I’m kind of going ga ga for hoops these days. And these just make me so happy. A little bit tribal with the copper wraps and rustic hammered curves. I’ll have a few pairs out at the port (they’re coming in 3 sizes) this weekend. Hopefully some will be up on line by then too!

I finished these turquoise lovelies last week, the day Mom and Dad got here, right before I failed my saving throw against the Hideous Lurgy.

I call them Chandra. They come with or without stones.

I was so happy today, in my neglected studio, with the new hoops in the tumbler going round and round. I dunno. That’s a noise that never fails to make me feel productive, especially when things have been jumbled and complex!

How about you? What signals “back to normal” to you when things have been a little crazy?