I just listed 3 new bracelets in my Etsy shop. Click the photos for more details. All three feature dichroic Lampwork beads from world renown glass artist, Paula Radke.

Making dichroic glass beads requires a special process of applying micro-thin layers of metal oxides, quartz crystals and other components onto the glass, thereby giving it it’s unique appearance - and Paula Radke has expertly mastered this technique.

The first piece above is called, “Opulence” and features a beautiful shell encased sterling silver toggle clasp.

The piece above is called, “Splendor in the Glass”, and features alternating types of dichroic glass beads - “color on black” and “encased color on clear” - in a spectrum of bright, shimmering hues.

The piece above is called “Wabi-sabi”. I adore the concept of Wabi-sabi. No, no - not “wasabi”, the green mustard paste you mix with soy sauce when you eat your Sushi.

Wabi-sabi is the Japanese art of appreciating beauty in the imperfect or incomplete naturally. I like that. It’s appreciating nature. It’s appreciating simplicity. It’s like organic minimalism. I think this concept also helps one to grow old with grace. Maybe that’s part of the reason why they have so much respect for their elders in Japan.

The weather out here has been perfect the whole week - sunny and cool in the low to mid 70’s. I noticed lots of weird clouds the other day that I just had to snap some pictures of. I even managed to catch part of a rainbow on the top left side.

How odd. These can’t be jet trails, can they? If they are, I’ve never seen them like this.

A new favorite, this one was so much fun to make. It features an adorable girlie puppy generously and kindly donated for my “Paws For A Good Cause” effort by Lampwork Artist, Kim Yamakawa.

This sweet lil’ puppy has a tiny blue flower tucked behind her ear. I wired and planted her amidst some whimsical blue daisies by favorite Lampwork Artist, Dawn White.

Cute button and heart beads, also by Dawn, add the perfect finishing touches to this one-of-a-kind, easy to wear necklace.

One hundred percent of the proceeds will go to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). Click the photos above to check out the necklace in greater detail.

I’ve been cranking out the jewelry lately and I couldn’t be happier. After a long creative drought, I am very thankful. I must follow where the muse takes me.

I have 3 new bracelets waiting in the wings to be listed in my Etsy shop this week, but here’s a sneak peek at one of a series of Golden Retriever pieces I’m creating for both GRCGLA Rescue and SCGR Rescue. 

Back in December, I blogged about a series of problems I was having with my iMac. (You can read about it here.)  I’ve been getting a lot of hits lately from people googling about the same problem so I thought I’d give you an update.

LONG VERSION: We made an appointment and took my iMac in to the Apple store where an Apple “Genius” proceeded to test it, reformat, and test it again. He even took a photograph in store to demonstrate that it was now working. See? Now chop chop, go. Next.

I was in and out in half an hour.

When I got home, I noticed some of my programs were missing. Attempts to install the missing programs from the factory discs failed. Not a good sign (but will do some research to resolve).

Then I started surfing, testing first Safari, then after installing, the Firefox browser. After 15 mins, all went well. Then I got my first browser crash on Safari (the browser unexpectedly quitting). And after that initial crash, more followed from both. Not a good sign.

Any attempts to reinstall and reformat (I tried 6 times) came up with the same errors I was getting before I brought it into the Apple store.  Not a good sign.  

Called Apple customer support and spoke to a rep (who was obviously reading form answers from a manual) who only told me to do what I’ve already done. Multiple times.  Not a good sign.  

After 45 mins of that, I hung up and ran an Apple Hardware test.

SHORT VERSION: I performed two Apple Hardware tests. The first one (the shorter one which the Apple store “genius” also performed) passed. The extended one failed. Ran an extended one again to make sure it wasn’t some weird glitch or by this time, in case I was seeing things with my eyes. Failed again. Documented error and proceeded to the most convenient Apple authorized dealer for repair (there was no way I was going to let another Apple “genius” waste my time again), which in my case, ended up being MicroCenter.

They ordered the part and replaced the memory module (RAM) and I got my iMac back within a week.  The entire cost was covered by my warranty which would have been $242.77 just for the part. 

I’m happy to say that today, my iMac is working perfectly. I don’t surf as much as I used to due to time constraints and I’ve elected to bypass installing unnecessary third party software to be on the safe side.  But I do rely on my iMac as my main computer now and rarely ever use my Windows Vista laptop anymore.  I’ve been spoiled. The graphics just do not compare.

As a side note, both times I had problems with my iMac, they turned out to be major hardware problems with the first time my entire computer being replaced.  I didn’t mind that really because I ended up getting a newer version all covered by my Apple Care Protection Plan. The extra that it cost to get the plan paid for itself 10 times over.  I highly recommend it especially since Apple computers ain’t exactly cheap, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, both times, I fastidiously documented all the problems I experienced including what I was doing with what program, the time and date, and any error messages I received.

Every time I brought the computer in for repairs and handed over my 2 to 3 page documentation, not one tech even looked at it. Instead, their eyes went up and over to the other side.  

They all want you to tell them the problem in 10 words or less. Sure, I find it humorous now, but it was certainly disconcerting that they wouldn’t care to find out exactly what the problem was and fix it correctly the first time instead of me having to go back and forth over and over again.

So I guess the lesson is - keep good records, but keep em’ to yourself.  Keep a concise list of problems that you can rattle off to a tech in a few seconds.  Delete any unnecessary words like “uhmmm” or descriptions.  Instead of:  ”Everytime I surf, my browser crashes after 15 mins.”  ”Browser crash” is enough.  Think caveman talk.  Or better yet, robot talk.  Wait for additional questions before saying anything more.  Not even a beep.