Friday stuff...

I think I did it. My new website is more or less finished, and I think it's out there live on the internet. It doesn't come up on my dumb computer, but other people are telling me they can see it, so I'm guessing it will make it's way here soon. It feels like I've been working on this for months, but it's only been a week. Guess I shouldn't be too hard on myself for taking "so long"! Check it out if you want... http://www.kimmiles.com
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I'm kind of pissed at Oprah. She did all these "wonderful" hairstyle makeovers for people yesterday, with a team of hotshot stylists. Every single one of them ended up with blown-out straight hair. What is that about? There was one woman with glorious, curly, out of control hair. She needed some help with caring for it and styling it, but she didn't need it to be straight! The stylist actually said, "It looks a helluva lot better than it did before." Like curls are some kind of genetic defect that can be cured with a blow drier and a straightening iron. How rude! Oprah herself was sitting there with nicely managed curls. I wonder why she doesn't gather up some of the Curl Pros and do a show for us curlies. Somebody write her a letter. I'm too cranky to do it nicely!
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It's officially Christmas Time in Taos. Tonight we're going out to the tree lighting on the plaza, and the the big, fancy, charity auction at El Monte Sagrado. It will be most lovely, I'm sure. And there's a big snow storm coming in, so the stage will be set. I love this time of year here.

Have a good weekend!

time for a(nother) change

I haven't been here for a few days because I've been somewhere else...

Last Tuesday I spent the longest day posting beads on Etsy. Etsy... dear Etsy... What a wonderful place. A community of people who make things with their own two hands. And a support team of tech-heads who know how to make putting together a store a simple thing. It works... but... there's always a big fat but, isn't there?

While Etsy is friendly and easy, it's also a painfully slow process to list an item, and at the end of the month, it's expensive. All those tiny fees and percentages were really adding up, and I was still spending entire days at the computer, clicking the "next" button and waitng, waiting, waiting...

I went to bed last Tuesday totally beaten up and wrung out, after a 15 hour day. That's not what I'm here for. I woke up the next morning knowing I was about to change everything. No more patches! It's time for a new wardrobe.

I've spent the last week trying out different sortware, and have finally settled (I think) on GoDaddy.com. New website, new shopping cart, all in one tidy place I can call my own, and operate with relative ease. Everyone I've ever talked to who's had someone else build a site for them has been unhappy about it eventually... right about the time they want to make a quick change and that person suddenly can't find the time to do it. I have to be able to change things often because things change often. I'm so crossing my fingers that this all works.

There's only one little problem I can find so far. There's no option for International shopping. How silly is that? I'll be talking to them about it. Meanwhile, I'll just have to find a way to work around it. You know me. I can do it.

And, at first there will only be PayPal, but I plan to add a merchant account so I can take credit cards right through my shopping cart. Patience please... one piece at a time. You know I don't stop at "good enough", although sometimes I think I should!

So for the next few days, my mornings are spent "under construction", and afternoons are in the studio. Evenings, I just flop in a chair and wait for Rick to bring me food. I'll put the word out when it's all ready to go. Until then... here's a little preview of the New Look...

silly email fun

Have you seen the goofy new things you can send by email? I'm having way too much fun with these... I'm sure it says something about my maturity level...

My favorite today is Elf Yourself. You load your own faces into up to four elves, and then watch them dance in the snow. You can also add your voice with a free phone call. I'm just cracking up here. This one should take you to Dancing Elf Kim.


If you're more of a humbug sort of person, you can opt to Scrooge Yourself... I'm just sharing - I didn't name it.

And if holiday silliness isn't your thing at all, try Monk-e-Mail. It's fabulous!

There you go. Share with your friends... but don't send them to me! I don't need a mailbox full of goofy video email, much as enjoy a good distraction!

Light Friday

We had a perfect Thanksgiving. Julia came over for breakfast and the Macy's Parade, and then we had the whole day to ourselves. Knowing all the kids were happy and well fed with friends, we wandered around the house all afternoon, and then whipped up a simple veggie feast for ourselves. Garlic-cheese-broccoli mashed potatoes, sauteed mushrooms, salad with walnuts, feta, and cranberries, and of course, a good bottle of wine. After dinner, we headed over to Deborah and Thomas's for dessert with the family. Much of Deborah's family was there, and aside from the incredible homemade pies, the biggest treat of the day was the music they made. Imagine... a whole family of musicians. I was so amazed and impressed and thoroughly entertained. My family has exactly one musician. (maybe there will be two some day, if I ever learn to play the violin I don't have yet...) This whole singing in the living room with guitars and drums and tambourines and voices that naturally blend so beautifully is completely foreign to me. It brought tears to my eyes more than once. I want to be adopted by them. Maybe I'll learn to sing too.

I'm up early again this morning, and I'm looking out the big windows to snow! The first snow of the season. It's got magic in it. The sun's not even up yet, but I can feel things starting to twinkle...



Today is known as "Black Friday" in the retail world - the official start of the holiday shopping season, when retailers hope for sales that will put their businesses back "in the black". On the other side of the cheese, it's also "Buy Nothing Day", which encourages us to resist making the Holidays more about "stuff" than "heart". I can't totally endorse either one. Guess I'm "straddling the cheese", as it were... While I think we buy too much, want to much, have too much stuff in this country, I also happen to sell stuff to make my living. A real conundrum, don'tcha think?

I'd like to propose a compromise. Let's call it "Light Friday", honoring the Season Of Light. If we want to shop, let's go shopping. And let's do it consciously, with eyes and hearts wide open. Rather than just buying a bunch of stuff out of habit, we can buy gifts of love, from the heart. Gifts that will be honored and loved in return, and perhaps, not returned to the stores the day after Christmas.

Here's to you and the snow and the Season Of Light! Do what makes your heart sing!

how to choose a violin?

Thanks for all the encouragement on my violin dream. It seems totally loco to me. Like I have any free time. Ha! Not a smidge! But I think if I get the violin, I will somehow find time to learn to play it. Now the big question is, How do I know what to buy??? Someone suggested that I not get anything too cheap, because it will sound bad and be uncooperative. That makes sense. But now what? There's no music store here, so online shopping is what I get. I've found everything from super cheap junior high school violins to a guy in Taos who makes them. I'll bet his are beyond wonderful, but also probably beyond affordable. Here's his site, in case you're interested http://www.caronviolins.com/davidcaron/index.shtml
And one other site that looks possibly promising... http://www.violinslover.com/violins4_4.php
This one looks nice - her name is Gloria...



If anyone out there can direct me in some small, simple, easy to understand way, I'd be very happy to hear from you. Remember, I'm starting from zero. I have a whole new language to learn. Gosh, maybe I am nuts! But so? Bet I'm not the only one.

thumb print for my beads

This week you'll see the first of my "signed" beads. I know it means a lot to collectors to have their beads signed by the artist. Personally, I don't care much either way, and I don't like the way a signature in glass will often muck up a killer bead design. But I've been chewing this over for years now, and the silver end caps seem to have solved the problem... at least for the beads that are silver lined.

I have a tiny logo stamp that just fits on the larger caps, and almost fits the small ones. You have to look real close, but you can see the little heart with wings. It doesn't interfere with the look of the beads, so I'm pleased. And for those who care, it's a hint of proof that it's a gen-you-wine Kim Bead. Like a thumb print, it says I was there.

a good weekend

Man, things are spinning fast these days. Feel it? I'm dizzy half the time just trying to keep up. And now we have the Holidays upon us. We started with a "Thanksgiving" breakfast yesterday morning. None of the kids are home for T-Day dinner this year which is actually OK with me, since we're having a Big Fat Family Christmas in just another month, and I need all my energy for that. But Lauren and little-doggie Heidi came home for the weekend, so we got Julia to come over, and Lauren's friend-boy Tyler too, for a nice little get-together. I got out the Christmas cups and made our favorite baked eggy dish, with gobs of cheese and green chiles. It's beyond yummy.



And Rick made bread. Real bread! He makes the best bread in the world. His bread baking skills are part of why we had the pizza shop in Seattle. The crust was the best part, and people noticed. He says he's going to make our bread all winter..... oh my, I'm weak in the knees just thinking about it! Beads and bread - what more do we need?





This week is just one celebration after the next. A dinner with friends tonight, maybe a cool fund raiser for the local homeless shelter tomorrow night, and then Thanksgiving. We plan to sit in our jammies and watch the Macy's Parade in the morning, do some serious power-lounging all day, and then join friends for dessert later in the evening. Since I'm a veg-head, and Rick doesn't care about a big old turkey, we're going to make all the best parts of the meal, just for us. And since the weather is finally supposed to start to get chilly, we won't picnic on the patio, but will probably have our dinner sitting by the fire. Thankful? You bet! For more than I can say.

butterfly chaos

I wish I could put this bead in your hand and let you take a really close look in really good sunlight. Yesterday the glass was giving me hints, disguised as mistakes. Fortunately, I've learned to listen well, so it wasn't long before I took the hints and came up with this. There are butterfly wings, but only traces of them left in the chaos. Sort of a "butterfly acid trip"... but I really wouldn't know about that...

I'm keeping this one for a while. The style will move on from here. I wonder where it will go...

wish list

John Eaton painting

It's that time of year... time for me to start asking Rick and the kids what they are wishing for most. I can grant wishes. I can make magic. It's been my job as The Mom for years now, and I think I do it pretty well. But his year, I have a short wish list of my own. Really short. I want a violin...

I know what you're thinking... Kim's gone 'round the bend... too many propane fumes perhaps... But no, that's not it. I really want a violin. And I want to learn to play it. And no, I do not have any previous history with playing a violin. I've just always loved it, and started to want to play it back when I was about 18, when I heard a young woman in San Francisco playing the most beautiful jazz violin, with some of my musician friends. I fell in love. Not with a musician, but with the music.

Ask Rick. Whenever I hear a violin, I get all squishy and dreamy. Sometimes I weep from the joy of the feel of that music in my bones. It goes that deep. I read somewhere that the sound of a violin is "resonant" with the human body. I believe it.

When I was a kid, I wanted to play piano. So my parents bought me a guitar, I guess thinking I wouldn't notice the difference. I took lessons from a nice Hawaiian man named Valentine Hao... for years... and I never was very good. But then, my heart wasn't in it, so I still have hope of possessing some bit of musical talent. I guess there's only one way to find out.

I know it will be hard. I know I'll sound like total crap for a very long time. I know my dog might run away, and Rick might sweetly ask me to practice in the studio... or out on the gorge bridge... I know it will take years to become even tolerable. But what the hell. If I start now, maybe in 20 years I'll play something for you by the campfire, some summer evening. I'll only be 70. And, oh yeah... I want to play Gypsy Violin. That wild twirling music that makes you jump off your rock and shake your bones in the firelight...

It's a big wish. But if not now, when? What's your dream? Maybe we can all get started on them together... hmmm??? Sure, we'll keep making the magic happen for the ones we love, but we have to put on our own oxygen masks first...