Mud and Mudders

what would be a road out to the bungalito's new resting place....now just a muddy mess.

Do you ever have one of those happy instances where everything just falls in your lap? I have been feeling that way lately.....this building of a studio still just floors me. I can't even tell you how much this means to me. I have said it before, but this is the coolest thing anyone has ever done for me. An amazing feeling.

SO to add to all that.

I was at work thursday, pouring beer at the Brewery. There are a couple of young guys who come in all the time, and we have dubbed one of them "Pigpen" due to his muddy boots and general dust cloud that follows him around, and all the damn mud we sweep up at the end of the night under where he sat, mostly in the spring because of the construction work he does. So I assume he and his buddies know a little about drywall (bad of me to judge dirty men like that?) I strike up a conversation basically like "hey, I am thinking about tackling some taping and texturing of newly hung drywall, got any tips for me?"

"Yup. Let us do it."

uhhhh, what?

Apparently if you dont know anything about mudding a room, and were planning on struggling through it by yourself, you should go to a local brewery, find a couple young guys who are bored, thirsty for beer, and tell them you plan on doing it yourself. They will laugh at you, show up at your house the next morning earlier than promised (and after a night out downtown....no sleeping in for these guys) ready to mud a bungalito!

I am eternally grateful for these guys, and am so happy to report that there are good people still out there! (Ladies, if you are ever in doubt about the extinction of good men in this world, let me assure you they are still out there, and I swear most of them live in Montana. They live in carhartts and apparently congregate at a local brewery.)

Tarn looking 6 foot 11..

Tex loves his new porch.

These three guys, TJ, Evan (Pigpen), and Tarn worked all day......

Can't say enough how grateful I am for these three guys. They are awesome and I couldn't thank them enough.

Dear good guys,

Thank You. I owe you some beer.

and they did a great job too....

Now for the fun......PAINT.

Insulation is icky

Insulating with the pink stuff.......

ick.

Tex looking quite dapper in his over-the-shoulder look......

.

The Bunglalito is coming along nicely....yesterday Jesse and his dad jacked up the building so that it sat level on it's new little home in the woods. It is muddy and mucky and gross out there right now, we are in the middle of a nasty winter meltdown, with a little rain on top of it all. more ick.

mud hole

and here is my new home.....for now......kind of..........

The idea is to stay in the camper, and the bungalito, mostly just the porch for now......leases are dumb and so is moving. I am sick of moving. But this little building is really worth it. I am some day very soon going to be able to waste away WHOLE DAYS tinkering and building and MAKING to my heart's content. So yes....the camper is tolerable. Eye on the prize, Erin. Eye on the prize.

The man behind it all..........Hopefully we don't kill eachother.

Its only 6 weeks.....

But the end goal is this.....

ALAAAAAASKA!!!!

Jesse and I were invited on a 30 day kayaking trip starting in Valdez, AK and ending in Seward, AK.....but since I am in school till mid may, we are going to piggy back on the last 2 weeks of the trip......heck yeah!!! And the coolest part is we fly into Anchorage, drive to Whittier, paddle to Seward, drive to Haines, and fly out of Juneau. Holy crap that's a lot of AK in 3 weeks!

I get to go see a great ol' friend in Juneau too...

(LIZ can't WAIT to see you and your yurt, oh and i guess the fiancee!)

So yeah, jacked to go see Alaska. I have never been up there, and have never been sea kayaking. so all a bunch of firsts.....VERY EXCITED.

Tomorrow is Sheetrock day, should be interesting....I will definitely take more pics soon.

New piece I have been neglecting to post about.....ironic.

since this piece is all about T I M E

and I feel like I have none.

holy moly.

Stamped with little "T"'s .....

.

TIME FOR LIVING.....

This piece has been such fun, I really enjoyed the process here. I really tried to go out on a limb and try something a little different, experimenting with layers, and stamps, and more than one stone. I also reeeeealy love these two colors together, something very old and traditional about pairing amber and turquoise, some of the oldest known amulets in human time.

AS FAR AS LIVING GOES....Time has been kicking my butt. I needed to stamp that phrase into some metal, an affirmation that hard work pays off, and a simple reminder to NOT ALWAYS WORK. All work and no play makes me a dull girl.

Balance this year has been one hellofa challenge, and tests me every day. Can I make this work? Do I want it bad enough? Did I make the right decisions? Could I be better? and the answer to all of that......well......

yes.

yes to all of it!

I got some really great advice a few weeks ago, about process and the jewelry biz. I was told to concentrate on MAKING, and not on all the other business-y sided stuff. I was told to get in that studio, and just create until there was nothing left. Create. Make. Create. Build. Make.

So that is what I have been trying to do lately....just make......get out of the little box and make.

ALSO.....update on the building of my STUDIO! We have named it the bungalito.

roofing day!

I will post more pics of this little space, because it has been changing so fast every day! There's actually tar paper on it now, I've GOT to go out and shoot a few more pictures before it becomes a REAL building!

A new ring entered the family this week......CRAZY LACE AGATE! I love this stone.

Merlin, the stone guy here in Plains, MT....He cuts the most beautiful stones, you don't even need much a setting around them, they are so pretty I don't want to take away from the natural beauty by throwing a bunch of silver around it. Simple sometimes is best. I like how this turned out, subtle, simple, feminine.

The back of this ring I have stamped T H R I V E.

I really have been loving this word lately, for a lot of reasons. To me, this is a challenge word. A word that hits you in the gut. And stays there.

Thriving is much better than just living, Thriving implies some level of happiness, contentment, and fullfillment. Thriving is the ULTIMATE form of living.

So don't just live, remember......to........THRIVE!