Loom Beading Class

I will be teaching a Loom Beading class at the Common Ground on the Hill 2015  Traditions Weeks in Westminster, MD from July 5 - 11, 2015.

I don't have information on the cost yet, you will have to enroll directly through the CGOTH website, but the info is usually available after the first of the year.

Be aware, the Maryland Public School System lets their teachers/administrators take these classes for free as part of their continued education platform.  This means that the classes will fill very quickly. 

There is also a Music and Arts Festival at the close of the Traditions Weeks.  I will have a booth there with leather crafts and maybe some beaded items.  Even if you don't take a class, come see me at the Festival.

Hope to see you there!

I'm exhausted and my Dream Year

This past week I put in 59.5 hours at Amazon - long, hard hours.  But, I made it just fine but don't want to do that again for a while.

Also this week I went to a Job Fair put on by Amazon for people that hire workcampers.  National Land Mangement, Indianapolis Speedway, KOA, Fish Hatchery in KY and Beech Bend Amusement Park among others were there.  It was good to talk face to face with the decision makers.

I've got several possible jobs.

Jan - Mar I really want to volunteer at the Fish Hatchery in KY.
April - May I want to camp host at Greenbrier State Park in MD to be close to the kiddo's
June - August I want to work for Beech Bend in Bowling Green KY
September and October I want to camp host again at Greenbrier State Park in MD - again its all about the kiddos. 
October thru December back at Amazon
And, of course I'll be teaching at MD in June/July and NC in October as I have for years.

I hope all this comes to pass - It would be my dream year.

Mini things...

Thing 1:  When I came to Campbellsville in late September to work at Amazon during their peak holiday season, I decided that I'd use this 3 months to update my eBook, write more instruction pamphlets, post more videos and finally - by golly - get a a working website.

When speaking with a good friend about possible jobs after this one ends on Dec 23, he reminded me about how I was going to use this time on my website AND how I have been able to sustain my lifestyle with teaching and the book sales thus far.  So, thanks, Leonard, you have lit a new fire under an old kettle.  I've spent the last several days working on a website and getting the final revision of my eBook together.

I'll post links when its all said and done.

Thing 2:  Crunchy eggs.  I like my eggs scrambled, verrrrrry dry.  I don't want them moist, runny or fluffy.  I don't even really like eggs, but because they are a good source of nutrition, have come to tolerate them.  Oh, the crunch - its usually onion and bell pepper.  This morning (yes, I cooked breakfast at midnight) I sliced a small sweet potato very thinly and tossed that in the pan while the onion and bell pepper was cooking.

Then I scrambled the eggs and tossed that into the mix.   Ummmmm ummmm, sure looked (and tasted) good.  How did I know they were done?  When the smoke alarm went off!!!  In my little 18' travel trailer that I full time in, it has a short ceiling and when cooking I usually open the roof vent, but forgot this morning.

Glad no one called 911 when they heard my smoke detector go off.  Or, maybe they're just used to my "foods done" alarm and didn't pay it any attention.  I'm sure they've heard it before!!!

On the Road Again....

OK, sing it with me....."Just can't wait to get on the road again!!!"

Yep, this weekend I'll be moving the camper to Louisville in order to finish out the Peak season working for Amazon at their Jeffersonville location.

I'll actually get to work days - 5 10 hour days - but days regardless.

Went to a local restaurant and had a really nice mean and margarita with some fellow Amazonians last night.  It was nice to get out though there was still a lot of bitchin and moanin about how Amazon works.

I also worked on finding someplace to "land" for several months between Amazon and hopefully a job here:  http://www.beechbend.com/ for most of the summer.

I've been offered a job at a campground in Lancaster County PA (Amish country) but it is beside a shooting range and of all the reviews I've read, the sound of non stop (daytime) shooting is the most mentioned aspect of the campground.  I think working there would be like getting pecked to death by a duck.  Long - slow - process whereby I'd rather hasten the ending rather than wait for it to happen naturally.  So, at this point I'm thinking I won't go there.

I did volunteer to camp host at a Federal park in Virginia Jan - Mar of 2015, but we'll see how that pans out.

Anyway, I'm glad to be venturing off to work in a different location for the last month of my commitment.

Then, I'll store the trailer - drive to MD to visit the kiddos and then drive to OK for some medical checkup and maybe new glasses. 

Life is good.  Hope to meet you down the road sometime.

Peace to you my friends, take care.

A long way round to an old friend

Several years ago when the iPhone 4 was coming out, I got a sweet deal for my daughter and I on iPhone 3gs for $99.  I bought us both one and we were happy for many years (me and the phone.  My daughter and I are still happy as well!!!)  Anyway, a couple years ago my iPhone just died.  No warning.  It wouldn't turn on, it wouldn't charge - nothing - nada - zip.

After a brief period of mourning - because I didn't download the photos and video's from it, I bought another cheap phone from Wal Mart and life continued on.

A little while after that, my daughter bought a new iPhone and gave her old one to her daughter.  Here was my chance to get an iPhone back.  I traded my granddaughter her crappy old iPhone 3gs for a bright shiney new Android one.  She was happy, and I was too.

(lots of happiness in this blog - huh?)

Well, here, a year or so later my second hand iPhone starts acting up and not wanting to hold a charge, so I ordered a battery replacement from Amazon thinking I would replace the battery in my original iPhone (why was I keeping a dead phone - I should have gotten rid of it long ago) before putting it in the working iPhone.  Anyway, I plugged the dead phone to the charger and lo and behold the danged thing came on.  There was my old iPhone with photo's and video's and apps from long ago.  I was one happy girl.

A couple years ago I had recorded my friend Bob Kuhn singing several of his original songs and put them on YouTube.  I couldn't post any song he didn't write himself, and on this phone was our friend, Annie's favorite and my all time favorite song - Let it Be by the Beetles.

So, here it is 1:30am (I really need to get to sleep), and I've just listened to Bob sing Let it Be.

So, now, my friends.  I truly am one happy girl.

Good night.

The Walking Dead aka Miss Congeniality

Seems like the older I'm getting, the less crap I'm willing to take from others.   Some of you that know me well, would probably wonder if this is something new, because, really, I've never been one to just sit back and take it.  Right?

Anyway, last year at Amazon, my friends and I talked about this cute young blond that we nicknamed the walking dead because if you were a female and said hello to her she would just look right through you and not even acknowlege your greeting.  My friends and I wondered if she had such a sad/bad home life that she just couldn't cope and carried her misery with her everywhere.  We truly felt sorry for her.

And then, one day, my friend Peggy and I saw her talking to a guy.  And this girl was animated, smiled, engaging.  We figured females were not her chosen conversation partners and then renamed her Miss Congeniality.  It was amazing.

Tonight, as I was walking to break, my sweatshirt jacket fell off my bag (it was looped through the handles).  I went the extra few steps to put my scanner in a storage bin until after break, figuring I'd pick up the jacket in just a few moments.  Along comes Miss C.  And She Steps ON My Jacket.  Its not like its easy to miss.  Red, Sweatshirt Jacket.

So, I said, "Really, you just stepped on my jacket?" and in her cute little blonde sing-songie voice she said "Sorrryyy".

I guess I should feel lucky she actually apologized.  LOL. 

Geesh....

TA Dah!!!!

Well, my book, 3 Drop - Even Count - Bead Weaving Gourd Stitch Technique that I've sold for the past several years on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords and a few other places has been revised, edited, enhanced and updated.

I've taken a good book and added graphics and 12 easy to follow patterns.  So not only can you learn this amazing Native American Bead Weaving Technique, you can use the book to actually MAKE something with it.

I must admit, the Gourd Stitch is a hard concept to learn.  It doesn't make sense, it seems like there should be an easier way to get from A to B, but really, once the light bulb comes one and you "Get It" you'll want to bead around everything that doesn't move.

Matter of face, Butch McIntosh, the Creek Indian guy that taught me, beaded everything included the antenna on his car!  I haven't gone quite that far, but if you get the book and make something awesome, send me a message and a pic.

(The sales pitch is now over)

Oil Heiress, I am

18 years after the fact, I find out that my mom had inherited 1/4 interest in 4 acres of land in south Dallas.  An oil company contacted my brother Bobby's boy, Michael about signing a 3 year mineral rights lease.  The guy, Chet wanted all kinds of contact information for the family.  Michael called me and asked me about it, but since Chet was misspelling mom's name and had people listed that we've never even heard of before, I decided that we should not give any info and just blow him off and he'll lose interest. 

Michael, in his wonderful, typical Stidham way (I can just hear my dad and brother Bobby saying this very thing) wrote the guy back and essentially said "Dude, you're a fraud, don't contact us any more".

To which the "Dude" contacted him back and asked to speak with me.  I did call him, and for sure he knew enough about where mom inherited it from and even had a copy of the will, that I figured his information was correct and that since mom and dad were deceased, I really was 1/4 owner in 1 acre of land in south Dallas. 

I got the bank draft yesterday and the contract.  Luckily my other brother, Danny's widow, knew enough about oil leases that after she got her copy, she said it was all above board and to go ahead and sign it.

So, now, I'm an oil lease heiress.  I hope they strike it big!!!  Woo Hoo!!!

Videos, Classes and More

I am back in Kentucky working at Amazon for their peak season.  This year I'm a "Picker", so if you've ordered something and it came from Kentucky, I might have picked it off the shelf for you.  Boy, that is one fast paced - non stop job.  The first week I knew I would not return to Amazon next year for the 3rd year, but really, its a mindless job.  You go where the scanner tells you, you pick the item it tells you and you sen it one its way on one of the many, many miles of conveyor belts in that 2million square foot building.  If you're feet don't hurt, then really, its not a bad job.  I am, unfortunately, still working on getting my feet not to hurt.  I've bought 2 pairs of shoes and now I've reverted back to last years shoes, that are broken in and worn out - but at least my feet don't hurt AS BAD as with the new shoes.  We'll see in 2 months when the job is through if I think I'll come back or not.  Our interview for the 2015 season begins in February, so that will give me a little time to forget how bad my feet hurt and to tell them YES, I will return for peak 2015!

I just recently completed teaching a basic leatherworking techniques class at Campbell Folk School in NC.  There was also a weekend class where we concentrated on the Cuir Bouilli technique to make leather drinking mugs.

The classes went well and I really have to say this group of people was among my favorites.

We had Cory Marie - a Belly Dancer and Fire Dancer that made a leather Belly Dancing Skirt and Bra out of leather.  I had Ivan the Wonderful that tried every technique imaginable and ended up with a belt bag, arm bracers, a mask and a few other items.  And, then there was Maura - the ICU nurse that spent the week working on a phone holster/belt bag.  I have never seen anyone spend days perfecting leather straps but she did.  I think she used the time to just work meticulously on her project and needed the time away from the daily life and death stress her job brings her. 

Of course I enjoyed Erla, Wendy, Holly, Randy, Steven and Leeanne too. 

I love teaching.

My good friend Leonard reminded me that I had stated I was going to use this time at Amazon to write more instruction books/articles and maybe record videos to go along with them.  And, you know what?  I am - I've lots of ideas running around in my head and I think I will finally get over my reluctance of of not know the "how to" of actually producing a video and just start with the basics and improve from there.  That's how I wrote the book on Gourd Stitch, so really, all I have to do it just start videoing and quit worrying about how it will all turn out.

Thaksfor ready my blog.  There aren't many of you following me, but I do appreciate it when you comment on my posts.

Take care, and I'll have more stuff to read/view soon.

Terro to the resque

The front desk of the campground where I'm workcamping had a very bad invasion of ants.  They were everywhere!  The were crawling up my back, were in my bag and jacket - those  little buggers were everywhere.

Soon, my trailer was also invaded by ants.

Talked to my daughter who suggested I buy Terro, which I did and the next day almost all of them are dead or at least have disappeared.

One caveat - they tell you to put a drop of Terro on a supplied cardboard piece of paper.  I figured, being the smart girl I am, that I'd go even one better and just draw a thin line around the sink and on my dinette table.  Trouble then turned into 2 lines of very sticky, hard to remove Terro.  But, with a little elbow grease I finally got it off.

I'd much rather have Terro on my countertops than ants.

I highly recommend Terro for ant invasions.

History Buff

There's a lady here at the campground that is a fellow workcamper. She and her husband have worked here for the last 6 seasons. BUT they've been coming to Gettysburg since the 80's and both are history buffs. She drove me around G'burg today visiting some of the more important places giving me a personal guide service. 


Every state that participated in the civil war fighting here have the opportunity to put up monuments depicting the participants, where they camped/headquartered and fought.  There are over 3000 such stone, concrete, granite monuments here.  She took me down an alley, between two houses to some that probably are very seldom visited by the tour guides. 

We then went to O'Rourke's for lunch.  Keeping in mind my daughter's suggestion to eat out what you would not cook at home, I decided I was interested in Irish Beef Stew, Shepherd's Pie and the Meat and Mashed with Guinness gravy. I told the waitress to surprise me and she brought me the Meat(loaf) and Mashed. Very tasty. And, such a big amount of food I can have it as leftovers as well.  After lunch we went home with plan to go again next week. 

Who ya gonna call?

Well, if you're gonna spend any time in Gettysburg, PA, ya gotta deal with all the "ghost tours" around.  There's been those ghost hunting shows and other paranormal groups through here on almost a yearly basis claiming Gettyburg is one of the most haunted towns in America.  This may be true.  45000 men lost their lives in 3 days of fighting.  There has got to be some residual from all that carnage, even now, 151 years later.

Here at the campground we had one of the "guides" from a local ghost hunting company come out to tell ghost stories.  He told the same ones that are published in the multitude of printed flyers, booklets, info mags that abound here, so I wasn't too impressed sitting in a cold room watching some guy pace back and forth telling the same stories I had already heard or read.

There was one lady that was a 100% "there are ghosts here" believer and told her stories of her experiences with encounters with the ghosts. 

The guide held up his fancy little "spirit tester" which is some sort of electrical current reader that told us if there was a disturbance around us.  As a caveat though he did hold it near a cell phone and got the same blinking light response as he did when he asked if there was a spirit there with us. 

He also had a pair of "devining" rods and stood in front of us and asked the spirit if is was a man or woman, if they died or were killed in the civil war, yadda...yadda...yadda.  He then asked the audience if anyone wanted to try it out as well.

I raised my hand and he told me how to hold the rods (these looked like lengths of brass rods sitting in a skinny wooden cup that you held in your hands.  I told him as a Native American we don't usually communicate with the dead with hand held devices and would never ask some of the questions he asking them.  At first the rods kept turning around and pointing at me - I hadn't asked anything - so the whole audience thought maybe I had a special power.  (sorry - just gotta chuckle here).  THEN he told me to hold the rods at a slight downward angle and lo and behold they quit moving.  I didn't ask the spirits any questions - felt kinda foolish standing there with those rods.  But I did notice when I barely, almost inperceptably moved the rods where they were more perpendicular to the floor that they moved again. 

So, here's my take on those rods.  The are metal rods sitting in a wooden cup (think skinny straw inside a slightly larger wooden straw with a closed bottom).  They hit the bottom of the cup, so any movement can be caused by barely moving the cups.  IF the rods were suspended in a open bottom wooden holder then my take would be different.  But right now I'm thinking it mostly smoke and mirrors.

If you come to Gettysburg and do the ghost tours - then I hope you get out of it what you want - for me I won't be spending any money on them.  Now the history walks, with people dressed in period garb ARE worth the money.

Oh, one more thing.  The spot where I'm parked is supposed to be THE most haunted spot in this campground.  There was woman called Peggy Noel that was beheaded in a carriage accident and her head fell in the creek I'm parked beside and they never found it.  She was buried headless.
 
I'll keep you informed if Peggy decides to visit me.

Playing catchup

Looks like December 2013 was my last post.  Here it is April 28, 2014. 

When I left Oklahoma a few weeks ago, my friend encouraged me to begin writing posts again.  So, here it is, a recap of 4 months and about 6,000 miles.

In January, I took a Cartooning class at Campbell Folk School.  I gave a class voucher to a friend of mine, and she took a felt shoe making class.  It was good to be there at the school and to see a friend I hadn't seen  in a few years.  I was also able to visit a former student who is actually a profession leather worker only she works on hard leather - saddles, chaps and chinks for cowboys. 

I then went to visit Karen and family in Maryland.  I was due to teach a Cherokee Double Walled Basket class on February 8 then I was supposed to go to Tahlequah OK to teach some classes to the Cherokee.  On February 8 it started snowing.  And for weeks it either snowed or sleeted or iced for a couple weeks, keeping me snowed in.  Finally, the last weekend of February it was warm enough to dig down to the drive way and I high tailed it out of there.  I don't ever want to be in Maryland in Jan/Feb again!

I went to Oklahoma, having secured a work camping job at Marval resort in Gore Oklahoma.  Man, what a mistake that decision was.  Not only did the Cherokee not advertise the classes in time for me to teach in March, but the manager of the RV park was a real tyrant.  in one week the Assistant Managers  and another couple walked off the job.  I gave my 2 weeks notice and found a job at the Gettysburg Campground in Gettysburg, since I wasn't making any money teaching, and didn't want to stay in Gore.

I got to Gettysburg Easter weekend and had a great time with Karen and Sara/Chrlotte, then on Easter Sunday Chris and them came up again.  We ate hotdogs, smores and the kids had a great time hunting eggs and playing on the play ground.  I like my job here.  The owner is a little high strung, but he and I get along pretty well.  I hope to be here until the middle of October when I leave to go teach at Campbell, then I'll go back to Campbellsville, KY to work another season at Amazon.

So, there it is, in a few paragraphs.  I'll try to write more - we'll see how it goes.