The creative continuum of 7 artists–reveal 5!

 

If you were looking for my Bead Soup Blog Party post, find that here – Psst – there is a giveaway!

Here we are, end of May almost and it’s time to bring you another installment of the CC7A.  It’s crazy to think it’s already the end of May, but really here we are.  As a reminder here is the gang, brought together by Alicia to have a grand old time.

Here’s the team:
Monique of A Half-Baked Notion
Christine of One Kiss Creations
Cynthia of Antiquity Travelers
Sally of The Studio Sublime
Therese of Therese's Treasures
Alicia of All The Pretty Things
and me makes 7

This month Alicia has provided some gems for all of us to be inspired by the seasons.  I received some pretty crazy lace agate and, yet again, did not take a photo before I got down to business.  I had the little bag sitting on my work table and while I was working on another project this one sort of jumped up and butted in, in the best of ways. 

I was mixing some cut away bits of clay and was enjoying the striated silver/grey/white when I realized it would be perfect for the cab. I went skinnier and skinnier on my pasta machine until I had a long thin piece to play with.  This is also when the gems turned decidedly winter in feeling.  I felt like a was wrapping the cab face with a polymer scarf against a cold wind.



I tried not to cover up too much stone, just enough to be secure in its voluminous polymer folds.  About the only time I tolerate yellow is with a cool grey so the rest of the palette was really shouting “go on – just use yellow would you!”

So I did!



Oh drat, I didn’t really give you that view all in focus… but I made these three little textured concave discs in polymer that I later drilled holes in one I decided which way was up and to act as the clasp (button style) on the right.



I went very different on the knotting.  I was going for a denser bunch on the right and thinning out on the left.  I will need to explore more but I like that it is a bit unexpected from one side to the other.



Lastly, a view of it on.  I must dash today so I won’t talk your ear off.  Today is Averleigh’s 4th birthday and while the official party with friends will be on the weekend coming up today calls for celebrating too!



She certainly looks up for an adventure with her cheesy grin before preschool.  I also had to stifle a giggle as she started to recount a story to me this morning “Back when I was three…” sheesh!

The creative continuum of 7 artists–reveal four!

Happy April 26th! It’s time for another reveal in our series of the CC7A masterminded by Alicia.

Here’s the team:
Monique of A Half-Baked Notion
Christine of One Kiss Creations
Cynthia of Antiquity Travelers
Sally of The Studio Sublime
Therese of Therese's Treasures
Alicia of All The Pretty Things
and me makes 7

Welcome to the excuse portion of the blog post. I’m late posting since I decided a couple days ago to completely scrap my design and start new.  Naturally, I finished the piece late last night and thought I would take a little break before starting photos and writing.  Yeah…. guess who woke up all confused on the couch at 3 am?

Ok now we’ve got that bit out of the way.  This month our creative spark was courtesy of Therese of Therese's Treasures who chose the theme of “Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds” – I’ll use her words as to the why:
“Why you ask? Well simple really, April's birthstone is a diamond and the Beatles's song "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" kept playing over and over in my head.  If you are not familiar with the song you can listen to it here.”

As soon as I had her package in my hand, so full of sparkling crystal and beautiful blues I was picturing that diamond studded sky.  I’m borrowing Therese’s photo below as I forgot the before photo.  The beautiful piece of fused glass that she sent me I envisioned as Lucy’s dress, and got to work turning it into Lucy floating through the sky full of diamonds.  You can’t see what I’m talking about since I cut it apart when I was unimpressed with the overall flexibility and wearability.  It turns out glass is not very bendy – who knew.
 

I had been humming the song again, having a little rethink on what I would make when I started to get really stuck on orange.  There needed to be lots of orange for the “With tangerine trees and marmalade skies” of the first verse.  Now I’m not even sure what a tree that grows tangerines looks like but I was imagining a tree the colour of tangerine all over. So I went with that. 



The right hand side of the glass Therese made started to look like the canopy of a tangerine coloured tree to me and when I turned to my stash of beads it didn’t take long for all sorts of things to look like marmalade sky.  Orange and yellow is so very far from my comfort zone, I did my best to lean right into the trepidation.



I was thrilled to put to work three newly acquired lampwork beads from Julie Bowen that really helped the rest of the design come to life.  That orange lentil on the left and the yellow and orange ones you see are on the right are the ones that made me think of tangerine branches and branches in silhouette across a marmalade sky.  I continued the idea in making a somewhat leafy textured look to the polymer bezel.



I have a massive supply of my own “idea” beads. They are ones I play around with and they aren’t necessarily done until they end up in a piece of jewelry someday.  The two you see either side of the focal (and the other just out of this shot) are those types of beads.  I had made random shaped bezels and filled them with different foil like glitters and resin, just cuz, about two years ago.  So for this project they were drilled (I love polymer for never having to commit to a hole position) and I decided to facet the edge so I could unify them with some more orange and wispy black.



It’s strung and knotted with thin leather to keep the black of the glass flowing through, with a sprinkling of diamonds too of course.  I think you get to be Lucy by wearing this instead of Lucy in a necklace so I’m very happy I scrapped plan A.

Then there was this line that just demanded earrings :

Cellophane flowers of yellow and green
Towering over your head

Why yes, I do have just the thing to be cellophane flowers! A little spring green and a few more “diamonds” and Lucy is really looking fine! Whatever you call that shape of crystal I love, love, love it!

I hope you enjoyed that little acid trip with me, I sure did.

I am totally daring someone out there to make some jewelry inspired by the “Where rocking horse people eat marshmellow pies” because I bet that would be pretty darn trippy.

I loved having these ideas dance in my head – Thanks Therese! I can’t wait to go see what everyone else got up to.
Here we are again
Monique of A Half-Baked Notion
Christine of One Kiss Creations
Cynthia of Antiquity Travelers
Sally of The Studio Sublime
Therese of Therese's Treasures
Alicia of All The Pretty Things
and me makes 7

The creative continuum of 7 artists–reveal three!

Here we are, end of March almost and it’s time to bring you another installment of the CC7A.  As a reminder here is the gang, brought together by Alicia to have a grand old time.

Here’s the team:
Monique of A Half-Baked Notion
Christine of One Kiss Creations
Cynthia of Antiquity Travelers
Sally of The Studio Sublime
Therese of Therese's Treasures
Alicia of All The Pretty Things
and me makes 7

This month Sally sent us all a spark of Contrasting Colors.  I forgot to take a photo of all the lovely beads all mixed together so please follow that last link for a peek.  As pretty as the beads are all together I immediately separated them – what a difference! This palette that I received was so intriguing and outside my regular "colour operandi" that it was a complete joy.  There was bead shopping done, bead making done and lots of time spinning ideas around.


Oh the tension of the contrast! The pinky oranges and greens, would they all play nice? From this little peek I’m not so sure.



Stepping back a bit for the full look I’m a bit more convinced.  I began the project by wire wrapping all the little mottled green glass rounds, at that point unsure of what I would create.  It was the three holes of the beautiful copper focal that had me full of inspiration and doubt all at once.



I created some little polymer disks in a translucent orange-pink and gave the edge a sweep of gold mica to keep the orange tones of the little facetted rondelles going.  This lead to me wanting to create some polymer connectors along the same lines, using the image of lily of the valley as a fitting spring tie in.



In the end it is quite long and I may remove some sections at the back to have it come up a bit – or not.
I was a little sad that none of the bracelet ideas I had came together with this focal since I simply wanted to incorporate too many pieces.  Then it occurred to that this year's BOC charm swap included a heart from Kristi Bowman Design.



I’m pleased with this kind of coordinating pieces without being matchy-match.  I would have never dreamed up this bracelet if not for Sally’s beautiful mix of beads to start from.


I did say I made a bunch of beads right? Yup, I even made a cabochon (that's like a little fib since it is more of a pendant without a hole drilled, but I thought hey - options!) I must have been channeling my talented CC7A bead embroidery friends.  Similar polymer connectors will soon be making their way into the A Polymer Penchant etsy shop in the coming days.

I’m so excited to see what all those other beautiful contrasting colours grew up to be.  Thanks ladies for such a fun journey.  I'm just going to have those links here at the end too - get hopping!

Here’s the team:
Monique of A Half-Baked Notion
Christine of One Kiss Creations
Cynthia of Antiquity Travelers
Sally of The Studio Sublime
Therese of Therese's Treasures
Alicia of All The Pretty Things
and me makes 7

Focus on life–week 52–saying goodbye

Do you have a dining room table?  Do you eat at it regularly or is it just covered in flotsam and jetsam?

For shame!



A photograph to kiss it all goodbye! I just can’t stand it anymore. We eat at a kitchen table.  It’s cozy for the three of us, but works just fine. This dining table has moved around to several places but now it just needs to be gone from the space entirely.  I normally would have kept the tree decorated another week at least but I got the itch this morning that that table needed to be gone. So I’m packing up all the ornaments early so I can assess and reorganize the storage space in the basement to see if I can make use of this table down there or pass it on to someone else. 

When I decided to get a fake tree, I went way fake with white, but now a few years on it seems to be yellowing in areas and “baby boy Rufus boy” kitten decided that chewing the bulbs seemed like a fun idea.  I watched him jump back, after electrocuting himself I presume, and walked over to discover that the crunch was him busting the glass.  Then he went back for another shock.
 


He decided to do it again this morning.  I think this tree may have to go goodbye too now.
Well friends, it’s been 52 weeks of photos lead by Sally Russick from the Studio Sublime with the focus on life series.  I’m going to go ahead and sign up for the 2014 edition too.  If you would like to join in the fun, register here.

I hope all those who celebrate had a wonderful Christmas, we sure did!  Averleigh asked Santa for a cupcake.  For weeks this was the only thing she wanted. It had to be real so she could eat it, she added one day.  It really should be pink she added another day…. Santa came through! Sad part was Santa didn’t get it from a bakery we know and it wasn’t exactly moist and didn’t get eaten.  Never mind though, there was enough other great parts to the day it wasn’t a let down for her.



And with that, goodbye 2013.  Hope you all have a very happy new year… oh wait, before we get to that there is a boxing day sale in my A Polymer Penchant etsy shop I should mention.  The sale is actually Canada wide, 20% off with coupon code BOXINGDAY.  You can see a selection from all the participating shops right here.



Ok, now really – Goodbye!

focus on life–week 51- togetherness

Do you keep a lot of photos on display in your home?  I’m pretty awful about printing photos so there aren’t too many about. 



This frame sits by the phone on our main floor.  I love these people.  All dear friends, whom I get to see and enjoy with varying frequency.  The greatest thing about true friendship is that those gaps don’t matter.  If it’s weeks, months or years the togetherness is what counts.

This focus on life series from Sally at the Studio Sublime has been another kind of virtual togetherness that has been such a privilege and pleasure.  You can register for 2014 and enjoy a year long journey in photography.  I’m going to decide before the 28th if I will be taking part again in 2014.  One the one hand a year has a certain completeness and it is always nice to make way for other new things.  On the other, it was a heck of a lot of fun so why not keep going… (and maybe just skip the weeks that just don’t happen and be at peace with that).

I’m thinking I will have another post before the 25th so I’ll save my Happy Christmas wishing for the moment.

Happy Solstice!

INLINKZ CODE FOR WEEK 51:

focus on life–week 50- a pop of red

Down to the last few photos for the focus on life series from Sally Russick of the Studio Sublime and she’s all set! This week, I went in search of a pop of red, as Sally puts it: “pops of red grab your attention and add such interest to a photo”.

The Christmas tree seemed like an easy target.  I have approximately 1 zillion ornaments, not that many of them are red.  I like to have a bit of a different tree – but I was not in charge of the tree this year. 



I was allowed to hang the garland and few others, but mostly Averleigh chose what to put on the tree and where.  With a kitten in the house I opted for the full complement of unbreakable ornaments and kept the precious ones hidden away.  I explained that the bottom branches were to be filled with the big bells – the cats hate the sound.  The rest was up to her and indeed a little red made its way onto the tree.

Of course the tree was still inspected by all the felines.  Ya know, there are a lot of hilarious dog shaming pictures out there and Roxy seemingly baited me into creating one of my own.  Little problem though.  Cats have NO shame!

focus on life–week 49- add a little sparkle

While I was skiving I also missed out on joining in on Erin Prais-Hintz’s 4th Annual Challenge of Color.  I really need to spend some more time with the Colourlovers site to have a full appreciation.  At first blush, I found it a bit cumbersome but I was in the throws of craft fair season so my patience may have been a bit lacking.

That brings us to this past weekend, focus on life week 49 of Sally Russick’s wonderful series.  As she suggests: “to keep things cheery we sometimes have to add our own dash of sparkle to brighten our inner glow”

Last week I found some sparkle in an old favourite that is a bit time worn but sparkles none the less.  Its use today is to hold the tea bag once it has done its purpose.  It carries some yellow stains from its original life as an ash tray.  It was the rare guest to my parents home who would smoke, but this lived in the living room for that purpose.  My mum made this mid-seventies and I have loved it for as long as I can remember.  It would sometimes have a pin or needle or two in it if mum darned some socks in that chair, stealing the perfect sized glass paperweight from the same table for the task.

Come to think of it, I’m not too sure how I came to have it?  I know at least one of her pottery pieces is here despite a minor objection, but I think this one came quite freely.



I’m holding it at a bit of an odd angle but I always saw it this way up.  Like I had come across a dear from behind and viewed through a fisheye lens….not “just a tree”.

Ok, three more to go to wrap up the year ladies!!

focus on life–week 48- giving thanks

I posted this in my brain on November 30th, just trying to catch up on reality.  I swore I wasn’t going to miss a week, but alas I decided that nothing would actually blow up if I did.  So while Thanksgiving may be an recent memory for some, it was a couple of months ago here.  Our tradition  – giving thanks for football on that day.

I took this photo at the start of the 2010 football season, Averleigh would have been just over 3 months and I can tell you that was a 7lbs sleeper since I just gave it away the other day.



Pretty thankful for my little fan to share it with too!

I’ve got a lot of catching up to do with the whole gang posting over at the Studio Sublime!

focus on life–week 47- centerpiece

Well focus on life friends I lost a few days.  I didn’t want to get any further into the week without sharing a photo for Sally’s prompt of centerpiece.  I tried to think of a subject that wasn’t Averleigh… but what can I say she just is my sun, at the centre of our lives.  I suppose I’ll have to think of things to help her understand that the world actually does not revolve around her, only child, only grandchild on hubby’s side.  This may be an uphill battle.

Monday we brought some clothes to the consignment store and took a look through the racks, at her request, to find a new puppy shirt to replace the last one that she’s outgrown.  Right at the end of her size section I pulled out a ballet leotard with built in tutu to take a look.  Before I could even read the tag she had it hugged to her, trying to walk to the cash, “I need this for ballet mama, lets go home so I can wear my new dress”.  In that moment as I tried for a glimpse at the price I knew I was going to pay whatever it was – phew $9.



Photo effects do wonders for cleaning up the house! 

focus on life–week 46–reflect

Ok we are now entering the point where soon we will be counting down those final weeks, some of the busiest of the year to be sure.  I so hope I can make it the whole way!  I’m not sure what I will do without Sally’s thoughtful weekly prompts and all of you to share it with. I’m reflecting already and I haven’t even gotten to the point where I tell you this weeks prompt – reflect!

This morning I wrote my post for the art charm swap and auction in support of Beads of Courage.  Since it was really meant to be about the art charm I made, I was a bit abrupt when I said:

My child started her life in hospital and the first time I held her we were skin-to-skin and overtop was a handmade quilt.  I’ve experienced arts in medicine – it is important.

Today that quilt sits in a little wooden cradle.  That cradle was made for me by my dad when I was about 3 or so and always held the same baby doll.  Averleigh plays with that doll at my parents house now but oddly doesn’t show much interest in the cradle at home.  But our special quilt sits at the ready.  It seems that every baby born into the NICU gets one, I didn’t get to pick it myself since I was in recovery at the time.  It breaks my heart to think of those who are left with only the quilt.  It also hurts to think of all the small ones who are collecting beads of courage one by one. I know how lucky we are.

Focus on life–week 45- industrial photography

This week Sally Russick had a great prompt for us of Industrial Photography.  I did as she suggested and googled to see just what it was all about.  What a treat that was! 



I let the industry come to me with these ear muffs I ordered to protect my hearing while hammering wire.  I tried them out for the first time this morning and it’s just perfect to be in my own little cone of silence while making a whole bunch of noise.  Hubby has strongly suggested that I not be at the garage workbench hammering away at night if we want to keep nice neighbours. I was going to try some more interesting angles on the pictures but this kept happening.



Rufus would come flying in to try and dive beneath the packing paper or attack my lens cap which hangs off the side of the camera.  So for ultimate safety I put it all away.

It’s my little industry of just me day –busily preparing for the next show of the season. 

I’m sure my friends found some more interesting industry in their surrounds:

focus on life–week 44- saints, souls and sugar skulls

It was great that Halloween fell on a day I don’t work this year.  Averleigh and I were able to join friends for trick or treating in the mall. What a zoo, but so so fun.  The rain poured down in the evening so we only went to a few houses but still, more fun.

The real scare for me is that I have my first craft show of the season Sunday and the things still undone at this point is pretty scary!  It’s too bad that even though I thought i left enough time some supplies I ordered won’t arrive until after the show so it’s a bit of a rethink mode tonight. So off I run!

focus on life–week 43–in the shadows

Friday was the deadline for the art charms to arrive for the 2013 Art Charm Swap hosted by Jennifer Cameron of Glass Addictions.  I was relieved that my charms arrived early, almost a week before the deadline – go me! November 15th will bring a blog hop to show off the charms created and to kick off the auctions in support of Beads of Courage.  Last year, I also participated, and received some wonderful charms and more importantly the auction raised $600!
When I saw Sally’s prompt of “in the shadows” for this week I knew a teaser pic in silhouette would be perfect.  Then all week I forgot to take the picture!   So my iphone snap tonight is not exactly what I had in mind, it gives away even less. 



I have been distracted by another idea.  I think it started with the making of these very charms. During the creative process (which I’m trying not to give away yet) I somehow created these.



This got me to thinking that a tongue depressor just might make the perfect earring “card”.  Today I finally brought the idea to fruition with a little cutting and drilling.


This is a great start but not entirely what I had in mind.  I thought since I already had the holes drilled I would dip them in some paint and hang to dry, to look a little like paint stir sticks.  I looked around the room and thought, hmmm dangling sticks of paint where a kitten explores is probably not the best part of this idea.



I decided that alcohol ink and a toothbrush would provide just the right amount of decoration.  Here you see them in part of a cold air return that just happened to be on a clearance table next to the PVC pipe when I was picking some up to act as table risers.  It was a show display serendipity!  They also stand on edge quite nicely as the posts allow them to rest at a perfectly tilted angle.  For transport, they also arrange tidily in a cigar box.  I’m also very happy with how these studs are all coming together, this is a new product I will be featuring at Handmade Harvest next Sunday.



Now I suppose it’s time to start thinking of Halloween.  I wonder if the other “in the shadows” photos will help more with that eerie leaning.  Head on over to the studio sublime to see them all.

focus on life–week 42–all in a day

“Let’s focus on 24 hours and see what goes on during your day!”

This week’s prompt from Sally at the Studio Sublime had me a bit stumped.  The first thing that popped into my head was all the waiting 24 hours for things to dry in my studio at the moment.  There are so many projects at various stages of wait, it’s starting to drive me a bit insane.  But this is what happens when you bust out all manner of mixed media.  Everything needs a good cure, then seal and wait, seal and wait, seal and ….. Yup, pretty boring picture I couldn’t bring myself to take.

Thursday I was already having a day I’d rather do over when Averleigh decided to celebrate finishing lunch Greek style.  Awesome. She screamed and screamed and while I thought it was mostly over the loss of the prized eat-every-meal-off-of plate it was at least in part because it landed square on her toe nail.  I didn’t realize it was really hurting until that night when the nail bed was purple.  Poor love.



Twenty four hours later, there I was in the kitchen grabbing lunch and thought, heck, that is the picture isn’t it.  I walked over to the dustpan I had left the pieces in (along with all the cat hair and crumbs) and assessed the situation



I thought of when we first found it, her reaction was “Where’s Daisy?” Daisy Duck is such an awful character, I was a bit bummed when she got so attached to her.  So it would be routine for lunchtime to include some story about where Daisy may be since she wasn’t with the others.  I bet that will just be my memory and not hers.  I will clean and tuck away these bits for something, someday. 

The metal plate in the background was MY plate it has an elephant that is practically worn away for good, you can just see it when tilted a certain way in the light.  Averleigh is quite pleased with how this one can spin around and around on the table.  No comment.

Hope to see some finer days from my friends below, hey they can’t all be beauties

focus on life–week 41–connections

Here we are week 41 and I know October will be gone in a blink of an eye, always the case as I ready for shows.  This weekend is Canadian Thanksgiving and when Sally Russick of the Studio Sublime had us thinking on connections in all manner of ways, well, the timing was perfect.



For starters, this arrived!! The Missing Link by Cindy Wimmer, is all about connections.  It’s very exciting to receive a beautiful book directly from the author with her sweet message inside, (another great connection.) I keep running through it just looking at the beautiful pictures, I haven’t started to read through proper yet.  Of course I’m most attracted to the ones with higher difficulty which shouldn’t really be the starting point, but then again I sometimes do things the hard way.

Friday night brought the celebration of a connection earlier in the courthouse.  (I stole this picture from my dear friend’s facebook).  This has been a while coming in idea, but only about two weeks ago did I receive a text, would we be available to celebrate? To which I replied “where else would I be” as there are some things that are just not to be missed!



This morning was a third birthday party for a special guy, and we gathered at the local pumpkin patch/berry farm/petting zoo etc to celebrate some more.  After a wagon ride, magic show, pizza, cake, presents and general fun the party was wrapping up but with the gorgeous weather we stayed on a bit.  Averleigh had decided she didn’t mind waiting in line she wanted to have her face painted.  This child has always fought the idea of a comb or basically anything you would touch her face and hair with so I had some doubts.  We waited probably about 45min to an hour in line, hubby and I trading off, before it was her turn.  The artist asked what she would like and set to work, moving briskly and without much direction.  It seems all the children just new when to close their eyes and she moved their heads where they needed to be.  Until…



PINK KITTY!  That’s what she asked for and I think it turned out pretty good.  She wondered if there would be a tail for her, I suggested we could just pretend.  She sure did get a kick out of this connection to being a kitty herself.

All these connections I am so thankful for this thanksgiving.

focus on life–week 40–give us a smile!

Thanks all for your sweet comments on last week’s post, it’s wonderful to have such encouragement.  With a big smile on my face we headed out Sunday with the mission of apple picking at the orchard just down the way.  I’ve lived in the area my whole life and I’ve never been!  While apples were never the top fruit in our house, hubby and Averleigh are big fans.

Looking through the shots I could have shared many with wide smiles in what was a perfect sunny, warm fall day.  I kept returning to this one though, it proves a long held belief.  You don’t need to see a person’s mouth to know they are smiling.  It’s all there in the eyes. Who would doubt that apple hides a wide grin?



Now if only I could have had a little more light on those beautiful eyes I would be really happy.  I found the speckled light the apple trees made a bit of a challenge.  It’s hard to complain about shade when you are taking pictures amongst trees, but I wish some in the bunch I took like the one below had more sun in the right spots!



It’s a fun learning process, this photography.  Soon I think it will be time to have some instruction.  While I can read all sorts of things on the subject, I think there is much that could be learned in person. 
Thanks to Sally Russick of the Studio Sublime for bringing this little lesson to us each week!

focus on life–week 37–in motion

Hmm, having my last post late had me almost miss this one entirely! Back on track next week.

This week Sally Russick of the Studio Sublime suggested we “stretch those creative muscles and capture things in motion.”  I grabbed my iPhone and used one of the camera apps to try and shoot a slow shutter (same one we used way back) with my left hand while painting with my right.  I’m not very good at that.



I suppose this shot works as a sneak peek too since I may actually produce something for the ABS monthly challenge.  I have just a small selection of the Swellegant line that I have been meaning to try again.  My first experiment I was less than thrilled with, so I am hoping that this one turns out better.  This time I did actually read the instructions.

Lets have a spin around the group shall we?

focus on life–week 36–in two

Let’s pretend for a moment it’s Saturday and I’m sharing with you this week’s focus on life m’ok?  Sally Russick of the Studio Sublime prompted us to look for things in pairs, as they are everywhere in our lives. 

I instantly knew what picture I wanted to share and I walked past the scene going in and out of the house all week long thinking: “hmm, I should tidy a bit before taking the picture…” That never came to be.

A couple of years ago I bought an ikea cd tower, used, for next to nothing and installed it my tiny foyer to hold all of Averleigh’s shoes (and hats and mittens and so on).  I love that there are spots that she can reach and spots she can’t.  It has been a perfect solution for us to the assortment of little things by the door.  I think I can probably eek out another year or so of the footwear fitting in the little shelves. On the side there are two pink puppy dog tail hooks for her to hang her jacket and hat.  Pairs of shoes, a pair of hooks, yup right on theme.

Although the real theme of the week is that I seem to be perpetually in two minds about so many things.  I like to think I enjoy doing lots of research and weighing all options to make informed decisions.  At times though it seems that I get stuck in that indecision without even realizing it is indecision.  Then there are all the times of being in two minds about what I am doing and what I should be doing.  That’s been part of the quiet around here.

Sunday I decided to head out to Almonte, a small town about an hour away to see the sights at Fibrefest.  I hadn’t planned on going but a Saturday night chat with my mum about the day she and dad had spent there, well, I couldn’t miss out.  With a head cold starting up, I grabbed a coffee and hit the road – all by myself ! – to explore.

A whole arena of all things fibre and buttons, buttons – buttons! This collage is just one of several booths of button sellers.  It must have been a full hour that I spent combing over all these gorgeous buttons.  At one point a card I had sitting up to take a few buttons from was nabbed by another shopper, lets say about 50 years my senior, I didn’t kick up a fuss.  When the card came back my way, sure enough the only three removed from it were the ones I was after.  I decided she had great taste, and at that moment started pulling them off and keeping track of the price with my phone so I wouldn’t miss out again. 

I walked away with a great many and my favourite, the most expensive button I have ever bought, was indeed made in two pieces, how fitting.

I wonder what other twos are cropping up

It seems blogger is not cooperating today, maybe the links will come up later...

focus on life–week 33–in season

Kittens! Yes, the cats do enjoy the short summers in Ottawa and the Humane Society fills up with kittens.  It’s probably not the answer Sally Russick of the Studio Sublime would have guessed, but hey that’s why we do this!

Now in your best Bob Barker: “Remember to spay and neuter, do your part to control the pet population” well something to that effect, I can remember was his closing line on the Price is Right.

Really, I’m just doing my part, at 2 months old he even came neutered.



Since he is now the third kitty in the house, I joked to a friend that I had already mailed in my crazy cat lady membership! I mean, just look at that face!  I have always wanted an orange cat.  After seeing his photo online, I went on my own to visit - see if he was family material.  I walked in to the enclosure that is about 5 x8’ with glass walls and spotted him in a pile of sleeping kittens (about 6  per enclosure).  He popped his head up and a few mews later he was on my shoulder head butting my cheek and purring like a freight train. 




This is our Rufus.  He knows how to keep his people happy.

We also spent the week eating the most juicy and delicious Ontario peaches, so you could say it’s orange season around here.

Oh wait, I forgot this one. I'm not sure if the blue around the outside of his eyes will stay or if it's on its way out - but it is beautiful.

Now to travel around and see all sorts of seasons