I started out my fifth decade thinking that I would make a small artsy quilt for every month until I turned 51. Well, with settling in back here in Hawaii, I just couldn't manage that lofty goal. BUT, I felt the need to commemorate my fifth decade in some artful way.
Lately, I've been really into beaded embroidery. That hobby comes and goes. I will always like using a needle and thread and using them with beads is pretty much heaven for me. SO, I decided to make a bead embroidered doll to celebrate my entrance into the 50s. I call her Griselda the Nifty Fifty doll.
I'll be posting updates on her. I have her scheduled to have her finished by 12 October.
In other news, I just got back from two weeks in New Hampshire visiting my mom. It was really nice and restful. I gardened and shopped for vintage beads, jewelry (to take apart), vintage beaded bags for my collection and clothes. No sales tax in New Hampshire except for restaurant type purchases.
I'm girding my loins this weekend to do a mountain of laundry and continue my quest for organization of my craft supplies :) (Don't ask me how that is going :) )
Ding, ding, ding....time for book review! I've gotten a couple of craft books lately and thought I'd give my observations:
Totally Twisted: Innovative Wirework & Art Glass Jewelry
First one I really, really liked is Totally Twisted.
It is a good book for learning to manipulate wire to make wire jewelry. There are several nice projects, but more than that, it gives you techniques you can use to make lots of other jewelry. Check out the link to this book on Amazon.
Simply Stylish Chain and Metal Jewelry
This second book is also very good. Lots of chain looks...mixing metals, which is hot right now, and even some metal clay techniques. Check this one out for some really good projects.
Bugle Bead Bonanza: A Sparkling Collection of Jewelry Projects (Lark Jewelry Book)
The third book is about using bugle beads (had to plug my favorite online bead store). I have lots and lots of bugle beads. I use them for fringe on some of my mixed media quilts and once in a while in a necklace. I have some lovely vintage bugle beads and I want to explore other techniques for using them. Well, I'm not going to find them in this book. It uses bulge beads for...guess what...fringe and necklaces. There are a couple of bracelets, but they weren't very imaginative. This one is going on my pile for books to be put on eBay. One of these days, I'm going to list them all and get some of my money back.
Seeing as this blog begins with the word "cat" it's only right that we have some cat pictures...and the stories that go with them.
This is Jazzmyn. She's 12 years old. She hates having her picture taken. Most of the pictures I have of her are of her backside. But, here, she's "sharing" my glass of water. Boo boo started this practice of "sharing" and she picked it up.
Before anyone reports me to the ASPCA for not giving my cats water, they have a big bowl of fresh stuff by their crunchy dishes. They just like to share mine.
This is Boo Boo. He's giving me his patented "I-don't-see-you-even-though-you-are-in-my-face-with-that-freakin'- camera" look. Like most cats he's very good at ignoring what doesn't fit into his plan of the day. That means almost everything I want him to do and absolutely everything I DON'T want him to do. This apparently works very well for him as he has been doing it for almost 14 years now. As far as I can tell, besides a little problem with his thyroid, he's fit as a fiddle and likely to continue his ignoring for many more years.
I am currently trying to find a more natural cat food for both of the spoiled brats. And, of course, they need to like it. Natural food is relatively easy to find...but the rest...well, not so much.
Lots and lots of stuff going on this month. My glass making has really taken off. It's fun to experiment with using different kinds of glass. My favorite right now is iridescent glass. It's amazing what kinds of effects you can achieve layering patterned glass with iridescent glass. Iridescent glass doesn't look much different than normal glass. Some of it has a slight rainbow effect, but you have to look pretty closely to differentiate between normal glass and iridescent glass. I've done a couple of dishes with iridescent glass and a couple of small pendants. Lots more experiments to do :)
My bead weaving is progressing apace. I'm working on a loomed piece for my mom. It's a portrait of an Edwardian girl. For some reason my bead pattern making software picked metallic green beads for the girl's face. So I had to tweak the pattern. Still working on two off loom pieces. A three-drop peyote of a 1920's woman and a two-drop peyote of a red hollyhock taken from a photograph I took in Taos, New Mexico in 2006. Love beading my own photographs. My next big project is a pattern I made from a photograph I took of Caesar's Forum in Rome in 2006.
I also have a couple of pieces waiting on my 32" Mirrix Loom. I started too many loom projects without realizing how long it would take to finish them.
And I'm still working on some wire and metal jewelry. I'm going to give up metal clay when I finish with the batch I have. It's ok, but not something I want to do a lot with. It's great for charms, but since I learned to make rings from silver wire, I don't want to work that much with metal clay. It's expensive. It's great for charms and pendants, but that's all.
And that's my monthly craft summary.
Still experiencing Blog Confusion. Got a several...but only want one...well, maybe two...heehehehehehehe... No serious, two. I'm keeping this one and All Glassed In...my glass blog. This one is for,....oh...just stuff...the cats...Mr. Bob....life stuff...toys...whatever. All Glassed In is for my glass experimentation.
Right now, I'm laying on my bed with my laptop propped on my knees and my tabby cat, Jazmyn stretched out next to me. Jazmyn likes it when I take a shower after lunch and then flop on the bed to read or maybe take a "cat" nap. That's her one-on-one time with me. Sometimes her housemate, Boo Boo, comes up, too, but he sleeps at the foot of the bed. He knows it's Jazzi's time with me, too.
Boo gets LOTS of time with me. When I'm sitting on the couch trying to focus on my hobbies, he's EVERYWHERE....on my lap...trying to drink out of my water glass...on the cushion in back of my head. He's wacko! This morning, while trying to get a drink of water out of my glass, Boo knocked over the glass and the water spilled all over the floor. And Boo had the nerve to look annoyed. Obviously, I had not taken the care he expected in preventing the glass from tipping, and thus he didn't get his drink. We won't mention here that he has a big bowl of water in the kitchen which is refreshed morning and night.
Boo thinks I'm incompetent, Jazzi just questions my ability to make sane decisions, such as letting Boo live with me for 13 years.
I think the reason I love cats is because they change just like people do over the years. I always thought they disliked change, but after consideration of the cats I have now...or the cats who have me now....I think they do like change as long as they are the instigators of said changes.
Until April of 2007, I had three cats. My very special baby, Ferdi, who was a little black smoke Persian guy, and Booboo's roommate since I brought them both home, died in late April 2007. Booboo and Ferdi ruled the roost...well, actually, FERDI ruled the roost. He was my constant friend. He rarely left my side, which is a polite way of saying that he dominated my attention. Booboo never seemed to care. He liked people, but I never thought he liked me that much. He liked me when I was useful to him, but otherwise I was just an obstacle to him getting his way in all things.
Then we had to put Ferdi to sleep. He had lymphoma and I refuse to let him suffer. I make a deal with all the animals who come to live with me. I promise to love them and take care of them to the best of my ability (and yes, spoil them until they run the place), and when they get sick and are in pain, I promise to let them go peacefully.
Booboo mourned Ferdi. I'd never seen a cat do that before, but those two guys were really tight. Without a feline companion, because our female tabby hated both Booboo and Ferdi, Booboo turned to me as his new BFF. He now allows me to pick him up and carry him around. He NEVER allowed that before. He seemed to feel that he had more legs than I did, so why did I need to carry him around? Ferdi, on the other hand, knew he had more legs, but they were little short Persian cat legs and, oh, by the way, he was cute, so I should carry him everywhere.
Booboo sits near me all the time. He hates it when I do my Wii Fit exercises as he considers ALL my time when I am not laboring to earn money to get food, toys and litter for him, to be "our time" together. He has even trained me to let him drink out of my water glass, as MY water is actually HIS water and, besides, WE share everything.
He wakes me up in the morning, usually a couple hours before I HAVE to get up, but he thinks that I don't mind because soon I'll be at work with humans and I'll miss him desperately. He has gotten nicer to Jazzi, our female tabby, probably because she younger and bigger and can potentially beat the crap out of him.
In short, Booboo has changed dramatically in the last 2+ years. And that's ok with him because it's now the Booboo Show and that's change he can live with.
Our cat Boo boo is 13 years old. He's an oriental shorthair, which is basically a Siamese without the points. Boo traveled from Virginia to Maryland when I got him in 1997. Then in 2003 he traveled out to Hawaii. In 2007 we moved to Germany, exactly half way around the world from Hawaii. In 2009, we moved back to Hawaii. And Mr. Boo boo did all that with us. He's quite the world-traveled cat.
A few days ago, Mr Boo was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism. Fortunately, that condition is very treatable. I have medication that I put in his ear twice a day and he's doing well. He was vomiting a lot; sometimes 3-4 times a day and losing weight because he couldn't keep anything down. He hasn't vomited in two days, since the medication started, and he seems much more comfortable.
The vet said he's in very good shape and we should have him around for many more years.
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