Wordless Wednesday

Well that really suits me as a title since I really have nothing to say so I'll say it all with my latest bead! Along came the Jellies.....

Happy Easter

Today is Easter Sunday... It rained here over night but now it is snowing... I have had enough snow already this winter thanks! I planted lettuce on Friday... winter is OVER...

The first "Street Team" that I joined at etsy was LEST which stood for Lampwork Etc... The team grew to fast and folded last month with a new much smaller team called FIRE DIVAS rising from the ashes. It was decided that we would donate beads to the Breast Cancer silent auction at the Bead and Button Show in Milwaukee ... To keep some continuity between the beads we went with an Alice in Wonderland theme...

I have an old copy of the book with the original Tenniel 'plates' I thought I would do the baby from the kitchen scene where Alice walks in on the Dutchess Well as you can see.. that bead is just scary! So since after Alice grabs the baby it turns into a pig I figured OK I'll do the pig instead... I think "Ms. Pig" is very cute... I made a ring for her to sit on so that she didn't have to balance on her nose... Not sure if the ring should be 'pig' colour or bonnet colour? Comments I have to ship the beads to the co-ordinator on Friday on my way to the airport so have time to do another one!

ABSTEAM

"The Artisan Beaders Street Team is a collection of artisan bead and jewelry designers. Our focus is on quality handmade pieces of wearable art, and each member works hard to create high quality pieces."

The Blog Go check out all the members, I think there is currently 20 people. Every Tuesday there is a tip posted on something to do with jewellery making... Well worth checking!

I've only been a member for about 3 months and don't know most of them by name.. But I found these blogs about me this week... the first one was in the Maaaaaa of Pricilla.. Pricilla is actually a goat, but with the coaching of her publicist & owner ( I don't think she relises that she is owned) Patty, from Broken TeePee Designs she has become a very literary goat! She is also the proud mother of Kevin (Aren't baby goats cute?) Patty does make lovely jewellery. I think this piece would look very nice around my neck!

This is a Flickr badge showing public items from the Artisan Beaders Street Team group pool. Make your own badge here.

Then I found "A taste of sunshine" in Deronda Designs blog .... A bright Yellow focal bead.. that would certainly brighten up any cloudy day! Deronda is another lampwork artist....

Then moving right along.... I found a blog on April 1 in Brenda's Jewellery box from that title you probably know that she makes jewellery. This piece is called Sunset in the Vineyard!




And Last but certainly not least I found this blog post this morning with two of my favorite beads in it! Thanks to Kristy of Simply Shiny . It's the blog post for April 9, but you have to watch the U tube video clip she put up this morning! I just love these hair sticks in her shop... Maybe she'd like to trade??? But then would they stay in my hair?

Rain

Well the good news is that the sun came out yesterday afternoon and I planted my new lily bulbs... I love lilies... The bad news is we got another three inches of rain overnight... this was my view of the basement door out the kitchen window this morning... the sump pump didn't appear to be pumping... so I kicked it... it is now pumping but the water level isn't dropping! The water is actually pouring in around the door! The first winter we were here before we put in the sump pump the water was over my knees in that room .. which happens to be my oft referred to dungeon... it is why I now do beads not stained glass! The water also comes in through the stone wall at the front of the house and we have a river running through the basement from West to East.. it is flowing nicely this morning!
This is what I pulled out of the kiln yesterday morning... Comedy and Tragedy the one on the left would be me if that was snow falling out there but since it's rain falling on my newly planted lily bulbs I'll take the happy mask!
Our hot tub cover ended up in the trees in one storm this winter so now it gets held on with my Michelin summer car tires... the Michelins will soon be replaced with Blizzacs... I went out at about 9 pm to put the two tires that were on the deck on the lid, G had stood them up rather than left them lying flat and yes they had been caught by the wind and rolled down the hill and were lying in the middle of our snow fed creek... I got them both out after I finally found them (Yes I did have to wade into the creek... in my trusty Crocs!) the one without the wheel got hauled up the hill the one with the wheel is still on the bank of the creek... no way was it rolling up hill on that rain soaked lawn while I was holding a flash light! (actually if you click on the water picture you can see both the tire and the creek!)

More on cats

Well I know you've all met EMM before but he wants to show you just what a big cat he is... that railing that he is standing in front of is 30 inches high!

The picture on the right is EMM last week staring out the window at the rain... ( you do have to enlarge that picture to really get the rain effect!) This season of the year here you have a choice of fog or rain... the only nice thing about fog is sometimes the sun comes out for 10 minutes about 3 o:clock.

EMM being an all grey cat doesn't show the dirt.. He comes as a highly recommended cat colour... Zoom zoom on the other hand has had smokers paws all week ... his cute little white paws have been bright yellow.. I have no idea what he has been walking in...

Here's Em's bead pick for the week He thinks these little guys are cute... and he wishes I would pay him half as much attention as I pay them when I'm making them! Bunnies

I won again, well actually I came second...

Yes I'm afraid this blog is once again about me and how wonderful I am! Artistry in Glass has a glass bead competition (same one I won the rods in three months ago) every three months. I got 2nd place in the Advanced category ... (I don't know where I belong...) with my Jellyfish bead.. I was beaten by a sea horse, done by on online friend Laurie Ament, from Little Rock, Arkansas ,Here's a link to her etsy store Isinglass Design The gold Sea horse in the picture is not the one she entered in the competition... (I couldn't find a picture of it to 'borrow' for this blog!) What I find so impressive with her work is she does everything on a hot head... I'm sure you have all heard my opinion on those.. I think I can make a 'smoked' spacer in 30 minutes!)

April Fools Day

Today is April fools day...Hope no one plays a prank on you! Here it is bright and sunny and might even turn into a warm day! Yesterday I was in Saint John and woke up to two inches of wet sticky snow... I don't think we got anything but rain here! The snow there was quite unnecessary!

Monday was my husbands 60th Birthday so we went out for dinner, then I stayed in town so that I could drop off a piece for the Saint John Aids Auction (The Jellyfish pendant and earrings on right)
I like going to auctions.. I love bidding things up... and yes I have bought things that I really didn't want.. we own a huge custom made kite... we only flew it once, it panicked the horses in the pasture that we had borrowed to fly it in.... Now G is into 2 line stunt kites... (He has 2 parafoils and one delta wing...) I stick with the basic idiot proof kite and run up and down beaches trying to keep my kite airborne!
Unfortunately I won't be here for that auction, so I'll have to leave it up to Gord to bring home lots of useful things!