week 29 - Routine

Focus on life... week 29

This is very much a warm summer day routine.. I wish I could do this year round!

But first things first  FEED THE CAT!...(. & the fish and wind the cuckoo clock)

This is Emmett We have 3 cats but he is the only one that jumps on the bed and licks your face to point out that his food Bowl is EMPTY!  ...

Next make the coffee

Coffee pot and grinder in their temp home  note the can of pliers behind them.... Now the fun part sitting outside and drinking it.. My favorite part about this house in summer!

(the coffee cup says "I thought normal was a dryer setting")

Coffees gone... time to quit reading and put out the gallery flags... have to do this in the rain too....

Now my day starts...  If it's not raining I'll probably water plants, then maybe work on a piece of jewellery

I finished this up this morning...

The major differences in my days are totally controlled by weather!

To see what rituals other people follow check out Sally's blog!

Week 27- Texture

Focus on life.. Texture


Finally a prompt I like!  I got all gung ho and photographed all sorts of neat bead tools... this is the only picture I took that was in focus

I thought the texture on the dirty rug (bead shop doorway) was kind of interesting...  This is actually a relatively new tool....

I used to do a lot of leaded glass panels.... mainly textured clear with a little bit of colour....
This was the prototype for a much larger commissioned window.  I made the roundels on the torch.  The commissioned window is here . The scarf in the same blog was never finished it was ripped apart and turned back into balls!




















I

Beads made with one of my favorite bead rollers These were made using the BR-5301 RIBBED SMALL ROUND SPACERS graphite mold.  I also have  BR-5101 the     RIBBED SMALL STUBBY BICONE SPACERS... I find  the bicones to be much harder to make!  

The beads in between my etched glass beads are carved Quahog shells made by Marcia Poirier... she makes gorgeous pendants and earrings  from Quahog shells under the name Wildabout Wampumhttp://www.wildaboutwampum.com/index.html

To see how other people interpreted texture   & to see where the 'garbage/treasures' in lasts weeks ? post came from?

Week - 24 Green

Focus on life ... week 24 Green

I just love Green and purple together....  Lupins grow wild in the ditches here... this one was transplanted by me last year!

This was the view from the deck this week between Tropical storm Andrea and whatever un-named equally windy and rainy storm is dumping on us as I type!

 Just thought I'd throw in a collage of my sister and I from my first wedding... My dress was Green silk ... all the lace on the veil and the neck edging on my sisters dress was hand tatted by me...........

To see how other people interpreted green check out Sally's blog

Week 23: Typography

Focus on life ... week 23 Typography

 

The power of the written or typed word can be more powerful then you thought!  

The style and appearance of printed matter has an effect to how we view items, websites, businesses, book titles and the list goes on and on.   Is the typography pleasing to the eye, does the font pull you in, draw you away, make you feel inspired?  

 The sign for the gallery ....Since I haven't left the Island all week I was rather limited in my Photographic opportunities this week....  (note the pretty yellow flowers growing around the base!)

 This is where the 'font' comes in.. I've signed my name using lower case letters since I was in high school,  when I used to do sandblasting the initials worked from either the back or the front of the piece.  I guess the initials are how I've branded myself.  I keep thinking that I need to blow the wad on little sterling jewellery tags... but the price just keeps going up and up and I haven't done it yet!

To see how other people have interpreted this weeks prompt check out Sally's blog!

Week 22: Foodie

Focus on life ... week 22 Foodie or "what ya eatin'?"

A bag of cheezies or a bag of taco chips would be very appropriate pictures for this prompt...

So here you see a bag of Hawkins cheezies... made with real cheese... Yes my culinary abilities do make it to ripping open a bag of cheezies!

 But since this is lobster season on the East Coast I thought maybe this was the week to indulge...  Bugs before dinner..... Playing on the kitchen floor, bands get removed before cooking as they are suppose to affect the flavor.

Bugs after dinner!

To see what other people eat check out sally's blog!

Week 21: Reminisce

Focus on Life ... week 21's prompt

 This week capture what takes you back to moments past and reminisce a little.

I thought that I was being so smart this week...
when I was digging my shovel out of the garage mothers day... (the only nice day we've had this spring)... I remembered seeing  my pogo stick.  My former brother in law gave it to me when I was in hospital having my foot operated on when I was in Grade 12, when I saw this weeks prompt my pogo stick instantly came to mind... it was a 'no brainer'... problem was I waited until this morning to photograph said pogo stick and discovered that what I thought was my pogo stick was actually the handle for an old lawn mower... Not my pogo stick.

The handle for a push  lawn mower did bring back memories of mowing the family lawn with one. We did have  an electric mower but I insisted on using the push mower. Dad would stand on the side walk and tell everyone that was walking by that we had an electric mower.. and that I was mowing the lawn with the push mower because I wanted to!

It is now 2 pm on Friday afternoon, (pouring rain) & my brilliant idea is a bust.. my crutches were in the rafters in the garage, but they don't bring back memories of my orthopedic surgeon grabbing the pogo stick off the end of the bed and almost launching himself out the window of my hospital room at the old Edmonton General...

So you will have to settle for a picture of my cactus... which does not flower faithfully every year like my fathers.  Every summer dad would move his cactii which is the parents to mine outside and they would each get 8 or 10 flowers. My mother would drag the neighbours over to 'ooh and awe' over them. Mine has bloomed once in the back seat of the truck when we were moving it out here.... Instead of flowering it hatches babies every year, which you can break off and plant.  The original cactus was dug up in Southern Alberta long ago!

To see what other things bring back memeories to other people check out Sally's blog

Week 20- Look Up

Focus on Life ... week 20... LOOK UP!

Since it is pouring rain today and none of our trees are in bloom I walked around the house and the gallery looking up...  Here's a selection of things I found... 

(No cobwebs were damaged during this photographic session!)

The mobile that hung in the house I grew up in from the time I was 5 until I took it down 2 years ago when I was helping to move my parents into a seniors condo complex... It is now hanging in my 'family room' and if my sister sees this picture she's going to say... 'Why did you get that?'

The Tiffany lamp that took me 6 years to build... at one point I had all the white pieces cut out  in piles on the dryer... my son who was then 3  was in the basement... I asked him what he was doing he came to the bottom of the stairs with a pail.. I didn't look in the pail and said OK have fun... he was carefully transferring all my unlabeled neatly piled pieces of white glass from the dryer to the pail... they stayed in the pail for 4 years!  Once finished, the lamp hung over my dining room table in SK for 10 years ... after we moved here I added loops to the inside and flipped it upside down.. (the ceiling where it is now is  12 feet)

One wall of  the  gallery which has 10 foot ceilings.... The two fused pieces in the middle are mine.  

Why don't you go check and see how other people interpreted Sally's challenge for week 20

Week 19 HOPE

Focus on life week 19... HOPE... it's spring I hope that I have a lovely garden... as you can see my 'spring' flowers are off to a good start... Aren't they lovely!

 We also seem to have hit fog season... but when it's not foggy the black flies are out and biting, so do I want my eyes swollen shut or damp cold days....

Since I own a seasonal gallery what I am actually hoping for, is that we will have lovely weather and that lots of tourists will stray onto my island!

Check out Sally's blog to see what other people "hope for!"

Week 18 Abstract Photography

Focus on Life week 18....  Sally suggested that we google abstract photography.. this was my "first hit"...  I'm seeing close up macro I think collaging random shaped chunks of photographs would make a neat abstract photo too... but that's beyond my limited photodestructive capabilities!

So here we go

Palm tree... my goal in life is too live somewhere that palm trees can be grown outside....

But for now I'll have to settle for the indoor variety....

Took quite a few pictures of beads... only to discover that I am a horrible housekeeper and all you could see was dust...
 
This orchid currently has two flower stocks... the most recent one is a different colour...

Yesterday for a change was totally calm.. so I couldn't resist throwing in a picture I took of one of the government fishing wharves.
 
I'm not sure if I've actually captured the theme of abstract photography... to see how other people interpreted this weeks prompt check out sally's blog! 

week 17 Color/Colour

Focus on life... week 17....  Well I love   COLOUR !  

But in spite of that it was a hard challenge... I initially wanted to photograph a corner in the dining room that has a bunch of Canadian paintings but it also reflects 3 windows which I discovered when I tried to photograph it! 

So onto the quilt that we bought last fall in Newfoundland

This has lots of colour... it's actually a king size quilt because the queen size one was pastel blocks and white outlines....  Love it!
(The spiders web is top left on an orange block)

A typical Newfoundland folk art painting... from the grumpy goat gallery... I think it  goes perfectly with the quilt and yes it hangs at the foot of the bed.

And yes this is a complete set of Harry Potter books... you don't know how difficult it was to get a matching set... and they don't actually match perfectly the first two were published by raintree alone and are fractionally shorter! & yes they are also in the bedroom!

After we got home from NL last fall I had to see if I could capture the quilts in beads.. my husband pointed out that all crazy quilts need to have a spiders web....

To see how other people see colour check out Sally's blog

week 16 - Take A Walk

Focus on Life...A walk from the house to the mail box in Lords Cove... I actually walked up the road (away from the mailbox) first to get this picture...

From the 'gallery' parking 'lot'

The South side of the house with the government wharf in the background from the road above the house.

Lord's Cove from the road half way to the mail box (6 minute walk each way)

To see where other people walked check out sally's blog

Week 15 - Aged Beauty

Focus on Life....  focusing on aged beauty... 

well my first thought was another self portrait.. but I've been there already... 

I have an old porche rotting on the driveway... but it's rather lacking in beauty....  

So I spent 5 days wandering around the house before I decided on a glass light fixture that I bought at a flea market while we were still living in Sakatchewan

This was the second glass ceiling fixture we bought in Saskatchewan after we bought the house in NB, the first one is much bigger same colour but less interesting... it replace a wagon wheel (gack) in the dinning room.  I saw this one lying in a beer box at the flea market in Manitou Beach a couple of weeks after we bought the first one.  I think they guy wanted $28 I asked if it had all the parts he said yes but that I could have it for $20... I wasn' t trying to lower the price.  The lamp then spent the next couple of year under a bed in the cabin in it's beer box... I think it was one of the last things we brought East before selling the cabin. 

For other peoples interpretations of aged beauty check out sally's blog

Week 14~ Up Close!

Focus On Life  .. well this was easy my croci started blooming last thursday or friday I saw the promp I took the photograph then we had a week of crappy weather!

 now have some pale purple ones too... but the weather wasn't condusive to gettin down and farmiliar with the ground!  These are totally unedited ... straight off the camera!

For other peoples versions of up close check out sally's blog I'm expecting to see a lot of srping flowers!

Week 11 Possibilities are Endless

Focus on Life week 11

One of my first post when I started this blog was about a charity in NC called Endless Possibilities... they turn 'rags' into rag rugs...and other things.... Check my 2008 posting for info on the charity!

I got this 'rug' the second time I was there... & no it wasn't $25!

 My husband thinks this is a really good use for ties!  He refuses to wear them and when he was forced to wear them at work they were always tied so poorly that they looked awful... but he was adhering to company policy!

Love the colours in this one!  If you're ever in Manteo NC make sure you check this store out.

For other peoples interpretations of this weeks prompt head over to sally's blog

Week 10 ... All Wrapped Up

Focus on Life week 10... All wrapped up

OK I'll admit I don't have a clue what to post here.. I actually hate wrapping.. at Christmas I use an entire roll of paper then move onto the next roll... I do like curling ribbon though... so you won't see an image of a wrapped parcel here.. when I'm shipping parcels I wrap the entire item in packing tape ... an attempt to foil the post office... I'm sure Canada Post randomly checks parcels to see if they will float....

I decided that you would see my dyed seam binding necklace from Artisan Whimsy  .. Karen Lackey of Starshine Salon posted a tutorial on dyeing seam binding on Artisan Whimsy in January, everyone who commented got 5 yards... I received mine while I was in Costa Rica so did not meet the deadline for the blog reveal so after many hours of making and unmaking knots this is what I came up with

SO I think I have the project and the challenge "All Wrapped UP"

I ended up braiding the seam binding 2 pieces of seam binding and 2 pieces of wimpy useless chain... (I tried to wire enameled components to the chain and it kept breaking.).. the enameled 'pendant' is hanging from 3 strands of chain, the clasp is an enameled poppy.   (The pendant does look a bit like a lamp...)

To see how other people interpreted Sally's prompt this week

Week 8 Monochromatic

Focus on Life Week 8...   I decided to play around with  old photos for this week.  It was either that or a close up of a snow bank... which would have been a really depressing thing to have to do after 17 days in Costa Rica... 

The original picture was taken last July just as the fog was lifting with my new smart phone...  Not sure what I did to the picture today to reverse it when I removed the colour... oops!

Thought this picture might look neat with the colour removed too... Clouds also taken last July! The cloud looks a bit like a colourless rainbow!

And last but not least 'Llanos de Cortez' a waterfall in Costa Rica...  You can swim in the pool and walk behind the falls.  Lovely place for a picnic!

To see other particiapnts in Week 8's focus on life challenge check out Sally's blog

I used picmonkey to transform all my colour pics to B & W, most of the pictures were pretty monocramtic to start with!

Week 7 Flowers

I Love flowers... Unfortunately I live somewhere that the only place I can grow flowers 9 months of the year is in the house..These are some of my favorite flowering plants!

I found this seed pod lying on the ground yesterday... Thought it was very appropriate for Valentines! To see other peoples flowers check out Sally's blog at Studio Sublime.

Week 6 Feel The Love

Focusing on Life Week 6, 2nd  weekend in February...  Tomorrow (Feb 10) is actually my wedding anniversary... We eloped on my father's 65th birthday  (1989) I decided that I was going to use the wedding ring quilt pattern before I realized the significance of the date!  Since I'm not somewhere that I can take pictures of a wedding ring quilt I built a facsimilie on the beach out of shells.. I tried to draw one in the sand first but drawing two round rings the same size was impossible!

Of course these could also be Venn diagrams... which I truly have NO love for!

Two monkey sshowing the love for each other...Probably a mother white face capuchin Monkey with her 'baby' They don't really like the humans and break off branches and hurl them at you!

To see other blogs check out Sally Russicks post at Studio Sublime.