another one sold!

Another cuff sold! Again with the 'thank goodness I'm freaking about money' moment: in the same stack of mail is the property tax bill! Maybe I can conjure up another sale before the bill is due...maybe a couple of them.

Currently working on another raven cuff and a couple embroidered necklaces with very slow progress. I have a whole list of excuses for not beading, some of them good (extra hours at work) and some of them lame (Alias on DVD) and some I don't want to admit to.

I made a springtime/flower doll for Lora K. who's dealing with chemo (my excuses are so lame in comparison!) and has two young boys and a seriously good attitude. She was diagnosed with cancer but they downgraded it to something less dire...but really? Chemo is awful no matter what the diagnosis.

Last year at about this time, I took myself off to the clinic to talk to a therapist about why I was so miserable. The therapist agreed with me, it's incredibly difficult to make friends here especially with women. She described it taking years to get beyond surface polite behavior. This year... I know why. There are many more women than men here and once a woman gets a guy she guards that relationship with her life. I thought he was a better person than he is (the excuse I don't want to admit). I fell for his b.s. and now get to trudge through the recovery... bleh.

cat fight!

Biscuit the bold got herself beat up by a neighborhood stray, again. Actually...I don't know what sort of damage she did to the other cat, but she's got a big gash on her neck and is limping on her right front foot.

So, I chase her around with a syringe full of peroxide (no needle) to keep the gash from getting infected. I haven't figured out what wrong with the paw, she may have shredded a claw in the battle. There is a lick lick lick spot on her inner "arm", but I don't think that's what's causing the limp.

She is already asking to go back outside, no wonder her head is so tiny...no much brain in there.

more black birds

Experiments with abstract birds...I think I like it, but it's all about getting the beak right.

wood, beads and dogs, summer here

The wood is in the shed, but just like always doesn't look like enough. I might get another cord delivered...sale prices available til the end of June. Yeah, I'll get another cord...just makes sense.

The wood arrives, it's lovely dry beetle kill spruce and hemlock. "Beetle Kill" refers to trees that were killed by the spruce bark beetle infestation a few years ago and seasoned standing up in the forest. It's excellent firewood when it's cut down, fuel for devastating forest fires if left standing.


The shed before...

...and after. It just doesn't look like enough!Still room for the bicycle.
Dog waiting for the start of a road trip to go camping in the Yukon. My brother was coming down from Anchorage for a bluegrass festival near Haines Junction. Not the kind of camping and music experience I'm used to...tickets were sold out in January and cost 150 dollars! I listened to some of the free stuff and enjoyed the beer and campfire part of the trip. Best thing about camping at a provincial campsite: free wood!

Worst thing: partying kids, but this campground had someone that actually patrolled to keep the noise down. Pine Lake Campground near Haines Junction...spot #10.

more black birds

I think this one is better than the last...


It was so much easier to bead this one knowing what I wanted the wings to look like, where to put the bugle beads to make the wings shine. It's at the gallery waiting to become part of the property tax/firewood fund.

There's a couple of cords of spruce/hemlock coming today. Every time I say that I sort of sigh, it's a lot of work to get it in the shed, but it's really good to have it done and really really good to check it off the must do list. Months of summer drying make it happy winter wood too. It will make the bicycle storage space in the woodshed small...seasonal conflict of interest!

sold!

Hey guess what? Oh, you already read the title...yeah it sold! They're mailing me a check tomorrow. Oh how happy is my little money grubbing heart. Money from all sales will be put in the account labeled "property tax" until further notice. woot!

it's alive!

Dudes, sorry I'm being the blogger from lame land...but it's springtime in Alaska. (the rest of the line from the song is "and it's 40 below" but it's not, it's sunny and warm. I've already eaten my first salad from the garden! I have rhubarb that's doing what the 'barb does: taking over the universe one giant leaf at a time.

I have been beading and painting to keep myself from being a total lame land slacker...but I have to admit to having tan lines on my feet already. My favorite sign of not being totally employed is tanned feet.

One of the tulips that's come and nearly gone out by the porch...think I need to paint or bead this, it's so pretty!

Gardening...daffodils and tulips doing their thing, thank goodness for bulbs! 3 sunflower plants starting to shoot up wildly after a few cool nights under plastic. I had to replant them after the neighbors dumb-ass dog dug up the other ones. Lavender in the other warm and dry spot up front next to the sunflowers. In back: lots of cutting (as in not head) lettuce, the rhubarb, peas starting to race the sunflowers for height, last years strawberries flowering again (yay!) and a couple of different squash plants, zucchini and summer squash and one pot of decorative gourds. We'll see if any of the squash survive my fumbling. Oh yeah, and a couple of buckets of potatoes, because I loved squealing over them this past fall.

Guess I need to take more pictures. Thanks for waiting for me to come back from lame land!

done.

I finished it yesterday afternoon, finally! I mean really? It's just another embroidered piece...but it's designed to be worn so it needs to fit a human, needs to lie flat and hang straight. ...and it's the piece that caught the eye of the gallery owner!

The clasp is double snaps. I couldn't see putting a totally unrelated silver clasp there and don't really like the peyote toggles so I used some black snaps. Need to remember (again) that I hate white pellon and should only use black so it doesn't look like underpants are showing through the beads.

fish frames

I'm leaning toward having him break the 'frame' on 3 sides, like he's swimming in front of it. Still leaning that way after posting then editing. The lower bottom edge looks too rectangular and he's a square fish.

I really haven't been that busy...

I just seem to have had a lot to do for the (almost) month since I last posted. Activities have included extra hours at work (yay) a little more mercenary knitting (yay) and a trip to Juneau (yay again).

Folk Fest was going on while I was in town so I got to join in the chaos with the Hoskinsons. I love how involved they are in the music community there, I feel pretty lucky to get to be an honorary member with out being able to play more than a few notes. Nights of music at Centennial Hall were punctuated by the morning "Buddy Report" from Buddy Tabor. Damn that guy is funny...when he's not wandering the grave yard or mocking Rush.

I've been getting beadwork ready for the gallery opening at the beginning of May...brainstorming how to display the flat stuff with out frames. I want people to know it's fabric and beads, not a glassed in painting...texture on display. So with the heron, I'm putting in the twigs and will layer it on the blue and stiffen with pellon. Visual: is it better with the twig through his beak or just
below?

It's weird to me how the vertical line above his bill makes him feel trapped to me...or is it that he's in the swamp? Geez, I love a good annoying detail.