took a dive out of crow pose today

Oh wait, Yoga Journal calls it a crane, not a crow. Either way I saved my forehead by landing on my knee... I haven't gone to yoga class for months and today was a Marnie Day. She teaches a fairly tough flow style class. Meaning you don't get time to rest if you don't want to...and it was good. Exactly what I needed except for the near face plant.

I've been slightly off my game lately between the really long daylight hours (sleep is weird) and the 'extra' job that involves loud talking 20 somethings with lotsa dra-ma in their lives. ...and the lack of regular art or exercise.

I got out the paints this week and did some yoga today. nod.

Spring business

Counting tree rings is pretty cool, this thing is half the diameter of a stump my friend Norm cut down. It's huggable in size, I can lift it to carry it back out to the wood shed... it's over 400 years old! Some decades were good and there are easily counted rings about 1/8 of an inch apart, some eras weren't so good and they're all packed together. This baby was alive when Q.E. I died!

This wasn't as fun. The dog was growing another tumor on her face (sqeam warning) I sent this photo to the vet in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada and a week later drove about 6 hours to camp a night then drop her off for the day for an exam and surgery. 750 bucks later the big icky lumps are gone! I wanted to take her to a real vet so she didn't have to be under anesthesia for too long, she's 15 and has had many other surgeries..didn't want to risk complications from being put under. It was a long and tiring trip, but she's lookin' pretty good with her new Elvis sneer. They had to take part of her lip off to get the big icky bump.
What else is going on... No beading or knitting for a while, I'm working two jobs and it's summer gardening time. There's a flock of tomato plants on the front porch ...
Living in a sort of a greenhouse made of salvaged windows. The one behind the two red pots slides open so the can can get in and out. Very handy because I can leave the door open and the dog won't amble away. This is an old picture they're all about 4x this size and looking lovely. The big one on the right has flowers and a couple of wee green toms too!

birds of spring

Junco for the watershed council's birding contest... He looks better in person. I don't think I like doing realistic birds, but these are the first ones. Can't really put a party hat on a 'real' bird.


Felt birds for the watershed council's birding contest. The one on the left is supposed to be a robin but he looks pretty damn silly to me.
One of the 'renters' of the old bird house. I made a second house but so far no one has moved in, but they seem to like this old faded house well enough.

see there's a reason for being gone

Another cuff! I haven't done one that's not an all seed beads all the time picture so I did a cab cuff. Kind of fun. I needed to do something different and need to keep the cuff inventory growing. May first is the gallery opening, I'd like to have my case looking good for opening day!

moving right along

Whoohoo! Beading like a fiend...almost said "beading up a storm" but have too many weather issues to say that! (old boat habits die hard) Another cuff for the gallery, now there are 3 so I am feeling almost 'ahead' in that area. Need to put the thumbs on some mittens before it gets so warm the customer doesn't need them next.

black birds cuff

Getting more stuff ready for next summer in the gallery. I've been working on the cabs and haven't done any cuffs! When I went to my "beaded shit" folder to get this picture I discovered most of my cuffs from last year were made in early March...must be a good time of year for beads!

venting

Small town b.s. My boss's birthday was the end of January, my neighbor and good acquaintance Linda and my boss are friends. Linda asked me if I would do a screen print of Van Morrison for Liz (boss). Sure, sounds good. Linda expected me to design it, I said no it's your gift, you find an image and we'll posterize it for a one off screen print. She found an image, I touched it up. She bought a sweatshirt, I printed it. The sweatshirt was too small for Liz. That was my fault apparently because I said "I think a medium is big enough". After finding out it was too small, Linda called me and said "I know Liz better, that sweatshirt was too small" Or something along those lines. Liz then bought herself a new sweatshirt...asked me if it needed to be washed first, I said no you can just give it to me an I'll print it. She said (something like) no, I'll get it to you on my own time after I wash it. Well.... a month later I have taken the stencil off the screen and Liz (prompted by Linda) brings the shirt to my house. I

I feel like shit because I didn't reserve one of my 2 screens with Linda's stencil on it... I told Liz it would be a while because I need to re do the screen...Liz said oh no, that's ok. sigh. I SAID I'd re do it, dammit. Even though I don't want to... Linda only bought the first shirt and found the image, it's her fucking gift to Liz and I feel bad because I got tired of waiting for the replacement sweatshirt and wanted to use my screen. AGH.

we revisit the home of the lazy blogger one month later

I have been a lazy blogger but a busy beader! Svenson's (gallery owners) have been enthusiastic about smaller more affordable cabs and seeds type necklaces, so I've been making more. I need to work on bracelets too but they're more time consuming and I don't feel consumed.
The first one on the left and the middle one are fossilized coral, there's some green jasper in the one that was in the previous post (second from the left) the far right is a bone face with some poppy jasper and the second from right is unknown but I think it's agate.

I've been getting some really nice cabs from Lima Beads where they have a lunch special every Tuesday. I love shopping for art supplies in the winter, and with a gallery wanting more bead work...yum!

smaller, more affordable

Working on making pendants with cabs, trying to figure out how they should hand from a neck. In person, this looks o.k., here I don't like it. The left side beads seem too small, the right side too jumbled in color. If I'm going to use semi precious stones as the necklace part, they need to be simple and dark...garnets.

second neck piece

Learned a lot making the first one, this was 100% easier. Less b.s. starting with using black pellon and not gluing the ultra suede on the back. It is for a swap with a friend here, she's going to be making me a mosaic mirror. The big stone and the malachite are from her father's collection, he cut and polished them.