Trying hard

I'm trying hard to get my "mojo" back...my desire to create and to take pleasure in the process. It seems to me as if I need to approach this process the same way I would approach any problem...by beginning. By picking something up and starting. Getting started is the surest way (for me) to keep going. It's hard, however, to begin something that I'm not already excited about. 

I have been making artist trading cards for various swaps...I never stopped doing that.  However, I find myself using the same techniques over and over.  I think it's time for a major shakeup...I've bought a couple books, and plan to "take classes" to learn new techniques, and will put them into practice.  Stagnation: not good.

Additionally, I have once again been crocheting...always the quest for the perfect, perfectly pleasing granny square. I am the QUEEN of crocheting, joining, and ripping out. I become...dissatisfied, I guess...with whatever I've made. I have an unbelievable number of partially-completed afghans and such, but when the urge to crochet strikes, I always seem to start something new. I get so inspired by what I see online! I want THAT, I say to myself! So I start, become dissatisfied, and before you know it, I have little balls and squiggles of yarn sitting all around me, which used to be parts of granny squares.

Ahem. Moving on. This weekend I was determined to start something I've had in mind for some time (oooh, saw the original on Flickr and FELL IN LOVE!!)...a pink, green and white cotton hexagon afghan. I started by making hexagons of all the different pinks and greens in my stash of Rowan Handknit Cotton (and also Jarbo, which looks and feels identical, but is much less expensive for some reason)...but very quickly decided that it did not look cohesive and I needed to use only a few colors. I settled on four: a lime-y green called Gooseberry, white, a very pale pink, and a darker rose pink. And using just those colors, I feel happier with the result. The pieces look cohesive, which is pleasing at this point. Probably by row four, I'll decide that it's boring and that I should rip it out and start over, with a different color scheme. (Sometimes I don't like myself very much!) So. After all the anguish, here's what I've done:

 

So there you have it...my pursuits of late.  Next comes the jewelry; I've kind of dropped out of life, and haven't joined any challenges or blog hops in the longest time (two months).  Must rectify that immediately.  It all gives me so much joy (usually), and I'm hoping I can get that back.

I seem to have lost my way.  I don't remember when I published a blog post last (actually, it's been two months, I checked), and unfortunately it seems that unless I do this every day, it slips off my mental "to do" list...and then two months have gone by with nothing to show for that time. 

Honestly, I must have done SOMETHING during the past two months...but I feel stagnant.  I don't think I've learned anything new, which was not part of the whole retirement plan; I don't think I've created much of anything, either.  I bore myself!

So here I go again, promising myself that I'll do better, and hoping to use this electronic vehicle as a tracking device of sorts.  Does this happen to other people, or (God forbid) is it specific to me?  Right here, right now, on Mother's Eve, I promise (to myself) to do better. 

Suddenly Spring

Ah, yes...Michelle Mach's "Suddenly Spring" challenge.  We were challenged to take the bracelet you see here, and cut the stretchy cord.  We promised to make one, two, or many pieces of springlike jewelry from these crystal components.  So, with no further ado, here's what I made, with some additions from my own stash of beads and findings, and without very many of the crystal spacers, I confess.  I just couldn't fit them in, you know?  They just didn't work for me.  Moving on.



I made this pair of earrings first.  They're light and bright and swingy and springy.  For each earring, I used three separate ball-tipped antiqued copper headpins, two with tiny aquamarine AB round crystals (with a turquoise seed bead sitting atop each) and one with small antiqued copper daisy spacers on either end of the large aquamarine crystal rondelles, a tiny turquoise seed bead sitting on top, and then the same tiny round crystals perched above.  I cut the headpins to different lengths, so each dangle is a different length.  I attempted to add crimp beads above the dangles, but...no go.  The beads swing free, as you can see.  They're attached to a jump ring, which in turn is attached to antiqued copper ear wires.

Now, why will this picture not rotate?  Whatever...I've tried and tried, with no success; time to move on.  I used round white shell "windows" that are stuffed (literally!) with the aquamarine crystal rondelles from the original bracelet.  I used frosted opal AB teardrops in between each glittery window. 






Here are the matching (coordinating?) earrings...the same white shell "windows" with the aquamarine rondelles inside; little silver daisy spacers and turquoise seed beads on top, and then a trio of wire-wrapped tiny round aquamarine AB crystal dangles. 





And finally, the necklace.  What is springy-er than a sweet little bird's nest, full of eggs?  I used one of my decoupaged wooden tiles, some silver chain, and added eye pins strung with the aquamarine crystal rondelles and using the crystal spacers, as well!  Check it out:

And that's it!  I made four pieces of jewelry and used a good portion of the "ingredients" from the original bracelet.  My trouble spot was the spacers...I just wasn't feeling them.  Can't wait to see what everyone else has created...you can peek at everything here: 

 Michelle - Beads & Books - http://www.michellemach.com/blog/ [Hostess]

Andrew - The Writing & Art of Andrew Thornton - http://andrew-thornton.blogspot.com/

 Christa - Adventures of One Beady Woman - http://adventuresofwonebeadywoman.blogspot.com/

 Dita - Alankarshilpa - -http://www.alankarshilpa.blogspot.com/

 Erin - Erin Siegel Jewelry - http://erinsiegeljewelry.blogspot.com/

Heather - As I Bead It - http://erinsiegeljewelry.blogspot.com/

Jean - Snap Out of It Jean - There's Beading to Be Done! - http://prettykittydogmoonjewelry.blogspot.com/

 Karen - Over the Moon Design - http://www.overthemoon-design.com/

Kate - We Can Make That At Home - http://katerichbourg.blogspot.com/

Kay - Palm Coast Art - http://palmcoastart.blogspot.com/

 Kim - CianciBlue - http://cianciblue.blogspot.com/

 Kristina - Wild Roses and Blackberries - http://wildrosesandblackberries.blogspot.com/

 Linda - Lindy's Designs - http://www.lindysdesigns.blogspot.com/

Lisa - Pine Ridge Treasures - http://pineridgetreasures.blogspot.com/

Marlene - Amazing Designs by Marlene - http://amazingdesigns-marlene.blogspot.com/

 Michelle - Reverie & Revival - http://reverieandrevival.blogspot.com/

Pam - The Crazy Creative Corner - http://crazycreativecorner.blogspot.com/

Pamela - Someday Beads - http://somedaybeads.blogspot.com/

 Renetha - Lamplight Crafts - http://lamplightcrafts.blogspot.com/

 Sharyl - Catchenthesun - http://catchenthesun.wordpress.com/

Terry - Pink Chapeau Vintage Jewelry - http://pinkchapeau.wordpress.com/

 Therese  - Therese's Treasures - http://www.theresestreasures59.blogspot.com/



Big Weekend

Truly, this was a very big weekend for me, in every way!  Saturday I received some GORGEOUS charms from the Ornamentea charm swap...seven, to be exact, each so beautiful in its own way that it's hard to describe.  So I won't try...a picture is worth a thousand words, etc.

This is an overview of what arrived in the mail...so many little opportunities for excitement.  Here they are, individually, in the order they were opened.

From Becky at LadySmyth Metals, a beautiful metal charm.  I don't know...is it made from PMC?  How was this made?  It is so, so intricate and beautifully finished. 

From Cynthia at Ornamentea, a beautifully crafted woven wire basket charm, to hold all the luck I can find (and lately I've been finding quite a bit!). 

From Elli, in her own words: "Embossed, sanded, sealed brass ingredient for you".  So freaking sweet!









From Erin at Tesori Trovati, one of her kanji symbols, this one representing beauty.  Erin's work is truly beautiful, and I confess that I'm one of her "groupies" (ugh,that sounds pathological, so I'll change my wording a bit)...I mean, one of her faithful blog followers and great fans. It is a thrill for me to have something created by Erin.

Ah, the sweetness of this little beaded cardinal, made by Doreen.  Bead weaving is on my "to do" list; I've never even attempted it and want so badly to learn. 



Okay...wow.  Look what Melissa made!  I think the peacock feather is made from shrink plastic, another genre I've yet to play with.  It's connected to a pretty antiqued silver filigree piece.

And finally, look what Janet did!  A beautiful little beaded cube, finished off with a crystal dangle.  I'm telling you, bead weaving is going to be my next adventure. 

Thank you all so much for the incredible charms...each is gorgeous, and they are all so different!  The ladies at Ornamentea did an amazing job of choosing a variety of different charms for each participant.  Thank you all so very much for hosting this swap!

And now on to the other reason this was a big weekend for me: I hosted a sleepover for my two youngest grandchildren, Emma and Drew.  Emma was over the moon with excitement when she heard that Drew would be joining us.  Drew was a little, ummm, less excited.  He is almost 11, and quite blase about Younger Women.  In fact, he doesn't really see the benefit to spending a lot of time with someone who is only Almost Nine.  However, I plied them with a movie (I Bought a Zoo?  We Bought a Zoo?), that turned out to be very enjoyable for all three of us.  A good movie with popcorn and soda, followed by a visit to the Dollar Store and dinner out...what's not to love?   Given the fact that they were both not home, and they had a level playing field, they played Hide and Seek for what seemed like hours, and finally fell asleep in the living room after watching horrible, annoying TV for awhile.  And in the morning (sadly, I had forgotten all about Daylight Savings, and realizing that I'd "lost" an hour was devastating), this is what I saw:

 

 

I can't help but notice some things: piles of Dollar Store debris everywhere, and the total absence of cats. 



GDB

That's an acronym for "Guide Dogs for the Blind".  My daughter and son-in-law are puppy-raisers for this amazing group, and today, for only the third time, they got to meet the puppy truck and were given an "infant" to take home and raise from scratch.  Most often, they take older puppies who have had some difficulties in other homes, and decide whether the pups can move on to more serious training, or if they need to be "career-changed".  The babies are adorable...there's nothing like a baby...but they are a lot of work!  Here's Emma with the newest baby:

It's too much, isn't it?  His name is Pegasus, and he is eight weeks old.  And if the stars align, someday Pegasus will belong to someone whose life will be exponentially richer thanks to the gift that this family has given.  To take these puppies into your home...take them to work, to the grocery store, to the restaurant, to the playground...to do this for more than a year, and then to surrender this incredible creature to the organization for serious training...it's more than most of us could ever do.  And yet, this is what they do, over and over again. 

And if, for one reason or another, the puppy isn't deemed acceptable to lead a vision-impaired person through life?  Well, either the puppy is trained as a different kind of service dog, or someone on a long waiting list will get the pet of a lifetime.  In fact, Emma's two "house dogs" were raised by her family to be guide dogs, but Janna was too sensitive to noise, and Luna was too sensitive to smells.  Guide Dogs for the Blind cannot flinch at loud noises, and they cannot be distracted by smells. 

So whatever the future holds for little Pegasus, he will be impeccably mannered and one of the most delightful dogs you'd ever hope to meet.  

Intervention

I guess I need someone to intervene...I can't seem to stop making little dotee dolls.  My sister's birthday is tomorrow, and in addition to her "regular" gift I had to make her a dotee of her own, representing her February birthday.  I named her Dottie Mae (my sister will know why), and dressed her in lavenders and purples to represent February's flower, which is violet, and gem, which is amethyst.  Dottie Mae is wearing the tiniest amethyst crystal teardrop earrings...it was a challenge to wire wrap something that tiny!  Here's Dottie Mae:

Oh no...we can't see her earrings in this picture...maybe a closeup:

Well, there's one of them, anyway.  Trust me, she is symmetrical.  She is wearing two earrings.

And to make things even better, this is what I saw for the first time when I meandered into the "office" (defies description...suffice it to say that there is a computer in this room):

I think I feel better already!  Pink and white bells on the pieris japonica, which is on the north side of my house.  If this is what's happening in the north, I can't wait to see what I haven't noticed on the west side, which is the front yard.  Going there right now...





Friday!

I remember how much Fridays used to mean to me...two blessed days of sleeping in after five days of arising before the sun was up (strike that...it's February in the Pacific Northwest, and although day may break, it would be wrong to give the impression that the sun is visible.  Except for today, when we had the most amazing morning, full of sunshine.)  I had errands to run, hair to be cut, and it was fabulous to be moving around in the bright sunshine.  This afternoon all became gray, and as I write this it is a dark and rainy evening.  A GREAT evening to hang out in The Room and string beads and so forth.

And tomorrow is a special day for me; it's my day with one of my favorite people in the world, Emma Elizabeth, who is almost nine.  Emma is an extremely busy young lady, and very helpful to Grandma.  She has definite ideas regarding the placement of decorative items, and how to organize rooms.  Organization is very important, you know.  (Grandma falls short in this arena, being a "stacker".)  Here's a little sample of they way things are by the end of the day:

Emma likes to create jewelry for herself and for Baby Coco (Cocopuff is the only kitty who allows herself to be captured and loved by Young People; the Young People have learned the hard way that Bella is not tolerant this way), and they cuddle together until Coco manages to escape.  Emma and her mom and dad raise puppies for Guide Dogs for the Blind, and Emma has had a hard time coming to terms with the difference between cat personalities and dog personalities.

I think she's catching on, though.  And although Coco is about the sweetest kitty I've ever known, when she'd done...she's done, and even the Young People have learned to respect that.

But for now, I'm off to The Room to put together some earrings for ladies at the salon.  My favorite kind of evening!