Another blast of winter!!

It snowed here yesterday. A lot!! Any of you regular readers will know jus thow much I don’t love this stupid white stuff!!! I don’t have to leave the house today, so I am not complaining too loudly. Tomorrow may be a different story, but for today, I will enjoy the sunshine on the snow and the little birds who can walk on top of it without sinking in.
I’m heading down to the studio to actually make some jewelry – wish me luck!

A New Award!!

Thank you Tammy, ( Tammy’s Treasure Chest ) for giving me this wonderful award! Just think, an award for just doing what I normally do!! How cool is that?! In turn, I get to award it to 5 deserving others! Gonna be a tough call! The award is supposed to go to people who take the time to leave a comment, or a word of encouragement, or a compliment on something that I created. Here are the rules:
1. The winner may put the logo on their blog.
2. Put a link to the person who sent you the award.
3. Nominate 5 blogs.
4. Put links to their blogs.
5. Leave a message for your nominees.

Here are my nominees:
1. Rita Reedy of Rita’s R-tistic Ramblez
2. Andee of andeedesigns
3. Pam ( The Blue Between )
4. Maggie ( Maggie’s Bead Towne )
5. Gwen ( Valley Creek Studio )

All five so deserve much more, and I am honored to call them my friends!!

Now, back to work with me – I have new silver, LOTS of new silver! And I need to get cracking! I’ll be posting new classes on my website this week. Must get more classes going! LOL The current classes I have going are fantastic, and I think we’re all having a great time. Oh and learning lots at the same time – there’s some fabulous projects in the works!! By the way, I have to admit that my favorite part of my classes is when a total newbie (term of endearment, I assure you!) finishes their first project and they positively glow at the results of their hard work! Last night a couple of my ladies finished their first rings, and I wasn’t disappointed! I find it very interesting that with all the classes I teach and all the students I have, and the fact that each student starts with the same first project – no two are ever alike! Every single student does something different, every single time. How cool is that?!?!
Anyway, off to my grindstone – much work to do!! Oh, here’s a quick picture of my new silver ’stash’!!! Have a great day!

Spring has sprung!!

Hello again!! Sorry to have dropped off the planet again – I keep meaning to update my blog, and get totally sidetracked!! I’m such a scatterbrain lately! The sun is finally showing here in beautiful BC. In fact it’s so gorgeous outside today I might (just might, mind you!) spend some time outdoors enjoying it! LOL Our bird feeders are jam packed with busy little birds pigging out and enjoying the weather. We have a flock of male red winged blackbirds that’s been hanging out lately. They get a little feisty and kep tearing the suet feeder off it’s chain, but oh well! They’re having fun, who are we to complain!! All the fish are doing well, the cats, dogs, birds (indoor ones!) and lizards are all doing well. Life is good!

I’m off today to pick up a huge silver order that has arrived at the gallery. I will be so glad to have bezel wire again!! Woohoo!! You should have seen me scrounging on Wednesday night for enough bezel wire to accommodate the students projects! Argh!! Oh, and one of the gals is making a ring with a really deep faceted smokey quartz. I don’t have bezel wire wide enough on a good day, let alone this day!! So we improvised!! We took two strips of wide bezel wire and soldered them side by side – ta-da SUPER wide bezel wire! How clever is that?! A little filing and sanding and it’s perfect!

The fashion week thing is creeping up on me very quickly, no not freaking out yet, but I really have to get tackling the ‘collections’! So hopefully I’ll have some show and tell for you all soon. I am looking forward to getting my torch fired up again and producing some interesting pieces. We shall see!!

Have great weekend!! Back soon I hope !:)

Back to the land of the living!

I was sick for a couple of days this past week. I feel so much better now, but there were a couple of moments when I just wanted to sleep, sleep, sleep!! So what’s new?! Let’s see ….. not much!! I’m awaiting a new silver order so I can get cracking on stuff for the fashion show. I have two classes a week right now and am thoroughly enjoying all the students. It’s GREAT to be back at it! Other than that, it’s business as usual!!
We did have a couple of fish fatalities this past week. We’re still not sure what happened, but I lost my pure white one and one that was greenish with nearly see through fins. No, I haven’t replaced them. I’m trying to behave myself. It’s hard though!! I do have to go to the pet store where I get the fancy ones from, but will do my utmost best to resist!! Last time I was in there, I ended up getting my jet black one (he has purple veining in his fins – Freya (my granddaughter) says he looks like beautiful fabric!). As silly as it sounds, feeding time is my fav – I take the lids off all the little aquariums and they all know it’s feeding time. They dash up to the top of the tank and wait sort of patiently. I sprinkle the food in and it’s a feeding frenzy! LOL Such fun! Here’s the shelf that dh made for the kitchen – it’s beside the fridge – not the best spot for it, but we can look at them from the kitchen table, so it does make sense.

There’s still three tanks on the kitchen table, one on either side of the tv in the living room, one beside the kitchen sink and dh hijacked THREE for his tattoo room!! He actually liked having them in there and missed them once we moved them to the kitchen/living room. We had a few choice words for each other when he was choosing which ones would go in his room. But we worked it out. Mind you, he did take three – and we did lose two, so that technically means I could quite conceivably get a couple more, right?!?!?
Anyway, better get to work. I’m putting together the applications for teachers at the bead show – do you teach a bead or wire jewelry class?? Wanna teach at the bead show?? Let me know and I’ll send you the application! Our classes are well attended and tons of fun!!
Have a great Friday the 13th!! Cheers!

Customer service – it’s still alive and well!!

I just wanted to thank Capilno Rock & Gem for their AWESOME customer service! They are courteous and helpful and definitely made my week!! Hooray! It’s nice to see that customer service is still alive and well in this day and age. If you’ve never been to the store, either leave your credit card at home, or have a set budget in mind! It’s WAY too easy to get carried away, I must say! They have an amazing collection of beads for sale (not that I buy any, but it’s fun to look!), and the most amazing collection of jewelry tools! And their prices tend to be the best we have locally. I just wish they were closer to me! Then I would go there more often!! Which might be a bad thing. But then I would have more tools, which is a good thing. But my bank account would be very sad, which is a bad thing! LOL Maybe it’s good that they’re just far enough away to be perfect for what I need!

On another note, I made a friend this week!! I was at the fish store (no, I managed to walk out without buying a single fish! Hooray!), and this little guy came through the door with his owner!

This is Mac, a 2 yr old lemur. He is lovingly owned by Mike, The Reptile Guy. who is a professional animal handler, and does shows/demonstrations/educational things with his reptiles and now Mac. It was so cool feeding this little lemur raisins (his favorite apparently). He has leathery little fingers and quite the grip!! He was licking my hands after I ran out of raisins – cutest little guy ever!!! I think I’ll arrange for Mike to bring his critters to Freya’s birthday party this year – how fun would that be for the kids?!! LOL

Anyway, I’m back in full swing – show coming up in March, bead show back in full swing, jewelry creations abounding and classes full and happy! Guess I better get off this computer and get cracking! I love it when I’m busy, busy!! Cheers!

Drum Roll Please!!!

Yours truly (moi!) has been accepted to set up a display/booth at Vancouver’s Fashion Week!!! This is the Canadian West Coast version of New York’s Fashion week – lots of fancy clothes, media, models and more. I wish I could tell you more, but I have NO IDEA what to expect! I will keep you all posted! This does mean that I will need to get off my butt and get a bunch of stuff done. Can’t wait to see where this takes me!

We had a passing on of one of the fish. It was very sad. He was kind of an orangey color, not one of the super fancy (nor expensive!) ones, just a plain ordinary betta. But he was never really ’spunky’ like the rest of them. So I figure he wasn’t well when we got him. We still have 15 – and I’m watching them all like a hawk for any signs of distress or illness!!

Other than that, I have started teaching at the University of the Fraser Valley’s Chilliwack campus again – Monday nights!! I have a class starting here at my house on Wednesday nights, plus the confirmation that the bead show can go ahead in the same venue as last year! Woohoo! So it’s been a really good week or two and I am not going to complain!!

I should however, get going and get some work done. Hope you all have a great day! Cheers!

PS Yes, I’m working in the studio again and should have some show and tell soon!