July 31 The final day of another month!
30 more days to HC day! Another hot sunny day, but it was cloudy
enough to 'play' on my torch today! I have a new bead press for a
month, I have a Kalera press from the LE bead press exchange... This
press makes much larger beads than I am used to making, so I'll have to
see what they look like tomorrow.... I had a nice barrel bead all read
to press stuck it in the mold and the glass didn't even move, needed
about 3 times that amount of glass ! Pictures of press and beads
tomorrow! I also tried out the other new expensive glass Olympic
Rain, it looks almost like clear in the rod, but did react nicely
in the flame... at least I think it did! I hopefully also now
have enough Red Hearts to make a Charm bracelet.......
Waiting for the written instructions though before I start it!
Got our final cheque from the insurance claim
today, just in time to pay off my Visa bill that all the replacement
power tools are on, actually the bill and the cheque both
arrived today! How convenient!
July 30 Yesterday I drove
to Bar Harbour Maine to meet up with a group of Maine Lamp
Workers. I took the 8:30 ferry to Campobello and came home on the
7 pm ferry. Coming home I hit a thunderstorm, but at least it
didn't start raining until after I got my gas! ($2.95.9/ gallon)
I checked the prices on the way there and stopped on the way
home! Closer to the border it jumped to $3.09.9! The 31st annual Directions Maine Crafts Guild show was on at the Mount Desert Island high school over
the week end, I stopped on the way home and bought a couple of
pieces of pottery but a lot of the booths were really
expensive jewellery! (Just looked at the booth layout and noticed that
I missed a room! Bet lots of people missed that room, booths 80 -
91... wonder what I missed?) Wandered around in Bar Harbour for about
45 minutes too, It was really hot yesterday! G survived his
duties as gallery Stud, although the gallery got really hot! I
had an awning in SK but I think it's too long for the south
windows!
It was sunny this morning so no more red hearts until I wake up to
fog! Also won't get to play with my new glass until the fog
rolls in... three sunny mornings in a row would almost be a
record though so shouldn't have to wait long!
July 28 9pm
This is todays and tomorrows update! Ispent today making red
hearts I wanted to play with my new high priced double helix glass
but alas I had to make red hearts..... I had a custom order
for a red heart bracelet... the bracelet was dictated
right down to the style of bali beads... but I also
delivered a heart charm bracelet for the gallery that she was
dealing through at the same time.... she took one look at the charm
bracelet when she went to pick up her bracelet and.....the one she
ordered just didn't make the -------- (you can fill in the word there!)
So instead of playing with my new hi tech glass I'm making RED HEARTS, so that she can have a red charm heart charm bracelet....! I didn't change font colour there the computer did... and I get the first bracelet back to do with what I please! I did manage to sneak in two non red hearts using double helix Kronos but didn't try the other glass "Olympic Rain' at all.....
So instead of playing with my new hi tech glass I'm making RED HEARTS, so that she can have a red charm heart charm bracelet....! I didn't change font colour there the computer did... and I get the first bracelet back to do with what I please! I did manage to sneak in two non red hearts using double helix Kronos but didn't try the other glass "Olympic Rain' at all.....
G gets to be gallery Stud tomorrow, I'm off to Bar Harbour for the day... the Maine glass group is having a meeting there!
July 27 I escaped from here yesterday afternoon to
go to St Andrews to a Chamber of Commerce function, it was originally
scheduled to be outside on one of the ocean front Patio's, but the
forcast was for thunderstorms so we got moved inside .... Needles to
say it was bright and sunny in St. Andrew's last night at 6pm!!! This
is the second Chamber of Commerce function I've been too, (I joined to
get a better credit card rate!). The food at these functions is
very GOOD, (that's why I keep going back!)!!!! Last nights was
lobster rolls, way more lobster than you get in most restaurants, and
really good buns, I had to eat two because I didn' t want the buns to
get soggy! I snuck out just before the presentation, it was
either that or stay another hour and catch a later ferry.... and
I really didn't think that people were going to stay very long after
the presentation! Oh well I have probably placed myself
into the catagory of boor now !
I
just spend an hour pulling out wildflowers/weeds from a few gardens,
the plants are big enough now that you can pull them out by the
handfull, not sure what I should do with all that bare ground!
Have to decide quickly though, as the next crop of weeds will probably
be up tomorrow!
I did make beads today , a whole bunch of multi coloured 'sea glass buttons' This is my second batch of these the first ones sold before they made it onto my web site!
July 26 Dotty is quite pleased with her cake! The cake was made entirely from all those little bits of glass that fly off rods ... I
didn't even use a rod for the footprint, I picked up a bunch of shards
and made the footprint of the bead using tweezers... and the worst of
it is my workbench isn't even noticibly cleaner.... Wonder if I should
make a set of beads called 'shards from the workbench' or
something? (next months freebe?) Any suggestions on a more
elegant name? Yesterday was so exciting that I felted a hat and a
purse, the purse is sort of cute, it's the purse on page 42 of knit one felt two if
you have the book! In the book they have beads sewn on, hmmm wonder if
I have anything suitable? I sold my red felted hat last week for
$38.00 cdn around $34 US , while I was in Eastport last weekend I
saw a very similar Red Felted Hat in a gallery there priced at $60
US!!!! Mine will remain at $38.
July 25 Sunny!!!!
Dotty did get her portrait done yesterday but she isn't pleased with it
and wants to wait until her cake comes out of the kiln, she came out
and supervised the cakes manufacture this morning... I'm not real sure
about it... she made me use all the little bits of glass off of my
bench... will see what it looks like tomorrow!
I had a customer in the gallery
from the states a couple of days ago who said she reads my Rants quite
regularly.... One always wonders if I've written
something that I shouldn't have! One of the more frequent topics
in the gallery this summer is about the US government
wanting passports to get into the US, the Europeans have
basically done away with borders... Canada and the US should be moving
in the same direction...., this 'passport requirement' will be a
major step backwards...why don't they just stick up a barb wire
fence and be done with it!
One of the parcels I mailed in
Eastport on Saturday arrived yesterday, my mother's Birthday present
which I mailed a week ago last friday arrived yesterday too!
Canada Post guarantees 6 days on Expedited parcels, well they don't
count the day you mail it or any Saturday or Sunday, OK so they
don't deliver Sat and Sunday but I'm sure their pony's are trotting
across the country on weekends! Since I mailed it on
a Friday I got hit with 2 weekends in my 6 days which means it
actually took 11 days! Maybe if a tape a carrot to the top next
time it'll go faster!
July 23 Rained
on and off all night, poured while I was making beads, the sun came out
the temp shot up and the fog rolled in.... Dotty
O'Puffin may be cooling her heels in the kiln, looking after a
few 'balls' of wool and a bunch of hearts! Eastport was foggy
too, got to stop at Indian Island on the way over
... It's a small island between Deer Island and Eastport, with 5
or 6 old houses on it. The houses are currently owned by
Americans as summer homes, supposedly there is also an old house from
Eastport that is piled neatly on the island, a man took it apart and
numbered all the pieces so that he could rebuild it on Indian
Island... I like Jig-saw puzzles but that's a bit much! I
like reading 'whodunnits' and other mindless books in that
vein.. there is a series of 'Home Repair is Homicide Mysteries' by Sarah Graves.. set in Eastport. It's sort of fun to wander in and out of the businesses mentioned in the books, one of the "Main St"
restaurants mentioned in the books is La Sardinia Loca, it was closed
yesterday... rumour has it they forgot to pay their taxes and the IRS
stepped in! Actually that's where we ate last time... It was
quite good!
The
saying 'once in blue moon' ... the current meaning of
a blue moon is two full moons in one month , there are
approximately 41 blue moons every century.... So on average if
something happens once in a blue moon it happens once every 28
months! Now you Know!
July 22 Foggy but no rain... I'm off to Eastport
today to play tourist, not making bads first because my propane tank
(the one that should be hooked up to my torch!) is on the barbecue, and
the rest of them are all empty.... Never got any beads done yesterday
either so the great glass wool challenge has not been fufilled!
(Maine is an hour earlier than here so no point leaving here before 11
because I get there half an hour before I leave!)
G is running/babysitting the gallery today, he gets to leave on the 5:30 ferry to fill the propane TANKS!!!
July 21
It is pouring here and has been since about 4 am, no wind just rain and
thunder.... Doubt if I'll get very many day trippers today!
Next draw Aug 30... For.....50 wonky beads
(ACTUALLY THEY WON'T BE WONKY .. THEY'RE JUST ORPHANS... LOOKING FOR A HOME!)
AND..... Drumroll...... DOTTY O'PUFFIN
SITTING ON HER BIRTHDAY CAKE (TRYING NOT TO GO UP IN FLAMES!)
Standard rules apply voting, guessing
answers and purchases from my site (1 ballot for every $10)
That's a better deal than Airmiles you have to spend $20 to get one
mile!
I'm trying to make glass balls of wool right
now... I bought some silver wire balls in Toronto last month and was
trying to figure out what to do with them... Lezlie (Cantebury
Keepsakes)
Canterbury Keepsakes sold some adorable sheep with glass wool on ebay a month
ago...(scroll down through her ebay auctions right hand side of her home page) and Sue (Suzifitz Beads)
SuziFitz Beads thought we should try to make glass wool! Sue's
are presently on her home page,.... mine is on the kitchen table... I made my first
attempt out of transparent glass since yarn isn't transparent.. (You don't get to see mine!)
will try some more realistic ones today!
July 20 Happy Birthday today to Mom... and no, as of yesterday she still didn't have her parcel it must have got stuck in one of Canada Posts Sortation centers! (I really would like to know how much we paid some government official to come up with that word!) Sorry didn't mean to switch to pink....!
Monet is going North to ALaska..
Where the river is winding,
Big nuggets they're finding.
North to Alaska,
They're goin' North, the rush is on.....
Big nuggets they're finding.
North to Alaska,
They're goin' North, the rush is on.....
Sunny and warm again here today ,
wonder if tropical storm Beryl (?) is going to make it this far North,
should do a number on all my 5 and 6 foot tall hollyhocks and lillies
if it does!
July 19 Monet learns his fate tomorrow.... Oh by the
way Gord the following picture is not Duddley it is a cat that I
found on
the internet that looks like Duddley....(we all know that Duddies
doesn't go on counters... unless if feels like he isn't get his share
of the scallops!) and if you believe that....
Today was a spacer day, it was sunny at 8 o:clock now it's clouded over, but I needed spacers so now I have some!
According to an email I recieved yesterday a large group of frogs is called 'noisy'! Didn't realize noisy was a noun!
July 18 Due
to early morning fog my herd, flock, gaggle, (just what is a bunch of
frogs called?) was increased this morning... The new game is way to
easy so no hints today although if I can find it I will be
postinga picture of a bracelet as a 'hint'! I had a
customer in here yesterday who lives in what I think is one of the
cutest houses on Deer Island... I actually assumed it was fairly new...
guess not! They have been renovating ever since they bought it
and discovered that the walls under the lathe and plaster where build
of old wooden slats from Ganong Chocolate boxes, now when I think of
chocolate boxes I think of the new cardboard ones, so all I can picture
is this stack of little cardboard boxes like bricks between the
walls... A wall full of chocolate wonder if it would smell when
the sun hit it.....
July 17 We're getting foggy mornings again..... Started
a new game today, the last one caused me some consternation when I
discovered that Picnic can also have an 'i' between the c & the n
and the apostrophy in Bears is either before or after the s.....
Yesterday I had my first customer that had also been in my gallery at
Manitou Beach, actually they also have an old family cabin there
that they are trying to sell.... My cabin is at the quiet
end of the beach! I also sold my first felted hat yesterday, I
thought that buying a felted hat when it's 80 above was rather
interesting, actually the hats are getting a lot of interest I guess I
should sew the cuffs in the mitts so I have sets.....
G and
Em are back to SJ today... EM went in and out 7 times on Saturday
night, only 3 last night... much better! (I certainly don't miss him at night!) Gord is trying to fatten
him up so that he's too fat to jump, he was a real little butterball
before he was neutered now he is very slim, think that's the reverse to
what usually happens!
This is my Sandbox Frog he's sold but his friends can be comissioned for $20 US each or 2 or more for $17 each, A lot of his freinds are tree frogs! (Ie they have red feet and blue legs or the reverse...) base beads are about 15 mm and the frog sits up to about 20 mm...
July 15 Still sunny man did it get hot here
yesterday! 91 or 92 and really humid.... the bedroom was so
hot last night that I went out and sat on the deck at 2am!
There's a couple more frogs on the Yours and Mine page under
jewellery.... Already to hot to think!
July 14 Sunny today, we
did need the rain yesterday, my flowers were starting to dry... I dug
up my feeble attmept at lettuce... not sure what was eating it... but I
sure didn't want what they left! I went to the PO and the grocery
store on the Mainland this morning, shipping my flock of
birds to Saskatchewan and Mom's Birthday present.... Should arrive on
time for once!
New picture on my home page today too, a
couple of my amulet bags have grown straps! Beads right now are
replacing gallery stock that's selling and bunches of custom
hearts.... might stick up a picture of a scanner covered in
hearts tomorrow.....
July 13 Poured rain last night .... and it's really gloomy here today!
Finally remembered to put my flock of baby birds onto my home page!
Moved my panels to the comissions page ... I got them moved but the
formating is a bit off... I'll let the WM fix that! I'm waiting
for inspiration to hit on a new 'quote' also some of the people who
normally play are on holiday so giving them a chance to get
home! Some of my frogs ended up on one of the Yahoo sites
yesterday... they had much less of a problem getting there than I'm
having, I can't get any Yahoo site to load this morning! I
hope they are enjoying themselves there! The local newspaper
editor showed up here yesterday selling summer ads... and too the
link to money-pit on my home page so money-pit may make it into the
newspaper! Lucky Boat! Speaking of Money-pit the alternator
has now quit... I'm sure sail boat alternators cost 10 times what a car
alternator would cost! Need to start packing up a few things to
ship, not my favorite job... need to hire a slave!
July 12 Really muggy today, we got a real light show and a bit of rain last night and the humidity level is really high! Spent
monday night in SJ listening to the waves crashing on the beach, much
more peaceful than listening to a cat pawing at a door... Em has the
nails on black board sound all figured out! Spent yesterday
delivering stock and picking up a red heart pendant so I can make
matching earrings and bracelet... It was a nice day for a drive...
really foggin in SJ and warm and sunny in St Andrews, the fog lasted
most of the way to St George... Rescued a few more perennials from the
sales tables yesterday, so will have to plant them this evening if it
cools off! The ground is getting too dry here to expand my flower
beads too so will have to find holes to fit these in! May have to
actually start watering things! Last nights rain didn't amount to
much. All I've made the last 4 days is hearts hearts and more
hearts.. todays were all red. Hope I have a pair of earrings!
July 10 Still sunny....must almost be a record for here!
Just spent an hour trying to find the perennials that I planted before
we went to Alberta... Think I found most of them... the local
wildflowers aka weeds take over mature flower beds very quickly, and
the trees hang down a lot lower when they have leaves and flowers....so
the poor little plants get lost in the jungle! Off to
finish up the soldering on my baby bird order hopefully
I'll remember to scan them so they can have their web debut
Wednesday, won't be here tomorrow, I'm off to SJ and St Andrews
tomorrow so G will be the Gallery "STUD".....
July 9 Woke up to sun again... they were forcasting fog....
Made hearts this morning without Duddies help! Then soldered a
few more birdies... Much later.. Duddies just showed
up in the gallery with a dead mouse!! Think it was a present for
me because he wasn't upset when I took it away... Yum yum at least I
didn't have any customers! Guess I'll have to quit leaving doors open,
unless they have screens on them!
July 8 Another sunny morning... I made beads... Duddies didn't help! Although I did make some more Duddley 'esk style beads!
Orange Blossom Specials
With
the gallery open every day my excitement is making beads in the
morning, maybe soldering some birds.. talking to a few customers,
walking to get the mail at 5:30 after I close... and answering
emails... so send me lots of those!
July 7 Sunny today ... Duddies bead
20mm * 27mm * 7.5mm
If T B P isn't
enough the title of this peice is O _ _ _ _ _ B _ _ _ _ _
_ S _ _ _ _ _ _ I think it's pretty obvious! (Any guesses?) Think I should
hire Duddies to make more beads....?
July 6 Still foggy.. burned off yesterday at about 6:30pm.... Still no right answers!!!! Finally got one that no one got instantly!
More on my really smart cat... he's now helping me make beads... Yes
Duddly was the controlling hand/paw in one of my beads this
morning.. he jumped on my lap (bar stool height) then
smacked my mandrel with his head and turned my 15mm little
round bead into a 40 - 50 mm bead... which ultimately got
flattened and is a very nice bead... obviously Duddies thinks I work to
small and is trying to push me into new directions!
More on my really smart cat... he's now helping me make beads... Yes
Duddly was the controlling hand/paw in one of my beads this
morning.. he jumped on my lap (bar stool height) then
smacked my mandrel with his head and turned my 15mm little
round bead into a 40 - 50 mm bead... which ultimately got
flattened and is a very nice bead... obviously Duddies thinks I work to
small and is trying to push me into new directions!Off to
increase my bird population and finish my second strap... Need to
sew my cuffs into my felted mitts too , whp knows they might be a big
seller later on this summer if it doesn't warm up!
July 5 fog again today! I'm not used to this updating
after making beads... I come in and eat breakfast then start playing on
the internet and forget all about updating! Duddies is such a
smart kitty! While I was making beads this morning he came into
the gallery and hit the cow bell hanging on the door and then yowled to
let me know he wanted out! We have an intercom set up between the
gallery and the bead shop... Of course I abandoned my bead and came
into the house to let the poor kitty out!
The Beatiful Puffin is not the correct answer to this game.... although I think Monet thinks that he is a Beatiful Puffin!
Time to go solder little birdies.... might even remember to scan a flock of them this time!
July 4... New
Game today! Thunderstorms are todays forcast.. not sure if
I'll go down to the point and try and watch the EastPort fireworks
tonight or not.... According to the radio today
is the 240th anniversary of the day the the US declared
independance from Britain, Saturday was the 139th anniversary of
Canada's Confederation... Enough trivia!
My gallery software
is set up to convert Canadian cash into US cash... I got a customer
yesterday who handed me a Canadian $20 bill and wanted to pay the
rest in US funds... computer can't handle that.... However Miss
Brilliant can.... Problem was I converted backwards....
(turned $31 Can into $34 US instead of $28....) He laughed
and said now I know how you've stayed in business for 6 years!
I added a picture of MoneyPit returning to Lord's Cove to my home page
last night... MP is a 30 foot Acadian Yawl..... There is an American
Warship docked in Eastport right now...(seems to be one most summers)
they made the Coast Guard run off all the little riff raff (protest
boats) that was getting to close to them yesterday... Gord said that
there are little boats docked right next to the warship so not sure why
the can't approach from the water....
I spend yesterday afternoon sitting on the deck trying to
make a strap for the little coral seed bead shell purse... during
the course of the afternoon I dropped lots of seed beads through
the deck boards... so are seed beads really seeds? Will they grow
Bead trees... G says if we treat the trees properly I can quit making
beads and just start picking them
.....
.....July 3 Think today is a holiday in Canada since July 1 was
a Saturday... not sure but doubt if there is mail delivery today! It
was sunny again this morning so I was out making beads by 7:30 !
Actually it's sort of hard to see the flame with the sun coming
in the window... I was trying to make frogs but most of them
ended up with at least one club foot! Poor little guys!
Well most people seem to have figured out the current game so will have to think up something new....
It's quite windy here this morning a cedar planter just blew off
the wall onto the lawn, it's been out there summer for a couple of
years and never blown off before! None of the plants fell out so it's
been returned to a slightly different spot! Guess the sailabration is
on, nice day for sailing!
I have a new school of hollow fish bead earrings in the gallery
now, they are a bit camera shy though, so may not make it onto the
internet!
Stuart is missing Emmy so is trying to befriend the Magpies in his
backyard in Calgary, I guess one of them let him pat it's head... I
told him that if he put food out for them that every magpie in Southern
Alberta would move into that backyard! For all you lucky people out
there who have never met a Magoie in person, aren't they pretty!
July 2 Well the sun has come and gone!
We got a sunny holiday! G and I went to a barbecue up the
'mountain' last night and the rain held off until the fireworks!
It just poured on them, we drove down to watch but stayed in the truck,
actually we were parked on the ferry landing (intertidal zone)..
not sure where they put the ferries last night! The rain
quit about the same time as the fireworks did but followed us back down
island to the house!
G is suppose to be (wants to be) Out in Money-Pit today there is an anti LNG Sailabration in the Bay, but the weather is to uncertain so it's been postponed until tomorrow! (LNG stands for Liquid Natural Gas) They want to build a couple of LNG processing 'plants' on the US side of Passamaqueoddy Bay... The tankers would have to come in through Head Harbour passage.... there must be other places that they could build these plants that have easier, better and safer access! The vast majority of both Canadian and Americans residing in the area are opposed but the facilities are going on tribal land!
G is suppose to be (wants to be) Out in Money-Pit today there is an anti LNG Sailabration in the Bay, but the weather is to uncertain so it's been postponed until tomorrow! (LNG stands for Liquid Natural Gas) They want to build a couple of LNG processing 'plants' on the US side of Passamaqueoddy Bay... The tankers would have to come in through Head Harbour passage.... there must be other places that they could build these plants that have easier, better and safer access! The vast majority of both Canadian and Americans residing in the area are opposed but the facilities are going on tribal land!
I got an email yesterday suggesting that I should find myself a stud to work behind the counter in my gallery! Any takers?
July 1 Happy Canada Day .... Woke up this morning to SUN... Actually the sun drove me out of bed so I was out making beads by 7:30!!!
I got a really cute email yesterday I'll call it an
ODE to DUDDIES
duddley was the name of a cat
who said, "I don't like to be called that!"
so they changed it around
and all over town
Studley begat and begat and begat!
More on my new gallery I picture it selling tasteful black
& white photographs and polished marble sculptures of nudes...
Any other thoughts???