July 30
Warm, foggy and muggy here today... I just noticed on Amazon.ca that there is an adult version of all of the Harry Potter books, anyone know what the difference is? I have the first 4 but haven't read them, as I was waiting for her to finish the series so I could read them all at once! (In paperback!)
I've been making a couple of vessels every time I make beads since the workshop, one poor vessel got parked twice today when customers arrived... normally I just drop my mandrel in a tall thin jar full of water... can't do that with hollow mandrels as you get steam.... so I had to use a wet cloth and keep the bead warm and hold onto it and.... I really don't see why the human body hasn't mutated to add the highly necessary third hand!
We added a bunch of pictures of New stock you can look here! Gallery Stock
July 28
I'll stick this update in the right place! I noticed yesterday that I had July 25 between the 22 and the 23.... I also managed to totally delete my current pictures page, the last saved version was February, so I'm not sure if I have all the pictures back or not... Think my Sept free bead give away will be my last one so what would you like to win?
Last week on Tuesday the Dept of Highways painted the yellow lines on the road.... Wednesday they came over and patched the road and repainted the lines... a freind of G's was over a couple of days later and I commented on the order that the work was done in... his response " that's the government way".... We have a government owned apartment building next to us, (it's the old high school) It is currently being reroofed, I have never seen such a slow roofing job in my life... they must be being paid by the hour! They actually start work at 7am, the air hammer once every couple of minutes is actually quite pleasnat to sleep too!
Since it was foggy this morning I started the day by making beads... Including 3 or 4 mutant frogs which will end up in the aquarium! Somedays my frogs have legs, other days they have amorphous blobs... I did make a couple of vessels though which I think might be quite nice!
July 25
This morning it is hot... no fog... 77 degrees at 7:30, I'm not whining I like HOT... I just want to go to the beach not sit around waiting for the elusive customer! I got a bunch of new stock in the gallery this week, including some kits to make pet toys.... Felted mice and balls etc....(But the include the catnip!) The one I opened to make up samples was sitting on the dining room table.......Emkins found it yesterday morning.... I heard this big crash and couldn't figure out what it was until I found Em with the balls of wall all over the floor and one as a pillow ... fortunately he didn't break into the catnip! He slept most of the day, The kit is now in the kitchen cupboard, Guess the finished mice will have to be sold out of sealed jars! I didn't get any suggestions on what those pliers would be good for, maybe they are for pulling teeth?
I had one customer earlier this week that took so long to make up her mind that by the time she left her husband was lying on the lawn under the cedar tree sleeping with Emkins... I do have chairs on the deck but they were in the sun!
July 23
OK what are these for, they were part of a box of flameworking and jewellery tools that I got off of Ebay, I'm calling them Salmon Jaw Pliers... but what are they really called and what are they designed to be used for?
I put the pictures of my vessels from the workshop on the current pictures page. It's a nice bright sunny Monday here today...
July 22
I'm home... I think I saw the sun for a few minutes once while I was in Rockland... my room had a good view of the fog, I did see a few boats out their occasionally! It poured Thursday night, For some reason the water just poured off the roof onto my air conditioner... I think it was a bit like sleeping under a waterfall, at least the bed was comfortable! We got over an inch and a half at home, so my plants will all be happy!
The workshop was great pictures maybe tomorrow of my pieces.... I got home last night at 6 I missed the 4 o:clock ferry by about 2 minutes, so decided I would go walk on the beach, the fog was so thick at herring cove you could barely see the beach!
The studio in Rockland is called Playing with Fire and we were the inaugural class so got to christen the state of the art Carlisle workbenches... sorry I forgot to take pictures of the studio... It's a lovely studio on Main St Rockland, the back deck is right across from the ferry terminal. A wonderful place to take a workshop and a fun place to stay, the advantage of being in a resort is all the great restaurants and shops!
July 21
No, she's not back yet. I've got the rest of today to be wild and crazy - she gets back tonight though, so will have to start getting things back in order. She didn't miss much here except 2 days of fog. Still foggy this AM, but the forecast is for some sun. Do we believe that???
July 19
All packed and ready to go... of course its foggy again! I'm off to Rockland Maine for a one day vessel blowing workshop tomorrow. The next three days are suppose to be foggy and damp, but the weather man has been wrong before! Let him be wrong this time!
After waking up to fog the last couple of days we got sun this morning... G is off sailing today... all small craft owners were asked to go out and sail around near Head Harbour Passage today... to show how much of a disruption the LNG tankers will be if they are allowed into Passquamodie Bay.... Some government official is up looking over the area that the tankers would be going through.... http://www.campobello.com/lighthouse/index.html Head Harbour Light They are saying that there will be a 10 mile exclusion zone around the tankers as they are sailing, that could even shut down our ferries.
You can walk out to the lighthouse at low tide... down long ladders then accross slippery slimey sea weed encrusted rocks then up more ladders to get to the light house... Good exercise!
At least the nice weather has brought out a few customers, and the lack of rain has kept our lawn from growing... actually my flowers would like some rain!
I am busily knitting mitts for the gallery, my felted mitts are all selling, a vague indication of our weather this summer!
After two days of sun... we're back to fog. I went to St Andrews yesterday for painting by the Sea... People were suppose to be set up along the shore etc painting, but since most people don't like painting in public they hid themselves away! Since I could only find 3 people painting...I looked at the finished pieces that were still available and decided I could live without them, so other than buying a few raffle tickets... I also delivered some stock to Serendipin' Gallery and bought two skeins of yarn from Cottage Craft. The owners of Cottage Craft were in my Gallery last week and he was trying to persuade me that I should be using their yarn for my felted hats and mitts... so I'm trying it! I bought lilac and purple, the hats take two strands the mitts only take one so i guess they will be straight purple! They have all their yarns custom spun and dyed, the store mostly sells finished woolens. I asked how well they did with those in the summer, but I guess with weather like we're getting now they probably do quite well!
Happy friday the 13th.... unless you suffer from triskaidekaphobia.. in which case you will hibernate today... not sure why Friday combined with the number 13 is so unlucky? Anyone want to tell me I'm to lazy to go look!
Our fog finally burned off late yesterday afternoon. I went to Saint John to deliver my Rose panel on Wednesday, they had just picked up a new cat, he looks exactly like Emkins, even more or less the same age.... Norman had been there for 2 hours and had already figure out how to open some of the cupboards... since Ems favorite occupation is to knock things over... he sticks his paw into to tops of things and flips them....I think they would make a good team of destruction! I drove home from SJ in thick fog with thunder and heavy rain... there was probably lightning too but I couldn't see it through the fog! Weird!
Plugged my baby monitor in in the kitchen this morning and heard a radio playing... my gallery is the "baby" I have the receiver just inside the door in the gallery, to hear the cow bell that is hanging on the screen door, and monitors all over the house ... I do not have a radio playing anywhere so not sure where it is picking up the radio... Oh well better a radio than a cell phone conversation!
Something that I have been meaning to comment on for weeks is stores that put signs on their doors saying they will be back in 15 minutes.... Since I don't know when the 15 minutes started I'm not sure whether I should wait and since you know I don't know when the 15 minutes started you can stay away as long as you want because you're quite certain that no-one will actually wait! Wouldn't it be just as easy to put up a sign that says back at 2:15 .... I know, the answer to that is no since you only need one back in 15 minute sign and the ones with times have to be custom made to fit the occasion!
G fixed my seagulls last night, they have been MIA since he modified everything last week...he also added returns to the bottoms of all the new pages and...he turned my rant red.... Hopefully most of you missed that!
Still gloomy and cool here!
Overcast and humid today... My life is out of sync now that the gallery is open....I get up and the first thing I do is make beads, (I'm trying to beat the heat) I used to answer emails and update, now by the time I get here it's often after lunch. I'm getting an error on this computer when I load this site but I think it's because my Real Player has quit so my sea gulls don't play anymore.... G picked the picture for my rant, that's him with the ax not me!
I went to Eastport on Friday for a couple of hours but it was one of the drizzly days so didn't stay long, I actually went over to lengthen a bracelet for someone... The customs officers there now have a lap top set up on the beach where you drive off of the ferry, to check ID, since I was the only car/person on the ferry he decided to check my trunk... (Lucky for him Stuart had just cleaned my car, he throws away all my accumulated debris about once every two years and armoralls my dash etc...) His only comment when he handed back my keys was man this car has a small trunk!
It's a drizzly cool day here today. Yesterday while I was making beads I managed to catch a fairly large shard of flying molten glass on my lip, of course I flicked it off with my tongue, so that got burnt too... my tongue is almost recovered my lip however is a mess!
Maggie and Stuart have gone back to SJ, so Em has quit sulking, he has spent most of the last three days sleeping on a living room chair, although he did hiss at me one night, I've never even heard him hiss before....
I drove to the other end of the island last night to watch the Eastport fireworks, they were going off in 4 or 5 different places, it was hard to figure out where to watch and of course the noise was totally our of sink with the flashes....
Happy 4th of July... most of our island has taken the ferry over to Eastport ME for the Day.... The last ferry home is at 6:30 though so you have to watch the fireworks from Canada, or come home tomorrow. I've always wondered why they didn't run a later ferry on July 4, I guess it's because the Customs officers are not on duty.... I also discovered today that last years fire works were canceled because of fog! Actually the wind is starting to pick up here so there might be a thunder storm tonight!
We have Maggie and Stuart visiting for a couple of days... Maggie is only sociable if she wants to be, normally she runs and hides... Stuart came to fix my headlights... He installed sexy new headlights on my car as a Christmas present ... only problem was you could only see the road two feet in front of the car, the broken springs made it even worse! Driving by brail after dark isn't a lot of fun!
I added a picture of the Rose Panel to my site a couple of days ago... scroll down to current pictures. The last panel is tulips I've spent the last couple of days designing it, unlike the other panels the 6 tulips will all be different colours, It's also bigger....
Happy Canada Day... This is Canada's 140th birthday..... Not much exciting is happening... Em is the official customer greeter... He meets them on the walk then runs around and comes in through his door and strolls into the gallery so that the customers can scratch his ears and then let him out!