March 31 A nice sunny Saturday, I think the weather gods forgot that this is a weekend! I finally got my Mothers Day freebie uploaded... actually maybe I should admit I finally got my mothers day freebie out of the kiln... It's the top picture in the current picture half of this page! I really like it I think I will put my own name in the draw... I'll send myself a few nice emails...

March 30 Today is Gord's Birthday, Let's all sing Happy Birthday to our monitors.... weather wise it's overcast... Haven't checked the kiln this morning so don't know how many albino puffins hatched overnight!
G took his truck in to the Ford Dealer in SJ yesterday to have a tie-rod end replaced and the annual inspection done... well we normally get all our work done at the St George garage, because their labour rate is much more reasonable.... Anyway what he expected to cost $200 cost close to $1700 and they're not done yet! I actually thought garages were suppose to phone and tell you that they were fixing more than what you asked them to fix... although with the annual inspections here they can hang the inspection sticker over your head.... If you don't let us fix this we won't give you your sticker.... (If you're caught without one it's $168 fine... someone who's name we won't mention drove without having an inspection sticker for the first year she was here, because she thought you only needed them if the vehicle was more than 10 years old!) Yes you can go to another garage for a second opinion but if the first garage says you need it then you have to get it done even if the second gargage says they would have passed it! I'm not sure how blatantly crooked a garage has to be before you can go after them for unnecessary repairs! But since these were all fixed without a second opinion entering into the picture.... He also expected to get the truck back at 12 and got it back at 6:30... I'm sure he was mighty tired of the local mall by then!
Time to go visit the hatchlings and my flower focals! Speaking of flowers I have a huge patch of dark purple croci blooming now to go with the Irises, and yellow croci!

March 29 When I opened my email this morning, it went nuts, I'm a member of a couple of Yahoo groups and Yahoo fixed their email yesterday... Yes they fixed it alright to start with my first 3 emails were all identical... OK that's weird, then I found that same email again and again and again and again... I think the total was 7 or 8 of each email that had anything to do with Yahoo, I had noticed that I was getting duplicate emails from people occasionally prior to that... and other people were complaining that mail delivery was really slow.... but 122 emails in 10 hours and not one of them was really to me.. It was all bulk junk! YUCK!
As for beads... I have two albino puffin hatchlings.. but they want their mother before I take a picture... and I might have my mothers day flower garden bead, the flower garden bead that I made yesterday has got a green background, so....if there is a colour you prefer to win, let me know before I post the picture, and I will make one of the preferred colour scheme!!
Today is sunny and extremely windy! I now have miniature Irises blooming in the garden too!

March 28 Phase two of the new website is changing the images over to a slide show format... not sure when they will be uploaded! I spent yesterday in SJ, it was much cooler than forecast.
Em brought me a second mouse at supper on Sunday, I think he wants a plate set at the table... this mouse was much closer to dead than the first one! I know, I'm ruining his psychi by not thanking him for his thoughtful gifts!
My Mothers' Day freebe will be a floral focal.. all I have to do now is make it! I've also entered a what can you make out of white glass challenge, so there will be an albino Puffin sitting around here soon too! (we're allowed to use 10-20% colour other than white, I'm not sure if an albino puffin would have pink feet or orange feet??? Any thoughts?

March 26 Well that's the end of the official Brain Teasers.. I do have a bunch more that people have sent me to do, that I don't have the answers too.... So I might come up with a couple more days of 'questions'! It's warmed up here so the clouds have rolled in! While I was eating breakfast this morning Em arrived through his door with a large live mouse in his mouth.... I started yelling NO NO NO... so G thought it was a stray or a skunk coming through the door, forget that, a stray wouldn't have got yelled at he would have been fed! Em wasn't pleased that he lost his animated toy!
No new beads since Thursday, and they are still on the mandrel! I'm making tiny beads for Rings.. Picture of the rings later this week. (I'm not making the rings!)

March 24 Sunny today yesterday we went to Moncton for a U of S Alumni reception, the Hockey Team was playing in the CIS tournament, they had lost their first two games by reception time though so were out of the tournament. Long way to fly for two games!


Look what was in our garden when we got home from SJ today! I pulled out a lot of last years dead wood and found 4 little clumps of croci and a lot of other green shoots! This was the biggest clump! So I guess there is hope for spring afterall!
I'm sticking the picture of G's Slippers and my first attempt at Needle felting in the "Other Stuff"-Knitting section of this site...
Knitting/Felting

March 21 Sunny today after very weird weather yesterday! We drove to St S in a mini Blizzard, I've always wondered why there was a short 4 lane stretch with a cement barricade up the middle on that high-way. now I know it's so that you don't hit the oncoming cars ... that was by far the iciest stretch. Yes our timing was perfect a ferry earlier or later and we would have missed it completely!
Today I need to put the finishing touches on my Iris panel, and take a picture of Merlin (What an original name!) Merlin is the needle felted wizard I made last week in the evenings... Needle felting is a very good way to release pent up frustrations... Now I'm trying to build a maquet to use as a base for a needle felted mannequin to display jewellery in the gallery... Guess she'll have to have huge ears so that she can wear multiple pairs of earrings! I'm making the maquet out of styrofoam... did you know that if you lightly score it, that it will break along the score line with no mess? Do you know how many hours I've wasted sewing that stuff and then attempting to clean up the bits that are instantly all over the house?

March 19Sunny and cool here today, It was 5 years ago today that our furniture arrive here from SK... That was the only March 19 since we moved here where there was no snow and it was a warm sunny day! It did snow again this weekend and the snow is once again covering my walks! It also rained so hard that some of the roads started to wash out. We weren't here, we were on Grand Manan at the Spiel on the Rock... the same curling bonspiel we went to last year. The weather there was crappy too! G and his team actually managed to come second in the A event, it wasn't because they curled well either! There was one end, not in a game that G was playing where all 16 rocks were still in play at the end and 13 of them where in the rings! I didn't get to go walk on the beach... It was either raining or high tide! And the winner of Ms Fritels is Janette in Nevada... and she didn't even have to play the slots to win!
March 15 Raining here today, and I know who has won Ms Fritels but I'm not telling until Monday.... There is more than one correct answer to number 40, so send as many as you can figure out! I puttied my Iris window today, actually I soldered it yesterday.... Almost done!!!! I was going to try and make a shamrock on a puffin hatchlings tummy but the canvas was too small, so he just got green eyes! Don't drink too much green beer on Saturday!

March 14 It's suppose to rain here today... Actually most of the snow is gone off my gallery walk way... It did have a lot of help... Once it drys out if it drys out before July, we get to sweep and rake all the 'sand' that the hi-ways department donated to the front yard over the winter!
I did get a couple of emails pointing out that the lamp was very nice but that they couldn't see the new hardwood floor in the picture.... You'll have to wait for that picture until we have the overpriced armless chairs installed! Did you know that most armless padded chairs cost more than ones with arms! What a rip off.
All I've been making this week is eggs, and puffins and a few old standby beads for earring sets...you know what they look like.

March 12 # 29 was originally posted as 13 P of C in the HB... I would have thought that I might have received some creative answers such as 13 Pints of Carlsberg/Corona or Coors in the Human Body.... not a bunch of emails telling me I must have the wrong number! That is the end of the original 34 I do have more though.... It's overcast but not raining today. My infamous Tiffany lamp that was in the dining room in SK was rehung this morning in the 'Tower', it's been flipped upside down so I had to add four loops to the inside of the shade to attach the chains... the hi tech attachments are twist ties... where would the world be without duct tape and twist ties? The lamp was originally started while I was still living in Saskatoon... I think it took almost 5 years from the time it was started until it was finished.... During that time most of the pieces where living in the bottom of a galvanized pail.... I had had all of the pieces cut out and they were in neat piles on top of the drier... Stuart at about age 18 months was in the basement... I asked him what he was doing and he came to the bottom of the stairs with a pail..., no problem with that.... I didn't realize that the pail was slowly being filed with unlabeled bits of white glass.... It took me a couple of years to get around to matching all the bits of white glass with the appropriate pattern pieces and labeling them!

My lamp in it's new home!

This was the view while we were eating supper last night... The lighting was really interesting... Actually we can't see the warf from the kitchen table just the lobster traps and the boats coming and going.

March 11 Pouring rain here this morning.... Most of my yard is grass again except where I have huge drifts of snow....The time changed last night, I will not be changing my computer it can change itself in 3 weeks, so any emails you receive from me will have the wrong time on them... The clocks in my studios are now right as they weren't changed in Oct, I'll just have to remember that they are the right time now and not an hour late.... Don't forget that the draw for Ms Fritels is on Thursday... I do accept bribes, I'm not saying that they make any difference on the outcome of the vote but I do accept them!

March 9 Sunny again today after a cloudy windy and did I mention COLD day yesterday.... The question today is will it really warm up for the weekend... and will the snow melt before July?
Todays GAME questions are all very easy! There are more than 34 questions now thanks to all the kind people who are making them up and sending them to me to do!
My Bead Studio incubator is still producing Puffin Hatchlings, most have blue eyes... I'm wondering if eye colour has anything to do with the colour of egg they hatched from? I got an email from someone after I posted the picture on Wednesday wondering if they would grow up to be chickens? For anyone who doesn't have a clue about what I'm blathering on about scroll down!

March 7 Sunny but nasty cold here, Not March weather! I want green grass, flowers and happy birds...... Speaking of Happy Birds, I've been making eggs over the last couple of days and look what hatched....my baby Puffins think they have found their Mother! Poor Ms. Fritels can't wait to leave here....


MOMMEEEEEE.....!
Baby puffin-chicks are $16 (2/$29 I wouldn't want them to get lonely!), Adult Puffins are $25 (none pictured- they where too embarassed to show their faces) Chickens are $27, with nests ($30) Eggs variable, (All prices are US $, Shipping is $2.00 on orders below $50,

March 6 Sunny this morning but we got more wind and snow last night, it stuck on our driveway this time! The nerve The snow drift over the garden gate we installed on the path to the gallery is getting very impressive, It might all melt by the end of July!
My Chickens didn't produce enough eggs yesterday to warrent a picture, but I did finish the glass and leading on flower panel number three yesterday afternoon, think this one has only taken me 9 months, so far! Still have to solder and putty it though... The temp in my dungeon has made it all the way up to 46! After working for 90 minutes down there with a heater on high it shot up another whole degree to 47!!!!

March 5 Another sunny day... Just read that the new day light saving starts next weekend... (March 11) Does that mean Em will sleep in an hour longer? The floor is done! Actually the originall recycled hardwood needs to be varathaned, but the boards are all down, It's already got a few really good scratches so has been broken in already! Think I'll make some eggs to keep my chickens happy today!

March 3 Sunny today after the storm, there may have been snow falling yesterday but most of it didn't en up in our yard! We spent last night laying recycled hardwood upstairs.... Better go check and see how it's coming this morning.... The original long boards are almost 14 feet you try turning them around in a room that's only 9 feet wide!

March 2 So far it's just cloudy here the wind and snow will probably blow in mid afternoon... will it rain first?
this is take 2, I managed to delete my first attempt...
Dinner last night was good, soup, apetizers (mine was Thai shrimp, It was yummy) (G's was smoked salmon and cream cheese, it had been formed in a jelly mold... it looked weird!, guess it tasted OK....), salads, main course... I had a rack of lamb, G had Tuna both where good, our waitress didn't give us a choice of potatoes, I got mashed potates layered with Onions, since I don't like Onions we traded potatoes part way through! There was only 4 choices for desserts this year, other years I think there have been more... we washed our desserts down with Spanish coffees that where made at the table complete with flames! Since they where flamed they were alcohol free.... right?

March 1 Bright and sunny here today... For some reason I can't reply to anyones emails today... I left number 6 on this page because a number of people obviously don't know their 4 times tables and would like to correct their answers! You're almost right... (I'm expecting that there might be some slightly creative answers for #10!
The concert at the Imperial Theatre last night was called "Lunch at Allen's". It was a group of 4 Canadian singers, that basically met jamming at a restaurant in Toronto called Allen's... this is their 3rd or 4th Canadian tour as a group.
Tonight we are going to the Community College in St Andrews for the Hospitallity Students annual dinner. They prepare and serve a 5 course meal, this is the third time we've gone. There are choices on the menu. Will report tomorrow! After tonight we will be home for awhile. Poor em is feeling somewhat abandonned I think. Actually I think he's found a little old lady to love him as he's gone all day most days now, and I don't think he's spending them outside!
The forcast for tomorrow is for lots of snow and wind... GOODY GOODY, just what I want more snow!