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Fibulae's

My friend Alecart from Flickr has these really cool looking polymer clay beads that she makes. I was inspired to purchase a few to see what I could come up with. So, I guess I had some fun eh?
I have been commssioned to make a thank you gift for the director of this years play. We all had a brooch in mind but decided to go with a fiblua because of it's versatility. This way it can be worn on the lapel of a jacket, a sweater, on a scarf or a hat.

Other than picking up the coop order on sunday afternoon, we'll have the whole weekend to ourselves. AND, everyone is healthy!!! Lets keep it that way.

Joe Pye

One of the many reasons why I leave my garden debris. The contrasts and textures make for some interest in the mist of dullness.
The past two weeks has been the spring board for what is to come in the next two weeks of madness. Preparing for this year play has been exciting and exhausting. All good of course!!! Just a lot more hectic than I would want for myself to be. But that's the life of helping with a play and trying to keep eveything else in order that follows. I have lived the words 'Parent Partiscipation' and 'Volunteer' for the last two weeks now. It has its benefits, but I am weary.

Catholic school week was just the beginning. Everday another function and a need for help. Play practices everyday after school then off to one appointment or another for the girls. Ski trip yestserday then play practice, a volunteer parent meeting for the play then the home and school association meeting. I got home at 9:30 last night. Most of my days have been 12 hours of go go go.
I look forward to any down time I can get. This morning is the first in days. a few photos and a little jewelry making and I should be good to go, or at least in time to take my girl to the doctor. Girl number two this week. Nothing major. Just little things that could grow into big stuff if I don't keep up on it. I like to be preventative.
If the conditions are good this weekend ( I doubt it) we were hoping to go cross country skiing. something we've been wanting to learn how to do. We might end up with innertubing instead. Sounds good!

I couldn't pass these beauties up

silver wire wrap

wearing this tomorrow night...............

Hearts Day

The girls couldn't wait for dad to get up so we could 'do' valentines day. cards and candy all around. The girls had a bonus this year though....NO SCHOOL!! another snow day for us. We didn't even think twice when sleeping in.

One girl at home not feeling up to par today. Another on her way to a black light Valentines Day Dance.
The cold is really getting to me. I am looking at photos of sun shine and green fields. I need warmth.

A Valentine's Gift for him.

My Only Valentine's order. Grateful to have one. This is a 16 gauge Sterling Silver Patina for my friend Edie's husband, Jeremy. She wanted me to use Titanium for the fine brushed pewter look of aged metal. I love this look also. But working with the wire was tediously strong and unruly. The metal was so light in weight that it felt like dental floss on your wrist. I didn't have any experience with tiatnium before and have learned for the next time, to order the jump-rings already made to save myself the agony of not being able to give my customer what they wanted. I order most of my large heavy base metals out of canada, so it took weeks to get here and The Lord Ring are the only ones who have the pre-made titanium jump-rings. Of course by the time I figured all of this out, it was too late to re-oder in time. So I went ahead with the sterling silver and dipped it in Line of sulfur to age it. Edie was very happy with the results and I was very relieved.

My next project/order is a brooch for the direcor of this years play of "The High school Musical." I have a few ideas and will get started on it this weekend.

Getting used to all the snow and cold we've been having. yesterday felt like a heat wave! A whole 31 degrees!! Tons of kids outside yesterday in just hoodies. Today is a different story. I wonder what kind of lake effect we'll get after this system blows through? I hope not much. Tom and I have a dinner date this weekend with Tim and Kim and we would like to make it. Two dates in the same month??!! The stars are in our favor......

I am so excited about the Terabithia movie coming out this weekend!!! I have been looking forward to this movie for weeks now. I hope I didin't work myself up into a foam over nothing. Sometimes the movie previews are all that is excitng about the movie. I hope this is not one of them.

Books the family is reading:

Kelsey:

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Amy:
just finished,
Gregor And The Marks Of Secret (Underland Chronicles)

Lynne:

Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire: The Methods and Madness Inside Room 56
~ by Rafe Esquith
The Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman's Journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine
~by Susan Monk Kidd

Tom:

I forgot........ ;C)) I can't sneak into the room to see, he is still sleeping.

The Cat Days of February

The first 'No School Days" for my girls this week. They are thrilled. Of course they want everyone to come over so they can have a party. I personally don't want to leave the warmth of my bed until this cold snap is gone.
The pets really have the short end of the stick. They are miserable! In and out. In and out. They can't stay out longer then five minutes before they need to come in. The cat stays int he basement at night meowing all night. Lucky for us, Tom has a white noise maker so we can sleep.
























Being stuck inside the house this weekend, we decided it was time to make the photo light box we have been talking about for weeks now.
I found this photo website called Strobist. We made his photo light box and it works beautifully. I plan on learnng much more from The Strobist. Check out his site if you have a minute. The link is in my sidebar.
Unfortunately I have to venture out to the grocery store. Today is my shopping day and I'm out of coffee!



~"The virtues we can learn, no trait is more useful, more essential for survival, and more likely to improve the quality of life than the ability to transform adversity into an enjoyable challenge."
--Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Toboggan

The morning was a luminous periwinkle.
The snow we've all been waiting for had finally arrived this weekend.
Wishing there was more to call a snow day would have been better.
But we'll take what winter we can get.
The word for yesterday's Family Day was Tobaggan!
It was nice to get it out again after so many years in storage .
It was quite the attraction to those, who at our age , remember the Tobbaganing days of their childhood.
Cold and windy, we made several trips up and down this nice sized hill.
Next Sunday we'll take the girls cross country sking for the first time.
We would love to be able to make it to one of the night time sking events at the the local park this winter.
I hear it's beautiful.
Today we are going to a funeral. A close friend's Father passed away a few days ago.
Many of us have lost one or both of our parents over the years.
Just as we struggle to think about our own humaness, we also prepare ourselves for the losses to come.

"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."--Abraham Lincoln