Miscellaneous Musings

My major landscaping and gardening projects are done for now - all there is to do now is watch things grow, harvest veggies and pull some weeds. It's been cool and rainy and everything is jumping out of the ground. Unfortunately, my creeping phlox is dying for no apparent reason. It bloomed and looked beautiful just a few weeks ago and now it's turning brown and dying. I have no idea why.

I'm getting excited about attending my first and the last PMC Conference in Fort Mitchell, KY (outside of Cincinnati.) on June 21-23. I've always wanted to go to one and kept procrastinating, and/or didn't have the money to go. When it was announced that this would be the last one and that the PMC Guild was disbanding I knew I had to be there. I'm very excited to learn new things and most especially to meet many of the people that I only know through online means. Members of the Etsy Metal Clay Team have already lined up a meeting time. Are you going?

I recently learned about a charm swap that's being organized for the conference, and even though it starts in 17 days, I have decided to participate. I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out what my charms will look like. Copper is a given, as making a large number of silver charms is beyond my budget. After much deliberation, last week I got them all put together and I was going to do the first phase binder burn-out this morning, but my kiln went crazy. It was 100 degrees over temperature and climbing, so I shut it off. I posted to the Yahoo Metal Clay group with the hopes of getting suggestions for an easy fix. I'm pretty sure that the copper pieces are OK, but I'm waiting for the kiln to cool down before opening the door. Not knowing what the problem is means that I don't know when I'll get to finish them.

I've been caught up in the Queen's Jubilee celebrations in England. If you remember last year, at the time of  Will and Kate's wedding, I'm fascinated with everything British. This may be because my Mother was, (as a teenager she used to joke about me marrying Prince Charles... or, maybe it wasn't a joke. She was highly disappointed when he married Diana.) or perhaps I was Anne Boleyn in a previous life. Anyway, I find all the pomp and pageantry enthralling. Yesterday I was so glued to the TV watching the flotilla down the Thames that I started speaking to Lola in a British accent. I'm looking forward to the concert tomorrow night. Any woman who's done a job and done it well for 60 years deserves a gala celebration!