Friday Foto 10/14

Busy, busy week getting ready for a show and no time to take new pictures. So here's one of Lola's awesome whiskers. She's been so helpful this week, mostly using her curiosity for quality control inspections.

Wish me luck tomorrow. I really need this to be a good show!

Have a lovely weekend!

Yikes!

Oh, man... things are starting to pile up on me! Last week I felt like crap and didn't get much done. I'm feeling better now, thank goodness, because this week I have:

1. A guy pressure wased my house last Friday and is coming back today to seal all the wood. Which means I had to get all my "stuff" off the porches... and I have a lot of stuff on my porches. And I'll need to get it all back on the porch when he's finished, after it's dry, and before it starts to rain. Timing will be everything. The house looks so good without the green patches and the spider webs!

2. A show this coming Saturday - The Valle Country Fair is the only one I'm doing this year. I had to cancel all my others because I wasn't feeling well. I've been trying to get some things made just so I feel like I have enough for a full display. I don't work well under pressure, so this has been difficult. I really need this to be a good show, for obvious reasons!

3. I have company coming this weekend so the house needs to be straightened up. I don't need to do a major cleaning for these folks, because they know me well and understand that I can only do so much. They're coming with the excuse that they're going to help me with my show, but I know they also want a get-away to the mountains on peak leaf-looking weekend. It's all good!

4. All my show equipment has been stored in the shed since the Valle Country Fair last year. It will all need to be cleaned and inspected before it's packed in the car on Friday afternoon. My old tent was in horrible shape the last time I set it up, so I expect that it will be worse by now. Let's hope for clear, gorgeous fall weather so I don't even have to set it up and I can have all my jewelry out in the sunshine.

5. My "good" computer is in the hospital. It was running slow and was getting a lot of errors, so I had no choice but to take it in. One of the major errors was with Norton Security and I really don't like being online with my virtual butt hanging out in virus land. So, I'm working on a really old laptop today. It's slow and I can't get to my email on it. Hopefully my other one is not too sick and I'll get it back this afternoon or tomorrow.


Well, that's it for now. Gotta get busy this morning. Have a great day, everyone!

Friday Foto 10/7

This is my neighbor's dog and cat, anxiously awaiting her arrival home last evening. My car and hers look similar and I always hate to see the disappointment on their faces when they realize it's not hers. They're so cute all snuggled up together.

This has not been a good week for me. I've had a lot going on, and I haven't felt too good because I've had to deal with bad hives again. (They never go completely away, but this week was worse than normal.) I think I figured out that cheap Vitamin C tablets make them worse. Once they're out of my system I'll be better, I'm sure.

Have a good weekend everyone, and thanks for stopping by!

Friday Foto 9/30

Photo by Dale Forrest

There's a strong cold front coming in from Canada and it's supposed to be windy with a high temperature in the 40's and snow flurries tomorrow. Not a fun way to bring in October. Hopefully that Canadian cold front will also bring the package of supplies that I ordered three weeks ago from a Canadian Etsy shop! Have a good weekend, everyone, and stay warm!

Thank you!

A big THANK YOU to Metal Clay Today magazine for featuring this blog in their "Best of the Blogs" section. (I tried to get you a picture of the cover of the fall issue, but I'm working at the gallery today and our computer here just couldn't handle that.) And a warm welcome to all the new readers who have found me through the article. The author called this a "tranquil blog"... Sometimes, but not all the time!

Metal Clay Today is a free, quarterly online magazine. Their banner states

"Metal Clay Today is devoted to giving recognition, encouragement and a voice to the many gifted artisans, teachers and enthusiasts in the metal clay world."

I feel very honored to have been chosen out of all the bloggers out there that write about metal clay. Thanks again!

Still a lot of studio stash for sale

Awhile back I did a studio clean-up and decided to sell a lot of the things that I had been keeping "because I might do something with them someday". I just want everyone to know that there are still a lot of deals to be had. I've listed them at the silver price I paid at the time, so there are some really good bargains. Go to My Etsy Shop and check it out. You can see all of these items at once if you click on the "Components, Studio Stash" section over on the left side of the screen.

I'm really surprised that this one hasn't sold yet:

Apatite set in sterling silver. Click here to go to the listing on Etsy.

Or, this one:

Carnelian in a sterling silver setting. Click here to go to the listing on Etsy.

And these - all cut out and drilled and ready to use in your own project:

Set of five sterling silver triangles. Click here to go to the listing on Etsy.

These will stay in the shop until they expire - I won't be relisting them. At that time they'll go to the scrap pile. So get your bargains while you can!!

Friday Fall Foto

Happy Autumnal Equinox, everyone! This godenrod is a sure sign that summer is finished.