Just Keep Spinning

I just sent what seems like a ton of angora fiber to the mill to be made into yarn and now I've got more.  In an attempt to not have it literally pile up in my house this year I am going to spin 100% angora as it becomes available and then use it for some of my smaller knitting projects.  Here's my first skein of this year. This is chocolate agouti from Phazana.  This is half - the tutu part (LOL) of what she had on her yet this week. Poor bunnies. I hope they aren't uncomfortable. I wonder if they hate the weather this time of year as much as we do?

Connections

It has been raining all day but I don't mind- I have my handy purple flowered umbrella to keep me dry.  In March when I was cleaning out my car I went to roll up and fasten my umbrella when realized that the fabric had come off a couple of the spokes so I took it in the house and sewed them back on so it would be ready for some heavy use this spring.  My grandma gave me the umbrella and since she is no longer with us it has some sentimental value. Elisha was over this evening and as she was getting ready to leave I saw the purple umbrella laying on the rug by the front door.  I thought I had left mine in the car when I got home from work so I questioned her about it and lo and behold discovered that she had one too.  Last summer I lamented about Emily's Umbrella on my blog and on Facebook and this generated some discussion among my female cousins and we soon discovered that most of the granddaughters, the daughters-in-law, and even the great granddaughters all have a duplicate. We had fun sharing photos of ourselves with our umbrellas with each other and remembering all of the fun times we've had together.  It might sound corny but it's good to do that sometimes. Tonight I posted this photo on Facebook.  Since we are distributed coast to coast and in Paris -it will be interesting to see who else popped open their umbrellas today. I'm sure they will let me know.

Beach Glass Jewelry

I have lots of beach glass and pottery from several places that I have visited throughout the United States. I love to collect it and display it in jars.  I've always wanted to make myself some jewelry from the glass and pottery and recently I began to think about actually doing it.  Below are the results. These pieces are one of a kind and all hand made. They are for sale (except as otherwise noted) for $24 each including postage to a U.S. destination. I accept PayPal. Please email me privately if interested.

 Purple Passion (not for sale) - Lake Erie, OH glass w/ freshwater pearls

 Here Comes the Sun - Lake Erie glass w/ Swarovski Crystal bead
SOLD

 Focus on Blue-Lake Erie glass w/Swarovski Crystal bead SOLD

 Sea Turtle-Lake Erie glass with peridot stones SOLD

 Horsin' Around - Lake Erie glass w/ Swarovski Crystal bead

 Gold Burst-Glass Beach, CA pottery and china

 So Blue-Lake Erie glass w/freshwater pearl and Swarovski Crystal bead SOLD

 Bunny in the Garden (not for sale)-South Carolina pottery shard and freshwater pearl

 Low Tide-Glass Beach, CA glass and pottery shard w/ Swarovski Crystal bead SOLD

 Double Stack-Glass Beach, CA glass

 

Timeless-Lake Erie glass w/ freshwater pearls

 Oriental Flare-Glass Beach, CA pottery shard w/Swarovski Crystal bead

 Sand and Sable-Lake Erie glass and Glass Beach, CA pottery shard

Nautical Necessity-Glass Beach, CA glass and pottery shard

Sand in My Toes-Lake Erie glass w/Swarovski Crystal bead

See something you like that is SOLD? Email me privately. I can duplicate the design using a similar piece of glass. 4/12/11

Red Maple Blossoms

The red maple blossom are beautiful. They are trying their darnedest to make their way into the world despite the late snow we received this week.

Année du Lapin

My sweet cousin Jenni fell in love with a Frenchman, married him last November, and now lives in Paris.  She sent me some stamps. These are pretty fancy. This is a sheet that you can frame and it is sealed in plastic. These are for The Chinese New Year of the Rabbit (lapin). Click on the photo to make it bigger if you want to get a better look.

Self Portrait

This is one of Elisha's final projects for her art class last quarter. It's self portrait-mixed media-meaning use lots of different materials to make a portrait of yourself. This is her at the beach. She used a couple different types of paper, sand, some fuzzy stuff and dried flowers.  She is very creative but has decided she doesn't want to do art on a daily basis as a job (kind of like me and photography) so she is changing to Environmental Science -following in the footsteps of her dad and me.

I'm Hungry...

...said the swamp darner larva before eating the ferry shrimp*.

*Note-the ferry shrimp (a fresh water version of the popular 1970's novelty the Sea Monkey) in this video is about 1 cm long.