Well I’m still here,

And I’m still bored.

Maybe it’s the weather. It’s done nothing but rain since I woke up two months ago, and although I like it I think it might be making me a bit moody.

The garden is loving it though.

I’ve been thinking about water a lot just recently, and how we use it, and I’m pondering over whether I want to plant a cactus garden in the back instead of my wanna be English garden.

There’s this lady round the corner, Alice, and her native Texan garden is beautiful.

Garden envy.

I have it.

P doesn’t but look.

Of course, you wouldn’t want to be pushing anyone over into the flower beds

Or go around acting like the crazy Medusa lady

But it could be very calming

Especially if you throw in one of those blue doors as well.

Now I’ve just got to get P on board and work up the energy to get myself going.

Could be a while.

Through the boredom of it all I’ve still been making jewelry.

And teaching myself to cut stones

But I really haven’t been in the studio much these past weeks.

I’ve also been fiddling around with the embroidery.

I’m practicing for a big one.

And I really might have to make myself one of these.

Because it’s beautiful.

:)

Other than that there’s not a lot going on really except I’m reading The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt which has started off beautifully.

I thought I might have to give the murder mysteries a rest for a while as they were all running into one another which wasn’t really helping my powers of deduction. I was getting a little confused as to the best way to knock P off if he doesn’t come around to the cactus garden soon.

The perfect murder just doesn’t work when you get muddled with too many options and I ain’t prepared to get caught over a succulent just yet.

I’ve too many cabochons waiting to be set.

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The beast, the triffids, and the goal…

I finished the beast by taking out the Serpentine stone after I gouged a great big 5mm wide trough through it from one side to the other and managed to work with it on the Jool Tool (beginning to like this thing) until it was looking better.

I found that Serpentine, at least the ones I have, are very crumbly and I’m not completely sure I like that.

I worked with it as much as I could, but it isn’t one of my better pieces.

I think I set myself up for the fall because in the back of my mind I didn’t think I’d done the best job I could with forming the stones.

You can see from the above that the bottom bezel is too high, and the top bezel is just annoying because the bottom edge of its collar soldered to the top edge of the middle bezel’s collar and I had to saw it apart.

I say I had to. I could have sweated the three bezel collars off and started over, but, as I said, I don’t think I ever thought it was going to be a good piece in the first place and believe I set myself up for sabotage.

Oh the dark inner workings of our minds…

I like the back though :)

     I’ve been cleaning up my work for the art fair on Saturday and reworking some pieces that I don’t really care for.

I hate cleaning the jewelry, but wouldn’t be seen dead trying to sell it without it being its absolute best. As a consequence I’m probably not taking the beast.

Unless little pixies break into the studio between now and Saturday and work some magic on it.

Could happen.

I finished the second needlework piece.

And started another.

And that’s about it really.

Except I’m fiddling around with a new website as, although I like the Wix one I have, I’ve discovered that Indiemade seems easier to use.

I’m not sure about it yet.

And I’m just about to send off $800 to Care for the Nepal disaster so guess what?

$30,000!

Goal reached!

Going for $40,000 next…

Onwards and upwards people

:)

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So, I’ve given it all up again…

This week I’ve only managed to make horrible things.

Not only are they horrible, but they took years to make.

It was like drowning.

So I’ve decided to knock it on the head for a bit. For the rest of the week I’m just going to just clean up my jewelry for the art festival in May, work on my embroidery thing,

and I’ve an itch to paint, although we all know how that will turn out.

By the end of the week I’ll have not only drowned in the horror of it all, but sunk to a depth I’ll never be able to rise from.

Again.

Even my woes are feeling woeful for themselves at the moment, and I have injuries.

Deceivingly tiny, but very sore, hand injuries.

That Jool Tool, I’m telling you. I might have to start wearing the little green tape on my fingers that came with it.

I simply just can’t go on like this.

I need my skin.

I bought these a while back and, although they’re beautiful, I just wasn’t going anywhere with the shape.

I set one in a bracelet and absolutely hated it.

Every time I looked at it, it made me cringe.

In the end I took it out and the relief was overwhelming.

So I decided to cut them up, along with another stone that I’d put in the, nope, don’t like that either, pile.

And then I polished them along with my fingers.

And I thought I’d done a fairly good job even though I hadn’t exactly matched the sizes

:(

But that was O.K. because I decided that I’d break them all up anyway and use them in different pieces rather than the earring pairs I was initially going for.

Yes it looks fine here, but I should have taken warning from the earrings I struggled with the previous day, which almost drove me nuts and used up a quarter tank of acetylene to boot.

So now all I’m left with are horrific pieces of, dare I call them, jewelry, and a whack to my confidence.

On the upside, however, it will be all fun and games at the immigration center again when it comes to taking my fingerprints for my green card.

Maybe I should take my Jool Tool along with me and they can scrape some of them off there.

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Just in case you were missing me.

I thought I’d send you all a pic of my mantle.

Soil crumbs an’ all.

I love all of my mates.

Although P rolls his eyes.

Look at my new bird :)

Off to wipe it down now.

Oh, and I’ve been trying out new things with my triffid drawings.

And, the flush setting has begun!

I’ve two little stones in the studio as I write, waiting for me to finish them off.

And yes, that’s probably in the doom of death way.

I’ll keep you posted.

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