-20 means no beadmaking!

Yes, that's what the thermometer is reading as I make my morning tea. I think the glass might be a little shocky out in the sun porch today! My ventilation system can't come quick enough.

We had six squirrels at our birdfeeders yesterday - all at the same time! I felt bad for them as David had said he heard that acorns were in short supply this year. I made some peanut butter sandwiches to take out to them and felt like I was in a scene of Alfred Hitchcock's lesser known movie 'The Squirrels!'. They were all perched high in the tree looking down at me, except one who squawked at me from a lower branch.

Our birdfeeders are starting to look pretty shabby!
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Rideau Valley Wildlife Sanctuary - October Donation

I am excited and happy to be able to show this bracelet and brooch set.  Meghann Gervais and I have collaborated on these pieces for a donation to the November fundraiser in aid of the Rideau Valley Wildlife Sanctuary.

[caption id="attachment_769" align="alignnone" width="450" caption="Donation for Rideau Valley Wildlife Sanctuary"][/caption]

This local sanctuary helps sick and orphaned wildlife and is the perfect place for my very first donation as an artist.  Meghann has used my beads to create this bracelet and brooch along with beautiful crystals and filled gold.

I recently became a member of Etsy For Animals, it's an Etsy team that encourages members to help raise funds for all kinds of animal charities.  If you are shopping on Etsy, be sure to do a search for 'team efa' - you'll be sure to find quality arts and crafts and at the same time you'll be supporting a wonderful cause.

Dandelion Festival - Kemptville, Ontario

This coming weekend, June 7 & 8 is the Dandelion Festival in Kemptville. If you are in the area check it out!

I am going to be at The Bead Store / Rideau School of Art, on Prescott Street both days. Store owner Jeannette Froese Leblanc has invited me to be her guest artist for the festival. I'll be setting up my hothead torch, bringing some glass and lots beads. If you want to see how a glass bead is made I'll be doing demo's throughout Saturday and Sunday and would love it if you can stop by!

On the home front I have a new family member to introduce to you. He arrived the day before yesterday from the Lanark Animal Welfare Society shelter in Smiths Falls. His shelter name was Raff, and so far he's keeping it. Somehow it seems a fitting tribute to our beautiful old boy Raffi who we had to have put to sleep a few weeks ago at 19 years of age.

You can see, he's making himself quite at home!



Its no wonder the speed at which I can work at the computer has slowed to a crawl!



Aww look! Raff is waving!



Now does he have BIG paws or is it my imagination?



Nap time at last!

I've just left him exhausted in the living room after giving him a sprig of catmint that's growing outside. He really enjoyed that!

Is it Spring yet?

Is it Spring yet?

Let me see...

If I stand on tippy toes perhaps I can see it...

Nope it's not here yet...

Go To The Door Laughing

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning is a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness
Some momentary awareness comes
As an unexpected visitor.

Welcome, and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows
Who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture.

Still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice
Go to the door laughing
And invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes
For each has been sent
As a guide from beyond.
~Rumi

For Stewart, thank you Duirwaigh for bringing me this poem.

I think I found a tiny bit of it!

My Christmas spirit that is! I had been looking long and hard and couldn't find it anywhere. I started to think that Raffi had eaten it, but finally I think I found just a little bit of it shining away in the corner - this post is to celebrate that!



Twas Christmas Eve in Merrickville
And nothing was quiet,
nothing was still...
Except little Otis taking a nap
while Ollie crept up to give him a tap.
Eddie peeked out of his warm wooden house,
Pinky one finished off a pretty snow-mouse.
Finn and Fearghal were busy trimming the tree,
and Furby ate cookies. . one. . two. . three. .
Lilly and Pinky two untangled the lights,
and Little Stuart looked down from a very great height!
Naughty Rupert was stealing candy canes for his haul.
And they All sang Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

No beads for me

Still no beads for me, my propane tank is buried under 2-3 feet of snow and it's just been too cold.  I had to do something so I've been knitting instead.

Raffi, was a big help!  He checked for dropped stitches...



And even agreed to model the finished article ...



Of course after all his hard work he needed a nap ...



I have ONE bead to post, I made this about a week ago, I was trying a 'wave' bead tutorial.  This was my best effort, sad to say, it cracked!

Raffi and the Rat

Here he is, my little chicken-cat Raffi! He tries to pretend Stuart is not on the couch as he's secretly scared of him. Stuart just wants to be friends, he's tried grooming Raffi a couple of times, that didn't go over too well, and I know he just wants to snuggle up beside him. I wish Raffi was a little more relaxed.

Round the Feeder

Our birdfeeders are turning into better entertainment than anything that's on tv! Yesterday I saw the most blue jays I'd ever seen in one spot. I counted 15 of them and I know there were a few I was missing, so I'm guessing we had 20 at one sitting! It was very pretty, but they scare off anything else that might be around.

This morning David and I were looking out there and who should appear from a hole in the snow, but Mrs Rat. She hopped out of one snow hole and right into another. We watched for her to resurface but she didn't. All we could see from time to time was a little movement under the snow and leaves. I kept watching after David left for work and was amazed to see that she'd started tossing dirt out of the hole she was in. I've no idea what she was up to down there, but it looked like she was digging a trench! I guess when winter comes and it gets cold and windy it is much better to tunnel under snow than run about on top of it!

I've been battling with how I feel about Mr & Mrs being out there, and I've come to the conclusion that they or their fore-rats have probably been around out there since before we moved here, and we haven't been infested with them yet.  If I saw twenty out there I'd be mortified, if I saw more than four I'd probably be concerned, but two I can handle.  They look very clean and what really separates them from a cute chipmunk or a squirrel?  Their reputation as plague carriers and vermin, which is really quite unjustified.  We, the civilised humans are the ones that have taken away so much of nature's habitat and created so much garbage, dirt and free food sites in cities that it's no wonder things get out of control.  For now I'm going to live blindly believing  that Mother Nature knows best and she will not let things get out of control out there.  If she does, well I guess we'll rethink things at that point!

Now we have acrobatic squirrels!  One just came flying out of a tree onto the kitchen roof, I can only imagine he went plummeting down the other side as he disappeared immediately.  He's now been replaced by Red who's sitting like king of the castle on the peak at the end of the roof - surveying his domain!

Aaaaaah Yes! Right There!

Stuart loves scritches

Last week was a rough week, our 18 year old cat Pickles crossed the bridge.  She'd been loosing weight and getting more frail so it wasn't entirely unexpected but still very sad.  We got her and her brother Raffi when they were kittens so it's really hard to get used to not having her around.  She was a silly little thing, it was almost like she stayed a kitten, I think she was the runt of the litter, if she sat on my knee she'd be kneading with her paws all the time, and always, always would run to the fridge door when she heard one of us go into the kitchen, she always wanted milk.  Sweet little Pickles, we buried her out by our pond as she liked to go out there to drink and lie in the sun on the grass.  While we were digging her grave the biggest dragonfly came and hovered over the pond, I'm taking it as a sign that everything is alright.  Here she is pretending she's a bird.




It's September already and I'm starting to wonder what I'm going to do when the weather cools down.  I've turned the spare room back into a bedroom that Raffi our cat seems to have taken over and I don't want to go back up there and struggle with small tanks of gas again.  Ohhh if only the sunporch was insulated at least.  I guess I'll just carry on and see how it goes out there, but there won't be much torching for me when it reaches -10 and colder.

I had a request for buttons at the street sale in Carleton Place so have been giving them a go and having lots of fun with them.  They are smallish at the minute and have a glass shank that is melted right into the front part the button.


And a little sun



Our friend CL would like a necklace for her son's wedding in October, so I've been working on that too, it needs to have teal in it - I love this first bead, but the second group have more of the right colour combo for CL's dress.





Here are a couple more recent beads and my latest bit of fun from the weekend.  I'm still working out the skeletons, I want to do more with their mouths, just not quite sure what at the minute, although I did see something that gave me an idea yesterday, and I'd like to try them in ivory too.  The picture's a bit on the dark side because it's hard to show their mouths off in a picture.