Goodbye 2009, Hello 2010

Well, it’s been quite a year.
Sarah Palin steps down as governor. Sean Parnell steps up.
Former senator, Ted Stevens, battled in court.
Oil was down to about $40 a barrel.
Obama and Biden win. McCain and Palin lose.
This old house is sucking me dry but I also love this house.
I want to go home to Alaska but have no idea when or how.
I've made a couple friends, but not nearly enough.
Bead sales have been so so but not enough to pay my bills.
But I am thankful they do still sell.
I want to fall in love again but I don't know how or if I can.
I feel time slipping away from me as I get older and I can't change that.
We will ring out the old and ring in the new.

Happy New Year everyone.

Etsy Treasury!

Someone featured my necklace in this treasury! I am homored!

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=103260

What to do, yellow or red???

I have to chuckle, Manuela (another wonderful glass artist, I'm sure you who read this know who I am talking about) says if you want to find love in the new year to wear red underwear and yellow if you want money. Lord knows I'd love to have a little of both, wonder if I can find some that are red AND yellow???

Seaweed, just posted to my etsy shop.

Life in Alaska

I've been kind of homesick for awhile now and thought I'd post some pics of life in this beautiful place. Enjoy.

Silk Roads

Lead to my bead box. Lol, I made these yesterday and gosh, layering dots is time consuming! I'd forgotten, I never make beads like these. I was at a loss as to what to make yesterday after I finished an order for someone so I just started fooling around. I really like them too but they are hard to photograph and some of the colors don't lend themselves well to photography even in the best of conditions.


And these are the beads I made as a custom order. They are really beautiful when in your hand and looking at all those colors.


Now it's time to grab a very late breakfast or maybe even bruch then back to the torch for a toasty afternoon sitting by my kiln.

Well, since I just ran out of propane and can't finish the order I was working on, I may as well write something here. I'll go get a refill tomorrow, don't feel like going out this late in the day even though the propane place is only no more than 5 mintues away. I suppose it's because when I lived so remotely in Alaska, one didn't go to town when one ran out of something. One would wait until the next trip in. So, even though I'm about as close as can be, I do have errands to run tomorrow, so I'll go then. Make sense? I haven't left the house since Wednesday. I got used to living like this after 7 years of living out in the boonies. I never run to the store just to go get one or two items. The grocery store is maybe 3-4 minutes away. I make a list and usually wait until it's full. The only exceptions I make are when the weather was really nice this fall I was running out every day to drive to my favorite hiking trails. Now that's important!

I tried out my snowshoes today and they are great! I am surprised though, by how much I still sink in the snow. I thought I'd be skimming across the surface. I was going down about 5-6 inches, maybe that's normal? I haven't a clue, never did this only one other time and that was using some of Gary's old snowshoes 8 years ago and I don't remember what it was like then. Anyway, it was fun, I just used them in my back yard to get used to them. I didn't want to look like a total Cheechako when I actually go somewhere and use them.

New beads? Yup, here they are:




Think I'll pop in a movie for the rest of the afternoon...

How I Spent Christmas Day

Shoveling heavy wet AWFUL AWFUL snow. And now it's frozen and my driveway and sidewalks are like a skating rink. Oh, I just looked out the living room window and it's snowing again! I just wish it would go away, my back can't handle a lot more snow and I can't afford to hire someone to haul it away everytime. Though if it keeps up I won't be able to throw it high enough to get over the snowbanks that are already there.

I'm thinking Maui sounds rather pleasant right about now.....

I spun glass in-between all the shoveling yesterday. Christmas Dinner you ask? Frozen pizza.

Ho! Ho! Snow!

I hope everyone has a safe holiday. Thank-you for your support during the past year. Merry Christmas, cheers and blessings.

Our weather has been terrible, to say the least. We probably got 8 inches of snow yesterday. Overnight about another 4, mixed with rain and sleet so it's really heavy. I've alrady cleared paths for Rosie but I have my whole driveway and the sidewalks to do today. It was tiring yesterday, I can only imagine what it will be like today with it being many times heavier.

My daughter called last night around 8:30. They were on their way to his parents and spun out doing multiple 360"s on the highway. They were very lucky, no one got hurt, no damage to her truck and no one else was involved. But her BF was driving and he should have known better. He was driving way too fast and it was freezing rain. It was an expensive lesson. Once they got pulled out they went home. They will stay home today too, which is preferable. I'd rather have them safe there than on the roads trying to get here.

Guess I'll go shovel some more snow.

Moving the Snow

Alrighty, one hour and 1,000 MGM's of Acetaminophen later, 8 inches of snow SHOVELED from my driveway. Dare I say I'm whipped? At 54, I guess it's ok, I've got a loooong driveway. Plus sidewalks and paths for the dogs in the backyard. I'm soaked, exhausted and tired of snow already. Can it be over now????? Maybe it's a good thing no one is coming tomorrow, I won't have to do a damn thing. Except shovel more snow...

A Wonderful Day in the Neighborhood

Well, not exactly my neighboorhood, but Stillwater, MN. Outside of going to Port Townsend, WA this is my favorite small town/city to visit. I've been wanting to make a trip over there during this Christmas season. All the shops are decorated inside and out. I love it. So, I went over yeseterday and spent the day enjoying the lights and sounds of Christmas, had a wonderful lunch with my friend Deb at a great little Italian place (same place we went to Cathy when you were here), did a little shopping and just had an enjoyable day. And since I am going to be snowed in the next 2-3 days, this was my treat to myself.









Snowing like crazy out there this morning, looks like I'll be shoveling off and on all day the next couple of days.

Be safe, be happy and thanks for the well wishes everyone.

SNOW!

The snow has begun. The news said we will have 72 hours of continous snow, with record snowfall, Christmas not having seen a storm like this in 30 years. Joy...NOT.

Winter Storm & Bats in my Belfrey

Well, here is the forecast for me:

* ACCUMULATIONS...SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW WILL OCCUR WITH
PERIODS OF HEAVY SNOW LIKELY AS THE STORM INTENSIFIES THURSDAY
AFTERNOON INTO FRIDAY. SNOW AMOUNTS BY THURSDAY MORNING OF TWO
TO FIVE INCHES ARE EXPECTED. TOTAL SNOWFALL ACCUMULATIONS BY
SATURDAY MORNING WILL LIKELY EXCEED ONE FOOT IN MANY
AREAS...WITH SCATTERED TOTALS IN EXCESS OF 20 INCHES PROBABLE.
THIS EVENT MAY BECOME COMPARABLE TO THE HALLOWEEN SNOW STORM OF 1991.

Guess it will be another Christmas Holiday alone. This will be the 2nd one. Guess I should just try and get used to it.

Here is what I worked on yesterday inbetween getting some work done on my truck.



Had a little excitement last evening. Somewhere a bat came out and was flying around my living room. It was so funny because I was sitting at my computer desk and all of a sudden the 2 dogs and 2 cats flew off into my dining room all at the same time. I was wondering what the heck was going on. I shooed everyone in the ktichen and locked them in, got a broom and chased the poor bat around for 5 minutes. Once he landed in my Christmas tree so I swatted and he flew off landing in some garland on my fireplace mantle. There I got a kettle over top of him and somehow managed to get him on the floor but not until after he flew right into my chest. I must've jumped 6 foot in the air! Anyway, I managed to get him in the kettle and outside where he skuttled away in the snow. I hope he is ok. Bats are kind of cool creatures, just not in my house.


If you are out and about druing this storm, please drive safe.

Another post n go....

From the kiln this morning. I'll be doing some metalsmiting this afternoon. We're under a winter storm watch here from tomorrow night through Friday afternoon. Joy, Joy. NOT. I'll probably be spending Christmas alone again. And it sure sucks too.

Post n Go

Was out to the post office, Farm and Fleet, K-mart, Kwik Trip and Walmart by 8:30 this morning and home by 11:00. I really wanted to beat the crowds and I did!

Since I haven't torched since Wednesday (just have not been in the mood at all) I will sepnd the day by my kiln hoping the glass fairy's are hanging out with me. A couple beads I'm puttin in the shop today sometime and a pic of Boo, who thinks all the gifts are just for him. Silly cat...Cheers.

A Love Story

There will be many days where I will help you and we'll walk the beach together looking for the best and most beautiful shells. We will poke around in the tide pools and find all sorts of creatures, some of which we will take home to eat. And we'll come across hidden lagoons and places where the fresh water streams run down into the ocean. We will swim and and explore up the little rivers, walking where we can but swimming or wading where the undergrowth is too thick.

And there will be days when it will take two of us to do the fishing. Or perhaps to spell each other diving to the clam beds while the other hauls up baskets of pearls to the wooden boat. Or maybe to help with the hand line when one of us gets a big fish. Or if there is little moon and we take the wooden boat out at night and fish inside the reef. Someone needs to hold the boat steady in the gentle sea while the other watches over the lantern hanging in the bow and tries to spot and spear the fish that are drawn to it.

Or perhaps the fishing inside the reef will grow poor and we decide to try our luck in the open ocean for Dorado and Marlin. Then we will have to rise very early and as one of us wades the shallows to drive bait fish, the other stands ready to cast the circle net and catch us Mullet or Ballyhoo.

And it will take the two of us to get the wooden boat over the reef and the breakers into the gentle swell of the open ocean. And if we spot rafts of flotsam, old sea washed logs or some other junk floating on the surface, then we will paddle to it and cast our bait beneath it and maybe find the Dorado swimming there.

Or we may decide to go for Marlin. Then we will paddle to an outlying reef and perhaps an old wreck. We'll send our Mullet and Ballyhoo down and catch Mackerel. The Mackerel will go into the cooler sea water or live tank and we will drift upon the ocean with our Mackerel bait swimming below us while we are keeping a sharp lookout for finning or sleeping Marlin. And if it is not too large a Marlin that takes our bait, we will try to bring it to the surface very fast and kill it, then we can lash it to the side of the wooden boat and paddle back to our island. But if it is a large black female Marlin in excess of a thousand pounds and she sounds deep on us, then we should bring a lunch.

A dry grass shack? I think we will probably have to thatch the roof with palm fronds and it will be dry and cozy with many interesting creatures living in the grass walls and palm frond roof. And I am sure sometimes the typhoon will blow and we will need to build or repair the grass shack or palm frond roof. And perhaps even wait for new pets to live in the walls. But that will be ok.

But who says we always want to be dry? The normal afternoon rains that fall during different parts of the year are tropic and warm. We might take long walks in the warm rain. And I will follow behind you and watch as your cotton sarong becomes wet and clings to your body as your hips sway back and forth and my mind wanders, not to the Dorado and Marlin but of the coming night.

The Mitten

When my daughter was a little girl one of our favorite books to read this time of year was The Mitten by Jan Brett. Not only were her books full of wondrous tales that are delightful to both children and adults alike, her illustrations were magical. Over time our collection of Jan Brett books grew quite large.


What brought me to thinking about this is the last couple of weeks my hands are cold whenever I'm out with the dogs. I bought a pair of $65 gloves made by a mountaineering company thinking I shouldn't have that problem anymore. The first time I wore them within 10 minutes my hands were freezing. I sold them on eBay.

Today I was going through a box that I had not opened since moving back here, a year and a half ago already. The outside of the box was marked "old purses and mittens". Obviously I didn't have a clue what was in that box after all this time and I was excited to open it and see what was inside. Imagine my surprise when indeed, it was full of mittens and gloves that I wore when I lived in Alaska. But best of all was a pair of wool mittens that Gary's friend Sherron made for me one year. They were heavy and boiled down to fit my hands perfectly. I'd been wondering whatever happened to them all this time and was glad to have them to wear again.



I was quite melancholy today reminiscing about the past and I didn't get much done. Yet late this afrternoon, when walking the dogs in the neighborhood enjoying the Christmas lights, my hands were warm for the first time this winter.

Happy Holidays to you.

A Day of Shopping

I needed to run down to Eau Claire and take Christmas photo's of my daughter and her BF yesterday so I took my friend Rebecca along. She needed to do almost all of her Christmas Shopping and boy, did she! As a single Mother of 3, she doesn't get much time to shop alone. She is very busy running her kids to violin lessons and hockey/basketball. Her husband was lost to a truck accident 4 years ago, she lost her home to a fire this fall and her van is starting to die. I really had no reason to go to Eau Claire besides to take the photographs and return a couple things so I brought Rebecca along and I swear she shopped til she dropped! Here is proof:


This is my Trailblazer and all those bags stuffed in the back are hers!!! Doesn't she look happy?

Right now she and the kids are living in a lovely rented home until they can move into their new house around the first of the year. It's been an emotional struggle for her and I've helped with what I can. I've given her clothing and Christmas decorations because they lost everything in the fire. I, myself, don't have much to give because I am on such a limited budget but I do what I can. She's been a great friend to me for the little time I've know her. It's only since one day this late summer I was out walking my dogs past the house she was renting and her dog got away and ran over to us. We've been friends ever since. Funny how things happen.

One of the stores we went to happend to be down in the college district of Eau Claire. It is a chic fresh floral boutique with gift items and great home items. I snapped some pics of the decorations they had for sale with permission of the clerk.






And a quick shot of 2 of the photo's I took of my daughter and Wyatt:



This is such a beautiful time of year, I hope all of you take the time to enjoy it and remember to be thankful for the things we have and to help those less fortunate than us. The spirit of the holiday's are upon us, it's time to remember to give thanks.