August 13th, Happy Birthday to Me

It's been a good day. A breakfast meeting with my favourite breakfast buddy followed by a wander through my local wool shop where of coarse I found some yarn that needed to come home with me. It is a variegated silk which I will crochet into the new necklace/scarf design. The day finished with dinner with friends and then time to crochet that new birthday yarn. I don't know anyone else who can so excited over a ball of yarn.

Working On A New Piece

I have been crocheting all afternoon and evening, not including time off for making dinner, walking the crying baby and showing my son where the tall weeds are that he had to cut down. How could he not see them? When I have a new item I tend to bug everyone in the house with "what do you think of this". I will make a few changes and start over again "what do you think of this now". I have three girls here with very different tastes. With input from all three and a shrug from the guys I feel confident in the new piece.

It's Hot In My Studio

My studio is on the top floor of our house. It sounds like we have a big house and that it is very grand, me being on the top floor. In reality we live in a little bungalow and I am in the attic space. Years ago when we had to have our roof replaced because it leaked like a sieve our builder asked if we would like to take the walls up a little higher and create some extra space. We jumped at the idea seeing that we lived in 700 square feet. Did I mention we have 3 kids and a dog? Anyway...... you all know hot air rises and there is no air conditioning in this house. It's hot in my studio!

A Day on Georgian Bay

Derek and I participated in a show at the Iron City Fishing Club this past Friday. We met the caretaker and his helper at the Moon River marina where we loaded up the barge and headed over to the island. It was a beautiful boat ride, the sun was shining and we had help waiting for us at the dock. Harley, the senior student employee, was there to encourage her juniors to get busy and pitch in. The student employees have all grown up vacationing on the island. The cottages have been pasted down from parent to child since the late 1800's. Not much changes on the island except for upkeep and that is where we come in. The sale is a fundraiser with a percentage of the sales going to the club.

Christmas ?

Today starts my journey towards the Christmas One of a Kind show. Derek and I will be taking our Martin House Art selection of birdhouses, feeders and garden must haves along with Derek's new painting and my jewellery. We are trying to get all of the designing and planning done in August. Derek has told me "no coming to me in November with a new idea". I always seem to do that to him. Two weeks before a show is when I come with what I think is going to be the big seller. Instead of spending that limited, valuable time just before the show on production I want to start from scratch and come up with a brand new _ _ _ _ _ . So this year will be different. I will focus, promise. My mind is spinning with all of the things I want to make for Ruby Diego Sculptural Adornments, so I will probably leave Derek to his own devises. Right now I am planning on casting sterling and bronze, fabricating metals, crocheting cotton, knitting wool, sewing bamboo and silk fabric, casting resin, setting gem stones.......... Maybe that should be it. But who knows what I will think of Mid November. Wish me luck in focusing on the project at hand. Please.

Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition

First day of the show is over. It poured rain all night, all morning and into the early afternoon. We set up the booth in the rain but luckily not in the mud. We were just feet from a pool of mud which I did lose sight of the soles of my shoes in as I tried to take a short cut to the car. Back and forth, slip and slide, it took about an hour to get set up. Not bad considering the rain. The weather man predicts a sunny day tomorrow.

Show Tomorrow

Derek is packing the car as I am writing this. It has been a very busy couple of weeks getting all of the casting done. I am really pleased with how the pieces turned out. The crows are my favourite. I really looked at the birds before I started and I hope it shows. Crows have been observed by ornithologists working through problems. Some crows have figured out that if a nut is to hard to break with their beak they will drop it on the road and wait for a car to run over the nut to get it open. They have also been observed using tools like a stick with a hook on the end to get nuts out of some place where they can't reach the nut with their beak. Well.... enough about birds. I have a very early morning and must get to bed.