Beans, Beads and Boards

It's "blustery" today. A perfect autumn day. I believe it might even be mild enough for me to be out in the workshop this afternoon. But, hmmmm.... what to work on? I seem to be without a lampwork plan. Often that will change as soon as i sit down in front of the torch and pick out a couple of rods of colored glass. Then i'll get an idea for something to try. I'll be counting on one of those spur of the moment inspirations if i get out to the workshop. I'm putting a big pot of beans together at the moment. Beads and beans. How's about beads that look like pinto beans? That would make some elegant jewelry! ha!

As i mentioned earlier, i've got a number of CatBling cat collar charms made up. I don't quite know what to do with them. I threw one up in my etsy shop at $5 with the entire sale going to my local vet for her emergency rescue fund. I don't know if the others will follow suit, or not. They're cute, but i'm not sure there's a market for cat jewelry, you know?

Middle Son lives and breathes skateboard. He dearly wants a good (read "expensive") digital video camera so he can upload his tricks to YouTube. Meanwhile he got me taking some still photos of him. The sun was low, the skatepark was under a roof, and i'm not the most knowledgeable camera worker. The quality of the shots are mediocre so i tried to compensate by playing with them in a photo manipulation program. I like some of the results. But they weren't quite what Middle Son had in mind.

There, now we've got beans, beads and boards!

New Fish Beads

I've got a few new fish beads to get listed in my etsy shop. I like the shape of the orange, no make that tangerine, one.

My BirthBones dog collar charms will soon be available on a Dutch luxury pet supplies website. How cool is that?

Prize Chicken

Here's a pic of Betty W.'s prize. It's in the mail, Betty! :-)

I've got some cat collar charms to show you next posting. And i'm working on some nice twisty bones as a special request. And working on a small sock monkey for my bf (babyfriend). And trying to assemble a tin flower/glass bead combo thingy for mom's bday (pretty sure she doesn't read my blog so no surprise ruined). But at the moment, i'm running out the door and leaving the house in a mess ... ! When will they invent a self-cleaning house?

We have a WINNER!

Yay! Betty W., fellow New Mexican knew the object in the bottom photo of my 18 Oct. posting was a Devil's Claw. Very cool dried seed pod of a wild growing plant in the southwest. (I've heard that folks use them as a natural crafting material, but i've never seen anything made with them. This one is acting as a rearview mirror decoration at the moment.)

Betty will be receiving one of my fish bead charms/zip pull (or a chicken, if that's her druther) in the mail next week. Well done, and thanks for playing! :-D

Odd Couple

Here's a handsome couple. Getting this photo was no mean feat when you realize that i am an arachnophobe. I was crouching in the weeds just inches from this lovely big spider. She was a good 2 inches from tip of front legs to tip of back legs. I don't believe i've seen one like this before. It wasn't until i was looking at my photos at home that i noticed the little gentleman visitor! Isn't he ambitious!?

What i've been up to: making a supply of BirthBones pet charms, looking for another pet-related business to help me market them. I'm so glad to be back to my part time babysitting gig. Little pip is 4 1/2 months old now and just so delightful! He's taking so much more of an interest in the world around him and the way he can giggle at a shaken toy for 20 minutes straight makes you laugh right along with him.

Don't forget the *CONTEST* in Oct. 18 post. Still awaiting a guess!

Winter Sun or My Harsh Statements AND *Contest

We've had the flu in the house. But we're all better now, thanks for asking.

I've been feeling prickly lately. We had a really nice day in the country today, though, and i'm feeling much better. But apparently the hostile sensibilities showed up in my photography...

*The first person who correctly identifies the object in the bottom photo wins a special Sock Monkey Beads lampwork bead prize!

An Eye for Robots

One of my favorite parts about raising children has been introducing them to all sorts of new things, and when something catches their interest, facilitating them in their pursuits and watching them discover things about themselves and the world around them. Makes parenthood sound pretty good, doesn't it!?

The children are now aged 11 to 16. Somewhere in the early teen years they seem to lose some of that old fascination with discovery. Or maybe it just isn't "cool" to be passionate about anything when you have teen peers. The youngest, however, still has an enthusiasm for building robots. When he was really young, he would go through the kitchen "junk drawer" for screws, clips, batteries and wires and then use scotch tape to make little robots. Lego Bionicles toys and their mechanical-looking interlocking parts have been great.

The other evening, i was showing my robot child how fun it was to look at things on etsy. We typed the tag "robot" into the search bar and found today's highlighted etsy artist: ReClaim2Fame (click on the photos to go directly to this etsy shop).

My son's eyes lit up, he bumped me off the computer chair, and he must have looked at every one of ReClaim2Fame's pieces! He was very enthusiastic. And hopefully you can share some of his joy: these sculptures have so much character, even the simpler ones. Son and i have been looking around the house for possible parts and we've been discussing options for how to connect bits. He points out that a bottle cap would work great as an eye because the jaggedy outline looks kind of like eyelashes on a surprised eye. The top part of an aluminum drink can looked like a good basis for a face. And he's off!

It just warms my heart to see the creative lightbulb go off in a kid's head. But there may be some dumpster diving in my future... Oh well, anything for art's sake.