Zoo In My Yard

After showing y'all that nice big spider a few days ago, i thought i'd give you an update: Son put her in the turtle's tank. The kids did mention that there was "a hole" in the lid. But i tamped down my arachnophobia, kept my cool, and watched the egg mass cocooning process, like a good amateur biologist. Of course the next day the spider was no longer in the tank, and i had a look at "the hole". Four inches wide and 29 inches long... "A hole"? So i moved around the house very gingerly for the next couple of days, until she turned up building a web in the rec room book shelves. Son gave her her freedom, but i snapped a picture of her new, svelte body before she left.

I was watering the garden this evening and found a big, grape-abdomen-ed (must be egg-laying season) gray praying mantis. Which reminded me of the HUGE black witch moth the kids brought in the other night. And then we found some finger-sized green caterpillars munching down on my flowers, and then Son found this nice big Jerusalem cricket on the back patio. They are commonly called nina de la tierra locally. I guess those big, bald, flesh-colored heads look like baby heads when they are poking up out of the ground. And then the dog routed a big toad out of the garden. My yard is like some sort of big fat fauna paradise at the moment.

That Vintage-Look Halloween Decor

Promoting a great etsy shop this evening: seasonsart1031.

I'm sure the proprietor/artist does wonderful things with every holiday season, but i sure enjoy her Halloween themed pieces. Made of paper mache and paper clay and sometimes a wire armature, these works are extremely charming and, i imagine, quite collectible. I selected the "Halloween Harvest Moon Ornament", the "Halloween Vintage Style Two Sided Black Cat Ornament", and the "Magic Mushroom Man With Gnome and Witch Buckets" to show you here, since they are my faves. But you should peruse all of her offerings, and also check out here very cool Magikal Seasons blog.

oo la la!

je'taime Paris, listed in the etsy shop. The mauve color is so soft and fleeting. The flashes of reflecting light bring in so much gold and blue-green that these are the kind of bead you can enjoy watching. I keep picking them up and carrying them to the window to be fascinated by the flash--some people are like that: dazzled by little sparkly things...

Stan-O'-Lantern and a few more squash studs now have their personal ads in the shop. They are very hopeful they're going to meet their special someones.

My Lame Lesson

I was complaining to a friend the other day about how long it takes for me to make some beads but how difficult i find it to reflect that in my pricing. He then asked if anything ever goes wrong near the end of a 30-minute bead, rendering it a lost cause and me PO'd. Oh yeah, it does. Case in point, this sock monkey-on-a-bead from this morning.

I've actually had a pretty good run of luck with my time-sucking beads. The pumpkin guys haven't all been perfect, but even the ones that i consider inferior are going to get used by me as zipper pulls, bag hangs, etc. But the transparent medium amethyst i used in the base bead of the sock monkey didn't feel like maintaining its composure while i fiddled with the eye dots. (My third sm-on-bead, and the worst, so i'm not exactly heartbroken about it being a useless bead after all that work.)

The lesson i took away from this exercise was that some glass colors are more patient than others. This amethyst was just one of those brittle, prickly, irritable glasses, that's all. But i already knew that, and i'll never get that 25 minutes back.

Check out this spider. I'm an arachnophobe so that ain't MY hand. It's my 17 yr old's hand, so those aren't little kid fingers. That's a big orb weaver...

bf

Here's my "Pip", the little fellow i babysit. It was a really nice summer day today, just a bit cooler than it has been, so the bf (babyfriend) and i spent a good part of it outdoors. I follow him around and help him out, if he needs it, while he "puts things in other things" (sticks in sand box, pebbles in gopher holes, pecans in mouth, etc.). Did you realize that you could "put things in other things" forever and never run out? We had to break for lunch! :-)

Hallowe'en Gear Up

I must have had an inkling when i ordered the orange glass that these little characters wanted to be born. These beads show a progression in techniques and details that i have been going through to get them looking their best. But the thing i like most is that they all look different. They are individuals. That's a bruce-o'-lantern at the bottom, and a dave-o'-lantern to the right. (Not in the shop yet.)

In Two Colorful Treasuries

Some creative treasuries that folks have recently made, using items of very pleasing colors. And there are my beads! Thank you, thank you.