Where I’ve Been…
January 25, 2011 | Category: off the top of my head, random thoughts | Leave a Comment
Ok, not right now, but in general. No apologies for the dust in here. It was the holiday season. Not much gets done in December, and January is usually a recovery month.
Back to the topic at hand. I recently came across another post where the writer said she wanted to visit all 50 of the states, and she had noted which ones she had/hadn’t been to, which got me to thinking. Which states have I been to? Well, let’s make a list & see.
(brief pause for random comment – When I was in 7th grade, our chorus sang a tune called Fifty Nifty United States, and to this day, whenever I need to name all the states, that tune still comes to mind. It’s an earworm now while I’m compiling my list.)
Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming
States crossed out have been visited, and states with italicized names and strikeouts are the ones where I spent more than a few hours.
So that makes 24 out of 50. And four of them only made the list because I’ve set foot in a major airport in the state. Another couple got a nod because they were whizzed through on the way to some other state (although I spent a night in North Carolina, so maybe that should get more credit, who knows?)
Perhaps I’ll devote some of this year’s vacation to seeing a bit more of this country. With the weather we’ve been having lately, Hawaii is looking mighty nice right now. =)
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back at the clay table again
November 9, 2010 | Category: is it polymer or polymerde?, metals mania | 1 Comment
Two weekends ago, I sat down to make some new earrings. Rolled out the clay, had some ideas in mind, and then it came to a crashing halt when I realized I couldn’t find my beloved (and :::sniffle::: discontinued) Shapelet earring template. Ugh. There went that plan out the window. I needed a new template.
Fast forward to this past weekend. I knew I could freehand some cuts, but that’s not quite conducive to making matching pairs of earrings. Heck, I have issues making a pair of rectangles come out the same shape! So… I dragged out my Silhouette cutter, and created some new shapes from sketches I’d worked out in a CAD program, then cut them out of card stock. Success! Well… sort of. I need to refine the outlines a bit, but it’s better than nothing. The earring machine is back in business.
Here are some earrings I made using my new templates:
And… while I was waiting for the earrings to bake, I tried my hand at using the Cuttlebug as a rolling mill. More success! Here’s a sample of textured 24 ga copper sheet & disks.
note to self – dap disks after antiquing next time!
And finally, I messed around with a homemade texture tool and some scrap clay. Glazed the pieces with some tinted tls, bent some wire… I think I like these low-tech pieces best of all. Go figure!
Click on any image to see larger version
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still here, still knitting
October 2, 2010 | Category: off the top of my head, woolgathering | Leave a Comment
Charity knitting projects are in full swing around here. First off some Mittnz all ready to be mailed to the Cheyenne River Reservation. The goal was to make 10 pair for 2010.
Here’s the first 10 pair I made:
And, because I’m an overachiever (or maybe because it’s actually fun to knit mitts), here’s a second ten:
20 pair should keep a bunch of hands warm this winter.
Next up, a red scarf or two.
In other news, the basement studio is coming along nicely. Heck, I might even have some clay to show one of these days.
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Charity Knitting 2010 – and so it begins
May 2, 2010 | Category: random thoughts, woolgathering | 1 Comment
When Disney announced their 2010 promotion of Give a Day, Get a Disney Day, I knew I wanted to volunteer on some level, even if I only re-gifted the ticket to another charity. Luckily, there was an opportunity to knit something for my volunteering, so I signed up to make a Project Linus blanket.
So… with no further ado, here’s the blanket I knit.
Log Cabin blankie, complete with applied i-cord edges. Not my usual knit, but it’s soft, washable, and will hopefully help make some child’s life a little cozier.
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on the road… celebrating a centenarian & other new things
April 27, 2010 | Category: off the top of my head | Leave a Comment
Last weekend, I had the pleasure of helping my Gran celebrate her 100th birthday.
It was a wonderful party, and I got to catch up with family I hadn’t seen in a while, which is always fun.
Gran lives in Guelph, Ontario, which is about 8-9 hours’ drive from here. I’ve never done so much driving in one day, so on the way up I stopped to visit the Corning Museum of Glass, which is something I’ve always wanted to do. While there, in addition to getting tons of inspiration from old millefiore patterns, and shopping in their gift store (dangerous!), I also took advantage of one of their workshops, and made a glass bead of my own. 
On my way home, I took some time to drive down the Niagara Falls Parkway, in hopes of getting a glimpse of the Falls, since I’ve never seen them when they weren’t frozen. It was too chilly to venture out on the Maid of the Mist, but I did manage to get a few pictures from the drivers’ seat. Here’s my favorite: 
One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.
AA Milne
