I am Diggin' The Purple!

I have to say, I really like the purple. I really wanted to stick with a black background but when I woke up this morning and got ready to write. I was pleasantly surprised by the crazy purple background. O.K. I am done talking about my background color.

I woke up a bit early this morning. Last night, Ciaran's toys started turning on by themselves. We had just gotten into to bed and started to hear a whirring sound at first then some random beeping. It took me a while to figure out what it was. Luckily, Mark went out to the living room to turn them off, I was to scared. It was funny but spooky at the same time. Either we are haunted, or we need some new batteries around here. Shortly after that disturbance, Mr. Ciaran woke up crying and could not be soothed back to sleep, so I brought him in to bed with us where he tossed and turned and talked in his sleep until about 5:30 am. Then the little booger ran down the hall at top speed, squealing at the top of his lungs! He got out into the living room before I could stop him. So we have been up for a while now. I am pretty darn sleepy but having my first dose of caffeine for the day, that should help.

I made a pattern for a large travel wallet last night. So I plan to work on that today. I am curious to see how it turns out. This one will be out of black leather, but I can't figure out what I want to do as an applique on it. So that will be the task for the day! Figuring out a new and unusual color combination that will be pleasing to the eyeballs, not pukey. Once that is done, we are off to farmer's market to pick up some fresh veggies and to get some exercise and fresh air. It looks beautiful out there so far. A bright and sunny day without all the smoke that has been plaguing us for the last couple of weeks. Hopefully we will get outside before the fog rolls back in. Well, off I go to my secret laboratory to mess around with colored leather.

I Have Rearranged a Bit

The darn black background was killing my eyes! I really like the black background but my eyes did not. I needed something that still made me think about gurgly things so it had to be something that I thought would nicely go with green. When I think of green, I think of gurgly. I love purple and green together. Purple is kind of gurgly too. So I chose purple! So far, so good. I think it's purty!

I am so excited! I finally came up with a new idea for a mask that will incorporate my metal and leather work. It will be similar to the one you see here in structure but instead of the ribbons there will be some wild leather work! Yay! I hope I have time to get it done before the annual maskibition at the Ink People(one of our local arts organizations) before the deadline. I have a few things to get finished this week before I can start on my mask.
Tripetta will have a sister! I can't wait!

So the plans for the day are to sew up another couple of little snap wallets, finish a little custom order, cut out a pattern for a larger wallet, and play around with another idea for a sterling silver, and copper ring with a freeform cut opal set into it. Should be a good day. I have a great idea for another pendant to. I just have to find the piece of silver I planned on using for it. I have to catch up from a weekend with very little working. I had planned a couple of hours of working but ended up gardening on Sunday, which set off a terrible allergic reaction complete with sneezing, dripping, itching, hives, and wheezing. I managed to get all the weeds pulled along the back of the yard but paid for it for the rest of the day. I am still super stuffy and drippy today but I need to get back to work. Snotty or not. I should be fine as long as there is enough caffeine in my system to counteract the zombifying anti-snozzle meds I have to take. At least I don't have to go back out and weed today. That would be it for me. I wish I knew what was causing me all this trouble. There is just so much stuff growing out there, it could be anything. Oh well, as long as I can still work on all my various projects without too much trouble, I can't really complain.

Sleepy Day.......

Sleepy and tired and achy! That goes for all of us. Ciaran is sleeping in so I have a chance to write before he is up and running. We decided on our way home that today we would make pancakes for breakfast which sounds great, now I just wish we had decided to go out and have pancakes at a restaurant instead of having to make them. I don't want to stand up. I just want to sit in this chair and watch my zombie movies all day. I have also had to break up at least three cat fights this morning between the stray tabby that has adopted us and Mac, the little cat that thinks she is a huge leopard. It is pretty funny to watch them fight with each other through the window. They are so serious and so loud! They go through all the motions but can't really get at each other. I guess it would help if they actually made eye contact when they were screaming at one another. All it turns out to be is just a lot of yowling and hissing. I think it is funny but it scares Ciaran and I figured it would wake him up if he heard it. He needs his beauty sleep. I need him to have his beauty sleep without scary cat fight noises. So that is the plan: sleeping in, pancakes, zombie movies, and lots of hanging out on the couch.

Happy Fourth!

Not much to report today. I will be taking the kid downtown to our annual Fourth of July festival on the plaza. It is a really nice way to celebrate the holiday with lots of arts and crafts, local food, and music. It seems that all of Humboldt County is out celebrating. Mark doesn't really want to go, he is so over the arts and crafts thing. So it will be me and Ciaran. Then later this evening we trudge back downtown for our annual foggy fireworks display. I don't think I have been through one of our fireworks displays that wasn't foggy. The fog adds to the beauty I think. After that, we head home, put small child to bed, and I pass out on the couch from exhaustion. When the day is done I will have walked to town and back four times(over 12 miles), I will be tired, but at least I will have gotten my exercise for the weekend. Have a great day everyone!

Birthdays and Other Exciting Things

I finally finished my first expandable bag. I am very happy with it. I think I will play around with some different shapes and designs for a while and see what happens. I began this little bag as a small pouch with nothing more than a zipper closure but it seemed like a great shape for the particular bag design I was going for. Bag making is tricky stuff. I can pound on a piece of metal and figure out the sequence of events in my jewelry and other metall projects with no problem but handbag making still stumps me at times. I will keep on plugging away, Hopefully it will be successful journey for me.

Today my little, or not so little nephew turns fourteen years old. I can't believe that little purple squirming and screaming baby I fell in love with fourteen years ago is now a teenager. How does that happen so fast? I sure do miss him, we were the best of buddies when he was a little guy and now we send each other silly emails and share sickening jokes(yes, I have a very dark and silly sense of humor)all the time. It is still not the same as seeing him every day. I hope one day our whole family will be a little closer in distance so I can at least give him a big ol' hug on his birthdays. Well Happy Birthday! my dear nephew, I hope your fourteenth year is good to you.

Today I Try Something New

So I recently tried snaps as a closure which worked out fabulously and I have many more to put together to list and sell. Today I am trying an experiment with a wristlet I have been working on for a while now to make expandable, meaning, I will be adding a little extra leather to the bottom and sides to give a little extra room for stuff while it is being used. I sure hope it works out. I love the bag already, it is in deep purple suede with a tree branch design in black leather and golden leaves. If I mess up then back to the drawing board. I will post a photo when I finish.

Other than my adventures in expandable wristlets, I am going to be cutting up another leather coat for use in my projects. I always love that part. For some reason it just feels really good to deconstruct an article of clothing and know it will be reconstructed into something wonderful. This time it is a full length leather coat that has a few dings and tears that I can work around. I just picked up a pair of brown suede pants too! Should be a fun way to spend this foggy day.

When the sun comes out later, if it comes out today, we will venture over to the pastures and say Hi! to the cows. We haven't been out that way in a while and it is so peaceful out there. I love watching how the light hits everything out there at the end of the day. The only thing I don't like are the sneezes and the little bitey bugs that seem to find me and attack. That should be a great way to end our day. Then it is rice pockets, veggies, and cake for dinner.

Abner and Imogene Need a New Home

They really do. Not a new family, but a new enclosure, one with a little bit more crawling room. The trouble is finding a new home that Ciaran can't get in to. Their present enclosure is now torn on one side from Abner trying to escape and their almost new uvb/heat bulb just blew out. So I figure I will either invest in a new reptarium( a very cool screen covered enclosure) for them or a huge water tub, like the kind they have on farms for cattle, in the next month or so. I think the reptarium is the best bet because it is fully enclosed in screen so my little investigative darling can't open it up. The first necessity is a new uvb/heat bulb for them. They need that when they are inside and especially since we have so much grey and foggy weather it helps to keep their little bodies in check. I worry about them having enough room to get much needed exercise and enough heat to bask in.

I really wanted to build them an outside enclosure this year since we have the perfect space for it. I just don't think it would be wise with all the raccoons and other critters that hang out in our yard. Someday, I hope to have them outside in their own space with lots of plants to eat and things to climb and places to dig and tunnel in to. That would be the best!

Well hopefully my little shelled wonders will forgive me until then. For now it is a magical inside terrarium, a bit bigger and in better shape than the one they are in now, and a brand new sunshine.