Wordless Wednesday

A new honour library in BBay Park.

Motivation: I Lacks It

It's been so hard for me to get motivated to make jewelry and stuff for the upcoming craft shows.  My craft table is so packed with stuff that there's no room for me to spread out with all my beads.  I finally broke down and set up the second card table and took everything out.  Keep in mind, most of what's on this table was purchased when I still lived in Washington and bags of old, broken & unwanted jewelry were gave me.

So I have a table full of beads plus plastic boxes (seen on the floor under the table).

Here's Sagan, helping me after I set up the table.

What a sweet face.  He'd just had his fall bath and was so fluffy & soft.

We had such a nice fall that it's really been hard to get back to being inside and making the same old stuff, vs. wanting to try out new crafts.  Plus I was busy carving pumpkins and roasting seeds.  And another horribly time consuming chore is having my name changed on everything.  I should've started it back in September but I put it off. Finally forced myself to the DMV for the new license and registration.  Since the closest one is in Plymouth, I had to get up early and get up there by 7:45 and I was still about 15th back in line when they opened at 8. Luckily they were moving people through quickly, so I was back on the road for home by 8:30.  Of course everyone wants copies of things and don't get me started on the hell that is changing your name on Paypal.  I just did this a couple of years ago and now I get to do it again.

I have been trying to figure out how many miles I've walked since winter ended.  I remember my first longish walk in April, my back, feet legs and hips were aching after reaching the end of my street.  Now I'm regularly doing miles at a time, esp. on the Canal.  My sneakers are worn out too.  Time for a new pair of those.  Just from looking at my pictures, it looks like I walked just over 100 miles since April.  That's a lot, esp. for me, a confirmed exercise hater.

Finally forced myself to start making jewelry and having the beads all spread out has made designing so much easier.  I really love doing it so I don't understand why I couldn't get motivated.  Michelle did the wire wrapped beach glass pendant on this one, and I added the necklace part to it.  I did quite a few necklaces, some bracelets and earrings but my pics didn't come out too good!  I was in a hurry to shoot them and they ended up kinda blurry at the top and bottom.

Here's another 'never again' project.  Shells and glass stuck on a styrofoam ball.  This took over a week to finish because the styrofoam glue takes so long to dry.  The shells are from Sanibel Island in Florida, which friends brought back for me.

November 2 was Fall Back Day; my fave!  We had a wicked storm too. Started the day before with torrential rain and high winds.  The poopies were sticking close together, as they are not fans of storms.

All hell broke loose after about 2:30 AM on Sunday, 11/2, with rain and wind.  I was very grateful that Russell made sure the generator was all charged up and ready to use in case the power went out, which, fortunately, it didn't.  I got up at 8 and promptly set the clocks back to 7, and busied myself packing away the Halloween decorations and putting up the Thanksgiving ones.  When I looked outside around noon, I could not believe what I was seeing.  Snow. Just a tad early.  The temperature plummeted to the mid 30s, I caved in and turned on the heat in the house, and I had to break out the winter coat and boots to take the dogs out.

It prompted me to write this on my car.

But by day's end, the snow and wind had stopped, the cold remained but the setting sun lit up the tree tops.

I am sooooo not ready for winter!!

Cooking, Making and Baking

By late October, I was trying to catch up on my neverending list of projects to do while also taking advantage of sunny weather, although it was starting to cool off pretty fast, and then we had our first Nor'easter.  These are mini bottles with coloured water (with a drop of glycerin), with the corks glued in.  I don't think I'm going to put labels on them cause they are so pretty.

I made the jar with the blobbies in the spring but I had to wait till coloured lights showed back up in the stores.  I put 2 sets of battery operated LED lights inside.  There is a setting to make them just stay on steady, or flashing.  This pic was taken on the flashing setting.

And these are the lights on steady.

One of my friends posted a recipe for tortellini soup. I actually had all the ingredients in the house and was really hungry so whipped it up in about a half hour. I used a bit too much spinach, but it's really, really good. So simple. 

And then this happened:  triple chip drops of deliciousness.  

I totally forgot that I'd purchased a mini Halloween shrine kit last year.  I was digging for something else and unearthed it so of course I had to work on it right away.  I had to assemble the box and it came with the spider web topper, bat and skulls.  I sponged paint on the bat and skulls and added the rhinestone eyes. Then I added the paper in the background with a key that I steampunked a bit.  Finally, I added the larger gears in each corner, cathedral 'doors' and the chains were the last part.

Initially I was gonna go a different way with the inside, but that would've required a trip to the craft store in a terrible rain storm so I made due with what I had and it still came out pretty good.

I also forgot I bought these starfish so I stuck a piece of beach glass in the center and wrapped wire around them.

Some have a combo of copper, silver and gold.

And one just has the wire on the top part of the star.  Mostly cause I got lazy and didn't feel like wrapping another one, as I'd already done about 7.

I also decided to try that thing where you cut out a pattern in black paper and use it over your camera lens.  I really don't know what I'm doing, but the lights didn't come out looking like the witches' hat I cut into the paper, other than creating a filter for the lens in kind of that shape. 

Out of focus, the lights do take on a sort-of hat shape.

Next, I got a bunch of Christmas balls at the dollar store to try this wreath project.  They came in tubes of 15 and 24.  Quite a few years ago, much like Joan Crawford, I banished the wire hangers from our house, but I actually found ONE and only one, buried in the back of the closet.  It was a little hard to bend it into a decent circle shape, but the project went pretty quickly.  I should have taken the time to glue on all the ball caps because they have a tendency to pop off, but this was just a test prototype anyway.  It takes about 80 or more balls, medium and small size.

I also tried growing Borax crystals on a pipe cleaner.  I let it soak in the solution for almost 24 hours.  Came out great!  

I have a feeling that November is going to fly by as fast as the rest of 2014 has!

Fall Rapidly Coming to a Close

This year has flown by.  I know I say that every year, but truly, this year went by extremely fast.  I was in Bourne Village one early morning and loved how this shadow looked.

The 26th was another nice day...comfortable enough to wear shorts and take a long walk around town.

Such pretty mums!

We may not have the impressive foliage of northern New England, but it's still wicked pretty.

Betty Ann's ice cream closed for the season.

I almost stepped on this bugger! I think it's a praying mantis.  It was scurrying across the sidewalk.  I'm glad I noticed it!

Funky old car.  It was loud too.

Oak leaves

Burning bush in my back yard.

Scarecrows of BBay

They seemed to be displayed kinda late this year, but at least they do them!  I don't think it'd be fall without the scarecrows!!!  I went downtown a couple of times to shoot them as they began to appear.  Of course I am pretty far behind on these postings, as it's now November 4th but I started taking these pics on 10/18.

This one kinda creeps me out....It's like it's looking right at my camera.

This one is on my street.  Such a cute scene!

I went back the weekend after the Harvest Train trip because the scarecrows placed along the train route had been moved to town.

Most of the telephone poles in town have corn stalks and scarecrows on them.  It's really cute.

Harry 'Pot'ter.

Harry Pothead?