Jens Pind Chain Maille

I can't remember if I tried to do a Jens Pind pattern before or not.  If I did, it didn't stick in my head, because I must have flipped back and forth through four tutorials and still couldn't figure out the weave.

Here's what it looks like - complete with Dewey hairs and dust.  It's a nice weave, isn't it? 









This is a better view of the completed chain.

A big "thank you" to Crafty Cat Jump rings, who had the only tutorial that said Jens Pind is actually a spiral!  The picture to the right is the same chain, same weave!  Just hold both ends and twist!  Once I knew it was a spiral, it was really easy to put it together and if it got confusing again, I just twisted back into a spiral again and picked up the next part of the pattern.  So if anybody besides me didn't know all that and wants to do a Jens Pind weave, just find a spiral tute - it's a heck of a lot easier!

Corky Relaxing At Home

He's just so modest, isn't he?  Today was the last day of his obedience classes.  Three times, I took the same Lessons In Leadership class, mainly so that he would feel comfortable with other dogs and new people, because, believe it or not, he's shy.  You can see that he's very aware of who's the boss now.

Wire Wrap Commission

This is actually the second PEI penny I was asked to make into a pendant.  Of course, I did the first and gave it to the lady without taking any pictures.  She showed it off to the man who had given her the penny and he decided to have the one he kept made into a pendant for his wife for Christmas.

They're actually stinky little things to wrap, a) because they're so thin, b) because you want as little wrap as possible so the design isn't covered up and c) because you can't do any fancy stuff with the leftover wires at the top for the same reason.  I hate the fancy designs on top  of some wire wraps anyway, they detract from the beauty of a stone. 

The coins are 1855, I think, with Queen Victoria on the flip side, and the little blue stones are iolite, known as the "navigator" stone.  Rather fitting for an Island coin.
The trees are oak - a large tree beside three smaller trees, the coat of arms of PEI.  It's supposed to signify the three counties under the protection of Great Britain, if I recall correctly.

Poor Neglected Blog

Everything since September seems to have been behind and required doing NOW and the blog was neglected.  I'll make up for that today with a flurry of posts.

Another Great Giveaway!

Check out beadinggem.com for BeadCrafty's $85 giveaway.  It's not just the giveaway that's great, this new company has some beads I definitely want (check out the apples and oranges!) and terrific international shipping prices from the U.K.
* I'm editing this post because I just went to BeadCrafty's site (www.beadcrafty.com) and this is a site you need to visit.  Their web page is so colourful you'll get inspiration just scrolling the pages.  And I'm afraid I'll be spending lots of money there; want everything!

Huge Giveaway!

You don't want to miss the giveaway on Melinda Orr's blog:
http://orrtec.blogspot.com/

Let The Good Rise Up

I just read the news about the three-year-old boy in British Columbia, who was abducted from his bed and just returned to his house.  Safely, one can only hope, but the news of his return brought tears to my eyes.  I could just imagine the anguish, helplessness and abject terror of his parents.  There were a lot of people praying for him and I don't want to say their prayers were answered, because that would mean our God arbitrarily chooses which lives to spare, which children not to torture, which diseases to heal and which prayers to answer.  I don't believe in that kind of God.  I believe that the man who stole Kienan was evil, made his own evil choices and brought Kienan home because he knew he had nowhere to run with a baby and prison is not a good place for baby killers.
But the talk of God is what prompted this post.  On this anniversary of 9/11, another horrific example of the power of religion to make people hate, I find my mind skittering all over the place, about religions, ethnic groups, hatred and immigrants.
When I was a kid in the post-war years, immigrants were mostly from the Eastern European bloc, Lithuanians, Hungarians...anybody who made the escape from the Russians and were lucky enough to get to Canada.  DPs, my parents' generation called them...Displaced Persons.  They weren't treated too badly, just looked down upon as not quite as good as "us."  They weren't hated, as were the Germans and the Japanese at that time, just blamed for taking jobs that could have gone to "us."  Before them, the ignorance and fear was reserved for the Irish immigrants, the Chinese railway workers, the blacks who escaped from the south.  Anybody different from "us."
There are none so different to the ignorant as those who call God by a different name.  Or even worse, worship a different god.  Especially if they insist on not assimilating into our culture, wear different clothes and speak a different language..
I'm a typical mongrel Canadian, ninth generation on both sides.  My whole family is composed of immigrants of one kind or another; some looking for a land where they could practice freedom of their religion, some crossing the border to practice freedom of politics, but all, at one time or another, immigrants.  Maybe not all; a wide face and high cheekbones that squinch my eyes when I grin might have slipped in from Labrador but it just as likely did not and native Americans were immigrants at one time, too.   I believe in God and try to be a good person but I also believe that Jesus was sent to us to bring us back to God, as was Mohammed.  I don't believe that Jesus had any intention of making us worship Him except as an embodiment of the one God.  If you look at the different churches of the Christian persuasion, their rules and beliefs are every bit as different from each other as Islaam.  Men interpreted and corrupted the Word from the beginning of time, sometimes because of the times they lived in and sometimes because they just knew better than anyone else.
But in every religion there is a core of good and a periphery of fanatics.  Christianity has had more than its share of fanaticism in God's name:  the crusades, the inquisition,  pograms, to name just a few.  The fact that Islaam has its share of zealots and fanatics shouldn't come as much of a surprise.  It also has a core of good and truth and the God that Islaamics worship is our own.
I guess what burns my butt the most is that throughout the ages, so many have been tortured and killed in the name of God.  Or Allah.  Or any other name.  Who are they trying to kid?  Their actions are no different from that of the man who abducted that little three-year-old - evil, pure and simple.  He wasn't following the instructions of a higher power, he was just satisfying a debased impulse that makes him lower than any animal. Those people from any country or religion or colour or creed who kill in the name of their god will never see Him in the afterlife.   But the blame for those deaths does not belong to the country or religion, it belongs to terrible, terrible individuals who worship evil and have distorted others' faith for their own purposes.
This is a rambling post and much more opinionated than my usual, but on this 10th anniversary of 9/11, I've done a lot of reflecting on good and evil.  Evil gets much more press than good, but I still believe that there are many more good people in this world than evil and they make our lives tolerable.

And Then You Wonder Why Healthcare is So Expensive!

My mother was taken to the hospital yesterday with heart problems, disturbing enough in itself, but the story my sister told me on the phone last night was something that should disturb all of us.
Mom was taken by ambulance and as all ambulances do, had one driver and one attendant. When they reached the Soldier's Memorial Hospital in Orillia, she was triaged, again very normal. Because she was stable and accidents and near drownings took precedence, she was at least three hours on the guerney before she was treated and admitted.
The ambulance attendants are obligated to stay with their patient until they are treated. So the two of them had to wait around for three hours. Actually, their shift ended in the middle, so another two were sent in to take their place and the original two went home. In the meantime, two other patients were brought in by ambulance and their attendants had to stay with them. Six paramedics, taken out of service for almost half a day, just to stand around and wait for their charges to be seen by a doctor. It was a busy day for emergencies and because of the demand for ambulances, paramedics had to be brought in from a neighbouring municipality to take up the slack caused by these six being out of service for hours. And that was just ONE hospital.
The hospital could hire an extra nurse, or even have one on call to stay with patients waiting to be treated. And why don't they? Because that would come out of the hospital's budget. Six paramedics standing around aren't the concern of the hospital, because they don't have to pay them. Who pays for six wonderful, talented and poorly utilized people to stand around at a median wage of $25 per hour? Ultimately you and me.
When government looks at health care to determine ways of cutting costs and streamlining care, they look at each individual service. It's about time the system was looked at as a single entity with different arms and maybe that would eliminate a hospital trying to save money like a corporation and forgetting that they are only a part of a larger whole. The money they save in this case is simply money lost by another partner. And we keep on paying through the nose.

On Becoming An Older Woman

Being sixty something hasn't bothered me much, other than a bad back from old horse-related injuries. I still work just as hard, probably do more physical work than a lot of twenty and thirty-year-olds and don't think of myself as an older person. Until last week. Last week I actually bought clothes from Alia.
Don't get me wrong, Alia has nice clothing. But it's permed silver-haired, Florida in the winter, matching type clothes. I wouldn't even go in the store until last week. Desperation drove me in, looking for cropped pants, capris, or whatever they're called this year, that had pockets. I need pockets.
What really scared me was that once I got in the store, I saw all sorts of things that I liked! Sets! Embroidered blouses to cover the tummy bulge! Florida type clothes! So I found a pair of nice, light cropped pants with a small blue check on white and of course, I had to have the matching blouse to cover the tummy. All on sale, of course, I won't pay full price for clothing. Put the outfit on to go to town the other day and looked at myself in the mirror and realized I had just bought my very first old lady clothes. It's a sobering moment.

Bits and Pieces

I had an electronic meltdown, possibly from an electrical surge but possibly from my tinkering. Do you remember that poem, "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing..."
That's me and computers. I know just enough to be able to screw things up in a big way. The whole thing started with my office laptop, that started getting the blue screen of death. By the time I was finished (or the power surge, whichever it was) I had no internet on any of my four computers. After many frustrating calls to my server, Bell, and my router company, both of whom blamed each other for the problem, I replaced all the ethernet cables, the telephone cable, the router and anything else that could be replaced. Except the modem, which Bell continued to insist was not the problem. So I upgraded and it was supposed to be delivered in two days. When I called a week later, someone had mysteriously cancelled the order, so I ordered again. This time it actually was two days and by the end of that day, I had internet again. Two or three weeks, it took and it was like losing a part of my brain. I just couldn't function normally without it.

The people where I live are absolutely wonderful for the most part. They're still neighborly and kind and you have to be careful what you say you need in front of some of them. The farm up the road has a CSI program, where for $25 you get a basket of fresh farm produce every two weeks or so, and theirs includes eggs, sometimes homemade bread and jam. One of those baskets showed up on my doorstep the other day because they had some left over and didn't want to waste them. Oh man, it's good. Fresh brown eggs, organic lettuce, beets, peas, baby Irish Cobbler potatoes...and broccoli. I'm munching my way through it very gratefully, but I keep eying the broccoli and passing it over. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE broccoli. I just love my broccoli full of chemicals. Organic broccoli has those sneaky, camouflaged, fat green worms hiding between the little broccoli stalks and they put me right off. I soak the broccoli in salty water and they fall off and die, but my brain is not convinced that I got them all. I like my veggies to be veggies and my meat to be meat; no way should meat be disguised as veggies. And no way should it be green.
So my theory about farming is that it all should be organic with the exception of broccoli. I've been eating local beef and pork and the difference in taste to the factory-raised animals is amazing. They actually have flavor! But they aren't green and they don't pretend they're vegetables. Poison the heck out of that broccoli!

Another Great Blog

I'm cheating on my blog posts but every time I get a little time to do something and think I might haul out the jewelry makings, somebody calls for a load of ice.
So another quickie:
Check out Kelsi's Closet Jewelbox Design Journal and sign up for her newsletters...I love her Toolbox Tuesdays and bought a couple of Tronex, one plier and one cutter, on her recommendation. They are totally fantastic and now I want more. It's funny, though, the cutters are so sweet that I "save" them and won't use them unless I'm cutting silver wire. For copper and beading wire, I use the old cheap cutters so the Tronex ones won't get dull.
Anyway, great blog and Kelsi is looking for artists to showcase, so sign up and get yourself a little exposure and some great (and honest) review on tools.

Pearl Has Another Great Giveaway

Make sure you check out the Beading Gem's blog today for a chance to win a fantastic Modahaus Table Top Photo setup. Pearl's blog is one of my favourites anyway and if you don't subscribe, you should.

Passing of a Friend

It was a shock to read on the Standardbred Canada website that Bill McBeth has died. Bill was one of the most interesting people I ever dealt with during my tenure at Standardbred Canada and he thought enough of me to phone a few times after I moved to the Island.
Bill was a real cowboy. He came from somewhere in the United States, Montana, I think, and although I never met him in person, I envisioned him as tall and lanky, gruff like his telephone voice. He ran a feedlot for slaughter horses and told me there were thousands on the lot at one time. The thought of horses being killed for human or pet food really bothered me, especially the huge numbers involved, but it was always a little more palatable knowing that Bill was looking out for them, even if it was one horse at a time. If a stock horse or a racehorse came through the lot that looked like it shouldn't be there, Bill would find a home for it. As a last resort, he'd add it to his own band of saved horses. He grieved to see the herds of powerful and majestic Belgian horses being bred strictly for flying to Japan for human consumption. I don't know how he did his job but there are a lot of horses lucky that he did.
Bill was never of the internet generation but he loved to talk on the phone. Like all my email friends that I've never met, he touched my life through those long phone calls. I'm sure I'm not the only one who will miss you, old friend. Ride free.

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton: Thursday Giveaway...

Last chance to leave a comment at Andrew Thornton's blog for a fantastic giveaway Monday. You don't want to miss this!
The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton: Thursday Giveaway...

Warning - Picture Heavy

The PITA people who call the realtor at the last minute to look at the store and my apartment have finished for the season and I dragged out my felted card table, hooked up my new Lee Valley light/magnifying glass and have been working my butt off making jewelry.
This one I made and sold before I could even get a good picture:

The rest are going up in my Artfire shop.

Never Heard Cellos Like This!

Not only are these guys unbelievable, they're definitely hotties!

More Corky

Cujo poodle

From Corky

From Corky

From Corky

Anybody who thinks poodles are wussy should look at those teeth! Although he's a typical retriever and has a lovely soft mouth. Dewey should know, he took a wiener right out of Corky's mouth tonight. Greed knows no fear.

Beannacht

Alden Smith had this poem on his Stream Of Consciousness Blog and I had to share it. Nobody can make you see the beauty in misery like the Irish.

My Magic Hook & Eye

Is anybody else as clasp challenged as I am? It doesn't matter whether it's a hook, a lobster clasp or a toggle, I have trouble doing them up on myself, especially on a bracelet, where you only have one hand to work with. For every hour of wearing, I usually have ten minutes of cursing, as I try to do them up.
BUT!!! I have discovered a magic clasp! Dunno if it'll work on anything other than my cuff because of the placement of the loop, but I'm sure a loop can be worked into most designs.

Looks simple, doesn't it? Aha, but the secret is the little whorls on each side of the clasp. Just perfect for big clumsy thumbs to press. By pressing on the whorls with your thumb, you hold the hook in place and provide leverage while you slide it into the eye. It's like a hook with v-i-a-g r a. (I have spelled that out so my blog doesn't get ads for the same. Hope it works). Nice stiff hook that you don't have to embed in your arm trying to get it into the eye. Tres simple, n'est pas? I'd like to take credit for inventing it, but I'm sure someone has used the same principle somewhere, somehow. I forgot to mention the magic hook and eye with the Oh Be Joyful cuff, but this way I get to do two blog posts. Bonus.

Oh Be Joyful Argentium Cuff

I don't often make jewelry for myself because I don't wear it often. This cuff was an idea I had in my head and I thought it was a little too different to be saleable but it was crazy and funky enough that it really suited me, so I made it from copper and made it big for a big wrist. When it was finished, I liked it so much that it begged to be made in silver.
It's the embodiment of jewelry making for me. Fun to make, just go where the wire and the beads take you, it wiggles and jiggles so that it's never perfectly aligned, but when the sun shines on the silver, the garnets and the prehnite, to me, it's beautiful. Here's my version in silver of the Oh Be Joyful Cuff.

Byzantine Necklace with Agate Cross

Just in time for Easter. And just because I figured some jewellery pictures should balance all of the dog pictures lately.
Copper chain maille, Byzantine weave, with a 2" blue agate cross. Bold, strong and definitely a statement.

Right now I'm cheating and working on some aluminum rings from the Ring Lord in different colours. Aluminum seemed a little hard on my Koil Kutter and I wanted to try coloured rings so ordering them ready-cut was a good option. Click on the Artfire button if you want to see more pictures of the Byzantine, with either the cross or the opals.

Housework Be Darned!

Saturday is my "day off" in quotation marks because it's actually the day I have scheduled to do my laundry, my accounting and my housework. So the laundry got done, I did my books as far as I could until the next bank statement comes and came downstairs to do some housecleaning.
So the dogs and I went to the beach.
Great progress today. Corky jumped right in the truck; He was as excited as Dewey to be going for a ride. Much nicer than having to hoist him in. And Dewey, once he realized I had a pocket full of wieners, stayed right with us, except when I pulled the camera out. I had to take my pictures quickly and then let him see that the camera was put away and a wiener was in my hand before he'd come back. Darned dog!
The first picture is my thumb accidentally hitting the shutter button but I like the tilted ocean and bridge. The rest are of Corky learning about waves, hunting, playing and relaxing after his walk. Except for the one with Dewey leaving quickly in the background. Weird little dog!
Now I have to decide between dusting and napping...

Yay, First Beach Day!

Yeah, it's going to snow tomorrow night. Mother Nature is playing a cruel April Fools joke on us with 15 cm of snow tomorrow night and then rain but today was gloriously sunny with no wind and the perfect day to take the dogs to the beach.
This was Corky's first trip in the truck since he arrived and he wasn't sure he wanted to get in so he got a little help. (I hope he gets over that before he gains too much weight!) And because I feel guilty letting Corky gambol without a leash, I decided this would be the day Dewey would taste freedom. Just for insurance, I took a bag of wieners. Smart move.
Corky had a wonderful time. He galloped and sniffed and galloped some more and kept checking to make sure I was close. He was just the picture of an extremely happy dog having a joyful time. Dewey...he seemed to have a different agenda and whatever it was, it was happening in the opposite direction to the way I was going. He'd get almost out of sight and I'd call and call and he'd completely ignore me. So I'd call and ask him if he wanted a hot dog and he'd stop and look. If I waved a wiener at him he'd run back but he'd make sure I really had one before he would change direction. He'd stay with us for a few minutes and turn around and away he'd go again. He was only getting little pieces but it was a three wiener trip before I finally snapped the flexi-lead back on him. I wish I knew what was going on in Dewey's head.
No pictures at the beach today but the boys went upstairs to make a mess of my bed when they came home and I wanted to get a picture of Dewey's new haircut.
Corky was quite indignant that I wanted to take a picture of Dewey. Dewey? Why would you want Dewey?

HAPPY 60TH BIRTHDAY, LIBBY, BWAHAHAHA, YOU'RE A SENIOR NOW!

Great Canadian Gem Show This Saturday and Sunday

This weekend coming is the Brantford Lapidary and Mineral Club's Gem Show at the Paris Fairgrounds. It's a great club and a great show; if you can get there, don't miss it!
http://www.brantfordlapidarymineral.ca/gemmineralshow.htm

I
have
to
get this
downbelow
my slideshow.
This is how I deal with technology, haha.

New Clerk At The Village Store

How Much Brain does Sneaky Require?

Do I anthropomorphize my dogs? Oh, probably a little. (I had to look up the spelling of that word, by the way, I wouldn't want anyone to think I am that smart.) I try not to, but sometimes their actions are far more human than animal.

From Recently Updated

This is a picture of the bad boys on my bed with their bone collection. The weaselly Dewey, who is extremely camera shy, has "the" bone and Corky was hovering in anticipation until I appeared at the door. My story is an example of how sneaky Dewey is, and you tell me if I'm reading too much into it.
The two dogs have a collection of cow hooves any boneyard would envy. But the only important hoof is whichever one the other dog has. This afternoon, Corky had "the" bone and was gnawing away merrily on the love seat, while Dewey stood in the middle of the floor and tried to figure out how to get it. You could almost see the wheels turning in his fuzzy little head. Then, he ran over to me, minding my business at my computer, and put his little paws on my knees, for some very uncharacteristic attention. Corky is very jealous if Dewey gets attention and he immediately jumped down and ran over to shove Dewey out of the way. Dewey immediately ran over and got the love seat and "the" cow hoof.
Corky has only been here for two weeks and Dewey has already twigged to the fact that he's jealous. You might think I'm reading too much into that little comedy and I'd agree if I hadn't seen Dewey pull something similar with Miss Twice, but he changed his methods to suit her personality.
If Twice had a bone, she wouldn't care how much I snuggled with Dewey, but she took her duties as guard dog very seriously. When she had "the" bone, Dewey would run over to the door and bark his intruder bark, again very uncharacteristic, and of course, she'd jump down and run to bark at whatever he heard and he'd run over and steal the bone. I can't remember how many times she'd fall for that trick, but it worked every time.
I can't believe that instinct has anything to do with Dewey's con, nor is it something he has learned, like a chimp learns to use a stick as a tool. Not when he changes his methods to suit the circumstances. And I don't really care. All I know is that he is one of the strangest, funniest dogs I've ever had and he and Corky are pure comedy interacting with each other. Great medicine!

Enough, Already!

From Recently Updated

How can you complain about a beautiful day like today, when the sun is shining and the sky is such an intense blue?
When another 30 cm. (about a foot) of snow, freezing rain and gale-force winds kept you awake half the night, wondering if your roof was going to take the weight, and your door was drifted shut this morning, that's how! When you're sick of shovelling, wet feet and dogs with cabin fever, that's how!
Yeah, I know, I shouldn't complain, because we're very lucky compared to many places in the world this year. A little extra snow and a longer winter won't kill us, unlike floods and earthquakes. Storms are exciting to watch from the comfort of your home, wondering why people are dumb enough to head out in their cars when you know the road is drifted in just past the village, and being thankful that you no longer have an hour commute that would take at least five hours in that weather. And the hydro didn't go off, for which a person should be exceedingly grateful.
But I'm Canadian. Part of the Canadian psyche is complaining about the weather. We grumble about politics, don't make much of an issue about religion, but we can always count on the weather to be a topic of conversation, long as you're talking to another Canadian. Too cold, too hot, too humid, too wet, too dry...there's always something to complain about with Canadian weather. This summer, when we have a few humid days, I'll wager that eight of ten Islanders will say, "I shouldn't complain about the heat after the winter we had, but..."
So although I know in my head that we live in one of the best places on the planet, because it's part of my national identity, I can say without guilt, "Enough! Quit snowing, quit blowing and warm up! I'm sick of winter!"

Doggy Update

From Corky

Corky is settling in very well now, although he's even shyer with strange people than Dewey. As you can see from the pictures, they've both staked out their spots and they don't leave much room for me. I get the chair. The dog beds don't get a lot of use. Corky wouldn't care if I shoved him over and sat with him; he's kind of a rubber dog and the only end that moves is the end that you lift. If I want to have an afternoon nap, I have to lift one end, slither myself under him and then pry the other end up with my feet. He thinks that's just fine and would be quite happy going through life as a comforter. The closer he can be to someone or something he loves, the happier he is. I've never had a dog that was that clingy, especially one that big!
And speaking of size, luckily we only went through two days of indoor lakes and mountains. The third day he chose his spot outside and has used it ever since.
It would be nice to be free to travel or visit but it seems to me that two loving creatures that find a way to make me laugh every single day, are well worth being tied down.

From Corky

Ahhh, bliss!

Copper chain maille Necklace With African Opals

I had such fun working on the Inca Puno or box chain chain maille pattern (complete with toothpicks) mentioned a few posts past, that the chain just grew and grew. Then I got a design in my head and decided I needed two equal lengths to create it, so I made another one. But before the second chain was equal in length to the first chain, I blew my Koil Kutter blade to smithereens (yes, I wear safety glasses!) and it got put aside until Dave Arens sent me a replacement.
The chains sat on my buffet on a teatowel that was the repository of several unfinished products until the day that I moved a string of African Opals to the work in progress towel (yeah, yeah, other people have work benches, I have a work towel)and decided the opals and the copper were made for each other. This is a piece that I'm really pleased about and I hope you like it.

This Week

Kate McKinnon had a question yesterday on her blog about why people don't blog. She got some very interesting answers. I didn't respond, but if I had, it would have been to say that I don't find myself very interesting and think that recording my normal daily life would bore people to tears. You know, I got up, I ate, I worked, I ate, I read a book, I went to bed. I really changed things up this week, though. I don't have anything on hand that I really want to read so I actually watched television! How exciting! Fuzzy rabbit ears CBC, not much colour but very mindlessly relaxing. Although the news is a little depressing. We're spoiled here on the Island, where the front page of the newspaper is usually a picture of a seal on someone's front lawn or a cute little girl doing something sweet. We had a murder this year that hit the headlines for a day or two but it's the first one since 2006 so that'll be big news for a while. So CBC news of the world with murder and mayhem and people hurting people or hating people in the name of religion is kind of a downer. I'll find a book for next week.
Life did get a little interesting this week, though. I've been trying to get another dog for a month, and had committed to a female poodle in Ontario that didn't come and didn't come and meanwhile poor Dewey was getting more and more depressed. I finally gave up on that one and just on spec, called a breeder in Nova Scotia who hadn't updated her puppy page since 2006. But lo and behold! she had a few young poodles available. (I would have nothing but Jack Russells for the rest of my life, I enjoy them so much, but my whole family is allergic to shedding dogs, so I'm giving in.)
The dog I chose is a one-year-old neutered male standard named Corky. He made the long drive from Aylesford, N.S. in a vehicle transporting fish eggs for the Fisheries Department and I met up with them in a truck stop near Moncton. First time I've been over the bridge since I moved here.

From Corky

He's just a sweetheart and glommed onto me like I was the only friend he had in the world. Dewey bounced up to him when we finally arrived home and licked his face and then spent the next few hours sniffing his butt, so I guess he really likes him. But the poor dog has never been walked on a leash and I don't have a yard. We're having a slight issue about where he's going to go to the bathroom and I hope that doesn't last too long. He's a nervous dog and being from a farm, is going to have to get used to all the traffic both in and out of the store. We walk and walk and walk and he just stays right at my side, watching my face anxiously. I go round and round the store, hoping he'll relax and get used to the territory and noises and feel comfortable enough to have a widdle. I even tried letting him loose but he just stands close to me and stares in my face. So far he's outwaited me and when we're both icicles, we go in the house, he runs around with Dewey, very happy to be back inside, and then pees. Ah well, it's only his second day and next week will be better. Won't it?

Ah, It'll Be Over in Another Month and a Half!

From Recently Updated

Across the street, yesterday and today. And more snow this week, according to Boomer.

But here's something to brighten up the day:
DJ Robbie and Chris Anderson

Busy, Busy...

I'm trying desperately to properly stock my Artfire store without compromising my style in jewelry. I got a few things finished and pictures taken (miracle!) but now the descriptions and tags have to be done. Darned store is hard work!

From jewelry

Champagne top drilled pearls with peacock pearls and golden pyrite from Beads Of Cambay. The pendant at the bottom is on a sterling lobster clasp and can be removed to give the necklace a completely different look.

From jewelry

From jewelry

The next necklace is turquoise and copper, Let Your Spirit Soar.

From jewelry

The clasp is a handmade copper bird.

From jewelry

From jewelry

The last necklace is rhodonite with a silver handmade toggle clasp.

From jewelry

From jewelry

From jewelry