1 More Sleep or....

18 Hours 5 Minutes
until we can start moving into the new place.
I can't wait!

Pure Self Indulgence

Then there are the days when the best laid plans go awry.

Time to pack up the real shoes, anything that I can live without for the next 10 days. It appears that there are quite a few I can live without.
There are many that haven't been on my feet since I stopped working at Heart of Art almost two years ago.

Then there are a few more besides. You know the type; the beautiful leather in colours that you just can't resist, pointy toes, sleek heels & what's more they are exactly what is needed to complete that outfit that you are going to wear to *insert special occasion here*.

The type that will most likely never see your feet again.

Unless you are moving & take a few minutes out for some pure unadulterated self indulgence.

Oh yeah!



Pretty amazing considering this comes from the person that will blatantly state that she thinks there should only be two types of shoes....flip flops & boots.

Same person isn't even going to get into how many pairs she has packed of those!

Plans, Schemes and Lightbulbs

Packing to move. Bah humbug!!

Determined not to become overwhelmed I had a plan....& "sub plans"

I have more or less followed to them too. I can't believe how calm & organized I have been.
I started with the miniature shoe collection - all 250+ of them. Each has it's own wee shoe box, but as the last move taught me the easy part is packing them down. The hard part is unpacking them & remembering where in the display they looked the best, when I get to the other end.

I was thinking about this as I packed the first few away, having started with my favourites; the western/cowboy boots.

Then I had a brain wave.
Well actually it was a rather obvious solution that I had simply never thought of before.
Photograph them, in situ.

The first few we hurriedly put back into the display cabinet, & I photographed each shelf.
Ahhh the joys of modern technology!





A day later & I had this ....& 6 others like it!

A Beautiful Idea

A while ago I was invited by Evie Shaffer, an artist & fellow Etsy seller to take a look at her beautiful idea.

Evie's idea is a way for artists to get involved in making a difference in the world by connecting artists to charity.

This caught my eye & was certainly food for thought. Of course, given that the current charity is World Vision's Haiti Earthquake Relief, I just couldn't resist.

It's simple:
Sign Up & design one item for A Beautiful Idea
Sell your item
Donate 100% to A Beautiful Idea's donation centre.

This can be a one time, once a month or one item continually participation. The choice is yours.

If you are not an artist you can always help by having a look through the shop on the A Beautiful Idea website.

Living in a Fish Bowl

It's a given that once you are moving something aside from the disruption of packing to move to the new place is going to happen to the house you are currently living in.
In our case this place will be rented out to someone else. Which of course means that people will want to look through it.

That is no big deal in itself . Our landlord put the thing on the market 6 weeks after we moved in, having signed a 1 year minimum tenancy agreement, so I am quite used to feeling as if I live in a fish bowl.
From that moment on this place was never going to feel like 'home' for me. Of course it helped that they put an over inflated price on it & I knew that it wouldn't sell.

Still, I didn't much like having all my 'stuff' plastered across the web on real estate websites.....even if the fact that not a single one of them had the 'specs' right on this place gave me more than one slightly incredulous laugh.

If I choose to show my belongings on my blog & selected forums that is one thing, but to have every room in the house full of my stuff shown, along with the address, & without having been asked just seemed a bit invasive somehow. Oh yeah, double standards for sure ;)

So back to the beginning, & the house that is now available for rent. The landlord has chosen to use some existing images, & updated the terms it appears.

Location: St. Albans, Christchurch City
Available: 21 March 2010
Furnishings: Gas oven, spa bath, heat pump, underfloor­ heating
In the area: Close to all amenities,­ right opposite St Albans park.
Parking: Double garage
Ideal tenants: Family or profession­als

5 bedroom house with 2 bathrooms.

Sunny 2 storey family home great location, opposite St Albans park. 2 bathrooms.

Suitable for up to 6 tenants.
No pets or smokers.

So what is that in the middle of the bed then.......

And no - I shan't split hairs & mention that it is not actually available until 22nd March...or that it doesn't have a heat pump & the only underfloor heating is in the kitchen.

Then again I would have most likely put 'hearing impaired' in the 'ideal tenant' field ;)

All Things Bright

I haven't forgotten Haiti, not in the slightest. I've still been making the hearts but have eased the pressure on myself a little by placing them in the display at the Cafe, instead of taking the time to photograph & list, while I am packing for this move.

They are selling quite well there too :)

This pink one was a custom order.



This orange one was 'because I can'.




Both are sold.

Subterfuge

As I walked down to the cafe today, I noticed something new.

Autumn it might officially be but it is still wonderfully warm, if a bit overcast. The cicada's are still making their wonderful noise in the tree's over at the park , but as I turned towards the sound I realised with a start that the edges of the leaves on some of the trees are showing the slightest hint of turning yellow around the edges. How did that happen?

I am sure they weren't like that last week. Sneaksy, tricksy autumn is worming it's way in, stealthily & surreptitiously arriving when it thinks I am not noticing.

Well I am noticing & guess what Autumn - I'm smiling at you!
Another imprint to take with me in a little over two weeks time.

The Last Day of Summer

28th February 2010, officially the last day of Summer here in New Zealand. Autumn starts tomorrow & I feel as if we haven't even really had a summer yet....unless you count the six truly stunning days, with temperatures in the 27-30º.
Three of these days have been this past week, & I definitely feel extremely cheated that I haven't really been out in them to enjoy them to maximum effect.


The times that I have wandered along the road to get a coffee from Ris'tretto have been wonderful though. Bitter sweet in many ways. From the cacophony of the cicadas in the tree's under a bright blue sky, surrounded by the lush green park through to the feeling of the sun upon my face & back - I am going to savour each & every walk I make up to the cafe. I'm imprinting them in my memory. Why?

Because we are moving!

I was going to make a big announcement about this last week along with photos of the new place, but in my eagerness to be get packed & be well organized for this move I let it go a couple of days too long & the photo's of the new place had been removed from the web. Bugger!

The house we are moving to is a place that I was dead keen on looking through exactly 1 year ago. We didn't get to look through it, we missed out on it & I was gutted. In the meantime I have compared everything else against it, which is rather rather odd considering I never saw inside it.

I discovered that it had come available again three weekends ago & was onto the letting agent as soon as their office open again. We had a look through it within 48 hours & I fell in love....along with the other families that went through at the same time. We put our application in & I held my breath for 3 days.

I didn't realise just how deeply I wanted this place until I got the phone call saying that we had got it over the 5 other families that had put in applications, & I promptly burst into tears. I had been too scared to believe that we had a chance.

I've observed something interesting about myself too. The difference between now & the last time we moved just over two years ago. Then, I was overwhelmed & stressed. I couldn't think where to start the packing & wanted a whole heap of help & support.
This time I am the complete opposite. I have lists & a plan, I'm quite happy to pack everything alone & work through those lists. My support comes in the form of not having to worry about the cleaning afterwards.

This either means that when we moved here I had reservations about whether this house was the right move for us, or that I cant wait to get out of here!
I suspect that both are the case ;)

I won't miss a single thing about this house, the closeness of it's fences & the neighbouring houses that block the summer sunlight & most of all the completely inconsiderate, ignorant, rude & noisy neighbours.


For this sense of utter relief & in anticipation of a new start I will happily sacrifice a few summer days, even if they are absolute stunners!
I am truly blessed.

Guess that I had better start packing these....

Still hooked on Chalcedony

And this is not a bad thing. Etched or left you just can't beat it.

G109 - The Original Chalcedony


G1095 - Blue Chalcedony


Both used together in various ways.

The things you see at work

Last week I was gutted! The 20th NZ HOG Rally was on & I couldn't get to the show part of it on the Friday. Even worse, the Thunder Ride was scheduled for the Saturday & I was going to be at work. The first time since 1991 that this event has been staged in Christchurch - & I was going to miss it!

I well recall standing on the corner of my street once years ago, when there was a large motorbike rally in town & just watching for 3/4 hours as a sea of bikes went past. There was always something about seeing the assorted riders, of both sexes & from all walks of life bought together by a shared passion for their bikes that attracted me.

To be missing an event specifically dedicated to Harley's was almost a killer!lol!
The Thunder Ride's route wasn't scheduled to go past work, so I thought that I had completely lucked out. Being reliant on a bus to go to work these days, I didnt have the luxury of a car to take a quick break & drive to the nearest point that I would be able to watch it 2kms up the road.

Sulkily resigning myself to the fact that I wasn't really going to pull the 'sicky' (kiwi slang for sick day) that I had joked about all week , I set off to work pouting but wistfully taking my camera along.

I am so pleased that I did. Many of the Harley owners from out of town were staying nearby, so Riccarton Road had some pretty decent traffic through the course of the day.
Just as well that I have a wonderful boss that shoo's me out of the gallery with the comment ' oh no - your eye's have glazed over again, off you go".

I love this photo - there is just something so right about it. Perhaps I am just partial to men in kilts ;)

I'm a snob.....

There, I said it!
I'm not a snob in every respect though, just botanically speaking....or perhaps that should be speaking botanically.

I play a game on Facebook...anyone who has friended me & hasn't hit the 'Hide Farmville' button on my feed by now must be either very tolerant, quite insane, or playing it themselves.
As it happens I am a bit of a botanical ho in Farmville. I hoard trees as if each were going to be the last & I'm sure that my farm has more land dedicated to tree space than to animals or the planting of crops.

The latest tree release on Famville is a rather bright burnt orange tree they they call a 'Gulmohar' Tree. Of course being orange it was a given that I would like it anyway. But this was a tree that I had never heard of, & certainly didn't bear a resemblance to any tree I have seen in reality. Now being rather partial to exotics of any sort, you can pretty much put money on the fact that if I haven't seen it locally, I have usually heard of it somewhere along the way & more than likely drooled over it at some point in one of my many gardening books.

But not the Gulmohar tree - nope, no bells ringing there....not even a little tinny sounding ding!

So tonight I searched.




Aha - as it turns out another name it is known by, 'Royal Poiciana', I have heard before. Better still it's correct botanical name of Delonix regia, I know & am quite familiar with the family of plants that comes from. Yep, I'm a snob. Stick to the latin & it simplifies things.
Plants have different common names in different countries, & boy oh boy can that get confusing.
This beauty, originally endemic to Madagascar, depending on location is also known as Krishnachura, Peacock Flower, Flamboyant, Flame of the Forest, Malinche, and Tabachine.

None of this is really a big deal of course, especially these days with the wonderful search engines available. The end result is that I'm in love. I would have just been in love a little sooner had I known it's latin name ;)



Or if Farmville's depiction of it was a little more accurate....

Any which way, I'll have to move somewhere a little warmer than this climate in order to ever grow it myself.

This is what I like to see

Chromatic Maelstrom

Like? - did I say 'like'? I love to see how my beads end up being used. It's not very often that I get to see this, & certainly most beads that I decide I must keep & make something out of, dont end up being used by me but rather being listed a little later when I start getting overrun by the beads I thought I couldn't part with & the newer 'fresh from the fire' creations that I feel the same way about.

I especially love to see it when the beads have been used with sterling & fine silvers.

This is all the work of a talented Australian jewelry designer, Sam. Her Etsy store goes under the name "SterlingCrystal" & is well worth a visit.

Midnight Garden

Sam has the ability to mix Chalcedony lampwork beads in with silver, crystals & Swarovski pearls & somehow make them look like they were all made just to go together

Chasing Rainbows

Illryia

Memories

Last year, or was it the year before, I spoke of childhood memories. I recalled being very young & my grandmother having a plant in her garden that we called the 'poppy' plant.
No relation at all to poppies, but rather small bushy plant with bright green leaves & seed pods that exploded seed & recurved the segments of pod back onto itself in a single movement at the slightest pressure from small exploring hands.

After the strawberry patch that plant was our first port of call, when Granny would tell us the pods were ripe, on every visit.

Of course time passes & the details dull. I hadn't really thought of that plant in years, or even recalled the memory until I no longer had my own garden & found myself yearning to garden again & then wondering where my love of plants had come from in the first place.
The memories of hot summers & that plant resurfaced. I found myself trying to figure out what it could have been, to no avail. I had no really clear picture in my head - just the height, the colour & those darn seed pods. I couldn't have even told anyone if it flowered, although it obviously must have. As a five year old my only interest was obviously in those darn pods.

When we moved here, to this rental, the garden was a mess. Full of weeds & 'something annual' that kept popping up. The something annual quickly got ripped out...it was a prolific little bugger.
Last year I inadvertently let the 'something annual' grow in one corner of the garden. One evening I realised that the 'something annual' was flowering. The second I looked closer I recognised those seed pods! Sure enough one light touch on a fat juicy one & there was the explosion & recurving that I so well remembered.

This year I let the 'something annual' grow right through the garden. Given it's height of around 6', I know this is not the same species that my Granny had growing, but it is without doubt the same genus. I just wish I knew which genus that was.
While I'm trying to figure that one out I intend on enjoying some pod popping fun, in between watching the bee's happily buzzing from flower to flower to collect their pollen.



In the meantime, if anyone reading this blog recognizes it, please please leave a comment. I can't promise any great reward, but you'll certainly have my gratitude!!

A Pleasant Surprise

Years ago, I had an extensive garden. It seems almost a life time ago now. An old run down cottage, hard earth & years of rubbish & rubble being dug in back in the days when they buried broken glass, bottle & old tin rather than dump it, eventually got transformed into an oasis almost in the central city.

Much time was spent pouring over gardening books, seed catalogues, & bulb lists. Many dollars were spent both at plant nurseries & bringing seed unavailable here in from the UK & Australia. I literally lived, breathed & ate (when I stopped long enough to eat) 'garden'. A penchant for the exotic & the plants that were a bit different caused all sorts of learning curves, but learn I did.

The darn thing was ever expanding too. It started as narrow strips up the side of the path, which gradually grew curves & then got wider & wider. I well recall my parents arriving one evening when I was 'just straightening the edges' (which of course involved removing a few inches of lawn with the spade) & my witty 12 year old son saying "You know Nana, one day you are going to arrive here & there will be no lawn left". How well he knew me.

It was my first real garden, the one that I had complete control over. Over time my tastes changed & I developed of love for the plainer species of the many genus of plants that I acquired. Some travelled with me to the next garden, but many didn't. By the time I got to the third garden I was renting - so very few went along for the ride. To this day I miss that first garden.

One thing that has made it through subsequent gardens is an old oak half barrel, with some gnarl y looking old patio rose in it. I dont even particularly like the rose & the barrel is getting a bit past it. The only reason the rose hasn't been ripped out & dumped is that I was sure that there were some Phacelia campanularia seeds lying dormant in the soil. But no, three years later & there is no sign of them (talk about holding out hope!lol!). Then there were the strappy leaves of something mysterious, that started out grass size & could possibly be one of my gladioli species, that kept coming up every year while getting progressively larger...but not flowering.

This year the strappy leaves flowered! Twelve years after leaving my first garden I have part of it with me again.

Meet Gladiolus papilio

Ancient Nomad finds a permanant dwelling place

Seven months ago (can't believe it has been THAT long) I posted about an early birthday gift I had received from Mallory aka "The Divine Ms M" aka Rosebud101. I'd wanted to make my wonderful Bernadette Fuentes "Ancient Nomad" bead that Mallory had purchased at the Bead and Button Show into a necklace.
The plan had been to do it in time to wear on my birthday, but the usual dilemma of sourcing the right materials to go with the picture in my head put those plans to rest.

This Nomad needed a subtle treatment. He is enough of a statement in himself that he needed very little additional adornment. I could have just used a headpin & a couple of small silver beads, wire wrapped a loop & put him on a silver chain....but that is not my style. Besides, he deserved more if he was planning on stopping his travelling ways to reside on my neck.

I subscribe to the K.I.S.S theory when creating jewelry - a designer I 'aint! But I did want lashings of silver & to repeat some of the colours he had in him.

A couple of false starts (read: ordered findings online that didn't really work one way or another when they arrived)& I finally had what I wanted.

I've been wearing him frequently for a few months now & without fail he elicits comments from women & men alike.

Mallory said that I needed to name him. I did, his name is Spike, primarily in memory of Mallory's beloved wonder dog Spike & also because of the obvious.

On a Mission II

Another blog that I discovered during my mini mission is Haiti By Hand.
I often find it funny ( as in 'strange coincidence' type of funny, not 'funny ha ha') the way we stumble across things as if by coincidence, but somewhere inside ourselves we know that we were led there for a reason.

I discovered Rebecca's blog while putting together an Etsy Treasury. Having searched 'proceeds' & 'haiti' in order to find items to include, I came across this in the 'Haiti By Hand' Etsy store:



How I managed to resist buying it upon first sight, I don't know. It appealed to everything within me, but resist I did. I was quite pleased to see that it sold while my treasury was running, it saved me a continued inner battle & I knew that that it's sale was going to aid Haiti women. But I digress.

Rebecca is another that was working in Haiti, with Haitian women before the earthquake.
This was one of her blog posts after the earthquake & the one that caught my attention, made me stop & think. I hope you will take time to read it, perhaps explore her blog even more & see what she is doing with these women.




There is a printable list here of craft supplies that can be donated, & who among us (come on, I know that we artists & craftswomen are hoarders, it is in our genes) doesn't have at least something on this list that we can send.

On a Mission

As you can no doubt tell I have been on a bit of a mission lately. That mission has been somewhat obvious, to help the people of Haiti in any small way that I am able, & it will remain close to my heart for a long time yet to come.

I'll continue to update things here, but will be keeping it down to once a week (unless I cant help myself), & trying to bring a bit more variation back into my little glass party.

That said I have a couple of blogs that I have been following & I'd like to share them here. I'll do so over the next few days, in between other things, & taper off to weekly updates by the end of next week.

The first is the Livesay Haiti blog. A whole new perspective is put on things through the eye's of people who have been working as Missionaries in Haiti since before the earthquake.

What a Week!

Amazing things happen when tragedy strikes. It is often a time of learning about peoples real nature, for better or worse.

So far I have seen a bit of both. The initial interest when I say I make beads, that quickly turns into a quick change of subject when I mention what I am doing, with some people. But I am pleased to say that is the minority! The nicer, & certainly more generous reactions, certainly rule out the apathetic attitude of others.

First of all, a couple of weeks ago I was talking to the lovely guys at GafferGlass in Auckland, & feeling brave I told John what I was doing & asked if they would like to donate a few rods of glass. He agreed & told me to shoot them an email with a list of colours that I would like.
Darn it, that involved me making a decision! Now don't get me wrong, I would have been happy to just work with whatever they felt like sending. I wasn't expecting to be offered a choice, & lets face it narrowing it down to a few colours out of Gaffers outstanding palette isn't the easiest thing for a glass addict that needs a twelve step program, to do!

I decided to make it easy on myself & fill in the few blanks of Gaffer colours that I didn't have in my possession, along with some transparents & finally submitted my list yesterday. I cant wait until next week when it arrives & I have some new colours to play with.

My local cafe, Ris'tretto recently offered to put some of the hearts in there to see how they would go. Given that they roast & brew only 'Fair Trade' coffee, it seemed kind of fitting & the perfect type of establishment for this sort of thing to go in.


Of course this involved me coming up with a new way of presenting them, since there dont appear to be many designers locally.
I needed to come up with something that was ready to wear, that wasn't going to add too much in the way of cost to the hearts. Waxed cord with adjustable slip knots seemed to be the best option.

The local search (somewhat restricted) for a nice quality decent thickness of waxed cord led to another pleasant encounter. I found the type of cord I was looking for at "The Bead Shop". It was somewhat more than I wanted to spend per meter & I explained to the lovely lady helping me what I was doing & why I was hesitant to have to add to the price of the hearts. She gave me a substantial discount. I was thrilled as it meant that I could keep the pricing of the hearts the same across the board.


The week was rounded off nicely when, this morning, I made my first deposit of the money raised, across to World Vision. I can't even begin to describe how good this felt.

No beads to show today, but I will leave you with an image of what I came up with as far as packaging & display for the cafe.

Check out Mallory's Treasury

Ms Mallory aka Rosebud101 snagged a treasury yesterday & it is well worth a visit.

All of the Etsy stores featured are supporting Haiti & there is something there for everyone.
Go, take a peek & give it some loving...you may even find that 'special something' that you just can't resist & at the same time be supporting a great cause.

If you have time leave a comment & let her know that you visited!
Clicking on the picture below will take you to the treasury :)

Hearts for Haiti

These three beauties going up on Etsy tomorrow night.

Heart#20

Heart#21

Heart#22

My hope is that somehow, in some small way, they will help a small beautiful person like this.

Hearts for Haiti

Three new hearts to go up on Etsy tonight tomorrow night.

There is so much to be done in Haiti, rebuilding of both shelter & lives is only just beginning.

Heart #17

Heart#18

Heart#19

Treasury for Haiti

I managed to get my timing right this morning, for a change, & grabbed another treasury on Etsy.

The more I look, the more impressed I become at the artists that are still willing to give.

If you have an Etsy account & a few moment to spare to click & comment it would be hugely appreciated.

Keeping Haiti in our Hearts

In the course of putting together this treasury I discovered a new blog, which I will post about tomorrow.





New Hearts went up over the weekend, all of them sold overnight. I will update everything tomorrow evening. For now it seems that I am playing a permanent game of catch up..... & enjoying every moment of it :o)

Heart #11

Heart #12

Heart #13

Something to Think About

Etsy Treasury

In keeping with the post below, about keeping awareness up, I managed to grab an Etsy Treasury yesterday - two guesses what the focus was.

All of the wonderful Etsy Artists featured in this treasury are either donating a good chunk of each sale to one of the various relief organizations in Haiti - or they have listed specific items which are designated for 100% of the proceeds will go to Haiti.

Check it out if you get a chance - there are some stunning pieces.

Have a Heart for Haiti - Direct Link

Have a Heart for Haiti - New Hearts Going up on Etsy

Over time the media will start to focus their attention on other World events & slowly the awareness of what is happening in Haiti will dwindle. Yet there will still be so very much that needs doing in the long run.

I hope people don't start numbing to it too quickly & that the awareness & peoples efforts stay strong for a long time yet to come.

Three more Heats listed tonight in my Etsy store

Heart#9

Heart #10

Heart #11

Things That Make you Go 'Hmmmm'

Some glasses, that upon first impressions were pretty ordinary (read - not at all what I expected), sometimes can later grow on you.
The Double Helix Hematinone glasses come under this category.
There are some truly stunning colours in this set that I haven't seen in any other glass.

Some Things Bring a Smile

A few months back I had the privilidge of giving a couple of 'Introduction' type lessons to a student, Mandy.

I must confess that it was really a matter of her watching me for a few minutes after a bit of a pep talk, then me leaving her to discover glass for herself while staying close if she needed help.
Mandy has set herself up with a Hot Head torch & some tools....& of course the obligatory glass.

I showed some of her beads here a while back, & last week I got some more of Mandy's beads to batch anneal.

Boy was I impressed, this lady is a natural!

I'm going to miss seeing these when she gets her own kiln. It's heart warming to watch her progress, & of course wonderful to have someone to talk 'glass' with.

Mandy's Beads