For the Love of a Uke

Please visit my friend's blog at www.janniefunster.com and watch/listen her video for her song "Ukulele Crazy." If you are at all as crazy as I am, you'll love this song. (Luv ya, Jannie!)

That is all.
Vote for 99.

Latest Endeavors

Here is the finished piece that started out to be a stiff, heavy-looking strand of lapis jasper (I think I called it agate before which wasn't correct). Lapis jasper isn't a natural color; it's dyed. This necklace is called "Illumination" because it reminds me of the color and flourishes seen in illuminated Bibles. Should "illuminated" be capitalized in this instance? I like the way the photo came out.


Below is the "necklace of the month" for April. For each newsletter I make, I want to feature that month's birthstone in a piece of jewelry. Well, April's stone is the diamond. We all know that I can't afford diamonds, so giving the impression of diamonds being present became critical. My focal piece is a big, plastic button placed off-center. The rest of the components are velvet beads, glass rondelles, metal beadcaps, an assortment of small, glass beads and a metal chain. I think it has a great vintage look to it (aside from the chain). I had lots of names for this like, "New Money", "Play Money", "Molly Brown", "Deco-Rate", "Le Faux", "Rags to Riches", "Nora's Night Out", and probably some others that slipped my mind for the moment. I think "Le Faux" is my favorite. I'll take suggestions though!

If you are a SummerSunJewelry.com subscriber, look in your inbox soon--I have everything I need for my newsletter now!

Sapphire Stringing

I think I've solved the problem with the blue lapis agate cubes. I've COMPLETELY changed the design. It's much more delicate now and very "drapey." In the picture below, the first necklace design is on the right and a temporary layout of a new design is on the left. Eventually, most of the right side necklace was cannabolized for the other. The new one uses sapphire-colored Swarovski crystals along with the lapis agate. The silver cubes were dropped out of the design because their holes were too big and they kept sliding all out of place. Naughty.

I just did a lot of research on diamonds, the subject of my April newsletter. Visit my website (http://www.summersunjewelry.com) for a link to subscribe. I have the main article written, I just need to get some little tidbits put together yet. Hopefully, I'll get it mailed out tomorrow, but I'll mail it to anyone that would like a copy. I send it as a pdf to keep the file size down.

I'm not supposed to be up this late. School starts up again tomorrow. Yes! **punches air** So, I have to keep this short. toodles

Chick Pics

I finally got some great shots of our feathered gals! First, here's the bossiest hen in the flock, Marshmallow, a Rhode Island Red.

Here is our wallflower (so unlike her namesake), Mrs. Hyacinth Bucket, a Black Star:

This is the other Black Star, Hen. She gives Marshmallow a run for her money!

This is the Brown Leghorn (pronounced "leggern"--don't ask me why, I was raised with Foghorn Leghorn) named Cheetah. I loved her markings. I don't think she'll keep those eye stripes, but she'll still be a beautiful hen.

VOTE (again)

Well, it's about time. The "VOTE" link is finally available on Stringing magazine's website for the "Elemental, My Dear" challenge. Hmmm. Is it possible that it was just my computer that didn't want to see the link? Anyway, it's there and you have to vote. I'd really, really, really love it if you would vote for me. :) Go to http://www.stringingmagazine.com/gallery/elemental-challenge/ and vote for number 99. Got that? 99. Did I mention that I love you? You have until April 6 to get your vote in and to get all your friends' votes in too. Tell your friends that I love them.

The pictures for #99 (aka "Smoke on the Water") were published in an earlier post if you want to see them. February's entry "Elemental Design."

The next challenge has been issued. It's theme is Magical Forest. I am really, super-excited about this one! I'm thinking greens and browns with a splash of purple and owls and...and...and, wait a minute. A splash of owls sounds pretty gross, actually. 99

In chicken news, I think I need to start keeping notes for a book titled "Chicks Behaving Badly." Two of the chicks are probably about a week old and the other two chicks are a bit older. One of the older ones has quite a bit of wing and tail feathers already. Anyway, I'm thinking they're duking out the pecking order now. It's amusing, really. Nobody's getting hurt, but there's a lot of rude behavior. For instance, there are about 7 slots in the feeder. Two to three chicks are fighting over one slot while the other slots remain unused. Kids. 99

I've also pondered making some chicken-themed jewelry. Who knows? Could be a big hit in England. They come up with the coolest chicken stuff! 99

Oh, and I may love my chickens, but I will NOT be decorating my house with chicken kitsch. I bought two metal, garden ornaments featuring dancing chickens, but that's the extent of my poultry appointments. The metal chickens stand on either side of the gate to the chicken yard-to-be. Of course, this could be a whole lot like my stand against ever owning a mini-van. Determined, yet somehow short-lived. 99

Chicken Day

Wednesday, March 11th will now be known as Chicken Day in our house. We came home with four, fuzzball chicks that evening. I tried to take some pictures, but they came out all blurry. My husband took some pictures, but they came out all red. Neither one of us used a flash so we wouldn't freak out the babies. The red color came from the heat lamp we're using in their little chick-home (brooder).

We have four females (called pullets when they're under one year or haven't laid any eggs yet) of three different breeds. Daughter W picked a Rhode Island Red that she named "Marshmallow", Daughter M picked a Black Star that she named "Hen", and my husband and I have a Black Star named "Hyacinth Bucket" or "Mrs. Bucket" and a Brown Leghorn named "Cheetah." If I can get some awesome pictures to post, you'll probably see why a couple of them were named the way they were.

I'm designing their future home (the coop) and hubby's getting ready to build it. We had a brief, but nasty, cold snap last week that kept us from preparing the yard, fence and coop. This coop will be unusual in that it will be suspended from the fence and removable. That created a bit of a design challenge since it couldn't come out too far from the fence or it would make things too unstable. Each full-size bird is going to need 4 square feet of indoor space, so the coop is going to be 2'x8'. I have a 20 qt flatback bucket that I'm going to use as a nest box and rig it so that I'll be able to reach in from the back and snag our cackleberries. We have a piece of our yard sectioned off from the rest already on the south side and that's where the chickens will get their free-range time. I'm also going to try and grow some lettuce and kale for the humans and birds to share. Viva la backyard chicken!

On a more sparkly note, I'm working on a necklace for my MaMa. It's very blue and very, very sparkly. I strung all the beads last night, but it got too tight so when I loosened it up enough to be comfortably flexible, there's too much wire exposed when the necklace is worn. Argh. I need an engineering solution!

Spring Break begins Monday. Already the girls are fighting non-stop. And whining. And pouting. I don't think I'm looking forward to break. I don't think I ever will. I don't want to even THINK about summer vacation!!

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday, Auntie V! I hope it was a great day today!

Okay, I promised that I would post pictures of the birthday gifts as they were given. Here is my Aunt V's present in dark blues:

It's called "Delft" and it contains blueberry quartz (actually a neat name for blue-colored glass made to simulate quartz), blue-dyed mother-of-pearl, and porcelain. It's the small, porcelain beads that led to the name. Also helping out in the naming are a set of Delftware eggcups that my parents brought back for me some time ago from a trip to Holland. They're a lovely china depicting (in blue) scenes of windmills and organic designs.

I mentioned another entry I made into a design challenge. Well, according to the last issue of Stringing magazine, voting for this challenge was supposed to open on March 6. When I visited the web site this morning, voting links were still not available. Of course, the spring issue of the magazine was supposed to be out February 24th, and I still haven't seen it on the stands. What happened? I'll keep you posted. I mean, of course you're going to want to vote for me, right??

Storms are rolling through every once in a while right now, so I'd better get off the 'puter before it gets fried.

Glass In Gear

Yay! I successfully fused my first piece of glass art last night. It even came out pretty. I only shed a teeny drop of blood over the whole project when a glass splinter caught my finger. But, it's not on the piece because I promised that it would be blood-free. I think I may have fired it on the wrong side of the kiln paper because the back is fairly rough. The corners are super sharp too (towards the underside). I have to figure out how to fix that before I can turn it into a pendant. And guess what? I actually have a picture of it!

So, do you think people would be interested in buying jewelry with my handmade pendants like this? This is not an inexpensive venture. Artsy glass is pricey. I used four different kinds on the piece above: opal (yellow background), confetti (green and blue), stringer (blue bar), and millefiori (flower dots). I got a small sampling of dichroic with my kiln kit, but I didn't want to use that for my first experiment. Let me know what you think...PLEEEEZE!

On a completely unrelated topic, do any of you have urban chickens?

Mama's Got a Brand New Toy

Okay, I'm an impulse shopper. I can't seem to buy beads online very well because I don't plan what I'm going to make. I see the array of beads and things in front of me and ideas start to formulate. The only thing that I'm getting better at is avoiding going to the bead stores without a purpose. I may not have a design in mind, but I may have a color scheme or a certain person or something like that. Tonight, I went shopping for something blue and on sale at the local hobby shop. I found some great stuff and then I wandered into a different aisle. Shuldna dun that. I had a 40% off coupon and used it for a beginner's glass fusing kit.

I just got the girls to bed and started opening the kit. As I pulled out the hot mitts (gloves), it dawned on me just how crazy I am. Am I insane?! I can't keep my girls out of anything I own and now I have a box of rainbow colored glass shards and a nifty little glass cutter just begging to cut somebody's hand open. Well, nobody but me has seen the box's contents. I think that, before I go to bed, the box will be spirited away and it's existance will only be a rumor. But hey, you may get to see some pretty funky glass creations soon! That's always thrilling. I promise they'll be blood-free.

I am sooo sorry. I posted a new necklace set straight to my website without first posting it here. Don't feel cheated, please! On the bright side, there's a necklace and earring set (Droplets) that was posted here eons ago that just today made it to the website. Turns out that one of its earrings pulled a disappearing act on me and I had to make a replacement after giving up on the hunt. Here's the new set made with aqua-colored quartz (March's birthstone is aquamarine) called "Tides of March":


I also have my aunts' birthdays coming up. One is this Saturday and the other is in the first part of April. Guess what they're getting? Dang, you're good. I'll post pictures of the gifts after they've been given. I'm really excited!

Today is also somebody's birthday. My sweet, hairy, boy, Basil. Um, he's my dog. He turned seven today! He's such a sweetie. He got a shower yesterday with a new dog shower doohickey and a humongo edible bone today. I think the bone was about 10-12" long. It was gone in about 20 minutes.

Happy Birthday, Sweet-Basil-Boo!