Grandfather

During the early 1900's and through the Great Depression my grandfather, Fredrick McQueston was a machinist by trade. Later he became a farmer then when he moved to Arizona he became a lapidarist. I was fortunate to inherit so many of his beautiful gemstones, cabochons and jewelry. I recently dragged out the tub of earrings and pawed through the masses to find a few to show tomorrow night when i display at First Fridays, downtown Harrisonburg. Most of them were clip-on earrings so I updated them to pierced. Thank you grandpa for sharing your talent with us.

Two new necklaces!

I have a habit of not finishing projects for one reason or another; bored, not the right materials, design flaw, you name it. Last week i decided to grab a couple of necklaces i have been putting off finishing because i just couldn't come up the right chain to go with either one. Not bad if i do say so myself!

Penguins

"penguins don't have disposable thumbs"... really, does anyone? My teenagers make me laugh! I think that at almost 15 it is a good thing that our youngest daughter D is back in school. And what are disposable thumbs anywho?

School Daze

My youngest daughter started high school today, while her older brother already a pro at the sport and a senior starts tomorrow at another HS clear across town. Open enrollment, oh no it couldn't be that easy,then they would be at the same HS. You see we had to move in December do to problems with the house we were leasing. We tried to find a house in the school district but to no avail. So now here I am with two HS students in two different HS. NOT FAIR!! Different days off, different starting times and ending times and my son no longer qualifies for bus service so we have to take and pick him up everyday. ARGH To top it off my daughter knows a whopping 4 people at the HS. It is a good thing that she is a flamboyant red head who is outgoing. It may prove to be what pulls her through. I on the other hand need chocolate.

What's in a name?

Changed the name of my blog today... I don't know what that means just yet, but it felt good so I did it.

I am an artist

It is a beautiful morning here in north-western Virginia, the early morning rain has left the lush green fresh and vibrant.
I am astounded that over the last month or so i have explored more fibre art forms than i have in the past several years. Silk, alpaca, purses and grocery bags. It felt good. My studio bulged with fabric, fibre and frustration as I realized that it all can't fit in my studio as it exists now. I also realized that in throwing my energy and time into fibre i have not explored jewelry or silver at all. This has led to reflective thinking on my part. I need balance. Knowing this, i have decided to be more haphazard in my flow of creativity, today silver lids for vintage glass bottles, tomorrow... spinning? I am empowered that I have choices, I can be creative every day!

50 Things to do before I'm 50

For the record i am not a day over 29, but i thought this might be fun. Anywho, I learned some important things about this little exercise.
a) It was really hard coming up with 50 things.
b) I am very conservative. (Yes, I would like to put going to Ireland on my list but lets face it, financially it's not going to happen and i want only things on my list that are doable.)
c) 52 weeks is not a lot of time to do 50 things...I might have to double up.

Here is a sampling; five of my 50.

1. Try 50 new recipes that are not all deserts.
2. Learn how to make a hinge on a piece of jewelry.
3. Create a dragon mask.
4. Learn 10 words in Gaelic. (i am hoping Breezyboo will help me with this!.)
5. Wear something pink for a day. (you have no idea how hard this is for me!)

So, there you have a sampling of my list. I still have four more to come up with and with any luck I will be successful!