the coolest thing

Today my husband and I went looking for the new Silver Lake Wildlife Management Area, recently opened to the public near our home in Bainbridge, GA. Well, obviously NOT so near our home because we got lost trying to find it, but as happens so many times, the journey was worth the trip. We saw our first up-close bald eagle! I’m 47 and he’s 53, and this is the first time for both of us to see one so close. We thought it was a buzzard at first working on roadkill, but then he flew up (not far) into a tree and sat there to see how quickly we would pass. I stopped of course hoping to see more, and he stayed in the tree for at least 45 seconds, letting Forrest get a really good look at how beautiful he was and then he sailed to another tree on the other side of the road, and then another.. we left so as not to disturb him any further. As much as I craned my neck all around I never did get the best view but Forrest did and that makes me happy. It was obvious he wasn’t going to leave his dinner. We were thrilled! After that we found some of the coolest dirt roads around, which means they’re totally in a wildlife refuge, not wide roads, easily passable but not traveled much, and we only saw one other car the whole time. We saw a sporty fox squirrel sitting in the crotch of a tree, a snake-y looking frog I got a picture of, tons of lakes and ponds, a heron, and a browsing armadillo. And heard coots making noises we’ve never heard before, lots of them. Finally we left the dirt roads and continued the search towards Silver Lake, but decided to detour on the way again and found more water, this time with a restaurant and it was getting dark and had started to rain so we stopped and had a dozen raw oysters (ok, two dozen), perfect fat fried shrimp and some overcooked crab cakes. Pretty cool restaurant right on the water, comfortable tables and decent decor with a definite lack of country music. I like country music, just not all the time which is normally what you get here. It was a good adventure, plus we get to go back exploring again since we never did make it to our desired spot. 

Here’s today’s earring photo– know you really want to see the frog! He’ll be up soon.  :)  

pink Christmas candies

Fall leaves and Pink Rhodonite

I’ve been making a real effort to relax and enjoy the holiday season this year, not worrying about finances (ours or the worlds)– just taking in the beauty of fall, the changes in the air and night sky, the different flowers and now pecans are ready for gathering. It’s a blessing to have so many producing trees in the area that have been left to themselves so to speak- no one tends them or harvests the nuts. So, as long as you’re willing to take the time to gather, crack and shell them, you’re pretty much set! They’re so expensive to buy shelled that I like to give tins or bags of shelled nuts for Christmas gifts. Everyone seems to appreciate them as no one really likes to spend the time it takes to get them ready for eating or using in recipes, and that’s understandable! It’s a real manicure-ruiner too but I love to do it. We have a handy contraption called a Reed’s Rocket or else this isn’t something I’d be able to do. You place the nut in the adjustable crushing compartment, pull back the lever and push it forward until the nut is cracked as much as you want. Tump it out and repeat! After that all you have to do (makes this part sound so easy) is pull off the cracked outer shell, collect your pecan meats and use a nut pick to dislodge any small pieces of shell that might be stuck in the meats. I guess it’s the closest I get to farming and that’s why I love it so much. We did put up 14 quarts of tomatoes and 6 quarts of field peas this summer, that was fun- we even picked the tomatoes ourselves. And, I had a big flower garden full of giant zinnias, all colors, that lasted all summer– there weren’t enough surfaces in the house to put vases on and there were plenty of flowers to give away. We had two spectacularly big sunflowers, too– Russian Mammoths. The seeds were around ten years old and we weren’t sure any of them would come up but five did. The squirrels got three but the two left were about 12 feet tall? The heads were massive and we fed them to our birds and squirrels and saved some seed for planting next spring. 

Finally I’ve been able to start making things again. I’m pretty excited about some of the pieces. The first photography session yesterday didn’t go very well but here’s a sample anyway!

 

pink rhodonite and sterling

I love the pumpkin shape of these rhodonite beads! 

I hope everyone can take the time to appreciate the fall leaves and changes at least a little bit. Those of you who are already getting snow– good luck!     LeeAnn

Creating- or not

I’m reading what I think is the best book ever on the subject of creating, and not creating because you can’t or think you can’t or you think what you create is no good or you hate your hair or whatever the reason of the moment is. It’s called “Fearless Creating” by Eric Maisel. I’m devouring it, taking quotes from it and putting them on cards and I think I would swallow them if I thought it would do me any good. It was written in 1995 and I was blessed to stumble into it in the sale section of my library, for a whole 25 cents. A quarter may have never been better spent. And I’m only on page 11.

Cleaning Sterling Silver Naturally

My studio is “under rearrangement”, since yesterday. Currently disarray is winning but the upper hand will be regained, no doubt. It’s already starting to look like a place I can work more comfortably. A tragedy occured while cleaning some of my jewelry! It was a freak accident- I was rinsing a necklace someone had lovingly made for me with a beautiful carved brick red agate horse pendant. It’s a long necklace, and it slipped a little from my hands and the horse swung into the side of a Pyrex cooking pot in the sink I’d been using for boiling the natural cleaning solution, and his head was, oh– removed. I didn’t cry but it was close! He was too thin in the neck to even try gluing back together.

Anyway- I don’t like using commercial silver cleaners. Sometimes they leave an etched appearance, sometimes they will seem to clean a piece wonderfully once but then it will never look as clean again on subsuquent cleanings. Plus they stink, my hands don’t like them, and smelling like that they can’t possibly be good for the environment. So- thanks to the Internet, I now clean my sterling in a much more “friendly” way. You line a pan (bowl, whatever to fit what you’re cleaning) with aluminum foil, shiny side up. Place your pieces to be cleaned in the pan, making sure that they make contact with the foil. Add to that some pretty hot water with baking soda dissolved in it (some add a pinch of salt) and pour it in the pan. The result will be a bit stinky from the sulfur released during the cleaning and you may see a couple of black flakes float up from really dirty pieces. To me it still smells better than the “acid in a jar” stuff. Check out this site for a better explanation: http://www.darylscience.com/Demos/Silver.html. It works!

I use a little less baking soda and still get great results, but I also rub the pieces a little between my fingers when rinsing or before rinsing if they look like they still have a little yuck on them. Be sure to rinse well and dry carefully. I’ve had two pieces that had a lot of crevices not come as clean as everything else, but using the polishing cloth immediately after cleaning and drying took care of it all.

Beautiful jewelry art at Amberdox Treasures

My dear friend Shar never ceases to inspire me with her adventures deeper and deeper into designing and creating jewelry in different styles. From beaded jewelry to chain maille and wire wrap, she’s perfected it all. Take a look at this yummy warm copper chain maille necklace with turquoise drops:

 

amberdoxtreasures.com

Shar recently had a client return from a beach vacation with two finds she picked up on the beach and wanted them wrapped in wire as pendants so she could wear them on necklaces. Shar loves custom orders and this one (as always) was another winner! She’s a real “people person” and loves to make the client happy. Check out the photos on her blog, amberdoxtreasures.blogspot.com .

Hometown Homeless Pets Need Our Help

The small town where I live has a top-notch animal care facility and they are being overwhelmed with refugee pets from the current economic crisis along with the rising costs of just about everything. They used to be able to take in any animal but have sadly had to limit intake to only animals from our town and county. Bainbridge and Decatur County, Georgia, have only one facility of this type to care for unwanted or abused animals and we are in danger of losing it. They are operating in crisis mode, week to week. Fundraising events and appeals are helping but so far there is no long-term fix in sight. If you would like to donate, you can look at their website at bainbridgehumanesociety.com and mail a donation to the following (as excerpted from their site):

“Any monetary donations will be greatly appreciated by the Humane Society and the Animals!  Your tax-deductible cash gift helps us to feed and provide veterinary care to our homeless animals.  Please make contributions to:  Bainbridge – Decatur County Humane Society, PO Box 429, Bainbridge, GA 39818.”

They are also always in need of other supplies (I am posting another excerpt from their website here):

“The Humane Society is also in need of the following items:  sturdy pet toys, bath towels, rugs, blankets, cat litter, cat/kitten food, dog/puppy food, cat/puppy cages, shampoo, collars and leashes.”   These items could also I believe be mailed to the same address.

Thank you for helping those who cannot help themselves!

I’ve begun designing a necklace and earrings to be made of Kambaba jasper to be donated for a fund-raising sale to benefit the Society.

This is a photo of an actual pup from the shelter:

I

vintageworkshop.etsy.com!

If you need graphic design, Brieanne will make you deliriously happy. Well, she did that for me anyway, so it’s possible for you too! You can find her at vintageworkshop.etsy.com, or click on her blog link to the right. I’m so happy with the beautiful work she did that I would almost mail her my DOG if she asked me to. Ok, I’m maybe not that close to mailing Morgan, but you get the picture. You can see for yourself at snapconclusions.etsy.com.

All I can say is WOW!! ))) Thanks, Brieanne!

The Road to Etsy

Etsy.com really is my favorite place to shop. Somehow it’s like meandering through a cluster of small downtown cozy artsy shops, plus a few shops that supply artists with the things they need to create. While eating a banana-nut muffin. In your jammies.

This week my work will be complete to open my shop there. A little tropical storm put my photography schedule back a few days because I prefer natural light, but now Fay has gone on to dampen other places and I don’t have an excuse to not finish. Unless I get really lucky with a shot, taking photos of the jewelry to put online is my least favorite part of creating- until that really good shot!

some of my toys

This is some of the jewelry I’ve made along with a pic of just beads, cause I like to look at them. Beads, I mean. So much so that most of the table I’ve put up to make jewelry on is mostly covered with…. beads. My brother says an artist needs to have all of his palette at hand when creating. What I have is a palette that’s under a bunch of beads and I can’t even get to it- sort of, that didn’t really work well. It would appear that my calling would lean more to the selling side of beads rather than the putting together thereof, assuming I could actually allow someone to buy any of my beads. If I could let them, I know I’d have to put my hands over my eyes and not look when they left with them like I did when we gave kittens away when I was little.