Soul Arts

Furbabies

 ahhh intersting day... Son turned up unexpectedly today with his two 'sons' in tow (Boris the bulldog and Darcy the boxer).... which is nice, he doesnt visit his momma enough and I love my granfurbabies.

Maggie however has issues....LOL... she loves Darcy, but Boris is just way to rough for her... when he turns up her eyes widen even further and she looks for the darkest, tallest place to hide where he can't reach her or see her.  Last time he was here he couldnt jump on chairs so she just hopped up on the desk chair, she found this time he has learnt to jump and the two of them were on my desk chair with maggie trying to melt into the upholstry and Boris literally on top of her covering her with doggie kisses.  

I ended up putting her little bed on my desk while I worked and she sat in it the whole day, safe in her little tower from Boris, who is full of love, but built like a Samoan footballer with all the grace and finesse of a Mac truck with a full load of bricks aboard LOL.

 

Classes with Ro

 On Saturday just gone, Lucy, Christine Treleaven and I headed up to Ro Bruhn's for a jewellry class.

Like all great expeditions we got lost along the way even with the help of Tom Tom who was outsmarted by the roadworks (a polite name for mayhem and bedlam) on the M1 upgrade.We are in good company though, and I swear we passed by Livingston looking as confused as us as we went in circles past the same corner three times! 

We turned around at one point and headed back toward the city enabling us to get back on track..once we actually made it into the Burnley Tunnel we made good time all the way to Ro's and arrived just under half and hour late.

Ro was a great teacher, patient, smiling, very happy to repeat herself a dozen times when some of us struggled with the 'wraps'... the class room was lovely, full of lots of natural light with an amazing view, her hubby Steve put on an superb lunch which we did great justice to... we all finished our necklaces, and at the end of the day was given a souvenir pic of our class to take home... what a great day and a class act.. can't wait to go back and do another class!

Blog Award

While I am here (its actually cooler in the studio than the house! LOL) I was given a blog award by the gorgeous Diana O'Coffee-Latte (who I hope doesnt mind the fun we have with her name vbg).

The rules for accepting this award are:   

(a) thank the person who gave the award ... check (b) copy the logo onto your blog ... check, (c) link the person to your blog ... check,  (d) pass onto 7 others ... check (see below), and (e) list 7 things that no-one really knows about you ... geez.. I am (to quote Diana) pretty much an open book.. what people dont know are prob things I hug to myself with strangers but friends know.. so here goes.. some private, some not so much

1.  I married my current and only husband when I was 25.  He at the time was 19.  (maybe I should have let him finish school and be an aircon technician?)  

2. We met and married within 3 months.  No we did not have to.  And despite the naysayers, and (his) well meaning friends, save an aircon repair or two, we are still very happily married 34 years later.

3. My youngest daughter passed away aged 3 in 1986. Not the easiest few years after that, but I'm still standing.

4. I have a hereditary hearing problem - had one ear surgically done in 1973 which gave me near perfect hearing in my right ear.  I remain almost deaf in my left ear.  And yes Lucy, I will get it surgically seen to next year.

5. I was always a cat AND dog person till I developed a bad case of Cat Scratch Fever (saving a cat from a dog) and am now highly allergic to them (and still have the scars from the scratches 30 yrs later)

6. I always wanted to be a writer, but lacked the confidence due to the hearing problem... a lot of people who have since become friends told me they thought I was snobbing them when I ignored them as they didn't know I couldnt hear them.  Very hard when you constantly have to ask people to repeat themselves.  I have become a master of reading faces and nodding (and praying I am nodding to the right thing LOL)

7. I used to want to be a grandma.. till saw friends around me become 'parents' again to Gen Y children... am now sooooo glad my son and daughters babies all have four legs!

Now to pass it on... the following seven are blogs I like to follow:

Lucy - http://artitudebylucy.blogspot.com/

Annette - http://goannafive.blogspot.com/

Kelsey O'Mullane: http://ko-ok.blogspot.com/

Jen - http://amarkintime.blogspot.com/

Debbi - http://debbibaker.blogspot.com/

Margaret - http://margaretweiss.blogspot.com/

Nic - http://nichohn.blogspot.com/

Broiling.. very slowly in a heatweave

Don't get me wrong here.. I love the warm weather...   the daylight saving, blue skies, bright sunshine, sitting outside after dinner under a starry sky with the temp still pleasant.... but Day 6 of temps 35 and above does not come under this category.

Don't be fooled either by the maximum temp the weather bureau list... they take it in the shade, away from concrete... and we are surround by concrete with houses in the sun.  In my backyard right now the air temp is 34C (93.2F) and its just gone 6pm EDST.  According to the weatherman in their lovely shady, concrete free ivory tower its 27.6C.  Bah humbug!  

To be fair, I would not be so 'put out' (hubby refers to it as grumpy) if the house airconditioner WAS WORKING. It worked up until 6pm yesterday when he FIXED IT.  It WAS blowing out lovely refrigerated air and house was very pleasant.  The little outlet pipe where the water comes out wasn't dripping water though so to "unblock" it (and NO he is not an aircon technician) he put a screwdriver down the hole to clear the buildup of 'dust and dirt'.  

What followed was a very impressive loud whooshing of refrigerated coolant as the gas spewed forth for several LONG minutes from the hole he had put in it!  No more gas.  No more cold air.  Sigh... someone remind me why I love him... quick... 

12 Days of (Hot) Christmas

 I have been busy making my items for a swap I signed up for.. "Twelve Days Of Christmas" make 12 things, wrap them nice, keep one back for self and send rest to hostess... oh and add 'my' number to them, in my case I am No. 9.

On the 13th of Dec I will have 11 parcels to start opening day by day, the 13th being #1, the 14th #2 and so on and so forth.  Was fun to do.. but turned out to be bigger than Ben Hur (its a consistant thing so I think the fault with that lies with me, I just dont know when to stop LOL)

Made up my items, decided to wrap them in a christmas serviette... then remembered that because I had personalised each one I would also need to add tags with their names on them so they go to the right person.  Spent all day sunday in the studio making number tags and name tags.. studio was warm but not unpleasant.. outside in the sun it tipped 38C, had the fan going in here, cold water in my little fridge and I avoided the heat and finally got them all done and wrapped last night and they are postal today to the post office.

Its going to be another hot day today... we have had 30C+ since Friday, and its predicted to continue all week... the BBQ is getting a good introduction to this summer! LOL