Choices!

Hello friends,

Sorry I have been missing in action for so long! Ghastly hot weather has left me flaked on the couch and devoid of energy. 

Photo from Fleaing France.tumblr.

I have recently sold my old Victorian house. I have lived there for 25 years.

I am on the hunt for a new home and have been looking at houses, both modern and more old fashioned in style. Sometimes I think I love modern and convince myself of it.. and then I see a house with character and nooks and crannies and delightful kitchens like the one above, that is full of interest and charm ( well it is French!) and I fall in love with old once again. I wish I could make up my mind! An older style home is just winning the choice by a nose at the moment..

I have a yearning to find old bits and pieces to put in a home and to plant a garden again… can’t help it… that is just who I am I think… and maybe I just shouldn’t fight that!? I did say I would not ‘do’ an old house again…. they are expensive to maintain etc etc. But yet….?! Charm  just might win in the end!

I will keep on with my journey until I find something that I think is probably a compromise of both old and new… for the right price of course!

It is not an easy task… wish me luck.. I need as much as I can get!

So tell me, have you ever felt this difficulty, this battle between old and new? This decision between what might be easier and what you are drawn to regardless. I’d love to hear… it just might help me with this continuing battle that circles my brain constantly…!

Goodnight for now,

Jenni

Focus On Life - Can you feel the Love?

Hello friends,

It is now week six of Focus on Life.

Sally from the Studio Sublime sent us the challenge this week to see if we could 'feel the love'.

I snapped this one last night... we are all besotted by our little Miniature Schnauzer dog, Pepper. This is her with my daughter.

At 12, ( is that 84 years in human terms? ) years of age, Pepper is such a little fighter. She has Lupus, Diabetes and now has started to lose both her vision and hearing.

I can hear some of you say..."surely it would be kinder to let her go?" Well, even though she has all those formidable health issues, she seems to enjoy her day. She is still reasonably active, enjoys her food and is in no obvious pain.

Most days, ( unless it is too hot or rainy... sensible girl! ) she still loves her twice daily walk.
She loves being where we are and follows us from room to room just to be part of the action.
Today she sat with me in the studio, quite comfortably while I fiddled around (no gas or loud hammering noises) with a piece I was working on. It was nice to have 'someone' to talk to!

So, she is with us for a bit longer. We all know her time is probably short, so we hug her constantly! I think it is the love of "her people" that keeps her going.

Laura and Pepper - February 2013.

Hope you are feeling a bit of love around your neck of the woods, 

Hugs,

Changes are coming...

Hello friends,

Do you remember my dressmakers form? I called her Collette.

She sits in my bedroom and I think she looks pretty good here.... everything is pretty neat here ( well I think so)  as we are selling our home after 25 years! Scary thought really!

There's also our Bridge of Sighs painting and the old Japanese calligraphy box.... I love to have things with a bit of character around.... the bedside cupboards belonged to my parents-in-law and the cedar chest was my parents.

Next time around I am hoping to buy a more modern home.... I don't mind a mix of new and old although this room is definitely weighted towards the old.

I hope I can still fit these old favourites in our new home... we shall see!

Until next time,

2013 Photo a Day - a January collage

Hello friends,

This year I am attempting to take a photo a day, that has been pertinent to my day. These days when most of us have camera phones, it is a pretty easy task to take a snap or two.

I have joined up to the Flickr group 2013PAD (photo a day) and so far, have managed to keep on track. I attempted to do this last year  but only managed to get to the end of July... this year will be different!! The power of positive thought....!

Here are two collages that I put together on Pic Monkey, a very easy and free photo processing site.
I use it as I love the collage feature... I just wish it had a collage option for a whole month at a time!

You can see my photos each day by clicking on the Flickr banner on my blog side bar or from here.

January 2013PAD photos

The rest of January 2013PAD photos!

If you haven't thought of this, I urge you to give it a go. It is fun. It makes you more observant. It encourages you to think and appreciate your day and what has occurred in it. A bonus is at the end, you have a wonderful record of the year gone by. It is not too late.. there are still 11 months to go!


Hope you are having a wonderful start to your week,

I Heart Macro - a beady cup!

Hello friends,

Nine years ago, I made the exciting journey to the Bead and Button show in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The trip entailed flights from Melbourne, Australia to Sydney to Los Angeles to Chicago to Milwaukee. I cannot remember exactly how long it took, but I do remember it was LONG!

The last leg, on a smaller plane, was made delightful by the meeting of a lady on the plane who was from Milwaukee. She drove me, with her family, out of their way, from the airport to my hotel doorstep.
I cannot remember her name, but I will always remember her kindness.

The beads I purchased at this wonderful show have long gone but I still use this cup daily.
It is covered with the pictures of talented and celebrated American lampworkers and was released by the Bead and Button magazine to celebrate their 10th anniversary that year.

Occasionally, I think it is time to do that trip again... next year will be 10 years.... hmmmm....Might need to start saving now!

Today, I am linking up to I Heart Macro at Studio Waterstone for those who like to take up close and macro photos. Please do join me over there.

Hope you are having a lovely Sunday,

Focus on Life - week 5 - Capture our hearts.

Hello friends,

It has been a while between posts. Preparing my home for sale has kept me busy!

Today, I am joining in to  Focusing on Life - 52 photos- a photo a week throughout the year. The prompt for the week was 'capture our hearts'. I have interpreted this in a literal sense... so here are a few I found.....

A heart made from vintage velvet hanging on a cupboard in my daughter's room.

Hearts made from an old atlas... you can see more about these here.

A glass paperweight.. you know how I love my paperweights!

And because I missed out on joining in last week, here is a little something I made during the week....my first stone set in a sterling bezel which I made by following the instructions on a DVD by 

Lexie Erickson. ( The stone is a dendritic agate)

Last week was all about creating art... making jewellery is where my creative heart is at the moment, it is my art.

Here is a heart I made a while back from copper and resin.

And if you pop on over to the studio sublime you can check out all the other lovely hearts.

That's it from me today, folks,

have a good weekend,

Wax Carved Ring - a work in progress

Hello friends,

It's exciting to start resuming class again. It's only once a week for 3 hours, but I really look forward to it.
This term, I have been bumped up to the intermediate jewellery making class which is a little scary.

Our first project for the year is a wax carved ring. The beauty of this process is that there is very little loss of metal ( and expense) and multiple copies can be made.

I am not at all familiar with the process... but here is my understanding of it so far....

A jewelry item is made from wax by sawing/filing/carving. In our case, the class project is a ring prototype.

A mould is then made from the finished wax ring with plaster and then molten metal (silver in my case) will then be poured in to the mould. Somewhere in the process the wax is 'lost' during firing... this gives the process it's name........'lost wax carving'

The beginning of my rings. The fatter one will (hopefully) be a signet ring.

As you can see, I have not made a lot of progress! The larger one, which will be a signet ring, has been sized to my finger and partially shaped. It still requires a lot of refining... the top piece needs shaping and the ring band needs shaping and thinning out..... a lot of work ahead.

The thinner one is going to be more experimental.... holes and melty bits added to it... nice and organic... a bit of a play toy just to see what the wax can do when you have fun with it.

Well that's it for me today, hope your day is a good one.....

I Heart Macro - cabs!

Hello friends,

Two posts in a day...  playing catch up!

Yesterday, I had a day away from preparing the house for sale and took a trip to the country for a Lapidary and gem show at Yarragon, Victoria.

I have always wanted to try and set a cab in silver but needed to buy a cab to try it! I couldn't help myself and bought a few cabs to try and also the tools that help fold/push the metal over the stone.

Next step... the silver, the bezel and the instructions.....
I have no idea if these are 'good' or not.. I just chose a few from the ones available that I liked.

Fossilised coral x 2, dendritic agate, Botswana agate, Purple Chalcedony and an Australian Garnet

Tools for pushing the edges of the metal over the cab.

Now to make the time to put these babies together!

Linking up to Lori's for I Heart Macro

Cheers for now,