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I feel a little sick today. Headache since yesterday, nose starts running and overall weird. Do you know this feeling that it hurts when someone or something touches your hair (that I got on the arms in abundance)?
So I decided to go home early today after making the mistake to go to work in the first place.
Happily I trotted off to the train, but when I came from the S-Bahn (kind of suburban train) to the regular one I saw mine was cancelled. "Police investigations in one of the stations" - that usually means someone has jumped in front of a train. Another train was waiting, but as the track had been blocked, of course it didn't run, either. At least it would be warm in there, outside it was freezing cold and I sure didn't feel like that.
Soon a lady joined me and (remember the sign on my forehead that says "Talk to me!"?) started asking me what was the matter, telling me about her train experiences and sighing heavily in between questions and stories. Then a group of students entered the wagon and started talking very loud. I could have handled either one easily, but not together. Because of the noise the lady couldn't hear the announcements from outside which she told me a few times. Then one of the students said "At least they could announce something!" Uh-oh.
The lady started telling them nobody could hear the speaker because of them and the students asked back if they were supposed to remain silent or WHAT. I shrinked into my seat because what I needed least in this moment was a heated discussion. Luckily one of the students took over and calmed everybody down by apologizing to the lady and winking at his friends.
Over one hour late we could leave the station. Slowly because of course the long-distance trains were allowed to pass us by on the way. I made it home anyway and now I am more than ready for a nap.
Still I wanted to share with you what keeps me sane through rides like this one ;-)
Ice nest - frosted nest with a shimmering piece of ice inside
I'll never go anywhere without hooks and wire! :-D
So it was time for the vet's. Again.
This time it was Ponder's turn. The black devil is losing hair on his belly and leg, so I thought before alien parasites would take over the house (too much X-files on my mind?), we take him there to have it checked out. Not that I have seen him licking himself excessively and it was only a little red, but I didn't want to take chances.
He did put up quite a fight when we were there. A few times he almost sat on my head. I had him around the neck like a stola, I had him on my shoulder, clawing some of my best parts with his hind feet, I had him pinned down to the table and it was exhausting. And that was only when we were waiting!
While she checked him out and ripped out some hair, he tried to hit me a few times. When I agreed to do some tests for parasites, he really had "fun". It took three of us to hold him so the vet could scrape off a little skin here and there. I wish I had brought the camera, my sister could have taken a picture. The assistant holding him by the neck and his front legs, the vet holding one hind leg and scraping away and me holding the other hind leg and his tail out of the way.
The good thing is - no parasites found. The bad thing is - what is the problem? She asked me if anything had happened lately and I told her about Gandalf and that Ponder likes to pounce Meffi since Merlin is gone.
Possible diagnosis - I have a psycho cat. She thinks it could be psychogenic alopecia. Either the boy is frustrated, sad or a freak. No, I made the last one up.
Since he is full of energy, it's possible that he does the licking during the day when we are not there to play or cuddle with him. For the others he is playing too rough sometimes.
So now we put up Feliway diffusers with pheromones hoping that will help and he will need even more playtime. I might get some more scratches when playing kitty monsters with him (my hand under the blanket, him pouncing it), but so what? He is so worth it!
If this doesn't make any difference in the next two to three weeks, we'll go back to searching what it could be.
Psychogenic alopecia is a controversial topic, but hey, I always knew he is special ;-)
Yes, I know something you don't know. Yet. And I can't wait to tell you because it's a fun secret I think and it has to do with the Europe ArtFire Guild I am a member of.
You'll still have to wait, but why don't you check in at our blog from time to time?
Gotta go, there is more to do before we can share with the world.
I sure AM excited :-D
Seems I am on the fruit trip, even if not intentionally in the first place.
I buy my wire online in England, from wires.co.uk and I love their colored copper wire. I could buy the list up and down and back up again and when a parcel arrives, I sit down, hold the spools into a light and giggle like a little girl at the beautiful shine.
So it is easy to match wire and beads tone in tone and you have lots of possibilities to experiment with different color combinations as well.
This is one of my favorite colors, a beautiful metallic orange although I think the seller calls it honey.
It's a bright and happy color and was perfect for these earrings. They remind me of a puddle of orange juice that is trickling down in a spiral. What better to use as accent than a clear glass rounded cube with AB (aurora borealis) finish? I like ice cubes in my orange juice!
Recently I bought some purple and black glass beads.
I have used them with black and purple wire before on this spool knit necklace. Here I put the black beads on the purple and the purple beads on the black wire for the perfect mix.
For this pendant I wanted to go tone in tone, though. After I started I found it began to remind me of a berry, so instead of going for a plane disk I made it domed.
On the pendant I had stopped at a disk because when I decided it was a berry, it was too late to make a ball out of it, it would have been much too big. What about berries for the ears? It still is blackberry season, hmm. Thought, said out loud and done, here is the result. Yummy looking blackberries for your ears.
Let me think, what else do I need for fruit salad? One idea already came from a forum friend (thanks, Cindy!), another one is welling up in my mind just now ...
It had to happen some day, I guess. And I can't even blame it on the cats. Of course Ponder was sitting on the pinball machine yelling for me to hurry up with whatever I was doing at the moment and of course he tried to jump my shoulder, but the fact that I pulled out one of the drawers of my plastic storage case and hit the bead box with it is only the fault of my own stupidness and carelessness.
He sure loved the sound - clickety, clackety - of beads flying everywhere and was eager to help me clean them up, but I threw him out of the room and closed the door.
Only when I already had retrieved most of them from the corners of a big room (isn't it amazing how far these fellows can fly?), the thought to take a picture came to me. I also didn't feel like dropping the box again, so all you get to see is the epicenter which really was the easiest area to clean up.
I can be more than glad that these were not the really small beads.
A few ones tried to hide inside my armchair. Not with me. No bead will roam free in this house if I can prevent it! ;-)
This was a sign to me I desperately need to organise again, also the cheap beads like these ones *sigh*
In honor of today's holiday, the Day of Reunification, I made this treasury. Although it's called German talent, this is not quite true. It is not that easy to find German artisans on Etsy, it seems! So some of the ones featured here are Americans, Australians and I don't know what that are living in Germany :-)
I am absolutely in love with the voodoo doll and the bunny. Is that a sign I am getting ready for Halloween?
Which reminds me, why are the bat garlands I ordered for to hang up at work not here yet?
Tricked you. I might have a good time, but neither alcohol nor dancing is involved. No flirting, no movies, no night on the town, no girls' night out.
Still my muse and I had, well, not just one, but actually two balls today and I am almost sure they won't be the last ones.
Maybe you remember my wrecking ball? The name comes to you courtesy of Maureen, an SJA friend (by the way, you should check out her blog and shop sometime). These balls are different. The wrecking ball is almost solid. These ones I wanted to make hollow, so I could fill them up, like a candy. Well, not really. A filled candy is meant to be eaten. I love liquid fillings and the sensation on the tongue once the outer wall is breaking. You shouldn't try to eat the ball pendants and I will tell you why.
First I made this one.
It is from black coated copper wire. I tried different things to fill it with, but in the end I decided to take a silver-colored kind of embroidered ribbon because it gave the best contrast.
Now I was eager to try other combinations. As I often do, I reached into the "current project bag" in my nightstand without looking inside and out came the green-golden colored wire. I tried different ribbon and beads for the inside, then I found the last bicone crystals that were left over from my "Green Fairy" necklace. Perfect!
I guess now you know why you shouldn't eat these pendants. Ribbon feels strange on the tongue and is hard to chew and crystals could break your teeth out.
Better stick with wearing them around the neck! ;-)
