Actually I had a quite relaxed Saturday as well. Going shopping and disposing of cans early, some light blogging, plurking, emailing later. Sounds like a weird kind of fitness training. Then I fell asleep in my chair in the afternoon and visited Morpheus, my old pal, for quite a while. In the evening I woke up all cranky and tired and foggy in the brain.I know who or what is to blame for that.Cat sleeping gas. You won't find it on Wikipedia, you won't find it on a list of dangerous substances, but it's there. At first I had thought it was a matter of touch and sound. A cat snuggled into your arm and purring makes you go to sleep pretty fast, doesn't it? After years of thorough research, though, with the help of my trusted furry assistants (even if they think I am the assistant or even less than that) without who my work would not have been possible, I found out that it's a gas. It enters your body and you won't know it. I am sure it finds its way not only through the nose, but through all skin pores and that way controls your body and your brain.It works best if you are already in a horizontal position or at least half horizontal. That way you won't have to move to fall asleep. You won't fall if you are standing. You think that is nice? I think it was designed that way to keep the furry masters' slaves from hurting themselves. After all they need us. Well, they need our opposable thumbs. Still. Who knows for how long.
So why do I think it's a gas? Because it also works when there are cats sleeping in the same room. The more, the faster you are gone.
A master of this cruel game is Greebo, the innocent-looking one. He swears by all methods, the purring, the snuggling, the shedding hairs - ah, sorry, that one is wrong in here - the licking and the gas. He was the one that got me yesterday. I was just sitting in my armchair, crochet hook in hand, wanting to pick up my wire and there he was, snuggling into my armpit, smiling at me innocently and then working his spells. I think it took about 10 seconds for me to drop like a fly.Now he is here in my lap, relaxed as can be. Sorry, his head is cut off a bit in the second pic, but my arms were not long enough to catch all of him like that and holding the camera above my head I also couldn't check the display.
Oh-oh, I feel a tiredness coming on .....................
You have already seen a bunch of kitties and a bunny, but today please welcome Mr. Greenfish.
Mr. Greenfish was not easily born. Actually he had a predecessor that I had to flush down the toilet. Figuratively speaking. Experienced fisherman that the tall guy is he didn't give him any chances to survive. His fins were placed wrong, he had a very short head and - how I noticed myself then - no mouth. Don't worry, he didn't have to suffer.
Mr. Greenfish is looking much healthier, I hope you'll think so, too. It did take some labor, though.
You want to know why I stepped into the water now? I am trying to set up a little zoo. To offer at our little local zoo, with part of the earnings going to our club.
You can check out the website, it's listed on the side, but it's in German. Of course I can translate it if you are interested. It's not very up-to-date, we are waiting for the update at the moment, hopefully not too long anymore.
I have no ideas what else I may come up with. I am just trying things, they either survive like Mr. Greenfish or they ... *sniff* too sad, but you know what I mean.
Today it's so humid and damp here, I'll go outside now to get a little better air and take something to work on with me. Stay tuned!
The last days I have been busy. Not only making jewelry, but also reading and some napping. I guess I had to sleep off my blog writer's block. I wonder if this is an acknowledged disease?Also I started plurking a while ago. That was the right exercise for my mind. Short sentences for a short attention span.The same it was for my creativity. I have been looking at my stack of things a lot lately and it is so not organised. I have a few storage boxes, but as I like to have everything in reach, most things are in small plastic bags on the table. My sister knows what my birthday wish is and I hope she won't forget till then :-D
Still I made a few things and I even took out some half-dead pieces to breathe new life into them.That is what I done with these pearl wheels. I have a similar pendant in my ArtFire shop and really I wanted to make matching earrings. Although I had counted stitches the disks turned out different, though. One is slightly bigger and therefore also having one freshwater pearl more. Things like these make me nervous and the only way is to put them away for a while. Now I had the idea to combine both wheels to form a pendant. Both disks are adorned with peacock-colored freshwater pearls, the bail is handformed from sterling silver wire.
I can't say I am overwhelmed because the idea is not super original, but I am happy I found a way to use them without having to make 20 more disks (wouldn't even have enough pearls ;-)) just to find two matching ones!
Hm, just as I am writing this another idea crawled into my mind. I'll let you know what comes of it. I will wait listing the pendant anywhere hoping this idea will work out.
What else did I make? This little freeform silver ring was made in a whim of the moment, you could say. It was the rest from a string of wire and I had my ring mandrel in my hand accidentally and what can I say, I am thinking about keeping it as I always do when I try something new *lol* Strong, I have to be strong.
Also I bought a tumbler and hope it will arrive soon. I have been wanting to do that for a while and finally did it. A beginner's model. I am beginning to understand men drooling about tools. If you asked me, I would bubble over with a whole list. So don't ask me. I don't have time for bubbles, I need to put some teeth on a bunny pendant now. Can you believe I forgot the teeth?
Tomorrow I'll be off to a fleamarket. Hold your thumbs for me it won't rain again!
I didn't think the week could get any better, but hey - never stop hoping, right?
After weeks of wondering where the white balance was hidden in my camera (good thing when you lose the description), I finally had the idea to look it up in the interwebz. I had suspected it to be hiding somewhere behind the "func"-button and I had pushed that button a few times without getting further, though.
Today I had the perfect idea. I set the camera to German and found that gave me not only symbols, but even a few words. There it was "Weißabgleich", yay.
This is like reaching the last camp before getting to the peak of Mt. Everest. After all I am not a pro. I'm not even an amateur. I am somewhere between a snail and a frog regarding my photographic abilities. But I'm a determined snog (no, that is not a word, I know, but would be a nice name for a snaily frog, don't you think?) and eventually I'll come around.
*going off to prove her point*
So I tried to think about a good posting for today. Are you interested in the fact I'll get two wisdom teeth pulled in July and had a talk with the surgeon about it today (a very good-looking surgeon at that! ;-))? Nah, I guess not.
About the funny mail exchange I had at work yesterday? Hm, that might be interesting, but I don't like to mix daily work with my blog although the thought was enticing for a moment because I really would have liked to share the laugh with you.
I don't have a picture of my latest piece yet, either.
When I opened my blog today, the hard decision was taken from me by an unexpected comment.
I was presented The Lemonade Stand Award which is given to a blogger who shows great attitude and gratitude.
Isn't it cute?
I was nominated (and so was the Europe ArtFire Guild that I am a proud member of) by Deborah Nolan, you'll find her under "Society of Stamp- & Scrap-aholics"
Thanks, Deborah, I appreciate it and your kind comment about my jewelry so much!
Now I'll push the cart on to share some great blogs with you.
Elvira at viri-design - Elviras Nähwahn
This is a blog in German and it translates as "Elvira's sewing frenzy" meaning that gal just can't keep her hands off that sewing machine. She is about to set up her own website at the moment, but I already own some of her creations now. That reminds me I still have to share my gorgeous new cat bag with you.
Cindy at CND Jewelry Tales
I love Cindy's tales, she makes her beautiful jewelry come alive (erm, Cindy, where is Geni, I am still waitiiiiiing ;-)). Check it out, I am sure you'll get drawn in just like me!
Jenny at Jenny Karlsson Design
"I like to create things with my hands, live, laugh and gather wisdom ..." And she is sharing it with you. Not only through her embroidered wisdom bags, but also through being conscious about the environment and letting you know. You'll know what I mean when you look at her blog.
Wendy at Eddy G - The place to be
I get all childish looking at her pretties and to be true I seem to get all childish talking to her. A funny warm-hearted lady with a great talent and a special humor ;-)
The last one goes to an organisation and not a craft-connected one.
Not only does it make me almost cry when I look at its blog, but it also makes me grateful that there are people out there that care and help. Take this as an example for all the good causes, charities and helping hands I am not able to mention
Gorilla.cd - the official website of Virunga National Park, DR Congo
I know there are so many more blogs and I cheer them all. Sometimes I just go browsing and it's great fun, makes me think, makes me feel I am part of something amazing. The world has never been so small ...
You remember Peppermint Patty from the Peanuts? "I'm awake, I'm awake!"
I wasn't very awake the last days, but very busy.
Like always I experimented a little with ring pendants. Sterling silver rings crocheted in with silver wire and different beads. After a gal from my forum confirmed the idea that had been sleeping in some dusty area of my brain, that is to put a stone in the middle, AND offered some ideas how to put said stone there, I tried to put that into reality.
Oh well, so the stone turned into a handmade clef and the beads around are missing because I felt they would be too much. I still like it :-)
This is another one of my "great" night pictures, sorry, but it's difficult for a night owl!
I am trying new things at the moment. Does that mean I am developing or does it mean I am getting bored if I don't get the new kick all the time?
As it's still fun I sure hope it's the first choice.
After making the ring from the last post and therefore putting my hands on some thicker gauge wire, I feel the urge to try to do more stuff with it.
I had already made some small wire rings, again combined with crochet (sorry, no good pics), and had two scraps of wire about the same size lying around. As a Swabian (also called the Scots of Germany) I had to do something with them. Now! The now turned into a while as I am not experienced at that, but finally I had a pair of small earrings that I actually like :-)
The greatest fun about crafting for me is to not do the same things again and again. Mind you, there is nothing wrong in doing things more than once (says the kitty head lady ;-)), but sometimes it's nice to experiment, to dare doing something you haven't before and if it works out, that is a great feeling. Sometimes a mistake leads to one of these experiments.A friend of mine likes green. Bright green. I have been looking for the right kind of crystal, but never found the right green tone. Until now. So I happily headed home and started to crochet a setting right away. It was so frustrating! The crystal kept slipping out and I felt how I was getting more impatient by the minute, no, by the second.I am a grown-up. I don't throw things. Or maybe I do. Rarely. Sometimes. I am proud to say I did not throw the crystal to the ground, but back into its bag. Now I had a setting started, what should I do with it? From there on it was relaxing. I strung some small faceted rubies and sapphires onto wire and fixed them to the setting. So now I had kind of a disk with stones in it. At first I left it at that. Then I put the disk on my finger. It looked like it should be on a ring, but how? I have never done that before. Wait, in some crazy outburst of optimism I had ordered some thicker gauge wire once. I'll spare you the whole story expect the fact that I really had fun. I didn't do this for a purpose, not for a gift, not for sale, not under time pressure, just for myself and I enjoyed it.
I don't know if I will be able to do something like this again, maybe if I go back to working on the jinxed green crystal .......
No, I haven't gone mad. Well, not more than I was before already.
Chicken man is a dear memory from my teenager times when I was still listening to AFN on Sundays. Casey Kasem and the American Top 40 - aaah, what a trip down the memory lane.
Sundays there was also Chicken Man. I don't remember much about it, but for those who want to check it out (Americans probably know what I am talking about), here you go.
Now, what did I want to say? Yeah, right. I remember now. CatsWire is everywhere, is everywhere ;-) Not to save the world, but to make it a little more beautiful maybe?I hear you yelling from the side "Get going, lady, it's boring out here! What do you want to tell us?"
Ok, it's not Etsy, it's not ArtFire, it's my DaWanda shop where I listed two new earring pairs from my kitty line!
And last, but not least ... a very happy birthday to my favorite witch in the whole world!! :-D
Granny Esmelvira, have the greatest birthday possible. I am so glad to know you are my friend! Hugs and cheers for and to you!!
So I spent hours in my mom's garden to take pictures in natural light. I photographed till the batteries ran low - ok, they hadn't been fresh from the beginning, but still.
When at home I checked the about 150 pictures, I was ready to throw myself into the Fils, but decided not to because it is hardly deep enough to drown in there with style. I think about 10 pictures were left in the end.
Thanks to a sunny, but windy day. I didn't think it would make that much difference, but of course crochet pieces are lightweight and even if I didn't see them move, obviously they did. And I didn't even get cake!
Oh Man.
In October 2008 I sent a parcel to the Canary Islands. One tube of vitamin and one of high-calorie paste for a skinny cat.
You already know what comes next? Right.
This parcel returned to me today, with the note "not claimed".
Now I wonder where it has been for so long. Has it travelled around the world? Has it been asleep in some Spanish post office? Has it been lost in some dark corner with spider webs hiding it? These questions almost makes me crazy.
If it only could speak ......
1st of May is Labor Day in Germany and in some cities traditionally the day for a parade by the extreme right-wing parties. Of course then the left-wing people and lots of other groups jump in to protest against it.
I wanted to visit a friend today and went there by train. I hadn't known there would be one of these big demonstrations. Police all over the place. I hope I smiled at the right times because there were quite a few of them with cameras. Haha. Really I didn't feel like smiling, though. It scared the heck out of me. When I came out of the train station, I didn't believe my eyes. Had I known it would be like this we could have set a different meeting place. To make it short, after feeling not very safe in a group of yelling people I almost begged the police to let me back into the station which was allowed when you had a ticket. There we finally found each other.
On the way back it was even worse. The first thing we saw when coming to the station were water cannons going off and a crowd of people running into our direction. I got out of the car and tried to get inside, but at first I was stuck in a group with young people arguing with the police. After I could finally show my ticket again I was admitted to the station. On the way I saw injured people lying on the ground being tended to by paramedics, a crying girl that asked a policeman where they had taken her boyfriend who had been arrested. I was so glad when I had arrived on the track safely only to see there was another crowd - no idea which wing they belonged to, but they sounded loud and aggressive - guarded by the police. When they finally had moved to a different track, I felt for the first time I could breathe a little easier, but I had gotten my hopes up too soon. A guy with a right-wing shirt and another guy who didn't approve of it (which I can understand just too well!!) started going at each other, but some elder people reacted real fast and went in between.
I have probably never been that happy to see a train. Even if I had to sit upstairs because downstairs was another crowd.
I arrived safely at home eventually. Maybe my feelings were overreactions, but I had never experienced something like it and I have a problem with big gatherings anyway. Gee, I don't even like to go to big wedding or birthday parties with people I know!
At any rate it was scary. Not only because of the aggressivity I could sense, not only because the police looked like they were ready to go into war with their helmets, enormous boots and weapons, not only because I am a wimp, but because there shouldn't be people like that at all. Young people - and not only in Germany - that glorify what happened so long ago, that have opinions that are just plain dangerous. Dangerous for the whole world.
