Manny goes on a Garden Tour in Modesto

Another "Adventures with Manny"

My very good friend invited me to go on a garden tour of Modesto and Manny decided to tag along as he just couldn't believe humble Modesto would host a garden tour, I mean really ... Modesto!

So off we went, hoping we could slip in some "Manny posing with the flowers" photo ops while the lovely Di was looking the other way.  She seemed to be embarrassed to been seen by the refined Garden Ladies of Modesto with a doll wielding, crazy photo taking person. (but I didn't care, cue the crazy person laughter, bwa ha ha).

Manny contemplated taking a dip in the pool, I had to remind him that Di would not look kindly upon our frolicking in the fancy Garden Lady's pool.

the next place was quite a showcase of modern architecture, minimalist gardening and spectacular concrete designs, like this fireplace mantel, all made by the homeowner's company, Flying Turtle Cast Concrete:

But Manny wondered if perhaps this neighborhood had some gang issues, as in "Vampire Gangs", when we passed by the garlic bulb wreath on the front door.

they did have a very sweet little dachshund doggie, so I hope they get rid of the Vampires soon.

The next place on the tour was a little more my speed, a modest size home with a small, but wonderful, colorful yard filled with plant and decoration eye candy.  They had a lot of simple concrete planter beds painted purple and lime green, filled with very interesting succulent plants of every size, shape and texture.

 

and then Manny snuck up into this cool, succulent wall planter so he could see the clever watering feature built into the top of this thing. Luckily, this was in the side yard, so no-one caught on.

 

 
we went to several other places and saw other fabulous gardens.

 

Manny didn't just stop to smell the roses, he climbed right on up into them.

good thing this hard working girl was busy elsewhere at the time

 

Lastly, a word of caution, should you choose to go on the tour next year. The path DOES NOT go all the way around the lake, it only goes 95% of the way around the lake to leave you looking with longing at the last 50 uncrossable yards with your sad, sunburned foreheads and blistered feet, thinking damn it, why didn't we stop at the picnic table an hour ago?? now we have to walk ALL THE WAY BACK!! with no water, no sunscreen and no other shoes.

Dental Origami

We have a great dentist, he's skilled, pragmatic, and funny (which is important since he has to do 95% of the talking while he's got his fingers my mouth).  My only gripe with the dentist is how he sends the bills for payment. He mails a standard letter size (8.5 x 11 inches ) bill statement with a return envelope only 3.5 x 6.5 inches.

 I simply cannot make myself just cut a check and put it into the return envelope with no indication of an account number or something to connect the check to my bill.  So, I try to take the tri-folded statement and simply shorten it to fit into the 6.5" wide envelope.  No dice, because, of course, it's too tall now, so yet another fold to make it fit into the 3.5 inch high envelope. By this time the bill has been folded multiple times and it's getting kind of bulky.
As I am doing all this folding and stuffing I'm thinking  "sheesh, I've got to do freakin origami just to pay the dental bill". Which then lead me to create this message for my dentist.

 I am highly tempted to do this with the next bill I get with the too small return envelope.

iPad photo upload test

Testing photo upload from iPad

Another test with blogpress iPad app

Max is Back

Our oldest dog, Max, is 15 now.  He's blind, deaf and pretty much always confused, but recently he was really, really out of it.  We found him "stuck" in the bushes late at night twice last week and he actually had to be rescued as he just couldn't figure out how to back out!  He slept for about 3 days straight, didn't want to eat more than a bite or two and just generally looked like he was getting ready to check out.  We made him as comfortable as possible, fed him special wet food treats and were preparing ourselves for the inevitable and then MIRACLE!

Yes, that's right our little Max pulled himself together and is back to his morning tap dance routines, snarfing down cookies like they're going outta style and the spring in his step is back, WOO HOO. 

I cannot put into words how fricken happy I am to see him bouncing along with his ears floppin in time to his fancy boy gait. He's really looking good today as we just got his hair cut in preparation for the long hot summer.

happy flowers

Frittering the time away

Frit is the name for small crumbles of glass (can in size range from powder all the way up to rock salt size).  It comes in as many colors and combinations as anyone can dream up.  It's a fun and really simple way to add some spots or swirls of color to beads.  I recently purchased 10 small jars from a fellow lampworker trying to "destash".  I tried each one on a base of regular clear effetre (maybe some "superclear" as well).

Passion - round 12mm

 

 

Mystic - round 12mm

Blue Moon - oval 10 x 19mm

Ivory Granite - oval 9 x 14mm

Gypsy Skirt - disk 6 x 12mm

Rose Bouquet - UFO 16 x 18mm

Purple Salmon - cylinder 12 x 12mm

Desert Rose - lentil

Ruby Extra Gold over a pink base - oval 9 x 14mm

Amazing Grace over Effetre Grass Green - oval 10 x 19

these are Aurora shards (super thin sections of glass laid over the bead for a special color or texture effect), overlaid with some melted in pure silver wire and finished off with Moody Blue (metallic "sheeny" color) ends.

and my new personal favorite, simple, straight lines of various lengths overlaid with a sprinkling of enamel powder for a cool "ombre" or gradient effect.

Stay tuned for coming attraction as I will be making most of these into simple earring sets and maybe a necklace or two. If you have a personal favorite let me know and I'll give/send you something (limited time offer for family and friends only, on the off, off, off chance some anonymous stranger actually reads this :).

In a Pickle

I felt like a kid this weekend playing "Science Experiment" in the kitchen. 

I decided to get some solid silver wire for stringing my best beads (up till now I've been practicing with the silver plated wire from Michael's). After researching a little about silver wire, it looks like Argentium Silver is the way to go.  This is pure silver that's been doped with Germanium, which creates an anti-tarnish layer on the surface, also this silver alloy is nickel-free, meaning some people who are allergic to silver can wear this kind.

Another reason I wanted pure silver is to fuse the ends of the wire into balls to act as head pins for beads (otherwise I need a little loop or something at the end of the wire to keep the bead from falling off).  When you heat up metal it tends to discolor and one way to remove this discoloration is the "pickle" the metal in an acidic solution (yes, Google is an awesome tool). 

Experiment #1
It turns out you can do this with simple household ingredients like a vinegar (weak ascetic acid) and salt solution. I first tried this at room temperature and boy is it sloooooow, I left the piece in overnight and it was finally shiny by the morning, yes ... success, sort of.

But you all know I'm just not a terribly patient person, so "There must be a FASTER way" I cried as I headed to the local Second Hand store for a crock pot, and VOILA,

I present to you the "PICKLE POT"

notice the very professional and safety conscious signage, no food, no, not ever again.

Experiment #2
As one of the goals was to melt a ball on the end of the wire to hold a bead with a 1/16" hole in it, I wanted to try in a couple of gauge wires to see how big each gauge allowed.
I started with, from top to bottom, 16 gauge silver, 20 gauge silver and 20 gauge bronze (way cheaper than silver and so I just had to try it too).

hmm, lost a bit of the 20 gauge silver when I kept trying to make the ball bigger and then the whole damn thing would just drop right off the end of the wire onto the counter : (

close up of the discoloration, referred to as firescale

the bronze end fell off, not sure if this is normal or just my inexperience?  Anyway, here is the silver after only 2 hours in the hot vinegar/salt solution.

Oh yeah, baby, THAT'S what I'm talkin' about, Power to the Pickle Pot!

Nightlife at the California Academy of Sciences

I do occasionally get out of the house, away from my latest obsession with glass (and I've got the pictures to prove it).  A friend from work, a graduate of Penn State, invited me to accompany her to a Penn State alumni night at the California Academy of Sciences this last Thursday.  The Academy offers an Adults only event called Nightlife weekly.

view from the living roof, the tall twisty building to the right is the DeYoung museum

We were pleasantly surprised it took only a little over an hour to get there from Vacaville, parking was easy to find and because this is a weeknight event there were no huge lines or crowds (that was actually the best part)!  They had some DJ and live music pumping through the open spaces, lots of options for food and beverages and all the exhibits were open AND free tickets to the Planetarium show, such a good deal!

We saw the 6:30 Planetarium show (spectacular) and afterward I was initially a little disappointed that we missed the opportunity to see the living roof, but actually it was totally cool to see the view at night.

looking out over the music concourse

We wandered around checking out the displays and spent a considerable amount of time in the Aquarium.
Our nominee for "Ugliest Fish in the Aquarium" (he didn't seem to mind, a guy's gotta eat right?  And this is good camouflage for an unsuspecting fish dinner).

and our nominee for "Coolest Creature in the Aquarium" (we were not allowed to photograph this light sensitive guy, but I pulled a photo off the internet to show you how totally cool this one is;

ah, the Weedy Sea Dragon, oh how I love thee, so elegant and graceful, so colorful and otherworldly gorgeous!

Other creatures of note:
the eels, sleek, sinuous and with a menacing sense of danger about them.

the upside down jelly fish, this one is reaching out a tentacle to check out the nearby starfish, hmm... friend or foe?

These frogs which look like aliens pondering how they got stuck in this strange glass world with giant faces peering at them all day and night

the albino American alligator, named Claude

I have fond memories of this enclosure from yearly school field trips, I'm sure this is a different alligator, but it sure does bring back those memories.  My best friend at the time got shelled by the seagulls during lunch and we had to perform some major hair clean up in the little bathroom sinks, all the while I was desperately trying to be sympathetic, while inside dying to laugh uproariously, good times, good times.