long time, no post

well, it's been awhile since I posted because our life has changed dramatically in the last month or so.  My daughter and her son have moved back to California, YAH!!.  It's been quite the whirlwind of activity.  Aidan is staying with us for now, while his mommy looks for a new job and gets settled in.  He is a real delight, full of giggles and mischief. 

As I have been focusing on family matters there hasn't been much time to torch or craft jewelry.  I did get the little guy to "string" some beads, but he didn't seem to be interested in sticking to any particular design plan LOL.

Capital Rose Garden

Yesterday I took a nice stroll through the gardens around the Capital building on my way to lunch.  Even though the weather has been strangely chilly and rainy, the flowers were still blooming beautifully.

The creepiest crawlie!

WARNING:  You are about to see a close encounter of the spidery kind.  Quick, avert your eyes and skip on to the next post if spiders are not your thing.

this guy was super fast and I was frantically following it around with the camera, kind of close, to get a Macro mode photo.  At one point it got a little annoyed; here it's definitely looking right at me and sort of menacing the camera with it's chelicerae (the blue mouth parts).  I believe it's commonly known as the "Bold Jumping Spider".  It was pretty cool, but looking at it now is kind of giving me the creeps!

Elementary, my dear Watson

I had some time today to put together a few more little pretties.

"Positron"

close up of the "Positron" earrings

close up of "Positron" pendant

"Gamma" earrings

"Epsilon" earrings

I've also been working on the display case and it is coming along quite nicely.  Maybe I'll get it finished tonight and post a picture tomorrow. 

Misha is recovering very well from her recent brush with death, I'm taking her to the vet tomorrow for a check up just to make sure.

Creepy Crawlies

It must be almost June, because these little beetles we saw everywhere today near Putah Creek are called June Bugs or June Beetles.

 and then this striking black & red caterpillar, this guy was really on the move, maybe it wasn't too comfortable sporting those bright colors hanging out in the open with all the little swallows, robins and bluebirds flying around. I googled it and think this guy is a Pipevine Swallowtail caterpillar.

Here is a nice link to learn more about the Pipevine Swallowtail (it's a beautiful butterfly). The site explains how a caterpillar of this size is likely poisonous to predators. But still it would be a really bad day to get pinched in half, by a bird, then dropped from the sky when you taste bad.

More Bling

In between dealing with Misha and other family crisis, I found some time to get lost in making pretty baubles.

"Bex"

"Kalinda"

"Madame Rose"

"Neria"

I figured out how to add text to my pictures and as you can see I've settled on a name for my little glassy stuff, Amorphous Designs.  I had to get on this as a hair salon owner I met in Ione recently offered to let me show my stuff in her store. I'm sort of besides myself hoping this is good enough for other people to actually lay down cold hard cash.  I plan to start out with a sign indicating that "all the profits from the sale of these items will be donated to the local animal shelter Spay & Neuter program".  Having actually seen too many 50 gallon drums filled to overflowing with euthanized dogs and cats makes this cause close to my heart and I cannot wait to cut my first donation check!  Now I only have to figure out how to make a display case and price these babies.

Days of our Dogs

I swear it seems like the dogs are taking turns having soap operas.  As I was pulling in the parking space at home on Thursday I saw Craig standing at the door looking freaked out and covered in scrapes and blood.  He had just gotten home from taking Misha to the vet. 
Earlier in the day he was getting ready to go to the store and Misha was running around the front lawn while he opened the truck.  Across the park our neighbors were walking their dog, that dog saw Misha, broke his lead and came hell bent for leather to attack Misha.  Craig threw himself into the fight, eventually getting little Misha freed from the larger dog's jaws.  Thanks heavens Craig didn't get bit.  He was able to scoop her up and get her to the local vet who patched her up. 

She came home with us the same night, so we were able to make her as comfortable as possible.  She is doing really well now, walking around a little and putting some weight on her back leg.  It looks like she was lucky and nothing vital was injured.  If Craig hadn't rescued her, I think the other dog might have killed her. Craig is our hero!!