These Restless Fingers

An unlikely visitor

2010-07-07T16:17:00.001-07:00

The other day I was teasing my mom with her lovely country garden, saying that at least I don’t have to worry about deer munching on my roses. I may live in the city and hear the rumble of buses or the wail of sirens on a regular basis, but even this cloud has a silver lining… at least my less than serene garden has its perks. I was wrong…

Look who was lounging in my yard when I got up this morning! I guess he was enjoying this spot of shade to chew his cud. Since we are so close to downtown and other parts of the city are so much more appealing (fresh water, forests, etc.), it is not often one sees deer in our area. And take a look at those antlers! all soft and velvety… this is a 4-point buck!

Since he was just lounging and not eating my plants I let him be and took the photos through the kitchen window. After a while, he got up, shook his head as if to clear out the cobwebs and sauntered into my veggie garden. I had a video but I must have accidentally deleted it… shoot! He didn’t touch my veggies (thank you!) but he did take a bite out of my fledgling hydrangea before meandering down the street to check out some more gardens. Oh, and when he headed for my veggie patch, we banged on the window and went outside and he was not even the least bit phased.

I have to say that it has been a bit of a strange day all in all. I made an appointment this morning to get a dress hemmed (I’m wearing it on Saturday for my brother’s wedding) and I was feeling pretty good about the whole thing: Dress bought on sale… check. Get it shortened… check. Now just a little sun on my legs and I’ll be ready to go, right? So off I go to buy some milk at the corner store and what do I do on my way back? I trip on some uneven sidewalk and give myself a good case of road-rash. I mean, okay, I do clumsy things from time to time and REALLY clumsy things once every couple of years… but this? now? this week? I couldn’t believe it. Luckily Doctor Nick came to my rescue and bandaged me up as soon as I had hobbled home… Thanks love.

How To Make a Stamp

2010-05-14T21:21:00.001-07:00

When faced with a creative query, I often look to the internet for answers and I have often found helpful information on the blog of another creative crafter. So in the sprit of sharing how-to advice, here’s a quick little tutorial on how to make a stamp – not a rubber stamp, but a means to imprint a design in clay. This is how I made the stamps that I use in my PMC jewelry.

First, roll out some polymer clay.

Etch your design or write your text in the polymer clay – sorry I didn’t take more pictures – I used a ball point pen though. Cook the polymer clay according the the directions and let cool.

Give the cooked clay a light dusting of corn starch and tap it off so that there’s not too much in the crevices. Then roll out another piece of polymer clay – make it a bit thicker than the thickness that you will want the finished stamp to be – and press it firmly into the corn starched impression. The corn starch will prevent the uncooked clay from sticking to the cooked stuff and when you remove it you will have the reverse of the design that you originally created (great for text which become reversed again when stamped!) and you can pop it in the oven to cook.

If you use brown Sculpey like I did, watch that the folks in your household don’t try eating it – it really looks a lot like chocolate! Now you are ready to add handles. I cut up some chopsticks, gave the ends a light sand, and glued them to my chocolate pieces. Epoxy or a strong craft glue like E6000 will work great.

Happy crafting!

Of Birth and Death

2010-04-22T00:06:00.001-07:00

The last month has flown by and just as we expected, our ducklings hatched in time for Easter. Red hatched three cute little peepers…

who stayed on the nest for a while and then came out to play…

and who are often found snuggled up together.

Unfortunately, not all of the eggs hatched – Red had kicked a few of them out of the nest so they may have gotten too cold then or perhaps she did so because knew that something was wrong with them… ??

Mom opened one to see what was inside and this is what she found…

Look at what a tight fit it is… isn’t nature amazing?

It hasn’t been all fun and games though. One of the ducklings caught pneumonia, was one the brink of death, and was brought into the house for some special care… wait! I’m having déjà vu… this happened last spring! Anyways, we have named her Pearl (Mom swears its a female…) and, well, she might become Earl.

An infection as left her with a deformed bill (see that underbite?) and one of the remedies Mom used has left her with purple feathers… so she’s pretty funny looking to begin with…

but then when she preens or scratches she is quite the contortionist!

Unfortunately, our paddle of quackers has suffered another, more serious, calamity. Bella, the mother of the others was attacked by a hawk a couple of weeks ago. Mom locked the other ducks up when she went into town, but because Bella had built a nest nestled close to the house beside the front porch and was sitting on her eggs, Mom left her there thinking she would stay on her nest where she would more than likely be safe. Mom was devastated when she came home to a macabre pile of white feathers in the horse paddock. Bella must have decided she wanted in with the others and was stranded out by her lonesome. Things just haven’t been the same since then. Jethro still looks for his mate (I know, I know, isn’t she his mom too? it’s just for one generation, we promise) and Red isn’t near as good of a mom as Bella was.

We miss you…

A Weekend in the Country

2010-03-15T21:01:00.001-07:00

Back in the city after a quiet weekend with family and friends, I thought I would share a couple of pictures from quaint Cobble Hill. I even love the name “Cobble Hill” – Edward Street in Victoria sounds so stuffy in comparison, doesn’t it?

Here is a photo of mom and me beside the studio with our favourite duck. I think Lolo might be looking at my buttons and wondering whether or not they would be fun to poke at.

When I arrived on Friday, ducks were enjoying the puddles in the driveway and I loved how the reflection of the ducks and the garage looked in the water. What a great way to start to the weekend!

Although it’s a bit dreary and wet right now, the trees are starting to blossom and the ground will dry out soon. Hurray for spring!

Expectant Mothers

2010-03-09T14:26:00.001-08:00

Starting in January, our ducks began to lay eggs! Yes, real duck eggs! Red, who is the youngest female - she was just a duckling last spring, remember? – started laying first and was soon followed by mama duck. They started making nests here and there, under the sequoia trees, in a patch of ferns, and mom went around collecting eggs all over the place so she could put them in the 2-nest maternity ward that she quickly built just for them.

Red has quite a clutch of eggs now – almost 10 I think – and although at first she had to be locked in her maternity nest so as to get used to the idea of it and realize “hey, these are my eggs?!” she has begun to sit on them diligently.

She still comes out for some fun though! A swim or a snack in the garden still figures on her agenda some days.

Here she is one the shovel as I turned up some dirt to reveal a feast of worms – yummm! They’re very good at getting underfoot in the garden… so better watch out!

The other night, when mom went to lock them in for the night (safe from nocturnal critters who might be on the prowl), she found Lolo cuddled up with Red in the maternity ward. The two of them seemed to have a special bond even last summer and he has definitely had more of a tendency lately to stick close to Red and the duck pen, even when he is out and about exploring the yard. I think he’ll be a proud papa… maybe we’ll even have ducklings in time for Easter…

February sunshine

2010-02-25T22:56:00.001-08:00

I just finished reading my friend Kerry’s blog post about our crew of critters in Cobble Hill, as well as some of her other updates (http://farmlass.blogspot.com/2010/02/new-residents-of-swallow-fieldpart-1.html). Her writing and photos are lovely as always and as usual I’m left wondering when was the last time I blogged. Almost a month ago? Again? How did that happen?

And so I thought I would post a few pics from last weekend. We had a lovely spell of clear blue skies and brilliantly sunny days that only recently came to a close. The Japanese plum trees are in full bloom in Victoria and spring has come early, as it is wont to do in our corner of paradise. Of course, it takes the Olympics and the sunny warm weather that has plagued the games to convince the rest of the world that not all of Canada is a winter wonderland in February. But more on why my favourite place is called Canada’s Provence some other time…

After weeks of gray skies, such a stretch of sunny days was something to celebrate. And so we made plans to head to Port Renfrew on the west side of our great island, invited family folk to come along, and packed a picnic lunch full of goodies.

This picture is a favourite of mine because although Heidi and Fiona playing with golf balls found at the beach is fun, if you look closer you will see Jordan and Bill talking physics stuff in the background and while Jordan was trying to sketch his explanations in the sand, Kim’s dog Nikita kept chasing the stick he was using… stick? stick? for me? please?… endlessly.

Thank goodness for things we find on the beach!

They make going to the beach way more fun.

This is one of those long beaches with plenty of driftwood to look at or collect. Some pieces are only good for climbing on though.

Oh, did I mention we were celebrating? Yes, we were very pleased with the gorgeous weather, but it also happened to be my birthday and I couldn’t have wished for a more pleasant day.

Fun at the beach

2010-01-29T20:55:00.001-08:00

Today was a lazy day… one those days when reason tells you that all those things that need doing can wait another day or two. This meant that I finally took the time to watch Julie & Julia which I have meaning to watch for some time and found thoroughly enjoyable. In the spirit of blogging (the cooking will have to wait for another day…), I knew I had to post a little update.

Last weekend included a trip to Cobble Hill to work on jewelry and hang with the animals. On Monday, my mom and I took Sofi and Benita for a walk to the beach. We are like most folks in that we take the dog for a walk in the late afternoon, but now this sometimes means taking the horse and the donkey out too. Since I don’t mind the funny looks and it’s good for them to experience new environments, off we went. Sofi had been to the beach with my mom once before, but it was the first time for Benita, who was curious and needed to sniff and investigate everything new she saw… sand, seaweed, big open space…

This is what Sofi had to say…

There’s nothing like a good roll in the sand. I bet she’ll like it even more in the summer when the sand gets nice and dry!

The Newest Additions

2010-01-17T19:08:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was a most exciting day! Sofi and Benita have arrived as the newest four-legged members of our family. When my mom decided that she wanted to get a horse, we thought that an older horse would make it's way into the family, one that was low maintenance but still rideable. Instead, we fell in love with Sofi. She is a nine month old Rocky Mountain filly who melted our hearts as soon as we met.

Research was quickly done to learn more about Rocky Mountain Horses and how much work it would be to train her. Everything we read talked about how these horses have an amazing temperament. This certainly seems true as Sofi is just as calm and friendly as can be, especially considering she is only nine months old.

Of course, my mom couldn’t just get Sofi and not get her a buddy to keep her company. And so Benita has also joined us.

Benita is a miniature donkey and is really quite small. We were a bit worried that she would be noisy. The roosters up the road already wake the neighbours up - what would they think if the neighbours on the other side of them got a noisy donkey who brays all the time!?!? Luckily she has been very quiet and only heehawed once when she was first unloaded and a bit scared.

We have been pleasantly surprised by how good both Sofi and Benita have been with the dogs. Sofi was as cool as a cucumber when a neighbour’s dog barked right in her face and although donkeys do not apparently get along very well with dogs, Benita has taken quite a liking to my brother’s dog, Bailey, following her around like an old friend.

A big welcome to “the girls.” I’m sure we’ll have many stories to share…

Fun with Fonts

2010-01-15T21:24:00.001-08:00

Despite my best intentions, I haven’t managed to get much done in terms of organizing or housework lately. On top of that, I haven’t done any knitting in the past two days, which is terrible since I have exciting projects that I want to finish.

I have, however, finally had a chance to do a little blurfing (e.g. blog surfing). Some of the blogs I came across were full of inspiration and you can find buttons that link to them on the right hand side down near the bottom. These lovely blogs led to others and somewhere along the way I saw a font that made me stop in my tracks and wonder why I have only ever stuck with what my laptop already had. I mean really, I have business cards and jewelry tags and now they seem so boring. I went on a search for the font I had seen and along the way I found all these other beauties. I thought I would post them in the spirit of sharing inspiration and here they are by name. (I had thought of including one for every letter of the alphabet, but then I would have to look for more and also leave some out, so never mind.) There were all free and most were from www.abstractfonts.com/ in case you also feel the need for a little something extra special for your graphic designing needs.

BURGOYNE INITIALS

Dead Hardy

ecolier

effloresce antique

first crush

gessele

herrcooleswriting

hyacinth

i-hearts

leaf1

Lewis F Day 191

lizzielongstocking

miss claude

nostalgic

porcelain

sir talks a lot

spring

vassallo

worstveld sling extra

Long overdue…

2010-01-10T22:03:00.001-08:00

I have neglected many things, including this little corner of cyberspace, over the past six months. Now that I have completed my B. Ed. and am awaiting my teaching certification I have time (and no excuse!) not to remedy the situation. So here is a little recap…

Let’s go back a ways… to my favourite season, because that is where I left off last time…

During the summer I spent my weekdays in university classrooms, and on the weekends I went to Cobble Hill and did my assignments in the studio so that we would be ready in the event that customers stopped by. Business was quiet, but we did have people wander in from time to time, and the studio was a good excuse to escape from the confines of our small city apartment and head for more peaceful surroundings.

Summer’s glory came in many forms…

including a most magnificent garden with flowers and organic veggies galore,

breakfasts on the patio while the dew evaporated under the sun’s warm rays,

and walks to the creek with the ducks and other friends.

With the passing months, we began to notice distinct differences among the ducks, in addition to those we had already become aware of, such as mama Bella’s protective nature, Lola’s friendly and clumsy ways, and Red’s daring try-anything-once attitude. We noticed curly tail feathers on two of the ducks and learned that these are what distinguish the drakes from the females… Lola is actually a Lolo!

Summer’s brilliance faded into fall as I began more classes and prepared for a practicum in a Grade 4 French Immersion class which turned out to be an amazing and enriching experience in so many ways. Thank you Grade 4s!

As winter was setting in for good, I was busy with the last minute details of my program, and then with getting ready for Christmas. For the first time in years, I put up a Christmas tree and managed to make quite a few handmade gifts. I love being done school!

One of the things my mom and I did over the holidays was strain the blackberry vodka she started months ago with her own berries. It is delicious! I especially like it with with a bit of tonic water… so refreshing, it is a true taste of summer in the dead of winter. And so another batch has been left to sit and soak up the sweet berry flavours.

Between the blackberry vodka, the bumper crop of green beans in the freezer, and the squash, summer’s bounty is still being enjoyed.

Even on misty, mossy days like today.

More ducky business…

2009-06-18T21:09:00.001-07:00

I know I originally said that this blog would be more about creative ideas and endeavours, but this paddling of ducks is a muse of sorts, and certainly amusing! And yes, apparently a group of ducks is not a flock unless in flight, but can also be called a paddling, a skiff, a raft, a team and a brace, among other terms, and since ours don’t fly (mama’s wings are clipped and the youngsters aren’t quite there yet) I think a paddling sounds good, don’t you?

Mostly, I just had to add this picture which my mom sent to me in an email last night with the caption, “and Lola came home with her friends.”

Apparently, they wandered into the kitchen and made themselves right at home. I think it must be Lola in the front because she looks like she is about to topple over and you can see that the one on the left has a slimy beak from chowing on slugs in the garden. The best of both worlds, wouldn’t you say?

I’m not sure how my mom will feel to see her oh-so-up-to-date kitchen posted to the worldwide web, but it is one of the many rooms that will have to wait for an overhaul, and really, what does it matter when there is a window above the sink that looks out at the ocean just beyond a rolling hill…

The Story of Lola the Pigeon-toed Duck

2009-06-16T11:29:00.001-07:00

One Saturday, about a month and a half ago, I accompanied my mom to a “poultry swap” and we came home with a mama call duck, Bella, and her three sweet ducklings.

At that time, we had no idea what kind of adventures we were in for and we busily went about building a pen under the willow tree and converting an old dog house into a duck house so they could be safely locked up at night.

A short while later, when I was at my “other” home in Victoria, I talked to my mom on the phone and heard about Lola (although she could very well be a Lolo – we don’t really know yet). We had noticed that one of the ducklings was smaller than the others. Now my mom informed me that the little one, whom she had affectionately named Lola, seemed to be ill with pneumonia. Things were looking grim and so she had brought her into the house for some emergency medicine, i.e. extra food and warmth. By the time I visited the following weekend, Lola was on the road to recovery and completely tame. She had imprinted on my mom and refused to be left alone, peeping plaintively at the top of her little lungs if left in the other room or area of the garden. In order to keep her safe and happy, the pocket of a old work shirt came in handy to tote her around and my mom was glad to have me there to help out as a second surrogate.

The bathroom sink became a swimming pool, the laundry basket became a playpen and a spot to sleep at night, and our lives were filled with digging for worms, apparently duck candy, and the sweet little peeps that showed her appreciation. Indeed, in no time we learned the difference between her happy cuddly peeps, her “thank you for the food” peeps and her “where are you” peeps. We really couldn’t leave her alone, and not because of the dog or the cat, they seemed to have gotten used to her presence although they were most definitely jealous of the attention she was getting, but because she was always falling down and on some some occasions she got stuck on her back and wasn’t strong enough to right herself. If we weren’t there to help her up she would have peeped herself hoarse and exhausted herself of the little life force she had. We noticed that our stumble-duck was pigeon-toed and was tripping over her own webbed feet!

So she spent time in the garden…

but was often in the house as well.

She was content to cuddle up in a bowl while I worked on jewelry…

and have a little snooze. Notice how she tucked her beak behind her non-existent wing. Nonetheless, she always kept an eye out to make sure we were close at wing-tip.

She loved her bath time and was starting to prefer being inside the house rather than out…

when it seemed like she was strong enough to be reintroduced to her real family.

Mama Duck accepted her right away, which we were worried wouldn’t happen, but her siblings, and the one we call Jethro in particular, seemed to pick on her whenever she got too close. This resulted in a gradual reintroduction which included continuing the bath and bed routine in the house. Here you can see that she is getting her “big girl” feathers, but that she still has a lot of duckling fluff as well.

Now she has been completely accepted by the others and although she is still a tad smaller, she is almost indistinguishable from them.

Luckily, little Lola hasn’t completely forgotten us. She is still the tamest and succumbs to a snuggle from time to time… if you can catch her!

Open for Business

2009-06-14T21:54:00.000-07:00

The last few months have flown by and we have finished the studio and been open for business the last few weekends. The studio looks lovely with its window-boxes and I often set up a table in the garden so that I can work on jewelry and watch for customers at the same time – luckily the weather has been just sublime for that sort of thing.

Inside there is just enough room for my display case, a second-hand bargain turned shabby chic showstopper which also houses our friend Kerry’s needle-felted critters, my mom’s beautiful lamps, and a futon that creates a cozy spare bedroom in a pinch.

Coming in from the gate, it is impossible not to stop and smell the peonies…

or find something else of interest, like this fella.

The studio takes shape

2009-04-19T15:20:00.001-07:00

As artists, my mom and I have always dreamed of having our own special space in which to showcase our work. When she moved to the country last summer, we really started to think seriously about making that a reality. We eyed an old potting shed towards the back of her three + acres and thought about moving it near her gate. When we found out how much moving it would cost, a new plan was hatched and family and friends were hired to help us start from scratch.

The first day that Jordan started working on it in early March, it actually snowed. Before long, the foundation had taken shape.

Then came the walls, the roof, tarpaper and trim…

Mom hurried to paint the windows, salvaged from an old house, in her crowded basement.

The weather finally got nicer…

And in the end of March we started to put the weathered cedar shingles on. They came from an old roof that had been replaced – more recycling!

A big thank you to Dee and Chris and Wes for all their help!

The sun was setting but we kept at it…

Now it’s mid-April and this is where we are at.

The shingles are done. A large beach-weathered plank that was once the transom of a boat makes a lovely, rustic front step. A little more work and it will look like it has always been there.

Now, for the inside…

Getting started...

2009-02-20T15:19:00.000-08:00

Okay, I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’m one of those types – if my hands are not busy with some sort of tool, knitting needles, pliers or otherwise, I’m likely to be drumming my fingers on my leg or playing with my hair. And there are two things that I think I need to address in terms of my creativity. First, I have more ideas in my head of things I’d like to make then I have time to ever attempt. Second, I spent way too much time in cyberspace soaking up the inspiration of others and getting even more ideas. My addiction to Etsy does not help. Therefore, this blog will be a place to get excited about new projects and ideas. I hope that documenting them will make them seem more real. Entries will be sporadic depending on schoolwork and the like, but that’s okay.