Really?

Who sent me this photo?

A tiny bottle and thousands of miniscule beads

I bought this tiny vial with a plastic stopper and carved a cork for it.  Then I filled it with garnets from my mother's stash and threw in a few beads for good measure.  I made the sterling silver wirework that holds the neck of the vial and provides a bail for hanging.  Sometimes I wear it with this heart locket and key, sometimes I string other things to accompany it.

This is a bracelet I made while watching tv.  It took me a week working an hour or more each evening after dinner.  Some people knit, I guess I bead weave.  If you had asked me in October if I would ever do this I would have told you that you were completely crazy.  Something happened and I tried it.  Now I'm hooked and can't get enough.  It has taught me a lot of patience, as if teaching for 17 years were not enough!  I can allow myself to make mistakes, not understand directions, and rip out hours of work ( a la Penelope) in order to redo a mistake.  My favorite beads are Japanese seed beads called Delicas.  I am particularly found of the #15's.  One gram of #15's is equal to about 363 beads!  This piece is made with beads slightly larger than that.  It is really a practice piece and the wavy quality is intentional.  I've learned how to hide the threads that are visible on the edges (maybe I hid them well in this photo). Somewhere around here is another bracelet that is more wavy.  Right now I'm working on a piece that has two layers of woven beads.

A little new work and a few blurry pics

I did a little new work including this necklace and bracelet:

  

The links, loops, and clasp are steel which I hand forged - much to my sweet husband's dismay.  The green beads are peace jade and the others, strung on linen cord, are various Japanese seed beads.  The ceramic pendant is from Michael's, and the purple ribbon is from a mixed box of sundries I bought on West Screven Street a few years ago.

This sterling silver and hematite bracelet I wrapped.  It is about the sixth like it I have done. The photo is terrible, but the bracelet is beautiful and has a really nice weight to it because of these beads.  In an earlier post there are pics of a similar piece made with chevron amethyst.  Both of these pieces sold, but I made another necklace just like the one above and ordered a pendant from Summers Studio Pottery as a reward for myself for my first sales.  This is the pendant I ordered .  I'm hoping that the color goes well with the peace jade and if it doesn't, well I just love it so I'll make another necklace from which it can hang.

And that's why they call them k-i-l-l-e-r whales...

Driving home from work today I heard the news that an orca at Sea World Orlando had killed a trainer.  The report said that while some were saying the trainer was killed in the tank in front of a live and horrified audience, the sheriff's department was investigating where the death took place because other people claimed the attacked occurred in a backstage tank.  Call me crazy, but this was not a Criss Angel Mind Freak episode, so how can an entire audience not see what they think they saw.  Sea World - not the Magic Kingdom.

The Animal Protective League was quoted as saying no one should go to any live animal performance because these are wild animals being kept in an unnatural environment.

My favorite quote, however, was what seemed most unnatural to me.  "This is being investigated as an accidental death."  And what else could it be?  Did the whale plan it?  Was it premeditated?  Maybe a crime of passion, but I can't really imagine the whale planned it.  But by the time I was close to home this shocker was being reported:

Tillikum the Killer Whale Had Violent Past Before Deadly Attack on SeaWorld Trainer

So this is a serial killer whale from Canada.  Okay, now it all makes sense.  To read for yourself check out the CBS page Crimesider: True crime stories from the producers of 48 Hrs. Mystery.  No lie, this is where the story is posted.

Personally, I think the whale was framed.  And I bet it was the sting ray.  I mean look at what ray did to poor Steve Irwin.

But prosecutors will use what this poster said in response to the Whale Had Violent Past article to stick it to the whale:

Tillikum: Born 1981 WILD into an Icelandic Pod. Brain size 4.3 times larger than a human. Spent 2 years with his mother and her family. Kidnapped in 1983. Later sold into the Seaworld/Anheuser-Busch/Blackstone "Circus." Is Tillikum angry about being ripped from his family or does he just not understand that people are not whales, that they can't hold their breath and that they break when you play too hard with them. Sad for both the large brain and small brain mammals involved.

 

¡SNOW!

It is going to snow tonight in South Georgia!  It has already snowed about an hour from here in Albany, GA and my father-in-law called from Ellenton, GA which is about 38 miles away and it is snowing there.  He was pretty excited and said the cars are all covered in snow and all the guys from Mexico who work at the farm are outside taking pictures.  My husband is mad because it is only raining here.  He has never seen snow before and thought this would be his big opportunity.  Pobrecito!

Check out the Flight of a South Georgia Storm Chaser blog for details. 

It is almost a snub that he National Weather Service just lumps us in with North Florida and the rest of Southwest Georgia for this once in a decade event:

BAY-CALHOUN-GULF-FRANKLIN-GADSDEN-LEON-JEFFERSON-MADISON-LIBERTY-WAKULLA-GRADY-THOMAS-BROOKS-LOWNDES-LANIER-INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...PANAMA CITY

...CALLAWAY...LYNN HAVEN...UPPER GRAND LAGOON...BLOUNTSTOWN...WHITE CITY...PORT ST. JOE...WEWAHITCHKA...APALACHICOLA...CARRABELLE...QUINCY...
CHATTAHOOCHEE...TALLAHASSEE...SPRING HILL...MONTICELLO...MADISON...GREENVILLE...SWEETWATER...SOPCHOPPY...ST. MARKS...CAIRO...THOMASVILLE.

..QUITMAN...VALDOSTA...LAKELAND
528 AM EST FRI FEB 12 2010 /428 AM CST FRI FEB 12 2010/LOW PRESSURE WILL MOVE SOUTH OF THE AREA THIS AFTERNOON AND
EVENING. AHEAD OF THIS LOW A COLD RAIN WILL CONTINUE TO FALLCROSS THE AREA. THE RAIN MAY OCCASIONALLY MIX WITH SLEET OR A
FEW WET SNOWFLAKES EARLY THIS MORNING.THE LOW WILL PASS EAST OF THE REGION LATER THIS AFTERNOON AND
EARLY THIS EVENING WITH A COLDER AIRMASS RAPIDLY FILTERING INTO
THE REGION. IT IS DURING THIS TIME FRAME THAT SOME 

LIGHT SNOW MAY BRIEFLY BECOME POSSIBLE...ESPECIALLY ALONG AND NORTH OF THE
INTERSTATE 10 CORRIDOR. LITTLE OR NO ACCUMULATION IS EXPECTED WITH THIS SNOW IN THE EVENING. HOWEVER...TEMPERATURES ARE EXPECTED TO
DROP BELOW FREEZING LATER IN THE EVENING...AND CERTAINLY AFTER MIDNIGHT. PATCHY ICE IS POSSIBLE WITH THESE FALLING TEMPERATURES
IF ANY WATER REMAINS ON THE ROADWAYS. MOTORISTS TRAVELING NORTH AND WEST OF TALLAHASSEE ARE ADVISED THAT WINTER STORM WARNINGS ARE IN EFFECT FOR ACCUMULATING SNOWS
ACROSS SOUTHEAST ALABAMA...INLAND PORTION OF THE FLORIDA PANHANDLE AND PORTIONS OF SOUTHWEST AND SOUTH-CENTRAL GEORGIA. ROAD
CONDITIONS ACROSS SOUTHEAST ALABAMA...THE FLORIDA PANHANDLE AND PORTIONS OF SOUTHWEST GEORGIA MAY DETERIORATE LATER TODAY.
RESIDENTS ARE URGED TO MONITOR THEIR NOAA WEATHER RADIOS OR LOCAL MEDIA FOR LATER STATEMENTS ON THIS DEVELOPING WINTER
WEATHER EVENT.

I love the phrase, "some light snow may briefly become possible."  It better be possible because this

is all anyone around here has talked about for the entire week!  Heaven know this most certainly 

is a "developing weather event."

6 de febrero 2010

This is what we saw on our dogwalk today.  Also see below for the water meters I found.

Found

Today is chilly and windy. Mingus, Coltrane and I walked and I took pictures of things like water meter covers, patterns in the sand, mushrooms, leaf blossoms, and bark.