Bee Clip Earings

I just loved these earrings when I saw them because they are intended to represent bees. If my memory serves bees are good luck. I checked on google and found out that they represent the notion that all things are possible! Really? I didn't know that.

Wait! I almost forgot, I have a pair of socks with a bee embroidered on them and I found a concert Tori Amos t-shirt (originally belonging to my daughter) that as a bee painted on it.

Then if found that in the ancient near east and Aegean cultures, the bee was believed to be the sacred insect that bridged the natural world to the underworld.

However, having said that, in Welsh lore it is good luck to have a strange swarm of bees come to your garden. Okay, I can understand that, but really, I'm scared to death of them. I can't imagine a swarm of bees anywhere near me! That reminds me that we did have a swarm of bees come to the house that we live in now. I had thought that they were rogue bees from a farm not too far away. Possibly a "rogue" queen who took the swarm with her to find a new home. Her choice of home was in our chimney!

My hubby had decided to burn some paper in the wood furnace and to his dismay the smoke filled the house. He awoke me and then our daughter before we anything happened. We had to get PCO to come to get rid of all of the wax, honey and "the bees". At first we had called around to local companies hoping they would help us but no one wanted to rid us of these pests. I know that they are pests really but they are if they are in the chimney that heats your house. PCO used liquid Vapona (remember the no-pest strip??!) in a machine that converted it to a smoke.

Have I mentioned that I am deathly scared of bee's?

Pastel small art work

I'm feeling a bit chilly today and had a few minutes to spare so I got my sketchbook out and for expediency, my soft pastels. What I thought was, I wanted to do some art that would feel warm. The only thing about abstract work is that one has to be careful not to "over work" the drawing or painting so that the fundamental feel of the work doesn't look contrived. Now, I don't really have that problem with this piece because it is just a gradation in colour but I could see that the colours were about to become "muddied" slightly and so I had to walk away.

My favourite part of this small "paining" (for the lack of a better word) is the saturated colour. A pastel girl, I am not, or at least for the most part!

As you can see in the picture, this box of short pastel pieces haven't had much use. I did remember that I need to clean off the residue off because it is one reason that the wrong colour is applied to the wrong area. I need to get out my books and find out more about the use and misuse of soft pastels.

Even my wiping cloth looks good plastered with colour!!!! Can you tell that I love colour???!!!

This was a fun way to start my day!!!!

The Paper Curl

I know that I have been lamenting about not having time to make any art. So.... I decided to quit whining and make something simple. I was surfing the net the other night an came across a site where the woman had done a simple pen and paper drawing of a paper curl. I like the simplistic nature of the piece so much I decided to put more effort into it and do this little pencil drawing. Yup, I used the lowly but lovely 2B woodless variety to make the drawing. My favourite choice of medium do to its cost and ease of use!!!!! I found an old sketchbook that I have not as of yet completed. I had to chuckle when I saw that the last drawing in it was from April 2009! So it was kind of fitting that I pick it up almost one year later.

I know that it is such a simple little thing but I was really happy to spend the hour thinking about nothing else but the little drawing. It was pure heaven!!!

Crackberry Sucks

I'm getting to my saturation point. If I get new technology I expect it to work and if it doesn't I expect to get a new product. Well Bell hasn't done that! I got a new crackberry in December and I tried to load some software on to it so that I could sync it to my MAC and the thing crashed. Bell has sent it to a repair centre, the slowest one in the world because it has been almost a month and I still haven't received it back. What nonsense! I know now that if I decide to make a purchase of a similar hand-held device, it will be a iPhone and I will buy it from Rogers. Sure it was great that Bell gave me a loaner but I had to input my contacts all over again. What a pain! The worst part is that the representative at Bell told me that they sent my device to the "slowest" repair centre. What the heck is that about?! I mean really, why do I need to know that Bell has sent my unit to the most inefficient department going? One must assume that the organization as a whole is likely similar.

Hmmm, now that I think about it, I think that many organizations are similar. My Dad sold his house and he moved into a retirement residence and I have been trying to cancel his security alarm service. Easier said than done. He called to to cancel but for some reason they want me to call them. Now, really that is ridiculous, he has already called you to cancel and his pays the bill and he is certainly capable of cancelling the service. I have never seen such incompetence in my life! I think that likely it is a cash grab as well and said as much to one of their representatives. I said I thought that they had fleeced a 90-year-old man out of his money for nothing. Thing is, I don't know how he got hood-winked into it. It seems that they sent a salesman around to the house and he signed up. Yup, the elderly are so very trusting and I am so very cynical.

Today is one of those days where I could rant about lots of others things as well but it would be best if I didn't. Got to try and keep myself calm so that I can have a relatively pleasant day.

The World Wide Web

I'm here at Starbucks and downloading a new audio drama podcast! Currently I'm listening to "The Leviathan Chronicles" a free podcast on iTunes. Great sci-fi story and superb audio quality. I have listened to many others and this one is by far the best yet!

I love the fact that for the cost of a coffee I can gain access to the internet and it doesn't go against my allowable internet usage on my mobile stick. This has been an issue with me since I can't seem to get high speed internet any other way. It is costing me an arm but is well worth it when the only other option is dial-up. My hubby has been checking out other methods and it seems that the mobile stick is still the best we can do for where we live. An I.T. fella from where he works told him that we should just move in to town if high speed is so important. O.M.G.!! Never!

I ordered a pair of sandals on line this morning from Etsy.com I hope that they will be as great when I get them as they looked on line. The woman is a Canadian currently living in Uruguay. Amazing that this is possible. I found her sandals while surfing the net on my last night shift since I had a few minutes to kill waiting for the day shift girls to show up.

I can't wait to see what they actually look like! I hope I like them as much as I like them in this picture! If they are as great as I hope they summer can't come soon enough.

When did it happen?

I have no idea of when that "pivotal" moment was when I became a LIP BALM JUNKIE but I became aware of it yesterday. Now the photograph shows the majority of them that I own but not all! Really, how many lip balm's does one woman need? I don't know because I keep them everywhere...at my computer desk, in the living room, in my bedroom, the bathroom, the spare room, in the pocket of difference jackets and coats. It seems that I can not be without them at any time or any place because my purse has many of them as well, tinted and un-tinted. I guess for an addiction this one is that has the least impact on self and others. Hmmmm! I think that it is possible that it is a "sign of the times"; we live in environments that are heated by gas, oil and electric methods with dry the skin. Then again, it could be because my skin is moving from the oily variety to the very dry. It would seem to me that there is a fifty/fifty split here.

I find it interesting that there are varying degree's of price point for these products. I like them all for different reasons and use them at differing times of the day as well. I got the comfrey leaf as a present and I use it before going to bed in the winter.

However, I have very fond memories of the so-called "classic" Chapstick. It is one that my mother used and I always wanted to have some of it on my own lips. I would have been 6-8 years old and I would to beg her to let me put it on my own lips. Reluctantly she would give in, but I was never allowed to actually own my own lip balm. Possibly that is the reason that I purchased this tube. It looks exactly the same as the one my mother had; hence the "classic". Every time I want to think of my mother, I apply it! Mostly what draws me is the smell and the taste. These two senses combined have produced a strong internal response by evoking such strong memories. It isn't so strange because there have been so many studies done on taste and smell that mirror my reaction.

This makes me smile, a blog post on lip balm. Who knew!!!

Diamonds on the Snow

I love sunlight and stood in the hallway window to feel the yellow light warm my face. I can not stress enough; I love sunshine in the winter!!!!!!

When I looked down I could see the sparkling snow below me on the front lawn. I grabbed my Nikon to see if I could capture the essence of the sparkling snow. Okay I took a picture of the snow but even with shadows in the snap and a bit of iPhoto modifications I still can't get the true essence of the sparking diamonds lying there waiting for me to scoop them up!!!! Yup, picture capture of these sparklers eludes me. It would be just as if I had attempted to physically scoop up those diamonds (and "rubies" depending where you are and how the light refracts) and hold them in my hand.

I guess this means that I might as well go out and by a lottery ticket for that prize will elude me too! I guess I have come full circle so that is my post for today!

Oh yes, this reminds me of a song by Paul Simon, "Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes" - I have it playing now on my computer!!!!

No Time for Sewing

I couldn't sleep last night so I decided that I could put that sleeplessness to good use. My focus is still on clearing out my Dad's house so .. I thought that I could sort through some of my photographs and put them into "albums". I had forgotten that I had been to a fibre art showing in Toronto with my daughter.

It was a one woman show housed at a "gallery" that allows the exhibit to be viewed from the street. For the life of me I don't recall the street name. I didn't get any photo's of the beautiful fibre art but I did make a purchase of these beautifully sewn greeting cards. Very lovely!

I am feeling sad that I asked my husband to buy my a sewing machine for Christmas last (yes, LAST YEAR) and I have not had the time to even take it out of the box. Wow!!! How sad is that? I have a brand new Janome that beckons but I must snub my nose at it. That reminds me that I must take in my old lovely Bernina for a friend who wants some parts for her machine.

From Alternative to Opera

I love having eclectic tastes, it means that I can sample all the good bits of life! I love music and I enjoy what iTunes considers "alternative" as well as classical/opera and almost everything in between. Right now I am listening to Steven Pasero's instrumental "guitar masterpieces" album on my computer (surprisingly it is not available on iTunes). I don't usually like guitar instrumentals but this album is exceptional. My hubby is in the kitchen making chicken florentine for supper tonight and he is watching "Surviorman" and I have no wish to watch that particular program. Although I am not in the process of making art, I find myself thinking about it more and more often as each day passes. I am formulating a new idea that will have to percolate there until I can expend the time really making art! When I am deep in the process of painting or drawing, I like to listen to music that doesn't have words that I would want to discern when I listening. I just want to have good music playing, in the background, in the foreground, it doesn't really matter to me. Having said that, I also like world music because I don't understand the words so it amounts to about the same thing.

I forgot my "crackberry" at work yesterday and had expected that I would go into town today to retrieve it. Then I had the presence of mind to re-think that. The more I thought about it, the more I didn't want to force myself to go. Tomorrow will undoubtedly be fine (I have to go to town anyway to check the house and take my Dad to his pre-op appointment)! I know that I am suppose to have the thing on 24/7 in case a "member" calls me but I have noticed little activity during the weekends. It would seem that our members prefer to only call when they are working. It is unfortunate that I am a shift worker and most of my callers are not. I had not thought that I would miss the new technology until I was given the "loaner" crackberry because I fried it when I tried to download some software. I don't think crackberry likes my MAC even though it claims that it does.

Something just came to mind about that album, I purchased that tape at a nifty, eclectic shop and restaurant in Orillia Ontario called Mariposa. They had it playing while I drank my coffee and I just had to buy it in their scent shop next door.

Hmmmm!! The smells of supper is wafting over my way!!!!