Max got scalped

Half my dog is gone. But they left his tail. There are no visible scars from when he was attacked.

Before...

Six and a half hours and $65 later. Yikes...

Hope you feel cooler now.

HAHAHA I knew it!

Everybody slagged The Tourist with Johnny Depp. I thought it was a good movie -- dunno about Angelina Jolie in it -- I thought Johnny Depp was great, as always. But something was nagging at me all the way through -- until I saw Depp walking in the square towards the end. As soon as the movie ended I hit Play again. No shit, Sherlock, that was Kevin Spacey, bwahahahahahah... in The Usual Suspects.

Then I read this just now:
http://www.themoviebanter.com/2010/12/did-you-know-the-tourist-christopher-mcquarrie/#comment-19747

Makes me want to go rent The Usual Suspects -- in fact, buy the dvd. That has to be one of the all-time great movies ever.

And... in my own personal life movie, me played by Angelina Jolie, of course, and Max, the Johnny Depp of Dogdom, playing himself... gotta take Max to the groomers, his first time getting shaved... stay tuned for after photos.

Update from original post. The groomer just called to clarify my instructions about not cutting the hair on his head -- yes, she can trim his beard, shave his face, but he's going to end up with what they call a hippie-do! Poor, poor Max.

Bwahahaha II

I have this thing about skulls. I really like them. I have some silver-plated pewter skulls coming from Happy Mango I think... I've been shopping a lot these past two weeks, and I'm losing track of what I'm ordering. LOTS of turquoise coming, though. Everybody (all two of my fave vendors) are having sales.

When I look at these, I can't keep "shakey-shakey coco-puffs" out of my head now. These things shiver and shake like crazy. I guess if your guts were spilling out, you'd be a little shakey, too. I might make some better guts tomorrow. It's too frickin' hot here to do anything more tonight.

Wait up! The week is over and I'm so far behind....

Huff-huff-huff-puff, huff-huff-huff-puff... and that's the dog. It is so frickin' hot out, although not as hot as it was yesterday. Equivalent to almost 120F/48C here with the humidity. Only feels like 37/98F today. Positively chilly. Where did my fuzzy sheets get to?

Made a messpile of things yesterday. Spent most of the time typing and writing emails today. Gotta get the truck loaded up and get some more things made for tomorrow. Oh, and I went shopping online this week... badddd. But such goodies. Magpie is having a turquoise sale, as is Happy Mango. Whoo hoo... Christmas in August is comin' my way.

Messpile I work in, with a half-inch high space at the bottom of the table to assemble things, like these earrings in progress

Finished earrings

This is true.......... plus some Solar Quartz pictures

"The most pernicious aspect of procrastination," says author Steven Pressfield, "is that it can become a habit. We don't just put off our lives today; we put them off till our deathbed."

Got this today from Robert Genn's newsletter, The Painter's Keys. Subscribe today: http://painterskeys.com/ Doesn't matter what you do, this is an always inspiring and interesting newsletter with contributions and commentary from all over the world.

I've been thinking about this recently, how most people seem to be living their lives increasingly vicariously. It used to be through other people's lives, maybe in a book or a magazine or something we saw on television, but close the book or magazine and it's gone. They were often jumpstarts to our own adventures, careers or interests. I remember when televisions used to go off the air at midnight and not come back on until 6 a.m., and we could only get a few channels, maybe an extra one if the weather was right, certainly, there wasn't that much on that was that interesting to everyone all the time.

Now it's non-stop roaming, hypnotically flip-flipping, click-clacking away our lives virtually, online, not in reality, not in the here and now. It's like there's now no need to make a change if you don't like the way things are going. I know I do it myself! A couple of days ago in particular, the six hours I spent online went by before I realised it, gone forever. I didn't work, I didn't make jewellery or draw or paint or sew; worst of all I ignored my beautiful dog. I also ignored myself in a fundamental way because I don't remember what was so important that I could devote six hours to it. I had nothing -- zero, zip, nada -- to show for that 6 hours. That's the part that gets me. The goneness of time.

I really resent computers and the Internet now for the way that time lines and deadlines have been compressed, with the resultant stress and inhumane expectations that have been created. Are we really that much more efficient now? And I've always hated television and telephones. Cell phones with their texting/mini-computer/gaming capabilities? Don't get me started. People have always asked me (with suspicion, of course, like I'm some kind of liar, even though the results are there in front of them -- like they've completely lost belief and/or trust in their own senses and I'm trying to trick them) how I do all the things I do, take the courses, work the jobs, join the groups, produce the volume of artwork and now jewellery. Well, let's see. First, I don't spent 40+ hours a week in front of the television. This is now the accepted average that children spend in front of the TV and computer. What on earth are they watching? What are adults watching? That's watching, not doing.

But let's go with 40 hours. 40 x 52 = 2,080 hours per year of free time. Say we sleep 8 hours a day, so that leaves a 16-hour day in which to do things. 2,080 / 16 = 130 days. That gives me 130 "extra" full days per year that I have per year to do stuff that the "average" person does not because they're watching television/on the computer. I can take a second or even a third part time job. I can volunteer. I can take college/university/special interest courses. Learn a language. Do my art, make jewellery, sew. Et voila.

Or I can sit here and write this blog. I'm not a Luddite. The ability to stay home and make my living, avoiding endless hours of commuting every day if nothing else, is only possible via the computer and Internet. Everyone tells me/us that social networking is the way to success, that we have to "be" everywhere. I see all these different means as colossal timesuckers, nothing but "other"-sanctioned procrastination that means I'm not making jewellery, I'm not doing a damned thing other than posting pictures to add to the billions of pictures that are already online and adding yet more words to the already gabillions of words that are out there. Tell me again, how does this work for me/us?

For now, I'll stick with the blog, deviantArt and my much-neglected website. Oh, and not to forget the endless novella-length emails to my pals! And the Saturday market. Novel concept these days, innit? Face to face with real people. Not to mention reeeeally good food there.

I went to the wholesaler on Wednesday. I had so much fun, as usual. My newest treasure to play with: something new to me called Solar Quartz.

What is Solar Quartz? According to http://www.fortunatenumberjewelry.com/: Solar quartz is a natural colorless, white or gray agatized quartz cut from stalactites. The centers of these stones are translucent with dendridic mossy inclusions. Probably the most versatile multipurpose healing stone, quartz amplifies energy and healing, draws and sends energy, and stimulates natural crystals in the body’s tissues and fluids to resonate at new healing frequency.

Solar Quartz is very, very pretty. These have been dyed, obviously, but I picked the most tastefully "enhanced" strings I could.


Solar Quartz I: centre bead is about 1" high, smallest beads are about 1/2". The colour is fairly accurate



Solar Quartz I: closeup of two beads. The colour is fairly accurate.



Solar Quartz II: centre bead is about 1 inch high, smallest beads are about 1/2 inch high. Colour is fairly accurate



Solar Quartz II, closeup. Colour is fairly accurate

If anyone wants to buy either string (and note that these are presently on temporary strings; they're not finished jewellery) please email me at bemacdougall@gmail.com for more details. Each string is $20 plus postage.
Now to get out of here and do some work, dammit!

Less is more? Nah - more is more is always better...

Yesterday my friend Kathryn who occasionally gets fed up and rearranges my table for me at the Woodstock Farmer's Market complimented me on how nice my display was looking. Yay. I'm so clueless about how to arrange things and she's so good at it -- but I have discovered by taking photos it can help give a better idea of how it looks. Still needs a lot of tweaking. I'm sure I can cram more jewellery on the table if I concentrate hard enough.

In the next few weeks I will be bringing in a lot more pendants and components to sell to jewellery do-it-yourself-ers and (I hope) carry a wider range of interesting and cool stuff.

I have no idea how I'll display all the new things. I've put in for two tables once the market spreads out through two rooms later in the fall when the produce and flower vendors move back inside. In any event, I will be losing my primo spot between Chocolate Guy and the coffee pot that I've had for the past three years.

For now, this is what my display looks like. I especially want to thank Chris McGyver for building all my great display boxes and risers, as well as the anonymous donor to Value Village for the great bamboo display box. What a score that was! Then there are all my suppliers who've contributed to my explosion-in-a-bead-factory style. Since you can never have enough beads... I'll be baaaaack.

Meanwhile yesterday afternoon, back at the ranch (aka dead car lot) where I live I picked more berries and made another four jars of jam. Here it is noon and I haven't even stuck my nose out to see how many more berries are ripe. I think I'll get at least 8 more jars before they're all gone. I'm waiting now for the first Niagara peaches and the pitted sour cherries from Elberta's to come in. Those first peaches and the sour cherries make the BEST freezer jam ever. I can't decide which is my favourite.  All I know is, it tastes like summer in a jar all through the winter. That jam on Ace Bakery baguette toast and my Italian Lavazza Cream e Gusto make it worth getting up in the morning at 20 or 30 below. Oh, and Max wanting to go out. That, too. Hi, Max.

Crikies, have to do the typing that makes all the above possible. Deadline 9 pm tonight and another one tomorrow at 9 am. Happy Sunday, all.

Need a vote on this necklace

This is my latest effort. My dilemma is should the:

1. Large turquoise be in line with the rest of the necklace?
2. Large turquoise hang as a pendant?
3. Should the chain part start with a copper component or a turquoise nugget?

and maybe this:

4. While the large stone as a pendant looks about right, if it's in line, is the large stone too large?

If anyone wants to vote, please comment or email me at bemacdougall@gmail.com. Thank you!

PS: Details, details, details. Sleeping Beauty turquoise, in reality a perfect deep sky blue, not the weird colours as shown in my bad photography. Got this turquoise from The Turquoise Chick -- yay, Lin! Pure copper wire, local hardware stores, Bali silver daisy spacers from Bamiyan.

Internet-less start to Sunday...

I sold the turquoise, coral and sterling feather earrings and the Bwahahahah pendant yesterday! Wheeeeeeeee. And got a couple of orders. For some reason, people are very into garnet right now. Is it the current birthstone? I suppose I should be up on this stuff and each month feature jewellery made with the appropriate birthstone on my table. More things to add to my list of things to do.

I discovered the Internet was down this morning when I got up at 6:00 a.m. A storm had come through last night, the rain woke me up, but it was a lightning strike that took out the silo at the next intersection on the highway -- yes! Our Internet towers are located on farm silos. Cool, eh? -- but this company does know the meaning of customer service. They keep their progress reports up to the minute/hour thereby keeping panic at bay. Dontcha just love being a junkie?

By 6:30 I started making 3 jars of black raspberry freezer jam picked from the bushes next to my front door. Then I pitted and started squashing sour cherries. Finally got smart and dug out my ancient blender. 10 seconds later... I had 7 jars of sour cherry freezer jam. Put a couple more coats of silver on a batch of sage leaves and started a new leaf. The stupid rabbit ate my sage plant a couple of weeks ago and I had to buy a new plant. I watch the leaves carefully until they get to a good size and shapeliness. Read some of my book... and finally the Internet was up again.

A redo plus turquoise & sterling feather earrings

Those lily of the valley chandelier earrings were bugging me so I added one tiny jump ring to make them hang better. NOW I can go to sleep. Gotta get up for the market at 4:30. Ick.

Also made these Kingman turquoise, sponge coral and sterling feather chandelier earrings. Funny how I go on a kick. This week it's dangles. I also wrapped a shark's tooth with hemp and put a couple of bead dangles on it... but I didn't take a picture of it. If I remember I'll do it tomorrow at the market.