Flying

Today we fly back to England for a couple of weeks.

Photo by mikebaird

We are leaving in about an hour, armed with a few books and some knitting to while away the time...and hopefully a good movie!  This weekend,  we are celebrating my parents Golden Wedding Anniversary - 50 years!  Definitely a reason to celebrate.

Then we have just sold our apartment in Cheltenham so some of the rest of the trip will be spent packing that up and putting the stuff all in storage.  The packing part will be happily interspersed with seeing John's family and maybe a couple of friends too.

I'll be keeping in touch with my "bird a week"!  Let's hope the flight goes quickly!

Weekly bird in the hand

It's been a tricky week this week, that has made me aware of things I am grateful for and often don't fully appreciate. So here is this week's list:

• Peter, my nephew. It was his birthday this week. Hope you had a great week P.
• Autumnal weather - going for a walk and coming back with rosy cheeks!
• Marshall's - the local car body shop who repaired my car this week after I'd be rear-ended recently and the driver didn't stop. 
• Conversation - I've had laryngitis all week and thus haven't been able to have conversations.
• A good night's sleep - I've been waking with coughing and thus my new favorite thing is a good night's sleep.
• Singing - you get the idea!!
• Feeling better!
• Peace and quiet- but not too much!

Hope your voice has been heard this week!

44/52 Bird a week challenge - Sweet dreams

Following on from last week's bird which was a ring "Sweet Nature", this week I've made a similar open ring entitled "Sweet Dreams":

The little birdie has his eyes closed and sits in the gentle glow of the moon...dreaming about???...worms? grubs? seeds?  I wonder what birds dream of... I think Harold our parrot dreams of cashew nuts and bananas (and macaroni cheese!)....but I wonder about the outdoor birds...

Anyhow, this one looks like his dreams are sweet.

Sweet Nature (left) Sweet Dreams (right)

If you want to check out the other birds that have been made this week by others taking on the bird a week challenge, click on the links below:

Under my wing

I just saw this beautiful photo on facebook and love it:

Photo by Merly Miner

Isn't it a great photo?

Remember my necklace of a similar name from a few years ago?

Hope you are safely under someone's wing.

Happy Halloween

Hope your Halloween isn't tooooooooo scary!

Silly Sunday - Quick fig jam recipe

I thought today I'd share a quick jam recipe for you, in case, like us, you have lots of figs around that need using up.

You may be wondering why a jam recipe fits into the category of "Silly Sunday" blog posts... Hmm... Well, this quick easy jam recipe is so simple, it's just silly!  There is nothing to it!!

When I tell my friends I am making jam, chutney, marmalade etc, they all want to come and join in as so many of them seem overwhelmed by the whole canning thing and so have never even tried making preserves. This recipe however, isn't  for canning and storing for months etc - it's a recipe where you use up the jam within a couple of weeks.  So you can store it in any kind of container.

Love figs

It's delicious spread on cheese, as a sauce on fish, as a kind of salsa/sauce for red meat/burgers, and also spooned over ice cream! Oh, and of course, just spread on bread/toast! How versatile is that!

Ingredients:

• 1 lb fresh figs, diced
• 2 tablespoons sugar or equivalent for a sugar substitute
• 2 tablespoons water

Place the figs in a small saucepan. Add the sugar and water and heat, stirring, to a boil.
Cook, uncovered, over medium heat until the figs have softened and the mixture is thick - about 10 mins.
Transfer to a small bowl and serve. Voila!
Store covered in a refrigerator for up to two weeks.

**Another option is to add a little ginger to the jam as it cooks. Try cutting up small pieces of crystallized ginger. Yum!

So don't be intimidated! It's silly easy. Give it a go!  And then try other fruits and don't even worry about all the canning!

Let me know if you give it a go. Happy Jamming.

Weekly bird in the hand

Here's this week's grateful list:

• Meeting new friends and having fun getting to know each other
• Eating fresh sun-warmed figs from our tree
• Making fig and ginger chutney
• My friend Marly whose birthday it was this week
• Catching up with old friends
• Soft tissues - I've been sneezing all week so having soft tissues is something I am extremely grateful for!
• Warm autumn days
• The changing color of the leaves

Merry Go Round - Selling at Fairs

It's the last Friday of the month, so join us on our merry go round for a quick spin.  The merry go round is where a group of 11 artists/craftwomen link together around the world and tell you a little about their art and craft, through blogging on the same topic.

This month's question for us all to write about is "Do you do fairs/shows?  If so, share some hints and your experience. If not - why not."

When I first started making jewelry, I did a few fairs locally. Mostly, they were at wineries. People came along, drank a bit of wine, bought a bit of jewelry.....They were pretty successful.  However, as my jewelry progressed and my prices went up, I felt it really wasn't the right sort of market for my pieces.  The audience really wanted less expensive items.

Instead of looking for alternative fairs at that time, I chose to focus selling solely online.  I really enjoy the steadiness of it all.  With fairs, you seem to work frantically in the few weeks beforehand, churning out a lot of stock and then have an exhausting couple of days at the fair. Selling online, I make a few pieces each week and sell a few pieces each week and things just keep turning over nicely. It really suits how I like to work.

This summer however, I did set up a stall at the local farmers' market. The village I live in started a new farmers' market so I decided to join in. My color anodized aluminum work was pretty new and the whole process is not familiar in the US, so I wanted to use it as a means to get some feedback on those pieces. It was fun and I did enjoy it....and it was reasonably successful but I still prefer the online selling.

I always go back to how much I find I get to know my customers better online than face to face or selling in a gallery.  My customers email me and tell me their stories and send photos and keep in touch....and I find it so satisfying.

I think the choice is so personal in relation to how you work best....if you don't like the online scene, then fairs are great....but I happen to enjoy online, so have no plans to change that!  What do you think and do?

To find out what the other members of the merry go round think,  click on the links below:

Samantha at Vintage is for lovers - http://www.vintageisforlovers.com/
Jen at Painted Fish Studio - http://paintedfishstudio.com/
Bethany at Dirksen Dabbles - http://www.dirksendabbles.com/
Laura at Blue Terracotta -  http://blueterracotta.com/
Monika at Red2White - http://red2white.wordpress.com/
Mitsy at ArtMind - http://artmind-etcetera.blogspot.com
Kim at Vilt a la Kim - http://viltalakim.com/blog/
Sara at Crafts of Texture - http://sarastexturecrafts.blogspot.com
Mariana at Florcita - http://florcita.eu/wordpress/
Agathe at Le Bar du Vent - http://lebarduvent.blogspot.com
Ruth at Birdland Creations - http://insidetheartisan.blogspot.com

Or else you can click on the blog hop below.  If you are a merry go round participant, please add your link if it's not already included. You can then copy the code and put it on your blog post too.

Radiant earrings

I made some stained glass window style earrings yesterday with anodised aluminum and love the bright colors.

All those primary colors, and with the black accent.

I think they will be lovely for festive parties over the next few months...can be worn with black and add real brightness and radiance.

And yes. I did a pendant to go with them too - shaped as a gothic arch.

The aluminum means that they are all lightweight too, so don't drag down your neck or ears!  Not a good party look :-D

43/52 Bird a week challenge - Sweet Nature

I've been seeing open rings, or double headed rings for a while recently. They've caught my eye, but I'm not even sure what their proper name is...  Anyhow, I thought it would be fun to try and make one.

The idea is that the ring band doesn't close and on each end, you add a certain detail.  These details then sit between the fingers and the ring still sits securely on the finger.

For my ring, there obviously had to be a bird for my bird a week challenge.... and then I thought of a sweet little flower. I think birds and flowers are probably the sweetest things of nature, and thus I called it "Sweet Nature". It would make a perfect gift for someone with a sweet nature.

The joy of a double headed/open ring is that the size is somewhat adjustable.

Do you know what these styles of rings are called?  Are they only double headed when it is two "heads" you put on the ends ie like snake heads or something like that?  What name do you think accurately reflects it?  Hmmm..... and while we are all thinking on that...  take a look at what other birds have been created this week by following the links below:

October at Birdland Vineyards - Harvest Time!

By guest blogger John

It's harvest time - finally!!

The grapes were ripening nicely to start the month but then we had heavy rain on October 3rd. This was followed with breezy sunshine so the grapes dried out quite well and we breathed a sigh of relief. It had been a tricky year with late spring sunshine and now we needed to see the sugar levels increase.

There was another blow on October 10th with a day of rain followed by damp humid weather for a few days which is not good as these are perfect conditions for bunch rot to develop. Bunch rot causes the grapes to lose their elasticity and fall from the bunch leaving a sticky mess. It's not dangerous to us and in fact the French infect some white grapes with it when they produce sauternes as it creates a very sweet wine. It's not, however, good for Merlot!

Everything looked OK for about 10 days and then I noticed that we had bunch rot in some clusters, and we knew this spreads very fast. The guy from the winery arrived to inspect the vineyard on Friday Oct. 21st and said lets harvest as soon as possible. Our vineyard manager said he could do it the next day on Sat., so with only a few hours notice and no chance to enlist the help of friends and family (apart from Dennis who helped all morning) to pull leaves from the bins, Ruth and I spent all day yesterday bending over the bins pulling out leaves and damaged fruit, while trying not to fall off the moving tractor.

In the end, after about 8 hours of work, the pickers had finished and we took 42 half ton bins to the winery to be crushed.

 

It was a satisfying but exhausting day and we still have aches and pains today.

So that's the end of any real activity in the vineyard for some time. The leaves will turn yellow and red and then drop off but no more work until pruning next spring.

Weekly bird in the hand

Phew! This week's bird in the hand is easy! I may be missing a few other things this week that I have been grateful for, but the thing I am most grateful for this week is that harvest is done!  We picked all the grapes today - around 20 tons of Merlot grapes.  We'll find out the final weight tomorrow.

It was tiring, sticky, and a long exhausting day, but very satisfying!

Off the little grapes go on their journey to delicious wine! 

Citroen 2CV

For those American's reading this, you might now know what a 2CV is....as Citroen don't sell in the US.  But everyone else will know that it is a cute and legendary car!  Quite quirky in styling, the 2CV is a french made car, designed for low cost, simplicity of use and reliability.  It has a canvas sunroof and you would often see them painted in lots of jolly colors!

Manufacturer of 2CV's sadly stopped in 1990, after 42 years.  Look at the great colors on this one!

One of my customers in France, who has quite a collection of Birdland creations, just bought herself a 2CV and is delighted with her purchase!  So she asked me to make her a necklace of a 2 CV. 

She sent me a couple of photos of her new car and so I tried sculpting it.  Hmm.. It was tricky to make in the small size of a necklace!  But I tried and you see the results here.  Tiny little details that you may not get on the photos are that the number plate says "2CV" on it, and just above it is the tiny Citroen logo badge! 

Yes, the necklace does look quirky and a little odd, but then, so is the 2 CV!!!  I hope she likes it.

42/52 Bird a week challenge - Cold hands, warm heart

Gosh - fancy being at week 42 of the year! That means only 10 weeks until the end of the year! 10 more birdies to make........

This week's birdie was made today!  I normally try and start them earlier in the week and finish them on the Wednesday but not this week! So I was busy this morning sculpting, drying, firing, polishing and adding resin.

Today's little guy is entitled "Cold hands, warm heart".

I'm sure you've heard the saying.....however scientists now say that it isn't true!  Yes, the Telegraph Paper in the UK wrote about how scientists have dispelled the little myth!

They found that people holding a warm cup of coffee were more generous and charitable than individuals holding a cup of iced coffee!

Oh well! Even if the myth doesn't hold up, I still think it makes a nice penguin necklace!  I wonder if scientists have tried the coffee study on penguins?

And what about people with Raynaud's disease too, whose hands go white in the cold as circulation decreases?  My hubby has Raynaud's disease - and we are just getting into the bad season for it with temperatures getting colder - but he has a warm heart!

Cold on the snowflakes

Hope your heart is warmed today.

Take a look at the links below to see what other birds have been created this week as part of our year long challenge to make a different bird each week.