HAPPY NEW YEAR! Hope it's a wonderful, happy and healthy one.
After yesterday's post, I thought maybe I should introduce you to my own current desk buddies. They are a motley crew....
Similarly, and the same species, but in bronze, here is my next little buddy. Again he brings a flower but it was also mentioned that maybe he is protecting his modesty. So he was called Modesty Max for a while - but as he was one of the first pieces I ever did in bronze, to me, he is known as Pat Ina - as in patina!
When they first gave him to me, he was "just" a ring and didn't have any features or body parts.....but then when he came home with me, he developed! He's quite the character now and a bit wayward!
hand felted and just had a busy Christmas time, posing for lots of Christmas cards....and then my other early bronze piece, a Quentin quail. Quite the menagerie! Guess that's another excuse for having an untidy desk.... Oh and yes, can't forget my blue footed booby either - all the way from the Galapagos islands.....and my musical frog - a gift from my nephews....Quite a rowdy gang when I let them all hang out together - so I try to space them out a bit to keep the noise level controllable!
It's time for another ride on the merry-go-round! Jump on and join a group of artists/crafts-women as they link around the world and tell you a little about their lives in art and craft.
Then John and I drive home and, if I'm lucky, I get to open one little stocking present before we go to bed. And that's the only present I ever open early...I keep all other presents until 25th! (Here's Harold - he as some decorations on his cage and his own stocking too!) Then I settle down and have a whiskey mac drink (scotch with Stone's green ginger wine) and John and I read "''Twas the night before Christmas". We have a few versions of this book, but the one we always read on Christmas Eve is the Robert Sabuda's pop-up version. We take turns in reading the different pages and pulling up the pop-ups! Oh, it's such a delight!
Christmas morning begins with champagne!....and continues with champagne :=D Our first glass is drunk as we sit outside in our bath tub! We have a French copper and zinc bath tub in the garden so we brave the elements and start our day with a soak in the big tub and a glass or two of champagne! Time to relax and chat and enjoy the birds overhead and the occasional drip of cold water down your back from the tree above!!
Once that is done, we start thinking about preparing food etc...and while that is cooking, settle down in front of the fire and start opening our presents under the tree - here's this year's tree - a 9.5ft noble fir.
Happy singing!
What a way to spend three days - surrounded by wonderful music......and so I decorate this post with music jewelry - it is customizable - I can put your favourite piece of music on a necklace, earrings or cufflinks or brooch...... Shown here is a necklace "in terra pax" - "on earth peace" from Handel's Gloria and cufflinks of Bach's "Jesu Meine Freude" - the bass part shown on one cufflink and the tenor part on the other cufflink......
And here's another hug from me....(----`^`----)
She has a cat called Dickie and he loves to bring her little presents - dead birds or other creatures from his haunt. Well, I could hardly make a piece with a dead bird in it - so I made a little cat who has caught a mouse and is holding it under his paw - ready to give it to you - "just for you"!!!
It's an interesting process. I would make one master version of the charm and finish it fully. Then send it to the caster who makes a mold of it and then creates however many copies of it. Different casters then do differing amounts of finishing work for you - but I think with 200 pieces, I'd want them finished! I can't imagine polishing 200 tiny charms myself! That is not why I like making jewelry!!!
Here's my latest little "Anyone". It's "anyone can give a hug" - with the little anyone holding his arms out wide, ready to give you a great big hug. And you know his hug will be one of those just-what-you-need hugs.....those pick you up and feel loved hugs....
As I've mentioned before, when people come and stay with us at our home, we like to get them to paint a birdhouse and then they can choose where to hang it in the vineyard or garden.
These little earrings will last longer than the wooden ones out in the rain! I made them for my recent show and sold them then too. This little birdie looks like he was quite interested in them!
I had a lovely request from someone on Etsy recently. This lady had recently bought my "Charlie the Chicken" bangle bracelet and wanted to commission another charm from me. At the beginning of the year, she had bought her sister a Amigurumi knitted toy - called "little bun" when her sister was having a tough time. This little knitted bun turned out to be the one thing that connected the two of them together during an otherwise sad time and the only thing that brought a smile to their faces..... The photo above shows the little guy who was to be my inspiration for a charm. He was created by moonscreations
Anyhow, I contacted the person - Marcy, from Moonscreations, who made the original bun and checked with her that she didn't mind me using her design. She was lovely - and in fact asked me to make her one as well!
Hopefully the "cuteness" comes through. 
We harvested our olives today - and were blessed with good weather. Normally it's raining and cold and your hands get raw and ......it's just not alot of fun! Last year we changed clothes 3 times because we got so drenched and soaked and chilled through..... I have to admit that this year we also changed clothes three times -but were taking off layers - so that made a refreshing change! The sun was shining, it was warm...and a perfect day for olive picking.
This year one tree made all the difference to us. Most of our olives are the tiny olives - we have about 10 trees of these. They are the old trees that were planted years ago and are tall. Since we've moved here, we've planted some large olive varietal trees - and kept them shorter. One of these just had soooooo many olives on it this year - it was just great. It was the a joy to pick. Here's John up the ladder ...
My parents bought us a tree a few years ago - with large olives - but this year it only had 10 olives on it. At least it was some.....but olive trees tend to bear fruit one year, then take a year off, so it was its year off this year - so 10 was better than none!
I'll let you know how much we get and how it tastes - but normally, it's enough to last us the year - and it tastes wonderful -especially because you know it's yours!!
During this holiday and gift giving season, if you are purchasing gifts online, try looking at iGive.com. From their online mall on their website, you can shop from over 700 stores and a percentage of your purchase amount is sent to a non-profit. You can choose from the list of non-profits, or add your favourite one. Nest is one of the non profits that is a recipient too.
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