Uli's Creative Corner

The Vox blog that I abandoned some time ago felt a bit lonely so I decided to write a bit of an update there:  Go and visit if you like........................

I've been trying to hold off writing a post-Christmas blog entry until I got some pics of my favourite Christmas present and I got those today but I haven't downloaded or edited them and now it's late.  So I'll be back with those tomorrow.

Let's just say that a good old time was had by all!!!!

Merry Christmas to all!!!

(and to all a good night)

(and my best Christmas Eve gift was seeing my Dad wear his socks I made him last year and him asking me for more!!!!)

So what were all those test posts about?  Thanks Katy, for asking if I was okay?  Well, I had a story about all the illnesses in our house - see the Ear, Eye, Throat heading below and in my fog, somehow, I didn't hit publish and I lost the long post.  Then I started testing because at the same time, something wasn't quite working right at motime and my test posts didn't show up either.  While eventually, those test posts appeared when motime's problem got fixed, me "real" post had still been lost.  Silly me.

I'll shorten up the story a bit now.............. matter of factly, on the weekend, Evan and I both felt under the weather.  Of course, men are always the ones who suffer the most while us Moms just keep on trucking.  I was so disappointed because we had plans for a dinner and dessert theatre date - just the two of us - well, he wasn't well enough to go so I had to suck it up.  I went to the dessert theatre by myself because I didn't want to miss it - it's an annual production that we go to and I didn't really care that I had to go by myself.  I was sitting with people we knew anyways.  And I'm glad I went!!!  On Sunday, we figured out that Evan had strep throat.  On Tuesday, I came down with an eye infection.  Went down to the clinic, got drops and somehow, even though I was off sick for 2 days, I still couldn't get any rest.  At noon, JR's daycare called to say that he wasn't swallowing any food that had any sort of substance to it so we assume strep.  Took him back to the same clinic as I had visited in the morning and it turned out that he had an ear infection in both ears.  We also got Erika all checked out while we were at it and she got off easy, yet she's still hacking and coughing, too.  So, we've had a fun and interesting week.

I had some cool news to share and they were just as simple as my Dad buying that wonderful chainmailled and lampwork bead bracelet for my Mom - see my last "real" post.  I gave him a wonderful deal on it and was excited for my Mom and of course hoping that she'd love it.  Well, things change in a few days and Dad told me the other night that Mom doesn't want the bracelet and that she'd rather have a necklace.  I know it's nothing personal but my creative spirit felt so squashed.  I love that bracelet.  It's one of my nicest chainmaille creations yet and not even my own Mom wants it..... go figure.  Mind you, at the same time, the recipient of my Silver Simplicity bracelet.  My customer received it yesterday and I got the nicest note from her about it last night.  So I guess it's alright after all.

Speaking of bracelets and chainmaille and necklaces.................. would you like to see my sister-in-laws Christmas gift?  You'll get to see it anyways.  Unfortunately, the picture isn't very good.  I'm having such a hard time with the winter weather and the dark nights with picture taking.  Natural light works best for me but I'm always at work when there's natural daylight......  This necklace is 16" long and should fit choker length - right at the collar bone for my skinny sister-in-law.  The beads are amethyst coloured round faceted Swarovski crystals (her birthstone colour) and the other sections are solid sterling silver chainmaille sections made in the Byzantine weave.  The earrings complement the pattern of the necklace.  I have one like it in the store - just with sapphire coloured bicone crystals.  I'm sure hoping she'll like it.

I also dabbled around with my first illusion style, floating necklace - again, the crystals are rounded faceted Swarovskis and the beading wire is coated in sterling silver to give it a nice shine.  This was one option I gave to my Dad as a necklace for Mom but he didn't pick that one either.

This week, I also did some knitting related shopping.  I haven't shopped at Elann in ages.  I got my order yesterday and in the box was some of the Elann.com Incense in the Persian Violet colourway.  It has a nice soft feel to it.  And then I also picked up some of Elann.com Super Tweed in the granite coloure - a step away from my usual colour selection but I thought it would make a wonderfully neutral top-down cardigan for everyday wear.  And talk about shopping, I also ordered a bunch of the Harmony Wood needle tips and some DPNs from KnitPicks for my needle set.  I haven't bought yarn in so long, it was soo nice to get a box!!!!

To finish it off for today, here's a picture of our annual gingerbread house making event - Little Miss and I did that project together last Saturday:

It's always a fun project - even when I have to admit that I was grumpy at the start because we HAD to do it right there and then and I just wasn't feeling up to it right there and then.

We're all getting haircuts tomorrow.  They are desperately needed.  Especially the kids are looking a tad shaggy, especially JR.

Now, I promise I won't forget to hit "Publish" this time.  Have a great weekend.

Sometimes, here on the west coast, we get a bit of snow that stays for a while, never very long.  But, usually, we get these big dumps of snow that happen as temperatures warm up from below freezing again and then it turns to rain.  So on Saturday it started and continued on through Sunday and this is what our neighbourhood looked like:

These pictures were taken earlier in the day on Sunday and it continued snowing heavily until about dinner time.  Then it turned into heavy, heavy rains and the pineapple express started blowing from Hawaii and by yesterday afternoon, after a very slushy mess in the morning and warnings of floods and all that fun stuff, the pretty white stuff was all gone again.  I love the snow - if I don't have to go out in it.  It was fine on Sunday but what was disappointing is that my show that I was selling at on Saturday was also snowed out and the attendance could have been better than it really was.  I still did okay though and had a really good day.

One of the pieces I was showing off at the show is this wonderful sterling silver chainmaille bracelet that I created and combined a wonderful lampworked glass bead that I purchased from a fellow Canadian Etsy seller and artist.  Here store is Gillian Beads.  Here is the result:

It is an item that's for sale but I haven't listed it in my store as of yet.  I'm not sure if I will but if you fall in love with it................... (I know, I'm dreaming) - let me know.  It's solid sterling silver with a sterling silver lobster clasp.

The kids are getting ready for Christmas.  The excitement is building.  Little Miss is hard at work, practicing her reading and writing.

Erika loves to make books.  We assemble pages of paper and staple them together and then she writes stories and draws pictures or has us help her with the writing and she draws the pictures - in any case, she has an amazing imagination and quite a lot of fun with her story telling.  I certainly work hard at encouraging her in those types of activities.

I would also love to show you a cute pair of mittens I made right here in the blog but I'm having difficulty uploading images right at the moment - I had prepared all the others for this blog post ahead of time.  I can send you off to a link of the mittens in my store though.  They are cute little mittens made with Opal 6-ply from the Rainforest collection and they are the ladybug colour.  Go Click.

And right now, I'm working on a custom pair of adult Lollipop mittens like the toddler size I showed a few blog entries ago.

And my Christmas wish from Santa - some extra time to do all the things I'd love to do!!!!