Little puppy had fur in her line of sight. She is jumpy, and when I file her nails, she chews on the file. I did not want her to flinch or gnaw when I was trimming the hair around her eyes! So I waited until she fell asleep on my lap, and gently, quietly, gave her a little trim. I was worried about making the white hairs look strange, but it came out OK. When she woke from her nap, she could see!
Winter showed his face here and the temperature plummeted. Instead of sleek feathered bodies, my chickens are balls of fluff to keep warm. They enjoy the cold more than the heat, though, so maybe as the molt finishes (they are starting to look less moth-eaten), and the temperatures are nice (for me that means highs in the 60s, maybe 70s), they might consider laying eggs again. Maybe. On the plus side, balls of fluffy hen are adorable.
I used to make quite a bit of jewelry; strung, wire work, some bead creation. It was a good thing to do when my kids were little because the projects were generally short term (although I did have a few hour intensive pieces). When my children were babies I also stopped wearing jewelry because little hands are hard on adornments, and being tugged at the neck is irritating. As they grew, I found I could no longer wear necklaces for long, then not at all. It bothers me to have something touching the back of my neck. Then I found out from a jeweler that I really should take off my rings for everything: washing, working, in the shop, in the craft room. That is all the time for me, so I switched to a silicone wedding band and that’s it. My ears are pierced, but will grow closed overnight if I forget earrings, so I have gold jump rings that stay in well, but are hard to remove. Hard to advertise that you make jewelry when you functionally don’t wear any! I do still do repairs. There is something different about making an object knowing it will eventually break, and repairing a broken item that can now be used again. There are also lessons to be learned not only repairing your own work, but that of others.
I designed this paua shell bracelet as part of a set. I used jump rings to connect the paua shell discs, and the jump rings failed multiple times. (It is a good thing my mother-in-law is understanding!) Jump rings are very easy to open with a twist, and flat elements are very good at twisting. To fix it, hopefully with a bit more permanence, I removed all the jump rings and made closed wire links instead. I had some 18 gauge half round wire that did beautifully on the wraps to secure the links. Each link is set at 90 degrees to the interconnecting link so they have some horizontal movement, but shouldn’t twist. Because the twists of wire take up more room, I reduced the number of shell elements, but I think the aesthetics are improved. And it is wearable again.
My eldest rescued a praying mantis from a spider web and it sat on this pipe for a full day, looking around, but not leaving. Very interesting!
I’ve been testing mask styles to find masks my kids will be OK wearing. When we found a good style, I then made a week’s worth for each kid. I realized that I was still scrounging around for clean prototypes when I had to wear a mask! I finally carved out some time to make my favorite style, which happens to be the original pattern I made from a local hospital. I like this one because the pleats allow me to talk without the mask slipping down (the fitted styles do a hokey pokey down my chin when I talk). It has a nose wire (I prefer the lighter gauge wire because it is easier to reshape after the wash), and is the easiest style to iron or steam after washing. They also store flat nicely. Now I just need to come up with a mask rack system to free up the hooks for winter coats!
Critters and Craft 