Wire Storage

I picked up this glass storage jar at a yard sale this past weekend. As I paid my one dollar (a bargain!), the woman who sold it to me explained why it had a paper towel inside. She said her grandmother had told her to put a paper towel inside any empty container when you are storing it, to absorb any moisture or odours. I had never heard this before, have you? Certainly, the jar didn't smell at all, although it did seem to have a few left over cookie crumbs from its prior use but I would have washed it out no matter what!

I thought this jar would be perfect for holding my various rolls of wire and I was right! Before this, I was using empty peanut butter jars - you know the ones I mean, the plastic ones with the coloured lids? But they just didn't seem to look right, sitting on the shelf in my bead stash bookcase. This jar seems much more at home there.

Made to Order Earrings

My boss Kelly is going to a family wedding next weekend and asked me to make some earrings for her to match the dress she is going to be wearing. The dress fabric looks like the photo on the left, very soft grey tones with lots of little, tiny sequins to give it some sparkle.

Kelly searched out some earring styles on the Internet and showed me some photos of what she had in mind. Several of them were made with Swarovski crystals but were retailing for an average of $75.00 a pair. We both that was more than a little pricey!

I picked up several types of Swarovski crystals at Beadfx and brought them in to work to show her. She picked out the ones she liked and I used them as the bottom of the dangle. They are called "cubist" and the colour is a smoky grey, what they call "Black Diamond" and they retail for a mere $2.25 each.

Then I added some black niblets, some 4 mm crystal AB Swarovski bicones, 4mm dark grey and light grey pearls and some silver disks I had recently picked up somewhere and voila! a pretty, sparkly, dangling pair of earrings that retail for a very budget friendly $20 and which should compliment her dress perfectly!

Wimbledon

Watching the Wimbledon men's final today - I caught the last 3 sets, both players were amazing, it's a shame there had to be a loser, as Andy Roddick played a truly awesome game - I was reminded of my own first visit to The All England Tennis Club. It took place in January 2008 when I was last in London. Did you know they have tours and a museum there? Indeed they do and if you're into tennis, it's quite interesting.

Centre court was under construction when we were there but we did get to see several of the other courts - here I am at Court 1:










The tour takes you into the press room - we took turns on the stage, pretending to be interviewed after winning the championship - and various "non-public" areas that non-players don't usually have access to. This is the BBC broadcasting booth:




It was strange to be there with the place virtually empty. When you see it on TV during the championships, the place is always packed with people. Of course, it was January!

I'm hoping one day to actually be at Wimbledon during the tournament, see the place bustling with activity, watch a few matches. I suppose it's too late for me to make it there on the players' circuit, unless they have a mature category, but some day, I plan to be there as a spectator and when I do, I can only hope that I'll be lucky enough to see a match like today's.

Happy 4th of July!

Our American neighbours celebrating their country's birthday today. Way back in 1776, they declared their independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. Nowadays, this anniversary is usually celebrated by way of picnics, parades, barbeques and fireworks - much the same way as we celebrate July 1st. Although I heard that this year, due to the recession, a lot of fireworks shows are cancelled in order to avoid the expense. Which is sad, really, because I just love a good fireworks display, but completely understandable, because they are pretty darned expensive to put on.

Did you know that two of the founding fathers of the United States, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, both of whom signed the Declaration of Independence and both of whom later went on to become President (2nd and 3rd, respectively), both died on July 4, 1862, the 50th anniversary of the formation of their country? James Munroe, who was the 5th President, also died on July 4th but he died 5 years later and he wasn't one of the people who signed the Declaration. Isn't that a weird bunch of coincidences?? (thanks to Wikipedia for this information)

I am on my way to a picnic today, as it happens, so I decided to make myself some 4th of July jewellery, as I'm planning to wear a red, white and blue outfit. Here's a picture of the necklace, bracelet and earrings I made:

Okay, so the bracelet and earrings were actually made last year when I went to France, a country which also happens to have red, white and blue as its colours and I figured, why re-invent the wheel? But I needed a new necklace and I whipped that up last night to go with. :)

The Telephone

My friend Stefanie from St. Louis, Missouri took me to task the other day after she followed the link in my blog entry to the CBC website about Canadian inventions and saw that the telephone was our number two pick. I did a little research after she emailed me and I have to say I agree with her - claiming that the telephone is a Canadian invention is a huge stretch. According to the CBC, our apparent claim to fame is based solely on the fact that Mr. Bell, who was not even a Canadian, having been born in Scotland, thought up the idea for the phone while living in Brantford. He then moved back to Boston and worked on his idea. He later had a summer home in the Maritimes and worked on several other inventions there but notwithstanding that, I think it is only fair that we as a nation should not take the credit for this particular item. The Blackberry, yes. The original telephone, not so much. Stefanie, on behalf of all of us misguided and/or misled Canadians, I do apologize. And I have to say, I'm surprised at the CBC for perpetuating this fallacy.

If you care to read a little more about this topic, you can follow this link:

http://www.cbc.ca/greatest/top_ten/nominee/bell-alexander-graham.html

I am excited to report that I recently bought a new "old" phone (see photo) at a friend's yard sale. I have it plugged in at home along with my cordless phones. It doesn't have call display and if I dial a number, I have to do it one digit at a time and wait for the dial to return to its original position before dialing the next number but to me, those minor inconveniences are outweighed by the fact that this phone will still work if the power goes out and I especially like the ring tone - it's not a tone at all, it is an actual bell ringing inside and it sounds lovely. My only concern is that when you pick up the whole phone, you can hear something rattling around inside. I'm not sure what that might be but it doesn't seem to interfere with the phone's function, so I'm not going to worry about it for now.

Mr. Bell, wherever you were from and wherever you were when you came up with this idea, thank you.

More Canadian Talent

In keeping with Canada Day, I thought I'd tell you about another Canadian glass artist I met while in Milwaukee last month (has it really been a whole month ago already?!). Her name is Kerri Fuhr and she also hails from British Columbia, as does Stephanie Ann, about whose earrings I blogged on June 26th. The two of them shared a booth.

My attention was caught by the beautiful scrolls on her beads. She calls it "tapestry scrollwork" and you can download a tutorial from her website (http://www.kerrifuhr.com/) to learn how to do it yourself, which I fully intend to do one of these days.

This pink bead caught my eye first:

and then I also had to have this heart-shaped bead, because I love the swirls of colour. It reminds me of the gases that swirl around in the photos of planets - it's like there is a whole world inside this bead.

Happy Canada Day, eh?

Our beloved country is 142 years young today. Sadly, it seems many of our young people don't know who Sir John A. MacDonald was (our first Prime Minister). Did you know he was actually knighted by Queen Victoria on this very day of our Confederation in 1867? I didn't know that.

July 1st used to be called Dominion Day, when we celebrate the enactment of the British North America Act which united four provinces into the country of Canada, but they officially changed the name to Canada Day back in 1982. But did you know that February 15th is National Flag of Canada Day? I didn't know that.

We have many reasons to be proud of our country and heritage. We have contributed a lot to the advancement of civilization, and not just because of Tim Horton's (did you know they are about to open their first store in New York City? They already have 527 location in the U.S., and over 3,000 in Canada). I didn't know that either.

Our national TV station, the CBC, did a special about the top 50 Canadian inventions - you can view the list here: http://www.cbc.ca/inventions/. Canadians were asked to pick their favourites and insulin made the number one spot, no surprise there, but did you know 5 pin bowling made 4th place and the Wonderbra was 5th?! Nope, I never would have guessed that.

We're also the second largest country by total area, with Russia being the largest. Did you know that the U.S. and China are tied for third place? Brazil and Australia come in at 5th and 6th, respectively. I didn't know that.

I'll be the first to admit, there's a lot I don't know about my country. I do know I am and always will be proud to be a Canadian.