A Farm Auction

I've been meaning to tell you about a farm auction my sister and I went to last weekend. They started selling the house and barn contents at 10 a.m. and were all finished just after 1 p.m., when they auctioned off the property itself. The house wasn't anything too special, rather small on the ground floor but amazingly large on the 2nd floor, when you realized there were 5 bedrooms up there!

There was lots of cool stuff on offer, and as usual, quite the mix of cheap junk and valuable collectibles. There was a HUGE selection of tools, which unfortunately, in order to get through it quicker, they auctioned off in lots, which means the item you wanted might have been grouped together with one or two or several other things you had no desire for whatsoever. It's a good idea as a way to move stuff, but not so good if you don't want a bunch of new junk and thus miss out on something you really wanted.

I especially liked this stacked set of wrenches (which I didn't bid on, because I didn't want all the other stuff that was going to come with it), and this hammer with the funky handle (which my sister bought).

As always with auctions, when you do miss out on getting something, you never know if one more bid could have made the difference. I was bidding on this beautiful, clean white dresser and finally gave up, as I hadn't really planned ahead about what my top price would be, even though the final price wasn't that bad. As the new owner was taking it away, I noticed the back of dresser was finished with these lovely little nail covers that were so sweet. If I'd seen that little bit of detailing beforehand, I surely would have bid just a few more times! Then again, when I got home, I realized the dresser was probably too wide for the space I would have wanted to fit it, so it's just as well that I didn't get it.

What did I buy? I share some of that with you in tomorrow's post.

Anybody Want A Kitten?

I had an email from Dwyn at Beadfx yesterday to tell me that Catherine (a.k.a. Sailorgirl of Sailorgirl Jewellery) has 3 abandoned kittens living in her backyard who need a home.

Check out these photos, are they not the cutest little bits of furballs?? I especially like the black and white one, who appears to have some sort of skunk-like markings down its back, very unusual.

At the moment, I am resisting the urge to scoop one up myself. As much as my Max seems lonely since Carly left us last month and would probably enjoy having someone around to keep him company during the day when I'm at work, I swore 17 years ago after my first week with Carly as a kitten that I wouldn't get another kitten ever again! I know, I know, never say never. But Max is 12 so a kitten might be too much activity for him. I think when the time comes, I'll look for a more mature cat who need a loving home, one who can put his or her new brother in his place as needed but would also be willing to be his new friend.

If you would like to give one of these darlings a home, you can get in touch with Catherine at this address: catherine@sailorgirl.com.
Or you can swing by her website and check out her stuff and then enter a contest on somebody else's blog to win one of Catherine's necklaces!! You will find all the details here: http://www.sailorgirljewelry.blogspot.com/

A Different Kind of Torch

Usually on Thursday nights, I go to Beadfx to do a little Happy Hour Torching (torch for 1 hour, get the 2nd hour for free, what a great deal!) but tonight, I've been working on a torch of a different sort. The Olympic Relay Torch, to be specific. My company has obtained a spot on the 45,000 km relay that will transport the Olympic torch across Canada, leading up to the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, and they're having a contest to pick the employee who will carry the torch on the route.

In order to enter, you had to create a short video or slide show no more than 90 seconds long and post it on a special blogspot website they created by no later than tomorrow. So I spent several hours last night putting together a Powerpoint presentation, only to find at the end of it that when you upload the PPT to the program that converts to a format to post on Blogger, you lose all the animation you've added to the slides and any music you might have added as background. What a total drag! It's still a pretty good entry, in my humble opinion, it would just have rocked that little bit more if there was music and a few special effects.

I don't think I can share the whole thing with y'all at the moment but here's a couple of pictures I used to show how I was practicing to carry the torch: yup, I can carry a ladder or a bucket! I'll let you know how I do in the contest. In the meantime, thanks to my mom and my sister for taking these photos.

Max's Butterfly Choker

This is my latest Inspiration created for the Beadfx website. I call it Max's Butterfly Choker because as I was finishing the piece, my cat Max took an extra special interest in it - by chewing on the clasp once it was all put together (and thankfully not before!), checking out the pile of triangle beads on my work surface (unfortunately, no photo of him with little beads stuck on his nose - very cute!) and lying on the keyboard and/or pile of ingredients as I was trying to type the component list - just generally driving me crazy in that way that cats who like to bead always do when you're trying to make a deadline!

I found the focal bead that I used in the centre of the choker while checking things out at the store one day soon after Dwyn first gave me this challenge. It has the very cool name of "Spanish Dancer" and was exactly the right shades to go with the three colours of triangle beads Dwyn had given me to work with. The beaded squares are made with even count peyote stitch and then strung on beading wire. The butterflies are Swarovski crystal and are held in the silver squares with eyepins.

By the way, did you notice that the beads are green? Five of the seven sets of beads she has given me for the Inspiration projects so far have involved the colour green and frankly, I'm feeling the urge to branch out from this colour so I've asked her to pick out something different for my next challenge!

Sadly, the finished piece is just a little too big for my neck and as a result, doesn't sit properly. I did measure but then, without really thinking it through, I figured I'd just add a couple of beads to round out the number - bad idea! Even just 2 or 3 extra beads on each side and next thing you know, it's at least a half an inch too long. D'oh! Once I get it back from Dwyn, I'll cut off the clasps and redo the ends and made the closure adjustable. It's definitely true what they say, you learn more from your mistakes than from something that turns out right the first time!

Because of its length, it was hard to photograph this piece, at least for me. Dwyn's photos on the Beadfx website are much more flattering, as always, so be sure to click on the link on the right and check out the Inspirations page to see more of this piece, if you are so inclined.

Have I Bought Anything Yet?

Of course I have! I'm talking about Kate McKinnon's Soul Clearing Sale, which I wrote about in yesterday's post.

I logged onto Kate's site when I first got in to work this morning and was disappointed to find the sale hadn't started yet. Then again, Kate is two hours behind us in Tuscon so I really wasn't too surprised, but that's how excited I was. By 9:45, the first items were listed and what a delightful selection there was. By 10 a.m., I had made my first choice, my payment had cleared PayPal (the choosing took the time, the payment part was almost instaneous - I do love PayPal, it's so safe and easy) and the Bone Box was mine!! (I hope to have a photo to post shortly, I'm just waiting for permission from Kate.) I have been dreaming up a necklace in my head and collecting components since I was in Mexico in January, and I have a feeling the Bone Box will be the perfect focal piece for it. I also love the fact that it has one of Michelle Goldstein's bones in it as I think they are fabulous.

For the rest of the day, I've been checking back to her site from time to time (quite frequently, really, but I'm going to pretend it wasn't that often, lest my boss should read this and think I'm not getting any work done!) to see what has been newly posted, as Kate is adding items throughout the day as other pieces sell and will be doing so for the next two weeks. Apparently you can set it up so the computer notifies you that something new has been posted on her website but that seems to take the fun out of it for me, it's much more of a thrill for me to do it manually.

It's fun to watch and see what is posted and how quickly things disappear. She had two regular sized black Ott lights together with at least one new bulb listed for only $75 US, which I thought was a pretty good deal, as those things are pretty darned expensive but so very useful, I was seriously tempted but then decided I really didn't need to have her ship them all the way up here to Canada. But they went up and then disappeared, so someone else knew it was a bargain! Some items that I thought would disappear in an instant are still there, which surprises me, they are so lovely. I am particularly admiring the Flower Circlet necklace, it has the most beautifully shaped petals and patina. I'm sure its destined owner just hasn't logged on yet. There is also an Orange Spiney ring which is just my size and totally funky, but I hesitate to shop too early, in case there is something else over the next several days which I might covet even more...

Kate is having a SALE!

Kate McKinnon has been doing some house organizing, closet emptying, downsizing style, soul cleaning lately and starting tomorrow, she's going to be putting a whole bunch of stuff up on her website for sale. According to her posting, there will be "beads, books, fabrics, vintage delights, including costumes and costume jewellery, stunningly fabulous shoes, jewellery and collectibles". She'll also be selling some of the pieces from her upcoming book.

Now, I don't know about you, but that kind of list makes me want to be at my computer at about one minute past midnight tonight, just to see if the sale has started yet. Of course, those of you who know me well, know that I won't actually be awake at that hour but the urge is there. Then again, I don't actually know what time tomorrow this all starts, so rather than wait up until the wee hours of the night, I'll be checking it out first thing in the morning. But I will be there, ready to shop 'til I drop! I know there will be some pretty amazing treasures on offer.

All are cordially invited to check it out - here's the link: http://www.katemckinnon.com/ - when you get to her website, select "Journal" and then pick "Soul Clearing Sale" from the list on the right hand side.

Waiting out the Weather

The two hour drive home from the cottage took over 3 hours today, mostly because I stopped for dinner about 3/4 of the way back in order to wait out a storm. I hadn't planned to stop but the really black cloud approaching from the west was making me a little worried and I figured there was no rush, better safe than sorry, as they say. About five minutes after I ordered my food and sat down, so much rain started hitting the window and the wind was blowing it around the parking lot outside with such force that I actually considered moving to a table towards the centre of the room, as it was so black outside that I wondered if there was a tornado touching down nearby. The power shut off across the street, taking all the streetlights and stoplights for several blocks in both directions with it, but all was well inside the restaurant where I was. The waves of water outside looked more like a winter snowstorm than a summer thunderstorm, but then again, it could have been the frigid A/C inside that was confusing me. :)

Here's a picture of what it looked like outside the window beside me during the height of the storm:

And here's another shot I took stopped at a red light when conditions lightened up and I headed back on the road. The rest of the drive was rather wet but uneventful (although it was weird to go through those first few intersections in the dark with no stoplights whatsoever, not even flashing ones), although the lightning displays were absolutely amazing. Still, I'm glad to be home and dry and out of that weather!