When it rains....

Hi everyone.  It has been a whirlwind of a week since my last post.  Unfortunately due to illness and other circumstances I was unable to get the listings up that I wanted to.  On Wednesday I noticed that my older collie, Mercury was limping.  I thought he had broken or injured his leg.  While palpating his leg, I noticed blood on his fur.  After rushing him to the animal hospital, he was diagnosed with bladder stones.  The xray revealed SEVERAL of them both in the bladder and urethra.

I left him there for surgery on Wednesday.  He's happy to be home but he's terribly tired and the incision looks painful and sore.  I am VERY thankful it was something simple.

The latest pair of earrings I posted tonight feature grizzly rooster feathers in multiple colors, peacock swords, and pheasant hackle wrapped in silver coated wire and hung in sterling silver ear hooks.  They are long long long.  Definitely the longest pair I've made so far.  They're about a foot long.  I *love* them and I'm making me a pair!

I really like the long earring look and will make some more like these!

The purple grizzly rooster really pops the swords out, huh?

I also really like the silver coated wire :)

I would like to give a shout out to Chelsea! 

She recently purchased some earrings from me and gave me a shoutout on youtube.  She makes makeup tutorials.  I am definitely going to check those out the next time I'm getting dolled up because I am horrible at doing my makeup!  Thanks Chelsea!!   The earrings look AWESOME on her.  I told her they look way better than they do on me and enticed her to take some photos for me as my model. hint hint!!   :)  I hope you love your earrings, Chelsea!

Goodnight everyone. I've had a loooooooooooooooooong day!
xoxooxoxox

Of a weekend filled with collies and cooking..

Hello everyone,

I hope you had a wonderful weekend!

Mine was extremely busy. Venus was in her first dog show. She didn't get any points, but I wasn't realy expecting her to.  Some of the best collies in the country were present.  I was trying to expose her to the lights and the crowds and the thousands of dogs.  She carried herself quite well! 

I hope to handle her myself at her next show, which will likely be the Charlotte dog show in April.

Handling a dog in the ring is no easy task, believe me.  There's a lot more that goes into it than meets the eye.  A good handler can make or break a great dog.  For instance, I watched a gorgeous dog perform poorly on one day of the show with a particular handler.  The second day the handlers were switched and this dog won its class.

After the dog show Saturday, we chilled at the house and made sushi and drank Sapporo, which is "Asian Budwieser" as Dave says, but whatever, I love it!.  I haven't made sushi in quite a few years but have wanted to for awhile.  I have been accumulating dishes and bamboo mats which were crying to be used!   I tried (unsuccessfully) to use the (non electronic) rice cooker you can see in the photo which was a Christmas gift.. I tried to make sushi rice in it and had to throw it out and start over.  The rice was gummy on the outside and crunchy in the center....  Neither the directions on the bag of rice or those that came with the rice cooker were correct to use with it. It was wholly frustrating.  I don't think my stock pot is large enough for it to work properly.  We had to improvise a bit to get perfect sticky rice and make it on the stove...

Items on the menu included spicy tuna, spicy salmon, california roll, some nigiri, and I attempted to make a caterpillar roll (with imitation crab since I couldn't find eel) that ended up being too big and ended up breaking.  The eel sauce recipe was a bit too sweet also.  I'm hoping that the next time I make this roll it will be banging!  We ended up eating the last bit of fish as sashimi since we ran out of rice.  I wanted to tempura fry some of the rolls but ended up being too worn out.  Next time I will also make the sauces and cut the veggies a day ahead since that takes the most time.  I actually over-bought fish and ended up feeding a bit of the fish to the dogs, who loved it.

I didn't post any listings today.  I think I have bronchitis and just didn't feel up to it.  Tomorrow, for sure!

xox

More Snow!!

Hello everyone! I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day! I had a relaxing long weekend with my boyfriend for the holiday. It snowed about 6 inches from Friday to Sunday evening. I absolutely adore the snow (in case you didn't figure that out by now) and it was really hard to tear myself away from the mountains when the weekend came to an end. The dogs really love the snow. I hated bringing them back to South Carolina and our lack of winter-wonderland-ness.

Collies are completely in their element in winter weather.

Venus has a much thicker coat than Mercury despite her young age.

I baked a chocolate cake (from a box due to time constraints), some lemon icebox cookies (from scratch from a Martha Stewart Recipe), and a large heart shaped cookie with royal icing (also from scratch). All three were delicious.... even the boxed cake. I've actually never made a boxed cake before, and was happy with the results. It was great with vanilla ice cream. The lemon icebox cookies received many many compliments both at work and from my boyfriend. I will definitely make those again!

This weekend I got some quality snowboarding in for the first time in a couple weeks. I'm already fiending to go out again.  I didn't realize how highly addicting it is until now.  My previous experiences with snowboarding were not pleasant.  This year I had a wonderful and patient teacher (my wonderful boyfriend).  I think it may be as addicting to me as backpacking.  In the summer months I anxiously scrutinize my calendar and the weather forecast, planning weekend getaways into the woods.  Now I'm doing the same thing!  How fun!

My wonderful teacher :)

I couldn't ask for better weather.  The view from Beech Mountain is breathtaking!

I plan on going up for a few night sessions over the following weeks since my weekends are going to be otherwise busy.  I know this weather wont hold for much longer.. spring is around the corner!

I added more earrings to the etsy shop today. I'm still attempting to add an item a day to the shop during my lunch break at work. I'd like to increase my inventory to 50-60 items.  

These earrings feature parrot and parakeet wing feathers set in a silver plated cone and finished with a sterling silver ear cuff.  They are about 3 inches long and the cuff can be worn high up on the ear or lower. The photos don't do this item justice.  The feathers are a bright green/yellow/teal color.   Lately I have been serving as model for the site.  I keep fairly weird hours and I doubt I could convince my friends to come over at 11 pm for a photoshoot.  I really like this little ear cuff a lot. I hope it finds a good home!

Happy Tuesday everyone!  My Virginia Tech Hokies just beat Wake Forest, claiming a #2 ranking in the ACC! 

Goodnight!

xox

A sad sort of day

I hate starting posts off on a negative note, but today I'm going to do just that.  Monday was a very sad day at my house.  I found my outdoor kitty, Kona, dead in my yard.  It was horrible.   The ground has been frozen from all the weather we're getting, so I have not been able to bury him yet.    I hope to do that this weekend, if the weather holds. 

Here's a picture of the poor little guy, taken when he was a wee little guy, at a cottage I used to live at in rural Virginia.  I don't have the words to say how much I'm going to miss him.  Just last week he was following me and the dogs as we took a walk around the neighborhood.  Kona was MY first cat (my family did have one cat), and he is the first of MY pets that have ever died.  So its been hard to get through.  It makes me appreciate how short life really is, and to never take anything for granted, because you never know when your life can radically change. This has made me become more mindful of every moment I have spent with coworkers, friends, or pets since then.

I have added some new earrings to the etsy shop.  The pair I added today is made with pheasant tail feathers, hackle, and some body feathers.  The earrings are orange, brown, and tan colored.  They are wire-wrapped with black coated wire and hung in sterling silver ear hooks.  I will be adding one pair a day for the next week, so keep your eyes peeled in the shop for those!

I just realized I haven't posted many of my wire wrapped earrings here on the blog, so I felt like I'd share some photos of those with you.  They are all available on the etsy shop as well as my personal webpage store.  The store on my webpage doesn't have all my inventory (yet), but I'm working on it.

These are made with natural grizzly rooster feathers overlaid with peacock body feathers and wrapped in purple wire, set in gunmetal earring hooks.  These have been fairly popular and I have received many compliments!

Have a good rest of the week everyone.  Be in the moment and be kind to one another..

xox

Freefall into winter!

I realize that I haven't posted a blog in quite a long time. This fall, I bit off more than I could chew, so to speak. I was teaching two sections of anatomy and taking an upper level graduate course in biotechnology that took about 7-8 hours of my week with homeworks and exercises. It was honestly exhausting. I think I did less crafting and internet stuff this semester than I have in quite awhile. I had less time this semester than even during my undergraduate years. It was THAT crazy.

I did get outside some in the fall, despite spraining my ankle and having car troubles. I also got a new puppy, a little tricolor collie girl named Venus. She's adorable. The lab I adopted did not work out. His needs were well above the amount of time I could provide. After working 8 hours a day in the summer, I would come home to a frantic dog that started destroying the deck on the house I rent. I then kenneled him during the day, which worked, but his mood would never relax and calm down in the two months that I had him. I worked through obedience and took him running almost daily, but he still wouldn't calm down, and knowing how busy my fall would be, I surmised that the best thing for him would be to find a home where someone could give him more attention. I felt very sad about it and it was a very hard decision. Mercury became very attached to him. Venus has been a joy. She is very intelligent and stubborn and cute.

Here's a photo from a hike I did with my boyfriend and dogs. I am holding (the then) tiny Venus in my arms. She's quite big now.. about 3/4 the size of Mercury. I predict that she's going to be huge!

My boyfriend took me skydiving this semester, which was an intense experience. I loved it! I'd love to go again. I posted a couple pictures below.

The freefall and jump were honestly quite frightening. I did love the parachute part.. There's something serene about floating over the earth...

Thankfully, next semester, I will not be teaching OR taking classes, so my hopes are to finish all the unfinished projects around my house and start some new items to list in my etsy shops.

I will be posting some photos of my projects soon!

xoxoo

A Hitchcock-themed looooong rainy (and snowy!) weekend

This past weekend was extremely rainy, and thus my plans to get a lot of hiking done were foiled. The rain was highly conducive to crafting, though!! I spent most of the weekend decoupaging, knitting, crocheting, and revisiting several Hitchcock films that I adore. The first I watched was "Topaz", a lesser known and less popular, less Hitchcock-like film. This film received very poor reviews when it was released, but I happen to like it a lot. The film is a fictional cold war tale of espionage wherein a French spy working for America tries to unveil a missile plot between Cuba and Russia. I highly recommend it if you are into older movies, are into the more popular Hitchcock films, or are just looking for a older (but new to you) movie to watch. I also watched "North by Northwest" and "To Catch a Thief", two other favorites.

I really want to buy the coveted but rare criterion dvd collection, "Wrong Men and Notorious Women". It is no longer made and racks up a pretty penny on amazon (between $170-300 for a mint opened copy). It's on my to purchase someday list. It includes the thrillers 'the 39 steps, 'rebecca', 'notorious', 'spellbound', and 'the lady vanishes'. Incidentally, I have not seen any of these films... maybe someday!

I have nearly completed the items created from vintage bird atlases that I mentioned in an earlier post. I have posted a photo of one of the creations.

I hope to get all of them on etsy later tonight. Note that I am releasing a limited number of the hanging plaques. I was only able to find about 8 of these at the craft store, so only ONE plaque of each type of bird will be available! I plan to list about 4 out of the 7 total plaques tonight. I want to keep one for myself ;)
The little lacquered boxes (that I will be posting), however, I will be producing a lot of.

These items start as pages from a vintage bird atlas. Some of the birds are cut directly out of the atlas, and others are photocopied and shrunk/stretched. The quality of the copies is indistinguishable from the book. I had them copied at a professional copier. Next, the images are carefully cut out and decoupaged onto a painted box or plaque. Next, several coats (20-30) of decoupage medium and lacquer are applied, and the items are sanded in between coats. The plaques are attached to a lovely shiny strand of ribbon for hanging.

If I can find more plaques, I will be making more! But I do plan on making a bunch of the boxes.

I also crocheted a hat for a friend's birthday and started working on a sweater for St. patrick's day. It is the 'Sloane' sweater from Lisa Shobhana Mason's "Yarnplay". Her blog can be found here. Interestingly, I began and finished this sweater a looooooong time ago... only to realize that I didn't check my gauge like a true amateur. The sweater was enormous. I am happy to note that it only took a weekend to knit up, so not that much time was wasted... and I learned a very valuable lesson... CHECK YOUR GAUGE! The rather large sweater vest sat in my UFO bin for quite awhile. Two days ago I got the pleasure of frogging all of it and starting over. Instead of knitting the two sides separately, I am knitting the sweater in the round, and making it a tad bit longer, since I am longwaisted. I will post pics as I have them. I'm about 30% done! I am knitting it in Rowan Ribbon Twist, colorway "rabble". It will be perfect for St. Patty's!

As if the weekend wasn't idyllic enough, on Sunday it started snowing. FINALLY! Since moving to South Carolina, I have watched in irritation as all my Virginia friends and family have been repeatedly doused in snow this winter! How truly ironic (and unfair) that the year I move away from Virginia, the state gets a ton of snow! I remember last year I was wearing shorts during the winter, the temperatures were so warm. Oh well, I finally got my wish! It snowed about 4 inches.. enough for school to be canceled on Monday... which led to much more crafting (and cleaning).

That's the view from my craft room window. I love sitting in that room and dreamily watching the birds at the feeder. It's very soothing. I love it even more covered under blankets of snow. This photo was taken at 7 in the morning. By noon, nearly everything melted.

I also spent about 2 hours yesterday baking some goodies which I have shown below.
I made some red velvet cupcakes (from allrecipes.com), oatmeal spice raisin cookies, and chocolate chip cookies. Definitely enough food to keep my mouth busy for awhile.

I used store bought icing (out of laziness). I'm no expert baker by any stretch of the imagination, although I suppose I would love to be!

View of the chocolate cookie dough. These turned out reallllly good. The bowl is from the Nigella Lawson Living Kitchen series. I love the entire Nigella set. They were designed with Terence Conran. Definitely check the series out online. the bread bin is vintage, and purchased on ebay.

I thought I would also post a photo of the cats, who have been absolutely nuts the past two weeks. I apparently have a mouse living in my attic. The cats spend long hours in the bathtub and in the laundry room, their little kitty ears cocked, listening to sounds within the walls. I have heard the mice myself. With all the feral cats around my house, I'm not surprised that they have moved in the walls. I hope for their sake that they don't end up inside.. my cats are lethal!

Little Jeepers is particularly taken in with the mice.


I am stalling a bit longer on the website. I am not totally satisfied with the design just yet, and to make matters worse, there's a problem with my digital SLR that I think is going to be very costly. There seems to be a hex on me and digital cameras. I either lose them, break them, drop them in the toilet, or have them stolen out of my bags. All the photos in this post were taken with a digital camera that I dropped in the toilet. The flash is faulty, but it still takes photos. My digital slr has an issue with the autofocus. It's going to cost a couple hundred dollars to fix :( Since I'm broke, this will be on the back burner for awhile. I did, however, borrow our lab camera (a canon Rebel) to finish my store photos to hopefully enable me to get the website up this week. I am crossing my fingers!


Finally, let me say that the month of February was ROUGH although extremely productive. The only thing that has kept me centered has been yoga. My yoga practice has grown by leaps and bounds this year. I have practiced for a few years, but not in any serious fashion. This past new years I made the commitment that I was going to commit to enhancing the flexibility of my body and mind. I find that my practice at home (in addition to the course I am taking) has been absolutely beneficial to my growth (and sanity). When I get on my mat, I feel all the bullshit fade away, and the layers of stress fall off my body like an onion peel. I am looking forward tonight to returning to the mat, after a very stressful and long day here at work/school. Lately I have been using the Gaiam Rodney Yee Power Yoga Dvd ($15 at target). I *love* his sequences and his way of explaining how to deepen the poses. Very calming yet effective.

So with that, I will say namaste and goodnight!

Mercury and I

Mercury and I
Originally uploaded by shelivesforthemountains

Mercury and I from our hike this past weekend at Springer Mountain, Georgia, at the terminus of the Appalachian trail. View other shots from the trip on my flickr account by clicking on this photo!

Too cute

I started working on the Isadora scarf from Hip Graphic Knits.

It is coming along swimmingly!

I love the interplay of colors. It is made with kidsilk haze yarn from Rowan. I only have 4/8 skeins I need to make this project.. but I will finish it as I get them! It's kind of an expensive scarf.. the yarn is $12 a skien (x 8 = $$$$$).




Little Jeeper-shnitzel was resting on my handmade crochet doormat last night, and I had to take a picture. She's such an adorable little angel! This doormat was made from a pattern in Debbie Stoller's Stitch and Bitch crochet book.



I see that Not Only Mom also made this mat.. I used some different flowers than what were recommended in the pattern, and instead of using the jute for the rug (it fades and doesn't wear well), i used needloft plastic yarn (found in the crochet section at Micheal's). It has worn well.. I washed it in the washer on delicate and it came out clean and like new!

Its so hot!

af
It's so hot out! I can't stand having to run errands around town.. blah.

This weekend we are going to Rothbury festival in Rothbury, Michigan. It's near Ann Arbor. I hope its not terribly hot. We are volunteering for Shimon Presents.. I'm not sure what we're doing, but probably assisting ticketowners or taking tickets.

I saw this amusing cartoon on creators.com today. I constantly frequent that site during my downtime at work. I like the lifestyle columns.



This next part is gross, but its pertinent to dog and cat owners...

So if you don't like gross stuff, don't read unless you have a pet.

Today Mercury was digging at his fur on his chest and when I separated his fur I found several foxtails (burrs) embedded in his skin, beginning to abscess. Look at the damage they can do:


Make sure you check your pet for these pesky pests after they go in the woods. Merc-a-doodle is much more comfortable without them attached to his skin...

Knitting news and Glen Alton

One more square left on the blanket! I can't wait to finish it.. working on one thing hard for a month and a half makes me antsy to move on... although I do have to repair a tear.. last night I accidently cut the largest square when I was trying to unstitch it from another square. This will be my first lesson in repairing a hole, I suppose. I still hope to have it done by Saturday for our game versus Miami, which I should be able to easily do. I am feeling a bit wishy washy about doing the scalloped border. It may be a lot of work for something that may look out of place. I think what I will do is knit a test corner and sew it to the blanket to see how it will look... Thoughts?





Here is the blanket so far. Last night I knitted some of the squares together and today I finished square 15/16. I will start the last square tonight.

On Sunday I took Mercury and Hunter's dog, Sakari, on a nice walk through Glen Alton. If you have never been there, you should make it a point to go... It's a lovely old 300+ acre family farm that the government is now turning into a nature retreat. Here are some photos from the trip.

The stables at the back of the property. There's a watchtower at the top where you can climb up into and play lookout..

This is one of Mercury's favorite places to come visit.. so many smells and sights! A collie on a farm is about as novel as a labrador in the water..

I love the swamp area. There were still water lilies!

This is the pond as you first enter the property.




And on the drive home, I saw something most unusual!







I will post the rest of the pics up on flickr soon... and if you are near Blacksburg, VA... go visit Glen Alton! I read the government plans to strip the barns and turn them into nature centers and play areas for children... quaint, yes, but the barns as they are now are a part of our heritage.. the family farm is disappearing! I was able to get some lovely shots.. I hate to think how crowded this place will be in the future.. although I am thankful that our government stepped in to save this place. I am even more thankful that I have a place like this I can visit.

Here are photos from a Bloody Mary picnic we had last year there.

Pumpkin Pickin' (old), FSU victory, and stitch and bitch!.. w00t w00t

We beat FSU this past weekend in football.. what sweet revenge for the Sugar bowl loss in 2000! I had 7 (rowdy)guests come down from all over Virginia and Maryland.. It was quite fun! The above photo is of me and John, who is my bestest friend :)

I love this one of me on the 20 yard line... Yes, I rushed the field after the victory ;)

It was really good seeing my hokie brothers and sisters recovered from the events of April 16th..

My first stitch and bitch went really well! I had 5 guests! I hope more girls come out to the one this Sunday.... for details, check out my facebook page!

Now for a post I meant to put up awhile ago, but forgot.....

I neglected to post photos of Me and Merc's pumpkin patch visit.. So here they are! The one above shows the dye job I got for halloween.. before it faded :(

This one is my favorite... Mercury loves donkeys and other members of the equine family.. There is a donkey that lives up the road from my parents whom Mercury visits on a regular basis. He barks at the donkey, who brays back in return..

Is this not precious?

Mishka Mittens is bat shmitten

Ahh.... I meant to post this awhile back and forgot... While decorating for halloween I hung some bats from our ceiling fan.. and Mishka was obsessed with trying to bring them down.. I took several shots.. these were my favorite

I love the ones of him in mid-jump!

I also took a shot of him in a rare moment snuggling with Jeepers, the newest feline addition to our home.. She is so adorable. It's hard to picture someone dumping her at my parents home, isn't it?

Although they look cuddled up here, Mishka took out a 1/2 inch chunk out of Jeepers ear tonight while 'playing'.

Well as far as my knitting projects go, I am 13.5/16 (As in, I have completed 13 1/2 of the total 16 squares) completed with my Virginia Tech afghan. I am blocking some of the pieces and I plan to have it completed and assembed by Saturday for our game against Florida State. I also found a lovely scalloped border to make separately and attach to the blanket next week. That will certainly take awhile!

I also took several photos of my Halloween costume and the assembling of that. Here's a photo of Me, Molly, and Alex, at my home for the halloween party. I will post pics from the party later.

Parts of the costume that were homemade:

• My bat ears (knitted free hand and felted and attached to a headband)

The pics are as follows 1. Pre felted inside of ear 2. Pre felted outside of ear 3. After felting!

• My corset (which ended up being a total last minute project due to me buying the pattern for plus sizes and having to return it for the regular sized pattern) - Made with simplicity pattern

• my bat wings (totally freehanded by me, stuffed, and sewn)

• my leg warmers - totally freehanded. Everyone loved them so I will need to post a pattern up here soon.. I plan to make another pair like this in black and hot pink.

That's all for now! I will post more later