Bohemian beads, silver plated rondelles with tourquoise teardrop

For those who don't follow my jewellery blog, here is my latest creation.


I like to think "out of the box" and this is the result.  Usually you see teardrops hanging from a chain. 

This is much different and in my opinion, a nice change.

A close up showing the tear drop

Thanks for reading my blog.

Visitors on very cold days!

How brave some people are going out in this frigid cold!   I, myself, have not been out since Monday as I really feel the cold now that I am older.

Today I had a friend come for coffee.  I am advertising my jewellery business in her magazine, Perspectives Magazine. Since she was downtown on business, she dropped in to pick up the rest of her money for the ad. 

I took a nice picture of her with my new camera which is posted here with her permission.

Monique Berry, publisher of Perspectives Magazine

She is very good with cameras and showed me quite a few functions which I was not aware this little machine could do.

As a special treat, I served coffee with whipped cream in it.  Try it some time, it is absolutely heavenly!

We had a lovely chat and visit.  For more information on this good little magazine, please go to:



http://1perspectives.webs.com/
 
 
Some of my own short stories have been published in this  magazine.  I send in stories that are from the perspective of an object and for me, they are fun things to write about. Check it out, if you have the time, to see this different type of magazine.
 

Now onto other things.

Yesterday, my young friend Rahel came for lunch and the afternoon.  I had made an economical dish consisting of  noodles with fried garlic,onions, a little curry and a little cardamon.  We both loved it!  I always can tell if somebody enjoys it as they take a second helping which we both did!

She has a cousin in the Yukon Territories and my telephone plan with Cogeco covers that area so she was able to chat with her family members in her language.  I was very happy that she was able to catch them home. 

The happy talker

Rahel chatting with her family in the Yukon Territories

What a real blessing it is to have my long distance covered in Canada, I can chat with my friends in Montreal, Lachine, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan and good old Toronto.

Tonight I might go out, I am not sure as it is very cold.  I might take my story  for its final critiquing before I sent it in to the Toronto Star Contest.  I find it very helpful to get the male point of view as many of the writers in the group are men.  They think so very different from women.

I have researched it very thoroughly with the help of friends in the Pakistani community in Toronto,as well as my dear Wally who is in the accounting field. 

It would be so amazing even if I came third place, as the competition will be fierce.  My former job as a newspaper reporter has helped me in ferreting information out to make my creative stories very factual.

Monique took this picture with my new camera. She did a real good job.
The beautiful cup was a gift from an engaged couple for my 21st birthday

Thanks for dropping by and come again some time, if you wish.

Some shots from the library of the Farmer's Market

I am just catching up on my blog now.  On Saturday I went to visit the library and then dropped into the children's section to take pictures from the windows there of the new Farmer's Market.

In spite of the fact that they are through a window looking down, I think they are fairly good.

This is the entrance to the new library which is very close to the Farmer's Market

Please observe the clock hanging from the ceiling  It is the old Birks clock and it now works

A shot taken from the library windows

Tried to take different sections of the market

Farmer's Market (Birks Clock)

I didn't need anything.  For those who have mobility issues, the Farmer's Market now has an elevator which will take you into the basement where many of the stalls are located. 

This is a display in the children's section of the library

Yet another one

The library is very welcoming to children, having a special section there with fish tanks and day care furniture.  Parents always must accomplish their children.  The librarian there is such a delightful lady, I go in sometimes just to see her smiling face and say hello.  It is my joy to see children interacting with each other and with their parents. 

Now onto a completely different subject.  I did abit of jewellery making on Saturday as well and here is two tourquoise tear drops which I wired ready to be strung on a chain.

Tourquoise tear drop pendant

Rose Quartz stone wirewrapped with copper and silver plated wire.  A chunky look.

Same one against a different colour background

Would it be my blog, without some reference to the cats?

Shall close for now, thanks for dropping by.  Come again some other time, if you wish.

I always welcome comments.

Sunday and Monday's events

I had the pleasure of going to St. Paul's on Sunday morning.  The Sunday School children took part in the service and in my opinion, they did extremely well.  It takes a lot of courage to stand up in front of everybody and read the lessons or participate in the service in any way.

Well done children!

There was an excellent speaker there from the Presbyterian World Service and Development Agency which is part of the Presbyterian Church in Canada.  Her name is Dr. Kathryn Hare.  She talked about the work done by this arm of the church such as teaching communities how to grow new crops and increase  yields for more nutrition and food.  Vulnerable children are receiving an education as well.  HIV and aids patients are being cared for and supported.  Injustices are being combated through a shared commitment to human rights. 

The list could go on and on, clean water, health care, help for refugees and emergency relief.  This agency works to address the root causes of poverty to ensure people have real hope for the future and develop self-sufficiency.

For more information, please see their website:

www.presbyterian.ca/pwsd

I had brought a young friend with me and she was warmly welcomed by the congregation and felt very much at home.

Sunday afternoon, I had an invitation for tea from Rosemary in my building.  We had a most enjoyable visit for several hours. 

Unhappily, I felt unwell as I had not slept for two nights and was unable to go out to Lit Live that evening.  The winner of the Acorn Plantos Award is Chris Pannell for his poetry book - Drive.  I was very sorry to miss this event as I had looked forward to it.

Most regretfully, again I did not sleep that night and my day has been quite unproductive due to that fact. 

I did some much needed filing and did a little bit of jewellery making then took my library DVD's back just to get out for a while and see something different than four walls.

With this new system, I could not figure out how to renew my things so I asked the librarian how to do it and she told me how. 

I find a week is very short to be able to borrow DVD's so I renewed them for more time through the internet.

Tonight is one of my favourite nights for television, with Little Mosque on the Prairie as well as Midsummer Night murders.

Thanks for reading my blog and have a good day!

The lack of manners on some people

As the weather was very pleasant out today, in contrast to yesterday; with the sun shining, the snow still glistening where the traffic has not soiled it, I decided to take my DVD's back to the library and look at the market again.

On my way, I saw a lady fall from the bus back door into a snowbank which was quite high.  Her feet were still in the door and the door started to close.  I yelled so the driver would not take off with her being dragged and put my walker aside and pulled her with all my strength to safety.

I am just glad that I saw it happen and that I was there, but it would have been a nice thing to say "thank you" to me.  All this person did was  brush herself off and go.  It reminded me of the time when I was on an escalator in Toronto in the subway system and this frail old lady started to fall.  I was younger then by about 15 years and thought I was strong enough to catch her.  Unhappily for me, we both ended up falling and to give you a word picture of what happened, I was the whale and little little bird like lady was the bird on top of it.

Happily for her, she was not hurt and thankfully for me, a fellow heard my yells and turned off the escalator before my scarf was caught in the teeth of the machine.  I ended up going by ambulance to St. Joseph's hospital and being in an arm cast for several weeks.  At least this little person said thank you and then sped off!

I sometimes despair of human nature.  Then somebody does something nice and I have hope again!

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

New Creation this afternoon

The snowy day, the cozy apartment, the sleepy cats all contributed to my contentment this afternoon as I peered outside and saw other human beings struggling through the banks of snow.

I have done my fair share of wading my way through waist deep snow where I grew up in Quebec.  My contentment is my creative side which came out very strong this afternoon.

I took a beautiful Amethyst stone and wrapped it in non-tarnish silver plated wire, made the stems with Amethyst crystals from Swarovski.  In my opinion, it is very beautiful and quite unusual.

Here is a picture of it.  It took a long time to do and I still have to make the necklace part. Perhaps if I remain snowbound, I will work on the necklace part tomorrow.

Here it is.

Against a purple background

Against a white background

This is my protype.

The new look at the Farmer's Market, Hamilton, Ontario.

Today was the opening of the market and since the weather had calmed down, I decided to venture out before the real storm hits.

The market had many people there,  some out of curiosity like me, and some who were there buying lots of food!  Business seemed brisk for the vendors..

It looks nice but I think the stalls are quite a bit smaller but I do like the fact that they have tables and chairs around for people to sit on.  I enjoy going to the market not only to buy my food but to also people watch so I am particularly glad to see the tables and chairs there.

I have to say, though, that the downstairs part is really very cold, with the doors opening from York Blvd..  I was planning to sit at Julia's coffee place and chat with her but it was just too cold, so I bought the coffee and carried it upstairs to one of the tables and sat and people watched.

I bumped into several people I know in the market which made it very pleasant for me!

I, personally, am glad to see all the vendors back.  I hope they make a go of it as they work hard

Will be inside for the next few days due to the storm which is starting tonight sometime. 

Thanks for reading my blog and have a good day!