Friday, January 31, 2014

Stellaris, Part Deux

Apparently getting turned down from an art show isn't stopping me from beading. Here's my latest work, finished today, inspired by the recent Stellaris Collar...

 If you're interested, you can see more about Stellaris Cuff in my shop.

Saturday, January 18, 2014

New Year, New Projects

First off, a very belated Happy (calendar) New Year! The holidays were a whirlwind for us, as usual, but we've settled back into our rituals here on the mountain: frozen walks, roasting sweet potatoes, keeping the wood stove ablaze. We've had so many snowfalls this winter, I've lost count! But I'm proud to say we've officially cut our fossil-fuel addiction (in the form of Electricity) in half, compared to last winter. We've heavily relied on our wood stove for heat, and we've been as conscious as possible to turning out lights when they're not in use. Also, our clothes dryer conveniently broke last fall. So although we've obtained an estate-sale-find, new-to-us dryer since then, we have yet to hook it up. Instead, we've been line-drying all our laundry for the past 4 months or so. It definitely takes more energy of the human persuasion, but waaaaay less of the ever-depleting oil-based kind.

While I'm awaiting news of acceptance (or rejection) to the Fine Arts Show I applied to at the end of last year, I'm trying to keep making new work. It's really hard to focus on beading recently, though, I must admit. I'm throwing myself into promoting and refreshing gathered, as well as its Facebook presence, and re-vamping our Immortal Mountain chocolate website & blog, which all sadly take a lot out of me.

Here is my latest creation, completed today:

See more views of Stellaris Collar necklace on my website.

Also, to celebrate this past winter solstice, Drew got me my first bow! I've been wanting desperately to learn archery for quite a few years now, and I finally can! To compliment my self-taught lessons, I've been reading Zen in the Art of Archery, which is really good so far, and watching a ton of redneck youtube videos.

And lastly, here's a photo the mother of the princesses sent me, wearing their crowns...