Lydia Muell of Ashton Jewels has some really fab looking beads on her website. I love the bracelets on her homepage.
http://www.lampworktreasures.com/home.html
She also has a very interesting blog
http://handmadelampworkartistfraudinvestigationdebunked.wordpress.com/


Betsymn, aka, Greyhaven Studio, aka, Elizabeth Wait also has some beautiful handmade lampwork beads for sale at:
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5001779
and on artfire, as betsybeads
http://www.artfire.com/users/betsybeads

Another lampwork artist to take note of:
Lenora Gray of Lenora's Lampwork. You can see her beautiful beads at
http://www.lenorasdesigns.com/

I've also just found this great artist-cctexan3, Cindy Cloutier, who is a handmade jewelry artisan.
She makes the most gorgeous jewelry:
http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&seller_id=12667

new socks

I'm uploading a picture of my latest socks.

No laughing now, my first sock!

This is my very first finished sock. Knit in Noro Kureyon Sock Yarn, 2.5 mm needles. (dpn's)

Kosmo

Kosmo likes to look out the living room window.

Fried Green Tomatoes

Success! Although the 10¢ package of Sunflowers didn't produce even a sprout, the tomato plant has 5 fruit. Little and green yet, they shall be feasted upon soon.
The ants and slugs really enjoyed the strawberries. I didn't get to nibble on a single one.

TaWanda!!

I be jammin'

As hot as it was yesterday, C and I went out to the Valley to pick strawberries. We were there an hour and between the two of us, picked 22 pounds. I was worried it wouldn't be enough for the 4 packets of Certo that I had bought. Boy was I wrong, lol! I ended up having to run out and buy 2 more packets, and I still had a lot of berries left to freeze. Yummy milkshakes!


And meet Norgay-funny story behind this one. My stove crapped out on me and I really wanted to make jam. I'd been searching Craig's list and found two possibilities. Interestingly enough, both of the stoves were Norge brand(made by Maytag). I went to see the first stove. The guy showing me the stove asks me "Do you know the Norgay (Norge) brand?" I said "Well I know Norge, made by Maytag." He says "No, no. It's Norgay made in Sweden". C and I had quite a chuckle over that. I ended up buying the second stove I saw. It so happened it was exactly the same stove as the Norgay, but cleaner, newer and closer to home. And it was made in Kentucky. or Tennessee. Not Sweden.
Meet Norgay, our newest addition:

Too Hot to Handle

Yikes, 34 freaking degrees celsius. That's 93.2 degrees Farenheit (according to google) Way to hot for me! Thank god for a/c, although even with it blasting away, it's still 25 degrees in here. I don't think I could survive with out it. One good thing is line dried laundry. So far today I've done 2 loads. The second load dried with in an hour of hanging, I swear!
So this seems to be the week for things breaking down, dammit! Clothesline, stove, water cooler. I wish I was financially able to replace all of these things, but hey, I got the clothesline :-)
I painted the bathroom yesterday. Or repainted, I should say. Had to get rid of the icky black mold on the wall by the shower. Used some mold/mildew killer, and sealed up the wall with Kilz. Then I got to paint! I even painted the ceiling. It looks soooo goodnow!