The Road Less Traveled

Robert Frost said that taking the road less traveled makes all the difference. I would have to disagree this time. The road to my house has been under construction since May of 2009 and I have had to take a very inconvenient detour. The road less traveled sucks. It's bumpy. It's way out of my way. And it's far easier to go in the ditch because of the hairpin turns. I'd say taking the road less traveled just ticks me off. . .

Lunch Buddy

Look who joined us for lunch today. . .

They're sweet when they're not munching the flowers or the garden.

A Little Piece of Asphalt Heaven

We've had a gravel driveway for awhile and it's sooooo dusty. The kids have bikes and Big Wheels, but had no where to ride them. So, we bit the bullet and got the driveway paved. Not the whole thing, because our driveway is almost 1/4 mile long, but at least the part by the house and the garage. We'll be paying for it for awhile, but it's sooooo worth it. My daughter has already even learned to ride her bike on it already!


I just wish we could drive on it. . .

My New Shop, SilverSmack

I finally opened my new shop that will focus on hand forged and wire wrapped silver items and actually listed a few items.

I love the way this picture of the hammered silver stacking rings came out.

I was also pretty proud of the Kyanite pearl dangle necklace. The blue came out nicely.

These hammered hoop earrings were tough to photograph because it was getting dark.

The Hammered Circle Tahitian Pearl necklace was very difficult to photograph because it was so reflective. If you look closely, you can see me in the pearl.

Knee High by the 4th of July?

Just about.

The corn is very close to being right on track.

Textured Stacking Copper Rings

I just made these stacking rings out of copper. I challenged myself to find a different texture for each one. I love the way metal can take on texture. These were also the first real soldering I did. I just love the way they catch the light!

Metalsmithing

It was so fun using different metals together. I've only ever used silver. The copper and brass compliment each other nicely.

It was fun to experiment with different textures too. One layer has a brushed sunburst finish and the other has a hammered finish.

For the Birds!

I saw a cool blue bird perched on our garden post this morning. I rushed for my camera, took a picture, but the memory card wasn't in it. (Still can't find it. Where could it be? The computer or the camera are the only possible locations?????) At first I thought it was an Indigo Bunting which is the prize of birds to see. I've only seen two before in my lifetime. . .

Then, I thought it was a Bluebird. . .

But it turns out, it was a Barn Swallow which makes the most sense, since we have about seven nests in the eaves of of our garage overhang and under our deck.

Here's more of a close-up.

They are pretty, except they leave little presents on our retaining wall and our garage slab.

Baby Corn!

We weren't sure they were going to come up, but here they are!

Metamorphosis

The caterpillars came home from school with my four year-old son so he could take care of them for the summer.


Soon, they we on the roof of there bug house in their chrysalis.

When they hatched, the butterflies were very fond of the kids.

My son was very sad when his butterfly finally flew away.

My daughter sang hers a song called "Butterfly Fly Away."

If We Plant It, Will It Grow?

We aren't farmers. We just happen to have a tractor (two, actually. More on that in a later post) and a significantly sized yard.

My husband got it in his head that he wanted to plant some corn. We like to eat corn. Does that qualify us? Do we know anything about planting corn? No. The most we've ever done is planted a few tomato plants and sunflowers.

He did his research, but it was much more complicated than we anticipated. We had no field. We had grass, so we had to get the area tilled. Twice. We had to get one of these to plant the corn.


It has two bins because the top one is for fertilizer and the bottom one is for the corn. We had to turn the tractor tires around because they were too far apart. Talking to the old guys at the fertilizer store was nice because they really knew what they were talking about. And we had to decide what kind of corn to plant. There weren't a whole lot of choices at our tiny feed store, so we tried a few.

Now we have one of these. Our own field of dreams. . .

Snow Day in April!

Just when you think spring is here and you can get out the flip-flips and the shorts, BAM! Mother Nature has something else in mind - A great big snowstorm! This type of weather event is not entirely unheard of in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Living here, you come to expect things like this. I'm not complaining. I get a day off from work.

And to think it was 71 degrees last week!

Photography Aid

Now, I'm not the greatest photographer and would never claim to be, but I came across what I think is the greatest photography aid EVER! I always had trouble holding the camera steady for those close-up shots. I had a little, tiny tripod, but it wasn't tiny enough. This bendy tripod lets me bend it as small as I want.


I got it at Best Buy for $21.99 and I threw the package away, but the name on it says SUNPAC. For outdoor pics, you can also bend it around trees, decks, playground equipment, or whatever else you can find. I love it!

Just in Time for the Beach

It took a lot of hard work and drill bit experimentation, but I finally got a few of my beach glass pieces ready to go for my new shop SuperiorStones. I love the way they came out! For a dramatic effect, I accented the light aqua one with a genuine ruby. I left the green one plain, because it was dramatic by itself, and for a subtle accent, I paired the other light aqua one with a small white genuine cultured pearl. Even though the ground is still covered with snow here, I know spring is just around the corner. . .

Get in the Spirit. . .

of Halloween! These many not be too spooky, but they are unique and interesting.

Check out this Tribal Mask Carved Bone Knotted Pendant Necklace for Men or Women
from Superiorstones

or these unique Day of the Dead earrings from Moonmystic!

Featured Etsyblogger - bfbeads!

Want the perfect gift for a new mom? Check out: Baby Friendly Beads
There are a lot of unique jewelry that your baby can tug on while he or she is doing "baby business."

Also check out her other shop, Mama's Magic Studio for some fun and whimsical gifts.

You can also check out her blog: Mama's Magic

Joeyandaleethea- Featured Etsybloggers!

Want to have the most fashion forward baby around?
Visit Joeyandaleethea .
They've got some cool duds for your cool dudes and dudettes and they've managed to make some of those "necessities" hip also.

Fall Colors. . .

Raking up the leaves to jump in the leaf pile was always my favorite part of autumn. Red, orange, and yellow fluttering leaves fluttered to the ground just waiting to be raked up. For some reason, jumping in the leaf pile never got old. Raking never even seemed like work because the end product was so much fun. You could throw leaves at your brother and it didn't hurt. You could bury your brother in the leaves and he could still breathe. . . The leaves were the nearly perfect plaything. It was always sad when it was windy and the pile dispersed or it rained and the leaves got soggy.

You Say Tomato. . .

Our tomato garden has flourished, even though there hasn't been much rain. My son (3)has been watering it and my daughter (7) has been weeding it. It has also saved us some money because tomatoes have really gone up in price this year. Now, we are overrun with tomatoes and some of them are doing very inappropriate things. . .

Going to the Beach. . .

When I was young, it was always a big event when my mom would take my brother and I for a day at Lake Superior. We would bring a little picnic, wear our swimming suits, bring some towels, bring our pails and shovels and our ball, and head out. It was always an adventure because it was a bit of a walk from the parking lot to Black River Harbor. Part of the hike was over this creaky suspension bridge that spanned the Black River and it would be sweating creosote in the hot sun. From the bridge, we could see the fishing boats that were not currently fishing, moored to the docks, eagerly awaiting to go out. As we came off the bridge, we could also see the two rugged breakwalls formed from many, many large rocks which protected the harbor from the huge white-caps that Lake Superior is known for. We would find a spot on the beach and my mom and I would immediately start looking for agates. I would usually find the first one, but occasionally, she would trump me. Not much actual "swimming" ever went on. The temperature of Lake Superior never really gets very high, so it was usually just a bit of wading until the numbness set in. But if it was really hot, there was an occasional full submersion and then we were refreshed for the rest of the day. Then we would tromp back to the car with buckets full of rocks and armloads full of driftwood.