The Wigglebutt Blog

I am, as usual, playing catch up on my weekly project . Sign-up opens Dec 1 and I think I want to sign up again for 2014☺ Glutton for punishment? Maybe☺ Chain Maille earrings. These worked up pretty quickly and they weren't as difficult  as I thought they would be. I got the free pattern here and I already had the jump rings left over from another project . The pattern is for a star but the Hubs said he thought it looked like a snowflake and I think I agree with him. I am currently three weeks behind and I don't think  I will be catching up in the next week or so cuz the Hubs and I  will be jetting off to.......... (wait for it) ~~~~~~~~~~ HAWAII !!!!!! on Thursday morning (yep......Thanksgiving morning) Yes... Thanksgiving Day 2013,  which coincidentally is the day after our  20th Wedding Anniversary (which is Nov 27☺) and  the day of my Birthday  (yep ~~ the big  50 happens on Nov 28) (...

Wow! OK, I have posted 3 times in a week...Hmmmm I could say I'm trying to get better at posting more regularly but that's not necessarily the case. I am, however, still playing catch-up on this little year long project . The project is currently at week 46, I am posting week 43 today. Not too far behind☺ I am SO glad to be finished with this bracelet! I started this months ago.....the first time. I have torn this apart and restarted it 5 TIMES!  Aarg!!! None of them were good enough and each one I liked less than the previous one. Looking back, I honestly believe the first try was the best one. I like this last try least of all, but I am NOT DOING IT AGAIN! I absolutely LOVE the focal, another gorgeous bead from JulsBeads (Pssst.....She's having a sale in her Etsy Shop , by the way☺) and I like the colors of the accent beads, but that's about it. The rest of it, I'm not loving. Except for the fact that it is...

Graduated Byzantine Chainemaille Necklace I made this when I needed something for my hands to do. I took concentration but no real creativity, it was a complete kit. It is silver plate (not the non-tarnish coated) so I was able to antique it. Ahhhh... Much better☺

I will have to say that this last month has seriously sucked and being a grown-up isn't all it's cracked up to be, at times:( On October 26th, we said goodbye to my baby girl  Lily. One of the hardest things for a fur parent   is to have to decide whether to continue to watch their baby suffer or to end the pain and say goodbye. I thought that that was one of the hardest decisions I would ever have to make. Fast forward just a little over a week .... I sat in a small, quiet consultation room with my Mother,  helping her make the same decision about my step-father. My step-father passed away on Monday Nov.4 less than 2 hours after being taken off of his breathing tube. Michael John McBride You were much loved and you will be sorely missed.  My mother seems to be coping well.  Like me, she is comfortable with her own company and she and Mike recently adopted 12 year old Sadey. I think Mom is going to ...

I don't know why I have issues with stringing bracelets, but it always seems to be such a struggle to get them  'just right'. This one I loved, then I hated it (almost took it all apart) and now I think I am OK with it. I wasn't even planning on making anything this weekend. This was going to be a "clean up and organize" weekend and I started here Apparently this was a huge mistake. This is my 'lampwork' drawer and I have never really had it  organized in any particular way and I need to find a home for all of the  cabs I have for wire wrapping, so I needed to condense. This was as far as I got. (Drawer and contents currently taking up a large parcel of floor) I came across the red, white and black set of Juls Beads and decided that I was going to just GO FOR IT and pulled out my sterling silver wire (which I am usually terrified to use because I waste  so much wire when I have a vague idea and it doesn'...

I have a  Love~Hate  thing with fall. Love the colors. Fall colors, earth tones are my absolute favs! Love the fact that the gardening and yard work is finished for another year. As much as I love my yard and garden, I'm pooped☺ The view from our deck  Sept 28, 2013 Hate the fact that Winter is very VERY close. These colors will only be here another week or so then the trees will be bare. The snow won't be far behind;( I should feel lucky, I suppose, since last year at this time it was snowing. (My husband has a morbid need to keep track of these things.) We did have a little bit of 'ugly' earlier in the week, just not in my neighborhood. Anchorage and Eagle River got dumped on pretty good. The view from the front door of the shop. Monday morning Sept 23, 2013 And, as you might imagine, most of the cars in the pic were there  to have their snow tires installed. Surprise! Well, in honor of Fall, and the fact that the ...

Yes... I have been creating. Just not jewelry or beads or sculptures. Canned goods. Lots of canned goods.☺ 8 pints pizza sauce and 6 qts spaghetti sauce   YUM! Mostly tomato based canned goods cuz, well... this was a good tomato year☺ And a good jalapeno year, but I was too busy to get pics;( For the last two weeks I have had a heater going in the greenhouse at night to keep it warm enough for my babies to ripen up. Due to a late season attack of aphids and temps dipping into the low 30s at night, I decided it was time to harvest all of the tomatoes, red and green. I spent most of the day Saturday clearing out the greenhouse. About halfway done I picked all of the tomatoes and cleared out all of the plants. I will be very busy over the next few days ( weeks? ) Half of these became the pizza sauce in the pic up top, the other half is going to become another batch of spaghetti sauce So far I have made 22 pints of green tomato...

Fall is definitely in the air. I will spend the next couple of weeks clearing out the remainder of the  "crops" from the garden, storing all of the planters and pots and trying to keep the greenhouse warm long enough for some more of the tomatoes to turn red. Over the last few weeks, we have had almost non-stop rain so I have had plenty of  'indoor time'. Time to get all caught up on The Year of Jewelry Project . I was determined that I would follow through when I signed on and I am happy that I am back on track after the busy summer months. In my last post I showed you Week 32. Well, we technically just started Week 36 (finished piece due by Sept 7) so I have weeks 33, 34 & 35 to show you today. I think I may have to keep these☺ The main pic shows what I meant to be the front of the pendant  but I almost like the back better. So it's reversible☺ Lampwork beads by Juls More viking knit ....and lampwork by Juls   ...

I've been so busy this summer with the new garden (who knew we would have record temps and more sunshine  than I have seen in any one summer I have spent in Alaska since moving here in 1992. Two hours of watering. Everything. Every. Single. Day. Not including the grass☺) that I haven't had nearly as much time to spend "making" as I would like. Now that the rainy season is here, I feel like I have a little more free time while I wait for "harvest time". With fall quickly approaching it will be time to start canning all of the  goodies I have been able to grow this year. I'll post more about that when the time comes. For now I hope to spend more of my time creating. Hopefully accomplishing more than 'just' the one piece of jewelry per week that I committed to for The Year of Jewelry Project . I am almost completely caught up on those postings though☺ Here is Week 32 I am seriously in love with viking knit! ...

I have fallen behind, I have hopped around, (I have done a TON of gardening) but I an almost caught up on this commitment I made at the beginning of the year. I am only two weeks off schedule in the group but I am several weeks behind on posting here, so this is a catch up post ......again☺ ****  Very picture heavy☺ **** On Topic ~ "Cuffs for All" On Topic ~ "Circles, Squares, Triangles" On Topic ~ "Twins" Off  Topic ~ (Trying a wire weave tutorial ~ I think I'm in LOVE) On Topic ~ "My Favorite Color" Yeah Baby, I love the color RED☺ On Topic ~ "Unusual Techniques" Not necessarily an unusual technique, but new to me ~Viking Knit~ and I love it! On Topic ~ "At the Beach" A very nice man gifted me some sea glass that he picked off a beach in Nome and I finally got around to making something with it♥

My posting has been rather erratic lately but I'm OK with that, cuz 1 .  It is summer.  The nicest, warmest summer I have spent since moving to Alaska 21 years ago, and I have been loving the hell out of it☺ (psssst ~ I have a tan♥) 2. I have eaten fresh broccoli (from my garden) dipped in ranch everyday for a week straight. Seriously KILLER flavor☺ 3. I have baked zucchini bread (from my zucchini),  made refrigerator pickles with my fresh grown cucumbers and dill, eaten beets with greens and numerous salads made with my lettuce. I have wanted to put in a garden for years, but figured it was going to be a huge undertaking, until I finally had the DUH! moment and realized I could do the raised bed thing. And since we couldn't get the grass to grow under those spruce trees, it was a win~win. The best part: No weeding☺ (Oh, and some awesome veggies) but this came across my facebook newsfeed and I thought I would share. Over the...

Got gutsy and ordered some sterling silver wire☺ I want to make about a hundred variations of this♥ This one, I think, needs a little tarnish☺ Got a ~free~ tutorial, which is also very, very entertaining and humorous from a lovely lady named Angelina Krell. Used it to make this Not liking the 'shiny' so I did a little heat patina in other words, I hit it with a torch☺ and got this. No.... your monitor is not screwed up... The bead is "dyed" howlite  (the tutorial called for a 12mm bead and there wasn't alot in my stash to choose from) and when I torched the piece, apparently it burned off the color. Who knew? But I like it much better! lol! I am almost finished with Week 29 & 30 and then I will be all caught up, for awhile☺

This was my offering for Week 26. Once again...not following the prompts,  which are just suggestions..... if you are stuck for inspiration... so it's OK☺ I love the colors in this and I will absolutely be keeping this for ME! This is my first wrap bracelet but I don't think it will be my last, these are fun!  (just a little difficult to photograph☺) I am currently about three weeks behind on the YOJP but now that the yard work pretty much consists of watering,  I think I can make some progress towards catching up☺ With the record setting temps we have been having this summer (I love being able to wear shorts and flip flops more than three or four days a year...seriously...no kidding) my new garden area is happy ~ happy!! Left side ~ Strawberries            Right side ~ Jalapeno peppers They are happy in their little house. Can you tell which ones got munched by the moose babies? Left side ~ Bush ...