The Wigglebutt Blog

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♥