New, New, New

I have been saying I made these weird little earrings -- and they are weird, but actually I rather like them.

They are from my new 'bumpy' series.....but I need a better name. 'Bumpy' just doesn't cut it and although I like 'warts' I'm not sure thats a good marketing name. ;-)

I have had trouble photographing them which is why I hadn't posted them, but I'm tired of trying to get a good photo, so this will have to do.




These are hand chased sterling with oxidation.

The earwires are really long so they hang down quite low. I think I will shorten them a bit. . . but I like the idea of having an earwire that is a little longer.

I have another pair that isn't domed, they are flatter and they are cut out around the edges of the bumps. I don't like those as much as I like these. I have many more bumpy pieces in mind. Its a fun technique and its quick, which I love - instant gratification! YAY!



Some of you have asked about the whole eating raw thing.

I don't have a juicer. Well, thats not exactly true. I have a juicer. Somewhere. Your guess is as good as mine as to where. Really. OK, my guess might be minimally better, but thats about it. And it wasn't expensive, just a Juicemanjuicer kind of thing...under 50.00 bucks, but that was a dozen years ago -- it looks like this one: http://www.builderssquare.com/xp_196879-Juiceman_JM1_Jr_Juice_Extractor.aspx but since I have NO idea where it is, I may buy another. Juicing is part of eating raw, but just a part. So far my days consist of lots of raw fruit and veggies. Sometimes with a little oil and vinegar over them or fresh lemon juice. Last night I discovered my mother's quisanart food processor, I've never used one before! I used it to julienne a yellow squash and a zuccini squash. I dried the squash on paper towels, then put them in a bowl with grated carrot and chopped scallions. I made a dressing of soy, chili pepper oil, rice wine vinegar and then tossed in a handful of flax seeds and a few pine nuts. It was SO good! I've been eating salads with lots of fresh greens and little or no dressing.

At night, for a snack, I blend a cupof soy milk with some frozen fresh fruit. I've cut up bananas, strawberries, and peaches and froze the pieces in singlelayers on baking sheets. When frozen just dump into bags and keep in freezer for a month or so. When you want them, just pull out and grab a handful! With the soymilk in the blender it makes a GREAT smoothie!

There are recipe books out there, that get VERY creative with raw foods - making 'meatballs' and all sorts of things. ALL the raw food books at my library were checked out, AND had 4 or 5 holds on them already, so this weekend I will be off to the bookstore. Well, in between my workshops with.......................

DAVID HUANG.

Yep, you hear me. (read me?)

*heart* I heart his work so much and can't WAIT for this class! *heart*

Ohhhh, today is FF day. Sorry - I guess a fave of mine is David's work....breathtaking.

That's it for now! TTYL!
Janice

New things going on 'round here

There's some big changes around here. Well, they feel big to me anyway. The first has to do with my blogs. *sigh* Some good things have to come to an end, ya know?

I've been contemplating for a while how I'm split 6 ways to Sunday -- so busy, trying to do EVERYthing it seems. Yet all I've done is 'contemplate' (and complain?). I really haven't taken action, until now.

I've finally decided to merge my two blogs. Metalsmithing (A Metalsmith's Journey) and 'home life/personal' (Grace Expectations). The personal blog was suffering big time, and more home life was creeping in here anyway, so it makes sense I suppose. It still feels like a loss though. . . in some way.

I am not set on the layout, or header, or background or pretty much ANYTHING...other than simply being set on DOING it - so I made a start by combining the titles and a new header and dorky background - for now; and keeping it all here, where I post more regularly anyway.

The other new thing...........

I've gone raw. I never would have imagined it. I never even thought about going vegetarian, or vegan much less RAW. And technically I'm not vegetarian....or vegan....nor am I sure I'll STAY raw. But for now - since Monday morning. I am. Raw. and LOVING IT! I had read a small article in a magazine about raw eating and enzymes and decided to do it for ten days. The article recommended 70% raw for 10 days and then maybe 50/50 or something, I can't recall. After a bit of research I understand many people eat 100% raw. (or strive to do so) Raw foodists suggest making small changes, one meal a day at first -- but I jumped in 100%. I have only had a very tiny bit of cooked food since Monday morning - about a quarter of a broiled chicken breast Tuesday night. I feel GREAT. So much energy I am annoying myself.

I had gone to much less processed food a couple of years ago, but had slowly let a lot of it back into my diet. I kept thinking I'd ditch the processed foods and 'white' foods (white bread, white rice, white potatoes -- white = bad!) again but it just didn't happen. Now I'm T-totally au natural. Its slightly weird, but I can't believe how good I feel!

Just so's you knows...I didn't do this for any religious reason or spiritual thang. I just did it for basic health, and for short term. I'm thinking about staying at least 80% raw and no dairy (well, no milk and cheese). Anyone else have somewhat unusual dietary habits?

Ummmm, what else. Oh, my daughter turned 21 yesterday. OY. I feel old. lol

I mentioned a ring and some earrings - I still have not photographed the earrings, but here is the ring. :)

Later!

Janice

Back to reality and LOTS of photos. :)

PEACE MAN.

Haaaaalllllloooooooooooooooooo! I'm back. :)

Which has its ups and downs for sure. Good to be back, but ya know.....vaca was really good too!

I popped into the blog from the front end and surprised myself with the colors! lol. I almost forgot I had changed it before I left! Too funny.

We had a GREAT time and I didn't 'over-sun' myself. Thankfully one of the benefits of aging is some wisdom. Not that I always call upon it or heed it, but I can definitely SEE it - the older I get, the wiser I become.

I started this post two days ago so I don't know how it will come up, should be interesting.

The beach was FABULOUS! The temp was amazingly mild. The water was warm-ish....and the waves were just right!

We had some great rainstorms but they were all at night with the exception of one. !YAY! On that day we went to see G-Force, very cute movie.

I did a lot of reading and relaxing, went through 3 books the first few days, unfortunately I didn't get much reading after that, but still lots of relaxing and enjoyment.

LG did a lot of this...paddling out, riding waves back in....

We swam a lot, sunned a lot, laughed a lot, and just generally had a good time.

After a week, I drove back up to home to pick up my daughter and take her back down (almost 3 hours each way) and then I drove BACK up Sunday night to work a couple of days and drove BACK down Tuesday night (my birthday!).

We also ordered food in a few times, as much as I LOVE to cook, this was great as we were on the go a lot. This is the largest pizza I've personally ever seen - from Captains (138th street?) - they do a 28" pizza. In my mind I thought, ok, BIG, good, we'll have leftovers. When I went to pick it up, I am sure my expression was priceless. Someone else had to open the door for me to get it through and then I had a devil of a time getting it in my car! I was going to just slide it in the trunk, but the car I took was FULL of beach chairs and boogey boards. No go. So I tilted it precariously on its side and managed to get it through the back door of the car. Too funny. The boys were shocked.

In addition to lounging on the beach or poolside, we went to the Boardwalk one night so LG and his friend could go on some rides and play in the arcade and we went to Thunder Lagoon waterpark twice.

We also went out to dinner at a fabulous little restaurant we found last year called Catch 54. All in all it was a GREAT two weeks.

Here are my two kiddos at the restaurant. The one from Catch 54 last year is my profile pic on Favebook. :) Aren't they too cute?

Random Beach photos:

He LOVES the water. I know he didn't want to leave. But return to the real world we must. :)

I did make one ring and two pairs of earrings on my little trip back up here for work. Will show pictures later or tomorrow. :)

Hope everyone is doing well - I've been trying to keep up on blogs while I was there (the library at 100th street is FAB-O!) and on my excursions back home - so I see a lot of you have new exciting things going on, I wish I could have commented on everything, but time was tight! Hope to catch up with you all soon.

Hugs,

Janice