My Little Workshop

I've been keeping myself busy making jewelry.

Kyanite and White Sapphire set in sterling silver

cat's eye Moonstone, Peridot, and Alexandrite set in Sterling Silver

10kt Rose gold with diamond accent with 9x7mm Smokey Topaz

some of my gems and settings

a few of my tools

My mom sent me a nice Dremel set including butane torch and engraving tool.  She also sent along a Dremel stand so I can do more hand free work.  I have to admit for being untrained I think I'm doing pretty darn good on my jewel. 

The 30th of December I have a liver biopsy.  Wish me luck.

Going Blind

Stray cat on the main island of San Juan.  J and I actually went to the animal shelter on San Juan to inquire on how to take care of the stray animals in our neighborhood.  We were told to get in touch with our shelter/clinic here and ask for a trap so that we could bring them in for a check up.  So I guess just random feeding of the stray cats is not a good thing.  As soon as we get a chance we'll stop by the vet clinic here and ask about their have a heart traps and why we need them.

Before I get into the title of my blog post for today I'll say that I took some much needed me time for myself today and dyed my hair.  I'll get back to work later today.  I'm trying to make as much stock as possible for my shop for the holiday season.  I like to give my customer base a nice choice of items.  J finally finished another chain maille bracelet that I'll be photographing and posting at a later date.  I have more jewelry and baby items to list too.

I forgot to take a picture of the roast last night.  J was fairly salivating last night as he walked in the door.  I have to admit, though I'm not a beef eater in general, it did smell good.  It tasted even better. 

J actually helped with the making of the gravy.  After I removed the roast from the dutch oven and strained out the vegetables I prepped the corn starch with the water and added it to the drippings of the marinade.  J was more than happy to stir until it came to a slight boil and thickened.  He has never made gravy from scratch before but doesn't mind learning.  Truly he isn't a gravy person at all but he does love my sauces.  Not sure what he was used to at home, maybe the jar stuff?  I know my mom would often make up the jar stuff too.

I boiled down and mashed up red skin potatoes to go with the braised beef, carrots, and onions.  Plenty of leftovers for J to nosh on tonight and tomorrow from the 4 pound roast.  Hey the meat was reduced for quick sale so I couldn't pass up the 50% off price.

Okay I guess I procrastinated enough on the post title.  So okay I'm going blind.  Don't panic I'm not going to.  It isn't going to happen fully for a long time, or I hope it won't.

I have two blind spots in the left eye.  I rather knew they were there as well I can't see out of the two spots!
My buried optic disc drusen is slowly progressing.  I now have a thin spot on both eyes with a thickening on the opposite side.  The calcification hasn't gotten worse yet but I do have to go back in a year to make sure things aren't getting even worse.

Here are a few links on the subject to tickle your brain:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22446716

http://bmctoday.net/glaucomatoday/2012/02/article.asp?f=optic-disc-drusen

http://www.albanyeyecare.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=eyecyclopedia.main&Criteria=Results&ID=194

Because I'm still young, not yet 60 when this usually hits, and the fact that my father is blind in both eyes the optometrist is worried.  Seriously there is nothing I can do about this.  Why should I worry.  I take plenty of vitamins and try to eat healthy.  Sometimes shitty things just happen. 

If I go blind at age 90 I'll be content in knowing that I've seen most everything I want to see in life.  1.6% progression rate is normal.  So it will hopefully be a while before I do lose my vision entirely.

Some of My Shop

Just wanted to give you a sneak peek at what I'll be carrying in my shop.  I know that some of you have checked it out already and have seen what I've sold in the past.  As of yet I haven't had the chance to purchase the rest of the items to make the lip balms or soaps but I might get to that soon.

For now I'll be listing in Daren Diana Designs some of the following items:

Baby booties, chain maille jewelry (my husband makes some really lovely pieces),  and gemstone jewelry that I handcraft.  I'm a registered jewerly artist with the SRAJD and my number is #137.  I registered with them, and was accepted by them about 6 years ago.

Now because of a bit of paranoia, a healthy dose mind you, I won't be posting photos on here of my work until I've listed it in my shop.  Yes, people love to steal designs.  I did run into that when I was with Etsy.  A little war ensued and I removed a few of my items because another girl insisted she had them first.  It of course as a lie.  I was stupid enough to show photos of my items, in a forum, before I listed them.  I thought for sure no one would be a copy cat, why would they bother I thought?  I trust my regular readers but there are those that like to lurk that might decide what I have is quite novel and want to get in on it.  There isn't much I can't craft.  I used to make 3.5 inch floppy disc note pad.  I used to make credit card note pads too from all those cardboard credit cards they used to send in the mail.  I used to make bullet jewelry before it became a hit on ETSY and I took quite a bit of flack for making it from the community that thought it was too violent because of its very nature.  Oh give me a break!  Most of you know where I would have gotten my spent rounds because my spouse and I like to go target shooting.  I will be putting some of that very stuff back into my shop too.  Well the stuff that I can get away from my spouse that he won't be trying to reload that is.

Alright enough of my babble.  I have a healthy paranoia as I've explained above.

Port Townsend, Our Last Stop

Port Townsend was our last stop in our Lavender Festival Weekend and I have to say that the weather was the best for this part of the trip.  I haven't seen such glorious blue skies in months.

The walk along the beach head gave breath taking views of the Puget Sound, which is part of the pacific ocean but hardly anyone remembers that little fact.   If we weren't on a time table I would have stayed longer.

It is along the beach head that the bunkers were placed to defend our country against foreign enemies.  I'm not so sure how much of a threat Canada was back during WWII but I'm guessing because it was an easy sail up to the Puget Sound we were worried about other folks.  In the museum are small scale replicas of the various sized disappearing guns that were once housed in the bunkers.

 It always saddens me when someone decides that what they have to say is so much more important than the value of an artifact and its history to our nation.  I detest seeing graffiti on our national monuments, state parks, and museums.  If you have something so important to say buy a commercial spot on television and shout it there, not on a wall that is a monument.  This was one of the bunkers that housed the disappearing guns.

Just one of the photos that I took while walking about the beach head at noon.

Later we headed into town and ate at our usual restaurant while in Port Townsend, The Public House where I had the 'shroomwich which is always a favorite of mine.  J had their burger as he always does and it was wonderful again.

 Another photo of the bunkers, this one taken by J. 

In town we did some shopping.  J really enjoyed the coffee from the french press while we were staying at The Hampton Creek Inn so I took the opportunity to purchase him a french press at a kitchen shop.  J then in turn made a couple purchases for me, jewelry of course.  Jewelry always fits no matter how much I lose or gain while on the infertility treatments. 

He purchased for me a pair of earrings and a pendant in green amethyst from Lila Drake.  I love them and the fact that they didn't cost what we would have spent at a retail store makes it a bonus in my eyes.  I'm a bargain hunter.

  Here is the pendant.  Now we just need to find a nice silver chain for this heavy pendant.  Oh they had nice chains there but I wanted a heavier one than what they had in stock.  So I"ll keep my eyes open for good deals on silver chains.

Our trip ended on a happy note with a nice drive along the coastal edge of the Puget Sound.  The weather held and we were able to enjoy a picnic lunch at a park before we got home.

We truly needed these weeks together and I'm sad to see them come to an end.  Already we are talking about next year's vacation and where we'd like to go.