Canadian Rockies Art

Change of plans Shop update on Wednesday

I know, I know… I said I would load up these goodies to my online shops today, BUT, I had a good excuse:

Artfire allowed the Mavens (I’m a Maven) this afternoon to test-drive the new Collection Engine, and man oh man, I HAD A TON OF FUN!!!!!!

Here’s one of the collections I made today while testing the new gadget:

(click on the image to  get to this collection)

Here’s the other 3 collections I made:

Luscious Purples - Hot Trend for Fall-Winter 2010-2011
Fall for it...
Hungry yet? (grab a glass of milk first...)

I have to say that it is easier to make a collection on Artfire than making a treasury on Etsy (I gave up making treasuries on Etsy because I find the process is clunky when you gotta copy-paste all those item numbers, and I’m happy to have the new much more intuitive Artfire Collection tool to play with instead! Yay!!!)

So, I will start making Collections and sharing them here with you all once a week on my old "Wordless Wednesdays" that I used to do (before giving up on making treasuries on Etsy).

Anyway, I’m beat, I gotta pack a few orders and it’s nearly 10PM.

Tomorrow, I’ll be at the Cancer Center all day for mom’s chemo and I won’t have time to upload new items online, so I’m looking at Wednesday at this point…

Thanks for your patience!

Rogers TV Ad for Mobile Internet

There is this ad on TV in Canada about a woman doing all sorts of activities (walk around, carrying one of those Netbooks from Rogers), she sits on a park bench and opens that netbook and starts typing about the fact that she’s sitting in the park, and you see her in various outdoors shots/places, and she’s busy typing on her Netbook keyboard about being in all those places… and the voice-over narration (her voice supposedly)  tells the viewers that she has to connect to the web to tell everybody what she is doing, everywhere. That she can’t go through her day without it.

That ad is for this product here from Rogers, and actually, you see that woman from the TV ad sitting on the park bench on that page (give it a second to load, it’s an interactive page, you see her  hands typing away on the Netbook keyboard).

This ad REALLY BOTHERS ME!!!!

What is wrong with that picture, people?

Are people today SO tied up to their computers and the web that, hey, they gotta take them everywhere and instead of enjoying their surroundings, interacting with people, they have their nose to their keyboard and are telling the ‘web’ folks what they are doing… which, really, is typing on a keyboard outside and not enjoying a real life disconnected from the web at all.

Instead of enjoying the beautiful park, admiring the trees, listening to the birds chirping, looking at the sun in the sky, looking at the water and the boats passing by, looking at other human beings all around her… She’s got her nose glued to her Netbook screen, and fingers to keyboard, typing away.

I think that it is becoming an illness of this century.

Why do our fingers have to keep on touching some kind of keyboard or keypad all the time?

I really don’t care for what this ad from Rogers is telling people to do…

It is NOT healthy to be connected to the web or to some kind of communication device 24/7… Heck, it’s not healthy to be connected for half that time, even.

This is starting to look more and more like The Matrix… that movie, in my humble opinion, isn’t far off from the future we’re walking towards.

I really can’t stand that TV ad. It’s sending out a dangerous message. Big time.

Pass it on.....

WRITTEN BY A 15 yr. Old SCHOOL KID IN ARIZONA :

New Pledge of Allegiance (TOTALLY AWESOME)!

Now I sit me down in school

Where praying is against the rule

For this great nation under God

Finds mention of Him very odd.

If Scripture now the class recites,

It violates the Bill of Rights.

And anytime my head I bow

Becomes a Federal matter now.

Our hair can be purple, orange or green,

That's no offense; it's a freedom scene..

The law is specific, the law is precise.

Prayers spoken aloud are a serious vice.

For praying in a public hall

Might offend someone with no faith at all..

In silence alone we must meditate,

God's name is prohibited by the state.

We're allowed to cuss and dress like freaks,

And pierce our noses, tongues and cheeks...

They've outlawed guns, but FIRST the Bible.

To quote the Good Book makes me liable.

We can elect a pregnant Senior Queen,

And the 'unwed daddy,' our Senior King.

It's 'inappropriate' to teach right from wrong,

We're taught that such 'judgments' do not belong.

We can get our condoms and birth controls,

Study witchcraft, vampires and totem poles..

But the Ten Commandments are not allowed,

No word of God must reach this crowd.

It's scary here I must confess,

When chaos reigns the school's a mess.

So, Lord, this silent plea I make:

Should I be shot; My soul please take! Amen

 

If you aren't ashamed to do this, Please pass this on.

Jesus said, 'If you are ashamed of me, I will be ashamed of you before my Father.'

Not ashamed. Pass this on.

Gotta love the iPad!

All these years that my hubby and I have been together, I wished there was a better way for him to read all of his newspapers (I’m allergic to newspaper inks, and let’s face it, I got tired of wiping off black finger marks all over our interior white doors all the time…).

Well today, THE DAY has finally come – click on the link to see pictures of his new device - FedEx delivered his iPad to our home this morning and he has cancelled his regular “old fashion” newspaper subscription so that he could sign up for the digital edition on his iPad.

ALLELUIA!!!!!!

My prayers have finally been answered!

Now my husband looks like a handsome young James T. Kirk on the bridge of the Enterprise with this thingamajig in his hands, and no more ink mess anywhere!

Thank you Apple for coming out with the iPad and help us become a greener household. It helps us save trees and conserve energy (although newspapers are a recycled product, it still takes a lot of energy to recycle the fibres, etc… ) – I call this a WIN-WIN!

And now, we can read the NY Times, the awesome USA Today, etc… it’s really beautiful. I love it. I have an iPod Touch, which has been great for me to watch movies on while mom sleeps during her full days of chemo at the cancer center, it helps keep me busy for the day that we spend there and it’s small and portable, but I can see the awesome things we’ll be able to do with the iPad as well.

Well done Apple, well done.

Tooth Ache and lots of NEWS

I’m tired and grumpy and in pain, but it does not matter because MY MOM is doing really well after her cancer surgery yesterday. Yay!!!

She had her major surgery yesterday because she had ovarian cancer. They did a hysterectomy to remove the two tumors that were on her ovaries, and they also removed 3 more tumors that they found on the right side (not sure at this point where these were attached), and they removed the layer of fat that covers up the organs in the abdomen, because cancer cells tend to want to hide in there... and all the rest is 'all clear'. She will need more chemo, but after that she should be in the clear.

She is one brave woman, my mom. 73 years old and what a trooper she is!

She is recovering well at the hospital, and she will be home in a few days, and I will be looking after her. Nurse Nat ready for action!

Meanwhile, I have a nasty toothache that started yesterday at the hospital when I ate a sandwich while mom was in the OR. I had made myself some food to take along, and the bread that I use has a mixture of seeds on the crust. Well, one of those little tiny seeds ended up making its way between two of my molars.

It wasn’t bad at first, and I tried rinsing it out at the hospital but I had no floss on me and no toothbrush, so I figured it would have to wait until I got home. Well, by the time I got home last night, needless to say that this little pesky seed had managed to get in deeper and started to aggravate the nerve on my one tooth. It got pretty bad last night.

I took some Tylenols and they knocked me out for awhile, but then they wore off, of course… so this morning I called my dentist and they have a short work-day on Saturdays and they were swamped with emergencies, so they could not fix that tooth for me today, it has to wait until Monday afternoon.

So I continued trying to get that seed out, and I’m not sure if I did it or not. I can still feel something in there, but the nerve is so upset now, I’m leaving it alone and we’ll see how tomorrow goes. I took more Tylenols and at least the pain isn’t shooting in my left eye anymore. And if I don’t talk, then it’s not too bad. So I’m hanging in there and being quiet (ok, mumbling and cussing under my breath LOL)

Will you look at this:

This is my new ‘mini Moo’ card design for my brand new line of ONE OF A KIND/LIMITED EDITION  “OPULENT” high end jewelry “NG Originals”.

Cute design huh? Look at my Studio and Shop below (and look at my Artfire Rapid Cart on the RIGHT SIDE column), you will see some of the pieces I have already listed and the banners I’ve made for each online venue.

I figured that while I’d be looking after mom and taking over the chores she was helping me with (she was a huge help, believe me), I will most likely not have time to do a lot of work in my studio, so this way, I can do some One of a Kind pieces while keeping her company in my parent’s living room in their suite in our house, as I can use my little toolbox to bring over what I need and make some wire wrapped jewelry (mainly). It will be nicer that way for her. She won’t be able to come up the stairs for a few weeks at least, so that way, I can keep her company and make some jewelry at the same time.

You will find these NG Originals designs in my NG Originals Artfire Studio as well as in my NG Originals Etsy Shop.

Enjoy the weekend!

Do you have PROPER Suction?

It’s Friday, I’m tired, and I’m super happy about SUCTION!!!

(No, I did not fall on my head…….)

We have a central vac system in our house. When we built our home several years ago, we though (ok, *I* thought) it would be a good idea to add a central vac system to our house at the lovely extra cost of $1,500 installed. It would surely work better than all the cheap-to-expensive vacuums we had owned and bought/replaced nearly every year  in the past, right?

Well, the central vac system that we have vents to the outside (I have allergies and asthma) and indeed, it is an AWESOME vacuum system and I had never seen such great suction from regular canister or upright vacuums before.

That sucker has such great suction, it nearly rips the carpets off the floors when you vacuum…

BUT…

Oh yes, there’s a BIG BUT here (and we’re not talking about my hips folks!), in order to use that mega suction machine, one has to carry around a 23 foot heavy hose around up and down 3 flights of stairs (to cover the basement to the top floor), and never mind trying to get it off the storage hooks and get it back on there. I HATE IT!!!

It’s super HEAVY and such a PITA like you would not believe.

Needless to say that when time came to vacuum the house every week, the sheer thought of carting around that super heavy and cumbersome 23 foot hose was a mega turn off and a mega chore and there’s some weeks where we just decided it was too much of a hassle to use it  :(

So, my dad (my parents live with us) figured he could just buy one of those “on sale” canister vacs with bags and that it would do the trick and be easier to handle than the central vac.

It turned out nearly as heavy and cumbersome as the central vac and it had me swearing at it so bad, my mom kept wanting to wash out my mouth with soap (eeew!). I hated that thing, and canister vacs just get in my way and I’m always pushing them around with my foot, etc, it’s just not practical.

Plus, the bags filled up and the vacuum would lose suction really quick. It just made a bunch of noise and refused to pick up more than half of what was on the floor. And it was not a cheap vacuum, it was over $200 plus the bags (which I hate!).

But finally, that nasty canister vac broke down (thank you Lord for answering my prayers!), and so we went back to the Central Vac system for awhile, but that long hose is real pain.

So mom and I managed, over the past couple of months to persuade my dad that we should invest in a DYSON vacuum…

You know, the one with the yellow ball and PROPER SUCTION that we see on the TV ads. It has rave reviews, it is pricey but that baby won’t lose suction for 5 years, guaranteed!

So, mom and I went to the store this morning and tried various Dyson vacuum cleaner models, and we ended up getting the lightweight DC24… it’s so light (half the weight of the other Dyson vacs) and WOW, the suction on that thing will close to rip up the carpets off the floor… but without being cumbersome to use! HOURRAY!!!

It was so easy (and may I say FUN!) to use it to vacuum, and wow, did it ever pick up a lot of stuff… Oh my gosh! The motor is very quiet for a vacuum cleaner, and the suction is awesome. The cup (this is a bagless vacuum) is super easy to empty out and put back on, it’s FANTABULOUS BABE!!!!

A lot of people look at the price and they go “Oh my gosh, this is one pricey vacuum”, but you know what? We’ve spent way more money than this in the past 8 years on various canister and upright vacuums (not counting the $1,500 we plunked down for our central vac), and if we had just bought the Dyson in the first place, we would have saved a few thousands.

If you are in the market to buy a new vacuum, or if you’re wondering about getting a central vac or not – BUY  A DYSON. You get Central Vac suction without the hassles and without the hefty price tag. Super easy to use, 5 year warranty, and I gotta say, for all the years of me dreading having to vacuum, today, for the first time EVER in my long life – I have actually ENJOYED vacuuming my house! Don’t be fooled by the small size of the DC24, that baby is powerful!

I'm featured on My Shopping Connection!

I just received the most excellent news this afternoon!

I received an email from the editor of the famous "My Shopping Connection" website, because she wanted to let me know that they've decided to feature my Mobius Love Knot Sterling Silver pendant on their site.

How cool is that!

 

It's a very neat website with tons of gorgeous handmade items. I'm definitely honored to have been picked!

Jo-Ann Fabric & Artfire Partnership

I know that a lot of my readers are in the US and that you enjoy shopping at Jo-Ann's, so I wanted to give everybody a heads up about Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores' new partnership with Artfire - It's great news!

You can read all about it here in this press release.

Craft-on folks!!!

Is it always all or nothing?

Tonight, I have to say that I’m just pooped right out…

Got some good news today as mom and I went to her follow-up Dr’s visit at the Cancer Center. She’s responding very well to the chemo and getting stronger and feeling good, so they were quite happy about that :)

They also said I was doing a very good job at looking after her abdominal drain (to continuously drain the acites liquid from her tummy area). I’ve been religiously following the instructions on how to change her dressing and cleaning her wound, etc, so it’s all looking great. Yay for Private Nurse Nathalie!

She had a 2nd round of chemo on Monday. I went with her and this thing lasts the entire day, so armed with lots of things to keep me busy while mom slept in her day bed at the chemo clinic, the lovely iPod Touch that my hubby gave me for Christmas is proving to be a really handy gift - I rented a movie on iTunes (The Ugly Truth – that was funny and light-hearted, just what I needed) and watched that and read a book, while answering the odd check-up question on how mom was doing during the drip, etc, when the nurse would stop by. It was a looooooooooong day but it went very well.

But in between that (speaking of “All or nothing” here), I’ve also had to deal with several other things all at once… starting with a broken dishwasher and the associated repair man (he’s a nice guy, so that helps a lot). He’s coming back tomorrow with the parts he ordered to fix it. That will be a blessing :) The top rack’s wheels broke off (don’t ask me why Maytag can put together a really great dishwasher and then use cheap plastic wheels for their racks – the heat wears those puppies down like you would not believe!).

Anyway, so that will be taken care of… and I also had to deal with the warped siding on the one side of our house… thanks to some extreme heat/sun that hits the one area really bad each summer. Four summers and the vinyl siding was so warped, it was not funny. Thankfully the builder was kind enough to act quickly after my call in removing the faulty siding and replacing it all free of charge of course, but again, I still had to deal with a bunch of people coming and going and checking stuff, and upsetting the puppies.

That’s the worst part, our puppies do not want ANYONE on our property except for us. They are super protective and folks, you step up to the front door and be ready to be greeted by a 3 pound (soaking wet) puppy that will tell you from her full 8 inches tall off the floor that she rules the house and you better play by her rules or else! LOL.

The other one is more laid back …. he’s a guy…. need I say more? LOL

I haven’t been able to get back in the studio yet to continue on the Ring a Day challenge, but I hope to get back in there on the weekend for the sole purpose of continuing to explore all sorts of rings designs :)

I’ve started working with PMC3 and I have to say that I really enjoy it. It takes a LOT of patience to work on the greenware stage (leather hard stage) to make sure it’s all smooth and perfect, etc. But putting in 80% of your time at that stage is really the best way to end up with basically no work to do once it has been fired and comes out of the kiln.

I love all things METAL big time, so I could not let a metal technique/material slip by without me trying it out… I listed some pieces that I made last week, and I’m just posting a couple of pictures here for eye candy. Can’t have you reading a long post about my boring life without giving you something to look at, right? :o)

I’m very happy with how the LOS patina came out on these:

PMC3 Leaf Pendant with Cubic Zirconia

 

PMC3 Heart Pendant with Lab Grown Ruby

 

Check these pieces and more in my Artfire Studio and Etsy shop for more pictures and more details… Each one is unique!

Enjoy!
Nathalie

Ring A Day 3-5 & New Work

I’m feeling really run down at the moment. I have to deal with shuffling a whole bunch of specialist appointments for my father, myself and my mom, and this is not an easy task. Mom says she would have given up long ago, but I can’t give up. I have to sort this all out. We have no choice and I’m the only one who can do it…

I had posted before we discovered that mom had ovarian cancer, about the fact that mom needed Cataract surgery and a few different rounds of laser procedures. I had also mentioned that my father and I both suffer from Glaucoma (which can lead to blindness if not looked after), so I thought I had my hands full then with juggling two different eye specialists and all the appointments, tests, procedures, etc for 3 people (mom’s being the worst of all of us with so many appointments), then just before Christmas, we discovered that she had ovarian cancer (and you know this means chemo, blood work, CT scans galore, hysterectomy, etc…) – which means many more appointments and tests for her (and postponing her cataract tests and procedures further, and changing some of my own and my dad’s glaucoma appointments now as well because of scheduling conflicts with mom’s cancer procedures) = Bureaucratic nightmare :(

Anyway, I was stressing out about finishing the ring that I started on Day 3, and I figured that I did not need the added stress on top of everything else I’m juggling with, so I decided to finish the ring when I could, and it happened to be today, so this ring is my Day 3 to 5 “ring” for the Etsy Metal Ring-A-Day challenge. I really like how it turned out… It’s a mixture of sterling silver and pure copper… What do you think?

Ripples in Time – Size 5 1/2, listed in both my Artfire Studio and my Etsy Shop.

I also have other goodies to list, just not enough time to list them all in one shot, but here’s a preview now:

 

Keep an eye on my Canadian Rockies Art Artfire Studio for these and other goodies to come. Some items will be exclusively listed on Artfire. I will list a few items on Etsy when time allows. Thanks and let me know if you have any questions :)