Category Archives: Life Musings

Saturday Morning Tea

The last few days have been filled with tons of lightning, rumbling thunder and more torrential downpours. This certainly has been the summer of storms here in New England. I’m hoping that all of this tumultuous weather will herald in a crisp, clear fall season with plenty of sunshine.The plants are just loving this weather, especially the tropical hibiscus and plumeria on our back deck. They feel like they’re home in the rainforest, I think. One of the hibiscus plants is almost 6 feet tall!

On this cool, misty morning, I felt like something dark and smoky. This morning’s cup is a China black Lapsang Souchong named Gao Ji. To be perfectly frank, I’m not a lover of a very smoky tea like a Lapsang but I want to expand my tastes and give it another try. This particular tea is a lot milder than the characteristic smokiness. I searched for the meaning of Gao Ji and found it in a Pinyin dictionary. The translation to English is “high ranking” or “high grade”.

Lapsang Souchong tea, grown in the Wuyi region of the Fujian province of China, is known for its distinctly very smoky aroma and taste. During its processing, the leaves are dried over wood fires which impart that smoky quality to the leaf. In essence, the leaves are “smoked’ in their drying. The story goes that many years ago the tea processing had to be sped up as armies marched through that region so the villagers dried the tea leaves over open pinewood fires.

A new type of tea was born.

Chinese black or “congou” tea is also referred to as red tea. The liquor on this tea really supports that terminology. The aroma is lightly smoky with a hint of chocolate. The liquor is mild, sweet and lightly winey/smoky, reminding me of a very high quality Keemun. It is smooth with only a passing tang in the finish.

The tea appears much darker in my pottery cup. Whenever it rained, a friend of mine always said that it was a great day for a Keemun. In that spirit, I think that this is a great tea for cooler weather. As we enter the second half of August, we are still over a month away from the official first day of fall but I can feel its whisper in the air already.

Fabulous Batik Fabric

I love the yummy fall colors of the batik fabric I recently purchased at Joann Fabric’s. Originally, I purchased it for my 2008 beaded journal pages but now I’m thinking of creating journal bracelets instead so I won’t need it for that. The one above on the right reminds me of Brian Froud’s fairy world.

Hmmmm, now what can I use all of this fabric for? Cloth art dolls?

Aren’t those seed pods in the fabric on the right just great?

When I was at the cutting station, I had the most interesting conversation with the sales clerk about the colors and patterns in these fabrics. I told her that I loved how your mind and imagination could play with the dots and swirls and see all sorts of interesting things in those patterns. It’s always changing everytime you look at it. She agreed and said that they all reminded her of dreams. That thought positively captivated me. Fabric dreams…

A Wonderful Surprise

Last Friday afternoon I visited a dear friend who, as I arrived at her house, revealed that she was taking me somewhere special and that it was a surprise. Oooo, I love surprises so we got in the car and drove to the next town. The surprise was a hidden gem of a store called “Second Look Books”, located in Plainville, MA. They sell second hand books but what captivated me as I walked through the front door was the abundance of crystals and gemstones on display in every nook and cranny of the place. Laura took one look at my face and said, “I knew you’d really like it here!”

Tumbled and rough stones were placed all around the room on windowsills, on tabletops, in overflowing baskets and hidden inside small spice drawer cabinets. When we arrived, the proprietor Sue, was busily making little stone cairns by gluing small stones, one on top of another. She was very helpful in sharing information about the metaphysical properties of the various stones as we delighted in one treasure after another. Above is my little cache of carefully chosen objects.

The goddess and polar bear are both carved of bone. The rectangular cabochon in the middle is a septarian nodule containing yellow calcite crystals. I was very drawn to its unusual formation and color combination. The jade piece on the right is called the Knot of Eternity or endless knot, being described as “representing the interweaving of the Spiritual Path.” I have always loved this symbol and thought it would go well with my faux jade bracelet just completed.

I decided to put a magnetic clasp on my bracelet with a couple of brass Chinese coins on either side. Originally, I imagined making a toggle clasp with one of the coins but the inner square is too small for a toggle. Has anyone had any experience with magnetic clasps coming undone? I thought a safety chain might be a good idea but then there will be a fair amount of chain hanging from the clasp area because it would have to be long enough to get the bracelet over someone’s hand. I’ve worn the bracelet several times to test it out and it has stayed firmly clasped. The other idea I had was to place a hook and eye on either side of the magnet clasp so one could hook it after the bracelet was clasped. I was also thinking about dipping the clasp into some liver of sulfur to darken it a bit.

Yesterday was a wild weather day with severe thunderstorms moving through the area most of the afternoon. We even lost power for a couple of hours. Our black lab Jack, was glued to my side while I sat and started the beadwork around one of my mokume gane polymer clay cabochons.

Studio Wednesday

Today was a dark and dreary rainy day, a good day to spend time inside in my studio with a cup of tea by my side. I started out the day by cleaning and organizing the studio and then set to work on my May beaded journal page.

My first journal page, entitled “A Garden in my Heart”, was completed in June 2007. When I moved out of my house 4 1/2 years ago and into my apartment, I had to give up my physical garden but it’s wonderful memory always remained in my heart, forever a part of me. Now that I live in a house again with a beautiful garden, I am able to open my heart to my new garden and let my flowers take root here. So, this is what my May page symbolizes. It’s not quite done yet. I have the next couple of days off from work and I hope to finish it by this weekend. Then I will just need to create a November page. My original idea was to create a page in memory of my beloved greyhound, Buddy. He passed away in August of 2001 so I feel it’s right that I create his page during the month of the 7th anniversary of his death. He was a loyal and lovable companion and I still miss him everyday.

Wedding Jewelry

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I’m amazed at how easily this jewelry set came together yesterday afternoon. I always tend to overthink things and try a million different ways of putting the beads together before a piece is finished. In other words, I doubt myself and my vision. Last night I was watching the movie “The Last Samurai” and there was a part where Tom Cruise’s character is learning hand to hand combat with the Samurai warriors in their village. He keeps getting defeated and then his friend says that he has “too much mind” and that he should have “no mind” in his approach. Well, of course it worked in the movie but there is much wisdom in that “no mind” philosophy, I think. Just get into the moment, let go of all of the thoughts that normally race through your head and just let it flow.

I created a 16″ necklace with matching bracelet and earrings using 4mm “Golden Shadow” Swarovski bicone crystal beads and cream freshwater pearls with tiny gold seed bead spacers. The pendant is an unusually cut “Golden Shadow” Swarovski crystal.

I made a simple loop bail using pearl and gold seed beads. The clasp on both the necklace and the bracelet is a gold lobster claw clasp. For these photos, I laid out the jewelry on my dress so you can see the material and how it matches (I hope!).

The wedding ceremony itself is being held outside. Thunderstorms swept through our area about 5 am this morning but it looks like it is clearing up now. Hopefully, the weather will be beautiful for their special day!