Where does the time go?

Checking in quickly and realizing that the last time I wrote anything was the beginning of September. Geeze. Time really does get away from us. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Good in the sense that things progress quickly without incident, bad in that I feel I haven't accomplished anything in the time that has passed.

So...let's see what's new since the last time I posted. Well...big thing is I started a new job - two actually. I finally got rid of the cancer that was my old job and moved on and I have to say that, so far, I'm a much happier person. I work when I want. No nights, weekends, or holidays. I get to work in a bunch of different units so there's no getting into any of the silly politics and whatnot of being in one place. And...I get paid more than I did at my last job. All in all I think things are looking good :)

DH is just cruising along after his surgery in September. Aside from the humongo scar that's left he's back to his old, spunky, self. I am very thankful for his superb surgeon and gastroenterologist. Keeping my fingers crossed that DH stays in remission for...well...the rest of his life.

We started gutting the bathroom just before the last hospitalization and when the time was right afterwards we picked the project back up. I'm hoping for it to be complete by next weekend. We tore up the old tile floor, wallpapered over the old stuff and repainted the walls, laid a new floor and now all that's left is to install some trim, the toilet, and the new bathroom sink/cabinet. I'm really excited. This one is going to look fab! Here are some before and work-in-progress pics.

This is just after we finished busting up the old floor. Don't you just love the wallpaper? Nothing like cabbage roses and navy blue wallpaper to welcome you into a bathroom. It had to go!

Unfortunately, the builders applied the wallpaper directly to the sheetrock (which we knew from another project earlier on) and so it was not an option to remove the paper. Since we didn't want to hang all new sheetrock we took the easy route and just gave the wall a new covering which we painted to match the bedroom.

You can't really tell the color in the next picture
but it's a soft greyish green. Very bathroom appropriate and kinda spa-like. We found some textured wallpaper that they were discontinuing at the local home improvement store and used that to cover the old flowery stuff. The nice thing about textured paper is that it hides all the underlying imperfections. Painting over it then gave us brand-spankin' new walls and I'm super thrilled with the results.

It was my very first time hanging wallpaper and I did it all by myself so I'm giving myself a big pat on the back :)



Here you can see the whole room top to bottom. We need to put new window trim up. You might get a better idea of the room color. We laid new concrete backer board on the floor in preparation for new tile.

Because the subfloor was warped just enough we had to use levelling compound underneath the backer board to make sure there weren't any major dips or bumps. I was not about to lay tile floor to have it crack on me!

So far things are looking good an level and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we evened things out enough that everything will stay intact :)




So here is the almost finished result. We got the walls done and the tile floor is down. We used a prefab patterned tile. It's alternating hexagons with 1" squares in between.

When the bathroom is fully completed I'll take bigger closeups so you can see more of the details. I'm super duper happy at how this is turning out. Mainly because I don't think anything could have been worse than what was there before!

More to come on the bathroom reno in the next little while.

Hope you're having a fabulous day wherever you are. The sun is shining here today and I'm going to leave DH to the trim work in the bathroom while I fire up the torch and kiln to see if I've forgotten how to melt glass!

Little piece of heaven...

I love my new studio. Have I said that enough? I swear it's just the best little space I could have dreamed of and I have my DH to thank for making it happen.

Here's a pic of me working in my beady space.

It's such a pleasure to have space where you can feel creative. The airy-ness and lightness of this space just makes you want to spend more time in there. Having said that....off to light up the torch!

95% complete.....yay!!!

I looked back on the forum I like to frequent and it was over a year ago that I first hinted that we were thinking of turning the pantry into a mini studio. I remember that there were a lot of nay-sayers (sp?) but my thinking is....it's my studio....I can do whatever I want so long as I adhere to the rules of safety. So...without further ado....here are the 95% finished pics. More tomorrow as I add back some of the gear but for now it looks wonderful!

The corner workspace where I will primarily be working. The vent, instead of going up and out, now goes down and out. We hooked up a honking vortex fan which wound up being too strong so we added a speed dial so that the fan can be adjusted easily. Also, the table tops will be wrapped in metal so no fear of smoldering or burning.

This is the arm of the desk where my kiln will sit. Originally I thought I might try to put glass storage underneath or store my oxycon there after working but I think I might keep it clear because it makes the room much more airy.

A pic of the whole setup. I moved my balance ball chair from upstairs to my studio so now I'll have to find alternative seating for the study.

And the room from the doorway. I'm keeping the dental cabinet even though I originally didn't want to because it took up so much room but it's awesome for storage. All my miscellaneous tools, presses and whatnot are easily accessible. And it was a steal at $7!!

I love my room!!! DH worked super hard on it for me - even breaking into his vacation time just to make me happy so I'm a lucky duck :D

Walls and floors...

The last time I posted we - well Kev - had thrown up the drywall and taped and mudded the seams. This time we primed and painted the finished walls and when that was done yesterday we got to work on the flooring today.

Here is the room just painted. Hard to tell because of the lighting but the walls are pure white. I wanted to keep it clean and because it's such a small space I didn't want color to overwhelm it.

Here is the corner where my workspace will primarily be located. You can see the gas outlet near the floor. That hole in the floor is where my ventilation system will come up through the floor. That dial on the wall is the speed controller for my ventilation fan.

Here is another pic of the walls with the flooring. We still have to put up baseboard around the bottom but that's a quick job and should be one this week.

Here is a pic of the actual flooring. It's laminate. I think it's supposed to be rustic pine looking or something like that. We got it on super blow-out at Lowes. We paid $3/case and picked up 3 cases so the flooring cost us virtually nothing. The nice thing is that it's a floating floor so it can be changed out easily (not permanent) and it was almost free!

This room looks really good empty :D

Hahahaha......

I had to blog about this although it was probably ALOT funnier at that very moment in time. Still...

So we went out today. Ran a bunch of errands. Wound up at the local Target and while Kev was checking out I wandered over to one of the sample stations where they were giving away freebies of Starbucks chocolate (who could resist, right?). As I get up to the station the woman standing behind it says to me "You have to have your parents' permission if you're under 14." I'm wondering if this woman is speaking to me and I look at her. I guess I must have had a really funny look on my face because she then says "You look really young......." I totally bust out laughing and informed the nice lady behind the counter "I'm thirty-three" to which her eyeballs totally widen and her jaw drops open. I wave Kev over and ask her to repeat what she said to me. She tells Kev "Sir, you look like you have a child bride." At this point I'm totally keeled over laughing and just can't stop. She offers us each a sample of the chocolate and I tell her she's totally made my day. Imagine me laughing all the way out of the Target. I'm sure I sounded like a crazy woman.

Good thing I got a ton of laughs earlier in the day because then we got home and we realized that none of our fans would work for the new ventilation setup in the studio and I'm now missing the one essential piece that will prevent me from torching tomorrow :( Aaaaarrrrrgh! Now I have to find a fan solution that will work. Why can't things ever be easy?

Here are some pics that I forgot to post earlier of some other beads that I made during Andrea's class.
The bottom left is supposed to be an Ammonite bead (it didn't turn out because I screwed up one of the essential steps!). Top is a Sea Garden bead and right is a Moth Wing.Close up of the Moth Wing bead. I was very happy with the way this one turned out.
Moth Wing from another perspective. Yup. Love this bead.

Just Pics....

Quick post with bead pics. More to come later.....

Don't forget today is the last day to enter the drawing for a bead/bead set. You need to add yourself as a follower of this blog (look over to the right side of the page) and then add a comment and I'll add you to the draw :)

More pics....

Today was intense....my head is spinning from all the information thrown at us. The most amazing thing to me is that I totally haven't made anything that resembles what I normally make and am, therefore, working outside of my comfort zone. Not just with colors but with techniques and the sheer sizes of the beads I'm making. My glass supply is going to be dwindling alot more quickly if I keep making beads this large!

These are some beads from yesterday's haul. It's hard to see but most of them are on larger mandrels in preparation for what we'll be doing tomorrow.

Tomorrow we work solely with silver. PMC. I'm totally stoked about this as I've been dying to learn how to use PMC for the longest time. We've got tons of beads to line with silver and a bunch that we'll add caps to. Goodness....there is going to be a frenzy to purchase all the new supplies I'll need when I get home ;)

In the meantime, here are some photos. The sun actually came out today so there were some good photo ops. I hope the sun's out tomorrow too!

This picture is taking straight from the backyard of Andrea's place. The views are absolutely breathtaking!
Looking over to the right of Andrea's place. There is access to the beach which I'm sure is fabulous when it isn't raining.

Another view from Andrea's backyard. Yeah...if it wasn't so gloomy and rainy all the time we would actually consider moving to the PNW :)

Home Sweet Home....

Let me say again how sweet it is to be home. There's nothing like sleeping in your own bed, being surrounded by all your own stuff.

So, not a long update today but I did want to post a couple of pics - nothing major - from my trip. I have to admit that I'm a horrible picture taker. I'm just not one of those people to whip out a camera whenever something catches my eye. I think I'm going to work on that. After all, with camera phones these days I should be able to take a pic of just about anything, right?

OK. Here's a pic of my first meal upon my return. What else? Noodles. Yeah!!!

I swear, if someone would just open up an honest to goodness genuine Chinese noodle shop they'd make a killing down here in Raleigh/Cary.

Anyone interested? I'd invest in your venture :) My faves? Some kickin' wonton noodle soup with a side dish of simple veggies with oyster sauce. Nothing like the basics to make my tummy happy!

After the noodle shop we stopped by the ubiquitous asian grocery where upon browsing the shelves I saw these.

I wish I woulda grabbed the ones that had the english wording but the overall gist is these are KitKats with......matcha green tea!!! I swear. Only in Toronto. If it's hip (green tea/matcha is pretty hip right now) then the asians are all over it.

I haven't actually opened one up and tried it....yet. I'll be sure to post my impressions when I do. Haven't scientists been saying all along that chocolate is healthy? Well, with the addition of green tea and all those antioxidants this stuff has got to be even better for you than before, right?

And here's my final pic. Just for kicks. I've never seen anything like this before. Has crime really climbed to such an all-time high that this is what we have resorted to in Toronto?

I wish I would have looked a little more closely to see what the rental fee is. Gone are the days of the simple metal racks where you'd park your bike and clip on your handy-dandy bike lock.

I wonder whether those bike lock companies now include Toronto on their list of cities where they will not offer a guarantee against theft??

Well, that's all from me this fine Sunday morning. Hope you're all having a good one wherever you are!