How many words can I use for the same thing?

I feel like I might be fighting Geoff's head cold now.
Actually who am I kidding. That is EXACTLY what I am doing. Norman kept me up all night AGAIN (Geoff went up to the lake to work on a film, so I've got the turd all to myself and he is not a restful sleeper. I remember having to get up at least 5 times to rearrange his blankets. Good grief)
Last weekend was the same.

I'm going to have to have a chat with that dog.

Anyway, so I've overslept this morning, to accommodate the no sleep I got last night, and I've got bleary head and scratchy throat.
My breakfast consists of green tea (to wake me up), Vega (a super healthy vitamin Super food drink powder mixed with frozen blueberries and almond milk, pretty tasty) and a huge handful of vitamins.

Yesterday I worked on my first ever quilt project. I will take pictures this afternoon when I finish it. It's quilt LIKE in that it's got squares of different fabrics all over it, but not quilty in the fact that it's a duvet cover.

I hit my breaking point last week when Geoff woke me up to tell me that Norman had tracked his own shit INTO THE BED the previous night. So that we had slept with poo.
In. The. Bed.

And not only that, but he'd smeared that same crap into the beautiful WHITE comforter that I was so excited about having in my life. Pristine white bedding?

WHO WAS I KIDDING???

So the "quilt" is the cover that is going to live on the white comforter to prevent me from having to wash FECES out of it ever again.


So again, until I get the quilt finished so you can see, please enjoy these pictures of beautiful, soothing nature that I took when I walked home from work last Monday.



Just look at that creek! I am relaxing right now.

New direction? New work?

Geoff woke up sick yesterday so I've been playing nursemaid. Not in a pervy way.
Lots of soup and tea and being quiet so he can sleep it off.

So I haven't been as productive as I would have liked in the studio, but I have been able to spend some time brainstorming. Which has actually been pretty good. I've been thinking about working with Fairy Tales again, maybe taking the Moonstruck pendant/medallion idea and incorporating it.

I've been thinking a lot about what I would like to see, on myself yes, but also the kind of jewellery that I would flip out over if I saw it in the store.

I have caught myself designing smaller items that are a lower price point than what I was making just a year ago, trying to find something affordable (like under $50)and easy to buy and frankly I am bored. I am feeling like I am not designing for myself anymore.

School was so perfect for really pushing interesting ideas (as school is supposed to be!) and I was able to keep it up for a while on my own, but I am just not feeling inspired by some of what I am doing right now.

Not everything. (I've been jazzed about a few things! The loveknots were pretty fun, and I've got a BRAND NEW THING on my bench waiting for a name. I'll show you later) But I am definitely feeling a creative rut looming over me and I want to avoid it. Neatly sidestep it altogether with some really engaged new work.

SO! Early next week I am going to pick up some fresh silver sheet (so exciting just on it's own!) and mess around a little bit.


But rather than leave you with a long winded, personal post ("oh artists!" you'd say) here are some pictures I took on one of our walks last week, catching the last light of a really beautiful day.



Thanks for listening!
xox

Late Winter Morning Light

Last week we had some really beautiful morning light, and I grabbed the camera to catch some.





It was really quiet too, Geoff was up at the lake working and it was just me and Norman hanging out.

Plus Sparkle Deer, Ghost Horse and Cobra Commander.

Have you seen this?

I am definitely intrigued.
Although at the moment it just looks like a giant ipod.

When I can put photoshop on it and blog from it, then I'll get excited.
(that's all I really need from my computer!)

The Bermuda Cul De Sac

I drive by this street sign when I pick up Geoff from school and I laugh every time I see it.

OF COURSE THERE IS NO EXIT!!

I have not driven onto that street, too risky.

Bear with me!

I am still working on sorting out the bugs to get this blog connected to janamade.com.

So far it's not working.

But I did say that I was kind of flying by the seat of my pants!
So you've had fair warning.

I will keep at it and hopefully very soon have a Big Reveal!

Thanks for sticking around!

Recycled Pendants

These little guys are new at Floating Gold Iceberg too, I think that I may have forgotten to mention that all of the Love Knots are at the FGI store (533 Pandora Ave if you are in Victoria)

They are made entirely from scraps from my studio, I have a whole whack of scraps that I've been saving for refining, but you need A LOT of scraps to make a refining batch make sense, and I am not quite there yet. But I definitely have materials to mess around with! These guys are pretty fun to make too, so I think that I'll make a few more.

Love Knots

I had picked up some gold filled wire a little while ago to try out an older design that I had been making in silver, but wanted the look of GOLD, without the cost of GOLD.

(I am tempted right now to always write GOLD in caps. Seems fitting yes? We'll have to see if I remember.)

When I sat down with it though I made these instead. Little Loveknot charms.

They just kind of happened, and I really like them. Simple and sweet without being fussy. I like them on the crochet chain as well, it feels like something you would get from your teen boyfriend. Only more sophisticated somehow. Plus I love how every part of them is handmade. (I crocheted those chains don't you know!)

And the gold fill wire was really nice to work with. I described it on the FGI blog like a corndog: instead of a wiener it's brass at the center, and instead of cornbread it's a heavy layer of gold. So not gold FILLED per se, but that's what they call it.

You can get gold fill chain too, so if you want the look of luxury without having to sell your first born (exaggerating!) this could be a way to go.

Everything old is new again.

Two weekends ago I was underneath my parent's house while there was easy-ish access to it (Mom was taking down the Christmas tree and Dad was packing everything up to put back into the crawlspace.)

Among some other amazing finds down there, which I will happily share once I've got them cleaned up (maybe I'll do that today? Hard to say what I'll get up to) I glommed an old painting that had been down there so long that the dust was starting to develop architecture.

Frank Gehry would be impressed.

Mom was only too happy to get rid of it, since she couldn't remember how long it had been down there, so I took it home.

Then last weekend, while waiting for flux to dry, I happily worked away at this guy...



I have been enjoying drawing so much lately that I thought I'd try drawing with paint. I had picked up some paint pens for the trees that I am going to put up in the bedroom (I've got photographs of a really beautiful birch tree in the neighborhood that is going to stand in as inspiration for that project now!) in gold (yes!) and white and they are SO MUCH FUN.

I am thinking that I might have to explore this for a while.

Dreamboat Terminator?

Yep.

We were planning to go see Avatar last night, but tickets were sold out until the last show, and as excited as I am to see it, I was not interested in staying up until 1pm.

Old fuddy duddy me?


So we rented Terminator:Salvation.
I am a fan of the series, have been since I watched it with my Mom when I was a kid.
I remember watching it in the afternoon, so maybe I was home sick from school?
Anyway.

Terminator Dreamboat is what I am getting at.

Changes to the website

Upon more reflection I have decided that the best course of action for me at this time is to switch my website to this blog.

So when you visit my website www.janamade.com, you will automatically be transferred here, to lovely ol' JanamadeThis. Which will become Janamade.com.

You don't have to change anything if you have this site bookmarked (if you do I LOVE you!) or just hop over like you usually do, blogger apparently will automatically divert you to the new format. Thank you blogger!

I am hoping that the transition is smooth.

But since I am mostly doing this on my own, I make no promises.
The lovely Kathryn will be helping me with a new format, and lovely details, because she is FAR better at this kind of thing than I am.

I am mostly flying by the seat of my pants.

Content will likely stay the same as is it always has here, mostly silliness.
With some more jewellery and handmade thrown in.

Like I had originally planned this thing to be. Only less silly.

We'll see I guess!


Thank you for sticking around, you.
It's been a pleasure so far, and I hope that it will continue.

xox
J

Nature!

more pictures from our walks. The hydrangeas are by the front door actually.
(I think that's what they are. They are lovely what ever they are called)

Now I must eat lunch, then work on some Sweethearts for Valentine's Day.
(I can't BELIEVE how quickly time is screaming past right now. I think I can even hear it.)

TEA, oh how we love it.

We are serious tea drinkers at our house. Nary a day goes by without at least one cup each (usually first thing in the morning, then several throughout the day)

I grew up around tea drinkers, my parent's both regularly enjoyed a cuppa classic orange pekoe, and lately they have switched to trying new herbal teas too.

I was told by my physiotherapist and doctor to avoid caffeine. NO CAFFEINE FOR ME.
Back when I was 18 I had my wisdom teeth taken out, slightly botched and now I have TMJ for my troubles. But it's been so long that it's just a matter of course that I can't eat delicious crunchy things, or chewy things, or have caffeine anymore.

So whenever I do sneak a little in it's VERY apparent that I've had some.

Crazy making. (I once hyperventilated after ordering a decaf frap, but getting a regular frap instead. For 45 minutes.)

So now I don't order slushy espresso drinks anymore. As much as I would love to.

But every once and a while, especially lately, I will have a single cup of green tea in the mornings. It's so good, and the caffeine seems to stretch out my energy and I am not insane for hours, but I am SUPER PRODUCTIVE.

So. Yesterday I popped into Silk Road here in town and picked up a couple of mildly caffeinated teas for us to enjoy. Right now I am drinking "Vanilla Plantation" a mild black tea with hints of vanilla and something else, let me look... and essence. Whatever that is, it's lovely.

I can't keep it up everyday though, I'll get food allergy reactions after a couple of days so I have to switch to herbal in there occasionally. But I was really looking forward to trying out these new teas, so I'll stick to herbal teas next week!

I also picked up this mug and tea strainer set that I've had my eye on for a little while, I had a gift card from Christmas, so I thought why not treat myself a bit!

Made by ForLife, it's pretty nice too, the strainer is super fine, so there are no leaves or bits floating in my tea and the lid flips over to become a little dish to keep tea from getting on the counter when you rest the strainer on it to cool.


We received this teapot as a wedding gift as well, made by the same company and it sees a lot of love from us. Same strainer, which is what prompted me to pick up the mug, it's just so effective.

They also have these separate strainers that you can put into any mug (I've been doing that with the strainer from the teapot lately) and it comes with a sweet little leaf shaped resting dish. Tres cute!

Their website is here But if you are shopping in Victoria, you can find them at Silk Rd and Haute Cuisine (amazing kitchen store!)

xox

In my efforts to be as productive as possible

I have been thinking about investing in this table set up, the Vika from ikea.
(can you see that little window on the right of the table top? It's a WINDOW you can shine a light through to make it a LIGHT TABLE!)

I might even be able to take my drawing table separate desk combo and make it ONE SINGLE DESK.

Oooh the more I think about it the more I like it!

Now I must budget for this.

Wee!

another thought!
I bet I can find an old door to salvage that has a window in it, stick some frosty tape to the underside and paint the top white and MAKE MY OWN!
Lofty aim perhaps, but it might save me big $$.

I might make a disaster out of the whole thing, but I MIGHT not!

I'll let you know how the hunt/gather/adventure goes!

LinkWithin?

Let me know what you think about the new LinkWithin feature I've added.
We've got it on the Floating Gold Iceberg blog, and I thought I'd try it out.

New year new look?

I am thinking about making some changes to JanamadeThis. As you may have noticed, I have a website too. A lovely homepage that links to my Etsy shop, this blog and my flickr photos. I am thinking that I might amalgamate the website into this blog and update some features. I'd really love to make the site address for this blog janamade.com. Take the features of the website and add them in a more direct way to this blog, update the layout and generally take a step towards the FUTURE.

(There will always be capitol letters however. Never fear!)

I am just thinking of ways to make things run smoother, feel cleaner and more streamlined.

I'll be updating my business cards too! No more crossing out my old Vancouver number and handwriting in my current Victoria number! (I had 1000 cards printed the month before we left Vancouver without really taking that into consideration until we got here and I had to change my number. I honestly thought I could keep it. Alas, that was not the case!)

So if you pop by here and things look weird or you've got some advice for me on how to do it, I would love to hear from you! Feel free to email me at janamade.design@gmail.com, or leave me a comment. I love it when I get comments!

I look forward to what this blog will become and getting to know you as well.

xox

Jana

Looka t this!

(har har, I know)



I really love these envelope necklaces by Looka (get it!)(I get it from my Mother, sorry!)
They are so wonderful! You can even get them custom stamped with whatever you want.

Totally adorable.

hint*ahem Geoff*hint

Shop Update

I figured out what was going on with my images, and just popped these guys into the shop!







And they're all on SALE!

I enjoy long walks along the beach

We've been taking some long slow walks lately, to get Norman's knees back into tip top shape (he blew out both back knees in the fall, and he's slowly getting better.)
The vet recommended taking him out gradually and really slowly. So we let him set the pace.

I don't know if it's apparent or not, but I am not a stroller. I walk with intent.
Hustle even, you might say. Geoff is always asking me to slow down when we're out walking together. And that was before Norman hurt his legs.

So I have started taking my camera with me and catching the world around us. It slows me down and gives our Norm a chance to sniff around too.





It certainly doesn't hurt that we live one block from the ocean in one of the most beautiful places.