Only a couple more weeks...

and the holidays will be essentially over. I don't know why people get so stressed out. I mean, I've put away my high expectations, the ones I had as a younger person - soft lights, chestnuts roasting, tinseled packages holding all my most cherished dreams... and now I just try to navigate through the holidays with as little personal damage as possible.

I'll clean the house so the family doesn't call the hoarder police, put up some lights so the neighbors can enjoy them, try and make healthy foods so my blood sugar doesn't skyrocket... the simple things, really. And , of course, empty my bank account to provide glorious excess for my children & grandchildren.

Not to mention the food banks, the ASPCA, the Humane Society, ... Click on the Animal Rescue Site button to provide food for animals, and then click on each tab for all the other good causes. Volunteer some time in your community too- And keep at it even after the holidays are over.

It's almost Thanksgiving

We're having chicken.

Maybe yams. Salad.

Our neighbor gave us a blueberry pie.

I think we're all set.

Coolest Cat on the Planet

Un chat boit au robinet - Blog

The last sunflowers of the year

I love sunflowers. So do the bees, and the birds. The little finches have been working the seed heads for days. The cats love to watch them through the locked screen door. Wouldn't they like to get out and catch them! Not on my watch...

Some New Work.. and an old picture...

Warm and cozy for winter, just ahead. I'll be listing these for sale someplace soon. Probably Etsy, or Artfire. I've been knitting alot since the weather cooled down. It's a fun way to stay busy and productive. My parents valued being productive. Very important.

This is a picture of an old bakery in Jerome, sent to me by my friend Bobbi. Late 1800's perhaps, with the smelter stack in the background. So neat and tidy - the smelter smoke kept anything green from growing. Ah the good old days!

Is it Christmas Yet?

Because we have some new things to put in the shops... Above, a tiny antler tip on red leather cord. It's cute, and didn't hurt Rudolph at all, since these are naturally shed antlers found on the forest floor.
These earrings are my favorite stones- Carnelelian and turquoise. I made these with the powers of the stones in mind- carnelian invokes passion and energy; turquoise is a lucky stone which aids in relieving anger. What could be better than that? And the copper finding aid in transferring thoughts into action.
This is a mystery stone. It must be some kind of agate; it takes a wonderful polish! And there's a tiny tube along the side which has the black of the stone inside. There's a crystalline hole in the middle and some opalescent bubbles on the side- altogether a wonderful accent piece for any outfirt
Here's another agate with a crystalline inclusion. Perhaps it is a piece of geode. It holds a super polish and has both mystery and excitement in it.
This piece started out as a bead, but broke in half. Such an outstanding natural bright blue color! It's set in a cast sterling silver backless setting, and hangs on a sterling silver figaro chain. We just love the beautiful blue color of natural Kingman turquoise.

These and other outstanding pieces will be posted on our various sites over the next few days.. Hope you like them!

Changed my profile pic...

... cuz I'm just not that angry anymore. Now, I just have my popcorn ready and wait to watch the next train wreck.

Whether it's Kanye West, Serena, or Joe Wilson, - or just a typical Etsy Etc thread - I'm ready.
Cheers!

Mr Foxaz's Super Studio

Betty like a good place to rub... like my feet...
Pretty turquoise...

Here it is- insulated, air-conditioned, clean, with nice anti-fatigue floor mats...

What's more fun than Insulation?

Putting up 4'x8' sheets of ceiling panels, that's what!!

Mr Foxaz gets it in his mind to do a project, and it's a one-way highway towards his goal.

He has his epidural pain shot this coming Tuesday, so it was important to get most of the rough stuff done before that. He's supposed to take it easy after the shot, and he usually does. So a week ago we got the bundles of insulation and paneling, and rassled it all into the workshop last Friday. Started on Friday night and got to the paneling at the end of the weekend.

Yikes! What a job! At one point, we had ropes and pulleys hooked up to lift the panels into place. Talk about Two Stooges! Mr Foxaz is quite particular about how things should be perfect. Me, I'm just standing there, holding the ropes and the pushing stick, saying "put the screws in, put the screws in already!!" I'm type A and get frustrated easily. He is so much more calm than I am- just moves forward in a careful, calculated way.

He's one of the only people I know who can measure, cut, and have the piece fit perfectly.
I just try my hardest to keep my mouth shut - but it's not my nature to stay quiet. I try though.

Back from the 300 miles drive

We're back from our all-day drive. Mr Foxaz's eye is no worse. The ciliary body mass is the same size, no larger. The doctor excised a chelazion, we got a script and went on our way. Ordered Quiznos subs from our hotel room- yum!

We drive down the day before (takes all day) then the appt is the next day, then drive back the following day. I missed my exit on the way back though, and wound up in Peoria for awhile. But thankfully, no horrible wrecks on the highway, no road closures in the heat.

It's good to be home. It's too darn hot out there to be driving all day. 54 mpg isn't too bad though. Yay for the Prius!

The Wolf is at the Door

I'm taking my felt pins in a slightly different direction. This is the first of what should be an iteresting series of animals, birds and insects. Minimalist, yes, and hopefully different in a good way.

I love making things. My Bucket List is mostly things I want to make, projects I haven't finished, promises I've made about one thing or another. As I get older, the weeks just seem to fly by, and what with my fixation on keeping updated on blogs, current affairs, Etsy, Artfire, Artistry Arts, etc- I'll often spend hours reading on the net.

My photo project is HUGE! Every time I open a box or bag I find more pictures to document. And Mr Foxaz has been making a lot of new pieces, which I need to photograph, edit and list. As you can see up above, there are lots of new things in our Etsy shop, which I've decided to focus on his work with antler and turquoise. I think he'll be doing some Cherry wood and turquoise pieces for the vegans in the audience, too. So stay tuned! (an Etsy turn of phrase)

I know I'm a critic of Etsy in the forums, like so many others these days, but I have no intention of closing shop there. Not willingly, at least. I have too many business cards with my Etsy address! And the forums are addictive. So hopefully my big mouth won't get me kicked out.

Artistry Arts is a new selling site. They just moved to an all-new site, here:
http://www.artistryarts.com/index.php?/
and they are definitely worth a look. If you had stuff listed before the move, you'll have to re-list it all (bummer) but it's fairly easy to do, and they have a "list similar"function if you sell a lot of similar items. It costs $5 a month, with no selling or listing fees.. Check it out!

Here's a wonderful picture of a couple of the old folks at home:

Facebook

I'm on facebook, here: http://www.facebook.com/susan.d.fox?v=feed&viewas=1096466571

I don't use it much, because it seems to generate spam, and such. Over the course of time, perhaps I'll get into it more. Maybe when I don't have so many things to do in real life.

Etsy now has a cute little button where I can uoload my items to facebook. It seems like spam to do that, since the info would go to my friends, who already know about my shop.

It's a lot of work keeping up with all the blogs and shops and reading others blogs and flickr and facebook. People who manage it, and do it well, have my utmost respect.

Old Pictures, Bittersweet

Relatives I hardly knew, people I can't name, houses I wish I'd lived in, wars that surely shaped my fathers' personality. I'm putting my parents photo albums on disk. My grandaughter Shay was here for a week , taking pictures of each old photo, with me uploading them to my computer, editing them, looking into faces I can barely remember. My mom & dad on the beach at Stony Point; my sister and I, my dad as a high school soccer player, my parents at her parents house, smoking cigarettes in front of the fireplace.

My sister and I rarely smiled; perhaps we knew what was coming.

Both my parents have passed, dad in 1966, mom in 2006. So we'll never find out more than the cryptic statements near the pictures: Seneca Falls, 1937, Niagara Falls, Lake Lucille. Winters in deep snow (it was New York) and summers in backyard blow-up swimming pools, and, like clockwork, the posed pictures of Easter Sunday, and every Sunday "ready for church."

We hung out with bunches of neighbor kids, dressed in Cowboy and Indian suits, building forts for plastic army men, carving acorns into doll dishes. It was actually a pretty idyllic childhood, there was a brook to explore, dams to build, frogs to catch and release. The outdoors was a wonderful place to play. Indoors was another story.

I'll post more pictures as I work on this project.

Lovely Days, Lovely Nights...

Here's Betty, checking me out while I take pictures of some of my latest creations. She's a very good helper, making sure things are set up right and everything's in focus. She helps Mr Foxaz also, keeping track of his turquoise and watching out for intruders.

Sometimes I wonder...

Does anyone read this blog?

I know it's not as exciting as reading other blogs, the ones with giveaways and gossip and drama.
But drama really isn't my thing. I leave that to others.

I also wonder:

do men wear cowls in the summer?
will my cucumbers produce great cukes?
will Sotomayor be confirmed?
has the housing market hit bottom?
will we get rain this week?
how many goodnplenty would fit in a gallon jar?
is Etsy really a cult?

If anyone has answers to these questions, please leave a note.

How about these IRISES!

I love their little bearded throats, and the colors are sooo cool. The easiest flowers to grow, and they reward you every spring / summer with color. What a photo op! I never get tired of admiring their beauty.

When it gets HOT in Arizona...

We decide to have a yard sale. Are we crazy? Maybe we are.

We spent the last two weekends sitting in the shade with icy non-alcoholic drinks, our little fanny packs strapped on with small bills inside, for change. While we didn't make much money, because America as a whole has no money to spend, we did get a chance to meet and greet with neighbors and passersby... and with the exception of one woman who spent her time screaming full blast at her unruly children, we had a great time schmoozing with the customers.

I would say our little yard sale / social experiment was a success. We cleaned out the shed and the garage, and will have a nice donation for the local thrift store. We decided upfront that we'd sell or give away the stuff we will absolutely never use again. Tools that we bought to use once; tools that we bought with hopes they would work properly and never did; things too heavy to lift, peculiar oddities I've rescued from dumpsters and swap meets, the kind of things we love but have no place for.

I've had a love affair with red glass for years. And copper. And things that make me laugh. I put these precious things out for sale, knowing people would snap them up.

But this particular yard sale was different. People wanted things for next-to-nothing....

If we'd had furniture- chairs, tables, dressers - we could have sold them all day long. Computer monitors? Not so much. Turns out, you can't even give those away.

Over the next week or so, we'll be packing up the leftovers for donation. At least we'll get a little tax deduction. I guess that's all we can hope for.

Remembering the Kentucky Derby...

When I was a kid - long ago in a land so far away (just north of NYC) my sister and I used to get real excited about the Derby. The Sunday paper would have pictures or paintings of the horses; some were nice enough to cut out and mount on a piece of cereal -box cardboard. The horse I chose was black as coal, a real beauty.

The Derby was run late on a Saturday afternoon, usually.
Our dad would be fishing. That's what he did on weekends, and we were just as happy he was gone, since when he was around he cracked the (figurative) whip and made us do chores and clean our rooms.

Our mom got in the habit of allowing us to have a healthy dinner of Wheaties and ice cream on tray tables in front of the TV. There we'd watch the Kentucky Derby, or perhaps some other horse race. New York was a good place to live if you liked to follow the horses. So many NYC race tracks and upstate ones as well. The Belmont, Triple Crown, Saratoga Springs... all the races were televised, and we watched them all.

I loved horses back then, and when I was 30 , I finally got one, riding a lot in the mountains around Jerome, AZ where I lived.

My black beauty never won that long ago Derby, but I still have that cutout in a box of memorabilia out in the shed. I'm sure my grandkids would be (will be) impressed.

Finally! My First Cowl / Hat / Headwrap / Neckwarmer

I resisted, oh I did, I did! I didn't want to be just like everyone else... I march to my own drummer, after all...

But here it is- Cowl #1, in blue and purple - purple homespun, blue and purple boucle, and fluffy fun fur yarn.

I'll be listing it on Etsy, the home land of all things Cowl, later today.

Lemon Sun

Vintage faceted ab glass bead earrings shatter the sunlight in a wonderful lemon-y way. These are available in my Artfire shop.

Copper nest with Sea Glass

Here's a smooth piece of seaglass in a crocheted copper nest. It was fun to make and has a secure pin closure on the back. In 20 years, it will be a vintage piece - hah! Will it still be listed in my etsy shop by then? It's possible...

New Buttons at CallMeOut.etsy.com

OK - Just a Reminder about YOUR EYES...

Yes, I know, we remember to check our boobs, and have our regular dentist and doctor appointments... but, don't forget to have your eyes checked regularly.

Mr Foxaz and I went for our eye appointments together last week. He gets seen pretty regularly because of his Graves Disease, and I go to the Retina Center annually because of my Diabetes, but we weren't prepared at all for what the eye doctor said. He looked into Mr Foxaz's right eye and saw something dark and scary, and very rare -- a pigmented ciliary body mass. Thinking it could be melanoma, he got us an appointment with the next guy up the ladder on the specialist chain.
This one did an ultrasound and thinks that, yes, it is melanoma, so Monday at 8 AM we will be in Tucson (300+ miles away) having a 4 or 5 hour appointment to find out what our next move will be.

By the end of the appointment, we should have a diagnosis and a plan of action. And they said they usually spend 2 months working out the details.

I guess that gives us the perfect excuse for neglecting the garden this year. :(

Get your eyes checked!

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

This picture turned out so Etsy, don't you think?

I haven't listed it yet, but it's a very cool, matte-finish, yellow pebble from my collection of rocks and things. It hangs on a copper colored figaro chain with a twist clasp.

Such fun, and so funky. Just the way I like it.

Vintage from Japan

Is this a pretty necklace? Four strands, and that carved clasp is just gorgeous. I just listed it on Etsy- in my vintage shop: http://www.CallMeOut.etsy.com

Come take a look!

The Countess' Jewels

Aren't they beautiful?

Sunday Secrets

It's Sunday, and I just finished reading the Sunday Secrets at http://postsecret.blogspot.com/.
Post Secret is one of those guilty pleasures that make the weekend special.

So here's a convoluted secret from long, long ago:

My Dad came from an immigrant Czechoslovakian family. Language barriers, lots of kids, no money- and the father picked up and left the family, leaving his unstable wife to raise the kids as best she could. My Dad's dad was always referred to as a "skeleton in the closet." Needless to say, as a young child I spent time inspecting the closets, making sure there were no skeletons hanging around in there.

My Dad was the youngest and probably the cutest, very charming and with a great smile. He married my mom, and shortly thereafter was drafted to fight in WWII. He was stationed with Patton's army in Europe. He drove a tank.

He never talked much about the war, except that during the final days, and during the "clean-up" - he met a Countess, who lived in a castle in Czechoslovakia, where he was stationed. Since he spoke Czech, they hit it off immediately, and when he left, she gave him some lovely jewelry to take home to his wife. So, amongst the war memorablia - a bloodied Nazi armband, medals and coins, two large and heavy swords from the 17th century (I think) - he brought my mother the Countess' jewelry. A poison ring, gold beads, cut crystal beads with earrings to match- beautiful, museum quality, fine jewelry. The absolute best she would ever have.

Over the years, my sister and I would be allowed to play dress-up with it, try it on, pretending we were girls in a castle, in Europe. ( We were also reminded to clean our plates because "children are starving in Europe!")

My Mom & my Dad have both passed on now. So we can't ask them what really happened back then. But the story of the Countess and my young and handsome father might have been a good start for a Sunday Secret-- Don't you think?

I Just Had ONE Kid..

All this buzz about the woman who had octuplets last week has got me thinking. (And usually my husband thinks that's not such a good thing.)

When I first heard it, I wondered why her husband wasn't there with her- after all, when people have fertility treatments, it usually means that they (husband and wife) want children. But not in this case. You'd think with 6 kids already, there would be no need for more. And as a single mother, how does she plan to support them all?

I guess it will be up to us as a nation to kick in the millions of dollars it will cost to raise all these children. Of course, no one asked us if that would be OK.. (Well, in all fairness, they didn't ask us if we wanted to bail out Wall Street either)

Maybe the book and the TV deals will pay the bills., but it seems unlikely.
Maybe the mom's parents can step up and pay the bills. Maybe even the frtility doctor who thought implanting 8 embryos wa a good thing. The bills for the birth alone are astronomical.

When I had my son, back in 1971, the hubs and I were poor folk, living in a ghost town, with a couple goats and a garden. We ate beans and rice, made our own bread, cooked from scratch. We gave birth at home (no bills) and had a friend help with the delivery. And we knew immediately that one child would be our legacy, and our limit.

He'll be 38 in a couple weeks, and I'm real proud of how he turned out. He grew up just fine without book deals or TV specials (we didn't even have a TV til he was 8.)
We went to the library, and read books together, did outdoorsy stuff, arts & crafts, grew peaches and had homemade ice cream birthday parties.


He's all grown up now, with a wonderful wife and two beautiful teenage daughters. Granted, like many young families, they could use a bailout right about now. The economic collapse has been unkind to a lot of working folks, and they're no exception. It's a struggle to make ends meet.

I just don't know how a single mom with 14 children (some with special needs) would do it. What would childcare for 14 kids cost?

Vintage Beads - Gotta love 'em

I don't know which I like better- the beads, or the pictures of them...

Cherry Heart 4 Valentines Day

Isn't this just lovely? Made by Mr Foxaz out of our neighbors poor dead cherry tree. Such beautiful wood! - And it hangs on a 925 sterling silver figaro chain.

You can find this in our Etsy shop - www.foxaz.etsy.com