Pyrography

I began by stamping the Butterflies onto the back of the wood icon, got my tool up to heat then promptly burned my arm. I still bear the scare.

With tongue hanging out for concentration I eventually managed to burn the design into the wood. I did find it a bit off putting when you hit a knot in the wood and you 'skipped' somewhere that you didn't want to be.  The tool did get a bit too hot and you had to switch it off every now and then.

I coloured them using Promarkers then gave them about five coats of a water based varnish.

I intend to put photographs on the other side eventually.

Wire Wrapping

I have been trying to master the art of wrapping a stone without a hole. A few weeks ago Lynn and I went to the Bead Show in Harrogate, armed with plenty of money we went on the rampage!

What a lot of great choice, I came away loaded down with goodies plus a very good book on wire wrapping. I had tried this technique before but did not get the look I wanted. This book gave some very good tips that helped to make it just that little bit easier.

These stones are beautiful and the pendant is actually reversible so I get two looks in one.

I used three lengths of wire and wrapped these in three places with a thinner wire and teased the sides out so I could pull them apart later and twist to hold the stone.  I have tried this with a smaller stone but so far I have not succeeded in holding it tightly enough and it keeps dropping out.

                                        

These beads are a perfect match for the pendant and with the addition of some bead caps and spacers it makes a very striking bracelet, simply done, threaded onto elastic.



                                        



Flash & Corfu

We went to Corfu for 10 days at the end of September (was it only then, it seems like such a long time ago). We had seven days of glorious sunshine and three of torrential rain.  It was a lovely break and Steve made a very good friend. Flash, (because of the little flash on her head) that's what we christened her. We stayed at the Palmar Corfu Apartments in Sidari and if you ever visit we would thoroughly recommend you stay there. The owners are so friendly, the bar stays open till the last man drops and nothing is too much trouble. The cat apparently wandered in one day and has stayed there ever since.

Steve is not a cat person at all and I found it very surprising that he made such a fuss over her. Every time he sat down she would jump onto his lap and purr very loudly, she followed him all over, if Steve went for a snooze, so did Flash, curled up beside him. She stayed with us for the 10 days. It was quite a wrench to leave her. The morning we packed to come home she sat in the middle of the kitchen and just watched us filling the cases and occasionally she would wander over and jump in to have a look, we discovered when we got back home and unpacked that we had brought quite a few souvenir cat hairs back with us. I have no doubt that once we left she wandered away and found someone else to transfer all the affection too but if there was any way we could have packed her we would (don't know what Bertie would have made of her if we had!) She really was the most adorable cat and so affectionate.

The temperature on our balcony one day hit the 50 degree mark. My little travel clock has a thermometer so we sat it on the table, once it hit the 50 it hit an error and went off.

We took a trip into Corfu Town one night and wandered around the old part, with it's small bazaar like shops and I bought some lovely amber jewellery.

Sidari had a really nice beach and because of the time of year it was not packed with people. The season only had two weeks to go when we left and apartments and businesses were closing down for the winter.

Apparently the whole of the town closes from around 15th October and opens again in April, the place must turn into a ghost town.

I think we may have to go back next year at some point, if only to check on Flash and see how she's doing. Do cat's have long memories?





The view from the plane window coming home, it always reminds me of snow.

Home again, back to the cold and the wind. Never mind, I will keep looking at the photograph of the 50 degrees and sigh with longing.