Irons In the Fire

Since I'm taking a quick break from packing for my trip to Miami, I'm going to give you a sneak peek at some of the projects that I'll be starting when I return in a week. I'm not leaving until Wednesday but I have to teach a class tomorrow night, so I thought I'd get a jump start on trying to figure out how many suitcases I need to take.

I've made some purchases in the last few weeks with the intention of including them in my fiber pieces. I have a small collection of ceramic pieces by Lisa Peters, which I acquired when I was at the Bead & Button Show. I'll be using several of them on wearable pieces, perhaps with some of my glass beads as well. When I saw this pair of orange lips in her Etsy shop, I just had to jump on it! I'm probably going to incorporate it into a bag. I've got some rather wild ideas about what the bag will look like, and I just might make some glass eye beads to go with it.

On a more conservative note, I couldn't resist these crackle white raku donuts from MAKUstudio. I'm definitely going to put them on a vessel - I just haven't decided yet if I'm going to put both of them on the same vessel or if I'm going to make a separate vessel for each of them. I've already made a glass bead to go with one of the donuts, and the other will have some components that I haven't used on a vessel yet.

Here are some of the fibers I've chosen to work with - Merino wool, Harrisville fleece, hand-dyed (not by me) variegated silk, and a commercial ribbon yarn that I've had for a few years - along with my glass bead. I'm not going to show you the other components - it'll be a surprise. :-)

This is going to be an extremely earthy vessel... or two. I can't wait to get started on these new projects!

Before I resume stuffing my suitcase, I want to dedicate this post to my brave and determined fur kid Peanut. Last Friday while hubby was out walking the dogs, Peanut's left hind leg gave out on her and she collapsed. After they got home, her leg was shaking, she couldn't put any weight on it, and she ended up tossing her breakfast. That continued for awhile with additional vomiting, so I took her over to the animal hospital. They did xrays, gave her pain meds, put her on an IV to replenish her fluids, and kept her overnight. They determined that she was vomiting because of the sudden onslaught of severe pain. She has arthritis and bone spurs around her knee, with a possible torn ACL, so we scheduled knee surgery for her that's supposed to happen this Thursday. But she bounced back - as she always does - and to look at her now, you'd never know there was anything wrong with her. She's jumping around and very happy. Perhaps she decided that at 12 years old she didn't want to take a chance with the surgery. Whatever it was, I'm incredibly relieved!

We've almost lost her 3 times to pancreatitis, she has epilepsy, she had surgery on her other knee almost 4 years ago, she had an infection that required intramuscular injections three times a day for 2 weeks, and she's such a trooper. Hat's off to you, Peanut!

Now go have yourselves a happy and creative week! I'll be back from Miami on the 27th with undoubtedly lots of inspiration.