We moved, at the start of April 2012, so, of course, we had the month of March packing like crazy, and even hiring the packers because we were a little worried about whether or not we’d finish all that packing.

We found out that at the new spot, we wouldn’t have room for all the stuff we already had, and so we’ve ended up giving away a ton of furniture, clothing, and other stuff that we no longer use any more. We always give things to Value Village, so they must have been stuffed with things for a month with our stuff and others’ donations as well.

I’ve never hired movers too often (once in my life and my mother paid for them as a gift to me). It was crazy how much it was this time since we lived in a 3-bedroom and moved into a 3-bedroom (the new building has an elevator so we were happy to get that in case of any weakness). Our main estimate from the movers was $2100. We were having them move stuff to our new spot as well as moving stuff to our storage account. Unfortunately, when we went off to the storage spot, for some reason we couldn’t get into an unlocked door so we had to reconnect with the movers the next day too for more moving.

The movers did a great job except for a couple of things that got broken. We have now thrown those things to the garbage; one was a wall unit cupboard, another was my honey’s computer desk, we’ve now bought a new one. I know there was something else but I’m not really thinking back to what else we garbaged.

Other little things that bothered me were that they were getting scratches on my coffee table – also on the glass. I had bought that fairly recently so I was mad that it now had scratches all over it. I ordered a new style coffee table today even though I tried to go cheap and bought another one at Walmart the other day. We had to put it together so that wasn’t a great thing.

What I found worse with the Walmart cheap table ($100) was that the table kept having a look of marks on it. I tried washing these off, it didn’t happen, so I hate the look of it and will be throwing that in the garbage as soon as the new table comes. I would take it back but I also tried polishing it with Pledge to see if that would remove all those marks (and it didn’t), so I don’t expect that they’d take it back now that it’s been polished.

One good thing that’s supposed to be happening is that the movers told me they’d come to remove all the boxes from the move. We have a ton of those now unboxed and waiting on the balcony. I will call them Monday to let them know that all the boxes are empty. That’s a big relief for us to get rid of those, especially since the movers offered to give us used boxes for packing, and they did. I can hardly wait to see just how huge that balcony is – sure seems it to me.

Since our move, I also wanted to get a dog. I’ve never lived anywhere where dogs were allowed (except for houses when married, but I was busy with babies in those days). So about a week ago I went to the Toronto Animal Shelter and adopted a dog who I’ve named Benny.

Benny is part chihuahua and Jack Russell. He is the sweetest dog I’ve ever known. I’m trying to teach him some stuff now, like “sit” and “shake”, but since he’s not a big eater or even treat eater, it’s hard to get him going on these.

When I bought him he was house trained, which was a very lucky thing, however, he did have a big problem eating his meals but always seemed to come up to us when we were eating, so I guess he had lots of people food before he was here. I’m getting him away from that since I know it’s not recommended or healthy, and since he’s started eating ‘sometimes’, I’m hoping it doesn’t take him long to realize that, “yes, that’s your breakfast/dinner, you can eat it all”.

The whole aspect of getting the dog was another $1000 I ended up spending since he was almost $300 at the animal shelter, then another $300 to get pet store products. Then he was supposed to be taken to the vet within 3 days of adoption, so that was an additional $500. I’ve got to say that if anybody had told me it was going to cost that much, I wouldn’t have believed them – especially when I saw the dogs advertised for $150 at the shelter, but then they told me all the medical stuff that had been done already (including neutering), and so the cost was increased.

So boys and girls, this was a very expensive time for me, but the good things that have happened are the move and Benny. I’m having a relatively good time, and my good time will be even better once the weather gets nicer again, cuz it’s been crazy going out for dog walks with some of that hard, cold ‘winter’ wind taking place at the time.

Once May starts, I’m sure I will have things put away enough to consider making some jewellery. Since Benny follows me everywhere and comes to lay down wherever I am, I don’t imagine he’ll try to help me making any jewellery, but at least I’ll have some company

The other day I noticed that I had beads, freshwater pearls and shaped turquoise. I decided to put them all together in a different and chunky look, and this is what I designed.

I also decided that the little turquoise pendant would really make this necklace different, so I went ahead with that too.

I don’t normally finish necklaces with a toggle, normally I use a clasp and some extension chain, but for the way that will sit on the neck, the large toggle works perfectly and makes this necklace about 18-inches long. I may make another one of these just to see how I’d change up the look.

This year they seemed to have turned down any of the heat, I suppose to save themselves money. However, every time I had to go to the bathroom with the tiled floors and walls and the heater that never seemed to emit any heat, left me feeling frozen every time I used that room.

I called the Fursts to say that we wanted some heat. George Furst arrived at our apartment (with a thermometer) and went to check out the cold bathroom. He said that the bathroom wasn’t cold, it was 78 degrees. Well we had taken that heater apart a number of times so that if any water was stuck in it and preventing it from emitting heat, it would work. It didn’t. There was no heat coming off that heater. How he was saying it was 78 degrees was a big fallacy to me. Not long afterwards, we went out and bought some electronic thermometers for the bathroom and the living room (quite different than his).

I told George I wanted heat since there was no heat coming out. We also told him that we had worked on the heater more than once. He told me that we could move. We could move because he was too cheap to put the heat up. We spent 15 years living in this old, ratty triplex, and he was saying we should move.

I told him that since I was not supposed to live much longer than 15 months (according to what the doctors told me about my brain cancer expectance), I didn’t have plans to do the big job of moving out after 15 years or for the 15-month period. He continued just to be rude, telling us that we should be happy with this (lack of) heat <- his pretense, but just before he left he said he would mildly add to the heat.

While over a few days I didn’t feel any heat coming out of that heater, I started thinking about his rudeness to me, and therefore thinking about moving. I also thought of the fact that my legs have become weaker – don’t know if that’s because of the pills I’m on, or whether I’m just becoming weaker, so I thought that moving to a high-rise, with an elevator would be a good idea.

After being so disgusted with the way I was treated by one of the owners, moving to a new spot sounded great to me. So we went looking at many, many apartments and found this one that was very likable, clean and well kept.

So as of April 1st, 2012, this is where I will live. It’s not far from where I am staying now, but since 60 days notice is legally required in moving out, we had to ensure doing everything legal.

Helen Furst, the wife, didn’t seem to have any surprise that we were moving, so I’m assuming a conversation was told to her.

I think one reason I was so mad at these people was how much we did for them over 15 years. We helped

• shovel their snowed driveways
• fixed their heaters (even though one still doesn’t seem to work)
• fixed their walls that kept having leaks come in and wreck the walls
• paid half the cost of the recarpeting in the living/dining room (over $700 right there)
• installed new lights since their cheap ones didn’t work well
• put new handles on their kitchen cupboards since their old ones had been painted into thick, dirty handles
• carpeted the master bedroom because we were told that had to be carpeted on move in

We did a lot to help them and got treated like shit. I’m sure you can understand why, no matter how big a job the move is going to be, I’m very happy about moving out.

This one has a mix of blue freshwater pearls and larger sparkly blue glass beads to give it a mix. I know a lot of people whose favourite colour is blue, so I decided it was time to make a blue necklace that wasn’t too light a colour for winter.

Along with the necklace I made some matching earrings which are a differently shaped bead, a drop-style bead, but they are the exact same style as the sparkly beads in the necklace, so they are a perfect match.

I prefer this style to a plain and simple pearl necklace, mostly because it’s such a unique style with pearls coming down from the silver.

The pendant is huge – 2-1/2″ x 1-1/2″ – but, although simple, it looks very nice and creative as a necklace. Those colours together seem to make a statement to me. I wonder if there are any flags out there with those colours.

I think that it would certainly show and look great with beige clothes, just because it would make the other colours stand out so much. And the interesting part here is that the yellow beads are like shell beads, with the beige being glass beads, and the red being gemstones.

The necklace is not choker small, it’s a minimum of 17-1/2″ with a 2″ extender chain. The pendant has a perfect spot to stand out .

Well I’ve made quite a few of the grey for others (this one is mine). I’m always thrilled when others are interested in supporting the brain cancer, and I was surprised the other day because I was visiting someone at the hospital and wearing my pendant, and I was asked by two women to make a pendant for them as well.

I was thrilled that at a time I didn’t expect it, other women were also interested in having the brain cancer pendant. So I made a couple more of these and delivered them at my hospital visitation the next day.

I’ve also been asked for the pink breast cancer pendant and I’m happy to provide anyone with the colours they need to show their support to the people they know, or because they’re going through this themselves. If anyone needs one of these, feel free to contact me because I’d be happy to make it for you.

If you’re interested in learning which colour ribbons are for which cancer, what I’ve learned is below:

Black – Melanoma
Blue & Yellow – Down’s Syndrome
Brown – Colon
Burgundy – Multiple Myeloma
Burgundy & Ivory – Head & Neck
Clear White – Lung
Dark Blue – Colon
Emerald Green – Liver
Gold – Childhood
Grey – Brain
Jigsaw Puzzle – Autism
Kelly Green – Kidney
Lavender – General & All Cancer
Light Blue – Prostate
Lime Green – Lymphoma
Orange – Leukemia
Orchid – Testicular
Pale Yellow – Spina Bifida
Peach – Uterine
Pearl – Lung & Multiple Sclerosis
Periwinkle Blue – Esophagus & Stomach
Pink – Breast
Plum – Honour of Caregivers
Purple – Pancreas
Red – Heart Disease
Red & White – Bone Marrow Failure
Silver – Brain Disorder
Teal – Ovarian
Teal & White – Cervical
Teal/Pink/Blue – Thyroid
Yellow – Sarcoma & Bladder
Zebra – Carcinoid

Feel free to let me know if you’ve learned of any more colours, or to tell me you’d like the crystal pendant.

I created this necklace to have a little steam punk look to it and also to have some length because I often make jewellery that will sit with the higher-necked clothing; this one will sit over the clothing. And since purple has been the trend for a few years now, the chunky purple beads were calling to me.

In a small way this necklace says ‘traditional’ styling, but in a bigger way this necklace is trendy. I’m liking the uniqueness of this.

So instead of doing some more organizing, I had to do some more necklace making. In reality, I became the model just to show how long a necklace it is and how chunky it is.

I was wearing my black cashmere sweater, so there may be quite a bit that can’t be seen well, but it is a lovely necklace with gold-coloured chain, even though most people buy all silver coloured these days.

And the capped beads that are in between the gemstones are a taupe-y beige colour both in between and hanging down from the main brown quartz.

If you’re interested in this necklace, let me know. I’ll be happy to give it up to the person who needs it.

It was a few years since I actually went out to celebrate new year’s eve but I didn’t go out by myself, that would have been strange. And I had to get a picture so we could forever remember how fun the last day of 2011 was.

I’m hoping that, because we’re so smiley, that just means good things are going to happen this year. I look forward to being able to make more jewellery and being together with the best people I know. Not only does that make me sound like a lucky person, but it also makes 2012 sound great.

I hope everyone else has a great year to look forward to!

Today is going to be our second Christmas dinner. On Christmas day we went to my aunt’s house for dinner. It was great to spend so much time with so much family. Tonight we’re going to my son’s place for Christmas dinner. He had intended to make it on Christmas but ended up on call that day which kind of screwed up his timing for cooking, so we’re rescheduled til now.

Although I’m still looking bald, and I still haven’t put on any make-up since August, I decided that I had to wear jewellery.

You can’t tell but I wore a purple shirt and so I had to wear a necklace with purple in it. And because I make myself so much jewellery (that whole wall full in my bedroom), I sometimes forget what jewellery I have because there is so much mixed together in there.

However, I found this and the matching earrings and decided purple was now going to be a late Christmas colour, unlike the red and green that I did wear on Christmas day.

Funny how jewellery is still such a ‘normal’ wearing to me other than make-up or a wig. One of these days I’ll have to do those.

The rosary is made with clear fire-polished beads along with some sparkling glass beads, and the length is 24″, which is quite long. And I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a rosary this big, or this sparkly (which you can’t really tell from the picture), but it does look clean and clear, which may be why I like it so much.

The reason I got clear and sparkling was because I had just finished making a green rosary, and someone wanted the green rosary, so I decided to go with a different colour after not having the green one any more.

I liked the green one. I first made it with all green beads, but then I found that mixing the silver in between made it much nicer looking. I also liked the aventurine large beads just because it made the rosary a little different than you usually find them.

I intend to make some more rosaries. So if anyone has something in mind, or colours that they love, please let me know. And be sure to let me know the size you like or I could be making something really long.

While I have the green and red Christmas colours in my mind, that just didn’t turn into what I was making early this morning. However, I suppose it would make a nice Christmas present for anyone who has no intention of wearing red and green once Christmas is over.

If I go Christmas-y, I’d better hurry up about it, there are only 15 days left

She was nice enough to answer the question… ‘where’d you get those?’ and I had the option of going to a Winners store (different location than where she went) and finding them.

There was exactly ONE set of these footie pajamas and, of course, they weren’t my size. However, because of what they’re made of, I figured I’d be just fine in them as soon as I wash them in hot water and dry them up, cuz that material is bound to shrink.

So thanks to Nancy Paiva in Facebook, I got exactly what I had searched for. Thank you, thank you. I get to wear Curious George

I got into the mood for making another bracelet, and while I’ve made a lot of this type, I usually made most with Swarovski crystal and I didn’t feel like making this in crystal, I wanted to try it with a bigger sparkly bead, so I did.

I really like the sparkliness of this blue one and the size while just using the usual amount of beads. I also used the magnet clasp which works really well as long as people just slide it open. Because the magnet is so strong, if the people who wear these start pulling apart the magnet, the magnet starts coming out, so sliding it open is the perfect option.

I think I’ll make another bracelet again with the big sparkly beads in it, just not in blue next time.

When I think of my ability to tell history, it’s all based on music. I don’t remember the year if someone asked me, but if an old song is playing, I can tell you what was going on in my life at that point. It’s weird that my only knowledge of history has always been based on music. I never thought about it much until now when I’m so focused on music. Sure, name the song, I’ll tell you what was going on in my life then. Ask me what I did when I was 24 – I have no idea.

Be happy you don’t have to hang out with the ‘singing woman’

I had recently made this bracelet. I liked the look of creating these colours together – not something I’d normally pick, however, I think it gives it a more gothic look.