Key West

Well, I have to admit, Key West is beautiful. You can feel the wind, smell the tropical flowers and the ocean, hear the waves crash on the beach, and touch the lovely sand and the refreshing ocean water. And a neat idea to do something with a shoeform! All four senses active and such an inspiring and beautiful place....

Lecture

Yesterday I attended a lecture by Sir Elton John here in Atlant about his charity for HIV/AIDS. The numbers he quoted were stounding. For the world, especially Africa, but also for the US. One million cases of persons who are positive for HIV of which 50% do not take medication due to lack of access. How can a country ignore such a problem? It is in my view a moral obligation, not only to help these people but to step up for education and prevetion. These 500,000 will die without treatment and in themean time possibly infect many others. This cannot be right! Swineflu created more exicitement and action.... Governments need to do what is right and not just leave it up to charities to help irradicate

this awful disease. Ok, I feel better now.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday my dear friend. You know who you are. I hope you are having a great time and we will celebrate when you are back! (and me too!)

Hugs for you.

Travels

Well, again I will be traveling. Tis time I am off to Atlanta on Monday, not the greatest place but what can you do.... Then on Wednesday I go on to Key West. I have never been there. I'll see if I can post some pictures.

But first I will be going up on the Bruce Peninsula to spend the weekend with my family. It is so pretty there. I posted a picture previously but here's another one. This time also one from the garden.

new blog, wire work

Sharilyn Miller is a ver talented wirework artist who I owe my love for making jewelry to. I took my first jewelry class with her in Portland at Art and Soul and have not looked back. She is a very good instructor and her books and videos are excellent. She now has a wirework blog:

http://wirejewelrylessons.blogspot.com/

Here is my very first piece!

1000 awesome things

In this day and age, life has its challenges. In my own personal life, it is the stress of combining going to school with working full time and family, my husband has been out of work for a year and is having major trouble finding a job. (if you know of anyone who needs a project or program manager, or know someone at RIM, let me know!). I am sure you can think of some things.

Along comes a 29 year old who decided to look for 1 awesome thing a day and post it on a blog. It has been so successful that it is changing people's life as they help him list these awesome things. He has been given an award and now has been offered to publish a book. Gone from nothing to something awesome...

Here is the link: http://1000awesomethings.com/

This is one of my awesome moments, Tuscany.

Mother's Day

To all of my women friends who are mothers, godmothers, aunts, grandmothers etc. If you are caring for a child in the world, you deserve to hear :"happy mother's day...

I was awoken by my baby of 15 years old with a great breakfast, a present and card to say I was the best mom ever. What a great gift, to love a child!

Hot Flashes....

This weather is just too much. My hot flashes are rampant. For the longest time I tried all kinds of remedies. From formal medication to herbal stuff. At one point I thought, what the heck, I am taking it all at once, maybe that will make a difference.... It didn't. In fact, there is really only 1 documented effective treatment, which is with low dose Effexor. I don't really want to take any medicine and decided a long time ago that I will just sweat this one out. After all, it is only a hot flash. Mind you, they are so awful. Instant combustion is all I have to say. This weather of frequent pressure changes is what sets mine off. I know, people say that food and wine etc cause them. I have had them for 10 years and I can honestly say that the only thing I know affects me is the weather changes.

if you are interested in a site that published evidence on whether remedies work, check this one out: http://nccam.nih.gov

It is a website from the National Institute of Health in the US and a reputable source.

If anyone has the joke of the crows on the hydro wire who rip their coats off, please send it to me. It is so funny!

A good laugh

I have been so busy that I needed to unwind and have a good laugh. Well, this little clip did just that, I cried with laughter. May this start your day off right!

Birthday present

Last night we visited friends to celebrate Celine's 47th birthady. She loves carnelian and so I made her a necklace. It si fine silver and carnelian. It looked great!

Tell me why

This needs no explanation, just watch, listen and read the lyrics

travels

In Montreal 2 days earlier this week and now in Vancouver for 2 days. Glamorous you say? Not really, hard work, much time spent in airports, taxis and of course planes. At least I am getting some work done while I fly. No signs except for the occasional mask of people worrying about the swine flu. Maybe SARS did teach us all the right things and we are ok, or we are in denial and will only realize what a pandemic can do. Let's hope it is the latter....

Swine Flu

This may be it, this may be the big pandemic that has been discussed by so many health care officials. In Mexico, more than 100 people have died and more then 1600 are sick. It has been reported across the world in the last few days and that includes several cases no in Canada. Scary, isn't it. This is serious stuff. The easiest way to decrease your risk of getting it is HANDWASHING and avoiding people you know are sick. (sneezers and couhgers etc. ). I wish everyone would follow that advice, the word would be a healthier place... And I am flying all over the place right now.

Here is a link. Follow this news!

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032076

Lights out...

Wow, what a storm it was! I saw a newspaper stand get blown over by the wind. The storm left parts of Markham in total darknes for 6 hours. It is not convenient and yet it has it charms... I nice candle-lit dinner, some wine, a couple of hours at Chapters, so really, not so bad.... I do have an assignment due but it had to wait. Alas, too bad! Am off to Montreal for a conference.

Shoe buckle

If you recall, I wrote about some a beautiful handcrafted, silver nurse's shoe buckle a few weeks ago. I played with it last night and this is what happened. A silver chain, an antique rosary some silver wire and some chrystal beads. It will be hard to part with this one!