Lily (short for Lily Munster from the dramatic widow's peak markings on h er face) was picked up by our local shelter as a stray. I'm guessin now, that we've had her a month she has settled down somewhat, although she is still full of that puppy exuberance that is hard to tame down. After 2 accidents on the floor, she now goes to the front door and patiently waits and if someone doens't appear to be paying attention, then she jumps up on the back of my chair, letting out little breathy yips, just in case the claws on the chair are not enough of a clue that she wants out.

Once out, on a leash of course, she sniffs around, squats to pee an just when you think she sniffing to prepare for round 2, a distant barking dog, or a misplaced garbage can at the curb will immediately derail her from her mission.

The spca staff told us she was a german shepherd cross.....I suppose I can see it, sort of, but she definitely has terrier in her. Had I know about the terrier side, I'm not sure she would have been my first choice for our family. I am not that active and she really needs an active family to take her for walks and play with her.

She crate trained righ from the start, with nary a peep, she seems happy, if not bored and is affectionate with us, so it gives me hope. As does her looks, she's kind of hard to resist

All things Handmade: We, the people :O)

All things Handmade: We, the people :O): "ink"

My custom items don't always get a lot of air time, so I thought it would be nice to feature them here. This is an Argentium sterling silver byzantine bracelet with a gorgeous Venetian glass heart. I wind the wire on a mandrel, cut the rings and assemble all by hand. I welcome custom work, so if you're interested, visit my Etsy Shop and contact me and see if we can't make something especially for you!

I am used to doing custom work, but I am so proud of this latest one. I recently got a request from a customer to make a mother's pendant, but could I also make it a pin because her mother wears more pins than pendants. Using the birthstones for April, for the mother and two daughters, I sat down and created this combination pin/pendant. I am really pleased with the way it turned out and the customer was thrilled!

My very first attempt at etching copper and I am quite pleased with the results. I have been designing this and making this in my dreams for quite some time now, and only recently got the ingredients together to make my dream come true. Now that I've started, I have plans to do more. The process from making the design on copper, etching and then the oxidizing is very fulfilling when the finished product is realized. I've taken some brass wire and a black tourmaline bead and 2 copper beads to make a bale and I've hung it on a greek leather adjustable cord. It is not listed in my Etsy Shop yet, but will be in the next few days. I rather like the organic look and can't wait to expand my line.

WEll, today I got a nice surprise, an email from Mike, from the blog What My Girlfriend Wants
telling me that my Pearl Dangle Ring was featured on their blog, along with several other talented Etsians. This is really a boon to my confidence that out of all the jewelry sellers on Etsy (and there are hundreds, if not thousands), mine was exceptional enough to be chosen. And I am in good company, as the other Etsians chosen also offer some lovely pieces.

Ok, so I've been making jewelry for about 8 years now. Never once have I oxidized any of my sterling silver until the other day. It seems to be a popular trend, this darkened silver, and I have to say, after trying it out, it really changes the look of the jewelry.


At first I tried the boiled egg method.....it's where you boil an egg, cut it in half and put your silver in to oxidize in a natural way. Egg yolk has sulphur in it which causes the chemical oxidation process. Um...not for me. So I bought a bottle of Liver of Sulphur. Mixed it up according to directions, with 1 cup of cold water and...voila! Nothing. So, being the reader I am, I have done my homework and researched this method and find that the water must be very warm. So I microwave the solution. Upon opening the microwave, I am overcome with the smell of rotten eggs. Not a few, but hundreds, maybe thousands of them. I hold my breath, dip the earrings in and like magic they start to transform!!!

The smell is becoming rather noxious, so I open the back door for some ventilation. Did I mention it's 6º here with a wind chill factor of -30º? So, here I am freezing and gagging trying to fish the earrings out of the solution, manage to wash them off and try to decide if I want to save the solution or dump it. I opt for some saran wrap over the container while I decide.

The earrings turned out fantastic!!! The finish is permanent and a very striking contrast to the ruby red quartz briolettes. Serpent - Blackened Silver and Ruby Quartz Long Dangle Earrings

Since winter is in full swing I'm not sure when I will try this again, doing it inside is just not an option. Freezing my butt off outside is also not an option I'm likely to try anytime soon, either.

Lori

After the ceremony, out on the grounds of Fort Niagara, the mouth of the Niagara River as it opens up in to Lake Ontario 

Kayle, Me, Bruce, Casey 

The wedding party, from left to right, Step father Dick, my brother Scott, my daughter Kayle, Myself, Bruce, my mother Jan, Bruce's son Casey, my son Brandon and Bruce's son Kevin 

Greeting our guests after the ceremony, Casey, Bruce, Me, Kayle 

The new Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Lort! 

Waiting in the wings 

Here comes the bride 

The altar in the small castle chapel 

Our Wedding, October 11, 2003

Bruce and I had lived together for about 7 years before we got married, he stating repeatedly that no matter how much he loved me he never wanted to get married again. In the first few years we were together I tried to change his mind, but no amount of crying, cajoling, bargaining or threatening to leave would change his mind. So when he had a heart attack in July of 2003, I think it got him thinking about life and love and loss and then he couldn't make me his wife fast enough. He even came to my workplace with ring in hand, and out on the Hospital grounds where I and some of my coworkers were taking our morning break, got down on one knee and proposed. We decided on a date, far enough away to prepare, barely, and got to work on the fine details. My then 16 year old Daughter Kayle was to be my maid of honor and Bruce's oldest son Casey the best man. I decided to do the flowers, my bouquet, my daughter's, the toss-away bouquet and the boutenniers and corsages for the rest of the family/wedding party as well as flowers and decorations for the church. My son Brandon played the trumpet for the processional and recessional and I asked my brother Scott to walk me down the aisle.

Neither Bruce and I belong to a church, so the next obstacle was to find someone to marry us. At the same time we didn't know where we would hold the ceremony. Living so close to Niagara Falls, we did have the option of a wedding chapel, and I did call a couple of them, finding that the ones we were interested in were rather expensive. Along with that there was the reception to think about and the food and the cake. We were already on a tight budget and checking out hotels and catering was rather disheartening. Bruce is the youngest of 5 and one of his older brothers, Billy, offered to do the food and cake as a wedding present. Billy is one of the best cooks I know, he and his wife Donna (who passed away from cancer about 5 years ago) always brought the most delicious deserts to all the family functions. So we sat down with him and devised a menu and finally felt like we were making some headway. We still didn't have a place for the wedding or the shower and as I gathered materials for the floral pieces and started collecting supplies for the favors and table decorations for the reception, I worried out loud to Bruce on several occasions about not finding a place. It was easy for him not to worry, all he had to do was show up!lol One of my friends from work offered her restaraunt for the reception, a cute country cafe type place which would have been difficult to use because of the layout, but I was beginning to think it was the only place we would be able to afford. Then, one day out of the blue, Bruce came home and asked me how I would like to get married in a castle! One of his customers worked for Fort Niagara and offered the tiny chapel to us. They used to hold weddings there fairly regularly, the stipulation being that you had to be dressed in period costume and be willing to be on display for the tours. If we were to have our wedding after hours we didn't have to meet the costume criteria, so we said yes and set the time for 6 pm which was when the Fort grounds closed. Now we had a place to get married!!! But no one to marry us and I was still reluctant to commit to the little country cafe for the reception. It wasn't long before Bruce again came home from work one day and announced that his boss's brother Tom who lived in a very posh condiminum complex had offered us the use of the community room (for free!) so now we had a place for the reception. What a relief! And the decor, although a little dated was still very elegant and had everything we needed to serve food and beverage, dance and it had the most awesome view being located on the river. Now I could relax somewhat, but we still didn't have anyone to marry us. One of my supervisors at work is a minister and I crossed my fingers hoping she would be able to do the honors, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. She would be out of town that week. Again, Bruce came to the rescue. One of his friends is a judge in a neighboring town and a quick phonecall confirmed he was available and willing to marry us! My daughter and I had discussed dresses for the wedding andI was having a hard time convincing her that she wasn't going to wear black. I knew of a place in one of the malls that everything in the store was $20, and I had seen some beautiful formal dresses in there, so that's where we started. We looked in the racks and we both picked out a beautiful deep purple/blue satin dress.....the size was perfect. She put it on and even she liked it, that in itself was a miracle. It needed to be hemmed up a bit, but I decided I could do it so we bought the dress. 1 down and 1 to go. We headed to another store in the mall,a small boutique with very exclusive and expensive dresses in the window. I hesitated because most of them looked to be made for much younger (and thinner) women. I really didn't think I'd find anything, but my daughter was already in there ooohing and ahhing and pulling out dresses left and right for me. I knew I didn't want a traditional wedding dress, but I did want something elegant and wedding-like. They had a small rack of wedding dresses in the back and as I thumbed through them looking for my size, the only dress on that rack that I even considered just happened to be the only one in my size. I pulled it out and the sales lady ushered me to the fitting room. It fit like a glove, other than needing the straps to be shortened, the dress fit me like it had been made for me. In one shopping trip both dresses had been found, I knew things were finally falling into place.

The rest of the time flew by, I was busy assembling flowers for bouquets, boutenniers and corsages. I made some arrangements for the altar in the chapel and I got some lovely ivory ribbon bows, the kind you see on the ends of the pews in the church. I added some of the same silk flowers to the center of those, got some ivory tapered candles and the church decorations were all set. I got some elegant silver swan candy holders on clearance and made up the favors and found some cute silver bells, so I made up a label sized tag and with some ribbon and some tiny silk rosebuds tied them onto the bells. On one side was a line from "our song" "I cross my heart and promise to give all I've got to make all your dreams come true, In all the world you'll never find a love as true as mine", and finally the favors were done. We got some more ivory candles, and I decorated a single crystal candle stick with the ribbon and Ivory and deep red rose buds and those were placed on each of the tables. One evening we were out shopping for the candles, we were wandering around Michaels Craft Store and Bruce spotted one of those arches. I bought yards and yards of tulle, got a few strings of christmas lights and several ivory rose garlands and I had the most beautiful archway in the reception hall. Attached to the main room was an indoor pool, so we got some floating candles which flickered romantically in the pool, the light reflecting off the gently rippling water. One of the gals I worked with from the housekeeping department offered to help serve food and clean up, and I know Billy, after all that food preparation and the lovely cake was very grateful for the help. My friend Kathy, Bruce, I and our kids helped decorate and set everything up the night before. It was a LOT of work, but it went off without a hitch, and everyone had a great time. People stayed and helped clean up afterwards which was a tremendous help, we got home about 2 am and managed a few hours sleep before taking off for our honeymoon in Cape Cod, transportation provided by Bruce's boss and good friend Bob, who gave us the use of his little Beamer 2 seater convertable. We had a blast there, and hope to return again one day.