Well, we went away for the weekend, to John’s parents’ house. It was fun - Keslyn, especially, enjoyed it. There’s a lot more room up there for her to run amok. She got to play with ‘Calfin’, and the organ again - she’s getting big enough to climb onto the stool herself now… Its cute, but a little sad to realize just how big she’s getting. She got to play in the hot tub, too - actually John and I were in there with her, so I guess we all got to play in the hot tub. It was fun; my first time in a hot tub, and my first time in any large kind of water in a few years.
And then we got out the gemstones. And that was fun, too. John cut up some opals for me, as a project (sort of), and I spent most of Sunday afternoon polishing them by hand. It was a rough cut, s there were lots of blade marks to take out, and I ended up with sore fingers afterwards, but I think they’ll come out nicely. I also got to grind my own stone, which was… Rather neat. Of course, when I was finished, there was only about half the stone left, but its still a nice size. John drilled a hole in it, and after I polish it up a bit I’m going to turn it into my new keychain. Like I ever use my keys anyway. Still, though, it will be nice to have it and be able to say “I did that.” Heh, I told John & his dad - I may end up with nothing more than a shiny, oddly shaped stone, but it was fun making it.
I’ve been thinking, too, and decided that I really want to try inlaying. I’m pretty sure that’s not the correct term, but I have this idea… John’s family has butt-tons of gems. And I really like to design things and put them together. So, I’m thinking that I could design some scenes, slice up some gems (or, more to the point, have John slice up some gems), and mosaic myself some boxes and such. The thing is, once I get the hang of it (and I don’t really think it would take that long to get the hang of it), this is something that I could conceivably turn into a small income for us. I mean, aside from the web & custom orders - there’s craft shows, antique & art stores… Its not really art, and its certainly not antique, but the finished product would be something that would sell in either space. I’m really excited about it. The biggest downside at the moment is that we live so far from John’s parents - and that’s where all the gems & tools are. So its not something I could start on, say, tomorrow or anything. But its definitely something I want to try out.
And speaking of making things: I made two more doll contest entries, and since that brings my total dolls up to 6 - I figured they deserved their own page. It will eventually be accesible from the sidebar, but I’m still tweaking the menu so for now you’ll just have to click here:
Doll Page
And the voting has started at the Miss Doll International site, so if you have a few minutes to spare and would like to vote for me - I’d really appreciate it. I guess it didn’t dawn on me that these things are mostly a popularity contests in the beginning, and I don’t have a huge fan base, so I could really use the votes. Link is here:
MDI
And you need to vote for 5 contestants, or your vote doesn’t count - my entry is the Region of Holland.
Well. And that’s it, I think. More than usual, and some of it was even interesting. ;)
