Cool Blue Chalcedony

Sterling, Blue Chalcedony

I love the coolness of this blue chalcedony..perfect for this scorching weather.  Inspired by the lilies all over my garden, heavy with dew drops in the early morning hours.

Available in my shop.

xo Blue Gnome

Hot Diggity Dog!

It's a dead still evening tonight, I'm looking outside as I write this and there's not a leaf moving on my neighbor's gigantic maple tree.  Ugh.  Although today was a cooler 33 degrees (36 with the humidex..) it's still a scorcher.  Yesterday apparently broke all sorts of records in this province, a crazy, oh-my-god-it's-the-end-of-the-world 50 degrees with the humidity..what kind of insanity is that??  I guess after a day like that, today should really be a breeze..

My poor, thick-furred puppy dog is not a happy camper in this weather, her proud Akita tail has been drooping these past couple of days, it's too damn hot to even put in the effort to lift that thing.  I've built her an air-conditioned "hobo shack" of sorts upstairs, a heavy wool blanket screwed to the doorway of the smallest bedroom so she can come and go as she pleases.  I've found cookie crumbs on the floor up there..which is actually quite cute..because it means that she grabs her cookie from her bowl in the kitchen and trots upstairs to her cool den so she can enjoy it in the a/c.  I've often wondering what I might capture on film if I set up a nanny cam while I was out of the house...then again maybe it's best that I not know.  It might freak me out to see her turn on the T.V. and browse through my Architectural Digest magazines while I'm out..our relationship would never be the same.  No, better left alone.

This extreme heat alert is supposed to be called off later this evening, tomorrow bringing more seasonal temperatures into these parts.  The grass is turning brown, shrubs are starting to wilt...we need rain and lots of it.  Maybe it's finally time to break out that rain dance in the backyard.

Hope you're keeping cool where you are.

xo Blue Gnome

Small Luxuries

Another beautiful, blessedly cool morning.  The backyard is still wrapped in a light blanket of shade and the puppy is still happily chasing squirrels in her sleep.  Big, warm fuzzy paws twitching..sighs of pure contentment.  Everything is exactly as it should be.

 A sleepy garden..getting ready for another hot, summer's day.

I purchased a couple of gorgeous handmade pottery mugs a few weeks ago and with the end of the postal strike, finally received them this past week.  The size is absolutely perfect for a lovely cup of tea, the contours of the cup fitting wonderfully in my hands, the colours of the glaze..achingly beautiful.  It's been too damn hot and muggy to enjoy anything other than a beverage brimming with ice cubes lately..I've been waiting all week for a morning like today to use my new cup and my tea has never tasted better.  Earl Grey, a splash of warm milk and a dollop of pure, Canadian honey from a dear friend's hive 8 hours north of the city.  And what better to serve that with than a slab of homemade banana bread with a generous schmearing of peanut butter?  After all, one must enjoy all the small luxuries life has to offer.

Handmade pottery available here.  Banana bread not included..

The day is still young, who knows what it'll bring.  But with a belly full of all this goodness, I think I'm off to a pretty good start.  I hope your friday is filled with sunshine, not too much work and the perfect way to cap of the end of another work week.

xo Blue Gnome

Heatwave

I woke up yesterday morning to a refreshing, cool northern breeze coming in my window and I cannot tell you what a welcome that was!  We've been hit by a heat wave for the last little while and yesterday, finally some relief!  Although temperatures were still soaring quite high the humidity finally dipped and then there was the amazing breeze..aaah..that was our saving grace.  We haven't had any rain here for well over a week now and the neighborhood shrubs are starting to wilt and droop.  I'm hoping for a big dramatic thunderstorm sometime soon, I absolutely love summer storms.

A few years ago I planted a wee little hydrangea shrub the size of a soccer ball in the front, right next to my front porch.  It looked sadly small and out of place, there were five blooms on it then, big bobble heads perched on the end of frail stems that snapped and fell limp after the first blustery day of summer.  I would wrap wire around the bent stems and nurse the blooms back to health, cursing the winds that seemed so determined to crush the poor plant at any given chance.  My hope was that one day it might grow to  resembling anything like the impressive lush shrubs some of my neighbors had in their yards and finally this summer, my hydrangea has come into her own.  The shrub is thriving, abundant with pink, lavender and periwinkle blooms.  So many blooms that I can actually trim them back for the kitchen table.  It stands tall and proud, strong enough to withstand the worst storms we've had so far this summer..I am the proud mama of this plant.  :)

Nothing beats fresh cut flowers at kitchen counter!

Work in the Blue Gnome Emporium studio has been a little slow lately, mostly due to the heat wave and unbearable stillness.  Yesterday however, with the northerly breeze blowing through my shop, I managed to finish a gorgeous ring of lace agate, the sterling polished this time to a showy, bright finish.  Another raven ring as well..with a cool, breezy amazonite upon it's hopeful wing.  Available tomorrow in my shop.

 Sterling, Lace Agate

 Rave Ring - Sterling, Amazonite

Hoping you're finding ways to keep cool this week and into the weekend!

xo Blue Gnome

Lazy Summer Days

Carnelian, Sterling

One of the best things about our summers in the Great White North are the seemingly endless summer nights at the cabin or cottage.  It's always a worthwhile thing to befriend at least one person who has access to an awesome cottage by the lake somewhere out of the city..even better if you have a family cottage you've grown up going to.  We have, as Canadians, have grown somewhat immune to the pesky little bugs that threaten to ruin our lazy, summer weekends..we've all come back into the city for work on Monday mornings a little sunburnt, a little hungover, covered in little dots of mosquito bites (black flies if you're really lucky and the cottage is that much further north..) and the odd injury from those nasty deer and horse flies.  It's all worth it.  We start looking forward to these campfire, s'more making, bug bitten cottage weekends from the time we're forced to close up for the season, generally around Thanksgiving.  We start buying new camp equipment, looking at new fishing rods, planning and booking family get togethers for the summer while we're still digging our cars out of the snow and breaking icicles off the end of our noses on the ski hills.  This is our short lived summer and damn it..we're going to make the best of our few precious months of hot lazy days, floating around on our clean, pristine lakes.

The warmth of this carnelian seems to embody all of that.  A warm summer stone, I love that it brings warmth and sunshine into my life during those dreary winter days and reminds me of what's to come this time of year.  Glowing a gorgeous amber hue, the carnelian is a glowing ember captured from those campfire nights up at the cottage where I first learned to roast the perfect marshmallow without setting it on fire.  Where you leave the cell phones in your car and reconnect with friends and family, where laughter, embraces and story telling is encouraged and welcomed.  Where you can let down your big city guard and rejuvenate your soul to the brim and then some.  This ring is about sitting around the campfire with all your loved ones without a care in the world.  Available now in my shop.

Happy almost long weekend everyone!

xo Blue Gnome

Into The Blue..Or Turquoise, Rather.

Freeform turquoise, sterling.

 Tear shaped turquoise, sterling.

A couple of simple rings I finished this weekend, both gorgeous specimens of turquoise.  The oblong stone, rich with copper and aluminum has a higher dash of copper which has resulted in this case, in the beautiful, more-green-than-turquoise shade.  Although I try very hard to purchase stones that have been made by mother nature and not man made in a lab, I find it extremely difficult to turn my nose up at stones that are categorized as "lesser" quality stones.  If you're looking for turquoise stones of the highest, purest  grade, be prepared to pay a premium for them; turquoise mines are rare these days and there's a lot of research involved in determining if the purchase you made fairly reflects the high price you've paid.

With the rising cost of sterling these days (and all precious metals for that matter..) it's become increasingly difficult to keep prices affordable and attainable.  The large, chunky rings I love to design and create take into consideration the fact that although it's hard to avoid the high cost of sterling, there are other ways of creating beautiful jewelry while trying to keep things affordable.   Accessories, in my humble opinion, should be worn casually and frivolously without having to spend a month's worth of salary buying it.  Yes, many things in life are worth the high prices but at the end of the day, it's up to you and you alone to dictate what you want to spend your hard earned money on.  I like that I can pick and choose from a large collection of gorgeous rings and accessories, handcrafted with quality workmanship, depending on my outfit or mood..the stones may not be of the highest quality but there's something so interesting about the stories these "flaws or inclusions" tell.  So what if your piece doesn't hold the most pristine specimen of turquoise?  Isn't it more important how beautiful it makes you feel wearing it and that you love the design of it?

These gorgeous rings will be available in my shop tomorrow..

xo Blue Gnome

Blueberry Obsession

I've been on a blueberry kick lately.  Anything and everything blueberry catches my eye..starting with the homemade blueberry jam I purchased last week, I'm pretty excited to see fresh, Ontario blueberries making their appearance at my local fruit stands!  There was blueberry crumble last week, blueberry scones for breakfast this past weekend..and I'm having daydreams of white chocolate covered blueberry clusters, chilled slightly and served alongside a lovely cup of Earl Grey tea..mmmm..blueberries..

Wild Ontario blueberries!

Warm blueberry scones for breakfast, anyone?  Topped off with a lemon icing drizzle, the recipe for these gorgeous treats can be found here.  Photo also courtesy of Dima's Kitchen.

So is it any surprise that this weekend, when I finally got my little shop up and running for the first time since my renovations started (what..in almost 3 weeks..?!) I instinctively reached for that delicious, blueberry-hued stone to start working with.  The first of a few projects I was able to complete this weekend, boy it feels good to be back in the shop getting dirty and creative.  It was music to my ears to hear the machines humming again, the bench covered once again in sterling dust and shavings.  The pop and hiss of the torches (noises my hairdresser claims to be terrified of..he also informed me that hair is the most flammable organic matter there is..) which makes my hands tremble with excitement.  It's simply amazing how many hours a girl can lose in her little cacoon in the basement..there was a lovely breeze coming in through the window and the tunes were just right.  It was a perfectly productive day of sawing, soldering and even a little molding and casting.  Available later this week in my shop.

Sterling, Amethyst

Hoping your weekend was just as productive, creative and rejuvenating for your soul.

xo Blue Gnome