A non-blog

July has been an extremely busy month.  On the 6th we had our entire HVAC system replaced.  It was an oil furnace, and we switched to natural gas.  You can imagine the amount of scheduling and planning all that amounted to!  We had the oil tank removed last Wednesday, and we were extremely lucky that there were no leaks in it.  For those of you who have never seen an oil tank before, here's ours:

That orange stuff is the plastic coating that they painted the tank with to help keep it from corroding.

We wanted to have all of the bushes removed because they were starting to die and look crappy, so while the guys were there with their big digger machine they just ripped them all out.  Yay!  We had those picked up a few days later.  Now we have to decide what to plant there.  I would like part of the area to be a raised garden for basil.  I don't know if there's enough sun there, but we can give it a try.  For the rest of it, we're thinking Dwarf Korean Lilacs.

On Friday night we got a new kitten:

Meet Clinchfield (Clinch for short, named after a railroad because that's what my husband likes to do), who was not getting along with the dog at his former home.  He's almost four months old and is settling in pretty well here, except today he's hyper.  We went to the vet, and they had to give him some meds for ear mites, then they had to give him some meds to relieve the pain and irritation of having his ears cleaned.  They said it should make him a bit sleepy, but he's loopy and high instead.  He spent some time pawing in the water bowl, splashing it everywhere.  The vet assures me that he'll calm down.  Soon, I hope.  Pixel hopes so, too, because he's been getting jumped on a fair amount.

There have been other things going on, too.  A Loose Bead Society rummage sale, a coupon workshop, a Loose Bead Society meeting, seeing Ant-Man at a private screening through my credit card (for free!!), and other stuff.

All this activity (along with bad allergies) is why I didn't blog last week.  I don't really have anything to blog about this week, either, but I didn't want it to go another week.

I have been working on a few things, but nothing is complete.  Here's a paw print bracelet with peanut beads that I'm making to match another one of my tops:

This next piece will have to remain a mystery:

It's something in process from my SDN15 technique.  I'll show it to you when it's all done.

And when I was at my mother's this weekend I brought all this home:

Little silverware?  Why?  I keep seeing neat jewelry made with silverware on Pinterest (you can see the ones I like on my Flatware jewelry and other creations board) and wanted to give it a shot.  I have a book with some flatware projects, and now I have some expendable flatware, so now I can!  Most of these are my baby silverware, but there are a few other interesting things in there, including a spoon from Lucerne.

I'll keep you posted!

Now I must go.  The kitten keeps going in the kitchen sink to get at the water bowl and the bowl stand.  I've just taken the stand outside so it can dry, but he keeps going in the...

CLINCHFIELD!  GET OUTTA THE SINK!!

I may have to sit on him.