Happy Valentine’s Day! I finally wrapped up a number of different projects and feel like I can take a breather and reassess my schedule. I’ll share a few of those projects today.

The shop is still going strong. I changed my business model as far as censers go. I’m still evaluating whether this will work for me or whether I’d rather just go back to what I had. At the moment I’m making a batch of censers and listing them in one go, rather than having the listings available for people to order whatever and whenever they want. This means I’m more in control of how I divide my time amongst various things instead of being at the mercy of the orders. I’ve spent a lot of time answering emails about when more censers will be available, so I need to address that aspect. Anyway.

I can’t believe we’re staring Great Lent in the face! We’re already past the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee and time is just galloping along. I haven’t decided what to do with the little girls as far as activities go. Previously I did a tabletop “garden”, pathway to Pascha with them, but I might rather use a part of the front bed to do the same thing and keep it outside. I think we’ve passed the last below-freezing night (not that we got many) so it should be safe to plant just about anything. We’ll also do stepping stones (in miniature) and I’m not sure what all else. I’m not going to stress myself out over it.

I have unfortunately found some more things to collect. Given the nature of them I am not in danger of being overrun by finds anytime soon. I have two vintage Pyrex Cinderella bowls (#441 and #442), gooseberry pattern, black on yellow/white which I found “in the wild” at a thrift store. I haven’t found anything at a thrift store since except for two of a set of four primary color bowls, not in excellent condition, priced $95 together. Crazy. Anyway, I keep my eyes open and hope!

Another two categories are depression glass (especially uranium glass) and Fire-King ware. The only depression glass I have is passed down from family members. I wasn’t aware of the existence of uranium glass until recently. Uranium glass fluoresces under black light. I got a black light at the store and checked, and everything glowed! (The family has found many more fun things to shine a black light on, so I’m forever looking for it.) I’m looking for this at thrift stores but have come up empty. The Fire-King ware is similarly passed down in the family. I cherished the “gold plates” which I ate off of as a child at the beach house. (Parenthetically, as children we didn’t realize how many antiques we were using as a matter of course.) It turns out they are peach lusterware. Since I’ve started looking, I found one matching mug which escaped the watchful eyes of the thrift store curators. I’d love to collect jadite, but it’s so coveted it will never show up at a thrift store.

Well enough about that. My most recent “big” project was a custom hieromonk doll with a full set of vestments. I made it to a specific likeness from photographs. It has not yet been presented to the recipient so I will refrain from identifying it. Here are some photographs, however.

Here are a few more projects. I’m also enjoying baby-knitting!

Here are some recent photos of life!

I guess that’s all for today! If anyone has any vintage pyrex or depression glass they feel like sending my way, let me know! LOL