Earth Hour

I just finished celebrating earth hour. For those of you that hadn't heard of it, earth hour was started a few years ago in Sydney, Australia. Last year, 400 cities participated, this year, 4,000! What it is: between 8:30 and 9:30, local time, around the world, people were, and still are, turning their non-essential lights off. Why? To conserve energy!!!!

I had a lot of work to do tonight, between orders to make for shipping out on monday, two months worth of new classes to get organized by wednesday, and Mother's day jewelry ideas to get sorted out as soon as possible. Well, for a little excitement on my Saturaday night, I decided to celebrate Earth Hour by turning off everything in my house at 8:30, and lit a candle.

What to do? I can't make jewelry by candlelight, and I turned off my computer, which means no procrastination on the internet. So I called a friend in far away Georgia. She didn't answer, so I played with my cat with his laser-pointer (which is all so much better in the dark). Then decided to go for a walk.

I was hoping to see lights winking off as they noted that 8:30 had come, people in their homes gathered around candlelight. I walked along the waterfront. Turns out that that majority of the homes there are dark and empty on a Saturday night. It's been a while since I've walked down there at night. I know several of the homes are just huge summer homes, but not all. The ones that did shows signs of life had lights blaring, and huge flat screen TV's showing sports. I was even shocked and horrified to see one brightly lit home with it's Christmas tree and stockings still on the mantle. Hello?

It was chilly, foggy, and misty out, and there was quite a breeze along the water. Turns out I was reminded that damp + cold = bad for wrist. So when I got home, I wrapped my damaged wrist up with my re-usable heat warmer thing (thanks Tanya, it's been life-saver). And walked some more. Unfortunately, my re-usable wrist warmer doesn't seem to last as long as it used too.

I passed the time wandering around the neighboorhood, encountered a couple looking for their last cat (so sad!). And now I'm wrapped up in my larger micro-waveable warmer, but my hand is still SO stiff and ouchy.

There is so much that I need to be making tonight, but I don't think I'm going to be able to!

Making the switch!

For a long time I have heard about Argentium Silver. Argentium Silver is a version of sterling silver, which is alloy of 92.5% pure silver. With argentium silver, part of that alloy is germantium. The addition of germantium created a sterling that is highly tarnish resistant. Argentium silver has been slightly more expensive than regular sterling, but not by much. If I switch over to it, I won't have to adjust my prices.

Tomorrow I am making an order of Argentium Silver, and will begin to make all of my new jewelry and findings in Argentium!