My NEW Wish Book

Wow. Remember the Sears Wishbook that used to come out before Christmas. The back of the Wishbook was FILLED with toys and other wonderful things children could wish for at Christmas time. I LOVED the Wishbook. I would go through the toy pages and pick ONE THING on every page that I wanted. This was an exercise in creative decisionmaking, since sometimes I wanted two or three things on a given page. Don't get me wrong, we didn't actually GET everything we picked from the Wishbook pages, it was just fun to look.

Yesterday I got my very first Firemountain Gems catalog. Oh - My - God. It is the New Wishbook in my life. Such beautiful beads and findings. If you're a beader and don't have one, go to the website and order one. You won't be sorry.

Well, it's Friday night, and I'll share a little about the week. Not the creepy stuff, just the good stuff. A friend brought me six zucchinis. I have eaten three of them. Heavenly! I've been picking tomatoes - about 12 cherries and 2 Romas a day, and I even got one ripe Celebrity. Delicious. Maybe by Sunday I'll have more ripe ones. And it looks like my own zucchini plant is battling the bugs and may produce 3 or 4 more zucchinis in the next week or so. I think I need to go get some Sevin and spray it (It is spray, right? This is my first year with more than one vegetable in the ground, and I've never used a pesticide before)

Through a little creative financing, I was able to pay the car insurance, a credit card bill, and two loan payments, and have just enough left over for groceries. I'm pretty happy about that. Bruce had lunch at a Chinese restaurant today. His fortune cookie said "Your financial troubles will soon be over." I hope that doesn't mean he'll be collecting on my life insurance!

This evening I brewed a pot of Green Tea. It made about half a gallon. I'm drinking some now, picturing those antioxidants attacking the vicious and malicious free radicals. Gosh, I must be getting healthier by the second. I've got coffee ready to brew in the morning, and some refrigerator crescent rolls that I might make for breakfast if I feel like it. I might try adding a thin layer of grape jelly, or honey, or sprinkling some cinnamon and sugar on them before I roll them up to bake them.(You don't suppose that's going to counteract the hard work of those Green Tea antioxidants, do you?) After breakfast I'll go to Michael's Craft Store - I actually have two orders for bracelets that I need to finish by Sunday, and I need to invest in some alphabet beads and some burgundy glass beads.
After that, Bruce will probably take me to lunch. That's always nice. I love weekends with my husband.

Then I think I'll into the office (at MY leisure) and work on some projects that need to be done by Monday. Then I'll be able to come home and do real-life work. The plan is to get ALL of the laundry done and some more jewelry for the Expo made this weekend. If it all works, I'll post more pictures.

That's all for this evening. Keep leaving comments, I really do appreciate them and love to read them.

Some Tasty Jewelry Pix IV

These are the sterling-wrapped crystal earrings I decided to keep for myself, even though my neck isn't long enough to wear them right. I just put them in the upper holes and wear a pair of single dangling crystals in the lower holes. They make such a pretty, faint, musical sound when the crystals touch each other.

Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh Bracelets

I really like these little bracelets. The brown beads are myrrh - a hard resin often used for incense. The tiny gold beads are gold filled (not plated), and I have worn mine every day for a month and the gold has not flaked or worn off. The dark colored beads are garnets, but I hope to buy some frankincense (also a resin, although I've never seen it sold as a bead). If it's sturdy enough, I plan to drill the frankincense resin and string it in place of the garnet for bracelets made of gold, frankincense and myrrh. I think they'd make great stocking stuffers for Christmas. If the frankincense doesn't work out, I'll stick with garnet or other small semiprecious stone. Scroll down for other pictures of my recent work. As always, whether you love it, hate it, or fall somewhere in the middle, your comments are invited and much appreciated.

Some Tasty Jewelry Pix III

This one has a great mix of colors, created with glass beads and sterling silver beads. The heart-shaped beads on the earrings and the bottom necklace drop are amethyst-colored glass with foil inside and a tiny floral design. The teal and purple colors look great together, especially mixed with the shiny sterling. The long beads you see are AB glass tubes - really nice luster. It has a sterling lobster claw clasp for security. The matching earrings hang 1.5 inches from the bottom of the french hook earwire.

Some Tasty Jewelry Pix II

I really like this one. It's made of green dichroic glass on leatherette cord, sterling silver "X" beads and sterling bali beads. The necklace is 24" long, and the bottom drop is 1.5" long. The earrings are on sterling french wires, and hang 1.5" below the earring wire.

Some Tasty Jewelry Pix I

Here are some recent pieces I've made for the Women's Expo this September. Let me know what you think. This necklace is made of dichroic glass on leatherette cord (not genuine leather, more like heavy, thick, cottonish cord). It has a sterling silver S clasp. The matching earrings hang 2 inches from the bottom of the french hook.

Sunday Night Whining Part II

Ok, I whined a little, felt a little better, decided to try to scan some of my new jewelry designs to post. They really are nice. What do you know - I couldn't make the scanner work. What a perfectly crappy end to a perfectly wasted day. Let's try to end this one on a positive note, too. Last night I made some gorgeous earrings from small sterling wire-wrapped quartz crystal points and sterling chains. They really are pretty. I decided not to sell them, but to keep them for myself. When you wear them and the crystals touch each other, they make the faintest wind-chime sound - very pretty, very musical. Of course, they are made for someone who actually has a neck, but I'm keeping them anyway. If I can get the scanner to work later, I'll post a picture of them, too. Please visit again soon, next time I post I hope to spread more cheer than gloom.

A Little Sunday Night Whining

Have I mentioned lately how much I hate having a beard? How much I hate sharing a profile with Humpty Dumpty? How little the phrase, "Pretty is as pretty does" means to so many people who really are physically beautiful?

I don't even feel pretty anymore. It doesn't matter how healthy I eat, or even if I exercise. Cushings Disease is hideous. They tried to fix me and it didn't work. The last MRI showed an empty sella, meaning the radiologist couldn't even see a pituitary gland where it should be. This tells my endocrinologist that I should be adrenal insufficient, but I'm not. I still produce at least twice the normal amount of cortisol, and they can't seem to stop it. I can't seem to convince them that I must have a spare pituitary somewhere under all this flab (did I mention I share a profile with Humpty Dumpty?) and they need to suck the fat out to find it.

Of course, the fact that my doctors can't seem to do anything to make me better means nothing to the hospital billing department. I just get to keep paying them as the doctors continue to "practice." What a crock. I've said before, in my "Rant to the Medical Community," it's a racket. They should have told me before my resources were all gone that I should go somewhere that deals with this disease more often than they do, which is pretty much never here in the heart of the midwest.

That's all about this for now. I don't feel very good. Although...

ON THE BRIGHT SIDE

Our tomatoes have been ripening nicely. We've picked several cherry tomatoes, about five Romas, and the Celebrities should start getting red soon. They will be particularly nice with cottage cheese or tuna salad. And today, I picked the first zucchini off the vine. It was delicious. And it didn't cost $1.69 a pound.

Need Advice from Women who Love Jewelry

Ok, I'm working on jewelry for the September show. I've got some great dichroic glass pieces, I'm diligently working on more breast cancer awareness bracelets. I have some with organza ribbons - very cute in my opinion - some without the organza, and some strung on memory wire. If you've never worn a memory wire bracelet, you should try it. Memory wire is kind of like a slinky, only smaller diameter. It never loses its shape, and you can use 1 or 2 loops, or 6-7 loops, depending on how bold you like your jewelry.
WHAT I NEED is some advice on the types and lengths of necklaces girls/women prefer these days. Short, choker style (16 inches?) longer (18-24 inches?) or adjustable (16-20 inches?) And what colors are "hot" right now? Black and white always seems to be popular. Right now, for summer, I'm seeing a lot of orange/hot pink mixes(uh, ick). This is my dilemma - I know what I like, but I can be a bit freakish and wear things that other people might, uh, avoid. So what's in? Big and bold? Small and dainty? Jewel tones or pastels? Help me out here, ladies.

Any comments would be GREATLY appreciated.

Breast Cancer Awareness Bracelets

I'm working on some Breast Cancer Awareness jewelry for a Women's Expo in September. I have a few of the bracelets done. I think these with the organza bows are pretty, but I'm making several styles. They're actually more pink than the picture shows. The awareness ribbon charm is sterling with pink crystals. I decided to sew it directly to the organza ribbon so a) the ribbon wouldn't come untied and, b) it would stay securely on the bracelet. I thought I could sell them at the Expo for $12 each, and donate 25 percent of each sale to our local YWCA for their breast cancer program. I'd appreciate any comments.