lookie what i got

The mailman was very generous today, delivering this gorgeous silk velvet fabric I purchased on e-bay as well as the two books I ordered last week from amazon.com. Red letter day at my house! Now all I have to do is decide how to use the fabric, it being one of those things I fell in love with and bought without having any clear idea of what to do with it. It's about 2/3 yard of gorgeousness.

My kids go back to school later this week. This summer has absolutely flown past, faster than any I remember. I'm not sure why, maybe we just had more going on this year than usual, getting Dave's new office set up and our little trips here and there. Anyway, it's nearly over. Fees have been paid, supplies have been purchased, and we're just about ready. This is Christopher's senior year in high school, so we need to get him on the docket for senior pictures, something he cares absolutely nothing about. Oh well, at least he won't be one of those kids (mostly girls) who have to have 15 changes of clothing and a bunch of exotic backgrounds. We'll be doing good to get two shots, one formal, one casual. The family will have to be satisfied with that. The upside is it won't be as expensive without a bunch of fancy stuff thrown in.

Hope you're all having a good start to the week.

fairy mints

Has anyone seen these before? I found them in Des Moines when we were there for my brother's wedding. I bought them because I thought the tin was so fabulous. The mints, unfortunately, taste like bad rose perfume, but I didn't care about that.

I've been having some luck selling clothing items on e-bay, so this weekend I'm going to go through my closet, cull those things I no longer wear and post them online. I'm a plus-size gal and I've noticed that it's very difficult to find nice plus size clothing in second hand stores, so others like me tend to grab things when they can get them on e-bay. Now I just have to decide what to do with all my money! (Maybe buy more clothes? Nah!)

It absolutely feels like a Louisiana swamp here today--so humid the moisture is literally dripping from the trees. At least it isn't as hot.

I hope you are all having a good day.

relief from the heat

I was awakened early this morning by the sound of thunder rumbling across the area. Although we didn't get any actual rain here in town it is significantly cooler. Humidity continues to be quite high, but at least we'll be out of triple digit temperatures today and hopefully for the remainder of the week.

This is a little something I made for myself (as opposed to selling). I had a new top I wanted to wear to the reunion and needed a necklace to go with it. The pearl colors are hard to define in this photo, but one strand is a deep olive green and the other is kind of bronzy brown. There's also a strand of little oval shaped wood beads. It's quite short, not a choker (can't do that) but the pendant sits right at the base of my throat. The pendant is PMC which I impressed with a rubber stamp that includes a rose which you can make out just off center.

I've subscribed to the back issue of Maggie Grey's Workshop on the Web that contains instructions for the fairy shoes so I shall hopefully produce some shortly. That is, if I can wrench myself away from making jewelry. It is quite habit forming!

new fridge?

We may be shopping for a new refrigerator in the near future. Our current model we've had for 11+ years and it's showing signs of age, i.e. the shelves in the door cracking and the little slats designed for keeping salad dressing and mayo bottles/jars in place keep coming off when the door is opened, causing everything to cascade to the floor with a crash which is becoming more than my nerves can take. The photo above is representational only. I have no idea what kind of fridge we'll eventually get. The old fridge still chills well and runs fine, so we'll probably clean it up and give it to a local charity that provides needy folks with decent used appliances.

Although I'm still in the jewelry making mode, I'm looking at future fiber/mixed media projects. Robin's blog shows a darling pair of fairy shoes which I'm very tempted to try. I'd seen other examples of these elsewhere and wanted to make some, so perhaps it's getting to be time. They're teeny--only about 3 inches long. If you google "fairy (or faery) shoes" you can find more photos from other sites. I could make several pairs for the upcoming fiber exhibit. They'd be different, anyway.

It continues very hot and humid here, but we're supposed to be getting some relief tomorrow and through the rest of the week. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

i've been awarded!

Darling Kate has given me this beautiful award, which I do appreciate so much. I'm going to pass it along to a couple of bloggers on whose sites I have heretofore only been a lurker:

Scarlet Papernel

Judy Scott

Check out their sites if you haven't already.

a wonderful but exhausting weekend

My 30 year high school class reunion was just great. I don't know if it's age or what, but we were all just so glad to see everyone and had a great time visiting. Most of us still look pretty good for our age (snicker) and I didn't see any evidence of plastic surgery or botox usage. We'll see if that changes by the 35th year reunion!

I was so exhausted after two days of reunion activities (plus I had a bad headache) that we didn't go to church on Sunday but just stayed at home and tried to catch up, including grocery shopping and about six tons of laundry. I'm happy to say we made a lot of progress.

In the course of the house clean up I was sorting through a bunch of papers and found an unused gift certificate for amazon.com. Nearly overcome with giddiness, I went online and ordered the following:

These both look like great books and the total actual cost to me was $6.33. Not bad at all, I'd say.

It has been so hot here and apparently will continue into the middle of this week when we're supposed to get some rain, and hopefully some relief from the heat. Ah well, it is Kansas in August so I guess it's only to be expected. Hope it's cooler where you are.

I hope you are all having a great Monday.

mermaid's treasure

My state fair entry necklace is finished except for a mermaid charm which I still haven't decided on, and which will be hung next to the clasp at the back of the necklace. It's called "mermaid's treasure" for rather obvious reasons.

Here's the pendant. It strung very well and hangs beautifully. It's quite heavy.



And the clasp, which I also made, along with the shell shaped bead cones. I'm pretty happy with this as a first attempt at molded PMC pieces.

I haven't done a Friday cat blog for awhile, so here's Dylan mimicing Romeo, asleep as usual.

This weekend my highschool classmates and I are gathering for our 30 year reunion. Yikes. I have gone to reunions in the past and always enjoy them a lot, but have trepidation beforehand. This evening a group of my old girlfriends from the dim past are getting together for dinner. Some still live here, others have traveled significant distances. It will be good to see everyone, and it will be just like sitting at the school lunch table except that the food will be better!

Have a great Friday everyone.