New Necklaces

Here are a couple of necklaces I made yesterday... now if only I could find time to list them. I'm SO far behind!

More Scenes

Scenes from Family Life...

I haven't posted much about Carlos lately, except to say how sick he's been. Fortunately, he's a lot better now, and was able to go back to preschool for the first time in a week and a half today.

His favorite toy these days is a little plastic sheep named Sheila. Sheila is also Mama and Papa's favorite toy because she seems to have magical powers... whenever we want Carlos to do something he doesn't want to do, we just ask him if we can do it to Sheila first, and about 90% of the time, he agrees to let Sheila go, then himself. ('Time to brush Sheila's teeth!'; 'Sheila needs a diaper...', 'Is Sheila ready for a nap?', etc.)

One thing that I find pretty hilarious about his relationship with Sheila is how it can go from tender to violent in the blink of an eye. One moment, Carlos is telling me, 'Sheila cold, need a snuggle,' and nuzzling her sweetly under his chin, and the next moment, he's traveling around the house, bashing poor Sheila's skull against any and every hard object he can find.

Case in point - Sheila joins Carlos and Papa for a nice, civilized game of Hungry Hippos.

One minute later, Shelia is hippo food...

Pretty funny.

Yep, life is good for Carlos these days. The extreme illness has passed, the weather has been nice enough to play outside, he has a new love interest (Sheila the sheep, of course), and last but definitely not least, today we got this put up in our yard:

Woo-hoo! Carlos is in heaven. I wish I'd gotten some pictures of him going down the slide before he went down for his nap. Maybe tomorrow. He climbs up the ladder and goes down the slide over and over, like a pro.

Guess what else Matt got finished today?


Chickens, here we come!

Oh, and here's a picture of Carlos that I think is just too cute not to share. He understands now about how the camera works, and he likes to pose for pictures and then run over and see them on the digital camera screen right away. He had requested that I take his picture with his little toy duck.

Yum!

I went to a local gem shop today looking for one thing - and walked out with all of this! Oops...

All are available for custom ring orders (except for one of the rubies, which might be spoken for already).

Faceted smoky quartz, 14mm

Sunstone (prettier in real life), 10mm

My favorite - faceted amethyst, 14mm

Swiss blue topaz, 8mm

Charoite, assorted shapes/sizes

Faceted aqua chalcedony, 13mm x 18mm

Faceted blue topaz, 8mm

Star ruby, 13mm

Star ruby, 14mm

Faceted rutilated quartz, 12mm x 16mm

Seraphinite, assorted shapes/sizes

Some new stuff...

I've been playing around with some new beads and chain; here's what I've come up with...

Rose quartz & peridot earrings, perfect for Spring!

Tourmaline & sterling silver necklace
(using VERY big, high quality tourmaline rondelles)

Labradorite & sterling silver bracelet, shiny finish

Labradorite & sterling silver bracelet, oxidized finish (I didn't want to take this off after I photographed it on my wrist, so I think I'm keeping one for myself).

AA lemon quartz & oxidized sterling silver necklace

Prehnite & sterling silver necklace

Prehnite & sterling silver earrings

Spring Cleaning

Despite our seemingly endless string of family illnesses*, Matt and I have been very busy lately with projects around the house. I think we're both excited for Spring to arrive and we want to make our house and yard a more enjoyable place to hang out when the weather is good. The chicken house is finished and now we're working on the fence for the little attached yard. (I'll post pictures of the whole setup once the fence is done in another day or so.)

* Mind if I rant? Didn't think so... have I mentioned how constantly sick we have all been for the past couple of months? I think we've had every illness around, and the three of us just keep passing them back to each other. I thought I was finally on the mend and now today I'm feeling all congested and achy and tired. Besides just being generally a big pain, the constant yuckiness is wreaking havoc on my exercise routine. I guess I am a wimp but I just can't stand to run when my throat feels all filled with snot. Ugh.

Back on topic... another upcoming project, which I'm not ready to share in great detail yet {be patient!} has me motivated to get my workspace in better shape, so I've slowly been going through the mountains of beads in my many piles/drawers/boxes/bead trays and trying to get them organized and downsized. I have so much stuff I know I will never get around to using. Anyhoo, that brings me to the main point of this post... I have pictures of some things I'm de-stashing and ready to sell at low, low, LOW prices! It would be nice to not have to go to the trouble of listing each individual thing on Etsy (although I will if you guys don't come through for me here), so if you see something you want, email me and we can figure something out to get it to you quickly and easily. (Not that Etsy isn't quick and easy, I just hate to take the time to create an entire listing for one single $2 cabochon, you know?)

Labradorite cabochon, 11mm x 20.5mm, $5 {SOLD}

Labradorite cabochon, 17.5mm x 28mm, $10 {SOLD}

Labradorite cabochon, 23mm x 23mm, $10 {SOLD}

Peruvian opal cabochon, 12mm x 16mm, $4 {SOLD}

Peruvian opal cabochon, 12mm x 17mm, $4 {SOLD}

Fairly well-matched pair of peruvian opal cabochons, 12mm x 16mm, $6 {SOLD}

Lavender lace agate cabochon cut by fellow Etsian ahna, 29mm x 39mm, $9 (another photo here) {SOLD}

I think this is some type of chrysocolla cab, 25mm x 28mm, $9 {SOLD}

Sagnenite Agate Cabochon cut by fellow Etsian stonesinmotion, 22mm x 30mm, $9 (better photo here) {SOLD}

Marquis labradorite cab, 12mm x 30mm, $5 {SOLD}

Faceted labradorite cabs, 13mm x 18mm, $6 (These have some pretty visible inclusions.) {SOLD}

Pink opal cabochon, 13mm x 18mm, $2 {SOLD}

Pair of turquoise cabochons, 13mm x 18mm, $5

Carnelian button beads, 14" strands, ~5mm, $8 each (2 available)

February Jewelry for Charity Recap & Marck Kick-Off

Thanks for all the sales, February customers! It may have been a short-ish month but with your help, I still managed to raise $382 for Compassionate Cooks - yay! I know Colleen will appreciate the help and be able to put the funds to good use through her inspiring podcast and other outreach projects.


For the month of March, 5% of my sales will go to Food For Life. Here is some information directly from their website describing their organization and programs...

Background:

The distribution of sanctified vegetarian meals has been and will continue to be an essential part of India's Vedic culture of hospitality from which Food for Life was born.

Since its inception in the early 70’s, Food for Life has tried to liberally distribute pure vegetarian meals (prasadam) throughout the world with the aim of creating peace and prosperity. The Food for Life Global office, directed by Paul Turner, facilitates the expansion, co-ordination and promotion of prasadam distribution throughout the world.

Details:

FOOD FOR LIFE is a nonprofit organization, bringing food and life to the needy of the world through the liberal distribution of pure vegetarian meals. The project started in 1974 when an elderly Indian swami, Srila Prabhupada, implored his yoga students not to allow anyone within a ten mile radius of his ashram to go hungry. The program grew quickly, and today Food for Life is active in over 60 countries worldwide.

Over 1,000,000 meals daily!

With volunteers serving more than 1,000,000 free vegetarian meals daily from free food restaurants, mobile kitchens, to schools and to disaster areas, FOOD FOR LIFE is the largest vegetarian/vegan food relief in the world.