Easter's Coming

Well, Easter is on it's way and I'm not ready yet! I did get my Daughter's "girls" their stuff from Grandma, done but still have to come up with something for the only Grandson! Boy's are really hard to make things for!!! I'm working on socks for my Son's girls. Got to get cracking on those, not much time left, Easter is so early this year. At least his kids are close, so don't have to worry about getting things mailed and there before the "holiday".

The pink "roses" necklace is for our 12 year old,

the cream and yellow "waterlilies" necklace is for the 6 year old and the "bunny and carrots" necklace is for the two year old. I strung the bunny one on 10 lb. test fireline and put a magnetic clasp on it so hopefully a little girl trying to see the bunny won't break the necklace, it will just pop apart!

Hope you all have a nice Easter!

Store's Getting Stocked

Well, I finally have a few things in my Etsy store. I just put in two new purses. One's felted with beaded embellishments. I got a gorgeous peacock feather pattern from Glenda Payseno. The pattern is for earrings but I did a few extra rows and made it to go on the purse, then I did just the eye of the feather for the back. They cover where the magnetic snap closure attaches. If you'd like to get the pattern for the feather, here's the link to Glenda's site:

http://stores.lulu.com/glendasbooks

It's the 4th one down on the page and it's downloadable, which is GREAT because you don't have to wait for it to come in the mail!!

The other purse is knitted with Noro Iro yarn. It's a bulky yarn of wool/silk blend and knitted on smaller needles than you would usually use, so it's a fairly tight weave. VERY sturdy. I have one like it (different color) that I use year round.

I've also added some new dangly earrings that are so pretty and they're made with either sterling silver or gold filled earwires, chains and findings, so unless you're REALLY sensitive to metals, you should be able to wear them. The pink ones are with the gold filled and there's blue ones made with sterling silver.

I've got two more purses I'm trying to get finished and on there, so pop in a take a look.

Our Winter is on it's way OUT!! I know this for sure........my front flower beds told me this morning. Even though there's snow in the yard, my tulips, crocus and daffolils are all up where ever the snow has disappeared. I can't wait for SPRING!!! Morel mushrooms, here I come!

New Things in My Store

Well, I got somebody to model my stole. Thanks so much, Cindy. Larry thanks you, too!! I think he really thought I was going to use him to show it off. Ha! Ha!

I made three new pair of CZ earrings for my shop and put in several new pieces. All totaled, there are 12 bracelets, 6 pair of earrings and 6 necklaces. Plus my stole and a couple of checkbook covers. I haven't dug into my quilts yet, so something from there may show up in the next few days. I need to leave the shop to itself for a while and make a couple of quilts. One for a class at our local fabric shop, EZ KNIT, and one for a Graduation gift for a niece. That should keep me busy this week and probably into next! As soon as the weather warms up a bit, I'll get some baskets made and do some fabric dyeing. My hands don't feel right being all one color! :-)

Have a great week and use the link to the right to see the new things in my "Store".

Store's Open, Come on in!

I'm slowly catching up to the rest of the world. I just got my new Etsy Store open with something in it!! So far, only a few beaded items but more to come so check in again later. I'll be putting in some of my quilts, baskets and knitted things. I just finished a gorgeous knited stole that will go in as soon as I get pictures of it. Need somebody to model it for me, don't think Larry would do it justice! Ha! Ha! The link to my store is on the right side of this page....so Welcome and enjoy browsing.

Happy New Year to All!

Here we are, in 2008. I keep forgetting to up that number when writing a check! It always takes me about a month to catch up to the present.

I've been doing some beading this year, in preparation for next year (Christmas). I made all sorts of earrings that I'm not going to use as earrings, they'll hang on a small white tree next year.

I joined a super Yahoo group, Bead Chat, and have been having so much fun making all sorts of pretties. This year I'd like to get my dream Suncatcher done. I call it a "dream" suncatcher because that's all I've done about it so far......dream. I have all sorts of wonderful oceany things gathered up to hang from a piece of driftwood, but haven't found the right piece of driftwood yet! Maybe this year it will happen. I just made a couple of really cute starfish for it, too. I got the pattern for them from Alexis on our bead group.

I also got a wonderful pattern for a beaded bangle bracelet from one of the Bead Chat members, Ruby. Here's a link to her web page. Check out all the gorgeous things she makes! http://www.rubysbeadwork.com/ She has great tutorials on there, too. The bangle I made is for someone special for her birthday and will match a necklace I made her last year.


The snowflakes and Fuschia necklace are from patterns I bought from Sandra Halpenny. She has such wonderful patterns, so easy to follow. You can see what she has here: http://www.cyberus.ca/~davsan/

All the members of Bead Chat are so helpful and generous.

I'm going to try something new. I'm opening an Etsy store, so as soon as I figure out how to do that, I'll have a link on here. I'll have beaded items, knitted things, baskets, quilts and even some of my husbands squirrel feeders for sale there.

My daughter just opened a store from her blog page and has her GORGEOUS dolls and primative items that she makes for sale on it. http://diamondkfolkart.blogspot.com/

Her blog page is: http://ladysrepositorymuseum.blogspot.com/ . She has a museum in Colorado that specializes in ladies and childrens clothing from the 1700's to about 1850's. She totally funds it with sales from her web site and ebay.

Well, that's about all I've been doing lately. We're getting lots of snow, so it's a good time to "tinker"!

Merry Christmas

Well, another year is winding down. Hope you're as done with the "Christmas Madness" as I am! We had a WONDERFUL surprise visit to our Daughter's in Colorado, for Thanksgiving. She's always wanted someone to "pop-in" on her.....so we did! (Retirement DOES have it's perks!) A week before Thanksgiving we left here and stayed until the Monday after. What a great start to our Holiday season. I even got to go out on their property and hack down some juniper bows and made a swag and a wreath for her outside decorations. We had juniper berries all over the porch! She's got a pretty good "crop" this year. Too bad we don't know how to make "gin"! Ha! Ha!

We even got to help with the "inside" decorations! There's nothing like being around little ones to put you in a festive mood! Especially a fairly "new" little one. Hannah was so careful not to touch, but she just could resist "pointing"! Ha! Ha!

We got down to Raton while there. This was the first time I've been in New Mexico. The kids live just 11 miles from the New Mexico-Colorado border. There's a volcano not too far from Raton, so we had to go see that.

Good thing they put "resting" benches along the paths. I NEEDED a rest!

But then one of us wasn't so particular where she rested. Any old place worked fine.

Since we've been home, I've been knitting and beading. I found some adorable patterns for earrings at http://www.fusionbeads.com/, but I'm putting them on my Christmas tree. By next year I want to have an entire small tree (table top size) all decked out in just tiny beaded ornaments like these. They're made from Swarovski Crystals and twinkle in the tree something FIERCE!!!

They also had a gorgeous pattern for some drippy earrings, so HAD to make some of those, too. The scan just doesn't do them justice. They're sooooooooo SPARKLY, also made up in Swarovski Crystals!!

Larry's been busy, too. My Sister and her hubby just moved into the country, so my Brother-in-law is getting squirrel feeders for his Christmas present. Larry's been out in the garage building them. They came out so cute! I wish we had squirrels here in town, I'd have MANY of these in our yard! Don't you love the little table and chair for a squirrel! A cob of dried corn goes on the nail in the table.

Well, that's about all that's gone on around here. Wishing you all a peaceful, healthy and HAPPY 2008!

One Didn't Get Away!

Very EVENTFUL trip. As you see, I caught a fish!! It's now resting peacefully (along side the grouse) in our freezer. I guess I should start at the beginning.

We started out at about noon on our appointed day to leave. We got within 15 minutes of our Son's house when I asked Larry if he packed the pontoon boats to which he replied, "No....". So he deposited me, the dog (Tippie) and the trailer at Aaron's house and he went back home (1 1/2 hour drive) to get them. 4 hours later he shows up with the boats. YIPPEEE! We stayed the night at Aaron's and left in the wee dark of the next morning. We had our camp set up and on the river fishing by NOON that day!! Beautiful weather, no fish... Every morning, get up, eat breakfast, suit up and go fishing. The mornings were COLD, so after layering long johns, t-shirts, sweatshirts, 2 pair of socks, pants, jackets, fishing vest and a coat, we looked like 3 stuffed ticks, stumping around on the river, trying not to fall in while flailing our fly lines out to that "perfect spot" where the "BIG ONE" had to be! No fish... Aaron went home on Monday. As he went to get into his car, he noticed he had a flat tire. So, he and his Dad took it down the river to Boggan's (a little restaurant on the highway where we turn off on the river), and got air in the tire. So, now Aaron is on his way home for the week and will be back the next week-end for 4 more days of fishing.

On Tuesday we took the day off and drove up the mountain to where we used to hunt elk. Didn't see any but the drive was beautiful and we ended up at Troy, Oregon, where dinner and a much needed shower were a welcome treat.

On Wednesday we got up to a generator that wouldn't start. Larry didn't bring any tools, so the generator got loaded up and we took that day off, too. We drove 40 miles into Lewiston to get the generator fixed. A fouled spark plug was the only thing wrong, so it didn't set us back financially (only $20). While we were there, Larry decided to get the oil changed on his pickup. The pickup is fairly new and this was the first oil change. He couldn't get it done at home (they were all booked up for a month), so we got right in at a dealer in Lewiston. Since we'd killed the day for fishing, we decided to drive down to Heller's Bar on the Snake River. That's where the mouth of the Grande Ronde is. We'd never been there and didn't think it was too far from where we were, so off we went. An HOUR later, we finally got there! Not much there except lots of campers and fishermen. But no fish.....

Thursday, back at camp, the wind kicked up on the river and we quit fishing early. We got back home to find the wind had torn the canopy half off the trailer. That will get fixed next spring! Friday, Aaron and a couple of his friends showed up and off we go fishing. His friend, Mike, got a nice steelhead, so we had that for dinner that night. It was sooooooooo GOOD!!! When they went to leave on Monday, their pickup wouldn't start...dead battery. No big deal except........ nobody had any jumper cables!! So the guys take off for Boggan's or anyplace they can find someone with jumper cables. Wouldn't you know it, the only person on the river with jumper cables is the guy who knows EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING!!! He would show up at your fishing hole and procede to tell you how to fish it, and how many fish he'd taken out of there in past years, and come over to your camp site and help himself to your wood while telling you all about the great fishing in Alaska he done and how he's traveled all over the WORLD catching HUGE fish and blah, blah, blah!! He was camped by us for a couple days and then finally moved on down to Troy. THANK YOU GOD!!! So........Aaron and his buddies are finally on their way home and we return to fishing. No fish..... The day before we left, Larry caught a nice Chinook salmon (which he released) and that afternoon I caught my fish (which I DIDN'T release). All in all, it was a great trip. Never a dull moment, as they say. I say "no fish" meaning no BIG fish. We caught lots of small steelhead and trout but no "keepers".

We saw LOTS of deer. Larry even watched 2 big bucks get "harvested". Deer season opened while we were there and there were lots of hunters around.

AND........the sheep were down, so we got to see a couple bands of them. A ewe and a ram even came up behind us while we were fishing and got drinks of water from the river. They couldn't have been more than 6 feet away from us. I had my trusty walking stick to ward them off if they decided I belonged out in the middle of the river, but Larry only had his fly pole. Of coarse, I didn't have my camera with me!!

The river was beautiful, as it always is and on the whole, the weather was great, so until next year we'll just remember that we left LOTS of fish for future trips!