A Happy Father's Day

Today has been a pretty good day. Dave planned on grilling some steaks here at the house for dinner with his dad. It was a good time and Garret was happy to see Grandpa at his own house instead of going to visit him. Of course neither Dave or I are ready to go back to work tomorrow even though we took Friday off.

I finally finished a piece that I was on the fence of what to make with it. But in the end it decided to become a bracelet. I love how it turned out because now I know what to do with a couple of irregular shaped stones that don't really work for pendants.

Jobs and interviews and none of it for me

Yesterday Dave had an interview for a job. He has been out of work since the end of October. This is the first interview in almost 3 months and he has been applying for 2 jobs almost every day. Dave primarly works in the Telecomunications/Networking type field so that tells you how the job market is for that right now in the Orlando area. I am really hoping he gets this job though, I think it would be perfect for him and that next step job level wise. We're hoping we'll hear something next week some time as they were only interviewing yesterday and today.

As for my side work with my jewelry and pins I haven't been very active. I have a lot of ideas written down on scraps of paper as well as new wire and stones but I just haven't been feeling it to get it done once I get home at night. I did make this really cool butterfly shawl pin out of two pieces of agate that were carved into butterfly wings, then I wire wrapped the body and everything.

Speaking of shawl pins and knitting as it is, I found out today that there is a new yarn store that has opened up near me. It's kind of funny because it is right across the street from the place that I used to work at. I'm thinking about stopping by on my way home today and see what they have. I LOVE the store that is closest to me now and I don't see me changing my regular place to knit and buy my yarn but it'll be nice to pop in and see what brands this store might have that my other one doesn't carry.

Thanksgiving Prep

Okay, so I know it is almost a week before Thanksgiving but I say that I am prepping for it because my parents are coming in to spend Thanksgiving here and are arriving today. I have mixed feelings about it when they come in general. For one my mother can be obnoxious and has a laundry list of ailments. They typically come out here and my dad doesn't like dealing with all the traffic so he won't drive or go anywhere and they sit around the house all day and by the 3rd day my mom is complaining about being bored. Yet, because of a lot of her medical issues she can't really get around that much so even if they DID go somewhere she couldn't really spend that much time up on her feet or walking around without being tired. So, I'm prepping myself now for the state my house will be in by the time Thanksgiving DOES come around. It will be interesting to see what they think of my nose piercing though. LOL.

Speaking of my piercing it is doing quite nicely after the whole debacle on Monday. The area right under where the stud sits is still a little bruised looking but it doesn't hurt at all and everything with it seems to be fine so I'm happy about that.

Craft wise I listed two new pendants yesterday, one Tiger Iron the other an Amethyst cluster or druzy. I need a better main photo of the amethyst but until I can take one this weekend with proper lighting I had to use what I had. I also have two awesome pendants to take photos of that are moonstone and larimar. My wreath and owl shawl pins have been pretty popular and I have an idea for a snowman and snowflake one to play with. I'm hoping this weekend I'll be able to get those together given they are seasonal and Christmas is approaching fast.

10 years and new stones

Friday was Dave and I's 10th anniversary. It really doesn't seem like it's been that long which I guess is a good thing. I took the day off and we just spent the day together and went out for breakfast and lunch. It was pretty nice and the weather held out for most of the day.

I am starting to get in some stones I purchased recently. I still have two more sets of stones I'm waiting on, one of those most likely on Monday the other sometime next week. I'm trying to get some more colors and different stones so I can have a nice variety. Here is my latest haul.


The 3 green on the left are malachite, a pink andean opal, then an absolutely beautiful deep purple amethyst, 4 pink rhodochrosite stones, a speckled lapiz chrysoclla stone, 2 smokey quartz stones and lastly a petrified palm wood stone. The petrified palm has to be my favorite but that amethyst and the smokey quartz are close seconds. I think I have just enough gold filled wire left to wrap the palm wood and then I think either the amethyst or a malachite piece will be next. There's an idea I have in my head for the large rhodochrosite piece so I'll be saving that one for when I have some time to really sit down and just play.

Lately I've REALLY been wanting to venture into the metalworking aspect of jewelry making. I picked up a couple of books this weekend and watched a couple of tutorials on youtube just to see what I might be getting myself into. For some reason the idea of soldering kind of freaks me out. Don't ask, I have no problem at all working glass in an open flame but for some reason I doubt myself that I'll be able to solder and it turn out presentable enough. I figure it's worth a shot though and if I don't at least try I'll always wonder if I'd be able to.

Lazy Sunday

Today was a lazy day. Of course the day isn't over but all in all it's been a lazy day. The weather this morning was windy, cold and rainy. I braved a trip to Joann's to pick up a few things that I was needing and decided to pick up some card stock that was on sale to take pictures for my products. I found two different books of them and spent the afternoon taking some pictures with them. I like the way they are turning out so it was worth the couple of bucks.

I have 3 pairs of earrings that I made and will list tomorrow. I am not an earring person so this is kind of new territory for me. I don't wear them so it makes it kind of hard to design them but the pairs I have so far are turning out cute so I'm happy with them.

We discovered this weekend that Little G can count to 10 in Spanish. That was a shocker, especially since when he counts to 10 in English he always skips 4. Although, I think the skipping of 4 is a bit of a game to him since Dave and I always make a big deal about after 3 comes 4.

Speaking of Little G his vest is coming along, I'm thinking I'm going to end up finishing it tonight. The vest is sewn together and I've done the ribbing on one armhole so I just have to do the ribbing around the neck and the other arm. Easy enough.

Yay for short weeks!

It was so awesome having today off. I got to spend the whole day with my son who was the perfect little angel for me today. Yesterday I was beginning to think aliens had switched him out as he slept because he was being a little monster. He's two so I know it's part of the terrible two's but still, he is usually from day to day, one mellow and happy little guy.

Dave had to work today so it was just the two of us. We started out with a trip to Joann's to pick up some clay for a project I'm working on. For some reason my little guy has a serious aversion to those green baskets. We went two weeks ago and he freaked out, "no basket, no basket" as he flails his feet. I thought it was just a fluke thing that day. Apparently not. I managed to get him in the basket today but he wasn't happy until we twirled around in the cart a couple times. Then everything was cool.

After that we came home, I prepped dinner for tonight and tomorrow, baked cookies and finished my labradorite pendant I had worked on. I must say it came out beautiful. I haven't posted it on etsy but I might tomorrow, it's name is Infinity because there's a figure-8 type shape on the side similar to the symbol for infinity.

Speaking of etsy I have one of my pendants in a showcase today that is one of my favorites. I had it listed at 1000markets for a while but just wasn't getting that much visability so I moved it over to etsy and in the showcase spot I purchased. It's doing quite well so far. 35 views for the day and a couple of hearts. Here's a picture and link to it (click on the picture).