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Thursday, July 11, 2013

Northern Okinawa Waterfalls

We begin the river trek to Taa Falls.

Rainbow beetles are one of my favorite parts of this trek.

Someone left these piles rocks for us to enjoy.

Rope Swing

The path to waterfall #2

The last waterfall is literally on the side of the road.

The view across the street was pretty great too.

Japanese Post Box

This is the first of 3 sets of photos I took on our family vacation.

We were smart to check out the waterfalls in order of hardest to get to to easiest.

Okay, that's it from me for now.

(As always you can click on any photo to make it larger.)

Monday, July 8, 2013

My Precious!

While digging out beads for the Bead Hoarders Blog Hop I realized 2 things.

First, I actually use the art beads I buy.

Two, I am a very very lucky girl.

My husband realized letting your wife buy pretty things does have it's rewards. ;)

Here are some close up for you.

This is my first art bead. I discovered and fell in love with lampwork in 2008 and bought this little frog off ebay. He makes the bead top heavy so I can't figure out what to do with him.

More recent lampwork purchases. Can you guess what my favorite color is?

J-Lynn Jewels altered art tiles

Tree Wings Studio beads- love Rebecca's cute critters

Okinawa lampwork collection

from Floridity

Faux sea glass by Caroly Chenault

No polymer clay collection is complete without some of Jeannie's work.

Havana Beads

And this is why blogging is dangerous to my pocketbook. See that bead pair above? I saw similar beads sent to a bead swap partner I had just paired with in a different swap. I read her post and loved them so much I ordered some for myself. When they arrived I placed another order with Havana Beads...well you see where this goes.

And finally the beads that I will never part with even though I've bought some with the intention of making gifts. The gal whose 12 days of Christmas event will have me set the alarm of 4am in my time zone to participate. It's Maria Grimes of Garden Path Beads. I adore her stuff.

See why I love them?

One of these days I'm going to save up and have her make me the focal I saw when I first discovered her site. It had a little metal rectangle with playin' written on it and a critter dangling upside down from it. When I realized it was a possum I laughed out loud.

Ha! Come to think of it I have a bracelet on the way from her now.

Guess that will tide me over a bit longer.

Now what to make for the hop...hum?

Monday, July 1, 2013

Bloglovin'

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/3553893/?claim=casbx4btncq">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Just trying to stay ahead of the demise of Google Reader so I thought I'd share with you what I tried. It moved all the blogs I followed for me. Seems to be a good solution. Still wandering around there. Have you used this site? What do you think?

little beach we found Sat. by the side of the road

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Weird Things Around Here

I've way over scheduled myself ...AGAIN!

So while I try to rebalance my life I thought I share some odd things in my little world.

These are cicada wings made from Chinese take out lids & Sharpie.

macro setting sees more flaws than the naked eye

This is a lotus style flower made from the left over material from the wings.

I wish I could remember where on pinterest I saw this design so I could give credit.

Then earrings with take out packaging and Sharpie. This time I added some pearls, headpins and ear wires.

Finally a copper colored beetle I found when bringing my plants inside for a typhoon.

No worries the storm was too far off island to harm a thing here. Just practice to see if I needed to get rid of more plants or if what I had left would fit in the spare room.

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Ankle Blog Hop

The always lovely Kashmira Patel is hosting her first blog hop today, and I was fortunate enough to be included. As best I can remember the instructions were very simple. Create a colorful anklet. Well if you knew my natural sense of style you'd understand that it's the colorful part that kept me playing with ideas instead of creating till the very last minute. I did create a few things though that I'd like to share. So let's get on with it 'eh.

Wood and metallic beads strung on softflex with brass lobster clasp

Oh and here's a few tips on sizing if you want to make an anklet yourself. TIPS

And here's a quick tip from me.
If like me you tuck one foot under you when you sit...don't put anklets on that leg.
It hurts (thank you solid wood chair), and it may damage your design as well.

No worries though I wanted to make this design a pair so restringing one wont be a problem.

I like where this one falls on the foot.

The faux sea glass is by Carolyn Chenault. The blue dangle by the clasp is like a counter balance.

Yep some times I can be brilliant.

Did you know you can't be too fussy about photos when your taking them of your own feet? If you hang upside down like that too long you can get a butt cramp. No fun, and why there is no picture of the other side of this design. But I can still place my whole hand on the floor without bending my knees. So I'm not that old and stiff yet by golly! get a little crazy. So don't blog with all that extra blood in your head.


Foot on a box shows you the other side of this one. Thanks for the tip ladies.

Okay, I'm furiously working on one more, but with volunteer projects and two extremely unhelpful guys constantly cluttering my house this is as far as I've gotten on it.

I want to mention the email that Kashmira had going where some of the girls chatted during the process. I really thought it brought the participants to life for me. I don't have the time to read each participant's entire blog like some do. The email really added a little spirit to this process though.


UPDATE: I finished it! Yeah!!!

This one is adapted from the pattern I found HERE.

Fireline always grows with wear for me so this one will be perfect in a while.

Another fun extra Kashmira added to this hop was a pinterest board of inspiration created just for us.

(I'm sure she wont mind if you take a peek.) ;)

Here are all the participants. Take time to check out their blogs. You may find an anklet or idea that makes your summer just a little bit brighter.

Kashmira Patel	http://sadafulee.blogspot.com
Kaushambi Shah	Will post on Kashmira's blog
Jean Wells	http://jeanawells.blogspot.com/
Mischelle Fanucchi	http://micheladasmusings.blogspot.com/
Shellie Grindie	http://www.creativeeclectica.com/
Ginger Bishop	http://lilmummylikes.blogspot.com/
Monique U	http://ahalfbakednotion.blogspot.com
Cynthia Machata	http://antiquitytravelers.blogspot.com
Susan	http://libellulajewelry.blogspot.com/
Kay Thomerson	http://www.kayzkreationz.blogspot.com/
Mimi Gardner	http://othercuriosities.blogspot.com/
Anindita Basu	http://alankarshilpa.blogspot.com/
Rita (Toltec Jewels)	http://www.jewelschoolfriends.com/
Gina Hockett	http://freestyleelements.blogspot.com/
Tammie Everly	http://ttedesigns.blogspot.com

Dyanne Cantrell	http://deelitefuljewelrycreations.blogspot.com/
Ema Kilroy	http://www.emakdesigns.com/blog.html
Emma Todd	http://www.apolymerpenchant.blogspot.com/
K Morgan	www.TexasPepperJams.blogspot.com
Sharyl McMillian-Nelson	http://sharylsjewelry.blogspot.com/
Cheri Reed	http://creativedesignsbycheri.blogspot.com/
Rochelle Brisson	http://acreativechelle.blogspot.com/
Michelle Buettner	http://www.misheldesigns.blogspot.com/
Sandra McGriff	http://www.skyescreativechaos.blogspot.com/
Stephanie Weiss	http://uniquelymebwd.blogspot.com/
Shelley Graham Turner	http://shelleygrahamturner.blogspot.com/

Lynda Carson Roxanne Mendoza Dagi	http://freshbakeddesigns.wordpress.com/ http://roxidesigns.blogspot.com/ http://kokopellidesign.blogspot.com/

Thanks for stopping by.

I love it when you share your thoughts.

Monday, May 6, 2013

Super Quick Teacher Appreciation Gift

What do you do to show your child's teacher you remembered when you have NO extra time?

Visit Pinterest of course. I have a board called Gifts.

This one was actually for Mother's Day, but I already had all the supplies.

So I picked up a gift card, and used what I had on hand.

Here's the inspiration.

Kit contains:

gift card

cutlery set

napkins

cups

plates

I don't know how to attach a document to my blog

so I can't share the tag, but I just made it in word.

So what do you think?

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Merry Unbirthday Reveal

If you are looking for the Bead Soup Blog Party post click the BSBP7 button just to the right-->

For whatever reason you are here...WELCOME!

I'd like to start by thanking this swaps hostesses. Without you lovely ladies this wouldn't have been possible. So THANKS!!! Marlene Cupo & Shelly Turner have teamed up to create many excellent swaps for us creative types. In addition to their own blogs they have THIS one just for their swaps.

I joined this swap not only because I love these two gals, but the title immediately drew me in.

Sometimes I sing that Disney song to get my son out of bed in the morning.

I have on more than a dozen occasions given people gifts and said, "Happy Unbirthday!"

I even have the song stuck in my head at the moment.

For this unbirthday celebration I was paired with Alicia Marinache of Ontario, Canada. She's a jewelry designer and mom like me, but she also seems to be a crack shot. We've become fb friends too. So I've really learned more about her. Visit her BLOG or facebook page to find out more about this great lady.

So now for the treats. Here's what I sent her for her May birthday since a 3 day search of all my supplies came up with 1 single emerald crystal and 5inches of emerald ribbon.

Just kidding. Sort of. This is it all wrapped up ready to go in the box.

I'd never made anything like this before so I took extra care to see it arrived safely.

Here's the actually necklace.

The sea glass was found here in Okinawa and drilled by me.

I finally put that sea glass drilling lesson I took a year ago to use.

And I've saved the best for last. This is what I received from Alicia.

A beautiful pair of silver earrings with blue crystal butterflies.

Yep, my favorite color is blue.

And a great pendant.

I have many excellent memories of those smooshed penny machines.

It think it's too funny that it reads, "Escape to Paradise" and she sent it here to me who lives on this gorgeous sub-tropical island. I just keep thinking the penny escaped to paradise.

Well, off to doctor the sunburn I got today at the beach.

My best to you!

Oh crud, just about forgot.

A very special...

THANKS so much to Alicia!

I had a lovely time being partnered with you for this project.

Here's the others who joined Marlene and Shelly's challenge.

Ali McCarthy

www.northwoodscreativestudio.blogspot.com

Alicia Marinache

www.allprettythings.ca

Anzia Parks

www.anzipanzisworkshoppe.blogspot.com