MIA

Yep, again I have been MIA. Its a good thing I "blog without limits" or I would be in trouble!
So here are some quick updates to what I have been up to while I was MIA.
I got a new job!!!!!! I took a job offer as an LVN at the correctional facility in Soledad. I am totally nervous as this is my first LVN position since I got my license last October. I will be starting there on 11/30. Most of the time getting a state job takes a long time but due to budget restrictions, I have to start by 11/30 because they can no longer hire as of 12/1. We are cutting it a little close aren't we?
This will be a 1.5 hour drive each way for me so it looks like we are going to be moving soon. Mike and I decided not to rush the moving because I don't want to be stressed out about it right before Christmas. Our goal is to move by mid January. We have started packing up some things and cleaning so its not all bunched into the last few weeks we are here.


My oldest daughter turned 13, OMG I HAVE A TEENAGER SOMEBODY HELP ME!!!!! Ok so it's not that bad but still, lol. We took her to the Ducks Stanford game the day after and we lost boo but we still had fun! For her party I am "gulp" taking her and her friends to see New Moon on Saturday. Yep, that's right. Me, my friend Tia and 8 giggly, screaming, crazy 13 year old girls going to see New Moon. I know, what was I thinking?!?!?!?


I did my first craft show. Didn't turn out so hot. But lessons learned, I will never ever sign up for another craft show that is not juried because I can't compete with B & S sellers (that would be buy and sell, stuff that is not handmade)
I still need to work on my PIF piece for Jewels, I have the pattern made, just need to pick up beads to start it. Maybe I will do that in the morning. I was going to stop at a bead store today on my way to my CPR class after my dr appt but it took longer than I thought so I didn't get to stop.


My hospice family took me to dinner last night at TGIF's to celebrate my new job. I have been so lucky to have worked with such a great group of people in Hospice and I love them all very much! And since I work in 2 departments, I have to go through the tears and goodbyes one more time but at least I will have some great pics of all of us!
I have been trying to organize my finished jewelry and get it listed in my ETSY shop. Wow that is a lot of work!
Just read on Lisa's blog that One World One Heart is coming soon! Can't wait for that. I have some cute pieces made that didn't sell and maybe one other thing in the works that I will be giving away on my blog so watch for that to come.
So that is what I have been doing for the last month. Wow, I think I need a nap just reading that!

Painted Pumpkin

My wonderful boss Nancy brought us in mini pumpkins for Halloween. I am not talking about the flat squished ones, this is a nice round one like you would carve, only smaller. I brought it home to figure out what to do with it and it has been sitting at my desk mocking me for two weeks. I knew I wanted to try painting it, but what to paint? Last night while surfing the blog world I found this cool Terrorific Tuesday project from My Big Mouth.
I love the saying on the sign she did and new it was a perfect fit for my pumpkin!

Witch parking only, violators will be TOAD!



The side with loops and stars.


The back with more loops and stars.



Couldn't leave out the broom now could I?

I have to say, I am not by any means a painter and I did this all free hand and man it was not easy! I have a newfound respect for people who paint artistic works. I can also understand the love they have for it as even tho it wasn't easy to do, it was SO MUCH FUN! Maybe I will have to have another go at a bigger sign for home since this pumpkin is heading back to work!

Spiders, Bats and Ghosts Oh My! Free Halloween Craft Project

So I got this great idea from one of my myspace buddies to make spiders from Styrofoam balls. I have had the stuff forever and have been meaning to do them but we finally had some free time tonight.

Our spiders turned into more then just spiders tho. We have ghosts and bats and pumpkins and ghouls and some special Jordan creations.

So seeing how it is Halloween and these are super easy, fun and kid friendly, I am doing my first ever free craft project!

Spiders, Bats and Ghosts Oh My!

Supplies,
Styrofoam balls, assorted sizes.
Acrylic paints in assorted colors.
Paint brushes
Foam brushes
Hot glue gun
Pipe cleaners
Stick on Crystals
Googly eyes
Glitter Pens
Puffy Paints
Tissue Paper
(Basically any fun things you have around the house for decoration)
Something to cover your workspace with, we used up some of our plastic grocery bag stash from when I forget my shopping bags.

1. Paint all of your Sytrofoam balls with a layer of your acrylic paint using your foam brushes.
2. Allow to completely dry (trust me or you will have painty fingers like we did :) )
Decorate with you random gathered supplies.

For Pumpkins, use 2-4 1 inch pieces of green pipe cleaner together pushed about halfway down into the top of an orange ball. You can pull them out after you make the hole and pipe in some hot glue to secure the pipe cleaners in.
Paint on your pumpkin face.


For Ghosts, use a white ball, paint on a ghostly face. Optional, glue tissue paper streamers about a foot long cut into strips to the bottom of the ball to give it a ghostly appearance.



For Spiders, cut 2 pipe cleaners in half. Fold all four pieces in half again. Piece two folded pipe cleaners together for each side. Bend into spider leg shape (think like a chair with the back, seat and front legs). Bend the tops down about 1/4 to 1/3 inch and stick into opposite sides of the ball. Secure with glue before adjusting legs.



For Bats, Bend 2 pipe cleaners at the same time for a uniform shape. Make your first bend about 3 inches down into a V. Bend the bottom half of the wing into this shape VVVVV. Cut off excess and place one wing on each side of Bat, securing with glue. Cut 2 1" pieces, fold into v shapes and place on top of head for ears. I used two tiny scraps stuffed in the face for fangs (this would be a good idea for spider fangs too.)


Use your imagination and be sure to send me pictures of what you make!


Tori's Ghoul

My eyeballs.
Oh and I almost forgot. Colby and I finally made our Pirate ship that I got as a kit last year on clearance from JoAnn Fabrics.

Fan Page

Yeah fun things! I finally created a fan page for my stuff.

Jax's Beads on Facebook

I know I haven't been around here in a while but again busy life takes over. We went to Santa Cruz a few weeks ago for an end of the summer mini vacation. We had so much fun.
You just have to jump on the beds when you stay at a hotel.


Pool jumping fun.


Mini Double shot at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. $10 ride bracelet nights rock!


Me soaking wet after the log ride, of course right? lol.


We also went to Comedy Jam this year. It was our second time going, tho we missed last year because we were in Oregon. OMG it was so much fun.
We went with our friends Courtney and Robert and got to see Carlos Mencia, Kevin Hart, Cedric the Entertainer, Angelah Johnson and a few others. There were 10 comedians total but the best of the night was Gabriel Iglesias!

He is so freaking cool and does fan pics after his shows. We are going to see him again in Sept at The San Jose Improv. Totally can't wait!

I also decided that I am going to get a booth at the Berryessa flea market Holiday Fair Nov. 14th and 15th. I am so excited because it will be my first ever craft fair. Nervous too but more excited. I am working on ideas for setting up my table and getting stuff ready to sell. I will post some pics soon as I have them. I have a few ideas but need a trip to Goodwill to keep it budget friendly. I also need to come up with some cute packaging ideas so any suggestions are welcome.

Blog linky love giveaway

Time to pass out a little linky love for one of my favorite blogs, Carolee Clark from King Of Mice Studios is an absolutely amazingly talented artist. I look forward every day or so to see the new creations she makes. Of course being that she paints tons of Halloween items, you know that puts her right at the top of my favorite list!
This week she is hosting a giveaway for a hand painted Halloween black cat box. Be sure to stop by and check it out. You won't be disappointed.

Playing with wire.

I finally started playing with wire. I have been wanting to incorporate wire work in my jewelry for some time now and am so glad I took the plunge. Wire has a life of its own so it is taking some getting used to maneuvering it but in the few pieces I have done, I already feel like they are turning out better.


I bought a thing a majig today and some colored copper wire to practice. This is my first pieces and I think I went over board with the loops. I love how it turned out but I think they will be better next time after more practice.


This is the second design I did. I think it turned out much better. I also learned you need to press down on the wire after every loop you make to ensure that it stays together instead of pulling apart when you remove it from the pegs.
We are heading to Santa Cruz for the night tomorrow so I won't be able to spend more time with this until Thursday. Then baby sitting on Friday and a promise of GI Joe at the drive in Saturday so no beading for me for a few days.
The kids start school again on the 20th and I am really looking forward to having some free time to really get some things made up. I will hopefully be getting a table at the Holiday Craft Fair at Berryessa flea market in November and I want to be ready. It will be my first ever!

Pay it forward.

One of the things I like most about having a blog is my list of people I follow. Someone always has a cool project or something fun going on. That being said, I found this great game on Julie's blog and totally love the idea. Here is the post from her blog.

I found this Pay It Forward Game on a fellow Blog. I have followed Julie for awhile now after stumbling upon her site from another blog. I love seeing the new things she does and it really inspires me to get my but in gear to try new things.

Okay - Here's how it works:

I am entering into the following contract with the first 5 people who comment on this post and then commit to do the same on their blog. I'm the world's worst when it comes to commitments via the BLOG - but this one really appeals to me!

Just read below and if you feel up to the task copy the following into your blog and leave me a comment.

I am willing to send a surprise worldwide (I live in the USA, BUT before any goodies are sent out - I must see a post on your blog - send me a link - that'd be perfect).

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make. Whatcha get is whatcha get.
2. What I create will be just for you, with love.
3. It’ll be done this year (2009).
4. I will not give you any clue what it’s going to be. It will be something made in the real world and not something cyber.
5. I reserve the right to do something strange or weird (though I don't really make strange or weird myself - but left the text in - just in case someone else may think so).
6. In return, all you need to do is post this text on your blog and make 5 things for the first 5 to respond to your blog post.
7. Send your mailing address – after I contact you.

Welcome to everyone. I will however, make an effort to do something that you like based on what I see on your blog, BUT there are no guarantees.

Hoping I won't have to beg :)

Stuff for sale!

Yay! I finally got some more items posted on ETSY and the link is on the top of my blog. More to come in the next few days. I am so not hoarding stuff to post anymore, it will be up one or two at a time. I think it will save me so much time! Does anyone else have suggestions on how they post their stuff to sell? Any tips would be wonderfull!

Note to Self

I finally sat down tonight to start photographing and measuring things that I have made lately so I can get them listed on my ETSY site. I have learned a few things while doing this so here are my notes to self for next time.
1. Measure the finished length right when you are done.
2. Take a picture or two of the finished piece right when you are done.
3. Make sure you charged your camera battery so you don't have to stop halfway and scramble for your back up battery.
4. Make sure your back up battery is charged too.

I normally make a few things and do photos and stuff together and that is fine for a few items. I have made about 40 pieces since I last took pictures so it was a little labor intensive tonight, not to mention more than half are only measured and not photographed. Plus I still have to photo shop my pictures and get them posted. I am going to be busy this Wednesday!
I also noticed that I have been on a necklace kick lately. I made my mommy in law a clear illusion necklace for her birthday and fell in love with how they turn out.

I need to add some more items to my stock and put the necklace making up for awhile, well at least till I find out if anybody else likes them too!

Slacker that I am

Wow it has been ages since I have posted. I wasn't feeling up to much there for awhile but things are much better now. We made two trips up to Oregon this past spring, one for my brother who came home and one for my sister who graduated high school. It was nice seeing family but also hectic and exhausting. 1200 plus miles round trip and twice in 1.5 months.
Mike and I are doing really well. We decided to give things one more try before we give up for good and get a divorce. I guess we both realized what we would be losing and that we do love each other still. The good news is we are getting along really well.
I am also getting in a ton more beading time.
Best of all, I finally learned to do viking knit. Yay me! I had such a hard time finding a tutorial on this so I ending up piecing together info from lots of different sources.

The top piece is my first ever attempt at single viking knit. Then I tried again with I think much better results.
The bottom one is double viking knit and I am in love with this one. I will be working on piece tonight to make into a bracelet. These were just short pieces so I could see how my tension was working out. Now I just need to figure out how to finish the ends and add the clasp.

Getting out of my funk

It has been way to long since I have posted here so just wanted to give a little update. My husband and I have decided to separate and we will be getting divorced. It just seems we want different things out of life right now and it's the best solution to problems we can't seem to fix. I haven't been feeling very crafty lately or felt much like talking but I am going to pull myself out of this funk and start working on taking care of my kids and myself for a change so more to come because I think throwing myself into my beads is going to be the best therapy I can get right now.

Busy Busy and my first blog award

So things have been hectic, when are they not in my life right? I am in great fear that CPS will soon be at my door as I just spent yesterday evening in the ER again and with the same doctor who we saw with Jordan's broken arm. Colby sat on a display (one with a big please do not sit on these sign) at the grocery store and tumbled it over, cracked his head open and now has staples in his head. Eventually the ER Doctor is going to get suspicious right? Lol.
On to better news, I am ready to post my stuff up for sale but I am still debating about what site I want to use. At least I am all photographed and ready to go.
Now the funnest news, I have gotten my first blog award from Marie S., one of my favorite blogs that I follow!

Here is a description as to what this award means: "This blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY-nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers"
I have made some great friends through my blog and I have learned so much from others. I am thrilled to pass this award on to some of these people.
The criteria for accepting the award is that you must post the picture and the meaning of the award on your blog (see above).
The blogs I picked are ones that I follow and look forward to reading everyday, that I learn something from, that make me laugh and that inspire me.
So in no particular order
beading at the beach
good quill hunting
king of mice studios
the crochet cultist
the jewellry goddess
whiMsy love
this girl beads
bead line studios

Gizmo update

Just a quick update, Gizmo is much better today. Other than one or two random ticks all day, he is back to his happy, jumpy, lovey self. I also want to say a quick thank you to everyone who has passed this message along and signed the petition to pull this from the shelf. I was number 105 to sign and its up to 154 today with many names of my friends added in! Yay! Now to concentrate on some beading time.

Poisionus flea and tick drops

Friday night at Wal-mart, we picked up some Sergent's Gold flea and tick drops
for Gizmo, our two year old Pekingese. Saturday he was crying, lethargic,
drooling, shaking, biting at himself and not eating or drinking. Google
searches led me to tons of sites, including the ASPCA community
ASPCA COMMUNITY
that all agree that this medicine is poisonous.

I scrubbed him up like the suggested and had to use a baby medicine dropper to
get him to take chicken broth.

We took him into the vet and they scrubbed him up again and gave him subcutaneous
fluids.

Today he was still crying at us, not walking, eating or drinking on his own. The
vet said as the toxic effect wears off, he should start getting back to normal
but if not, we will have to bring him back in.

This evening I finally got him to eat some cooked chopped chicken breast that I poured stock over so he managed to get some liquids down too. He is still twitching and having a hard time walking but it is slowly getting better.

Numerous complaints have been filed by people who have gone through this
nightmare, some have even lost their pets. I will also be lodging a complaint
against Hertz for not pulling this product from the shelves and I will have a
lifelong ban on all Hertz products. Please pass this on to anyone you may know
who has pets. I also included the link to the petition I signed to have the
product removed from the shelf.
PETITION

Going away present and a new language.

Ok not a new language but you know that saying "Use it or lose it"? Well I lost it. I took two years of Spanish in high school and I could hold a simple conversation. I still remember a few phrases but I have been wanting to relearn what I have forgotten. I looked at buying Rossetta Stone because I have heard great things about it but it is way way out of my price range. I found a free site online called Livemocha and I am two lessons into Spanish 101. You can pay for premium content and get a little more but this is working good for now. Cool thing is that your work you submit for grading is peer reviewed and you can review other peoples work in return. It's fun so far. I even learned how to make ñ! Yay! BTW you hold down the alt key and on your number pad to the right type 164 for lower case and 165 for upper.
Now for the going away. No it's not me. One of my coworker's took a job in Virgina and her last day was yesterday. I made her the coolest going away present. She is an amazing person and I am going to really miss her so I wanted to give her something special.

Ok so the picture is a little blurry. I had to take it on my phone because I forgot to take it before I gave it to her.
Can you guess the theme? Go ahead, take your time. I will wait.



Twilight you say??? Yay for you, that is exactly right!!!
Ok ok yes it is kinda cheesy but my entire office has read and loves the Twilight saga. She loved the bracelet and even better it was a blast to come up with all the extra charms to go with the Wolfe charm from Jacob and the heart from Edward.
It also looks like this is a big hit and I will be making a few more in the near future.

Now I am off for my busy busy afternoon. I have conferences for both Colby and Jordan today and Jordan gets X-rays this afternoon to make sure her bone set right. Cross your fingers cuz if it didn't, they are going to have to rebreak it and that would not make for a happy Jojo. It's going to be hard enough to convince her to get the new cast on today. She hates it and has been begging for it to come off. At least she hasn't figured to use it as a weapon. Yet anyways!

2 little monkeys jumping on the bed.

Ok so one was a little monkey and the other was a daddy monkey. But you can guess which one fell of and while she didn't bump her head, she did break an arm.

Here she is in her sparkly pink cast, and of course, no one can help her do anything!

We didn't get a cast yesterday when we went in because she broke the radius bone and it was bowed out a bit. We met with an Orthopedic surgeon this morning and thankfully, he gave the ok to cast it without having to put her under to reset the bone or to pin it.
We go back in two weeks for x-ray's to make sure it set correctly and for a new cast if it did.
She is upset that she can't ride her scooter or play on Colby's skateboard. And the sling is driving her nuts!

I need a vacation.......

I know, I just got back last week but we were only gone two days. It has taken me a week to get everything caught back up. Plus I had to finish working on my instructions for the beaded Chinese Lantern which are now posted! It is my first pattern uploaded to the site by me! Totally exciting!
On to other news, our trip was hit and miss. We had to switch hotels. Mike called before I made reservations and asked about pets. They said no problem we are pet friendly. I booked online for a better deal, nothing about pets on the site except it says pet friendly. When we got there to check in, $20 extra a night for Gizmo to stay with us! Now since we called and they didn't say that when Mike was talking to them about it, we didn't stay. Went down to Motel 6 where it was cheaper to begin with and Gizmo stayed free. I really wouldn't have minded paying if they would have said so on the phone before we booked but hey, I guess I won't make that mistake again. The things you learn being first time pet owners.
It was rainy and stormy on our first night. We went down to the beach at sunset and got to see some lightning from the car over the ocean after dark. That was pretty.
Went back to the hotel room and ordered pizza and played games. I am the new Yahtzee queen in my house. 6 (yes 6, S-I-X) Yahtzee's in one game!
Tuesday morning Colby woke up sick but after throwing up only once, wouldn't stay home so we trekked through the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
My favorite part is seeing the jelly fish.

The sardines that made Cannery Row famous.

My little mermaids.

The penguino's that JoJo is crazy about.

My little trooper.

He made it 3/4's of the way before he started to feel sick again. He slept for a while and felt better so we headed back to the beach. This time we got some great sunset pictures.


Then back home the next day.
I also made a decision to start selling my jewelry online. I decided to go with freewebs because they have the best options for the online store for the free sites that I looked at. Really thought about using ETSY but I am still a little anxious about posting there. I will make my official announcement of my "store" being open once I get a chance to photograph my merchandise.

Packing to ship... and a bald dog.

I am so excited that all of my winners have gotten back to me for OWOH. This was such a great experience. I am already looking forward to next year!
3 of my 4 winners are overseas so I wanted to make sure I found something I could send their prizes in that would keep it nice and safe for the long journey. I went to Target with the goal to find some cute little Valentine's heart tins.

I found these cute little padded jewelry boxes instead and had to get them! So now everything is packaged and addressed and will be sent Tuesday since Monday is a holiday here and post offices are closed.

I also finally got my Bead a Day Calendar from Tower.com. Not impressed. Their 5-15 days shipping took over 30. (I ordered a cell phone battery from E-bay the same day and the guy shipped from China, I had it in a week!) Couldn't get a live person to talk to and my e-mail response said they needed me to verify shipping address before they would look into anything. Considering I copied and pasted the shipping info into the e-mail I sent them, don't you think I would have noticed if the address was wrong?


On to another note. We have been having a problem with fleas. Gizmo's hair was so thick we couldn't get the stupid little bugs to die with flea shampoo. Flea collar was no help and the drops on his back were just not getting through his hair. After a few flea baths, we ended up with mats in his hair. Deciding to get 2 birds with 1 stone, we took him in and told them to shave him down. He hardly looks like himself!



This is him saying "Mama, how could you do this to me?"

Now what are the consequences of shaving a long haired dog? He shivers, constantly. Not good when we are planning a trip to Monterey Bay on Monday for a few nights. Off to Petsmart we went. Second time he has been in there, the first was the day after we got him when he was still a scardy dog and he coward in the cart. OMG he went nuts with all the smells in that place! We even managed to find him a jacket on clearance that is adorable!



I even found a flea bomb to set off for when we are gone. Die you stupid, biting little buggies! Ha Ha Ha Ha!

OWOH Winners!

Ugh sorry for the delay, our internet provider had an outage, at 11 pm on 2/11. My internet is finally back up this morning and I am racing to post before I go to work so here are my winners.

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

101
171
86
91

Timestamp: 2009-02-13 15:53:13 UTC


First prize, pink flat spiral bracelet.
#101
Blogger Pike said...

So cute! Please enter me in the drawing!

Pirjo from Finland
pirjo.kallioniemi @ yahoo.com

#171 2nd prize, name badge holder.
Blogger Ellen said...

I love your earrings and the name badge very unusual. ( I'm not a pink girl)

thanks for your visit to my give away

February 11, 2009 2:13 AM

#86 3rd prize chain earrings.
Blogger Cheryl said...

Great giveaways! Please enter me and thank you for visiting my blog.

January 28, 2009 5:00 AM


#91 4th prize, purple earrings.
Blogger Sarah said...

These are very pretty!
Thanks for visiting me too.
Sarah :)

January 28, 2009 2:52 PM


Thanks to all who have participated! I had so much fun with this and can't wait to spend more time checking out all the great blogs!

Life getting in the way

It seems like I have had a lot going on in the last week or so. This has really shown here, where I haven't been in a while. Part of that is I have nothing new done so nothing new to post.
We are having some issues with my oldest daughters real father. He doesn't even deserve to be called that. He was out of the picture for 10 years, I never once said anything bad to Tori about him. For the last two years he has been in her life, all I have heard is how awful I am and how I ruined his and his wife's life.
Everything I did, I did with my daughters best interests at heart. I never did anything to be vengeful of him. She has been angry at me for years for him not being there. She held him on a pedestal, thrilled that he was back in her life.
He disappointed her on her birthday and Christmas this year, she didn't call him till Mike forced her to the other day. He made her feel guilty and I called him on it.
All the lies he told her and the blame he lays on me came out again, thrown in my face but this time in front of Tori. Up until now and even through all of this, I let her make her own decision of how to feel towards him. But what I won't do is stand idly by while he makes her feel bad.
His last words to her were you can look me up when you turn 18, he took her off his friends list and won't return her calls. His and his wife's inability to get over the past means he can't move forward to have a relationship with Tori. It disgusts me that someone can make the conscious choice to walk away from their own flesh and blood because he didn't like what I had to say when I stood up to him for my daughter.
It breaks my heart, not that he is out of the picture, but that he hurt her in a way she will carry with her for the rest of her life. She is hurt beyond measure and I can't fix this. I can't make him see that part of being a parent is sacrificing what we want for what is best for our children.
He has made it clear to me that he is also blaming me for this, I told Tori lies to make her hate him. Too bad he won't even hear Tori out to find out the real reason she is angry. No matter where he places the blame, he did this to himself. Tori is broken hearted and it will be Mike and I picking up the pieces. I hope she chooses to take this as a learning experience and that she will be a stronger person for it instead of being bitter and blaming everyone else for what bad things happened to her.

Feeling springy

I have total cabin fever. I know that i should not complain because we had a full week+ of 70 degree days here just last week. The clouds have only been here for a few days. I mean come on, the kids were playing in the ocean on Monday. I guess after so many dreary Oregon winters, I crave sunshine 24/7.
I went bead shopping today and got some killer deals, like 45% off my entire purchase, woohooo. This was my birthday present for this year. A week early but I had coupons to use, a special Chinese New year's discount and a limited supply of semi precious stones and I have been everywhere looking for the right Jade to make a flat spiral bracelet for my mom's co-worker. (Yes I found it!)
I also got some new seeds and this is how I know I am feeling springy! I am a black kinda gal. All my jewelry is black with white or blue or silver. Maybe some dark emerald green here and there. These are the seeds I bought today.

Other than replacing my red 8/0 that I used, the rest are screaming spring flowers to me and I didn't even realize it until I got home! So now what to do with these colors? I also bought some stuff to try bead crochet. I will have to stop and get a smaller hook at Jo-ann's tomorrow on my lunch. I tried with my grandma's hook I have and it's just too big. But even the mixes I picked for those look springy.

And of course when I took out my camera, JoJo had to have a mini photo shoot.


Here is JoJo and Gizmo.



Gizmo thinking why are you letting this crazy child hold me!


Jordan showing us her crazy face!

And yes, Gizmo is now hiding from her in his safe place. Under my feet at the desk. At least he keeps my tootsies warm!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, I am having a total blast blog surfing the OWOH participants. If you haven't checked it out yet, see my blog post here

OWOH GIVEAWAY

I am on the Gypsy Caravan!!!!! I found a link the other day on another blog about One World One Heart. A world wide blog giveaway to connect bloggers from around the world who would otherwise never get a chance to meet. You can find out more by clicking the OWOH button, both on the top of this blog and on my page. Make sure to check out the blog link list as there are already over 300 participants all giving away great goodies. If you are not an active blogger, be sure to read the posts as some people require you to have an active blog to participate in their giveaway.

If you are not familiar, here is how it works. Leave me a comment on this post and THIS POST ONLY BY 11:59 PM PACIFIC STANDARD TIME ON FEBRUARY 11TH, 2009! I will close comments at midnight. Make sure you leave me a way to contact you. If you have a blog, please link to that and if you do not, leave me your e-mail address in your comment. If I can't contact you, you can't win. I will use a random number genorator to select the winning comment number, post the winning comment and contact the winner sometime during the day of Feb 12.
The lucky winner will receive my "cotton candy" flat spiral bracelet done in 2 different sizes of white czech glass beads, the base white bead has a beautiful finish (you can see it in the second photo) that is brought to life by the size 15/0 pink seed beads.


I want to say a special thanks to Lisa "oceandreamer" Swifka for creating and organizing this event. You can find her blog and giveaway here
I hope many of you will come back and visit me in the near future, and be sure to visit my visitor's map on the side bar while you are here. I would love to see where everyone is from!


UPDATE: I am having so much fun and found some really cool blogs while I have been out surfing! I have even decided to add a second item to my giveaway so I will now be drawing two names!

This is a beaded name tag badge, made with seed beads, Czech fire polished white beads, polymer clay flower beads and moonstone for magic!


Edit to add third item!

I hit over 100 comments so this is the third item I will be offering in my drawing!


Ok so time got away from me and I hit 150 awhile ago but here it is, my fourth item!

These are purple glass woven earrings, the pattern can be found at Deborah Roberti's website, around the beading table. She is an amazing designer and very generous. This is one of my favorite free patterns of hers.

My goal is to add one item for every 50 comments and I will update with pictures as I get them made!

And if you haven't yet hopped on the gypsy caravan yet, there is still about a day to join the giveaway before Lisa stops adding names to the link. You will still have until Feb 11th to get your name in on some of these great giveaways! Just click the link at the top of this post! Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you again soon! Happy surfing!

Just another little edit note, thanks so much for everyone who has stopped by and left wonderful comments. I am looking forward to swinging by and spending more time at tons of the blogs that participated this year, especially those who visited me.
Good luck to all of you tonight! I will be posting my winner after I return from a job interview tomorrow.