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.

The winds of change

While I am thrilled about Obama being sworn into office today, I wasn't going to post on the inauguration but just a minute ago I logged on to yahoo and saw this.

Photo courtesy of Yahoo
I saw this photo on yahoo when I turned on my computer tonight and I was moved to tears. I see so much in this picture. The love these two share for each other, determination, inspiration, courage but most of all I see hope. Hope for a better future. Hope for change. Hope for all Americans to again be proud of our great nation for its diversity and opportunity. I have always been proud to be an American, but it has been a long time since I have felt pride for my nation. Today I feel that pride again.

Getting back to normal

The excitement of the holidays is finally over. We end up with a busy few weeks. Not only is there Christmas and New Year's, Jordan's birthday falls on the 3rd. Then it takes a few days to get the house back in order and the kids back on schedule. They did not want to go back this year and I can't say I blame them! After two 3 day weekends, I was dreading working five full days in a row!
We did get a really rare day last week with all of us home together on New Year's day. We decided to head down to Monterey Bay and I am so glad we did. It was a gorgeous day there while there was fog and rain back here at home.
We stopped first at the Butterfly Gardens in Pacific Grove.

You can see the clumps of butterfly's here.

This is Mike and the kids on the Butterfly bench, last time we were here was Feb. 3 years ago. I can't believe the kids have gotten so big!

Just before sunset at Asilomar State beach. I love the beaches here, we always find great shell treasures so I will be working on making some pieces as soon as I get a bead reamer to put holes in my shells.

Dinner at Bubba Gump's. This is how you get the waiters attention. We had them sing Happy Birthday to Jordan, she got so embarrassed she hid her head under the table.

And the birthday girl at her party with her chocolate chocolate cake.
I did get one beaded item done.

I didn't have the colors I wanted but wanting to make him out weighed going to the store yesterday so here he is in multiple shades of blue and green. You can find the pattern here. 3d beading
Now is the countdown to MLK Jr day. We are all off that day too so I am looking forward to another trip to Monterey. And I have a week off in Feb. for President's day week. The kids are off all week so I am going take my Birthday holiday that week so we can go spend a few days in Monterey.
We are barely over an hour away and we never go. It's a shame because it is my favorite place to be. I may do some job hunting while we are there. I would love to move. But until then, we plan to go way more often.