Lots and Lots of Beads!

DeWayne, the recipient of Cavan's liver and left kidney and lives in Jacksonville, FL, called me last week and he was very excited. He had been to a garage sale and found a tackle box full of beads! He purchased them for $3.00 and then he sent them to me! He's the sweetest! The package of beads arrived today and I spent some time sorting them out to see what all was in the box -- homemade polymer clay beads in lots of colors, acrylic beads, lots of buttons, pearl beads, plastic beads, seed beads, bone pendants and lots of odds and ends kinds of beads that I haven't identified yet. I'm looking forward to looking at these beads and trying to figure out what kinds of jewelry I can make them into. If you ever see any beads at garage sales or if you have any broken strands of necklaces or bracelets, send them to me and I'll send you money for postage. I am very excited about my new bead collection!

Boho Frida

Introducing Boho Frida! Frida is a Kamibashi String Gang Doll that I ordered from www.kamibashi.com. One of the String Gang Dolls was featured in a beading book I purchased. When I looked at the Kamibashi website, I fell in love instantly with Frida. She "empowers you to paint your own reality", it said. I thought this described me and she was dressed in PINK -- my favorite color! I had to have her! There were several Kamibashi String Gang Dolls that I also liked. One was the "Moody Cow". I will probably have to order more of them. I am keeping this necklace for myself, but if you would like one, pick out a Kamibashi String Gang Doll from their website and let me know which one you would like. I can put it on a plain black leather cord or add beads and chains. You tell me what you would like.

Flashback to the 60's

I just learned how to make a friendship bracelet! Here is my first one with silver peace symbols and flowers. It has a flower button and loop clasp. It will be for sale on my website.

Love Makes the World Go 'Round

Here is my newest piece of jewelry I just finished. It is made with a laminated canceled stamp from Uruguay. There are chains with "little people" dangling from them. The little people are from train sets. I found them at Hobby Lobby. I saw this idea in a new book, Jewelry & Accessories from Everyday Objects. When Cavan was young, he wanted to collect stamps. I saw an ad to receive some free stamps, which I did and I happened to run across this envelope of these stamps recently when I was cleaning out my bag of scrapbooking items. I do not know what happened to any of the other stamps he had been collecting. Anyway, I think this necklace is very unique and fun. I will put it for sale on my website -- www.neeneeandcheechee.etsy.com

Silver & Gold Buyers

When I was cleaning out my dresser drawer, I found quite a few necklace chains that were tangled, kinked, unworn and some without clasps on them. I decided to take four of them to a Silver & Gold Buyer to see if they were real and if I could get any money for them. Three of the four were real silver and gold and I received $45 for them! Here are the rest of them. I do want to keep a couple of them, but I think I'll take the rest that I don't want to keep to the silver & gold buyer and see if I can make more money on them. I have read these articles about eBay that tell you to look through your junk drawers and closets and that you might have a gold mine and not even know it. I think I'll clean out my drawers and closets and see what else I can find that is unused. I am going to a bead show this weekend so the extra money will come in handy!

Valerie Made Me Do It!

A couple of weeks ago, Bob, my friend Jeanette who was visiting us from Atlanta, and I went to our friend Mary Tomas' art gallery -- www.marytomas.com/studiogallery -- to see a new showing. We knew many people who were visiting the gallery and our friends Valerie and Ken were there. I commented on a beautiful blouse that Valerie was wearing and she told me that she had just bought it at Nordstrom's Rack at the new mall across from Northpark Mall. I had not been to Nordstrom's Rack or any of the other new stores that have sprung up there within the past year. The next day, Bob, Jeanette and I went to Nordstrom's Rack to check it out and I bought a top similar to the one that Valerie was wearing. I told Bob that "Valerie made me do it!" It has been too cool in Dallas until today to wear it.

What do YOU do with Nutella?

What do YOU do with Nutella? Eat it spread on a banana or apple? Spread it on graham crackers? Or straight out of the jar? I've tried all of these ways. My friend Kathryn Anderle told me about Nutella several years ago and I fell in love with it! I just found a good recipe for Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti that uses Nutella and they are delicious! Here is the link to the Food Network for the recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/chocolate-hazelnut-biscotti-recipe/index.html

By the way, if you missed my blog about my cute, little cookie plate, you can read about it on my September 20, 2009 blog.