My sister Cindy came to Dallas to visit us and we had a most wonderful time! But, too short, as always. I hadn't had my beads out since the end of October due to our move to a new apartment, working my temp job the whole month of November, the holidays, entertaining and various other things going on in our lives. But, when Cindy arrived, out came the beads! She inspires me and I'm full of ideas! I wish she lived closer to me so we can bounce ideas off of each other. It is easier to do when she is only across the table as opposed to her living in the Chicago area and me in Dallas. In the short 3 1/2-day time Cindy was here, we created a new line to our jewelry and named it Dizzy Discards. We are making jewelry in this line with components that have been recycled, such as bottle glass beads from Ghana, pendants made from organic materials or using items that we are recycling, such as paper, fabric, old jewelry we find at thrift stores, etc. We have a new logo and business cards for our new line of jewelry. I found a store in West Village where I live that might sell our jewelry on consignment! More about that later. In between our beading and creating, Cindy and I had two marathon shopping days! We were up at 6 a.m. and out the door by 9:30 a.m., and back home about 5 p.m. We went to bead stores (of course!), the mall, thrift shops, and many other stores and just basic errands (post office, cleaners, etc.). I also took her to some of my favorite restaurants for lunch. We went to the Oasis Cafe and Adelmo's. They are extreme opposites of each other, the Oasis Cafe being a hole-in-the-wall cafe with a lunch counter and a few booths, but excellent food and Adelmo's, which is a very upscale, expensive Italian restaurant. My very favorite of all! Bob and I took Cindy to the airport yesterday after lunch at a Latin bakery, Zaguan, and a bead store in Carrollton. Now, it is back to using Skype to show each other our new creations. We both are already looking forward to our next time together!
My sister Cindy came to Dallas to visit us and we had a most wonderful time! But, too short, as always. I hadn't had my beads out since the end of October due to our move to a new apartment, working my temp job the whole month of November, the holidays, entertaining and various other things going on in our lives. But, when Cindy arrived, out came the beads! She inspires me and I'm full of ideas! I wish she lived closer to me so we can bounce ideas off of each other. It is easier to do when she is only across the table as opposed to her living in the Chicago area and me in Dallas. In the short 3 1/2-day time Cindy was here, we created a new line to our jewelry and named it Dizzy Discards. We are making jewelry in this line with components that have been recycled, such as bottle glass beads from Ghana, pendants made from organic materials or using items that we are recycling, such as paper, fabric, old jewelry we find at thrift stores, etc. We have a new logo and business cards for our new line of jewelry. I found a store in West Village where I live that might sell our jewelry on consignment! More about that later. In between our beading and creating, Cindy and I had two marathon shopping days! We were up at 6 a.m. and out the door by 9:30 a.m., and back home about 5 p.m. We went to bead stores (of course!), the mall, thrift shops, and many other stores and just basic errands (post office, cleaners, etc.). I also took her to some of my favorite restaurants for lunch. We went to the Oasis Cafe and Adelmo's. They are extreme opposites of each other, the Oasis Cafe being a hole-in-the-wall cafe with a lunch counter and a few booths, but excellent food and Adelmo's, which is a very upscale, expensive Italian restaurant. My very favorite of all! Bob and I took Cindy to the airport yesterday after lunch at a Latin bakery, Zaguan, and a bead store in Carrollton. Now, it is back to using Skype to show each other our new creations. We both are already looking forward to our next time together!
At the church where Bob and I are members, Emanuel Lutheran Church in Dallas, there is a Spanish congregation as well as the English congregation. Last night, we celebrated the Mexican tradition of La Posadas. The congregation commemorated the events in the journey of Mary and Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem. We had candles to light our way as we walked around the perimeter of the church and stopped at three doors to ask the "innkeepers" if we could stay overnight. The first two "innkeepers" told us we could not stay there. When the owner of the third house finally learns who his guests are, he jubilantly throws open the doors and bids us welcome. We all went into the church for a potluck dinner. Here are some photos I took of the journey -- http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8EbMmLJq3aKMmQ
I like to recycle whenever I can. I want to help the earth live longer. One of the items I recycle are bags -- grocery bags (I try to use the cloth bags now whenever I can.), gift bags, store bags, etc. I also recycle gift wrapping. When Mom moved to her retirement home a year and a half ago, I took all of her gift wrap and bags too. She sends money as gifts now, so I knew she wouldn't be using her wrapping paper and pretty gift bags. Today, as I got out the Christmas gifts to wrap, I had to round up gift wrap and bags from four locations in my apartment. Being an organized person, I took time out to put all of the gift paper, tissue paper, gift bags, pretty store bags and brown paper bags into piles. I plan to put all of these in one spot so that next time I can pull out just what I need for the occasion.
I finally took photos of our new apartment at Thirty377. You can see all of the pics at share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8EbMmLJq3aKMiA
