Party On... Without Me!

I went back to work this morning.

I did 14 pendants.  That way, the Witches can choose which one each of them wants and I will have some left over for other people.

The one at the bottom right is the one that I chose. The rest are up for grabs.

 After I finished those, I mounted all of the stones that I plan to bead around.

Six are for beading the two fossilized shells in the center are already to be earrings when the findings that I glued to the back are dry. The shell below those will be beaded to match somehow.

I did get a bit of antiquing done on the bedroom, but it still isn't dark enough to go with the music tower.  Back to the paintbrush when I am through here.

Joan picked up one of these for each of us on the way out of the big tent at the ballpark. 

The larger of the two is a half inch thick... Maybe that will give you some idea of how big this show is.  It is all over town in hundreds of places.  I did hit one show besides the ballpark, but that was because we went there with the kids on Saturday. The only other one that I hit was the ball park this year, but I did it three times.

I am a happy camper now.  What I got will keep me in stones for another year.  We won't talk about the ones that I have left from previous years... Nope. Not going to discuss those stones...

See you tomorrow.

Day Three!!!

Walter and I went out to the ball park again this morning. 

He got me two rocks for my birthday.  They are both turquoise.  They are both going to become either bracelets or pendants.  Wire wrapped.

The first one is a very dark blue green variety with a few veins of black and yellow.

The second one has a lot of black, green and some ochre in it.

It was either these two or one larger stone.  I liked that one, but it was too big for me. 

Being 4'11", I think that the smaller stones are more to my scale...

These ten tubes of seed beads cost me $20.00. If I had bought them here in a regular store in Tucson or on line, they would have cost somewhere between 60.00 and 100.00 dollars. 

Now you know why I like the gem show so much!

I got all of these drilled small stones for 6.00.

Lots of stones for bracelets and other jewelry.

This is my whole stash for this year....So far. 

Maybe we will go out to the ball park one more time.  After all, it's only once a year and if we don't spend now, we will spend a LOT more later in other places for the same things.

I am going  back and start designing a thing or two now.

Back to the drawing board.

See you tomorrow.

Gem and Mineral Show, Day Two...

We met April, Seth and Amare, at Micha's for Mexican food for lunch. 

They treated because Walter and I both have January Birthdays.  It was really good!

Then we went to one of the tent shows that we usually hit.

Amare is following in his father's footsteps.  He was picking out rocks just like Seth.  Seth was a Geology major in college.

The Kids bought new matching Wedding rings with an inlay of Koa wood from Hawaii.  The photo doesn't do them justice.  Very pretty.

They asked what I wanted for my birthday... I handed some of the gemstones that I had picked out and some petrified shells as well.

These are the shells.  They are smaller than they look in the photos.  I am thinking that they will make good earrings or rings.  I am going to have to get the wire out and start experimenting. 

I was very happy with the selection. I will be wire wrapping and jewelry  making for a while...

My biggest problem is the fact that I do this every year.  I stock up.  Then I do a few pieces and wait for next year to come.  I think that the acquiring of the supplies is the most fun.

Walter and I are planning to go back to the ballpark at least one more time.  He wants to find a stone to make a necklace and I have my eye on a couple of things that I didn't buy yesterday...

Round and round we go.  See you tomorrow.

The Rocks Are in Town!!!

You can't take more than three steps without running into a rock display for the next couple of weeks here in Tucson.

Walter and I went out to the ball park for the Kino Show this morning.

Big and little rocks everywhere.  I actually only spent $15.00 this morning. For me, that is amazing....

If you count the pieces in these two photos you will figure out that every one of the pieces that I bought was a dollar each!

I buy these stretch bracelets to tear apart and make other jewelry.

For some reason, they had two of the stones labeled with what they stand for... Yup.  That's me.  I have wisdom and am intelligent... When I am not screwing things up.

We got lunch on the way home.

Now I am sitting on the bed with Kota, trying to decide what I am gong to make with my new toys.

Some of the ones in the first photo are composite gems... That is, they are made of ground up stone put together in a mold. Then they are polished to

a high shine and ground down to the shapes that you see. Some are actually stones.  Can you tell the difference? Probably not.

The bracelets are simply little chips of stone that have been tumbled to a high shine.


And the last photo?  That's just my shiny friend... Kota. He is back to being my best pal.  He tried to eat me yesterday, but today he is back to normal.  Thank Goodness!!!

I tried to talk him into modeling one of the bracelets as a collar, but they just don't stretch around his big cat head. Oh well.

I am going back now and see if I can build a pendant or two from my new stash.

See you tomorrow.

One Miniature and a Lot of Rocks!

Amare is growing so fast that I am going to stop calling him a miniature after this.

He posed with a dinosaur sculpture in one of the tents.

Of course he wore his dinosaur shirt so that he would know what he was looking at.

This was one of the new things that they had this year.  Someone was making table tops out of slabs of rocks.  I want this in my dining room.  Too bad we just bought a new dining table a few months back.  Walter liked this one too!

This is what I did buy.  Five more dollar bracelets for the stones.  A couple of ammonite slabs(two for five dollars).  They don't show up well in the photo.  They have a silver overlay on top of the cut side.  Very pretty.  I am going to bead around those.

The other strips of stone beads were two dollars a piece. Another twenty dollar day. The red ones are coral.

Lots of fun was had by all!

See you tomorrow. 

Somebody Stop Me!

These rings are becoming an obsession! I have made seven so far. I can't show you the seventh one.  That was the first one and Walter took possession of that one.

They only take a couple of hours to make and make them I will!

I made a second turquoise one today. It's a bit smaller than mine.  For April. 

I will give it to her tomorrow.  We are meeting April, Seth and Amare for lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant. Then we are all going out the ballpark to continue finding treasures. That will be the last of my birthday celebration for this year...

I am still finding things that I did and just put away, instead of wearing them.

I did this pendant while I was recovering.  I just found it this morning... Now all I have to do is find a chain to put it on.

I have showed you this before, but I found it again... And again... And again...

These are all of the unfinished projects in my beadwork drawer... Maybe I should finish some of these before I go back to minis... Nah...

Maybe a couple, but not all of them.  I wouldn't get back to mini-ing until late next year, at the earliest.

I guess I should go make a shopping list for tomorrow.  It will include some mini beads for mini projects. Need more mini purses... and mini jewelry.

Back to beading.

See you tomorrow.

Rock Show!!!

Today was our first day of going to the Gem and Mineral Show here in Tucson.

It doesn't take much to make me happy.  I just get to the ball park and wander around for hours.

See these ammonites? They are about the size of a car tire! I like them, but how would I get one home? They weigh way more than car tires!

Here are some smaller ones, but they are embedded in stone, so again, how would I get them home?

Do you like purple opals? Most of these, I couldn't even lift, let alone carry!

Mind you this is at the Tucson Electric Park, pro baseball field.  It is only one of hundreds of places that the show is held.

There are hotels all over town that have people selling things.

I have a couple of favorite tents at this show.

You can buy one of these strings of turquoise beads for next to nothing! I bought one last year and still haven't used them all!

I spent a total of 26 dollars and tax for all of the stuff that I got. 

The top row is all crystal.

The second row is glass and seed beads

The last row is all semiprecious chips.  There is crystal, malachite, and lots of mixed stones.  Those were in the form of three stranded bracelets.

I promptly brought them home and unstrung them.  For a dollar a piece I have a lot of chip beads to do with what I want. The hanks of seed beads that you see were three dollars a piece! A lot cheaper than the local craft and bead stores.

I have to go now.  I have a lot of new jewelry ideas swimming around in my head.

See you tomorrow.

Use It Up...

Walter is out playing golf this morning.  I thought that I would take the time to clean out some of my rocks...

These are some that I have to keep. I already used them.

We won't talk about the ones that I have stashed and ready to use...

Tessie and Zar are helping and they have already saved a LOT from the "get rid of" pile...

Tessie found three of the skulls that I bought for her a couple of years ago.  She never used them so they got put in the stash pile.

They both refuse to get rid of any crystals... Or fossilized shells... or anything pretty and shiny.

I don't think that we are making much progress...

We won't talk about the stuff that I bought last year.  Yes.  I have used quite a bit and some of this is from other places.

I have already made a lot of jewelry from these jars.  They are mostly back up beads.  Not focal beads.

They will all get used... Eventually.

Anyway... We are headed to the gem show at the ball park tomorrow.  No!  I am not staying home.  There might be something there that I don't want to miss!

We only do this once a year.  We both enjoy it.  Even if I don't buy anything at all, it is fun to go look and chat with people of like interests...

So.  I don't need more rocks.  I just WANT more rocks! 

Back to sorting.  I found several things that I forgot I had that definitely need to be made into jewelry.  Even if I don't throw anything on the "get rid of" pile, I will feel that I have accomplished something.  Planning is the fun part of any project!  Back to the piles of rocks.

See you tomorrow... Maybe with something new to show you.  Tessie always sends me with a list of things that she needs wants...

It's My Party!

And I will do anything that I want to... Starting with the decision to make my birthday the day that I subtract a year from my age from now on. 

I feel a year younger than I did last year at this time... So be it!

Last night, I started a new pair of sox... A couple of my hand made pairs are developing holes in the bottom...

I have done no minis today... Other than working on the Russian rug for a while, this morning.

In place of a party, the kids took us out to lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant, "Micha's".  Great food!

After that, we went over to one of our favorite gem show sites, where Walter bought me this for my birthday!

The photo doesn't even start to do this opal justice.  The colors that you see a slight hint of here are amazing in real life.  I am going to have to figure out how to wire wrap this, without covering up the glow. 

Maybe, once I get it wrapped, the color will show better...

It is about the size of the end of my thumb.

I am going to have to think about how I want to do this for a couple of days. A little day dreaming and a few sketches should do it.

Meanwhile, back to the rug.

See you tomorrow.

What I Did On My Sunday Vacation...

This wasn't one of the things I worked on...

The Terrible Two are on strike.  They refused to help me with my cleaning, so I refused to work on their observatory.  So there!

 Instead, I cleaned out one of the fabric closets.  I sorted fabric by color.  Folded and put the colors in different baskets from the Dollar Tree.  That way, if I need a certain color, I don't have to dig through the whole closet. 

It has worked before... Maybe if I am careful, it will work for more than six months at a time... I hope.

Karin Corbin mentioned in yesterday's comments that I needed to sort and get ready for the gem show, that is coming up in a couple of weeks...

I cleaned out and sorted my Delica beads into two boxes.

I don't think that I mentioned that I bought 50 each of 3 and 5 inch seed bead tubes with some of my Amazon gift card this year.  That helped with culling out  worn out tubes and making things ready for beading whenever I get in the mood.

This is the part for Karin... These are little half pint jars that I purchased at Walmart last year.  Cheap...  24 all together... Most are full of larger beads and gemstones...

Do you really think I need any more bead purchases for a while????

We won't talk about the four boxes of various and sundry seed beads... Two boxes of findings and a bunch of other jewelry making items that fill that bookcase in the workroom... I have been doing beadwork and jewelry making almost as long as I have been doing minis..

I told Walter that it would be best if he kept me away from the venue at the ball park this year... That one is my downfall. 

Maybe I should just stay home and use the time for jewelry making this year. 

I could get a lot done in the two days that we usually wander around just that one site. 

It is very hard to avoid the show altogether... There are vendors set up all over town. The vendors take over hotels, all along the sides of the freeway in tents and any other place that they can find to rent.  It is amazing.  After all, it is the world's largest!

Someone chain my ankle to a heavy piece of furniture, so that I can't leave.  Well, maybe just a fast look... We shall see.

See you tomorrow.

Mini Work, No....Gem Show, Go!

OK This is what the cottage looked like when I got up this morning...It still looks like that now...

We went to the gem show again today.  I didn't get to look enough when we went the first time.  Too much talking and having fun with Amare and April.

Poor cottage....

This is my stash from today.  Two more strands of the coral.  A huge rope of turquoise nuggets and various other strands.  The two pendants and the turquoise donut were Valentine presents from Walter.

It will be turned into jewelry over the next 12 months...Then back to the next gem show and start again... Most of the strands were a dollar a piece.  A few two dollars. The top coral and the turquoise were the most expensive....Three dollars a strand.  And you wonder why I wanted to go back for a second time....

 As soon as Tessie saw the pile, she started grabbing.  Her main item of interest was a string of Evil Eye beads.  I am not sure if she thinks that they will protect her or she thinks that she can do evil things with them...  I am not waiting to find out... They are soon going to disappear.

I forgot to tell you.  When we got home, this was what I saw in the bedroom... Tessie inside Zar's den and Zar on top of Zar's den...

I could hear him shouting through the glass..."I told you it would work!".

It seems that while we were away, he devised an alteration in the wrist bands for Daisy's house.  They now also work in his den.

I think that the cuffs are going to have to disappear. Soon he will have them working in any mini structure in our house...I should never have let them wear the cuffs outside of Daisy's house.  She warned me.

Maybe I can distract the Terrible Two with pretty beads and tell them that they have to take the cuffs off to look at the beads... Sure....That will work....Maybe....

See you tomorrow.

I Want to String Beads....

But I didn't.....I worked on the floor.

You saw most of the process before.  This was so much easier to cut the grooves into.

I took the first photo whilst the top coat of Trail Tan Ceramcoat was still wet.  I covered about the area that you see in the foreground each time and wiped the excess trail tan off with a damp paper towel.

I laid it in the kitchen to see how it was going to look.  I like it much better than the first one.  Once I get a coat of satin, water based varnish on it, and it is flat and dry, it will be ready to install...

Probably tomorrow.

We went to the gem show at the ball park.  Here's my haul.

The two plastic bags on the left, with the turquoise inside were my Birthday presents.

The top one is two strands of turquoise heshi.  The bottom bag is turquoise too, but with a lot of green and brown in it... These will all turn into jewelry for me.

The turquoise in the middle is chips strung on wire and braided for chokers.  The red is bamboo coral. The two on the left below that are various semiprecious stones polished and turned into stretch bracelets.  The last three are semi precious disc beads.  The one in the middle is all tiger eye.

Keep in mind that the show started Saturday and runs through Valentine's Day... We will probably go again before it is over.

April and I plan on going to one of the bead shows on Thursday...  We are very good at talking each other into various and sundry things there...I doubt that having Amare with us will hold us back much.  He is happy to just ride along in a backpack type carrier, where he can get a good view of all of the treasures.  April told him that this was where the pirates got all of the treasures that we hid in the back yard last week... What's nice about a 2and a 1/4 year old is he believes us.  No questions asked.  We may as well take advantage of this while we can...

See you tomorrow.

Jewelry Instead...

Yesterday, I showed April some of the stuff that I ordered with her ETSY gift certificate from Christmas.  She liked the spiders that I bought.

So she gets part of her Christmas gift back.  I think she had an ulterior motive...

She said that they would make cute earrings.  I made earrings this morning.  A pair for her and a pair for me. 

 Since I was in the mood, I finished this necklace that has been lying around waiting for a chain for ages.

It was actually a very easy piece to make.  The crescent came as it is.  I just added the dangles and the chain....All done.

The watch in this piece also came from ETSY.  It was a plain copper watch with a square case.

I fancied it up, since I had my tools out and the square copper wire was just laying around, doing nothing.

I worked on this House Beautiful basket yesterday too....Can you see a pattern here?  It's called avoidance. 

I am steering clear of the cottage until I find some real illustration board... I am not so sure that I don't have a piece that size around here somewhere.  I should go look...

Tomorrow we are going to the Tucson Gem and Mineral show out at the ball park.  That's our favorite venue out of the 200 or so places we could go for the next couple of weeks.

We figured it would be less crowded on a Monday.  April, Seth, Walter and Amare have turned me loose there to find my own birthday present.  Silly people... They still haven't learned that I can always find lots of things I like out there.  Sometimes even minis! 

Maybe I should be making a list and checking it twice.  I don't want to miss anything.

See you tomorrow.

Rock Reprieve

Well, not really.  I got a reprieve from slate.  I finished laying it, but I still need to use the stylus and add color.  I jsut put it in place to make sure that it still fit.  It does.

I have a good excuse for not finishing the floor.  I was not here to finish it.

I was forced to go to the gem show...Honest.  Walter made me do it.

Each one o these polished stones cost me one or two dollars... Total fourteen dollars for all...they are various types.  I will probably wire wrap or bead around these.

These are all fossils.  Some were fifty cents and some one dollar. Mostly for wire wrapping.  Not really for beading, but I might attempt to do one or two. The color is a lot richer than the photo.

I have my eye on the terracotta one at the far left.  I have beads that would look good with that.

I apologise for the terrible photo.  These were the expensive ones...Kind of.  The two on the left are embedded with opal.  I think that they call them rock opals because they aren't dug out of the stone that they are in.  The whole thing is just polished.

I don't remember the name of the other stone.  It is not turquoise.  It is faceted.  The most expensive stone I bought was eight dollars....That was the turquoise one.  The other two were five a piece...Once a year I splurge.  This was the day.  All of this for under forty dollars.  Not a bad haul at all.  Did I mention that I love the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show?

I am going back and play with my new rocks now...

See you tomorrow.