New Necklace Sets

Here are two necklace sets that I made while on vacation, let me know what you think - I think both are yummy!

Coffee & Cream
Beautiful brown swirl lampwork square beads, Czech round glass beads in two colors, mocca Swarovski bicone crystals, sterling silver components and a silver plated clip-on ear wire.

(click picture to enlarge)

Calming Aqua
Materials used in this set are aqua faceted rectangle quartz, aqua quartz faceted round beads in soft shades of aqua, blue, green and lavender, clear Swarovski round crystals, clear seed beads, sterling silver components, and silver plated clip-on ear wire.

I have to say that I really like layout and beads for this necklace, the colors are very soft, you just feel more relax just looking at it!

(click picture to enlarge)

Skating Day

I'm finally getting around to posting some of our pictures from the trip to Florida - it has been a hectic week and boy I'm so thankful that today is Friday!

We enjoyed a day at Rocket Lanes in Panama City Beach - my gang really like this place because they have arcade games, bowling, skating and billiards all in one place.

The first thing the kids wanted to do was roller skate, despite the fact that they are not very good at it! It took them a L-O-N-G time to make it around the rink, they held onto the wall and the benches the entire time. Eric had to don skates and help them out.

Look closely at the picture below, can you tell me why they left a ladder on the skating floor when they have skaters? Unbelievable. The kids had to go around the ladder, which was not easy for them. Once Eric put on his skates, he moved the ladder off the floor.





The picture of Eric and Nicole "couple" skating was priceless, but it turned out all blurry, here he is trying to coax her off the rails.



Gene wanted to go fast, while holding on to the rails!


Eric is a excellent skater, me... well I can skate but not as smooth as Eric, and I can't skate backwards - never could, even as a kid. Eric tried to "Shoot the Duck", but discovered that move was no longer in his repertoire! But he still looks good skating!



After the kids got tired of skating, they headed straight to the arcade room, while Eric and I opted for bowling. Here is where everyone really enjoyed themselves! I couldn't manage to bowl one game above 99 but I still had a good time!

We're Back

Last week we were in beautiful Panama City, Florida vising my Mother - had a good time, stuffed our faces, enjoyed seeing family and friends and got in some fun activities. Hopefully, I will get around to posting the pictures this week.

Take a look at what I saw this morning when I opened my blinds. This little girl stayed around grazing for a long time, and didn't seem to mind my taking her picture. She looks very different from the deer that usually come around, but still a cutie.

Here are a few of the many, many pictures that I took, I had to try several different modes on the camera in order to get a somewhat clear picture, I'm so thankful for digital cameras! Enjoy!

Week 19

We are in the last week of Tapestry of Grace, Year 2, Unit 2, which means we are at the half way mark of our school year. Yippee! I still have not managed to pull off a unit celebration like Tapestry suggests, but we will be off next week - so the kids and I are happy about that.


Our achievement test arrived in the mail last week and we will be doing those soon. My plan is to do the test the last week of March. The kids don't care when we do them, they see it as a easy week of school, because we test for a couple of hours and they have the rest of the day off.

Nicole and I have a girls night out this evening. We signed up a Mother & Daughter Book Club at the library, and tonight is our first meeting, our invitation says that we will get to tour the newly renovated library, enjoy some sweet treats, and of course get our book.

We were suppose to meet last week, but because of the ice/snow and the parking lot of the library not being cleared, the coordinator called to let me know know the meeting was canceled. I will try to remember to take my camera to snap a couple of pictures, we're so excited!

Missing My Hour of Sleep!

Did you remember to change your clocks last night? We did, and boy was hard getting up this morning!

I'm so proud of myself, I did manage to drag myself from my bed this morning, fix a cup of English Breakfast tea and start preparing our Sunday meal of broiled pork chops, green beans, and rice. All that before going to church! WHEW!

Here are some of my feathered friends that I took last week, all the snow is gone and we are wearing t-shirts this weekend!

I think the Cardinals are one of my favorites, maybe because they are our state bird, but they are fun to watch and listen to. Doesn't Mr. Cardinal look dapper, what a nice contract with the snow.

Today, Eric took down the almost dead tree on the side of the house, the top of the tree came down last. Gene, Nicole and two neighbor kids helped to cart the smaller debris off to the woods in the back yard - without being asked!

Black Histry Field Trip

February was Black History Month, and to celebrate we took a field trip to The Black History Museum & Cultural Center of Virginia, in Richmond. This was an extra special field trip because it was planned and organized by my dear hubby. And he took off work and drove us! Here are some pictures of our outing.

The front of the museum...



One of the first things I noticed when walking into the museum was this quilt. It was donated by the Sisters of the Yam Quilters Guild and was to be raffled off. I could see this breath taking quilt hanging in my living room, too bad I didn't win.

We walked in the museum just behind another home school family and was able to take the guided tour together. Here is our tour guide talking to the group. The museum features history from the Jackson Ward community of Richmond, which was a "city within a city".

They have a portion of the Woolworth's counter where black students staged a sit-in until they were served.

The sewing machine and iron displayed reminded me of my Grandmother's.

Here is Nicole paying attention to the tour guide...

This was painted by someone who had traced his family history.

Gene reading about Rev. John Jasper and the churches in Jackson Ward...

There was a quilt that represents the slaves on board a slave ship, you will have to click on the picture to get a closer look.

We forgot to ask what these hanging things are, I think it is tobacco, but not sure. I did like the little log cabin. That would be a nice project for Gene and Nicole to make one.

This was cool, the wall hanging was made out of wood.

They have the shoe shine kit and a tuxedo of Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, I took a picture of the display, but it didn't come out well.

The gift shop had beautiful handmade beaded jewelry, the kids saw them and called me over. I saw a purse I wanted, but it was way to small for me - I need a bucket kind of purse.

After we left the museum we headed to The Croaker's Spot restaurant for lunch. The wait was LONG, but the food was good, we were all ready for a nice long nap after lunch!

Cakes Galore

I wanted to share some pictures of a couple of cakes that our God-daughter Alexis (age 14) made. She is selling some of her cakes, but some are make and eat for the family. She is also preparing dinner for the family. Oh how I wished we lived closer (smile)!

Here is a Dora the Explorer cake...

A wedding cake...



Cheeseburger cake, the bun is cake and the rest is fondant icing...



Way to go Lex! I love them all. Yummy! Wouldn't you like to take a big ole bite from the cheeseburger cake?

Happy Beader!

Here is a necklace and earring set that I made for my mother. It is a belated birthday gift of sorts, I bought her a dress suit for her birthday, and this is Part II of the gift. I didn't make her a bracelet because she made one while she was here that will go with this set.

The necklace is made with Picture Jasper in round and oval shapes, black glass cubes, Swarovski crystals in Mocca, Bali sterling silver flat beads and the focal beads are lampwork glass square black with brown swirl dots.

The earrings has the focal glass lampwork beads, Mocca crystals and Bali flat beads all wire wrapped on a silver plated dome shaped clip on.

click picture to enlarge

This is bold and beautiful! I have drooled over these Amazonite beads for awhile and finally bought some. I love the color variation in each one, really stunning. I wire wrapped these gemstone with Swarovski crystals. These were for me!

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Here are some earrings that I made as presents for two friends, and I think these are my new favorite earrings, love the graphic crystal.

The first pair is made with 12mm Swarovski Jet graphic beads and Bali sterling silver flat beads I used the dome silver plated clip on.

The second pair is made with 12mm Swarovski Golden Shadow graphic beads, Bali sterling silver flat beads, sterling silver round bead and the dome silver plated clip on.

Both pair are neutrals and can be worn with everything, I hope the ladies will love and enjoy wearing them.

click picture to enlarge

Eric dropped me off at the bead store Saturday, while he and the kids went to Lowe's and I picked up some yummy beads that I can hardly wait to make something with.

I also found out that my dear hubby doesn't like the beads with dots. Of course I love dots and swirls! Check out my finds from the bead store, the lampwork beads were on sale and they had so many to choose from - all calling my name, the green strand is Olive Jade and the blue strand is Blue/gold glass, but it looks like silver specks inside the glass beads - Eric loved this stand of beads, he said the jade was okay!

click picture to enlarge

March in Like a Lion!

March started with a loud roar in our neck of the woods, we have had a winter storm with rain, ice and SNOW!

We had a tree on the side of the house loose its top, it was by God's grace that the falling limbs missed the side of the house by a few inches. Eric had no more said "I hope we don't have any trees fall and hit the -" That was a far as he got when we heard the thud of the fallen limb. Here is a picture of the topless tree I took this morning.



Here is the part that fell...

The kids didn't want to go outside to play in the snow (crazy huh!), so I only have pictures of the birds. Here is a female Cardinal, she was very aggressive with the other birds about getting her share of the seed.

Did I mention it was also windy!

We had some bird seed down in the basement, so I had Eric open the back door and pour out a couple of cups of seed for the birds.

Waiting patiently for their turn to eat...

More from the waiting area...

This is a picture of our driveway and street! Eric did clear off the sidewalk and drive way this afternoon, while doing so our neighbor got his truck stuck in our ditch and had to be pulled out.

A Cardinal sharing nicely with a House Finch

Maybe not so nice with the Red-winged Blackbird...

So Mr. Cardinal went to the waiting area...

The snow finally stopped this afternoon, I think we have about 8" of snow. So March defiantly came in like a lion!