Bike

More Sparkle

I forgot to include this pair of earrings with the last pictures of earrings that I recently made. This pair says “Spring Time” don’t you think? I love the combination of green and purple and these earrings are fun to wear, I especially like the movement of the dangling crystal at the end.

Earlier this month Eric took the kids to Richmond and I had a free day all to myself. Joy! I remembered that the bead store was having a wire earring class, so I made a mad dash out the door and hoped that I would make it to the store in time to take the class. With only seconds to spare before the class start time, I ran into the store, breathlessly asked if I could still take the wire earrings class. The store owner tried to stifle her giggles, and informed me that particular class was scheduled for the following Saturday. Unbelievable. LOL with me.

Since I was already at the store, why waste the trip when there were lots of beautiful beads in all colors, sizes and shapes just calling my name PLUS there was a enormous amount of dichroic (pronounced dye-crow-ick) beads for sale in the store that day. I was drawn to the dichroic display, so many to choose from, I narrowed my selection down to these three pendants.

It is hard to tell from the picture but the small pendant on the left has shimmers of pink, green and black, the one on the right features green, blue and black. The larger pendant has red, blue, pink, green and purple. Not sure if I will hang the pendants from a stand of beads or use a chain or perhaps a combination of the two. Oh, I should mention that I did go ahead and sign up for the upcoming wire earring class! 

Here is little information about dichroic beads:

Dichroic is a glasswork technique, either blown glass, fused glass or glass beads, which contains many small layers of metal oxides which give the glass its luminous multi-color and 3-dimentional look. The word comes from the Greek Di for two and Chroma for color, as often the dichroic technique is viewed at different angles which gives the appearance of two or more colors. Pretty neat huh!

Going Green, Sort Of

I hope that your week is off to a great start! I wanted to send out a quick note to let you see the new earrings I made, of course I think that they are super cute, but I always do. Let me know what you think.


These little beauties are made with emerald Swarovski crystals and sterling silver, they are a gift for a friend. This was the first time I've used the emerald crystal, the color is lovely – I can hardly wait to use them again. 

I took a wire class Saturday, I will post pictures and tell you about my wonderful wire adventures later on, it was a hoot and I even saw two friends that I haven’t seen in ages. In the class we made wire coils, and as you can see I still have coil love. I made this pair last night just for fun. The copper coil rest on a green shell coin, I even made my ear wire.

Buttered Rosemary Rolls

Let me introduce you to a great blog,The Pioneer Woman. I found the blog through another blog that I subscribe to (right now I can’t remember which one!) anyway, the blog had a link to the Buttered Rosemary Rolls the PW made and my mouth watered just looking at the pictures -- I just HAD to make them.

Do you know that I’m a fake baker? I am, sigh.   But this was right up my alley, frozen dinner rolls. Even I can do these.

The recipe calls for sea salt and fresh rosemary, of course I had neither, but that did not deter me from tackling the recipe, I used crushed rosemary that I had on hand and just omitted the sea salt, I may try to remember to pick some up later on.

 

At first I had planned to make a large tray of these, but thought about my thighs and quickly decided it was best to just go ahead and make them in a cast iron skilled like The Pioneer Woman! I made eight, so that everyone could have two, and there would be no leftovers, and pretty much followed PW and the package instructions:

Grease the iron skillet with olive oil.

Put the frozen dough balls in the greased skillet.

Cover with clear plastic wrap, next time I will use a dish towel and see which method I prefer.  I placed my covered skilled in a draft free place for 3.5 hours.

Look how plump they are after the rising period.  Big as a cat head biscuit (that’s what my Granddaddy called my Grandmother big biscuits; homemade of course she was not a fake baker!)

Melted 2 tablespoons butter and brushed on top of the rolls after they rose.

Sprinkled some crushed rosemary on top, and baked at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

I’m now inspired to start a little herb garden and so the next time I make the rolls I will have the fresh rosemary, but for now its McCormick.

Yum!  Give them a try and let me know how many thumbs up you received from the family.

Thanks Pioneer Woman, I’m now a huge fan of yours and enjoyed perusing your blog.

Headboard Reveal

Eric has finished staining and sanding, and staining and sanding the headboard, he even set it up last night while I was out. I think he was going to wait to see if I noticed… you bet I noticed, just as soon as I walked past our room and started squealing in delight! It looks GREAT – good job babe!


Here are some of the pictures hubby took of his very first headboard.

The wall color really makes the headboard pop, don’t you think?

Now if I can find some new bedding to replace the old comforter set that no longer matches since we painted the room. Keep your eyes open for a chocolate colored comforter – NO flowers, NO paisleys, NO big pattern – these are my marching orders from hubby, so far I haven’t found anything to fits the bill, so keep an eye out for me okay -- I'm really over our current set.

Be blessed!

Game Time Baby

I have been a huge fan of the NBA for years, and cheer for my beloved Washington Wizards (I guess I like the underdog). On Saturday, March 13 Eric and I attended our first Wizard’s game, the Wizards hosted the Orlando Magic which features Dwight Howard and Vince Carter (you will see that I like both players). The Wizards lost but it was a good game, and Eric and I had a blast!

Washington has had some major obstacles going on in the organization this year: the death of owner Abe Pollin, injuries, the franchise player Gilbert Arenas is suspended from the league, he almost received jail time on a weapons charge, there was a major trade of three key players, Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood, and my favorite Antawn Jamison and MORE injuries.

Outstanding half time show - kids!

Trying to get a good shot of Orlando's Vince Carter.

Superman, Dwight Howard

The Wizards logo.

Still trying to get a good shot of Vince Carter, never did - but I do like the effect on the shoes.

The new additions to the Wizards lineup.

Amost a good shot of Vince.

Last night Washington had the first win for the month of March, we beat New Orleans 96 – 91… we’re on a winning streak!

All About The Girl…

photo courtesy www.pachd.com

Big day for Nicole yesterday, she had a field trip to The White House and The Smithsonian.  She has been looking forward to this trip for weeks now, I don’t think it even bothered her to wake up in the wee hours of the morning.  They went in style too, no big yellow school bus, they had a charter bus, WOW!

Nicole said she really enjoyed the trip, her favorite room at The White House was The Great Ball Room.  The class had hoped to see the President or First Lady like the group from last year but that wasn’t to be the case this year.

Another of her cool things was listening to one of the parents who chaperoned, apparently he has a passion for history and was giving the scholars a interesting history “lesson”.  Nicole said, “He was telling us about history, and he’s not even a teacher!”  Who says a child can only learn sitting in at a desk in a classroom? LOL

Nicole had a band concert last Thursday, this was a county wide concert of the elementary, middle and high school band students, and way cool for her because she got to perform at the high school, her biggest venue to date!

The Purple Princess is doing well in school, she made the honor roll this last grading period, and honorable mention the first grading period.  That’s the latest news on the girl!  

Have a great evening, I'm off to watch the Wizards basketball game.  See ya!

Eric The Builder

Eric has been hard at work making a headboard for us. Here are pictures of his handiwork... 

Saturday he did the sanding and started staining the headboard, he still needs to put on the clear coat and buy the scroll work that will go on top.

Hubby really enjoys making furniture really building in general, he has made several tables, a bench, a riser with drawers for our front load washer and dryer, he has done a couple of decks, finished two basements and a shed, just to name a few things he has made.  I think that now he wishes that he would have built his shed a bit larger and put power out there so that he would have enough room for a woodshop - maybe he will have a remodel project sometime in the future!

Here is the sketch he whipped out of the back of paper.

My handy man!

They Arrived!

The earrings I won in the Crystal Allure Studio Blog giveaway arrived yesterday!  The earrings are called Tracy Iolite Earrings and were made by Jewelry By Jackie. 

When Stephanie at Crystal Allure contacted me to let me know that I had won the earrings, you KNOW I was thrilled, but in the back of my head I thought I remembered that someone else had won.  Well it turns out that indeed someone else did win, but never contacted her to claim the prize. I’m feeling extra special! 

I love everything about the earrings, check out that wire work, yep, Jackie made the leaf connector, as well as the ear wire. They are so elegant, the iolite briolette gemstone is lovely, its blue-violet in color and will go perfect with so many things – I’m wearing them today (big surprise huh!).  

Thank you to both Crystal Allure and Jewelry By Jackie from one happy bead lover, gorgeous earring wearing mama!
 

Pretty Things

Hey take a look at my recent creations, the first pair of earrings I made as a gift for a friend.  They are just adorable made with Swarovski bicone and round crystals along with a Turkish silver connector.  Perfect for Spring!   

This pair I made for myself, I needed a pair of all silver baubles and came up this,  I just love these stunning Bali beads, what detail.  So cute.

My friend Curtis was telling me recently about how his wife won a trip for the family to Boston, and Los Angeles. She has even won a trip to PARIS, money, electronics and money. I lamented that I never win anything – well all that has changed, last week I found out that I won a pair of earrings from a blog contest that I entered! I’m giddy with excitement and can’t wait for them to arrive.  I will share pictures once my goodies arrive. Yippee!