A Blast From the Past

Happy Fourth of July!  Since my day will be spent trying to whip my house into shape to put on the market instead of barbecuing and watching fireworks, I thought I'd share a blast (ha!) from the past.  Hope you have a safe Fourth, and enjoy the story of my car's near demise from cannons.

Birthday Dinner and Bead Shopping

It was only after seeing this photo that my husband finally admitted that
he's finally been outgrown.

My baby turned 21 this past week.  (Imagine me, fainting dramatically onto the sofa.)

We drove up to visit him on Friday, to take him out to a proper birthday dinner and celebrate.  Much good food and great conversation ensued.

And then on Saturday, I visited two bead stores in his city that were new to me. Don't worry, sweet husband got to go to a couple of stores that interested him as well.

The haul from store #1 vintage lucite rings, Swarovski cubes, rhinestone chain, wooden discs, dyed jade and a rockin' cool mermaid in carved resin

The mermaid's back

Store #2 yielded some seed beads, which aren't that interesting to look at, so I'll spare you the photo.

So it was the boy's birthday, but we all got some new goodies!

A Fun (Non-Beady) Birthday Breakfast

If you're looking for my Challenge of Color reveal, go here!

Yesterday was my birthday.  It wasn't one of the big decade days, but we no longer put one candle per year on a cake, for fear of setting off smoke alarms, having the fire department show up, alarming the neighbors, and then not having enough cake to share with the neighborhood (plus, with all those candles, the cake would be covered in wax, and no one wants that!)

I did do something shameless and begged put out a request for folks on Lori Anderson's Bead Soup Cafe page to like my Beadsong Jewelry facebook page. Shameless, I admit it.  (By the way, if you haven't liked my FB page, maybe you'd consider it....I know, SHAMELESS!!!)

After my shameless plea, sweet husband took me out for a lovely breakfast out at a fun local restaurant known for its kitschy decor (they sponsor an Ugly Lamp Contest each year at the State Fair and put the winners on the restaurant tables) and its ample servings.

Kitschy decor, did you say?  This was how the sugar packets were stored on our table:

I'm not sure what happened to these dogs' bodies, or why it makes sense
for them to be on a piece of toast....

Ample portions, did you say?  These were our breakfasts:

This photo was taken on an angle because I was falling
over at the thought of trying to eat all of this food!

Do you see the size of those biscuits?!  Yes, those are biscuits.  Slabs o' biscuits. My first apartment wasn't that big.  You could slap four radial tires on one of those things and it would still be bigger than my first car.  

No, neither of us cleaned our plates.  But it was an epic start to a lovely day.

Happy Thanksgiving, Or What Happens After The Pie

Happy Thanksgiving!  I hope you are spending the day the way you wish.

In our house, the table is nearly set

The serving pieces are ready for the bird and the sides

even if the photo loaded sideways....

and after the pie (we're split evenly between pumpkin and pecan in our family), the dishes are washed (or at least piled artistically in the sink), and we're all sprawled like beached whales on the sofa watching football, here's what Mama will be doing:

mwahahahha!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving to each of you.  I am thankful for the joy, laughs, inspiration, and eye candy each of you have shared with me here through the past year.

Now, go eat some pie!!

We Have A Winner! (Okay, We Have Four!)

Y'all are just the best.  Seriously.  I had a blast celebrating my 100th blog post with you, and appreciated all the fun comments.

I've got some really exciting news to share with you, but I'll wait until tomorrow to do that, because today is all about THE GIVEAWAY!

Random.org generated the winning numbers.  Based on the order the names came up, I checked to see if that friend had expressed a preference among the beads.  If so, and if an earlier draw hadn't already claimed it, that person's name went on the bead.  I'm happy (and vaguely amazed) that there were no conflicting requests!

(Drumroll, please) Here are the results:

Karen Williams gets the green swirlies from Thornburg Bead Studio

  

Kristen gets the red lampwork earring pair from Fire Goddess

Michelle Bowman gets the daytime owl from Forever Young Creations 

(again, I swear the bead is upright, even if I can't get the photo to show that way to save my life!)

Christine Altmiller gets the night owl from Forever Young Creations

Ladies, please email me your address so that I can get these beauties off to you.  And thanks for hanging out with me!

It's My Blogday, and I Have Gifts for You!

This is the 100th post this blog!  You have no idea how grateful, gobsmacked, and downright tickled I am by the friendships, fun, and support everyone who has come by has added to my life.  When this started, I could not have guessed what a kick this would be!

And to celebrate, I have goodies to share from the loot I  liberated from bought at a bead show in Cincinnati this weekend.  

The show was a great trifecta -- it gave me a chance to shop for beads (my credit card only smoked from overuse a little bit), an opportunity to pick out some goodies to give away to some of the wonderful people who are patient enough to read these wacky rambles (bless your hearts!), and a chance to see my son, who goes to college in Cincinnati.  He indulged me and let me buy him lunch and groceries.

Oh, yeah, I said gifts, right?  Here are closeups of the four tidy little bundles (I apologize for the quality of the photos of the owl beads -- they have a beautiful luster glaze that was completely beyond my photographic abilities):

Cute little earring pair by Susan Barnes of Fire Goddess

Cool lampwork swirl discs from Nikki Thornburg-Lanigan
of Thornburg Bead Studio

A cute little daytime owl (who apparently didn't want his photo to be upright),
a handpainted ceramic from Forever Young Creations

A night owl, also a handpainted ceramic from Forever Young Creations

Would you like one of them?  Join the fun (you probably know the routine) -- leave a comment and get your name in the drawing once.  If you already follow this blog, or if you join as a new follower, let me know and your name is entered again.  Finally, if you share the news about this giveaway and tell me about it, that's another time your name goes into the hat.

If you have a preference of which package you might win, let me know -- I'll do my best to match the winners with their wish.  You guys ROCK!