Design of the Month (April)

Here is a sneak peek at the Design of the Month (April)

The Cupcake Fairy!
(cake tester)

The Cupcake Fairy Cake Tester will let you know when your cakes, muffins and cupcakes are cooked just right!
This little "chocolate" brown Fairy is adorned with a little pink cupcake on her tummy. She permanently sits on top of a stainless steel mandrel (about 4 1/2" long)

**PLEASE NOTE**
The cupcake holder is NOT included.
BUT, for each cupcake fairy purchased, a ticket will go into a drawing for the cupcake holder, to be given away on April 30th.

I will also have a tutorial on how the make to cupcake holder later this week, if you can't wait...

You can order a Cupcake Fairy now, over on my website (Design of the Month page)

A little reminder...

Don't forget about Earth Hour tomorrow night, 8:30-9:30pm local time...

Seedy

Look what arrived at my door last week...SEEDS!

So what am I planting this year?

*Beets (I love pickled beets!)

*Sweet white corn

*Zucchini

*Basil (homemade pesto)

*Jack O'Lanterns

*Sunflowers

*LOTS of different kinds of Zinnias (They grow great here in the Summer heat)

I'll buy my tomato and pepper plants from the nursery.
This weekend I'll get out there and get those raised beds ready for planting.

Come back on Monday, I'll have a sneak peek at next months "Design of the Month"
I think you'll like it! At least I hope so...
Have a great weekend!

ox

Oh DEER

There has been a family of five deer hangin' around here for a few months now.
This morning I saw this guy out my front window...

Missing his right antler...wonder what that does to his equilibrium?

My Favorite

Anthony put a few pictures on Flickr...
This one is my favorite...

On the bead front, I'm working on getting some new beads up (hopefully very soon)
I'm a little backed up with an order I'm working on, but I'm almost done.
Happy Hump Day!
ox

Spring Sprouts

A couple months ago when we took a small road trip, Anthony found some cactus growing along the side of the road. He insisted we take a couple clippings to see if they would grow at home.

So we packed them carefully in the cooler with wet paper towels to keep them fresh, which resulted in a lot of fine needle in both Anthony & my hands

(we spent hours in the hotel room removing them)

Once we returned home, I headed to the nursery to get advise on how to transplant cactus.
First they said make a fresh cut, next let the cut dry out...really? Dry out? Won't they die?
They said no, that cactus can live along time without water...
Once they stop oozing that slimy stuff, wet the cutting area and dip in growing hormone powder.
Then plant in a well draining cactus mix.

They said cactus take a long time to root, about 6 months.
But look...they are sprouting new growth! I don't know if they rooted or not, but I'm assuming so...

Because I had a hard time keeping them from falling over in their pots, I stuck toothpicks through the bottoms of them to help hold them up.

I wasn't sure if Anthony could be a good foster dad or not (busy college kid) so I kept one here (the ugly one) and sent the other one home with him.

(picture of Anthony's)

His is doing better than mine.

What a fun souvenir!

Weekend fun?

Can you guess what I did this weekend?
Here is a little clue...I used this tool (with scary sharp blades)

Then I added a little of this...

Any guesses yet?

How about this picture....(the before)

Can you guess?

I removed WALLPAPER!

Yes, you heard right... wallpaper (don't judge me)

When we built our house 13 years ago, wallpaper was popular. Ha

13 years ago little did I know, you were suppose to seal the drywall before applying wallpaper (who knew, not I)

So after many hours of puncturing wallpaper and then misting it with a mixture of 1/2 fabric softener & 1/2 water (they say it works better than the wallpaper removal stuff) Plus it smells better.

I said, bye bye wallpaper...
Bye bye watering cans, bye bye little shovels, bye bye my little garden in bloom...

Now, Kurt needs to texture the wall and then I'll paint.

I'm thinking white for the bead board, but I haven't decided if I should paint the walls a light grayish blue or a very light pale yellow?

I've got a few days to decide...

decisions, decisions...

We also went to the movies, we saw Knowing...it was pretty good.
Have a great Monday!
ox

Spring?

We woke up to a dusting of white stuff. In Spring? In California?

The sun is out now and it's melting fast...

Along with the snow last night, came thunder and lightning, not Molly's favorite thing, so I've been up with Miss Molly since 3am...I'm off to take a little nap now. Have a nice Sunday...

ox

We have a winner!

I went to Random.org to get our winner of the Earth Hour Necklace give away...
They picked number 24...


I counted down the list (3 times)....



and the winner.....



is....



Iceplant
who was the 24th post

Iceplant, send me your mailing address,
so I can send you your necklace to wear during Earth Hour.
Everyone had great ideas of how they will be spending the hour on March 28th 8:30-9:30pm.
So how will I be spending the hour?
A friendly game of gin rummy with Kurt by candle light of course...

Bar-ter

Bar-ter

To trade by exchange of commodities rather than by the use of money.

I'm looking for someone who loves to knit. Someone who loves to make "cute" little things, in exchange for lampwork beads made by yours truly.


My favorite knitter, Julie just started offering her pattern for these oh so cute "Egg Cosies" and I MUST have one!
Because I'm not a knitter, I thought it would be fun to do a little bartering! Egg Cosy for Beads!
I would love to have one before the Easter Bunny arrives in a few weeks!
The pattern is for those with intermediate knitting skills, so if this sounds like something you might be interested in, send me a email...


I'll be drawing the winners of the Earth Hour Necklace & Greenhouse Goody a little later today...
ox

Happy Spring!

The Bunny's Back

A new one just in time for Easter...
I made one into a pendant, plus a fun bracelet. You can find them over on my site.
ox

Molly Weights

Some people use ankle or wrist weights while exercising, I use "Molly" weights.
The perfect 5 lb addition to any workout.

Lucky Day

Have a "Lucky" Day!
Don't forget your green...
I'm off to have a bowl of Lucky Charms (not kidding)

ox

When did that happen?

Anthony sent me this picture of his office. I'm not sure when it happened...he was never this neat and organized when he lived at home. He has now inspired me to do some Spring cleaning of my own office.

I haven't made homemade bread in years, ever since I had one of those bread machines. You know the ones you throw in the ingredients, turn it on and walk away. Then in 3 or so hours you had warm homemade bread. I had a love/hate relationship with that machine, my taste buds loved it, but my thighs hated it.
Yesterday I was in the mood for homemade bread and because that bread machine is long gone...it was up to me and my Kitchen Aid mixer.
I found this recipe, which was very easy and it turned out really tasty too. There's nothing better than warm bread with a little butter.

While I was waiting for the bread to rise and bake, I played in the studio for a few hours. So I'm off to unload the kiln. But first I'm going to toast a thick slice of bread with homemade blackberry jam from the berries I picked last year from my friend, Donna's Berry Farm. If you are local, Donna has a U-pick farm, she grows the best raspberries and thornless blackberries, tomatoes and her sunflowers are to die for!
Have a great Monday...

Hippity Hoppity

Last weekend I made a new piece, to go with the Birdie (see post below) that I made a couple weeks ago. Do you see a theme here? I think I'm really in a Springy mood.
I use to have a lop eared bunny (named Basil) that looked just like her.
Maybe I'll make a baby chick this weekend, who knows...

Don't forget to signed up for the Give-away, drawing, I'll be drawing the winner next week.
Have a great weekend!
ox

Glad I waited...

A few weeks ago when Inkheart came to the theater, I almost broke down and saw it, but I really wanted to read (listen) to the book first. I'm not always a fan of the movies made from books.
I'm so glad I waited, Inkheart is so good, worth the wait...

It's almost time

(photos by Anthony)

It's almost my favorite time to go to Yosemite. Anthony and his college friends headed up last weekend to take pictures.

There is still a blanket of snow on the valley floor...

...people are still skiing. But soon the weather will be warming up, melting the snow...bringing the waterfalls to their peak.

On the bead front...Everything went much smoother yesterday with the shopping carts. I only had one "over sale", which was for the Leaping for Carrots Pendant. Because I'm re-making it, I've decided to take a few orders for "Leaping for Carrots" Pendants.
So if you'd like one too"leap" on over to my website (Jewelry Page)
ox

Scored

It's my favorite time of year. It's that time of year when you find those sweet little girls in front of the grocery store with all those boxes and boxes of yummy cookies. Watch out Thin Mints, this year I think I have a new favorite...Samoas

I should have a bead or two going on my website today (Bead Page)
xo

Working out the bugs...

ok...I knew it was going to take a little time for me to get use to my new website. For those of you that have websites, you know what I mean. But I thought after having my old site/server for 7 years, where I could update, load pictures, list items, etc...with my eyes closed. I thought this was going to be a piece of cake...well let me just say I have the best husband in the world! I am not very computer savy, so whenever I get stuck, he's there to save the day...

Using shopping carts are also new. Friday there was a slight problem with them. Even though I had everything set as ONE (1) item in stock. I guess it must take a couple minutes for things to update. So after sending out my newsletter, I guess things did not update as fast as I had hoped, selling multiple items when I only had one (1) in stock.
I have contacted everyone that this happened to and gave them the choice of refunds or remakes.
So today I'll be working on make-overs...as soon as I wake up...this time change is killing me.

Earth Hour Give-Away

(Lampwork Earth Heart with Sterling "SAVE" charm)

Mark your calendars, on March 28th the lights are going out everywhere (hopefully) Yes, you heard correctly...on March 28th at 8:30pm local time, I (and I hope you too) will be turning off the lights for one hour for Earth Hour. No TV...no computer...I know! What will we do?

To enter the "I Heart" the Earth Pendant give-away...simply leave a comment below in this posting telling me what you plan to do in the one hour of darkness...please keep it "G" rated, ha :o)
If you post anonymously, please put your full name in your posting, so I know who you are if you are the lucky winner. I will be using random.org to pick the winner on March 20th. Please one comment per person. Good Luck!

Today I have lots of goodies going on my website, I'm not sure on the time yet, I still need to photograph a couple things first. So until then...go leave a comment box for the Earth Hour necklace...
ox

Chirp...Chirp

Yesterday I played hooky...it was a rainy day, so I decided to stay in and play with clay...the result was this little "I Love Spring" bird.

ok, today I'm back on track, so it's up to the studio I go, hi ho hi ho...
ox

Bloomin' Bunny

It's feelin' very Springy here in the studio...lots of flowers and a few bunnies too...
I'm hoping to put some new things on my site very soon.

I've also been working on the website when I get an extra minute here and there, it's almost done!
Next I'll be working on getting those voting links over on the "Greenhouse Goody" page, thanks for those of you that have been hanging in there, I know it's been a pain...I really do appreciate it.
ox

Happy Birthday!

(Dad holding me, my sister Pam in back ground)
Happy Birthday Dad!

This weekend we headed to Santa Barbara to celebrate my dad's birthday. He loves pecan pie, but never gets one as a whole pie is too much for one person (not for me) So I made him single serving size pies and vacuum sealed them with my new favorite find, Reynolds Handi-Vac. I saw it at my grocer store (on sale for $5 plus it came with a couple bags) so I thought I'd give it a try....LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!

I vacuumed sealed the left over pecans...

Yes, I also made extra pie dough and vacuumed sealed that too...

After I froze the pies, I then vacuumed sealed them, did I mention I love to vac-seal? Fun!

I'm ready to make a trip to Costco, just so I can buy things to vacuumed seal...
Have a fun Monday!
ox