Monday, April 30, 2007

Whirlwind Life

Hi there! I don't know where time goes, but it sure goes by quickly! My mom, and Chris got home on Saturday. Chris had gone to Colorado for work training and left Mina and I to fend for ourselves for a couple days. She was an awesome help. Mom had to have a blood transfusion before leaving the hospital and now is on oxygen 24/7 because any time she moves around her oxygen levels drop. The temperatures here are in the upper 80's and my body is struggling to adjust from being cold all the time to dealing with the heat. I need to move where it is about 75 and no humidity year round! That is certainly not Nebraska weather! Mina has a music concert tonight and I have a GS leader meeting tomorrow night. That is about it until the weekend gets here again~thank heavens! I was gone every night last week and was absolutely exhausted yesterday. I often dream of a vacation that involves no phones and not leaving the house for several days. Late sleeping, long baths, catching up on all the books piled up in my house~you get the idea. That just never happens! I am going to add to my blog what books I am reading, just so you have an idea of what I enjoy reading, and if you feel inclined to do so..let me know what you are reading.

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Tropical Splash Necklace and Earrings

If you liked the Tropical Thursday set, it is now on Etsy. Take a look won't you?!

Friday, April 27, 2007

Bubbles

This is Bubbles. She is the newest member of our house. Our daughter Mina, decided in January she wanted a hampster. We decided that as this was something she wanted (we weren't crazy about the idea) that she had to earn the money to get it. So she started doing extra chores to earn extra money and saved her allowance and we were able to get Bubbles last week when we went to the wedding. She is a dwarf hamster and so there were some housing adjustments that had to be made because Mina had planned on getting a larger hamster, but we all fell in like with Bubbles when we saw her at Petco. So now you have met all of the Haussler's except me~for some strange reason there are not many pics of me (imagine that!)! Have a nice weekend!

Memorial Bracelet


This is a bracelet that I made for a friend. She lost her Dad to cancer in December, and we came up with this idea together to make a memorial family bracelet in his remembrance. It also includes the birthstones of all of her brothers and sisters, as well as her Mom and Dad's birthstones. I made 2 others similar to this for her sisters and one for her Mom that had her name and her husband's name with their birthstones and the February stone which was the month they were married. They turned out lovely and brought the family closer together as a link to the love they share and the memories shared with their Dad.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Let's Go Tropical


Here it is...the set inspired by the bracelet I made Mina. I love the tropical colors and the fushia and lime greens are beautiful together. (My photos often don't do justice to the jewelry.) The cording is braided hemp and there are resin, fringe, seed, mother of pearl, and shell beads in it. There are also two crystals, which I just had to sneak in! Have a Tropical Thursday!

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Hospital Waiting

Hello, I didn't post yesterday as I had spent about 18 hours at the hospital and was pretty brain drained by the time I got home. I did manage to start a new necklace project that is similar to the Tropical Island bracelet which I made for Mina, I will post it as soon as I am finished. I spent Monday night at the hospital in the sleep lab. For those of you who aren't familiar with what a sleep lab is...it is where you are tested for sleep disturbances and disorders. I personally have hypopnea which is that my breathing is so slow in sleep that my oxygen levels drop. My brother has sleep apnea which causes him to stop breathing altogether in sleep. My parents have a combination of the two, but have not been tested for it. I had to go in to have the CPAP levels figured out so I can get my machine for home to help me sleep better. That is a machine that forces compressed air back through a mask you wear while sleeping. Not the most pleasant way to sleep, but the sleep I have had lately has been more unpleasant. A lesser of two evils. Then after the sleep study I spent the day with my Dad in the waiting room of the hospital while my Mom had her knee replacement replaced. She had the first one done last August and due to pretty bad osteoporosis the pin slipped and they had to go back in and remove the first one. She had the bottom of the knee replacement taken out and a new one put in with a longer pin that goes further down her bone to help support the new replacement. It was a day of tedium and bad tv channels. I did start work on a fringed purple bracelet with pearls and abalone shell so that will also get posted when I finish it and I will put it up on Etsy. So it is off to work I go, have a great day (do you hear dwarves whistling?)!

Monday, April 23, 2007

Tropical Island Bracelet

Here is the bracelet I made for Mina last night. She complained that the shells were poking her so I will probably be reworking it. I really like the colors together though and the shells add a nice summer touch.

Good Morning!

Hello! I hope that you had a nice weekend, we did but man am I tired! The wedding we went to Sat nite was beautiful and elegant. The couple were so in love it was just bursting from them~a wonderful thing to witness at a wedding! We did a bit of shopping and stopped at a bead store in Lincoln, so I will be showing you the things I am making with the items from there. I got a couple skull beads made from wood that I am going to make into a Pirates of the Carribean tribute of some sort. I love those movies~they are so much fun! We arrre! big pirate fans at our house, and have even had a pirate party with our GS that included plastic sword fighting, treasure maps, and eye patches! I made a bracelet for Mina last night that had a lovely salmon colored mother of pearl circle and it also had seashells and apple green chalk turquoise. I will put the pic up tonight when I get home.

Friday, April 20, 2007

Happy Hug Friday!

Isn't morning nicer when the sun rises and the sky is blue! Just makes you a bit happier, now if we could do something about this having to work thing that gets in the way of all of our other plans! We are going to the wedding this weekend and it is at Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha. I am excited to go to stay in the Doubletree Hotel and go to the museum (I really need to get out more!). Mina is excited and she got asked to be a junior bridesmaid in her Uncle Nathan and his fiance' Bridget's wedding next August. Mina was so thrilled, she is already wanting me to make jewelry to accessorize the dress she doesn't yet have. We have to take her somewhere and try to figure out what size she will need. She is just between the girls sizes and the junior sizes. I had good news yesterday. I got my sales tax exempt # from the state, so I guess it is official now~I am a business owner! Yikes, that's slightly frightening! I had the nice nurses and secretaries at the Midwest Ear, Nose, and Throat office express their interest in my jewelry yesterday, and that is always a pick me up! (I am going through allergy shots to help alleviate my symptoms and get off the 4 meds I take for them.)
Happy Friday and have a great weekend! Have you hugged someone today? I had a very nice hug from my sweet daughter this am and I say lets pass it on, there is not nearly enough hugging going on these days!

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Mint Juliep Bracelet


This is a bracelet I made last night and I will be posting it on Etsy shortly. It has lovely mint green beads and freshwater pearls with silver beads and rings. The clasp has a heart on each side of the toggle and there are some beads that look like robins eggs (at least I thought so when I picked them out at Beads & Botanicals). The smooth mint beads just between the silver stripy balls look like they have an inner light in them, they could almost glow in the dark! I think it turned out lovely, what do you think?

Girl Scouts Helping Out


Hello again! These are my Girl Scouts (with one absent from the photo) and this was at our meeting on Monday night. We (with the help of other GS troops in Blue Hill and one lone, brave Boy Scout) helped put up pinwheels for the United Way. This is Child Abuse Awareness week and that is why there are pinwheels up around the area. We had a beautiful night to do this and when we were finished (the top photo) the sun was starting to set and the breeze was blowing the pinwheels and it was so beautiful! We had a nice turn out of girls and leaders to put them on the lawn of the library in Blue Hill and when we finished our meeting we enjoyed mushy, melting ice cream bars (without major clothing damage!)~YUM!

Monday, April 16, 2007

New on Etsy


This is my "Citrus Sensation Bracelet" and it is now for sale on Etsy. Check it out!

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Go Bobcats!

Here is the Bobcat paw print necklace I learned to make at Beads & Botanicals on Thursday. It is a very simple design and easy to make. The paw bead and the little floating spacer beads were made by Jodie Marshall from Lincoln, NE. I have a couple more coming so I will show those to you after I get them worked up.

My piece of the ocean

This was one of the first pieces I made when I started beading. It has a mother of pearl flower in the center and various blue crystal dangles around it. There are mother of pearl stars and a moon on the ends. It is on a neck wire so it moves as I do. The original idea was so the beads could be moved around and switched out with other beads, but I got to liking this placement and disliking keeping track of the beads when they were off my necklace. So this one now stays this way. It always reminds me of the bright blue oceans in the Caribbean.



These were the beads that I would switch out with the blue ones above, but I ended up just getting another neck wire and keeping them this way. The thing I loved about these ideas was how different you could make one base necklace look.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Funny people

Yesterday, I spent most of the late morning/afternoon running errands. But my joy was getting to go to Beads & Botanicals, and Carla taught me a new design for a necklace (I will post the pic as soon as I pry it off Mina's neck) which took all of about 3 minutes. There were other customers in and out while I was there, but I just love going to the bead store. I always tell Carla, "I feel creative just walking in the door". It is like an instant happy moment. We got to talking about funny things people say and I wanted to share with you so you could have a giggle on this Friday the 13th. One day I was in the bead store and there were a couple ladies that came in who had not been there before. They asked Kris (Carla's assistant) if the beads came punched with the holes in them or if they did it in the shop themselves. My husband Chris (also a beader) and I about died trying to hold in the laughter. After they left, we kidded Kris that they had elves (no disrespect intended to elves) hidden in the back punching holes in all their beads (there are at least 30,000+ beads in the store)! Then I was telling Carla about the time we were in the pet store and they were raising an alligator or crocodile for the zoo, but it was small at the time and they would get it out for kids to touch and look at it. There was a lady in there with a bunch of little kids and the guy had it out and was holding the mouth shut so the kids could look at it. Her words and I quote, "Does it bite?". DUH?! As Carla said yesterday, no he had attended alligator obedience school and had been trained not to! I love Bill Engval for his observations on the Here's Your Sign stuff, because that happens all the time and just makes you want to slap your forehead. Anyway, happy Friday the 13th! The 13th is my lucky # because that is the day that my husband first kissed me, so I don't consider it bad! Besides I have had way worse luck on all the other days of the month!

Thursday, April 12, 2007

New on Etsy

Here is a new piece I am listing on Etsy today. It has matching earrings and there are lots of lovely topaz/browns/golds/coppers in the piece. There are matching earrings on this one also, and they didn't refuse to be photographed (see previous post)!

My hearts...

Yeah! It is Thursday! Thursday a favorite day? It is for me, because it is my day off from work and my day to do what I want (spelled need) to do! So I started out with bagging up GS badges, and making a list of the ones I still need to get for my girls. Next I added up what it will cost us to go to camps this summer (spelled UGH!) and a list of what some of the girl can do to finish up work on a couple other badges we have started. Then I fought with my jewelry, camera, and my inability to photograph my jewelry! Now I am writing to you! Busy morning considering it is only now 8:15 am. This lovely (though my pic doesn't do it justice) necklace was one I was inspired to make around Valentine's day. I received an honorable mention (thank you, thank you-no applause please:) )in my first ever jewelry show at the Central NE Bead Show in Kearney, NE in March. The lovely hearts were hand crafted by the very talented Carla Kocher, who owns Beads and Botanicals in Hastings (have you been to her blog and website? I have the link on my page to the left). She makes beautiful silver and copper pieces and I came up with the idea above to connect the two hearts with some silver jump rings and then put the rest together (also modeled after an idea Carla had-she is brilliant!) with red jasper, snowflake obsidian, black Swarovski crystals, gray pearls, and various sterling silver beads. It is hung with black cording knotted around silver rings. I love this piece and I was pleased to have it borrowed by Kristin Kohmetscher to wear to her first prom. I have made several pieces for Kristin, so having her wear this one was great publicity for me, and I have earrings that I made especially for her to wear with it but they refused to be photographed this morning. One of them went so far as to hide in a shoe! My I am funny this morning-must be the lack of sleep I am getting lately due to a cold. Anyway, I hope I have made you smile, and have a happy Thursday!

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Mina's Good Fortune

This is a picture of my wonderful, supportive husband Chris, and my sweet, goofy daughter Mina. I write today about the lucky streak Mina has had recently. Two weeks ago, she conned her dad into taking her to the Herberger's kids day activities. She had heard about it from her substitute teacher Mrs. Waechter and so they went to Herberger's (similiar to Dillards or Yonkers for those not from central Nebraska). She got to do all sorts of fun stuff and turns out she can guess a jar of jelly beans pretty well. She had guessed 200 beans and there were 214 in the jar. She won some fabulous prizes (I sound like I am on a game show!) and today we found out that she won the coloring contest too! So she got a very nice stopwatch and a book about being a record breaker.
No new jewelry yet, I have been working on my Girl Scout stuff. We have our end of the year tea party (similiar to the Blue/Gold banquet for Boy Scouts), and so I am working on badge wrapup and decorations for that. I also am working on camp registrations for summer/fall and summarizing the girls' activities so that I can start a data base on the computer for them. Never enough time, always too many things to do seems to be the normal for all of our lives. I am sure reader, that you feel the same pressures. We just have to be grateful for having so many blessings heaped upon us! Happy Tuesday!

Monday, April 9, 2007

Royal Citrus Mother of Pearl Fringe Bracelet


Here is one of the new bracelets I have on Etsy. This was one of the bracelets I made over the weekend. I made part of the fringe loopy and part of it spiky. It has crystals and other beads tucked here and there in the fringe. I love the combination of the orange and blues.

Sunday, April 8, 2007

Easter Bunny and Mina

Here is my sweet, silly daughter Mina Rose with the Easter Bunny. He makes an annual visit to our gathering, aren't we lucky?! The kids love it, though only the little ones haven't done the math to figure out who is missing from the gather. As long as they want to believe, we will continue the affair!

New items for sale

I have just finished posting 4 new items for sale on Etsy.com. Just click my link to my shop to go see them! Yes, I spent most of my time over the weekend beading my fingers off! There are two bracelets I made this weekend along with two others I had already finished. Our family get together was spent indoors due to the snow and cold temps. It was pretty difficult for the kids to hunt eggs, and they didn't get to spend much time at the tree swings where you normally can't pry them away from. They did wholly bugger hunt last night in the dark with flash lights and glow in the dark bracelets. They had as much time scaring each other as the older kids had scaring them! It is hard to get them off on their own when they are moving through the yard as one big lump of scared kids. Hope you had a nice time with your families as well.

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Burr!

Good morning! Maybe that should be cold morning! Ugh, I hate going back to cold and blustery after having warm and beautiful. The sun is making an appearance this morning so hopefully that will make it seem warmer and we can hope they are wrong about the snow we are supposed to get tomorrow. I have been working on my beaded earrings to go with the citrus sunrise bracelet, but not getting very far. We will be gone this weekend for our annual Easter trek, so I will be silent (at least here!) until Sunday. We spend Thanksgiving and Easter with Chris' (my husband) family at his Aunt Janet and Uncle Les' place near Wellfleet, Nebraska. They live on an old Boy Scout camp, and have turned it into an Native American education center. There is a museum of fossils and artifacts, a gift shop, and cabins that can be rented. They reconstructed an Earth Lodge and you can stay in it also. They serve buffalo stew and give tours and educational presentations on the lives of Native Americans. There have been visitors from all over the world and they have almost constant visits from school groups. We stay in the museum when we go out, and Mina thinks it is fun to sleep under the huge buffalo head that is hanging on the wall! Janet and Les also have a beautiful sundial and a medicine wheel on the top of a tall hill, so the view is amazing. It brings into focus the meaning of sunrise service on Easter morning. It is also a fabulous place for stargazing.
So that is where we will be going, there are usually about 40 of us that come and go over the weekend, and the little kids love to hunt Easter eggs in the woods. We also have a tradition known as woolly bugger hunting (basically hide and seek in the dark), that dates back to when Chris was little. His cousin Troy and he got scared silly when their Grandma Meyers' dog came charging at them out of the darkness and they nearly wet themselves trying to get back in the house! So they always said the woolly buggers were after them, and that is how a tradition starts. We have tons of great memories from the times we spend at Janet's and I wish you the same for whatever plans you have for Easter. Just remember that the true Easter meaning has nothing to do with jelly beans and Easter bunnies and everything to do with God's amazing sacrifice for us. Happy Easter!

Monday, April 2, 2007

Citrus Sunrise Bracelet

Here it is! Sunshine on my wrist! Enjoy!

Beautiful Monday

Isn't it gorgeous outside today?! I love spring time and the renewal of life it brings. I love the fuzzy outlines of the new leaves on the trees and the wheat fields that are so green they hurt your eyes to look at them. I made another fringed bracelet Saturday night and am now working on the earrings to go with it. It is in sunny yellows, oranges, and just a touch of lime greens. It goes with the outfit I am wearing to the wedding on the 21st. If I combine the sunny bracelet with my garden bracelet, I could wear springtime every day! I have Girl Scouts tonight, did you know I am a leader? I have 8 girls and we are juniors. We have 6 fourth graders, 1 fifth grader, and a sixth grader. We are getting things wrapped up for the year, tonight we are making centerpiece bouquets for our annual GS End of the Year Tea Party. It gives us a chance to play dress up with a guest and the girls receive all of their badges and prizes earned for the year. I am so proud of my girls, and love being with them. They keep me young and laughing, and hope to continue to work with them for many years to come. I will post the pics of my sunny bracelet when I get home tonight, so be sure to watch for it!

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