Saturday, May 31, 2008

Fishing Pictures

Here is Mina with her biggest pike. Larger than the one Dad caught!
Here is Mina in the canoe with Chris taking the picture from the back of the canoe. She caught a fish seconds later.
This is Mina and Chris on the fire tower near Lake Hackberry near Valentine.




Friday, May 30, 2008

Bible School, Fishing update, & Picnics...

Another week has gone flying by, and here we are again! Chris and I have been teaching Bible school all week, which has pretty much taken over our evenings. Chris is the storyteller, which puts his theatrical training in college to good use, and I am teaching crafts (shocking, huh!). The theme for the week is "Surfin' through the Scriptures" which has been fun with the beach music, beach themed crafts, and Flame' the Pink Flamingo puppet keeping everyone in line! We have made sand picture frames (and taken all the kids' pictures with our beach hut background), flip flop wind catchers using real flip flops (I LOVE the Dollar Tree!) and leis for the tails on them, small foam surf boards decorated with stickers, and tonight we will make tissue paper fish. Tomorrow night is our program, and we hope the weather cooperates so we can do the planned potluck picnic afterward. The kids are thrilled by the idea of a picnic~do people not picnic anymore? With fast food so convenient, we picnic often, by hitting the designated eating establishment and then going to the park. What about you? When was your last picnic? It is a great way to get out of the house, not have to cook, and reconnect with nature and your family! Chris and Mina returned late Tuesday afternoon from the fishing trip to Valentine, and Mina had out fished them all! Grandpa even threatened her that she wouldn't get to ride home in HIS pickup if she out fished him, but he gave in and brought her back. Todd (Chris's brother) caught the biggest pike, but it sounds like they all had fun and they took some beautiful pictures so I will get some posted up. Jewelry has been slow this week, and we have been trying to get stuff ready for the Cottonwood Festival which starts two weeks from today. You can find more info here www.cottonwood-festival.org . We are going to be part of the Graham Gallery artist tent. Three days of art, entertainment, and fun, stop by and check it out if you are in the area!

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

A Spring of Rainbows...

Good Wednesday to you! This morning in Nebraska the sky is beautiful. We have mostly cloudy skies, but it is changing quickly. When I got out of the car at work, the sky had the puff ball clouds that look like hail clouds, and off to the south and west the sky was very dark from rain coming in. To the north and east the sky had puffy white clouds highlighted by sunshine and bright light blue sky. By the time I left the station to come over to the office (where I spend too much of my life!), there was a beautiful half rainbow in the sky lit up against the dark blue of the storm clouds. Very pretty, and very much Nebraska, where if you don't like the weather wait five minutes for something else! Right now, there is a heavy shower going on, and by the time I have typed that it is over! I really love this time of year because, everything is green, blooming, and fresh and new. I am even starting to enjoy being outside as my allergy treatments are working, and after years of being kept in the house, I am getting back outside. Chris, Mina, and I celebrated the last day of school last Friday with a lunch picnic in the park with our carpooling group. Very beautiful, and Mina and I got sunburned. Saturday, another beautiful day, we went to Pier Park in Grand Island, where Chris and Mina puttered with fishing and I beaded in the shade after a lunchtime picnic. Last night we enjoyed supper on our deck, the first time since Mina was a toddler! The yard is so beautiful with fruit trees blooming, flowers and trees greened up and Mina and Chris thrilled to have me outside. So I hope wherever you are, you are enjoying the small things that the seasons bring. On the beading front, Chris has been making beautiful tab shaped bead sets, and I am making a spiral rope that is taking me forever to finish! It goes with the sea charm fringe bracelet that ended up too big, and is now being converted to a sea charm fringed necklace. It doesn't help that I have Bible school at church next week that I am craft leader for, so that was how I spent last night. Oh well, once I get the projects put together for samples, name tags made, I should be able to be back at the beading. I was beading Monday night, and our cat Sabrina, who has "issues" too numerous to mention, crawled into my bead project box and laid right on top of the beads I was working with. That pretty much ended the beading for the evening! I would call that a "subtle" hint that petting was in order!

Thursday, May 15, 2008

New Pictures

While I had the camera outside, I took a picture of the corner garden by our house. I didn't do the golden mass of flower justice. Unfortunately, the dry sticks were our lavender plant that winter killed.
This is our creeping phlox that is blooming in front of our house.
We just had a quick burst of rain, and look what it left behind! This faces to the south east from our front yard across our neighbor's yards. Very pretty! Talk about up to date pictures! It doesn't get faster than that!
Mina's first butterflies of the season hatched last week when it was so cold, so we kept them in the house and gave them sugar water until it warmed up. Here Mina is releasing a swallowtail on Mother's day before church.

These are the dragonfly earrings I mentioned. Their wings are actually silver, but I guess the natural sunlight made them look more golden. They all are made with Swarovski crystals.

This is the necklace I made for my friend Leslie. I really love the copper chain, and then I made wrapped links with magnesite and copper beads. She had purchase the teardrop pendant when we spent her birthday together, and I wire wrapped it and added the zigzag of wire down the front and up the back of it.
This is the copper bracelet I made with some of the left over chain from Leslie's necklace. I wire wrapped teal cathedral beads into the links (not fun!) and there are some Swarovski crystals in matching tones in the center link.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Workin for the weekend...

Happy Midweek to you! I am thankful that today is Wednesday, why is that important loyal reader? Because I am taking the rest of the week off! Thursday is my normal day "off" (spelled running around like a chicken with my errands, shots, etc.) and Mina ends another school year on Friday. It has become a tradition for me to take that day off, go to her grade promotion at school, and then we celebrate with lunch out. The last couple of years we have joined up with our good friends and made a big celebration with our two families. I always enjoy the summers, with the different schedule, more time with Mina, and then at the end of it looking forward to going back to my Thursday's alone to run around crazy again. Last Thursday, I had sinus infection (I found out on Tuesday) so they wouldn't give my allergy shots to me so I got to stay home on Thursday which hadn't happened since February or December! It was pretty wonderful puttering around all day in my jammies! On Saturday, Stuhr Museum in Grand Island has "visit for free" day, which we have made an annual event. The first year we went because Girl Scouts were retiring flags and we had never seen that done before. We ended up being included in the ceremony, and the Civil War reenactment group were there to help as they were putting on a presentation also. They were really awesome. The bugler was amazing and the cannon was also very moving. So we will likely visit the museum on Saturday. Mina loves the Railroad town, which has buildings which are open to the public with people in period dress, doing the jobs they would have done in the "old days". So needless, to say I am very happy that I have a few days off from work. On the beading front, Chris has been "flaming" his fingers to the bone each evening making buttons, bead sets, and even a blown glass bottle last night. I fell at Mina's music concert on Monday, displaying my inherent gracefulness for all to see! I tripped over the conductor platform for the band director! In my defense, it was the same color as the floor, and I was very surrounded by others leaving after the concert ended. Consequently, my wrists, shoulders, back, and knees were killing me yesterday. That didn't help me to bead! But I finished up a beautiful copper and magnesite necklace for my friend Leslie, used some of the copper chain left from her necklace, added some pretty teal cathedral beads from beads and botanicals, and came up with a beautiful bracelet. Sunday afternoon, I made three pair of very pretty dragonfly earrings, and I made a cute ring from a pile of seed beads I didn't want to put away! That worked quite well. I have a necklace in the works from a fringed bracelet that was too big to be a bracelet when I finished it. So adding a seed beaded rope and some of the lovely flowers from The Hole Bead Shoppe I am converting it into a necklace. Obviously, that was what it wanted to be all along! It is really pretty in many shades of blue and silvers and has sterling silver sea life charms tucked into the fringe. I will get pics up soon of the ring, earrings, and the copper projects I finished.

Friday, May 9, 2008

Wonderful Surprises in the Mail...

I picked up my mail this morning, and there was a wonderful package in it! I just love getting packages in the mail, and after consulting the address label, found that this wonderful package came from one of my favorite bead supply stores. I have mentioned the Hole Bead Shoppe before, the gals there have fabulous Lucite flowers and leaves which work so well for my fringing fascination! The last order I placed, I picked up some beautiful leaves in burgundy and lilac thinking of a necklace or bracelet for fall, and fabulous little yellow maple leaves that my nephews (all my "kids" (except Mina ironically enough) love to go through my bead boxes) really loved. They are even curved like they have just fallen off a tree! So anyway, back to the package, I opened it thinking there was something missing from my last order that had been back ordered and I just didn't pay attention due the fact I was busy oohing over my new beads. But no, they were treating me to a Large bag of mixed Lucite, flowers, leaves, and butterflies! They mentioned in their very nice letter, that they saw on my blog all the nice things I had said about their shop, and wanted to thank me for telling all of you about them. Wow! Today is Friday, the sun is out, and I have just received one of the nicest compliments I have had in awhile! So this blog is for you Michael, Kelli (love your emails by the way), and Tarlee (check out your Lucite flowers in the rings I have been making posted earlier on the blog)! Thank you so much and I will definitely show you what I have made with the beautiful bag of beads! Check out their website at www.theholebeadshop.com! They have had some beautiful work in recent magazines which is also shown on their site. So go check them out, and Thanks So Much again guys!

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Life gets in the way...

Mina's Girl Scout sash front, this is where all the "official" patches go. We have earned a bunch in the two years as Junior level scouts!
The back of Mina's sash where all the "activity/fun" patches go. We attend a great many events with the girls so they can experience as much fun as possible!
This is my Girl Scout Troop. Chris is in the back row, middle row, Sydney, me, and Donna, then the front row is Mina, Emily, Danea, Adana, and Chyanna. They are a fun bunch of girls, and aren't the girls lucky to have 3 leaders for their troop?! My mom made the bouquet of flowers on the table.
Hi, long time no post. Sorry about that, I have had the hands full lately, so I couldn't type! We had our end of the year banquet Tuesday night for Girl Scouts. The girls wanted to do a potluck banquet, which was wonderful. We had pepperoni pizza, 2 pasta salads, fried chicken, a mexican chip dip, bbq little smokies, mac n cheese, lemonade cake, Samoa cookie brownies, cupcakes, and kettle corn. Nice variety, and yummy! The girls always get a kick out of reviewing what we have done for the year, and we get them talking and telling their guest what they have done. This often illicits giggles from everyone and trying to talk all at once. Next month we are taking the girls for a 2 night stay at Platte River State Park near Gretna, NE. The park is beautiful, and we are going to go horseback riding, swimming at the water park at Mahoney State Park (less than 15 miles from Platte River S.P.) and just looking forward to loads of fun with the girls. I think I am just as excited as they are! Last weekend we went to Lincoln for our nephew Nick's confirmation, and on Saturday we went to Omaha for the Hot Shop's open house. That is a building in the downtown area of Omaha that has been converted into artist studios, a glass blowing forge, a blacksmith forge, and much more that we didn't even get to. I loved watching the glass blowing, and we got to visit with several glass artists. Chris was very happy! He is going to go back next March for a class with Leah Fairbanks (you can see her work at www.leahfairbanks.com). He really likes her floral bead work and wants to learn and take classes which are pretty limited in this part of the country. We met and talked with Margie Shanahan (her work is at www.margiesbeads.biz) who has a studio at the Hot Shops. What a wonderful, fun lady! She had some fish beads made into jewelry with day glow spoon lures from Cabela's. Too cute! I bought some beautiful green sparkle and tiger print encased beads from her which I am itching to work with. Nick's confirmation on Sunday was really nice, except that I was coming down with sinus infection and feeling lousy. Well, I actually got to stay home today on my day off, instead of going to Hastings for allergy shots and errands, and I have lots of things to occupy my day at home before I go get kids from school at 3:30. My good friend Leslie is our usual carpool angel, but she had to "wing" off to help hubby Randy work cattle today so I am doing the driving. I really enjoy listening to the kids, mostly they forget there is an "adult" present and it is so funny to hear them chatter to each other about their day. Happy Mother's day to all the other impossibly busy ladies out there (if I don't get another post in before then), and not just Mom's that should get to celebrate, there are many wonderful women in every child's life that don't get any credit when it rolls around to Mother's Day. Aunt's, Big Sisters, Friends, Grandmas, Neighbors, and special Bead Shop Owners come to mind. You ladies are important to all of us, and even if they don't make cards to celebrate you, I do!

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