Wow, this week has really flown by! I can't believe we're starting a new week already. I didn't accomplish too much this week. I just took it easy and finished unpacking, cleaning out things, incorporating all my jewelry making paraphonalia into one area of the house (oh, for a bigger house with more storage!).
I just stocked the fridge today so no hurricanes please! Last time I did that Wilma came along and I lost everything I had just bought after getting back from NY!
I finished a couple of orders and mailed them off. I'm working on a couple of more. I'm trying to get myself ready for craft fairs but I haven't registered for any yet. How do you find them? I've searched the internet but how do you find the small church bazzars and pre-Christmas craft fairs and flea markets? That's the biggest problem!
The necklace above, is made with a very unusual stone that I found in a Rock & Gem Club show in Freeport, NY. It's called a view stone. It's Japanese and you can see some kind of view in each stone. This one is triangular and looks to me like the mountains in the west. Beautiful isn't it? Better in person! The chain is made with bright aluminum rings and is very light weight. The chainmaille weave is called the Barrel Weave. I'm selling it but I love looking at it and will find it difficult to part with!

Interesting Weekend

It started on Friday when my granddaughter passed her divers test. She has this little red sports car waiting for her and she didn't disappoint it. She passed the first time! She's happy now that she has some freedom.

My daughter and her husband went away for the weekend and I stayed with the two granddaughters. They are old enough to be no problem and great company most of the time! The first day we went to play glow-in-the-dark mini-golf at the mall. Interesting but fun. Then out to dinner at Out-Back Steakhouse.

Yesterday we all went to see "A Comedy of Errors" at the Orlando Shakespeare Festival. Even the 9 y/o enjoyed it! They did a great job and presented it as very funny.

I'm home now and looking forward to a week of rest and jewelry making. I have some orders that I have to catch up on. I also have to mail my passport application. The cruise will come up quicker than I think!

The above picture shows a piece of Long Island sea glass, picked from a beach in the Hamptons, wrapped with bronze wire and hung from a leather cord.

Laura's Art

I just had to post one of my granddaughter's art work! Isn't it beautiful? She's so very talented!

Home again

I'm back! The NY summer was very successful. I renewed old friendships and even made a few new ones! I went to a great block party in my old neighborhood and saw some people that I hadn't seen in years. It was a blast! I learned some new jewelry making techniques thanks to Cher at Studio 59 in Lake Ronkonkoma. Pictured here is one project done under her guidance.
The trip home went pretty smoothly and I got to spend a week with my daughter and grandson in South Carolina. He's getting so big and so smart! He's three and knows how to click and drag and drop on the computer!
One thing happened that made me worry and hurry home to Florida a few hours earlier than planned. I got a call from my neighborhood that the Terminex man had been to my house and found a broken valve in the bathroom that was spurting water into the air! The bathroom had water on the floor and was heading toward the room with my computer! He had turned the valve off and stopped the leak but the neighbor was unsure as to the extent of the damage caused by the leak. I had been gone for two months and who knew how long the valve had been spurting water? I made it from Irmo, SC to my home in Florida in 7 1/2 hours. I didn't stop for anything but gas and br breaks! When I arrived home I had imagined the worst. I figured I'd probably fall through the water rotted floor boards! To my utter amazement there was nothing wet except for the soaked bath mat and toilet seat cover! The leak must have just started! I examined floor boards, moldings, walls, furniture and carpet in the next room and there was no sign of any water damage! I'll have to call a plumber to fix the leak and maybe I'll need a new toilet but compared to what my imagination conjured up I'm getting off very easy! I'll never leave home without turning off the water, I'll never leave home without turning off the water..............................

Depression

I can't believe that this has happened! A very, what I thought was "rock solid and stable" gentleman tried to take his life today! I've admired his gentle and quiet ways for many years. Thank God he did not succeed! What a thing to do to your family. It's difficult to believe that someone can be so wrapped up in his depression that he doesn't think how much pain his actions could cause his family. Depression is such a terrible condition since many suffering people don't recognize the need for treatment. Most don't even realize that they are depressed. I think its more difficult for men to seek help for their feelings of depression because they are so reluctant to even talk about feelings at all.
I hope this is an eye opener and he'll seek the help he needs to cope with whatever he's going through!

What a week!

It's been some week! I worked at my old job for three days. It went well and it was great to see everyone! I was exhausted at the end of each of the days but I think that's to be expected.
The weather, here in NY, has been crazy! Wednesday all hell broke loose here on Long Island. Torrential rains, floods, even a tornado! On top of that a steam pipe broke in NYC and was the other talked about topic on the news. One lady died of an MI while trying to get away. Most people, in the area, thought it was a terrorist attack. I can't even begin to imagine what it was like for those that were walking by at the time it let loose!
I went to 112 Sewing (see link on the left) and I have my teaching schedule. If people are as interested this year as they were last I should get in quite a few classes in the next six weeks here in NY. The above picture is an example of one of the classes I'll be teaching there. It's a necklace made with size 5 seed beads in the single spiral pattern.
Today's my grandson's third birthday. I'm sorry I can't be in SC with him. I did give him a little party before I left him last week. He's so cute and smart! I miss him and his mom.

Well, I'm back in New York! I made my journey in six days. I stayed with Liz on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and traveled Monday, Friday and Saturday. I arrived here at 5 in the afternoon after, as usual, encountering much traffic in NJ on the turnpike and on the Belt Parkway! There was no traffic or crazy drivers anywhere else. It's always in NY area! Not the best ending to a 1200 mile journey. Going in the opposite direction is always much easier. You get all that traffic out of the way in the beginning!
I had a flat tire twice! Thankfully it wasn't until I got to Liz's house and was parked in front of her house. I had a road angel (thankfully there's always one around when I need one!) help put the doughnut on the car and I took the car to a local tire place to have the tire fixed. It was flat again the next day! This time AAA was called and I went to Irmo Tire and bought two new ones. Since my other two tires were only three months old I just bought two.

The rest of the trip was uneventful. I started reading (listening to) the Audible book, The Haunting, as I started out. I planned to stop at a motel in Fredricksburg, VA for the night. As I started listening to the book I was very surprised to find out that the book was about a hunting of a house on Caroline St in Fredricksburg! It was quite a romantic book and it made me anxious to see that city! After checking in the motel at 5PM I freshened up and went exploring the town. What a pretty town! The shops were mostly closed and the tours were finished for the day but I enjoyed just walking around after sitting in the car for 7 hours. I had dinner at a local Irish Pub on Caroline Street and it was delicious! I plan to stop there for a longer time and explore further on my way back to Florida.