Quiet day

I have enjoyed a quiet day today. I spent it watching dvds and working on jewelry designs. This blue and black set i made for myself. The beads  are a faceted glass and really appeal to me.The white shell and blue bracelet is to be the Sept prize for my blog giveaway. I will be starting that in few days . I will post details when i have it all together .I also rescued another plant from the neighbor. She was tired of it. My house may look like a jungle come winter when i bring them in :)Then here is a cute altered art necklace using a reprint of a vintage halloween postcard . It is over in my Etsy store for sale ....

Baked Pumpkin ....

I woke up early to a beautiful morning ..... the cooler temps gave me a chance to bake some pumpkin slices with cinnamon...cloves...and brown sugar.They will taste great just like this or i can slice some kiwi and eat along with them. I did decide to save the white pumpkin seeds and dry them and plant come next Spring.  I wanted to take a picture of a patti pan squash too. I have had several people ask me what they are, I love to slice them thin and sautee with other veggies in olive oil and a bit of garlic .

My First Milagro Necklace .........

I have been intriqued by mexican and aztec folk art this last month. Thru my research of it i ran across "milagros" . Milagro stands for "miracle" . Traditionally, milagros (also known as ex-votos or dijes) are offered to a favorite saint as a reminder of the petitioner's particular need, or they are offered to the saint in thanks for a prayer answered. http://www.squidoo.com/milagros-charms http://www.squidoo.com/milagro So tonight i made my first Milagro necklace for a mother and baby .. A simple charm and prayer offered to the Madonna for health for the mother and child. It will be for sale in my Etsy store .......

Tangled Up Fun.........

I am working tonight on a fun project. A friend gave me a big bag of tangled and broken jewelry and i am having SO SO much fun fixing what i can and then taking rest of it apart to reuse in my jewelry designs.
I have moved all my jewelry stuff in the living room so i can watch tv while i work on designs ..

Upcoming Projects .......

I try to be as frugal in my life as i can and i love to fix up and even repurpose whatever i find on a weekly basis . I have several projects to work on over next few weeks...These will all be good as new when i am done and be saved from the landfill ...First is a yarn bag. I have the wooden frame to a vintage folding yarn bag. The fabric was gone but i found this frame and I can easily make a new bag to go on it.....
Then I am taking this old picnic basket a neighbor was going to throw out and make it into a sewing basket...... all it needs is a new way to close and carry it.Pretty simple ! I will make straps for it .Then the third project is to turn this big riding horse into a newer version. He needs a tail and a cloth saddle and couple of holes patched with some cute embroidery .. Other than that he is still sturdy and will look great when i am done with him......

Off My Job Today....But Not off Work

I had to take off my reg job today as i had been summoned to the first day of jury duty orientation. I was excused but I still had to show up for the orientation.They double checked my info and then i could go back home.

WELL ..... what I had waiting on me at home was a good days work of putting the smaller summer garden area to rest and planting more on the little fall garden. I pulled up all the dead tomato plants and then chopped all the weeds out with the hoe and turned over all the dirt . It is all just SO bare and sad now. I did enjoy myself today working in the yard. I go barefoot when i can .......I love the feel of Mother Earth .Here ( pic below) is where i had some corn planted along with a cherry tomato plant. These plants sure climbed. Next year i want to get these same plants and I will put them out along the privacy fence. I had this one on the fence and it grew up it and then all down the back side of it also. Each cherry tomato plant has produced 100's of tomatoes this summer. I have radishes growing in the pots here in the smaller fall garden. Then today i put out green onion and more radish seeds in the ground. I did notice a rabbit this weekend so i am going to have to kill it .sorry.. no furry woodland creatures in the yard... I still have the really really big garden area left to do yet..... I had all the corn and white pumkins and heirloom tomatoes in that area . The pumpkin vines that were NOT planted under the corn have all died out. The cantalope and watermelons were a waste of garden space for me .wont do them next year. I will rasie more Patti Pan squash though...The squash bugs left it alone ..they killed instead the zuchini and yellow squash plants off . I did save the white pumpkins off the dead vines. I think they are big enough and can be cooked and frozen for breads and soup. That is a project for this weekend though .

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Here are 2 plants a neighbor was going to throw out. They just needed water and have perked right pack up. The pink geranuims are starting to bloom again. I should be able to winter these over inside the house .
HMMMM !!!! I am NOT sure why all of a sudden i have lines under the words I am typing ?? Oh well......... Here is lunch today. I have used patti pan squash from the garden and sauteed it with olive oil.....garlic .carrots.....red peppers .....then poured over fresh spinach and cabbage ... VERY yummy!!!!!Then i took the marigold flowers i had harvested today and added to olive oil to infuse for next few weeks. I will take the oil once i have strained it and add to shea butter for a skin rub .

Sweaters into Leg Warmers and Arm Warmers

It is that time of the year again........ When i go thru all the old sweaters people give me over the summer to repurpose. I turn them into leg warmers and arm warmers..hats and scarves even. This black and white sweater will make a set of the arm and leg warmers .....then will use the collar of it and turn into a neck cowl .........will use some eyelash yarns to crochet the edging on them. I am getting ready to barter for the yarns too :)

Repurposing Rhinestone Pins

I have a really pretty rhinestone pin but it is broken .......so ...I decided to take it apart and then repurpose into other jewelery designs . I use thin strips of faux leather and then sew the rhinestone piece to it. I fold the topof the leather strip over and sstitch so i have a small loop to use to add to necklaces or into a bracelet design .

It has been a mind numbing week and i havent had much chance to work on any jewelry designs till today . I plan on spending most of the weekend just relaxing in my craft room and nourishing my soul with my jewlery art.

New Tribal Horse Design .......

I was off work today so i decided to start my morning with a cuppa tea and the sunrise . I am back to me NOT watching the morning news....... too darn depressing.Instead i decided to be creative and went thru my box of feathers.



I put "Scooby Doo and the Witches Ghost dvd on the tv ...which sets in my free entertainment center I got Saturday afternoon .Then i took a bangle bracelet that i had that was too small and used it as the center part of my little leather horse head that i whipped up and embellished it with pheasant feathers and jasper stone chips .....turned out rather well so far. I have to finish the neck part yet. I used red agate beads and some more jasper so far........

Gotta show everyone the cute pencil sharpners i found junking too ..... too cute :) I also picked some lemon balm from the garden. I will simmer it in the crockpot for 24 hrs in lard and then i will freeze it to use for balms and soaps later on ...

Thoughts of Halloween ........

I have thoughts of new designs for Halloween jewelry running thru my head this morning. But first i needed to go thru and clean out images that i wont be using. I just have so much room to store craft stuff .sigh!!!!!!!
I have been going thru and destashing alot of halloween and witchy images that I have collected over the years for altered art and jewelry. Most of these are really unique and are from halloween kids books. They are being offered in my ebay store at ..... http://cgi.ebay.com/Halloween-Witch-Vintage-Postcard-and-Child-Book-Images-/180540926216?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a0913e908
and http://cgi.ebay.com/Witch-Vintage-and-Ephmera-Altered-Art-Collage-Supply-/180540902372?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a09138be4
and http://cgi.ebay.com/Halloween-Witch-Vintage-and-Altered-Art-Collage-Images-/180540909069?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a0913a60d