Not knitting!

A few weeks ago a friend of mine came over to make dinner with me. We went down to the downtown mall before shopping for the ingredients and happened to wander into a bead store. They had a cute display set up with ready-made pendants. I took one look and thought "I can make those!", so we each picked out a few cute focal beads and some leather and brought it home to be crafty. (Sorry for the blurry pics...not sure why my camera wouldn't cooperate.)

We mostly used accent beads that I had in my *ahem* sizeable bead stash. I don't know why I don't make jewelry more often. I think I lose my patience with all the tiny beads, but I have soooo many beads I really should do stuff like this more.

I wonder if I could post stuff like this in my Etsy store (if I ever get around to setting it up properly). What do you think? Would someone buy these? How much do you think I could ask without over or under selling? This is why I don't have an Etsy store....I wouldn't have a clue how much to charge for things.

I know that the cost of the materials should be some sort of factor in the price, but some things, like jewelry, are hard to calculate the cost. For instance, if you buy something in bulk, like a string of beads, how do you know exactly what the cost was in making one necklace?I really like the way this round green one came out, it's a shame there isn't a better picture of it. The stone is that cat's eye kind of stone, where the light hits it and makes little rings and lines in the stone. This brown one is one that my friend made. I really like her design. The flower is made of shell and the brown round beads are wood. Very beachy

So what do you think, do I have a promising future in jewelry-making? (Assuming I can learn to take better pictures, of course.) It certainly has a higher finished object ratio than my knitting does.

Birthday Boy

Last weekend we did a little celebrating around here.

We were in a bit of a hurry to have cake and ice cream before a certain wokaholic had to take off for one of his many jobs, so we may have iced the cake a bit soon, what do you think?

Galen didn't seem to mind though, as it was just as yummy with the icing all over the place as it would have been if it stayed put.

(Yes, I am doing bunny-ears in the background. It's fun to act like a kid sometimes!)

During every spare second my sister Morgan was doing that familiar knitting dance, the "Just a few more rows and your present will be done!" dance.

She didn't quite make it happen, but she got really, really close.

After dinner we went outside to play with one of Galen's new birthday toys. Water balloons! We started by playing the classic toss-and-catch-and-try-not-to-get-soaked game, which quickly dissolved into an all-out water balloon war in which Galen and I pretty much ganged up on Mom. She was completely drenched from the shoulders down! I managed to pop a big one right over Galen's head when he wasn't looking. I, however, managed to stay relatively dry. I got hit with a few stray balloons here and there, but none of them did very much damage.

Lots of fun had by all! Happy Birthday Galen!

Trying something new

Hello :)

My computer is still out of commission, but I managed to get ahold of some internet access. I've heard of other bloggers setting publish times for later so they can write a bunch at once and have it last them through the week. So I have decided to give it a whirl. So the blogs I line up for this week will NOT BE LIVE BLOGS. I am just letting you know so you don't get upset if I don't respond to comments right away. I am still computer-less (hopefully for not very much longer) but until I get my 'puter back it is very hard to find internet. Bear with me!

So while my computer is out of commission I have been a very busy bee, but in a very non-productive way.

I have lost track of everything I have read, but a few faves:

My Sister's Keeper- I'm actually not quite done with this one yet, but it's been an intriguing page-turner.

The Wednesday Letters-So heartwarming! Definitely a tear-jerker! The bonus is it is set in my region so I recognized a lot of the landmarks and settings.

Firefly Lane-an absolutely amazing story about two girls who become best friends and then grow up and go through life together. A must-read!

I've been going to the library at least once a week, sometimes two times. I could spend hours and hours in there, browsing through the stacks and stacks of books. I love to read. It used to be a joke when my husband and I first started dating , that I could devour a book faster than most people can parallel park a car. I do read fast, especially when I get involved in the story. I can sit down with the intention to read "just a few pages" and suddenly I'm halfway through the book and haven't noticed that the sun set, or that hours of passed. I'm also a very active reader. What I mean by that is, if something is funny, I laugh out loud. If something is sad, I cry. If something in the book starts to get scary I pull the covers up to my chin and keep my dog close by. My husband thinks I'm a nut when I am doing these things while reading. I will be laughing hysterically at something in my book and he comes into the room confused at what could possibly be so funny when the tv isn't on and I'm in the room alone.

So that's what I've been up to since I can't comment on your blogs or post on my own. Anyone have any other good book recommendations? Please post them in the comments!

So much to say....

My computer is sick. Sick meaning the hard drive went kablooey. Nothing survived. No pictures, patterns that I'd saved, music, nothing. Ugh. Most of the pictures were saved elsewhere. Not all, but most. The patterns....well, I can always download them again. Although some of them cost a few dollars, but I'll get them eventually. Really it's not so much the losing stuff as all the time it will take to accumulate all of it again. It's so completely overwhelming to think of all the time I would need to invest just to get everything back. And remember that it's not idle time spent in front of the TV or the few minutes while the oven preheats. Nope, no internet for me at home folks. For me to get online requires a hop, skip, and a jump over to Panera or some other WiFi hotspot.

I have composed many a blog post in my head, taken pictures specifically for the blog, and thought up nice comments to each of your posts. The only reason I'm typing this right now is I came to my parent's house for the afternoon and I'm stealing time on their internet. (Hence no pictures.) I have been able to keep up with my blog-reading on my cell phone, though it is one-sided. (My phone doesn't allow me to post comments for whatever reason.) I hate lurking. It makes me feel a little creepy, like I'm watching you all from outside the house, sneaking glances in a window. I'd much rather read the post and then happily comment about whatever struck me or things we have in common, or just whatever. Just know that if I usually comment on your blog and I've been curiously absent lately, I'm still here reading. I'm just on the other side of the glass. I miss my computer!!

Off-topic...wouldn't you all just love for me to be the new recipient of an ipod Nano? Don't you think after all this laptop drama I deserve a new gadget to make me feel all better? Don't you think if I have to re-download a bunch of music anyway I should get a shiny new ipod to put it all on? Thought so! SITS is having a giveaway this week for a new ipod nano. I don't know if signing up at SITS gets me any extra entries, but if you haven't already checked this website out you totally should. It's a great way to up your reader count and get lots of fun comments, and most importantly meet lots of wonderful bloggers. Of course the whole point of SITS is to comment, comment, comment and share the love and as of late I can not do that, but I love SITS anyway. Despite my lack of comment-ability I have been reading all the featured bloggers and their posts on my one-way phone and laughing my head off all the time. So, SITS mommas, if you are reading this....I'm still here! Just temporarilty disabled! Bench me for now, but I will be back around soon :)

To the rest of you, I will resume regular posting soon. I am slowly building up the blog fodder so I'm sure I will be super-chatty upon my return.

Happy 4th!

Happy Fourth of July!!