GRATITUDE, AMERICAN FLAG, SISTER'S JEWELRY, FINAL NECKLACE

I mentioned in a previous blog that I had won the bracelet that Cat Kerr was giving away on her blog which is "In The Light Of The Moon".  I received it this week and it is very appropriate right now.  It say "Gratitude" on the metal piece in the front.  Cat did a beautiful job and I am grateful to have this beautiful bracelet.  Please visit her gorgeous blog at http://inthelightofthemoon.blogspot.com/  and you can go to her Etsy sight to buy some of her handmade items http://www.etsy.com/shop/catcreations92 .  Thanks again Cat.

I guess this really has been my lucky week.  Today in the mail I received this beautiful key chain from Iris Mishly http://www.polypediaonline.com/.  Iris is from Israel and she had a give away a couple weeks ago. The key chain has a charm with the American Flag, two hearts in red, white and blue and a flower made with one her special canes.  It also has a baseball hat and a leaf charm hanging from it.  Her computerized slot machine picked my name (good machine).  Iris does great tutorials and I'm happy to say I have quite a few of them.  She has an Etsy shop where she sells her tutorials and she also has a page where she does free tutorials.  Her Etsy shop is http://irismishly.etsy.com/ .  One of her free tutorials is an American Flag Cane.  To my surprise,  there was a little canister in the envelope with a piece of her American Flag Cane.  You can see it in the picture on the right of the key chain.  The amazing thing about this is, in big, bold letters on the front of the package it said "Please do not expose to heat/sun".  Well, it was 114 degrees here today and the mailman put this envelope in our outside mailbox.  I'm glad I came home early from my beading club and checked the mail.  The envelope was very hot and so was the cane but I hope I got it in time to use it on something.  Thank you Iris, this was a fabulous gift, I'm very grateful and inspired.

This is a beaded bracelet that I finally finished.  It's made with raspberry hex beads, delicas and bicones.  I was making it as a gift but it fits me so we'll see if it comes home with me or not.  Click on this picture to see a close up.

I belong to a wonderful beading club here in Sun City West and a bunch of us got together today to learn a new pattern.  I'm making these for my sister who bought a purple dress when she was out visiting.  She got it at Ross for $12.99.  It's a gorgeous dress and it looks great on her.  I told her not to tell anyone how much she paid for it.  Fat chance of that.  Anyway, the circle going to be a pendant and the little one will be part of an earring set.

When I posted this a couple of days ago I asked for ideas on what to do about making a necklace to go with this.  I got some wonderful ideas but decided to do a twisted herringbone (Ndebele) rope.  I like doing herringbone and I'm very happy with this.  My problem is my eyes start crossing after a couple hours of doing it.  I'll be wearing this a lot since these are all my colors, now I just need some earrings to match.

Not sure when I'll be posting again.  I'm off to Wisconsin and Illinois for 3 weeks to visit with friends and relatives.  I was really looking forward to getting out of the heat but I just heard it's going to be in the 90's there next week and the humidity will probably be 95.  Three shower days.

When I get back my friends and I are going to celebrate.  Our friend Rose found out the nodules on her throat aren't cancer.  We are so happy for her and her family.  It's been a rough go for the past couple weeks and waiting for the results to come back made this week really rough.  Another thing to be grateful for.