Help The Children

My periodontist belongs to a church that just bought an old hotel in Phoenix.  They had a fund raiser to get money to upgrade the hotel.  They started a program called "The Dream Center".  Bad people are bringing young children and families here from Mexico and South America.  When they get here, they tell them they have to pay for their transportation.  Most of them don't have money so take the children and put them out on the street as prostitutes.  The church is taking these children and women off the street and putting them in this hotel.  They usually come there with nothing.  I started making afghans for their fund raiser but they decided to give them to the kids and the women so they have something of their own.  I hope they find all these animals that are doing this to these children and punish them severely.

GETTING READY FOR VALENTINE'S DAY

Last week there was a challenge on one of the Kumihimo Facebook pages I belong to for Valentine's Day.  I made these refillable, magnetic refrigerator pens for the challenge.  I also taught a class on this last week at one of our clubs here.  The ladies had so much fun and their pens turned out great.

BEEN GONE TOO LONG

I'm not sure why I haven't blogged in so long but I thought maybe I should start again.

A friend asked me to show her how to make pens covered in Kumihimo.  It took me a lot of pens to get it right and figure out how to do it so the cords on the pen don't slip and slide.  Well, I finally found the answer and I'm very happy but I'm not sharing it right now.  Maybe later.  These are made using Kumihimo and the snow flakes are polymer clay with a lot of glitter on them.

These are my new passion.  They are bookmarks with beaded Kumihimo.  Gave them as Christmas presents and everyone loved them.

My husband and I went on a cruise in November with 20 of my relatives.  It's called the Harmony of the Seas.  There were 6,000 people on this ship and 800 kids which is 799 kids more than I care to be with on vacation.  The ship was too big and we walked about 8 miles a day.  Some of the people were really rude and I thought that was bazaar.  My husband and I will never go on a ship this big again.  Two days before the ship landed I lost my voice.  The day we got off the ship in Fort Lauderdale, it was 90 degrees and 95 percent humidity.  We spent the night at a hotel and by Sunday, I was really sick.  Got home and was sick for 3 weeks.  Was very happy to be home.  No more big ships for us.

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas.  One of my dearest friends who will turn 80 in July just found out she has invasive breast cancer so the next two or three months are going to be stressful.  If you get a chance and have a little time, please send a prayer her way.

Thank you.

Put Your Earrings Here While I Do Magic On Your Hair

A friend was visiting a couple weeks ago and he's an amazing hair stylist in Indiana.  I wanted to make him something special out of polymer clay to take home with him.

This is an earring dish for his clients to put their earrings in while he is working on them.  The top picture is the front of the bowl and the bottom picture is the bottom of the bowl. 

I used Syndee Holt's Disco silk screen on a Skinner blend of purple, white and turquoise.  I used black paint but when I went to put the Pan Pastels on the back, the black paint on the front took the powder.  That was after the first baking.  The bottom part was a second baking and putting the flat stand was a third baking.  Then I sprayed it with PYMII 3 times on each side and rebaked it at 200 degrees for an hour.

He loved it.  Especially with his name on it.

GRANDMOTHER MEMORY BRACELETS

I made 20 bracelets and matching earrings to send home to my family from the rose petals from my Mother's funeral in January.

The first question I was asked was "Didn't you make any that say Grandmother on them?".

So I went looking for Grandmother charms and made more beads.  These went out in the mail yesterday, I hope they like them.

CHAMP'S LEASH

My best little buddy that I walk every day had a rather short leash and he likes to pee on all the big trees and bushes.  So, I bought him a new longer leash and decided it needed a little bling on it.  I bought a new hot fix gun so I decided to put his name on it.  Worked like a charm.

He is my special guy.  I see so many people walking dogs without a harness it makes me crazy.

Why don't they understand that when you attach a leash to a collar and you keep pulling on the leash, you are pulling on the dog's trachea and hurting them.  It makes me cry when I see that happen.

MEMORIAL JEWELRY FROM MOM'S ROSES

These are the pictures of all the jewelry I made with the polymer clay beads that have the dried roses in them from my Mother's funeral.

 I'm still making more with some new silver "Grandma" charm beads.  I'm also going to make some key chains with beads that I made.

MISS YOU MOM.

GIFTS FOR FRIENDS AND THE JOURNEY OF MAKING MEMORIAL BEADS

When I went back to Wisconsin in January for my Mother's funeral, they had the worst week of weather that they had in a long time.

Though there weren't a lot of good days, I did get to have breakfast with 12 of my friends from high school.  Some I haven't seen in many years or since the day we graduated.

I brought some Kumihimo bracelets home with me and gave everyone a bracelet.  We had so much fun talking and laughing.  We were there for 2 hours.  I decided I wanted to do something special for them, so when I got home, I made magnetic refrigerator pens for all of them.

If you click on the picture, you can see them closer.  At the last minute I decided to make little coins to add to the pens with the year we graduated (now you know how old I am 😛😊.

One of my friends at the breakfast was my best friend in grade school and high school and when we graduated, our mothers let us go to Florida by ourselves.  We had so much fun.  She has a cat named Jojo who sends Buster gifts so I made a special pen for Terry.

JOJO

It has a little heart that says I love my cat and and a charm with a cat on the top.  I also sent her this little ring dish.  It was the first one I ever made and it was the first silk screen I had ever done so that's why there is a little black mess in it but I thought it was special because of the cats.

MEMORIAL BEADS

Now that the pens are done, I've been working on memorial beads made from the roses from my Mother's funeral.  I'm making beads to use to make bracelets for my sister, sister in law and 3 nieces so they have a remembrance.

I started out with pearl and translucent clay and mixed some silver foil in it but I didn't get the result I wanted.  I took a whole package of Premo White Gold Glitter and added it to the mix.  Then, I put in a couple drops of Blue Sapphire and Stream alcohol ink.  The white glitter clay really made them come to life.

Once they were baked, they came out a little darker but still beautiful and shiny.  It's hard to see the crushed roses in these but there are few you can see little red spots on.  I glazed them with Sculpey Gloss Glaze 3 times and then re-baked them at 200 degrees for an hour.  I'll post a picture of the finished bracelets when I get them done.

After I did the small blue beads I made some big blue beads and then some white ones.  You can see the rose petals in the white beads.  I think I'm going to make more white ones but I'm going to put another package of the White Gold Glitter.  I don't know why they call it White Gold Glitter, it looks more like Silver Glitter to me.

Have a Happy Valentines Day.  Eat a bunch of chocolate and have a good time.

THE NEW YEAR STARTED OUT SAD.

On January 22nd I was suppose to go to Florida to visit my mother who is 91.

On January 1st, I got a call saying my Mom passed away.  My brother, sister and I weren't ready for that.  She seemed to have been doing good.  She had some heart problems but I'm still not sure what happened.

We went to Wisconsin for her funeral.  The first day we were there it snowed, the second day we had rain and really cold weather, the third day we had freezing rain and there were tons of cars in the ditches, the 4th day it was 12 degrees and the day of mom's funeral it was sunny but cold.  The day we were suppose to fly back to Arizona they predicted freezing rain again.  Left 4 hours early for the airport and sat there for a long, long time.  Now I'm back in Arizona and it's 30 degrees in the morning with a high of 52.

Going to miss you mom.  Not sure I'm still dealing with this totally.  There were a lot of beautiful flowers at the funeral and I brought back the tops of some of the pink roses.  I put them in a zip lock bag and put them in my suitcase.  They looked beautiful when I got them home.  I decided to make beads and bracelets from the dried roses and then decided to make key chains for my nieces, sister, sister in law and brother.  I used the fresh flowers on baked polymer clay that I put in metal bezels.

Before I put the flower petals in, I put a thin layer of Magic Glos on the pendants to hold the flower petals in place.  Then I put them in the UV light.  I put two more layers of Magic Glos on them.

As they sat, the flower petals kept getting lighter.  I added the words Live, Laugh, Love to each pendant and then another layer of Magic Glos.  You can see the difference in the color of the petals in the two pictures.  If you click on the pictures you can see them better.

I made this one for my brother.  It isn't as frilly but it's still frilly.

The one thing that's made me laugh a lot since I came home is good old Buster.  The other day I was talking on the phone and he was trying to get inside an afghan I was making.  I started laughing because he got his head caught in the yarn that was on top.

I had John run and get my camera.  He just sat there like that and didn't move for a long time.

My mom and her favorite dog Kita.  Will be missing them both.  I'm sure Kita was up in heaven waiting for her.

MERRY CHRISTMAS BUTTONS AND BRACELET

This is the third one I made.  The other two got bought in a jiffy.  I put this one on Etsy.  This is done using Kumihimo the Japanese Braiding technique.

Made these earrings for my friend because she loves snowmen.

  Going to try to make more but not as fast as I made these.

THESE POLYMER CLAY BOWLS ARE GETTING TO BE AN OBSESSION

Making these bowls is really getting me crazy.  I love doing this.

The bowls in the picture above are for my sister and two nieces.  My sister wanted something with birds so I used the silk screen that came with the Sculpey kit to make that one for her.  She likes blue so the base of the bowl is blue and there are blue Swarovski crystal on it.  The top left was done with a stencil and the top right was done with scrap clay.  I really like that one and it can't be duplicated.

This is the back of the three bowls.  The top right was done with a texture sheet and the other two were done with the extra pieces of clay with the silk screen and stencil.  If you click on the pictures you can see them close up and see the details.

Every time I sit down at my table I say I'm going to do something else and then I end up making another ring dish.

I have a great niece that I absolutely adore.  She's 17 months old and so happy.  I made her this Minnie Mouse hat because that's who she reminds me of.

This was my poor Buster after the Packers lost Sunday.  He was so sad but he still loves them.  He's hoping they beat the Bears Thursday and that his mom quits putting hats on him.

POLYMER CLAY BOWLS

I've been gone a while from blogging because I've been taking my best friend back and forth every day to see her husband.  He got sick in February and was in the hospital and almost died.  Then he was sent to a rehab facility and got really sick there so he ended up in another hospital.  Then he was sent to a group home for 3 months.  My friend has macular degeneration and can't see to drive.  It's been a long 7 months.  He's home now and doing good so I'm finally back into playing with clay.

A couple weeks ago my good friend Lupe came over and gave me a little silver candle holder.  I wasn't sure what she wanted me to do with it but she said she thought it would make really pretty jewelry dishes then she left to me to my own devices.  LOL  So after bugging her for two days and asking her questions, the light came on.  Poor Lupe was working on her pieces for an art fair but she was kind enough to answer my emails and explain things to me.  Now I can't stop making these things.  Thank you Lupe.

These are for my friend's sisters in Kansas.  Already in the mail.

This is the bottom of the bowls.  They take 5 bakings.

This is one I made for a friend who doesn't like bling and glitz so she gets no crystals on this one.

These are the first two I made with silk screens.  I love the one on the right with the cats.  Had a little trouble with the black paint.  The one on the left was a test.  The silver paint didn't show up as much on the purple but I still like it.  I put edges on the these two and that was a pain.  After seeing Lupe's beautiful bowls I realized I didn't need to add an edge.

Thanks again Lupe.  I'm really enjoying this.

BEEN GONE TOO LONG

I haven't blogged since April.  Life just keeps getting in the way.  That and migraines.

I hate to be a downer when I write on my blog but 4 weeks ago my heart got broken again.

I have been walking my friend's dogs for 4 years since her husband died.  Beau was the oldest.  He just turned 13 and was the sweetest and most lovable dog.  He loved walking and he was very protective.  He got an eye infection and the vet gave him drops and he was doing good.  I went there on Saturday to walk him and his little brother and he was happy and doing really good.  On Sunday he wasn't hardly moving and acted like he wasn't feeling good so I didn't take him.  We took him to the vets on Monday for a follow up for his eye and while we were sitting in the room waiting for the vet, Beau had a seizure.  He started going around in circles and his head kept going back and forth and around.  I ran and got the vet and he confirmed it was a seizure.  Beau's eyes started darting back and forth and he couldn't keep his head up straight.  We took him home with some meds but he wouldn't take them, he wouldn't eat and he was very sick.  We took him back the next morning and I carried him.  I sat in the back seat with him on my lap and he hardly moved but his eyes still kept darting back and forth.  He couldn't walk so I carried him in and held him.  The doctor said it appeared he had brain damage from the seizure and has lost control of his bladder and bowels and appeared to be in pain because of the way he was laying.  He wouldn't drink anything so I put a little water in my hand and was surprised he licked it but then dropped his head again.  We knew he wasn't coming home with us.  I kissed him goodbye and he licked my face.  We said goodbye and held him.
I'm still not over this.  I feel like I've lost a child and he wasn't even mine.  I just wanted to say Rest In Peace my special dear Beau.  I love you still and miss you.

LET'S GO GOLFING-------FORE

Many years ago a friend of mine bought me a very expensive golf stroke counter and it was made of plastic.  It was nice but my friend said "why don't you make some of these with your polymer clay beads?"  The first time I put them in my Etsy shop I sold 10 counters in a week and got orders for more.  For a while, I wasn't keeping up very well with my Etsy shop but I decided it was time to get back into it.  I sell the counters for $15 and shipping and I know with all the work I put into them I'm not making any money but if I raised the price, I wouldn't sell any either.

These are a few of the latest ones I put in my shop.  I make the beads, bake them, put three coats of glaze on them and bake them again.  Every counter has some glitzy beads on the bottom.  They can be used to keep track of how many times you walk around the block and how many times you let the dog out.  

Here's my Etsy Shop check it out.

I'm going golfing.