I saw this extremely interesting note on Brave New Leaf Blog - cereal packaging that’s less wasteful. Now this is a tiny thing in and of itself - but what a super trend to encourage. Let’s keep an eye on this!
And Green Blogs can be just plain interesting, anyway. Check these out:
Ethical Weddings Blog
Great Green Baby Blog
These are just plain fun to read - and you might pick up a handy tip, too 
These best friends are very special ones - they’re our fuzzy critter family members, our cats and dogs and animal buds.
I’m not going to preach here. Sometimes it’s hard for me to even visit their site - because they need us so much. But…sometimes we can do just a little.
It all helps. Really. Go visit them:
Just a little help, maybe?
You know what I think is funny? Women, especially, tend to really not like bugs. I don’t. I’ve tried to cure myself of this. Bugs are people too, well, I mean they are to themselves. They have as much right to hang around as any of us. But, well, let’s just say I’m working on it.So what I think is funny is that when it comes to decorating jewelry, bugs are considered kind of cute. I’m not sure why. Charms with little bugs are very popular.II even feel that way sometimes myself. Well - let’s not get carried away. Even a charm of a bee, for example, is not charming to me. And we won’t even talk about cicadas. But ladybugs? dragonflies? They’re - well, they’re appealing little critters.
For instance - these antiqued brass dragonfly charms (the charms are store-bought, I just add the patina) from my Etsy shop. Yes, I offer them for sale, so I’m biased. But even if I didn’t - I think they’re kinda cute.
More and more, I’m moved to work with vintage materials. I love that they are repurposed - or at least, saved from sleeping in a warehouse for decades. And there is a definite style in wearing pieces made from goodies found in an attic and combined with new-age materials. I love the contradiction and the pizzazz!For example, this pretty pendant, made by combining vintage brass with a used-to-be-dusty pebbled raspberry-ruby glass cabochon:
Vintage Pendant in my Etsy shop.
You know, if you’re ever in the mood to make your own jewelry, instead of buying it? Have I got a deal for you! I’m an incurable bead buyer - so sometimes I sell some extra goodies to make room for, well, buying more Go on over to my Etsy shop and look around! You’ll find some wonderful jewelry goodies - and some wonderful bargains, too.
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.It’s a win-win situation. Mention that you saw my promo here in my blog - and you get a free gift.
I live in the midwest, so the cliche of Spring floating in during early April and May being moderate and lovely, June warming up a bit…. all that kinda goes wacko around here. We may get 95 degrees in March. Or snow in April. This year it kinda went from Winter to storms, and then storms, and then storms, and then… well you get the idea. Cold and rainy and crappy.Then there was the tornado. Then one of the trees in our backyard crashed into the (live) power line and telephone pole. And then we waited a week. With a live power line tilted crazy about four feet over our back deck. Then they fixed it - pulled out the telephone pole, got rid of the slack in the still-live wires, cut the tree away from the wires. Of course they left it there, but hey, that’s why we have a chainsaw.
Then it rained. Then it stormed.
Today: it was perfect. Sunny, warm not hot, breeze not killer wind… oh, there were the two little thunderstorms, but they went away.
Tomorrow -95 and hot.
Summer.
And my heart goes out to those people who have been flooded. The rest of us should maybe remember to count our blessings, yknow?
Like all of us I’m super aware right now of the rising cost of energy - our last electric bill was WAY higher than last year’s. My DH stationed himself in front of the meter and we tried an experiment - turned off one appliance, checked the mater; turned it back on then turned off another one, checked the meter. Rinse and repeat. We were trying to see what cost the most, energy-wise. Not surprisingly, one of the worst offenders was the clothes dryer.So the question is - is our dryer inefficient because it’s 8 years old? Would it be cost effective to replace it - or just not use it? I’m definitely going to try the “hanging the wash on the line” routine. Will update here if anybody’s curious - when we see if it really does make a difference.
I wish I had a solution to the real problem here - I don’t think anybody does, and that includes Mssrs. McCain and Obama.
Stay tuned, I guess…
I recently had a commission to make ten different pairs of pansy earrings. They didn’t all have to be radically different, but still, each their own original pair. Of course I had fun with this one!
Here’s an example of the pansy earrings. As I get more put online I’ll probably post again - you probably figured out that I love pansies
I’m just super proud of these so wanted to mention them. This is just a couple examples of my new lacquered earrings line at Weekend Jewelry:
Yes they’re lightweight and comfy, but most of all they are pretty and girly!
I certainly don’t claim that I’ve done a perfect job - but I’ve done a really good job - and this necklace is so gorgeous, and makes YOU look so good, that it’s easy to think of it as “perfect”.
The chain is gold-filled, the clasp is an easy to use chubby gold-filled lobster. There are two pretty two pearls at the clasp. And that’s just the back of the necklace! The star of the show is a gorgeous, brilliant Swarovski crystal briolette. This is what “Bling” is all about!
There are coordinating earrings (with your choice of large or small briolettes), and a crystal and gold bracelet that’s lovely and coordinated.
Swarovski Crystal Necklace with Gold
It’s the necklace (and yes, matching earrings) that make you the star of the show!
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