Summer bracelet.

This bracelet makes me think of summer. I bought the beads at a bead show that I went to with my friend Andrea when she lived in Palo Alto, CA. The beads are from Grace Lampwork Beads. I just noticed that they are going to be at Bead & Button next week.

Other materials in the bracelet include moonstone and sterling silver.

I'm still playing with my new camera (though this photo was taken some time ago with my old camera). So far I am still liking it. I'll have to take some photos of N. this weekend. The weather is supposed to be nice, though it was far from nice today. We had some wind bursts that blew roofs off of nearby barns. Today was garbage collection day, resulting in the cans blowing over. Garbage was strewn everywhere in the wetlands across the street. N. and I saw a few full bags of garbage, so we went over and grabbed them and picked up more of what we saw. That was not what I expected to be doing this evening.

Mark is running a marathon tomorrow. I think Sunday will be spent around the house. I'd like to make some jewelry, but we'll see what happens. I also need to start gathering the beads I need for my class at B&B. And I'd like to go on a bike ride with N. And maybe do some reading. And I have a small project that I need to paint (I'll share that later). And there's cleaning and laundry to be done.

Maybe I'll go on the bike ride with N. and then kick back and relax.

We'll see.

Sweet.

When we planted a few weekends ago we found this Common Sweetbush at the nursery. I'd never seen it before and I really liked the flowers. As you can see, we still need to put down some mulch.

This photo was taken with our new Sony Cybershot camera. We had a Kodak camera that stopped working. So far, I'm happy with the new camera. Maybe now that I have a camera again I can post more often again.

We had a fun weekend. My friend Andrea, her husband Aaron, and their daughter C. came to stay for a few nights. Andrea and I left the kids with the men and went shopping and out to lunch on Sunday. We always have a good time together and can find a lot to talk about. They left Monday morning and I missed her as soon as she left. N. is also missing C. He got a big kick out of her while she was here. She's almost two, but N. was very sweet and patient with her. He told me later he wished he had a little sister like C.

Mark hasn't said he missed Aaron, but he probably does. :)

Etsy Favorite: Delias Thompson

One of my My Mother's Day gifts was this set of three poetry rings by Delias Thompson. Delias will stamp your favorite words, names, verse, etc. on the rings. You can buy them in a set of three or individually.

My three rings have:

• different volumes of the same book
• my heart to you is given
• mark christina n

I've been wearing my three together and mixed in with other rings. Fun!

Here are some other things I like from her shop.

There are a lot more items in her shop I like. Go check her out!

Milk glass.

Here's the latest milk glass addition to my growing collection. Notice the teapot in the background; my mom made that for me. It's a Joan Miller ceramic bead with Penny Michelle's teapot findings. It's strung with hematite and crystals.

Joan Miller also has an Etsy shop.

Dragonfly girl.

I've always liked dragonflies.

When I saw this pendant from Scattered Light Jewelry at Bead & Button a few years ago I had to have it. Barbara said the image was from a postcard. That night I went home and strung it on a pearl necklace. It was nice, but I didn't love it with the pearls. It felt too sweet.

Still, I wore it that way for years.

Then one day I decided it need to be reworked. I strung it on the original chain and added a few semi-precious stones and pearls.

It's simpler and I like that better. The focus is back on the pendant, where it should be. And I'm wearing it a lot more often.

Sterling flower.

I decided to buy a steel doming block on eBay. I played around with it one Sunday afternoon and this little sterling silver flower is the result. I have all sorts of ideas for flowers and earrings. I need to break out the solder, too. I would like to get a circle cutter one of these days, although I like that the circle in this flower is not perfect.

Each evening N. and I have been riding our bikes. He's doing very well and is getting better and better at turning corners. We are hoping to be able to hit some of the more level trails this weekend. Mark is plotting out where to go based on his experience running on the trails.

I was reading the Beaducation Blog this evening and I found out that they filmed a few classes with Gail Crosman Moore, including a free class about making felted beads. The class that has me interested is the felted treasure pouch. I will seriously consider taking that online class once it's been edited and put on the site. I've checked out some of their free classes and they are really thorough. I'm also liking this "Figure S Bracelet" by Barb Switzer, who I am taking a class from at Bead & Button.

I also read this earlier today on Cynthia Thornton's blog:

IMPORTANT: I just found out about this Orphan Works Bill on Claudine's blog and its pretty scary stuff. Its a bill that will hurt artists and designers by taking away the automatic copyright protection we enjoy now and honoring only copyrights that are through privately held registers. I'd like to meet the giant A-hole who came up with this fancy idea and lecture them till I'm hoarse. So, sign up to protect your intellectual property! Imagine someone allowed to use your photo they found on Flickr in an ad campaign against herpes. How mad would you be? What's the world coming to? Tell everyone you know and sign the petition, it takes like two minutes.

Outrageous. If you agree, you can sign the petition here.

Cheerful.

Recently I went to a local antique mall and left with this small oil painting. I'd seen it there weeks ago and didn't buy it, so I decided to find out if it was still there. If I'd known the price before, I probably would have left with it; it was only $12. I really like the frame and the nice cheery colors.

I've hung it in the kitchen between the cabinets and the counter top. Please excuse the lovely electrical outlet in the photo.

I hope your entire week is bright and cheery!

A nice day indeed.

Our day was spent doing a lot of this.

N. set his mind to riding his bike without training wheels. The three of us made many, many trips around the block. He still has a few problems with corners, but I see family bike rides in our future.

My first lilac bloomed. We bought this lilac bush last summer and had no idea what the flowers would look like. The man at the garden center thought it was a bush with double flowers. Looks like he was right.

I'm not ready for Sunday to be over yet.

Happy Friday.

Earrings are made from vintage enameled metal flowers, Czech glass flowers, freshwater pearls, Swarovski crystal, and sterling silver.

I wish it was going to be sunny today as it is in this photo. We're waiting for some severe weather according to the weatherman. N. has already pulled out his fireman raincoat and rainboots. He looks so cute in them!

Here's hoping the weather is pleasant where you are.

Toodles.