Flea Market Sunday with Lollishops

It's Flea Market Sunday with Lollishops! Please check out my previous post (or go HERE) for all the details on the goodies you might win from me....then head over to the Lollishops blog HERE to see who else is participating and to have chances to possibly win some amazing things. I'm planning on having some fun going through the blogs after church tomorrow, and I hope you do too!

Flea Market Sunday Giveaway with Lollishops!

What could be more fun than a giveaway? This one is hosted by Lollishops and is flea market themed.
My giveaway is for for a mint green powder tin (some of the powder is still in it) with a guilloche rose on the top; a pair of screw-back, white-beaded earrings; and an aqua purse zipper clip (something to clip onto that purse of yours when you go flea market shopping!). Of course the tin and earrings are vintage finds, but the purse clip was made by me. Rules: Go to my shop here----Glass Bead Treasures---and find one item that you like. Come back here and leave a comment telling me what it is that you like. That's it...easy! Only one entry per person, please. International friends are welcome. I will choose the winner on Monday morning. Oh, don't forget to head over to the Lollishops blog on Sunday sometime (before or after church!) here---Lollishops Flea Market Giveaway---to see the list of other participating Lollishop vendors and their giveaways.

This is now closed. Thank you to all who participated!

A Little Duck for a Little Girl

When our daughter was a baby, my parents bought her a very fuzzy, soft, yellow stuffed duck to snuggle with. Well, "Duckie" as it has affectionately become known as, has been with us ever since. The entire house would be in panic mode if Duckie happened to disappear (as he would from time to time--sometimes with the help of big brother) with all out in search parties to find Duckie before our daughter would totally melt down (sometimes we couldn't find it fast enough, and a meltdown would indeed occur). **Shhhh...we even bought a spare duck who looks exactly the same in case Duckie ever permanently disappeared** Now that she is turning 7 in two days, she has pretended that Duckie isn't as important as he once was, but at night there she is snuggled up with him as always. She loves ducks in every shape and form now.

While at a bead shop recently, I saw this sweet little duck bead and just knew it was meant to be hers for her birthday. I can't wait for her to open it. I know she will like it.

Blueberry Picking

Well, we saw in the local newspaper that at the cultivated farm close by the time for picking blueberries was now. Trying to save a dollar, we packed our car with Dad and Mom and kids and dishes to put our blueberries in and a cooler and peanut butter sandwiches for lunch and headed off to the nature preserve about an hour away to pick blueberries. The preserve is free to enter, and each person is allowed to pick and bring out a gallon of blueberries a day. We were all drooling with the thought of blueberry muffins, blueberry pies, and blueberry jam. Mmmmm! Well, we got to the preserve...no blueberries! We were greatly disappointed! The wild blueberries, contrary to the cultivated, were past--it was an early year...and sadly we had missed them. How disappointing! Of course, a bathroom break was in order, and surprisingly enough there were some toilets in the middle of this huge nature preserve. We stopped, and all got out only to discover that there were bushes and bushes of ripe blackberries about! Hooray! So, we picked blackberries instead (keeping an eye out all the time in case bears were lurking about). There were some amazing, huge, towering bushes, and we literally got right in the middle of them. Yes, we got terribly scratched up everywhere--I wore lightweight pants not jeans since I was expecting to pick blueberries. We had thorns in our hands and ticks all over us and mosquito bites (until we figured out we should put our bug spray on)...but it was worth it, and we had great fun. I've already made one batch of delicious blackberry freezer jam and will make more today. Yum!

New Beaded Things

Well, on our long drive to South Dakota and back, I had plenty of time to bead. It is hard for me to just sit in the car doing nothing, so I got a lot done. Here are some of what I was able to complete. It was such fun, not to mention relaxing and inspiring, sitting there with nothing to do...but create!

This one is similar to one I have done in the past with a nice combination of light blue flowers.

It was fun working with my new rose beads--they are just beautiful and have great detail.

I thought it was time to get ready for fall with some beaded pumpkins in a brooch.

The two below have sold already (thank you, Nicole--I hope you will enjoy them) but wanted to include them anyway. I had been wanting to do a teapot for quite awhile and finally found the right mix of beads to do so.

Some Exquisite Vintage Buttons

Mom and I were at an estate sale the Saturday before we left for South Dakota, and I picked up this bag with three sets of buttons in it. Another lady really wanted it and even told me if I didn't want the buttons she did. Well, I bought the bag and can see why she was so eager. Two of the sets are on pieces of card that say Czecho Slovakia. The other doesn't have a place of origin written anywhere. They are small, glass, highly detailed, old, and amazingly beautiful--and all were for a song. I've contemplated keeping them, but have decided to put them in my Etsy shop (and will list them when I get the chance). But...I thought you might enjoy seeing them. As I've said many times in the past...if I weren't into beads I'd be into buttons--they are small jewels to be enjoyed for sure!

Posting Once Again

Well, I'm happy to say that we are back and up and running again. We now have a new computer. I'm not sure how much of our information is gone from our old computer, but we will have to wait to assess that at a later date when my brother-in-law gets a chance to check things out. We are slowing figuring out how to move about on here and process pictures and such--we haven't arrived yet, but we're getting there. It is good to be back.

We had a wonderful time in South Dakota. We went on a very tight budget and stayed at camping cabins instead of hotels. We were going to tent--and I'm so glad we didn't since it rained--reallllly rained---a few times. We would have been quite wet to say the least. We brought most of our food and tried to spend money only on necessities. We had great weather otherwise and a super time. It will be a memorable time especially for our kids.

We saw plenty of prairie flowers--bluebells, roses, and thistles. They were just beautiful.

We survived a mountain hail storm--our car got dented up pretty badly...but I'm thankful the windshield didn't break.

We saw buffalo at Custer State Park--up close and personal (notice the car window is up!). It is a gorgeous park with lots of wildlife and well worth the visit. We also saw sweet mountain blue birds.

We drove the breathtaking Needles Highway (us and a lot of motorcycles). It truly was an incredible drive with tunnels through rocks and amazing vistas.

Then, of course, we saw Mt. Rushmore. We did plenty of hiking around the park and went back at night for the evening session which paid tribute to America and its servicemen/women and veterans. It was great and a fun and relaxing time!

Back fromVacation--Computer Burnt Out

Hello all! I'm back from vacation. We went to South Dakota for a week and had a wonderful time. The western side is a beautiful area of the country. I was able to get a lot of beading in (it was a long drive!) and have many projects to finish up then put in my shop. Unfortunately, when we arrived home we discovered that our computer got fried during a thunderstorm (turned things off but didn't unplug 'em--learn from our mistakes!). Thankfully I can access things through out library (though for only 1/2 hour at a time). Hopefully we will be able to get a new computer this weekend then be up and running again. There is so much to say and lots of pictures to show, but that will have to wait until another time.

The Pink Diamond Tiara

Have you seen it in the news? Guess I'm stuck on royalty this week...but how can this beauty go unmentioned? This pink and white diamond tiara (picture complements of jewelry.com) is on display at London's 2010 Masterpiece Fair. The rare natural pink diamonds in it are from the Argyle Diamond Mine in Western Australia. It's gorgeous! I love the filigree work in it. Actually...I get great inspiration and ideas for future projects from looking at items from royalty--I just use rhinestones!