Stored Closed until the New Year

Goodness I am embarrassed that I have not been on for so long. I really want to take more time to blog, but lately God has been keeping me busy. He has done so many amazing things in my marriage, my life, and my family. I am thrilled to be spending more time in His Word, in prayer, and in discussion of Him. Because of that I have had only time to keep up with the holiday rush. I have lots of orders to do and I am going on a quick 5 day vacation. I plan to have all orders shipped before I leave. I do have a few I may mail when I return that came in late we will see. They will all be received by the holidays.

Some fun with the ladies from church

A sample of the donations given.

Wow, it has been a whole week. I left to go to the ladies retreat in Wildwood, NJ last Thursday. I stayed two nights. I do miss my family when I leave, but I needed a break. Not from them I wished they had come, but just everything else. I was a little stressed. I have been working hard, making lots of photo charms, making lots of hair bows, working one day a week, so much cheerleading, and oh yeah I have 2 kids, a husband, and a home. So all that to say I was looking forward to getting away with our church and just having fellowship and learning about God. My dear friend Deb was my roommate and we had a great time. We had the best time with 3 other ladies from our church staying up late each night and chatting. The ladies were all different ages and the oldest two were the rowdiest. Knocking on doors, calling us on the phone, and coming in to our room to chat, it was really a great time. They had me craking up. We ate lots of food, walked on the boardwalk (it was so Hot 81 degrees), and took some fun workshops. We met up on the second night it was a 60's themed gathering. You should have seen the bell bottoms, peace signs, and wigs. Too funny. We even played musical chairs and the eldest ladies were not kidding around! I have to get some photos. We had some great testimonies of what God was doing in people's life. Some shared struggles we all face and we heard some encouraging words. Again a great time until I came home with a cold. YUCK! Sunday I felt just barely okay, but Monday and Tuesday I was coach bound. Just felt better on Wednesday and have been working to catch up on those two days missed. I am all caught up now. There is so much I want to get done I have a home show next week and the holidays are coming. Time slow down. LOL!

Attn: Gold Girls: New 14KT Gold Filled Charm Necklaces

I just love it!





I received a request to do a special gold washer necklace similar to my flat ring of names so I decided to take the Gold plunge. I have had requests before, but I am a silver girl. Although my sister bought me a pretty top with gold buttons and I said I can not wear this with silver so I made myself something really small and delicate. The 14KT gold filled is not cheap, because it is real gold over metal NOT plated. I could not find it for sale in a thick gauge metal and I just won't make pieces using thin metal. I bought a Swanstrom disc cutter with washer add on and at first I thought it was not worth the hefty price tag of $300.(If you want some more information on the cutter contact me) It was marking the gold when you punched out the washers. At the price of a small piece of 14KT gold filled metal you do NOT want any marks. So you have to put a piece of paper on both sides of the metal to prevent any marking. It does wear very nicely. So now that I made myself a gold charm necklace, I will be a gold girl on some days. I look forward to making some gold girls happy this upcoming holiday season.

Some Jeep Fun

Chris and Rach looking cool.



He got stuck behind the double flat so he decided to break out of line and he did finally get out.

We were heading to a craft show last Saturday. The kids were not excited, because it was 2.5 hours away. But it would have been a beautiful ride. We could have left them home, but still young enough that I can make them come. So I did. Well I did not get much sleep the night before and I was not up for a super long drive, but I wanted to get away for the day. So I grabbed my iphone next to my bed and googled craft shows with the date. Well I found the Jeff Daniels Jeep show in Harleysville, Pa. Well we had never been to a Jeep show and we have a Jeep so why not it was only a 1.5 hours away. It was a nice day and it did not start until 1pm. My kind of show, late! Anyway my husband cleaned the Jeep. It was funny seeing him prepare the Jeep as if he would have been frowned upon by the other Jeeps. He even ran to get the "BIG" tire put on the rim for the spare so all the tires matched. Whatever. LOL! So we headed on our way. Stopped for breakfast locally at the Philly Diner in NJ. It was yummy. We got to the Jeep show and there were tons of Jeeps. You could enter your Jeep in the show. There were all kinds of catergories, old, modified, lots of catergories. We got there about 2:30 pm and they had some Jeeps in the back going through the mud trails. I thought that was the most exciting part. Lots of hills, mud, smoke, engines roaring, and even a double flat ending with a Jeep rescue with handy winch. They had some food, music, Jeeps. My only want was some vendors selling Jeep accessories and maybe some hats and t-shirts.

Well it is almost Saturday and we might head to West chester, PA to check out Quadratec's Jeep show. Hopefully they will have some small Jeep accessories for sale since they sell them in a huge catalog.

I sure do love him!

Okay I can not believe I am finding this out right now as I am blogging. Unbelievable! This is totally how my week is going. Our first wedding bands were the same. They were white gold bands with a yellow gold band in the middle. We had them engraved with Matthew 19:6 "So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." Well when we got them they were engraved Matthew 19:16 Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?" Totally not the right thing.
A few years later, we both got titatium rings that were matching bands.
Than in July 08, I took a class and made rings for both of us out of silver. He was not there so I sized it bigger than mine and it was a little loose. He ended up loosing it in his car. So I had promised to make him a ring but you know how that goes. I am always too busy. I will do it later. My family hardly ever gets jewelry gifts. LOL!
Well I have been busy lately but I was soldering and I thought I am in the mood to make a ring too! So I quick googled the verse I wanted. What God has put together... Well I should have looked in my bible!!! I can not believe it!!! The computer read Matthew 10:9 so I scribbled it down and off I went. The ring was easy to make surprisely. Sometimes the metal just does not line up right if you don't make them all the time. It flowed nicely no seemed to be found. Overall it was great, except now I am telling my husband. Hey, I love you Matthew 10:9 Do not take along any gold or silver or copper in your belts. ????

Well would it really have been a replacement if I had gotten the verse, right? I don't think so. LOL!

Our August 2009 trip to Disney

Okay this is a shot of our resort's water view from the main area called the hospitality house. If you read my previous post of how when ended up at Old Key West resort you will know I can't complain. (well, really complain) Our family was the first to arrive. We had a 7 am flight. I am not sure it was worth the early flight because at the cheap price we did have a layover. I think we were up too early at 4:30am because we were tired. It was just the only flight we could find before 7 pm at the $79 per person price. I am saying all this to say maybe I was a little tired. I was whining ALOT about the resort. I think I even teared up a little. I text everyone to warn them about the possibility that they might be unhappy. Don't get me wrong Disney, it is a beautiful resort, the staff was wonderful, the main pool was great, the room was way bigger than a value with a kitchenette. It is just SO far apart. You have to take a bus to your room. They have internal buses but who knows how often they come, so we always opted to walk to the first bus stop and any bus that comes along will stop at "your" bus stop the one that is walking distance to your room. This is a "home away from home" resort for Disney Vacation Club members and it feels like like a townhome and I was not fond of that feeling. You really needed a car here. I think I spent more money this time because I bought so many waters and snacks. We brought them back to our room verses just getting a snack on the dining plan at the resort. If you did that after the parks you had to stop and get off the bus to go to the small snack shop by the main pool and than get back on the bus to go to your room. Who wants to do that? So that was the consensus of our group. We missed the value resort. At a value resort, we could easily walk to get a snack, to go to a pool, to go to the main pool, or even go next store to each other's room. The snack and counter service at Pop Century is huge compared to OKW and it is opened 2 hours later. So at OKW you could get three choices for a food platter and Pop Century they are 12 choices, plus and ice cream shop, and you can easily walk to fill your drink cups. And I forgot to mention there are people walking around and it feels like it is happening but not anything you can hear from your room. At OKW it was quiet and hardly any people like a townhouse. I think some people will love this resort, the size of the rooms, the kitchenette, and the quiet feel of the resort. I think alot of people have a car who stay here and may even drive in with a snacks and a case of water to put in their fridge. (1 bedroom to 3 bedrooms have a full kitchen.
But for us we love the HUGE value you get at the value resort's for the GREAT price.




Hollywood Studios when we wore our made by us tee shirts. Toystory ride was lots of fun. I came in second after my brother. American Idol experience was neat. I think they have about 6 or more showings in a day with a fianl show of a winner from each round. They hold separate auditions for the chance to sing on stage. We waited in line and during that time they do interviews and record us yelling and even chanting some one's name. You file in to the seats and the area is suppose to represent the American Idol stage. The host tells you how everything is going to work with the cameras and voting. They introduce the judges. Ryan Seacrest is played on screen. The contestants come out and perform they are judged. The first girl that came out was pretty good, but I felt the judges were a little mean to her. The second girl had a promo before she came out. They played clips of us in line shouting her name and a short interview. I am not sure if she was picked earlier in the day. Anyway the third fellow came out and he was older and funny. I am not sure if they set up for 2 okay singers and 1 really good singer so the one gets voted in by us. The 6-8 people who got voted in their round come back for the final show at 7 pm. That evening you can see who receives a golden ticket to be guaranteed a spot in front of the audition process at American Idol. Not in fron of the main judges but in front of the pre judges. It was neat and I would love to see the final show now that I know how it works and they play it on the outside of the theatre on a big screen if you don't make it in.



We went to Typhoon Lagoon this day. We really enjoyed it. The wave pool was awesome. A small group of us went snorkeling with the shark and stingrays. Two of the group waited in line and felt the cold water and wimped out. (Ray and Bobby) It was cold, but seriously you got use to it in a minute. We ended the night with a dinner with Cinderella and Prince Charming. I really enjoyed all teh food selection from different types of food. Italian, Mexican, American it was a yummy buffet. My niece got to dance with Cinderella. WOW!

We took off in between and split up. One group went to Animal Kingdom which was fun but super hot. Another group went back to Hollywood Studios to see the car show it got cancelled our first day from a quick lightening storm. The last of the group went to the OKW main pool with a slide. My husband came down with a fever this day, but he took some medicine and hung on like a trooper without even complaining or having a grumpy face. We ate at Wolfgang Puck for dinner in downtown Disney and we enjoyed it.



We went to Magic Kingdom after having a wonderful breakfast at Boma. It is located at Animal Kingdom Lodge and it definitely worth going out of your way. We got to magic Kingdom a little later did a few rides and during the parade the girls got their hair done at the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique. They had a wonderful time. The photo of the girls in the middle shows the Minnie shirts we made for them with crystals. This park is always a favorite. We finished the night off with the firework show called Wishes.



This was our Blizzard Beach day. Bobby, Ray, Chris, Kim, myself, and my 7 year old neice went on the Summit Plummet Water Slide. One of the world's tallest, fastest water slides. It is funny you see how high it is but yet we throw ourselves down it with little hesistation. We enjoyed ourselves. My little neice is young, but tall enough to go on some crazy slides and we just had to throw her down the slide. She was scared on one but was thrilled at the end of the ride. LOL! This park I wil warn you has a TON of stairs. They actaully have a ski lift but it was liek a 1/2 hour wait to ride so we walked up stairs all day. their pool is a wave pool but just bobbing waves not like the Typoon Lagoon which was our favorite.
The photos are from our dinner at the Backyard BBQ. My brother took the kids to the chaulk drawing area to draw The Best Family Vacation Ever on the ground and sign everyone's name.



We enjoyed this dinner. We got their a minute before it started so I would suggest arriving a 1/2 hour early. The food was alright BBQ buffet. The ribs were awesome. Adult beverages are only yucky beer and even yuckier wine. The country band played songs and I thought teh lead singer was really wonderful. The characters spread out to dance in areas with the kids. It is a little chaotic at first until the kids calm down and just dance instead of trying to capture the characters. As the night winds down the crowd thins out. Dessert is just ice cream popsicles.

The last day we went to Epcot and there were not many photos. We did lots in Future world and ate at the Coral Reef. The food was pretty good and the view of the water was great. My brother's family left and took one of my kids back to the pool. We went to the world showcase to eat our conter service in Morocco. It was fun and watched Illuminations firework and laser show. It was good and they had the world there because last year it was missing maybe it was being refurbished?

We had a wonderful time at Disney together.

a NEW addition to the extended family-Jasmine

Well isn't she the cutest? She is even cuter in person. My mom just got this dog. I can't believe it. My mom is a little bit of a clean freak okay she is full fledge clean freak. LOL! Enough about her let's talk about cute puppies. My youngest is SO in love with this dog. The kids have been asking me for one lately but it just isn't practical for us to have a dog.

Jasmine the puppy has been doing very well. She has been sleeping at night, no mess in her crate, and is just as lovable as she looks. I keep getting a report each day on the dog and I am so surprised by how well she is doing. It has been sounding way too easy for a puppy. I though it would be way more difficult for my mom, but we will see...

I am back from my Disney trip. I feel like I talk way too much about Disney, but if you like it there my next few post will be about our recent trip. *** Also if you know of any groups that start out with Hi my name is.. and I am addicted to Disney feel free to give me all the information. We are already talking about going in December.

Old Key West resort in Disney

Okay a few weeks back I got the best email ever. A little background: We all booked a trip to Disney, but my brother had to cancel due to money. My mom paid the upfront cost to reschedule the trip with us but one thing all the Disney value resort were full the best we could do was get them in the moderate resort, Caribbean beach closest to Pop Century where the rest of us would be. We called so many times to try to see if anyone cancelled. Everyday my brother's friend who works for Disney checked the reservation to see if anyone cancelled. It was totally full. Well I opened my email to find an offer for free upgrade to a deluxe villa resort. WOW! I could not believe it, but gosh I could not leave my family. But I did a quick research and the value resorts are $82 a night compared to a deluxe villa at $249 a night. I could never justify that cost, cause I do love the value resort price. Well I called and after a few holding times she said.... she would transfer all three of our rooms. What we all be together I couldn't believe it!!! I was so excited I had to hold in a scream until I got off the phone. On top of it all my brother's room received a $500 credit cause they had to downgrade him to a value before transferring him. So Free dining, upgrade for all three of our rooms, and a credit back. Who could ask for more? (Okay one more thing that would make it perfect. We only hope we can eat all together once we get to Disney, because sometimes they can squeeze more people in. We were not able to get my brother's four into our dining reservations because he booked so late.)
So as much as my husband does not want to hear it. I will miss Pop Century. It is my kind of place especially for the price. He loves to go to different places. So you can imagine he is getting a little tired of going to Disney. We enticed him with everyone going this year, we are going to the waterparks which we never did, and now a fancy deluxe villa.
The differences between the value room are we will get queen size beds, 150 sq ft more in our room, a patio, kitchenette(with fridge, microwave, toaster, and paper products), slide at the pool, restaurant at the hotel, and a boat to downtown Disney. We can't wait to have lots of fun. MICKEY MOUSE C YOU REAL SOON! I will be back with photos.

3 more days until Disney!!!

We are getting ready to go back to Disney. We are all very excited!!! It is 11 of us going again. My family of four, my brother's family of 4, my mom, my sister, and Ray. Last year we had special shirts made and it was really fun to all wear the same shirt. It was easy to find each other and people just had fun seeing us all together. Well we did not plan too well this year. I thought we would just make our own shirts and I had an idea of using a Disney map and taking a Mickey Mouse selection. Well I thought it would be too much work so we made crystal Minnie head shirts for the little girls and me and my sister will have one as well. We recently had a pre Disney BBQ and everyone voted for the Mickey map shirts. I though great I never will have enough time and my brother came up with idea of each of us having a letter on our backs and when we are all together it will spell MICKEY MOUSE in the Disney font. LOL! So anyway this is the photo I came up with using the Old Key West area of the map for the middle, Magic kingdom for the left ear, and Epcot for the right. I will definitely follow up with a photo of all of us. Also I might have made the photo and printed all of the iron ons but my sister has done all the cutting and ironing. THANK YOU VANESSA!

Stores Closed for Two Weeks.

Cheerleading Season is starting tomorrow

Check Rachel out in a coach's magazine called CheerBiz from American Cheerleader. (she is doing the scorpion) It is an advertisement for next year's competition. I signed a paper to enter this competition and they take lots of photos. So it gave them permission to use photos even though I had no idea that a photo would be used for a competition ad. I was surprised they picked this one out of the hundreds that were taken, but excited! She is making a real cheer face so maybe that is what grabbed them. This was from a competition in April with the satellite (part time all star) team she was involved in. Tomorrow starts the rec local town team. My oldest is doing cheerleading for that older rec team as well as the junior varsity for the high school team. I am a little nervous she will not have enough time for school work, but she assures me that she will be alright. We will see. Anyway we are excited. We think we picked out the bows for the competition already so hopefully we can order the ribbon and get them started. I get help doing them but last year we waited until the last minute so that was stressful. Rachel is doing well in tumbling has her tuck on the floor with a spot. We are offering classes to the girls so more of them will be tumbling hopefully this year at competition. YEAH LBC!

This is a bow that did not make the cut.

Summer is almost over!

So the jeep days will wind down. We just love going down the shore in the jeep with the top down. We pulled over to climb up on a jetty to watch the waves and looked back so we took a photo of the our jeep.




But back to school means my schedule will be more open to create new things. I am so excited I have a few new creations lined up to do. I have all the materials, drawn designs, and have practiced in my mind how to accomplish each piece. So hopefully September will be bring new things for the holidays. And best of all I will have my third ebook complete. I am so excited. I have written most of the words, planned out the project, and organized the helpful tips and tables. The ebook will do one complete project but in three stages. You can have a completed piece of jewelry at each stage so three different looks and three different skills to learn. I am super excited and have scheduled time to do it in September. Alot of times in the past year I have let my schedule run around my orders, but sometimes you just have to take the day off to create new things. So after September 8th I will be on a mission. A scheduled mission.

Look at this YUMMY appetizer

This was made by my daughter Christina. She loves to cook and to cook alot. It was so delicous. It was a version of an appetizer we had recently out at a restaurant. Chef Christina's version: Fresh Jersey Tomatoes-they were so yummy with reduced balsamic vinegar topped with cilantro(we could not find basil) served with a garlic infused whole wheat Italian bread with melted fresh mozzarella. I seriously could have eaten the whole thing, but thankfully I had restraint.

Well we took a day trip to Cape May, New Jersey. My husband had a quick job down there and we traveled with him. My younger daughter went to the Jonas Brothers concert in a LIMO, but more about that when I get photos. Anyway we missed going to the Mad Batter on Wednesday when we just my husband and I went to Cape May. (He had the same job but the computer did not work so he had to go back-lucky me) So if you are ever in Cape May you gotta go to this restaurant called the Mad Batter. We usually visit for brunch and went there for Easter one year, but this was our first time for dinner. It isn't cheap, but we found out everyday if you arrive between 5 to 5:30 you will receive half off the second meal. Well we enjoyed our waitress, we enjoyed hearing the specials and they even told us the prices. I find it so annoying when a restaurant does not not tell you the prices for specials. What if it is some unique thing that cost $150? Anyway we loved the food. I think it may have been my best dinner ever.
My husband had salmon topped with lump crabmeat over mashed sweet potatoes.
I had petite filet Mignon with a crab cake with sweet potato hash and roasted tomatoes. I don't usually like sweet potatoes, but these were delicous.
My daughter had a Caesar salad with Thai buffalo wings.(2 appetizers her choice.)
Everything was wonderful my only complaint was my daughter's soda was not a free refill and the waitress asked her if she wanted a refill. First of all I am paying a decent price for my plate of food give me a free soda it is pennies. Second of all if it is not free refills ask me if she can have it than I will realize it is not free don't ask her I know she is old but I am sure she is not paying for dinner. Just a pet peeve. I will definitely go back again and again but drink water.

Okay seriously what took me so long??? Really

Okay I am going to put in writing that my 14 year old daughter was right. (even though her reason was different than mine) She had been telling me to get an upgrade. I was a free agent so to speak. I was not in contract to AT&T, but I had an ANCIENT phone. Gosh if you saw it you would chuckle, but it worked and I could easily fit it in my pocket. I turned my house phone into a telephone and received a free phone for the house and it was newer than my phone, but so NOT user friendly. I still can't stand it. Yeah it has more gadgets like a camera but who cares. So I was talking to the phone agent and she was telling me about some different phones and I said well I am going to the mall today which I never do and I will go into the AT&T store and check them out. Well I was looking at this one phone that she and my daughter recommended for me, but they were out of stock. So I said well I really need a phone that I could check my email. He said well you should get an iphone. I remember when they first came out and they were so expensive and than you had to upgrade your service and I pay way TOO much money already for my phone. It feels like a car payment. Well he said it would cost me $105 for the phone with my upgrade and very little money to upgrade to the unlimited media plan. So I said okay that is easy. I paid my money and found out that AT&T does not insure the iphones. I thought great I going to break in the first week. (since than I bought a 2 year $70 protection plan) Well out the door I went and my life has changed forever. I know dramatic, but seriously. I LOVE it! I can check my email all the time, I need to be available to answer question, relist store items, email ebooks, and before when I could not check my email it gave me stress. Now no stress. Okay other fun things super user friendly I never even needed to look at the book. I can look up my map location, directions, check weather anywhere, and solve life's marital disagreements with one click to google. Like what length is the Pocono raceway?(my husband was right 2.5 miles)
Okay so my new best friend goes with me everywhere and keeps me available even on a day trip, weekends, and my upcoming Florida trip. 2 weeks long would nearly kill me with limited internet access. So yea I have the old 3G iphone but I got it at great price and I am beyond thrilled even after I got my first bill.

Look at my pretty earrings and more...

I had these circles I made out of wire and I had some starfish on my work table. You end up accumulating left overs or unused pieces on your worktable. So I decided to make a pair of earrings to match my beach girl charm necklace. I love them and they are oxidized so you never have to worry about color change due to tarnish. I wore them on the beach and everything this past weekend. I would like to make some for my web stores if I ever get some time.





This was a custom order. I really liked how the earrings turned out. She wanted some shell earrings to match the bracelet, and she already has a seahorse beach girl necklace charm. NOTE: the beach girl bracelet stamped bar is not two toned but all oxidized it is a reflection from the light.

Is it too late to say Happy 4th of July?

Oh my I embarrassed to have not been on here for so long. Sometimes I wish I could stop time to catch up. Life is just so busy sometimes that it is just nice when you have the holidays to relax and enjoy family. We went to my mom's house for a bbq. We had a nice time talking with my mom's friends and her boyfriend's family. I even got to see my brother, Kim, and my two nieces. (first photo, Rachel-my daughter-my niece Madison, my niece-Ashley) Well what a interesting time it end up being. I will tell you I was on the phone with Disney most of the day I actually depleted the entire phone battery. LONG story short. We went to Disney last year in August and had an awesome time. We got along so well, the kids were wonderful, and we just enjoyed each others company.(and LOVED Disney too!) Well Disney was offering their spectacular free dining again this year and my husbnad was so not into going. We went twice last year. I know crazy but we went with my family first than his family during Christmas who live in Florida. Okay I am making this much longer I just get so excited about Disney. Anyway we decided to all go again this year and we decided to add on the waterparks so than my husband was excited to go and at least do something different. All 11 of us. Mom, Ray, my sister, my brothers four, and us. We were so excited. Well my brother had some unexpected car expense that took alot of funds and they decided with much sadness that they would not be able to save money in time. I was rushing them a little because I wanted to make dining reservations once without all the rescheduling I did last year when we added family members each week.(It started as 6 of us and grew) So I canceled their reservation. Well at the bbq my mom said something about getting special shirts like last year.
SEE US looking so cool it was great and so easy to find each other.


Well my brother started to get real emotional about how last year's trip was his best time ever in life. He was very sad about his family not being part of the trip. Family memories and so on. It really choked us all up we hugged him and everything. My HERO mom decided to pay for him and let him pay her back. Well we tried to get him at the same resort and we could not but thay are next door currently at the moderate resort Caribbean beach. Hopefully we can change him and get him in all of our dining reservations. We are super excited and looking forward to making some new shirts instead of having them made this year to save a little money. We should do them DISNEY OR BUST. LOL!

Graduation 2009

8th grade Graduation 6/17/2009 Christina CONGRATULATIONS!
Christina won the president's award with other fellow students, was a recognized as a member of the National Honor's Society, and was her class Vice President. She was also mentioned receiving the highest Math test score along with another male student. I don't say it enough, but I am way proud of her. Get them A's next year Christina.
My baby is going to high school. Please God protect her. I am not ready. I am scared she will get lost in high school not literally of course she is smart, but it is not like going to elementary school she is leaving which is K-8. Big difference and these kids today make me feel like I am getting old fast. I know our parents said the same thing but with the technology today there is just too much junk out there. But let us move forward with high hopes like that any moving that rubber tree plant. LOL!

Mini Photo album Post

I am so behind here is photo of the gals plus my nephew. We had a nice time visiting with my mother in law. She made unexpected visit to NJ from Florida and stayed with her sister in law. From left to right staring at the top. Me, Sis in law-Kim, Mom in law-Georgia, Aunt Doris, daughter-Rachel, nephew-Vincenzo, and daughter-Christina. We had a great day and Christina made potato salad and it was YUMMY!



Me and my hubby




Me and my sis




Sis and Chico


Here is photos of a recent night on the town, well dinner anyway. LOL! We went out with my sister and her friend who was visiting from Brazil. She went to high school with him and he happened to be in the US for a visit. I remember him but it was 9 years ago, so it was nice to get to know him and find out more about Brazil and their culture and do this have this and hey I saw this show on the Discovery channel about these killer shells found in Brazil kind of questions. FUN TIMES!

Happy Father's Day

Wow thanks for letting me be a part of your Father's day gift giving. I sure made alot of dog tags for some loved men out there. Holidays are very special and it is so nice to be able personalize keepsakes for other's to give. That is why I have always loved to personalize jewelry every since I started this is whole jewelry thing years ago. You know how people like to get tatoos to signify a time in their life. Well I don't have any of those but in my mind that is what I wanted to give people a jewelry tattoo. Corny but true. Anyway with these deadlines of needing it by a certain date it does get stressful, but they all made it in time. YEAH. I did make one error but we fixed that up in a jiffy. I really get frustrated at myself when I make a mistake. I really have the routine down the way jewelry goes from an order to a sealed mailing envelope, but deadlines and lots of orders make it just a little harder. So what is next Christmas? I am getting ready early. LOL! And really I should cause everybody on my list gets last. I wanted to make my father in law some stamped cufflinks, but I never did get to it. We will see him in August I will defintely have them in my hand if not sent before. I promise!

My pretty brown and blue bird bag

I just received the prettiest bag ever sent to me from Charlotte. She is just the best ever at what she does. Her sewing talent is incredible. I absolutely love it and can't wait to use it. I still have another bag she made in my purse and it is in great condition so I am not sure what to do yet. She makes such wonderful stuff that I did not really need a new one just so wanted one.
I had picked this out recently from her STORE. It is just perfect for me. I like to put my lip liner, gloss, mints, business cards, coupons, and whatever else ends up in there. So not only is it beautiful it is very practical.
Charlotte is a friend I had met online on Ebay of all places. We got to chatting and became friends. She loves God and that is the best thing for a great frienship. She is such a wonderful encourager to me and I am so blessed with her friendship. We even met up one time for a meal in Lancaster, PA. What a neat thing to do after speaking with each other online. What a great family.
She did not let me pay for it though. What a stinker. I purchased it from her Etsy store and she refunded my money.
So if want an awesome bag check out her STORE. You will not be dissappointed.
Thank you Charlotte.

Beautiful Birthday Weekend

Sunday when the birthday girl did not want her photo taken.

This weekend we celebrated my oldest 14th birthday. Whew! I am getting old. Anyway we did not really plan much ahead as life has been busy enough. So Saturday I slept in a little late. Everyone was already up and about. So we thought let's invite my family for dinner and my mom suggested we go to the Camden River sharks game. So we went to Christina's choice Texas Roadhouse. It was us four, my mom, Ray, my sister, and we brought my two nieces. It was a great meal and they brought over a saddle and had the all the people yell YEHAW for her birthday. No pictures of the game but it was alot of fun different than pro baseball. They play music and do lots of fun games during the breaks. After the game all the kids can run the bases. My husband took the kids down, Rachel took off, Ashley was not far behind, and Maddie my 3 year old niece lost her flip flop and got knocked over by about 4 kids. She was a trooper though got right up and ran the rest of the bases. LOL! Crazy kids.



Sunday in our jeep after church and on way to the shore.



Ocean City's shore view from the boardwalk.



Dad and Rach after playing mini golf.

We headed down the shore on Sunday for a quick bite to eat. We ate at Smitty's Clam Bar on the water where you can just sit outside on stools. I had baked scallops and clam chowder and it was yummy. Christina had fried shrimp and Chris had the chowder and grilled tuna. We had a great time and they were putting up the dinner menu around 4 pm and they had such yummy choices. We will have to go back soon for dinner. (Although it will have to be right at 4pm we drove by later and it was packed with no seats and lots of people waiting.) We walked the boardwalk looking in the stores and waiting until we were not full so we could eat dessert. We left the shore earlier than usual and decided to get WaWa ice cream to take home and eat.

What a wonderful weekend. Thanks Christina for your birthday celebration.

Oh my goodness I am freaking out, LOL!

It was almost exactly a year ago we came home to our coffee cup spider on June 8, 2008. You can read here. I was going to get the clothes out of the dryer and for whatever reason I looked into the washer. I was not going to put clothes in and thank goodness I did not just throw in towels like I usually do. Oh my goodness can you imagine reaching in to this monster. I could not believe how big it was. The photo does NOT do it any justice. It looks like a baby. It was not it had a huge body and I was freaking out. Ugh! I am itchy right now and scared to do wash tomorrow. What was it doing in the washer??? It may have come up from the crawl space. I don't know but I hope if it had family they stay where they belong outside. We have not seen any bugs except the occasional centipede. We just had the exterminator out last week for a general spray. Well, I must admit I missed the first time killing it.(My husband always misses and they get away.) So I drop the first steel block on him, but did not get close enough for fear of the thing propelling onto me like an alien. It did not run after I missed it just spread out. So I quickly tore everything apart for another steel block to drop on it. This one killed it enough that it was stuck. EEWWW!!! So my husband had to get gloves for the clean up. I think I can pass on doing laundry tomorrow until my memory of the terrible thing fades. LOL!

Sunday's church what fun

Well, a couple of Sundays ago we woke up late for church. Now we could have probably got ready real quick and been reasonable late to church. I asked my husband about having church at home. I thought it would be nice and relaxed since we were late. He agreed and I said I would get a quick shower and as soon as I was finished we could have church. Well as I got out the shower I was welcomed with my youngest and my husband scurrying around in the hallway laughing and being silly. Yo would have thought it was Christmas morning. I made myself a cup of coffee and turned to see this podium made of 2 card bard boxes taped together and a sign of the events. It stated that Daddy was the preacher and it had our music/song selection, Rachel was in charge of bible reading, and I was in charge of prayer request. They had so much putting that all together. It was funny to see their excitement. We sang songs, read the bible, and really got to talk with the kids in an interactive setting. We had alot of fun that Sunday. :)

Happy Memorial Day

Check out the new lowercase letters that will be for sale. So many of us want to have something different than the uppercase letters. The custom letters sell for $350and up and you need to wait weeks to receive. I have these for sale in my store Joyfully Crafted for $178 the price includes shipping. They measure (2mm) 5/64th of an inch for letters like b, d, f the other letters like a, c, e will measure 3/64th (1.2mm) the perfect size for stamping different blanks. Not too small not too big. I am excited to offer them to you. They were easy to use. Most custom letters do not have a thumb groove, but they are stamped with the letter on the side that you need to have facing you. The letters were easy to line up because each letter is perfectly on the steel stamp. They leave a nice impression in the metal very even and precise. No need to worry about hitting the edged of the stamp on your metal like you might do with other stamps if you don't hold perfectly upright, because these stamps are rounded towards the letter. I was very pleased with the lowercase letters and I hope you will enjoy them as much as me.

It is Starfish time

I have made so many over the years. This is such a popular and unique item. There are not always my favorite to make those starfish can be difficult to get just right in between the glass, but when it is all done it seems all worth it.
I have so many exciting Beach themed items coming. I can't wait until they are done and selling down the shore. It is almost Memorial day weekend.

NOTE: I had an email from an how to make glass art pendant ebook customer asking me where do I get my plain metal ball chain from and it disappeared in my inbox. So I am hoping maybe you are checking in here. I feel terrible that I could not answer the email. http://stores.shop.ebay.com/Ball-Chain-and-More

Key to my beach house

Well one can dream right? My new sterling silver skeleton key chain. Coming soon as a necklace.
I have been so busy with Mother's day orders that I have not had time to post here or do much of anything. Although I was thrilled to do so many gifts this season and I hope everyone had a wonderful day this past Sunday. Happy Mother's Day and thank you for letting me be a part of your gift giving. I am looking forward to doing some new designs that I have on paper and in my mind. Just have to get through some orders that came during and after the Mother's day frenzy.

Got to love the Beach in April

I have a couple new oxidized beach girl designs. A beach girl seahorse charm necklace and my new rimmed charms that will soon be available with custom names.

Anyway guess where I was yesterday. The shore and it was hot. Today was 90 degrees and hot in the house. I feel like it is too early for air conditioning, but I loved the weather at the shore. And for anyone reading this who has ordered something. I worked twice as much today, I promise I did.

We pretty much decided on Friday night we were heading to the shore the next day. It was my sister's idea, she made me do it. She does not know we go all day and boy was she tired when we got home. We love driving to the shore in our 2 door Jeep wrangler with the top down. We drove my sister's 4 door Jeep down so we could all fit. I like regular 2 doors better even though there is so much more room in the 4 door Jeep. Anyway we are late starters. We left at 12:30 and I know this because I had to go to the post office by 1:00pm. LOL! We stopped first in Sea Isle. We rented bikes and drove them on the promenade (concrete boardwalk) over looking the beach. It was really fun. I am so surprised because I usually shy away from doing stuff like that. It was nice though because there were people but not lots of people so you were not afraid to run into someone. So after that fun we headed back to the jeep for juice and chips. We worked up an appetite. We headed to Stone Harbor. We go to that town alot. We walked around and looked in the stores until 5pm when our favorite little restaurant Marabellas opened up. We all got garlic and oil spaghetti. Loved it! We walked around a little more, but stores were closing, because most don't open until May 1st to May 15th. We started to drive home but we all wanted some ice cream. We stopped in Ocean City and went on the boardwalk for soft serve and my sister got a tye dyed sweatshirt that said Ocean City. It was REALLY colorful. I wish I would have brought my camera. I missed lots of photo opportunity. We stopped for a coffee at WaWa and back home we headed. It was a great day. Sun, fun and family. Not too many things are better than a day at the beach.