Monday Mish-Mash

First of all, thanks to everyone for all the caring comments about Ryan, his foot and our lovely experience in the ER. It's great to know that people care! He's all finished with the antibiotic and his foot is healing nicely.



I did catch him trying to chew on his toenails twice over the weekend - so much for learning a lesson. I have a feeling that it's just such a strong habit that nothing is going to make a difference.

In other news, I'm WAY behind on my Rings 'N Things blog partner posts. They've sent me so much good stuff lately and I'm having a hard time keeping up. Here's the most recent package of goodies:







Some fun and unusual findings to play with - bobby pins and cufflinks. I've got some great dichroic glass cabochons that would look awesome on the bobby pins and make really lovely hair ornaments. As for the cufflinks - there was an article several years ago in...I THINK "Bead and Button" that used some really pretty carved pink shell flowers as cufflinks and I always wanted to make a pair. Here's the perfect opportunity!







Here's the rest of what was in the most recent package - lots of fun "Day of the Dead" stuff to play with. I love the sugar skulls and the pewter charms and chili peppers. This group of goodies is just begging to be a charm bracelet - as soon as I have time.



The package before this one was chock full of bezels and other "memory keeper" type goodies and since I DID get to play with resin this weekend as planned, you'll be seeing some of that stuff in an upcoming post so stay tuned!


Lastly, I finally finished that piece I had to re-work because of the dumb color-changing beads. Although I'm still not 100% happy with it as compared to the original design ('cuz that's just how I roll), I think I got as close as I could:






The light blue "nugget" beads were the ones that I had to replace. Originally, they were $3.99 a strand glass from Michael's. Now, they are custom-made lampwork from HMB Studios on Etsy (and didn't she do an awesome job, by the way?)







Black clay and raku pendant from Star Spirit Studio on Etsy. I really liked the copper, gold, silver and blue metallic "glow" of the horse element against the rough black clay background. I tried to pick up those elements in the rest of the necklace.







Other beads are black lava coins and metallic blue shell rings from Michael's, black and teal Czech rondelles, copper sead beads and silver Thai disk spacers. There are a couple of Czech firepolish beads in there, too, for "sparkle." 'Cuz, y'know, I gotta have the sparkle.





Clasp is a sterling silver hook and eye clasp from Atlantis Glass and Bead on Etsy.

I'm calling it "Spirit of Winter." Which is totally appropriate now that winter is over LOL! I should maybe get caught up and move on to spring?

Naaaaaaahhh.

Stay tuned tomorrow for Part 1 of my "Adventures with Resin."

KJ