Back from Outer Space

Oh, my poor little blog.  I've had to leave it to languish all alone and lonely for the past few months.  On the up side, it means I'm more engaged with my REAL life and not wasting spending so much time goofing around on the internet.  On the down side, I sure do miss having an outlet for my thoughts, jewelry, etc.

Most of the last few months have been consumed with work, kid stuff, and household repairs.  No jewelrymaking and I can't even remember the last time I went on Etsy to buy new beads...I know, I know...you don't believe me, but it's TRUE!  Oddly enough, though, I have actually been SELLING quite a bit of both jewelry and resin beads.  Why it's suddenly happening when I'm paying less attention to the site than ever...I have no idea.  I call it my "un-marketing" marketing plan. 

Genius, LOL!

We did manage to get away for a long weekend in late July.  Mom won a free weekend at a Dana Point beach condo in some charity silent auction thingy that she went to so our whole clan schlepped over there for several days.  We had a great time - the surf was huge and somewhere on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean are a pair of my swim goggles that I'll never get back after I wiped out pretty good in a sizeable wave.  The same wave made a valiant attempt at taking half my swimsuit, too, but I managed to hang onto that...which was a fortunate thing for both me and for anyone within visual distance.

Here's a lovely photo of the sunset on our first night showing the view out the condo's bedroom window:

This is Saltwater Creek beach - famous surfing spot and located right next to the Ritz-Carlton hotel.

Our real vacation is coming up this next week.  We're headed to Hawaii!  I lived on Oahu as a young child for a few years so my earliest memories (and probably my love of all things beachy) stem from that time.  I've been jonesing to go back since my last trip 13 years ago and am thrilled that we are going to Maui this summer.  Ryan has never been so I'm looking forward to taking him to a luau and teaching him to snorkel, etc.

I bought a waterproof camera and hope to get some shots of the coral reef, fish, turtles, etc.  Of course, I'm still kinda skeptical that this whole "waterproof" thing is actually going to work, but I have a receipt and a warranty so am hopeful that I can return/exchange it if there are problems.

I will definitely get the photos posted here if I'm able to get some.  Maybe they'll serve as inspiration for some new jewelry because I could sure use that!

Aloha!

KJ