Small Miracles

I thought I’d written a pretty detailed account of my adventures at the L.A. Gift Show, but I left out one important part. While I was at the show, a miracle occurred. Now, don’t get me wrong, it was a small miracle. Not more than a 1.0 on the miracle Richter scale, really, but it made an impact on me.

As some of you know, I’ve been going through a difficult time in my personal life. In violation of all true blogger principles, however, I’ve refrained from posting the ugly details here because A. they are UGLY details and B. it’s just too painful right now. But, my point is, any little GOOD thing that comes my way these days is extra-appreciated.

Now, let’s get back to my miracle. It involves a pair of earrings (see how I tied that whole personal-life-experience thing back to the main theme of this blog?). There was nothing really special about this pair of earrings. They were plain, cast sterling silver circles with a hummingbird and flower design that I picked up years and years ago in a gift shop at the Marriott Palm Desert hotel (the hummingbird is the official symbol for that hotel). They became my “every day” earrings. I never had to worry about matching them to anything because they were casual enough to wear with jeans, but still nice enough to go to work. They were lightweight so I could wear them all day without getting a headache and they didn’t “clank” into the phone when I picked it up at work. They didn’t dangle so much that my son could get a hand on them and yank when he was a baby which is probably the reason why I still have the ability to wear pierced earrings to this day.

So, I proceeded to go on my merry way wearing these earrings almost every day for a number of years and over time I got really attached to them. Not only did they remind me of a great vacation, but they made getting dressed and accessorizing in the mornings REALLY easy.

Then, one day I went shopping. And I tried on clothes - lots and LOTS of clothes. I kept taking tops off over my head and putting new ones on. You know what’s coming, right? I got home that night to discover to my utter HORROR that I’d lost one of my hummingbird earrings! I searched the entire house and the inside of the car. I called the stores I’d been in. I went back to the stores I’d been in. No hummingbird earring. Later that year when my family went back out to the Marriott, I searched all of the gift shops for a replacement pair. No hummingbird earring. I did get a cool set of Brighton jewelry on that trip, though, but I digress…

For the next year, I kept the one remaining hummingbird earring on my dressing table in the forlorn and useless hope that its mate would somehow miraculously reappear. Every day when I got dressed and reached for a pair of earrings to put on, that little hummingbird stared accusingly up at me as if to say “how could you lose my other half?”

Eventually, for my own peace of mind (and remaining scraps of sanity), I had to put that earring away somewhere and move on with my life.

Cut to this weekend at the gift show. My friend Jenie is busy at a Thai silver booth and looks like she’s going to be a while so I start idly browsing through some of the nearby booths. None of them hold much interest for me – some ugly purses and wigs (and why are wigs in the jewelry section for heaven’s sake?), some really tacky rhinestone crap, an over-priced gemstone vendor and a silver casting vendor. I’ve already bought a lot of silver at the show and don’t really want to spend any more, but Jenie is still drooling over the Thai silver and doesn’t look to be done any time this century so I decide to start poking through the tiny, pill-box containers of silver that are all over this table. I mean, you never know, I might find something that I REALLY NEED to have!

So, I look through a few containers – pretty boring, typical stuff that I’ve seen at a zillion vendors. I leave that section behind and move to another section and look through a few bins there. Yawn. I turn back around to check on Jenie…nope, still shopping, so I go back to the silver booth.

I stick my hand in one last container that I’m not really even looking at as my hand goes in (hey, a cute guy walked by and I got distracted, so sue me). I look down to see what I’ve pulled and DAMNED if it isn’t the EXACT, IDENTICAL cast sterling silver hummingbird and flower design from my earring!

I squealed. At least, I think that’s how one would describe that sound – I’ve never actually made that sound before so I’m not sure. I call the vendor over and tell him I’ll take two of them (after I dig through a few pieces to make sure the sizes match up exactly). By now, I’m bouncing up and down and mumbling “I can’t believe this…I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS!” to myself over and over. Needless to say, the vendor looks at me rather strangely and I say, “but you don’t understand…I’ve been looking for these for FOREVER!” I tell him my story about the lost earring which clearly makes no impression on him whatsoever, but he does proceed to take my money and wrap up the charms for me.

By now, everyone in the booth is staring at me. And they weren’t doing the normal, every day type of stare, either. No, I was getting the “crazy bag lady mumbling to herself and it’s time to think about slowly edging away for my own safety” kind of stares. But, I didn’t care. The earrings are BACK, baby!

So, I race across the aisle to where Jenie is STILL shopping for Thai silver and I interrupt her (big, BIG mistake…never get between a jewelry artist and the merchandise she’s zeroed in on) and excitedly tell her my story. I have to give her huge credit for remaining calm in the face of my insanity, not ditching me at the show, and not quietly pointing me out to security and having me carted off to the asylum (which is what I think the other people at the previous booth were plotting to do).

Then, of course, I had to see what was so completely fascinating at the Thai silver booth and realized they had some cool stuff that I didn’t have in my silver collection so I did end up buying some things there and I'd put a picture here, but blogger.com seems to be anti-pictures today for some reason and is not letting me upload ANYTHING. So, I'll post 'em later.

Anyway, that’s the story of my miracle. It was small, but it sure made my day. Okay, the massive shopping expedition, great company and fabulous dinner played a part, too, but it was the unexpected find of a real treasure that was the icing on the cake.

And today, I came to work wearing my restored hummingbird earrings and my beautiful new alexandrite pendant (pictured in a previous entry). To top it all off, this morning, my son was kind of staring at me and I asked, “What’s wrong, honey? Does Mommy look funny?” He paused and said, “No, Mom, you look great.” And then he gave me a kiss on the cheek.

Life is good.

KJ

L.A. Gift Show - Part II

Picking up where I left off in the previous entry...

Then I found the Russian lacquerwork booth. Holy cow! This stuff is amazing. Years ago my parents were in Russia and brought me back some traditional lacquerwork and I’ve always loved it. Until now, though, I’d never seen it done on beads. Plus, most of the designs were PANSIES! Those who’ve been reading this blog for a while know that I am just a sucker for pansies. It’s like I’m bonded to them because I have to have them. So, into my bag went a pair of lacquerwork pansy beads which I promptly turned into these cute earrings with the addition of some Bali vermeil and some black Swarovski crystals.

I bought a few other pieces from the same booth in both the lacquerwork style including this fabulous mother-of-pearl pendant with a detailed winter landscape painted on it. Here's a close-up:

The same booth also offered beautiful things from porcelain artist Kenneth Chen who was featured in a recent issue of “Beadwork” magazine and I bought some of his beads as well. The round pieces in this picture are all porcelain and the others are the Russian lacquerwork:

I’ve already paired the winter pendant with the green apatite I mentioned earlier and some pearls and seed beads to create this piece:

It will be up for sale on the website later if I can manage to pry myself away from it. I think it’s now my favorite thing that I’ve ever made and the picture doesn’t really do it justice because you can’t see the details of the pendant and the perfect way that the apatite and pearls pick up the gorgeous colors.

As if the show wasn’t enough by itself, Jenie and I headed over to Santa Monica to have dinner at a place called “Monsoon” on the 3rd Street Promenade. Wow! The food was fabulous. Of course, we were both famished having skipped lunch so that might’ve helped, but still! I almost cried when I made myself leave half my dessert on the plate so as not to COMPLETELY blow my diet.

Anyway, it really was a terrific day and it gave me the motivation to speed through all my chores on Sunday morning (laundry, laundry, laundry, dishes, kitchen counters, more laundry) so I’d have a couple of hours to play with my new stuff before Ryan got home.

In fact, I had such a great time that I almost managed to not notice how much I missed my little Ryan – I’m having a hard time getting used to this new schedule! As great as the show was, the best part of the weekend was seeing Ryan’s sweet face last night when he got home and gave me a big hug! He is just one terrific kid and I’m so lucky to have him!

Take care all!

KJ

L.A. Gift Show - Part I

You know how, every once in a while, the stars align and you have a really truly fabulous weekend where everything just goes perfectly? Yeah, me neither. But I did manage to come close this weekend at the L.A. Gift Show.

Saturday morning, I left the safe confines of Orange County to brave the 5 freeway up to downtown L.A. For once, my directions were right on and I got there on time and didn’t get lost (which, after having seen the local area around the convention center in L.A. was a VERY good thing). I most definitely would not have wanted to be lost there!

I met up with my friend Jenie from Dragonfly Jewelry after a small delay caused by sucky traffic conditions on the 101 and the fact that the convention center has a cavernous lobby in which it is very difficult to find anyone. Since I was a gift show virgin, I let Jenie lead the way to point out the best vendors. We had this great plan wherein we were going to walk the show FIRST, and then go back to shop anything that looked interesting. Yeah. Right. That plan lasted up to about the third booth we passed (and that’s only because the first two booths didn’t have anything we were interested in).

We had to stop at the third booth because Jenie had shopped them before so we knew their merchandise and prices were decent and I got myself some kick-ass pendants including a gorgeous piece of faceted alexandrite which is my birthstone and which I can almost never find so I end up having to settle for amethyst instead. Not that there’s anything wrong with amethyst – I happen to love it – it’s just nice to get the real thing for a change. And no, that piece won’t be up for sale on the website…it’s mine, all mine, hahahahahahhhhaaaa!

Okay, sorry, I just fuzzed out for a second there, but I’m back now. What did you say? Pictures? Well, of COURSE! It wouldn’t be any fun to get new stuff if I couldn’t do the whole “nyah, nyah, lookee what I got and you didn’t” thing in public, right?

So, in addition to the alexandrite pendant (which is the large, circular sterling silver setting with the pinkish-purple stone in it), I also got a pretty oval, mother-of-pearl pendant, a Tibetan turquoise pendant and pendants of blue moonstone and pink moonstone.

Then we shopped and wandered some more and I managed to maintain control until I got about halfway through the hall and came to the Earthstone booth. Oh…My….God! I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. Beautiful stone pendants at terrific prices and all the other gems and stones you could ever want. I’m still kicking myself for putting back that strand of emerald rondelles. Those REALLY needed to come home with me. I mean, a girl’s GOT to have emeralds, right? But here’s a picture of what I did get:

The two rectangular pendants are kyanite, the teardrop pendant is aquamarine and the larger blue piece is chalcedony. I also got a really fab strand of polished green apatite nuggets which isn’t pictured because I’ve already used it in a design which WILL be up on the website for sale later on (today or tomorrow, hopefully). Jenie bought some of the same apatite as well a strand of blue-gray Celestine which I had never seen before and am totally jealous of.

The silver prices at this show were much better than what I can get at the shows in OC so I stocked up on some more unusual pieces. I haven’t scanned those yet, but maybe later this week. One vendor had some AMAZING Bali beads that were copper and silver together which I hadn’t seen before and WHY OH WHY did I not buy some when I had the chance? Drat! Of course, it figures the company doesn’t have a website, either. People, listen to me, join us all in the 21st century, please, and GET A FRIGGIN’ WEBSITE FOR YOUR BUSINESS! Did I mention it’s a peeve of mine when people don’t have websites? Well, it is.

But, back to the treas…er…loot…er…oh, hell, back to the descriptions of all the completely and totally fabulous stuff I got! I always have to stop at booths selling larimar because it’s just so pretty. I can never afford it, though. Larimar only comes from one teeny li’l spot on one teeny li’l volcano on one teeny li’l island in the Caribbean which means the vendors can charge damn near whatever they want for it. But this booth was different. This booth had reasonable (for larimar) prices. In fact, they were so reasonable that I actually got up the nerve to ask how much their unset cabochons were. I nearly fell over when they turned out to be not just affordable, but actually CHEAP! I had to get some, of course! Here’s a picture:

I will use these in some of the bead embroidery projects I have planned. I think they’ll make gorgeous focal stones for cuff bracelets. Just you wait!

I found a booth with great prices on plain, black leather cord necklaces already finished and just waiting for the addition of a great pendant to make a simple, modern and stunning design. I picked up two sets in different widths so if any of y’all like leather necklaces, gimmee a shout and I’ll be happy to put something together for you.

In addition to the bead area, I wandered over to the “World Style” area of the show and found a vendor selling all kinds of unusual things such as “singing magnets” (which we discovered don’t so much sing as make a really annoying “zyyppp” noise). The most interesting things I found there were some thermo-sensitive liquid crystal beads (remember the “mood” rings of the 70’s?) capped with sterling silver. I bought a few to play with because I just thought it would be fun to revive the trend AND the beads are really pretty in and of themselves…the colors are much more bright and spectacular than what I remember from when I was a kid. I also bought a bag of antique shell “buttons” that had silver accents and came from old-fashioned ladies high top shoes. I’m not sure what I’ll do with them, but they were cool looking so I figured what the heck?

And now I'll skip to Part II of this story in the next post as blogger.com will undoubtedly have issues with how many pictures can be included in a single entry...sigh.

Books & Miscellaneous Mental Meanderings

Hey, so I was in an alliterative mood this morning...I blame the donuts.

I’ve only got one book to talk about this week. Yes, I was a bit busy with Ryan’s birthday party, but the real reason there's only one is that I purposely read this one as slowly as possible. I love Sharon Lee & Steve Miller’s "Liaden Universe" series so much that I wanted to really savor the latest installment: ”Crystal Soldier.”

Not only do we finally meet the fabled Cantra yos’Phelium, the near-mythical founder of Clan Korval, but many of the mysteries inherent in the other books are at last explained (the origin of the Tree, etc.) so I do recommend that readers start with the other books in the series first. One can’t really appreciate the importance of many of the elements in this story without having read the other works (which, by the way are ALL excellent). My favorite is ”I Dare”, but it should probably be read last. I recommend starting with either "Local Custom" or "Pilot's Choice."

The next book in this duology, ”Crystal Dragon” is due out later this year. You can find out more about this fascinating universe and even download electronic versions of most of the stories at a nominal cost by going to the Korval Website.

In other news, I’m off to the L.A. Gift Show tomorrow, and am very excited about it. I’ve never been before and am looking forward to discovering heretofore unseen treasures (some of whom will undoubtedly insist on coming home with me). I’m not necessarily looking forward to the drive into downtown L.A. – this OC girl prefers to remain behind the “Orange Curtain” whenever possible, but the lure of potential new treasure is just too strong so I’ll be braving the 5 northbound tomorrow morning.

I’m continuing my “love-to-hate it” affair with “Project Runway” and just have to say that the skating costumes designed this week were a total disaster. And WHY does everyone keep choosing such BLAH colors: black, white, navy, maroon and more black. Blech! Chloe was the only one who did anything interesting with color with that beautiful aqua, but I didn’t like the neckline on her design. Still, it was FAR and AWAY better than Santino’s or Andrae’s (what WAS that thing with the weird draping and the dead bird on the shoulder and WHY Andrae didn't have to answer to the judges for that monstrosity I’ll never know). Whew! Still…can’t wait until next week!

Lastly, I haven't posted a picture in a while so thought I'd share one here. This is my latest treasure from Jeff Welsh:

I just loved the combo of the bright pink and sunny yellow. I can just see this little guy swimming around a tropical reef somewhere.

Who knows...maybe I'll find the perfect accent beads for this little guy at the show tomorrow? Ahhh...the anticipation...

Have a great weekend everyone!

KJ

Site Update - Save $$$$

Well, the dollar sale was such a success that I decided to make it a permanet feature at Silver Parrot Designs. It's now a special page in my regular "Bargain Basement" section. It's been updated with all new $1.00 sale items so be sure to check it out.

I've also updated the "Bargain Basement" section overall. I've lowered the prices AGAIN on some of the older items and added a large crop of newly reduced items. There are now TWO whole pages of bargains PLUS the dollar sale page!

On top of that, the free shipping deal for all orders of $20.00 or more is still in effect!

So, as you can see, I've made it more cost-effective (sounds better than "cheaper" doesn't it?) to shop Silver Parrot Designs than ever before.

The gallery has also gotten a facelift as I've added several pages in that section because of all the items that have sold recently.

Enjoy!

KJ

P.S. For those who ordered from the original dollar sale - your orders are in the works. Please be patient as there was a LOT of activity from this sale and I will get the orders out as quickly as I can.

I survived!

Yes, that's right, Ryan's 3rd birthday (and the attendant celebration) is over! And I survived (mostly) intact. After all, the rain held off until after the party had moved indoors. Okay, so it was colder than, well, a word I won't let my 3 year old say, but I think everyone was prepared for that. I only had to call the bouncy house delivery company once when they didn't show up on time and I was panicking. The cake arrived without mishap. Although the design was nothing like the picture I saw in the bakery - at least it still had a Spiderman on it so it fit the theme. None of the kids hit or otherwise antagonized each other. Ryan had a minor mishap on the front steps and banged up the side of his face, but he recovered quickly when offered the chance to go the store with grandpa to pick up the cake (and at the store the clerks felt so sorry for him and his poor little face that he scored a free bunch of balloons with multiple lollipops attached). And yeah, my mother did re-frost all the cupcakes and re-tie all the treat bags because I had failed to do either task correctly, apparently, but it was a small price to pay for all the help she gave me with set-up and clean-up.

Of course, the most important thing of all was that Ryan had a BLAST! He stayed in the bouncy house until nearly 6 pm when I finally had to drag him out because it was so dark we couldn't see each other and kept bouncing into one another. Plus, it was getting really, really COLD!

So, we went inside and played with some of his new birthday loot. He's such a doll and we had a lot of fun together. I'd forgotten how much fun new toys are :-)

I'm hoping to have revisions to the website up later this week now that the dollar sale has cleared out a lot of the old inventory. I'll have a whole new crop of bargains to put up and maybe even some new stuff! Woo hoo!

After that, I'll be busy shipping the dollar sale orders and, best of all, going to the L.A. Gift Show this weekend for the first time ever. I'll be meeting up with my pal, Jenie, from Dragonfly Design and I can't wait. She's a gift show veteran so I'll get to tag along behind her and hopefully score some great stuff!

Take care everyone!

KJ

Friday Book Review

This week’s recommendations are short and sweet. I didn’t have a lot of time for reading (sob!), but I did manage to get through a couple of books.

First, I read the next installment in Mary Janice Davidson’s “Undead” series called ” Undead and Unemployed.” I really just love this series and can’t wait to pick up the next installment. The heroine has a great sarcastic sense of humor and shares my love of fabulous shoes so what more could a girl ask for? Oh, I forgot the hot, hunky love interest and various steamy love scenes which, okay, are a BIT on the “romance novel” side for my taste, but at least there’s a plot going on to hold them together (are you listening Laurell Hamilton?) Yes, there’s no great overwhelming literary themes going on here, but these books are perfect for beach reading or any time you just need a fun, trashy novel to enjoy. Personally, I like to read them while sitting in the spa chair at the local mani-pedi parlor.

From trashy, girly fun, I moved on to Dave Duncan’s “King’s Blades” series. I’ve been hooked on these books from the first one, “The Gilded Chain.” The universe created by Duncan has some fascinating details such as the ritual for becoming a blade – after all, who among us could really stand calmly still and let our future employer ram a sword through his or her heart so that we could take up a life of servitude afterwards. And no, not EVERYONE survives the magical sword-ramming ritual. So far, all the books have been of good quality, but this latest one, ” The Jaguar Knights,” leaves something to be desired. It starts off well with a midnight raid, a stolen Marquesa and a tortured hero, but it quickly degenerates. I got the feeling this started out as a two-book story which got crammed into one volume thereby necessitating severe cuts towards the end. The investigation into the raid and the love story between Sir Wolf and Dolores should have been one book and the ensuing expedition to Tlixilia (insert rant about authors who use un-pronounceable made-up words just to torture their readers) should have been another book. The story rapidly accelerates at the end with huge giant chunks missing and lots of questions left unanswered. Except they’re not unanswered in the “oh, an obvious sequel is coming up” sort of way (although we get that, too – it IS a series after all) but more in a “my editor says I have to cut X number of words and I hope no one will miss this bit here so SLASH.” Very frustrating. If you’re a fan of the series, I suppose it’s worth having to complete the collection, but if you’ve never picked up one of these books, go get “The Gilded Chain” and read the story of Sir Durendal (who makes a brief appearance in “Jaguar Knights”). It’s so much better that there’s almost no comparison.

That’s it for books because I’m STILL waiting for B&N to get in my copy of Linnea Sinclair's “An Accidental Goddess!” GRRR!
And now, I’m off to spend the weekend in children’s birthday party hell as my son turns 3 tomorrow and I have outdoor entertainment planned that I hope we will manage to get through before the predicted rainstorm arrives (stupid weather!). So, happy weekend all and take care!

KJ

Sale Update!

Whew! I knew this group could shop, but holy cow! Things went so quickly that I've put up an updated website page so you can see what's left.

For those who ordered something that was already taken by the time their order came in - I've e-mailed you privately.

But, don't despair. This went so well that I'm thinking of moving more items over into the sale section and will announce if/when I do.

The free shipping on $20.00 or more orders will continue until at least mid-February and maybe longer if I feel like it :-)

Thanks everyone who shopped! There are still a few items left on the sale page and of course lots of other great stuff on the rest of the site.

KJ

Major Sale at Silver Parrot Designs!

Let's face it - doing inventory sucks. It's boring and takes time away from making new jewelry.

So, I've decided to have an "I hate inventory" sale at Silver Parrot Designs. All items in the sale category have been reduced to $1.00!!! That's right...one measly little dollar will get you any item on that page. And, if that's not enough, any order of $20.00 or more will receive free shipping!

Just follow the dollar sign on the main site page: Silver Parrot Designs to get to the sale (but the free shipping applies to any items on the entire site as long as the order totals $20.00 or more).

Go forth and shop!

KJ

P.S. Jenie - just for you, the aqua lace embroidered pendant is on sale for $1.00!!!

Why I love "Project Runway"

So, yesterday I mentioned my unreasonable addiction to a little show on Bravo called ”PROJECT RUNWAY.” I’m not entirely sure why I’m so in love with this show – after all, the people on it are INCREDIBLY annoying, but I still can’t stop watching. I suppose one reason is that not only do I love fashion, but I REALLY love to hate bad fashion. And there’s a LOT of bad fashion on this show. It is interesting to see how the designs turn out as they come down the runway after having seen them in the “assembly” phase, too.

Last night’s “challenge” was to design a party dress for Nicky Hilton. Nicky was a guest judge on the show and made the final selection of the winner. Before the designers started, they were each given a “dossier” (and why they used this word when Ms. Hilton is not a CIA agent or international terrorist, I’ll never know, but whatever) about Nicky and her personal style. It included a couple of pictures of her in some designer dresses and a letter from her to the designers in which she describes herself as having “exquisite” taste.

Okay, first of all, that’s not something that one says about oneself. That’s a compliment, that, if one is lucky, gets paid to one by someone else as in “My dear, that dress is lovely. You have exquisite taste.” Second of all, one of the pictures of Nicky in the “dossier” (I keep laughing every time I think about that) is of her wearing this incredibly ugly black Chloe dress. So, obviously, her taste is not “exquisite” 100% of the time. She’s also got her hair dyed this weird shade of dark chocolate brown that looks TOTALLY fake with her skin and eye color. I get that she’s trying to not be Paris’s clone, but with the kind of bucks she has, you’d think she could at least afford a top-notch colorist who could successfully talk her out of bad hair choices. Finally, Nicky appeared in two different outfits on the show. One was some kind of weird, pastel, throwback-from-the- 80’s-sweater with gigantic buttons down the center and a placket that didn’t even hang straight. The second outfit was even worse. She wore one of the hippy, boho-chic crap floaty skirts that are so popular (although I don’t know why) right now and paired it with a tank top that was tie-dyed in shades of black, gray and white. Maybe she forgot to look up the definite of “exquisite” before she wrote that letter? Someone should buy the poor, deprived girl a dictionary.

And while we’re on the subject, I seriously don’t get why the Hilton sisters are so famous. I mean, yeah, so they’ve got a gadzillion dollars, but really…is that enough to make people so obsessed with them? *Shakes head in disbelief*

Oh, and one last tidbit about Nicky. Although she’s trying to look different than Paris by having the dark hair (blech!), she’s copying her in another respect by trying to popularize her own catch phrase. Paris is known for saying “that’s hot” and Nicky has chosen “I love that” as her catch phrase. As each designer came up to her on the show to present their creation, she had the following responses:

1. “I love that.”
2. “I totally love that!”
3. “Love it” (an ingenious variation)
4. “I sooooo love that!”
5. “Loooooove that!”

My brain hurts. Really. Could whoever signs up to send her a dictionary include a thesaurus as well? Thanks. I may survive now.

In the end, Guadalupe got kicked off the show last night for creating what was possibly the ugliest monstrosity of a dress I’ve ever seen. Although, frankly, I thought that Marla should have been tossed, too, for her blatant rip-off of the ugly Chloe dress shown in the now-infamous “dossier.”

Damn, I love this show!

KJ

P.S. I almost forgot to say "way to go Texas!" I just love me a good ol' fashioned Trojan ass-kicking because no one deserves it more than they do. And yes, I went to UCLA. So?

More Fun Pics

Well, nothing interesting happened in my life in the past 24 hours so here are some more pictures of cool stuff I'm planning to use...er...eventually :-)

This pretty little boro dolphin by Jeff Welsh caught my eye one day and just had to come live with me. At first I planned to do a really involved design with it, but I'm starting to think that just a plain silver chain is what it needs so it can be the center of attention. Hmmm....

Since I got a dolphin pendant, I figured I should get a shark, too (okay, yeah, so I bought several sharks...your point is?) This was the only mako shark design the artist was selling - all the other sharks are flat and straight on as you'll see in the next picture. I used to have this book all about sharks when I was a kid and I was fascinated by it and took it everywhere with me until I stupidly left it down at the lake by our house one summer afternoon and when I went back for it, it was gone. So, a big "shame on you" to the shark-book stealer who is no doubt still out there robbing other children of THEIR favorite books or despoiling library shelves or something equally awful.

This shark design is by Jeff Welsh - really, he is so talented and just does the MOST amazing stuff. Just wait until I start posting the pictures of the sea horses and sea dragons! I lived in Hawaii when I was very young (this was before the house by the lake where the shark book got stolen) and I remember some of my Hawaiian neighbors talking about sharks and how their culture views them as ancestral spirits or even gods. These beautiful pieces reminded me of those stories and I thought it would be awfully cool to have your own personal "shark totem" pendant to watch over you. They each seem to have their own personality.

Okay, that's it for today. But, if the next 24 hours is as boring as the last 24 have been, I'll undoubtedly have more pictures to post soon. Oh, except that "Project Runway" is on tonight so I have that to look forward to. I have no idea why I'm obssessed with this stupid show, but I can't stop watching it.

KJ

Book Recommendations or “What I Did On My Christmas Vacation.”

I guess the folks at Amazon.com read my slightly (ahem!) disparaging remarks about their free shipping program because a whole box load of books arrived on my doorstep a couple of days before Christmas. Of course, since I’d already given up on them (based on the arrival date prediction on the Amazon.com website), I’d made an intervening trip to Barnes & Noble to stock up with the result that I am actually overloaded on books for a change. That hasn’t happened since…well…actually, I don’t think that’s EVER happened before. I really like not having to force myself to read ever-so-slowly because I know there’s nothing left on my nightstand after I finish the current book. My nightstand overfloweth J

So, on to the reviews. Years ago, I read an amusing little story done in the Jane Austen style with a dash of magic thrown in for spice. ”Sorcery and Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot” was written by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer. Since I happen to adore all things Austen, I really enjoyed this book and it’s become a perennial favorite re-read. So, imagine my delight when I discovered that Mmes. Wrede and Stevermer have finally come out with a sequel which follows the continuing adventures of Cecelia and her cousin Kate as they make ”The Grand Tour.” Alas, it’s not quite as good as the original book, but for those who enjoyed the original, it’s nice to find out what happened to the characters and it’s still good enough to be a likeable read on its own. Unless you’re a major fan, however, I’d wait for the paperback version.

From the whirl of the London “Season” and travel on the continent, I moved on to radio shows and werewolves. Hiding on the shelves at B&N I found a little ol’ first time novel by Carrie Vaughn called ”Kitty and the Midnight Hour.” Despite a disturbing tendency for the cover art to look like a rip-off of the cover of Kim Harrison’s ”Dead Witch Walking,” this book was a lot of fun. While it’s true that werewolves and vampires seem to have been done to death (no pun intended) lately, the main character’s job as a midnight disc jockey on a radio station and her startup of a call-in talk show for pathetic supernatural beings is quite original. In fact, the one thing that would have made this book even more effective would have been for it to feature MORE of the radio world and a little bit less of the werewolves chewing each other up on the streets of Denver, CO. A sequel is already in the works and is forthcoming this summer. I look forward to reading more about Miss Kitty.

From there, I moved on to an anthology called ”Night's Edge” which includes four novellas (or LONG short stories) by some of my favorite authors including Charlaine Harris and Barbara Hambly. I particularly enjoyed Hambly’s story and wish she would go back to writing sci-fi and fantasy instead of her recent addiction to historical fiction. I’ll take spooky haunted buildings over Mary Todd Lincoln any day. It was quite obvious in the story that the author was exorcising some of her personal demons relating to the divorce and subsequent recent death of her husband George Alex Effinger.

Then it was time to head into space (as in “outer”) with Sharon Lee and Steve Miller’s anthology ”Low Port.” I’ve been a huge fan of their Liaden Universe series forever and am familiar with their concept of the “Low Port” as it exists in that universe so I thought it would be interesting to read what other authors did with the idea. The problem with anthologies is that you never know what percentage of the stories will be excellent vs. mediocre vs. out and out clunkers. It’s kind of like when you buy a new CD and there are one or two hit songs on it and the rest suck and now you’re out twenty bucks for two good songs and thirteen rotten ones. I hate that. But, I’m happy to report that most of the stories in this anthology are really enjoyable. There were a couple that I thought were overly obscure or had difficult-to-follow dialects in them, but no major suckiness anywhere. I particularly liked “Angel’s Kitchen.”

Then, it was time to move on to vampires. See, I’d already done a werewolf novel and the vampires are just so annoyingly competitive. They HAVE to horn in and make sure they are represented. Sadly, there’s so much vamp fic out there now that it’s really kinda getting a “been there, read that” feel to it. I’m happy to report that Mary Janice Davidson’s ”Undead and Unwed” brings a fresh new voice and humor to the genre. Although it takes place in Minneapolis, it really reads like “Sex & the City” meets “Dracula.” I’m not sure which of the four girls the heroine of this novel would be (some combination of Carrie’s shoe fetish and Samantha’s willingness to boink anything that will stand still long enough is probably about right). Anyway, this one is hilarious and highly recommended. And yeah, there are a few bits that will test your WSD (willing suspension of disbelief) such as the heroine luckily having a gazillionaire best friend who is able to buy her house and keep it safe until she “rises” from the dead, but who cares? This novel is sooo not about nit-picky little details. Tell your inner rational voice to shut the hell up and just enjoy the ride. I’m already on to the sequel and there are at least two more books in the series that are already in print. Yay!

Whew! Okay, by this point, I probably need a new eyeglass prescription from all this reading, but hey, I was on vacation. Which brings me to the last book, ” The Givenchy Code,” by Julie Kenner. A while back, I reviewed Ms. Kenner’s “Carpe Demon: The Adventures of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom” and was slightly disappointed in it. Not so with “Code.” This book rocks (and not just because of the clever play of words in the title). The heroine is smart, the hero is yummy-hunky-gorgeous and the plot is interesting as the two of them race around Manhattan trying to stay ahead of a killer who thinks a computer assassin game has come to life and is playing for real.

And lastly, since I unfairly (as it turns out) bitched about Amazon, I figure I need to even the scales by complaining about B&N now. How come they can’t get new releases on the shelves on time? Linnea Sinclair’s ”An Accidental Goddess” was released on December 27, 2005, and even though I gave B&N until the 29th to have it in stock, I had no luck. Ditto with the 30th and 31st. Now, here it is a whole new YEAR and I still don’t have this book. Phooey, I say!

Still, Happy New Year to all and if there isn’t a review this Friday, it’s B&N’s fault!

KJ

New Bracelet

Here's another entry in my continuing quest to prove that I *DO* actually make stuff as well as buy new beads (ahem...shut UP, Sparkle). I finished all the tube beads for this project over the summer and then I got caught up in the search for the perfect clasp. Who knew that an affordable, three-strand blox clasp inlaid with turquoise would be so difficult to find? Not me, apparently, or I'd've designed things differently. In fact, I almost went with a plain silver clasp, but this bracelet just seemed to demand "more" than that so the search went on. Then life sorta smacked me upside the head for a while there and I had to put all the creative stuff on hold. But, I finally found the right clasp and had time to put everything together and so here it is:

I'll have it up on the website later today or this week for sale. I've got to do some cleaning up over there now that the holiday sale is over for the year so please be patient. Oh, and thanks to everyone who ordered from Silver Parrot Designs during the sale - y'all made my year!

But, of course, buying is fun, too ;-) so here are a few more of my early "presents" to myself:

These beautiful flowers and leaves are by Melissa McQuilkin of Whitney Street Studio. I have to say, they are even more impressive in person - beautiful and delicate. I can't wait to put them with some pretty amethyst, prehnite and pearls that I have in stock.

Take care!

KJ

Work in progress

So, just to prove that I actually DO make stuff vs. just buying new beads (shut up, Sparkle), here are a couple of pictures of projects that are partially completed.

When this is finished, it's going to be a beaded barrette with fringe. This picture shows the backing material that I stitch the beads to. I started with a center cabochon of white quartz. It's surrounded by several rows of size 15 Japanese seed beads in peyote stitch. Then, there's a row of backstitched size 11 Japanese seed beads in white luster pearl color and another backstitched row of silver-lined crystal size 15 seed beads. Then you can see where I've "attempted" to free-hand sketch (NOT my strong suit) a swirling design and I've also attached a few crystals and onyx disks and surrounded them with peyote stitch, too. Eventually, the entire background will be filled in with size 15 black seed beads with a few silver-lined crystal beads scattered here and there. The basic idea was to have it look like a star-filled night sky with a "moon" in the center and cosmic winds blowing stardust around. I'll post a picture again when it's complete and you all will have to let me know if I captured that feeling or not LOL!

Here's the other project I'm working on:

The center stone is yellow quartz and the two other stones are dyed red agate. I think I may have called them carnelian in an earlier post, but that was incorrect. This piece is going to be a bracelet. I've started with peyote stitch in metallic gold and bronze tones and you can again see some of my crap sketches as I tried to put in a "flame" design around the stones. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to follow through with that or just have a solid background. We'll see. I'm letting it "sit" a while so I can come back and make a decision about it. Of course I ended up with 3 "flame" sections that look pretty consistent and one section that looks totally different than the other three. Like I said...drawing ain't my thing. And, on this surface, you can't really erase your marks so it's hard to have "do overs." Color scheme on this will be either fiery tones of yellow, orange and red or, if I decide to do away with that design idea, I'll use metallic and earth tones.

I'm also still working on the latest peyote tube bracelet. The basic design is all laid out on my beading board (but no way to put it in the scanner yet, unfortunately) and now all I have to do is tinker with it a bit to get the exact bead placement that I want. I'm pretty pleased with it, though, and I think it's going to be spectacular when finished...especially with the gorgeous silver and turquoise clasp that I got to finish it off with.

Now I just need the TIME to do it!

Happy weekend everyone!

KJ

Friday Book Review and Last Day of Holiday Sale!

First things first – today is the LAST DAY of the Silver Parrot Designs 2005 Holiday Sale! so head on over to the website and check out the deals if you haven’t already.

Now, here are the book reviews. This week, I continued working my way through the rest of Sharon Shinn’s “Samaria” series. Both ”Angelica” and ”Angel-Seeker” are excellent and breathe new life into this series. I was slightly disappointed in the previous two installments as compared to book one, but these last two novels are as good as “Archangel” is.

In fact, “Angel Seeker” is the best of the entire series thus far. It picks up where “Archangel” left off and follows some of the secondary characters from that book: Obadiah, Nathan and Magdalena, as they build the new angel hold at Cedar Hills and try to improve relations with the troublesome Jansai. The addition of the imprisoned Jansai girl, Rebekah, and her dangerous love affair with Obadiah is fascinating and definitely adds spice to this novel.

“Angelica” is good as well. I enjoyed seeing how Susannah, an Edori woman, would resolve the love triangle between herself, Gaaron the Archangel, and her Edori lover. It’s also the first time that the author introduces the idea of colonists from other ships and other worlds and their impact on Samarrian society.

And then there’s the third book I read this week: Fiona Patton’s ”The Silver Lake” I’ve been eagerly awaiting this novel because not only does it have some kick-ass artwork on the cover, but I’ve been a big fan of Patton’s since reading her earlier works, especially her “Branion” series which begins with ”The Stone Prince.” I’m particularly fond of the second book in the series, ”The Painter Knight.”

So, I was all set for an equally awesome read AND the beginning of a new series, “The Warriors of Estavia,” with this latest book. Unfortunately, it does NOT live up to the promise of Patton’s earlier works. Not only is the action slow, but the characters are patently uninteresting and unsympathetic. Patton continues her trademark use of homosexuality and bi-gendered or gender neutral beings as well as her use of gods who are constantly and intimately involved in the moment-to-moment lives of their subjects. However, the gods of “The Silver Lake” are even more involved and more in control of their worshippers than the religious forces in the “Branion” series were. Frankly, I wouldn’t have had a problem with most of that if the action and characterization were up to par, but they’re just not. I think one problem that authors run into when they make the gods of their worlds into fairly significant characters and give them huge amounts of control over the mortals in the story is that the mortals begin to seem like mere puppets with no wills of their own. This stifles character development. Another problem with this novel is the incredibly confusing variety of place names and terminology. I never did figure out all the villages and temples (despite the map in the forefront of the book) or the difference between the terms “delin” and “delinkos.” It seems like one term means children and the other might mean “apprentice” or “foster child,” but it was difficult to be sure which was which. So, admire the cover art in the bookstore, but then put this one back and go pick up the “Branion” books…which are all out in paperback already.

That’s it for this week. I’m not sure if there will be another review until after the holidays. It will depend on how organized I am getting ready for Christmas and whether or not Amazon.com decides to ever ship my latest book order. Note to self: do NOT choose the “free, super-saver shipping” option next time. 5-9 days my a$$!

Take care all!

KJ

Eye Candy

Here are a few more of the yummy things I've picked up lately (in anticipation of MAYBE having some free time to bead over the holidays!)

This set was just too darn cute to pass up. I love the color combination and the big flowers on the lentil-shaped beads. I thought it would be nice to have a holiday set that is something other than the traditional reds and greens.

Here are some yummy boro glass spacers. I just love the colors in this set and can't wait to design something with them. I have to say, until this past year, I've never been a big fan of boro glass. It seemed like all the beads I saw were muddy and kind of "blech" but I've finally found some artists who really know what they're doing in the color department and I'm really pleased to say that I'm now a "boro convert."

KJ

My, what big teeth you have!

So, I was checking out the website of one of my favorite authors the other day and came across some incredible pictures. In addition to being a top sci-fi writer, Alan Dean Foster, travels to some of the most unlikely places and takes these incredible pictures. I was particularly struck by the shots of him diving with great white sharks off of South Africa so I thought I'd share the link: ALAN DEAN FOSTER

Because of the way his site is set up, this link may only take you to the main page. If that happens, go over to the column on the left hand side and click on "Bio/Photos" and then scroll about 2/3 of the way down the photos column for the shots of the Great White sharks (although a lot of the other photos are interesting, too).

Enjoy!

KJ

But wait, there's more!

But then, you already knew that, right? Okay, so I'm a bead slut. Or else I somehow got magpie genes somewhere becaue I can't pass up the pretty, sparkly stuff.

I bought some amazing borosilicate glass beads from this artist at the last show and just had to get more, more, more. Unlike more traditional lampwork that is made from soft Moretti or Effetre glass, borosilicate glass is much harder and requires different equipment and skills to work with. These unusual twisted rectangles and matching spacers shimmer in shades of copper, red, amber and touches of violet and lavender. The scan just does not do these justice at all. They are even more spectacular in the sunlight.

This set has all my favorite colors - luscious shades of blue, green, aqua and turquoise with touches of lavender, bronze and gold. The spacers are a unique teardrop shape which should make them fun to design with.

And last, but certainly not least, I bought another of this artist's sets of heart beads. I got a set at the last show and have been kicking myself ever since for not getting more. This set features moss green and blue borosilicate glass with a clear "window" in the center of each heart that reveals some sparkly lavender foil work. As usual, the scanner has muddied the colors a bit, but in real life, they are semi-transparent - like looking through a forest stream.

I can't wait to see what I come up with to use all of this great new stuff! It should be a lot of fun!

KJ

P.S. ONLY 3 MORE DAYS TO SHOP THE 2005 HOLIDAY SALE AT SILVER PARROT DESIGNS

More is better

I may have to put that down as a contender for my epitaph. I don't know, though, I'm pretty fond of my original choice: "If you all would've just done it my way, everything would've been okay." And before you ask, no, I am NOT a control freak ;-)

Okay, enough with the scary peek inside my head. Back to the beads! My bead embroidered earrings with the dichroic glass cabochon centers are some of my favorite projects, but I've done several pairs lately and started to wonder about "branching out" into other genres. I'm currently working on a barrette with a large white agate stone in the center and black, white and silver bead embroidery all around it and I've also started a bracelet with a yellow agate and two carnelian cabochons with bead embroidery in shades of gold and bronze. I'm loving the work-in-progress so much that I decided I needed more bracelet and barrette-sized focal cabs so I picked up some from a glass vendor at the show. At 12 for $10.00 - these were a real DEAL!

And, I know, they don't look like all that much right now, but just wait until I'm through with them!

KJ

Part Deux

I picked up these unusal ammonite fossil pendants at a show last year, but haven't decided what to do with them yet. I don't usually do a lot of work in earth tones as I'm more a jewel tone/ocean colors kinda girl, so I took them to the show this weekend with the express purpose of finding some coordinating beads. I discovered this lovely set of bronzite coins at the 70% off sale. Unfortunately, the scan does not do them justice. Each coin has veins of deep golden "flash" very similar to a high quality tiger eye. And again, I was able to get a full 20" strand.

The next picture has a pretty ocean jasper pendant that I got at the same time as I bought the ammonites above. It's got pretty swirls of peach, gray and dark green against a creamy white background. I had hoped to pick up some peach moonstone or something similar to match it at the show, but didn't have any luck in that department. I did find this 20" strand of freshwater pearls at the 70% off sale, but they are for another project. I just thought they went well in the photo with the pendant, but I think I want something with more color in the final design.

Okay, more pictures in the next entry.

KJ

It's mine, all mine!

I attended the last local bead and gem show of 2005 this past weekend. It was a bit disappointing because some of the usual vendors did not attend - probably due to the time of year and the fact that there's a bigger show in San Diego this coming weekend. Some day, I'm going to save up my pennies and be able to hit the bead orgy that is Tucson in January of each year, but until then, I'll have to be satisfied with the meager pickings at the local shows (although I'm hoping to get to the L.A. gift show for the first time in January, 2006, so we'll see how that compares).

However, if not all of my regular favorites were there, some of them did show and they were having incredible sales. Lan's Beads had 70% off their entire stock - woo hoo! I probably should have bought more there, but I had some specific needs for planned projects so I just stuck to that and you'll see the strands in the following pictures.

I also decided to post some recent ebay goodies that have been arriving in my mailbox - early Christmas presents to me! This first picture shows two sets of absolutely stunning lampwork glass beads by ebay artist Kaye Husko of Oregon. Her work is quite pricey (and deservedly so), but after haunting her listings for nearly a year, I managed to pick up a couple of somewhat affordable sets. I don't know if I'll be able to part with these, though, because they are just so beautiful. They may have to find their way into jewelry pieces for my private collection. Hey, a girl has to keep SOME bling for herself ;-)

Also in the picture is a lovely strand of turquoise rondelles that I got at the 70% off sale. Only part of the strand shows - it's a full 20" strand.

Well, I had planned to post more pics in this entry, but blogger.com is being lame so....stay tuned for part deux.

KJ

Christmas Sale and Friday Book Review!

Don’t forget – the Silver Parrot Designs Christmas Sale is still going on! From now through Dec. 16th, all orders of $20.00 or more are 15% off!

And now, on to this week’s book review. I managed to make it through two books this week. I read the third installment in Sharon Shinn’s “Angels of Samaria” series, ”The Alleluia Files” Shinn fast-forwards the audience another 150 years into the future of Samaria where whispers of the knowledge discovered by the angel Alleluia in the previous book, “Jovah’s Angel” are causing religious persecution of a certain group. The archangel, Bael, is a dangerous fanatic who is using the powers of his office to control the direction of Samarrian society. I still enjoy Shinn’s ability to logically map out the way this society changes over time, but I found the main characters in this book to be the least interesting of all the novels so far. And, because the action splits back and forth between the points of view of two different characters (a technique I’ve never been that fond of as one character is invariably far more interesting than the other), the character development can feel a bit disjointed. Still, it’s a good overall addition to the series and I’m still enjoying the whole thing enough that I’ve moved on to the fourth book. But more about that next week.

The other book I read is the fourth installment in Rachel Caine’s “Weather Warden” series. ”Windfall” continues the misadventures of powerful, but supremely unlucky, weather warden, Joanne Baldwin. Because of the setting of this novel and its descriptions of major storms, it’s quite eerie when you think about the recent, record-setting hurricane season. Now, usually, my normal complaint about some books is that they don’t have enough action. I never have that problem with Caine’s books. In fact, if there’d occasionally be a few breathers between crises, it’d be nice. However, the reader will definitely never be bored. The reader will definitely never want to be Joanne Baldwin either. This gal makes jumping from the frying pan into the fire actually look like a reasonable course of action when compared to the ways in which her life goes wrong. And thanks to her soul-stealing Ifrit boyfriend, David, she’s low on the magic powers just when she needs them most.

I did think that the real intent of one of the characters in this novel was rather pathetically obvious which made me fear for the IQ’s of Joanne and her sister, Sarah.

**WARNING** plot spoiler!!

Ladies, if a rich, cultured, English gentleman tries to pick you up in the McDonald’s line at a local mall food court, trust me, it’s WAAAYYYYY too good to be true. Put down the QP w/ cheese and back slowly away.

Still, Caine is valiantly trying to follow in the footsteps of Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake…back when she was actually a kick-ass heroine instead of a nymphomaniacally crippled outlet for her creator’s TMI (wayyyyy, wayyyy TMI) sexual fantasies. And for that, I thank her. Because, I do miss Anita. I really, really do.

Okay, that’s it for this week. I am working on some new jewelry, but it’s a lot of bead embroidery which is quite time-consuming so I won’t have anything to post for a while. Especially when you consider that Ryan had stomach flu this week (oh joy) and that pretty much kills any and all creative urges I might’ve had. I did get some truly gorgeous new clasps in sterling silver and turquoise in the mail this week so I can finally finish off the latest peyote tube bead project as soon as I get some free time LOL! I’m pretty excited about it and I think it’s going to be utterly fabulous when finished. And, of course, I’m off to a bead and gem show this weekend so I should have some yummy bead finds to post next week.

A la prochaine…

KJ

Friday Book Review

The first book for this week’s review is "Melusine" by Sarah Monette. I’m having a hard time deciding what to say about this one because it has some obvious, major flaws, but I enjoyed it anyway. This is mostly due to the vivid, funny and pretty vulgar first person narrative by the character Mildmay the Fox. In fact, his portion of the story is so much more interesting and better told that it completely overshadows the first person narrative of the other major character, Felix Harrowgate. This is unusual to me because from the outside description, I would have expected for Felix to be the more interesting character.

I also thought that this book was in desperate need of some type of prequel or at least a prologue chapter. The reader is left with the feeling of being plunked down into the middle of a story that’s already been going on for a while. I found the geography of the city of Melusine as well as the surrounding countryside to be confusing and I agree with one of the reviewers on the Amazon site who complained about the use of the word “septad.” It really was impossible to figure out whether it means days, weeks, years or what. Some of the more interesting secondary characters never reach their full development and a couple of characters simply disappear part way through the book and are never mentioned again. The reader never finds out what happened to them. Lastly, the book ends extremely abruptly and if I didn’t already know there was a sequel coming (“The Virtu” due out in June, 2006), I’d’ve hurled it at the wall in frustration.

And yet, there’s something compelling about the world that Monette has created. I’m dying to know more about the various wizards’ factions – what do they believe and why are they fighting. What about Felix’s past? How did he and Shannon first get together? Then there’s Mildmay. Despite his background as a thief and sometime hired killer, one can’t help liking him and sympathizing with his situation and his exasperation with all the losers and madmen around him.

I will warn you that this book contains a lot of foul language (particularly on Mildmay’s part). There’s also homosexuality and a rape scene. Felix’s description of his madness can be quite disturbing as well. However, I didn’t find any of these darker elements to be gratuitous – they are intrinsic to the characters and the plot. I suppose Mildmay could’ve dropped fewer f-bombs here and there and the reader still would’ve been well aware of what his background is, but even there, I didn’t find it out of character.

Overall, I recommend “Melusine.” The flaws are overshadowed by the fascinating characters and worldcrafting.

Next, I continued my foray into Sharon Shinn’s angel series with ”Jovah's Angel”. While I didn’t find the main characters quite as compelling as Rachel and Gabriel in the first book, “Archangel”, still, I find the world and the series to be fascinating. The angels Alleluia and Delilah are interesting and, in Delilah’s case, tragic figures, but the male characters of Caleb and Noah were underdeveloped in my opinion. I enjoyed the way Shinn fast-forwarded the action in that this second book takes place 150 years after “Archangel” so the reader can see the major changes that have taken place in Samarrian society with the advent of technology. I thought it stretched believability somewhat that Caleb would have such a varied understanding of technology from dam building to repairing music machines to unknown alien spacecraft. But, that was a minor blip in an otherwise enjoyable read. I’ve purchased the entire series and am already part way through the third book, but I’ll save that for next week’s review.

Happy weekend, everyone!

KJ

Holiday 2005 Sale!!

Silver Parrot Designs is proud to announce the 2005 Holiday Sale!

From today through Dec. 16, 2005, all orders over $20.00 will receive a 15% discount. This includes the already marked down items in the "Bargain Basement."

Here's just one example of the new merchandise available on the site:

Santa decided to drop in a bit early for the Holiday Sale and he brought beautiful lampwork beads, Swarovski crystals and Bali silver with him!

Silver Parrot Designs will do its final shipments the weekend of Dec. 17, 2005, and will then be closed until January 1, 2006.

Happy Holidays and Happy Shopping to all!

KJ

New Work

I promised some new pictures and here's the first one. I finished these bead embroidered earrings just in time for my show on Nov. 12th. The scanner, of course, has completely screwed them up as far as accurately replicating the color scheme is concerned, but I'll try to describe them. The centers are dichroic glass cabochons. They have a black background with royal purple and tiny hints of teal in them. I've chosen royal purple, teal and purple aurora borealis (AB) seed beads for the embroidery and used them again in the fringe with the addition of teal crystals and glass daggers. I know it appears in the picture that the crystals and the daggers are different colors, but in real life, they match perfectly and they also match the teal row of embroidery around the cabochons. These babies are glamorously long at 4.25" and I call them "Twilight Teal." And yes, Jenie, I KNOW...get a digital camera and ditch the scanner. I'm workin' on it!

In other news, I've finished a couple of books this week so there will definitely be a new book review this Friday. I've got a cute Christmas set necklace and earrings featuring lampwork and crystals that I'll try to get scanned tonight so I can post a picture tomorrow. And, last but not least, the Christmas sale is definitely ON! It will start December 1st and run through December 18th. I'll make a formal announcement here of all the details later so keep your eyes peeled for that!

Take care all!

KJ

In Memoriam

I'm very sad to report today that my sweet cockatiel girl Jimmi passed away at 7:00 AM this morning. She was a very gentle, loving bird who was completely hand tame and would ride around on my shoulder or join me for a snooze on the couch any time. She was also the inspiration for the "Silver Parrot" part of "Silver Parrot Designs." I will miss her terribly - she was a great friend and had been with me for a very long time. I hope that she's flying freely now without any pain or illness and is finding fields full of all the millet treats she wants.

Good-bye, sweet girl.

Jimmi Osborne
1994-2005

Silver Parrot designs website update

Silver Parrot Designs has been updated to remove the items that sold at the show earlier this month as well as some other sales I've had. The sold items are still available for viewing on the "Gallery" page. While I can never guarantee that I can duplicate something exactly (due to the use of one-of-a-kind artist beads and other rare materials), I'm always happy to discuss the possibility of a custom order and I will let you know whether or not all the materials are still available.

I haven't gotten around to scanning and uploading some of the new designs yet, but perhaps I'll have a chance tonight. I've got a cute Christmas set featuring some nice lampwork and Swarovski crystals and there's also a new pair of bead embroidered earrings in yummy shades of teal and purple. Droooool!!!!

Oh, and Melissa...I'm glad you're enjoying the book reviews! Thanks for the comment!

KJ

I'm BAAAACCCKKK!!!

Whew! It’s been a long time, but I’m back. Life jumped up and walloped me a good one across the jaw and it’s taken me a while to recover. But, I did manage to work my way through some books while that was happening so I thought I’d herald my return with some reviews.

To start, I’ve got Brandon Sanderson’s ”Elantris” This book had a fascinating premise about a city of nearly supreme beings who literally overnight find themselves stripped of all of their beauty, powers and life. Essentially, they become like the living dead and are walled up in their city to suffer for eternity. To make matters worse, in the town outside the walls, some people seem to randomly undergo the transformation into one of these creatures and are thrown into the city to suffer along with the original inhabitants. I thought that sounded like a fascinating idea and that it had a lot of potential for a good story. Unfortunately, I feel like the author didn’t make the most of what he had available here. The action lags in places and some of the characters are underdeveloped…especially the princess who, in my opinion, was the one person worth reading about in the story. When the resolution to the mystery finally comes (and it takes freakin’ forever to get to it) it’s so incredibly over-simple that it left me feeling very let down. This was a bummer because I really, really wanted to like it. Still, the book does have its moments so I can’t say it’s bad and in fact, it might appeal to someone who has more patience than I do or is not really into high action, high romance stories. But, I’d still say, wait until it comes out in paperback. And use a coupon.

Next, I read Elaine Isaak’s, ”The Singer's Crown.” I could almost cut and paste the review of “Elantris” and put it under this book as well. Once again, the book has a fascinating premise, but it doesn’t quite live up to its full potential. If a palace coup occurred and all the members of a royal family are done away with except the youngest, we’d have the typical “put the dispossessed prince back on the throne” novel. Except what do you do when that prince is, well, surgically unmanned by the new regime? How can a eunuch become king? Throw in a few wizards (both evil and good) a spoiled princess and political intrigue, toss liberally and then try to figure it all out. The story seems to go along pretty well for a while and then there’s a very confusing section where everyone switches allegiances and acts contrary to the characters they’ve been building thus far and it just seems rather silly. Also, the love interest of the Rhys, the main character, I found to be singularly unlikable. Her personality changes happen so much “off stage” that by the end of the book they are not very believable. Again, this turned out to be an “okay” book that could have been so much better. It’s already a trade paperback, but still, wait for a coupon.

Now, let’s move on to the good stuff! Ever since I read Linnea Sinclair’s “Finders, Keepers,” I’ve been eagerly awaiting her next release: ”Gabriel's Ghost” And it was nice to finally have a book that met my expectations after slogging through the two above. This book has plenty of action, romance AND an intriguing plot – my kind of story! Marooned on a prison planet for a crime she didn’t commit, ship’s captain Chasidah Bergren has one chance to escape – take up the life of the type of space pirate she used to hunt down and arrest! But, of course, there’s more to it than that. Seems she has a history with the particular space pirate who’s come to rescue her (which, I have to admit, was one part of the plot I found a bit hard to swallow…the whole “universe is a wide place” thing and all, but it was fairly well explained so I was willing to overlook it). The only other thing I wondered about is that I thought Chasidah was a little too innocent and willing to overlook numerous deceptions (albeit necessary ones) on the part of her love interest, Gabriel Sullivan. But, I’m willing to admit that I might be a tad oversensitive on that score because of certain things I’m dealing with in my personal life right now. I’m pretty much on the warpath against anyone who lies in any way for any reason whether deliberately or by omission and this goes double for anyone with whom I might have a romantic connection. Again, though, this is a minor blip in an otherwise fabulous read. I can’t wait for Sinclair’s next book, “An Accidental Goddess” to come out and I’m on a serious hunt for an older book of hers called “Command Performance.”

Lastly, I finally picked up the first book in Sharon Shinn’s “Samarria” series. It’s been around for a while and I’ve looked at some of the books in the store on numerous occasions but never actually purchased one for whatever reason. But, I’ve enjoyed other works by Shinn so I thought I’d give in and try the first book in the series ”Archangel” I was blown away. This is one of the best books I’ve read in years and I can’t wait to pick up the rest of the series! It’s an extra plus that because it’s been out for awhile, there ARE other books in the series available. I’m so tired of waiting for my favorite authors to get around to pumping out their one book a year. I mean, it doesn’t take me a year to READ the book, so shouldn’t there be something for me to read NEXT when I’m done? Yeah, selfish, I know, but the reading addiction knows no limits! I’m not going to go into plot, etc. on this one because the link at Amazon covers it all pretty well. I will say I agree with the negative comments about the cover art…blech! What a shame to stick that on such a fabulous story and I agree with some of the comments that said it was a deterrent to buying the book. But, now that I’ve previewed it for you, you can buy with confidence knowing that the crappy art does NOT reflect the gem of a novel that’s inside the covers. I’m off to the bookstore tonight to buy the rest of the series.

Okay, that’s it for books. In other news, I did my second craft show as a vendor on Saturday, November 12th, in Irvine, CA. It was a good experience and I definitely preferred the indoor venue vs. the outdoor show I did back in April. I LOVE air conditioning LOL! It was nice not to arrive home as a puddle of sweat. I wish I could say that business was good, too, but it wasn’t as good as I had hoped. I did sell a few pairs of earrings (including my favorite “Moon Goddess” pair…sob!) and definitely made back the booth fee plus more, but I had hoped for a better showing at this time of year. There were a LOT of jewelry vendors, but we all had very different styles and inventory so I don’t think that was really the problem. Still, my assistant was once again my best customer! She now has multiple accessories for every one of her dog show outfits LOL!

I’m still hoping to have some kind of pre-holiday sale via the website again this year so stay tuned for announcements. I’ve got a lot of backlogged work to catch up on after being sidelined for a few weeks and this includes the fact that the website inventory needs a major update as a result of what was sold at the show. I’m hoping to get that done this week and I have some new pieces to upload as well.

Other than that, I’m just looking forward to a relaxing Thanksgiving weekend with my family and my first piece of pecan pie for 2005. I get to eat it 2x a year – once on Thanksgiving and once on Christmas and it’s my FAVORITE!

Take care all!

KJ

New Work!

I just updated the website with some new finished designs. I did a pair of earrings w/ onyx and blue crystals:

I also finished another of my "Flower Child" embroidered pendants. This one is a purple butterfly with purple seed bead edging and it's strung on purple satin cord:

And of course, you can find everything for sale at the website: Silver Parrot Designs

Enjoy!

KJ

Getting Caught Up - Part 2

Okay, so that's out of the way. Now, on to the belated book review from last Friday. I finished reading Wen Spencer's ”Ukiah Oregon” series and enjoyed it very much. It does have some "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" type elements that I wasn't sure about at first, but the action certainly doesn't disappoint at all. It was a nice change of pace from some of the slower moving books I've read lately. And, there are already 4 books out in the series so you can enjoy yourself without having to wait for a sequel that is months or years away ('cuz you KNOW how I hate that!)

I also read Charlaine Harris's newest book, ”Grave Sight” Ms. Harris is the author of the acclaimed "Southern Vampire" series which I also enjoyed although it is a bit on the "romance genre" side of things for my normal taste. Her newest book features a woman, Harper Connelly, with an unusual talent - thanks to being struck by lightning as a child, she can find dead bodies and "see" how the person died. And she makes a living doing it. Of course, this also means she gets caught up in some unusual circumstances on occasion...such as the apparent murder-sucide of Monteen Hopkins and Dell Teague. But, are those deaths actually what they appear to be? That's what Harper is being paid to find out. Of course, not everyone will necessarily be thrilled with her answers. I really enjoyed this book and definitely recommend it as a fun read.

And lastly, I already posted about how much I enjoyed Linnea Sinclair's "Finders, Keepers" and Ms. Sinclair was nice enough to leave a comment here on the blog which just thrilled me to pieces! It also reminded me that she's got 2 books coming out in fairly short order that both look excellent: ”Gabriel's Ghost” and ”An Accidental Goddess.” I've added a link to her home page over in the links section of this blog so you can keep up with the latest and greatest. As soon as I can get my hands on either of these, I'll be sure to review them, but I already have a good feeling based on my past experience with "Finders, Keepers." And yes, Ms. Sinclair DID buy some jewelry from me (which thrilled me into even tinier pieces) but that sooo has nothing to do with this plug ;-) Good writing is good writing and deserves recognition. Especially since, in my totally inconsequential opinion, the whole sci-fi/fantasy genre is having its overall publishing budget eaten into by franchise books (Star Wars, TV series books), gaming books, etc. I much prefer originality in world-building, plotting, characterization and other elements...but maybe that's just me.

That's it for now. I did finish a couple of new pieces this weekend, but this entry is so long already that I'll wait to post those tomorrow.
KJ

P.S. Okay, one more thing. When Ryan was born, the spouse and I signed up for Netflix so we could get movies delivered to us at home because we figured new baby = severely reduced theater attendance. One of the things I like best about it is that it allows me to keep up with TV shows I've missed out on as well as movies and this last week, I discovered a really cool show called "Veronica Mars." I'd heard of it before and seen the ads, but had dismissed it as sort of a "Dawson's Creek/OC/Everwood" rip-off so I never checked it out. I couldn't have been more wrong. This show is smart, funny and has a great detective story/murder mystery running through it. It's kind of got a "Twin Peaks" feeling without being so in love with its own confusing bizarreness that it becomes a turn-off (hey, "Lost" producers...are you paying attention? Because you're SOOO headed down that whole "who killed Laura Palmer" "I don't care any more" slope). Anyway, I just thought I'd mention that you should check it out...and get Netflix, too, while you're at it. It’s WAAYYY more convenient than all those trips to the video store (plus, no late fees). Blockbuster? What’s that?

Getting caught up...

Okay, I'm a bad, bad, little blogger and I'm way behind. There's so much to write about. Let's finish up with the last two pictures from my show purchases last week:

These beautiful and unusual dichroic lampwork glass beads are by Scott of Unicorne Gifts. The hearts have little "windows" of clear glass in them that let sparkly aqua foil peek through. The strand of smaller beads features an unusual asymmetrical teardrop shape. Of course, I had to select my favorite "ocean-y" colors of blue, green and aqua, but Scott had a whole rainbow to choose from and says he'll be back at the next show. Ouch! My poor bank account!

Lookit - more pirate treasure from my favorite new sterling silver vendor. Those fun hammered "coins" now come in other sizes and also come in GOLD! I've enjoyed using these so much and can't wait to think up more to do with them. They'll go great with the new colors of shell disks I got! PLUS, I just had to pick up some other unusual shapes of sterling including hearts and disks for pendants and some cool earring components like the open disk and the long teardrop.

And lastly, of course I had to buy MORE shell disks. These are getting to be an obsession as I try to make sure I have some of EVERY color (well, except the baby poop green...I get enough of that at home LOL).

I found these lovely sky blue disks and larger mother-of-pearl disks at a different vendor this time. Fortunately, she still had good prices on them so I had to pick some up. The white disks have some lovely honey-colored streaks in them and I think they're going to be smashing with some dark citrine nuggets and some whiskey quartz I have on order. Yummmy!

To be continued in the next post.

KJ

More "treasure"

I promised more pictures so here's another one:

Okay, so I didn't get these at the show, but they arrived in the mail this weekend so I stil consider them part of my "pirate treasure." I got them on eBay and I think they're going to make really cute Halloween jewelry...if I can just get them made up in time. I think I'll do a necklace w/ the ghost pendant as the focal and a pair of earrings out of the black spacers and then I'll make a set out of the 3 pumpkins - the large one as a pendant and the smaller ones as matching earrings. Some Swarovski crystals in black and orange should make perfect highlights.

Stay tuned for more pictures (okay, okay, so I was a GREEDY pirate this weekend LOL).

Take care!

KJ

Yo ho! Yo ho! A pirate's life for me...

We had a true "pirate" weekend at Casa d'Osborne this past weekend. I spent Saturday at the Costa Mesa Gem Faire and picked up lots of yummy treasures to be made into new designs (if I ever again have any spare time which is starting to look more and more doubtful). I continued the theme from the previous show by getting more of those pretty shell disk beads in more colors.

Here's a pic:

I just love these cool colors: delicate lavender, slate blue and mint green. Delicious! I can't wait to start playing with them. I got lots more loot to share so check back tomorrow for more pictures.

Then, on Sunday, I took Ryan to a "pirate party." He had to dress in a pirate costume and oh, he was just SOOOO darn cute! He'll be wearing the same thing for Halloween and I can't wait. This party was really incredible. The hosts happened to know someone who had a part in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie and still had the costume so he came all decked out as Capt. Jack Sparrow and led all the kids on a treasure hunt. This culminated in the children actually digging up a REAL treasure chest which had been buried in the sand and was full of pirate treasure (i.e. candy, stickers, toys, etc.) There was a pinata in the shape of a pirate's hat and they also played a "cannonball" game. Each child was given a black balloon to sit on and "pop" and there was a treat hidden inside. The hostess had made the cake herself. The bottom layer was vanilla and it was covered w/ blue/green frosting to look like the ocean and had some plastic fish and dolphins set into it. On top of that was a chocolate cake shaped like a pirate ship. She used long, rolled "cookies" to make the deck and mast and cannons and then stuck the candles inside the cannons so it looked the ship was firing when they were lit.

Ryan had a terrific time and can now sing the Disney pirate song perfectly. If this is the level of kid parties that are being done these days, I better start planning NOW for Ryan's birthday in January (and I still might not have enough time).

A demain!

KJ

Way to go, Nicholas Cage!

Okay, this makes up for the whole "Kal-El" kid-naming debacle because Nicholas Cage is going to exec produce the Harry Dresden Series Pilot for the Sci Fi channel. And may I just add...ya-freakin'-hooooooooooo!!!

Now, 2 things:

1. James Marsters IS Harry Dresden and needs to forget that whole "Brainiac" on "Smallville" deal.

2. Please-oh-please don't let them do to this what they did to "Battlestar Galactica" (which is totally screw it up!). My poor, poor Starbuck...look what they did to you!

And for those who haven't read any of the Dresden series yet - shame on you! Get thee to a Barnes and Noble post haste!

KJ

Of Ants and Elections

Did you ever have one of those days where there's a big master grandiose plan and you can just see how it's all going to fit together perfectly and then one tiny little stumble and the whole thing goes to hell in a handbasket? Welcome to my world.

So, today is election day in California. Nothing much big going on as far as the nation is concerned, but some important initiatives and local races, etc. I pride myself on always making it out to vote and that was the plan for today as well. I made arrangements with the spouse to take the kidlet to daycare this morning so I could vote on the way to work. Then, I'd pick the kidlet up and drive him home and spouse would vote on the way home.

Normally, I prepare in advance of an election so I know what the heck I'm voting for/against, but due to some circumstances in my personal life in the last few weeks, I've had zero bandwidth for anything other than sheer, daily survival. But, I say to myself, all is not lost. I'll sit down with the voter information booklet so kindly provided by the state of California (via my tax dollars at work) over breakfast the morning of the election and get myself all read up on the pros and cons of everything so I can make my decisions. Not perfect, but at least not voting blindly.

I went to sleep last night with this beautiful plan in my head. Nothing gives us OCD-perfectionist types more restful sleep than a well-thought-out, detailed plan. So, I slept well and everything moved forward on schedule through the alarm going off and showering and then I headed downstairs for breakfast with my sample ballot and info booklet in my hands...visions of scrambled eggs and English muffins dancing in my head.

And that's when the sh*t hit the fan.

You see, our kitchen was no longer a nice, safe place to eat and get informed. It was a battlefield...and the enemy had breached the gates. The enemy, of course, being the small black ants that are ubiquitous to homes in Southern California. They're tiny, but they descend en masse and are impossible to get rid of. The best you can hope for is a long-running stalemate with occasional incursions. And no, it doesn't matter how clean your house is. My mother has problems with these and it's a well-know fact that you can eat off her floors without any qualms. Plus, our cleaning guy was just here yesterday.

So, there I am in my nightgown, hair wet from the shower, holding my voting materials in one hand and surveying the disaster that my kitchen has become. The ants are everywhere. They are on every counter and chair. They are in the sink and the dishwasher. They are making looping patterns all over the kitchen floor, which, when I follow them, lead to the back door, then across the entire length of the living room carpet to our entry way and out the front door. This time, the little bastards aren't even in the walls of the house (an exterminator got rich off of us last summer making that bit of progress happen), but are coming in from outside by going under our front door.

I can't even find a clear spot of counter to put my voting materials down while I figure out how to begin waging battle. With a toddler and two birds in the house, I can't just begin randomly spraying ant poison everywhere. So, with the intention of at least stopping the immediate invasion and clearing some floor and counter space so we can have breakfast (although the thought of eating where all these ants have been made me slightly queasy), I grabbed a bottle of Simple Green and started spraying the disgusting critters and their entire trail.

I sprayed and sprayed and sprayed. Then I went up and interrupted the spouse's shower to alert him to the situation and request his presence on the battle lines post haste. Then I grabbed paper towels and began mopping up the dead ants floating in puddles of Simple Green. Yeah, I know. EWWWWWW! That was my reaction, too. At least you're only having to read about this.

The spouse arrived shortly thereafter whereupon a command disagreement was had as to whether it was better to vacuum up the entire floor (thus removing any remaining strays) or to mop the floor. I was winning up until the point where I stomped my foot and it accidentally came down in one of the as-yet-unmopped-up puddles of ant/SG solution.

Now, when bare foot meets wet wood floor, bad things happen. BAAAAAAAD things. To wit, I involuntarily did the Chinese splits for the first time since I quit dancing when I was 24. I'm now 40. For those who need help with the math, that's 14 years during which those muscles haven't been stretched to go that way (and they weren't too keen about doing it even back when they WERE in shape to assume that position).

So, now, I'm on the floor in my nightgown and two sensations are fighting for top billing in my brain: the pain from my twisted leg/hip/back and strained groin muscles vs. the increasing desire to throw up over the realization that dead ant/SG solution is soaking through my nightgown and I'm not wearing any underwear. Wait, was that TMI? It probably was. Forget I said anything. Besides, even if I had been wearing underwear, the solution would have soaked through it too and...oh man, I'm still talking about this.

Never mind.

The spouse's mouth is hanging open as he stares at me and finally pulls himself together long enough to ask the age-old dumb spouse question: "are you all right?" Errr...do I LOOK all right? What do you think, brainiac?

(And btw, I always thought "brainiac" was just an expression, but I learned today that there was a character (villain) in the Superman comics by that name and that character will be played on "Smallville" this season by none other than our beloved James Marsters (formerly Spike on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"). Go James!)

Now, where was I? Oh, right. Massive humiliation and grossness in my kitchen. So, the spouse picks me up because neither of us are sure my leg is going to take any weight yet. Fortunately, nothing seems permanently damaged, although I'm sure I'll be REALLY sore tomorrow. So, I limp off upstairs to change into a clean gown.

All of this has sucked up the time I was going to use to get prepped for the election. And, I still have to get breakfast, get my hair and makeup on and get dressed as well as get the kidlet up and fed. And then there is the giant trail of ants on the living room carpet and the entryway to be dealt with before either the spouse or I can leave for work.

It quickly becomes obvious that there's no way I'm going to make it to the polls before I have to go to work. And, I wouldn't have a clue what I was voting on anyway because I had no time to read up on the issues. And yeah, I know, I could've done it Monday night before I went to bed, but Brett Favre was instituting one of the most amazing comebacks of his career (especially considering the Packers were 0-3 going into that game) and yeah, I know, he missed the conversion on 4th down by 2 yards and they lost anyway, but I don't care. It was a beautiful thing to see him in action making up all those points and 2 point conversions and doing it all without a defense, a running back (Ahman Green having gone out earlier in the game with a knee boo-boo...wuss) or an offensive line. What a man!

No way I could make it all the way across town to my assigned polling place on my lunch hour so that's out. And the spouse is biking tonight so I have to pick up the kidlet and it's pretty hopeless trying to vote and keep an eye on a toddler at the same time. I'd be like "punch", "Ryan, come here", "punch", "Ryan, Mommy said come here", "punch", "Ryan, where are you? Ryan? RYAN!" Well, you get the idea. I'd probably end up voting for Mickey Mouse by accident.

So, the great wheels of democracy will just have to roll on without me this one time. And I'll have to trust you, my fellow citizens, to make wise choices in my absence.

Now, where's that can of Raid?

KJ

P.S. Yes, I know there was no book review last Friday. That's because I was still slogging my way through that Holly Lisle book which did finally get interesting on freakin' page 224. From there until the end, it was awesome. But skip the first 223 pages...blech!