Another bracelet/earring set

This morning I made another bracelet and earring set. I wanted to make a bracelet that had navy blue to wear with an outfit today. Filigree cut coin type beads with navy blue seed beads.

 

I had a hard time getting a good photo.

Elaine

Did some beading this afternoon

abalone shell bead bracelet
I dragged out some beads this afternoon. I was going to make something to go with my outfit for my nieces upcoming wedding, but got side tracked with other beads instead. Maybe I will make something tomorrow that will go with my outfit for the wedding.

  I love this sterling silver clasp that I bought this past March at a bead store in Florida.
Then I beaded a bracelet and earring set..silver and black crystal


Sharing some pictures of Bella and Sammi
at the circus this afternoon and having her first pony ride
Sammi in her first Boston Red Sox outfit
Elaine

Coin Pearl earring giveaway..Winner is....

I used a random number generator that I found using a Google search.

Random number generation / Random Numbers

Generate a random number between 1 and 6 =  Get number 5 

The number that was selected was 5.  Terry can you contact me in an email EAkers@aol.com with your mailing info.

Thanks to all that left comments. I have lots of earrings made up..so I will have another earring giveaway soon.

Elaine

T J Maxx...made my day

my new weekend bag
If you are a follower of my blog you know that I love Laurel Burch's colorful cat fabrics. Last year while in T J Maxx shopping I found a large, colorful cat weekend tote bag by Laurel Burch. I had the bag in my cart, and after debating with myself, I put it back on the rack. Yes, I was being cheap that day,  and I regretted it after. The next day I went back, and of course the bag I should have bought the day before was gone. Since that time months ago, every time I shop at any T J Maxx stores I look for Laurel Burch tote bags and have had no luck finding any.
Yesterday was my lucky day. I had gone to return some items at JCP in Wareham. I returned the shirts, stopped at Michael's to see what I could use a 50% off coupon on and then headed to my car. (which I had just got back from the auto body shop late Friday afternoon)  I was in my car and all set to go home, when I decided to go in and see what T J Maxx had. I am so glad that I decided to go into the store. First thing I did was check out the bags, and lo and behold I spied Laurel Burch bags and small totes. 5 different styles. Woohoo!!!! I was so excited. Seeing the LB bags just made my day. :-)

I liked all of the bags, but decided on the first one pictured as it had a wider base and had metal knobs on the bottom of the bag to keep it clean and off the floor. The size is perfect for a weekend bag. I also really liked the pink/purple full cats design, but it wasn't as wide. I wonder if it is still there as there were a few of that design. I may have to go back and see. Prices ranged from $16.99 - $24.99.
also really liked the colors and design on this bag
  cat with parrots on it's back 
2 different smaller horse design bags
Do you ever not buy something and regret it later?
Elaine
P.S...I saw a lovely Cedar Waxwing on my Mountain Ash tree in the front yard this morning. When I first saw it with a quick glance I thought it was a female cardinal. Then I saw the tail and knew it was a Cedar Waxwing. First one I've seen this spring.

June 2013 Blog Giveaway I will be leaving this giveaway as my first post until next weekend when a name will be picked as the winner. So, scroll down to read newer postings to my blog.

My Giveaway....

enlarged photo..

mauve coin pearls with 2 tone Swarovski bicone crystals. The pearls are lighter than they appear here.
Yesterday I noticed that I had posted 600 times to my blog. After cleaning my desk off this morning to make room for my new printer, I made a pair of coin pearl earrings.

I am offering the earrings pictured as a giveaway. This giveaway is open to all. Just leave a comment and if your name is picked next weekend I will mail these out to you.  Make sure I have a way of getting in touch with you if your name is drawn. Thanks for visiting my blog and have a great weekend.
Elaine

Gelli Plate..Trial and Errors on my first attempts

This afternoon I dragged out my Gelli Plate for the first time. I tried the technique from the video I shared from the Gelli Arts blog the other day.  Did I have success? Well, not so much. After seeing so many lovely papers online that others have created, I was disappointed with mine.

First thing that wasn't helpful was almost all of my old bottles of paint were either dried up or real clumpy. Not good! So, before I try again I need to get some new bottles of paints in some pretty colors.

Second, for some reason my rubber brayer kept lifting off the paint I was trying to spread, but I don't know if that was because my paint was past it's prime. I don't know if the hard, clear brayers work better with the Gelli Plates. Anyone know?

Third, I didn't have deli wrap so I tried parchment paper. Spreading the paint over the paper with my brayer lifted the paper right off of the plate. (big sigh)

I tried using a piece of paper first, but because the paints weren't right, my paper didn't come out like I envisioned it would with the few limited paint colors I had that were half way decent. As you can see in the photo below. Yuck!

2nd attempt using packing tape

 

above..Am I thrilled with these packing tape pieces? Well, not really, but on another day I will add mica powders, and gold leafing to see if that improves my first attempts. Hopefully they will look better when finished.

I don't have time to play anymore right now with this project, because I have to go check on my parmesan chicken that is baking in the oven for our supper.

Elaine

 

Sunday musings

I haven't had time to play with my new Gelli Plate, but I just saw this wonderful video using packing tape from the Gelli arts blog and thought I would share. Maybe you have already seen it, but I thought the project they created was so colorful and beautiful.                                                                                                                  I need to find a source for unwaxed deli paper locally. The stores that  carried supplies for restaurants locally have all closed. 
A few more photos taken around my yard.
I watched this large butterfly flitting on my flowers for a few days. After I took the picture I noticed that it is missing a big chunk of it's right wing. It didn't seem to affect his flying.

 
a Honeysuckle plant that I bought years ago. Can't remember the name, but unfortunately it has no scent.
I mentioned in earlier posts that I caught 5 stray kitties and then finally caught the Mom cat. I had them all spayed and neutered. Since Mom cat was let out of the cellar when she was healed she has turned into a terror. Mom cat goes after all of her kittens who are now quite big. Unfortunately for the only female, Princess who is very timid, Mom cat chased her up a tree last evening. Mom cat sat under that tree so Princess was afraid to come down.  I have no idea when Princess finally came down out of the tree. Princess kept meowing to me, but I couldn't do anything to help her down, because she was too high up in a big pine tree.

Today it is sunny and hot. Tom and I worked in the yard and garden trying to get our vegetable plants into the ground, but we had to quit until it gets a little cooler later this afternoon. I don't think our garden will be as big this year, but will still have several varieties of tomatoes, long, burpless cucumbers, pickling cukes, summer squash, peppers and maybe a few Italian green beans.

The Cape is already warning swimmers about great white sharks and beach closing. There must be an abundance of seals in the area again.
Great White Sharks are already back in the waters of Cape Cod

Have a wonderful day and thanks for visiting my blog.
Elaine

Rain and more rain

4 - 4/10th's

Yesterday was a dark, dreary, rainy day. The heaviest of rain started in early evening and continued thru the night. When I checked our rain gauge on the back deck this morning there was over 4 inches in the gauge. We also got over 2 inches from the previous two rain storms last week and earlier this week.

It isn't raining now, but still a dark, gloomy, damp day. Don't know what my plans are for the day yet, but I do need to clean and clear off my desk so Tom can set up my new Canon printer, as my old 3 in 1 HP stopped working months ago. Hopefully, I will have time for a little crafting.

Elaine

My one strange double clematis bloom

side view..it is like 2 different blooms on one stem. So strange because one bloom is normal from the same vine. Maybe this bloom is like this because my plant hasn't been in the ground for a year and this is a first bloom. I wonder if this plant will have this strange bloom again.
I knew they were predicting heavy rains for today and tomorrow, so yesterday afternoon I took a few more pictures of that one strange double white clematis bloom. I hope the rains don't knock all the flowers off of their stems.
view from front as the bloom opens more
another front view

Elaine


P.S...I noticed on blogger that this is my 600th post.

25-4 x 4 Fat Book Tropical Paradise swap pages

 

25 pages

I joined a 4 x 4 fat book swap in the Yahoo group An Affair with Art with the theme..Tropical Paradise. After joining I really didn't  know what I wanted to do for my pages, so time was ticking and I had to come up with something because the pages are due by June 16th. 

Last weekend I finally decided to water color the 25 - 4 x 4 pages that I had cut from water color paper sometime ago. I love the beach and sunny Florida so I painted the ocean and palm trees and stamped Wish you were here. (and I wish I was). 25 pages is a lot to create of the same thing. :-) We also had to lightly decorate the backside of each page.

front and back of my 4x4 pages

Elaine

Long Day, Easy Supper..Beef Stir Fry

I was out of the house early this morning. I went to the doctor's to get a Shingles vaccine, but wires were crossed in the office and they had me down for blood work. Now, I have to go back to get the vaccine, because they hadn't ordered it. This new Compass Medical Center isn't run very effectively. Since I started going there last spring the office help has messed up 3 of my appointments.

Next stop..a long overdue visit to the hairdressers to get a hair cut. I had over 2 inches cut off. It feels wonderful to not have hair on my neck in this warm weather.

Then I went to the grocery store for my aunt. Auntie forgot to tell me a few things she really needed. So, off I went back out again.  I stopped to pick up a friend, and we went to Plymouth. By the time I got home I had no clue what to make for supper. This morning I bought some lean steak tips that were on sale and so I decided to make Beef Stir Fry served over Jasmine rice for supper. I am not a big vegetable lover, but I love  veggies in stir fry. I sliced onions, red bell peppers, celery, carrots, mushrooms, broccoli and Napa cabbage. I took the strings and ends off of pea pods.  I sliced the beef into thin slices and cooked that first, then added the veggies except for the mushrooms and bean sprouts which I added after the other veggies had cooked a bit.

   cooked except for the sauce

finally added a little stir fry sauce to the wok. Our meal was delicious and healthy. Next time I will make shrimp stir fry.

Elaine

Quick and Easy 5 minute Jello Salad

(photo from Six Sisters Stuff Blog)

 http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/

I saw this recipe on Six Sister Stuff Blog.  but I have made this recipe in the past. I believe I first found this recipe in a Jello cookbook. I've also made a similar recipe that had chopped maraschino cherries, small marshmallows, dry Jello, cottage cheese, whipped cream and crushed pineapple. I am sure there are many versions of  dessert using Jello.

Prep. Time : 5 minutes
Total Time :5 minutes
Ingredients :

1 -8 oz container of low fat Cool Whip

1 - 1 4 oz container of Strawberry Jello ( you can substitute sugar free Jello)

1 - 12 oz container of fat free Cottage Cheese

1/2 pound of Slice Strawberries

1 Banana, sliced

Directions:

Put the cool whip and Jello in a large mixing bowl and whisk until they are well blended and most of the Jello dissolves into the cool whip.   Next fold in the cottage cheese, strawberries and bananas.  Put into the refrigerator until you are ready to eat.

You can use orange Jello with a can of drained mandarin oranges, Lime Jello with drained crushed pineapple. Peach Jello with drained diced peaches. Yum!  I think adding some chopped pecans or walnuts would be a great addition to this salad to add a bit of a crunch.

I don't usually use the banana when I make this recipe.

I love desserts that are quick and easy and look pretty, don't you. This easy dessert is nice to bring to a party if you can keep it cool.

Elaine

P.S.. I was happy with the scale reading last night when I weighed in at my Weight Watcher's meeting. Down another 3.9 pounds.

Japanese Stab Binding Booklets

The other day before I signed up for a book swap using Japanese stab bindings. I wanted to try my hand at making the books using a few of the different bindings. For the swap we can use the basic stab binding or any of the other bindings. My books are small with deckled edges on the heavy weight paper pages.

I used book board covered in a pale yellow paper that I covered with printed oriental papers that I've had for years. I cut and glued the decorative paper to just the front covers. The front covers are hinged.

Front and backs of my 3 Japanese Stab binding books

  #1

  #2

       

front and backs and inside of book #3

pictured..inside cover and deckled edged pages inside my book

The books were easy and fun to create.

Elaine

P.S...the other day I posted some clematis photos. This is my first open bloom of my double white clematis. This flower is from the normal looking bud. So pretty, don't you think?

After a downpour this morning I went out an took this photo of my single white clematis (Henryi) that is just starting to open. So far it doesn't look like the photo that came on the plant. Wonder if the green will go away as it opens further.

How can it be June 1st already?

April 2 page spread
Catching up with Smash book pages. I can't say I am totally happy with the way the 2 page spread for April came out, but I am leaving them as they are.
The camera caused a glare. The base paper was parchment paper that had several coats of different color wash sprays. I adhered the paper to the Smash book. After the paper was glued down I then used raspberry colored paint in the top left corner with a stencil. I stamped and speckled in gold paint, added glitter glue to the center of the flowers on the bottom corner. Added a butterfly, calendar page, and some journaling and washi tape on the bottom of the page.
  started with adhering to different Tim Holtz tissue paper, gold paint with bubble wrap, washi tape, scraps of paper, rubber stamped, cut out words, and sprayed with a few colors of color wash.
I can't remember if I posted the last bracelet I created. I bought the closure when I was in Florida in March. I have found it hard to find closures for 2 hole beads in the bead stores. Wish I had bought a few more when I bought the one I used on this bracelet. Drats! Isn't that always the way?
close up   
silver bracelet with domed shell beads. I don't usually wear big beads, but I liked these and kept the finished bracelet for myself. I usually give most of my earrings and bracelets away.
This year is just flying by, and I have been a lazy blogger. Shame on me.  I am almost finished working on tropical paradise 4 x 4 pages for a swap, and I am practicing making Japanese stab binding books for another swap. Will share photos later.
Since my last post we celebrated our granddaughter, Bella's 3rd. birthday. Talk about time flying by, seems like she was just born. My D-I-L, Robin made individual little cakes baked in ice cream cones for everyone. The little cakes were a big hit with the kids and adults. Happy Birthday, Darling Bella.

   Katie and Sammi. Katie just completed her first year of college. Katie is working 2 jobs and will start her 2nd year of college in the fall. We are proud of her.
oldest granddaughter Katie holding my youngest granddaughter Samantha.
Before Sammie arrived I gave Bella her daddy's old twin bed, and bought her new mattresses for it. Bella had received twin size Minnie Mouse sheets and comforter for Christmas.
trying out her big girl bed..so proud of her new bed.
sleeping in her new bed with safety rail so she won't fall onto the floor, but somehow she has managed to do that once already. When she shows off her bed to anyone, she always has to get under the covers. Too funny.
While digging around this morning I came across my old Polaroid i-zone camera. Did any of you ever have this cheap little camera? I bought this small camera in 1999. I wish Polaroid was still in business so I could get more film for my camera. The small photos would be wonderful to use on Smash book and journal pages. The box of film I found with the camera was no good. :-(
I did a Google search and people are asking outrageous amounts for the film, but don't know how it can be any good...mine wasn't after all these years. I also just learned of the Polaroid Pogo printer than hooks up to digital cameras and cell phones, but since Polaroid is out of business and makes 2 x 3 sticker photos. I did a Google search, but not sure I would consider getting one because if you can't find the photo paper for the little printer what good would the printer be. :-(

Some photos of flowers blooming in my yard.
My clematis are blooming strange this year. The 3 purple double clematis photos below are blooms all from the same plant. If you have clematis, have yours bloomed like these?

More strangeness....
  top of double white clematis..don't know why it is more green than white.
  fanned out leaves from double white clematis flower
weird how this bloom is flowering..you can see it is almost like 2 different flowers from the same flower.
strange how this double white clematis looks like 2 flowers. Multiple leaves at base, 2 inch stem with a flower head. More lime green than white, don't know if the flower will turn white when it completely opens.
I started Weight Watcher's in April. I have been losing weight slowly and my pants are getting really loose. Seems like I started WW's there has been a party every weekend. I try to be good. Weigh in is Monday night so I have to be good over the weekends. Wish weigh in was mid week. (LOL) Wish me luck on the scale. :-) I need to go shopping for my niece, Kelly's wedding the end of the month, but I've been holding off to see if I am down a size. That would make me very happy.
This week has been hectic. My 89 year old aunt flew home from Florida,  where she has been in a rehab since mid February after a fall that hairline fractured her left pelvis.  I have been running around doing errands for her.
Wednesday afternoon while was at the Plymouth Walmart, doing my parent's grocery shopping a woman backed her SUV into my vehicle as I was leaving. Immediately she got out and started apologizing for hitting me, telling me it was her fault, that she didn't see me and she was in a hurry to go pick up her son.  I have 2 witnesses who saw her hit my vehicle and she told them she hit me.  Almost right away she said she would like for me to get an estimate so she wouldn't have to report a insurance claim. When she heard the estimate when I called her, she said she would have to contact her insurance company, because she couldn't afford to pay that amount. The day after I reported the accident to my insurance company they called to tell me that her insurance company had already contacted them and that the lady who hit me told them I hit her so there is to be an investigation. Don't know how she is going to get around admitting to me and the witnesses who gave me their name and phone numbers.
So darn frustrating. I am bringing my car to the auto body shop on Tuesday to start the repair work.
Yesterday and today we had temps in the mid 90's with high humidity. Thankful to have air conditioning. Every year we have cold, damp weather and it is like someone flips a switch overnight  to hot and steamy.
Have a great weekend and thanks for visiting my blog.
Elaine