Sweet peas and frog prince

The nicest thing about the intense heat  of late summer is that it makes you appreciate the coolness   of the early morning.  I pulled a mountain of pea vines that were spent and sat on the porch in my nightie and picked peas that I had missed...a lot of them....  and now the chickens will get the vines.  A most pleasant way to start the day as it will get to 95 degrees today.

If you notice that black thing on my left arm and thought it looked like a splint, it is indeed just that.  Friday morning I took a nasty fall on cement and bunged up my right leg and badly sprained my left wrist.  One-armed yoga for a while.


This week is going to be devoted to finishing two time consuming projects.  One will be finishing the new Etsy site and that will involve a LOT of photographing the necklaces and a LOT of time consuming photo editing and then there is all the description and detail work that Etsy requires.  This is the last piece I wanted to finish before I uploaded everything.

I loved doing frog princes on buttons and wanted to do at least one on a necklace.  I had originally thought green beads but have settled on gold and lots of it.. So about six necklaces, three  sets of earrings  and an odd pendant will evolve into a final listing.

Every so often I encounter a problem and start looking through the internet files.  As much chain as I want to use  will be bulky at the back of the neck so was looking for alternatives.  The most common are multiple lengths combined toward the back as in this necklace.


Another common solution  is the number of lengths stay the same but just the beads get smaller such as in this beautiful piece.



But I'm always cheering for the person that does something entirely out of the box...

Hummer and Eagle

Put the final touches on two more necklaces this weekend and two more in the works.  My goal is to open the new Etsy shop by the first of August.

I have been doing all the prep work on the site and am at the point that I can start loading images and writing descriptions, doing more photos etc.

I really need some photos of somebody tall with an elegant long neck wearing these pieces.. I am checking women out in the grocery store as I shop... "hmmmmm ... yeah she would be great." Where's Audrey Hepburn when you need her?

After years of working on 1" buttons, it feels like I'm painting on a wall with a whole 2" disc.








I've also been checking out other sites and notice that most which have necklaces they all look alike-  just different colors.  I'm hoping that each piece I do has its own personality. That's my goal anyway.

Even though I do check out You-tube tutorials on techniques, I learn more just by taking things apart and looking closely how it was assembled.

And the most fun thing is that I'm using up YEARS of stash.  I am constantly finding more things as I am searching through stuff.  A good example is years ago I fell in love with a blue stone Buddha and used in on a necklace.  I wanted some particular tiny metal bells for the bottom of it... 4 of them.  But to get four I had to buy 50 and now I'm going to find a way to use them...redemption at last.

Most years I wait too long to gather lavender but this year I'm right on target and spend most of the morning yesterday  in the heat cutting.

I let it soak up a goodly amount of water then I will bundle it and hang it in the barn to dry.  I love having it for hostess gifts through the winter.  Will cut more today..

The house smells divine.