Yard Work

We have been so busy sprucing things up around here. 

Trimming trees and bushes, mulching (Lowes had a great sale yesterday...yay!!!)

Today, we've been working on the backyard, mostly the pavers.

Tomorrow, we will be pulling money grass and more mulching. Then I need to figure out how to stage the back decks and porch area.

Looks like we are going to be doing some more painting too, ugh!

Hopefully, someone will come soon, love it, and buy it!

I'm Bored

Bead Soup 8 here

So, what does one do when there is nothing to do and you are all alone for a whole Saturday?

You practice your dulcimer.

We have a lot of new and very difficult music to learn for our gig at the VA Center soon.

You vacuum, dust, clean bathrooms and kitchen, do laundry, etc.

You play and hang out with one of your best friends.

You make wrong choices and make stuff like this. By the way they are really good

You have a good breakfast, egg in hole and orange juice. You also make a good lunch and then have it for dinner too.

You clean out your freezer and find one last frozen bread dough and cook it.

Now I think I'm going to sit back, take it easy and wait for my best friend to come home. I wonder if anything is on TV...

Earrings for the Pennyrile Dulcimer Players

For those of you still hopping around reading Bead Soup 8 click here.

Our dulcimer group is now official. We have a name and we have T-shirts! I've also had requests for earrings by the ladies in our group. Everyone is liking my paper beads, so I decided to make earrings using them.

Here is what I came up with...white scrapbooking paper with silver glitter. They have a triple layer of gloss, so they should stay sparkly. I added turquoise seed beads to match our shirts. I also used hematite hearts because the original mountain dulcimers had heart sound holes.

We have quite the group, so I made several pair, still got a few more to make.

This is me with my dulcimer, it has butterfly and morning glory sounds holes.

Here are a few of us at Civil War Days several weeks ago at one of our neighboring counties. I believe this was the first time we got to wear our shirts. I think they look very nice!

Dancing With The Stars/So You Think You Can Dance

Looking for Bead Soup Blog hop? click here....

I don't watch much TV, but I do like to watch Dancing With The Stars and So You Think You Can Dance! I grew up dancing, and watched my daughter grow up dancing too.

There was a lot of discussion (lack of a better word), this year about the outcome of Dancing With The Stars. I heard a lot of people didn't think Candace Cameron Bure should have made it as far as she did. I thought she did a great job, considering she had never done any dancing before...and no, I am not saying that just because I am a Christian. 

My daughter has auditioned a few times for So You Think You Can Dance. She has never made it to Vegas. I will have to admit, I was disappointed. She is a beautiful dancer (and I'm not just saying that). Here, I'll let you decide. 

Oh, and Ashley is an awesome tapper too...

When auditioning for SYTYCD, Ashley and the other dancers , were told, "This is not Americas BEST dancer, it is Americas FAVORITE dancer." They were also told there are so many beautiful dancers, and just because you don't make it on the show, or to a certain point, does not mean you are a bad dancer! There are several reasons I believe she did not make it further, one is she always auditioned in tap, and I'm not sure tap shows well on SYTYCD (for some reason). And, ya know...maybe it was not the right time for her. 

OK, back to Dancing With The Stars. Each season, I am excited to see who will be competing, but I also feel bad for those, like Candace with ZERO dance background competing against people like Meryl Davis who is a tremendous dancer (heck she got a gold metal in ice DANCING).

So, this is what I think they should to to make it fair for EVERYONE....

One season they should have just athletes. Football players seem to do really well, so that would be a great season.

Another season, they should have boy band/girl bad type celebrities.

Then one time, have non dancers.

Anyway...something like that. I think you get the idea. When I look back on this season (and pretty much most seasons are like this). I see James Maslow who came a long way. Each week, he took what they judges suggested he improve on and fixed it! Meryl was already so fantastic, and I loved to watch her. Amy, oh WOW. I am speechless. AMAZING! INCREDIBLE. 

Well, I am a nobody, so not sure Dancing With The Stars will change. I will still watch, and I'm sure people will still complain. In my opinion, I think all of us just need to watch the show and just enjoy it. Oh! and vote!

My Lil' Office

Looking for Bead Soup 8 Blog Hop? Click here...

I love crafts of all kinds. I love to take pictures too. I also sell Thirty One bags. I guess you could say I dabble in a lot of different things.

Something else I like to do is dance, and I love the tropics...palm trees, the beach, the sun, and flamingos! While going to college, I was on several dance teams. After I got married, I really did not have much time to dance, but here and there, I was able to find a tap group to join. That is pretty much where I got the idea of Tappingflamingo...I love to tap dance and I love flamingos!

I enjoy making jewelry, and have had the privilege of having a craft room in our current house. Here are some of my beads. 

I also have some of my beading stuff in these nice Thirty One Bags.

Here's some more craft/jewelry making stuff....

The white cabinet to the left has my sewing stuff..fabric, buttons, thread, etc. The drawers to the right have wire, chain, etc for more jewelry making and some of the drawers have scrapbooking stuff in them.

I love my "Lil' Office"

I even made a place for earrings with this nice frame I found on the side of the road.

Do you know what this is? It is the underneath of an old crib.

I'm hoping when we get moved, I'll be able to set up an etsy so I can sell some of this jewelry I like to make.

Beaded Bookmarks

If you are looking for Bead Soup 8, click here to see what I made.

School is about to end and so is Seminary. I have had such a wonderful experience getting up and teaching five wonderful high school students before they head to school each morning...and I am NOT being sarcastic!

Each school day morning from 6:30 to 7:20 a.m. we get together and study the scriptures. This year it has been the Book of Mormon. I have learned so much, and my testimony has grow quite a bit too! Next year they will study the Old Testament. 

We were suppose to be finished this Friday, but due to the "wonderful" weather we had this winter, we have 13 snow days to make up, so we still have a couple more weeks.  

I know these two weeks will go by quickly, and I knew I wanted to do something special for these kids. 

I've been making a lot paper beads lately, and thought about what I could make with them that both boys and girls would like and maybe even use. Bookmarks! I decided to put their initials on one end and a paper bead on the other. 

I hung some charms on each end too. I wanted them to be different and decided to make them in their favorite colors. Only one of my girls didn't really have a ONE fav color, so I picked the purply/pink paper bead and used different color seed beads for the shank.

Two of the students will be graduating from high school and heading off on a mission soon...one of them has already received his call to Las Vegas Spanish speaking. I had a couple of 2000 charms left over from the year 2000...14 years ago!!! lol I had wondered what to do with them, and it came to me, I'll just use them on these bookmarks, representing the 2000 Stripling Warriors. This story can be found here.

After I was finished, I made my mom one. Her favorite color is red, so, she is getting a red one.

Look closely at one of the charms...it is of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module. My dad is a retired NASA engineer and he worked on all the Apollo's. We have a lot of memorabilia from that time frame, and I thought Mom might like this.

Did you know MOM upside down is WOW! lol

Then I thought of my two Pam friends. We do a lot together, YMCA classes, stitch group, and dulcimer group. Someone came up to one of my Pam friends and asked if she was "The Terry of the Pams." We just laughed. I guess we are famous, lol

 Well, I decided to make them each one. Soon (if I can ever get this house sold), I will be moving back to Louisiana. I'm sure going to miss these gals! I wanted to give them something to remember me by.

I'm planning to get an etsy account as soon as I get moved and settled. Everyone keeps telling me I should.  I love making things, but I don't need it all, so I dabble right now in making beaded stuff for my friends and family. It would be nice to start selling it and then I can make more!

By the way, sorry for some of the poor photography. I was having a heck of a time with the lighting. I just wanted to get this done and posted today before I had to head out...so bad photography it is. At least you can get an idea of what these bookmarks look like...

Bead Soup #8!

Remember this?

I got fun bead soup ingredients from Tracy Martin (Nutkitten's Jewelry), my Bead Soup Partner.  Funny thing is, she picked some of the same colors I sent her...purple.  I love purple...

This is what I sent her.

So...what did I come up with?

Well...first I knew I wanted to incorporate some of my paper beads, so I made some.

 I had seen some cool sparkly silver scrapbook paper, and decided to try making beads with it.

I had wrapped and glued them, then put three coats of heavy glaze on each bead.

I added those beads to several of the beads Tracy sent me, and....

"Booya!" Piece number one. 

I loved these butterfly beads and also those purple "eye" beads. I think they look like eyes, lol

I put those cool beads with some fluorite chips I had, and added some lace, along with the silver beads and other focal Tracy sent me to make this long necklace.

I had a lot of these leaves and decided to make earrings.

I've worn these several times and they are very fun to wear. I have a skirt outfit that they perfectly with.

See the big ear wires? I loved them, and decided to put some beads I've been hoarding to use.

These are a stand alone piece, in other words, no other jewelry needed when I wear these.

Now for my last, and favorite piece. I decided I needed a bracelet, so I made some more paper beads...purple and turquoise, and added Tracy's purple beads to them and finished it off with the pretty clasp that was in my ingredients. I also added a bead like what I had sent her.

Well, there ya have it. Once again, I had a lot of fun messing around with all the fun stuff Tracy sent me. I'd like to that her for everything and I'd also like to thank Lori Anderson for all her hard work putting this blog hop together. There were close to 500

 participants this time, and that is A LOT of WORK!!!! I really don't know how Lori does it.

Now go check out Tracy's creations from what I sent her, then go check out everyone else's. I know you will not be disappointed. 

After you finish out with Tracy's blog, you can go to the link below to click on other Bead Soupers. 
http://www.prettythingsblog.com/2014/05/welcome-to-8th-bead-soup-blog-party.html 

More Recycled Instrument String Jewelry

Not too long ago one of my friends gave me an old string from her husband's violin he was changing out.  I had asked some of my friends for old strings from their instruments. You see, I've been experimenting with making jewelry out of old strings.

This is my first piece. I made this with some old guitar strings. It's fun to wear and I get a lot of fun comments when I wear it.

I knew I wanted to make my friend something with the violin string she gave me. She has been so nice, and has been the main person that has gotten our dulcimer group together and running. She is one busy woman!

The string was silver and on the end had one purple and one turquoise cotton string attached. I knew I wanted to keep them intact. This is what I came up with.

I made a seed bead necklace for her to hang it on. 

Here is another necklace I finished. It is made from a guitar string with turquoise glass seed beads woven around it. I hung it on a glass seed bead necklace.