Bugs Bracelets and Revolution Day

Wow if that's not a hodge podge of topics. :) First Bugs and Bracelets. KJ at Silver Parrot has a little son who like all little sons is enamored with those multilegged creatures. For simplicity we'll just say bugs. ;) KJ being the good mom willingly braves multiple bug habitats and hangouts to get the perfect photos for the demanding Bugaphile she lives with!! Hmmm I don't think you can call him The Bug Whisperer because no 6year old boy is physically capable of whispering!! :) Perhaps The Mighty Bug Hunter is a better fit. Whoops I'm really wondering off the trail here. Any how KJ issued a bit of a buggy challenge in honor of TMBH (the mighty bug hunter) She has challenge us to make a bracelet in the colors of a couple of TMBH's favorite bugs. You still have a bit of time to play along. Deadline is Sunday. If you want to check out the bug choices or you would like to see what the challenge bracelets look like head on over to The Silver Parrot.

I decided I'd use the colors that are in the beautiful black butterfly. I love the way the blacks, browns, blue, and tiny touch of white all work together without any one color standing up screaming LOOK AT ME!! :) since this little bracelet is for me I made it very simple to wear all the time. I also thought I would place the birthstones of my three grown up bug lovers in the center of the bracelet along with an exquisite brass mermaid charm my Bloglandian Sister Renate sent to me. OH she sent a whole box of wonderful things. I promise to share all my treats as I get resettled.

The black jet beads are spaced between little copper glass seed beads. The center "stone" is a pearl, for Peder's June birthday. On either side is a ruby for Ander's July and a sapphire for Mette's Sept birthdays. On the outside of those stones I place a couple of smokey topaz, the Mom's Nov birthday. :)

There you go nice and simple with some of my favorite colors to wear and play with.

November 20th is Mexico's Revolution Day. The day is always celebrated with a huge city wide parade. All the schools participate, along with service organizations, military, private sector, government get it.... everyone!!!!!!! The bands start practicing in early Sept.

There are amazing and sorta amazing drum and bugle marching bands And every band has it's own uniforms and flag carriers.

Many dress in period costumes. This was a revolution of the people and women along with men fought for civil justice. There are many family stories where the women fought bravely defending their families and homes. Often if the man was killed or injured the woman would fight in his place.

Many of the schools had there gymnastic athletes marching. Now you tell me the last time you saw a parade up in the Northland where the athletes vaulted, jumped, tumbled and constructed pyramids all the way down the route???? :)

And as always the proud horse riders are always ready for a good parade.

Viva la Revolucion y Tierra para quien la Trabaje (Long live the Revolution & Land for those who work)

Have a most audacious today or tomorrow depending on where in the world you are p;)

The Bestest Birthday Ever!!!!

Things are starting to return to normal around our little yellow casa. We have wash caught up and I've been slowly whittling down the save to do later pile. You know the hem that needs to be mended, button added, setting traps for the dust bunnies behind the bed! :)


I decided to take a quick break and share some of my Birthday pictures. I turned 54 on November the 4th. Some years that date slips by without to much fanfare but not this year. This year I spent my Birthday with the most important people in my life. Yup, it's been a whole bunch of years since all the famdamily was together in one place to celebrate the "mom's" birthday! :) Those of you who have grown kids know just how special and remarkable this feat is!!! Those of you with young families at home will understand what kind of miracle this is in a few short years!!!! Well in an effort to catch up and stock up on Birthday celebrations I used any and all occasions to declare this was a Mom Bday party!!!!


Here are a few pictures of our ever increasing family celebrating Mom's Bday at a local Charleston "Rib Joint" :)


Here he is Little Mister Dylan!!! Who would believe he was a year old on the first of Oct.???? Why, wasn't it just last week when I went to Idaho to welcome him to the family him???

He has teeth, walks &falls and picks himself up all by himself, says Daa Da and has 3 more red hairs then he had at birth!! :)

Nope not Mr Clean, it's Dylan's papa and my oldest son Peder. And yes he and Dylan do have the same hair stylist :) Ahhhh there's Mette my first born, I might be a bit bias but even without makeup, up swept hair, and white gown I think she is adorable !! Now we have one more to add to the family, Joe, I'm not sure he completely realizes just what he has married into--Quirky is a good descriptive word!

Here is Dylan's mom Lindsy and his half brother Christian.

Then there's "Baby makes thre..five" The youngest boy and coincidentally the youngest child, Anders. Trying to sneak out of camera range is the last (at least currently, for 5 minutes anyway, well okay I have a good chance of being right cuz no one has called with the "Guess what Mom???? I'm...") member of the family, Ander's partner Tim. Wheeuugh I think I got everyone in the picture. What???? Where is LW???? He is safely sitting right next to me . Oh and me???? I'm the 54 year old with the huge smile on her face and a heart bursting with love and pride for my not so small or ordinary brood!!!! :)

I have declared tomorrow a create art day!!! I can't wait any longer. I haven't made any art in over 2 weeks and I have all these ideas and tons of lovely new beads just waiting to be let out to play!!! :)

Have a most audacious today or tomorrow depending on where in the world you are p;)

HOME AT LAST & The Faerie Tale Wedding

Yes in deed LW, the two little Chihuahuas Charlie & Ruby and I are finally home where we belong!! :) We have spent the last day unpacking, laundry, putting all our new treasures away and catching up on 900+ emails!!! :( It's hard to believe that a country that boasts about it's technology being soooo advance, has large sections with little or no internet reception. We needed to get back here to our little developing nation before we had consistent internet services!!




I know this is rather egocentric and and ever so boastful but I just have to share some of the wedding pictures. So if ya don't want to see them I'll understand if you move on to someone else's Blog. Oh but if you stay you will see my oldest child and only daughter on her wedding day. A day she and Joe planned by themselves to express their love for each other, and lay the foundation of creating their own little family traditions and memories. :)




Mette with tiny little Susan one of her bride's maids (and one of Joe's sister) You can just see the hands and flowers of her other bride's maid, Jen ( Joe and Susan's sister)

This is my beautiful, loving, and so intelligent it'll scare you daughter, realizing the enormously large step of becoming a partner a soul mate and kindred spirit.

The day could not have been more beautiful for a father to escort his little girl to her new life :)

Instead of carrying a big bouquet of flowers Mette carried, 2 white roses attached to her grandfather's new testament. This was the brass jacketed new testament given to war time "GI"s when they were sent to the battle field. Along with that she also carried a small white handkerchief. When she was born her aunt created a tiny going home bonnet from the hankie, with the idea that when she grew up she would carry the hankie for her wedding . Mette's little bonnet sat patiently in her baby book for 27 years waiting for the day she would carry the hankie for her wedding :)

The groomsmen are Mette's brothers Peder and Anders The bridesmaids are Joe's sisters Susan and Jen :) How convenient is that??? Gives all new meaning to "all in the family" :)

For those of you that have been following our little Wedding saga will remember this is the wedding dress Mette decided she wanted when she was 14 years old!!! It was an old Vogue magazine. She cut out the picture for herself and made me a copy, informing me that this was what she wanted for her wedding dress!! Luckily she found a wonderful seamstress,artist to create it for her :)

The kids are both water babies of the first order. They both work in the kayak, surfing sports world. Instead of a guest book they had everyone sigh a "stand up paddle surf board"

Here again my elegant little girl opted for a three layer cake trimmed with a bit of greenery and ribbon wrapped around the base of each layer. Ohhhhh and speaking of layers. Instead of the tasteless fru fru cakes each layer was a, from scratch different flavor cake. Red velvet ribbon, carrot, and lemon. :)

Have a most audacious today or tomorrow, depending on where in the world you are p;)

PS ALL 20 beach/tote bags were finished and delivered BEFORE the wedding! <>

So This is "Northland"

You know that expression "Hit the ground running"??? Well that has been our life since we stepped off the plane in Charleston. We got in at 11:30pm on Thursday night. Hopped in a rental car and drove to Asheville North Carolina Friday morning. Helped Mette and Joe finish loading and cleaning to get out of their rental house. Everyone got back in the saddle yesterday (Saturday) and drove the 4 hours back down to Charleston for the final preparations for the wedding a week from today. :) While up in Asheville the cable company decided that there was no reason that the kids needed internet the last 2 days which made for a few interesting days. And to think it wasn't all that long ago that no one but the military had internet. Now we are lost without it! :)


I snapped a few pictures of fall in North Carolina. The color of the leaves are beautiful. But I will confess I would much rather enjoy those colors in a sunset on the beach by our house as the sun is setting!! :) For one thing it would be ever so much warmer. Just in case you didn't realise it, It is COLD here in Northland!!! These are the woods just on the other side of the porch at the kid's house in Asheville.

These are fallen leaves on the porch!!! Can you imagine. These are leaves that have fallen off of trees and will have to be raked up!!?? I haven't even seen a leaf rake in over 3 years!!! I think I'm going to decree a new family rule. No weddings, babies or birthdays are allowed in the months off October through April if it means we have to come up here where it is COLD!!! ;)

Here's a little picture of all my cutie putooties when we stopped for lunch on our drive from Charleston to Asheville. But we all ended up in our polar fleece sweaters before we made it to much father.

I'll do my best to post again in the the next couple of days. But I'm telling you right now I'm really happy that I only have one daughter because this mother of the bride business is really a lot of work!! <> Just don't let Mette know I'm really enjoying every minute of it !!! The rest of the kids and grandkids arrive in a couple of days, so making any kind of promises would only be pie crust ones if even that!!!

Have a most audacious today or tomorrow depending on where in the world you are p;)

You Did It!!!!

Remember the song in My Fair Lady that Pickering and Higgins sing after the ball? "You Did It"

Tonight, old man, you did it! You did it! You did it! You said that you would do it, And indeed you did. I thought that you would rue it; I doubted you'd do it. But now I must admit it That succeed you did. You should get a medal Or be even made a knight.

Well that was the song playing in my head when the last stitch went into the last piece of material of the VERY last beach/grocery tote!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And with 59 hours to spare!!!!!! :)

I even finished up all the projects that I know of !!! I made this little charm bracelet for Lindsey, Dylan's mom. Type writer keys in D and C (for Christan, Dylan's half brother) See the two tiny pieces of sea glass???? Have I told you before how cool my Dremel tool is?? :)

I wire wrapped a sterling heart locket on the bracelet and placed both little boy's pictures in it. A added a couple of dark blue and cream colored freshwater pearls. I rather pleased how it turned out.

For my little girl who is getting married which will add a new branch to the family trees braiding hers to Joe's to create their own, I made she and I matching pendents. To me there are no better symbols of growing through life gracefully then a smooth piece of sea glass and a lovely cream colored fresh water pearl.

I decided to participate in a last minute exchange sooooooooooo I put together these earrings. A little copper & sterling wires, a few little garnets, and moss agates They are a nice length and move so gracefully.

For a challenge to create a piece of jewelry with out using jewelry tools, techniques, or pieces bought at a jewelry/bead/craft store I made this pendent. It's a crystal prism and brass chain I bought at the hardware store. I decoupaged an antique map on the back. I dug through the jewelry graveyard drawer and found a matador and a Chinese water carrier pins, and a glasses holder pin. Removed the pins off the back used links from the chain as jump rings and hung the ex-pins and crystal to the eye glasses and then strung the chain. Wah Lah a necklace is born :)

I'm going to say good night Bloglandia. We leave Tuesday morning (yeah the day after tomorrow) and we haven't started to pack yet!! Will catch up with you guy's when we get to North Carolina come Wednesday :)

Until then have a most audacious today or tomorrow depending on where in the world you

are. p;)

Last Hurricane of The Season?? Maybe...

Well we made it through another Tropical storm/hurricane :) This one went by the name Rick. By the time he finally did come ashore he was downgraded from a category 5 to a 2+ with gust of wind at 150 mph. :( The picture above is at the sea wall that's about 8 blocks from the house. Although there was quite a bit of wind damage and flooding in parts of the city our little pocket came through unscathed!! :) This is a good thing because if you remember the Tropical Storm at the beginning of the season is when the huge pine tree across the street met the ground and the neighbor's van hood with it's face!!

The storm did take out the power grid for the city :( Some parts had power restored by late afternoon. It was about 10pm before ours came back on. Fifty trucks and about 1500 extra power co. employees from the state where sent in to help restore power. In all honesty LW and I are always so impress with the quick, & efficient way the power company always responds to a power issue. They are always here within 30 minutes of it being called in and they stay until they have power restored!! If a part has to be ordered they will rig something to work until they can get the part here and installed.

Since I was without power which means no sewing yesterday I finished up a couple of now power necessary projects. I'll get pictures tomorrow and post them. BUT I now have to make of for lost sewing time Let me tell ya who is playing in the Pay it Forward and then it's back to "garment district" for me!

Although I'm going to have to be rigging a bit of a multitasking machine together if any more projects are placed on my plate!! :)

OKAY the three Bloglandians I'm really looking forward to playing Paying it Forward with are Sharon of SharDon Exclusives , Leslie of Bei Mondi and Little Veronique of Narrative Jewelry Wooo Hooo, please email your mailing addresses little sisters. It'll be fun to have a few projects to look forward to starting when we get back from our visit to the Northlands and the excitment of the wedding :)

Hmmm you think I could rig my sewing machine up to the stove and get it to finish shopping????? Worth a try maybe?? ahhhhh maybe NOT!!!!!

Have a most audacious today or tomorrow depending on where in the world you are p;)

A Cool Discovery In Surfsville Bloglandia

You know how it is. You take a little break and visit a couple of your favorite blogs and before you know it you've been sucked into the tube, the pipe, and you keep following those waves from one blog to another. :) Soooo that was me the other day, took a break to let my joints have a bit of a rest, and before I knew it I had stumbled on some neato-banito sites. I found one called "Antique Jewelry University" and I gotta say it's one of my new favorite ones. Just like the title says it's all about antique jewelry from wearing a few bones around our necks to the current fads. It has an encyclopedia section. A forum you can read or join, a news letter to subscribe to, a library and a photo gallery. Here is their self description (and they do it so much better then me)


"AJU, what is it exactly?The Antique Jewelry University is a project that has the aim to be the most extensive source of information on period jewelry available online. The goal is to attract a community of appraisers, jewelry historians, gemologists, collectors and other jewelry lovers who will share their knowledge in order to help the public and each other expanding their understanding of jewelry. We invite you all to play an active roll in expanding AJU as a valuable source of information to the jewelry community. "

It's a relatively new brainchild and it's being added to all the time. I tried to copy their header for ya, but all I go was an inch of the Pantheon (Looks good huh??) So you'll just have to surf over from here to see it all.

I did copy a couple of different photo of ancient jewelry to share. I love to go back into old archives to see what was created in the past that can be used for inspirations here in the present. Its amazing to see what my human ancestors created, how they lived and what they thought. And it's great fun for me to wander back to the past for a few inspirations on creating jewelry for the present.

Look at this necklace. If I told you I just found it at someones ETSY store you'd waste no time finding out who created the beads. Right?? Only thing is it the artist lived a couple of thousand years ago!! :)

This piece of Minoan the inhabitants of the island of Crete around 1400B.C.E Huh I just bought the new Contemporary Copper Jewelry book by Sharilyn Miller and dang if she doesn't have almost the same twisted/hammered wire links!! :)


And look at this piece It's Etruscan a civilization in Italy around 900B.C.E Could pass as a piece of Metal Clay work I'm a thinking

This is one type of portrait painting that really creeps me out. It was all the rage in the Georgian period especially in France. It's a great way to carry a picture of your lov....er good friend around in your pocket without anyone really knowing what the person around the look like.... yeah right and if you believe that...... But I swear I've seen a number of contemporary artists use this concept in their creations. I guess that's what they mean when they say "nothing is new under the sun"
We humans spend a lot of time taking from the past and remaking to be our own. To me that's a good thing. We honor the gifts of those that lived before us, but still have the need to make them our own.

Soooooo when you have a bit of time and ya want to take a bit of a trip back to the past jump on the AJU time machine and go exploring. You never know what you'll find that might inspire you!!

Have a most audacious today or tomorrow depending on where in the world you are p;)