I Bling Therefore I Am

I've mentioned before that I love jewelry...big, chunky, funky jewelry. I love my "good" pieces but I also love playing with other stuff. I've also mentioned that I can't have my ears pierced ( physically can't...no other reason...just doesn't work) so it's a challenge to find clips I like because someone decided clips are dainty. So what's a girl to do? Why reinvent something of course!

While on vacation, I found the COOLEST store that I did not need to go into but you know I did. It's an accessory store that is all organized by color and they have got pretty much every color and every accessory you can imagine. It's called "Charming Charlie" . If you have access to one, LUCKEEEE! If you don't, well misery loves company so come sit by me.

They had some clips but I'm one of those "I want what I want" kinda people so I bought a pair of pierced earrings that gave me a vision. No, I had not been drinking. They were perfect becase the Mumster had given me a bunch o earrings that she inherited from her dear sweet cousin who passed away earlier this year. Mom's not blingy like me but our cousin was! Still, they weren't totally my style so like any mad crafter, I combined them! Wanna see?

Left: Charming Charlie....Right Cousin's Earrings

I took everything apart:

Dis-assembled, and the big ones flipped upside down

Clip Earring Backs To The Rescue! Glued on w/ Beadalon's Bead Fix

And then put them back together (with blingy parts leftover for future use yeah! )

I love that these earrings will always hold both the memory of a visit with my Mom, and a keepsake from one of our most entertaining cousins.

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Feeling Wreathy

I felt like I lost my creative mojo this week ( I think it's withdrawal from Yogurtland...a place we went regularly while on vacation and which we don't have here..oh Chocolate Coconut Truffle, how I miss you, but I digress). While visiting the Mumster ( aka my cute little Mommy) I made the mistake of remarking that she had two wreaths that had seen better days and little miss feisty said " Well what are you going to do about it since you said you were going to make me new ones..ahem ahem".  Note to self: KEEP QUIET!

And yes, Mom reads my blog so someone's going to ask me "Why are you putting these on here if she hasn't received them yet" which is a fair point, but if I'd had time to make them while we were still there, then she would have seen them as they were being made so....

I started with these from $1 Tree:

Plus burgundy ribbon, one silk flower bush , and three silk focal stems from Michaels. Silk flowers have to at least look natural to me and I thought these colors would work well for my Mom's house.  For the green styro wreath, I wrapped it with the ribbon and then beheaded the flowers and stripped off the leaves ( it didn't hurt...I promise...OK except where my wire cutters pinched me!) and then just hot glued stuff on in a way that I liked. Same principle for the vine wreath except I didn't wrap it in ribbon first. A while ago I bought a roll of some kind of bark covered wire which I cut lengths of, wrapped around a pen and made curly viney thingies that I stuck in at random.

Vy-ola:

I love this brown hydrangea:

I used to feel like you had to cover the whole wreath with stuff, but lately I'm more inclined to do just part. So Mom, I hope you like! Now I just have to figure out how the heck they're getting mailed to you :)

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Ssshhhh....It's Not Chocolate!

I can usually forego dessert if it's not chocolate. But, nature has provided us with a bountiful supply of blackberries. Despite Mr. Chocolate's persistent cutting back of these ( much to my chagrin), each year we end up with "a bunch o berries". They don't ripen until later in the summer here so I was excited last night when I was able to pick these:

About 5 cups. Not enough to make any jam but certainly enough for a homemade cobbler! Actually I only used 3 cups for the cobbler and the rest are in the freezer, added to some from last year and awaiting future pickings from this year.


Super easy recipe:
Heat Oven to 350
Melt 1 stick butter ( yes, 1 stick....and I say Paula Deen's trying to kill me with butter) and pour on the bottom of a 12x12 pan ( or whatever you have that's close)
Mix:
1C Flour
1C Sugar
1 Tbsp Baking Powder
Pinch of Salt
2/3 C Milk

Pour on top of melted butter. Top w/ 3 C blackberries. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake 40-45 min until brown.

We had ours warm with Vanilla bean ice cream. Mmmmmm....Summer!

Welcome to those stopping in from:

Christmas Is Coming...Again...Holiday Open House Reminder

Please join me for my second ever link party next Friday August 20th!!! While it started out as a Christmas open house, it's really open to any holiday between Halloween and New Year's so please come and link up anything from decor, decorations, cards, jewelry, recipes etc. I know many of  us are already busy at work on gifts and decor items and the rest of us always love to get some new inspiration!!

Woodworking and I Love Lucy

And you're wondering what in the heck these two have to do with each other.  I'll tell you...it's how my brain rolls. If I can't relate something to a movie, I can for sure relate it to a TV show. So...on our vacation we visited with my BFF and her family like we do every year. And "Mr. BFF" is a supercalifragi-talented woodworker whom I'm trying to convince needs to open an etsy shop. Now you get the woodworking reference.

My BFF and I love "I Love Lucy". We quote it, we sing the "Friendship" song...do the Vitameatavegamin thing...you get the jist. We love that Lucy, Ethel, Ricky and Fred's antics seem to transcend generations.  We also take turns being the Lucy character and plan to write a book someday called "The Lucy and Ethel Girlfriend's Guide". Our first line ( which we haven't gotten any further than for several years) is: "Sometimes you're the Lucy and sometimes you're the Ethel".

If you know anything about "I Love Lucy" you know that she was always in trouble with Ricky and always had some 'splainin to do. So in this scenario, my BFF is definitely the Lucy because she gave me permission to blog about Mr. BFF's (aka "Ricky") amazing supercalifragi-talented woodworking.  "Now Ricky, don't be mad".  See how Lucy and woodworking fit together now?  Take a look: 

He made this table and the lamps! My bad photography skills don't do them justice. Here's the lamp close up and you can see the stunning wood the table is made from:

In addition to furniture, he makes jewelry and the most beautiful pens. Here are some bracelets:

and these amazing boxes:

He also makes things like cutting boards, pizza paddles, beautiful wooden Santas, a table from a wine barrel etc. etc.

So ahem "Ricky"....etsy store?

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

It's always great to go on vacation but there's also something wonderful about coming home ( I love my bed!).  We had a great two weeks away visiting my mom, friends, brother-in-law, colleges ( $$$) and I got to visit some great creative shops along the way. I blogged about a couple of them or tried to from my phone our the i-Pad ( still not convinced it's the best thing since sliced bread).  I got to go to two of my favorite bead places, Beads Galore and Scottsdale Bead Supply and stocked up on some great things to play with later.

Last year, one of my BFFs gave  my mom a present for Christmas that my mom fell in love with and wanted to give similar ones to a few of her friends. It was one of those glass blocks with lights inside like you see here So she asked if I could make them and if I minded doing any crafting while I was on vacation. HELLO? A chance to be on vacation AND use a glue gun?! In addition to the opportunity to go to craft stores including one I don't have at home? Bring. It.

I'd seen these glass block projects but hadn't made any and now I'm hooked. Maybe they're not new news but they're still fun to play with and there are endless possibilities. There are a variety of places you can get the blocks. Least expensive is your HW store but they typically don't come pre-drilled to put the lights in and I wasn't about to do glass drilling ( I understand you can go through several drill bits). So mom and I used our Michael's 40% off coupons and bought the more expensive ones they sell there ($16.99 pre-discount for the large one) that come with different closures for banks, lights, or simply plugging the existing hole. So started with this: 

Used a variety of ribbon (some from mom's recycled stash ... re-use, re-use!) stickers ( red and gold block) , Christmas picks from Hobby Lobby, and 1 string of 100 mini lights per block and ended with these:

She wanted one for a friend who wants to keep this out all year round, and the friend wanted black and white which I love working with so that's this one:

which I kept really simple using only black and white polka dot ribbon and two vinyl pieces I brought with me that I'd picked up at JoAnns on sale for $.50 !

Crafting on vacation?! WIN-WIN!  And mom now has a glue gun :)

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Outrageous Olive Oils

Awesome shop!

I was trying to mobile blog so I could upload a pic but no luck. So anyway, the is the most incredible olive oil shop in Old Scottsdale that has every flavor olive oil and balsamic vinegar including you guessed it... Chocolate! I didn't love the chocolate balsamic vinegar...shocking I know...no chocolate olive oil though.  But several other flavors are coming home. http://www.oliveoilarizona.com/