Scottish Games and guys in kilts

OK, naughtiness alert! Just back from the annual Scottish Games in Pleasanton. And of course there are many guys in my favorite outfit~~~KILTS!

Here's my favorite guy in the world. My DH. Great legs, eh? He's wearing a Utilikilt, which is a great working man's kilt. Usually made of khaki or Carhardt material. And I'm being just a bit naughty here.

Here's my DH and my BIL. More leg photo ops for this intrepid blogger. I just LOVE guys in kilts. And bagpipe music is sooo stirring. Love love love it~

See, even my SIL and my DD are in on the silliness. He got his first kilt. And she got to be naughty. We love our guys. And we love the Scottish Games every year.

Have a blessed Labor Day~ May you have a peaceful day off, or if you must work, may it go smoothly.

Oregon Fun

Sitting next to me are some awesome young people! My mom and I just spent 5 days in Bend, Oregon with my sis, her husband, my niece and nephew. We had the BEST time!!! My brother-in-law and niece drove 8 hours to Vallejo, then the next day drove us back 8 hours to Bend. Wow. And then my sis spoiled us!
Here's my sis...isn't she lovely? And she made us feel soooo pampered. We're at Tumelo Falls near Bend, OR.
My Sister, my nephew and me trying to make the same funny sneering face...I couldn't do as well as they could. Must practice at home every day!
Five days later, my DH picked us up at Shasta City. My sis, Mom and I left Bend at 5:00 AM. We met my DH and ate at the Black Bear Diner...yummy granola pancakes~~~oh yeah. Then home again. What a great visit!!!

No cast!!! Alright!!!!

Yippee!!! Yahoo!!! I don't have to wear a cast!!!! I saw the physician's assistant today for my post op appointment. They cut out the stitches (oweee. wah!) bandaged me up and put a wrist brace on me....and tomorrow I can get my wrist wet! Which translates into not needing my DH to wash me in the shower. Whoopeee dooodle deee!!!

So here is an amazing photo of my happy hand. Yes, there is cat hair on the brace already. And I've only been home a short time. That's just the way it is around here. Cat hair. Dog hair. You can find those tape-roll hair removal wands in several rooms. And they really don't always do the job. So we have lots of hair on our clothes and would not be suited for a fashion shoot. ever.

That brown stuff on my hand below my thumb? Betadine, the disinfectant that they used for the wrist surgery. It was under the original bandage and I can now reach it and clean it~~~yay~

Anyway, I'm will continue to rest and stretch and the swelling will go down so it can heal. I can't wait to make jewelry again! And I miss my coworkers. Moving forward. Looking good! Thank you God~~You are so good to me~~

How sweet!

My sweet work friends chipped in and sent me these flowers~~aren't they beeeaaauuuutiful?

Surgery Went Well

Hello all! Surgery yesterday and it went sooo well~~
I'm starting the healing process and want to tell you all thank you thank you thank you for the kind words, thoughts and prayers~~~

Closer to surgery date!

Howdy my friends! Don't you love my new accessory on my left hand? No, it's not an oven mitt....it's a paraffin treatment! My tendinitis in my left wrist is getting better and my right wrist will be operated on August 18th. Yay!

My slave/secretary/daughter is visiting today and has graciously agreed to type this post. Isn't she the best?! (Just smile and nod)

I MISS JEWELRY MAKING! I miss sharing ideas and new pieces...but I am getting a LOT of reading done. I also have been keeping busy with the praise band at church. Our praise band is comprised of middle aged would-be rockers (ha ha) (super cool) and we really enjoy praising God.

You may have noticed from my photo that I got my hair cut. Since my wrist injuries, my DH has been washing my hair. This makes it easier to manage. What a sweetie he is!! It is quite endearing to see him do so many extra household chores; I haven't scooped the litter box in MONTHS! My surgeon says that my DH is "well trained". I agree, and no, you can't have him!

I pray you are all healthy and happy and, if not, that you are guided in a good direction. Big hugs for you all!

i'm still alive, just can't type well!

dear sweet blog friends~~~i'm sorry to be so silent for so long. I injured my right wrist (translation: no jewelry makin for this gal) back in march and since then my left wrist has developed tendonitis from trying to do everything my right wrist used to do.

we finally figured out that i tore a ligament in my right wrist and will need surgery. i'm so glad that we are moving forward!! it's scheduled for mid aug.

i can't type well...with the injuries i type one letter at a time veeeerrrryyyy slowly. but i know it will be getting better and look forward to the day that i can get back in the proverbial bloggin saddle~~~

God bless you all~~~

Back to reality, but here's a few pics!

Here is our summer house in Santander, Spain. Rather unassuming and small, but we call it "home".
Here we are waving on the steps of our cottage. I'm the one in the green with the haughty expression on my face. When you are better than others, it just shows..(lol!!!!!)
Segovia! Can you believe this castle??? This really looks like something out of a movie~~~
And this post wouldn't be complete without a pic of the largest plasma TV in the world. My husband saw this at the department store "Corte Ingles" in Alcala de Henares. He's in love and asked if we could buy it...oh yes....that's so happening....

Love to you all and may your Friday be smoothly wonderful~~God bless you!

Fun Times In Spain!

Hola! We are in Spain now and this cool photo was taken in Alcala de Henares. We are having sooo much fun! Exhausted, but FUN. We've been to Villacañas, Cordoba, Granada, and Madrid. We also attended a REAL Spanish wedding and ate way too much food at the reception. Shrimp, prawns, lobster, steak, and more. We could not move! Tomorrow we will visit Burgos and San Sebastian. The history and old architecture is amazing! I wish you could all be here! My beautiful DD is typing this to rest my wrist-----I am so spoiled! Bless you all and have a great week!

Off to Spain!

We're leaving on a jet plane!! Tomorrow~~first to London, then to Spain. Back home May 12. If I can, I'll blog from Spain.

Sorry I've been so quiet~~my bum wrist won't allow much typing.

I love you all and wish you a peaceful blessed time while I'm gone....

Health Adventures

Scarey picture, eh? This is me recuperating from radioactive iodine treatment. I've had Grave's disease~hyperthyroid~for 4 and a half years. I took two different types of medicine over that time, but it never improved. As a result of the treatment, I am radioactive and must sleep by myself and stay at least 7 feet away from everyone. I'm living in the master bedroom and adjoining bathroom and my DH is sleeping in the guest room~

I hurt my right wrist's tendons 3 weeks ago and am on light duty at work....I feel like I'm letting them down! And it's taking forever to heal~

Soooo I asked my endocrinologist if I could have the radioactive iodine treatment now instead of after our Spain trip April 29. I'm hoping the time off will rest my wrist more...and I will be cutting down on my computer time to rest my wrist even more. Unless I can do everything with my left wrist! LOL! Not happening!

So may you all be blessed and happy this week. And if you are not blessed and happy, may you feel His comfort cradling you in peace.

Love you!!!!

I wish this was my studio!!

Isn't this cottage ADORABLE? Last December we visited General Vallejo's historical house in Sonoma,CA. And I fell in love with this little cottage on the grounds. I never found out if it was a guest cottage or ? but I FELL IN LOVE. I can see myself creating wonderful jewelry in this lovely space...sigh. dream....

Well, tomorrow is Monday. I pray that we all sail into our week with enthusiasm and love. In Jesus' holy name!

Where'd the day go?

Run run go go ....where'd today go? Here's a new pair of earrings for the gallery~

I hope you all have a great Friday and the BEST weekend. Our northern California weather is perfect. Bless you all!

Super Cute Niece Visit

ISN'T SHE SOOOOO CUTE?????
My wonderful sister-in-law and my cutie patootie niece visited today~~~I had to share this picture because you HAVE to smile and thus start your week well.

My niece is almost one year old and is currently growing a molar and crawling everywhere commando-style and smiling and wrapping us around her little finger. She's a busy little girl. She had five adults reduced to gooing and making silly faces. What fun!

May your week be smooth. May your path be blessed by Him. In Jesus' holy name I pray!

My Brain is Fried BUT I Finished This Bracelet!

I've been a creative frenzy since Tuesday. I've been stumped on a new gallery piece, something very different from my other pieces. Tuesday night I came up with this design while I was trying to sleep! I began cutting out the copper charms last night and spent all day today putting it all together. I'm really fried~:-) But so glad this is done!!!

The main stones are citrine, Peru chalcedony and ametrine. Then lots of little gemstones, glass beads, stamped copper sheet and copper wire.

This Saturday, March 21, please come by Studio 41 11-4 if you're anywhere in the Benicia area~~I'll be hanging out and talking about jewelry or the weather or life in general. And some other women artists will be there too! So please visit if you can!

Bless you all my friends~Peace fill you this lovely Thursday.

Carolyn's Giveaway

Hi! Carolyn at Fanciful expressions is having a giveaway~~and a gorgeous way cool necklace is the prize...
Here's her link~
Fanciful Expressions
Take a look and leave a comment!

Great Quote and New Jewelry

A new necklace and earrings for the gallery!! I spent most of Saturday in my jammies working hard on these pieces. Very happy~ Peridot, Citrine, Amethyst, Copper, Silver~~

And on another note.......
I read a great quote in the Feb. 09 Ladies' Home Journal in an article by Margaret Renkl titled "Find Your Happy Place"

"One of the best ways to keep negativity at bay is to skip the venting, says Rick Foster, coauthor of "How We Choose To Be Happy". You may think that complaining to friends and family about your unreasonable mother-in-law or your overdue bills will help relieve the pressure you feel. In fact, says Foster, all you're doing is digging yourself a really deep trench of dispair. "If you keep on reliving the feeling, you're trapping yourself in the negativity."

I LOVE this quote. Now if I can just LIVE this quote. I tend to vent. Over and over. And I need to realize that it's not making me happy~~ So onto dealing better with frustration!

May your week be blessed. May you feel His guidance and love. Amen!

New Earrings for Gallery

A wonderful day off~~~even though my attitude stunk (who knows why...I got out of the wrong side of the bed?)I worked on these earrings and cheered up as the day progressed.
"Serene Peace" are copper and silver. I love the turquoise drops~~


Hammered hoops of copper wrapped with silver wire. Lapis and copper beads jazz it up.


May your Friday be a happy day. Bless you all!

Fireproof Movie~

We finally saw "Fireproof" today. I'd wanted to see it in the theatres, but life just stayed busy and we had to wait for DVD.


I loved it. It was powerful and hopeful. And I used 13 tissues!



Here I am with a swollen nose and blocked up sinuses. I REALLY loved the movie and recommend it highly.
Have a blessed Monday!

Happy Baby shower!

I'm going to a baby shower tomorrow and I've bought some useful things for the newborn-to-be. And I also made some earrings for mommy!

Tomorrow maybe my DH will finish the half wall to the kitchen!!! We started remodeling our kitchen 3 years ago. And it's mostly done. Mostly done~~LOL! Tomorrow my DH's brother will visit and help him with the wall. And I'm a happy camper!
May tomorrow be a productive day for you all. May you accomplish something that's been hanging around and pestering you.

I Am A Friend of God

My dear friend Kate was on my mind today. She is an amazing Christ-follower and has been to very kind to me. Here's a pendant I designed for her and am stringing into a finished piece. She loves the song "Friend of God" that is wonderfully sung by Phillips, Craig & Dean. Here's some of the words:

Who am I that You are mindful of me?
That You hear me when I call
Is it true that You are thinking of me?
How You love me
It's amazing

I am a friend of God
I am a friend of God
I am a friend of God
He calls me friend.

This pendant features a bead of "Aqua Terra". I'd never heard of it, but my local bead shop/addiction center had strands of this luscious wonderful stuff and I was forced to buy it. Against my will, you understand. I cut out sheet copper, stamped and punched it. I threaded the bead on with copper wire and riveted it all together. The time flies when I work on jewelry...I'm always surprised when I look up and hours have passed so quickly!

May your Friday be blessed. May He protect and encourage you!

New stuff...for Spain

I got new shoes! The wedding in Spain will be rather fancy, and I don't own any fancy shoes. I know that many women have gobs of shoes, but I have weird big feet. Size 9 1/2 to 10 1/2 with a narrow heel. I HATE shoe shopping. But we found these shoes at Nordstroms in Texas...and they aren't too uncomfortable!! Wheeee!!
Here's my regular shoes. Dansko's all the way! But they wouldn't do for a fancy wedding. No way.

And today I BRA SHOPPED! I don't know about you, but I dislike bra shopping even more than shoe shopping. I'm not very big on top, so trying to find something um..."enhancing", but still comfortable is a pain. I went to Nordstroms and the fitter brought in about 25 bras! I'm not kidding. I found a comfortable pair and a pretty pair. My husband deserves to see a pretty bra once in a while. Poor guy, I'm such a plain jane granny underwear kinda gal! LOL!

Hope your week is blessed. Hope you have little things to be grateful for, like shoes and bras and other things. God is so good to me! And he loves you so much too.

Yay it's Friday!

Hello All!
Crazy busy Thursday~~~getting ready for a busy Friday! Hope yours is smooth sailing.

Made some earrings: "Joy" with citrine and garnet beads and some stamped hoops with fluorite, citrine and labradorite beads. Hunched over the workbench a lot today~~sometimes I wish I had a live-in chiropractor and yoga instructor! LOL!

bless you all~~~

Lapis Earrings and the Spanish Wedding Necklace

Don't you LOVE lapis??? The lovely deep deep blue~~Yum. Here's a pair of copper and silver earrings I made featuring some lapis drops that I got recently. These are so fun to wear! They are heading to Studio 41and I hope someone wants to take them home.


My DH and I are heading to Spain on April 29 to see his lovely daughter. And we are invited to her boyfriend's brother's wedding that first weekend. According to DD, weddings in Spain are big affairs. The wedding will be at 6:00 PM, and after that there will be a six-course meal with lots of drinking and dancing until the wee morning hours. Since my DH and I usually poop out at 9:00 PM, we'll see how that goes! Of course it is 9 hours ahead of California time in Alcala. So we may be the coolest partyers around! Then again, neither of us drinks, and my DH doesn't dance. So maybe we won't be so cool!

Anyway, I have a lovely new top to wear with my chocolate brown long skirt. And here's my new necklace of apatite and copper and silver. I love it~! One of the funnest things about making jewelry is that you always can make something to wear for any special occasion.

May you all have a blessed week. Thank you for stopping by~

A Sweet Award from Tammy~

Tammy at Tammy's Treasure Chestgave me a lovely "Spreader of Love" award...and I dedicate it to all of you awesome blog friends who encourage me. Thank you Tammy!

I'd download the cute pic of the award if I could....rats!

Back from Plano TX

We had a good visit in Plano, Texas. My DH's brother and his family and his Mother live there. It was my very first visit to any part of Texas, and we were amused by the traffic lights...they line up sideways! OK, maybe you more experienced travelers have already seen this phenomenon. Well, it tickled us and I had to take a pic!


We didn't see many cowboys in Plano when we were there, but I got pretty excited when a real live rancher parked his truck by us in the Shepler's Western Wear parking lot. He even had spurs on his boots! And he was real nice. When I jumped out of the car and announced that I was a California tourist and could I please take a picture of his spurs?...he was gracious and showed me how they even had his initials on them. What a gentleman! OK, he may have started shaking his head over the crazy California woman when he got out of eyesight, but around me he was the model of good manners~


Here's the cute little boy that my brother-in-law is fostering...everyone say "Awwwwww". He's been with them for many months. His grandmother is working on getting him back and we are praying that it will work out well for the little guy.


Here's a pic of me doing something that was frustrating. I lost my cellphone on the first flight. I took it out to turn it off, and then I guess I just didn't put it into my bag properly. Anyway, I learned that it's almost impossible to get a human when you try to reach lost and found, and when you finally get a human, they really can't do much for you. I spent at least 45 frustrating minutes in Voice Mail Purgatory....United Airlines is not getting high marks from me for customer service....oh well! We did get there and back safely, and that's the most important thing.

I'm off doing loads and loads of laundry today. Went grocery shopping. Made earrings for Sue at work. Wish I had lots more days to play~

May you all glide through your week. May He guide and protect you all! In Jesus' holy name I pray~~

Kitties and my niece Sophia

News Flash! The kitties are getting along! Well, for naptime, anyway. The kitten~~1 1/2 year old Button on the left~~loves to pester the older kitty. Foster is at least 12 and does not like frisky playing. It was such a surprise to see them sleeping together that I had to snap this. I was careful not to rile up little Button or she'd start harassing Foster and try to get him to play. All he wants to do is sleep. I can relate!


My youngest niece Sophia is SO DARN CUTE! I just got this picture from her mommy..and I couldn't resist sharing it. Cute!!! Stinkin' cute!!!

Well a new week is starting. May your week be blessed with purpose, joy, and the certainty of God's love and guidance. In Jesus' name we pray~~AMEN!

Thursday Earrings~

Happy Thursday~~is anyone else amazed at how quickly January passed? Golly!

My dear friend Kate is attending a wedding next week. Her dress is shades of warm brown, snug to the body and flaring out in ruffles. And these earrings will be yummy with the whole outfit~ I can't wait until she sees them!

Valentine's weekend my DH and I will be flying from California to Dallas Texas~~to visit my DH's brother's family and his Mom in Plano. Since Mom is in very poor health, it may be a tough trip~~~but necessary. Our preparations for Valentine's Day will not include a romantic dinner! But we are so blessed to have the love of our family.

May your weekend be smooth and productive. And may each second be cherished and lived fully~~in Jesus' name I pray!

Amazonite Trapped Bezel Pendant

Hello my blog world friends~ Another Trapped Bezel pendant~Amazonite this time. Kept me engaged and busy on my day off!

I'll wear the pendant this Saturday at the Sacramento Area Mammography Seminar. When you are a radiologic technologist, you must earn continuing education credits for your license renewal. And if you are a mammography technologist, many of them must pertain to mammography. This is all making sense! I love this seminar as it is packed with other technologists like myself. Dedicated to saving lives. Dedicated to learning new techniques and ideas. Woo hoooo~

May your weekend be as inspiring as mine! And may God bless and protect you all.

She's Already Plenty Sweet!

When the grandbaby was over last month, we all went out to lunch. Well, she became restless and obtained a sugar packet....and had fun sucking on the paper and eating the sugar. She really doesn't need any extra sweetness~~~

May your week be full of sweetness. May God protect and bless each one of you!

Richard Salley Rocks!

Richard Salleyis an amazing artist. In his blog he showcased a wonderful "trapped bezel" pendant of etched copper and brass and a marble. I loved the way he set the marble and adapted it to this piece of Peruvian Blue Opal. It's fun to try new techniques...makes the brain work a bit. Maybe it'll make me smarter??? Nah!!LOL

May your Friday be smooth sailing into a lovely weekend. God bless you all~

Have a Blessed Tuesday

May all my friends have a blessed and productive Tuesday~

Commission Pendant Completed!

My commission piece is off to its new owner~~and I'm happy with it. I love etched copper and stamped silver...and want to play with them some more. But I'll need to clean my house a bit before I can play again. Rats. I keep looking for the House Fairy and she never visits.

I'm reading a wonderful book by Mary Jenson, "Over Salad and Hot Bread", exploring the Christ-filled friendship between two women--one middle-aged, one elderly. Nancy, the older friend had some advice I wish to follow:

"God has given all of us a choice in how we deal with our lives," she said,"and I chose long ago to count my blessings. No matter how dismal the moment in time, there are always blessings. My natural instinct is 'Yes! Let's! I want to!"
"I love the idea," she said,"that we get up in the morning and look in the mirror and see the reflection of our attitudes. Our choice for the day is right there in the mirror."

And so many times I turn my face to the negatives! Please Lord help us all to look to our blessings and look to You. Thank you and in Jesus' precious name I pray~Amen!