A Curious Week Indeed

Did you try this?

Standing a broom on it's end to see if it would stand unsupported.

(I borrowed this picture but I linked it back to it's site)

I tried it.

Late one night.

I was home alone and trying the broom balancing act.

Hoping my neighbors weren't watching me.

Which they could've.  Everything was lit up like a Christmas tree what with the full moon and all.

But at the local post office?

They swore it worked. 

Upon walking in I was told, 

"I'll do you here in the middle."

I replied to the postal person,

"Wow.  You really ARE a full service post office!"

True story.

We had quite a laugh.

And, then the broom story started.

Snopes says it's not true.

I believe in a lot of weird things, though.

Four leaf clovers and wishing on falling stars.

Standing brooms...just could happen.

That same night I saw a shooting star.

And the aligned planets.

And the full moon.

And...

It was one crazy week.

BTW - That kitchen picture is not my kitchen.
We know this because there is no broken glass, beads, glue or ink on the counter.
This person is probably really not very happy.
That's what I tell myself.

In my glass, bead, glue, ink covered counter I redid a necklace I made a year ago.
I was never very happy with it.
I like it now.
I think.

I'd show you the original picture but I can't find it.

Believe me.

This looks better.

I think.

I doubt myself, frequently.

I soldered some.

A lot, actually.

I found this cool piece of lace.

It looks like a shamrock worked into the lace.

And some lucky necklaces.

And a sort of motivational one.

I liked this saying.

More birds:

I hammered some letters

and made more earrings.

Southwest colors.

Pretty spring colors.

A crazy week calls for doing normal things.

It helps offset all of the nuttiness.

Until,

you find yourself

alone in the kitchen

with a broom.

No pictures - What I Love

Simple and blatantly stolen from Pioneer Woman.  Here we go:

I love ( in no particular order.)

My family.

Butterflies.

Hippos.

Color

Old keys

Old typewriter keys

Old typewriters

Old typewriter ink ribbon (I'll stop with the typewriter stuff, now)

Award Shows

The Kindness of Strangers

The Kindness of friends

Friends with jumper cables.

Friends with wine.

Friends who listen to me whine.

Kindness

Gentle Rain

Gentle Sunshine

The Magic Hour (right before dusk)

Sunrise

Sunset (cue Fiddler On The Roof)

Musicals

Magicians

Cameras

Good photos

BAD photos that make me laugh

Laughing

Smiles

A good joke

Animals

Sundays

My husbands footsteps

The sound of my daughter's car

True Love

A Full Moon

Friday the 13th (the day not the movie)

Sunday dinner

Lightning Bugs (Fireflies) in a jar

Lightning bugs being released from a jar

Fireworks

Floating Lanterns

A Summer Bonfire

Spices

Fresh Tomatoes

Farm stand vegetables

Farm stand flowers

Tornado Footage

Storm Footage

Fairy tales

My VW Beetle

MUSIC

Movies

Television

The Internet

Rusted, Dented, and Grungy

Creating/ /crafting - anything

Duck Egg Blue   :o)

Vintage Christmas

Memories

Vintage Christmas Memories

Buttons

Old jewelry

Estate sales

Make your own list.  See what you see. It's fun and maybe a little bit enlightening.

Pondering Originality

I love this quote*. 

I'm pretty sure that there are quite a few artists out there who will not agree.

I am not an artist.

I am a rather crafty person but not an artist.

VanGogh, Picasso, and Magritte were artists.

Not me.

Recently, I've joined the masses on Pinterest.

I hadn't done it because I had to join Facebook to get on.

I didn't want to join Facebook.

No reason.  Just a choice.

Does anyone really want to know

 that I went to the hardware store

 to purchase new tips for my soldering iron? 

I think not.

I jotted down the above quote a while back.

I love Pinterest.

Great ideas.

-BUT-

People/Artists

worry about being copied.

They post little signs about this worry.

I get it.  I do, really.

Please don't write and explain it to me.

I understand copyright issues.

That being said, now I worry

 that I might accidentally copy someone else.

All of Pinterest is on my desktop and in my brain.

So...

When I make this:

or this:

or this:

How do I know I'm original?

I get a lot of inspiration from many, many places.

I'm sure everyone else does too.

I understand not copying something

piece by piece

or 

word by word.

But, with the Internet and everything downloadable

it is inevitable.  Hopefully, these folks are copying and

making it their own.  Making it a little bit different.

I think that tends to happen anyway.

If you can copy it exactly then you are probably copying

Monet, or Rembrandt, or Van Gogh

and making HUGE illegal bucks.

This opinion of mine may irritate some people.

And you may not know this about me

but,

my goal is 

to make everyone in the entire world happy!!

And this thought is probably not going to help me achieve my goal.

I've seen my bow tutorial reproduced.

And you know what?

I don't care.

I took apart a bow to figure it out.

It's a fun project.

You can do it too.

You can even blog about it.

You can write another tutorial.

I.

Don't.

Care.

I did this one too.

Make your own glitter out of

broken Christmas Balls.

I KNOW I saw that somewhere else.

Gosh, I wish I knew where.

You know,

every day

the only 3 things I have to remember to take with  me are:

my asthma inhaler

my reading glasses ('specially since I work at a library)

my car keys.

Every day, I will leave the house without one of them.

Because, I can't remember ...

I'm too busy remembering the million and one other things

that I have to remember.  As we all do.

How in the world, I ask you,

(Tiny hedgehogs.  Aren't they cute?)

am I expected to remember

where 

on the

WORLD WIDE INTERNET

I saw something?!

I think I made up these designs.

But- if I didn't,  I apologize.

I wasn't stealing.

I just have a very bad memory.

And as Forrest Gump said,

"That's all I have to say about that."

Off the soapbox now.

Thank you for your support.

(and if you can remember where THAT quote came from you have a very good memory)

This was a little tongue in cheek.

I understand that they (the artists) want their

work linked back to their website.

But, I do worry...

A lot.

*I threw this little quote together in Photoshop.  Feel free to steal, copy or use

King Midas Of The Buttons

I saw an estate sale listed as having fabrics and notions.  A LOT of fabrics and notions.

So off we went.

There was a slight chance of snow.

Lake effect near the lake

We are not near the lake.

We got to the sale and there were people standing outside.

Normal.

Once we got inside I scooped up some laces and odds and ends.

Then I headed upstairs where the fabrics where.

There, I found buttons.

TONS of buttons!!

Bottles, bags, and envelopes of buttons.

They were very inexpensive.

There were also old antique buttons.

I didn't buy too many of them.

But then I went back the next day.

Half price the half price they were already marked.

Some are truly amazing!

These are some of them.

I love the large middle one.  It's stunning.

We drove further north and east to a few more sales.

The snow started to come down.

We stopped at one and I found this cool pocket watch.

I paid .50 for it.

FIFTY CENTS!!!!!!

I was thrilled beyond words.

Also this sweater closure thingy.

Pretty isn't it?

They had some newer jewelry that had huge price tags on it.

By the time we left it had snowed several inches.

Lake effect snow comes down fast and is huge flakes.

By the time we got home to our town

there was nary a flake to be seen.

I've lived in the Chicago area for 20 years

and I still am not used to the weird weather fluctuations.

I made jewelry this weekend, too.

And this is the back side:

The best part of this is the back.

I found this teeny tiny Marshall Field's tags on Ebay.

Marshall Field's was a HUGE department store in Chicago.

It was taken over by Macy's a few years ago.

Macy's in the same building.

But

It's not the same.

I loved this on the back of the gun.

What little girls are made of.

Gunpowder, Lead and Marshall Field's!!

More steampunk
This time I added octopuses.
I thought the plural of octopus was octopi.
It's not.
I looked it up.
You know.
In case you need it for
Words With Friends
I'm here to help...

And another Oz necklace.

A colorful pair of hippie/ gypsy earrings.

The sun has been shining a bit more.

Color looks really good to me right now.

Have a colorful week!!

We Got Us Some Valentines

Last year this was a key chain.  I never listed it and decided to remake it into a necklace.

It cracks me up. 

 It was cut out of an old Harold Robbins novel.  

He was the "hot" romance/trash novelist of the time in the 60's and 70's.  

Pretty racy stuff back then.

I added some fun old beads.

It's really long, too.

I have no idea WHAT this woman is doing.

I thought the picture was great, though.

More Romance.

This came out of a less trashy romance novel.

Romance novels are very popular at the library where I work.

The funny part is so many of the women who read them

apologize for checking them out!

This always makes me laugh.

And I say,

"We just check out your materials.  We don't judge."

Then I wink and tell them to enjoy it.

The sweetest library story about romance novels is this one.

An older woman who has long since passed on used to 

check out a lot of them.  She was so much fun.  I really miss her.

She was very outspoken and would just blurt out the most 

hilarious things.

One day, she says,

"Do you know why I read this junk?"

I didn't know what to say.

So, I kept quiet and smiled.

She said,

"Because

I want to remember

what it was like."

That always brings a smile to my face.

And

A little tear to my eye.

She was a wonderful lady.

And that - is a wonderful memory.

I Fear I'm Completely Bonkers

I've said this before.

But,

Sometimes I look at what I make and think,

"Lordy. Lordy.  I'm Sybil"

I did not make this.

My friend Cameron did.

She has a blog called

Paint Myself Pretty.

Her art is gorgeous.

She does the most magnificent eyes.

She has a style.

I can spot Cameron's art from 500 miles away.

 Me?

I'm all over the board.

I wish I had a style.

My style seems to be:

"Um. Mmmm.   Girl. You is one crazy mess!"

That's not the style I want to be.

But, apparently

it is who I am.

Sounds like a song cue doesn't it?

I was going to plug in the song

"I'm Sexy And I Know It"

because it makes me laugh.

But-

I couldn't get it to fit into this blog.

So I'll post some lovely jewelry pictures.

I like buttons and old stuff.

See.

Old stuff.  Buttons.

But then,

I need to shake it up.

And I end up with this:

Or these!

Dragons breath (Mexican Opal) 

GORGEOUS to look at.

And then the next thing you know

I'm making these.

For Valentine's Day.

?

I did make some nice Valentine earrings.

I did!

See!  

I can do pretty.

But then the dragons begged to be made.

And the frog asked so sweetly.

He looked ever the gentleman in his debonair top hat.

And before I could say

in my best Jim Carrey voice,

"SOMEBODY STOP ME!"

We were dancing and singing and grooving  to the movin'

Go Here

So there you have it.

I'm completely

Crackers.