A Great Bead and more Yarn

I have been extremely lucky lately. I've been a little embarrassed to say just how lucky. But, I'm going to fess up right here, right now and tell you that I won prizes on 5 different blogs during the One World One Heart giveaways. I've posted about three of them already. Now, I'm going to tell you about this beautiful prize! This is the beautiful heart bead that I won from Elaine! Isn't it magnificent?












This is the front and back of the bead. She was so sweet and she let me pick from beads she had made. I picked this one. I love it! That shade of blue in it is my favorite and I think I have some beads that will look great with it. I plan to make a necklace with it soon and post that also when I do. I just hope I can do it justice. Here are links to Elaine's websites for you to check out her blog, her etsy store and her jewelry website. http://www.chatelainejewellery.com/
http://www.chatelainejewellery.etsy.com/
http://chatelainejewellery.blogspot.com/


Someday I'd like to learn how to make this type of bead. It's called lampwork and it's made by shaping glass over fire, but that's about all I know at this point. It looks like it would be very difficult.

The other photos I want to share are of yarn that I've come across in my house that I had purchased a good while back. I think the variegated yarn was purchased in CO when I visited my sister (she has since moved to TX) and the yarn shop has since closed. I wish I'd gotten all she had of this. There were one or two more skeins, I think. I don't remember what it's made of or how much is in each skein. I just know it's beautiful and I hope there is enough for a scarf. Well, even as inexperienced as I am, I know there's enough for a scarf here.

The red is some that I bought while I was with Marianne when she was attempting to teach me to knit. I don't remember why I bought 2 skeins or why I bought these particular skeins. I probably just liked the color.

I'm almost positive that I have some cotton yarn and dishcloth pattern books around here somewhere. I wonder where I should start to look. I owe Dianne a dishcloth. You'll eventually get to see them too.

Treasures in the Mail

I've been somewhat emotionally consumed this week. One of my very close family members is considering divorce. It's upset me greatly since the family member has young children. So please forgive me for taking so long to post lately and posting so infrequently. It's amazing how stressful things like this are.



Monday was a great mail day! I had been out of town since the Thursday before at a quilt retreat. When I got to the post office, I had lots of wonderful packages! So fun! I got two of my prizes from the One World One Heart giveaways. The first one is this lovely print of a painting done by Karen. The photo I took of it does not truly capture its loveliness. To see it in Karen's original post on her blog, please look here. Her blog is called Daily Creations by Karen Benvenuti. Thank you Karen! I love birds and bird nests with eggs. I'd love to find one like this in a bush near my home. Just lovely.





The other prize I have to tell you about tonight is from Nikki. She is so sweet. She sent me her amazing little book charm and a print of a volcano world. Here is the posting about her OWOH winners. She has great photos of both of the prizes she sent me. Much better than my sorry photo. I really wish I had a camera that took different lenses, but my hands shake a lot and I need one of those no-shaky cameras. I haven't found one that lets you change lens. Times like this, I really want a macro lens so that I could take a great photo of this charm. When I get the courage, I plan to write the dates of my son's and grandchildren's births in the little book. Then I'm going to hang it on a necklace. Nikki's "wee planet" photos are really cool! You can get to all of them from her original post about the giveaway here. Nikki's blog is called Nikki Smith - Book Artist. If you have time, please check out both of the blogs of these talented ladies.



The last thing to tell you about was something that I ordered and it just happened to arrive in the mail on Monday with the other goodies. I read about this on The Bright Side Project. It's a subscription of 500 colored pencils -- 25 pencils a month over 20 months! I'm going to have a lot of fun with these over the months and, I hope, for years to come. I can't wait to share them with my grandchildren when they visit the next time! CV will especially love them, I think. The colors are wonderful. And something equally fun -- each one is named. Just listen to these names -- Raccoon Dog, Sambal, Truffle, Windsor Rose, Mahogany, Caffe Latte, Tea With Milk, Soldier Suit, Hopscotch, Tragedy, Vivien, Coconut, Aubergine, Anaconda, Tobacco Road, Black Coffee, Earth Brown, Buster Brown, Walnut, Secret Past, Pecan, Semi-Sweet, Apricot Brandy, Creme De Cacao and last, but certainly not least, Tiramisu! Now, these names are not in the order of the pencils in the photo. I didn't think of it in time. I'll try to remember to do that next time. Or if I get really wild and crazy over the weekend, I may lay them out as I've written them and take another photo.

Hope you have a great one! I'm done for tonight. Off to practice my knitting. At least three rows a day so that I don't forget the knit stitch.