I'm having a great birthday! Thanks for the emails and birthday greetings. xoxoxoxo
Hugging Kitties. I wear this one on my charm bracelet for my two beloved kitties.
I have some fun new European beads charm designs in my shop, Charmish. European beads is the name for this style of charm bracelet, that's popular all over the world. Many people call them "Pandora Beads" because that's one of the top companies who make these styles. Its nice that all the major brands have standard sizing so everyone can mix and match their charm beads from different companies. 
Bracelets are IN!!! You can see the thick 4mm sterling bracelet, the enclosure clasp (great engineering to keep that bracelet closed) that also looks like a bead, and the first part of the bracelet with the threading. Threading allows the beads to twist on, the slide freely without falling off again.
Measure your wrist, and let me know your size when ordering. I add one inch to the length to allow for the beads. Start with one bead or a whole set! Very fun to collect. 
Fortune cookie charm. 6mm wide. Tiny with perfect details, and the "777" good luck fortune just peeping out. Love this one! 
Example of a fuller charm bracelet, including birthstone beads, dangles, locks and lettering beads.
I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of some new bead series:
Gnomes and Mushroom home.
Tree of Life series, with six different leaf styles, acorn, tree of life and leaf dangles.
Aussie animals, including some most Americans have never heard of!
A little later this summer:
Favorite dog breeds.
Yoga, meditation, kung fu, healing arts energy series.
And dun da dun! Right before the big "Talk like a Pirate" celebration day, I have a big pirate series arriving! So exciting!
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What's a Gold Star day? Some of you have heard me talk about a gold star day. It means I've sold something out of each of my three etsy stores on that day. It's really fun, and rather pleasing to sell an item from each store.
The Meet Your Maker indie craft show was so fun last night! Lots of my High Flying Easter Bunnies went to good homes. The crowds were constant, and people were so chatty and friendly. That's how we like it. It's fun to interact, hear people's thoughts, know if they have been in central downtown at the gallery tour, or just here for the wine bar, and hear what they like in my shop. Very fun to sell in person when folks are chatty and friendly. And I always love seeing my etsy vendor friends and meeting new vendors. We support one another and exchange ideas and fun.
Thanks for coming down!!!
xo
I've just sent the kids off to school, telling them it's Surprise Thursday. They didn't ask what the surprise was, because I was being vague, and they jumped in with their own idea that there was surpriseS already happening, and started counting every unexpected thing that occurred this morning.
I've actually managed to keep a secret - a HUGE secret since Sunday. It was very hard to keep.
I'm going to spill to you, but first let's look at my fantasy thought bubble. I have photos to illustrate. Keep in mind this is not MY puppy but looks just like him, and we don't have any kittens, but two older cats....REady? here goes the fantasy............
Isn't that great???? First they play all cute, then they snuggle up and sleep together on the couch. Ok ok, it's a scary colored couch. Don't worry, ours is purple! But you see the fantasy story. Now here's the surprise. After school, we are picking up Mackie and going on "an errand". We'll end up at the Dog and Cat rescue location inside PetSmart and be taking two kittens home! The grown ups have already chosen one amazing kitten and our fantasy was to have a fuzzy orange buddy for him. Low and behold, they have a litter of fuzzie oranges ready on Thursday, so we waited. Didn't tell the kids. Sooooo exciting!!!!
I realized how long it's been since I've had a kitten! I was 19, early in college, when my Zoey came along. I was at Saturday Market playing with the last member of a litter of "free kittens" when the woman literally snuck away! I took it as a sign for me and the kitty to be together. Zoey was actually too small to leave on her own, so I carried her inside my jacket to my college classes for the first two weeks. She didn't pee on me even once. It was very sweet and bonding. I could tell she'd had a rough start, and that regrounded her. She and I had an amazing 18 years together. She died two years + ago, and I still miss her. Now I'm ready for kittens again.
The concerns: we have two older cats who are 13. And we have our chocolate lab puppy aged 1.3. I HOPE he loves the kittens and they all play together. He wants to play with the older cats but they aren't so happy about that. We''ve had a year of hissing and scared kitties. They are finally starting to ignore him and not run away!
If anyone has great tips about introducing puppies and kitties, please comment!!!
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I'm off to the studio now. I always sew in the mornings. I'm making tiny zippy bags, I'm calling Bitty Ditties. They are so handy inside one's purse for organizing: change purse, moon time supplies, keeping all punch cards out of your wallet, etc, AND they are very nicely padded, thus a great place to keep your tiny camera, pad your phone, or roll up your iPod Shuffle and headphone cords. Cute tiny 5" pouches. The challenge is that my cute fuzzy padding has been lumpy and hard to control. Very imperfect. The first three have gone as children's presents. :-)
