The Latest Jewelry Sets

"Beaded" bead earrings and the Russian spiral bracelets are easy and fast to make. I usually make a Russian spiral bracelet in a couple hours sitting in my chair in the living room with a rectangular cookie tray on my lap. Inside the cookie tray is a fuzzy mat on which I place the beads. It is handy and the beads don't roll around or fall off.
The dark sapphire and white opal "beaded" bead earrings belong to my niece, Roxanne, even though they are still in my possession. :-D She will get them the next time we travel to Kansas City. These "beaded" bead earrings also can be completed in one evening.

The red bracelet and earrings belong to daughter Patti. I was quite pleased that the bracelet is a perfect match for a jacket Patti has. I had my doubts until I saw them with the jacket. She was pleased with them and replaced the earrings she had on with the new ones and put on the bracelet.

Granddaughter Jessica loves purple so I used Swarovski purple velvet crystals with white opal. She hasn't seen them yet but will get them really soon.

The final set is granddaughter Elizabeth's. She will be in town the week of Easter. So she will have hers then. The earrings are made with Swarovski rose crystals and white opal.

I really enjoy the process of making the bracelets and earrings. Then it is even more fun to give them to family and friends and see their enjoyment. Making jewelry keeps me so busy that sometimes I forget I have a blog to write!

Growing up in the 60s

We made many trips to the Carnegie Library when Patti and Tony were small. I always took them to "story hour" each week. They were allowed to check out several books from the children's library. I read to them before bed. They always wanted me to read each of the books every night, not just one or two.

The elementary school was down the hill and a few blocks away. Patti and Tony were able to walk to school which was nice. I liked the teachers and the principal who was a small, wiry, soft-spoken man.

Patti was tall for her age when she started school. There were two teachers who were tall. Both these ladies walked tall. Patti never slouched when she walked. I credit the example set by these two teachers. She reached her full height about 5th grade. After that she was no longer taller than the boys in her class.

I don't remember Patti's first day of school but I do remember Tony's. I walked with him down the street to the Luzum's house where his pal came out to walk with him. Both boys wore red shirts. They walked off down the hill without a backward glance. No wave, no nothing!

Elementary school was from kindergarten through 6th grade. After that they went to Junion High in another building.

Both Patti and Tony started clarinet lessons when they were 4th graders. (I think my Mom wished two clarinet players for me so I would know what she went through with me!)

I volunteered at the elementary school when the secretary was away. I really enjoyed being back in a school setting.

The school hired me to be noon hour supervisor when Patti was about 5th grade and Tony, 3rd grade. I supervised the kids in the lunchroom and out on the playground. Some of the 5th and 6th grade boys were bigger than I. That was sometimes a challenge.

We called Tony Anthony until about third grade when he told his teacher he wanted to be called Tony. From that time until now, he is called Tony.

Somewhere along the line, I was room mother for each of the kids, baking and taking cupcakes and other treats several times a year.

I am sure Patti and Tony will remember other things - or maybe differently than I remember but that it ok. These are my memories.

Helix bracelet and beaded bead earrings

This Helix bracelet is from a pattern in the "Step by Step Beads" November-December 2009 edition. It is a fun bracelet to do. I've seen several if thse bracelets at my favorite beading store, Bead Haven in Cedar Rapids. Last week when I went in, my teacher Jeanne showed me her Helix bracelet. It was beautiful.

I used opal quartz beads in the center, the same as Jeanne used, with light sapphire bicones on both sides plus teeny-tiny light blue seed beads The "beaded" bead earrings used the same opal quartz, light sapphire bicones and the teeny-tiny blue seed beads. I am very pleased with this set because it goes very nicely with denim. The opal quartz takes on the light blue shade.

The bracelet and the earrings are fun to make.

9/11

There was an article in Daily Guideposts that I read earlier this week. It was about how this New Yorker felt - he and his family were in New Hampshire on 9/11. It brought back memories of that day.

The young adults, and even the children, who were alive on September 11 will remember this tragedy in the same way I, and all those who were alive then, remember December 7, 1941.

These two events have reshaped my life and that of many others who experienced those days. We no longer feel like it is impossible for anyone to do such evil things in our very own USA.

It might be more appropriate to write this on the anniversary of 9/11 but I think I need to write about it today. As days pass, some things become less well-remembered.

Don and I were getting ready to go to a Bible study class our associate pastor taught. We were interrupted by the phone ringing. It was Patti telling us to turn on TV. I asked her what station? She said just any station! So we turned on the TV and were just in time to see the second plane hit the tower. We watched, horrified by what we saw.

We called the church and spoke to the associate pastor. She told us to come on to class and we would pray together for the city and the people there.

When people hear and see such horrific sights, we don't always understand exactly what was said and/or shown correctly so that when we pass the information on to others, it is not correct.

I think most of the world must have been glued to their TV sets, watching this tragedy unfold.

These things are not "supposed" to happen in our country! Yet, they did. We are told if we don't know the history of our country, we are destined to repeat the errors of the past and will live to regret not knowing because we will be caught again by the unexpected acts of terror.

All air travel was halted in the days that followed. The skies over the entire country were silent. It was such a strange silence.

The churches were filled to capacity with frigntened people for the first month or so. After a little time passed, those folks who weren't regular church goers reverted to their usual routines that didn't include going to church.

The TV coverage brought this disaster right into our living rooms with 24-hour coverage.

A friend's son lived and worked in New York City. We learned that he was safe but had been able to see it happening from his apartment. The company our son-in-law worked for in Denver had their main office in the twin towers. So many people lost loved ones. It was a difficult time for every citizen of the US.

I remember being very impressed with the New York City Mayor. He was calm and worked tirelessly to keep people as calm as possible. The policemen, firemen, the men from the port authority,and other volunteers really touched me as they worked the long hours looking for survivors

The images of the planes hitting the twin towers, the dust and debris rolling down the streets with people running in front of it, the people covered with dust, the looks of shock - these images may grow dim for me in the future but they will never totally fade away.

I pray that the citizens of the USA never witness such horror again. I pray that this doesn't happen anywhere in the free world.

More Beaded Bead Earrings

These earrings are created from a "beaded bead" using 4 faceted round crystals, 16 small bicone crystals that you cannot see from this shot and 2 larger bicones above and below the "beaded" bead and some tiny seed beads. They are fun to do and quite interesting looking earrings.

Sisters-of-the Heart

We've been talking about sisters on Facebook recently. I have only brothers. One of my wise granddaughters reminded me that one can have sisters who are not sisters by blood. These sisters are called "sisters-of-the-heart."

The first sister of my heart is Inez who married one of my brothers. We have known each other since I was ten or so. She treated me like an equal. She invited me to visit her in her apartment on the second floor of the post office (now known as the Old Bank Building). We shared a love of books and she generously loaned me some of her books to read. She was my model for how to treat my own young sisters-in-law when that time came. I had the honor of being one of the candle lighters at her wedding to my brother. Our relationship is even closer now.

The second sister-of-my-heart was my young sister-in-law Jane. She was eight when I married into the family. As time passed we became sisters-of-the-heart. She was very special in my life. When she was older, we could walk down the street and one of us would see something that tickled our funny bone - all we needed to do was look at each other and know it tickled both of us. We played many card games of "Spit" and she won 80% of those games. I continued to play because it was such a kick when I could finally beat her. She had such great eye-hand coordination. When she went away to college, I knew how homesick she was so I wrote her once a week all four years. We talked about everything and shared our deepest secrets. She asked me to be her Matron of Honor when she got married.

The third sister-of-my-heart is Ann. I really didn't know her growing up because she was several years younger than I. We got acquainted when her brother Don and I got together in 1995. It didn't take long for her to become a sister-of-my-heart. She encouraged me to go ahead and marry Don and not wait for any period of time. She and her husband opened their home to us and even found a Metnodist pastor to come there to marry us - and they were in the middle of moving from near Topeka to a home on a hill near Hays. Ann stood up with me when Don and I got married. We always had such a good time together.

These three ladies are sisters-of-my-heart and as such were a huge blessing in my life. I shared three weddings with these three sisters. The first photo is Ann. The second photo is Inez with my brother Bob.

Home in Marion

We bought a ranch-style home in Marion in late 1961. Possession date was December 16. So we moved across town with snow on the ground. Moving across town is much harder than moving across country because you have to do everything - packing, loading up, transporting, unloading and unpacking. A moving van comes to pick up your household goods, some of which you may have packed. The movers load the van. Then it is driven cross country. They unload it and you unpack! There are many trips back and forth from the old house to the new when you move across town.

The house was painted tan with white trim as shown in the photo. There were white drapes with orange and yellow butterflies for the picture window in the living room. The entry way and the wall with the picture window were painted orange. I do not like orange! It stayed that color because I did like the drapes.

Patti and Tony each had a bedroom. I crocheted small rugs to go by their beds. Patti had a white vanity that had been mine when I was a teenager. Mom made a pink floral skirt for the vanity.

Chuck built drawers to fit under Tony's bed. These acted as his dresser. His room was smaller than Patti's but we made it work. He had a small closet while Patti's closet was twice as large.

My father-in-law had used a photo he had taken of me for display at his studio. It was my engagement picture. It was a large framed photo. He gave it to us when we moved into our house. It hung over the piano in the living room.

That first Christmas, the tree fell over, broke lots of glass ornaments and scared poor Tony! We stood the tree up and vacuumed up the broken glass.

The Starry Drive neighborhood was filled with children. Some were older and some were younger and a bunch were about the same ages as Patti and Tony. We counted one time and figured there were about 50 kids on Starry and the area of A Avenue across the block.

It was a good neighborhood in which to live. It was a good place to raise our children.