Turquoise and Coral Necklace

I decided to take a break from bead weaving and leather work and instead, do some simple bead stringing to break the monotony of the weaving. My first project was this simple single strand necklace. I combined sponge coral heishi beads with some turquoise nuggets. One can never go wrong combining coral with turquoise. It seems they always go together no matter what the design. The project started out as another bracelet but I had enough beads to make a necklace so I made it long enough to be a necklace. I designed it as a mans necklace but it could just as well be unisex. You will find this necklace for sale in my etsy Sirocco’s Trading Post. Stop in; take a look.

Native American Beaded Bracelet on Leather

I am continuing to experiment with bracelet construction. In my last post I explained that I sewed leather tabs with snaps directly to the ends of a beaded bracelet section. In this new bracelet, shown at the left, I started with a soft leather band with snaps and sewed the beaded section on to the leather. This is certainly not a new technique but I wanted to test it against the technique of sewing the leather tabs directly to the ends of the beaded section. This technique takes a bit longer to make and uses more material but it makes for a very strong, long lasting bracelet. The down size is that it must be made to match one’s wrist size. It is not a one size fits all. I once again used the 4mm Miyuki cube beads for this project. The rather large beads used allow only a simple design, so the color selection has to make the bracelet. The colors in this bracelet are perfect. You can find it for sale in my artfire Sirocco's Trading Post store.

 

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Hand Painted Table Lamp

I found this interesting hand-painted lamp and lamp shade over in Tiger Creek’s gift store. It is a small decorative lamp just a foot tall. Its vibrant colors give it an attitude all its own. Stop in to Tiger Creek’s Gift Store and browse the wide variety of gifts and hand made items.

 

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The Eye a Halloween Horror Film

Here is a movie that can set you to screaming. It is The Eye. A Blind violinist, Sidney Wells and played by Jessica Alba, receives a corneal transplant to restore her sight. After receiving the transplant she begins seeing people after they have passed away. The Eye is a 2008 supernatural horror film. You can find the DVD of this movie in the Tiger Creek Gifts on-line gift store. It might be the perfect movie for a Halloween night.

 

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Dried Apples

Several years ago I planted an apple tree on our Northern Minnesota property. I planted a Haralson apple tree as it is one of the few apples trees that can survive the climate this far north. It is a full size tree, not one of those dwarf trees. It’s about 20 feet tall. The Haralson apple was introduced by the Minnesota Horticulture Research Center in 1922 and was named after Charles Haralson, a superintendent of the U of M breeding farm.

The tree has survived, sometimes struggling and sometimes flourishing. One time a few years ago a bear broke off a large branch leaving a significant wound in the tree trunk and in another year the leader stem mysteriously broke off but the tree continues to survive. It produces heavily one year and then lightly the next as is normal.

This year we got a bumper crop of bright red apples. We had a long cool wet spring and a long warm fall. Both are important to apple production in this climate.  And, this is the year the tree would have heavy production.

So, now the question is what to do with all the apples. Of course we will just store a lot of them. They store fairly well. In addition there will be apple sauce, apple pies, apple crisp and whatever else I can find to make with apples. What ideas do you have for using the apples? Right now I am drying apple slices. They make great snacks.

Check out my on-line garage sale at Sirocco’s Curios. You never know what interesting you might find.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hand Crocheted Purple Scarf

The color purple is the blog theme for this week and there are many that claim it to be their favorite color. Take a look at this fine hand crocheted scarf in the LadyAnn Toboggans store. It is listed as mauve berry color but it is purple to my eye.

To me certain colors can only go with certain items. Purple might be a good color for a scarf but you probably wouldn’t paint your house purple. Red is good color for a car but you probably wouldn’t wear a red suit. Well… I guess there is one guy who likes to wear red. He brings presents to my grandkids every winter. Grey is my favorite color. It just seems to go with anything. It fits everywhere. You can have a grey car, wear a grey suit, or pint your house grey. It just works everywhere.

Handmade Greeting Cards

Our On Line Sellers blog theme for this week is paper. The first thing I thought of was Monica’s TaylorMadeForU ecrater store. Monica makes all kinds of paper greeting cards. They are, of course, all handmade. She is very creative. She designs and assembles each card herself. She has a good selection of cards in her store for immediate purchase. But, she will also do custom work. Besides greeting cards she also makes gift tags, place mats and a variety of other paper goods. Remember, Halloween is just down the road, Thanksgiving is down the road and around the corner and Christmas will be here soon. If you need greeting cards or if you have birthdays coming up or if you are hosting any sort of party, check with Monica for all your paper goods.