A rather busy weekend, but a beautiful one. Each day started out with frost on the ground and I had to get bundled up for walking the dog, but by mid-day the temps were up in the 50s or 60s.
On Saturday, my friend, Maria, had a craft show about 30 minutes away, so the G-man, Autumn, and I took a road trip to meet up with her, have a chat, and she had more ‘bling’ for me. Yes, more bling! Several months ago, I picked up several sets of lampwork beads with matching smaller beads that I loved, handed them to her, and said, “Whenever you get the chance, surprise me!” Well, she surprised all right! On Saturday, she handed me 2 more sets.
The emerald green/royal blue set is stunning! And the bracelet/watch has a slightly larger watch face than usual, but I love it. (I picked out the watch faces from her inventory sometime over the summer, but everything else was a beautiful surprise!) Of course, each bracelet/watch has a beautiful toggle clasp, with a safety chain, and the pendants can be used on a chain or a choker, depending on the blouse/sweater I wear.
...the beautiful pendant of the set
...an up-close look at the many, many "dangles" surrounding
each square "pillow" bead, all hand-worked by Maria (100% made in USA)
The turquoise set is something that I’ve been looking forward to for a while.I have nothing in turquoise, but just wanted it anyway. It looks fabuloso on black! Most of the pendants that I’ve picked out are more of a clear glass style, but this one, although opaque, was just so beautiful, I decided to see what she’d design for me. LOVE IT! And the multi colors in the larger pendant are mimicked in the tiny dangle beads on the watch…turquoise and teal. Am I lucky, or what?
...just love the little swirly things at the bottom of the earrings and pendant!
And while at the craft show, someone came into the craft area exclaiming how 3 bears (a Mom and 2 cubs) were feasting in a _______ tree (with tiny red berries) about 50 feet from the entrance to the hall! However, the bears were way too interested in the delicacies to notice the “paparazzi” all around. People were pouring out of the hall to see the spectacular and, of course, were snapping photos with their phones, myself included. My phone didn’t give me such great photos, but the G-man had his camera in his pocket and got some snapshots standing directly under the tree. Look how precariously they stand on those thin branches....I kept waiting for one of them to push their luck and come tumbling to the ground! (the mother is the one on the right) If you know what kind of tree that is, please let me know!
On Sunday, I finally got all my patio furniture into my storage room and covered for the winter. It had been sitting in my kitchen since last weekend when we got the unpleasant surprise of 13” of snow. I wasn’t able to get the patio cleared off until late that Friday night, and was NOT going to fight the cold and darkness to get it all downstairs into storage that night, and the snow started early Saturday morning, so I simply dragged it all into the kitchen where it’s been piled up in a corner awaiting nicer weather. Well, yesterday was the day. But now my patio looks so bare and desolate. That’s the only thing I do NOT like about the Fall…my empty patio. <<sigh>>
I also remembered to turn back the clock on Saturday night, so that extra hour of sleep was going to be sooo nice (or so I thought) until at 7:15am, my upstairs neighbor, who is pulling out his carpeting and putting down laminate (JOY!) decided to run a sander or a screwdriver or something that made some gawd-awful racket and made me hit the ceiling with the blankets and comforters all wrapped around me. I picked up my phone so fast I even surprised myself, and with all the tact and diplomacy I could muster in a sleep-induced bitchy mood, asked him if he realized what time it was, that it was my ONLY day to sleep in a little, and would he mind giving me until 9am for some peace and quiet (and some neighborly courtesy!!!). Mind you, this racket has been going on every night all this past week, so I just needed some quiet time in my own house. Besides, all the pounding and banging and sanding and drilling is making Autumn a wired-up, pacing wreck, so at 7:15am, she’s already on a roll (again!) with her pacing and whining and panting (she just can’t figure out all the noise, and it’s rather tough to explain to a dog), so it was a moot point…no more sleep for the weary!
So I got up, stitched in the peace and quiet that I requested, drank my coffee, and then finally had to take the dog out about 8am. Once my neighbor saw me outside with her, the racket set in full force! JOY! So tired of it. It’s taking FOREVER!!!! He’s a rather frugal person (and that’s putting it nicely!) so I just KNOW he plans to install the flooring himself, too, so it will take even longer than if installed by professionals. (BTW: all the noise has ONLY been ripping up the carpet and removing the carpet tack strips --- imagine the noise of installing wooden floors??? [Does anyone have a quiet, spare room I could borrow?]) And because he works days like I do, he can only do the work at night (when I’m also home), so you get the picture. Remind me to NEVER move anywhere where a resident is above me OR below me. Just not a happy camper right now. The units in my complex are VERY WELL insulated left/right, but up/down?? Not at all!!!!! I can hear his phone conversations, so that tells you everything else I can hear, too.
So, while I was on a roll, I did some vacuuming (I might as well make my own noise, right?), did 4 loads of laundry, stitched in between loads, and made dinner, then sat on the couch for the evening and stitched. Nothing on TV was grabbing my attention, so I turned it off and listened to music. At least it was quiet on the upstairs front, so I finally got a chance to hear myself think and thoroughly enjoyed it. Hit the sack about 9pm, read a little, and passed out the minute I turned off the light.
Hoping your weekend was a wonderful one, too, and NOT filled with so much drama. UGH!
~~Thankful for the beautiful weather and warm sunshine,
and the amazing ‘bling’ courtesy of Maria~~
