Shrinky Dinkin'!

So Sunday at church, our artsy-fartsy friend Lynn was all excited showing us this cool stuff she made--shrink art jewelry! For those of you who are of my generation, we date ourselves calling them Shrinky Dinks. Do you remember those?! Oh man, memories of Camp Fire Girls came flooding back to me. I always LOVED doing Shrinky Dinks--they were positively magical to me. (they often look like there is something inside of them...I'm obsessed with clear things that have something inside of them!) Of course the reason I liked doing the Shrinky Dinks so much could have also been that they required adult supervision, and that meant that the Camp Fire Bee-ahtches couldn't be as mean to me as they usually were...but I digress...!

Anyway, the Shrinky Dinks we made were just silly little things that we didn't do much with--it was more about the process. But this jewelry kit thing--oh no, it's all about making the charms that you then make into earrings, necklaces, bracelets, rings...the possibilities are endless! Needless to say I ran right out and got the kit, waiting with bated breath until Vivian came home from school so we could do them together. All I can say is, Ooooooh! Lookie what I can do! The templates they give you with this kit are amazing, what fun. I could spend hours doing this stuff. Even Sullivan was in on the fun, drawing pictures of twisters and tsunamis and then taming Mother Nature by shrinking them down to next to nothing. (no silly little owl for that boy!) Vivian is cleverly using the kit to make gifts for her friends, so the seemingly high-price of the book will pay for itself in no time. As for me, well, I won't even wear the jewelry I made--heaven forbid, it's not Silpada! But once again I guess it's still about the process for me. Even now as I sit here needing to get in the shower and get some errand running started and never-ending house cleaning done, I'm itching to start doodling another dink to shrink. Now that sounded dirty.

Seek and Ye Shall Find

Ahhh, another quest. I've started to realize that with me, it never ends. That's sort of depressing. But then again, what would a girl be without a quest?? Once she's happily married she's not going to go searching for a MAN, for goodness sake, why not the next best thing? Fashion accessories???

Jennifer Garner is going to be mentioned again in my blog, and this time it's not what she's saying--it's what she's wearing. At least in her cover shoot for the May 2007 In Style magazine. The dress she has on is amazing, but I'm not even going to go there--I KNOW it's going to be beyond my reach. But the necklace....I've been thinking about how I need to jazz up my wardrobe with some longer jewelry pieces these days. I am a big choker girl, and my usual necklace length beyond that is a mere 16 inches. Lately though, I had the urge to layer. And if one wants to layer, one needs a long necklace for the final touch. The one that Jen is wearing is perfect, in my humble opinion...big and gaudy, clear lucite so it goes with anything, very glitterati and glam with that giant chandelier-type pendant hanging down. oh yeah. Well dumb me threw the magazine away without looking to see who made the thing, so I was left to do a blind search for 'lucite necklaces' on the internet. Not an easy task.

Lo and behold--here it is!! Or at least one that looks a heck of a lot like it, and that will do. You've gotta love Bluefly. Granted I'm not running out and buying it right now since I just bought my lovely Do Son perfume--a girl does have to be someone practical--but I'm definitely bookmarking this one. There is something so satisfying about having something in mind and actually finding it! The quest has been found. Now I can rest. Until the next one comes along, that is....

From Beginning to The End

I am a bad blogger. Not only have I not been writing as much lately, but I've had stuff going on and haven't been taking my camera to get photos of the happenings! For shame! Not that anyone enjoys my blog as much I do, of course, but there it is. Between writing in this one and helping Digby with his, it gets tough. For some odd reason if I haven't done an entry in a few days I feel pressured to do so. Why do we do this to ourselves?! Or, maybe it's only me....
Anyway, Phat Thunder needed some maintenance, so nice Stephanie drove me both to drop off and pick up my car. A friend in need is a friend indeed! Last night was also my what-has-become annual jewelry sale at my friend Cyndy's Mary Kay party. I have to say, this may be my last. It's always fun to hang with the ladies, of course, but never a very good sale for me and since I'm not really doing much with the jewels these days, I may just stick to selling on ebay. Or my own holiday party every so often, when I am not the new mother of a puppy and have more time to make more stuff. But of course selling anything and hanging out with some peeps is never a waste of time...in fact my peeps Kim and Stephanie showed mercy and not only came to hang out but also bought some jewels! Thanks, girls!!!

Today was another busy day that started off with a lovely 'holiday bonding breakfast' at my friend Nancy's house--women and their daughters were invited. It was incredible breakfast food--yum yum, my fave--delicious coffee and Christmas tea (Nancy's Christmas tea rocks, which reminded me that I need to make my batch! If anyone's interested in the recipe let me know and I'll post it!) and then settling down to watch "The Polar Express". I had never seen it before and I was totally crying in my tea. What a great movie! Totally enough to get anyone out of their 'bah humbug' mood. I know it got mixed reviews, but I got past the creepy computerized faces pretty quickly and just really loved the schmaltzy story. Hey, if you can't get sappy at Christmas-time, when can you?! I think we need to own that one.

The rest of the day included the perusing of 2 different Lulu and Luigi stores for the perfect walking/training device for Digby. Actually I started out in there with the idea of just getting Digs out on an outing and maybe getting a couple of stocking stuffers, but when I got the sad faces and heard horror stories about my 'Gentle Leader' I'm trying out on loan from the Humane Society, I of course got suckered into maybe looking into buying a $70 harness/leash contraption instead. (it was DAMN cute, I have to say...the most promising one actually having an honest-to-goodness skull on it!) I don't know, I'm on the fence as to whether to go harness or Gentle Leader. (that's the muzzle-looking thing that's not a muzzle) Anybody out there have any opinions?

From there we went to Curl Up and Dye for both kids to get their hair cut. Yeah! Nothing like the fresh feeling of a fresh cut, even if it's on my kids instead of me. I even got meself a little fun purply-pink hair extension woven in--it's very subtle, just for kicky fun.

Whew! I'm a tired Metal Mommy. I'm ready for some nice relaxing by the warm electric fireplace--Sully had the good idea of that, hanging out naked in front of it after a bath. Of course I'll probably wear clothes.