Earring 0121 - Starry Night

These earrings remind me of a starry night. One of the things I like to do is to look at the stars. Recently, I downloaded an app to my phone called "Mobile Observatory". As much star gazing as I have done, I never learned astronomy. When I was really young, I wanted to be an astronaut but then after watching so many sci fi movies, I decided against it. Maybe when I retire, I will take an astronomy class from our local college.  The app is great and maybe if the sky clears up on a weekend, I will use the app and be outside during the middle of the night.

One of the reasons I got the app was because I love to watch meteor showers. Our meteor showers around here have not been good for a couple of years. On the good nights, either the weather didn't cooperate or the skies were too cloudy. One time last year, on the way home from a not-so-successful time of watching the skies, my nephew spotted a meteor as we were walking into my place. It was pretty spectacular because the sky was so cloudy that you couldn't see the stars and yet the meteor was very bright. I missed it because I wasn't paying any attention. He got pretty excited because it was close and that doesn't happen all the time.

Earring 0120 - Nothing

Donna looked good in everything she wore. Think she liked denim a lot because there are a lot of denim earrings. Some I can wear, some I can't, and some not for very long. These are a pair of the latter. They're cute but it makes me feel old wearing it. Kind of opposite of what it's suppose to do. Someone will be very happy with this set. The earrings are almost as big as the bracelet. Because of their weight, I decided to wear them only in the morning. So I decided to write my blog early too.

Nothing. That is kind of what I am going to do today. Think there's going to be a K-drama marathon at my apartment. Already got my shopping done and the rest of the errands I wanted to get done. Clothes are clean so there's no laundry to do. Dusting can wait. Today, I am going to relax and maybe later make some chicken.

When I was thinking about the word "nothing", the movie "Never Ending Story" came to mind. I have loved that movie since it came out in 1984. My son was 12 when we first saw it. It brings tears to my eyes while thinking about it. He cried in the movie. That was probably the only time I saw my son cry in a movie. I felt so bad for him and yet, it made me feel like he was well-rounded because he was showing emotion. My son probably wouldn't be too happy by me putting this tidbit in here about his reaction but that's life. I'm glad that he has turned out to be the man he has. Scary when it just seems like yesterday that he was 12.

In the movie, "Nothing" was taking over the land of Fantistica. It was startling to see what "Nothing" was able to do. There were so much underlying in this movie that kids didn't get so it became a movie for both kids and adults. The movie is based on the book of the same title written by Michel Ende. It is one of the books that I will be reading because the last half of the book is supposed to be so different than the first half, which the movie is from. By the way, this originally was written in German and first published in 1979. Made it to a movie relatively quickly!  http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27712.The_Neverending_Story

Earring 0119 Leonardo da Vinci

This earring has absolutely nothing to do with Leonardo da Vinci. The only reason I even bring him up is because I finished reading a biography on him a couple of weeks ago. He was a smart man but left so much undone. He would start something and then move onto something else.

Then I started thinking about quotes of things he has said and I can see how his quotes fit his life.

From brainyquotes.com http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/l/leonardo_da_vinci.html

 "Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works. If it works big, others quickly copy it. then you do something else. The trick is the doing something else."

"Time stays long enough for anyone who will use it."

"Art is never finished, only abandoned."

"The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art."

"Life well spent is long."

Earring 0118 - Comma

When I first saw these earrings, I thought of commas. They look nice on but all throughout the day, I thought about commas. I thought, I wonder how many times I use commas. Then I started to ready the emails that I have written and there's a lot of commas. Punctuation and I get along pretty good so I'm not too worried about using too many commas. But don't these look like commas?

Today my sister and I were able to spend a few minutes down at the lake at lunch time watching the "herd" of ducklings. A family (of people) were trying to feed them but the ducks weren't interested and swam away. We had a lot of rain in the last 24 hours so our park has new ponds all over. Well, the kids waded through the pond after the ducks. Finally, one of the parents told the kids to leave the ducks along, that obviously they didn't want to be bothered. Ever felt like swimming away not to be bothered?

My sister and I shared some good memories this afternoon on the way home. We were able to do some traveling about 20 years ago. Time flies! I didn't realize that it was that long ago. At least we got to see some sites. Glad we did it when we could because now we can't afford it anymore. Maybe someday it we will be able to be traveling buddies again.

Earring 0117- Thirsty Thursday

Tonight I am sipping on the bottle of grape kombucha that I made. Just like the directions said, it is fizzy. There's no vinegary taste and no tea taste. It tastes like really good grape soda or maybe a light grape wine. It is definitely bubbly but not over fizzy. Will give my sister a bottle for her to try and I look forward to hearing how she likes or dislikes it. My cup has been sitting for 15 minutes and you can still see the frothy, little bubbles on top. When I added the grape juice (organic) to the kombucha, it was about 20% or less grape juice. I may cut back a little on it next time to see how the flavor changes. So fun to do these little experiments and it's healthy to boot. Granted the grape juice contains its own sugars but it is still better than soda pop and the kombucha is healthy. Plus, I drink diet pop and there's nothing healthy in it at all.

The leaf earrings are black. I think I may paint some shades of green on it to enhance the earrings. Maybe even give it some shimmering color. The earrings are cute but I think they could be made cuter.

Until I got this new job, my sister and I eat down at the lake during our lunch break. We've been able to watch all of the geese and ducks with their new broods. There was one big brood of 13 ducks and only the female was around them. Then another brood of 7 ducks came along with only the female. It seems like the two females take turns caring for the ducklings. The first time we saw the 13 ducklings, they looked like they had just been hatched because they were pretty downy and yellow in color. Have to give the moms credit, they do a good job. These two groups have shown more independence from their mothers than other groups. Thought that was kind of interesting. My sister took the photos over the weekend.

Earring 0116 Three and My Dad

These earrings were perfect for my polka dot blouse. They have a bluish-grey hue to them. Funny how you can relate things of your everyday life to your past. When I took off the earrings, I could hear my dad saying tree pearls instead of three pearls. Dad was a full-bloodied Norwegian. No matter how hard he tried, he could not say three. "Th" was a big stopper for his English. When we were kids, we used to try to get him to say three and third. When he said it, it didn't come out like 3 1/3, it came out as tree and a turd. We would laugh and try to get him to say it again. He would put up with us just for so long and then say, "Don't you have something better to do?" That was our dad.

Dad was a nice man. You could tell he was Norwegian even if you didn't hear him speak. He was a tall, blonde hair, blue-eyed man. In photos from when he was younger, he looked like an actor. Quite the hunk in his day. I could see why mom fell for him. Not only was he good looking, he was a skier, an excellent bowler, and good dancer too boot. He was the whole package. Besides all that, he had good ethics, was a hard worker, and treated others with respect. Dad could fix anything. He was also good at pulling our baby teeth out without causing too much pain. He made a good tooth fairy.

Dad had a green thumb. He liked to grow tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, cucumbers, green beans, and squash. His favorite thing to grow was flowers for mom. Besides having a green thumb, dad could build things. He built a couple of porches. He was creative and made a wood train for my son. Dad could play music by ear and could play different instruments such as violin, harmonica, and accordion. Pretty sure he could play the piano too but I'm not positive on that. The only singing I ever heard from us was in church.

Dad always shaved every day. I never recall any photos of him having any facial hair. He also had a crew cut hair cut or as he called, a heinie. Whenever dad got his heinie, my sister and I would rub the hair on top of his head. It's pretty cool to do that whey you're a kid. Every hair was in the right place. After dad would shave, he would put on aftershave. Then my sister and I would rub our cheeks on his cheek and he'd make funny noises. Dad was good at making funny noises. Think that is where my sister and I got our talent from...we can even make the noise that sandhill cranes make - it must come from dad.

We were pretty lucky to have such a super figure for our dad. All of my brothers, my sister, and I have bits and pieces of our dad that helped form who we are.

Earring 0115 - Customer Service

Will have to try to retake this photo. These earrings are a pretty purple color, not blue and pink as shown. The photo on my cell phone looked pretty good. It's almost like something got lost in the translation.

Speaking about something getting lost in translation reminds me of customer service. Today, I received my new pants for my new job that I start tomorrow. Well, what I received was an incorrect color so back they go. When I thought about it, I got a little frustrated because this is the second time in one week that I am returning pants and the third time ordering pants. First wasn't right. Now the color wasn't right. During a "chat" session, the customer service agent gladly is letting me send the pants back and not charging me for return shipping because of the incorrect color. He told me to ask for free shipping when I place the reorder. I was more than pleased with the customer service and he went above what I expected.

Then came the phone call. You probably have had the same experience. I was thinking to myself that we probably try a lot of people's patience when dealing with them on the phone. Accents are all over the place nowadays. I have a Midwest US accent and have been told that Midwest accents are some of the easiest to understand. Now whether that is true or not, I couldn't tell you. The person who was placing my order had difficulty with either my accent or he couldn't hear me. Not sure if I will get the right size pants but am pretty sure that I will get free shipping. I just hope to get the right size pants in the right color. Will have to make due with the pants that I have for now.

While on the phone, I tried to place myself in the customer service's shoes and be understanding and patient. The agent probably deals with so many frustrated people each day that I didn't want to add to his work stress. Hopefully he felt okay and got the order correct. It's hard enough in life when someone is frustrated and then you don't understand them well enough. All we need is a little patience.

Aren't they prettier than the first photo? Just took a little patience to get it righ.

Earring 0114 - Earrings Carry Throughout My Day

Decided today that I am an earring junkie. People come into my office and if they have a pair of earrings that gets my attention, I always tell them. When I go shopping, my first stop is at the jewelry counter to look at the earrings. One year for Christmas, I received a large jewelry armoire. You know what I have in it...easy answer, earrings. There is a few necklaces but pretty much it's all earrings. None of them are expensive earrings because that doesn't fit in my budget.

Yesterday, when I was going through the earrings that I've worn, I was trying to figure out which ones I would wear and which I wouldn't wear again. Then I started thinking that the earrings would have to have a home because the basket they are in is not conducive to finding pairs later when there will be over 500 pairs of earrings in it. Then I think, do I really need to keep 500 pairs of earrings. I don't want to be the Imeldo Marcus of earrings (she had 3000 pairs of shows). At least she had the home to keep them in. Wonder what ever happened to those shoes.

The other thing I'm a junkie on is Korean drama. I love Korean dramas and got hooked with the first one that I watched (Coffee Prince). Actually, it's embarrassing to see the number of Korean drama episodes that I've seen. Dramafever.com keeps track of the number of episodes you watch. Think watching Korean drama is good because you learn a new culture and some language. The other thing is that I look at all of the actresses earrings that they wear. Most of my earrings don't come close to theirs. An actress might wear the same earrings for a few episodes but I've never seen a repeat of the earrings on any other shows. It could be that I don't pay enough attention and that they really don't have an unlimited supply of earrings. If you're interested, check out DramaFever.com. You can watch it free for a month without commercials. www.dramafever.com

My dramas have expanded to all Asian dramas now. I like the wholesomeness of them but then again, I don't watch the violent ones or paranormal shows either.

Earring 0113 - Amazing

Earrings I've Worn to Date

That's a lot of earrings. Today, I went through them and chose which ones that I wanted to keep. Funny thing was that I wanted to keep most of them. Felt kind of selfish by my choice so I will look at it again later on. A few of these earrings will be worn a second time because my plan is to paint the earrings that are a single color like some of the button earrings.

Been really busy with my sprouts and kombucha. Taking a two-day break from making sprouts. It's not a lot of work but every day you have to rinse them twice a day. It probably takes only ten minutes a time but in the morning, that ten minutes is precious. I'm one of those people who gets up, takes a shower, feed and groom Bobbi, spending a few minutes in prayer, and then head out the door. Lately Bobbi and I have been sitting in the spare room where all of the sprouts and kombucha are. We sit there for about five to ten minutes and I use it as my prayer time. It's a good time to be thankful for being able to make the food and beverage and then I am thankful for my family, my health and the list goes on. I include a lot of people in my prayers and thoughts.

This morning I made a new gallon of green/black tea kombucha. Then I made two small batches of strawberry/green/black tea kombucha. Don't think that one is going to work because there was a extremely thin layer of oil floating on top of the tea. The scoby (mother) doesn't like oil. We'll see. I hope it works otherwise I will have to incorporate strawberries after the first fermentation.

There was enough green/black tea kombucha left from the starter so it got bottled in my grolsch bottles. Before it was bottled, I added organic grape juice to start the second fermentation. This is going to be interesting. There are five bottles of this stuff. For two days, it is in a closet and then goes into the fridge. What I tasted was pretty good.

My other batch of oolong tea kombucha has at least a couple more days to go. That batch is not going to get a second fermentation. I like how it tastes and it doesn't need more fizz.

Here's the earrings for the day

Earring 0112 - Long Day Short Night

Yesterday was a long day with the addition of interviewing people to replace me at my job. Officially, I was done on Thursday but am even going to work today (Saturday). But before I head off to work, I wanted to post the earrings that I wore yesterday. Taking ownership of a job is something that we learned as children. Everyone in our family has that work ethic. You do what it takes to get the job done. Trying to find someone else with that same work ethic to replace me is hard but not impossible. What I'm surprised at is the low computer skill level of people applying for clerical positions. There's so much funneling of jobs that they don't have to learn a lot of computer programs. Yes, people can learn but when you start a job isn't the best time to learn a common computer program such as Word or Excel. Part of my problem finding a replacement is that I want what I've established to continue to progress. Worked too hard to let someone else develop slack, which I know won't happen. It's one of those things where you try to place your personal desires onto someone else and that isn't the person's mode. Kind of like making your spouse change to fit how you want them to be...it just doesn't work. You have to make the changes yourself and accept the other for who they are.

Earring 0111 - On the Inside Looking Outside

The rule is that you only wear velvet or velour during winter but today those rules changed. The earrings I chose today are velour earrings. They looked fine with my outfit too. The dark green earrings had a bluish tint to the outside edge which matched my navy blouse with lime green polka dots. The earrings kind of look like big polka dots.

 

Today I was thinking about how this blog and books are related. Books are read as well as blogs are read. Different people read the books and can be from anywhere around the world. My love of older books, as you know by now, is imagining the people who have read the book or even just held it. The blog is very similar. People from around the world are reading my blog. A new country this week is Malaysia. Russia right now tops the number of readers, followed by the United States. Sometimes United States is at the top, with Russia second. Germany readers must be on vacation right now.

 

So now when checking the stats of the blog, I imagine the people who have read it. It amazes me that someone half way around the world can check the blog out right after it's published. Who is the person reading the blog? Why do they read it? How old are they? What do they do for a living or what did they do for a living? What do they do for enjoyment? What hobbies do they have? The list of questions is endless. One of my enjoyments is listening to peoples' stories. What stories do the blog readers have? It's hard for me to grasp that you, the reader, are only a short Internet distance away from me and I don't know who you are. Maybe I will have to imagine my readers and share with you who they are.  I wish I could met you and talk with you and listen to what you have to say. We are so far apart and yet so close.

Earring 0110 - Wisconsin Public Radio

I'm stuck on what to say about the earrings today so this will probably be a short blog. Well, at least the part on  the earrings will be short. The earrings were kind of unique today. It looks like they were assembled by hand. Material is woven into the earring and then a post was attached to the back. Jewelry making is something that I've wanted to do but there's not enough time in the day to do everything that I want to do. Like my ex said "pick and choose." He was talking about picking and choosing which things you want to stand up for but I've taken his philosophy one step further and use it throughout my life now. You can't choose everything or you spread yourself so thin. Done that before I was married and then got those bits of wisdom. Now I do what I can do and end the day knowing that I did what I could do. Some of my family are now enjoying retirement and they are able to make happier choices than I can. I wish that I was able to meet them, for instance, to go play bingo tomorrow. One thing nice is that I have a new job starting on Monday and I get one more week of vacation and one more week of holidays. Those ten days will allow me to spend more time with my family and it's a time I cherish. Just wish my son and his family lived closer!

Here are some of my favorite shows on Wisconsin Public Radio

1.  Chapter a Day (that's a good source to "test" a book to see if you want to get it from your library or buy it online like my one cent book). This link has some chapters of the current book they are reading that you can listen to. http://www.wpr.org/programs/chapter-day
2. A Prairie Home Companion. Garrison Keillor can entertain me any time and any where. To me, he is a great historical figure that represents a true American (or somebody who is very similar to the people in our five-state area). http://www.wpr.org/programs/prairie-home-companion
3. Car Talk. Okay, so my true colors come out. I like cars and am curious about car repairs. At one point in my life, I knew how to rebuild a carburetor and could assist with putting in new brakes. The two hosts are not only informative but they add so much humor to the show that you don't know if you're listening to a comedy or a car repair show. http://www.wpr.org/programs/car-talk
4. The Larry Meiller Show. There is almost nothing that Larry has not done, or that the way it seems. He has a variety of guests on his talk show. Even though I don't have a garden, I like listening to his garden show talks. His show is on at noon Monday - Friday so I'm able to listen to him during my lunch time. http://www.wpr.org/programs/larry-meiller-show
5. A Way with Words. I love to find out the origins of words or phrases. Often I use them at some point either in conversations or even on my blog. When the hosts get stumped, people call in or email to help them out. http://www.waywordradio.org/
6. Not but not least, Whad'y Know by Michael Feldman. What I do know is that I know so little. However, even though there are so many smart people out there, humor is really a good thing to have in your life. Michael always adds humor to his shows. http://www.notmuch.com/

Wisconsin Public Radio website: http://www.wpr.org/
If you are wondering, no, I do not work for Wisconsin Public Radio, I just like most of the shows they have on during the daytime. Not a fan of shows later in the day time nor at night. Guess I want to protect my values and beliefs as much as I can. They're pretty liberal at the end of the day.

Earrings 0109 - Silver Sliver

Maybe I should have said sliver of silver to be more clear. Today's earrings remind me of a sliver of silver. They are very narrow and long; they look like slivers but they aren't a piece of something else...or are they?

 

 

Then I looked out the window and it is very cloudy today. That brought me to "every cloud has a silver lining", which brought me to the book I just started reading. Every cloud has a silver lining basically comes from a poem that I found at the following website http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/every-cloud-has-a-silver-lining.html 

 

Comus: A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634 by John Milton

I see ye visibly, and now believe
That he, the Supreme Good, to whom all things ill
Are but as slavish officers of vengeance,
Would send a glistering guardian, if need were
To keep my life and honour unassailed.
Was I deceived, or did a sable cloud
Turn forth her silver lining on the night?
I did not err; there does a sable cloud
Turn forth her silver lining on the night,
And casts a gleam over this tufted grove.

The phrase eventually turned into the one we know "every cloud has a silver lining." My book was a steal of the century. Bought it on Amazon for one cent with shipping of $3.99. What a great book this is. It's part of a recycling program of books. So often libraries get rid of their books (so sad to say this) through sales so that they can make room for new books. This was a former library book from Norwell Public Library and/or Whitman Public Library. Both are located in Massachusetts. Now the book is in Minnesota. I plan on hanging onto it plus it's a first edition (may be the only edition too). For some reason, I like books about ocean travel so this isn't my first book on oceans. This book was someone else's cloud but it's my silver lining.

The story also has a silver lining. The book is about the Massachusetts's New Bedford whaling fleet and their trip to the Artic. The time is 1871 and 32 out 39 ships were trapped in artic waters because they did not listen the Eskimos' warnings. There were 1200 passengers and the silver lining was not a single one lost their life. Now to get some reading done...

Earring 0108 Bronze Look-a-Like

It's hard to tell but these earrings have a bronze-effect to them. They went well with my blouse which had black, tan, and a gold-like color in them. When I picked them out this morning, it reminded my of ancient times. So exploring became a good option for me tonight.

Ran across this site http://miku.org.ua/en/museum_of_historical_treasures_of_ukraine.html. Some of the links take you to pages that display the beautiful treasures that were created in Ukraine. There are a pair of earrings at one of the links that were excavated from a site that would be a favorite pair of earrings if they were mine. The earrings dated back to 5 - 4 BC. Stunning earrings. This site reminded me of a museum that I've been to before and here is the link http://www.castlerockmuseum.com/main/. However, the museum does not have any jewelry.

The Castlerock Museum contains much of the personal collection of Gary Schlosstein who I would consider an arms/armor junkie. He ties everything into history so even if you don't like arms/armor, the historical aspect is fascinating. I have to admit that I set off their alarm a couple of times when I was taking photos!

Earring 0107 - Spirals

These are today's earrings, spirals. They kind of remind me of the pattern on the blue pair of earrings from the other day. When I see spirals, I think of spiral constellations. The Hubble Space Telescope has awesome pictures. Usually I keep the word awesome for when I am speaking of God but He made the marvelous constellations that I like so much.

This site has a photo of beach with a spiral constellation in the sky. It's kind of neat because when you think of everything beyond our atmosphere, you have all of these constellations etc. even though you can't see them with the naked eye, they are there. http://www.maciejtoporowicz.com/Cosmos/NGC1672.html

Another site that I like is Google images because you can see a bunch of spiral constellations and if one catches your eye, you can click on it and go to a link to read about the it. For instance, another eye catcher if the Sombrero spiral constellation. https://www.google.com/search?q=constellation+spirals&rlz=1T4GUEA_enUS514US515&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=fzGeU4ySI9GxyASshYDwCA&ved=0CB4QsAQ&biw=1148&bih=635&dpr=0.95#imgdii=_

What is even neater yet is when an everyday person takes a photo of a constellation such as John Chumack and his photos. Check out his Whirlpool Spiral Galaxy photos; the galaxy is 23 million light years away but he has a photo of it. http://www.galacticimages.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=52

We spent a lot of times as kids looking up at the stars. To this day, I continue to look to the stars. One can only imagine what is out there.

Earring 0106 - Native American

Donna has many earrings with a theme I would call associated with Native American because of the use of "feathers" in them and silver. Found this site that sells authentically made Native American jewelry (someday I would like to own a piece) http://www.horsekeeping.com/jewelry/earrings/earrings-wire.htm. Along with this site is a blog that is interesting to read because it is from the same company. Horsekeeping.com blog also does Native American jewelry repair and gives advice to people on their purchases from other places http://nativeamericanjewelrytips.wordpress.com/

"Native American" Look

I live in an area of hills and a lot of water. Native Americans were here until they were forced out of the area. When my ex used to go deer hunting in a party hunt, I used to tag along. I would sit in my blaze orange along a ridge (edge of hill) or sometimes between the cornfields and water. My experiences at these times were similar to those when I hold an old book and imagine who touched them and read them. While I was not blending into nature because of the orange color, I still could feel my surroundings. I could imagine Native Americans in the area from years ago. It would be like time stood still for me to experience this. There is a reverence with the land, water, and air that comes during times like these.

Once on top of a hill in a national park that is not far from here, I had that same experience. While walking on a path through the burial grounds, I placed myself back in time. I heard children laughing as they ran through the woods. In other areas, I heard low tones of sadness. In other areas, the air was so still and I could only hear my own breathing. Native Americans have left footprints for us to experience if we pause and listen.

On a side note, today I made a salad of leafy sprouts and the broccoli sprouts. Because of the size of the sprouts, dressing goes a long way and maybe less than a teaspoon is needed on a bowl of sprouts. I'm hooked on sprouts now. Seems like it's much easier to digest than lettuce too. Need to do a cost analysis but the digestive and enzyme boost will probably outweigh the costs which are probably only a little higher. Plus it's kind of neat to grow your own food like sprouts.

Tasted both of the kombucha batches this morning. Pleasantly surprised with the taste of the green/black tea mix. It's still a bit sweet but has started its fermentation. The "mother" on top is growing much faster than the black tea kombucha; just like they said it would. At first, my plan was to have the green/black tea kombucha sit an extra week. Don't know what I was thinking because it might become too vinegary if it sits for three weeks. So instead, the Oolong tea kombucha will be the one that sits longer. When I tasted it today, you could still taste the tea so it has a ways to go. The "mother" on top is slow growing.

WOW, a fast wind just blew through my apartment. Scared the living daylights out of me. You could hear it go through the apartment from one end and out the other. It was rather spooky.

Earring 0105 - Sparkling All That Is Missing Is the Bubbly

 
 

 

 

Keeping it simple today. I did not paint these earrings but could have. These came to me like this. Very pretty and what I liked was the paint on them was durable. Sometime paint comes off pretty easy. The base for the earrings is fabric.

My sister told me that she is designing some earring patterns. Very curious to see what they look like.

Years ago, I wanted to get into miniatures and have a dollhouse. It was something that never panned out. You can only have too many hobbies before you get burnt out on hobbies. So I choose not to continue or work towards it. When my sister and I took our painting classes was when painting miniatures got my attention. My intention is to paint miniatures on the earrings. We shall see.

This is a cool site on miniatures. His pieces are 1" scale. I love the vases. http://www.cashmerescollectables.com

Earring 0104 - Pretty in Yellow

These heart beauties showed a magnificent yellow to them. Kind of captured the yellow in the one on the left but both of them were brilliant yellow like that. I've always wanted a pair like this but the wire hurt my ear so my sister was the lucky one to get them. They sure looked nice with my blouse but that's the way the cookie crumbles.

You know, when I am done wearing all of these earrings, I won't know what to do! My earrings are sitting waiting for their turns to be worn.

Earring 0103 - Big Brothers

Today, I was thinking about my four brothers who were the first four born in our family. If you were to put all four of them in a row, you probably couldn't tell they were relate. My oldest brother was the tallest. The next was blonde. The next resembled my mom's family, and the last resembled my dad's family. My youngest brother and I look like we are family. My sister's hair color and mine are the same...now. My brothers always looked out for me and they still do. Guess big brothers will always be that way because I will always be their little sister (and our sister who is the youngest will always be the baby of the family and the brothers will look at her as their little sister. No matter how old we get, we will have the designation of little sister. It's heart-warming. and reassuring too.

I was also thinking about Big Brother since I've had so many hits on my blog by people in Russia, Lithuania, and Ukraine. Not sure how other countries deal with Internet. Only know that it is easily accessible in the United States.

Reading a new book. The title is "Arena One: Slaverunner." It's about United States and a new civil war in which we do not do well. I could see one faction against another. The story is about the two major political parties, Democratic and Republican, and they can no longer see eye-to-eye in order to accomplish anything. Lately it seems like there is less bending on either side. The one thing about sci-fi books is that some things come true. I pray that "Arena One" never comes true.

Here's today's earing. You may be tired of me saying these are fun earrings or they're beautiful. Sometimes it's just what it is. These were light-weight earrings and beautiful. Had to take a trip today and had my windows rolled down. Because the wind was whipping my earrings around, I had to take them off. Didn't want to get whiplash from earrings!

Earring 0102 - Curiosity Killed the Cat, But Not Mine

 

Something outside caught Bobbi's attention last night. She didn't care about the flash going off. I was trying to catch the little bit of sunset you can see from my place but obviously, the hill doesn't move for my photos. Pretty in pink was the sky last night. You can kind of tell because of the blue/purple in the upper left hand corner. Never did see what Bobbi saw; she sure is a curious cat.

Bobbi is an American Bobtail and fits the description you can find at Wikipedia. I can attest to the fact about her meeting me at the door every time I come home. She must know my vehicle sound and also the sound I make coming up the stairs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Bobtail

She's a good cat and sometimes I do think she's part dog.

Today, I went to see the movie "Edge of Tomorrow" and it was a great movie. Not quite too sure about the ending and will have to have a discussion with my friends in order to come to some consensus about it - either that or search online! We're so concerned about fighting amongst ourselves. Whenever you watch a sci-fi movie with aliens attacking, we always unite. I hope that we would do that if it ever happened. Well, I hope we could do that even without aliens attacking.

Had a lot of compliments on these earrings. Simple and classy, just like Donna was.





Earring 0101 - Classroom Instruction on What Not To Wear

 This is a cute earring but it is not one that I would wear. Even though it reminds me of Christmas, it would be too heavy to wear other than for a short time. I wonder if Donna could wear it for any length of time. It's an earring that shouts "This is a special holiday party!" Maybe sometime I would get brave enough to wear them for a couple of hours (probably less). They're about two inches in diameter so you can imagine how much they wear. The post is in the center of the back so it would really highlight your ear.

The earrings I planned to wear today didn't make it. First off, I took a pair that needed a new post. I grabbed an extra backing that I knew I could glue on at work. So going to work without earrings wasn't going to be a problem. Got to work early so that I could glue the back on, which I did and then let it dry for a few minutes. Went to put them on and realized that I didn't grab the backing that had a post on it. Can't believe that I glued the back on without the post. Go figure. The earrings are still at work and my job is now to find a backing for it, which I am sure Donna had extras of these. The earrings would have been perfect for my outfit today but I know I will be wearing it again and next time I will be wearing the earrings too.

Did a little research on Russia today. You could fit 1.8 United States in Russia. When you look at an overlay map of United States laid on top of Russia, it doesn't look like it's that much bigger but it is. Tried copying and pasting the overlay but you'll have to go to the website, which is only the overlay with no other information. http://education.randmcnally.com/classroom/rmc/viewLargerMapImage.do?mapFileName=Russia_US_Size.png&imageTitle=Russia%20Size%20Comparison%20to%20United%20States&skillLevel=Adv&oid=1073906468

When I was thinking about Russia, I was thinking about my love of books. Can you imagine the books that are in Russia and who has had their hands on them! Remember, when I get a book, I imagine who has held the book and imagine about them and their lives. My books aren't very old. According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novgorod_Codex), the oldest book is the Novgorod Codex, possibly dating back to the 10th Century. Think I am going to have to learn about Novgorod because Novgorod was also in my blog about old Russian jewelry. Here is a link about Velikiy Novgorod, an ancient Russian city where you can find the oldest Russian stone monument (Cathedral of St. Sophia, the Holy Wisdom of God)http://www.novgorod.ru/english/read/information/common/

Earring 0100 - 100 days of earrings

This makes 100 days of wearing Donna's earrings. I think Donna would have liked me wearing her earrings and that the earrings have created a creative outlet. Usually, the earrings are posted every day but last night I took a catnap that turned into a good night of sleep. We had beautiful weather yesterday and it also makes good sleeping weather. After running around all day on Sunday, it was good to take a nap. Went with my brother for a four-hour ride. Saw several deer. There was a dead raccoon on one of the roads and he was going around it when a deer ran across the road. My brother is used to driving country roads and as a hunter, he knows the deer are out now because so many of the does are pregnant. My brother and I never run out of anything to talk about. You'd think we would since we're siblings but we can always bring up memories.

Almost forgot the other animal in the road. There was a huge snapping turtle alongside the road wanting to cross it. I was praying that he/she would go back. If I were to extend my arms and put my finger tips together, that would be the size of the turtle's shell. I would need one more of my hands in order to go around the turtle's neck. That should give you some idea on the size of the turtle.

My brother told me that several years ago he saw the largest snapping turtle he had ever seen. It was on the same road we were on only about ten miles north of there. He thought the turtle would have weighed about 200 pounds. My brother's eyes got big and you could tell he was excited to tell about the story. As he was telling me the story, it was just like I was there with him. Then he told me stories of turtles that they used to find while he and my brothers were fishing with mom and dad. Those were big turtles too (or was it because you know how much bigger things were when you were a kid?). Many of those turtles were soft-shelled turtles. I remember once while fishing about ten years ago catching a soft-shelled turtle. It was pretty neat but I hope it lived so someone else could tell another story about it.

Here's my kombucha and sprout seeding area

Earring 0099 - Russian Proverb "To a well to get water, without putting on gold earrings, do not go". (Bykov/Kuzmin)

That quote is from the following site which you can learn about early Russian jewelry: http://www.strangelove.net/~kieser/Russia/KWCjewel.html
It's very interesting to read. There is an example of the three-pendant earrings (1908-1917) at this site that whoever purchased them is very fortunate because they are a beautiful piece of art. http://romanovrussia.com/Antique_Jewelry_Sale_Russian_Gold_Opal_Earrings.html
The site with the Russian jewelry has history to go with the jewelry. I like the section on wearing bells. There have been five visits from Russia on my blog. Thank you.

There's about three or four pair of what I would call spoon earrings in Donna's earring collection. All that is missing is the bowl of the spoon. Don't know if these were originally spoons and made into earrings or designed that way. Even though these earrings are pretty, they are not my "spoon" (cup) of tea.

Speaking about tea, today was a big day for my kombucha. Kombucha is fermented tea with a very, very low alcohol content. It contains a scoby (Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast - called mushroom, mother, etc - it's the starter), tea, and cane sugar. If you're interested in making it, the site that I used to get started on it (and constantly referring to) is http://www.culturesforhealth.com/starter-cultures/kombucha.html Anyway, today was the day that I made two new batches of sweetened tea, drained a bottle of kombucha for use, split my scoby into two, which I placed in the sweetened tea. Now my goal is to have two batches going at the same time. One will be fermenting longer than the other. The teas used were Oolong and then a combination of green tea and hand-picked black tea. You're supposed to bottle the extra tea and/or put 20% juice with it and start the fermentation again. However, I really like how the tea tastes now so every day at least a cup of it will be drank. Nummy. My ex-sister-in-law Jo got me started on this adventure. Really grateful that her excitement over it carried me along the path. Thanks Jo.

Happy weekend.

Earring 0098 - Ukraine - Visit #2

I love to look at buildings especially old ones and contemporary ones. Check out Ukrainian architecture and you can probably tell why I like it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_architecture   Do not know much about Ukrainian history. However, the Cossacks come from the Ukraine. In high school, I read every romance novel our school had that had Cossacks in it, along with watch movies too. In my dreams, there was a Cossack. Now I think I better do some reading on their history to see if my love for them continues or not. More accurate history is being taught now, or so I believe - unless you read North Korean history books. There's probably many other countries that have twisted history and I know we are no better but hopefully we are getting better.

This morning the earring choice was quick but I dropped a bag of earrings twice. Both times the earrings came out of the bag. My cat had a good time and thought she needed to help me.

Earring 0097 - Thailand

My blog was read by someone in Thailand. It's so interesting to see people from different countries checking out the blog. This week, when someone from a different country checks out my blog, I research earrings made in their country. I read about a man named  Danai Leosawathiphong from Thailand. He is an artist and shared he and his wife's story about when they first started making earrings. You can find the story and see his beautiful jewelry at http://www.novica.com/artistdetail/index.cfm?faid=4076&maxrows=84. Novica connects artists globally with a market and is associated with National Geographic. Their website is intriguing.

Today's earring was pretty but it wasn't quite the way I wanted it to be. So I got out the black puff paint and went to work. Probably will touch up the earrings a little more but want them to dry for a couple of days to see what happens with them.

Earring 0096 - Good Laugh

Every once in a while you need a good laugh. It gets all that old air out of your lungs, blood circulates better, and it just feels good when you're done. My sister and I had that laughter today. We tried to do a tongue twister and here is how it goes:

A skunk sat on a stump and thunk the stump stunk,
But the stump thunk the skunk stunk.

It was even hard to type. Well, anyway we got a good laugh out of it. It will probably be a time that we can laugh over and over in the future.

I'll lay odds on it that these earrings laughed with me as I laughed.

Earring 0095 - Lithuania

These are not earrings from Donna that I am showing below. I wanted to check out Lithuania and am glad that I did. Always looking to discover things, I looked up earrings from Lithuania and came across this site: http://uzupioartgallery.com/earrings If I ever imagined how other earrings were made, these earrings far exceed my imagination. Going to try to post one pair that really caught eyes.

I can only imagine what they would look like on my ears. Good thing I have a good imagination because I can see me looking in the mirror and snapping a photo of them. How pretty and intricate.

Here's today's earrings. Just a simple pair of pink earrings with some faint lines in them. They went so well with my blouse that I might wear these again but only if I wear a different pair for the day first.

Earring 0094 - First One Hand-Painted

Okay, it's not the best but think it is alright. Like I said, next time I will practice before I paint it. Also, I was going to look at nail designs online, which I did not do. Lesson learned. Now I'm excited to get serious about painting them. If this is something that turns out to be enjoyment, I may make my own button earrings and paint designs on them.

Earring 0093 - Excitement over simple things

Really think I'm going to have to learn how earrings are made. Can you imagine the different styles, colors, etc. of earrings and the number of forms there have to be in this world? Will be looking for a youtube video to see if I can find a video on earring production.

Tonight I was pretty excited because I painted my first pair of earrings. I have a simple flat-black earring that I painted. Wished that I would have practiced my design a little bit before painting it. Instead I went full steam ahead and painted it. It's okay but not my best work. Will have to practice designs and then go from there. Rather have a really pretty design than one that is just okay.

Have a good week!