Prepping for St. Paddy's

I finally finished the invitations for our "Annual St. Patrick's Day Celebration." This year I'm even growing a pot of "Shamrocks" for the event as well. You can see them in the green pot up above. I hope they make it and I can keep them alive. HA!

This is something that we have done for years now because alot of people don't know about Irish culture and haven't tasted Irish foods and such. Especially where we live. As you can guess.....the culture here is very much French.

We do this for our friends for fun....and we always ate and celebrated St. Patrick's day when we were growing up in the Midwest especially because every did and my husband's family is Irish. Hence their last name. Which I never put on here but trust me, if you heard it you'd know.

Some of the people we invite are Irish and some went to Ireland with me on the trip I took. So that makes this special as well. We celebrate Ireland and many of our family "roots."

We have continued to do this through the past could of years because people look forward to our party and we enjoy doing it for them.Every year I do the invitations different and usually buy some sort of cards with Irish scenery and write in them or whatever....last year I used a personalized online card service that did all the work for me....but this year I decided to "hand make them".....which was a challenge for me because some days my hands don't work so great.

Earlier this week I had a "good hand" day so I went to work and got most all of them finished. I still need to make a few more but these are done are going in the mail TODAY!

We will have upwards to 25 people here not counting our family and the kid's friends....all eating Corn Beef and Cabbage that we now have resorted to cooking outside in our giant "Crawfish pots" over a burner because we don't have household pots large enough.

We also do boiled potatoes, carrots and potatoes rolls. Others bring various deserts...last year we had some "Green bread" that someone baked.
We love just having fun.
We don't do anything crazy, there is no drinking..there are no "Hooligans" and everything just always flows nicely. People meet new people and eat and chat while listening to Celtic music in the back ground.

"Tis great 'Craic."'

"Craic" means "Fun." So in essence we have "Great fun"......wish you all could come.

I can never get one of my boys to wear my "Kilt" I own though....that would be over the top if someone would.
Any takers?

Leap Day Sales

Leap Day is special! It only comes around once every 4 years. The shops of the EAOC Team are celebrating with a Leap into Savings. These Specials are good for ONE DAY ONLY, so be sure to take advantage. Starting at 12:00AM EST on 2/29/08 and ending at 11:59PM EST the same day, the shops listed below will offer their Specials.

Mention code "EAOC Leap" in the Message to Seller to receive your discount and wait for an adjusted invoice. This is a great way to stock up on favorites and or buy gifts for upcoming holidays and birthdays.

mosaicsbyah - 10% Off trivets and small votives
ayanacreations - 20% Off all flowers (sale items not included)
theivorymagnolia - 29% Off all orders. Free roll-on perfume oil with orders of $29 or more (after discounts and excluding shipping)
lamarlynch - Buy 4 blank floral cards set, get any card free
jamilary - 15% off any order
origamicentral -20% off any order
callidora - $2.29 Shipping on any first item, $.29 for each additional item
raghousenternational - 20% Off all scarves
satindollco - $5.00 Off all items before shipping

These savings are so fantastic, they only come around once every 4 years.

Happy Leap Day from the Etsy Artists of Color Team

Yesterday afternoon we recieved a text message on my phone that our Pastor, Steve..was going into emergency surgery at that moment and to please pray. He was still recouping at the time from his first surgery that took place last Friday.

I called my friends right away to find out what was going on. We had learned earlier in the morning that he wasn't feeling well and there was some concerns.....so I had an "odd feeling" about it all.

Somewhere around nearly 3 plus hours later, we heard via text again.....that he was out of surgery and he was given a "colostomy"....which he didn't have previously.

This had to be done due to major infection that had set into his body in the area where the surgery was performed.

This will be a HUGE disappointment to him I know because he didn't want one and didn't need one with the initial surgery.

I had been "waiting" somewhat (on the further test results) to post about how things had gone and were going with him. Things were progressing nicely really......

The tumor had slipped a bit when they went in for surgery but they were able to get it all and it was the size of a smaller doughnut they said. We are awaiting results on the "Lymph" glands to know if the cancer is in them but his lungs and liver were "clear."

Now this setback....

It's okay though.....we press "onward."

Please pray for Pastor Steve will you.....his dear wife was "beside herself" yesterday when all this happened. I am sure she is better this morning but it was a shock and I know she is exhausted at this point.

A Few Off My Favorite Things....

My sweet husband brought me this beautiful rose a few days ago and had it placed in this vase and sitting on my dresser for when I got home.

He is VERY mindful of the fact that I do not like "red roses"...I think they are pretty. But they don't dry well and that bugs me so he always buys me some other color and he was very PROUD of this one. The color and how pretty it was once it opened up a bit.
Funny....
I love roses...but only ones that aren't red. I like red ones too..but they must be on a bush or possibly someone else's roses and not mine. Then I like them. HA!

Miss Priss got a bouquet of roses for Valentine's Day and they were so GORGEOUS! However....they look very dead and yucky now.

So he's one of my favorite things.....probably second to the top of my list of the "top" things in my life. He is my best friend too.

I love poached eggs.....in fact. Me and Miss Priss who just happens to be home today....just ate some. Ummm....with English muffins. This is one of my most favorite breakfast's.

I really, really, love "paper napkins"....but they have to be very decorative and catch my eye. I have TONS of them in all types of styles and shapes and for every holiday. I use them everyday in my house. I have a special napkin holder for them. My teacup is sitting on one right this very moment.

IF you ever get a package from me....or a gift....chances are.....it will have some cute "paper napkins" in it.
After Christmas I received a package from a friend in No. Ireland..inside of it....was a package of special "paper napkins." This lady has NO CLUE how much I like them.....so this was "EXTRA" special to me. Fun!I buy a lot of these napkins at a local store....okay well I will give you my source.
It's the "Tuesday Morning" store...they have GREAT paper napkins for all occasions at very reasonable prices.

Traveling.....I LOVE to travel. Don't get me started. I always am planning a trip.
I don't always get to go on that trip....but in my head and my heart. I am always planning a trip. HA! We don't get to travel NEAR as much as I want us to right now....but we will...one day. Hopefully SOONER than LATER.


I'm plotting a trip right now for say...the Spring break from school. But we will see. I'm not sure it will work.I'm thinking.....BEACH! Although it's still a tad bit cold.

There you have it.....a few of my "Fave Things" for today.
Don't worry. I have plenty more for another day.

"Busy as a Bee on a Mondeeee...."

"Buzzzzzzz"
I'm flitting around my house trying to get a bizillion things accomplished.

I can recommend this to you...."never get on the Internet" if you are trying to get a lot accomplished in a short amount of time. :~)

I DID need to write some letters and respond to some as well so it was necessary to do so but you know how it works.....one thing leads to another.

I woke up this morning to a "list" that I made myself regarding "things to do on Monday," last night during the conclusion of "Pride and Prejudice"

Which I might add I loved all along but I felt the ending could have been a bit better.
"Something" was lacking but I am not sure quite what it was. I think they rushed the whole "proposal and then wedding of Eliza and Mr. Darcy" thing to much. I'm sure they had to though to get it all into the time sequence they had for the program.

I am awaiting my imaginary "worker bee" to show up so I can JUMP onto his back and let him help carry me through my chores and my list of things to do today.
Hopefully he will show up soon because I have a lot to do and you know how fast time
"flies."
Ahemmmm......yes, "pun intended."

Funny......I have my AOL radio on .....which I normally do....on the "Romantic Classics" station and the "Flight of the Bumblebees" just came on..I'm serious too, NO joking....that is very odd isn't it?

That song drives me mad. I've got to change the station now!!!!

I hope you have a good day....

Restful Sunday......

"He that can take rest is greater than he that can take cities” Benjamin Franklin (American Statesman, Scientist, Philosopher, Printer, Writer and Inventor. 1706-1790)

I hope that you enjoy a day of "rest" today. Sometimes it is hard to "relax" but we must try to just that.
"Rest" or "down time" as many call it today, is needed to help our bodies, minds and souls.

I plan on doing this as well with my family today.

Don't forget to watch the conclusion of "Pride and Prejudice" tonight on Masterpiece Theatre at 8:00pm (central time) on your local PBS station.
Cheers!

African Wisdom

Ananse Ntontan means "spider's web". It is the Adinkra symbol that represents wisdom, creativity and the complexities of life. Ananse, the spider, is a well-known character in African folktales. I personally do not like spiders, but I do appreciate their webs (from afar).

Since my goal in 2008 is to have more wisdom, I have been inspired to create jewelry with Adinkra symols on them. So this is my first addition to my African Wisdom Collection, a pair of Ananse's Web (ntontan) earrings made with yellow horn bone beads and antique brass web focal beads and antique brass findings. Measures approximately 1 1/2" in length from earwire.

History of Beaded Flowers and More

Recently Rosemary Kurtz submitted an article in EZine about bead flowers. The article includes the history of bead flowers, the 9/11 wreaths, the Swarovski project and much more. Click on the following link to view the article.
http://ezinearticle%20s.com/?expert=

To view Rosemary's work go to http://www.rosemarykurtz.com/

Two stories about Two very AWESOME couples...

Left to Right....Norried and Doris, Dianne and Pastor Steve

On Friday our Pastor, Steve is going to be having surgery to have a tumor removed from his colon. I had mentioned it about two weeks ago...but now it is surgery time. They do know that the tumor is cancerous, and a fairly good size.

However, he's had very encouraging support from his Dr.'s and I want to again state that they do not have health insurance and as of now...all has been worked out.
Whew!

Please pray that he will do well in the surgery and be back on his feet again soon.

I will update on this as soon as we know what's going on. I haven't said much regarding this the past few days because we have waited to see how things would fall into place...and it all has so far.
We are trusting God for him and for his total well being.

*******************************************

The other couple in the photo are very GOOD friends of our family. We've known them for years and love them dearly.

They are Missionaries to the South Pacific Island of "NAURU".....

They left the States in June and the last we heard of them was when they were in Hawaii ready to head to their new Island. Then nothing. We hadn't heard a WORD from them until we FINALLY got a letter the other day routed through Australia to here.
Crazy!!!
We've wondered about them like MAD.

First of all....apparently....they sent a newsletter out to everyone the last of 2007and NO ONE recieved them. Once they realized that, they did a new one and stuck in a new copy of the old one to update everybody.

Norried reported this in the newsletter we recieved......

" **The Church has us living in a former phosphate office that they have somewhat converted into a living quarters.

**There is no piped government water supply in Nauru. Everyone must ration water from their own cistern. It has rained only 4 times in the last 3 months. We have one daily bath with one bucket of water. WE save dish water for a small vegatable garden. We infrequently wash our clothes.

**Electricity is on and off in 6 hour shifts.

**It is hotter here than any country we have served in.

**Nauru is extremeely isolated and about 25 miles SOUTH of the Equator.

**Our bedroom averaged 95 in the day and 88 at night. At night when our electricity is off we literally "sweat sleep."

**Our only transport is our legs. Some errands or shopping is as far as 5 miles away.

**The physical state of this nation is 'dilapidated and deserate.'"

**There has not been a bank operating here for over 5 years, a somber handicap and a unique challange.

**There is only one internet cafe here with 6 sometimes operating terminals."

Oh......and on top of all that....they've been ROBBED TWICE.

Yikes!
I can't tell you how dedicated these people are. They are older people than my husband and I and I don't know how they do it especially considering all the hardships they have faced through the years.

Again we have known them for years...they have been working in the South Pacific for a long time....first Norried went over with the Peace Corp...and now they are Missionaries with a major Missions organization.

They have very huge hearts for the people of the Islands...Doris herself is a Marshall Island national.
They both have worked hard to help the people of the South Pacific region for most of their lives.They build buildings, the help the people physically and the work with the people spiriutally.

Norried and Doris have worked in the Marshall Islands, Micronesia (an Island called Chuuk (Truk)), the Solomon Islands for the past 15 years and now they are currently in Nauru.

They have three grown children...that they raised on the Islands. They are close to my older kids ages. Two have gotten married and just this past year while Norried and Doris were home on "furlough" both couples had babies....and one of the couples had UNEXPECTED TWINS...their youngest daughter had a girl and a boy with no prior knowledge!!! They thought they were having one baby. Can you imagine?

So they left three brand new Grandbabies and their three kids (and a daughter-in- law and a son-in-law) when they left the States.

It was very hard for them to leave this time but off they went.
They are the neatest people and some of my heros.

EAOC Feature

The Etsy Artists of Color snagged another treasury. :D My stephanotis were featured. Click on the image to view. Thanks!

~My good friend Nora~

Here is a photo fo my friend Nora.

We went to lunch last week and I begged her to let me snap a photo of her because I think it helps people to have a "Visual" of someone or something that you are talking about.

She looked very good too that day. She has her wig on, although, she told me she nearly went without it that day but when she was doing her hair she saw "Six hairs in the sink that morning" so she decided to wear the wig.
She is so funny.

Nora used to be one of my employees.

Then I became ill and needed to totally quit my job and then she became ill and took a very long leave of absense. During this time we would check on each other on the phone and I would go and pick her up and take her out shopping or out to eat because she wasn't getting out much. She had been through such a major surgery, she was very weak.

She just started back to work at the same place last year. Which I was very excited for her because this gave her some "purpose."Recently the Dr's have told Nora that her "cancer" is back....it's the same breed but now in different places and including some of her stomach again. It's a rare cancer they tell her. She's now back on oral chemo.

When she first was diagnosed she had a "cancerous tumor" the size of a FOOTBALL in her stomach and other areas....so we are praying she will get through this again because she was "clear" even as of November of last year. This cancer is VERY aggressive they told her.

She has lost a TON of weight but she hasn't lost her humor or wit...both of which I love. She has a very "dry humor" and she cracks me up all the time.

Recently she went to the Library to get a John Grisham book and it's new so they needed to put her name on a "wait list"....they told her she would be #55....she told them......"Forget it I will be dead by then."

That's Nora.

I fussed at her for saying that because I am always encouraging her NOT to say what she says about her life and other such things. I want her to stay a bit more "postive." But she IS pretty much the same age as my own Mother so I can't fuss a whole lot. She's just a very spunky person.

Anyhow, here's a photo of some beautful silk tulips Nora gave to me last month.
I LOVE them. They are a great reminder of her to me.Sorry the first photo is clearer but I have an old tea cup and saucer and a gaggle of antique dolies I had just purchased at a store and was had taken a photograph of them for something or another and captured the tulips Nora gave to me in that picture.
So I had to use it today because it's better than this second one.

It's very over cast and cloudy here today so my next photo with the cleared off table isn't shooting well....ugh.
I am no photographer that is forsure.

Of Mice and Men.....

This weekend was eventful in many ways ALL "good" though.

We had several things "come up" thus changing other "plans" we had made along the way.
It happens that way sometimes.

I tried to comfort my husband with this quote on our way somewhere Saturday afternoon.

"The best laid schemes of Mice and Men oft go awry."

My good friend Diane, who also was my boss at the time......would always quote this saying to me when we would have made a "plan" for the day or the week or whatever only to have it dashed to the ground with one simple phone call from her boss.

It would seen that our best "plans" would suddenly "fall to pieces."

We would then fly into what I liked to call our "Triage" mode and we would quickly "re-scheme" our plans.

That particular line hails from this poem:

The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men,
Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!
(The best laid schemes of Mice and Men
oft go awry,
And leave us nothing but grief and pain,
For promised joy!)
Robert Burns, To a Mouse (Poem, November, 1785)
Scottish national poet (1759 - 1796)

Sigh, oh to be a cute little mouse.
Well, UNLESS you were a cute little mouse in a house full of mouse traps.

Matthew Williamson Fall 2008 Ready-to-Wear Accessories

These are the footwear and bags for Matthew Williamson's Fall 2008 RTW collection. I like the bags more than I like the shoes, but I must admit that the shoes are definitely worth the second - third, fourth and fifth - look!

Aaawww Moment

Okay this is an "Aaawww" moment. One of my customers bought a forest fire dahlia a while back for his wife and she loved it so much that he wanted to buy a sweetheart rose this time. So for Valentine's day he purchase one sweetheart rose and a dozen real roses. When he gave her the flowers, he planned to tell her the following: "I will love you until the last rose dies." I'm paraphrasing, but you get my point. One of the best things about my beaded flowers is that they never die. Now I don't know how she responded, but if that were my husband....he would have been a very happy man that night.

Featured Again

My work has been featured again. This time in the Etsy Treasury West. This is so exciting. My French beaded moss rose and ivy brooched was featured on February 11, 2008. Thanks for adding me ShineAndSparkle. Click on the following image to view feature.

Let's "Pay It Forward."

I'm going to leave this posting up until Monday night because I need ONE more person to sign up for this!!! So far I have..."Deena and Pat" who have signed on to "Pay it Forward"...thanks so much to you both for doing this.
Do we have one more brave soul?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hey ya'll!
Here's a chance to get a surprise from me, on a surprise date, in the next 365 days. (I'm responding to this via Steph's Cup of Tea)

Here are the rules:

1.~Leave a comment on my blog that says you want to play. First three folks to comment will get a gift! (If I don't know it already, let me know how I can contact you, an e-mail is fine.)

2.~Do the same thing on your blog!

The first three folks who leave a comment and commit to doing this on their blog, too, will get a surprise from me at a surprise time in the next 365 days!

This should prove to be fun.....and interesting.

This is a great way to make new friends too.....let's see what happens.

My First Etsy Treasury

This is the first treasury that I have been able to grab, literally. I wanted to feature the art that is closest to my heart...beaded flowers. I picked flowers from various etsy artists to show off this lovely vintage art. So for your viewing pleasure, click on the following link

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=1594

Natalie Portman's Vegan Shoes

Actress Natalie Portman collaborated with Te Casan to come up with eco-friendly shoes that are free of any animal testing and the like. Her designs are really elegant and the styles' names all start with the letter P...cute.

Natalie Portman's shoes, following Te Casan tradition, are limited edition and they only make 100 pairs per size. You can buy them at Te Casan itself.

(L-R)Paloma; Petra; Poppy; Pia; Pippa; Pixie

Fab Friday

This has been an interesting and busy week for some reason but I am not complaining.....I'm THANKFUL that I am able to do what I've been doing.

Today I am off to meet a friend at an "Irish" restaurant...fun......then tonight my husband and I have a "Valentine's Day Dinner" to go to at some friends of ours home and it will be FUN as well....one more couple will be there as well. Mutual friends of the host wife and mine...our friend Susan who just went through the Breast cancer surgery.....and her husband.

I know my friend Diane is already into "painstakingly" setting up and cooking this dinner. It's her "gift." She has the "gift of hospitality" big time so she is very into this and I love that we are all able to "recieve" from her and her kindness.

It's very overcast and dreary here. I'm not sure what it's like where you are. ButI wish you sunshine. Or a nice nap.

I was very sad to hear last night about the lastest shootings in upper Illinois.

May PEACE and mercy come on those families of the victims and to the people of that area.
We lost THREE young women in our own town last week due to this same type of situation at a local college.
It is SO wrong for these things to happen.

I am thinking of them all today.

Luella Fall 2008 Ready-to-Wear

These are Luella's Fall 2008 RTW collection. Truly reflecting fall, we see these Halloween-themed designs that will be perfect for parties that will happen in the months of October and November. Personally, orange and black isn't something I'd normally want to be seen in, but for costume parties, going trick-or-treating with the kids in some upscale neighborhood, I'd definitely want to be wearing one of Luella's fall clothes! I think Halloween has never been this stylish.