Time to bead!!!

I had a few moments free recently and decided it was time to clear out some of my bead stash. Leather wrap bracelets were the answer!!! Aren't they pretty? Both are for sale in my ETSY SHOP: www.etsy.com/shop/uniqueandnovel

Black/Bronze Crystal with Black Leather

Teal Pearlized Leather

Yesterday I sorted through some buttons looking for teeny tiny ones to make a button bracelet. When I finished and moved the box out of my way... I saw...

A heart for Valentine's Day!!! 

It formed all by itself... with no help from me. 

Weird!

Meanwhile... to keep my mind busy I have become OBSESSED with 2 new sites... PINTEREST and TOPHATTER. 

Pinterest - is a virtual bulletin board. You can have as many boards as you want, name them whatever you want, and pin whatever you want from any site on the web. PLUS... you can follow your friend's (or any one else too) pin and they can follow you. There are lots of tutorials on DIY projects and TONS of creative inspiration. Follow me!!!

Top Hatter - is a real time auction site. A lot of ETSY sellers auction their things, supplies, crafts, etc on this site. You have to be available for the auctions, and check out via paypal. I have my first lot of supplies going up on the block tomorrow at 10:00am. Check it out!

Check this blog on Monday to see what happened this weekend at my house. I'll give you a hint: It's the first thing I wanted to do when I bought this house a year ago. It's a DREAM COME TRUE for me!

A Picture Is Worth 1,000 Words...

The local Sheep Breeders Association... yup, you read that right... held their annual Fleece and Fiber Show this past weekend. You all know I just HAD to go and see what it was all about. The weather was gloomy, over cast with a hint of drizzle. I felt as bad as the weather... but that didn't keep me from driving out to Hunterdon County Fairgrounds... no sir... not me. My intentions were to do a 'drive by' and decide if this was an event to go to next year.  Apparently there is no such thing as a 'look see' in the country.

First of all you couldn't see anything from the road. You had no choice but to drive in. Once I paid the $5 parking fee then I just HAD to get out of the car and take a peek. The event was held inside 4 gigantic barns. I told myself I would just go poke my head in the first barn... and a goat stared back at me. He was so cute. I stepped inside and saw more goats, tons of sheep, alpacas, angora rabbits, llamas and more. The baby alpaca was the most adorable thing I have ever seen!!! Ahhh.... this is the country. I inhaled the fresh scent of sweet hay, sheep lanolin, and... manure!

In the next barn animals were looking at me, women were offering spinning lessons, men were talking to everyone about raising their animals, kids were hauling pails of water. Bags of fleece were judged and up for sale. Some animals were being prepped for competitions, others were being led around stretching their legs. Demonstrations of dogs herding... fascinating! Two little naked sheep were just sheared and looked cold. I wandered in to the next barn without even knowing it. This world is so foreign to me I felt I was floating in a dream. People really do this for a LIVING?

Whoa! Pay dirt! This barn is filled with vendors!! (Thank you for visiting the USA... please exit through the gift shop). Every where I turn I see fleece, yarn both in its natural state and technicolor, handmade soap, spinning wheels, felting needles, knitted scarves and hats... you name it! Some of the yarn even had the picture of the animal it came from... and you knew you just saw him/her in the first barn. Speak about giving your yarn a face!!! Lucky for me I didn't bring my wallet... I would have been in Trouble... with a capital T.

I found out why angora sweaters are sooooooo expensive. It would have cost me $35 just to buy enough angora yarn to make a thin scarf... but oh how soft and elegant it would feel against my skin. Perhaps next year I'll bring enough money to buy some... just for me. A teddy bear made from Alpaca was another thing I drooled over. If you haven't had the pleasure of feeling how soft and silky an alpaca is, you just haven't lived. The 'button lady' taught me how to tell a bakelite button from a regular plastic, celluoid, or lucite button and why they are so prized by collectors... and I topped it all off with a glass of fresh squeezed lemonade. Imagine if I decided to really go to this show? Remember, I was only going to do a quick 'run through'.

The bad part of this whole thing, was that I didn't have a camera. So many wonderful photo ops passed me by. I even left my cell phone in the car, so I didn't even have THAT to snap pictures with. I guess I really have to go back next year after all... and bring some money for the angora yarn :-)

I had the day off today and spent it cleaning and organizing for a move in the not too distant future... and photographing some items to upload on to Etsy. I concentrated on BUTTONS... now that I'm a pro at detecting bakelite ones. I got a lot of buttons from an Estate sale a few weeks back, plus I already had some that I was DESTASHING, in addition to a few more I found at a thrift store. Put them altogether and move them out the door!

One button I particularly am attached to photographed so well. I stuck it in some sand (that I took from the beach a few weeks ago) and snapped away. The angle I used makes it look like I was actually at the beach. I was really on my back deck... no where near a beach.  Take a look for yourself...

And since I don't have any photos of the animals at the Fleece and Fiber show to share... I will leave you with a picture of my mother's fig tree... and a pretty sunflower patch I saw growing by the side of the road. That's about as 'country' as I get.

I surrender!!!

OK... OK... OK... I've been off-line for a few days. I hear ya! That doesn't mean I haven't been busy uploading destash items and handmade jewelry on to Etsy... it just means that I haven't had a few spare minutes to get them up here on the blog. So.... to make my life easier I have been playing around with getting a mini Etsy slide show that will be on my side bar in this blog... BUT as I am sure you all understand... it has not been easy to make this happen. Why is it that things that are suppose to streamline your life cause so much frustration??? In a few days you will either see my Etsy shop... or an actual store. I haven't quite decided yet.

For the past few days I have had a sore throat, tender and slightly swollen glands, and a very low grade temperature. Not quite sure if I'm coming down with something, or if it's just going to hang out for a few days and go away. I've been 'laying low' just in case. Tuesday on my day off from the store I got a much anticipated FedEx delivery... a huge box full of BUTTONS!! I was like a little kid on Christmas morning!!! Since I was cleaning the house and had a full day planned I decided I wouldn't play... er sort... the buttons until after dinner.

My reserve lasted only about  an hour. Those buttons were calling out to me from the other room. "Look at me... aren't I pretty?" "No, no... look at me... I'm special... I have rhinestones and sparkle." It was worse than having all 3 kids in a swimming pool shouting, "Look at me!", "Watch me jump in the water", "Look I can hold my breath". I didn't know which jar to open first.

A jar the size of 5 pounds of peanut butter caught my eye. The bottom half was filled with white buttons, the top half with black. OK... I'll start there. I unscrewed the lid, lifted the carefully wadded up turquoise tissue paper that kept the buttons from rattling around during shipping, and noticed a hint of metal. Hmmmm... what could THAT be? Flicking black buttons to the side I reached in and pulled out a smaller jar.  Orange and yellow buttons sparkled in the afternoon sun. What a surprise!!! Kind of like a present within a present!

I began to sort shank buttons from regular ones with holes... metal from plastic and mother of pearl. Some looked like teeny tiny hats, others looked like glass.  So intent on sorting, it was hours before I raised my head and stood up and stretched... but all of my buttons were sorted. At least from that ONE jar... I have 5 more to go.

Tonight I'll take some pictures and post them so you can all share in my excitement. I know you are all jealous... come on, admit it :-)

I also realized that my days of living in the house will soon come to an end. For those of you not up to speed... I surrendered my house to the mortgage company. My husband, Stan had always wished that I would remain in this house. Between the medical bills and the gigantic economic hit we have all taken it was just not meant to be. I kind of came to terms with it. In as much as I would like to stay, it is so totally out of my reach money wise. To be honest,  everything is out of my reach right now. I take each day one at a time and am always so glad at night that I made it though 'yet another one'.

It has been about 6 months since the mortgage company and I came to the agreement, so I am thankful for the last mortgage free months. The worse part is not knowing when Lauren and I have to be out, but assume it will be soon. Hey! Does anyone out there need any house sitters??? Do you own a second home and want it 'guarded' and deep cleaned over the winter??? You know where to find me if you do... I'll be at my mom's :-)