Getting My Bling Together!

I didn't realize 10 days have passed since my last post. Been trying to get lots of things done, but that's no excuse.

How many of you are familiar with Pinterest? I have only been on there since mid June, but I have found out that it can be very addicting. I have several boards with things that interest me and I am shocked at the number of people who are following me to see what I am posting. Time consuming you ask? Yes it can be. I check my email every morning to see who is following my pins or a board. Then I go to their boards and see what interests they have and if I want to follow a board or follow all their boards.

Anyone can get on there. I didn't have an invitation, so I just requested to be on board. It took almost a month before Pinterest got to me. I am glad they did. I get to show off some of my jewelry and the things that interest me.

My latest interest is Glampers. That's a new word created for bling up the older little campers. Two of my friends and I just bought one and are getting anxious to get it here and start the makeover. Will try to get photos and post them on here for you. Wish us luck! We are going to have to roll up our sleeves and get creative.

We have gotten some rain since my last post. The grass is starting to green up. We still are feeding our birds and of course, our hummers. We have about 40 birds eating and keeping us busy with one feeder. We have 4 hummers and I love watching them. Here is a picture I took of them.

This is just three of them. They like to buzz each other. I am finally able to get close to the feeder and they buzz by my head to get to their feed. Watching them and the birds is so relaxing. I use to think I would never have these feeders out and look at me now.

Want to share this flower that is in one area of our yard. Actually, it is climbing on an old piece of fence. I don't know anything about this, but I love the bloom.

The flower comes out of a green pod. We have been in this house 10 years and they were here then. I didn't think they were coming back this year, but after this last rain, only 2 flowers have appeared.

Around mid June, my husband rescued a dachshund. The owner couldn't be found and the church camp was going to have to send it to a pound. So, enter my husband. She is a beautiful color and has quite a neat personality. We call her Blossom. One week ago, she gave birth to 3 boys and 2 girls. Now, until they are old enough to give away, we have our hands full. Here is a picture of her and the babies.

Not the best picture. She is black. All the puppies are black and have white on them in different places. Hmmmm, wonder what kind of dog the dad is??? They get off the pillow and back on the pillow. They are fun to watch.

Ok, on to the jewelry portion. Have you ever been to Michael's and looked through their 10/$10 bins? Last year I found packages of butterflies that had a hole all the way through them. There were four to a package in two different colors. I bought several packages and just put them away for 'later'. I found them the other day and decided they would make perfect earrings. I put a small bead on my head pin, then placed the butterfly. Next I added some beads to the top of the butterfly, cut the wire, made a loop with round nose pliers and attached it to an ear wire. Here's just one pair of them.

Aren't these cute? They are lightweight and a one of a kind.

While going through all my jewelry pieces, I found some leather tubing. Don't even know why I have it. I got to looking at it and discovered memory wire would slide into that tubing. So, I cut random pieces of tubing and got some glass beads and made a bracelet. I just cut the memory wire, made a loop on one end and fed a bead, tubing piece, bead, etc. all the way to the end of the memory wire. Made another loop at the end and added a bead onto each of the loops and here is my newest bracelet.

I made another one using brown tubing. Now, that I am hooked, I plan to make more of these. They look good and don't use as many beads.

This is another one of a kind necklace. The salmon beads in front are over 45 years old. The 3 sections of wood discs are about the same age. Also, the amber beads are vintage. All part of broken pieces of jewelry that my mom had saved. Even the chain used in the back is vintage. Wow! I just recycled!

This necklace is made with crystal beads and glass beads. The piece in front is from a broken chain necklace of moms.

This set is mint green, purple, amber and multi-colored blue beads. The necklace is in links. I used all the bead colors in the bracelet. Both have toggle closures. The chandelier earrings are 3 rows of beads plus holes 2 & 4 have a link of connecting chain. Loved designing this.

Every girl needs some bling! I originally designed this for the cowgirls in our area, but I think any girl would like it. The big clip is to hook on your jeans belt loop. The beads hang down about 3 inches. All beads are glass and some are vintage. The vintage smiley face charm sets this off. If you want, you could clip it to the handle of your purse. Am waiting to get the pieces in to make more of these. Slow mail!!

Can't wait to share these bracelets with you. I wanted an 8" bracelet and this took trial and error to get it to work out. I used a length of chain (mine is durable but dainty looking) and cut it into 1 1/2" lengths. Then I added a barrel closure to put those pieces together. That's half of the bracelet. Next, I connected the male end of two barrel closures on each end of the chain. I threaded beads and even linked some beads to create the top of the bracelet. Lengths are from 3" to 3 1/2". Then I added the female part of the barrel closure on each side. They are fastened to the bracelet back and you have just made a bracelet. You can see that if I only had one bracelet, I could have six different bracelets by changing the bracelet top. I have the gold tone barrel closures and the beads picked out, so that is what I will work on next.

Time to get off here and get busy! Got most of my housework done so, I am ready to make jewelry. I love doing this! It keeps my mind functioning better. My medicine hasn't been working very good this past week so keeping very busy has helped me not dwell on my headaches.

Glad you let me come into your home. Check me out on Pinterest by Jan Hickman. Also, JansCollections on etsy.com. I have mom's vintage jewelry on there.