Indulge Your Shelf

I've been a frustrated crafter lately.  I have so many wonderful projects that I want to get started on, but can't seem to get to them! For Silver Bella , I'm participating in several swaps.  Four of them, including one that I'm hostessing, require me to bring the finished product with me to the weekend, and only three of them are due in advance.  I'm, of course, working on those three first. I've already spent a blissful hour or two up to my elbows in my boxes of trim!  I chose a nice variety -- 21  pieces -- to send off to the Vintage Trim Swap late last week.  I'm a couple of weeks ahead of the deadline, so I'm doing well! For the Vintage Bling Swap, I've been buying vintage and antique rhinestone pieces, such as stray charms, earrings, bracelets, etc.; I needed 20 pieces and have just about gotten all of those together, between Etsy , Karla , and my own stash.  Now I just need to trim excess hardware off the backs, and attach a jewelry ba...

I missed blogging about July's blogger of the month so I'm going to do her and the August blogger in the same post, to catch up! July's blogger was Missie of Sykin, who makes wonderful handcrafted items as well as lovely Pacific Northwest photographs in her nw wonders Etsy shop here .  She has another shop for Twilight items, simply called sykin . On her blog, she writes about other Etsians, featuring their products, which is really cool. Here is a sample from Missie's store: Twilight inspired forest earrings August's Blogger of the Month is Patch First Shop, run by  from Thailand.  She makes beaded Swarovski and bridal custom jewelry in her "first" shop ; she also has two others: Patch Vintage Shop , for vintage clothing, and Patch Supply Shop , for packaging and other supplies.  Her blog is here . Here is a sample from Patch's store:   Purple Lantern Earrings It's fun to be part of the Etsy Bloggers Street Team.  Don't forget: our A...

Have you heard?? Approximately 50 Etsy shops are participating in this wonderful event...we're all celebrating the 3rd Anniversary of the rockin' EtsyBloggers team...and we're all having a SALE!!! Look at all the beautiful items just waiting for you to take a closer look: Items in my vintage shop are on sale for 15% off all weekend, Friday, August 13 - Sunday, August 15 (except for items already marked as Summer Sale items)!

I know you want to see what antiques and things I bought while in VA.  The thing is, I didn't buy much.  We didn't get around to shopping as much as I would have liked to -- there was so much to see and do in the area! We spent one lovely, long morning and early afternoon at the monuments. I especially loved the World War II Memorial -- because my dad served in that war. So beautiful. And, if you can stand one more Scout photo: Me at Adventure Base -- the touring Scout exhibit.  Later we went to the Smithsonians -- and my poor feet finally gave out at the National Art Gallery. "Repose" by John Singer Sargent -- I sat in front of her in the same posture as she, while Dennis looked around.  My hips had been hurting, my legs had been sore, and my feet were overdone.  It was so discouraging, because we had two more days left to sight see, but I couldn't go on. The next day, since I couldn't walk much, we drove 2-1/2 hours to Delaware, to the beach. ...

The main reason for our trip to VA was to visit Ben at Jamboree.  We had more fun that day than I ever expected to have!  First of all, it was just so awesome to meet up with him. I was missing him more than I had thought I would.  I think I was just worrying about everything: the record-breaking heat they were experiencing where he was, the logistics of travel, the hectic schedule they were on, etc., etc.  I'm a mom, what can I say? But once I laid eyes on him I felt 100% better! The getting there wasn't so easy, but you have to hand it to the Scouts to have it organized as well as it was.  It took us about an hour to make our way from the road to the Camp, which was at Fort AP Hill near Fredericksburg, VA.  We were in a long, slow line of cars carrying visitors that would more than double the camp's population every day. Finally we arrived at the Visitor Center -- a huge tent set up to receive all the traffic.  We were each given a small back pa...

Besides, of course, visiting Ben at Jamboree, we had two other people to see while in the DC area: Karen and Stephanie.   The three of us had been together 23 years ago at a language school in Dortmund, Germany, as part of an exchange program for young professionals.  I've seen Steph a couple of times since, as she used to travel to CA on business when we still lived there -- but not in the last 10 years.  I've seen Karen only once since Germany -- and, again, it was more than 10 years ago. Here we were in 1986: Left to right on bottom row: Steph, Karen, me (the girl above is Kim); this was taken in Amsterdam, if I'm not mistaken. And here we are having dinner together on the sidewalk of a Virginia restaurant last week: Karen and I are holding little bottles of Jaegermeister schnapps that Steph gifted to us!  (Sorry for the blurry photo -- it was very dark!)  We had a lot of fun catching up that evening -- for about 4 hours over drinks, appetizers, ...