Beaded Earrings

My first post :)

Trying to make good on a promise I made 5 months ago to the 6 and 8 year old daughters of my mentor, I spent yesterday making my first ever beaded earrings. Turns out it wasn't that complicated! After a two minute video from YouTube and some hand-holding from my sister, I was able to do them on my own. The hardest part is trying to figure out what beads go together.

Thanks to my grandfather's flea market deals, my mom, sister, and I inherited massive amounts of beads. There really are too many to ever use up. I mostly used beads from our stash to keep costs down. The posts and backings I bought at the bead shop.

The picture is faded out, so it's hard to get a sense of the sparkle on the crystal beads, but you get the point. If I get another free day before I leave for Texas, I'll try to make some more. Once I got going, it was fun. I hope the girls like them.

my farm

this end of the garden bed is extremely crowded. i may have to pull up one of the squash plants to make sure they all have ample room.

but from the bottom of the pic, stuff planted on this end of the farm are watermelons, 3 different kinds of squash, herbs (thyme, basil, parsley, sage, chives), green beans, then the tomato cage.



on the opposite end: 2 different kinds of chili (serrano and poblano), japanese eggplant, then the tomato cage.

from left to right: cherry tree, green beans, tomatoes, strawberry (never fruited), and eggplant

the vine thing growing on the dirt is watermelon. i'm pretty excited about this. i see round lil' pea-sized stuff sprouting. i hope i actually get yummy watermelon.

poor-man's sprinkler system

not exactly "arts" nor "crafts." but since i haven't really gotten around to unpacking any of my beading stuff, i've been using all my creative juices thinking, planning, and executing lil' projects that improve my garden.

this is a project i finished in about 12 hours, but spread out in 3 weekends. lotsa time was spent at the irrigation aisle at OSH, examining lil' drippers, sprinklers, tubes, etc.

anyway, i got a 4-port battery-operated digital timer. eventually, when i have a bigger garden, i can set it up for 4 zones. right now, all the garden beds in the backyard is being watered in 2 zones.

the roses are on individual drippers, rather than sprinklers, because i hear that moisture leads to fungus (which i've also worked very hard to save my roses from!).

my backyard now has a bunch of black hoses all over the place. not exactly pretty, but my plants have been sooo happy since i put this in.

i've got the "farm" (where all my edible stuff are planted) on sprinklers.