Its the 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July! Today's a day for parades and
families. Fireworks and cookouts. Cold beer ...yum!
It's warming up nicely around here with just a chance of
rain (between you and me, it looks like a good chance.)
Geary and I are going to a party on Donovan Lake.
A friend of ours plays in a band and we are gonna go and
hear him play. Everyone else is up north at the lake,
boating and watching fireworks. I love these holiday
weekends.

Here's my display of fireworks. Heather and I had a little
clay play day. These are hot out of the oven and not quite
finished. Need some sanding and antiquing. But they are
gonna be nice when I'm done. In the next picture is a little
present from Heather, she was busy "hatching" eggs...lol!
Can you "spot" it? Ok, enough of the innuendos.

Next week we are playing with metals and etching.
We have bezels for resin. Heather found old books and I
have paper, stamps and ink. Wahoo....its gonna be great.
For next weekend we are planning on going to the
Renaissance Faire at Battle Creek. The theme for the
weekend is Believe the Magic, but darn, we don't have our
Faerie wings made! So we'll have to look like the regular
visitors. I have this idea for a costume that I would really
love to make and wear one of these days. I see it very clearly
in my mind. We'll take lots of pictures for sure. Its gonna be
fun.

Merry Christmas to Me

Its a little picture, but a BIG necklace. I treated

myself to a Christmas present and I got it in the

mail today. A Humblebead necklace and one that

she did as a collaboration with two other artists.

I really like Ginny's glass links and now that I've

seen them up close I think I will have to get myself

a few. And OMG she has them on sale on her website!

What a conundrum, should I wait or should I CHARGE?

I'm gonna need another job if I keep it up. But then,

someone has to keep the economy going right?

Just doing my part to save the world...lol.

Tomorrow my sister Beverly is coming from NO.

She's gonna freeze her butt off. But we'll have so

much fun we won't even notice how cold it is.

I see lots of beading and card playing. Hey, I'll win

all the quarters and then I can buy more beads.

Do you hear me Mom and Bev?

I WILL win them all..hahaha.

Tannenbaums and Elf Shelves

Trying to put up the Christmas tree. That is gonna be a slow process.

seeing how my back has been out for over a week now. We did bring

it in and sat it up, this is the second year using a fake one that I said I

would never do. But this has all the lights on it already and looks

pretty close to the real thing. It just doesn't smell like pine, but I can

burn a candle or two if I want. While I was putting on some of the

ornaments I remembered these little boxes I bought last year. I got

them to put in the branches of the tree that had openings. Good

old Martha Stewart calls them "Elf Shelves". What a clever idea.

I know Martha can't possibly come up with all these ideas on her own,

if she does she's one smart ass bitch and deserves to be a billionaire.

Don't get me wrong, I was Martha wanna be at one time...

way to stressful for me. But I do watch her show and I love her

website and yes, once in a while I'll get a magazine. So off I go to

put ornaments on one bough at a time;^}

Pumpkin Mousse

Hum,hum, hum...
I'm sitting here making my list of things I need
for dinner at my sisters. Love this time of year.
I'm always struggling to keep my weight down,
some days I win, most I lose. That's another story,
for another day ;^)
Anyway, I have this recipe, its good for more than
just a Thanksgiving dinner, especially if you like
pumpkin, like I do. It's a WW recipe too. So you
can eat quite a bit of it and not feel guilty. Lots of
fiber too....haha. We all need that...


Pumpkin Mousse

1 small package sugar free butterscotch
instant pudding
1 cup canned pumpkin
2 cups skim or 1% milk
1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Combine pudding and milk
add canned pumpkin and spice, mix well
Refrigerate till set and serve with sugar free
Cool Whip.



We all love it at our house and its less expensive
than a pie by far. Enjoy.
Have a blessed and Happy Thanksgiving.