Bead on a Wire Blog

It’s hard to believe that it’s the week of my spring open house already. I starting thinking about the date for it right after my winter open house in December. That it’s April tomorrow is astounding. Where does the time go?

So this time I’m running my open house on Saturday and Sunday. I figured there had to be a few people who might be able to make the Sunday afternoon time if they had conflicts on Saturday. So far I only know of one person who plans to come on Sunday. The rest will all be here on Saturday.

That’s OK - my Mom will be here again with her teas and we’ll have tasty things to nosh on while we play with my son in between guests/customers.

If you’re in Northern Virginia and would like to come, let me know in the comments.

I’ve only been married for a little over two years and I’ve only really known my husband for a little over three years. It makes it hard to know what kind of gifts to give to him. While I feel that I’ve known him my whole life on some level, the reality is there is still so much to learn about him.

One thing I do know is that he loves the mantel clock he bought when he was in Germany on business. Unfortunately, it’s over 20 years old and he’s been told that the mechanics need complete replacing - it’s not a simple fix.

What’s great is that we both have an appreciation for grandfather clocks. I have warm memories of my grandmother’s clock chiming on every quarter hour. And I found Beau’s mantel clock chime to be soothing when I would be up in the middle of the night with our brand new son - the tick-tock matched the rhythm of my rocking in the chair as I held my baby.

So I thought that maybe I could get him a clock for Father’s Day or maybe for next Christmas and his birthday combined. I wish we had the space for a majestic grandfather clock. Right now, we don’t. But a pretty mantel clock for our living room would be a good way to add to our decor.

My sister just got my grandmother’s old sewing machine over Easter weekend. She’s been making hand-tied fleece blankets for a while, but wanted to learn to sew to broaden her skills and products. She’s already made a few of the most adorable loveys - it’s way too tempting to buy them all myself for my toddler son.

I told her that I’d take any rejects she made. But so far her early attempts are really good, so she’s listed them in her Etsy shop.

And she’s got a great idea for a handled lovey that I think could sell really well. Even if kids don’t use the handle, parents can use it to hang the lovey from a hook in their child’s room.

My husband is a firm supporter of the Second Amendment. I am, too. Add that I work in law enforcement and it’s easy to see that I’m comfortable around guns. At some point my son will get training on how to safely use a gun to ensure against tragic accidents in our house.

In the meantime, there’s no reason not to teach him some skills with non-lethal and cheap paintball guns. I’ve always wanted to do paintball. Being the mom to a boy means there’s a chance I’ll actually get to do it.

I guess I never realized there were so many types of guns to choose for paintball. You’ve got spyder guns and Tippman upgrades. There are even special outfits you can get, which makes sense since you’re going to get hit with paint.

And now I’m realizing that I’m such a girl. I’ll probably suck at paintball. But it will be fun to see my kid running around with his dad, teaming against the girl. Or maybe he’ll try to protect Mom from Dad? Who knows - I think either way, it’s a guaranteed good time.

This blog has been upgraded to WP version 2.5. If things look wrong, please tell me. I’m pretty sure I did the upgrade completely wrong and yet things seem to be working for me just fine.

The funny thing is that even though I’ve had a personal blog, using different platforms, since 2002, I still stink at the techie part of this hobby. Add a completely different blog host and my first time using WordPress after using another program for years and I can’t be held responsible for hosing the blog somehow.

Actually, I can, but I don’t want to be.

The gist? Let me know if things aren’t right. Thank you.

A new bride has asked for a jewelry set (necklace, bracelet, earrings) like the one I did previously, except she wants a colorful twist.

This bride’s dress has burgundy elements and she plans to wear burgundy suede boots as well. So instead of the clear crystal accents she has asked for burgundy crystals. Fun! And with the cream rose Swarovski pearls, I think the jewelry will look beautiful.

So now I have asked for clarity on the exact color, because Swarovski makes so many deep reds that I need to make sure to have the correct crystals ordered. I’d hate to make the set, only to find that the deep red I chose isn’t the more purply red that she wants. Or vice versa.

Fortunately, there’s plenty of time - her wedding is in 2009.

My craft table is in our basement den area. I’ve pretty much taken over the whole room - one half is my office area where I keep two computer tables. One is for the business work and general goofing off. The other is for my real work laptop since I work from home a couple of days a week. The other side of the room, which isn’t as large as I’d like, is our TV/lounging area. My craft table is along the wall in this half of the room. And it sits under a nice, large window that gets a lot of light.

The light is great when I’m working on jewelry, but the rest of the time I’m blinded by the sun reflecting off of the houses behind ours and it gets warm as well. And there’s no privacy either - at night when the lights are on, our backyard neighbors can see right in - it’s like Rear Window and it kind of creeps me out.

So I need some kind of window covering. We rent, so I think we’ll have to get basic mini-blinds, which are fine, but I have prettier ideas in mind. I love wood blinds, but I think they might block too much light even when open. Although I do like these in super white. But I really love these honeycomb style shades - if we ever buy a house, my windows will all have these kinds of shades.

Here’s my first batch of headpins made by my very own hands.

They’re as easy to make as folks said. I let them soak in warmed distilled white vinegar to clean the firescale. Then I just rinsed them in water and after drying I polished them by hand with a polishing cloth. Getting a tumbler is still on the to do list.

I’m pleased with the first attempt. It was fun to watch the silver ball and curl up on itself. I can see that I need to work on twirling the wire in the flame to get a more perfect ball, but I like the rough look to these.

These headpins are 24 gauge, half-hard, round, about 2″ long.

I asked Beau if I could post this. He said I could.

I had noticed the Red Envelope box on Wednesday and he said, “That’s for tomorrow.” OK.

So when I arrived at my folks’ house - where we met after I left work and he dropped Jesse (our son) for Marmie-sitting (Marmie is my mother) - he handed the box to me. Oooh, exciting! Inside was the prettiest necklace. I put it on immediately and there are so many things that I love about it:

1. The cherry blossoms.
2. The lovely quote - “Hearts that love are always in bloom.”
3. That it clinks when I move - it makes me think of Beau every time.

And then when I searched for it this morning in order to post about it, I got a huge chuckle. Because I was touched that he searched out something with cherry blossoms for me, but I was a little concerned about the money he may have spent at a pricey shop, especially since he had already given me a new crock pot (which is completely awesome). And then I got to the listing for the necklace and saw that it’s on sale. That’s my thrifty Beau! Well done, honey. *smooch*

*sigh*

I’m doing better at finding bargains than I used to be, but there are still so many times when I really miss the chance to save more. Today, I missed another opportunity to save some money when I was out running errands. For instance I could have saved on baby gear of which I bought plenty for our upcoming vacation. I bought a ton of clothes in his soon to be size and also some adorable swim gear and sunglasses. I can’t wait to put those on him!

Beau could have saved a bit more on my birthday present, although he sort of did since what he bought was on sale. I’ll post about that in a bit - there’s a cute story that goes with it and it ties in with how/when we fell in love three years ago.
Of course, we still have a chance to save on our California vacation in July. We still may have to book a hotel if my parents’ timeshare stays booked solid - I need to remember to check for promotional codes for Travelodge as a possibility.

And I have a chance to save on new pants for work. After I had my son last year, I kept thinking I’d lose the extra baby weight. That’s not so easy, so a year later I’ve had to admit to myself that I just will not get back into my pre-pregnancy jeans and slacks. At least not yet.

So I’m making a mental note - Jen, look for ways to save a few bucks, please!