Thought you were rid of me, didn't you?

Happy New Year!!!  It's been over 6 months since my last confession, er, post.  Lots has happened since then;

        In August, I travelled with our daughter, her husband and children to Washington D.C.  We also visited our son and his girlfriend.  It was a great trip and visiting the Udvar-Hazy (where the Space Shuttle Atlantis resides) and the Native American Museums were some of my highlights.  The best part though was seeing our son on his birthday and watching him and his niece interact.

       In September, Tall Dark and Handsome and I travelled to PA to celebrate my Mom's 85th birthday.  My Dad surprised her with tickets to the Yankees vs. Rays game the Saturday following her birthday - and the whole family was invited to go along!  So there were 8 of us and it was a great game even though the Rays lost.  On the way home, Mom turned to us and said, "I had 46,000 people at MY birthday party, how many did YOU have?"  She also got another present on her birthday, our son proposed to his girlfriend.  Wedding planned for Spring 2014.

      In late October, I travelled to PA yet again to help Mom and Dad with Mom's hip replacement surgery.  She had the surgery the first week in November and was in the hospital for 2 weeks.  I stayed until the end of November to make sure everyone was settled.  During that time, my sister attained her Black Belt in Karate.  It was  nice to have a celebration during that time.  I also went 'Black" fishing with my sister, her husband and thier grandson.  I must be crazy, going out on the water in 40 degree weather, but, it was grand and I caught 2 keepers!  We also celebrated Thanksgiving at my sister's house.  She made a Thankfulness Tree that we all made cards saying what we were thankful for.  It was a great idea.

Another thing that happened during that time was I picked up another type of jewelry making, wire wrap.  I bought a book, some wire and some beads.  It gave me something to do during the long hours in the hospital and I experimented with all kinds of things.

 



 After I got home, I started doing more and more research on the internet about wire jewelry and made some more pieces based on those (and also the book) for the holidays.

 

 

 

As time went on, I got a little more ambitious and a little more confident in the things I could create.  I offered to make wedding bouquet charms for a friend of our daughter whose wedding was scheduled for 12/21/2012.  The Wedding at the End of the Universe.  Each dragonfly had it's own wand in a matching color and it hung down from the bride's and bridesmaid's bouquets with another charm on the end of the wand (which has a hook).  I am just so pleased with the way they turned out.  The bride and bridesmaids were too.

 

 

 

 

Christmas came and TDH (Tall Dark and Handsome) and I spent it at the Everglades National Park.  It was beautiful and really nice to spend time together.  I didn't make much jewelry over the holidays, but started again after New Year's.  I attempted a few things more complicated ... well, you be the judge.