Fleur de Aleta

Bracelet Give Away When people see jewelry that I make, they kindly ask if I sell my art. I don’t. But I give it away as gifts. It’s made with love and given from the heart. I’ve worked on a new design for a Christmas bracelet and after I made it, I thought, “What about this being a Christmas Give Away on my blog?” I’ve seen GiveAway/Contests on other blogs, but never attempted one of my own. The bracelet is made out of Swarvorski Crystals and Seed Beads. It is a hand woven flat-spiral design using thread and needle. The toggle clasp is a Peyote stitch, both round and tubular. The picture doesn’t capture the sparkles of Swarvorski crystals, but believe me it makes a festive and lovely show! Ok, here are the rules: 1. Visit my website. Leave a comment describing your happiest holiday memory (even though it’s a Christmas bracelet, the entry is for any holiday that made you happy). This is one entry. 2. Double Your Entry: Blog about this giveaway in your blog with a link to it. Include...

Greg and I had a bet, well, we weren’t betting anything, but we do silly things like that. He bet that we would have over 20 trick or treat er’s this year, but I said under 20. By 8:30pm, it was at 17 and I was doing a happy dance. We were standing outside and then I looked down the street and said, “OH NO!” A group of kids about 7 of them were heading our way! Greg won. Final count of kids ~ 24 As the kids were coming to our door, Greg took pictures of them and said, “We’re going to put these pictures on a poster next year and title it, ‘These are the kids we ate last year.’” Which will make it cute for the kids to see their outfits from the previous year. The parents thought it was great. Greg is already coming up with ideas on how to make it a really cool Halloween next year with a Haunted House! He said, “This is a great neighborhood. People are outside with candy. One guy is on his porch handing out Satsumas (they are like oranges, but smaller and sweeter and easier to peel) and a...

Wishing you and yours a Happy and Safe Halloween! The picture is from my Sweet 16 Birthday Party (years and years ago). Rob is the vampire in the picture and Dad is the clown and yes, you guessed it - I was the witch. (Thanks Mom and Dad for making it a great memory!) Edited to add: Greg sent me this link where you can "carve your own pumpkin" on the Internet.

After the "Happy Day" post Greg and I went to Lafrienere Park to see the roosters and chickens. I took a bunch of pictures; they are so pretty with the colors. At one point, Greg chase d the roosters, caught on camera video and at another point, we're trying to figure out if it's a chicken or rooster (the white one) ~ any thoughts on this? Afterwards, YES, we went to see a Chic Flick, "Night in Rodanthe" ~ bring the hankie, because it has potential for a tear jerker. I generally don't cry with movies, but came close at a couple of points. Greg surprised me yet again with this wood grained music player. You can put a variety of music pieces (looks like a record) and it plays it off of bells! It will be perfect for holiday cheer. Roda made a lovely supper for us and a pretty cake. Rob and Roda bought me a Fleur de Lis throw, perfect timing for cuddling weather! Mom and Dad bought us a new dish set, very colorful and something Greg and I picked out togeth...

I'm so smiling right now! I woke up, got to snuggle with Greg in the nice cool house (love fall weather). Greg cooked me a delicious breakfast, my parents and his parents called to wish me a Happy Birthday. Greg's sister, Madelyn called and wished me Happy Birthday and told me the secret to being young! She said, "Now you can always say that you're actually older, say that you are 45 so people say how great you look!" Love it! Gwen and Kristen sent Happy Birthday emails and I want to thank ya'll, my kind blogger friends, for your wishes as well. I even got dressed for work, ready to head on out, thinking I wouldn't be able to take off of work like most employees, because of end of the month reports coming up, but Dad called and said I could take the day off (that's the "birthday gift" we give to employees, paid day) - Woo Hoo! Then Greg said, "Do you want me to wait to give you your gift?" What do you think I said? Hehe... I love it...

This post will have adult content, no cuss words, but the content is adult. It’s all biological stuff, but I know many readers have children and I want to give fair warning if a child is around. Given that Greg brought the topic up at a posh restaurant with some friends over supper, I figure it’s OK to oh, share with my blog friends! This past week was my doctor week. I can’t stand taking off work for appointments and if I have the appointments strewn throughout the year, it’s most likely I’ll find a reason to cancel or forget. But if I have it all done within one week, it’s harder to ignore. These appointments include: female visit, primary care, eye exam, hearing exam and also a visit to the DMV for a renewed driver’s license. Each is a story in and of itself, but one in particular…. I went to the female doctor. No, I won’t go into the details of such. My doctor asked if Greg and I were planning on having a family and about our ages. She mentioned the tick-tock of the biological cloc...

So you might know by now that Greg likes to joke around with the waiters and waitresses. Greg used to be a restaurant manager; he appreciates the hard work it requires and finds it second nature to joke with those in the same line of business. We went to Applebee’s yesterday; our drink request was Diet Coke. The Waitress asked, “Is Diet Pepsi OK?” To which Greg answered, “Sure, if I can pay with Monopoly Money!” She laughed and said, “That’s a first. Monopoly Money, I haven’t heard of that before.” It became a running joke at our table, that she would turn the glass sideways so he didn’t see the word Pepsi. Greg was on a roll, as he saw our waitress approach the table, he remarked loudly, “Shhhh, here she comes, stop talking about her.” Of course, we were doing nothing of the sort and she knew it. At another point, she was taking the order from the table behind us. We were talking about the television Greg just bought. He said, “Thank you for being my calming agent.” I was glad to do s...

What’s in YOUR wallet or Purse? I saw this on another blog and thought it was a neat idea, so I figured I’d share as well. The first time Greg went to my purse to get something out, he asked if it was OK. He came back saying, "That is the NEATEST purse I’ve every seen." Not that it was "cool" neat, but just well, neat. I don’t like to carry a lot of stuff in my purse. I see women that lug a kitchen sink and the makings, don’t know how they manage it! Ok, so here’s what’s inside: my pink camera (love it), my "little black book" – yes, I have one of those. I just don’t trust the cell phones to keep my info, plus it has addresses and emails, etc, my "flat" wallet with pink Fleur de Lis. I’m not a person who has to have pink, but what the heck, it was different. Makes it easy to fish it out of my purse when it’s that color. Greg’s car key, lipstick (though, I recently found out that most lipsticks have fish scales – EWW), lip gloss (Greg absolutely c...

Greg is a Gadget Guy. Those shiny new techno cool toys just call his name. I could open his closet doors and show you all sorts of stuff that I have no idea what it is or how it works. But ask Greg and he could give you a run down and the reason he bought it. Some of it is pretty nifty. When Greg was vehicle shopping, he asked me if I wanted to come with him to the dealerships. I replied, "No. You do the shopping, pricing, look on-line for the quality, etc. and once you bring it down to the two vehicles that you like the most, then let me know." He did so, going from dealership to dealership with a great deal of patience. It came down to the Sante Fe and the Edge. I won't go into the differences. Both are very nice vehicles. Greg said, "I'm leaving it in your hands. You pick the vehicle for me." You'd think I would be surprised with that comment, but not really. Greg is known for something of this nature. When we go to restaurants, he'll tell the wai...

A blogger that I frequent wrote recently about her husband and his friends having a good time cooking for their wives. She added that she hesitates to use the phrase to the nature of “they had a gay time.” In this day and age, I can imagine. Her blog post brought a wave of memories. When I was a little girl, my parents gave me a key chain with my first and middle name engraved that I kept my house key on. It was a large key chain and easy to read. I remember standing in line for lunch with the other children and they mocked my name. That night I held my key chain and asked Mom, “Why did you give me this name?” Mom looked at me and said, “It’s a lovely name. Why do you ask?” I held the key chain out to her and said, “Couldn’t you have just put only my first name on this?” I remember that look in her eyes, that Only Mother’s Can Know look. Mom said, “Did you know that it is MY middle name too?” I was shocked. I guess as a little girl, Mom’s name was… well.. Mom. I asked, “Did you have to...

20 Questions - A TAG from The Scatterbrain (which she definitely is NOT) 1. If your lover betrayed you, what would your reaction be? This happened to me in the past. I admire women who can move beyond this. But I don't think I could. It's not just the betrayed emotion, it's the corruption of trust. 2. If you can have a dream come true, what would it be? To have a family with Greg. 3. Whose butt would you like to kick? Can I just say "Congress" for that horrible Bailout Blunder.. 4. What would you do with a billion dollars? Well, I don't play the lottery, not likely to happen. But hey, if I were dreaming, I'd pay out our homes, and those of our loved ones. That's a roof over their heads and ours, which gives a sense of accomplishment. I would donate money to "Lighthouse of the Blind" because they helped my Mom and to our church to help with those in need. I would invest in the future generation ~ i.e. education. And put the rest of the money i...

Keep the penny, on second thought, toss me one or about 141 of them to be exact! What is this post about? I sent the following email to close friends and family, who might laugh. I figured someone needs to laugh. Greg told me, “If you don’t blog about this, I’ll be disappointed.” So, I’m sharing. I’m an idiot. “I'm So incredible P.O.'d right now. Greg is laughing and it is NOT funny! I went ahead and addressed all the invitation envelopes. I put a postage stamp on the RVSP card, put my parents address sticker on the invitation (since the original invitation had our address, I thought I was saving money with just putting a new sticker on the invitation).... addressed the outside envelopes, put postage on the outside envelope and sealed the envelope. AND THEN... only THEN, after the last one was done.. I kid you not...... I realized that the bulk of the RVSP card postage stamps were 41 cents!!!!! That means I would have to open up all of the large envelopes, re-hand write them an...

Did I just write something about Greg not using credit cards? It appears the theives don't go for the charge cards either. No, Greg did not lose his debit card. Just like me, thankfully, Greg checks his online banking account daily to verify transactions. He came upon two he didn't make. After research, come to find out that one of the transactions was in Oregon at an ATM machine! Not only was it frustrating to go through this with the bank, but how on earth did someone get his PIN number? We went over and over how this could have happened, where did he recently shop, who could have stolen this number from him? My response was, "when using the PIN pad, cover it, because you don't know who is looking." Greg not only had a new card issued and cancelled the other debit card, he also filed a complaint with the Oregon Police Department, because there should be cameras at the ATM machine. In searching for an answer, I did a quick search on Google. Just as we thought: ...

Me: "What do you think about the bailout bill?" Dad: "I don't think that I, my children, or my grandchild, if there's every going to be any (me rolling my eyes at that moment) should have to pay for this mess. Did you hear about the 17 day man?" Me: "No." Dad: "The man was hired by one of the companies that is going under. He worked there for 17 days. Because he was hired and then let go, he was given a 30 MILLION DOLLARS severance! I don't think that the every day Joe should pay for this. And it's not about the mortgages, though that has something to do with the sway of things. Some places are feeling the mortgage problems with a decrease in the value of homes, but that was coming no matter what." Me: "If it's not about the mortgages, then what is it about?" Dad: "Remember how they tried to tamper with the social security funds not long ago? They couldn't touch it. It boils down to there are some peo...

Tonight was a beautiful evening. There was a light, sweet breeze in the air. I was happy that Greg wanted to go to church for the Wednesday mass. Greg and I will be married in the Episcopal faith. When Greg reconnected with a childhood friend, Ken, he learned that Ken was a Episcopal Priest. It was interesting to learn about the Episcopal faith. I liked that they allowed women to become Priests and that the Priests could get married. The faith seemed more in tune to today’s world, but traditional in worshipping God. When we first approached Father Ken about the idea of marrying us, he said he would be glad to do so, but because I am divorced, we would need to have meetings and then a request would have to be made for the Bishop’s approval. Father Ken couldn’t conduct the meetings, because he knew Greg personally. Father Ken recommended that we see Father AJ Heine, who is the Priest at St. Augustine’s Church in the city where we live. What a wonderful gift that Father Ken sent into our ...