Paper Beads

Yesterday, I had someone come up to me at our dulcimer gig at a local church and hand me a bracelet. She wanted me to guess what it was made out of. I knew right away, as I have been messing around with making the same type jewelry.

Paper bead jewelry! She was surprised I knew anything about it, and then I told her I've been learning to make paper beads. This bracelet is made of some of my first beads along with hematite. 

If you look real close, you can tell I got the paper from a Thirty One Catalog. You can also tell these are probably not my best beads, but heck, they are one of my first...and I think I'm getting a little better.

 Today, I've been making some big beads. This is how I dry them after I coat them with a heavy glaze. They get three coats, so it is a little time consuming.

These are going to be earrings, I think; two sets. I really like the color. I hope to be able to perfect them, because as soon as we get moved and settled in our new home, I think I might be opening an etsy account with some of my jewelry. If I can get the paper beads looking nice, I hope to have them on there.

Bug Season Is Here.

For most of us around the country, mosquito season is either here or just around the corner.

 We are getting ready to plant our gardens and flowers, and this means more bugs to bug us. The mosquitoes love our family. I guess we taste good, and with the upcoming move to Louisiana, well, that is mosquito capitol!

This year I am going to try a more environmentally friendly bug repellent. Here is the recipe I will be trying:

2 Tablespoons witch hazel

2 Tablespoons olive oil 

10 drops cedarwood

10 drops lavender

10 drops rosemary

Mix well and rub on.

I think this will work..the reason I suspect? Well a couple of weeks ago, I attended a friends wedding in Louisiana. It was a sunset bayou wedding, great place for mosquitoes. Everyone was complaining about being "eatin' up." I had no issue at all.

We also went to a crawfish boil on the bayou, and again, no bugs bothered me at all. I wondered why and when I saw this recipe, I remembered what I've been putting on my rash I've had for over ten years.

Yep, lavender, peppermint, and cedarwood. That's why I suspect this recipe might be a good one.

So, this summer when we are doing all our cookin' out, I will be wearing my natural bug repellent...and if I hear anyone complaining about being "eatin' up" I will whip out my bug repellent and share it with them.

House, Please Sell.....

When selling a house, one must stage it. What does that mean? Well, it is decorating, but at a minimum. I read somewhere that you need to sell a lifestyle, but not necessarily your lifestyle.

You want to make your house looks inviting. Since people have such a variety of tastes, you need to be careful. For example, wreaths on a front door are a HUGE no no. Besides, these doors are really pretty, so you don't want to hide them.

You want to show them off.  Everything should look clean, uncluttered and updated.

Especially kitchens. I love my kitchen, and everyone that has looked at our house loves it too. I believe this is probably the greatest selling point of our house; that and the backyard (which after this horrid winter, I need to tend to).

The room just off our kitchen, the one we use for our pool table, is a beautiful room. I have had comments, "Why in the world would they put a pool table in this room?" Well, it is the only room that it will fit in. I know, it is probably another HUGE no no, but our house is big enough were it can stay. Besides, it is a nice pool table. 

With Birch Judges Paneling in the room, it has a masculine side to it, and it has a very nice fireplace.

I love this little half bath. Whoever chose the mirror and vanity did a great job. It definitely is NOT your average little bathroom.

The view out our backyard is spectacular. Currently, I am working on getting our deck area back together again. It just won't stay warm or dry long enough for me to get out there to do anything. Maybe this weekend....

But believe me, it is really nice and we have enjoyed barbecues and eating outside and sitting and having conversations with friends and family in the evening. 

I am not sure why our house has not sold, or why we don't have hardly any traffic coming through. I realize we live in a small town with very little bringing new families in. I didn't expect to see anyone come look until May. We've had about three different families come, and none of them really had any negative except one wanted a master downstairs. I understand that, we would have like that too, but it's hard to find...not sure there are any two stories on the market here with that.

So, I sit. And wait. For that right family to come buy our house. I hope it won't be too long for a number of reasons. The main one is my husband. I hate for our family to be separated. One other reason, is, well, where we are moving....there will be 800 new families moving into the area this summer...yes 800! What does that mean? Housing will go WAY up, and then when everyone is settled, it will go back down. I really do not want to trade my beautiful house for a fixer up postage stamp that will wind up costing us way more than it is worth...or what we will get out of this house, and then... the house going down in value.

You Are Invited....

Update...due to Lori's health, the big reveal won't be until 10 May.
Hope you feel much better soon, Lori Anderson
(the one who is responsible for this wonderful blog hop)
Bead Soup Blog Hop 8

Is just around the corner....

Saturday, 3 May 2014

to be exact....

Here is the soup Tracy Martin sent me. I'm going to give you a little sneak peak.

I made some more paper beads to add into Tracy's ingredients.

I sent Tracy these beads with other ingredients of course. I have another string of these I kept, and guess what?! I used one, yes 1...ONE flower bead in a piece.

Ok, that's it for the teaser...Stay tuned :)

Essential Oils And My Cough

Here is another personal essential oil story...

I worked at Vanderbilt Medical Center for a number of years back in the 80's. This was before smoking was band in public places. During this time, I worked in a closed in area with zero ventilation with five other women, all of whom were heavy smokers. I have never been a smoker, and this bothered me, A LOT! I can remember getting bronchitis every year. 

three of our four little ones about 1993

After our first child, Miles was born, I elected to be a stay at home mom. I continued to have bronchial issues, and it seemed every year I would develop a nagging cough. It would last FOREVER. As the years went on, the cough would get worse and last longer. About three years ago I had a cough so bad that I could hardly talk. Singing was out of the question. I decided to try the essential oils I had heard so much about. 

Three drops each of Lemon, Lavender and Peppermint essential oil into a veggie capsule, three times a day is what I used. In about a week my cough was gone! The cough stayed away for over a year. Lately, I've been getting that little tickle, so I've been taking that lemon, lavender, peppermint cocktail twice a day for the past two days, and it's gone. 

I like to diffuse different oils in my house. It not only smells good, but I feel like it is a very healthy thing for my family. I hear my old work place Vanderbilt Hospital ER is even diffusing essential oils.

Essential Oils And Rashes

A couple years after we moved to Muncie, Indiana, I developed a rash on my left shin. It started around Thanksgiving, and went away after our yearly trip to Florida in May to visit my family. 

The following year, same thing...rash started around November ended in May when visiting family in Florida. This continued for the whole time we lived in Indiana. I went to the dermatologist several times and each time was given a very expensive cream. Guess what? It did not work. 

We lived in Indiana about 5 1/2 years before we headed to Louisiana. The first year in Louisiana...NO rash. YAY!!!! Maybe I was allergic to Indiana...lol. A year later, guess what? Rash. This time on my right leg, and it was to stay for long while! I went to two separate dermatologist on several occasions, and all I got was, "Oh, it's a rash, here is some cream."  I bet I went through over TEN different types of very expensive creams, none of  which worked. 

Fast forward to our move to Kentucky. Still the rash was there and worse than EVER!!! It itched so bad and I was not getting any sleep. I heard that Melaleucha was a great oil to put on rashes, so I tried that (from Walmart), and it got worse! Finally, I broke down and headed to the dermatologist there. Got the same thing, "Here's a cream...." Oh and by the way I was told that my lower right leg had the skin of an 80 year old. That...was due to all the creams I had put on my leg. No one ever told me that steroidal creams were meant for short term because it thins the skin...thank you very much.

Finally, after making several visits to the doctor, he sent me to a specialist three hours away in Louisville. This doctor is one of only about three in the nation that does this type of extensive allergy testing; which lasts a week. My mother in law went with me, and you can read about it here. I did find out that one of many things I am allergic to is Tea Tree or Melaleucha (no wonder the rash was getting worse). The doctor in Louisiville told me to stay away from a lot of stuff including "fragrances like lavender." I had just started investigating essential oils and knew that lavender was one of the more popular, so I asked about that. He said yes stay away! I was puzzled and then asked if I was allergic to the flower lavender. He told me no, so I assumed that lavender essential oil would be fine, since it is natural and the ingredients only come from the lavender plant. 

Anyway...fast forward to now. Just before all the fall holidays, I decided to do some hardcore investigating on the oils and my rash I had had for over TEN years. Still nothing was helping and I was suffering!!!! First I tried just Roman Chamomile and coconut oil.  It was ok, but the itching was so intense and I would not stop scratching. I would wake up at night with my legs bleeding. I knew I had to do something because scratching it, well it would never heal. 

In February, I ordered some Cedarwood. I layered one drop of that, one drop of Peppermint (for the itch), and one drop Lavender (thinking this might help me sleep better). I added coconut oil and slathered it on both my legs, as the rash was now on both shins. For the first time in a long time, I actually slept, and from what I could tell, no scratching. I decided to try this both before I went to bed and again in the morning. It took several weeks, but the rash is gone! 

During this time, my carpel tunnel started acting up again, and I am needing to wear my brace on my left had at night. Guess what? I'm allergic to the brace, and I had a horrid rash start up. I took the Peppermint, Cedarwood, Lavender, coconut oil concoction and put it on my arm in the morning. The rash quickly went away. I now wear a cotton sock under my brace, and no more rash!!!

I know a lot of you might thing that these oils are like a witch doctor type thing, but they are not. They really work. This is just one of my personal stories where I have had the oils work for an ailment. I will share more later on down the road on my blog. Right now I am investigating oils and autism. My sister has two autistic little boys, and for their birthdays in August, we are thinking about sending them some. I will let you know how that goes....

Bead Soup Blog Hop Is Just Around The Corner!

Remember all this cool stuff I got from my Bead Soup partner, Tracy Martin? Well, I have it all (most) of it made up into several pieces. I even wore one of them today...it's such a fun piece.

It actually had some of these pieces in it.

Guess what? Next week is the Bead Soup Blog Hop. I can't wait to see what everyone has come up with....stay tuned!