It's cold in France!

Hubby and I are in Paris right now and it is steadily getting colder! We had a couple of nice days where it was pretty warm (7C) and on one of those days I met up with a bead buddy, Muddy. I sold some beads to her previously and we are both members of some online beading groups. Here we are sitting on the couch in our apartment.

We had lunch near Notre Dame and then went in search of the area of Paris that contains most of the bead stores. After walking around a bit - with a stop in another beautiful church, St. Gervais, another stop at a shop with absolutely GORGEOUS hairpieces, hats and dresses and a few conversations with folks to find the way - we arrived at Rue de Temple. Unfortunately most of the bead stores were closed since a lot of folks in France take at least 2 weeks off for Christmas and New Years. A few were open so we checked those out. The prices were MUCH higher than what I pay for wholesale so I just browsed. Saw a few unusual things but nothing that said "BUY ME!".

Here is a picture from our apartment window of the snow. The lions guard the entrance to the apartment courtyard. And, next, a picture of one of our favorite streets for grocery shopping - Rue Rendevous. It still has little cheese shop, bakery, fish shop, meat shop, wine shop, ... A very traditional French neighborhood in the 12th district.

And, finally, a video of the lights on Rue Rendevous and one in front of a cafe down the hill from our apartment with snow falling ...
   

Handmade gifts for the beaders/sewers in your life!

So I was cruising around Etsy a couple of days ago and saw an intriguing thing on one of the many treasuries I checked out - a needle threader incorporated into a very cute polymer clay chocolate covered strawberry. This is available in LoveLaurie's Etsy store. She also has a cute little combo combining a seam ripper and needle threader all stored inside a thread spool! A cupcake combo is available now, and in her past sales I found a cute teapot! I just love the folks who turn a common tool into something so creative and fun! I liked it so much I had to get my own custom order for a Secret Santa swap I'm doing. Can't wait to see what my swap partner thinks about it!

Emeralds and Pearls - Yummy!

I got a strand of GORGEOUS keishi pearls and they had a subtle green tint which immediately made me think of emeralds. I had to change my design some when the holes in the emeralds ended up being too small for larger wires. But I came up with an alternate design which looks pretty good! Check it out for yourself ...



This beauty is for sale in my Etsy shop if you want more information. - well it's actually heading to a home show this weekend so it's unlisted right now. If it doesn't sell then I'll relist in my Etsy store.

And, since it is the Christmas season I just finished up a fun and full Christmas Twist bracelet ...

Isn't it fun!

Had a Ball!

Hubby and I support the Marine helicopter squadron HMM-163 and they are kind enough to invite us to their Marine Ball when they are in town. The ball was on Saturday, so we got to play dress up for an evening. Here are the great looking (and young!) Marines in the color guard


and hubby and I in our finery

Hmm - I think I need to change my soccer tan before the next ball and hubby needs to get a lot more sleep! It was a fun night and we met a lot of wonderful and incredibly courteous Marines!

Beautiful larimar!

I made this necklace for a local customer and hope she likes it. Her request was "larimar and chunky". After much searching and bidding on ebay I got some nice larimar strands - rondelles and nuggets. The larimar nuggets came from one of my favorite suppliers (she has some gorgeous gemstones if you're looking!) Szarka of Magpie Gemstones. She blogged me too! Anyway I tried a few different designs and finally mixed them up and added some chunky sterling cubes to create this design.



Next to share is a fluorite duo - necklace and earrings. The fluorite is just beautiful in both! The earrings are already in my Etsy store and the necklace will be listed later today.