Doing the twist this weekend..WOOHOO!!!

Happy Happy Saturday!! I think we all should be dancing....doing the twist like we did last summer baby..hehe  OK OK I don't really mean doing the dance twist but the hemp rope twist....tying knots...MACRAME!!!  I love to sit and macrame and today is the perfect day for it. Overcast and little bit on the humid side. 83% worth of humid...ohhh the joys of living in the South but I wouldn't want to be anywhere else...well...ok...the mountains might be nice.

I started working on some of my twisted hemp rope bracelets last week to donate to the Baldwin County Christmas Angel program. It's a great project to do sitting in the car waiting to pick up the Chazman from school. I plan on getting several more made today and then make some of my paper boxes to put them in and then of course make some of my pompom ties to put on top of the boxes. (click HERE to see my HOW TO post on making these) It's going to be a FUN day....if I don't get myself all tied up in knots...hehehe!!!

This bottom one I did several months back and I'm adding it to the programs gifts. This one and the red and black one are for girls most definitely but I think all the others could be worn by either a girl or a boy, yes?

Until next time...........Hugs,
Regi

Sculpting, Designing and Condo/Beach house cleaning

It's going to be a VERY interesting spring I must say. I was happily working on some jewelry pieces when my friend that I'm working for cleaning condos and beach houses gave me a "frantic" call. I do mean "FRANTIC" too. She asked if I was busy and before I could even answer (yes..she was that frantic) she asked if I could go and help Ray (that's her husband and partner in the cleaning company) with a project at one of the condo units. A project...I LOVE projects so of course I said yes. Now the project was trying to weed through all the mess that a group of spring breakers left behind in the unit. OH MY GOOD GOLLY MISS MOLLY what a mess!! I started working after the spring break last year so I haven't a clue as to how WILD some of these folks can be. Now I know that they come down to have a good time...I mean I know it's the beach....but they really should stop and "think" before they do some of the things they do. I won't go into details but I will say that we had to throw out all of the towels. (just use your imagination)  EWWWW!! Rest assured that they WON'T be renting any future condos from this particular owner again either.

I was only gone for about an hour and a half. I was just there to help clean up the not normal mess and then the ones assigned to clean it did their thing. I did quietly ask Ray who was in the houses I was cleaning this weekend and he looked at me and smiled and said...SPRING BREAKERS!!! Again....OH MY GOOD GOLLY MISS MOLLY....I'm going to really earn my money this weekend.

Like I said in the beginning...I was working on some of my jewelry pieces. My mermaid muse was in my studio today and was whispering some really good ideas. I made a pretty pair of earrings...they hang about 2 inches from the silver fish hook. Dyed (green) pearls, a piece of polished jade, glass beads and tiny pieces of green sea glass will surely bring your mermaid muse out to play.

I finished the macrame bracelet I was working on when I got home from working on the "project"...hehe. I used natural hemp and dark green hemp to make the bracelet and then added one of my mermaid head clay charms along with one of my clay turtle charms attached to a natural shell with a pearl. Glass beads are woven into the bracelet as well as strung on the side dangles. I finished it with one of my twisted square knot closures. It is adjustable to fit a small wrist or a larger wrist.

Now tomorrow I'm sure I won't be working in my studio as I am cleaning a beach house....so don't be surprised when you hear from where ever you are "OH MY GOOD GOLLY MISS MOLLY". It will only be me...^_^

Until next time............Hugs,
Regi

Ooohhh.....for those that have been reading my post for awhile and know about Gabie and Pumpkin, our kittens, I thought you might like to see some new photos of them. Here's two....their two favorite places to be during the day...in my lap....and sitting on the arm of my chair...patiently waiting for me to turn my head so they can pounce see what I'm working on.

 Had to put my arm across or Gabie was going to get a real close up..hehe

OMGOSH....I just noticed that Gabie is sticking her tongue out..hehe

I'm so twisted...hehe

Hope everyone is having an AWESOME Saturday. I am so hooked on macraming at the moment that I literally feel TWISTED!!! That's a good thing though...I so need something to keep me distracted and this is doing it.

I made another feminine Bohemian macrame bracelet yesterday and did some bead work on it as well. I used some of my white cording and some pretty green yarn with flecks of green and blue in it to do the twisted square knot with.  Now most would not think of using yarn in macrame but I have been doing it for years. I think it adds to the pieces it is used in...what do you think?

You can wear this with the heart facing the top of your hand or you can wear it in the other direction. Either way looks quite lovely. There are two Swarovski crystals on the sides of the heart. They look so pretty when the light hits them. I strung clear glass beads to wrap along the twist of the bracelet.

I told ya'll in yesterday's post that I was going to make some of my turtle charms. I used one for a simple necklace which I added a piece of polished sea glass as well. It's on a bronze 18 inch chain with a lobster clasp. I also added 4 additional inches so that you can make it longer if you wish. A tiny bronze shell is attached to the attachment chain. (hehe....don't know why but that just sounds funny to me...to much caffeine perhaps?)

I'm going to be working on some more twisting this weekend....I just can't get enough!! I'm also going to work on some molds so that I can make more unique clay charms. I have my mermaid soul flowing pass and she is wanting to play too. The more the merrier I always say.

Until next time..........Hugs,
Regi


Ohhhh do you remember the post where I offered a friendship bracelet to the 5th comment? Well...I didn't get 5 commenting so I chose the first person (which I will always do during the year when I offer these gifts and don't get the required number of post) The winner was Nicole and she had 3 options to choose from...my three latest macrame bracelets. She chose the "Mother Earth" bracelet and I will be mailing it out to her on Monday. Thank you Nicole for always showing the love!!!!

Mother Earth

My mermaid soul is coming out!!

I love living by the ocean and receiving all the inspiration she can whisper to me. There isn't anywhere else that I would ever want to live. So many creatures call this place home as well and one that we share the beach with and that has always fascinated me is the sea turtle. May through October is a time when you might just get the chance to see hundreds of momma sea turtles coming to nest. (I would love to witness just one...I'm not greedy) Thousands of tiny baby hatchlings take their first steps...right here...on our sandy beaches. They have a great group of caring folks that help these little guys and I'm hoping that once I have a vehicle that I can volunteer too. (check out their site HERE) Until then though, I think my love of the turtle is what brought out my mermaid soul to design some pieces that would celebrate these awesome creatures.

Two little turtles crawling out to sea..the one in the back said..."HEY...wait up on me".  Cute, ri iight? I am so enjoying making these. Here again are the little turtles made out of turquoise with silver and glass spacers along with a tiny Swarovski crystal.

These little guys just couldn't part with their shells. Fancy smancy shells huh? I have some really pretty and unique Turkish charms and have been saving them and I'm so glad that I did. Perfect for these earrings.
These have already sold to...YEA....thank you Beth ^_^

I have two more little turtle beads and I'm thinking of making necklaces with them. My muse is still whispering to me about those though. Have to listen to the MUSE!!! No...really...you do. She will drive me bonkers if I don't. hehe

Matter of fact she totally wouldn't leave me be until I made the bookmarkers for the library. It was a good thing I was motivated because my book was due back and I was making the trip, sooooo...I hit two birds with one stone. OMGOSH...not that I would EVER throw a stone at a bird.

 Here's one of the bookmarkers. It's my pencil doodle I showed you yesterday. I decided to use my gel pens and I think it turned out rather well. I really love putting the vellum paper over drawings and giving it that watery look. One of my mermaid designs just looks swimmingly with it. Get it..swimmingly...mermaid. HA!!

Here's the other one I did. If you have been visiting with me for awhile then you might recognize this doodle. It's the one I did after the oil spill....Hearts and Hands!! It was just a pencil doodle but I thought it needed a bit of splash of color.  I made eight of each and I so hope that who ever picks one up to use will enjoy it!!

Now...my muse is not so gently tugging on my ear that it's time to get to work. Hope you have a great day today and that your muse is whispering to YOU!!

Until next time...........HUGS,
Regi

Who knew we had swamp near us!!!!!

Now....those of my sweet, darlin friends that come to visit with me here know that on the weekends we try and give our Chazman an adventure or two. (If you are visiting for the first time, WELCOME, and it's so nice to have a new friend here under the old Southern Ooaks trees) Chaz is an easy child to please and so loves living here were adventures abound. We like living here too and all the awesome things you can do for FREE!! Free is a good thing.....a  VERY good thing. I only had to clean one unit this weekend and that was on Saturday so that gave us all Sunday afternoon to go and explore.

Our first adventure took us only about 6 blocks away from our home. WHO KNEW WE HAD SWAMP NEAR US?? Well obviously several folks..HAHA...we had no clue but now we do and so do you. It's a nature trail called Melvin Roberts Parks or better know to the locals as Cedar Street Park. When we first drove in we saw a baseball field, tennis courts and some basketball courts. What caught our eye was the covered picnic area and the swings. What really caught my eye was a sign that said nature trail...a rock laid path around beautiful cypress trees and a gazebo sitting in the middle of a tiny portion of swamp. I still can not believe that there is swamp so close.

There is my little man (who is growing wayyy to fast these days..LOL) with a pack of crackers in his hand. I have to admit that we didn't just happen upon the park, neighbors told us about it BUT they said there was a tiny pond where you could feed the fish. They kinda left out the part that it was a freakin swamp!!! OK deep breath....ahhhh...there I'm calm now. I LOVE nature and love to explore nature. I just like to have a little bit of warning before I head off to a swamp.

Swamps really are beautiful areas. So much flora and fauna to be found. I have always liked cypress trees especially the little stumps that grow around them. Talk about inspiration....I saw Santa's and wizard's just staring out at me. If it wasn't a state park I would have loved to have cut a few and painted them so you could see what my muse was showing me. Of course, I'm a good nature lover and I totally and completely respect the law...so I didn't cut any.

Do you see that orange right in the middle of the photo? That's a KOI fish and believe me it was one of the biggest I think I have ever seen. It must have weighed at least 30 lbs. It stayed right in the middle of the swamp...happily and lazily swimming around.

There were several KOI fish swimming around. These two were among the grass and both stayed right next to one another. One orange with black spots and one white with black spots....both fairly good size too. Aren't they pretty? This is why I want a new camera....one with a zoom lens. Perhaps I need to drop a few hints to the old hubbikins!!

The Chazman threw some of the crackers to the KOI but they didn't want to come in close enough to get them but we soon discovered why. The swamp is filled with painted turtles and two HUGE snapping turtles.

Look close and you can see one of the painted turtles in the upper left hand corner. The one you can really see was one of the snapping turtles.

Here is a better pic of him. I leaned WAYYYY over to get this shot...thank goodness the gazebo was built strong. See him poking his head out....patiently waiting for another cracker or two. That or he was smiling for the picture. ^_^ Among the turtles...there were little black fish trying their best to join the buffet and they did get a nibble or two. Those turtles were greedy little things. They didn't want to share with any others until this little guy came out of hiding....

Ahhh yep....that's exactly what you think it is...a baby alligator. He was about 48 inches long and surprised the dickens out of us when he decided to come out and see just what was going on. The Chazman saw him first and started tapping my arm and kept saying in a whisper "Ahhh mom...mom...mom" until I turned to him. We were so amazed that, there, right in front of us was a cute little gator. He was even eating the crackers. Needless to say, he got first dibs on the rest that were thrown out in the water. He didn't care for the camera much though....he would stay close to the gazebo until I held it up and then he would swim around behind a tree and peek out at us.

We were ohhhing and a ahhhing at him and then noticed that we might be fixing to see a stand off between cute baby gator and one of the big old snapping turtles. I don't know if you can see it but the turtle is looking up at the gator (on the side away from the tree) and the gator was watching the turtle and it got really tense there for a bit. I threw a cracker in the water behind the turtle and of course being the greedy thing he was he turned to get the cracker. Little baby gator just floated by the tree for a bit. I began thinking that the mean old snapper could really hurt that baby and then I begin thinking "HOLD UP....WAIT A SECOND" where there is a baby there has to be a "GULP" momma!! We started looking around but we never did see her, although I'm fairly sure that she was quietly watching us.

It really was so quiet and peaceful sitting under the gazebo and watching. After all the crackers were gone and the turtles retreated under the gazebo and baby gator slowly swam back off into the grass we started walking back towards the swings. I caught a beautiful dragonfly on a leaf.....

Have you ever heard dragonflies called snake doctors? That's what my great grandmother would call them. She also told me that where ever there were snake doctors then of course there had to be snakes. I so didn't even think of snakes while we were sitting in the gazebo but once I saw the dragonfly then I started looking around. We didn't see any  until we started walking on the rock trail to go to the swings and I think we actually scared him more than he did us. Well....ok not us but me...the Chazman wanted to touch it. NOOOO, I yelled and I got "OHHH MOM" back as a reply. Needless to say that he and I had a long (very long) discussion about snakes and that they should be left alone and in their natural habitat. Ohhh, you want to see the snake.......

Now....I don't discriminate against snakes. I don't care if it's 3 inches long or 30 feet long...they all scare the hibbie jibbies out of me. They are pretty and some have beautiful colors but they are one of God's creatures that should be seen (from far far away) and not touched. Just my thoughts......

After Chaz and Daddy had some fun swinging, we left our neighborhood swamp lands and went to the grocery store and then to the beach. It was a very good day for adventures.

Until next time.............HUGS,
Regi