Pumpkin Bowling

Finished off a great week's vacation by visiting our godson's family in Napa. Just a few miles down the road we stopped by the Suisun Valley Pumpkin Patch and had the best time. The weather was warm with a cool breeze (my favorite mix) and we were so happily surprised by the fabulous setup they had.

There was a $3 admission fee, but they waive it if you purchase a pumpkin which is why we were there! They had a scarecrow contest set up in front of the corn maze, 10 acres of u-pick pumpkins and the most amazing array of pumpkin varieties...they had pale gray pumpkins...I couldn't believe it. My Halloween this year is just a few pumpkins in white with black details. Very stark, dramatic and beautiful. I will post photos later of my finished vignette at my front door.

One of the cutest areas was the pumpkin bowling. Bales of hay were set in rows to create the lanes and corn cobs were placed on top of holes in a strip of plywood. Nearly perfect round pumpkins in kid sizes were the bowling balls. My 3 year old nephew stayed there longer than any other area. It was so fun to watch him set up the corn cobs.



It took a few minutes to find the "perfect" pumpkin. The fields near the game area had clipped pumpkins but further out you had to snip off the pumpkins with your own knife which is what my bro-in-law did. We ended our fun with him giving his son a wild ride in the wheelbarrow. We had so much fun and the prices were really good, like 4 little punks for only a dollar. The owner really made it a pleasant experience.

I'm putting together some Chocolate Pink pendants & earrings and will photos in a day or two so be sure to check back to see those.

Happy Halloween!

Punks & Hips

We have blessed cool weather here in the bay area after several days of extremely rare and very high humidity and hot weather. Not even the cool breeze provided relief. I've lived here for over 20 years and can only remember one other time this occurred but the air was still and that was just before the Loma Prieta earthquake that came a few months after we moved to the east side of the San Francisco bay area.

Well, no surprise, this time around the thick, heavy air came the day AFTER an earthquake in our area. Interesting twist. Before I forget, this Tealight Glow Punk necklace just sold from my Etsy shop, but I wanted to show it to you because it is so pretty with its inner core creating a soft glow like a little tea light. I just love it. It worked surprisingly well with sterling silver.




Now, let's enjoy the first photo, which is the view of my dad's neighbor's yard when we were tucked away beneath Dad's liquid amber tree. So Dad I were chatting away under the shade of his liquid amber tree, when he mentioned munching on a rose hip. I said you can EAT them? I've not done that. Well he just happened to have a few on his rose bush so I plucked one and gosh, what a time we had with it. I was fascinated with its star shape and pretty autumn colors.


I took a breath, wondering what it would taste like and then nibbled. It was hard and crunchy, not bitter, and reminded me somewhat of a kumquat. It had a little bit of juice, but certainly wasn't an item of which you'd eat the entire thing but it was fun to try it. Here's what it looks like inside...



My husband is on vacation all next week which means I am too since I'm lucky enough to have my own jewelry design business here at home. Yay for self employment!

Now, before I go, I'm leaving you with one more photo and am wondering if anyone can guess what the item is. I'm sure many of you have seen it but might have rushed past it and not thought about it. I'm so "into" detail that I just had to stop and be in awe of it thinking about the hidden design of this beauty.

I'll divulge its secret next week.

Hey, Pumpkin!

New pendants are up on www.RockerJewlz.etsy.com. I had a lot of fun with these. They are enameled one inch rounds that I've suspended from a handcrafted lampwork bead captured between shiny silver caps. I have them in robin's egg blue, primary red and chocolate brown and only one full alphabet in each color, so move fast if you need one or a few. Including shipping, they are under $20 which makes them perfect as stocking stuffers and gift exchanges.

There is a gentle rain outside and for the first time this season, I turned the heater on just to take the chill off.


Once our Marinara Meatloaf is in the oven, I can turn off the heater. It's a really yummy recipe my sis turned me onto. Just a nice change, ya know?

So my husband is apparently far more clever than I knew! He entered his company's pumpkin carving contest and won first place! He didn't carve the pumpkin but he painstakingly created stencils of bats and "happy halloween". He placed them on the back and then spray painted the pumpkin blue. When he removed the stencils, he had a finished product in the company's 2 theme colors...very clever.



Since he is part of the facilities department, he wanted a face and hard hat so his boss scoured the site throughout the day and came up with parts that created the facial features...that nose is an emergency ceiling sprinkler! So clever and funny. My husband isn't much of a coffee drinker so he turned over the winning Starbucks gift card to me. Happy Halloween to me.

I'm having a great time coming up with inexpensive but pretty jewelry for the holidays so keep visiting my Etsy shop and stay cozy!

Punkies and pinkies

Punkies are in season...that's what I call lampwork glass pumpkins. These earrings are up for sale at RockerJewlz on Etsy and feature Lezlie Belanger's torch work. The punkie set below is from Payton Jett that I'm working with right now. Check back to see what they become. The update from "My 1ooth post" on August 19th is that the bird jewelry mentioned is awaiting one final piece...a custom glass toggle clasp!


I love how the necklace turned out...it has 3 glass birds in it and no silver so it just ripped my heart to add a sterling clasp. I used only stones and glass in the makeup so in a flash of brilliance from an artist, I am going to try a handmade glass toggle clasp that is soon on its way to me. I'll be sure to update you when I receive it and place it on its new home.


Visited Target store yesterday and the end caps feature pink goodies for breast cancer awareness. Whomever is heading marketing for this campaign has really stepped it up the past couple of years. I mean, when Dyson announced a pink vacuum cleaner, I thought how could anyone top THAT???

I need to replace my Brita water pitcher. Brita and Vitapur each have pink ones...wow, that would be wild, but I highly doubt it's appropriate in a household with me and 2 men!

So I might have to steer towards the pink garden tool set as I KNOW they won't be using them OR doing the gardening. Ha ha. Oh, I didn't say "Chihuly" yet today, so there you go. Gotta get those bloggers here, you know.

I'm getting bolder in ordering larger quantities of bead and component supplies. I just got a big batch of Bali sterling toggle clasps for all the cupcake beads that are being made for me so it feels good to trust that it's not just a big bill facing me, but greater sales.

So with that, I invite you to visit me at www.RockerJewlz.com and www.RockerJewlz.Etsy.com for your jewelry viewing pleasure.

When next you return, my goal is to talk about Paris and Stoned Birds...did I get your attention?