Year of the Dragon

So, 2012 will be the Year of the Dragon on the Chinese calendar that is over 4,000 years old...amazing! Also amazing: tonight, on "Chopped" I saw something new to me...
Dragon Fruit!

What an insanely bizarre, yet beautiful food. You would never know that the inside and the exterior would be so completely different, yet complimentary to each other. I felt like it was a fashion statement the way the bright pink and green pod was filled with white flesh and black seeds..how Parisian!

I have no idea what it tastes like but discovered it grows from some variety of cactus...it just gets more and more interesting. Some interiors are bright pink. Wow.

This intriguing fruit reminded me that it is a good thing to
always be learning and always be curious.
You never know what you might discover.

Happy New Year

Stocking Stuffers

I know, I know, it's hard to believe that a week from today is Christmas Eve. At work we have a countdown calendar...and I hate being reminded of it daily because I'm just not "on it" for gifts and prepping. BUT, the good news is I have stocking stuffers for you!

Actually, anything in my shop is small enough to be a stocking stuffer so you can't lose.

I will be so happy to move from full time holiday working hours to part time after the new year...whew! This year I haven't said Happy Holidays ONCE. No matter what religion a person believes in, the reason for the holidays IS Christmas so that's it, there's no way around it, so I say.....there really is no good reason to consider other people and that they might be offended to hear those 2 words. Why did I ever worry about it in the first place? Diversity awareness can sometimes be counter productive....so.......

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Secret Treasures

Just a drive by here to show you a couple of my cupcake Christmas gifts...a set of resin cupcake magnets which I could really use to make my fridge look a whole lot better and a pair of Wal-Mart's Secret Treasures cupcake pajamas in purple!

I'm wearing them as I type this and they are incredibly soft and incredibly cheap, only $8.50 on sale as well as the nightgown style...also available in red.

They feel like a super thin, super soft fleece. Really nice and the sizes are true but if you dry your laundry in the dryer rather than on the line like I do, I'd go a size up.

Had a fabulous Christmas holiday. I co-hosted celebrations for 2 of my sisters but didn't have to prep my own house...now THAT's the way to do it! Spent several days in Napa for the holiday, very mellow and easy going. Really nice. Had rain and wind on Christmas Eve but Christmas day was cold, bright and crisp.

Drove home the day after and am now in the midst of my husband's 9 day vacation...what a treat! My goal for the new year is to clean out bead bins for plenty of jewelry for you and to focus more on my drawings and sketches to create note cards, bookmarks and art pieces for my MomsArt shop on Etsy.

So until 2009, Happy New Year!

A day without Cookie Sunshine

The Cookie Sheet was one of my favorite blogs. It was written and illustrated by "Cookie Sunshine" aka Donna Childree Gotlib. These little shoes are just one of her many amazing works of art. I looked forward to her frequent updates about art and life.

Over the past couple of years she and her family diligently dealt with her mother's Alzheimer's illness and just recently finally found the perfect home for Elizabeth. Cookie announced this on her blog and then less than a week later the blog was deleted...we couldn't even read back on her past entries to catch up on the story or once again enjoy her


many illustrations. I so wish she would have left it up but her focus now is on her mom and not to entertain her readers, thus the title of this entry. My best to you and your family, Cookie, I miss you and am happy you can provide for your mum.

As far as my own family, we got together with our buddy to toast 2008 and ring in 2009 and celebrate my son's 21st birthday on December 18th! My husband scored a bottle of champagne so we chilled it along with some beer and I had fun whipping up appetizers. My favorite was very simple: cooked bacon cut into squares and topped with appropriately sized shrimp which had been cooked




in butter, white wine, Provencal herbs, salt and pepper.Perfect finger food and yummy too. They look great on the big serving plate my sis bought me years ago.

On the business front I've been in cupcake "baking" heaven. I keep finding more glass cupcake beads that inspire me to turn them into earrings and bracelets and most recently, pendants and necklaces.


The awesome cupcakes you see here are nice big ones from Payton Jett. I drew pencil sketches and emailed them to her and she made my visions come to life! The Rubino Glitz is kind of an amber, similar to root beer, but with big gulps of light flowing through it. The little glass heart on top is a pearlized garnet color and the perfect finish.

I suspended it and the other bead, Pink Ice Glitz, from spectacular wire lace ribbon imported from Italy. It's made from super thin brass, copper or aluminum wire and then coated with an enamel covering to add its beautiful color that glows softly.




This provides an incredibly soft feel, just like ribbon, but when pulled or twisted the wire creates a lace quality. It is also nickel free and waterproof. The wonderful thing about Italian Mesh Ribbon is that it can be ruffled or straighted, twisted, shaped into flowers.

It can be manipulated back and forth from smooth and straight to ruffled for changes according to your wardrobe. Really fun. I've got these listed at www.RockerJewlz.etsy.com.

I'll be running about to different family events over the next week, so I now wish you an early Happy New Year!