Vacations, Mermaids and a "Freebie"

Hey Everybody!! Hope your Summer has been awesome so far! I can't believe it's already August. My vacation is over and it's time to start making some stuff and getting ready for several upcoming shows. Please be sure to keep an eye on my calendar for upcoming events and, hopefully, you can come out and see me at one of them. 

 We had a great vacation!  My favorite stop...Chicago and a visit with my best friend from High School.  I loved the "Bean" ~ it's amazing!  We took in all of the sights:

 I was amazed at how blue the water was in Lake Michigan...looked like the Gulf of Mexico.  The Lincoln Park Zoo was another exciting thing to see...well, maybe the Zebra wasn't that excited, but he gave me a big "yawn", which made for an awesome snapshot:

And then we were off to the Columbus Zoo, before heading back home.  As luck would have it, one of the Bonobo Apes had a week old baby that was just adorable.  She was hiding out in the very back corner of the enclosure, so it was hard to get a good photo.  However, this image captured the pure "love" she was showing her baby and the baby was "smiling" back at her.  So adorable!

I have lots of other animal photos on my smugmug website, if you want to see more.  I think this one is my second favorite, though:

And I was told that the color of the Flamingo is determined by what they eat!  I wish the color of people was determined that simply...there would be a lot less hatred in the world.

So how much do you love these swimming mermaids? Aren't they awesome! A big thanks goes out to the amazing Ms. Emily Martin for creating this lovely animation. I love it!  Before I sign off and get busy making stuff, I'm going to give these awesome earrings away...just because I appreciate your patience waiting for my long awaited blog update...it's been way to long:

These large shell pearl earrings are beautiful!  All you have to do to win them is post a comment on this blog entry, or my facebook page.  Ozzy will be picking a winner next Wednesday morning.  Tell me about your favorite vacation spot...I'm making a list of places to check out that I haven't ever been.  Thanks so much!  Good luck in the drawing.

Have a great weekend!!  Love & peace always ~ Kathy

"But if you have nothing at all to create, then perhaps you create yourself." ~ Carl Jung

A Fun Summer Freebie!!

 

I don't know about ya'll, but I'm ready for a vacation!  Some tropical island with giant frozen drinks, lots of fruit and tiny umbrellas ~ ah...maybe ~ I'll keep my fingers crossed.  In the meantime, I'll just keep making stuff and dreaming.

I'm loving this simple little pearl necklace that I made today!  It's for sale in the shop, or you can win it, by commenting on this blog post and telling me where your ultimate dream vacation spot would be.  That's it!  Ozzy will pick a winner Tuesday!  Good luck!!  Not only would this little necklace be beautiful on a bride, or bridesmaid, it would make a perfect gift for that "sweet 16" birthday girl!  It's just so cute & dainty!  Plus, it's only $15 and includes "free shipping" [for a limited time].  I think I'm going to make several of these, with different color pearls.  They are great for Summertime!  I don't like wearing heavy necklaces when it's scorching hot outside, so this would be perfect! 

I sure have been enjoying all of the blooming flowers around here!  One of my favorites is the Hosta...and, unfortunately, the deer love it, too!  We lost just about 1/2 of the blooms in one single night.  Wayne got some stuff at the hardware store to "repel" the deer, but Ozzy loves it and goes outside and licks the leaves of the Hosta plants!  The stuff smells like rotten eggs!  Dogs are so gross ~ lol

So, I don't know if you noticed, but now you can actually purchase prints, or cards of my photos that I post [the photos I take].  If you click on the photo itself, it will open up in a little picture window and you can choose from the menu what you would like to purchase.  Of course, your actual print will not have the watermark, unless you specifically ask for it.  How awesome is that!  I'm really excited about it.

I'm also really excited about these:

I got 5 of them!  Mini telescopes and they really work!!  Really!!  I can't wait to make something with them...what a great little thing to have on a tropical vacation!  You could watch the ships come in!  And don't forget to leave a comment here and tell me about your dream vacation!  You could win this awesome necklace!  Happy Thursday everybody!!

♥ & peace always ~ Kathy

"Vacations prove that a life of pleasure is overrated."  ~ Mason Cooley

There's No Place Like Home....

Hello, hello!!! We are back home ~ *Yay* ~ We did have a great time visiting with family & friends, but we are soooooo glad to be back home. Especially Ozzy & Lita, even though Lita slept on top of Wayne most of the time ~ this is a picture of them napping in the back of the car while I was driving:

But the highlight of the whole trip were the awesome fireworks on July 4th:
And spending time with Wayne's family. Don't we look happy!!!

We are!!! Life is good :) So tomorrow I'll start back on my jewelry making, since I can't wait to start making things with those gorgeous glass pendants from my last post. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend last week! But before I go, I just have to share this picture of Suzanne & Jack, two of our favorite people:And a quote from Suzanne last night: "I'm spoiled to death by life" ~ Suzanne Schmitt

Have a happy weekend!!! I'll be back soon ~ promise!

xxoo & peace always ~ Kathy