Halloween in July!?

I've been told that it's time to start planning your Halloween theme, now, in July, and some people even start their Christmas sales lines now too! I'm definitely not going to be ahead of the game this year! But, this adorable Halloween Felt ornaments started me thinking about it all!

Newspaper Wrapping

Once upon a time, not too long ago actually, we had a rough year and Christmas was sort of sparse. I decided to save on wrapping paper and use newspaper instead. Gave the whole theme a sort of Charles Dickens-vintage-old fashioned feel, and since then I occasionally use newspaper to wrap something up. Pinterest today gave me a photo with a newspaper gift bag tutorial!

This Christmas hopefully won't be as sparse as that one in the past, but I may opt for some newspaper wrapping just for the fun of it!

Newspaper Gift Bag Tutorial

Gnomes in the Garden!

When I was a wee lass, 11 or 12, my Aunt gave me a book about gomes, full of color, drawing, facts and stories. I treasured that book for years, but got parted from it when we moved away from the States. Visiting my family years later, I discovered that the book had managed to stay close to our family, sitting on the shelves of my sister's collection. I left it there for future nieces and nephews to enjoy, though once in awhile I wish I had dragged it across the world with me to a new home.

Recently I'm rediscovering a love for these little grumpy creatures. Colorful, cute, funny, hard-working, mysterious little woodland beings, I wish I had a few living in my yard!

This morning I put together a small treasury of Gnomes in the Garden on Etsy, a sweet little collection of little gnome people to brighten up the day!

Gnomes in the Garden

Meteorites!

How could I resist not getting one of these! From the Gibeon meteor in Africa! 6 mm meteorite bead!

A Very Busy Tuesday

Tuesday is my shopping day! Work that takes me into Osaka also takes me past some wonderful stone shops! This week I visited a new one and found some awesome deals! Burmese Jade, Aquamarine, Aventurine, and Rainbow Obsidian, but maybe my favorite discovery were some Larimar cabochons! 

top to bottom: 

Burmese Jade

Aventurine

Rainbow Obsidian

Aquamarine AA grade

Two pendant sized Larimar cabachons, waiting for my imagination to figure out a use for them!

And then I finished off this custom order for a triple wrap with genuine turquoise, genuine silver and white howlite on red leather...The red sets off the other stones so nice!