My *Homemade* Windchime

I made my homemade windchime about a week ago. I call it my homemade hippie windchime. It was so much fun! I found a stick in the backyard and thread some big glass beads and bells on some twine and wa-la... a windchime! I hung it on my front porch and it makes me smile everytime I see it. I'm going to make more as soon as I order some more bells and chimes. Maybe I'll sell them or just give them away!

I'm in love with big glass beads right now. I order them from Fire Mountain Gems and they're very inexpensive. Some of them are HUGE! It's my new addiction :O)

Road Trip... Glen Rose Texas

So, I was feeling REALLY stressed.... kids, bills, insurance, doctor visits, college financial aid... you know, LIFE! I decided to take a road trip all by myself. I only had a few hours until the kids were out of school. I almost talked myself out of it since I only had a few hours for my road trip and I didn't want to spend money on gas, but I knew I needed to do it for my sanity... REALLY!

There's a little quaint town about 45 miles away from where I live and it's my most favorite place to visit. It's Glen Rose Texas. The Paluxy River runs through it. There's actually real dinosaur tracks in the river beds. The downtown area has such great shops and boutiques.

I shopped for awhile and spent just a little money, you know, for my sanity.

My last stop before heading home was Big Rocks Park. There's these HUGE rocks and the river running through them. You can sit on them and sun or have a picnic and then get in the shallow, running water to cool off. I brought my flip flops so

I could wade. It felt SO good.

I recommend a short road trip for moms everywhere!

~Lora

Yesterday my daughter and I sat in the porch swing and just enjoyed the cool breeze. It was actually cool if you weren't in the sun. We pet the cat, took pictures and just hung out. I love my kids, but sometimes I don't take the time to really give my full attention to them. It was very relaxing and enjoyable. Sometimes my kids are NOT enjoyable. Ha... but, it's true! Sometimes I'M not enjoyable to them I'm sure.

I love my front porch. It's the porch I've always wanted and now I have it. I have wicker chairs, a cute little bistro table set, porch swing, plants, birds nests with little birdies in it and wind chimes. The sound of a wind chime is just about the greatest sound ever. I have two wind chimes and they were starting to fall apart. So... I took them down and "fixed" them. I restrung them with twine and added some pretty glass beads. I love how they turned out! I've decided to make a wind chime made of glass beads, bells and whatever else I can find and hang it from the cutest twig I can find. I'll blog about it when i decide to do it.

Things I love…
*my kids
*wind chimes
*front porches
*porch swings
*baby birds
*cuddly cats
*flowers
*cool breezes

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Have a great week...

~Lora

~*~#~*CONGRATS TO CUSSIN' CRAFTER*~*#~*

She won the bracelet!!!! I'll have another drawing one of these days so keep checking back and reading my oh so exciting blog! :O)

New life

We have new life all around us!

New kitties....


New baby birds....


Nests with eggs....

I took a walk through the pasture yesterday and took pictures and picked wildflowers. The weather was nice and cool and it felt so good to get outside and be active. My allergies have really been making me sluggish lately so it was nice to move!


If you haven't taken a walk in nature lately... do it! It will make you smile~

Lora

"Like... OMG"

Teen girls. Wow. They're really loud and they say "like" a lot, they talk about boys and refer to them as "hot guys." When I was a teen we refered to boys as "fine." They run around and scream. I NEVER did that! :O) They always have their cell phones with them ready to text or talk or take a picture. I REALLY never did that when I was a teen. I DID talk on the phone a lot though AND take pictures, but with a camera. My poor daughters... they don't have cell phones yet and they're probably the only 7th graders in their class not to have a cell phone. I know, I know, I'm a mean parent. Actually, I'm a poor parent and my daughters have managed to live without cell phones for 13 very long years. Although sometimes they think they're going to die if they don't get one. I've noticed that teen girls, at least mine and their friends, are a lot more huggy and loving toward each other than me and my friends were as teens. When my girls see their church friends they immediately hug each other like they haven't seen each other in years... it's been 3 days! Then when they have to leave each other they have to hug again and tell each other they love them. It gets a little annoying when they have to hug one more time and I've been sitting in the car for 30 minutes waiting on them, but, really I think it's a very sweet thing. I would much rather they act that way than the "Mean Girls" way. Us girls have got to stick together! I love my girlfriends and don't know what I would do without them! The teenage girl, on the other hand, can only be tolerated in short spurts of time. "Like, OMG, they like, get on my, like, last nerve and I, like, have to get, like, away from them or OMG, my head will explode!"

I love you Lydia and Tori!

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Silly boy

Here's my youngest with clown nose and glasses. I don't have a lot of time to blog right now, but thought this might make someone smile :O)

Lora~

My Home

This is my home. It's an old farm house. It's kind of charming, but it needs a lot of TLC. We've painted and put in new flooring in part of the house. It just takes time and money... I've got the time, but the money... not so much. When you have four kids (3 at home) they kind of like to eat so I spend a lot of money on groceries every week.

Sometimes I'd like to move to a brand new house with sparkling clean base boards, big walk-in closets and a jacuzzi tub. But... I think I would miss my cute little house. Actually it's not little. It has 4 bedrooms and 2 baths and it's about 2000 sq. feet. Not bad! It's also on 6 acres. If we tried to buy a new house with all that... well, there's no way. I might have a walk-in closet, but it would probably be as big as the bedrooms. At least old houses have big rooms. I also wouldn't have my big, wonderful front porch with my porch swing, wicker chairs and plants that I've planted, watered and loved.

I think I'll keep my charming little (big) house~

♥ Lora

Win This Cute & Colorful Bracelet!!

I know you're looking at my blog so leave some comments.... please!

I've decided to have a drawing one month from today from all the people who left comments on this blog entry... even if you just say "hi."

I will write everyone's name on pieces of paper and draw one out. You will win this cute little bracelet that goes with every outfit and brightens up other pieces of jewelry. I wear mine with some sterling silver bangles and bead bracelets. It's a great summertime bracelet!

So leave your comment and check back to see if you're the LUCKY one :O)

Figuring out this Blog Thing

I'm trying to figure out how to make my blog look brighter and prettier and add links and pictures and music. I brightened up the font colors and made the fonts bigger. I also added a link to my etsy store and to some blogs and websites that I like to visit. It may take me awhile and maybe some help from the teens around this house, but I'll get my blog looking like I want it to look.

Have a happy day ~* Lora

Some of my new pieces. If you're interested take a look at my etsy store at www.charmed4.etsy.com.

Have a marvelous day!

~*Lora*~

~pEaCE, lOvE & fLoWeRs~

I love flowers, hearts, peace signs and colorful seed beads!

This is my new memory wire seed bead bracelet. I just love it! It makes me happy. I've finally started making my Spring-y, colorful jewelry. I'm done with the dark colors of Winter for now!

In a few weeks I'm planning on having my Spring Jewelry Sale/Open House. I had one in November and it was very successful, but mostly it was just fun because I got to hang out with other woman and gab, eat and talk about my jewelry. Fun!

Please leave a comment to say hi~

Tootsies and Flowers (weeds)

I took this picture a couple of weeks ago. I liked it so much I made it my new icon on flickr. Hope everyone is taking their shoes off and letting their toes enjoy the springtime!

Spring!

I worked in the yard today. There was plenty of weeds to be pulled. My flower beds were overflowing with grass and clover weeds... not a pretty sight. I still have much work to do and I'm hoping I can do some more on Saturday. I have perwinkles, impatiens, ivy, roses and a few other things to plant. I just love Spring!! I spent my birthday money on flowers. I finally bought a rose bush. I've been wanting to do that for a long time now. I hope it grows and fills up the fence with beautiful, fragrant, pink roses! I also want to plant some honeysuckle. I remember having honeysuckle on the fences as a kid. I loved to pull the blooms off and pull the stem out for that little drop of nectar... yum! Happy Spring~

Lora Y

Hippie Cowgirl Bracelet

Here's my Hippie Cowgirl Bracelet that I just made. I just love it!! I haven't had a whole lot of time to be creative lately. Between kids and substitute teaching it's been a little bit hectic. I get a little grouchy when I don't take time to make jewelry. I've been trying to figure out what pieces to order to make some spring jewelry. A lot of my pieces are kind of fallish colors. I'm ready for some sparkly pinks and some beachy blues and greens! This piece isn't exactly the spring look I was going for, but this would be perfect for the beach or a summer BBQ! We love our BBQ in Texas! I will be adding this to my etsy store this evening or tomorrow.

Lora YYY

Wow...

I'm such a bad blogger. I thought I would do better on my new blog, but I've done worse.

Maybe I'll blog later this week.... I'll try. I really want to blog and post pics of my jewelry.

Hey... i posted a picture. This is me on my front porch... chillin'

I'll be back......

2008.... New blog!!

Hi everybody! I decided to start a new blog. I haven't blogged in my old one since I think June. So here goes.... I'll try to blog more and learn more about posting pictures of stuff I like. I'm hoping 2008 will be a great year. I haven't made any resolutions, but it would be nice to lose weight, especially since all my jeans are now uncomfortably tight. And it would be nice for my jewelry business to grow. I sold a lot in Nov and Dec so I'm hoping to keep that up. Of course I want health and happiness for my family and friends in 2008~

YLora