A Friday Visitor

I was working at the computer yesterday when I heard a very loud noise from the living room. It sounded like someone had thrown something very large at the large window in the living room. I got up and went into the living room to investigate. There were no holes in the window and no sight of any damage.

Every now and then a bird will fly into the window and it sounded like that only much, much louder. I went over to the window to take a peek and there standing on the ground beside the foundation of the house was a hawk.

He was absolutely beautiful. He was standing, looking a bit dazed (or was that my imagination). He must have been about a foot and half tall - a big bird.


I went to grab my camera, although I didn't expect him to be there when I returned, but he was. I was able to snap a couple of pictures before he fly away.


They are not the best photos, but I am glad that I have something to record the event.

All we are saying...

is give silver a chance.

It is like being back in 67 again. The trendy thing is the peace symbol. Come to think of it, I have been seeing a lot of tie dye shirts too.

I showed Wanda, one of our regular customers at the Italian Farmers Market a peace symbol that I had made out of silver and she fell in love with it and wanted it as a necklace. Jane put it on an Omega chain and Wanda went away wearing her new necklace. She wanted me to make a pair of peace symbol earrings for her too.

As I was making the peace symbols for Wanda, I got to thinking about hearts. Peace and love, you know. So I made a couple of large hearts and then it occurred to me to combine the two and make a peace symbol out of the heart. I am sure I have seen that before and it wasn't an totally original idea, but I thought customers might like it. The result is shown below.



I also made Jane a pair of silver dome earrings. The domes are 5/8" in diameter so the small size makes them perfect for just about anytime. Here is a photo of those earrings.



I have more ideas and a new shipment of silver is due to arrive today. I will share more soon.

Labor Day Sale at The Earring Lady on Etsy

BOGO sale from now through Labor Day (Monday) at our Earring Lady shop on Etsy.

The Earring Lady is having a Buy One, Get One Half off sale. Buy any pair of earrings and get another pair of equal or lesser value for half off. We will automatically refund the difference through PayPal once we have received your payment. No codes, coupons or begging necessary.


We have a wonderful selection of earrings - everything that is elegant, dressy, casual, fun, flirty and just about every other kind of earring you can imagine.

So please go take a look. Might be a great time to think about stocking stuffers.

Gift Certificates on sale too!



We are also offering 10% off any gift certificates purchased through Labor Day. Gift Certificates are offered in any amount and are a great gifts for those that are hard to buy for. AND, the gift certificates are good at Thunder Moon Creations too.

We hope you find some earrings that you just love.

So many beads - so little time

Bead Fest, sponsored by Interweave, was in King of Prussia this past weekend. These fantastic bead shows, so close to our house, are something we tend to take for granted. (Michael pointed that out to me. I hadn't thought about it. I guess I was taking it for granted.)

Watching so many people take their baggage upstairs to their hotel room made me realize that while there are tons of people who come from out of town and have to stay for the weekend (like that's a hardship??), Michael and I can just zip up the road - and in 40 minutes... we're there. Very cool!


We DO have our favorite vendors - for silver - for Swarovski crystals - and some for gemstones, although that's a little tougher. It's so hard to know when you're getting the truth. Like when you pick up some beads that are hot HOT pink and the vendor tells you that the beads are natural stone. Yeah... right!

We are finding that sometimes we have to pay a little more in order to know that we're buying from someone reputable. In case, you're looking for reputable vendors, our all time favorite is Atlantic Gems with Rahul and his family.

We went on Sunday and we had a GREAT day! As you can see, we got a few goodies! We are finding that if we're looking for something specific - it's not there. It never fails! I'm looking for some really pretty tourmaline chips and some pretty turquoise nuggets. Those should NOT be hard to find, but... they must be hiding from us. Anyone have any idea where I can find them?????



The new crystals from China are GORGEOUS - such pretty colors and shapes. We found some pretty gemstones, but not as many as I would have liked. I'd love to find a good source (or two) for gemstones. Suggestions, anyone?

I think we have another bead show coming to Philadelphia in October. We'll have to take our camera next time and get permission from some vendors to take pictures. It's amazing!!!

5 Websites to make you smile

Okay... something new. I think I'm going to do away with the links on the side in the sidebar and make a post from time to time (weekly, maybe?) with links that I've found that I enjoy. Then if anyone is interested in past links, they can sort by the label "Links" and... ta da... there they will be!

::::applause applause::::

Sooooo today? Cartoon and comic related websites...

1. Dilbert (of course) ~ Who doesn't love Dilbert?
2. Hongkiat.com ~ 12 Sites to create cartoon characters of yourself. Need an avatar? Check this one out.
3. Out There cartoons ~ Do you suffer from Monday-itis? New cartoons every Monday and Friday.
4. Comics.com ~ Find all your favorite comics here.
5. The New York Times Cartoon Caption Contest ~ My cousin, Tom, sent this to me and I'm hooked. We never win, but we do make ourselves laugh.

So for today... th... th... th... that's all folks!

Storage - Part 2 - A Work in Progress

Okay... I'm not sure how I got started on this. I think it started with a blog about crystals and the joy of storing them. (she said sarcastically)

At the end of that post, I asked (begged is more like it) for storage suggestions and "the creative ones" came up with several great ideas! The next day I posted some of the suggestions that people gave me and some things I dug up at an Etsy forum, one of which was about these great plastic tubes! (Isn't EVERYTHING in an Etsy forum???)

SO anyway... We got the tubes and posted a sample of what we got and how we were going to use them.

Okay... so now we're a little farther down the road, but still not "there" yet! We are a work in progress! (and progress can be painful - very very painful)

Cleaning off my work area was a nightmare. I'm one of those people who grabs some of this and some of that and off I go and before I know it... "this and that" has taken over my work space. Then I have to take a day and clear it all out because it's driving me nuts! Not so, Michael. Michael is a tidy worker. His workspace is always orderly - neat - with just what he wants to use and nothing more. I'm not sure how he does that. I have NO idea what I'm going to use until I'm into it.

ANYWAY... I didn't have time for the usual all-day cleanup. Michael was in motion so I just dumped everything from my work area into a bowl (or 2... or 3). (This picture shows my bowl status after an hour or so of "cleaning out the bowl" and putting things "away".)

That left my work table pretty clean
(hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah clean... riiiiiight!)
Please remember that "clean" is relative.


Michael started putting up the pegboard to hold the tubes. He found great little plastic hooks that only take up the width of one hole. He ordered them one day and they arrived the next. Pretty sweet!


Next, he put up some of the tubes with gemstone and glass beads - and a section for pearls. It looks great but we already see what we'd like to change. We treated each board separately - from top to bottom. Wrong-o!

I think what I'd like to do is just start from the left corner and go across - and then down to the next row when we run out of room. I'd like to see all the reds side by side - all the blues - all the greens, etc.


I think we'll probably still keep all the pearls in one area.

What do you think? Any suggestions?

How about silver? I'm still not sure how to store all of the silver.

And lighting? How do I light this so that there isn't a huge glare????

Part 3 will be coming soon, hopefully! Stay tuned and thanks for your help!

(for all of the posts about storage, click on the "storage" label in the list of labels - or follow this link: http://thunder-moon.blogspot.com/search/label/Storage)

The Time Traveler's Wife

Did you read the book? The movie is SOOOO close to the book! I was expecting to be disappointed (strange point of view for an optimist, I know), but the movie was F*A*N*T*A*S*T*I*C ! Definitely 5 Go's!

Chelsea and Michael and I went last night. Chelsea and I both read the book - Michael did not - and I think we all enjoyed it equally. There were things in the book that didn't make it to the movie that Chelsea and I would like to have seen in the movie.

We thought some things could have been more clear - like the age differences in Henry were pretty subtle, for the most part. We would have liked more library stuff in the beginning - that kind of thing, but I know they did have a time limit. (If the movie had been 2 1/2 hours long, I'd be complaining about THAT!) Anyway.. I don't want to say too much and ruin it for anyone. Just go.

In the end, we laughed - we cried, just like we were supposed to. I mean, isn't that the eventual movie litmus test? So good! Sooooo good!

Rachel McAdams (Chelsea's favorite actress) and Eric Bana were beyond terrific. (I'd love to be just half as nice as Claire was) It was easy to just... be there - to forget we were watching a movie.

If you haven't seen it... go see it! (And don't forget your tissues!)

If you have seen it... what did YOU think????