My parents recently moved, and in the process began unloading years of sentimental knick-knacks to us children. I just opened a box this evening & found my ever so humble beginnings as a crafter. I vaguely remember deciding one day (when I was around 7 years old) that I needed to make my own doll. So I grabbed an old sock, some yarn, buttons, and fabric…and this is what I came up with. Yes… very likely the ugliest doll ever created on the entire planet. *LOL* But I had to post it to give you some laughs.
July 16th, 2006
With a stroke of luck, I finished the sterling silver necklace I’ve been working on for the past 6 weeks in my final silversmithing class. 
This piece was made entirely from sterling silver wire. It involved soldering 42 handmade jump rings to 21 strips of measured wire. The “dogbones” were formed to shape, then soldered together using larger jump rings as a connectors. The back side of the necklace (not visible in this picture) contains a handmade chain & clasp.
I have to say that I was a bit nervous getting started (I mean the thought of me coordinating a torch in one hand & solder in the other can be frightening!), but it really ended up being a lot of fun. Suzy at the Craft Guild of Dallas has been a great teacher, and I’m hoping to stay involved in this new hobby. Thanks for looking!
July 15th, 2006
On our 2nd anniversay, Mike surprised me with this beautiful bouquet of flowers full of my favorites (gerber daisies, Charlotte roses, & stargazer lilies). My office smelled wonderful for over a week! We took the flowers home after that, and Moe (Mike’s cat) made friends with them. See his pic when you click on more for the full post.
Mike also treated me to the only 5-star restaurant in Dallas, called Aurora. It was amazing! We started off with a glass of champagne which was followed by amuse-bouche, an egg custard served inside a hollowed-out eggshell. After that, I had a lobster clorophyll extract ravioli appetizer (doesn’t it just sound incredibly fancy?) *LOL* This was followed by melon sorbet to cleanse the palette. Next was Beef Tenderloin with Foie Gras Rossini Style and Himalayan Truffle Potatos with red wine…and lastly, a rich chocolate cake like none we had seen before followed by their signature cookies. Everything was served by waiters in tuxedos and all our plates came covered and were revealed at the same time. A really amazing dining experience. I highly recommend it!
After dinner, Mike gave me two wonderful gifts. The first was the new 30 GB Special Edition U2 iPod. I’m now addicted to sitting in front of my computer ripping CDs into digital format. Since I have about 700 CDs…it’s gonna take a while! But the whole iPod concept is really cool, and the functionality is great. It enables you to listen to a lot of tunes you wouldn’t normally pull out of your collection. 
The second gift was Janet Evanovich’s new book, Twelve Sharp. 
For those of you that are not familiar with the Stephanie Plum series…these books are hilarious! They are about an average woman who takes a job as a bounty hunter with her cousin’s bail bonding business. They are hands down the most entertaining books I’ve ever read. Tons of fun. If you’re one for audio books, the first 7-8 books on tape in this series have an incredible reader named C.J. Critt. She really makes the characters come alive…I was able to find copies of the tapes/CDs at the Dallas library. I don’t believe she is contracted for any of the newer books so I’ve been reading them instead of listening to them. But either way, I highly recommend checking these out!
July 7th, 2006
