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earrings

Have You Spit On Rocks Today?

April 26, 2017 By Kimberly A. Cook 1 Comment

by Kimberly A. Cook                     (Twitter@  WarriorTales)

Distracted easily, that’s me. Finally had a day of sun last Friday and I could hardly make up my mind what to do first. I avoided all the things I “should” do and bolted into the backyard to assess fairy house door construction.

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Love this solar powered fairy door. When you open the door a staircase shows up, but alas, too tall.

The Douglas Fir stump in the middle of the Fairy Rock Garden is going to become a house. With this in mind I have already cut up one of the leftover cedar fence boards for a roof.

Assembly challenges exist on that since I can’t figure out how to nail the pieces together, even with a vice. Think glue first, then nails.

Have been able to de-cone several pine cones to get the shakes ready for the roof, but I digress. Last year I bought a variety of fairy house doors and now was the first opportunity to go outside without a scuba suit on for more than ten minutes and play.

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Very cute Easter Bunny themed door, but would not allow for roof overhang. Don’t think I need to do gutters. We shall see.

Gathered the fairy house door booty and headed out. Tried several different doors and the size problem appeared. Too small or too big. The Goldilocks issue. When I finally figured out the little door with the Welcome sign on it would work the best, I noticed a shiny pretty rock in the special lake rocks.

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Perfect! Even comes with flowers and a window frame. Now have to figure out the entire glue attach thing.

This is how it starts. For us born rock hounds, it was a simple pick up of one rock. That is never enough. Before I knew it I was matching rocks for earring sets. Like when am I going to get my butt in gear to do that?

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A girl and her bucket of rocks. Life is good.

Never stopped me before, so on I gathered. Ended up using one of the large fairy house doors as a tray. When I had trouble finding exact matches I hauled out the kitty litter plastic bucket still  half-full of leftover rocks. There is another full container since I obviously didn’t know how many rocks I would need. Backup rocks.

While I sat in the sun hunched over the plastic bucket, happiness ensued. One challenge was the lake rocks had been out all winter and were completely rinsed off, not so the ones in the bucket. Dust on these, so this required some spitting to get the true color on some rock specimens.

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Little rock couples, how cute.  Except for one at the top. And before I tripped. But I have the photo.

 

When I finally stopped since the tray was full, it worked well until I tripped on getting up and launched three of the rocks into oblivion, never to be recovered.  Sigh. When baby rocks fall into other rocks and on a cement walkway studded with rocks, forgetaboutit. I did a scan, nada.

Pretty proud of myself I only lost three of the rocks, though. Can use the others as pendants. You betcha.

If you’ve got a rock hound in your family, we’ve got Mother’s and Father’s Day coming up. Go to a local landscape rock place, find the “specialty” rocks and buy a couple pounds. Perfect!

Got rock stories?

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Filed Under: Garden Tagged With: earrings, Fairy Garden, Fairy House Doors, Fairy Rock Garden, jewelry, Kimberly A Cook, landscape rocks, play, rock collecting, rock hounds, Warrior Tales

Beads, Bling, Coloring And Shell Casings?

July 14, 2015 By Kimberly A. Cook 1 Comment

by Kimberly A. Cook              (Twitter@  WarriorTales)

Creativity is everywhere. Opening our eyes and senses is the first requirement to seeing it. Spent a quick visit Saturday at the Gem Faire, one of my favorite things to do. The show only comes twice a year so I can’t do too much damage to my wallet.

I hadn’t been for quite a while so the thrill of exploring energized me. Due to a competing appointment I had 70 minutes to power shop through the show. Did it! Got some pretties I couldn’t live without and saw some items which made my muse happy and curious.

Sounds like a Ginsu knife commercial - but wait there's more! Shell casing earrings and pendants!
Sounds like a Ginsu knife commercial – but wait there’s more! Shell casing earrings and pendants!

Take the shell casing pendants and earrings. Now, I have some leftover shell casings from my Dad’s workshop I’ve kept for a future project like a draft pick; not sure what they will become or accomplish but I’ve got the stuff. Had to take a picture and share with you this creative use of ammo.

Now, I might shine the casings with Brasso, although I thought I got enough of Brasso in the Army, but shiny is in my blood after basic training. Then I might add crystals, sparkly bling, a pink quartz rock and flashier earring findings and that is how I end up with tons of “project stuff.”

Recently a new Ace Hardware opened up in my area and I was beside myself exploring the aisles and all the fun new toys, er tools. They even had a “Hobby” aisle! Can you say more accessories for my Dremel? Yes, I bought the 80-piece accessory pack when I got my Dremel but I’m sure Ace must have more by now.

Then last Sunday the “Parade” magazine had a great article about coloring for adults. While I admit I buy Disney color books and have a fabulous supply of colored pens, Crayons and pencils to use, now there are big kid coloring books! They even have a couple of pages you can download free from the article.

Here is the link to get to the article and the free coloring pages.

http://parade.com/409702/hdowdle/50-shades-of-happy-the-new-joy-of-coloring/

Life is good! New beads, new bling, recycling shell casings and getting to color? It must be summer!

www.gemfaire.com

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Filed Under: Creativity Tagged With: adult coloring books, ammo, beads, coloring, crafting, creativity, Dremel, earrings, Gem Faire, jewelry, Kimberly A Cook, Parade magazine, shell casings, steampunk, Warrior Tales

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