We made it.

I seriously underestimated jet lag, our ability to sleep on the airplane and how absolutely big and busy this city is. But, we arrived safe, took a typical tourist bus tour and saw some wonderful things. I think we will spend this evening in Trafalgar square and surrounding areas, just wander and see where we end up.



Lemon in my coke at lunch. How cool is that?

I am seriously stressing out here and I don't know why. We are planning an amazing, once in a lifetime trip for a week in London and a week in Paris.

Don't think we are rich here, we aren't. This is a result of my husband traveling for the last 18 months, non stop, out of town and me here with three girls, luckily who are half grown and amazing. We have free air miles and hotels accumulated and decided to use it all in this trip before our oldests goes away to college this fall and are middle leaves next fall.

The closer it gets the more stressed I feel. I just blew my gasket at my amazing middle daughter for loosing her new necklace. She eventually found it but I really didn't need to blow a gasket!

My husband sent info last night that a cab ride from Heathrow airport to our hotel is estimated to cost almost $200! That is insane! So he in his need to cut costs wants us to take an express train from the airport to downtown and then catch the subway or a cab, in rush hour, to our hotel. All of this after a 9 hour flight.....with luggage in tow. *sigh* that just makes my head hurt.

Last night my dog was making noise which woke me up. Instead of saying her name I yelled "Paris!" lol. That did wake me up and cheer me up.

I just want to enjoy all of this. I don't want the stress. I'm not very nice when I'm stressed. I want to focus on the fun, not how I will mediate between my take it easy daughter and my must-go-as-fast-as-we-can-to-see-as-much-as-we-can husband and eldest daughter, these hidden expenses that keep coming up, the travel hazards and, of course, my favorite, getting on this amazingly huge and heavy hunk of metal and being thousands of feet in the air hoping it stays up (oh did I mention I hate flying?)

Everyone feel free to smack me upside the head and tell me how blessed I am, just relax, think of all the wonderful experiences I am going to share with my children....*sigh*... I know...maybe I just need a nap.

And the winner is.......

Amy from Design Intervention! yay Amy!

If you haven't read Amy's blog you should. She is as crafty as they come. She can see something and do it!

While being the mom to kids and the wife of one of our brave soldiers who is currently deployed, she fills her free time with projects and shares them with us. Check out her latest t-shirt creation! It's amazing!

Congratulations Amy!

My giveaway ends today! Make sure to click on the picture to enter.

Upcoming Trip

I am feeling poorly today. Lying in bed with a sick head and watching the Bourne Trilogy. To make myself feel better I'm dreaming of where I will be in a week and two days....

Lovely London...






and then on to Paris......but more about that later..off to sleep....and dream of big red busses and english accents.

Alone on a Friday can get you in trouble!

My dear husband is on his way back from being out of town, my dear first born is at her job, my dear second and third born are on their way back from camp. I am sitting, cozily in my chair with a cup of coffee (yep, the campers get back at midnight so it's okay) and doing what else? shopping... a little too much shopping, but, hey....who can help it with these gorgeous things just waiting to be picked up?

These first few are from LyndasBeadDreams. I love these sets of orphans she has. While I have no particular plans as of yet, you never know when you need a gorgeous lampwork bead thrown in for sparkle and interest.




Which of course let to these from TwoSisters4.

Which will go with these from BeadFreaky.


And then who can resist these from edooley, which go with nothing, but again, you just never know.
*Sigh* and the the "piece-de-resistance" (said with a french accent of course), these absolutely gorgeous pieces from seaurchin. A little pricey but totally worth it! I DO have plans for these beauties!



And so this is how I spent my Friday evening. I think it was very productive as well as extremely satisfying!

Caught!

Oooh! WHAT are you doing?

Aren't you ashamed?

Does that taste good? (notice the dressing packet between her paws)

That chick-fil-a is good stuff, isn't it?

I finally bit the bullet...

and bought a light tent. I've seen lots of tutorials of how to make your own, I even made one of my own, but nothing really worked as well as natural light but even that poses a never ending line of trouble.

I have given up trying to find the right time of day when the light is just right. I've tired of the fighting mosquitoes or fighting the heat and humidity, the glare or the shadows.

This way, I can actually photograph whenever I want to and when it is convenient for me.

I'm still working on a little "tweaking" the light values, but I believe it will work out and be much more convenient.

I am giving this necklace away to celebrate my 300th sale. You can enter it here.

300th Sale Give Away

To celebrate my 300th sale this weekend and to get you all a little interested in some new things coming mid July, I'm giving away this Vintage Mother of Pearl Button in Sterling Silver Necklace.

You have lots of ways to enter. Here are the ways:

1. Be a follower of my blog and leave a comment telling me your favorite Ice Cream flavor.
2. Post about my giveaway on your blog and then leave a comment with a link to me to let me know.
3. Post on your facebook page about this giveaway and then post the link here to let me know.
4. Tweet about the giveaway and be sure to include @thirtysixten for an entry. You can do this twice a day.

Be sure to leave me a way to get in touch with you!! I will pick a winner by random number next Monday.

They Came! They Came!

I am not really a person who gets excited about clothes. I really don't like shopping and am a t-shirt and shorts kindof gal. BUT..

I found these shoes the other day and I fell in L-O-V-E!!! The store was sold out in my size (apparently others love them too) so I had to do an online search. Most websites were sold out, too! But, I finally found a pair and they came today.

This is the first pair of wedges I own (i know...i know...for those of you who are in disbelief) and they are surprisingly comfortable. Even if they weren't I would still wear them because I LOVE them!

Room Makeover Underway

Although I share a room with a man, I've decided to make the room something I like.Something girly, something soft, something cozy. He won't care as long as it's not over the top so I'm going for it. Here are a few small touches I have picked up or made so far. This is the color I'm going to paint the room. It is a grey-blue and is really soft and pretty, not at all cold.

I don't have any bedding yet. I know I am going about it backwards, but I fell in love with this color when we visted a historic hotel in Victoria, B.C. The room had this paint color and I want my room the same. I'll worry about finding matching bedding later.

Right now I'm working on bringing in accessories. Here are a few pillow ideas I have.

This is a pillow cover I'm making. I finished quilting it tonight and will make it into a slip cover for a throw pillow.


These are some gorgeous handmade hand dyed roses I purchased from Frippelous on Etsy. They came today and are gorgeous, really large and so pretty. They match my pillow cover exactly! I didn't even plan that. I have so many plans for these! I think they would look gorgeous covering a pillow, but since I bought a bunch I may make a few headbands for my girls or brooches for me. So many options!


I purchased these yesterday from freshvintagecrafts on Etsy. I can't wait to get them. I am thinking of sewing them together for another throw pillow cover or string them together to hang on the wall above my bed. I'll have to experiment.

Once I get the pillows finished I'll share pictures with you.

Coming Soon...

So excited to be working with these new stones soon!





I may keep this little aqua one for me....

Bad Taste in my Mouth

After being on Etsy for almost three years in either a buyer or seller capacity I had a really bad situation arise with a seller.

I received their product in the mail today and it was absolutely awful! It was unexpected because they had such great feedback. But, since their policies said they had a 100% satisfaction guarantee and a 10 day period to contact them, I contacted them right away to send them back and get a refund. It was $60 so it was worth it to me.

Well, their policies were nothing but show. They refused to give me a refund. Wow, I was surprised. I was then given an explanation that the amount of time they spent on my items would be wasted and that since the items were glass the colors would be dull because glass did not come in bright colors.

Honestly pissed, I wrote a long post about "do you think I'm dumb?" "do you think you're the only lampwork artist I've bought from" and a laundry list of links of bright beads I have purchased in the past. BUT, I erased it and didn't send it.

Instead I filed a claim in Paypal for "item not as described" . I guess a notification was sent to the seller because they refunded my money and told me I didn't have to return the items.

I know my work is quality and, while I am happy to refund if the person is not satisfied, I always require the item to be returned. If these were as great and time valuable as they said, why would they not want them back? Because they were crap and they knew it.

ah well, I got my money back. I'm going to send the items back to the seller. Really I have no use for them.

I just can't understand why a seller would not do a refund. Nothing is worth it to me to upset one of my customers. As long as I get my item back I am happy to refund. Now I have a bad taste in my mouth, still have the option for leaving bad feedback, and will NEVER buy from them, recommend them, etc. It just makes me shake my head not understanding what they think they would benefit from refusing a refund. I think some sellers get too short sighted. Oh well, I'll move on and I learned some lessons:

1. you get what you pay for (this was a "deal")
2. filing a PayPal claim isn't too hard (this was my first and I hope last) but I was lucky because Paypal would not force a refund because the item was "shipped"...so sellers could ship empty boxes and the buyer would have no recourse as long as the box reached it's destination! sheesh!

Saturday Visit to the Farmers Market