Beautiful Unique Jewelry

I'm not a girly girl, can't wear jewelry unless it's 14K gold, but I still love & appreciate beautiful jewelry. Dragonfly Creations is a wonderful shop on Etsy. It's so nice to see a unique shop :) Here is a bit about Cara and her jewelry.

I am from Long Beach, CA... and currently live in Seal Beach, Ca

I am a Resource Specialist for LBUSD when I'm not creating things. I also love hiking, playing with my dogs, spending time with my boy friend, family and friends. I enjoy reading, traveling and photography.

I started my business because people were always asking me to make them jewelry, and I luv to do it <3 When people see my jewelry, I want them to think: simple, unique, delicate, original and classic. Supply addictions: shells, beads, wire [I luv turquoise, shells on the beach, antique beads, faceted stones] The wrapped rings { www.etsy.com/listing/78582431/aquamarine-dream} have been my favorite things to make recently. I also luv making the nursing bracelets {www.etsy.com/listing/23527787/for-new-moms-nursing-bracelet-or}

I stay motivated by making/ creating something daily (this is my goal. doesn't always happen since life has different plans then I do)

My shop name is my first name and old last name. (my banner says dragonfly Creations) I actually am in need of moving my shop. In the future I will go by something else. Dragonfly Creations is my initial jewelry lines name, but realized very quickly it wasn't very original.

Advice: continue to create new things. get feedback from friends, listen to them and create a community online with other Etsy members. Also, try to get involved outside of Etsy, so you down micromanage your shop and get too obsessed.

My Favorite Commercial

Mango Smoothie

We have a cooking show up here - Best Recipes, that plays every day. The host is pretty annoying - WAY WAY to perky for me... but she has some really great recipes sometimes.


I've never tried a mango before (other than in a cooler), but saw her make this smoothie the other day and went mango shopping. It's really really good!!

MANGO SMOOTHIE

2 mangoes

1 bananas

1 cup milk

1 cup vanilla yogurt

1 cup ice cubes

Peel mangoes and cut into cubes; place in blender. Peel banana and break into chunks; add to blender. Add milk, yogurt and ice; blend until smooth.

I do 1/2 a recipe - since I'm the only one who likes smoothies. I would suggest that you blend the mango first quite well so the smoothie doesn't have quite as much pulp - unless you like pulp.


Going to try it with Strawberries instead of the mango - that would be really yummy too!

Is it Hot Enough for You?

I think I'm Addiceted to Yarn

Happened to be in Wally World a couple of weeks ago and purchased some yarn to make 2 afghans for charity. The red & black will hopefully look like THIS, and the other 4 colors will be a stripped afghan. May change my mind yet - but we'll see :) I'll make scarf/hat sets with whatever is left.

Found some brand new Phentex at the local thrift shop. Decided to try my hand at slippers. It's great for slippers, but not my favorite yarn to work with. Wouldn't go out a buy it again, unless of course it was this cheap :) The colors are red, yellow, pink and green. Made one pair of slippers so far:

Then I went on kijiji to see if I could find someone selling yarn, and found 2 people! Purchased 9 big balls from one lady for about a 1/3 of the cost elsewhere (there were also two balls of Ivory and 3 balls of White - already used them):

The other lady had her living room FULL of tubs of yarn she had collected over the last 2 years since her husband passed away. She said it had been to fill the void, however, now she was moving to a much smaller house and couldn't take it all with her. This is what I purchased from her:

I think I will be busy for a while :)

Plant a Little Sunshine

I have quite a few cards from ViveLaFranceDesign. They are all so beautiful, but I think I like the ones with flowers best :)


When I saw the card featured in the #1 spot - I just had to make a treasury. It's so bright and cheery! Hope this adds a little Sunshine to your day :)

Grandma Joke :)

Three old mischievous Grandmas
were sitting on a bench outside a Nursing home.

About then an old Grandpa walked

by, and one of the old Grandma's yelled out saying, 'We bet we can tell
exactly how old you are.'

The old man said, 'There's no way
you can guess it, you old fools.'

One of the old Grandmas said,
'Sure we can! Just drop your pants and under-shorts
and we can tell your exact age.'

Embarrassed just a little, but anxious to prove they couldn't do it, he
dropped his drawers.

The Grandmas asked him to first turn around a couple of times and to jump up and down several times.

Then they all piped up and said, 'You're 87 years old!

Standing with his pants down around his ankles, the old gent asked,

'How in the world did you guess?'

Slapping their knees and grinningfrom ear to ear, all three old Ladies happily yelled in unison--

'We were at your birthday party yesterday!'

Black Hills South Dakota Part 2

I love art - almost any kind.  But wood and metal are probably my favorites.  Oh - and glass!  This metal horse is one of the first things we say on the street across from the restaurant our first evening in Hill City.  The artist used all different types of metal tools to make the parts of the horse.

Isn't it amazing?

Just down the street where two guys making wood sculptures using chainsaws and grinders.

How do they do that?

Bath Puffs & Dish Cloths

It's not really the right season for crocheting scarves, hats and afghans, so I thought I would try something new.
Purchased a bunch of 100% cotton yarn and going to sell the bath puffs and dish cloths on Artfire to try and raise some money to purchase more yarn for the scarves/hats/afghans that I donate to the shelters in the city.

Haven't got them listed yet... need a few more hours in the day :)
But they are fun too do :) The orange bath puff is HUGE!
If you are interested in anyone of the above - just send me an email.

Black Hills South Dakota Part 1

It so happened that hubby had last week off because he started a new job today.  Last Tuesday we decided that it would be nice to get away for a few days, since we don't know when he will have holidays again.  Hubby has never been to the Black Hills, it's a one day drive, so that's where we went.  It takes 11 hours to drive to Hill City SD, where we managed to find a hotel after 2 hours of phoning hotels/motels on Tuesday. 


We left Thursday morning at 7:30am, the border only opens at 8 so we couldn't leave earlier.  Arrived in Hill City just in time for dinner :)  We took the shortest route, which actually meant very little interstate driving.  Never saw so many rolling green hills and cows in my life!!!  There was a 100 mile stretch where we met 7 other vehicles, saw NO yards/houses/civilization, only hills and cows.


Here are some views of Hill City, I took them in the early morning when we went for breakfast - no one else is up at 6:30am :)

There was a thunder storm the first night we were there, 3 storms the 2nd day and one the 3rd evening. None of them lasted more than 30 minutes thank goodness! It's hard to site see in the rain.


This is our truck parked in front of the restaurant the last evening we were there. You can't see the pea size hail that was also falling. Really felt for the people on motorcycle!  Check out the water behind the tires of the Jeep.  It was just running down the street!

I will post more photo's of some of the sites in the next installment :)
Have a wonderful day!!