Murrini Monday ~ Hooter Style

When Lori, of Lori and Kim, sent me this excellent duo of yellow, black and white murrini, she put a note on the baggie that said "for owl eyes." She knows me too well. And yes, the perfect slices of murrini became fantastic, mesmerizing owl eyes:

As you probably are aware, another name for owl is hooter. What's better than one hooter? A pair of hooters!

This pug is a bathing beauty in her murrini bikini - same two slices of murrini I used for the owl eyes, only I didn't flatten them (the pug needed all the enhancement she could get).

And here's a shot of the hooters for a side-by-side comparison.

I highly recommend heading to Lori and Kim to check out their latest batch of murrini blends. You're sure to get a jumpstart on Halloween planning (that's right, I said Halloween!).

Random Friday

I'm a rule breaker. I admit it. When I'm trying to think of names for my beads, I often hop on over to The Comprehensive Bunny Name List. I can't remember how I found this site, but I love the suggested bunny names. However, the site explicitly states that Use of this list to obtain names for kitties, puppies, gerbils, hamsters, or other fuzzy pets is an abuse of this service and will not be tolerated. Oops. At least it doesn't mention turtles.

I Skyped for the first time a couple weeks ago. My parents were in Vietnam, and we caught them early in the morning on the computer. It was about 8pm here, so it was about 8am there. It was really fun! My dad aimed his camera outside and showed us the crazy traffic and little scooters everyone drives around on, as well as a couple places off in the distance he remembered staying at during the war. Very cool.

I've been on the email list for our local pet shelter volunteers for a while now. I got on the list for my son, who has wanted to be involved. Well today he'll be working in the food area of CATMANIA at Orphans of the Storm in Riverwoods. The event runs all weekend, and there are lots of kittens and cats waiting to be adopted.

We did our annual trip into cheese country to go strawberry picking a couple weeks ago. We love going to Thompson's Strawberry Farm in Bristol, Wisconsin. We picked A LOT of strawberries. Of course, the kiddos wanted to stop by the Jelly Belly factory afterward, so we did that, too. Check out the gross Jelly Belly flavors that our neighbor's son tried - ick!

Both my girls start camp next week. My older daughter will go away for about 12 days - her first time at overnight camp. My younger daughter will be at the same camp, but for the day camp program. I'm able to send them to camp with money I earned selling beads - so thank you everyone who as purchased from me! Now I have to figure out what to do during the time they are gone - clean out their closet or make beads?

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Murrini Monday

I gave in to my murrini addiction last week and scored more murrini (one little baggie can't hurt, could it?) from my dealers, Lori and Kim. Fortunately, I had enough murrini to get me by until my new blend arrived.

Dolly is looking good in her orange murrini bikini. It might look like she's had work done, but believe me - they're real and they're fabulous.

This blue baby dragon frog started out as a mouse. But sometimes the glass just tells you what it wants to be, and the turquoise glass I was using kept saying "baby dragon frog." Really. Whatever he is, he's holding tight to his pink and green murrini flower.

This mouse bead actually made it to fruition. Gracie the gray mouse is so happy to be a mouse, as opposed to a baby dragon frog, that she's ready to share her love and happiness with a pink and green murrini heart.

Bogart the black owl is sporting some striking murrini. I love the colors I was able to get out of this murrini. I'm still experimenting with striking murrini, and I've had a few misses along the way, but I think this one is a hit.

Here's my new blend, perfectly called Calorie Free Love ~ my very favorite murrini colors (retro candy colors) combined with the hippy designs of peace and love and happiness and checkerboards and . . . yin yangs! I just might have to hold auditions for which beads will get to sport those pink and black yin yangs - love those!

Murrini for today's edition of Murrini Monday is brought to you by Lori and Kim. Find their online shop at Lori and Kim, and their Etsy shop at Lori and Kim on Etsy.

Murrini Monday ~ I ♥ Murrini!

This delicious focal called Pull Here was made by Lori of loribeads. Lori is the other half of Lori and Kim, my murrini dealers. Do you see what she's done? She used two pieces of murrini and dragged them down to form a heart shape. Why didn't I think of that? It's beautiful and unique, like everything Lori does. Be sure to check out her shop - she's got a bunch more murrini focal beads and a coupon code posted at the top.

Lara of Lutrick shows her love of murrini in almost the same way as Lori. She took single slices of rainbow murrini and dragged them into hearts. This takes patience and skills, but check out the beautiful results! A Rainbow Heart Retro bead set. Happy Happy!

I guess I took the easy way out and used a piece of murrini with a perfect little heart in it to adorn Othello the Owl. No reworking the murrini here - just heating and placing it on Othello's chest, opposite where his heart would actually be.

Happy Murrini Monday!

Grinning Beads ~ teeth and all

My poor beads must only eat jello because none of them have teeth. I've given an occasional tooth to a gator, but that's really about it. Teeth are a rare feature on my beads (almost as rare as tongues). My beads are awfully jealous of the toothy grins they're seeing on other lampwork critters (and I'm awfully jealous of their creators' mad skills).

Until I can figure out how to make turtle teeth, my beads will have to keep on gumming it. And I'll keep on grinning every time I see beads like these:

This Patriotic Big Hole Cat Bead Set by PuddyTatGlass just cracks me up. The expressions say it all.

This whimsical brooch by PattyLakinsmith features one of her very own "Meanies" beads - teeth and tongue! Bonus!

Cuteset Porkchop evah! This little piggy is made by Gelly, who must keep extra floss on hand to keep her beads teeth so clean.

Murrini Monday

As promised, I have a Murrini Monday post! It's been a while, so let's get right to it. Murrini for this edition of Murrini Monday is brought to you by Lori and Kim.

Beppe the brown owl is proudly sporting a gorgeous slice of Lori and Kim murrini in earthy tones. Notice the goldstone sparkle? Nice.

Meet Anthony the happy weiner dog. He shows his cheeriness with a smiley face murrini affixed to one side.

This periwinkle owl sees life through orange and purple colored murrini (glasses). When I have two pieces of murrini that are approximately the same size and shape, I can't help but use them for owl eyes.

Pugs for peace. This murrini is from the same blend as the smiley face murrini. I lurve it!

Lori Peterson, half of the Lori and Kim duo that creates the beautiful murrini that I hoard, made these gorgeous murrini-filled Robin Rounds. She combines murrini and twisties and encases the whole lot in clear to make these super-fun glass bead balls. Lori is always coming up with new ways to showcase their murrini, so be sure to keep an eye on loribeads. Lori and Kim are also having a big Summer Sale - so check that out, too, at Lori and Kim.

As you can see, I have quite a bit of murrini. This is almost my entire collection, but there are still a few baggies of goodness that I haven't put into containers yet. I'm really trying to make a dent in it to justify another purchase. Of course, that hasn't stopped me before!

Happy Murrini Monday!

Randomness

Look at all the orioles that stopped by to feed!!!*

~ Thank you for all the comments on my turtle rings (on a post a while back). I am making one for Dee of Cherry Obsidia, who left the first comment. She lives in the UK, so I get to learn how to convert her size P to a US size. Also, she is a lampworker and jewelry designer, so she will have a nice critical eye. I've made a few turtles and I'm now deciding which one to turn into a ring.

*~ So about a week ago we were at our daughter's softball game and our next door neighbor sent me a text and he was freaking out because there were FIVE Baltimore orioles on our feeder. He said he was running to get his camera. I of course didn't take him seriously because we had yet to attract even one orange bird. He eventually texted back to say they were "impostor" birds LOL. I figured he just didn't know his birds. So about an hour later we get home and my husband walks over to the window where we can see the feeders, and he says something like "I think we got some orioles!" Now we're all excited and running to the window. But after further inspection, we realize they are impostors! Fake birds! We hear laughing coming from the basement steps and our son comes up, laughing his head off. Apparently my dad had been secretly contacting our son to find out when we wouldn't be home (during the softball game, as it turns out) so he could drop off some fake-but-realistic-looking orioles. It was our son's job to position them on the feeders and the fence and in the garden (there was a whole flock!). Very nice. You got us, dad. And you really got our neighbors.

~ Summer tip: While most adults probably prefer to eat watermelon cut into nice little cubes or scooped into neat balls with a melon baller, kids (and kids at heart) much prefer to eat it off the rind. So if you're having a summer barbecue with both kids and adults, I suggest you have two options for eating watermelon and see who picks what.

~ I finally bought Bitter Apple (thank you for the suggestions!) to hopefully deter our cat Bert from chewing on cords. The final straw was when he bit through the mouse cord while my husband was using it. The cord must have been hanging down under computer and all of the sudden it didn't work, so my husband pulls the cord up and it was bitten in half. That cat is very sly.

~ Our poor dog is afraid of thunder. But poor us - we've had thunderstorms the last two nights and he keeps running from one side of our bed to the other, checking to see if anyone will let him in. Usually he sits in the shower to wait them out. I'm now wondering if Thunder Shirts really work - anyone try time on their scared pooches?

~ Now that my kids are out of school for the summer, my torch time has taken a dive. The kids go to bed much later, so I don't really torch after dinner. What I need to do is have some early morning torch sessions, when the house is quiet.

~ I showed no willpower today when I bought whip cream (the kind you spray from a can). It's not for ice cream - I plan on using it on iced coffees (once the temps go back up above 70).

~ I planted green bean seeds in the garden the other day. I also planted Kaleidoscope Mix Carrots - hoping to have purple carrots to show off in a few months. How cool would that be?

~ I will definitely do Murrini Monday this coming Monday. I don't know what my problem is lately - I just haven't been blogging a lot. But I love Murrini Mondays, so if you have any suggestions (beads you've seen that show off murrini), just let me know!

Our daughter turned 8 a few days ago. See that cake? It's a half-sheet cake that feeds about 40 people. We have five people in our family. So we invited the neighbors. That made a total of eight people eating that cake. Five days later and the cake is just about gone. We love cake.

Have a great weekend!!!