Murrini Monday!

A few weeks ago I received some awesome new murrini from Julie at AutEvDesigns on Etsy. Julie makes her own murrini and uses it in her beautiful lampwork beads. She doesn't sell it (yet), but I got to try some out and it's wonderful! See how tiny it is? I love small murrini because my beads are fairly small. I used a lot of it on the owl below:

I LOVE the rainbow murrini on this owl's chest. I fit seven of these tiny slices on him, and I think he looks pretty darn good. :) This owl is still in my shop here.

For this owl I used some of Julie's blue, yellow and green murrini. I love it over transparent glass. 

This elephant was very smart - she swiped one of the slices of red heart murrini. Isn't it great?

And I found Julie's murrini in action on one of her beautiful lentil focal beads in her shop. And there's more where that came from.

Follow Julie on Facebook at Autochthonous Evolved - Lots of gorgeous beads and finished jewelry there! 

Happy Murrini Monday!!!

Murrini Monday

Last week I organized my murrini collection. I had a lot of it in the little baggies it came in, a lot scattered on my work table and some was actually organized in little plastic containers. So I cleaned up a bit and sorted through my murrini. I tried to organize them by sorting them into different colors or themes. The container above has peace signs, happy faces, rainbows and stars - now that's fun group.

When I was finished I had all my little containers filled (minus a couple large bags I have from Mallory at Rosebud101 that I keep separate because there are just too many to sort). As you can see, there is some room on my containers for some more murrini. There are even EMPTY containers! Now that's just wrong.

It just so happened that very soon after I discovered I was running low (in my opinion) on murrini,  Lori and Kim posted a coupon code for 15% OFF all purchases. How could I resist? I put FEBFUN15 in at checkout and two days later I received my little baggies of goodness in the mail. I got Koi Pond: little turtles, fish and frog face murrini; Candy Hearts: you can never have too many heart-shaped murrini; ROYGBIV: rainbow colors! and my new favorite, Happy Hour: which critter would like to be served first? I'll tell you - it was a pug. She's sipping on her martini as we speak.

What other critters deserve a cocktail? Please leave your ideas in the comments - I'd love to hear them! There's a full bar of murrini drinks, with beer, margaritas, bloody marys, blue hawaiins and martinis. I think I just heard a bunny say "beer me." 

The coupon code for Lori and Kim is good until the end of February (remember, it's a short month!), so go get your murrini. But please, torch responsibly.

Happy Murrini Monday!!! 

Cats!

This time of year has me thinking about cats. Not that I don't think about cats at other times of the year, but just before the holidays I think about cats even more. We adopted our two cats, Ernie and Bert, three years ago at this time of year. I was the kitten scout. I was at the shelter nearly every day, petting cats and kittens. Once I'd chosen an orange kitten (after several interviews and cuddle sessions), I brought my husband to the shelter to meet him. Bob and the kitten took to each other right away, so while they were bonding I opened another kitten cage and took out a little black kitty. When we put both kitties on the floor, they started running around together and I think they might have fallen in love. Or maybe that was me. That's when Bob said "We could get two . . ." Um, ok! So we signed the papers and paid the adoption fee, but we weren't allowed to take the kitties home just yet. The orange kitten had an eye infection and that needed to clear up before they would release him. They put the two kitties together in the same cage and we went home and waited. And waited. I went to the shelter with our cat carrier, ready to take them home, but they still would not release them and I left with my empty cat carrier. I understood. But boy did I want to bring those kitties home! Finally, on Christmas Eve, the kittens were cleared to come home. We picked them up and put them in a wrapped box (you know, the kind they have on soap operas where the box top is wrapped separately so all you have to do is pull off the top) and presented the box to our kids. They were stunned. It was one of those awesome moments - we had kittens! Our kids had never had kittens before. The three cats we had had during their life were all grown, so they had never known the wonder of little kittens. It was so much fun! Ernie and Bert are now "cats," but we still call them "the kittens." They became best friends right away and they play and sleep together. They are wonderful. :)

So it's no wonder that I want to shop for cats this time of year. But we're at our limit now with these two fur balls, and that's ok. We love them. But in my cat-obsessed state I've been favoriting a lot of cat items on Etsy and I even made a holiday cat treasury. I can't seem to get cats off my mind. 

Then my glassy friend Lori of loribeads posted this glorious picture of the cat beads she's been making. Aren't they wonderful??? I love group shots of critter beads - and these kitties all get along so nicely, no hissing. :) I didn't see any cat beads in her shop yet, but that's what she's been up to, so hopefully they'll be sneaking in there soon. 

My glassy friend Nikki has a whole litter of kitty cats in her shop, nlcbeads. I own a couple of her cat beads and they are even better in person. Their itty bitty paw pads are my favorite little adorable detail. 

These little tipsy cats by Min of minfidler are a new obsession of mine. I just love the design and all the little details on each kitty cat. I own one of her upright cat beads that I just adore. She has both designs in her shop now, but I've noticed that the tipsy cats go fast! Find her cat beads here.

Another shop that's under the influence of cats is RCTees. Shop owner Toni just had her 8,000 sale! So you know there are happy customers all over the globe sporting her fabulous shirts. I'm one of them - I have two RC t-shirts and I love them. The fit is just right, and the graphics are outstanding. Not all the shirts and bags at RCTees are cat-related - there's something for everyone there. 

So if you're like me and are a little cat-obsessed at this time of year (or any time of year), check out  all the wonderful cat items from the shops I featured. Then head to your local shelter and pet some cats. Or if you can, try volunteering at a shelter. Two of my kids have been helping out as Junior Volunteers at Save-A-Pet. They were there last weekend and two kittens were adopted during their shift. So I'm guessing the new owner of those kittens might feel like me at this time of year in years to come - thinking about cats. :)

Critter Visit from NLC Beads

Looky what came in the mail yesterday! An adorable kitty cat (with beautiful scrollwork that's hard to see in the picture), a 3-eyed alien with murrini, AND a screaming alien, cyclops-style. They are all from Nikki at NLC Beads. 

It's ok to be jealous. It's a perfectly natural emotion to feel when you see someone else with a handful of Nikki's beads. I'm lucky enough to own several of Nikki's awesome critters. My other screaming alien serves as the best fan-pull ever, right over our kitchen table, screaming his little head off. This new screaming alien has been a little, shall we say, nervous, since he's hopped out of the mailing envelope.  And it doesn't help that his travel companions aren't very compassionate to his anxiety. After all, he screamed the entire way here from Ohio.

The critters were checking out their new surroundings and they talked the screaming alien into trying out the playpen. He didn't like it.

Then they put him in the baby buggy. He was not amused.

They had to pry him away from the mirror. He kept scaring himself.

He finally relaxed a little when they sang Happy Birthday to him. And it's not even his birthday.

Some of my other NLC critters agreed to a group picture with the the newbie beads. I think they're all going to get along very well. :)

Thank you, Nikki!!!

World Diabetes Day

Today is World Diabetes Day, a day devoted to the education and prevention of diabetes. My daughter has Type 1 Diabetes (also called Juvenile Diabetes). There is no "preventing" Type 1 Diabetes. It strikes randomly (although it does run in families) and occurs after the immune system attacks and destroys the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas. So rather than talking about preventing diabetes, I'll focus on the education part - with help from my Dinobeadies for Diabetes. :) 

Diabetics test their blood sugar about 8 to 10 times a day. They poke their fingers, get a tiny blood sample, and put it on a test strip that's inserted in their meter. 

This dino is demonstrating how he tests his blood glucose (but normally the test strip is inserted in the meter when the blood sample is taken).

Within seconds, the meter displays a number - the blood glucose reading is 88, a good number! 70  to about 130 is considered normal blood sugar. If the reading is around 70 or below, the diabetic will want to take some fast-acting sugar to bring it back up to the normal range. Glucose tablets and juice are good for raising the blood sugar. 

Lately we've been using Smarties to treat my daughter's lows. They're just as fast as glucose tabs, and they're a lot less expensive. We have Smarties everywhere - in my car, my purse, my coat pockets, my daughter's lunchbox, her backpack and in her test kit. Don't be a Dum Dum, be a Smartie and always carry fast-acting sugar with you!

When it's time to eat, a diabetic will check her blood sugar first. Then she'll figure out how many carbohydrates are in her meal. Then she has to give herself some insulin. My daughter used to use an insulin pen for her injections, but now she has an insulin pump. She puts the amount of carbohydrates into her pump and the pump helps her figure out how many units of insulin she should have with her meal. Every Type 1 diabetic has their own insulin-to carb ratio, depending on what their body needs. 

I don't have a picture of my daughter's pump because she's wearing it at school. :) So here is a dino showing some of the things needed to make the pump work. These little packages contain the infusion set and the reservoir. The infusion set is inserted into the stomach, upper hip, upper rear or leg. My daughter prefers the sites on her stomach and backside. The site needs to be changed every three days, and the locations need to be rotated so the favored areas can take a break.

Here's the reason I make my mini Dinobeadies for Diabetes. Annie was diagnosed almost two years ago. Since prevention is out of the question, we're focusing on a CURE for diabetes. Proceeds from the sale of my mini dinos will be donated to the Diabetes Research Institute, a leader in cure-based research. 

Find Dinobeadies for Diabetes HERE, and let's make diabetes as extinct as the dinosaurs.

My Dad as a Bead

My dad's birthday is today! On Halloween! So when I was a kid, we had lots to celebrate on this day. We ate candy AND cake. My dad's birthday cake was usually a Halloween scene, but one year my mom ordered a cake of his head. He has a very recognizable look, one that translated well to a cake. As kids, my sisters and I were also experts at drawing my dad's face.

My dad also is an ophthalmologist. When I was little, I imagined that he had a box of spare eyeballs. You know, like a shoebox filled with them. I figured that if someone hurt their eye so badly that it no longer was useful, my dad could pop out the bad eye and let his patient pick a new one from the shoebox. This turned out not to be true (bummer, right?). But being an eye doctor and having a Halloween birthday works out very well for gift-giving. We love to find him eyeball-themed birthday presents and there are lots of them out there this time of year. One year I got him eyeball soaps, and this year I found some eyeball post-it notes. But I also was delighted to find some gory eyeball murrini (made by Lori and Kim). I used some of the eyeball murrini on various animal beads, but I saved one for a bead for my dad. I thought and thought about what to make with it. I couldn't come up with anything quite right. Then a couple nights ago I thought, "I should make a bead of my dad!" How could I not? I had drawn his face so many times, why not make it in glass? So here is what I made:

This is my dad as a bead. He's wearing his light blue lab coat with yellow index cards in the pocket (he always has those there for taking notes and making lists). He's also holding a gory eyeball (probably freshly removed from someone's face). His face is pretty spot on, if I do say so myself (and if you can't tell, he's smiling under the beard). The only thing that's not quite accurate is his hair color - it's not exactly black anymore. But this is how I picture my dad. :)

Here is my real dad with his bead. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

AND

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Murrini Monday

 This awesome BOO murrini was just asking to be melted onto a black cat. I think the cat is more scared than scary.

These big-hole turtles love to show off murrini on the tops of their shells. I put a layer of clear over it and it gives it a magnified effect. The eyeball is sure to scare the pretty beads on someone's rope chain.

 Heart murrini is still one of my all-time favorites. It can be used just about anywhere, and I love giving it to little owls. This big slice almost didn't fit on this little yellow owl, but we made it work.

Pinky the owl is always impressed when an owl suitor looks her in the eyes, and not the chest. But his hooter wouldn't blame her new friend for sneaking a peek at her pretty pink and yellow murrini heart.

Murrini from this week's episode of Murrini Monday is from Lori and Kim!

HAPPY MURRINI MONDAY!!!