Murrini Monday - Big & Little Hooters

A few weeks ago I told you about the awesome little Hoot murrini I got from Lori and Kim. I'm finally posting pictures of the beads I made with it. All of these beads have flown the coop already, but I will make more! This murrini is super fun!

For the owl above and the owl below, I just placed a sweet murrini owl in a contrasting color on their chests. So now they have a mini version of themselves with them wherever they go. 

For the elephant above and below, I placed a murrini owl in their trunks and called them "Horton Hears a Hoot.

How much more fun can I have with this murrini??? I bet lots! But now I also have a new blend called Bikini Bottom and it is filled with bright and cheery flowers and SNAILS! Next murrini Monday I'll show what the snails are doing.

Thanks for visiting my blog and HAPPY MURRINI MONDAY!!!

Murrini Monday - Hooter Style

It has been FOREVER since I've celebrated Murrini Monday - what better time to bring it back than when I receive tiny hooters in my mailbox! That's right, Lori and Kim have done it again with their endless murrini talents. This murrini blend is all little owls! I held back and only bought one pack, and it arrived today and it is wonderful! As soon as I'm done with this post, I'm going to try it out. 

This may sound strange, but I usually don't go for the animal murrini. That's not to say I don't LOVE it because I do! But I make animal beads, and I don't always know what to do with animal murrini. Lately I've put a murrini turtle in an elephant's trunk, and that worked out really nice:

Despite my new pack being a blend of all owls, I could not resist. I envision owl beads with little owl boutonnieres. I can't wait to try it!

But first I want to show you my new turtle ring:

I made several of these turtles in the past few days because I was making a ring for my mom's birthday. I think I made seven turtles all together, and she picked one out and I turned it into a ring. So I turned another turtle into a ring for my daughter, and one for me! I got the rings from Karen Thomas Designs, and they are super easy to use. The turtle just slides onto a little post that screws into either side of the ring. And of course the turtle has an awesome slice of Lori and Kim murrini on its shell. 

Happy Murrini Monday!!!

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.