A Little Retail Therapy

I discovered Iron Oak Forge via the Just Acorns group on Flickr, and had to order the acorn key chain (his picture -- I only ordered this AM). My clunky car remote is going to ruin the aesthetic, but I don't care. This is so perfect for me!

If you're new to reading this blog, you may not have noticed my acorn obsession. It will become more apparent as time goes on (especially when I change the blog's header (planned)).

I also ordered a couple of items from Mamacita Beadworks that have been on my favorites list for several weeks (maybe longer).

My daily-wear necklace needs replacing. It's lovely, but it consists of pieces given to me by people that don't speak to me any longer. For the time being, it's a painful reminder of friendships lost, and it needs to go into a drawer.

There must be acorns, so one will be this "funky nut" from Mamacita. I like skeleton keys, and this itty-bitty one has just drawn me to it. John wears an antique skeleton key around his neck every day. It was part of my wench garb back in the day, and has a heart-shaped opening (he tells people it's the key to my heart, and it was hard to get, which is why it was so beat up). The little key I've ordered doesn't have the heart-shaped opening, but I told him about it, and he likes the idea of us each having a key around our necks.

These two pieces will join something else (not decided) on a new chain (not found) around my neck. I'll share pics when it's done. I need to find some seriously heavy-duty jump rings. Suggestions?

Jewelry in General
When it comes to jewelry, I am not a switcher. Meaning, I get one pair of earrings that I like and wear them until I lose one (currently, my lobes are nekkid). I wear one necklace. I have two rings: my wedding ring and the sterling wedding band my mom made for my dad. I own tons of jewelry, including several nice pieces that were my mom's, but even if I wore gold (all she wore), she was the tiniest little thing, and none of her rings fit. (Someday, I'm going to take some of it to the brilliant guys that made my wedding ring (using John's design) and have them make something for me.)

Oh! Firefly fans: Mamacita has a Firefly pendant. I'm thinking about making this the third item for my necklace, and hanging the other items from it, along with a colorful bead or two.

Acorn Fans
If you're even a little obsessed with acorns, I suggest checking out the Flickr group linked in the first paragraph. In addition, I have tagged all of my related images in Flickr with an acorn tag. Also, keep any eye on my Wishlist (in the sidebar). I keep it for myself, mainly, because Amazon now has this nifty feature - a button for your browser toolbar - where you can add things from anywhere. No more emailing links to myself! I've started marking nifty acorn things so I can find them later.

As soon as I'm able to gather up a nice selection of acorns and caps, I'm going to try my hand at needle-felting to make some acorns like these made by my Flickr & swap buddy Craftsty. (I have one of the pouches shown, with a small handful of very well-done needle-felted acorns.)

Other Shopping
On my way home from work last night, I stopped to mail some long overdue packages. (I still have one to go.) A couple of doors down from the PO is a nice Hallmark store, where, once upon a time, I paid a ridiculous sum of money for a small wooden bowl (one of the two pictured here). I popped in to see if they had any fun stuff for my Halloween goody bags (no) and spotted two of the larger bowls. I cautiously turned over one, and saw - to my astonishment - that the prices had been changed to something much more reasonable ($9.95) AND that they were 30% off that price. Of course I bought them both (oh yeah: I'm also totally obsessed with wooden bowls). I also hit their clearance area (80% off everything) and picked up some out-of-this-world stationary and a could of other things, for anywhere from 30¢ to $2. I love clearances!