Mark Your Calendars for Thursday Night!

We had so much fun at the online Halloween Party that I decided we had to do it again! So mark your calendars and join me on my Facebook Page on Thursday, December 22, from 9 p.m. EST to midnight EST. My guests will include blog sisters Monica Ferris and Betty Hechtman, Diana Orgain, Gloria Alvarez and national best-selling author Julie James. All the authors will be giving away an autographed copy of her book. In fact, I think that Diana is planning to give away a set of her series! Betty is offering a crocheted scarf. How cool is that?

I've never been here in South Florida for the entire fall. Since nothing has turned colors or dropped leaves, I'm having a sort of "out of body" experience where I know that Christmas is right around the corner, but it just doesn't feel real to me. Or more accurately, it didn't feel real until this afternoon when Joyce Roseman came off to drop off a few Christmas gifts for me. She's a whiz at homemade biscotti. (I'll have to see if I can cajole the recipe out of her.) So she kindly brought me some wonderful looking biscotti that I'm having later with a cup of coffee. And she brought me this...

It says, "Gone shellin'" and that's so appropriate for me!
All the shells, the one sea bean, the sea plant and the drift wood was washed up on my beach.

Isn't that absolutely delightful? She and her husband Glen worked together to make it for me. I know I'll treasure it for years to come.

Meanwhile, I'm putting the finishing touches on a "tangle" for my husband to hang in our loft apartment up in DC. Here's what I have so far...

I also did another rendering. It's finished...

I'm not sure which one he'll like best. I bought a frame that would work for either of them, and I'll let him choose. Or maybe he'll want both of them and put one in his store.

This year I was invited to three holiday parties, and every one of them got cancelled. So I'm really looking forward to my online holiday party. It'll be fun to get together with a lot of you. I hope you'll invite a friend!

See you there!

A Creative Exchange

Last Thursday I invited my new friend Joyce Roseman and her three daughters to come over for a creative exchange. I would show them how to do Zentangle, and Joyce would show me how to wrap seaglass so it can be used as jewelry.

The Roseman roses--Kyrsten, Katie and Kourtney--are absolutely adorable! In no time at all, they and Joyce were tangling away like a quartet of Zentangle professionals. Kyrsten even "invented" a few wonderful new tangles that I captured for my use later. Then I showed the girls and Joyce some of the things I've made from seashells.

In particular, I've had a lot of fun decorating jar lids--and reusing jars otherwise headed for the recycling bin. The white jar lid is one I covered with crushed jingle shells. You grind the jingles up with a mortar and pestle, which causes the shells to flake. I used a glue gun and glued the entire jar lid with the flakes to get that white sparkle effect. The finishing touches are a lovely piece of blue-green seaglass and a land snail shell that I bleached white by boiling it in a pot of water and Chlorox,

The second jar lid (black background) was much simpler. I glued a broken shell in the center and added others around it. The center shell looks like a rose bud, doesn't it?

The third lid is in progress. I think I'll cover most of the lid with paper and then add the shells as I've indicated. I liked the juxtaposition of the shapes, colors and textures.

Joyce and I played with various combinations of shells I've collected. I plan to turn some pieces of broken, polished shells into pendants. So today, I made a trip to Michaels to buy wire and supplies.

Next Monday, I'll share a post by Joyce. It's one of the most inspiring stories I've read in a long time. We'll also give away a piece of Strung Up Jewelry to one lucky commenter. I've asked Joyce to pick something special for one of you! Be sure to put next Monday on your calendar and plan to comment!

Even though I took the night off to be creative with my new peeps, I still managed to finish Death of a Schoolgirl: The Jane Eyre Chronicles. I've sent it along to my beta readers for their comments. The first of these, my sister Jane, really enjoyed it. There's always this sadness when I finish a book. My arms feel a little empty like I've given up a baby. It's really bittersweet.
How about you? Do you ever feel a little sad after you finish a big project?

ALWAYS Talk to Strangers--and I'll Tangle a Lucky Commenter's Name

Growing up, I was taught never to talk to strangers. But golly, a girl can miss out on a lot of interesting people if she heeds that advice.

A couple of months ago, I sat next to a pleasant man on an airplane. Turns out he was on his way to Cuba to help train Navy SEALS, and he was a commodore in the US Navy. He's currently teaching communications to college students. We chatted about communications and Navy SEALS. Since then we've communicated via email. If I ever need info about the SEALS, I have a great resource.

This week, while walking on the beach, I met a woman who turned to show me a nifty piece of dark green seaglass she found in the surf. We got to talking and walking. She told me how she'd turned several pieces of seaglass into necklaces by wrapping wire about them. In fact, she makes bracelets and necklaces out of recycled guitar strings. Her name is Joyce Roseman, and her company is Strung Up Jewelry. I hope to convince Joyce to write a post for this blog. Isn't her stuff beautiful?

Also this week, I posted an interview with Donald Bain, who writes the "Murder, She Wrote" series along with "Jessica Fletcher." Now, I've never met Mr. Bain, and we haven't spoken, but I suppose you could say that emailing folks you don't know counts as "talking to strangers."

A long time ago, I saw a sign that said, "There are no strangers; just friends we haven't met." Because of the Internet, you can "meet up" with people in a way that's relatively safe, can't you? Certainly, I'd warn a child not to talk to strangers, but when I think back on many of the most delightful encounters I've had in my life...well, I talked to strangers.

How about you? Dish!

I'll randomly select one lucky commenter and "tangle" (create a Zentangle) that person's name.