Breast Cancer Awareness Jewelry Designs

This is one of my favorite cell phone charms that I've made. I used cat's eye hearts, milk glass white hearts, czech glass tulip flowers, swarovski glass pearls and czech glass crystal bicones. All of them are hand wrapped with sterling silver wire onto a beautiful sterling heart chain. Then I added the cell phone strap and tiny little sterling silver awareness ribbon. It's so feminine and fancy. What woman wouldn't love it!!

This one has a lovely large rose quartz gemstone and cat's eye hearts in two sizes. I've added some pretty pink glass pearls all handwrapped onto a silver plated chain. I attached the cell phone strap and a nice enamel flip flop charm that has rhinestones and a tiny pink awareness ribbon. Very chic!!

Here's a gorgeous breast cancer awareness charm bracelet that I just finished last night. Lovely cat's eye hearts, 8mm rounds with swarovski crystals embedded into the beads, rose quartz tube beads, pink 6mm glass pearls, freshwater pearls, swarovski pearls, glass square cube beads, czech glass flower beads, frosted flower bead and tiny seed beads all handwrapped onto a beautiful sterling silver chain, connected with a lovely sterling box clasp with a design. I have attached a small sterling silver awareness ribbon. The colors are much more vibrant than the pictures. It's got lots of sparkle and shine to it. Wouldn't this make a lovely gift for that special woman?

Jewelry Gallery Designs

My meeting today went really well. The owners of the gallery were really impressed with my designs and work. They have agreed to put my jewelry in their gallery starting right away. I am now at: Dancing Bird Art Studio and Gallery in Cumberland, WI. Soon my jewelry designs will be on their website as well at: http://www.dancingbirdartstudio.com/ . I am so excited about this, finally my work will be recognized and appreciated and this also raises the value of my designs. It's definitely a step in the right direction as far as an artist is concerned. I always feel so much more confidant when other artists value my work. Why is that I wonder. Do all artists feel that way, do you suppose?

Grandma's Pride and Joy!!

This is the latest picture of my grandson, Horatio. He will be 9 months old on the 5th of July. If you've been reading my blogs, you know that Horatio has been living with us off and on again all of his life. In May, we decided it was time for him to go back to his mom's fulltime so that he would be sure to bond with her. He's continued to have persistent ear infections ever since his bout of pneumonia in February so the doctors finally decided to put tubes in his ears this past Wednesday. So far, so good, he's doing fine.

We are so proud of this little guy....he's crawling, and doing everything he's supposed to be doing for his age, including pulling himself up on furniture and walking around furniture. This is our weekend coming up and we are looking forward to seeing what new things he's learned and achieved. I love the time we have with him because it gives me such joy to teach him things, and to read to him, sing funny little nursery rhymes to him. We are trying to get him to say dada or mama, but I really push for nana...I kind of test out the grandma or nanny or nana....curious as to what he'll finally choose to call me....whatever it ends up to be....I'm sure I'll be great with it!

Here he is with his grandpa Ted, who he absolutely adores. They are best buddies and he will sit for hours with his grandpa and watch any sports with him. It's so cute to watch them together cuz Horatio knows he's got grandpa wrapped around his finger. They will walk and walk and walk if that's what Horatio wants to do. When it comes time to take his bottle before bed, guess who has to give it to him....yep, grandpa!! And grandpa just laughs cuz he thinks Horatio is just the cutest baby in the world...Horatio keeps him in stitches laughing by just making funny faces at him. It's so cute!!!

I've been very busy the past couple of weeks or so....getting ready to put my jewelry designs in a Gallery for local artists in Cumberland, WI. It's a lovely gallery and shop. My husband and I found it one day, when we were trying to find a location of one of my new doctor specialist that I'm seeing. We decided to stop for lunch and saw this place so we went inside and asked the owner and he asked me to bring some of my pieces in for him to see. I'm really nervous about this. I really would like to be featured in this place. I think it would be good for business and also generate some sales for me. I've designed some really beautiful pieces this year and

I've been trying some new stones and styles of necklaces that I think are in style with today's women. I love this piece here, it's light and summery. The focal lampwork bead is so beautiful and it's one of a kind along with one of the charm beads. The sterling silver charm reminds me of a pyramid so it feels kind of mystical. Four of the round beads are genuine turquoise in a beautiful robin's egg blue color giving it that summer feel. These kinds of bracelets are fun and easy to wear.

I'll add more tomorrow as it's getting late and I need to get to bed. Busy day tomorrow.

This is a beautiful lime green turquoise and black onyx necklace, bracelet and earrings set. I just finished this piece a few weeks ago. I love the texture and feel of these pieces. So smooth, yet so rugged and earthy. It's rather heavy but not so much that it's uncomfortable to wear. I really enjoyed working on these pieces.

I haven't had much time to be creative these past few months since my grandson was born in October, 2007. He's been living with us off and on for about 6 months. When he's here, it's a full-time job and I don't have much time for anything else. So I apologize for not having more designs posted here. Horatio is back with his mother fulltime now so I will be working on my designs more now. I will post them here as I complete them. I hope you enjoy browsing through my website and possibly visiting my etsy shop.

This necklace and bracelet set is made of picture jasper and small freshwater pearls with a lovely teardrop shaped pendant of picture jasper. Finished off with sterling silver clasps. I love the rich colors in the picture jasper; very rugged yet the stones are very smooth to the touch. It reminds me of the desert or the sandy shores at the ocean. I've spent alot of time walking sandy beaches in Florida and these stones are a reminder to me of the beauty that they are.

When my grandson, Horatio was here with us all the time, I did alot of photography. He is such a good subject and quite the little ham when he sees a camera. Of course, the camera loves him as well. He's very photogenic as you will see from the pictures I will be posting here shortly. I won't apologize for showing him off to you. I'm just so proud of the little guy and how much he has overcome already in his short time that he's been here. He's a tough little guy and he's such a pleasure to be around. I hope you enjoy the pictures I've taken of him. If you'd like to see more of him, go to: www.yuwie.com/naturallycharming . Check out his photo album.

This weekend we are taking him to Chicago to visit my husband's granddaughter, Madison. She was born 5 days before Horatio and we've only seen her a few times. This will be Horatio's first time meeting her. We can't wait to get the two of them together for pictures. They are almost 7 months old and they are both learning new things every day. It will be fun seeing them interact with each other. Madison is a little red head and she is so cute. We don't get very many pictures of her so this will be my chance to take alot of her for our album.

This is little Madison. She was born Sept. 30, 2007, a month earlier than expected. Isn't she just the cutest little thing with her bright red hair and that little smile. I can't wait to get her in my arms this weekend. We also found out that we have another grandchild on the way and will be here in November of 2008. It's amazing to my husband and I because for years we didn't think we were ever going to get any grandchildren. Then all of a sudden we have two in one week and another on it's way. We are truly blessed. We are having the time of our lives with our grandchildren. Well, I'm going to end this now since it's getting to be pretty long but I will add one more picture of Horatio just to show you how lucky we really are. Enjoy!

Whoo Hoo!!!

Horatio's Hospital Adventure

> This is my grandson Horatio who is 4 months old. He just recently was released from St Paul Children's Hospital in Minnesota. On February 1, 2008 Horatio was dropped off at my place in Wisconsin around 11:00 AM. When he arrived, he was lethargic, eyes were glassed over, he felt like he was running a temperature and he was trying to cry but all he could do was wimper and squeak. His breathing was terribly labored and he had no tears although he was obviously trying to cry. I asked his mother and her step dad what was up with this and they responded with, "He's getting over a cold but he's better now." They left and I immediately took his temperature rectally and it was over 101 degrees F. I thought he was probably feeling a little dehydrated so Grandpa gave him a couple of ounces of water but he really was having a difficult time with it. I gave him some generic tylenol and he slept for a while. By 5:30 PM it was apparent that he was getting worse. I took his temperature which was over 102.8 degrees F. I called the medical clinic here in Amery. They called me back about 10 minutes later. I described his symptoms and she asked if his chest was caving in when he inhaled. I checked and they were. She told me to get him to the emergency room right away, if I couldn't drive him...call 911. He was in Respiratory Distress. We live two blocks from the Amery Hospital so I drove him over to the emergency room right away. They were waiting at the front lobby for us and they rushed him back to the emergency room while I checked in. By the time I got down there, they had him hooked up to a respirator, heart monitor and were putting in an IV to give him fluids. The doctor said he had pneumonia, both ears were inflamed and he was severely dehydrated. He was in fact, a very sick little boy. They airlifted him by helicopter to St Paul Children's Hospital in Minnesota. They felt he was in to critical condition to take a chance by transporting him by ambulance. My husband and I drove down immediately to St Paul, after calling my son to let him know what was going on and to have him call Horatio's mother. My son, met us down there. At Children's they confirmed the diagnosis that was made in Amery Hospital and said that it was a viral pneumonia called RSV. A very dangerous virus that attacks young infants and adults. Being viral, antibiotics don't help for the pneumonia but they did continue administering it for the ear infections. As you can see by the above photo, they were doing everything possible to make him well again and comfortable. He had an IV in his head keeping his fluids up, he was on oxygen through his nose and on his foot he had a monitor keeping track of his heart beats per minute and also the amount of oxygen he was taking in.

The first couple of days we were in the Short Stay area of the Emergency Ward. Then we were finally moved into a room with a couch. After a couple of days, Horatio started to look and feel better, his temperature was finally staying down, he was rehydrated and started to fuss and complain a little. He was such a good boy but he kept trying to get to all of the tubes and stuff coming out of him so a nurse brought in a pair of "no no's" which are made of styrofoam and velcro. They go over the arms so that they can't bend at the elbow and reach the head and face where his IV and his oxygen tubes were. I was so surprised that he didn't fuss more about being confined. They were actually better than swaddling his arms at his side with a blanket like we had been doing before the "no no's".

I forgot to mention that his mother showed up at 3:00 AM Saturday morning and stayed for a total of one hour. Then her and her step dad left, but not before her step dad had to order her to go over and touch her son and give him some comforting. She didn't come back again until Sunday afternoon and again she only stayed for an hour. I practically had to force her to give her son a bottle while she was there.

We found out later that she had known that Horatio was really sick and needed to see a doctor because on Thursday, the day care lady told her that he was very sick and needed to go to the doctor. Mom decided to ignore this and didn't tell anyone including her step dad because she had a big weekend planned and didn't want to have to cancel if I wouldn't take him sick. We are now meeting Friday with Social Services again to determine what to do about this situation. Obviously staying at her step dad's isn't working because his wife is now working nights and isn't able to supervise Mom and Horatio like originally planned. Instead, they have allowed Mom to care for Horatio alone without much supervision at all. My husband, my son and myself want him out of there immediately. He is now with us recuperating from his illnesses and will remain here until the end of February. It looks like we are going to have to file a petition to take him away from Mom and stay with us until my son can get on his feet again and get a place of his own to raise Horatio in.

This is my son, Will. He spent alot of time at the hospital with his son. He has just started a new job yet he took the time off when he could to come and help out with his son and to give him the love and care that he needed. I spent 24/7 with Horatio at the hospital, only going down to the cafeteria for meals. I slept right by his side all night and took care of his everyday basic needs of changing diapers, feeding him his bottle every two hours, holding his hand or hands to keep him from pulling on the IV"S or the oxygen tubes, and just basically entertaining him and making him feel safe. We finally got to take him home Tuesday evening even though, by now he was vomiting and had diarrhea. They thought he'd be safer at home with us so he didn't pick up anymore problems in the hospital. It's been tough here at home for the past few days. He was on pedialite and formula at first but now he's finally back on his full strength formula. Still needs tylenol sometimes at night because he's pulling on his ears still but I really think he's on the mend finally. He's still has a runny nose and coughs some but they said he would do that for a while.

And this is me and my beautiful grandson, Horatio. I have to say that I was very impressed with the Amery Hospital and St Paul Children's Hospital. Everyone was so helpful and kind. I also want to thank the helicopter people who airlifted him from Amery to St Paul. They did an excellent job transporting him safely and quickly. Something like this could have been avoided if the people who were supposed to be taking care of this child would have done their job and seen that he was taken to the doctor before it got this bad and this critical. Unfortunately the district attorney of Washington County doesn't think this is negligent or serious enough to warrant removing the child from the mother or this home. I, for the life of me, don't know how bad it has to get in order for them to realise that this woman is irresponsible and incapable of caring properly for this child.

Just Call Me "Nana" !

I just love being a grandma. We are having so much fun with our new grandson, Horatio Caine. He's now 3 months old and getting so big and so much personality. I love watching the changes that take place. He changes so quickly between visits. He's now smiling and getting more vocal and talkative. He's also drooling alot which means he's teething which should continue for quite a while now.