SparkleShan

If you have always thought about donating to charity but don't have much extra money, here is a great way you can contribute for free. Go to http://www.freerice.com/ all you have to do is answer the some questions on the meaning of different words they give you, for ever word you answer correctly you get 10 grains of rice donated through the United Nations to help stop world hungry. Check out the site to learn more about who you will be helping out. You can play as long as you want to. I usually end up donating between 300 - 400 grains of rice a day and it only takes about five minutes! Thanks to my friend Amy for sending me this site.

Wanted to add some pictures of my first project that I am attempting to knit. I found a very easy pattern for a shoulder wrap at http://lionbrand.com/ . It calls for two balls of Dusty purple Vanna's choice yarn, which I just so happened to already have. So I decided to give it a shot. It is not fully done yet, actually not even close. I took it apart twice because it had dropped some stitches and it looked uneven and I can't take it unless its prefect! I am sure it won't be perfect when its a final product, but at least it will be even.

SO as some of you know, I was taking ballroom dancing lessons over the summer at Fred Astaire Dance Studio in Mystic. I was planning on doing one of the competitions and I was searching the Internet for Latin ballroom costumes. I saw a ton that I like, but even used any of the decent ones were $500 to $1200 or more. So I decided to attempt to make one on my own. I looked at several different styles of Latin dresses that I liked and decide to use certain elements from each to make my own dress. I didn't end up doing the competition dies to scheduling conflicts and the cost to enter was like $800 or more! The dress is for the most part finish, excepted I need to put more swarovski crystals on the bodice (it is a very time consuming process). I wanted to share the pictures anyway because I am very proud of it. Let me know what you think about it.

I wanted to add some pictures of the brides and bridal parties that I have designed and hand made bridal jewelry for. My Princess Emma's Jewelry website doesn't have an option to add a photo gallery so I thought I would post some of the pictures here. All the jewelry in these pictures were custom designed specifically for the brides needs and to match the colors of the wedding parties dresses. Give me some feed back and let me know what you think of them. I designed the brides necklace and earrings and the bridesmaids necklace and earrings. This was a beach wedding in June. The bride is one of my very good friends Jen. I custom designed the bridesmaids Necklaces and the Brides Necklace and Earrings. This was a fall wedding.

I have decided to add another craft hobby to my repertoire. I have decided to attempt to learn how to knit. I already know how to crochet, thanks to my cousin Stephanie. She introduced me to crocheting about 15 years ago when I was 11. So I went to Michael's craft store and bought a kit, "I taught myself knitting" by the Boye Company. It came with a book, to sets of knitting needles, a cable hook, and a couple of other items that one might need when they are knitting. I like the idea of this package because I wouldn't have known that I needed some of the items that were in it. For the most part the instructions are very easy to follow. One thing I was confused on was the purl stitch. So I went on line and did a search for knitting videos. I came across an awesome site, that has tons of videos on how to do all different types of stitches. Now I can do the purl stitch!! This site is http://www.knittinghelp.com There videos show both the English style and cont

A few years ago my husband and I received a clear glass Christmas ornament, with a tiny origami crane hanging inside. There was also a business card included in the gift that I found the other day while doing some much needed cleaning out of my dresser draws. I decided to visit the link and see what other products they offered. The women that owns the business and makes all her own origami for the products is Justina Danison . She offers a wide range of different products incorporating origami including: earrings, necklaces, Christmas ornaments, mobiles, pins, displays and a few other items. These are a really great idea if you are looking for a unique gift. So check them out. http://www.justbeauitfulorigami.com/

I am a bit depressed I found my first grey hair today!! It was only about an inch of the hair at the root that was grey. I normally color my hair, but I had colored it back to my natural color brown and am letting it grow out because of my upcoming deployment. Argh , I pulled it out, this is just the beginning .

I got this email from a friend a few days ago. It has some great inspiring words, that I hope to live the year by and I wanted to share them with you all. 1. Give people more than what they expect and do it cheerfully. 2. Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As you get older, their conversational skills will be as important as any other. 3. Don't believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want. 4. When you say, 'I love you,' mean it. 5. When you say, 'I'm sorry,' look the person in the eye. 6. Be engaged at least six months before you get married. 7. Believe in love at first sight. 8. Never laugh at any one's dreams. People who don't have dreams don't have much. 9. Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it's the only way to live life completely. 10. In disagreements, fight fairly.. No name calling. 11. Don't judge people by their relatives. 12. Talk slowly but think quickly. 13. When someone asks you a question

Right now I am sitting in the emergency room. I had extremely terrible pain in my right side of my stomach that wrapped around my side into my lower back. I usually have a very high pain tolerance, but this was comparable to the contractors I felt during child birth. I couldn't bend over, sit down or lay down. My right leg also went numb. The doctor said I probably have kidney stones, because there was a lot of blood in my urine. Now I am waiting to get a cat scan. They also want to check and make sure its not my appendix. I included a picture of my iv, it took two nurses and 3 needles to finally get a vein, so I am kind of proud of it. I will update what the final diagnosis is after the cat scan. Later - So it is official I have kidney stones. They said the kidney was inflamed but they didn't see any stones, because I was probably passing them when I was having the pain, or they moved out of the kidney. Luckily they gave me a prescription for Perkiest , which helps very w

This year has started out sort of blah so far. On 2 January, I returned to work after having 11 days off for the holiday. I was sick for 9 out of those 11 days, so I was getting used to sleeping in as late as I wanted 9, 10 or 11 even one day. So I found it hard to get myself at of bed at 6 am for work. Once at work, there was no slowing down, back into a full swing of pre-deployment stuff. Our Mobilization order came out and they are saying we need to bring more people now then we have currently scheduled to go. Looks like some one's New Year isn't going to start out great. I found out I have to go to another school before we leave the country too. I am already scheduled to be be traveling to 3 different places in 3 months, this makes 4 in 4 months. Starting February I am going to be gone for two weeks at a time and only home for 5 -7 days in between those trips. Then as soon as I get back from the last trip, it is off to Mob station. I don't know how I am goin