Hello, August!

Truth be told, July was kind of a blah month. And August... well, August seems to be starting with me being sick. It's just a cold, but gah. I just feel like sitting around and moaning and eating ice cream.

Maybe I'm getting it out of the way, so the rest of the month will be awesome? I hope?

Anyway, there are still so many wonderful things in my life... and so--instead of sitting around and moaning, instead of eating too much ice cream, and in honor of the good things that are happening--I bring you this post! :)

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Things that Make Me Happy

Tackling new knitting projects.

Organizing my yarn unearthed four skeins of this wonderful yarn...
It's so soft and cozy, and I plan for this to be a shawl.
...At the rate I'm going, it'll be done in ten years.

Living in a place where sometimes the sun shines when it's raining.

Cincinnati: where you have to remember your sunglasses
even when it calls for thunderstorms all day.

Playing around with bottle caps. (I suppose this one is a bit of a no-brainer,  given some of my previous entries. *grin*)

Snoopy! :)
This image came as one of the many cut-outs in the Klutz
bottle cap book that I was using.

Going through bead catalogs and letting my imagination play with different ideas and combinations--without spending a dime! 

This? Is the Fire Mountain Gem tome of knowledge--er, I mean, catalog.

Looking at the sun dance in the trees, the wonderful view from my craft room window. (It never gets old.)

Summer sunrise--gold and green.

Listening to music on my new CD player/cassette deck/record player. I bartered for it from a friend... For $20 and a gear collar necklace, this beauty is mine--all mine! My friend even included a giant stack-o-records (vinyls?) in the deal!

Isn't she a beauty?

Music! The Beatles. Frank Sinatra. Duke Ellington.
Peter, Paul, and Mary. Olivia Newton John. Aerosmith.
The Music Man soundtrack.
Now I just need to get my grubby hands on some recordings
I remember from when I was little.

...And, last but not least... tinkering with new jewelry components.

It's my name!
These were made with the Tim Holtz
alphabet stick-epoxy sticker-charm set.

I really am surrounded by beautiful things--something that can be easy to forget when I'm not feeling well, or let stress and worries bog me down. (Me? Need to learn to relax? What a concept!)

...I hope everyone is doing well. Now that I've reminded myself of some of the happy parts of July, I'm looking forward to a beautiful August!