another wren moves in

i'm seriously thinking that i need to start charging some kind of rent around here for all the bird tenants that we've had this year. found this one clearing out this house that i've got secured on my front porched. this is a high traffic area with us and dogs going up and down here, so not sure if she'll actually stay here.

eco friendly bug control

we ordered 2 pods of praying mantis eggs from some online nursery and have been waiting for them to hatch. the instructions said to place them in a paper bag with a stick or two, close the bag with a paper clip and then put in a window sill. it took about 2 weeks and then a few days ago jeff opened the bag to check on their progress and they had hatched! so outside they went. we tore the bag in half and then placed the bag on a plant and let them find their way out. these little praying mantis's were about the size of my thumb nail!
i have a terrible aphid problem, so we ordered these praying mantis's and some ladybugs in hopes that they would eat up all the aphids. i think most of my lady bugs flew off!

commissioned birthday present

i had a request for a pendant to be given as a gift. i was told she loves birds and music. so this is what i came up with. hope you like. it was interesting working on a spoon.

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looks like Mrs. Robin has been busy! taking another peek in the nest yesterday i found two more eggs. so she laid 4 total, but buried one under these other eggs (i'm gathering that she decided that something was wrong with it). after they've gone, i'll take a peek and see if i can get it.

creating a story

i've had a few inquires about how i came up with my purse story, so i thought i would share. i was born in California and lived in various areas of the state while growing up. we did use to go a place called Bass Lake, located near Yosemite National Park and Fresno (California). My mother lives there now. usually i go every summer to visit, but lately that hasn't worked out (boo hoo). When i was little we rented a house in Bass Lake. on the way there we had stopped at a gas station and at the time they use to give out little plastic toys when you filled up. It was my turn to get something special (there were 4 kids), so i got the toys, which were little animals, like a giraffe, a tiger and something else. anyway, i did indeed hide those little toys in the house where we were staying. and yes, i did forget about them when we were leaving. Also, there was a huge boulder on the side of the house that we use to play on. across the street from the house was the lake and there was a dock that belonged to the house we rented. so we would go to the dock and jump into the lake wearing our bright orange life vests. I found the water to be "creepy" and didn't like to jump off the dock. i always thought there were things under the dock and they would get me.

Another part of the story came from my stepmom, Angie, who had emailed me and told me she had a metal mesh purse like the one i picked up at the flea market when she was a little girl and that she liked putting the purse in her mouth. the "lost" part of the story came about because when i graduated from high school, my mom and stepfather moved to North Carolina. A bunch of my personal belongings were lost in that shipment; things like my beloved books and my yearbooks. So i've never gotten to look through my yearbooks again and it always really bums me out. i really wish i had them back. highschool is such an important time in your life when you are full of dreams and just enjoying life as a young teenager does. it would be fun to look at the old pictures, read all the things people "signed" in my yearbook, especially senior year. I often wonder what became of them. were they trashed? did they end up in a thrift store?

so those are the elements i combined to create my story of the lost purse.

into the city today

today i went in to NYC with Mary Ellen. We had a really nice time. the city was fairly quiet, not too hectic and traffic wasn't bad. our first stop was in Soho for lunch at a place called "Hampton Chutney Co.". they serve indian food and i ordered a wonderful wrap -ish type meal that was served on "sada". it had turkey, melted jack cheese, marinated red onion and avacado and it came with a side of DELICIOUS AND SPICEY mango chutney. when i picked up my lunch, i was in awe of how big it was! (but i still managed to eat most of it)

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next we walked a little ways until we came to Dean & Deluca. Dean & Deluca is a gourmet food marketplace with cheese, meat, fish, imported food, coffee bar, fresh flowers and produce. Oh and they had the prettiest cupcakes i've ever seen.

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we walked a little ways further to stop by the make up store "Face". While we were waiting for it to open, i spied this little guy (name's Chili) and took a pic of myself through the store window looking in a mirror inside the store.

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From there we made our way over to Pearl River Mart. I made a pit stop at H&M and bought a cute skirt that reminds me of something from the 50's. i love that the skirt has pockets.

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Next stop, Pearl River Mart! wow, talk about eye candy. i didn't take any pictures inside though as i wasn't sure if they'd appreciate it and i didn't feel like asking. there was so much to see and look at that i spent most of my time doing just that! there are 3 levels and we only made it to two of them. i bought Dillon's girlfriend a bag, some Asian treats for Dillon. here's me in front of the store (and i am wearing one of my cool doll necklaces) and an awesome Bloomingdale's window displaying celebrating "cirque du soleil".

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from there we headed to midtown to hit a couple of bead stores. we stopped at M&J trimming and New York beads, which i loved.

thanks for a great day Mary Ellen!