Amy Currioman

I have to admit that I’m a jewelry junkie.  I love the sparkle and shine!  My hubby thinks I have way too much jewelry, but I disagree, of course!  There are some outfits that I wear that just don’t have the right jewelry to match in my jewelry box. I think that maybe one of the reasons that my hubby thinks that I have too much jewelry is the fact that I have kept every piece of jewelry I ever owned ever since I was a little girl.  I had hoped to have a daughter to give it to when she was going to play “dress up.”  Of course, that never happened; I only had sons!

But now I’m hoping that maybe someday I’ll have a young niece or some grand-daughters come along and play with my inexpensive jewelry some day.  And of course, I keep the older and broken pieces around just in case I need them for a craft project of some type!  It would be cute to decorate a miniature Christmas tree with the broken pieces!  When I look through my collection of jewelry, I see a lot of broken watches that I wish I had been able to use.  It seems that I am one of those strange people that can’t wear most watches – they stop running very quickly.  I used to think that I was over-winding them, but it even happens with the battery run watches!  Maybe I should buy a watch that comes on a necklace chain!

I’ve been interested for a while now in making my own designer candles.  I’d like to buy some pretty bulk jars and fill them with a lightly scented soy wax.  Then after the wax has solidified I think I’d like to paint the jars.  The biggest reason that I think I’d like to do this is because I have heard so much about how cheap wax is bad for your health and also leaves a lot of soot on the furnishings of the house they are burnt in.  I’ve heard that soy wax burns clean and doesn’t have any negative health side effects.  I’ve always liked candles; I think they are very pretty. 

I tend to avoid burning them, though for a couple of reasons.  One reason is that a lot of candles make a mess with their wax dripping all over the place.  Another reason is that some candles just burn down the middle of the candle and then seem to drown themselves in a puddle of melted wax.  And still another is that a lot of the scented candles make my nose run and eyes water and give me a headache!  Not knowing exactly what is in the candles makes me suspect that if I made my own I could control all of that.

I don’t know about you, but I keep almost all of the Christmas cards that I get every year.  I like to re-purpose them for use as name tags, or using them as craft supplies.  I find that I like the personalized christmas cards the best for these types of uses; they tend to be a higher quality of paper than the ones that you can buy at the local discount store for just a couple of dollars for a whole bunch of them.

When sending out cards I like to start on them early so that they are out in the mail around Thanksgiving time.  If I get them all out by then I can relax and enjoy the Holiday season without the pressure of getting the cards mailed out.  It also helps to put me in the Holiday spirit, getting them purchased and ready to mail early!

A couple of weeks ago my sister and I were going through some sexy costumes that we had come across when we were helping Miss J clear out her house.  Miss J asked for our help because she is moving into an assisted living apartment and can’t take it all with her.  She has living in a five bedroom house (she had five kids!) and had lived there for over fifty years.  Naturally she has a LOT of things!  My sister and I brought all the costumes home with us; we just couldn’t bear to part with them!

She used to be in a local Lions club that held variety shows as fundraisers for their charities.  That was way back in the ’60s.  Miss J and our mother performed in those shows, dancing and singing.  They made a lot of their own costumes back then; they were great seamstresses!  I sure wish that we had videotapes of their shows, but that was before inexpensive video cameras became available to the general public.  We have a few silent home movies of their rehearsals, but that just isn’t the same.  I’m sure that they would have had a great time if the Internet had been invented back then and they could have used it to find discount sexy costumes to buy online instead of spending so many hours sewing!

I don’t know if you belong to any of the yahoo community groups, but I belong to a couple of them, and I think they are great! A few days ago someone on my group posted that they were looking for someone to do some sewing for them. I replied that I did a lot of sewing and would be interested in helping them out. (For money, of course!) Now I’m beling deluged with emails and phone calls from other people that want me to do some sewing! They are calling me a life saver! Funny how life takes some twists and turns from time to time. I really enjoy sewing, and now it looks like I might be making a little bit of money from it!