Loving Mother's Day

This is our little family in 1976 in our new home in Maeser. Mauri Sue, Edward, Shawn, Susan and Dirk

For so many years I hated Mother's Day. Every year at church we would hear all about how wonderful and sweet President McKay's mother was - how she NEVER raised her voice in anger and was such a perfect mother.

I would think of me and my kids and how mad they would make me some times and how much I DID raise my voice in anger...and feel guilty and inadequate and just plain lousy all the way around.

Darling picture of my two boys - Dirk and Shawn - summer of 1973

Mauri and her friend Alecia - Easter 1980. Mauri was beautiful even then

Christmas Day 1980 - with Kecia, Dirk, Mauri (and dolly) Shawn and Kelly

My little porkers - Kelly and Kecia - even at four months old they still held hands

But I LOVE Mother's Day now. I look at my five beautiful wonderful children and say - hey I must have done SOMETHING right! I am so very proud of each and every one of them. They are fantastic adults ............................ so moms - there is hope out there!!

We had a wonderful Mother's Day party on Sunday at Shawn and Kris's house. As I watched all five of my children interact with each other and their children and spouses and nieces and nephews - I was ever so impressed with them. They love God - and honor Him each Sabbath Day by attending church and show even more respect and love for Him by living each day to be a worthy child of God. They love each other and that means the world to me. I would say that my children are friends not just relatives. That is important.

They have all chosen wonderful spouses each of whom have a lot of love in their hearts, for God, for their fellow man, and for the family they have married into. Each of my children are hard working and honest with their fellow man. Each of them are fantastic parents with a love for their children and their siblings children. They are tolerant and loving and giving adults.


So thank you kids - you are wonderful and I love each of you dearly. The presents were wonderful but you are even more so. It is so amazing how a mothers' love can be equally spread out over all of their kids. Thank you for a marvelous Mother's Day and for being such wonderful people. I LOVE YOU!!

Makae's Tag!

I tag anyone who reads this!!
All you do is answer these questions
with one word answers!!
Have fun!!

1. Where is your cell phone? NEW

2. Your significant other? basement

3. Your hair? curly

4. Your mother? loved

5. Your father? home

6. Your favorite thing? grandkids

7. Your dream last night? none

8. Your favorite drink? pepsi

9. Your dream/goal? happy

10. The room you're in? bedroom

11. Your fear? incompetent

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? healthy

13. Where were you last night? soccer

14. What you're not? young

15. Muffins? blueberry

16. One of your wish list items? beads

17. Where you grew up? Kaysville

18. What are you wearing? muu muu

19. Your pet? dead

20. Your computer? old

21. Your life? fulfilled

22. Your mood? happy

23. Missing someone? mama

24. Your car? CRV

25. Favorite thing to wear? necklace

26. Favorite Store? Michaels

27. Your summer? coming

28. Your favorite color? Peach

29. When is the last time you laughed? today

30. Where do you go over and over? internet

31. Where would you like to go right now? bed

32. Who will re-post this? Kecia

Thursday's Party

You've all been asking about how my party went on Thursday - after cleaning and baking (I have dozens of cookies left over and sitting in my freezer!) and organizing and planning and delivering over 100 fliers - I had a total of 11 people show up - and three of them were my kids! This is what my living room looked like.


I set up three tables and draped them with tableclothes and then some of the pretty scarves that Dirk brought me from Afghanistan or else pieces of fabric that I picked up from the remnant table at wal mart.

I did sell a few necklaces and thought - well they all seemed to like the many different styles and how well they were made....

but since then the interest has really grown - phone calls and more orders and compliments galore. I love seeing my 'designs' showing up on people different places...it is sooo fun!
Wednesday evening as I set the tables up I realized that I had so many 'illusion' style necklaces that there were too many to lay them all out - but I couldn't decide which ones to display and which ones not... so I ran to wal mart Thursday morning and bought some racks for cupcake tins and cookie sheets and set them upside down with another little rack inbetween and that gave me a fun place to hang them all!!!
The only illusion necklaces I didn't hang on this rack was the "mommy and me" sets (two necklaces made alike for mother and daughter) and then a couple others that I wanted to highlight. It worked!





Kristanne has been unsure of what color or design she wanted her necklace to be like. So she bought her own beads!!!! WOW!! (For those of you new to my blog spot she is one of my five daughters or daughters-in-law that I made my first necklaces for - I practiced on them and they told me color and I made the necklaces! They were my first sounding boards and I learned alot from them). Kris picked a soft red swarovski crystal and bought both large and small beads. I have posted a picture of her necklace above and below this paragraph - the others will be jealous that they didn't wait too, because I have gotten better. Kris also bought 14k gold spacer beads and earring wires and they are beautiful. If I were to make and sell her set it would run $35 to $40 just because of the cost of all the materials! I use nice beads but not as many of the Swarovski crystals and not 14k gold!


This is still one of my favorites -

-
Again - you get the idea of how I laid some out flat and set others up on boards. Actually I had to get creative here too - I went to the dollar store and bought a bunch of cheap 8 x 10 picture frames and draped them with fabric or shawls and put s hooks or some real pretty shower curtain hooks on them and hung the necklaces from them

I had necklaces that ranged in price from $8 through $40 but offered atwenty percent discount so I felt like the prices were reasonable while the quality was good.

The ladies that came were excited over the fact that for no extra charge I would hand make their necklace to THEIR SPECIFICATIONS!

So anyway the ball is rolling and my business has begun! Amee and Terrie are having an open house in their back yard on the 30th of May - they will have displays from several different vendors (it is fun thinking of myself as a vendor!) in their huge back yard there in Syracuse . I feel like my little party here was a good practice for their party. I learned alot about setting up and taking down and displaying the items. I will probably try and do an open house every couple of months!!!

One thing I WON"T do again is take all of the necklaces off their displays and put in them in one container thinking I can sit and watch the news and put them in their individual plastic bags - talk about a mess. In ten minutes time they were a tangled mess!!! Mostly because of the magnet closures that all stuck together. LIVE AND LEARN!!

New Necklaces

You are all probably going to get tired of this but at least my pictures are getting better!! I have found that the black velvet necklace stand is the worst thing for taking pictures on! It reflects the light and fuzzies the pictures


I took these tonight with my little camera - and different fabrics as background, experimenting as I go.

There were two or three more necklaces that I hae created that I didn't like the pictures I took and so I deleted them and will re do the pictures tomorrow. After my party on Thursday I will retake all the pictures I haven't liked because of the poor lighting and edit the etsy posts.
























This one is called bunches of beads...on a chain. It is the rope style necklace with clusters of black, silver and white pearlized beads dangling off a chain. The matching earrings are hanging on each side of the necklace. The chain is really attractive in and of itself.

























This one is called Red Elegance - the antique gold chain with clusters of red, gold, crystals, and pearls makes it downright elegant. It has matching earrings. The chain is forty two inches long - it dangles loose with extra beading at the bottom, as you can see



















This was a fun one to make with red wire and the fun wooden beads - it is a choker style necklace with the matching dangle earrings.



















I call this one the plum illusion necklace - it is one of the ones that are quite inexpensive - just $8 - there are not any of the expensive crystals - just pretty beads


























This is the yellow crystal illusion necklace. At least now we can click on the picture and make it larger and see the details of the beading.

























This is the "mommy and me" set - a 19 inch necklace for mommy and a matching 14 inch necklace for her little girl. They have the exact same crystals and pearls but in a smaller version for the smaller necklace.


I can make this in any color crystal combination and larger sizes for daughter. At my party I will let those interested pick out the crystals and colors they want
and then I will get them made and delivered in time for Mother's Day



















Sorry - I thought I had turned this one - good trial run before I post it on etsy...but I am probably going to redo this picture anyway on a less busy background This set has matching earrings and a fun clunky bracelet to match also.




















Gold Rectangle on memory wire - this is a choker made on the memory wire. I really need to make some earrings to go with it!




















This one is GORGEOUS!!! I made several of the clusters of beads on a chain rope but I like this set best. In the pink and magenta with silver it is really striking. It also took hours to wire each and every one of those beads!

Its official - Petal Soft Jewelry is now out there!!

First off - this is a picture that was taken by Dirk of a Rose held by Kecia taken off of Merrilee's casket - I am going to use it for my company logo!!

Petal Soft Jewelry

You're invited to the PREMIER Presentation Of Petal Soft Jewelry

a new line of jewelry
by
Susan Willden

YUP!! I'm doing it - I am having my first jewelry party at my house on Thursday April 30 - flyers will be going out in my neighborhood. I want to test the waters and get some interest generated. Terrie and Amee are still going to have an open house in their back yard but not until the end of May...

As I mentioned in my email that I sent to everyone, Melinda suggested mommy/daughter matching sets so I have made up some of my illusion styles in different sizes so that moms and daughters can share the beauty on mother's day. I will have two or three on display at the party and then take orders ... hope it works.

Anyway - here are a few more of my favorite necklaces (only one illusion style in the batch because I really need a good light box to get decent pictures of them - so those pictures will come later)

I really didn't care for this one when I made it but it has grown on me. For the right personality it would be a fun necklace - and only $8 online - 15% off that at my party.

This set is much more expensive because of the time involved in making the bracelet. The necklace and earrings would go for $15 but its another $15 for the bracelet ...
This is an interesting necklace with gorgeous polished rock pieces dangling from the necklace itself.

This is a one of a kind necklace - $14 for necklace and earrings - that is a cut shell pendant
I call this one Wild and Wacky - again - the right personality would love it and the big and clunky is really in style right now
The beads on this one are gorgeous - it is long and has a beautiful polished rock pendant setting of the whole necklace with matching earrings.
This one is made entirely of wooden beads and if I can ever find more of the wooden chain I will make matching earrings for it too!
This is the most beautiful necklace I have made so far - when you see the necklace up close the shell is striated tones of brown and cream. I am really proud of this one
I guess I had more illusion necklaces in this post than I thought. This is my crystal and pearl set and it is gorgeous - it is really dressy - the set sells for $19 because of the number of crystals it has in it.

It has been a lot of fun creating these necklaces and ideas just keep coming to me. I wake up in the middle of the night thinking "OH! I could do that with those beads!!" When I sit down to create a necklace I never know how it is going to turn out....but there are very few that I haven't been happy with the finished product.

I would love to have any of you that live close by come to my open house on Thursday - it should be fun!!

Santa Fe and the Buffalo Thunder Trail Resort and Casino

Finally - after FOUR weeks I have created another post! WOW! Miracles never cease to exist. Its been a wild and busy four weeks though. I am going to share some of it with you starting with Santa Fe, New Mexico.

First of all - we took the picture of Ed and Friend(that graces the front pages of my blog above) for Grandma Bea - we were in the Old Town Plaza of Santa Fe and there were art studios and fancy shops everywhere but we loved the huge sculptures found here at this little shop. We got to talking with the ladies that had come with us in our van about how much Ed's mom loved pigs. So they decided we needed to get a picture of Ed with this one. Isn't he cute? I'm going to have a picture made up and mail it to Grandma Bea. She will love it!

The Buffalo Thunder Trail Hilton Resort and Casino was a beautiful collection of open airiness and Indian decor. This is the main lobby.
nThis is the resort from the back side - they are combining a desert decor with some grassy areas but it was so new they don't have the grass in yet - it will go to the left of the sidewalk. I loved the combinations of different levels and the different natural colors of stucco. Huge pots sat on the tops of the flat roofs with wooden ladders leaning up and out at various places to give you the Mesa Verde feel.

This is a picture from the ground looking up at our two patio balcony's.

If you follow the far left windows all the way up on the gold stucco, we are just two floors above them on the top level.
Just a view of the pool - it was a warm day in the mid 60's (I think this is the day you guys were getting clobbered with the snow storm) but not warm enough to go swimming outside.
This is the indoor pool - that's me over there in the chair - there was a large hot tub here and also one outside.

The Buffalo Thunder Trail Resort and Casino is brand new. It just opened on 08-08-08 - that's august 8, 08 - and it is gorgeous. The casino itself was in the basement of this huge gorgeous Hilton hotel so we didn't even notice it or hear it which was nice. We wandered through it one night but didn't even bother to stick a couple of quarters in the machine...I mean HOW DO YOU THINK THEY PAID for all this beauty? -

As we were checking in, the gal at the desk told us she had us in two queen sized beds, and I spoke up and said, one king sized bed works better if you have that available. She said let me look. Ed spoke up and said "I'm a diamond, so you could upgrade us too". No comment as she busily typed stuff into the computer. When she had everything organized she turned back to us and said: I've upgraded you to a suite!" As we walked away I told Ed "WOW, a suite at the Hilton - that's pretty good! I'll travel with you more often!"

So I took a few pictures - it was a large one bedroom suite with two bathrooms, two fireplaces and two balconies and very very comfortable.
Main bathroom with tub on this side

The shower was on the other side of this huge bathroom.




I loved the wooden ceilings - they were so beautiful - the wood was like tongue in groove but rounded not flat like a floor or wall. Fascinating. This is the fireplace in our bedroom. The switch on the wall turned it on and off

Notice the wooden headboard - it was so gorgeous. The bed was so comfy. In this picture you are looking towards the bathroom door at the right.

Now I've taken a step or two past the bed and am shooting the camera towards the other side of the room. I should have opened the curtains so you could see the patio out there. It was one of the two balcony's we had to enjoy in our room.


This is the living room - the window on the left is actually the doors to the balcony. The blue chair is in the center of the room with a lovely table and chairs and countertop behind. Of course there is another fireplace in this room too.
We went into old town Santa Fe all three nights - the first time with a van full of ladies and Ed and I as everyone didn't have cars assigned to them and we were 15 miles from downtown Santa Fe. We headed in to tour old Santa Fe - but since everyone in our group works for Job Corps we looked for the 'cheap' spots. We wandered through lots of eclectic little shops but just oohed and ahhed over everything but gagged at the prices. Finally we found a little five and dime (haven't seen one of those for a long time and I found this cute pot for $8.95 - its almost as pretty as the one Wendy bought for $140!!

I worked on necklaces and Etsy.com (it takes FOREVER to download one necklace!) , went for long walks and read. Nice quiet week while Ed was in meetings. He got out by two oclock every day and so we had a nice vacation together. We went back to Santa Fe for dinner on Wednesday by ourselves and ended up back at the Plaza in old Santa Fe at t he Orehouse - and I had the most delicious halibut EVER!!!! YUM!

Thursday Ed took me downstairs to the gift shop and told me I got to spend BOTH of our $40 gift certificates and we looked and looked and looked and found a bunch of cheap stuff (that was awfully expensive) but I kept going back to this one doll - She is almost two feet tall - Indian maiden in a white buckskin dress and moccasins with lots of bead work - I loved her and Ed thought she was gorgeous too! I almost bought a $74 sweatshirt!!

Finally I told him instead of buying lots of cheap stuff lets blow it all on the doll - she was $115 so we had to add some $$, but I love her.


Ed hand carried her on the airplane and her box just barely fit in the overhead bin cause it was so long but she traveled well.

See how gorgeous her hands and face are.

The last night we were there they had a dinner at The Shed on the plaza in Old Santa Fe again. So we rode in with a bunch of others for a fun dinner and night out - I love these kinds of meetings - I know most of the people and their spouses from other conferences through the years so it makes it very enjoyable.

Friday morning we headed back to the airport in Albuquerque early so that we could drop Anita and Jacque off - our flight was later. We headed over to Ed's Aunt Miriam Lowe's house and had a fun visit with her. She is 87 years old and living alone since Uncle Lynn died two years ago.
We visited with her for about an hour and then took her out to dinner at the Olive Garden - after that we drove out to see the Albuquerque Temple and then took her back to her house to drop her off so that we could make our flight. She was so thankful that we stopped in to visit with her - she is a sweety and we thoroughly enjoyed our time spent with her.

That was our week - it was a fun one.