Friday, April 11, 2008

That's Right, It's my Birthday

Thanks for wishing me happy birthday, Kim. (He composed his first ever post yesterday - see previous post)

How old you ask? Let's just say I'm still in my early 50's and leave it at that, shall we?


I celebrated with hubbie Kim and daughter Vanessa. We shared some excellent wine, salmon fillet and pasta (cooked by hubbie), and chocolate cake (baked by me).
































With birthday money received in the mail I decided to order these;


I've always favored garnets. My wedding ring is a rhodolite garnet faceted by Kim;



Ahhh. Abandoned hobbies. Kim faceted stones years ago. I have at least two necklaces and some earrings he made. Here are some of his stones;





Among the materials are topaz, quartz, sunstone and cubic zirconia. They're gorgeous stones, but very time consuming and how many necklaces do I need? (Well, OK, maybe a few more.) He gave some away to family as gifts.

And for reference, here is an example of the shape of stones he starts with;






Speaking of abandoned hobbies. I used to make these from natural gem stones and seed beads:





Also too time consuming. But fun while it lasted.

What hobbies are you involved in? What hobbies have you abandoned?
Thinking of picking up any new ones?

8 comments:

Bob and Robin said...

Well, gee whiz, another Aries! Yipee! And a very Happy Birthday! If I had known, I'd have baked you some bread to go with the wine! Kim should meet Terry Hayden in the wine group. Terry searches for - and has found many - Fire Garnets in the desert. He makes some wonderful jewelry, too. Happy Birthday!
--- Bob and Robin

mmichele said...

happy birthday!

wow. those are some hobbies. i don't think i have anything even close to compare. lovely.

Jane O' said...

Happy Birthday. What lovely jewels you have.
My hobbies, are quilitng, sewing, and collecting antiques (too many categories to mention). I usually don't abandon mt hobbies. I keep them for life, which means I am always out of time!!

Connie said...

Happy Birthday, Victoria! Those stones your husband made are awesome!
And your beaded necklaces are also very pretty. I can see why they are time consuming...so many tiny beads.

I enjoyed catching up on your blog today. Your seedlings are looking fine! It was the first real sunny warm day today and I spent the day in the garden and greenhouse...loving every minute of it!
I used to do some other hobbies in the non-gardening months (quilting, scrap-booking, reading, etc.) but now with seed trading, winter-sowing, and the greenhouse, I don't have much time for them. Gardening is my favorite!!

Genie said...

Warning, my Ambien has kicked in but I had to do something on the puter and then wanted to check your blog. Forgive my drug-induced weirdness as I type. I'm amazed that Kim does gemstone work and wonder if he'd have any interest in playing with a buch of opal chips. To my eye, they don't appear that much could be done with them.... but if he wants to see them, drop me a line. Maybe we could work out a nice deal? Something maybe where he fixes as many up as he can and we split them and then I can sell the worked stones for more money online and he can make you some new necklaces!

Happy Birthday, friend! That wine made me positively thirsty. Post more about wine, I love reading about it!

Oh, and I know I still have several trees belonging to your family to finish. I just haven't been in a good mental place to finish them, but hopefully soon! One in particular is especially intriguing and I've looked forward to sitting down with it. If those waiting to get their trees are tired of waiting--have them draw me a seoncd one and send it. I say this because it's amazing how our trees change with our lives. Having an earlier tree and a later tree may show big changes (for better or for worse) and would be a fascinating thing to look at.

Big big, Ambien induced hugs,
Genie

Rosemary said...

how creative the 2 of you are!
Beautiful work .
My hobbies, gardening first and foremost second baking/cooking and third I like to paint.
Decorative items.

Bek said...

Happy belated birthday! I hope you enjoyed your day:)

k said...

happy birthday fellow aries!!!!