Busy Bee's!

Breaking Hive News;

After weeks of persuasion Jeff and I went to the Central Florida Mineral and Gem Society last week. A quick tour of their facility gave us enough "feel good vibe" that we decided to join on the spot! The facility is a good size warehouse type place full of great big saws, polishing stations, faceting stations and about 6 silver soldering stations, something for everyone! On a big whiteboard you can sign up for classes and keep up with their schedules. This club is about to sponsor their 40th Annual Gem and Mineral Show, amazing!

Since Jeff was going to be cutting stones for the first time I gathered up some supplies to solder earrings for my Sunday at the Market. We got to the "clubhouse" a bit after 9 (early for us on a non working Saturday) and got straight to work. Jeff's selection of slab stone was beautiful Picture Jasper and I got myself setup at one of the soldering stations.

I kept sneaking a peek at Jeff's progress and taking pictures:

The first cut into slab...oh........

Truth be told I got bored after about 15 minutes of soldering, heck I could be doing this at home...there was a box full of Jasper screaming at me from across the room to be cut. So I packed up my bits and off I went. (This is about the time the camera batteries died and I discovered the backups were dead too!!!)

I grabbed a slab of the same Jasper and went to work but it was the second piece that I love the most. I discovered under the slab saw was a box of scrap where folks throw their cut "leftovers"...this was my treasure chest! We left after 4 hours with quite a collection of stones to be set:

This is Jeff's final collection!

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This beauty was found in the scrap box...it just needed a bit of love...and a trip or two to the wheels!

Needless to say, we'll be going back next weekend!

It looks like the weather that is headed this way will prevent me from participating in the Market tomorrow...I now have my work cut out for me...pun intended!

Have a great night...I'll be dreaming of rocks!

A Little Unexpected

I spend a few minutes most days stopping by the Etsy site named Gemcutter just to see what Mike has going on. I probably buy 50% of my stones online through Mike, I really like his stuff and I trust his photography to represent what he is selling. A few weeks ago he had a piece of Petrified Wood that I really could not believe. Please remember I am still new at this stone setting thing (not quite a year) so when I saw this beautiful pink and golden "stone" it really was hard to believe it was once a piece of wood. Into the shopping cart it went...and here is the end result:

This is one time I can say the name of my blog is fitting...Really?

I've joined this beauty with Rose Quartz, Citrine and some tiny pieces of shell on a wonderfully textured Sterling Silver chain. Please click here to see the other photos in

The Shop!

"Shape of my Heart"

There they were, in that too familiar place.

Standing in the airport gazing at each other he said "please think about it."

Just the night before he had asked her again to marry him, still no answer.

He was leaving but she knew he would come back, he always did.

As the final boarding was called she looked at him with tears in her eyes, "one day you're going to leave and not come back".

So that was it, she said it, her words hanging in the space between them. He smiled, took both of her hands and kissed her. When she finally opened her eyes he was still there, he said, "That's not the shape of my heart."

As he turned to board the plane the chain sliped between his fingers into her hands.

She would say yes, she knew she had to,

but it would have to wait...until he came back.

Shape of my Heart is a Mexican Flame Agate with a Druzy pocket. Like most of our hearts, this stone is full of fire, a bit broken but even the holes are beautiful, with just a touch of Gold! SOMH can be found in my Silver Lining shop.

Over Slept

It seems I've done something to my back so I've been moving very slowly for the past few days. This morning I rose early and gingerly stepped out back to turn on the hottub to do some soaking. The sun still was not up but there seemed to be an unexpected glow. There was Mr. Moon, in all his glory, still sleeping so I returned quietly to the warmth of the house while the spa bubbled away. About 30 minutes later it was quite light outside, I grabbed my cup-o-joe and again stepped outside and slipped into the warm water, ahhhh.

I looked up and noticed Mr. Moon still sleeping, I was a bit surprised but not as much as he was! He let out a gasp, I think I scared him for just as Mr. Moon woke up he saw me looking at him.

Once he settled down he said he said he never knows what to expect when he's over our house! What with Jeff tinkering in the garage until all hours and the light on in the studio almost all the time. He just does not expect to see us so early.

We had a nice chat, Mostly about the weather and how he has had to stay awake all night keeping an eye on all the groves to try to help keep them from freezing. Poor guy, no wonder he's been oversleeping! Suddenly he squinted, he had gotten the first ray of sunshine from over the roof behind us right in the eyes! We both looked over and there was Ms. Sun smiling..."I see you over slept again Moony, now be on your way" we all laughed, said our good byes and he was gone. Ms. Sun looked down at me and winked, "how is the coffee this morning dear" she asked.