Jasper!

Jasper comes in so many lovely varieties that I always tend to gravitate towards them in any bead store. I have made many bracelets featuring jasper that are currrently listed in our shop. Today I listed a Winter Jasper and Heart bracelet with Rhodonite accents .

For an offer only to our blog readers, we have a special on ANY bracelet in the Jasper section of our shop. If you convo us before any purchase and mention this blog special, we will change the listing so you receive FREE shipping on your Jasper bracelet. This special will end at 5pm Pacific Standard Time Wednesday April 30th so we must receive your convo prior to this time.

As always, a portion of the proceeds from every sale will go to animal awareness causes. We're making tails wag one bead at a time!

Words not necessary!

I took this photo of gorgeous Multnomah Falls located east of Portland, OR. Breathtaking!

I Love Cat's Eye Beads!

I just love cat's eye beads, not only because they have the word "cat" in them, but because of the dimension and color of these gorgeous beads. My mom made beautiful cat's eye beaded earrings with sterling silver accents and I listed them in our shop recently. Pictured here are the Black Cat's Eye Earrings and Purple Cat's Eye Earrings which are two of my favorite colors.

We have many cat's eye bracelets and several necklaces in our shop too. Our first sale was one of the first purple cat's eye bracelets I made for our shop. I was wondering which item would be the first to sell so it was very exciting to see one of my favorites that I made be the first to go to a new home! In honor of our first sale, I donated $50 to the ASPCA since the true reason of our shop is to raise funds for the prevention of animal cruelty and raise awareness of animal causes.

Hopefully we'll have more sales soon so we can keep the money going to worthy causes! Donations can also be made directly to the ASPCA by clicking on the widget at the top of our blog. Thank you for helping us help the animals!

My Alarm Clock is a Cat!

My alarm clock is a cat named Angel. Everyday without fail she goes off at 5am. She's a full body alarm clock that starts at my feet and walks up my entire body and across my pillow, often pulling my hair along the way, and then back down to my feet again. Some days she starts on my pillow, goes down to my feet and back up. Either way, she does the trick, she wakes me up. After going through all that, she wants me to lift up the covers so she can go down to my feet where she curls up and then starts her "motor". Many people have white noise machines that play sounds of the ocean or babbling brooks but there is no more relaxing sound in the world than my alarm clock's purr of a motor. This purr and soft fur against my skin are what makes my alarm clock something I actually look forward to every morning. Now if I can only figure out a way to change the time on it for a couple of hours later!

Ready for summer!

I can't recall when I last saw the sunshine here in Oregon but boy am I ready for it to return! So are the cats! I think the first day the sun shines through the windows, I'll be laying in the sunbeams right beside Angel and Isabella. Our dog, Sadie, just wants it to stop raining so we can go on our walks in the forest again. It was nice here a couple of weeks ago but it was the day I left for Colorado so I missed it. It's been overcast and rainy ever since I returned a week ago. The weathercasters keep teasing us with sun in the forecast but I've yet to see it.

In the summer when the weather is hot here in the Willamette valley, we love to go to the coast where it's usually at least 10 degrees cooler. Sadie absolutely loves the beach. She runs in the surf then all over the sand and back into the water. She sleeps all the way home that's for sure! A good time is had by all!

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Oregon is a beautiful state and very dog friendly so a great place to vacation for pet owners. There are many trails throughout the state that allow dogs plus the beaches are uncrowded so your furbaby can run all over. There's many lodging choices and plenty of outdoor cafes so everyone can have a good time and not be left at home. We just need summer to arrive quicker! All this rain is going to make this a truly beautiful and very green summer!

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P.S. Be sure to get your animal related jewerly for your summer vacation from http://beadedtail.etsy.com/ !

Animal Awareness is more prominent lately!

Thanks to Oprah's show on puppy mills, I have been seeing more news about animal awareness causes and I'm so glad that people are beginning to talk about the issues so near and dear to my heart. Education is the key to stopping these horrible puppy mills from breeding animals into conditions no living creature deserves to be in. When we lived in the midwest, more people were aware of puppy mills since many are located in the heartland of America, however, when we told people in Oregon that our dog was rescued from a puppy mill, they didn't know what we were talking about. Thankfully it's now more known what some breeders have been doing to dogs sold in pet stores. With education and awareness comes the beginning of the end for animals suffering unnecessarily. With Oprah's lead, hopefully more loving animals will be adopted from animal shelters across America!

Another problem in need of attention is the animals left behind in the mortgage foreclosure issues hitting many families these days. This morning on the CBS Sunday Morning show, Ben Stein had a report bringing awareness to the innoncent animals left behind when people abandon their homes. Here's a link for his important report: http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=4029476n

One day I hope we have no more homeless animals and certainly no abused animals. Together we can make it happen! To show support of animal awareness, we have bracelets with ribbons (as pictured) available at http://beadedtail.etsy.com