August reads

My sister and brother-in-law were staying with us for much of the summer, and August was frantically busy and fun. So, not much reading got done in August.

Jewelry making
When we came home from Portland the end of July, we made our usual stop at Shipwreck Beads. What a great bead store! Julie & I shooed the guys off to Cabela's while we shopped; I found what I needed for a few new projects, and Julie bought a great book.

My jewelry making has been limited to earrings so far, but think it would be fun to make bracelets and pendants, too. I found some cool ideas in these:

Sharilyn Miller | Wire Art Jewelry Workshop

Susan Beal | Beadsimple, Drop Earrings, and Bead necklaces

David Whyte | Beaded Chain Mail Jewelry. You too can learn how easy it is to make dozens of perfect jump rings at once. I tried out different colors of craft wire, then practiced connecting them together in patterns, starting with a zipper pull that uses four different sizes of rings.

Lisa Niven Kelly | Stamped Metal Jewelry. I had to return this book quickly. Too much fun, and absolutely no time to learn something new! Not just jewelry, but adding stamped metal accents to crafts would be cool. There are all sorts of new tools, like letter stamps and sheets of metal and hammers. I have too many projects and things I want to learn. But some day.

Thanks to a long road trip with my sister and brother-in-law this month, I did find time to read a couple of novels. After all, it's impossible to go on a trip without taking a book along. I've been anxiously awaiting the final two books from Stephen White, the very last books in the Alan Gregory series:  Line of Fire, and Compound Fractures. I enjoyed them both, and will miss the series. It's been one of my favorites for years.