Don't Forget the Sister!

For the past month or so I have been trying to get my sister to check out my etsy.com page. Not that she doesn't know what my jewelry looks like. I was just wanting her opinion and critique. Sisters are always good for critique! :) So this morning she tells me, "I finally went to your etsy site, but it was really your blog."

I am thrilled she read my blog - still waiting to see what she thinks of the etsy page - but, after reading my blog, she was not a happy camper. Why? Because I neglected to mention her in the sand castle blog of yesterday. It was not intentional.

My little sister had many jobs when we would gather at the beach for family reunions. Most notably, she was in charge of bringing puzzles. We have built dozens of puzzles over the years. Dragons, country stores, ocean scenes, shaped puzzles, puzzles with all the same size pieces - we've done it all.

It was also my sisters sand tools we used to build the castles. She had the youngest kids in the group, so she was still bringing shovels and such, long after my kids were done with that phase. It was also with her help, that I gathered and placed all the shells and beach finds on our sand creations. Building the "city" around the main design, was mostly her job, too. I could always count on her help. And we really enjoyed playing in the sand together.

Whenever you have family gathering in a condo for a week, you have unpleasant chores as well as the grand memories. Sometimes the chores and grand memories are one. So while Mom was cleaning and my brother was cooking, my sister and I volunteered to do laundry. It was not a hard task. It meant gathering and sorting the laundry everyday. We'd haul it down to the laundry room, 4 flights below the condo. Then every 30 minutes or so, we'd return to the laundry room to switch clothes from the washer to the dryer and haul dry ones back up to the condo. We considered the running up and down the steps as part of our aerobics for the week. It was an opportunity to get away from everyone - especially the young children. We secretly LOVED doing the laundry!

This year, we are not gathering. The condo we have had for the last 10 years or so, is no longer being rented. While a few relatives will gather at my Mom's house, it won't be the same as the past years. Kids are growing up, moving to far away places, jobs, girlfriends and boyfriends, they all play into vacation time, and it's gotten hard to gather everyone. I hold the memories of 129th St. condo near and dear to my heart.

Just like I hold my sister near and dear to my heart. We won't have the laundry room to run away to, but we could still build a sand castle together. Bring a puzzle and the sand toys. Maybe in the evening we could visit my site at etsy.com.

Have a great day!

Peace!

Still awaiting fame . . .

When my family would gather in Ocean City, MD for our annual family reunions, we all had our designated chores. My brother, the chef (for real) obviously, was relegated to cooking, while my Mom, did cleaning and pancakes for breakfast. I have always been handy with the camera, so I took the photos. I also was in charge of designing and building the sand castles.

My castles weren't of the caliber you see on some of the forwarded e-mails I have received from major competitions around the country. I didn't have any rising castles out of the sand with dragons swirling about them. But, mine were still cool. I put a lot of detail in them, using straight edges to cut walls and buildings, shells to decorate windows, path ways, and even draw bridges. I created dolphins swimming in the sea, turtles, laying eggs, dragons coming out of the sand and plenty of geometrical designs.

One year, a young girl, maybe 6, watched as I made my castle. She was very impressed. She ran and got her Mom. Mom was impressed, too. Then the young girl looked at me with such sincerity and said,

"You should be famous!"

I'm still waiting to be famous. But I do believe the young girl was right. I should be famous.

Please check out my jewelry at:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/beadhappy4u

before I get famous and run out of stuff!

Have a great day!