Back To Normal

It's now almost five weeks since my LASIK and I'm getting back to 'normal'--or what ever that means in my life. :) The eyes are still fluctuating a bit, but not as much as at first. I think when everything finally settles for good, I will be completely satisfied--after all, I'm almost there already. I've been trying out things to make sure I won't have problems doing what I'm used to and things are going fine. I did some sewing last week and it went well. I also got back to making some bracelets and I had no trouble. All this paragraph does is lead to my newest jewelry endeavors, so here goes.

My first bracelet after my surgery took two months to design. It is my Stanley Cup playoff bracelet and it came out quite pretty.


Each red bead represents a win and each white one is a loss. The silver spacers/beads are either the ends of rounds or trophies won: President's, Western Conference, Stanley Cup. While a sporting playoff seems to work very well for a bracelet pattern, I think this same method could be used for other things, such as weight loss or working toward any other goal.

After using Swarovski crystals for so many of my bracelets, I decided to look elsewhere for beads. This brought me to gemstones. I decided to use gemstones according to their healing properties--and this means I am using natural stones that aren't anywhere as processed and polished as other beads may be. Some of the stones I am using are a little 'dull,' but they are working quite well.

I made a bracelet for The Mother that has stones that help arthritis, the knees, and helps alleviate pain. The stones I used to make it are carnelian, mother of pearl, and rock crystal. It came out nice.


I made a bracelet for the youngest daughter to help with her infertility. Now, if it works, I sure hope it doesn't work TOO well! :) Carnelian is in this one, also, and rose quartz. The third stone is rock crystal--which is used to enhance the properties of the other stones.


I made myself a new 'serenity' bracelet. It is to 'balance the mind, heart, and soul.' The amethyst is for calmness and serenity, the rose quartz is for healing emotional wounds, and the rock crystal enhances all.


And I finally made one with all kinds of stones to help all of my physical and emotional needs. I put mother of pearl, topaz, lapis lazuli, carnelian, citrine, rock crystal, garnet, black onyx, and rhodonite. Surprisingly, all of the stones and colors managed to fit together well.


While some of the stones are quite expensive--the topaz cost me almost $3 per stone and you can barely SEE the stones--most are reasonably priced. This has been fun and adds another dimension to what I've been doing.

--To get the pictures of these bracelets, I used the scanner. It worked GREAT! Thanks, janet, for the suggestion!--