I am on my way out the door just now to go and teach a class in Rocky River. I figured I would give myself 2 hours since we got so much snow last night. We ended up with 9 inches here at  my house. That is nothing compared to some of my friends. But it is still a lot. It sure makes me glad that we bought that big old snow blower. My husband is the greatest too, he probably did 4 or 5 houses of our neighbors and the side walks from our house down to the entrance of the neighborhood (about 10 houses.) What a good guy! I love that man!

Anyway, I made another one of the forged hearts last night to show as an example for the class.



Then I decided this morning that I simply must have a pair of heart earrings to wear as I am all decked out in hearts. So I came up with these really quickly. Now, I had made the structure of these prior to this morning, but I stamped and patinaed these this morning.



This last piece is a very special piece and will remain in my personal collection until I die, and then I might just ask that they bury me with it. It is one of a set of two. I have a very special friend that was literally with Garth and I all through the pregnancy, birth and death of our second daughter Kelsi. Through that experience our family has gained such a special eternal friend. Lou was such a strength to me before and after Kelsi died. Kelsi held Lou's hand before I even got to see her. He said it was that touch of hers that bonded our families together forever.


I don't have his piece finished yet. I still need to get the pin back for his. He asked me back in July if I would come up with something for the both of us. I wanted it to be a really unique piece of jewelry. If people don't know the story behind the piece, it will just be a pretty abstract piece. But when they know the meaning, it takes on a whole new level of understanding. I didn't want people to misunderstand our relationship, because, while it is one of the deepest relationships, there is nothing romantic or anything like that.

So here is what I have come up with.

• The diamond shape represents our relationship.
• The line down the middle divides the piece into two, one side for him, the other for me
• The angel wings represent Kelsi
• The little line that stretches out from the middle one is like us holding our hands out to one another
• The hearts represent the love that we have for each other
• The opal has a couple of different things. First the shape: It is tear dropped, which represents the grief we had, but also reminds me of a maternal form.
• I tried so many different stones in this piece, and none of them fit until I tried the opal. Even then I tried different shapes, but it was the tear drop that was chosen. But the color in this opal has a white background which is quite celestial and heavenly to me. The sparkles make me think of happiness. I know that we are all happy that we had Kelsi to bring so much understanding and love into our lives.

I can't wait until I get his done and can send it off to him.

Okay, so that is all for now. Pray for good roads as I head to Rocky River for my class now! Hope everyone stays safe, dry and warm today.