Saturday, December 13, 2008

Hubby's Fishing Trip

I have been feeling kind of down lately what with the holidays and all. So I thought I would write a poem to cheer my self up some. Hubby went fishing with his brother and this is what really happened.

Fishing The Hard Way

Twas the night they went fishing
Both pick-ups were packed.
Steve drove the Chevy,
The boat was attached.

Joe drove his Ford
in case of trouble you see,
Two drunks going fishing,
looked like trouble to me.

They took all the gear
they needed taht night.
They drank so much booze
their brains weren't to bright.

Out on the water
they'd wait for a bite,
They made so much noise
All the fish took a hike.

As the temperature dropped
the booze went down faster,
getting back to the dock
was all they could master.

They backed up the trailer
into the pond knee-high,
the boat has got loose
as if saying bye, bye.

Steve jumped in the water,
swam after the boat.
The truck rolled on backwards,
Joe was sure it would float.

Bill arrived with his big-rig
to help these two guys,
he was laughing so hard,
he wiped tears from his eyes.

A chain and hoook
for a line and a lure,
they fished for the pickup,
and catch it for sure.

They stood on the dock
these silly old men,
when out of the pond
came the Chevy S-10.

The moral of this story
For all who will see,
two durnks want to go fishing,
don't give them your keys.

Steve is my husband and Joe and Bill are his brothers and sadly this is a true story.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Frustrated


I haven't blogged in a while. I have been making new items for my shop trying to support my husband and myself.

It is hard sometimes when he is not working. We do the best we can with what we have but it just doesn't stretch very far now days.

God is my anchor in this time of financial turmoil and I sure hope He does something real soon. We have done all we can and now I am leaving it all in His hands to figure out how we are to survive.

I don't watch TV much anymore, all the fat cats in Washington talking about there billion dollar bail outs makes me sick. The other day I got an email from the Obama campaign. I thought they had made millions of dollars in contributions but now they say they are way in debt with all the loans and such and they wanted me to contribute more money. Hey the election is over, why is he asking for more money from the poor folks like me now. Makes me sick to think we live in the richest country in the world and the rich don't have enough they want us to just give them more.

Ok, I have said my piece so I will say no more.

I hope everyone has a good day and thanks for stopping by.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008




Etsy friends street team is haveing a team wide sale. For Oct the sale is the sweet treat sale and runs form Oct 16-19.

In my shop the sale is 15% off everything in my shop, please put sweet treat sale in notes to seller to take advantage of this sale. I will refund through paypal or convo me and I will revise the invoice for you.

Thanks for looking at my shop and do check out all the other etsy friends for some wonderful sales this weekend.

Friday, October 10, 2008

my shopit store

Have You Ever Seen An Angel

Have you ever seen an angel? I am not talking about some spirit ghost or apparition, I am talking about one of God's angels come to earth in human form. I have and it was quite amazing.

One night in the summer on a lonely stretch of road north of Beaufort, NC, I ran out of gas. I had my 2 sons sleeping peacefully in the back seat of the car. It was somewhere around 1am. It was muggy and I decided to get out of the car to stretch my legs and try to figure out what to do.

I was at rock bottom, no money, no milk for my babies, they were 18 months and 9 months old at the time, and out of gas with no where to go. We were in the middle of nowhere, USA.

I looked around and I had pulled off the road at a beach on the ocean. I went down to the water and took off my shoes to walk in the sand. I had no answers for what to do next. I started walking along the beach keeping the car in sight at all times, I didn't get to far away from the car in case the kids woke up. It was dead still, no traffic, not a sound.

I guess you could say I was praying, I thought what do I do now, I don't have a clue what to do. I heard a voice behind me. "Hello there, how are you on this fine night."

I turned around there stood an old gentleman, he wore a long black windbreaker coat, a floppy wide brimmed hat, and high wader boots. His face looked weathered. In his hand he had a worn rope attached to a large row boat. I wondered where he had come from, I didn't see any boats in the water before.

I said Hello and he started talking about the moon shinning on the water, the stars in the universe and how God made it all so beautiful. I agreed it was a picturesque sight. He went on to say God new the names of all the stars and pointed out the different constellations. He talked about God creating nature and all the animals and that God new each one by name and if I listened closely I could hear the crickets praising God. I listened and it was the most beautiful music in the world.

Time seemed to stand still, the more he talked about God I lost sight of my situation. My heart became so peaceful, I wanted to stay and listen to this man forever. He spoke about God like they were on a first name basis. He finely came to end of his praise and said Goodnight.

I said goodnight and God bless to him. I turned to head back to my car and realized I hadn't asked him his name, I turned around to do that and the man was gone. I walked back down to the water looking for him. There were no foot prints in the sand, no drag marks where he had pulled the boat ashore and I could see out into the ocean to the horizon and there was no sign of him anywhere. I shook my head and went back to the car, climbed inside and locked the doors.

I said God you have not forgotten me, you know where I am and the situation I am in and I know you will take care of me. I closed my eyes and had the most peaceful sleep I had had in a long time.

To this day I believe God sends His angels to mentor us and help us in our greatest times of need if we only take the time to say Hello.

If you have ever had an experience like this or one similar I would love to hear about it. Leave a comment and share you story.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

How I got into chainmaille

My nephew talked me into going to a ren-faire in Wichita, KS. There was a seller there that sold chainmaille head pieces and jewelry. I fell in love with it, but, I couldn't afford to purchase anything as the prices were quite high.

My nephew said you can make it yourself if you want to learn how. When we got home he came over every evening after school and brought his rings and pliers. This started my education on chainmaille. He thought I would help him make chainmaille armour, I had other ideas.

I had been making jewelry for years from the tiniest seed beads to large beads and I wanted to make jewelry from this new craft. He said OK, he would help me get started. He showed me web sites with tutorials for different weaves, were I could get rings and pliers. I started stocking up on all the things I would need and I learned how to make chainmaille.

I have been addicted to chainmaille since. I have sold many pieces at ren-faires locally, to family and friends and then I started selling them on Ebay.

One time when I was ordering rings I got on a group discussion about making chainmaille and one of the members of the group stated he had started a shop on etsy. I had never heard of etsy so I thought I would check it out. I opened a shop on etsy 2 years ago come December and have been on etsy since then. I now sell my chainmaille world wide and love the craft.

I am still learning different weaves, there are so many different ones it would take a life time to learn them all. I use the basic weaves to enhance my jewelry.

I have even gotten to the point of creating my own designs with chainmaille and am incorporating beads into the designs. I have the best of both worlds, I do bead work and chainmaille to create some remarkable necklaces and bracelets, I also do earrings and key chains.

Stop by my shop and see all the different things I make with chainmaille, it is not just for armour anymore.

http://hildeguardslair.etsy.com

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

My Shop Name

When my son came home from the navy he moved in with me to get a fresh start, He told me all about a role playing game he played on board his ship with his friends to pass their little leisure time. He played D&D. He decided to make up his own world to travel in at that time. He started but never finished it.

It sounded fascinating and I was writing at the time so we worked on it together. I got to know the world of StrongArm as well as I know the US. We worked together to populate the world with goblins, troglodytes, dwarfs, elf's, dragons, and on and on. Once we had it fairly well populated with all the different tribes and animals, and with humans, kings queens, and other dictators of course. We started working out a story line.

We made many story lines from this wonderful fantasy world we created. The very first one was Hildeguard's story.

Hildeguard lived in the Black Swamp in an ancient oak tree. She was a famous female wizard. Most wizard's are male but we thought we had to give women a chance so we made Hildeguard. She lived in the upper stories of this oak tree. There was a dragon that lived in the basement, a friendly dragon that grew to protect Hilde and the Oak from attack. Hilde had her own security guards, the goblin tribe led by Gorgon.

There was only one way into the black swamp and that was by way of the troll bridge, run of course by the resident troll family. This family was the first line of defence against friend or foe.

It was rumored that Hildeguard was in possession of an ancient magical scroll and many wandering adventures would try to do battle trying to capture this scroll, there was a Kings ransom for anyone who managed to get this artifact.

My son and I collaborated on these story's and it was our escape from the trials of day to day life. We would sit and talk about this place like it was our hometown, one time in a coffee shop we were discussing a minor point in the story and some friends came in and wondered who we were talking about. It was that real for us.

My son moved away, I lived in New York State at the time and he was moving to Florida with his new family. He had gotten married and had 3 children. He gave me all the rights to StrongArm and stories and wondered if someday they would be published. I still have the stories but never tried to publish them.

My son is gone now, he died a horrible tragic death 3 years ago. In honor of him and in remembrance of him, I have kept Hildeguard alive in this small way. Hildeguard is as much a part of me as my own name, maybe more so.

That is how my shop got its name. Lair means home, not built by man, a natural home built by nature. And so Hildeguard is still alive today and inhabits HildeguardsLair.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Welcome to my blog

Hi, welcome to my blog. I am trying my hand at blogging for the first time so please bare with me.

I have a shop on etsy.com which is a wonderful place to find handmade, handcrafted items to fit every families needs. My shop is htt://hildeguardslair.etsy.com I hope you visit my shop for all your chainmaille jewelry needs.

I have been doing chainmaille for 8 years, I started in 2000. I love chainmaille and making my items. I have sold many pieces at renaissance fairs, craft shows, and on other web sites.

I hope you enjoy your shopping experience at etsy.com.

Feel free to leave a comment on my shop.

Thanks