Are you ready for Valentine's Day? This is just one of the items that turn up in a "search this shop" for Valentine at www.alisuns.artfire.com.:

I'm excited! I have 900 "Likes" on my facebook page, so I'm giving away a $50 gift certificate to any one of my online studios to celebrate! Go to my facebook page for details: Like, post, come back on Friday, December 21, after noon PST to find out who the lucky winner is! Here's the link: https://www.facebook.com/AlisunsCustomCraftedJewelry

Grandchildren are wonderful!

Today is my first granddaughter's 8th birthday. She is half the nation away from me and I miss her so much. In January, I'll board a plane to go see her, but even though I always spend 2 or 3 weeks there, I don't get to see her very much when I go. School, you know. She's a beautiful little girl and has enriched my life in so many ways. She was the flower girl at my wedding. And at her aunt's wedding, that took place a month before mine. She loved those flower petals! When Auntie Key (her nickname for her)got married, I was gifted with three more grandchildren to add to her brother and cousin. finally, Auntie Key joined her sibs and became a mother. I now have 7 grandchildren, three of them adults. Birthday Girl's favorite people are her brother, who worships her, and her cousin, born the same year a few months just before she was born, whom she worships. She sells Girl Scout cookies and refuses to take direction in dance class: she does, after all, already know how to dance! She loves to read and to take photographs. Her Auntie got her a hamster for her birthday. I sent magnet blocks and jewelry. I love you my beautiful Caitlyn!