German Glass Glitter...You've Gotta Try This Stuff! And Birthday Fun.

Well, I've been having fun the past few days.  Which makes the stomach bug, which I'm experiencing now, a major bummer.  Plus, this is the one night each year that gains an hour, which makes it the longest night of the year to be up running back and forth to the bathroom--major major bummer.  So, to pass the time and take my mind off of the sickness, I'll tell you what I've been up to.

German Glass Glitter
I am a new fan of this stuff!  I read about it a while ago in Better Homes and Gardens magazine, and decided to give it a try.  If you haven't heard of it before, I'll explain: German glass glitter is basically what the name implies.  It is ground-up colored glass, and it comes in many different grit sizes and colors (I purchased three different grits, and I think I like the fine grit the best for the project that I'm working on).  Obviously, as this is tiny bits of glass, it is sharp, and yes, I've already drawn a little blood.  Here are the colors I purchased:

In these pics, you can see the different sizes of the glass grains.  The silver seems the most dangerous!

I'm working on some new items for my Etsy store using the glass glitter, and I'll share some pictures with you here: 

That's as far as I've been able to get with this particular project, though.  More to come when I'm finished!

Frankenstorm
With all of the coverage on the news and Internet about the hurricane that struck the eastern US last week, I'll not bother with saying much here.  All we got was a lot of wind and rain, but we also got some snow from it, which tickled me pink.  Hubby thought I was crazy for being so excited about seeing our first snow for the year, but I am like this every year when we get our first flakes.  It did make driving into work a tad treacherous, but here are a few fun pictures of the fluffiness:

You can see that not all of the trees have dropped their leaves yet, but many blew off during the storm.  I'm so glad to be this far inland, and not have had to experience what folks out east have been going through. 

Birthday Fun
My birthday is coming up this week, so we decided to celebrate this weekend, since a weekday birthday is pretty inflexible when it comes to having fun.  Hubby so sweetly decided to take Friday off, and we spent the day together, running errands, doing chores around the house, and eventually ending up having dinner at a quaint restaurant about a half hour away that I've mentioned before, Jeanne's Kitchen.  We had a good day.  But Saturday was really what I've been looking forward to ever since I found out what my dear husband had planned for us:
Here are a couple of photos of the Ohio countryside as we traveled to our destination...

And here is a picture of my birthday weekendapalooza purchases.  Wait a minute...is that...

Oh, yes it is...

Why, whatever could it be??

Silly girl, you picked it out...

Open it! Open it!

Oh, isn't it lovely?

It's a sterling silver piece of their 175th anniversary jewelry collection.  It's on a sterling silver chain, and both are stamped with the Tiffany & Co. logo.  Yes, my husband took me to Tiffany & Co. in Columbus and let me shop and try on all sorts of jewels!  I've never been in a Tiffany's, so this was extremely exciting.  When we first walked in, we entered a lobby area and were met by a well-dressed salesman and a well-dressed security guard.  I understood why there was a guard, but didn't expect it.  You don't see this sort of thing when you go to Zales at the mall.  The salesman took us around the store, asking us questions and trying to feel us out.  He showed us everything that they had.  I found a lot of things that were simply gorgeous, but way out of our price range.  The $58,000, 2+ carat diamond ring took the cake as the most expensive piece I tried on, which was fun because our salesman knew there was no possibility that we would buy it.  He didn't seem to mind, though.  The ring was so incredibly brilliant and simply stunning, with a narrow platinum band and a huge diamond in the middle.  The salesman put it on my finger, and my husband and I both exclaimed in unison, "Wow".  There were no other words.  While I know that I would never wear anything so audacious out in public even if I had the money to purchase such a piece, I couldn't help but think that I would love to be "the one percent" (if I bought into that whole school of thought).  I had picked out three necklaces, and finally decided on the one in the picture.  I really do like it!  I plan to wear it often.  Before going to Tiffany's, hubby took me to a very fancy steakhouse called Smith & Wollensky's, a restaurant that he'd eaten at before while in Columbus for work, but a place that I never had the pleasure to patronize until now.  It was neat, and the steak was soooo good!  We also ordered sides of green beans and lobster mac and cheese.  I didn't care for the green beans--they had been sauteed and mixed with Gorgonzola cheese, which I found out upon tasting that I didn't like (hubby agreed).  I tried to eat around it as much as I could.  Didn't matter, though--the steak more than made up for it!  For dessert, we ordered a piece of chocolate cake, which was huge.  We took most of it with us to eat later.  After lunch and jewelry shopping, we walked around, visiting other stores, and finally left after many hours of shopping, eating and walking.  It was a wonderful day spent with the man I love most (and not just because he took me to THE jewelry store).  I thank God for him every day, and am so glad to be blessed with such a sweet, kind, and thoughtful husband.  He really is a great guy, and I love him more and more as time goes by.  I look forward to many many years of happiness with him.  Thank you, my dear, for a wonderful day that will always be in my mind and heart!