Aquarium Glass

Both the pendant and the bracelet were constructed of netting around small aquarium stones. The pendant stones measure 7/8 inch wide and the bracelet stones are 1 inch wide.

The bracelet band is tubular Ndebele. The toggle is made from two of the aquarium stones encased in RAW (right angle weave), peyote and netting stitches. The weight of the three center stones required that I use at least two of the stones in the toggle for balance. Otherwise, the bracelet kept sliding around on my wrist, so that the center stones were underneath my arm, not on top, as intended.

I could not find a way to get a picture of the bottom of the toggle. It is a netted Star of David. I will keep trying and if I manage to get a good shot, I will post it. ****UPDATE****LOOK! I think I got it!

Many thanks are due to those of you who continue to visit here, even when circumstances prevent me from blogging daily. We have not yet had 48 consecutive hours of electricity since the passage of Hurricane Dean last month. But when I can get on-line, I will blog.

Comments welcomed, subscribers adored!!!

More Aquarium Glass

Out of the Darkness

Giving thanks and praises to Our Heavenly Father, Jah Rastafari, who has kept us safe during perilous times!

I want to say thank you to all those who covered us in your prayers of guidance and protection. Psalms were chanted, bibles were read, prayers were whispered and shouted, chalices were lit and drums were beaten. Jah heard the pleas of all you Prayer Warriors and we were spared.

JPS (Jamaica Public Service) has just restored power to our tiny, rural, south coast district. Just in time for tomorrow's General Election here in Jamaica.

We survived Hurricane Dean's passing two weeks ago and have spent that time putting things back together, as best we can. We suffered major water damage, but did not lose the roof, like many of our neighbours.

All the animals survived this time, but we lost the trees - ackee, banana, coconut, otahitie apple, sweet sop, sour sop, pear (avocado), lime, sour orange, june plum, and the sweet mango. I am so thankful that the robin mango tree from my husband's childhood survived. She lost many branches and sustained severe damage to one side, but she is a survivor and will hopefully outlast my grandchildren's great, great-grandchildren's grandchildren.

The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Selah.

10 am Deadline

It is now 9:50 am and JPS (Jamaica Public Service) has announced a 10AM power cut to protect their network. Both satellite dishes have been disconnected and taken down from the roof, so no CNN for awhile. CWJ (Cable and Wireless, Jamaica) has managed dial-up speeds this morning of only 4.8 and 14.4 kpbs. It took over 5 minutes for the blogger.com sign-in page to load. Hope this gets posted B4 the power is cut.

I've spoken with family both here in Jamaica and abroad, trying to assure them we are as ready and prepared as we can be. We were offered shelter in several homes in Florida, but we both feel strongly that we need to be here, together, facing what comes.

My husband has taken all possible safety precautions to secure our home (and his brother's) and minimize damage. Now we must see what comes.

We should not attribute this to an ACT OF GOD. He flooded the world once to show His extreme displeasure with our disobedient behaviour. He also promised that He would not send another flood as punishment. IT WILL BE FIRE NEXT TIME!!! Bad weather is nature-driven, often caused by man's disrespect of the environment.

Continue to pray for our island and all those in the path of Dean.

Jah guide and protect!

Unwanted Visitor

It is now 2:07 pm on Saturday in Jamaica. We are getting ready for Hurricane Dean. My husband and several young men from the district are putting up the pre-cut plywood forms that fit over the windows in anticipation of Dean's arrival tomorrow morning. It makes the inside of the house dark and it blocks the cooling mountain breezes. But as we have seen in past hurricanes, it dramatically cuts down on the wind and rain damage.

UPDATE - It is now 4:05 pm and the weather is turning angry. Dark clouds gathering, thunder grumbling under it's breath in the distant mountainside. The pounding of hammers comes in quadrophonic sound from the valley below us, the slopes on either side of us and from further up the mountain. The people who live around us, most of them my husband's family, have been thru hurricanes before. We batten down what we can, pray fervently and then deal with the reality of what the coming morning brings.

Depending on the level of destruction, we will probably be without power and phone service for a while. This is the most recent info I could find. Click the (CNN)-- link for current updates. Please cover us with your prayers as we wait for our unwanted visitor. Once the danger has past and we plug back up, I will blog again.

Jah, guide and protect!

(CNN)--Hurricane Dean intensified Saturday as it muscled across the Caribbean and headed toward a dangerous rendezvous Sunday with Jamaica.
Forecasters fear Dean will be a destructive Category 5 monster packing 155 mph winds by then.Saturday morning, as Dean roiled the open waters south of Puerto Rico, the storm's maximum sustained winds neared 150 mph with higher gusts, putting it at Category 4 intensity and making it the strongest storm so far of the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season.