Ham-ology

My husband is a ham radio operator. We have strange wires going from our house to tall trees in the yard. At neighborhood gatherings I've met new neighbors that tell me stories of them watching my husband with a half filled water bottle tied to a wire and he is throwing it up in the air to catch taller branches or other wires-they are hysterically laughing at this point in the story and I'm mortified at what he is doing while I'm in the house...

I go to bed early and he retires to his ham-shack to contact other ham radio operators. As I lay in bed our home alarm system starts beeping...it took two nights for us to realize he was causing the alarms to beep because he was on a 'high-frequency'. (he thought it was funny!) We drive through neighborhoods and he points out other ham radio operators and I realize that they too have tall antennas and lots of wires. Who knew?

I thought I was alone in this techy world. Last week while on a walk I met a new neighbor whose husband runs a Sunday morning ham radio show with boat operators (I think that's what he does)...she started saying that their home alarms have been going off! She thought our husbands should meet! (I'm not sure this is a great idea...) The more I admit to people that he has ham radios, the more people tell me about their dads or uncles or grandfathers who are into this 'activity', 'craft' or maybe it's a 'sport'.

There are good things about Ham radio operators. They will help us during natural disasters. During Hurricane Katrina, the only way people could communicate for days afterwards were through ham radio operators. During the last huge Southern California fires, we sat listening to broadcasts through his radio. He has been trained in Emergency preparedness so I know we will be safe if there are any natural disasters in La Mesa!

My husband travels to Ham-ventions and other ham activities. He always wanted me to come up with jewelry for ham radio operator's wives...I couldn't imagine what this would even look like. What would I use to start a project? Then...last week, my neighbor, who's uncle is a ham radio operator popped in my workshop because she saw Morse Code jewelry using beads and thought it was perfect. So...while the beads were cute, it's not what I do. What would be vintage?


Then it hit me...

                                      'MOM' is hand stamped on a vintage heart-shaped spoon!

'XO' is spelled out with vintage dictionary 'dots' & 'dashes'

So...thanks Val, you inspired me!

Send mom your love for Mother's Day. Limited words can be stamped but truly a unique gift for other ham radio wives!

Auntie's Watch

My neighbor asked me if I could re-style her Auntie's watch. It was a beautiful piece that was a pleasure to change into a necklace and these dainty earrings:

Greek Folk Dancing

Tomorrow we are off to FDF 2011-a Greek Folk Dance competition in Ontario CA. Each year 100's of kids get together for 'Faith, Dance & Fellowship' while competing for the gold in Greek Dancing and Singing. The handmade costumes are amazing and the performances bring tears to your eyes as you realize the culture and traditions that have been passed down through 100's of years. These pictures  are some of our dancers  in San Diego.

 Best of luck to all of the St. Spyridon dance and choral groups!

Happy Valentines Day!

My wonderful husband dug through our spoons and made this for me...

I hope you all have a great day!

Vintage Baby Spoon Pendants

Yesterday I was contemplating cutting a pair of sterling baby spoons.One of them had had a little trip down the garbage disposal and had some issues! If my plan didn't work out, I wouldn't feel too bad!

Happily-I was able to flatten and stamp the two spoons with children's initials and birth dates.

I even made myself  a pair of earrings! I buffed some of the garbage disposal 'dings' out but actually liked the marks left behind-it added character and showed they were well loved. 

This is how our Valentine jewelry starts...

                                                 Brimfield 2010  A beautiful pile of silverware!

                                        January 2011   These scrap pieces will be used in something...


and now......

Two vintage spoons have been redesigned into this necklace...I can hear the Beatles song as I type!

Only one word...