Judy Friend Photography

How neat this looks as the rays of sun burn through the clouds. This shot was returning from the beach near Sanibel one cloudy morning.  I was hanging out of the car window when I took this shot. This time I was the passenger!  LOL....

Back to Swarovski Crystals today. I just love how the Swarovski Crystals sparkle. The bracelet is made with 10mm round Montana Blue Swarovski Crystals as the main bead and 4 mm at the clasp. The long tubes and toggle clasp are sterling silver. Have a great day.

Happy Hump Day!! Now I know Christmas was many weeks ago and my Christmas Cactus bloomed around the holidays. However, here were are a week before Easter, it's spring according to my calendar yet the Christmas Cactus or should I call it the Easter Cactus (LOL) is blooming again. Enjoy your day!

This morning Linda, my neighbor, and I took the dogs for a quick trip to the beach. We were not there for sunrise as it is a partly cloudy morning and rain is expected this afternoon. Harley and Colby seemed to have a good time. They were not too adventuresome about going in the water which was probably a good thing. Wet dog equals stinky dog! So Harley what do you think? This stuff between my toes feels sorta good. Colby I'm not sure about going in the water. It looks too cold for me especially since I got a haircut yesterday. So we will call it a morning before the beach patrol finds us and gives us a ticket because we really not allowed on the beach. So see everyone later.

Today's pictures are of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge at Tampa Bay and a few others. My neighbor and I took a quick trip to St. Petersburg's this week to eat at a restaurant I enjoy when I'm in Florida. The restaurant is called "The Columbia". It has about 5 or 6 locations here in Florida and the food is great. It is a mix of Spanish and Cuban and their salad, called the "1905" is made table-side and OMG ! I could eat that salad everyday. The restaurant is on the water on the 4th floor of this unusual shaped building. I wonder what it is like during a hurricane....not sure I want to find out. Now you can feed the pelicans if you wish. Here we are after stuffing our faces with shrimp, scallops, crab coquettes, homemade bread, the great "1905" salad and of course I have to have dessert. My neighbor, Linda is on the left and I'm the other one. So if you are ever in the Tampa/Sarasota area and are looking for a great place to eat you should ...

Welcome to jewelry Thursday. No Swarovski crystals today although I do have a lot of other items with Swarovski crystals. I thought I would show some of the other beads/stones that I use in my jewelry. Today's item is just a simple necklace made with oval shaped stones. I call it Earthtone. It's got greens, browns, black and some yellows and a bit of red. I've added gold toned spacer beads and a gold tone clasp to finish it off. Hope you like it.

Colby is sure loving the warm weather, finally, here in southwest Florida. Here he is just hanging with his new friend "Harley". Harley is a toy poodle that belongs to my great neighbor and friend, Linda. Harley is also a therapy dog and goes to work everyday. Harley just loves people and of course other dogs.

In our community in Florida unfortunately we have several stray cats. I was able to get a quick picture of this little kitty. My neighbor has tried to capture it to take it to one of the local shelters but no luck yet.

Ahhhhh, here I am just hanging out catching some sun at my other home. I'm enjoying hangin' at this house....no snow and I don't have to wear my fleece coat!! Way cool......Thanks for looking...my mom tells me we are going to go to the beach some day this week. I'm not sure what that means but stay tuned. Colby

Thanks to DeeDee at ddzine for hosting Art work Friday's. She is so talented. Here are a few pictures I had taken on cold January day while I was walking Colby. We have a park near our home with a stream running through it and there are signs of frozen water. It had been cold leading up to this day as I recall and I was tired of being in the house so I bundled myself up and Colby and went for a short, very short walk.

I made this necklace after seeing it in a bead magazine I had. It is actually three individual strands made of all Swarovski crystals. There are a total of over 700 crystals on the three strands. Mostly all crystal clear crystals with Montana Blue and Tanzanite colors. It has a crystal clear Swarovski Pendent on one of the strands. I then twist the three strands together and use a simple clasp. When the sun hits the crystals it just sparkles. I love this necklace although I don't wear it that often. I keep telling myself to just wear it with jeans. I've also thought of "renting" to women who need something for a special occasion but would probably never wear it again. We'll see....