My will shall shape the future. Whether I fail or succeed shall be no man's doing but my own. I am the force; I can clear any obstacle before me or I can be lost in the maze. My choice; my responsibility; win or lose, only I hold the key to my destiny.
Written by: Elaine Maxwell
Life Is Like a Kaleidoscope
Simply shift your focus to rearrange the colors
to find another way of interpreting things...
to see a different pattern unfolding...
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Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot.
In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.
Oscar Wilde
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Time is a traveler
Where did it go?
It left, but it didn't leave you empty handed. No!
It left you with the gift of beautiful memories, that you can keep in your heart for safe keeping, to cherish forever, and ever.
I try to take one day at a time, but
sometimes several days attack me
at once.
You can complain that roses have thorns,
Or you can rejoice that thorns have roses!
“Life is no brief candle to me.
It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it onto future generations.”
George Bernard
If you do not have peace in your life, you,
like many others, have probably not fully understood
its message.
You receive exactly what you put out,
or, 'As you sow, so shall you reap.
Above: The historic Crystal Theatre on Second Avenue of Flandreau, South Dakota was built in 1913.
We lived on a farm 18 miles north of Flandreau, SD.
We would have to go about 3/4 mile to catch the bus to go to high school in town. Now mind you our road was a dirt road and you can guess what that was like when it was wet.
We would have to get home to feed the animals. We didn't mind doing that as we got to know them pretty well. We had a name for each of them.
We had a pet pig that when he was a baby his mother accidently laid on him and broke his back. He would come to our back door and would squeal loudly to get us to come out and play with him. I don't think he even realized that he was a pig as he acted more like a dog.
We finally had to sell him as he was getting to big and it was getting harder for him to get around. We took the money we got from him and bought 2 lambs. We raised them and sold them and then got our bicycle.
Us girls would also sell Gurney Garden Seeds in the spring. That was fun as everyone seemed to be happy that we stopped by.
Just wanted to let you know that you can also find me on Plumdrop. You can find me under grandmaspantry.
If you stop in, please be sure to check out my blog there. It is short and sweet at this moment but I hope to do a few things with it. You can go to the blog by clicking on the blog icon/link at the top right of the page (in a light colored square with other options in it.)
I would greatly appreciate your visit. Please also note, at the top of the page, just under my header name, you are able to leave a review if you should feel so inclined. :-)
I have some really nice quiliting / crafting fabrics and some great quilting patterns in my Bonanzle booth, Grandma's Pantry and I would like to share some of them with you.
There is also a pretty good YouTube video on quilting that I thought you may find uesful that I want to share with my readers.
Fat Quarters are the first and most common specialty cuts on the market. Most collections will have Fat Quarter Bundles that contain every print. Also, some collections will have a variety of Fat Quarter Bundles that contain a selection of coordinating prints. They are a one-fourth yard cut of fabric that usually measures 18" x 22" instead of the typical 9" x 42" quarter-yard cut.
Charm packs are the smallest and least expensive specialty cut. Their popularity stems from the fact that they are affordable, easy to use, and the size is very common in quilting. Charm Packs typically include one square of every fabric within a collection so the number of pieces included varies. The size of charm packs may also vary slightly by manufacturer.
Jelly Rolls are different prints from a single collection rolled together and cut length-wise into 2.5" x 44" strips. They are available by collection and have become very popular over the past few years. Jelly Rolls typically include 40 strips of fabric but occasionally can vary.
The most difficult of the two is Kaboodle. I still can't figure out how to get my name listed in their store directory. Some of the tools are really confusing and I don't know if I will ever get the page completed.
I wish I knew something about making videos or could find some on YouTube that are relevant to my products so I could add them to my Squidoo Lens. For now, that idea will have to wait.
Visitors can leave notes and vote on some of the stuff on the pages so I hope that you will check them out and participate when you have time.
Now, off to find other ways to promote my products.
Hello again, it's just Grandma putting some more info into my blog.
You know that when you reach my age you're absent minded and a little slow on the trigger!! (LOL) It's good I'm still able to laugh. I always say aahh ouch when I get up in the morning. You see my old bones just don't like to co-operate.
So much for that, let's get down to business.
What would you do if you were like my sister and me when we first came to South Dakota?
We had never heard the crack of lightening and the bang of thunder (as they say: "It's only God in Heaven bowling and the angels cracking the whip"). We were scared to death and dove under the bed. That seemed to be a safe place although when you think about it: How safe could that have been as if God were to throw a planet at us how could that bed keep us safe? Oh well, maybe he would've broke his arm and couldn't throw.
Do you realize how big this world and everything in it appears to a young child?
It's HUGE!!
One time my sister was riding a horse and I a bicycle and we took off up the road and as we neared the intersection we could hear what sounded like baby kittens sooooo we decided to investigate and we did find some "kittens".
We took the "kittens" home to mom as we didn't see the mother so we thought that they had been abandoned and we felt sorry for them. Mom took one look and told us to get them out of the house and get back into the house and get our clothes off as we had to take a bath as we STUNK. You see the kitties were baby civet cats (they are really a spotted skunk). Even though they weren't very old yet their stinker worked just fine.
There are a lot of fantastic products coming to Grandma's Pantry over the next few weeks. These items will be from various categories so there should be something for everyone.
I hope that you will take the time to stop by and check out the great new leather items that were just added to my Bonanzle booth.
Genuine Leather Purse Pink Snap Closure Zippered Pockets New 23 Inch Genuine Leather Duffle Bag Black Gym Sporty New
Italian Stone Design Genuine Leather Purse Faux Snake Skin Rimmel Of London Black Mascara Soft Kohl Kajal Eyeliner NEW CoverGirl TruShine Lip Color #500 Cranberry Shine New
Rimmel London Lycra Wear 10 Day Nail Polish 307 Grape Sorbet
Well, Grandma is back with some more of her growing years.
Really, when I think about it now it was an interesting time and a time of almost pure innocence of both children and adults. There were few cars and no TV's. We played outside for entertainment. If only we could go back without bringing the war back too.
My mom's parents, my grandparents, lived up in the mountains. It was very pretty up there. The name of the town was Goldendale, Washington. It was a logging town at that time. I don't know what it is like now as I haven't been able to go back out there. Sometimes going back isn't the best thing to do as you expect to see things that were there then to still be there and most generally they not there anymore.
When I was 6 yrs. old, my dad got a letter from some of his relatives that his grandfather was dying and if he wanted to see him he should come as soon as possible. So we got our belongings together and started our journey to Flandreau, South Dakota.
We took a train and for us girls it was exciting and entertaining. You see, we had never seen running water in a fountain or an inside toilet and boy were they fun! That is, until the porter locked the bathroom and told us that he would unlock it for anyone who wanted to use it but then he would relock it. That took our sails out.
On this train was a lot of returning military people that were on their way home. They read to us and played games with us. I'm sure we aggravated them but when you're a kid, that long on a train ride becomes boring (4 days). Those days, the train would stop at just about every town.
When we came into South Dakota we had breakfast in the dining car to celebrate our birthdays (my sister and I were born on the same day but a year apart). That to us was really something! They had tablecloths on the table and fancy dishes! It would be fun to have trains like this now as you get to see the country and you meet such interesting people.
Needless to say that we didn't arrive before his grandfather died. One of his uncles asked my dad if he would work his farm for him as he wanted to retire and my dad told him yes.
I'd never been to such a small school before as the one in Flandreau. It was a one room school with 35 kids from all 8 grades and only one teacher. I really enjoyed it there. There was only one other person in my grade.
Please stop in and check out these and other great products that I offer when you have some free time.
Here are some of the latest:
Sticky Mosaics Fashion Frames ® 3D Kit Age 5+
Jazz up your favorite pics with this sparkling mosaic frame set. Just follow the numbered templates, and you’ll be creating with style!
2200+ sticky foam and jewel pieces 3 sparkling designs 4 stands Two single photo frames and one double frame for you and your BFF.
A picture frame as pretty as you are! A fun craft alone or with friends, create dazzling frames decorated by you! Sticky Mosaics make it easy to create your own magnificent mosaic artwork. Follow the numbers to place the colorful sticky foam squares onto fun patterns. Combines self adhesive jewels and holographic foil pieces for even more sparkle and shine!
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12 Wood Magnets You Paint It Kit Age 4+
A fun magnet kit for your child to paint which includes:
12 wood magnets of various designs
4 - .6 fluid ounce tubs of paint
2 paint brushes
Easy to follow instructions
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Rimmel London Renew & Lift Foundation 101 Porcelain
Mineral enriched retexturizing, firming foundation with Time Reverse Complex.
Smooth, radiant skin tone.
Oil free.
Look up To 8 years younger in just 12 days! Tested among women 30-50 years old.
Rimmel Renew & Lift is a liquid makeup formulated with peptides and ceramides that help to shrink pores and firm skin in as little as 12 days.
This oil-free formula moisturizes skin for a dewy and radiant complexion.
About Rimmel Of London
Beauty loves a legend, and legends don’t come much more compelling than the story behind Rimmel, one of the world’s oldest cosmetics brands. In 1820, a respected French perfumer who had been trained by the famous Lubin, perfumer to Empress Josephine, the wife of Napoleon I, accepted an invitation to manage a perfumery in London’s prestigious Bond Street. By 1834, the move to London had proved so successful that, together with his son and apprentice Eugene Rimmel, then aged just 14, he opened a perfumery of his own. The House of Rimmel was established.
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Covergirl Incredifull Lipcolor #916 Mauveful .12 Oz.
Moisturizing lipstick pumps-up your look and improves the overall condition of lips.
Covergirl's easy, breezy classic with a moisturewear complex provides rich color hour after hour.
Get fuller, younger-looking lips—instantly.
This volumizing lipcolor helps draw moisture to the lips, improves the condition of your lips.
And its formula provides a refreshing, cooling sensation…so you can feel it!
Hydrates lips for up to 8 hours.
Contains Vitamin B3, Pro-Vitamin B5 & Vitamin E.
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EZ Towel Disposable Towel 50 Pieces Water Activated
EZ Towel is compressed into a tablet shape the size of a stack of five nickels. Adding water when placed in the palm of your hand the tablet will expand. It can then unroll and unfold to become an 9 by 10 inch towel.
One EZ Towel does the work of over 10 paper napkins. Conveniently packaged in a resealable bag for storage until your next cleanup.
The towel is of biodegradable rayon, and, unlike paper towels, it is durable, soft and absorbent. It contains no chemicals or other ingredients. The form makes it ideal for travel, carrying in a purse, pocket, car, backpack, picnic basket or anywhere children and adults go.
It comes in a plastic bag that contains 50 compact EZ towels. Each bag also includes a tube to conveniently carry in a purse, pocket, tackle box, etc.
Grandma's Pantry is back again. It was interesting living during this era. Us kids never realized that we were so poor. If I were to go back to that era at my age now I would've wondered how we ever made it at all. The thing that saved us,I believe,was the fact that we grew everything we ate.
When mom went to the store to buy flour, us girls would argue over which one would get the bag it came in. You see, in those days flour came in a printed cloth bag. Mom would make our dresses, shorts, and shirts out of this bag. We really felt like we were really dressed up when we put on a dress made of this bag as the prints on them were colorful and pretty. Things were a lot cheaper then but since we had very little money we couldn't afford to buy much.
One day my dad brought home a dog BUT guess what? He brought it home in a match box. For those who aren't familiar with the term match box, I will try to explain it. A match box is about 4 inches long and about 1 to 1 1/2 inches deep and the lid would slide either way to get it open and inside were the wooden matches. Anyway, this puppy was so small that when we took him out he fit in the palm of our little hands. We called him Fuji. He was a teacup chihuahua. We trained him to sit up to the table when we would have ice-cream - that was fun to watch.
One day my dad asked us kids to go out to the pasture to bring the cows in for milking. So when we got to the cows we started to bring them in and for whatever reason my sister decided to grab hold of one of the cows tail. I told her to let go but she turned a deaf ear to me and boy did she ever pay for it! The cow started running and every time that her hind feet came off the ground they would connect with my sisters face but she still wouldn't let go. She was about 4 or 5 yrs. old.
Hearts and roses will let your Valentine know you think she is wonderful. Grandma's Pantry has several variations of hearts and even rose earrings and necklaces.
Let that beautiful lady know that she holds a special place in your heart!
Here are a few examples:
Swarovski Crystal AB Pinwheel Heart 18MM Pendant Gold Plate Rope Chain
Swarovski Crystal Red Heart 18MM Gold Plated Rope Chain Necklace
Swarovski Crystal Blue Heart Intaglio Rose Necklace - The heart is about 3/4" long and about 5/8" wide at the widest point.
Swarovski Crystal Rose Frosted Iridescent Post Earrings - These earrings are about 1 1/4" long and about 5/8" wide at the widest point.
Here is just a little more on the person who has Grandma's Pantry. I was born in Goldendale, Washington, up into the mountains. My folks had 3 kids (2 girls & a boy). The boy didn't live very long.
We moved down to the Toppenish area on the reservation. My dad worked for the Indians at that time. He had an old Model A pickup and he would toss me into it and we would take off for the mountains as his job was to bring the wild horses down to where the Indians would put them into corrals and then would sell them to the rodeos. I really thought it was a lot of fun.
The Indians at night would sit around a fire gambling. It was fun to watch them. The ladies were busy making items to sell to the tourists.
We soon rented a farm where we raised milk cows and our crops were sugar beets, sweet corn, peas, potatoes, carrots, and we also had a vineyard. My mother also worked as a supervisor in the "hop yards".
We had not even heard of a TV but we had a radio. You see this was the dirty thirty's and no one had much of anything. We had no basement but we had a storm cellar built a short ways from the house.
My Dad worked the farm with horses. Whenever he needed the horses he would send us girls after them as they knew if he came then they would have to work. The horses would come right up to us and follow us home. This all was during WWII.
I remember coming home from the first grade one afternoon and hearing President Franklin D. Roosevelt announcing the attack on Pearl Harbor. Us girls really didn't understand the enormity of all that was being said.
One day at school some people came into the school and took out all the Japanese children and took them and their parents to a holding camp for their own protection. You may not understand why this happened---but it was because most of them had many relatives in Japan and the US didn't trust them and they didn't trust us either.
During this period we had to have black shades on our windows so the lights wouldn't show at night. Our lights were kerosene lamps. We could see the search lights flashing up in the mountains because of our proximity to Japan to keep watch so we wouldn't be attacked.
We also had rationing of sugar, metals, tires, gas, oil and many other items that time has erased for me. Us girls didn't really realize how bad things really were.
Oh, the innocence of children.
Be sure to come back as I will continue on about Grandma's growing up.
Do you ever wish you could get the wonderful spa smell and that great feeling that the spa leaves on your skin at home? It's hard in this economy for everyone to be able to afford going to the spa.
At my store, Grandma's Pantry, you can get Yardley of London soaps at a very good price. This will bring that fantastic spa smell and feel right to your home.
I am offering a grouping of five soaps in one lot. I have 4 lots available.
Included in each set is one 4.25 ounce bar of each variety desrcibed here and as shown in the pictures below.
Yardley English Lavender with Essential Oils Bar Soap 4.25 oz.
Bathing is a true aromatherapy experience with our English Lavender Botanical Soap. Yardley has combined lavender and essential oils in a gentle cleansing and relaxing formula. Their deep moisturizers leave your skin soft and supple, with a wonderful floral scent. This luxurious bath bar is a timeless favorite.
Yardley Oatmeal & Almond with Natural Oats Bar Soap 4.25 oz.
Take a moment to relax and enjoy a beautiful aromatherapy experience with our Oatmeal & Almond Botanical Soap. Yardley has combined real oat grains and almond essence in a gentle cleansing and exfoliating formula. Their deep moisturizers leave your skin soft and supple, with a warm natural scent. This luxurious bath bar is a timeless favorite.
Yardley Lemon Verbena with Shea Butter Bar Soap 4.25 oz.
Bathing is a true aromatherapy experience with our new Lemon Verbena Botanical Soap. Yardley has combined pure citrus oils and natural shea butter in a gentle cleansing and refreshing formula. Their deep moisturizers leave your skin soft and supple, with a light, fresh scent. This luxurious bath bar is destined to be a new favorite!
Yardley Fresh Aloe with Cucumber Essence Bar Soap 4.25 oz.
You're in for a soothing aromatherapy experience with our Aloe & Cucumber Botanical Soap. Yardley has combined naturally soothing aloe and refreshing cucumber essence in a gently cleansing and deeply moisturizing formula. Their deep moisturizers leave your skin soft and supple, with a clean fresh scent. This luxurious bath bar is a timeless favorite.
Yardley Baby Bar Soap Gentle 4.25 oz.
A formula so pure, so gentle, it won't dry or irritate your baby's sensitive skin. Yardley's natural moisturizers and mild ingredients create a rich, creamy lather that rinses off easily with no residue, leaving skin soft and supple. And the hypo-allergenic formula is dermatologist tested for your baby's delicate skin... and yours too!
You will receive 5 bars as shown in the pictures.
Yardley of London has been in business since 1770.
Lavender was the herb chosen to perfume an exclusive range of luxury soaps. Combined with the finest quality plants and oils, English Lavender has become established as the international signature fragrance of Yardley.
For more than 230 years now, Yardley has been synonymous with elegant and beautiful scents and the finest quality ingredients. Their new products and fragrances are a fresh take on the classic Yardley tradition.
Come to my store and get yours before they are all gone!
As with all Norwegian-Americans, me and my family love lefse (pronounced lefsa).
Lefse tastes great and you can add any flavorful treat to it or simply eat it plain. Some like it with butter or butter and sugar on it, some wrap meats in it and some spread jelly or preserves on it and roll it up. Any way you go, your tastebuds will welcome lefse.
On the farm and usually in the fall, many of the ladies in the family and/or neighboring farms used to get together and cook up large batches of lefse and divide it up when it was done. It would be enough lefse to last several months for their families. It was also quite fun for the ladies.
In the old country, it is made often but now days in the US, it is mostly a holiday treat because it is a bit of work, espceially when you are serving quite a few people.
Lefse recipe:
4 cups riced potatoes 1/4 cup butter 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream 2 tsp sugar 1 tsp salt 1 1/2 cups flour
Peel the potatoes and cut them into at least 4 pieces. Place potatoes into a large pot of salt water and boil until tender.
Drain the water off of the potatoes. Rice the potatoes. Place 4 cups into another large bowl (don't smash them down into the cup when measuring).
Slice 1/4 cup butter into pats and add it to the potatoes. Stir a couple of times but don't mash into the potatoes so the butter mixes in. The next step is to allow your potatoes to cool completely. The potatoes should not be more than room temperature but cooler than that is even better. If you leave them in the refrigerator overnight really is best.
Once the potatoes are cooled, mix in whipping cream, flour, sugar and salt. Stir until the flour is mixed in evenly. Knead the dough about 10 times.
Now you need to make the patties for your lefse, keep in mind the size of your griddle. Place the mix on a cookie sheet and form into patties. Allow the patties rest for about 5 minutes before rolling. Now is the time to turn your griddle/lefse griddle on and set the temperature to 500 degrees.
Spread about 1 cup of flour into a circle on your rolling surface. Also sprinkle flour onto the surface between each lefse you roll to prevent sticking. You should also flour your rolling pin well.
Lay your patty in the center of the floured surface and gently roll it out so that is a small oval. Then turn the surface a bit or change the angle you are rolling it if you can not move the surface and roll it again. Continue this so that your lefse becomes round and until the size of lefse is what you are looking for.
Use the lefse stick to transfer the lefse from the surface to the lefse griddle. Just slide the stick gently under the lefse and run through the center until the stick is completely under the lefse. Use caution not to tear your left so it comes out beautiful. Place it on the griddle so it's nice and flat with no curled edges.
Cook for 30 seconds or so (the lefse should bubble a bit and the side on the griddle should be lightly browned in spots - not evenly). Then you need to flip the lefse to the other side with your lefse stick. The same process is used for this side. Place your lefse on a cooling rack when it is done so that it can cool. You can stack the lefsa about 10 high but should start a new stack at 10. This allows it to cool better.
Once the lefse is completely cooled, fold it as you would like to serve it. Most fold it in half, then half again. It can be stored in ziplock freezer bags. They will keep in the freezer for 6 months or more.
NOTE: If you have an older stove with a griddle in the top section of it, you can use that griddle rather than using a lefse griddle. In fact, any griddle will work but it will also control the size of your lefse. When using a large griddle, a clean, sharpened yardstick works well as a lefse stick.
It is usually recommended to use a rolling pin with large grooves that go around it to prevent sticking but you can also do it with a well floured, regular rolling pin.
Below is a video that explains making lefse. It's easy to follow. The video shows most of the mixing being done after the potatoes have been cooled. I have never tried it that way but it appears to work well.
Often done differently than the video and the above instructions, is the ricing of the potatoes. We have gone to simply mashing the potatoes because we didn't have a ricer available. Mashing works just as well as ricing. So if you don't have a ricer, you can still have great tasting lefse!
Lefse History
Lefse is a traditional soft Norwegian flatbread. Tjukklefse or tykklefse (thick lefse) is thicker, and often served with coffee as a cake. Lefse is made out of potato, milk or cream (or sometimes lard) and flour, and cooked on a griddle. Special tools are available for lefse baking, including long wooden turning sticks and special rolling pins with deep grooves.
There are significant regional variations in Norway in the way lefse is made and eaten, but it generally resembles a flatbread, although in many parts of Norway, especially Valdres, it is far thinner. In central Norway, a variation called tynnlefse (thin lefse) is made, which is rolled up with butter, sugar and cinnamon (or with butter and brown sugar), and eaten as a cake.
Potetlefse (potato lefse) is often used in place of a hot-dog bun and can be used to roll up sausages. This is also known as pølse med lompe in Norway, lompe being the "smaller-cousin" of the potato lefse.
In some parts of the United States, including Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, northern and central Iowa, Wisconsin, Oregon and Washington, lefse is available in grocery stores. One Minnesota tortilla factory makes a run of lefse once a month on its tortilla equipment.
There are many ways of flavoring lefse. The most common is adding butter to the lefse and rolling it up. In Norwegian, this is known as "lefse-klenning". Other options include adding cinnamon, or spreading jelly or lingonberries upon it. Scandinavian-American variations include rolling it with a thin layer of peanut butter and sugar, with butter and white or brown sugar, with butter and corn syrup, or with ham and eggs. Also quite good with beef, and other savory items, it is comparable to a thin tortilla. Lefse is a traditional accompanyment to lutefisk, and the fish is often rolled up in the lefse.
Many Norwegian-Americans eat lefse primarily around Thanksgiving and Christmas. Family members often gather to cook lefse as a group effort because the process is more enjoyable as a traditional holiday activity. This gathering also provides training to younger generations keeping the tradition alive.
The town of Starbuck, Minnesota, is the home of the world's largest lefse
Hardangerlefse
Another variety, the Hardangerlefse (from Hardanger in Norway) is made from yeast risen Graham flour or a fine ground whole wheat flour (krotekaker). The dough is rolled with a conventional rolling pin (and much more flour) until it is thin and does not stick to the surface. It is then cut with a grooved rolling pin in perpendicular directions, cutting a grid into the dough which prevents it from creating air pockets as it cooks. The grid cut can also aid in thinner rolling of the lefse, as the ridges help preserve structural integrity. The lefse is cooked at high temperature (400F.) until browned, and then left to dry. It can also be freeze dried by repeatedly freezing and thawing.
Dried Hardangerlefse can be stored without refrigeration for six months or more, so long as it is kept dry. It is customarily thought that the bread (along with solefisk) was a staple on the seagoing voyages as far back as Viking times.
The wet lefse is dipped in water, and then placed within a towel which has also been dipped in water and wrung out. Many people maintain that dipping in salted or seawater enhances the flavor. The dry lefse regains its bread-like texture in about 60 minutes. Often that time is used to prepare ingredients such as eggs or herring which are wrapped in the lefse once it has softened.
These angels and crosses come with gold tone or silver tone accents. I have featured the gold tone accented ones here. They are so much more beautiful in person!
They can be used as a pendant or as a prism to catch the rays of the sun inside of your window or on a rear view mirror. Any way you use them, they will be a beautiful addition to your life!
They are shipped in a white box and are pre-strung on a light fiber. The fiber can be removed to place the crystal on your favorite chain.
A Little Bit About Swarovski Crystal:
Swarovski is the luxury brand name for the range of precision-cut crystal glass and related products produced by Swarovski AG of Wattens, Austria. The company was founded in 1895 by Armand Kosman and Franz Weis using Daniel Swarovski's expertise at glass-cutting and his family name. It was the 1892 invention and patenting of Swarovski's innovative electric glass-cutting machine which prompted the company to be created. Their first factory for producing carved crystal was built in Wattens, Austria.
History
Daniel Swarovski (October 24, 1862 – January 23, 1956) was born in northern Bohemia (now the Czech Republic). His father was a glass cutter who owned a small glass factory. It was here that a young Daniel served an apprenticeship, becoming skilled in the art of glass-cutting. In 1892 he patented an electric cutting machine that facilitated the production of crystal glass.
In 1895, Swarovski financier Armand Kosman and Franz Weis founded the Swarovski company, originally known as A. Kosmann, Daniel Swarovski & Co, which was later shortened to K.S. & Co. The company established a crystal cutting factory in Wattens, Tyrol, to take advantage of local hydroelectricity for the energy-intensive grinding processes which Daniel Swarovski had patented.
Products
The Swarovski Crystal range includes crystal sculptures and miniatures, jewelry and couture, home decor and chandeliers.
All sculptures are marked with a logo. The original Swarovski logo was an edelweiss flower, which was replaced by a "S.A.L." logo which was finally replaced with the current swan logo in 1988. The Swan logo, however, is currently being phased out in favor of simply the Swarovski name.
In order to create a crystal that allows light to refract in a rainbow spectrum, Swarovski coats some of its crystals with special metallic chemical coatings. Aurora Borealis, or "AB", is one of the most popular coatings, and gives the surface a rainbow oil slick appearance. Other coatings include Crystal Transmission, Volcano, Aurum, and Dorado. Coatings may be applied to only part of an object; others are coated twice, and thus are designated AB 2X, Dorado 2X etc.
In 2004 Swarovski released Xilion, a new copyrighted cut designed to optimise the brilliance of Roses (crystal components with flat backs) and Chatons (diamond cut).
The Swarovski Group also includes Tyrolit (makers of abrasive and cutting tools); Swareflex (reflective and luminous road markings); Signity (synthetic and natural gemstones); and Swarovski Optik (optical instruments such as binoculars and rifle scopes).
The company runs a crystal-themed indoor theme park, Swarovski Kristallwelten (Crystal Worlds) at its original Wattens site (near Innsbruck, Tyrol, Austria). The Crystal Worlds centre is fronted by a grass-covered head, the mouth of which is a fountain. The grass-covered Crystal Worlds houses exhibitions related to, or inspired by, the crystals — but do not include explanations of how the famous designs are made, produced or finished.
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Posts
Where did it go?
I try to take one day at a time, but
sometimes several days attack me
at once.
You can complain that roses have thorns,
“Life is no brief candle to me.
If you do not have peace in your life, you,
like many others, have probably not fully understood
its message.
Grandma's Pantry is now offering a nice discount.
What Are Fat Quarters?
What Is A Charm Pack?
What Is A Jelly Roll?
What Are Bali Pops?
I have no idea how to do a lot of this stuff but I think I have a start. Technical computer things can be difficult. 
Swarovski Crystal AB Pinwheel Heart 18MM Pendant Gold Plate Rope Chain
Swarovski Crystal Red Heart 18MM Gold Plated Rope Chain Necklace
Swarovski Crystal Blue Heart Intaglio Rose Necklace - The heart is about 3/4" long and about 5/8" wide at the widest point.
Swarovski Crystal Rose Frosted Iridescent Post Earrings - These earrings are about 1 1/4" long and about 5/8" wide at the widest point.
Do you ever wish you could get the wonderful spa smell and that great feeling that the spa leaves on your skin at home? It's hard in this economy for everyone to be able to afford going to the spa.
As with all Norwegian-Americans, me and my family love lefse (pronounced lefsa). 
Grandma's Pantry is offering beautiful Swarovski Crystal on Bonanzle in her new booth, http://www.bonanzle.com/booths/GrandmasPantry.
A Little Bit About Swarovski Crystal:
I have opened a booth on Bonanzle. There aren't many items there yet but I will be adding many great things in the upcoming days and weeks.
