More Earrings

In the past couple of months I've started making earrings. Sometimes I make something because I can't find what I want in stores, and sometimes it's just a matter of wanting to do something creative that is also practical. It's also a cheaper way to feed my addiction.

Getting to the point: I gave earrings to all the girls in my family, as well as my friends, for Christmas.

Here are some of the earrings I've made in the past little while:

Hope you like them!

Flashback: Missionary memories

When I was 21, I left to serve a mission for my church.

I didn't have a digital camera on my mission, so I just recently had all of my negatives from that 18-month period scanned onto CDs. Going through them brought up some great memories. Two of which I will share with you today. They're not very specific, and they're not long, so don't be afraid.

Memory 1: In my last area (Spencerport, NY), while at a dinner appointment with an older couple, the husband gave me this awesome hat. I'm sure you can guess why. Isn't is a great hat? I wish I could say I still had it, but it probably didn't make the cut to come back in my two suitcases. It's amazing how much stuff you can accumulate, even as a missionary. I'm pretty sure I mailed two or three boxes home, too!

Also notice my super-classy plastic watch.

Memory 2:
In my second area (Fairport, NY), I was put in a companionship with two other sisters, both of whom had been called specifically to serve at the historic sites in Palmyra and the surrounding area.
This is a picture of me at the E. B. Grandin building in Palmyra. This was one of my favorite times on my mission because I got to spend the entire day bearing my testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith's role as a prophet of God. Most days I spent tracting, knocking on doors, hoping someone would take just a moment to listen. This was a nice change of pace for just a few weeks.

Many of you already know...

... that I'm a bit obsessed with earrings.

Well, a week or so ago I counted my earrings, just out of curiosity. I discovered that I had over 175 pairs on my earring storage/display racks, and if I'm going to be honest, I tend to wear the same 20 or 30 pair over and over, if that.

So--shallow as it may seem--I decided that I would challenge myself to wear every single pair of earrings I own once before I can wear any of them a second time. I'm also not allowing myself to wear any newly-purchased earrings until I've gone through the existing stash.

Some of you may care, some of you may not. But I started a blog about it so I wouldn't end up posting them all here. It's called the Earring Appreciation Project, and it's all about earrings: the ones I own and wear, the ones I wish I could afford but can't, and the ones I discover in different places (on people, online... wherever).

If you're interested, hop over and take a look. If you're not interested, feel free to mock me. (I'll only be somewhat offended.)