Dr. Who Tardis and Giant Cupcake Birthday Cakes

Last Minute Birthday Party

My two children celebrated their birthdays over the weekend. It was a last minute party with the invites distributed a week before. We decided to hold a combined party since my son's birthday is in July when his friends are out of town for the summer. Surprisingly, my kids didn't mind the idea at all.

We booked a party room at a local "bounce house" where the kids can jump and play on inflatable slides. Since the venue supplied the pizza, drinks, and ice cream, we only had to order the cakes.

Jewelry Findings from Tripps and Rio Grande Arrived Today!

Untreated Red Zircon

In my last gemology article, "Gem Setting Challenges When Designing Jewelry with Native Cut Stones", I discussed the difficulty setting hand-cut, uncalibrated gemstones in Snap-Set settings. 

This week, I'm going to try and set some stones in settings designed for deeper cut stones. I ordered a variety of different settings from Tripps and Rio Grande and they arrived a few days ago.