jewelry, etc.

Thanks for all the good wishes for my birthday! The best present is yet to come: on the weekend I am going to sit down and order some books from amazon.com. Can anyone recommend a book on collage/altered art that is simply a must-have? I have been contemplating Visual Chronicles by Linda Woods, or else Collage Discovery Workshop by Claudine Hellmuth, or it's sequel Beyond the Unexpected - or both, or all of them? (being greedy now...) Or is there some other book I don't know about?
(I am big on doing my own backgrounds - whenever I can - , but also I have the feeling there is so much going on right now in paper crafts that I know little or nothing about - all these tags, brads, eyelets that keep popping up all over the place... I never have used them, and probably would not know how to! I think I might need help.)

I am taking part in Friendship Swap this month. (Toverikuu for all Finnish-speaking readers.) Every week you send a little something to your friend. Me and Nesse are being friends this month. This is what I received from her: a little something that made me happy today. Heart buttons, glue-on beach-y shapes, chipboard strawberry tags and some Victorian style flower basket pics. Thanks, Nesse!

Have I been productive today? click click!
Sure I have. I made a gold and garnet bracelet with 14K gold heishi I had "swimming around" (hey, it happens...). I used pearl silk for knotting. My birthday gift to myself. (I must have been good!)