Festival and something new

This past Saturday Travis and I stopped by the Virginia Highlands Festival in nearby Abingdon, VA.  I look forward to this festival each year, even though, unfortunately vendor participation has decreased the past few years.  I only bought one thing this year, but I absolutely fell in love with it.  One of the vendors was selling pendants and earrings made from real acorn caps and beads.  After much deliberation, this is the one I brought home.

I absolutely love it!  I have got to make some of these for myself.  I don't know how many times I've seen little acorn caps lying around, and wondered if there was anything I could do with them.  

I did a little research, and some sites say you need to dry the caps out before you use them, and put them in the oven on a low temp for a while to kill any little worms that might be living in the cap.  Could have done without knowing they might be infested, but...  It looks like there's some kind of coating on the cap to make it somewhat shiny (and I assume more durable).  

This will be so pretty to use in a necklace this fall.  My only wish is that I had bought a few more!