Wednesday, November 30, 2011

New Etsy Listings

New Etsy listings!  Use coupon code, FREESHIP from now until Christmas.


Sunday, November 20, 2011

Jewelry Show

So, I had did a jewelry show yesterday.  I did pretty well, and everyone seemed like the displays that I had set up.  I liked it, but some of it will have to be streamlined if I want to get into the outdoor craft show circuit.


This was one half of the table.  None of those bracelets were purchased, which I found kinda surprising. The only bracelets I sold were all memory wire.  People like the one size fits all, I guess.


This earring holder display was much easier then my other one.  Those two necklace stands were made by my father.  He also made me a couple of other tall ones.


Yeah, this one is kinda of a mess and took FOREVER to set up.  After I did it I was scared that people weren't going to want to take them off of the corkboard, but they did.  Quite a few a these got purchased. 

It is always interesting to me the stuff that people purchase.  It is never the stuff that I myself wear.  They like a lot of jewelry sets, earrings and necklaces.  The stuff I like almost never sells.  The plus side of that, more stuff for me to wear.:)

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Bad Blogger, Bad

Sorry, I have been dealing with quite a bit right now.  There is a lot of not-so-good stuff swimming around in my head that is not fit to share.  I am sooo tired.  When your days are marked by timing every four hours to get your dose of Tylenol, it's probably not a good sign.  Enough of my whining.  Check out these beads I got at a bead show this weekend.


First time I have ever stayed in budget.  Hmmm, that is probably a bad sign too. Will be back soon with happier thoughts.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Magic Kingdom Adventure and More Photo Collages

One good thing about living in Orlando is that you are close to and can access the theme parks whenever you want.  One bad thing about living in Orlando is that your 4 year old knows that there are theme parks and he wants to go to them all of the time.  It was so nice out this weekend we decided to take him to the Magic Kingdom.  It was lots of fun, but very crowded.  That park is so small and it is usually the busiest, which makes for a bad combination.  My boy wanted to ride the race cars, so we rode the race cars. 


Those suckers are frickin hard to drive.  I had to use all of the non-existent muscles in my leg to get it to move and then if you take your foot off a little bit, it completely stops.


This is me trying to prevent him from diving out of said race car.

All in all, we had a good time.  He was beat by the time we got home and was mellow for the rest of the night.  I haven't been making much stuff lately, which is not good, because I have a show coming up on November 19th.  Here is some of the new stuff that I have made for it. 




I really cannot get enough of these photo collages.  Hope everyone has a good week!


Monday, October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween!!


This is who will be running around my neighborhood tonight. Have a good Halloween!!

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Fall Styles

I really love these sweet little fall beads that I got from Humblebeads.  Now, I just need to find something to wear these with.


I love those solid pumpkin-colored flowers.  I also bought a new app that does collages right on your phone.  I'm sure this has been out for awhile, but it takes me a while to learn about these things. 

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Things I love right now


Lovely fall colored Czech glass beads.


My new favorite bracelet style especially with these adorable art tiles and connectors from my Vintaj BigKick.  These earrings, which I did not think I would like the feathers, but I do.


These purties from Humblebeads.  Already made them into something fun.  I will show the stuff as soon as I get some pictures.  Hope everyone is having a good week!

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

BTW - What I have been up to

Making bracelets and trying to think outside my usual style.

Playing with the Instagram app on my phone.


Trying to get organized.  It is so hard for me.  I bought these to contain my many different colors and gauges of jumprings.


The high is going to be 74 tomorrow!  So excited!!  Now it just needs to stay that way.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

My Owl!

I had purchased this lovely set of beads from Gaea about a month ago.  I, like a total dodo head, put my old address in paypal instead of my new one.  So, I tracked it and watched it go undeliverable at my old address and then into mail limbo.  I thought maybe it would get sent back, but it found its way into my mailbox today.  Yea!!

Speaking of Gaea, head over to her blog she is doing a give-away for some awesome bead bundles!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

I got issues

Blog post titles are not coming to me today, so I will just go with this.  Thanks so much to everyone who stopped by for Lorelei and Shannon's Lima Beads Challenge!  Everyone made such great pieces.  I loved seeing how different people came up with different ideas from the same stuff. 

I should be cleaning my bathrooms right now, but instead I am trolling on Etsy buying art beads that I know I don't need and shouldn't get.  But, I cannot help myself.  They sit there and call to me.  Buy me Stephanie, you know you want to.  Add a sale to that, and I have zero self control. 

I had to pick up my son from school today because he broke out in hives.  I mean the kid is convered in them.  He had them yesterday, took him to the doctor and they said give him Benadryl.  I went to three different drug stores to get Benadryl and was told in the last one that they have taken Children's Benadryl off the market.  This is not comforting to me.  I bought the generic Wal-Dryl and have been giving that to him.  They went away and this morning, seeing as he was almost back to normal I sent him on his way.  Forty five minutes later, I am on the phone with the nurse, asking me to come get him.  He broke out again, in all new places.  Really?  Come on. Since he started school he has been sick three times (three out of three of those times passing along the cold to me) and now hives.  What are they doing to him? 

Here's hoping for some non sick days.  At least I have new beads coming my way.  :)

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Lima Beads Challenge

I love me some Lima Beads.  They send me a coupon code every week and when I do place an order before 3, they ship it out that day.  For someone who hates waiting long for her impulse bead buys, that is a huge selling point.  Anywho, when I saw that Lorelei and Shannon were hosting a Lima Beads Challenge, I knew I wanted to get one of those kits.  When I first opened it, I was slightly overwhelmed.  Great colors, great beads, but a lot of stuff I usually never work with.  But, this is a challenge so I dived in.  First up, I knew that I wanted to use all of the green beads in one piece and the purple and yellow beads in another.  I found 2 pendants, one from PorkChopShow and the other from Green Girl Studios.  My first piece is definitely my "style", one strand strung, lots of flower beads, but I do really like it.



The next necklace I really struggled with.  I had set out the green Czech glass beads and pearl sticks to go with a Green Girl Studios bead but had no idea what I was going to make with it.  Then I downloaded the new copy of BeadStyle unto my Nook and there it was - the perfect idea.  There was a lovely necklace inside the issue that used some cross pearls, large metal beads and some chain.  My necklace is inspired from that piece.  I added a tube filled with some minty crystals and placed it at the bottom of the piece and attached the two strands of chain together.  Here it is-



I need some place to wear it.  It is so pretty on, I don't just want to wear it when I drop my son off at school.


It was also very hard to photograph, sorry I know these shots aren't the best.


This is so out of my box, and I did say that I wanted to challenge myself more, so I was very happy with it.  Thanks so much for stopping by! 

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Happy October

I love this time of year.  It gets to be a little bit more bearable temperature wise; the highs usually don't go past 85.  I get to put out all my Halloween and Autumn decorations.  There is always lots of craft fairs and art festivals to check out.  Definitely my favorite time of year.  I have been busy,busy, busy making stuff for two people to bring into their work and getting my boy all situated in his new class.  I have also been making some stuff with some art beads that I have been hoarding.  I don't know what I want to do with them.  Keep them or list them on Etsy. 


You can see the two connectors that I made with my Vintaj Bigkick.  That machine is so awesome.


Monday, September 26, 2011

Giveaway Winner!!

Thanks so much to everyone who came by and visited for my bead soup creations.  I think everyone did a wonderful job.  It is funny that the piece that most seemed to like best was the bracelet. I just kinda threw that together because those beads were just sitting on my beading table.  I did the random number generator for the giveaway and the winner was #14, Beetique!  I will be sending you an email here shortly so you can send me your information. 

Check out what I got for my birthday -


It's awesome.  Not only can you press jewelry blanks, but you can also use any of the Sizzix products and cut out anything with paper, fabric and chipboard.  I used it to make a Halloween wreath this weekend that I will post a picture of as soon as I take it.  Hobby Lobby is having a sale on their Vintaj stuff this week, so I may need to go get some more blanks to play with. 

Have a good week!

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

What I learned from the Bead Soup Blog Hop

This weekend was crazy busy for me.  I had my parents in town visiting, a wedding to go to and a day to spend at Epcot.  I finally got a chance to visit some of the blogs yesterday and I am still working my way through the list.  Here are some things I picked up:

1.  Blogger does not like me

I know that I added some new blogs to my reader, some even twice, but they are no where to be found.  I know I have done it before, so what gives?  User error?

2.  My stuff is sooooo boring

So many people had such fun multi-strand designs.  Me, I stick with the tried and true one strand symmetrical design.  I really have to shake it up a little bit.  Also there was so much chain.  I always pick up chain when it is on sale, then never do anything with it.  Must try new things.

3.  Why can't I comment on some blogs, but can on others?

I also tried commenting on some other blogs, and it WILL NOT LET ME DO IT. I tried everything. I am certain once again that it is user error, but I have no idea how do fix that particular problem.

Everyone did such a great job, I am going to have to keep making my way through this huge list.


Saturday, September 17, 2011

Bead Soup Time and a Giveaway!

Thanks to the lovely Lori Anderson for putting together this blog hop, I can't imagine what a crazy amount of work it was.  Without further ado here are my pieces that I created from the massive amount of soup that my partner, Stephanie Dixon sent to me.


Earrings made with Czech glass, acrylic and Swarovski crystals



This is the first necklace, a copper flower with Czech glass, handmade polymer clay beads and a copper clasp.


A jewelry set made with Czech glass and wooden squares.



A bracelet made with really cool rubber beads from Stephanie and a large lucite bead with vintage glass beads.



And my favorite, a necklace made with some wooden flower charms, Golem Studio beads and a ceramic pendant handmade and signed by Stephanie's uncle.


Close up of the pendant.


Giveaway time!  Anyone who leaves on comment on this post will have a chance to receive one of those pairs of earrings.  Winner will get to choose which one they prefer.  Tell me anything you like.  I will end the giveaway on September 25, which just happens to be my birthday.  :) I will pick a winner and announce on the 26th.

Please visit my partner, Stephanie Dixon to see what she made with the soup I sent to her.  For a complete list of participants, please visit Lori Anderson.  Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait

Check out my bead soup that arrived in the mail yesterday. 


There is enough stuff for three people in this soup.  It is filled with acrylic, rubber, Czech glass, nut beads, Swarovski, seed beads and a lovely ceramic pendant made by my partner Stephanie's uncle.  I have already got some pieces put together, but you'll have to come back this Saturday for the reveal.  See you then!

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Stuff and My New Favorite Necklace in the Whole Wide World

Sorry for the long breaks between posts.  Sometimes life gets in the way of doing stuff we want to do.  I have been having some personal security issues lately.  First, my hotmail account gets hacked at like 3 in the morning.  Said hacker decides to send everyone that I have ever emailed from that account spam mail for Cialis and Viagra.  My husband thought it was kinda funny; my mother-in-law, not so much.  So I had to change my password to something long and complicated with random capitalization and punctuation.  Then, my paypal account got hacked into at like 4 in the morning and the person made a purchase using my account.  The kicker was they signed up for an online back-up service for files and the log in and email was sent to my email address.  The one that is attached to my paypal account.  Moron.  So, I had to dispute that and make a different long, complicated password for that.  And finally, someone tried to break into my house.  Seriously?  What is wrong with people?  They didn't get in, but they did break a window and let a lizard in. 




Moving on from random thieves, I wanted to show these beads when they came in the mail, but could not wait to string them into something pretty.  I heart this necklace so much, I wish it was October already so that I could wear it.  The pendant, crow bead and pumkins all came from Kylie Parry and I love them.  


I put them on some rust colored waxed linen and had no idea how to finish it off.  I improvised, but it seems to be holding so far.

Anyway, I think that my bead soup will be arriving today, cross my fingers.  I can't wait to see what everyone else made!  Have a good week.
 

Monday, September 5, 2011

September Art Bead Scene Challenge

I have not been able to participate in the monthly challenges over at the Art Bead Scene blog, but this month I had the perfect idea and beads so I had to do it.  Here is my entry -


The pendant and the ceramic beads are made by Golem Studios.  They are having an end of the summer sale at their website for 20% off!  It is a great chance to get some of their awesome beads at a discount.  I may have jumped on that opportunity. 

 All right I did.  The sale ends September 10th.

Saturday, September 3, 2011

New Etsy Listings

Not much going on here - we are all sick. Blah. I will leave you with some new listings I added to my shop.


Hope everyone has a good weekend!!

Friday, August 26, 2011

Is it the weekend yet?

I am so ready to shut the book on this week.  Have some fun this weekend and start it all over again on Monday.  It is my baby's birthday today.  I can't believe he went from this:


One week


To this, four years old.

Sigh.  Side note-I cannot seem to tame the bedhead.  I comb it, I wet it, it does nothing.  It eventually restores order, but I do bring him to school like this.  I haven't gotten a chance to play with any beads lately, but I did try a tutorial that I saw.  It was instructions on how to make a bracelet with some chain and embroidery floss.  Since I just happened to have both on hand; I gave it a shot.  ( I had a whole bag filled with different color floss.  Why do I have all of this? I don't even embroider?  Anyway..)


I really liked it, so I thought I would try some different chain and colors.


They look cute on.


I tried to take a picture of it "in action" on my wrist, but this is the only one that wasn't frightening looking.  My arm looks very hairy and veiny all on its own.  Scary.  I cropped as much as I could just trying to focus on the bracelet. I need an arm model. 

I hope everyone has a good weekend!

Thursday, August 25, 2011

My Bead Soup is with my partner!

Yea!  I was getting a little nervous because I had sent it about two weeks ago and I didn't know whether or not it had arrived.  Here is what I sent my partner, Stephanie.


Some gemstone oval beads, ceramic beads, shell beads, czech glass beads, nut beads, wood beads, some Gaea ceramic beads, copper clasps and ceramic pendants.  The seahorse pendant is by Spirited Earth and the other one is by Natures Adornments


Mine should be coming any day now, I can't wait to see!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

I am having a rough week

Normally, I would never discuss something like this, but honestly I just have to get it off my chest.  My son has behavorial issues.

There.  I said it.  I am not ashamed of it, nor do I think that there is anything about him that is unfixable.  He just needs some extra attention.  A special class.

He started preschool this week and has been something of a handful.  He doesn't like to sit, and figets.  He runs ALOT.  He talks out of turn and doesn't seem to be mature enough to handle some of the tasks that the other children are capable of completing.  I have been letting my husband take him in to discuss some different options with the teacher.  I had to pick him up today.

While waiting in line at the open door, I saw a group of moms pointing and talking about my son.  What's wrong with him??? 

Logan has a birthday on Friday; he will be four.

When did it become acceptable for a group of adults to stand around and make fun of a child? 

Why are our kids bullies?  Because we are.  We show them how to act through our actions.  We tell them to not pick on someone but then do the complete opposite. 

Maybe everyone should remember those lessons we learned in preschool.  Being nice to others.  Not saying mean things about anyone.  Treat others the way you want to be treated.

I'm sure they weren't aware that the child's mother was standing not 6 inches from their little group, but that certainly doesn't make right.

Logan will be fine.  He will have every chance and every help I can provide to him.  He is not a mean child, nor an angry one.  He's silly, happy and funny.  He loves babies and animals, and I would not trade him for a dozen calm children. 

Maybe if everyone just make the effort to be a little bit nicer to one person, other people would do the same.  Then maybe our kids would be nicer to each other too.

Ok, end of rant.  We will now return to our regularly scheduled program of beads and beady things. 

I am still waiting on my bead soup, hopefully I should hear something soon......

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Mostly Metal Challenge

Thanks so much to Michelle Mach for hosting this challenge, I had a good time coming up with some designs with my kit.  These are my two pieces.  I wanted to get another one completed, but just never found the time.



I tried putting the sari silk on a necklace, but it just wasn't comfortable when I put it on.  So,the necklace became earrings.


This pendant came from Hopemore.  I found it one day when I was searching on Etsy for polymer clay pendants.  I used some black o-rings and added the charm at the side.


Close up of the focal and the charm.

Thanks for stopping by - here are the other participants.






Antique Brass Romantic








Filigree Fun










Gunmetal Love


Monday, August 15, 2011

A Tale of Two Stephanies

My partner for the upcoming Bead Soup Party is the lovely Stephanie Dixon.  I already sent out my soup at the beginning of last week, so hopefully she should be getting it any day now.  I can't wait to see what she sent me.  I was going to post a teaser, but cannot figure out how to pixelate my picture enough to keep it a surprise, so I will just hold off until she receives it.  Hope she likes it!  Come back tomorrow for the Mostly Metal Challenge Blog Hop hosted by Michelle Mach.

 Have a great week!

Monday, August 8, 2011

Inspired by Tiger Lilies Challenge

Heather from Humblebeads is hosting a challenge on her blog every week to prepare for the upcoming release of her book.  I already pre-ordered by copy through Amazon and cannot wait until it arrives in my mailbox.  I don't know too much about tiger lilies or any flower for that matter, but I had one of her lovely tiger lily beads in my possession so I thought I could string it up into something pretty.

Super simple but it has everything I like - wood beads, czech glass beads and a toggle clasp.  Check out the other entries on flickr.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

I have to go on a bead diet

This does not make me happy.  I think I would be less cranky if I had to go on a real diet and only eat salads and stuff.  Giving up carbs and ice cream, no problem.  Beads?  Not so much.  But in the interest of saving money, no more beads.  For right now.  This month.  Next month?  It's my birthday so we will see.  So in lieu of my weekly perusing the bead aisles at Michaels or Joann or Hobby Lobby, I went shopping in my office (aka the bead warehouse) to see what I might have forgotten about.  And found all the stuff to make this:



Just sitting in a box, totally forgotten about.  Wondering why it had not been turned into this yet.


So there you go, maybe it won't be so bad for right now.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Bead Soup Time!

I signed up for the Bead Soup Blog Party again.  I am super excited!  I already know what I am going to send to my partner, I picked out the stuff this morning.  Thanks so much to Lori Anderson for organizing this!

Stay tuned for soupy goodness....

Friday, July 29, 2011

Lots of Bracelets and a Re-Do

I have been in a bracelet making mood lately.  Probably because of this.  Such a good resource and I love the interactiveness of the E-Mag.  (Hmmmm, is that a word?  Spell check doesn't seem to have a problem with it, so I 'll just go with it.)  Here are some of the ones I have been working on.


This one is my favorite.  I purchased the flower focal while visiting my parents.  I won't tell you how many issues I had with getting this to be the right size and the finding a clasp that was big enough to balance the focal.  I restrung a couple of times.  Okay, about four times. Maybe five, I don't remember, drove me bonkers, but I do love wearing it.


Close up of the flower.  It is really cute on.


Simple design with some glass beads from Michaels and some olive green spacers.


Same thing different beads.  I have been on the hunt for more seed beads in that particular shade and size.  Apparently they are not that common, three bead stores I visited did not have them.  I had to rescue these last ones from the bead mess of seed beads that my son made for me.


Some blue ceramic and resin beads.


This one is super light and I just added the charm.  I might keep it for myself, I don't know yet.



I also re-strung a necklace that I submitted for an Art Bead Scene challenge a couple of months ago.  The original design was asymmetrical and the clasp kept turning backwards whenever I wore it.  This way seems to wear much better.

That's all for now, have a great weekend!!