Since this blog is supposed to be about my crafting (as well as my life), thought I'd put up a couple pictures of where I work when I am crafting. These were taken when both rooms were all cleaned up because I was using the pics for a business brochure I made to submit to juried craft shows. Often when I look back at these pictures, I get inspired to go do something and right now, I could use a bit of inspiration. I need to start thinking about floral designs for an upcoming show in September and since I've done the show before, I need to come up with some fresh ideas. Need to get busy on beading as well. Guess it's time to start digging out containers and fall colors and see what happens.

Another Vacation Piece is done.

I started this cab at the end of my vacation two weeks ago. It's been a start and stop process, but it's finally done. I'm calling it Storm Tossed, because of the colors and also because the last two weeks have been filled with storms here. I have been fortunate that the more severe storms have gone around me while neighboring communities have been hard hit. I love the blues and greens of this piece, but I think I'm ready to work on something a bit brighter. Maybe the weather will brighten too.

Ashton. What a ham!

Emily. What a doll!

My First Treasury

I have a friend who has been listing Treasuries in Etsy almost since we both opened shops, but I never seem to be in the right place at the right time to do one until this last Sunday. I wanted to do one featuring EBW members and to show how diverse beadweaving can be so I did my homework and had my selections ready. I sat at the keyboard nervously waiting and then up popped the title box and next thing I know, I'm in! I hope I get a chance to do more treasuries because it was really fun (although really hard to narrow my selections to just 16). I did a screen capture so I would have a copy after it runs out on Etsy.

Etsy Treasury

I'm so excited! I just got my first treasury! All the listings are pieces made by EBW members. Boy, was it ever hard to choose. I tried to find different colors and different styles. When you take time to look through all the creations, it's truly amazing what we all come up with using those little seed beads. I'm away from home right now, but when I get back, I will try to do a screen capture of the treasury and post it here.
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=51961

Grandkids

In case anyone happens to look here and wonder why a baby is amid all the beads and flowers, I just received a photobucket album from my daughter-in-law with pictures of my grandson. They live about 3 hours from me and we don't get together very often so I was excited about the pics. I've only gotten to see Owen three times in his short little life. Along with my other two grandchildren, he's the light of my life. I'll have to get pictures of Ashton and Emily posted too.

Treasury Screen Capture

Thanks to the instructions in Grandma Marilyn's Blog, I figured out how to show the treasury here.

An Etsy Treasury for Cabs!

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=13486
I was so excited when Marilyn (GrandmaMarilyns.etsy.com) included me in her treasury of beaded cabochons! I probably would have been oblivious, but she was nice enough to convo me and let me know. It's so cool to see all the different interpretations of cabs on one page.

No Idle Hands Here

Wanted to show what I worked on while on vacation. The fairy necklace is going to be my entry for the July EBWC. I've been waiting for an inspiration to make up that fairy charm and the challenge provided the anwer. I will be listing both the finished pieces on Etsy today. The third pic is my current work-in-progress. I Love doing cabochons!!

I'm Back

Back from a week long vacation today. It's good to be home. We probably drove over a 1000 miles, making a circle into Missouri, down to Arkansas then Texas and back through Oklahoma to Kansas. Saw family and visited some really beautiful places. Got some great photos. I even managed to finish two cabochons, including the one I want to enter in the July Etsy Beadweavers challenge and started a third. Course, my perfect vacation would be to have no schedules, no obligations and just be able to bead as much as I want. Maybe sometime I will take a short vacation like that. One more day before back to the grind. Tomorrow is laundry day and hopefully I can get some good pics of my necklaces to list.

Hump Day

It has certainly been a stressful week so far. Monday I go to work and within an hour of being there, we have this major rain storm - hail, winds, heavy rain. Several of us are at the nurses station talking about the storm when someone runs up the corridor from the dining area and says there is water coming in under the doors. We all grab towels and soaker pads from the laundry but when we get back there it's obvious our efforts will be pointless. Before it was all said and done our entire dining area, the employee service corridor and half of one hall of resident rooms had flooding. A couple people braved the storm and ran out to buy shop vac and we spent most of the morning vaccuuming up water. Fortuneately, the storm moved out by mid-day. Later we heard we'd gotten almost 4 inches of rain in 3 hours.
Of course this all happened at the first of the month, my busiest time in the office. So yesterday I was doing doubletime to make up for time lost Monday. Today I feel a little bit more in control. But needless to say, I've come home exhausted and not gotten much done creative-wise so far this week. I did get materials picked out for the July Etsy Beadweavers challenge and kind of got started on it. I've never done anything like this before so it will be interesting. Maybe tonight I can work a bit more on it.

It's Done!!

The turquoise cabochon necklace is done! Ta Da!! I am very pleased with how it turned out.

It's New to Me

Wow! My first ever blog! My kids will be so proud. They've been doing this stuff forever, especially one of my very talented daughters-in-law, and I've always enjoyed reading her thoughts and seeing the pics she's posted. I'm starting this blog because I've recently joined the Etsy community and the Etsy Beadweavers Street Team and this seems a fun way to further share my thoughts and designs. I haven't worked on any floral designs for a while cause I tend to do them more seasonally when I'm getting ready for craft shows. I'll post some pics of my Spring/Summer ones though so you all can see what I do. Beading, however, is something I love to do all the time. Right now I'm working on a turquoise cabachon necklace. I bought the cab on vacation in Colorado Springs, I think two years ago now. It has sat in my cabinet just waiting for inspiration. A couple weeks ago I was looking for an idea and came across it. It just kind of said to me, "ok, it's time". I'm really liking how it is coming together and as soon as I get it finished, I'll post a picture. In the meantime, here are some pics of pieces I currently have listed on Etsy.

Beading cabachons has become a passion. I think I like them so much because there are never two alike and I really dislike making the very same thing over and over.