beadsandblooms

Now You See It. Now You Don't

2011-03-07T20:51:00.000-06:00

I was on a roll this weekend. I listed four new items to my Etsy shop, which to do so in one weekend, is an incredible feat for me. All four pieces were ones I just made up last week and I was excited to be able to get them listed so quickly.

Two of my goals for my shop this spring are to add some lower priced items and to start a bridal section. The four listings this weekend were a step in that direction. One necklace and bracelet coordinate and would make a lovely bridal set. With their listings, I went ahead and set up my wedding section and now have 5 items in that section. The other necklace and bracelet coordinated as well and were by far my favorite of the two sets. I had found this delightful turquoise enamel on copper cross and designed the set for it. I used one of my all time favorite stitches, a flat spiral for both the necklace and bracelet. I just love the texture of this stitch! For me, it works up quickly, thus helping to keep cost down. And if done just right, it can become a reversible stitch. That is exactly what I did with it. Worn one way, the set is copper with a hint of turquoise and worn the other, it's turquoise with a hint of copper. I also made it so the cross pendant will slip off the chain, adding to the piece's versatility. The bracelet seemed to call for a little more substance, so I joined two rows of the spiral together to make a luxuriously textured cuff. This was, in my opinion, one of the prettiest sets I've done in a while. Can you tell how enthused I am over them? So enthused, that I just had to take them in to my office today for "show and tell". My co-workers seem to be just amazed by my work. They all think I am this hugely talented artist and are just awed by my artistry. (At least, that's how they make me feel and who am I to correct them?!) Anyway, after a co-worker commented on how much she liked them, I had to demonstrate how wonderfully versatile the two pieces are. Then a second co-worker asked how much I had them listed for and when I told her, she wanted to know if she could just buy them now. Let's see. Cash sale or asking her to buy through the shop? I'd lose the 40 cent listing fee but not have to pay the other fees. Okay. Cash sale. Funny thing is, my buyer told me she really doesn't buy much jewelry for herself but she was just absolutely taken by this set and had to have it. My kind of buyer!!

So for those who hearted my turquoise and copper pieces yesterday after I listed them, I apologize that they were gone so quickly. Guess maybe in the future, when I have something I feel such enthusiasm for, I should take it to my day job for show and tell before I list it!!

Peace, Love and Flower Power, Baby!

2011-02-20T10:35:00.000-06:00

I'm really telling my age here, but I once had psychedelic, neon colored posters plastered all over my bedroom walls, big bright tissue paper flowers stuck in funky vases and peace signs everywhere. I listened to Janis and Jimi and wore hip hugger bellbottoms and tie dye t-shirts. Yep, I am a child of the 60's.

When the March Etsy Beadweavers challenge theme "Fashion Through the Ages" was announced, it wasn't hard for me to find inspiration. I remembered those big, daisy style, neon colored flowers we plastered everywhere; in our rooms, on our possessions and on our persons! I remembered the long necklaces we wore, singly and in multliples, with our bell sleeved tunics and our granny dresses. So, for the challenge, my memories created a long, multi-strand, daisy chain necklace in vivid colors of purple, orange, blue, yellow, pink and green. I have to say, it is far out.

Can you say, "Groovy, man!"?

Challenges!

2011-02-12T08:51:00.001-06:00

Seems like a lot of my creative time lately has been taken up with creating pieces for all my team challenges. And I'm still working on them! This is a good thing though. Challenges awaken my muse and she likes being alert. The first one I finished this year was for the Etsy Bead Weavers February challenge, Royalty Throughout Time. This is the one pictured in my previous post that sparked so much business for me. The second one I finished was for the ArtFire Bead Weavers Guild first quarterly challenge, Celtic Symbols.

It turned out a bit different than originally intended, but I kind of like the outcome. I was thinking about all the things I think of when I think of Celtic and the result sort of turned out "Woods fairy meets Celtic warrior".

The next challenge I tackled was for the Etsy Bead Weavers again, this time for March and the theme Fashion Through the Ages. We were to choose a fashion style and create a piece of jewelry to complement it. Well, being a child of the 60's and 70's and a dyed-in-the-wool wannabe hippy, I had to choose something from that era. Since it's just a tad too early to list it on Etsy yet, I will delay posting a picture here until that's accomplished. I'll just let you see an in-progress pic. Suffice it to say, I'm calling it Flower Power.

The last challenge I'm working on right now (whew!) is for Kansas Etsy Team. We are a group of Kansas sellers trying to promote each other and the vast talent in our state. We decided to try the challenge approach to generate some interest in our team. Our first theme is Springtime in Kansas and entries will be due the first part of March. Here's a sneak peek at mine.

I'm thinking springtime Kansas skies, new soft green leaves and flowering redbuds. So far, so good, I think. This will eventually become a cuff, by the way.

Ah, challenges! Can't wait to see what the next one will be!

Sometimes It Pays to Show Off

2011-02-06T10:39:00.000-06:00

As evidenced by the lack of posting here on my blog, my internet presence has been lacking for the last few months. That's due to a combination of holidays, falling into a personal slump, being ill, losing motivation and just life events in general. But the holidays are over, I'm feeling okay now and I'm slowly finding my direction again. One thing that always helps me jump start my creativity is the Etsy Beadweavers team's monthly challenge. We always skip January due to holiday obligations but start again with February.

The theme chosen for February was Royalty Thoughout Time. I chose as my inspiration, Princess Grace of Monaco and created a simple, yet elegant, necklace that I like to think she might have enjoyed wearing.


Simply Regal

My boss likes to see my new pieces so I often take them in to show her. She used to have an embroidery business and enjoys handcrafted work. So, as I had in the past, I took this new piece in to share. She immediately suggested that it would make a perfect wedding piece and before I knew it, a couple of my young co-workers who are planning weddings, were oohing and aahing over it. One young lady asked for my card and the other decided instantly that this was what she wanted for her wedding jewelry. After discussing personal preferences, we came up with a plan for necklace, bracelet and earrings and this week I will present her with her wedding jewels. Here is a picture of her pieces in progress:

I will still make earrings for her, but she hasn't totally decided on a style and we have a few months yet to work within. She is so excited to have a set that is hers and hers alone. Although I am toying with the idea of developing a bridal line, I promised her that I would not make another necklace exactly like hers.

One other nice development came from my showing off. Another co-worker wanted something special for her daughter's prom and asked if I could make something. They didn't have a dress yet but were leaning strongly toward pink. On a whim, I went ahead and made up a couple of designs in pink to show her. This is the one she chose:

Again, this has sparked the idea of creating more simple, yet pretty and elegant, designs for my shop. It was so funny through all of this that although I don't make a secret of my side business, and in fact talk about it a lot, I kept hearing comments like, "I didn't know you made things like this!" Well, now you do. Guess I need to show off more often!

Saying Good-bye to Old Friends

2010-11-22T18:59:00.000-06:00

Has it really been almost two months since I've written a blog post? Incredible! Where on earth does time go? I've been extremely busy during that time with the day job and getting ready for and attending craft shows. In some of my, evidently, weaker moments, I committed myself to two shows the end of September and first of October which were just one week apart and again in November to two shows just one week apart. This weekend was the last of the four shows and I'm breathing a sigh of relief. I made it! And I would have to say that all four shows were successful shows in their own fashion; some with sales and some with sales and networking with other artists.

Normally, my floral work sells well at both the fall and the Christmas shows. My jewelry, while much admired, does not sell as well in my area because of its price. Occasionally, I will sell a piece or two to someone who recognizes its artistic quality and is willing to pay for it. Those sales keep me going as an artist. So, I continue to bring my bead work for display at craft shows, hoping for that one buyer who will toss a scrap of appreciation to my artistic soul. This last show I received more than scraps. I practically got the whole loaf of bread! This was the first show I have done in the last 11 years where my jewelry sales made up the majority of my total sales! It was manna from heaven and bittersweet at the same time. Because my bead weaving does not move very fast, I've carried some of my pieces to many, many shows. So when they finally sell, it's like saying good-bye to old friends. I'm pretty sure they all went to nice new homes, though, where they will be appreciated. And next up for me, in two weeks, is an honest to goodness art show where I will display my bead weaving. I am so excited to be doing a show where I know there will be no products mass produced in China or anywhere else and passed off as handmade. I am also excited to be doing a show where my work is considered to be art, at least by the organizers. Will it be feast or famine? I'm hoping to come home soul full.

A few of my old friends who went to new homes.

Leaves!

2010-09-27T17:52:00.000-05:00

In Springtime, their soft beauty promises hope and renewal. In Summer, they offer us shelter and cool shade from the heat. Autumn arrives and they show us nature's glory and awesomeness. Even in Winter, the leaves that remain green remind us that even in difficult times, there is survival. Leaves have always been a favorite motif of mine. I use them in decorating my home, incorporate them into my jewelry designs, and of course recognize the value of a strategically placed leaf stem or foliage in my floral designs. I just love leaves, any size, shape or color! So, of course, when I read the theme for the October Etsy Beadweavers Challenge, I was thrilled! The theme is "Autumn Falling of Leaves". This was a challenge I didn't want to miss.

Shortly after learning the theme and starting to think about how I wanted to develop it, my SO and I visited the tiny town of Paxico, KS. Paxico is surviving by having become a community almost totally made up of antique shops. It's a delightful place to visit and the shopkeepers are very friendly and helpful. In one, when I told the lady I was looking for old costume jewelry that I could use in my beadwoven designs, she directed me to the appropriate niche and there I found the perfect focal for my October challenge entry. It was a silver maple leaf shaped brooch with a red jasper stone set in the center. It had definitely seen better days but the apparent aging only added to its appeal. After all, what are Autumn leaves if not aged? This sad little jewelry box reject now sits grandly front and center in a glorious tribute to the colorful beauty of Autumn falling leaves. It's surrounded by bead embroidered stylized leaves on a bib necklace with beadwoven Russian leaves falling from the edges. I hope Mother Nature approves.

Remember the Peppers?

2010-09-06T07:23:00.000-05:00

If you follow my random bloggings (and I hope you do!), you'll remember my pepper picture from a few weeks ago. I found these beautifully colored peppers at the farmers market and deemed them photography worthy, as well as inspirational.

Well, recently, I have been working my little fingers to the bone getting ready for upcoming shows and I was looking through my bead stash for some quick and easy ideas. I rediscovered a lovely purple stone that I had purchased from a vendor at the Topeka farmers market this summer. She always tells me the names of the stones, but for the life of me, I can't remember this one. It is perhaps a dyed piece. But whatever it is, it is pretty and had caught my eye in her tray of focal pieces. It also triggered my memory of the peppers so I decided to work it up in a simple strung style using the pepper colors. I used amethyst nuggets and chips with Czech fire polish beads and seed beads. What do you think?

New Season, New Style

2010-08-29T10:03:00.000-05:00

My first craft show is only four weeks away and the second just four days after that! I have been busy every weekend getting inventory ready, but today I decided to take a break and set up my new jewelry display to make sure it is all going to come together as I want. I then took pictures to take with me to my shows so I won't forget how I did it! It fits into an 8 foot by 4 foot area so should work for any show I do and leaves sufficient room for my floral display in the other half of my spaces (I hope!). Please disregard all the clutter in the background. lol This is my floral workroom. My bead room isn't big enough to set up like this.

I have done away with the grid wall and gone strictly to a tabletop set up. Early this summer, I blogged about finding display pieces at a yard sale and they are what inspired me to try this new set up. The two pieces I found were not enough to house all my inventory, so my wonderful SO crafted a third, larger, case for me. It turned out beautifully! He is so talented. In fact, right now, he is on the back patio painting and reworking the shelves for the new floral display shelving I picked up at a yard sale two weeks ago for free. :-D I think I will find another piece of crushed velour for the small table so both match and I need to find a couple more lights to clamp on to the smaller display cases, but overall it is a done deal and I like it!! I would love to hear what you think.

Change of Pace

2010-08-08T17:00:00.000-05:00

The end of September is just not that far away. I have two fall craft shows back to back coming up. The first is Cider Days, the last weekend in September and the next is Pumpkin Patch, the first weekend in October. It will be virtually impossible to replace inventory between the two shows (and I do hope that will be a necessity!), so I'm working furiously to get enough made up to cover four days. My beadweaving and jewelry designs are something I work on all year around, but my floral designs are much more seasonal.

I absolutely love creating fall florals. It has to be my favorite season. Fall colors are so rich, so glorious. There's nothing timid about the brilliant rusts, golds, crimsons and purples. Here's a few of my favorite designs I've gotten made up so far.


I think this is one of the best antler wreaths I've ever made.

Found this sunflower vase at a yard sale.

Isn't this pumpkin vase great?! Another yard sale find.

I love to work with grapes and this old wine gift box said "Take me home"!

My favorite! This used to be a two-tiered plate holder.

Unexpected Inspiration

2010-07-31T17:20:00.000-05:00

Goodness, I don't know where the month of July went! I didn't realize it had been a month since I'd posted here. But, I just had to share today.

Just about every Saturday morning from May until September, my SO and I have a routine. Early risers during the week, weekends are usually not exceptions for us. We get the Friday night paper which lists the area yard sales, check the on-line version of the paper and Craigslist and head out on Saturday mornings in search of treasure. Quite frequently I find things I can reuse in my jewelry and floral designs so I can easily justify my penchant for collecting other people's castaways. After checking out yard sales, we head to the local farmers' market before finishing the morning at the grocery store.

It was at the farmers' market this morning that I found my unexcepted inspiration. We always stop to chat briefly with a friend who runs a stall and while there I glanced down and saw the most wonderful mix of colors. It was a box with four peppers - one dark green, one yellow green, one orangey red and one purple. It was a feast for the eyes! And being a beadweaver, my first thought was, "Ooh, I should make up a necklace in these colors!". My friend assured me that as well as being pretty, they also tasted good, because my second thought was that they would really be good in a stir fry. So they came home with me and I decided to capture their beauty in a more fitting vessel than their cardboard produce box before we slice and dice them into the skillet.

Now I also have something to refer back to when I go through my bead stash. And I think copper will be the right accent for this trio of secondary colors after seeing how lovely they look on my leaf tray (which, btw, was a yard sale find).

So I guess moral of the story is even when you're just doing your normal, routine activities, keep your eyes open. You never know when you will see that spark of inspiration that will lead to your next creation.

A Bead Adventure

2010-06-26T21:25:00.000-05:00

For lots of reasons, my vacation this summer was a thrown-together, last minute affair. But that's not to say it wasn't a good vacation. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I spent the first part of the week visiting my oldest son, his wife and two year old son. They live just far enough away that I don't get to see them often and it was wonderful to reconnect. My grandson and I played trucks and colored and read books. We went to a nearby mall where there are indoor play areas and carnival type rides for little ones, which was so nice since it was sooo hot! We went out for Thai food one night and had grilled chicken the next. It was just a relaxing, enjoyable visit!

The second part of the week was a bit more of a whirlwind, but equally fun. After coming home and repacking, my SO and I headed to Denver. We have developed a fondness for botanical gardens and arboretums and decided to check out the Denver Botanical Gardens. Steve has gotten some terrific photos on our garden visits and was hoping to add to his repertoire. Two of his best selling photographs are from the botanical gardens at Hot Springs, Arkansas. I take my camera too and have a blast snapping away at interesting flowers or architectural or natural elements. But Steve thinks we should do something that I like to do too, so I always get a double treat. Not only do I get to visit beautiful gardens, I get to search out Bead Shops!! And it's not a rush visit, either. The man has the patience of Job, waiting for me while I peruse strand after strand of beads and gemstones and cases of cabochons and findings.

Though my time in Denver was short, I managed to find three delightful bead shops. The first was owned by a fellow Etsy seller, Megan from The Peacock Shop. She was such fun to visit with and while her shop was small, her customer service and friendliness were huge! I wound up buying a fabulous turquoise cabochon from her along with some other cool beads including what she called peanut seed beads. The second shop I found was the Rocky Mountain Bead Trader in Englewood, owned by a man named Jay Phillips. Again, the friendliness and customer service were outstanding. I bought some really nice tiger eye leaf beads, some seed beads and Czech firepolish beads in colors I hadn't seen in my area. When he learned I was interested in seed beads, he suggested I try another shop in the area, Orrs' Trading Company. Oh my. Talk about walking into a beadweaver's version of a candy store, this was it. I had never seen so many colors of seed beads in one place in my life. As far as I was concerned, this was totally worth the trip. I know that a lot of bead weavers don't like to use anything but Delicas, but I guess I'm old school and I still love the Czech seed beads. Needless to say, I left with a slightly lighter wallet from this shop but a much more vast assortment of seed bead colors and finishes for my collection.
As a bonus, I met another extremely friendly, extremely talented beadweaver in the woman who waited on me, Marilyn Hume. Marilyn makes Blessing Sticks and sells them at the store. They are pieces of wood about a foot long that she covers with intricate peyote patterns using size 15 beads. The ends of each stick are then finished with feathers and fetishes. I wish I had asked her permission to photograph one so I could show it here. They are just amazing!
I know there are other bead shops in the Denver area but, alas, time did not allow me to seek them out. However, I would give a hearty recommendation to any of the three stores I got to visit. And hopefully, I'll be able to visit them again if my bead adventures take me back to Denver.

Tigereye, magnasite, Czech firepolish, glass beads, peanut seed beads and turquoise cabochon from The Peacock Shop, Rocky Mountain Bead Trader and Orrs' Trading Company.

My selection of seed beads from Orrs' Trading Company. The pictures just don't do them justice!

This One's Mine!

2010-06-10T18:19:00.000-05:00

Very seldom do I make something specifically for myself. Most of the time I feel I need to channel all my efforts into creating items to be sold. After all, I invest a tremendous amount of time and materials in my work and shouldn't waste it on myself. Much of the jewelry I wear is pieces I've taken to too many shows or that I've "borrowed" from my inventory and decided to keep for myself. But sometimes, a girl's just got to have something new for that special occasion.

Such was the case a couple of weeks ago. I attended my 40th high school class reunion and alumni banquet over Memorial Day weekend. It's not a fancy affair by a long shot, but I wanted something nice for the banquet so I found a very pretty dark purple blouse and black slacks. Purple was especially fitting since it was one of our school colors. The same weekend I found the blouse, I also found a new seller at our local farmers market. She was a young girl selling dichroic glass jewelry and cabochons. She told me she makes it in her microwave in a special kiln. I liked her color and pattern combinations and wound up purchasing two cabochons from her. Later I realized how well one of the cabs matched my new blouse and decided to make it up to wear to the banquet. Here's what I came up with. I wore it on a beadwoven chain I use for several different pendants and happily it drew attention so I could say, "Yes, I made this!".

Of course, I had to have coordinating earrings, too!

Sometimes You Get Lucky

2010-05-30T07:52:00.000-05:00

If you've read any of my previous posts, you know that I'm a yard sale junkie. From about April until September, my SO and I don't miss too many weekends of sifting through complete strangers cast-offs. We love the early sales, the ones that start around 7:00 in the morning. In the heat of the summer, it's still cool then and we finish up our browsing and buying by 9:00 a.m. or so. If you don't get to a sale early, most of the desirable items are gone anyway so going later is a waste of time. I usually look for clothing for my grandkids, sometimes for myself, items for my daughter's house and my own, books, but mostly I look for decorative things I can reuse in making my floral designs or old jewelry pieces I can incorporate into my beadwork. We check on-line in the local newspaper's classified section and also buy a paper to see where all the sales are located. Then armed with our list and the city map from the phone book, we take off in search of treasure.

This last weekend, we were headed to a particular sale when we passed a sign for one on a street we'd either missed or that hadn't advertised. So on a whim, we decided to stop. Lucky decision. The lady having the sale had been a Premiere jewelry dealer and she was getting rid of all her display pieces. I bought all the big pieces pictured for a cool $65.00. I now have not only a better way to transport jewelry to shows but display options as well. After we left, I got to thinking about being able to use these for home shows, an idea I've been toying with for quite a while, and I wished I'd also picked up the smaller display pieces she was offering. So, we swung back by and unfortuneately found she had sold some of the pieces but I managed to score three nice necklace stands and a lovely black velvet table cover for another 2 bucks.

This time around I also found two pair of pajamas, two t-shirts and swim trunks for my 4 year old grandson ($7.00), a grapevine wreath and a bag of green floral moss ($1.50), a rather unique lidded basket and a really cool wooden chuch birdhouse ($2.00). Next week? Who knows what treasures await? I love yard sales!!

New Clay Creations

2010-05-16T09:35:00.000-05:00

Lately my crafting time has been split between beading and playing with clay. I get almost equal satisfaction from each medium but the clay probably appeals to the kid in me as well as the artist, where the beads represent more of my adult persona. There's just something about kneading the clay, running it through the pasta machine, shaping it, mixing the colors. I used to love making mud pies too! And the colors remind me of my crayon box when my parents could afford to buy me the box of 24 or, glory of glories, the box of 48!! The names! The possibilities! Clay is like that. So many endless possibilities of color mixing; I especially like doing marbled designs. Here's what I've been up to recently with my clay.

The abstract design was inspired by my EBW and Facebook friend, Lorraine of TrinityDJ on Etsy. I first met Lorraine through the Etsy Beadweaver group and she is just one special lady. She is no longer able to bead due to illness, but somehow she creates these incredible polymer clay pieces. Her example, both as an artist and as a person, is the push behind this recent spurt of creativity on my part.

I had a lot of fun mixing the colors for these two and the little red haired girl has to be my favorite out of the bunch.

Since it's not long before Memorial Day, Flay Day and 4th of July, I thought maybe some patriotic designs might be in order.

I'll see how these are received before doing more barrette designs. Yesterday, I played with a couple different techniques of mixing and shaping the clay to create some pendants. They still need to be sanded and coated with sealer (the not so fun, but necessary, part of clay work). Then I will probably to the adult thing and work up some beadwork to go with them.

A Middle Aged Mother's Day Weekend

2010-05-09T12:22:00.001-05:00

Mother's Day certainly isn't what it used to be. I'm at that point in life where I'm caught in the middle. Still have my mom to celebrate the day with and still hope that my own grown children will remember their mom in some small way - a card or a phone call makes my day.

For several years, it's been a tradition for me to take my mother to the annual Mother's Day Flea Market in a town close to where she lives. We've always enjoyed the displays of bedding plants and the occasional treasure finds. My mother no longer gardens or does many of the things she always enjoyed due to Alzheimer's, but we still enjoyed attending the flea market, taking in the colors and smells, the sunshine and fresh air. We found some books for her. She still enjoys reading romance novels. And we found a bit of treasure for me.

The last couple of years I haven't found any vendors selling cabochons, but this year I was in luck. The ones in the bottom picture I'm going to use together to make a pendant. The others will be made up individually. The lighter crazy lace agate (top left in the big picture) is already glued to the backing for a bead embroidered cuff.

As for my own kids remembering their old mom, I needn't have wondered. Two of them even went so far as to send flowers!

First Ever EBW Spring Swap

2010-04-15T21:08:00.000-05:00

Twenty-one members of my Etsy team, Etsy Beadweavers, decided to treat each other with a swap of beadwoven designs. We each completed a questionaire on likes, dislikes, wrist and ring sizes, etc. and submitted them to the organizer of the swap, Christine of Christine's Beadwork. Then we received the name of the member for whom we were to design a jewelry item. We had no idea who had who's name and were not to reveal this until April 15. When I received my "swappee's" name, I have to admit I was a bit intimidated. It was Karin Alisa Houben, a very accomplished beader who has been designing for over 20 years, actually studied art, and has had her work shown in major fashion magazines not to mention has sold it to some very famous people! You can see her beautiful work on Etsy at Gypsy Eyes Jewelry. Here I am, an ordinary, self-taught, midwestern country girl. But Karin mentioned she had never tried Russian leaf stitch and I Love Russian leaf stitch. In fact, I love anything with a leaf motif, so I decided that's what I would do. Evidently, it was a good decision, because Karin wrote that she loved her "wonderfully big and bohemian" earrings. I was so glad!

Karin's Earrings

Then today it was my turn. I received my swap package in the mail and when I read the return address, I was really excited. The team member who had my name was Marcie Abney of La Bella Joya! Marcie does just beautiful work and I have admired her style since she became a member of EBW. When I opened my package, I was in no way disappointed. She designed a bracelet just for me using the name of my shop as inspiration. And of course, she used my favorite color - purple!!

My bracelet. Isn't it awesome?

This swap was so much fun. I hope we can do it again. If you'd like to see what the other swap participants received, you can go to Christine's blog. She made a wonderful photo collage and linked everyone's Etsy shop or blog.

Ta Da!!

2010-03-29T21:46:00.001-05:00

It's done. My very first ever bead embroidered cuff is complete. In my previous post, I outlined my approach to it's creation. The final steps after finishing the beadwork were to glue the beaded portion to the metal cuff and then to stitch a bead edging around the entire cuff. I learned that next time I need to add just a tad more to the length of the bead backing. I really had to stretch the beadwork to meet the edge of the ultrasuede on the ends. I also learned that I really enjoyed doing this kind of work and I've got some ideas floating around in my head for the next endeavor.

Another New Adventure

2010-03-27T10:37:00.009-05:00

Even though I have been beadweaving for around twenty years, there is still soooo much I've never tried. Other members of my Etsy team, Etsy Beadweavers Team, are constantly providing me with inspiration and encouragement to expand my horizons, not to mention, how-to and resource information. When I emailed the group recently that I would like to try my hand at making a shaped cuff over a metal form, several members were quick to point me in the right direction. Besides providing me with some pretty darn good written instructions, they also suggested the book "The Art of Bead Embroidery" by Serrafini and Kumli and a terrific video both on YouTube and at Fire Mountain Gems with Sherry Serrafini showing step by step how to put together a cuff on a metal foundation. So armed with a little bit of knowledge and a lot of determination, I've set about to create my first bead embroidered cuff on a metal band.

First, I measured my aluminum cuff blank (purchased from gottagetadeal on Etsy) and made a template for future use. Then I cut a lining for the inside of the cuff from black ultrasuede and glued it to the inside of the foundation. I also cut a piece of backing for the embroidery out of a stiff felt. This is the same backing material I use for cabochon necklaces. Next, I glued in place the three cabochons I had selected to use as focals. The center one is a faux red jasper and the two outer ones are repurposed button earrings. I loved the blend of colors in them! Now I was ready to choose beads for enhancing the cabs.

There were lots of reds, copper, bronze and even black in the button earring "cabs" so of course those were the colors I went with. Picked out seed beads, firepolish crystals and some glass and metal accent beads and I was ready to roll.

Other than positioning the three cabs and knowing that I would bezel them with the crystals and seed beads, I really didn't have a pre-formed notion of what I was going to do. The piece is sort of evolving from "what if and let's try this" moments. Oddly enough, I've found that some of my best work happens this way. So far, I'm pleased with this creative process and think the cuff is going to be a keeper. My boyfriend says it's gaudy and maybe it is, but I love color and texture. So I shall continue on doing what I do and when it's all finished, I'll post it here.

A Crafting Weekend

2010-03-21T14:52:00.011-05:00

It was a weekend with time to craft. So nice. Yesterday I set up at a small local ladies' show. You know, the kind that mixes commercial vendors with handmade vendors, but all geared to women's interests. Weather was wintery, crowd was minimal, but it was a pleasant day. My card cases were a big hit and many people who know me in this tiny community didn't realize I do beadweaving so I guess, in a way, I managed to get my name out there. For a change, there seemed to be a lot more interest in my handcrafted work than in the two commercial jewelry party vendors also in attendance.

We made it home in plenty of time to catch the NCAA basketball games on television that I wanted to watch. (Yes, I admit it. I am a college basketball junkie.) This year my team is doing well and I have enjoyed the game even more than usual. While I first watched a huge, exciting upset game and then a second game, which my team won, I finished my item for the Etsy Beadweavers Spring Swap. Amazingly, I didn't even spill any beads, because I can become extremely, shall we say, animated during ballgames!

Today it's still a bit snowy outside so I headed to my basement floral workroom and focused on building floral arrangements for the Spring craft show I do in April. I created four table and one wall arrangement before the fingers and back called for a break. It was a nice change of pace to work with my florals and I think I came up with some very pretty designs. My favorite of todays is one I put in an old rusty metal scoop I picked up at a yard sale.

I photographed all the florals as well as the Spring Swap beadwork (which will be revealed at a later date) and there's still some good crafting hours left in the day. Hmmm, florals or

beadwork?

Something Different

2010-03-09T06:23:00.004-06:00

It's been ages since I've gotten out the polymer clay to work with. Like most of my creative endeavors, the clay was put on the back burner for a while. But now that life is calming down a bit, I was anxious to continue my experimenting. Last November, I purchased some blank business card holders to embellish and I've been itching to see what I could do with them. I've seen such terrific examples on line and in instruction books, but I started out pretty simple. I only bought five of the blanks to begin with and had so much fun with those I've put in an order for ten more! Hopefully, I can find fifteen people who want these. Here's what my very first efforts look like. Feedback would be very appreciated.

Giveaway!

2010-03-03T16:39:00.005-06:00

Man, it has been forever since I've done a blog post! Since the end of December, my life has been a bit upside down. I temporarily had custody of my then 6 month old grandson. Let's just suffice it to say that babies dramatically change the way you live your life and many things were put on hold, including my blog posting. Happily, he is now back where he belongs with my daughter and hopefully, I am back to blogging on a more regular basis.

My only dilemna now is what to blog about on a regular basis. Well, for starters, one of my Etsy teams, Kansas Etsy Team, has started doing giveaways on our blog. Starting today and through March 13, I am the featured vendor and am giving away this beadwoven bracelet.

For a chance to win, please visit http://www.kansasetsyteam.blogspot.com and follow the entry instructions.

The Power of Creativity

2009-12-13T15:58:00.005-06:00

Many who are acquainted with me are aware that my family suffered a major tragedy at Thanksgiving time. The situation is now not as grave as we had feared but we still have months, if not years of stress and heartache ahead of us. I think it is natural when faced with horrific circumstances that the mind just shuts down on many levels to allow us to cope with things one at a time. But then, gradually, normal activity must return for us to regain mental as well as physical health. I think that routine, doing what one normally does, activity helps us stay grounded. It's just common sense that without a solid foundation, a structure will eventually crumble.

So part of my emotional foundation is my creativity. At first, in light of the gravity of what has happened to my family, beading seemed rather trivial. Where is the usefulness in creating beauty when the world right now seems so ugly? But creating is a part of who I am. Using my hands in a constructive, positive way has always given me purpose and satisfaction. It is calming and helps me to focus on other things than problems that I can't really solve anyway. Some things will just take time and have to be dealt with if and when they occur. In the meantime, I've found my beadwork again and I will create whatever I'm inspired to create knowing that every bead and every stitch is helping me cope and helping me heal.

I had purchased Marcia DeCoster's book "Beaded Opulence" a few weeks ago but had not taken time to look at it. This weekend I opened it and was immediately inspired by the versatility of right angle weave. In fact, I was so inspired that I gathered my beads and needle and thread and came up with a new cuff. In the spirit of keeping myself grounded, I guess it should be no surprise that the colors that I reached for were brown and turquoise. Not only the colors, but also the style is very elemental so I have christened it Earth and Water. Hopefully, this cuff has opened the floodgates for me and my beading will keep me sane in this crazy, messed up world.

Trash to Treasure

2009-11-17T20:33:00.005-06:00

One stop on the Highway 36 Treasure Hunt this summer was a true gold mine! This seller was disposing of inventory from a closed jewelry store for a friend. There were boxes upon boxes of new, still on the card, earrings, chains and brooches. At first, I was looking at brooches and dangling earrings thinking how I could use them as pendants with my beadweaving. Then I saw this pair of button earrings that really struck a chord. They were coppery with a small silver bead outlining this golden hued pebbley texture. I had to have them. In fact, I decided I had to have two pair of them. I finally got them worked up recently and listed to my Etsy shop.

I snipped off the posts on the earrings and treated them as cabochons, throwing in some more gold to the metallic mix with rainbow gold and amber seedbeads and playing up the copper with a darker bronzey brown two-cut seed bead. Then I added dimensional open peyote stitch rectangles between the earring cabochons and finished with a RAW chain of faceted metallic brown glass beads and rainbow gold seed beads. The toggle clasp repeats the rectangle theme but is more like a buckle shape.

I rather like the finished product and kind of wish I'd bought more, but I still have several more pieces to rework. I wonder if they managed to get rid of all that old jewelry or if they just tossed what was left.

First Fall Fair

2009-10-12T07:05:00.007-05:00

Only signed on for three arts and crafts fairs this fall and the first of them was Pumpkin Patch, Oct. 2 and 3 in a town just 40 miles from me. It has been a good show for me in the past and in spite of the current economy, it didn't disappoint this year either. We set up early Friday morning, starting a little before 6:00 a.m., sell from 9:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. on Friday, then back again from 9:00a.m. until 4:00 p.m. on Saturday. It's a lot of hours but the schedule seems to catch just about anyone who would want to attend at some time during the two days.

The site for the show is the county fair grounds and Steve and I always set up in one of the out buildings. The building is used for livestock during the fair, so only has solid wall halfway up, but has a roof and a paved pathway down the center of each aisle. It can be chilly, but if you come prepared, it's not a bad space to set up. We hang tarps and put down ground cloth to help cut down wind and dust. Thank goodness we do, because Friday the winds were horrible. We had 30 to 40 mph winds all day long! My display stayed pretty secure but we didn't get the placement of the tarp quite right on Steve's side and he lost several framed photos to the wind gusts.

Over the two days I sold probably three fourths of my floral items which was excellent since they were all fall pieces and I probably won't take much in the way of fall arrangements to my next shows. But the most exciting sale was the sale of my turquoise necklace, Shades of the Southwest. I rarely sell any pieces locally in the above $50.00 range so when my most expensive piece is purchased it's truely a red letter day! And the same purchaser bought beadwoven earrings to match. Several beadwoven bracelets, a couple more necklaces and quite a few earrings went home with new owners, too. It was so strange that we had a larger crowd on Saturday but I had larger sales on Friday. Guess they had to be serious buyers to brave that ghastly wind!!

Green Pieces

2009-10-10T06:34:00.006-05:00

I seem to have been in a green mood lately. After quite a dry spell, I've finally finished, photographed and listed two new pieces to my Etsy shop. A third piece is finished and photographed but not listed yet. And guess what? They are all shades of green. Maybe I'm getting in my last hurrah before nature turns golden and then silver. And then again, maybe I just like green.

Golden Moments

2009-09-02T21:19:00.005-05:00

Seems as if it's been a long time since I've gotten a project finished and listed to my Etsy shop. I've been in kind of a beading slump after I finished my last EBW challenge piece. So for inspiration, I visited my beadroom stash and found just the thing to spark some creativity. I'd bought these green and gold glass beads at a cool little bead store my sister and I found when we went on a shopping trip together recently. It was such a fun day and although my sister doesn't bead (she's a quilter) I think she had as much fun helping me pick out beads as I did. At the same store, we found some gold seed beads with a smooth, burnished finish that went with the larger green and gold so well. I don't work with gold very often, being a diehard silver wearer, but these beads struck a chord.

Then it was on to my library of beading books for some design ideas because I wanted to do something different than my usual spiral or herringbone. I pulled out a book I've had for a while on beading with brick stitch and remembered I'd gotten some cool ideas from it in the past. Sure enough, as I leafed through it, I saw a piece with little diamond shaped links between beads. So how about for some interest, I graduate the size of the links. But as I put it together, it seemed too blah and I got the idea to open up the diamonds, making them the same green and gold as the glass beads. Things were shaping up nicely at that point. Then I found three pendants in a baggie at a yard sale. One was silver and pearl, one a black and white acrylic and one a gold spiral diamond. I actually bought the bag for the silver one but when I got them home I realized the gold one was a perfect match to my green and gold necklace. So through a series of rather serendipitous events, I arrived at that golden moment when everything came together and Voila!.......

Indian Summer Patchwork

2009-08-19T21:15:00.004-05:00

I am a bargain seeker, a treasure hunter, collector of odds and ends. My bead stash runneth over. So, when the theme for the Etsy Beadweavers team September challenge was announced, Indian Summer Dream, I knew I had the perfect components to make up my interpretation of the theme - somewhere!

Last fall I bought these darling fall leaf buttons in Hobby Lobby's clearance aisle. At the time of the purchase, I wasn't sure what I'd use them for, but they said "take us home" so I did. Now which drawer did I put them in? Oh yeah, there they are! Okay, so how do I make them up? Lots of fall colors, of course! What else does "Indian summer" make me think of? Wrapping up in an old throw at football games, kicking through the fallen leaves on a crisp afternoon walk, seeing the glorious autumn patchwork of treetops blanketing the Flinthills.

I think I've got it now... a patchwork of autumn colors, scattered with leaves, to wrap around the wrist.

Shades of the Southwest

2009-07-26T19:40:00.001-05:00

I love silver. I love turquoise. I love silver and turquoise accented with coral. I love Southwestern style. So it was only natural that my entry in the August Etsy Beadweavers' challenge be a Southwestern style design done in turquoise, silver and coral. The large, chunky freeform turquoise pendant was another of my finds at the farmer's market where I purchased the turquoise square donuts. As soon as I saw it I knew it would be the focal piece for my challenge entry. Since the pendant was asymetrical, the rest of the necklace evolved asymetrically as well. I'd like to think that with this creation, I've put my own little spin on traditional Southwestern style.

All in a Weekend's Work

2009-07-25T20:25:00.000-05:00

Yes, I know the weekend's not over, but I feel like I've done at least two days work today. I decided to replace the sliding glass door that leads from my kitchen onto my enclosed patio. The door has always been leaky and takes up a lot of wall space that could be put to better use. So having no other plans for the weekend, my boy friend and I decided to tackle the project. Thanks goodness he's one of those guys who knows how to do all that stuff. I hate to think how many projects he has done for me in the last ten years; painting, remodeling the basement, vinyl siding, electrical work, plumbing, if it has to do with remodeling or maintaining a house, he's done it! Anyway, back to the door re-do. The first thing that had to be done, of course, was removing the old door and getting it out of the house. The original installers must have used twenty tubes of caulking putting in this door! We finally got it loose and then the fun began. This door was extremely heavy and had to be taken down three steps, across the patio, out the patio door and across the back lawn to be loaded into a trailer for disposal. We used two pipes to roll it on and it must have taken half an hour. Once it was out, though, the rest went together relatively easy. We got the new door squared up, and then Steve framed in the new wall, insulated it and hung the sheetrock. I was the go-for for the project after we got the old door out, but I did install the door knob and dead bolt by myself. It's still got a ways to go. Steve is such a perfectionist when it comes to finishing sheetrock. Since the kitchen is kind of a mess right now anyway, I'm going to go ahead and scrap off the old ceiling texture, have him re-texture and give the walls a new coat of paint. I think it was a good decision to replace the door. I'm liking the way it looks and even discovered an added benefit. It makes the house a lot quieter and I can't hear the annoying barking dog next door any more!

Old Love Affairs

2009-07-17T20:28:00.000-05:00

One of my earliest jewelry memories is receiving a silver and turquoise bracelet when I was probably 7 or 8 years old. My grandma and grandpa had taken a vacation in Colorado and brought the bracelet back to me as a gift. They always brought us some little trinket back when they went on a trip. It was a little narrow cuff style bracelet with small turquoise cabochons glued across the top. Oh, how I loved that bracelet, not only because my grandma picked it out for me but because it had turquoise and that's my birthstone! I finally outgrew it but I think I still have it packed away in a box with other childhood mementos. But the thing I've never outgrown is my love for turquoise - blue turquoise or green, doesn't matter. So I am always on the lookout for turquoise to use in my jewelry designs. Some of my best designs, I think, I've done with turquoise.

A couple weeks ago, we went to a farmers' market and I found a jewelry supply vendor with a lovely variety of turquoise. I purchased some beads, a large odd-shaped pendant and some open square donuts. The pendants and donuts are reconstituted turquoise, but turquoise nonetheless. I couldn't wait to get home and start playing with designs. The first I came up with was a bracelet using the square donuts. I linked the donuts with bands of beadweaving using metallic silver seed beads and small red coral beads. It's got that classic southwestern look, which I will always love.

One of the donuts I bought had been drilled to use as a pendant and I wanted it to coordinate with the bracelet. So I used the same metallic silver seed beads along with turquoise and red seedbeads and beaded a shaped, open square in peyote stitch to hang the turquoise donut from. I wanted the chain to be very metallic looking with touches of turquoise and the coral beads. I stitched it in herringbone for a sleek, shiney look. The clasp is a repeat of the peyote stitch square. And of course to complete the ensemble, I had to make earrings to match!

What Ifs

2009-07-13T06:31:00.000-05:00

Do you ever have those "what if" moments? I have them a lot when I'm beading and sometimes my best creations evolve from those moments. Lately, I have been infatuated with shaped beadwork. Ever since I bought Diane Fitzgerald's book, I have been enamored of these little geometric jewels. The open shapes, especially, fascinate me and I have started using them on many of my designs as toggles. I like the solidness of them for clasps because that's a very desirable quality in a clasp. I also like using the shapes for earrings and have just listed a couple pair in my Etsy shop. It was while I was stitching those earrings that I had my "what if". Before you zip the two sides of the shape together, there is a furrow (that's farm country speak for trench) around the shape formed by the two sides. Kind of reminded me of an open pea pod. Which is probably what inspired the what if. Anyway, what if I made one side one row shorter and instead of zipping the sides together, filled that furrow with larger beads - like the open pea pod? Yeah! What if? So I tried it and I liked the results. I was going to make another set of earrings, but in a second what if moment, I thought, "what if I just hung this from a simple chain or satin cord as a pendant?". So I tried that and like it too. Here's the result of all that what iffing. Let me know what you think.

Here Comes the Bride!

2009-06-22T21:02:00.000-05:00

Not me, for heaven sake, it's my entry in the Etsy Beadweaver's July Challenge. The theme was picked by the May challenge winner, Miriam of Cielo Designs. While I don't plan to ever be a bride again, it was fun coming up with something for this challenge. I tried to do something sort of traditional bridal, but at the same time, that could be worn for any dressy occasion or even to soften the look of a business suit. I just recently learned how to stitch a flat spiral and I've enjoyed experimenting with the stitch. In my necklace I started with the original flat spiral using AB firepolish crystals and three shades of white seed beads. As I worked toward the center, I made graduated loops of beads on one side. The flexibility of this stitch gave me the idea of the rings in the center to represent the unity of marriage. This may have been the first piece I've ever made in all white. It was a bit of a challenge just to come up with the variation of white seed beads that I wanted, but I'm pleased with how the different finishes complement each other.

Working Vacation

2009-06-18T21:18:00.000-05:00

When I go on a vacation it's easy to put away thoughts of accounts receivable, payroll and insurance filing. After all, that's what I'm taking the vacation from! But the work I do at home usually goes with me, even on vacation. Most of the time my SO drives so even short trips are a source of uninterrupted beading time.

Last week when we drove to Oklahoma and Texas, I loaded plenty of entertainment for the drive time: a book, my laptop (with new games loaded) and of course, my beads! I played a lot of Bejeweled and Bubbletown, but I also got a lot of beading done!

This first picture is a stone I bought some time ago because I liked the "natural" color of it and also its asymetry. The Pottawatomie weave kind of mimics that same asymetry.

The second and third pictures are also a pendant I picked up quite a while ago. I'm not normally drawn to animal prints but something about the buff color with the black caught my eye. I think the reversible flat spiral complements the zebra stripes quite well. Because it's reversible, I made it to also be worn sans pendant by sliding the pendant off.

The last picture is of a bracelet that I made with some of the beads I bought at the bead store in Austin. I fell in love with the khaki color of the triangle beads. They almost jumped out of the display into my hand and shouted, "Take me home!". The 11's and 15's, when mixed with the triangle beads in a flat spiral combination, remind me of a berber carpet. I'm not sure I want to part with this bracelet. Not only do I love the color and texture of it, but most of it was woven while sitting and chatting on the patio in Austin so I guess it has some emotional attachment for me as well. Maybe I'll keep this one and make another one sometime similar to it to sell.

There's No Place Like Home

2009-06-15T19:13:00.001-05:00

Didn't quite make my goal of blogging every day while gone on vacation. Guess I got sidetracked doing those vacation things. Let's see, last post was from Port Lavaca, TX. We left there early Friday morning and traveled to Austin, TX. Steve's son and DIL go to the Texas College of Chinese Medicine there learning to be acupuncturists. I always learn so much when we visit them. Talk about a couple of sharp young people. They also have some fun pets. There's a big dog named Lillie, a black and white cat named Thoate and two silkie chickens, Ora and Autra. Friday we just mostly sat around, relaxed and caught up. We did visit a local bead shop however. I had seen the ad for the store on Facebook and Caite knew where it was and had been wanting to go there. Got some wonderful new seedbead colors and made up a bracelet with them, but that's another post. Then Saturday morning, early, we headed off to a place called Wildseed Farms near Fredricksberg, TX. They have a Butterfly Haus which is a controlled area where the butterflies fly freely around you and photo opportunities abound!

I had to buy some of the painted Mexican pottery pieces they offered for sale, too. The colors are so bright and were just irresistable! I got a wonderful salamander that's about a foot and a half long and a small butterfly. Later that evening, the kids took us to see one of the amazing sights in Austin. Every evening from under the South Congress bridge across the Colorado River, at sundown, flies out approximately one and a half Million bats. It is a truely astounding sight! They come out so fast that they are literally a blur but the migration goes on for at least thirty minutes. One lady commented that they looked like smoke against the trees, they fly so fast. The bats live up under the bridge and can't be seen by daylight, but trust me, they can be smelled!

Unfortuneately, I have to be back at my real job in the morning so we left Austin, yesterday about noon and got as far as Purcell, Oklahoma, just south of Oklahoma City where we stopped for the night. Would have gotten farther but Austin traffic was horribly backlogged for some reason on Sunday. We left there this morning and arrived back home around lunch time today. It's good to be home. Besides, I had a new relative to meet as soon as I got back.

Wyatt Christjian was born on June 10 while Grandma was away. He came by emergency c-section and it's probably a good thing I didn't know all the details until I got back. But I've always said things happen for a reason and all that's important is that we have a healthy baby boy and his mama is doing fine.

Day Three

2009-06-12T06:56:00.000-05:00

Seems I'm a day late now on all my vacation posts, but at least I've been able to make one for each day so far. Yesterday we arrived at Port Lavaca kind of on a whim. We both love the ocean and would have tried to go back to Galveston had the big hurricane not intervened between the last time we were there and now. So we looked a little further south on the map and found this place. It's not nearly as picturesque as Galveston, but nice nonetheless. We spent a good part of the day wading on the beach (neither of us swim) and trying to get pictures of sea gulls in flight. It was quite windy and was so fascinating to watch how the birds worked the air currents. We had a wonderful meal in a local restaurant called the Bayside Restaurant, grilled fresh red snapper and shrimp. The owners have their own boat that fishes in the gulf so they have fresh fish available daily.

Steve made a lot of fun of me for not going in any further, but let's get one thing straight. I love the ocean. I love to watch the ocean. I love to listen to the ocean. I even love to smell the ocean. But I do not like to be under the ocean! Besides, I didn't want to get my jeans wet!!

Day Two

2009-06-11T16:48:00.000-05:00

Okay, it's actually day three already but I was tired last night and didn't feel like putting up a blog. We spent a lovely morning still in Oklahoma City at the Myriad Botanical Gardens and the Crystal Bridge in downtown Oklahoma City. The Crystal Bridge is an all glass enclosed tropical garden that is just delightful. I had so much fun snapping photos of all the exotic flowers. There were also these little gnomes hidden around the garden and they gave you clues to find them. I took photos of all of them I could find. Corny, yes, but I enjoyed the hunt.

Outside, the gardens were just as lovely. Again we were disappointed not to see more butterflies, but it was already climbing into the eighties by 10:00 or so. I did manage to capture a cardinal on the back of park bench and it was just like he'd posed just for me.

We then headed south again with the idea of going to Waco, TX then veering toward the Gulf and getting as far as we could. Dallas was a nightmare to drive through. Traffic bumper to bumper and construction everywhere. It took us over two hours just to get through Dallas. We are figuring out a different route on the way home! We finally made it as far as Schulenberg, TX and found a motel to spend the night. Then it was up early this morning and on to Port Lavaca on the gulf coast. That's Day Three and I'll write about it later.

Day One Traveling

2009-06-09T20:25:00.000-05:00

We left this morning in a downpour in our rented Hyundai Alantra. It's a nice car, very comfortable for the two of us. We got to Oklahoma City about 1:00 or so and found our way to the Oklahoma City Zoo easily enough. Spent about two and half hours at the zoo in 95 degree weather, which was about long enough for this old lady. It's a very pretty zoo but the butterfly exhibit that we really wanted to see was a disappointment. Although the area was enclosed, it was with netting and it was too hot for the butterflies to be flitting about. I had fun taking photos of the animals though. My favorites were the river otters. They are so playful and I love watching them cavort in the water.

I got some really cool photos of the owls, too. My old Kodak really came through while my SO with his fancy Canon couldn't get a good shot.

The lady at Guest Services at the zoo was very helpful and found us a motel with easy access to downtown and the Myriad Botanical Gardens where we want to go in the morning. She also suggested we check out Bricktown in downtown Oklahoma City so we drove down there this evening. It's quite pretty. There's a canal walk and tons of places to eat. We ate at Pearl's Crabshack which I highly recommend! Food was great. Prices very reasonable. After we ate, we walked along the canal even though it was still about 90. Then in finding our way back to the motel, we stumbled on a Bass Pro Shop and of course we had to stop. I was glad we did because I found the crystal Fireline I've been searching for and it was 20% off! I bought two.

Not sure what the plans are after the gardens in the morning but I think we're veering off toward the gulf coast for a day before heading back to Austin to visit family.

Why I Love Yard Sales

2009-05-27T06:35:00.000-05:00

Normally, I am up every morning at 5:00 to exercise, get ready for work and have some computer time before I leave to be at the office by 7:30. You would think that on Saturday's I would sleep in, but no, I still get up early. Why, you ask? To go to yard sales, of course!!

Yard sales, garage sales, tag sales, they are called by different names in different areas, but whatever they are called, are wonderful entertainment and if you know what you are looking for can be gold mines. They are also in a way, a great form of recycling. I find lots of containers and wreath forms for my floral arrangements. Most just need a bit of cleaning and allow me to keep my price to the customer lower because my cost is lower. I also find clothing and toys for my grandchildren and sometimes myself. I find home decor and garden decor. Last summer, I even found a cash register to use at my craft shows! In a previous post, I mentioned that the little wooden fish I was using in a jewelry project were a yard sale find. This is a picture of another recent acquisition. A lady had three pedestal bases for those beautiful glass balls you see in so many yards. I took the one with a wind chime and dragonflies in it. She said she didn't know you could replace the balls. Guess she doesn't make it to the stores very often. For a buck and and a half price globe from Hobby Lobby, I got a great addition to the garden. I love the purple globe with my orange flower hanging basket!

These little metal butterflies were another treasure I found for 50 cents for 6 of them. They look so cute in the garden.

During the warmer months on most weekends, my SO and I grab a paper Friday night and map out a course of action for the morning. We love the sales that start at 7:00 because we are early people and especially when it gets hot, we like to be finished with our bargain hunting by 9:00. We also like the neighborhood sales. You can just walk from house to house and it's kind of like a big party. If you've never done yard sales, you should give it a try. It can be a fun adventure. The old saying, "one man's trash is another man's treasure" is quite true. So don't try to reach me before 9 or 10 o'clock on a Saturday morning. I'll be out treasure hunting!

The Rest of The Weekend

2009-05-25T18:41:00.000-05:00

Today was an absolute gorgeous day in spite of the weatherman's predictions . Temperature was in the high 70's, a light breeze and sunshine. This was my lazy, stay-at-home day. I cleaned the living room in the morning, helped my SO mow the yard and then took the bead tray and spent most of the rest of the day on the patio beading.

I was working on my June "Humor" challenge entry. You can kind of get a sneak peek here.

The colorful little fish were a recent yard sale find. They were on a broken chain and just begging to be reused. The lady said she had bought them on a trip to Guatemala. I won't use all of them for this piece so will have fuel for future creations. I managed to finish the components for my necklace today and am working on the chain to tie them all together now. Should be able to finish well before the deadline. Good progress and a great day!!

A Lovely Weekend

2009-05-24T20:04:00.000-05:00

My day job has been a bit stressful of late so I have really been looking forward to the long weekend. Saturday was a beautiful day, though a bit hot in the afternoon. We started the day with a bit of yard sale shopping. Hit the jackpot in finding shorts and t-shirts for my 4 year old grandson, found a couple unique containers for florals and a really cool bunch of little wooden handpainted medallions that will most likely find their way into a bead project some day. Next we went fishing for catfish in a creek that runs through the ground my SO leases for hunting. In the last two days, he had pulled 8 big, as in 5-10 pound, fish out of this little creek. Alas, they were not biting for me. He caught one nice one and I got a few nibbles before it got too hot and we decided to call it quits. Guess it was that cat's lucky day, cause we threw him back.
Back in town after lunch, I decided to go get my hair trimmed and do a little mall shopping. It was nice to have some "me" time and the mall was nice and cool. Got back to SO's house in time to do some beading before supper which was some of those nice catfish he'd caught earlier in the week. Boy, were they good! After we ate, we headed to the theatre to see the movie Star Trek. It was pretty good, but not quite what I'd expected. Still, it had been forever since we'd been to a movie, so it was fun.
Today we drove to Topeka and ate at Red Lobster for lunch. That's the SO's favorite restaurant and it was his birthday Saturday so I treated. My oldest son, his wife and my grandson met us for lunch. We hadn't seen them for a few months and of course in those few months, little ones can change so much. The baby is fast becoming a little boy. Grandma was amazed at how many words he can say at only 16 months and by the fact that he is even learning how to sign. He is such a determined little fellow, I'm quite sure he will accomplish anything he sets out to. After lunch, we all went to the zoo where grandson entertained us with antics and animal sounds. Seeing things through a toddler's eyes can be such fun. Got a few good photos and had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon!
So it's been a pretty good weekend and the great thing is, there's one more day left.

Finished and Started Again

2009-05-18T21:36:00.000-05:00

It was one of those weekends when mornings were chilly and afternoons were balmy. So I managed to get a little of everything done that I wanted to accomplish. Went to some yard sales and found a few treasures. Shopped for some beads and groceries (not at the same place). Bought some more plants and put them in my shade garden. And finished the blueberry and violet cuff and started on a new button design. The bracelet turned out rather bright but I like it. The other button I started on is a turquoise and copper flower design. It's going to be a bit more subtle in color but I'm liking it too.

Work in Progress

2009-05-14T13:25:00.000-05:00

I still have several Czech art glass buttons in my stash and they were easier to get to than my collection of stone cabochons, so I picked out another one to design around for my next project. This one has such beautiful shades of blue violet and lavendar! And if you know me, you know I'm a sucker for anything purple. After studying it a bit, I decided to make a cuff bracelet using the button as a focal. Found a lovely dark blue violet seed beed in my stash along with a complementing hue of purple to use for the base colors. The button has some silver in it too so I decided to accent with silver seed beads and silver firepolish crystals. So far I have the cuff a little over half finished but I haven't decided yet how I want to finish the button. Shall I bezel it and then stitch it to the cuff or should I leave it unadorned and stitched to the center of the cuff? Will have to play a bit, I guess, to come to a conclusion.

Silver Bells and Cockle Shells

2009-05-09T19:43:00.000-05:00

Anyone who knows me well will tell you that my thumb is definitely not green. In fact, I have even been known to bring about the demise of the ever popular, practically indestructible, philodendron. I do have a lovely stand of dandelions and chickweed in my yard, but that doesn't seem to impress my neighbors. But in spite of this, I keep trying to beautify my environment. We finally got a break in the rainy spring weather we've been having so I got ambitious this last week and bought up some plants to set out. I've found that I have the best luck with plants when I put them in containers although the shade and rock garden I started two years ago is still looking quite nice. I added an astilbe plant and two forget-me-nots to it this week. I love the magical, mythical characters of fairies and gargoyles and such and several habitate in my garden areas. I found a new fairy this spring at the craft show I did. She's a rustic metal silhouette and looks quite at home in the shade garden next to the new astilbe plant. My containers look at little sparse yet but I'm hoping they will fill in nicely as the summer progresses. I'm kind of wishing I'd gotten one of the hanging geraniums I've pictured for myself. This one is going to my mom's tomorrow for Mother's Day.

New Creations

2009-05-05T18:09:00.000-05:00

I've been having so much fun learning the techniques in Diane Fitgerald's book "Shaped Beadwork". Besides my May EBW challenge entry, I've made up a couple pairs of earrings using the open shapes. One pair uses the rectangle and the other uses the hexagon. I also used the hexagon shape to make a bezel cup for another of those wonderful Czech art glass buttons. There just aren't enough hours in the evenings to try all the ideas this book has inspired.

Hollywood Red Carpet Creations

2009-04-26T19:58:00.000-05:00

When I first read the theme for the May Etsy Beadweavers' Challenge, I thought, "Oh, boy, this is going to bring out the glitz and glamour". How was I ever going to come up with something to compete with some of the wonderfully elaborate creations this team thinks up? Answer: Not gonna happen. I'm really not a "Wonderfully Elaborate" kind of person. So I got to thinking about the kind of fashion that appeals to me when it comes to formal dress. Again, I normally don't lean toward lots of ruffles and frou frou. I like draped designs, simple sheaths, skirts that flow. I love men in tuxedos. And when I thought of tuxedos, that's when it came to me - Black Tie! Fortunately for me, I had just bought Diane Fitzgerald's book Shaped Beadwork and was learning how to make the different components. It occurred to me that if I put two of the open teardrop shapes together point to point and figured out how to do a center, it would look just like a bow. A circle of fire polish beads did the trick for the center and my old reliable spiral stitch seemed a natural for the strings and ribbon. I used another of the open teardrops with a peyote stitch bar for the clasp. Done up in shiny black opaque and sparkly silver seed beads, I think it's Red Carpet worthy. I'd like to imagine someone like Diane Keaton wearing it at the next Oscar Awards! :-)

First Show of the Year

2009-04-20T20:38:00.000-05:00

For several years now, I've started my craft show year with a two day fair called the Tulip Festival. It's the only outdoor show that I do and that's because they provide space in two large circus style tents so exposure to the weather is minimal. Rain and wind are not kind to my craft and Kansas springtime weather can have plenty of both. This year was no exception. Saturday dawned cloudy and damp keeping traffic to only a few brave souls. The sun finally made an appearance after lunch and brought the crowd with it, but it was too little, too late to make for a very profitable day. It's also rained in the area for most of the preceding week so even in the tents, the ground was wet and muddy. Sunday remained cloudy and the wind decided to get in the act too. Here it was the middle of April and a lot of us were running around in winter jackets! Sunday has traditionally been the slower of the two days and again, no surprises there. It wound up that I only sold about a third of what I did last year. I don't know if it was the weather, the economy, a combination of both, or if I just didn't have what the buyers were looking for this year. Craft shows can be so iffy, but I do enjoy interacting with customers and the other vendors.
I decided to take some shots of my set up this weekend. Unfortuneately, craft show spaces are never the same. They're never the same length and width. Sometimes you get lucky and snag a corner or an end space, enabling you to use both sides of a gridwall. Sometimes you get wedged into a center space. A lot of the time you don't know your location until you get there. My space set up has been a continual evolution for years now. I keep trying to make it better, more inviting, more efficient. A couple years back I happened on an old bakery rack at a yard sale and now use it to display floral arrangements. Since it has four sides, it took the place of two shelving units. My jewelry display has grown from laying things on tables to hanging them with corsage pins from a foamcore board to hanging them by handmade hang tags on gridwall. Until this show, I also used collapsible shelving for bracelets and earrings. I decided to try something different with the gridwall and ordered bracelet bars, waterfall hooks and shelves that all hang from the gridwall. I rather like the way that part of the display turned out. Hopefully, next time I will remember to purchase two spaces instead of just one and will be able to spread out my floral work a bit more. I like to create a shop-like atmosphere in my space but this time I made a mistake on my application and had to crowd things more than I like. Thank goodness, my partner didn't need all of his space and gave me about four feet of craft show real estate.
My goal is to get my display to the point where no matter what the configuration of the space, set up will be standardized. And of course, to always have in stock whatever it is the consumer is wanting on that particular day.

That Other Thing I Do

2009-04-15T18:50:00.000-05:00

If you are familiar with my blog and my Etsy shop, you may have wondered why it's "beads" and "blooms". Most of my blogging is about my beadweaving and my Etsy shop currently only features jewelry. But before I discovered this wonderful cyber world, I sold my creations primarily at craft shows. Floral design was actually my original moneymaker and the jewelry kind of just happened. And the more I made of each, the more I knew I didn't really want to give either one up. So, I became Beads and Blooms.
Being a very small - as in one woman - business, I've found that selling floral arrangements and wreaths on the internet is really more than I want to handle. I did sell a wreath on Etsy shortly after I started my shop, but because I wasn't prepared to buy in quantity, finding suitable packaging that didn't cost an arm and a leg was a nightmare. What was I thinking? How was I going to pack and ship something more fragile? So I decided to just sell my jewelry creations on line and sell both at craft fairs.
My first craft show of 2009 is this weekend and I have been busy making up wreaths and arrangements as well as adding to my jewelry inventory. Spring shows are always a bit iffy. One never knows what the weather is going to be like or whether fair goers are going to be in a buying mood. Traditionally, I do better in the fall when folks have gift-giving on their minds. In fact, the only reason I still do this particular show is because I can set up in a huge tent which helps with the weather worries and it attracts a large crowd over a two day period. Some years I sell the heck out of jewelry and some years the florals move better, but it does seem that people buy at this show. This year, the weather is not sounding too promising for sunshine and the economy could certainly be better, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, and these things aren't going to sell hanging in my basement!

The Last of the First Four

2009-04-09T19:39:00.000-05:00

My first batch of four Czech art glass buttons from Crazycakes are all now incorporated into jewelry designs. I just can't get over how beautiful they have all turned out. Hopefully, that doesn't sound too boastful. But these buttons are just so lovely, they inspired me to create pieces that enhance that loveliness. I think the last one I made, the bronze herringbone bracelet, is my favorite of the four. Although, the white one is very sweet. I just got eight more of the buttons in the mail today and can't wait to start designing with them. In fact, I think I'll go shop in my stash right now to see what I can come up with!

Mother Nature's April Fool's

2009-04-02T13:37:00.000-05:00

It may have been a day late, but it was still a pretty good April Fool's joke from Mother Nature. This is what greeted me when I stepped out of the house to go to work this morning. Funny thing was, I had looked outside at 5:45 a.m. and the ground was pretty clear. Just some rain and a few flakes falling. But an hour and a half later, it was a different story! Messy drive to work, but by lunch, the sun was shining and streets and sidewalks were drying out. As they say, if you don't like the weather in Kansas, just wait five minutes and it will change!

Second One Done

2009-03-30T21:39:00.000-05:00

Finished up the second Czech Art Glass button project tonight. I was quite pleased with the result as it was something totally different for me. I don't make a lot of beadwoven bracelets and when I do, they are normally of the narrower variety than this cuff. I've also never tried placing beadwork on top of other beadwork in a cabochon style and lastly, I've never tried anything like the little "cut-out" windows in the peyote stitching. This was another design-as-I-stitch creation so it was gratifying to have it turn out as well as it did.

Button, Button, Who's Got the Button

2009-03-29T15:01:00.000-05:00

A little over a month ago, one of my fellow beadweavers from Etsy, Dayna of
daynamiles , shared with the group her wonderful creations using Czech art glass buttons. I was so taken in by the exquisite designs, I just had to have some of those gorgeous buttons for myself. I wound up purchasing four of the little beauties from crazycakes. So far I have finished a pendant necklace and listed it on Etsy and have a bracelet in progress. These are so much fun to design around, I'm sure when all four are made up, I'll be back for more!!

April Challenge Entry Listed!

2009-03-28T14:12:00.000-05:00

I wasn't sure I was going to get this challenge entry completed in time but I finished it this morning and just now listed it to Etsy. Whew!! When I first read the description for the April Challenge, "Time Machine", my mind was spinning with possibilities. Do I try something Steampunk as some of the others had mentioned? Do I go with futuristic or something looking back in time? Finally, being the avid reader of fantasy science fiction that I am, I settled on creating something that would fit into the storyline of a fantasy sci fi novel.

One of my favorite fantasy series was by Diana Gabaldon about a 20th century woman transported back in time to the 18th century through a circle of standing stones in Scotland. So how cool would it be if one could transport through time simply by donning a piece of jewelry and gazing in a mirror?!

While the stones and beads I chose to work with came from my stash, I did do some shallow research into the meaning of the stones to see how well they fit the notion that this was a magical time travel necklace. It all actually worked out quite well. The jade teardrop center stone stands for clarity and courage, both attributes useful to the time traveler. A touch of amethyst for intuition which could definitely be handy in a strange land or time; lepidolite for acceptance and calm, aiding in transition; and hematite for protection and grounding, all things that would benefit the time traveler. Of course, the magic that actually makes the necklace work comes from the stitches and weaving (and the imagination of the wearer)!

Bluebells and Butterflies

2009-03-06T16:18:00.000-06:00

Not too long ago I listed a necklace in my Etsy shop that I called Lavendar Garden. I had so much fun making it that I decided to do a similar one in different colors. Guess it's my spring fever, but I seem to be stuck on green right now. I had gotten some lovely soft green mother of pearl leaf beads recently and of course they jumped right out at me from my work desk. Right beside them were some silver butterfly charms, another recent purchase, and they found their way into my bead tray too. Now, what to go with the green? As I searched thru my stash of seed beads looking for the leaf green, my eye landed on a soft translucent blue and I remembered the little Czech glass flower beads I had in the same shade. Perfect! The finished piece makes me think of walking through a meadow on a warm sunny day when the wildflowers have started blooming and the butterflies are dancing on the breezes.

Wii!! I'm having fun!

2009-02-27T18:57:00.000-06:00

Three years ago, I decided I was tired of being overweight and out of breath. I was further motivated by the fact that both my sons were getting married in the fall of that year and I was not about to be fatter than their step-mother in the photos. Following 6 months of Weight Watchers points counting and exercising to Walk Away the Pounds dvds, I dropped from a size 16 to a size 10/12 and I looked good! And I felt good! I kept up the good routine for another year but then I got sick for a week, wasn't able to work out and things went downhill from there. I'm still in a size 12 but I've put back on about 15 pounds. My knees and hips hurt again and it's just time to do something before things get any further out of control. I bought a new Leslie Sansone dvd but it just wasn't the same motivation as the first time around. Then I started hearing from people at work about Wii Fit. One guy and his wife were playing Wii Sports nightly and he had dropped 11 pounds in a month. So I did some research and decided this might just be the motivation I need.
Last weekend I bought a Wii console with Wii Sports and was immediately hooked. My oldest son, at the ripe old age of 30, says it's too juvenile,(he's into the war games, grand theft auto, etc.) but I find the little Mii characters totally charming. Because it's such a hot item right now, I had to order the Wii Fit Bundle and yesterday it arrived. I couldn't wait to see what it was all about. I've only had time to sample a small amount of the amazingly fun fitness activities offered but I'm already convinced this is just what I was needing to get me active again.
I've never quite been able to get into the game thing like my children. They all have X Boxes and game libraries, the whole nine yards. But now, I'm beginning to see the fascination (and the addiction)! I may even look into some other games for the system just for fun. In the meantime, I'll be practicing bowling, tennis, balance games, yoga and I will lose at least 10 of those 15 pounds! Now I just need to be careful that I'm not so sore I can't bead!

It's Springtime In My Basement

2009-02-15T14:33:00.000-06:00

I've always liked winter but the older I get the shorter I like winter to be. We've actually been lucky this year and not had a lot of ice or snow, although we will probably rue the lack of moisture later . We have had the usual amount of cold temperatures, however. It's the cold that wears me down as I age. My joints stiffen up and no amount of arthritis pain medication allows me to move as quickly as I would like. I'm just plain tired of the cold and ready for spring temperatures.

Today I hibernated to my basement, turned on my little radiator heater, and decided to create some springtime of my own. Yesterday, I picked up some lovely bright pastel polymer clay and I was itching to make something. During the night, as I tossed and turned trying to get my stiff shoulders and hips comfortable, an idea came to me. You might say, it blossomed in my mind. The pendants and earrings you see pictured are the result of my nocturnal musings.

The pendant with the flower was my first idea and my first attempt at doing anything sculptured with the clay. The pendant with the cane inlay was an idea that I'd wanted to try for some time but just wasn't sure exactly how I wanted to go about it. The earrings were just inspired by the pendants and by playing with my fast-growing collection of clay tools. I had so much fun creating these and the colors really lifted my mood. Now I just need to put them together with some beadweaving!

My Whale Tale

2009-02-01T07:59:00.000-06:00

The January-February EBW challenge theme is Tropical Holiday. Melody of salamanderhouse made a cuff featuring whale tails http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=20422737 that is just wonderful. I commented on it in our forum posts and told her I had had an up close and personal experience once with a whale. She posted back that she would like to hear the story. So I thought, why not just blog it. Here it is, Melody, you asked for it. :)

Actually, it was probably one of those "you had to be there" kind of moments, but it has stuck with me for years and I will probably never forget it. In the early 90's, back in my "golden family years" we took a vacation to Oregon. This was pre-divorce, kids were all still in school, life was normal. You know. We stayed in Lincoln City, Oregon, in a motel right on the beach. It was wonderful. One day we drove along the coast to Depot Bay and I think it was on the way back that we pulled into this spot along the highway where you could look out over the ocean. It kind of jutted out and there were coves on either side. We were all just goofing around, watching the waves, my ex was videotaping the kids, usual vacation antics. My youngest son was sitting on a fence post looking out over the ocean when all of a sudden I heard him yell, "Whales! Look, whales!!" I'll never forget the excitement and awe in his 11 year old voice. We all ran to look, and sure enough we saw the water spouts and the tails as they went back under. I think there were just two. We watched for a long time, trying to get a good picture and then we realized that one of them had swum right into the cove alongside the pull-off. She came to the surface and it was like she was checking us out. I could plainly see the barnacles crusting her head and as she rolled to go back under I was staring right into her eye and she was staring back at me. I have never felt so close to nature and the Creator before or since. For those who have the opportunity to view whales all the time, this may seem like no big deal. But for a land lubber from Kansas who was seeing an ocean and all things of the ocean for the first time it was a once in a lifetime experience. I have since visited the Atlantic Ocean, been to Sea World in Florida, visited the Gulf at Galveston and sailed alongside dolphins in Galveston Bay, but nothing compares to that split-second communion between me and that gray whale off the coast of Oregon.

So there it is, my whale tale.

Reflections

2009-01-27T06:39:00.000-06:00

Found this on a blog by fellow EBW'r, Njema. It was so much fun to read through her answers and find out a little bit more about the person behind the art. So thought I'd do the list here on my own blog for those who might want to know a bit more about me. Besides, I'm always a sucker for all those self-analysis, what's your personality, what animal are you, kind of lists, anyway. So the things I have done are the ones that are in bold and blue.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band (I guess 5th grade band counts!)
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disney World
8. Climbed a mountain (just mountains of laundry)
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb (My sis and husband raise sheep)
26. Gone skinny dipping (Nope, but I've played strip poker :o)
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset (watched both, don't know which is better)
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business (guess my fledgling craft business counts)
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching (what a spirtual experience!!)
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar (no, but I've eaten escargot)
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car (a 1973 Monte Carlo. Am I telling my age?)
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby (Had three)
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day

Only 38 out of 100, which makes me, what? An ordinary person? Not much of a traveler? Yep. It was fun, though, reflecting back on things I've done and haven't done. Some of those things are from my childhood and thinking about them brought back fond memories. Give it a try. It's an interesting list and reflection is good for the soul.

Ain't It a Kick!

2009-01-21T06:56:00.000-06:00

Google Analytics is the big buzz right now in the Etsy world. Like many, I'm still finding my way around the site but it appears to have many capabilities and many possibilities for use. I'm a bit technologically challenged so it may take me a while to sort it all out and figure out what all that data means for me and my shop. But right now, it's fun to see how many hits both my Etsy and my Artfire shops are getting, how people get to them, what they look at, and where they are from. The "where they are from" part has been the biggest kick for me so far. Even though I know that I'm on the World Wide Web, it remains mind-boggling to me that someone in the Ukraine, for example, would take the time to look or even care what I have listed in my shops. It's been a refresher geography course too, matching names to points on the map and vice versa. And it makes me think about the people those points represent. I wonder why they looked at that particular item. Are they looking for a birthday gift or just something for themselves? Are they having a good day? Are they like me and struggling with the finances or are they wealthy and can buy whatever they want? You know, just ordinary stuff about ordinary people. Or, maybe not so ordinary people. Ain't it a kick?!

A Gift for a Friend

2009-01-18T21:07:00.001-06:00

Seems like I haven't blogged forever and now here's my second entry in two days!

Just had to show off this creation, though, that I finished this weekend. My friend and co-worker got engaged at Christmas and her fiance is due to deploy in July. He'll be gone for a year and she just assumed they'd wait until his return to have the wedding. But he surprised her by telling her he wanted to get married before he left. She's so excited and I decided I wanted to give her a special piece of jewelry for her special day. So I asked her if she had any idea what her colors were going to be and she told me, "yes, camo." Now, camoflauge may seem a bit unusual for wedding colors, but it didn't surprise me with Jenn. She and her fiance both love to hunt and last summer when I decided my shoulder simply wasn't going to allow me to ever pull back my compound bow again, I sold her my Parker Challenger and all the archery "stuff" that goes with. She already rifle hunts and was eager to learn bowhunting as well. So anyway, camo colors fit her to a tee. She caught on as to why I was asking and asked if I could make something like my Flash necklaces. I told her I'd try and this is what I came up with. It should look very nice with either the Real Tree camo wedding dress or the winter camo, Snowfall, she's thinking about getting. She found this amazing website that has all kinds of camoflauge wedding apparel, http://www.laceandpromises.com/. She doesn't have a date set yet, but her camo necklace is ready. I just have to wrap it.

Wish I was there!

2009-01-17T15:24:00.000-06:00

January is either a cold, dreary month in Kansas or a cold, snowy month but whichever is the case, thoughts of warm, tropical places help take the chill off. So the EBW challenge theme for February, Tropical Holiday, was especially fun for me to create. Tropics, to me, is warm sun and sandy beaches. I've been to both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans as well as the Gulf of Mexico on vacations and they are some of my fondest memories. I loved walking on the beaches, collecting bits and treasures that the seas washed ashore. I loved the touristy shops, the smells and the colors of the oceans. These were the things I drew on when I started creating my challenge entry. I had an old coral necklace that was begging to be repurposed and it served as the foundation. Using the colors in the coral beads, I made a mix of seed beads and started weaving branch fringe and then I randomly added pewter charms with a beachy feel, pieces of dyed shell and pearls all surrounding another repurposed item, a bone colored fish pendant. It's all finished off with a silver dolphin and wave toggle clasp. This was such a fun piece to make, even if it did take me way longer than I thought it would. I'm hoping it will remind someone else of warm memories and it will find it's way to a new home.

I'm Getting Better!

2008-12-28T11:01:00.000-06:00

I'm starting to get the hang of this polymer clay stuff. These two necklaces are going to be listed on my Etsy shop. I also made some heart shaped earrings but I can't get the photos right and after looking more at the earrings themselves, I think I can do better all around. So maybe later for the earrings. The larger pendant has some flaws but the colors came out so pretty I decided to go for it. The beads in the rope really set off the pendant, I think.

The heart pendant was just plain fun to do and turned out rather sweet. I was going to put it on a chain, but then found the copper ribbon in my stash. I like it much better.

Hopefully, will get some more Valentiney things produced in the next few weeks. Let me know what you think!

Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks

2008-12-11T06:47:00.001-06:00

I was on Etsy forums this morning and ran across another of those threads about being able to type symbols. I've seen them but never taken the time to learn how to do them. This particular thread had a link to a site that had tons of symbols with instructions so I thought, okay I'm going to mark this and try it on my blog. Evidently, not all symbols can be typed on certain browsers but I'm so computer illiterate I probably won't get too sophisticated with it. But here's a ♥ to http://www.bigbaer.com/reference/character_entity_reference.htm and also a big ☻ for starting my day on a bright note.

Labor of Love

2008-12-10T07:13:00.000-06:00

My two sons blessed me with wonderful daughters-in-law and I wouldn't trade them for anything. They are both intelligent, attractive women with very good tastes. After all, they chose my sons, didn't they? lol However, their tastes are different enough from mine that sometimes, gift giving can be challenging. I get tired of just giving gift cards and cash. I grew up with the notion that gifts should be from the heart and that giving something you made to someone you love is like giving a piece of your heart. So, while I try to make my gifts to all my children something they want or something they can use, I also like to give them something of myself. So this year, I decided to make very simple beadwork for my modern, sophisticated daughters-in-law. I have one finished except for the clasp. It's the spiral in the right hand photo and will go to the one studying to become an RN. The other, I've just started and will be a herringbone chain and will go to the one who is in a pediatric fellowship. I hope when and if they wear them, they will feel the love that went into their creation.

My First Attempt!

2008-12-07T07:30:00.000-06:00

I've been wanting to try creating with polymer clay for a long time but just haven't felt like I had the time or the money to invest in learning a new art. However, my fall craft shows were successful enough that I decided to earmark some of that money for clay equipment. And now that all my shows are finished for the year, I have time to play with something new. My birthday was the 3rd of December and my wonderful boyfriend presented me with all the tools and equipment I needed to get started working with polymer. Since he gave me the basics, I can spend my money on the frills! (And Christmas is coming, too.) So finally, last night, I got a space set up on my workbench for the craft oven and the pasta machine and I tried my luck. It was a lot of fun and the first results leave much to be desired but I definitely think I can get into this. Just after these first feeble beads, I can see the endless possibilities.

And another craft addiction is born!! Wah hahahaha!

2008-11-27T07:51:00.000-06:00

Thanksgiving day has always been a most traditional holiday for me. The trip to Grandma's house, turkey, dressing, pumpkin pie, then falling asleep watching football after stuffing ourselves more than the turkey were all an expected part of the day. My Thanksgivings have changed quite a bit since my childhood and a lot of those early traditions have gone by the wayside due to life happenings - death, divorce, children growing up and getting married, jobs that require 24/7 commitments, etc. But in spite of all the change, one thing remains constant for me and that is that Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on all the things in my life I am thankful for. I am employed and make enough to live on comfortably, not rich by any means, but I don't have to live paycheck to paycheck anymore. I own my own home and I can decorate it the way I like. I have extended family who care about me. We're not terribly close but stay in touch and gather for holidays. I have a committed relationship with a wonderful man who values me as a person. We are each other's best friend. I have reasonably good health for my middle years and thanks to modern medicine my blood pressure stays under control and my arthritis pain is manageable. I have three beautiful, intelligent children who have given me three more wonderful children through their choice in mates. Two of them have also given me three cherished grandchildren that I absolutely adore. And last, but certainly not least, I live in the USA. Even with all the troubles and problems in this country, I cannot imagine living anywhere else. So, I hope others are counting their blessings today also and realize that, like me, they have many, many things to be thankful for.

That was fast!

2008-11-23T13:34:00.000-06:00

Finally got my entry completed for the December Etsy Beadweavers challenge, "Snow Queen". Since it's announcement, I've known I wanted to do beaded snowflakes in some fashion so I looked up old patterns for inspiration and came up with seven different flakes. I was watching TV Wednesday evening and finished the last snowflake. So, seven snowflakes made, now what? Necklace or bracelet? I thought of doing them in a charm bracelet style, but they tend to be a bit floppy and lay best when laying against something, not dangling. The necklace won. So then, I thought, elaborate rope, RAW, what? Well, the KISS technique won (keep it simple, stupid) and I decided to go with a single strand of beads to dangle the snowflakes from to keep the focus on the flakes. By the time my show was over, I had it finished and was quite pleased with the results. Thursday evening I set up my light box and started to photograph it, but ran out of battery and it was late enough I had to wait until Friday evening to finish it. Was going to get it listed but my children and grandchildren all were coming for an early Thanksgiving on Saturday and I had more important things to do.

Saturday morning after finishing my pre-family arrival tasks, I decided I had time to get my entry listed. After I listed it on Etsy, put it up on Flickr, etc., I was just messing around on the internet reading forum posts and stuff and went back to the Etsy front page. OMG, I had a convo! I thought, I bet it's one of the EBW members telling me they like my Snowfall necklace. No! It was a buyer wanting to know if it was okay to go ahead and purchase Snowfall even tho it was a challenge entry. After a couple more convo's clarifying things, she made the purchase and the necklace is packaged and waiting to go to the post office tomorrow for a trip to New York state.

Isn't it amazing that things can sit in your shop for weeks and months on Etsy with no sales and then magically, you happen to list just the right piece at just the right moment for just the right buyer and Bingo!

Another Episode in My Craft Show Sagas

2008-11-09T15:02:00.000-06:00

I started writing this post this morning while sitting in front of my SO's new wood burning stove. It was a cold morning and so nice to sit and watch the flames and let my thoughts drift while I sipped my Sunday morning coffee. Guess that was the problem, my thoughts were drifting and I never got around to actually writing. So now, we're back at my house and I'm on the pc in my basement with fewer distractions.

It's the day after a craft show and I'm tired and not wanting to do much in the way of physical activity. Setting up and breaking down a craft show take a lot out of me anymore. Gridwall gets heavier with age. My age, not the gridwall's. The show we did was a large one and one that has been around for 28 years. We haven't done it since their 25th and with the economy, etc. wasn't sure how it would go. The show is spread out in three buildings; a junior high school, elementary school and church basement. We were in a classroom in the elementary school at the end of a hallway, so I was also concerned about traffic. Would people come all the way to the end of the hall? The classroom set up was great though. Because it was just Steve and me assigned to the room, we could set it up as we saw fit. No 10 x 10 box to fit into. So I tried to arrange the space kind of like a gift shop and it worked very well. People were able to look in all three areas, florals, jewelry and photography without bumping into each other. Even when people stopped to visit in the middle, there was still ample room to move around them. Think we will look into this kind of arrangement again for next year. As it turned out, the show went well. We had good traffic and I exceeded my projected sales for the day. Steve sold quite a bit too and got some custom orders so I quess we'd have to rate the day a success.

It was not a day without mishaps however, but I guess that's what keeps things "interesting". With all that room you wouldn't think there would be a problem with people knocking things over, right? Wrong. Not once, but twice I had to rescue items from the floor. The first time was purely accident. A lady brushed against a shelving unit with a heavy bag and knocked over my bracelet display. She was so embarrassed, but ironically was heading to the checkout table to purchase a bracelet when the accident occurred. The second time was a bratty toddler who ran into the room and immediately made a beeline to hide behind my gridwall with my jewelry hung on it. When her mother told her to come out she started to pull a tantrum and I was afraid she was going to push the gridwall over. I rushed to hold on to the gridwall while her mother tried to pry her little fingers off it and in getting her out from behind the grid, she managed to knock down another shelving unit with earrings. I love children, but at craft shows they should not be allowed to run rampant. The mother did not even bother to apologize for the mess!

Then there were those people who you would like to give a piece of your mind but can't because, after all, the customer is always right. One woman "complimented" my work by saying that my prices were almost as good as Walmart's. And of course so many people can tell you how you could have designed something better or want you to tell them how you designed something so they can go home and do it themselves. Or they'd buy that particular item from you if only you had made it up with this color or such and such stone. But the one that really got me yesterday was a lady who was viewing my fall antler wreaths. These wreaths are very much one of a kind with deer shed antlers, pheasant or turkey feathers, silk leaves and flowers, berries, pinecones, etc. This woman informed her friend that she could make one just as well. All she had to do was go to Hobby Lobby, buy a grapevine wreath and slap some leaves on it. LOL There's always an expert in the crowd.

Another Episode in My Craft Show Saga

2008-11-09T07:58:00.000-06:00

Emily's First Birthday

2008-10-24T20:48:00.000-05:00

Doesn't seem possible that a year has gone by since this blonde haired, blue eyed beauty entered our lives. She's the middle one of my grandchildren, and the only girl . She is such a spirited little personality and such a girly girl already. However, she holds her own with her big brother most of the time. She liked the cake but loved the doll!

Hooray for Friday!

2008-10-24T06:50:00.000-05:00

Can't believe I haven't blogged anything since the end of September! It's true that time flies faster the older you get. The last time I blogged I was riding high on having the best show of my life. Since then, I have had what could be the second worst show of my life. The worst one was two days, this one was only one day. It was in a large city, in a supposedly well to do neighborhood, the environment was outstanding, the promotors lovely people. But there was no crowd and no one spending money. It's discouraging to do all that work and wind up going in the hole. Oh well, when you do craft shows for any length of time, you learn that you will have bad ones. Those are the ones you think twice about doing again.

I've got two more shows to do this season, both will feature my Christmas/Holiday creations. That's what I've been busy working on since the middle of October and I only have two more weekends before the first of those shows. I love making Christmas wreaths and tried a new angle this year. I have put some on tabletop easels. We'll see how they sell.

Anway, Friday is here. The drudgery of the week almost over. It's time to get in the creative zone.

Crazy Good

2008-09-20T20:38:00.000-05:00

Just finished up a two day craft show. Day one, we set up starting at 6:00 a.m. and the day ended at 8:00 p.m. Day two was from 9:00 to 4:00 and we were loaded up and on the way home by 5:00 p.m. I am totally exhausted, my feet are killing me, I have bruises that I have no idea how I got and I am thoroughly thrilled. This was, hands down, the best show I have ever done. In the first day I sold as much as I normally sell in two days and the second day I made half of the first day's sales. I really thought I had ample inventory made up and would probably have quite a bit left to take to my next show in 3 weeks, but boy was I wrong. I think I started with 26 wreaths and 7 tote boxes full of table arrangements, plus I had at least half a dozen arrangements too big to put into totes. I packed up 8 wreaths and 3 tote boxes to bring back home. As for jewelry, I sold what I normally do as far as necklaces and bracelets, but easily a third of my earring supply is gone, where I usually just sell a few pair to go with whatever necklace or bracelet is sold. I am still in shock from the extent of my sales and wondering how I'm going to get enough inventory built back up for the next show. I've always joked about how it would be too bad if I didn't have anything to pack up when a show was over and today I almost found out what that would be like! I know I'm going to get very little sympathy over this and that's okay cause I'm going to be crying (happy tears) all the way to the bank!!

Oh, What a Feeling!

2008-09-16T18:05:00.000-05:00

Usually, when I start to create a piece of jewelry, I have a vague idea in my head and I gather my beads and supplies and start; thinking, what if I used these or tried this, and the piece just sort of evolves. Sometimes, I have to rip out and sometimes I go ahead with some element that may be doubtful but in the end turns out to be right. Sometimes it turns out completely different than I'd imagined when beginnning. But when I started the process of creating Tears of Joy for the September Etsy Beadweavers' Challenge, "Complimentary Contradictions", everything just kind of clicked. First the colors, then the shapes and then the stitches to tie everything together. So from its conception, I had the feeling it was going to be a good one. And a good one, it definitely turned out to be. First it sold and later I learned that the buyer is also an accomplished beadweaver. To me, it is a great compliment that another beadweaver should like my work well enough to purchase it. Then to add to my feeling of artistic accomplishment with this piece, it won the September challenge! Ironically, if it weren't for the challenges, this piece probably would not have been created nor would some of my other "good" designs. This is only the third challenge I've entered, since I've just been in EBW since May 2008, but the challenges do for me exactly what I think they were intended to do - inspire and encourage us to give our best effort. To dig deeper into our creative thinking process and to reach new levels of skill. To bead where no beader has beaded before!! LOL Anyway, it is a thrill for me to have been recognized by my peers and to have had my five minutes of glory! Now it's time to think about the next month's challenge and to try to come up with a theme for November. Thank goodness I have a bit of time yet for each. I had an idea today for "Animal Instincts" so we'll see where it goes.

Custom Blues

2008-08-24T18:47:00.000-05:00

Well, I guess as the old saying goes, "You win some, you lose some; and some get rained out". I was so excited at the end of the week because I had a convo on Etsy to make up a custom wreath, I sold my Truely Turquoise necklace and I had been commissioned outside of Etsy to make up a necklace and earrings for a lady in Texas. Yesterday, I finished up the necklace and earrings and purchased the greenery that I needed for the wreath. Today I spent close to 2 hours working to create the wreath and was pleased with my end result. We got a break in the clouds and I photographed both jewelry and floral and emailed pictures to the prospective buyers. Hallelujah, the jewelry was a hit, buyer was thrilled, seller is thrilled, happy ending. That's my win some. Unfortuneately, wreath buyer backed out. Wasn't what she wanted after all but I still listed it to Etsy because it's a good design and someone else may grab it up. I guess that's my "some get rained out". The Truely Turquoise necklace is still sitting here, all packaged up with no where to go. I have not heard boo from the buyer since I got the Etsy email informing me of the purchase Thursday night. So I'm not sure where to go from here. I guess if I don't have confirmation of payment by Tuesday, that will be over 4 days and I will figure out how to cancel the sale. That's my lose some.

Uplifting!

2008-08-21T18:48:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I've posted. Been busy with life, the good and the not so good. Have two loved ones right now with health issues and naturally, that is worrisome. One will have resolution soon but the other will not, primarily due to lack of health insurance. I will help what I can, but it will be a struggle to put together the money so treatment can be obtained. My job has been very stressful for a while now and I feel I'm burning out. What keeps me sane and keeping on is my family and my art. My grandson "graduated" from Early Headstart this week at the ripe old age of 3. We had a lovely evening in our little local park and zoo, eating pizza and cupcakes and watching the kids all get their pictures taken in a little cap and gown. Ashton was not too keen on wearing the cap or gown but he had a blast looking at the animals and running with the other children. His sister's favorite part was her cupcake. Emily's 10 months and managed to get more frosting on her face than in her mouth! Of course, Grandma got pictures.

Then there's my beads and my floral work. I finally got my September challenge piece done this past week and I am very proud of it. I feel it's one of the best pieces I've ever done. Evidently, others think so too, because I have received so many compliments from people who have seen it. In fact, this evening when I logged in to Etsy (after a Very long day at work) I found two convos waiting for me. Convos are always very exciting! The first was from someone inquiring if I would make a custom wreath. Evidently, they liked my Kansas Color wreath well enough to get in touch with me. Of course, I responded in the affirmative so we'll see where that leads. Hopefully, to a sale and a satisfied customer. The second convo was from a fellow EBW'er and even though it was not about a sale, it probably lifted my spirits as much or more than a sale. She convo'd me just to tell me how much she admired my Tears of Joy and was very lavish in her compliments. I've looked at the things in her shop and she has some pretty amazing things herself, so I considered this high praise, indeed. To receive the recognition of ones peers is something I think we all strive for as designers and artists. I'm going to try to follow her example and when I see something that really moves me, I'm going to make the extra effort to let that person know. I know I'm going to be riding high for a while because someone took the time to share with me. Thanks!

Productivity!!

2008-08-10T16:07:00.000-05:00

Wow! Talk about getting things done. This has been a great weekend, creative wise. Thought I was going to be out of town for at least half the weekend but circumstances and a lot of rain kept me home. So I decided to make the best of it. I have a show coming up the latter part of September and really need to get busy building inventory. I must say, I exceeded my expectations for productivity. I've been having so much fun with the watch faces I recently purchased. I bought a lot of ten and so far have six of them made up. Three were this weekend's creations. The one I really, really love is the all silver one I did using spiral peyote weave. It incorporates silver plated 3 mm beads with silverlined seed beads to create a very elegant watch band. I almost have a red spiral weave bracelet done also. Should finish it this evening but probably too late to photograph and post.

My other creations this weekend were floral designs. I love doing what I call "Kansas" wreaths for my fall shows. We have a lot of whitetail deer, pheasants and wild turkeys here and the antlers and feathers look terrific with the fall leaf colors, the sunflowers, grasses and fall flowers. I designed and built four yesterday, but only managed to get two photgraphed before my camera battery died. I think I will also list these two on Etsy.

I Can't Believe I Beaded the Whole Thing!

2008-08-03T11:23:00.000-05:00

Did you ever snip that last thread or wire or close the last jump ring on a piece, then hold it up to look at it and then think, "Wow, did I do that? There must have been some bead fairy that came in and took control of my fingers or something because I can't believe I did all that beautiful work." Well, that's the way I feel about my latest piece. It turned out so perfect, just the way I had envisioned it in my head when I started the first bead in the spiral. Which is strange, because it just sort of evolved (as do most of my best pieces). I found this art glass pendant at a bead store and fell in love with the colors. It reminded me of flowers and fall. I had to laugh when I got it home and looked at the description printed on the card and it called it a star fish. Still looks flowery to me. I delved into my stash of seed beads and Czech firepolish beads to find colors to go with and came up with olive, brown and root beer (don't you love the name!) seed beads and metallic apricot, light bronze, bronze and iris brown firepolish. I used the olive for the spine in the spiral because it's the background color in the pendant and worked the other colors around it. I didn't want any silver on it, which is what I usually use for fasteners, so I made a beaded ball and loop closure. Autumn Star Flower is what I chose to name it. I had also found two smaller "star flowers" that matched so there are also Autumn Star Flower earrings. Don't you just love it when stuff just all comes together!

Busy Beading Week

2008-08-02T16:02:00.001-05:00

Seems like since joining Etsy and EBW, I've become more active with my jewelry making. Before, I would make a piece here and there but then a month or so before a show, I'd panic and start beading like crazy. Very stressful, but somehow I'd manage to have enough inventory by the time the show rolled around even though I do the same thing with my floral designs. Etsy and EBW constantly inspire me to be more creative. Just this last week, I've finished three watches, two necklaces and started on a third. This afternoon, alone, I've designed and built four floral arrangements. Wish I could do beadweaving as fast! My first show of the fall season is Sept. 19 and 20. Oh my gosh, that's not much more than 6 weeks away. Guess I've done it again, in spite of everything! Okay, panic mode engaged. Back to beading!

Diamonds are a girl's best friend

2008-07-28T19:27:00.000-05:00

My significant other, who happens to be countrywindows on Etsy, is a treasury fanatic. He loves putting them together and is always trying to come up with new ideas for a theme. This weekend I was whining to him that I don't get to curate treasuries as often as he does because he's retired and I still have to work full time. I really enjoy doing treasuries too and it's just not fair that he gets to do more of them than I do!

Today he called me as I was heading home for lunch and told me if I hurried I could try to get in on a treasury because it was opening in about 30 minutes. I told him thanks but I had other stuff I needed to do, thinking I'd never have time anyway. I didn't have a title or theme. I hadn't researched any items, etc. But after I'd checked my email, I decided to look at the Treasury and sure enough, there was still 20 minutes to go. So, I think, what the heck, can I make it? What can I do for a theme? I wanted to do another one with EBW people cause I like being able to promote the team. So I did a search in tags for EBW and one of the first pieces I saw was Arosebyname's harlequin bracelet and I thought, "That's it! Diamonds!" The rest is history and preserved for posterity on my computer using webCollect (Thank you, Grandma Marilyn!) and shown here for your viewing pleasure. By the way, I was late getting back to work by about 5 minutes but I wound up staying 30 minutes late tonight so more than made up for it. :)

What's New

2008-07-28T18:58:00.000-05:00

Haven't blogged for a week. I've been trying to spend more time creating and less time on the computer. I'm afraid I've become a bit of an internet junkie. Etsy is very addictive and I love reading the blogs from other EBW members, posting in the forums and going on chat. Sometimes, I'm even moved to post a comment, although I'm still kind of shy about that.

My hard work all week paid off though. I finished a watch and a necklace, both of which I've gotten listed on Etsy. I've been wanting to try watch bands for the longest time and not too long ago I bought a lot of watch faces from BeadingUSA on Etsy. It was an assortment with some really pretty styles. My first one turned out so well, I'm really excited about working up the rest. Yesterday I finished my second. It's not as intricate as the first; a simple weave, but I'm just as happy with the result. Eight more to go! I'm having so much fun with these, I'll probably end up buying another lot.

The necklace I just listed this weekend I'm extremely pleased with. I think it's one of the prettier pieces I've done. It started out to be a bracelet, but then I realized I was going to run out of the cats eye beads I was using for the biggest bead in a cellini spiral so I thought, why not use it as a focal piece on a necklace instead. In the middle of it, I had to run to the store for needles and of course one simply cannot go into a store or aisle with beads and not browse just a little (translated: spends at least an hour looking). During my browsing, what did I find but the perfect faceted glass beads to compliment my spiral section! Gee, I'm glad I needed needles!

Change of Plan

2008-07-21T17:29:00.000-05:00

I finished my Art Deco Challenge bracelet last night. It looks a bit different from the work in progress I posted previously. While I liked the black and white color scheme and the diamond shape brick stitch, I just wasn't happy with the curved brick stitch connecting the diamonds. So that piece is sitting in my reject pile to be reworked or torn apart and I started fresh. This time I just stuck with alternating diamonds in black and white with a 3mm firepolish crystal woven into the center of each. After several starts and stops on the edging, I wound up using the black crystals on each side with a picot at each diamond point using the clear crystal. Finished it up with a peyote ring and bar and I like it! It reminds me of a harlequin so thought that would be a good name for it. Now just need to get it listed on Etsy.

New Etsy Listings

2008-07-20T16:45:00.000-05:00

After a fantastic Saturday celebrating my oldest son's and my oldest grandson's July birthdays, I figured I'd better get back on task with the bead and flower business. I had some pieces I've never managed to get photographed to list and since today turned out to be very sunny (the patio thermometer showed 100!), there seemed to be no time like the present. Seems like I've done so much in blues lately, too; these are both more red and pink and a nice change of scenery for my shop.

August Challenge

2008-07-15T20:05:00.000-05:00

Had so much fun with the July challenge, I thought, what the heck, I'll give August a go too. Had to do a little research on Art Deco style and learned that geometric shapes and black and white were biggies. So far this is what I've come up with. This is the base and I want to do some embellishment, but it hasn't totally come to me yet. I haven't done anything with brick stitch for a long time, so this was enjoyable going back to an old favorite. The very first pieces I learned to do were brick stitch.

Treasuries!!

2008-07-13T12:54:00.000-05:00

Love Treasuries! I did the one with dragons for something different and because I love all things mystical and magical. Plus I was born in the year of the dragon. The other, I discovered this morning, includes my favorite piece, Truely Turquoise. It looks really good with all those other turquoise pieces.

Old is new again

2008-07-09T20:35:00.000-05:00

Years back, when I first became fascinated with cabochons, I made up agate slices with peyote bezels. Having an open back was a plus with the slices, so you could see thru them, but it was a royal pain trying to get the bezel to fit just right. Then I discovered netted bezels. Kind of like catching your hair in a snood. Much easier than plain peyote to fit odd sized slices and stones and very pretty. Then I found my "bible", a book called "Beading with Cabochons" by Jamie Cloud Eakin. With the techniques in this book, the possibilities were endless. The one concession I had to make was that the stones were no longer "free", but were captured by being glued to a backing. I really had to work my way past this, because I have always had the odd notion that every stone or cabochon has it's own spirit. They still speak to me though and whisper how they would like to be embellished, even caught to the backing. When I picked up this bright green jade cab to decide how I wanted to work it, it seemed to say, "Let me stay free!" I thought, why not? I haven't designed a backless bezel for a long time. I started with peyote on the back, changed to netting around the cab and went back to peyote on the top. Then I really dug deep into the old memory for something for the chain. I had met a beadweaver by the name of Peggy Sue Henry at a craft show several years ago and bought one of her books. She had done this amazing turquoise and amber necklace using a netting technique I think she called "Stacking". She taught it in the book I purchased. I asked her if she cared if I tried to make a necklace like hers to sell and she responded that I was welcome to as long as I didn't mass produce. Believe me, there is no way that necklace could be mass produced! I did make a necklace similar and sold it, but I'll never make another. However, I enjoyed the stacked netting and decided to try it for this necklace. Unfortuneateley, I can't find my instructions anymore, so I had to do it from memory. It came out pretty good. I thought I was done there, but the cab still seemed to want a bit more so I started going thru my bead stash and came up with the irridescent leaf beads. The rest just kind of fell into place. I enjoyed making this piece so much, I may have to do another backless bezel soon.

A Nice Surprise!

2008-07-08T19:03:00.000-05:00

I spoke with a friend this evening and he was telling me that he had found himself in one of the new treasuries. He suggested that I check to see if I was in one, too. I told him I would look later when I had a chance, thinking "yeah, right, that would be some surprise." And it was! I did a doubletake when I saw that little gold star beside Sandfiber's "I have the blissful blues..." So, of course, I had to do a screen capture to post here on my blog. Was hoping to have new stuff to show by now, but the latest one's not quite there yet, so this is very exciting in the meantime! The talent of the EBW members just blows me away sometimes and it's such a pleasure to be included in their ranks.

Crystal Pink Persuasion

2008-07-04T09:08:00.000-05:00

Just finished this piece this morning. I'm really liking it. It's kind of sweet and simple and it was just the kind of project I needed right now. I love pendants but needed a break from my cabs. I found this pretty little rose quartz piece at a bead store in Springfield, Mo, while on vacation. It was just one of several stones I purchased there. In fact, I think I bought two of the rose quartz pendants. It's so pretty on its own that I didn't want to do a lot to cover it up, just enhance it, so I did an explosion of branch fringe at the top and bottom and then just did a simple chain of RAW. I found the pink FW pearls and the pink quartz coin beads at the same shop and they worked in nicely.

A new twist

2008-07-04T08:58:00.000-05:00

Several months ago I bought all these wonderful seed and bugle beads from a gal who had listed them on Craig's List. She bought them from a formal wear boutique that had gone out of business. I have had many pleasurable hours sorting and then working with those beads. Included were these beautiful midnight blue bugles. I wanted to use them in a special way but struggled to come up with something. Finally, I went back to my tried and true cabochons. I had one that was deep enough that I could weave the bugles into the bezel; it made sort of a crown effect which I really like. Then for the chain - spiral, I thought, using the bugles in the spiral. Again, I really liked the results. I think the whole finished piece turned out quite nice and I still have tons of those gorgeous dark blue bugles to play with! I used to be afraid of working with bugles because they always cut my thread, but since I've discovered fireline, I get much better results.

Wow, Two!!

2008-07-03T07:11:00.001-05:00

I'm so excited! Discovered this morning that I'm in two Etsy treasuries. It's so fun (and also a little bit mind boggling) to think that my creations are conceivablely being viewed by people from all over the world! Not bad for this ol' county girl from Podunk, Kansas. I have always loved what I do and I have made some very lovely things over the years but the ones that fulfill me the most are the ones that I come up with like "Come Play in the Moonlight". It's extremely satisfying to me that finally, I'm able to apply techniques and stitches learned from others' work to pieces I can call my own. That's what I like so much about cabochons. They always have a way of creating themselves into something truely one of a kind.

2008-06-30T06:33:00.000-05:00

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.

2008-06-28T15:18:00.000-05:00

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!

2008-06-27T21:22:00.000-05:00

Emily. What a doll!

2008-06-27T21:16:00.000-05:00

My First Treasury

2008-06-23T19:19:00.000-05:00

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

2008-06-22T12:30:00.000-05:00

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

2008-06-22T07:23:00.000-05:00

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

2008-06-19T22:12:00.000-05:00

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

An Etsy Treasury for Cabs!

2008-06-19T21:16:00.000-05:00

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

2008-06-16T14:19:00.000-05:00

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

2008-06-15T20:12:00.000-05:00

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

2008-06-04T06:56:00.000-05:00

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.