Sunday, September 30, 2007

New Stuff from Stephanie

These earrings are made with Swarovski crystals in peridot, jet, and white opal, and have caned glass beads in the same colors.
These are two suncatchers I made with prisms and red (top) and pink (next photo) glass beads.





New Beads by Chris

These are new beads! Chris made this really cute mummy and a Frankenstein (but he got broke)-can you tell we LOVE Halloween?
These are also new. Chris is mastering the hollow bead technique and these were some of his first ones! Beautiful, aren't they?!
This gorgeous set is also a set of hollow beads. The large one has all the colors of the rainbow, in order, and then the small ones are combinations of colors 2 on each bead.



This is the whole strand of what he has been working on.




Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Topical Tuesday

Today's topic: Time management. How do you fit everything into your day that has to be done? My extra time usually comes by trying to stay up too late to finish things. I then am tired the next day. I believe that is referred to as "burning the candle at both ends". I totally love to play computer games and that is a major time burner. I do it to help me relax, but then my obsessive tendencies take over and I don't know when to quit. I have made some changes, organizing my beads, making a list on a white board for the projects that I need to get done, and trying to do tidying up chores a bit at a time each day. How do you make your life fit together?

Sunday, September 23, 2007

New Today

I have added a word of the day to my blog. May it broaden your vocabulary! Also, check our new photo gallery of ALL of our designs by clicking on the Flickr link to the right!

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Serendipity

Are you aware of the concept of serendipity? Described in the dictionary as "making fortunate discoveries by accident". In our case it is stopping by to show friends what we have made, and making sales of jewelry which we did not expect to make. Not only did we make sales but we also are going to have our work displayed at ...(drum roll please)... Graham Gallery in Hastings, Nebraska. Angela Graham has a fabulous (no not just because she is showing our stuff) art gallery, which we love to visit and have attended several of her show openings. Mina even got her very own piece of art from Angela's gallery last Christmas. She does a grand job of showing local talent and it is just so cool to have anywhere to go to give Mina an appreciation for art. She has developed her own taste in art, and loves doing sculpture. It was a truly blessing filled day today, and I hope that yours has been also.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Topical Tuesday

Hello! Today's topic: organization! Man am I bad at it! Chris, Mina, and I struggle with this in our tiny house. We have hot spots that are perpetual clutter catchers~the dishwasher (ours is a portable, not built in), the kitchen table, the computer desk, and the table by my chair in the living room. We got a new shelf unit the other day at Big G Ace in Hastings, to store my beads in a more ORGANIZED fashion. It was designed as a TV stand and we are using it with some nice big baskets for the beads on the shelves, and then my board can go on the top. I used to just sit it on my footstool, which ended up toppled several times. Anyone working with beads and seed beads knows what that means! UGH! Beads in the carpet and everywhere else they can fly to!
So Sunday we worked on the front porch and in the living room to organize the bead danger zone. I have to say I really do like this set up better. If you struggle with organizing your life, you might want to check out flylady.org for help in the reclaiming of your life. Very helpful tips, and encouragement to work on a little bit at a time!

Sunday, September 16, 2007

New beads, bracelets, and earrings, Oh My!

These lovely beads and the ones in the next photo are "Jodie" beads made by Jodie Marshall. You can access her sites by clicking on the link at the right side of my blog. We got to see her sweet (and very sleepy) grandson, Aidan yesterday also! So beautiful!


Today's entry has the new stuff in our beading world! This is a witch bead that Chris made. She is actually his second one, as he sold his first one before we got the picture taken of it! He is just having fun, working on his technique and really likes making the odd characters that come out of his head. Above are his really cool mushrooms that he has already sold one of also. Thanks to Carla for taking the pictures of the 'shrooms when we were have camera issues. Carla at beads and botanicals has been very encouraging, and Jodie Marshall also gave Chris some great advice on bead making when we visited with her on Saturday in Grand Island.

This is the shrunken head dude which Chris not only made the bead, but designed and strung the bracelet with the bead wrapped clasp also. Man is he talented!

Another picture of the shrunken dude, up close!


This is a bracelet set that was made with green and red garnets, Chris spacers in a lovely brick red color, and silver jump rings as a touch of silver. I really loved this one so much that I bought up the rest of the green and red garnet that Carla had at the shop.





Thursday, September 13, 2007

new beads by Chris

These lovely spacers were made by my talented, glass mad husband! Aren't they beautiful? We have them sitting in a glass dish on the table and they sure brighten up the table! The new camera certainly improves the quality of the pictures, don't you think?!

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

New Pictures

This necklace is my Recycled Bead Challenge for beads and botanicals. I used a necklace that belonged to my Mom or Grandma, and restyled it. The new camera hasn't gotten here yet so I used the other one.
This is a bracelet Chris whipped up tonight. He made the lampwork also! I love the way the green speckled beads set off the purple lampwork and purple jasper.


Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Topical Tuesday

Hello! Just a quick blog that I will get new pics up when my camera arrives (should come today). I have finished my whimsy necklace that Carla had the design for in the shop last week when I stopped in, and I decided that I had worked really hard getting stuff to the craft sale, so I bought the supplies and made something just for me! I also finished my Recycle bead challenge that Carla put out at the end of last month. I used a necklace that was either my Mom's or my Grandma's and took it apart, cleaned the beads, and restyled it into a double strand woven necklace and earrings. I used colored coated beading wire for the first time, and in this case it was white. I really like how it turned out!
Today's topic for Topical Tuesday: Where were you when you heard about the attack on the World Trade Towers, Pentagon, and the plane going down in Pennsylvania? I was at work, and we couldn't believe it, I was listening to the radio. They sent Chris home from work as he works for the USDA and closed his work place for safety. Mina and I watch the shows about the attack, and no matter how many times I see it, I still cannot believe that anyone could conceive of such an idea. I guess that is my naivete showing! Please pray for all those left devastated by those attacks 6 years ago.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Weekend Update...

Good Monday to you! It is quite cool here (only in the 50's) and raining. Strange weather, a week ago it was still in the upper 80s, and very humid! We have a pretty laid back weekend. After I got off work on Saturday, we took my parents, and went to the Country Friends craft show where my jewelry is being sold. We had it there Thurs thru Sun of last week and will be there Thurs thru Sun of this week. Then I will go pick it up, see what is left and get stuff made up for the November show. We were doing pretty good when we were there on Saturday, had sold about $140 worth. After stopping at the craft show, we went in to Grand Island and went to Hobby Lobby, out for supper at Applebee's and to Best Buy, where we bought a new digital camera to help get better pictures of the jewelry. The one we bought has digital stabilization and more pixels so it should have better definition on the pictures. Yesterday after church we came home and hung out at home. Chris made about a hundred spacer beads in different colors, I took a nap which was difficult to wake up from and then hard to go to sleep at bedtime, and Mina played with her Barbies and the cat, and the hamster. Sabrina kept making a nuisance of herself by laying on the pillow (one of her favorites) that Mina was using as a handicapped doll hospital. Sabrina just saw it as an invitation to get even with Mina for all those days of being drug around and dressed up! We should have our new camera soon (they had to ship it) and then we will get some new pics up!

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Pretty Pixy

Here is Pixy~she is going to be part of our design logo. She was drawn by our good friend from college, Doug Smith. I love her!

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Holiday Weekend Notes...

We had a wonderful weekend, nice to relax! After I got off work on Saturday, we drove to Ashland to re-visit our college days with some of our college friends. Our friends Doug & Crystal live in a large, old farm house that was Doug's grandparents and have a large farm on which their 5 kids are free to run and play. What a great place to raise kids! Mina got her first horse ride, and LOVED it. She got to ride on Tank, one of Doug's dad's horses. Doug let the kids ride the horse while leading them around the corral. We had a wonderful time making s'mores and visiting around the fire Sat. night, and then left at lunch time on Sunday, and took Mina to the Lincoln Children's museum (which on a Sunday afternoon should have been called the Lincoln Children's zoo!). We then did a bit of shopping and had supper before heading home. Yesterday we got to sleep in til 8! We spent the afternoon at the water park in Hastings with some friends and then had pizza for supper with the friends and my parents. Mom and Dad were going in to the hospital for sleep studies, so it worked out great to visit with them a bit. Dad was going in for his first study and Mom was going in to get the CPAP measurements for the machine, as when she had her study done, she stopped breathing 20 times! Good Grief, no wonder she feels lousy all the time! Well, I had better get to work. On the beading front, Chris has been making some really cute mushrooms out of his glass, and I will get those made into pendants. I also am working on a line of school spirit jewelry for the Blue Hill Bobcats, so I need to get to work on those! Happy Tuesday!

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