Monday, March 31, 2008

One Year Flew Bye~

Yes, I know that is not the bye I should use in this context. However, seeing time fly by so quickly it seems appropriate. I realized today that this week it will be one year since I came home and told Chris and Mina that I had started our business called "Pixybug Designs" and that I was now blogging and selling on Etsy. They both gave me a rather stunned expression, and here we are a year later more successful at the whole project than we could have predicted in our wildest dreams! Thanks to all you faithful readers of my little blog, and to all of the friends we have made through beading and blogging! We thank God for you, and are very thankful especially to Carla, Angela, Jodie, and Tonia for answering all of our crazy questions, boosting our egos when needed, helpful ideas and suggestions, and for helping us get our jewelry and beads to the public. We appreciate you more than words can express. We also want to thank all of our family members that have been supportive and excited about what we are doing or trying to do, and spreading the word throughout their daily worlds~we love you and thanks for not laughing in our faces at the ideas!

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Just a bit...



These little caterpillars look at me sympathetically as I am typing this to you. Why do I need sympathy? I have a sucky virus that makes me feel like I have pneumonia, though the visit to the ER this morning said it is truly just a virus. I woke up this morning with breathing difficulties, and after consulting with my Dr on call, I went in to the hospital. Thankfully, the lungs are clear, and my Dr had the foresight to give me antibiotics on Wednesday, or it probably would be pneumonia by now. So I got to come home after a couple chest x-rays, with a prescription cough syrup that makes Mina gag thinking about having to take it, and me a bit worried about it being even stronger than the codeine cough syrup I normally take. But after coughing for 2 solid hours last night that seemed to be much longer than that, I am willing to try anything. My tongue is sore from it brushing against my teeth after all of this coughing.

Anyway on the beading front, things have been hard for me to focus on with this silly cold, but Chris got a major bargain on Saturday. Our friend Jodie Marshall, a fellow lampworker, was clearing out a great amount of her glass she didn't work with and Chris was the lucky guy to buy it from her! It would have been a bargain at twice the price! Thanks Jodie! It was like Chris was in a candy store as he sorted, cleaned, and just generally ogled the two boxes of treasure. He had his oxygen concentrator quit on him, but we are expecting a new one to replace it any day so he can finish up birdie nests for Carla. Also, we are heading off on a beading adventure on Saturday, going to the Omaha Bead Show. Mina is excited that she will get dropped off at our friends near Ashland, so she gets to spend the day playing on a farm with her 5 friends, and we don't have to listen to the whining! I hope to have more pictures soon for you, though I have to actually make something to photograph first!

Monday, March 24, 2008

Up to Date

Happy Monday! Hope that if you celebrate Easter you had a wonderful time with whomever you spent time with! We had a wonderful weekend, spending the long weekend with Chris's family. We picked Mina up from school on Thursday and traveled to Wellfleet, Nebraska where Chris's aunt and uncle run a cultural education center on Native Americans (check the link at the right labeled Dancing Leaf Earth Lodge to learn more). We spend Thanksgiving and Easter with his side of the family and usually there are two to forty people there at any given time! This year was special because we held a wedding shower for Chris's brother Nathan and his fiance' Bridget who will be married on 8-8-08 at 8pm and we also surprised Chris with a 40th birthday party. He was very surprised! That was great! He got some nice and pretty funny gifts from his family!
On the jewelry and beading front this week~special order catch up! I have an order for another 1st communion bracelet, a necklace and bracelet to go with a pair of earrings, a bracelet, earrings, and necklace set, a necklace, and Chris has an order for a bunch of birdies and nests for Carla at beads and botanicals. Busy! Also, I need to get started on Bridget's wedding veil, and her wedding jewelry. So that sums it up for here, hope you enjoy the spring weather if you are near Nebraska!

Monday, March 17, 2008

New Items made last week

Here is one of Chris's very fun mushrooms he made to take to Kearney.
Here is the Skull which sold at Kearney, and I wrote about in the previous blog entry.
These are two new swirl style beads made laste week, and the colors are gorgeous.

These are the birdie beads (the nest picture didn't turn out so well). Aren't they fun and full of springtime? LOOK FOR THEM SOON AT beads and botanicals!

This MOP necklace also features citrus seed beads, and Swarovski crystals.

This MOP bracelet features copper findings, lampwork by Jodie Marshall (from my stash of Jodie beads) and a larger copper bead. One of my new favorites! What a shame it didn't sell in Kearney (wink, wink)!

Another MOP bracelet (it was a MOP type of week!) this time with pink seed bead mix and pink Swarovski crystals, simple but springy!

This fun and funky creation features coconut shell, red and blue seed beads, czech glass, and copper. Very cool, wouldn't it look great with your favorite tshirt and blue jean capris?

Cha Ching! Kearney Bead Show Wrap Up~

Well, yesterday (Sunday) passed in a whirl of post-bead show exhaustion and exhilaration from the success of our show on Saturday. We went up on Friday night to Kearney and stayed over at the Ramada (I would definitely not recommend the room we had~long story!) so we were able to get set up that evening instead of rushing on Sat am. We have only done this a couple times, so we are still slow at it and takes us a bit to work out the kinks. Watching Jodie Marshall (who has a great talent for including Mina), and Carla (who is also great with putting Mina to work in a fun and productive way) from beads and botanicals set up was an eye opening experience~what pros! The speed with which their booths came together was impressive! We had a wonderful time on Saturday meeting fellow bead enthusiasts and folks who just happened to wander in to see their first bead show. We gave out tons (okay not literally!) of business cards, and did brisk sales business. The most wonderful part was watching adults turn back the clock when they saw Chris's little worms, birdies and nests, and cutie bugs! We definitely need to expand that line of beads! His Halloween pals, (Witchie, Mummy, and the Skull) were also popular, though poor Witchie suffered a slight identity complex when she was mistaken for a cucumber and a leprechaun! My jewelry was also popular, and Chris and I are very grateful and thank God for answering all of the late night prayers for success at the business we are building! So a BIG THANK YOU goes out to all of our beading friends, fans, and new blog readers! We appreciate you! Thanks for your interest in our work, and let us know if there is anything you would like to see us make!

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Show Time

Well, jewelry/bead making has hit a frenzied pace at our house. We are getting ready for the Central Nebraska Bead and Jewelry Expo in Kearney this Saturday, March 15. I never imagined when I went last year to buy beads, that just a year later my jewelry and Chris's lampwork would be for sale there too! Chris wasn't even making beads a year ago! You should see the little birdies he has been making! Too cute, and last night one lucky birdie got a nest! He also made a very cool and funky mushroom bead for a pendant that will be for sale on Saturday!
I made two bracelets and a necklace last night. I need to get tags on things and pictures taken and pack and ... Aaagh! I wish I could stop time so that I could add more hours to the day! New pictures soon, I hope! Check out the new quote!

Monday, March 10, 2008

Caitlyn's Sweet 16 Bracelet

Okay, Caitlyn has received her gifts and opened them, so now I can show you what I made her for her 16th birthday. A charm bracelet with charms that say, live, laugh, love, dream, sweet sixteen, and a flower charm. I made 2 tiny heart dangles, and the other dangles are resin beads with Swarovski crystals for sparkle. I really love how it turned out! And better still, Cait loved it too!


Friday, March 7, 2008

New Jewelry from this week

These are my tiny duckie earrings! I bought the lampwork ducks at the Lincoln bead expo last October, I really love them. I made a pair to sell and a pair for me. I wore mine yesterday and had tons of compliments on them!
Here are more beads from my lampwork stash. These I know were made by Jodie Marshall. These are some of my favorite colors too! The orange compliments the green nicely.
These earrings feature copper and fushia tinted sodalite. I really enjoy all of the copper findings coming out on the market now. I love the color of the sodalite beads.

These are so gorgeous! Yellow foil glass with blue flowers and green leaves. Of course, nothing says spring like Swarovskis sparkling! In this case, cobalt blue, jonquil, and lavender (which is just a nice light blue).
These lovely black and lime green beads were from my lampwork stash which I had purchased before Chris started making beads. These are paired with some lime green "cat's eye" pillow beads.
Here is another use of the "beach" glass, this time with sterling jump rings and seed beads.
This is a felt square with an awesome lime green polka dot button and red and green seed bead fringe. Cool, huh?!
This is the "Flintstone" bracelet I wrote about the other day. I used "beach" glass and black lined czech crystals.

Monday, March 3, 2008

Jewelry, Jewelry, Jewelry

Happy Monday! This weekend (when not still suffering from the remnants of the flu) I made a funky bracelet with red "beach" glass and black lined clear czech glass beads. The beach glass beads are top drilled so the end effect looks a bit like Flintstones jewelry that Betty or Wilma might wear (ironic since I felt like I had been beaten by BamBam's club last week)! I also made a pretty pair of earrings with a couple peices of the beach glass. Last night I worked on my neice Caitlyn's "sweet sixteen" present so I can't get into detail on that in case she reads this before I mail her gifts. I will put up a picture after I am sure it won't ruin the surprise for her. I have several ideas percolating that I still want to get done before the show on the 15th. I bought a cocoanut shell bead that is drilled on both sides and I have some other brown czech glass to put with those, some spring garden flower type bracelets and some necklaces using some crazy acrylic flower pendants, and some pretty mother of pearl shell bead frames that have spoken to me since they arrived. All that and I want to play with my felt pieces too. I really need to quit my full time job (unfortunately it pays for the beads!) and have more time to put stuff together!

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