Ring Mania at My House

Once I learned how to do the rings, they just kept making themselves! This is the one I made for my 16 yr old niece Caitlyn. It has an 8mm crystal with crystal dangles coming out of it.
This is the one I made for my sister-in-law Cheryl. It has a brown mix with copperish stripes and then I used lentil drilled beads and then made fringes around them with Swarovski crystals on the ends of the fringe. I REALLY love this one, and so did Cheryl!

This is the one I made for my mom. It is very similar to the first one I made and has the flower with the fringe coming out. It used mint green ab 11s as the base.

I also made one for my 4 yr old niece Creighton, in a fun tropical mix of reds, yellows, and oranges, with a 4mm czech fire polished bead laying down as its "gem". I didn't get a picture of that one unless Caitlyn reads this and emails me a picture of it! Well, I think I will go make some more rings! Very addictive, and a quick project too! Great, just what I need~another addiction! That makes the list, video games, movies, books, seed beads, and now seed bead rings!

New Pictures

This is a ring I whipped up this morning (literally I did the ladder stitch, and the ring was done in 45 minutes!), the idea is a combination of ideas. Carla at beads and botanicals has a fringed ring as a class project this month, and so I watched as a fellow beader made one last week. The violet Lucite flower came from The Hole Bead Shoppe (gorgeous products if you haven't visited their website yet), and since I like to use flowers and crystals when I fringe this is sort of my version of Carla's ring. The seed beads just glow, they are luster magenta and gilt lined lavender.
This ring was whipped up after supper at Mina's request. She picked the colors and loved the end product. She is a great little advertisement when she wears what I make for her. I did the same stitch with delicas (mint) and 11s (peach) and the flower is again from The Hole Bead Shoppe. This time I just did a loop of seed bead to make the center of the flower, and only 3 rows instead of the 7 that the purple one has.

This is a gorgeous set of bead Chris made that will go in for sale at beads and botanicals. The torch brought the metallic out of the glass and so the beads have a bit of gold to them.

Yeah, Spring has FINALLY Sprung!

The weather in Lawrence, NE is sunny and clear, though cool. The winds have finally died down, and what seems like weeks of wind! Today's forecast: springtime! Working at service station that has a customer base of mostly farmers, you learn weather speak. We often comment that it is a good thing we live in Nebraska, "where if you don't like the weather wait 5 minutes and it will change" because otherwise there would be very little for us to talk about! I lose track of the number of times a day we discuss the weather with customers coming. Mina always comments that I can talk to anyone (and usually do), and I tell her it is easier to be friendly and talkative than surly and grumpy. I get the talkative characteristic from my father, and like my daughter, I remember rolling my eyes at him talking to everyone. But I find that a smile, a wave, or a simple hello can be a great pick-me-up for me as well as the person I am talking to. So, find your smile, and share it today! I can guarantee that someone else needs to see it, and you'll have a happier spring day for sharing it!

New Pictures

Here are the talented Girl Scout Volunteers who received awards for being even more Outstanding than what is asked of them. You can see Chris (the only guy) in the middle back and standing beside him to the right in the white sweater is Donna Kerr also from our Blue Hill group. She has been in Girl Scouts nearly longer than I have been alive! When she fills out registrations that ask her age, she puts older than dirt on them! She is a great lady to be around and has tons of stories to tell us "young" leaders.

This fun summer necklace mixes quartz crystal chips and random colors of resin rounds. The resin beads are some of my favorites because I love all the colors they come in and they are the perfect size for earrings, bracelets, or necklaces.

This is a set I made for a gal from Giltner. She actually ordered it last fall, but because I am SO slow, I just got it done last week! It combines a tropical seed bead mix with yellows, oranges, greens, and turquoise colors mixed, and then I added green, orange, and yellow cat's eye, and large green mother of pearl ovals as the focal beads. The bracelet has a fun flower toggle for the clasp. This is a set I made for a gal from Clay Center. The picture doesn't do it justice. I used cream seed beads, the "new" Mocca and Dark Brown pearls from Swarovski and partnered them with copper, some creamy yellow pearls also Swarovski, and a natural stone that brings it all together, that of course I can't recall the name of (HELP CARLA!). Beautiful set that came about from Barb purchasing my earrings and wanting the rest made to match!

This is Chris's latest critter creation. It is a lovely peachy pink pig and he is strung on a bracelet that Chris also put together. He also made the coordinating spacer beads.

These are a couple felted pins I made to go with earrings I had previously made, so they could be put together as sets for sale at Great Dames in Hastings, NE. The blue flower has aquamarine Swarovski crystals and neon lime seed beads for embellishment and the pink heart has a pink/brick red/orange seed bead mix which highlights the heart edge and the flower edge and makes the pistols for the flower and attaches the butterfly button. I really love playing with the felt and seed beads!

Another Monday...

Here it is another Monday, with another week gone by in a blur. I do have some new pictures for you to see, and wanted to do that yesterday, but the day got away from me without the pics getting uploaded. Today, Mina has D.A.R.E. graduation this afternoon, and we have Girl Scouts tonight. Speaking of GS, Chris received an award for Outstanding Volunteer in Kearney on Saturday at the final annual meeting for the Goldenrod Council. Starting May 1st, the entire state of NE will be one council named the Spirit of Nebraska Council. A great many changes will take place, but the most important thing is that we still spend time with the girls making a difference (even if we don't see it) in their lives. On the beading front, I am currently working on the Ndebele bracelet kit I bought from Glass Garden a few weeks back, and I do have quite a bit done without tearing it out once last night! The first time I worked on it, I took it apart 7 times before giving up and calling about the instructions. Turned out my instruction sheet was wrong! So I just ignored that wrong bit, and it went well. Anyway, new pics soon, and enjoy the beautiful weather if you live in Nebraska, we've earned it!

Omaha Bead Show Recap

Good grief another week has flown by! We went on Saturday to the Omaha Bead Bazaar in Omaha (of course!), and had a wonderful time! Chris and I enjoyed visiting with all of beading friends we usually only see at shows~Jodie Marshall from Lincoln, Tanya McGuire from South Dakota, the gals from Glass Garden (they have wonderful beading kits!), and we got to meet Tara and her sis from Beady Girl Beads which was wonderful! It is always nice to meet and visit with others who share your passion! Chris got to visit with a guy from the lampworking guild in Omaha, unfortunately we don't live closer so Chris could go to their meetings. While he was visiting with the lampworking guy, I got to do my bead shopping! I had gotten a tip list from Beading Daily last week (great timing!) about shopping a bead show. It suggested that you do a cursory walk through first and then go back for the items that caught your eye. I did this and it worked great! It helped cut down on the impulse buys, and I only went over my budget a little. I was quite proud of myself, and what I did go over, didn't go on my credit card! Mina got to spend the day with our friends Doug and Crystal near Ashland, and had a ball playing with Keiran, Devlin, Gavin, Evelyn, and Darby (3 girls, 2 boys) on the farm where they live. Mina was a pooped camper when we got back around 4 o'clock to pick her up. We visited a bit with Doug and Crystal, and Chris showed his small stash of beads to them, before we headed off to Lincoln, for a trip through Barnes and Noble (a favorite of ours!) and supper at Red Robin. They have FABULOUS Chili Burgers and the garlic Parmesan steak fries that come with it are to die for! Needless to say by the time we left Lincoln around 8:00 we were exhausted, and full from our wonderful supper. We made it home by a bit after 10, but considering we left home at 5am we were all dragging yesterday! I had a long nap, Chris had a nap, and Mina slept in the car on the way home from Lincoln, but we are all still tired and wishing we had more time off to recover! Hope your weekend was exciting (I find excitement overrated and exhausting!), but less tiresome than ours was!