Harvest Festival Pictures

Sabrina "helping" us pack for the Harvest Festival at Prairie Loft in Hastings on October 4. She always has to inspect the baggage.


My favorite lampwork bead maker, setting up his torch to do demos.


Bracelets for sale.

A shot of one end of our table display. Mina knitted the scarves.The other end of our table display. Please ignore the junk in the background, I really need to work on my photography skills! I do know how to set a pretty table!

Lincoln Bead Show = Success!

We returned home late Saturday night after a successful day at the Lincoln Bead Show. We had really great sales and we both found some fun and beautiful new beads to work with! I picked up some really pretty strands of kiwi stone, chrysacola, conglomerate jasper, mystic jasper (love the name!), and unakite. Also, two large crystal pendants, a gorgeous strand of green and purple furnace glass, some fun and funky Beady Girl Beads (mine has a large lime green peace sign and multi colored flowers all around it, Chris got 2!), and I fed my seed bead addiction from the folks at 5z's. Pictures soon! When we got out of bed yesterday and checked email, we had a gal from Indiana interested in one of Chris's Frankenstein beads, and through the magic of email, we had it sold by the end of the day! Love it when things work out! In other Nebraska news, snow fell Saturday, Sunday, and is falling right now! Weird the calendar says it is October and still fall! North Platte had 15", that is just crazy! Way too early for winter to start! This week finds us filling special orders from the shows the past two weekends, sponsoring Mina's 1st Jr High marching band competition in Minden Saturday, going to Grand Island Sunday for Mina's Girl Scout Advisory Group meeting, and getting her ready to start basketball practice Friday. With those things and putting the house back together after 2 weekends of shows, we will have the week filled! Hope you have a great week and that it is not snowing where you are!

Chris will be featured...

Tomorrow, October 7, Chris will have his beads featured in the Glass showcase on etsy. If you forget to check that out, we will be in Lincoln at the Annual Bead Show at the State Fairgrounds from 10 am to 5 pm! Stop by and see his gorgeous new beads!

Our Crazy Life...

Facebook yesterday..."So where would you like to be set up for the Harvest Festival at Prairie Loft this Sunday?" What! We never heard back on the feelers we had put out to do the show, so we assumed we weren't! Well, now we are! So, Sunday, October 4, we will be at Prairie Loft in Hastings from 1-6, selling jewelry and beads~stop out and see us won't you! If you miss us there, we will be at the Lincoln Bead Show on Saturday, October 10 from 9-4. Chris is taking a glass class at the Hotshops in Omaha on the 24th, on using reactive glass, and we are sponsoring Mina's first marching band bus trip to Minden on the 17th. I am taking Jodie Marshall's Pagoda class in Hastings on Halloween, and in between we have school, Girl Scouts, Girl Scout Advisory Group, Junior Community Theater Halloween tryouts and production, and who knows what else! I am thankful that we have a full life, just wish that October was not looking quite SO full!

New Jewelry and Beads on Etsy!

I just finished up putting new items into the Etsy shop. We are featured on Sunday, September 27 in the earring showcase! Check it out, won't you!

My New Etsy Banner

This is my new Etsy store banner! It was designed by Lori Hilsmeir Ramotar of the Kitties and Cupcakes blog (see link on the link section) and also her wonderful folk art prints and mixed media paintings are available on Etsy as is her beautiful jewelry. Want a banner of your own? She will do it for you! Her contact info is available on her blog.

New Jewelry Coming and News...

This week is all about earrings and Twilight jewelry. Awhile back I got some Twilight-inspired charms and made them into some jewelry for our August Art in the Park. Two of the three necklaces sold. I ordered more charms and haven't gotten anything done with them, but that is my goal for the week. I want to get things worked up and posted to our etsy store because I will be showcased on September 27 in an earring showcase and I want to have the new stuff up by then. In other news, Chris is going to be a glass tester for CIM (Creation is Messy) glass, which happens to be some of his favorite glass to work with. He has also started working with Gaffer Glass which is a System 96 glass, because he was asked to collaborate on some sculptural pieces with Tom Kreiger who is the glass professor at Hastings College. Chris is feeling a bit overwhelmed, but that seems to be the nature of this business. When it rains, it pours! Thankfully, it seems to be pouring blessings! Have a great week!

Goofy, yes I am...

This morning I opened at the gas station where I work. This is not unusual, I do it every Saturday that I work so that my boss can have the day off. Otherwise, he opens at 6 am six days each week. Can we all say burnout and cranky bosses?! Yes, we can! Any whoo, I was worried half the night that I would over sleep and even with the Benedryl that I took for my allergy shot reaction (which usually knocks me out flat!), I was fretting what time it was from about 2 am on. When the alarm finally went off, I got up did my morning routine, dressed, checked email, slid my feet in my shoes and walked out the door. HERE IS THE FUNNY PART OF THIS STORY: I was at work a half hour before I realized that I had on 2 different shoes! The fact that this is the 2nd time I have come to work with mismatched shoes, tells me maybe I need to look at my feet more closely BEFORE walking out the door. The older gal that I work with (who is so fun to work with), said I should leave them mismatched and therefore walk about with one lime green scuffer tennis shoe, and one that is light blue! When Chris dropped my shoe off, she came to the door, and told him I didn't want it that I had decided to go with the 2 colored shoe theme! This was such a funny story, I just wanted to share it. Now the whole world knows that I don't know how to dress myself in the morning! Have a great day and a great weekend!

Our new car

Here is my "new" to me car. Fun to drive and is in great shape!

UGH Blogger is not cooperating!

All of the new posts were supposed to be "scheduled" to post, NOT post all at once. I apologize for overloading you with posts!

More New Jewelry at Graham Gallery

Red turquoise chunky necklace with silver seed beads between. I love the piece in the center was naturally heart shaped. I love that!
Day of the Dead skull necklace. I made the seed bead rings to accent Chris's skull bead. The crystal on the top and bottom are flower shaped Swarovki crystals.

Go Huskers. Red turquoise, black onyx, with silver plate noodle beads and bead caps.

New Jewelry at Graham Gallery

New pieces we took in to Graham Gallery.

Stone and wire wrap circles.
Pirate charm bracelet. Chris made the red and black spacers for the dangles.
Pumpkin necklace. Chris made the hollow pumpkin and I did the rest. I love how the wire makes the curly Qs just like on the pumpkin vines. My favorite bead store owner taught me that!

New Jewelry by Steph

The hens and chicks pin was a special order for one of our favorite customers. Chris made the birds and I did the rest.

Aren't these beads FABULOUS?! They are dyed magnesite but they look just like gourds and pumpkins! I couldn't believe I got the strand because when I first looked at them they were already listed as out of stock and so I sent the company an email if they had any more or would get more. They emailed back and said they found one strand and it had been added to the website, so I immediately ordered it! Gorgeous, all different colors and sizes. I used some to make the bracelet below also.

Chris is Mr. April...

Chris had the opportunity to have his beads included in the Midwest Lampworkers Guild calendar for 2010. He is April, and here is his page!