Yahoo I did it!

Hello! Sorry I haven't posted lately, but I have been beading my fingers off to get stuff done and tagged for the craft show. I was up 'til 12:45am this morning and was up again at 5:38am to get spider earrings done before heading out to Doniphan this morning with Leslie and her mom to drop off our creations before heading into Grand Island for some power errand shopping, and lunch. Then it was back to Hastings, I got allergy shots, while Leslie took her mom home, and then it was off to Wal-Mart to finish the power errand shopping, before getting an iced coffee at McDonald's and heading for home. I am pooped, and now I have to get ready for Girl Scouts! Our first meeting is tonight!

New Stuff!

This is a Jewelry tree that my father-in-law welded for me. I got the idea from one Carla has at beads and botanicals.
This was Chris and my idea. We bought the giant coffee cup flower pot at Gordman's, and then add contorted filbert twigs we cut from our bush, and moss. Cool, huh?!

This bracelet is in the brown/pink colors that are so popular right now. I like it, it is definitely a different look.

These gorgeous beads were made by my husband, to do with whatever I want! They are my favorite color, and I can't wait to play with them!

My Kid of the Week

I just had email notification that my sweet, goofy daughter is this week's KSYZ 107.7 Kid of the Week! I nominated Mina back at the beginning of summer, and she had listened every Friday morning to see if this was the week she would win, and now that she is back in school when she can't listen on Friday am, she won! The kids get a plaque, a Pizza Hut certificate, and a gift from Union Bank in Grand Island. The reason I nominated her is...well she's a great kid! Now I know I am biased, but she helps her Grandma who has Parkinson's disease, along with numerous other problems, and she does her chores with only minor grumbling. I love her, that is why I nominated her! What great kid do you have in your life? Tell them you think they ROCK!

New Necklace & Earrings

Here is a new set that I started on Thursday night and finished this evening. I got a strand of beautiful blue lace agate stones from Carla Thursday, and had the large bead that is the pendant already in my box. I love this color!

New Stuff!

These are the new earrings I made yesterday. I love them all! I really like the light blue discs and the funky beads!
This is a set I made last month, but had trouble finding the right clasp to work with the ribbons. I also recently found some giant crimp beads from Fire Mountain Gems that work great for the "non-traditional" stinging items.

Wire Wrapping Wednesday

OK, do you notice a theme here?! This morning I had to flex the time I came to work, since Mina didn't get on the bus until 8. So after getting ready for work and eating my chocolate chip Eggo waffles, I made earrings. I made 6 pairs in about an hour. Not bad, and certainly helped with the overwhelming, "when am I going to get this done" feeling! Awesome earrings too, fun and funky with beads made by Jodie Marshall. I will get some pics up for you to see, I can't wait to show them to you! Happy Wednesday!

Topical Tuesday

Today's topic~What sticks out in your mind of what you have done this summer? For me it would be things involving my family. I spent time with my girl scouts, which are like my kids, at several camps this summer, and we even let them test their wings of independence by going to camp for several days without us. In June, we took Mina and her friend Taylor, to see the "Cherry Poppin' Daddies" at the Cottonwood Festival. Taylor, though also not our daughter, is a part of our family as she is Mina's best bud and has spent a great deal of time with us this summer. My dad had a heart crisis, when his stress test showed abnormal results and he had to have more stints put in his heart. Chris, Mina, and I spent time together, swimming, beading, shopping, giggling, and aggravating each other. In July, we spent time with Chris' family for 4th of July, and had a big water park, pizza party for Mina's 10th birthday. That was a FUN party! I definitely recommend it! I enjoyed communicating with my niece Caitlyn, and nephew Matthew by email. I have learned a great deal from these two on instant message typing style, LOL, and I love to hear what is happening in their lives! Beading for my first big craft show has also been a huge part of our summer, and now with Chris making beads we are both very involved in the project! So though we didn't get away on vacation, we had a great summer. What about you? What sticks out from your summer?

Weekend Notes

Monday has rolled around again, and this week school starts! In fact it starts tomorrow. I really don't understand how time flies by so quickly, and days blur together. Mina has her backpack ready to go, and we have to pick out the outfit, take the first day of school picture, pack her lunch, and she will be off. They start at 9:30 this week and 8 next week. I did quite a bit of beading over the weekend, though it never seems to get as far as I would like. I am nearly finished with a lovely pink and brown fringed bracelet. Chris and Mina are not crazy about it, but the color combination is one that is popular these days. Chris has been busy making beads with paw prints for a line of Blue Hill Bobcat bracelets I want to make, and some beads with eyes on them, that appear to be looking out of the bead at you. Well, they fixed our bookkeeping computer, so I had best get started catching up entering from last week. Have a great day!

Wow Pictures Twice In One Week!

This is a lovely natural stone necklace and earrings that my wonderfully talented husband made.
This set I finished yesterday. It has 3 strands of green stones and seed beads and the pendant has a stitched bail and fringe that also has stones on the ends. There are beautiful green garnet chips in this one!

This is the first bead Chris has made that we have gotten worked into jewelry! When he brought it in to me, I had a bag of beads I had purchase with another progect in mind, that matched his bead perfectly! That would be the inspiration fairies at work!

Pressure rising...

UGH! The pressure of trying to get the jewelry done that I want to get done for the show is starting to make me want to curl into a ball and hide! I am doing it to myself, I just want to have enough to sell for two weekends. How much is that? I HAVE NO IDEA~I HAVE NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE! My husband says make a list of what I want to get done, but WHO HAS TIME TO WRITE! LOL...I am currently working on a 3 strand olive green necklace with green garnet chips, and other lovely fall green beads (I have a poor memory for what stones are called). I made my first bead fringed pendant and beaded bail last night. Turned out pretty great for my first one. I will get pics of it up as soon as I finish beading the 2 strands of the necklace. Got one done last night. Then I have several bracelets I want to get fringe on, and I have some gorgeous buttons I want to make into bracelets. All this with a full time job that I am behind on because I have finally developed a life outside my job, and GS will be starting in a couple weeks. If only I had a cloning machine...Yeah I need crazy science problems on top of all this! Have a great Tuesday!

Finally, New Pictures

Good Morning! Things have finally come together to get some new pictures up for you. So without further ado...



These are a set of beads I purchased from Jodie Marshall and then used hand dyed silk cords to make them into pendants. Only problem...I may have cut the cords too short!

This is a very dainty, pretty pair of pearl earrings I made and I even bent the wire! Quite an accomplishment as I don't do very well working with wire wrapping and seem to have a block about doing it!

This is a set of spiders. I learned to make them last Halloween from Carla at Beads and Botanicals, and I decided some Halloween items would be fun for the craft show. I made tons of them last fall for friends, they are quite addicting once you start with them. Way better than real spiders!

This necklace was made by Chris. He uses a variety of natural stones for the double strand and then it is finished off with a doubled beige cotton cording.

This is my Merry Berry bracelet! I love it! It is a fabulous example of how not following directions can turn out beautifully. I think it looks like a cross between a berry bush, and something out of Mary Englebreit's jewelry box! I started out doing Carla's Variation on Fringe pattern, but as I couldn't read the day I started, I didn't realize I had done it wrong until about 3/4 of the way through the first pass. If you have made fringe, you know that it is easier to do a freestyle design than to take it out and start over!

This is a picture of Chris' first beads from lampworking class. He has made tons since, it is really stressing me out that I need to try to keep up with him. He may find his MAPP gas bottle disappearing from his work bench!~Just kidding, I am so proud of him!

New pictures soon!

We had to hunt for the camera yesterday. Well, we are usually hunting for something in our house~we are not the best at putting things where they should go, so consequently we have frequent treasure hunts! We did finally find it, and I will get some pictures taken when I get home tonight. I made 3 pairs of earrings, started a bracelet to go with one set, and made a pendant for another necklace. I got a spur for more motivated beading...I have to have my stuff in for the craft show by the end of the month!!! Yikes! Where does time go~Mina starts school again in 11 days! So in the words of my ever insightful daughter "No more computer games for you Mom"! I am a total video game addict, and a reading addict, so I have to step away from those and get in gear! I do have a lot of jewelry ready, but I do also want to get more done to send as it is a two weekend craft fair in September. I have categorized and decided to save the Christmas stuff until after this fair, and then focus on the ornaments, snowmen, angels, gift ideas, etc. to send in November. We are going to an art exhibit opening tonight at Graham Gallery in Hastings and looking forward to it. If you are in the area, stop in and see the antique post office box doors that have been made into several art exhibits. See you there~click on the Graham Gallery link on the left to check out Angela's fabulous gallery!

I am still here...

Good Monday to you! I have not fallen off the face of the Earth, though if it were quiet there I might consider it! Since last week Thursday, life has been incredibly hectic and we have been home to sleep and leave again! We did make it home by 6 pm yesterday, and our cats are wondering who these people are that wander in and leave again! Hopefully this week will be considerably more calm. We took Mina and Taylor to the Adams Co. fair in Hastings Thursday night to ride the rides at the carnival. Friday night Chris and I did our shopping (Mina so hates grocery shopping). Saturday, Chris took a lampworking bead class in Grand Island and Mina and I finished our school shopping. We left home at 7:40am and returned home at 9:40pm. LONG DAY! Sunday brought church and we helped with the Faster Pastor race at the fair. Our pastor was one of 8 pastors that raced golf carts on a very muddy track (we had lots of rain Sat and Sun) to raise money for the Greensburg, Kansas tornado fund. That was very entertaining to watch.
Chris has made quite a few beads and I will get pics up for you today. He is a natural! Last night he made me a set with a large focal bead and 4 spacers. He also made a bead just for me! It is lime green and black swirls. I can't wait to work it up! Have a great day!

Wednesday Morning

Hello again! Just a few quick thoughts for you this Wednesday. As I wrote last time, we attended a funeral Monday for a college friend who lost his battle with cancer. Though we were very sad to lose Kevin, his funeral was very peaceful and soothing. The music chosen were the hymns "On Eagle's Wings" and "Hymn of Promise" and they were beautiful. The words of the songs caused some deep thinking for me and I will share some with you. I have death issues. My counselor says it is a control factor, and that due to problems in my past, I have to try to control things in the present because I had no control over what happened in my past. I fear dying and yet at the point in my life when I was closest to dying I was not afraid. (I had an ectopic pregnancy in which my fallopian tube ruptured and I lost two liters of blood in my abdomen. While in surgery a surgery to fix it, a surgical sponge was left inside me and it abscessed over the other ovary and fallopian tube. I was in the hospital for 10 days fighting infection that very nearly killed me.) The hymn of promise had a strong message for me, speaking of seeds that bloom in God's time and I see that so much in my life. I am not the same person I was before October of 1998. It has taken me many years to work my way through things that have happened, and with the help of my counselor Cindy, I feel I am in a very good place now. I still have a ways to go in dealing with a couple irritating issues in my life, but I feel more centered than I have in a long time. I realize this sounds very "new agey", but sometimes just having a person to talk to that is not personally involved in a situation really does help, and they can point out things that you can't see when you are bogged down in the feelings and turmoil. I am now stepping down from the soap box, and want to tell you that Mina had a fabulous birthday. On Sunday (we celebrated on Saturday) she opened a gift we held back for her, and at church everyone wished her happy birthday. She is now 10 and getting ready to take on the 5th grade. School starts August 14 for her, and I certainly don't know where the summer has gone. Chris is taking lampworking bead class on Saturday, so Mina and I will probably do some school shopping. Monday at the funeral, it was wonderful to see our friends and catch up on our lives. My good friend Doug is designing my business logo for me and had some lovely pixies drawn up to show me. I will show you as soon as he gets them finished up and sent to me. I can't wait! Thanks Doug!
P.S. I stayed up late last night (this am) and finished my Harry Potter book! I really enjoyed it and though I was sad that the characters did not all finish the story, I did enjoy spending time in the "lives" of some of my favorite people! It is so amazing when a story and author can flesh out a character to the point that you feel they are real and a part of your life! What's your favorite book?