Take a picture, Jasper

Picture Jasper Necklace

It took me three sessions over the weekend to finish it, but I'm very pleased with the results. Picture jasper donut, beads and chips accented by antiqued bronze pewter leaf drops and "hand made" hand charm. Yes, I did incorporate my beloved delicas in there, too. Click on picture to enlarge

Now I'd like to pose a question for those with etsy shops: Have you considered leaving etsy for any reason? Do you have both an artfire shop and an etsy shop? If so, where are your sales higher?

Reason I ask is that I'm considering switching to a different venue. Sales have been at a total standstill at etsy and I seriously doubt it's all due to the economy. Seems to me there are simply too many vendors there and the market is saturated.

Suggestions? Comments? Let me hear your thoughts on this...

Thanks and have a lovely Sunday.

Paris Fashion Week

No pix today - just a couple links

Before I dash off to the mundane world of my Saturday chores, I was drooling over Paris Fashion Week. The clothes are madly gorgeous but even more interesting to me is the JEWELRY seen on some of these models. You gotta check it out!!

As a young girl, I spent endless hours sketching outfits. Even won an award for a store design I did in my senior year. So naturally I am drawn to all things fashionista, even the blunders, as seen here

Enjoy your Saturday, people!

Triple Decker

Wood + Lampwork with delica fringe

Finally finished the triple strand wood and lampwork bead necklace. Ran out of beads so I had to finish it with glass seed beads. Looked a bit nekkid so I went ahead and added a delica fringe.

It's quite long, dangles to just below the bustline. Took it to work and showed it to my beading buddy who gave it a hearty thumbs up.

At present I'm working on a repeat of my gemstone and delica combo - which SOLD, by the way. This time I'm using picture jasper beads. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Meanwhile - it's FRIDAY!!

I dream of delicas

Recently, I fell in love with unakite so I bought some pieces and put something together. Trouble is, I don't know how to do bails and didn't have any anyway so yesterday I used delicas to attach the donut to the necklace. It looked kinda nekkid so I began experimenting with jazzing it up a little, using the leftover chips and delicas to make a dangle from the donut. haha that sounds funny.

I admit to going a wee bit overboard with the delicas but they're just so adorable, I couldn't help myself.

The unakite beads are not what I was expecting. They're kinda smallish, about 6mm, I guess. I never was very good at judging how big things are by the size designation. It has been my nemesis since day one. Oh, I know. I have ye olde bead size chart around here somewhere...*peers around at assembled rubble* but who knows exactly where?

Once I finished watching CBS Sunday morning, I put this together: a polished rose quartz focal point which I surrounded with various sizes of seed beads.

I'd rooted through my stash looking for more delicas but alas, the only ones I have wouldn't work with the few donuts on hand so I put this together instead. It defers the housework, what can I say?

Last night while I was watching TV, I sat with the bead catalog in my lap and put together a wish list of delicas. It ended up being about $35. haha. Hey, it's free to dream, right?!

A visit to the antique store

I had occasion to visit an antique store today and let me tell you, it was a most delightful 30 minutes.

Yours truly has always has a great love for anything old. Call them antiques if you must. I just call them old things and I wonder about what the original owners may have been like, you know? Who sat at that desk in the 1900s? Who slept in that bed made in 1800 something? What was their life like? What was going on in their world?

The owner who showed me around the place has been refurbishing and refinishing old things for the past 30 years. Completely self taught, he is an absolutely genius cabinetmaker, too. You should have seen some of the exquisite pieces he made!

Like this reversible game table he made of curly maple and cherry wood. Wow. The center part pops and to flip over and make a regular table.
Beautiful, huh?
Look at the intricate carving on this antique bed. Isn't it gorgeous?! I love it!
Or how about this incredible French breakfront. It is absolutely magnificent!

Of course there was more than just furniture at this place. Two floors in an old house chock full of everything you could think of including handcrafted and antique furniture, china, glassware, fiesta ware and of course my all time favorite: Willow Ware ... it was everywhere.

Yours truly was most definitely in hawg heaven, walking through this place! Wow!
SIGH
I've often dreamt about a home just filled with beautiful antiques.
Who knows?
Maybe one day when my beading biz takes off, I just might be able to buy one...or two pieces, huh?
*smile*

--Getting the outdoor fair fever --

Just got these three dolphin watch faces in the mail today. Aren't they adorable? I'm a great fan of dolphins so one of these will find its way into my personal jewelry box.

The other two will be added to the collection of pieces I'm making up to take with me to Fun in the Sun in St. Marys in May.

My friend Keli and I shared a booth at the Rock Shrimp Fest in St. Marys last year and had a great time. I had my best day ever and sold over $200 worth of jewelry. WOO HOO! So anytime I get to go back to St. Marys, I'm there with bells on.

So glad it's finally time for outdoor fairs! Time to break out the tent again. YAY!

Top o' The Morning!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to ye!



Some sweet day, I'll visit the Emerald Isle and research the Donegal ancestors.

Until then, I'll sigh wistfully every time I watch "The Quiet Man" or when St. Patty's Day rolls around. I can still hear my dear departed Daddy singing Toora Loora Loora, An Irish Lullabye It never fails to bring tears to my eyes.

Visit Ireland Here

Tired -- but it's a good tired
mood: contented
So, all in all, I'd say the birthday turned out all right.
Despite the changes in planned activities due to unforeseen circumstances.
"Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans..."
or words to that effect.

D and I shared the Ultimate Pepperoni pizza from Papa John's. It was good but let me tell you, the picture you see on TV? Don't expect to see a duplicate when you open the box.
Not going to happen. It was still good, though.

First we watched The Bucket List. I love both Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. Loved the storyline, too.

What would I put on my bucket list?

Well, probably the top five things would be visiting certain countries
One of which would most definitely be India.

That is why what happened next is so interesting:

I had rented The Secret Life Of Bees, but there was something wrong with the DVD and it wouldn't play so instead we watched The Namesake
I had purchased this movie at a yard sale or something awhile back and had not watched it yet. Oh, I love this movie!!!
Anyone who knows me knows I have a very special place in my heart for all things Indian. This movie spoke to that special place.
Beautifully photographed. And the music! Oh, the music was splendid. I absolutely adore Indian music and this soundtrack did not disappoint.
Wonderful storyline here as well.
I highly recommend this film. And since I own it, I can watch it over and over and I will, for sure.

At the end of the film, I had Ebony and Savannah with me in my chair, as usual.
When the beautiful Ashima (played by the gifted and beautiful Tabu) started to sing her exquisite, wordless song, both cats looked up and listened carefully. I love it when they do that. It's as if they, too, recognized something special and worth paying attention to.

And the best part?
A phone call from my number one son.
Another sound I love to hear is his voice.
Best in person, of course, but on the phone is good, too.
Thanks, Casey.

So now I'm off to beddy bye -- to dream of India and Bucket Lists and fly to the Taj Mahal on songs from tabla and sitar.

A little gift from the cats

So I allowed myself to sleep in this morning, seeing as how it's my birthday.
Yawned, stretched, rolled out of bed and toddled to the bathroom
and stepped directly into a puddle of cat pee.

UGH!!

NOT how I wanted to start my day!!
Looks as if I'm going to have to take one of the cats to the vet.
By process of elimination, I think it's going to be Helen.
She has been behaving oddly of late. I should have taken it as a clue when she pooped on my big cloth insulated grocery bag. How she ever got her hindquarters high enough to get poop on the handle, I'll never know.
HELEN

Anywho -
I ordered my birthday pizza just now. Since they don't deliver to our neck of the woods, I'll dispatch the spousal unit to go pick it up later on today just before suppertime.
MMMM Ultimate Pepperoni!!!
Yes, once a year, I will eat pepperoni even though normally I do not ingest dead animals!

Just because it's my birthday doesn't mean I can abandon the chores . I had my day all planned out but that cat pee episode meant some rearrangement to the plans. Now I have a vet appointment at 11:45 so there's not enough time to get the laundry done before that. FYI: I have to go to town to wash clothes because I don't have a washer and dryer in the house. So....

I've got about two hours to do whatever I want. Hmmm....I think I hear my bead board calling...

For anyone who's interested:
There's FREE SHIPPING today at http://adagiobeadcrafters.com/
It may be my birthday, but the treat is for you!

A new necklace and an old pain

Well let's see: today we have some good news

and some not so good news.

Let's go with the good news first, shall we?

I finally made something from some of the beads sent to me by my dear friend Ryk. They were so adorable, I just had to wait until the right design presented itself.

At last, these little darlings have taken their place beside firepolished Czech glass beads, celestial crystal glass cubes and several other types of beads in what I think is a rather stylish necklace. What do you think?

In other, less pleasant news, went back for my follow-up visit to the P.A. today. Told her the Elavil is working well and I'm sleeping blissfully at night...but still have this unpleasant and severely annoying discomfort up under my ribs.
This has been going on for lo, these many, many months and I am truly OVER IT, so to speak.
I've been through several physicians on this problem and no one can figure out what the deal is so I thought I'd try someone new.
She's not a doctor, actually, she's a Physician's Assistant.

Last time I was there, she gave me some meds for I dunno, acid stomach or some such nonsense. That's not the problem, sweetheart.

Now, don't get me wrong, I think she's quite capable, really. Perhaps I didn't explain it properly. I understand why she's reluctant to make any certain diagnosis until she knows for sure but geez, I HATE not knowing, you know?

SIGH

Anyway, she's ordered a cat scan because as she said, she can't really tell me what's wrong until she gets a look at my insides Okay.

A cat scan. Oh, joy!

And guess what? It's going to cost about $600! What fun!

And I have no health insurance.

*laughs hysterically*

Sunday afternoon musings

It's beginning to look a little bit like Spring at my etsy shop. I was quite delighted when I posted my beachy necklace that I had seven hits within 2 minutes of posting. Wow! Now if I could just get some buyers instead of so many browsers.

Spent a good bit of time this afternoon straightening up the beading area. It has needed it for a very long time but as is my usual mode, I kept procrastinating. But today, I took a deep breath, rolled up my sleeves and got busy. I'm quite pleased with the results!


Click on pix to enlarge

If you look closely, taped to the windowsill just under my Hotei or smiling Buddha, you'll see my affirmations that I typed out and posted above the desk. I keep forgetting to read them, though. haha

On the wall directly above the desk is the poster I made as a source of motivation. It has pix of me at my first three major events - grinning broadly as I sell my wares.

I've got a beading magazine open to a design I want to make. See that little three-drawer cabinet to the right of the desk? The top drawer is filled with bags of beads that have yet to be sorted along with baggies of projects yet to be completed.

I went through all my beads and the majority of my plastic organizer boxes and labeled almost everything. Yes, I know - - there are still quite a few boxes without labels. I'll get to it. Really, I will. Soon as I finish my little cyber break, I promise.

I was reading an online article just now that posed the question:
"What keeps you from beading?"

hahahahahahaha

Uh, that would be life in general: my job--which I LOVE and am blessed to have,
my demanding cats, housework, errands, a husband who wants meals when he's hungry -- you know, the usual stuff.

So let me ask you -- What keeps you from beading? (or doing whatever your particular passion is?)

Beading Buddy Gets Married

It was a lovely wedding.

The start of the ceremony was delayed briefly because the best man forgot the ring and had to go get it. lol.

But it was worth the wait.

My beading buddy Keli looked like a princess in her beautiful gown, tiara and lovely veil.

Both she and Michael were absolutely glowing with happiness.

The sun broke through the clouds just as the ceremony began and we all witnessed a sweet union followed by a splendid sunset.

Very nice reception with lots of sweet, sentimental touches, beautifully decorated. The wind didn't cooperate with the floating candles but it was all just wonderful, anyway.

Delicious food, very elegantly presented.

A little dancing.

Lots of laughter.

Good times.

MORE PIX HERE and four short videos, too