I've been busy.....

I've sadly neglected my little blog for the past few ... months...  But here I am back again and hopefully can keep it going better :) At least a post a week maybe???

I've started running & exercising more.. this takes a lot of my spare time! Well.. that and the beading! So... where should I start? I think I've blogged once about SlimKicker and MapMyRun so I will post about beading today... :D  Because beading is FUN!

As you all know, I'm part of Beading Babes! This was founded by Karyn of Releases by Rufydoof and is now going totally wild on Facebook! Our small group has expanded to over 100 members I believe! While I do miss the small group and knowing everyone a little better, the larger group has really started to inspire me more in different color choices and styles! So it's All Good :D

Our latest pattern is 4-Leaf Clover Cuff & Echoes of Nefertiti, both created by Helena Lang-Tim at Manek-Manek. I have long looked at her patterns in awe.. they appear so incredibly intricate and detailed! And they are! BUT!! Helena has written out some of the best patterns I've seen! They are SO easy to follow that the project just grows from your bead mat!!
I see myself purchasing more of her tutorials in the future!

I have a sneak peek of one of the elements from Echos... I'm not quite finished with the whole project yet.. and I already have several new color choices to make more of them! It really is a terrific piece!

 The stone is a swirling grey Jasper of some sort.. something I found while wandering around Obsessions while I should have been was working....
Here is a sneak peek of the other pattern, 4-Leaf Clover cuff.. This worked up so quickly! And again, Helena's pattern was SO easy to follow! I will be making this in other colors as well!

So there is my recent beading story! I have about 8 projects on my table right now that REALLY need finishing up... So if you find something you think is totally awesome and needs to be made please send it to me right away so I can start another! just tuck it away and show me later! :D

Time to feed the ponies and get ready for a day of work! Hopefully my next blog post will be in a few days instead of weeks :)

Happy Beading, Happy Running!!

Beading Babes Reveal!

I totally missed my Silent Sunday post... so here is Miss Cheyenne... the cause of that... she went through the fence on Saturday night around 10:30 pm... so I spent most of Sunday repairing a fence and treating wounds... nothing too major thank goodness!!!

Well we had two projects and extra time this month.... and I managed to get one project finished... I swear the Ravishing Rosettes pattern was hiding from me ... at least parts of it were!! Here is what I accomplished... I really like the pattern and the colors but I totally missed several steps!! I WILL be reworking this in the future though!

As you can see.. I'm missing one part altogether and it is curving in the complete wrong direction!! Ah well.. back to the beading board with it!
This is the Runway of Pearls bracelet that was our second project... I really liked the bracelet! But as I was adding the embellishment I noticed it was getting shorter.... and shorter... I ended up with it almost 2 inches too short!! So, I stared at it for a while.... and then came up with this idea... which my wonderful boss helped me wire up.. (wire and I don't get along too well right now)

This bracelet called for embellishing both sides but as it was shrinking as I went along, I ended up only embellishing the one side.. but it still turned out fairly well.. at least I think so!

I can't wait to see what the other Babes have worked up with this challenge!!!

Hello Monday..

Today I say that in the 'Hello, Neuman" voice of Jerry Seinfeld. 

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend! We had sunny days in the mid 50s-60s! I worked Saturday at The Spinning Bean and then worked on some house cleaning and, of course, beading!

I did forget something last week: Our pups passed their CGC test!! They are now certified Canine Good Citizens!  Of course, we still have to work with them more in public places but they are greatly improved on that already. Yesterday we walked up the road to the golf course that is behind our property and then came back through our woods. It's a nice little romp that takes about an hour or so depending on how many lovely smells they find! About half way through the woods we saw a flock of turkeys making their way through the neighborhood. There must have been about 60 of them!! It really made me wish I had my camera with me.

 As far as beading goes, I'm still working on my Uffington Cuff. I just love the design and can't wait to get it finished and wear it already!

It's hard to believe that I have about 12 or more hours in this already.... but when you are stitching bead by bead by bead.. it takes some time!

I am also trying to get re-inspired to work on my Beading Babes project for this month. The Runway of Pearls bracelet has shrinkage issues and I'm still not quite sure on my choice to fix that issue... And I basically have to re-start the Ravishing Rosettes necklace.. However, I think now that I have worked on it and found my error it should go quite quickly!

And now I must go get cleaned up and ready for work! Happy Monday everyone!

Greetings!!

Today starts a portion of my weekend! I'm off work tomorrow and then back at the cafe on Saturday. Then off again on Sunday!

Today was my Bead Store day! I love working at Obsessions!  I helped a lady that had never stitched with beads create a beautiful tennis bracelet today using seed beads and 6mm crystals. She was so pleased with it she bought more supplies to make another one at home. I really love being able to share knowledge with people and see their joy when they 'get it' with a pattern or technique.

I'm working on finalizing what I get to teach in February at the store.. one of the options is going to be a Start here, Finish at home project but it's one I LOVE and hope people won't be intimidated by it.

I have several projects on my table to finish up and few repairs to do and even a couple custom jobs I MUST get started on soon! But the other week I woke up around 3 am from a beading dream... yes, I dream about beads.... I sketched out my idea quickly and went back to sleep.. If I don't do that then it's gone by morning...
 So.. this is my inspiration:

I have always admired the Uffington Horse in Britain. I'd love to travel there and actually SEE it one day... Maybe if I sell enough jewelry... eventually...
Here is what I have sketched up and started beading on for making a cuff  :)   I don't think this one will be for sale though ;)

The horse is beaded in a matte bone seed bead and then I'm doing swirls of a matte green.. the celtic knots will be done in a brown iris charlotte for a little bit of pop and sparkle. I'm really geeked to FINALLY be doing a beaded cuff AND to make it using Uffy as inspiration! :D

Where do you find your inspiration to create?????

Decisions and the Great Egg Hunt

Hello Everyone!
It's been a few days I know.. I was just really enjoying those beach pictures!! And I've been a little busy keeping the assorted farm critters dry this past weekend. UGH. Rain is all well and good but we really don't need quite so much every day!
However, today was quite lovely and reached 66* F. Yay! Too bad I spent most of it at work indoors... there are some things I miss about working at barns.
Thanks to the rain, I feel I'm missing something ... ah yes, the eggs. I have 3 flocks of chickens, one stays in a smallish dog lot, one is free ranging but stays very close to their coop next to the barn, and the third and largest flock has a coop near my garden area and they free range the property. Which has been fine. Until last week. They decided that the old abandoned house next door looked like a lovely place to find some winter bugs and oddities... so yeah. Thanks for that! Now I get to spend what little daylight hours I have snooping around an abandoned house (that is rather creepy) on someone else's property, looking for hidden eggs. YAY ME.
It looks like I'll be spending some hard earned cash on fencing in the Spring. I would like to do it NOW but I am also on a vehicle hunt... but that's a story for another blog day....

So in the past week I've had a few choices come up jobwise and I'm trying to reach a few decisions... so I'm considering and planning and should have something finalized this week.... I'll keep you posted! Lots of thinking going on over here... can you smell the smoke??

Bead-wise... Lots going on there as well! I've been working on my Beading Babes projects.. I LOVE both projects..... but this month I've seriously had some mental issues with both of them! The necklace I just love and was SO looking forward to finishing it... just couldn't figure out what my issue was, took the instructions to the bead shop, sat down and looked at them and noticed for the FIRST TIME that I totally missed a Step! Really?!? So... I really WANT to finish this one but since I've already taken it apart twice I think I'm going to set it aside for a few days and let my brain rest with this pattern....

I did finish the second project for the Babes.... and was also disappointed!! But this time I DID read the pattern correctly.. LOVE the beads I chose... just somehow it's about 1.5 inches TOO SMALL! Not really sure what happened except that I probably used too much tension.. it's just what I do!

So, after that small disappointment I bent my mind to something totally different and did my first official chain maille piece! I simply LOVE it!!!

Tomorrow promises to be a looooooooooooong day: work at the cafe at 9:30 - 2:00 then off to the bead shop until 6:00 and then our final obedience class with the pups! We are going to do a test of some sort tomorrow.. I'm sorry to say that I am totally blanking on the name of it! It involves your pup obeying some basic commands and then there is a portion where you get to leave the room for a set time and your dog stays with the handler and has to behave. Ok.. so I THINK both of ours will do fine with that... but still.. it's a test... like in school... and even though we have been studying hard I still stress out over tests!!   

but hey.... I'm just happy that they are SO much better behaved and I actually enjoy walking them again!

So, until next time.. everyone have a happy Wednesday and I'll catch up with you again soon!!!

Ugly Bead Challenge

Today was a nice day at work.. the rain held off for most of the day and we had SUN!  Mostly worked on getting ready for inventory this weekend. UGH. But it's gotta be done!

 So, Tammy has challenged me this week... We call it the Ugly Bead Challenge...  These poor beads! They don't KNOW they are ugly! They are just little lampwork beads going about their daily business of sitting in a glass waiting for someone to USE them... but ya know.. the more I stare at them... maybe they are not SO ugly?

I'll admit that it's NOT the best picture either.... but it's not far off. The seeds are actually somewhat prettier than the picture... they are a matte transparent topaz color... I could do something with them.... The lampwork ones will be a bit more difficult.. thinking something earthy yet girly.... hmmmmmmm

Here are two of the projects I finished up this week, the first is a project for the store. It's called Standing Ovation and is in the newest issue of Bead & Button... I really liked how it worked up but I think I'd like to make it again and work with my tension a bit more..

And this bracelet is one I've wanted to make for a while! Tammy held a class on it last Saturday while I was working on the Ovation bracelet so I listened in and came home and worked this up. I really LOVE it and plan to make a few in different colors... and I have an idea on a slightly wider one as well.....

I have tomorrow off so after making a hay run in the morning, I will be working on finishing up some projects and cleaning my house! Anybody wanna take over the cleaning portion of the day so I can keep working with the fun stuff!?!?! Anyone??? Hello?????