Clay, beads, and stuff.

Well, I've been caught up in all of the things I've been doing this week. With BFAC done, I was able to bead whatever I want. That meant the bracelet idea that I had in my head. I'm still trying to figure out how I'll put it all together, but I'm enjoying it. I'm using this beautiful color... "light olivine/bronze lined." It's a slightly iridescent antique gold with hints of green. YUM!

Michael's had clay on sale again, so Mom and I had a "girl's day out" and descended upon the clay as only ladies who want to make dragons can. They actually weren't sold out this time, and I have some awesome colors to play with. Now if it would just cool down enough for me to want to bake clay :) There are a couple of people who I want to make dragons for.

I spent today doing errands and housework. My apartment is just way too cluttered, so I'm trying to weed things out, get rid of all that stuff that I'm keeping because it was a present, or because I've just been too lazy to throw it out. Also, I am going to do some serious cleaning, re-organization, and culling of my bead room. Much unloved bead stuff will be donated to a local day program for the developmentally disabled, but some pearls, Czech glass, and semi-precious should find its way onto auction in the near future.

And I still need to get started on the photographing of my current stock!

BFAC Complete

It's ALIVE!!!! No, wait, not quite. But it is completed. Finally. 4 days before the deadline. After I was one of the first people to start. You may of course click the image for a full-sized view.

Never have I had as much trouble with a project as I have with this one. It was just one little disaster after another, including lost beads, spilled beads, and running out of thread. But it's done! Now I just need a name for it. The first one to come to mind isn't very nice...

The Beading For a Cure rules allow for the addition of one extra type of bead. I added the lovely stemmy leaves at the bottom of every fringe. Aside from those and the cool vermeil leaf clasp (from Star's Clasps), everything else is from the kit. There are 3 sizes of Japanese seed beads in 6 colors, two colors and sizes of Swarovski crystals, Swarovski pearls, freshwater pearls, and Afghani jade.

Remember, this necklace will be up for auction later this year, so if you love it, watch my blog for an announcement of the auction! If we follow the trend of previous years, it will start with the low opening bid of only $19.95. As a frame of reference, I have a necklace here with the same technique but far less variety of beads, and no crystals. As you can see, by bidding on this necklace you not only help a charity near and dear to my heart, but you stand to get a great deal on a unique piece of jewelry.

And by the way, the above picture was taken with my new digital camera. I love it! I need to find a better way to display the jewelry when I photograph it, to get a better angle, but the level of detail in the picture has me practically giddy!

Camera, yippy!!!

Thanks to the generosity of an awesome friend, I now have a digital camera. The above is my first picture. I don't think Topher appreciates having his nap interrupted for me to practice taking pictures.

I've since taken a few more cat pictures, but no bead pictures yet. I've got to remedy that! Either today or tomorrow I'll try photographing some jewelry, and my CF-style dragon. And of course, once I figure out how to get great pics of my products, I will be updating the site, replacing all of the icky scans.

This is where I do a happy dance! *happy dances*

I did a lot of work on my BFAC project yesterday, and hope to do more today. The deadline looms quite ominously over my head.

For now, I'm off to the bookstore.

Hiatus Details

After much thought and a look at my upcoming schedule, I have decided that my hiatus will continue until September 15th. This should give me plenty of times to get things back into order, as well as allowing me to not worry about business while I am in NY for 2 weeks.

During this hiatus, I will be working to complete the Links and Materials sections of my website. I'll also be making some jewelry for the site, but not posting it. Expect a big update in mid-September!

There will be both a G&LW and a Best Bead Show here in September. With any luck, between those two shows and the cool places in NY, I will be able to pick up some awesome new beads to spice up my Fall line. Even without new beads, I've been dreaming up some new products. I'd like to have even more variety on my site than I do now.

With my new-found love of belly dancing, I've been dreaming up some unusual jewelry designs that I feel will be great for dancing, but also for every day wear. This pieces will be bolder than my delicate collars and crystal bracelets, while still retaining a lot of femininity, and of course, symmetry. Also, I feel that it's high time that I bring back the circlets that I used to make.

I've been doing a better job of balancing all of the things I love. If I can keep this up, then I will be able to work on my business and my novels at the same time. This is what I really want out of life; I get too much from beads and writing to ever give one of them up.

I am really excited, and I hope that when you see the new designs I'm cooking up, the excitement will catch.

Catching up

Well, I spent the holiday weekend goofing off. It was pretty nice. I had all these things that I wanted to get done, but instead I played video games. I think I'll blame the weather. It's still so sticky around here. Ugh. If I wanted sticky Summers, I'd move to North Carolina. At least then, I'd be surrounded by GREEN.

I watched some fireworks last night. I don't get a great view from my front walk, but I also don't have to worry about drunk drivers on the way home. It started drizzling about halfway through the show. It felt really nice to stand with my bare feet on the still-warm sidewalk, with cool rain showering me. Meanwhile, of course, the clouds were reflecting the colors of the biggest and boldest explosions.

An hour or two later, it started pouring, which thankfully shut down all of the people firing off illegal fireworks. Despite all the rain, we are still in a drought, yet that never stops people from having their own shows. There were still 1 or 2 people doing firecrackers as late as 2am.

Did I finish my BFAC? No. I did get back to work on it today, and I hope to make some progress while my friends are over tonight. I really have a lot of other ideas that I want to get to this Summer. I must get motivated!

I did finish reading Circle of the Moon over the weekend, and I did a bit of work on my own book. So I wasn't completely lazy. Just mostly.

I'll be posting important news about my hiatus tomorrow.

Drama Successfully Averted!

Today was a fun and mostly peaceful day. Yay! And my friend liked her anti-evil-eye necklace, so all is good in the world.

I've heard that the latest issue of Bead and Button magazine is pretty good and has a lot of seed bead projects, so I'm going to have to try to pick it up this weekend.

Also on the slate for this weekend: finishing my BFAC project! I am so ready to be done with it :)

Tired for now... think I'll read and go to bed.