LL-BFAC Auctions Have Begun!

My friend Deborah Gray-Wurz's "Regal Moon" necklace is just one of the beautiful hand-beaded objects up for bids in the first week of Layne's Legacy -- Beading For a Cure auctions! If you're not already familiar with LL-BFAC, please visit the official website. I've been involved with this charity in one way or another since day 1, and while I'm no longer serving on the committee it remains close to my heart! I do hope you'll take a look at the auctions and bid if you see something you like. I'll post every Monday that the auctions are running to give you a reminder!

A garden full of treasuries!

Yesterday was Treasury Tuesday once again! This week, I was in two treasuries, both with the same name! Lithia's Creations included my Tribal Orchid necklace (shown above) in How does your garden grow? and Mermaiden Creations included my Trundling Beetle spiral bracelet in How Does Your Garden Grow?

Keeping with the garden theme that was chosen for this week, my treasury is called Faeries help my garden grow and it has a cheery palette of blue, green, and a touch of pink for contrast.

Want more treasuries? You can also visit the official FAETeam Blog, where FaerieKat posts all of the treasuries featuring FAETeam members, or you can visit Aquariann's Treasury Tuesday post, which has a cool Linky for treasuries.

And if that's not enough fantasy goodness for you, you can always take another browse through Handmade Jewelry by Erthe Fae Designs!

It's Auction Time! Get your bids in!

The 2010 Layne's Legacy -- Beading For A Cure auctions are up! Click Here to view this week's auction offerings. Please remember that as per eBay's draconian shill bidding rules, neither LL-BFAC board members nor their family members are allowed to bid on these auctions. However, their blog readers are, so if you don't fall into either of those two categories, you should be free to bid as often and as generously as you like.

The above necklace is by my friend Deb from Bead Indulgences. I have got to make one of these multi-strand woven necklaces some day. They have so much presence!

Once again, I've written all of the auction descriptions, though this is the last year that I will be providing that service.

A Bounty of Beautiful Beads

The colors are a little off on this picture... but look! Beautiful beads (and one cab)! From gem show! Clockwise from the top:

A coil/spring bead from JC Herrell. Not only is JC fun and awesome, but her team won the Flame Off this year! GO JC! And teammates! WOOO! I have no idea how I'll use this coil, but it's really fun and called to me.

Brand-new butterfly wings from Margaret Zinser. I saw this pair on Facebook and called "dibs." Clearly the bead gods were listening to me, because even though I didn't get out to the MZ booth until 8 hours into the show, and even though the wings were hot sellers, both of them were waiting for me :) I also picked up a little set of spacers that looks nice with them.

Raised floral cab by Dolly Ahles. I liked the flatter floral cabs that I bought in September so much that I had to get one with a raised clover flower this year. Isn't that green just luscious? Dolly is doing some amazing floral beads, too, some even have tiny 3d butterflies on them.

Greek Math Bead, a gift from my friend Deborah Gray-Wurz. Deb is addicted to making Barb Switzer's complicated little beaded beads, and she made me one in beautiful shades of green and brown. I love it!

Keep your eyes open for more gem show goodies and some actual stories as the week progresses!

Trilobite

This is the cool wire-wrapped trilobite fossil that I bought at the craft fair on Thanksgiving weekend. I'm rapidly running out of time to make it into a necklace for my recital, so I guess I'd better get cracking.

Temptation of another sort!

Today, I'd like to tempt you with news of an awesome giveaway! The very talented tatter TotusMel, from whom I have purchased tatted cuffs and barefoot sandals is celebrating her one-year blogging anniversary with a Super Awesome Giveaway! The cool thing about it, besides the beautiful prizes, is that you can actually increase your odds by telling others about it. The more people who enter, the more prizes she's offering. So go forth and enter, and maybe shop a bit in her store, too! I can vouch for the quality of her products, I just love my cuffs and sandals and will probably be buying hair flowers from her soon.

Speaking of hair flowers, I want to make some. A lot of tribal bellydancers wear real or silk flowers in their hair. It looks nice, and I'd like to incorporate that into some of my dance costuming. But I'd also like to give it my own twist, and wear some beadwoven flowers instead. I'm daydreaming of beaded flowers on combs, hairsticks, barrettes, and various sorts of pins, to be woven into my hair or worked into turbans. I started one the other day, but I got distracted by shiny crystals, and now I'm sick. Woe is me! But as soon as I'm better, it will be flower time all over again.

Pretty Shiny Things!

A collection of pretty, shiny things! From left to right, a beautiful hair dangle by Elise Matthesen, my finally-completed faerie button pendant, and the two pairs of titanium/niobium earrings that I bought at the Street Fair.

So, this afternoon I put the bail on my faerie button necklace and slid her onto my standard black Ndebele cord. I'll eventually make a nice green necklace for her, but I do like how the black cord picks up the black accents on the button. I'll also eventually take a nicer picture of her, but it's cold tonight (by my standards), so I wasn't about to go out to the game room to take photos.

After Chris got off of a very frustrating day at work, we decided to go out for food instead of eating in, and while we were out, I had to stop in at the PO Box, because someone reminded me that I haven't been checking it ;) Inside, I found two surprise packages! One held the lovely hair dangle, similar to ones I've admired in the past, and the other held the silver ring from Creative Mode that I included in my T13 jewelry post (I was going to include it in the picture, but I don't have a ring display).

So, a big "thank you thank you thank you" to my anonymous reader(s) who sent me these wonderful gifts! The turquoise in the dangle is the perfect color to go with my faerie costume, not to mention a lot of my day-to-day clothing. And the ring is so wonderfully elegant, just right to go with my Goth and Steampunk clothes. You're too kind and really brightened my day! Also, I promise I'll check my PO Box more often.

I included the earrings because people asked for pictures back when I bought them. Aren't they cool? The blue ones remind me of lightning, and the purple ones are the same style as the aqua-green ones that I bought last year, and match the purple top I was wearing at the fair.

Thursday Thirteen Volume 4 - Jewelry Edition

Thirteen Things that I wish were in my jewelry box Ohh, look! I found the other headers on the Thursday Thirteen site, so I no longer inexplicably have a fly on all of my lists. Hooray! You might think that, being a jewelry maker and all, I already have more jewelry than I could ever want. This simply isn't true. One reason why I make jewelry is that I love jewelry, and I always want more, more, more! So this list will showcase 13 pieces that I love and wish I had. 1. It would dwarf my girly little wrist, but I love Nancy Dale's beautiful Plumage cuff. Before I got obsessed with green, black and purple were my favorite colors. 2. I saw Creative Mode's Secret Sentiment ring on the Etsy front page, and it looked like just the sort of thing I would wear. Nice price, too! 3. I like all of niele's butterfly jewelry, but the Graphium Butterfly necklace is especially eye-catching. 4. MoonLitCreations' Mother Tree with Opal really appeals to my love for dryads. 5. These Dueling Dragon earrings by Misty's Creations are so neat. Actually, I almost bought them for my Mom for the holidays. 6. Morning Glory Designs makes pieces that look like elegant vintage costume jewelry. And Moonlight Bay has kambaba jasper, a stone I like very much. 7. I really like Melissa J. Lee's Ferryman's Coin, and best of all, I could work it into an awesome beaded necklace. 8. Thyme2dream makes so many nice things that it would be easier to say what I don't want from them... but this Lothlorien Spring earcuff is so pretty and such a good price that I'm tempted to buy it right now. 9. Ling Glass makes such lovely pendants with nice, clean lines. I'd probably were this Serenity Teardrop all the time if I had it. 10. I've been wanting this Bearings necklace by The Justified Sinner for a long time, and even on clearance it's just too extravegant to buy on a whim. 11. I have the perfect jacket to wear TotusMel's Victorian Lace Cuffs with. She's another one who makes about a zillion things that I want... 12. Ok, it's a bead, not a completed piece of jewelry, but this is the best raven focal I've seen from KerriBeads yet: Raven Moon. 13. And now I cheat, and say that I really wish that my own Elvensoul necklace was in my jewelry box. Sometimes it's hard to give up the jewelry that I make!


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