UPS Glass Goodies

I was so excited to see my UPS man today. He brought me a big ol' delivery of glass! I can't wait to have my fuel tomorrow to make some beads. I am going through withdrawl! I NEED TO BEAD! Oh well, tomorrow I will be able to. Part of my order was Bullseye glass. The Italian glass Moretti I normally use is great and I love it but Bullseye is an American glass and has a lot of different shade that Moretti just doesn't have. I am very excited to work with them.

Hopefully I will have some fresh beads for you on Wednesday. I saw some really really beautiful beads but Bluff Road Glass called Spice. They were all transparent violet bases with mango coral dots. It was an odd but beautiful color combo. I think it will be what I try on Tuesday's torch time!

I'll be back with beads soon!

Book Sale

Bored out of my skull today I worked on cleaning up my desk today. I found about 20 books I don't want, need or use. So, I posted about half of them on Ebay! They start later this evening. They all have "Buy It Now" prices but a slightly lower "Auction" price if you have the patience to wait till next Sunday to find out if you win. I loved everyone one of these books when I first got them... I had to have them for some pattern or another when they were new. They are all used but are in mint condition. Everyone is filled with great full color photos and step by step instructions. As styles change and evolve you grow into and out of different styles. These books have had all there inspiration used up. Now it's your turn to get inspired!

Check them out and pick a couple up. You'll have hours of projects ahead. And if you search some of the titles on Ebay... you'll see I priced everything really low!

Out of gas...

I am literally out of gas, not figuatively. LOL! The torch went out yesterday afternoon during my first bead of the day. I get an afternoon to make beads till I am blue in the face and I run out of gas! I won't have a fresh tank until Tuesday but you can bet I will be torching the evening away when I get it. I had wanted to work on an "Earthy" set... we will see what I am in the mood for then.

"Coloring Book Pages" has found a home and "Frog Prince" is still up for grabs! I will be watching to see who goes home with those.

We are in what locals refer to as a "Lake Effect Snow Ban"... it's really coming down hard. We'll have at least 8-10 inches by morning. Yikes! Thank goodness tomorrow is the last day of vacation. I was spoiled last night with the kids at their grandparents. No sooner were they in the car when the fighting began. Oh well... that's my life.

I will be back when I have news to report!

Friday!

Good Morning Starshine! The Earth says Hello! LOL... my eight year old, Jacob, is one of those kids that remembers everything. And this morning he was quoting lines from Charlie & The Chocolate Factory. He has only seen it once or twice but he knows every line of it. He knows pretty much every line of every movie he has ever watched. A week of the kids home everyday all day has me at the end of my rope... AHHHHH !!!!! It has been a rough week, I took Lauren into the doctor's Thursday and it turns out that fever she has is a double ear infection. Poor little girl. She has been sleeping in our bed all week. The boys are bored out of their minds, the little devils. If I don't let them turn into video game zombies then they are at each others throats. "Mom he hit me!" "Mom he won't make his bed!" "MOOOMMMMM, Make him go away!" LOL! It seems like it never stops. But enough ranting! I will be getting a much needed break tonight, thank goodness! The kids, yes ALL three, are going to my Mom's for an "overnighter" (as they call it). I am taking them about noon and I will have the WHOLE afternoon to myself! I am going to spend it torching of course! Then just a quiet night with Ron which should be heavenly!

I will share new beads tomorrow! I am thinking of doing an earth organic set. Are you up for it?

Dream

Here is the new bracelet I promised to share... "Dream". The possibilities are endless with the new alphabet stamps I have! I can make custom bracelets that say anything. Your kid's names, your favorite words, just to name a few. And the beads I can mix it.... just endless possibilities. I think every Mom needs to splurge and get herself a mother's bracelet with her favorite color glass beads. Send me an email with the names!

Last night's Tastefully Simple party was so much fun. Susan was a super hostess, good food, great wine... what more could a girl ask for! I was rather taken back by one of her other guests, a girl I went to High School with that I hadn't seen in 10 years! One of the ladies just couldn't leave without the "Carnival" bracelet either! Unfortuately, when I got home Lauren had spiked a fever and I was up till about 2:30 am trying to comfort her and get her fever down. I will be watching her close today to see what's up. Her fever was back up in the 102s at 7:00 this morning. She just keeps saying "Momma I sickies". Poor thing. I will let you know how she is doing.

Frog Prince

Some of you may remember my "Frog Princess" beads from a few months back... well here is "Frog Prince". The same mosaic style beads with a softer more princey pallet. I love making these style beads. I don't know what took me so long getting back to making them again. They are a bit larger then my usual beads. But I think they would rock in necklaces or bracelets! They are going up in a tradional auction and will start later tonight... come back and bid on them later :)

I am going to a "Tastefully Simple" party tonight. Should be fun! But that means no new beads tomorrow. I do have some fresh goodies up my sleeves though. I made some beads for a new bracelet yesterday when I was working on the new beads. I will share that tomorrow.

Coloring Book Pages

A have a fresh offering of Spring beads, "Coloing Book Pages". These beads were a personal challenge I gave myself to practice my lentil encasing technique. It is a rather advanced lampworking skill. I sort of "went out of the lines" a couple times, leting the color slip out on the ends. That's how they got their name. Who likes coloring inside the lines anyway? They are available "Buy It Now" on Ebay. The last two auctions were scooped up in less the 24 hours so it would seem you all like the instant gradification bead buying that Buy It Now offers. So I am going to stick with that for a while, offering tradional auctions in between.

Making these yesterday was such a creative relief. After my aweful time at the torch Saturday having this turn out just the way I imagined them was such a moral booster. I am finding that if I grap my sketch pad and take a few minutes to draw out my thoughts torch time goes so much better. I have another white & clear set planned. Inspired by crisp fresh linen just out of the laundry... I love that smell! But with the kids home on Fabruary Break, I may not find time at the torch until later in the week.

Keep Warm!

Slow on Sundays Mornings....

Do any of you have the Maroon 5 CD? I do and "Sunday" is one of my favorite songs. It's about how life is so crazy it gets too hard to handle, but as long as it leads to a Sunday Morning that you never want to leave, then it is all worth it. I have that song running through my head this morning. We are having a slow Sunday morning after our crazy few days around here.

My time at the torch was crap yesterday! I was agitated all night because of how frustrated I was. I just couldn't get anything to work. I had too many ideas in my head at once so nothing would work. It is insanely frustrating. Especially since I took a half hour break to gather my thoughts. I made a plan and then still couldn't get things to work. My frit was reacting weird on the colors I wanted to use, stringers were sloppy... UUUGHHHH!!!!! Hopefully when Ron gets back from the office this morning (he has to go in to work on a project he has due) I can have another go at getting a good set put together. I wanted to have something ready to replace "Fun Friday" that ends tonight but I guess it will just have to wait until tomorrow.

I will share the results!

Our Adverture

WOW! What a wild few days we have had around here. The adventure started late Thursday Night with our neighbor's band playing at full volume at 9:00pm. Our house was shaking the music was so old. I was putting my sneakers to go next door and nicely ask them to turn it down just a bit (3 kids were trying to go to bed) when I saw the sheriff's car pull up. Apparently another neighbor had called the police to complain about the noise. When then woke up Friday morning to 65 mph wind gusts (hurrican force) and the sound of running water. It seems durning the night "someone" turned on all our hoses. (We are guessing it was the kids that were asked to turn the music down but that is just a theory.) Ron turned the hoses off and around 7:30 the power went out and a power line in out backyard when down. Scare Andrew right out of his skin, he thought the flashing blue lights were aliens. LOL!

At around 10:00 I got a call from my Uncle Danny. He thought he was calling my Aunt Heidi's cell phone. He said my Uncle Pat had left some sort of message about downed lines and a fire. Then my Dad called and suddenly it had turned into... "Uncle Pat's house burned down". Since I live closest I was sent over to Pat & Heidi's to see what the heck was going one. It was in fact their next door neightbor's house that had burned to the ground and their 60+ foot pine tree uprooted and laying on power lines in the road in front of the burning house. Thank God no one was hurt. However their neighbor did lose 3 of the pets. Now by 1:30 our house had dropped to 60 degrees. I packed up the kids to go to my parents and get their generator. RG&E (our electric company) was estimating our power to be turned on Sat. at 5:00pm. UGH! More then 24 hours later. The generator worked great. But we did have to spend about 45 minutes splicing wires and getting our furnace so it was running to the generator rather than the circute box.

The power finally came on about 12:00 noon today. THANK GOODNESS! I so wanted to be torching last night while bored out of my skull with candles and boardgames. I think I actually went to bed at 8:30, that's so not me! But there will definatley be some bead making happening tonight so come back tomorrow for the scoop!

And here is that photo I promised of the new necklace "Elegance"... the book report that goes with it is just going to have to wait. :)
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We are still without power by we have my parents generator running the furnace and fridge so we are keeping warm and eating. I ran an extension cord to the computer just long enough to check the auctions , email and give you all an update. We are expected to have power back by 5:00pm so I will give a proper update then :D

Remote Post

I am stranded at my Mom's without power. We had a front go through with highwinds and will be probably be without power until tomorrow. I will check in when I can.

Vanilla Latte

Wow! The "Deep Sleep" beads sold in less then an hour! I didn't even get a chance to update the blog with the photo. Here is the latest set, "Vanilla Latte". I posted them "Buy It Now" on Ebay just like "Deep Sleep". I have my fingers crossed that they will get scooped up and sent a loving home. I skipped my Jazzersice class this morning to get them clean and posted. Maybe that's when I can't stop yawning and can barely keep my eyes open. No excersice. I will go to the night class at 6:30 though.

Later this evening I will be glued to Survivor tonight, waiting to see who gets put on exile island this time. I have a new necklace to share tomorrow so be sure to stop back and check it out!

Lostday

I am officially changing the name of Wednesday to Lostday. Why? Well because LOST is on tonight of course! Yes yes I am one of the multi million people addicted to LOST. I am in love with John Locke. It was while watching Lost that I discovered I have a "thing" for older bald men. LOL! In the 90's it was Captain Picard (Star Trek), now it is John Locke. Then I realized... you know, Ron doesn't have the fullest head of hair either... and he has 8 years on me. YEP! I have a thing for older bald men LOL! But enough about my older men day dreams... on to more important things.

BEADS! "Growing Luck" finished last night and I worked on a new set to put up in it's place. A Tim Burton inspired set. The perfectionist in me isn't going to "officially" dub them "Burtonesque" because I am not 100% satisfied with their whimsical qualities. Don't get me wrong though...they are BEAUTIFUL beads... just not quiet "Burton Beads", yet. Plus I grabbed Metallic Silver Plum instead of Violet so the ones with purple are metallic and I didn't want that for these. I will finish cleaning them, wash them and string them. Once that's all done I will photograph them and post them for you all to see. I am going to put them up as a "Buy It Now" set. I am going to name these ones "Deep Sleep". So watch for them :D Then in a week or so I will try again at this color combo and see what I come up with then.

Lauren and I have a busy day of cleaning and laundry ahead of us. So best get to it...

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope everyone is filling up on chocolate today! I had a great night at the torch and made some space beads. I also made a link on my website so that if you are interested in ordering space beads they have a "Buy Now" button.

Lauren and I are going to get our fannies in gear and do some errands... maybe buy ourselves some chocolate... yum!

Its My Party....

Finally the photo is loading... check out "Fun Friday"!
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Yep.. it's my birthday! I am another year older. Oh well, LOL! It has been a quiet lazy uneventful day. But then again, my birthday always is. I had my outings over the weekend and that was my celebration.

Did you notice that I posted a new set of beads last night? "Fun Friday" is their name and bight colors is their game. They were inspired of course by my fun margarita outing with my sister Friday night. It was suggested by one of the Bead & Button members that I do some buy it now auctions. I think I will give it a try with the next couple of auctions. I will be doing a Tim Burtonesque set next. Gray Black and just a hint of purple with lots of scrolls and swirls. I can't wait. I watched "Corpse Bride" last night and that is where I got the idea. Funny how the world of the living was dull and gray while the world of the dead was bright and colorful.... hmmm. Interesting.

I am off to figure out something to make for dinner. Ron is at class tonight so it is up to me... see I told you my birthday was uneventful. LOL.

*Note - I have tried unsucessfully to load a photo of the new beads 4 times! It isn't working at the moment. I will try again in a bit.

Magaritas

Oh well... I never did get to the torch last night! Instead I went out to dinner with my sister to have margaritas at Maria's Mexican resturant. LOL! We had fun... after our margaritas we went to Barnes & Noble and shopped for new books. Some of the titles of books are quite funny when you have had margaritas. For example "Sex & Violence - A Love Story" or "Happiness Sold Separetly". These are actual titles from last night I am not kidding!

Thank you everyone for the happy birthday wishes. My bithday is actually on Monday but my sister and I were celebrating last night! This evening Ron & I are going out to dinner at Jade Palace and then out to a movie. Should be a wonderful break from the kids. Aunt Heidi & Uncle Pat are coming to watch the kids. WAHOOO! I will be on the torch first thing tomorrow morning so beads should be ready for auctions by 9:00pm. Watch for them! I am thinking of a wild colorful margarita set!

Fun Friday

This should be a good day. I am being taken to lucnh for my birthday by my firend Lindsey. HI LINDSEY! I know she reads this but never posts. The kids will be at my Mom's and I will get some adult communication. I LOVE IT! I can't wait. I also informed my husband that I need to have some torch time tonight. SO the day should be good al around. I haven't made beads since Sunday afternoon, I am going through withdrawl. Having said that... you'll now realize why this is a short post. There is nothing much else going on around here. LOL! I will post again when I have more to share!


Today's photo is one from my garden. I LOVE Hydrangas.

Tax Time

Any normal American hates doing their taxes, right? Well here is just one more reason I am not like everyone else! I love doing our taxes. I spent about 2 hours doing our taxes online last night at taxact.com . It is a super website with a wonderful step by step process for filling out your taxes. And it only cost 19.95 to file both state and federal taxes. I already have the federal confermation email this morning! So I will have my return in my account in a few days! Ahhhh.... I love doing taxes. I guess it is probably because Ron has things set up so that we have more money taken out of his check each week then we should so we always end up with a return. I have heard lots of debates between my dad and husband on this subject... but I won't bore you with those details. But I will tell you this... thanks to this return I am going to be ordering some new materials I have been eyeing to create some great new things in my jewelry! Watch for it!

Today is hopefully going to be quiet. I had a runing around day yesterday. And Ron had a test last night. He thinks he did well. But as with every test he has ever taken he told me "I think I screwed one part up." He always seems to undermind his confidence be messing up one part. It's alright... the last one he screwed up he got a 97% on. GO RON BOY!

In the studio news... I started a great new necklace yesterday morning. It isn't finished yet but hopefully will be today. This one is like the necklace "Highland Park" that is on my website. Only this time it is in black and gray. I am going to call it "Elegance" after the title of a new book I am reading. Once I get father into it I will give you a little book report. I love to read and I know it is rather shallow of me but I love "Chick Lit". Books written by women talling women stories. Nothing deep, nothing too smutty. Just a story.

Hey... "Fair Weather Friends" ends tonight and it only has one bid.

Today's photo is one of my favorites. I took it in the Fall of 2004 at Watkin's Glen. I set it as my desktop wallpaper all the time!

Growing Luck

The set I wasn't sure about yesterday is starting to grow on me and I really like it!

I named them "Growing Luck". I started to imagine that if luck could be grown like flowers that the seeds would be something like these. With every droplet like a drop of hope for something lucky to sprout! They will psted on Ebay tonight! So watch for them. :D

We are getting snowed in today. There is about 8 inches right now and another 6 due by this evening. And some more tomorrow too. I like it! SO I will be running errands when I am done here and getting home as fast as I can to curl up and watch a movie with Lauren. I need to warm my cold toes :)

Mundane Mondays

Kinda crappy weather here... finally. We have had such a mild winter by Rochester standards, it seems winter might actually be here for February. Today is COLD and very very windy! We are supposed to get a few inches of snow tonight and tomorrow. I am one of those insane people that actually likes snow. I love it! I love having a reason to hide away inside and read or drink coffee while watching movies. I am such a hermit sometimes. So winter enables my hermitistic (is that a work?) tendancies. LOL! Anyway... I worked on some beads yesterday and I am not sure if I like them. I may use them in some more jewelry creations. We will see. I do need to get to work on a new set to list on Ebay since "PB&J" sold on Saturday. I am kinda in a slump. I don't know what I should make. Maybe another bright spring set! I will let you know what I end up making, of course.

Did anyone watch Grey's Anatomy like I told you too? It was good... I can't wait to see what happens next week.


Another one of my photos to share today. :)

Something New

I was playing with some of my larger guage wire yesterday afternoon and made this new bracelet. It is so nice to wear. I hardened the stering wire so it stays in the oval shape. The beads are 3 of my lampwork beads. My last two "Sandy Lantern" beads were used in this, so I will need to make more of those. I am calling it a cuff, rather then a bracelet. The details are on my website or you can send me an email for more information on it. I will definately be making more in this style.

Ron has a test this week so he will busy studying all weekend. Which means I won't be getting much done bead wise. So I will see you all on Monday! Have a great weekend!

Oh.... don't forget "Peanut Butter & Jelly" beads end tonight! GO BID!

I Knew IT!

I knew if I tried to work at the torch without a plan it would be a bad bead day! I just knew it, and I was right. LOL! In about 2 hours I made 5 beads... that's terrible! Oh well, inspiration will strike and it'll be okay for the next time out. I just had an idea of a white & clear set. ALL WHITE & CLEAR! Hmmmm.... it could be cool. I will be working this weekend on finishing the last of the photos I need for my tutorial. And of course there is that football game on Sunday to watch... I am not really a football fan, but I like the commercials. Then Grey's Anatomy! I had a dream about Dr McDreamy trying to potty train an elephant last week! Can you tell I love that show!?!

Time to get this day going... I will be taking Lauren to playground, going to the bank & post office... I need to give my first draft of the tutorial to a friend to review. Lots to do on this bleak rainy day.

I don't know how many of you know this but I love photography! SO I have decided to post some of my photos here for days when I don't have jewelry to share. Hope you like then and feel free to respond about them.

Enjoy....

Fair Weather Friends

Here are the new beads... I dedided to name them "Fair Weather Friends". Mostly because they are friendly little things and they remind me of spring. Aren't they great! I triend something different and made all the base clear. Kinda makes me think of spring flowers popping out of the snow! If you can think of a better name for them let me know! I will change it before the auction starts tonight. That's right.. the auction will start tonight so watch for it! Maybe they should be called "Clearly Spring"?

My Mom will be by this afternoon to play with Lauren for a few hours so I can get some work done. I haven't really decided what I will work on though. I guess we will see! I tend to have bad bead days if I don't plan ahead, yikes!

I am putting the finishing touches on my Step BY Step article. It has been such an interesting project. I have really enjoyed it. I hope to have designs unique enough in the future to do it again! I want to send a few photos into BeadStyle Magazine next and see about getting in there. I will let you know how it goes!

Well, keeping the cold I have at bay isn't working. I am all congested and it stinks. But I am pushing through and making new beads / jewelry creations. I made the two pieces shown here yesterday afternoon. The coral and black bracelet is called "Poodles" it is in line with my "Sock Hop" bracelet. I love how the beads turned out in this. If anyone is interested in it, send me an email and I will give you all the details on it. The necklace is called "Be Square". It started out as a bracelet inspired by sturtandcrow on the Bead & Button forum. She had made a sqaure link bracelet that I liked so I thought I would have a go at something square. I wasn't happy with it as a bracelet so I added the strand of seedbeads and TA DA... a gorgeous, unique necklace... perfect for spring! Which is right around the corner, I hope. Speaking of spring... I made a new set of Spring lampwork beads! They have been cleaned but I haven't had a chance to phtograph them yet. I will post the photos when I have them. The have a really different twist that I think you are going to like. But you'll just have to wait and see those!

I am going to lay low today... do some laundry, straigten up the house, and get the new beads photographed. If anyone wants to bring me some chicken noodle soup for lunch... you are welcome to stop by.LOL! I will be back with photos of the new beads.... first I have to think of a name.