Creative Chaos Challenge Preview

Alrighty... so you're probably all wondering what was in the first Chaos challenge kit ? I know Kashmira  is... she's been hounding me to share pictures ..I've been slacking to torment her ;)

Now that the other three participants have received their kits, I guess I can show you what we'll be working with :) 

So here's the pile o' goodies....

What?

 Not a good enough picture?  Shall I break it down for you?

*sigh* oh alright... lol

There are two of these buttons...I only took a picture of one because as soon as I hear Shay got her kit, I dumped out mine and started sketching... and I already have these two part way into a piece ;)  This is the one little left over spare I had in the same color and size.

 One little glass jar with a cork :)  The ones in the kits were filled with a mix of seed beads... they're not technically a part of the kit...I just used them to fill the bottles to help make them more durable for shipping ;) Plus I figured little beads were a nicer filler than cotton balls ;)

One white nylon butterfly ....on-a-steeek ;)  (... any one who gets that joke is awesome :) )

A piece of dark blue faux suede, and a piece of baby blue and white 'feathered' ribbon :)

And assortment of different sizes of star washers, both interior and exterior.

Some shells. Now these actually WERE jewelry... but not very attractive jewelry lol no I didn't take a before picture... be glad of that ;)  I included these because the blue shells are larger than most of what you see used, and the white had acquired rust marks around the hole. I did try to gently remove the rust, but.. no go.  Perhaps the others will have better luck, or will just find a way to work around it... or with it ;)

And lastly, two more slightly smaller buttons :)



They each also received a little gift of thanks for participating :)

The rules are simple.. they have to use some of these items to create jewelry... ( the more of it they use, the happier and more impressed I'll be ;) ) They don't have to use it 'as is'; they can alter any or all of the items in any way they want. They create, they photograph and they share on June 30th. I think I'll have them use at least a third of that pile. 

I'll have a couple little prizes as well. One will be for the one you all vote for as your fave piece , and the second prize(s) for any of them that manage to use ALL of the kit. 

 

So make sure to come back on Saturday June 30th and check out the four blogs ( nice small hop ;) ). I'll have something set up to collect your votes on your favorite piece... and perhaps I'll have a little surprise drawing for those who place a vote or leave a comment on the blogs ;)

Yes, there will be a second Chaos Challenge kit. I'm thinking of having the sign ups either in June or July, and the hop would be August or September... I haven't decided yet ;)

Winner Wednesday ;)

Sorry, but considering that's all this blog is gonna be.. pretty much... lol

Alright, so.. while I COULD tease and torment you, show lots of photos and ramble on for a while, I'm not gonna.

I COULD ... but I won't... mainly cause I got a headache and I'm really noticing how LOUD I type >.<

So, first up we have  the little Flap Your Wings giveaway I held along with the auction.  The winner of the the little giveaway pack is...

 Rochelle.

The winning bid on the necklace..

 is IslandGirl at $40 CAD. I'll be messaging her shortly about it.

And lastly, we have the Spring Blooms Giveaway.

     The winner is....  Kristi Jaro !

Kristi & Rochelle both have one week to contact me with their mailing addresses to claim their prizes.  If I haven't heard from them by May 1st, then on May 2nd I'll draw new winners.

Okay... enough typing now... I'll be in touch with D.Lynne aka Islandgirl once it no longer hurts to type... >.<

Challenge Check In

Damn... that week went by fast!

Yes I accomplished my challenge this week. As a matter of fact, I'm writing this post early Saturday morning and scheduling it.

As many of you may know..I am a procrastinating SLOB. I despite housework...it gets done in fits and spurts, a little here, a little there. I host entire colonies of dust bunnies beneath my furniture.  My dishes are my worst enemy...I live alone so I truly have NO idea how that sink gets so full >.<  Usually I'll buckle down and get things done... to a point.  When it becomes obvious I'm slacking off in even that much and the place NEEDS a good cleaning..I go to a trusty failsafe...

I call my mom.

No, I do not call her to come clean.  Never. I tend to tell her off if she does clean anything while she's here ( much as she does to her own mother) and tell her, it's my mess, let it be'.

No, I call my mother and invite her to come stay for a weekend.  This is motivation at it's purest.  

So last week end I invited my mom up for this weekend.... then ended up not getting a damned thing done until cleaning wise until Thursday night ( she was due Friday afternoon ;) ).

Friday I got home from work and exploded into action. Within a couple hours I had things looking pretty good. My kitchen is almost unrecognizable ..I keep doing double takes when I walk in the room...I can see my table... it's looks strange sitting there so.... bare... lol

All that was left to do was vacuum all the carpets, remake the bed & couch, and clean the bathroom .. and possibly consider scrubbing the kitchen floor, but I wasn't sure I'd be THAT energetic.

I even had my chicken on boiling away all the grease and fat. ( Once it's cooked, I toss it in the fridge to cool it down, then when I'm ready to actually have supper, I do my coating and tossing it in the fryer to crisp up the batter and heat the chicken through ...tada! yummy and quick since all the actual cooking was done earlier. ;) )

Anyways.... that's when the phone rings. The weather is crap out her way, so mom's not coming up until the morning.

Tons of time to finish  the bit of cleaning I have to do :)   

Do I?

Not really...I got the bed made, the covers and pillows on the couch, then put the laundry away... well.. start to.

That's when I get distracted by another long overdue chore... tackling my closet.  So, as I'm putting my clothes away, I'm sorting through my mess and acknowledging the jeans and things I know my butt won't be squeezing into any time soon, and filling a bag for the thrift store.

So... got tons done yesterday :)

Still gotta vacuum the floors and clean my bathroom... but this morning I decided to whip up a couple pairs of St. Pat's inspired earrings over coffee, then post this.

So here we go... due to heavy housework and spring-cleaning-fever, just the earrings this round... BUT, two of them I made my own wires for :) ( and *sigh*  I had to rotate my photos having taking them, so of course, blogger refuses to believe they're not still sideways.. sorry if they're posting thew wrong way..I swear they ones they're linked to ARE the right side up )

These are one of the ones I made my wires for this morning :)  Just simple little glass heart dangles :)

And the second pair I made the wires for this morning. I miscalculated my wire length so the little 'supposed to be four leaf clovers' beneath the sparkly green babbles are three swirled... accents lol

And lastly, these I made earlier in the week. I decided to play with some little lampwork beads I've add for ages. Out of several different ones I started to play with, these are the only ones I actually finished into actual earrings lol  I have one pretty black one done... then realized the one beads cap was a different size... and I don't have another one of the right size >.<

So... there you go! Another week down :) So fancy jewelry set this time around, but I think I'm still doing alright. I have a bracelet three quarters done beside me, but I stopped when I realized I wasn't sure if I liked the combination of the wood beads in with the porcelain and glass... I'll ask mom when she gets here...I like the darker brown... but ... eh... Maybe I'll finished it to show you next week ;)

Hope everyone has a great weekend :)

Oh... and before I forget, I ordered some new beads that should be arriving any day now.. and among them are some multicolored butterfly crystals :)  So if another... say.... three people sign up for the giveaway, I'll add in some more butterflies :)

And I noticed we don;t have a single entry for the referral part of the giveaway yet! Bug your friends, ladies! Tell them to comment and mention you sent them so you're entered to win!

AND..I removed the captcha crap... sorry! I swear I didn't know it was running... stupid blogger reset >.<  I HATE captcha... so if you ever see anything like that on my blog, TELL ME! 

Okay... back to finishing my coffee and deciding whether to vacuum... or scrub >.<

~Skye

Freebie Friday #3

Here we are again... the first Friday of the month... that means.. new goodies to try to win :)


I was a tad stuck on what to offer up this round...I had two ideas .. and piles... but couldn't decide. I posted a note on my fb page, as well as at the Bead Soup Cafe, and asked for opinions.  No worries though... the second pile will be offered up for April's giveaway :D 

No.. not yet.


Wait for it :p


First I need to bug you a bit :D Them's the rules! first you deal with my rambling and photos .. THEN you see the goodies... then you do your entry thing :)


Don't worry, I won't be long ;) I've got some blog hopping to do, plus I've got a couple of bracelet and earring ideas bubbling in my head that are not quite ready to pop out...so I'll give them a couple hours then start doodling or playing with beads and see if I can't encourage them :)

You should be warned though... this is a photo-heavy post today!


So yesterday I was working on my ocean/sealife themed charm bracelet :) Ran into a couple little growl-inducing moments involving jump rings that kept jumping away... and itty bitty seashells that refused to be strung on wire easily.  I, however, won. Both battles :)


So.. wanna see?

So here's the full bracelet. I went with a plain lobster clasp so it would be adjustable.


The crackled, faceted agate beads make me think of sea turtles... and the blue and green freckled lampwork beads make me think of being underwater.  In addition to those, there are four different type of shell beads- the shell slices there, the itty bitty conch looking shells, the slices-of-shiny- iridescent-shell-whose-name-has-fled-my-mind, and those two dangles made of turquoise colored shell chips.

Here's a close up. I added three charms; a sea horse, a shell, and a starfish. the rest of the beads are mostly from the pre-soup bead exchange I did with Lori Anderson. I'll be mailing it off come Monday so I'll try to take some nicer photos before then.








Have I bugged you enough yet?




Hmm....


Maybe just a little bit more ;)


Wanna see what I just won? 

 This is from Havana Beads. Isn't he flippin' ADORABLE?! I have no clue what to make with him... he's the very first shaped lampwork I've had the chance to play with... I may just hang him up and look at him for a while until inspiration hits...














Okay okay.. enough. Here's what you've been waiting for :)


I tried a group shot but none of them turned out .. so... lots of smaller pics ;)  The penny is not part of the package ;) It's just for size comparison lol

A set of three wooden filigree butterflies - one large and two small :)

A set of metal butterflies ; One large filigree, two small butterflies and two medium butterflies. the four beads have holes that run up and down through the body.

Two Chinese Crystal butterflies, and one pink turquoise butterfly. Again, all holes run through the body.

Two acrylic butterflies , one red and one blue.

ANNNND ... four feet of this butterfly-bedecked wired ribbon :)


















So, what do you think? Ideas starting to bubble around in your heads? Or just thoughts of spring time ? lol






Alrighty... so all of that is what one lucky winner will get at the end of March.


Now how about an extra giveaway? For the person who sends the most visitors my way this month...

A pink turquoise butterfly ,  two Chinese Crystal butterflies, two medium sized metal butterflies... AND ... I have another two feet of that ribbon :)














So all you have to do is submit your entries into rafflecopter and you'll be entered to win the swarm of butterflies.  To be entered to win the second little batch as well, make sure to tell your friends to leave a comment and say you sent them! Every mention of your name left by a new person, on ANY POST on my blog from now until the giveaway closes, counts as one entry!  ANY NEW FOLLOWER who says they were sent here by you is worth THREE entries into the second giveaway PLUS an extra entry into the main giveaway :)


How does that sound?


BRING ON SPRING!!


                                                       ~ Skye