Catch up

** note ** If you're looking for my BSBP reveal, click HERE.

~ ~ ~

Sorry about all the missing posts in April >.< Any and all winners were contacted on time and have long since received their prizes. As for the missing April shop feature, I had two shops left in the queue, and got tangled up in checking out some stuff, then forgot to actually POST. I WILL be posting one THIS FRIDAY. I'm writing it today and scheduling it to ensure it ;) Which means there's just one more after this one, so if any of you 'shop owners' would like to be featured here and can offer a little something up for grabs to my readers, give me shout :)

As for the whys behind the lack of blogging... I don't think there's really a need to mention I'm just really good at procrastinating... you all know this by now ;)

So what have I been up to that my blogging has been next to non-existent? Aside from procrastinating, of course ;)

The usual, of course... plus we just finished off another round with Project Bead ( which I'll be updating and mentioning here soon).

Had to get my BSBP done and up, and of course, I'm still hopping my way through :) I went against my new 'no more hops' rule and joined up with TWO, one of which I've already completed my piece for.

Oh, and remember the Project Bead 'Sneak Attack'? Where Shelley Graham Turner had put out the word looking for purple beads so she could  make earrings for Alzheimer's... so we dropped a box containing a few THOUSAND purple beads on her doorstep... remember?

Well... seems Shelley has turned the tables on us with that one ;) She decided she couldn't possibly use all of those on her own, so she started up a fb group called 'Jilly's Bead Posse' in memory of her sister, then put out the offer to send a baggie of purple bead soup to anyone who would be willing to use it to make earrings for her, and send them back to her.

 In no time she had a nice little group of earring designers working away.

And then... it grew.

... and Shelley kidnapped me and pulled me into it, because 'it was my fault anyhow' ;) lol

Jilly's Bead Posse went from a group of ladies making earrings for Shelley to hand out to people taking part in the 'Walk to End Alzheimer's' , to an acknowledged associate of Alz.org. My project right now is helping get items listed in the etsy shop, as well as get my own contributions submitted. Oh, and make more purple stuff... current items I'm planning on are key chains and zipper pulls ;)

I'll be telling you all a bit more about this group in a future post. My giveaway with a twist went over rather well there for the Global Genes Project ... might have to do something similar for this one ;)

I'll be trying VERY HARD to get back into the blogging habit, and as I said, I'll have a few posts scheduled ahead of time for you ;)  Friday for sure you'll have a new giveaway to enter with the shop feature, so be sure to pop back and check it out ;)

Think I need to end this update with some pretty pictures,  don't you think? How about my sunny-day-sitting-on-the-porch projects? Those on FB with me have seen them already, but oh well ;)

Autumn's Glory

( yeah I know... sitting outside on a gorgeous spring day enjoying summer like weather .. and I create a piece with an autumn theme to it >.< lol )

Passion for Purple

Check back tomorrow for this month's shop feature, and enter the giveaway!

 

BSBP #7 !

It's finally here! After two ( very much appreciated ) delays, the final round of the seventh Bead Soup Blog Party is here!

For those who may remember, my partner for this round is Lucie Bouvier and here's what she sent me :)

 

You may remember that those bottom red and black spotted beads turned out to be poisonous seeds that had been banned in this country, and had to be tossed... so sad :( Despite their unfortunate demise, they did give me an idea for a project using the sole remaining bead in that baggie...

Originally going to be a pendant for a necklace, it ended up becoming a zipper pull/bag charm.. because I needed one :)

 See? A cute little death theme zipper pull in honor of 'deceased' poisonous beads ;) lol

 Okay... so back to the beginning.

When I got this lovely soup, I was both thrilled and a little stumped... everything was RED. I've never had a single colour soup before.. it kinda threw me for a bit. Still, I immediately sat down and sorted things into baggie with beads from my own stash that I visioned going with them into different projects.

Since the focal is the one that always seems to be the 'ohmygodtherevealistomorrowandIamnotgonnamakeit' piece I'm still working on the day before the reveal, I decided to tackle it first. I knew right off I was going to pair that simple heart with pearls and gold, and that I wanted to add something to the heart itself. I envisioned strands attached via fancy metal connectors, so did up two strands , one for either side of the heart... and then got sick >.< Everything was sealed up into the baggies and set aside. Once I was feeling better... the separate strands/connectors idea no longer struck the same spark it had and so it stayed in the baggie while I played with the rest.  Once again, the focal piece became the last one finished >.< lol I think it's now traditional for my BSBP pieces. I tried to resuscitate  the connecter idea a couple days ago, but was plagued with head aches that made hammering a bad idea, until today I bit the bullet and took it apart to start from scratch.

Twice.

 Really glad I did since I rather like the way it turned out :) 

Heart on the Wing

Sticking with my original colour scheme/layout, I alternated white potato pearls, red glass seed beads, and gold oval beads with the red swirled glass beads Lucie sent me. The golem Beads heart pendant has a gold coloured wing layered over top .. and of course, I made matching earrings :)

If that was my LAST completed piece... what was my first, you ask?

Well duh... when stumped, fall back on the best muse kick starter... EARRINGS!

Gothic Droplets

 I took two gunmetal filigree bead caps and squished the little buggers flat... then used some gold jump rings to attach a couple faceted garnet rondelles and the Unicorne glass drop beads to the bottom. And I only lost one garnet and three jump rings somewhere beneath my desk >.< lol

The next done is actually three pieces... what I'd originally intended to be a triple strand bracelet changed it's mind as I was still working on the different strands, and instead became a ' stack' of bracelets. I'd add in a few bangles to fill out the stack, but haven't made 'those' yet.. so here are the three main ones...

Coke bracelets

I used the coke bottle cap bead, and the other red & metal bead form Lucie, and paired it up with more pearls - this time some gunmetal coloured ones in various sizes, and more little red glass seed beads as spacers.

The next piece was another one that was 'in progress' for a while. It began with the Tagua Nut toggle clasp, and the accompanying nut beads Lucie had sent.. I knew it was going to be a charm-style bracelet from the start, but beyond that I was a bit stumped. I kept getting over powered by the red >.< Finally I hit upon the perfect colour to ease of the fierceness of the red.. a choice I blame completely on Shelley Graham Turner and her darn purple bead situation. You may remember that from my post ' Sneak Attack', where my project bead faeries sent her a huge box of purple beads... Which she turned into another group called Jilly's Bead Posse, where we all make purple jewelry to donate to raise funds for Alzheimer's in memory of Shelley's sister Jill.

Anyhow, thanks to Shelley, I ended up with purple taking over my creative center of my brain, and knew the only way I was going to get this bracelet made was to use purple. Decision made, I then sorted through to find the right shade of purple... then the fun began. I started making dangles only to run out of head pins... so I had to take a break and run out for more. Then after making a couple dozen mixed dangles, I decided one style in particular, and rather then do a bracelet full of mixed ones, I'd do mainly these... the already made dangles that no longer fit could be made into earrings later on.

I got all the dangles attached... and then ran into trouble with the toggle. First I didn't like the way I had it attached.. so I fiddled with it a few times... then my adjustable clasp plan didn't work because I'd forgotten to check my chain link size versus my lobster clasp >.< So I was faced with a heart breaking choice.. either remove EVERYTHING and put it on a bigger linked chain... or do a simple lobster clasp with an extender chain and use the tagua clasp for a different project.

Which way did I go...?

Garden Charms

Neither :)

I nipped the bracelet in the center and turned half the toggle clasp into a focal instead, attaching the chain to either side. I added a third link with a flower and crystal dangle off the new focal, just because I felt like it :)

The red parts are all from Lucie, and are all natural nut beads :)

This bracelet will be heading off to Shelley to be sold in support of Jilly's Bead Posse's Alzheimer's efforts :)  I might be sending the coke bracelets too if I get the remaining bangles finished to complete the set. The pearls do have a very purplish tint to them, after all ;)

So, despite the delays and the issues that popped up, I'm happy with how things turned out, over all. It's going to be hard to part with that charm bracelet... that is one of those pieces that I love and want to make mine... but if I kept it it would rarely get worn, and I KNOW that. Far better to stick with my plan for it :)

Thank you for dropping in to check on me :) Sorry I've been pretty invisible around here this month. I'll try harder to blog more again! In the mean time, make sure to hop along the rest of this reveals list and enjoy some truly lovely work :) To find out what my partner did with the soup I sent her, click HERE.

  Third Reveal HopList

Skull Appreciation Day hop

Yes you read that right... it's Skull Appreciation day :D

I noticed a post about this blog hop on the Skull A Day blog and just knew I had to take part.

My original design remained a sketch for quite sometime before I decided to get busy on it... then I kept fiddling with it and changing it... then when I FINALLY decided I'd better get my ass in gear and make it... since the hop was just a couple days away... the rain set in and I couldn't get the sand I needed...

.. yes sand...

.. no I won't tell you what it was for because I still plan on making it... at some point...

... honestly :)

So after a month of procrastinating, and missing out on a really cool design, I got bit by the bracelet bug.

I made these two to go with a tribal gypsy stack.. but never got far with the rest of the stack... lol

Then I got another idea.

I grabbed a rather colorful.. yet ugly ( in my opinion.. mainly because it was colorful...not a touch of black.. how horrible ;) ) memory wire bracelet I'd been playing at putting together.  I cut strips of black and red spiderweb lace ribbon and wrapped them around it, using the colors beads beneath to add bulk, then over wrapped it all with some black wire. Once that was done, I added on some skull charms :)  I rather like this and think I'll keep it for myself. I may add a second wire over wrap with a few red and black beads, and some more skulls of course.

For the record, I hate memory wire. I hate working with it, I hate wearing it and I hate looking at it.

I do however like this bracelet lol

Sorry for the photo quality... it's been overcast and miserable for the past few days and I put off the photos ... and now it's night time and it's this or nothing >.<

I also had a pillow and bag I was planning on making ( once again, my design plans bypassing the sad fact that I can not sew ) , but of course...they did not get made. Maybe another time.

Thanks for checking out my blog during this hop :) Make sure to pay some of the others a visit and see what skully-goodness they have to share :D

Terra
Tori
Black Dragon
Monique
Helen
Lady Brayton
Fiona
Christine
Jane
Judy
Alison
Susan
Andrea
Smudger Challenge
Laura
Lisa
Kristy
Steph
Glittery Katie
Lisa
Kapree
Ms. Ruin
Kathi
Bombshell Stamps Blog
Dianne
Donna
Nydia
Lady Coral
Suzi
Julia
Patti
Miko
Renee
Wendy
Christina
Hazel
 Skye
Wenchkin
Betsy
Scrapbook Stamp Society



~ Skye

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... >.<

Last Spring Blooms Giveaway Update

It's Friday again, and we have four days left in the Spring Bloom giveaway :)
Check out my 'Flap Your Wings' Necklace  HERE. The auction runs until Tuesday April 24th

Before I get posting pictures,  I just wanted to mention that I'll be posting the signup widget for the first Creative Chaos Challenge. I'll be explaining  about it in my next post, most likely Sunday :)
 Since we hit 50 entries, I'll make one more addition to the pot.

Newest addition to the giveaway.

One clay flower pendant ( it's pale pink and white ), and four silver toned flower connectors.

Spring Bloom giveaway bundle

Which is added to this ... 




The winner will be announced on Wednesday, April 25th.

Challenge Check In

Sorry >.< 

I meant to blog earlier this evening ( despite what blogger claims, it's just shy of 8pm ).

I finally broke a creative block I'd been suffering over on some jewelry for my cousin. I've been poking at this since last summer >.< 

I love black... she loves black. 

Check.. that's easy.... got lots of black to work with :)

 She likes my Gothic designs best, but wouldn't actually come out and say she'd like a more goth style piece... No worries... after one slight failure, I clued in ( she liked it, but I could tell it wasn't quite what she was hoping for ). Again, no worries since I like Goth too and had a good variety of things... and keep adding more when I find them. 

The problem seemed to be the orange... she asked for black and orange... Harley Davidson colors ;) Now...I found some gorgeous orange shades of crystals... but every time I got ideas, they'd vanish as soon as I pulled out the beads. I was starting to get irritating as hell...>.< Every time I decided on a design, it would either vanish once the beads were out... or fail to work the way I wanted. I did get a couple pairs of earrings made, one of which I really liked the look of... unfortunately , I'd messed up on the one and so the 'pair' didn't work >.< That was back around Halloween.

 *sigh* So here I am... deciding on making some earrings and a little gift box to go with the ocean bracelet... when suddenly I reached for the orange and black beads rather than the blue and green beads. Again, three failed attempts at earring designs and I shoved them aside. 

Yesterday I poked at them again, then tore the one apart and tried it a bit differently... nope.

 Then this afternoon I decided to forget about them and do the ocean earrings... and once again went for the orange and blacks instead. 

This time things flowed together, and before I knew it, I had two pairs of earrings and a necklace that they both go with :) 

Pretty sure I nailed it on the head this time. I know *I* love it :) 

The necklace has two chains that form the back - one silver and one gunmetal.

The toggle clasp is on the side - a lock and key set that I saw and HAD to buy several of :D

The front part I did in black and orange (siam I think ) crystal rondelles set into rosary links. The focal is a wing charm, a black glass heart, and two orange crystal dangles, all hung form an etched silver oval connector.

For the earrings, I did one with tiny little wing charms, and one with the black hearts. I added the crosses to that one for no other reason than that I had two left, and my cousin had liked another piece I did that I used them in.

I'm thinking of making one little change to the one pair... I'm thinking of adding tiny little black and ornage crystal dangles to the wings to mimic the necklace...

....I never did get the ocean earrings done >.< *L*

Anyhow, there's my three pieces for the week :D

~ 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

Challenge Check In

I WAS going to chose a winner of the destash today, but after considering I decided to give everyone a couple more days to find the last post and get that last entry in, so I shall choose the winner on Tuesday the 31st instead. after all, I did say it was 'a month long' destash, so... we'll let it go the full month ;)

As for my challenges this week, for once I had them done BEFORE the last minute :D  In was going to show you my art challenge project as well, but went and deleted the pictures from my camera... so, I shall take new ones and post them on Tuesday since the art challenge is by the month rather then week ;)

Plus, not only did I get my three pieces of jewelry done, one of those pieces is for the ABS monthly challenge :) Whoohoo! Yay me...finally managed to complete one! lol

So here are some earrings I made this week. 

The top pair is 10mm faceted crackled Agate. The color in the shot sucks but they're a really pretty blue and brown mix with the rings being antiqued copper ( in appearance, anyhow...I can't say for sure what they're made of since they were recycled from a chain belt ;) ).  I love these..I wore them today :)

The others are just antiqued silver leaves hung from a small section of chain, with black and crystal faceted rounds. Can't say for sure what kind they are since they're recycled from other pieces.

And here is my bracelet for the "January ABS challenge. It's just some gold wire with loops formed between chunks of green and peach colored turquoise, with a antiqued copper clasp. The bird charm is from Starry Road Studio :) It actually wears fairly well, but I don't know if I'll keep it together. I'll mostly take it apart and reuse the beads and charm in other projects.   This wasn't the piece I had planned for the challenge... it wasn't even the second piece I planned out for it... both ideas kinda fell through when my bits and pieces either refused to be found among my stash ( I didn't get to the stringing materials in my cleaning  ;) ),  and when the second idea refused to work in RL as well as it did on paper >.< lol  If I were to do this again, I'd work on making my curls between beads more uniform and perhaps forgo the charm...

In addition to these, I have a couple magnetic pins and another set of earrings in the works, but I need to tear through my under desk storage in search of my other glue first... the stuff I have just takes too long to dry for what I need with these. Plus there's my stuffed cat... the second one >.<  I DID finish putting the one I showed you  together... and while doing so, made a small change to it... a small change that messed it up and made him look .. rather .. 'special' ...O.o lol  I have named him 'crooked' and he sits on top of my computer to remind me of what NOT to do with the second one lol I simplified the design and have the second cat about a third of the way done. His front is completely stitched and decorated and not I just have to make his tail, sew his stripes on his back then put him together. And this time, with Mr. Crooked watching over me to remind me, I will NOT alter my plans while putting him together lol

I DID manage to get out to the country and visit my parents today. I went for a walk around the trails... at first with the dogs, however they quickly abandoned me to trudge along on my own. For all of you southerners, I thought I'd share some wintery photos with you :)

Here are the girls who were SUPPOSED to be going for a walk WITH me...

And here are their tracks vanishing ahead of me and veering off the path into the trees... >.< ( the photo is right side up in the album, I swear )

A pile of dead fall that had been gathered together then forgotten about... the path along side this wasn't too bad for walking on... only a few inches deep. -->

<--... the path in THIS area though was over a foot deep and managed to get right inside my boots >.<

( again, the picture is upright in the album... not sure why it insists on being sideways here when it's not elsewhere >.< ) 

And one more ... for which I waded through knee deeps snow and skeletal shrubs to take. Totally worth it :)

( I did take a couple more and they're in the album if you care to go see them. Just click on the slide show link on the side bar then choose the photography album )

Don't forget to leave a comment on Friday's post for a last entry into the destash, and I'll post the winner either Tuesday night or Wednsday morning :)

~ Skye

Challenge Check In #3

*phew!*

Okay... once again I barely made my challenge! >.<

Seriously..I like JUST finished the third pair of earrings about ten minutes ago then took the photos.

Of course, in my defense, this week has been spent working with my writing muses... when not fighting with my sewing needle and the stupid 'not-yet-stuffed-almost-plush-cat' >.<


To prove this 'not-yet-cat' actually exists and isn't just an excuse....here ->

The face is stitched, the stripes are stitched on the back of the head, the tail and the ears are finished... and the rest of the red bits are the body and feet.


Alright... now that you've seen the stupid cat >.<  How about my challenge pieces for this week?

Blue shell beads glued onto star washers. They're about the size of a dime.

The red ones were supposed to be for a gift, but lately every time I aim for steampunk...I come up more goth O.o I have another pair coming that is sticking to more steampunky, but there's a lot of gluing involved so...maybe they'll end up finished next week... these are made from a pair of bead caps that I flattened and hung some dark red crystals from :)


The blue pair is the one I finished last minute >.< blue buttons & silver jump rings.





and there... managed to scrape through another week >.<  although this week I have two other pairs of earrings in the works...they just didn't get any where near finished ;)


For an extra treat, I decided to feature a very talented photographer over at DeviantArt . She's received very little notice  for her work and I think she deserves a  lot more :)  Pop in and take a peek at the pictures I've selected to show, or follow her link through to her own gallery to see more :)  Feature: Embersadrift

FF- another Destash update

Another Friday has snuck up on me  >.<

And for the record... once again I STILL don't have any jewelry made towards my challenge yet, despite plans and ideas. I DO however have tomorrow off, so assuming I don't get distracted and/or lazy again, I should be okay :)

I am still working on that stupid stuffed cat I had the *brilliant* ( extremely heavy sarcasm) idea to make for a gift exchange >.< I have the tail finished, the ears finished ... and the face sewn. Just gotta get it put together fully. Was going really good tonight until I suddenly stopped and realized...I had no clue how to get my ears where I needed them to be so they'd flip right when I turned everything right side out...*sigh* I know now, but...I don't wanna sew NOW >.< ( I was whining there... did you hear me? ;) )

Next time I get this urge to sew... please, please PLEASE some one tell to to at LEAST stick to something made of the fewest pieces possible? I mean...if I'd done this in two pieces, I have had NO trouble at all. But no... I had to be fancy >.<  Grr... if it didn't mean another trip to the store for more red felt, I'd totally start over and do it EASIER!! Hmm.... maybe tomorrow depending on the weather and how much I get accomplished jewelry wise.

Any how, apologies for the late post... even though it IS still Friday ;) I was going to post earlier this afternoon, but I got distracted, but hey ! I'm here now :)

And... here you go...

I believe these little tube beads mark the last of the beads for the destash. I'll be going through my pendants and charms next and will no doubt have a few to add in to the lot before I tally up all the comments and find out who I send them all to :)

Oh, and thanks to everyone for hoping my week got better. I'm happy to report that it definitely perked up :). While I'm sad to say it didn't perk up enough for me to win heaps of money and retire somewhere WARM, I'm over the crap; and while still prone to bouts of irritation over a certain young lady and her 'helping', that's reaaaaly nothing new ;)

I'm off to snuggle up under my warm fuzzy blankets and listen to music until I fall asleep :) I'll check in with you all again on Sunday :)

~ Skye

Challenge Check up!

Alrighty :) It's Sunday.. and boy am I glad it's Sunday. Despite the fact that it means there's no buses running and I had to walk all the way home in the cold and I didn't wear my long johns today,.. and wow...reaaaaly could of used them today >.<  anyhow, as I was saying, really glad it's Sunday because that means tomorrow is Monday... and I have Monday OFF!! :D 

WHOOHOO!!!  

This has been a loooong week, peoples. Very very long. Way too many predawn wake ups in a row. We're down two people at work which doesn't sound like a lot, but they're both among our small selection of day staff. So we're trying to run regular two-person shifts with just one person whenever we can and I've even gone in for a few hours first thing in the morning on my last day off just to help past the rough spot so it could be handled as a one person job. I think the only way we're surviving is due to it being a slow time of year and production being a bit less then normal. If this had hit any other time of year we'd be SO screwed right now >.< And there's no end in sight ... the one is off for the next few weeks since she's out of the country, and the other may be needing surgery... so...*sigh* .. the pay checks will be a bit nicer for the next while, but I'll be either catching naps after work or going to bed early a few nights a week... and no doubt getting a bit crabby over it all. No worries though, I'm still good for chocolate ; 3/4's of a box of brandied cherries, a few Bailey's chocolates, half a box of After Eights and two chocolate creme eggs. I think between those and the three bottles of wine in my fridge I'll survive alright ;)

   But you know what the best part of tomorrow is? No alarm clock tomorrow !:) I don't have to get up before the sunrises. I probably will anyhow, but..I don't HAVE to and that makes ALL the difference in the world ! :) I'd proclaim it a jammie day and lounge around in my fuzzy pajamas all day but unfortunately I have to run some errands and do laundry >.< 


Okay, enough of my babbling. If I don't cut myself off right there and get down to business, I'll start bitching about stuff and I'm not in the mood to bitch right now ;)


So, how's my Productivity Challenge going? Touch and go for a bit this first week, but I got my three pieces done :)

The first one I did is one that's been niggling away at my brain since just before Christmas. I used two large glass 'pitted pearl' beads, along with some 8mm purple glass beads that have a satiny soft finish to them. The pretty focal is one I won from Wild Roses & Blackberries . I believe she made it herself and I am so lucky to have it since she doesn't sell the components she makes :) I've been hoarding my special little stashes for 'that perfect project' and for this one, this was it :)

It was Friday by the time I finished with the necklace and I knew I wasn't going to get enough time to get much more done, so I rounded out my three with a couple pairs of earrings. The left is crackled glass and little black lampwork with flowers. The others are also lampwork, but are a purple with a bit of green and gold swirl through them that the camera didn't pick up very well, but is the reason why I added the green glass bead and little gold beads to go with them ;)


As for my art segment of the challenge, nothing in the works yet, but that part has a month to get done so I'm still good ;)  How are you guys coming along with your  self-challenges?

Oh, and before I forget. I teased my followers on Friday about a kit to be added to the detash pot ;) Here it is. I found this back in the fall and tons of ideas came to mind, but ... nothing came of them and this has sat untouched on my shelf ever since >.<  I believe they're acrylic but someone ripped the top half of the tag off so I can't tell for sure >.< I also don't know how old the kit is. I haven't seen these in any of the stores in the region however...if any one knows, speak up!   Even if you're not into using these types of beads yourself, it's all in one little kit so you can always pass it on to someone else :) Perhaps you have a little beader in residence who would enjoy creating along side you ;)


As always, all comments on detash posts count as entries for Followers ;)




there. I've done my blogging obligation... now I should go warm up my fingers with a cup of coffee and clear off some space to see about making something for the ABS monthly challenge :)


                                            ~ Skye