Soup works and other fiddling...

See?! Still keeping up with this.. and no one has had to remind me yet :D

Although I did almost fall back into my trap... the one where I keep putting off blogging because I have something in the works to share... lol I stopped myself though :D Aren't you proud of me?

Anyhow, I've been eying this luscious soup Audrey sent me, and after doodling a bit, decided to just jump in.  I grabbed some super hard copper wire I salvaged from somewhere, sorted out some of my bead caps to go along with the ones from Audrey, and started to work with those amethyst rounds :) It is now official.. I have begun work on my soup pieces! :D

I would like to say, that I showed my mom the soups and she loves it too :D. She was up last weekend and we'd planned on my heading out to her place afterwards to dog sit while her and my dad went to visit my grandmother. Gram's health has been deteriorating badly, and the past few months have been touch and go. There were a couple times when we thought she was at the end of her rope, but she keep pulling through. Anyhow, as I was saying, I showed her the soup right after she'd said they were heading up to visit my gram, and she also noticed the same thing as I did... that the bird in the focal was a hummingbird, which happens to be my gram's favorite. With the way she is constantly in and out of the hospital, jewelry isn't any good for her right now, and she really only wears it when she's getting dressed up to go out, so the finished piece won't be going to her... but she'll definitely be on my mind and in my heart as I create it :)

Audrey really hit this one out of the ball park; my favorite colours, a focal with personal meaning behind it, and lots of little challenges for me to overcome and figure a way through :)

Aside from my bsbp fiddling, I'm also working on some baskets for my bathroom shelves. I have this beautiful wooden shelf my dad made me just sitting there empty ( because I don't want to clutter it up) so I bought some cheapo ugly white plastic baskets from the dollar store. Last night I sat down and mixed up some paint and painted all the trims, and today I'm doing a test run with some paper and modpodge on one of them. No worries, I'll show them when they're done, whether they turn out or not ;) I'm thinking I'll pick up some napkins of something to coordinate with them and have those as a liner... again, photos when I'm done :)

Well, no giveaway from me this time but I can't leave everyone hanging... so head on over to Grubbi Beads and check out HER giveaway :D Shop credit for her store! Whoohoo! who wouldn't love a shopping spree at Grubbi beads?!

BSBP8- Great Minds Think Alike...

Remember I mentioned that I had THREE soups with different colour schemes and materials set out, and just had to see which one suited my partner best for a challenge...? And that the one was out of the running right away, since it was in colours that she uses alot and so it would be too easy for her...? Then she posted her teaser of the soup she sent ME, and it was in the same colour scheme! Whheeew.. close call there.. almost had matching soups, right ! *snort*  Yeah well... lol

If I HAD sent that purple-ish soup, the colours would've been the only match... instead, while we sent each other different colours... we went with the same metals, beads material, and theme... copper, gemstones, and BIRDS! :D

So now we're both dying of giggles over this :) That, plus despite mailing a day apart, we both received our soups today, and opened them within minutes of each other! lol

This is the soup I sent her...

  

Plus some little copper bird spacer beads that escaped the photo session. the bird focal is from TreeWings Studio, and the copper toggle( and the little egg shaped stones) I received from Lori Anderson during a bead swap. The flower beads were leftover from my very first BSBP soup ( from my partner, Shaiha) and just demanded to be included here. Oh and see that yellow? The African trade beads ( also from a swap, this one a Pantone colour swap with Solange ). The yellowish tone of the bird, plus the yellow trade beads, the little yelow glass beads, and the two faceted yellowish gemstones ( whose name has currently fled my brain) was all PERFECT for Audrey :) Not because she likes yellow... which as far as I know, she doesn't... but because she tends to totally blank on using it :) This is her soup challenge :D I don't see her having too much trouble... the bird isn't really 'yellow' yellow, and it and the trade beads have red mixed in to help her through it.. so do the little glass beads actually. I made one soup, but it's split into two sides... she can go with the 'softer' half to the left of the focal around the bottom... or she can go with the 'brighter/bolder' half to the right and along the top. either way, she gets some yellow to push through and work with ;) hehehehe

And this is the soup she sent me

A beautiful copper toggle from BooBeads and some copper beadcaps ( I forgot to send her bead caps >.< bah!), and then a brass bird stamping and some brass filigree beads. She mixed metals... *sigh* Now I wished I gone with my original plan for the toggle...I had a cute silver one with a cat that was kinda 'anti-bird', but made me giggle to consider including, but.. it was silver... so I didn't lol.
 She made the focal herself, and it'll be my main challenge.. it's big..I really have a comfort issue working with 'big' things... the biggest I've managed was a stone 'doughnut' from my first bsbp soup... ( it was square, actually, but.. you get the idea lol). This is a bit bigger, but it's also considerably 'more'... I LOVE it, and I WILL figure out how to work with it, but wow...

And then as if the challenge of the big focal wasn't enough... she sent me pretty druzzy spears... Have you noticed me use 'long' dangly type stones and beads much? Nope... I've  made exactly ONE piece, outside of earrings, with top pierced stones... I find them awkward and just... O.o... I love them and WANT to use them, however my brain refuses to see them 'fitting' in anything outside of earrings or as a focal... and for the BSBP, since it's about stepping outside your comfort zone, I will endeavor to NOT fall into those safe zones with these guys :)

 And then, as an added challenge... but one I was actually expecting from her since this IS Audrey and Audrey LOVES to resin and glue ... lol... she sent me some sparkly... I think the term is 'chatons' ? Things that I have to resin or glue, anyhow lol I was actually expecting the soup to contain more stuff along that line and am not-so-silently relieved over most of my soup containing 'holes' :D hehehe

I LOVE the colours, that silk is to die for.. and it'll be really hard to make myself use it...and she sent me crackled agate beads! hehehe..I bought some bigger ones and love them...but keep wishing they were smaller.. and now I have some smaller! lol

Okay, so now you see what I get to play with for the next month or so... I need to close the lid on the little box it's in so I'll stop playing with it. I split the tip of my thumb earlier this week so it's in no shape to start playing... and my hands are all dry and coarse from the weather and too many bouts of dish washing, so the silk keep catching on them >.< lol I need to moisturize before I get into this box of soup again :D

I hope all of you BSBP'ers get wonderful helpings of beadsoup to enjoy, and look forward to seeing everyone's creations!

BSBP8 - My Partner & a soup sneakpeak :)

Yes, I did it. I bit the bullet and joined up with the BSBP again :)

For the past couple weeks I've had a tray beside me at my desk, containing three different beadsoups.. each in a different colour palette and containing different materials. They were just waiting for my partner to be announced so I could see which one was best for her.

And wouldn't you know it? My partner turns out to be a very difficult woman to compose a 'challenging' soup for. Who is she? Why Audrey Belanger :)

This is the first BSBP where I've been partnered with someone I already know :) Oddly enough, Audrey has always been partnered with people she already knows ;)

Audrey is something of an assemblage artist... she can take just about anything and make it work. A bit of patina or paint, some glue and glitter, and whammo... jewelry. 

counting stars

BSBP#7

Lion

Season's BlogHop

So you see what I'm up against here? Very difficult to challenge someone when they can use pretty much anything.

I did come across one little mention in her blog about being stumped by yellow... shame I'd just promised her I wouldn't give her a single colour soup ;)

I was able to add a little bit of that particular challenge to the soup, just for her though ;) which brings me back to the my three soup decision... The one soup would've been perfect for her... which meant it was out of the running. It was purples/ blues/pinks... soft and subtle, but colourful... Her colours and her style... therefore... NOPE :) This Is suppose to challenge her after ll. Plus, it looks like the same palette as the soup she made me... ;)

The other two were harder , since neither were colour palettes she'd done much with before, but I finally decided.

One soup with two halves... the focal and clasp with two different ways it could go... one softer, and one more bold :)

I can't wait to see what she does with it :) I know she'll come up with things I've never thought of, since that is what she does ;) As for what she has in store for me... she posted her sneak peak and the colours are  already getting me itching to play ! I have no doubt that I'll spend some times scratching my head trying to figure out what to do with it, but that's just one of the parts I love about this :D

And the winner is....

...drum roll please...

Oooh... a newbie!

Well, okay, so I don't know that she's a 'newbie' to my blog, but I don't remember seeing any comments from her under this name, and have never sent off a prize to her before :)

Congrats Angela Mullis ! As per usual, you've got one week to get back to me to claim your prize :)

And Shelley, I haven't mailed yours yet, so hold off on stalking the mailman until at least mid week ;) I have a pendant in progress, and if it doesn't work out I have a replacement set aside to mail Monday.. and it's a HEART! I actually found that I had TWO heart pendants in my stash... TWO! I obviously need to go through my stash more often since I completely forgot I even had the one, and could've sworn I'd already used the other >.< lol

Alright, so this makes two quickie posts... the next one will be a 'real' blog post, honest ;)

As Promised...

I promised to pick a winner for the V-Day bundle this evening and so I have.

Oh, for those who are interested, I didn't get to go chocolate shopping after all. I went to work and since our chocolate was only 25% off ( and rather pricey to begin with) I decided to pass ;)

Now onto the winner... I wrote out the names of each commenter and did a 'pull it out of a hat' thing.. only without the hat.

and the winner is....

 Shelley Graham Turner :)

I'm working on a heart pendant but since I haven't had a chance to sit down for long enough to accomplish much at one time, it's not done just yet lol  When it is, if it's worthy of sharing ( and sending) I'll post a pic of it in my next post.  :)

Give me a shout, Shell, and let me know if you really want these ;)

There's still time to enter the giveaway for the other set of beads too! -> http://skyescreativechaos.blogspot.ca/2014/02/whoohoo-im-posting.html

Whoohoo! I'm POSTING!

:D

See? I remembered and kept to my deadline ;)

And thank you to my reminders - Even though I didn't need the nudging and poking THIS time, I'll probably need it the next.. or the one after that. So if you notice the week drawing to a close and no new post from me... ;)

Anyway, I had a three day to-do list that consisted of JUST cleaning/sorting my office/stash area, doing this blog post, and baking. The baking is in progress ( it was supposed to be done on the first day so I could eat the muffins for breakfast.. but instead I ate the last three eggs then couldn't bake until I bought more.. and today was the first day I was at a store .. See? not REAAAALLy procrastination on that one ;) )

.... and the blog post is right here...

... the cleaning... the only things moved were for me to access stuff for this blog post >.< I WILL get it done. I WILL. sooner or later... usually later, but still, it WILL get done!

So, what have I been making jewelry wise?

Nada.

I had four V-day type braclets on the go.. then the chain on the one proved to be absolute crap... the same chain is on two of them, and I didn't discover this until both bracelets were three quarters done... so  they got shoved aside in a bit of a minor tantrum... right into the first two that had made it about half way done, all pretty dangles and beads done with gold accents to go on a gold chain... when I discovered I was out of the right sized gold coloured chain >.< All I had was a big chunky one that was too big, and a fine one that was too fine... but that I used for the other ones and it turned out to be crap anyhow >.< so again, not really procrastination on those... merely frustrated refusal to touch them until I have the right sized chain.

My modpodge experiments were halted after that first batch due to my needing my table for other stuff, and it was the project set up that would give me the most room the quickest. I'd hoped to have a couple decent podged pendants made to add in to the giveaway, but maybe next time. Ditto for my clay experimenting.

Okay... now I DID promise a giveaway.. but while putting the one batch together, I decided to do a second as well ;)

So first up we have a little bundle since it's V- Day.

 

So all the beads in the center are pairs, the ones on the bottom are singles, and then there's a nice sizes piece of cord :) All of the beads are glass. Now, since it's for V-day, and I didn't have any hearts to include, I'll see if I can't have a heart or love-inspired pendant made in time for it to be mailed out to the winner. not sure on what it'll be made of.. could be wood, could be clay, could be... whatever I decide to play with ;) If I don't have anything good enough to send made, I'll substitute a pendant of some type form my stash.. it just might not be lovish-type-stuff ;)

 

And for the second... which I considered doing on a different day, but then it kinda defeated the purpose.. ditto theV-day one.. so... number 2...

The 'Back to Work' giveaway

' Okay, now those two big peachy/orangy tubes kinda feel like stone, but the bottom one is definitely polymer, as are the two brown flowers. The speckled orange beads and the goldy/brown beads are all glass, and the pendant in a copper wrapped stone I collected from a local beach and polished up and sealed :)

Okay, so  the 'Back to Work' bundle is done through rafflecopter

a Rafflecopter giveaway

How do you win the Valentine's one, you ask?
Simple - leave me a comment below and tell me if you have plans for today/tonight .. or if you'll be checking out the 1/2 off V-day goodies tomorrow with me ;)
I'll do a random drawing for the winner Monday, Feb.17th ( Family Day here in Canada, so it'll be an evening/night posting ;)

*sigh*

Did it again >.<

Keep planning on blogging, but keep thinking of things to do first... and then never get around to actually blogging >.<   I'm going to try to stop that ! I'm setting a goal to blog at least once a week... whether I've got photos taken or edited to share, or jewelry done, or NOT. I will post! lol

So... promise made.

In recent news, I bit the bullet and signed up for BSBP #8. Yes, it'll no doubt be a huge hop... which is rather wearying just thinking about >.<  but despite that, it's always a lot of fun and gets my butt in gear :)

I've also been considering jumping in the Ears Inspiration challenge going around... where a photo is shared on the first Friday of the month, and you have to make a pair of earrings using it as inspiration, then blog and join a little hop on the third Friday of each month. Pros - gets me creating and gets me blogging. Con- another freakin' hop >.< lol

Haven't picked up the tools or the paintbrush much this month at all, so far, but I will.

Another challenge I should join is the one for cleaning/reorganizing studio space... you know, since I'm doing it anyhow..I should sign up. Only problem is... if I sign up, I just know I'll be hit by something ( even just the lazies) and not get anything more done >.< lol I'm thinking I'll just do it and if I'm done in time or have made significant progress, I'll blog and link it in... considering this has been an ongoing project for over a year now... I'm not holding my breath. It's one of those things where I'll between half and three quarters done, and then something gets in the way - whether it be illness, or whatever- and by the time I get back to it.... things have exploded again and I need to start all over :(  this time it'll be different though... I have a stack of boxes behind me, into which I'll sort everything as I dig through. Anything I have plans for but am not sure when I'll find the time, will be packed, labelled, and stacked neatly out of the way. Anything I use or will use, but don't have a need for often, will go into the cabinet behind me ( the one I can never get to because of the stuff piled up in front of it ;) ) AND, most painful of all... I WILL admit to things that I will probably never use or get around to doing... and I will get it out of the house. In addition, I will make room on my work space, or find a place with easy access, for the tools and equipment I'd like to use but can't get to.

That is what I've been trying to get my butt in gear and do for the last couple weeks >.< The bitter cold temps are back and since I'll be hiding out indoors as much as possible, I'll be trying to get started on that this week.

There. Blog post written... no photos, but a few updates.

As well, since I've been so horrible at keeping myself going at it, I think I need to reward all my followers who haven't deleted me from their lists out of boredom... I shall have a giveaway :) It's been AGES since I had one, so I'll need to make sure it's a good one ;) My bead stash has grown considerably... plus there's plenty of stuff that I haven't found a spot for yet... maybe I should just gather up a bunch of that and do a little soup giveaway...  Hmmm.. decisions decisions... Like I said, I'll have to think on it ;)

So... next blog post I'll have something up for you to try for. Whenever that is... some time within a week.. or so... lol ;)