F.F. #14 – With a Twist

* For those who asked, no I didn't make the bead I used n my Death Star earrings. They're bettlenut (sp?) and they just worked out perfectly :D

So long time no chat! Sorry... again... lol

I have nothing to blame but my procrastinating tendencies.

On the up side, I DID get a blog hop in PLUS I managed to get my Christmas tree down … it's still in my living room, BUT it's all boxed up and ready to get hauled back into storage, just as soon as I move crap around in there again.

… that only took me a month to do ;)

Here's to hoping February will see me being a bit more productive! :D

So, you are all no doubt wondering what I've been up to.

Well...I STILL have the reorganizing I started originally back in.. November, I think. I did progress ( sort of) away from my desk and is spread out over my floor where I can access everything to see that it gets where I want it.... see...?

View from my desk....

View form my couch...

That's my Pit .. aka Pit Baby, or Pitters... An no, that jackolantern does not have candy in it... it has empty bead bags... the candy is in the caldron tucked away in the bottom right corner ;) lol

Of course... I get my stone, shell and half my glass sorted, and realize I'm going to need something bigger for my metals... those little gray guys just aren't going to cut it anymore >.< Luckily I managed to catch them on sale again and got the last one in the size I wanted!! Once I finish getting those little drawers all filled and labeled, I have to clear off the desk and shelves and figure out the best place to put them all :) But hey... I'm getting there!

And... while procrastinating over THAT, I created a NEW mess, by recycling some of my bubble mailers :) I only got about a third done when I ran out of glue, but here's what my new butterflies look like...

Pretty new butterflies to travel to your mailbox ;)

For those wondering … and too lazy to go check the rafflecopter widgets to see the name displayed...

1) the winner of the Tori Sophia ear wires was Angela :) She has already received her goodies and no doubt has used them all up by now ;)

2) the winner of F.F. #13 was Shaiha .. and I shall get it in the mail to her soon :)

3) the 'With a Twist' n the title of this post does indeed go with the Freebie Friday giveaway ;)

For those of you who don't like this idea... blame Kashmira... she suggested it ;) lol

The last day of February is World Rare Disease Day ( http://globalgenes.org/world-rare-disease-day/ ) As such, I thought we'd try a little something different with this goodie bundle.

Most of you have heard of the Global Genes Project & their 7000 Bracelets for Hope campaign. Each year, thousands of blue bracelets are made and donated to this group, who then gifts them to the mothers and caregivers of children with rare diseases.

So this round there's a condition … you can only enter if you're willing to do something in exchange for winning ;)

The goodie bundle this month is primarily blues... and whoever wins it, must make and donate one bracelet to the Global Genes Project. They don't have to use all of their prize, they don't even have to use ANY of it... they can use beads from their own stash instead. They just have to make sure their bracelet complies with the groups requirements ( http://globalgenes.org/7000-bracelets-for-hope/ ) :)

Winter Blues Bead soup

Since it's still winter, I'll add some pretty silver snowflake charms to this, as well :)

Think you can make a bracelet to donate? If so, go ahead and enter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Winners of stuff, and more stuff to win :D

Okay so I'm a *tad* late with the blogging... you all should know by now I'm unpredictable in my procrastinating :P  I've been saying for the past.. so many days that I was going to post, so... here... I'm posting :D

Actually, I went from having one thing I 'could' post about , and maybe toss a couple of these other things in.... to having a crap load of stuff to ACTUALLY blog about.

So, to start things off.

There have been several giveaways here this month. Half of those prizes were won by previous winners/ participants here, and so, since I already had their snail mails, I just packaged up their goodies and mailed them off to them... without telling them they won.

So... if you won something here before, or took part in something where you gave me your address, and entered any of the giveaways here this month... you might very well open your mail box next week to a little surprise :)

Freebie Friday #9 was one of these... and while I won't say the name of the person who won it,  if you really want to know if it was you, just pop back to the FF blog and the winners name is listed right on the rafflecopter widget.

So, while we're in between F.F.'s, I'll do another little giveaway or two :) 

Speaking of which, I had two little ones last week that had very few entrants, but wow, what entrants they were!

In ' Slogging Through' I tossed up three bundles of faux suede cording , and to enter you just had to tell me a joke. Anonymous (zanc@att.net) , Lisa ( Pine Ridge Treasures), Beth, Shaiha, Jami , & Anvil Artifacts, all left a joke or two to brings smiles :) Six entries... so I took six flower beads, assigned each person a color, and tossed the beads towards a roll of packing tape I put on the floor. The only bead to land inside the roll of tape ( and stay there, since one bounced right back out again) won. That would be the bead assigned to Anonymous - who's entry I'll count because they left an email addie I can identify them with. I'm not emailing them... if they'd left their name or linked to their facebook or blog... I *might've * dropped in and left a little nudge, but... email is too impersonal.  So 'zanc', if I don't hear from you by Friday, Oct.5th, One of the other jokers will get them instead ;)

On 'Who Wants Free Stuff?' , I asked for links to funny websites or videos in exchange for a chance to win some pretty little glass beads. I received one comment that didn't seem to have anything to do with anything so I tossed it as spam, >.< lol  Rita ( Toltec Jewels ) & Susan are the only ones who entered that one, and Susan's link damn near killed me. I had to force myself to keep reading through the laughter and tears. When I recovered, I immediately shared it :D I haven't heard from my mother since... so I don't know whether she read it... and wet her pants from laughing so hard and so is rather ticked at me for sharing ... ;) or if she never read it.. in which case, I'll have to print it out for her :D hehehe  At any rate, I'd decided as soon as I read it, that whether Susan won or not, I was totally sending her something... THAT was a prize worthy laugh, let me tell you. Two entries doesn't really inspire me to come up with a way to choose the winner though, so... I'll just put together a twin bundle of beads to match the one I photographed and send it to the both of them. Ladies, you've got until Friday, Oct. 5th to send me your snail mails! 

As well, on the same blog, I posted for participants in my ' Pay It Forward'.

Lina58 & Carolyn will both be receiving a little handmade surprise from me at some point when they least expect it ;)  I'll be contacting you both for your snail mails and a few ' likes/dislikes' to play with.

Rita, I wasn't sure if you were saying you wanted to PIF again or not. If you do, let me know. If not, then I have one more spot open. Anyone interested, stick  the letters 'PIF' in a comment  to this post, and if Rita says no, I'll go with you :) If more than one person 'PIF's' , I'll... roll a die or throw some beads to pick which one gets in ;) lol

Okay.. so THOSE are done. The new FF for October will go up next Friday, and it'll be another 'extra nice' one. I'd like to point out that when I packed the last up, wow that little sucker was heavy... I hadn't realized it would be.. I was almost afraid to see the shipping cost, but amazingly enough, it was the same as most of the others I mailed off... must have *just* slipped under the wire though lol

Okay... off track again... 

Like I said, I have lots of stuff to share... but I'll just tease you about most of it today ;)

I finally used some of my precious artbeads ( *gasp* ), as well as some of the VERY FIRST lampwork beads made by a talented gentleman, who I guess I'll finally post about now *L*. I have some jewelry photos as well as other photos to share, plus I'm heading off to Pumpkin Fest at some point this weekend, so I'll have even MORE photos to share next week :) If you haven't heard of it, google it ' PumpkinFest  Port Elgin' . It's HUGE. they've had the Guinness World Record  Pumpkin, as well as several other veggies, there a few times, plus they have a MASSIVE antique car show... as in they shut down the entire main street as well as at least one of the side streets. A few years ago they had one of the original 60's tv Batmobiles  there... of course I didn't go that year >.< My brother took a pic for me though! Last year they had some gorgeous motorcycles too :)

Crap...distracted again... where was I? Oh right.. stuff to tease you about that I might remember to blog about soon...

Oh, three quarters of the parcels I mailed off yesterday are in fancy envelopes. Some of the previous ones I've sent have been in 'special' packing too, but I've decided to keep adding that special touch and ensuring smiles when those mail boxes open. No more looking at a plain, boring brown or white envelope and wondering who it's from or what it might be... no... you'll see a pretty blue and white butterfly bedecked envelope and KNOW it's from me :D ...or.. at least know it's special ;) lol   I sent two 'non-butterfly' packages yesterday, too.. but that's only because they were a smaller envelope and I hadn't had time to figure out the best way to fancy them up. Next time I send out that size, they'll be fancy too :)  

 See? Isn't that much nicer than a boring old brown thing in your mailbox? lol  btw .. that white squiggly thing on the top right corner .. that's a piece of fishing line taped to the board..  I was hanging earrings off it for photos earlier and never took it off >.< 

The reason I just told you all that... aside from making you cross your fingers and wish to see butterflies every time you open your mail boxes ... was because I was thinking I might just do a little tutorial to show you all how to make your packages extra special too :)

I'm sure there was more that I was going to say but... my brain is now stuck on making butterfly envelopes and walking around looking at fancy cars with a coffee in my hand on a (hopefully) nice Fall morning lol

I'll leave you with another little prize for a couple of you to win :)

All you have to do is tell me your favorite thing to do in Autumn. And yes, that includes baking or cooking something special.. but I think you should share a link to the recipe if you've got one ;)  A random winner will get their choice of which pair they want.. and the remaining pair will go to a second winner.. that may or may not be random.. which is.. kinda random if you think about it ;) lol

~ Skye

Freebie Friday #7

Welcome to July ! And I'm fairly sure wherever you are, if you're on the same half of the hemisphere as I am, then you've been having a very hot and steam so far!

I'm sitting here with a glass of ice water with lemon, and my little air conditioner humming loudly away and I'm still sweating >.< It's been very interesting trying to get my apartment clean in time for my mother to get here... which could be any time in the next couple of hours... so this'll be a quick type post, so excuse the typos >.< I still got cleaning to finish up ;) My laundry may have to be snuck down in the morning before mom wakes up ;) lol

Alright, first up a couple reminders.

The winner of June's FF, Susan G. still hasn't contacted me about claiming her prize!  Susan, you've got one more week! If I don't hear from you by Thursday night ( Midnight EST) , then I'll be drawing a new winner !

Next up, you've still got two more days to enter for a chance at a spot in the next Creative Chaos Design Challenge- sign ups are HERE.

Reminders down with, on with the announcement :)

The winner of the first Creative Chaos Design Challenge, with a total of five votes ( several of the others had four so it was very close ), is piece #2created by Alicia of All Pretty Things.

So what am I sticking in the mail for her?

this lovely, and large, red stone two hole pendant.

I mean large about this is 2 " across, but it's so lovely :)

I hope she enjoys it. If it's not her style to work with, then I hope she finds someone who would enjoy playing with it instead ;)

Alrighty, so on to the part you're all here about.  The new Giveaway :)

This month was short on time to prepare another batch of handmade items, and I came up short on theme ideas... however, between the rash of destashes going on and all the Bead Soup batches in the mail and on peoples work tables, I decided to do a goodie box :)

What? you can't see what's all in it?  *sigh* oh alright... here

 better? There's a crap load of red satin ribbon,  a bunch of two tone glass coin beads,two porcelain beads with rather oriental theme to them, some crackled and clear glass beads that I got form Grace's destash sale :) some metal butterflies, a bunch of catseye beads in purple, green and cream, and some handmade brass chain with black glass.

And there's still room in the box, so I may just find or make a few more things to add in through out the month ;)

Alright... my butt needs to get busy cleaning again... gotta vacuum my carpets at the very least >.<

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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