Catch up

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

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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!

 

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.

FF#4 Update :)

 As promised, now that we've reached 10 entries into the giveaway, I have some goodies to add into the pot for the Spring blooms giveaway :)

Plus I took a better photo of those felted ones ;) 

And arranged them in a much nicer setting....

...although I'm thinking I should've done a better pic of those lamp work pairs now too.... hmm...

So, here's the giveaway package INCLUDING the new addition of a bunch of flower buttons :)

Spring Blooms giveaway bundle - 1st update!

I'm still sorting through my button collection, so more flower buttons may appear in that pile if I find any ;)

I'm still deciding on the next addition...I have a photo of 24 flower beads in 4 different colors that I was going to add this time.. then went with the buttons instead ... plus I have a bunch of leaves I could add in... And of course I have some pendants that I might add in one of them...And I did mention that I might add in the rest of the beadsoup pack I received from Lori Anderson, as well.... so plenty to choose from. Plus I could always add in some 'regular' beads in bright spring colors, too ;)  I guess we won't know what I'll choose to toss in until we reach my goal of another 10 entries ;)

Of course, I *might* be willing to take suggestions ;) If there's something you'd really like to see added in next, leave a comment and it might just sway my decision next round ;) And you can suggest stuff I haven't mentioned here as well, such as ribbons or findings with a flower or spring theme... or none beading stuff.  If I'm in a good place in my head at the time, I might just see what I can do :)  

 By the way... did any of you take part in LimaBeads Easter Egg hunt this year?  Wow.. that new site is MASSIVE! Apparently they hid 100 Easter eggs, PLUS 3 golden eggs scattered throughout the site. After two days of eyestrain, I reached the amazing number of 50 .. which gave me four prizes, one of which was a coupon code. That 50th egg took FOREVER to find >.<  I searched that entire site from the store right through to the blog and the about pages...I have no clue where the other 50 are stashed and I finally gave up even considering looking for them. I did find one golden egg, but I was too late to nab the prize for finding it (I actually found the same egg twice...I did that a lot >.< lol).

Yes I had fun playing with the Green Bead Machine watching it's sales getter better or flip over every five minutes.. and yes I did nab a few items from that at an average of about 15% off the cost. When I called it quits on the hunt and put in my order, I had about sixty bucks worth of beads ... but since half of it was prize winnings and discounted goodies, my total was just under twenty bucks! Even the stuff I gave in and bought 'full price', I got discounted with the coupon code I won  :D hehehe ! So the only thing I 'really' paid full price on was the shipping ... which was just shy of eight bucks.

So I had a lot of fun browsing the site, playing with the Green Bead Machine, adding to my 'wish list', and making Fresh Pick selections ( like 'treasuries' on etsy where you put together selections of items to your own little theme :) ) ... plus winning lots of pretties :)

The hunt is still on so go check it out! Lima Beads Easter Egg Hunt .It ends on the 8th I believe, but you only need 10 eggs to win the first prize level ( so far .. but because it was so difficult this year they've already begun adding in new prize levels, so that might change!). you DO have to pay for shipping, so depending on where you are, you might not think it's worth it. Me, paying eight bucks for three strands of free gemstones... even if I hadn't bought anything else to go with them, totally worth it :) For those in the US, it might be even cheaper... if you're overseas.... probably not worth it ;) lol

 And yeah, I'll probably share a pic of my goodies when they arrive ;)  

Oh, and if you're wondering what I caved in and bought at full price... skulls, of course :) They actually have the skulls in the size I wanted! ( I think... at least according to the size comparison chart, they are ;) lol ) would've liked a string in black but I didn't see them .. at least not after I'd decided to buy them.. and I forgot to go back and look again. Oh well, I still have one more coupon to use so I might just have to place another order later on ;)

Remember to watch that 'number of entries' digit at the top of Rafflecopter and when it reaches 20... I'll add in more goodies :)

(*NOTE*  I'm trying something new here... I'm reposting the raffle widget on THIS page so you don;t have to travel back to the older post to enter if you haven't :) See? I'm making it EASIER on you guys! :D.  )

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

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