Amazing Designs winners :)

yeah yeah.. so it's TUESDAY and not Monday... Monday my 'friend' decided to pummel me a couple days early, and that always leaves me curled up with a hot water bottle, feeling blah >.< lol

And this round, I know there'll be no need to remind the winners of how long they have to claim their prizes... both are very familiar names, even to my other readers... although one of them may get dirty looks for rafflecopter tossing out her name again ;) lol

Mischelle F. & Shaiha W.

Both of you  need to give me a shout, and tell me the email addie you want your prize to go to.

:)

Alrighty... short post. Think I'll go ditch the jammies and head out to get some stuff done... and maybe go check out Michaels ;) Still haven't been in yet!

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

Newest winners!

Alrighty...  busy procrastinating today, so a quick update to call out the winners, then back to it ;)

Remember this ?

This will be making its appearance in  Tiffany Smith's mailbox... as soon as she emails me her address ;)

And the bracelet?

 That will be soon be seen on Jen Ren's wrist ... as soon as she sends me her address...

And the surprise prize?   Kristen will be watching out for THAT particular butterfly-bedecked envelope... as soon as she sends me her address.

So hurry up and email me your addresses, ladies!

The rest of you have one more week to get your entries in for the big October giveaway!

Want another chance to win one of those 'fiber' bundles that Tiffany won?

Share a link to a picture of your favorite Halloween project - must be something YOU made, whether it be jewelry, clothing, costumes, or even a Halloween decoration! I'll pick a winner on Friday and have it posted by Saturday ;)

Okay ... now I'm going back to procrastinating. Catch ya'll later :D

Freebie Friday #10

So... did any of you REALLY expect me to get this posted earlier than this? And are any of you REALLY surprised that I haven't shared those photos yet, or that pretty package tutorial, or those blog posts I mentioned ...?

Didn't think so. by now most of you know I'm easily distracted...by laziness. ;)

And naps... naps are good. I have a very comfy couch that inspires naps...you sit on it, snuggle up intending to read or watch a movie or work on some beading... and then you just feel so comfy that you just have to close your eyes for a few minutes...

... then three or four hours later you open them again and wonder what the hell happened ;) lol

And rainy or dreary weather doesn't help avoid that 'need a nap' feeling.

Anyhow, all plans aside, I WILL do those things... just not today. Today I have winners to announce and goodies to show :)

First off, the third 'Pay It Forward' spot goes to Micheladas. :) I'll be sending you a note off soon to find out a few things and get your address from you.  Carolyn , I sent you a note about a week ago and haven't heard back from you. Please check your email and if you don't have anything from me, email me at skye_sands@hotmail.com so I'll have your email :)

Next, the earring giveaway.

First off, thanks to everyone for taking part :) I loved reading your favorite Autumn things :)  I love the leaves.... the way they change colours, the smell of them, the crunch of them under your feet as you walk... everything. Autumn leaves are the best :D  I also love designing and carving my jack-o' lantern, and getting all slimey when scooping out my pumpkin seeds to roast them :) It's gross, but so much fun! I'm not fond of the smell of my hands after scooping out pumpkin guts though >.< lol

So, do you want to know how I chose the winners this time? lol  No  I didn't let my cat choose this time ;) I let the beads choose !

I had fifteen people leave entries... so I assigned each name a number, and then took fifteen brown glass star beads ( because that was the closest container lol ) , sat my roll of packing tape on the floor a foot or so away, then tossed the beads towards the roll. The number of beads that landed inside the roll was the winner. I did this twice for the first place ( 7 stars!), then the second place ( 2 stars >.< lol.).. put the beads away.... then got them back out and tossed them again for an extra winner ( 11 stars! whohoo!).

Kimberly gets first choice of which pair she wants.

Originally, the other pair was to go to Jami... however, if she likes the same one Kimberly chooses, I'll make her a similar pair, and Gina will get the left over. Other wise, I'll just surprise Gina with a pair ;)

Are you drumming your fingers in anticipation of what's in the pot for this months FF?

I could make you wait longer, you know ;)

I had thought to make a set of Halloween themed jewelry for the giveaway... but I got hit by the blahs and didn't get them beyond the design and prep stages. And then I turned around and knocked over a stack of bead packages and realized... I should share. If I shared some of these, then I wouldn't have to put them away ;)

So another bead bundle it is :)

October Goodies

I decided to share some of the goodies Lori Anderson sent me from our beadswap way back when - I think those are shell beads, and two charms - one plain white, and the other pink that says 'hope'.

There's some of the lovely lucite flowers I just received from PineRidge Treasures :)  A couple of the magnasite beads I got from the CBC Destash Day event; Four glass amber coloured tear drop beads, and a selection of wings, connectors and two large copper hearts, all from Yours, Mine & Ours.

PLUS, in addition to what's in the photo, there'll be a bundle of faux suede cording and a baggie or two of seed beads mixes, and I think maybe some other fibers to play with. I may decide to add a picture of that stuff... or I might not  ;)

I'd debated on doing a color coordinated bundle but... nah. Maybe next time ;) When I start putting different coloured beads together ...I get the urge to play with them.. and then get distracted >.< lol

a Rafflecopter giveaway

and I think I'll leave you with one of my pictures from PumpkinFest...

 ... of what else? A pumpkin :D

 

 

Isn't that an amazing carving job? These two guys carve two huge pumpkins every year... They'd just started on the second one when I took this picture, so I didn't get to find out what it was... until the other day at work. It was a frog... and I NEED to get my coworker to send me a photo of it for my mom! she LOVES frogs :D  For those curious,The eagle pumpkin most likely weighed around the two to three hundred pound mark! A little kid could climb inside there! the 'soon-to-be-frog pumpkin was a bit smaller.. well... flatter.. lol

 ~ Skye

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

Slogging through...

Yeah... I have no clue if it's a real word, but it fits how I feel at the moment so... deal with it.

With the 'In The Pink' out in the open and just a few  late additions to do with that on occasion now, My 'to-do' list has been knocked all the way down to a few over due projects and the blogs to accompany them

- Need to finish my fiberwire piece that I started AGES ago, then ended up getting waylaid by a certain project ;) Sorry, Marla - I DID make something with some of it, and I WILL finish it shortly and share! 

- Need to do a blog piece on some fabulous lampwork beads and their creator... I keep putting it off because I wanted to use a couple of them first ... but things kept getting in the way >.< 

- Need to finish reorganizing my workspace... again. I'm getting there, though... slowly but surely! It's giving me time to discover what isn't working before I get it all in place... the little baggies in the drawer that I thought would be perfect, keep getting caught when I open the drawers... need to figure a way around that...

- Need to design, make, photograph and mail  my earrings for my partner in the 'Mismatched ArtBead Earring Swap' hosted by Diana of Suburban Girl Studio . This is actually now first on my list, since the mailing deadline is September 29th. I have a definite idea for my design, but don't seem to be able to find the bead I want in my stash... If I can't find it in the next day or so, I'll have to alter my design idea :(

... and I need to find the little note book I wrote my full 'to-do' list in... I seemed to have misplaced it while clearing my desk off on Friday... >.< I have my little design/project/password note book here... and the new little notebook that I just found the other day that has my 'to mail' list -all the goodies from this month's giveaways so far. The items themselves are in little baggies in a special drawer with the addresses taped to them, and the list is to remind me I haven't mailed them yet. I decided to hold them in case any of the winners won more than once ;)

Oh, and THAT brings me to the reason I decided to write this lol

Giveaways :)

For the record, I DID draw winners for the button earrings and the pendant. I did them the same way I did the sock draw... I assigned each name a number, wrote them out on paper, folded them and shook them up... then tossed them and the one the cat went for first, won :)

But no, I'm not going to tell you who won either of them :) You see, I don't NEED to contact them for the addresses ... both winners had won things from me previously, so I already HAVE their address.... it just took me forever of digging through emails to find them.. but I HAVE them :D So I decided I'll just keep my mouth shut and let that little packet suddenly appearing in your mailboxes be notice enough ;)

Of course, that means I need to toss up a new giveaway. I just lucked out and found a great deal on some beads.. so of course I'm going to share some of them...  But I'm not in the mood to play with my camera right now. I'm sick, my throat feels like I swallowed sandpaper, and my nose has become a very leaky faucet - I'm on the verge of wedging tissue into it just so I can finish a paragraph without needing to stop to blow and sanitize >.<

.. where was I ..? Oh right... but don't worry, I'll toss those beads up next time. In the mean time, I'll toss up one that I already have a picture for :)

Three bundles of faux suede cording :) And heck, I'll even toss in a little surprise to go along with them... maybe a little mini bead bundle, or some clasps or findings... or maybe a pendant...

So... to enter.. hmm...

I know.. I feel like crap .. cheer me up :) Post a joke or funny story for me. I'll do a random draw for the cord, but if one of your posts REALLY cracks me up, I'll send that person a special something too :)

~Skye