F.F. Update

Friday again... and I have survive a rather.... interesting week. Interesting as in the Chinese proverb kinda interesting >.<

The bad luck that began on last Friday carried through the weekend, never getting REALLY bad.. just... frustrating and irritating. Then on Monday it peaked with me taking a nose dive into the sidewalk a block from home. again, bad but not 'really' bad since nothing broke and I was only a block from home. I bruised both knees and bloodied my nose; got a small cut on my forehead, and a scrape on my one knee and the bridge of my nose. My bad knee is still hating me over it, making stairs rather uncomfortable and at times down right painful, but other than that, I'm fine.

My bad luck with my jewelry projects has also lifted... well.. somewhat anyhow. Enough for me to finish four bracelets. I didn't get the original ones fixed though, merely made different ones.. and I still haven't found two of the missing dangles from the one >.<  That said, I do like those designs and will try to get them working better another time.

Last week I was supposed to announce a new winner of last month's F.F., since the original winner never claimed it.. but I forgot >.< So I'll do that now :)  Chosen from the original posts comments, Carolyn is the new winner of the bracelet and has two weeks to contact me :)

Once again, when entering the giveaways with rafflecopter... remember.. just clicking the entries is not enough. you actually have to DO the things you're claiming by hitting that entry button. If you click the entry that says ' leave a blog comment'... you actually have to LEAVE A BLOG COMMENT  lol If you don't DO what that entry says... it doesn't count. PLUS,  once I delete that bogus entry, if you DO do it, you can't re enter.

Before I set rafflecopter to chose a winner of this months giveaway, I WILL go over the entries and delete any bogus ones.  I think the next one I'll just delete that option for an entry.

So ... if you haven't entered yet, pop over and get your entries in for your chance to win your choice of a geode or two pairs of earrings -> Freebie Friday #2 .

In other news,  Suburban Girl Studios is putting together a design team :) If you're interested, check out her blog for a shot at joining! I've got my name in the hat ;)

Artbeads.com is having another giveaway, this one for a Russian Artist Pendant.  They have some gorgeous ones listed in their shop. I'm not into the portrait types, but there are still tons that I do love :)

BeadingArts is hosting a giveaway as well, for Tagua nut beads :) And wow, are they nice! ME WANT :)

I can't remember what else I was going to mention, so... if I remember, I'll mention it on Sunday...if I don't, I won't ;)

~ Skye

Challenge Check In

Well... it was bound to happen sooner or later...

This week was a challenge failure >.<

Other things through out the week left me unable to bring myself to work on jewelry and so I left it for the weekend. I had the entire weekend off so there shouldn't be any trouble.

Friday, as you may have read in my last post, started off with some bad luck. That bad luck seems to have carried over throughout the entire weekend where jewelry is concerned >.< Every piece of jewelry I've made this weekend has failed... right at the end of it.

I made three different bracelets for the '7000' blog hop... and each one went great until I 'finished it' ...

The first one, done with chain, apparently had, not one, but THREE links stretch just enough to lose the dangles..I've found one of the missing dangles so far >.< When I find the other two I'll replace them and go over all the links to make sure they're secure.

The second one... done with hemp cord, ended up with one of the middle metal beads getting switched with a crimp bead.. and it getting squished >.< AFTER I cut the ends and secured it. I'll take it apart and make it again from scratch, this time making sure my beads are BEADS.

The third one, made on stretch cord.... had the nice and secure knot... turn out to not be quite as secure as it had appeared to be when I attempted to hide it inside my focal bead. When the tip says to 'pull it slowly and gently'... pull it EXTRA slowly and EXTRA gently >.< So...I'll take THAT one apart and restring it too. This time, I'll ignore the instructions and let the glue on the knot dry COMPLETELY, then add a bit more before pulling it inside the stupid bead to hide it >.<

The multi bead, multi dangle earrings I tried to make... kept coming up missing dangles... which I'd find on the floor caught in the rug... or having beads vanish off the end of the headpins.. somehow... still not sure how that happened since when I check, they won't slip over the end ... O.o

Two bracelet tutorials I'd seen and thought saved for me to play with and do my own versions on... vanished. I have searched every file, every link and every blog that I come across these things and can't find them ANYWHERE.

I know that as soon as I do something else and forget about them, I find them no problem. *grumble* Stupid Murphy and his stupid laws... *grumble*

So... considering how this has been going, I think it's a VERY good thing I didn't get around to pulling out my paints... that would have been disastrous no doubt >.<

In light of my utter bad-luck-induced challenge failure this week, I will endeavor to have these three repaired and finished as well as three new pieces (at least) for next Sunday's check in >.<

Today however..I have put away my beads, and refuse to give in to temptation to 'try one more time'. My patience is utterly frayed. I even yelled at the bird for refusing to be quiet no matter what I did for him, and finally covered him up and shut him in another room.. in the dark.. where after a while, he finally stopped the high pitched, ear drum piercing shrieking and went to sleep *sigh* I love the feathered pain in the ass, really I do... but this has not been a good weekend for my nerves apparently. I think it's long past time for me to open one of those bottles of wine in my fridge and have a glass after supper. Maybe two... as long as I don't blog, or comment on certain peoples pages afterwards I should be good ;)  If I'd gotten around to cleaning my bathtub like I'd been planning this weekend, I'd go have a bubble bath, however...no. Not until that bath enclosure has undergone major scrubbage >.< I have been putting it off for far too long... *sigh* I'd go do it now, but considering how my day is going..I'd probably end up hurting myself somehow. Best not to tempt the Fates to extend this streak back outside the realm of creativity...

*sigh* well.. better luck soon, I hope. I'll let you all know later on this week how things are going!

Oh.. and by the way... when entering ANY of the Freebie Fridays through Rafflecopter .. if you click on an entry option... you actually have to DO what it says. Such as 'leave a comment'. This is twice now I've deleted entries stating that they left a blog comment.. and didn't. so far all the tweets, 'likes' 'shares' and what not have been done, but for some reason, people are having trouble clicking the 'leave a comment' entry and then actually 'leaving a comment'  lol  I check these things ;) no cheating! lol

~Skye

Freebie Friday... the 13th??

 No... still working on the 2nd F.F. of the year... but today was like MY Friday the Thirteenth >.<

It started off with me opening my door... and damn near breaking my neck. I should've just gone back inside, locked the door, called my manager and told her I wasn't leaving the house today and she'd have to find someone to cover my shift >.< but I didn't, of course... silly me.

How did I almost break my neck? Ah.. well.. you see, my landlord is having the second floor apartment renovated. I live in a three story house that's been divided into apartments..I'm on the third and share the lobby and stairs with the second floor apartment. Yesterday the workmen decided to leave their stuff here... and rather then leave it in the apartment they're working on, out of the way... they left some stacked on the landing outside my door, blocking off my access to the stairs... and scattered all over the lobby, blocking off my access to the front door. Needless to say, Their boss is getting a phone call from me as soon as my landlord gets home for me to get their names off of him.

Anyhow, five o'clock in the morning, I open my door and step out into the dark hall ( the light switch is two steps away so I always shut my light off as I leave my apartment rather then go back and do it ) My foot doesn't even clear my doorway when it smacks into something solid, then when I step over it, I hit a second something and damn near end up down the stairs. I get the light on to find the tool boxes and curse softly all the way downstairs... to see that I need to pick my way across a huge mess of more tools to leave the building. Needless to say, if there'd been a fire and I'd have had to leave that building in a hurry, I wouldn't have made it. As it is, I'm lucky I made it out with just some bruised toes.

Then I get to work to find that the boy who trays up my frozen dough, messed up and I had to rearrange everything before I could even get started >.< *sigh* 

THEN ...I see a really low number of kaiser buns... when I'd been told on Wednesday that there was an order for a LOT of kaiser buns for today... I take a quick look at the order form to make sure it doesn't say cancelled, and nope...hasn't been cancelled. so I start up the cursing again as I leave off my work to haul out the rest of the buns needed for this order and quick thaw the frozen dough so it'll stand a chance of being done in time.... Every thing's going good... The dough is working nicely, the buns will be done in time...

...

...  and then I go to take the order form up front.. and see that she didn't take an order for KAISER buns like she'd told me...she took an order for CRUSTY buns >.< So now I have an extra fifteen DOZEN kaiser buns that we don't need >.< Luckily, it's NOT MY FAULT lol I have a witness that HEARD her say she had an order for 15 doz KAISER buns. If it HAD been for kaisers, I totally had that baby covered ! lol So... we put Kaiser buns of special today >.< lol

Luckily, that seemed to be the end of the bad luck for the day. the rest of the day went find, with me silently rehearsing my bitchfest should the workmen be here when I got home. ( BTW, I just got off the phone with my landlady.. and she said that they'd talk to them for me... this tells me they must have hired friends or something along those lines, and she's not happy with them. Kinda gonna miss out on bitching them out personally, but I know she'll let them have it in my stead ;) Of course, since they're not professionals for me to sic their boss on them, if they show up and do more work and don't offer an apology of some sort, I might have to chat with them too :) )

Of course, I had to grab some groceries before leaving work... they had coffee on sale so I bought two cans, And ice cream was on sale too.... so I was going to get Rolo... but they had CoffeeCrisp too... and it was such a shitty day....I bought both >.< They're small tubs! And it's not like I can sit down and pig out since I'm lactose intolerant and really shouldn't have ANY .. but... they're my faves... and I have my Lactaid...and a couple days off... I can eat my ice cream and be flatulent in peace. Some things are worth suffering for... Rolo and Coffee Crisp ice cream are worth it :)

In more cheerful news, I've signed on with the 7000 Bracelets for Hope Blog Hop. Tomorrow ( Sat. Feb 11th ) is the last day to join up! I've already got my bracelet design in my head and have my beads out ready to go as soon as I finish writing this ;)

Plus, I have my beads set aside for the Feb. ABS challenge.. it's just a matter of getting around to putting it together >.<  And no, I don't have any of my personal challenge pieces done yet either, BUT I have the week end off, so I'm still good :)  I do need to get started on my art project for the month though...I keep meaning to start but I need to clear some space on my desk first... and every time I start, I get distracted by my beads >.<

Alrighty..I think I've babbled enough.

This month's Freebie is located HERE . Remember to enter via the rafflecopter. If the widget doesn't load for you or you can't see it for any reason, leave a comment on the blog to let me know or send me an email.

Sarah S. - I sent you a couple emails from my blogger account, but I don't know if you got them ( one was form 'Graves' and the other from 'Skye' ). I accidentally deleted one of your rafflecopter entries! Please  enter the 'follow me' entry again, and remember, if you click on the 'blog comment' entry, you actually have to leave a comment ;) . If it won't let you reenter, let me know and I can enter for you, and just make a note in the entry that it's for you.

Hope everyone has a good week end! Have fun playing with your beads if you have no other plans :) I'm staying indoor this weekend ( aside from a trip to the laundry mat at some point), while a nasty winter storm blows around outside my windows. Hopefully, that means you'll see lots of jewelry finished on my Sunday post ;)

 ~ Skye

Fire Cat

What began as a 'simple' urge to sew a 'simple' felt plushie for a gift, became a month long trial in patience and perseverance.

Since I have this innate ability to do everything the hard way, and an inability to follow directions or instructions, I had to design my own plushie. As many of you have heard, I can't sew. I have next to no experience doing this sort of thing....

However, the urge hit and I went along with it.

The cat was sketched out. Traced onto a pattern. Cut out of the felt. The head and tail were sewn... and everything was going great...

... which of course means right then it HAD to go bad >.< I kept running out of stuff I needed... then by the time I had everything, I had lost the urge to sew.

... and then, of course, as you've heard ( and seen ) ... I messed up >.< I did a last minute change from having a plushie that laid flat... to having one that stood up, which resulted in a head that no longer fit the body and ended up getting sewn on crooked.

Plushie sewing project take two! :) Simplified the design and cut back on the number of pieces... leaving the head, body and ears ALL ONE PIECE ..( well two counting the back, but you know what I meant ;) ) 

I got the face and details all stitched on the two halves, then added the tail, nose and whiskers... then drew a deep calming breath and stitched it together...

And tada! He is flippin' adorable if I don't say so myself :)

His tail is pose-able, and his body is weighted with plastic pellets ( that were sealed inside a plastic bag to prevent leakage). 

I debated on adding a collar with a little bell... but decided to quit while I was ahead ;) I packed him up and mailed him off to his new home :)  I just got word that he has arrived and is loved immensely already ... and is making all the other cats jealous ;)

Because I was so proud of myself for how well I did with him, I entered him in a contest.

 

Please drop in and vote for him :) He's number 54!

~ Skye

Challenge Check In

Once again it's Sunday...

and no, I'm not watching the Super Bowl...I haven't watched a football game since...the Green Bay Packers and... crap.. they were in blue and white and silver.. so Either Miami dolphins or Dallas cowboys.. think it was Miami ... anyhow, haven't watched since those two were in the Super Bowl together. That must have been... late eighties or early nineties...? Somewhere around there, anyhow. I had fun... not actually WATCHING the game *pfft* yeah right... ladies you can have WAY more fun with the Super Bowl than just 'watching' it.

...You just join the guys then keep making comments about 'tight pants' and 'cute buns' as often as possible. You'd be surprised at how many of those big tough guys you can make blush around their beer and pizza ;)

... I think the Packers won that time...I'm not sure though, I wasn't actually 'watching' the game that much ;)

Anyhow, since there's no guys around for me to embarrass, there's no need for me to 'watch' the game :)

You don't want to hear about football, and big beefy guys in tight shiny pants, running around and slamming into one another, though, do you? Nah... didn't think so ;) You're just here to see if I made my weekly challenge.

I did :)

PLUS :)

Of course, it would've been a hell of a lot MORE plus if I hadn't kept running into idea blocks >.<

I was STILL working on this one gift... aiming for 'steampunk'...  Other likes on the list for this chick were 'monarch butterflies' and' robots' and 'monsters' . Originally, she was going to get a plushie too.. but after the whole 'Mr. Crooked' incident, I lost the desire to follow through with that plan. I came up with the robot pins idea instead... steampunky robot magnetic pins... which failed miserably >.< I then had a really adorable idea for steampunky robot EARRINGS! I could see them in my mind perfectly and sketched them out, planning on using these little filigree squares I had for the bodies... only to discover I don't HAVE any squares..I have ONE square.. and several diamond shapes... and no, they can't be turned on their sides to make squares >.< *sigh*  Next up, I decided to go with the butterfly idea. I have these gorgeous tin filigree butterflies AND wooden ones as well... but I wanted to spray paint them and the weather has not been cooperative to painting >.< Another idea shot down *grr*  So, back to the earring idea... I sorted through several tubs of beads and picked out a bunch along with other components, then played with them, arranging them together and choosing 'sets'. so far, so good :)  Then failure struck again >.< I'd get one earring partially together then stop, suddenly not liking it. So I'd toss it aside and start on another... only to do the same. I have a pile of half formed earrings, loose beads and components, and tools, taking up half my computer section of my desk here >.<

Between yesterday and today however, I've finally succeeded :) I have four pairs of earrings done.

.... not sure whether they're steampunky or not though >.< I have a problem doing the Victorian aspect of Steampunk.. since Gothic is also Victorian in root and ..I tend to lean towards Goth... >.< 

So.. here we go. Maybe you guys can tell me if you think they're steampunky at all ;) ( All the photos are the right way up in the album I linked to... if they're on their sides like they appear in the preview ..I seriously have no clue WHY...)

 First up, we have a pair of chain dangles. This pair is two strands of chain, both different styles and metals,  wrapped around, both a brass bead and a smokey crystal rondelle.

 Next up we have another version of the one above, but with three strands of chain in varying lengths, but all the same style and color. I added some color to this pair with purple-toned textured 'silver' bead, and a purple satin finish glass bead.

 Next we have, what I think, are my favorites out of this batch. Three strands of chain in varying lengths hung with a beaten 'copper' ring. The dangles are a wooden red beads, a red glass faceted round bead, and a brown and 'gold' acrylic bead. ( the set I sent with the destash also had these in it..I came across a second set at the thrift shop that had been opened and partially used... but it still had all the ones I liked in it ;) )Also the only pair not made with lever backs, although that has nothing to do with it ;) 

And lastly, we have a pair of free form earrings that I kinda messed up on a bit and didn't even realize it until I took the picture >.< The brass beads have one hole facing one direction at one end, and on the other side at the other end... and I didn't realize I had the opposite holes paired up on the fronts >.< These are also using the smokey crystal, along with some funky little antique gold tone triangular spacers.

So, four pieces of jewelry completed this week... and a few dozen others scattered in various stages of completion over my desk.... which NEEDS to be cleaned off this week >.< I seriously can NOT start work on my painting .. or another jewelry project for that matter, until I clean this mess up enough to be able to find things >.<  For the record, the reason most of these are lever back earrings is because the rest of my  french ear wires are buried somewhere beneath the mess and I was unable to unearth them during my search >.<

So... personally, not so fussy on the first pair. Think it might be better if I swapped out the rondelle for something bigger... and added that third piece of chain.... The second pair I like better, but I think the chain is a bit big for the size beads I used ... maybe either drop a size smaller chain, go to two strands instead of three... or find bigger beads...

The third pair I love... the only think I'm not sure about it how I've got them on the ear wire... may change that..  The last pair...I haven't decided yet...I kinda like them... they're kinda funk and fun.. and the shortest of them all.... lol   What do you all think?

~ Skye

Freebie Friday #2

Oops! Almost forgot to post tonight >.<  Sorry! Got a bit carried away working on some steampunk earrings. Don;t worry, I'm sure I'll have pictures of them to share on Sunday :)  My robot pins I mentioned failed utterly, by the way >.< *sigh* I'll have to play around with some different ideas for them and try again another time.


So, onto this months giveaway :)


I was kinda torn as to what to do this round... after all, I just had a bracelet up last month, plus all those beads in the destash...


 I have this pretty little geode I received from WireSculpture.com's birthday bash last year... and aside from it sitting on my shelf, I have no clue what to do with it. I know plenty of people use them with pewter figures and wire wrapping to make little ornaments with and aside from that, really didn't know any other ideas. Until this morning anyhow ( or was it last night?) anyhow, I was making the rounds on my daily blog hop when I came across a picture of a piece of jewelry made with a geode of the same size as mine. I believe it was on Anvil Artifacts. This made me realize that maybe some of you would like to put it to use :)

Of course, I'm sure there are plenty of you who would be in the same boat I am with it... so I'll offer a choice to the winner.


Who ever rafflecopter chooses this month will have their choice of either the geode.. or the earrings I posted a photo of in my last Challenge Check In .. the silver leaves and the copper hoops ... of course, I'll make a new pair of copper ones still the ones in the photo have been claimed by ME :D hehehe

So, leave your entries in Rafflecopter :) If you don't want to put all your entries in at once, you don't have to. I'll link back to this post each Friday and you can spread them out more ;)

*note ~ Rafflecopter refuses to appear unless you click on the post title first. It doesn't like you reading the blog from the home page :p lol

~ Skye

Detash Winner & Check in!

Alrighty, so I'm a wheeee tiny bit later posting this than I'd said. I got hit by a massive case of the lazies and spent the morning ( and a chunk of the afternoon) immersed in a book, and it took me a while to get off my butt and get things done. But hey... laundry is done, rent is paid, photos have been taken, comments counted and the winner chosen :)


But... before we get to that, my monthly 'art' addition to my challenge.  You may remember my mentioning a time or two in previous post that I can't sew...yet occasionally get the urge to do so.

This month I was hit by that urge...and... since I suck at following patterns and instructions even more then I suck at sewing, that meant I had to design my OWN pattern to do. It wasn't THAT hard... well... it wouldn't have been that hard if I'd kept it simple and stuck to my original plan rather then alter it 3/4 of the way through... resulting in Mr. Crooked. ... who, it has been said, bears a resemblance to Foamy the Squirrel. 


I can totally see it... not just in the eyes, but in the body shape AND the off center head, oddly enough... huh...


Anyhow, once I started over, SIMPLIFIED the design and STUCK TO IT, I was able to put together a second kitty no problem :)




Here they are together... do I need to tell you which is Mr. Crooked? 

Yeah..I didn't think I did. I'm thinking of making a little collar for the cute little guy but... part of me is arguing to just pack him up and ship him out before I screw him up ;) lol ... aannnddd..I just noticed I hadn't trimmed his whiskers before I took the photo >.< silly me.







 any how, here's a solo shot of the successful kitty ...

MUCH better. Much much better :) The stripes go down his back too.










:D Successful Month of challenges! Think I'll go with a painting or something this month ... something that does not require a needle or thread >.<


So... Destash time, right?


Alrighty... So.. first off, here's a list of the comments from all of the blog posts featuring destash items. they are divided by the post they were made on.

New Year's Destash
1- Kayzkreations
2- Jet
3- Shaiha
4- Carolyn
5- Andra

~
Destash addition #1
6- Andra
7- Silver Rains
8- Shaiha
9- Jet
10 - Carolyn

~

Challenge Check up
11- Andra
12- Shaiha
13- Maneki
14- Carolyn

~

FF-Destash update
15-Andra
16- Kayzkreations
17-Carolyn
18- Shaiha

~

FF- another Destash update
19- Andra
20 - kvh
21- Kristi
22- Jet
23- Carolyn

~
F.F. winner & Final Destash
24-  Andra
25- Carolyn
26- L.Adams

And the winner is via Random.org ....

#24 ... Andra!

Email me your mailing address, Andra and I'll get your goodies off to you as quick as I can :)

I still haven't heard from January's F.F. winner yet. By the new rules, if I haven't heard from her by Feb. 10, I'll draw a new winner ;)

Now... back to trying to find my good glue to finish off these robot pins and then decide what to do for THIS month's F.F ;)

~ Skye