Whoops!

Sorry.. been partly busy, and party blahed... and between the both I haven't posted in quite a while >.<

Still not really in the blogging mood, but I figured you all might like to know who won November's F.F. giveaway, hmmm?

Renetha ,  as per the rules, you've got a week to give me a shout to claim your prize.I have your addie already on file, I just need the shout to let me know you're awake and paying attention ;) If I don't hear from you by the first Thursday in December, when I post the new FF next Friday, I'll chose a new winner!

... and now everyone is crossing their fingers and hoping Renetha doesn't see this so they get another shot at it ;)

No worries everyone :) I was bad and placed another order with Marsha, so December's FF might just end up being another soup featuring a Marsha Neil pendant :)  Just gotta decide if I can bear to part with another of them... or if I should decide on something else ;)

In the mean time, I have some light display photos, and snow photos, and jewelry photos to share.... and the pink hair is gone ( for now ) so maybe I could show you the new do... Just gotta park my butt and BLOG lol

Not now though... now I still have one more day of NANOWRIMO  ( National Novel Writing Month) to see if I can't get my word count up a bit higher. I'm no where near the 50,000 goal, but I've managed to beat what I've done the past two years. It's amazing how all year long I can sit down and whip out acres of words, fill file after file of stories with no problem... but the one month where you have to actually keep track, everything gets in the way to prevent it >.< lol 

Plus, I have a commissioned jewelry piece that, while being done, still doesn't 'feel' done... and another that refuses to even start due to a focal issue... and two handmade Christmas gifts that need to get made and into the mail this week....

November is a crappy time for NANO!! lol

Anyway, I'm wasting my word count on blogging... Renetha! ( I want to call you 'Ren' so bad >.< lol ) give me a shout! The rest of you, check back later on for an actual blog post about STUFF :)

~ Skye

 It's been a few of those days.

Lots to do... no drive to really do them.

I have my HBBH gift mostly done... just have to finish off one little bit and then take pictures... which I was planning on doing today..no wait... this is Monday...I was planning on having it done to take pictures on SUNDAY because it was a beautiful day out.. lots of sunshine and just .. wow.

Then I got home and it was too nice to stay inside, so I turned off the heat, cranked open the windows and headed out. Unfortunately, my feet were against a hike, so I headed down to the library for the last day of their big book sale... then kept walking when I saw the massive line up to get in. Then after wards, I got caught up in a few little things and never got things finished to be able to take photos.  Maybe I'll finish tonight then cross the fingers for some sunlight tomorrow.

And today?

Oh well...I kind stayed up way later than I have in ages last night so I slept in until 8 this morning... then I was up for about an hour, felt draggy and got nailed by a head ache... so I laid back down to get rid of it... and really didn't think I fell asleep. I felt more rested, but thought I'd just drifted off and on... Nope, fell asleep at some point because it was ten to one when I got up again >.< then an hour or so later, I lay down with a book for a bit.  Just no 'get up and go' for today. I didn't get my laundry done either.. and I don't feel like going out to do it now. Luckily I have another clean uniform for work so I'm good. I'll just have another massive load to haul down on thursday >.< My procrastinating only makes things more difficult and time consuming.. I know this.. and yet I do it anyhow *sigh*

So... why am I telling you guys this?





No clue.

 Maybe so you can all feel better about your lazy days and procrastinating, too ;)

Yeah, that works. Feel better now? I'm much lazier and messier than you are, so if any one whines at you about it, point them to me and they'll leave you alone ;) LOL


Anyhow, just felt I should post before I fall back out of the habit. I promise next time I'll have something 'real' to say or show :)  Maybe a picture of my newly cleaned desk/studio? Maybe... no promises, but.. maybe ;)
Or maybe a picture of my 'in shambles' living room so when I get it back in place you can fully appreciate how crappy it used to be? lol .. Cause it's not like it's gonna be great once it's done.. just ... not as crappy ;) Hopefully.


:) Okay...I'm gonna go make myself DO something and avoid that couch the rest of the evening /night.

Post Office Day& Envlope Tutorial

...yup... that's what today was...

Today I spent the entire morning  making envelopes, addressing them, stuffing them, then filling out customs forms.... sixteen of them to be exact. Then I went to the post office, where I handed them all over in order of weight/size to make it quicker... then one of her coworkers helped slap the sticky parts on while she input all the info and weighed them. 

Why so many? Well, I saved up all the giveaway stuff from October to do at once... plus there was one left over from September that didn't get me her info on time, and a couple from just this week that I slipped in there too.

Don't believe me?  Here's SOME of them...I actually did up four or five more after I took this picture.

The giant butterflies are photoshopped in to hide the addresses ;)

So Pam, Kristen, Tiffany, Jami, Kimberly, Marla, Gina, Zan, Rita, Susan, Jennifer, & Beti  .... your giveaway goodies are in that pile there. Along with two prizes for Marlene Cupo's Non-Blogger & Blogger challenge at BSC, a thank you to Marlene for starting it & hosting it, and one PIF.

So all of you I just named, watch for the butterflies in your mailbox... I didn't stick any notes in them to let you know what it is... I was lazy >.< lol So  butterflies = goodies from Skye ;)

AND... since I made all of those, I took pictures to give you a simple tutorial on how to snazz up your mail, or recycle those bubble envelopes :)

    First off, you'll need the following items :

Pretty paper - here I'm using butterfly giftwrap

tape

scissors

gluestick

envelope - I'm using a new one in this photo, but you can use an old one as well... trust me, several of the packages in that photo above are recycled bubble mailers.

  

Lay your envelope on top of the paper to measure how much you'll need. 

I cut a long strip to fold up from the bottom, leaving the top open.

Take your glue stick and run it around the outer edges on the BACK of the envelope first, then across the middle in an 'x' . I find this gives good coverage, but you can cover the entire envelop if you want.

No, my glue isn't pretty colors...I just photoshopped it to show where the glue is....if you look, you can see that the glue covers MORE than just the colored part.

Place glue side down on the paper, putting the edge of the flap at the edge of the paper. Smooth it down so it sticks firmly. 

Add glue to this side as well, stopping at the edge of the ENVELOPE .. do NOT glue the flap.

Add this point, if you want to, you can fold the side in to make a nice crisp edge. I didn't >.<

Your envelope should look like this. 

Trim the edge around the flap. Fold the sides of the paper in to fit the envelope.  IF you folded the edge inside in the last step, you'll only have the one layer to fold over, and it will be considerably neater. If you didn't (like me), you can trim one side to make it shorter, then fold the longer piece over top. 

I taped all the sides down for security, but if you feel your glue is strong enough, you could just glue them.

 So now all your paper edges are folded and secured, and you have a completely covered envelop. 

Write the addresses out on plain white paper and tape them in place - this lets the address stand out from the picture.

I COMPLETELY cover the address with tape to seal the ink to prevent it from smudging and becoming difficult to read.

You now stuff it with whatever  you're putting in it,  fold and stick the flap ( I tape it down as well... extra secure ;) )   And you've got a pretty package already to go!

If you're using a 'pre-used' envelope, leave about an inch of paper extra to act as the 'new' flap to seal your envelope when it's done :)

Easy Peasy :)  If you have spray adhesive, this would be even easier...I don't ;) I think I'd make waaaay too much of a mess with that.. but that's just me :)

So now you know, if you open your mailbox and see a pretty package with butterflies on it, it's from me :D

I also have rainbow paper with butterflies on it... I used up an entire roll of the blue and white paper today and went to buy more...but they were out >.< so I got the rainbow butterflies instead ;)

~ Skye

Freebie Friday # 11

First Friday of the month.... most regular readers know what that means ;)

... of course, they also know I'm going to babble on about other crap for a while and make everyone wait :D

Marla Gibson won last months F.F. goodies, for those who didn't check the Rafflecopter widget to see if their name appeared ;) 

I also did a couple surprise giveaways that I never even mentioned. I popped into my Blogger dashboard a few days ago and saw my 'followers' had reached 50... AND that Blogger had FINALLY FIXED IT! For almost a year now, when I clicked on my follower list, I'd get a blank page - I knew I had so many followers, but I couldn't tell who they were. BUT NOW I CAN!  So I copied out all the names, assigned a number to each and used random.org to pick three. Two of them had emails attached to their blogger accounts and have already been notified - Pam aka The Crazier Sister has already replied, and her little soup mix has her name on it ready to go. I'm still waiting on a reply from  Cynthia.  And the third follower had no way to contact her, so Sarah Singer, give me a shout ! 

Some of you know that I follow several blogs, and among my faves is Fancifuldevices. I found out I won a pair of her earrings ( which are massively long and have me on the verge of tearing my closet apart to find the perfect out fit to wear with them... since my weight has been up and down in the last couple years, this may require shopping ;) )  At any rate, Fanci asked if I'd like some buttons along with my earrings... she was needing to destash... I said sure.

... here's what she sent...

Look at all those goodies :) I had to dump them all out and sort them right away...I just HAD TO! It's been very hard to not play with them, too...I have stuff I NEED to do first ... >.< *sigh*  Which brings to me another thing...

I have a crap load of things to get accomplished this month, including a bunch left over from LAST month, so I wasn't planning on taking part in this year's NaNoWriMo  -National Novel Writing Month . For those not familiar with it, it's an open challenge for people to take up and write 50,000 words in 30 days... 50,000 words being the average word count for a novel. I've been in it for several years, but the last two failed to get very far due to 'life' getting in the way or writing. The year before that I teamed up with a friend, and since the goal is 50,000 for ONE PERSON in 30 days, we doubled the word count to 100,000 in 30 days, and did it :) 

Like I said... I wasn't planning on taking part this year... however I woke up in the wee hours on the 1st with an idea in mind and started writing. Despite the fact that today I've been doing bits off and on, not really feeling it, but not really feeling like doing anything else either, I've still managed to make it to 3625 words.  If only I could count my blog posts into that ...I'd have my 50,000 total in no time ;) lol

So, you might not see much in posts from me this month considering everything I need to do.... Then again, this is me.. so.. you might see plenty from me this month as I avoid doing the rest of it ;) I'll tell you what though... if I somehow manage to make it to the goal and earn my NaNo badge this year... I'll do a special giveaway to celebrate :)

And speaking of giveaways ... you all really want to know what Novembers' goodies are, don't you?  Especially since I put out that teaser in the one group about sharing my Marsha Neil stash ;)

* note - HOLY CRAP! Minor heart attack there! I just started to type Marsha's name and my finger slipped... and the ENTIRE POST VANISHED! >.<  Thank you 'undo' feature! Whheeehw!  Okay .. back to our regular scheduled programing .. lol)

Who wants to  find this in their mailbox?

There a gorgeous Marsha Neil pendant in the center ... surrounded by  some adventurine chip stone, I believe that's goldstone chips ( the brown with sparkles.. if I'm wrong, please tell me...I got them in a big box of stone chips, but very few were labelled) some triangle green seed beads, some opaque orange glass rectangles, I 'think' the orange rounds are acrylic, and some gemstone 'daggers' that I'm trying to remember the name of.  Plus to round it out, some yellow faux suade and some green embroidery floss.

 closer view?

So same rules as always - Click on the rafflecopter widget and fill out all the entries you can :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

~ Skye

Hooters Challenge

I entered my hooters... but forgot to do a blog post! Ack! lol

actually, I DID blog them... just under a different topic. I was planning on making a new Owl piece for this challenge, but in the end went with the owl earring(s) I did for the mismatched art bead earring swap.

The owl is, of course, from Tree Wing studio :)



Pop over to Artisan Whimsy and cast your votes for your favorite Owl jewelry And Owl components :)
you have to be a member to vote, but anyone can join :)

More Halloween stuff :D

Yus... the title says it all... well.. kinda... ;)

btw... if you see words with the 'w' missing... I have a new keyboard and the 'w' likes to not compress fully when I get typing fast >.< But it's a cool keyboard... it's got glow in the dark keys... that my room doesn't have enough light to charge enough for them to actually 'glow' BUT, the black on light is so much easier to see than the white on black of normal keyboards... plus the keys feel neat against my fingers... and they're green ;)

Okay, enough about my keyboard and my new excuse for typos ;)

MISS-MATCHED HALLOWEEN EARRINGS !  Diana of Suburngirl Studios and Art Jewelry Elements blog, is holding a little hop today :) Here's my addition! check out the hoplist here... and check back because it goes as people add in their link ;) 

 sorry about the photo... but it's yucky outside >.< No natural light for pretty picture taking.

So here I took my last little witchie poo, gave her a  Czech flower dress... then used my only cat ( rather light how his eyes went red in the pic .. lol they're brown on the bead itself ) To even out the weight between the two, I opened a brass circle and turned it into a crescent, then wire wrapped some flowers around it to A- tie in the green from the witch, B- hold the crescent from slipping off , and C- keep the cat from spinning backwards. I'm afraid I don;t know who made the beads.. if you do, please tell me!

I think they turned out really cute :) Of course, now I'm out of cutesy Halloween lamp work beads.... actually, now I'm out of cutesy lamp work beads or any type :( Guess I'll have to start in on my porcelain and ceramic goodies ;)

Speaking of other goodies, I got my order of yumminess from Marsha Neil's shop and wow.... SO many ideas. As hinted at though, I'll be sharing a pendant or two in Novembers giveaway, so check back next Friday to enter for that ;)

I did order two special pieces of hers just for me though. One of her bats... I've loved those for ages and finally ordered one :) It's waiting for me to play with it.  And one of her skull pendants.  I whipped up a necklace last night, then added the clasp to wear it, despite the fact it's not finished. I ran out of size 11 seed beads in the dark brown and black >.< So until I get more in, I'm wearing it as is :D

October Fest BlogHop

Yes, another bloghop.. but one I couldn't resist taking part in since it's celebrating my favorite time of year :) Not just October, but all of autumn ! Rita of 'Toltec Jewels' & 'Jewel School Friends', drew together an impressive list of prizes and participants to celebrate the season :)

Being an 'open celebration'  we were given the opportunity to share whatever we wanted to - jewelry, photographs, recipes,ANYTHING  that was inspired by or practically screamed 'autumn'.

I'd planned on two different hikes this month, the colors and scenery being fabulous and perfect for taking photos to share with you. Hike number one, while lovely, happened to coincide with dead batteries in my camera >.<  Hike number two was rained out... and it's 'rain date' was cancelled due to being sick. I do have some that I managed to sneak in on a walk home from work one day... a day that I was hit with the urge to take my camera with me despite that being something I don't usually do. Good thing I did, hmm?

Colours

Autumn Trail

Autumn Gold

Sunshine Leaf

Into The Dark

I recently purchased a big ole box of chipstone and other yummy beads from a lady in Texas .. and among them was some that just kept calling to me. The reds, oranges, browns and creams just screamed 'autumn' to me and so while watching tv one day I started to play with whatever was in front of me... and an idea was born... and blossomed into this

Some time after that was finished, I made some Halloween jewelry pictures elsewhere on my blog here... and after choosing a bunch of beads to do another one, I ended up swapping them out for the same beads in different colors, and making this

 

Blog Hop List

Host Toltec Jewels      http://www.JewelSchoolFriends.com

Heather Otto               http://www.thecrafthopper.com

Mischelle Fanucchi     http://www.micheladasmusings.blogspot.com

Marlene Cupo             http://amazingdesigns-marlene.blogspot.com

Shaiha Williams          http://shaihasramblings.blogspot.com 

Shelly Graham Turner   http://shelleygrahamturner.blogspot.com/ 

Shelly Joyce                 http://www.aujourlejour-shelly.blogspot.com/

Charlie Jacka                http://clay-space.com/blog

Pam Sears                     http://crazycreativecorner.blogspot.com/

Margareta Saari            http://magsinhelmet.blogspot.com/

Marita Suominen          http://momentofjewelry.blogspot.fi/

Lisa Posthumus  https://www.facebook.com/lisa.posthumusharper

Jeannie Dukic                 http://site.jkdjewelry.com/blog/ 

Cheri Reed                     http://creativedesignsbycheri.blogspot.com/
Arlene Dean                   http://aglassbash.blogspot.com/
Duffy Blevins                  http://bubbasjewels1.blogspot.com/
Susan Kennedy             http://suebeads.blogspot.com/
Dita Basu                      http://www.alankarshilpa.blogspot.com/
Sonya Ann Stille            http://dreaminofbeads.blogspot.com/
Audrey Allen https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wrapped-Up-In-Magic/145456948869148

Kashmira Patel               http://sadafulee.blogspot.com/
Kathy Lindemer              http://bay-moon-design.blogspot.com/
Kris Mattingly                 https://www.facebook.com/kris.h.mattingly    
Lennis Carrier                 http://www.windbent.net/
Shannon Hicks               http://uptwnsh-fallingintothesky.blogspot.com/
Paula Hisel                    http://simplybeadiful.weebly.com/simply-stated.html
Karin Slaton                   http://backstorybeads.blogspot.com/
Shirley Moore                 http://www.beadsandbread.blogspot.com
Alicia Marinache             http://www.allprettythings.ca/
Valeria G. Rome             http://fancysphynxdesigns.blogspot.com/
Lo                                  http://thecreativeklutz.blogspot.com/
Zoe Marcin                     http://beadsteaandsweets.blogspot.com/
Carolyn Lawson              http://carolynscreationswa.blogspot.com
Kimberly Booth      http://thepinkmartiniboutique.blogspot.com/
Sherri Stokey                  http://www.knotjustmacrame.com
Tanya McGuire                http://www.tanyamcguire.blogspot.com/ 
Debbie Rasmussen          http://kepirasmussen.blogspot.com/
Christine Stonefield          http://sweetgirldesign.blogspot.com/
Sandra McGriff            http://skyescreativechaos.blogspot.com<-- You Are Here

Renetha Stanziano           http://lamplightcrafts.blogspot.com/
Evelyn Shelby       http://raindropcreationsbyevelyn.blogspot.com/
 Tanty Sri Hartanti              http://tjewellicious.blogspot.com/
 Colene Waltermire     https://www.facebook.com/groups/426147797447039/?fref=ts
Lee Nova                     https://www.facebook.com/groups/426147797447039/?fref=ts