Creativity Abounds!! Bead Soup Blog Party Reveal!!

So this Soup started off with a few interesting twists as most know.   The day before my Soup arrived, I left out and stayed for 3 weeks with my Sister.  My Brother in Law bless him, had been hit while ridding his motorcycle in a funeral procession.   He is doing amazingly great considering.  They do think he'll get 70% mobility in his hands on a good note!!   But this put me behind the curve because my stuff was here and I was there!!  I wanted it mailed, but originally it was only two weeks so you know, that's not too long.  LOL
Well when 3 weeks was LOOMING, I had my Mom (THANK YOU!!!) send out my bead soup!!  I was totally stunned and amazed at what Beth had sent me!!   Check her out here  Create My World Designs   Here is a reminder should you have forgotten where I started

Almost immediately I found a couple things that just BEGGED for a nice flashy blingy BIG PIECE!! Twist a little ribbon here, attach some flowers here, throw on that big old clasp and POOF DONE!! Well that is after I removed some chain dangles, added her peony's and some cluster's made from crystals and beads she had sent!!  So maybe a tiny bit of  "HOCUS POCUS" as well no??   Only, um..  It just didn't look right.    I mean the clasp didn't look right.   So when I got home....  I took off the clasp, changed it for a "plaine" one and I was way more happy!!  But now what to do with the clasp??  I mean this clasp is just too cool to abuse with just anything. So  I put it together with the pretty fan, but it seemed really heavy.  I didn't like it either...

  So the fan ended up all by itself.  ANYTHING else put with it seemed to detract from it.

So what to do with the clasp now???  HERE!!  Some of the pretty purple crystals that I was sent, some pearls I had because you know we ALL horde stuff for "later"   It's a funny little idea I had.  I think for most people it is long enough to wrap around the neck twice as a choker with the clasp up front

Then you can put the clasp down your back if you have a lovely backless dress or you can swing that clasp up front as a pendant!   I thought it was pretty fun but simple.


So I took some other crystal's with some cording I had, some beadalon and these disk pearls, then I tried to braid them...  I LOVE how it looks.  I do NOT love the way the beadalon shows up against the cording.  But I don't have any cording small enough to weave through it other wise.   I hear there is a Hobby Lobby that opened up the road.   I think I'll be going to it next week and check it out.  Well after I see if   Ship Wreck Beads    has what I want.

So in between everything else here are a few things I started, finished and just keep playing with!! 

The Moon and star's are some pewter bits I found and covered with this awesome stuff called Iced Enamel's, it's like an embossing powder that get's covered with resin as some point.  I still have to do the resin bit!!  But love how they turned out so far...


The bracelet is bent copper covered with fiber and a lovely hand made copper leaf I picked up from Lima Beads!!  I have been wanting to use fiber and ribbon for a while and finally used this as a chance to do so!



Starry Night as I call it has been started a while.  Never quite was happy with how it was laying out.  Took a few beads out and suddenly it was " done" and I was quite pleased with the ending results!!

I bought this pendant with much bigger plans.  While I was pulling the ribbon a lady I work with was like OMG!!  I want it!!  Just slap those crystals RIGHT THERE and call it done.  So I did.  Was kind of fun to have something someone wanted to buy!!

So I went to a show.. You know how that goes.. I got these pearls in amazing tropical colors.  I ONLY bought one strand (note to self NEVER AGAIN buy just ONE strand of something funky fun) and while playing with them again (at work imagine that...) another young lady decided she wanted a necklace out of them.  WHAT TO DO!!  I mean I only had one small SHORT STRAND!!  sigh. I did it.  I had to go get some lovely tropical crystal's to finish it off and there were a few pearls left over (ok in reality I hid them!!) so I could add one to this bracelet (how to finish off the clasp??  I haven't found a colored one yet I think anything else might look odd???)  with some wonderful tropical quartz I found.   I have another one set up similar but in different colors I am going to just put a clasp on and call done.  I might end up doing the same here cause the colored chain to plain clasp bugs me....  LOL  

I still have some idea's and beads to finish making.  I want to use the purple twine she sent with the gold seed beads into a braided bracelet and I took a bunch of the left over crystals and tiny purple beads and made them into cluster's that are looking for a home...

and I have a plan to use the purple drops and these beautiful gold pearls in a choker!!   Good thing I have been on a creative streak.  Now to just find more time!!



     I always enjoy doing the bead soup!  This year was less stress filled than years in the past amazingly enough.   I am being bad.  I am saving a couple of the blossom's that I received and the beautiful spacer's to see if something special just for me comes up.    I just couldn't help my self.  LOL   I kept looking at them going     MY PRECIOUS!!

                              Here are the rest of the people who played in this years Bead Soup Blog Party!!

Thank you so much Beth for being my partner this year and the wonderful and exciting soup you sent to me!!
                                                         Bead Soup Party Participants

Solitude Just What I wanted RIGHT??

So I keep thinking if I didn't have a million things always going on, if there was JUST some peace and quite I would get so much more accomplished.

I got it.  Three weeks of it in fact.  quite mornings with nothing to worry about besides some dishes, and the occasional cleaning.  A CLEAN work space, organized beads to work with...

SO um why has my mind been spinning endlessly with little to show for it?? Hmmmm??

Well I had my Mother send me my bead soup so that I could stop wondering what wonderful things I got!!  I was right!!  WONDERFUL is right!!  Beth sent me some AMAZING bits.  I mean really amazing bits!! Colors I love,  yet things that will be a challenge which is what I always want! Create My World Designs ROCKS!!!

I can't wait to start making something,  start you say?? if it's all so amazing why do you say start?? Shouldn't you be done? After all there is all that quite time you have while school work is being preformed.   What is keeping you?

Once again my own performance anxiety! I keep thinking about what I can do, what I should do and then wondering if it will live up to the standards of amazing that I have set, or will it just be O.K. and after I get it done will I think to my self  "SELF, you so should have done... instead!!"   WHY do I talk myself into despair?  WHY??   I sit here today wondering about it and I realize that there is no other noise in the house to sidetrack me from stupid thinking.   I think I am going to have to put on some head phones and listen to some "happy" music.   Something that makes me realize that it's the journey not the end that matter's the most!!

Solitude, I so am DONE with you!
   Though you have been good for finishing up a few older projects.  3 more days till I have to go home and get back to reality!!  Can I accomplish anything amazing in that time period?


so as I am working on my piece today after coming up with a FANTASTIC idea...  I realized that no Beth hadn't forgotten to send a clasp, but the wonderful item I thought was a pendant is really a CLASP in disguise!!

What a Clasp it is too!!  Isn't it amazing?
Time to rework my thoughts.  Time too...

Darn it, I have to go mow the lawn (yes Boise is nice enough to have their grass growing right now)...

Don't BLINK

SO here's how it goes...  Every year I sign up for the Bead Soup Blog Party..   I go shop at the Intergem show. I bring home more item's than I can possibly use because I am just always busy, busy with "things".   I select my items..  I take a photo that looks like this

  Then I pack it all up and send it off to the recipient Beth Petricom ..
As I am trying to get this all together this year, I get a call from my husband while I am at work.  My Brother In Law was working as a motorcycle escort for a funeral in Boise, ID.  Someone decided that waiting for the procession to finish wasn't on his game plan.  Pushed his way into the traffic and tore the front of Micheal's cycle right off.  He ended up under the cycle, crushed his hands, pelvis and there was some internal bleeding.   I wanted to run to her side RIGHT then.  I mean this is the most LIFE altering moment since her daughter's birth!!  For a change I am in the States, I can GO!  Everything in me said GO!!  She said 'STAY!!"  I have this.  so for 2 weeks, I stayed. I worried, I fretted.  I am really good at these things as most people know..
  Things were looking better.   He was having some surgeries.  They might have all the bill's paid for.  He may never have full use of his hands, but hey what's a bunch of hard ware among friends right??? Don't mind those metal bit's in his pelvis and the fact that he has to use a specially modified walker to get around.  I truly hope what ever he was in a hurry for, while flipping people off was worth what happened.
   Then it came.   My niece is home schooled, usually monitored by??  You guessed it. Michael.  Teresa had to start working full time a bit ago to get health care (OMG was that not lucky???) and they have a home business that supports it's self ( the most amazing luggage tag's, name tag's you could ever want) Crew Tags but needed her attention in the evenings for a bit when she got home. WHAT to do?  I called work, told them I was going to be gone for 3 weeks, slapped a Dean R. Koontz book in the player and off I went.
   Now in a corner of your mind I am sure your thinking "what the heck does this have to do with Bead Soup Blog Party!!" ...   Well while all this was going down, I realized that my box hadn't gotten mailed!!  So as I am packing to go I am throwing the box in the mail and not EVEN thinking "WAIT what about MY BOX!!"
   I  get to Boise, and settle into a routine with Sydney Ann..   Let's review it ok?? Aunt Arlene when mom get's home can we go to "Hobby Lobby"??  What is Hobby Lobby Sydney Ann??  Oh YOU'LL see!!    So off we went..

 And I found this! Wow the stand up dohicky is perfect for all the ribbon, soft flex and a couple other odds and ends we have been getting together for a project.  Of course the note book with a clip will be PERFECT for making said bracelets on!  RIGHT!! :)

Then I bought this stuff to make brass look like enamel.  Well silly me I thought I only needed the powder.   So we ended up having to go back so we could get the REST of the stuff for it.  Thank you Ice Resin and Iced Enamels.  WELL DONE!!  Which of course meant we had to make sure we had stuff to do it WITH as well.





Then of course Miss Sydney Ann needed a box like mine, a notebook for her bracelets, scissors, a note pad mouse pad and some beads to make some really adorable cassette tape earrings


Now, I love my sister. I really REALLY do..  But you know she always thought it was so hard to follow behind me..   She never EVER realized how hard it was to grow up knowing she was behind me.  You see how nice and neat poor Sydney's messes work area is??

Now look at mine!!  This is after 4 days of sorting organizing and cleaning out all the stuff I brought over.   It's lovely to be down to way less (you'll have to wait to see that photo later!!)   Her whole HOUSE looks like something on a T.V. show clean wise..  Mine?? NOT so much!!!


   She does have me pegged though  Here's the ending thought for the day!!  You never know what will happen in any given day, week, month or year.   I have lost several good friends in the last year with little to know warning.  As I left to come here? I hugged a good friend who was really sick with lung problems and general crappy health.  She was sent home with 6 months to a year.   4 days after I arrived, I was notified there would be no happy reunion in three weeks.  She had passed.   She is in SUCH a happier spot for now.  I pray daily for her husband and kids though.  It's so hard to lose a parent no matter if it is time or not!.  Why some are spared when others are not is a big mystery that one day we will get answers to..
in the mean time...

Bead Soup Blog 2014

       So every year I do the same thing here.  I sign up for Bead Soup Blog Party  I am really super excited, I start planning..  I start looking at what I have, What they have... What should I send? What shouldn't I send?  What if they hate what I send?? What if everyone else get's amazing stuff and I just sent "ok" stuff..

      WHAT what WHAT to do???  Do I find really unusual stuff I keep meaning to use, but never get around to (yes yes I know that you can tell by my blog, that of late there is very little I have been trying..) or do I find stuff that she's used before.....


      URGH!!!  So what is it that can fix it..    I know!!  THANK YOU INTERGEM!!!  Once more my friend Leila of MaeBeads went off to Seattle with me so we could check out the Intergem show.   WOO HOO!!  Day off work and a day with someone I miss being able to spend more time with!!!  Lucky me~
 There is always all sorts of stuff to pick up and some of it you look at and go HMMM  if I can't figure it out, could they???  I mean these are just cool no??   I ended up not getting them.. Now I sorta wish I had...

      So here it is.  What's worse is every year I walk away wishing I had bought something after all or that I bought more of something.  This year it was some just funky pearls.  I think you can barely see those tropical pearls running in there.  A friend said "oh make me a necklace!!"  I was like "um I only bought one strand (what the heck WAS I THINKING)"  and after much inner hoarder turmoil, I am working on that necklace for her.  It would have been a lot better if I had bought 3 strands.. But she'll like it or I get to keep it right!!  :) Win WIN!!
       These are all the goodies  I have added  to the mess of things I need to choose from!!  Here they are!!  The things I picked up are interesting and way not unusual, but I still am not any closer to picking out what I am going to send to my new partner for this year's Bead Soup Blog Party . 

      I am going to have to post this post..  Figure out what my lovely partner needs to get to stimulate HER for the next year!!  I mean really!! Beth Petricoin does incredible work.  LOOK at some of the amazing things Beth's done with NOTHING.  I mean really this is all the stuff  WE throw away!! One More Use (Etsy) and Create My World Designs and on top of that is Create My World.....  

So here it is..  This is some of the stuff I am trying to choose between!!  What to do!!


Another year of stress that I obviously must really need cause I keep doing it. 

A little Side Trip

While trying to get cleaned up and motivated to partake in the Bead Soup Party again this year I found a little bit of interesting information that made me think...

Spring has almost Sprung!!

If your interested in some flowers that you can eat this year.

Bee Balm                      Borage                   Bachelor Buttons

Chive Blossom               Calendula               Daylilly

Hibiscus                         Holly Hock             Hybrid Tuberous Begonia

Lilac                                Marigold                Mint

Nasturtium                        Pansy                    Pink

Rose                                Scented Geranium    Squash Blossom

Stock                                Violet                        Red Clover

Chamomile                         Lavander



 A veritable fest of color's scents and flavors..    It makes me wonder when spring is going to come and if I should plant some just in case I ever want to cook with flowers....     Please stop laughing... There is a chance it could HAPPEN!!

Here's a great site for further information!!  Eat The Weeds

Bead Soup Blog 2013 A Fairy Tale

As all good fairy tales began, it was a happy time.  A joyous occasion on which I once more was participating in the Bead Soup Blog Party!!  and then...

Dun Dun DUN!! (that was the key in of sad music)  I got a promotion I was working really hard for.  I had been watching, studying and 100% sure this would be a cake walk!!! Well you know the best laid plans of mice and men are easily lead astray right??  Boy oh BOY!!

I was excited!!!  I packed up a little bit of this and a little bit of that and a bit of love from Maebeads (why yes I do love to 'borrow" stuff from her while I am playing at her house and give it away to unsuspecting deserving people on occasion) Thus this is the box I mailed out  

There of course had to be something inside so HERE is what I put inside the box!!
                         

I was a bit behind because I had already received this bunch of luscious goodies so a trend had been set in my mind.  I was worried about work which WAS NOT turning out to be a cake walk and was so very, very much more than I could ever have imagined.  I went overnights for a week while my youngest son learned that contrary to what the Top Ramen packet says, WATER is not a optional item.   We have bought a new microwave which will be installed umm. sometime before I die I am sure!!

Anyway I kept taking the pieces sent to my by The Blue Bottle Tree  (or Ginger) or should that be Ginger? and all I could see was the sea..
                           

Deep aqua bottomless secret cove with a buried ship sea!! There just didn't seem to be a way to make it appear as I wanted.   The first attempt broke.  The second attempt looks like a preschooler was turned loose with the wire. I kept taking it to work.  I kept looking, staring.  I felt so damn useless at work,

I was so THANKFUL every time posting was delayed.     I felt horrible being grateful!!

I was failing at something I wanted to achieve so badly.   I was coming home and sleeping, I was going to work and crying.  I let them make me so angry I couldn't function all creativity just was draining out of me. I was cleaning the house, I was stressing about the kids (why cause their going to do what their going to do at the ages they are) I was freaking out about the refinance we wanted to do...

Yet I ended up with the most beautiful piece I have ever done..   Well possibly!

  I love how it turned out.  The metal is all copper that I stripped down with a bit of Ammonia and then ran through some liver of sulpher.  The interesting part is that the wire touching the clay when dragged though the LOS just didn't really take any coloring so I am buffing a bit more of the LOS off so that the metal has all the stages of coloring on it.   The round copper circle has been embossed with that cool Vintaj Big Kick and it was CUT with it too.  Hmmm!!







How's that for being able to use new toy's in a project.  I tried the paints by Metal Me This but they didn't get me the color I wanted at this time and the butterflied didn't look right.

Metal Me This  Patina

Good thing I still had a sheet of copper left at the end so I could try one more time!! 

I planned to use the clasp I was sent with this bracelet but I just can't get it to look right!

So hopefully I haven't messed up any chances I ever get to play again and I hope you guys really like the pieces I got done!!  I need you guys to keep me in the game!!

I hope that you enjoyed your visit and the background into how I made what I did!!

and don't forget to check EVERYONE who played here  Party Players!!

Time is not on my side

Things have been a little rough around here right now.  I wish I could say that it was more or less than normal, but for some reason I just can't get around what's going on to get things done!!  It's about to give me a major break down I swear!!

So my partner has done the amazing things that we are supposed to do!! Ginger Davis Allman and turned the beads I sent her (including a cute little lampwork heart made off mandrel by Leila of Maebeads who's etsy shops is a little naked due to a show in Portland this weekend)  Really I was totally amazed by what she's done.

Any how I thought better let you all know that later today I am hoping to blog and post some photo's of what I have gotten done and where I am at with the wonderful goodies that Ginger sent me

Words Just Get In The Way

So I heard on Sunday that a store I NEVER go to any more because they just have really bad service here in Lacey, was having a clearance sale on something I have been wanting for a while.  WHAT to do!!  Well in some way's it didn't matter cause I worked Monday and Tuesday and the odds of them having one still by TODAY were really slim right??  I mean really!!  Well here this is what all the fuss is about 

 Which according to the write up you can use to emboss brass metal blank shapes to make your own charms. I thought last year when I saw it, wow that would be fun.  Scrapping and Jewelry in one.  Then of course the heart attack over the price of the machine, let alone the dies..   ANYHOW!!! back to the story..
I got up today, discovered the husband took the car to work.  I HATE driving the truck to Olympia.  It's such a waste of money (at 3.87 a gallon no less) ... Tried to get a friend to go with me..  NOPE!!

Brilliance hit!!  Red Robin still owed me a birthday burger.  So if I got husband to go to dinner for the burger we could just 'accidentally" stop by there to check it out.   HE bought it!!  We went...  I couldn't believe it but they actually HAD ONE LEFT!!  not only that they had 5 die's as well!

FATE was my friend!!  I could just about SCALE tall mountains!!   He of course thinks I lost my mind!!

So upon getting home and realizing while I now have machine and die I failed to buy some thing to "press"  ...

I guess I'll have to go online and look for something.     As I did so I was thinking you know.. When's the last time I checked mail..  Better do that first..

Opened up my mail and there was a  YOU HAVE WON!! email..  Skip that, it must be trash..
Wait!! Did that say it was from a blog??  Did that say a  ZINO magazine?? OMG!!  It's not trash!! I really REALLY WON!!  Thank YOU!


 So a HUGE thanks to All Pretty Things!!  Please go check her out if you have a few minutes!! and another huge thank you to ZINO for giving me a copy of  Lapidary Journal Artist Magazine for a whole YEAR!!

and some stupid email told me today was going to be a really bad luck day!!  What where they smoking ?? 


Here's a Vintaj video on youtube for your pleasure.  Watching another one they have done called "part one" I now have a use for all those embossing powders as well for this particular item which is GREAT news!!

Bead Soup Blog Party 7!! or in my case 2

It's that time of the year again!!  I am excited yet scared.  Nervous yet Thrilled.  It's rather like being on a roller coaster of love!!!

                                    Last year to get me going I joined  Bead Soup Blog Party #6

 and my partner was Christi Searle Murrow of CharisDesigns  

 This year I JOINED again after discovering that pressure does amazing things to one's creative juices!!
It's the biggest party EVER  Over 521 participant's this year!!!!

                  Bead Soup Blog Party #7 

and my partner in crime this year IS GINGER DAVIS ALLMAN of a really fascinating site The Blue Bottle Tree  and I mean really interesting!!  Makes me eager yet even more nervous about this exchange.  Good thing I seem to like running on nerves right??

So there has been ton's of changes this year.  I haven't been nearly as active as I would like jewelry wise because of them.  I still haven't listed on etsy which makes me crazy but there are interesting things a coming!


                                                                 Shall we??  PLAY!!

1st Bead Soup Blog Party and Still I am

Behind.  I swear I'll be behind to my death as well.   If I didn't have teenage boy's I'd be late to eat (well even then sometimes I am and it's UGLY to have to fight them for food..)

So last week I had to go get major items to finish my pieces (like basic findings I couldn't find any where locally) and once again by the time I got home everything else has broken loose and here it is a week later and I haven't gotten to do ONE simple tiny thing.

Why do you think that is??

I know I know you really don't want to hear my blah blah blahing you want me to do the REVEALING aspect already..

Well as a recap I was sent this wonderful assortment by my partner in crime Christie Burrows (who's by the way DONE way ahead of me...)

So I tried and I tried and I tried and I ended up with that huge HUGE clasp and the beautiful stone and bronze pendent in a for me unusual combination.  As you can see there's a bit of chain linking them and then (gasp!! can it be?? those huge faceted pearls from the Bead Festival last month) and the little shell things.   I have laid out a pair of brass hooks to add some shell and those same pearls for earrings..

I was totally confused where to go next.  I mean there was still a TON of stuff to day and while yes this had taken me over a month to get put together it was basically "done" .  Well except the trip to the bead store to get some crimps and crimp covers....

I kept looking at that sparkly autumn mix left.   It ended up in a short bracelet where the crystals joined the red stone beads with some metallic odd metal beads I had and the chunky stones for a simple yet funky bracelet.  The clasp was the "trip" to the bead shop find.  I'll have to try and use some Liver of Sulfur (in case you want to try it)  to make it darken up to match better.  I will be reworking the bracelet a bit to get it to twist merge better but this gives you an idea what it will or is supposed to end up looking like.  For my first attempt with a vague idea at the start I am happy...

 

This was a heck of a lot harder than I thought it would be.  There are still some idea's bouncing around to use the lovely cab I got..  What made it easier?? To try an imagine I was making it for someone else that liked chuncky funky jewelry.  All and ALL a great time was had (did get three other things made up while trying to avoid I mean think of what to do with what I got in my Bead Soup so that's a good thing right??

Here's a picture of one set done while avoiding my challenge  (can you tell I have been really playing with the LOS)   Forgotten Garden I made the big loopy chain (was my first attempt at soldering silver it was so much fun again thank you Marcy (so that's all but 1 item I made while there used now. WOO HOO)

Tis All About The Choices We Make

You know most the time I don't have anything to do.  No where to go..  Well that's not really true.  I have lots of house cleaning that always needs to done, I have to go to work most days...  but you know no where really FUN and exciting.   So how is it, while I am planning to go down and visit my favorite Aunt in Law Jean (owner of sorts of Fling Jewelers  a  small in the mall shop who's not on line at all but has a great selection of stuff especially my favorite "estate" jewelery)  the endish of October, I discover that there's not one but TWO events happening there!!  One is Austin Texas Beadfest  and  the other is the Houston Intergem Show!  

How am I supposed to decide which is the bigger draw??  Intergem last time I got to go to their show in Houston was over 5 hours of shopping pleasure and I never did make it through the whole sales floor!!  I bought a ton of really interesting stuff (ok not a ton, but I bought a really really big amount) that I am still trying to get through 4 years later..  They do come up to Seattle, but I am not sure if it's the economy or the show right now that had such a small 'showing" of shops.  I noticed the Puget Sound Bead Fest seemed to have problems getting people to sign up an show this year as well and a lot of the staple show display's didn't seem to be there so it could be that it's just small because of the way people are spending right now too.

Any how the Fest in Austin is about 3 hours away from my Aunt Jean's, but we'd be able to take a class or something fun together if we did it.  Etching with Lexi Erickson

Is one  choice, there of course there's always one of my favorite people

Peak Into My World

Rivets and Chainmaille

Tracey Stanley

 Linda Larsen

Hinged Treasure Boxes

Not to mention I want to go see Marcy again for another one on one  silversmithing date on making a ring or two..    Work interferes so much, but if I wasn't working I couldn't afford to play so...    

  TIS ALL ABOUT CHOICES and which ones to make this time!!