i have been busy busy. how about you?

It's been an exciting week with the mailman bringing me packages.  I got another one the other day from Artbeads.com and also Fire Mountain Gems.  Got some really scrumptious things in it.  What's that?  Oh, you'd like to see?  Ok, sure! ;) 

First, I got the beads for one of my students for my little bracelet making class coming up in a HOLY COW a week.  lol  Just looked at the calendar.  I better not forget.  That would be bad.  Anyways, I think these beads are just gorgemous together. 

Click on the pic for a larger view.  The druks have a real pretty topaz kind of color sheen to them.  Very interesting beads.  I love them.  And the delicas have a nice two tone look to them as well.  Neat!

Next, these don't come out in the photo too well because they are so pale, but here goes.  Blue is a big color this week.  I had to try on a few different shades in a few different sizes and types to find the ones I like the best for one of my projects.  None of the beads in this pic are going to be used immediately, but they are very pretty and will definitely get used one day.  The middle one almost looks white, but it is a very light blue.  uh, very light.  :)

Next up are some of the beads that will be used in one of my projects for the book.  Some of them made the cut and some of them didn't.  And that's all I'm going to say about that.

And finally, one more pic of some beads I chose based on a runway dress that I saw.  (Wait, something else first.)  Did you know that's a good way to find interesting palettes that can take you outside your little box?  Do a Google search for something like "fashion trends runway" or look at "art paintings".  Take your color cues from a photograph that catches your eye.  Here are some photos that I thought were interesting and I was attracted to the colors.

Choose your beads based on the colors in the photos you choose and in the ratios in the photo.  For example, the next pic is beads based on the dress in the bottom left hand corner.  I chose beads in those colors, and in the project the green and pink will be almost equal with a lesser amount of orange.  Also on the collage here are the Pantone Fashion Colors for Fall 2012 if you care to enlarge and see them closer.  That's the swatches on the bottom right.

Ok, so here's the pic of the beads I got based on that dress...

Oh, now that I look at the pic closer...that orange with the pink undertones is one that I bought, but it's not the final orange I decided on.  The beads look great together in piles next to each other, but beaded on a string next to each other they were very similar in tone and I felt there wasn't enough distinction between the two for photos in a book.  So I went to my local stomping ground and made a couple quick seed bead purchases and chose an orange that is a bit brighter.  I got the beading part done on the bracelet (still have to do the clasp and the matching necklace), and my kids would walk by and ooooh and aaaaah.  The colors are bright, festive and happy together.

Again, I can't show you my bead work I've been doing because that would ruin the surprise of the book unveiling, wouldn't it?  I was told I may get "a few" copies of the book when it's done.  If I get more than two don't you think my blog should be screaming for a giveaway?  I think so!  That's a long ways off yet, but still fun for me to think about.

Ok, kids.  Have fun playing this weekend.  What's on your bead table???

Shopping for beads and more stuff

Hi, everyone.  I hope you are all doing well out there in Blogland.  This post may seem a little incoherent as I am seriously sleep deprived.  My pillow is softly, sweetly calling my name.  I will do my best to stay focused!

The past few days I have been doing some major bead shopping.  At least for me, it's been huge.  I have orders in with Artbeads, Beadaholique, and Fire Mountain Gems, and I am going to be ordering some wire here pretty quick with Bello Modo.  Honestly, I would rather have one place to shop because going to all the different sites trying to find the right colors, sizes, textures, etc. is so exhausting.  And then to meet the minimum order amount so I don't have to pay shipping.  ick.  Hey!  Did you know that Bello Modo has no shipping minimum and ALL orders ship free?  Yea for Bello Modo!  Artbeads is still reasonably low at just $10.  It's not hard to come up with $10 at all. 

Then there's Beadaholique which I think is pretty steep at $25 for no shipping.  I don't usually order that much at one time from one store unless I am doing a major purchase.  That's why I went to them this weekend.  That, and they had the colors and things that one of my students picked for our class later this month.  I still had to put in some few random items that I have no plans for to meet that  minimum.  Although I do like their Preciosa crystals and the prices on them.  It's just coming up to that $25 that's hard.  Of course I could spend less and pay s+h, but if I'm going to give them money, I want to get product in return for it, you know what I mean?

Now, FMG...they're a whole other story.  I doubt that I will order from them in the future.  I needed just 1 thing from them for less than $5.  Shipping and handling was almost $8!!!!!  So, $13 for a $5 item?  No thanks!  I ordered a couple other random things with them, too, just to feel a little more justified in my purchase and paying such high fees.  But I HAD to go to them to get the color I needed.  Do you remember the last post about needing an apple green color in a 6/0?  They had something close.  But I totally feel like I got robbed.

Exciting News!!!!!

I don't think I'm at liberty to give away too many details, but I will give you the basics.  You may not see much of me the next couple months.  That's the bad news.  But it's for a good reason.  A friend of mine who is a bead goddess just got a deal to write a new bead book.  She has asked me to contribute projects for the book!!!!!!  How awesome is that???!!!  I will be doing 2 for sure and possibly 4 projects for the book in different sections of it.  This will be quite a challenge for me, and I am learning so much about the process it's unbelievable.  That's the main thing I have been shopping for...supplies for the book projects.  And all 4 are due with instructions in both a photo story and written step by steps on a CD to the author with the finished pieces no later than SEPTEMBER 1st!!!!!  Yikes!  I better get my groove on, huh?  The bulk of my book supplies is coming from Artbeads, and they haven't even shipped my order yet!  Crazy.  I got my order in the mail today from Beadaholique, and my Artbeads order that I made at the same time hasn't even been picked yet.

So all I have to show today are my goodies from Beadaholique.

The gold and silver 3mm are just because I wanted them.  They are sterling silver plated and 22k gold plated.  I have beads like this in my stash, but they are the cheapies.  I wanted some nice ones like this.  So I got them.  The clear crystals are to finish a bracelet I've had in my UFO pile and the black bicones are for one of my students for our class.

These are the other beads for the class.  This student is addicted (I mean seriously addicted) to green.  These are the colors she chose, and they do look very pretty...more so in person than in the photo.  But isn't it always that way?

The tube clasps are for one of the book projects.  The red 8mm are just because I liked them...and I had to buy something to get to the $25 mark.

I just liked the color and look of these 8mm's.  Also a "no reason purchase except to get free shipping".

These are the most gorgeous color of capri blue I have ever seen.  I mean ever.  They are super gorgeous.  It will have to be a special project indeed to get these babies!

And that's it.  $27 worth of beads so I could get free shipping.  lol.  Am I crazy?  Should I just have paid the shipping fees?  No, I don't think so.  These beads will be the perfect ones for a future project.  It always works out that way. 

And my other exciting news?  I was a winner winner chicken dinner on a blog giveaway the other day!  I haven't got my prize package yet, but as soon as I do you will be the first ones to see it.  I won it courtesy of a great new blog I was introduced to, Spyder Jewels.  Thank you Mandy at Beads for Brains: 365 for the intro!

That's all I got today.  Hope you all have a super fantabulous weekend!

The Day After

Wow!  I had an amazing day yesterday!!!  It all started with all of you who sent me such thoughtful birthday wishes.  Thank you all!!!  In reading the comments, I was so pleasantly surprised to find that so many of you agree with me that inexpensive beads are NOT a bad thing.  I have read some blogs where they really bash those types of beads.  Not my friends!  Nope...we're all on the same page!!!  :)

I'm going to give you a run down of my day and show you some pics of my haul.  First, after dh dropped the kiddos off at school he brought me breakfast in bed...a sausage egg mcmuffin with cheese.  i just love those things.  We started out at mid-morning and drove across town to Hobby Lobby.  Remember how excited I was about going there?  It turned out to be a big disappointment.  First off, their weekly coupon was for 50% off...sharpie markers.  That's it???  That's the coupon of the week???  AND they DON'T take competitors' coupons.  I have a hard time paying full price for anything when I don't have to.  I specifically went to Hobby Lobby, though, because they had the pasta machine I wanted.  I read reviews of lots of different ones, and this one seemed to have the best feedback.  Therefore, I ended up paying the full $24.99 for it.  Ouch.  That kills me.  I got 2 little packages of basic cutters in squares and circles and an extruder.  Other than that, they didn't get my money.  Very little to choose from.  And the bead section?  Disappointing.  Michael's and JoAnn's are much better.

On the way home we went to JoAnn's.  I went crazy in there!!!  Just look here at everything I got!

Ok, maybe it doesn't seem so impressive when I lay everything out, but I felt like I hit the jackpot of goodies.  I'm so dumb, though!  I got to the register and realized I brought the WRONG Michael's coupon and I could only use the one JoAnn's coupon.  Bummer!  I still saved over $25 with that one coupon!!!

By the time I got home I was exhausted.  I have a terrible time getting good, solid sleep, so I always sleep during the day for a while.  My usual sleep time was past due, and I was ready to hit the pillow.  After a good, long nap I woke up to do more shopping...online.  I went to Mad About Molds and bought about 6 different molds for my clays to make different sizes and shapes of cabochons.  That was fun!

THEN we went out to dinner.  I just realized as I started typing this post that I should have taken pics of our outing...dummy me!   We went to Souper Salad for a buffet dinner.  Was it ever good!  My son, Matthew, hit that buffet hard!  lol.  Sami had lots of vegetarian things to choose from, and they even had her favorite food group...fishy crackers!  You know those little fish-shaped yellow/orange crackers, right?  She looooooves those!  Sara didn't eat a ton, but she got her chocolate milk and had fun getting up and making all the kids strawberry shortcakes with whipped cream on top.  Jeff had loads of pasta, which he loves.  We had such a fun, happy time at dinner.  It was really wonderful.

When I got home I got ready to go out AGAIN.  This time I went to Michael's...with the right coupon this time!  I splurged on something I wanted but would not normally buy because it was really expensive.  But it was my birthday and I had that 40% off one item coupon.  I got a 12 jar set of pigment powder for my clay!!!  I saw this being used in a You Tube video once, and ever since then I wanted some, but I could never find any.  It was my lucky day though.  12 jars for just $14!!!  That was the deal of the day for sure.  I looooove the bright, beautiful colors and the way they totally shimmer in the light.  I can't wait to try them!  The colors don't show up nearly as vivid as they really are.  You'll have to take my word for it.  They're awesome!

I also picked up a few odds and ends...

In addition to the stuff in the pics, I also got a couple jewelry display forms for photographing my necklaces.  And the best part?  I still have a little bit of money left after all this shopping!!!  I am going to have a LOT of fun this weekend, that's for sure!

After all that shopping I then sat down quietly by myself and opened up my birthday cards...one from my kids and one from my husband.  The kids' messages inside were so sweet!  Even though the card made fun of my big milestone birthday number, it was still a great card.  The card from my dh brought tears to my eyes.  For real.  It was so sentimental and spot on.  I know he spent some time looking for this card because it was absolutely perfect.

And they bought me a giant Symphony chocolate bar with almonds and toffee bits!  So after everyone was sleeping I got into bed, turned on the tv and savored a few squares of that decadent, delicious chocolate.  What a way to end a fabulous day.

Another Update

Ok, kids.  I did it!  I almost didn't, but I did.  I went to not one, but 3 stores today!!!  The first bead store I went to was one I had never been to before near my son's house on the other side of town.  It was an ok store, but not one I would make a special trip for.  Do you know, they did not have one single cab in that whole place!!!  I was disappointed in that.  But I did manage to spend $13 on some pretty Czech glass beads.  I was drawn to blues and purples.  I'm also always on the lookout for a true purple seed bead, and I found a very good color there, so I bought two packages of those.  I got quite a deal because I printed of their coupon off their website.  I got 40% off one item, 15% off the czech glass and another 10% off the whole purchase !  So I think I made out pretty good.

I want to say thank you to those of you who responded to my last post.  You all gave me such encouragement and inspiration to bust my way through this creative block I've got going on.  Carol Creech was talking about animals and how the bison is strong and powerful. And Carol DeLater was talking about her symbol of power.  Those two comments made me think of my favorite...the dragonfly.  The dragonfly to me is beautiful and independent and free.  So I found a couple of those that I picked up.  Thanks both Carols!  Bobbi Kirk gave me a good idea...make myself commit to just a few minutes a day.  That will be a good start!  Thanks for the suggestion, Bobbi.  Robin, I'll have to check into the book you suggested, too.

I appreciate each and every one of you for taking the time to send me a message.  It means so much!  I will write each of you back (as long as there is a return address in the email).

Then I bought a bunch of other things.  Not because I have a plan for using them, but just because I was drawn to them.  I just read a post by Beth at Bellesanbeauscrafts about how her mother would get wonderful pretty things and then "keep them for good" to save for the perfect occasion but then they were never used.  I'm afraid some of my beads might be just those types of treasures.  I love them and love to sit and look at them, but I want to save them for the perfect project.  As a matter of fact, I have a few of Beth's amazing face cabs (if you haven't seen them yet, you must go look!) that I am treasuring for the perfect project.  But I'm afraid to use them for fear of not doing them justice.  Something I need to work through, don't you think?

So here are the pretties I got today...

The lentils are such a pretty color of purple.  And I have a vague idea of something I want to do with the silver branch...part of a brooch.

These are just faux shell, but I love how the colors mix and sparkle.

These are the cheapy beads, but they are fun and I liked them.  So in the basket they went.

I have a "thing" for leaves.  Some of these are leaves and some are just ovals.  I love the mix of colors.

I can't have enough seed beads.  Ever.  Period. :)

The camera doesn't show it so well, but these just glisten in all shades of colors.  They are gorgeous!

I thought these long, curved pieces of jasper were so unique...I've never seen beads like this before.  Of course I had to have them!

I bought these because next to blues and purples, I love shades of green.

If you have any splendid ideas for me on what to do with any of these, please feel free to let me know!  Like I said, I didn't get them with any special plans in mind...I got them because I was drawn to them.  Maybe tomorrow's time will be spent just going through my colors and sorting this and that to see what speaks to me next.