Out of the Flames Giveaway!

Lori Cook of Out of the Flames has hit a milestone for her blog...150 posts!  To celebrate she is giving away a very lovely set of a bracelet and earrings.  All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on her blog, and maybe you'll be the lucky one.

My thought of the day...if the government shuts down this weekend, does that mean there won't be any mail service either?  That could really screw A LOT of people up.  My other thought...I'm super pissed off that Congress will get their checks on time but our servicemen and women won't.  How f'ed up is that???!!!  Ok...enough of politics.  I think it's the very first time I've ever mentioned politics here on my blog, and I probably won't ever do it again.  At least not for a very long time!  Unless they really make me angry again. lol

sharing a giveaway...come look!

As you have read recently, I am delving into the world of polymer clay.  Can I tell you how many times i typed "polymer clay", "polymer clays beads", and all other variations into google?  I found a blog over on Wordpress that has an amazing tutorial series on African Trade Beads with polymer clay.  At the same time my friend Beth kept mentioning the name Marie Segal to me.  Then Marie came and visited my blog here on blogger, so I went and visited her blog (also on Blogger).  Wouldn't you know it???  It's the same blog that is on Wordpress, and even though Beth had mentioned her name several times I didn't make the connection...it was Marie's blog!!!  Then to have Marie come visit my blog in the meantime.  How funny.  Small world!  Anyhoo, on Marie's blogger blog (not Wordpress), she is having a giveaway of one of her pieces she created using her polymer clay canes.  It's really beautiful!  I want to win it for myself, of course, but it's so pretty that I thought you should see it too.  Just go see her on her blogger blog (not the Wordpress one) at Art From My Heart for a chance to win.  And while you're there take a look-see at some of the other wonderful things she has done.  Good luck!

And the winner is....

I wish that I had something to give away to every one of you.  I received such nice comments from so many people and I could tell that a lot of you really did want to win this bracelet.  When I decided to do this giveaway, I wanted it to be something really nice.  I had this cuff listed in my shops for quite a long time.  It got lots and lots of looks, but I'm guessing the price tag must have put people off.  That's when I thought that rather sit and collect dust any longer (don't worry...it's been put away and not really dusty), I'd give it to one of my blogger friends.  The bad news is that there was only one Drops of Honey bracelet.  But the good news?  I've got a couple more cuffs that are sitting in my shops collecting dust.  They will make great giveaways for other milestones, right?  So there will be more chances to win something.

I used a number generator from random.org.  There were 25 entries and on the click of the button, it was number 4.  Congratulations......Mandy!!!!   Mandy is currently on a quest to learn and post something new every day for a year.  Why don't you go visit her blog, Beads for Brains, and take a look at the things she has done.

Last chance to enter my giveaway!

WIN ME!!!

I'm excited about the giveaway.  Remember, if you want to get in on the fun and have a chance to win my Drops of Honey embroidered cuff, deadline is tonight.  So hurry and get your name in the hat.  Go to the previous post for all the details!

I'm also excited about the new things I will be creating soon.  I have decided to jump head first into the pool of polymer clay.  I've seen such amazing things come from polyclay that I wanted to give it a go and see what I can do.  I am in no way, shape, or form talented in the area of painting, so making amazingly painted face cabs like Beth over at Bellesanbeaus is definitely out...but, I think I can mix clays and techniques to make some pretty cool polyclay beads and focals.  I'm hoping the birthday fairie (my daddy) comes this month.  I have on my wish list a pasta machine that I saw at Hobby Lobby, an extruder, some little cookie cutters and, of course, lots of colors of clay.  I bought a few blocks of clay about 2 weeks ago along with some tools and a bead roller.  I learned one important lesson already.  Don't use Fimo Classic!  It is soooooo hard and is nearly impossible to get soft enough to work with.  Fortunately I only bought one of those.

I have 2 books about polyclay beads on order at the library.  One of them came in and I'm going to try to get hubby to take me to the library to pick it up.  I can't drive myself....had a scare yesterday morning.  I got up early and went to the corner store.  I have no a/c so I was driving with the windows down.  I heard a swoosh-swoosh-swoosh sound coming from my tire as I was driving along.  I thought that maybe i need some air in the tire.  They sometimes make that sound if the air is too low.  Went home, got Sami ready for school and was headed out the door to take her to school.  I decided to take another look at my tire.  I bent over, put my hand on the tire as I started looking at it, and OUCH!!!!  Something cut me!!!  Holy crow...my tire is almost shredded!  The wires are coming through and the tire is all cracked around the side wall!!!!  I am sooooo lucky my tire hasn't exploded and come off already!  Especially on the freeway or something.  How dangerous is that?!  So, to make a long story short, I will not be driving my car until we can afford some new tires and I will be depending on my DH to take me where I need to go (I don't drive his van).  Sooooo I am excited about picking up the one book that came in and drooling over the pretties and learning whatever I can.  I will keep you all posted.

Also, I have learned how to make PDF patterns for beadwoven pieces.  I have made a pattern of my Wrapped in Red netted collar necklace and a pattern for my hematite flat spiral bracelet.  If you'd like to take a look, they are in my Artfire shop here.  And, I had some pros review my first patterns.  They were gracious enough to take the time to guide me along, give some critiques and suggestions, etc. to make sure that my patterns are as professional as possible.  Thank you Nicole from Beadwright and Kathy from England!!!  You two were my angels these past few days, helping me with something new.

Ok, kids.  I'm going to head off for now.  I have been rambling today, haven't I? :)  Don't forget...go to the previous post and enter the giveaway if you haven't already!

Giveaway Celebration!!!

Can you believe it?  I have reached 100 posts!  When I started this blog, October 31st of 2009, I had no idea what I would write about on a regular basis, if anyone would ever read what I had to say, or how long I would continue to do it.  So far it has been a great journey!  I have met so many wonderful people and made such good friends through the blog world.  It has been great for me because I don't get out much, and I have never been good at meeting people.  Maybe it's just that I don't put myself in situations to be able to meet new people.  I live a very sheltered life, even having gone through almost 2 years of severe agoraphobia where I barely even left my room let alone went out and spoke to someone.

I have so very much enjoyed writing, reading your comments, emailing you back and talking about things and then visiting your blogs and getting to know you through your posts.  I appreciate your friendships very much.  In return for your kindness, I would like to give away one of my pieces.  I thought about making something new, but all of you probably already know I am really short on funds, and I didn't want to skimp on anything.  I wanted to give away something special.  So what I have decided to do is take one of my cuffs out of my online shops and give it away to one of my readers for my 100th Post Celebration.  I am giving away one of my bead embroidered cuffs that I call "Drops of Honey".  It is one of my favorites.  I just love the shell discs.  The colors are so rich and creamy...they look just like nice big dollops of honey to me.  Here are some photos of it:

What do you think?  Do you like it?  It is made with an aluminum cuff base with microsuede on the inside.  It could be yours!  All you have to do is be (or become) a follower here on my blog and leave me a comment...make sure you tell me how to reach you in the event you are the winner.  If you'd like a 2nd chance to win, post this to your blog with a link to the post, and I'll even do a 3rd chance to win by sharing to your Facebook page (you'll have to friend me, too.)  Leave me a separate comment for each of your 3 ways to win so I can keep an easy count.  I will do a random number generator to pick the winner.

The deadline for entering my giveaway is going to be Saturday, April 2nd at midnight EST.  I will ship this anywhere, so everyone is welcome to enter.  I will announce the winner on Sunday, April 3rd.  I hope you like my giveaway, and I hope to see lots of entries to make my celebration a party.

Thank you again for making my blogging experience a great one!!!

New Opportunity

I'm sorry if I haven't gotten to everyone's blog posts this weekend.  Please forgive me.  I ask that you all keep my family in your thoughts, prayers, send hugs...whatever it is that you do.  It was an extremely traumatic weekend, and I will never be the same. 

I went out with my mil and daughter today for a day out, trying to carry on and forcing myself to not sit and think.  It was a good day for the most part.  Samantha, who hardly ever goes out with us, went and she got pretty spoiled.  A new haircut, some clothes, a flat iron, body wash, and a smoothie to top it off.  Oh!  And a Buzz Lightyear bubble wand from Michael's!  lol.  We were standing there and the display was in front of us while we were waiting for my mil.  I jokingly asked her if she wanted one.  She said yes!  Even 15 year olds need bubbles in their lives, right?  I bought the bubbles and a little package of fimo clay.  I had my 25% off purchase coupon in my hand and the man behind me said he would buy my coupon off me.  I thought he was joking at first, but he wasn't.  At first he said he would split his savings difference with me (his order before the coupon was almost $80), but I felt guilty about that.  My things only came to $5.98, so I said I'd be more than happy with a fiver.  He was so happy and willing to do that!  lol.  It worked out for both of us...He saved a bunch and I got mine for 98 cents!

On to my new opportunity.  We have an art district here in my town with lots of artsy fartsy things, jewelry, clothing, southwest stuff, a few souvenir shops, lots of paintings, pottery and other artwork.  My mil yesterday went into two of the shops and while she was there asked the people if they use work from local artists in their shops.  She said her dil does really wonderful jewelry and beadwork.  (Thank you, Linda) They said to bring it in.  We went into one shop, and the shop owner (Nooshie) was a very sweet, outgoing woman.  She looked at my things I had packed up.  She is putting 3 of my things in her jewelry case with my business cards (no rent for shelf space) and showing them on consignment.  We really had a hard time discussing prices, though.  I got the short end of the stick.  On one hand she's stressing to me how she wants everything to be sterling silver and then she's talking about how other artists sell her things dirt cheap.  Sterling silver and dirt cheap don't go well together.  I gave her my pieces well below what I feel they are worth and lower than what they are listed for in my shops (barely even over my costs), but if I sell them then I get to buy more beads.  I don't know how to buy good quality beads cheaply.  What's wrong with silver plated components anyways?

We ended up not going to the 2nd shop because they were closed and not going to be back for a couple hours.

I would really love to have conversation on this, so please leave your comments and tell me your thoughts/experiences.


ONE MORE POST TILL THE BIG 100TH POST CELEBRATION!  I hope you all join me...keep watching for it.

Go Team!

Guess what!  I am on a team!  I am so out of shape and unathletic it's a real good thing that it's not a sports team.  No, definitely not one of those!  I joined a team on Etsy called Saturday Night Sellers.  This team does sales in their shops from 5 p.m. EST on Saturdays until 6:00 a.m. EST the next morning.  Fun, huh?  I love sales!  I will tell you all that my sale this week will be 15% off anything in my store...even the bead embroidered bracelet that is already marked down.  So that item is a double sale.  The coupon code will be sns032611.  If you've been looking at something in my shop, tomorrow night just may be the day you would want to get it.  Also, if you want to see other sales in other shops, just click on "community" at the top of the Etsy page and do a team search for Saturday Night Sellers.  There will be posts of sales there for you to look at.  Also, I probably won't run a sale every Saturday night, so come now while the gittin's good!

We are just a couple more posts away from my giveaway!  Keep coming back, and tell your friends to come keep an eye out to see what's up for grabs.  I think it's a pretty good one, if I do say so myself!

Branching Out...again

Hi, all.  Hope everyone has been having a great week.  Things will be changing around my house.  My son and his girlfriend finally got a car yesterday!  That means my taxi service duties will drastically be cut down.  I'm really excited about that!  That's all the news I have from the home front. 

But in the beady world I have decided to do something new.  Do you remember how I had bead embroidery videos up on that video website (not youtube)?  And then how I took them down because I thought they were crooks?  Well, I had someone ask about them, so what I decided to do was post them on another blog.  I wanted to see what Wordpress was like, and was thinking maybe I'd be able to meet a whole new group of people besides all you wonderful ones here on Blogger.  So I started a Wordpress blog, and I have decided to start posting my bead embroidery video series on it.  I am hosting through youtube, but I have the videos marked as "unlisted", which means you can't search for them on youtube.  The only way you (and all your friends you tell about it *wink*) is by going to my new blog and watching them from there.  I've only got a couple up right now, but if you bookmark the page you can keep coming back and checking for more.

Is there something other than bead embroidery you would like to see a video of?  Leave me your comments and suggestions and maybe I can make a video of your request.  To go to my Wordpress blog, click here. 

Also trying to think of what I should have for my giveaway for reaching 100 posts.  hmmmm. what to do, what to do.  Such dilemmas I have these days.

Blogger went haywire on me

I just had a really weird thing happen.  I made a post 3 days ago and thought that nobody liked what I had to show because just one person left a comment.  I went to look at the post from my dashboard because I needed the link to give to someone, and it said that my post was still in edit and not published!  I thought how weird is that because one person did comment on it.  Then I scrolled through the blogroll, and sure enough it showed up as having been posted 3 days ago.  But then it was mysteriously in edit mode.  hmmmm.  I'm very confused.  Not that it takes much these days.  But anyhow, I just wanted to let you know if you haven't seen it, or tried to see it and it wasn't there, please look at my previous post.  I showed something I made that's actually not beading.  And some updated info on the contest I'm in.  Please go have a look-see. 

Something a little different

Did you know that I had a life of hand crafts before beads?  lol.  Yes, it's true.  I did lots of things before I did beads.  I was downloading pics off a flash drive from my dearly departed desktop the other day, and I came across a photo of one of my projects.  I learned how to do a technique called "filet crochet".  Have you ever heard of it?  It used to be wildly popular back in the day to make table runners, sofa arm covers, doilies, wall hangings, etc.

Filet crochet uses a series of chains and double chains to make a grid of open and closed squares.  The closed squares create a picture.  I found this free pattern that dated back to the Victorian era!  How neat is that?  The string is not black as it looks in the photo.  It is actually navy blue...the closest I could find to indigo. :)  It is quite big.  If I remember correctly it is about 22" long and I think 14" tall.  Something like that.  I am embarrassed to say it is folded up in my closet somewhere.  I really should frame this one.  Last I saw it, though, the folded side facing up was dusty so I would need to figure out how to clean it without completely destroying it first.  Here's a photo of my filet crochet Victorian Dragon...

I liked this patter so much, in fact, that I converted it into beading patterns for both peyote and loom/square stitch.  Both are for sale (just $4!!!!!).  If you would like to see (and consider buying) these patterns, just click here for the loom/square stitch and here for the peyote.  Because I am soooo creative (lol) I have them on the first page under "2 Tone Dragon". 


Now, I want to thank those of you who have voted for me so very much! Right now I am in the lead!  Yea!!! You have left some really awesome comments, and it sure was an instant warm fuzzy! However, some people have come to me because they aren't sure what to put in the blanks in order to cast a vote.  When you click here to see my entry page, scroll to the bottom of the page.  You will then see this:

The first blank is for your name.  You don't even have to put your whole name if you don't want to.  The second blank says "mail" and it is for your email address.  It won't be published.  The third space says "website" and you can leave that blank.  Then, just fill in a comment and click the submit button.  Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy!

Here's a reminder of my entry...Remember...the use of tagua beads (the type of beads this contest is promoting and giving away) SAVES THE LIVES OF ELEPHANTS!!!  It's a great cause.

AND
Did you know that I'm getting close to my 100th post?  Do you know what that means?  Yep!!!  It's going to be giveaway time!!!  So stay tuned...it's coming soon.