a good time was had by all.......

we did a very untraditional Christmas eve  this year, since my daughter was working, and couldn't be with us, my hubby desided we would go to the casino to play a bit and have the sea food  buffett, he gave me and our son each a hundred dollars to play on, but mine didn't go very far, it just wasn't my day to win.  But my son did really well, he won a  950.00 jackpot! I was really happy for him, since he doesn't have a job yet, this will keep him going for a while,  my hubby did ok too, leaving a few hundred dollars over what he started with!  Dinner was wonderful, this place has the best buffett food I have ever had, the sea food is so fresh and yummy, salmom done about six different ways, the same with shrimp,  oysters on the half shell, and pan fried, mussels, steamed clams and fried ones, crawfish cajun style several different types of crab legs......prime rib, and rib eye steak, and a desert bar to die for......
   I did a traditional Christmas dinner, and it was so nice to have both kids home to share it with, its been a very long time since we have had Christmas as a whole family
  My daughter works for a very up scale grocery store, so she bought my christmas gift with a  gift certificate she got from her work, a big basket of gourmet goodies, including some Belgian fruit beers in bottles that look like small champagne bottles, they even had corks in the bottles, under neath the  metal caps......I has one with dinner tonight is was Pomme Lambic,(apple beer) it was so good, it was amazing, can't wait to try the other two .......one is peach and the other raspberry........its cool getting to try things I would never other wise try because of the expense, she got to use her employee discount on top of using her gift card so it didn't cost her anything, and it was a very nice gift!  And she was very happy with her goodies as well, she had hinted she was wanting a toaster oven, so that was her main gift, then I shopped all year long looking for small goodies I thought she would like, and also made her some  jewelery (some thing she just expects) I think her favorite was a pair of earrings I made from some poly clay kitties like the figurines you see in chinese  restraunts, she has commented  that she would like a figurine the last time we took my dad out for dinner.........so I thought she would like them, and she did

Christmas came early at my house!

A few weeks ago Juli from Julsbeads ran a special, limited to the first five people to respond, if I remember correctly it was 30% off of her skills on the torch for one day..........well I responded in time to be #2, and these beautiful beads are the result..........I haven't made up my mind which are my favorite, the funky little birds remind me of the birds depicted by the northwest native americans in their totem poles and the like.....
And the cross focal is destined to belong to my sister inlaw, if I can part with it.......it just looks like something she would love to wear, and the tabular focal and accent beads on the right hand side are just so beautiful, I think they will be mine fore sure.........looks like I am in for some fun times beading real soon!
   I had a suprise yesterday, I got a phone call from my son in Las Vegas, he wants to come "home" he has lived in Vegas now for about 8 or 9 years, and he really misses the northwest, all our trees and rivers and the ocean.........it just finally got to him I guess, so at this moment he is layed over in LA but should be here some time soon, can't wait to see him, it will be nice to have both of my children close to home again! What a wonderful Christmas present!
  I hope all of you have as wonderful a Christmas as I have been lucky to have!!!

early Christmas present

my christmas gift from my husband was delivered today by UPS.........and it was exactly what I wanted, he got me a nook, and I love it , I've already downloaded close to 50 books into it, I bought a couple, but Barns and Nobel has a pretty big list of free books, even a few I have heard of, so I got a couple cook books, and a bunch of fiction, its amazing how fast they downloaded, I ordered them from an email, and they went directly to the nook........I've already finished reading the first book I bought, its almost 2:00 am, I should be in bed, but can't sleep, so guess I will start another book.....

old friends

a few months ago, actually back before my dad passed away, an old friend from my distant past, contacted me.......She was my best friend during my childhood years, and teen years.........we drifted apart as we moved in different directions, she went to Seattle, I moved to Portland........we got together once on thanksgiving at my moms house, when my kids were about 5 and 6, we haven't seen each other since, its been about 25 years.......So she was in town yesterday, and we got together for lunch, had a great time, and discovered we are both jewelery makers, she is more into metal work, chain male and the like, I am a bead weaver, but starting to branch out into a little metal work myself,(going to teach myself torch enameling) She brought me a strand of mauve pearls she had just hand knotted, they are beautiful.....and she picked out a pair of beaded earrings from my stock pile.....we went window shopping and had a wonderful time.........wish we lived closer, it would be nice to get together to make jewelery together.........I was amazed that we just seemed to pick up where we left off all those years ago........So I guess I got my Christmas present early........getting my old friend back!!!

I won't be able to submit a picture of the finished piece, for the jewelery swap, because I didn't get to do it yet, we have been working on my work space, I bought a complicated armoire thing called a scrapbox, its nice with lots of storage, but we haven't figured out lighting for it, and my room it is in has bad lighting, and my eye sight is failing, so need to use a mag light for beading, so haven't gotten my project finished yet, sorry
    As soon as my work area is well lit, I will get my swap project finished,  and put some pics up

Norma's zoo

I am beginning to feel like I am running a zoo........it started out with two kittens, back in August.......they were tiny black and white tuxedo babies. Now they are 1/2 grown cats getting big and sleek and beautiful, and very spoiled, then the day before halloween, my hubby bought me a Pom puppy, black and tan, he looks like a walking powder puff on speed, he is so hyper........Then last night he brought home a short haired tiny kitten that has obviously been surviving on its own for a while, it was almost hit by a car on his job site, so he rescued it and of course brought it home to me she is mostly white with dark gray and orange spots, I would have named her moo, because of the spots, but hubby insists on lucky..........let me tell you my original two cats are pretty pissed to say the least,(please excuse the language)but it fits they are very angry not only do they hiss and swat at the two new babies, they also hiss and swat at me, and these were my babies..........I am sad they are so upset, the puppy is driving me crazy......I never pictured myself with a foo foo dog, (old lady dog), but I guess its official now I am an old lady, I was at the casino the other day, and found out I an now considered a senior by them, I get the senior discount..........much to my hubbies delight, he thinks its funny, he told me it was ok to have an old lady dog, cause I was officially an old lady now..........I turned 55 on my last b-day.........I'm sure once the puppy is older he might calm down a bit     (I can only hope)......he is adorable, every where we go he gets all kinds of compliments, he smiles all the time.........and can he ever scream, he met my grandsons dog,.....a large mutt of some kind, and scared the poor thing to death, my puppy started screaming at the top of his lungs, so loud he had my ears ringing, we were all cracking up it was so funny. Ok........ I thank you for letting me vent, I'm sure things will improve in time, as the critters all start maturing, I need to take the two older ones in to be spayed and neutered, and I need to take the younger two in for their first visit to the vet, I guess it will have to be three trips, so as to not have a war going on in my pet carriers.........I asked my hubby last night, what he was bringing home next time..........with him, the thought kind of scares me

playing with clay

digging through some of my unpacked boxes, I ran across some poly clay, from about 15 years ago, when my son and I tried our hands at making beads (really ugly beads)......well I decided to see if it was still good, so I kneaded it for a while and rolled it out and used some of my new rubber stamps to put a textural design on it, then used a plastic tube that a pair of ergonomic tweezers came in,( it is square shaped with rounded edges) to cut tiles out with.....then put holes in to one corner of each tile, and baked them....they looked ok, the design  on them looked good, but they were just plain matt grey colored, not too interesting. so then I went to my local michaels and got some Rubn'Buff, in antique gold, and used some of that to high light the raised portions of the pattern, it looked much better, but then decided to cover the edges and back as well.
Now I am happy with them, and plan to use them as dangles on earrings, I even made a pair to try them out.
  I just got my beads from Juls from Juls beads, I bought her skills on the torch for a day, and all I can say is wow, wow, wow!!! they are so beautiful! I used one of the earring pairs I got from her to make the above mentioned earrings and will post pictures as soon as I get some taken......

.waiting isn't easy

last friday I contacted Juls Cannon, about her offer to sell a days worth of her talent on the torch, I have ordered beads from her in the past and love them......so thought I would really love a whole days worth of beady suprises from her, I am so excited to see what she has made!!! because I really have no idea what she might come up with, other than I requested some focals and earring pairs-I will combine the earring pairs with the copper domed disks, I am planning on making as soon as all my supplies get here..........I found out my hubby has to teach a class on Saturday.........so my new work area/ storage  armoire won't get done till maybe Sunday, if I am lucky....it sure isn't easy waiting, but I'm sure one of these days I'll be doing the happy dance all over the house!!!! if the wait doesn't kill me first

getting back to my beading

I was checking out someones blog recently, and she was showing her studio, and her work area and storage....she mentioned she had gotten several or her studio items from overstock.com.........so I checked them out, and found  something called a workbox crafting  cabinet, I think it was intended for scrapbooking, but I thought it would fill my needs for beading and jewelery making as it has lots of storage and a work desk all in an armoire so I bit the bullet and ordered it, ..........it was kind of scary, as it was more money than I have ever spent on a single piece of furniture, and it was just for me, hard to justify, but I did it ......then had second thoughts a few days later and tried to cancel, but it was already on its way to me..........then I got a call from the company trying to deliver it to me, only to find out it would be coming in a semi truck, my house is in a neighborhood not accessible by a semi........so I had to have my hubby pick it up in Portland at the airport, and bring it home to me here in Longview..........so now it is sitting in the garage waiting for time when my hubby can take apart the big corner computer desk I have been using to bead on, and then put together this new cabinet........it will be beautiful, as it is nice quality furniture.........not some particle board type thing, its real wood, and an amazing amount of storage...........my only concern is lighting for the work area, but I guess we will deal with that after its all done.........I am anxious, to get it together......I want to start creating again.....I have bought some books on metal work, and want to try my hand at etching copper, and making some of my own jewelery findings......maybe even learn to do enameling.......I am slowly getting  my tools and other equipment together to do the etching, I have ordered the chemicals, got some copper blanks and a dapping block, I have a permanent ink stamp ordered, and have some really nice stamps, and I am getting excited...........I guess my muse has resurfaced!...........come on weekend hurry up and get here, I have some  honey- do's for hubby, and I want to create!!!

cute pumpkin bead give away

Raida  from Havana Beads is having a give away for these beautiful little pumpkin beads......I just love them!

give away

go check out love my art jewelery.......they are having a give away!

my "helpers"

here is a picture of my two helpers.............scrappy is the one on the left is the female, scruffy on the right is her brother, here they are helping me unpack my beads, they are always willing to go chasing after any beads trying to make a fast get away!

Its been a while

Its been a while since I last added a post to my Blog.........since my dad passed away, I haven't really felt much like beading or blogging. Life has been changing.......  I was made executor of my dads will, and was surprised to find he hadn't mentioned my older brother in his will......My brother has been kind of estranged from our family for a very long time, he had a mid life crisis, quit his job, left his wife of over 30 yrs, moved to Texas and married his "high school sweetheart" He was never much of a family person, and didn't treat the family very well.....so I guess dad didn't think he deserved a mention in his will......due to this fact, the will had to go into probate......so now we wait to see if he contests the will, if he doesn't, I guess in about six months everything will officially be mine.........
  So if seems life has come full circle for me, I have moved back to my home town, that part wasn't too difficult, as I was unemployed, and my hubby has a job where he works from home and out in the field (field supervisor for a flagging company) so it doesn't matter if he lives in Oregon or Washington, they have offices in both states.
  The hard part for me is going through all the memories as I sort through my parents accumulation of 56 years, and pack it away for storage till probate is through, and at the same time unpack my life to fill in the spaces I open up as I pack their lives away...........some days I sit with watery eyes and runny nose, going through old photos and greeting cards my mom has saved.......and after she passed away dad continued to save........so much stuff.......
   About a week after my dad passed away, my kitty Mokie also died......he hadn't been well for a long time, but it was still a shock..........about a month later two kittens came into my life, it was pretty lonely living here by myself while my hubby was packing things up in Oregon, so now I have to cyclone kitties, scruffy and scrappy, a male and a female, litter mates, medium coated tuxedo cats, they are cute and crazy as kitten usually are, and way too much "help" in the unpacking, and packing ..........I now have all my furniture for my beading space here and pretty much set up, had to leave some  furniture behind due to lack of space, but its ok...........now I just need to find all my beads and put them back in their places..........then maybe I can see if I can find my muse, it seems as though she is either packed away, or got left behind in Oregon........

My dad passed away last Monday, after being in the hospital for five days,  he was just tired of being alone, I know he hasn't been happy since my mom passed four years ago.......but he had heart surgery for me two years ago, he had asked me what I wanted him to do, I told him I love you dad, and if it was up to me you would be here with me forever, but you have to do what is right for you, if you feel it is time and you are ready to be with mom, I would have to understand and accept, but I would miss you very much.......so he had the aorta replacement, although he did sign a DNR......He also had renal failure so he knew even with the surgery his time would be limited......with this illness and me not knowing he was ill for five days into it, he was extremely dehydrated, causing his kidneys to almost completely shut down....and he started refusing food........we had decided on hospice and I had gone into the hospital to discuss it with a social worker......and was signing the papers when dad just quit breathing, he didn't want to be messed with any more.......he went peacefully Thank God........no pain...... he went quietly, as I would have expected, he was always a quiet  calm man in life, I loved and looked up to him, he was the most honest respectable good man, I have ever known................I miss him so much

I don't know if I will be around much for quite a while......I had to admit  my dad to the hospital yesterday, he is 82, and lives on his own, and has done a pretty good job of taking care of himself since my mom passed away a few years ago, he lives in Washington, and I live in Oregon,  we keep in contact by phone , and I visit him every other weekend, financially I just can't afford it more often (I'm unemployed) I had called him on Wed this week, to see how he was.....we were having some pretty hot weather. he told me he had had the flu, but thought he was getting better, so I said I would call him again that evening, when I did he sounded a bit worse to me, but he continued to say he was ok, so I told him I would call again in the morning and if I didn't hear any improvment, I was driving up there and dragging his fanny to see his dr........so I called and he sounded worse to me, I drove up he looked kind of  washed out, and I could tell he had lost weight, so we made an appt for 1:30, he went and changed clothes, came back out and sat in his chair and acted a bit winded from the efforts of changing....we still had a couple hours till his app, about an hour before time we decided to go.........he got up from his chair and his pants fell down to his knees......he had lost enough weight his pants were too big,  and when he tried to walk he lost his balance and then couldn't turn around to get back to his chair......so sat on the arm and kind of flopped into it......now I am getting scared and for once he is too, he can be so pig headed  sometimes, but I think he realized he had held out too long this time.....I called an ambulance , being afraid to even attempt to help him to my car.....so now he is in intensive care, he was admitted for dehydration, which complicated an existing renal failure condition, he is not getting enough oxygen his blood pressure is extremely low.....and my daddy looks like a bewildered baby bird laying in his hospital bed.....I am scared he isn't going to pull through this time......and even though I am 54 yrs old, he is my rock.....I may be married to someone that loves me and is there for me to lean on , but this is the man that has been the constant in my life all of my life.....they are going to try a dyalasis( sp?) treatment tomorrow morning to try and get his kidneys jump started......if that doesn't work, I don't know what will happen he had a dnr order, so they can't do anything to resusitate him if he begins to fail.....I know he is tired of living and ready to let go, he misses mom, and he would not be happy if he was not able to care for himself any more......I am trying to come to terms with this and let him go if it is his will, I think that is why he didn't call me  and let me know he was sick........so in a way I feel guilty for making him go through the indignity of everything that he has to endure while in the hospital.......thinking maybe he was hoping to die in his home......with out all the stuff he is going through now.. I just know I love him and know I don't  know  how to deal with this.....my imediate family will be pretty much all gone except for me and my two kids, and my hubby of course......
   I'm sorry for the rambling, I know nobody wants to read this, I just can't talk to anyone in my "real" life right now

Roofydoof give away

Karyn at Roofydoof is having a give away to celebrate  having 100 followers to her blog!She is giving away 4 sets of beautiful fused glass cabs......just comment, follow and mention the give away to be entered to win!
Congratulations Karyn!!!!!

The Game

FDEKSZER AND FAIRYDREAMS JEWELLERY  is having a game on her site, you choose a peyote bracelet pattern from her Etsy site and then blog about the game and leave a comment saying which pattern you would like to have and your blog info......and she will send you the pattern, pretty cool, and she has amazing designs.... I chose cappaccino the design in the photo! it was really hard to make up my mind she had so many cool designs

neclkace from Vivi Bijoux

the necklace I won from Virginie, at Vivi Bijoux arrived in the mail today, and it is so cute I just love it! she had it packaged really cute too, a nice white box, with a zebra striped fabric bow, and a tag that said made with love.........and inside the box was the beautiful necklace inside a zebra striped fabric draw string bag , that I think she must have made, (very cute) and she sent a pretty note card with a sweet letter........thank you so much Virginie! it was like christmas in july! its so much fun getting goodies in the mail!

give aways.

yesterday I spent the day with my daughter we went to visit my dad and she took us out to lunch for a late mothers day/ fathers day celebration.......we all had a real nice time, I got home late yesterday evening, stopped to check the mail, and there was a package, I couldn't figure out what it was, I wasn't expecting anything, so I tore into it to see what it was..........it was a necklace I had won from a blog giveaway from March........I had kind of given up on ever getting it, figured the mail gremlins had gotten it
but here it was in all its big funky "chunky monkey" glory. That is the name RockHill Designs had given it, its made with all kinds of stone nuggets, a nice large smooth oval focal, some fresh water pearls, and hilltribe silver accents. Its big and weighty and different from the jewelery I normally wear, but I think it will be a fun addition to my "jewelery collection". Thank you RockHill Designs!
Then I was checking my email and found out I had won another blog give away, this time it was from Lisa at Lucid Moon Studios a 25.00 credit in one of her Etsy stores! think I need to buy a lottery ticket! who knows the run of luck might still be working??? Thank you Lisa!!
I've checked out her stores and she has some cool stuff, but can't make up my mind, there are some earrings I really love, and there is a poly clay framed resin pendant that I know my mother inlaw would love, so now I need to make up my mind if I want to be selfish, or generous and share my good fortune......hmmm

Rainbow Brights

I got my Rainbow Brights, beads from Juls today in the mail........they are incredibly vibrant and totally beautiful, they do look good enough to eat! , opening the package was like a mini party in its self........the beads were wrapped in multi colored tissue paper and tied with a bow, she gave me an extra rainbow focal (a wonky bead, but I love it!) and it was also gift wrapped and there was also a yummy chocolate mint, all of this was inside a cute little bag tied with another bow, a very nice presentation! thanks Juls!
I've been playing with the extra bead since I picked up the mail, I think its going to be a necklace......

Happy Dance.......

I'm so excited, I just found out I won the bead soup give away from Virginie at Vivi Bijoux she was offering a beautiful necklace she made with a lampwork bead made by Lynn Bauter......it is just beautiful! I love it, thank you so much Virginie!

And the winner is............

the winner for my necklace giveaway is Lynn, from Beading Heart Art please email me your mailing information, and I will get your goodies off in the mail! thanks everyone for stopping by with your comments! the bead soup party was a real blast! hope we can do it again its a good way to stretch your beading bounderies, and to get your work out there and seen by your peers.......its always fun

times running out........

there is still a few hours to leave a comment on my blog to be entered to win the necklace and earrings........drawing will be sunday morning...........so come on by and leave a comment!

julsbeads

Woo Hoo I just bought some beads from Julianna Cannon at julsbeads........a few posts back she showed some beautiful rainbow focals and I fell in love with them........well she is having a sale and I bought a set, one of the rainbow focals and some rainbow colored spacers......I am so excited!!!

ok.......where is everyone?

hmmmm........where is every one? thought I would have a few more people comment to get in on my give away.....you still have one more day, you haven't missed out yet! just leave a comment on my blog to be entered to win, I'll be using my random selection machine (the hubby.....pick a number between 1 and.......) on sunday so hurry on over and leave a comment!

jumping on the give away bandwagon

I thought I would try my hand at the give away thing......So I made a necklace and some matching earrings (you can just barely see the earrings at the top of the pic) Any way it is a y necklace with chinese crystals in various shades of green with silver tone chain and a few round silver links.....just leave a comment with your name and I will randomly select a winner at the end of the bead soup party!

The Best Bead Give Away Ever!!!

Denise at Denise Yezbak Moore is having an amazing bead give away!!! 7 1/2 lbs of beads, over 350.00 worth of beads...........So head on over to her blog and check out this amazing generous give away!

M M Good, my soup is done!

here is my finished bead soup, the focal was a large round flat bead, I treated it like a cabochon I had some olive rondels and some pale green ovals for accents, these were my bead soup ingredients, I added two beaded beads, some fresh water pearls, and some crystals and a few glass leaves to spice things up a bit!

Bead Soup Sneak Peek........

here is a sneak peek at my bead soup project...........I will reveal a hopefully much clearer picture tomorrow morning!

trying new things......

this past year has been a year of learning new things.....I have been unemployed going on two years now......and I have made so much jewelery that I don't know what to do with it all, so I am trying my hand at online marketing, which I know nothing about......AND it shows terribly, both in my blog and my store front......I have no idea how to design a blog page or a store front so both are abysmal and totally boring....I am awful at photography.......I would prefer to do a farmers market type thing, but I guess everyone is doing it now and there are no openings for jewelery makers locally.......
Any way enough boo hoos ........ I have been trying to work outside my comfort zone and teach myself new techniques, this morning at 3:30 am, when I should have been sleeping, I was trying my hand at beaded beads, I taught myself my own version of spinning tops a couple weeks ago, and added a couple to my bead soup creation!!! this morning I was learning how to do a simple woven bead from Carol Wilcox Wells book The Art & Elegance of Beadweaving.......... the first try turned out a bit wonky........so I ripped it apart, the second one was a bit better, but too much thread was showing, I guess the third time is a charm, it turned out ok.......still not perfect, but I have made a couple more and each one looks a bit better......so who knows? I might actually figure it out........I think I'll try embelished netted beads next.....
Oh Yeah.......I forgot the reason for this post was to say I am in the first group of the bead soup
groups.....so will be showing my my finished soup on Saturday the 19th!!!

Bead Wisperer

its amazing how disorganized a person can get......I blogged a while back about trying to get my beading space organized.......hubby had brought a label maker home from work to help me get all my little drawers labeled and organized, well he finally just bought me my own label maker, and I have almost got all the drawers labeled, its taking time because as I label, I am consolidating beads, that have been in other places........I didn't realize just how many beads I have till I started this project......it doesn't mean they are all beads I want to have though........because these are a compilation of over 30 years of beads, so that includes many beady mistakes, the good buys, that were just too good to be true.......the beady gifts from well meaning relatives, ect.....ect...one of my major problems is buying beady grab bags from Fire Mountain Gems.....I should know better my most recent stupid buy was some metal findings with swarovski accents......it was some thing like a quarter pound and there were a couple pieces with crystals, the rest of the bag were the toggle half of about 100 toggle clasps......what do you do with 1/2 of a toggle clasp? I'm thinking a charm bracelet with toggles as the charm? don't know........ A older native gentleman I had the pleasure of sitting next to on a bead buying road trip once told me that the grab bags were just floor sweepings, I guess I should have believed him.......any way, I am now working on all my findings trying to consolidate them........and sort them by type and style ect.....they were spread between about 4 or 5 big cases, because I had been gifted by two different people with their bead stashes and hadn't gotten around to getting it all together till now, I've been up since 4:00 am doing this with a couple breaks.....still not done
but I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel......think I need a bead wisperer......to help the beads get where they belong.....go into the drawers you will be happy there.....

Copper Diem one pound of beady goodness!!!

Copper Diem is having a give away, one pound of beady goodness! go check it out!

a few more things.....

I found this brass reproduction opium bottle at Michaels, and really liked it so made a diamond rope chain for it with green turquoise disks and blue turquoise rounds, I think it turned out really well!










I found this clay sand dollar whistle at the beach at curio shop......it is made by an Oregon clay artist, unfortunately I lost the information on her, this is just a simple strung piece with crystals seed beads, pearls, and several different glass sea shell beads......I am so wanting to go to the beach, so am making do with some beach themed bead work.....its not quite working.....

woo hoo it feels like summer, finally!

Wow, it seems like the seasons just change over night, one day down pours of rain, the next 80 degrees and beautiful bright blue skies....... although tomorrow its supposed to be over cast again, maybe not rainy though? can always hope........ I've spent today listing a few things on my new zibbet store site.....I've never done this before so am kind of lost, but its a start, here are a couple of pics of some of my latest work, its just simple stringing but kind of pretty, a charm bracelet I call heart of gold, and a triple strand bracelet with a huge antique brass toggle clasp that I really love, I call this bracelet, mermaid's treasure, because it reminds me of sea glass, I'm almost tempted to keep it for myself, it feels wonderful on the wrist! I like jewelery with some weight to it

beading and my sick 30 yr old baby

I talked to my son in Las Vegas a couple nights ago, he was sick with some kind of stomach problem, he seemed to think it was a gall bladder attack, (his gf told him it was) hadn't been able to keep any thing down for a couple of days, and was feeling totally crappy and sounding worse....I told him he needed to go to the ER and get checked out.....he said he couldn't because the business next to his apartment was on fire and there was no way to get through the police had it all blocked off.......he called me again this morning, he has been in the hospital since 11:00 yesterday morning, they are still running tests......I worry about him, he is my baby, and I can't be there for him, damn, I hate being jobless, and poor......I want to hop a plane and go take care of him.....
I spent another sleepless night last night, finally got to bed at 6:00 this morning, and was up again at 10:00......so I beaded all night, I started a new project, a no brainer......a kit, its a lacy choker in fuchsia lined blue seed beads with fuchsia swarovski bicones in 3 & 4 mm, it is a design from Sandra Halpenny's Drop Lace Necklace Pattern Collection 2007.........I've had this kit of 10 necklaces for well over 2 years, and have tried on several occasions to make one of the designs or another, I guess I prefer doing my own thing...but for some reason this time its working for me, I guess I just needed something with directions last night to focus on......and its turning out really pretty, all sparkley and feminine....
I have been pretty productive in the past few weeks, I finished my bead soup project, and the amber stash bottle necklace, although I want to change some things on that one........also the opium bottle necklace, I am happy with that one! also a sea themed necklace with a clay sand dollar wistle as the focal, and as usual, I am waiting on some decent weather to take pics.......should be this weekend, they are predicting 80's for saturday!
well I am going to get back to the necklace.......I'll sit and bead and send positive and healing thought toward my son in Las Vegas.....

Andrew Thornton's Thursday Give away

Andrew is giving away some pretties from Green Girl Studios, that have me drooling a bit! I just love the goodies from Green Girl, so head on over to his blog and check it out!

beadsoup party

I finished my bead soup party necklace tonight, after several starts and rip outs.......it started out as a spiral chain I was 3/4 of the way done with the chain, when I decided I didn't like it...... I already had the focal bezeled and fringed with LOTS of fringe, I took it off the chain, tore the chain apart and did a diamond stitch chain instead, then decided I didn't like all the fringe so I redid the fringe using a lot less fringe this time, added the clasp and its done! and I like it!! will post some pictures after the big bead soup party reveal...I started another necklace with a similar diamond stitched chain tonight, the same color as the first one, but with turquoise accent beads, because I am going to suspend a reproduction antique brass opium bottle from the chain, and it has a turquoise cab on the cap, its looking pretty good so far

beaded beads

I made my first beaded beads today......some fairly simple ones, made with size 11 and 8 seed beads with an 8mm core bead. I used a free pattern I found online, but had problems with so changed it to suit myself, I get the same results with out the problems the pattern was giving me, I am going to make a pair of earrings out of them, and will post a picture later when the weather clears up enough to get a nice picture.
I gave into my cravings this past weekend.....I had been craving a turkey dinner for about a month.....I even went to far as to buy a turkey roast and cook it a while back.....but it just wasn't the same, I wanted drumsticks....stuffing.....gibblet gravy.......the whole nine yards a "real" turkey dinner, so now I am left with lots of left overs......since it was just my hubby and I eating, guess I should have invited some friends over for dinner, oh well it really did taste good!

still organizing

today I have spent several hours digging through a box of beady stuff that is a giant bead soup, stuff I just shoved into baggies and then into a big cardboard box............projects gone wrong, leftovers from projects ect........I did this before I told myself I was to put away all of my toys when I'm done playing........so now I am left with so much mixed up beading supplies, that after I finish my beadsoup project, the real one, I will have to spend several days sorting lots and lots of beads.......too much fun, not! I ordered myself some business cards today, with my new stores address and everything, so I guess this makes it official, now I just need to get some images loaded so I can hopefully start selling!

bead give away

head on over to gardanne......Anne is having a cool bead give away, just leave a comment, answering her question, and you will be entered!

bead soup creation

well I put about three days into a spiral rope to hang my focal from, then changed my mind...........took the scissors to it. started over with a different idea, and I am much happier with the result...
will be opening a store on zibbet soon, got my banner up, just need to deal with the bank and paypal, then start loading things into the store!
My hubby brought home a label maker from his office on friday, I have been busy reorganizing my beads and findings, so they will be easier to find, no easy task, I have large chests, the kind with a bunch of little plastic drawers, the kind men usually put nuts and bolts and the like in.....any way I have been going through those and labeling all the drawers and consolidating things, so now all my stone beads are in one chest.......all my buttons are in another, well 1/2 of the second one.....one is all glass beads sorted by type and color, I managed to get three of the chests all labeled, but will probably have to borrow the label maker at least one more time because I still have a couple chests to organizr, plus four wheeled carts, and way too many boxes filled with smaller boxes that I keep fire polish beads and crystals in.....
I also need to find a way to organize all my finished goods right now they are just in bags......some how this just isn't as much fun as beading, but I am feeling like I have made a small dent in in the bead mess!

A very merry unbirthday to me!

today was a pretty wonderful day .....it was full of nice suprises, when I went topick up my mail.I had two padded envelopes waiting for me!!! I knew one of them was on its way to me, I just didn't think it would be here today, it was some "orphan lampwork beads" I had got on ebay, 20 boro glass beads, I was the only bidder so got a really good deal, 14.99 for 20 beads. They are so beautiful, I love to just hold them and drool over their wonderful swirling colors! they are the kind of beads, I may not be able to use as I like to just hold them and drool.......don't know if I could give them up to a creation, and then sell it........time will tell I suppose. The second package held a cute delicate bracelet........a real suprise to me.....it was made by a bead angel from a group I belong to
I was involved in a swap where my partner was unable to fulfill her side of the swap, so Colleen stepped in to be my bead angel, without me knowing, someone else had already told me they were making me a bracelet, so I guess I am going to be blessed
twice!
When I got back home I was checking my email and had one from classmates.com
I am not a paying member, but have checked out the site, well It said I had a messege
usually since I am not a member, I can't read any messeges, this time I was able to access the messege! it was from an old childhood friend, that I had lost contact with...
she gave me her contact information saying a mutual friend had found me online and so she checked it out and found me through classmates.com! Can't wait to talk to her and catch up on everything........at least 25 years of catching up.....
Then the UPS guy knocks on my door, with a package, this one was one I was expecting, but it was a funny thing to get from UPS 2 64 oz bottles of reuby red grapefruit juice from Ocean Spray, I am doing a taste test for them, it just always seems funny to get big jugs of juice from UPS.........
and if that wasn't enough, my neighbor knocked on my door with home made fried chicken and fried rice, won't have to cook dinner tonight........so it deffinitely felt like a very merry unbirthday to me, to me today!

Oregon rain

I went out to get the mail a while ago, my mail box is about a block from my apartment......it was sprinkling a bit as I started out, by the time I got to the box, it was a down pourI tried to walk under the trees for a little shelter, and it did help, but by the time I got back home, I was drenched, like I had taken a shower fully clothed, it actually felt pretty good, it wasn't really cold out so didn't get chilled, just very wet.......then I remembered my plants I had put outside last week.......poor babies were drenched too, and 1/2 of the soil in their pots had been washed away.......so I moved them to safety, and went back in and changed my soggy clothes.....life in Oregon, gotta love it! Its so verdant and green here in my little piece of it, lots of trees and greenery, I love it

Bead Soup goodies!!!

I got my package full of bead soup goodies from my partner Nancy, on Saturday! she sent a really pretty green stone focal and some green stone oval beads and some olivine colored rondels, and a really cute silver heart toggle clasp, also a pretty pair of earrings she designed and made! I have already started playing with the goodies, I am treating the round focal as a cab, I have bezeled around it and I am embelishing it with lots of fringe made of sparkly crystals and pearls, and some bronze colored leaves all in rich shades of green and brown......its looking really opulent and rich

my "USE THE MUSE" attempt

well I promised to add some pics of my use the muse when they finally had the "big reveal".........unfortunately nobody bothered to let me know when that was.......I have no idea when it happened, only that it has.....so I can add my pics to my blog now ........also I finished my dragon bracelet last week and just got a couple pics taken of it, so I will add one of those too......awwwwwww I just knocked over my case of 4 mm bicone crystals, I had sorted by color.......they are all over the floor, all mixed together...about 3000 crystals in my carpet, I know what I will be doing for the next few days.......sorting crystals, darn
Any way the dragon bracelet is a design by Carolyn Pedrick, and my first attempt at flat odd count peyote, and it actually turned out quite good!

RockHill Designs

Lynette at RockHill Designs is having a give away for the month of may, she is giving away a beautiful multi stone and silver necklace, head on over and check it out, you might get lucky like I did, I won her last giveaway !!! a beautiful necklace called chunky monkey, it is made of large semi precious nuggett beads and HillTribe silver its very cool, and I can't wait to get it! thank you Lynette

Bead soup party II

WHOO HOO!!! Lori is hosting another bead soup party!!! And I am going to join once again, the first one was lots of fun, so this one should be a blast too......

computer crash

this past Friday my computer pretty much crashed on me...........I had gotten some emails warning about malware and virus's going around through emails in one of my beading groups, and thought I might have opened one of them by mistake.........someone suggested a certin virus protection program, so dummy me I downloaded and bought it. as soon as it was installed a window pops up saying something about windows updates and it looks to be coming from the new program, so again dummy me I click on it.........IT WASN"T A WINDOWS UPDATE!!! DUH!!! all kinds of things start automatically downloading, every time I turn on my computer, so again dummy me, I do a factory restore, which usually works for me when I am having problems...........but when I start up ther computer, I have lost all my documents ( meaning all my beading designs I haven't backed up yet) and all my photos as well, lots of my grand kids and family pics, the last pics I had taken of my mom before we lost her..........everything.....I'm so sad.........
So Saturday one of my geeky friends comes over and spends almost 12 hours trying to recover my stuff........but only succeeds in saving some unimportant stuff........and winds up removing everything from my computer that was left, and re installs windows and a new virus program and a few other goodies, now my computer runs like it did when it was new, with one exception I have no sound, which I do miss, but can live with out if I have to.
Any way he saw a bracelet I have been working on, its a uneven peyote strip with a Chinese
style dragon that I figured I would work on since I didn't have a computer to play on( I needed to teach my self how to do uneven count flat peyote, I had tried several times in the past and had just ended in frustration, but geared with some tips from a few people in my bead groups and a book with some good diagrams, and a nice word chart for a pattern, I got it licked!!!! woo hoo, any way my friend sees my efforts and says wow I really like it, his girlfriend has a tatt of a similar dragon and he is thinking, he would love to give her this bracelet............so needless to say we bartered his geekieness for my beadieness...........now my computer works and soon his girlfriend will be the new owner of said dragon........not sure who got the better part of the deal, I was kind of liking the dragon myself............but have been thinking I will do another one in different colors and turn it into a sea dragon.......silvery blues and greens instead of the chinese reds and golds, I'll post pics of both when done

Fab Fibers bead give away

Fab fibers is having a bead give away........some very bright and beautiful beads from Carolyn Driver of Blue Heeler Glass.....the beads are called calypso https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg54MSBAHrmnZxqLxMfgNRRn2lm5kmXyE_CLDtO33rg_yT4xm5QWATbJRkToF6mpEeizv6MUOfY0aBe2UzPLFbsPXNgTJAy330J4ax4uuHUt8YbhKmQS3t3IaJYX2ZrMqnOthqEU7h5Jk4/s1600-h/bluhealer+beads.jpg

a very good day

I have been having a very good day today.......I got an inspiration yesterday while visiting my dad ,

I was showing him a bracelet I had just finished, it had some lamp work roses on it......and as I was looking at it I decided I didn't really like how I had used them. So this morning I took the bracelet apart, dug out the rest of my lamp work roses, I had some yellow ones, some pale pinks, some reds, and some purples, just enough of each to make a bracelet in each color......The yellow one I added 3 mm gold rounds and two sizes of peridot colored crystal rondels I got at the gem and mineral show a few weeks ago and some gold leaves and a very small gold magnetic clasp. I really love how this one turned out.

The red one has two sizes of peridot crystal rondels and ruby colored crystal rondels , the pink one has frosted pale blue disk shaped beads with silver spacers and rose colored and aqua marine blue fire polish beads. The purple one has silver spacers, rose fire polish, peridot and some really beautiful purple ab crystal rondels.

Also I decided to order myself a new toy today, I have been wanting to make fused glass cabs, but couldn't afford a kiln, and recently I saw a microwave kiln for doing small jewelery sized projects, so I checked out Paragon kilns today, I signed up to get their catalog, and got a 10.00 off coupon for doing it.........and they just happened to have their Fuseworks microwave kiln on sale for 30.00 off so with the extra ten off with the coupon, I feel like I scored!!! and being a kit it comes with stuff to get me started, and the funny thing was it was cheaper this way than just buying the microwave kiln by its self!!! CAN"T WAIT TO PLAY WITH IT!!!!!

A give away to remember at Lorelei's blog

Lorelei is hosting a give away of three pendants she made this past weekend, two lovely hearts and a cute butterfly! I so would love to win them, as I don't do this type of work myself.....so head on over to Lorelei's blog and check it out!

reverse side of tiger eye bracelet

tigers eye cuff

tiger eye chip cuff bracelet

I just finished a herringbone cuff bracelet, encrusted with tigers eye chips......it is really substantial, and very weighty, but it feels wonderful on the wrist, and it turned out really good, its my first try at embelished herring bone and my first time with gemstone chips.......I've never really liked the look of gem stone chips, but was gifted with a bunch of them, so thought I would give them a try......and discovered I really like them! I made the bracelet for a friend, but I like it so well I plan on making one for myself.... I'll post a pic as soon as I get some taken

woo hoo, got my pics done for the use the muse

woo hoo!!!! its finally all done........pics and all.......tomorrow is the deadline, so was calling it a bit close, the pics and the application are "in the mail" I'm so relieved. I had to do my own pics and I'm not so good at it, so I hope they will be good enough.....will post pics after the "big reveal" still not sure I like it, as the "muse" didn't really inspire me and would have been happy to have left it out totally, but I think I pulled it off ok, I suspended a beautiful lampwork poison bottle from it........and managed to use some of all the beads in the kit, and all of some of them.....had to buy more to finish the project.......

My Hubby is gone for the next three days, he is due home on Wednesday night.......he is in Seattle for some classes for work..........wish I could have gone and made a side trip to Shipwreck beads......I always have so much fun when I get to go shopping there!....maybe next time.....guess I should be taking advantage of my time alone and be doing some beading, I do have a bracelet I need to finish for a swap, it is herringbone in tortoise shell shades embelished with tiger eye chips it is getting heavy but it feels really good on the wrist, I hope my partner likes it because I really do, in fact I am thinking of making one for myself, but it will have to be different gemstone chips.....I am almost out of the tigers eye chips.

garden path bracelet

I made this bracelet for a mothers day bracelet swap, it is two drop peyote, with small glass flower beads and seed bead leaves fringing the edges and a branch fringe dangle with a dragonfly charm

my first attempt at kumihimo

kumihimo braid done with dark pink, black, light pink and blue embroidery floss

My use the muse is finished!!!

I was beginning to thing I would never get it done......with running out of beads, and then not being able to get them, art beads was out of the ones I needed.....I finally found them at bello mondo, thank goodness. a few days later art beads notified me they were back in stock.... but already had mine!

I have never made a spiral rope quite this long before, or one that isn't uniform......this one is kind of bumpy, because I used some larger crystals and fresh water pearls, and two sizes of tiger eye rounds, I think the bumpiness gives it a more organic look, especially since it is mostly earthy colors.....

I have to wait for the weather to clear up so I can take some pics........its been really windy and wet for about a week now, we should be about due for some drier weather, I hope.......the deadline is next monday, so need those pics real soon. So as soon as the weather gets better I will post some pics.......I am really happy with how it turned out, it looks kind of medieval....I've named it earth magic

kumihimo

I got my kumihimo disk in the mail yesterday......so I strung it up and proceeded to make my first braid......I only had the instructions that came with the loom, but I used four colors instead of the two suggested as a first attempt. And it turned out really pretty. I used it to hang a pretty glass heart pendant from, and for a first attempt it looks really nice! Right now I am trying my hand at doing it with beads and novelty yarn, I am using some toho gold silver lined triangles, and some transparent forest green # 6's the threads are various shades of pink embroidery floss, and two strands of a fuzzy silvery blue with metalic threads, and after a few failed attempts, I viewed a tutorial on utube a few times and am now trying again, and its looking pretty good. I'm excited, I haven't caught on to bead crochet yet, so this is a pretty good alternative!!

Still working on my "use the muse" finally have (I hope) all the beads I need to finish it.

Beady gift

my one and only "beady friend" has decided to give up beading, which saddens me quite a bit, as she was my only buddy that I had to share my bead addiction with, go to bead shows with ect......sure I still have my hubby , he is a willing victim, he will go to the shows with me, and will look at my projects, and even make some decent suggestions and comments on my efforts.....but its just not the same.....Sure Jayne and I will still be friends, but some how its not the same....we are getting together tomorrow evening......she is gifting me with all her beady stuff......and I am happy to give it all a good home, but will be doing it with a sad heart.........I'd much rather have her as my partner in beady adventures.......

on a happier note, one of my hubbies friends is going to help me get my own website set up to try and market some of my jewelery, he is a computer nerd/ photographer....so will help me with both taking pics of my work, and getting it online!

Happy Birthday Lori Anderson

Today is Lori Anderson 's 1000th blog post birthday! Happy blog birthday Lori! She is doing a give away on her blog in celebration of her 1000th post, so head on over and check it out!

Gem and mineral show

I went to the Gem and mineral show, this past weekend, it was supposed to be just me and my hubby........but my inlaws dropped in unexpectidly, so they went with us, and we had a great time. My mother inlaw is crafty and my father inlaw indulges her just like his son does me, so its all good! There were so many vendors selling so many beautiful colors of crystal, it was almost like sparkle overload, almost too over welming. I had sold some jewelery this past week so had some spending money I could use with out feeling guilty.......and I have to say I went a little crazy, I was looking for a particular shade of blue....a light blue with a slight grey tinge to it, and of course I forgot my sample at home, so I crossed my fingers and bought what looked closest to what I remembered it to be. Then I found some deep red kind of opaque crystal rondels, that were really unique, they looked velvety, and sparkley at the same time, a very rich red that looked like fresh drops of blood, I named them in my head vampires kiss, after I made some earrings out of themI think they would make some really awsome vampire genere jewelery.....
I am still frusterated with my use the muse kit, they just don't supply enough beads to get any where with it.........I am out of the toho hybrid beads, and can't order them from Art beads,(they are out of them) which is the supplier for use the muse. I searched the net and finally found them at Bello Mondo, so have ordered some, the blue crystals were something I had added to the kit, and ran out of, so now thanks to the weekend shopping trip I have plenty of those. I had some size 11 matte blacks in my stash, so when I ran out of those I used mine......I ran out of all the crystals in the kit, now have more, so just waiting on the toho apollo/ jet hybrid 6's........hopefully they will get here soon as I am at a stand still till then..........
I finished a swap bracelet tonight........for a swap called rebelious mothers day bracelet, my partner and I discussed it and weren't sure what a rebelious bracelet would look like, something out of the norm? but everyones idea of normal is different........so I did two drop peyote, in browns and greens, earthy colors, my partner likes gardening, flowers and bugs.........so my bracelet is called garden path.......it has flowery fringe on the edges, a toggle with butterflies on it,
and a dangle with a dragonfly on the end and branched fringe with leaves and flowers on it, it turned out really cute, but not too rebelious........ I will post a picture as soon as I can take some

Use the muse

well ......I have been working on my use the muse project, and am almost at a stand still, as I need to either order some more beads on line, or go to my lbs and buy some more beads......but that will have to wait till mid week when I have some money.......I can probably do a couple more inches on my chain before I run out, and I still need to figure out how to Incorporated the muse into what I have going.......I have a beautiful lampwork vessel that I bought from Highwater Studio in Coquille Oregon, that has swirls of the same colors as the beads in the muse kit, I added a few colors of my own to make it go even better, so I plan on dangling the vessel from the muse, I just have to figure out how to do it.........but I figure I'll worry about that when the time comes.....when I have the chain the length I need .......its looking kind of interesting and organic in a way.........earthy colors with tigers eye, and two types of dark grey pearls, some two tone hybrid size 6 beads and two sizes of golden shadow crystals and a pretty light blue rondel crystal, and some shiny black 15's some soft brown matte 15's and some matte black 11's, plus some fall colored size 8's as core beads..........kind of a mix of matte understated colors and muted crystal sparkle.....I think its going to work

Bead swap

When I got my mail this morning, my package from my swap partner was waiting for me! It was full of all kinds of cool beady stuff! and some really nice pendants and a really pretty enameled butterfly! I really loved the butterfly...... Lots of gem stone chips and some candy jade beads that are very pretty, and some wonderful furnace glass in green( my favorite color!) woo hoo!! I am going to be good and not play with any of it till I get my Use The Muse project done.........its going to be hard to do, because the muse isn't talking to me.........unfortunately it is something totally outside my comfort zone, I am really going to have to work hard at integrating it into my project..........I love the over all colors of the bead kit, but had to add a lot of stuff to fill it out enough to actually make something........I have never done the use the muse competition before so didn't really know what to expect. Well the weather here today is beautiful, and supposed to be in the 60's so I think I will put on a light jacket and go for a bike ride and enjoy the sunshine,
its really looking like spring, with all the cherry trees in bloom !

pics of my latest work

here are a couple pics of what I have been working on, the cabochon is one of the ones my hubby bought me this past weekend, sorry about the glare on it.......the necklace it a bottle covered in peyote stitch, done in my favorite shade of red, it looks almost juicy and delicious in person!

gifted with a treasue chest of goodies.......

Last friday my hubby came home from work saying he had been chatting with the ladies in the office at work, and my beading came up, well the man that is in charge of HR over heard in passing....so he asked my hubby if I might be interested in a box full of jewelery findings.......so Ed came home and asked me, but he had already told Chaz that I would definitely be interested. So yesterday Ed cam home with a storage box that was literaly full of beady stuff.......lots of clasps, some 14 k, and lots of SS, some SS beads and gold filled ones too, some nice bone barrel clasps with metal insets, some beautiful cobalt blue glass beads, and a bunch of really nice bead caps, and a lot more stuff too numerous to mention......needless to say, I felt like I had been given a treasure chest. or at the very least christmas had come early! It was so much more and such nice quality I was really suprised to be gifted with it, silly but I feel blessed

What a deal !

My Hubby surprised me with a weekend at the coast this past weekend! It was a combination holiday/ work trip.......he had to check on a job site at the coast, so the company paid for a motel for us and he spent a few hours working and the rest of the time with me! We had a lot of fun, and he took me to several bead shops! one of them had a trunk show the lady does fused glass and dicro cabs, and did I ever get a good deal, she had 4x4 baggies, and you could fill them as full as you could and still close them for 20.00, I managed to get 13 into my baggy! a large pendant, two dicho buttons and 10 other nice sized cabs I've added a couple pics of some of them..........so between beach combing bead stores and eating all kinds of fresh seafood. I had a perfect weekend! even the weather cooperated, it was light clouds gentle winds and sunny! in the low 60's it was amazing......

bead swap at the beadsoup party group

we got our partners a couple of days ago to decorate a large match boxfor the bead swap, we are supposed to decorate a large match box, and fill it full of beady goodness and then send it off to our partners.......I have had mine done for days now, was just waiting for someone to send it to...

So I got it off in the mail a few minutes ago.........you should be getting in in just a few days Marcie! I hope you like it!

what the ? swap

my package arrived at my swap partners house yesterday, so I am safe to show off what I made for her now! I called this bracelet and pandant sunflowers the center bead in the Flowers id tiger eye, and the petals are red Aventurine with cocoa colored pearls on the ends where it connects to the bracelet strand, with two shades of green faceted flat round crystals between the flowers.....

My Partner Cecilia sent a not saying she has worn it all day, and loves it! Now I am working on a challenge for about.com beading the challenge is called diamonds are a girls best friend.......I'm making earrings all fringey in silver delicas, with AB crystal fire polish 4 mm beads, I have one done and it is really blingy!

new netted cab

I netted a cab today using Leslie Rogalski's (the editor of Beading Daily) instructions but I teaked it to make it my own, and it didn't fit the cab I had intended it for, but luckily I had a tiger eye stone, that wasn't really a cab, it is heavy and about twice as thick as your average cab, but it worked perfect for my netting!- and it looks pretty cool....... the first pic is the back side of the cab, the second is the front side, the instructions are very easy to follow and it works up pretty quick.

I started a pair of earrings last night for a challenge on About.com beading.........it is due in april, and the theme is diamonds are a girls best friend......I am using silver delicas and 4 mm AB crystal firepolish rounds, and doing coraling stitch, I got the first one finished and it looks really pretty.

craft day, and cab shopping

My hubby took me to a rock shop today, because I wanted to buy some cabs to bezel........ I've never bought at a rock shop before, I had no idea how spendy cabs can be, the few I have were bought at a gem and mineral show, sometime in the past and they didn't seem to be all that expensive, if my memory serves me, but I could be mistaken......any way, I bought three fiber opticcabs, a nice green, a caramel, and a nice dark smokey grey. I also bought a grey lace agate, a couple sardonyx, and a few I am not sure of what they are, so they should keep me busy till the next gem and mineral show......along with the use the muse and various swaps I am involved in!

speaking of swaps, I am doing a bead swap where we fill a large match box full of beads from our stash, I have been having fun with that, I have enough beads collected to fill the match box, and I have strung all the matching ones in matched groups so they are nicely organized, I have added several focal beads, some lampwork beads, a nice dragonfly charm.......I think it is a nice selection, someone will enjoy getting it! and today, I decorated my match box, in fact I am waiting on it to dry right now, I found the perfect scrapbooking paper to cover it with, it has words of inspiration on it, and I put a pretty purple and gold button on top, all in all, I think it is turning out really nice, I just hope the box will slide back into the cover now that it is covered in pretty paper, I'm thinking about putting a beaded drawer pull on one end then it will be done and I can fill it up with all the treasures! I will post pictures of it after my partner gets it.