a taste of spring for New Year's Eve

On a whim, I decided to remake my spring garden fringed peyote cuff over break. I updated the listing today.


I made one other skinny fringed cuff over break as well that I'll be listing soon, which also features green. I think that my next skinny fringed one will be some sort of pink/black combination (mostly pink, hint of black).

I hope that everyone has a safe and fun New Year's Eve! Stay tuned tomorrow for my next EBW Challenge entry and my December Top Ten Droppers list. :)

new triangle pendant

Just a quick reminder that there are only a couple days left to enter my Art Beads gift certificate giveaway! The winner gets a $25 e-mail gift certificate to ArtBeads.com. You can enter until midnight CST on December 31. I will pick and announce the winner on New Year's Day. You can enter the giveaway by clicking here.

I listed a new triangle pendant tonight. The triangle will eventually coordinate with a red striped cuff, but that cuff is still a work in progress due to the previously mentioned technical difficulties. I've had trouble getting back to the cuff so progress is slow. I'm happy with the triangle, though.


I'm pretty positive that my next triangle will actually be a pair of triangle earrings.

I've had a lot of time to do bead work since we got back into town yesterday. I've also had some gorgeous sunshine for photographing so I will continue to list more new pieces over the next week.

EtsyBlogger December Featured Seller

The EtsyBlogger featured seller for December is actually two sellers, Kathy and Carrie, who have FOUR combined Etsy shops. They also have a blog of course, which can be found by clicking here. You can visit them on Etsy at CalKat, Ametista, TheClayShoppe, and YogaFairies. The items of theirs that I have chosen to feature are all from CalKat.

Polk-a-Dot - Artisan Pure Silver Bisque Bead

Koi Brass Bookmark

Starfish Necklace

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!

We're having a good Christmas. Angel is, too. :) Here she is with the wrapping paper on the floor last night (we opened our presents after midnight mass).


And again this morning.

We're going to visit family the 26th-28th. I'll have my work laptop with me, but I most likely won't be posting and dropping Entrecards as often as usual until the 29th. Here are all of our family presents packed up for tomorrow.

Enjoy the rest of your Christmas! :)

revisited design and more button magnets

Happy Christmas Eve everyone!

I have not had an opportunity to photograph in sunlight in a couple weeks now. Most of the time that I'm at home now, there isn't even any natural light. Since I'm at home more during the day now for Christmas break, I finally caved and shot in natural light sans sunlight yesterday. I was pretty pleased with the results.

I finally finished my blue embellished cuff (revisited) that I picked out the beads for back at the end of the summer. The listing on Etsy is now updated with new pictures and measurements.

The green version is still available here in my Etsy shop. I'm pretty sure that I'll be making a red/purple version next, but as always, am open to other suggestions, too.

I made two more sets of button magnets for Christmas presents. I did go with the color combinations that I previously mentioned: pink/green and black/white. I don't know if this is something that I'll be offering in my Etsy shop at some point, but I am having fun with them. Any thoughts about this would be appreciated! I would like to try some button tacks at some point, too.





Cheryl (littlestonedesign) posted a great message on the Etsy Beadweavers' message board earlier this month about her success with sending a monthly newsletter for her Etsy shop. It's no secret that I don't have a ton of Etsy sales and would like to do more with what time I have to promote my shop. Has anyone else had a lot of success with sending a newsletter? If you have, I would love to hear more details about it!

Etsy Twelve Days of Christmas

I haven't done a feature in a while, and I thought that this would be fun. :) Enjoy!

Partidge in a Pear Tree - limited edition letterpress print (green) by byvikINK

Two Turtledoves - Beaded Birds by GriffinCircle

Three French Hens (Pullet), Holiday Cards (set of ten) by kinaloon

Four Calling Birds Address Labels, Shop Stickers, Gift Tags by bohtieque

Gold Filled Stacking Rings Five Golden Rings by MetalRevision

6 Geese a-Laying - 12 Days of Christmas Cardlet - 3x3 inches - handcut papercut design by jerise

Seven Swans A-Swimming, original bird art by jctebeau

Milk Maid by freshsnappedphotos

ttv ballerina pendant - hangs on 18 inch pendant by bethtastic

Kirigami Leaping Lords Ladies, Pop-up Card, Make Yourself by popupcardmaking

Kokopelli - Sandcarved Turquoise (dyed) Howlite Pendant by CreativeArtandSoul

Snare Drum - French Quarter by 33stewartavenue

Art Beads gift certificate giveaway

I'm proud to announce my first blog giveaway: a giveaway for a $25 Art Beads e-mail gift certificate!


I have the opportunity to do this through the Art Beads blogging program. To enter, all you have to do is leave me a comment with your favorite item from my Etsy shop. Please leave your e-mail address in your comment so that I can contact the winner. You have until midnight CST on December 31 to enter. I will use a random number generator to determine the winner. I will contact the winner via e-mail to get your full name. Once Art Beads has your full name and e-mail address, they can send you your gift certificate via e-mail. Let me know if you have any questions!

There is also still an opportunity to win a $100 Art Beads gift certificate through their Facebook page. Click on the image below for the link to that giveaway.


I look forward to your entries!

treasury feature

Thank you much to my fellow EBW member Cheryl (littlestonedesign) for including my red, green, and blue chain links bracelet in her and then I don't feel so bad...when I simply remember my favorite things! treasury!


You can visit this treasury live by CLICKING HERE until Sunday December 20 3:13AM EST.

Cheryl has so many beautiful bead woven items in her shop like her June Garden Beadwoven Bracelet - Garden Series.

Thanks again!

EBW ocean challenge ideas

I finished my new blue square stitch bracelet this weekend so I'm feeling a little better about my productivity. I will photograph it when we get another sunny day here. I also laid out a basic plan for my next EBW Challenge piece. I know that the current voting is still taking place (you can vote until the 15th on the EBW blog), but I don't think it's such a bad thing to be thinking ahead. The Jan/Feb challenge theme is ocean/sea. You can read more about it here.

I'm going to work up a piece that is leafy and coral-filled in ocean themed colors. Here are the leaves for it. Yes, they are laid out on my library copy of The Beader's Color Palette by Margie Deeb. I know that the book is kind of distracting as background, but I actually think that the colors of it coordinate pretty nicely with my leaves.


And here are the seed beads, coral, and other glass beads. You'll notice four of my funky beads from blueseraphim and a handful of Swarovskis and CZs from Art Bead's blogging program.


I'm pretty excited about it! My husband is already on winter break (he finished up on Friday), and he's been working on some hobby stuff again this weekend, as he will be all of break. Here are a couple pictures of what he's been doing. He did all of the building and the base coat of paint back over the summer and the previous school year. He finished the painting this weekend.


He's going to use the building for Warhammer. (He already has a couple times actually, but it will look cooler now that it's painted up.) Here's a picture of his latest Warhammer figures that he finished painting this month.


I can't resist posting this final picture. Angel thinks that Jake's painting/building assembly process is fascinating. :)

Champagne Party

I can't believe that I didn't post about these pieces sooner this week. I ended up with 3 snow days this week, but I had to scrap most of the bead work that I did during that time, due to failed designs or mistakes. I salvaged most of my blue square stitch bracelet and should be able to finish it this weekend. I haven't finished anything in over a week, though, and have generally been feeling a little down for no other specific reason. So I haven't really been in the mood for a lot of posting.

I'm really proud of these two pieces, though, especially my cuff. I never really got over my champagne fix after my cousin's wedding (the color, not the drink haha). I started working on the cuff back in August. Part of me still can't believe that it's really done.

Now I just hope that someone wants to buy it!

I think that it could be a neat wedding piece. If not, it's still an awesome party/special occasion piece.

And here's the matching triangle.

Here are a couple final shots of the two pieces together.

December EBW Challenge, reworking

Voting for the December EBW Challenge Peace and Winter Olympics is up and running! Thank you to Christina (GoodQuillHunting), our new moderator, for getting everything together quite smoothly. You can vote on the blog by clicking here from today through the 15th. My Peace Piece that I posted about here is number 5. :)

I took my red striped piece apart today after I broke my third bead in it. The embellishment just wasn't working. It was coming out too tight. I lost at least 6 hours of work there. *sigh* I'm going to make a red striped triangle and then figure out what I want to do with the cuff. I think the red stripes as pictured before would stand on their own, but I would like to do something to embellish it. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

That was definitely a downer today, but I'm trying not to let it get to me too much. I've still made progress on my blue square stitch cuff and gotten a ton of things done around the house...and it's not even 4PM yet here! There's still lots of time to get things accomplished.

new Christmas piece, giveaways, snow day happenings

I listed my last new Christmas item for this season (I think!).


A couple of my favorite Etsy sellers are having giveaways right now. The first one is Kristen (KMStudioDOTcom) who is giving away one of her horses (like this one) that she will make into a magnet or brooch for you. You can check out all of the details about the giveaway on her blog by clicking here. The second one is Mary Lou (time2cre8) who is giving away one of her oglala bracelets. She has all of the details posted on her blog as well, which you can check out by clicking here.

I don't have any new pictures of progress or other new items besides the Christmas one above. I had a snow day today, though (and I'm going to have another one tomorrow!), and I took pictures of a few things that happened at home during the day.

I made pretzel rolls for the first time. For those of you who don't know, I like to cook, and I love to bake. This is something that I've wanted to try for a while, and they turned out awesome! The only problem is that the recipe only makes 12, and my husband and I ate half of them this afternoon/evening haha.

Angel decided that she wanted to go out on the porch a couple times today. She made little prints in the snow, which is about the cutest thing ever.

I tried to get a shot of her when she went out the second time tonight, but of course she started coming in when I got my camera out. I think that this is still cute, though. And you can see some of our outdoor Christmas lights.

Thanks for looking at my non-jewelry/Etsy related pictures. :)

sneak peaks

I got some beautiful pictures of my champagne fringed cuff and coordinating triangle today (see the most recent sneak peak picture of it here). I'm grateful for small amounts of sunlight that I have at home this time of year. And yes, I did finally finish the cuff! I will list both items sometime this week. For now, here are a couple sneak peaks of new projects.

Here's a look at my red striped cuff.

And here's my mix of beads for my next blue embellished square stitch bracelet like this one.

a couple of Christmas pieces

Once again, I only had one reply from my Top Droppers for a featured item, which was from Sharla (BeadedTail). She chose one of her newest pairs of Christmas earrings: Noel Green Polymer Clay and Red Swarovski Crystal Beaded Christmas Earrings.


If there are others from the Top Dropper list who would like me to feature items, it's not too late! Just let me a comment with a link. Tonight I listed one of the two Christmas bracelets that I made at the end of the Christmas season. I posted a picture of it last year, but here it is again with the link to the listing.


On the subject of Christmas, I got most of my shopping finished yesterday after work. I just need a few more small things. I need to wrap everything, but this is still WAY ahead of where I normally am at with presents this time of year. I'm also almost ready to start sending out Christmas cards, too. :) Hopefully I can get everything finished tomorrow and start working on them this weekend. I love Christmas cards!

Peace Piece

I listed my December 2009 EBW Challenge Peace Piece this week, along with a coordinating peyote triangle pendant. I sold most of my triangles this summer and have just recently begun to replenish my stock.

I have been wanting to do a striped cuff with different shades of a single color. When I heard the December challenge theme, my mind immediately went to the color blue. I decided that this would be a perfect way to try this. And of course it needed some embellishment. I like the way that the organized stripes contrast with the random embellishment. I'm already working on a red striped cuff that will have a different sort of embellishment. :) But for now, here are the blue pieces.