new business cards, finished bargello cuff

I got my business cards from Vicki's giveaway early this week, but I didn't get around to taking a picture of them until this weekend. I'm very pleased with the way that they turned out, though. Again, these are from OvernightPrints if anyone is interested in getting any for themselves.


I finished my first bargello cuff yesterday and photographed it today. This pattern was so much fun! I highly recommend that any fellow bead weavers who are reading this considering purchasing it. You can get it from Carol's (SandFibers) shop here. I'm debating whether or not I'd like to upgrade to a commercial edition of the pattern. I already have several more ideas for color combinations with it, and there are only so many versions of it that I need for myself. Any thoughts? While you're considering that, check out my cuff.




Yes, this bracelet is very short. I have small wrists. And yes, the button is another one of Lisa Peters's creations. I decided that I didn't want to part with this one. :)

I also made my first pair of earrings this weekend in the same greens that I used in my bargello cuff. Pictures coming soon!

more fun with the celestial theme

I totally forgot that I bookmarked a few other celestial charm bracelets to share when I listed my own silver links celestial bracelet. This actually works out perfectly with the bright full moon last night. I hope that everyone had a chance to see it!

Once Upon a Midnight Dreary Bracelet by 2RavenChicks

Paper Moon altered art photo charm bracelet by poetsummer

Copper Charm Bracelet with Amber Seaglass by BeachGlassMemories

Dream Moons and Stars Bracelet by eyemagin

Magic Midnight Moon beaded cha cha charm bracelet by JunqueJules

Luminosity by pila12903

blog feature, new listing, latest blogging goodies

Shirley (funnysky) featured me on her blog yesterday! You can still check it out by clicking here. Thanks again, Shirley, for featuring me and thank you to everyone who has already commented on it!

I listed my newest random bracelet today. I have had this idea and all of the materials for it for quite a while, but it finally came together this month.



As some of you probably already know, I really like celestial themed items. Growing up, I had a black cat named Sky (short for Night Sky), and the theme has always stuck with me.

I got my newest blogging goodies in the mail this week. These are all from the Art Beads's Valentine's Day section.




My new stash includes lots of Czech glass hearts and four different delicas, three of which I've never had before. I'm going to include all of the neutral shade items in my neutral square stitch embellished bracelet. I have plans for a few of the other items, too, but not all of them (yet anyway).

Disclosure - I received my ArtBead's products free of charge through their blogging program. I am honestly reviewing their products and have not been paid for my endorsement as it pertains to the products I received.

sneak peaks

Thank you much to everyone who has commented and clicked on my new leafy treasury already! It's doing very well. It's still up for a couple more days so please check it out if you haven't already.

Here's my green mix for my Red Bargello pattern. I was originally going to have two different transparent kelly green delicas as two separate stripes but they were too similar. So I mixed the two shades for one stripe and added opaque kelly delicas for the other stripe. I'm also going to use this mix for the base of my next flower cuff. I may add one more shade of lime delicas for that mix. The pattern is awesome! I'm having a lot of fun with it already.


I haven't been working on my other current mix as much lately since I got back into the delicas. I did start a dark blue/dark turquoise square stitch cuff, though. Here's that mix and my progress on the cuff.


I took pictures of the new red cuff today as well (with sunshine...finally!) so there will be at least a couple new listings this week. :)

speaking of leaves...

I curated my second leafy treasury: dreaming of a leafier time tonight! I made myself complete some work for one of my grad classes while I was waiting for it to open so I really got two things accomplished. You've seen some of these wonderfully leafy items here already, but now you can show your appreciation for them in the treasury, too. Enjoy!


You can view this treasury live by CLICKING HERE until Tuesday January 26 4:16PM EST.

leafy modern

I won digivickie's word art's giveaway for 500 business cards from Overnight Prints! I put my order in on Thursday. I can't wait to see them in person.

I listed my newest leafy design today. It's the leafy series - modern, as part of my new neutrals kick.



I used four lamp worked beads from Jen (blueseraphim). They're part of a whole set I got in beautiful shades of caramel. I still have some other rounds as well as a bunch of mini ruffled discs.

I'm pretty sure that I'll be remaking my purple/pink and turquoise leafy designs next. I'm not sure which one I want to make first.

I finally finished my red striped peyote cuff today! I first posted sneak peak pictures of the base back in early December. My original embellishment technique didn't work, though. It was too tight, and I kept breaking the base beads. I ended up taking the whole thing apart. I had a hard time coming back to it, but I'm so glad that I did. The new embellishment technique worked really well. Once I started the embellishment, I finished it in a few days. Hopefully I'll get some pictures of it tomorrow.

I'm going to delve into my green delicas collection next. :) I'd like to make another flower cuff like this one, and I'm going to finally bead up one of my Sand Fibers's patterns.

button feature

I was all set to put this post together last night. But then the Internet went down in our ice storm and didn't come back up until sometime very late last night or very early this morning. Yes, the ice storm did mean ANOTHER snow day yesterday and a late start for my school today. Crazy! I was going to take a picture of the iced trees today, but I didn't think of it until it was dark out. Maybe tomorrow.

I haven't done a button feature in quite a long time. Here are a few of my newer favorites. Enjoy!

Strawberry Shortcake Bouquet . Oh So Shabby Button Flower Collection by KreatedbyKelly

12 Stem Silver Snowflakes Button Bouquet by reallybadkitty

Lucky Charm Button Bracelet by Glorijane


Yellow Rose Bracelet with Vintage Buttons FREE SHIPPING by Alterity

Silver Sterling Champagne Crystal Pearl and Antique Glass Button Charm Bracelet by MrsGibson

Button Bracelet - Who's Afraid of the Deep, Dark Woods by PoorRobin

Penguin Black Red and White Snappie Button Bracelet by birose

milestones and the newest leafy autumn

I reached 300 hearts on Etsy tonight!


I also recently reached over 100 followers on this blog. I'm closing in on 100 followers on Twitter and 100 fans on my Facebook page, too. Your support means so much to me everyone! :)

I updated my listing for the leafy series - autumn tonight with new pictures and details.


This bracelet features four lamp worked beads from Jen (blueseraphim), one of Lisa Peters's (lisapetersart) ceramic buttons, and the last of my metal leaves as well as the usual fantastic assortment of Czech glass leaves and other glass beads. :)

pink/red rock garden bracelet and other weekend projects

As promised, here is my pink/red rock garden bracelet that I listed today. :)


Red is one of my favorite colors. I enjoy incorporating it into my pieces all year round. So I didn't plan for this to look like a Valentine's Day piece, but it works well with the holiday coming up! I really wanted to use the rose quartz chips and red coral chips together as soon as I got them. I was a little worried that the contrast would be too harsh, but other beads in contrasting pinks and reds in the bracelets pull everything together nicely. This is the first rock garden bracelets I've made that doesn't actually have any leaf beads in it. I have other Czech glass beads and cubic zirconia hearts mixed in with the rose quartz and coral.

Unfortunately that ones that I used in this bracelet are currently out of stock, but there are lots of other colors still in stock in the cubic zirconia Valentine's Day section. I just put my latest blogging order in this weekend, which also included some of the hearts from the Czech glass Valentine's Day section. I'll post more details about my full order and all of my plans for my new hearts later.

Since last night, I've taken and edited pictures of my newest leafy bracelet, completed a new celestial themed bracelet, and put together partial mixes for several new pieces. During the week when I don't have as much time to work on jewelry, I sometimes get frustrated when I spend most of a night resorting beads from an old project, then sorting beads for a new one, and not having much time for the actual assembly of a new piece. Hopefully having new project mixes already partially assembled will help this process go a little quicker during the week.

Today I also did some baking. I made bread pudding and monster cookies. I'd never heard of monster cookies before I moved to Iowa, but they're very tasty. Different people's recipes vary, but the recipe I use (which Jake got from one of his research co-workers in the summer of 2008) has oatmeal, chocolate chips, peanut butter, and M&Ms.




I start student teaching (in my own classroom) and my last master's class tomorrow. That means that things will be that much crazier than usual until the end of April, but then I have ALL of my coursework for my master's finished!

Disclosure - I received my ArtBead's products free of charge through their blogging program. I am honestly reviewing their products and have not been paid for my endorsement as it pertains to the products I received.

purple rock garden bracelet - finally for sale!

As you may or may not remember, I made my first rock garden bracelet at the beginning of August. I fully intended to sell it, but I ended up keeping it for myself. This is the one that I still have.


Several versions later, I have finally come back to purple and made one for sale. I used up a lot of the detail pieces in my version like the glass cubes, and it took me a while get enough small glass components together to make the new version. Here it is, though!


In addition to the amazing Czech glass beads (which I don't think I'll ever get tired of), I used amethyst chips (a new love), a plastic button from one of Kelli (kellwood)'s mixes, and swarovski graphic cubes from Art Beads. These swarovskis were another treasure from the blogging program. All of their swarovski elements are on sale right now as part of their customer appreciation sale as well as many other item categories such as glass beads. Go check it out between now and Thursday the 21st. And yes, I did take advantage of it myself with a few small purchases today. :)

I'll list my pink/red rock garden bracelet tomorrow - stay tuned! I also finished my neutral leafy bracelet this afternoon and will hopefully get pictures tomorrow. :)

Disclosure - I received my ArtBead's products free of charge through their blogging program. I am honestly reviewing their products and have not been paid for my endorsement as it pertains to the products I received.

random feature

I have enough leafy items to do another leafy feature already, but I'll switch it up for now and feature some of the other items that I've favorited on Etsy recently.

Sprockets Stoneware clay bead set in Evergreen by artisanclay

Starry Night Hand Embroidery Cuff - Limited Edition by Waterrose

The 50 states project - Chicago, Illinois by bethtastic

red and turquoise button earrings by kbowling (I really need to try something like this!)

Gumdrops - Red Glass and Black Beaded Sterling Silver Earrings by beadedtail

River Cuff - Pebbles by nemeton

RAKU DOTS on BURNT ORANGE ..... Free Shipping by blueseraphim

Etsy goodies, Valentine's Day preview

The sets of sea glass and recycled glass that I bought from Kristina (akkricket and RecycledGlass) came in the mail this week! They are even more amazing in person that they are in her pictures. You can check out what I got here and here. Kristina kindly combined shipping from her two shops for me. :) I am still on a natural/neutral colors kick since I made my Natural Sparkle bracelet. These will fit into that theme perfectly.

Meanwhile, I need to keep selling jewelry if I'm going to keep making purchases like these. I'll be listing at least one more pink/red item before Valentine's Day but here is a selection of just a few of the pieces in my shop that fit into the Valentine's Day color theme.

treasury feature

I am blown away by the fact that I am already posting about my THIRD treasury feature for 2010. I am so flattered! This treasury is by my fellow EBW member Ileana (enchantedbeads) and includes my bracelet the leafy series - ocean. It's called COLORS (5) and features ocean, sea, and beach themed pieces in honor of the Jan./Feb. EBW challenge. Thanks Ileana!


You can view this treasury live by CLICKING HERE until Thursday January 14 11:21AM EST.

red/purple square stitch cuff

I listed the third version of my square stitch embellished cuff design tonight. As I was thinking last month, this one is in red and purple! I had a little trouble keeping the purple from hiding in the shadows in these pictures, but I'm still pretty pleased with the results. And I'm very pleased with how the cuff turned out.



I've been thinking about making a dark turquoise/dark blue one for a while, but I think that I'm going to make a neutral one next. I'm still on a neutral kick from my Natural Sparkle bracelet. :)

I had an unexpected opportunity to take some photos of my newest reworked design during the day because my meeting (not at school) this morning was much shorter than was expected, and I had a couple hours at home before I had to be back to work. I'll upload and edit them later tonight. :)

EtsyBlogger January Featured Seller

The EtsyBlogger January featured seller is Erika of NICO Designs. She is a former special education teacher and currently a stay at home mom (very inspiring, that's where I hope to be in a few years!). She is also an Entrecard dropper. If any of you fellow Entrecard droppers are looking to pick up another Etsy seller for your drop rotation, please check out her blog! You can visit her Etsy shop here and her blog here. She also has a web site and a Twitter account.

In case you can't tell, I really like her shop! She has adorable handbags, accessories, and other gift items. Here are a few of my favorites.

Envelope Clutch in Erin McMorris Park Slope fabric

Sophisticate Career Bag SALE (If I didn't already have a black and white work bag that I love, I would really want this!)

Sacura Baby Shoes SALE

silver embellishment, sneak peaks

I listed a new skinny embellished peyote cuff today. I decided to make this one after I did the remake of my spring garden fringed peyote cuff. Both bracelets use the same green cubes in their bases. I got the metal button for this new cuff in my Christmas button stash. I have a whole Ziplock full of them! I'd like to attempt a button charm bracelet with a bunch of them. It would involve a little wire wrapping, which I've never done before. But I think that it would look really neat. For now, though, here's my new peyote cuff.



I put together the leaf sets for two new leafy bracelets last night: a remake of my original autumn design (left) and a new neutral design (right). I also put together the seed bead mix for the autumn design as well so I'm ready to start that later today.

I finally upgraded my Flickr account to pro. My paid livejournal account is going to expire soon, and after much thought, I'd decided that I'd rather put the money into a pro account on Flickr than a livejournal renewal. So you can now view works in progress pictures like this here. I will be working on adding more photos like these over the next few months.