Life Is What You Make Of It

"Life is what you make of it / so beautiful or so what." is in the inspiration for my latest treasury.

 I selected these items with late May / early June in mind.

Life Is What You Make Of It

And these items via Pinterest...

 

 

Do you have any favorite late spring / early summer picks?

celebrating early spring

Ever since the weather switched into spring mode, I've been thinking about all things spring.

Early Spring

 And via Pinterest...

Do you have any favorite early spring picks?

winter with the EtsyBloggers

I curated the EtsyBloggers treasury for this week.  We've already had a couple holiday/winter themed treasuries, but I figured that it wouldn't hurt to continue the theme.  Here's my EtsyBloggers: Winter collection.

new fall treasury, other fall happenings

I curated a new fall treasury tonight: Fall Owls.  It was really fun doing another seasonal themed treasury.

Also, on the subject of fall, Jake and I went apple picking last weekend. :)

I made an apple pie back on Sunday.  I will most likely make at least one more with our current batch of apples.  I finally shipped my pearl bracelet and earrings today so I'm concentrating on other projects again.  Among other things, I have the beads assembled for a handful of leafy and rock garden bracelets, which includes my EBW Autumn Leaves entry.  There is no way that I'm missing this challenge!  I'll also be working on my Art Beads blogging program fall piece once my supplies arrive.  Have a great weekend everyone. :)

EtsyBloggers treasury, my favorite lake, sneak peak

I've been so caught up with everything lately that I didn't think to post my newest EtsyBloggers treasury until now.  I signed up to curate our weekly treasury this week.  I got on such a lime kick with my feature earlier this week that I decided to stick with it for my treasury.

EtsyBloggers: Lime/Peridot

The second sign that I've been so caught up with everything is that I didn't upload my pictures from Labor Day weekend until tonight.  As I'm sure some of you know by now, one of the things that I miss when I'm in Iowa is Lake Michigan.  I always like to visit it when I can when I'm in Chicago or Kenosha.  I had a couple opportunities to visit it when we were in Kenosha for Labor Day.

Anyone who doesn't think that the midwest is beautiful is crazy.

These last two pictures were later in the day, around 7PM.

Finally, I got the final supplies for my pearl bracelet yesterday so I've been hard at work the last couple nights.  I'm still waiting for the proper wire for the coordinating earrings, but I'm hoping to finish the bracelet by the end of the weekend.  Here's a sneak peak.  I took this tonight, and the light box just doesn't work as well when there's no natural light.  I'll get some lighter pictures of the final product.

Have a great weekend everyone!

new listing, new treasury

I listed my Peyote Cuff Bracelet - Fringed - Blue Peacock this afternoon.  I still have a handful of older items to list, but I've been so excited about this piece that I didn't want to wait any longer to list it.  So here it is.

I had SO much fun with the dagger beads.  I have done a couple smaller fringed pieces with dagger beads before but never one that's covered like this.  I have a few blue ones left over from this project and a handful of black and white ones, but that's it.  I've thought about doing a smaller black and white one for a while, but now that I've done my full blown blue one, I'd really like to do a full blown neutral one.  There are a few supply sellers on Etsy that have daggers (namely beadsandbabble).  The best supplier that I've found so far for bulk quantities is BEADINPATH.  They have a nice variety, like this gorgeous red set (I know that's not a neutral but they're still awesome).  I haven't bought anything...yet.  We'll see how long I hold out.  I'm still working through all of my planned leafy projects, which will keep me preoccupied for a while longer.

On a different subject, I curated a new treasury last night.  Normally I theme treasuries around specific colors and I include as many team members from EBW and/or EtsyBloggers as possible.  I went for something completely different this time.  Let me know what you think.

Fall Plaid

sneak peaks, EtsyBloggers treasury curated by me

Here's my newest bargello design in progress.  As you may remember, I beaded a green version of Carol's design for myself this winter.  I actually took this picture yesterday and meant to post it then but I forgot.  Better late than never, right?

It doesn't look so garishly bright in more natural lighting.  For some reason, that shade of red delicas really pops and seems to pull the other colors with it.  I based the colors off of this set of bowls, and it does match them pretty closely.  I'm going to embellish it with coordinating cube beads...eventually.

I took a picture of my leafy necklace custom order beads this morning before I started putting it together.

It's still in the very early stages of development.  I'm planning to work on it more after I post here tonight.  I'm only going to use the three lamp work beads that are in the middle.  I almost always use four for my leafy bracelets, but I think that three will create a nice focus without too much extra weight.  The four beads in the corner are in case I decide to make a new Indian Summer bracelet after I finish the necklace since I sold the original bracelet at the Arts Festival.  I'm going to have to get some more yellow leaf beads if I decide to do that.

I signed up to curate an EtsyBloggers treasury for this Friday.  I finished it today, so I'm going to go ahead and shared it.  I decided to theme it Dots.

You can view this treasury live by CLICKING HERE.  Please spread the word fellow EtsyBloggers. :)

turquoise and red treasury

I curated a turquoise and red treasury this afternoon.
You can view it live by CLICKING HERE until Wednesday June 2 3:53PM EST.

Keeping it short for tonight...more tomorrow.

EtsyBloggers: Green on Treasury East

I had so much fun with my turquoise treasury that I decided to give in to my green obsession and put together this lovely collection. Enjoy!


You can view this treasury live by CLICKING HERE. :)

EtsyBloggers: Turquoise on Treasury East

You can view this treasury live by CLICKING HERE. Enjoy everyone, especially my fellow bloggers. :)

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.

because I couldn't really be done with leaves

While I'm on a treasury kick this week, I managed to snag a treasury west tonight. This is the first time that I've curated a treasury since this summer. I happened to check into treasury west about an hour before it was going to open. I need to have the first draft of my research proposal for my master's finished by Thanksgiving. Since I still have a fair amount of work to do on it before then, I figured it would work out perfectly to write more of my proposal while I waited. And it did work out on both accounts. :)

Before I post the treasury information, I'll briefly mention that if anyone would be willing to read my proposal draft this week before I submit it, I would really appreciate it. If you have some experience with APA style, that would be especially helpful. The research is going to be about using visuals with students with autism. I don't like to post a lot of non-jewelry/Etsy related topics here, especially if they have to do with school/work. This is one of my places to get away from that after all. But I would appreciate any help I can get with this. Thank you!

I normally keep a poster sketch ready in case I see one of the treasuries opening at the last minute, but I haven't done one since the summer. So I decided to put together a leafy treasury. Even though I have featured lots of leafy items here, I haven't included too many in my treasuries. Most of these items have already been featured here previously, but a few of them are new items by Etsy sellers who already sold the items featured here. Enjoy!

You can view my before autumn is over treasury by CLICKING HERE until Wednesday November 25 at 11:51AM EST.

a new treasury and a new listing

You know it's summer when I managed to snag two treasuries within a two week time period tonight. I just got this one tonight.


You can view it live by CLICKING HERE until Thursday August 6 at 4:38 PM EST. Orange is not usually my favorite color, but for some reason it has inspired me lately.

I listed another new piece today. I'm going to keep listing one new piece each day until I head to Chicago.


This is the cousin to my original blue square stitch bracelet that I sold so quickly. I was thinking about making a purple or red one next, but I'm almost definitely going to make another blue one first. I really love the look of the blue one and want to have another one on hand. I also don't have enough embellishments for a different colored one at this point. I can slowly work on building those embellishments, but I'm done with major bead purchases for the summer. I always have new projects in mind, and it will be fun to look for embellishments in other colors now over the next year.

I do need to buy some more white Nymo thread before I head to Chicago, but hopefully I'll be able to resist buying anything besides that when I head to the bead store in Iowa City tomorrow. :)

new treasury curated by me!

I put this poster sketch together quite a while ago. I think it was back in the spring. I was watching Treasury West today and managed to snag a spot. What a great treasury day!


It's called "bead woven black and white." You can visit it live by CLICKING HERE until Tuesday July 28 6:43AM EST.

fringed

I snagged a treasury in West tonight. I made the poster sketch for it quite a while ago and am excited to have it up finally! Ever since I made my Chocolate Temptation cuff, I've been into making bracelets with fringe. I am not planning to make anything that elaborate again any time soon, but I have enjoyed making bracelets with smaller fringe like my turquoise and red fringed peyote cuff. I've spent a lot of time admiring fellow Etsy sellers' fringed bracelets and wanted to feature some of them myself. You can see the "fringed" treasury by CLICKING HERE. It will be up until Tuesday, April 21 4:46 AM EST.

treasury feature

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Thank you MountainMist for featuring my stars and moons right angle bracelet in your In the Night Sky treasury!


You can visit it live by CLICKING HERE until Monday 12:06PM EST. Thanks again! :)

treasury feature

beadsandblooms included my warmth right angle bangle in her I'm so Tired of Being Cold treasury!


You can visit it live until Friday, January 30 at 5:06PM EST by CLICKING HERE !

Please be sure to check out beadsandblooms' Etsy shop, too. She has lots of wonderful items like this bracelet:


Thanks again! :)