Bead of the Week June 30th 2010

I love these beads. I love the way the purple shades to red in spots, and how the purple reacts to the ivory with a dark black line. And the way the ivory marbles in the heat of the flame.

Beads To Finished Piece

I just love it when my lampwork customers send me pictures of what they have made with my beads. I am always inspired as most of the creations are things I would never have thought of putting together. Scott bought these beads and then sent me pictures of what he made. He is also entering the fire divas monthly challenge with the necklace so please make sure that you go and vote for him! Here are the challenge beads he bought and here is the necklace he made with them. I totally love this design!

Here is the other set he bought and made a wonderful bracelet with.

Memorial Day Weekend Sunday Part 3

We did finally find the African Safari. I have to say I was a bit disappointed this time around. We had gone to this safari (drive through in your car kind of thing and you can feed the animals) when I was a kid and I can remember the monkeys climbing all over the car, the giraffes and zebras sticking their heads in the window in their quest for our yummy pressed grass pellets. This time around, the zebras were penned off, the monkeys were relegated to an island and the giraffe was behind the fence. We did get lots of deer, moose, buffalo, and long horn steers sticking their heads in our window for a taste of the aforementioned pressed grass pellets. Which was cool but really not very AFRICAN safari ish if you know what I mean. And for $14.95 (we had a $3 off coupon or it would have been $17.95) I really wanted the whole monkey, giraffe, zebra experience!

Comfy Cat

More pictures of my ridiculously silly cat. What a life lol!

Go Enter for This Nifty Keychain!

A friend and fellow glass maker is hosting a give away on her blog for a free keychain with one of her glass beads on it. I have a couple beads made by Jamie and they are wonderful! So head on over there and enter its super easy!

Enter GiveAway

Check this Out!

Check out this blog post on what inspires some of us creative types!

I Followed My Bliss Now What?

Handmade Glass Bead of the Week June 18th 2010

Lampwork Glass Handmade Focal Bead Elegant Bubbles

This pretty handmade lampwork glass focal bead is made with a twistie of black and white in the center, a layer of clear, brass frit and another layer of clear. Lots depth and LOTS of bubbles. The bubbles have a pretty golden shimmer to them from the brass.

Cat Napping

This is Dragon. He is one of my rescue cats. I got him from our local pound about 6 years ago. He was a wee little one, probably only about 4 weeks old (I know, I have probably already mentioned this but really, rescue animals make GREAT pets). This is his favorite spot to nap on the front porch. Preferably belly up. As you can see he told me off for waking him up
with my camera, then waited patiently for me to let him back into the house.

Memorial Day Weekend Sunday Part 2

We had decided to check out a Wildlife Safari up in Sandusky so one of our first stops was at Kalahari. Kalahari is a stunningly beautiful hotel to stay in and HUGE. Its really geared toward families with kids though, lots of kiddie stuff to do. We aren't going to discuss the safari/petting zoo they have, other than to say that anyone with small children will love it lol. Lots and lots of water things for the kiddies to do also, as well several fully stocked bars poolside for the grown ups. They were roasting a pig when we strolled through that smelled divine too. Alas, it wasn't the safari we were looking for so we kind of checked everything out, sat and people watched for about an hour and then moved onward in our search for a Safari experience.

Jewelry Piece of the Week June 12th 2010

Blue Midnight Handmade Lampwork Pendant
Pretty black bead made in my home studio. Made with a base of black, a layer of clear, a layer of blue frit, and another layer of clear. Then I added square gold colored spacers and light blue swarovski crystals. Simple, elegant and fun, this can be worn with a t shirt and blue jeans or a simple, elegant dress.

Fire Divas Contest!

Go to the Fire Diva's blog and vote for your favorite glass bead entry for the June contest! While your there check out some of the awesome work done by the members of this fabulous group!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my birthday! Woo hoo! Actually, its not nearly as exciting as it used to be lol. The bad news is, I am in my 40's (44 as of today). The good news is that I feel better than I ever did in my thirties! I have changed the way I eat and exercise (meaning I eat less and exercise more lol), I have been a non smoker now for 6yrs, 1 month and 18 days (which means I can breathe) and am overall much more content with myself and my life. Hmmm wonder what my presents will be this year?

Memorial Day Weekend Sunday Part 1

I told my hubby on Memorial Day weekend I wanted to spend Sunday just with him. We also take other people with us when we go somewhere for the day, whether its one of the kids (who are 16 and 20 and really don't want to do things with their parents if they can help it lol), or my mother in law. I don't usually mind, but I really wanted to spend the day with JUST my husband. We decided to drive up to Sandusky and check out some things to do at Lake Erie, and just relax. It about an hour and a half drive (if i'm driving lol or two if my husband is driving). I drove. We stopped about half way their at this rest area because, well, the same reason we all stop at a rest area lol. We were pleasantly surprised to find a trail to a small scenic overlook. The drop from this overlook was far enough down to make me a wee bit nauseous. In the last picture, the tree is actually vertical. But who knew, we have been past this rest stop on many an occasion and never dreamed it had scenery like this.

Ridiculous Lol

So as those of you who know who follow, I was without a car for about 20 days. I had to take a couple of pictures of the rental car they gave me. I was pretty amused. You have to understand, I am pretty low key, cars are not something that I really care about except for the fact that I want them to get me from point A to point B, with a minimum amount of repairs and somewhat decent gas mileage. (although, in all honesty, if someone gave me a Mustang, I probably wouldn't turn it down, but its really not on my have to have list of items). So, I get to the body shop and they hand me the keys to a Chrysler 300M. I was laughing pretty hard because really, what am I supposed to do with this? You should know that while the neighborhood I live in is pretty tame and quiet most of the time, I do live in what could be considered the edges of the hood. I parked it on the street when I came home (waiting for my hubby to come home since I leave first so I park in the driveway last). My 20 year old son comes into the house and says to me " Who's the drug dealer parked on the street?". Want to take a guess which car he was referring too?

Lazy Dog

This is one of our Australian Shepherds, Libby. She is not terribly typical of her breed like our other two are. Libby's a wee bit lazy and an extremely mellow dog. (Most Aussies might be considered a bit on the hyper side with a good dose of energy thrown in lol). As you can see, Libby generally does not eat her food standing up, she lays down and eats instead. And in this particular picture, she wasn't really eating, she was more napping with her head in the bowl lol!

Jewelry Item of the Week June 5th 2010

Featured this week in my Artfire shop is gorgeous sterling silver wire wrapped bracelet made with lampwork beads that are made in my home studio. Deep midnight blue beads with faint swirls of white and pale blue frit. Each link was carefully hand wrapped with sterling silver wire and the hook for the clasp is handmade and designed for easy use. Please visit my shop on Artfire for more details! Also be sure to check out the 20% off section.

Glass Bead Item of the Week

Today I am featuring an elegant set of beads in shades of gray with 99.9% fine silver wire. These are very simple yet sophisticated and could easily be used for a pair of earrings and a bracelet or as a lovely, statement necklace.

Pale gray oval focal bead with lighter gray shading to a darker gray in the center. Both the focal and the spacer beads are wrapped in fine silver wire. Elegant and sexy! Set of five.

24mm focal
9mm-10mm spacers