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

Beware Rant Ahead!

I have to say I am sincerely pissed off. I am pretty hard to piss off (although I would bet my husband might disagree lol). So, I work for a car insurance company. For the most part I like my job, I have a great boss and I like my co worker too. Everyone pretty much gets along and its all good. I have always felt that our company did a good job on handling claims and were fair and equitable. My daughter had a car accident on the 14th of May. She was at an intersection with a 2 way stop. She had the stop sign. Both her and her girlfriend looked (because she is a new driver and both of them are very cautious) before proceeding through the intersection. She got halfway through it when the other person hit her. Now, my daughter got the ticket as there were no witnesses. However, the person who hit her was driving with a suspended license (and yes, she got a ticket too). My body shop guy told me (although he wouldn't verify with my company) that she had to have been doing 35 to 40 miles per hour when she hit my daughter. So how do you get up to 35 miles and hour when you have a stop sign a block away? Why are you driving a car to begin with? And she never even hit the brakes, the only skid marks are my daughters. Can you do $4000 worth of damage to a car and total your own doing 25 mph? So any way my insurance company is going to be paying for her damages as well as mine. And my daughter will be penalized for something that wasn't her fault. And the person who broke the law will be rewarded. I am so disappointed in my insurance company. If you are wondering why your insurance rates are so high, this is one of the reasons.

Beaded Necklace

So I have taught myself how to bead crochet (can I tell you what a pain it is to start the darn thing with those teensy tiny seed beads lol) and was fooling around with different ways to use the resulting efforts. I settled on this design, incorporating metal work, wire wrapping and one of my handmade lampwork beads. I designed the clasp to be the focal piece in the front so its easy to use but still makes a statement. This is available in my Artfire shop.

Bead of the Week May 26th 2010

Handmade Lampwork Artisan Glass Organic Focal Bead Twin Rivers

I love organic beads. This one has a base of sky blue with a darker transparent blue and silvered ivory running through it.

Jewelry Item of the Week

I love these earrings. The transparent red and clear glass flowed in a way that reminded me of the flame used to create them. And while I am a silver girl most of the time, these just said gold. The lampwork beads are made by me in my home studio. These are currently on sale in the 20% off section in my studio on Artfire.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Well my garden is finally growing lol. Bit of a late start here this year, lots of rain, kind of cool. I finally got my topsy turvy tomato going (I have been dying to try this since its something my dogs can't trample lol). I also put the seeds in the seedling flats, the wildflowers are coming up already, the veggies, not yet. My daughter and son bought me roses for Mothers Day this year and I got those planted. Here are some pictures of the the roses and also of my irises which are doing very well this year. I am really hoping that the peppers, green beans and watermelon do well. I planted basil also and would like to add a couple more herbs to the collection. I would have liked to put in some cat nip for my cats but unfortunately there are a LOT of cats in our neighborhood and I have no desire to entice them all into my front yard lol.

New Beads

Well, my life is at its typically insane pace +10 the next couple of weeks lol. Lots of family stuff going on and I have to work extra since there are lots of vacations going on in the office. Schools out in a couple of weeks (thank goodness!), my daughter has her dance recital two days after school is out so we have lots of rehearsals (which would be no big deal but the car is in the shop until June 4th, due to an accident s0 she can't drive herself, rental car companies frown on 16 year olds driving their vehicles) and we have a holiday weekend in there. Just totally crazy all the way around. I have lots of new beads to list but haven't had time to take the pictures. Some new jewelry designs also, which incorporate beading, metal etching and lampwork. But you will have to wait just a bit to see those til I have time for pictures lol.

Any way, here are a couple of beads that I just recently listed. Simply click on the picture.

Also don't forget about the new sale section in my jewelry shop! 20% off or more on selected pieces. The discount has already been applied.

Added A Section to My Jewelry Shop

I have added a sale section to my jewelry shop on Artfire. Everything in this section is 20% off and the discount has already been applied. Easy peasy lol. I need to clear out some of my inventory, I am moving in a somewhat different direction with my work. The more I make jewelry the more I feel that I am moving toward a style that is more mine than previously. Being able to use my own lampwork beads, cabochons and metal work makes my new work very much more *mine*. And of course my skills are expanding and my work is getting better. I am going to be phasing out the plated items and moving more toward the sterling silver and gold plated. However I will still be doing pieces in copper as I am very drawn to the warmth of it and the wonderful patinas that can be achieved with fire and LOS. I also may keep using the brass as it does have a lovely color on its own and turns a wonderful pinky gold in the fire. My work is beginning to develop some depth and be a bit more complicated in the making. Any way, if you are looking for a good price on some nice jewelry come visit my sale section. I will be adding items to the sale section over the next several weeks.
Keep an eye out on my shop for new pieces also!

Update on Weight Loss

As promised I am updating my progress (more to keep me motivated than anything but I appreciate your coming along on this journey with me) on my success with this food plan. I have to say, I am having trouble some days eating often enough! And I am sooo not hungry which is great.
To give you an idea of a normal lunch (keep in mind, this is NOT purchased food but home cooked by me) I am having a piece of sweet italian turkey sausage (doesn't have to be turkey it can be pork sausage, but turkey is healthier and leaner. Again, not required) a sweet potato, and mixed veggies. One of my favorite snacks is Skinny Cow peanut butter and chocolate ice cream sandwich. Which, by the way is perfectly okay on this plan since they are less than 200 calories. Anyway here are the results

I started on 03/24/2010

Weight 197.4
% of body fat 49.32
fat weight 97.12
lean body mass 99.5

I am currently in a size 16.


05/03/2010
Weight 189.8
fat weight 79.39
% of body fat 41.83
lean body mass 110.41


7.6 pounds lost overall
% if body fat went down 9%
lost 17.73 pounds of fat!!!!!
gained 10.91 pounds of lean muscle

size 16 is getting looser and I can now fit into
some 14's.