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Thank you for joining me on my weekend journey to San Diego and so many of the things I saw.  I had an absolutely fabulous time and learned so much from Blue Lily and the other workshop attendees.  I am still floating from the experience and everything I learned.  

I'm also floating because I took yesterday off and spent much of it on the torch.  I made ninety one beads.  That's right....91 little new beads.  And one worry stone.  Woo hoo!

I don't have everything cleaned out yet.  Or etched.  So I will start off with a set and a worry stone I made last week.  I love this blue.

And when it is reduced, it turns all mirrory metallic on me.  If etched, it would be a deep cobalt blue.  I'm still contemplating on whether or not to etch.  What do you think?  Should I etch?  Or should I make another set and etch those?

Here is the start of the beads I made yesterday.  I'm halfway through cleaning.  Maybe not quite half.  I will be etching these, but wanted to at least give a sneak peak of what is coming.  I wanted to have lots of sea glass beads to put in the shop on Saturday.

Here is the worry stone I made yesterday.  To etch or not?  Hmmm.

Hoping to get the rest of the beads cleaned tonight and etch them so I can hopefully (HOPEFULLY!) photograph them all tomorrow over my lunch hour.

TGIF Randomness!

I am so thankful today is Friday.

I think I am going to start shooting for a theme each week when making new beads.

Swirls one week.

Nuggets the next.

I have already started beads for the update after tomorrow.

 I think they will all mostly be etched.

My shop has been low on etched beads for quite awhile.

I haven't made sea glass beads in ages.  So there will definitely be a few sets of those.

My goal is to also continue to update the shop with eggs at least once each month.

And new buttons with each update.

I'm liking this little button.  Because of how I squashed her, her holes are aligned a little differently than the others.  Must make more of these.

We are in the middle of a week of temps in the 70s and glances of the sun.  I'm so happy.  This weekend will be filled with trips to local parks for the kids to play and wear themselves out.

Check out my shop tomorrow after 2pm EST to see all the beads above get listed.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Hooray for the Weekend!

I have been burning the midnight oil almost every night since coming back from Minnesota over a week ago.  It is catching up with me, so I am looking forward to this weekend for a little extra sleep.  But also to spend time with my honeys, with friends and as our last weekend home alone without kids.  On the flip side, I am getting so much done around the house and have been stuffing my mailbox full to send things out almost every day this week!

These eggs are on their way to Heather of Humblebeads.  Keep an eye out on her blog and shop to see what she does with these!

These bebe eggs are on their way to Lorelei.  I always love what she does with my beads, so keep an eye on her blog and shop.  I hope they will inspire her and jump into new designs. :)

These pink eggs are getting checked out now.

Getting things listed in the shop the other night didn't happen, but everything is in the shop now.  Finally!

Sea Foam Green Nugget Earrings are listed HERE.

Purpliscious Nugget Earrings are listed HERE

More silver on red beads listed HERE

Raku on melon and mustard beads HERE

Candy nugget beads listed HERE

This worry stone is headed out to Cindy, my winner of a giveaway back in April.  I have felt horrible that it has taken me this long to get her worry stone made in the colors she requested.  The egg beads just took off and this (among other projects and commitments) got put on hold.  Some time last year, I had made a similar worry stone for my grandma that has blues emanating out from the core and surrounded by loads of clear.  I really, really like this kind of worry stone.  I think maybe even more so than so many of my opaque worry stones on ivory or black bases.  I want to make more.  Now that the eggs wait list is coming to an end, I may be able to start focusing on making more of these clear worry stones.  What do you think?

Tonight I will be driving out to see my honeys play in his last seniors tennis match of the season (I'm still confused how 45 year olds can be considered seniors, but whatever).  Tomorrow night we are having some friends over for a Mexican dinner.  Hoping to finish up the last of the yardwork we started last weekend.   Clean out the garage.  Maybe have a spur-of-the-moment garage sale.  Maybe not.

What's on your the list for your weekend?  Anything fun and exciting?  Are you staying cool?

Weekend Eggs

I made a video on Saturday showing how I make an egg bead and had planned on showing that today.  But I thought it would be unfair to make you all wait another day to see the new eggs.  So here they are :)

And a little sneak peak of the rest of the beads that made it into the kiln Saturday night with the newest fourteen eggs.

My weekend went by way too fast!  I still have laundry left to do.  I didn't get to changing out the sheets.  Gasp!  I didn't go grocery shopping, nor did I get to try out new recipes like I had planned.  I had more beads I wanted to make.  More stories I wanted to read to my kids.  Over 700 photos to inspect/crop/edit/post from the past week (mostly of the kids and over half from soccer games/practice).  Where did the weekend go?

Did your weekend disappear faster than normal? 

Worry Stone GIVEAWAY!

Ok, I wasn't planning on doing another giveaway so soon, but I need some serious help.  Or rather, my Mom needs some serious help.  She is in possession of the biggest Honda lemon ever.  Boo hiss!  It has 120,000 miles on it and in the last year she has spent a fortune and replaced almost every piece under the hood.  Today, it started smoking while she was driving.  The shop said her radiator had cracked and needed to be replaced.  And oh, by the way, it leaked into your engine and now you need a new engine which will only cost $4-5K by itself.  Gah.  Not good.

So this weekend, I'll be going to help her car shop & negotiate the best deal somewhere between all the soccer games and other kids' stuff we have going on.  Thinking the cars with 10 year/100,000 mile warranties would be the best and in a budget of $15-20K.  Because at this point, she's all about the warranty.  She needs your suggestions, folks.  What would you recommend? 

Enter to win one of my worry stones (you choose the two colors!) by leaving a comment with a car recommendation and why.  A random winner will be chosen next week after she gets the new/used car.  I will make the worry stone after hearing color preferences from the winner and will get it shipped out within a week.

If you're commenting anonymously, please make sure your email is included, otherwise your comment will be deleted.

Fess Up

How much do you hold your beads before you use them?  Thy Hand Hath Provided asked that question yesterday.  She is not a beader and has no idea how fanatical some of us are about holding beads and not letting go.

Do you keep beads in your pocket(s)?

Stash them in your purse for easy retrieval and quick glimpses throughout the day?

Anyone sleep with beads under their pillow?  Cindy L?  Yes, I'm calling you out! ;)

I admit I have purchased handmade beads that I know I will likely never make into jewelry.  I realize that is sad and I am doing a HUGE disservice to the beads.  But I can't help it.  I just need to have them on my desk where I can look at them all day while I work. 

And I almost always have one of my worry stones in my pocket that I can reach down and grab and hold onto.  The ridges or bumps on the one side keep my thumb busy, although I found the smooth/flat side more comforting.

Pink Ribbons

Here is my latest Pink Ribbon worry stone bead. It is now in my shop here.

More are still available here, here and here.

I don't make any profit on these beads as I donate all proceeds to the Susan G Komen fund.

What Came Out of the Kiln This Morning?

I'm having a hard time turning this calendar page....I'm a sucker for flags and really anything patriotic. This little ferret with his hard hat has been watching me melt glass for the last month and I'm going to miss him. But it is probably time to move on to August.



Here is my torch all fired up from last night. A trusty little Mega Minor burner with a torch-mounted graphite marver for helping shape my beads. Lots of clear rods on the torch table. I try to have them all cleaned before I start melting glass because it seems I'm always using clear on whatever I make these past few months.



Here is everything that went into the kiln last night and I'm pleased with how most of it came out. The butterfly is the second one I have made and it was easier than the first. I have shied away from butterflies in the past because in the Beads of Courage program, they are given to the parents who have lost their children to cancer. But a customer asked that I make a butterfly for her and it made me realize I shouldn't let my emotions prevent me from making something that could mean so much to others who have lost their children. I'll keep tissues close by if I start thinking too much about the purpose of the bead.



I like this worry stone that I made last night. It has a combination of Gaia and Cezanne under a thin layer of clear. While my fingers like the bumpy side better, my eyes like the smooth side the best. There are lines of silver wrapping around the bead that I love.




I was playing around with Double Helix's newest color named Ekho last night and combining it with clear. The purple is the best reaction, but I'm still learning how to control it.




The clouds started moving on me over my lunch hour and blocked out the sunlight just as I was finishing taking pics. I thought I'd aim my camera at the sky for a couple of shots. I may start including these with my Etsy listings just as a fun way of showing what kind of lighting I had when taking the pics. :) I thought it would be cool and isn't anything I've seen other Etsy sellers do (although, I do enjoy seeing pics of their feline Quality Control Inspectors). Think that's a stupid idea? If you do, then tell me why. Just soften the blow with a compliment on my kids. Or you can tell me you like my hair.




Owen lost his last wiggly tooth yesterday. This is the fourth tooth that has come out. He is proud to show off his toothless grin, so it is easier now to get pictures of him. Wondering how long this will last.

Double Helix & Etching

These two are not friends. I learned this the hard/unfair way. Went from this pretty cool, metallic worry stone with the shiny, metallic and bumpy top




with this pretty cool back with great color variations




to this blah, matte black with ridges on top (sniff, the metallic, mirror-y blue is all gone & won't ever come back)



and this muted back



I suppose it's not that bad, but it is still a disappointment because I felt the original was so much cooler. Guess that's what happens when something sits too long in front of me without getting listed right away in my Etsy shop. And this one sat for a second attempt at a photo session because the first one seemed to show nothing but dust on the top of this bead (a routine problem I seem to encounter with most black beads that have not been etched).

Christmas in June

UPS brought Christmas in June for me on Friday of last week!

A thank you note, candies AND goats poo!

Ten pounds of glass all wrapped up in two bundles with saran wrap.  A little frit in some baggies.  And more mud (YAY!  I was running low!)

All unwrapped & ready to be put away in my glass cabinet for replacement colors and next to my torch for the new colors to try out!

 

I bought several new Double Helix colors that I haven't tried before, but I only played with Gaia.  She is pretty!  In rod form, she is a dark transparent green....but get her in the fire and she does all kinds of fun things!  Below you can see what she does on top of clear, on ivory and encased under clear.

And on a black worry stone under layers of clear.  This one took me close to 45 minutes to make.  It is bigger/heavier than any of my others and I really like the shape, as well as the rainbow texture on top.  

Can you tell I was in heaven playing on my torch all of Saturday afternoon while Todd watched the kids?  Wendy even came over and played on the torch with me, which was really nice to have her company!

I spent all of Sunday morning & most of the afternoon at Wendy's making jewelry.  Pics/blog to come of that later!