Check Out This Giveaway!

As though hosting a bead swap for 400+ international beaders wasn't enough, the always amazing Lori Anderson is hosting a giveaway.

Go check it out here!

Seriously, go -- you'll be glad you did!

Wherein I Do What I Should Have Done Weeks Ago

Do you ever have days when you wake up and go "Whoa, where the heck did that month go?!?"  These moments are typically accompanied with (a) panic, (b) massive doses of caffeine, and (c) a list of things you need to catch up on.

This counts as one of those things I needed to get done several weeks ago.

The lovely Raida of Havana Beads had a giveaway of some of her fabulous lampwork beads, and I won!

I was thrilled, because Raida's beads always look so gorgeous on the computer screen.  Let me tell you, the pictures don't really do them justice.

Y'all, it took all the strength and patience I could muster to take a picture of the cute package before ripping into it like a wild madwoman.

And look what deliciousness was inside!

Seriously, click on the picture to get a closer look.
The surface decoration is yummy!

Thank you, Raida!  These are going to live on my bead table for a while -- I want to hoard them, stare at them, and fondle them a bit before using them.

We Have A Winner! (Okay, We Have Four!)

Y'all are just the best.  Seriously.  I had a blast celebrating my 100th blog post with you, and appreciated all the fun comments.

I've got some really exciting news to share with you, but I'll wait until tomorrow to do that, because today is all about THE GIVEAWAY!

Random.org generated the winning numbers.  Based on the order the names came up, I checked to see if that friend had expressed a preference among the beads.  If so, and if an earlier draw hadn't already claimed it, that person's name went on the bead.  I'm happy (and vaguely amazed) that there were no conflicting requests!

(Drumroll, please) Here are the results:

Karen Williams gets the green swirlies from Thornburg Bead Studio

  

Kristen gets the red lampwork earring pair from Fire Goddess

Michelle Bowman gets the daytime owl from Forever Young Creations 

(again, I swear the bead is upright, even if I can't get the photo to show that way to save my life!)

Christine Altmiller gets the night owl from Forever Young Creations

Ladies, please email me your address so that I can get these beauties off to you.  And thanks for hanging out with me!

Are You Ready for Some Giveaways (Oh, Yeah, and Some Football)?

Both kids are home from school this weekend, so just a note to remind everyone about the giveaway of the beautiful artisan beads above in connection with my 100th post.  I'll draw names on Monday, February 6, so if you want to put your name in the hat (or get another entry), be sure that you've gone here to leave a comment or to let me know that you've shared the news with others on your blog or facebook.

Have a great weekend!  I'm off to wrangle laundry and feed hungry young adults!

It's My Blogday, and I Have Gifts for You!

This is the 100th post this blog!  You have no idea how grateful, gobsmacked, and downright tickled I am by the friendships, fun, and support everyone who has come by has added to my life.  When this started, I could not have guessed what a kick this would be!

And to celebrate, I have goodies to share from the loot I  liberated from bought at a bead show in Cincinnati this weekend.  

The show was a great trifecta -- it gave me a chance to shop for beads (my credit card only smoked from overuse a little bit), an opportunity to pick out some goodies to give away to some of the wonderful people who are patient enough to read these wacky rambles (bless your hearts!), and a chance to see my son, who goes to college in Cincinnati.  He indulged me and let me buy him lunch and groceries.

Oh, yeah, I said gifts, right?  Here are closeups of the four tidy little bundles (I apologize for the quality of the photos of the owl beads -- they have a beautiful luster glaze that was completely beyond my photographic abilities):

Cute little earring pair by Susan Barnes of Fire Goddess

Cool lampwork swirl discs from Nikki Thornburg-Lanigan
of Thornburg Bead Studio

A cute little daytime owl (who apparently didn't want his photo to be upright),
a handpainted ceramic from Forever Young Creations

A night owl, also a handpainted ceramic from Forever Young Creations

Would you like one of them?  Join the fun (you probably know the routine) -- leave a comment and get your name in the drawing once.  If you already follow this blog, or if you join as a new follower, let me know and your name is entered again.  Finally, if you share the news about this giveaway and tell me about it, that's another time your name goes into the hat.

If you have a preference of which package you might win, let me know -- I'll do my best to match the winners with their wish.  You guys ROCK!

Introducing Leonard

A couple of months ago, I was lucky enough to win a copy of Karen Williams' great book Freeform Peyote Beading.  Not only did Karen send me a copy of the book, but she sent a treasure box of beads selected to echo the design in the book that had most caught my eye.

Looking through the pages of her book online, a bracelet stood out to me -- not just because it was lovely, but because I misread Karen's title (Leopard Jasper Bracelet).  "How funny!" I thought, "She called the bracelet Leonard Jasper."

(Okay, originally, the plan was to sit down and bead myself silly over Thanksgiving weekend.  Yep.  So let's just jump in the WayBack Machine and pretend it's late November, and that I'm not actually two months behind schedule on this...)

And so, in honor of Karen and her wonderful generosity and talent, allow me to introduce Leonard, the Jasper Bracelet.

I've done a good bit of freeform work, but Karen's book was full of great ideas and tips that were new to me.  My favorite tip for this project was to consider the first strand of beads you string as the centerline of the final piece and build on both sides simultaneously, at least at first.  This great tip helped me avoid my typical wonky "aw, crap, it's lopsided" moment in freeform bracelet creation.

Thanks, Karen, for helping to bring Leonard into my life!  And y'all, go take a look at her book on Amazon -- yummy...

Color Challenge Giveaway Results!

As part of the Challenge of Color blog hop, I promised to give the three pieces I created to lovely people who left comments on my reveal post.

Drum roll, please....

 

The winner of the necklace is Skye of Creative Chaos. (I swear the necklace hangs vertically, though the stupid picture won't show any other way than horizontally!)

The winner of the earrings is Heidi of Ex Post Facto Jewelry.

The winner of the bracelet is Kristen of My Bead Journey.

Please email me at beadsong@aol.com with your mailing information so the elves can send these little extra somethings for under the tree!

And thanks to all who were so kind to stop by, take a look, leave a comment, join as a follower, and in general, share the beady fun!  Y'all made this a great experience!

Challenge of Color Blog Hop (And A Giveaway!)

 

Lime Hues from Design Seeds

Welcome to the second Challenge of Color Blog Hop, created by our talented ringmaster Erin of Tesori Trovati Jewelry.

Here's the basic scoop: each participant chose a color from a selection of twelve.  We were then assigned a palette based around that color, designed by the uber-talented Jessica Colaluca of Design Seeds.  I chose teal, and was a little surprised when the name of my assigned palette was "Lime Hues."  But as you see above, it is built around the lovely mild teal.

Now honestly, the wisdom of signing up for a challenge whose reveal date was between Thanksgiving and Christmas, situated on top of two art shows and smack dab in the middle of one of the real crunch times at my job shows an unusual tolerance for mad activity.  I had grand visions of creating a spectacular woven piece that would do justice to the luscious colors I'd been gifted with.

(Keep reading until after the pictures for information on the giveaway!)

In reality, I ended up doing some weaving and some stringing.  Here's what came off the work table right under the deadline!

First the necklace, for which I created three separate woven rings with combinations of different colors and materials.  The finished necklace is nice and long (about 30"), with the rings on a double strand of copper chain.

faceted Czech glass beads are a lovely teal with a hint of the lime chartreuse

a variety of seed beads

marble beads with seeds in the green, blue, and chartreuse shades

imagine this rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise 

(like it was when I uploaded it...)

The earrings:

 

And the bracelet:

featuring a great ceramic button I picked up at a July 4 art fair by a NC artist -- 

she didn't have a website, but I'll have to go dig out her card and put her name here later

Thanks to Erin for coordinating all of this, thanks to Jessica for allowing us to use her palettes as inspiration, and thanks to you for looking!  And now for the giveaway:  leave a comment here, and you'll be entered in a drawing for one of the pieces I created for this hop -- that's right, three winners!  If you tweet, facebook, or blog about this post, you'll get another entry for each posting.  Just think - three gifts within your grasp (okay, keep it for yourself.  I won't tell!)

Here are the other participants in the hop -- I'll be enjoying all the beautiful creations, too!

1 Norma Turvey ~ Teal ~ Color Crave

2 Jeannie Dukic ~ Green ~ Mineral Tones

3 Mary McGraw ~ Teal ~ Embellished Hues

4 Jo Tinley ~ Red ~ Decadent Tones

5 Rebecca Anderson ~ Pink ~ Tulip Tones

6 Kristi Jaro ~ Red ~ Temple Entrance

7 Stephani Gorman ~ Green ~ Dew Tones

8 Melissa Meman ~ Green ~ Fruit Star

9 Kathleen Lange Klik ~ Teal ~ Silk Hues

10 Cynthia Riggs ~ Red ~ Autumn Comfort

11 Heidi Post ~ Teal ~ Flora Bright

12 Cece Cormier ~ Teal ~ Merino Teal

13 Amy Freeland ~ Gray ~ Cultured Tones

14 Alice Peterson ~ Blue ~ Island Play

15 Rose Noble ~ Gray ~ Autumn Stacked

16 Kristina Johansson ~ Yellow ~ Sunny Flower

17 Kirsi Luostarinen ~ Teal ~ Dragon Hues

18 Tari Kahrs ~ Orange ~ Citrus Tones

19 Mallory Hoffman ~ Purple ~ Petaled Dark

20 Molly Alexander ~ Brown ~ Peppered Tones

21 Regina Santerre ~ Red ~ Frosted Berry

22 Emanda Johnson ~ Teal ~ Color Purl

23 Amy Severino ~ Orange ~ Winged Tones

24 Bobbie Rafferty ~ Teal ~ Lime Hues

25 Tanya Goodwin ~ Gray ~ Pecked Tones

26 Lisa Lodge ~ Blue ~ Nocturnal Tones

27 Hope Smitherman ~ Blue ~ Bloom Tones

28 Linda Landig ~ Green ~ Cacti Dark

29 Ambra Gostoli ~ Teal ~ Perched Autumn

30 Lori Bowring-Michaud ~ Blue ~ Sharpened Blue

31 Pippa Chandler ~ Teal ~ Hungarian Hues

32 Keirsten Giles ~ Purple ~ Mineral Brights

33 Jennifer Justman ~ Blue ~ Autumn Rays

34 Sandy Richardson ~ Purple ~ Moroccan Brights

35 CJ Bauschka ~ Teal ~ Teal Air

36 Shaiha Williams ~ Teal ~ Sushi Hues

37 Kay Thomerson ~ Purple ~ Autumn Spectrum

38 Sally Russick ~ Purple ~ Golden Gate Tones

39 Cilla Watkins ~ Purple ~ Autumn Infused

40 Shirley Moore ~ Purple ~ Frozen Heather

41 Jenni Connolly ~ Gray ~ Paw Tones

42 Tamara Soper ~ Green ~ Field Tones

43 Sharyl McMillian-Nelson ~ Blue ~ Nested Blues

44 Jen Velasquez ~ Pink ~ Sweetened Tints

45 Maria Grimes ~ Red ~ Bright Bloom

46 Elisabeth Auld ~ Gray ~ Petaled Tints

47 Susan Kennedy ~ Pink ~ Zinnia Tones

48 Shannon Chomanczuk ~ Gray ~ Autumn Leaf

49 Holly Westfall ~ Yellow ~ Sprinkled Tones

50 Patty Gasparino ~ Red ~ Color Carton

51 Angela Little ~ Pink ~ Singapore Brights

52 Lizzie Zawinski ~ Green ~ Budding Hues

53 Kristen Stevens ~ Pink ~ Scooped Tones

54 Dawn Doucette ~ Brown ~ Jarred Tones