Summer Lovin' Reveal Day

Yeah Summer Lovin’ reveal is finally here! I say this because I finished my piece in June and have been waiting and waiting and waiting for August to arrive. This was my very first challenge ever and it was so exciting; receiving the package, planning and then re-planning, making and then re-making and finally the finished result. I love, love, love this piece and wear it often. I named this piece "Winterfell" ; it reminded me of the castle in the series "Game of Thrones" (currently my favorite series). The colors of the beads in the package are not colors I would normally have picked out but they pushed me out of my comfort zone and have now become favorites. I have had many people tell me that this piece is their favorite. I love the tree of life focal bead - a polymer focal from PennysLane, I added a few tiny silver leaves that were difficult to find until my awesome sister dug through her stash and came up with exactly what I was looking for (thanks Sis!). 

Thank you Amy for hosting this challenge, I hope you like what I have created.

The Kit





Wintefell - The Result

 



...where does the time go...

Time seems to drag by when you feel under the weather, but at the same it flies by. I can't believe I haven't posted in a couple of weeks. We have been very busy, but then last week I came down with strep throat, and that has knocked me out. My daughter came over to sit with the dogs while we went away for the weekend (had great fun) but when we came home she was sick and I mean sick. I wouldn't let her go home, because after all we never stop being mom's and I needed to take care of her. Well I am happy to say she is on the mend and has returned to her own place and yes now I am sick.....hmm funny how that works.  I have been beading like crazy and my soup is almost done, I can't wait for August 11 reveal day.  I have also entered a July Challenge and Amy's Summer Lovin, everything is coming together nicely. I have been busy with my camera as well...my hollyhocks this year are stunning and at least 13 feet high.  I feel so good because they are loaded with bees and we all have to do everything we can to keep bees in our world.

Pretty in Pink

 

 

 

Hollyhock (photo painting)

Yummy yummy

Coming in for a landing

Almost there!

...we're having a heat wave...

Wow, it's blasting hot here, almost too hot, but then I know what's, coming so I better enjoy the heat while I can. With heat comes air conditioning and staying indoors, which of course leads to beading.

Princess

 Princess was made using pink and cream seed beads and pink and brown pearls. Appropriately named because  I feel just like a princess when I am wearing it. A now for the animal in all of us.....

Bengali

Bengali is a two drop peyote band and even though it doesn't show in the picture the bracelet has a lot of glitz made with gold, copper and shiny chocolate brown delica's.

I have also signed up for an on line painting course and I am getting set up for that. Super excited but I'll only post if I am not embarrassed of the outcome.  I have a fabulous teacher so I think I'll love them. Still waiting for my soup, I just know it will come soon; can't wait, after seeing all the fabulous soups posted, I am feeling a little inadequate...I should have sent nicer packaging, better selection, a gift....sorry Ginger, please chalk this up to my first. I hope you do enjoy what I sent. I made a piece using the same beads (has to be a secret for now) and have had a lot of compliments.

I've done it...

Well, I have taken the big step, which was very nerve wracking to do, but I have done it....my Etsy shop is now open for business. I'm still trying to figure out how to add the slide show to my blog but for now it's just the Etsy Shop link. I'm flying by the seat of my pants and hope all works out and is done right.  Comments back would be most welcome. I have a limited number of items in my store but will continue to add as the days go on. Who knew this would be such a huge learning curve.

I feel truly blessed to have such wonderful blog friends, and this week I have enjoyed so many of my blog friends posts - Lori shared her story of when she first knew true love and I felt special to be  included in the reveal of her excellent story. Keep writing Lori, you do it well. Sarah shared her way of coping and prioritizing - I always take away so much good advice from her and count myself lucky to be her blog friend. Ginger my BSBP is sharing her experiences in Okinawa, I call them my mini blog-cations. I am so excited that Ginger is my partner, I think we are kindred spirits and share a lot in common. My list could go on and on,  but suffice it to say that I appreciate all my very talented blog friends.

My baby moved out today and I'm not sure I'm prepared for that even though she is 24 and ready to be on her own..the empty nest syndrome has hit me hard but at least I have my fur babies.....

Fur Baby #1 - Rockstar

Fur Baby #2 - MoJo

oh, and  my beading.....I have a couple of pieces I am dying to show, but must wait for reveal days so I thought I would share two bracelets I just finished instead. "Dottie" evokes happiness, and  "A whole lot of Bling" evokes just that. Both pieces succeeded in lifting my spirits and were fun to make.

oh happy weekend....

What a great weekend, not only was it my beloveds birthday (celebrations were in order) but I also found out who my BSBP partner is. I now have a new, wonderful friend that I am excited to get to know. This is going to be so much fun.

Because it was Mr. Wonderful's birthday I banned all house work (yeah for me), yard work (he did sneak some in), and anything that had the word "work" in it. It was an absolute wonderful weekend. We had a big family birthday dinner complete with a delicious birthday cake and then just did fun stuff for the rest of the weekend.

Our garden is looking good, a bit overgrown because we have had so much rain, but I always say better green than white. I love the peonies in our yard and these beauties begged to be photographed.  Much to my surprise and only noticed later,  I had captured the cutest little ladybug. I'm sure that must mean good luck or at least good photography!

Perfect Pink Peonies

Little Lady Bug

I also had a bit of beading time and finished a free form peyote weave bracelet. I had purchased a small tube of mixed seed beads in various sizes and thought it would be perfect for free form. Had just enough! I think I will be going to purchase more of these little mixes! Some very exciting news for me is that the bead store (the one with the mixes) that I frequent is moving....moving very close to me! Exciting and very dangerous.

Lava

..getting closer, but not there yet...

 I have been busy trying to get an Etsy store going. I don't know why it's taking me so long, I think I have a block. But I have given myself to the end of June (yikes that's getting close) to have a least one item listed and my Etsy store up and running. I mean how hard can it be.....there are many, many Etsy stores already and the sales are in the millions and most of my blog friends have a store.  Maybe I am afraid of not making any sales or...... maybe I am afraid of making sales! Whatever it is I need to just do it.

I don't know if I will put this piece in my Etsy store or not, I have grown quite fond of "Royale". It has a certain feel of richness to it, a feeling of royalty.

Royale

...what to do, what to do....

I finished my Summer Lovin challenge from Amy (http://amybeads.blogspot.com/)but upon further reading discovered the reveal isn't until August 1. I am glad I took a second look at the  instructions, I almost jumped the gun and posted early. I love how the piece turned out and hopefully everyone else will too. My first challenge and it was so much fun, it made me step out of my color comfort zone. Normally I wouldn't pick the colors but I absolutely love the combination, thanks Amy. I will have to wait until August 1 to reveal but I will be wearing it today.

I am excitedly waiting to find out who my partner is in the Bead Soup Blog Hop (http://lorianderson-beadsoupblogparty.blogspot.com/). With that in mind I thought I would post a necklace that I strung. I found the jade beads on a trip to the coast and couldn't resist.  I had the perfect focal jade bead in my stash and with the addition of silver accents, and green crystals and the octagonal glass bead I think it turned out well. I made earrings to match and find I often pick this necklace to wear.

Jade Treasure