Oh glorious summer

We are having a glorious hot summer, lazy sun soaked days - weekends just don't last long enough.....sigh!  We have a multitude of hollyhocks in our garden, providing me with hours of fun just trying to capture that perfect picture of a bumble bee in flight. I have come close but not perfect so I will keep trying.

 Lately I have been absolutely hooked on peyote stitch, I am trying to perfect following a graph pattern, as well as creating my own patterns. I may have mentioned that turquoise is one of my favorite colors and lately gold has moved to the top of my list as well. I love this combination of color and it suits this design so well.
I have received lots of compliments on this set....hard to keep out of my daughters' reach!

Long weekends are awesome

Especially, when you add in another day! Last week was July 1st and Canada's birthday, but because July 1st fell on a Tuesday it wasn't actually going to be a long weekend....that is unless you and your beloved take off the Monday in between. Four blissful days of rest and relaxation. We packed a lot into our 4 day weekend, a most enjoyable drive in the country allowing me to hone my photographic skills, we took in a movie and thoroughly enjoyed it, we spent time with family, and time with friends, we shopped along old Whyte Avenue and enjoyed a coffee at our favourite bistro, I sewed a couple of new outfits, and I beaded....and that is just a sample of what we did. I love long long weekends! Moving forward to this weekend it was time to catch up on all we had put off...yard work, house work, etc. etc.

Country Roads Barn

Country Roads Horses

Country Roads Old Barn

 A wonderful friend of mine recently returned from Thailand and blessed me with not only one but many Shiva Eye Shells. He knows I love making jewellery and thought I could create something beautifully wonderful. This is the first piece I made, with more to come. I am working on putting one in a silver bezel and will have to pull out my smithing tools....hmm can't wait! I do love this one and the lamp work beads go so well, it was like they were made for each other. It hangs on a delicate sterling silver chain and the bezel is sterling silver seed beads. Thank you to my friend!

      "On one side of the Shiva eye shell is a beautiful spiral. The exact shape of the spiral is unique from one shell to the next. The color varies from beige to deep green, depending on the sea snail's diet, while the background always remains a milky white.      

The swirl symbolizes an energy force of power and strength. On the reverse side of the spiral is a mesh of colors that resembles an eye, which is where the shell's alternate name derives from.       

The Eye of Shiva  is thought to have the ability to look beyond the obvious. It symbolizes the creation, preservation and destruction of everything, the flow of life, the constant change of the universe, spiritual knowledge and creative visualization"     

Shiva Eye

My Country - Oh Canada!

My Country Blog Hop Reveal

As soon as I saw that Nan Smith was hosting the My Country blog hop I really wanted to join in the fun and talk a bit about where I live.

Today is Canada's birthday.....Happy Birthday Canada,  I had never really thought what it was to be Canadian until I traveled to other countries and realized just how great this country is and how truly lucky I am.   We still have vast amounts of wide open wilderness for exploring,  an abundance of Federal and Provincial Parks for us to enjoy, we are a nation of a diverse melting pot of nationalities, and we have freedom. Alberta is my home province and although I was born in Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan's Tiger Lily

 I am Albertan through and through.

Alberta's Wild Rose

 

 
Everyone has heard of the Canadian Loonie ($1) and of course the Canadian Twoonie ($2) but we also have a quarter, a dime a nickel and ...... a copper penny.  One was always carrying around a weighty purse or pocket full  of the copper pennies and really there isn't much you could get for a penny anymore. Penny banks were exploding and old mason jars were full of them. People were hoarding them...what else did you do with them. As a child I remember rolling rolls and rolls of them for my father; he was a coin collector.....but why all the rolls - what was the purpose? Well recently Canada decided it was time for the penny to retire- think of the copper we are saving! So now what to do with that large collection I have of my own? So we never forget an important part of Canadian history, I have taken them out of my pocket and put them on my ears and around my neck. Enjoy!

My Country Blog Hop Participants

Nan Smith (Canada)                                                                      wirednan.blogspot.ca

1. Ana (Portugal)                                                                             acbeads.blogspot.ca

2.Rita  (Orlando)                                                                     JewelSchoolFriends.com   

                                                                  

3. Dini (The Netherlands)                                                 angazabychanges.blogspot.nl

4. Robin Reed  (Indiana)                                                      willowdragon.blogspot.com

5. Lilik Kristiana   (Indonesia )                                                       pcbylik.blogspot.com

6. Karla Morgan  (Texas)                                                 texaspepperjams.blogspot.com

7. Karen Mitchell (South Australia)                               www.overthemoon-design.com

8. Jayne Capps  (Oklahoma)                                         mamasgottodoodle.blogspot.com

9. Melissa Trudinger  (Australia)                                           beadrecipes.wordpress.com

10. Johana Nunez  (Puerto Rico)                                                        http:artincendi.com

11. Kepi  (Alberta, Canada)                                                     kepirasmussen.blogspot.ca  

12. Deb Fortin  (Ontario)                                                             studiok24.blogspot.ca

13. Divya  (India)                                                                              jewelsofsayuri.com

14. Tammy Adams  (Arizona)                                             paisleylizard.com/blog.html

15. Kay Thomerson  (Texas)                                              kayzkreationz.blogspot.com

16. Bairozan  (Bulgaria)                                                               bairozan.blogspot.ca

17. Carolyn's Creations                                           carolynscreationswa.blogspot.com 

18. Lecia Woessner   (New Orleans)                                    copperroses.blogspot.com

19. Linda A.  (Wash. D.C.                                       FromTheBeadBoard.blogspot.com

20.Inge Van Roos (California)                                               ingetraud.wordpress.com

21. Natalie   (New Zealand)                                        http://www.northshoredays.com

22. Lori Schneider                                                              beadaddicted.blogspot.com

23.Mary Harding (New York)                    maryhardingjewelrybeadblog.blogspot.com

24. Bouchra Rebai (Algeria)                                           bouchrarebai.wordpress.com     

25.Michelle McCarthy  (Florida )                            Fireflydesignstudio.blogspot.com 

Pearls Pearls Pearls!

I was so excited to join this hop because for one I needed a new challenge and for two I absolutely love pearls. My favorite thing to do when in Hawaii is (and I know it is so touristy) to open a oyster for a pearl while shouting "Aloha".   I must say I have some beautiful pearls; such precious treasures. I just happened to have a variety (large and I haven't made a dint) of pearls, in different sizes and colors in my stash so this hop was meant to be for me.

The lovely Michelle (Shel) from MiShel  Designs is our host, thank you Shel for this fun experience, I had the best time with my pearls!

Long strands are so popular and this with its own pearl beaded bead! and earrings to match!

Super fun waterfall earrings and bracelet in such a beautiful color!

Simple strand but color of these pearls make it rare! Two pairs of earrings - one funky and one classic!

Pearl wrap in luscious copper, gold, silver and pewter

Silk (shibori) and Pearls - is there anything better!

 This was just so much fun, thanks again Shel.

 Here is the link to all the other lovely pearl people, enjoy the hop

http://misheldesigns.blogspot.com/2013/09/good-girls-wear-pearls.html

BSBP 8 Reveal Day

Reveal day is here and I am so excited - excited to show everyone what I made with the soup I received from my lovely partner Gayle Dyck. For an event that has participants from all over the world, my partner hails from the province right next door, the province I was born in...definitely kindred spirits.  This was Gayle’s first foray into Lori’s wonderful world of Bead Soup Blog Parties and I was happy to show her the ropes. Gayle and I exchanged emails and got to know one another.  I was so impressed with Gayle’s seed bead work; check out the bag she made, wow! For a first timer she sent an awesome and abundant soup, I was blown away. I think Gayle and I were lucky because we got each other’s soup right away and were able to start creating early in the game, giving us lots of time to get the creative juices flowing. I am so pleased I was able to use all the beads Gayle sent and have some fabulous pieces in my ever growing jewellery collection to show off. Gayle has assured me she has been equally prolific with her creations. This is the soup I sent Gayle. 

I know Lori has been incredibly sick through this whole party and my heart aches for her. Lori thank you for this wonderful event and thank you to Rick as well (and Zack too!) Even if you do take a break next year, I will be forever grateful for this experience and will continue to be one of your biggest fans. You are simply the best. I have been blessed with wonderful partners in each of the BSBP that I have participated in (here and here) and they are now my BSBPBFF (Bead Soup Blog Party Best Friends Forever) yeah Ginger and yeah Amy. And now I now have another wonderful friend to add to this list.

My partner Gayle sent the following soup all wrapped up in a very large kinder egg...so cute...I have to work on my packaging because in my rush to send I wasn't very creative. Not only did Gayle send an awesome soup she slipped in a cute little pair of earrings and even though they are a rival province’s colors (Rough Riders vs Eskimos)...I will wear them especially around Grey Cup time and see what kind of reaction I get! Thank you, thank you, thank you Gayle! This is the soup Gayle sent me, doesn't it look delicious!

Saskatchewan Rough Rider Earrings Gayle sent

And now here they are....

First spoonful: A  beautiful sparkly gold, deep green and bright blue glass focal. It just so happens that had another reveal coming up and this design was one of the projects...way to work two reveals with one piece! I absolutely love the twin hole beads that are used for the beaded beads in this piece and the colors were a perfect match to the focal. The deep golden bronze pearls took it to a new level and the earrings absolutely complete the set.

Next a gorgeous shell focal – on one side striated green and browns and the other side deep brown and tans. I was a bit stumped on what type of rope to make and then at our local bead group I was the lucky winner of the door prize which consisted of the perfectly matching square beads...too amazing. I had never used square beads to do a bezel but it turned out absolutely amazing and sets off the shell focal so well.

Simmering in the soup were copper and bright green seed beads...oh what to do...not colors I generally use as main colors but then I came across Diane Fitzgeralds pattern for Pulsating Diamonds and yureka..... I added blue and light copper and a star (or should I day a diamond) was born.

In all that delicious soup there was one lone blue glass bead, must have been the spice! I paired it with the small round opaque white glass beads from the soup for a simple wrap bracelet- added a tiny dragonfly and blue bead to finish it off...so cute!

I am absolutely in love with the following set, partly because I am so pleased with how the spacers turned out. I couldn’t find anything that I liked or that went with the three glass flower beads so I made something. I coated heavy paper flowers with crystal coat, and viola - perfectly matched spacers, I added deep burgundy pearls, small round garnets and accented with silver seed beads. So so love this set.

There were also two peach glass flower beads in the soup and they made such a delicate pretty pair of earrings. Perfect for spring.

Gayle also included a few blue green tila beads and although at first I didn’t think they were a match to the tila's, two large rock shaped crystals. But just look what happened.....

Everyone needs a pair of go to earrings in their collection, something simple that goes with anything and everything. These opaque pale pink crystals made just that pair.

I still had some of the small round white opaque glass beads from the soup and Gayle had also sent some white size 15 seed beads. I have been dappling in polymer clay and had made this focal and well …. the rest is history. 

What does one do with round larger holed bone beads….. make a shambala bracelet of course. This now graces my daughters wrist and she loves it....yeah!

I have never made a ring before but since I hadn’t used all the Martha Stewart crystals from the soup, now was a good time to try. I love it and it goes so well with the last necklace....the Pièce de résistance still to come!

There was one lone finding in the soup (more spice I suppose) that I thought might get left out (not eaten) but then I had a dream and look what came out of that dream. I put a large mauve pearl inside the gold finding, added a few crystals,  made a complimentary beaded bead to go with it and put them all together. I truly love this piece and feel so pretty wearing it. Genius!

 

And now for the almost grande finale, everyone knows that my favorite beading technique is bead embroidery. It is my calling and I feel like I create little pieces of art with the added bonus of being able to wear those little works of art. When I opened my soup and saw the green malachite focal, I knew what had to be done. I added a couple of smaller malachite cabochons and set it off with black agate cabs. I added dyed howlite, bright green round glass beads and used the last remaining green seed beads from the soup and one of the two clasps Gayle had included. It is pure pleasure wearing this piece.  I have even been asked if I would sell it.....hmmmm I think not!

Drum role please......This is it and boy was that soup good to the last drop. This piece uses the large crystal focal, the Martha Stewart crystals, the green seed beads from the soup, the other clasp and then I added pearls, fire polished crystals and iridescent seed beads oh and of course the shibori silk. I love working with shibori and already have other pieces on the go. My Pièce de résistance…..

 I hope you enjoyed my soup as much as I did and I hope Gayle feels I paid her beads the tribute they deserved. Please follow this link to visit all the other (approximately 500) BSBP participants. Happy hopping.....

For the complete list of participants please click on this link:

http://www.prettythingsblog.com/2014/05/welcome-to-8th-bead-soup-blog-party.html