Following an urge (eventually) and Meal Plan Monday

I woke this morning full of a vigor for life. . .hahahahahaha!
Actually, I awoke to the hubs almost having to pull me from the bed to go to the gym. I was halfway through my time on the elliptical before I was good and awake. However, once home I had (as I put it on twitter this morning) the "urge to purge." I desperately wanted to do some spring cleaning and organizing, especially in the craft room. Weird! Urges to clean don't usually just rise up in me, so it's best that I hop on them before the feeling fades.

Unfortunately, I knew there were other tasks that required my attention first. Namely, the menu and grocery shopping needed to be taken care of. I mean. . .it IS Menu Plan Monday after all.

Breakfasts: Juice, Yogurt w/granola & fruit, Scrambled eggs w/toast & fruit, Blueberry pancakes

Lunches: Leftovers, Juice, Bean burritos, Grilled cheese w/soup, Tuna noodles, PB&J

Dinners
Skinny spaghetti squash alfredo w/steamed broccoli & sauteed mushrooms
Grilled Chicken w/veggie skewers (onion, zucchini, mushrooms, red bell pepper, jalapeno pepper) & potatoes
Tao Soup w/tortilla chips
BBQ tofu pizza w/salad
Guiltless cheesy mac w/steamed green beans


Once that was all taken care of I was free to. . .make a custom order. Sigh. I am a busy girl!
Eventually I carved out about half an hour to start sorting through the mess. After that, the craft room looked like this.
Taken from the doorway

NOT clean and organized!! Somehow things always get messier before they get organized. PLEASE tell me this the same for you! Since I can't really get in the room well in this state, I'm hoping the urge continues tomorrow and most likely for a few days after that. We'll see how it goes. Wish me luck!

Oh, and do you have any organizing tips?

Focusing on Life Week 17: Color/Colour

Like I said yesterday, I've been trying to get back on track with some of my postings. It's Saturday and that means it's time for Focusing on Life. Sally gave us the prompt "Color/Colour". I won't say that this one was a challenge since I have a soft spot for color, and lots of it.
The first thing I thought of for this prompt was my embroidery floss organization. It HAS to be organized by color. The box below is just my traveling box as I have two more boxes with the bulk of my floss. Unfortunately, I haven't been using these boxes lately. Looking at this awesome spectrum though makes me want to pull out a needle and some fabric though.

I also organize my beads by color ass best as I can. Here's a box of seed beads that I keep around just for fun, though it hardly ever sees any real action.


I also snapped a shot of this great striped wrapping paper just before I wrapped up one of my nieces' birthday presents in it.

Yummy right?

So that's my contribution for this week's photo challenge. I can't wait to see how/where everyone else found their color! Hop over to Sally's blog, The Studio Sublime to check out the other contributors.

And, don't forget. . .today's the 3rd Reveal for the Bead Soup Blog Party!!

Year of Jewelry Week 17: Organically Yours

It seems to be taking forever, but I'm desperately trying to get back on my game. You may remember from earlier in the year that I'm participating in the Year of Jewelry Project. Besides the fact that I somehow managed to skip week 5, I'm now six weeks behind on the prompts. For now, I just want to share what I made for this week's project. However, I am hoping to try to go back and make something for the weeks I've missed. That may end up a bit too ambitious for me, but it's at least worth mentioning. Maybe putting it out here like this will make me more accountable.


So. . .as the title states, this week's prompt was "Organically Yours." The prompt can be taken any variety of ways, but I went with my initial impulse to make something using materials from nature.

I chose to pick from items found during one of my latest trips to the beach in order to make the focal for the piece.


A spongy-looking piece of coral and a bit of driftwood worked perfectly. From there, I used some waxed linen cord to attach them together with a mother of pearl bead to tie the beachy theme together.


The rest of the necklace was constructed with other beads made of natural elements: wood, tagua nut, shell, and lava.

 Right now, I'm pretty smitten with the focal but am not sure that the rest of the necklace is doing much for me. It works. . .but I'm not in love with it. What do you think?

Check out the other examples of how "Organically Yours" was interpreted in the Year of Jewelry Facebook Album.

Since I'm all about getting back on my game I should be posting my Focusing on Life photo(s) tomorrow as well. Make sure you check back in for that. As well, tomorrow will be the 3rd and final reveal for the Bead Soup Blog Party. I'm still trying to hop the first and second reveals. . .yeah I'm kinda glad Lori made the BSBP only once a year. How are you coming on the hopping?

See y'all tomorrow!! (see what I did? I made this promise so now I HAVE to follow through. ha!)

Menu and the Photoshop Timesuck

I feel like I'm finally coming up for air. I've been working on a particular project for several weeks and then got involved in editing pictures for it. I adore editing pictures. I know. . .weird, sick obsession. There's just something about taking an okay picture and really trying to get the best out of it. I lose track of time while editing pictures. Really. Doesn't everyone have an activity that's a total timesuck for them? Just me?

Anyway. . .in the midst of all that, I was able to get my meals planned for the week along with the shopping done. Thank goodness I started on that BEFORE I opened the Photoshop! So here's what we'll most likely be chowing down on this week.

Breakfasts: Yogurt w/granola, Juice, Eggs w/toast & fruit, Cereal, Muffins

Lunches: Tuna noodles, Ham and cheese quesidillas, Juice, PB&J, Pita pizzas

Dinners
Tofu w/corn & rice mix
Roasted shrimp and veggies (carrots, potatoes, zucchini)

Sounds delish to me! What's on your menu this week? Share it for Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Now to dive back into the Photoshop and get some of my jewelry photos edited so I can list some new stuff soon. Wouldn't that be a miracle?

BTW: Top 3 items most likely found on my craft desk

It's Bead Table Wednesday and I can't show you exactly what I'm working on just yet. Plus, I'm kinda in a holding pattern while waiting for inspiration to strike. So, since I can't show you EXACTLY what's on my craft desk, I decided I'd show you some of the things you are most likely to find on my desk at any time.
1. A beverage of some sort (most often a mug of coffee or glass of water.)
2. My pliers, a must-have for most jewelers

3. A plethora of bead-filled zip-top baggies
Of course, my desk is usually overloaded with an abundance of other supplies and miscellanea, but you really don't want to see that mess. Really.

What three things can most often be found on your Bead Table?


Check out the Bead Table Wednesday Flickr Group.

Delayed but moving forward

Thank you so much to all of those who stopped by over the last few days to see my Bead Soup reveal. If you are still hopping (like me) and want to see what I created, just click HERE to be taken to the Bead Soup post.

With the chaos of yesterday's Boston Marathon tragedy, I couldn't seem to focus my attention on getting a blog post written. My thoughts and prayers go out to those in Boston and beyond who are suffering both mentally and physically following yesterday's events. I'm attempting to not let the terror of what happened suck the life out of me as I can often become preoccupied with tragedies of this sort. Instead, I want to remind myself to live my life to the fullest each and every day. I hope you do too.

I'm going to move forward and try to catch up. I was delayed in posting my meal plan, so let me get back on a forward moving path by sharing what I have planned for the week in a late attempt at Menu Plan Monday.
Breakfasts: Cereal w/fruit, Juice, Cheese omelets w/fruit, Yogurt w/granola & fruit, Hashbrown Baskets (ham)

Lunches: Grilled ham and cheese w/veggies, Juice, Hummus pitas, Pita pizzas, Tuna noodles

Dinners:
Roasted grape tomato sauce over whole wheat penne w/salad
Sauteed tofu w/corn & rice mix


I'm hoping to find my creative groove a little later and focus on that for a while. Here's hoping you find some peace today as well.

7th Bead Soup Blog Party REVEAL!

You've arrived, and I'm so glad you decided to hop by my blog!

I know you've got a lot of blog hopping to do, so I'll try to keep this post as short as possible. Let me start by first and foremost thanking the genius behind the venture that is the Bead Soup Blog Party, Lori Anderson of Pretty Things. She's been going through a lot personally yet keeps on trucking. We are hopping a week later than expected because she simply asked us all to give her some time. I didn't see a single person who wasn't willing to give her that extra week to recuperate. She's just that wonderful of a lady. THANK YOU LORI for just being you and for your ability to bring so many of us jewelry artists and bead makers together. You are an inspiration and please don't ever forget it.

About my soup: my partner for this 7th Bead Soup Blog Party is the lovely Cheryl Foiles of Get Your Bead On. She supplied me with a plethora of her amazing enamel work. Here's a reminder of what she sent.

Per the 'rules' of the Bead Soup Blog Party, I really only had to use the focal and clasp that Cheryl provided, but I started a little backwards. While I was letting my soup simmer and trying to work through some of the other goodies that were already on my desk, I happened upon a bracelet focal from Cindy Cima Edwards of Zimaj. I pondered what beads of mine would go well with it and the image of the beads in my soup sprang to mind. Along with some lampwork beads from SueBeads that I've had for ages and some copper bits, this bracelet just fell together.

While those green lampwork glass beads were out, a couple other SueBeads creations caught my attention and again seemed to fit perfectly with the enameled beads in my soup. It wasn't long before these earrings were in my hot little hands.

I knew I needed to focus on my focal and clasp before I used up all the coordinating beads Cheryl had sent. I pondered the focal for a long time before finally deciding to frame it with some copper wire. Once the frame was made, it needed just a tad more. . .something. So, I went a bit bonkers making dangles to hang from it. With all the dangles on there, the focal was a little heavy so a simple chain and the gorgeous toggle was all that was needed to complete the necklace.

I'm not completely pleased with my construction of the frame around the Cheryl's beautifully enameled charm and may re-work it later so it's not so wonky and cumbersome-looking. However, I am quite pleased with the design idea.

I still have the large filigree balls and the cogs that Cheryl sent to play around with and can't wait to come up with some designs for them at a later time.

Thanks again to both Lori and Cheryl. It's been so much fun once again. I'm looking forward to hopping around the other blogs and seeing all there is to see.

Make sure you take the time to hop over to Cheryl's blog and see what she created with the Bead Soup I sent her.


Here's a list of all the other participants for this round so you can get your blog hop on!

Agata Grygiel
Ali McCarthy
Alice Craddick
Amy Severino
Ana Krepel
Andra Weber
Andrea Glick
Andrea Trank
Anitra Gordy Boyers



Annette Rivers
Anu Tuppurainen
April Grinaway
Audrey Bélanger
B.R.Kuhlman
Barbara Bechtel
Barbara Mason
Becky Pancake
Beti Horvath
Billi RS Rothove



Bobbie Rafferty
Brandi Burdick
Candida Castleberry
Carol Dillman
Carolyn Gebert
Carolyn Lawson
Caron Reid
Catherine King
Cathy Jakicic



Chandra Merod
Charlene Jacka
Cheri Reed
Cherrie Fick
Cherrie Warzocha
Cheryl Brown
Cheryl Dunham
Cheryl Foiles
Cheryl Gangle



Chris Eisenberg
Chris White
Christina Miles
Christine Hansen
Christine Murrow
Christine Stonefield
Cindy Ritchie
Clare Etheridge
Cory Tompkins



Cris Peacock
Cynthia Abner
Debbie Rasmussen
Debi Levine
Deborah Brooks
Deborah Read
Debra Behrends
Dorota Żerańska
Elaine Robitaille



Elsie Deliz-Fonseca
Emma Todd
Erin Guest
Evelyn Shelby
Evie and Beth McCord
Francy Inman
Ginger Bishop
Gloria Allen
Hajer Waheed



Hope Smitherman
Ilenia Ruzza
Ilona Hegedűs
Ine Vande Cappelle
Jackie Ryan
Janine Lucas
Jean Peter
Jean Wells
Jeanne Steck



Jelveh Jaferian Johnson
Jennifer Cabic
Jennifer Reno
Jennifer VanBenschoten
Jenny Davies-Reazor
Jenny Kyrlach
Jenny Robledo
Jessica Brower
Jill MacKay



JJ Jacobs
Jo-Ann Woolverton
Joanne Tinley
Johanna Rhodes Nash
Judy Robinson
Juli Cannon
Julia Gerlach
Julie Bowen
Julie Panusis



K Hutchinson
Karen Martinez
Karen Vincent
Karen Williams
Karin Slaton
Karyn Bonfiglio
Kat Douglas
Kate Dufour
Kate Mulligan



Kate Richbourg
Kathleen Gallant
Kathleen Lange Klik
Katie Nielsen-Nunez
Kay Bolton
Kayla Potega
Kelli Jacobson
Kelly Patterson
Kelly Ramstack



Kiersten Kern
Kim Sparks
Klaudete Koon
Klaudia Tóth
Krista French
Kristin Oppold
Kym Hunter
Lana Kinney
Laura Guenther



Lauren Fenty
Leah Curtis
Lennis Carrier
Linda Murphy
Lisa Johnson
Lori Anderson
Lupe Meter
Lynn Jobber
Mandi Effron



Marcia Dunne
Margareta Saari
Megan Milliken
Marie Covert
Mary Ellen Parker
Maryse Fritzsch-Thillens
Megan Milliken
Melissa Meman
Melissa Mesara



Michaela Pabeschitz
Michelle Tucker
Mimi Gardner
Mischelle Fanucchi
Monica Phillips
Mowse Doyle
Nancy Boylan
Nancy Dale
Pat Haight



Patina Queen
Patty Miller
Pia Kaven
Rebecca Anderson
Rose Johnson
Roxanne Blanc
Sarah Goode
Sarah Singer
Sarah Strover



Shalini Austin
Sherri Stokey
Sherry Baun
Sheryl Stephens
Silvia Sernicola
Solange Collin
Stacie Florer
Stacy Alderson
Stephanie Haussler



Stephanie LaRosa
Sue Burleigh
Susan Bowie
Susan Kelly
Susan of Libellula Jewelry
Susan Sheehan
Suzanne Fragiacomo
Tammi Sloan
Tammie Everly



Tania Hagen
Tania Spivey
Tanya Goodwin
Tanya Wiles
Tari Kahrs
Terry Carter
Theresa Buchle
Tiffany Smith
Tina Holden



Tracey Nanstad
Tracie Dean
Tracy Bell
Tracy Kruse
Veralynne Malone
Veronica Campos-Hallstrom

Thanks again for hopping by!

Winding down the 100DayProject

I awoke the other day with many thoughts about the 100 Day project and decided to jot them down here to share with you. Some of the bits I g...