Peek at My Week (Oct 20-26)

This past week passed in a blink! I guess that's because I kept myself pretty busy.

We started the week on Sunday with what we call "Puppy Fun Day." Basically, it's our attempt to get outside and drag Zoe with us on an adventure of some sort. We even took the niece who lives with us!

While out on one of the trails I spied an enormous dead grasshopper. He was almost as long as my hand. After spotting him, we spied a few more. The one above is one of the live ones we found. Apparently some people think it's gross, so I'm sorry if this weirds you out.

As usual, Monday was full of knocking errands and chores off my list. Those bled into Tuesday.  However, I did work on a few creative endeavors.

I've been mad over playing with my bead loom!

That evening, I did something else a little out of the ordinary for me.

I went to Pat's band rehearsal and took pictures for the studio. Fun. 

Wednesday was spent at my mom's where we celebrated my birthday with a delicious cake baked by another one of my nieces.

Thursday was my actual birthday, and I spent it out and about shopping for new clothes. After shopping, we met some friends for dinner. 

I spent much of Friday just playing in the craft room. Pat did interrupt me to go outside and check out this little guy he found in the grass.

It's a tiny green tree snake. Isn't he cute!?

I also made a run to the store to pick up a few new supplies including this set of watercolors I've been wanting!

Fun!

And, Saturday was all about college football.

Roll Tide!

As for inspiration, that lacked some too, though I did find a few tidbits.

• I am IN LOVE with these beaded sculptures of decomposing fruit. They're so Wabi Sabi!
• Here's a sad reminder to all us creative individuals that we should always observe safety first when working with our materials. 
• Here's a great little video tutorial on how to make a cute pair of earrings. 
• Nunn Designs has kicked off its Fall Semester of video tutorials. 

And, that's it. I'm already running behind this week with everything. So, I'll leave it at that and wish y'all a wonderfully creative week. 

Peek at My Week (Oct 13-19)

Apparently, I am no good at taking pictures during the week anymore. I think perhaps there's so much of my time spent doing household and repetitive tasks that I just don't think to snap a picture. I really need to take a little time to find some beauty in the everyday. In any case, here's some of what I captured during this past week.

Pat and I were so busy with other obligations on our actual anniversary that we celebrated it on Sunday with a trip to the beach. First was a stop at The Gulf for lunch and a drink. 

We had to make a stop to put our toes in the sand and the water. And, we were a little disappointed in ourselves as we didn't grab our swimsuits before leaving the house. The water was perfect! We had expected it to be chilly outside, but it wasn't. I ought to know better than to head to the beach without swimming gear. Ah well, it gave us time for our next stop.

Rather than heading home the way we came, we veered into Florida then looped back around. As we were driving, we realized we were close to Pirate's Cove and needed to stop for a Bushwacker. Yes, needed! All in all, it was a beautiful day to celebrate our anniversary. 

I did get a few pictures on Monday

I started the day with a little art journaling, but that was all that I did all week. I can hardly believe it myself. 

Instead, I got obsessed with this new contraption - a bead loom - and messed with it much of the week. Though, I only got one whole bracelet made all week. The rest of the time was spent experimenting with ideas. 

I did make it up to Southern Antiques and Accents on Monday to update the booth before Tuesday's Ladies' Night. 

I also checked on my citrus trees. These Satsumas were starting to look ready to eat. I had seen some at my local farm market that were green on the outside and ripe on the inside. So, I thought maybe these were ready. They aren't. Thankfully I only picked one of them for us to try! We'll wait a few more weeks before we try again.

On Thursday, I played around with something other than the jewelry loom. You'll see the final reveal of this project tomorrow. (I have to admit that I did work on my bead loom bracelet design between drying stages of this project though!)

Once Pat was done with work, we headed up to his recording studio to move from one space to another. I helped haul a few things across the hall for him, but let him handle all the actual music equipment. I'll be sharing his site and everything soon.

On Saturday, I headed to Mississippi to help surprise another friend for her 40th birthday. It was a lot of fun. And, I really do think she was surprised.

Before I knew it, I needed to head home before it got dark. I did let myself pull over to capture this beautiful sight. 

The sunset on Mobile Bay couldn't be resisted. I saw another couple of people pull over as well!

Alabama played a late game, so we settled in to watch as our team battled Tennessee's. It was a rough game to watch, but our boys pulled it out in the end. 

As for inspiration for this week...

• These glass sculptures from Ben Young absolutely mesmerize me!
• The Beading Gem shares Tips and Tricks for working with Polymer Clay and Wood Frames. 
• How cute are these bottlecap pumpkin pins? I love the upcycle aspect for sure!
• Moois Van Me often transforms simple findings into something a little bit more. This is the case in her latest earring tutorial. 
• Laura of Little House Big Alaska shares 100 Ways You Can Reduce Your Carbon Footprint. Most of these are small things!
• Finally, here's a simple tutorial on Creating a Vintage-Inspired Cabachon Pendant. 

And, that was the week for me. I hope yours was awesome and that you're looking forward to an even better one ahead. I know I am!!

Pinning with Purpose | Week 5

Let me start this week's Pinning with Purpose by thanking Jenna from the Painted Apron for linking up her yummy dip and Rosanita at Bairozan's Blog for linking up her lovely bracelets last week. Thank you ladies for playing along!

Pinning with Purpose is an opportunity for each of us to use some of those Pinterest pins we've been hoarding. Whether you hoard recipes, fashion inspiration, or DIYs; this is your opportunity to relieve yourself of the guilt of leaving those pins sitting on your boards unused. I encourage you to take a look at what  you have pinned and use this week to be inspired by what's there.

Here's what I worked on this week (PLEASE remember to go to the original source if you'd also like to pin these projects):

Pencil eraser stamp from Creature Comforts blog off my Just Do It. . .Yourself Board

No bake energy bites from The Recipe Critic off my FOOD | Munchies Board

Braided Bead Jewelry from Live in Art off my Jewelry Tutorials Blog

And here are my results!

All of my projects this week were fairly quick and easy ones. The Pencil Eraser Stamp was probably the easiest.

And I put it to use right away.

I probably could have been more precise with my cutting, but it wasn't so bad for a first attempt. 

Next up were the No-Bake Energy Bites. These consisted of ingredients I already had on hand.

The worst part was rolling them into balls as they were quite sticky and messy, and I chose to use my hands to do it. After a few of them, I began to get over the ickiness of it.

And, they are little balls of awesome. The hubs and I both enjoyed them immensely. They are sweet without being too sweet and are the perfect little snack.

Finally, I started on the Braided Bead Jewelry. With more items I had on hand, some waxed linen cord and my 'bead soup' of smaller beads, I went through this tutorial.

I made a mixed-color bracelet and wore it the whole rest of the day.

It was quite comfortable and so easy. I might just have to make a few more.

I'm looking forward to the week ahead and working on these Pinspirations:

• Quiche with hashbrown crust from Joyful Homemaking off my Breakfast Board
• I'm also going to use these three necklaces from my jewelry board to inspire me to make a multi-dangle assemblage necklace:
• 1. Mementos Narrative Necklace from Something Sublime  
• 2. Healing Amulet Necklace from MaggieZees Etsy Shop 
• 3. Chinese Bronze Repro Coin Amulet Necklace also from Maggie Zee
• Stamps from styrofoam from Alisa Burke off my Good Ideas Board. 

 Now, I challenge you to explore your boards, get inspired, and share!

An InLinkz Link-up

Link-a-palooza

Thanks to those of you who made it through my goal review yesterday. I'll make it a little easier on you today with a simple

• First up, Malin de Koning filmed a few videos as a tutorial on how to make her gorgeous beaded beads. Wasn't that nice of her!? Now I just need to get the time to watch her videos. For now I'll just drool over these beads.
  

  

  Aren't these just gorgeous!?

• Speaking of videos, here recently I stumbled on the BAMF Girls Club on YouTube. If you are a fan of fantasy and comedy, you may like this online series. The theme is a reality show where Hermione, Katniss, Lisbeth, Buffy, Michonne, and Bella all move into a house together. The shows are only about five minutes each.  Here's the first episode.
• Completely unrelated, but check out this tutorial on How About Orange for making an Origami Business Card Holder. I could totally replace the rubber band in my purse with one of these super cool holders. 
  

  

  Origami Business card holders from How About Orange

• Lastly, here's a funny that a friend sent to me especially for you beaders. Make sure you read the words under the picture to the tune of MJ's "Beat It".

Two more quick things and then I'll let you get to the rest of your Friday.
1. My Purple Earrings were featured in this really gorgeous treasury.
2. I made some earrings out of paper. . .they're now in my Etsy shop.

All the Frills Earrings

 That's it for me. I've got loads of plans for the weekend and am totally looking forward to it. What's your weekend looking like?

Link-a-palooza and other Randomness

Today I just want to share a bunch of randomness with you. S'alright? I apologize for the rambly-ness of  my recent posts.

First, if you're looking for my Bead Soup reveal, there's a link to it just up there /\ below my banner. . .see it on the left? Next to the Home button? There ya go! I thought that might be the easiest way to keep it available.

Fruit at the local Farmer's Market

I don't think I've outright mentioned that Pat and I are doing this whole healthy diet thing. He's the researcher for these things, I'm just the planner. I didn't post my menu for this week because it took me a little longer to get in the mindset and since we were preparing for Issac, I wasn't sure if we would actually get to eat the meals I planned. By Tuesday afternoon we weren't in the direct path of the storm and I had it worked out. Here are the basics of what we're doing (I think).

• We're cutting back on our animal product intake. I cannot go full vegetarian or vegan. . .I like cheese, bacon, and butter a little too much. (Probably how we got in the shape we're in to start with.)
• As well, he says we want to eat as much 'whole' foods as possible. Basically, we want as little processing to go into our foods. So, fresh over frozen or canned. No problem. . .I think fresh tastes better anyway. 
• The processed bread/cracker/pasta items we DO eat need to say 'whole' in the first few ingredients. . .or something like that.
• We've also continued to juice for at least one meal a day (breakfast or lunch work best for me). 
• Oh. . .and there's something about cutting back our sugar intake. Whatever.
• We had planned on trying to be more active, but have gotten cooped up inside because of the storm. Now that it's passed, we hope to work on that a little more.

So that's the general gist I have of it right now. I haven't completely figured out all the rules, but I'm trying. Pat bought  me a vegetarian cookbook (I like books) and I actually cooked Tofu earlier in the week. It was. . .okay. For now, I'm feeling kinda crummy, but I've been told that it's a fairly normal feeling when all those toxins start to leave your body. I'll ride the wave for now.


Since I'm going with randomness as today's theme, this seems a fitting time for a

• This is a little late, but Michelle Mach has a list of Beading & Jewelry Making contests for Summer/Fall 2012. Shoot. . .some of the links she has go into 2013. What a helpful gal she is!
• GIVEAWAY: Anne Gardanne of Gardanne Beads is having a giveaway of two sets of her beautiful wares. Check out the rules and how to enter on her blog. 

  

  Just one of the yummy sets available to win

• If you still haven't seen Lesley Watt's (The Gossiping Goddess) cool tutorial for these little bracelets you must have been hiding under a bush. Welcome back to the world and check out this fun bracelet  tutorial now!
• Social Media is a topic close to my heart. I plan on writing up a post at some point on how I determine if I will follow you on Twitter. In the meantime, this post from ProBlogger on the 10 Rules of Social Media Engagement is a really great overview on how best to use social media.

Now let me share just a little shop news and I'll be out of your hair for at least the rest of today.
Some of my Shabby Beads were featured in this brightly hued treasury.

Hot Pink and Blue Treasury

On Sale

Unearthed Necklace

 New

Heavenly Earrings

I just have to mention how excited I am that the College football season has started up. I'll  be rooting for the Alabama Crimson Tide tomorrow night and I cannot wait!! Roll Tide!

With the sun FINALLY out after the storm, I'm hoping to soak it up and get my creative juices flowing again. . .and get my butt OUT of this computer chair. What are you hoping to accomplish this weekend?

Going Way Back to My Start in Jewelry Making

****I started this post yesterday (Thursday) but left for my brother's graduation. If we're friends of Facebook/Twitter, you probably saw that there were complications. I still wanted to get this post up, since it's just about finished. I may go into the other story at another time.***

I really knocked out some chores on Wednesday. . .and by that I mean that you can once again see the counter top to my bathroom vanity. It does exist!

While wading through piles of lotion samples, bits of clothing tags, and lots of dust I took the opportunity to weed out some of my personal jewelry stash. I found a bunch of jewelry that I made when I was first starting out some ten-odd years ago. I thought it might be nice to share some of these before I dismantle them. . .well, some of them anyway. I'm going to show you what's going away and what's staying in the stash. First, the ones leaving. Let's have a moment of silence for the following:

This HAD to be one of my very first pieces. It's just some seed beads, cat's eye beads ( I had a thing for those), and some larger clear beads on beading wire.

Ooooh, THREE strands of seed beads on beading wire!

A neat little double strand bracelet (those beads are more cobalt than purple) with tons of tarnished silver beads.

I went through a massive phase with this simple bead weaving necklace design. It was tutorial in an issue of Bead and Button Magazine. I made them in ALL SHADES. I think I'm actually keeping one necklace in this design, just not this one.

Now, for those getting to stay with me (I believe they are chronological)

Another simple seed-bead-with-a-few-larger-beads necklace, but this one has actually been worn a few times, even recently.

Apparently, I was a one trick pony when I first started playing with beads. I sill really like this long-er, simple necklace with it's interesting cubed turquoise beads.

I remember being inspired by a photo in Vogue Magazine to make these two necklaces. The clasps are actually connected to each other as I only ever wear this combination together. There was another necklace that went with them for a pretty layered effect, but I'm not sure where it's disappeared to after all these years.

This was another magazine tutorial that I went crazy with. It's possible it was also in Bead and Button because back then there weren't too many other bead magazine choices (in my area at least). I've got several friends who also own similar necklaces as I was making jewelry for myself or for gift-giving back then. I handed out a few in this design. This was one of my first attempts at using wire. You can even see the first hook clasp I ever made back there. Hey, it still works!

I know this one's hard to see for some reason, but it's just freshwater pearls and crystals. This is my wedding necklace. There's no way I'd part with this one.

This is simply a shell bead and yarn necklace made with a crocheted chain stitch. It's SUPER long and can be doubled and maybe even tripled. 

So how bad are they? Remember, it was the late 90's early 2000's when I started this journey. What did your first attempts look like?

I think I've gotten a bit better since then!
Anyway, here's some shop news.

Red Balance Bracelet - NEW

Major Drama Necklace - ON SALE

My to do list today is nothing like I expected it to be, so it's best I get started on it soon! Have a fabulous weekend y'all!