Chunkalicious

I recently acquired a big box of beads from Beshka of Loley’s Co. She’s decided to close her etsy store and so I graciously accepted her offer to take her destashed beads. These chunkalicious necklaces are featuring quite a few of the large vintage lucite beads that she gave me. (Thank you Besh!)
I was on a roll last night making these. They have fun color palettes, and even a few art beads! I love the way they can be worn any which way- the button in the front, at the side or at the back. Something pretty on all sides.
Be sure to check out Beshka’s shop, she has discounted all jewelry to very low prices and she has the cutest taste ever in design!

Book Winners

Thank you guys so much for all of your comments on the book giveaway! It’s to see such enthusiasm for beading books from my readers. I will do this again very soon! I have a ton!

The winners this time around are:

CYNTHIA of CYNTH’S BLOG!

SHANNON CHOMANCZUK!

Please email me your addresses and I will ship your book asap! Congratulations!! I hope you are inspired by them!

Book Review and Giveaway

 What a wonderful concept… a collection of favorite projects taught by author Diane Fitzgerald over a span of several years! The projects included range from beginner to advanced, and cover a wide range of techniques and styles. Flipping through it, my eyes are tickled by the wonderful colorful photography and as a beader, I am instantly inspired. Although many of the projects are beadweaving and not my genre, I am still inspired by the beauty and uniqueness of each pieces. Diane has put together a strong body of work here and I recommend this book if you are running low on inspiration! My favorite project is Tie-One-On, one of the prettiest pieces I’ve seen using shells and knotting.

You and I both know that Metal Clay is all the rage right now. What makes Gordon Uyehara’s book different than all the rest?
He’s a master at his art, and one of the most renowned and popular metal clay artists in the world! In Metal Clay Fusion, Gordon covers all the basics and some really cool advanced skills from carving to developing your designer’s eye. I always like a jewelry book with great step by step photos. The photography is lovely and the whole book has this beautiful glow and positive feeling. Want to learn how to create an intricate focal bead? Or a ring with a hinged top? These are part of this lovely collection of projects.

Creating chains is something that I am not quite ready to tackle but I know some of you out there have been playing around with soldering and this is right up your alley. Joanna Gollberg and Nathalie Mornu, talented duo, have put together 25 necklaces, bracelets, and earrings designs using handmade chain, in Chains Chains Chains.
I have to admit, it’s very inspiring! For someone like me, even, who has zero skills in soldering. What better way to spice up your handmade jewelry designs, than to include chain that you made from scratch!
I love the contemporary designs in the book. And really so many of the chains are lovely as jewelry by themselves with no other components. The technique section in the back shows great step by step photos.

I have decided to hang onto this copy of Chains Chains Chains, but will be giving away my copies of Metal Clay Fusion and Diane Fitzgerald’s Favorite Beading projects.  If you would like your hat thrown into the ring to randomly win one of these, please leave ONE comment on THIS post, and I will pick 2 random winners tomorrow, Wednesday morning. Good Luck!

To Do Lists

I got so much done this weekend. It was really great. I feel so accomplished! I went to the gym. I got some writing done for some upcoming magazine submissions for 2 magazines.  I finished fixing and making some earrings for my Mom.  I wrote a BIG article for another magazine. I finished some custom orders. I finished my bead soup. (that’s a teaser pic above of the collage of pieces I made with my beads from partner Jennifer Tough.) I used every last bead except all the seed beads she sent. You will have to come back this Saturday for Lori Anderson’s Bead Soup Blog Hop to see everyone’s final projects.
Anyway I am feeling good about my daunting To Do list and now this week I can get started on the dreaded taxes.

ECourse Giveaway

 

Barbara Lewis is having a giveaway at her blog for a free spot in her new and upcoming Painting with Fire eCourse! If you’ve always wanted to learn to make your own enameled beads, now is your chance to win! Head on over to Barbara’s giveaway post and read it carefully.

Better run, today is the final day to post your comments! She’s announcing a winner 

tomorrow, 2/27!

 

Otto

Meet Otto. Named after the Syracuse Orange mascot, for it’s brightly Orange colour. 🙂  He’s a 1972 VW  Westfalia Campmobile
It’s true. We found him in Pennsylvania and he’s making the trip to upstate NY this coming Thursday. Joe surprised me on Thursday night with the news that he had applied for and was approved for a loan to buy a van. I guess all his internet research paid off. Otto is in really great shape. The owner had stripped it down to nothing and redid the entire body. Refilled it with all of it’s guts but did new wiring, a new pop up, added a new cd/stereo and a DVD player/TV. The seats need a little TLC but at least it’s not rusted out on the exterior.  Joe is already researching fun accoutrements, like a new wheel cover, and yes, I think to his dismay we will be getting rid of the disco ball that is hanging inside.
We are looking forward to having this beast for several reasons. It’s really cool and we both love Volkswagen. I am looking forward to taking more trips in the Spring, Summer and Fall… And I love the idea of just being able to Go with now set plans and no hotel reservations! We will be able to attend family vacation at Cape Cod in July! I know the kids, Max and Alex will LOVE uncle Joe’s new van.  I want to take up some mild hiking this summer and this will be perfect to take to the Adirondacks too. We’ve got big plans.  Sowing our Wild Oats. That’s right. 🙂

New Acquisitions

It’s safe to say I have been on a bead buying binge the last few days. Seriously. I need to stop. And fast.  Here are some newbies making their way to my house this week…

These first 3 are from Reduction Nation. Stocking up on some lucite, they are 

always so good to have around for fillers. And they are inexpensive to boot.

The photography is great, isn’t it!?

Lampwork from Loupiac…. The color combo, she calls Halloweenish.

I call it DELICIOUS.

Pam Wynn restocked her Etsy shop and I snagged these this morning.

Singapore Purple. Love it!

And last but not least, a parliament of Denim Owls

from Kylie Parry.

Aren’t they so cute!?

I’ve got quite the wishlist too. Here are some that I am coveting….

 Lampwork from Lori Lochner.

Bird charm from Summers Studio Etc.

And this lovely pendant from Lynn Davis

Did you Know?

First let me start off by saying I am not employed by any publisher, except when I write articles or tutorials for their magazines. I was always under the impression that if your work is published in a magazine, they own all rights to the images they take of the jewelry. This comes as common sense to me because I work in the Rights and Reproductions dept. at the art museum.

I became curious about what the policy really is when I have seen people take screen shots or scans of their magazine publications to show them on blogs or Facebook.
So I went straight to the source.  And found out that I was right. It is against a publisher’s policy to take screen shots or scans of published work and show it on the internet.  Now this is true for Interweave Press publications. This may or may not be true for other publishers.

Pay attention to this wording that is included in the front of every issue: All contents of this issue of Jewelry Stringing are copyrighted by Interweave Press LLC, 2012. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited, except by permission of the publisher.

But there is good news! The publisher will gladly send you professional PDFs or jpegs of your published piece to be used with a link on your blogs/FB. All you have to do is ask!

It is exciting to finally get your work in books and magazines. And I have, on several occasions, been tempted to scan or screenshot certain publications to show my blog readers.  It’s comforting to know that I can easily get the image straight from the publisher. I hope this information is helpful!

 Here is an example. I had the editor of Jewelry Stringing send me a recent publication jpeg, and they also provided me with this link too. So as long as you get the image directly from the publisher, and the link that they provide you with, you are more than welcomed to show off your published pieces online.

Randoms

photo credit: Pinterest: fffound.com

* I spent this past 3 day weekend watching my husband absolutely OBSESS over buying a VW bus. That guy really knows how to dream, I tell ya. He showed me countless vans for sale, made me watch videos, had me check out funky interiors. He emailed several people asking lots of questions about their buses for sale. He even talked about having one shipped, having another delivered.

* He’s also on a crazy belly fat diet that doesn’t allow him staples like starch and sugar. So we have been eating tons of meat and veggies, and I’ve been making easy starchy sides like baked potato and risotto.  But yesterday I made the scones. And he didn’t even eat one. Proud of him but really he’s missing out. Big Time.

* I have to clean out the spare room so my sister can come up and visit me this coming weekend. It’s become the storage room, and no, you can’t even walk into the room. It could be featured on an episode of Hoarders.  So yes, I have my work cut out for me.  Maybe I can just create a path to the bed and clear the bed so they can sleep in it. Would that be good enough? I need to have a tag sale, but that can’t happen until the Spring. Gotta store this stuff somewhere.

* I am slowly checking things off my to do list. Next up, finish writing instructions for magazine submissions. Bead Soup creations.  Taxes. gahhhhh!

* A long long time ago, someone asked me to recreate these earrings. It took a while to get all of the components and now I finally did and they are finished. But it’s been so long, that I can no longer find the original requestor. And I forget if it came from email, Facebook or Etsy. So if you see this, and it was you, please leave a comment and I’ll get these listed for you asap. Sorry it took so long!

* I have been continuing working out at the gym. I know I haven’t mentioned the progress here. Before Christmas I was going 3 times a week, easy. Now I’m lucky if I can get there once or twice.  It’s hard. But I am trucking along. I typically do 20 min. on the elliptical, and then 25 minutes on either the bike or treadmill. Yesterday I went and tried that little section at the back with the timed circuit machines. It was cool to try something new. I think a few days of doing these a week should help tone up muscle. I’m not even sore today but I did it with a friend and was only half-assing it.
I don’t ever get on a scale so I can’t say if I’ve lost much weight. But clothes are feeling better so I figure that’s a good sign.

*Here are some of the pieces created yesterday. These will land in my shop at some point today.

Happy Tuesday!

Blueberry Scones

Blueberry Scones- Served with lemon curd

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut in chunks
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 1 cup half & half, plus more for brushing the scones

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Sift together the dry ingredients; the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Using 2 forks or a pastry blender, cut in the butter to coat the pieces with the flour. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs. Fold the blueberries into the batter. Take care not to mash or bruise the blueberries because their strong color will bleed into the dough. Make a well in the center and pour in the heavy cream. Fold everything together just to incorporate; do not overwork the dough.
Press the dough out on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle about 12 by 3 by 1 1/4 inches. Cut the rectangle in 1/2 then cut the pieces in 1/2 again, giving you 4 (3-inch) squares. Cut the squares in 1/2 on a diagonal to give you the classic triangle shape. Place the scones on an ungreased cookie sheet and brush the tops with a little heavy cream. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until beautiful and brown.

Served with Irish Breakfast Tea, and lemon curd. Awesome and easy!