A Magical End to 2014!

This will be my last ever post....for this year!!! ;)  

I really like how this years inchies have been an easy, complicated, mind blowing, hard, learning roller coaster ride.  I have learned so much from the inchies this year.  I have also been surprised how the inchies; of which I design in the first few months of the year, but bead up each week when it is time; have meant something deep for myself each week. 

This year personally has been a roller coaster ride for myself and my family,  and the inchies have been a great retreat for me emotionally and creatively.  I do so enjoy them for their therapeutic power.   But for me, beads have always been therapy.

So let's get this last week of 2014 started with the theme over at Every Inchie Monday.  This week's theme is Magical.  We had this theme a few years back but I don't mind redoing a theme.  Especially since there are more Inchiers now.

Here is my last inchie from 2012

 And here is the one I did this year.

Very Similar, don't you think?  For this inchie I did it in 3 colors of Delicas.  Showing the magicians hat and wand.  I like both of them really.  What do you think?

Also this week I handed out beaded ornaments to my family and a few friends.  I did not have time to make all of ornaments like I needed to since I spent a good portion of the last month taking care of my daughter pre and post surgery.   But I think it was worth missing out on those for her.  Here is a picture of 3 of the ornaments I made. ( I always forget to take pics of all of them, LOL)

These ornaments are wine corks covered in seed beads and twin beads; which are a two-holed bead, and on the bottom is a crystal dagger-type drop.  I really love beading around the wine corks, it just gives such a great width and structure to the ornament.

Also this last week my daughter started having a home health nurse coming to the house to change her wound dressings.  She is such a sweet lady who is going through a really emotional time in her family with the loss of a family member.  I really felt lead to make her a stethoscope bead.  Just because she is a faithful woman and because she is our nurse.  Also, sometimes I just like to make things for new people in my life.  A stethoscope bead is a tubular bead that can be slipped onto the stethoscope for decoration.  I have made 3 in the past for the nurses at work.  I really love how this one came out. 

Here it is before I made it into a tube, it has 10 colors of delicas.  There is a gold cross, a rainbow an a dove.  I really adore the look of it.  I hope she likes it.

Don't forget to fly on over to EIM and check out all the magic going on over there! 

Lastly, I really want to thank everyone who stops by and leaves a comment and those who stop by but don't leave a comment.  I am so blessed by all of your comments, thoughts and prayers.  They have meant so much for me this last year.  You have no idea how important that is for me and my family.  I do pray that the Lord blesses everyone who reads this post and that they will be a blessing to those who they meet.  I can't wait for 2015, I feel like it is gonna be a "Journey" year for me.  I know I am gonna be working on myself and my kids are going to be doing the same.  May God bless all of you and may you all be blessed in 2015. 

LOOK OUT 2015 I'M COMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This week has been very zig-zaggy!

I think I am very glad that this year is almost over.  This last week, no month, has been like driving on a zigzag road.  You think that you are on the straight and narrow, going along like you know what you are doing and all of a sudden there is a curve; a sharp curve, that pulls the tires off the road!  You know what I am talking about? 

I am gonna say that next year is gonna be my journey year.  I am gonna try to stay away from the zigzag roads and work on my health and the health of my family!  My daughter is on the mend after her surgery and making good strides, she has a long road ahead but it is a straight road with no curves! 

Now, along those lines :)  Every Inchie Monday's theme is Zigzag, and for some reason I have to challenge myself, I have to use many colors of Delicas and make difficult designs!  This week is a prime example.  I used 9 colors of Delicas and did a vertical design of repeating zigzags. 

I did mess up with having the sky blue and the lilac next to one another, and having another purple color on there that looked to similar but I do like how it came out.  I don't think I will ever make this again though lol.  I do think that this would make a great tubular peyote bead; but again I am not one to try it ever, (well maybe not anytime soon LOL)

I just wanted to also say thank you all for stopping by and for brightening my day with your great comments, and if you have not already done it fly on over to EIM and check out the great artwork by all of the talented ladies.  And have a very Merry Christmas, and may you all be blessed this season.

Yellow, How Ya Doin?

I hope everyone is doing well.  I am better this week than last.  My daughter is on the mend and today she is getting her staples out.  We did find out that all of her tests came back negative!  YAY!!!!  We will find out what the next step will be for her.  For all of you who wished her well and sent prayers, I'd like to say thank you, from the deepest parts of my heart.  Thank you.  It meant a lot to all of us. 

This week, when I was not taking care of my daughter I was trying to catch up on Christmas ornaments. Sadly, I still have 5 more to do and might not get them done in time.  But I know that everyone understands, just makes me feel bad. 

I did however take time to make my inchie.  I just love to make them.  It is the one thing that I do each week for no other reason than to do it.  It isn't for a customer, family member or for my store.  It is for me to do just to be creative.  I think that is so cool, don't you?  This week over at Every Inchie Monday the theme is Yellow.   I decided to go with a banana, mostly because I just couldn't think of anything else yellow and also because I eat a banana almost every day. 

 I hope you like it.  Also, don't forget to fly on over to EIM and check out all the great yellow artwork from the extremely talented ladies.  Have a blessed and creative week my friends.

Some Days You're Up, Some Days You're Down!

I hope that everyone is having a great week.  Mine has been a very up and down week.  I have been feeling alot like a yo-yo!  Which works out great since this week's theme over at Every Inchie Monday is Yo-Yo! 

If you have been coming here for any amount of time you know that I almost always go with my first thought on my inchie designs.  This week I had designed a yellow and blue yoyo; but with all the stuff that has been happening over the last 2 weeks I felt that a new design was in order. 

You see, over Thanksgiving me and my kids went up to Illinois.  We had a great time eating and visiting the family and eating and hanging out with friends and of course eating!  The last day there we were going to a fish fry. In the morning my daughter got sick, very sick.  She spent the whole time in the bed, in pain and feeling like she would be sick again at any moment. 

We stayed at the fish fry for a little bit because I was hoping that she would feel better soon.  When she did not get better we left to go home.  I did not want to have to take her to the hospital to be seen, just in case.  It took up 12 hours to get home (it was a 670 mile drive).  We stopped often so she could go to the bathroom.  Nothing helped and she was still in so much pain.  I was really worried, but couldn't let her know that. 

After getting home at 4 am Sunday morning I tried to rest, since I was going to have to go back to work the next day.  But by 1:30 pm we were at a walk in clinic.  Her pain was way more than an upset stomach or bad gas.  After 4 hours we found out that she might have kidney stones and were sent home with medicine.

The next morning my daughter screams in pain.  She tells me that she feels like someone is stabbing her in the front and back!  We run to the Dr.'s office, who sends us to the ER for a CT scan.  Seven hours later we are leaving the ER with 2 new prescriptions and some very scary news.  She has a tumor on one of her ovaries that is the size of a grapefruit which is causing her the pain.  We were also told to make an appointment with an OBGYN to talk about surgery. 

The next day we are in a Gynecologists office and finding out all the scary news.  She will need surgery and very soon.  Like on Saturday! (BTW this is Tuesday).  On Saturday we are at the hospital.  It had been a week since she started hurting and who knew 1 week earlier when we were in Illinois visiting family that we would now be in Baptist Hospital waiting for my baby girl to have a life saving surgery! 

A 2 hour surgery took over 3.5 hours.  But she made it threw fantastically, with one exception.  The tumor was bigger than they thought, way bigger.  The Doctor was not sure how she was walking upright with it in her.  She also had to lose an ovary but she is still alive. They took tissue samples to see if it is cancerous, but they don't believe that it is.  Praise God for that. I would like to mention that family, friends, co-workers, churches, and even strangers were praying for her.  God is good!  All the time!  She is home and healing, she is gonna be ok. 

All of this made me think about the yo-yo, up and down, up and down.  That was how the last 2 weeks have been for my family.  Made me think about the fact that life is like a crazy yo-yo.  So that was what I made the inchie into. 

It might be hard to see but I used Gold delicas to make the word "Life" and used 5 different colors for the background.  It is a bit difficult to see the word "Life"  but I liked that since sometimes life is difficult. Very literal design I felt.

One more thing, I mentioned this on Facebook and I really want to say it here.  If you feel like something is wrong with your health, don't ignore it, don't play it off as "nothing".  Because it just might be "something".  You have too many people who care about you to ignore it.  Doing that almost cost my daughter her life.

Don't forget to fly on over to EIM and check out all the great designs from some amazing artists.  And have a blessed and creative week.

What the Xenon???

This week over at Every Inchie Monday the theme is Xenon.  I had never heard of Xenon before this week.  But upon researching it I really love the look of Xenon.  Check this out.

Xenon is a gas similar to neon.  It also lights up for extremely short amounts of time.  In a gas-filled tube, xenon emits a blue or lavenderish glow when the gas is excited by electrical discharge. Xenon emits a band of emission lines that span the visual spectrum, but the most intense lines occur in the region of blue light, which produces the coloration.

So with that info I decided to do my inchie using 2 colors of Delicas.  One being matte opaque black and the other color an opaque rainbow power blue.  I was going for the glowing color thing.  I do think I did a good job on that point. 

Don't forget to fly on over to EIM and check out the other great Xenon inchies.

2 Inchies in One, and a Gift for a Friend

I missed last weeks post because I got a bit of a stomach bug.  Actually, the whole house got the stomach bug!  It was not a pretty site at all.  LOL. 

So last week over at Every Inchie Monday the theme was Weapon. I really loved all the great ideas that everyone came up with.  So diverse and creative! 

The first thought that came to my mind was an arrow and a bulls eye.  I do like how it came out, with one exception.  I also like the patriotic theme I used by adding red, white and blue, along with brown Delicas for the arrow.  Hope you like it.

The one part that I don't like is that I had a knot where I added the new thread and it made the bead stick sideways; you can see it in the upper right corner.  Not a fan but I could not get it to lay nice no matter how many times I pushed, pulled and begged, lol. 

This weeks theme is X-Axis.  Wow that brought back a lot of college math that I vowed to never remember! LOL  I like what I came up with.  I used 4 colors of delicas, although they are hard to see in the light of the picture.  I think I captured the theme perfectly. 

This week I also finished a project for a friend.  She loves, I mean LOVES snowmen.  She has them all over her house.  One such snowman was an antique snowman that her brother gave her in the late 70's.  It was accidentally knocked over by her son's girlfriend's son.  She was really upset.  I don't blame her. 

About 2 weeks ago she told me that it was almost her birthday actually she mentioned it about 5 times LOL.  So I got the idea to design a snowman for her.  In the end I designed and beaded the snowman around a 1 inch dowel. Using tubular peyote.  I used 10 colors of delicas and got it all done within 2 weeks.  She loved it and was not expecting it at all.  I gave it to her with 2 small items from the Dollar tree.  she was so tickled to get them that she did not even notice the beaded snowman, until I told her to look for it!  LOL  Hope you like it.

Don't forget to fly on over to EIM and check out the rest of the awesome designs, and thanks for dropping by, I love to see your comments very much. 

An Inchie and a Bead Rant

Sorry this is late this week.  I have been feverishly working on my ornaments, well actually, I kinda stopped doing that and decided to work on a special project for a friend.  But I have been working on it cuz it is her birthday next week and I want to get this done before then.  Wish me luck. LOL

Over at Every Inchie Monday the theme is Wheat.  My design was not too difficult, I just designed the whispy part of the wheat blowing in the wind.  The issue is that I thought it would be awesome to add silk delica beads. 

Where was my brain????  For those who don't know about these beautiful beads, let me tell you.  They are so pretty.  When they first came out i bought a bit of every color i could find.  Check them out.

See what I mean?    But these little glass beauties are secretly evil!  LOL  They have very sharp edges.  The first time I ever used them I cut my thread 4-5 times so I gave up.  This is the first time I have used them since I ordered them a few years ago.  Holding my breath and cursing the whole time! 

Now don't get me wrong, I love all beads and know it isn't the beads fault (maybe I am in denial?).  But I don't think I will be using these ever again.  I have never been so stressed out by an inch of beading this much before. 

This is what my thread looks like after I got done doing an inch of beadwork.  

It is hard to see but it is frayed badly.  For those wondering, this is Fireline.  Beaders like to use Fireline, which is a fishing line because it is braided, non-biodegradable, and strong.  The great thing about Fireline is that since it is braided the needle wont penetrate the thread while you are passing through beads.  This is really important when (not "if") you make a mistake and have to take it apart.  If the thread goes through itself then taking something apart is almost impossible.  

Now that I have gone through all issues I went though to make this inchie I think I should show off the pretty little evil beauty LOL.

On this inchie I used 2 colors, a opaque terra cotta bead and the crystal silk bead.  See the sheen of the silk beads?  Isn't it pretty? 

Don't forget to fly on over to EIM and check out the great work of all of the other inchie artist.

Just wanted to say thank you for everyone who leaves a comment.  I love them all so much.  I also wanted to say thanks to all the Veterans who did what they did so we can do what we do.  God bless them all & if you have a Veteran in your family, thank them for me. 

Violet Inchie

Hello everyone, this week over at Every Inchie Monday the theme is Violet.  I thought about doing the color but I really wanted to make a flower the size of an inch.  How cute that would be. 

I looked all over the web; which is the closest I can get to a flower without killing it; for a great picture of a violet.  I just could not find a good looking picture that would translate into something that looked good in beads.

But I finally found a great looking picture, well at least it was a picture that I liked the color differences in it.  Here is the original picture.

 So, working with this I thought I had a great design.  My pattern uses 7 different colors; 2 each of greens, yellows, and purples along with a cream color.  I of course used my delicas.  I love my delicas lol. 

When I showed my son the finished product, he did not see anything. Just a bunch of blobs of colors.  :(  But then I asked my daughter and she saw that they were flowers!  :)  Of course, she kinda did hear the conversation that me and my son had so she might have just knew, but the people pleaser in me believes that she "just knew".   Let me know what you think. 

Don't forget to fly on over to EIM and check out all the great violet art over there. 

Veggie-Tables and Christmas Ornaments

The theme this week over at Every Inchie Monday  is vegetable.  So, of course, with my love of the color orange I had to do a carrot.  It was not until about an hour ago that it dawned on me that with this time of year I should have done a pumpkin.  Oh well, I do like how the carrot came out. 

Also this week I started to work on Christmas Ornaments.  Every year I make Christmas Ornaments for everyone in the family, a few friends and my boss at work.  I also make earrings for some ladies at work.

This week I got 3 ornaments done.  I really love how they are coming out.  Did I mention that I have to make 16 ornaments?!?  Yea, 16!  LOL  Every year I tell myself that I am gonna start making my ornaments earlier than I did last year.  Well, I actually started later this year since last year!  Sheesh.  Well lets hope I can get them done before Christmas gets here! 

For this years ornaments I decided to bead around a wine cork (same as I did last year).  Using 2 hole beads called twins, 11/0 seed beads and crystal cones on the fringe.  I really love how they are coming out.  They do work up pretty fast and I am loving making them.  Especially since Christmas will be here before you know it (56 days to be exact!!!!).

Thanks again for stopping by and don't forget to fly on over to EIM and check out all the vegetables over there, I mean vegetable art work not "vegetables". 

Inchie and Commission work

This week over at Every Inchie Monday the theme is another new word for my vocabulary.  I really like how these last few weeks I have had to go beyond my comfort zone and really dig deep in my design brain. 

This weeks word is Umbra, I had to look it up because at first I thought it was ombre, until I realized that started with an O and not a U.  LOL!  So i went to my trusty Wikipedia.   Seems Umbra is 1 of 3 parts of a shadow.  So my inchie shows that sorta, lol I just did the umbra part of the shadow and not the other 2 since they were not part of the theme.  (I am having issues loading pictures to my blog so I am just gonna have to post links to pictures, sorry about that) Umbra

Also this week I finished 2 more commission pieces.  One is a family tree necklace.  The colors on the tree are birthstones, the top on each side is the daughters birthstones and the 2 under each of those are their children's birthstones.  I then wove the branches up the necklace and added the birthstones alone the length of the branches.  Making them bigger than the ones on the tree.  The ones on the tree represent eggs and the ones on the necklace represent birds.    I really enjoyed designing this one and figuring out the necklace design.

The other commission item I  finished is a beaded key chain with the clients name and her husbands name with a big pink heart between them.  This is the third key chain that I have made.  I really like making them. 

Don't forget to fly on over to EIM and check out the great artwork done by the awesome inchie artist and have a blessed and creative week.

Ungual...Whaaa?!?

As I have been trying to get over a cold I was running behind to post my inchie. This weeks theme over at Every Inchie Monday is Ungual.  This is a word I had never heard of.  So many things over at EIM make me think, and this one was definitely one that lived up to that. 

Wikipedia says that Ungual means : of, relating to, or affecting a nail, hoof, or claw. Well, that is part of the definition, the part that I went with.  I really had a hard time thinking of what to do for this.  But in the end I went with a hoofed foot.  

Don't forget to fly on over to EIM and check out the cool ungual things that the ladies have come up with. 

Thistle This, Bracelet That

I am very happy that this weekend was mostly drama free.  2 little bumps on the road but nothing like the last few weeks!  YAY!!!  lol 

I have been working on a few commission pieces over the last few weeks.  But, my shoulder getting hurt slowed down the work.  I did finally get one of the pieces done, so I am super stoked about that.  Here is a bangle bracelet done in a Cellini spiral in 6 bright opaque colors and 4 different sizes of seed beads.

This week's theme at Every Inchie Monday is Thistle.  What a hard theme!!!  How many of us remember being a kid and running barefoot in the yard then the worse thing in the world happens.  You step on a thistle.  That was what we called them.  I so hated those things.

I also know that thistles are a flower of some kind so I had to research them to see what they looked like. 

Ugly things aren't they, yet pretty at the same time; well kinda pretty lol.  I for sure would not want to step on these things barefooted!  But I used this image for my inchie and I like mine better, it isn't as prickly and way more blobby looking.

On this inchie I used 4 colors of delicas.  I like how this came out.  Don't forget to fly on over to EIM and check out all the thistles that everyone comes up with. Have a blessed and creative day. 

The Grand Canyon and a Throne

I was hoping this week would be a little less stressful than the last few have been.  Well.....  wellllll.......WELLLLL!!!  I hurt my shoulder at work and had a hard time doing my job all week.  Then at the end of the week my boyfriend came over to visit all the way from California. His flight was delayed a day due to an issue in Illinois with the air traffic control center.  Once he got here we were able to go to see the movie "This is where I leave you."

We also went to the Arkansas Grand Canyon.  Which was super awesome.  It takes your breath away.  Truly. 

 

 

John 2 stories in the air over looking the Arkansas Grand Canyon

On Monday I am getting a steroid shot in my shoulder joint(IN MY SHOULDER JOINT) , but here is hoping that I will be in a lot less pain from that.  That said I am glad I got this weeks inchie done early (not like I don't always do it on Sundays anyways lol)

This weeks theme over at Every Inchie Monday is Throne.  So my first thought was, of course, the porcelain throne!  LOL  which is funny since I had to replace mine this last week when the bathroom floor fell through.  Yerp, it fell through!  The only thing holding up my toilet was the cast iron pipes.  Luckily I had a great friend who spent about 8 hours rebuilding my floor.  God Bless him and his family. 

Don't forget to fly on over to EIM and check out all the great thrones they have going on over there, and have a blessed and creative week.

Salmon and an Update

This week's theme over at Every Inchie Monday is Salmon.  I first thought about the color salmon but I really did not know what that looked like!!!  HAHA.  So I then thought about the fish.  So I designed an inchie with 4 salmon-looking fish on it.  Then just before I started to bead it I decided to reverse one of the fish.  He is the one swimming upstream!

I love how this turned out.  I hope that you can see it.  All 3 colors are silver lined delicas.  I was not really sure about there being seaweed in the water near salmon but I needed something to offset the fish so there ya go! 

For those who read last weeks blog post and wondered about Kiki, she is good and no worse for the wear.  It took her 5 days to pass the needle, bead work and thread!  5 DAYS!  We were all so stressed out waiting.  Me and my kids were actually about to tear apart the couch to see if it went inside.  But then she took care of that.  Kiki saved the couch!  lol.

Don't forget to fly on over to EIM and check out the great work that the ladies there have done.  Have a blessed and creative (and stress free!) week! 

UPDATE: Kiki the cat!

Kiki

For all of you who were wondering about Kiki the cat.  It has been 5 days since she swallowed the bead work, needle and thread. We all have been watching her like a hawk.  She has been fine and acted so normally.  Well as normally as we knew her to be.  We have only had her for 3 weeks.

Dragon

Friday night after I got off work I noticed that the dogs; we have 2 and one of them  loves to eat cat poop.  (Gross!); were trying to eat poop.  I came running and caught Katy about to eat a piece of poop that had a needle sticking out of it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Katy

Umbrion

So I ran over to the kitty litter box and saw a bit more of the poop, (man this post is turning out kinda $#itty!)and lo and behold there was the thread and the beadwork!!!

More grossness lol!

I decided to show off all the critters here.  For once the good one was the meanest one!  Umbrion.  BTW I did throw away the bead work, thread and needle.  Also the needle was around 2 inches long!  Have a great day everyone and thanks to all who posted and said prayers about her.

Un-scheduled Interuptions

We interrupt this scheduled inchie blog for a not-so-brief word from our sponsor......  (SIGH!).  This weeks inchie is perfection in timing for sure.  This last week at work has been rough.  I have been so worn out all week feels like I have been chasing my tail.   Can you relate? 

Some of you might (or might not) know that for years my poor son has slept in the laundry room cuz our house is so small.  Recently, I have been having a friend building an addition onto my house.   Lately he has slacked off and not been around.  Wasting my time, money and all the work that he has already done; which was not a lot.  

After weeks of nothing, one of my Son's friends, Philip, mentioned that his Dad would have had the addition done by now!  Excuse me....WHAT?!?  Yep his Dad built their house, porch, deck and shed!   (SIGH!)  Well, all of this happened last week and this weekend a friend of Philips Dad came over and worked on the unfinished roof.  Good news, he finished most of the roof and will come by on Tuesday to finish it.  YAY!  Bad news?!?  (SIGH)  the "friend" who was building the addition used short nails on the roof and the siding.  Which means that if someone on the Mountain was to fart loudly the roof would prolly blow off. 

So he took care of the roof and will come back and take care of the siding.  Which is good, and because they knew I kinda got snuckered by my "friend" they are not charging me very much for the work they are gonna do.  I pray that God blesses them for helping me out.  So now the addition is back on schedule and my stress level is lowering!  MAJOR YAY!!!!!

Then, just after I finished this weeks inchie I went to work on a commission piece.  After a few minutes I had to go outside to get something.  A few minutes later my son ran outside and told me that our newest cat, Kiki swallowed the bead work I had been working on.  When I got there I found out she also swallowed the needle as well.  Did I say that my stress level is lowering?  (SIGH) 

So now we are watching her, praying for her and keeping an eye on her.  I called the vet and found out that it would cost around $1000 to have her seen and have surgery to get the needle out, and they don't take payments.  So needless to say we are keeping an eye on her and if she is in distress we will take her to the vet but as for now we are just waiting for her to go to the bathroom.  Now I have learned to never leave my crafts unattended.  (SIGH)

Now back to our regularly scheduled inchie blog post..... This weeks theme over at Every Inchie Monday is schedule.  My first thought, with all I have to do is a "To do list"  I used 3 colors of Delicas.  Hope you like it and don't forget to fly on over to EIM and check out all the awesome work by those talented ladies.

Have a blessed and creative week.

Red Is The Word!

This week over at Every Inchie Monday the theme is Red.  Such a wide topic!  What to do?  The color red is explained as, "Red is the color of fire and blood, so it is associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love. Red is a very emotionally intense color." 

All that & I still was not sure what to do.  My first thought was a red heart.  But I thought since I had done a broken heart in 2012.  I did not want to do another heart.

But last Thursday my Mom went to live with my Brother and his Wife while she goes thru chemo again and me and my children felt like our heart just went up with my Mom.  While I am glad she is getting to hang out with my siblings, I am sad that I can not be there when she goes thru the chemo.  So for my inchie this week I made a heart.  To comfort me and my kids. 

Don't forget to fly on over to EIM and check out all the other Red inchies that the awesome ladies have done.

It's A Renaissance Kinda Thing

I am a bit late at posting  this, mostly because yesterday was Labor Day here in America.  I was lucky enough to be able to go over to my Aunts house for a family reunion.  There was family that I had not seen since the last family reunion and family that I see all the time.  Every bit of it was awesome!  It is so cool to be able to sit around a table and here all the great (and sometimes embarrassing) family stories.  I do hope that everyone got to spend time with their families this last weekend. 

This week over at Every Inchie Monday the theme is Renaissance.  The funny thing is the first thought that I had was of something that I used to watch as a child.  Today if you want to watch TV you just turn on the DVR and pick one of over 500 channels.  Or go on the internet and watch TV shows and movies.  But as a child we had only 6 channels (if we were lucky LOL).  I remember spending a lot of time watching  PBS, specifically, Masterpiece Theater.

I remember all the operas that I would watch.  I couldn't understand what they were saying &  in my young 7-9 year old mind they were wearing the craziest clothes, but I still watched it!?!  I really loved all the layered clothing look of the ladies who sang.  

 

   So this was the inspiration for this weeks inchie.  I hope that you can see the dress with the undergarments showing thru like a lot of the Opera singers and women of that era.  On this inchie I used 4 colors, matte transparent red for the the dress, transparent grey, dark grey matte rainbow and for the background I ended up using 24kt lined opal.  I figured that color would go great with the Renaissance theme, don't you?  Hope you like it.

Don't forget to fly on over to EIM and check out all the great artwork from all the talented ladies there, their work will blow you away, it always does mine!  Also, thank you for your comments they always make my day. 
Have a blessed and creative day.

A Case for Quartz

This months the challenge over at Seedbeadersters was a "Lesson in Even Count Tubular Peyote".  Carolyn Cross DeGroff, the group administer, made up a tutorial with a pattern for everyone to do.  It was a blind pattern; meaning we did not know what the finished product was going to look like until it was done.  It was super fun. 

Here is my finished project.  I used 4 colors of delicas.  Two were Carolyn's color choice's and 2 were my choice.   If you want to join in the fun over at Seedbeadersters then follow the links and join the group.  There is still some time to make your own pretty!

In the end the project was a beaded needle case.  I love the little diamond and heart along with the gold pin striping.  I really enjoyed this.  Carolyn also put a special meaning behind the design.  But I am not gonna reveal that.  LOL  You have to fly on over there and find out for yourselves. 

I already knew how to do the Even Count Tubular Peyote.  But I have never worked from the bottom to the top.  So I love that I learned something new. 

This week over at Every Inchie Monday the theme is Quartz Crystal.  This week's theme;  like last weeks; gave me a bit of a fit.  I was not really sure what to do.  But in the end I decided to have 2 quartz crystals on my inchie.  I used 2 colors of delicas and I think that the Silver Lined White Opal looks a lot like a quartz crystal, don't you? 

Don't forget to fly on over to EIM and check out all the great art done by those awesome ladies and take care to stay cool in this extreme heat this coming week.

Quick Post

This week's theme over at Every Inchie Monday is a tough one; Quick.  Well it was hard for me.  I had way to many things running thru my mind.   But none of them seemed to work.  So for this week's inchie you are gonna have to kinda turn your head to the side and maybe squint a bit and think very abstractly and you will get my inchie this week.  LOL. 

Do you remember when you were a kid and you watched Wylie E Coyote chase the Road Runner?  Do you remember when the Road Runner ran away and had all the lines behind him to show how fast he/she was going?  Well, that was my inspiration for this weeks inchie. 

 Admittedly, this is not one of my better ones.  At least in my opinion.  I used 2 colors of Delicas a greyish white and a red.  Hope you like it.  Dont forget to fly on over to EIM and check out the awesome work these ladies do.  They all rock!  Also if I have not said it before I am saying it now.  Thanks for stopping by to read my blog, and thanks even more for leaving a message. I really appreciate it alot.

A Grudging Plum

This week over at Every Inchie Monday the theme is Plum.  With this one I had such a hard time.  I did not want to go with my first thought, so I wanted to think about it some more.  I  thought, and thought and thought about it.   Then thought some more.  Can you hear the crickets??  Yea me too.    After throwing out all of the alternative thoughts I ran back to my first thought.  Two plums.   Not really my favorite inchie but I am glad I got it done!  LOL

Dont forget to fly on over to EIM and check out the great art done by some of the most creative ladies I know. Have a blessed and creative week.

Lets Have Some Privacy Please!!!

This weeks theme over at Every Inchie Monday is "Privacy".  Privacy is something that everyone wants and everyone also wants to know why everyone else wants it, right?  I mean gossip and Hollywood and even whispers about the neighbors.  Isn't that how it always goes.  Well, the first thought I had for privacy was a lock on a locker.  So I decided that was what I would make.  I used 3 colors of delicas.  Hope you like it.

Also this last week I made a bangle bracelet using a new stitch, well new to me.  It is a Cellini spiral, I used 4 different sizes of beads.  A 15/0 yellow, 11/0 in red and orange,  8/0 in blue and green and 6/0 in topaz.  

For those who don't know the differences in seed beads.  Here is a quick chart.

I really loved making this bangle.  I will for sure make another one!!!

Dont forget to fly on over to EIM and check out all the awesome work by the talented ladies, and have a blessed and beady week.