Saturday, July 20, 2013

time2cre8 for the Bead Hoarders Blog Hop

I've always admitted to being a bead hoarder.  And it appears I'm not alone, as more than 100 participants signed up for Lori's Bead Hoarders Blog Hop.

As always, I started out with the best of intentions:  Use up a bunch of those beautiful beads I've collected over the past seven or eight years.  And as always, it seems, something gets in the way of my best intentions and I don't get nearly as far along as I expected.

Nevertheless, I did finish a couple of pieces and used a few beads.  The first project is a diminutive little necklace that features a pretty clay focal that's been in my stash for at least five years.  I'm embarrassed to admit that I can't remember who made this piece (so if you know, or if it was you, please leave me a comment!).  But it's a pretty embellished square in a beautiful olive tone with a hint of turquoise.  To highlight it, I decided to make an ndebele rope using colors that are found in the focal.  The rope, although twisted, also has a square shape.  I think they go together wonderfully!





The second piece I made actually serves two purposes...  Use a few beads from my stash, and finish off a UFO (UnFinished Object) from my pile of unfinished pieces.  :-)  This bead crochet rope was just screaming to have a collection of lampwork beads added to each end.  The rope is about six feet long, made from a mix of Czech glass seed beads in shades of gray and silver, so the beads I chose for the ends are in the same colors.




I think I need another blog hop challenge to get me to use up more of my bead stash!  Maybe the next time I'll get to use more -- this challenge was interrupted by a trip out of town to visit relatives.  At least that's the excuse I'm going with.  :-)

** Please visit Lori's blog to see more of the Bead Hoarders Blog Hop!.

Sunday, July 07, 2013

And After Ten Months...

Ten months?  Really?

Yes, that's how long it's been since I wrote a blog post.  And as you would imagine, a lot has happened in ten months.

  • We finished building our house and moved in.  Our first night in the new house was January 1, which somehow seems fitting.  There's still a lot to be done, as we have trim to put up, a shower to tile, windows and doors to polyurethane, another deck to build, and a massive amount of yardwork to do.   But it's awesome being here!  :-)
  • I opened another Etsy shop, so my Captioned Critters and other stationery goodies will have a place to live.  I missed the critters.  The new shop is http://www.etsy.com/shop/time2cre8too
  • Countless new pieces of beadwoven jewelry have been created and listed, and quite a few sold, in my Etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/time2cre8
  • Lots of new peyote and bead crochet patterns have been published and/or are in the works.  I now have help from Alicia Hartley, who's doing a lot of beadweaving so I can get new designs out faster.
I'm sure there's more.  But as usual, once I sit down to write about it I can't think of anything.  I really ought to take notes...

One new thing that's coming up:  I've signed up to participate in the Bead Hoarders Blog Hop, which I'm using as incentive to incorporate some of the beautiful art beads I've amassed into some new pieces.  One of the requirements of participating is that I have to post pictures on my blog on July 20.  So at the very least there will be two posts this month in this sorely neglected blog!  LOL

 






My plan (which is more of a dream, really) is to make more frequent, more interesting posts here.  We'll see if I can follow through.