Happy Thanksgiving!!! (and for those of you not in the U.S., happy Thursday!)

It's a happy day indeed, since my In Stitches beadwoven cuff was featured on Etsy's front page today. Yay! And thanks so much to Ulixis for putting together the gorgeous treasury.

It's almost time to head out for the family gathering (my husband's family) so we can consume massive amounts of turkey and stuffing.

Just one more thing for this post though... Be sure to visit the Bead Art Originals blog to enter the giveaways! There's a button up there at the top of this blog that will take you there. There are TWELVE separate giveaways!!! And they're all wonderful. :-)

It's been another busy week! I kept meaning to come here to post, but I never quite got around to it. So I'm going to try to catch up...

First... Thanks to my cosmic sister Carol Dean (aka SandFibers) for sending me a note about my giveaway. Obviously, the bracelet that I have posted as the prize won't fit everyone; so I'm going to offer some alternative prizes. I haven't quite figured out what they'll be yet. Maybe a peyote triangle pendant. Maybe another bracelet. Maybe some of my Captioned Critters. Or maybe I'll just give the winner a choice!

Second... I made my 3333rd sale in my Etsy shop yesterday! Yes, I know you're thinking that it should have been on 9/3 to fit in with the whole "THREE" theme, but think about it. 9/4/2008. 9+4+2008=2021. And that's divisible by 3. It was fate. I hadn't advertised it anywhere, but I had already decided to award the person who bought that 3333rd item with something, so Kelly (who's a buyer on Etsy but doesn't have an Etsy shop of her own) got to choose some free gifts from my shop. She said she'd never won anything, and she was pretty happy to have won!

Third... Okay, this isn't Etsy related at all, but I'm pretty happy about it nonetheless. I thought my espresso machine was broken. And I was going through major latte withdrawal. Despite being able to have French press coffee, I really missed my lattes. The steam thingy was working just fine, but the water flowing through the coffee grounds had slowed to a mere trickle and was getting worse every day. I was prowling around on the internet doing research on what kind of machine I should buy, and I'd just about submitted the order for a $200 machine from Starbucks, when I came across a site talking about descaling. Apparently there's some kind of solution that can be purchased for cleaning a machine, but I read further and found that lemon juice would work. I headed into the kitchen, squirted a bunch of lemon juice into the water reservoir, cycled about 40 cups of water through the machine; and after only about 10 cups, it started to flow better!!! Yahoooooooo!!! My machine works again, and I had my lattes today! :-)

Fourth... I found my Moon River cuff featured on The Art Zoo blog yesterday!!! It's a pretty cool blog, and I'm definitely going to keep my eye out. Every day there are new items featured, and I love the other pieces I've seen featured. It's a great way to find Etsy goodies.

Fifth... Another Etsy seller, elizabethjayne, sent me a note to let me know she had featured my Obama cuff on her blog, in a very Democratic post. I just had to check out her shop, and look at this gorgeous necklace I found!!! Isn't that beautiful!??!


Fifth... This was a busy creating week for me! I listed a few new bracelets in my Etsy shop, as well as a couple of necklaces. One of the necklaces features a BEAUTIFUL turquoise colored raku button made by Lisa Peters. Here are the new creations:

Dusty Rose Stripes

Citrus Concentrate

Turquoise with a Twist
Luscious Lime and Teal Necklace

Midori

Crystal and Copper Cuff

There's more, but I'm tired of typing, and this post is getting really long! I'll just have to save some of it till later. :-)

HAVE YOU VOTED YET? No, I don't mean in the Presidential election, silly. I mean in the Etsy BeadWeavers July Challege. The voting opened yesterday, but I didn't get a chance to post here. Once again I'm plagued by just not having enough hours in the day. I tried to make it a little easier for voters this time. You don't even have to find one of the links to the EBW blog in this post - just click that red button over there on the left!

I also want to mention that one of the members (who I've talked about more than once here in this blog of mine) is having a giveaway!!! After you've gone to the EBW blog to cast your vote for your favorite entry, check out SandFibers' blog to see details about her giveaway. I can assure you that you won't be disappointed.

Carol Dean gave me partial credit for the idea for her challenge entry, a wonderful freeform bracelet (it's number 31 in the mosaic you see on the EBW blog). It was so wonderful, in fact, that it stayed in her shop for less than an hour before it was bought by some lucky Etsy buyer!!! I'm waiting for her to create another one... there's a rumor that she has some more beads put aside for a freeform piece. :-)

************************

My other news, which I should have posted about before, is that one of my button rings (a little Wagon Wheel) made it into anda's treasury and then onto the Etsy Front Page!!! Woo hooo!!!! The treasury's gone now, but I grabbed a screenshot:

The other thing I didn't find time to post about is my latest Oglala bracelet. I named this one for a beautiful type of coral called floreana. I love the way this one turned out, with all that red and orange mixed together!!

And the winner is...

The winner of the Etsy BeadWeavers Stormy Weather Challenge can be found on the EBW Blog. There were an AMAZING number of votes this month! Thanks to Sarah (thebeadedlily) and Carol Dean (SandFibers), who both posted an equally amazing number of comments in the Etsy forums to keep the voters coming to the blog.

I didn't keep track of the number of visitors here, but I wound up with 24 comments! So I used a random number generator I found online, and the winner of the Chocolate Covered Cherries netted cuff is........... Jean! (totallytwisted). Jean's a member of the Etsy BeadWeavers team also, so I hope my little bracelet bears up under scrutiny. :-)

What's funniest to me is that I was reading all the comments as they were posted, and Jean's said that she never wins anything. I guess she can't say that any more.

**** V * O * T * E ****

No, this isn't to prompt you to vote in the presidential election (although you really should).

This is to remind you to go to the Etsy BeadWeavers Blog to cast your vote for your favorite entry into the Stormy Weather Challenge. You can see all the entries here, and if you visit the blog you'll find individual links that will let you see more pictures of these gorgeous pieces.

I decided to do another drawing this month!!! So go vote, then come back here and leave a comment telling me you voted (you don't have to disclose which piece you voted for); and you'll be entered into a drawing to win this beadwoven/netted bracelet, Chocolate Covered Cherries! I'll use a random number generator to select the winner on March 16. Make sure to leave your Etsy shop name or your email address so I'll know how to contact you!

And the winner is... Forbesfarm (aka Sandy), with her Many Shades of Royalty purple freeform beadwoven bracelet, #2 in the mosaic you see in the previous post.

Oh... but you want to know who won MY contest!

That would be purplehug! I'm off to email her now to see what color pendant she'd like me to weave for her.

Thanks for voting, and thanks for participating in my contest! Next month's Etsy Beadweavers Challenge is Caught in a Net, meaning that everyone will be creating something using a netting stitch. So please check out the entries again, and please visit me again!

And the winner is.... Lura! I held the drawing last night for the Bloggy Days Giveaway, and she won. I'm off to congratulate the winner and see which Captioned Critter she chooses!

I have a couple of new ones to post this morning, after I photograph them... a Pontificating Pufferfish and a Zebra. I have to find a good alliterative word to go with Zebra, though... out comes the dictionary!

So far, the llama's one of my favorites. I just love the expression on his little face!