Saturday was a great mail day! The postman arrived with a package of goodies I ordered from Lisa Peters, and I could hardly wait to open it to see everything in person. I've been drooling over Lisa's work on flickr for awhile now, and I was soooo disappointed that I wasn't able to visit her at the Bead and Button Show this year in Milwaukee. It figures that she was there the ONE year I wasn't able to attend. Drat!

Lisa listed a few of her beads in her Etsy shop, but I figured she'd have lots more of them; so I shot off an email and then proceeded to hunt through her photos to choose beads and buttons. Do you know how hard it is to choose when everything you see is beautiful!?!? Somehow I managed, though, and Lisa was nice enough to add some new pictures of pieces she had on hand. She also answered a bazillion questions along the way. My friend and fellow beadweaver Carol Dean (SandFibers), who's been creating beautiful things with Lisa's beads and buttons for awhile, told me I'd love everything and she was absolutely right. I just couldn't stop staring at all those goodies, and I have TONS of ideas floating around in my head now. If only there were more hours in the day...

I'll take photos of some of the goodies in that box later (when the sun comes out). In the meantime, I'm busy taking notes and sketching ideas for how to use them. Want to see some of Lisa's work combined with beadweaving? Check this out! This is Carol Dean's work that she's showing off on flickr, but you can also find some pieces in her Etsy shop.

Yesterday I had just enough good weather (between rainstorms and helping my husband move our canoe around several times as he was trying to paint it and avoid the rain) to photograph my newest beadwoven bracelet design, Little Vine. It's so much fun creating these designs and then creating the bracelets. After I chose the colors for the first version of this design, I thought of a whole bunch of different combinations. I think for the next one I'll use a light background and do the vine and leaves in a dark color.

And a nice surprise this morning! Smadar (SmadarsTreasure) included Little Vine in this beautiful treasury!!
The treasury is brand new, so you can click the picture to go visit it and see everything up close. There are some beautiful pieces in there by some of my fellow Etsy BeadWeavers. Smadar herself is VERY talented, and I'm always oogling the pieces she creates. I really love this 3D Gold Trapezes necklace, but then I love pretty much everything in her shop.

Marilyn (aka GrandmaMarilyns) also featured one of my newest pieces in her patriotic treasury.
We're a patriotic bunch, aren't we!? Marilyn's Caribbean Blue bracelet would fit in there nicely, too.

Now it's time to go do something productive! And no, that doesn't mean dishes, laundry, cleaning, or anything of that nature. Those things can wait while I play with my beads!! :-)

Barack Obama is all about change, so when Emily contacted me to ask if I could make some changes to the Obama cuff I was happy to oblige. She wanted it a bit longer and also wanted stripes added to the "band" portion. A few thousand beads later, and here it is! She's already bought and paid for it, and it's in the mail so she'll have it in plenty of time for the Fourth of July parades. I've been thinking about doing another variation, maybe with a black "band" instead of the gray.

This was the week for custom orders, and I also just finished this spiral design for my sister in law. She wants to give it as a gift to someone, and she sat and looked through my Delica collection for quite awhile before settling on the colors. I think she chose quite nicely, with the color-lined purple and gold.

This was also a great couple of days for Etsy treasuries! The Etsy BeadWeavers Team has been keeping track of treasuries that feature members, so it's nice to be able to hop over to the forums they're posted in and see them. I try to visit and comment/click on all of them, and it's soooo much easier to keep track of them this way. I still go through and look for that little gold star to see if I'm featured in one, but many times I find that it's already been posted to the forum before I even find the star.

The newest one is one of my all-time favorites. Carol Dean (SandFibers) put together this Inspired Simplicity collection and chose all black and white, including my Black and Bright cuff. I love love love black and white together! There's still time to visit this treasury, too, if you want to get a better view. Just click the picture!
Carol Dean's Houndstooth cuff would have fit into that treasury nicely, don't you think?

Carol Dean (using her alias) also included my Bright Right Triangles bracelet in this treasury that shows off her latest obsession -- Triangulation! Click the picture to go to the treasury so you can check it out in person.


Want proof of Carol Dean's obsession with triangles? Click here! (I just went to do that search and found her newest listing, this drop-dead gorgeous Monochrome Triangle Pendant -- WOW!)

These others have already expired, but I'm still honored to have had my pieces featured in them. One of the newest members of the Etsy BeadWeavers team, miamiamia, included the Desert Diva cuff in her Beaded Treasures collection.
And... she included the Foxxy Cleopatra cuff in this treasury, called Did Somebody Mention Colour?
When you look at miamiamia's Etsy shop, it's pretty obvious she likes color. Isn't this colorful bracelet beautiful?

Last, but not least, is this fun treasury that was assembled by Kalos. It's not beadweaving, but it's another of my favorite things... snails. I just love some of these little guys!! Sylvia Snail was in great company here, wasn't she?
I visited Kalos' Etsy shop and found all sorts of beautiful jewelry, including this Toasted Marshmallows necklace which is ON SALE!!! In fact, she has a great sale going to celebrate the Fourth of July holiday, so check it out.

Now it's time for another dose of cappuccino... that's a good way to start the day, don't you think? :-)