Beadweaving is such a versatile medium. I love that I can take all different colors and textures of beads and combine them in different ways to make all sorts of different creations.

I have a great time creating patterns (using either BeadTool or BeadCreatorPro), and I'm constantly amazed at what happens when I switch the colors in a particular pattern. Just check out these four different beadwoven cuffs, all created from the same design!

Four very different looks, and all from a single design.

Aliens must have landed in our yard during the thunderstorms we've been having. Seriously. Well, seriously about the thunderstorms. They've been horrible! Huge thunderboomers and torrential downpours have punctuated the past three days. One of the days we had to head to the basement because there were tornado sightings within 15 miles of our house, and the weather channel said they were moving in our direction. I think they're over now, and apparently there was no damage anywhere in the area.

The alien thing? Check out these funky little mushrooms that sprouted in the mulch by our back deck.

And if those aren't strange enough, those same little aliens were nice enough to plant some pretty purple flowers.

Ya gotta love it when creatures from other planets visit, right? :-)

Etsy Treasuries are such a source of inspiration these days. I just keep seeing the greatest color combinations in them (and not necessarily even those that make it to the front page!) that I just have to go create something in those colors.

That's how my newest bracelet was born. I just posted a picture of the pink and green treasury created by bittercherryemporium, in which she featured my Celtic Knot button ring (scroll down and you can see the picture of it - it's easy to recognize). Well, a quick look at my bead stash proved that I had just the right colors to create this bracelet! I decided to create it in a mod looking checkerboard pattern, with the checks created in random widths. It looks like an optical illusion, doesn't it?

Yay! Sometime in the wee hours of the morning, I sold my 3000th item on Etsy!!! I know there are sellers who have sold lots more than that, but I'm very happy with that number. My Etsy shop lets me feed my creating habit, and that's a good thing.

Just this morning I finished my newest creation, this Fourth of July Lariat. This is lots and lots and lots of beads, more than 4000 of them to be exact. I haven't done any bead crochet in awhile, and a friend of mine told me I should create a patriotic lariat. I think this fits the bill, don't you?

Not for the faint of heart, that one. I wonder if Michelle Obama needs something to wear for the fourth of July... :-)

My other Etsy celebration is that I have quite a few items in treasuries right now. It's so much fun to browse through the treasuries and see those little gold and silver stars.

There's this one (actually in Treasury West) created by bittercherryemporium (be sure to click that link and check out some of her original paintings), featuring my Celtic Knot button ring. Don't you love these colors together?! I thought this one would catch the eye of the Etsy admins and wind up on the front page. I haven't seen it there yet, but it'll still be around for four hours.


Also in Treasury West is this one by my friend Carol Dean (SandFibers), and she featured my Long Island Stone beadwoven necklace. Carol Dean has such a knack for assembling beautiful treasuries, not to mention the knack she has for being able to grab them in the first place!
After you've finished checking out Carol Dean's Etsy shop, visit the Etsy BeadWeavers blog to vote for your favorite entry into the Anything Goes challenge, and then visit Carol Dean's blog to enter her giveaway of a beautiful beadwoven cuff! Carol Dean created this gorgeous bracelet for the challenge:

Another fellow beadweaver, Kim (RegalBeads) put together this chocolate covered strawberries treasury and included my Foxxy Cleopatra Cuff in it. Don't you just love the pinks and browns all together? The Foxxy Cleopatra Cuff is my entry into the Etsy BeadWeavers challenge, too.


Here's Kim's entry into the challenge, a beautiful green netted necklace:

Ginny (njema) created a treasury filled with cream and gold and included my Honeycomb Cuff in it.
Ginny also has an entry into the Etsy BeadWeavers challenge, this lovely necklace called Her Majesty's Flower Garden.
Ileana (enchantedbeads) created this one, called The Magic of Orange, and included two of my little bits of artwork, Turtle on Tile and Lizard Love, both ACEOs.

Ileana is ALSO a beadweaver, and she created this Sea Treasure Brooch for the challenge.

I also found one of those little gold stars next to this treasury, called Shoplifting Ring Busted. Even without the gold star, I would probably have clicked on emmarts' treasury just to see what she'd included under that title! Gabriele is a multi-talented artist, as is evidenced by all the cool things in her Etsy shop.
Last but not least, I found one of my Captioned Critters in this treasury by SmileMoon, called Here's Looking at You, SQUID! If you're looking for something made of wood, check out his Etsy shop! He's got everything from puzzles to frames to wine bottle holders in there.

The Etsy BeadWeavers deadline for the 'Anything Goes' challenge was last night at midnight, so I scurried off this morning to take another look at all the entries. I am absolutely blown away by the variety of pieces entered and even more so by the amazing talent within this group! Just check this out! Or click here to see the entries up close in the members' shops.

Today wasn't nearly as productive as I intended it to be. It's not my fault, really. I had good intentions and even had a list of some of the things I wanted to accomplish.

Instead of being productive, though, I had to spend a couple of hours at the dentist's office having a tooth repaired. Yesterday evening, as I was eating dinner, I suddenly realized there was something crunchy in the bite of broccoli I had just taken. Broccoli's not supposed to be crunchy. At least not when it's been steamed. Sadly, the crunchy thing was large enough that I had no trouble locating it so I could spit it out. It was about a quarter of one of my molars. Drat. It was too late in the day to call the dentist, but I called this morning for an appointment and lucked out. Someone had cancelled just this morning, so there was time available for him to see me. Good thing, too. He's going on vacation tomorrow for a week and a half!

So that's how I spent a significant part of my day. Getting a crown. It's very pretty. It should be, for the price. Even with insurance, it's expensive.

So my list of things I wanted to get done dwindled to just a few things I managed to accomplish. My Etsy orders went out in the mail (that's always a priority), and I managed to list two new creations.

I was going through my Delicas a few days ago, trying out different colors next to each other. When I put these olive and copper colored matte finish beads next to each other, I knew I was going to have to combine them in a bracelet. I couldn't think of a catchy title, but it's still a pretty little bracelet, don't you think?

I finally got around to creating the Equine Expressions notecard set. Having grown up on a farm with horses all around me (my grandfather was a horse trainer), I can't believe it's taken me this long to create cards with horses. I've always loved them.

On the topic of animals, I created this Treasury today to send some love from the Etsy BeadWeavers to one of our members, Wolf (DantesSpirit). Our thoughts are with Wolf and with Dante.

Gimme a hand, will ya? Okay, okay, that's corny and makes absolutely no sense whatsoever UNLESS you know that I just received my order from Nile Corp of my new hands. I used to photograph all my jewelry against a flat surface or using a pretty bottle or drinking glass, but it's sooooooooo much nicer to have those little hands for the photos. Once again, Carol Dean (SandFibers) came to my rescue. I was emailing back and forth with her a few months ago, and she suggested that I use the little hands and then pointed me in the direction of Nile Corp. I started with a small white hand, a very stylized tall arm/hand, and a white leatherette bust (for necklaces).

Well, I dropped the little white hand and broke the little finger. Drat! I glued it back on, and it works okay, but I always have to remember to touch up the photos to remove the fracture line.

I don't have a particular photographic "style" for my jewelry. I'm bored easily (have I mentioned that I have the attention span of a gnat?), and I'm always experimenting. I decided that I wanted some new hands, so off I went to order more; and I really love them! I bought a black one that has a different shape than the white one I've been using, and I also bought a translucent one that is just beautiful! They're like little sculptures.

They also do great things for showcasing my beadweaving.

Here's a simple little bracelet, called Hip to be Square, that I listed in my Etsy shop just a couple of days ago. Doesn't it look wonderful against that translucent hand?

And here's my latest original pattern. This is The Foxxy Cleopatra Cuff, a bold and beautiful piece of beadweaving, even if I do say so myself! I created this design from a pen and ink drawing I did years ago, and although the drawing was just in black and white I think this looks really cool executed in two shades of pink/mauve, brown, and black. I'm trying to decide whether to enter this piece in the Etsy BeadWeavers June Challenge. I still have a couple of days to think about it, as the deadline for entries is June 5. Whether I enter or not, be sure to check the Etsy BeadWeavers blog on June 7 to cast your vote for your favorite entry!

Doesn't this look wonderful photographed on the black hand I bought? (I put that picture at the top of this post because it's one of my favorites.) :-)