Freeform peyote neckpiece. I really don't even know what to call this. It's not a necklace. It's an exercise in obsession. Hundreds and hundreds of beads peyote stitched together to form a really long (59", to be exact) ribbon of beads.

I used all different kinds of beads in here -- seed beads in white, pink, orange, yellow, gold, red, salmon, and silver; bugle beads; imitation elongated pearls; some iridescent larger beads. I went through lots of beads putting this together, and the patterns are as varied as the beads themselves.

I wanted to make sure it had some irregularities to it, so while most of the beads are size 11s, I mixed in some larger and some smaller ones so the piece has some movement.

The obsessive compulsive in me wishes I'd kept track of how many beads were used. Since I didn't do that, I'll have to be satisfied with just an estimate... 14 beads per row, approximately 14 rows per inch, 59 inches = 11,564 beads. Since there are some larger beads in the mix, I'll round it down to 11,000. That's a LOT of beads!!! Especially when you consider that every bead was woven in one at a time.

Whew.

This was a lot of fun, though, even though it took many hours to complete (I didn't keep track of that either). Maybe I'll do another one in shades of blue... or purple... or green... :-)

Yin and Yang is what I decided to call this bracelet, made from some gorgeous Czech seed beads in a brilliant purple and an icy steel blue.

Beads Beads Beads. I have millions of them, and since I'm planning to attend the Bead and Button Show in Milwaukee in early June, I just have to make use of some of them before then. I've made a few bracelets, but I haven't gotten them all photographed to list on Etsy yet. This green zigzag one is fun, I think.

It looks like I'm going to be doing a big craft show in Evanston, Illinois, this summer (Custer's Last Stand), so I'll have to have some things made up to take with me there. The bracelets will be a nice addition to my inventory, and they're a lot of fun to make.

Pickles, fish, peppers, corn, and pizza. So I got an idea for some silly gift tags, and here's the result. It all started when I was on the treadmill, walking...walking...walking... and I happened to look up at the ceiling (in the basement, so it was really looking at the floor joists) and see a silly gift I gave to my husband way back before he was my husband. The Super Pickle. It struck me funny at the time, and it still cracks me up when I see it. A pickle with little feet and a cape. Because he's Super Pickle.

That made me think of doing something with a pickle, and I had this cool green cardstock just waiting to become something neato. And so were born the food tags.

I think they're a hoot. A couple of people have already bought them (one bought some pickles, one bought some fish), so obviously I'm not the only one with this silly sense of humor. Check 'em out in my Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=63053&section_id=5006265

My newest bracelet is an explosion of shades of orange, yellow, and pink. I absolutely LOVE the way this turned out! It's freeform, which means I didn't really plan any of the splotches of color -- I just added them where they seemed right.

I'm gonna make another one of these! This one's on Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=5533895

I've been beading again! It seems like forever since I've sat down with my massive stash of beads and created anything, but now that I've started again I'm having such a great time. I'm always drawn to seed beads, so the creations so far use hundreds (thousands?) of these tiny wonders. I love all the patterns that can be created by weaving them together.

Here are two of the most recent projects, a Raspberry Wave bracelet that uses some of the prettiest magenta/purple beads I've seen. I mixed those with some iridescent lined beads that have a really pale lavendar tint and put everything together in an abstract pattern.

The other project uses matte gold seed beads and shiny silver bugle beads for a really strange and interesting cuff. I even found some great buttons that perfectly matched the gold beads to use for closures.

Both are listed in my Etsy shop:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=5527588
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=5533228

Insults. Sarcasm. Anyone who knows me knows what a sarcastic sense of humor I possess. The strangest things strike me as funny, and there are things that'll just make me laugh no matter how many times I see them (the Burger King guy, for example, in that video that's been floating around the internet forever).

So, being the anal-retentive person I am (and being such, I know when to put the hyphen in anal retentive), I've been saving a list of insults, weird humor, silly sayings, etc., that have come to me through various emails over the years. I read through the list and still crack up at some of them.

What to do with this massive list? How best to share its humor with the masses? Or with the one or two other people in the world who have warped senses of humor like mine?

The Answer: Create tiny greeting cards. Tiny. Small. Mini. Okay, you get the idea. But greeting cards need envelopes, so I first had to make tiny envelopes. I decided that 1-1/2" x 1" was a good size. Why? Because I had already created a template that size and because I had a bunch of paper lying around that would work wonderfully. Elegant little envelopes for my tiny greeting cards. And, since there's absolutely no use in giving a greeting card to someone unless they know who it's from, I decided to make them folded cards so there's room (granted, a small amount of room) on the inside for a signature, phone number, or just a smiley face (in case the sender wants to remain anonymous).

The picture's a sampling of the ones I created. I listed them on Etsy because I thought they might be enjoyed by some of the Etsyans roaming around there. I've encountered some great senses of humor on that site.

Here's the listing: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=5515784