Happy Halloween

To all of you!

We are having our annual Halloween Party tonight (kids don't have school tomorrow) So hopefully I will have some pictures for you. Here are some of the decorations inside.

See you later! Be safe.

Rings & Things ~

I got their Fall Supplement in the mail. Not helping the shopping cart at all! Where to begin, well if I had to choose one thing it would be the Metal Stamping Kit. Have you seen this? Shears, block, hammers, hole punch, metal files, brass brush, 36 piece stamp set and instructions! Oh my. This would be perfect as I am just beginning to learn to play with metal. I could use every single piece here (and it would mean that I could add more to my shopping cart.....) Oh, a girl can dream........

(close your eyes and picture wonderfulness - tried to copy but it wouldn't work) and then click on the below link to see! 

Rings & Things wonderfulness.

Camera Help, please

I have started saving for a SLR camera but have no idea what I should be looking at. I would love to hear your thoughts about what is wonderful ~ bodies, lenses, make etc. Please, please, please.  Thank you all!

My own story necklace

Beth Hemmila's (hint jewelry) charms are the most wonderful things going. I purchased one, it sat and was lonely, so I purchased a few more and created my own story necklace.  The house is my home, my heart, my family. The crown is my daughter, princess on the stage and the heart is my little man, the bean. I do love this piece. It represents that which is so important to me. I give thanks when I put it on (sounds silly, yes.)

Please go check out her wonderful pieces! I will have to go and get a few more soon.

Thank you,  Beth for your wonderful charms.

Saturday!

A while back I was the very, very lucky receipt of Cindy Gimbrone's giveaway.

Needless to say, I was thrilled. That day of the dead skull spoke to me in oh such a way.

Love him! There is also one of Heather's beads and one of Gaea's beads.

Then, I had a birthday and decided to treat myself to a half day of torch time from Juli of Julsbeads

Oh yeah, look at what I got! Pure delish.us.ness!

 I have already played. Mostly, I just took them all apart and played with them, lined them up, moved them around. Oh they feel good! 

Not sure where to begin

So much happening in our house right now. My son is doing the hockey thing, my daughter is a junior in high school and very involved in the drama program at school. Her musical opens tomorrow night - late nights, sore throats, lots of homework, PSAT's...... Dealing with the little S*&ts on the bus/name calling and my son. My heart is so heavy for him. I think that after a conversation with the vice principal at school tomorrow, we will most likely transfer him out. The sad thing is that he loves the program at school. How can I get a bus to take him home alone?????? My wonderful husband has been transferred again and his hours are less than desirable right now. I feel like I do nothing but organize, coordinate, clean, cook and drive.  I am also dealing with a herniated disc in my back. God, I am tired of back pain and living by the clock for pain relief. I know that I am not doing any more or less than all of you. I also know that in the larger scheme of things, I have it very, very good. I am just feeling down, stressed and not worthy.  How do you all do it all? You make it look so easy, the whole family life balance thing.

I spend time hopping around out here, reading and looking at all of your works. You all are amazingly talented. I am working on finding my way and my style.  Trying to figure out how to do the whole selling thing. I have read/gotten some great advise from all of you, thank you.  It took me so long to find a "hobby" and I am enjoying the creating.  Still, I get frustrated when I see that others are getting more sales or are a part of an Etsy or Artfire collection. I am thrilled for them but wonder what I am doing wrong.  I get frustrated seeing others gain lots of followers - should I do contests - should I keep blogging - am I getting too caught up in it? Lorelei and Erin are writing a book! What an amazing opportunity for them - can you imagine???? And they are opening it up to us for contributions. Truly amazing. I sit and get excited, think about creating some pieces and then spiral down into to the land of "my work isn't good enough, so many others are better..."

Lori Anderson of Pretty Things did an e-Course on blogging which addressed some of this and made me feel better about some of my decisions and why I do this. Thank you. So I guess here is where I am ~ yes it took me a bit to get here! I am going to keep creating because it makes me happy. I will try to sell on Etsy and Artfire, knowing that my trunk shows do well. I will not worry about the number of followers that I have. I will do what works for me and hey, who knows, maybe I will submit a piece or two to Lorelei and Erin.

Thank you for listening. I do feel better now that I have gotten it out there.

Lorelei's Michael's Challenge - Reveal!

Good Morning,

Today is the big day! Without further ado, here is my creation! I have to say, I am very pleased with it, in fact, I love it.

For my focal I used one of Kelley's amazing eggs! (I do love these eggs) The heart connector is from Miss Ficklemedia. I purchased these because I loved them, had no idea that it would be perfect for my necklace, perfect!  The rest are from Michaels. I hand wrapped each link and used a generic clasp. The white chain was a bit of a push for me, but it was good. I need to go outside the box at times.  I did make a pair of earrings with the leftover pieces. Love them. Initially, the beads did stump me, but the more I played, the more I fell in love with them. I may have to go back and get more cinnabar. 

Please go and see what the other folks made with their challenge beads. The list is below!

Mary Harding

Hilary of Fryestyle

For My Sweet Daughter

My Life Under the Bus

Kristie of DreamSomeDesigns

Linda's Bead Blog & Meanderings

Copper Diem

Andrew Thornton

TyneBodenNecklaces

Raida of HavanaBeads 

Erin of Treasuresfound

Molly of BeautifullyBrokenMe

Beading by Malin de Koning

AuntieAnnie

Gr8Findings

Deborah M Purdy

Spirited Earth

Erin Siegel Jewelry 

beads by breul

Beads for Busy Gals

Cynths Blog

Nayas Organized Chaos

Crafty Hope

Rosebud For the Love of Beads

Jamberry Song

Peacock Fairy

Elysian Studio Art

Designs by Debi

sweet girl design

http://2catchahummingbird.blogspot.com

Enjoy! Thank you Lorelei, for hosting this great party!

Lorelei's Michael's Challenge

Ok, the reveal is on Sunday.  I purchased my beads and sat and looked, and looked, and looked, played, moved them around but no luck. I was in the middle of creating a necklace for my daughter when inspiration HIT! and HIT it did. I am very psyched about what I made! I can't wait to share with you. Please come back on Sunday!

A quick tease!

At last ~

Ok, I am back now and here are the promised pictures. My parents were gracious enough to come for the weekend and take the kids while we went down to Virginia Beach for the weekend. Getting down was a bit tough, lots of traffic in Virginia! We stopped in Williamsburg for lunch and had a great lunch, did a bit of shopping, went to the outlets (!!) and then headed down to Virginia Beach.

Now, I had gotten us a nice room on the top floors of the Hilton and when we finally checked in, we were told that the management had upgraded us to the Presidential Suite! Seriously! I think that the amazing flowers that were sent by my parents and the wine and cheese tray sent by hubby's sister were a dead giveaway! This place was HUGE! Kitchenette, dining room, living room, master bed/bath with a jacuzzi tub and three, yes three, porches! We were on the top floor, 20th, and the view was amazing! Everyone wished us happy anniversary, the weather was perfect and we had the funnest time ever.

Went to Pocohontas Pancakes for breakfast each day. Now, this place has truly the best pancakes on the planet! I had the pecan and pumpkin spice pancakes on Saturday and the pecan and pumpkin spice waffles on Sunday. Waffles are lighter than pancakes! Scrumptiousness! MMMMMM.  We went for a 5 mile walk, walked on the beach, ate, drank, lounged in the sun, drank some more, did a bit of bead shopping!!! yeah buddy!

To say that it was perfect, is an understatement. I do so love my husband! Thank you all.

Silly huge!

Yup, our own pantry!

 The view from our pad!

Love the building shadows.

Pecan and pumpkin spice pancakes!

The sunrise on Sunday morning. Magical!

A tease!

Just a quick photo from my weekend. We went down to Virginia Beach for our anniversary celebration, it was PERFECT! Here is a quick photo. Promise, I will get to the post and photos tomorrow!

Sunrise this morning!

Andrew Thornton's Thursday Giveaway!

I have been remiss in getting these up - my apologizies.  Andrew is having another spectacular giveaway ~ Melissa J. Lee charms! These are great and perfect for the Halloween season. They are also totally in keeping with Andrew's 31 days of skulls! He has created some great pieces, please go check them out! So far, day one is my favorite.

How much fun are these?! Just sayin'.

Today's message from the Universe

I received messages from the Universe every day. Some are absolutely spot on and others I read, smile and delete. Today's was great.

Visualize, show up, happy dance.

Courtney, you can do this.

Dip, 

    The Universe

I am here!!!!  :), See me dance!

Necklaces, necklaces, necklaces!

It would appear that I got stuck in a necklace rut this weekend.  That being said, I am rather fond of what I created.

Skulls, keys, beads ~ what is not to love?

I used quite a few of Kelley's eggs. 

Both of these have great inspiration charms also.

A few fun pieces from Susan Lenart Kazmer that I got at Michaels.

Love that red car!

 Boro bead, mood bead and some washers from Susan Lenart Kazmer.

Well, that's it. Hope you like it.

A fun challenge

Lorelei is having a fun challenge. It involves beads from Michaels. She has posted pictures of the beads she got at Michaels and the deal is - we go to Michaels, purchase said beads and Create! Then we will post pictures of what we make. The item is a necklace and the deadline is October 17th.  Lorelei has all the information on her blog ~ check it out!  I am headed to Michaels after the grocery store!

Looks like fun! Love the colors.