I got to meet Andrew Thornton!

Picture me standing on top of a hill yelling this! :)  

He is at the Best Bead show just outside Baltimore this weekend. (You can still go and say hi!)

Andrew is so gracious and welcoming. I did my "Hi, my name is Courtney and I follow your blog" thing and he was so nice! Thank you Andrew. 

To be able to actually see and touch those amazing Green Girl Studio beads! What a treat. I went overboard,  my daughter didn't help this with her "i love this one, you can make me a necklace with this one!" :)

The "collection"

My daughter fell in love with this castle. It is spectacular and the plan is to hang it on silk ribbon with a few swarovski's hanging below, princess colors of course.

These were just too cute to not get. 

I am loving these!

Again, thank you Andrew for being so gracious!

(totally made my weekend!)

Off to play! :)

Sue Beads Flower Charm challenge!

Sue Kennedy of Sue's beads offered up these wonderful enameled flowers for a challenge.

She challenged us to create something using her creations.

How cute are those flowers?!

I actually saw these and immediately knew what I wanted to pair them with ~ turquoise!  I had found these great turquoise beads at Michaels and they went perfectly!

I am loving how this came out!  The perfect summer necklace.

Hop over to Sue's blog and you can see what folks have created!

I made cane!

Check it out!

Ok, simple but it is a form of cane! So very proud of me!

Then there are a few more!

Just playing around but had some fun! 

What do you think?

I've been bad...

Just how bad?

Take a look at my new goodies!

How beautiful are these from Jane Perala? 

I can not wait to play with these.

 Ah, Kelley's beads! I did stalk her shop during her last update (shhh).

I love, love her eggs and what about this lentil????

And then there are Barbara at Floridity. I had a great deal of restraint when I was purchasing my beads. 

I could have bought everything!

Love these shells!

Oh, and yes, I have some beads coming from Juls beads! :) She is offering sets of either

40 or 80 earring pairs for an insane price! 

So, there you have it! Bad, bad, bad! :)  (hee, hee)

Have a great Sunday and Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful Dad's out there.

A truly amazing give away!

Look at all this beautifulness!

Please, please hop over to Andrew Thornton's blog and take a look and enter the drawing!

While you are there, be sure to look at his great pictures from Bead and Button.

Thanks Andrew!



How cool are these????

I was meandering through Michaels and came across these!

Game Pieces

by Tim Holtz

Do you see them on a simple bail and hung like one would a scrabble tile?

Do you see a charm bracelet?

Or do you see a series of numbers together ~ like anniversary dates??

9~8~90!

Do share?

BTW!

Just barely! :)

Thanks to Heather Powers for starting this fun group!

Here is what is on my table today.

Not much has changed. 

Had a crazy busy weekend with work (worked all weekend) and won't be off until this weekend. But, that's ok, headed to the beach. 

I will say that while I didn't bead, I channeled my inner Martha tonight and made dinner, baked cookies and made some freezer jam. 

Standard chocolate chip cookies but I did half choc. chips and half Heath Toffee chips. 

Kids love, love them. Me, not so much. I am not liking the flavor of the toffee chips.

I decided to try making freezer jam. I have read on several foodie blogs about how wonderful and easy it is, so with blueberries on sale, I thought I would give it a go. Very, very easy. 

It has to set over night and then pops into the fridge or freezer. 

Here's to hoping that it is good! :)

While there are no beads directly on my table, it was a tasty Wednesday. :)

Hop over to Flickr and see what is on everyone's tables!

Giveaway galore!

Seriously!

Please check out Lori Anderson's blog to see her amazing trip to Bead and Button and the wonderful goodies she is giving away.

And then when you pick up your jaw, please hop over to Cindy Wimmer's blog for another amazing give away.

These two ladies had such a wonderful time and their pictures are drool-worthy! 

Someday I hope to be able to go. 

I can only imagine how much money I have to save to spend! :)

My message from the Universe this morning ~

WOW! Just checked in on your new work space, Courtney! Love all the "bells and whistles" you dreamed up! Smokin' hot!

Apparently, however, there's some confusion over where the bouncy seat is supposed to go. So I just told them to put it in your world headquarters executive office, in front of the aquarium... beside the hammock... behind the popcorn maker. 

OK? 

You're so cute,

    The Universe

If nothing else, this really made me smile this morning!

Here's to a smokin' hot Tuesday!

Happy Birthday!

 Today you are 17. I can't believe how the time has flown. 

You are now a senior and I am so very excited for you and all the possibilities!

 I love you Caroline!

I decided to make rainbow cupcakes for her today. I apologize, I can't remember where I saw these but they are so cute! Very easy recipe and you create rainbow cupcakes.

Cake batter

in my overflowing cupcake tins.....

As you can see, I clearly don't follow the "fill to 2/3 cup" directions. I knew this would create a problem, yet I filled them anyway! (note: these are full to the top with batter!)

And yes, they created one huge pan of cupcakes.

Believe it or not they actually cut apart and came out easily (apart from the two whose tops came off and I had to "glue" together with CHOCOLATE frosting!)

I love chocolate frosting!!!

These are very colorful and amazingly good!

How fun are these!

She loved them!

Happy Birthday Caroline, we love you!!!!!

I am happy to share the recipe and I apologize for not remembering where I found them.

Just let me know. 

(they actually didn't need frosting.....but who can resist chocolate!)

BTW!

I am so excited! I joined Erin Prais-Hintz's Simple Truths Sampler! 

What fun! 

(I posted about it here.)

And I got my pendant!!!

Handmade by her for me! (took some liberties there!)

I can't wait to play with this. So beautiful.

That is what is on my table......what's on yours?

Thank you Heather.  Be sure to hop on over to Flickr to see what is on tables everywhere.

Sunday night!

What a great weekend!

Perfect weather, good food, quiet time.

I got some time to create, just need to load the photos!

Just sittin' here watching the Nationals! Go, go, go! Top of the 11th! Biting  my nails!

I participated in Lori Anderson's Fairy Tale Spring Bead Blog Hop! What fun. I loved this. Thank you Lori.

Last week was a stressful week.

Hubby landed in the ER with all the signs of a heart attack ~ all tests came back clean, thank God! Now we just need a good cardiologist. That was a stressful conversation with the kids. How does on explain that dad is in the ER with a possible heart attack?  They were amazing. Took it all in and were amazingly supportive.

My good friend had her knee replaced and is doing incredibly well! Yeah! So happy.

The quiet of the weekend was more than welcome.

My kids have 9 more days of school. My daughter becomes a senior in three days! How did that happen?? Could I possibly be that old??? :)  My son is 13 in a few months! A teenager! :)  He has had a rocky year with bullying and the need to transfer schools. I am so proud of him! He has been a trooper!

I am currently stalking Kelley's Beads on Etsy in hopes of scoring some wonderful beads!!!! I do love her stuff!

Sorry for the ramble........

Hope your weekend was wonderful!

Fairy Tale Spring Bead Swap Blog Hop!

(How's that for a title! )

It's here!

Lori Anderson of Pretty Things has done it again! She threw it out there and asked if anyone wanted to participate, suggested a theme and I jumped right in!

Our theme was Fairy Tale Spring!

Love this. Having a daughter (despite the fact that she is 17) We have lots of Fairy Tale princessy things around the house!

I was lucky enough to be paired with the wonderful

Valerie Norton of Hot Fused Glass, hop over and see what she created.

She sent me these wonderful goodies.

For some reason, when Lori suggested that we should send enough for a charm bracelet, that is what stuck in my head. I was very lucky, this just simply flowed, no arranging, re-arranging, creating, taking apart. It just happened. Without further ado, here is my bracelet.

Spring Garden

The great lucite flowers, crystals, cute bird charms all came together so effortlessly! It has the right amount of sparkle and magic!

Valerie also sent these great pink venetian glass cubes which became great earrings.

Ariel's Lilypad earrings

Thank you Valerie for the magical box of goodies. You mixed in the right amount of sparkle and magic and it worked!!!!!

Please hop around and check out what these very talented ladies created!

Lori Anderson, Pretty Things

Rebecca Anderson, Song Beads

Courtney Breul, Beads By Breul (you are here)

Loretta Carstensen, Designs by Loretta

Evelyn Hall, Dragon Lady Evelyn

Sandy Richardson, Sandy's Coloring Box

Dana James, Dana's Jewelry Design

Tara Plote, Newbie Beader

Christine Brandel, A Hot Piece of Glass

Lisa Sittniewski, Alterity Art

Joanna Matuszczyk, Filcowe

Jenni Connolly, Jenni Bead

Geneva Collins, Torque Story

Elisabeth Auld, Beads For Busy Gals

Sally Russick, Wireworked

Mary McGraw, MK's Creative Musings

Norma Turvey, Moonlit Fantaseas

Erin Prais-Hintz, Treasures Found

Stephanie Haussler, Pixybug Designs

Shai Williams, Shaia's Ramblings

Johanna Rhodes, Fire Phoenix Creations

Sandi Lee James, Do Be Do Bead Do

Sweet Addy Designs

Valerie Norton, Hot Fused Glass

Thank you Lori, for organizing this!!!