Bead Soup Blog Party Partner!

I had a very busy weekend and am still working through all the Beading Babes' reveals!!  I'm so blown away by all the colors and beads everyone used for both the patterns!!!

One of the highlights of the weekend was learning who my partner is for the Bead Soup Blog Party! 
Lori paired me with Polymer clay artist, Alenka Obid.  Alenka is new in the blog scene and resides Slovenia. I am terrible with my world geography and had to look up where this country was located!  

Her blog is Pepita Handmade.  Although her blog is new, she has some of her beautiful clay work on Flikr....check out these gorgeous flowers ... and this darling heart!

I really love what I've seen of Alenka's work, so I'm very excited to have her as my BSBP partner, and I'm happy to have made a new friend in another part of the world!  I sent Alenka's package yesterday!!!  Here's a sneak peek:

On Sunday I had to attend a gala for work....it was fun to dress up and of course make some things to go with my navy blue gown.  The theme of the event was "Hat's Off To Restaurants" so I created this piece and attached that beaded flower I completed last week! (in the end, I ended up removing the extra peacock feathers on top..s)

 Here was the necklace....a RAW adaptation:

 And the earrings!

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Next up is the Jewelry Designs from Nature Challenge!  I am embarrassed to say I didn't see right away, that I was one of the LUCKY ones to be selected for this challenge, so I will be late in getting my 'inspiration kit' (eeeek - I am so excited!!!)....but luckily I won't have anything else pressing on the schedule when I receive the kit..... The reveal for that is on July 6.
Then after that I will be working on my own Summer Lovin' challenge kit - reveal date August 1....and then Bead Soup Blog Party for an August 11 reveal!

Beading Babes Project 5 Reveal!

Happy Beading Babes Reveal day!!!!!

Us "Babes" had the pleasure of working two of Helena Tang-Lim's patterns.  One was featured in June 2012 issue of Bead & Button and the other, Helena generously offered at a discounted price to our group!

To be honest, I am not a huge Tila fan, so I decided to work the Four Leaf Clover pattern first.  This pattern worked up so fast and so easy, I can totally see why so many of us Beading Babes didn't stop at one! When I first started this pattern I didn't have any 3mm rounds, so I used FP Czech crystals. Although I like this bracelet, I could see right away how much prettier this would work up if I used the rounds!  The seed beads didn't hug the 3mm like they should!




So...one trip to Bead Soup later....I had a delicious selection of 3mm round glass pearls and worked up the pattern again! 

 I really love this bracelet!!!  It drapes like fabric when you are done.  And also - I haven't yet complimented Helena's great instructions.  Her tutorial was very easy to follow!

Now...onto "Echoes of Nefertiti".....
 I had full intentions of making the whole necklace...I even ordered the beads, special for this project!  Tila's and 14mm round discs!!!  But the truth is, I just didn't have the time to complete the whole piece, but I'm happy I did two components (slightly modified only because I wasn't paying attention to the instructions and just kept beading - instead of adding the crystal and 3 drops in the middle!).

Again, I really enjoyed Helena's concise instructions and how beautifully these great little components worked up! These will make a wonderful pair of earrings!

Thank you Karyn for hosting this fun group!!!  It is so fun to be a part of this international group and I love seeing all the beautiful work the beaders create from the same patterns!

I am also pleased to have been introduced to Helena's tutorials!  Because I am "not a huge Tila fan", I breezed right past Helena's necklace in the magazine.  But thanks to Karyn's great selection in patterns, I took a second look.  I checked out Helena's shop and also treated myself to Helena's Twinkle Twinkle Little Star tutorial which I hope to start working on a few of these ornaments soon for great holiday gifts!!!
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 I'll be writing soon about the Bead Soup Blog Party and my recently revealed partner!

Fun things!

A blog post with lots of pics!  Bear with me!!

But first - I want to say - I'm excited to be in this round of Bead Soup Blog Party!!!  I don't know what it is about this particular hop/party that I love so very much.....the partnering....the anticipation(of getting your partner's bead package, waiting to see what your partner did with your package)....the creating (on my part and in putting together the bead soup to send to your partner)....the hop....seeing so many people step outside their comfort zone.....All in all I guess there is a wonderful element of surprise associated with the Bead Soup Blog Party, and I think it's just great fun.  So for the first step, I'm signed up...and now I'm anxiously awaiting to learn who my partner is!!!!!!!


This past weekend, I taught another class at Bead Soup.  Now that was FUN!!!!  I had 11 students.  Some were very experienced, and others were very inexperienced....one lovely lady had never woven a bead in her life (and to boot, she is recovered from a stroke she had a little under a year ago...hahah - I thought she was going to deck me when I told her the final round was 15/0 beads again!!!  Just kidding, we had a lot of laughs on Saturday!! And I can't stress enough - if you are ever in Maryland, you must - absolutely MUST - check out the amazing space and atmosphere of welcome, Kathy has created at her store, Bead Soup. 


Here are a few samples of the work done on Saturday:

 What a fantastic day it was.  Every single beader there, was a true delight to work with!  And I had the pleasure of seeing friend and fellow blogger, Maryanne!

And speaking of Kathy, from Bead Soup.....I see her Pinterest posts on Facebook and one day a few weeks ago, I saw her pin a tutorials board so of course I clicked on it....lately I have been looking for a fun beaded focal for a fascinator I am creating for a gala I have to attend this weekend, and found just what I was looking for on her board!

Except....the tutorial is in Russian!

Моя вариация на тему известного всем цветка. Мастер-класс

But I figured with all the wonderful photos, and Google Translator, I would be able to figure this baby out.  So I started it and properly 'recruited' many of my beads.....and just when the tutorial stated "this party is over" (according to Google Translator's translation), I was a little stuck.  
 
Now in this picture , you may see my computer keyboard in the background....you see, this is because, I sat for long periods of time at this juncture of the pattern staring at the photos, rereading the translated instructions, and above all....simply willing the knowledge to come into my brain.....


Eventually, I figured it out...although I think it's a little goofy/messed up on the inside points of the flower(hid that though), I am pretty darn pleased with the result!!!

My gown for Sunday is navy blue with no decoration at all - just some rouching in all the right places.  The theme of the event is "Hats Off To Restaurants" so instead of a hat, I'm going with a fascinator!  I am still toying with the idea of attaching all this to a comb....but I don't feel confident enough it will stay in my hair!  Here is one of the feathers going on it, but I'll have a few more as well!


Well, there are just a few more days until the Beading Babes reveal!  I did two versions of the clover cuff...and now am planning to do the Nefertiti pattern in the next couple of days!

TGIF!

Well, it's Friday again and I definitely am feeling TGIF!  Tomorrow I only have to work for an hour or so....delivering produce to my farmer's market where we're having a hard time getting farmer's to come back each week! LOL!  Some day I'll write about how I feel like I'm starring on an episode of Laverne & Shirley each week this goes on!

Anyway - after I drop some stuff off at the market, I have another class at Bead Soup.  This time it will be for some beaded disc earrings that are pretty close in nature to the tutorial I did back in April for the A-Z Challenge!

Last week's class went great!  It was so cool to see the creations and color selections come to life as the students worked through this pattern!

I did this one during the class: 

Thanks to Kristen's test of the tutorial - she used the 3mm pearls and we saw that these round beads work great in this pattern as well!  THANK YOU KRISTEN!!! xoxoxoxo

More pics early next week of what the ladies do with my pattern tomorrow!  FOURTEEN lovely beaders.  I am beyond excited!!!!

(p.s. - if I haven't said so yet, I am in LOVE with PicMonkey.com.  I thought I would be doomed when picnik.com shut down, but PicMonkey is such an amazing, if not BETTER substitute!)

Time to Stitch Challenge

Therese (Therese's Treasures) and Christine (One Kiss Creations) cleverly came up with this fun challenge: Time to Stitch.  The object of the challenge is to create something with the stitching technique that Therese and Christine named!  In this case, the stitches were peyote or herringbone. 

I selected peyote.  (I had high hopes to work in a herringbone piece too....but that just wasn't in the cards for this round!)  

When I heard about this challenge, I knew just what I wanted to do.  Late last year, I saw someone sporting a beautiful flowered peyote cuff.  She said she got the pattern on Fusionbeads.com.   Then I saw it again a few more times on-line.  So I found the pattern on their site - it's called "Ms. Daisy" and I thought it would be perfect for a summer piece.

I was even more delighted when I saw that it was a three-drop peyote pattern, which made it work up even faster than I thought it would (only two episodes of Downton Abbey!) !!! I really loved seeing these flowers begin to appear as I stitched each row!  I am certain I will be creating this again in different colors! 

Here is a list of the other participants!

Therese Frank and Christine Altmiller

Katherine Gale

Emma Andrews

Karin Slaton

Kim Bender

Lola Surwillo

Amy Severino

Bobbie Rafferty

Sally Russick

Tanya Goodwin

Paula Kramer

Sarah

Karen Williams

Shannon Hicks

Andra Weber

Beth

DW

Marla Gibson

Lisa Stukel

Mandy Duffy

Cynthia Machata

Shirley Moore

TGIF!

Been wishing I had more time to blog....but life keeps getting in the way! 

I have been beading every chance I get...... here is something I did for a friend's daughter for her 8th grade graduation:

I am teaching a class at my local bead shop, Bead Soup, this weekend and that gave me the impetus to create a tutorial...(Thank you Kristen for testing this one out for me!!)(also - if you haven't already checked it out - Kristen recently published her own tutorial which is so great and easy to follow!)

 I'm also working on a piece for Therese's A Time To Stitch challenge (reveal this Tuesday!)  When I complete that I will be ready to start on my Nefertiti piece for the Beading Babes challenge!  I did the cuff and loved it!  I made two!  

A good friend spied some bead on sale at a tag sale last week and picked them up for me!

Yup - only THREE DOLLARS for all these goodies!!!  I think the Swarovski's alone were worth over $20!!  Feeling so grateful!!!!

My son "graduates" from fifth grade in a couple hours.  I must have pms or something, because I'm getting teary every time I think about it, and or look at his yearbook!  And speaking of his yearbook, check out this cool photo they included of him, getting some serious air during a school dance this year! 



For some reason, he is incredibly embarrassed by the picture - but I think it's GREAT!




Have a great weekend and see you all on Tuesday for the A Time to Stitch reveal!