Well hello again!

It's been awhile. I hope everyone had a pleasant holiday season, one filled with lots of love, family, egg nog, all that good stuff!
Unfortunately for me, things got a bit hectic at my office job. Without delving too deeply into everything, I've had less time to do more. Suffice to say, my internet presence and social networking have taken a back burner.
I still have made time to bead, but I haven't been as aggressive as I usually am about it. Last year, I put a lot of time into photographing, descriptions, listings on online auction sites, and marketing. While I can't say that it did nothing for me, perhaps I had a few sales from it all, it's not how I want to continue to spend my time. So, I decided that this year is going to be for me. Sure, I'll put a few items on etsy from time to time, but I have one main goal - to have fun! There's a bunch of patterns out there I want to try, ones in magazines that I enjoyed looking at and "mentally beaded" along with, that I never actually physically did. There's some cross needle 3-d patterns I want to try - because they look fun, and a bit challenging. If I get around to listing them for sale, that's fine, if not, that's fine too. As long as I am having fun, it's all good.

Not to leave you completely without beady goodness - here is a little something I made for myself for New Years Eve. The necklace was inspired by Russian beading, and the earrings are a classic Russian Leaf. I wore a lovely black and gold sequin dress and gold sequin boots, so this set really completed the outfit for me.

Copper Sunset Ring

When my copper swarovski crystal met my metallic iris raspberry delicas, I knew it was meant to be. Seriously, these 2 colors together are amazing! The iris rasperry delicas could quite possibly be my favorite color delica, I've been using it a lot lately. How can you not love a color that is gold with flashes of purple?! The color of the beads is best seen in the 2nd and 3rd pics...in the 1st pic the crystal is getting all the attention.

I just get tickled every time I finish one of these. They're just so fun to make, and they're so sparkly!
It kinda has a vintage feel to it...like a flapper in a speakeasy, gold tassel dress, short slicked hair, and her finger shimmers every time she raises her glass to her lips.

Visit my Etsy listing for all the juicy details.

Complimentary Contradictions

I had been hoping to get my latest done before midnight on September 5th so I could enter it into the Etsy Bead Weavers challenge "Complimentary Contradictions". You can vote for the challenge on our blog from September 9th through 15th. Don't worry, I'll be reminding you again when voting opens!
I actually finished at 10pm, thinking I had plenty of time to take some pics and get it listed. HA! What was I thinking? I DID get the necklace listed before midnight (11:54 EST to be exact), but I struggled with the photo taking. I even tried again yesterday to get some better photos...different light, going outside, but I can't seem to get the camera to see what *I* see.
Nonetheless, it's finished, it's listed, and it's officially entered in the challenge. I call it "Circle Gets the Square".
I used a bunch of different types of beads for this one. Swarovski glass pearls, delica seed beads, toho seed beads, czech firepolished beads, and swarovski crystals squares and one circle for the clasp. I put a lot of energy into making my hands do what I saw in my head, and I'm quite pleased with the result.