Lazy Sunday

So...I haven't had the most productive week...been a bit under the weather with a cold.  Thought I was kicking it, but this weekend kind of did me in a little.  I've been so congested with sinus pressure that I'm feeling a little off and light headed - and that kind of leads to slower thought processes.  So, it's taken me all day to decide what to write and I still can't really come up with something good.  But I wanted to keep up with my weekly blog post goal, so I'm going to make a good attempt.

Today was a lazy Sunday...I spent the whole day at home. I finally had the time to organize the chaos of my bead stash with the new bead containers I got.  I'm happy to say that all my beads are now organized and easy to find.  I used all but twelve containers - did I mention that I started with 318 containers? Add that to the seventy-two that I had filled two weeks ago...well that's a lot of freakin' beads.  I'd better get crackin' on making some pieces!  It did make for a nice relaxing lazy day (that didn't take too much thinking) and I couldn't be more pleased that I can finally find everything.

On a good note - I spent Saturday at my friend's daughter's engagement party.  It was a great time and the weather was beautiful, a little on the cool side but warm in the sunshine.  I was honored to have been asked to make my Japanese Kumihimo braided bracelets, stamped with hearts for her bridesmaid gifts.  They all got these bracelets made in their favorite color.  I made them in purple, blue, pink and green like this one:

 

With my computer being only operable in "safe mode" for a week, I haven't been able to upload and edit pics of the pieces that I made last weekend.  I'm pleased that my computer is up and running again.  So I spent some time today editing photos.  Here's a sneak peek:

 

These beads remind me of wagon wheels, in gorgeous hues of gold and brown.  I paired them with some copper moon charms that I purchased last weekend at the bead show.

 

I always need to find a use for leftover scraps of copper sheet.  These rectangles were created from the edges of copper sheet that I had etched with a stamped design.  I then paired them with iridescent apple green flower beads, lime green glass saucers and torch balled (and flattened) wire wrapping.

I have a few more pieces that I need to edit, but going to wait until tomorrow.  It's time to wind down, relax (haven't I been doing that all day??) and get ready for tomorrow.  Hoping to get some pictures this week of the gorgeous fall foliage.  I hope you all had a great weekend and a great week to come!

Live. Laugh. Love.

Bead Loot

Yesterday I had a great time at the Innovative Bead Expo here at the Allentown Fairgrounds.  I was happy that it wasn't too crowded, but disappointed that three of my favorite vendors were not in attendance.  That being said, I still managed to spend almost three hours browsing, dreaming of designs in my head, chatting with others...and of course buying!

Every time I thought I was ready to leave, I made another loop and found something else that interested me.  I managed to keep myself under budget and came home with some great finds.  I passed on buying any semi-precious gemstones, as they seemed to be priced fairly high.  The vendor I like to buy my gemstones from wasn't there...hoping they will be there in the spring!

Here's a sampling of what I got:

 

Ceramic pendants in perfect fall colors.  My plan is to combine them with textured copper plate, knotted waxed linen, leather cord and some beads. 

I purchased these from my favorite ceramic bead vendor.  I previously made a couple of pairs of earrings with the light teal ovals and they sold before I could list them on Etsy.  So, I am delighted that I was able to get them again.  I couldn't resist the patina'd, dark iridescent purple and the rainbow ovals...ideas are brewing. 

 

Handmade lampwork beads. I love the orange and purple beads, that have a cute little flower design on the sides.  The designer of these beads (PJBeads) was super friendly and very helpful...she turned me onto the lilac and green striped ones, wouldn't have found them without her.  From another vendor I found these gorgeous olive green and deep dark red, two of my favorite colors (oh no...the photo makes them look bright red, but they are really deep dark red!). Already know what I am going to make with them.

I just couldn't resist these tribal beads, handmade in a small village in Africa.  Love the striped deep green color mixed with red, brown, gold, cream, blue and some other colors.  These will make a nice necklace and knotted bracelet. 

Believe it or not, these are ceramic charms.  Aren't those fish and hands cute?  The neat thing is that the fish have a copper finish that you can oxidize and then burnish to shine.  My head was swirling with ideas!

 

These were a great find and a steal deal!  Cute little pewter charms (apparently I was a in a flower mood ~ I am missing the summer blooms)...I have plans to combine these with knotted macrame bracelets. 

 

I always save the best for last!  I'm am over the moon excited about finding Gilders Paste at the show - my local art shops have stopped carrying it and I really didn't want to pay the shipping to purchase online.  I was finally able to complete my color collection.  This one is a gorgeous iridescent olive green.  I also got silver, dark red, violet and aqua blue.  These are great to use on textured metal to give a little pop of color.


I got quite a few more beads, mostly some rustic Czech glass beads and a couple of grab bags with some great finds inside.  I came home excited to start making stuff...however, my brain was overloaded with ideas - and I just wasn't able to concentrate to make more than two pairs of earrings.  Will save those photos for another day.

Hope you all had a great weekend - the leaves are changing, the air is cool & fresh...may you all enjoy the beauty of FALL!

Live. Laugh. Love.

Disorganized Chaos

While I was looking for some beads to make a few pieces, I realized that my bead stash is nothing short of a mess or to put it more eloguently -- disorganized chaos. I'm a fool for beads, I definitely have an over abundance of them. Yet, I continue to buy more - why? Well, I'm a sucker for pretty gemstone and beads...I simply can't get enough of them (so I might have a little obsession). I see them, I want them and then I buy them! On that note, I'm super excited for the Innovative Bead Show next weekend.  I've been saving up for awhile and just can't wait to spend that money on some pretty beads and supplies.

Now...back to the disorganized chaos of my bead stash.  I couldn't find what I was looking for because my bead drawers (which by the way are disorganized by color) look like this:

I rummage through the drawers trying to find what I want and get so frustrated after relentlessly looking and not finding.  So, that prompted a visit to my local Michael's store, to purchase some containers...that would let me see the beads at a glance (thereby ending the relentless rummaging!)  

I purchased three organizers, each containing twenty-four round containers. Doing the math in my head..."yeah, 72 containers should be good."  Home I went, delightfully excited about my "new" bead organizers.  Well, let me tell you - 72 containers didn't even make a dent.  The yellow/green bead drawer used all 72 little containers. So, maybe I underestimated my obsession...I mean bead stash, just a little.  At a glance, it would appear that I need about 200+ more containers.  Luckily, I found a place online that I could order them in bulk -  now I can't wait for them to get here.  I love opening the drawer and being able to see what I have - here have a look:

If you thought my bead drawer was disorganized...check out my work bench.  Who created that mess? Better yet who is going to straighten it up?  It's a wonder how I ever get anything made...

The work bench is a collective of random items laid out in perfect disorganization.  However, if I put the stuff away...I probably wouldn't be able to find it. At least the rest of my house is neat and tidy. I'll save the reorganization of the work bench for another post.  After all, I gotta get my beads organized! Out of all that disorganized chaos of beads and findings came these: 

Olive and lime green Czech glass beads dangling from my own handmade copper kidney ear wires, embellish with a bead and wire wrapping. I've oxidized them to dark finish and tumbled them to shine.

I hope you all are having a great weekend.  The weather is getting cooler here and I'm loving having the windows open and the fresh air blowing in.  Live. Laugh. Love. 

Blog Revival

So...I know, I know...my blog has been pretty much dead in the water for two years (WOW...how time flies!).  Not sure what happened, but somehow I think I lost my blogging mojo.  Well, maybe it wasn't a loss of mojo, but rather pure laziness lack of motivation.  After all, it's much more fun to make jewelry than to attempt to write a creative post on your blog.

Getting my blog up and running again has been on my bucket list of "things to do" f-o-r-e-v-e-r!! So on this lazy Sunday, I decided to whittle away at my bucket list: #1 was to work on my blog.  I spent three hours this morning, adding/ deleting/ tweaking & playing around with it (Note: I probably should have been cleaning the house, doing laundry, cutting the grass and whole lot of other things...that weren't nearly as much fun)

I think I am finally happy with it - for now - but that may all change tomorrow....I can be so indecisive at times.  I'm hoping this revival will last and I will keep to my own personal goal of posting weekly - I think I'm going to make it my Sunday morning while enjoying a hot cup of Java routine!

Now for some fun stuff..here's peek at what I've made this weekend.

Hand formed and soldered copper rings. Going to hammer texture some of them and then give them a colored patina coating. 

Etched copper plates.   I am always amazed at what a little ferric chloride can do to copper stamped with a design.  I cut out some disks and random shapes from them. 

Copper kidney ear wires.  I learned how to make these a few weeks ago and I've been addicted.  I like to embellish them with glass seed beads and wire wrapping. 

The Pièce de résistance from those findings...

Hand cut copper disks that I hand shaped into bead caps.  Paired them with yellow blue (they look kind of green) Czech glass rectangles and creamy pearlized seed beads.  Oh and my embellished kidney ear wires!

Large dark red quartz teardrops, topped off with handmade etched copper bead caps and paired with black onyx donuts.

Love these carved wooden beads, periwinkle blue flower beads dangle below.  I like how these beads look hanging from kidney ear wires.  I wire wrapped the ear wires so the beads are secure and won't fall off.

When you etch copper the edges that don't have any stamping on them gets this neat little wrinkly pattern.  Not wanting to waste any metal, I decided to turn the edges into these sweet rectangle swings.  I riveted the rectangles together, so the copper ovals are secure.  Sweet little amber and gold flower beads and unakite rounds dangle below. 

I hope you've enjoyed my blog revival and will follow along with me in future posts!  Have a great day!

Best - 

 

 

  For whatever reason, blogger lost all of the images on my last three posts. :( So, I had to remove them and now it looks like I haven't posted in almost a year.  Adding this post to see if it happens again!

Blog Review: Chance to Win a $20 Gift Certificate for My Etsy Shop

I'm honored to have my Etsy Shop and jewelry reviewed on this blog:  Adorable Etsy Shop: DreamBelle Designs !!! Check it out, for a chance to win a $20 gift certificate for my shop.

I’ve been busy making new items, getting ready for two upcoming home jewelry shows! Here are some new items in my Etsy shop:

 

 

If you get a chance check out  my new ArtFire Shop!  Still have a lot of work to do on it, but it’s slowly coming along. Have a wonderful weekend! :D

All I need is some good red sauce & crusty bread…

In my former life I was Italian  and I spent my childhood days in the kitchen where my sweet Nonna taught my how to make all her special dishes.  Well since I don’t really believe in re-incarnation, I bring myself back to reality…where I did spend my childhood days with my German Grandma.  Who taught me how to make her special dishes like: spaetzle, fleisch küchen (meat cakes), potato salad, and German red cabbage.  As a child I loved being in the kitchen helping out my Mom or anyone else that would let me stand by their side to learn.  That resulted in a love for cooking.  I enjoy making a big meal for others and watching them chow it down, and then leave me to clean it all up (o.k. I don’t really like that part).
Over the years I have  developed a certain fondness for Italian food.  Especially red sauce (or as the Italian’s would say “gravy”) with fresh baked crusty bread.  I could make an entire meal out of those two things, but my waste line wouldn’t be so forgiving!
I’ve tried many recipes for sauce, some good, some not so good.   I’ve taken what I’ve learned and come up with  my own recipe that I want to share:
28 oz can whole peeled tomatoes
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 T onion, minced (optional…still tastes great without it)
¼ tsp. red pepper flakes
1 ½ tsp. sugar
Salt & pepper to taste
3 T olive oil
1 tsp each: fresh chopped oregano & basil
Heat olive oil in a medium sauce pan on medium-high heat, add garlic and onion; cook until fragrant, about 1 -2 minutes.  Add the red pepper flakes and the tomatoes.  Season with salt & pepper, breaking the tomatoes up as you go.  Bring to a boil, add the sugar and reduce the heat to a rapid simmer.  Cook, stirring often, until sauce thickens, about 20 minutes.  Stir in the fresh herbs.
The longer you cook, the thicker the sauce will be. I use my Braun hand held blender to puree it!


Sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or do like I do and freeze it.  I use this sauce on my homemade grilled pizza dough (yum!), for zucchini parmesan and of course dipping crusty bread.  Do your kids like sauce but not veggies?  Try this trick: chop up a cup of carrots and celery, put them in the oil and saute them until transparent (or mushy) then add the garlic and onions and finish off the recipe.  Your kids will get a whole serving of veggies and not even know it!

LiveJournal Tags: gravy,red sauce,crusty bread,pizza,pasta,Italian,recipes,cooking,food