I Feel Loved!

Don't forget to enter this week's Giveaway!

The last few weeks I've gotten LOTS of goodies in the mail! So why am I talking? I should simply be showing off! First off is a lovely necklace I received from a fellow Bead Weaver - Silvia! You can visit her shop over at: Sobby :)This was part of our spring swap and I feel very blessed!

As you can see the pendant is reversible - which is a great feature! I wear it with the bead in the center facing out, but I like that I can switch it up if I feel like it :) I wore it to church on Sunday and it went great with one of my favorite shirts! 

This next one is from Penny of Copper Penny Designs! It's part of a Pay It Forward - and I'll be doing another one of those coming up soon to say thanks :)

I don't wear gold very often - but I have a gold necklace I need an excuse to wear (cuz its from my Daddy) so this would be great to wear with that! Hmm - now I need to make some appropriate earrings to wear with it...

The next bit is a TON fo beady goodness that I got from Kristi Bowman Designs as part of a Bead Soup Swap hosted by Lori Anderson! Get ready for lots of drool-worthy beads!

I'm determined to make myself something with a few of these (I always forget to make myself jewelry then I have nothing to wear and show off!) and the rest will go into things for my shop :) Now to find the time...

Social Networking Karma - Your Responses

I have a lot more I'd like to talk about with Social Networking Karma - but your responses to the first post  were so wonderful that I need to dedicate this post to you guys and what you said! So from the mouth of my readers:

Dr. Suess Hair Clips

"I absolutely believe in it!! Thats why I do http://dailyhandmadepicks.blogspot.com to feature a cool artisan every day!!! Self promotion does NOTHING if you don't reciprocate! :)" ~ MamasLittleMonkeys

Carnival - Bead Embroidered Cuff

"Your comments are right on. When I opened your ArtFire message this morning that you had featured my cuff, I was delightfully surprised. I've been in a slump lately thinking my work will never be good enough to be noticed and now you've given me a little ray of hope. Thank you so much!" ~ beadsandblooms

Sierra Earrings

"I always feature 4 or 5 artists every Friday on my blog and it's so fun getting the responses from them and my readers too!" ~ Beaded Tail

I just want to finish up with a big thank you to everyone for all the comments you leave on my blog! I've been having a lot of fun working on building traffic to my blog and I really appreciate each and everyone of you who visit and join the discussion :)

Etsy Bloggers Featured Artist - Mystic Wind

I almost missed it! It's the last day of the month, so my last chance to feature this month's featured artist from the Etsy Bloggers! Ok, well, not really, I've been known to do it the first week of the next month too. *shhh* don't tell anyone! Let's get a cheer for procrastination! Moving on...

Etsy Bloggers Featured Artist - March 2011

Here's three of my favorite items from her shop!

Pink Rose Floral Glass with Pearl Necklace

Blue Butterfly Button Ring on Black Filigree Band

Frilled Purple and Green Flower Earrings

Don't forget to check out this weeks Giveaway!

Coming up Tomorrow - Featured Friday!

Crafty ADD Weeks 21 - 30

I've had so much fun doing my Crafty ADD posts! And one of my favorite posts of all is when I get to the end of a 10 week (approx) stretch and look back with a slide show on all I've done. It's a lot of fun to revisit my projects, frustrations, and triumphs. I hope you have fun looking at the slide show as well :)

Crafty ADD #30

I know - I went two weeks with out an update, but life's been such that I wasn't getting too much done so it's not too much of a loss :P

Crocheting

I'm never doing this blanket again! I figured it out, the squares are so small that I'm having to tie in twice as many ends as I did when I did the first baby blanket. I do NOT like tying in ends! LOL Oh well. It's going to be pretty - so that's something at least :)

Cross Stitch

Book mark's finished! Well, ok, so in that photo it hasn't be cut out and backed yet, but Mom does that part for me (interfacing hates me) so I took a snap shot before I sent it her way :)

I'm making something for me this time! Can you tell what that is in the center? I'll give you a hint, it's an animal :P
I finished my "no thought" necklace - but not my butterfly! Hoping to finish that tonight :) I've got a lot of projects I need to get going on - so I really need to finish it up!

Here's a snap shot of my first paper beads! This is after they've been rolled, and coated with one coat of glue. They still need to have a finishing spray put on them, but it's been raining and I need to have the hubby do that outside. Once their completely done I'll start listing them online and do a post all about how I made them!

Crafty ADD #29

Last week was a mixed bag for me. I did really good the first half of the week, and then I had a really massive migraine that laid me out flat for three days. Despite that...I actually have a lot to show off! So let's dive in :)

Crochet

Don't know WHY that picture turned out so...yellow. Oh well. I finished the core part of the second strip. Next I need to tie in all the ends and do the border!

Cross Stitch

It's almost done! I just need to fill in the blue on the bottom symbol. Another hours worth maybe?

Jewelry

I'm making paper beads! This is the very first set I made, and as you can see, I did NOT do well on some of them. This is definitely a skill with a learning curve to it! I have since made three more sets in different colors and done a little bit better each time. I didn't get a picture of those for you though. Ooops! I'll do a post just about my new paper beads where I explain the process a little bit more and you'll see the rest of them then :)

I whipped these up early last week. They are now in my consignment shop. :)

Didn't make much progress on this necklace because I spent most of my time working on my other beady project. Which is fine - because this one will be sitting there waiting for when I need something that doesn't take a lot of thought!

This is my current favorite beady project - and it's for ME! I'm using a pattern from this month's Bead and Button magazine and I can hardly wait to see it all done! I love butterfly's :)

A Simple Question

And that question is this....

If you could have one piece of jewelry, any piece of jewelry, in one of my shops, what would it be and why?

My shop addresses are www.roseworksjewelry.etsy.com and www.roseworksjewelry.artfire.com :)

And as an extra incentive - I'll give you an extra entry into my top commentators contest!

Laughing At Myself....

Why am I laughing? Because this latest collection on my latest promoted items CLEARLY shows the difference between items I've recently renewed - and items I've taken new photos with my light box! Ah well.

So here's my plan. I have a lot of inventory (a lot) between my two shops. For Etsy I'm going to slowly replace the photos by rephotographing items whenever they come up for relisting. For Artfire, since items don't expire, I'm going to alternate between one new listed item, and retaking the photos for two old items. It'll probably take me a few months, but hey, at least this way I won't get stressed out! That's really important with the way my lungs have been misbehaving lately.

Anyway, you know the drill, tell me which piece(s) are your favorite(s) and why and I'll give you an extra entry into my Top Commentators Contest!

One World, One Heart - The Official Giveaway!

I blogged not too long ago saying I was going to be part of One World One Heart again...and then I missed the opening day! Ack! I was sick - that's my excuse >_> But it's here! We're taking a magic carpet ride! What does that mean?

Well for me that means giving away lots of prizes! I envision this magic carpet flying all over the world, and the more places it fly's, the more chances there are to win! I love make earrings, and so that's what my giveaway is going to be. Here's just a sample:

That's just one of the styles I offer in my $5 earrings section in my shop! For every 50 riders on this magic carpet, I'll add in another pair of earrings to give away! Winners can pick from something already in my shops, or give me color and design preferences and let me custom make something just for them.

How do you win? Just leave a comment on this blog post! All entries must be made by midnight, PST, February 14th. I'll be using a random number generator to select the winner on the morning of February 15th. Good luck :D

Crafty ADD Update #24

I had a very hard time focusing on anything this week! Part of that was going on another short road trip to see my Granny, and part of that was feeling sick, and part of that was....I don't know? Here's what I got done though :)

Crochet

Not much progress on this over the course of the week, but I got a little bit done! I'm kinda stuck on the hat I've been working on. I need to get together with Mom on that one. Not showing anything because I crocheted and tore apart several times.

Jewelry

Almost done with this! I need to get a clasp for it and then it'll be done! Woohoo!

Here's what I've gotten done on the remake of the ring I talked about yesterday! I decided to add a little design to it as well as make it narrower this time around.

This is the start of my challenge piece for the Etsy Bead Weavers Challenge this month :D I'm going to call it "Treasures of the Sea."

Crafty ADD Update #23

Last week was a bad one migraine wise (reacting to something new...) and I thought I didn't get very much done. The good news is that looking at the pictures shows I got more done than I thought!

Crochet

What you see here is the death and rebirth of a project. The ball on the right is what was once the purple hat I was crocheting. The biggest problem was that I didn't think to check gauge until I was REALLY far into it...and my gauge was way off. My Mom and I thought we'd figured it out, but the problem was I could no longer do counts to double check myself. I was getting close to being done - and I realized that somewhere along the way I'd manage to get WAY off. I finally decided that the only thing to do was start over and MAKE SURE I'm in gauge this time! I also decided to make sure I had the right yarn (the ball on the right was close, but no quite). I tried starting it again today, and discovered I need yet a bigger size crochet hook. Good thing is I can get one from my Mom tomorrow :)

I also started a baby blanket this weekend! That was a whole fiasco though. Mom and I are going to be making matching baby blankets for my friends that are having twin boys. I'm doing a blue and white and she's doing a green and white. Which wouldn't have been a problem except that we some how managed to get two different types of yarns and so we had to go back and return some and refigure out colors a bit. But we're all good to go now!

Jewelry

Wednesday I made one of my last Christmas presents! I had put this one off, not because it was too hard, but just because I knew I wouldn't be seeing John until after Christmas so I knew I could put it off. I know that the shot of the dragon pendant is fuzzy, but I LOVE that pendant. John did too, so we're good there :)

Saturday I made up this simple necklace in pearls and swarovski crystals. It's a wedding necklace for a family friend. She wanted something very simple. The dress is a lovely cream, and I found pearls that match exactly! The crystals match her sisters (the maid of honors) dress. The one other thing I kept in mind when designing this piece was that the dress has several places where things are grouped in threes (pleats, edging, that type of thing) and so I duplicated that in the necklace by grouping the pearls in threes!

Yeah, I'm still working on this! Going sloooow. Mostly just because I haven't put anywhere near enough time into it :P Like I said, lots of migraines again this last week. Hoping to finally get it done in the next few days though so I can get going on my next projects in the pipeline!

Crafty ADD Update #22

I think this is probably the shortest Crafty ADD post I've done since I've started! That's ok though - last week was pretty full between my brother coming home, celebrating a late family Christmas, and just life in general. I also spent some time for myself writing, which I think I really needed! Hoping to get back to a more normal routine this week and balance out between crafty time and writing time. We'll see how it goes!

Crochet

I didn't get very much done on this - and I kinda messed up one of the sides, but Mom says it will work out anyway so I don't have to take it out. *phew* Since the toddler this is for has her birthday next month I've officially moved this from a Christmas present to a birthday present :P

Jewelry

This is my other late Christmas present that I have in the works - but that's ok - she'll love it whenever I get it done :D

Crafty ADD Recap - Weeks 11-20

Yah, yah, yah, I know, I'm a wee bit late in getting this up! Especially since I'll also be posting Crafty ADD #22 today... But you guys still loves me right? lol

Crafty ADD Update #21

Lots of pictures this week! I would have put this up yesterday - but I had a really bad migraine - so no computer time and no pictures!

Paper Craft

I took these plain brown paper bags from the craft store - and added snow flakes to them! We were having a game night and it was the perfect time to hand out some of the Christmas presents I've made over the last few months. My dear hubby thought I was CRAZY for making the snowflakes to put on bags that they will probably throw away, but I don't care. Paper is cheap and I love snowflakes!

Knitting

I finished the green scarf in time! I know it's longer than what I had last shown on here - but I have no idea how much longer. I think I added about 8 more inches? I should have written myself a note when I measured it huh?

I started this scarf on Christmas day - and then did a lot of work on it during my road trip to visit Granny! It's been interesting, a very different experience than any I've had before. I've never used eyelash yarn before and I've never used the circular knitting needles before. I was a little nervous about trying the eyelash yarn, and while I would never want to crochet with it, it actually works up really easily once you get it started! It also is going much faster than anything I've done before because it's much narrower and on larger needles.

Crochet

Mom showed me how to do the next steps in my project! And I got 5 rows added along the top. Hard to see how that's going to be a hat when I'm done isn't it? I guess I just have to have faith in the pattern. And I know I'll stitch it up the back when I'm done :P

Jewelry

I made this charm/shawl pin for the green scarf - and Bu liked it!

I actually made this pin awhile ago -

but I finally put a back on it and gave it to its intended recipient :P

This is the last of the presents I made for my friends at the Game Night - and I made it in the last hour before we left! Talk about overbooking myself with projects... She loved it though!

Now your probably thinking, "What on earth does this have to do with jewelry?" Well...the answer is that's my new project pan! I took a cheap tinfoil pie dish, spread tacky glue around it, and glued down some beading fabric. This gives me something I can put in my lap when I'm doing bead work away from my house. I tried it out on the trip - and it worked really well until my back started hurting and I had to sit in a different position in the car.

Christmas isn't over with! This one is going to be late - but that's ok - I know the girl I'm making it for loves me to death :)

I had a lot of fun doing a largely handmade Christmas this year...and I'm already starting to think ahead towards the next year of birthdays, weddings, and Christmas! Am I crazy? Naw...just crafty :P