I took the plunge

I took the plunge, and signed up as a Close To My Heart consultant. I might be completely insane, but they have a great deal this month. If you sign up as a consultant (which is normally $99, and you get a HUGE amount of stuff in your kit) you get the Cricut Art Philosophy cart (or $99 in credit) for free.

So I'm not sure exactly when I will find time to do all this, but I'm going to have fun anyway
check it out here!

wrapping along!

The great thing about beading/jewelry making is that it is a portable hobby (unlike most of my other ones!) I just came back from a camping trip, and while I was gone I managed to finish 2 pendants and 4 bracelets (one bracelet I'm not sure I will try to sell, as I am becoming attached to it).

I also recently started wrapping silver coins. Small ones, like a "Winged Liberty" dime (also known incorrectly as a "Mercury" dime) and a buffalo nickel. The great thing about wire wrapping them is that you can see both sides, and if you wanted to take the coin out you could (you'd destroy the wire, but not the coin). Of course, I'm not starting out with MS65 coins or anything like that...I use good to fine quality. They say "I'm a collector" without worrying that you will scratch up a totally valuable collector's piece.

I will have to post some pictures when I get a chance to take some!

My LBS is going up for sale :-(

I got an email yesterday that the local bead store was going to be going up for sale...apparently they were just going to close up, but they wanted to see if any of their customers were interested in buying the business instead. They thought of me! I was incredibly flattered (or possibly scared that I buy so many supplies they thought I could actually afford to buy a bead store!) but I hope someone does buy it, and it doesn't just end up going away. (maybe I should save up for clearance sales, JK)

I have to say, the thought of buying a bead store had me day-dreaming a little. I pictured setting up my kids computers in the back room, so they could be doing homeschool while Mommy was working. When there were no customers I would be working on projects. Of course my supplies already threaten to take over the world...I can't imagine what my stash might look like if I had constant exposure. Or would I finally learn to only buy enough for what I was working on at that moment, and not worry about it "not being there" the next time I went shopping?

a good book for wire working

I mentioned yesterday that I'm getting the hang of this wire thing. I thought I would mention that the book I read was Dale Cougar Armstrong's "Wirework". It's available on her website wire-sculpture.com. There is also a good website here, that has tons of valuable information on it. you can get a trial week for $1, and there are tons of video tutorials. Once you master the basics of the patterns, you can tweek them for any size or shape of stone. here are some more lovelies:

I've been playing with wire

I've had a lot of fun lately playing with wire. I've learned how to wire-wrap cabachons, and I'm actually pretty impressed with the way they are turning out. I've been doing this for a while now, but I've been following the directions on several good wire websites, and I think I finally have the hang of it. here are some lovelies:

PInk invitatonal

Last month my daughter got to participate in the "Pink Invitational" gymnastics meet to support a breast cancer organization.

GK leotards was a sponsor, and each girl received a pink leotard to wear for the meet and take home. They got a lot of other loot as well. It was late at night (we were in the last group) but it was very nice. My daughter got a lead crystal trophy for 10th place all around. It really was a beautiful event. We were in another meet (we...I mean she, just because it consumes so much of MY time....) this month, but I didn't get any pictures (bad lighting). We have sectionals next week. nothing like a little pressure!

crafty party!

This year for my DD's birthday we decided to have it at Michael's. She wanted to invite her gymnastics team, and over the course of the year there have already been pool parties, a bouncy house party, one girl had hers at the barn and the girls got to ride the horses, we wanted to do something different.

So the girls decorated tote bags (they had a blast but I never realized exactly how loud girls can get!) and when there was extra time the lady who worked there had several other projects they could do. My daughter said it was the best birthday ever.

instead of a traditional cake, I made a cupcake tree. I used the idea from the Wilton cupcake book to use star shaped cookies on a cupcake stand, and we iced them in pink. I made cake decorations and a birthday banner using my cricut. It was a lot of work, but it was afterall, the best birthday party ever!