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!

I really need to get better at this!

Am I the worst blogger there is? I seem to be sort of posting impaired. I suppose it's because I have just so many irons in the fire...after all, I'm sewing, I'm making jewelry, I home school 3 kids.

I recently entered a contest in which you were supposed to make a snowflake out of wire and decorate it with crystals or pearls. I haven't heard who the winners are yet, but since no one has contacted me yet my hope is flagging (just a little)

So here is a picture of my entry, for you to see, and if there is a chance to vote on it, I will post that here too. I have also been working on a "Twilight inspired" charm bracelet for a swap I am doing. I really want to post it, but I am afraid my swap partner might check here (sorry Debbie, NO pictures of it here ;-)

I apologize if you tried the link I had to Wire sculpture.com last month. apparently I forgot the .html at the end.

As promised, here are some new pictures of what I've been working on. some of the plain stones I bought are just so pretty it's hard to use them...I have to come up with a piece that does them justice, you know!

Anyway, here is the link to the wire sculpture tools I was talking about. While you are there, check out Dale Cougar Armstrong's book

Wirework: An Illustrated Guide to the Art of Wire Wrapping

It is well worth the price! I have a few variations I have done with projects in the book and I find the instructions are easy to follow, and the pictures are really helpful.

TTFN!

never a dull moment!

This weekend my daughter has another meet. The home meet is never my favorite, because we have to work it (last year my husband did video for all five sessions) and I put in hours making notebooks for them to sell.

At least this year he is only doing set up, and I am doing once session of selling at the leo store. I'm patiently (okay, impatiently!) for a shipment to come in so I can work on some birthstone sets. We have another meet next weekend too!

Is it really 2010?

I'm not sure where last year went, but it really flew by! I haven't updated my blog in a while...my hard drive crashed and we had to get a new computer. At any rate, I hope everyone had a nice Christmas.

Ours was green, although I think everyone else on the East Coast was buried in snow.

Well, now that the holidays have settled down I have been getting ready to work on some more jewelry for my etsy shop. I found this great website that has a free videos and wire wrapping patterns. They also have a very nice selection of supplies and beginner DVD courses available, as well as a great selection of tools.

As soon as I figure out how to get pictures into my new box, I will share some of my new work.

Happy new year!
Valarie

Here's another picture of Mushi mushi. Is he lovable, or what?

Meet Mushi-Mushi. Unfortunately, Cinders didn't get along with the dog...after she launched the 4th of many sneak attacks that left Jam bleeding, we decided she just had to go.

We took our dog to the shelter with us to pick out another cat, and Mushi was "the guy". He loves Jamie (we say he likes his women tall dark and hairy) and he loves to get attention (of course he has wanted attention at 3 AM the last two nights, what's up with that?) but so far he's a great cat.

Winter has finally arrived at our house. My dog acted like she needed to go out potty, but she just wanted to go have a good roll in the snow. I guess this weather just brings out her husky side.

what are you making for the holidays?

I admit, it's later than I think. Here's the thing though, I started my holiday planning early this year, so I'm not nearly as behind on my holiday crafting as I *usually* am for this time of year (Christmas is approaching like a speeding train though!)

I have mentioned a website called "you can make this" before, and I wanted to mention they are doing a series of videos of frugal and quick gift ideas (and maybe a little decorating too)

at any rate, you can find the website here, and the blog with the videos here. If you sign up for their newsletter they have a lot of fun free patterns too. I love the 18" doll sized patterns.

So there's my little infomercial about YCMT, If I can get my camera functioning, I will try to show some pictures of what I have been up to lately.

-Valarie

I got into a fun swap on the cricut boards. you had to make two cards, two titles, two accents, two journal tags and some other random smaller accents. we also had to add two candy bars, and some brads or other fun embellishments. I di one for fall, and one for Halloween

Here is what I got back. I can hardly wait for the next one, which will be for winter and Christmas.

Meet Cinders

Recently we had a cat show up at our house. while we have feral cats all the time, but this one came right up to us! My husband, a long time advocate of "cats are okay for others, but I don't want any" was melted when it rubbed up against his leg.

He decided we should let the cat become a house pet (and an indoors pet) lest it become coyote chow. So anyway, here she is!

more fun crafts

The boo bag was a big hit with the kids. The little boy plays with my kids and he nudged his big sister and said "ask her" she then asked if we sent the bag. Of course, I was evasive..."what bag?" and they proceeded to tell me all about it. They probably know we did it, but hey, it was fun anyway.

So I promised more crafts. If you ever wanted to try dyeing wool yarn, check out this link. I HAD to try it, so I used Patons winter white (do not get the kind that says "superwash") and after it was dyed, I felted it. I think I'm going to make potholders or something, maybe a table trivet. I used four packets fruit punch koolaid for the red (I could have gotten away with 3, it didn't absorb all of it, and none of it washed out) and four packets of pink lemonade koolaid for the pink. I left a healthy space in between so I would get some white too.

Halloween is on its way!

If you go on over to the graphic depot, you will see the trapezoid printable I created using Roxanne's great graphics. There will also be a "boo" set available soon, if you want to surprise your friends and neighbors with this fun tradition.

The bag was stamped before I added the graphics and filled it. This set will probably be in the store very soon!

Along with that note, there are some great pumpkin (as in really cute pumpkin, not Charlie Browns "GREAT PUMPKIN") earrings in my etsy store. My kids are getting into the "spirit" of things too, we have been decorating the house, and getting ready for my mom's visit later this month. I sure hope my neighbors don't know I have a blog, LOL

I'm a designer!

Okay, I've long thought of myself as a designer of many things, but my "new thing" is designing printables for The Graphic Depot. You can find them at http://thegraphicdepot.com. I'm really excited about it, because Roxanne has some really cute graphics on her site. go check them out!

I'll be sharing more as I finish some.
Valarie