August Book Club: The Silver Witch

When I read the book club book for the month, it took me less than a day to do it. I picked it up and I was pulled in. Couldn't put it down!!!!

There was a ton of great visual stuff, but it took me wayyyyyy longer to come up with a project. That was probably also due to the fact that we were soon leaving for Montana when I read it, and we were also busy buying a new house.

Montana:

New House:

Yeah, we are kinda crazy like that....

So, thankfully I am a couple of books ahead, because now the kids are back in school, we are in the process of moving, I am back to my steady gig day in and day out, and I feel like I have no more energy to be creative at the moment. Did I mention the kids are also doing cheer and football three times a week??? 

#coachwifelife:

Hehehehehehehe (cue the deranged laughter...)

Anyhow- the in-person meetup was great. I had left the kids at the school open house with my husband that evening to run to my car, and flee the scene to book club. I think I left skid marks in the parking lot from pulling out of there so fast (probably inspired by the Bad Moms movie which coincidentally quite a few of us book-loving bead-stringing mommas went to go see one night...)

Bad Mommas:

Anyhow- getting back on track....

I am SO glad I did get out of school that night and that I didn't miss out on Shepherds Pie from Andrew, wine, ice cream, wine, and fun conversation. Oh, and did I mention wine???? Hahahahaha

We even had a real discussion about the book! Whoa!

So, here are my pieces:

Originally I was going to do my project based on 'Linny' the Land Rover, but that didn't pan out. So, I just happened to pick up this gorgeous piece at Beadfest Fall and I think it worked out perfectly.

Ok- it's pottery of a sort!!! AND the glaze on this is crystallized! So it looks like what I thought the lake would look like on a cold winter morning run around the lake. Pus, it's heart shaped. So, not too shabby for a love story too, right?

Btw- I did get into character by changing my sweater for an athletic topper, and I have no idea who took my picture of me faux-running in the shop that night, but you can use your imaginations... :)

I also made a necklace using Tibetan Quartz, Labradorite, and pearls which can be thrown on over the head. I also cannot wait to wear this one. LOVE the quartz.

And last but not least, I strung this incredible Maku Raku pendant on this cool $.49 neck wire for another fun 'pottery artist' inspired piece:

I picked the focal pendant up at Beadfest Spring and FINALLY did something with it. Yay!!!!

Lastly, I made this super long necklace one day when I was shopsitting, and I think it works well for the book too. It's got that 'dark magic' feel to it.

So yeah, I can say that I had a blast with this book. So much so that I have been busy reading some of the author's other books: The Witch's Daughter, The Midnight Witch, and The Winter Witch. 

All of which I highly recommend!

See you soon! L

Beadfest Philly Summer Edition!!!!

We headed out to Philly again last Friday for the biggest bead show of the year!!!!

First stop, Abigails!!!!

We got to Philly and the boys had sent us an SOS for coffee since they had driven through the night, so we grabbed them a whole box and smuggled it into the show in my bag!!!

Of course, we had to take the pre-requisite selfie once we arrived at the show!

And then we made our first stop, the boys! Of course!!!!!

They were really busy when we got there, so it was a quick hello and on to the show!!!!

Our second stop was at this booth that Alison had suggested. They were doing a show hop, where several artisans had planned a project that you pay a flat fee, pick out your components and assemble the project. SO COOL!!! And we had SO much fun!

After that, we shopped until we dropped. I wanted to take a nap sooooo badly! Look at my eyes!!! Dry and tired!!!!

It was 5 intense hours of beads, beads, beads. If you can dream it, it was there!!!

We did get to meet a lot of the artisans of the art bead section and it was a ton of fun! There are so many talented folks out  there in the world! One of our favorites is Candie Cooper. She does a lot of live videos on Facebook and is super excited about beading, and techniques and really cool projects. I'm not gonna lie, we did kind of stalk her, but it was worth it to put a face to our names and give her some love!!!!

Here was the one of us going to see the boys. We just HAD to re-introduce her!!!!

I think I still have some star struck-ness going on. She did a video on Sunday to wrap up the show and I kept commenting, go here, show this, the things you are finding are so cool, how did I miss THAT, hahahahaha! I think she thinks I am nuts! Maybe, but I love me some Candie!!!!

Anyways, I didn't get to go through my loot until Sunday. But when I did, of course I took photos!!!!

Here you go!!!!

And yes, I bought this amazing African basket! The lady was SO cool- she hid it at the bottom of her pile and when I came back to her booth several hours later, she was like- here, I hid it!!! So I HAD to take it home!!!! 

Here is my loot....

It doesn't look like a ton of stuff, but this is my 'I use this bag for traveling and toting my life around with me' and it is one of my favorite things EVER from The Black Bunny Boutique!!!

See what I mean??? That's a big pile of stuff to carry around all day!!!!

So here it all is, vendor by vendor. I won't bore you with details of why I chose what, and if you like what you see, all the contact info is on the business cards. Enjoy!!!!!!

(This was our art bead hop necklace)

Check out this cute little pumpkin from Marsha Neal Studios. 

These ceramic beads were purchased in hopes of re-creating a piece similar to this:

This is for book club & a surprise!!!!

Isn't this resin necklace amazeballs?????

Here is another view of the same bead

Look at this bag of yummy leather scraps!!!!!

Cannot wait for the Spring show!!!!!

Woo hoo!!!!

Also cannot wait for this move to get underway so I can set up my new bead studio and get creating. Stay tuned!!!

Just for fun pieces!

It's hard to believe that Beadfest Spring was in March and that we are heading back for the Fall show this week. 

I will be completely honest and say that I haven't quite used up all the goodies that I got at the Spring show and quite frankly have amassed some other pretty stunning strands, components and art beads. 

I meant to blog about those art beads actually, but never got around to it. (Probably because I don't want my husband finding out how much $$$ I spent LOL)

I am pretty crazy excited about the pieces in this post though. These two feature some of the strands that I got this spring and I cannot be more excited about how awesome they turned out.

This is the latest and greatest. It features these crazy cool rounded triangles that are the prettiest shade of a lightweight and lightly colored gray wood. 

The large black rounds are Lava. But they are smooth instead of the typical landscaper quality you usually see. And yes, they are super heavy, but when paired with the wooden beads, it balances out beautifully.

This piece slips over the head and there is constant movement as the triangles are always flipping around as you move.

The beads inside the triangles are some sort of agate and I am quite pleased that they fit in the holes of the triangles because I really didn't want the bead wire to show and I also didn't want to have to seed bead those inside wires either!

The second piece that I made features these incredible seashell rounds. 

I also used some sea glass, some ceramic blue tubes, some brass spacers, some art glass, and the prettiest turquoise amazonite rounds I have ever seen!!! 

I just adore this piece!

I also made another shorter piece that feaures and art bead ring (artist unknown) as well as an art bead clasp (artist also unknown).

I am pretty happy with the results!!!!

Late but not Never- Luna Moth Challenge Kit

I was on a roll in July.

I had a bunch of projects in the works- even some that I had finished completely. And then things came to a screeching halt!

I put my bead bag down and it didn't move for several weeks while the projects I had been working on waited patiently for me to return to finish them up.

Life has been moving at the speed of light for me. I liked to think summer would be hot and slow and it would be a 'sittin on the dock of a bay wastin' time' kind of summer. 

But nope. 

Here are my creations for Luna Moth. BTW, this kit was incredible. I LOVE the light greens and the hints of browns that this kit had.

This month I made a TON of earrings and a lot of them are using some hoops that I found at Michaels to give them some added glam. 

I have two more projects in the works as well. Here is one of them that features some African glass, pyrite chips and brass spacers. I am not sure if I want to make this a bracelet or make it the focal point of a necklace by adding some chain to it.

And here is my second piece that is still on the table. I know that I want this to be a necklace but I am not sure whether to add chain and call it a necklace or to add two strands of the blue seed beads that I used as spacers to make it a necklace.

Decisions decisions!!!

Of course the question will be: long or short? Haha! And I guess that choice will be made later when I decide to finish it!

What do you all think? I'd LOVE to know!