On the Newstands...

as I type... Creative Jewelry 2010 has been out for a few weeks now and I've just been slow to blog about it. Interesting situation with that publication, I submitted a few items for consideration (using my ceramic focals) and received a response back asking that I send in a few specific pieces from my website instead (unfortunately none using my ceramic focals). Regardless, I was happy to send those items and I have a bracelet and two pairs of earrings in the issue! The bracelet project is one of my favorites, comfy and fun...I can't wait to get it back! This publication might be the little push I need to get cracking on some new jewelry designs...

I was also excited to receive the wonderful white box from the Bead Trends folks with the July issue. As always, beautifully photographed and just a pleasure to see! There's a lovely feature on Marie of Skye Jewels in this issue.A necklace of mine made it in the issue- it uses one of my porcelain flower focals...must make some more of those little guys! I only have a few left and none with the little pincushion center, just stamens. I do make them on request though so if you'd like them in a particular color combo or style just let me know!

It's Somebody's Birthday...

Whose birthday is it? Sorry, shameless birthday week self-promotion but a coworker was dancing around singing this to me today (and brainwashing a classroom of children to do the same) and it is now stuck in my head! (The day job does offer a certain level of entertainment value) Oh, you noticed I said "birthday week"... well, yes, I happen to be a fan of a full week of birthday celebration and reveling (previously referenced coworker stated that "it's kind of like Hanukkah" when I told him that the hubster has been giving me little gifts- mostly chocolate- on each day). The official b-day isn't until Sunday so I need to milk the final days of my birthday week for all they're worth!

I have had a wonderful week of good birthday karma... First, a surprise package arrived in the mail, it was the stunning Williams and Sonoma Holiday Entertaining cookbook that I was lucky enough to win on Sarah's blog. Such a lovely and substantial book just filled with beautiful photos and entertaining ideas. I have already bookmarked several things to try out in the near future!Next was another surprise package, the wonderful white box that I have so anticipated in the past but since I didn't have my act together to submit things for a few months, hadn't seen in a while... my Bead Trends January 2010 issues and the return of my Zinnia Fling bracelet and earrings. I'm particularly happy about this set making it into BT as I had sent them off to another magazine under "tentative acceptance" (apparently) where they then languished for several months (yes, months) before being sent back to me with the equivalent of a "It's not you, it's us" Dear John letter. Despite my concern post-rejection that the set really wasn't as great as I had thought it was, I decided that my ego wouldn't be that much more bruised if I received another magazine dissing so I sent it to BT with my fingers crossed. Thank goodness they liked it because in retrospect my ego probably wouldn't have taken another rejection very well!Let me enthusiastically suggest that you take a look at the issue so you can see the pieces in their properly photographed glory (actually thinking about it now it's a miracle they asked to see the pieces from these photos I have!).

Finally, to wrap up my birthday week mail surprises, I received some gorgeous seed bead work from Marcie of La Bella Joya who has been working on samples for me using my designs as cabs. I promise to have photos soon!

Now I leave you with a little eye candy from Joy who put a creative twist on one of my Sari pendants by doing a little artistic inking to highlight the design further. Thanks for sharing, Joy!

Bead Trends Winner

Congratulations to Pam Ferrari who was lucky comment number 12 as chosen by random.org! (sorry for not having the screenshot pic, I'm having mental technical difficulties this evening)

Pam said:
5 THINGS I LOVE
My Hubby
My children
My grandchildren ( I guess I should of said family)
Sitting at the torch making beads
My Garden

Pam, send me a note with your snail mail address and I'll get the August BT issue out to you! I don't think I posted a picture of the Aurora Borealis Necklace I made the other day. I haven't had a chance to post any of them on the website yet - eek! I've had family visiting and between zipping around to various destinations and recruiting them into providing extra labor to complete tiling my kitchen backsplash, it's been a busy week. A little clay work should be on the menu for tomorrow though so I'll need to be extra productive.

Finally, Happy Birthday to hubster, I won't say how many years... I made super chocolate cupcakes with fluffy peanut butter frosting- mmmm :)

Missing in Action...

(Maple earrings that I still need to put online despite their completion months ago...)

A few weeks ago this could have described my creative inspiration but now it's just referring to me! I love that I have made a few webfriends who emailed to check in on me after a few days of no blogging and absent email responses :) All is well and I was just off visiting family for a few days. It was quite a change having only a few minutes of internet access each day!(Peach earrings I still need to put online despite being finished months ago... sensing a theme here?)

I have been home for a day (which I spent at day job) and my parents will arrive this afternoon for a week long visit- so, just enough time to clean the house up, wash the pupper, and inflate the Aero bed! It's actually going to work out well since I didn't have much time to spend with them while I was back visiting as we had lots of details to take care of from my father in law's death in March.

On a completely different note (or rapid topic change) I'm quite excited that the final addition to my grown-up furniture purchases arrived yesterday. We had the same sofa, chair and dining room table for over 10 years and none were what I would describe as high quality furniture! We finally decided that we are adults and deserve furniture that doesn't look like it belongs in a dorm room. So now I have a lovely chocolate brown leather sofa and chair and a "real" dining room table in a rustic style with a beautiful espresso finish. Not to mention, after two years of moving in I now actually have something on the wall above the sofa! There are still many empty walls we haven't jumped into putting things up on but that will come...eventually...
Thank you to Maire who awarded a blog award to me while I was MIA! She posted a very thoughtful list of 5 things she loves and passed the task along to 10 other bloggers. My list might not be quite as introspective, I'm still on the sleepy side! Let's see... I better start by saying that I love my husband (and the pupper), especially since I recently discovered that he stalks my blog to find out what my "alter ego" is up to! I love the amazing things that I'm able to see in nature- the hummingbirds that visit my flowers each day, the squirrel that has started creeping across my patio, the hawks that were in the tree outside my bedroom window and so on. I love the feeling I get when I see a piece of jewelry someone has made with one of my pendants (even more so when it's in a publication)! Fortunately, I love my day job and get to be rewarded by it every day I work. Last, but certainly not least, I love the connections I've made with my jewelry and bead making webfriends :) I'm happy to say that I could easily continue this list for pages so I love that I have so many things I love! Oops, that's 6 things!

Now to reward those of you who were patient enough to read all this "blather" (to quote my father in law), a little contest, whoo hoo!! I have an extra copy of the August Bead Trends magazine and would love to send it to a good home. Rather than passing along the blog award that Maire gave me, since I'd probably end up hitting people who have already participated, leave a comment on this post with 5 things you love to be entered for a random drawing for the magazine. I'll give extra entries for blogging and/or tweeting about this giveaway too.

Good luck and I look forward to hearing what you love!