Treasury - Chartreuse and Plum

Chartreuse and Plum Treasury

Check out this beautiful treasury, Chartreuse and Plum, created with two of my favorite colors.  Oh how I love green and purple. 

*This is a little late for my weekly treasury, but we still are internet less at home.  Hopefully by Wednesday it will be up and running.  But until then I'll have to get quick posts in at work when I have time.*

Finished!

Here it is, my first ever beaded vessel.  It's not much, only a few inches high, but I'm pretty excited about how it looks.  I didn't follow a pattern I just picked up some beads and an idea, and went.

And though I did have a lot of fun working on this.  I'm going in a little bit of a different direction with the beaded vessel idea.  I'm currently working beading around a little bottle I have.  I'm about 5 hours into it, and only about half done, so this new project is taking a tad longer then the little vessel above did, but oh well.

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On  a side note, J's show was great on Saturday.  It was a wonderfully fun outside show with a little humid weather, but still pretty fun.  I'm so proud of him and all the rest of the guys.  Great job guys!

And on another side note, are internet is down at home since the last big storm, so I won't be able to post as much as I would like too.  I have my phone, but it's almost impossible to upload pictures on that thing and we don't get 3G coverage at our house, so the internets are pretty slow.  Hopefully J will have everything up and running soon. 

Day Three Preview

Day Three

Well I've been working on my little beaded vessel and here is my day three preview.

It's actually starting to look like something.  It's a couple of inches tall, yes he's a little guy.

So far I have been able to make it flare out a little bit and then bring it back in.  I'm pretty proud of myself with this.  I really wasn't sure how it was going to look.

I have a little bit more to do before I can call it done.  I would like to bring it in a little bit more at the top and then flare out once more, but in a different way.  I'm not going to try to attempt to explain what's rolling around in my head right now, no one would understand my crazy rambling, so I'll wait until I try it to show you. 

The herringbone stitch is really pretty easy to work with, so I will be taking that in consideration for future vessel projects.  I think I might try peyote stitch next and then RAW.  But I guess I better finish this one before I start with my next project.

Silver and Gold Freeform Cuff - Finished

Well I was going to post new pictures of day three of my beaded vessel. I know what happened to day two, I just didn't get pictures taken.  I was excited to get more work done on it, you can't blame me.  So I packed up everything so I could go outside at lunch and snap a few pics of my progress.  But that plan came to a screeching halt when I got to work only to realize the point and shoot's battery was dead and I didn't have a charger.  Booo, but wait, I did have the computer cord, I'll just charge it through my computer.  It will take a little longer, but should work.  No, no, my computer isn't even recognizing that the camera is plugged in, so I guess a progress report is out of the question.  But I promise to get some pictures tonight before I start working on it a bit more.

Finished Free Form Cuff

But I don't want to not post any pretty pictures.

Here is the final outcome of my free form cuff.  As you may remember I wasn't sure if wanted to embelish this cuff or leave it as it was.  Now I got a lot of feed back both on the blog and on Facebook, so I decided to leave it be, sort of.

I changed out the button.  Not that I didn't like the button before, I just wanted something a little different.  I took the center part out of the button and created my own button.  I used a dark blue swarvoski bicone to hold the button in place and then created a little bead garden around it with the silver and gold seed beads and those great vintage beads.

Old Button

Here's a crappy phone picture of the old button.  It was nice, but just not what I had in mind.

I'm pretty happy with this outcome.  I like how the new button toggle really finishes the piece.  It brings everything together and it's kinda fun.

This is my entry in the August EBW challenge Silver and Gold.  I wasn't missing out on this challenge.  So I got my challenge piece done early and got the pictures done as soon as I stitched the last bead.  No more lazy me.  I'll post something as soon as I get it listed (see I still might miss the deadline) and I'll post a link when voting starts.  I know I'll be up against some stiff competition with my simple free form cuff.  But I'm happy with my entry.

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And just because I wouldn't be a very good GF if I didn't say anything.  J and the guys have a gig this Saturday in Madison.  They will be at Legends Sports Bar & Grill on the west side.  It's free cover and $1 beer and brats.  Check out their facebook page for more info.  If you like ska and live in Madison, you better be there.

Also they have T-shirt preorder going on right now.  If you want a shirt get me or one of them the info by Thursday. 

So as promised before, I said I was going  to try structural beading.  Here is my first day of beading.  It's pretty small, not even an inch tall at this point, well it is now because I've worked on since I took this picture. 

My plan is to flair it out a bit and then bring it in a little bit.  Just a little beaded vessel.  So lets hope that idea will work.

This little guy is in herringbone but I would like to try different stitches (peyote etc).  Then I can decide if I like doing this and in what stitch I like doing it in the most. 

So stay tuned for more pictures of my progress.  I'll try to keep up on regular and I'll try to keep up the nice pictures instead of reverting back to using my crappy phone.  ☺

My Secret Garden

Close up of the secret garden cuff

So last month I was posting pictures of my daily progress of my newest bead embroidery cuff.  Then nothing.  I finished it and I never ever got around to posting the finished results.  Well that was because I was too lazy to get out my camera and light box, see earlier story.

So this morning I decided enough was enough.  I had a collection of items that needed to be photographed and I wasn't going to wait until the pile got overwhelming.  So out with the camera and light tent.

This cuff was supposed to be for the EBW July challenge, but I didn't get it done in time.  I probably shouldn't have waited until a week and a half before the deadline to start.  But better luck next time, right?!?  The theme was secret garden and this was my interpretation.

Front side of the secret garden cuff

I'm really enjoying bead embroidery.  It makes me happy and I'm able to embellish and what not more then with peyote.  And to think a few years ago I said I would never ever try bead embroidery again.  That just taught me to never jump straight into a huge project the first time I try something. But I digress.

I used a combination of Toho bead mixes as well as bead mixes I made myself for this cuff.  I also got out my charm stash I've been collecting for years.  There is a little pewter frog and turtle in this secret garden as well as a bright purple butter fly and little birdies.  I added little pops of color with orange, purple, and yellow seed beads (these are supposed to be flowers).  I ordered a mixed bag of cat eye cabs with my last bead order and I threw a few of those in there too.  Hey it's a secret garden right, I can add what ever I want to it.  ☺  I then finished it off with some nice brown leather and snaps.

This is a pretty good sized cuff, but I love them that way.  It's like having a little piece of art on your arm.  And I do have to say this cuff really seemed to get a lot of people attention at the art shows I brought it too.  Everyone picked it up and told me how much they liked it.  So I'm glad others like it as much as I do.  So like I said, hopefully I actually get to enter my next challenge piece and I won't miss the deadline.   

Secret Garden Cuff

Too Embelish, or Not

I have finally finished my free form bracelet.  I'm still not super excited about it, but I do have to say it's better then what I expected.  While I was working on it, I kept thinking it looked like it was a fish.  I'm not sure why that was stuck in my head, but I was convinced the bracelet looked like fish scales.  But now I don't really feel that way. 

I finished it off with some fringe around the borders and the with a button I've picked up along the way. 

I do love the black beads in this bracelet.  I received them from my aunt, well she's not really my aunt, but that's what I've always known her as.  She is a professional organizer, so she's always sending me little treasures.  These were a nice little surprise.  I found a little bubble envelope in my mailbox one day and all that was in it were these beads.  I fell in love with them immediately and I've been adding them to projects here and there.  They're very pretty little imperfect hex beads with a AB finish.  Just beautiful.

So at least I love one part of this bracelet.  Now I have to decide if I want to do some more embellishments or leave it as is.  This is going to be something I'll have to think about, so I'll get back to you with that answer ;)

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On other bead news, I've decided I want to try......now wait for it........sculptural beadwork.   I know really, you want to try and make a little basket or vase out of beads, are you crazy?  I just feel like I would really like to push myself and give this a try.  I'll make something little to start (unlike the first time I tried bead embroidery and then I didn't want to pick up an embroidery project for years after that, but I digress).  So stay tuned for crappy iphone pictures of my progress with this new project.         

Too Busy or Too Lazy

I haven't been posting a lot of beady goodness lately and I can't decide if it's because I've been too busy or if I've been too lazy.  I have a few new pieces that I would like to get posted, but just haven't been able to get the pictures taken.  Or is it because I don't feel like dragging out all the camera and photo tent crap?  It could be that second one.  I just don't want to go into the back room to get anything right now.  If the first thing you saw right now was our extra bedroom, you would think, "a hoarder lives here."  It's that bad.  But I do have to say, the majority of it is my stuff for shows; tables, canopy walls, boxes, etc, etc.  So I know once that goes away for the season, I'll have a much cleaner room, and I'll actually want to go in there and get my camera stuff out.  But until I get up the courage to do that, I guess I'll just keep telling myself that I'm just to busy to get pictures taken ;)  Yeah, lets go with that.

Free Form Bracelet, to keep it or not? That is the question.

But anywho, I have been pretty productive.  I have a number of triangles finished, as well as last months challenge entry (yup, didn't enter it because I didn't get pictures in time), and a bracelet for myself.  I'm also in the middle of a new project.  I'm trying my hand at free form again, but it's just not going very well for me.  I'm just not sure if I'm happy with it.  But I told myself to finish it and then decide.

So,I've finished the bracelet, now I'm just working on beaded fringe.  I do have to say that I might just be coming around.  I'll see when it's all done.  And I promise that I will force myself to get that damn photo tent out and get pictures of this bracelet as well as all the other items I have piling up.

New Business Card Design

I have also been working on new business cards.  I am almost out of my old ones already, so I thought it was time for a new design.

My old cards are just a generic business card.  They are colorful, but not me.  They just look like any other card, and I'm sure a lot of other people have the same design.

So I decided I would make my own design based on one or two of my favorite pieces.  And this is what I've come up with.  So far I'm pretty happy with them.  I'm still making a few tweaks here and there and working on a small idea that J had that I think will really make the cards pop, but this gives you a good idea of what they will look like.  I'm also playing with font a bit.  I am struggling to make a decision between these fonts or another pair.  Hopefully I'll be able to make my mind up soon because I would like to have the cards ready for Craftacular in August.  Let's just hope I can keep myself motivated to sit at the computer long enough to finish these babies up.

Check out these...

Great New Treasuries

Creativity in WI

Red Hot Orange

Fleur de Lis

July Challenge Time

It's time to vote for your favorite entry in the EBW July Challenge.  This month's challenge was secrete garden, chosen by  Ileana of EnchantedBeads.  Please stop by the EBW Blog and vote today.   

My First Treasury and Then Some

After yesterday's picture of Yoda with her tounge out, I thought I'd stick with a pug theme.

I've been on etsy for a few years now and have never made a treasury.  I'm not really sure why, I guess in a way I was a little frightened by the idea.  But I decided to just get over it and go for it.  So without further ado, I give you my first treasury.  It's all pug themed.

My Puggy Picks by Three Fates Design

Now I'm sure the cats would be offended that I did a treasury with all my favorite pug themed items, but oh well, they'll just have to get over it.  

I really enjoyed making this treasury and have already started on my next treasury, and no it's not animal themed.  Please check out my 1st treasury by clicking on the picture above.  Come on how could you not love a pug?

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I would also like to thank JulieBJewels for including my Blue Guitar Cuff in this wonderful treasury, My Favorites!  Please check out this great treasury and all the great items in it.   

My Favorites By JulieBJewels

Happy Friday!

Sorry for the picture quality

I have the next couple of weeks off.  Well sorta.  I don't have an art show for a few weeks and our friends just had their baby boy, so J's band has a little hiatus for now.  We finally have some down time that we can just relax and maybe catch up with some things around the house.

I finally got around to using the gift certificate I got for my birthday, back in April.  I bought two really great books.  It was so difficult for me to pick just two books, but I finally made my choice.

One of the books I bought was Seed Bead Fusion by Rachel Nelson-Smith.  I love this book.  The projects are so colorful and creative.  I've just been drooling over it since it's arrived.

So since this is my "vacation" time, I thought I would work on something new.  I really love the cuffs in Rachel's book, so I'm working on one that is inspired by the book.

 

I know it's an awful picture.  For some reason I decided to leave the real camera at home today so I snapped a quick pic with my phone.  I tried to clean it up in photoshop, but to no avail.  But you get the idea from the picture.

I love RAW (right angle weave).  It's one of the first stitches I learned.  It's just so pretty and can take on so many looks when just altered a little bit.  I've even started using it to make three dimensional items.

So one of the bracelets in the book is RAW and the little circles are filled in.  Now I've filled RAW with crystals and pearls and etc, etc.  But I just love how the little holes look with little seed beads.

I altered the project a bit.  The base is a bit different and I'm not filling in every row.  I like the more open look as well as I may have used to thick of thread to be able to go through the beads that many times, but we'll go with I like the open look as the main reason :-)

I'm really happy with how it looks and  I can't wait to finish it up so I can wear it.  I don't really make myself that much lately, so this is kinda a little present to myself.  A new sparkly bracelet.  I'm hoping to finish it tonight and get pictures soon.  I know I'll be wearing it as soon as it's finished.  And if you're looking for a good book to inspire you're bead work check this one out (no this is NOT a paid endorsement, I'm just really happy with my book).

I also missed the deadline for the EBW challenge, but I should have pictures of my cuff that was intended to be included in July's challenge.

And I also want to remind everyone to vote for Beads of Courage at the Pepsi Project website, the link is on my side bar.  This is a great program that helps kids with cancer.  To find out more about it check out their blog and vote today!

My little garden

I thought I would take a break from my normal posts today.  I'm still pretty tired from this weekend and I feel like I have so much catching up to do, that I need a little break. 

I thought I'd share some pictures of how my garden is doing.  We rent right now, so I have a little (very little) potted garden.  I only have a handful of things growing this year, but I can't wait for harvest time. I also can't wait for us to get a house.  I have a huge list of plants I will be growing in my raised garden beds.  But I must wait until we're ready for a house. 

I have a number of herbs growing.  I have green onions that are doing great.  They also have a really nice kick to them.  I'm growing oregano, one of my favorites.  It's really doing well.  Then I have one basil plant that made it.  It's getting big, but I noticed yesterday a bug had discovered it and was going to town on it, I just can't have that.  I also have garlic chives and cilantro.  My chives are going crazy, but my cilantro isn't doing so great this year.  It only grew a few inches tall and has started to bud already.  I'm a little sad, my cilantro grew huge last year.  But what can you do.

Tiny Roma Tomatoes

I have a wonderful tomato plant that is doing much better then last years.  Last year I grew roman candle tomatoes, this year I'm growing Big Mama Romas.  I've read good reviews on these tomatoes, so I'm pretty excited to eat them.  They are supposed grow to 5 inches long (huge for a Roma).  I guess I'll wait and see.  My little tomatoes are still tiny.  But the plant is growing like crazy.  Now lets just hope I don't get tomato blight like last year (a bad case of it went through WI last year).  I was pretty devastated when my plant grew big and then just completely died on me.  So fingers crossed that this plant makes it.    

Ginormous Jalapenos

I also decided to grow a hybrid jalapeno plant this year.  They are Jalapeno Gigante.  If you click on the picture on the right you can see how huge they are already.  And no that is not the green pepper plant, those are baby jalapenos.  I really can't wait for these babies to mature.  As you can see, there is a large veggie theme going on here.  That's what happens when I bring J to the nursery with me.  I end up with crazy hybrids. 

Green Peppers

I also have a small green pepper plant.  It's pretty small, but there are a number of peppers on it already.  This is just your typical green pepper plant, no crazy large green peppers for us.  I love green peppers, so I can't wait to get some nice ones to make stuffed peppers with.  Mmmmm, yumm. 

Like I said, I have a list of plants I would like to do, but need to wait until we have a house.  But I do know that I will be planting lettuce next year if we have a house or if we're still renting.  That I'm sure of.  I would also like to plant some cucumbers, but I'm worried little Yoda will eat the plants.  Yes she loves to eat my garden, that's another reason why everything is in pots.  Naughty little Yoda.

So that was a quick tour of my three plant garden.  It's not much, but we definitely enjoy our "harvest" every year.          

The Holiday Weekend Is Over

New Set Up - July 3rd

Now It's time for a Holiday.  I'm exhausted, completely exhausted.  I had two art shows this weekend.  The first on was on July 3rd in Columbus, WI and the second on July 4th in Monona, WI.   

It was a lovely weekend, a little bit on the hot side, but at least it didn't rain.  I was warm, very, very warm.  J had to go lay down in the car for a while.

I tried a new set up that I really think I liked.  I had a large opening to be able to walk around the tables to talk to people and make sales.  I also got myself a folding stool so that when I did sit, I wasn't hiding behind all the table.  I worked on a few projects while I was at the shows, so even my down time was productive. 

I de-cluttered my tables and hung up all my overstock on some white pegboard behind the tables.  I liked how it added color to the booth and made it easy to grab items to replace sold items. 

De-cluttered Tables

I sold a wonderful brown and orange beaded necklace to a wonderful woman who had a class reunion that night.  She bought it to go with a new top she had just purchased, and it matched perfectly.  I hope she had wonderful reunion and I'm sure she had the best jewelry there ;)

I also sold a few small cuffs.  So this weekend was a huge success in my book.  I got my name out there and I sold some beadwork to some lovely people.  I only have a couple more shows this summer.  I'll have to step up my game a bit next year and do even more shows.

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On a side note, J's gig at Summerfest went great.  He said they had a nice size crowd and they sounded great.  I wish I could have been there, but alas I had a show.  I'm so happy that he had that wonderful show and I hope there will be many more.