Weekend Wrap Up

Well, well, well. I guess it's been a tiny little while since I've last posted on my blog (this is also a little late, I should have posted it yesterday). I have no excuses except that life got really crazy. *Warning this is going to be a long post*

As I did mention in previous posts, my boss decided to leave the university and go into private practice. It was not a decision I wanted, but it was the decision he made and I didn't really have that much say in the matter.  That decision did mean that I would be loosing my job. My very beloved job in a lab that him and I started from the ground up. To say the least, it was a difficult time for me. I had to try my best not to be bitter or angry.

The worst part about it (okay, him leaving was the worst part), was that no one seemed to know when my last day was. I talked to three or four people and none of them could give me a straight answer. So I started to panic a bit. What if I just showed up and didn't have a job any more? It was more than a little nerve wracking to not know what was next.

But I pulled myself together, updated my already awesome CV, and applied for a few positions. I applied for four positions and got called back to three of them. I'll admit, I'm a little hurt I didn't get called back to all of them, but I'll get over that. And out of the three I got called back for, I was offered two (I turned down the interview for the third because I had already accepted a position, so I may have been offered that one as well). I accepted a position at the vet school with a new hire. It's not quite the same research I've done in the past, but it seems very interesting and I'm excited. I'm just moving down the hall from my old lab and closer to a lot of the people I know and work with on a daily basis. My first day is October 1st, so only a short while longer in my old lab. It does still make me sad that I'm leaving all the things I helped create behind and that the university is loosing a great researcher, but it's time to move on.

While all of this was going on, I was offered a part time gig teaching a continuing education class at Madison College. I will be teaching an Etsy intro class similar to the one I teach at the library. This one is a little more broad and doesn't cover quite as much, but I think it will be fun. My first class starts this week and I've been working my butt off to get my training done, my syllabus turned in, contacting everyone I need to, checking my class roster, and getting my actual class ready to go. It's been exhausting, but exciting. I can't wait to start. And yes, I will still be teaching at the library as well.

I've also been working on a number of custom orders for one of my best customers. I've finished up two more beaded cuffs and I started the design on a new bead embroidered gauntlet for him. These are the last of the projects for a while. I need the holidays off.

So those are a few of the reasons why I've been neglecting this blog. I'm going to try my hardest not to do it any more, but no promises. I do have photos of my new bead storage and few other projects I'd like to share this week, so don't forget to stop back. And if you don't see any new posts, go ahead and get on me for that. 

New Cuffs

So I've been a little lazy with the blog lately. Ugh, this always happens this time of year. I'm busy with all sorts of life things, that I forget to keep everyone else up to speed. I'm sorry.

So how about a few photos of some new cuffs. I've been going through all my old patterns and I'm finding a bunch of things that I've never beaded up. So my goal for the summer is to work up as many patterns as I can and get both the cuffs and the patterns up in my etsy shop.

So the first one is a butterfly cuff.  Obviously.

I had a client a few years back that wanted a butterfly bracelet, so we worked on a few different ideas. This was one of the rejected ides, but I still really liked it. So I worked it up and now it's up in the shop.

The second one, I really like.

This simple plaid pattern was made for a client that wanted just a little bit of plaid (about an inch on each side) on the edges of a bookmark. I liked the plain so much, I extended the pattern and made it into a full cuff and put it up in the shop. And look at that great button I pulled out of my button collection, perfect match. I'm in love with this and I think I might make myself one. I also think it would look great is other colors.

So that's what I've been up to. The patterns for both of these cuffs will (okay, should) be up by next week. And I'm hoping the share the photos of my awesome bead storage system with everyone by next week. Yay!

Weekend Wrap Up

Whoa, it's been a long time since I last time I wrote a blog post. What have I been thinking? What have I been up to? We've been busy, I think. Since J has finished school, I feel like we're constantly going but not really accomplishing much.

I bought two new lens, which is fun. I bought a new macro lens and I bought a telephoto lens. I've been practicing using them. I've also been working on my composition and my photoshop skills. Slowly buy surely I'll get good at this. :-)

I've been so busy with work because the fiscal year ended on June 30th. It's always busy this time of year. We have to get a bunch of things finished up before the new fiscal year starts. But now the new fiscal year started and we can get back to a little bit of normalcy.

Our 4th of July was okay. We were very busy and traveled all over to see friends We cooked out a lot and enjoyed the beautiful weather. We had a few bonfires and made delicious smores. It was nice to spend time with our friends. But it was exhausting and I'm actually glad to be back to the normal work week.

I did make a little bit of time for beads! I finished a new custom order. I'm so happy with it and I'm hoping my client likes them as well. I now have to work on a few new patterns and look up some bead colors. I also have a few new cuffs that I need to get photos of them and then get them up on Etsy.

That's about it. Not really all that exciting. A little bit of beadwork. A little bit of cookouts. A little bit of enjoying the weather. Not much other then that. What has everyone else been up to? I hope everyone had a good 4th of July.  

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Weekend Wrap Up

Another weekend gone and another week is starting.  Crazy.  This past weekend was the Superbowl, as I'm sure most of you know.  We did nothing for that.  We're not really into football, so we just stayed home and enjoyed the game in the comfort of our own house.  We also got a snow storm Saturday into Sunday, so we really didn't want to leave the house.  Well, we may or may not left the house for a beer run and some cheese for chili con queso, but those are things people can't live without.  ;-)

We also picked up our new treadmill.   

This way I don't have to go out in that snow to try and run.  Hey, we don't have sidewalks in our neighborhood and the streets are terrible (flooded with water all the time).  And now I don't have to convince myself to drive to the gym and work out.  It's pretty nice and I really like it (yes I've used it). 

And you can see  some future projects in the background.  We have an old dart board we want to restore and a Corona display that we want to spruce up for the bar area.  Hopefully this summer we'll work on those.      

And of course, I got some beading done.  Here is my current project (well one of them).  I worked on it while I "watched" the Superbowl.  I'm so excited for it and I can't wait to finish is, but I have a custom order that needs to get done by next week, so this one will be put on the back burner for now. 

What did everyone else do this weekend?  Go to a Superbowl part?  Stay home and ignored the game?  I'd love to hear. 

Finished, I think!

So my plan was to have some really nice photos of my new stuff, my mom's bead embroidered flower and my beaded tin.  But, I felt like crap this morning and barely made it into the lab.  And the only reason I did go to the lab was because I have a undergrad student on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, and no one else is crazy enough to be there at 7:30am.  So that's where I am as I write this. Which means no pretty photos of my latest pieces. 

I did finish my beaded tin.  I think.  I'm letting it sit for a while and see what I think of it.  I think I like it, I'm just not completely sure, this is the first one I've ever done.  

This is where I am right now (I promise I'll have better photos by the end of the week).  I think I like the top, but I'm still thinking about the sides.  What do you think?  Keep it, change it?  I'd love some constructive criticism. 

Weekend Wrap Up

Well another weekend has passed us by and another Monday is upon us.  The snow is falling in large flakes here today, but I don't think we're supposed to get hit with a lot, 1-3 inches.  It's quite lovely, but I'm still ready for winter to be over and warmer weather.

Anywho, this weekend was nice and relaxed.  J and I have decided we need to get a treadmill (who wants to run in the cold and snow), so Saturday we went and checked out our options.  I'm really hoping to get that in the next week or so.  It will be so nice to have something in the house.  And I'm already planning my treadmill laptop table, so I can walk while I do things like edit photos and write blog posts.  I'll keep everyone updated on that.

I also to a new little present for myself.

It's a stud press setter and I can't wait to use it.  It sets studs in leather, so that means I don't need to do it by hand anymore.  My hands are already thanking me because setting studs by hand is not a fun job.  Sometimes my fingers are so sore after, I can't even type on the computer.  So I'm pretty psyched about this.  Unfortunately, the studs I have are too large (even though the company told me they were 6mm studs), so now I need to find new 6 mm black studs.  Hopefully I can, but boy it sure is hard to find some.  If anyone knows of a place to find black pyramid studs in a 6mm size, let me know, I will be forever greatful to you.

  
On Sunday my mom, sister, and my two nieces stopped by.  It was a nice day to just get caught up and hang out.  I gave my mom the beaded flower I made for her.  She liked it a lot.  And J and I enjoyed playing with my niece.  This was also the first time we had seen the baby.  She was so tiny, yet little Yoda was terrified of her for the first few hours.  She got over it.

So that was my weekend.  What did everyone else do?  I'd love to hear about it.  

Weekend Wrap Up

Another weekend has passed and another Monday is here.  This past weekend was nice, nothing too exciting happening here.  J and I did some shopping.  J got a new coffee maker, which made him quite a happy boy.  We went to a friends house to watch the playoff games (the game did not end very well) an then celebrated their son's 5th birthday.  It was nice.

I have been working on a new beady project.  I've been working on my first beaded tin.  It's been pretty fun.  I decided to start with a small tin and then I would work my way up to a larger one.  Hey, we got a ton of tins laying around the house after Christmas, I had to find something to do with them.

 
Here was my first attempt.  I liked the beads towards the inside, but just wasn't feeling the rest of it.  Sometimes that's how it works.  So I ripped out most of it and started over.

I'm much happier with the second attempt.  The little glass flowers add some dept and are also pretty fun. 

This is where I am right now.  I've started beading around the sides.  I'm pretty excited to get this done.  I should be able to finish this little guy up soon and then it's one to a bigger project.  I've already started thinking about what to do next. 

But before I start on another tin I should really finish up this guy.  I'm working on it, I promise.

So what did everyone else do this past weekend?  I'd love to hear about it. 

Weekend Wrap Up

It has been quite a long time since I did a weekend wrap up.  I believe it was before Christmas, but I'm back to my normal schedule, so they should be regular occurrences again.  Maybe I should call this the holiday wrap up.  Let's go all the way back to before the holidays and see what I've been up too.

The holidays were good to me and the boy.  I got a number of gifts that looked like this.

 
I got five bottles of wine and a bottle of small batch whiskey.  Maybe I have a problem.  Oh wait, no, I like wine.  That's not a problem, that's just being classy. 

What else happened over the holidays?  I finished up a number of beady gifts.  They were all very well received.  I still have one more to give, but hopefully that will happen soon.

  This flower went to my MIL. 

And this one went to one of my good friends. 

There were five other ones, but I'll spare you all the photos right now.  I'll probably post some more later on.  Each one was made specifically for the person it was gifted too.  I had a lot of fun making them and plenty of them were a little outside my comfort box, but I think they all turned out pretty nice.

 
And after all that beadwork for friends and family, I decided I needed a little gift.  So, I made myself this pretty little brooch for my winter jacket.  I'm very happy with it. 

And lastly I made this little Oogie Boogie for one of J and I's good friend.  He's as big of fan of The Nightmare Before Christmas as I am, so I thought it was a nice little gift (we got him some other things as well). 

J is done with school.  As in, he's all graduated.  He now has his masters in mechanical engineering and all we have left is for him to walk the stage in May.  And because he's done with school, we got a bunch of things done around the house.  We did a lot of work on the family room so now it's a usable space for us to hang out.  We also got work done on my new studio space and I've been slowly moving in.  So I'll have some photos of that soon. 

Hmm, what else did we do over the holidays?  We spent a lot of time with family and friends.  We spent a lot of time together.  It was a nice little break, but now it's time to get back to the real world.  I'm hoping to get a new website up soon.  I'm hoping to get some new items in the store.  I'm hoping to improve my business.  All things that are possible. 

What did everyone else do over the holidays?  Did you travel?  Did you stay home?  What are you're plans for the new year?  I'd love to hear from you, the reader. 

Monday's Weekend Recap

Another weekend has come and gone and now it's Monday again.  And what a dreary, overcast, cold Monday it is.  We are supposed to get our first snow fall today and tomorrow.  Good news, I don't live in northern WI, were they may get up to 14 inches snow.  I'm not quite ready for that.  I'm not quite ready to get that winter coat out, but with the weather predicted for this week, I think I'm going to have to.  Blah.  Someday I'll live somewhere that it's warm.  Someday.

This wasn't that exciting of a weekend around here.  J had a lot of homework to do because his final presentation is coming up soon.  His group is the first group to present at the beginning of December.  That's great because he'll be done early, but it's very stressful for him to get all that done in such a short period of time.  I'm so proud of that boy and I can't wait to throw him a huge party this December when he finishes up his masters.  So exciting.

So what did I do this weekend?  Hmmmm.  I recalibrated my laptop battery.  It's an exciting life I live.  But what did I do that was beady?  

Well I finished up a guitar string bracelet that is off to it's new home in MD.  I love these bracelets.  I have a few myself and I love to wear them all stacked up on my arm.  They are a lot of fun and I hope it's new owner loves it as much as I do.

I also got a little bit more work on the large red leather gauntlet done.  I'm about 80% done with the studs and beadwork.  I would like to finish this up this week so I can get it glued by this weekend.  I'm excited to see this finished because it is the first gauntlet I've ever made.

I even got a little bit of time to work on my solar system project.  I started attaching the planets to the canvas and adding some paint.  So far I only have the sun attached, but I plan on working on this today, so hopefully I'll have a couple more attached by the end of the day.  This might be the most exciting project I've done in a while.  I'm in love.

So that's what I accomplished this weekend.  Tomorrow I'll have an update on the artist reception at Ebling Library.  That was a pretty neat event.

Till then, stay creative.

New Beady Goodness

I have been a busy little girl when it comes to beady things.  I have been busy at work on some custom orders.  I finished up this bad boy at the end of last week.

 I'm in love with this one.  I love the beadwork and I love the way the pyramids look on it.  I'm dropping it off with it's new owner tomorrow, so I hope he likes it as much as I do.  If not, I would be happy to keep it myself, even though it would never fit me.

Speaking of custom orders, I've been working on my first custom gauntlet (this is for the same person as the cuff above).  The first one is a simpler one; rows of black metal pyramids with a single row of seed beads between each row of pyramids.  I'm pretty happy with how this is turning out.  It's not the easiest to sew through this leather, but it's doable.  Now I'm just waiting on more pyramids to arrive so I can finish this.  I'm hoping to have all the beadwork and studs in by this weekend, so I can get it glued and ready to go by next week.  That's my plan for now.

And last, but definitely not least, is the work I've accomplished on my solar system project.  I finished the embroidery work on Saturn's rings.  I'm very happy with how this turned out and I can't wait to start arranging it on the canvas.  Not only am I going to reach my goal of finishing this before the new year, but I think I might just finish it a month early.  Woot, woot!

  
A quick reminder to all my American readers out there.  Get to the polls and cast your vote.  J and I are going after he gets home from work.  GO VOTE!

Weekend Wrap Up

Ugh, this was supposed to be posted yesterday, but I can't publish a post if I don't write it now can I.  And why didn't I write Monday's post?  Because I was taking advantage of yesterday's beautiful weather and painting the garage.  Exciting.  It really is great being a home owner.  That's how you spend the last beautiful day of the year, painting a garage.  Don't get me wrong, I love owning a home and I love doing DIY stuff, but yesterday would have been an awesome day to go for a bike ride or just sit on the deck and bead/read.  We did manage to get a walk in last night, so I did get to enjoy the weather a bit. ;-)

But let's move on.  What happened this weekend?  Well, Nacho is feeling better.  If you didn't read last week, Nacho had another abscess in less then a month due to fighting with Toonces.  You can read about it here and here.  And don't forget I'm having the Nacho sale again to help cover some of the vet bills.  Use coupon code NACHO20 to get 20% off anything in my etsy store.  That includes clearance and patterns. 

Hmmm, what else happened this weekend?  Oh yeah, I finished up all the beadwork on the solar system project over the weekend.  I am also about 85% finished with Saturn's rings, I should have photos later in the weeks of that.  I'm so happy with how it looks so far.  I haven't decided on arrangement and a few other things need to be added, but overall I think it's looking good.  We had some friends over this weekend and they said it was even more impressive in person.  So I'm glad it's getting such good feedback.  I think I might be able to meet my goal of getting it done before the end of the year.  Fingers crossed. 

I also got about 95% of this wonderful custom cuff finished this weekend.  Now I jut need to punch some holes in the leather and make a cotton ribbon for the closure.  I'm in love with the design and I'm loving it with the studs added.  I glued it yesterday, so tonight I should be able to put the finishing touches on it and get it ready to go to it's new home.  

And last, but not least, I practiced some embroidery stitches.  I've never attempted these types of leaves, so I thought I would give it a try.  I have a sweater that I love, but I put a very small hole in it.  So I used these embroidered leaves to cover up the hole and add a little interest to the sweater.  I learned a lot from these two small leaves and now I can't wait to try it out on some other projects.  

I also wanted to show off this great cat themed treasury that my Down the Rabbit Hole cuff was included in.  Check it out and all the kitty goodness.      

'THIS CAT IS OOAK!!!' by COSIMITA

♥ =^..^= ♥

Artist: Jack Babiloni / OOAK... UCRONIA $39	Boy Patchwork Placemat Break... iasio $23	THE SASSY CAT- ooak- Thick c... PenelopeMeatlo... $24	Little witch/ Home Deco Wall... Adushkas $200
Christmas eve igloo dress fr... NATIPUREIDEA $279	Love Cats OOAK necklace MetallicMuseCr... $200	Fanciful Felines on a Golden... LouAnnsdesigns $215	My Blue Nouveau Art Pin - OO... ApacheMoon $175
Down the Rabbit Hole - Bead ... ThreeFatesDesi... $225	Cuff Egyptian Setmet Cat BondsJewels $425	Purple Jade & Turquoise Cat ... LifeTravelsDes... $265	Funky handmade cat and deer ... PlanetNathalie $139
Here Kitty Antique Fork Ne... WoodsEdgeJewel... $85	Life Size Black Wire Cat Scu... PoppySeedCats $250	Cats & Kittens "Proud M... ACutAboveMemor... $275.24	Artist teddy bear cat, ooak ... ShabbyGoesLuck... $75

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