Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Oh, dear...

Well, I was a bit wrong.

My fiance's grandmother passed away last night. It was not unexpected; her health has been deteriorating for a while. But it was sudden, and I am very, very sad.

But I shall be away only a week this time, not months. I promise.

Thank you for the well wishes. You people are beautiful. <3

Monday, January 30, 2012

Hello,

I have missed you!

We have run the gauntlet, but I think things are finally starting to look up. I have a job again. We did not lose the house.

It has been months since I made any jewelry. This is a sad thing.
I would like to get back into it.

I hope you are all well.

All my love. <3


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Thursday, July 21, 2011

Sugarbeads, Round 2!

Patty and I brought back quite a stash for ourselves from Sugarbeads earlier this month. Here I'm just finally getting around to sharing it. XD

Pretty pink opaline glass beads and seed beads
Although I am really not a "pink" person, something about these interesting beads kept drawing me back to them. Probably part of it is that I really love opaline glass. Patty got some of these seed beads as well; the price was just too great to pass up and look how lovely they are! They've also got a nice lining and are consistent in size and shape in a way I've never had seed beads before. I am so looking forward to using these in projects.

I love these bunches of grapes and brass leaves

I plan to pair these glass grapes with Lucite grape leaves. They will look lovely, I think. :3 And those brass leaves, just gorgeous.

Pretty Czech glass flowers

Ignore my poor choice of backgrounds on this one. XD Patty found these adorable violets and we both fell in love with them. I also like the pink flowers (pink again, what the freak?!?!) because they are center drilled. You don't see that a whole lot.

These little acorns are darling!
I fell in love with these tiny acorn charms. Again, I think they would look rather splendid with some Lucite oak leaf beads. I got a slice of amber for layering, and then these two gorgeous Czech glass nautiluses. I have some in light green and brown already, but these were darker and earthier and I just love that grungy finish. :3

Sugarbeads also carries my favorite enameled copper wire, so I stocked up on that, too. So far I've already started a pair of earrings with those pink opaline glass beads and some antiqued brass filigree. They are so lovely and remind me of vintage turn-of-the-20th-century jewelry.

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Unfortunately, due to the craziness and misfortune going on here, I am going to go dark for a little while longer. It would be nice if I could get blogging again next week; we'll see. I know I just got back, but some more misfortune has visited us and I need to deal with that and come back refreshed. I haven't been able to make any jewelry, aside from the above-mentioned earrings---even those are unfinished---so there's not really a whole lot to update with. I'm hoping things are going to start improving. Fingers crossed! I will miss you all again. :( I may still read your blogs and comment, I just won't be updating mine until further notice. Again, very sorry. <3

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Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Tickle Me Tuesday: Recaps, oh my!

What's tickling me this Tuesday? I'm still so happy I got to meet up with Patty in Connecticut at the beginning of July. :3 We went to Sugarbeads again (really, I could just live there among all those pretties...), but Patty brought out a huge surprise for me. A package!

For those of you who don't know, Patty is an extremely talented lady---not just with beads, but with paper, decorating, and quilting, too. She's been sharing a bunch of her beautiful paper crafts on her blog (here and here, for example). Never in a million years, though, could I have imagined such a beautifully decorated parcel. Here's a sneak peek:

An owly! And an Emerson quotation, too!


What treasures awaited inside?

Just look how beautiful!

Wrapping in book pages, so clever!
Do you see the owlies?! It was all I could do to keep from going SQUEEEEEE!!!
AND she added some of her beautiful etchings and these gorgeous pearls. <3

You can imagine how truly honored and happy I was to receive all of these magnificent lovelies. ^__^
We did both forget our cameras when we met at the shop (what a pair we were!), but I'll be sharing my stash tomorrow. (After I clean my bead table, of course... haven't worked on anything in so long, and so the space has a habit of collecting odds and ends.) Patty already shared her beautiful new stash here. She found some fabulous little Czech glass violet beads that I think we both ended up getting. :3

Ah, shopping for beads... so much fun, 
especially, but especially, with good company. :)

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Monday, July 18, 2011

Little update

I really didn't mean to be away so long. My computer got a bad virus and half the hard drive was wiped. I managed to save almost everything, but still, it's a horrible frustration. Now I've got Linux on my machine and it's been quite a challenge trying to relearn how to use this computer.

That's not even the worst of it, though. Things keep happening here, busy things, sad things. Our upstairs neighbors have been having a bad, bad time---their daughter was just diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease, and had to have several cancerous tumors removed. Her father was in the hospital visiting her and collapsed; they rushed him to the ER and he was diagnosed with severe kidney failure. He's doing better and has medicine now, and the poor girl is in good spirits despite the terrifying state of things with her right now. She's just had her first chemo and radiation therapy. My aunt was also diagnosed with a form of lymph node cancer; it is treatable but incurable, so even if it goes into remission it can come back again and again.

Sad news, sad news. There have been other things and issues as well, but these are the ones I will ask for prayers and well-wishes for. If you do pray, and you can spare a word for these poor, good people, I would be eternally grateful. <3

I'm hoping that things will start to get better from here.

I've missed you all so much. I want to give you all hugs. Getting my blog up and running again, and getting to read all your blogs again as well, is going to be at least one happiness back in my life.  <3 I hope you have all been well.

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