A picture is worth a thousand words...

...or in my case, it's a perfect substitute for having nothing to write about and/or no time to write about anything.

So, my excuses appropriately made, time to move on to the pictures:

I found a great site for an artist who will custom-design lampwork bead sets for you and she really makes the cutest things. I bought this set with the idea of doing something for Ryan's teacher at the end of the year.

And then, as I shopped around her site, I came across these cute baby bugs:

Maybe they'll make a cute summer necklace or bracelet. I know, I normally think bugs are icky, too, but how can you resist those faces?

I was telling a fellow beader about the site and she went and looked and found this darling turtle bead set for herself:

Then, I loved my Clay River porcelain pendants and beads so much, that I had to go back to that site and pick up a few more things so I'd have enough materials to work with:

Continuing the porcelain kick, I picked up these pretty pendants from Marcia Neal:

And lastly, these darling "beach" themed clay beads from Earthenwood Studio:

I wouldn't be me if I weren't thinking of summer-themed jewelry in the dead of winter.

And, of course, just to prove that I do actually MAKE stuff with all the things I buy, here are a couple of recently finished pieces:

This pendant reminded me of the sun for some reason and I'm thrilled with the way it came out. I still have to design a necklace to hang it from, but in the meantime, I thought it was too pretty not to share it. It's especially nice that it's in a color scheme that I rarely work with - being that I'm more of a cool blue/green/purple kinda gal.

And then there's this poor disaster:

I was really happy with the cab and the bezel beading. Then I tried to do the edging...several times with several different designs and didn't like any of them. Finally settled on this design and finished it and then did the necklace and now I'm not happy with it at all. The edging design is still not right and I think I pulled the tension too tight on it because it seems to want to "roll" up on itself. The necklace doesn't have the right proportions of bead sizes and the clasp is the wrong color and size. I think this baby is headed for another round of re-do...just as soon as I figure out what the heck the RIGHT design is for it.

That's it for tonight. I promise a real post made of actual words and stuff soon. Honest. It's half-written...I just have to finish it. Which may not happen until next week as I am headed into a weekend of what can only be described as "birthday hell." Two parties to take the kid to on Saturday and then the kid's own party on Sunday.

At Chuck E. Cheese.

For 2 hours.

With 14 children (so far).

Note to self: stock up on Extra Strength Tylenol prior to attending party.

KJ

Currently listening to: "Truth No. 2" by the Dixie Chicks

P.S. I apologize for the spacing in this entry. I do actually know how to separate paragraphs appropriately and in a grammatically correct fashion, but for some reason, blogger.com has decided that those grammar rules do not apply tonight. I've fixed the spacing and re-posted this entry about 5 times now and it keeps reverting to being all smushed together. So, I am giving up the fight and going to bed.