Holiday Weekend Bead Porn

Y'know, if I was like, all organized and stuff, I would've collected a bunch of red, white and blue beads and other patriotic stuff to post today.

But I'm not all organized and stuff.

In fact, I am the antithesis of organization. So, no flag-waving beady stuff today. Just regular beady stuff.

But first, a few tidbits from around the house.

Kid's latest quote: "Mom, I'm tired. I think it's due to the exotic heat."

Ummmm....huh? Exotic heat? WTH? Where did he pick up that little nugget of vocabulary? Not to mention - it hasn't even been hot here yet. We don't get real summer weather until after the 4th at least. We get what is locally known as "June Gloom." It's a heavy marine layer of fog and mist that hangs about the coastline most days. SOMETIMES it burns off for a few hours in the middle of the day, but it always rolls back in again in the late afternoon/early evening.

But anyway, my point is, no heat. And certainly no "exotic heat."

In crabby news (since several of you tell me that you just LIVE for crab updates) - Rocky and Summers have been "missing" for about a month now. I was pretty sure that Rocky was buried under the food dish and we guessed that maybe Summers was buried under the water dish, but anyway, there'd been no sign of them since the last time I posted about them.

Then, finally, yesterday morning, a hole appeared next to the food dish so we shined a light into it and there was Rocky, hanging out. At this point, I was still thinking Summers was under the water dish.

Got home last night and a whole bunch more sand had been disturbed, but Rocky was still under the food dish. Ryan finally found Summers hiding behind the rock cave. He was hard to see because his shell was all covered with sand - turns out he'd been buried beneath the food dish WITH Rocky all this time.

VERRRYYYY mysterious. We don't know what they were doing down there (and it's not what your thinking because they don't do that in captivity so get your mind out of the gutter!). Did they both molt together? Was it just a crabby vacay? They just wanted to ditch Talky for a month? A food strike? I dunno. Crabs are weird, apparently.

Okay, on to the beady goodness:

Gorgeous indigo patinated chain from MissFickleMedia. I already used some of this in my "Heart of Midnight" necklace.

Twisted aqua chain, also from MFM.

Yeah, I'm not addicted to Shannon's stuff. Really. I can stop any time I want to.

Except...when she makes stuff this awesome...why would I want to?

Gorgeous dyed silk ribbon from JodyPoesy. This one has a sparkle thread running through it. Almost like glitter. And you know how I LOVE the glitter!

There's really only one problem with all this stunningly delicious ribbon. It's SOOOO pretty, I'm kind of afraid of it. I soooo don't want to mess it up or waste any of it. And just try taking a pair of scissors to cut a piece off...g'head...I dare ya. Even after I measured like 25 times "just to be sure" it still felt painful.

And yet? I keep buying more - because who can resist the COLORS? Not me. Maybe I'll just end up the owner of the world's largest unused collection of delicious ribbon? Maybe the people from Guinness will call me?

I'm all about the carved stone flower beads lately. I've been buying them in all different shapes, sizes and colors. These are dyed ruby jade and come from Uncommon Beads.

These are a lighter pink and different shape. Also, they are carved from dyed shell rather than stone. Also from Uncommon Beads.

Carved coral flowers. I already used some of these in my "Painted Desert" necklace.

Fuchsia jade "cherry blossoms." I am in love with these and can't wait to use them in something.

This unusual poly clay bird charm is from MenagerieStudio. It's meant to have that "shabby chic" look of antique wallpaper revealed as layers of plaster crumble away. I think it's such a unique idea!

So, of course, I couldn't buy just one. Had to have this cute pink butterfly, too.

Well, as long as I was gonna pay shipping ANYWAY...might as well get one more, right? Oh, and I have to say thank you to Marie-Noel for putting me on to this vendor!

And as long as we're doing purple - check out this cool ceramic pendant from Mary Ann Carroll!

And the matching accent beads, of course!

Found this cute and summery set of lampwork at IMakeBeads. Love the cool colors and the polka dots.

How perfectly summery are these? When I see them, I'm instantly laying on a chaise lounge under a palm frond umbrella on a beach somewhere drinking something fruity and alcoholic. Yum.

Happy 4th of July weekend, everyone!

KJ