I'm in The Mood for (Bead) Porn...

As much as I loved my Friday bead porn posts, they just got to be too much to keep up with. However, I do still feel the need to dabble occasionally and the mood struck me today so here you go:





Nothing really says "Spring is coming" like lavender rubber rings, right?





Unless it's lime green rubber rings...






This deeper purple is more of a summer color to me, but then again, why limit your rubber to just one season...rubber is seasonless, I think.





And these hot pink rings prove it!

All of these lovely colored rings are from My Elements.





Darling patinated hummingbird charms from Miss Fickle Media. I've already used a pair of these in some earrings that came out so well I had to keep them for myself!





I paired the birds with these patinated metal flowers - also from Miss F. M.





Heat patinated copper is one of my favorite materials and Kristi Bowman has certainly elevated it to new heights. Love these leaf charms!





Every time I go to her shop, I come away with multiple pieces...like these snowflake charms.





And these flowers.





And these pretty sea urchin patterned dangles...perfect for the type of long earring designs I love so much.





I think her best pieces feature ammonite designs - like these teardrop components.





And this pendant. Yes, I now have a lifetime supply of copper art beads, but I seriously doubt that I won't be adding to the collection again soon because it's a known fact that I have no self-control when it comes to beads.





Now it's time to move from metal clay to poly clay. These bright and cheery disks from Floridity just make me smile. I love that she's been playing with brighter colors - they look great!





Great rainbow effect on this pair and yummy, yummy colors. You know it's a good bead purchase when it makes you think of eating candy :-)





This sweet pendant was right in my ocean colors comfort zone so it was destined to come live at my house!





I'd just finished a long earring-making jag when I saw this set of oval pairs and they fit perfectly with the mind set I was in...future earrings...yay!





And now for something 180 degrees in the opposite direction: enamel on metal from Painting with Fire. I was drawn by not only the colors, but the incredible detail of the design. You would think that the melting enamel would cause the fine lines to blur, but it's perfect...and will fit well with some of my Be Resinable pieces that have a bit of that vintage vibe.





What really drew me to the site that day was this listing...black, white and pale pink with polka dots? SIGN ME UP! This was soooo MINE!





Ocean colors got me again with this ceramic butterfly from Kylie Parry.





It was holiday time when I was making some of these purchases and I was really missing that whole wintry, white Christmas feeling. California Christmases tend to be more brown in nature LOL! I saw this purple and white ceramic pendant and it just said "chill" to me.





A sister piece is cool aqua and white and had the same vibe so I had to go with it as well. Both pieces are from Clayworks NH by Lisa Boucher.





Thinking ahead to summer beach designs...definitely my favorite zone to be in...I loved these crusty, beach glass-y lampwork beads. I don't usually go quite this olive with my greens - I prefer brighter, cheerier greens - but there was something about the way the color and the finish work together that I liked.





I was planning to get several pieces out of this so I added a matching set in a different size.





Sticking with that same vibe, I picked up these cocoa brown and aqua disks.





It's hard to believe this set is from the same artist because the look and feel is so totally different without the etched, pebble-like finish. But the colors are gorgeous and the touch of silver for sparkle is like heaven!

All of this lampwork is from Radiant Mind. If you've never been to their site...go. Go now. They really have wonderful things - and lots of great red and pink and hearts for Valentine's Day right now, too.

That's it for this edition of Bead Porn. I'll see you the next time the mood strikes!

Pornarella (aka KJ)

Bead Soup Ingredients

And here they are! My bead soup ingredients!!





First up is this gorgeous fused dichroic glass cabochon and metal stamped pendant. Kat really went all out on this making not only the glass, but doing all the metal work and wire-wrapping as well.

Safe to say I have NO IDEA what I'm going to do with it...it could go straight on to a simple chain and be stunning all on its own. My challenge will be to do more than that with the rest of the necklace while not detracting from this truly unusual focal.





As if that's not enough, Kat also included this stamped and riveted brass toggle - which deserves to be a focal point all on its own. Hmmm...will it be too much to incorporate it into the same piece as the glass pendant? Or will it be the star of its own design...???





Lastly, Kat included a lovely mix of crystals, brass tubes and brass bead caps as a supporting cast.

What to do? What to do...???

Simmer...simmer...simmer.

Stay tuned...

KJ

Bead Soup Blog Party Update

Yes, I'm playing in the bead soup blog party hop this round. Although, I've been so backwards about posting lately that it's hard to tell.

My blog partner, Kat Barron-Miller has already received and taken pictures of the soup I sent her - you can check that out here on her blog.

I did get photos of the stuff she sent me taken this morning, but still have to get them photoshopped and posted so stay tuned.

AND...just found out I'll be out of town for about 5 days mid-February so my creation time is going to be seriously impacted. YIKES!

I need to get simmering on this soup!

Stay tuned later this week when I will, hopefully, have my ingredient pics posted.

Oh, and if you don't know what the hop is, check out the details below:





Check out Lori Anderson's blog for more details!

In other news, I enjoyed the Superbowl. The overall game was not that exciting, but it certainly had a nail-biting finish. I had picked the Giants (since my REAL team, the Packers, got knocked out early in the playoffs) to win so I ended up happy. And, for a change, I thought the halftime show was pretty decent. Madonna did a good job...yes, lip-sync'd, I know, but for this type of event, I'd rather have the "show" part be better and have on-key vocals, than have live singing that's off-key (like The Who a few years ago) or out of breath from dancing. And, she is over 50 after all, but sure didn't look it.


KJ

The Wayback Machine

Nothing like being a day late and a dollar short...or in my case about a month and a half late. If you want old, stale blog posts about what happened...oh...LAST YEAR, this is the place.

But hey, I went to the trouble of taking all the pictures and thinking up the post idea back then and I hate to see all THAT effort go to waste (I'm lazy like that) so here's a post about last December.

I am rockin' the au courant-ness...yes, I am.

So, once upon a time, in a land far, far away that we'll call California, I got invited to spend a free day at Disneyland with some of my colleagues for a "team-building" exercise (which is office politic-speak for one of our vendors schmoozed us with free tickets and a fancy lunch).

I even got to bring Ryan and some of my co-workers brought their spouses.

Now, some of the park was normal...





Like ol' Buzz Lightyear here. We had to go on this ride a bunch of times because Ryan loves the laser blasters so much.


But mostly, the park was all decorated for the holidays.





Like this balcony in New Orleans Square.





And this one. Because even though it's Christmas, it's also perpetually Mardi Gras...hence the purple and teal colors instead of the traditional red and green.





But the really special part of this day was that, thanks again to our schmoozy vendor, we got access to have lunch at Club 33. If you don't know what it is, Club 33 is a private, members-only club inside Disneyland. It's located behind this small "33" sign in New Orleans Square.





When you enter the club, there's an old-fashioned glass and metal elevator that I was all excited to ride in until we found out it's just for show. You have to go up the staircase.





The inside was beautifully decorated for Christmas.





These Christmas trees were all over the place - at lease 2-3 in every room.





The salads and appetizers are all buffet-style - and they had a full cold seafood bar (oysters, shrimp, cold crab and lobster) along with several salads, a full cheese and bread section and a number of other options.

Then you choose from several entree courses that are served at the table - I had Chateaubriand and it was to die for!





This was the view out our window overlooking New Orleans Square.





And the tables were all set beautifully.





The desserts were buffet style as well - this only ONE SECTION of the entire dessert buffet. It was crazy.





And you have to love a place that puts its own logo on the cookies LOL!

Now, in retrospect, having a huge, fancy meal like this and then tackling an amusement park for the rest of the day is...tougher than it sounds. As we left Club 33, I think all of us were looking for wheelbarrows or some other means to roll our fat asses out the door and over to the rides because we all pigged out so much.

Still, it was worth it.





I haven't been to the park during the holdiay season in years, but I'd been hearing that they turn the whole Haunted Mansion into "The Nightmare Before Christmas" theme so I was interested to check it out. It's definitely true...and I took a zillion dorky pictures to prove it!





It's interesting-looking, but I guess I'm a bit of a traditionalist. I like my rides un-messed-around with.





Plus, I was never that big of a fan of the movie. Ryan loved it, though.





More haunted Christmas pictures.





The only pic I could get of my very favorite ride, Pirates of the Caribbean. The rest were all too dark. Even this ride they've had to do a movie tie-in and have Jack Sparrow popping up here and there in it.





And doesn't Sleeping Beauty's castle look great with all the snow and holiday decorations? I thought it was the best looking part of the whole park.





And, last but not least, Ryan and I have a tradition at the end of a day at Disneyland. We go over to New Orleans Square and have mint juleps and beignets. I just wish mine hadn't been virgin because by that point, I could have used a REAL drink!

Next post, I'll bring you up to date on what we did for New Year's. And maybe by March, I'll finally be into 2012 updates.

KJ

Awesome Etsy Giveaway

Clay artist Lisa Boucher is having an awesome giveaway for January on her Etsy site.

Not familiar with Lisa's work? I used one of her gorgeous ceramic sunflower pendants for my last Bead Soup Blog Hop piece (currently up for sale on my Etsy site). Either click the link or check out the picture over there on the right-hand side bar.

Anyway, entering is easy - just like her Facebook page and pass on the referral.

Go for it!

KJ

Happy Birthday, Ryan!

9 years ago today, God chose to give me an incredible gift.

After all that time of my careful nurturing, parenting and love, that gift has evolved...




...into this!

And yes, there's a story behind this photo which I'll relate in a future post, but in the meantime, just wanted to say "Happy 9th Birthday, kiddo! You are fantastic and I'm so blessed to have you in my life!"

Love,

Mommy

How Not to Spend a Friday Night

1. Don't borrow your mother's car because yours is in the shop undergoing expensive repairs.




2. Don't use said car to take your son out for a nice Friday evening dinner and dessert.




3. Don't think you're "safer" because you parked (perfectly straight) in an end parking spot.




4. Don't linger over frozen yogurt after dinner thinking what a nice relaxing evening you are having (for a change).




5. Don't expect your car to be in the same condition it was in when you left it.








6. Don't think that this is just a case of a Mercedes parking "too close" to your mom's car.








7. Don't think that the people who own the Mercedes (who actually HAVE insurance and can be located) had anything to do with this.




8. Don't think that any of the 20 people who witnessed the asshole who drove into the Mercedes so hard that he pushed it an ENTIRE CAR LENGTH FORWARD into your mom's car bothered to TAKE DOWN A LICENSE PLATE #.




9. Don't think that the shopping center has cameras.




10. Don't think that your mom is not going to blame you for this even though you weren't anywhere near the car when it happened.




11. Don't think the police are going to catch the asshole responsible or that the insurance company is going to make the repair process easy in any way whatsoever.
    
    And that is how not to spend your Friday night.
    
    KJ