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
    

Better Late Than Never

I partially wrote two separate bead porn posts that were supposed to be auto-posted during the holidays, but things were so crazy, I never got either one of them finished or scheduled.

So, you get New Year's bead porn instead of Holiday bead porn.





Etched brass bead caps from Metal Me This.





And some copper ones, too.





Patinated spacer beads from Miss Fickle Media.





And some pretty patinated flower beads, too. Just perfect for thinking ahead to Spring!





Peach links to match.





And this great, yummy blue color called Benthic Blue. I love how it has touches of lavender in it.





Of course, chain to match.





I'm always on the hunt for unusual toggles...MissFM to the rescue with this great, leafy-green version.





And finally, this beautiful seahorse pendant...doesn't it look like it's been lost at the bottom of the sea in a treasure chest for years? I love that!





Did I mention there's a lot of metal in this porn? These beautiful copper teardrops are from Kristi Bowman.





Kristi also created this stunning ammonite pendant.





These patinated butterfly wings are from SL Artisan Accents.





And then there was that sale at Gardanne...where I lost my mind (and my bank balance...starting with these blue enameled starfish charms.





And the matching scallop shells, of course.





Couldn't pass up the sand dollar...





And then I did it all over again in another color - starfish charms in seafoam.





Matching scallops...





...and sand dollar.





If you've been reading the last couple of months, then you'll recognize these flower charms from some earrings I made back in November. They are from Menagerie Studio.





These flowers are from the same vendor and they've already made it into earrings as well.





This two-hole purple heart pendant is also from Menagerie, but I'm still hoarding it. Might need to bust it out for Valentine's Day, though.





This midnight willow pendant is from Humble Beads.





As is this summer butterfly.

I have so much more to write about, including everything that happened over the holiday break (presents, food, family, vacation, car emergencies, etc.). Just need the time to sit down and get my thoughts organized (good luck, right?) In the meantime, though, I can post this bead porn to at least keep the blog up to date (more posting is one of my goals for 2012...I miss being able to write more often!)

Hope 2012 is off to a great start for everyone.

See you soon!

KJ

Earring-palooza

What happens when you don't have time to carefully pre-pack your vacation jewelry projects? You end up just grabbing for your art bead "pairs" as you're running out the door and making a LOT of earrings.





I can't get enough of these gorgeous porcelain beads from Lumina Inspirations. I first ran acrosse their beads years and years ago at the L.A. Gift Show and now there's a local vendor who carries their line at the OC Bead & Gem show that rolls through town every 2-3 months.





The metallic accents and bright, mirror finish on the beads really add to their appeal. I decided to be a little unusual with this pair and pick up the color of the small swipe of orange at the bottom of each bead so I grabbed some recently-purchased bright orange jade rondelles and added some vermeil spacers to pick up the gold. I can see these looking great with a navy blue suit or dress.





About a year ago, I was going through a "brigh colors" period so I was grabbing everything I could get my hands on that fit that category. This cute dotted pair of beads from Jangles totally fit the bill. To her credit, she sent along some great accent beads including those red wood rounds and a pair of even tinier bright green glass beads. However, I was in such a hurry to grab these out of the package that I managed to lose one of the green glass beads in my carpet...where it remains lost to this day.





I quickly improvised by grabbing this pair of aqua and white vintage glass beads from Brea Beadworks and some dyed green howlite spacers. A couple of touches of sterling silver finished off the design.





I have to admit it - I'm not overly fond of polymer clay. Usually (there are exceptions like the great stuff at Floridity). But every once in a while, I find some pieces I really like. These cute lavender square beads definitely fit in that category. And, of course, it didn't hurt that they have pansies on them as I am obsessed with all things pansy (shout out to my fellow Tri-Delta, Erin!)





These were some of my earliest Etsy purchases from a shop called The Color of Dreams. Awesome name, right? And how to take polymer clay to a more elegant level? Add sterling silver and Swarovski, of course. Swaros make EVERYTHING better ;-)





More beads from Lumina Inspirations - but a totally different feel than the abstract designs in the first pair. I was drawn to the contrast between the dark greens and gray/blues of the background and the white and bright yellow of the flowers on these.





I added dark blue-gray faceted Czech glass in an etched finish and some vermeil to make these look really lush.





And now to my favorite pair. These are recyled glass rings from Loot - one of my favorite vendors at the Pasadena Bead & Gem show.





I added amethyst AB Chinese crystals and vermeil filigree beads along with some links of gold chain. I don't think the photos really captured the colors very well - the lighter color of the crystals is actually swirling through the glass rings along with some sparkling goldstone effects. You'll just have to take my word for it that the colors work better in real life (stupid camera). These are so glam and sparkly I almost can't even stand it. I'm going to have a hard time not keeping them for myself but they are destined for the Etsy shop (along with everything else here) as soon as I have the time (and willpower) to let them go.

Hope you enjoyed my "Earring-palooza!" Hopefully, I'll get more time to create larger pieces over the holidays - I've been sadly lacking in the bracelet department lately and need to focus on that!

KJ