The Weekend Score

It was an interesting weekend at my house. Here’s the score:

Household mishaps caused by child: 3

Unholy odors: 1

Mysterious unexplained noises: 1

Injuries to me as a result of mysterious unexplained noises: 2

Strange beady coincidences: 1

Beads bought as a result: 5

Craft experiments: 2

Packages shipped: 1

Packages received: 1

Jewelry projects completed: 1.95 (just missing a clasp on a bracelet)

Fevers: 1

Headaches: 1

Like I said. It was interesting. Keep reading for details, but I warn you, some will be graphic (there is a 6 year old boy involved, remember?) and it was a LOOOONGG weekend so this is a LOOOONNNGG story.

It all started Friday night when I got home. My mom had picked the kidlet up from YMCA camp and we had planned to all go to dinner together. Part way through dinner it became apparent that all was not well with the child (although he perked up enough to scarf down ice cream for dessert). I took his temp when we got home and it was 102.

He’d finally caught my cold, darnit! I was so sure we were out of the woods on that, but no. It was inevitable, I suppose.

I get him ready for bed and give him some Children’s Tylenol to combat the fever and as a last step, we head to his bathroom to brush his teeth.

Now, thanks to the great flood of 2009 (also caused by the kid), his bathroom is kinda torn up. The flooring is ripped out and the toilet, shower rod and curtain and a buncha other miscellaneous stuff from the workers are all piled in the bathtub waiting to be put back as soon as I get the new flooring picked out.

The sink still works, though.

However, as we enter the bathroom, I suddenly notice an odor. And when I say odor, I mean UNHOLY STENCH FROM HELL, of course. I know right away that it’s urine (hey, I warned you this was gonna get graphic) but I can’t figure out where it’s coming from since he’s been using my bathroom or the one downstairs.

OR SO I THOUGHT.

My first thought is maybe he’s come in during the night and forgotten that there’s no toilet and peed on the floor, but no, that wasn’t it.

After some searching and, unfortunately, following my all-too-sensitive nose, I realized that the kid has been…

Wait for it…

PEEING IN THE BATHTUB!

Yeah, that bathtub. The one that’s so chock full of stuff that I can’t lift or move or effectively wash off. The stuff that is now all covered with PEE!

His explanation?

“I just wondered what it would be like to pee in a bathtub.”



What IS it with the male species? Is it the testosterone? Is it some leftover early mammalian DNA that says “please pee on stuff so we know who it belongs to”? WHAT?

ARRRGGHHHHHH!!!!

So, there it is. 9 PM on a Friday night. I am exhausted from a very long week and have a killer headache. The kid has a 102 fever and I am about to throw up from the pee smell in the bathroom and am wondering what on earth to do about all of this.

And you know what? I’ll be really honest. I shut the dang bathroom door. Put the kid to bed. Took a shower (and cried while I was in there) and then watched something mind-numbing on TV until I fell asleep.

After all, what was going to happen? The pee police would come and issue me a ticket for not cleaning it up? It was gonna get grosser? Maybe a little bit, but it had already reached epic proportions anyway so really not much room there.

I tackled the mess the next morning and made the kidlet help me to the extent he was able (which, frankly, was not much). There’s nothing I can do about what is still trapped under the toilet. It will have to wait until the guys come back to finish the job. What a nice surprise for them!

On the up side, the kidlet was feeling better so I figured we could slip in a couple of quick errands and at least get him out of the house for a bit. I headed off to mail the 9 POUND PACKAGE OF BEADS to the contest winner.

Then we headed to Tall Mouse (a local craft store which I find to be far superior to Michael’s) because I had promised the kidlet that he could try my new Fiskar’s craft drill (because I am a girly-girl and too chickensh...er...afraid to handle a real drill with like electrical power and the serious possibility of drilling holes in my own fingers and whatnot):



He’s crazy about tools and because of this drill, he was actually showing some interest in doing a craft project (okay, really he just wanted to drill holes in things, but I figured I better provide approved drilling surfaces if I didn’t want my walls to look like Swiss cheese).

And to my surprise, when we got to Tall Mouse, they actually had a craft show going on in their parking lot! Of course, I had to go over and see if there was any jewelry being sold and how the vendors were doing – I’m always looking for small, local venues that I could sell at.

Not much jewelry, but shockingly, a lampworker! In fact, a very well-known lamwporker: Cathi Milligan from Beadbrains!

She had the most DARLING little cupcake and dessert beads so of course, I had to buy some:






I highly recommend checking out her store on Etsy because she has cute little hearts, other desserts (cake and pie), funny little monsters and other beads. She’s also written a macramé book called “Mod Knots.”

I wanted to stay longer, talk more and maybe pick out more beads, but it was quite hot out and the kidlet had used up his store of energy and was starting to wilt so off we went home with a brief stop at Burger King to grab lunch to take home.

Because I am such a good Mom – no chicken soup for colds at my house. Nope – chicken nuggets and french fries. But hey, free Transformer toy.

After lunch, we started our craft project.



As expected, kidlet pooped out once the drilling part was over and went to take a nap.

I kept playing.

After painting my disks with an ivory base, I mixed and dripped some alcohol inks all over them.



Then broke out some of my old rubber stamps and stamped some words on each bead.




Did some judicious sanding and added some bronze and gold metallic rub-on’s around the edges.




Finally, I coated everything with a glossy spray varnish.





Oh, the heart was my “test” piece. On that one, I added some glitter glue, tiny beads, punched some leaf shapes out of decorative paper and coated the whole thing with Diamond Glaze. I didn’t end up liking any of that part so didn’t do it on the disk beads.

I think the next step may be to glue on a couple of flat-back crystals and/or charms and then I’m going to string the disks on either a braid of waxed linen or on some leather with a couple of large metal beads.

Which brings us to Sunday.

A day on which I was suddenly and violently awakened by the sound of my back door slamming shut so hard that it shook the entire house. Whereupon I leaped out of bed and went running to investigate…and promptly got my feet tangled up in my pajama bottoms and fell hard on both my knees. They are now bruised, swollen and the skin is scraped from the carpet. I jumped up and ran a few more steps, this time got my toe tangled in the carpet and sprained it (see? this is why I am afraid of things like electric drills!). And all this time a small voice in my brain is yelling “Why are you running TOWARDS the noise? If someone is in the house, that’s the LAST thing you ought to do.” But, I am in a panic so I am not listening to the rational part of my brain.

I get downstairs and the door is shut. No sign of anyone. Nothing missing.

I run back upstairs to check on the kidlet thinking maybe he did it, but he’s fast asleep in his bed (where *I* should be because it’s 5 AM on a freakin’ Sunday, darnit!)

Now I’m really freaked out. See, normally, no one could access the back door because the only place it leads to is the garage and the garage door can only be lifted from inside with the control.

Normally.

But the garage door has been broken for the past few months (see, I’ve been a bit busy dealing with floods and fires and funerals lately). So, normally, I lock the back door, but of course, I forgot to do that. But still, the garage door makes a HORRIBLE amount of noise going up and I just know I would have heard it if someone had come in that way. Plus, when I checked it was down and I certainly would have heard it going back down if someone went out that way.

So, no one came through the garage. The kid didn’t do it. I didn’t do it. It wasn’t propped open and closed by itself (it’s on a spring so it slams shut unless you stick something heavy like a big chair to prop it).

Freaky.

But, since everyone and everything is safe, I’ve decided not to worry about it.

Kidlet felt a lot better on Sunday and finished his project:


His first piece of jewelry! I’m so proud! I did the jump rings for him, but he did all the painting, told me what order to put the pieces in and he picked out what color cord he wanted them on.

Then he went off to watch TV, but in the process managed to break the one remaining door on the TV cabinet (he’d destroyed the other one earlier this year) and then spilled apple juice all over the kitchen floor.

Man, I miss the days when he used to take naps. Naps are good. Bring back naps.

Before I have a nervous breakdown.

But, at least he was feeling better. I can always tell he’s recovering when he starts to get destructive around the house LOL!

I did manage to get some work done on a couple of my own projects. The super-dangly cotton candy bracelet is finished with the exception of a clasp. I couldn’t find anything in my stash that I liked with it (how is it possible to have a huge stash of beads and STILL not have the “right” thing to finish a design?) so I had to order a couple of things.

Then there’s the black and red necklace I started during my “gloomy” period a couple of weeks ago, but just now got finished.

It’s very goth/vampire queen/flamenco dancer, but I haven’t decided on an official name yet.

Whew! It was a long weekend. I was ALMOST glad to go back to work today.

Happy Monday, everyone!

KJ

It's Beady Friday!

Last night was such a downer! I don't know if it's because I'm still mourning the loss of my dad two months ago or what, but the news about Michael Jackson (and Farrah Fawcett) really hit me hard yesterday. I stayed up til midnight watching MJ videos on VH1 and MTV and crying.

What a dork I am.

So, today needs some happyness in it...which to me means...BEADS!

I sent my trusty assistant, Russ, from Rings 'N Things, into my bead room in search of goodies to share with you all today. Now, it's possible that over the years, the bead room has become a bit, ummm, what's the word? Crowded? Disorganized? Dangerously overgrown like the darkest forests of Africa?

I tried to warn Russ, but he plunged ahead anyway. I guess there are no lengths he won't go to in search of beads:

I did forget to provide him with a map and compass, however, so he might've gotten a bit lost in there (it's easy to do - happens to me all the time).

I think he was trying to climb up higher in the tree to take a look around, but he only succeeded in getting more lost.

And then it got dark...

I may've also forgotten to warn him that some of the more overgrown corners are home to strange creatures:

Look out, Russ! It's the giant man-eating parrot of Toomoonawanda!

Looks like I arrived just in time to save the day:

I finally rescued Russ from the bead room jungle and pointed him in the right direction:

Ahhh...suburbia.

And we finally did find those beads:

Today's drool-worthy items are from Artisan Clay.

This one reminds me of a frosty winter sky.

And this one is the sunshine on the water at Crescent Bay (my favorite beach!)

This one is very subtle - the picture doesn't do it justice. In real life, it's the color of beach sand with a few hints of pale blue and aqua here and there. PERFECT for summer-time jewelry!

And the bright colors in this one just make me happy.

Of course, I have no idea what I'm going to do with any of them yet, but they were so beautiful, I just couldn't resist.

That's it for now. Happy Friday, everyone!

KJ

P.S. I sent in some submissions to "Bead Trends" magazine for their December issue so wish me luck on that!

And now THIS

WTH??

And, okay, I know he's kinda persona non grata now because of how he's chosen to behave, but I remember him more from the Jackson 5 and Thriller days. I was a dancer back then and I was just in awe of his dancing and performance skills.

So sad...

...it feels like the end of an era somehow. I certainly was a HUGE fan of "Charlie's Angels" as a kid - not only was it great to see women as more than just "sidekicks" but Mom and I always loved seeing the hair and clothing choices.

I sure spent a ton of money at the hairdresser trying (unsuccessfully) to get my hair to look like Farrah's LOL!

KJ

Insert interesting blog content here

Boy, has it been a boring day. Nothing much to report since my last entry. I wanted to finish off my last pink/white bracelet attempt last night, but I was too tired and passed out early instead.

Here's what I do know:

Rings 'N Things is having a fun Product Review Contest on their blog. Go check it out and enter. Fun and prizes!

I just sent off a project submission to "Beadstyle" magazine. This is my second attempt to get published there - they rejected the first one (boo hoo!) Wish me luck!

Summer's Studio makes YUMMY porcelain beads:

She had the big one for sale on Etsy, but made the smaller links to order for me. I just love cooperative vendors!

Lastly, cool things arrived in my mailbox last night and I hope to have pictures and a story about them soon!

KJ

Rings 'N Things Beady Playtime

As mentioned in previous entries, I’ve recently become a Rings ‘N Things Blog Partner. I’m so excited about this opportunity to not only play with fun, new beady things, but to generate buzz for such a great company. I’ve been a loyal customer of R&T over the years and I think this program is going to be lots of fun.

Plus, I plan to give away some of the leftovers from the monthly goody bags and free beads are always a good thing, right?

Normally, R&T picks out the items they send to the Blog Partners to play with each month, but this month, we got to pick for ourselves and lemmee tell ya…I had a really hard time deciding what to get first! I spent several hours going over their paper catalog and marking pages with post-it notes to try to narrow down to what I really wanted. It was torture…but the good kind…the beady kind.

Finally got my order placed and not only did it arrive lickety-split, but how surprised was I to see that Russ Nobbs, the owner of R&T, PERSONALLY delivered my package! Here he is posing with some of the beads:

Russ decided to stick around and explore my studio and you’ll see more pictures of his adventures in upcoming blog entries, but let’s get back to the beads.

I’ve been working on some “beachy” designs on my sketch pad and in my cold-addled brain and I thought these beautiful ebony wood slices would be the perfect addition:

I also bought a bunch of these beautiful hollow beads (only picturing two, but I got a lot of different shapes, sizes and colors):

They remind me of Japanese glass fishing net floats that I used to collect in Hawaii when I lived there as a kid. They would break loose from the fishermen’s nets in Japan, float all the way across the Pacific and end up on the beach in Hawaii. We had a number of them displayed around our house in Kaneohe.

I’m not sure yet what I’m going to do with them, but I have a vague notion that they could look really fantastic strung on some of the new Softflex Extreme Trio colored wires (hey Dave and Russ – a hint for next month’s goody package, maybe??? If you're listening, I like "Serenity" and "Sophisticated")

The other items in the picture are some cool twirly earring components and some textured silver links.

I also bought a strand of plain white resin beads, but didn’t get around to photographing them. The plan is to try dying them with the Alcohol Inks just like I did with the Lucite flower beads. Then I’ll have a great set of matching accent beads for each of my dyed flowers and can get some finished designs made up with them.

Lastly, I have had these beads sitting around in my stash since April, 2006, and haven’t done anything with them:

They were for a custom order that never evolved into a finished product. In fact, it was the same custom order that produced the cane glass necklace I posted the other day that got published in “Bead Trends” after also being rejected by the customer. There’s a reason I don’t do custom orders any more LOL!

Anyway, R&T had the perfect “go with” beads so I ordered them:

And here’s what I made with them:


Originally, I was going to hang a bunch of additional dangles off this necklace, but once I got the basic design done, I decided it didn’t need anything else. Sometimes simpler is better.

A closeup of the center:

And the clasp:

I made it adjustable just in case.

I’m going to do the “bunches of dangles” idea on a bracelet instead. It’s still in the works, but in the meantime, I made this bracelet:

It was a bit hard to photograph in a circle so here's what it looks like laid out:

And another attempt at photographing it in a circle:

Okay, that's it for my first Rings 'N Things Blog Partner post. I can't wait to get time to play with the rest of my goodies and have some more designs to post!

KJ

Dancing Dragonfly

Finally - a finished project to post! I started this back before I got sick, but then it just sat forlorn and neglected on my work surface until I could feel well enough to finish it. Because feeling sick and creativity? Kinda not a match.

Fortunately, I started to feel a bit better over the weekend (at last!) and got a few things done.

Nothing really outrageously special or intricate about this design. I just saw the dragonfly pendant and loved it. I added some Swarovski crystals in what I think of as "dragonfly" colors - purples, greens and blues.

A close-up on the pendant.

I found these cute little toggle clasps at a local bead store called The Beading Place. I really liked that they have a touch of color on the flower and leaves which seems to perfectly pick up the crystal colors in the dangles.

Okay, that's it for now. Hope everyone had a nice weekend!

KJ

Accolades

A blog award! I can't believe it! Especially not after my last post whining about my misadventure at the pharmacy LOL! Anyway, thanks to Dori of SassyClayCreations for giving me the award.

And now, to pass on the love, here are the 15 blogs I'd like to share it with (in no particular order):

1. Earthfae

2. Skye Jewels

3. Rabbit Muse

4. No Easy Beads

5. Sue Beads - I just bought a bunch of new beads from her on Etsy, btw. She has great stuff!

6. Live Wire Jewelry

7. Artisan Clay - Another great Etsy vendor. Will post pics on a future eye candy day.

8. Backyard Beads

9. Beady Girl

10. Bella Bead Jewelry

11. Fab Fibers

12. Summer's Studio - She did a custom porcelain pendant/link order for me that is yummy!

13. The Color of Dreams

14. Ferrari Originals

15. Chinook Designs

So, now all of you can proudly post this award on your blogs and name your own 15 favorites!

Also, I've finally received the photos of the items that I had published in the April and May issues of "Bead Trends" magazine and wanted to share those as well. It's an honor to be published in any of the magazines, but I have to say, "Bead Trends" really does an amazing job with their photography.

I'm never going to be the most innovative designer or come up with really out-of-the-box ideas, but I do like to think I have a knack for picking one special thing and making it the star of the design. In these earrings, which are really very basic, it's the unusual marquis shape (as opposed to the more frequently used briolette) of the faceted quartz beads that's the stand out.

In this design, the pairing of the amazonite rondelles with the raspberry jade is an unexpected color combination.

In this bracelet, there are a couple of things that make it unique - the stunning etched lampwork beads and butterfly toggle clasp.

Okay, this design doesn't really have much unique about it - just cane glass, silver and crystals, but in real life, it's one of the prettier and more eye-catching things I've made. I also have to 'fess up and admit it was a custom creation for one of my mom's friends and she ended up not liking it and returning it to me in favor of a different (and in my opinion not nearly as nice) necklace. I'm enjoying the irony that it ended up published. I love that it's pictured with candy, too. Cane glass always looks like it ought to be edible candy to me anyway LOL!

Happy Friday!

KJ

It's my birthday and I'll discount if I want to...

Today is my birthday and in keeping with long-standing tradition (well, okay, for the past 4 years), I'm having a sale!

Everything on the Silver Parrot Designs website is 15% off through Monday, 6/22. Just enter code KJSBDAY at checkout to get the discount.

And, of course, it wouldn't be a party without some beady eye candy:

My favorite summer color done in beautiful polka-dot disc beads from BeadIntrigue on Etsy.

And I couldn't resist this set, either, with its lovely Crayola colors.

I'm still trying to shake off my cold - which is trying to settle into a sinus infection - but just looking at these yummy, bright beads cheers me up.

Okay, enjoy the sale and the eye candy!

KJ

Episode 451: In which our intrepid author has a nervous breakdown in the middle of CVS pharmacy

It's been a rough week here so far. Yesterday morning, I reached the "just shoot me" phase of this cold (y'know, where you just want it to STOP already), but I dragged myself out of bed at 6:30 anyway to get the kidlet ready for school and then drive him down to the funny car rally that is the parking lot and so-called dropoff "system" for his elementary school.

I had just gotten home and put my PJ's back on so I could go back to bed when the school called to tell me there was something wrong with his eye.

Now, the kid is smart and this is not the first time he's ended up in the nurse's office on a day that Mommy is sick and staying home from work. Because hey, if Mom can stay home by being sick, he can do it too, right? So, I'm sure the nurse thought I was nuts when I said (croaked) "Is there REALLY something wrong with him and do I REALLY have to come pick him up?"

She was probably ready to hand me the "Mom of the Year" award right there.

Anyway, turns out this was for real so back on with the clothes and back down to the school to pick him up and then over to the doctor's office to get his eye checked out. Turns out he had quite a scratch on his right cornea. I could even seen it with the naked eye, but at the doctor's office, they put a special dye on it and then turned on a black light and then you could REALLY see it.

Fortunately, it didn't seem to be bothering him much - he was more interested in trying to take the doctor's stethascope apart. They cleaned it and put a patch over it and gave me a prescription for some antibiotic eye drops and told me he could go back to school.

So, back we went to school and I dropped him off and went off to the pharmacy to get the 'scrip filled.

Which is where it all went so wrong...so very, very wrong.

Now, to be fair, I'm really sick. I haven't slept in probably 3 days. My hair is dirty and stuck up in a clip on my head. I've almost completely lost my voice so I can just sort of whisper/croak at people and then I get to the pharmacy only to have them tell me that my insurance will not cover the antibiotic eye drops and do I want to pay $82.50 for a bottle of drops that's about the size of my little finger.

Ummm...that'd be a NO.

I whip out my trusty cell phone and call the insurance company certain that this is some kind of mistake whereupon they tell me that I had to get "pre-authorization" from my doctor.

Okay...news to me. Never had to do that before. Haven't changed insurance companies. Doesn't the fact that the doctor PRESCRIBED this medication mean that he authorized its use? Plus, not like I'm going for experimental cancer treatment or anything. Antibiotic drops. For an eye injury...seems obvious to me.

At which point the ditz on the phone tells me "well, this is the agreement that Garden Grove School District made with our company."

HUH? I don't work for or have anything to do with Garden Grove School District.

I should mention at this point that my croaking and coughing on the phone is getting louder and the other pharmacy patrons are starting to edge away from me and yet still stare at me in horrified fascination.

And then it happened.

Little ol' polite (doormat) me who NEVER makes waves snapped and said "I want to talk to your supervisor because I don't think you know what you're talking about."

Holy crap! Did I just really say that? To a person? That's it, I'm going to hell!

And yet...the supervisor came on the phone and authorized the payment. Poof! Like magic. It's amazing what they will do to get me, the crazy person, off the phone.

Or, it might've also been the part of the conversation where I said "if you don't authorize this and my son gets an infection in his eye and goes blind I am SOOOOO coming after your company."

Yeah, apparently once I open up a can of backbone, I can't be stopped.

And I was feeling really good about it - like I slayed a dragon or something and then I came home and saw this. Zicam is the ONLY thing that clears out my sinuses. And I haven't noticed any impact on my sense of smell. In fact, if I have to trade a sense of smell for, y'know, the ABILITY TO BREATHE, guess which one I pick?

Win some, lose some, I guess.

I HOPE to be back to beady normal around here tomorrow. I've got to turn the corner and feel better soon, right? It's been five days.

For the contest winners - I've got your e-mail addresses and will be contacting you shortly so I can get the packages out to you.

For Sue who asked about becoming a Rings 'N Things Blog partner - they just asked me to do it. You might try e-mailing them and asking if they need any more bloggers at this time.

Hope everyone is having a good week!

KJ

Announcing............THE WINNER!

And the winner is....................Ruralrose! Congratulations and please e-mail me your address so I can get your giant box of beads in the mail to you ASAP! I'll be sending them via Fed Ex so I need an actual street address and not a P.O. Box.

But there's more good news. After my son drew the winning name from the bag, I was thinking about how many people came to enter and leave links and I felt like one winner just wasn't enough so I've come up with 2nd and 3rd place prizes.

Here's how that is going to work. I've recently become a Rings 'N Things blog partner which means every month they send me a stash of stuff to play with, design from and hopefully, blog about. So, the 2nd place winner will get part of the June stash and the 3rd place winner will get part of the July stash.

2nd place winner is..........................................Marbella Designs! As above, please e-mail me your address.

3rd place winner is...................Barbara/mythmaker! Will need your address, too.

Thank you so much, everyone, for playing! This was such an awesome success that I may do it again in the future - although probly with less beads now that I've done such a big cleanout! For those who became followers or plan to check back occasionally, I'll do my best to be entertaining and post lots of beady eye candy.

As soon as I get over this darned cold! I feel awful! The only bright spot is that the kidlet hasn't caught it yet, but I'm sure that's only a matter of time. We have declared a "PJ Day" with him downstairs playing with his Legos and making paper airplanes and me upstairs (in quarantine) catching up on my Tivo and trying to rest.

Of course, last time I tried this, he snuck a bottle of Hershey's chocolate syrup out of the frig, drank most of it and used the rest to decorate the kitchen so...........we'll see how this goes. I may have good tidbits for the blog later this week LOL!

Have a great rest of the weekend and congratulations to the winners!

Kelly

Friday Roundup

1. THE CONTEST: Contest ends at midnight Pacific time tonight so there's still time to post and drop a link in my comments to enter. Please, 1 comment per person. Oh, and my comments are moderated so yours might not show up immediately. It doesn't matter which blog entry you leave your comment on - I'll find it and you'll be entered.

2. THE WINNER: I will hopefully be announcing the winner tomorrow after I get all the names/links entered, but I came down with a cold last night (having a sore throat is the WORST - I would rather have just about anything else) so be a bit patient with me. It will be no later than Monday, for sure.

3. THE THANK YOU's: Again, I want to thank everyone who has entered, posted, left comments, Twittered, Blogged and whatever else you've done. It's been totally amazing to watch how this thing has grown! I hope at least some of you will stick around or become followers, etc.

4. THE BEADS: Because it's Friday, that means it's beady eye candy day - which is really why everyone is here and not to hang on my every rambling word, right? Right. So, let's get on with the shiny pretties, shall we?

More beautiful sets of Little Crow beads. She just does amazing things with color.

These may be my favorite...or maybe not.

Maybe THESE are my favorites. It's so hard to pick just one (which is why I have 3 sets LOL)!

Okay, I have a date with some cold medicine, my blankie and maybe a chick flick. Hope everyone has a great weekend and I'll try to get the winner posted as quickly as I can.

KJ

Bead Giveaway Contest Reminder!

Okay, so the contest ends on Friday, June 12th, and so far, I've been a little disappointed in the level of interest (no offense to those of you who HAVE been nice enough to cross-post on your blogs). I was just hoping to generate a little more action.

**EDITED TO ADD: Thank you all so much for the bloggy love. 'Fess up - it was the picture of the emeralds that did it, right? LOL! Anyway, thank you all for your comments and cross-links/blog posts/twitters! I'm excited to check out everyone's blogs and can't wait to see who wins. Stay tuned!**

So, I thought maybe what was missing was some concrete evidence of what a LARGE pile of beads this is and what a great opportunity it will be for someone.

See how that entire cardboard box is OVERFLOWING onto my bed? OVERFLOWING WITH BEADS, people! FREE BEADS!

A closer look at the FREE BEADS!

In this pic you can see lots of cube beads, large delica beads, some Czech glass black cat beads and a whole bag of black hex-cut seed beads.

Pretty cloisonne beads and large pink fiberoptic oval beads. Also, a baggie of clear/pink Czech firepolish ovals in the upper left corner.

Some green size 10 delicas and some Miyuki pink/amber triangle beads.

Getting into the blues and greens here: A strand of blue lace agate graduated rondelles and barrels, some green cube beads, green/clear Czech glass flowers and a green stone star.

Some mini bugle beads and a pink rhodonite donut peeking out in the center of the picture.

In this bag? A strand of genuine emerald oval beads.

And this is just a taste of what is in the box.

So, get out there and post on your blogs and leave a link in the comments here to your posting before midnight on Friday, June 12th, to be entered!

Good luck!


KJ