Weekend Update and "Lite" Bead Porn

There was supposed to be some jewelry posted here. Really, there was.

Then the weekend happened. Which, correct me if I'm wrong, is SUPPOSED to be when you get to do your hobbies and relax and stuff, right?

It's not supposed to involve a Saturday filled with swimming lessons, dropping the car off for an oil change, delivering lunch to Grandma's house, picking up stuff at the Cub Scout store that we HAD to have for this week's meeting, checking the bird store to see if they had Nutriberries back in stock yet (no...and the parrot is threatening to go on strike any minute now until he gets his favorite treat back!), picking the car up after the oil change and taking Grandma out to dinner.

Nor is Sunday supposed to involve a migraine headache which could only be assuaged with copious amounts of pills, darkness, and (eventually...after partially subsiding for a while) a marathon of Season 2 of the "Vampire Diaries."

Hence no jewelry.

And I thought it would be weird to do two book review posts in a row (especially since no one seems to like them anyway) so, when all else fails, you get porn :-) It's "lite", though, because, as you may or may not have heard, there's a recession on.





These lovely floral bead caps snipped from vintage tins are from Donna Millard. Mostly she makes gorgeous-but-out-of-my-price-range lampwork, however, she has started to sprinkle a few of these into her listings.





Perfect for fall chestnut chain from my favorite color chameleon: Miss Fickle Media. Unlike most of bead porn, this chain has actually already made it into a design which you can check out here.





And since I can never get enough "fickle", I grabbed this ember red clasp, too.





Then it was off to marathon-buy some lovely enamel pieces like these cute birds.





And their darker, more mysterious cousins.





And some hearts I thought would be great for Valentine's Day designs.





So I got more than one color. These are all from Gardanne.





I'm not normally a fan of the "house" shape or theme, but I do love me some madras plaid (yes, the 80's and "The Preppie Handbook" scarred me for life) so I had to pick up this darling polymer clay pendant from Menagerie Studio.





Barbara Bechtel over at Floridity is doing some amazing new designs with this distressed watercolor finish - I love the brighter colors and thought these would make darling earrings!





And, of course, my obsession with anything ocean-related goes on. Every time Heather at Humble Beads posts any of these urchin-themed pieces, I go nuts.





Spirited Earth has quickly become one of my favorite sources for ceramic focals. Sometimes ceramics can be really huge and a little overwhelming to work with so I like it when there are some more "petite" offerings available like this cute little flower.





This green and brown forest moth pendant is also from Spirited Earth. It's an unusual color combination for me, but I am trying to push myself past my "tried and true" colors this year both in my purchases and in my designs.





I just had a necklace published in "Creative Jewelry" featuring one of these copper raku seashells from Star Spirit Studio. The one in the magazine has more blue/gold/pink tones in it while these are more true copper, but they are all great pieces and I love working with the raku and all the different colors you can find in it.





I think the true test of a lampwork bead is when it looks so yummy you have to remind yourself that it is NOT candy and that no, you are not allowed to eat it. These pretty, enamel-dappled disks from Flame Crazy definitely pass that test.





And then I saw these on the same site and was reminded of Monet's paintings, my personal fave, so they had to come home with me, too.





Okay, so these would never remind you of candy, but isn't the finish on them so unusual and FANTASTIC? They really look more like rocks from the desert than lampwork. I found them at Outwest.

I'm still hoping to get a book review and (maybe?) some jewelry up later this week...even though the craziness continues with Cub Scouts tonight (all the Bear Scouts are now considered old enough to be presented with their official pocket knives and start learning to whittle with them this evening...which I'm not sure I'm totally 100% okay with because I'm afraid the walls of the house might start sporting carved designs a la petroglyphs pretty soon), then Back to School night on Thursday, then orthodontist and swimming again on Saturday. AAAGGHHHH!

And yeah, I know, everyone with kids is this busier (or, gak!, even busier), but it's the having to do every single solitary bit of it all by myself with never a break or anyone to split the duty with after working a full day at the office AND getting the kid through his homework (plus the leftover classwork that didn't get done because of his ADD) that is wearing me out. I'm sure the migraine is partially from stress and not enough down time.

It's becoming clear to me that I have got to figure out a way to inject some balance into my life, but how to do that with a full-time job (which I'm stuck with due to being the sole breadwinner and provider of insurance) is beyond me. If anyone has a great inside stock top or surefire lotto numbers they want to pass on, I'll be standing by with my trusty pencil to take notes.

KJ