Customer Gallery

I'm always thrilled when I see what you have been up to with my Humblebeads.  Some of these were shared with me quite awhile ago but I thought they needed a little time to shine in the spotlight.

I love these earrings made with tiny crocheted snowflakes by Leslie Smith Gidden, she paired them up with some tiny blue spacer beads in a winter branches pattern.  Perfect as I'm impatiently waiting for the ground to be covered in white fluff here in Michigan!

Next up is a Blue Bird and wood bracelet by Sasha and Max.  Those bittersweet orange lampwork beads were the perfect touch and give the design a modern edge.

I really, really love piece from Jess Italia-Lincoln.  Even more so because it's the perfect memento of my trip to Galena and all the fun things we did during the Vintaj workshop.  Notice the willow branch wrapped into a toggle - awesome!  and I love the wire nest bead.  Jess used some of my Bittersweet Branch disks, one of my Robin's eggs and paired them up with a Simple Truths pendant from my dearest bead buddy, Erin Prais-Hintz.

Have you made something with your Humblebeads that you'd like to share?  Stop by my Humblebeads Facebook page and post a photo or two on my wall!

Black Friday Deals!

Okay, it's not really Friday - but we are going to be crazy busy this weekend, so I wanted to share this with you today.

I'm offering the Bead of the Month Club for 2012 and you get a bonus month because I'm starting it in December!  The club will go from December 2011 until December 2012

This next round will be a little different - each month you'll receive an exclusive set of disk beads inspired by the paintings from the Art Bead Scene's monthly challenge.  Each package will ship on the 1st of the month.

Did I mention you'll save more than 1/2 off for this 12 month subscription?  I know, I know - but it is that time of year for deals that make your mouth drop right?  There are only 20 available - hmm early holiday gift to yourself - why not!

Click here for the complete scoop and to scoop up this deal.

And for those of you who want to pick up a few goodies my Black Friday - Cyber Monday Sale is 20% off orders from my Etsy shop.  Use discount code Holiday2011.  This will be my last sale for quite a while.  The sale starts today because I know you'll be all sorts of crazy busy this weekend too.

Happy Thanksgiving!

SNOW!

It's a case of life imitating art!

Yesterday was the first snow of the season.  Which led me to burst into song:

It's snowing, it's snowing, it's S-N-O-W-I-N-G!

Michigan is all together lovely - I thought I might feel a little sad when all the trees were bare, but I had forgotten how enchanting the woods are in their minimalist state.  Each time I'm outside I find myself completely overtaken by nature's abundance.

I'm looking forward to the Holiday Trunk Show at Bead Quest tomorrow.  

I'm off to work like a little elf finishing up a few more holiday beads.

Bead Table Wednesday

Charms and pendants waiting to be painted.

Enamel pieces that I made a few weeks ago while visiting my Aunt Rosanne.  

They are rough, but pretty cool and I will be using them in jewelry shortly.  

I would like to take a class to learn how to do it right, it was trickier than I thought it would be.

 And finally - the view from my window.  

AWESOME!

So that's what's on my Bead Table.  

What's on your table?

Check out the Bead Table Wednesday flickr group to see what's going on with other bead bloggers.

Holiday Happenings

I have three holiday events that are fast approaching.

The first one is this weekend, Saturday November 12th from 10-5pm at Bead Quest in Grand Rapids, MI.

Bead Quest is hosting their annual holiday event with several artists and a crystal event.  It should be quite the party.  I am teaching my nest class in the morning and then from 2-5pm I'm signing books.  My beads will be available throughout the day.  I am making lots of the new holiday items, they flew out of my Etsy shop as fast I could make them this weekend.  I have a feeling they will do well at the open house too.

(Photo credit: Bead Quest)

And speaking of making things quickly, I'm also preparing to take items for the South Haven Art Center for their annual Mistletoe Market.  That is a holiday boutique that goes from November 18th until December 11th.  I'm making lots of impulse buy items: pendants, earrings, hair pins, etc - it's a tourist town that is pretty slow in the winter, but the artsy folks in the area brave the cold and support local artists.  Don't you just love that?  Ah, that makes me feel nostalgic - I remember shopping for Christmas gifts at the Mistletoe Market when I was in high school and then selling at the market for many years when I was a budding jewelry designer.  Oh, those were the salad days.

And finally, my last event of the year will be the Artist's Market at the Urban Institute of Contemporary Arts.  We used to do this show back in the day too.  Now the UICA is all spiffy in their new big building and it's their 23rd annual show.  This will be the show I pull out the big guns and get all super high end creative with designs like the ones in my book. 

I haven't even started to explore Grand Rapids.  There are all these hip little shops in my old neighborhood - it's totally urban chic.  I want to go check out The Sparrows coffee shop - okay, I just love the name.  There are some wonderful galleries and shops and I'd like to visit.  Hopefully at the beginning of December when I slow down a bit and we are all settled here in GR.  

Overwhelmed - nope, not really.  Way more excited about living my dream everyday and rising to the challenge.

"And you could say, because it’s your right to, that you’re feeling “overwhelmed”. 

But don’t. Don’t go there. 

Stay with me, on the light side of change and bursting creativity; on the front end of pressure, and greatness, and the best and worst kinds of challenges." 

From Danielle LaPorte, read the whole blog post here: Strike "Overwhelmed" From Your Vocabulary. (Via MissFickleMedia on twitter - thanks Shannon!)

Snowy Woods Earrings

Stopping by Woods on a Snowing Evening

Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

(Photo credit: adapted from a photo by Mike Sandman.)

Hurry up snowflakes!

Free Earring Project 

Charms & more are 20% off until tomorrow.

Discount code HolidayPreview.

My Etsy Store

Holiday Charms

Yesterday I made a collection of tiny holiday charms.  You can find a fun pendant project on the Art Bead Scene today showing this technique.  Here is one using a Vintaj Arte Metal blank.

Here are two more holiday variations - so cute and fun!

Another fun idea with the tiny charms is to create a wire nest to surround one, these are simple and quick.  I sent a few of them to the Kingman Art Museum in Battle Creek where you can find a lovely collection of Nature Inspired Jewelry during their trunk show.

And I'm adding to my nest egg this weekend and I'm offering a Holiday Preview Sale and Free Gift.  Today through Monday save 20% off in my Etsy shop using discount code: HolidayPreview.  And below is the free gift - yeah for gifts, whether you are getting them or making them!

P.S. Christmas music is playing in the background as I write this.  I can almost smell the pine trees from here.

Birds: Hope and Strength

You know what I love?  Looking out a window into a snowy field, dark tree branches stretched across the sky - and then, you see it!  A tiny little red bird hopping from snow covered branch to snow covered branch.

Cardinals are a symbol of strength during trying times.  A symbol of life and hope during the cold winter months.  I like a bird that reminds us that even the frailest of creatures can endure hardship.

I'm eagerly awaiting the snow.  Fall has been amazingly lovely.  Nature's refuse sweeps across the landscape in warm shades of bronze, copper and gold.  I marvel at the the flame red bushes and Japanese maple.  But I'm secretly waiting for the morning I wake up to a world transformed by ice and snow.  Or better yet, look out my window to the magic of those fluffy white flakes.  When those berry red leaves will look like sugar-coated confections.

The change is drastic from Texas. I've made fast friends with soft, warm socks after 10 years of running barefoot for most of the year.  I've relished in finally being able to wear my sweet scarf collection - and not with sandals.  I wait more for the sunlight than before, the days get darker quicker.  It's taken a while to find the perfect spot to take photos of the beads.  I enjoy each contrast from the sun-drenched and brown land we lived in before.

Michigan is all together amazing.  I'm loving every minute as I feel the seasons change.

The cardinal and blue bird have been sitting on a page in my sketchbook, patiently waiting for me to find the time to bring them to life.  They look like little paintings.  I'm glad I finally had a chance whip them up!

 
My life has been filled with trials and joy.  With challenges and blessings.  Moving across the country has been exactly as it should be - life changing!  I finally feel like I'm catching up from it all and getting a handle on the new daily rhythm.  It's a new work schedule, more of a balanced life with lots of family time.  Life isn't quite settled, but it will be soon.  And through it all I've found strength I didn't know I had and a peace that guides me through each day.

"Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?" - Matthew 6:26