LET'S GO GOLFING-------FORE

Many years ago a friend of mine bought me a very expensive golf stroke counter and it was made of plastic.  It was nice but my friend said "why don't you make some of these with your polymer clay beads?"  The first time I put them in my Etsy shop I sold 10 counters in a week and got orders for more.  For a while, I wasn't keeping up very well with my Etsy shop but I decided it was time to get back into it.  I sell the counters for $15 and shipping and I know with all the work I put into them I'm not making any money but if I raised the price, I wouldn't sell any either.

These are a few of the latest ones I put in my shop.  I make the beads, bake them, put three coats of glaze on them and bake them again.  Every counter has some glitzy beads on the bottom.  They can be used to keep track of how many times you walk around the block and how many times you let the dog out.  

Here's my Etsy Shop check it out.

I'm going golfing.

It's a Wonderful Day

A week ago I was told I had a fractured hip.  Finally got in to see an orthopedic surgeon yesterday and I worship the ground this guy walks on.  He did range of motion tests, spent an hour with us going over my x-rays and told me I didn't have a fracture that I have bursitis in my hip and disc damage which I knew.  So, I got a cortisone shot and am now on a major exercise and stretch program.  My advice here is get a second opinion, don't wait for doctors to call you, keep calling them and if you can find an older doctor, go for it.  I have two doctors in their 70's now and I love both of them.  That's that for that.

 

This is my 9th Kumihimo Americana bracelet and I have orders for 8 more.  I want to do clay but haven't had time to get to it.

 

 

This is the Seaside bracelet I made.  Love these colors and since I have 200,000 megatamas, I better get to work.  LOL

 

I bought the Barb Fajardo tutorial from CraftArtedu. on how to make Mimbres Pendants.  Our clay guild had a 2 day class with her last weekend but I couldn't go because I thought I had a fractured hip and couldn't sit for two days.  I'm hoping to try it this week.  The girls in my guild made some beautiful pieces and said it was a wonderful class and she is a great teacher.

 

 

I was going to finish my afghan the other day and found a surprise inside.  Buster loves afghans but this was really special.  He's been a joy even though he wakes me up at 5 in the morning.

 

CAT IN THE HAT AND EARRING IN THE EAR

I saw this picture of a Cat in the Hat and have been trying to find one.  I wonder if someone wore this to the Royal Wedding???????????  I sure would like one but I want a gold tiger cat in mine.

EARRING IN AND BEHIND THE EAR

I'm still making earrings for my 96 year old friend in the nursing home in Wisconsin.  She requested a two part earring with snow flakes.  I used Penny Jo Couch's mold with the snow flake and put glitter on this one.  The snow flake is glued to a post and the earring backing has beads on it.  I have to make some for myself, I really like them.

I'll post more when I get them done.  I think these would look great with the Cat in the Hat hat. 

HELP ME, I'M AN ADDICT

How much clay and how many beads can one person have?  We need to start an organization for people like me who can't stop buying polymer clay and beads.  We can call it PBA (Polymer Clay and Beaders Annonymous).  Oh no, that's taken (Professional Bowler's Association).  Well, if you come up with a name let me know and we'll have the first meeting at my house.

Yesterday we took my friend Judy out for her birthday.  We went to Tempe to one of Arizona's biggest beading stores first.  I didn't need anything.  My bag weighed 7 pounds when we left.  Then we went to a huge art supply store.  I didn't need anything.  They had Premo clay.  They had all the new colors for $2.09 for a 2 ounce bar and they had 1 pound bars for $10.99.  I already have 420 bars of clay.  Now I have 435.  We went to lunch downtown Tempe at a place called House of Tricks.  Awesome food but my GPS didn't tell me that yesterday was ASU's graduation in Tempe.  Hope those kids find jobs.  From there we went to a beading store in Peoria that was having a 50% off of everything sale because the road is going to be paved for a week and they knew business would be bad.  I didn't need anything.  Spent $56 but got out paying $28 because of the sale.  Now I can't find room to put all this stuff.  AM I THE ONLY ONE?

I did some clay work this week trying to get my mind off Booboo.  I made this pendant and matching earrings.  I wore it yesterday when we went out.  It wasn't wired the way I wanted it to be but when I opened a package of coiled wire, the wire sprang out and ripped a slice in my thumb one inch long.  Couldn't hold anything for 2 days.

It's a form of Mokume Gane and has Magic Glos on it.  By the way, my cameras are acting funny again.  I think they are going through MENopause.  If you click on this you can see it better.

BEADED BEAD

In the August 2008 issue of Bead and Button there is a pattern in there for a beaded bead.  It's actually right angle weave with two needles and is very simple.  I made a bead and it's beautiful but it's a big honking thing.  I used some size 11, gold seed beads on it and after handling it a couple times, the gold rubbed off.  Can't remember where I got these.  I've started a herringbone necklace to put it on and I'm using the same seed beads.  The gold is coming off again.

I'll post a picture when I'm done.   Cameras  and I weren't getting along today.

TILA BEAD EARRINGS

I bought a ton of Tila Beads (two hole beads).  I love making these earrings.  I put 3 pair in my Arfire store at http://www.artfire.com/users/BLeeKreations.  Since I over bought (:0) on those also, I'm selling the earrings very cheap.  At least this keeps me out of the bar and off the streets.

My relatives don't want any more jewlery.

I wonder if we can take over AA and just call it BA and PCA.  I know I'm not alone in this!!!!!!

Goodnight Booboo.

SHALL I BEAD OR SHOULD I DO CLAY???????? HMMMMM

Yesterday I taught my friend Judy how to do Peyote Stitch.  She loves it.  I thought we would just practice a piece first BUT NO, she just wanted to jump right in.  I started her with the Bumps in the Road pattern and decided to do it with her so it would be easier for her to see.  Of course I couldn't let it sit there, I had to finish it.  This is the one I made, Judy's will be done soon and I'll post it.

In the meantime, I have all this new Premo clay calling my name.   The colors are incredible.  So, do I bead tonight or do I do clay or iron clothes?  I think I'll hide the ironing so that will be one less decision to make.

I bought some necklaces from a guy at a fair not too long ago.  They were all Chinese crystals.  He was selling them so cheap I had to buy a bunch.  Took them apart and put them on this bracelet.  I almost made a golf stroke counter out of these beads, glad I didn't.

The polymer beads were done with a Kaleidoscope Cane, all the spacer beads are the ones I bought and I can't even tell you how many I have.  Obsessive Compulsive when it comes to beads and clay.

Today my friend Judy and I went to Prescott and had a nice lunch.  I visited their snow and left it there.  We stopped at a little art shop that had wonderful things.  I have a bunch of these Colorbox Molding Mats but he had some I've never seen so those came home with me.

The top one is called Houndstooth Check and the bottom one is called Starry Swirls.  I'm going to have to build a room just for all my texture sheets and texture tools.

Another thing he carried in this store were these awesome clay shapers.  The black tipped one is huge and is a little harder than the gray tipped one.  He had every shape and every size.  I use my tiny ones all the time, I'm guessing these are going to be in the container marked "MY FAVORITE TOOLS" along with Christi Freisen's tools which I really love.  I put the golf ball there so you could see how big the shapers are not because I played golf at Torrey Pines.  I went there and bought two golf balls and a golf ball marker.  I'm not the Torrey Pines kind of golfer.  I'm the "oops, I think I hit another ball in the water" kind of golfer.  LOL

Back to work, found a 3 pound bag of beads in the back of the closet that I forgot I had.  Need to find a home for them.  I spilled about 2000 and some went in Booboo's bed so he's not a happy cat.

MORE ANNIE AND BEAU AND BEADS

Is she cute or what? She got her hair cut last night so she doesn't really need the barette anymore. She also has some new outfits that her aunt Susie bought her. I guess I'll have to crochet a jacket and scarf for her so she doesn't get cold.

Ok, this is my good friend Beau watching Bev feed Annie.  He's an awesome dog and sweet as can be.  He hasn't totally warmed up to Annie yet but I think he will.  I'm guessing he's going to be a great, big brother.  I'm waiting for more pictures of Annie with her hair cut and then I'll post them.

These two beads were made by my friend Judy who just got over having surgery and radiation for breast cancer.  She's doing great now and we hope it stays that way.  The bead on the left started out as a Casablanca bead.  You can find the instructions for that at http://www.desiredcreations.com/.  It was done by Desiree McCrory and they are beautiful no matter what colors you put together.  However, Judy never does things normal when it comes to clay.  She finds ways to put twists on things like she did with both of these beads.  The one on the right is actually translucent and she put a ton of colored leafing in it and streaks of black clay.  It really looks better in person.  This was the bead I got in the bead exchange at Christmas.  I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it so I wire wrapped it and I love the way it turned out.  Thank you Judy.

I just finished this today.  It's the first time I've done a double wrap.  These two beads came from the left overs when I made my Casablanca beads.  I made a black velvet cord necklace for it because it's a little heavier than normal but not bad.  Tomorrow I'm going to a luncheon for the woman who was the president of a craft club that I belong to here in Arizona.  She's a really sweet lady so some of her close friends decided to have a luncheon for her to show her how much we appreciated everything she has done in the past year.

Back to work, have some other gifts to make that didn't get done before Christmas so they will be New Year's presents.

Thanks for visiting my blog.  Check out Etsy and Polymer Clay Artist's Guild of Etsy.  When you go to the Etsy website, type in PCAGOE.  They are a very talented group and would really appreciate the support.