ROSE'S BEAUTIFUL NECKLACE AND BEAD CROCHET FRUSTRATION

ROSE'S BEAUTIFUL NECKLACE

Today at our beading club my sweet friend Rose came in with a necklace box.  Inside the box was the most incredible necklace.  She has been working on this all week and the ladies at the club were raving about her necklace.  Last year, Ronna Sarvas Weltman put out a book called "ANCIENT MODERN".  In the book was a necklace called "Serendipity's Sister".  It's made of polymer clay and it has textures and color and each bead has a place of it's own.  This is the book and this is a picture of the original necklace:

WELL, Rose came in with her necklace and I have to tell you, IT'S INCREDIBLE.

Here's Rose's Necklace:

Click on this picture to get a larger view of these beautiful beads and the incredible wire beads that she made to go in between.  Now, check out the clasp she made for this necklace:

Is that clever or what?  Wouldn't you like to hold this necklace?  The beads are so smooth and they feel so nice.  I guess I'm her number one fan and the president of her fan club.  Can't you tell??

Please send comments so I can pass them on to her.  If you could see this in person, you would be amazed.

BEAD CROCHET FRUSTRATION

Three years ago a friend taught me how to bead crochet.  I have been crocheting since I was 5.  I thought this would be a snap.  HA.  Didn't like it three years ago and said I would never do it again but all the women at bead club are doing it and it looked really easy so I thought maybe some new, easy method popped up since I last did it so I bought a big bag full of Tuff Cord and I strung 40 inches of beads.  Took 3 people to figure out how to start it so I could understand.  They all do it a different way.  Finally got someone to start it and show me how.  It's now 8 hours later and I have exactly 4 inches done.  I'm not stopping till I get good at this.  I even watched a lady on youtube do it.  This is what I've done so far:

It's really pretty but I have to make sure the beads are going the right way.  I'm sure by the time I'm 75 I'll get this figured out.

SISTER-SISTER

My sister left yesterday after 8 days of going, going, going.  We noticed how quiet it is here.  Even the cat has been looking for her in the guest bedroom.  We had a lot of fun and got to do many things I normally wouldn't do.  She did finish a set of wire wrapped cheese things so I gave her some of my extra jewelry tools like round nosed pliers, nippers and flat nose pliers.  I also gave her some 20 gauge wire and some beads to take home with her.  She snuck some lemons in her suitcase and the food chopper we bought at Bed, Bath and Beyond.  My husband is still laughing.  He always tells his friends he's "going on a pleasure trip" when he takes my family back to the airport to leave.  Ha ha ha.  Anyway here is the set she finished:

I know this is pretty wordy tonight.  I think it's because I'm tired.

Back to the bead crocheting, I'm going to conquer this.

SISTER - SISTER, MORE GOLF STROKE COUNTERS AND I'M TIRED

Sister is still here and running me ragged.  Went to the Arizona Opry in Mesa Saturday.  If you get a chance to go, it's awesome.  $29 for a very nice lunch and a two hour show.  The show was great.  Friday we spent the day in Wickenburg shopping with friends.  Sunday we went to the pool, walking and to a friends for a barbeque, today it's walking, pool, and off to Westgate to ride the bull at the Saddle Back Ranch Restaurant. LOL.  Me and bulls don't get along so it won't be me riding that bull.

In between we've had a little craft time.  I'm teaching her how to wire wrap  (she's hit me with the wire 3 times and she only gets one more chance and then I punch her) while I do my golf stroke counters.  She found a box of polymer clay pieces that I was experimenting with and decided she wanted some so I converted them to pendants for her.

Her wire wrapping is getting better, here's some pictures:

I did the one on the left and she did the one on the right.

GOLF STROKE COUNTERS

Here are a few more golf stroke counters that I finished that are going to Illinois:

The bottom set is made from the beads I published in an earlier post from the extruded cane beads.  Didn't think I would like the orange and red together but they look good and are very cheery.

FLAPPING ARMS

Hey ladies, do you have those flapping arm wings?  When you wave goodbye is the skin under your arm still waving even when you quit?  Ha ha ha.

Sister and I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond and I bought this WEIGHT SHAKE thing.  It's suppose to firm up your flabby arms.  So far all it's done is give me a headache and scare the cat.  It's fun and I can feel it.  I'll let you if it works.

You hold it in both hands and shake it up and down and all your fat moves at one time.  WHOOHOO

SISTER'S PENDANT

This is the piece Susie decided she wanted so we put a bail on it and off it goes to Illinois with all the wire wrapped forks, some of my beads, lots of wire and 10 bracelets I made her.

SISSY

This is my girl Sissy.  I asked her to get up on the chair and told her to look at me so I could take her picture and she did exactly what I told her to.  She's so smart and so much fun.  Her mom gets mad because I tie her ears together but she doesn't care.  LOL

Sister needs me to help her with her wire wrapping.  ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ 

WIRE WRAPPING, SISTER-SISTER

My sister from Illinois has been here since Monday night. (Opened the first bottle of wine)  I feel like I'm on a wild goose ride.  We've been on the go since Tuesday morning.  Haven't had a lot of time to do polymer but I did show her a few things and she was really surprised.  She still teaches children with autism, ADD and children who were preemies when they were born and have learning disabilities.  Not sure when she will retire so she doesn't really have time for hobbies right now except drinking wine.  (Tuesday we went to the neighbors and opened the second and third bottle).

At our craft fair last weekend I bought a gift for my girlfriend for her birthday which I can't show on here yet in case she looks at my blog but it had something to do with wire wrapping silver ware.  My sister saw it and asked if I could teach her how to do it.  I had a set of cheese server pieces here so we wire wrapped two of them and here they are:

She gave the one on the left to the neighbors as a gift.  She's there now drinking wine.  I left after one glass.

Big day tomorrow, off to Wickenburg to find some cowboys.  She wants to meet a real cowboy, OH BOY

Time to crash and get ready for another big day with SISTER-SISTER looking for cowboys.  WHOOPEE.

SUPRISE SPOTLIGHT AND MY FURRY FRIENDS

I was really surprised this morning when I turned the computer on and there was a Cindy Lietz email with pictures of my buttons and one of my golf stroke counters.  She is spotlighting some of the work of the people who belong to her website and there were my glow in the dark buttons and antique looking buttons and my red, white and blue buttons and the golf stroke counter that I made from her flower cane tutorial.  That was really nice.  If you want to see the pictures and all the wonderful comments you can see it here at;
http://www.beadsandbeading.com/blog/ .  Here are pictures of the buttons up close and the bead stroke counter that I made with the flower cane that Cindy did the tutorial on.

This is the golf stroke counter made with the extruded flower cane.

SCOOTER, BEAU AND ANNIE

It's been a long time since I had some pictures of my friends Scooter, Beau and Annie posted on here.  I got to spend Sunday night with them.  Annie had a little red hat on and a cherry dress but I missed that picture.  But here are my buddies:

ANNIE

EXTRUDED FLOWER CANE BEADS

I needed to make some more beads for golf stroke counters and I really like Studio by Sculpey clay so I thought I would try it.  It wouldn't condition enough to go through the extruder correctly but I did get a nice outer pattern so I used that to make beads and then I added some pearl to the colors that I was using and it went through the extruder perfectly.  I haven't bake these yet because my sister is here and it's taking me two days to make beads :0).  I tried last night after we had our wine and we laughed so much I couldn't make beads but this is what I have so far:

Want to thank everyone on Cindy's blog for all the nice comments and support about the spotlight.

SISTER-SISTER AND GIVEAWAY

This is going to be a short blog tonight because I haven't had much time.  My sister is here visiting me from Chicago.  She's 8 years younger than I am and she wears me out.  Today we went for a pedicure and manicure and then went shopping and bought some new purses and all kinds of fun stuff.  We've been doing a little wine so my pictures are blurry but we are having fun.

I do want to mention a beautiful blog titled "IN THE LIGHT OF THE MOON".  Her name is Cat Kerr and she's a mixed media artist and does beautiful work.  Please visit her blog at http://inthelightofthemoon.blogspot.com/.  She does great pendants with resin and I'm going to win the one she has on the blog.

Please visit her blog the music is so relaxing especially after two glasses of wine.