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beads 005
Originally uploaded by TLS Clay Design

Little did I realize while making all these differnet designs over the week that they all would work well grouped together. All you need is a few accent beads and a great necklace would be created.
Or... Cherin of Lanyardlady would make a beautiful lanyard from these. For some reason I think they need to be named Tuxedo Alley.

This is Spring?

On Friday it was 60 degrees here! I thought for sure Spring was on it's way. But mother nature said NO. Saturday morning I woke up to snow. I did manage to snap this picture of the Cardinals eating in my yard. I think they wondered what happened too because they were on the feeder all day long as if they were stocking up for winter.

Pink Popper!

This just in Lanyardlady's shop on Etsy! She amazes me, I make the simple bead and she makes the fabulous lanyard! Love her style and choices of coordinating beads.
You go girl!

The BSS Mode!

Ha! I'm not a camera dummy! After calming down and reading Cherin's post, i got out the handy dandy user manual and guess what? It's the BSS mode. Yes my friends a BSS mode. Which means best shot selector! Now go figure.

So, I have taken a picture of one of the beads and you tell me if it's good.

My Nikon Coolpix Camera

Ok, so I decided a month ago to buy a new camera thinking it would take better pictures. NOT.

I am contemplating throwing my camera across the room. I never thought a camera could cause high blood pressure... Seriously, I hate it.

All week long I have been working on new lentil beads that I have put alot of time into. Each bead is sanded by 3 different grits of sandpaper and buffed. Then I put a high gloss finish on them and they actually look like glass. Excited, I wanted to get the pictures and list on Etsy. NOT.

The camera is on the macro mode and no matter what I do it will not focus. Every picture is blurry. Changed the lighting and it is worse. I'm not sure if it is because they are so glass like. I don't have a clue what to do.

So in order to control my Irish temper, I decided I would write about it and maybe someone out there has the same problem and can tell the camera idiot what to do. Oh, I know, got to the bookstore and buy Camera for dummies.


Arghhhhhhhh

Let it snow!

We are in for some fun! This morning this table in my yard had no snow. It is now 4pm and still snowing heavily. They expect we will get 1 foot of snow by morning!
Pretty watching it fall sitting safely in my home. Driving home from work was not that good. But now I am safe. It will be interesting to see how much we get.

And the winners are ------------

Drum roll please

The winners of my exciting giveaway are:

Camaya59 and SwedeEPie

I had 2 winners at the same time! Hence a tie!

Congratulations!

Wooooohoooooooo

It's official! My 1000th sale on Etsy! Woooooohooooooo. Doing the happy dance.
Thanks to all my great customers for helping me achieve this goal so quickly!
A special thanks to Cathryn of Chile Cats for her generousity of the beautiful sets of jewelry for my winners.
Thank You Cathryn!

The Final Countdown!

As I am writing this, the final countdown to my 1000th Etsy sale is on! I am 15 short of reaching that goal.

In case you are just reading this, the 1000th customer sale will win a beautiful set consisting of a necklace and earrings made by Cathryn of Chile Cats!

Selling my beads is exciting for me! What is even more exciting is seeing the beads used in a finished project!

Can't wait to see who wins!

My Studio

Thought I would take a few pictures tonight of my clay studio and the mess I have created. I keep all my canes within reach because as I am creating a design I need everything within sight. Never know for sure exactly what I will need for that design until I begin to piece together. Sometimes the mess gets to me and I clean and organize. But for now, creating is too much fun!

My 1000th giveway prize

I have been very fortunate on Etsy selling my beads. I have had the pleasure of meeting many wonderful people and making new friends. Let me tell you about Cathryn. Cathryn has a serious bead addiction with my beads! Just love that girl! She has been a pleasure. We have become freinds through the year. She originally found me on Ebay and then Etsy. Cathryn came up with this great idea of a giveaway in celebration of my 1000th sale. She has made a beautiful set consisting of earrings and a necklace with my beads. They are lovely. You can view her work on her blog and get to know her better. Her blog name is Chile Cats. I am not computer savy to be able to put a link. I am hoping she will make a comment and insert her link for you.
I am just 50 sales short of reaching this goal. I am so excited! Thanks to Cathryn, I can share my excitement with a winner!

I'm in a treasury!

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=81785
Hope I did that right! I have been included in someone's treasury on Etsy!

Let it snow!

Wish the snow would have arrived Christmas, but it has been snowing all day now. The weather forecast says 3 inches, I think we will get more. It rained here all day yesterday and melted all the previous snow we received. I love watching it fall as I sit cozy and warm in my house, but hate it when I have to travel in it.

What is your weather like?

My daughter Jenny Chrismas Eve

We enjoyed Christmas Eve at my daughters new home! We took this picture of proof she does cook after all!
We all had a wonderful evening with family and friends.

My beaded garland

had to show a picture of the garland in case anyone gets ideas to create!

The tree is up!

Finally after many days of promising myself I managed to put my tree up. 5 hours to complete. Most of the time spent unwrapping ornaments from all the years I have accumulated the memories. It's funny how certain ornamnets you can remember exactly where you purchased and what that day was like. Then there are the ornamnets you have received as presents in previous years.

My tree has beaded garland on it! Of course I needed to have beads on my tree. That took 2 hours itself to unravel and place perfectly on the tree.

Now I can sit and enjoy my tree and can't wait for new ornaments to add to my memories.

Back in the day when I was a stay at home Mom, I decided to embark on the project from hell... I saw this pattern for a bead tree to make and I had never worked with beads at that time. I love miniature's and thought this was something I must have. Each branch is beaded with hundreds of seed beads and they shaped to look like a branch. Then all the branches were attached to the trunk. I also added beaded garland. Miniature ornaments added. They were difficult to find. This tree took me over 6 months to complete. I thought I would never finish it. Under the tree I placed miniature packages that are wrapped and miniature toys. A few years ago I found miniature lights that actually work and strung those on also.

This is a treasure of mine that I put out each year and will pass on to my daughter some day. I actually made it to be hers someday.

earrings

earrings
Originally uploaded by TLS Clay Design

My beautiful flowers my husband sent to me today at work on my birthday! Definite way to brighten your day...

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