what have I been up to for last 2 months

Well looks like I have done nothing in last couple of months, NOT TRUE.  Check out my pics.  I entered the local county fair, for the first time, and each item I entered got a blue ribbon.  Of course, everything entered got some type of ribbon, but there were very few seed bead items, mostly just strung jewelry, for I am hopeful for next year, especially since I will have more than a week to make the items.  The earrings are a few of the items I am making for my first craft show in December.  Wish me luck

Puget Sound Bead Festival Loot

Am posting pics of all the gorgeous loot I acquired last weekend in Tacoma, WA at the Puget Sound Bead Festival.  I tried to put a business card by the items where I could.  I got the wildly bohemian beads from Bello Modo, but ended up buying a LOT of stuff from their website, with a nice little 20% off coupon they gave out at the show.  Some of my favorite vendors were Grace Lampwork beads, and got to meet Grace herself, who was a wonder and sweet person.  Also, Sonoran Beads, and Stars Clasps were both a couple of my favorites, they all have websites you can check out.

garden bead necklace

Took a class today and made a really cute necklace.  For some reason can't upload pictures, but will load tomorrow if blogger lets me.   Class has given me lots of ideas for other necklaces though

spiral stitch learned

Well, after 2 weeks, and multiple attempts, have finished 3 bracelets and one necklace using spiral stitch.  I used 2 different patterns from 2 sources, and the best thing from that is I picked up a couple of different tips which helped a lot.  I enjoyed learning this, wasn't nearly as hard as it looked in the magazine.  My moaning earlier about sources disappearing on the internet was the result of wanting to make the necklace I have posted here.  Will post one of the bracelets later, is currently involved in a swap and don't want to publish pix before my swap partner gets the bracelet.  It's funny how intimidating those little charts in magazines are, but after a couple of false starts, which I just cut apart, these went together quickly.   Think I spent less than 20 total hours on 18" necklace and 3 bracelets.

Pretty things has a give away

Check out Pretty things blog http://www.prettythingsblog.com/ for a really nice give away from Bead and Button Show

Belated birthday

So of course, being slightly befuddled, I thought my niece's birthday was the 6th of June, instead of the 4th.  So again will be late with her present, but here is a sneak peak, I hope she likes it.  The focal bead is from Green Girl Studios, which I bought a long time ago.