As I promised here are the projects that I made with the new crystals I got from Artbeads.com. The earrings above used the Topaz Leaf Crystal Pendant that I chose. I added 4 mm crystals and pearls from my collection using head pins to make the dangles and joined them all together with a few different sizes of jump rings and now they are fun pair of fall earrings.
The 3 and 4 mm bi-cones in Crystal Heliotrope and the rivoli button went into this matching set of bracelet and necklace. I combined them with some seed beads and black oxide beads and used them while teaching my Flat Double Spiral and Single Spiral Rope Classes at Bead Boutique. Combining the Crystal Heliotrope with silver and Black Oxide makes for a very elegant set.

The Amethyst and Crystal Vitrail Light rivolis both went into these oh so subtle earrings above. They are loosely based on my new rivoli earring class that I will be teaching at Bead Boutique. With the addition on 6 mm facetted imitation alexandrite stones, a snap fittings and some sterling silver wire these earrings go well with the many purples in my wardrobe and jewelry. This is my first attempt at multi-tier wire wrapping and I really like how it turned out. I think I may have to try doing some wire wrapping that joins multiple cabochons or rivolis of different sizes to make unusual pendants or centers for a necklace.
These earrings are more closely related to the Wire Wrapped Rivoli Earring class although once again they have the addition of 6 mm snap fittings; this time with imitation emeralds. Here I have combined gold-filled wire with the sterling silver wire for a pair of earrings that work with either gold or silver jewelry. the emerald and crystal copper go really well together and give these earrings a very earthy feel.
Once again last but not least are my fishy earrings. Adding 4 mm bi-cones and 6 mm top drilled bi-cones in shades of blues to the fish pendants and I have glistening water for the fish to swim in.

• Email to a friend • Article Search • Related • View comments • Track comments • •

Recently I ordered some Swarovski crystals from Artbeads.com so that I could play with some new stuff and to try out some of the crystal that my LBS doesn't happen to carry. I made a small order and wanted to choose things that I could relatively quickly turn into finished pieces with the crystal and supplies I already have.

The photo above is my order all wrapped up in purple tissue paper which I think I will have to use in a collage once my studio is up and running. The photo below is all of my goodies laid out. What did I order? 100 each of the 3 mm and 4 mm Crystal Heliotrope bi-cones, 12 mm rivolis in Crystal Copper and Crystal Vitrail Light, 14 mm rivolis in Amethyst, 10 mm rivoli buttons in Crystal Meridian Blue, 2 of the brand new Fish Pendants in Crystal Golden Shadow and 2 of the smaller 16 x 26 mm leaf pendants in Topaz.
So what do I think of all of my new pretties and what are they getting made into? The bi-cones were a no brainer for me since I had previously purchased that color. Crystal Heliotrope is a hard color to find so I was thrilled when I saw they had it. It looks sort of grey with flashes of purple and blue so it is perfect when you want something refined with a bit of fun. These and the buttons are going into some spiral rope jewelry. The buttons are a a neat blue with flashes of pink and orange and other colors depending on the light and make great clasps.

The rivolis are all going into wire wrapped rivoli earrings which is one of my newer classes that I am offering at Bead Boutique. All of the colors are gorgeous. I've worked with both Amethyst and Crystal Vitrail Light before, the crystal copper is a new color for me and I really impressed with how rich it looked. I have loved the leaf shaped pendant since they came out with it but only recently had purchased some in the clear crystal for some winter leaf earrings so I was really looking forward to the topaz ones since I knew they would make wonderful fall earrings. Last but far from least is the brand new fish pendant which is one of the new Fall/Winter shapes from Swarovski. They looked cool online but in person they are so much better. They have such depth and facets to really catch the light. I may have to try more of these in some of their other colors. Fish earrings here we come.
With my order I got a Share the Savings Card that I would like to share with anyone who would be interested in checking out Artbeads.com for themselves. Although I just purchased crystal this time they have lots of other goodies. With the code I am including you can get 10% off your order through the end of the year. The code is SCF10P-ARTBEADS-0424. Now to figure out what I want to get next? Maybe some seed beads for next years Bead Journal Project which starts in January? MMMM.........

• Email to a friend • Article Search • Related • View comments • Track comments • •

Actually the truth is I seldom dream in color or even in images but the title is meant to suggest the fact that the last couple of months I have been a bit obsessed with color as I contemplate all of the colors I want to use in the new home we are building. I am probably going completely overboard but since after years of living in houses where all of the walls were white or off white I want to be surrounded by color. The photos for this post are of the paint strips and some of the curtain fabric that we have chosen.
We have pretty much chosen the colors we are planning on using and have a mere 11 colors. I know I am sure people are going to wonder if I am insane. (3 of those are blues, 4 purples, a grey and the rest are gold to copper.) We have decided to go with Harmony paints by Sherwin Williams. It is a no VOC so hopefully it won't be hard on my head. Most of the walls will eventually be painted. Most of the trim and ceilings will be left white as a crisp contrast. We will be putting in our own hardwood floors in lots of the rooms. Doing it ourselves will allow us to use hardwood on more floors and use a couple of woods that the builder did not carry like Purple-heart and Bloodwood.
I have ordered most of the fabrics I want for the curtains for the main rooms in the house and our Master suite. In my first wave of curtain making I am doing 18 curtain panels (all lined, 2 interlined) and 6 Roman shades. It will take a while but I have a really good start on the 8 curtain panels for our bedroom. It is a gorgeous navy blue silk dupioni fabric. It is a lot nicer to work with than I thought it would be. I am including photos of the house from the lot until it is painted and decorated in my web gallery. It has been a lot of fun watching it come together and I think that our builders (Quality Built Homes) has been doing a good job so far.

• Email to a friend • Article Search • Related • View comments • Track comments • •

Wayne and I have decided to take pictures as our new home develops so that anyone who wants to share in the journey can. We were having a hard time finding a house that had all of the things we needed and wanted so after looking and looking and trying to decide what we would be willing to compromise on we looked at some new construction and then looked at a couple of builders. Quality Built Homes had features that we liked and had a floor plan that with some modifications looked to be the closest to what we were looking for.
Some of the photos we are taking are going onto my web gallery. We try to get out to the house about once a week or so and it has been fun to see all the differences from one visit to the next. The first photo above is Wayne looking at one of the marker flags on the property. The next one is after they started digging for the basement.
Here the basement walls have been pored. The garage is closest to the camera. When I left for Iowa that was were we were in the construction. While I was gone Wayne took photos and put them on the gallery so that I could see them.
Here the first floor gets framed in. and while I was gone the second floor and roof went up and the windows started getting put in. The photo below is from my first visit once I got back. The shingles are on and most of the windows were in. When I visited on Monday all of the windows were in and a lot of the air handling systems were in although not all of them. We also had stairs to get between floors.
I am planning on keeping this going after we move into the house so we can document the hardwood floors that we are going to put in and all of the painting and other changes we are going to make to the house to make it our home. At this point a lot of my creative energy is going into making decisions for the house. Picking out colors (only 13 or so at last count), fabrics for curtains and Roman shades that I will make and other fun choices. I occasionally wake up from dreaming about house colors so it seems that I am definitely invested in this project. I hope that you will enjoy the ride with us.

• Email to a friend • Article Search • Related • View comments • Track comments • •