Macro Sunday: Inside Your Closet

Another Macro Sunday is upon us.

Since I was out of town the past two days, I really hadn't thought much about my macro shot(s) for today. Oops!!  Since the February Photo-a-day prompt for today is "Inside Your Closet", I went with that.

These are all sections of a pretty little purse I have hanging in my closet.

There's more I Heart Macro Sunday over at Studio Waterstone!

Tutorial: Bead Tangles

Last week, I revealed my need for a sketchbook and mentioned that I might share with you some of the ideas that have been developed in said sketchbook. Here's one I'm calling a Bead Tangle.

My first test in gold-tone craft wire

This is the sketchbook entry I made.

To test out this idea, I gathered my supplies

Wire (24g) and a mix of small beads

Since I was just testing out the idea, I decided to use craft wire and seed beads.
I also used some minimal tools

Round nose pliers, flat nose pliers, and wire cutters

And so I set to work. . .(please pardon my nails in these pictures, I knew it was time to remove the paint, but just hadn't gotten to it yet.)

I started by cutting about a yard of wire. Longer lengths will make larger tangles.

Wrap the end of the wire a few times around the round nose pliers

Hold the loops, bend the wire, add a bead, and begin wrapping the wire randomly around itself.

Add more beads and wrap some more

Continue to add beads and wrap, building up the tangle larger and larger

About halfway through the wire, add a wrapped loop (Sorry this pic is lousy)

As you continue wrapping and adding beads, you'll notice open areas under the wire. Weave the end of the wire through these areas to secure the wire. Then wrap and weave (adding beads as you go)

In areas where the wire seems loose, use the end of your round nose pliers to simply twist that wire taught

As you come to the end of your wire, leave an inch or two free

Use that end to wrap some more around the base of the loop formed earlier

Secure the wrapping with the flat nose pliers, tighten up any other loose areas,  and you're done!!

While I know these aren't high-end jewelry components, I love the pops of color the mix of seed beads give them. I can see forming these around a skewer or straw to make a bead or making loops at either end to produce a connector of sorts. There are loads of possibilities. I'd love to hear your ideas as well!

BTW: Shabby Beads

It's that time again, Bead Table Wednesday!

I guess technically, it's that DAY again. . .but whatever.

Since I probably bored y'all to tears yesterday with all my bullet points, I'll try to keep today's post short and sweet.

The big question is "What's on your bead table today?"

Mine looks like this.

Oh the mess!

Because I've been making these

Shabby Beads

Head on over to the Bead Table Wednesday Flickr Group

Bead Table Wednesday

and show off "What's on YOUR bead table today!"

Beady Bullet Points

I'm just popping in to make a few announcements and share a few things, so I'll try to do it in bullets.

•  I got a bunch of happy mail yesterday (see above)!!
• For one, Mellisa at Chinook Jewelry picked me to be on her Chinook Blog Partner Design Team this month. Here's what I found in the mail from her. The reveal will Feb. 27th. I'm so excited to have been chosen for this and even more excited to be designing around a BLUE BUTTON!!
• Also in the mail was this awesome Rainbow Heart from Tree Wings Studio. 
• Lastly, I ordered a grab bag of Pottery Pendants and Beads from Captured Moments and was pleasantly surprised to find it bursting at the seams! 
• I'll be sending out some mail soon too as I signed up for the 7000 Bracelets of Hope Blog Hop.   It's being hosted by Erin of Elysian Studios and Christine of One Kiss Creations. You can sign up to participate in this wonderful cause on either of their blogs. The Hop will be on Feb 25th.
• I'm still steadily trying to get pictures edited of new jewelry so that I can write descriptions and get some new jewelry int he shop. Until then, I've placed quite a few items on sale from 10-30% OFF! One of the sale items is this necklace which has proven to be quite popular (going by the number of people who have favorited it!)

  

  Like the Wind Necklace

• Even though I've been working on pictures and descriptions, I'm also trying to be creatively productive. I've been focused on making some Shabby Beads to include in the shop. Here's a peek.
• GIVEAWAY ALERT!!  Lastly, I happened to notice that over at Copper Diem, there's THREE POUNDS OF BEADS being given away. Head on over there to find out more!

So that's it for now. I tried to be concise and to the point with all this info. Did I forget anything?

The Madness of Monday (& a Meal Plan)

While Sunday is the real calendar-start to each week, Monday is the start of when the work needs to get done. As such, I'm always a little overwhelmed each Monday morning as I look over what I need to do for both the day and the week. After a few deep breaths (and coffee), I begin.

First and foremost to the week is my menu. If nothing else gets done, at least I have an idea of what we'll eat!!

Breakfasts: cereal/oatmeal, raspberry parfaits w/bagels, peanut butter toast, blueberry greek yogurt pancakes

Lunches: leftovers, tuna salad pita sandwiches, turkey sandwiches, spicy Thai noodles

Dinners: 

Beef with Snow peas & rice

Turkey spaghetti w/salad

Chicken Fajitas

Ham and potato soup

There's more Meal Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie.


Let me do a quick review of some of our meals from last week.

• New to us was the Minestrone Soup. This was a light version. Neither of us has ever had a real minestrone soup so I don't know how this compares, but we really liked it. Let me say that it doesn't blow other soups out of the water or anything, but it was definitely tasty!
• Last night we tried the Maple Mustard Chicken Thighs. Because we went for a long walk yesterday, the chicken didn't get to marinade as long as Holly suggested. However, they were really fabulous anyway. I know I'll be making that marinade again!
• We had grilled shrimp the other night and it was GOOD!! This is the one I REALLY wanted to share with you!  I didn't have a plan for the shrimp but I knew I wanted a simple,light marinade on the shrimp before I had Pat throw them on the grill. I looked around at a few marinade recipes before deciding to just make my own. I used bottled lime juice, olive oil, 2 garlic cloves (grated), and a sprinkling of chipotle powder. That was it. I let the shrimp sit in the marinade for an hour or so before they were thrown on the grill (about 2-3 minutes each side.) We have a basket thing that we cooked them in, but I would have used skewers had we not had the basket. So yummy!

Anyway, I've still got so much more I want to cover with y'all but that may have to wait for another blog post. Instead, let me share that I am finally getting back on the ball and actually re-listed something in the shop. Exciting huh!?

Around the Globe Necklace

Be prepared that I might actually get another post up today. . .or I might wait for tomorrow to share more news with you. I can't decide. I still have loads of photos to edit and descriptions to write as well as some tasks on the craft desk plus the grocery shopping and whatnot. Goodness, now my head is spinning with all that I've got to do.

Do Monday's make you feel this way too?
I guess I better get to it!

Macro Nature Walk

In our attempt to be more active and healthy, Pat and I went on a nature walk/hike this afternoon. Since I didn't have any pictures ready yet for I Heart Macro Sunday, I decided it would be the perfect opportunity to capture some. (They'll be toward the end of the post. . .sorry)

We went to the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge on Fort Morgan Road in Gulf Shores.

Trail Sign

 It was really cool how the trail varied so much from one area to the next.

Shaded by oaks

Open up to the lagoon

Thick with Foliage

There was so much going on, it wasn't hard to find some great textures and subjects for macro shots.

Mexican Heather

A fallen palm log

Palm leaves

Cool twigs and berries

After four miles, we were pooped out and hungry. However, we were definitely pleased with ourselves and I was happy to have gotten some pictures to share with y'all.

Check out all the other I Heart Macro coolness over at Studio Waterstone.

How was your Sunday? Shoot...how was the whole darn weekend?

Sketch or Forget

If you stopped by here yesterday, you saw my photo for the prompt "Words." I spent a portion of the previous day considering what my subject would be before settling on the canvas I made Pat.

Before making my decision, one of the main subjects that kept coming back to me was my sketchbook.

There are A LOT of words in there. I've found that it's imperative that I have some writing materials near me at all times because ideas will just pop into my brain no matter where I am. And if don't get these ideas written down (play epic disaster music with lots of drums now,) they just FALL OUT OF MY HEAD! It doesn't matter how enthusiastic I am about these ideas/designs or how much I swear I won't forget them, if I don't write it down it's gone. Sigh.

Now don't get me wrong, my book is not just full of jewelry ideas, but marketing ideas, blog topic suggestions (this was one of them), color combinations, craft experiments, poetry, doodles, straight-up journaling, links or websites to remember, lists of supplies, and so much more.

If I don't have my exact sketchbook with me, I'll just draw something out on anything. The other day I was in my car in the bank drive through when an idea came to me. Fortunately, there was a slip of notebook paper in the seat next to me to get the stroke of inspiration written down.

Since I know that I have a horrible memory, I write down just about everything I can. However, sometimes the ideas and memory-jogs that go into the book don't translate as well later. I've got quite a few design ideas that I just can't seem to decipher. It's a shame really because I'm sure I was really excited about those ideas when they came to me.

Right now I'm trying to keep up the momentum of getting all my ideas in the book, no matter how tiny they are or how out of this world. So it's filling up faster than usual. I like that. As well, I'm in the process of going through my sketchbook and attempting to actually make the ideas and designs come to life. I've had some successes as well as some failures.

Many of the successes (or what I consider a success) end up in the shop.

Bubbles Ascending Necklace

Many of the bad ideas never get made, but some have to be tried in order for me to discover what a bad idea it was, like this necklace.

I was going for a waterfall effect, but it just keeps tangling.

As I work through my sketchbook and ideas, I may be sharing some of them with you here. For now, though I'm just going to keep plodding through it.


Today I'm working on one of those inspirations that just HIT. You've probably seen them before, my Shabby Beads. My painted fingers were the perfect subject for today's February Photo A Day Challenge prompt.

Day 3: Hands

Also, there's a few GIVEAWAYS going on that I thought I'd share:

• Pips is offering up some of her Petal and Flower Capped Beads for just leaving a comment. So easy!!
• Over at Second Surf, there's a massive leather giveaway going on with several ways to enter. Get to it! 

What do you do when inspiration strikes? Do you have a sketch/idea book too or do you have other methods? I'd love to know.

Words For Valentine's Day

I've found that ever since we got this desktop set up in the living room. I haven't ventured very far from it. This means I've only gone into the craft room to gather my photography supplies. I think I need to remedy that issue this afternoon. Of course, I still have LOADS of photos to take and edit. . . .Oh well, I need a crafty break!

Today is Day 2 of the February Photo a Day Challenge and the topic is Words.

Here's the picture I captured.

Day 2: Words

I made this canvas for the hubs back in October for our anniversary. I thought it would be perfect to share today as Valentine's Day begins to creep up on us. Here's a link to my Sign of Love tutorial and a better shot of the finished piece.

I've got a notebook full of crafty jewelry ideas but am at a loss for what to make HIM for Valentine's Day this year. I was going to share some of the neat items I've made for Pat int he past for Valentine's, but all I can find documented is this Valentine's one from 2010. I wonder what's up with that. . .
Anyway, have you found or made any cool V-day projects? I'd so welcome the suggestions!

Picture This: BTW and Photo-a-Day (Day 1)

I should have probably explained yesterday that I had no problem at all with the multitude of FAILs written all over the blog. I knew I wouldn't get to all the goals in the first month and am really proud of what I have been able to accomplish so far. I've got no worries about it, and y'all shouldn't either!

I do have a long list though, so let's make this as short as possible.

It's Bead Table Wednesday!!

There probably won't be any beads on my table today as I'm still trying to play catch up. 

Yesterday was full of photographing completed jewelry.

Using my new photo tent, cooking dinner (crockpot), and washing dishes (dishwasher); I'm a multi-tasking fool!!

Today's plans are to edit those images. JOY!

Bead Table Wednesday

Join in the BTW fun in the Flickr Group.

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm participating in Fat Mum Slim's February Photo-a-Day challenge.

Day 1: Your View Today

The view from the desktop where I'll be editing those pictures.

It's time to get to it. What's your day look like?