Superstars on a Friday night…

Last minute planning has never been my forté, and it showed in the Superstars notification I sent out last night/wee hours this morning. I forgot to tell everyone where to go! Thanks Cory for pointing that out, as I never would have noticed. But rather than bother everyone again (and distract myself away from writing descriptions and editing photos) with another mass email, here’s a peep at what’s to come and a link direct to the Superstars page and a hope that most of you will see it here:

z-beads superstars, april 2013 – click us to get to the superstars page!

Don’t miss us tonight… 7:30PM Central time for the sale preview, then on to 8PM Central Time to send in those requests.

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Oh, and check out the jewelry I’ve been working on for a while now, and finally completed last week:

think I might like stars? I kinda do…

At least one of these pieces is already claimed, but one of them, still not sure which one yet, could show up for sale in a bit. I was pleased to be able to work on these in my newly arranged bead cave on my new big work surface. Which I promptly proceeded to pit out with multiple projects:

and I collect cool ashtrays and use them as catch-alls for little things

And maybe after the sale dust settles I’ll have some extra time to work on my wire-wrapping skills this weekend. Connie Fox has a few free tutorials on her Jatayu website under the Education link: www.jatayu.com… She also has high quality tools at very good prices in her warehouse store (same website). Give it a look!

I should get back to work on the sale stuff… it’s a cool and overcast day, perfect for working at the computer and listening to the cats argue about who gets to sit in the window. I hope to see you there tonight!

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ETSY!

Click HERE to visit my shop or the thumbnails below for each item.

Green Ice:

Humble Adobe:

So far, it’s been just the kind of April I like. Chilly, even. I think back to this time last April, and we had the A/C on. Today, after a warm, tumultuous and stormy yesterday, is a cool 46 degrees. I wonder what I’ll do… make beads on my vacation from making beads, hopefully.

Hope you guys enjoy today’s beads. I’m sorry there wasn’t more, I hope to get a good bunch of beads made before next Thursday rolls around.

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Lately…

I find myself gravitating towards activities that will keep my body moving. Jewelry, yes, that will hold my attention. Pulling staples out of a wall is endlessly fascinating, please, Dad, let me do the entire room, I’m here, I might as well. Mopping the kitchen floor never seemed so appealing.

Dare I say I need a vacation from lampworking. Or at least from worrying about it.

So I’m officially on vacation.

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And this is how I’m going to trick myself into making beads. This is how I inspire myself to do things I don’t want to do for whatever reason. I tell myself and everyone I know, haughtily and defiantly, that I will most certainly NOT do that, whatever “that” may be, and nobody can make me. Because when I say it out loud it sounds so much more ridiculous than it did in my head and I hear for myself how silly I am.

I completely rearranged the bead cave over this last week or so, and the space got rearranged in such a way that will better lend it to jewelry making. I had no choice but to work on jewelry last night because of some severe lightning storms that moved through – I don’t even bother turning the kiln on during that. With the new arrangement, it was much easier to move around and find things. I’m hoping to have something new to show you in the way of jewelry very soon. I’ve been practicing wire-wrapping and I think that finally, FINALLY, wire and I may have found a way to co-exist.

And what else happened? Oh, we found out Nelson has a strange fear of things that move very slowly toward him, but it seems to be one thing in particular. We discovered this by accident the other night – Mom and I were standing in the kitchen by the sink. We keep a little rag rug right there to soak up the splashing and I was standing on it and leaning against the counter, which caused the rug to slide ever so slightly. Nelson was nearby and I noticed him staring at it, eyes bigger than the saucers we had just washed, and the closer it inched toward him, the further he backed away, never taking his eyes off of it.

I decided to see how far we could take this, and we ended up all the way in the living room. Nelson went in reverse the entire time, he never took his eyes off the rug and never turned his back. He didn’t try to hide from it, so we figured it wasn’t too frightening to him and we found it highly entertaining. We put the rug back in the kitchen but poor Nelson was still spooked without the rug. In fact, we became concerned when he was still very spooked after three hours – he was startling at every small movement and appeared to be hallucinating. He calmed down after a while, but that poor cat! I wonder what that’s about. He’s generally very keen at making connections between us and things that happen – he understands that we are making his toys do what they do and he’s very good at transitioning between play and affection. So to us, it would stand to reason that he’d be able to see that WE are making the rug move. But he just can’t make this connection, no matter how we’ve tried to get him to see it. He’s just a character I guess, and we’ll try our best not to scare the pee out of him.

And there are these beads. I’m going to list them on Etsy within next couple of hours.

z-beads, april 18th 2013 – look for us on etsy in a bit

I was feeling pretty blasé about them until I took their photos. Now I’m pretty excited about them. Stay tuned if you like them, I’ll return shortly.

Thanks for visiting…

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ETSY!

Here it is!

Click HERE to get to my shop, or the thumbnails below for each item.

Seeds:

Blue Amusements:

Ming Palace Woozballs:

Ruby In Fuschite Glimmer Strips:

Flowerworks:

So, that’s that… Mr. Sarah baked a loaf of bread today. It was his first one, and of course, it was fantastic. I’m sure his next will be even better. Anyway, we’re probably going to go eat some more of it. But hopefully not the rest of it. Our waistlines are already bulging from Easter candy overindulgence.

Thanks so much for checking in. I hope you like the beads!

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The story of my past few weeks…

… too much to tell so I’ll let the photos share the more interesting details.

these were found in mom’s garage. dad made them in the 70’s with resin.

reverse side of resin ear.

thank you kate mckinnon – it’s beautiful!

(french doll eyes) and so are these – also thanks to kate!

the nose knows.

a recent order. I can’t get enough of these shimmery opals either.

various bling projects completed over this last bit…

booty from the bead show weekend before last

grandpa’s hammer – I’m in the process of polishing it up.

antique store beads – very nice faceted clear ovals and enameled copper

 

OH! And… I have some stuff for Etsy this afternoon/evening. Here’s a peek at what’s coming up:

etsy beads, later today! z-beads, late march/early april 2013

Back in just a bit with the live Etsy listings.

Thanks for checking in!

 

 

 

 

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