Posted in Uncategorized on September 25, 2021|
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Click the links below the photos to get to that listing, or click here to get to the shop to see everything all at once. As usual, if you miss out on any of these, they are available made to order. I often hear “I don’t want to bother you” but it’s not a bother. I like to work, and I love it when people treat themselves to something I made.
So there’s that bunch of beads, I hope you like them! I have not yet decided what the next theme will be, but I have some time to think on it because I’ll be working on a large order over the next week or so. It’ll be nice. The air conditioner is off, the breeze at night is cool, things are quiet at the moment – until the boyfriend shows up, excited about something, with treats for the cats in tow, turning them into all teeth, tails and claws. I hope you enjoy your Saturday and the rest of your weekend, which I’d be happy to spend wrapping up beads to take to the post office. Thanks for looking!
Yes! Looks like I’m back on my horse-hockey for real this time.
Much more towards the neutral end of the intensity scale compared to the last sale’s group photo, right? Since the last themed sale did such a great job of keeping me from falling face first into the ADD (artsy dingbat disorder) abyss, I picked another idea to work around. I’ve been enjoying the look of ceramics these days, and I’ve even attempted keeping succulents and cacti alive and have had minimal success, so a garden theme seemed like a good idea. Now that fall is here, because that’s how I do things. The oppressive heat is finally gone and I might consider going outside before sundown again. I really do try to do things on time and at the right moment, but I mostly fail. Until much later when I realize my timing was probably just perfect. Do we need Easter egg beads in October? I think we do. It’s all the same candy, anyway, just different shapes and packaging. This is a running joke I have with myself, and I never make it real. We’ll see what happens.
I just go with the flow, and it usually leads me to instagram and pinterest at least once a week, where I click on the magnifying glass or a photo and it gives me whatever it wants to give me, based on I’m not sure what. That’s how I found that swedish dude with the hairless cats, eyeshadow I never would have known I needed, and a bunch of crazy cheap cabochons I’m always too late to get my hands on. I think they’re spying on my phone, but what else is new, I’m old and care about that sort of thing, even though I know they just want to sell me a bunch of crap I don’t want or need and that’s probably all there is to it. Recognize anything? The ceramics inspired the beads in the top row, the purple prickly pears inspired the purple prickly pears and the flowers inspired the Shimmer Spikes. But I’ve also discovered interesting shoes, ethnic jewelry and other colorful items that have inspired me to try different things. So much so that there aren’t enough hours in each day to make everything I want to make AND have a social life. I didn’t always have a social life, and I kind of miss those days, but not talking to anyone for several weeks didn’t really do me any favors either. Balance is a necessity, and I’m always working on that, too.
they’re zero help
So I’d best be getting back to work on the sale, I still have much to do… it’s happening this Saturday September 25 in the early afternoon, I’d like to say 1ish Central Time, possibly a bit later, but definitely no earlier. And about that… Saturday is just the day I’m happening to have my act together for these most recent sales. I always had sales on Thursday evenings in the past, but I’m not sure what works for everyone anymore. I will figure out a good schedule eventually. Either way, if you’re subscribed to this blog, you’ll receive an email immediately when I post here about the shop update.
See you this Saturday at 1ish, if you’re so inclined. Thanks for checking in!
Posted in Uncategorized on September 11, 2021|
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My shop is updated! Have a look! Click on the link below each photo for that item, or click here to see everything all at once.
FYI, if you don’t get there in time, I can make any of these made to order and have them completed relatively quickly. I have kept next week’s work schedule open for such events, so don’t be shy – I love made to orders. I kept diligent color notes for the first time in years! I started slacking off on that a while back for whatever reason, but regretted that because they sure are handy.
So there’s the stuff. I don’t think I’ve had a themed sale before, and I think I will again. It kept me better on task, probably because I had some limits to work within. It’s like going to the store where they have 15 different kinds of salsa, and unless you know what you want you’ll leave with too much or nothing at all.
I hope you guys have a great rest of your weekend. The cats and I are gonna chillll and pack up some beads. They’re very helpful, Nelson will stand on all of the packing supplies and BooBooKitty is going to try to steal the beads. We hope you find something you like!
Greetings, beaded friends. Get ready for a Rainbow themed sale this weekend! We need some rainbows, do we not? I’ll post again here when things are ready for your perusal. I’m aiming for having all the new things in the shop early Saturday afternoon, but please don’t kill me if I don’t make it until Sunday. I have a lot going on, so please be patient with me. Have a quick look at what’s to come:
One thing, though – I regret to inform you that until things stop being so effed up, I cannot ship outside the US. It is too costly and too slow, and not worth anyone’s anxiety right now. It cost me more than $18 to ship a very small package first class (the cheapest international shipping method) to Australia a month ago, and according to the tracking info online it’s STILL sitting at the US airport. And Australia was always one of the fastest and easiest countries to ship to. International shipping has always been nerve-wracking, but this is not acceptable. I have not had any issues with shipping inside the US so far, so I will have to stick with that for now. I’m so very sorry.
I’m finding several things in life currently very unacceptable. I think when a woman starts inching ever closer to menopause, the patience (aka estrogen) starts to run out, so you end up with the middle aged women pitching screaming fits at Walmart and throwing pool toys at teenaged employees who don’t give a rat’s patoot – and probably very closely resemble the horrible adolescents they harbor at home. I could have been one of those women, sans the adolescents thank goodness, when I bought a container of cottage cheese for the first time in months only to get it home and discover that it was literally all liquid and no curds. And it wasn’t even the store brand, it was from a local dairy. I was so annoyed that both my money and time had been wasted, and that I essentially risked my life going out into the world to buy this garbage, but I took a moment to calm myself. I returned it, politely, and showed the lady why and she was as appalled as I was. I can’t believe any quality control person would let that out the door, but evidently, insanity in every extreme is what passes right now. Yes, I know, Covid. It’s the catch-all excuse. People don’t want to work and catch their deaths, and I don’t blame them. Leaving the house is a huge risk, not only for that, but the world at large is completely, defiantly, self-righteously batchit. However. If you are going to work, doing a good job is an important component in helping things return to normal, but on the other side of that coin, the abuse of people who work during this incredibly difficult time should result in criminal charges because everyone on this planet is dealing with total fakakta right now and throwing things and screaming obscenities at them only makes things worse. I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but damn, it needs to be said. I refuse to melt down… nothing is melting on my watch besides glass and the ice cream I absentmindedly left out on the counter. I refuse to lose my cool, and if I feel it coming I’m stocking up on thai food ingredients and locking myself in. I’ve got 24 hours of true crime on two local broadcast TV channels and plenty of glittery things and other bead crochet stitches to learn. Not a problem. I don’t even need to be on the edge, that would just be great any old time.
In better news, Mom made me go to Goodwill the other day, which I wasn’t terribly excited about at the time because Goodwill prices are utterly ridiculous now, and they so rarely have anything good. But that was where I found yet another unicorn. This time, a beaded necklace with graduated pale yellow-gold foil beads. At first glance, they sort of looked like the cheap modern ones through the scratched up glass top of the display case, so I asked to see them up close. They were actually beautifully, heavily foiled with great clarity, and seemed heavy for their size, and I determined that they were definitely vintage. I bought it for $5, and figured, bleh I’ll just probably take it apart and use the beads for other things. Once I got it home and had a closer look at it, I noticed that the clasp was sterling silver and that the beads were actually strung onto a 16ish gauge knitted chain secured by jump rings. I determined that their weight was due to the fact that it was very likely leaded Czech glass, and also… the color struck me as odd. Mom and I gushed over the remarkably high quality of this piece of jewelry all evening, but it wasn’t until I returned home that I decided to see what the beads looked like under a blacklight because they had a certain yellowness to them. Lo and behold, these things are URANIUM GLASS!!! I couldn’t even believe it, I’ve seen uranium glass beads before, I even have some, but I’ve never seen FOILED uranium glass. I have dreamed of this moment for so many years, and stumbled into it so accidentally and unexpectedly, that, for a minute there, I began to think all of my dreams could come true. Then I got realistic and decided it would probably be that one dream where I loaded the kiln with beautiful aqua blue chandelier parts all night only to find the kiln upside down in the front yard the next morning, some sort of yellow chicken pasta dinner oozing out of it, with Nelson and a few of his stray friends partaking. I didn’t even bother yelling at them to scat since I had already accepted that this was my lot in life, and I might as well let them have it because I certainly wasn’t going to eat it after it had sat out on the lawn for however long.
Anyway, that’s enough chitchat for now. I’m going to make myself spring rolls for dinner. Haha, naw, not going mad, it’s just cheap, easy and what I’m in the mood for. I hope what’s left of your week is tolerable and perhaps I’ll see you in my shop this weekend with your eyeballs reflecting all those rainbows on your screen. TTFN…
the z-beads blog 