My Indian Maiden Amulet bag was listed as an alternate in the Etsy Treasury by jstinson. Joni has a wonderful blog site too. Here is the link: http://www.jstinson-trailoftreasures.blogspot.com/ I hope you take a look!

Lazy Summer Daze...

It is July and Summer is half gone. I never seem to accomplish much during the Summer. The heat and the humidity seem to grab every ounce of creativity in me and toss it aside like a limp noodle. A limp piece of pasta is about what I feel like from the beginning of the heat until the Fall frost cools our little part of the world back to livable temperatures.

So - I've stayed inside except for the gardening and mowing. Mostly in front of my computer accomplishing much of nothing. I did find a cool spot this week to work on some of the many cameos I've managed to collect. I tend not to buy just one or two of anything when I can get 6 or 8. Below are 3 of the finished products.

All three are done with a combination of bead embroidery and Peyote stitch. I used 11/0 seed beads, 15/0 Miyuki beads and 3mm Czech fire polished beads in the creation of these brooches. They turned out quite nicely, if I do say so myself. Hope you like them.

Drat - Summer is here!

If you know me - you know I hate Summer. It's not just the hot weather that gets me down. It's the work, work, work that keeps me away from my beads! Mow, then trim, then plant the garden, then mow, then trim, then weed the garden, mow, then trim...... on and on until the last leaf is raked and tomato is canned in the Fall. I so love the long cold Winters of Western New York when I can just stay inside and bead to my heart's content.

I have gotten some new pieces done. I came up with a new style of earring that I really like. It doesn't take much beading, but it there is a bit of work involved in hand painting the filigree pieces. The end result is SO worth the effort though. Look:









Didn't I tell you they were great? I made up almost a dozen of them to put on Etsy and take to the market at Cross Roads this week. They are so pretty all carded up and displayed together.

I will try to keep the blog up better in between the mowing and the trimming and the weeding!

Cross Roasd is OPEN - Come see us!

Cross Roads is open for the season. This is where you will find us every Saturday from May through Christmas. Hours are 9 am til 5 pm. We are also open Memorial Day, Labor Day, and a few other special days. See the Co-op's webpage for details. Located on Rt. 21 between Westfield and Sherman, New York.

Here are some pictures of our booth and several other interesting vendors.

Fun Earrings

Dangling Hoop Earrings - Silver, Turquoise, Swarovski and Found Little Indians

How's that for a combination of materials? I had fun picking out the components of this pair of earrings. Mainly, I wanted to get away from wire wrapping for a little while. It seems that's all I've been doing lately!

Now - down to the details.....

Composed of:Silver plated posts, hoops, and beads

Turquoise chips (man made I believe)

Swarovski opaque crystalsTwo little vintage Indian Chief charms I found at a sale. I just love poking through boxes of old jewelry & beads! You never know what treasures you will find.

The finished measurements are approximately 1 1/4 x 3 inches or 30 x 75 mm.

Kool Bead Stuff

I have been getting ready for the May 3rd opening of our Co-op craft market and shamefully neglecting my internet duties. I did find this blog this morning. Her work is so beautiful I just had to share it with you! Maybe some day I can try something similar. It is on my bucket list I guess....

Doesn't this artist use yummy combinations of color? Her cuff bracelets just seem to have begged to be put together. The colors just flow together as if Mother Nature herself created them. Simply beautiful.

Don't read Russian you say? I used Bablefish to translate the blog. It is well worth the extra steps! Enjoy...

Computer Woes

I haven't been able to post anything new for a week. My brand new HP computer refused to go online! What a run around I got. Everyone blaming the other fellow. DSL company said it was the computer Best Buy said it was the DSL company. They told me to contact HP at one point. Well - you can forget getting through to them! Then I was told to return the computer since it was less than 30 days old. When I got there with it, they informed me computers have to be retruned within 14 days. They had their Geek Squad guy look it over. He fiddled with it for a while and claimed there was nothing wrong with it, but when I got it back home, low and behold - it worked! Whatever he "didn't" do to it seems to have fixed the problem. I hate dealing with big companies. They really could care less about the consumer. All I heard was "I'm sorry - but..."

There - that's off my chest. Now I can get back to creating and uploading - I HOPE!