Who knew dogs loved beads so much!

So, as you can tell Sammy and I had nothing better to do when it snowed a few weeks ago so we played dress up with Oscar.  Sammy found this old shell necklace and put it on Oscar.  Funny thing was, he wasn't phased by it.   I guess because when he was a puppy I made him wear all kinds of beaded collars.  Sammy sat him down and he just strutted his stuff like he thought he was all that and a bag of chips.  I love that little dog and he loves beads!  I knew I picked out the perfect dog for me!

Meanwhile, as you can see, Lilly was not phased.

Our one eyed bird, Zadok, loves beads too!  He will sit on my shoulder just like shown above and watch me bead.  I'm so glad that I have beady animals.

Holy Swarovski Batman, its finally partly finished!

After 23 componants and 10 hours later the base for my Bead Dreams project is complete.  Now all I have to do is add all of my sassy Swarovski embellishments.  It is going to be AWESOME!  I couldn't help but try it on to see how it layed.  It layed perfect on my neck and it didn't irritate me like I thought it would with all the bicones. I ran out of seed beads though so at the moment I am at a stand still.  I called Saturday and found another bead store at the beach that carries this same color and they have shipped me some more so hopefully they will be here soon so that I can continue with my piece.

This project originally came about by a ring that I designed. I submitted the ring to bead and button last week so I will keep my fingers crossed as to if it gets accepted into the magazine.  I'm can't say I won't be disappointed if I don't get into the magazine but at the same time I understand how hard it is to get in there.  If I don't get into B&B there are always other bead magazines.

Ready for a little Warmth!

I love cold weather.  I love the fact that you can put on layers of clothes!  I mean come on...when it's hot you can only take off so much.  This being said, with all the bad weather we have had lately, I am ready for a little bit of sunshine and warm weather.  I was going through some of my old pictures and I found this pic of one of our Dale family vacations from 2 or 3 years ago.  There are two things you can guarantee on a Dale Vacation. One, I am going to get roasted!  There is no way around it and two, no matter how hard I try, there is going to be that one picture where I am showing clevage.  There is just no way around it.  I guess I should just be happy that God gave me good girls!  Anyways, this picture was taken right before we got on a boat and were taken out to an island shell hunting.  We had a blast on that trip.  This was pre-MS and nanny pre-cancer.  It's amazing what can change in a few years and what life can teach you. 

So Today Emotionally Sucked!

So today emotionally sucked!  I have been working out for the last month.  Every Tuesday and Thursday I have showed up to work out with my trainer.  Every other day my body has hurt terribly!  Today we got on the scale and I have gained 3 pounds.  How could I have possibly gained 3 pounds? How is that possible?  And to top it all off, I only lost 1 inch on my body!  WTF!!!!!!  I cried all the way home then I cried a little more.  I finally got over it, put on my big girl panites, and got on with my day.  At this point I had these terrible black circles under my eyes.  They looked so bad that concealer wouldn't even cover them up.  I then went to Belks and talked to the girl at the Clinique counter who informed me that I was at the age that I needed to start taking care of my skin if I didn't want to have bad wrinkles when I get older.  I know that the girl meant nothing by it and that I was totally over reacting but at that point I bought the under eye cream and got on with my day.

The rest of the day all I could think about was how bad I wanted to go and get the biggest piece of cake I could find to eat because the last month of my life has been a waste of time! 

I came home in the sleet and rain and worked on my Bead Dreams Project and I am proud to report that I only have 2 more componants left to finish and then I will have the base of my necklace finished and I will be ready to add the dangles.  I can't wait!  This piece rocks!

I then cleaned my face and put my under eye cream on.

My name is Kelly and I have a Problem!

Hello My name is Kelly and I have a problem.....an earring problem!  This picture is a picture of the earring display in my bathroom.  Yes, all these are mine!  I have the display full and have started hanging earrings off the top of the display.  At last count I had 75 pairs of earrings.  I didn't even bother to count this morning when I took this picture.  I love earrings.  They can show your personality even if you have no other pieces of jewelry on.  I'm a big girl and I have to have big earrings!  I know that I'm not the only one with this problem.  I know there are others out there like me.  Earring fanactics unite!

Working on Bead Dreams Project

Well, I have started working on my Bead Dreams project for this year.  I wanted to give you a sneek peek a the colors I would be using.  I love to use Montees and plan to do my whole project with them.  Who knows if the piece will even get accepted but I can leave the project knowing that I gave it my all.

Along with my Bead Dreams project, I have been working on projects for Februarys Class Schedule.  I thought I would go ahead and post a few pics of some of the projects for you to see.  I have been really struggling with class projects this year.  In 09 I sent out a survey to my email customers to fill out.  One of the questions was "Do you take classes at our store and if not why?"  One response has really rubbed me wrong since the person sent it in and I don't really know why.  The person said that they do not attend classes  because we don't offer any classes except seed bead classes and they are not interested in that.  I try to have a good balance in my classes with seed beads and wire and then every once in awhile a mixed media class.    I guess she either doesn't like the other classes we offer or she doesn't look at the class schedule. I don't really know why this has upset me though because this person has never even been to a class at my store that I recall.  Whatever the reason it got me to thinking about myself and my store.  Since I have started beading I have had a love affair with Seed Beads.  I love them and think they are fantastic.  I love what you can do with them and I love all of their possibilities.  I love the fact that they come in every color you could possibily imagine. Thus being the reason I carry a ton of seed beads in my store.  A majority of my customers love seed beads too.  I do, however, try to keep a good stock of all things beads in my store for people who don't like to use seed beads.  As a bead store do we brand ourselves into a certain type of store?  One of our other local bead stores seems to offer a majority of wire working classes.  Are they branded as a Wire Working store?  Do people complain that they never have any classes except wire classes? Who knows?  I love my store and I love what I do.  If I didn't do my seed bead work I wouldn't enjoy my work at all. I love to make pretty shiny things and although others might not like to do the same I still try to oblige them and their creative outlets.   I have come to one conclusion...I must trudge on and continue to do what I love or Off The Beaded Path will be no more.  We are in the process of re-branding ourselves and this will take a few months.  Until then...you can continue to expect the same exceptional classes that you have come to love at Off The Beaded Path!

Steampunk Play Day!

Tada!  I finished the necklace I wanted to make with my cute little wire wrapped roundelle flowers.  It went in a completely different direction than what I was going for but I still love it!

I was also able to finish a new ring with one of the stones I got in Charlotte.  I wanted to do something simple with the stone because I wanted it to show more than my beadwork.  I totally love the new piece and I told Sammy that if he was to ever buy me a new diamond that I wanted it to be as big as this stone! :)

Today at the store Vicki and I had Steampunk play day.  Although I took a class last year to learn how to solder pieces like this, I taught her my version of how to make these fun steampunk componants. After some complication with the solder I was able to come up with these new babies.  Some turned out really good and then some not so great.  Instead of putting 5 of them on a thick chain like I normally word, I put each piece on it's own 18" chain. The necklaces turned out really cute espically for someone who doesn't like really extravagant pieces.  I even made Sammy one so he could be "steampunked."  Now what project to do next?