Goodbye 2011!

Wow! It is so hard to believe that in a few short hours 2011 will be a thing of the past and 2012 will be here. Me, my husband, and my best friend Gina decided to spend New Years at the beach this year. We could not have asked for more perfect weather! It was 70 degrees today! It felt so great and I actually got hot in my sweater. We did some shopping, went to watch New Years Eve, went to eat at The Mellow Mushroom as well as PF Changs, and we hit the 2 bead shops that are here at the beach. We had a great time today and the night is still young. My husband says that he is going to jump into the Ocean at midnight. He wants us to jump in too but I told him that he was crazy! I guess we'll just have to wait and see what the next 2 hours hold in store for us! I hope that each of you have a safe and Happy New Year. I start my earring challenge tomorrow so you guys will hopefully be seeing a months worth of earrings over the first few weeks of the new year!

New PDF pattern done and listed!

As previously stated in an older post beaded beads have been my obsession over the last year. I finally got the step by step pattern finished and the instructional DVD made. I love these beads because you can use them on earrings and in your beaded jewelry designs. As you can see from the picture, I have started making a whole necklace with the beaded beads. Who knows if I will ever get it finished but it is looking good so far!  You can purchase the Pattern and DVD at

http://www.etsy.com/listing/89426692/pentagon-beaded-bead-dvd-pattern

What I love about Christmas Break!

One of the things I love most about Christmas is the fact that my sister in law is home from College. The picture above was taken at Thanksgiving and is of my husband Sammy and his sister Sarah. Sarah goes to Appalachian in Boone NC and even though it's only 2 hours away it feels like she is worlds away. She was in the 3rd grade when I met Sammy and it's so hard to believe that she is now a sophmore in College. I love it when she's home on break because even though we don't get to see her alot when she's here it's nice to know that I can go 1/2 mile up the road and see her or hang out. I am going to enjoy the next week or so because then she's off to college until sometime around April.

First Kit from Christmas finished!

For Christmas this year my Mother and Fater in law purchased and gave me a beautiful kit from Nikia Angel.  I love Nikia's work and have been a fan for about 3 years now. Three years ago I went to the Bead and Button show to work for the Preciosa company and discovered Nikia's work. I was hooked at first look and am ashamed to say how much I really spent at her booth. I could have fed a small army with the money I spent on kits. It was money well spent though because I learned how to make some beautiful pieces from her kits. A majority of her work is all crystals and you know how much I love a little bling! I sat down Christmas night and started working on it because I thought that it wouldn't take too long to whip up. I ended up having to stop and so this morning I was late for work trying to get it finished. I was super happy with the results and I can't wait to make another.

Check out Nikia's etsy shop here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Nikia

Earring a day Challenge

Have you checked out Beading Daily lately? If not then you are missing out on a great challenge that they are starting at the beginning of the year. Starting in January they are going to do an earring a day challenge for one month. I was reading it and I think i'm going to join in. I love to make earrings. With my hair being short I have the oppertunity to really showcase my earrings so this challenge seemed fun. Beading Daily has quite a few free earring patterns that you can download to get you started. If you get a chance check it out and bead along with me!

You can find the challenge and the patterns here:

http://www.beadingdaily.com/content/Bead-Along.aspx

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! What a blessed day it has been! Our Christmas's are always crazy but I wouldn't have it any other way. My day started at 5am when it was time to wake up and open gifts with my husband. I tried to get him to open them last night but he has never done that and he didn't want to start this year. My husband spoiled me by surprising me with quite a few beading patterns and not one but two beautiful rings. He got me a beautiful infinity ring with black diamonds in it and then he surprised me with a Swarovski ring that looks like a buckle. It sparkles like nothing I have ever seen before.

After we finished we had to be at my parents house by 6:30 to eat breakfast and open gifts. My parents surprised me with a krueig coffee maker. That baby is going to the shop!

From my parents house we travel to Sammys Parents home so that we can watch his younger sister open gifts. This is the first year since i have been in the family that we have not had to get there at 5 or 6 in the morning to see his sister open gifts. She is a sophomore in college now and likes to sleep late so we didn't have to be there until 8am! His parents surprised me with more beading patterns and a flat nose Lindstrom plier. Last year that got me the round nose and cutter Linstrom plier so this year they finished up my collection. If you have never used these pliers then you are missing out because they are FANTASTIC. I went to the Bead and Button show 2 years ago and all the teachers were using them. I immediately wanted a pair but was too cheap to buy them myself. Now that I have them I wouldn't use anything else!

Once we finished up at the Dale house then it was off to church. Christmas was super special this year considering that we actually got to go to church and celebrate Christ's birth.

After service we traveled to my moms twin brothers house to have Christmas with moms side of the family. My favorite tradition about Christmas with moms family is that my Aunt Carolyn always buys us towels for Christmas. I always look foward to these towels because if your like me this is an item that I don't want to purchase. I want to spend my money on other things.

Leaving Uncle Rays house we then travel 20 miles to Sammys grandmothers house to celebrate with his side of the family. It's always nice going to her house because she always has a fire going in the fire place and it's so nice and cozy.

Our final stop for the day is to my Grandmothers house to celebrate with my dads side of the family. All in all it's a really long day with lots of stops but one day all of those stops will be gone and I will miss them greatly. I try to enjoy every minute of them now and hope for them again next year. Sammy and I both have been so blessed to still have 2 grandmothers and our parents. God has truly blessed us and that is the greatest gift!

I hope that each of you have had a blessed and great Christmas no matter how you have spent it. Over the next few weeks you will get to see some of the new goodies I am going to make with all my new patterns. First though I am going to take a few days and go to the Beach to rest for New Years. So excited to see what 2012 is going to hold for me.

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Pentagon Beaded Beads

In 2011 I got on a Beaded Bead Kick. I love beaded beads and I have made tons of them this year! I think it is just simply amazing how you can take beads and stitch them together to make a totally different looking bead. My current obsession are these Pentagon Beaded Beads. I am planning a class on them for January and I couldn't just have a few beads to display...oh no! I am working on a necklace of all beaded pentagon beads. Here's a little sample of some blue beads that I am working on.

4 Days until Christmas!

I cannot believe that there are only 4 days left until Christmas! All year long I look forward to the holiday and then....bam it's here and gone in no time! I actually got my shopping finished the weekend before Thanksgiving and it's a good thing because we have been slammed at the store with custom orders. I love to watch guys come into the store and try to order something for their wives or girl friends. It is commical! They come in and have no clue what they want or what size it needs to be. Heck half of them don't even know their wives taste in jewelry. We just do the best we can and hope their their other half will be as excited.

While doing all of this I have had to come home at night and finish up Christmas gifts for people on my list. I have gotten them all finished and am hoping that after Christmas I can get back to other projects that I already have started. Meanwhile I plan to enjoy the next 4 days, soak up the holiday, and then celebrate 2012 while on the beach!

I thought you guys would get a kick out of this picture! Darlene, our Polymer Clay teacher, made this huge flower back in the summer and I tried to tell her that it would make a fantastic hair piece!


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Busy Busy Busy

Sorry  I have been absent lately. I have been sooooooooo busy getting gifts ready for my family and getting special orders done for customers. Everything in my life has had to take a back seat the past few weeks until I get the Christmas rush over. I have taken the time to watch my favorite show though....Project Accesory. This past week was one of my favorite episodes. The cuff listed above was absolutely FABULOUS! I want to make one of these....just not as wide. I think after the first of the year I would like to purchase some sew on stones and play with some new designs.