Ho Ho Ho!

Hehe...

I felt like Santa Clause yesterday! The Sweetie and I spent about 9 hours just Christmas shopping all over town, eating yummy foods, and having lots of fun with each other in general.

We tried this Cajun place at the mall - Cajun Cafe - and it was soooo delicious! I'm pretty sure I could eat there once a week and not get tired of it!

I also picked out a pomegranate at the grocery store... We tried it today, and I must say that they are quite tasty! They can make a huge mess though! I watched a bunch of videos on YouTube about the best way to get the delicious seeds out. The Sweetie thinks that is way too much work just to eat some fruit! lol

Today we have just been lazy! Stayed in our pjs all day, watching Christmas movies, eating on the delicious soup that Mom brought over, going through the presents that we bought yesterday... Fun times!

I found a recipe book of Christmas candies that I'm hoping to put to good use over the holidays as well! Who knew there were so many different kinds of Christmas candy???

This is such a wonderful time of year! I feel so excited thinking of the days ahead that will be spent with our wonderful families; all the great surprises we were able to find yesterday; all the yummy food; Christmas movies in our pjs while we munch on one of those cheese, beef, and cracker sets... I am so very thankful for each and every one of these things!

I hope you all are having a wonderful Christmas season as well!

Just around the corner!

I can't believe Christmas is in only 4 days! I truly cannot figure out where the time has gone!

And I still feel like we have sooo much to do! Christmas shopping to finish up, figuring out Christmas plans with all the family coming in, DollyWood to see the Christmas lights... Hmm... I guess mainly it's the shopping that is stressing me out! lol I already know what I want to get everyone, it's just a matter of braving the crowds at the shops to get it all!

What are your plans for Christmas holidays?

I also received some very exciting news, but I can't share it just yet! I want to wait 'til it gets closer, and I get the 'official' go ahead! (Nope, the news does not involve babies!)

For now, I'm off to watch A Christmas Story and find some warm dinner!

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

New Glazed Paper Pendants

This is turning out to be a great weekend! When I woke up and looked out the front door this morning, everything was covered in snow! I'm so excited to see snow on the ground already! Maybe we'll get a really good snow this year! (And I will not be in Disney World to miss it!)

Then, on top of that, I was able to go to the post office before it closed to pick up a very exciting package! New supplies for some new things I'm working on!

Here's a sneak peak of some of the supplies in use!

See those sweet little embellishments? There's plenty more where they came from!

I'm working on a new line of glazed paper jewelry. I'm really happy with the technique, and the finished pendants!

The embellished pendant and these glittered pendants were made using the same process; I just decorated them in a different way. The three on the bottom were made with handmade papers and a nice amount of glitter. The one on top was made using scrapbook and origami paper, along with some special embellishments that I am so excited about! They will be posted in my shop just as soon as I decide on the chain/cord!

I hope you all have a lovely, hot chocolatey weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving! Two days late!

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving! Mine was wonderful! Good food, family, and lots of entertainment, compliments of my Sweet Baboo. (I can't believe how smart he is, at only 2 years old!)

I've been using my time off the past few days to work on a completely new technique. For me anyway. Perhaps somewhere out there, someone else is making beads in this same way, but for me, it's completely new. And I stumbled upon it by accident, which is always exciting! Right now I'm still perfecting my method, so to speak, but I hope to have some jewelry using these beads posted in my shop soon! It's quite a detailed process, but the finished beads are turning out so awesome! I love that it's giving me a chance to use some of my decorative, scrapbook, and handmade papers for my jewelry! I've also had my eye on some of the K&Co Amy Butler papers for these as well. So many possibilities for these little treasures!

And now I'm off for more creating! I hope you all have a lovely fall weekend filled with apples and caramel dip, and crunchy leaves under your feet!

'Tis the Season...

...to be busy!

I've been having such a wonderful school year, and can't believe how the time is flying by! Halloween is already over? It can't be!

I'm very busy these days working on orders, trying out new techniques, and making new items for my shop!

First off, I have some little 1 1/8" Matryoshka doll charms that were just added today. Very fun and glittery!

I also have some new foodie themed charms to add!

This is my favorite! A sweet little 1 1/8" tall cupcake charm! It looks so real it makes my mouth water!

This is just the beginning of a new line of acrylic charms I'm working on. I didn't get the Halloween charms finished in time to add to my shop, but definately look for some cute little Christmas charms soon!

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Happy Birthday, I mean... Halloween!

I am just so excited! I feel I have been so productive these past few days, and I have so many new things to share!

First of all, here is a custom birthday cupcake charm for Jordyn:

I used my handmade clay for this one! I'm so happy with how it turned out!

If you would like your very own custom cupcake, just send me a convo on Etsy! You can chose your cake and icing flavors, along with your favorite toppings! Fun! I'm so proud of this little sweetie! It was even featured on CupcakesTakeTheCake.com!

I also got a bit of Halloween added to my shop, in the form of a sweet little candy corn charm!

There will hopefully be a few more Halloween charms added to my shop soon!

And last, but certainly not least, some more rolled bead items!

Some bead kits that may be offered in my shop soon!

Bead Chemistry!

Along with some swirly fun wick dippers!

And of course you could always just grab a batch of beads for your own creative projects!

See how productive I've been? lol And it's quite fun!

You can bet on seeing some more new items real soon! ;)

And the obsession continues!

In the form of earrings!

I made some smaller beads for earrings. These beads are 1/2" tall. I think they would also work for a small pendant. That's what I'm going to do with the batch of beads that are drying right now!

I think I'm addicted!

I can't stop making these!

I had been wanting to make some rolled paper beads for a while, but this is much better!

Happy Birthday!

The Sweetie's birthday was yesterday, and it was quite a fun day!

We ran around and did some errands, went out to eat, and stopped at The Cupcakery for some birthday yummyness! We got a Peanut Butter Cup cupcake, and a Grasshopper cupcake. Both were delicious! I love the sweet sweet icing from there!

I also finished up a new charm for my shop!

It's just under 3/4" tall, and scented in strawberry buttercream! I even made the clay! The cupcake charms will be available in my shop soon! I want to make up a few more examples in different flavors first.

I was also thinking of offering the scented clay in my shop as well. It's a dream to work with, and smells so yummy! I was thinking a little cupcake kit would be fun! Pink strawberry scented clay, brown chocolate scented clay, and creamy buttercream scented clay! Then people could mix and match their scents!

This post has made me hungry! I am off to get some lunch!

I hope you all are having a wonderful week!

Scented Bon Bon Beads for Jewelry Makers!

I am SO excited!

I finally added the scented beads to my shop!!! They've turned out so much better than I had ever imagined!

And I am also very happy with the simple, yet bright and fun packaging!

I started working on the recipe for these beads two years ago! I have to say though, the end results are well worth the trial and error of the past two years! I really think you guys will love them just as much as I do!

Did I say I would have more time?

Because, what I really meant was that I would have more time for other people to find things for me to do! lol

I am having a great summer though!

I've seen 'Up' twice - such a wonderful movie! I would love to see it again! :) And I just have to recommend it to everyone!

I've been to DollyWood, carshows, visiting with my Sweet Baboo, helping my Mom get her Etsy shop going, working on new designs, waiting on new supplies to get here, working on patterns and custom orders, organizing my workspace in the studio, hanging out with friends, planning the next Disney World trip, and waiting for the local shops to get the 'good' watermelons! See? What a busy summer so far!

Oh! I also had my 50th Etsy sale! What a fun milestone to celebrate!

And I promise I will have some very cute, very tiny, new things in my shop soon! ;) I'm just waiting on some very important supplies to get here to finish everything up!

I hope you are all having a wonderful summer as well!

All things sweet...

The theme for today is... 'Things that are Sweet'!

The first sweet thing I would like to share is this new little beaded ornament!

It started out as a blue deer with a pink bow at her neck, but really she looks more like... Something else! lol A fox maybe?

The second sweet thing I want to share is this custom Ice Cream Cake Roll Necklace.

It is a custom polymer clay order that I just finished up today! No, it's not real at all... Well, it smells real, like chocolate cake and vanilla cream, but I don't suggest anyone actually try and eat it! ^_^ It was designed from a dessert found at a restaurant called The Chateau. I say 'yum' to that!

I haven't done any polymer clay items in quite a while. It has been fun to play around with it again after getting a couple of poly clay orders! But... I'm really anxious to get back to my precious seed beads! Hehe... I think they will always be my favorite!

As soon as this polymer clay lollipop order is finished drying, I plan on making a few little beaded jewelry items for my shop, since I've been doing the larger ornaments and barrettes lately. So, look for those next week!

I'll be going out of town tomorrow night, and most likely will not be back until late Sunday. So any orders, messages, etc. will be answered/filled as soon as I have time when I get back! I plan on bringing my laptop, so I may have a chance to check emails and convos while I'm there. I will get back to everyone as soon as I can though!

I hope you are all having a lovely week!

Better late than never...

Hehe... Right now it is almost 1:30AM! I'm sooo sleepy, but I feel like I'm wasting valuable time if I go to bed! lol I think about all the things I could be working on if I were awake! ^_^

And I have been so productive so far during my summer break!

Friday we went and saw Wolverine... OMG... Loved it! Then Saturday was DollyWood for a few hours in the evening. We had to get our passes updated for this year.

Then Sunday and today were spent working on hair barrettes!


Crowns, firecrackers, ice cream cones... I'm having a lot of fun with seed beads these days! I've started a list of the things I want to list in my shop each month. We'll see how that goes! :)

For now, I'm going to give in to my sleepiness, and go to bed!

I'm going to Disney World!

And this time a couple of friends are planning on going with me, so it will be a different sort of trip. I'm really excited about it! One of the girls, Cathy, has already been to WDW with me! We went on our Senior Trip together in 2001; one week at Disney's All Star Music Resort. We had a blast! Now we're going back, and (hopefully!) adding one more person to the fun!

I've been in such a Disney World mood lately... Watching WDW YouTube videos, staring at resort maps, drooling over restaurant menus, etc. It's a fun way to pass the time. lol

I also made a new item for my shop!
It's a small set of beaded MM ears that I have attached to a 2" barrette. This particular style is based on the old version of wedding/bridal ears that used to be available at Disney World. I'm also working on a version in the 'classic' colors - black ears with red and white bow. I'm [not so] patiently waiting on my black beads to get here so that I can start on those! I'll be sure to post when I finish the ears!

And... I only have 4 days of work left before summer break!!! I can't believe this year is over already! Time flies when you're having fun! *giggle*

And now I'm off to get ready and run some errands!

One of those random blog posts...

You know, I think I'm one of the few people around here who loves rainy days! I love sitting in my studio, looking out the window at the birds flying around, splashes of rain on their backs as they fly... There is something so comforting and peaceful about it!

I noticed as I was sitting here that I am nearing my 50th Etsy sale! You can bet that the person who snags the 50th sale is going to receive something special in their package! ^_^

Speaking of my Etsy shop... I've added a couple of things!

This fun 'Olive You' necklace:

And this beaded Minnie Snow Globe Ornament:

I also added a few supplies!

I have a couple of large orders right now, but when they are finished, you can bet I will have some new summer treats listed!

And speaking of summer... I only have 14 days of work left until summer break!

Now that's a happy thought!

Cherry Blossom Festival

This time of year is Cherry Blossom time for sure! One of the many places on my 'to go' list is Japan, during the Cherry Blossom Festival. How fun it would be!

In honor of this marvelous time of year, I created a special ornament for my shop!

I love this color palette, and plucked it straight from the pictures I've seen of the Cherry Blossom Festivals in Japan. Shades of pink mixed with chocolate brown and a bit of white. I may have a few other color combinations soon. It just depends on whether or not I have some more extra time before summer. I've also thought this would make a beautiful pendant using smaller beads.

So many ideas! So little time!

A very busy week!

What a busy week this was! Family pictures, STARS assessment at work, working on new items, working on orders, getting The Sweetie's car fixed... Whew! I'm sooo glad for the weekend!

I also just counted up the days of work I have left until summer break... Only 24 more days! I can't believe this year is already pretty much over! It seems like it wasn't that long ago that we were welcoming the new kindergarten kids into our class room! It's so fun to watch them grow up and learn during the school year. ^_^

I've also listed a couple new items in my shop.

A Frosting Shot necklace:

This necklace was inspired by the yummy trend of selling little 'shots' of frosting at bakeries and cupcakeries. Being a total frosting fiend myself, I set out to find a way to do this in everlasting jewelry form! Soon I'll be adding Frosting Shot rings, and pins!

I also listed some new supplies. Mickey Mouse beads that I bought at Disney World back in February:

I don't have very many of these left, so if you really want some, get them soon!

The Sweetie and I also did a collaboration of sorts this week. He's a huge fan of the Video Games Live show. (If you haven't seen it, you really should!) And wanted me to make a little beaded something to see what I could come up with. He helped me pick out colors, necklace cord, etc. It was quite a fun effort!

Here's what we came up with for that:

The Sweetie also 'helped' with the photo. ^_^ It was a very fun project to work on together. Hopefully we will do more of this in the future!

For now... I have the munchies! Time for a snack!

I hope you are all having a great weekend!

Ladybugs and cupcakes!

What wonderful luck I have! I have been featured in another wonderful treasury! This time showcasing some very lovely ladybugs!

That's my polymer clay charm set down there on the bottom right. :) How fun!

I've also started a new promotion in my shop! With each purchase of $10 (before shipping!) you will get a free beaded cupcake charm!

So, if you spend $10, you get one free charm; spend $20, you get 2 free charms; spend $30, you get 3 free charms, etc.! And there's no limit on the free charms!

That's all from me for now. I have some new items that I want to work on, so I best get busy with that!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend, and a Happy Easter!

Just Desserts!

I've just been featured in another beautiful treasury!

I love all the bright colors and candy and frosting... Yum!

In other fun news, I'm also working on a really fun custom order right now! Six beaded lime margaritas - key chain size! I had to order some more 'margarita' colored beads tonight though, so that I can finish them up this week. And, I may have thrown a few extra things into my shopping cart before I checked out... Oops!

I think one of these might have accidentally fallen in my cart:

Oh. Yep. It sure did. The Guava Punch (pink) pouch fell into my cart somehow! Oh well... Don't want to trouble anyone with changing the order now! Looks like I'll have to give it a new home. ^_^

Brr! It's pretty cold here right now. I think I'm going to curl up in my nice warm bed and watch a movie!

I hope you guys are staying warm, too!

Butterflies and Snow Cones

Well, I had quite the productive weekend as far as beading goes!

First, I finished all these cute little beaded butterfly pins, and added them to my shop.

When The Sweetie and I were at the store a few nights ago, I bought some Cotton Candy snow cone syrup to use with our ice shaver. Then we get home and I remember that I had thrown out all our old ice cube trays at the end of last summer!!! So I still haven't had my Cotton Candy shaved ice!!! Grr!

That little incident prompted me to finish working out the pattern for these little beaded snow (or is it sno???) cone charms. I made up a few to add to my shop tomorrow! When you order them, you can pick any flavors you want! And, you can choose one, two, or three flavors for each snow cone!

I even attached a little red spoon straw with each one! (How else are you going to reach the ice at the bottom???)

I remember eating a ridiculously large quantity of Vanilla Snow Balls (Disney's version of a Snow Cone) last time I was at Disney's Blizzard Beach water park. Mmm... If I close my eyes and concentrate hard enough... I can still feel the warm breeze blowing over me, as I sat in the late afternoon sun watching the waves at Melt-Away Bay, enjoying my sweet snowy slush...

Speaking of snow... I was just looking at the forecast for tomorrow... And I noticed they're calling for snow tomorrow night!!! How crazy! I'm done with cold weather! I'm ready for some nice warm keep-the-windows-open-all-day weather!

How about you?

Marshmallow Peeps!

It's too late to add these to my shop! But if you would like a necklace made out of one of these little Peepers, just let me know!

Necklaces are $10 each plus shipping. I only have these four available!

Cinderella's Royal Table

While on our Disneymoon in 2005, The Sweetie and I were lucky enough to have an early dinner one day at Cinderella's Royal Table. What an experience!

We were the first people seated for dinner.

On the way to our table:

Since we were the first ones seated (and since it was our Disneymoon!) we got this wonderful window seat!

See the Mickey Mouse confetti sprinkled all over the table??? I used some of that when we got home to make these magnets!

Dinner was delicious! And our waiter called us 'Your Highness' and 'Your Majesty' the whole time! So fun!

About half way through dinner, we decided that we wanted to order a smoothie so that we could have one of the Cinderella's Royal Table collector mugs to take home. Our waiter asked if we wanted the smoothie just for the mug, and laughed as we told him, "Yes!"

"I have something even better than that!", he says as he rushes away.

He comes back with a white box. I have no idea what could be inside! I open it to find this!

A set of two Cinderella's Royal Table champagne flutes! Talk about magic! I had no idea that these even existed! Our waiter explained that they aren't available to just anyone. ;)

I could hardly finish my dinner because I was so excited! lol Plus, I still had one other thing on my mind...

This dessert!

Cinderella's White Chocolate Slipper - A delicious white chocolate slipper filled with chocolate mousse, resting on a pillow of angel food cake drizzled with dark chocolate. Served with raspberry coulis, and fresh seasonal berries.

Oh. My. Gosh. I can't even tell you how hard it was to eat this! I momentarily thought of trying to get it home in one piece. Then decided that it was chocolate, and chocolate is delicious, and I better eat this chocolate shoe!

(You can still get this dessert, you just have to special order it now. The cost is between $15 and $20, depending on where you order it from.)

The Sweetie's dessert was equally delicious, although not quite as beautiful:

Raspberry Sorbet served with season berries and drizzled with dark chocolate. It really was just as delicious as the slipper! I could eat either of them every day!

When we walked out of the Castle, we went over to where the window is and took a picture of that as well:

We were at the middle window; the one that sticks out the most there in front. We loved that window seat! It has a gorgeous view of Fantasyland, with the carousel in the center.

This was, by far, one of the most magical, unique places I have ever eaten. I highly recommend it for special occasions, especially the romantic ones. ;) Of course, any time you want to eat there will be magical!

Scented Beads Update!

So after giving it quite some serious thought, I've decided to postpone adding the scented beads to my shop until this summer. I'm thinking that during the summer I will have waaay more time to work on batches of these, and get them mailed out quicker. But, of course, if you need some before this summer, please don't hesitate to ask! I'm always glad to set up a special listing for you! It's just that they aren't going to be officially added 'til I'm off for the summer!

(And, no, this is not an April Fool's joke! lol)

Insert funny Disney World story...

One of the things I love about Disney World is all the little things that happen while you're there. I mean, everyone knows they're going to be riding Space Mountain, eating with Mickey, and riding the monorail! But there's so much that happens that you don't plan for!

That's why I'm starting this new little thing on my blog. I just adore sharing my experiences with everyone, and I know you guys would really get a kick out of some of my stories!

Some of the stories are funny, some are magical, some are helpful, some are just fun memories, and some of them just make me shake my head when I think about them later! :)

The first story I want to share with you all is the latter. ;) It took place just a few short weeks ago, on Monday, February 9. Jimmy and I had just spent a wonderful morning at Disney's Animal Kingdom and were then 'hopping' over to Disney's Hollywood Studios for the afternoon/evening. We had decided to forgo Disney transportation on this day, so we were driving our own car. [Note: Disney World transportation is a wonderful thing, and we use the heck out of it while we're at Disney World! We just wanted to have our car on this day, in case we wanted to venture off property to the outlet shops!] Anyhoo... So we park our car in the huge parking lot, and walk to the tram, even though we weren't very far from the entrance. Since there were other people still parking and walking to the tram, we had to sit for a few minutes and wait on them.

While we're sitting in the tram waiting, Jimmy notices that someone driving an SUV has run over a traffic cone in the parking lot. The CM working that isle had them back up to see if the cone would just roll out. No luck. Then the CM has the guy go back and forth several more times to see if the cone can get 'unstuck' from under the SUV. Still no luck, and while he's doing this, you can see that there are at least 3 more cones lodged under the SUV! Finally after several minutes of back and forth, the CM just has they guy go ahead down the isle and park. Everyone in the tram claps and cheers, and we head towards the entrance. As the tram passes the isle that the SUV guy drove down, we can see that there are five traffic cones laying in the isle!

Maybe their traffic cones should be more this size:

I still wonder how you can run over that many traffic cones all at once!

Look for more stories coming soon! ^_^

Lovely Lavender

Not a whole lot going on today. Work was fairly normal. lol Well, as normal as an afternoon at a daycare can be anyway. Hehe...

I'm featured in a beautiful treasury right now!

That's my Lavender Scented Handstitched necklace on the bottom row, in the middle! I love those glass lavender bead pendants there to the left of my necklace! Such a beautiful treasury!

This weekend was very nice! The Sweetie and I got to see The Knowing, and Monsters vs. Aliens. Both great movies! We wanted to go to DollyWood, but the weather was just not good DollyWood weather. Maybe this weekend!

I've also been getting information together for a Disney World trip for this fall! I know I know!!! We were just there last month... But I'm so ready to go back! lol We would love to find some more people to go with us, but schedules just never work out for everyone! And there are certain times of year that I just refuse to go to Disney World! ;) Crossing our fingers for this fall though!

Although, if The Sweetie gets to work on this video game project that he's been talking to the music producer about, we won't be going very far from home for very long for a few months! Other than the trips we have planned for this summer while I'm off, we'll most likely be in Knoxville. The Sweetie will need to be close to home so he can stay in good contact with the producer. I'm so excited for him!

I guess we'll just have to see how it goes. I do love this time of year though! Planning for summer vacations and time together makes me feel so happy!

And on that note... I'm off to bake some cookies!

Hope you all are having a wonderful week so far!

Jelly Beans for Breakfast!

Okay okay... I know it's really late, but I just had to share this awesome treasury with you guys!

I love being a part of such a wonderful, colorful, fun treasury! See my jelly bean necklaces down there? Third row on the right. Everything looks so pretty together! Go check out all of the other yummy treats as well!

Beaded Party Ring Necklaces!

Wow! Two posts in one day! How do you like that??? ^_^

This is just a quick post to share some necklaces I made with the beaded Party Ring charms from earlier.

I love the way they look on the silk ribbon! How fun for a birthday party! And the silver chain is great for a more toned down look that is still fun and yummy!

Have I mentioned lately that I love seed beads???

Well, I do!

These are probably my favorite creating medium ever! No matter what sort of crafty things I get into, I always seem to come back to seed beads.

And I do have to admit that I'm running out of room in my seed bead drawers already. I have to idea how I'm going to keep them together after these drawers are filled! And suggestions??? I like having them organized by color; makes it so much easier when I'm starting a project.

Speaking of projects...

Here's the latest from the bead bakery:

Beaded Party Ring Biscuits!!! Oh I loves them! ^_^ I've never had real Party Rings, which look like this. (Not my picture, by the way!) I love the colors! They look so yummy and pretty! I didn't do all the different color combinations, just my three favorites. If anyone wants one of the two colors that I didn't make, just let me know! I made mobile/purse charms out of this batch:

I could easily convert them into necklaces and bracelets though!

I'd really like to do a collection of beaded international treats. Add some beaded Battenburg cake slices to these Party Rings for the UK. Pizza for Italy, taco for Mexico, pizza for Italy, sushi for Asia, etc. If you have any ideas, let me know! I would just love to have an 'around the world' type section in my shop!