HALLELUJAH!!!!! I'VE RETIRED!!!

Really didn't hit me til I turned in my badge yesterday morning.  Then I had this big grin on my face, went into the building hootin n' hollerin. Gave my boss my checkout sheet (took all week to complete it, but got a hearing test out of it). Cleaned my office, went to lunch with the girls. They went back to work but I went across the street to see the Hotel Del Christmas Display, just like an old retired person.

My smartphone camera did surprisingly well, guess you just have to take pictures on a clear, bright, beautiful day...

Leslee Frumin's Putting on the Ritz Necklace...

been wanting to work this one for a long time. It's one of Leslee's oldies but goodies. I really would have rather gone shopping for nicer drops and pearls but settled with what I had on hand. I will make another some day with better beads.

Half of Pharaoh's Daughter...

I recently finished Marcia DeCoster's Pharaoh's Daughter Necklace, but after seeing the colors I chose, I decided it would look best as a bracelet.

I just love it, it is sooo comfortable to wear...

Carole Ohl...

I love to add my finished pieces to my blog. This one is Carole Ohl's Elegant Choices Bracelet which was in the Beadwork August/September 2011 Issue...

In memory of Deborah Farrand - Beader and Bead Teacher...

I didn't have my Bead and Button issue with me that had this bracelet in it today so I googled to remind me of the designer/teacher, and found her obit.  Such a terrible thing. This is her Xs and Os bracelet that I recently finished...

It was so easy to make this beautiful piece, and I think I finished it in a day. I added some earrings.

Here's some information about the late Deborah Farrand...

WOW!!!! - Hannah Rosner of Good River Valley Beading...

This is amazing beadwork by Hannah Rosner of Good River Valley...

See also her Etsy Shop

Mary Alexander...

Just ran across this fine beader and had to blog about it. Facebook, that's the place to find these wonderful jewelry makers, or and of course Etsy. Her business is called Dreamweaver Designs, Inc.  Here are some of her beautiful pieces from her website. She does a lot of freeform/organic, and needle and loom beading.

Dallas Lovett...

I haven't taken any classes from Dallas Lovett because the wire work hurts my fingers, but his reputation for being a teacher and wire artist is known all over the world. If you're into wire he's the one you want to learn from. I love his addition of gems and color in his pieces. This is his Patchwork Bracelett from his class and kits site.

CieloDesign's ...

Miriam Cielo Shimon's Atilla Lace Necklace is one of her many pieces that caught my eye. Her graduations of pearls and pearl color seed beads make it look like threaded embroidery. See more beautiful pieces at Cielo Design.

My latest diagnosis - Cameron Lesion...

is an often overlooked cause of anemia. Cameron lesions are uncommon (5.3% incidence) and usually an accidental finding in an upper endoscopy in patients with a hiatal hernia. Cameron lesions are ulcers in the hiatal sac of patients with hiatal hernia. They are usually asymptomatic, however in rare conditions they may cause acute or chronic GI bleeding and iron deficiency anemia.

Which is exactly what I've had for who in the hell knows how long, since doctors have been trying to find out why I've been anemic for at least the past five years, but I suspect longer because even in my 30s I never could give blood because the blood bank always said my iron was too low.

Anyway this caused me to be taken to ER a couple weekends ago due to pressure on my chest, rapid (very) pulse, and feeling like I was going to pass out with any type of exertion. Ended up spending three days in the hospital, ten hours of that in the ER, received a blood transfusion and my iron was back up to normal within twelve hours.

What a wierd couple of days. 54 years old and I've never been in the hospital before, but I've always wanted to just lay in a bed and have the nurse take care of me and bring me three meals a day. But no! I had to be on liquids for this stay.

So not only do I have a very large hiatal hernia, but I have an ulcer inside the hernia. Take Prilosec (to keep the stomach out of the esophagus), and iron supplement twice a day. Test the blood again to see if iron is within a normal range, otherwise they operate. Blood tested and it's in a normal range. I don't have anymore energy though.

That Lucille Ball of Beading - Jean Campbell

She is just that crazy and reminds me of Lucille Ball. She's also one of the greatest beaders in the world.

One of my favorite beading books is Jeans's The Art of Beaded Beads, which illustrates so many different beaded beads to learn. I've recently finished a necklace and earring set from beading a bunch of her tetrahedron beads. I'll take a picture this weekend and add to this post.

She has soooo many wonderful pieces and different styles of beading that I'm not able to pick a favorite but I've added her Star of India Necklace below so I can show off her work...

This girl is a Wonder Woman, she has so many projects that should be taking up all of her waking moments, but she always makes time to reply to her many fans on Facebook.

She is also one of the authors of Interweave's Beading Daily site, a brilliant teacher, an author of a mess of art/beading books, you should see her Steampunk Style Jewelry book.



Jill Wiseman...

I had the pleasure to meet Jill in a Nan C Meinhardt's Stick Class taught at Marcia Decoster's house, where I saw Jill's Night at the Opera Bracelett (below) in person. Other than being a magnificient piece, it's that kind of beading you just love to roll your fingers back and forth on.

Jill's concentration is on beading kits that everyone can follow.

Irina Miech - Metal Clay/Wire Artist

I've of course been meaning to add a few new (to me) artists whose work I admire (more than admire really). Can you say LOVE IT!!!

I think I first saw Irina's work on the Bead & Button's Show site scrolling through the classes being offered.  I've taken art clay silver classes and love it. I have a whole fishing tackle box waiting for me to start some more pieces. I wonder how long the clay lasts ?

She has even added the latest steampunk fashion to many of her pieces, like the one in the picture above which came from Bead & Button's Show site, and that she will be teaching there this year.

Her wire work is also perfect.  Her blog is fantastic...http://eclecticabeads.blogspot.com

She and her husband sell her creations at their site...http://www.ecleticabeads.com

Father’s Table Desserts…

I'm not supposed to eat dairy or wheat, but some times I do cheat and the Father's Table Strawberry Swirl Cheesecake I can get at Boney's in Coronado is to die for. You can also find them all over the U.S.

http://www.thefatherstable.com

Diane Hyde - WOW!!!...

I always think the last gorgeous piece of beaded jewelry I saw was the greatest piece I've ever seen until I come across the next one. I think to myself..."that is the most beautiful piece and how could any piece be any more beautiful?". The next piece is always more beautiful than the last piece that I thought was so beautiful that nothing could be any more beautiful than it. Does that make sense to you? I hope you get my drift.

My latest finding is by Diane Hyde, and her neck piece "Tangled Up In Time" which placed first in the Crystal Jewelry category. You can find out more from her sites http://www.dianehyde.com.

Besides beautifying each piece with wonderful beads she'll add metal findings, a style we are calling steampunk to her pieces.

Lone Survivor ... a must read... a true story!!!

Due to my attention deficit disorder I usually don’t finish a book, I get so bored with it. I won’t even pick up a book unless I have a recommendation from a reliable source that it's good. So I found it on Amazon and bought it (used) at least two years ago, and there it’s sat on top of a stack of books I plan on reading. I literally couldn’t put it down, once I started. I stayed up until 1 or 2 am a couple nights in a row not able to find a good place to stop and go to bed. I don't cry very often. I don’t have anything to cry about (Thank you Lord and knock on wood), until I read something like this true life story about the treacherous acts of heroes dying to save their country, to save us, to save me. I cried.

This book is about one such hero who survived (I believe) because God wanted him to come back and tell us what happened.

I’ve always had an interest in the Special Forces ever since I joined the U.S. Navy and spent four years working at the command that trains these men. I’ve wanted to read factual publications about what they have done for us when they’re out on these dangerous missions in foreign places in the world where there’s turmoil and where murderous people who hate the U.S. plan and train to come to our country and kill as many of us that they can.

I will only read non-fiction because I want to find out the truth, and I do sit back here in my secure place in the U.S. ignorantly not knowing what is really going on in the world, not trusting the media that is supposed to be neutral, reporting only the news, only the facts, because so many times they have been proven to only report what they want to report, and not checking out the facts before reporting.

Millions of people go through their every day lives not knowing that events like the one described in this book are happening at the same time, in other parts of the world, for them so they can be safe in their country, in their states, in their cities, in their homes, at their jobs, at their parties, on their holidays.

Whilst we do sit back in our comfortable homes, workplaces, going through the daily things we think are so important to get done, actual heroes (men) are dying for us, dying trying to keep the people of the U.S. safe from people in other countries that want to hurt us.

This was written by one survivor. He knows and I know that he was saved by God so he could come back and be able to tell his story.

What I hope and pray is that future Special Forces personnel will never let what happened here, happen again, no matter what they have to do, so that they'll come back alive. They should continue to do what they’ve been trained and taught by the military, and not give a damn about what the liberal, unethical, biased, media and politicians say or do back in the U.S., that they are over there protecting. These men would be alive today if they hadn’t given a second thought to ROE (rules of engagement). Now all of them dead except for one lone survivor who will never be able to get the memory of what happened out of his head for the rest of his life because he let the liberals influence his actions. I pray that Marcus will fully recover, physically and mentally from the tragedies he has had to endure protecting our country.

Mikki..

Another find on Facebook. What would we do without this world wide web social society. Mikki is very HOT right now. This is her latest from her blog entitled Urchin Wings.

It reminds me of a bracelet and a dragon at the same time. The wings look like they have wire threaded through them, but it's actually copper seed beads. What else? See more on her blog, or gallery. I just can't stop staring at it.

Maggie Meister’s Byzantine Collar…

I must have taken this class 7-8 years ago at The Shepherdess in San Diego (when they used to have many great bead artists teaching classes) and of course still haven't finished it. I recently decided I am going to finish it damn it! I have a lot of it done, but something else had gotten my attention and it got stored with the others.

 I only have about ten unfinished projects that I need to finish before I retire because then I want to bead for my business full time. Here's what I do have done and I think it's just beautiful.

 Maggie takes you through her instructions step by step and I have no trouble at all with them. Sometimes I just have to give up on some projects when I return home from a class and start working on it, because it just isn't coming out right or I can't get it to come out right..

and below is Maggie's original piece created and beaded by her with a link to her kit for this on her site...

http://www.mmmbeads.com/kits/byzantinekits.html

Eva Maria Keiser

Have you seen her work? I have never seen any bead work like hers before, it is definitely original and soooooo incricate. She definitely spends a lot of time on her pieces. I don't know how she does it, I get so tired of working on the same piece day after day, night after night. Don't you? She also is generous enough that she added free/complimentary projects of  some of her pieces. Thank you Eva, I can't wait to try beading one of the triangles.

Haven’t blogged in a while…

Health issues and a bit addicted to Facebook games. Still trying to heal my thumb/wrist, so I'm really not supposed to be beading. It does feel much better then a few months ago when I was beading.

So then there's FarmVille on Facebook which I tried to stay away for as long as I could,  watching everyone else build their farms bigger and better. Then one boring evening I succumbed. Then there was Cafe World to which I really gave in to.

But really Facebook is great. I have found so many long lost relatives, and relatives I didn't know existed, and people from high school or my home town, that's it's just unbelievable how you can find someone so fast.

I'm not finished yet but it's going to be spectacular...

Designed by Rachel Nelson Smith 's O.Bersten Component Specimen Necklace

Cynthia Rutledge is still at it...

This is her Cascading Links Bracelet

http://www.cynthiarutledge.net/

Bead Fest Santa Fe

Looking through the November/December 2009 Step by Step Beads magazine at the list of classes being taught at the Bead Fest in Santa Fe this March 2009, I came across this class (below). A beautiful piece by Shelley Nybakke. I love how she creates pieces that look like fine jewelry.

Nancy Cain also teaches at Bead Fest Santa Fe.  Below is her amazing beadwork. This is a piece she's teaching this year (2010) at the Bead and Button Show. It loooks like fine jewelry modern gold gem bracelet.

I've been waiting for Rachel's ...

book (http://www.msrachel.com/)  to come out so I could make her O. Bersten, and I decided to make a bracelet (don't need any more long projects) and I have almost two done.

They're arriving by FedEx...

Husband just called and said I just got a package from Fire Mountain Gems, I told him to open it, He said it has a certificate for a 2nd place, and a $75 gift certificate, for the Freeform Category as a Fire Mountain Gems 2009 Beading Contest Finalist. Yippee. Left my camera at my mother's last weekend so we'll have to wait for me to post the picture of my piece, well wait I think I have a picture of it that Marcia DeCoster took for me when I first sent it in to FMG...

Beaded Opulence

This is the title of Marcia Decoster's new book.

It's a great book which I would have bought even if she hadn't included a photo of one of my pieces, Golden Circle Necklace.

Bollywood Jewels Necklace

This was accepted to 2009 Bead & Button's Bead Dreams Competition as one of the many finalists...

I just remembered…

Another hot beader is Teresa Meister.

Have you seen any of her beaded jewelry? I love all of them. Each piece has a lacy, delicate, vintage, and feminine look to them. This one is from her gallery on her web site and you won't be able to just look at one.

Just look at the piece on the first page of her site. JUST BEAUTIFUL!...and what a wonderful web site she has.

Who's Hot in the Beading World

While Marcia DeCoster and Laura McCabe continue with their hot streak I have found two other artists whose bead work is just divine. Cynthia Rutledge and ? damn!, it will come to me but maybe not today. Cynthia is not new to beading she like the rest of us have been beading for years. But take a look at her Intermezzo Necklace...

and the clasp!!...

Marcia DeCoster

Marcia DeCoster is a friend and mentor to me. One of her many talents is being a brilliant and innovative artist. She's one of many inspirational people I have met.

I met her by way of the Bead Society of San Diego County. The Rosier's suggested to Marcia that I might do some beading/testing of her designs/kits, and I've been inspired by her ever since. Thank you Ann and Stan!

I really don't think I'll ever be as creative as her, some people are just artsy-fartsy (and that, like being anal is a good thing) and some are not. I am not, I don't have a degree, I just know what I like and I am persistent, and GOD has given me the capability to do so.

And now she has inspired me to create a blog.