My New Necklace!

So if you remember I was sent a nice collection of Swarovski crystals to work with and review. Thank you ArtBeads.

For the last week or so I've been hard at work beading around these fantastic rivoli. I chose the Crystal Vitrail Medium color and I think I might be in love. The color on these are just fantastic.

I used silver lined Czech seed beads in silver and purple for all the beading. With all the different colors in the rivoli, these seed beads work great.

I then accented each little beaded rivoli with 4mm Dark Indigo Bicones, 6mm Dark Indigo Bicones, and 6mm Indian Pink 2xAB Bicones. The dark indigo is such a wonderful dark blue color and the pink, well what can I say about the pink; it's beautiful.

So here is the completed necklace. I tried a few new things for me.

First was the rivoli, never tried beaded around those before.

Second was the necklace. I made a thin flat beaded rope and looped it around the beaded rivoli so it's double. I really like how this looks. I think it gives it added detail.

I finished it off with a beaded toggle clasp in the silver beads.

The beadwork measure about 5 inches across at the widest part of the necklace and are about 3 inches. Each rivoli measure about 1 1/2 inches.

I'm really happy with this necklace. I don't do a lot of work with Swarovski crystal, mostly just accents here and there, but I think I might do a lot more in the future. And there are so many different options for me to work with, there are beads, and rhinestones, and pendents, and other components (including crystal yarn and buttons).

So thank you ArtBeads for the opportunity to play around with these stunning beads. They even gave me a coupon for 10% off at ArtBeads. It's good for till the end of the year and doesn't require any minimum purchase. The code is SCF10P-ARTBEADS-0424.

Featured at Found Handmade!

My teal on black Christmas ornament was featured on Found Handmade.

It's Friday!

I don't really have much for today. I have a few projects, but no new (or good) pictures, so that will have to wait. So here's a picture of Yoda right after we brought her home from the hospital. You can see her stitches. Oh our little Frankendog! She gets all those stitches out next week. She'll be very happy about that.

Time To Vote - EBW and BEM!!!

It's time for voting again, YAY!

First stop by the Beadweavers Emporium Blog to vote for this month's challenge. The theme was Beachcomber, and all 6 entries are quite beauties.

It's also time for the Etsy-Beadweavers November Voting. Stop by the Etsy-Beadweavers blog to vote for your favorite in the Beauty of the Flower. All 17 entries are lovely, so it's gonna be hard to pick just one.

Treasury Tuesday!

I found my Rising Sun Necklace in this absolutely beautiful treasury, Sun Morning to Night, created by Christine's Beadworks. Please check it out and click on all the other beauties.

What am I up to?

So I've been pretty busy lately. I've been trying to catch up with everything that I've been ignoring since Yoda got sick; everything from orders to house work.

But after this weekend I'm pretty close to being all caught up. I finished up my one custom order this weekend. Now I just need to get some pictures tonight and then get it all wrapped up and out the door. I'm really happy with this order (even if the cuff decided to give me so many problems). I hope she likes it as much as I do. I guess we'll see.

I also worked on getting a few more patterns ready to be listed in my etsy store. I'm hoping to have those listed this week.

And don't forget to check my etsy store out regularly because I've been adding new beaded Christmas ornaments daily.

I finally got my Swarovski crystals in the mail on Saturday (I'm having issues with the P.O. right now, so they took a little while to get to me).

Art Beads asked if I would like to write a blog review on the Swarovski crystals of my choice. Well of course I jumped on this. I love Swarovski, who doesn't? And I've always wanted to try beading around ravoli. So this was the perfect opportunity for me. Here is a quick picture I snapped before I left for work this morning. My plan is to get a good picture tonight.

Art Beads sent me a selection of beads that I chose. I chose the 14mm Crystal Vitral Medium Rivoli. I was so excited about these guys. I can't wait to work more with them. I also chose the 4mm Dark Indigo Faceted Bicones, and the 6mm Dark Indigo Facted Bicones to use as accents. I thought these colors would look great with the Crystal Vitral Rivoli. I wanted a little brighter color that would go with the Ravolies, so I went with 6mm Indian Pink AB 2x Faceted Bicones. These bad boys are beautiful. They are definitely one my list of colors I will be working with again.

I also picked some 6mm Crystal AB Diagonal Cut Faceted Cubes. I plan on pairing these with some lampwork beads for a pair of earrings.

As you can see in my crappy picture, I started beading around one of the Ravolies last night. It worked up really easily, a whole lot easier then I had thought. This is my first time attempting this, but I think I will definitely be making more.

I'll make sure to keep everyone up to speed on this project as I go along.

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And the Free Shipping on Everything in my etsy store is till going on. Get some early Christmas shopping done.

Too early for Christmas Ornaments?

Is is too early to start posting Christmas things yet? It is only November 5th. I'm never sure when people really start thinking Christmas, if I just based it on store's Christmas displays, I'd say about mid July (or at least it feels that way).

I only have three ornaments listed so far in my etsy store. Maybe I'll list a new one each week so I don't over do it too soon before Christmas.

I love Christmas, so as soon as Halloween is over, I'm already thinking about putting up the tree and wrapping presents (which I absolutely love to do). I'm always done with my Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving. I just like to get it done and out of the way (then I can start wrapping).

What do you guys think, too soon for Christmas stuff? Let me know your thoughts on when the right time is.

Featured!!!

My falling leaves cuff has been featured in this great collection of beadwoven beauties. Thank you Rose Works for including my cuff. Please stop by this great blog and check out the other lovelies.

Newest Guitar Cuffs

So I've been on quite the kick of making guitar cuffs lately. I really don't know a thing personally about guitars, but J does and I think he's having as much fun helping me as I am making them.

I have two new guitars to offer up today.

First up is my blue guitar on a super fun, bright yellow background.

I probably like this one the best so far. But who knows what I'll make in the future.

It's 1.6 inches wide and about 7 inches long.

This one is available in my etsy store if you'd like to see more on it.

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The next one is a white and black guitar on a brigt red striped background.

I really like this one. The two reds are the exact shade, but one is a matte transparent bead, so it's a subtle difference.

It measures 1.4 inches wide and about 7 inches long.

I just finished this one up this weekend and I'm hoping to have it listed on etsy soon.

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Stay tuned for more guitars. I have a couple more styles that I'm working on. And I also hope to have the patterns up online soon. I love seeing how created people are.

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And don't forget FREE SHIPPING on everything in my etsy store. Yoda's recovering well, but we still have mountains of vet bills. All sales will go towards taking care of those. Do a little early Christmas shopping and help a little puppy in the process.

Puppy Update and a Treasury!

First, a quick update on Yoda. (That's her with her new squeaky weenier dog toy, it's a mummy).

She is home and doing well. We picked her up Saturday morning. She's slowly becoming more active and getting back her sassy little attitude. Her internal bleeding stopped itself and her abdominal swelling has gone done drastically. She now has to have four different medicines (plus her prescription food) for a while now. We had to make a little spread sheet just to make sure she gets all of them when she is supposed to. She really dislikes a couple of them, but she's a good girl and will take them with little protest. We got her an e-color incase she starts licking her stitches, but she doesn't seem to need it. Which is very good. We'll continue to monitor her progress for the next month and then she should be able to be weened off of all her meds and prescription diet. And in two weeks she'll have her stitches removed (they run all the way up her tummy right now).

I just want to thank everyone who has sent us well wishes, kind thoughts, and donations over this tough time. It has meant so much to me to see that some many people have kind hearts and care. Thank you again.
*LAST PUPPY UPDATE*

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And I also have a treasury to share with everyone. I found my Labyrinth Cuff in this fantastic treasury entitled Pan's Labyrinth. Thank you Endless Story for including my cuff in this treasury. Please stop by and check out all the beautiful items.

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Don't forget about the free shipping in my etsy store. All sales will help pay for Yoda's surgery and vet bills. Please stop by today and start Christmas shopping early.

Friday Treasury!!!

I found my Orange Lily Cuff in this fantastic treasury; Orange, Flowers. This is such a wonderful treasury, so bright and sunny. Thank you njema for including my cuff in this great treasury. Please check it out and click on all the other bright, colorful items.

Itty Bitty Triangle Earrings

Hi, my name is Victoria, and I'm addicted to making beaded triangles. Yes, I'm stepping up and admitting that I'm addicted to these guys. I was hooked the second I made my first one. And I really love making these tiny little triangles.

This first pair are made using a wonderful deep red seed bead. The beads have a little of a AB finish to them. I love these guys.

The beadwork is only 1 inch long and total they are a little over 1 1/2 inches long. So they are tiny and delicate. They are perfect for this time of year.

Check them out HERE.


The nest pair are made using a deep dark gunmetal with a little bit of a rainbow finish to them.

Again these little guys are about 1 inch and a little over 1 1/2 inches with the ear wire.

You can check them out HERE.

AND AS ALWAYS FREE SHIPPING ON EVERYTHING TO HELP PAY FOR LITTLE YODA'S SURGERY. THAT'S FREE SHIPPING ON EVERYTHING IN MY ETSY STORE.

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YODA UPDATE! - I just got back from visiting Yoda. We had a little bit of scare last night. She had some internal bleeding and needed a blood transfusion. She's doing a lot better today; her blood pressure is back to normal and her red blood count is climbing. So hopefully she'll get to come home soon.

Puppy Update - Yoda's Surgery

So today was the day; Yoda had her surgery to fix her liver shunt. Last week she had a CT scan to look for the shunt. They found one single shunt that was bypassing her liver; so her blood was going right back to her heart without being cleaned and filtered. That's what was making her sick and have all the neurological problems.

I took her in yesterday for her pre-op check up. They looked her over and said she looked pretty healthy and this was the best time to do the surgery. They explained everything to me while Yoda tried to eat the one surgeon. She behaves so badly when we get here.

She stayed overnight last night so that she could be the first surgery this morning. I'm sure she had plenty of people to play with, because they love her here. I was told the surgeon was caught snapping pictures of her this morning, and he said that she's just so cute, he couldn't resist. Like I said everyone loves her here. I just hope she wasn't too bad of a biter. She went in to surgery between 8:00 and 8:30.

I can honestly say I didn't sleep that well last night. It was hard not having her at home and I'm so worried about her. Who knew that a little puppy could cause me so much trouble and worry. I'll be happy when her blood work comes back in a month and they tell me her bile acid levels are back to normal.

Her surgery went well, it actually went so well that they also spay her at the same time. So her liver shunt will close slowly over the next 3-5 weeks, and then she should be a healthy little pup. I hope she recovers fast so I can bring her home early.

I'm a little less stressed now that this is behind us. Now I just have to deal with the large vet bills that little puppy has racked up. Let me tell you, blood work, CT scans, x-rays, anesthesiology, and surgery are just as expensive for animals as they are for people. You would think I would get a little discount because I work here, but nope. Okay, I'm not going to start bitching about that right now, I'm in too good of a mood to think about it.

So the good news is Yoda is out of surgery and *hopefully* all fixed. I guess we'll know if she's getting better after her blood tests in a month. I can't wait to see my little potato. I miss her and it's only been a day and a half.

Please don't forget that I'm offering free shipping on EVERYTHING in my etsy store to help us pay for all of Yoda's procedures. That's FREE SHIPPING on EVERYTHING!!!

Lace Bracelets

I have a couple of beaded lace bracelets today.

The first is a silver lined deep red lace bracelet. I love this one. It's so pretty and delicate.

It's about 7/8 inches wide, so almost an inch, and about 7 1/2 inches long.

This bracelet would be great for the fall months as well as Christmas time. Or would just be great for that person who loves red. This bracelet will dazzle anyone.

You can find it in my etsy store, HERE.


The next one is really delicate. I used a wonderful mixture of pastel purples, pinks, greens, and blues. I then used a fantastic vintage button for the clasp.

This bracelet measures at about 1 1/4 inch wide and again about 7 1/2 inches long.

This is the perfect bracelet to brighten up the cold dreary winter days, conjuring up thoughts of warmer days filled with chirping birds and the smell of flowers in the air.

What's on the ol' bead board?

Here's what's on my bead board right now. I'm working on a line of guitar cuffs. I would like to do a number of iconic guitar shapes.

I'm also working on making the background a little bit more exciting. The green cuff I did sort of a spiral look using the same bright green color but one is transparent and one is opaque. I really love this look.

The second guitar is super bright. I'm using a bright yellow and a deeper yellow for the background and then a bright blue for the guitar. I'm really in love with this one.

I have one more guitar shape that I'm working on and then I have a few more ideas for future guitar cuffs. I'll get some pictures of those up as soon as I finish beading them.

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Don't forget about free shipping on everything, to anywhere in my etsy store. Get your Christmas shopping done early and help little Yoda get her surgery. Click HERE to browse.