Bead Soup Reveal And Giveaways......

Bead Soup 2014

It's reveal time for the 8th Bead Soup Blog Hop. Most of you know our lovely hostess Lori Anderson without her this fun and challenging event could NEVER happen.

This year I was paired with the talented, sweet,kind and I call her marvelous Marge Beebe, if you click her name it will take you to her blog. Marge sent me 3 focals, a couple of toggles, a tree charm,some coordinating beads,some micro macrame fiber and soutache.

To Marge I sent the following....

3 Of the soldered pendants I make 2 are butterfly wings and another is a feather. A filigree pendant I made using a vintage typewriter key and vintage rhinestone chain along with a vintage clock hand and some coordinating beads. Then the natural stone lot with some matching goodies and a clasp.

 So when I first opened her package I looked at what she sent me and I loved the variety, it was like sensory overload, loads of color,neutrals,fibers,tiny beads,stone beads, three focals. I laid everything out and pondered where to begin. I was stumped for a few days and every day I would look at what she sent me and yeah nothing, no good ideas,zilch. Then it was like a bam ideas just started flowing I had so many ideas I wasn't sure which ones to use, but I finally decided and here they are...

 

The stone focal was very pretty, I thought about adding matching jasper beads but that would make it overly neutral so I decided to jazz it up with some different colors of briolette beads, some are stone, others glass, just to give it a punch of color. Because I adore color.

Next up was the soapstone flower focal which let me tell you is huge, I don't ever recall working with a focal that big so this one was challenging. I actually kept it in my purse to look at and try to find some beads to match. Well  I found a ton of matching beads and bought like 7 strands that I thought would look nice with it and do you know what? I didn't even use a single bead off of those 7 strands. Instead I decided to copper foil and solder around the edges of the focal to give it a little pop, added a big link chain which I ran some brown ribbon through the links,added a few metal beads to the bail and this is what it looks like....

and lastly my favorite....

The purple round focal got drilled, some czech beads, a little wire wrapping and it became this.

I am doing a giveaway for all three necklaces, it's open to U.S. residents only, all you have to do is leave a comment and become a follower of my blog. I will draw on June 1st just in case there are some late hopper's.

I want to thank Lori for putting together this event and especially to Marge it was a pleasure getting to know you and thanks for helping me to stretch my creativity with the lovely soup you sent me!

I Got My Soup

I got my soup in the mail this past week and have run into issues that have not allowed me to show it, such as, work, dead camera batteries,chaperoning a school field trip and let's not leave out a bit of slacking.

I first want to show you what  Marge Beebe sent me......Fist of all I love the creative packaging all my soup neatly organized in this coffee cup (oh yeah, I love a good coffee) it's like she's a mind reader or something...

 

Then here is what my soup looks like.......

I love the little extra bead bins, no one can ever have enough bead storage, then there were these little make-up sponges which I thought was super clever for use with paints,patinas,glue etc... But boy was my face a little red when Marge told me she added them just so the beads wouldn't rattle. Oh well I was still excited to have and use them.

In my ignorance I had no idea what either types of the fibers Marge sent me were, so of course I had to ask and the thin stuff is for micro macrame and the others are for soutache. I thought I would look up how to soutache, it's gorgeous but that's just not happening. I am punked out by sewing, my sister gifted me an awesome sewing machine when she purchased a new one and on a rare occasion, when I am feeling brave I take it out of it's case with the intention of sewing something, I then promptly put  it back in it's case and run like hell. I really need to get over this fear of the sewing machine,I love power tools though??? Strange huh?

I am so glad that she sent me so many options, as I am in hopes of challenging myself to use a little of all the variety she sent. 

Oh and here is what I sent to Marge. I was a little worried that my soup would be a little difficult for her to work with but to my great pleasure she seemed to like it....

A filigree pendant with vintage typewriter key, vintage clock hand and a few matching goodies,next batch is brown Chalcedony pendant,agate beads,clasp and spacers,then a soldered feather pendant(made by me) along with some coordinating beads and spacers and then a couple of my soldered butterfly pendants as a little bonus to play with later.

I'm up for the challenge and I hope my lovely partner The Marvelous Marge is too. Thanks for the soup and for being just a downright awesome person!

 

Introducing My Bead Soup Partner And A Picture Teaser....

Introducing My Bead Soup Partner

I would like to introduce you all to my bead soup partner for this years Bead Soup Block Party, Her name is Marge Beebe and her blog can be found HERE. She is an amazingly, lovely, talented, artist with a super interesting job,huge family who lives out in the boonies of Wisconsin. 

Our styles are totally different, Lori Anderson does a great job of pairing people this way so that we can stretch our wings a bit and work with different mediums than we normally do. I am super excited this year to have Marge as my partner!

So here's the teaser picture of the Soups I put together and am sending the marvelous Marge Beebe.

I hope she likes at least one of these suckers. I tried hard for them to be something she could work with and yet could also be challenging. These babies are going out first thing in the morning.

Goals

I am in desperate need of setting goals and adhering to them. Christmas is a very busy time for me business wise and I work hard for months and then it never fails every year after the Christmas season I feel so burnt out that I create nothing for a month or two and I need to get myself out of this rut and get motivated again. 

I have been buying all sorts of beady goodness and not just a few things but a crap ton of supplies, new tools, beads and just about anything that suits my fancy hoping that it would inspire me to create so far nada, nothing,zilch. 

I have been spending some time organizing my studio and supplies and doing a little redecorating of my studio hoping that the muses will return to me. I would love to create again but am just not feeling it.

What I really need to do is get back to soldering which I find not only relaxing but loads of fun. I have so many ideas of things to put between glass these are a few of my soldered creations of the past...

Wish me luck with this lack of motivation thing that I have going on right now because I need all the luck I can get with it.

It's Here,It's Here It's Finally Here Bead Soup Blog Party 8...

The 8th annual bead soup blog party sign ups have started...Here's the info

The lovely,Lori Anderson  is the innovator of this blog hop and has been the coordinator,hostess,communicator,match maker and just down right awesome (she is doing all of this with some health struggles) lady. I can't begin to image the  kind of work goes into something of this magnitude it's not just a handful of people, we're talking last year better than 500, if I'm not mistaken and to top it off from all over the globe!!  You my dear are a frickin'  Rock Star!!!!

This year there will be only one reveal date a just 24 hours to sign up, so what am I doing here going to sign up to have some fun!! 

See you soon with more info....

Back To School

Today marks the day in Michigan where most schools have there first day of class. My amazingly still sweet and ever so funny son is starting the 7th grade. I always ask myself where the time has gone, it just seems like yesterday that I was still able to hold and cuddle him. He is a good boy as he still loves to be hugged and is not yet embarrassed to be seen with his mother like most kids his age. So this post is wishing him a fantastic first day of Middle school.

The last two pictures are from last summer and the first picture is from this past winter and let me tell you he has grown even more. Mind you he is only 12 years old and is already 5'9" tall and wears a size 11 1/2 in men's shoes. Unreal and he still has many years of growth ahead of him. When he was young I used to call him midget (I know not politically correct) or mini because he looks just like a miniature version of my husband (i swear my genetics are in there somewhere),but he was always so short. Not long ago I called him mini and he just gave me this look and then said "really mom? I should me calling you mini". Which is totally true because I am only about 5'4" tall so he is already almost half a foot taller than his mama.

No matter how tall,big or old he gets he will always be my little sweet angel boy, he is and has always been the best thing that has ever happened to me!! I will always be his biggest fan!

Fabulous Finds And A Happy Mother's Day...

The implementing  of Fabulous Finds....

I get super frustrated that my life is always so busy and don't seem to have enough time to do the things that I want to do, I.E. work in my studio,blog often,clean,sleep.  I adore tag sales,rummage sales,thrift shops and swap meets. So In the spring and summer I try to carve out a little time to try to go to these above said things. 

So I thought that I could kill 2 birds with one stone shop these places and then share my finds with you on my blog.

So this is some of my booty (yup I said booty) I am so juvenile that it made me snicker just writing the word,maybe I should use the word finds or loot instead, from this past week....

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I was elated to find all these vintage jewels and If I told you how much I paid for them you wouldn't even believe me,they were a steal!! I have a slight compulsion issue I feel that if it's unique or a good deal I must purchase these vintage jewels to add to my stash. I will show you said stash,well part of it. This is only about half or maybe a little less that half of what I have. I am on the hunt for more of these printers trays to display the rest that are sitting in vintage jewelry boxes and vintage cigar boxes. Okay here goes....

These are mostly vintage earrings I have a ton more of these in boxes

These are mostly vintage brooches I would need at least 2 more trays to display all that I have

Random vintage jewelry pieces,earrings,brooches etc I actually filled this sucker up after I took the picture so now it's also full.

 I can and will use these pretties in my jewelry designs If I had some time to actually design things. I am a bit jealous of those who are able to create all day instead of wasting time at that place called work... Oh well such is life I just need to carve some time out and say screw the dishes!!

And to all you mom's out there I wish you all a wonderful,happy mother's day, cuz we deserve it!!! I hope you have special plans or at least get to enjoy sometime with your children. My husband and son always take me to the Mother's Day Flower show out at our local expo center It's my second favorite part of mother's day, of course the first is, being the mother of my charming and funny son, it has been truly an honor being blessed with him.

Till next time.
~Maria Rosa