New Treasures

I went on a shopping spree at a few of my blog friends on-line shops. Here is what I purchased...

I purchased these beautiful earrings from Amy Freeland of Copper Diem in her Etsy shop greenbead go check Amy's blog and Etsy shop out she makes some pretty things to wear.

My next purchase was this pretty pink rose pendant necklace from Jennifer Hiestand of jennp1751 in her Etsy shop jennp1751 go by and check out Jenn's blog and shop. You just might not be able to resist buy something for yourself.

I purchased this lovely Crazy Lace Agate Cabochon from Jaqueline Roberge's Etsy shop SincerelyEarth2
You can find some beautiful stone cabochons at Jaqueline's shop.

These beauties were purchased from Julianna Mucci of julsbeads blog in her on-line shop Studio Juls.  Take the time to visit her blog and shop you will find some real beautiful deals.

I need to save up some more mad money so I can go on another shopping spree. Who knows it just might be your shop I visit next.

Happy beading Y'all
Therese

Giveaway Winner

I joined the Girl Scouts in 1967 as a Brownie and continued through Senior Scout in 1977.  I learned many life lessons, but the best lesson of all was on making friends:

Make new friends

But keep the old

One is silver and

The other's gold!

So saying this I just want to say thank you for my old and new friends you are as precious as gold and silver to me.  Now without further ado the winner of my giveaway is RATATATAT...

Marianne



True Random Number Generator Min: Max: Result: 30 Powered by RANDOM.ORG

 

Marianne if you will e-mail me at theresestreasures59@gmail.com with your address I will get your prize off to you.

Once agian thank you to all of you for participating in my giveaway.

 

Happy beading Y'all

Therese

I Heart Macro - To The Front Entrance

On my way into my office building this morning I decided to take a few pictures. On the way out this afternoon I took a few more.

I just thought that there was something interesting about this dead leaf lying on the walk way.  The cement has a cool patina to it as well.

Another dead leaf I guess these are the first signs that the seasons are about to change, yea!!

I was about to go in the door when I looked over and saw these roses so I still had my camera in my hand and I took a couple shots.  It is still dark when I go into work I did not have the flash on but there was enough light from the walk way to be able to see the roses.

Leaving work this afternoon I took some more pictures.  Here is a pretty yellow flower with a tiny bee collecting nectar.

I like the contrast of the light purple on the top of the leaf and the darker purple on the bottom of the leaf.

I hope you enjoyed viewing my picture as much as I enjoyed taking them. Now head on over to Studio Waterstone to see the other I Heart Macro shots.

Happy beading Y'all
Therese

I Have 50 Followers Giveaway!

You just can not know the excitement I felt when I logged onto my dashboard and saw that I had 50 followers. Well of course you do DUH! We all get excited when we see that we have another follower.  With me I get that same jolt and wide eyed expression every time from my very first follower to now, and knowing me as I do, that feeling will be the same no matter how many followers I get.

Thank you Tania Covo  for being my 50th follower.  Tania does the most precious animal metal pendants and earrings using pottery shards.  Most of the shards are found along the Thames River in London, England. Go check out Tania's blog at Moonflygirl and while you are there check out her Etsy store you will be amazed by her talent.  I have my eye on a certain piece and as soon as I get a little extra mad money I'm going to bring it  home.

I have met and made so many friends since I started my blog just a few month ago.  I look forward to continuing to meet and make friends.  I have entered challenges and have had a great time with those.  I have won three giveaways and with the last giveaway I won I told my Mom I am going to do my own giveaway when I reach 50 followers, so today is the day.

 To celebrate my 50 followers I will be giving away this bracelet. 

This bracelet is a one of a kind Spiral Rope that I  made with 8/0 seed bead for the base. The spiral has 4mm Czech aqua crystals, 4mm purple died Howlite beads, and 5mm blue and lavender lentil beads. The end caps and toggle are silver tone base metal.

  If you would like the chance to win this bracelet just follow these simple steps:
1.  Leave me a comment sharing how you felt when you got your first follower.
2.  Become a follower and leave a comment that you are now a follower.
3.  Post this giveaway on your blog, facebook, twitter, and/or forum.  Leave a comment for each one that you do, so each will be counted.

I will randomly pick a winner and announce the who the winner is on Wednesday, August 31st.
Thank you again to all of my followers and to those who will be followers, good luck!

Happy beading Y'all
Therese

My Muse Is Back

My muse came back from her travels and we had a long talk and she agreed that she would not leave me hanging again for so long.  I have been creating up a storm yesterday and today with the beads I got from the Beading Daily Summer Brights Swap.  I have already posted them on Beading Daily and Facebook, so it's my dear blog's turn.

The writing on the purple polymer pendant is backwards, but my Son's friend picked this one out for a necklace only because it was purple and she does not care that the word is backwards.
One challenge down two maybe three left to go.  Still not sure if I'm going to do the ABS monthly challenge.

Happy beading Y'all
Therese

I Heart Macro - Around the yard

It is Sunday again that means I Hear Macro, so after watching my Sunday morning news shows, The Today Show and Sunday Morning, eating breakfast, reading my book that I'm finding harder to put down, and catching up on my blog reading, I went out into the yard and took these pictures.

New acorns and a spider web. 

The chain link fence that blocks access to the drainage ditch long my Mom's yard.

The rusty chain that holds the lock to keep people out of the drainage ditch.

A single Morning Glory growing on the chain link fence going down the side of the ditch.

One of the Crepe Myrtles growing along the road in front of the fence to the drainage ditch.

Can you guess what this is?

It's the glass on the front of the porch light by the front door.

Pretty rose taking advantage of the shade of the front porch.

Meet Taz my faithful and loving companion for the last eight years.

 Taz is saying ok that is enough with the pictures!

I hope you enjoyed viewing my I Heart Macro Sunday as much as I enjoyed bring it to you.  If you are in the mood to see more wonderful and fascinating photos head on over to Studio Waterstone and see what others have posted.

Happy beading Y'all

Therese 

New Bead Treasures

After work today I went by my local bead store "High Stung Beads" and caught the last day of the trunk show.  This is always happening to me I get there on the last day or the day after it is gone.  Well anyway I got a few new beads to add to my ever growing stash.  I love trunk shows so many pretty gemstones.  I just love to pick them up feel them and drool over them.  It was a tough one today but I managed to only pick out five items.  I purchased some more treasures on line today and when I get them I will post what I got.  

Happy beading Y'all
Therese

(I'm experimenting with picnic)

Oh Where Oh Where Did My Muse Go?

Oh where oh where did my little muse go? Oh where oh where did she go?  I sit at my bead table and I play with the beads and I sit and I look at the beads, but nothing comes!  Deadlines are right around the corner. Please, please come back my pretty little muse, I need your guidance.  Are you out traveling the world gathering up new and fresh ideas to whisper in my ear?  Or are you hiding, because I want to go way out of our comfort zone for the four different challenges I have committed us to.   I sure hope you are traveling and will be back real soon!!!

Well while I'm waiting for my muse to come back I would like to share something I received in the mail today.
A couple of weeks ago Jenn with JennP1751 blog had a giveaway to celebrate her 200th sale in her Etsy shop. I was the lucky winner and here is my prize.

I chose the pink flower on the green band ring from Jenn's shop and told her to surprise me on the earrings.
I am over the moon pleased with my prize, thank you so much Jenn you ROCK!!

Happy beading Y'all
Therese

Giveaway at Trolle's-Verden

Hi my friend Halinka at Trolle's-Verden is giving away two beautiful bracelets to two lucky winners.
Click on the blog link above and follow Halinka's instructions for a chance to win one of the bracelets.
Halinka does beautiful work so while you are on her blog check out all of the wonderful and creative pieces she has done.

Happy beading Y'all
Therese

I Heart Macro - Flowers In The Heat!

Hi this is my contribution today to I Heart Macro Sunday!

Joesph's Coat Rose, this rose is usually a bright variegated orange and yellow rose, but the heat has made it a variegated orange and black rose.

 Grubber Daisy, this time of year my Mom's flower patch is usually full of red, orange, and yellow Grubbers, but this summer there is only this one pitifully lonely Grubber Daisy.

  These pinkish orange roses are just opening up, but they will look pretty for about a day then wither like the rest in the heat of the day.

I do not know the name of this little blue flower, but it is growing wild in my Mom's yard every place it can take root.  This little wild flower seem to love the heat.

This is a shot of the little wild flower from underneath.  I like the way the blue petals almost blend in with the blue sky.

I hope you enjoyed my view of the flowers in the heat of summer and if you want to see what others are I Heart Macroing jump on over to Studio Waterstone and check them out you will be amazed.

Happy beading Y'all
Therese

The Long Days of Summer Challenge

This month Charlene Sevier at The Bead Dreamer presented a challenge of what does the long days of summer mean to you.  The concept is to select a photo of a summer day memory and make a piece that represents the memory.

It is so hot this summer just about everywhere, but in the Southeast where I live it is sweltering hot.  So because I wanted to feel cool, all I could think of is the cool water of a mountain lake.  Last summer I went on an Alaskan cruise with some family members.  Those of us coming from Alabama chose to drive to Seattle, WA.  We made several stops along the way doing the tourist thing.  I'm so glad we drove, this is such a beautiful country we live in.  Although I took hundreds of pictures on this trip I chose these three pictures of this mountain lake on the way to the Paradise Inn on Mt. Rainier, WA.

For the challenge I made a simple strung necklace that represents the cool water of the above mountain lake.

Most of the beads and finding for the necklace were purchased at Hobby Lobby, with the exception of the glass butterflies I purchased those at a little bead store in San Antonio, TX last month when I was there visiting family, and the 3mm dark topaz Czech crystals those were purchased at High Strung Beads a LBS.
The focal glass beads to me represent the shimmering blue water of the lake with the sun reflecting off of the wind caused waves on the water.  The copper beads represent the summer sun. The glass butterfly beads are to add a bit of whimsy, they glow in the dark, so by day they are butterflies, but in the dark they are like fireflies. Last but not least the rose beads representing all of the flowers of summer.

I hope that you were able to get out and enjoy the summer in some fashion, whether it was a vacation away or one at home.  Most of all I hope that you were able to stay cool this unusually hot summer.

Now take the time to go and visit the others in this "The Long Days of Summer" challenge:

Charlene Sevier - http://thebeaddreamer.com/blog/
Andrew Thornton - http://andrew-thornton.blogspot.com/
Andrea Trank - http://heavenlanecreations.wordpress.com/
Mary Ellen Parker - http://beetreebyme.blogspot.com/
Tara Linda - http://taralinda.wordpress.com/

Happy beading Y'all
Therese

Polymer clay and Bead soup mix

A long time ago at least 8 years ago I decided that I was going to make my Mom a rosary made out of polymer clay beads.  I went out and bought several colors of clay, with very good intentions of making all of the bead that I was going to need to make the rosary.  My Mom and Dad even brought me back a pasta machine from New York City when they went to visit Ground Zero.  Well I had fun playing with the clay and I made a few beads, but alas the rosary did not get made.  I eventually made one for her, but not out of the polymer clay beads.
Well all of the clay and pasta machine got put away and forgotten, it was not until I was packing up my house, that I found where they had got put and I decided to take them to my Mom's instead of putting them into storage.  After seeing all the beautiful pieces some of you make out of clay I decided to get my clay out and play.
Here are some of the things I did yesterday and today.

I found a tutorial on making polymer clay roses and thought that it sounded easy enough so I sat down and made these two roses.  The tan rose was the first one I made it was my practice rose.  I have an idea in my head of a pendant that I want to make for a Harley Davidson Jewelry Challenge I'm going to do.  The pendant involves roses, a skull, and a snake and that is all I'm going to say about it.

The pendants I did today.  I got the idea to make these pendant for the ABS August Challenge.  I love the Art Nouveau period and I wondered to myself if I could transfer pictures of Art Nouveau posters onto polymer clay, so I googled it and found a great tutorial on transferring images to polymer clay using T-shirt transfer paper.  The above pendants are the results.  I still need to sand the ones with the polymer frames and then seal them with a clear sealant. 

I received my bead soup mix from my partner Lola Surwillo today in the mail.  I love it the colors are beautiful and she mixed in crystals, gemstones and some peanut seed beads that I have not worked with before. The focal is a Mother of Pearl mosaic pendant, and the clasp is a sweet little sterling silver toggle.

I think I will sleep with this mix above my head on the top of the head board of my bed and dream of designs I can make with this beautiful mix.

Happy beading Y'all

Therese

The Gossiping Goddess is giving her heart away!

Lesley the creator of The Gossiping Goddess is giving away a beautiful lamp work heart pendant.

So if you want a chance to win this beautiful pendant go on over the The Gossiping Goddess and follow Lesley's instructions.  She is trying to get 100 followers before the end of August.

Happy beading Y'all
Therese

Bead Soup Blog Party Partner

I'm so excited about being a part of the Bead Soup Blog Party, this is my first BSBP.  I signed up early on the morning of August 1st and waited with bated breath for the email that revealed my partner.  My partner in the BSBP is Lola Surwillo at Bead Lola Bead.  Lori Anderson did a great job at pairing us up.  Lola and I have similar interests not just in beading but in other crafts as well.  I mailed out my bead soup mix to her today and can not wait for reveal day to see what she has done.  Go visit Lola's blog and her etsy shop she does beautiful work.

Happy beading Y'all
Therese