Snow Days

One of the things I love most about working in higher education is the potential for snow days, and we were fortunate enough to get to leave early Tuesday, and we were off the entire day yesterday.  I knew it was the perfect time to pull out some of my hoarded Elaine Ray beads and get to work.  This is what I came up with.

Birds Nest earrings

Bare Branches

Twigs

Violets

I can't decide which I like most!  This was the first time I incorporated leather into my designs as a chain, and it was actually much easier than I thought it might be.  

These are all available in my new shop, www.mustardbead.com. 

It's only January, so maybe we'll squeeze in another snow day or two--at least that's my wish!

New website

A couple of months ago, I read about a website devoted to jewelry makers called Jewelspan.  After much consideration and research, I decided to open an account, and create a website there.  You can find it at mustardbead.com.  It's very basic at the moment, with only a few pieces featured.  I hope to have more on there soon, but right now I'm sitting in a hotel room (I'm at a conference) fighting with my internet connection, so the basics are all I can manage right now.  

My Etsy account is still open, but I simply haven't had much luck selling there.  It's an easy and wonderful venue, but there are so many shops on there it's easy to get lost in the shuffle, so to speak.  So, I'm giving this a shot, and we'll see how it goes.  

Playing with polymer clay

It's cold outside.  Brutally cold.  We haven't seen weather this cold in 20 years.  During lunch today, the temperature was 1 degree.  It's supposed to be below 0 tonight.  I don't live in the deep south, but I live south enough to not be used to this kind of weather!  

Since I can't change it, I might as well enjoy it, right?  Nothing like curling up with some beads or a book in front of the fire on a cold night.  Add a cozy blanket, a nice cup of coffee, and the dog and it's perfect.  In honor of the cold weather and snow we've been getting, I played around with some polymer clay last night and made these beads.

I used white polymer clay, and stamped the snowflake images and the word "snow" onto them.  I can't draw to save my life, so stamps are perfect.  And, since I had the clay out, I figured I might as well make a couple more small owls.

Hope it's warm wherever you are!  Tonight I'll definitely be wrapped up in a cozy blanket in front of the fire!

Happy New Year

Happy new year--just a little late!  Hard to believe 2013 has come and gone, and we're now 3 days into 2014.  I have to say 2013 was not the greatest of years.  It's not that anything bad happened--I just suffered from a lot of work burnout and general feelings of being in a rut.  But, now it's a new year, with new goals!

I just finished up an almost 2 week vacation from work--one of the perks of working for a college.  It was a much-needed break, and I was able to relax and enjoy time with my family.  I spent one day organizing my bead stash, and I'm pretty sure I could open my own bead store with what I already have!  It's not perfect, but everything is much more organized than it was before.  I have to make do with very limited space.  

My husband ventured into Michaels, and bought some beads and tools for me for Christmas.  I used a couple of them to make these earrings.

They're a bit flashy, and very fun to wear!  

I intended to get back on the torch for the first time in months, but, well, it just didn't happen.  Maybe soon!

I hope the upcoming year treats everyone especially well!  I'm very optimistic that it will be a great one!