New Ventures

Lots have happened in the past few months that have taken my attention away from beading and making jewelry (just a little) that I would love to share with you. I'm seriously considering retirement from my full-time job--you know, that pesky thing that pays for my hobbies and bad habits--but am hesitant to do so especially in this economic environment without the security of a steady replacement income. Sooooo...what's a girl to do?

For me that spelled examining the world of direct sales. Oh lordy, did I open up a can of something!

My first venture was a product that I really love...+Thirty-One...love, love, love me some Thirty-one. I'm always on a quest to organize my life and my other hobbies so this was a logical choice for me. Since starting my business in April 2014, I'm just shy of becoming a Senior Consultant...and I can't wait. Check out my Thirty-One website and check out all our amazing products--you'll see what I mean.



My next venture was +Mary Kay Cosmetics. Lord help me. I wear very little makeup, so I'm going to have to spruce up my education there, but have
nothing but positive results with the skin care and fragrances. I guess--all things considered--this is an opportunity to play with the "big" girls and learn all about applying make-up.
 



Sample of my cooking...pre-Pampered Chef

Pampered Chef. If you've been following me and the pictures I post, you will know that I absolutely love to cook. +Pampered Chef will keep me in the kitchen...lord I gotta go organize my cabinets now to store all my goodies.

What else can I get into? Stay tuned and you'll see!

 

Da Beads! Da Beads!

Awesome weekend!  I had been working such long hours at my "paying" job that time for touching my the beads and creating were sorely limited...really to 1 night per week...(and most of y'all know,I play with my beads in some shape or form every day)...can you say FRUSTRATED!!!!

So I took a couple of much needed days off and let me tell you it was da bomb...besides sleeping, I revelled in bead time.  I was due to participate in Hilltop Marketplace in Georgetown, TX so I was on a mad rush to create Ceramic tile coasters to add to my inventory then the show got canceled due to weather...oh well...so over the course of Wednesday through Friday, I made two (2) pairs of earrings, four (4) bracelets (2 unfinished--I ran out of the beads).  On Saturday, the Jolly Jems met up at +Lapis Lane Beads for four plus hours of beading.  Of course, many members of the +Jolly Jems are members of the +Austin Bead Society board of directors so we had an impromptu meeting with this year's Bazaar Coordinator, +Maryanne Walker .  As a result, we decided to crash the Austin Bead Market on Sunday and distribute fliers in order to promote our upcoming Bead Bazaar.

Linda, Caron, Connie and Sally



My haul from Legendary Beads!

On Sunday, with my best beading girlfriends, (+Connie White , +Linda Burkett , +Betsy Glen), we took a little trip and visited +Legendary Beads and helped celebrate the shop's birthday and the Austin Bead Market. By the way, as part of the birthday celebration, I drew a 20% off coupon....

Stash from Bead Market and Legendary Beads

I was looking for a particular bead in order to finish my bracelets--nothing more--yeah, RIGHT!!! We all know how that goes!  Thank goodness all bills had been paid otherwise, I'd be eating some "Wish Soup" and camping out on someone's door step...LOL!  I visited my favorite vendors--+BeadStuff , +Queenly Global Trading  +Stick Lizard Designs plus some other new ones +Sandy Shores and +Bead Market.  Now mind you, our intent --at least my intent--was to hand out fliers and network for vendors for our bazaar...I did manage to do that as well...Overall, not a wasted trip.

We ended our day with dinner at +Texas Land and Cattle where we did a show and tell of all of our goodies!  Love hanging with my beady friends!  See y'all tonight at the Austin Bead Society's general meeting--did I forget to mention that I was teaching the Chenille Stitch tonight?  Yup!  looking forward to it!

Happy beading!
 

Beading Frenzy!

Whew!  Heading out of town tomorrow for a wee bit of a break (yeah, right)!  As you may (or may not) know, I'm a proud member of the illustrious Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated and we have a workshop going on this week--my 1st truth to tell.  Because it will be business like meetings, what better to wear than pearls to compliment my chosen outfit.

So right now, I'm on a mad dash to make some incredible pearl jewelry--not only for myself, but also for my sister...call me crazy for waiting until the last minute.

Happy Beading!

San Antonio Bead Bazaar

Today's blog is going to mainly be a pictorial. Yesterday, the Jolly Jems (majority of whom are also members of the Austin Bead Society), took a road trip to the Schertz Civic Center to support the San Antonio Bead Society's  Annual Bazaar...truth be told, be just wanted the opportunity to see the shinies and in some cases increase our personal inventory.

 

 Not including the two members of ABS who were vendors there were at least nine members who made the trip to San Antonio.  Out little crew consisted of  +Suzanne Ortiz +Linda Burkette, +Betsy Glen and +Connie white +Lapis Lane Beads.  We arrived at opening time (11:00am) and left about 4:00pm.  This is us at the end of the day...still smiling...dontcha know! 


Betsy, applauding her stuck snack of choice

Despite the shopping we had to grab something to eat.  Unfortunately, we had to be satisfied with the Vending machines.  Betsy got into it with the vending machine and as you can see, IT won!



Linda and Connie digging through the mounds
and mounds of beads



Lauri Gist of +Mica Beads

There were lots of shiny baubles and beads and boy did we ever dig into each and every bundle.  Some  more successful that others at finding lost treasures.



Suzy, shuffling through all the pearls...
Lots to be had at even greater prices



Connie, our designated driver of the day, always mindful
and thoughful, picking up special pieces
for the missing Jem, Jane-Michael.

The trick is to walk the complete space
upon arrival, scouting out who has what
and at the better price

I don't know how she does it, but she finds
the most amazing things in the humungous piles
of beads

 

Linda

Suzy

Betsy

Connie

Me

 Happy Beading!

Working on improving my skills

As you know two of my weakest siklls on my jewelry making quest are wire work and resin (to date)..both of which I would love to improve upon.  So tonight I set out to work on them. 

 

I worked on both of them so tell me what you think.  I used 21g copper square and 1/2 round wire for the pendant piece.   I took a class last month and couldn't find the tutorial so pretty much did it from memory. I must say,I was pretty happy with it. There are some "mistakes" but for the most part I'm really excited about it.  I think the wire work complimented the stone and accentuated the "Wisdom".

 

 

 

As for the resin work, I'll elaborate a little more in my Resination post.  But, I'm trying to get ready for the +AustinBeadSociety's President's Challenge for the April meeting which was to design our own name tag.  I of course had this brilliant idea to incorporate several mediums...one of which was using resin.  So I did a first pour before leaving for work and this is what I came home to at the end of the day.  So far so good...saying a prayer.

 

Follow my progress in my resination post to see the finished product.

 

 

Happy Beading!

What's on my mat?

Because I work a day job and have to get up very early in the morning, I tend to try to avoid beadwork during the week.  This of couse leads to major bead withdrawal...(Yes, my name is Caron and I'm an addict!) Last night, I just couldn't fight it any longer and had to pull out something to work on...something quick and fairly "mindless" that should I happen to doze off, it would not result in endless ripping out the next day.

I have an unfinished Cellini Spiral on one of my other project boards, plus some other things but as you know, a Cellini Spiral requires some concentration and thought.  Instead, I settled for a simple Ndebele (Herringbone stitch) bracelet.  Pardon the bad picture!  I should be able to finish this piece tonight!

Happy Beading!

Getting my bead on

What a day!  Main objective today was to get my taxes done...well, it's almost 9pm and haven't even started...but let me show you what I did accomplish today.  I'm gearing up for a craft show on April 19th so I'm making some quick pick things...earrings and pendants and quick necklaces to add to the more detailed pieces.  I've also been making earring cards that can also serve as packaging. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But the most awesome thing that I finished today was a cubic Right Angle Weave...aka CRAW...pendant.

 

 

So now that I've written this quick blog,  it's really time to get my taxes done

 

 

Happy Beading!