| Author |
Message |
Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Saturday, May 02, 2009 - 10:19 pm 
They are 2 & 3 and still too little and active to do beading. The 3 yr old and I do bake together, cakes and cookies. He is usually done before the entire process is completed, especially sugar cookies.
I was babysitting them tonight and he and I did make cupcakes while his sister was napping. If my niece didn't try to eat the beads I think she would give them a lick or two as she seems to be going thru a licking phase.
Who knows, I may throw sanity to the wind, bring them over here and have them pick out beads for a bracelet to give their mom (my sis) for Mother's Day.
|
Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Sunday, May 03, 2009 - 1:54 am
Oh yep, just a little too young. You might get the 3 year old to string a few beads, but it probably wouldn't last too long. That would be fun to let them pick out beads. I always loved doing stuff with the nieces and nephews for their moms for the holidays. They take so much pride in their gifts.
Little niece loved her necklace Dakota made her. Sis said she forgot her camera so I'll have to try to get a pic of it next time I see her. LOL, she also asked me if I was sure Dakota did it on her own cuz it looked great. Said yep, she sure did. I was reading a magazine at the time and had nothing to do with it.
As excited as I was about the flea market tomorrow, I forgot all about it when Darren's buddy called and asked if he wanted to go fishing tomorrow. I said sure, why not, have fun......then ack! he was supposed to go with me. Ok, no biggie, me and the kids can go alone, it'll be fun. I pulled some cash and have been all ready for it.
Sigh...might not happen now. On Wednesday when I picked Kota up from school, she told me her sinuses were dry and hurt. I know how this goes. Had her start using her sinus wash and back on to the regular sinus pills, trying to fight off an infection. Thursday night she was coughing. Well crap, means we're not fighting it off too well. Last night the cough was much worse and she had quite a bit of nasal congestion so I added mucinex and vicks vapor pads and by midnight or so she seemed to be doing much better. More mucinex, sinus wash, and pills and she was feeling fine. She went to the party and sis said she started coughing earlier this evening. Said she also complained about her throat and sounding froggy. I can't type what I said then. Her fever leaves no doubt, she's got a sinus infection that's already moved to her lungs and if she's complaining about her throat, that's probably infected as well again. It's only been two months or so since last time we went through this, but it's that time of year again. I gave her her mucinex, sinus pills, had her do the wash, and motrin and when I went back to check on her, her fever had broken and she was all sweaty and clammy.
Flea market is most likely off unless she has a great recovery tonight. I'll have to get her to the doc on Monday (hope it won't be too busy with the swine flu scare) even if she's feeling better just to have her checked out. Last sinus infection was kinda sneaky so not going to take any chances. Plus if she goes to school with these symptoms and no note from the doctor, they'll send her home for having the flu.
|
Biloxibelle
Member
12-21-2001
| Sunday, May 03, 2009 - 5:47 am
Bee ,I am having a blast working with flatbacks.
I bought Kenzi, who just turned 3, 2 pairs of canvas shoes. One was trimmed in green with a green elastic strap across the foot, the other was pink. I put the flatbacks on the trim and strap of the shoes. I had the green ones done when she was here Sunday. She loved them.
Funniest story. We were on the porch and Kenzi wanted to go outside. DH told her she didn't have any shoes on. She ran to my table and yelled to him' I'll get my "party shoes" poppa. Those shoes are now known as the Party Shoes. I only had one pink one done. I had to hurry to get the other one done so she could have it for daycare.
I made Madelyn a pair of flip flops. They were black so I used multi-colored beads on them. It turned out great. I have one more pair of blue flip flops to do.
I bought some more flatbacks from Michaels yesterday. They are mulit-colored purple and pink, so I have to find some purple flip flops.
I hope to get some time to work on my spiral bracelet today. I am getting the hang of it. I just haven't had much time to work on it this week.
I have a picture of the green shoes. I will get it posted.
|
Beekindpleez
Member
07-18-2006
| Sunday, May 03, 2009 - 11:33 am
Biloxi....so glad to hear that. They really are cute, aren't they? And easy, too!
Old Navy has flip flops in all kinds of colors, two pairs for five bucks.
Can't wait to see the pics!! Wheeeee
|
Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Sunday, May 03, 2009 - 10:29 pm
Woo hoo for the party shoes!! They sound like a lot of fun.
Miraculous recovery...Dakota felt just fine today. Still a cough and I expect a sinus infection to follow but we'll see, maybe she'll get lucky.
Went to the flea market and checked out a couple stalls, then stumbled across a great one. The lady makes her own glass beads and does beautiful work so I talked to her for about half an hour while picking some out. Darren had come home from fishing so him and Caleb wandered off without us, lol. She teaches classes on making them.  She's also been talking to my local bead store lady about selling some of her stuff in the shop. But, I also got her card cuz she'll do special order stuff too.
Then we ran into a lady I casually know from the bead store who was running her stall. Stopped to chat with her for a while, though I didn't buy anything (Dakota did) and she told us about some of the classes she runs out of the bead store. I've been thinking about that for a while but haven't really had time for it. She was telling me it'd be great to have me come in with Kota, she'd love to have a couple kids in her class. Maybe this summer I'll look into doing a class or two with Kota.
Overall I didn't really get that much. A couple strands of the glass beads (one had 5 beads, the other 7) and a cell phone charm, which is something I'd never buy on a normal basis since I can make my own, but she'd used a really cute glass bead that had a frog on it and she wasn't selling those beads seperately. Dakota bought a couple things of tubular seed beads she liked and a strand of beads. I didn't see anything all that interesting among the used stuff.
LOL, Dakota has snack day coming up next week and I thought it might be fun to make the girls spiral rope bracelets in team colors. The only seed beads in red/white I have are size 11's, but with the nymo thread it's working pretty well. Figured I'd make the bracelets around 5 1/2" and add an extender chain so all they'll fit the various sized girls. Sat down to work on one and finished the bracelet but not the clasp part in about an hour. That's not too bad, I can do 1-2 a day. Darren looked at it, said it looks good and asked when her snack day is, I said sometimes next week. He looked at the sheet and said, "Uh babe, it's on the 6th!" Heh, yeah, I won't finish 11 bracelets by Wednesday, so maybe I'll do em for nieces snack day on the 27th.
|
Biloxibelle
Member
12-21-2001
| Monday, May 04, 2009 - 8:05 pm
Oh no, no, no! I am one stinking inch away from finishing my first spiral bracelet and I ran out of crystals. I am using 4mm crystals and ran out. I actually ordered 20 extra, the problem is I am using delicas and they are smaller then regular seed bead. I made an emergency ran to the bead store and was willing to pay her price for a few more, but she was out too. Just placed another online order so here I sit waiting.
War, I wish we lived closer. I would help you crank out those bracelets in two days, lol. Red and white sounds pretty. Don't forget to get pictures.
DH hasn't uploaded the "party shoes" pictures yet. As soon as he does I will get them posted.
|
Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Monday, May 04, 2009 - 8:25 pm
What color crystals do you need, Biloxi? I might have the color you need (I love crystals and have a bunch) but I'm not sure I could get them to you any sooner than an online site could.
I don't know if I'll have to have snacks on Wednesday now. After Kota's game tonight, I took the kids to get dinner (we actually brought it home, but it took a while.) I walked in the door just as the team manager was calling, he said he thinks the game is gonna be cancelled (other team is forfeiting) but he's still trying to get ahold of the other coach and see if they can get a practice game going. We'll find out tomorrow for sure.
|
Lumbele
Moderator
07-12-2002
| Tuesday, May 05, 2009 - 4:43 pm
Biloxi, that sucks!!! Things like that used to happen to me with yarn. To prevent emergencies like that, I now buy too much and then have to figure out a way to use them up. Got a whole lot of infant hats lying around until I remember where to find the addy for the hospitals up north that need them.
Picked up a pair of hot pink flip-flops for dil, but don't have any flatback crystals yet. Do you have to use the more expensive Swarsomethingorother or are there cheaper ones that would do. This is supposed to be more of a gag gift, because she does like sparklies. Thought a pair of "party shoes" might give her a lift since she is under a lot of stress at the moment.
Ta-Dahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Don't know why, but I just can't shrink my pix enough any more to make them acceptable here *and* so that one can still see what they are.
You pros would have probably done these in 1/2 hour, but thanks to screw-ups, too tight, mistake in the pattern, too long, rearranging etc etc etc, the necklace and bracelet took me almost 3 hours. Ack! Mind you, learning from mistakes tends to stick better, right?
Now I am stuck as to what to do with the stones from pic #355. What would one combine those with to make a necklace? I got 8 of those now. Any ideas? I got some smaller silver spacer globes, but it's not quite "it".
|
Biloxibelle
Member
12-21-2001
| Tuesday, May 05, 2009 - 7:38 pm
Thanks for the offer War. They sent an e-mail that my order has been shipped so hopefully I will have them shortly.
LOL Lum, I over bought the crystals this time. Just like your yarn. Aint going to run out again nosirrebob!
Lum, your jewelery looks great. I love the chunky blue. The spacers you used really makes it pop.
As far as flatbacks I bought mine at Hobby Lobby. I have seen the Swarovski flatbacks online, but have not bought any. I probably will if I dress up any of my shoes. Matter of fact I wore a pair of white (I know it's not Memorial day yet) srappy sandals to a wedding Saturday. I kept looking at them thinking, wow these would look great with some crystals on them, lol. I think for flip flops you will be fine buying just plain old flatbacks.
|
Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Tuesday, May 05, 2009 - 11:35 pm
Those look great, Lum! I like the first set best, and the little charm on the bracelet, but all of them are very nice!
And omg, lol. I'm such a dork! Friday night when we were doing snack bar duty, Dakota's bffs step mom brought her over to the park. I went out to the car and talked to her for a minute, yeah she can stay, I'll keep an eye on her and bring her home when I'm done. The whole time I was talking to the step mom, I was staring at her necklace and kept thinking, I've seen that somewhere before...maybe not the same thing, but something similar.
I just realized, lol, they were your beads, Lum! The ones in your first pic (the bluish turquoise ones.) It was made with alternating the tear drop shape beads with smaller round ones. I just kept staring at her chest, lol, finally told her I'd seen something similar but couldn't remember where!
I just bought some Swarovski flatbacks today for a project, but only got them cuz they were on sale and cheaper than the normally cheaper brands. Unlike the bicones, rounds, or other shapes, the flatbacks don't have the angles that catch the light like the other shapes do so I don't think it really matters if you use them or the cheaper brands. Hope that makes sense, lol!
Oh, glad you're order already shipped, Biloxi! Most are pretty quick to ship and get them to you. Hopefully you won't have to wait too long.
|
Lumbele
Moderator
07-12-2002
| Wednesday, May 06, 2009 - 1:27 pm
Thanks, Biloxi and War! By the time I was done with the necklace, I didn’t have enough spacers left for the bracelet, so I used similar ones there. Don’t think anyone will notice.
I got a top that I told the saleswoman was so 70s, been there, done that already, but then bought it anyway because the price was right. It has a similar blue in it, so I figured that dove on the bracelet would be an appropriate concession to those hippie days.LOL
The beads in the first pic are still lying on the table. I was going to use the teardrop ones for a bracelet, I think, but those big ones are 1 ½” wide and I still don’t know what to put with them to make a necklace. Maybe, I’ll use 4 of those for a bracelet and use the teardrops a la stepmum.LOL
No beading today anyway, so there is time to contemplate. Maybe I’ll even tuck them away and start on something else.
Biloxi, is that whole no white between Labour Day and Memorial Day still in effect? I had never heard of that "rule" until I came to Canada and have been promptly ignoring it.
BTW, are thos Czech crystals any good?
|
Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Wednesday, May 06, 2009 - 2:54 pm
The Czech crystals and pretty close to swarovski and will work fine for whatever you want to do with them.
Sometimes it's better to sit on some beads for a while and ponder what you can use them for. You may spot something later that will go perfect with them or see a piece of jewelry that inspires you and find those beads are perfect. Got a whole box of waiting to use beads, lol.
|
Beekindpleez
Member
07-18-2006
| Wednesday, May 06, 2009 - 7:13 pm
Lum...no, you do not need to use the Swarsomethingorother crystals. In fact, Wal-Mart has packages of crystals for $1.96 that work just fine. You'll need three to four packages, so I often use these. I only use the Swarsomethingorother for special shoes. They are very spectacular, but the other crystals are very nice, too.
Your jewelry is fantastic!! Thanks for sharing.
|
Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Thursday, May 07, 2009 - 12:46 am
I've been slowly working on the bracelets for the softball team. So far I've finished....one, lol. Working really slow! Dakota's snack night was tonight, but the other team had to forfeit (win for us, but the girls were disappointed, most teams don't like to win that way.) We're planning on sticking the bracelets in my nieces snack bags towards the end of the month, so I have plenty of time.
I think it turned out pretty cute. I'd rather have used a different red, not so shiny, but figured I should match it to the necklaces (plus I had a few tubes of the shiny red seed beads left over, lol.) I'm using size 11's for both the spiral and the core beads, first one I've done without the size 8 core beads. Because the girls range in age from 7-11, I'm making them all 5 1/2 inches with an extender chain, otherwise I'd have to label the bags and make sure the right girl gets the right size bracelet. My LBS has little baseball charms that I might decide to pick up and attach to the end of the chain, but right now I'm not planning on it.
|
Lumbele
Moderator
07-12-2002
| Thursday, May 07, 2009 - 12:43 pm
War, that bracelet is too cute. Those girls are gonna flip! Matching to the necklaces is a good idea (and frugal).
Thanks again for patiently answering all my newbie questions, ladies, and thanks for the compliments, Beek, but my stuff is still quite beginner's fare, although the crimping is going a bit better.
Question #Next: I've been itchin' to make something in the style of the pic below, but for a bracelet, but wouldn't even know where to start. What kind of beads, what size, what findings or should I postpone this kind of project until I got more of a clue?
Also, I have been eying some chains, but have never made my own dangles. I need those long nails for that, right? Any other tips?
|
Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Thursday, May 07, 2009 - 1:28 pm
Looks like a Russian Spiral rope. I've been drooling over pics of them (and the double russian spiral ropes) for a few weeks, but so far haven't found any instructions that are easy enough and not confusing to follow, lol.
With a regular spiral rope and the russian spiral rope, you use seed beads, but the fun part about that is that once you get the stitch down and know it well, you can switch up the size/shape/color of your seed beads and have every rope come out looking very different from the last one you did. And that's what your pic up there looks like, Lum...just different sizes and shapes of seed beads. I see teeny tiny ones, maybe 11's or 15's that are round and square seed beads (not sure of the sizing of those.) I can't really see the chunky, rough cut like ones well enough to guess what those are. They could be a small gemstone bead (I've used crystals and have been thinking about doing one with freshwater pearls...3mm.)
I really want to do a russian spiral and definitely the double russian spiral but I have to find instructions that are a whole lot easier than what I have found, lol.
|
Sugar
Member
08-15-2000
| Friday, May 08, 2009 - 2:45 pm
FYI today is "These #@()(&@#&@7@#$$() crimp beads don't wanna crimp correctly Day".
Some may think it is user error but I'm going with it not being any fault of mine. 
|
Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Friday, May 08, 2009 - 10:19 pm
Have had it happen often enough, Sugar, I truly believe ever so often you just get a bad batch. Flimsy, thin, weak and they snap or don't sit right or slip. Er, of course, I've also had those user error days, lol.
|
Crzndeb
Member
07-26-2004
| Saturday, May 09, 2009 - 11:40 am
Not sure if you are using a crimping tool, but I only use flat nose to crimp. I know War uses them, but I was told that they tend to weaken the crimps. I usually use sterling crimps and out of hundreds of items I've made, I rarely have one break. I could probably count them on 1 hand. Broken crimps are not fun, especially after you have finished your beading and are wearing it...LOL!
|
Crzndeb
Member
07-26-2004
| Tuesday, May 12, 2009 - 4:53 pm
I was a bad girl, sorta! After seeing some stretch pearl bracelets on a famous shopping channel the other night, I was on a mission to find strands of different color 10mm glass pearls to make my own. Firemountain Gems had 16 colors and there was a price break at 15...and each pack included two 16in strands. So I ended up buying all 16 colors. It came out to about $1.40 per strand. I can't wait to get them and make some bracelets. I don't do anything small...LOL!!
|
Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Tuesday, May 12, 2009 - 10:58 pm
Woo hoo Deb! That is a great price! And you can do so many things with them too, not just your bracelets but you can mix them with other beads and crystals for fun designs. That reminds me too that I wanted to check them for much smaller size pearls (want to do a spiral bracelet with them.)
I haven't had much time to do any beading since this weekend. Darren and the kids bought me this organizer/drawer (about 4ft tall, five drawers) for Mother's day. I stuck all my bead stuff in, but now need to reorganize it all, lol. I'll have to take a pic of it tomorrow...I love it. Plenty of room for all my tools, my clay, finished pieces, unfinished, magazines, etc.
|
Lumbele
Moderator
07-12-2002
| Wednesday, May 13, 2009 - 7:49 am
Deb, I think I was reading about that same special, but slapped my ordering fingers. I need to let my wallet catch its breath for a while. I checked, and so far I have stuff for about 600 bucks, but looking at it all it doesn't seem like it at all. Can you imagine if I had paid reg. price for that stuff? Yikes!
|
Crzndeb
Member
07-26-2004
| Wednesday, May 13, 2009 - 6:01 pm
Wow!! the pearls got here quick..ordered Sun. night and they arrived today. I already have 2 bracelets made...LOL!!! I have quite a few Thai silver small drops, so I may add a few to some of them for my own Sundance look....but a lot cheaper than Sundance. There are 43 pearls per strand, and 1 bracelet took 19 to fit my wrist comfortably. I think I will make a cool jingle bracelet with all the colors. I love jingle cha cha bracelets.
|
Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Friday, May 15, 2009 - 12:22 am
I just got around to downloading some pics from my camera and thought I'd share the necklace/bracelet set I made last week.
I used 4mm freshwater pearls, 3mm and 4mm chrysolite bicones and 4mm chrysolite cubes, and silver spacer beads. A little dressier than I usually wear, but the set will work for date night or just plain jeans and tshirts.
Deb, thanks again for reminding me about the pearls! I went and looked around at them and ended up finding a deal on some 4mm rounds. 10 30" strands for $8.43 (different colors.) Since I want to use them for spiral ropes and that takes quite a few beads, it was perfect!
|
Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Friday, May 15, 2009 - 12:42 am
Lumbele, it looks like you could get some instructions for a Russian Spiral in Step-by-Step Beads, November/December 2008 issue.
http://www.interweavestore.com/store/p/2533-Russian-Spiral.aspx
|
|
The Hobby Hall
