Blue Crab Soup with Chilies!

That's my soup name!

Isn't that fun!?!

Have you had such an exotic soup? I have not, but I want to try it.

As I do all these savory soup recipes included in this book!

There's Ginger Peach Soup by Lori, Stone Soup by Malin, Autumn Harvest Soup by Barb, Savory Tomato Soup by Kerry, Summer Strawberry and Mint Soup by Brandi and so much more. 

You'll be full for months!

Today is my celebration day for the week long blog hop. I am celebrating the release of this book for a few personal reasons;

1. Lori welcomed me into her blog circle with open, encouraging arms and she did not give up on me even though I became very uncommunicative while the preparations for publishing her book were underway.
2. I have met some of my best beading buddies through the bead soup blog parties.
3. There are some really good projects and know how in here...

Lori discusses bead soup beginnings and inspiration, using up left over beads, embellishing focals, referring to a color wheel and purchasing randomly (Gasp! But I plan everything out!!!). The projects are as varied as the designers are, but there is a lovely synchronicity to the flow of the book, which I enjoyed reading as much as I enjoy reading Lori's blog.

My own personal soup was sent in from Christine Damm, one of my most favorite polymer clay artist whose specialty of large donut focals and handmade beads seriously tempt my wallet every time I see them!

To have one of her silky, colorful sets in my hands that I could mix with beads is something I am very grateful for and I hope you enjoy the project I stepped out with it. 

Now I am sure you are not missing out on the prizes and give-aways and I would very much like to offer a set of the lavender flower beads that Lori uses in the books cover project;

So please leave a comment and I will send out a set of 4 to the winner drawn on Sunday.

Here is the remainder of the blog hop so you can continue celebrating and entering chances to win!

Sharon Palac -- http://sharonsjewelrygarden.blogspot.com  

Heather Powers -- http://www.humblebeads.blogspot.com 

Erin Prais-Hintz -- http://treasures-found.blogspot.com  

and for Monday, October 8th,

there will be a grand prize offer with a ton of goodies to enjoy!

Lori Anderson, www.PrettyThingsBlog.com

Much Love & Respect,

Shannon 

Winners!

I get to ship out mags to Shelby and Rose!

Thanks for commenting and most of you were right;

It's Honest Abe!

Pinky made a portrait for Presidents day and she was so anxious about how he looked, I guess that is how all of us artists are, never quite happy with the end result?

But you all made her feel better and she now believes it looks like Abe Lincoln.

Are you through the Bead Soup blog posts yet? 

I am not even close, not sure why I thought Saturday would be sufficient to get through them, but it wasn't!

So I will put off drawing a name for the earring kit for a few more days.

Talk to you soon!

Much Love & Respect,

Shannon

Bead Design Studio Magazine Give Away

Here is a close up;

 

Bead Soup Blog Party!

Are you going? I'm going! I've got it on my calender and my special "outfit" is all picked out and put together!

Please say you'll go, I won't feel so awkward at this party if my friends go with me.

:)

Please visit Lori Anderson's blog this weekend, January 7th through the 9th to sign up for the lottery registration (click this link for an explanation);

Pretty Things 

AND NOW FOR THE WINNER OF MY STERLING BEAD FRAME GIVE-AWAY;

Random generator gave us 7 as the lucky number!

Indigo Heart!

Indigo lives in Alaska, which automatically makes her the bravest person I know but she is also one of those multi-talented people who can draw, create jewelry and is now making her own beads and components!

Thank you for commenting and leaving such wonderful ideas, rich with creativity and talent for the new bead frames. I definitely want to try to incorporate both pearls and leather with one of them now.

Hammered Bead Frames

Bead frames in soldered hammered sterling.

Torn between tough leather wraps or elegant matching pearls, these have sat for over a year.

Used for a project that made it into the Belle Armoire Salon section of their Jan./Feb. 2011 issue, I called the leather wraps Urban Cowgirl, inspired by Pinky who came trouncing out of her room in a froo-froo tutu and leather cowgirl boots.
This is the one I wear;

The plans that are on hold;

Do you see my dilemma?

So maybe it is time to let go and let someone else?

Yes, indeed! A give-away.......

12" of deer hide leather in soft brown, 

a 15" strand of pale green rice freshwater pearls, 

1 free form faceted nugget of New Jade and 

its own custom fit bead frame of hammered sterling.

Leave me a comment letting me know what your idea is for the materials above!

I will draw a number next Friday and ship all of it to you if your name is drawn.
I hope you all have a happy new year and that the year 2012 surpasses all your hopes and expectations!  

Love My Art Jewelry Give-away Sponsered by Missficklemedia.com

 

Something about rose pink and golden yellow.

 

I shaped 18 gauge copper leaves, hammered and tumbled them for strength, then treated them to a matte yellow patina. Once sealed, I could add an Artisan Beads Plus original set of ceramic rose colored tubes, wrap the tops and pair them with hammered and lacquered bright copper ear wires.

You could win them if you go here and leave a comment;

Love My Art Jewelry.com

Don't you love their tag line;

 

"creating handmade with handmade."

 

Hard to do all the time but so worth the money and effort, isn't it?

You Get Back Up

Wow, what a couple of crazy weeks it has been since I was last able to visit you here.

Life has been trying to push me down, but I say NO. N.O. to you, Life. I get back up and I go forward. 

I seek answers like lost buried treasures, no matter the obstacles or the evil forces that try to knock me over.

Things that I have been doing;

1.) I have been a nurse to Miss. Pinky who came down with pneumonia and a double ear infection the day after Thanksgivings. Fevers, racking coughs, nausea (read; throw up) and a busted ear drum takes a bit of time to nurse back to health.When we finally got in to see the specialist, they took x-rays that showed a sinus infection. Some tests have been done and we will find out a bit more next week. Hopefully, we will have a plan that will help us keep her from getting such serious sicknesses so often.

 2.) We have been trying to learn as much as possible about a medicine called Soliris. In most cases it has helped pnh patients fight the hemolysis. It is a life long treatment and you can never go off of it once you start which makes it a scary decision. I do not feel intelligent enough to make this decision with Mike. While he respects my opinion most of the time, this is something I am just not sure about. There are risks involved, like that of meningococcal infections. We will have to take him to the hospital at the first sign of a fever. But the greater risk is that of blood clotting, which most people who have been diagnosed with pnh die from within 5 to 10 years. This medicine will prevent that. It has to be given every 2 weeks, you absolutely cannot miss it or the kidneys will crash as the doctor explained to us. (That means no month long vacations to Belize, just 1 week and 5 day vacations) 

  

3.) I have been learning how to trace anonymous commentor's. Did you know that you are never really anonymous but there is always a trail to follow? I thought that was cool. You can even trace someone's ip address. Once you have that, you just save everything pertinent to your harassment and hire a lawyer to harass back. That's interesting to know.

4.) I have been trying to keep up with custom orders while still creating new and exciting things for you to create with.

What do you think of these?

Dark Forest

(black on brass with laurel green and mica powder)

Spices

(chestnut, orange and green with mica on brushed copper)

Indigo Washed Chestnut

(chestnut over textured copper, washed with indigo and more mica powder)

So Guess what? Because you read through this whole thing all the way to the end, I want you to have a chance at this set. It will be the last give-a-way of the year!

Please leave me a comment so next week I can draw a name through the random generator and send off a set of 1 Dark Forest Leaf, 8 Spice beads, and 12" of Indigo Washed Chain to you. 

Now I must go and finish my margarita. There is much deep thought to commence with and I have to dust off the back of my pants.

We Get Back Up. 

* Sorry this was delayed! I will be able to draw a name and ship this out on Wed. the 29th.

Art Beads at Lima Beads

This time I did not have to crawl out from under my rock of anti-social behavior to discover something really cool, someone shoved a neat little bit of news in.

Art Beads by Humblebeads, Jangles, C-Koop and Green Girl Studios are completely shop-able at Lima Beads!

Ah! They're beautiful!

What I didn't know was Lima Beads has this really cool site feature where you can choose things to put into a collection called Fresh Picks.

This is even better then filling up shopping cart after shopping cart on my favorite bead sites as if I was going to actually buy them all but then I do not.

And what is even waaaaay cooler? Heather Powers is going to randomly draw a fresh pick collection from the comments at Art Bead Scene this Friday and they will win a grab bag of art beads from all the artists!

This is so exciting!!!!

So go put together your Fresh Pick and leave a comment here; Art Bead Scene with a link to your fresh pick. You could win.

The Winner

The ol' random generator gave us number 47 as the winner!

Which, if I'm counting correctly, is Debbie with Craftymoose Crafts!

Come on down, Debbie! Let's do an internet dance!

Send me an email with your address and I will ship this set off to you right away.

Thank you everyone, for the wonderful comments, I am really looking forward to the next give-away I have in mind. It is perfect for the spooky month of October!

A Give-Away

This is 14 gauge copper, measured, cut, filed, shaped, soldered, pickled, cleaned, hammered, tumbled, treated with chestnut patina, then pounced with a mica powder, sealed in satin lacquer and rubbed with preservation wax. The toggle is created specifically for this leaf shape (ie; it ain't coming apart when you bend over) and treated with the same patina coloring. The section of Chestnut chain is approximately 6" and perfect for pairing with beads of your choosing!

No hoop jumping for this one, just leave your comment and make sure you have a blog I can link to. I will draw a random number next Wed. on the 29th and we shall do a little happy dance over the internet together.

 

Give-Away Winner!

Yay! The Winner for the August 29th give-away is......

Hope Studios!!!

Hope! Send me your address through email and I will ship off the Autumn set lickty split!

Thanks to everyone for participating in my give-away. I have something special to offer next Sunday, the 12th, so come back and visit me for a chance to win a great set of forged components.

Tomorrow is the next compartment of The Peek into the Printers Drawer!

 

Singing Woods Give-away!

It's a good one, too!

With Green Girl Studios....

Gaea ceramic beads....

And a lamp worked rose from Helen Simon!

So go here where you can enter to win some of these lovely treasures so generously offered by Janet!

Autumn Give Away!

I am convinced the only good thing about living in the Midwest is the turning of the leaves in the fall.

It's my favorite thing ever and I have Mike drive me down country roads when the leaves are all different colors so I can stare out the window and soak in the variegated colors.

Would you celebrate the turning leaves with me?

I was going to create a new limited edition batch with these findings but honestly, I'm tired. So I only made this one set. The leaf is a reproduction stamping that contains beautiful detailing of leaf veins. I heat treated the brass until it turned colors then applied the bittersweet orange patina. An aggressive sanding and a thorough sealing gives us this life like leaf in Autumns golden orange.

The 24" copper chain is variegated with yellow turning to orange turning to brown. It's gorgeous!

I want someone to have it and make something wonderful with it.

Please leave a comment and include your name so I can draw it next Sunday!

Happy Autumn! 

Give-Away Winner!

The winner for The Pull of the Shore give-away is;

Number 34! GREER

Yay for winning!

Greer, can you email me and let me know your address? I will have this shipped off to you on Monday!

I hope you all are able to visit a shore this summer, we are making our own plans for next year.

I figured if I set aside $3 a day, we would have over $1,000 to go on vacation with. That should get us to the shore! California or Florida?

I think I am going to take a break from blogging for a bit. Sickness, hospitals, stupid doctors (not all of them) and financial woes have drained my creative battery. I'm struggling to be excited about stuff that used to shoot me out of bed in the morning.

Thank you to everybody who asks about Mike.

He is doing okay, his blood counts are still low but they aren't going any lower. He needed a bone marrow biopsy so his new slew of doctors could more accurately assess where he is. It was hard to be there and be supportive, the procedure is horrible. Thankfully he took something this time and the pain wasn't as severe. He is having trouble clotting and making a mess of the bedspread but I think I'll keep him anyway. 

After all he is helping me make headpins!

Give-Away!

The Pull of The Shore
Do you feel it? The pull?
The yearning to bask in the sun light, sit on sand, hear the lull of the ocean, feel the sea lapping at your toes?
I feel it so strongly and have since this day.

This give-away includes a one of a kind patina-ted pendant, layered with ocean blue, verdigris and opal powder (one of my first experiments in layering patinas). It is paired perfectly with Sea Sediment Jasper roundels, I think they are also called Aqua Terra Jasper, a strip of pale taupe recycled sari silk, antiqued copper chain and a hand forged copper clasp.

Just leave a comment and make sure I can reach you through your blog (ie, have a blog!) and I will draw a name on Wed. the 14th.

Thank you for visiting me here, I truly enjoy your company. 

Necklace Give-Away!

I am giving away A Message From The Skies necklace on Art Bead Scene Blog.

The drawing is done sometime today, so head on over and be sure to leave a comment before the random generator leaves you out!

Give-Away Winner!

NUMBER 11; Tea!

(I know! Can anyone be so lucky as to be named Tea!?! )

Tea, I can neither access your blog nor reach you by email so I hope you check back here before Friday the 25th.

Cause the whole shee-bang will be re-done if I can't reach you.

Thank you all for participating. It was so fun reading everyone's comments, a few even gave me some new ideas for names and titles. I think that is the hardest thing for me, naming things. With components it is a little easier but jewelry really has me stumped. I think it is because I want to name my pieces after places and history but I am ignorant. No, really, I've never been anywhere and I can't retain what I've been taught. I just travel through discovery and the travel channel on hd t.v.

Ah well, you have to dream....

Anyway, the next give-away will be in a week and it's titled;

The Pull of The Shore.

Ah! The Shore!

Waaaaaaay Past Time for a Give-A-Way

So I am making it a good one.

This patina mix is called Canyon.

A base of white oxide, a wash of chestnut brown, heat treatment of russet red and a splattering of burgundy universal patina. It took weeks to develop and I want to share it.

I am combining it with petal shaped links in chestnut brown and a toggle clasp in russet red.

But that's not all!

I am also including 18" of this wonderful, heart shaped vintage brass chain!

Cause I love you.

ANNNNNNND

Some hollow, embossed copper heart beads in burgundy.

Aren't they gorgeous!!?!!

These are the kind of beads that make chiming sounds when they clink together.

I want you to hold them and giggle at them like I do.

Okay! 

Do you think you could make something with these components?

Would you like to try?

Leave me a comment and make sure I can visit you at your blog. I will keep this give-a-way open for 2 weeks (drawing on Monday, the 21st) and use the random generator to pick me a winner!

A Winner!

Sorry I'm a little late with this! Time is flying past and the only way I can tell is by the haggard look I see on my face as I zoom past a mirror.

Anyway, my Pinky has drawn a winner for the polymer pendant give-a-way and it is........
Barbe Saint-John! I have to admit that I wanted to ship one off to all the kind souls that took the time to leave comments, but I quickly realized that would be a bit expensive to ship out. So I stuck to the plan of having Pinky pick a random winner and there she is!

Take a moment to check out Barbe Saint-John's website; Saints and Sinners. This talented lady is elbow deep in mixed media jewelry art and I am honored that she would interested in having one of my pieces.

I am sending the Red Branches on Ivory pendant to Barbe and I want to thank everyone for taking a moment to leave a comment. I received wonderful feedback and got some new ideas for color combination's that I would not have thought of without your help, so thank you again!

I will do another give-a-way at the end of Oct. so please come back by for another chance to win.

288 photos to edit, Sooooo Let's have a give-a-way!

Ugh. This is something so necessary and so completely sleep inducing.
I've had tons of polymer clay blanks created for months but I had serious burn out from all the image techniques I use, I just let them sit there. I finally got my butt into gear, applied the images, coated them in resin and finally got them photographed. I am listing a few at a time.

There are a lot of new, different colors for me, not because I do not like them, I crave all sorts of colors, but because until recently most of the silhouettes I used looked best against pale colors.
I did a little experimenting and found some of the brown silk screen images looked fabulously warm and autumnal. (odd word, isn't it? Autumnal)

To make it worth your time, let's have a give-a-way!

Leave me a comment letting me know which piece is your favorite for fall and tell me your own favorite color combination. For example; I am loving this first piece 'Tree on Autumn Orange' (even though usually I hate black and orange), and my favorite color combination right now is purple and yellow. I know! How garish is that!?! The deep violet, purple paired with a mustard yellow. I can't get enough of it!

I'll leave this open for a week and use my Pinky to pick a name from a bowl from all those who left comments. Make sure I can reach you through your blog or email so I can personally let you know you've won.


Tree on Autumn Orange




Mr. Cheeper on Ivory Ring




Blue Green Daisy on Hazelnut




Red Branches on Ivory




Friends Everlasting (in brown) on Gold




Yellow Rose on Brown




Copper Flourish on Sea Green



Espresso Bird in Branches on Lavender

Do you want to know what you'll win? Your favorite from the above!
Thanks for playing and Happy Autumn!