I think she likes it!!

Here is the message I got from my friend, who I made the pendant, Golden Delicacy, which I recently posted... do you think she likes it?
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OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG

I had absolutely no clue... even as I opened your package and card thinking "what on eath has Karyn sent me?"!!!!!!! THANKYOU, I cannot express enough just how much I absolutely love it!

I GOT THE DEAD SEXY CAB WOOHOOO!!!! MWAH Thankyou so much you are gorgeous!

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG

Golden Delicacy

This is a piece I have just finished as a gift for a friend's birthday.

Unfortunately whilst creating this piece I encountered a few dramas along the way. My main drama was trying to find the "perfect" seeds to compliment the gorgeous cabochon.

I finally found the beads I wanted in size 11 seeds. They didn't have any other sizes at the time so I ordered some size 8 and size 15 in the same colour. Two weeks later the beads finally arrived but were the wrong ones - no gorgeous, shimmery AB finish to them.

Anyhoo I finally managed to get my hands on the right beads and continued beading the piece.

I worked on the piece during my lunch break and work yesterday and came home very eager to get this piece finished that evening ... but around 7.20pm - just as we were dishing up dinner - we lost power... no warning... power out like a ...well like a light!

We were without power for nearly 2.5 hours. Now I love my beading and was keen to get this piece finished but seriously one can't bead with sz 15s by candlelight. The power finally came back on and I was able to start beading on my piece at around 9.30pm.

I had originally planned on doing a gold and blue peyote bail for this piece but I had no end of trouble trying to connect the peyote to the cab. After about an hour of frustration I finally gave up and completed the piece with a simple loop bail... not what I had envisioned but I needed to get this piece posted off today and as it was already nearly 11.30pm by this stage I caved and a loop bail it became.

As I had to post this piece today I didn't get to photograph the piece in sunlight which is a pity as the gold in the cabochon really shines... but I think you get the idea.

What inspires you?

I have really been trying to focus on my beading lately and I am aiming at creating some "art" pieces within my seed bead creations.

I've been looking in all sorts of places for inspiration but today I didn't go any further than my own backyard.

Take a look at these gorgeous passionfruit flowers growing on our fence.



The vine started to die off a bit for a while but has come back fighting fit and if these flowers are anything to go by I am guessing we will be enjoying some rather tasty passionfruits before long...



I can't figure out what I adore the most... the flowers or the fruit!



I can definitely see me beading a passionfruit flower... but perhaps not before I eat the fruit of these flowers :)

Ocean Waves

I had my Brisbane bead meeting yesterday and shared the company of two of our very talented lampwork ladies -

Sally - better known as Happily Ever Artist
and Deb - better known as Debbie Does Beads.

So when one is surrounded by gorgeous lampwork beads what can one do but purchase... I loved these beads so much that I just had to use them that evening.

The gorgeous focal bead was made by Deb and the blue and whitish discs were made by Sally.

I loved the beach glass feel of Sally's beads and thought they complimented Deb's gorgeous focal bead, which reminded me of the ocean, perfectly.

Other beads used are glass AB rondells and czech glass rounds...oh and teeny tiny oval czechs.

Stuck in a beadie quandary

I have been working on this piece for the past few weeks and things have now sadly come to a stand still.

I had so many ideas for this piece... but unfortunately the design ideas I had in my head aren't translating too well onto the felt.

I was originally going to just bead around the cab but then as I started stitching I envisioned fiery orange and red flames swooping down from the bottom of the cab. Good idea on paper... well not even on paper... perhaps just a good idea in my head as for the life of me I can't seem to get the flames "right".

I've sketched and sketched trying to create the perfect looking flame. In the end I decided to just start stitching one of the flames. I have to say I'm not happy with the other two flames I have drawn on the felt and am not sure whether I will just stitch those two freehand or try to draw them again.

Anyway I guess I will continue stitching the middle flame see how that looks once it is filled with bead embroidery...

Watch this space I guess...

mmmm Pluots!

I was at the fruit shop last weekend and spotted the most unbelievable piece of fruit, what I thought was a plum. It was so large and had the most incredible speckled, rich red skin.

As I paid for my new fruit the assistant told me the piece of fruit I was buying was actually a Pluot which is a cross hybrid of a plum and an apricot, which exhibits more plum-like traits.

Well I ate my Pluot today and OMG!! The skin was slightly tart like a plum but once I bit into the flesh I was rewarded with the most incredibly pink flesh with an amazingly sweet, juicy and intense flavour. The fruit was so juicy that as I bit into the flesh the juice was squirting everywhere... not a good thing when you are sitting at your desk at work... hee hee!

Here is a picture of one showing the gorgeous flesh... and no that's not my hand...I found this picture on the internet :) But can you believe that gorgeous colour... Ohh I just wish I could find some seed beads in that colour ... I'd create a beaded Pluot lol!!!

Well if you ever see a Pluot I highly recommend buying one. I bought 4 of them in case I didn't like them so I will be eating the rest of them before Alan discovers how great they are too.

Oh... apparently they are also known as dinosaur eggs or dinosaur plums because of their speckled skin... so there you go... we have both learnt something new today!

Lampwork beaded cab

This is another beaded cab I finished in January.

The lampwork cabochon was made by Marlier Designs... thanks Margie... and the pendant consists of Toho galvanised size 11s, Czech and Japanese size 11s and Miyuki size 15s.

I had a lot of trouble colour matching beads to this gorgeous cab but I have to say I am pretty happy with the final result.

Master Shifu

If you have seen Kung Fu Panda you will probably remember the scene where Po is pretending to be Master Shifu with plates on his head and a noodle hanging out of his mouth.

Well whilst enjoying our meal for Chinese New Year, Spencer thought of Kung Fu Panda and that particular scene... so of course we had to recreate the scene for Grandma and Grandad!

Spencer of course thought he was hilarious!

Chinese New Year

Well it was Chinese New Year on 26th January and this year marks the Year of the Ox... which is little old me... so HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ME!!

Every year we try to take part in the Chinese New Year celebrations in Chinatown. Unfortunately we missed Chinese New Year in 2008 as we were on the Sunshine Coast so it had been nearly two years since Spencer had experienced the tradition of the Lion Dancers!

This year we caught the train into Fortitude Valley with Alan's parents and enjoyed a banquet dinner at China House.

Back in 2007 Spencer seemed to enjoy the lion dance... full of colour and movement... but not this year... the poor little guy was absolutely terrified.

As soon as the drums and cymbols started he froze in his seat and then ran over to me. I assured him that the noise he could hear was only drums and that nothing could harm him... this seemd to calm him a little... until the lion dancers appeared!

Well as you can see by the photos he was terrified. I tried to explain to him that the lions weren't real and that there were men under the lion costumes - even showing him the men but he was still very scared, sitting on my lap trembling and gripping my arms with his little hands.

Throughout the performance he calmed down enough to stop crying and once the music stopped and the lions had disappeared he clapped his hands and said "that was fun"... I guess until next year!

A beaded cab for a beadie friend

This is a beaded lampwork cabochon I made for my beadie friend, Chanel. I was very nervous about making this piece as Chanel is considered, on my beading forum, as the Cab Queen.

Chanel loves pink so when I received this lampwork cabochon I knew she would love it.

Along with the challenge of making a beaded cab for the Cab Queen I challenged myself further by including a few new techniques for myself - a picot edge and a peyote bail.

After many hours of frustration and worrying that I was going to have to keep this piece for myself I am happy to report that Chanel loved the pendant!

The lampwork cab was made by Chez of Southernbeadz and the pendant consists of delicas, Matsuno 15s, Czech 12s and Japanese 11s.

Spencer and I goofing about

Spencer loves taking photos... so much that we bought him a digital camera for Christmas.

Whenever he is using his camera he and I always end up taking photos of us together... so here are a few from our collection... and yes... I know we look very silly in some of them!!

My very first beaded cab

I had been admiring beaded cabochons for a long time but always thought this was a technique that was way out of my league. But around September last year I finally took the plunge and gave it ago.

I chose a Tiger's Eye cabochon as this is one of my favourite stones and I thought it would be an easy stone to match the seed beads to.

My first mistake with this piece was gluing the cabochon to leather rather than felt. The thickness of the leather made it very hard to pull the needle through resulting in me having to pull the needle through the leather with a small pair of pliers... not only difficult but also very time consuming!

But determined to finish the piece I battled on and with the help of a few of my beadie friends on the Australian Beading Forum I successfully completed the piece in October.

I have to say I am still extremely proud of this piece and love wearing it!

Our friendly little visitors

Over the past month or so of an evening we have been hearing a methodical "croak, croak, croak" outside. On hearing the croaking we would go outside to see if we could find the culprit ... but no such luck.

Well one evening we heard the croaking again so we all went outside to investigate. All of a sudden I saw something moving in one of our flower pots. Alan told me it would just be another cane toad but to our surprise we were greeted by this gorgeous little fella!

Isn't he adorable... since then we have spotted him several times and one evening came out to find him sitting in our Wattle tree with another little froggy.

We knew we had one frog but to discover we had two was fantastic.

I have to say I much prefer going outside of an evening to be greeted by this little fellas than those ugly brown cane toads... ewww!

A White Christmas

I can't believe that Christmas has come and gone once again. I had my usual four weeks off work and this year Alan was nice enough to have an extra week than me :)

Christmas Day for us this year was a little bit different. We had decided to stay in Brisbane this year however Alan's parents travelled to Sydney so we spent Christmas day with my friend, Iris, and her son, Jacob.

We had a really nice, simple day with a lunch of ham, turkey, smoked chicken and salads with chocolate truffles, rum balls and jelly and ice cream for dessert.

The boys had a great day together starting with the opening countless presents followed by lunch, movies in the afternoon (a failed attempt by us to get them to sleep!) followed by a dinner of leftovers.

After the kids went to bed Alan, Iris and I stayed up until a very silly hour playing Scrabble and drinking champagne.

Needless to say we were all very tired on Boxing Day so spent the day lounging about watching DVD's and of course... eating leftover ham and turkey!

Sparkleliscious Baby!

This was my winning entry for yet another Year of Jewellery challenge on the Australian Beading Forum.

The theme for that particular week's challenge was "Foxy Baby" so when I remembered I had these ridiculously sparkly beads in my bead stash I couldn't resist using them.

I titled this piece "Sparkleliscious Baby" which I thought was a fitting name!

I am proud to say that this is my 4th WIN for YOJ and I look forward to entering the challenges in the future!

A visit from Nanna and Grandad

Well I hadn't seen my dad and his wife, Jan, for just on a year as they had spent, what seemed, half the year in Europe!

So they came to visit for a few days in November 2008 and boy was it great to see them! Spencer absolutely adored having them here showing them his Thomas trains, having them read him stories not to mention greeting them in bed very early every morning!

Whilst they were here we spent a day at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary and also spent a lovely day on the City Cat ferry and visited New Farm Park.

It was very hard to say goodbye and I know Spencer dearly misses them as I do... so hopefully we will get down to Newcastle soon or they might be able to make another trip up to Brisbane!

Miss you guys xoxox

Year of Jewellery Winner

As you know I am a member of the Australian Beading Forum and each week they run a challenge called the Year of Jewellery which I have previously won.

Well back in November 2008 I won again!

This time the theme was "What's on the Menu" and I created this gorgeous hot chilli necklace which I named "Some like it Hot".

The necklace is made up of glass chillis and Indian glass beads.

Such a simple piece but the impact of the red and green chillis is just awesome!

Spencer turns 3

Well I can't believe out little man turned 3 in October 2008. He had been asking about his birthday for months leading up to the day so was rather excited when the day finally arrived.

His birthday landed on a Thursday this year so unfortunately Alan and I had to go to work but in the evening we had a special dinner and I bought some yummy mud cake. I had also been given half a dozen cupcakes from a lady at work so we definitely weren't short of cake!

We didn't have a party this year but on the weekend of his birthday we had a few friends and family over for a BBQ so he had a nice day.

Here he is pictured with his friends, Derby and Mia.

Liz and Pat get hitched!

Well it finally happened... my best friend, Liz, got married to her adorable fiance, Patrick Cran.

The wedding took place at Cedar Creek Lodges at Mt Tamborine on Saturday 27th September 2008 and I have to say it was a glorious day.

The bridal party, along with a few other guests, travelled to the venue on the Friday so we spent the afternoon playing mini putt putt golf... as one does the day before your wedding... and then enjoyed a lovely dinner.

We woke to a gorgeous day in the morning, had breakfast and by 10am were getting our hair and makeup done for the ceremony at 3.00pm.

I was proud to be Liz's Maid of Honour and became very emotional seeing my little Lizzie getting married. It was the first wedding I had participated in since being in my sister's wedding back in 1985 so I was pretty excited to say the least.

It was a gorgeous day and needless to say the day went off without a hitch.
I had a wonderful day - sharing a special occasion with such a special friend.

... and check us out... didn't we all scrub up well!!

Back to the land of blogging!

A few of my friends .... you know who you are... have commented that I have not updated my blog in a very long time and to be honest I didn't realise it had been so long... August 2008! Sooo I am back in the land of blogging and will aim to update my page regularly.

Watch this space!!