Margie and Me - The Finals

As 2010 is nearing to an end so is Marcie's Margie and Me Challenge...hopefully not for good though!!

Here is the colour palette I have chosen for my final piece for 2010.

Lady and the Unicorn - #56

I have to admit I have had this piece unfinished for well over a year now but when I saw the gorgeous colours in the palette above I knew this piece was begging to be finished.

So here it is!

The piece was created using a lampwork cabochon which I have beaded using seed beads and delicas. 

The necklace has been stitched in tubular herringbone using an assortment of seed beads in various sizes as well as delicas.

The piece is then strung with Swarovski bicones and rondelles as well as a clay bead in the centre.

This was my first attempt at tubular herringbone and I am pretty happy with how the piece turned out.

What do you think?

Check out the other entries HERE to see what everyone else has created for the finals... word has it that Margie Deeb has contributed a prize... so be sure to vote for your favourite piece for each colour palette.

Enjoy!!!

♥

Rain? What rain!

Today I was awoken by the musical sound of birds chirping. 

I lifted my head slightly to see a ray of light shining through the crack in the curtains... 

...could it be sunshine?

Nope!

Today marks our 11th day of rain... in a row... non stop!

Everything is WET!

I was greeted by this sight when I let the dog outside.

A branch of one of our trees has come away.

We haven't enjoyed our new deck all holidays.

It's a good thing I didn't hang up the new paper lanterns I bought!

Our new outdoor table is desperate for some company other than pools of water!

On a serious note though there are parts of Queensland, the state of Australia in which I live, that are seriously flooded and they have started evacuating people.

I have never seen rain like this... well except for back in 2007 when the Newcastle floods hit and my sister lost nearly the entire contents of her home... but not here in Queensland.

It's no so much the heaviness of the rain... it's just its constant presence...relentless, constant rain.

The weather report is predicting sunshine and clouds on Thursday and Friday and then glorious sun from there  on but I am not convinced... we had torrential rain yesterday and the weather report said it was going to be 

CLOUDY!

Here's to some sunshine soon.

♥

A wet but White Christmas

Although we have had rain here in Queensland for the past week the White Family have still managed to have an enjoyable Christmas. 

Here are a few photos from the past few days.

Merry Christmas!

♥

Procrastination with a super duper P!

Well you may have noticed that I haven't updated my blog for a few days....wow 8 days to be precise! 

My reason?

P R O C R A S T  I N A T I O N!

I have been sitting around the house for 5 days now looking at lots of blogs, checking out Facebook, reading my emails and that's about it...oh hang on I did manage to do some washing and cleaning on Monday!

I hadn't picked up a bead all week until yesterday afternoon.

Why? 

Is it the weather?

We are having some crazy storms here in "sunny Queensland" this week.

I have no idea. 

When I am working I manage to bead in my lunch break as well as until about 11.30pm in the evenings but now I have the time to bead I am taking part in that annoying, filthy habit that is procrastination.

Anyone else do silly things like this? Wasting time when you actually have the time to do things?

I promise I will bead today... in between tidying the house, wrapping some Christmas presents as we are doing Christmas with the inlaws tomorrow, making an berry desert and...oh yeah...

P R O C R A S T I N A T I N G!

♥

My Creative Space

It's beginning to look a little like Christmas!

I've been working on these wee little snowflakes.

They are so quick and easy to make and when I say quick I mean around 10 minutes per snowflake!

Even though Australia celebrates Christmas during Summer we can't seem to escape the traditional "white christmas" of other countries and many of the decorations sold in Australia are very reminiscent of Christmas' elsewhere.

I've been beading up a snow storm with these little beauties.

They make great tree decorations and even bookmarks.

For anyone that is interested in the FREE tutorial for these snowflakes please visit About.com here.

Don't forget to show me what you make with them!!

♥

Marcie, Margie and Me - Mosaic of Colour - #129

I am a few days late for this one but as you may have already read I decided to use my Challenge of Colour piece for the Margie and Me challenge as the colour palettes were so similar.

So here is my piece which you may have already seen from my previous post.

Eagle Eye cabochon stitched with size 8/0 seed beads and delicas and strung on gorgeous Amazonite beads.

Be sure to check out what everyone else has made at Marcie's blog, La Bella Joya.

♥

Challenge of Color - My pieces revealed!

When I first signed up for this challenge my ''colours of choice" were browns, bronzes and golds. I was all geared up to create a piece using my favourite colours and even had the beads ready to go.

So imagine my surprise when my colour palette arrived by email to discover not a drop of bronze in sight!

The closest to bronze was Calilfornia Dreams....more like Mustard Dreams!

I was a little stumped!

But isn't that what challenges are all about... making us take that uneasy step outside of our comfort zone?

So with that in mind I found this Eagle Eye Agate cabochon in my stash... 

and realised the cabochon matched my colour palette to a T.

So here is what I created.

A beaded cabochon.

"Simply Sumptuous"

I love the earthy feel this piece has and can see me wearing it many times!

~~~~

Now apart from the wee speckles of blue/grey in the cabochon I felt my first piece didn't do Niabelle Blue any justice so I felt the piece was calling for more blue.

So... I decided to string the piece with these gorgeous Amazonite beads.

"Flourish"

I would never have strung this pendant with these beads in a million years but now that I have I think the colour combination is just divine!

Two necklaces for the price of one!

I actually loved this challenge as yet again I was forced to work with a colour combination I would not normally work with.

I think I might continue to challenge myself further and pick up a few paint palette cards next time I am at the hardware store!

Hop on over and see what everyone else has created with their palettes.

Alice Peterson

Amy Freeland

Beth McCord

Brandi Hussey

Cary Scholes

Catherine Pruitt

Cindy Wimmer

Claire Maunsell

Cory Tompkins

Courtney Breul

Cristi Clothier

Cynthia Riggs

Emanda Johnson

Holly Westfall

Janea McDonald

Jeannie Dukic

Jennifer Cameron

Judy Campbell

Keirsten Giles

Kelly Morgan

Kristie Roeder

Kristin Stevens

Lisa Godfrey

Lisa Tracy

Lori Anderson

Mallory Hoffman

Marie Voyer-Cramp

Mary McGraw

Nicole Keller

Nicole Valentine

Paige Maxim

Patty Gasparino

Rebecca Anderson

Renate Stark-Krammer

Rita Parra

Shannon Chomanczuk

Sheila Summers

Stefanie Teufel

Yelisa Rojas



And don't forget to visit Erin at Treasures Found:Inspiration is Everywhere.

♥

Marcie, Margie and Me - Mosaic of Colour - #129

I missed the last LaBellaJoya "Margie and Me Challenge''.

Thankfully I was able to finish my Ice Queen Challenge piece to allow me enough time to get something completed for this one.

This month Marcie selected

Colour Palette #129

~~

Mosaic of Color

Thankfully the inspiration colours are nearly identical to my colour palette for my Challenge of Color.



 As a result I plan on submitting my piece for both challenges with both requiring submission this weekend!

♥

The Challenge of Color

Erin at Treasuries Found:Inspiration is Everywhere is holding the first Challenge of Color.

Erin has selected paint chips (palettes) for each entrant.

We then have to create something using those colours.

Here is my colour palette.

The deadline is 3rd December and I have absolutely no idea what I am going to create yet so I guess I better get a move on!

I have one design in mind involving a donut...the turquoise variety not jam and cream!

Watch this space!

♥