Horay for presents!

Look what I got from my friend Ronnie! He always picks such wonderful gifts!

Head phones and turn table pillow cases! Now I can listen to phat beats in my sleep! :D

If you don't already know I am OBSESSED with anything Cheshire catish! My friend Ronnie thought this was a fleecy throw, but I guess it's like a wrap or something? It has strings on either corner of the top and at the end it has poof balls. I guess you tie them? Pretty sweet huh?! I love the print on it :DRicky(the hubby) and I went over to Ronnie and Martin's tonight to get our gifts before we went on vacation.
I wish I had a picture of the front of Martin's house. It was so beautiful when we pulled up. They had lights around all of the trees in their front yard, those light up reindeer, and these really pretty snowflake lights that hung in the point of their roof. Soo pretty. When you came inside they had a huge tree lit with lots of pretty round glass ornaments and the mantle was decorated with garland and lights. It was very nice to sit in their front room and engage in nice conversation. I told him we needed to have a party next year so all of us could get together and share food, wine and good company :D

I hope everyone has a blessed holiday and that they are able to share it with people they love.

Much love,

Genea

Where the *MAGIC* happens

LOL. I always think it's funny when stars say that when they show off their houses on MTV's Cribs, but I guess it's appropriate for my entry. There was a thread on LE(Lampwork Etc.)
showing everyone's studio. I really enjoy seeing peoples work spaces. I don't think you can view this thread unless you have a login so I will just move my post to here so everyone can read it :D

Here is my downstairs studio where my glass and torch are.

To my right is my Bullseye glass. It sits away from my other stash since it's not compatible.
On my left is my kiln and glass stash for ready to use glass rods. The rest of my stock is in a shelf across the basement.
This is one of my favorite boxes of glass. This glass contains ALL of my odd lot rods :D
In this pic from left to right you can see my Moretti warm colors, Moretti cool colors, Moretti neutrals, the rods sticking up out of that box are Lauscha and Kugler. the last box with the vase with purple rods in it has my odd lots from the first pic under it. I was going through my stash and making sure that I have 1 of every rod in my vases to use for beads. Why have all that glass and not have it where I can use it?
Here you can see my Creation is Messy CiM shorts, regular rods(they don't look as pretty since I kept them in their paper wrapper so they wouldn't get all scratched), and my Vetrofond.
Ok if you go up the basement steps it takes you to my second studio(this was actually the second bedroom, but my hubby let me use it for my jewelry studio :D). Here you can see my super awesome flower light and my rockin pop art turn tables pic :D The other brightly colored things are rave posters:D

If you walk straight from the door you will run into my computer table where I am sitting right now writing this blog:D You can see my inspiration board with some beads on it from
Corina Tettinger

MicheleGoldstein

Stephanie Sersich

and Dustin Tabor



Just behind where I am sitting is my bead table and bead stash :D
That is all for my bead tour of my studios. I hope you enjoyed seeing "Where the magic happens." LOL

I think it's time for me to get my butt downstairs and make some beads!

Much love,

Genea

Ugh.. I should have known!

*****CAUTION! YOU ARE ABOUT TO ENTER A RANT*****

So I had such an easy time with my tags you know it had to be a total PITA to make address labels. I figured since I had some address labels floating around that I could try making some Genea Beads address labels. All I wanted was the GB logo and my address. Simple right? Uh.. NO.. So unfortunately for some reason you can't use the same Avery templates in Publisher that you use in Word. Seems pretty stupid right? Yeah, I thought so too. So the newest version of Word is so technical compared to Publisher. I sat here for literally HOURS trying to get the damn labels to work. I even downloaded this Avery Wizard that has all of the templates in it. I opened the wizard, put in my text and pic and then it loaded the multiple images on the page for printing and for some reason EVERY time I tried to print it it told my alignment was messed up! How the hell does the alignment get messed up when I used the exact template and Avery wizard to load everything?! UH! Seriously! There should be no messing up here, but NO it had to be difficult. It probably doesn't help that I need a new ink cartridge either! Why the hell isn't there just an option for it to just fix the alignment problem if it's not right? Grrr.... I did manage to print 2 pages of labels that look pretty cute except the GB logo is cut off a little on the left side. You can still read the GB and all of my info so it's not a total loss, but it's still pretty lame it didn't work out like it was supposed to!
*****END RANT*****
On another note my little mishap pretty much fried me out for later. It took me until like 5:30pm to finally get in gear to make beads. I made a replacement bead for my sis' cell charm, a few test bead lentils in the new odd lot Vetrofond I got, and actually made some round beads! It has seriously been forever since I have made round beads! I have pretty much been stuck doing holiday stuff with just a few different beads inbetween. I think it kinda fried me out. I decided I will just have to skip Valentine's day beads to just make some round stuff and non holiday beads.

Getting back to my test lentils. I thought of this brilliant idea awhile back.. So this was my ingenious idea I got in the shower( I usually get good ideas in the shower. I think it's cause I am relaxed )... Ok so I was going to make a plain lentil out of every glass I own since it would cost me a small fortune to make a glass shelf to hold it all. Each lentil would be placed in those crystal clear 1x 1 1/2" bag and labelled with it's manufacturer, name and number. Each bag would then get a sticky velcro put on the back and then be attached to a covered board. Each bag would then be placed on the velcroed spots on the board. This would allow me to see all of my glass at once and it would help me choose colors better. Since the glass has been worked and pressed it will give me a good idea of how it will look after being melted. Those of us that lampwork know that you can't judge a rod by it's unmelted color. You might be very shocked that some rods look completely different when melted and manipulated. Anyways... the velcro would also allow me to remove the baggies from the board and lay them side by side to see how colors look together. Pretty sweet idea huh? I just started my first lentils tonight. I thought since I wanted to see what my new glass looked like I would start with my new colors. I will take a picture when I have actually completed my mission so that you can celebrate with me ;) This MIGHT be awhile...

So I am totally NOT one of those people that like to have projects that have no end in sight, but I really think this will help me when I don't know what colors to use. When I normally sit down without a plan I just stare blankly at my jars of rods and can't decide which colors to use. I ALWAYS tend to gravitate towards Lime Green, Coral, and Dark Periwinkle ;)

Well I suppose I should get off of the computer. According to this article on Yahoo you are not supposed to spend the last hour you are awake in front of a TV or Computer because of the waves they emit. I guess they disrupt your sleep patterns ;)

Nighty night...

Made contact

Ok so I finally got a hold of Linda @ Bead & Button. I guess they are just now compiling lists for this years show. When we were on the phone she said she remembered I was very interested last year and that I am very interested this year. LOL yeah, pretty sure that is her nice way of telling me I call her too f*ing much. You know the squeaky wheel gets the grease! ;) So she continued to tell me that she would know more after the first week in January and to call her then. Girl, you KNOW I will! I AM getting into that show! If it's not this year again than it will be the next. Me getting into Bead & Button is like that ground breaking moment when I know I have "made it" yanno?

I am getting a better response on Etsy finally as well. I haven't sold more, but I have made more contacts and that is really exciting. I will be stocking some $50 and under items at a local shop called "Oh Wow,"

Check my style

Incase you are wondering about the title? When I was thinking of the new style of my tags it reminded me of a sick track by Freaky Flow on "The Envy." On the track it says "Check my style" with a super dirty bass line >:D Yum!

Anyways.... Check my style ;D Aren't my new tags even more amazing than the first ones?!

My friend Nicole of Parigo Studios designed the logo for me. You have probably noticed it is the same logo as my banner at the top of the page. I decided I needed to redesign my tags and use this super awesome logo! You can't really read it in the picture but in black at the top of the GB it says "genea.etsy.com" and it says "Genea" in the White "G" and "Beads" in the Limey Ocher "B". It looks AWESOME! As you can see I also made it into stickers so that I could put the new logo on my Chinese take-out boxes when I sell my items :D I can't wait until I can place a huge order with Papermart and actually order shipping boxes that will be just large enough to ship the Chinese take-out boxes :D Editing the design took me about 2 hours to get the text large enough to read. My tags are only 1x1"!

I would like to thank all of you out there that have encouraged and supported me. I could not be doing this right now without you!

Much love,

Genea

Awww yeah!

Yep! I got my hair cut! My sis got me this super fantastic salon hair cut at a silent auction for her store :DThe angle shot.The regular shot.Here is a shot from the side so you can see the angled hair. Yes, I know... I have a big nose. Shut up! ;)

Ahhh! I hate it when blogspot does that dumb crap where it underlines my text and then puts my pics all out of order... Grrr

Anyways, you get the idea.

OMG! Guess what else? We(the hubby and me) FINALLY got new phones!! I finally got my LG Rumor I wanted in LIME GREEN :D:D:D


Isn't it SOOO CUTE?! OMG! I even have my screen saver set to the sweet tropical scene with an ocean view, huts, and palmtrees :D They also have different options for skins and mine is set to the tropical one that is like orchid, pink, orange and yellow like a sunset! :D *dies*

Well I need to get going. We are going to get some Taco Johns for dinner! I am so exctied they have one by us. We had one close by when we lived in Colorado.

Have a great weekend!

Much love,

Genea

Ringy Dingy

HORAY! My phone is back on! So if any of you need to get a hold of me you can call my cell again :D

Ok so news... I have a few things coming up. I have been in a jewelry making mood lately. I feel kinda bad because I have not made beads to sell :( I want to make a few more jewelry type things for my Etsy and then some for a new shop where I will be selling my things locally. I have a $30 limit for my prices for that shop so I will have to be creative when making things to fit in that range. I think it will be a good challenge. I think most people can afford something $30 and under especially with the declining economy.

I suppose that is all for now...

Have a wonderful day!

Much love,

Genea

Presenting my NEW "Heart Burst" designs!

Ok so I have been off on a creating adventure! I came up with a new design for some pendants and rings when trying to come up with a gift for a friend. I wanted to show you all of them when I was done making everything, but I was so excited I will just show you what I have so far :D My creative adventures like to be lime green since it's my favorite color! If you can't read this highlight it with your mouse and it will change it to something readable :D

I would like to present my "Heart Burst" rings and pendants. I will be offering these on my Etsy page as soon as I photograph all of them :D The yellow ring "Canary" is already listed.

Here is a group shot of all of the rings I have made thus far.
Here you can see the pendants side by side. This pic was taken w/o a flash so you can better see the color of the purple. It photographs really brown/black so by the shadow you can see how pinky and rich the purple really is. I made the yellow pendant first and thought that it had too much fringe for the design I had in my head so on the purple pendant I simplified the design to using just rounds. My very last design is the one that fits my original idea best(I will post that one later). Pretty sweet huh?!
Here you can see the pendants together with the flash. I am not sure why this text is underlined, but whatever! See how the purple looks almost black? You will also notice that on the pendants I decided to leave a blank spot where a dot could go at the bottom point of the heart. I left this area blank to leave room for the cords that attach the dangles. Here you can see the original ring design. The only difference is that in the next rings I have only used 3 pieces of cording instead of the normal 4. I wanted the bunch of cords that come through the spacers top to not be so crowded.

It's finally snowing here. I am enjoying watching the snow fall from my studio window :) I made some of Nana's yummy potato and dumpling soup for dinner last night and I can't wait to have another bowl for lunch :D


Ok so it might not look totally appealing in the pic, but it's totally DELICIOUS! The color is from using sour cream and paprika. If you all are interested I will post the recipe for you :D

Well I am going to get going. I need to have some yummy dumpling soup for lunch and work on some more Heart Burst rings and pendants :D

Have a wonderful day!

Much love,

Genea

More Christmas presents!

Ok so this one is MINE :D So I guess it's a Christmas present to me :D These beads were inspired by Sarah Moran's amazing beads. It is entitled " Eye love fire". Why? Well I love eyes and fire so why the hell not?! :D

This one was fun to make. It features all of the little snow people faces I make :D

This was probably the best picture I took out of all of them. The purple is CiM's Simply Berry. It is such a beautiful purple. It is kind of like an amethyst, but it's a little more pinkish. I was really excited about this ring. I made it in the same style as my "Crazy Daisy" rings that are up on my Etsy page. I made a few extras and I think I will make them into rings like this and offer them on Etsy soon.

Speaking of Etsy. It turns out I have been creating lately and I do infact have more items to add to my shop. LOL. I went to type add and typed "ass"! LMAO Isn't it funny when your brain does funny things like that? I always end up typing "party" when I mean to type part. LOL.

*ahem* Anyways... So yeah, I will have some more things going up on Etsy.

I am all scatterbrained tonight. The beads I made today took me freakin forever and they are the ones where you stick them in the kiln and aren't really sure if you like them or not. *shrug* guess I will see what the kiln fairy brings me tomorrow.

I am totally lazy and don't want to do my hair at the moment so I am contemplating doing the following.. making a heart ring like the above pic, making a crazy daisy ring, uploading goodies to Etsy and being a lazy turd. I guess we will see how this ends up. lol

Ugh... my phone got shut off. I didn't quite get my payment in in time. Boo. I have to use the internet to contact people by e-mail or by text messages from the Sprint website. Where would we be without the internet?!

Um.. yeah, so I guess I am going to go do one of the things listed above..

TTFN