Health and new items

Hello Friends!

New items are up on Etsy. I forgot how much I love fringes! In my last post you can see Kim's set of beads with the flower. She will be using that set to make a bracelet like my "Sweet Citrus" bracelet that I just listed on Etsy. I still have to make some beads for my teaching bracelet(the bracelet that I will make to show Kim how to make hers).

I am eagerly awaiting my postmaster today. He should have some presents for me!! :D He was SUPER late yesterday and didn't even come until 3pm. Boo! When I first moved into our house we got mail at like 9:30am. I was so excited because I don't usually wake up until at least 10am, so that meant that mail would already be here by the time I woke up.

So I suppose you are wondering about the health part of this post right? Well since I posted a ton yesterday I thought I would leave this part of the post for today. After Ricky got back from his 5 day testing and boot camp for personal training he came home with a lot of new health tips. Some of this stuff will totally scare you!

Did you know that your tap water contains 4-5 different type of Estrogen mimicers(This is what causes us so much trouble when we are trying to lose weight, ladies!!)? Yep, and NO water filters can filter them out. The molicules are so tiny that they can slip through ALL filters. How do you protect yourself from ingesting all of the extra hormones? Well you can buy distilled water and add minerals(DISTILLED WATER IS TOXIC ON IT'S OWN! BE SURE TO ADD PROPER MINERALS BEFORE DRINKING!), or you can get a reverse osmosis filter put in your home for about $1,500 which will filter all of the water in your home from your bath to your drinking water.

Ricky and I opted for buying distilled water and adding minerals. You can buy the minerals is most health/organic sections of your grocery store. Ours were $16 dollars and it will treat up to 96 gallons of water. You know I feel a lot better since we switched our drinking water. I don't know if it's partly because I know I am doing something healthy for my body or if it is really making me feel that much better.

Here is another scary one... Did you know that they have found trace amounts of MERCURY in HIGH FRUCTOSE CORNSYRUP? Did you know that ASPERTAME kills your Hypothalamus gland(this is the gland in your brain that regulates mood and weight)! Scary huh? If you are not a label checker you probably have not noticed that HFC is in EVERYTHING! Aspertame is in those diet sodas you have been sipping down as well! Yikes! So needless to say we are cutting out anything with aspertame. We have already been on the look out for HFC already.

Luckily the health world has found a new answer to sweetness. There is a liquid they have extracted from a plant called Stevia. Just 2 drops equal the sweetness of one teaspoon of sugar. I am actually drinking it in my coffee right now. Not too shabby ;)

We also got cocunut oil for cooking and for our body. It is amazing what you can use coconut oil for. Not only can you cook with it, but you can put it on your skin and in your hair.
We used it in place of oilve oil for our cooking and it does a great job of keeping everything wet(for lack of a better description). If you cook with butter or even oilve oil you will notice that you still have to add more of them to keep everything somewhat coated so it doesn't stick to your pan. You know it's only $5 for a jar of organic coconut oil? Pretty cheap huh?

So why am I telling you all of this? Well Ricky and I are working on being as healthy as we can possibly be, and I don't think the average person realizes all of the yuck they put in our food and body products. I also thought I would post this so I could tell you how it is effecting us so that you might like to try these things as well.

We are also visiting our chiropractor at least once weekly to align our spines. This is another something that people don't really know helps all sorts of health problems. Remember in my posts when I said I was out with a helatious pressure headache? My spine adjustments are fixing my headaches!!! I don't know if many of your out there suffer from pressure headaches like I did, but they are down right AWFUL! You just have to crawl to your bed and sleep them off with meds. No fun at all!

Well I hope you found this information to be helpful. I really would love to help the people around me get healthy. Ricky and I plan to be rockin' old hippies that will live long fruitful lives so we can really get in some good years with our grandchildren(after we have our own kids, of course ;) I mean seriously... who wants to have bottles and bottles of medications in their cabinets anyways? Not me!

Take good care :)

Much love,

Genea

Color studies, goodies and more...

Hello Friends!

I thought you might like to read a separate entry about the color stuff so my one entry wasn't a bagillion million lines long!

Here is Kim's set about which I was talking a few days ago. I did a lot of different color layering to make new colors for her set.Here is one bead in particular that didn't work, but I thought it was intersting and wanted to talk with you about it. Doesn't it look like spores or something you would see under a microscope? I found out a little trick about EDP that was super helpful to me. In this instance it DIDN'T work. The EDP actually boiled over onto the surface of the transparent and caused a ring of scum bubbles around each dot.

Here is one bead that successfully did the color thing I wanted. Excuse the texture appearance of this bead. It was cropped from a larger picture and appears all textury and yucky. It is infact smooth. Moving on.... To get this lovely purple with blushes of pink you will do a series of heating and cooling. I think most people freak out when EDP devits the first time and put it back in their glass stash. These results are from a Nortel minor with propane and a 5lpm concentrator. I work in a slightly oxidizing flame. I make my heart like I would make any heart. As you are doing this you will notice white chalky scale form on the bead. Just ignore this and continue making your heart into it's final shape. Add your decoration and melt in. In this instance I used just simple dots. When you are done with your final shape re-heat the entire bead to molten. You will notice that the white chalk scale disappears when the bead is re-heated back to all molten. When you are finished doing this take your bead out of the flame and blow onto it. The cooling action will make the darker orchids pop. Put the bead into your kiln and you are done! Pretty amazing huh? You can go back any time you are making your bead and re-heat it to molten to rid yourself of the yucky white if you wish.
I think most people didn't realize that EDP isn't a one shot deal. You can still get lovely pinks and orchids out of EDP and they are just as dark as when you first start out. This also works when you press your beads into a brass press. Try it out and see what you think! I am so excited to have figured out how to work this glass so I can add it to my color palette :D:D:D



My friend Kim loves my beads but always asks me "Can you do this, but bigger?". Well here it is!! Pretty sweet huh?!I made all of those skull flower buttons and when I got some beads back from another one of my stores I thought this one might like to accompany a matching button for the show ;)Look at all of my goodies!! Ricky and I went to Florilegium the other day and sat up there to sell some beads. Her shop is full of wonderful things from fine fibers to make scarves and the like to beads and other fancies.

I got some more waxed linel and leaves to make some flower earrings like the my Daisy Vine design above :D

I actually have one pair already made and am working on another. I thought about making a few more daisy pairs to make into earrings for the show. I will post pics of those as I complete them.

Well I hope this blog was worth the wait and I hope you enjoyed learning some new things :D

Much love,

Genea

Snuck out again.....

Hello friends,

New items are up on Etsy. I am particularly excited about my "Gypsy Princess" pendant. I was inspired to make it a little while back. It has patiently been sitting on my table to be photographed for a little while and I finally got it done the other day.

Yep, I did it again... I slipped off to work outdoors instead of my normal daily grind. It ended up being one of those things where you set out to do just a few things and you end up doing a ton of other stuff as well. The hubby and I ran errands again and got some more Organic dirt for our garden. I will have to take pics of it later. We have NO idea how we were supposed to plant things or which plants we have grown successfully, but heck they are out there! We put all of the viney looking ones on the outside since we figured those would take up a huge spot when they were full grown. We only got a little bit of dirt and covered half of our garden for now so we could get our little seedlings out. We figured they had a better chance outside than sitting in their little peats.

The hubby and I got our seedlings in the garden, planted our lilac bushes, planted columbines, turned the flower beads and added butterfly flower seeds, mowed the grass(where the dandilions were taking over!) and week whacked. UGH.. lots of work! We ended up being out in our yard for 3 hours! We didn't get all of our yard mowed, but we made sure to trim down the areas where the dandilions were the worst. Ricky totally cracked me up the other day... He said we should quit our job and become dandilion farmers LMAO. I guess it would be funnier if you had actually seen the yard!

We got some lovely lilac bushes and columbines from a sweet lady on freecycle. Free cycle is an area based thing on Yahoo where you can be added to an e-mail list where people are requesting and giving away things. It's kind of like Craigs list, but it comes to your inbox.


I think I am going to do another post with my pictures and color notes so this post isn't SUPER long....

Happiness

Did you know that you can buy happiness for $1.50?

Springtime fun

Hello Friends,

New items are up on both pages.

I am pretty much just spending time getting ready for the show this weekend. I figure I will make a few more things to take with me. I think I have enough stuff already so anything else I make will just be extra. It's hard to say what will sell too yanno? You always think maybe you should make that one last piece, but then the item you had FOREVER is the one that sells lol.

We are really excited to hit up this show. You can get the info for it in my Etsy shop announcement for now. I will post the info here when it comes to the show. I will have my Etsy shop closed while I am at the show so May 2-3 my shop will be in vacation mode. It will be back online the night after the show.

We went to the Royal's game yesterday and had a fabulous time! The weather was perfect! It was a little over cast with a nice breeze. Our friend Stephanie got some free tickets and parking passes so we went with 4 other people. We sat in the very first section of seats right by 3rd base. Now that is the way to see a sporting event! I'm not a huge baseball fan, but you totally need to get out to a sporting event at least once a year ;)

Well I need to get moving.

Have a wonderful day.

Much love,

Genea

Color studies, new items and more...

Hello friends!

Did you miss me?

Did you notice I was M.I.A. yesterday? The hubby and I ran some errands and re-potted our plants in nice fresh organic soil. Then we added some nitrates(plant crack) to their soil. Needless to say I think they are VERY happy with their new food and homes ;)

It was really nice to feel the damp dirt in my hands as I lovingly re-potted my plants :D


New items are up on Etsy and Artfire! I LOVE the new love flower button I listed ;)

Remember that idea I had for some new beads? Here is the set....

Pretty sweet huh? I was pretty happy with how they turned out. I also thought this was interesting so I thought I would share with you all. Here are the beads that didn't make it into the set. Isn't is strange how Pulsar is just a tad darker than Light Teal in these beads? You can't hardly see the color at all with the Medium Grass Green compared to the Emerald. Isn't it strange how the Simply Berry almost looks brown with the orange bands around it? I think it's totally interesting how the appearance of a color can change based on what is close to it. I was shocked to find out that Ink Blue would be so light too!

I was also working on a set for my friend Kim and here are some discoveries I made while starting her set.
Here are the color studies. Aren't they Gorgeous?! I am really digging on doing a color in the center and encasing in another color to really make the center glow and find new luscious colors :DHoray for packaging! Aren't they pretty?! I got these little babies to use for the Bead Blast show May 2-3rd @ 6800 West 115th, Overland Park, KS! If you are in town be sure to stop on by and say "hello"! For more info about this show you can visit the Kansas City Bead Society page

I was pretty excited about these bags cause I also discovered that they fit perfectly in my little bubble mailers I use for my Etsy shop! Since I don't have a proper tiny box to ship my Chinese take-out boxes this will be a nice little alternative. Wouldn't you be excited to get this pretty bag filled with my beads? I would!! :D

Well I suppose that is enough excitement for one day right? ;)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Much love,

Genea

New items up and more...

Hello Friends!

New items are up on Etsy.

I don't really have too much to report.

The hubby was amazing and dug up the area for our garden yesterday. My little sprouts are getting big and need a new home. We lost a few of the thin ones, but we aren't too worried about it. I think we will just plant the survivors and then do some more little peat pots and sprout some more stuff. The growing season is long here in Missouri ;)

I did make some new style lentils with transparents, filigranas and polka dots. I could probably post a pic of those so you all can check them out. They are actually soaking in my bead bowl as we speak, or well I guess as you are reading this ;)

Today I will be working on an order for Kim so we can work on this fringe style bracelet. She chose pink, blue and purple for her colors. I am not sure which colors I will use for my bracelet to teach her class. Any suggestions? You know I would always pick lime green and aqua first, but I try not to do that all the time ;)

Here is a pic of that bracelet we are making incase you wondered...

Well I am going to go work on these beads. Talk with you all later.

Much love,

Genea

New items on Etsy

Hello friends!

New items are up on Etsy. The mystery mix crazy 8 earrings are my fav! It was one of those designs that just popped into my head along with another 4 ideas. I was just overloaded with ideas at that time, which was really exciting!

I got my orders done yesterday so I will be moving on to another order and then this idea I had in my head. I hope it turns out as cool in rl as it is in my head. It's always exciting when it does ;)

Well I suppose I should be off....

Much love,

Genea

New items up on Etsy and Artfire

Hello Friends,

New items are up in both shops.

Not too much to report today. I have some orders I need to get done and that is about all.

Have a wonderful day!

Much love,

Genea

Color study

Hello Friends,

Well here is the long awaited color notes I had for you. Some of the pictures are a little dark due to the buzziness of Keylime green in photos, so I apologize for that.

My first piece of advice for you is NEVER JUDGE A ROD BY IT'S COLOR. As you can see from the picture above the Poppy looks one color in rod form and changes when worked. This is a really AMAZING colored glass. It fits along the lines of those amazing odd lot Corals. The lentil on the right is what the Poppy looks like unstruck. It was also pressed in a brass mold which does alter the color due to the rapid cooling of the glass. I chose to leave this bead the color it was to not disrupt the EDP dots on the surface. As you may know EDP is VERY picky about it's temperature. I could have gone to re-strike the Poppy, but doing so would have made the EDP all chalky white. The bead on the left is just a simple spacer with lime dots. When I make spacer beads I tend to make them at least 5 on a mandrel. As you may know the glass cools as you make the other spacers. Then as you work the other spacers and dots they get radiant heat when you make the other beads.In this next photo you can see that lentil I posted in a blog awhile back. That lentil is actually Light Aqua encased in Yellow Green with Purple stringer(why didn't I tell you the name? I forgot which one I used! ;) With the bead laying flat on a white surface you can't really see all of the color variation like you could if you hold it up into the light. Believe it or not, I used the very same color combo for the Raked daisy bead above! Isn't it interesting that the purple stringer can influence the over all color appearance of the bead?Ah and this picture... I do apologize for the darkness of this pic( the green base is actually REALLY pretty, but doesn't appear that way due to the dark photo). Ok so the lentil on the bottom is an opaque green with transparent green over the top. The important detail I want to talk with you about is the surface dots. The dots are Grumpy bear with Cranberry on top of that and then dots of Poppy. Hmm... The dots aren't really purple pink are they? I am not totally sure why the Cranberry didn't change the color like I wanted. I am thinking that in such small amounts the Cranberry isn't as strongly saturated as it is in rosecane form or when used in a bead.

Now if you will direct your attention to the cone bead on the top you will notice the pretty purply pink rose cane lines that run along it's base. This rose cane is also Grumpy bear with 2 layers of Cranberry on top. Notice how much more saturated the color is when left raised. Very interesting huh?

This also brings me to another point. While making that green lentil above I noticed that when you layer colors with opaques and transparents and squish them into a lentil they don't always look as pretty as if you used that very same color combo in a round bead. It seem like the extra thickness also influences the color.

If you look at this bead. I have used the same colors for the base as I did with the green lentil above. The color is just more pleasing round than it is flat(besides the darkness of the picture!!). Notice how much depth the suckers also have being raised?

Well I hope you have enjoyed learning as many things from my lampworking session as I did ;)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Much love,

Genea

New items up

Just a quick hello!

New items are up in both shops!

Enjoy!

Much love,

Genea

New items up on Etsy and some news..

Hello friends!

New items are up on Etsy. I just listed a wonderful Heart Burst ring and pendant. They even have red for all of your red lovers out there ;)

*whew* so I guess I made it. I am feeling much better since Monday. I am finally over my sickness, but I didn't know what else was in store for me. Apparently I slept VERY wrong Tuesday night and had that wicked crick in my neck. The hubby rubbed my neck, put ice on it and we just tried to let it work itself out, but on Wednesday when I was till in pain we decided to do some more. We called our chiropractor, who is AMAZING btw, and set up an appointment for me. What did I end up doing? I have NO idea, but I got my neck, back, rib and clavicle adjusted. For anyone who hasn't had their clavicle adjusted, it sucks. lol. I was exhausted after my extremely intense adjustment and could only sit or lay down and relax yesterday. I hurt in places I didn't know I had and I didn't realize how heavy our heads really are when everything else around it is SO sore. I am feeling AMAZING today. I have a little teeny bit of motion I can't quite move to, but I'm not in pain which is amazing. So if you are local you just HAVE to go see Dr. Shultz! I would give you the info, but he is currently locating a building for his practice. I will post that info when I find out.

So as you may have realized I STILL don't have those color pics up yet. I was just too sick and sore to get much done the last few days. I will get them done here pretty soon ;) It gives you something to look forward to right? ;)

Not sure what is on the agenda for today as far as bead making goes. I am going to sit down and try to work a little bit, but if I get the slightest bit of pain I will have to stop and resume a different day. I sure as heck don't want to be all out of whack again.

Well, I'm off!

Have a wonderful day!

Much love,

Genea

I have 2 spots open for the creative project

Hello ... I forgot! I have 2 spots that opened up... hurry up and hop on!

Much love,

G

New items on Etsy and more

Hello friends!

I am SUPER excited about some of the earrings I listed on Etsy! I made a new style called "Harmony Lanterns", that actually came about from some left over fibers from the Daisy Tangled Vine earrings I listed today! I am pretty pleased with them! They have some more of those awesome, teeny tinkly bells and some fibers! YUM! They are so much fun to wear and they don't tickle when you wear them like you might expect with all of it's fringies.

I was feeling better from my cold yesterday, but a new problem arose.. I had a WICKED crick in my neck! Seriously, it sucked! It's some sort of muscle cramp dealy that is effecting my neck and left shoulder. LAME. I can only turn my head so far to the left before it just about has me in tears. :(

I did, however, manage to make it down to my torch later in the evening to make some beads. See what I suffer through to make pretty beadies?! ;) I ended up making some Happy Candy style beads in PASTELS! Woo. No pics of those yet since they are sitting in my bead bowl soaking as we speak. I am going to go clean them once I am done typing this blog. I think I finally made that pastel set you have been dreaming about, Kim! I guess it didn't want to be born until yesterday ;)

What am I up to today? No idea lol. I don't have a specific plan yet. I am digging on those harmony lanterns earrings I made though. I wish I had some more colors of waxed linen and some silver colored bells. *pout*

Well I suppose I should get to it.

Have a wonderful day!

Much love,

Genea

New items up on both sites and some talk

Hello Friends,

Well I got hit with a cold late Sunday evening, but fortunately I got LOTS and Lots of sleep! That is one of the best things to overcome sickness. My hubby was awesome and went out and got me all kinds of sicky foods and medicine :)

I got some new stuff up in my shops! I am SUPER EXCITED about my SUPER set of Happy Candy beads! I did another set, which I will post on here as soon as I get a chance. I am thinking I may do a few more sets in this style before moving on to something else. I think I might try a few more color palettes. Not everyone is into brights like me, but they should be! ;)

I will also get those color study pics cropped down and give you some info on my discoveries here in a second. I wanted to get a few things done like getting some stuff up in my shops and I think I am going to attempt making some beads today too. I should take it easy since I JUST got sick the other day, but we will see how far I get.

Well I suppose I should get a move on.

Much love,

Genea

Share your Creativity!

Brave People Make Things so get excited and make things….
The first five (5) people to respond to this post will get something made by me.
This offer does have some restrictions and limitations so please read carefully:
1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make. Whatcha get is whatcha get.
2. What I create will be just for you, with love.
3. It’ll be done this year (2009).
4. I will not give you any clue what it’s going to be. It will be something made in the real world and not something cyber. It may be weird or beautiful. Or it may be monstrous and annoying. Heck, I might bake something for you and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that’s for sure!
5. I reserve the right to do something strange.
6. In return, all you need to do is post this text on your blog and make 5 things for the first 5 to respond to blog.
7. Send your mailing address - after I contact you.
IMPORTANT: This offer is null and void if I do not see you post your own blog to pay this forward.
This text was used from Kristin Waking Beauty Designs

Play nice and make things! It’s going to be an adventure!

Sick

Yep, I finally got sick this season. I am feeling like crap so there are no listings today. I will list some new things when I am feeling better.

Much love,

Genea

Happy Easter

New items up on Etsy and AF and stuff

Hello Friends!

New items are up on Etsy and Artfire. I was excited to offer the rainbow gobstopper heart. It is SO pretty! I know I would be excited if that came in a candy wrapper and I could eat it :D

I made some AWESOME beads yesterday. The bad news is that I didn't photograph them. I am still trying to decide if I want to offer the set with a new button clasp. That would be exciting to get a set of beads that even had a clasp right? This new set with a clasp would be super sweet to offer up in a challenge to see what people make out of it. I really like to see what people end up making with my beads. So if you are out there and you have purchased beads from me send me some pictures!! :)

I might just keep working in the colors on my table. I dunno. I am thinking I want to make a special button clasp for this set and it is SO cool that maybe I should make another set in those colors.

Are you dying to know what is in the set? Ok... well I will give you some info. The colors are ultra bright lime, coral(duh), orchid, bluish green, pink, super firey orange and layered colors so the color is kind of different depending on how you look at it. I made round beads, lentils and shapes too!

Now how does one make a set like this and keep everything straight? Well I have a notebook that I write in while I work to remember just what it is that I have in the kiln for a couple of reasons. You know when you make those amazing beads and then you can't remember what the hell you used?! Yeah, it's for that and it's also for keeping track of what colors I used with what so I can make sure to keep my set balanced in color. I also keep my notebook for things I figure out while I am working. Like something I figured out that would be helpful to remember for next time I am making a bead in that style or whatever..

Now that I am thinking about it, I think I will blog about some of my discoveries on different things that worked, things that didn't and how you can never judge a rod by it's color.

Well I must go and create!

I am really excited 'cause Ricky comes home today! I never knew 5 days could be SO long ;)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Much love,

Genea

Receive with grace and a grateful heart

I was just reading Simple Abundance and a part in this entry really struck me so I thought I would share it with you.

"Each day offers the gift of being a special occasion if we can simply learn that as well as giving, it is blessed to receive with grace and a grateful heart."

New on Etsy and thoughts...

Hello Friends!

New items are up on Etsy. Fire related items today. I don't know if this appeals to everyone since everyone doesn't make beads and have an obsession with fire like I do, but maybe there are some pyro's out there ;)

Let's see.. what else is new... Well I have managed to survive without my hubby being here all week. Today feels nice and relaxed because I know it's the last day before he comes home tomorrow. I am praying and sending him positive thoughts as he prepares for his test today. It really is a landmark for us. This whole year he has been studying to get his certificate and now it's finally the time for his testing.

We are really excited that he will be starting a new chapter in his life and not only that, but a new chapter in ours. He will finally be able to start working in his passion, which I have been so fortunate to be doing for the last year because of him :) Not only will he be happier doing what he loves, but this will give us some financial freedom as well and I am really looking forward to that ;)

What am I up to today? You know.. I really have NO idea. ugh... I had some black and white all ready yesterday and that wasn't jiving with me so I switched to orchid, coral and lime green and did a few experiments on color and pulled stringers and the like. After all that I was pretty much "over it" and decided to just stop for the day. Boo on that :( I did find some things out though and learning can be chalked up to being productive right?

Ok so here is what I learned. When you later colors with different transparents and opaques you can get some lovely color combos that don't come in stock colors. I have also found out that when you do the same layering it doesn't come out the same if you flatten them into a lentil shape. It seems like a round bead with layers seems to blend more evenly than when you flatten it. It seems like when you flatten it the layers of color are more apparent. This is more of the case when mixing transparent and opaque glass. Using layers of transparents and flattening them they tend to blend more flawlessly. So I hope this little tid bit gets you thinking and helps you with some ideas that have been bouncing around your head.

Well I am off to create. It's rainy today which usually makes for a wonderfully creative day.

Much love,

Genea

New on Etsy and some tunes

Hello Friends!

New items are up on Etsy. I am totally in love with this color combo of this amazing odd lot coraly color, EDP and hot pink! Mmmmmmm color.

I also tried that thing I was thinking about yesterday about doing a wow shot, a 4block and a pic of similar items in my shop all together. What do you think? You can click on the picture at the top of my blog to check it out.

Speaking of color, I found a great quote from yesterdays entry in Simple Abundance.

This quote is from John Ruskin. "The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love colour the most."

I wanted to share some music with you too. I LOVE this song. There is something about men playing love songs with their acoustic guitar.. *swoon*

I have had this song in my head all morning by Jason Mraz. It's called "I'm yours". Here is the link to the you tube video of him playing it in acoustic.

Jason Mraz- I'm yours

Have a wonderful day!

Much love,

Genea

New items up on Etsy

Hello friends!

New items are up in my Etsy shop!

Lots of wonderful pinks and purples today! Super lustrous transparents too! These 2 new items would go super sweet with the hot pink lentils and lime spots and the super amazing eye bead I have already listed in my shop.

Hmm.. that just gave me an idea.. So do you think it might be nice to see things in a grouping that would go together from other items in my shop? Did that just get totally confusing... Let me try again... Ok so I would have the "wow" pic(this is the close up with the gradient) and maybe a 4 block gb pic(cause it's super visual and that would only take up 2 out of 5 pics) and then maybe a shot of the new bead or whatever with other items in my shop that would go together? Hmmm.. might be cool.

I am visual so I like lots of pictures. It's funny I watched "Thank You Ffor Smoking" last night and the main character had some statistic that was something like 75% of people are visual over text so adding a picture to their cigarettes would attract more people.

I made a few beads yesterday that have a red brown base and "doodle" heart, daisy and peace signs on them in pink, lime green and aqua. I also made spacers that were that same brown with all of those colored polka dots on them. I didn't photograph them yet, but I can do that later ;)

I am not sure what is on the agenday for today, but I am feeling better this morning than I was yesterday.

I really should get on some beads where I can use one of my fab new buttons. I guess I just have not come up with the color palette yet.

Well I suppose I should finish up my cup of coffee and get a move on.

Have a wonderful day!

Much love,

Genea

New items up on Etsy and AF and pictures!

Hello friends!

Well did we have some Easter fun this weekend at my friend Lucas' apartment! He and Stephanie had a nice little spread of tasty treats and there was egg dyeing fun for all!

Look what I made...

Horay for pretty colored Easter eggies! Stephanie sure did have the magic touch when it came to color! Her eggs were so much brighter than mine. *Harumph*It's a JUNGLE out there huh? Look at these babies go! I am afraid they are going to take over! It is way too cold for them to survive outside. I wonder if I will have to get some pots and pot them until they can survive outside?

Well that is all for now...

Have a wonderful day!

Much love,

Genea

Button pictures!!

Here are the Retro daisy buttons. I did a few sets in this style on lentils and totally loved them. So I had to make some clasps as well :D

Peace Daisy buttons! I just got SO many ideas while I was making buttons. Since I had been doing a lot of peace themed stuff I thought it was only fitting to make some buttons too. I am really pleased with the way they turned out!

Lovie buttons! This is what I call my dog, Leeloo. I forget exactly where "lovie buttons" came from, but I think my mom called us that at one point ;)

Freckled Daisy buttons. This was actually the second design just elaborating on the first design which was the "chubby bubble daisy" buttons.

Flutterby buttons! It just seems like the shape of having a flat area to work on lends itself to so many possibilities.

Fire button! Being a lampworker I am obsessed with fire. I thought it was only fitting to make a little flame button. Maybe some lampworker will be it's new owner or just someone that likes fire ;)

Eye buttons! Ok.. so you knew I would find a way to make eyes work right?! ;)

Emo Skull Flower buttons! Using this nice flat daisy shape gives a nice canvas for designs. Since I was kind of on a skull kick with the blooming skull daisies I thought skull buttons would be sweet as well!

Chubby bubble Daisy buttons! This was the very first button design I made and the others followed. It's so cool to see the original design and see how much it changed as I got more ideas ;)So what do you all think of my new 4 block style bead display image? I guess I have always been obsessed with pop things and they are usually in blocks of 4. I think this turned out really cool. I like to see all the angles of the bead in one picture :D I am so excited to finally have Photoshop so I can do cool things like this ;)

Well I think that will be all for this entry. I hope your hungry eyes are full of ideas ;) You can expect to see some of these items on Etsy next week!

Much love,

Genea

For the gamer in all of us- Super Mario

I was born into a family of gamers. This one has a special place in my heart since Mario was one of my loves growing up. For all of the Super Mario lover's out there...

Super Mario

Music on Crystal Glasses

Wow! I can't believe someone figured this out, much less made it so beautiful!

Music on Crystal Glasses

New items on Etsy and Artfire

Hello friends!

New items are up on Etsy and Artfire!

Holy crap have I been busy making buttons! I made some more yesterday. I still don't have some eye candy for you, but I hope to have some pics taken sometime this weekend.

Well I have to go.. lots of stuff to do today!

Have a great weekend!

Much love,

Genea

New items on Etsy

Hello friends,

New items are up on Etsy! I have a little skully emo boy and a nice neutral macrame keychain for those of you that are color shy ;)

BUTTONS, BUTTONS, AND MORE BUTTONS! Wow, did I have fun making buttons yesterday! Unfortunately I didn't get them photographed for this entry, but I will shoot them later and get a pic up on here for you all to enjoy ;)

So what am I up to today? MORE BUTTONS.. lol. The hubby suggested I do one more day of buttons. I think I even have some more ideas for them too! It's so awesome to start something and keep on having ideas while you are working :D

Oh, you should see our garden! It's in full BLOOM! Our little srprouts have long stems and leaves and they are eagerly reaching for the sun :)

I will have more pics later.

Have a wonderful day!

Much love,

Genea

Fun with Photoshop

Looky what I did!! I finally figured out that using the "hand" tool doesn't move an image.. you have to use the little cursor. Psh.. if I had brains I would be dangerous!! LOL

Anyways.. thanks to Holly we fixed this image so it looks correct. Apparently for images with lots of color you need to "save as a web image" for it to look normal instead of it coming out like it went through a pop art filter!

Much love,

Genea

New items on Etsy

Hello friends,

New items are up on Etsy. I am happy to be offering a keychain again. It's been ages since I offered one. They are such a pretty addition to your keys;) Would you believe I have not made one for myself? Maybe I better get on it huh? ;)

I have also offered a teeny heart pendant in soft pastel colors. It's so cute ;)

Well how can I top my last entry huh? I am still amazed by those buttons! I can't wait to make more today!!

I had a few more ideas bounce around in my head about how to tweak the design and see what I get. I hope they work out. It's always more exciting that way when you have an idea and it comes out even more amazing that you pictured it in your head. It's so cool to visualize something and make it real. I don't know if that is exciting for anyone else, but I love it :D

Well I suppose I should get to it!

Have a lovely day!

Much love,

Genea

Celebrate with me!

Hello friends! Well I had so much exciting news I couldn't wait for tomorrow's update!

First off I am very excited to be Soft Flex's featured designer for April!!

You can reach the spotlight on … section by clicking on the “Design School” link on their homepage.

Genea Crivello-Knable

Next I am super excited about what bloomed out of my torch this afternoon! Ready???

Aren't they PRETTY?! OMG! I was SO excited about them! They are so colorful and shiny :D They are all buttons too(except the leaves).

See where I got my idea? I have been staring at my candle holder for days thinking it would make the prettiest bead(button actually)! Do you think my button has envy? lol

Well that is all for now.. see you again later in the morning ;)

Much love,

Genea