Week in Review- A little bit of everything

Hello friends!

Well here it is, the crazy blog where "everything else" goes! lol. I had some other pictures I wanted to share, but on their own they weren't much. I also figured before we got snow DUMPED on us I should post the pictures of the last crazy snow we got on the 25th!

Ok well I hope you already ate or drank before you read this, if not you will be starving and thirsty by blogs end ;)

Visiting with Ricky's parents.....

We were actually supposed to see Ricky's parents over New Year's Eve weekend, but they ended up getting snowed in, in Colorado. So we got to see them over the weekend of the 21st.

I was excited to give Malina(Ricky's mom) the bracelet I made for her. 

 

This bracelet style is similar to my "Flying Gobstopper" style bracelet I offered in my Etsy shop awhile back. Incase you missed it, here is a picture. My friend Holly ended up snatching it up for one of her birthday presents. It was pretty sweet 'cause you can either wear it as a bracelet or asymmetrical necklace :D The wing dings, rubber o's and soldered rings with crystal dangles are all "floaters".

 Sweet idea eh? Yes, I know, I should make another. I need to add that to my "to-do" list.

 

This bracelet was called "Green Horizon". 

 

We ended up going to a few of our favorite local places including, Tea Drops in the Westport area of Kansas City. Here you can see Ricky, his mom and his dad working on a puzzle they had on one of the tables. 

 Here is the bubble tea I got. It was coconut, rose and green tea. YUMMY! So delicious!

 The morning that they left we went out for breakfast at another "down home" cooking style restaurant. They sold these KILLER cinnamon rolls! Above you can see Ricky's mom with our cinnamon roll.

 Mmmmm I totally took this picture to tease you. Doesn't it look YUMMY? Well it totally was just as delicious as it looks!

While the Knable family was in town we stopped over at Costco and picked up some groceries. Rick and Malina thought the dogs needed a dog bed too :) As you can see Leeloo is happily laying on top of me on the couch. I had to convince Kayla she wanted to lay on the bed. She kind of did. I guess the side was as good as I was going to get. I guess they are kinda sketchy about the cedar smell of the bed. I think it smells fantastic, but what do I know? Apparently I'm not a spoiled dog. *rolls eyes*

HOLY SNOW, BATMAN....

Can you believe this snow we got?! This was taken the morning after it finally stopped. This was just last week.

 Here is the side of the house. Crazy huh?!

 The front from the street.

 Some WICKED icicles. I knocked them down after photographing them. They could seriously impale someone. The dogs were happy to crunch on them so at least someone enjoyed them ;)

Yummy snacks....

So Ricky and I have discovered the joys of stove popped popcorn. Not only is it delicious, but it's low calorie and way better for you than microwave popcorn. Did you know that not only do microwaves heat up your food, but the COMPLETELY change their chemical make up too? Ewww...

So to enjoy this tasty snack of awesome and win  you will need the following ingredients:

Bragg's Liquid Aminos, Bragg's nutritional yeast, Bragg's sprinkle, sea salt, cayenne pepper, organic popcorn, and vegetable oil, oh and olive oil(not pictured). 

So here's the secret to awesome popcorn. We read this somewhere on the net, but since I can't remember where I will just have to tell you here.

So first you set your stove to 7 heat. For one serving of pop corn you need 2tbs popcorn and 2tbs oil. Don't freak out, you only get half of the oil in your popcorn. The other half of the oil kicks it on the lid and pan bottom ;) 

Ok so you heat your stove to 7 and put the oil in the pan with 1 kernel of popcorn. When that kernel pops you remove the pan from heat, add the rest of the kernels, cover the top with a lid and vent one side of it and shake back and forth across the stove burner until there are only 1 to 2 seconds inbetween popcorn pops. This will help you judge when the popcorn is done cooking. 

 Next you will need large bowls. What is the crappiest thing about getting popcorn out besides the fact that it tastes like styrofoam, the seasoning not being on ALL of it. So divide your freshly popped pop corn into 2 bowls. Do the next steps in both bowls.  Add a squeeze of Bragg's liquid aminos around the rim of the bowl, next a dash of sea salt, a few dashes of nutritional yeast, sprinkle, cayenne(if you like it hot, if not, omit), and a teeny mist of olive oil.

 Combine both bowls together and scrape the empty bowl with a rubber scraper to make sure you get all of your seasonings :D Enjoy! You will be totally addicted, promise. This recipe is only like 156 calories and 9 grams of fat(from the oil). 

Gluten free goodness....

This was my breakfast the other day! HOLY CRAP, was it good! Ricky breaded the potatoes with gluten free bread crumbs. They were corn based so they were super crusty! Yes, that IS a good thing! The rest is eggs with broccoli, onions, and feta! I love that my hubby cooks me delicious things to eat :D

Incase you missed it on Etsy....

 

"Double Love" Watermelon adjustable ring.

 

Love Daisy "Aster"  adjustable ring.

 "Hugs and Kisses" mixed-media earrings.

 

"Love You" mixed-media necklace.

Collaboration!...

Awhile back I asked a few people if they wanted to collaborate after the first of the year. One of the lovely people was Amy Freeland of Copper Diem! Here you can see the complete blog post and reveal!

I made the lampwork beads and she designed the necklace. We are going to be offering it up on Etsy and donating to a charity. I believe it will be going to My Mom Pattie, but I need to double check with Amy. You all should totally check out the shop! It is run by the very talented, Marsha Neal. She dedicated the shop to her mother and they have some amazing pieces to offer! Also be sure to check out Marsha's work! She makes GORGEOUS clay pieces among lots of other lovely things!

What to expect this week....

I have some SUPER sweet stuff in the kiln today! I can't wait to see how everything turned out! :D

I took some pictures for my Etsy listings for the week. I tried to take them outside, but the sun wasn't cooperating with me so I had to shoot them inside. I got some KILLER photos! So be on the look out for some new stuff.

I just got the proof for the "Jaw Breaker" hollow tutorial from The Flow magazine! It looks SOOOO AMAZING! I can't wait for you all to see it. They informed me that it may get in this month's magazine, but if this issue is too full it will go in the next. I am crossing my fingers that it gets in the most recent issue. I will totally keep you all posted!

Here is the bead in the tutorial incase you missed hearing about it. I LOVE making these style hollow beads. I just plain old LOVE working with cane glass period. You can make so many awesome things!

Well that wraps it up for now, but I'll see you soon!

Much love,

Genea

Week in Review- Happenings in the Genea Beads studio

Hello friends!

So I wondered about doing a blog like this once a week to re-cap everything that's happened. This is where I would tell you about things I didn't get into an earlier week post or new things that have been listed if you missed the posts on my Genea Beads Facebook page.

Enjoying some gift cards.....

Ricky and I went out enjoying more of our gift cards from his parents this weekend. We stopped over at our local Starbucks to get some yummy coffee :D

 

I took a picture of the sign. If you may not have heard our beloved Starbucks siren is getting a make over. Starbucks re-did their logo and simplified her. 

 Here I caught Ricky enjoying a sip of his tasty drink :D

It turns out we had not been to Starbucks in a quite awhile since they entirely re-vamped the inside. It looks really classy. On the wood panel wall is a display of Casi Cielo, which is AMAZING, I might add! It's "in season" at the moment. Since it has notes of lemon and cocoa I thought it might be pretty amazing to pair it up with my very favorite Green & Blacks Organic hot cocoa!

 

Here is my recipe: 3c filtered water, 3Tbs Starbucks Casi Cielo coffee, 4tsp Green & Blacks Organic hot cocoa, splash of milk. Probably the BEST cafe mocha I have EVER had! :D 

Love and loss.....

This past week on January 6th one of my best friends, Elizabeth Estes-Steed left this world at the age of 32. Our friends came together to celebrate her life. What a tragedy to lose someone so young :( My heart goes out to our friends, her family, her husband and children. To celebrate her life my friends and I have been adding whatever pictures we have of her to our facebook pages. Here is one of my favorite pictures of us. It's one of those self-taken photos in a car that are extreme close ups ;)

This is a photo of a photo so it's not the best quality, but I didn't have a scanner.

Here is a picture of us at a local rave from a few years back. Beth is on the far left in the green zip-up, then me, my sister, Nina and our friend Alexis.

My dear friend, you will be missed.

Bead Soup by Lori Anderson...

I have had the pleasure of attending this current addition of bead soup by Lori Anderson of Pretty Things.

My partner is the very talented and sweet, Mary Harding!  She makes the most beautiful glass and clay pieces! I can't wait to get some of her pieces in the exchange! Here is a link to her website so you can see more of her pieces. OMG she has such lovely pieces it would take the rest of this blog to post links to ALL of them! Be sure to snoop around her page and check out her work!

New to Etsy....

So if you are just making it to the page as you read this you may have missed some items already. I have been offering medium sized Vortex Flowers that have been sneaking out of the shop. I have another one to offer,but need to head to the studio today to work on Mary's bead soup pieces. 

I did finally get a chance to list the Vortex Flower Necklace and earrings! There are also some spacers to check out as well.

 

Vortex Flower Garden earrings.

 

Vortex Flower Garden necklace.

Current work....

I have so much stuff lying around it's retarded! I have loads of things to be photographed and to be listed. I have also been working on some beads for the Beadwork Spring Stringing 2011 issue! Lorelei submitted a few pieces with my beads, so you can expect to see those in the shop when the magazine hits the shelf.

Here is a sneak peek of some of the beads and findings!

 Spotty spacers in earthy tones.

 A spotty coffee cup.

Spotty dotty glass headpins on copper wire.

One of my "Gravity Bubble" hollows.

Collaborative projects.....

I was excited to be working on another project with my friend, Evan Youngblood! So yell at Evan since the only link I have for his is his facebook page that says NOTHING about what he does, his talent or any other information!  Together Evan and I will  be working on color testing for Creation is Messy. I have been lucky enough to pass of the photography to the pro!

I also have the pleasure of working with Amy Freeland of Green Bead on Etsy and Copper Diem on Blogger. I am excited to see what she creates with the beads I sent. Unfortunately I didn't photograph the beads before sending so we will have to nicely ask Amy to snap a photo for us :) She makes some lovely pieces! Go on over to her shop and see what lovey items she has for Valentine's day!

Well I must be off! It's time to eat some breakfast and head down to the studio!

See you soon!

Much love,

Genea