OMG

Glass toggles from a beloved bead artist JC Herrell

I am consumed with bead lust....mmmmmmmmm

I'm in two treasuries! I'm so excited!

Bali earrings in I Love Green

Speckled bracelet in Nicely Grey and Black

First Friday Giveway!

So, as a result of my participation in Jennifer's charm swap, I have a whole boatload of extra stripey polymer clay beads that YOU can now win!

How do you win? Simple!

To enter - comment on my blog. Tell my your absolute bottom line favorite bead color!

To get an extra entry, follow me, and

To get another extra entry, blog about my giveaway (let me know if you follow/blog in another comment)!

Giveaway closes Saturday October 9 at midnight, I'll select a winner Sunday & announce! Good luck!

Made just a tiny teeny change today.


I cut off about a foot of my hair.

Gonna donate it to Locks of Love. So excited about the short cut, and I love how she angled the back (I told her to take off as much as she needed to make sure I had the minimum for the donation)

Wednesday Window Shopping

This week's WWS features beads from Serena's Beadery

These green ones have such great texture!

Mmmm, more bead caps!

Love the stamped texture and sunny color!

Gorgeous berry color for cute discs

totally drooling over this set

This time tomorrow I will have a belly full of turkey drumstick and a brain full of quilt, jewelry, cake and place-setting exhibits. Yup, that's right - it's LA County Fair time! Woot!

New pieces waiting to be posted at GreenBead

New bracelet listed in the shop!

Well, I finished the art charm swap beads. Phew! If you want to peek at the finished charms, go here and here (didn't want to spoil it for those who want to be surprised! Now, off to the post office!

Wordless Sunday

via my flickr page

I'm very pleased that this necklace found itself a new home.

I'm even more pleased because that means.....(drum roll, please)..... bead shopping money! I wasted no time in sending that paypal money off into cyberspace. Here (courtesy of Lorelei's collage tutorial) are my new beady goodies from Bead Frenz

Technically, I HAD to buy beads because the red teardrop ones are for a necklace I'm doing for my mother in law. But, aren't they pretty!

I swear, I would curl up and wither away if I didn't have beads coming to me at every moment. Otherwise, what is the point of mail?

I also believe I may need treatment for my current bead cap obsession. Intervention, anyone?

Palettes from my vacation (all photos on my flickr page)

(Re-post with palettes)

Inspiration flash from the 5 freeway into Bakersfield:

butter/wheat yellow, sage green, rust, brown

butter/wheat yellow, deep pine green

Shockingly, I did not buy any beads on my trip! Although I did see lots of bead stores -- Berkeley is a bead mecca.  However, I did have to show you guys something else I bought


Owls! How cute!

Sock monkey socks! Oh the irony! I couldn't even wait to get home to wear these socks!

Both are from Socksmith. I'm a compulsive silly-sock buyer. And scarves. And clogs. Ummm, and cookbooks. But socks were the only ones that came home on this trip (except for the cookbook gift my hubby got me)

I'm still working on my charm swap beads. Here are the un-fancified versions. I made them from polymer clay, which I layered, rolled thinner, cut into cubes and rolled into balls. I'm still going back and forth about that Lagoon color, but I think it's pretty close. I hope so!

Road trips are great for finishing scarfs! Here is the one I made for my friend from baby yarn.

So soft!

And here is my "oops!" that I turned into stripes at the end. Gotta pay attention to whether it is a knit or purl row!

Also before I left, I bought this little batch of wonderfulness from Sleeping Dog Studio

I can't wait for it to arrive!

While I was gone, these lovelies arrived from Andrew. I won them in one of his wonderful Thursday giveaways. They are from Gaea and are gorgeous - Thank you Andrew (the photo is his as well)

I just got back from a very nice road trip with the hubby up to Sonoma, Ca. I'm a very bad native California, and hadn't been to Monterey, Cambria, and lots of other cool places. It was also a great way to cross off some bucket list items:


Go to the Jelly Belly factory. So. Much. Fun. We did the VIP tour onto the factory floor, saw the whole process, got to taste new flavors. I am a huge Jelly Belly fan, and this was the coolest experience!

Eat the tasting menu at Chez Panisse.

Totally divine. A very cozy little restaurant run by Alice Waters, a culinary hero of mine. We had the most heavenly scallop salad, eggplant parmesan with a yellow tomato sauce, pork loin over polenta, and a plum tart. I love going to restaurants where there is only one dinner being served. It is such a great way to try new things, and I love tasting the creations the chefs come up with. Although not on the bucket list, we also at at Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc in Napa, which was also delicious.

And my husband snuck away and bought me a signed copy of Alice Water's book, The Green Kitchen


Visit the Winchester House

This was very cool.  In a nutshell, the widow of the Winchester rifle fortune, beset by grief after the deaths of her daughter and husband, rolling in money, and susceptible to "mediums" spend 38 years continuously building onto her house to assuage spirits killed by the rifle. The house is gorgeous, but odd, with windows in floors, doors that open to walls or to the outside (with a two story drop!) and hidden areas. Super neat to tour it.

See Cambria & Monterey

Sigh. I just love craggy, tree-lined coastline. In Monterey we also saw the wonderful aquarium, with a seahorse exhibit! and lots of jellyfish (check out my photos here)

Eat abalone

Came and went from the bucket list. I ate it in Monterey. It was, um, chewy? I'll give it another shot, but it wasn't a life changing event. :)

Wednesday Window Shopping

This week's WWS - there's no place like home! Check out these cute house beads!

Little house charms from Sup Sup Supplies

Pottery house by Captured Moments

House charm by Hint

Adorable lampwork by Havana Beads

Little polymer clay neighborhood! by yelenacomau

raku house by Earthenwood

Alert! Alert! Commence not-beady post -

How cute are these weency houses! (So cute!)

Wordless Sunday

via my flickr page

I added two things to the bucket list:

89.  eat abalone

this is supposed to be quite the delicacy, and they had it at a restaurant in Napa a while ago, on a day I ate myself silly on breakfast burgers, Taylor's Refresher burger for lunch, and wine, wine and more wine. I had to pass on it, and I've been kicking myself ever since (and pacing the eat fest in Napa better, too). So, it's on the list.

90.  Go to a blueberry festival

Blueberries? Hands down my favorite fruit. In Southern California, they aren't frequently at the farmer's market (and when they are they are hugely expensive). No festivals. So, since a day of everything blueberry sounds like a dream, it's on the list.

New Etsy vendor 4 Square Pegs with cool buttons!

Wednesday Window Shopping

This week's Wednesday Window Shopping - leaves! I love leaf motifs (poet alert!) in beads and jewelry. These are so pretty:

love this green color!

leaves on head pins? hooray!!

from the ever-talented Hint. Love the off-center leaf

gorgeous goldenrod color

love how they are two-toned

very modern looking

love the color and the worn look

fall leaves!