Another Guitar String Necklace

Yesterday, I was working on jewelry using new medium...old guitar strings. I finished this pendant, and really was not that thrilled with it. It was ok, but I thought it needed just the right thing to hang it on. Today, I came up with something....

And I think I really like it!

Yep, I am very happy with it now. 

Guitar String Pendant

 I got my bead soup yesterday, and so I've been busy making jewelry. So far, I got 3 1/2 pieces made. I decided to take a break and work on some other creations. I was able to get some old guitar strings and so been "playing" around with them...ha! no pun intended.  I decided to keep the curliness of the old strings and came up with this pendant. 

 Then I put it onto this wire necklace. What do you think?

Last night before I went to bed, I was finishing the last coat of glaze on these sparkle paper beads. This morning I checked them out after they had dried, and the beads look really nice. Maybe I will use them with my soup...

Bead Soup 8 is Simmering....

It's that time again....BEAD SOUP BLOG Party!!! YAY!!!!

First I would like to introduce you to my wonderful Bead Soup partner...Tracy Martin of Nutkitten's Handcrafted Jewelry . You should go pay her a visit and see what nice stuff she makes.

Before I show you all the neat ingredients I got from Tracy, I'd like to show you what I sent her. 

I have had a couple of these strands of flowers for awhile. I love them, and decided to share a strand with Tracy.

I also had a couple of strands of these purple beads and decided to share them too. As I was digging around in my stash, I saw that I had a matching focal, so I threw that in.

I've just started making paper beads, and wanted to throw a few in to see what Tracy thought of them. These are a few of my first batch, and I hope to get better at it. I'm working on batch three.

My last bead soup partner, Tammie Everly, sent me sari ribbon, I had never used it before, but now I love it.  I decided to see if Tracy would like to try some and then also threw in some lace.

Ha! Just realized the name of my last two partners....Tracy and Tammie are the names of my two sisters. Tracey and Tammy, spelled different, but same name. That is funny....and weird.

Ok, so on with the ingredients.

Here's a fancy clasp

There is a store I like to go to that has all their jewelry for $1. It is not top quality, obviously, but some of it I like to take apart and repurpose. I decided to see what they had available, and I found a couple of things, one of which is the necklace above. I love the turquoise look of the focal.

Then I saw this. I love tropical/nautical stuff, and figured I'd through this in the soup too. These were just for fun pieces that she can either repurpose, or wear, or whatever...heck for $1?

So, there you have it. It is very random, I know, but I figured it gives her a lot to choose from. I hop she likes it!

Ok, now for what Tracy sent me. As I go through the ingredients, I want to you to look at the similarities.  It's kinda funny...

The first thing I opened were these focals. Hmmm purple. How funny is that!? By the way, the lighting really doesn't show the true color of purple very well, I have found. At least some purples...

More purple, lol. I guess we both like purple.

These are pretty cool. My daughter's wedding was done in butterflies, so I know she will like these; and I like them too.

Here are a couple of fun clasps, beads, earring wires, and wire. Silver is my favorite.

So there is my soup from Tracy. I've been gone for the last two weeks, and was worried my package would get misplaced, but it didn't.

Well, I better get to working on my soup.

Hand Crafted Beads

 Here are some of the earrings I've made with my paper beads.

 Yes, paper! I cut, then hand rolled these beads. They've been triple dipped in a heavy glaze.

 Some of the beads need a little help, as I know you can see some of the glaze, but I'm working hard on perfecting them.

I'm hoping to be able to open an etsy shop when we get settled in our new home.

Personal Preparedness...

This is something The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints teaches us, and how important it is for all of us to be self sufficient (as much as possible), and personally prepared.

 The Red Cross also talks about being prepared...mostly for disasters. I don't want to be a dooms dayer, but there are all kinds of things that can happen in our community, and we should all be prepared for them. I actually blogged about this before. The 72 hour emergency kit is something we should all have...whether you live in a hurricane area, a place that is struck by tornadoes or floods, what whatever, all of us should have one of these.

I've decided to do another blog about it since it is time to go through and pull out all the stuff that is getting ready to expire and restock my bags. 

Since I sell Thirty One products (mythirtyone.com/terryjeanettecarter), I decided to try out of their bags, and the Super Organizing Utility Tote works great! Thirty One actually has several bags that would work for this, but since these were on special a few months ago, I decided to save some money and purchase these...one for me and one for my husband. 

For the next three days, I am actually eating my 72 hour preparedness food. I wanted to make sure I could survive on it. Usually, I don't like to eat like this, and I did try to be as healthy as possible, but I still got a lot of processed stuff. 

As you can see, I have a lot of protein bars and drinks, but I also got fruit cups and juices. Today was the first day I actually ate from it, and it wasn't too bad. To be honest, I have a lot of food, but hey, figured I might have to share a little, and you never know who might be with you if you have to evacuate.

So besides natural disasters, you might wonder why anyone would need to evacuate. Well, let me share a true story with you...

A few years ago, my parents were sound asleep in their home. Shortly after midnight, there was a loud banging on their front door..."POLICE! You need to evacuate NOW!!!"  My parents stumbled to the front door to see cops and swat team running all over the neighborhood, (yes, really), and the police told them they had to leave, "NOW!" They did not have time to change, just get their shoes on, and their keys and go. If they had had their 72 hour emergency kid, with food and clothes, they could grab that too. They were lucky in this incident that they were able to come back in a couple of hours. But how many times have you heard a stand off lasting for days?  Don't know about you, but I really don't want to go shopping for something to eat and clothes in my pj's.

So, what do you put into one of these things? Well, you can go to the Red Cross website for more info. One thing that is important is that you put things your family will eat into it; every six months, you go through it and make sure nothing is expired or about to expire. I have heard of all kinds of ways people do this. One family I heard had a mock emergency every six months. They would out of the blue, get the kids up and head out with their emergency kits and go camping. That sounded pretty fun to me.

Our church has a world wide general conference every six months, and I've heard of people eating their stuff and replacing it that weekend. I think that's what I plan to do. This time, since we are in such limbo with the move, not sure where we will be during that time, and since it is so close to that time, I just decided to switch it out now. Besides, it was September that I put mine together, and that was six months ago.

Well, hope you all get your 72 hour emergency kit together soon. You never know when you will need it....hopefully never...but...it's always good to be prepared.

What Type of Jewelry Do I Like to Make?

I have been making jewelry for a loooong time. Lately, I've been branching out a little. 

Last year, my bead soup partner sent me some sari ribbon. I had ZERO clue as to what to do with it. I figured it out.

I had a lot of fun branching out.

Then I decided to try to crochet wire and beads.

I've done a little recycling...this necklace has a few curtain rings that I no longer needed.

A couple years ago when I was in the Bahamas, I decided to go to the bank in Nassau and get a few coins. I made this necklace to give to my mom as a souvenir. I really should make me one too.

I've also used old instrument strings to make bracelets. This bracelet is made from some old dulcimer strings.

 Oh, and then there's the old telephone wire. I've been making stuff with this for YEARS!

And then, of course, are these crochet necklaces. These are fun and easy to do!

Lately, I've been getting into these boogers...

 Paper beads!

I have hand wrapped these, glued them together, then used Modge Podge to coat them for stability and to stick together better. I then put three coats of a thick glaze on each bead. I hear they are pretty durable. They are water resistant, but not water proof. Before I start pushing these too much, I am giving them to some of my family to "test drive." I'm also thinking of maybe giving some to my Bead Soup Partner along with some other beads. I'm hoping she will also  "test drive" them.

So, if you ask me what type of jewelry I like to make, I'll have to say I don't really know. I like to try a lot of different things. I do like to use seed beads as accent beads ONLY, so I am not technically a seed beader.

I do like to mess with a VERY wide variety of stuff.

Happy Mardi Gras!

Mardi Gras is upon us. So what is that all about? Well, if you live in New Orleans, it's one big party! Floats, parades, beads, and a whole lot of excitement! In fact, just about everything shuts down!  One will see a lot of purple, gold and green too.

So what do the colors of Mardi Gras mean? Well, purple is for justice, green for faith, gold for power. The Mardi Gras season coincides with Lent. Many people give up something during Lent, which starts 40 days before Easter. Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent and it ends on the Saturday before Easter. Many, but not all Christians observe these six weeks with a continual "fast". 

During my elementary school years, I attended the local Catholic school, even though I was Baptist (now I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints). I can remember my friends giving something up during Lent. As an adult, I really haven't heard much about that until we moved to Louisiana a few years ago. EVERYone talks about what they are going to give up for this six week stretch.  Normally, I really don't give it much thought.

This year, I have decided to observe Lent by giving something up; and that is.....sugar. Yes, refined sugar. No cakes or cookies or anything like that. Honey is ok; and I'm not going to worry about sugar in pasta sauce, etc. Basically, I will stay away from the goodies. 

S I X WEEKS OF THAT. Yep! I'm going to do it! So, this weekend, I will be making some brownies. I had a Blizzard the other day. I love those things, and it had been a LONG while since I had one, and I wanted to make sure I got one before Ash Wednesday. Now, for the day before...Fat Tuesday, not sure what I will eat. I do know a lot of the times they call that day Pankcake Tuesday. I'm really not a huge fan of pancakes, so I will come up with something else....

I know...

I'll make my Grandma's French Breakfast Puffs!