Amazing Experience...

Participating in the One World One Heart blog giveaway was an amazing experience and I wish to thank everyone for stopping by my blog and entering my “One World – One Heart” Giveaway.

What a wonderful event, 911 artisans entered this amazing event. I was the lucky winner of not one but four giveaways.

"Men Working” Pendant

Peggy Alborn is a Faux Finish Artist, and created this outstanding pendant with an actual photo of men taking a break from work around the WWI era. Visit Peggy’s These FauxWalls blogspot and have a glance into her life and art.

“Domino Pendant”

Jane Eileen, of See Jane Run and Jane Eileen Art Studio 23 created the beautiful Domino Pendant.

“Machine Appliqued Owl Mini Quilt”

Naomi of Bella Modiste is an accomplished seamstress and created this lovely mini quilt.

“The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society” Book

I love to read and was so pleased to win Susan’s giveaway, from Humor Memoranda. Just need to find sometime to read my new book.

My Two Winners

Pat Graham of Odd-Dolls won my Flowers and Leaves Bracelet. Pat is located in Bellingham, Washington and creates amazing Art Dolls… Hope you have time to check out her blog and see her OOAK.

Lesley Gozon, won my Beads Outa Beads Necklace and Earring Set. Lesley is my International winner, located in Manila, Philippines. Lesley doesn't have a blog! Maybe one day she'll get the blogging bug.

I Love Numbers....

I visited each of the 911 blogs

I received the Marie Antoinette Award from another blogger

435 comments were left on my blog

Over 1500 blog views during the OWOH event

15 new followers

35 different countries visited my blog

A successful event, a wonderful experience

Please Meet......

My Blogging Buddy – My Friend

I call her my friend, eSmarts teammate, and my blogging buddy. Who is she, but Teri Baskett of S & T Creations!

Teri and her partner, Saundra Brown-Gordon, began there jewelry business in 2005 when they opened S & T Creations in Jeffersonville, Indiana. Both ladies create larger pieces of jewelry, prominently featuring gemstones, glass and crystals in their jewelry designs.

Besides making beautiful bold jewelry designs, Teri handles most of the internet “tech-y” things for S & T Creations. But her heart is in creating beautifully unique jewelry designs. Each design features a bold style and flair, combined with quality components.

Here is how you can see more of Teri’s lovely work

http://www.sandtcreations.com

http://www.sandtcreations.com/wordpress

http://sandtcreations.etsy.com

Marie Antoinette Award

Wow... I hadn't seen or heard about this award until Brenda of Brenda's Jewelry Box nominated me as a recipient...

The Marie Antoinette Award

It seems that no one really knows what this award is for, certainly a beautiful award, and I am happy to receive it!

I meet Brenda during the One World – One Heart giveaway, Brenda is a very talented Artisan and I sincerely appreciate our new friendship. You can find Brenda’s designs on her blog, her Etsy Shop, and 1000Markets

Now for the rules of this award. The rules are as follows...

Please put the logo on your blog.

Place a link to the person from whom you received the award.

Nominate at least 7 or more blogs.

Put links of those blogs on your blog.

Leave a message on their blogs to tell them. And that's it!

I hope this award will make the following artists as happy as it made me!

Lisa

AnnaLee

Pat Graham

Karen Adams

Joani

Sherry

Mrs. Beadsley

The Lemonade Award

Danis Garcia of DG Designs has nominated me for the Lemonade Award.

Thank you very much, Danis. I really appreciate it. You are too kind. The Lemonade Award is awarded to sites that show a positive attitude and gratitude. And I am grateful to be considered a part of that group.

Here are the rules for the award:
1.Put the logo on your blog or post
2.Nominate at least 10 blogs that show great Gratitude and/or Attitude.
3.Be sure to list and link your nominees within your post.
4.Let them know they have received this award by leaving a comment on their blog.
5.Nominate your favorites and link to your post.

My Choices for the Award:
The World of Wezz
Art by Wanda
Bluebonnet Jewelry Designs
Glass0Beads
From the Bench
MeghanT Jewellrey Design
Studio618
Silver Rabbit Studio
Simplexities
Simply Willow

And the Winners are...

The One World - One Heart giveaway has come to a close. I have used a random number generator to select my winners for this year's giveaway.

The lucky winner of my "Beads Outa Beads" Necklace and Earrings is Leslie621
The lucky winner of my "Flowers and Leaves" Bracelet is Patee from Odd-Dolls

These ladies have three days to contact me... and if I do not here from them within this time frame I'll randomly draw another winner...

Please check back, I'll be blogging about my winners, and my experiences with this wonderful giveaway.

A Beaded Affair

An Affair You’ll Remember!

Who is the hard working, energetic designer behind “A Beaded Affair”, no other than my friend and fellow eSMArts Team member, Lois Matthews. Lois is a Daughter, Mother, Wife, Realtor, Title Insurance Agent, and outstanding Jewelry Designer.


Lois makes stunning jewelry designs, she combines high quality metals and gemstones to create a piece of art, art that will surely become heirlooms. Her work features the unusual, bold, feminine, and classic but always wearable designer pieces.


Lois is a special lady providing much guidance and support to the eSMArts Team, and its members. Always being available to help in all ways, giving of herself and her very valuable time.


Why not visit “A Beaded Affair’s” Etsy shop and see her stunning jewelry designs, hard to find 1/2 Round and Square Copper Wire in 18 and 20 gauge, Copper Findings, and fine gemstone beads.



Lois has a wonderful blog and website where she has featured many of the eSMArts team members, and as always provides the “play it forward” concept. For she is a true Team Player and my dear friend.

New Years Resolution

A month of creating daily

In late October my friend Susie Land threw out the challenge and inspiration to do something creative every day for 30 days. Susie is my friend from Artist’s of the Round Table, and very creative, talented group of artisans. I decided at that time this would be a wonderful challenge for my creative endeavors, but the timing just wouldn’t fit into my schedule until the New Year.

During these cold dreary days of January I will challenge myself and create one jewelry piece each day of the month. Come along with me and enjoy my adventure…

I would love to have company. Want to join in on the fun! Just challenge yourself to do a little bit every day for 30 days, pick a theme, any theme, whatever you want, doesn’t even have to be jewelry.

I will be posting my progress on my blog, check back often to see how the challenge is evolving, and see if I can keep my New Years Resolution!

What is a Jewelry Geek?

A Jewelry Geek is someone aspiring to learn various jewelry making techniques.

Jewelry Geeks.Com is a site that promotes and supports the field of jewelry and metal arts. Artists can create and manage their own virtual studio, setup a photo gallery, add videos, subscribe to or create there own group(s), chat with other members, express creativity, find inspiration, learn new techniques, view and post classifieds, all this and SO much more!

Jewelry Geeks is a site for beginners to advanced artists with absolutely no membership fees or restrictions. A social portal created to give people who are interested in learning various techniques of jewelry making, a place to network with many artisans of all skill levels and backgrounds.

A great place to browse around, or sign up and start meeting others who share the same interests.

You'll find the latest in internet trends all rolled into one site! JewelryGeeks is the ONLY Social Network for Jewelry & Metal Artists in the world!

Enjoy!

Do you know how to tell if you have a beading addiction?

Recently a friend asked me if I would like to go for lunch with her and another friend, and visit our local bead stores.

I replied sure, but let’s skip lunch and just go to the Local Bead Stores, that way I’ll have an extra $10.00 to spend on beads.

My friend has an amazing stash of beads. Wish I could convince her to let me shop at her home for my supplies. But so far, she hasn’t taken the hint or maybe she is just ignoring me.

I Have a New Toy

I have a new toy, well maybe not so new, just never used this wonderful toy. Yes, I purchased a “Rotary Tumbler” sometime ago and never got around to learning to use the tumbler. Well, today I had some extra time, and decided I would finally open the box and see what tumbling jewelry was all about. A pound

of mixed stainless steel shot, a little water, and a squirt of dawn and I was off and running to see what tumbling would do for may copper jewelry.

I was amazed when I finished the first batch, just three copper bracelets, but what a difference the tumbling made. Everything is bright and shiny, with a special glow. So next I tumbled Naga Shell sterling silver earrings, again the tumbling made a beautiful shine.The next tumbling adventure was a Gold Parawire bracelet which included Lampwork beads, again a beautiful shine.I happened to have another similar bracelet,and could compare them side by side, amazing how beautifully the tumbled bracelet out shined it’s sister. My next experiment was my “Springs & Loops” Necklace, this necklace features both Gold Parawire and Silver Parawire, wanted to see how the tumbling would effect two different color wires.Now I’ll experiment with tumbling my favorite copper necklace and some earrings. The necklace has a number of mixed gemstones, and the earrings have copper coils and bead dangles. Really made everything sparkle…

I love my new toy….

My family doesn’t read my blog…

October 13, 2007 to October 13, 2008

My blog is a year old today…

I first started blogging on October 13, 2007, a whole year has passed and my focus has totally changed. My original intent was for my blog to be read by my children and their families, so they could experience what Mom was creating…

My daughter and her family live over 3000 miles away, and I thought this would be a great way for her to see what Mom was creating. Now sons really don’t care about what Mama’s doing, or at least mine doesn’t.He was married in May of 2007, and has a very busy life with his new family, besides he has seen me create stuff, since he was just a baby.

Then there is my un-married daughter, who lives close by, she can’t miss what I’m up too, it’s always sitting around the house. But I gave them all my blogger address, hoping that maybe they would discover something they didn’t know about me.

Well, it didn’t take long before I decided that I would post to see if they had ever visited my blog. Yes, I was bad, I posted all three girls Christmas gifts on my blog, before Christmas. If they just logged into my blog they would have seen their gifts. I also told them all on Christmas day what I had done. Do you think anything has changed….No, they still haven’t made the first visit to my blog.

My focus, hasn’t really changed…I just now blog for myself, my customers and my friends. I love the ability to share what I’m creating and what I’ve learned.

A Game of Internet Tag!

I’m It…
I’ve been tagged…
eSMArts team member Tina of Links and Loops has tagged me…

Here are the rules:

1) Link to the person who tagged you
2) Post the rules on your blog (this is what you are now reading)
3) Write 6 random things about yourself (see below)
4) Tag 6 people at the end of your post and link to them
5) Let each person know they have been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6) Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Six Random Things about Me…..

1) I breed Parrotlets, the smallest parrot kept in captivity for over 12 years

2) Jill is my middle name, and I’m not telling my first name. I was named after my Great-Grandmother. She didn’t like her first name either.

3) I married my best friends brother 20 years ago; his family said I’d never go out with him.

4) My son finally got married, and I have a wonderful Daughter-in-Law

5) I have a son, daughter, and step-daughter, and 4 grandsons. My family is the most important part of my life. I miss my daughter and her family horribly, they live in the San Francisco Bay Area.

6) My a 4^th generation Californian, but have lived in Georgia 35 years.

Now I’m tagging….

Kateri of The Writing's of Presumed Royalty
Willow at Simply Willow
Wilma at Wilma’s Whimseys
Izzy at Precious Creations by Izzy
Barbara at Magpie Dreamers
Michele Cook of Michelle Cook Designs