Katie's doing Avon's Walk for Breast Cancer

My good friend and fellow beader Katie Nelson
has committed herself to do this marathon walk for
breast cancer. She needs to raise a bit of money in
order to participate...$1800.oo to be exact. So she's
reaching out to all her friends and family to help her
come up with the money. I know first hand how hard
it is to raise funds. You have to be bold and go where
sometimes you might not want to. But in the end it is
so worth it and who knows? One day you might be in need
of the research finds to cure you of something.
Anyhow, bless her heart, here is what she has to say:
"This is a 2-day event in which I will have the opportunity
to walk up to 26.2 miles the first day and 13.1 the second.
Personally, I am shooting for the 1/2 marathon length
on both days since the walk is only 2 months away...
I am going to do as much as I can, but I have to be realistic,
too, since there's not a lot of training time..."
So to sweeten the giving she has put her necklace she made
from the Bead Soup Challenge up for auction.


Its a beauty! I've already bid on it, you can too.
Or just go to her blog and you can donate any sum
of money. I know times are tough all over and
money is probably a little funny (hahaha-NOT) at
your casa, but you can give up one little something
for a cause...maybe that $5.00 drink on a night out,
or $10.00 bill at Micky D's for a bad lunch you don't
really enjoy and probably didn't need.
Or, heaven forbid, give up one strand of beads and
put that money to a good cause. Love you guys!
Stop by Katie's and watch for her Walk coming up.

Begin the Beguine...or Starting Again

Begin the Beguine is a 1982 Spanish film about a man who
returns to his homeland after many years. Its original Spanish
title is Volver a empezar, which means Starting Again;
the English language title refers to the song "Begin the Beguine"
by Cole Porter.

Starting again....
Well that's me in a nutshell. Where did this last month go?
I feel like such a slacker, but I know I've been busy doing
things, they just didn't include blogging. I really blame it on
FaceBook. It seems I do spend way to much time hanging out
there. Shame on me...

So I'm just gonna pick up and carry on like today is the first day.
Last month one of my favorite bead artists, Kristie Roeder of
Artisan Clay was having a contest/sale anticipating her 300th
sale on Etsy. Kristie was giving away all kinds of neat things...
for every piece you bought you got a copper raku piece for free.
For the 300th sale (that was me)there was a surprise and
for the one who spent the most money (me..lol. But I didn't
spend that much) there was another.
And then she packaged everything up and stuck a beautiful
button on top. Well, I made out like a bandit and it felt like
Christmas at my house when I was opening everything up.
Thanks Kristie! I love it all!

My purchases above. See the beautiful button in the center?
I got one of her grab bags with tons of beads in it.

Kristie's beautiful copper beads. There were two donuts, but
one went home to New Orleans with Beverly. I'm sure she'll
do something fantastic with it. She said she'd whip me up
something using the heart...I better get the beads together
soon, maybe I can wear it on the Bead Cruise? Huh? Bev?


This was part of the give away. A surprise for me, and this
is a beautiful necklace. I love wearing it!

Another great part of the give away for being the 300th
customer. This is HUGE...when Krisitie said she was giving
a box away, I thought "ok, what a cute little trinket box this
will be". It is so kewl! 6 x 6 inches and I love it!
So Kristie, my apologies for taking so long. And a great big
THANKS for all the great gifts. I love the copper beads so
much I think I am gonna horde them for a while.

I'm having a sale!

There's a sale going on in my Etsy shop. 20% off on

everything. I think its time to put in something a little

more seasonal, don't you? Summer's gone and Christmas

is right around the corner. For goodness sake! Where does

the time go?

Happy Birthday to Me

Oh lucky me, I have made it through another year!

Not that I thought for one minute that I wouldn't,

but sometimes you never know. Anyway, on Wednesday

I will be the great age of 55. Who would of thunk?

I remember (yes, my memory is still partially there) back

in elementary school thinking about the year 2000 and

what age I would be then. I couldn't comprehend being

that "old"...yet here I am. For turning 55 I can get a

tall cup of coffee at the Coffee Beanery for only $1.00.

Woohoo! So in celebration of my birthday I bought

myself a piece of jewelry from Ingrid Dijkers.

Ingrid is a multi-talented artist, not only in her

jewelry making skills, but she is a journalist and a

doll artist too.

She also has been doing the Michigan Ren Fest for a few years.

I was hoping to get there this year and visit her in her shop.

But it's looking like it won't be happening, time is running out

and there is so much to do around here. Next year for sure.

Ingrid has a nice blog, and a beautiful website.

I have so much more to write about, this week

was busy and I did so much. I'm going to get

back on the blogging, I've been missing that.

And here is Rubee Dew looking bashful. It's been one

week since we brought her home and we just adore her.

She is so different from Bailey, but that's what we love

about her. She is such a smart girl. God sent me another

Angel that's for sure.

2ndhandrose

Thanks to Heather, last night we got my Etsy shop up and

running. A new banner and avatar was created and its they

are fine looking if I do say so myself. For the rest of this

month I am offering free shipping with each purchase.

Please go and check it out, I am excited to see it happen!

2ndhandrose Designs by Rosanne Garvison

Thanks again Heather for your generous time and help.

Bluejean Baby

A beautiful leaf pendant from Erin at EveryHeartCrafts.
Large blue glass trumpet flower with a Swarvoski crystal.
Chain from my local bead store. Blue frosted beads from
my treasure box.

Simple but beautiful.

Tidal Pool

It started with this beautiful ceramic pendant from LeAnn
at Summers Studio Pottery.

I added lots of brass links and a stone that was matted
and crackled, bought from a local bead store. Connected
with some Vintaj brass rings.

Some little bubbly glass beads from
Unicorn Beads and a brass plated clasp.
Very soft and really pretty.

Waterlilies

I couldn't let the ABS challenge go by without
using an art bead by Humblebeads. Soft New Jade
and faceted yellow jade accent the focal bead.
Nuggets of a blue stone ( I would call it Dumorite)
and Bali silver rondells.

A beautiful leaf clasp to finish it off.

Now we are off to play! Bailey is doing her early morning
stretches outside. We watched the deer along the wood
line eating grass and munching leaves. They watched us too,
then slipped silently away. Almost like ghosts....I'm gonna
slip away today and enjoy the afternoon with my Geary.
Yesterday was our 28th anniversary. My one true love,
may we share many more happy years.

May ABS entry

Two months in a row! That has to be a record.
This is my May entry for the ABS contest.
Monet's Water Lilies...my interpretation of.
Our pond has waterlilies, but in our pond the water is a
shade of brown and dark blue, not vibrant like Monet's.
Lots of dragonflies too.

I went with the more earthy tones. A dragonfly focal made
by me. A water colored silk ribbon from Jamnglass, a leaf
from Earthwood Studios and a Vintaj clasp from Bello Modo.
I wire wrapped jade stones and used chain from the local
craft store. The rings around the silk were just wire wrapped
as if to make jump rings and then cut to size.

Merry Christmas to Me

Its a little picture, but a BIG necklace. I treated

myself to a Christmas present and I got it in the

mail today. A Humblebead necklace and one that

she did as a collaboration with two other artists.

I really like Ginny's glass links and now that I've

seen them up close I think I will have to get myself

a few. And OMG she has them on sale on her website!

What a conundrum, should I wait or should I CHARGE?

I'm gonna need another job if I keep it up. But then,

someone has to keep the economy going right?

Just doing my part to save the world...lol.

Tomorrow my sister Beverly is coming from NO.

She's gonna freeze her butt off. But we'll have so

much fun we won't even notice how cold it is.

I see lots of beading and card playing. Hey, I'll win

all the quarters and then I can buy more beads.

Do you hear me Mom and Bev?

I WILL win them all..hahaha.

Indian Summer

From Wikipedia:
Indian summer is a name given to a period of sunny, warm
weather in autumn, not long before winter. Usually occurring
after the first frost, Indian summer can be in September, October,
or early November in the northern hemisphere, and March,
April, or early May in the Southern hemisphere. It can persist
for a few days or extend to a week or more.

I hope I'm mistaken about it being our Indian Summer here! But we
did have a frost, and now its warming up again.
I made this necklace and entered it in the Art Bead Scene October
Challenge. The theme: Dark and Stormy Night. It's not too dark
looking, but it covers the cool autumn feeling and the shorter
days and darker nights.

Focal bead form Humblebeads,
disk bead from Blue Seraphim,
Vintaj Natural Brass filigree,
seed beads from Osiris Beads.
Some wood, amazonite, and green garnet squares.

Speaking of Humblebeads, I got a package in the mail with some
of her new beads. She put in a suprise for me. If you haven't looked
at her stuff lately I can tell you that you are missing out on some
great things! Her Gustav Klimt's Kiss beads are as great in person
as they look in her shop. I've lots of ideas rolling round my head
for these!

Happy Birthday to ME!

Its my birthday today! I am just now 39 years young, and if you
believe that, then I have some property in New Mexico I'd like to
sell you.

My Mom's birthday was on Monday. Here's the birthday girl wearing
her new necklace. (See post below). She loved it! But I blogged
about it before she got and wouldn't you know it, she read my blog
the day of her birthday so she knew what she was getting! We had
the best cake from Golden Brown Bakery....if you ever get to
South Haven, you have go there for a pastry. The cakes are so
yummy...I got cupcakes and took them with us to my hair stylist.
Her and her little girls like them too. But after two days of sweets I
was having nightmares and waking up like a 54 year old woman.
By the way, the decorating on the cake was messed up by me. It was
looking good in the beginning, till I added the letters.

This is my son Aman, he was my birthday surprise.
How could my baby get to be thirty five so fast? Its
a mystery to me. He wants to move back here. So he's
looking for a job and staying with us for a while. I'm not
complaining, but it sure is different having a third
person around. Throws everything out of sync. Its
kind of exhausting really. Aman and my niece went with
us (Sue and I) to get our haircut. Afterwards we went
for dinner at Johnny Carino's. My favorite place for
Italian food. Between Aman and Kayla, the testosterone
and hormones those two were throwing off to the waiters
and waitresses and the ones they were sending back ,
I was getting a headache. Take me home, please......
Anyway for my birthday the boys took me golfing with
them. I'm really liking the game. I hit a tee shot with my
driver that was so sweet! Whack! Straight as an arrow.
But then I missed A LOT of shots, too :P But its all for fun.

RoundRabbit rocks!

Here's a big "THANK YOU" Nancy! The package got here this

afternoon, so I could wrap up Mom's present and take it to her

tonight. (I thought both of the pieces were exceptional!) The blue

of this one is the color of her eyes, and by the way she's 75 years

young today. Taking more pictures tonight....

More of Bead Cruise 2008

Here's my rendition of HumbleBeads (Heather's)
necklace that she taught on the cruise. We all had a

great time in her class. Siren's Song is a very special

piece, I just love it! Thank's Heather for pushing me

to another level of beading...I am so anal !!! LOL...

A view from our cabin waiting for our turn to leave the

port. In the background is Fort Lauderdale and a

Carnival Cruise ship.

Heading out to sea...followed by the last ship in the dock.

Bon Voyage Beverly!

One Pina Colada and looked what happened to me...

My interpertation

My niece Heather who is one talented bead artist and designer had just recently had another of her pieces published in the July Bead Style magazine. I really loved this necklace and purchased her special polymer clay focal bead. Adding my own favorite beads in complimentary colors, this is what I came up with, and its a knockout if I do say so myself. I used faceted teal pearls, and teal double drilled pearls, and some huge nugget pearls that look like coffee beans. I'm not even sure where the vintage button came from, but the way it spiroled like a spider web was perfect. Thanks Heather, I really enjoyed making this, and I LOVE chocolate mint!