Cilla of TellYourGirlfriends fame sent me:

I see at least two necklaces with that. One with most of the lampwork and turquoise and another with a ceramic focal, the pretty copper beads and clasp and a couple clay beads i have that would work, I think. The face bead is definitely getting flowers with it. I do faces in flowers.

This is what I sent to Cilla:

Not sure what she’ll dream up from that but there’s plenty to mix around!

I would say that life, last week at least, was CHILLY. There was a biggish milestone in it:

I guess that means there’s now a teenager in the house. So far teenage kiddo seems much the same as twelve year old kiddo!

I was happy to see she has a little of the same jewellerymaking vibe as me. Makes it easier to pick out treats then even if I know we’re supposed to be sending challenging bits and pieces to our partners.

Cilla has her own site at Tell Your Girlfriends and sells her work on Etsy in her shop of the same name.

For Cilla, here’s a teaser of what I popped in the mailbox for you:

One of those few times I get to use the silly filters in Photoshop! Yay!

• Pick up the pace on my blogging here and on CraftGossip both in volume and content
• Get into the tutorial-for-sale market. I have a few ready to go. Just a matter of putting them out there
• Work on surface, texture and sculpting related techniques
• Improve my jewellery finish work
• Learn how to make molds, stamps, screens, texture sheets, cutters and stencils. Some to use for clay, some to learn how it’s all done
• Improve my bookkeeping and organizational skills. Wish me luck, this is my biggest challenge
• Use all of the above to improve my business and income

Because of the industry I’m in, I hear a LOT of talk about buying handmade items for gift giving. And because I’m crafty even outside of the work I do, I’ve ALWAYS made some of my gifts. This year was going to be one of the years that wasn’t the case, where I didn’t make any of the gifts I was giving but turns out I’m wrong!

Then the rings by themselves – these were older beads I’d had for a bit. They finally got used! Yay! Happy beads. One is just a big gold bow at the top of the ring. The other has sparkly ribbon woven around and around. The last has little wire squiggles and red glass beads tied on.

The final one is my little poinsettia wreath. I made a few small loops of brass wire and then wrapped the last of my poinsettias on (there’s a few in my shop yet but last in my box of play with beads, sigh). I added a few leaves and a ribbon at the top. If I do this one again, I’ll use a much thinner gauge of wire to bind the beads on and add pearls!

Don’t forget to have a look at the other blog hoppers:

• Humblebeads
• Suburban Girl Studio
• Spirited Earth
• Garden Path Beads
• Life in the Lyon’s Den
• Blog by Salla
• It’s Been a While
• Sue Beads
• Artist At Work
• Modern Nature Studio
• WireWorked
• Tooaquarius
• Artfully Ornamental
• Gem Rose Designs
• Jewels by Ine
• BeeTree by M.E.
• Islandgirl’s Insights
• Angela Lund-Logan
• Gem’s PC Corner
• Summers Studio
• Sandy Volpe
• The Next Bend
• Skye Jewels
• Janina Grigore
• Elysian Studios
• Jeannie’s Blog
• Art Bead Scene

I have all of these ambitious goals for production and sales but really the only way it will work is if I am efficient. This means, where possible, working in batches. Next up is making those blends into what the schedule says they need to be. Yes, I have a production schedule. Sometimes I even stick to it. So these are some of the “big” canes that will get backgrounds.

The backgroundless canes that turn into big and small slice beads are on another table waiting to get chopped up into beads. After I get that plate of canes finished you can be some of those canes are going on these vases in one of my studio windows.

A customer requested some frog and dragonfly beads so these are the fresh batch of shinies, ready to go in the mail.

I’ve been trying out a few different ideas for bookmarks so here’s a few of the ribbon ones. There’s an art bead on one end and there will be a glass bead and charm on the other.

I emptied out a box of happy ribbon pieces to use. There’s something so colourful and fun about ribbon strings.

The occasional piece needs a fix and this one just got some spiffying up.

I guess the drifts of leaves everywhere mean it’s the real deal, autumn is here. That and the shrub going bald.

Got the tour days done! Summer weather both days, lots of folks came to visit and chat. I worked on projects pretty much straight through and ate goodies the volunteers at the museum were serving for tea. Now to buckle down for next weeks show! That one’s less of a tour and demonstration and more of a selling event. Christmas Craft Fair circuit kick off.

We still have a wrap up meeting for the tour where we draw the winner of the very awesome gift basket and hash out any major issues. Given this is the third year of the tour, the major kinks are worked out it seems.