This would be what I made this afternoon though. Cute little Tiny Beads as I call them. It even says so on their box labels on my shelves.

Our little Artisan Spring Sale went off without a hitch. Except the rain and and 80km an hour winds. We still had some brave souls show up to the Entrepreneurial Centre and take in our pretties.

I made a fresh batch of bracelets for the show and the ones coming up the next few weeks in Calgary (yikes! so much work to do! aaaahhhhh!).

As part of our Artisan Shows we all agreed we’d bring treats to feed people since we all seem to enjoy that extra touch to events. I ordered cupcakes from a talented local baker. They tasted even better than they looked and they were freaking adorable!

We’ve already booked our next date: December 9th for our Second Annual Artisan Christmas Sale.

It’s been a crazy week but even in the crazy I’ve been making tons of beads! A few of the new ones are up on my Etsy site.

And I finished up a tray of swirly pendants which are on their way to the tumbler. The beige rectangles are going to be for textured, caned pendants. I make the bases first so that pieces don’t keep moving and squishing as I work at them.

I guess this episode of Sunday Stuff is all about the batches. Since most of my work is selling my crafts, I have lots of spots where I can use batching techniques. Today, that was making lots of flat back beads. And serious quantities of pendants. These are bread and butter pieces that I price to move at shows which means they get done a few times a year in big stacks.

Maybe next weekend, that little part in the middle that is wrapped tight around the flower, will be pushing up the tulip. It’s magic every year.

Until the real flowers show up, I have to make do with the ones I bake in the oven all the time.

From earlier in the week, while we were in Calgary, when I visited the zoo I noticed a theme: all of the critters were sitting in their enclosures enjoying the sun. The lions, tiger, leopards were so much like our little guy.

The show runs June 1st through 3rd at the Coast Plaza Hotel and I’ll make sure and pop up a coupon here for folks to use at the show with me. Or a free bead of choice… something like that. If you have an opinion of what kind of promo to do, weigh in!

The Sunday before the FVBS I’ll be at the Calgary Lilac Festival – 4th year in a row! I need you to all start crossing whatever crosses so that the sun shines down all day long that day and the wind is mild.

This stunning piece is by Holly of FiveLittleGems.

This pretty bracelet is by Cilla of TellYourGirlfriends who was my bead soup partner. She requested these beads and I made happy little stacks of them to use.

I’m hoping to make the brag on my customers a regular feature so if you’ve bought beads, canes or anything else that you took pics of and want to show off, just email me!

I picked out this long list of projects, goals and milestones for the year and one of those was to work harder on my blogs and sites. It wasn’t an actual focus-on-it goal until April though so it explains why April has suddenly gotten a heckuva lot more in the way posts than previous months.

This month will see some serious blogging done as well as tearing apart the shop and other toys that are part of the site. The goal here is to have a working online presence separate from the ones I maintain on Etsy and Artfire. I love my other spots but this is supposed to be home and I should work on it feeling like it.

The offline goal for this month has been to get moving a lot more and I’ve been good about that. Timed it right with the improving weather. I’ve spent a little time hauling weeds out of the yard, finding and setting up my gardening stuff and walking places more than the strict minimum. I always find I take much longer than the 3 weeks it says to build a habit but I’d like it to become habitual – working from home was supposed to be the way to allow some flexibility in my schedule and that needs to include room for health as well as work.

The pic of the cute blue flowers? It has nothing to do with the post except that I like them. The actual beads are available on Etsy if you like them too.

These turned out so happily! I wanted little cherry blossoms but was dreading trying to do the characteristic stamens. So! I put them right into the flower cane.

We hunted our chocolate eggs today. To those who celebrate, Happy Easter! And to everyone else, I hope you have a beautiful Sunday!