Absent but not Gone, what have I been doing?
Since my last post regalling you with my busy Xmas schedule, I took a break (not from beading) but away in the sun. My sister and brother in law (refered to as K&T in an earlier post) and my hubby spent almost a month on the garden island of Kauai in February. My hubby was amazed that I pack up some beads and dragged them off to Kauai, and was even more amazed when I found some Toho beads in ACE Hardware (of all places). I spent my days laying on the beach getting a great tan, and my evenings drinking MaiTai's and working on the various projects that I brought with me and some that I started in Kauai.
One of the projects that I started in Kauai was my Spring Swap piece. I had wanted to get it finished early because I had to ship internationally and wanted to make sure that it arrived in time for the reveal that will take place in April on the Etsy Beadweavers blog at http://www.etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com/. My swap partner was Hadass of Spring Colours and she has already recieved her necklace (yes, I made her an necklace but that is all that I will tell you until the reveal happens) I still have not received my swap piece from my partner whom ever that may be.
One of the other projects that I worked on while in Kauai was my Beach Plastic - Save or Ocean bead embroidered cuff. Terry (brother in law) helped me pick up the bits of beach plastic and shells when we went on our morning walks. My sister and hubby both thought that we were crazy, and Karen thought that when I glued the bits and shells on the base that it didn't look very nice. You be the judge, here is the final result of the beach combing(left), I finished this piece on my return to Vancouver.
Another project that I worked on was my Royal Purple cuff (right). I had brought all the material with me and created the layout in the evening (again drinking MaiTai's). Since I was working on sevreal different projects some of them did not get finished in Kauai and this is one of them. I finished this one when I returned to Vancouver, so you could say that these beads are world travelers, well at least Canada and the US. Royal Purple is my entry to Etsy Bead Embroidery Guild's Spring Bead Fest, the theme was filigree and I used a filgree slider bead that I purchased from Michaels, I bet no one will recognize the bead focal.
One projec t that I started in Vancouver and finished in Kauai is my Fluorite Chip Celini Spiral necklace. These beads are definately world travelers as they originally were bought in Greece by my friend, brought to Vancouver, then I packed them up and took them with me to Kauai.
I also brought with me one of the Eye of Ra Tutorials that I have created and used it to create a new Eye of RA odd count peyote cuff. Well working the patttern I realized that I have some minor adjustments to make to the tutorial prior to putting it up for sale in my shop. I also have to take some decent photos of the finished bracelet.
Karen. who also does some weaving, saw that I had brought some beads with me so she also made a few necklaces I was lucky enough to sell these at my first market day at Vancouver General Hospital on my return at the end of February.
So even thought I was away on vacation and not visible on my blog, I was a very busy girl. I also had three sales from my Etsy Shop, going on vacation for me has paid off in spades. I was relaxed and didn't have a care in the world. That sounds funny coming from a retired person, LOLI sold my Day Lily Necklace, Arabian Nights Arabesque Cuff and a custom Order for another Arabian Nights Cuff (left photo is the custom order cuff).
One final thought to leave you with was that my Spring Flowers Necklace was published in the April 2012 issue of Bead and Button Magazine, check out page 18 of the Your Works Section. 
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