Angelque Creations

After a very busy Christmas with all my craft fair events I finally have a few minutes to finish off a few projects that I started and to start a few new ones.  This week on the beading block (salon table)  I am working on several new hair accessories, some earrings and a couple of bracelets.   Since we live on our boat the salon table acts as my studio and hubby (Mike) has to put up with all my beading supplies laid out for days on end while I finish up what I am working on.  I try to keep it contained so that I can pack up the work into one corner of the table in order that we may eat dinner, but mostly when I am working he has to eat at the navigation station.  Luckily for me he is able to watch TV from that location or I might have to pack everything up. My hair accessory line was very successful this Christmas season, in fact it is probably the fastest selling item that I make, so I am trying to build stock for the spring and summer when I again do ...

I know, I know, I should spend more time with my blog to promote my work, but I always seem to forget after spending hours surfing the web with my Etsy stores, Facebook pages, team pages, twitter feeds, team blog posts and now Pinterest (what did I get myself into) the day just flies by and I find that I have not done any beading which is my passion. This year I also have the added excuse in that we spent the summer refinishing our home Angelique of Vancouver our 34' Coast sail boat.  She got a new paint exterior, new paint interior, new fabric and cushions, new black out curtains for the windows and hatches, refinished flooring.  But that is not all, still to come is new headliners, new electric windlass (for setting the anchor and then for hauling it up, hubby says he won't manually do this anymore as he is getting old), new canvas enclosure, new hard biminy top, new main sail traveler (this helps us control the main sail) new boom vang (controls the boom when jibing and t...

This year I decided that I was going to concentrate on my Etsy Shop to see if I could generate some pre-Christmas sales and joined the Etsy Success team and their Holiday Boot Camp .  This is week 1 and we were tasked with several things to complete: Read this weeks blog post A Flying Start Fill our your Holiday Budget Print out and apply your Holiday Boot Camp stickers to your calender Share your holiday goals Find your Holiday Boot Camp Buddy I have completed all the items on this list and created a few more for me to accomplish this week: Renew items and evaluate for relevancy.  This is the new search mod for finding things on Etsy and I am not so sure that I have gotten the gist of it and so I am spending some time tweeking to see if my work moves up on the Etsy pages.  I still seem to be burried in the back of the pack. Sign up for Search Ads starting Sept 27, budget of $5/week and monitor to see if it is worth the price you pay. Make Poppy pins in preparati...

I recently found that my Baja Sunrise Bead embroidered necklace was featured in this Mex I Can treasury by clonehardware on Etsy and I am trying out a widget that CraftCult offers for Etsy sellers to promote treasuries. Below will be an interactive widget that should redirect you to the Treasury collection on Etsy and the individual items Test it out and let me know how it works. 

Recently I have attended memorials for several of my cruising friends and I was reminded that as I get older I will be attending more and more of these events. As I looked at all the adventures that my friends experienced in their lives and how many places that they ticked off their "Bucket List", I wanted to see how many Mike and I have ticked off our list. Last year we did a 3 week whorl wind tour of Europe inclucing a 10 day cruise around the Med. We ticked off quite a few off our list, one of the locations that we visited briefly was Turkey and the ruins at Ephesos.  This place is amazing and the architecture of the time boggles the mind.  It was a place where Learing Arts and Culture were promenant.  Ephesos is famous for it's "Library" structure and for the two ampetheatres.  The largest theatre housed thousands of spectators and was built into the side of the hill. Turkey is one of the places that I would like have an extended visit (months not ...

I know that it has been a while since I have posted anything to my own blog.  It is not that I haven't been making anything, rather the contrary I have several new pieces and participated in the monthly challenges for Etsy Beadweavers.  I just forget to go to my own blog and post my pieces after I have promoted the team on the various Facebook  pages and the team blog. So I thought that it was high time that I paid some attention to my own blog.  For this months challenge I created Baja Sunlight necklace fashioned after my favourite island in the Sea of Cortez, Isla Sanfransisco.  This beautiful agua blue bay is extrodinarily beautiful and the water is calm and soothing after a hot day of hiking on the small sizzling hot island. The voting started on July 9 and runs until July 15, at http://www.etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com/ Please stop in and vote for your favoirte Sizzling Sunshine and Soothing Water's entry.  There are 32 wonderful entries t...

It is a sunny Saturday here in Vancouver and my hubby (Mike) is off racing again on J (a 33' J boat) with his friend Rick.  They left early this morning and hubby forgot to move his bike from behind the car so that I could take my Mom out for lunch so I am stuck on the boat on a Sunny Day.  Oh drat, darn, etc.  No really I don't mind it at all, our boat is a great place to be on a sunny day.  It is very bright and I can work on my beading with out any additional lights.  So while my hubby is tillting around the bay I had a very productive morning working on my second ever bead embroidered piece.    During our trip last May (has it really been a year) we visited the ruins of Ephesos on the coast of Turkey.  As part of our tourist package of the cruise ship we receive a moulded clay focal of Ephesos.  I did not like the leather strap that came with the necklace so I immediately removed it knowing that one day I would use the focal for somethin...

Spring Swap - Once again my beadweaving group Etsy Beadweavers arranged for team members to make an item for another member that was participating in the Swap.  Marilyn of Starwaves collected all the names of the members that wanted to particpate, sent out the questionaire to find out what we like and don't line, match up the participants and set the deadline for the swap to take place.  I was matched up with Sue Charette-Hood  Crystal Wonders and from her questionaire I new that she loved purple and black combination in her jewelry.  When I was in Vegas I purchased some purple Toho square beads and some purple luster 15/0 Miyuki seed beads which I combined with the black 11/0 Czech beads I had at home to make this lacy bracelet.  I finished my swap early and send it to Sue in March and waited with anticipation to see what I would receive and who I would receive it from.  To my great delight my package arrived early April from Anna of AnnaHatvani a...

Well after finishing my first entry Spring Flowers for the "Spring Around the Corner" Challenge, I decided to send a photo of it to Bead and Button Magazine.  I received an email asking me to send the necklace to them for photographing and possible future publication in the "Your Work" section.  So I of course mailed that sucker out right away.  I don't know that it will get published but it was good to know that they were at least interested.  I had my Day Lilly completed and was trying to figure out if it was too large to make into a necklace, that is why I started and finished the Spring Flower.  I since finished off the lariate and decided that I liked the single Day Lilly even if it was more life size that I had wanted.  The voting for the "Spring Around the Corner" starts on April 9th and runs until the 15th at http://www.etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com/ .  You are as always encouraged to vote for your favorite entry and again there are some ...

Here I am sitting at the computer on a sunny day in Vancouver wrting this post.  I have not written one in a while because I was having issues with my shoulder and the computer work really bothered it.  The computer is in the navigation station on the boat, the counter is too high for a vertically challenged person to sit at and be comfortable.  My shoulder was always elevated and that caused it to freeze up over the xmas period.  My hubby bought me a wireless keyboard and mouse for xmas and let me tell you that has made all the difference.  My shoulder got the rest it needed and I was able to go back to doing the things that I love.  I am currently working on a necklace for the April challenge of Etsy Beadweavers called "Spring around the corner"  Today in Vancouver it certainly looks like spring, the sun is shinning and it is so bright on the boat that I had forgotten how bright it could be with sunlight.  I am attempting to make a necklace wit...

This past month has been good for Angelque Creations as I have made some recent sales of my work, some on my new Artfire site, some on my Etsy site and some at craft fairs.  I usually have really slow sales so I am very happy that I have sold 4 of my pieces. My Bollywood Necklace has gone to a very good home where I know that it will be treasured, Butterflies are Free necklace is on its way to a cruise of the Med, Eye of Horus was purchased for a birthday present and is now going to Jamaica for vacation, Poinsettia Holdiay Treasures Cuff will be proudly worn during this holiday season.

I know it seems that time is just flying by and next thing you know a whole month has gone by and yes I have entered another of the monthly challenges for Etsy Beadweavers.  This month the theme is "Holiday Treasures" and I created Poinsettia Holiday Treasure Corsage cuff to wear throught the holiday season. The cuff is made with one of my new favorite stitches - Russian Leaves in white and red with gold accents, the cuff is a silky ribbon of glass seed beads in Cream Soda color made with an alternating pattern of gold seed beads in a brick stitch.  The slide clasp is hidden amonst the Poinsettia flower. Voting for the challenge starts today November 9 and runs until November 15.  To register your vote please go to http:www.etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com and vote for your favorite "Holiday Treasure"  We have 36 entries and all are wonderful so it will be a difficult decision.

The monthly challenge for my beadweaving team is once again at hand, the theme this month selected by Isabella of Bead4me was Autumn Falling of Leaves.  We have had an outstanding number of entries again this month with 59, this is a new record.  The last record was September for the Bollywood them at 52 entries.  My entry this month is Russian Leaves of Fall as seen in the photo below and is listed as number 45 on the blog Etsy Beadweavers . The voting runs from October 9-15 so be sure that you check out the web site above and vote for your favorite entry. 

Well I finally have the time after my whorl wind trip in Europe to get back to posting on my blog and making new items for my Etsy shop.  I had such a great time traveling to London, Paris, Rome, Naples, Athens, Rhodes, Turkey, Eygpt, and Venice.  We were moving everyday seeing new sights and taking too many pictures that I now have to edit.  I also starting working at Redwoods Golf course and that has taken up some of my time.  I am happy to be back at beading and here is the first of my efforts inspired by my trip.  I call it the Eye of Horus (Ra) bracelet and it is made with Japanese Delica seed beads from a pattern that I created.  The pattern will also be available on my Etsy shop Angelque Creations.