Featured on PCD, Bead Soup still being served! Great Book Deals! and More Giveaways!

I've been so busy working on some bead projects for a special order as well as working on my Bead Soup project that I haven't been able to keep up on my emails or blog followings. So it came as a surprise to me to find out that some of my new Spring Beads from my recently renamed Bead Shop, Heart of Eden Beads, were featured on the Ultimate Polymer Clay blog, Cynthia Tinapples: Polymer Clay Daily. You can see the article Garden Inspirations from........ Here. This is the third time that I've been featured on Cynthia's blog and each time is a sweet new surprise and honor. Thanks Cynthia! I think we all need a Fresh Start, and this feature has helped me to feel even more motivated to create new beads!

Now today's Chef's for the Bead Soup Reveal are:

37. Filomena, Pink Velvet Bird- Check out the VEGAN piece Filomena made from her bead soup.

38. Lyn, Lyn Foley - Lyn (click on blog at top right) Made a wonderful earthy piece with copper and turquoise, and even sold it before the reveal! Congrats Lyn!

39. Tari, Pearl and Pebble - Tari had a fabulous focal to work with from Whitney Lassini and turned it into a more fabulous focal with her wonderfully textured necklace, a must see! She is also offering a Surprise GIVEAWAY too!

40. Rebecca, Song Beads - Rebecca was the partner to Nikki who made some very cool pieces with her soup . Rebecca didn't disappoint either and made a fabulous necklace and bracelet. You also must stop by to see her GIVEAWAY of a great Beading book!

41. Regina, Regina's Writings - Regina uses beautiful pearls in her design to add to the soup that Miss Fickle Media sent her and her soup is really cookin! Love it. She is also having a GIVEAWAY for a fab pair of earrings.

42. Nancy, The Rabbit Muse - Did a fabulous necklace with Herringbone wire weaving (something I have on my 'to try' list) and some great beads. It has a 'galaxy' feel to it, very modern and ancient at the same time.

43. Whitney, Whitney Lassini - Whitney made a stunning necklace with a down to earth organic feel that can be worn again and again.

44. Maria, Garden Path Beads - Maria Grimes made the most luscious summer soup with her ingredient, and sweet too! Take a look, summer's here and soups on!

45. Michelle, Life in the Bead Lane - Michelle made a huge summer statement with her soup, check it out! Necklace and earrings with the promise of a bracelet to come.

46. Ann, My Critical Eye - Ann made a very interesting seed bead bail for a large stone donut that really sets her piece off.

47. Lisa, Lucid Moon Studio - Lisa made a stunning set with beads in her favorite colors. Wonderful texture and materials, a must see. She is also having a great GIVEAWAY of a cool ocean bracelet and a gift certificate to her new Supply shop Lucid Moon Supplies at etsy.


She won't be making her reveal until Saturday, but in case I forget Denise Yezbak Moore is having a monster GIVEAWAY, over 7 POUNDS of beads. You've got to check it out HERE.
Another peek at my soup through the steam........................


And for those who can never get enough of learning in your craft or maybe branching out to learn about another facet of it, Interweave books is having a 'Hurt books' Sale, going on now. There are 63 different books on Jewelry and Beading as well as other categories. Most are half price, so get while the gettings good!

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Announcing the Winner!

Well our second, month long contest is now closed and we need a winner! This past month I told you that the pictures were all from one photo, bits and pieces from the whole. I gave you all a chance to guess each week to be entered into the main drawing and this past week to look at all the pictures and see if you could guess what the photo was. As you all know I love to visit my local zoo and one day about a month or so ago I got a great shot right over top of this............Wait! not so fast............hehe.

Well alright I'll tell you because you probably already skipped down to the full photo. ;) It is a Beautiful Mute Swan. It is different from a Trumpeter or Tundra Swan which is also white and distinguished by their different calls and black beaks. The Mute Swan is not native to the USA but comes from Europe/Asia. It has a different shaped bill which is very colorful as you can see from my photos, and it also has that distinguishing 'nob' at the top of the bill which the other swans don't have. The mute swans (which really isn't mute but much less vocal than the other swans) head is shaped different and has that colorful beak. They weight in at about 20-26 lbs and have a (79 to 94 in) wingspan.


I'm not sure if this is a lady or gent in the photo but they were sunning themselves in the corner of the pond area where the goldfish are. (Along with my Koi, Cosmo, remember me telling you about him, he is content up there being the only white Koi in the pond with lots of goldfish friends and this swan and it's mate and a pair of black swans.)

So now here are the photos in order of posting"

1. This first is a picture of the eye, turned on it's side (you didn't think I was going to give you an easy one with four more to come did you? :)
2. Next is part of that black 'nob' that the mute swan is noted for
3. A peek at the end of the beak
4. Feathers atop the head section
5. The beautiful blending (like a Skinner Blend) in sunset colors of the beak going from an orangecicle to a bubblegum pink!

And there you have it! This beautiful Swan in all its glory! What might have thrown some of you was the angle, I was standing right over her next to the 3' high fence and took it straight down, an 'aerial view' if you will.



I'd like to thank all of you that came over to my blog and had a look, took a guess, and the guesses ranged from, cows, to dogs to birds. I know this is a busy time of year and we'd rather be outside much more so I appreciate each and every one of you that has participated!

Now the winner from the five weeks of photos with the guess of Fur Chaps! Love it! Is..................................................................Drum Roll please!


Marie Segal! Congratulations Marie. You know I am going to be intimidated now to make YOU something, but I will grit my teeth and do my best! :) I'll be contacting you soon for your address to send your prize, meanwhile you can look at some of my work at my shops or at Flickr and let me know what appeals to you most about my work and I will design something just for you!

Marie has just opened a new shop on etsy, stop by and give her a visit. Just take a look at these very colorful and detailed earrings. Click on photo to take you to more views at her new Etsy shop. You can also check out all her fine work at her blog Art from my Heart.




Now for our second winner, who nailed all these 'parts'..........................................EmandaJ of Artemisia's Studio! Congratulations Emanda! I just returned from a local bead show and have some beads to share, along with a special on in Polymer I will make just for you!

Also if you stopped by to see the winner today, I also want to let you know about a giveaway over at Andrew Thornton's Blog. Pretty beads from Green Girl Studios, I just found out today through another blogger so am sharing the love and passing it on.......................Go here to enter you have until midnight EST.

I apologize this took sooooooooooooo long to get posted, Blogger doesn't like me for some reason today. First it wouldn't let me even sign into my blog. And once I fixed that problem, I was two minutes from finishing this long post when my pc froze on me! But alas I have succeeded and gotten it posted for you! :)

New mystery for June will be posted tomorrow, along with (I hope) some pics of what I snagged at the Bead show!

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Feed Your Creativity Friday -OWOH Gifts in the Mail

I participated in the One World One Heart project back in February and wanted to share with you the goodies I got. I didn't quite make half of the blogs but still have a full list I intend to visit all of them. If you are interested you can view them here and see which ones I've been to.


The first one I found out about and received was from A Celtic Angel whose blog can be found here, My Journey into Art. Right now she is advertising a $100 giveaway you might want to check out. You can see my prize here as she holds it up in front of her real life inspiration. And up top is picture I took of it when I received it, it now hangs over my piano. I love it, it reminds me of the industriousness of squirrels that are always preparing, searching for food. storing it even when they aren't hungry, as well as building nests and constantly fixing them up with new leaves. I can't remember how many times I've watched right before sundown a few of the mama squirrels mouths full of leaves running up the trees to 'feather the nest' and make it cozy for the night. We've been feeding them corn on the cob this winter and they eat the corn and then make off with the cob. I think they are using it for re-purposed insulation in their nests. They even made off with the corn cob holder, THAT I can't figure out what they possibly did with it.

I received my gift wrapped in a piece of vintage table cloth that reminded me of my Grandmothers, 1950's vintage for sure, tied with a ribbon. Great way to save a tree! Since you can click on the link above to see the full image at her blog I have shown a close up here. I think this is one of my first multi-media pieces from another artist. Painting, photography, stamping and embellishments of a silver key and the word HOME, pull this all together to show up above up, usually hidden among the leaves reside the homes of other creatures. Now's the time to look up and see if you can spot any before the branches fill out with leaves! Thanks Mary Beth!

My next Arrival was this beautiful card set By Susan Himmel of Susan Himmel Art Impressions in Water color and mixed media. When I discovered Susan on my fast flight around the world on my magic carpet I was captured by her pears. I love pears, there's just something about them and I myself have been working on some in my own art medium and have plans for more.


I was the third place winner and the prize was a floral card set but since I had told Susan how much I loved her pears she so generously sent me this beautiful set of Apples and Pear cards instead! Aren't they great? I think I will be framing these instead of writing notes with them!

And I found another watercolor in her etsy shop that I just love. Many that know me well know I have quite a collection of stones, rocks and have since a child, it is one of the very few things I have not grown tired of collecting. I tried painting rocks even in a water color class years ago but never came close the the beauty and reality that Susan has in her painting. Aren't they beautiful? if you click on the picture it will take you there to River Rocks. Thanks again Susan!


My last win of the OWOH giveaways arrived smelling so wonderful, I couldn't wait to open the box. I opened the Priority box to find it packed with almost 2lbs of hand made soap from Sweet Sally. The box was almost over flowing with a sampler of nine half bars of wonderful looking and fragrant soaps. Each one is labeled with tantalizing names like Lavender Swirl, Jasmine and Shea, Patchouli Vanilla, I Love Coffee, Carrot, Lemon Poppyseed, Green Tea, Patchouli Orange, and Dead Sea Mud. They are in the size she calls half bars defiantly can be handled easily. Now I've tried three times to buy handmade soaps online and each time was disappointed. The one time I bought a sampler and even though I had the names of them from the listing, when they arrived they were not labeled and sniffing them yielded no distinction, and they were practically slivers so hard to really try out properly. They really skimped on the essential oils, but not so with Sally, these are overflowing with wonderful fragrance So as you can imagine I am eager to try these soaps. Sally also offers a Soap of the month Club which if I like these enough I may be joining! She had over 400 entries and one winner and I am thankful that was me! Now I just have to figure out which one I want to try first, very hard to choose, but what fun it will be!

You can choose your favorites to try in this 9 half bar sampler. She also has 12 and 6 sizes too. Check out her etsy shop here, Sweet Sallys Soap.
Thank You Sweet Sarah! :)


And for those of you who won my giveaways, I am busy working on something just for you and you should be getting your packages as soon as I finish!

Enjoy your weekend, here we are promised a Temp of almost 50 degrees!

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Thoughtful Thursday

Welcome to Thoughtful Thursday. I hope I have some things that will make your life easier, save you some time and money and bring something to your attention that you didn't know about but are happy to discover!

Of interest to Jewelry Makers And PC & PMC Artists

Michael's sales this week include Premo! Sculpey and Fimo Polymer Clay 4 for $5!!!!! Stock up now Clayers, that's a great deal. Also 40% off Gold, Silver, Platinum and Rose Gold findings for all your fine Jewelry creations. And 30% off big selection of Bead Gallery Collection and Natural Elegance components.

Hobby Lobby has Liquitex Acrylic tube paints and mediums 30% off. I use these myself as they bond with the polymer clay very well and their mediums can be used for all types of art applications. Also Artists, pencils, pens and markers 30% off.

And Jewelry makers, for you, Traditions, Explorer and Natural Gallery Jewelry components, 50% off! there's lots more jewelry components too including Czech Beads and Swavroski Crystals.
Jen Judds is having a giveaway to celebrate the ABS Blogging Carnival I talked to you about yesterday. She has some awesome Lampwork Beads from Lisa New as well as some other great bead artists. Just visit her blog on this post and leave a comment including your favorite Bead Artists (I won't mind if you name drop StudioARTBEAD ;) )

Lark Books (I'm sure you have at least one if not more of their books, I have 3 of these 4 myself) is looking for submissions for 30 minute rings. Yes that's right, from start to finish, only 30 minutes.

Jewelry Design Challenge: 30-Minute Rings
Editor: Marthe Le Van
Entry Deadline: March 19, 2010

Are you a skilled and imaginative jewelry designer who is up for a challenge? Great! Your mission is to design a ring that can be made…start to finish…in 30 minutes flat. Sound fun? We think so.

30-Minute Rings will showcase more than 50 incredibly stylish step-by-step projects that can be created without investing too much of a valuable commodity—time! The selected ring designs will be modern and sophisticated and encompass many different styles and techniques. The common denominator will be fast projects that look terrific!

PS: In 30-Minute Rings, we won’t be teaching fundamental jewelry making techniques. Designers can assume that their readers are already proficient (and quick!) at skills such as sawing, soldering, and finishing.

Visit This page for Submission Guidelines

Love Books? Great purses? How's this for Spring? I love this soft coral color and the texture with all that weaving of leather and the medallion on the bottom is cool too! This is an Elliot Lucca Bag and you could win this AND a bag full of Books to read from HarperCollins, worth over $455.00

Yes, this beautiful bag could be yours and the latest fiction from Harper Collins, all you have to do is GO HERE and enter to win. Elliot Lucca can be seen on HSN and if you sign up to be alerted by email when he'll be on next, any time in February you will automatically be entered into a drawing to win a $100 HSN gift certificate.

So what if you don't win the purse full of books, and you really LOVE BOOKS? If you've been reading my blog I'd make a guess that you do. :) After introducing you to BookCrossing last week, as cool as that is, and I love a treasure hunt I got to thinking about Book swapping. Why couldn't there be a place where you could swap the books you have for books you want? So I went online and found, much to my happy surprise, there not only is such a thing but many choices out there. Now I haven't tried any of these yet so if any of you have please leave a comment and share! But I will be looking into these deeper and see which ones I'd like to join.

Here's a quick rundown on the ones I discovered.

SwapTree -

• Trade the books you have for the books you want, for FREE
• Swap your books for video games, CDs and DVDs
• Instantly see all the books you can receive in trade
• Print perfect postage right from your computer
• Discover new books and authors
• Recycle, reuse and reduce your carbon footprint

So, more than just books, but CD's and DVD's games and probably Book on tape. You can follow them for updates on Twitter. And here's an interview with the co-founder on TIME online Magazine. And a quote from the article:

There's a staggering amount of stuff ready for the swapping: Swaptree currently has about 2.5 million items listed for trade, and the number of users doubles every four months.

The best part is that Swaptree does most of the work for you; after you set up a "have list" and a "want list," the site automatically lists all of the permutations—including complicated triple trades—that'll hook you up with your picks. And it's free. You only pay for shipping, and you can do that for a couple of bucks via media mail at the post office.

Read more: http://money.blogs.time.com/2009/06/19/qa-with-the-co-founder-of-swaptree-com/#ixzz0fwPEDiFD

AND you can even print out postage from their site, so this sounds like one I will be signing up for!

Here's another.............................

PaperBack Swap
Want a quick run down? Watch this very short video. This sounds like another I'd like to try. Here's the link to the site too!



And here's one more to get you started:

BookMooch , they just recently were written up on this article by ABC news. They work on a points system explained here . Basically you have to send out 1 book for each 2 you receive. You can even share your points with charities they work with. Worth checking out.

Logo artwork courtesy of BookMooch.com

So there you have it, three great places to join to get free books, and not just any books, but the ones you want and you get to clean house at the same time and save lots of money and who couldn't stand to do that nowadays?

Remember that they have Children's books, cook books, Biographies, History, Fiction, Sci-Fi, Travel, Everything you could find at your local book store, library and more! Not only does this help you save money, but space (clear off those bulging bookcases!) but it also, and this is my favorite, helps you to be very green, save trees by sharing your books and giving them a new home while you still can read all you want!

Try Book Swapping today, I'm sure you'll be hooked! And I'm sure I will be writing more on this later!
Hope this gives you some fun things to investigate today! Have fun and let me know what you think!

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Feeding your Creativity Friday

I'm sorry fellow readers, I am still flying all over the world on my Magic Carpet Ride with the One World One Heart Ticket Holders. Even if you didn't get your ticket in time there are many participating that don't mind if you don't have a blog and want to join in the fun, I'm sure this will feed your creativity today and through the weekend!

NOTE: If you've arrived here to View the Bead Soup Swap Reveal, please go to this post.

So why don't you join me in the Magic carpet ride and discover new lands, new people, new artists and hopefully new friends!

I've even made a page on my blog just for the list of all those participating, you can View them all HERE. You can also keep track of how well I'm doing in trying to visit as many of these blogs as I can. Remember I only started a week ago, two weeks behind those who knew about this at the beginning, AND on Wednesday we had the Bead Soup Swap Reveal so 83 blogs more I had to visit! You will see a little red dot next to the blogs I've been to (only 196 out of over 1100 so far!). I've seen many different artists and art but did try and scout out the Polymer Clay and beaders too!

I'll be back on Monday with my announcement of the winners of the giveaways, and don't forget, I am having NINE Giveaways as my part in all this so get your comment on this post now to be put in for the drawing!


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Thoughtful Thursday

Friends18.com Picture Comments
I've got some great stuff for you today, please read on and let me know what you think! For those here for the BEAD SOUP PARTY, that post is just below this one, but why not stay and see if there's something you can benefit from in this post? :)

I've decided to change the name of this Thursday feature. I think from the response (or lack of it) that many think that this is just about things they aren't interested like coupon clipping but I try to share many different things that can help you in all parts of your lives, health, money, gifts, blogging and of course artistic endeavors! Thoughtful ideas, links and more to share with you.

Today as I write this post I have just come from completing my rounds of the Bead Soup Swap Party that I announced yesterday. I visited over 80 blogs (some more than once or twice) to see all that the group had done. If you want to have a look at what women can do with surprise packages of beads you should take some time and visit these blogs, you'll be amazed!

It took me two days and about 8-9 hours to complete it all. I also am involved in the One World One Heart Blogging Party Giveaway where I am trying to visit as many of the 1100+! blogs I can before Feb 15th! (I am also having 9 giveaways in my post so even if you haven't signed up but have a blog you are welcome to leave a comment on that post to join in). I'm sure I won't get to nearly half of them despite the many hours I have put in so far to do so! This is a daunting task for sure. I have met some wonderful woman, artists and other crafters and writers and am so glad I joined in. But I did learn something on the technical side that all you bloggers might be interested in.

So here's a blogging tip for you. I was trying to fancy up the house, so to speak, before all these visitors came my way and decided to try out some new blog backgrounds. For a couple of weeks I had this one from Cutest Little blog on the blog called Barefoot 2 and I liked it for it's curly Q vines naturally, and also the earthy green of course! But it was a dark earthy brown background and some had trouble reading it so I changed to the soft tropical sea blue you see now. In doing this change I tried out some other Blogger Templates (located on your Layout page) to make the backgrounds work better. But it's been so long since I've done a change like this I didn't think that messing with the template would be a problem. I eventually got back to the one I had originally and it worked out but there was one thing I'd forgotten. You see, I have Google analytics connected to all four of my shops as well as my Blog. It's been awhile since I got this hooked up and really forgot how I did it. After all the bloggers started to visit my blog last Friday a few days later I thought, 'I should check my analytics and see where my visitors are coming from', cool huh? Well I got over there and my shops were all reporting but my blog had flat-lined. I thought maybe there was a glitch and tried to look around there to find something and couldn't so forgot about it and not until today was I thinking about it again after the Bead Soup reveal yesterday.

So back to Google I went and my account and I tried to troubleshoot it. Not until I actually went to see how I hooked it up to my blog in the first place did I realize what happened. When I changed the template to accommodate the new background I also removed the code which I had embedded in the template body code. AKK! It wasn't a snafoo of Google's, it was my own doing! I can't tell you how upset with myself I was, because I can never get all that info back so that is why I am sharing this with you. Some of you may be wanting to 'REDECORATE' and if you have analytics on your blog I don't want you to make the same mistake I did, so if you do change your template in blogger don't forget to go back and get your code on the analytics site and insert it just above the body line. If you have a hard time with things like that just go here, it will walk you through it.

Now that you know what not to do when redecorating, how about a spring freshen up for your blog? Want a new look? Some extra bells and whistles? I've come across a few really cool sites that offer free backgrounds, buttons and more. Some tell you what Blogger template to use others don't so it will be some experimentation. Word to the wise, copy your code of the present template so you can revert back to it. In your layout file click on the tab for Edit Html, there you will find the template code you currently have. Copy and save in a doc on your pc. Also if you have another background already, copy that code too so you don't have to waste time looking for it again. Just go to your layout page, page elements and find the Html/Java Script gadget you have it under. Click on it and copy the code and paste it in the doc you have your template on.

Now on to the good stuff, these all have great variety of backgrounds to choose from, it's like shopping in a home dec store, have fun experimenting and finding a style that suits you and your current mood! And give them a thumbs up Stumble while you're there!

Free blog backgrounds

Cutest Little Blog on the Block
Cute n Cool Blog Stuff by itkupilli Cool headers (banners) here too!
Plumroselane.blogspot.com


Here's some Great Giveaways I came across in my recent travels around the blogosphere:

A great Russian Polymer Clay artist I met on my travels is having a Birthday celebration and she is celebrating by gifting you if your comment is drawn. Go here to enter , scroll down for the English version. She makes beautiful polymer flowers and more!


Love Beading? Lisa of Lucid Moon Studios is giving away a $25 Gift Certificate to ART BEADS.com ! and if that isn't enough she is having a second and third prize which you will have to visit to see..............:) Read her Bead Soup post and then see the giveaway on the bottom of that post.

LeAnn Weih of Summers Studio is having a First Friday Freebie Giveaway, hurry get your entry in by midnight tonight (not sure under what time zone so hurry!) Prize? BEADS! A Mystery BOWL of BEADS! Yum!


Maria Greene of Greenearthoriginals was in the Bead Soup Swap and she is generously auctioning off her necklace to raise money for those in need, like right now, Haitians. Stop by her blog and see the beautiful necklace she made and is parting with for this heartfelt endeavor!


Now speaking of Giving, I've come across some cool sites where you can help others that range from $0 to a dollar or two.

Have you ever heard of FREECYCLE? I just learned of it recently and now am so excited about being able to find others that can really use some things I have to give away instead of taking to Good will where if they don't sell it within a certain amount of time they landfill it too! Connect with those who live in your own area/neighborhood. Clean out, help out and you also can find stuff you could use too. This is especially cool for artists, saves time from rummaging, yard saleing for that perfect thing you need for a project. You can scan the offers or post a wanted ad and see if anyone is willing to give you what you need. It's great, try it out, subscribe and you never know what great deal you can come across. Just follow the moderators instructions and be careful about completing deals, Safety first! Just click on the link above and type in your zip or town. It's that easy!

Are you a Bibliophil? Great news if you are and haven't discovered BookCrossing. I wish I'd know of this before giving away literally boxes of books! Anyway, check it out. It's part trading, part, mystery, and part budget reading, such a cool idea! It's an adventure for you and your books! There are over 100 countries participating. From the site:

BookCrossing is earth-friendly, and gives you a way to share your books, clear your shelves, and conserve precious resources at the same time. Through our own unique method of recycling reads, BookCrossers give life to books. A book registered on BookCrossing is ready for adventure.

I love an adventure and earth friendly too! What could be better?


Now who wants CHOCOLATE??? Is LOVE Fair? Fair Trade that is. Would you like to win some luscious Organic Fair Trade Chocolate? If so hop on over to Mambo Sprouts Blog to enter to win not only Chocolate but some Organic Coffee as well! Woo Hoo!

Craft Supply Deals for the week:

JoAnn's - Polymer Clay SALE - SculpeyIII And Premo! $1.69 and more clay items here
Michael's - Lots of Valentine's Stuff of course but also 50% off Bead Gallery Strands,other jewelry componants, 2 for $5, cLEaranCe BlowOut on Artists paints and brushes, Prismacolor Pen sets, 50% off.
Hobby Lobby - 50% off Metal Gallery Jewelry and more
Prairie Craft - New Formula coming out KATO POLYMER CLAY
Specials this month:This months discount coupons are:

VAL5 5% discount for order over $50.00
VAL10 10% discount for orders over $100.00
VAL15 15% discount for order over $200.00

Coupons good till the end of February.

And there you have it, I hope you found one or more things that can be useful to you, please leave me a comment on what you liked/ didn't like, want to see more of, less of, whatever's on your mind!

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