Got these two beads up on Etsy today, they both look very nice together 🙂

The Outer Banks were gorgeous, so glad we made the drive and stayed the night. We even had a rainbow greet us as we made our first trip to the beach. It’s still the off season and it was basically deserted and the 2 yo disturbed no one.

Shop update tomorrow. 🙂

Made my friend a pair of earrings as a belated b-day gift.

Treasures from the sea.

Texture plates from our treasures over the week, mmmm….makes me want to dig into the metal clay.

Not sure how two hours disappeared, but I blame the free templates I found online for these:The larger images can be seen on my flickr page.

Hadn’t realized it’d been that long since blogging. Hubby’s deployed now and Z and I have been adjusting- mostly me, to tell the truth. Everything seems to take twice as long.. take our upcoming trip to see family.

Thank goodness for GPS and portable DVD players. How in the world did we get around before? It seems so long ago that we would actually use an atlas and an area map to figure out where to go.

Do big sets sell on Etsy? I’m still debating on whether to separate or keep this set together-any opinions? Off to try and get some torching in…*Just added to the Etsy shop!* Going to see how the beads all together do..

Just reopened the shop, new beads coming tomorrow..

Back from Oak Island and my lovely sister in law took some quick snap shots of me in the studio making some hollow focals. She only had a few minutes since they were about to leave for the airport, but Linda got some great shots. It was sliiightly hot in there, too. I have a bunch on my Flickr page if you want to see more. Apologies for taking so long to post pics of the finished space- as you can see, it gets a lot of use.

That’s my son’s lovey, Althea- she is never far from his reach and the poor thing had an up close and personal time w/ sand and ocean. Good thing she’s washable.

The FIFA Cup Games are in the background as my inlaws discuss the different players-and I broke two beads to this set during photographing them..down to seven instead of nine. Hmph, time to make some more beads!
Going up on Etsy tomorrow morning:

There was a threat of thunderstorms Sat. when my cousins and I went to the flea market in Raleigh. I was told there were often more furniture vendors outside, when the weather doesn’t look so dicey. Something else was going on besides the flea market and parking was a nightmare but I still managed to spot this sweet thing and was pulled in by its tractor beam. At 18″ deep it will be perfect for hanging our winter coats later this year since the two shelves on the inside are removable. The lock is frozen due to disuse and I’ll need to figure out the best way to clean out all the grime so I can actually use the lock, if I want. My cousin and her family usually make it up to the flea market at least once a month and have found some gorgeous things. Still on the lookout for a ‘new’ table and chairs..one that doesn’t creak every time we move while eating. I’m sure I’ll have fun on the hunt w/ my family.
The studio is finished and I’m embarrassed to say it is already a mess since I started using it as soon as everything was in place, lol. If I get it cleaned up a little I’ll post a pic sometime. It’s funny, my contractor was saying how I should have more than enough space for everything- but as I’ve been working, I’ve noticed I could probably use another 6′ of table space! My photo tent doesn’t have a place yet, and I need to figure out where to permanently place my vise and bench clamps. Organizational skills is not my forte.

Visiting family was a welcome relief from worrying about getting my studio finished. Got a hold of my contractor today and he should be by tomorrow to install everything! Keep your fingers crossed it is finished tomorrow because I’m itching to use some of the new silver glasses from Double Helix- like Clio and Terra 2. And the gorgeous murrini I got from DH and my wonderful friend, Hayley.
Not to mention getting back to making more hollows 😉