Bead Cruise

We are sponsors of the Bead Cruise coming up in March...ahh, this sounds nice. A cruise around the Caribbean with some fabulous bead classes to keep you occupied. Hmm. Someday, I will do this.

If you can go, you should take Heather Powers beadmaking class and make these seashell cane beads. Aren't they lovely? If you go, you'll also get a tropical-colored tote bag from Ornamentea.com that you can use to carry your bead goodies in...

Have fun!

Felted Fairies

This very sweet fairy doll is the felting work of Emily from Vermont. She makes the sweetest tiny dolls in pouches and I have a few that I will be giving to the girls for Valentine's Day. These little fairies will be perfect companions, the girls can wear the tiny pouches and have a home for the fairies when they get tired. The pouches are felted around rocks and they have soft neckbands. I cannot really say how sweet and compelling they are.

Visit Emily's shop at Vermont Fairies on Etsy. She also has sweet birds in nests that make me swoon...

Slumber Party Pics!

Last Friday's Slumber Party at Panopolie was so much fun. I came late (of course!) but I did get to see everyone's charms and enjoy a bit of food and wine. It was a perfect Friday night!

Everyone made charms and we also discussed having a charm swap. A Swap is an organized way to increase your charm collection. You make, say, 10 charms (of the same type!) in a mini-mass production and then swap them with a group of folks. You get 10 different charms made by 10 different people. Cool, eh? I have seen some really fabulous charms that folks have gotten from swaps and I love looking at necklaces filled with handmade charms. Expect more details on the swap soon.

Here are some past charm swaps to check out:
Ruth Rae's work is amazing and her swaps are primo!

EtsyMetal has some amazing charms to swap...I love those tiny books!

This last photo is of the fabulous Pat. I hope she participates in our theoretical charm swap. She is talented and is quite creative...I can only imagine the great charms she would come up with.

The photo above of the glass eyes is from a stuff swap we had that night. Can you imagine? Susan (top left photo) had a whole bag of plastic animal eyes to trade and share...I can't wait to use them in something...