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START TIME ON MAKING ANY LAMPWORK BEAD ORDERS OR JEWELRY IS AROUND 6 - 7 BUSSINESS DAYS. Once I have started, it usually takes a few days. It just depends on the order but I will keep you updated through out the process.

All Supplies, DVDs, and Kits orders will be packed and shipped within a couple of days.

Please visit my other website called Tickle Me Beads. It specializes in offering tools, equipment, beads, lessons, instructions, and other goodies for metal stamping, lampworking, and making all kinds of jewelry.

Playing with hot glass one of your passions? Check out my Lampworking lesson DVDs! This two DVD set is now available on my supply page in the Kits & Video section and at Tickle Me Beads. Click the video below for a preview. If you can't see the video, Internet Explorer may require you to click on the yellow warning bar up above allowing Active X script to run. All Active X scripts on our site are safe.

Monday, March 1st, 2010

Wow! March is here. That means Spring is right around the corner. I'm getting excited!

I'm a tad behind but I just got listed the lampwork beads and or kit available for purchase over at Tickle Me Beads from the Spring Issue 2010 of Stringing magazine. I have a bracelet and a pair of earrings featured in the magazine. I will get the earring kits posted tomorrow. Just click on the photo to go to the listing.

Here is a pic of the earrings featured in the magazine. The kit won't be available for purchase until tomorrow night. Did you notice that they match the bracelet?

Feb. 28th: I finally feel like I'm back in the swing of things after being gone. It just seems like there are always 20 activities going on everyday and I seem to find ways to keep on adding more. All 3 boys start soccer back up next month, and over the weekend we took Caiden to our old martial arts school and signed up Caiden for classes. We started Connor when he was 5 and it was really beneficial for him. So not to give the same opportunities to Cadien, here we go again for round 2. Although, the big boys are interested in going again too. They are recommended black belts right now. They were starting to get burned out and complaining about going so we just stopped. So we shall see if they pick it back up too. It just costs so much money and I'm not sure if it is in the budget with the 400 other things that they are doing. They are going to really have to want it!

So Bead Fest Wire is coming up fast now. I've got a lot to do to get ready for it in the means of making up all the kits, ordering supplies, and figuring out how I'm going to get it all to PA since I'm flying! Which also means I've gotta make a boat load of lampwork beads. The Summer Garden Class is almost full now. I think there is only 1 slot left.

So between my breakfast with the girls tomorrow, trips to the gym every morning, a field trip this week, IEP meeting for Caiden's speech and OT therapy...and now martial arts 2-3 nights a week, piano lessons, Boy Scouts camp out, no wonder I feel like I don't have anytime to work:-) It all gets done in due time. Now that the distractions of the Olympics are about over, that will help a lot.

Feb 20th: I finally just sat down and uploaded some Disney photos. There are so many fun ones but I thought I would share some from the cruise ship to give an idea of a Disney cruise. I loved looking through the photos and watching a few video clips that I had taken on my camera. I really miss the trip and wish we could hit replay and do everything over!

This pic is of the party they had right after we left Port Canaveral. They have all of the parties in this location and they cover up the deep swimming pool with a wooden floor. The cruise was fully booked with 2,000 people on board. That big jumbo tron is awesome. They show movies and cartoons on it also that you can watch while swimming.

There are 3 swimming pools on board. This Mickey pool with the slide isn't very deep and good for the younger kids. Then they had an adults only swimming pool area that had 2 hot tubs on each end. It was rarely crowded and I took a dip in the adults hot tub while Randy watched the kids as the 2 kiddo hot tubs had about 8 tweens and teenagers in each one and I was the only one in the adults section. Nice and relaxing!

Just another view from the 10th deck of hubby and Connor. My camera didn't get any pics of it but the very front of the ship had a soccer area and basketball area that had netting all around it. I think my 2 big boys lived in this area. It is nice having them a tad older because they were kind of able to wander and come and go.

The afternoon we set sail was Superbowl Sunday and Connor and my niece went into the kids area which is incredible and the kids can check in and out as they want and they have loads of great activities. Randy and Keegan watched it on the jumbo tron outside while Sophie and Connor hung out in the kids area and made foam helmets and banners. They had a blast.

They had a pirate party one night and the boys dressed up for dinner before the party. This pic is right outside the Animator's Palace where we had dinner. It was my favorite restaurant as far as decor goes.

This is the inside of the restaurant. Here are my wonderful parents (who gave us this wonderful trip) and my brother and sister in law and their kids. My oldest son Keegan is right up front and Caiden is at the very back with the black skeleton shirt on. Randy and Connor are sitting behind the camera.

Just more views of the ship with Keegan.

This is where we docked in Nassau.

Disney has their own island they purchased called Castaway Cay. This is the view from our stateroom's veranda that we awoke too. Isn't it beautiful? That is the actual Flying Dutchman ship they used in the movie Pirates of the Carribean. It was really cool and we have a lot of beach photos with it in the background.

Keegan took a sand castle building class while at Castaway Cay and learned how to make a sand octopus. He was pretty proud of himself. This was the beginning of it.

I forgot to take a photo of the stateroom until right when we were ready to get off the ship. As you can see in the photos. The kids are so not happy about leaving. For a cruise ship, our room was really large and slept 5. There was a pull down bed in the wall too. But we just had one of the boys sleep in my parent's cabin every night so we didn't use it. They had a seperate room for the shower and another room for the sink and toilet in our stateroom. That was a really nice feature.

Anyway, that is a brief recap of the trip. We also did a fun kind of like pinewood derby races that each family made out of vegetables, took a class on how to make towel animals, did pin trading, visted with all the Disney characters, watched 2 movies in their theater, saw an awesome live Disney show, did some great shopping. Oh did I forgot to mention it was all you could eat food and everywhere you turned there were places to get food. We had an incredible trip and I could not have asked for a better trip. Thanks Mom and Dad. You totally rock!

Feb. 17th: Just a quick note to check in. We got back around 11:30 p.m. on Sunday night. And it has been a whirlwind week and there are still unpacked suitcases sitting in the front room! We went on a special trip of a life time that my mother started planning about 2 years ago. That is a long time to wait but there were certain factors in play that made it planned so far out in advance. Anyway, my parents took my family and my brother's family on a Disney Cruise and then we spent a few days at Disney World too. All I can say is WOW. The cruise was just incredible. My mom did her homework and got us the perfect state rooms and position on the cruise ship and Disney of course is top notch. I can't say enough about the Disney cruise. If you are ever thinking about doing it, jump at the chance. Some of the most fabulous memories were created and I'm so thankful that we had the opportunity to experience it.

Being gone for 12 days has its down sides through and I've been playing catch up like crazy trying to get back on top of things. I feel a tad better today but still overwhelmed. The bad thing is that something had to give and unpacking and laundry was cut down to bare minimum. Those chores will still be here but everyone that placed orders while I was away have already been waiting almost 2 weeks for their goodies and I figure filling orders is way more important.

So that is what is going on here. I haven't even had the chance to upload photos from my camera yet and there are some great pics. So next week should be a tad better and I will post some pics of our trip and be a bit more chatty.

FYI: I'm teaching at Bead Fest Wire in PA in April of 2010. Go check it out or read 11/17's post.

Monday Feb. 4th: Scroll down for the Bead Soup Reveal!

IMPORTANT NOTE: Both Glassbeadle and Tickle Me Beads will be closed on Thursday, Feb. 4th until Tuesday, Feb. 16th. Email's will be sporatic during this time frame and nothing will be shipped or beads made until Feb. 16th. So sorry for any inconvenience this might cause.

Since I will be out of the office on Feb 10th which is the big Bead Soup Swap reveal day, I'm going to have to post my reveal a tad early. I gave Lori a head's up so that she knows I'm slightly breaking the rules.

Anyway... if you scroll down to Jan. 25th posting, it will show you a photo of all the beads that I received from Melissa. (and if you click on that photo it will take you to her blog). Anyway... this was a really fun challenge for me. I tried to stay true to the beads she sent and not make many lampwork beads to compliement the set. So I ended up making a lampwork cab and then the 3 shiny disc beads. All of the remaining beads came from the excellent selection that she gave me.

I'm a total bright colors gal that loves pink and purple. So these earth tone colors are something that I would not have naturally gravitated towards. Which was a nice change to enlighten and challenge my normal work into using new colors and bead types. It was a lot of fun. I took the ceramic donut that Melissa sent me and instantly knew it would look awesome in a silver bezel. But then those pearls were calling me and they looked so cute stuck in the middle. So I left them on the strand and just epoxyed them inside the hole for a fun 3D look. Then I went ahead and made 2 more silver bezels to balance out the bracelet.

I always like that darkened look to silver but can never seem to make myself not make the silver bright and shiny on my own designs. But with these darker more earthy colors, the darkened silver just seem to blend perfectly and I for once took advantage of that look in the design.

The clasp is really pretty and great for a bracelet as it has a simple hook on each end. I just added a small stamped silver circle on the opposite end of the bracelet and the clasp's hook just attaches right on the circle.

Hope you enjoy it! I'm sorry but my blog is just hosted on my own html website so there isn't a section for comments if you are wondering:-)

FYI: I'm teaching at Bead Fest Wire in PA in April of 2010. Go check it out or read 11/17's post.

Feb. 1 Gosh darn it. I have the worst memory right now. We moved Keegan's piano lessons to Mondays at 5 p.m. and I just forgot again! I think this is the 3rd time! I'm so bummed out. Plus at $25 a pop, it is like throwing money down the drain. When will I learn?

So.. I posted a note but just to let you know that I will be out of commission starting this Thursday until Feb. 16th. If you need anything, snag it now.

This pic cracks me up. The saying "dog pile" seems to work perfectly here!

Jan 30th: I love Saturday's. Nothing like sleeping in and having a leisure morning. Although.. I sit here looking at 3 laundry baskets of clothes that have to be put away (did I ever mention that I HATE doing laundry?). I'm going to make that on the top of my list of things to do today. Although, I've been listening to some awesome digital books on my ipod and it is so much easier to do housework listening to a great book.

My beady friend Lori Anderson (who is in charge of the Bead Soup swap) mentioned this book series on her blog and I can't believe that I've never heard of them before. It is the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. They are incredible. I finished the 2nd book last night and it was such a cliff hanger. I was so glad I got in late on the series because I was able to start book 3 right away to find out what happened. The first thing that went through my mind is that if I had to wait a few years to see what was going to happen, that would be down right painful!

Sorry about not having a lot of the rings listed on Etsy. I had a bead friend buy 8 of them. But I did list some of the heart beads with the vertical holes on Etsy last night.

Jan 27th: Just listed some rings on etsy that were left over in my inventory at reduced prices. Nothing much else to report here. Caiden stayed home from school for a sick day today but he seems to be feeling much better. It is COLD again but that isn't anything new.

I also did a made to order listing on Etsy for the small hearts with the vertical holes.(just click on the photo) And I have about 8 hearts baking in my kiln that I made today. So I will get those posted over on Etsy tomorrow if I am productive:-)They are just so bloomin cute and I'm addicted to making them right now.

Jan. 26th: I got a fun package in the mail yesterday.... The early copies of the latest Step By Step Wire Magazine Feb/March 2010 issue. I have a tutorial in there on how to make a Heart Bangle Bracelet using lampwork beads and 12 gauge silver wire, and a brass screw set as a clever way to assemble it. As usual, I will offer the lampwork beads for sale for $28 and the kit that includes all of the required supplies for $50. You can also purchase the actual magazine over at ticklemebeads.com too.

So head over to the boutique page here or www.ticklemebeads.com to find the goodies.

Jan. 24th: So a quick update on the Bead Soup Swap that I'm participating in. My partner for the swap is Melissa Meman. I sent her some of my lampwork beads a week ago and she mailed me a really nice selection of beads in return. She doesn't make lampwork beads and in this case, it is a plus as it forces me to work with something different than I normally would. That can always be a good thing to explore and try new things. The focal bead is a ceramic pendant, and then there is a great selection of other beads including yummy green heishi pearls, agate, carnelian flower, green opal, and a bronze clasp, charm and spacers.

I played around with them a tad today and as of right now, have decided to make a bracelet with the loot. I might add one of my lampwork beads but not sure yet. I always work in bright colors so these organic colors are always a challenge for me when it comes to making lampwork beads so I think I will just let this fine collection of beads speak for itself. The big reveal on on Feb 10th but I think I will be needing to do my reveal earlier than that. Just click on the photo for a link to her blog.

And... I will probably have some more of the 15mm hearts posted in Etsy tomorrow.

Jan 23rd: Today was the annual Pinewood Derby race for Keegan and Connor's cub scouts. This is the biggest scouting event of the year and the boys just love it. It was a really fun day with highs and one big low. Both of the boys did great in the initial races and I think out of 60+ cars, Keegan placed 2nd and Connor placed 8th. The top 16 go onto the finals. There were some great fast cars and it was a fun battle. Keegan ended up placing 3rd place and Connor ended up in 9th place. And this is where the big divide took place. Keegan was in high heaven and got a trophy and the top 8 kids get to move on to district competition.

So poor Connor ended up in some major tears as only the top 8 got trophies. So he just missed getting a trophy and doesn't get to go to district competition unless someone above him declines to go. And... to add insult to injury...Keegan also won a trophy for best modern design. That came out of left field. So here is Keegan with 2 trophies and poor Con ends up with nothing. It is so hard to lose to your older brother. I was glad that my niece and nephew were having a birthday party tonight because it was a great transition and helped Connor to forget about the big loss which wasn't really a big loss when compared to all the other kids that competed but you know how that goes.

So here is a pic of my cute boys and then the other photo is of my fun girlfriends that I get to hang out with once a week. I'm all the way on the right for those of you who don't know what I look like:-) We are missing my wonderful friend Ilyse and then another friend Annette. But this is a great group of girls. Our kids have played on the same soccer team for the past 3 years and have been in scouts together too. We meet once a month for coffee after we drop the kids off at school and just planned a dinner outing in a few days. Besides being a great group of girls to laugh and play with, they are an awesome resource for school things. Some have older kids which is awesome for questions about middle school where Keegan will be starting next year and between all of us, we keep each other informed and on top of school things that we wouldn't know otherwise. I'm very grateful to have them. I wish my green coat wasn't covering the cute t-shirt I have on. Jennifer (sitting next to me) gave it to me for my birthday. It is hot pink and a retro pic of the Candyland Game with all the sweet pickins. It is totally me!

Jan. 19th: Can I just say my hubby rocks? He is so sweet. For my birthday last week, he had gotten me a Ed Hardy long sleeve shirt that had a similiar design as my pink Ed Hardy Helmet. Except, it was a little tight in the shoulders. So he returned it and they didn't have the next size up so I told him to just forget it and I'm sure while we are at Disney I will find some cute shirts that I want. So today the UPS guy delivered a box to me. Inside were 2 black Ed Hardy Shirts with lots of bling and rhinestones! Oh, yea... they rock and are 1,000 times cooler than the other shirt. I love them. It just doesn't seem normal for a hubby to pick out cool clothes for his wife but this guy rocks. He totally got me awesome stuff for Christmas too. Which is great because it is things that I love but would not normally treat myself too. The funny thing is that he balks at spending more than $15 for a shirt for himself and it seems strange that he doesn't bat an eye when he buys me clothes that cost more than $10!

So tonight was lots of fun. Jean came over for round two and we made the rockin bezel rings that will be taught at Bead Fest. They turned out awesome! She is doing such a great job and after making the bezels last month, these rings were a breeze for her. Her soldering is top notch and she really has a great knack for metal smithing. We made 2 rings and I should have taken a photo of the 2nd ring. Not sure what I was thinking. But here is the first one we made. I love this cab bead. I started making the cabs a tad smaller so that it leaves more rim of the silver showing for the ring. Thanks Jean for a fun night. You're awesome!

Jan 18th: I'm so glad that it is bedtime! Days off with no school are a lot of work with 3 kids. Without mentioning the fighting and bickering that goes on amoung them, there was a trip to Chucke Cheese, time spent at my parents, a birthday party for one of the boys, and a trip to Target to finally buy a new vacuum cleaner that I have been avoiding for many many months. It got good reviews so lets hope it is better than the last one that I paid top dollar for and never really worked great after about 6 months.

It is such a boring purchase! I couldn't even get excited and take it out of the box. It is sitting in the garage. Maybe tomorrow I'll feel like vacuuming. I better though as I have Jean coming back over tomorrow night for a private lesson on how to make the Rockin Bezel Rings that I will be teaching a class on at Bead Fest Wire in April. It will be a fun night. As long as she doesn't look at my carpet if I don't get the gumption to drag the vacuum out of the box!

A few more hearts.

Jan 17th: It has been a busy week. I had a birthday (boo!) and went out for a date night with hubby last night. We went and saw the movie Up in the Air. Part of it was filmed here in St. Louis this past summer. It was good but kind of strange. I really didn't like the ending and it felt like you were left depressingly hanging. I know all movies don't need to have a feel good ending but it is still nice.

Tiny hearts... aren't they cute? They are smaller at 15mm tall. Valentines is around the corner! I've listed a few new things in my Etsy store.

Jan. 10th: Thank you for all the well wishes from my ski trauma. I'm feeling much better today. I'm still sore but don't feel like lieing in bed as much as I have been doing. I didn't think I had spent so much time in bed but when I was in the kitchen this morning hubby and I were bumping elbows fighting over a certain countertop space and I told him this was my space and he replied "no, your space is in the bedroom right now!". I had to laugh because I realized then he was right.

Connor told me earlier that I must be really desperate as I cleaned the snow off of the hot tub and hopped in it today with temps in the teens. It was a dreamy 105 degrees when I got in. It felt great!

Better late than never I guess. I had the best intentions to post this earlier but there is still time until the end of tonight to sign up to participate. My friend Lori Anderson is hosting a Bead Soup Party. It is a bead swap sign up where you are paired up with another participant to swap beads and make a piece of jewelry with the swap.

Then Feb. 1st is the big reveal and everyone hops around to the blogs of all the participants to see what was created.

So if you are reading this today Sunday, Jan 10th and you have a blog, go sign up. It'll be fun!

Jan 8th: Well yesterday's snow day was a disaster. We only got about 3" of snow over night and the roads seemed pretty clear so I decided to take the kids up to to Hidden Valley Ski to get our passes processed. It was really cold about 15 degrees but people were saying how good the slopes were because of the fresh snow so I decided to take the boys skiing. All started out grand. It was Caiden's first time to ski and I took him on the tiny bunny slope and he did fantastic. My parents were kind enough to come and pick him up after a bit so that I could take the big boys on the ski lift since we won't let them ride the chairs by themselves.

So all was fine and we did one run. Except it was FREEZING and the wind chill was in the minus area. Going down the second time was where it all went downhill (no pun intended. ha!) Connor was a little rusty on the skiis and it was still really icy at the top of the hill so I was going slow in front of him to show him the path. Then out of no where with zero inclination I get slammed in the back by what felt like a bullet train. I went flying in the air and while I was in the air I immediately thought that my back was broke. I heard cracking.

Some little kid was out of control and had to be going at full speed when she hit me. She had told my son Connor that she had never skiied before and I know with all that ice and being at the top of the hill where it was the steepest, she had time to get going at record speed before plowing into me. I guess no one told her to just fall or sit down if that happens since she has zero clue how to stop on her own.

So after the initial shock, I begin to think that I was okay. Just sore. I could move everything. Ski patrol came wanting to put me on the board and ski me down and send me to the ER. YUCK! I so did not want to do that. But they kept telling me better to be safe than sorry. I couldn't decide what to do so of course, a gal (me) calls her parents and my mother told me to let them treat me because it would prevent a fight with my insurance company if there are future issues and I had declined treatment.

My 11 year old was already at the bottom of the hill (poor kid) and he saw me get hit but he had to wait about 20-30 min while all this was going on. I sent Connor down to the bottom with him and told them to wait in the lodge and my mom would come and get them. So they get the board and lie me flat and I got all tied down and skiied to the bottom, then hooked onto a snow jet ski and dragged to their medical room and then transferred to an ambulance to the ER. So bless my parents souls as mom watches the kids and my dad comes to the hospital. Where is Randy in all this mess? On an airplane coming home from California with no clue until he gets off the plane and sees phone messages from my mom and text messages from me saying "not to worry". So of course he worries thinking we are lieing to him.

So after many hours of stress and anguish, neck brace, and back boards, they take chest and neck x-rays, and nothing is broken thank goodness. I was sent home with scripts for muscle relaxer and ibuprofen. Dad took me to go get my car from the ski place and Randy drove home from the airport and picked the kids up from my parents. They beat me home and the kids latched onto me and didn't let go all night and most of today. I think they were pretty shaken up. Can't say I blame them. I was just so thankful that the gal hit me instead of Connor.

So today I am extremely sore. My back is sore but my neck is really tender. Even the front of my neck is tender to the touch. I'm glad I went ahead and went to the hospital because as sore as I am today, I would be thinking something was wrong and probably ended up at the hospital anyway. It helps knowing it is all just a strain.

The kids were off school again today because of the record low temps which ended up being a good thing because I was supposed to speak to the 4th and 5th graders first thing this morning for career day to represent the artist career path. I think it would have been difficult to pull off 6 fifteen minute presentations with being this sore and banged up.

Jan. 6th: Our first snow day of the season will be tomorrow. I'm glad they already called it off so we don't get one of those wake you out of your sleep 5 a.m. phone calls saying school had been canceled. It's a shame it is so bloomin cold though. Doesn't make me want to go outside to go sledding. Although I doubt it will keep the boys inside.

I had a special order a few weeks ago trying to incorporate both the names of daughters and grandkids on a necklace. I came up with stamping the daugther names on the flat silver circle and then on the domed part, I stamped all of the grandkids names and soldered it all together and added a red lampwork heart to tie it all together. It turned out really cute.

Jan 4th: Happy New Year and HAPPY HAPPY ME the kids are back in school! As fun and wonderful as break was I'm so ready to be back on a routine. If anything just to stop celebrating by eating. It was starting to get way out of control.

But most importantly for today, Happy Birthday Hubby. Yep, today is his birthday which equated to more celebrating but without food. Poor guy had to have a salad for dinner as I refused to cook anything fattening after all the eating we have been doing. There is a Disney Cruise coming in 1 month and we gotta fit in our swimming suits! Thank goodness for something warm to look forward too. It has just been down right freezing. Right now it is 6 degrees but it feels like -7 degrees. It has been cold like this for a week and there is no end in sight.

And... while I'm whining about the weather... can I just say that I'm really getting tired of the post office raising rates AGAIN! I went to print a shipping label and the cost was more than normal. I thought I had entered the wrong weight but no, after a Google search I had the pleasure to discover that they raised rates again and I can no longer count on a package that weighs 1 lb or less costing an across the board $4.95.

Dec. 29th: I can tell the week is going to fly by. The kids were lucky (not!) and we all went to the dentist for check ups yesterday. This afternoon, my parents watched the kids and hubby and I went to go see the movie Avatar in 3D. I didn't really have any expectations except that I heard that is was really good. I had to agree. The movie was great. Kind of a Cowboys vs. Indians theme but if you just sit back and enjoy the film without trying to dive into any underlying themes or messages, then the movie is great and captures your attention the entire time. Which says a lot because it is almost 3 hours long.

With 2009 coming to an end, I thought I would put all the stuff out on Etsy on sale. So everything in the Etsy shop is 25% off till January 4th (which is hubby's birthday!).Find the link on my boutique page.

Dec. 27th: I'm just going through some of the photos on Christmas Day. It was such a fabulous day and we created incredible memories. The kids were so cute and life was great. We spent the morning at our house and then went over to my parents around 1:30 p.m. to celebrate with them and my brother's family. So it ends up being a full day on high of presents and good food.

Mom was a crack up and spent many very early mornings at Toys R Us starting in November to get the popular Zhu Zhu pets and accessories for the 6 grand kids. Keegan and Connor weren't begging for them but since all the kids were getting them, we knew that they would probably want one too. I must admit that they are very very cute. We all had fun playing with them. The slide and the car are my favorite. Although each piece has a sensor and even when the Zhu Zhu gets on the wheel, it will spin for a while and then get off all by itself to move on to something else.

So the house seems cluttered with new toys everywhere. I want to just put them all away somewhere out of sight but that isn't as much fun if the kids don't have their toys in a pile to come back and forth to. I'm thinkin that tomorrow I'm going to work on taking the tree down. Can't wait! And lucky us, me and all 3 boys have dentist check up appointments tomorrow afternoon. Right now that doesn't sound like much fun!

December 26th: Hope everyone had a happy holiday! Christmas is always hectic around here. We are still trying to dig our way out from under all the packaging and debris that goes along with toys for three boys. This year just flew by, I can't believe its almost New Year's Day. We had a great time with Dudley the Christmas Elf again this year. He is our little stuffed elf that comes to visit a week before Christmas and each night comes to life while the boys are sleeping. He plays tricks on the boys and they get a surprise when they wake up. One night he took several dollars and put them in a plastic ziplock bag, then put the bag on the kitchen table, emptied an entire can of whip cream in a pile on top the bag, left some spoons, and a note that the boys needed to eat their way to the treasure. They were grossed out over all that sugar!

One night he left notes all over and the boys had to do a scavanger hunt for prizes. Another night Dudley completely taped and covered the doors of the boy's rooms in Christmas wrapping paper...while they slept. Things like this went on for a week, then on the final night, the night before Christmas Eve day, he went away and left them a each a present.

So now we are just in the aftermath of the chaos. But, I actually did get downstairs this weekend and made some bead sets. Stay tuned!

December 17th: Here it is at 9:30 p.m. and I just ordered my Christmas cards. Nothing like waiting till the last minute! I kept having this grand idea that I was going to get my boys cleaned up and that they would stand quietly with wonderful glee and smiles on their faces while I took the perfect photo of them. Then I had to come to terms with that throught because at times it seems like I am more likely to win the lottery than have that scenerio take place. So I finally dug through my digital pics and found a good one of each kiddo from our beach trips and just made up a card with 3 photos. One spot for each of them where they aren't whining that the other is touching them or shoving them, or saying mean things to them. Yes, my boys have been quite a joy to be around. This seems to be the normal pattern this week and it's exhausting! I keep singing the song Santa Claus is Coming to Town, but they aren't getting the hint.

The kids are all tucked in for the night and I think I'm going to go grab a book and read in bed! What a dream! I'm basically all caught up on orders and have some free time. It feels great. I don't get to say that often so I think I will take full advantage of it and not even take my computer to bed with me to work.

December 16th: Yikes! Looks like I let the ball drop on this page. It seems like all sorts of things have been going on but then when I sit down to write, I'm not sure what all that is.

Monday night was a fun beading event. I taught a private class on how to make the Whimsical Silver Bezels that I will be teaching at Bead Fest Wire. Jean is a beady gal friend that lives very close. This was the first time we got to meet her in person and we had a wonderfully fun night. She is a natural at soldering and we kicked out the 2 bezels from 6-10 p.m. They turned out awesome.

I finished the audio book Under The Dome by Stephen King. It has been ages since I read one of his books and I loved it. It kind of had a weak ending but the entire book was so entertaining that I didn't mind.

Hard to believe that Christmas is almost here. The boys are getting very excited. We had a Christmas Tree scare last week. About 3 a.m. we heard a loud crash. I think I jumped 3 feet out of bed. We think the cat knocked the tree over. Ugh... it was such a mess. Ornaments scattered all over. Some glass ones are broken. The worst part was black/orange rusty water all over the carpet that is supposed to be what the tree drinks. I don't know why we even bother to put water in it because the tree never drinks it. So I had to spend over an hour that night trying to clean the carpet and then a few more applications the next day, and then had to wait 2 days before we put the tree back together because the carpet was all wet and we didn't want to cover it up till it dried. Not a fun experience.

December 7th: Had a sick kiddo at home today but it seems to just be respiratory. Caiden has a small case of it and Connor and I are still germ free. Hubby is getting over his. So... should we take bets to see if Connor and I will still be standing and make it untouched? I'm keeping a positive outlook.

I listed this necklace over on Etsy and on my boutique page. This one is one of my favorites that I've been hoarding. Why do I do that? It just sits in a bucket untouched but sometimes I just like to keep things!

December 6th: Had a nice relaxing day. I don't feel like I did much but we did get the tree decorated. It is always such a pretty sight.

So do you remember this bracelet? I had posted a pic of it a few months ago. Well I finally got around to posting it in the boutique. I had been hoarding it because it is one of my favorites:-)

December 5th: It has been a busy fun few days. Parties, soccer game, the boys had a sleep over, Mexican restaurant 2 nights in a row (yum!), got our live Christmas Tree tonight, sold a few things on Criagis List, Hair Cut for one of the boys, scored a great sale at the local toy store for my brother, and a Harry Potter Weekend on ABC Family! I even took a nap today. Can't tell you the last time I did that. How did I cram all of that in from Friday night till Saturday night? I guess it was really easy when I have a hubby that did a lot of it! I took the nap in his honor! I wonder what tomorrow will bring. I'm guessing decorating the tree and that is all I have on the schedule. I'm sure the day will get eaten up with little things here and there.

A good old college friend made a custom request. She wanted a necklace made out of Guinness Beer Bottle caps. It's her hubby's favorite beer. I had to ask if it was for her or him. I totally cracked up when she said it was for her but it would be like wearing and I quote "a sexy nightie" for her hubby! So here it is. The pics don't do it justice. She sent me a handful of caps. So I domed one of them and I completely flattened a second one. Then I glued the domed one onto the flattened one, punched a hole in the rim and added a few lampwork beads. It turned out really cool if I do say so myself. Gusiness has really nice quality caps that have this wonderful silver sheen around the rim. It really makes the pendant pop. Budweiser could learn a few tricks as their beer caps are a really dull boring grey around the rim. Never in my life did I think I would be evaluating the quality of beer caps. Strange.

Nov. 30th: I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. I took the 5 days off while the kids were off school. Mom and I did the Black Friday shopping but hit a new record for me. Toys R Us opened at midnight on Thanksgiving day. Mom talked me into going with her which means that you don't really get much sleep if you want to get to the 4 a.m. sales. She ended up getting there at 11:15p.m. and I got there about 10 min later. The line already had hundreds of people in front of us to get in. It was packed. More than I've ever seen it first thing when they opened. We got in, quickly found what we wanted and then waited in line for over 2 hours.

By this time it was 2:25 a.m. and no way were we going to go home for 1 hour and just get tired. So we headed over to Steak and Shake for a bite to eat. We tried to order breakfast but was told they weren't serving breakfast till 4 a.m.! Go figure. Then we were out the door and hitting all the other stores. I think we finished up about 9 a.m. I love my sleep and I don't think I've ever stayed up the entire night. If I did, I was so sleep deprived that I don't remember!

We had so much fun though and giggled and laughed the whole time. There were fun people in line with us and it made it very entertaining. I think we do it more for the tradition and memories it creates vs. the actual deals.

It's back to work, and back to the gym after all the food I ate! I just listed a small black and white bead set over on Etsy.