I'm Back in Black

Hey there Bloggy friends. Hope all is well. As for me I've been keeping a very busy schedule, but all is good.
So anyhow last time I posted, I mentioned that I was getting bored with summer colors. I was also very excited to start exploring color again. Well, after sorting through my bead stash, my excitement lessened. Too make a long story short, I really need to hit up a bead store or two, or three.

So what I ended up doing is busting out the black beads. I also found some metallic peacock beads to accompany them. I had been wanting to try making one of these flowers from an old Bead and Button magazine for a while now. I think it came out pretty good, and I have lots of ideas to make the design my own. Maybe smaller, with only five petals and a Czech flower bead in the center. I am also seeing a smaller version as the focal point of an asymmetrical necklace. So anyhow, here it is.

This was really fun to bead up, and like I said, look forward to seeing more of these from me in the future.  When I was going through my stash I also found some peacock metallic bugle beads. So of course I had to whip up some brick stitch earrings.

OK, So now that show and tell is over, I've got to tell you about my new addiction. I always seem to be a bit behind on the social media, so I just recently began exploring Pinterest. I'll share my link with you in another post, once I've added more boards. Anyhow, when I say addiction, I am not kidding. The other night, I was up pinning 'til three a.m!!! ;) So who else is addicted? I'd love to see your boards.

TTYL and make it a good day,

Debbie

Princess Abracadebra?

Hey there bloggy friends. I'm still here. Just been busy doing staycation stuff with the teenager named Miss Thang Tammy. Its been a little harder than usual to find some quality beading time. But I have managed to finish two pieces. If they were part of a collection, It would have to be named the Princess Collection.  With just a quick look at the pics, you'll see what I mean.

See, like I said princessy looking, right?  Not that there is anything wrong with princessy. In fact, I happen to love both the necklace and bracelet. They are my idea of the perfect summertime designs. I remember last year, right after I purchased like 5 strands of pink glass pearls, I immediately went to work on two bracelets. I got really tired of looking at the pink pearls after completing the bracelets. Well I am happy to say that both of the bracelets were sold to a friend at work, so I recently decided that I needed to dig out the pearls again and add another bracelet to my shop. Mission accomplished.

I would never describe my personal style as princessy. In fact, I prefer to dress in black and red. I think I will be glad when summer is over and I can start designing for fall and winter. I was glancing through a Harper's Bazaar magazine the other day and was literally drooling over the fall accessories.  Picture a box of eight crayons and take each of them colors added to a backdrop of black. Lots of primary colors mixed with black, kind of color blocked. And then there is the blue, green and black snakeskin. It was everywhere from shoes, to bags, to belts. I am really looking forward to designing jewelry in these color patterns. Good bye Princess, Hello black. I am so excited that I gotta run, right now, and start going through my bead stash. As usual I hope you'll stick around to see what I come up with.

TTYL and make it a good night

Debbie

My Favorite Holiday

So today I want to talk a bit about my favorite holiday. And no, its not Christmas, although Christmas is my second fave holiday. Coming in at third is my birthday. Wait, that's not a holiday.  Well I think it should be ;)

So by now you must be wondering what it is. Well here is a clue - Only 18 more days. Yahoo!  That's right, the best holiday ever enacted is the Fourth of July. I love everything about it from the colors, to the fireworks, to the parades, to the picnics, to the music, to the very meaning of Independence Day.

Every year on the Fourth of July I get all dressed up in red, white and blue and proudly celebrate my independence.  In honor of  this fabulous holiday, I finally got off of my butt and created my very own flag brick stitch earrings. I will be wearing a pair, and so will the teenager named Miss Thang Tammy, and I even made a pair for my shop.

I really enjoyed coming up with the simple pattern and they were very quick and easy to work up in brick stitch.  I know I will have as much fun wearing them as I did creating them.  Now back to the Fourth of July and something you didn't know about me- Since about the age of four, I have never missed the local fireworks but I still  tape the Boston Pops Fourth of July Spectacular every year, and I cry like a baby during the whole thing.  Don't tell anyone, o.k.?

TTYL and make it a good day
Debbie

My kind of Garden

Hi there Blogland. I hope all is well. I am just happy that the World didn't end on Saturday, like it was supposed to ;) Although if it had ended, at least I could have stopped worrying about that big stack of bills that keeps growing on my desk ;)

Oh well, talking about things growing, I can't wait to show you my flower garden. Now you should know that I am Not the gardening type and there is Nothing green about my thumb at all. In fact, the teenager known as Miss Thang Tammy recently spent a whole day picking on me because the flowers she bought me for Mother's day didn't last very long due to dehydration.  I felt so bad about the flowers, that I swore I would plant a flower garden that would last forever, so that is exactly what I did. And I even have a picture to proove it.

Now, that there is my kind of garden.  A handful of lucies, some accent beads, seedies and a couple hours of beadwork, but most of all no maintenance. This baby doesn't even need to be watered and it will last a lifetime. So, Miss Thang Tammy, "How do you like me now?"

I have been wanting to make a flower fringe bracelet for a while now and had fun making this.  It was really neat to watch it grow with each fringe I added. I hope you like it.

TTYL and make it a good night,
Debbie

A bit of Promotion

Hi there Blogland. I hope everyone had a nice Mother's Day. I sure did. So, before I show you my latest work, I am doing this thing with a few other Zibbeters to promote each other today. I usually don't promote on my blog, because it makes me feel like a salesperson, instead of an artist. But its time to face the facts, that Abracadebra Designs is a business and promotion is necesssary for anyone who has an online shop.

Anyhow, I chose Zibbet because I liked their newness and fresh outlook on things. There is no turmoil over there like on that big shop that starts with E. Also I hear that there are soon to be unwanted changes at the site that starts with A. At the rate they are going, Zibbet may just become the best site ever for hand-made.

If you have a second, please check out these great shops. They all have some really cool and unique items.
http://www.zibbet.com/LorisStylingHairStuff
http://www.zibbet.com/PaperOnParade
http://www.zibbet.com/mimiandcolette
http://www.zibbet.com/HeavenlyPaints

So, you've been patient and now you get to see my latest. Another spiral rope necklace with my version of a
bead embroidered pendant. This one is light purple and white. The pendant is abalone shell. Seeing as I am
promoting today, here's the link to the necklace in my shop http://www.zibbet.com/abracadebra/artwork?artworkId=414177

Geez, promoting can be hard work. I've also been promoting on FaceBook, Twitter and Stumbleupon. So, before I let you go, just two quick questions - How much time  per week do you spend with on-line promotion of your shop and what do you feel works best for you?

Thanks for looking
TTYL and make it a good day
Debbie

The Beads have Spoken

Hello my friends. I hope everyone is enjoying the sunshine today. I rely on the sun to come into my huge living room window, so that I can get semi-decent pictures of my jewelry. What I really need though, is a better camera. Ok, so after much frustration, I think I finally have some pics worthy of showing. Last time I blogged, I mentioned that I was working on two peyote bracelets that needed clasps and embellishments.

Well, after conversing with my beads, both of the bracelets got ripped apart and turned into two totally different pieces than what they once were.  Yes, I did say that I spoke to my beads. Well, actually the beads spoke to me. What they told me was that one of the bracelets would feel much prettier as a necklace and that the other one, doesn't really feel that all of its beads and button clasp go together very well.

So as every beader knows, the beads know best and really need to be listened to. So after much tearing apart and rebuilding, here are my latest necklace and bracelet.  I hope you like them.



The pic of the necklace doesn't really capture the metallic glimmer of the beads I used. This is actually very stunning looking. See, that's what I mean about getting a better camera. Also, I haven't decided if I am going to embellish it or not. I can easily see this embellished with crystals and/or pearls. I guess I'm just waiting to see which beads will speak to me and beg to be added. So that's all I have for now. Gotta run. I hear the beads calling me.

TTYL and make it a good day,
Debbie



Musings of a Redneck Yankee

Hello my friends. Happy Sunday. It's going to be a quick post, because I still haven't decided what's for dinner yet.  I Got sidetracked by Nascar on TV.  Now there's something you didn't know about me.  Having had lived in Norfolk, VA for 7 years, I can't help but love Nascar (and Jeff Gordon, who just happens to be leading right this moment, and is due for a come-back).  As long as you're getting to know me better, some other things I grew to love while in Norfolk are Country Music and Chicken and Dumplings.

So now that you know me better, it's time to move on to my latest creations.  I've been playing around with Bicone Crystals and here's what I came up with.

I think I like the second pair better. After the first pair, I decided to play a bit with color. These earrings were really easy and quick to make. I plan on making up a few more pairs in different color combos to use up all the left-over bicones I have.  So that's about it for this week. I did whip up two quick peyote bracelets, but still need to embellish them and round up some matching buttons for clasps.  As usual, I hope you'll stay  tuned to see how they turn out.

By the way, Jeff Gordon is no longer leading the race and I have decided on a quickie (Yankee) version of Chicken and Dumplings for dinner.

TTYL and make it a good day,

Debbie

Pay It Forward 2011

Hi there bloggy friends. I hope all is well. I've got some exciting news for you, but first I'll show off my latest work, if you don't mind. I am still on my bead embroidery kick, and am still trying to use up my stash of beads, before buying more. Anyhow, I purchased a strand of these unidentified stones (maybe some kind of Jasper or Agate)  from the Brimfield flea market last year, and thought the stone was a good match for a mix of purple seed beads that I've had forever. So here is the resulting beadwork:

The pendant is bead embroidered and the necklace is a variation of spiral rope. The last time I did this version of the spiral, I broke three needles. This time I only broke one. I guess I am getting better, or maybe more patient. Anyhow, it is really, really, really purple, but I still love it.

So now its time for my news. If you read the title to this post, you already know what it is. I'm sure all of you have heard of Paying It Forward. I'm also sure that some of you have already participated in Pay It Forward 2011. I am glad to announce that it is now my turn to Pay It Forward. I read about it on Deci W's blog Gem Trails and decided to participate. She sent me a beautiful bead embroidered cab. Thank you Deci. Now I get to pay it forward. Here's how it works: The first 5 people who comment on this post will receive a handmade gift by me. In return, you must write a blog post explaining Pay It Forward and send your first 5 commenters a gift handmade by you. Cool, isn't it? Think of all the handmade goodness we can get out there.  It's a great way to make some new friends, while doing a bit of good. So who wants to play? I can't wait to see.

TTYL and make it a good night,
Debbie

Dreaming of Spring

A few weeks ago, in between snow storms, we had a 50 degree day. Yahoo! Spring Time!!! So of course I went digging through my bead stash to see what springy colors I had in there. Wow, I gotta say that the pickings were slim. I think it's time to hit a bead show or two. I did, however, manage to come up with a bracelet and a pair of earrings.  Anyhow, here are the pics:

First is a blue crystal and light green cat's eye bracelet. The crystals are Swarovski and I also used translucent peacock lined seed beads. This is made from Deborah Roberti's Skinny Bracelet II pattern, which is free on her site AroundTheBeadingTable. It was a very quick and easy pattern to work up.

Next are some brick stitch earrings. I was playing around with fringe ideas and this is what I came up with. I don't know the exact name of the shade of glass pearls, but they are neither white nor pink, kind of a lavender color, I guess. The seed beads are "Inside Color Peacock" Dyna-mites. They are absolutely gorgeous in person.

So that's it for my recent beadwork. Now I am off to check out the Pantone Colors for Spring 2011, then going through my bead stash once again and maybe doing a little on-line shopping to see what I can come up with next. I hope you stay tuned to see what that may be.

TTYL and make it a good day,

Debbie

"I'm Ba-ack"

Wow, it's been almost 3 months since my last post. Amazing how time flys. No I haven't quit blogging or beading, but would you believe it if I told you that I had been abducted by funny looking little green men and taken away in a large saucer shaped aircraft? I didn't think so. OK, so how about "My dog ate my computer"?  Not believing that either, right? Well the sad truth is that every winter I become extremely lazy. Other than work or mandatory family functions, I don't like to do much in winter except snuggle on the couch and watch a good movie, or two, or three, or a hundred.

So anyhow, last night at midnight the greatest movie of all time came on t.v. I hadn't seen it in like 10 years or so. So of course I just had to watch it. The thing is it was 4 hours long. So I asked myself, "How in the h-e-double hockey sticks am I supposed to stay awake till 4am?" That's when I decided to get motivated and work on some incomplete beading projects. Well, I actually completed both projects, and decided to stay motivated and promised myself that I would blog today, before I got too lazy again. So anyhow, here are my latest projects:

This is a bead embroidered pendant that I decided to make for myself for Valentine's Day. It's very simple and hangs from a suede necklace. Yes, I will be wearing this tomorrow. Next is a netted necklace that I had started a while ago. I don't usually get bored with beading projects, but for some reason, on this one I would bead a few inches and then not touch it for days. So, like I said, I finally got motivated and finished it. I am so glad I did, because I am just loving the lacey look of it and the contrast of the two colors.

So there you have it, everything beady that I have accomplished over the past 3 months. Now that I have gotten my mojo back I promise not to stay away for so long. Oh yeah, in case you're wondering what  great movie kept me up til 4:00am and what I consider to be the greatest movie ever, it's....................................
"The Godfather".
TTYL and make it a good evening,
Debbie