Spring or Summer

What an adorable charm or pendant for bird lovers, tweeters or song birds!

I was attracted to it as a pendant because I wanted spring to get here already. :) We have been hearing lots of birds this week by the way.

Spring seems to be here in the form of summer today. Yep, it's Ohio.

My design ideas are still cycling through, but I haven't landed on anything yet.

Ideas?

Colorful Charms in time for Spring!

Such bright and happy metal charms were calling out to me a little while ago. I'm sort of thinking about linking them up to a neck chain in blue.

Trouble is, it got late and now I'm past the point of making jewelry. Do you know where that is? Yep, head bobbing time...

So, on that note, I hope you will share your thoughts on using these. I don't know that I would have put this color combo together had they not been on the same package.

Thanks Cousin Corp product designers for helping us break out of our comfort zone and not even knowing it! :)

Last Minute Weekend Fun

Wow, did that weekend just fly by? Goodness! I hope everyone had a chance to have fun and get some creating in.

We went to the opening weekend of the drive-in, yay! It was great!

If you have a chance to visit one in the near future, I recommend it.

Here's some last minute fun from our bead blogger friends starting off with Carmi's craft "disaster":

Resin Crafts
A good craft disaster story is the highlight of the week on Resin Crafts blog!

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done! 
Jean discusses the words Crazy and Creative and somehow ends up at jewelry!

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
Andrew recaps the last week of projects created for the Fusion Beads 30 Day Bead Challenge.

About.com Jewelry Making
Tammy adds another incredible designer to her monthly series,

Art Bead Scene
Brandi pulls out a beautiful color palette from this month's challenge piece by Monet.

Beading Arts
It's "Innovative Stringing Month" on Beading Arts, and Cyndi is looking for new inspiration from YOU! 

Multi-Purpose Spikes

Okay, who would have thought these matte black spikes would be so multi-purpose!

They can be used in happy, sparkly jewelry or sophisticated jewelry OR even darker pieces.

I never realized that before. They seem to be cropping up everywhere in ready made jewelry pieces and in all the craft stores.

My thought is to use these with a bright splash of color to set off the stark spikes. What do you think?

Colorful Summer

Looks like this is going to be a colorful summer once it actually gets here! Have you noticed how bright all the colors are in this year's fashions?

When I was watching a Brady Bunch marathon last night I noticed how similar some of the kids play clothes were to those in the stores today. Jan was wearing a boxy yellow top and pink ankle pants with white flats. :)

It would make sense that jewelry and jewelry making components follow the same trend. After yesterday's adorable small blue/gold chain, I thought it would be fun to feature this larger red chain.

This looks very cool just wrapped around my wrist by itself, it really stands out. It will be lots of fun to create with. I am not sure what the red chain is made of. Unlike the blue chain, this is so light it must be some kind of plastic or resin material. That's pretty cool because sometimes using a lot of larger link chain can really weigh you down.

I'm envisioning several strands of this very simply connected with a fun focal for my wrist! Very cheerful! Any plans for colorful spring/summer jewelry?

Happy Beads & Unicorns

I heard the greatest quote today..."Always be yourself. Unless you can be a unicorn. Then be a unicorn."

Yeah, that's too good to keep to myself! :)

Authenticity is what I am striving for and to be perfectly honest, I find myself wanting to be cheerful, happy, carefree and expect everyone else around me to want that too. That doesn't always go over that well. Does that mean I live in an unrealistic pink bubblegum world with lots of sparkles? If only...

It can be fleeting when there are tasks to be done and sad or unpleasant circumstances to deal with.

Here's how I decided to overcome that today...the magic of special, happy and possibly magical beads and chain!

Aren't these great? I absolutely LOVE this gold and blue chain. The links are very small, but will definitely allow wire or a headpin through them. AND, these sparkly rhinestone rounds are bright and cheerful!

I don't even have to create with them right now, just enjoying them in their natural form is all I need. :)

Wood or Resin?

Wood pendant or resin pendant? You make the call…

These two pendants are both attention getting for different reasons.

I find it interesting to note the variety of components I am attracted to.

Sometimes I have to turn off my analytical mind that tries to figure out why I liked this and why I liked that.

I mean who really cares why or what the differences or similarities are…why not just be happy with my selections?

Well, I don’t know the answer to that, but I think it’s a great idea not to over analyze when it comes to selections made while in a creative or inspired mood.

So, back to the pendants…which are you most attracted to?

The wood architectural type pendant or the resin swirls?