of course I have been busy. insert exclamation point

I used Melanie's spring fairy beads in one of my designs in this calendar. Aren't they cute?

here is her website: http://www.earthenwoodstudio.com --Earthenwood Studio. Those photos above belong to her!

Here is one fun thing I am in, which is a beading calendar for 2009 and the fun part is I got the advance copy already, and one of my two designs is on the back! I was very flattered! I'll take the back! Hey!!! Why not! I'll take the sides!

Better yet, if I can find those earrings, I can WEAR them next week to my son's wedding because they are perfect! I am not going to show you yet, because they have to be a surprise.

You can preorder this calendar, which actually DOES have 365 designs in it!!! at Amazon.com, here:

http://www.amazon.com/Beading-Bead-Day-Day-Calendar/dp/0740771639/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1220818308&sr=1-1

It is called Beading Bead a Day Calendar 2009. I think I may give it to the teachers this year at the Holidays and force my interests upon them...bwahaha!!!

I have a few more fun pieces of news I want to tell you, but I am going to wait as I feel like spacing them out!

One news-y thing is really cool and finally got me involved in a jewelry making technique I have been fascinated in for years. It wasn't hard (at least so it seems so far) -- I am waiting to see what happens as I type this -- but it IS one of those things you CAN mess up if you check on it too early in the process, like making an angel food cake or something which follows specific directions, and you ignore that. Then you have to fake it, cut flattened angel food cake into pieces, and pour pudding sauce all over it. And make up a name for it! Like: "Peche a la Frog!"<--Dudley Moore and Peter Cooke. If you are old enough to remember that joke, you are soooooo old!

Incidentally, one of the two pieces I did for this calendar has some beads from Melanie of Earthenwood -- her little Spring Fairy beads. So sweet! I made a bracelet with them on the ends, and all the colors in the bracelet worked off of those beads. See the photo above, thanks Melanie. Everything you make rocks.

Melanie has an amazing article in Beadwork this month about Steampunk. I would expect that if I wiki'ed "Steampunk" at this point, Melanie's name would be there right in the foreground. And for very good reason. In my opinion she single handedly revived this style to the fascinating position it is in, in the jewelry and design world at this time! That is great stuff. Good work Melanie!