Winter Inspiration

For this round of beading bloggers for Artbeads.com I was to come up with a winter inspiration. I've done too much of the white, blue, silver, snowflakes so I thought for a while and wandered their AMAZING site to see what inspiration I could find. I decided to do something a bit different and these are the beautiful baubles I came up with.

My package has arrived!


The tierra cast charms


The glass focal bead



I've been dying to use irradiated quartz and figured this bracelet was the perfect opportunity to play with it a bit. I also LOVE the glue in charms so I had to get a few of those. This bracelet reminds me to be reflective of my life and what I'm doing. It's got live, love, create, grow, and play. The glue in stones are all AB swarovski SS09 size.

winter reflections bracelet







Some of the other things I picked out are a green gemstone called chrysoprase and a GREAT focal glass bead in greens and yellows. These colors remind me of my gorgeous drive to and from work daily. I drive 26 miles on a 2 lane county highway each way for work. It's through lots of grazing land and rolling hills full of ponds, streams, cows, and horses. For the first 5 months of my commute, it's brown and ugly but in the winter it comes to life- the hills turn amazing shades of green, the trees are dormant so they're silhouetted by the normally blue skies. Yes, I live in sunny CA and don't get snow where I live. This piece is going to have to wait to be revealed tho because I had to get some black wire and a clasp to make it with. Stay tuned for "rolling hills necklace".

Disclosure...As a reviewer of products at Artbeads.com, I received all beads pictured in the first photo posted above free of charge. I have been asked to review these products and give my honest opinion of the products...positive or negative. I am not being compensated by Artbeads.com for my endorsement as it pertains to the products received and reviewed.

Been busy in these parts

Figured it's time I blogged. I found out on my dad's 64th birthday that I was pregnant. Made me happy, scared, freaked out, nuts. I cried, I laughed. I told my parents at my dad's birthday party. It was a GREAT day all around.

I was a bit leery of it from the beginning since we lost one this past summer (which will be blogged about later when it's not so raw still). I called the doc right away and got signed up for their pregnancy workshop. My first appointment wasn't scheduled until I was 9 weeks. I didn't think I could wait that long not knowing if it would go to term or not. So, I called and talked to the advice nurse who was great and said she'd get me in for a quick sonogram right after my workshop. We saw the heart beating. Helped me feel better about the whole situation.

I had my first blood draw- they took FIVE vials of my good red stuff! WHAT THE HELL???? AND I bruised HORRIDLY for THREE weeks! OMG! I was ready to KILL!

7 week in office sonogram. VERY happy to see that there's a heart beat. :)



9 week in office sonogram. You can see the little arm and leg buds. Nice strong heart beat. Happy to see kiddo progressing nicely.


At 11 weeks, I went for another blood test- the quad marker screening- this time it was only ONE vial and I didn't bruise AT ALL!

These are from my 13 week Nuchal Translucency Sonogram. Good results all around. VERY low risk of Down's Syndrome and Trisomy 18. No sign of Spina Bifida. I'm a happy girl. :)