One Little Word

2011 is almost here and I can't help reflecting on the year gone by and thinking about the one about to start. 2010 was great for me in some ways and extremely difficult in others. I'm fairly new to blogging so most of you probably don't know that my nearly 3 year old son has autism. He was diagnosed about a year and a half ago turning our family's life completely upside down. We've been working through it though and Tyler is doing really well. He's a happy, giggly, cuddly and sweet little boy and I love him more than anything else on this planet. He sees the world in a unique way and I've learned that if I take a minute and look at things the way he does a world of incredible possibility opens up.

I'm finally at a place now where I feel like I can take a step back and stop stressing so much. To let him grow and develop and trust all the fantastic therapists who are working with him to help him become the best little boy he can be. This has allowed me to shift my focus a bit and start thinking again about where I want to go in my own life.

Have you heard about One Word Resolutions? This is a concept that has been floating around the Internet for a few years now but something I've only just discovered. Several amazing bloggers out there have been talking about the idea and it has piqued my interest and got me thinking.

The concept is this; Instead of making the usual types of resolutions that get broken by Valentine's day (if you're lucky to get that far), choose one word that describes what you want for your life in the next year. One word. It seems so simple yet it is incredibly powerful!

So many words began floating through my mind but one word just stood out. One word captured my fleeting attention and made my heart flutter. One word excited and scared me at the same time. One word kept me up at night thinking about it.

My word for 2011 is... learn. This word feels so powerful to me because isn't that what we're all here to do? To learn is to grow and to grow is to open up our minds and our worlds.

2011 is my year to learn new things, to branch out and to take a leap.

First and foremost, I will continue to learn about my son's condition and how to treat it but I also plan to learn things that will take my creativity to a new level.

Here are some of my plans for 2011.

~Learn Photoshop!!

I have already signed up for Kim Klassen's Photoshop ~ The Essentials eCourse! I'm so excited to get started January 17th!

~Learn to make ceramic beads!!

This is a BIG one for me! I've been dreaming about this for a long time. Now that I've said it I have to do it right? I've been scouring the Beads-of-Clay Blog and absorbing as much as I can. I plan to buy a kiln (yikes!!) and get started soon. Of course I will blog about it every step of the way!

I know my word will come up in all areas of my life too. Perhaps I need to learn to manage my time better so I can get my butt to the gym. ;-)

I'm so excited for what the year will bring!

What is your one word for 2011?

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Have a beautiful day!

Much Love, Lisa

A Crafty Christmas Exchange

Have you ever participated in a Christmas cookie exchange? How about a Christmas ornament exchange?

This year I invited a group of friends and family to participate in what I called a Crafty Christmas Ornament Exchange. It works basically like a cookie exchange where each participant makes enough ornaments for themselves and the entire group. We had 7 participants of all different crafting levels. We got together last week to exchange our ornaments. It was great to see what everyone came up with!

Here's a picture of what we made!

I bet you can guess which one was mine (hint, there's a bead dangle). I actually made 3 for each person because they were so easy I felt like I was cheating!

I bought a kit from Sun and Moon crafts on Etsy that included the bottle caps and resin "stickers". After downloading and printing some collage sheets from Designs buy Linda Nee I punched 1 inch circles, mod podged them into the bottle caps and popped a resin dome on top! I punched a hole in the top and bottom of the bottle cap with an awl and hammer and then attached jump rings and the bead dangle beneath. Piece of cake! I have made so many that now I'm attaching one to each gift I give this Christmas as a gift tag. I've also made dozens of magnets using the same technique (great stocking stuffers!).

It was great to do some simple crafting just for fun. Sure, making jewelry is fun too but I think I take myself too seriously sometimes. A project like this was a great way to free my mind and loosen up.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

A New Challenge -Cosmic Debris

Christmas is getting close, the decorations are up and things are a little crazy around here, but what else is new? I haven't had much time to play with my beads lately and I've been itching to work on something new. I had so much fun participating in The Challenge of Color blog hop a couple of weeks ago that I decided to join another one, even with all the craziness! I think these challenges are good for me. They break me out of my rut and get me thinking in new ways. Plus, for some reason I work best when I have a deadline. Nothing like a little pressure to get the creative juices flowing!

This challenge is hosted by the oh-so talented Lorelei who has one of the best jewelry blogs in the blogosphere. You can read about the challenge here. Lorelei and her friends Nancy and Daniele chose a palette of dark, smoky beads from Michaels. The rules were, you had to use the beads chosen plus you could add two beads of your choice and whatever clasp you'd like.

Here are the beads! PS: I stole this photo from Lorelei's blog because I forgot to take one before I got started. ;-)

The Beads

As you can see there were some peacock freshwater pearls, gunmetal chain, mother of pearl faceted ovals, black quartz nuggets and silver-rimmed glass beads. Of course when I headed off the Michaels to pick up the beads for the challenge, I forgot to bring a list. Oops. Going from memory I managed to get the chain, mother of pearl and silver-lined beads right but bought the wrong pearls and forgot completely about the nuggets. Luckily when I went back they had the two missing items and I was good to go! I was really happy that the selection of beads at Michaels is pretty much the same here in Canada as in the US.

Now, I have to admit, this selection of beads is not something I would normally choose myself. I'm more of a bright and sparkly kind of girl. This palette of dark smoky hues was a challenge for me and the black nuggets were especially throwing me off with their rough and rugged edges.

As I turned them around in my hands I was thinking about how much they looked like moon rocks or something from outer space. I thought, "why fight it?" and the idea for Cosmic Debris was born, (although I was originally thinking of calling this piece Space Junk). ;-) I sorted through my stash looking for the perfect celestial pendant to match and found a Green Girl Studios disc, called Alchemy Rock that I've had kicking around in my studio for quite some time. Its interstellar vibe worked well with my theme but it was kind of dingy and tarnished from sitting around for so long. A quick polish with my Sunshine Cloth had it looking like new in no time!

I used some gray seed beads and beading wire to create a loop to hang it from and then continued up the length of the wire on either side, alternating seed beads with the Michaels beads. I found a cool box clasp in my stash (with a moonstone cabochon... how perfect!) and finished it off only to realize that I had forgotten about the chain! So I attached a length inside to create a second layer. I think it works quite well for an afterthought. ;-)

Here is is, my "Cosmic Debris" necklace!

I'm very pleased with how it turned out. So much so that I've been wearing it around all day! As a matter of fact, I like it so much that I think I'm going to keep it. I never do that! Merry Christmas to me!

However, I still have enough beads left to make another if someone really wanted one. ;-)

Me wearing it!

Here I am showing it (and my new haircut) off. ;-)

Happy Holidays everyone!

PS: Check out the other bloggers in this challenge!

http://Lorelei1141.blogspot.com

http://silverrosedesigns.blogspot.com

http://blog.elysianstudiosart.com/

http://threeredbeads.blogspot.com/

http://starcitystory.blogspot.com/

http://erinsiegeljewelry.blogspot.com/

http://www.thistlefarmarts.blogspot.com/

http://therabbitmuse.blogspot.com/

http://lindalandig.wordpress.com/

http://dreamsomedesigns.blogspot.com/

http://rosebud101-fortheloveofbeads.blogspot.com/

http://jenjuddrocks.blogspot.com/

http://formysweetdaughter.blogspot.com/

http://www.mylifeunderthebus.typepad.com/

http://deborahmpurdy.blogspot.com/

http://beadhappytoday.blogspot.com/

http://pinkicejewels.blogspot.com/

http://craftyhope.blogspot.com/

http://gr8findings.wordpress.com/

http://tropicbeads.blogspot.com/

http://melissaruth.com/blog/

http://maryhardingjewelrybeadblog.blogspot.com/

http://beautifullybrokenme.blogspot.com/

Challenge of Color

Hello blog hoppers! My name is Lisa Godfrey and I have a little business called Lisalu Jewels. I'm so excited to be participating in my first ever blog hop challenge! What a great opportunity to get to meet some of my fellow beady bloggers.

This challenge was created by Erin Prais-Hintz of Tesori Trovati and you can read all about it here on her blog. We were all given a paint chip in our chosen color family. I'm really drawn to oceany blues and greens so I thought I should pick something from the opposite side of the color wheel for a fun change. I chose red and here is the swatch sent to me by Erin. I started off making one piece of jewelry and ended up with two from my palette! What can I say? I was on a roll. ;-)

My Paint Chip Palette

Rosy Rouge, Mango Parfait and Basmati Rice

For my first piece, called Rosy Rouge, I chose to work with the red tones in the swatch. I started with a gorgeous set of lampwork spiral discs made by one of my favorite lampwork artists Heather Boardman of HMB Studios. If you haven't seen her work you should check it out. I love her use of color and funky style. I combined the entire set of beads with Swarovski crystals, Czech glass druks and sterling silver round link chain. Then I finished it off with some gorgeous hand dyed silk ribbon from Jocalatte which I tied in a cute bow on the side. I'm really happy with how it turned out! Even though the red isn't the "exact" shade as my swatch I think it's definitely within that family. ;-)

Rosy Rouge

For my second piece called Mango Parfait, I tried to incorporate all three colors in the necklace. I started again with another beautiful set of lampwork beads by HMB Studios. Heather really did all the work for me! This set included red, orange and cream beads that worked perfectly with my palette. I linked them together with yellow jade rondelles and added two different sizes of sterling silver round link chain, one for the bottom and one for the top. I finished it off with a clasp that I made myself, which also happenes to be my first attempt at making my own clasps. I'm pretty happy with it. :-)

Mango Parfait

I can't wait to see what the other participants in the blog hop have come up with! Here's list of the other players with links to their blogs. Happy hopping!

Alice Peterson
Amy Freeland
Beth McCord
Brandi Hussey
Cary Scholes
Catherine Pruitt
Cindy Wimmer
Claire Maunsell
Cory Tompkins
Courtney Breul
Cristi Clothier
Cynthia Riggs
Emanda Johnson
Holly Westfall
Janea McDonald
Jeannie Dukic
Jennifer Cameron
Judy Campbell
Karyn White
Keirsten Giles
Kelly Morgan
Kristie Roeder
Kristin Stevens
Lisa Godfrey (you are here)
Lisa Tracy
Lori Anderson
Mallory Hoffman
Marie Voyer-Cramp
Mary McGraw
Nicole Keller
Nicole Valentine
Paige Maxim
Patty Gasparino
Rebecca Anderson
Renate Stark-Krammer
Rita Parra
Shannon Chomanczuk
Sheila Summers
Stefanie Teufel
Yelisa Rojas