Wire Wrap class

Barb Penrose has volunteered to teach a wire wrap class at our Bead retreat.  Since I know that she does beautiful work I'm looking forward to learning from her.  We will have to bring a cabachon and wire or we can buy it from the stash she will bring.

Beading with Friends

It's time to start planning for a "Beading Weekend with friends" from February 19 at 3 pm - 21st at noon in Cotter Arkansas.
We will be staying at the Rainbow Lodge in Downtown Cotter.

Since there are a variety of sleeping arrangements, the rule is going to be "first pay, first serve."

If you are interested in attending, please let me know as soon as possible and then send in your deposit.

You will then get to choose your lodging based on the order I receive payments.

I don’t have the capability to take credit cards so payment will need to be cash or check.

Your $150.00 registration fee includes:

- Space to bead

- Five meals - for dinner on Friday we will put together an order for Nima's pizza and calzones, Saturday and Sunday breakfast will be muffins, toast, yogurt, dry cereal and oatmeal, lunch on Saturday will be cold cut sandwiches and chips and dinner on Saturday will be your choice of chili or potato soup and dessert. There will be coffee and hot tea available all day .

- One beading pattern from Glenda Payseno for a bracelet

- Two nights lodging

You need only to bring your beading supplies and personal items. I'd suggest you bring a table light too. We will be beading and sleeping in the Lodge. We can take a road trip to Mountain Home to go to the Beaded Path Bead store if you would like.

Lodge Rooms:

The Iron Mountain Room has 4 bunk beds. The Missouri Pacific room has 2 bunk beds. The North Arkansas Room has l bunk and 1 queen bed. The Union Pacific Room has l queen and l trundle bed. The St. Louis Pacific Room has 1 queen bed. The lodge is upstairs over an old antique store. There are 2 full bathrooms and a half bath for us to share and a full kitchen with a refrigerator, stove and microwave.

Space is limited to 15 so sign up early!

A $50.00 deposit is due to reserve your spot and the last $100 is due by February 1st.

In case you need to cancel, you may transfer your spot to a friend without penalty at any time.

If you can’t find a replacement, I will make every effort to fill your spot with another guest.

However, if I am unable to fill your spot, the following cancellation policy will apply.

Cancellations made prior to Feb 1st are eligible for a full refund of all payments made.

Cancellations made after Feb 1st forfeit the full amount.

You may mail your registration to Irene Lenihan 233 Combs Cotter, AR 72626.

If we have to cancel due to bad weather I will refund all money.

If you have any questions, please contact me at 870 435-2487 or e-mail me at ilenihan@yahoo.com

I can't wait for a fun weekend of food and beading!

Busy Summer

Here is a picture of my display at Festival of the Little Hills in St. Charles, Mo last year.

Well I haven't been writing much to my blog but I have been working on things.
I've been busy traveling from festival to festival trying to sell our creations.
We've been to Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Missouri, Iowa and now we are going back to Missouri.
We are soon headed out to the Festival of the Little Hills in St. Charles, Mo. with lots of products and high hopes.
The shows this year have been a little slow compared to last year but I guess the economy has something to do with that.

John has been doing pretty well selling his outdoor furniture but I guess jewelry is not a necessity. It really makes me feel good when someone falls in love with my pieces and takes it home.
I did get John's new website finished. www cotterfurniture com

Use 'em

I have had some beautiful lampwork beads my friend Debby Gwaltney made for quite some time now. (Her website is www.starlight-beads.com) I kept thinking I would find just the right bead pattern for them but I never found just the "right" one. I finally decided to just go for it and see what I could make. So I made myself two beautiful summer bright necklaces. And I love how they turned out. One was my 4th of July jewelry since it was in Red, White and blue colors and the other is just summery fun and I wore it to church today. I've got to admit I loved looking at those beads but love them even more made up.

Busy Busy Busy

I've been working on my stock for the next bead show. We did one in Lee's Summit, Mo and I did fairly well. I sold 12 necklaces and 4 bracelets. But now I have to replace them for the next show. We were across the street from a food vendor downtown Lee's Summit and 2 blocks one way from the beer tent and the stage and 3 blocks the other way from another beer tent and stage. So that made us sort of a cross road for everyone going between the stages.
This is one of the necklaces I made to replace one that I sold. I call it Rainbow of colors and it is all swarovski crystals so it really shines in the light.
The next show is in Ruston, La and we are indoors. Thankfully. I'd hate to have to be outdoors in this heat!
After this one is done we don't have another one for a month so I'll have time to do a little bit of scrapbooking. I've got lots of baby photos to do.

Beads, Beads, wonderful beads

Silver Parrot's blog is giving away a box full of beads! It is stupendous.
Head over to Silver Parrot and check out the box of beads.
All you have to do to enter the drawing is make a blog post about the give away and leave a comment with a link to your blog.
Get going! Here is the link to Silver Parrot's blog.
What a great day it would be if I won that box of beads!
I can envision all the wonderful things I could make.

Another day

So much has been happening lately that I haven't been back to this blog in a long time.
I have been doing art shows, visiting my newest grand daughter, seeing my best friend (not as much as I'd like to), being with my sister and my mother as they go thru breast cancer treatment and trying to keep up with my house work.
Just making that list makes me tired.
Oh on top of that my blood pressure went sky high and we had to experiment with medicines to bring it back down. Not fun!
But here is a necklace I managed somehow to complete. Simple but pretty.

Finished

It's finally finished and I love it. I started this pattern by Glenda Payseno a while ago and it is finally finished. I love the way it turned out. Of course I didn't use the colors she selected. I never do on any patterns but I love the way these colors worked together. I have already started another of her patterns using two shades of gold seed beads and 4 sizes of gold swarovski pearls. Glenda's patterns are so good. They aren't simple but they turn out so pretty.

So much to tell you....

Camp Mitchell
I forgot three important things about this retreat.
1. The scenery was breathtaking.
2. There were strong, handsome men who unloaded and reloaded all our numerous containers of scrapbook stuff so we didn't have to do any heavy lifting at all.
3. And most important (I don't know why I forgot to mention it) the MVPs (Memory Villa Princesses) who treated us like queens all weekend long. They waited on us bringing us snacks and drinks and showing us techniques and just in general being wonderful to us.
Thank you so much ladies! Hope you are getting some well deserved rest today.
I'm hoping to get some of my online scrapbook friends to come next year so we can scrap in person.

17 pages

I am just back from the world's best scrapbook retreat. Good friends, good classes, lots of make and takes, a beautiful atmosphere , and good meals and snacks. What more could you ask for. Oh yeah there were lots of really great door prizes. And did I mention GREAT classes. This was the 4th Memory Villa Scrapbook Retreat and believe me I will be going again next year. Wish there was a way to sign up ahead of time because I certainly would.
After I get unpacked and organized again I will take a picture of some of the 17 layouts that I did while I was there.

Blog Candy

Here is a link to a site that is giving away scrapbook goodies.
http://whimsicalwishes.blogspot.com/2009/03/blog-candy.html

New photos

Here is what I've been doing lately... taking photos and making scrapbook layouts of my newest grand daughter..... Emma Josephine Lenihan. I can forsee a lot of trips to Mississippi for the purpose of taking photographs of this beautiful little girl.

Win some Acrylic Minis

Want to win some fun Acrylic Minis?

Go on over to this blog: Scrapperlicious and take your chance!

digital layout

Here is a digital layout using my grandparents wedding picture. Simple but I think it fits the vintage photo. I plan on printing it out 8x8 and putting it on a sheet of 12 x 12 paper.

Newspaper

Our local newspaper did an article about our home. Turned out really great.
http://www.baxterbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009901160313
is the link if you are interested.

Last October I went to a "bead cave" here in Arkansas.
It was so much fun. Basically a bunch of women get together for a weekend and bead.
There were a couple of classes to teach us something new and then sharing things we had made or how to make something.
One of the classes used a pattern generously donated by Glenda Payseno.
It was a necklace. I started it in the class and then put it away to finish later at home.
Finally finished it. Of course, I didn't match the colors or the pattern exactly but I love the way it turned out.
The plans for this year's Bead Cave have begun and I sure do want to make it there.
I made new friends and learned lots of new things.

Beginnings

I've decided that one of the 'new beginnings' for this year is to post to a blog.
I've tried journalling before and I've tried diaries. Just doesn't work for me.
But since I've spent over 30 years working with computers I thought I would give this a try.

I love to read blogs and one I read regularly is Arty Girlz Challenge Blog for scrapbookers.
This is the layout I did for the #68 use buttons challenge.