Fun Nails..

I love having my nails done. However (as all you beaders know) having nails can really get in the way, and can also be hard to keep when you work with your hands all day.

So I am going to attempt to commit to taking time once a week to do my nails in an attempt to keep them from breaking (crossing my fingers).

For any of you who haven't checked out the nail isle lately it has changed dramatically! Now you simple find the nails you want, and press them on. No, not the press on tips. Press on nail polish. So far my experience has been the more expensive they are, the worst they are. I know, doesn't make sense to me either. But I have tried three different types of the more upscale expensive brands, and they never stay on, my nails look terrible with in a day. If you can get them to stick on at all that is.

So I've went with the cheapest brand I can find, and I love them! They stick better, they last longer, and I like the selection more.

So here is this weeks! Although I did spend a little extra time with these. I polished my nails with a shimmery blue, and cut out the flowers. Still even with taking the extra time, I still finished my nails in less then 20 minutes including drying time.  and now when I bead I get to look at fun nails versus broken chipped ones!

Okay.. enough rambling... here are this weeks nails (3 days after doing them) The blue polish didn't turn out as nice as I would have liked, especially for the brand it is, but other then that, I like them very much.

Could this rollercoaster be slowing down??

Well, the past year has been quite a ride, but i think..yes...this ride is starting to slow down finally. Everytime I got one thing patched up, something else would break! My poor fiance came to visit for 3 weeks to celebrate my 40th birthday in December, and he is still here. LOL. He hasn't been able to go home yet. I'd love for him to never go back, but I know that he is sacrificing his own shows and art to stay with me and get me mended.  I have never known such a selfless person as he is. Dare I say.. he may be my earth angel?

I still have one little surgery, and then...i think i can take a break from illness and surgeries for a while. Crossing fingers.

Meanwhile...I have been sketching in my sketch book of ideas like crazy, and have so many ideas I want to try out. I have been struggling to keep up with the actual beading through all this, but the ideas are still coming through like crazy. I can't wait to actually get to make some of these pieces.

I have been working on a custom fish bracelet (shown in previous blog) and will post a picture of that when it is complete.

I have also been working on these little flowers..well...for actually about a year and half, and i finally did make a finished piece. I sent it in for a competition (Crossing fingers again!), so I am waiting to show that piece until I know what is happening with the compeition. I can however, show some elements of the piece.

Real flowers, and my beaded flowers mixed together.

my oldest niece Amanda and one of her dearest friends Devon visited last month, and were sweet enough to model some of my pieces.

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer. Be sure to check out the Love Bird tab on top of my blog. They are the newest addition to our back yard this summer, wild love birds.  I'm sure their inspiring colors will be showing up in my beadwork.

Work in progress

Hi everyone! I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying their summer so far. It is sooo hot here already!

This is still a work in progress. I have to put it on the metal form and do the edging; however I wanted to go ahead an share the progress so far...

It's been a while since I have done a fish cuff so it was a lot of fun to do one again.

Is it me? Or is this one of the worst online bead stores...

SO at this point I am not going to give a store name. Just need to vent a little here. Last month, May 8th. I decided to try out a online bead shop that I had never used before as they were offering free shipping with $25.00 purchase. I thought, okay...this is a good time to try them out.

Placed my order on the 8th.

Week and half later, called to check on it, and was told the items I ordered were on back order. Strange as they were in stock when i ordered, but okay.

Week later still no package. My account is charged for the order, and is over charged by around $15.00. SO I call to see what is going on. They tell me they have confused my order with someone else in the system with the same name, and THAT person was the one that had back ordered items.

So I speak with the owner, he appologizes and tells me to keep the extra items they sent, and they will refund the extra they charged me.

So, they refund me the overcharge.

Week later, STILL no package.

I call. They WROTE the wrong address and it came back to them. LOL. WOW.

So, after the owner tells me to keep the extras they sent, they open the package, take them out and send the package back out to me. HERE Is the problem. They ALSO took out MY items that I paid for.

So now, June 4th. I get the package missing items I paid for. I call. THeir message says they will be opened on June 5th, and then closed after that for the bead and button show. I call every hour on the hour June 5th. NO answer. I sent emails. NO answer.

It is now June 9th, and I still dont' have the items I paid for.

Am I crazy, or is this store just ridiculously poorly ran???? My nieces were running their own business at 13 and 15 and do a better job then this place.  Mixing me up with other customer, writing wrong address, taking back items the owner to keep, taking back items I paid for, not answering my emails or calling me back, over a month now and still not having my order?.....seriously..how does this place stay in business?? Then they close up shop and go to the bead and button show, and don't even check their emails, or phone messages? WHat business just stops checking their phone messages for a week.

6-13-12 update: I heard back from them yesterday. I received a very heartfelt email of apology. So I'm going to give them a second chance. All of us have had those situations where things just spiral out of control, and everything that could possible go wrong does go wrong. I would hope if I screwed up so terrible that my customer would give me a chance to make up for it, so do on to others, and all that....

YEP..more love birds

Today I had 15 in my tree.. including 3 blue parrots, and a mama and baby, whom i captured having dinner...


Want to see more of this story? Visit my Captured Moments Page

Love Birds in Flight

Love Birds in Flight

See many other flight photo's on my Captured Moments page.