Sue Beads

Hi everyone - Happy Tuesday - or not so happy depending on how you feel... like if you stayed up late to watch the Steeler Game, or you followed the stock market... Anyway, there's some new map scrabble tile pendants up in my other etsy store, BellaHannahJane (named after my daughter) and you might find your city. If you don't you can ping me and I'm sure I can make you one! These are very cool to give to someone for a stocking stuffer or holiday gift; I think it would be particularly cute to give to you child of a place you visited, or if you are a boyfriend and you spent a special weekend with a special someone in a special place! Good guy gift! Have fun shopping!

Whew - that was a busy weekend. My son takes tang soo do , and on Saturday he did his recertification test for his second cho-dan patch for his black belt. He has been doing this for five years, and last year at this time was when he received his black belt (at 9 years old!). Next year at this time, hopefully, he will be getting his e-dan patch! Yay for you S. My daughter went on a "cabin camping" trip to Ohiopyle with her school Trailblazers club and apparently had a great time because she came home exhausted. Thanks to my friend, Tod, who so graciously offered to pick her up - what a guy! Then, we had some friends over for dinner and had a really nice time! Early this morning, get up for Sunday school. It's cloudy, so it's a good day to have a lazy day! There are some new beads up on etsy - some swirly ones and a pair of chinese lantern beads but in the lentil shape. Check them out! Oh, yeah, don't forget to take my poll to the right - I would like to know wha...

I have a great customer who requested some of my designer beads with a large hole. She was making dog leads and wanted to embellish them with lampwork beads. I have made a series of these for her, and she graciously gave me permission to post a photo of one of the leads she made with my purple galaxy bead. Her name is Linda, and if you are interested in her work, you can find it at www.dreamweaverpoms.com/leads.html . They are really cool and she does custom work!

Hi everyone - I just created a poll to the right of this post - I wanted to know what size or type beads you prefer when making earrings. I like to list earring pairs on etsy, and I'd rather make bead sizes that you want! Thanks in advance to everyone who answers the poll! You have until October 1! If you prefer a different size or type totally, leave me a comment!

If you like focal beads, here's one for you! It's new on etsy - a teal raku bead that measures 25x22 mm and was wound on a 3/32" mandrel, it comes with two teal spacer beads as well. You can always ask for more, too - I'm happy to make more beads! You can click on it to go right to it in my etsy shop!

Here's a new bead in my etsy store - a Halloween style large hole bead! Measures 15mm wide, 7mm high with a 5mm hole. Enjoy! You can click it to get there!

I've just relisted a bunch of scrabble tile pendants in my BellaHannahJane etsy shop . They make really great stocking stuffers or holiday gifts. The map ones are fantastic if it's a place you live, have lived, or visited and has special meaning to you. The stamps are fantastic because they are vintage and just so colorful! All the stamps now are self-stick - these are great! Please check out the shop, and tell your friends!

I have some cute halloween-type beads up in my etsy shop right now - check them out. Some people enjoy halloween, but don't necessarily like the pumpkins and bats jewelry - here's where my beads come in! If you are a mom who's going to the school halloween parade, but have an older child, I think you could really make something cute out of these beads! If you are going to a party, but don't want the bats, as I've mentioned, these will also do very nicely! Happy weekend!

Hi everyone - well, it's the weekend, and I for one am thankful that I don't have to get up at 6am tomorrow to get the kids ready for school. I get so tired this time of year, when I'm still going to bed late, but have to get up so early. It's supposed to be a beautiful almost-fall weekend here - lots of yard work to do! There are some new beads and purse charm/clip/pulls up in my etsy store right now - have a look!

Hi everyone - you have to check out my new friend Rocki's blog! She is so enthusiastic! I submitted an earring design to a magazine (which will be disclosed at a later date - like when I actually have a contract in hand) and it was accepted. I used her Elfin Ear Wires , and her shop name will be listed as a source in the magazine! They are great ear wires - very pretty, but also very functional and strong! Give them a try! And check out my web site sale, too! Thanks for making my day, Rocki!

"Because we can no longer absorb these rising costs on our own, we are writing to inform you that we must implement a general 10% price increase, effective November 1, 2008." This is copied out of an email I received today from Bullseye Glass Co. While I don't use that much Bullseye Glass, I do know that moretti glass is also going up, due to the price of gas, etc. Unfortunately for bead makers, it means that they will have to raise their prices to keep up with the rising price of glass, gas, etc. I guess everyone is feeling the pinch - check out my web site for the rest of September for a 10% off sale!

The sale is on! I, no, not I, the engineer, finally figured out how to make the sale prices work. It's a little bit of work, but I think working for a discount isn't a bad thing! You just have to click on the sale link provided - then all the prices come up 10% off! So go right ahead and start ordering those beads for yourself, I mean, for your holiday gifts!!!! BTW, the above listing is on etsy right now!

That's right - Christmas in September! With the cost of everything rising (notably postage, glass rods, packaging, etc.) I am probably going to be forced to raise my prices soon. So I wanted to have a Christmas in September sale for all of you, so you can get an early start on your holiday projects! Plus, it will be a good way for me to keep busy! Starting tomorrow, Monday, September 15th, all Made to Order and Large Hole Beads will be 10% off in my store for the rest of the month of September. I've already figured out how to initiate the discount on the Large Hole Bead category - I'm having a bit more trouble with the Made To Order category. But hopefully, by tomorrow, it will be worked out! Hint Hint - the Large Hole Beads are already marked with their sale prices, if you want to go shopping now!

Whenever I have leftover beads, I like to make useful things out of them! I really like making the purse-clip-backpack-charm-zipper-pull things! You can be creative with leftovers - leftover spacers, beads, etc. Here's a photo of one I made from a leftover bead of mine, and some czech rondelles and a celtic charm. I really like the colors! Hope you do too - you'll be able to find them in my etsy shop pretty soon, for little holiday-gift-stocking-stuffers! Have a great weekend! We are visiting my friend Beth and her family for dinner tonight - she has half a cow to eat, and we're bringing the pie and corn from the farmer's market! I can't wait to what else she's done to her house - right now I think they are working on their deck. They do it all by themselves, too! Busy Busy! Oh yes, and I want to say good luck to all the people in Texas who are dealing with Hurricane Ike. I haven't seen too much on the news about it, yet, I'm sure we will later when peo...

My mom and I took the kids to see Wicked last night. I had seen it before and was prepared for a boring night (because I didn't think it was all that) and my son has strep, so figured he'd want to go home early. Instead, it was pretty good; I think they must have changed it a bit because it seemed funnier. My son wanted to stay the whole time - unusual for a 10 year old who is sick. My mom loved it. My daughter has been wanting to go since it had been here two years ago and "everyone" in her class has seen it except her. So I'd say we had a successful night. Now I'm tired! I made some beadies today - more pics tomorrow, maybe - and since it's a lovely rainy day, I think a nap is in order! If you don't know, there's a CIM glass rod color called Elphaba - pretty funny!

I was at my son's pre-school, waiting for his first day of Young 3's class to be over so we could go to lunch with friends. There's no tv at pre-school, of course, so when my friend Cherie came staggering into the building, crying, I could not imagine what was wrong. I went up to her, thinking there was an accident or something, and she told me. I was incredulous - two planes hitting the Twin Towers could not be an air traffic control mistake. Here in Western Pennsylvania, a plane went down in Shanksville, a town about an hour from Pittsburgh city center, and it sure scared us. My friend Jill went to pick up our daughters from school and bring them home, so we could see and feel that they were safe. Always remember, never forget. And I hope all of you are safe.

Do you ever blurf? Do you know what blurfing is? It's when you go to the next blog, surfing for blogs! It's pretty cool - you can see some fun blogs and read some interesting things, not to mention see some cool pics. I really need to get better at posting pics on my blog - in addition to the beads. Speaking of - I'll be making some more beads tomorrow - maybe some spooks if I can get my vet. black to quit fuming (?). But here's a pic of a bead up on etsy! See ya!

Hi! I put two new large hole beads up on etsy - one is a teal bead with silvered ivory swirls, etched, and the other is a really pretty pink from Bullseye - it's an oddlot, so there's not a whole lot of that glass around, if you like pink! If you have noticed the time and temperature setting to the right of my blog paragraphs, you will see that we here in Pittsburgh are getting a bit of a much-welcomed cold front moving in. I certainly appreciate it - sitting in front of a 940 degree kiln while using a torch makes for a hot work session. Having my basement a little bit cooler is great! Although I'll be complaining in the winter, when it's really cold down there. That's why I love fall so much - the temperatures are so great! Now, if we could only get some rain - I mean real rain! We had a little bit today, but not nearly enough to turn my backyard green again! How did my kid get strep throat already? He was only in school for 5 days, and he missed today and will mis...

First, there are some spacer beads and one set of earring beads on etsy - go get 'em! Second, here's another one of my pet peeves, since I seem to be revealing myself. It's when people allow their dogs to defecate in your yard, or anyone else's, or on the street, or whatever, and don't clean it up. That is so disgusting...do they not think where it goes or what happens to it? Someone in my neighborhood actually did clean it up, and then threw it in the sewer. That goes directly to the water processing plant, don't they know that?!??!?! Ok, I feel better now!

O.K., am I the only person in the country who thinks that if you made it out of high school, you should be able to spell? At the very least, use the spell checker, since at the very least, the last 10 years of high school graduates have grown up with computers (I am dating myself here). Among my other pet peeves, which I may detail one day, spelling, or the lack of skill thereof, is at the top of the list, particularly if you are going to publish your words. Sorry, just needed to get that off my proverbial chest. Back to your regularly scheduled program.

Here's a photo of another set of beads on ebay - I love the fall colors! These were really fun to make! They were made with a beautiful color called capri blue as a base, then wrapped with silvered ivory, wasabi, dsp (dark silver plum), cobalt and pj blue! Dots of dsp on the sides and dots of wasabi and pj blue finish the beads off! Gorgeous! Anyone who has a facebook account, try and find me! I have found a few friends from around this area, but one friend from California who I never get to see! Who else is out there?

Hi everyone! There are new beads on ebay! Take a look. My daughter's class was at a leadership camp overnight on a school trip. It's called Outdoor Odyssey and looks pretty fun! They have a great big climbing wall and they stay in "rustic" cabins. So, her first day of school was a half-day; they get laptops in 8th grade (we do pay for them, it's rolled into tuition!) and they had laptop orientation. Then the second and third days were spent at the camp. What a way to start the school year! Monday will come as a shock, I'm sure! A whole day of school with homework and everything. I think my son is adjusting to 5th grade, so far. It's a lot different - they have a homeroom period and that's the "only time he gets to see his friends!", have to go to lockers and get to class in time, etc. He's also starting his language studies this year. He chose French. My daughter has had French since Kindergarten. I think 5th grade is a little bit late t...

Thanks to everyone who purchased my beads in August! I had 36 individual sales on my web site , etsy and ebay , and I will round up the donation to $40.00, to be sent in to standup2cancer on Friday, September 5th, when the show airs on CBS, ABC, and NBC. Thanks again!

Hi everyone! Happy Labor Day! Hope you all had a good holiday weekend! I have some new beads in my etsy shop, and an auction up on ebay. I hope to have more on ebay soon; summer is so slow, it just isn't a good time to sell on ebay! Take a look at my beads! Thanks! Oh yeah, school starts tomorrow! Wahoo!