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Saturday ~ November 1st

More pretties ~ juicy colors, funky clasps, groovy beads...  These will be available at our Open House November 14th & 15th.  If you would like an invite, please email me.

We went to my nephew Scotty's wedding reception last night.  Everybody dressed up, it was fantastic!  There were so many excellent costumes. 

Chris & I originally were going to go as Mexican Wrestlers because we bought masks when we were there in January, but after trying them on we realized it would be too challenging to have dinner & drinks while wearing the masks so we went with an old standby ~ Rodeo Clowns.  My brother Bruce, err, Indiana Jones, came by to pick us up & I got a photo of us together:

Sunday ~ November 2nd

SNEAK PEAK PREVIEW WEEK CONTINUED:

More goodies up for grabs soon.  Our Open House is November 14th & 15th.  If you would like an invite, please email me.

You gotta love the extra hour, one extra hour to make more beads I guess.  I better get cracking, have a wonderful Sunday. 

Tuesday ~ November 4th

This is a big day for my American friends & family.  I've been following the election pretty close.  As a result, I've become a bit of a CNN junkie.  I'm hoping after this week, I'll get back to the music & the non political pod casts while I work, but for the last little while, CNN has been my "drug" of choice (oh & I've always been a junkie of the The Daily Show *so don't worry Masako*). 

Anyway, I hope you get out & vote.  I also hope that it's not too crazy for you.  I've heard that many will be waiting in long lines & that some people are trying to botch things up for some voters so I hope it runs smooth for you.  Good luck today!

When Chris & I went to vote back in October, it was extremely quiet.  We didn't wait a second in line but that was only because sadly, we had the lowest voter turnout on record!  What a stark contrast you will be experiencing.   

On an unrelated note, we finished a project that was started back in March.  This project was a collaborative effort with our friend, Christine Norton who lives in Washington D.C. (& who is probably standing in line waiting to vote at this very moment). 

The necklace below is a gift for a lady named Sam, who runs an artist retreat & workshop in Mexico called Hacienda Mosaico.  You might remember back in January, my mom & I traveled to Puerto Vallarta to take a silver class (PMC) there & Sam was the mastermind & grand organizer of it all.  During our stay, Christine (who was also taking the class) & I discovered that our birthdays fell on the same day, January 24th & that day happened to occur while we were taking the silver class.  When Sam caught wind of this, she arranged for a wonderful birthday celebration with a cake & streamers, party hats & tequila shots.  Christine & I were both very touched by this & wanted to create something as a thank you & of course we enlisted my mom because she is so talented & well, we needed her. 

To describe the necklace: the bird in the picture was originally a painting that my mom painted from a photo I took of Sam's beloved cockatoo "Blanca".  When it was finished, we sent a copy of the painting to Christine who shrunk it down & made a beautiful pure silver frame around it, filled it with resin & shipped it to us to finish.  I made a glass bead to dangle below & my mom completed it with the seed bead & silver necklace ~

And below a close up of the pendant, my mom's beautiful painting & Christine's detailed silver work ~

And a picture of the real Blanca with Sam encouraging her to dance ~

And finally, the birthday girls & posse back in January ~

* Email invites to our show will go out tomorrow! *  If you want to be invited, please email me (that is if you haven't already). 

Wednesday ~ November 5th

What an incredible election & what an incredible choice for president!  I believe the ramifications of this choice will ripple far beyond the U.S. borders.  I feel a new sense of hope for politics, for America, for humanity & I know I'm not alone.  I am also so impressed by how gracious John McCain was in defeat.  And Barack Obama's speech was inspiring, hopeful, humble & profound.  Incredible, just incredible!

So now what?  How about a picture of some of our jewelry that will be for sale during our Open House, which will be on November 14th & 15th.  I'm sending out invites today, if you or any of your friends are not on my invite list & would like to be, please email me.

Thursday ~ November 6th

O.k., one last "sneak peak" ~ you'll just have to come to the Open House (Nov. 14th & 15th) to see the rest of our jewelry in person.  I sent out email invites yesterday.  If you did not receive one, email me & I'll fire one off to you.

Friday ~ November 7th

Happy Birthday Alex!  You're such a cool kid & I'm so proud to be your Auntie!

Do you remember when you were a bit younger & for your birthday you wanted to have your friends over to clean & organize your room?  It was so *cute* & I just loved that because I was the same kind of kid, I really got a kick out of straightening up my room... Now that you're 14, I don't imagine you will be making plans for a cleaning party, but I do hope you have an excellent day ~ enjoy sweetie!

In other news, if you're a fan of SurvivorMan, the new season starts up on Discovery U.S. TONIGHT.  Here's the trailer, it takes a minute to upload, but it looks good!  We don't have that channel so Chris & I have to wait until the DVD comes out, but then we'll get a SurvivorMan overload, awesome!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! 

Monday ~ November 10th

          Crabapple Tree ~ photo courtesy of my mom, Judy

The Bead Tree is ripe with jewels, come to our Open House this Friday & Saturday to see for yourself.  We'll have champagne & chocolates, glass bead demonstrations & lots of beautiful gifts to shop for. 

Thursday ~ November 13th

Our house opens tomorrow night for our annual jewelry sale.  Need an invite?   Please email me for more details. 

Check out our video ~ hope you like it!

Monday ~ November 17th

Phew!  That was one busy weekend.  First off, I really want to thank all of you that came to our open house.  I wouldn't be able to do this job without you & I feel eternally grateful for your enthusiasm & support.  I know that many people are worried about the economy & jewelry might seem like an unaffordable luxury right now, so I am even more grateful that you still came out because you need something sparkly in your life.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I'm exhausted this morning & there's a pile of things to catch up on... I have to put my studio back together, respond to emails, go through pictures, get groceries, do laundry & clean the house.  So for now I will leave you with a sweet little picture I found on the web of some baby skunks.  I've been told that they still smell after you descent them & that they like to bite, but I still want one real bad.

When the sun comes out, I'll take pictures of some jewelry still available for the people that couldn't make the show or live too far away to come over.  Stay tuned...

Tuesday ~ November 18th

                      A sample of Tamye's Stampin' Up Cards

My dear friend, Tamye is having her annual Christmas Card-Making Class in Edmonton this Saturday, November 22nd at 2 p.m.  She only has a couple of spots left so if you want to make 15 Christmas cards with coordinating envelopes for only 30 buckaroonies, email her as soon as you can (no experience necessary).

Wednesday ~ November 19th

Photos of our set up for the Open House...

The table was draped with a white organza cloth on top of a silver tablecloth that was made especially for this show.  On the table itself, the jewelry rested on silver cushioned platters.  We had cream coloured roses as a centerpiece, truffles & champagne for the guests & nostalgic music from the 1950's played in the background.  And my favorite touch, sparkling stars dangled from the ceiling casting star shadows on the wall.   

Though it didn't quite fit with our "Starry Night" theme, we made sure my mom's giraffe had a place in the show because he's our good luck charm.  Mom purchased him when we went to Africa in 2001 & it was there that our interest in beads really started to develop so we like to include him in our shows.  Besides, he looks fabulous in a silk necktie!

Close ups of some of the jewelry.

And finally, right before the guests arrived...

We posed for a quick picture ~ my mom, my Auntie Linda who helps out at each show (thank you Auntie!) & me.

That's it, just a little peak at the set up for our show.  Hope you enjoyed it.

Thursday ~ November 20th

                         Photo courtesy of Cute Overload!

A little picture to warm the cockles, & my cockles sure do need warming this morning.  "Oh hello Winter, you decided to drop in, did ya?"  Brrr.

Anyway, I will be taking photos of jewelry today for all those inquiring.  It takes a little while to get them from the camera to the website so please bear with me... hopefully by late tonight or early tomorrow there will be some pretties up.  Thanks for stopping by.

Friday ~ November 21st

                   Photo courtesy of National Geographic

I'm running a little behind.  Instead of working on getting the photos up on the website last night, we went out to celebrate Chris' cousin Kerri-Anne's Convocation, yeah Kerri-Anne!  And today, it's sunny & warm out so I've decided to forgo the work so that Chris & I can spend some time outside filming something.  We're going to attempt to make another little video to put up here soon. 

Sorry for the delay, hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Monday ~ November 24th

The Boutique is open ~ click on the photo below to view our jewelry!

Tuesday ~ November 25th

       My Grandma at her 90th Birthday Party on the weekend

My amazing grandmother turns 90 today.  She has had an incredible life; a dedicated nurse who spent her career taking care of others.  She has also done a considerable amount of charitable work that has won her awards & accolades & still to this day she is quite the firecracker ~ Happy Birthday Grandma! 

Wednesday ~ November 26th

So do you remember the little adventure I mentioned that I was going on this past Monday.  Well guess where I was?  Here's a hint below:

(*shh, don't tell my cats*) 

Hmm, what on earth could I possibly want here?  No baby skunks, rats!  How about...

this perfectly awesome GUINEA PIG!

Yes, I bought a Guinea Pig, finally!  Well actually, I used the gift card that Chris gave me last Christmas ~  I've been wanting to get one for a year now.  It's taken me this long because I was worried that my cats wouldn't like a new friend around the house (Maggie is extremely jealous).  I was mentioning this to my mom & she suggested that we keep the guinea pig at her place in the studio where she works & quite often where I work because it turns out that she really loves Guinea Pigs too!  So now we have a Studio Pig!  How rad!

Look how excited my mom is!  There's our little guy in the box ready for his ride home.

And here he is *insert awww*.  We named him Hugzy, "Hugz" for short.  He's really cute & gentle, don't you just love him!  (*O.k. Tricia, you're powerless to those cute, little beady eyes ~ they're burning through your critter-free heart*).

So, right now Hugz is a little freaked out... If any of you out there have or have had Guinea Pigs, I would love to hear your advice.  Like, how long does it take for them to settle in?  And when will Hugz start whistling & squeaking when we walk into the room instead of darting for his little igloo?  Feel free to let me know by emailing me here, thanks!

By the way, the jewelry sale is winding down.  The first page of bracelets are sold out (thank you ladies!), but there are a several bracelets on the second page and some gorgeous silk ties & a few pendants left. 

Also, if you want to come by to the studio, we can arrange a quick stop & shop to get your Bead Tree Jewelry before Christmas, just email me here.

Saturday ~ November 28th

                       Photo courtesy of my mom ~ Judy

I love the pictures my mom takes so I'm going to try to feature at least one photo from her collection each week.  Hope you enjoy them as well.

It's a busy weekend for us & the weather is glorious so that always means a few hours in the yard moving dirt, rocks, cutting logs & pruning.  And tonight we are celebrating our nephew Jonny's birthday at Chris' sister's house out in the country.  She always throws the best parties; lots of food, music, people & Jell-O shooters, it's going to be a doozy!