I always enjoy Carolyn's blog entries about other artists and I thought I would share a couple of finds with all of you. The above bracelet is by Noodlefish. The artist, Collette, is friendly and helpful and created this bracelet as a custom order :) The bracelet sits quite prettily on my wrist and I'll be buying a LOT more things from her soon. I also purchased a FABULOUS button necklace in shades of green for St. Patrick's Day which I'll show off closer to the holiday. Thank you to Collette for creating such beautiful, funky jewellery!

In beady news I'm still obsessed with St. Patrick's Day. How do you like my Leprechaun Bobble Head? I think he's sooooo cute! I made a couple more and today I made some bunny bobble heads for Easter too :) Have I mentioned lately how much I love holidays? I'm also still making loads of tree beads and you guys really seem to be eating them up, thank you! I made a lovely tropical looking tree today and another nighttime tree too. I will eventually keep one for myself.. maybe I'll pocket this nighttime tree when no one's looking ;)

My brother-in-law, Si, is over tonight and I'm cooking Mexican.. woohoo! I looooove me some Mexican food! I might have also gone up to the shops and bought some ice cream (c'mon, could YOU pass up Caramel Cinnamon with bits of waffle cone?!? Oh how I love thee, Carte D'Or!). Of course I tell myself this is purely so I can be the good hostess and have sweets to offer Si. I might have also bought some cookies.. shhh!

Well, I better go make sure the cookies are behaving themselves downstairs. You know you really shouldn't leave them alone for too long.. they have a tendency to get into mischief.

Have a great night!

Love,
keiara

The Queen of Cupcakes, that is ;) The name was given to me by other lampwork artists and it makes me smile every time someone says it. I've had LOTS of requests for a return to my cuppycake roots so here are some new yummies to feast on. I even made some festive St. Patrick's Day cupcakes! How cute are those?! :) A lot of these will be going into my Etsy shop so go on and indulge your sweet tooth.


Speaking of St. Patrick's Day, I also made this adorable little fellow. Fittingly enough, his name is Lucky Bear :) I might have to keep him for myself!

Anyone else doing something fun for St. Patrick's Day? I have tons of decorations to put up and I'm contemplating doing a traditional corned beef (not the canned stuff.. the REAL stuff) dinner. I have a family recipe for some gorrrrrrrgeous Irish Soda Bread too. I'm not sure if I'll have the patience to make it but I'll think about it.. whilst licking my lips ;) Since Leah will be visiting I'll probably also have some green beer. Mmm, green beer. Heehee.

Tomorrow I'm off for a glassy girl get together! This should be tons of fun. I'm driving up (well, riding up!) with Sam which will be fun in and of itself. We're going to Jo's studio for the day and lots of other artists will be there too. Naturally I'm bringing cupcakes; both the glassy kind and the edible kind! They don't call me the Cupcake Queen for nothing ;)

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I'll see some of you tomorrow!! :D

Love,
keiara

I'm in today's edition of YourShepway newspaper! There's a little write-up about me and what I do. I have a half page article coming up in the next few weeks too! WOOHOO! How exciting :) Nothing could wipe the smile off my face today!

I've also added lots of new beads and jewellery to my Etsy shop. The pet portrait beads have been really popular and I'm up to my eyeballs in adorable cats and dogs. It's pushing me to create new techniques and new striped canes to try and capture coat patterns. I'm enjoying the challenge :)

I'm now in cupcake and St. Patrick's Day mode and last night combined the two and made green and white cupcakes topped with 4 leaf clovers! I'll post a picture when I get them all cleaned up. The cupcakes came out super cute :) I love holiday-themed stuff! I also have to plan what I'm going to make my sister, Leah, for her birthday. She'll be 22 on March 12 and she'll be here with me! Yay! Gonna have to think hard on what to make for her. Last year I made her a pendant with a double dip ice cream cone that matches one of her tattoos :) I also made her a gorgeous bracelet with chocolates, cakes and cookies.. that she promptly broke! Of course this was also before I started making my own beads so they were commissioned beads. How am I going to outdo last year?! I'm taking suggestions.. ;)

Ok, I'm off to make more cupcakes and St. Patrick's Day beads. Hope you're all having a good day too!

Love,
keiara

Orchids are my favourite flower. I even have an orchid tattoo on the back of my neck! My mother-in-law bought me a beautiful mini orchid for my wedding anniversary and I was admiring it yesterday which made me wonder if I could make an orchid bead. I brought the little beauty up to my studio and studied it for awhile before creating this bead. The blooms aren't absolutely perfect but I think it came out rather nice. I made two yesterday and I'll definitely be making more!

Is everyone ready for Valentine's Day? I have to run to the shops today to get some candy for our Valentine's Day boxes. In my family everyone has their very own Valentine's Day box. When we were kids my mother handmade beautiful boxes to house our candy. Mine is heart-shaped and covered in beautiful, iridescent lavender fabric with a huge purple organza bow. It's gorgeous!! Anyway, I decided to keep up this tradition and I bought (I know, I know.. it's not handmade, sorry!) Steve a shiny black box with small red hearts on it. It's manly enough! Each year we fill each other's boxes with candy and small gifts. Normally I would already have all the bits to go into them but I've been working so hard on beads this week that I put it off til the last minute. So off to the shops for me today!

In other Valentine's-y news my mother sent me a beautiful package containing the new Hallmark singing stuffed animals. It's a plush heart topped with two 'lovebugs' that sing and dance when you press the button. Mom sends me one for every holiday and they're just way too cute! She also sent some looooooovely chocolates in a beautiful box and a pretty card. My little sister, Leah, even got into the spirit this year and sent us Transformers Valentines.. lol!! I love that girl, I swear :) She'll be here on March 11 and I can't wait! Leah's staying for 3 weeks and then I fly back with her to Florida for 2 weeks. It will be so nice to see my family! I haven't seen them in ages and I miss them all so much. I'll get to meet Emi's new little one, Ethan, too! I'm so excited!!

Well I wish you all a very Happy Valentine's Day and I hope everyone has a sweet day filled with lots of love and hugs. Don't forget Valentine's Day is about spreading the love so tell everyone how much they mean to you :) It's the perfect excuse to be a little sappy.

Have a great weekend!

Love,
keiara

Victoria Valentine, one of my hollow lampwork fish, was put into an Etsy treasury! I'm so super thrilled :)

Big thanks to Jo for letting me know!

Love,
keiara

Lots of new beads and jewellery for sale in my Etsy shop including trees, animals and sweets!

Hope you'll have a peek :)

Love,
keiara

I had a really great response to my initial big hole bead animals and I'm so pleased. I was asked by the lovely Sooz if I could make pet portrait beads and I thought I'd give it a go. Here are the results!



I also made a rabbit and a doggie. They're such fun to make! It's definitely more difficult to try to get such a small bead to resemble a pet though! I think they came out pretty cute :)

I can make these beads to fit Troll, Pandora, Biagi, Lovelinks and other bracelet systems. How would you like your pets immortalized in glass that you can wear around your wrist? Email me at keiara@bykeiara.co.uk for more details :)

Hope you have a great weekend!

Love,
keiara

I also made this little guy, Percival Pig. I just love his cute face! It's hard to get used to the hole orientation though, I'll admit. I'm used to vertical holes for animal beads. Anyway, I popped these two on my bracelet and they look adorable.

Saffie came over today and we talked glass, had sandwiches and I even talked her into a cupcake :) Saffie's so much fun to have around and I really love our little get togethers. We tend to end up chatting and not making too many beads though! She also quite generously let me borrow her 5mm mandrels which are the ones used for making these big hole beads. Thanks hon! I shall try my hand at more designs and see how I go. Any suggestions?

Ok off to make beads :) Hope you're having a wonderful day!

Love,
keiara

Yesterday I made tree beads and this is 'Lilac Tree' which is one of my favourites (that also photographed well.. lol) I'm having lots of fun making these beads. They're quite time intensive (have to first make the 'canes' for the bark, flowers and ground) and a bit fiddly to lay down the branches but I really like the finished bead.

Here is a shot of all the tree beads I made yesterday. I especially like the 'nighttime' ones and the smaller one with the moon is my favourite :) The little 'stars' are tiny dots of fine silver and they twinkle beautifully. I'm going to be listing these beads in my Etsy shop by the end of the week. If you're interested in one feel free to contact me before then!

Tomorrow is my glassy play date with Sam! Yay! Perhaps I should tidy up my studio... *frown* It's definitely become a wee bit of a disaster area in here. I've been working so hard making beads that I just haven't had the time to straighten up. Yeah. That sounds good. ;)

I'm off to have some lunch. Hope you're all having a good day!

Love,

keiara