Friday 11 December 2009
Hi guys! I'm finally back in the UK! I injured my back during my vacation and had to extend my trip so I could heal up. I'm feeling better now and to thank all of you for your well wishes and your patience, I'm having a 20% off sale!

From now until Sunday at midnight, GMT, I'm offering 20% off my Ready To Go - Beads!, Ready To Go - Jewellery! and Key Focal categories!! I'm still offering my Add On Jewellery Services but those are not included in the sale.

How it works: You make your purchases and pay via PayPal. I will then refund you 20% of the applicable total! Super easy! Remember: the prices seen on my website are the originals.. you will get 20% off those prices (except for Add On Jewellery Services).

Sale ends Sunday at midnight, GMT. What are you waiting for?!

Have a great weekend :)

Love,
keiara

www.bykeiara.co.uk
www.bykeiara.etsy.com
Wednesday 11 November 2009

a week from today!

It's just one week from today that I'll be on a plane to Florida!!! I can't WAIT to see everyone :) There's this super cute face that I miss so much.. my daughter, Kaia. She'll be travelling down from Tampa to stay with me at my mom's house during the Thanksgiving holiday. I can't wait to squeeze her until her eyes pop out! Hey, you would too.. don't you SEE that face?!?

And I'll be seeing Mom and my sister, Leah. Hopefully Mom will take us to Jaxson's again which is where this picture was taken. Leah just moved into a new house with her boyfriend, Eric, and I can't WAIT to see her new place! I'm so happy for her :) Mom is also doing pretty good and has recently been getting back into the dating game. Good for you, Mom! I can't wait to give them tons of hugs.. and to eat lots of Mom's fabulous cookin' :) Leah even bought me a ticket to go see the Rangers game (ice hockey)!! What a great sister <3

And no visit would be complete without some quality time spent with my best friend, my anam cara, the other half of my soul.. Emi. It seems aaaaages since I've seen her.. even though it was really just in April! Emi has three kids (which are basically like my 'second' kids lol) and I can't wait to see them too. A big 'thank you' to Emi's fiance, David, for always putting up with the two of us :) In April when I couldn't travel to see Emi, David arranged for all of them to come down and stay near my mom's house! What a guy, huh? I can't wait to see you, Emi! <3

As far as what this means to you, my lovely customers and friends: My website shop will be on hold starting this Friday and will return on Friday, December 4th. My Etsy shop is also 'on vacation' until my return. I WILL be accepting custom orders while I'm away though! All orders will be on a first come, first served basis and will be created upon my return. This means that I will START all custom orders received during my trip on Friday, December 4th. Please note that my lead time may be slightly longer than usual but hopefully still within 5 - 7 business days. If my lead time gets longer than that, I will notify you PRIOR to accepting your order, so no worries :) I hope that all makes sense ;)

I have new Ready To Go - Beads! and Ready To Go - Jewellery! in my shop right now! I also have some lovely new key focals up for grabs! All orders received up to Friday will be mailed before I leave.. so if you see something you like, feel free to snap it up ;)

I suppose I should probably start getting things together for my trip.. but I'm still so busy making beads! Speaking of which, think I'll light my torch now.. ;)

Have a great day!

Love,
keiara





Sunday 8 November 2009

November Giveaway - WINNER!

Thank you so much to everyone for entering my November Giveaway! I'm pleased to announce the winner:

Terri said...
Roll on Summer - looks good enough to eat!! Yum Yum
05 November 2009 14:45

Congratulations, Terri! Please email me to claim your ice cream cone :)

Have a great week, everyone!

Love,
keiara

www.bykeiara.co.uk
www.bykeiara.etsy.com
Thursday 5 November 2009

November Giveaway!

Hi guys! It's giveaway time!! This month I decided to give away one of my yummy ice cream cones. This bead is appearing in the latest issue of Bead magazine which is coming out soon! Would you like to own it? All you have to do is follow my blog by clicking on the 'follow' button at the right and leave me a comment below! Super easy :)

As always the winner can decide if you'd like me to turn it into a pendant for you :) The winner will be picked by random number generator on Sunday, November 8th! Giveaway open to everyone, everywhere!

Good luck and have a great day :)

Love,
keiara

http://www.bykeiara.co.uk/
http://www.bykeiara.etsy.com/
Wednesday 4 November 2009

ask and ye shall receive.. PIGTURES!

Hi guys!! As promised here are some guinea piggie 'pigtures' :) First up is Cupcake. She is quite shy and sticks her head out repeatedly before she feels confident enough that the weird woman with the purple hair isn't going to have her in a sandwich :P It takes her several minutes to get up the courage to come out of her little hidey home :)

But it's worth the wait! Isn't she lovely? She's such a dainy little girl and such a sweetiepie. Her sister, Muffin, could not be convinced to make an appearance today :( You can just about see her bum through the entrance to the tunnel in the upper left of this pigture. (You know I'm ALWAYS gonna use that term from now on, right?! Pigture.. *cracks up*) Cupcake LOVES broccoli and was happily munching away. She stopped to make sure my camera was not a threat and then continued chowing down ;)

And here are my sweet, sweet boys! They're happy to eat out of my hand (which is the odd looking thing in the upper left.. sorry, bad angle!) and here they are munching some parsley. Excuse the action shot.. that's how much they love the parsley!


Here they are minding their table manners a bit more. Ginger Nut (left) and Chips are warming up to me quite well so far. They don't seem overly scared when I put my hand in the cage and they'll even sniff at my fingers (if there's food involved of course!). The boys are really adorable and don't seem to fight at all! They sleep together in their little hidey house and don't seem to argue over food either.

The girls on the other hand!! The girls seem to be having some 'top pig' issues. Muffin (the shy one) won't come out of her tunnel when I'm around (although she DID take a bit of carrot from me yesterday.. but she cheated and only poked her head out of her tunnel) but she also won't let Cupcake IN the tunnel! Whenever Cupcake tries to enter the tunnel, much squeaky protests sound and Cupcake comes running back out. They sleep separately and I have not seen them share food at all. Muffin just tries to nab Cupcake's food if Cupcake happens to wander too close to the tunnel with a bit of veg. It's bizarre! I'm hoping the girls settle in and Muffin starts coming out of the tunnel more. I've read up and it says to give them about a week to settle in before really starting to handle them so that's what I'm doing. Let's hope a week is enough time for Muffin to quit being such a moody pig.. LOL ;)

A parting shot of Ginger Nut. He is SO adorable! I just love his little face and his pretty colouring. I can't wait til these little piggies start bonding with me more!

Lots of piggie hugs and love to all of you! Have a great week ;)

Love,
keiara (& the piggies)




Tuesday 3 November 2009

so much new stuff.. where do I begin?!

Hi everyone!! I hope you all had a wonderful, spooktacular Halloween! As you can see, my Halloween dreads DID arrive in time! WOOT! Naomi installed them and they really looked great :) These are synthetic hair dreads and they are SO much heavier than the wonderfully light wool I'm used to though! Still, I think they looked very festive :)

I've done a HUUUUGE update to my shop as well! I've added many new categories including: Ready To Go - Beads! This category contains all the beads that are already made and just waiting to go home with you :) Many of these will be availabe as made to order too so if you see something you like but want it in a different colour, just contact me and I'll be happy to create a lovely bead to your specifications.

I've also added a new Key Focal category! I know many of you were really diggin' the keys at the show so I've given them their very own category ;) I've also added an option to turn a key into a ribbon necklace!

Last, but not least, I also added a new Ready To Go - Jewellery! category. This category contains jewellery that's ready and waiting to adorn your ears, wrists and neck :)

In other news: I've adopted four baby guinea piggies! Pictures to come soon :) They are so sweet and adorable! This morning I had all four eating carrots out of my hands.. it was heaven!

How about you guys? Anything interesting happen over the Halloween weekend? Anything fun planned for the week? I'm busybusybusy but that's a good thing!

Off to make more beads.. hope you check out all my new shop changes!

Have a great week :)

Love,
Monday 26 October 2009

Happy Monday!

Hi guys! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I got into a bracelet-making mood and here are two of my favourites from Saturday :) Above is Candy Corn Halloween bracelet (candy corn, for all my British friends, is a quintessential American candy that is practically mandatory at any Halloween gathering - interesting side note: I can't stand the stuff but it IS really cute!) I created this bracelet with three of my handmade candy corn lampwork beads and gorgeous felt beads from Debbie. Her felt beads are FANTASTIC! Well, everything she does is fantastic ;) The beads are beautifully formed, light and easy to string. I really enjoyed working with them and I will definitely be making more felt bead jewellery!

Next up is Jester Halloween bracelet. All my Halloween jewellery this year is black, lime green and purple to match my new synthetic dreads (which I've just been told have not shipped yet even though I received an email last week saying they were going out Special Delivery.. PANIC MODE ON!) *cough* I'm going to be optimistic and believe they WILL arrive in the next couple of days. Anyway! This bracelet is all Debbie's felted beads with simple Sterling silver spacers. I am so in love with these beads! Comfy, cute and handmade by a darling friend. What more could you ask for?!

I'll have to do another post later this week showing off all my Halloween jewellery. I REALLY spoiled myself (if I may say) but I think I deserved it after all my hard work for the show last weekend ;) In the meantime, I'm off to bake Halloween cupcakes.. MMM!

Have a great day, everyone!

Love,
keiara

Tuesday 20 October 2009

I LOVE MY FRIENDS!

Yes, I do. Why? Because my friends send me awesomely cool Halloween stuff like this!!! This is a big reason why I love what I do so much. I mean, it's great and fun and wonderful all by itself PLUS I get to meet lots of other amazing artists who make lots of ridiculously cool stuff! Case in point: the above picture. My fabulous friend, Laura, made me these fantastic Halloween-themed brooches (am I the only one who always wants to say 'broach'?!) and the adorable card too. The Nightmare Before Christmas brooches are actually from last year but, hey, they deserved to have their pictures taken too! How awesome are these?! I LOVE them. To say that my jaw dropped when I saw the Dia de los Muertos (sugar) skull is an understatement. And how freaking cool is the Oogie Boogie?!? *swoon*

Not only did Laura send me an awesome package today.. but so did Debbie! I've talked about Debbie loads of times before. She's my go-to girl for felt jewellery, beads and her own handmade dolls and trolls too. Her work is incredible! I asked her if she could make me a pair of Halloween bracelets with some embroidery. This is what she came up with!! The lime green bracelet has fantastic, delicate embroidery featuring spiders and the black bracelet has sparkly stars (which don't show in the pic) and an AMAZING black cat face charm! This picture SOOOO doesn't do these bracelets justice. They are just phenomenal! I'm so in love with them :)

I've officially decorated my house for Halloween (pictures soon) and I'm planning a Halloween-themed dinner party! OooOoOOo! I can't wait :) Halloween is one of my favourite holidays. OH! I've also ordered some gorgeous black, lime green and purple synthetic dreads! I hope they arrive soon.. I can't wait to see what they look like installed (pics of that to follow too).

I have all my Halloween jewellery sorted including a button jewellery set from Collette at Noodlefish, a ribbon jewellery set from Mel at Poor Robin and these wonderful felt bracelets from Debbie of Wychburydoll. I suppose I should probably at least wear ONE of my own creations too, huh? Spooky Skulls bracelet it is, then!

How about you guys? Anything fun planned for Halloween? Trick-or-treating? Dressing up? I'll be baking up a bunch of ultra spooky cupcakes for hubby's office (as I do every year) and I have some GREAT ideas! I hope they turn out as cool as I'm envisioning ;)

Off to make more beads. Hope you're all having a great day! I know I am after receiving all these fantastic Halloween gifts!

Love,
keiara




Monday 19 October 2009

showing off my rack..

My bead rack, that is! What did you think I meant?! My wonderful hubby, Steve, made me some GORRRRRRGEOUS mahogany bead display racks. I have four of the tall, upright displays, two spinning displays and two focal displays. You can see one of each in this photo plus all the bazillions of beads I had for sale at The Big Bead Show! I had a GREAT time! I met up with old friends, made new friends and have so many new, wonderful customers. My beads seemed to be quite a hit and I was ecstatically happy! It was also fantastic to admire other people's work from seed bead jewellery and ornaments to ceramic bangles (SO awesome!), fabulous jewellery and interesting hairstyles, tattoos and piercings. What a day! I'm so glad that Sam asked me to share a table with her and gave me the courage to do this show. Thank you, Sam! I will definitely be doing more shows in the future :)

Here's a pic of us behind our table. Doesn't it look great? Between Steve's stands, our beads and the signs, I think it looked amazing! I had a smile on my face all day long.. so much so that my cheeks were really aching by the end of the day! I wouldn't change it for anything though. A HUGE thank you to everyone for all of your amazing support, compliments and purchases. You've all made me a very happy girl!

I came home to custom orders in my inbox already and tons of new mailing list subscribers. You guys rock so much :) I am so blessed!

Keep an eye on my website this week. I'll be listing TONS of new beads including pairs & trios, cupcakes, kitties, lentils and even some jewellery. Hope you like it :)

Also, now that the show is over I've reopened my Etsy shop. I'll be adding some new items to that shop too, so keep an eye on it :)

Thanks again, everyone, for all of your support. I love you guys!

Love,
keiara


Thursday 15 October 2009

it's just about that time..!

It's nearly time for The Big Bead Show! I'm super excited (and nervous) and I just can't wait! Steve has made some truly gorgeous bead displays and I'm so proud of him. I'll post pics of them after the event!

Reminder: Email me using the contact form on my website to RSVP for the show and I'll give you a discount on all my beads at the show! Don't miss out on this as it will ONLY be available to those of you who RSVP!

I'll also be offering a fantastic giveaway to everyone who signs my book at the show! If you're going, find me and sign the book to be eligible!

I hope you're as excited as I am! See you Saturday :)

Love,
keiara

www.bykeiara.co.uk
www.bykeiara.blogspot.com
Friday 9 October 2009

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday everyone! I'm still working like mad to get ready for The Big Bead Show. Yeah, that's me, plugging the show AGAIN! I've also had a few custom orders for necklaces lately (everyone just loves Diane's ribbons, of course!) and here are my two favourites (well, I have another favourite but I don't want to show it because it's a gift for a friend's sister - shhhh) Anyway! Above is my Golden Dream Tree Focal that I've turned into a pendant and hung from Diane's glorious ribbon. It is hard to see in the picture but the ribbon is a delicious variegated apricot with gold stitching. PERFECT for the Golden Dream Tree!

Here is my Lexi Kitty Focal on another of Diane's gorgeous ribbons. Doesn't it just look like it was made for this bead?! *swoon* I lovelovelove the pink and purple together. I have also just had to beg Diane to make me more ribbons as I'm running a bit low!

And here are some bead sets for the show! I'm creating a whole new range of sets that are easy on the wallet. These sets will each have one whimsical focal, four cute feature beads (polka dots, raised dots, etc.) and two spacers. The best part? These sets are all under £15! I will be premiering this range at the show. I'll also be listing them on my website after the show for those of you who won't be able to attend. Now you can have a bit of whimsy without the bigger price tag ;)

Here is my current dilemma.. maybe you'd all like to help me out. On the left is my original Christmas tree focal design. On the right is my new Christmas tree focal design. Which one do you prefer? I like both but I'd like to hear what all of you think. Please leave a comment and let me know which you prefer and why. I'll be ever-so-grateful :)

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I'm looking forward to a somewhat lazy weekend. I'm still tired from LAST weekend! Heehee :)

Love,
keiara

P.S.- I have put my Etsy shop on 'Vacation Mode' until after the show. I will open the shop back up on Monday, October 19. In the meantime if there is a custom order you'd like to place, please feel free to email me! Thanks for your understanding :)





Tuesday 6 October 2009

what a weekend!

Hi everyone! I had a super busy (and fun) weekend.. I'm still recovering ;) On Saturday, Steve, Naomi and I all drove over to Glastonbury for the Avalon Faery Ball. As we were driving along what should we happen to spy on the side of the road.. STONEHENGE! I had never seen Stonehenge so we quickly pulled over and went over to see it. It is amazing! It was also quite chilly and VERY windy.. my dreads were whipping me in the face :( It felt so good to be standing so close to this incredible bit of history. I was surprised at the surroundings though. It really is standing in a field.. with nothing else around! You can no longer walk amongst the stones but it was an incredible experience. I got all teary-eyed! Then on Sunday, Steve and I went to a friend's house for a get together. I enjoyed myself and there was tons of wonderful food :) We had a great time but by Sunday night we were both soooo utterly exhausted. I could've slept all day yesterday.. if I didn't have beads on the brain! ;)

Speaking of bead-brained, I'm still working hard to get ready for The Big Bead Show on Saturday, October 17. I've made TONS of cupcake sets, Christmas sets and plenty of kitty, tree and cupcake focals too :) I still think I should make more though.. so more are coming up!

Here is a group shot of a day's work last week. This shot makes me giggle a bit as I have everything from an elegant tree focal to spooky kitties topped off with whimsical cupcakes and sophisticated lentils. It goes to show you how hard I find it to stick to a certain theme for too long! :D

I'm off to make more beads. I have a few orders to sort out and then it's back to creating for the show. Oh and did I mention I made FIVE more cupcake sets yesterday? Yeah, I totally did. Cupcake craziness :D

Have a great day!

Love,

Thursday 1 October 2009

Halloween Giveaway!

Happy October everyone! October is one of my favourite months because it ends with HALLOWEEN! YAY! I love Halloween and everything that goes along with it. I decorate the house, make spooky cupcakes, dress up and hand out candy to all the trick-or-treaters. So, in honour of one of my favourite holidays, I'll be giving away a Spooky Skull focal! Winner can choose the bow colour (or no bow) and whether you'd like it made into a pendant as well :) All you have to do to enter is join my mailing list! Go to www.bykeiara.co.uk and sign up using my Mailing List form. Easy :) Fear not, loyal friends, EVERYONE on the mailing list is entered to win. Winner will be chosen at random on Sunday, October 4. Happy Halloween!

Don't forget there's a few places to meet me and see my work coming up too! This Saturday, October 3, I'll be at the Avalon Faery Ball. My work will be exhibited by the wonderful Leigh of Magick Minx. I will also be an exhibitor at The Big Bead Show on Saturday, October 17. I'm running a very special offer for ALL my wonderful customers who will be attending The Big Bead Show. If you plan on attending, send me an RSVP email. In return I'll offer you a discount on all my beads at the show! You can email me at keiara@bykeiara.co.uk :) Just put RSVP in the subject and let me know you'll be there. I'll do the rest!

I have a very exciting weekend planned, how about you? On Saturday I'll be at the Avalon Faery Ball which I'm REALLY looking forward to. And then on Sunday I'll be heading over to a friend's birthday BBQ. I can't wait! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend too.

Happy October!

Love,
keiara

www.bykeiara.co.uk
www.bykeiara.etsy.com
Tuesday 29 September 2009

new dreads.. and some necklaces ;)

I had new dreads installed yesterday, YAY!! This is Sweet Dreams mixed with Lavender and I LOVE them! I was not too sure about the colours at first. I'm not a huge pastel girl (prefer brights) but I had some inspiration..

Yes, that's right.. I decided to install these dreads specifically to match my cupcake button jewellery by Collette at Noodlefish. Call me crazy, but could YOU pass up the opportunity?! I'm really in love with the new dreads though so it all turned out wonderful in the end :)

I bleached my hair out first then coloured all but the roots a nice, baby pink. I REALLY like the effect of the apricot roots with the pink hair and multi-coloured pastel dreads. SO cute! You can almost see the necklace in the pictures too. I'm wearing the cupcake button necklace and a pendant by Mel of Poor Robin too. This is the way I usually wear these two necklaces. I hide the cord of the pendant under the button necklace. I love it :)

Speaking of necklaces, these are some necklaces I made for the Avalon Faery Ball which is this Saturday, October 3. I was invited to exhibit some of my work by the lovely Leigh of Magick Minx. I will be attending the event as well so if you're there, do grab me and say hello if you see me about!

I have a full day of beadmaking ahead of me so I'm gonna get to it. I have TONS of new ideas I'm dying to try!

Hope you all have a great day :)

Love,
keiara




Tuesday 22 September 2009

Confetti Twist Lentils on Etsy!

I've just listed these gorgeous Confetti Twist Lentils on Etsy! Hope you'll have a look.

They're quite yummy.. mmm. This is one of my favourite color combinations and I love the shape of these straight sided lentils. Add in the beautiful Rose Quartz (that's the name of the glass.. and quite apt!) spacers and it's heavenly :)

Have a great Tuesday!

Love,
keiara


www.bykeiara.co.uk
www.bykeiara.etsy.com
Monday 21 September 2009

keiara's keepers: Noodlefish

Hi everyone and happy Monday! I had so much fun with the cupcake giveaway this weekend. Stay tuned next month for a Halloween giveaway! OooOOoOOh! And now on to business. Beautiful button business, that is ;) The jewellery sets here are all made by the one, the only, the wonderfully talented, super sweet and fabulous Collette of Noodlefish. I love this chick. BIG time! First up is this awesomely funky black and polka dot set. I had an idea. I emailed Collette with the idea. Collette made jewellery. And all was fantastically right with the world 'cause DAMN! See what she does? She drives me to curse! My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I saw what she came up with here. I LOOOOVES it! I originally ordered just the necklace.. but can you blame me for asking for a matching bracelet? C'mon, you know you wouldn't have been able to resist either ;)

Next up is no surprise.. it's cuppycake madness! Again, I say 'cupcakes' and she creates this yummilicious treat! And have I mentioned Collette's an absolute DREAM to work with? I tell her what I have in mind, she sources the buttons, creates the layout and sends me pics. I am free to alter the design if I so choose. And, while we're talking about that, a note on the subject: anytime I want to tweak something, she does it happily.. and then I have her change it right back and she doesn't hate me forever and ever. Bonus! Anyway, so after I've chosen the final layout, she then creates the jewellery and I'm an extremely happy bunny.

Did I mention I collect her sets in holiday themes too?! For St. Patrick's Day she made me a FAB green set (which I lovelovelove) and this Halloween set is just as awesome! Again, Collette specifically sourced these jack-o-lantern buttons just for me (aww, she's the sweetest) and created this fun set. The pictures don't show exactly how awesome it is but, trust me, it is The Awesomest! While I was at it I also ordered a set for Kaia for a Halloween gift (and a cupcake set for a Christmas gift.. Kaia loves Collette's jewellery too!)

Everything arrives well-packaged and in the cutest wrapping. All of the jewellery is very comfortable to wear and I get TONS of compliments on it!

So just to summarise: Noodlefish = awesome. Collette = wonderfully talented, patient girl.

Got it?

What are you waiting for? Go check her out! I'm sure you're gonna love her stuff just as much as I do!

Have a great week everyone :)

Love,
keiara






Sunday 20 September 2009

Cupcake Giveaway - WINNER!



The winner of the National Cupcake Week's cupcake pendant giveaway has been drawn and the winner is..

SARAH W!!

Congratulations, Sarah!

Everyone else, stay tuned for next month's giveaway.. a Halloween-inspired bead! OoOOooOOh!

Love,
keiara
Friday 18 September 2009

Cupcake Giveaway!!

Did you know this week is National Cupcake Week?! Well, apparently it is! In honour of this, I'm going to be giving away one of the cupcakes pictured above! If you don't create your own jewellery, I'll be happy to turn the cupcake into a pendant for you! These are my mega-sized cupcakes and stand around 22mm tall. How do you enter? Just sign up to my mailing list!

Go to www.bykeiara.co.uk and you'll see the mailing list application on the left. That's it! On Sunday I will choose a winner at random. Pretty easy, huh?

Happy Friday, happy National Cupcake Week and I hope you have a great weekend!

Love,
keiara

www.bykeiara.co.uk
www.bykeiara.etsy.com
Thursday 17 September 2009

Confetti Twist yumminess :)

I absolutely LOVE these beads! I call them Confetti Twist and they are created on a transparent base with gorgeous pastel frit. I then heat them up and twist the center which creates the pretty swirl in the middle. I liked the beads so much that I turned them into a bracelet for myself ;)

I know I've shown the bracelet oodles of times before but, hey, I really like it! I threw the beads together, wired up one of my bunny bobble heads for the dangle and, voila, it's an Easter bracelet! Now, out of all the many (MANY) bracelets I own, this is the one that receives the most compliments. Yes, really. Something about it really intrigues people and so I decided I would experiment with this combination in a lentil shape.

And these are the result. What do you think? I think I love them even more!! I especially like the look of the pale pink spacers with the lovely frittiness (hey, NOW it's a word!) of the lentils. Is good, no? When the sun shines through the lentils they sparkle like magic. Yum!

Off to raid my frit collection and see what else I can come up with! Have a great day :)

Love,
keiara



Wednesday 16 September 2009

keiara's keepers: Joey's Dream Garden

I'll give you a minute to drink in the beauty of these bracelets. Go ahead, I'll wait...

Picked your jaw up? Wiped the drool off your chin? Ok then! This gorgeous pink butterfly cuff bracelet was created by the ridiculously talented Joey of Joey's Dream Garden. Joey is currently my personal hero. I bought the pink bracelet ages ago and loved it SO much that I immediately asked Joey to custom make me a purple and black one in a similar design.


This is the phenomenal beauty I was greeted with this morning! Oh how I wish pictures could possibly do these bracelets justice. They have so much detail, embellishments and the craftsmanship is outstanding. The purple one is actually lined with beautiful purple velvet but it simply will NOT let me photograph it.. lol. Every inch is covered in lovely stitching, beads, sequins, rhinestones, buttons.. there's SO much to look at!

Oh and I have mentioned they're also incredibly comfy to wear?? They secure with a loop of ribbon around one of the buttons which are placed in intervals to guarantee the perfect fit. The butterfly wings are stiffened with plastic sewn inside so they stand up beautifully. The undersides of the wings are embellished too!

Joey, thank you SO much! You really outdid yourself and I am so very, very happy with both of the bracelets. *SMOOCH*

Go show Joey some love, it's REALLY well-deserved!

Have a great day :)

Love,
keiara
Monday 14 September 2009

Queen of Procrastination

Well, I'm officially setting aside my crown. Normally I am totally the Queen of Procrastination (and cupcakes, yes!) but I'm actually get TONS done for my upcoming show. Yes, I'm going to continue to plug the show until you're sick of hearing about it. Why not turn up in person to tell me how disappointed you are in my tireless self-promotion?! Anyway, so I decided I had better make some 'grown-up beads' in addition to all my whimsical yumminess. This set is one of my absolute favourites. Rosatta Trails is made with my very favourite glass in the world (called, of all things, rosatta.. ha!) and has trails (man I'm so creative w/these names!) of silvered ivory in what I call my Pollock style (gold star if that means something to you). I'm currently frowning at my overuse of the parentheses above but I'm just gonna go with it so.. MOVING ON!

This is Galaxy Trails and I loooove the mirror effect of the silver glass I used for the trails. It has a beautiful sheen to it with a touch of iridescence. Each set is comprised of 5 big 20mm straight-sided lentils (ooh, technical talk!) and a pair of small rounds. I have in mind that these will make fabulous bracelet and earring sets but, of course, they could be used for plenty of different jewellery projects.

And here is a group shot of some of the lentil sets to date. From left: Simply Frosted Lavender Lentil Set, Frosted Rosatta Trails Lentil Set, Simply Frosted Aqua Lentil Set, Frosted River Trails Lentil Set and Simply Frosted Rosatta Lentil Set. My naming conventions seem a tad overly descriptive, huh? Hey, at least I know exactly what they are if someone asks about them! LOL :) I could never name my beads some of the lovely, abstract things I see other people using. I wouldn't be able to remember what I'd name which set and it would just lead to mucho confusion. I'm confused enough as it is!! ;)

So what did you get up to over the weekend? I had a GREAT weekend! On Saturday I had a lovely student who was an absolute pleasure to teach. The night was capped off with watching an awful B horror film starring Vinnie Jones (YUM!). Luckily I love awful B horror films so this was a good thing :) Sunday I took my dreads out (*cry*) so this week will be lots of hair washing in preparation for installing new dreads next week (I hope). Steve and I went to see District 9 which was.. interesting. It didn't quite 'do it' for me but I enjoyed elements of the film. It's definitely worth a watch. We settled in for the evening with pizza and watched the pilot for a new show called The Vampire Diaries. This looks somewhat promising! I'm always on the lookout for new, interesting television shows as I play them on my computer whilst I torch. This show appears to be a cross between Twilight and Dracula (in both mythos and general plot) with a dash of Smallville as far as the casting. I'm hoping this show won't be one of the ones that I really love.. which inevitably means a very short run :( Moonlight, Firefly, Eleventh Hour.. why must they cancel these shows?! Don't they know I LOVE them?! So sad.

Enough babbling from me. Any plans for the week? I'm off to lunch with my fellow American ex-pat friend Jen tomorrow (who has just returned from a trip to Bermuda.. cool!). Plan for the rest of the week: BEADS! Oh, by the way, what do you think of my 'grown-up beads'? Didn't think I had it in me, didja? ;)


Have a great week!

Love,
keiara

www.bykeiara.co.uk

www.bykeiara.etsy.com
Monday 7 September 2009

Monday kitties :)

New bracelet kitties!! Whatcha think? I giggled the whole time I was creating these little cuties :) I've had so many requests for bracelet kitties and this is the first full set I've created. I enjoyed playing with the different looks and giving them all different coloured eyes.. heehee :) Keep an eye out for lots more of these to come!

And more Christmas beads today! I'm feeling very Christmassy and it makes me happy :) All these have already sold (can you believe it??) but I'm taking orders on more so feel free to contact me if you'd like a set or two :)

How was your weekend? I had a lovely weekend. On Saturday Steve and I drove up to Margate and went to the Shell Grotto which I thought was really cool. We also drove through Ramsgate which was very pretty. Ultimately we ended up in Folkestone town centre and I bought some cupcake socks (SO cute!) for myself and Kaia, some interesting bits to create bead displays and had some lunch at a cafe. We stopped by the grocery store on the way home to grab some strawberries which we turned into homemade ice cream for Steve's dad, Kevin. Kevin and Kaia share the same birthday! I baked a big batch of pumpkin muffins (one of Kevin's favourites of mine!) and then we settled in for the evening. It was a looooooong day! Sunday we went to the in-laws' for Kevin's birthday gathering. We brought along the muffins and ice cream (and some of my homemade cream cheese frosting that they all go nuts for) and had a really nice time. Everyone was there and at the end of the day we took some great group photos.

I really love this shot (I'm so hard to spot, huh?!). In this photo is Steve's entire immediate family including parents, grandparents, siblings and nieces and nephews.. also some cousins, spouses and partners.. and, in Sonya's arms (standing up 4th from left in red) the cutest Yorkshire Terrier doggie ever.. Millie :) They have the biggest family I've ever met! There's at least another 50 or so aunts, uncles and cousins not pictured here!!! I always wanted to be part of a big family and I certainly got my wish :)

It was also Kaia's birthday yesterday so I am officially the mother of a 14 year old now! I can hardly believe it! She had a wonderful day and really loved all the gifts I sent her. I made her one of my zombie kitties and turned it into a pendant plus made matching earrings. I also sent her some kitties from theothermousie which she went crazy over! I wish I could have been there and I can't wait to see pictures from her party :) I will be sure to share them.

Hope you all have a wonderful week! I'm off to melt some glass ;)

Love,
keiara

www.bykeiara.co.uk

www.bykeiara.etsy.com







About Me

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Folkestone, Kent, United Kingdom
Hi! My name is keiara and I'm a native Floridian currently living in Folkestone, England. I am a hot glass and jewellery artist and I'm passionate about what I do! I love to 'talk shop' so feel free to contact me. Thanks for stopping by!