keiara's keep

Labels: beads, by keiara, giveaway, glass, handmade, jewellery, keiara elizabeth, keiara wells, kitten, lampwork, necklace, owl |

9 comments

Wednesday, 12 January 2011

Christmas in Denmark - Happy 2011!

15:52

Hi everyone!!!

I just got back from spending a few weeks in Denmark for the holidays. Above is a picture of me and my wonderful boy, Stefan, out in the snow :) There was a snow storm right before we arrived so there was TONS of snow and it was absolutely gorgeous. Being a native Floridian, I'd never seen anything like it and had to run outside every so often just to look at the beautiful winter wonderland.

Here is Stefan with his mother, Anette, and niece, Caroline. Anette is extremely artistic and we had a wonderful time talking about our creative endeavours. Caroline is just about the cutest baby ever and she's so sweet and happy. She's an absolute joy!

There is a park area right down the street from the family's house and I couldn't resist a few shots. The trees look like something out of a fairytale!

No picnic today, I'm afraid!

This is a shot of the street where we were staying. It could not have been more magical!

The whole family together on Christmas Eve. This is (from left): Louise, Christian, me, Stefan, Anette (holding Caroline), Ib (Anette's husband), Rasmus (Stefan's brother, whom we call Mouse) and Nicolaj (Stefan's other brother). We had a wonderful time and I picked up a few Danish words and phrases.

Yes, I was seriously obsessed with the snow!

This picture doesn't even look real to me! Everything is so white and gray.. except me.. LOL!

It was a really wonderful trip and I met lots of family members and friends. We had lots of great food and did plenty of shopping (I even bought FOUR dresses!). New Year's in Denmark is mind blowing. The entire country erupts in huge aerial fireworks and we stood outside for nearly an hour watching them!!

I was quite sad to leave, having fallen in love with both the country and the people, but I knew if I didn't get back to the torch sometime this year, I'd go nuts! It's nice to be home and I'll have plenty of new beads for sale in the coming weeks.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and I wish each of you a fantastic 2011!!

Love,

keiara

Labels: artisan, beads, by keiara, christmas, denmark, family, glass, handmade, keiara elizabeth, keiara wells, lampwork, new years, snow |

7 comments

Wednesday, 15 December 2010

my trip to Florida :)

05:19

So! I know, I know, I haven't written in aaaaages. Please forgive me! First I was working like mad to get ready for the Big Bead Show (which was awesome!) and then I left for Florida! I spent a fantastic three weeks back at home surrounded by family and friends. Above is a picture of my boy, Stefan, me and the teeny princess in my arms is my beautiful niece, Emelia Sparrow! She's such a little doll. I wanted to hold her the whole time!

Every so often I would let her parents hold her.. but not terribly often! Here she is with her mommy and daddy. Aren't they the cutest family ever?!

I was even gracious enough to let my mother hold her while Mom's partner, Steve, looked on. You'll notice I was never too far away, though, as all these pictures were taken by me! I let them cuddle her long enough to take a picture then they had to give her right back!! ;)

I missed this kid so much! Kaia came down and spent a week with me at my mother's house and it was so much fun. We painted nails, coloured hair, went on shopping trips and to the Everglades! We also went to the beach and to a very famous ice cream parlour, Jaxson's. I do have pictures of ALL of that but I tried to keep this relatively picture light.. ha. I think I failed a bit!

This is me with one of my favourite people in the entire world, Marc. And before you ask how I have two left hands, those are my sister's bunny ears behind us ;) Marc and I have been friends for nearly 20 years now! I can hardly believe it. We've been through an awful lot together and it's always a pleasure to see him whenever I visit. He's probably the funniest person I know, too, and he always has us dying with laughter :)

Speaking of longtime friends, this is my friend Heather. Heather and I were very close for years but we lost touch with all the moving. She's moved around a lot and so have I and we somehow lost each other in the mix. BUT! Fate and the universe decided that it was time for us to reconnect. I was checking out a book at the library (side note: I NEVER go to the library when I visit.. but, on a whim, decided to this time) and, amazingly, Heather was standing right there beside me in line!!! I squealed and we hugged and possibly hopped around a little when we saw each other. We quickly went outside and exchanged all our contact info and arranged to have dinner the following evening. It was so wonderful to see Heather again and she invited Stefan and I out to lunch a couple days later with her fantastic boy, Benny. Seriously, the four of us were all separated at birth somehow! The boys got along really well and we all talked and laughed and ate wonderful Vietnamese food followed by bubble tea. Thank you, Heather, for introducing me to such culinary delights! I'm hoping that Heather and Benny will come visit us soon. We miss them so much already!!

Mom suggested we take a trip through the Everglades while we were there. Plenty of South Floridians have probably done this at one point or another but it had been years since I had gone so we saddled up, slathered on the sunscreen (UGH), put on hats and braved the Florida sun! It was so beautiful and we really enjoyed it. It was the most perfect day and we took plenty of pictures like the one above. I think this picture really says it all.

After the airboat ride, there was an alligator wrestling show and Kaia elected to pose with a "baby" alligator. The baby is in quotes because HOLYMOLY! When I picture a baby alligator, I picture something that could fit in the palm of my hand!! Kaia loved it and I love having this moment captured :)

We packed a picnic lunch and decided to have it right there at the tables beside the water. There were peacocks EVERYWHERE! They were so gorgeous and would eat out of your hand! Stefan showed us all that he is the peacock whisperer by getting the peacock to jump up and take the food. I managed to capture this peacock in mid-jump and I LOVE this shot!

I couldn't write a blog post without mentioning beads at all so here you go! While I was in Florida I bought nail polish that matches my beads!!! How cute is this?! I love it :D

I'll be off to Denmark for Christmas but I promise to post pictures of that when I return! I hope you all have a lovely holiday season. Spread some love!

Love,

keiara

www.artfire.com/shops/bykeiara

Labels: baby, beads, by keiara, everglades, florida, keiara elizabeth, keiara wells, peacock, sparrow, thanksgiving |

5 comments

Friday, 15 October 2010

LOADS of new beads for sale!

08:38

Hi everyone!

Soooooooo.. I tried to blog the other day. I was having an "admin day" (oh joy) and I figured I would update my blog as well but Blogspot said, "Oh. You want to accomplish something today? Well have I got news for you! DENIED!" I then ranted and raved and maybe got tears in my eyes just a little.. and finally I told it if it wanted to act that way then FINE I didn't really want to update my blog anyway! SO THERE! Welcome to my life. It's more fun than a box of tarantulas. *high fives Payton*

And back to the point. I have beads and jewellery for sale! YAY! The above necklace, Pastel Rainbow Spiral Necklace, can be found in my Ready to Go Jewellery section in my by keiara webshop (and that's all the links I could fit in one sentence). But wait! There's more!

These super adorable Candy Kooky Owl Earrings are also in my webshop. Candy is one of my favourite owls to make. I love the pink with the sky blue SO much. Actually, I love it so much that I also have a cat, cupcakes and coffee cups in the same colours. It reminds me of cotton candy (or candy floss for you British-types) and although I HATE cotton candy (what?? it's gross!) I lovelovelove the look of the stuff :) It always *seems* like a good idea.. then I put it in my mouth and grimace and, hey now, what are we talking about???!!! Moving on!

I've recently been trying my hand at more foodie-type beads again. I tried them aaaaaaages ago but it was in the very beginning and, well, they sucked. But now they're pretty cute, right?? Right?! *threaten.. bribe.. whine.. beg* Yes, I knew you liked them ;) These pretty cups of coffee are in my webshop as well and I'm loving them so much I almost don't want to part with them. Which leads me to this: I have a trick I play on myself. Whenever I'm making beads that I think are stupidly cute, I make them in colours that I don't particularly love (okok, any colour but purple will do it) so I can force myself to part with them. Cause, hey, I've got willpower and all but if these little suckers were in purple or, better yet, black with purple polka dots? Yeah, they'd be mine. No chance. And a girl's gotta pay bills so... here you go!

Here are some of my recent foodie bead efforts. I made cups of coffee, tea, chai, eggnog, a glass mug of beer (I LOVE this one!), fried eggs, pancakes, a slice of cake, coffee beans, ice cream cones and a donut. They look so cute all arranged together, don't they? OH! The black mug in the picture is a bead replica of the boy's favourite coffee mug. Heehee! He loves it :) Some of these yummies are in my by keiara Etsy shop, some are in my by keiara ArtFire shop and some are in my by keiara webshop. You'll just have to check them ALL out!

These darling sets are some of my new kooky lentil range. I have a few of these in my Etsy and the Rudolph ones are in my webshop. I REALLY love making these.. I made 11 sets over a two day period!

I call this set Big Breakfast because, well, it's a huuuuuuge set by my standards! I rarely enjoy making sets so I tend to, you know, not make them.. heh. However! I'm loving these food beads so much that I find myself making pairs of coffee beans or fried eggs while I'm thinking of other things to make. Happily, this creates a nice big set of beads just like a grown-up lampworker! Ha. This set, featuring pancakes, fried eggs and coffee beans is in my ArtFire shop. Be sure to check it out!

Ok, guys. I'll stop the rambling for now. I'm still working my tail off for the Big Bead Show but I thought I'd better give you some new pretties to look at ;)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Love,

keiara

Labels: beads, big bead show, by keiara, coffee, eggs, glass, keiara elizabeth, keiara wells, kitten, lampwork, pancakes, sets |

2 comments

Thursday, 7 October 2010

food and holiday-themed beads!

04:25

Hi everyone!

I'm still preparing for the Big Bead Show (OMG - it's almost here!!!!) and I thought the Cupcake Queen (as I've been dubbed by the community) should probably have, you know, CUPCAKES for sale! I made a few up yesterday in various styles and sizes. I just love cupcakes! (Speaking of which: I may have bought a cupcake salt and pepper set and a cupcake tote bag the other day. The boy wanted to know why I needed the salt and pepper shakers since I already have some gorgeous purple Fiestaware ones. I shook my head sadly and told him that he would never understand. It's all about THEMES, people!! When I have a tea party and use all my cupcake things, how awesome will it be to have salt and pepper shakers, too?!? Of course now I have to find an excuse to cook food that requires salt and pepper for a tea party.. hmm..!)

And why stop at cupcakes? I've tried my hand at pancakes and eggs before but I hadn't quite had the nerve to try a coffee cup. HA! It's a teeny bit wonky, but I am VERY pleased with my first attempt! I see more of these in the near future.. maybe with some bacon and a glass of juice!

Earring pairs tend to be very popular at the show so I've been making lots of them. Here are some micro owls, bats, zombie bears, snowgirls and Rudolphs. They're super mini and SOOOO much fun to make! You just can't help but giggle when you look at them :)

Here is a pair of the micro owls in my hand to show off their exceedingly teeny statures! They're only about 10-11mm tall! Teehee :)

In other news: I've opened an ArtFire shop! If you haven't visited it yet, please go have a look :)

As always there are plenty of beads in my by keiara Etsy shop and also in my by keiara webshop just waiting to come home with you.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Love,

keiara