I am so excited...

I am finally able to share some news I have been holding inside for over 6 months.

I am the Designer Highlight for July 2012 for Bead Trends Magazine!!!

I was contacted by Tatia from Bead Trends and asked if I would be interested.
Once I picked my moth off the floor and stopped leaping around my house squealing I resonded with YES!!!

Then the hard work and panic came.
What should I make?
Will they like it?
How much should I send?
What if they meant another Shannon?
Which headshot?
Should I include my daughter or not?
What if I don't get my pieces and tutorials done on time?
What if my package gets lost in the mail?

Well to answer my fears,
they must have meant me, the must have liked what I sent, I got delivery confirmation so I kew they got it, they used my head shot, with my daughter and they used 8 pieces which was everything I sent :-)

I am not going to bombard you with everything in 1 day because I fear blogger will explode plus I want to talk about each piece individually so for today here is the first page:

My Cutie

My 3 year old loves to sing.

She makes up her own songs like "Pj don't be scared, don't be scared, I am on the swing" when her cousin was scared to go on the swings and the ever popular "wash, wash, wash" song when she was washing the bathtub.
I had to laugh this evening though because we still use a baby monitor and from her room you could hear
"I'm chillin' on a dirt road, laid back like I'm George Jones"
"ice cold beer in console"
She is so funny sometimes.

Like last night when she was asking about babies
Emily: "Mama, how did I get in your tummy before I been borned?" (Yup, borned)
Me: "How do you think Emily?"
Emily: "Maybe you thought I was chicken"
I tried not to laugh because she's little sensitive but that was too cute.

This afternoon I took her with me to Marshall's and I was trying on shoes. She started yelling "they don't match, you have 2 different ones on." It was so funny. Oh and at the bank she had on her Minnie Mouse sunglasses and the tellers were saying how cute she looked.
She looks up at me and says "why are they talking to me"
Me: "because they like your glasses"
Emily: "well they can't have 'em."
:-)

Here is the start to a necklace I am working on. I have been drawn to eggs and birds lately. I am not sure if it because it feels like spring here, because we had a little baby Cardinal born in the bush outside our door or if it just because I love birds. I have been working with a graphic designer to revamp my logo, which is 2 birds. When my daughter was a baby she had the tiniest mouth which she would open like a little bird when she was hungry. So my little birds began. My business has grown and so has my vision for my business so I wanted a more upscale logo. I will unveil the new logo soon.

 Here are the beads I was sent for the Echo Creative Club. They are stunning! I am not sure if I will make 2 thing, 1 with the yellow beads -earrings perhaps and another with the red or if I will make 1 piece combining them both.

Stop back the 25th and find out :-)

~Shannon

Finally Friday

It's Finally Friday time!

Here is the palette for this week:

Gotta love Design Seeds, these colors are so beautiful. I will admit I struggled with this palette, I almost never create in these colors and I don't think I have ever created with all of them at the same time.

Till now :-)

Here is the necklace I created for this week:

It all started with these Czech glass flowers and my fused copper rings

Repeated 3 times

Then I added this beautiful lampwork glass bead Pinkbeach from and spacers from TierraCast 

Then this porcelain pendant from Nancy Schindler and layered with a vintaj butterfly

I threw in some teardrop glass beads, vintage lucite beads and my own forged copper clasp

Here's the palette for next week:

The rules:

Look at color palette.

Be inspired.

Gather supplies inspired by that color palette.

Create something wonderful.

Anything, jewelry, clothes, a painting, even a big 'ole mess.

Take a picture.

Post on your blog.

Link palette to Design Seeds.

Add link here in comments.

Play again the following week!

So did you make anything inspired by this weeks palette? Be sure to add your link below.

Thank you for stopping by, I really do appreciate you reading my blog and I hope you will join in next week.

If you liked today's post please share it with your friends,  pin any of the pictures on pinterest, tweet or share on facebook and google+, but most importantly leave me a comment below.

~Shannon