And the WINNER is........

Carol

of

Carol Anne's Boutique

http://carolannesboutique.blogspot.com/

I am so happy to announce

that the number generator thingy picked number 24. 

 (I just found out how to work that program.  I love it because it takes all of the personal feelings out of a drawing and picks just the right person every time...)

(I will not reveal the surprise love gift.  Carol can have her moment in the sun...lol)

Carol has been on my blogroll and my follower

since day one, I "think". 

I found her sweet blog when she was so kind to leave me a comment to welcome me to blogland.  Now that is the perfect person to receive my little "love" gift drawing for

my great followers.

IF you haven't stopped in to see Carol, please do so.  This sweet picture and the card are the type of goodies that you will find there.

For those that did not win, I love you just as much!

Thank you to each and every person

that are "following" my posts. 

YOU are an important part of my life. 

Even if you just stop by for a chat, I appreciate you too.

It is the people who support you, care about you,

and nurture your creative spirit

that make blogging so rewarding!

Thank you from the bottom of my heart

 for each comment,

each encouragement

 and each lovely individual

who has stopped for a visit. 

Please come by often.

 You make my day!

Sharon 

p.s.  I will be having more giveaways as spring gets closer so stop by often.

A Penny & A Purse & Christmas

My first Christmas project complete! I had a lawn ornament ball that lost the little bird on top. I just could not leave well enough alone. I unscrewed the pole, glued an electric connector to the top (after drilling a hole through the top of the connector). Can you tell that the top is made from a electical connector? I began by stringing a copper chain through the hole to hang the ball from. Then started adding the smallest size 15 seed beads in a variety of sizes in golds and bronzes. Once I reached the top of the silver ball I started making a nettingof red to go all the way around the ball, in all directions. (I had to make up a pattern as I went along because the ball is 12 inches around.) I then added a ring around the center line with a delica gold herringbone stitch. I added loops in gold size 11 beads, then made the crystal drops with a silk thread and a muted gold bead for the accent dangle. ( I am thinking that I will add a tassel at the very bottom in a variety of golds.) But this is as far as I have gotten, for now.
A Penny & A Purse:

Yesterday, during the heavy storms, my daughter came over to show me a new idea! Do you like my new purse? It is so tiny is won't even hold the Penny laying next to it. Aren't these just the cutest? (The pennies are another project that I got the idea from "Just Something I Made".)I had just gotten in a patten leather look red from Artbeads.com and I had the black delicas in my stash. She got me started and I couldn't quit until I got the pair of earrings completed. (It is simply an octagon folded in half.)

I then hung them on 14K gold ear ring hoops. Now I am all dressed up and ready to go...somewhere.

My photography leaves a lot to be desired but maybe you can get an idea of how sweet these little ones are up close.

I know I will be making many more of these!

Thank you all for your lovely encouraging comments and your sweet emails to me. It is such a blessing to get to know each one of you better. It is so interesting how similar our lives are entwined.

Sharon

Creating Gone Wild!

This is the finished product of my creating gone wild! Do you remember the "Holler for Hoops" that I created a couple of days ago? I just could not leave well enough alone......
What is this mess, you ask? I wanted to show the process that I went through to make this newest bracelet. It started off with a pattern by Jonna Holston of Kernersville, N.C. that I got out of the Bead & Button Magazine. I had moved this pattern from desk to desk, I filed it a couple of times and kept bringing it back out, hoping to "someday" get around to making the earring. Saturday Melissa came over with that very pattern made up & it was lovely. The ear ring was relatively easy so I made four pair in different colors. As I was making another pair, I laid one on top of the others. "Now wouldn't that make a lovely bracelet?", I thought to myself. So I made eight separate ear rings and started playing around. I thought maybe I might make a continuous petal effect so I stitched together three of them. Then I realized that the "petal" effect was eventually, going to cover up the copper crystallized Czech beads. So I sewed three more together and thought I could hook them together in the center but it just did not look the way I wanted. I then sewed two of the earrings opposite of each other and added a larger Czech bead in the center of the two ear rings. I proceeded to sew them all together in the fashion that you see in the finished product. Beading is very very time consuming but when one enjoys the process, time just seems to pass so quickly. When I looked up at the clock, my eyes were very strained but even then I could not believe that I had been beading for 12 hours with very few breaks. It was 6:39AM!

I wanted to thank Jonna for the great pattern that lead to my newest bracelet. I hope that she will be pleased with the results.....Sharon