ArtBeads.com Review - Valentine's Day

I posted my first creation from ArtBeads.com on February 4th, showing a Gothic take on Valentine's Day. Now I'm going to show you my last piece, a piece that you can wear all year round, and that, rather than being full of sweet hearts and pink and red, shows the true meaning of Valentine's Day -- partnership and love.

(Item # SW-PEND173)

When I saw this stoneware pendant I knew I had to have it. Two love birds, perfectly content, sharing a branch. To me, that typifies that sort of relationship I have with my husband -- not the roses, not the chocolates, but the constant, quiet love that follows us everywhere.

(Click to see a larger photo).

I used the new Swarovski coral pearls to pick up the melon color in the stoneware pendant, and happened to have some lucite flowers and pale yellow pearls lying around that I thought would go well with the pendant. The chain is my last length of fringy vintage chain, all the little dangly bits being triangles, not rings. Unique and really cool, don't you think?

All in all, this is my favorite Valentine's Day piece I've ever made.

Head on over to ArtBeads.com to see what else they have for Valentine's Day!


Disclosure...As a reviewer of products at Artbeads.com, I receive the beads above free of charge. I have been asked to review these products and give my honest opinion of the products...positive or negative. I am not being compensated by Artbeads.com for my endorsement as it pertains to the products received and reviewed.

Auction for Haiti

Check out fellow blogger and friend Kookie Designs who has organized an auction for Haiti relief. Click here to see jewelry, beads, and toys. If you get confused about conversion of the pound, go to www.xe.com for an easy conversion chart.

At this writing, there are still some items with no bids!

Thanks for looking!

Sale Going On!

Quick, run to www.lorianderson.net!

I'm snowed in, so am updating the web site like a fiend, and am having a snow sale until Sunday, February 14th, which also happens to be Valentine's Day!

(Saks Fifth Avenue heart)

The coupon code is SNOW.

Happy shopping!

ArtBeads.com Review - Valentine's Day

I received two pendants from ArtBeads.com and am showing you what I did with one of them (the other will come soon!). I was asked to choose items from their Valentine's Day selection, and my first choice was a mix of the traditional heart shape with a non-traditional black etched pattern.

(Item # SHL-LP52)

The shell pendant is etched in black, and I decided to work it in a Gothic fashion, with deep coral red Swarovski crystal and fringy sterling silver that I oxidized to a black patina. I love how the tiny 4mm crystals flutter from the fringe of the chain, don't you?

I made a matching clasp out of oxidized sterling silver and another coral red Swarovski crystal - very simple since the chain is so elaborate. All in all, I'm a big fan of Valentine's Day, and I love hearts, but I like the non-traditional, and this piece fits the bill.

Head on over to ArtBeads.com to see what else they have for Valentine's Day!


Disclosure...As a reviewer of products at Artbeads.com, I receive the beads above free of charge. I have been asked to review these products and give my honest opinion of the products...positive or negative. I am not being compensated by Artbeads.com for my endorsement as it pertains to the products received and reviewed.

Shantaram -- a book review

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is now one of my favorite books of all time. And there are now major spoilers in my review, so if you don't want things ruined for you, move on now!

*******SPOILER ALERT*****




OK, those now reading know that I'm going to tell key elements of the story.

This is a loooong book, 936 pages in the edition I read. It's about a man known as Lin, a man who escaped prison and ended up in Bombay. Throughout the book, he lives in a slum and opens a clinic for the slum dwellers, becomes a member of the mafia, runs forged passports over various borders, and makes an ill-fated journey to Afghanistan to fight a war.

Roberts' prose has been called "embarrassing" by some, but I found it amazing, so much so that I marked key passages. I felt for Lin in so many ways -- his unrequited love for Karla, his father-love for the mafia lord Khader, his love for best friends Prabaker and Abdullah. I wanted to put the book away when Prabaker and Abdullah died in the same chapter, dying a little with Prabaker and the extinguishing (in more ways than one) of his trademark smile. And then when Abdullah resurface, not dead, but healed from horrible damage - I was happy for Lin but knew it was almost too little too late.

I think that the end of the book was apt, with Lin moving back to the slum, the place where he was the happiest. Knowing without a doubt that Karla was never going to love him, knowing that the mafia was no longer the home he knew with Khader dead, the slum called to him. Enough pieces were tied up to make the ending satisfying without being too convenient.

This is a fascinating read on many, many levels. I'm so glad I finally read it on a friend's nudging and urging. If you want something completely different that anything else you've ever read, this one is for you.


View all my reviews >>

Diets and Cookies

Dieting stinks.

My Snowy World

I love snow. We don't get snow every year here in Maryland, but this year we got a fair amount. I love to watch it, especially as I sit at my table and look out the back sliding doors at it accumulating on the deck.

What I don't like is coaching my husband home from Pennsylvania while navigating a national weather web site (complete with Doppler radar) and traffic cameras for three areas. It was strange to watch it snowing like crazy on the Eastern Shore and then to see it sunny with nothing but dry road above Baltimore. Rick ended up taking the Delaware route home, and he said it was like running through a magic portal. Bing, no snow. WHOOSH, more snow than Narnia.

Snuggle up, folks ... even if there's no snow near you.
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Two Cups of Bead Soup

You may remember my Bead Soup Blog Party post. The party date is coming closer and closer -- February 10th, to be exact! On that date, you'll be able to hop around all the 84 blogs and see what the beaders made. If you'd like to start taking a look at the "soup" they've already received, you can visit the Flickr Pool Bead Soup Party Swap and see what people are starting with.

I, like everyone else, got one partner, but two people came late to the party and of course I couldn't say no, so I'm actually doing a total of three swaps. Two have arrived, but one is on its way from Korea and hasn't gotten here yet. But here are the first two.

First, from Libby Leuchtman, a lampwork bead maker.....


When she asked me what I might be interested in, I told her "anything, but donuts give me trouble" -- so she decided to challenge me with a donut. She did a smart thing, because this entire exercise is supposed to be about stretching our skills and working outside our comfort level.

She also gifted me with a pendant as a "thank you" for running the blog party -- and I can't tell you how grateful and humbled I am by it.


Next up is a gemstone mix from Dee Gordon, and I already know what I want to do with that fat gemstone on the right:


So there you have it -- two bowls of distinctly different types of soup, neither of which I would have chosen for myself, both destined for (in my opinion!) cool designs.

Be sure to mark you calendars and visit the blog on February 10th to see what all we've made!

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$12,000 Goal REACHED for Tanya!

Remember in this post I was auctioning off a bracelet for IH/Pseudotumor Awareness to help my friend Tanya raise enough money for the surgery she needs on the 31st? She lives in Thailand and they wouldn't do the surgery without the $12K in hand.

Today, the goal has been reached.

All of her friends, beaders, bead makers, bead sellers, rallied together and sold jewelry and beads and supplies and in a few short weeks, raised the money.

This goes a long way to show the love of the bead community and its supporters. My bracelet was purchased by a long-time and much-loved customer and I am so grateful for that as 100% of the purchase went to the fund. Many other artists did the same thing, donating various percentages of their sales towards Tanya's surgery.

So many people think that beading is about worrying about who is copying who, or who has the best design, or who is making more innovative designs than others. But it's not about that at all. It's about using your skill to come together to help someone who needed it, someone who would have done the same for us if we'd had a similar situation.

Keep this in mind as you go through the day. $1 here or there to help a person you don't even know can add up to thousands. That's how this fund made it. At one point, we would have reached the goal if everyone donated the cost of a Starbucks coffee. Boom, donations came in.

So yes -- little amounts do indeed help.

Thank you all for reading this, and please say prayers or meditations for Tanya's swift recovery.

Love and thanks, Lori Anderson

Eye Candy (and 300 Followers!)

Today is an eye candy day -- and a huge, heart-felt thank you to my followers. I have no idea how I reached 300, but I am humbled and grateful. Thank you, each and every one.








More jewelry can be seen at www.lorianderson.net.

Post-it Notes

Has found the real problem with Post-it Notes is that they don't stick in your head.

(From www.storypeople.com, who rock out loud).

And this is what I did this weekend.

Many times, I get to the end of the weekend and am irritated. "I didn't get a THING done!" I'll mutter, and write up yet another to-do list that unfurls across the floor in its never-ending length.

This weekend, however, things actually got done. It could very possibly have been because I stayed up until 4am each night. It could have been because I now have a laptop and can watch shows I've TiVo'd while I do busy-work. Whatever, I killed that to do list.

1. Took two batteries-worth of jewelry photos.


2. Photoshopped said jewelry photos -- or at least, enough that I felt I'd accomplished something.
3. Managed to stay off the coffee... and didn't miss it. (My neurologist would be so proud.)


4. After two years, finally finished a knitted Noni bobble bag. HUGE accomplishment.

(www.nonipatterns.com)

5. Made a bunch of felted bead jewelry to take to the gallery that carries some of my jewelry. Half of the gallery is for hand-spun and hand-dyed yarn, so it's a perfect fit.


6. All those little pieces of paper on my desk with one sentence here, two things to do there? Gone. Poof. Trash canned, accomplished.

(photo by net_efekt)

7. And the most important thing -- had time to go out to dinner with my hubby.


Good weekend. Very good.


Lori Anderson makes beaded jewelry for a living and couldn't be happier doing it. You can see her work at www.lorianderson.net and read her creative exploration blog at www.AnArtistsYearOff.com.