Forgive My Forgetfulness

I forgot to update you all about Jessie who is fine! She had kidney failure last April for which the treatment ran into the next few months. I am just grateful to have found a doctor who was willing to give me the tools I needed to treat her. As well as doing research he provided me with saline fluid and blood pressure medicine to give her while her body righted itself. The saline fluids had to be given twice a day for the first two weeks then as she began to get better test results we went down to once a day the twice a week then weaned her off of fluids. It was truly a miracle as her urea levels were so high. She is the best dog I ever have had. She is just so silly and fun and sweet. So all the prayers and good energy and wishes sent her way were SO appreciated.   Thank you all who love dogs and sent us good will.

I am now readying my house for sale hopefully to downsize in preparation for retirement. Good thoughts on that account are greatly appreciated, too. Much love
Patty

New Business Name

Hi all and thanks to everyone who has opted  to follow me over the years. <3
I have thought for a very long time that my old business name ( cabaribeads ) has been confusing to pronounce and to spell for lots of folks. So, today I have changed it to Miya Beads. Simple and sweet.
There are many spelling of the name Miya - the main one being Maya but that one was taken on Etsy so i chose another. This is a goddess name and the meanings of all the spelling are wonderful so I am happy with this change.  You can check out Miya meanings here.

I will need new business cards but the ease this simple spelling will bring will be worth it.

I still am not up to full speed in my shop - no made to order items yet. i am hoping to sell my house in the next few months and am working to get it ready. I need to downsize in preparation for retirement. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! So, I am running towards it. Maybe 3 years but I want to do everything I can to get ready. When my big house sells I can start saving $ and retire sooner. At which time I will open all facets of my Etsy store. Thanks to all for your kind patience and don't give up on me. More beads and copper etchings to come.

One Huge Custom Order

For a wedding. Sigh....I love weddings.  I have a friend I met on my job and she told me one day that she was planning on buying some crystals to put on three chandeliers she had spray painted rubbed bronze. What a labor of love and boy did they  turn out beautiful. Well, I said I have lots of crystals that I am not using. Most of them are vintage and all are Swarovski crystals. Would she like some of them? When we got together I showed her some of my huge crystal stash and shared a few ideas I had on how they could be used and lo and behold she hired me to do 54 crystal dangles for 3 chandeliers for her daughter's wedding. So, far it has taken me about 14 hours to do all of these and I just realized I need 6 more for the burnt orange group! LOL
Here is a sneak preview. I will hopefully get photos when they are on the chandeliers. Her daughter is an artist so I hope she will like these.What do you think so far?

chandelier #1

 close up of #1

 potential centerpiece for #1

 2nd potential for #1

 chandelier #2

 close up #2

 chandelier #2

 chandelier #3

 close up #3

 potential center piece #3

Update on Jessie

Thank you all for thinking of Jessie. She is home and is eating and drinking. The ultrasound of her kidneys that was done yesterday was normal in appearance. But last she was tested her urea levels were sky high. That means her system is being poisoned.I am taking her to a new vet today at 3:00 and hopefully he will find some answers. Thanks so much for your prayers. She is the love of my life. <3
Patty

 7 months old

 7 months old

 growing up?

 sweet baby Jessie

trouble maker Jessie

the Art of Awareness blog hop

With a heavy heart I have to say I cannot participate. My beloved furbaby Jessie is in the hospital and I will not know until Monday if she will be ok. Please send up prayers and healing thoughts for her. She is the light if my life. Thank you.

Reveal Day for AJA Blog Hop Challenge

I was chosen to be a guest participant for this months Art Jewelry Elements blog hop challenge. Each month one member of the AJE team  makes components to share for a blog hop challenge. They also choose guest participants and I am SO happy to have been chosen to receive a gorgeous copper sunflower made with precious metal clay  by Melissa Meman. Just look at these!

She also made these which were sent to the other participants. All gorgeous!!

So, I have had my beautiful flower for a few weeks but didn't know the exact date of the reveal. Silly me and also too many hours at the day job. But I had started designing it and finished the necklace tonight. Well, to start with I have misplaced my favorite needle nose pliers. I used a file to score one side of it  so I can be sure to make loops all the same size when making a piece of jewelry. Shoot! It's ok though, I have another pair but not scored.  So, I decided to use this lovely ceramic bird

 made by Gaea Handmade . I had been totally stumped as to what to use it for but I paired it with the copper sunflower, a copper circle with leaves wrapping around it  and I love them together. I added some wound copper wire to make it look nesty which I also used to connect all the components.

I then needed the necklace part. I wanted to use chain and I chose an oval link chain from my stash  but I didn't feel that it was enough by itself. So I  picked out some African turquoise heishi. I  LOVE African turquoise.  And some larger bronzite heishi as I felt they complimented each other and blended with the colors of the other components. I made a beaded chain linked together with 20 gauge antiqued copper wire. I used 5 turquoise heishi in each section. For the bronzite I felt three was too much and two pieces too little so I did three then two so it wouldn't overwhelm the turquoise.I think I will antique the clasp still.

And this is the final result. I hope you like it.

Thank you, Melissa,  for choosing me to participate. I absolutely love this sunflower pendant and will treasure it.

Below is the list of the artists in this months challenge. Be sure to check them out. :o)

AJE team: 

Jennifer Cameron 

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Susan Kennedy 

Melissa Meman
Rebekah Payne

Lindsay Starr 

Kristen Stevens

Francesca Watson

Lesley Watt    

Guest Participants:

Michelle Mach

Patty Miller

Divya N

A New Blog Hop! Art Jewelry Elements (AJA) components!

Well, I have to tell you that I am excited. I have watched the fabulous artists in the Art Jewelry Elements  group for  a long time and have drooled over some of the components offered to participants. The  components are made by a member of this talented group each month.
Well, this month I am a guest participant!!!

Here is a photo of the metal clay components made by Melissa Meman. Totally drool worthy! I received one of the beautiful sunflowers in the second photo. I was SO excited when it arrived. Tomorrow March 28th  is the hop so come back and see what everyone has made with these fab art pieces. I will post a list with links of everyone participating. Now back to work. :o)

The Art of Awareness Blog Hop

Well, Lori Anderson is having another blog hop. This one is specifically for Awareness. Of what? For me I am getting a bean ( bead ) that says ...breathe.  I stay so busy with my job, my metal etching, my lampworking, jewelry design, my Etsy shop, then I have my dogs and cats and of course the most important part of my life - my sweet daughter. I do my best to find time for her daily.  Then me?  Ha ha. No energy or time left. lol. I KNOW alot of you know what I am talking about there.

Heather Millican makes these sweet polymer clay beads with fabulous focus words on each one. Check them out here and get ready to blog hop on May 16th to see all the fabulous jewelry everyone participating has made. I plan to make a piece for my self as that is my focus word. Stop and b r e a t h e, Patty.   :o)

I Have Been Following........

a blog written by a  wonderful woman who I think is full of kindness and wisdom. She struggles with Lyme disease but still holds  seminars to help other people. She writes and cooks and bakes. Honestly, she totally amazes me. I have a hard time doing all that and I don't have Lyme! She is lucky to have good supportive husband and friends as well as a good doctor who accepts her holistic help with treating her own disease.

Today she blogged about something simple but powerful. The 30 Second Power Pause. It sounds silly but the premise is very good and really spoke to me. You know how our inner dialog can sometimes turn negative towards ourselves or we can get frustrated or hit a wall? Well, she suggests a short breather you can do anywhere. Read more about it here:
http://cauldronsandcupcakes.com/2015/02/15/the-thirty-second-power-pause/

I am going to try it as my mind sometimes runs too fast and won't shut up! lolol  I follow her blog and get so many positive ideas from her. Check her blog post out!

I am using a picture she shared . it is wonderfully serene.

This Month has Flown By

I can't believe it is the 25 of January already.I have been finishing up orders for etched copper pieces and lampwork beads and trying to find some time to create some designs of my own.I have a bunch of etched copper components ready to sand and seal. I have a few ready to photograph and would love to find the time to get them posted for sale. But today I need to make beads to fill a couple custom orders. Here are some pics of what I will make today.

This is one of my most popular set of disk beads. It is called Blue Hydrangea. I love the color combinations. i tried to capture all the hues of purple, pink and blue the blooms go through with a little green thrown in for the leaves.

This is also Blue Hydrangea with an organic twist. I added silver foil on an ivory base for wonderful reactions on the surface of the beads.

And this last set was a wonderful surprise when I first made them and has been very popular. I call it Wildflower Garden as it has all the wonderful bright pinks and purples with some browns and greens with fabulous organic reactions.

Well, I suppose I better get to it. It is bright and sunny here. I hope you have good weather today and enjoy your day.