Happy Holidays!

Best wishes to all!

I hope everyone is having a joyful time with family and friends! We are here enjoying Nora's first Christmas!

A Jewelry Accord

Please check out my technique tutorial post on the new blog,  A Jewelry Accord! Be sure to follow this blog and add it to your list. We will be doing a giveaway coming up this week! Thank you!

Michaels Challenge-Winter Edition

Well, Lorelei and Nancy were at it, again! They went to Micheal's and picked out these beads above for another beading challenge. It's reveal day for the Winter edition challenge! I picked up my challenge beads when I was out visiting Lorelei a few weeks ago. Here's my necklace I call Black Lotus.

Black Lotus by Erin Siegel

I used the freshwater pearls, mother-of-pearl ovals and the black quartz nuggets from the chosen challenge beads. I added in this open design flower pendant, a flower toggle clasp and paired it all with some wide black leather lace.

The best and coolest thing I added to this piece though, is the plum color silk! This was a wide silk satin cord that was stuffed with chiffon. I un-stuffed it and cut it up into sections and strung it on the beading wire in between the black quartz nugget beads.

Thanks for stopping in! 

Looking forward to seeing what the other jewelry designers have done for this round!

Mini Necklace Bust

 I ended up at TJ Maxx again the other night! I went looking for some Christmas gifts. Of course, I found more stuff for myself than anything else! That always happens at that damn store! Geesh! Anyway, you might remember that Lorelei and I went shopping there when I was visiting her in New York, last weekend. She blogged about these cool jewelry trays we found. I haven't gotten any of those trays for myself...YET, but I did pick up this cute mini necklace bust!

 I thought it would be great for display and possibly taking photographs of delicate necklaces. I think it's great, except it might be hard to tell the scale of a piece in a photo, since it's a mini bust. Hmmm...I don't know. What do you guys think?

At the very least, it looks cute holding a few necklaces on my beading table!!!

And The Contributors Are....

Please visit our new blog to find out who we have selected to contribute to our upcoming book!

A JEWELRY ACCORD 

Making Jewelry with Cording, Ribbon and Lace

Lorelei and I hope you will join us on the new blog!

Thank you!

Weekend with Lorelei

 I had a fun-packed weekend with my good friend and co-author Lorelei! She and Joe took good care of me with their wonderful hospitality! I flew into Syracuse, New York Friday night. Lorelei picked me up from the airport. I was so excited when I first saw her standing there waiting for me in the airport lobby! We arrived back at the house and Lori and Joe gave me a tour of the place. The house is so CUTE!!! I just love it! It's the cutest, prettiest Bungalow you've ever seen! They have put so much time, love and energy into fixing it up. It's beautiful. After the house tour, I was taken to one of their favorite spots for dinner. Mmmm...yummy Mexican food! I loved it. After dinner, Lori and I spent some time up in her bead studio! Yay! I was really looking forward to that! I even worked on an earring design for the book and Lori finished a few last minute earrings for her Jewelry Open House held on Saturday!

Here's a picture I snapped of Lori on Saturday right before guests started arriving!

On Saturday, Joe and Lori took me out to breakfast, my favorite thing to do! I love breakfast food to pieces! After breakfast, we headed back to the house to prepare all the food goodies for the party. Lorelei also made her Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread. Yum! I just loved it! I can't wait to make this for myself! The bread is so good, you have to make it. Thanks, L for telling me where you got the recipe from!

Here's some of Lorelei's cool jewels on display.

Lori had a nice turnout for her party. I was supposed to be helping with packaging up purchases, but instead I ended up just gabbing with the guests! Gah. Sorry, Lori! During the party, I was just hoping that a few of my favorite pieces would still be left at the end of the night. I was in luck! I grabbed a few pieces for Christmas gifts. I wish I could show you what I got, but they are for a special person who may be reading this!

After party time, Lori and I went out for a little shopping! We went to Micheal's Craft Store, one of my favorite shopping destinations and I picked up my beads for Lorelei's next beading challenge. Yay!, except I ended up forgetting them at Lori's house when I left! Gah, scatter brain! Anyway, after we were done at Micheal's, we went next door to TJ Maxx! My OTHER favorite shopping destination! We went in there with the intention of finding some necklace displays for Lorelei's jewelry. We didn't find any displays Lori was excited about, but we did end up finding some cute jewelry trays with compartments that you could use for storing beads or earrings!!! I don't have a picture of them, but I'm sure Lorelei will blog about the find soon! 

 

After we got back from our shopping trip, we logged onto Skype and talked to Nancy Schindler via video chat! That was fun! I was super excited to talk to Nancy. We all laughed and had a good time. I love Nancy and her fun and witty personality, but she's also a  down to earth kind of girl, too! I can see why Lori considers her such a good friend and why she adores her to pieces!

On Sunday, Nancy was in the middle of doing her last craft show for the year. The show happened to be in Syracuse. We had to be in Syracuse that day anyway to take me back to the airport, so we decided to head out early and stop by Nancy's show on the way! I was really looking forward to meeting her in person! I've admired Nancy and her work for some time. Even before I knew Lorelei, I had discovered Nancy way back when I started making my ceramic pieces. That was over 3 years ago now! To finally meet her in person was a real treat! I'm looking forward to seeing both Lori and Nancy on my next trip to New York!

Hmmm...let me see...what else...I'm forgetting something, right? What else did we do during my visit? Oh, yeah...we selected our contributing designers for our upcoming book! Yes, we did!!! We'll be announcing that very soon so stay tuned, everyone!!! Thank you!

Plans for the Weekend

I'm getting on a plane tomorrow. I'm leaving Nora with her daddy for a few days. I'm going to visit my friend Lorelei for the weekend. Yay, I'm excited! I'm so looking forward to seeing her! It'll be a busy time for us! We have so much to do, but it will be fun! I'll be assisting Lorelei with her Jewelry Open House she's having on Saturday....and I mean assisting as in helping her get rid of all the food by eating it all and drinking all the wine...lol. Hey, I was gestational while I was pregnant, after all. I didn't get to have a lot of goodies AND I haven't had a drink since before I was pregnant! So, I think that's reason enough for all that! Don't you think?

No, but seriously, we do have a LOT of celebrating to do this weekend. This will be the first time we've seen each other since BEFORE we got our book contract!!! Can you say PAR-TAY! hehe!The pic above is the last time we saw each other, which was over the Summer when the book concept was born!

Well, it won't be all fun and games. We do have some serious business to attend to. We will be choosing the contributing jewelry designers for our book! Now, that is going to be tough! So many of you submitted great designs. Thank you to everyone who submitted. I'm blown away by the interest and enthusiasm for this project. We appreciate it so much, Thank you! Stay tuned!