Christmas and New Year wishes ...

Well 2008 has been an amazing year for me. Some recent low points such as redundancy and family illness, but mostly it has been a wonderful journey full of beady goodness. This was the year that I set up a website, an Etsy shop and started a blog - all quite alien things to me. I had my first design published and went on to have 16 projects published throughout the year and even made the cover of Bead & Button magazine. I found lots of fantastic new friends all over the world, either through beading or blogging and even found my best friend from school through Facebook after having lost touch with her many years ago. With the help of Beading Daily and my blogging friends, I raised a significant amount of money for various charities with my beaded Ribbon Awareness Pins. I learnt a great deal about beading and opened my eyes to some new possibilities which I can't wait to try in the New Year and I discovered many, many talented bead artists whose work excites and inspires me. All in all, a great year which I am very thankful for!

I hope life has been kind to you and that you were able to make the most of the opportunities that presented themselves to you. And finally, whether you celebrate Christmas or not, I would like to wish everyone happiness and health and I look forward to 'seeing' you in 2009!

Kerrie x

Let's play tag!

It seems there's a tagging epidemic in Blogsville at the moment - everywhere I hop someone is sharing seven interesting but often bizarre 'facts' about themselves! Well I've been tagged twice too, so I thought I'd join in with the fun. I'd like to thank the wonderful Triz of Triz Designs for my first 'tagging' and Leah of the beautiful Michon Jewelry Blog for my second.

So my seven facts to share are:

1) Family legend has it that on my mother's side, our family tree can be traced back to the Pilgrim Fathers, but that we also have a Spanish pirate thrown into the mix. Whether it is true or not, I like this idea as it seems to pretty much sum up the person you see before you today!

2) I am a member of Mensa.

3) I am the only child of an only child and I don't have any children - so this particular Slade line stops right here.

4) I have a penchant for real ale and/or home brew. In fact, Dad has a barrel of homemade nettle ale fermenting right now for our next visit!

5) I don't have any tattoos in any out of the way places, but I do have a rather splendid secret mole ;0)

6) Mum tells me that when I first learnt to read I would start from the bottom right hand corner of a page and read up to the top left. Mum also says that the first time I wrote my name I wrote E, I, R, R, E, K - now this really explains a lot!

7) I am a free spirited Sagittarius born in the year of the snake sssssssssssssssssssss!

Once again I won't be passing this on as everybody I would have tagged has already played the game. As usual, I would encourage you to explore some of the blogs and sites listed on my side bar, or the links to the Etsy Bead Weavers or Entrecard.

Other news is that the two winners of the Awareness Ribbon Pins have been announced on Beading Daily. It was a difficult decision as there were so many moving stories. If you have time, follow this link and read the two winning entries - there is also space to leave a comment at the end if you wish.

Not that again???

I know I have blogged about my Ribbon Awareness Pins countless times now, and some of you will be bored of seeing the same old photos instead of lovely shiny new beadwork, but I am still getting quite a lot of people asking me where they can find the pattern. The fundraising aspect has now finished but the pattern is available as normal in the Beading Daily shop and if you click here and then click on the title 'Ribbon Awareness Pins' you will be taken to the relevant page where you can purchase and download the pattern. Of course October is breast cancer awareness month and I have noticed that lots of bloggers have added a pink ribbon logo to their blog, so I have followed suit and changed my banner for this month only. I am currently in the process of reading through all the entries for the Power of Beading Contest - the winners will be announced on Beading Daily by October 20th. A big thank you to everyone who entered the contest and shared their stories about how beading helped them through a challenging time.

Other news is that the talented and lovely Victoria of Three Fates Design passed on an 'I love your blog award' to me - thank you Victoria! As I have mentioned previously, although I am very grateful for having received a blog award, I don't pass them on as I don't want anyone to feel left out. I have a very long list of blogs and websites on my side bar, a link to all the Etsy BeadWeavers blogs, a link to Bead Artists who blog and of course Entrecard. All of these bloggers are deserving of an award in my view, and I would encourage you to explore some of these links.

Finally, I was also excited to see that another lovely fellow Etsy BeadWeaver, Kim of Regal Beads, has created a treasury entitled 'Little Black Dress' and included my Supernova Choker - thank you Kim!

Talking of the Etsy Beadweavers, all the fabulous entries for this months challenge 'Animal Instinct' have been added to our team blog - take a look, voting begins on October 9th.

See you next week!

A reminder and some news ....

Tomorrow (September 30th) is the last day of my charity fundraiser in conjunction with Beading Daily. So if you are interested but haven't had chance to download the pattern for my Ribbon Awareness Pins yet, there's not long left! Remember it's only $3 (approximately £1.50) and ALL funds raised go to charity. All the details can still be seen here.

Some of you know that my work is displayed at Studio 61, a gallery in the picturesque heart of the Derbyshire Peak District. This coming weekend they are holding a jewellery festival and I will be there along with other artists demonstrating our arts and crafts. This will be an informal event where you can meet and chat to the designers and watch them at work. There will also be an opportunity to buy work via the gallery and craft shop. There is an ice-cream parlour, an art cafe and FREE parking so it should be a great day out!