lucky cherries!

first, i have these cute cherry baubles, that michelle put together with lucite and swarovski crystals. cherries have symbolism of success and happiness in love.

i have a small handful of these in the store, and would like to give them out to somebodies that would really love them and find an immediate place to wear/hang them! if that person is you, email me at jamie@thebeadgallery.com OR comment and i'll let you know if you will get one.

this necklace is straight strung spinel. ariel chose this as one of her personal faves in the store! quite pretty, yep!

i love wire wrapping!

love this wire wrap with the "herringbone" weave! jason's teaching it tonight. our friend kara, figured out how to do this about 9 years ago (she's my smarty friend), and jason taught kriss, who then spread it out through northern california to other students and teachers in the area, and it caught on like wildfire - it was and still is super popular!! it's amazing how awesome things spread!

i suppose the moral of this story, is, don't worry so much about who's copying who. in the end, it won't matter at all. just make sure you're not hurting anyone along the way, have gratitude in your heart, and respect the divine in each other and ourselves. namaste!

welcome to the world!

michelle had her baby a few days ago, and she's a little sweetpea! i'm such a thrilled aunty, i came home and stayed up til 3am making a video!

click here to go to my bead gallery facebook page to see it!

cerise sakura yu, welcome to earth!

may your journey be long and fruitful - and may you be loved for all your life!

steampunk bracelet

janice berkebile's steampunk bracelet was fun fun fun!! I was able to attend cause anna took half a day off and covered my shift, yay! thanks anna!! you da bomb!!!

janice is an awesome teacher and her class was so much fun - i'm inspired to do more jewelry making asap!

gina, not steampunking in this pic. no, not so much. :)

i was so happy to be able to take a class, i wanted to thank anna with her own steampunkin' bracelet. The one on the right with all the fancy stuff is for anna. The one below it is mine. I didn't have enough time to embellish mine, so i just stamped it with some cool images! click on the pic to enlarge, so you can see the lotus and the om symbols. truthfully, michelle stamped a lot of it cause by the end, my arm was tired, but hey!! i hammered them!! go me!

seed beading rocks!

you ever had that friend, the one who does amazing things and says, "oh no, anyone can do it." and then you're thinking, yeah right, UGH, if only! Well, Arlene is that friend of mine - she's so talented, and her mental strength and discipline is inspiring to me.

In doing anything, a craft, sport, hobby, job - it takes more than skill - you need to have determination and the will to go to the end - AND the spirit to finish it with a great attitude and with the same purposefulness and care that you started with.

arlene, i know you think i'm the teacher, but you really have taught me a lot- just by watching you complete your beautiful projects over the years. thank you!

arlene's just completed right-angle weave layered seed bead bracelet!

so awesome!

help hawaii's keiki!

I LOVE TO READ! read and bead. that's my ideal job: a used bookstore/bead store. i'd be in heaven.. i'd be too busy to even help customers!!

Anyhoo, there is a book contest that awards 50,000 books to the state with the most votes. (Sort of like how you can vote for your favorite singer on American Idol.) The latest tally places Hawaii in 3rd place, and I KNOW OUR VOTE COUNTS, CAUSE WE'VE MOVED FROM 7TH PLACE TO 3RD IN THE LAST WEEK, YAY!! The contest ends on the 30th of this month so we have some time left to catapult Hawaii into 1st place! That'd be so awesome- can you imagine what 50,000 books look like??

The voting process is easy too. All you have to do is visit the website (http://booksforkids.firstbook.org/whatbook/about.php) AND VOTE ONCE A DAY till the end of this month. When on the website, you just have to choose ‘Hawaii’ in the required text field, and click the ‘Submit’ button to vote. (You don’t have to fill in the other text fields.)

If you are interested in this worthy cause please go and vote. Spread the word also to everyone you know whom you feel will love to give a vote of confidence for our keiki. (Go Hawaii!)

Let us help to empower them as they open up to the possibilities of what they can create in this journey called life. btw, (I stole the last two sentences from my meditation teacher, i love how it sounds. thanks stephen!)

Aloha! jamie

smarty hearty

smarty hearty!

very aptly named because it was made by a friend that i admire greatly, who is very book-smart, street-smart AND people-smart!

she always makes time to listen, has feedback when appropriate and is genuinely compassionate, without the drama. my idol, my mentor and role model - i'm so happy when she's around - kara, you da bomb, girl!

and here is more evidence of her "smarty-ness"! she designed the floating leaflette (below), and is going to teach it at the store in october... yay!!

make the time, momma!

Gina is one of my girls - she does emails, web stuff, picture taking, photo-shopping, and is my all around go-do-it computer girl!

She blogged about 3 jewelry projects that she made TODAY, and i LOVED the pics and LOVED the entry, so much that i want to dedicate my blog to her entry, so that you can feel happy and inspired like i do, right now!!

i'm gonna go straight-string a freshwater pearl bracelet after i "hang up". see if you don't feel the same way after reading her short and sweet entry too!

just click below, and i'll catch you laterz! luv, j

http://chickieg.blogspot.com/2009/09/raylis-jewels.html

9/9/09

today we got married, again! it's our 10th anniversary and we decided to do it with STYLE!

go here to see our first wedding's single picture that we have! http://thebeadgallery.com/html/about.asp

the transformation begins... false eyelashes and bondo, here we come!

yay, yay, yay! let's get married, i can't wait!!

our marriage is sealed with nice-nice, kisses and a surprise ceremony! alice's wonderful words and blessings were awesome :) gooooo us!

such a blessed, blessed day. i'm so thankful and grateful - this was a momentous day for me. a day with such amazing significance, that as long as i am in this body, i will look back on and remember being surrounded by love, and thinking, aha! that's why i am here.

sapphire necklace

Sapphire (blue) is like a personal trainer - giving you the support for self-discipline and focus, and the extra boost of determination and ability to tap into our mental strengths and accomplish our goals. Need help with sticking to an exercise or weight loss program, or making time to stay centered and focused.. sapphire is for you!

wish i won it.

at our last charity fair, gale w. made and donated this awesome gold-filled hammered wire necklace. i forgot to place my last bid, and sadly lost. BUT happily, found out that gina loved it and had overbid me, and then let me wear it!

so pretty, and it's a cousin to this bracelet below. just wanted to show you how a spin-off can take on a personality of it's own!

another mini makeover!

so i'm loving the makeovers now! I made the white freshwater pearl necklace above last month, and wore it plain. not bad... pretty on...a bit conservative for me. then i had a pair of lotus earrings that chuckie made - that i hardly wore due to my crooked earlobes... (that's a whole nother story).

So i turned that earring into a pendant with 2 jumprings - and now i have a super beauteous necklace that i LOVE! AND, my super lucky friend leah, will be the recipient of the other earring - cause she SOOO admired my necklace, AND it looked good on her. hey leah, if you read my blog, you may want to contact me soon!

luv j