Been busy making beads!

I have my work cut out for me – wiring up these beads for a couple large orders. I hope to get a few up on Etsy one of these days, too.

In the meantime, here are some Special Edition black-and-pink bone beads that are available now.
Story and details here.

Update August 25, 2010 – new photos added (see below)

Here are some new photos of the beads (and the reason I made them) that I talked about in this post.

Thank you everyone who has helpedby sending good thoughts, spreading the word, and donating for this important cause.

In other news, I learned how to knit at the end of February, thanks to this video on YouTube:

I LOVE knitting. What I really love… is the portability. Making glass beads requires a lot of prep time and a lot of post-beadmaking time (cleaning beads, etc.) and of course, can only be done in my studio – torch, flame, ventilation, and all of that. Knitting, OTOH, fits easily in my bag, and I knit in the car (as a passenger!), while waiting for kids, relaxing with the family, little ‘knitting breaks’ here and there, etc. etc. I still love glass beadmaking of course, but am enjoying “keeping busy” when life permits — with knitting. All of those yarns, the colors, etc. = very  addicting!

Here are a few projects to date. I plan to explore glass buttons or other ways to accessorize knitted projects with handmade glass beads.

My Cat Greta on her Cat Mat

The Cat Mat, modeled by Greta.

The Cat Mat

Checkerboard hat and self-striping yarn

Crazy dog sweater for my Greyhound, Argos

Learn more: Argos and my foster Greyhound, Hammer (who found a wonderful forever home!)

I also discovered Ravelry, thanks to a local friend who I ran into at the yarn store. She said the site is “like Facebook for knitters” and WOW! was she ever right. Although I have to say it is waaaaay better than Facebook, programming-wise. I even showed my dh how slick the site is as far as all of the things it “does” to connect people, yarns, patterns, forums, and groups. Very cool. If you are on Ravelry, you can find me here.

I have been doing a lot of blogging in various places on veterinary topics. I am also getting ready to go to the BlogPaws conference in April. I just now posted a big update on what’s up over at AboutVetMed.com. Lots of irons in fires. Exciting!

Here is a photo of the most recent bead batch.

Click to go to Etsy!

And a quick reminder… the Hounds For Haiti bead auctions end tomorrow morning between 8 and 9 am PST!

eBay ID: HoundsForHaiti – all items

Argos the Greyhound

The holidays flew by and 2010 is off to a fast start. Let’s see… here’s what’s new since the last update.

We adopted Argos, a wonderful rescue Greyhound in December. He is fitting in beautifully with our other pets and human family, and we are in love with him.

I was inspired by my Twitter friends, local shelter open house events and the global Home for the Holidays campaign. I  interviewed Hilary Swank, the spokeswoman for this year’s adoption campaign last week, and almost 1.4 million animals were adopted! Yay!

Beads. I am still making them, but unfortunately, not having any time to list them in my neglected Etsy store. I am making lots of dog bones for a local shop, though and that has been going well. I have lots of beads on the workbench (oye the workbench! I must get organized…), so please feel free to contact me with questions or requests. I may have the bead you are looking for.

I will be having beads available this week though! It is part of a collaborative effort by my pal DrV on Twitter. I wrote about the Hounds For Haiti efforts and upcoming eBay auctions here.

eBay ID: Hounds For Haiti – All items
Updated/additional auction info

See the full Hounds for Haiti photo album!

These beads will be on eBay later this week - 100% of the proceeds to Red Cross/Haiti efforts.

Now I can wear my beach finds!