Weekly Wanderings Around the Beadosphere

Have you adjusted to Standard Time yet? Even after a whole week I'm still taken aback somewhat when it gets dark early. I've never been a morning person so taking advantage of the extra light at 6 or 7 am really doesn't work for me. Driving home in the dark from work isn't much fun either. Fortunately, there's no need to worry about the time of day around the Beadosphere, it's always brightly lit!

A Bead A Day went 'froggy' to kick off her week! I remember learning about frog closures when I was 11 or 12 and living in Taiwan. Many of the traditional Chinese clothing had lovely, embellished frog buttons on them. I may have gotten my fascination with macrame from thinking how cool it would be to learn how to create the knot buttons! It's been Arts & Crafts Week all week, so be sure to check each day's fun post on a different crafty topic.

I loved this week over at The Beading Gem. Read about bead addiction (I'm not addicted, I can stop anytime...yeah, right), neutral jewelry design and don't miss her post on the Maharaja Exhibition - lots of great pictures of the dazzling gems of India's Maharaja's.

Over (Under? Davinia's in Australia) at Deez News she expresses her dislike of "the drawing board" as in, back to the...how well I know that feeling! The lovely earrings from bits of a disassembled garland are gorgeous - a bit of ink, a smudge of 'silver rub and buff' (I need some of that!) and the result is delightful.

Wish a happy belated birthday to Melanie at Earthenwood Studios and check out the lovely ceramic art beads she's created. She also posted about the latest Art Bead Scene challenge and her "double challenge" offer which is a sweet prize of some of her latest beads!

Speaking of the Art Bead Scene challenge, ErtheFae's been inspired to submit this month - take a peek at her submission which uses one of the darling elf faces from Earthenwood Studios.

An Intergalactic Bead Show! As a nearly life-long fan of all things Science Fiction, (started in second grade, officially but probably got hooked earlier, or else why did I buy The Lost Race of Mars from Scholastic Book Club at school that day?) that would have definitely been my destination last week, if I lived near enough to go - Just A Tish got to visit, so I'll have to just enjoy it vicariously! Tish also shares her latest Rings & Things blogger review package (mine's not here yet and I'm so sad!) and lovely Beadin' Path design partner results, too - love what she's doing with the carnelian!

Ladybead's blog was new last week to my weekly round up and this week you can check out some special items for weddings - like custom invitation designs and wedding garters.

Margot Potter is so energetic I get a great workout just clicking through her posts! (Wouldn't that be wonderful if you *could* burn hundreds of calories reading blogs? I'd lose 30lbs on my Sunday postings alone). Margot and her daughter got featured in an ad, tells how she made the adorable Mom & Daughter shirts you see in the ad, gives a sneak peek at two of the designs she'll be doing a PBS Creative Living show segment about, is doing a subscription to Totally Creative Magazine giveaway (post your comment before Thursday!), and then she was off to QVC! *whew*

Orion Designs shared a necklace the other day with a very unusual (to me) focal stone - 'stitchite' That led me on a merry chase (via Google) looking for suppliers selling that stone.

Silver Parrot took the Humblebeads challenge and shared her work last week. Check out her use of ribbon as a bail, unusual use of findings and horizontal focal posts. As a bit of an interlude hope you enjoy her adventure at the deli counter as much as I did, and of course, bead porn! I wonder if she looks at her analytics to see what kind of searches end up on that post when she does them... :-)

All week long WillowWalker has been sharing her lovely "Create Art Every Day" challenge posts - do go look at her beautiful glass work (I love these adorable pink earrings)!

I'm sorry to report that there have been no posts from Smutopia or Shoozles last week - hope they come back soon!

Over at Artbeads there's a lovely "I Remember Summer" charm bracelet and some Holiday Card inspiration.

Beadalon is offering a giveaway if you comment on the Swarovski flatback + gluable bail post - ends either today or tomorrow, so get over there. Yes, even if I lower my chances to win, you should check it out. Also, there's a Katie Hacker's post about color as beading inspiration.

The Beadin' Path's Dara has a great post about the history of La Peregrina Pearl, from Mary I of England to Elizabeth Taylor.

Clever new uses for Friendly Plastic are shared at The Art of Friendly Plastic blog. Even if you don't use the product, it's got inspiration, especially around color.

Jeanette Blix (Fundametals.net) talks about riveting.

Objects and Elements - PEPE tools for dapping and cutting metals and simple and stunning designs.

Ornamentia (aka. shinylittlethings) shares Elaine Ray designs and a lovely pearls and ribbon necklace tutorial.

Rings & Things - Do you know about CERF? Now you do! Plus, snowflakes and *sigh* Swarovski price bump is coming. But the best post is about the winner of their guest blog partner drawing - Wendy Gibson! Congrats, Wendy!

SoftFlexGirl featured guest blogger Jamie Hogsett's DIY paper box instructions, shared their banner ads for the Flex Your Creativity contest (lookie! My design got on one of the ads!!*faint*), reminded you about the giveaway drawing for new Soft Flex Trios variety packs (winners announced on Nov 9th, so hurry!) *and* a contest for designing with recyclable materials!

Well, that's it for this week. I keep adding new blogs to follow and trying to share interesting posts with you from each of them, hope it's useful! Let me know if you have a blog you follow I could mention next time.

If you like keeping up with the Beadosphere here, do consider becoming a follower of this blog (there's a handy button at the top left of the page in the blue blogger banner, that says "follow blog" just click!), I'd love to reciprocate as well, so mention it in the comments so I can.

Also, on the right side of the page, in the sidebar, is my Facebook widget. I'd love it if you'd be a Facebook fan of Dawno, too.