31 October 2012

All Treats. Few Tricks.

I'll bet living in a nudist colony takes all the fun out of Halloween. 
~Author Unknown

It is Halloween today but around here the treats were handed out on Sunday afternoon. I am told that we had 66 trick-or-treaters come by! Not only did my husband do a good job of making sure all the candy I supplied him with was taken, but he dipped into the bin of older candy (mostly Lifesavers and the random Dum Dum). So I guess, that was a bit of a trick for those that came late! 
 
Today I have a few treats to share... 
 


The first is a treat for me. I just found out that I won $100 worth of online classes from the "Dream Jewelry Studio" drawing at CraftArtEdu.com. Woot! I am going to treat myself to some polymer clay classes, like this one to make enchanting crown boxes. Or these interchangeable rings. Or perhaps Tiny Dancer and I would like to make these cute polymer clay bugs. Or maybe a make your own rubber stamp. Or a mixed media jewelry making exploration of a winged steampunk heart. Or a class making felted flower earrings to feed my new love of felting after making embellished felted leaves with my daughter at the Inspired by Nature retreat last weekend (pictures and more to follow soon!).
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A few weeks back I was surprised by a package of beads from Kalmbach Publishing, publishers of the Bead Soup Book that I am honored to be a part of. They are hosting a little bead soup party this month in conjunction with the book. They asked bead stores across the country to put together a little bead soup to share with random participants. I got a sweet little package of beads from a shop right here in my state of Wisconsin - Meant To Bead in Sun Prairie! I have never been, but now I know that I will have to stop in sometime when I am in that neck of the woods. 


They sent me a pretty and springy palette of light blues, yellow and white with a gold clasp. I got glass tulip beads, faceted fire polish, crystal bicones, a sweet little flower lampwork bead and a pretty hammered Tierra Cast clasp. 

I added some ice blue shell coin beads, a fancy gold plated bracelet chain and some dainty gold plated fancy headpins from Beadalon. 

I went with a charm style bracelet. My trick with making these is to stagger groups of the beads along the length of the chain. I lay the chain out and then put the beads along the edge to give me a sense of the rhythm of the piece. Then I make all the dangles up and attach them. I kept switching between my round nose pliers and my wire cutters until I realized that my round nose pliers has an integrated cutter in them. Doh! Trick is on me!

My result is this flirty charm style bracelet I am calling "Meant to Be" in honor of the name of the store that graciously supplied the beads.

I wrote about the 7,000 Bracelets of Hope on the Art Bead Scene last week. This is an arm (no pun intended) of the Global Genes Project dedicated to putting a blue bracelet on the wrist of a caregiver of someone with a genetic disorder. To let them know that someone out there is thinking of them with hope. Did you know there are 7,000 identified rare diseases and over 80% of them are caused by a faulty gene? It makes me grateful and frankly amazed that my children do not have a genetic disorder. Since these beads were donated to me, I plan to donate this special bracelet to the 7,000 Bracelets of Hope charity. I have donated to this cause in the past, and I hope that this "Meant to Be" bracelet will bring cheer to someone. If you are interested in donating to the cause, please check out their website.
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Each year we have a tradition where we carve pumpkins with our friends the DiSalvo family. We figure that we have been doing this for 15 years, since I know that we started before we had children. We get together for an evening of food and football and carve our pumpkins with the Pumpkin Masters templates. 


Every year when I was little I would ask to be a princess. I remember that we would parade around the school up and down the hallways in our costumes. I had this pink dress that was thrifted and my mom made this way cool cone hat with a scarf at the top. And I had on a long strand of my mom's pearls. I remember the tink-tink-tink as they went bouncing down the hallway when the string broke. 

For years, my daughter asked to be a witch. Or Tinkerbell. I remember the year that I made her into Hannah Montana. And the so-cute costume I made when my son was two of a dinosaur made from two pairs of green sweatpants, a green hooded sweatshirt, stiffened felt, batting and googly eyes. I hate premade costumes. We go to Goodwill and get creative. This year Tiny Dancer picked out a black bob wig, some big sunglasses and a short black trench coat. She was going to be a spy at school. When we got there today, I asked if she had her costume. Of course, she left it at home. I could have gone back to get it, but she blew it off saying, "That's okay." But it wasn't okay with me. So now I have a $12 wig, $4 sunglasses, and $10 jacket. I sure hope she knows that she will be wearing that for Christmas. ;-)

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Bead Style Magazine has a new Pinterest board called "Words to Bead By" that I just love. It shows what looks like a message tacked up on a board. I think this treat is a 'something good' today!

 
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And the final treat is one for you...with a bit of a trick ;-). I have to get my Etsy site back up and running after shutting it off from my weekend trip. But before I do that, I have to double-check that I won't be putting some of the Simple Truths back out there that sold during our trunk show. I made three exclusive designs for the goodie bags that all had a woodsy feel. Of course, I made extra and they will be in the shop soon. They are in my Forest Finery style. For one random lucky participant, I would like to give one away. That is the treat. The trick is that I am going to make the winner select from the quotes only, and not the images. Which quote is your favorite?

'a weed is but an unloved flower'  ~Ella Wheeler Wilcox

'every leaf a miracle' ~Walt Whitman

'i speak for the trees' ~The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

Leave a comment below telling me your favorite of these three quotes or a favorite trick or treat memory and I will announce a winner on Friday! 

P.S. For another treat, tune in tomorrow, November 1st, as I reveal the new Challenge of Color inspiration. I think you are going to love it! And then come back on Friday, November 2nd as I share the Michaels Toast of the Town variation mini blog hop and the Humblebeads Teal Branches blog hop! Treats galore!


22 comments:

A Polymer Penchant said...

Ha! If I'm looking out at my gardens certainly Ella said it best! What a fun way to giveaway. I can't wait to see everyone's felted lovelies. I have an embarrassingly huge stock pile of roving that I really need to create with.

Cameron said...

Oh, Halloween....how I love thee! My Mom was always so good at making costumes from thrifted this and crafted that, that now I do the same for my Girl. She will be Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas again this year (she loved the costume so much....haha!) I'm just surprised she still fits into it :)

I always remember fondly the anticipation of waiting for it to get dark enough to go out Trick or Treating....waiting for the longest minutes known to man to creep by and the lazy sun to finally go to bed. Mom would put all our make-up on (she would dress up, too) and we'd hope to see some "haunted" houses that night :)
I'm looking forward to seeing my Maggie go through the same excitement tonight!

All 3 of those quotes are wonderful! I do identify with Ella's quote....there is potential for beauty in everything :)

I love what you did with the beads you were sent....such a fun and flirty charm bracelet!

Hope you have a magical Halloween!
Cameron

KayzKreationz said...

My fav, A weed is but an unloved flower. I love all the wildflowers/weeds here in Texas and know that some think I'm crazy, since they're just 'weeds' but if you look close enough and long enough you see the beauty. I'd love to win one of your pendants.

Anonymous said...

Very inspiring! My favorite quote is 'a weed is but an unloved flower' ~Ella Wheeler Wilcox because I think we have all felt like a weed at one time or another.

Anonymous said...

My fav quote is "every leaf a miracle"! Fav Halloween memory....the year my younger (but not little) brother dressed up as a girl. He shredded a pair of my pantyhose AND destroyed my very first pair of high heels! But, he did make a VERY pretty girl! :-)

Tuxbird said...

I like 'every leaf a miracle', few words but they say so much. Thanks for the giveaway!

Tanya said...

Congratulations on your win! I can't wait to see which classes you choose and what you create from them.

I love your bracelet also. I was so excited to see so many people I follow participate in the Kalmbach party.

As for the quotes, I do like Ella's quote. It makes me smile. :)

Marcie Abney Carroll said...

The first quote for sure. Mostly because my favorite flowers that sprout up in the summer tend to be labeled "weeds". ;)

Andrew Thornton said...

What a fantastic bracelet! I bet it has lots of movement and is fun to wear. It's good of you to donate it to such a worthy cause.

And the pumpkin carving looks like a lot of fun! What a wonderful tradition! We're going to carve the pumpkin tonight. Maybe roast the seeds and make a pumpkin soup with the smaller pumpkin.

Oh and as far as the quote... "I speak for the trees".

DESPINA said...

I have no Halloween memories since we don't celebrate it here but I have great ones from Carnival season!!
Our grandmother used to make us the most dreamy costumes when we were little girls.
Me and my sister, we always remember her every Carnival with love and gratitude.
The quote that speaks most to my heart is 'every leaf a miracle' by Walt Whitman...

DESPINA
deb_oro@yahoo.gr

Unknown said...


'i speak for the trees' ~The Lorax by Dr. Seuss is definitely my favorite. I've always been a big Seuss fan:)

Unknown said...


'i speak for the trees' ~The Lorax by Dr. Seuss is definitely my favorite. I've always been a big Seuss fan:)

Green Shoot Jewellery Designs said...

Oh my goodness, my grandmother gave me a book of poems by Ella Wheeler Wilcox a very long time ago. I keep it on my dressing table and read the poems sometimes. Its such an old book, you are the only person I've ever known to mention Ella. Overwhelming, thank you Erin for bringing happiness to my day.
Deb x

Margot Potter said...

I love, love, love the bracelet!

I am rather partial to the Lorax, myself.

Happy Halloween!

Love
Miss Madge

Becky Pancake said...

Great job on the bracelet. I already got a trick today. I had a colonoscopy this morning. I am hoping I get a treat too. Thanx for the chance to win. My favorite of the sayings is 'every leaf a miracle' ~Walt Whitman

Rebecca said...

How can I possibly pick between such lovely quotes? All are wonderful. So if my name got selected, I would have to ask you to pick your favourite quote dear Erin! I hope you guys had a really wonderful weekend. I'm looking forward to hearing all about it. x x x

Alice said...

A delightful post. I love the bracelet you made for the Kalmbach Bead Soup--and you got it done on time! That flower bead on the end is sweet.

How fun that you have a long-time Halloween tradition with friends. Our kids are grown now, but when they were younger we enjoyed a day in the pumpkin patch followed by ice cream. Oh how I miss those days.

My favorite quote is the one about the weed. Thanks for the chance to win!

Happy Halloween!

Zeniswoman said...

I really love all three quotes! If I had to choose my favorite, I would choose "weeds are but unloved flowers." It definitely speaks to my heart :)
Wishing your family a very Happy Halloween!

Anonymous said...

My memories of Halloween mostly come from the 11 years I lived in the SF Bay Area, where drag queens were the undisputed EMPRESSES of Halloween. Here in Australia, though, Halloween is only just starting to become popular, and I took my 3 kids out last night to go trick or treating for the very first time. "This is the Best Halloween EVAH!" proclaimed Miss Seven as she looked at a bulging bag of treats! "Hall'ween not scawey!" said her not quite 3 year old brother (the nearly 6 year old was busy stuffing her face).
Oh, and I love the 3 quotes you've used, the Lorax one most of all!

Unknown said...

Anything with yellow in it is awesome as far as I am concerned!
'Every leaf a miracle', just like all of us! Truly the creation of all life is a miracle.

Lori Bowring Michaud said...

Your charm bracelet is lovely, as always, and how generous of you to donate it to 7000 Bracelets for Hope!

I love Whitman's quote!

Anonymous said...

My favorite quote is "a weed is but an unloved flower". Sometimes I feel like a weed, a flower that grows wild, that goes unnoticed unless it is making trouble but one which thrives in life's hard and rocky places, more hardy than a beautiful hothouse bloom. I think there are lots of people like that.

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