Preciosa Twin Beads & International Shipping

So today is my Birthday...I am 39, which is only 1 year away from 40...and that's only 1 decade away from 50...Haha! But all in all the day itself was perfectly fine as far as birthdays go...

Of course I would be much more excited about it all if it would just snow on my birthday! That hasn't happened since I turned 17...and that day it snowed over 2 feet! And I love snow storms...or any kind of storms actually. But bright, sunny and cold winter days just seem so out of place to me! Where is the beautiful grey sky of winter?

I had a lot of annoying errands to run today...which is a very bad idea in the middle of December! I can't believe that I actually forgot what it is like out there in the world of Christmas shopping...something I avoid like the plague! But my wonderful Daughter offered to drive me around so at least I got to spend some of my Birthday with her...even if we were in Commercial Christmas Hell!

But when I got home my new Twin Beads from Preciosa were in the mailbox! I have been wanting to try these out since I heard about them, but not wanting to end up with 100 grams of one color before seeing them first...so ordering from York Beads or another Wholesale Supplier was out of the question for now!

So I ordered 3 little 10 gram tubes from Sparkle Spot in Bronze, Black and Crstal. I use Bronze and Black more than any other color except maybe Red...and I figured the Crystal color would be good for using in netted ornament covers or something Christmassy!

These beads are so damn cute...they are much smaller than I imagined they would be! It can be hard to visualize something that's measured in mm's. Even with all of the seed beads I own and play with everyday, I still don't know what 5mm is going to look like until it's in my hands!

I can't wait to start playing with them...I am much more excited about them now than I was when I first heard about them! For some reason I assumed they would be similar to the Miyuki Tila beads, which I like, but I wouldn't want to see another version of them!

But here is a photo of these Twins with a US Penny for scale. Also included for scale are some Miyuki Round Seed Beads in sizes 11/0 and 8/0...

At this time of year I always start thinking about what I accomplished during the past year and what I might wish to attempt in the coming year...and I always prefer to think of these things as a challenge rather than a resolution! I work better with challenges than with some "set in stone" rule, which is how I think of the word Resolution!

And just in time, Jen of Van Beads has offered up a New Year's Challenge on Beading Daily...to bead 1 pair of earrings every day for the month of January! I am totally in for this one. And now I don't even have to come up with my first challenge of 2012...this one just fell in my lap!

This is a great challenge for seed bead artists, especially because seed bead projects always take an insane amount of time to complete. So making a pair of earrings is like instant gratification for a seed beader!

As a seed beader, I always get side tracked in the middle of a project to start something else that I can't get out of my head! And then I end up with a crazy amount of projects going at the same time...because nothing ever gets finished in less than a day or two and usually nothing gets finished in less than a week...and sometimes months!

So today I decided to practice for this challenge...I made a pair of earrings out of Marcia DeCoster's Beaded Opulence: Medici Drops. These are so beautiful...and fairly easy to make if you can find the right tear drop beads for them!

I finally found some 7mm x 28mm Cubic Zirconia Tear Drops at Beadaholique...and they were on sale! But they are out of stock on every color except for Garnet Red (more of an Orangey Red like Hyacinth) and Jet Black. But if you're making these Medici Drop earrings you want something more outrageous than Black...sooo, I got the Garnet Red and paired them with Dark Bronze Seed Beads, Matte Metallic Bronze Seed Beads and Swarovski 3mm Bicones in Red Magma...

It's not the greatest photo...actually, it's a terrible photo! I apologize for that...most of my photos on this blog are kind of awful! But I took them with my iPhone...and now I have my camera back so I will finally start getting some better photos for this little diary of mine!

Anyways, I am still playing along with the Blog Hop being hosted by Marcia DeCoster and several other amazing Bead Artists! I am really hoping that I win something out of this! The beautiful beads and things being given away in this Blog Hop are amazing and I want them all...Haha! But I enjoy reading their blogs anyways, so I certainly will not be losing anything if I don't win!

But I have already missed out on winning the one item I wanted (so far) on Beadaholique's 12 Giveaways of Christmas...so hopefully I get lucky with the Blog Hop...or maybe something else will come up on the Christmas Giveaway that I could actually use!

The current gift looks awesome, it's all about bead embroidery and includes a signed copy of Sherry Serafini's Sensational Bead Embroidery (I have this, unsigned of course), 4 tubes of Toho 11/0's, 3 bobbins of Nymo (hate the stuff), a pack of Beadsmith Assorted Beading Needles (I prefer Pony's size 12) 2 sheets of Lacy's Stiff Stuff (I prefer Nicole's Beadbacking) and a sheet of Ultra Suede (this I could use)...

But I already own everything in the gift bag except for the Ultra Suede...so I may as well leave my name out of the hat and give someone else a little bit more of a chance to win it, right?

Well, it's 11:59  and my birthday is almost officially over...I guess now it's time to go play with those Twin Beads!

Happy Beading!