First: finding a new home

My BF and I have been scrolling down thousands of house ads. I'm sure it's the same all around the world, and it's not the first time for me; but I'm always amazed about what people can call an "apartment". Obviously we have a different definition.
And, if your house is like the ones below, no offence: I just think you should show the best if you put an ad on the web.
I don't understand why people make such bad pics



or sometimes they just show you a corner of the bathroom and that's all





(and let's not talk about the ceiling....)

Or the house is a complete mess



Or they show you the street, in the worst area of the city.
Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp!
And this is only the beginning, I'm sure we'll laugh a lot when we'll actually see them.

Moving

The day after our 1st anniversary in this house my boyfriend got a call - he's got a job...in Milan. A pretty good one.
I'm not sure I can bear another relocation...especially after only one year, several months of which were spent only to empty boxes!
When I left Milan last february I was pretty sure never to go back there again, but I also knew it'd be really hard for the both of us to find a job anywhere else.
Good news: a bigger house (I hope) and all the friends I had left in Milan.
When I moved here my best friend moved in the same period from a city around here to Milan, so maybe we'll finally be together again since College time!
Plus I'll be able to visit Claudia Cattaneo shop and maybe take a class with her to learn bead embroidery properly!
Bad news: all the green and the nice places around here, the long walks under the arcades, the jogging in the park along the river...gone.
Back to the "gray city"!

Starfish & Turquoise necklace

Haven't been posting for a while, but I'm still trying to figure out how to get some order in my little house! After me&my boyfriend came back here from our very long Xmas holyday in our hometown, there's such a mess.
But today I almost finished my new necklace:



Now all I need is a nice toggle and it'll be ready for my etsy shop.

I'm also trying to make Marcia De Coster's Urchin Lariat, with some alteration. The problem is I started with some beautiful tones of blue and turquoise, which I love but never wear...so guess it'll be a nice gift for someone!

Voting for royalty begins

Here we are!
The new mosaic for february challenge "Royalty throughout time" is ready on Etsy Beadweavers blog:



Take your time to choose and vote for your favorite from today until 15 february!

EBW February 2011 Challenge: Royalty throughout time

I have changed my mind about next month challenge so many times, I was afraid I didn't have much time left to make my entry.
I wanted to make a necklace inspired by the Evil Queen, so I bought a lot of golden, purple and black Swarovski and beads.
But then I had a beader's block.
Until yesterday, when I realized it was so much better to focus on a different aspect of the story...
So here it is, my beaded version of the Evil Queen box:



and there's also Snow White's heart inside (in the shape of a necklace, of course).



Please visit our team blog, www.etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com (http://www.etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com) between the 9th and 15th february and vote for your favorite entry!!!

First backed cameo

I finally tried to use one of my Guns N' Roses cameo in a proper way.
I glued it on a piece of leather, waited, embroidered it all around...this is the result



I'm pretty happy with it, though I did something wrong with the edges...so I won't show you the back!

I gave up...

...and made my own Chan Luu bracelet



It's addictive.
Going to make some more with sparkly beads.

Blackberries

I remember summers in the country, when I was a kid. We had that period when wild blackberries were ready, sneaking out from dry stone walls which divide each property there, branches so full they were leaning down on the road.
All the family used to take a walk, everyone with a little empty ice cream box, taking care not to wake up any snake hiding between the grass.
This summer I took such a walk after a long, long time, but there were almost no blackberry due to alternation of heavy rains and heat in the wrong periods.
So I made my own blackberries/beaded beads and made this necklace:



I love black and silver together and I had already used this combination for this necklace.

I also realy love the Pitaya bead, it has such a beautiful shape



Now I'm going back to the five necklaces I'm trying to finish...

Experimenting

I'm still in my hometown, the weather here is so much warmer then in the north of Italy (some days the difference is 10° C) that for the first time I don't mind sleeping in my old bedroom.
I'm back beading after a long break with some new beads I bought in Venice last month, they have a metallic finish and I love how the work turns out



Had I known they were so good, I would have bought more of them. Pictures don't do them justice.

Unfortunately I don't have ALL my beads here, and it's pretty hard to find any here, so I'm still trying to figure out how to make my entry for this month's EBW challenge, "Royalty Throughout Time" which is awesome!
I was thinking about a piece inspired by Elizabeth I, since I loved the 2 movies so much.
I found out I really love "Royal gossips". I started reading World of Royalty Blog and I enjoy it so much.
I'll go back beading now and maybe treat myself with some of this

Nice!!!

Today is so full of nice discoveries.
My copy of Marcia De Coster's Beaded opulence arrived, and I can't wait to start beading!!!
It was a gift for my birthday, one of my favourite!
I think I'm going to buy some more beading books. I recently followed an interesting discussion on Etsy Beadweavers forum about copyright and I realized many beaders don't buy beading books anymore to feel more free to bead without the danger of unconsciously copying.
That's a smart thing to do.
Unfortunately, I feel I still have so much to learn. I usually "copy" (giving the due credit of course, ^_^ )stuff simply looking at it and trying to understand myself how to do it with my own knowledge, and the result is so much gratifying; like with the star shaped Santa Claus.
But some things are so complicated, it's hard to resist buying a pattern or a book.

The nice thing is there are so many people who just share their pattern, or like in the following case, make a sort of friendly competition!
I found this very nice initiative on Renata's blog



please have a look, as you can see from the pic the result is gorgeous!
The deadline is 31 January, hurry up!