Pounds of Beads, Custom made items, and Giveaway winner!

My first hobby as a young gal was collecting Hard Rock Cafe t-shirts. I think I figured it was a good way to have a similar souvenir from every city that was worth having a HRC and even practical in a sense (who doesn't love t-shirts?). My collection, at current, is at about 50, though I can't remember the last time I wore one. Some times I don't recognize myself... now instead of looking up local HRC's in a hotel phone book, I instead am Google mapping local bead stores on my Blackberry! That's right -- I have officially sunk to the level where I now put the main attractions of a big city on the back burner and replace it with first finding local bead shops! This past week I visited Baltimore and Chicago to see family, friends, and, well, Bead stores! I hit up only one in Baltimore, but 5 in Chicago, and will be Yelping about it soon. But in the meantime, here are some of my fabulous finds (totaling to about 10 lbs if you include the glass and the fork/spoon set!). Needless to say, I am going to have some fun this week! I'll of course keep you posted on what I make and how certain pictures I took in BMore and Chi-town correspond to my jewelry! :) Next, I hurried home to finish two of the three items due this month. First I made Elizabeth's earrings for her Body Building show to match her bikini. I like how they turned out. She told me today that she was so inspired that she ordered, for her next show, a plain swimsuit in addition to hundreds of Swarovski crystals that she is going to glue on herself! My kind of swimsuit! Next I finished Courtney's prom ring and bracelet. I braided three strands of beads and ended the bracelet with a brushed silver clasp. The ring was a bit harder, as I have never made one before! (pardon my ugly hand modeling!) Good thing Courtney wanted chunky, cause that's what she got! I used a really thin silver wire (32 gauge) which made the process more like hand stitching than wire wrapping. Next up will be pictures of these two events - both happening this weekend :) Lastly, we have a giveaway winner! Thanks to everyone who entered and left such beautiful feedback. I took it all to heart and have saved it for a rainy day. I numbered every entry and didn't use a hat method but instead used a computerized random number generator and it came up with the number 17, which belonged to REGINA! Congrats, gal! I liked this giveaway so much that I think I am going to do another one again soon! Well, I better get back to creating new things! More to follow soon!