CONTEST HAS ENDED AS OF JAN. 5TH AT NOON. I WILL ANNOUNCE THE WINNER ON MY BLOG TONIGHT!

THE WINNER IS DJGROZ! PLEASE EMAIL ME AT: THEROYALBEAD AT GMAIL.COM SO I CAN GET YOUR MAILING ADDRESS. CONGRATS!
EDITED TO ADD: CONTEST IS NOW OVER. ANY ADDED COMMENTS WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CONTEST AT THIS POINT.

Contest ends Jan. 5 '09 at noon, and I will announce the winner that evening!
To ring in the new year, and spread the fun, I am giving away a pair of my hand crafted, sterling silver, stamped cupcake earrings like the ones shown. All you have to do to be entered in the drawing is to visit my Etsy store, and tell me which piece of jewelry is your favorite! Click here to visit my store, then come back and comment below. This give away is listed at http://www.online-sweepstakes.com

Happy New Year!

Hope everyone has a nice New Year's and stays safe. We are headed out to dinner, and might catch some early fireworks up the road in our housing development.
Have you made any resolutions?
I most definitely plan to lose 10-15 pounds that I gained this year. So far I have managed to go without a chocolate bar for a week, and have had salads every day for lunch. I stopped drinking juice. I am allowing myself dessert only on Saturdays when we go out to eat.
I want to spend time finding ways to better advertise my jewelry and increase my metal working skills.
I need to force myself to paint again. I have gotten really down about it, and am actually scared to pick up a brush. I have a closet full of empty canvases. They are sad and lonely in there.
Here's to 2009! Let's hope a lot of things improve in the lives of every one!

Some new jewelry eye candy as promised....

Kitty Cat Induced Insomnia...

OH MY GOSH. If I don't get a normal night's sleep in the next day or so, I may go postal. The past few nights, my black kitty Tiny has been waking me up at 3 or 4 am in the morning. Once I am awake, I can't go back to sleep. She tries to get in my window, behind the blinds and makes all sorts of ruckus. Then she walks across my pillow, narrowly missing my head. Lastly, she seems to think it is perfectly normal to take a very loud bath, while sitting at the foot of my bed. She is driving me batty.

I worked on some jewelry to try to relax after I got home from Church yesterday, so I will hopefully have some pictures to share today or tomorrow. I had my first day teaching the 7 yr. olds yesterday, and that was entertaining. I only had three of them, but my class will be much larger next week.

Well, I have a bunch of errands to run, including going to the grocery store....which I hate doing. Sometimes I wonder if I am the only person who loathes going there. I hate spending money on food, trying to avoid being hit by someone's cart, getting stuck in an aisle full of people pondering soup labels, and getting to the checkout and realizing I forgot one of the main ingredients in my recipe. I am not the type to make everyone behind me wait while I run to get it, so that usually means another trip to the store the next day. I just want to get the heck out of there. Yup, I am a freak. Does anyone else feel like this, or am I totally alone in my Freak-dom?

10% off After Christmas Sale!

Well, Christmas has come and gone...again. Everyone is having after Christmas sales, so I thought I would jump on the bandwagon. Today through Dec. 31st, all the items in my The Royal Bead jewelry store on Etsy are 10% off. CLICK HERE TO SEE WHAT'S FOR SALE!

I hope everyone had a safe, happy, and healthy Christmas. I ate pumpkin pie for breakfast this morning, so I don't know if I fit into the "healthy" category! LOL! Rob got me the Twilight soundtrack and a new CD of Alison Kraus and Robert Plant, so I will have some new music to listen to while I create. Have a happy New Year!

Christmas Eve is here....

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas.!

Merry Christmas Mr. Turtle!

My good deed today was saving the life of a neighborly turtle. I was leaving for the post office (heck, I should just put up a tent outside there, because I am there every day), and saw a huge, beautiful turtle trying to cross the road. He had freaked out and was just sitting there with his head in his shell. I wanted to stop right there, but there was no safe place to park the car (it was on a curve), so I went back into my housing edition, parked and took off running. He was a little further down the road than expected and I was tempted to slow down and walk. I kept running, and it was a good thing I did. He was trying to cross the other side of the median now, toward the pond...and there was a huge dump truck coming. I didn't reckon most dudes in dump trucks would break for a turtle, so I ran as fast as my little legs could carry me and approached the turtle. He of course pulled all of his legs and his head inside in fear. I told him not to bite me, and lifted him up. He was a heavy fella! I carried him across the road toward where he was going, and sat him gently in the grass by the edge of the pond that flows behind our house. The funny part is, as I was backing away( still keeping my eye on him to see if his head would pop out), another turtle that looked just like him surfaced in the water, and swam towards him. I would like to think that they were buddies and he was greeting him, and happy he made it across the big scary road. So, my turtle will hopefully spend Christmas swimming safely and happily with his turtle buddies in our backyard pond.
And then I had an asthma attack from all the running.
The End. : )

Cari...you will appreciate this....

Rob and I went bowling yesterday. No one lost anything, or had anything stolen. There was no screaming involved, except when I bowled 3 strikes in a row at the end of my second game. I managed to NOT throw my hip out this time. The game of bowling is not cursed for us after all! Yay!

Other than that, we went to see Seven Pounds. The acting was good, but there were things about the movie that really bothered me. If a movie is sad, that doesn't make it a "bad" movie to me. I just think that it kind of glorified suicide and tried to come up with a story that made it "okay."

Anyway, Rob got called to be Elder's Quorum President at church today, and I had my first day in Primary. I will be teaching the 7 yr. olds. Big changes! I am going to try to make some Christmas Cut Out Cookies (also known as Christmas Cuss-out Cookies...Mom, you are the only one who knows this joke) but I have once again lost the recipe from when I used it last year. So, I will be giving you a call tomorrow for the recipe again Mom! Since you gave me a recipe box when I visited, I will actually have a place to keep it. I just remembered tonight where my old recipe box, and all my recipes went. My friend Nicole had given it to me. I had it on a bottom shelf of our microwave cart when we lived in our first floor apartment when we first got married. When our apartment flooded, it all got wet and ruined.

Well, hope everyone had a nice weekend. I will try to catch up on phone calls this week. I tried to get all my packaging done tonight, so I can actually enjoy the day tomorrow.

It's getting closer!

Christmas, that is. Sorry I have been boring and mute this week, but after listing my store closing sale on Etsy, I have been so busy printing, labeling, sealing, packaging, and shipping, I haven't had much time to do anything else. I also redid my website, designed new business cards, and made new thank you stickers for my jewelry packages. If you want to check out my new look for The Royal Bead, CLICK HERE! Today is our play day, so we are off to see a movie, possibly go bowling, and eat some tasty food. The last time I bowled, I threw my hip out, so hopefully my body will hold up this time. LOL! Have a great weekend. I will check back in this week.

Embrace Bath & Body is closing....

Sadly, due to the economy, time constraints and a few other variables, I have decided to close up my Embrace Bath & Body shop on Etsy. I am grateful to my customers and am sorry to those who hoped to continue to buy their favorite products from me. I have just reduced the prices by around 50% on everything in the store, and hope to close up shop by the end of December. So, if there is something you really loved or wanted to try, now is the time. Thanks for accompanying me on my journey. It has been fun!
Click here to visit the final clearance sale!

Universal Studios Orlando pics

Well, I promised some pics of us at Universal, and these are the 3 I am "willing" to share. I was making horrid faces or looked fat in the other ones. LOL. Seriously.
The Christmas tree was inside the Mall at Millenia and was gargantuan. I have never seen one so big and I have no idea how they got it in there, let alone, decorated it! The other is out side the Revenge of the Mummy ride with some pharoh guy on stilts (who never smiled and had very creepy contacts in that made his eyes look black). The last one is Rob doing his best to look horrified. I think he did a pretty good job. The Jaws ride was kinda stupid, but like the girl that I am...I screamed anyways. I was probably more afraid of being on a boat than I was of the fake bloody mouthed shark that kept attacking the boat! I hate being on boats!

You know you're getting old when...

you need a vacation after your vacation! We had a busy weekend in Orlando, and a very enjoyable time. We visited a dental practice on Friday, then looked at some suburbs. I went to what turned out to be a very boring bead show (though I did find some goodies) , then checked into our hotel. Unfortunately, I don't usually sleep well in hotels, and this was again the case. I was practically a zombie Sat. morning. That changed when we went to Universal Studios. We rode all the rides with the exception of one. Mainly because I crashed around 3 pm and wanted to just go to bed. Our favorite ride was The Revenge of the Mummy. We didn't realize it was like a roller coaster, and we screamed ourselves silly. The Simpsons ride was fun too. We ate at too many buffets, and I think I had my year's worth of bacon in one weekend. I will post a few pics tomorrow. Nothing too exciting, as you aren't allowed to take pics while on the rides. Christmas is coming soooo fast! Hope everyone had a nice weekend. I will check back in tomorrow. ~ Lori

More jewelry in my Etsy store!

I will be out of town this weekend, so all orders placed starting Thursday afternoon will ship out on Monday. We are headed for Orlando. Anyhoo, here are some pics of my new Cha-Cha rings, and my Vampire Princess necklace (yup, inspired after listening to the same Twlight soundtrack songs over, and over, and over....)

All done!

I finally finished The Host last night. I really enjoyed it, and look forward to more of Stephanie Meyer's books. I am trying to get Rob to read it, but he is always in the middle of about 4 books at once, so that may not happen.

I still haven't sent out my Christmas cards yet, but at least went and bought them at Target tonight. I am going to force myself to stay up and get them done tonight. No one sends out cards on Rob's side of the family, so I don't have a huge amount to send at least. I think I don't like to do all the writing because I am usually working with my hands most of the day and it hurts to write sometimes. I have been doing more wire work pieces of jewelry lately, and my two index fingers are starting to look pretty hideous.

I will try to post pics of my new jewelry tomorrow. We are headed for Orlando on Friday morning and will be looking at a dental office for sale there, and checking out the suburbs. I am going to a wholesale bead show also. I haven't been to this one before, so I am hoping it will be a nice one. I haven't been to one in ages. Well, have a good night, and thanks for stopping by. Hope everyone is well!

Welcome, Tuesday! How nice of you to stop by....

Tuesday was welcomed and boy did it go by fast. I shipped some things, emailed people, took jewelry pics, listed some new stuff in my NEW LOLLISHOPS STORE, and made some soap for gifts and orders. Oh, and of course, continued listening to more songs from the Twilight CD. I hinted to Rob that he should get that for me for Christmas since I just keep playing them on YouTube over an over. I listened to some more songs by Iron and Wine, and I really like them. Anyway, here's a pic of a necklace I finished over the weekend and a link to my Lollishop. I will be listing my jewelry in both my Etsy store and Lollishops. I do offer free shipping in my Lollishop store though!

Thank goodness Monday is over....

Mondays are never my favorite days, and I am glad tomorrow will be another day. I have only 100 pages left of "The Host" but I heard it had an ending that will make me cry, so I will hold off on that for now. I was already in a crying mood today. There are a few people I know right now who are going through some very difficult times. Sometimes I just feel overwhelmed that I can't do much to help. The news is depressing, so I have stopped watching it. I am tired of hearing about the economy.
So, with all this on my mind, I sat on my back screened in porch tonight...in the dark, and listened to these two songs over and over again....and cried a little. They are from the new Twilight soundtrack and I adore them. Hopefully I will get over the crying thing when I listen to them though. Here they are...enjoy...

I finally saw the Twilight movie tonight....

It actually came out the night before I was supposed to fly to my parents, and I didn't want to go then because I was too busy packing and cleaning the house. Rob was a doll and went with me. He kept checking his watch and asking questions. I could tell he was totally bored. It wasn't the best movie I have seen, but I really liked seeing the characters come to life. Like many other readers, after reading the books, it seems in your mind like these people actually exist. You sort of WANT them to. I tried explaining the whole "Edward" mania thing to my husband who was telling me a 30 something married coworker had read the first book 6 times. I told him, that the books are so loved by women because Edward somehow encompasses the perfect man from a woman's point of view. I then told him that if men would read the books and take some lessons from them, they would get along a LOT better with the ladies. LOL!
We both agreed that Robert Pattinson's acting was great, but weren't really happy with Kristen Stewart's acting. I really wanted to focus on the movie, but needed to go to the bathroom about half way through, and didn't want to miss anything. When Edward jumped onto the side of her moving truck, I almost peed myself. I am such a dork. Rob kept saying, " Just go to the bathroom! You already know what happens." But I couldn't do it. I might miss something.
I will look forward to the sequels. I also liked Robert Pattinson's music in the film. Right now I am half way through The Host by Stephanie Meyer and while it was a bit slow in the beginning, I am now enthralled in it. Keep in mind that I don't like reading. I would usually rather be making something with my hands. Stephanie, thanks for making reading enjoyable again for someone who gave up on it a long time ago. And thanks for keeping things clean, if you know what I mean.

New jewelry just listed! Sale still going on!

I just listed some new jewelry on Etsy this morning, and here is a sample....
Remember, all jewelry is 10% off with free shipping right now.

I finally got our house all decorated for Christmas. Didn't take long since we have very few decorations. That's what happens when you keep moving all the time. We finally got a tree this year. In an attempt to thwart a sure destruction by the two resident felines, I opted for a small potted, pre-lit tree that I can display on a pedestal. So far so good.

Sale at both my Etsy stores Dec 1-8!

Starting Monday, Dec. 1st through Monday Dec. 8th, everything in my jewelry in my Etsy store will be on sale for 10% off! I am also offering free shipping!

My Embrace Bath & Body store is 20% off your total. Please wait for a revised total before checking out. If you forget, I will just refund the difference via Paypal. Happy shopping! Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!