The EtsyBead Street Team & Fun New Earrings

Hello everyone! I'm excited to announce that I was recently interviewed as a spotlight member on the EtsyBead Street Team's blog! You can see my interview here as well as other street team spotlight member interviews.

There are some wonderfully talented members on the EtsyBead Street Team, all of whom work very hard at their craft and create some truly wonderful works of art. You can find links to the team site on the lefthand side of this page as well as a link to the EtsyBead Blog Ring. Why not click on it and travel around the blogring to get to know some of these talented artists and see their work? You might just come upon the perfect pair of earrings or that bracelet you've always envisioned on your wrist! Give them a look! Tell them MsBelle sent you!

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This morning I decided to try a little something different in the way of earrings. I practiced a couple of times before I landed on the correct technique, but I finally got it! Here's what I'm talking about. Tell me what you think!

These are just plain fun! They're made using 20 or 21 gauge sterling silver wire all wrapped around itself in a twirly spiral. Aren't they cool?! To put them on, you thread the spiral end through your piercing, either through the front or back. They're extremely lightweight and so much fun! They'll be a conversation piece, that's for sure!

There's a surprising amount of work that's involved in making these, foremost being getting the spirals to match. But then also making sure there are no kinks in the wire, hammering the bottom tip and filing to shape it. Then you have to make sure the thread end is not too sharp so you file it down too, rounding it off so it goes comfortably through the piercing. You don't want to draw blood!

I'm going to try and make a whole slew of them in as many different configurations as I can think of: short spirals, long spirals, tight spirals, loose spirals, with beads, without beads, etc. I hope these will become popular because they're just plain cool!

Now this is not a new design by any means, and it is not my design I must admit. I created these from a tutorial I discovered back in 2006, but I had never gotten up the nerve to try it. Well, I finally tried it and I did it! When I showed them to Kevin he said "they look like the twirly slide at the playground!" So I'm calling them "Let's Go On the Twirly Slide!" :D

I'm not sure how much to price them yet. I have to work that out. But they should be available in my shop by Monday night! :)

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I have one last bit of news and then I shall go. I took Kevin to the ENT today for the second CT scan of his sinuses. As you may recall, he had a chronic sinus infection that was keeping him sick. He just could not get well. So he has been on an antibiotic (Augmentin) for the past 30 days. Well, today the scan showed his big gray blog was now a black area as it should be, showing no more infection in that sinus cavity! Yay! He hasn't blown his nose for the past two weeks and we actually have full boxes of tissues instead of almost empty ones! I had been afraid to say anything for fear I would jinx the poor boy. But now I can shout it out!

KEVIN'S ALL BETTER!!! =)

XOXOXOXO!!

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On that note I will leave you and hope that each and every one of you has a terrific weekend!

Until next time....