Giveaway from one of my Favorite Shops!!!!

Go check out Frosting Bath and Body's Facebook page!  They hit 500 fans a few days ago, and are having an AWESOME giveaway!  And let me tell you, their shadows are AWESOME!!!!!  And I know--because I have some!  It was my Christmas present to myself, and I couldn't be happier!  I love them so much.  And reasonable!!!

And you can find their Etsy shop here!  Go see!!!!  :)

Sampler Village ROCKS!

So, last week, I entered to win a Tiny Teaser Giveaway Bag from SamplerVillage over on Facebook (she has a website, too.) And, you know, awesomeness, I WON!!!  Woot!!!!!!


Anyways, my Tiny Teaser bag arrived on Monday, and I just have to tell you how nice the samples are!  Here's a few pics:

All the pretty cards and whatnot...

Just another pic to show you the samples you couldn't see above...

There is such a wonderful variety of items, and this is just in the Teaser bag!  Imagine what you could get in one of the boxes!!! (I'm hoping to be able to order one soon).  There's eyeshadow, lip balm, soaps, bath fizzies, a little keychain, an adorable flower on a velcro wrappy, scent tarts (and me without a tart warmer... I sooooo need to remedy THAT situation!)  Let me tell you--I opened the package and was just automatically in love with the scents!  And I hadn't even seen anything yet!!!

Now, this month, Traci is doing the "Boolicious Bliss" Sampler boxes, which I am guessing will have some awesomely Boolicious treats in them!  In fact, the boxes go on sale at her website today, on the 21st!

You should totally go check her out!!!  And next year, maybe you'll get a sample from me in there, too!!

Beading Stitches: Square Stitch

Another post on beading stitches!  This stitch, the square stitch, works really well for cuff-type bracelets, because you can pretty much make the piece as wide you want it to be.  Just keep adding seed beads until you have your desired width.  I've also just learned that you can do a tubular square stitch, which I really should've figured, since you just work in a circle, basically (for a fairly basic and straightforward tutorial on square stitch, go here.)

I also like the square stitch because, while it is very time intensive, it creates a very nice base on which you can add your embellishments.  Because with a square stitch you're really just creating a fabric (well, really it's more of a ribbon for me) to add pretty much anything you want to!

So, you can go relatively simple  and just add a focal in the center, like this:

Dolphin Dreams; hand-painted focal (by me!!!)

Or you can go a bit crazy like this:

Pretty in Pink

Or you can go REALLY crazy like the bracelet you can see here from Etsy seller StickLizardDesigns (FYI--this is gorgeous and I wants it!!)

Thanks!

YIKES!!! I did it!!!

OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!!!  I did it!!! I opened an Etsy shop!!!!!!

OKay, yeah, I've had the Artfire shop for a while, and I have no plans to clase that yet, but I've never made a single sale from there (I get a LOT of views, though...) So, I've decided to try out Etsy.

You can see it here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/definitivedesignsrlw?ref=pr_shop

I only have 4 things listed so far, but that's a start, and I have plans for more!

Thanks!