I want to wish all of my blog readers a Happy New Year. I hope that all of you find peace, happiness, fulfillment , and good health in the coming year. I want to show a few of the Christmas ornament I have made over the years before I put them away. All three of the ornament in this pic were made by me. The sled is teak wood which were scraps from the yacht factory where I worked. They were cut assembled into the sled and painted. The stocking I embroidered as part of a set of three designs. The silver, blue and pink ornament is wood that I turned on our lathe and decorated. These have been on my tree since the 1980's.

I got a knitting machine and made this pair of mittens years ago. The red, green, and gold snowflake ornament is a kit I won from Cyndi Lavin at http://www.beading-arts.com/ in 2012.

This egg was laid right here on my farm by one of our chickens. It is one of the ones  I decorated it in 1992.

I took a hardanger embroidery class at the local school and then I made this ornament. It is simple but I like it.

This star is beads on wire. It is about 4 years old.

I know that this pic is really blurry but this is one of my favorite ornaments and I just was not able to make the camera capture it well so I am showing it anyway. It is an antique button that I drilled and made into a mobile. The pieces are macaroni in Christmas shapes that I painted.

This ornament is not on the tree it hangs from a shelf above my tv. The pattern is from Bead and Button magazine I have it on an ornament turner which I got on our 25th Anniversary trip to Niagara Falls. It sparkles and looks wonderful as it turns. I hope you have enjoyed looking at a few of my Christmas creations.

I thought you might like to see the Christmas ornaments that I made for friends and family this year. They have a wood bead core and are stitched with super duos, size 11 seed beads, and 4mm pearls. I had fun making them. My friend Lisa showed us how to make them at bead retreat. The first two I made were in cobalt blue, gold, and white and pink, white , and hematite. They are pendants for necklaces. I adapted to Christmas colors and these ornaments were born.

The annual holiday ornament hop hosted by Sally Russick is today. This is the beautiful ornament that I received from my partner D Lynne Bowland. Isn't it fabulous? Lynne made the lampworked bead and enamel accents which she put in a copper frame. The bead is removable so that I can wear it on a chain as a necklace. How clever is that? Christmas is my favorite time of year and my tree is my crowning glory. I cherish my ornaments. I have a book where I record the ornaments that I get each year and where they came from. This ornament will always be special to me.

Now on to the ornament that I made for Lynne. I started with the turquoise marquis shaped pieces, which I believe are vintage and I glued them to backing. I bezeled them in the stripes to match the lampworked disc bead  in the center. Then I filled in with seed beads and pearls. The pearls came from my mother-in-law's estate. They are vintage. The packaging on the smallest ones say 29 cents. Then I added the crystal rondelles on the points for accents and backed it with ultra-suede. I wanted a non traditional looking ornament. I hope she likes it.

I have one more ornament to show. Some time ago I had a pay it forward on my blog. Lynne was one of the first three to comments. She chose an ornament as what she wanted so here it is. A traditional red, green , and gold ornament. It is two layers of seed beads with pearl and firepolished accents strung on wire and shaped. The center is pearls in a gold bead circle. A red ribbon was used as a hanger. To see what the other participants made please go to Sally's blog at http://sallyrussick.blogspot.com/2014/12/2014-holiday-ornament-swaphop.html
Thank you Sally for hosting this fun hop.

My sister-in-law asked me to make an illusion necklace for her to give as a Christmas gift. This is what I made. The center is a lampworked bead. The other components are glass bicones and discs as well as corrugated metal beads. This is my first illusion necklace. I hope that she likes it.

Today is the reveal of the Bead Hoarders Blog Hop. I have been wanting to try Soutache embroidery for a while and I let this challenge inspire me to do just that. I used  lampworked beads by Heather Kelly that I bought on etsy and have been hoarding to start my design. Three colors of green and a metallic brown soutache braids surround the beautiful lampworked focal. I bezeled the focal with light green beads and added a dark green hex bead halo around the inner layer of  soutache cords. I put another layer of the cords and finished it with bronze seed beads. The bottom had three dark green teardrop pearls with the center one capped by bronze flower bead caps. The top of the piece has two  lampworked spacers also by Heather  that match the center bead. There are two jump rings that will have the straps hung on them but they will have to wait for another day. It is not perfect but I am happy with my first attempt at soutache embroidery.  I hope that you like it too. I want to thank Lori Anderson of  http://www.prettythingsblog.com/ for hosting this fun hop. To see what the other participants created click on the link to Lori's blog.

Today I would like to show my attempt at playing with polymer clay. Back in September Beth Wegner did a make and take at my bead group. She is a polymer clay artist. I made the polk a dot beads and one of the swirled beads that day. Not long ago I was doing a clay piece for something else and I decided that while I was firing I would try a couple of polymer clay headpins. I used clay that was left from the September class and made these. They are my first decorated headpins and I am proud of them.

This is my first tutorial. My bead group has an annual Demo & Do Day and I will be teaching this bracelet. I usually just sit down and make something so it was a different experience to write it out as I worked. I wanted to use some of the new beads that have come out in the last couple of years and this is what I came up with. I started with a right angle weave base of 8 size 6 seed beads. The next row I stitched pairs of piggy beads in the centers of the squares. I split the side pairs of 6's and added twin beads between them. Then I made picots on the twins with delica beads. I made a button and loop closure. The last row I added copper colored O beads. It was not as scarey as I thought to write a tutorial and I think that I will be doing more of it in the future.