Murrini Monday - Thinking about Easter Beads

 This little pug bunny swiped my very last murrini Easter egg - can you blame him? But now I'm left eggless and sad. I'm really hoping Lori and Kim do another Easter egg murrini blend. In the meantime, I'll have some Easter chicks to play with!

When I saw this Peep blend over at Lori and Kim, I knew it had to be mine. My pack (along with a couple others) should be arriving any day now. Then I'll have to decide which lucky critters get a little chick.

Here's some more murrini in action. I received these wonderful rainbow murrini from Julie Bowen of Autochthonous Evolved and I was saving them for just the right critter. This buttercup owl was the perfect spot for these seven colorful murrini - I just love them! This owl has me thinking that Spring could be a possibility.

Happy Murrini Monday!!!!

Murrini Monday - on Tuesday (because President's Day has me confused on what day it is)

I haven't been blogging about my love for murrini (not since October of last year!), but that doesn't mean my love has faded. It's still very much alive. I've been making a lot of custom dog beads, which, sadly, don't require murrini. But I've also been asked to make some mini murrini owls (above), and I happily obliged. In fact, I made extras, so some of these will soon be for sale.

This elephant has extremely good taste in murrini. I adore this heart! It's from Lori and Kim (as are the murrini on the owl beads) and the detail and colors just blow me away.

Here is the latest in COE 104 murrini from Lori and Kim - this blend is called pansy garden, and it's filled with pansies (omg the detail!) and other purple and yellow flowers (I spy daffodils and roses!) AND bees! The colors of this blend are wonderful and I believe I'll be owning some soon because it gives me hope that spring is actually around the corner. Find Lori and Kim's awesome murrini blends here.

Happy Murrini Monday to one and all!

Murrini Monday - Big & Little Hooters

A few weeks ago I told you about the awesome little Hoot murrini I got from Lori and Kim. I'm finally posting pictures of the beads I made with it. All of these beads have flown the coop already, but I will make more! This murrini is super fun!

For the owl above and the owl below, I just placed a sweet murrini owl in a contrasting color on their chests. So now they have a mini version of themselves with them wherever they go. 

For the elephant above and below, I placed a murrini owl in their trunks and called them "Horton Hears a Hoot.

How much more fun can I have with this murrini??? I bet lots! But now I also have a new blend called Bikini Bottom and it is filled with bright and cheery flowers and SNAILS! Next murrini Monday I'll show what the snails are doing.

Thanks for visiting my blog and HAPPY MURRINI MONDAY!!!

Murrini Monday - Hooter Style

It has been FOREVER since I've celebrated Murrini Monday - what better time to bring it back than when I receive tiny hooters in my mailbox! That's right, Lori and Kim have done it again with their endless murrini talents. This murrini blend is all little owls! I held back and only bought one pack, and it arrived today and it is wonderful! As soon as I'm done with this post, I'm going to try it out. 

This may sound strange, but I usually don't go for the animal murrini. That's not to say I don't LOVE it because I do! But I make animal beads, and I don't always know what to do with animal murrini. Lately I've put a murrini turtle in an elephant's trunk, and that worked out really nice:

Despite my new pack being a blend of all owls, I could not resist. I envision owl beads with little owl boutonnieres. I can't wait to try it!

But first I want to show you my new turtle ring:

I made several of these turtles in the past few days because I was making a ring for my mom's birthday. I think I made seven turtles all together, and she picked one out and I turned it into a ring. So I turned another turtle into a ring for my daughter, and one for me! I got the rings from Karen Thomas Designs, and they are super easy to use. The turtle just slides onto a little post that screws into either side of the ring. And of course the turtle has an awesome slice of Lori and Kim murrini on its shell. 

Happy Murrini Monday!!!

Murrini Monday!

A few weeks ago I received some awesome new murrini from Julie at AutEvDesigns on Etsy. Julie makes her own murrini and uses it in her beautiful lampwork beads. She doesn't sell it (yet), but I got to try some out and it's wonderful! See how tiny it is? I love small murrini because my beads are fairly small. I used a lot of it on the owl below:

I LOVE the rainbow murrini on this owl's chest. I fit seven of these tiny slices on him, and I think he looks pretty darn good. :) This owl is still in my shop here.

For this owl I used some of Julie's blue, yellow and green murrini. I love it over transparent glass. 

This elephant was very smart - she swiped one of the slices of red heart murrini. Isn't it great?

And I found Julie's murrini in action on one of her beautiful lentil focal beads in her shop. And there's more where that came from.

Follow Julie on Facebook at Autochthonous Evolved - Lots of gorgeous beads and finished jewelry there! 

Happy Murrini Monday!!!

Murrini Monday

Last week I organized my murrini collection. I had a lot of it in the little baggies it came in, a lot scattered on my work table and some was actually organized in little plastic containers. So I cleaned up a bit and sorted through my murrini. I tried to organize them by sorting them into different colors or themes. The container above has peace signs, happy faces, rainbows and stars - now that's fun group.

When I was finished I had all my little containers filled (minus a couple large bags I have from Mallory at Rosebud101 that I keep separate because there are just too many to sort). As you can see, there is some room on my containers for some more murrini. There are even EMPTY containers! Now that's just wrong.

It just so happened that very soon after I discovered I was running low (in my opinion) on murrini,  Lori and Kim posted a coupon code for 15% OFF all purchases. How could I resist? I put FEBFUN15 in at checkout and two days later I received my little baggies of goodness in the mail. I got Koi Pond: little turtles, fish and frog face murrini; Candy Hearts: you can never have too many heart-shaped murrini; ROYGBIV: rainbow colors! and my new favorite, Happy Hour: which critter would like to be served first? I'll tell you - it was a pug. She's sipping on her martini as we speak.

What other critters deserve a cocktail? Please leave your ideas in the comments - I'd love to hear them! There's a full bar of murrini drinks, with beer, margaritas, bloody marys, blue hawaiins and martinis. I think I just heard a bunny say "beer me." 

The coupon code for Lori and Kim is good until the end of February (remember, it's a short month!), so go get your murrini. But please, torch responsibly.

Happy Murrini Monday!!! 

Cats!

This time of year has me thinking about cats. Not that I don't think about cats at other times of the year, but just before the holidays I think about cats even more. We adopted our two cats, Ernie and Bert, three years ago at this time of year. I was the kitten scout. I was at the shelter nearly every day, petting cats and kittens. Once I'd chosen an orange kitten (after several interviews and cuddle sessions), I brought my husband to the shelter to meet him. Bob and the kitten took to each other right away, so while they were bonding I opened another kitten cage and took out a little black kitty. When we put both kitties on the floor, they started running around together and I think they might have fallen in love. Or maybe that was me. That's when Bob said "We could get two . . ." Um, ok! So we signed the papers and paid the adoption fee, but we weren't allowed to take the kitties home just yet. The orange kitten had an eye infection and that needed to clear up before they would release him. They put the two kitties together in the same cage and we went home and waited. And waited. I went to the shelter with our cat carrier, ready to take them home, but they still would not release them and I left with my empty cat carrier. I understood. But boy did I want to bring those kitties home! Finally, on Christmas Eve, the kittens were cleared to come home. We picked them up and put them in a wrapped box (you know, the kind they have on soap operas where the box top is wrapped separately so all you have to do is pull off the top) and presented the box to our kids. They were stunned. It was one of those awesome moments - we had kittens! Our kids had never had kittens before. The three cats we had had during their life were all grown, so they had never known the wonder of little kittens. It was so much fun! Ernie and Bert are now "cats," but we still call them "the kittens." They became best friends right away and they play and sleep together. They are wonderful. :)

So it's no wonder that I want to shop for cats this time of year. But we're at our limit now with these two fur balls, and that's ok. We love them. But in my cat-obsessed state I've been favoriting a lot of cat items on Etsy and I even made a holiday cat treasury. I can't seem to get cats off my mind. 

Then my glassy friend Lori of loribeads posted this glorious picture of the cat beads she's been making. Aren't they wonderful??? I love group shots of critter beads - and these kitties all get along so nicely, no hissing. :) I didn't see any cat beads in her shop yet, but that's what she's been up to, so hopefully they'll be sneaking in there soon. 

My glassy friend Nikki has a whole litter of kitty cats in her shop, nlcbeads. I own a couple of her cat beads and they are even better in person. Their itty bitty paw pads are my favorite little adorable detail. 

These little tipsy cats by Min of minfidler are a new obsession of mine. I just love the design and all the little details on each kitty cat. I own one of her upright cat beads that I just adore. She has both designs in her shop now, but I've noticed that the tipsy cats go fast! Find her cat beads here.

Another shop that's under the influence of cats is RCTees. Shop owner Toni just had her 8,000 sale! So you know there are happy customers all over the globe sporting her fabulous shirts. I'm one of them - I have two RC t-shirts and I love them. The fit is just right, and the graphics are outstanding. Not all the shirts and bags at RCTees are cat-related - there's something for everyone there. 

So if you're like me and are a little cat-obsessed at this time of year (or any time of year), check out  all the wonderful cat items from the shops I featured. Then head to your local shelter and pet some cats. Or if you can, try volunteering at a shelter. Two of my kids have been helping out as Junior Volunteers at Save-A-Pet. They were there last weekend and two kittens were adopted during their shift. So I'm guessing the new owner of those kittens might feel like me at this time of year in years to come - thinking about cats. :)