Last week I wrote about the classes I taught at Terry's Treasures in King George, Virginia. If you missed it, you can catch up here. It's a really delightful store, and I wish I could go back there! I wrote briefly about Karen, and I promised to devote an entire blog about her. I blogged about her iris tea light cover she made from my pattern, but she deserves another post after seeing more of her work and meeting her!
Next to my mother, Karen is my biggest supporter. She has all or most of my designs, and she leaps at the chance to bead samples for Terry's Treasures, the store that carries my tutorials. We e-mail each other when we can, and we've become good friends.
When I got to Terry's Treasures to teach the classes, Karen had surprises waiting for me. She really shouldn't have, but I was so touched I couldn't argue more than, "You shouldn't have!"
In the iris tea light cover blog post I said, "It's so cute that I'm going to have to make one for myself! It will look so cute on the shelf above my desk." Of course I haven't gotten around to it, and now I don't have to. Not only did she give hers to me, she also made me another one with black cats and pink roses. And I was right, they look so cute on the shelf above my desk:
That's not all, though! She also made me a necklace and two pairs of earrings! One pair is for "every day", and the other is for "fancy occasions." The necklace and the "fancy" earrings have beaded beads - she must have spent gobs of time making them for me!
I felt so bad that I didn't have anything for her (my mind was all-consumed with preparing for the trip and the classes), so I gave her what I knew she would like - tutorials for my SDN15 designs. She's going to make samples for the store, and we'll see if she's still talking to me after she stitches both the Dino-Spine and Intertwined Pyramids bracelets. :)
While I taught the class, I felt like a celebrity because Karen took a bunch of pictures of me. I'll only show you two of them:
That's my "what on earth are you doing?" face.
Even though I have progressive bifocals in my glasses, when I'm trying to figure something out, I seem to see better when the glasses go up on my head.
I mentioned that Karen makes samples of my designs for the store. I loved seeing her pieces and the colors she chose. I also was intrigued by the modifications she made to a few of them.
First up is Cobblestone Path. My piece is on the top.
The center beads in Karen's piece really stand out and are so pretty.
Here is StarLite Mini Hearts:
The colors are really neat, and she used a button for a clasp. How cute!
Next up is Shadowed Diamonds. My samples always have light colors for the background (as shown in the top piece), but it looks really neat with the colors reversed:
It hardly looks like the same design!
Here's It's Got Legs (the top two are mine):
The round beads really stand out in her version! I love those blues!
Finally, here's her version of my StarLite Mini Flowers earrings:
Instead of making fringe with peanut beads, she stitched on cute wavy connectors and added crystals to the bottom of each. I think they look great and adds to the versatility of my designs!
If you're in the King George, Virginia area, stop by Terry's Treasures to see these samples close up and to see the other jewelry Karen has for sale there.
She'll also be at a few craft sales this season:
Saturday, November 8
12:00p - 4:00p
King George Family Fun Fair
Sponsored by NARFE Premier Federal Credit Union
8076 Kings Highway, King George, VA 22485
Saturday, December 13
9:00a - 3:00p
Courtland High School craft fair
6701 Smith Station Road, Spotsylvania, VA 22553
If you're not close to Virginia, you can visit her Etsy shop, Karen's Addiction. She has a number of interesting pieces at a range of prices. Her Key West necklace is really pretty and unique!
If you do check her out in Virginia or on Etsy, please tell her Traci says hi!
I'll finish up with a picture of the two of us:
Thanks for letting me blog about you again, Karen, and thanks for all of the gifts you showered me with! I really treasure our friendship and hope your new business takes off!
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