My Reason for Being very Inactive

I thought I would come out from the shadows on this part. I've been meaning to write this post some weeks ago but I haven't really been that much in the mood.
Some of you probably have noticed that I haven't been much active on any of the social media platforms I'm usually hanging out on, of course there's a reason for everything.

A lot has happened during the the past 6 months. Both positive and negative.

Me and my now husband got married on 30th of August and then he was able to take three weeks vacation and we spent all that time with each other, just enjoying each others company.

A few weeks later I got to hear about my grandfather, which has been like a father to me during my childhood. I haven't really seen him since I moved to Belgium, and last time when we were up on vacation I wasn't able to see him. We had planned on meeting him on the Sunday before we would travel further to see my aunt (who lives 4 hours south east, if you travel by car), but he couldn't make it back to his home on time to meet us...
Since a few years back he's been kinda sick; feeling very nauseous and throwing up saliva each morning. He's been going to the doctors for a while trying to find a reason for his symptoms, but nothing until that month after our wedding.
I called my aunt and she said that the doctors had called back about the x-rays (which they did on his head), which they took some weeks before I called her this time.
He has a tumor...
They didn't know at this point if it's a bad one or a good one... He also got an appointment with a specialist in Umeå for a consultation, which he had to wait for for almost two months.
Then my whole family had to play the waiting game.

Two weeks ago I called my aunt since I knew it was about that time she would have followed him to the specialist since I had spoken to her some days earlier as well.
We still don't know if it's a good one or a bad one.
The specialist said he had three options to choose from; he could just go on like normal without doing anything, but keep going to checkups and take medication against his nausea, but the tumor -might- grow.
The second option was to have an operation to put in a "wire" that leads from his head into his stomach, since he has water in his head as well.
The final option is to remove it, which the specialist himself recommended, and also is the option he choose. The operation is risky, and the specialist said he was gonna try to get it done in January or February, but it could delay till March.
So we're all doing the waiting game. Again.

Since it's almost the end of the year I wanted to share a bit of myself with you, my readers, and keep you somewhat updated to what has been going on.
If I don't blog against before 2015, which I'm pretty sure I won't. I wish you all a wonderful Christmas and hope you all get a moment together with all those you cherish and love. Never take them for granted.
I also wish you a wonderful beginning of the new year, 2015.

Update and the rest of my BOTB14 pics

So yeah, to my disappointment I didn't make it further to the next round of Battle of the Beadsmith. It was the very first time I participated in it and I wasn't really expecting my piece to go further.
Of course I feel disappointed, everyone does when you literally work your ass off and feel really proud and happy about your accomplishments and then just having it "not being good enough". You know what I mean.
It happened weeks ago, and the moment I found out that I didn't go through, I'm not gonna deny it, I felt really, really sad and even ended up shedding some tears. I haven't posted an update showing the rest of the photos I had taken due to a couple of reasons. This is one. I felt that I needed some time to think and reflect, pick myself up and just move one. The world doesn't end cause of one bump on the road, it just takes a moment to pick up the pieces.

The other reason to why I haven't posted anything is cause we're planning a wedding in a month (30th of August at 13.00 to be precise).
Exciting, but very stressful. I have to admit that I also felt a bit sad over that situation (not the wedding itself, don't get me wrong! lol), I was expecting to have my side completely empty. That turned around tho as my aunt and uncle called me on skype about two weeks ago and let me know that my uncle is sending both my aunt and my mom down in time for the wedding. So yes, I feel a lot more happier and a lot more excited.
For those that are following me on FB, Twitter and Instagram, you would probably have noticed the wip photos I've been posting of the necklace I'm gonna wear. If you're not already following me on any of those sites, just look up "AIF Design"; either with a space or not.

I've also began to upload a couple of Youtube videos on my channel after getting such a great response on the "make your own glass cabochons" tutorial that I just decided to make after I got a few requests on how to make them from people that have been seeing me post my own on the various social media sites I'm hanging around.
I've recently finished a bangle patterns that I'm gonna film as soon as I get my wedding necklace done. Then I have a couple of other video tutorials planned. If any of you, my precious readers, have any suggestions and ideas on tutorials that you would wish me to make, you leave a comment in the comment section and I'll see what I can do :)

Battle of the Beadsmith 2014

As all of the BOTB entries have been posted in their facebook group, sorted battle-wise in folders I can now share my entry with you. I'm also gonna share a little bit of the process I went though to create these.

It took some thinking before I decided on making a pair of finger-less gloves. At first I was pondering about making a huge statement necklace, but that was going "maybe, maybe not", since I expected most of the entries to be necklace. Nothing wrong with that before you think anything, heh. A huge amount of stunning piece were sent in and I just feel in awe and honorable to be able to be a part of the contestants.
The reason to why I decided on making a pair of gloves is that I wanted to try something different. Also, my own personal favorite accessory to wear are gloves.
I first started on making the pattern I would use. I know how the essentials of constructing a glove works, and I've been sewing a couple of them years ago before I began beading.

Anyway. The graphic idea of the piece got into my head as I was listening to the book "World of Warcraft: Stormrage". And I decided to use the essence itself of the story to make a graphic impact.
I decided on using black matte beads for the base color, and then pair it up with different shades of green. My purpose in using the black matte was to get the green beads to "pop", and I'm very happy in how the result turned out.

One thing that kept bugging me in the beginning was how to make the gloves close and be able to fit on most types of hands. After some time of pondering over that question the idea of making a corset binding on the opposite side of the thumb came to mind, and that is how I ended up making the "closure". And yep, it really works. So I'm really happy with that.

 Before I even began the piece I used some of my contacts to trying to find a model for the photos. And hear, hear, I was really excited and happy when I got the call back from my mother in law that she had found one.
During the very last week of the deadline she was free and I was able to take some awesome photos of her wearing them. And I'm so happy and grateful that she was willing to pose for me wearing my beady gloves. Without her, I really don't think I would have been able to display them as well as they are displayed in the photos ♥

"Child of Night" up on Ebay

I decided to take a leap of faith and put up the necklace "Child of Night" on Ebay yesterday.
If anyone is interested just follow this link -> http://www.benl.ebay.be/itm/231263013567?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649 :)

Two Necklaces and my BOTB 14 is done!

After I completed my Battle of the Beadsmith piece I decided that I wanted to take a little breather from anything bead related, but only for a short moment, really.
I managed to get my hands on a wonderful model who was willing to pose wearing my piece, so I'm really, really happy with the end result and with the photos of course. I sent the mail to Steven (the person who is taking care of the "battle" arrangements etc.) and everything is in order. Now all of us just have to wait till we are allowed to show the photos, which happens after they're up on the FB group of BOTB. I'm really excited and curious what everyone else have created and I'm so looking forward to see all the pieces!

Enough of that! :)

I managed to complete two necklaces after I finished my battle piece and I wanted to share them with you...

A couple of weeks ago, in April, I decided to take a little short break from my battle piece and play around with some polymer clay and I ended up making a violet. Violets are one of my favorite flower. I think it has to do with the facts that my grandmother had a very small spot in her garden were she had planted some seeds a long time ago, and each summer they would pop up and bloom with a wonderful, vibrant violet color with yellow accents. I remember that I never picked them, but instead I used to lay down on the grass right next to them, smell them and just look at them.

I ended up linking the violet I made in clay so much I decided to make a rather simple necklace of it. I didn't want to take away too much focus from the flower so I used a lot of black matte seed beads with some iridescent green Swarovski crystals.

The second necklace I began to make after one day from when I completed my battle piece. The plan was to make this necklace for my mother on Mother's Day. Of course it was one week later (last Sunday of May in Sweden) than the day when I managed to complete it and send it with the post. But at least she got something, heh... Well, everyone in my family knew I was gonna be a bit absent and work on my battle piece as I told them so...
The necklace I made for my mom is a very huge difference from what I normally do. I rarely work with suck opaque colors when it comes to beads, but as the focal piece is that tiger/cat cab (which I also made with polymer clay), the colors looked so good together with the tiger.
Speaking of the tiger... or cat... Yes, I made it as well with polymer clay. I wanted to make something a bit more personal for my mother and I had asked her a couple of weeks ahead what animal she likes and her answer was tiger or lion. So I decided to try my hands more at sculpting and made the focal myself. I'm not sure how others see it, but to me, the "tiger" looks like a hybrid between a tiger and a cat. Maybe the eyes? *shrug* Always something to work on in the future, none the less :)

I'm also gonna mention that the beaded chain on both piece are inspired by Nancy Dale's "Wrap-bracelet"  technique, which appears in one of the early numbers of "Digital Beading Magazine Australia".