Every week I share what I have been working on. Come take a look at what's on my bead board this week.

Love it or hate it, it's that time of year again. It's almost Valentine's Day. I mean I feel like it was just Christmas last week, but alas, that is not true. Sigh. It's almost February.

I have a few Valentine's patterns in my shop if you are looking for something to make for those special people in your lives. I'm working on a few nontraditional ideas, but I also am making some more traditional ones.

What do you think of Valentine's day? Do you love it or can you not stand it? Are you making anything special this year? Leave your comments below, I'd love to hear from you.

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Every week I share what I have been working on. Come take a look at what's on my bead board this week.

Well here she is in all her glory. I cannot stress how hard it was to make this. I had no idea how to design something like this, so I tried a million different ways before I figured out what worked best for me. Buuuut, it was worth every frustration. Look at it! It's beautiful!

I cannot wait for my daughter to see this. I cannot get over how it turned out and I find my self just looking at it and smiling.

It has it's flaws, but over all I think it is stunning.

What have you been working on? Have you ever made a super special gift for someone? Leave your comments below and let me know what amazing projects you are working on.

Every week I share what I have been working on. Come take a look at what's on my bead board this week.

I have been working on a super special gift for my daughter. She watched me make the last beaded star and asked if I could make a rainbow unicorn/dragon star. This was a tall order and I searched far and wide for a star that matched these requirements.

Alas, I could not find a pattern that really popped, so I decided to design my own. I have never done this before and it took a LOT of trial and error, but it's going okay.

I'm really happy with it so far and I can't wait to see it finished. I've had to redo a few of the sections and I've found a few mistakes here and there, but not bad for my first try designed a VERY complicated design.

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Every week I share what I have been working on. Come take a look at what's on my bead board this week.

I finally finished up the amazing beaded start from Hookin' To The Beat. It turned out amazing!!! Swoon! I am in love with it and I can't wait to see what my friend has to say when they see it.

It truly is a work of beauty. I think I might make a few color choice changes next time I make one. I kinda used what I had, so I think a couple of the colors are off. But that does not take a way from the beauty of this stat. Oh my, I love this one.

What have you been working on? Did you have a long list of Christmas gifts to make like I did? How many gifts did you get done? Let me know down in the comments.

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Every week I share what I have been working on. Come take a look at what's on my bead board this week.

I have been working on this amazing pattern from Hookin' To The Beat on Etsy. I bought this pattern some time ago, so I'm not sure if they still offer this pattern, but they offer a whole bunch of other really great patterns, so go check them out.

This is one of the many Christmas gifts I'm trying to actually finish this year. I figured if I started early, I might get about half of them done. LOL.

What are you working on right now? Can you get all the gifts you have planned done on time, or are you like me and only get one or two done (If I'm lucky)? Leave a comment below and let me know.

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Every week I share what I have been working on. Come take a look at what's on my bead board this week.

I have been working on a number of anatomical science related projects lately. Even though I still work in research, I guess I'm missing some of the lab work. So to make up for it, I'm making all kinds of science related patterns.

I also have a number of Christmas gifts I've started already (fingers crossed I can get them done in time). I'm working on all sorts of things right now. 

What have you been working in? Leave a comment below and let me know what you've been up to.

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Welcome to the Beading Beat! Every Friday (except for Tutorial Friday's) I'll discuss various beady topics like tips and tricks, some of my favorite beading products, and more. Some weeks it will be a quick discussion, some weeks it will be longer. But every week it will be fun and full of beady goodness.

This article includes affiliate links. That just means that I get a little fee if you click on the link or purchase something and no additional cost to you. That little fee helps me keep writing these articles. All my opinions are my own. I am featuring these products because I love them.

This week I'm going to feature one of my favorite products that I use on a daily basis when I bead. My favorite beading surface. My lap desk.

I like to bead all over the place. I bead in the living room. I bead on our back porch. I bead outside. I bead wherever my little heart desires. And to do that I need a surface that I can move around. Something that will hold everything I need and move with me.

I have used a few different lap desks and my favorite one is from Ikea. I bought this desk from my husband so he could work in the living room. Buuuuuuut, I decided I liked it much more than him and I knew I would put it to better use then him.

So, what makes this my favorite lap desk?

I love the fact that the legs are adjustable. You can put them up or down. Using it with the legs up makes it possible to use it in bed or outside. It puts my beads at a height that puts less stress on my neck and makes beading easier. But sometimes I don't need that height, so I can fold the legs down and just use it on my lap. I love that I have the options.

And having adjustable legs, means you can fold it up and store it away easily. I've had other lap desks that don't fold up and now you have to store a huge lap desk somewhere. So it folding up is nice.

Next, I love the lip that goes around the whole thing. It is nice and deep, so nothing is going to fall off the sides. Everything stays safely on the tray.

I also love the little area on the top that you can put your phone or a tablet. You can watch a show while beading outside or keep your phone at arms reach. I've been using my tablet when keeping track of my patterns, so I can pop it in there and have my patterns right where I am looking (I will have a future post about switching from paper to my tablet, so stay tuned for that).

I also like that it's sturdy enough that I can clip my magnifying lamp on it and not have to worry about it tipping over or even breaking the tray itself.

Now like everything, this tray isn't perfect. It does have a few things that could be improved.

The legs are adjustable, but only two heights. It would be nice if you could adjust them to a few different heights. The legs are also a little tricky to get in and out. They also will come out of the tracks if you are not careful. I had a lot of problems getting them in and out when I first got it. I have since gotten really good at it, but there is a learning curve to the legs.

The tray is also very deep. It works great from my beads, but I can see this being really annoying if you try to use it for a computer. The sides will get in the way of doing anything. Now I only use this tray for beading, but if you are looking for a tray to do multiple things, this one might not be for you.

So it's not perfect, but it's one of the best I've found. What is your favorite surface to bead on? Leave a comment below and let me know what you use.

Other Helpful Goodies

​Want to know how I keep track of where I am in a pattern? Click here to read about my method for staying on track.

Find out what kind of bead boards I use. Click here and here to read about my favorites.

What are my favorite beads to use for peyote? I love me some Delica cylinder beads. There are a number of awesome choices HERE.

Beady Tutorials

Even Count Flat Peyote Stitch - Click Here
Ladder Stitch - Click Here
Brick Stitch - Click Here
How to Read A Peyote Word Chart - Click Here
How to Read a Peyote Graph - Click Here

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Every week I share what I have been working on. Come take a look at what's on my bead board this week.

I've been working on a number of new patterns, but I've also been making some new dish clothes. I found these great colored yarn and had to make some new clothes. I love having a simple project to work on late at night before I go to bed.

I am making these for myself, but a friend saw them and made a comment about how nice they were, so I'm making a few for them for Christmas (hopefully if I start those gifts now, I'll actually get them done in time).

What have you been working in? Leave a comment below and let me know what you've been up to.

Want to get beady updates sent right to your inbox? Maybe you'd be interested in a 25% off coupon? Sign up for my email newsletter today and get all that and more! ​

Welcome to the Beading Beat! Every Friday (except for Tutorial Friday's) I'll discuss various beady topics like tips and tricks, some of my favorite beading products, and more. Some weeks it will be a quick discussion, some weeks it will be longer. But every week it will be fun and full of beady goodness.

This article includes affiliate links. That just means that I get a little fee if you click on the link or purchase something and no additional cost to you. That little fee helps me keep writing these articles. All my opinions are my own. I am featuring these products because I love them.

This week we're going to talk about a hot topic. What do I do with my thread when I get to the end? Should I knot it? Should I weave it in? Should I do something else? What do I dooooooo?

When I first started beading, I hated ending/starting thread. I just wanted to accomplish the whole project with one thread and be done with it. I would either stick to small projects that I knew would only take a small amount of thread or I would just an indecent amount of thread. And that thread would always get tangled or break or both. And I would loose my mind.

I quickly learned I was going to have to get over my fear of ending/starting thread. 

So I started with knots. And boy would I knot a lot.

I have the fear (I fell like a lot of beaders feel this way) that my beadwork will fall apart. I needed to bead as many times as I could. Maybe 5+ times. That would keep everything in order.

My first knots were always on the edge of the beadwork. You could see them and it was knot pretty (hehe, word pun). Then I started knotting in the beadwork and trying to hide the knot. This worked sometimes, and sometimes it didn't.

So I went on a quest to find a better way. How could I finish my thread off without knotting it or at least learn to do it in a better way? I asked friends that beaded and researched on the internet and I found an amazing thing.

That's when I learned about weaving the ends in. Seriously, I had no idea you could just weave the end in to secure it. Where was this my whole life? How did I not know this earlier?

It's great. Weaving the ends in strengthens the piece. Unlike knotting, which can possibly weaken the thread at the knot point. And it's way less of a headache then knotting. It is my preferred way to end a piece.

So how do we do it? How does this magical weaving work?

So this is how you are "supposed" to do it. Make a figure 8 with your thread. I was always told that you should start in the middle of a row to hide the threads better. Buuuuut to be honest, I almost always end/start at the end. I just weave my thread in a little farther and then do all the fun turns.

And to be honest, mine looks a little bit more like this.......

Okay, maybe it's not quite that much, but I do a few extra turns just to make sure me thread is secure. Because like I said earlier, I have a fear my beadwork will fall apart.

Every week I share what I have been working on. Come take a look at what's on my bead board this week.

I've been working on a bunch of new patterns and I can't wait to share them with everyone very soon. But until then, check out these amazing square beads I was gifted.

A good friend of mine sent me a HUGE box full of these beauties. Now to figure out what to do with them.

What would you do with them? Leave a comment below letting me know the wonderful projects you would make with these amazing square beads.

Want to get beady updates sent right to your inbox? Maybe you'd be interested in a 25% off coupon? Sign up for my email newsletter today and get all that and more! ​