Twice In A Row Is Not A Coincidence

The hen house door was opened again and the chickens were out in the yard. Yes, I had yard chickens this morning. They were funny when they ran after Ariel back to their yard for feed, followed by our littlest kitten. She has decided that she is a BIG cat and can take down anything! I closed the door and PULLED on it with all my #*% pounds behind me. It does not open on its own, kids. Someone is opening the hen house, probably looking for eggs. I don't think they'll be doing it again. I do think the sheriff will be at our house just before the sun comes up, though. And I did send T-man the layman's wording of Texas law regarding shooting trespassers. Don't worry, he said he won't shoot the guy. The problem is we think we know who it is, which is too bad. You like to foster good relations with your neighbors, right? But if I find out we have had eggs all this time and we didn't get any of them, there will be hell to pay!! What I would give right now to have nice Amish neighbors like Margot! The saddest part of this tale is that we share our goodies with our neighbors and ask for nothing in return. They don't even have to ask us for veggies, etc! T-man happily goes door to door, tomatoes or cantaloupes in hand. So why is this person going into our hen house? People never fail to amaze me.

Web site work is on the very near horizon. Blechpht!! I am not a fan of Front Page and I have to struggle just to update one page, let alone all of them. Yes, I want sympathy here, damn it! I need a cyber genie to just read my mind and get all the computerish things done for me.

Ah, but tomorrow is a BEADY Friday! And I haven't been in so long!! I'm really looking forward to that. Saturday night is card or video game night this week, so that will be fun. And then Sunday is family day. Ta-da! The weekend is planned. I hope you have fun and wonderful things planned for you and yours this weekend. I bid you a fond farewell and will keep you updated on the saga of the hen house. In the meantime, bead happy!

Herding Chickens

Someone opened the chicken coop door last night or this morning. When Ariel went out to feed them this morning, they were all around the yard rather than in it. She ran back to the house, pretty upset. It was fairly easy to get them back in, though. They love corn cobs! T-man is ready to make booby traps. I just love living with Wilderness Man (Jeremiah Johnson is one of his fave movies). He promises it will just scare the shit out of someone, not hurt them. It will probably scare the shit out of me!

I'm not typing much today. I must run Natalie's lunch to her in a bit. You have new places to visit over there on the right-hand side of the monitor. I'm still trying to get some new Etsy items up before summer is totally over. It's less than four weeks before school starts for Ariel. It's hard to believe it's that soon, but it is. We have had 37 days of 100° plus so far this year, not including today which has also been predicted to be over 100°. That's 37 out of 202 days! I am ready for October.

I'm also stitching away on sample number two. It is very slow going as I have chosen 15° for the base. Yes, yes, I admit it. I believe beading should be masochistic. Why else would we all participate in a delightful pastime wherein we pierce our fingers with sharp needles? Bead away, my beadlings, bead away.

What's New?

Wait, wait -- now there's something new (never mind that this is my second addendum to today's blog). Check out the links to web sites and to blogs. I've added a bunch for your surfing pleasure! Enjoy!

Okay, so I found this absolutely, weirdly cute thing on DIY. If you have little kids around or you're just feeling like a little kid, why not make a gelatin aquarium? How do I find these things? I surf. I hit a blog or site that I like, then I hit one of their links, then one of their links, etc., etc., etc.

We had a great weekend. Ariel's birthday celebration is FINALLY finished. We were at my mom and dad's house for the dual celebration of Ariel's birthday and one of the little nephew's (his is the day before hers). The two little nephews are cute and getting cuter every day. They are 14 months apart and my sister-in-law has all my sympathy.

Then it was home to floating, sipping, tubbing, sipping, eating, giggling, floating, sipping, tubbing. And we had our friends from up the road, KC and her hubby, come down. Then Sunday KC, Ariel, Natalie and I went shopping, which was great fun. The guys took a ride down to Seguin to do some work, Then we all met back here, got KC's daughter and friend, and we all played video games and hit the pool and the tub again. I can't think of many things better than a relaxing weekend with friends and family.

Yesterday was one of those lost days given to doctors and pharmacies, so not much got done, needless to say. I shall try to make amends today and get some things put up in the Etsy store and maybe a little work done on adding links to other blogs. Happy beading!

Moving On

Did that startle you? "She's moving on? To where?" Sorry, but I couldn't resist. I'm simply moving on from the pink/gold project to the next. Yep, I finally finished it. And your preview is a not-so-good photo, but it does convey a feel for the necklace. It turned out to be very romantic. It's quite mauve-alous, with light touches of gold and some other colors in there. I'm please with it. I just wish it hadn't taken so long to finish! So the next is, well it's a big ole surprise, is what it is! I can't give away all my secrets.

I've decided my presence on the web is way past due for an overhaul, so this weekend I'll start working on things and keep you updated as I go. And being as it's Thursday, I thought I would direct your attention to Inspire Me Thursday and Ornament Thursday, just for a little change of pace.

Where Is Sam Spade When You Need Him?

(cue the background music for film-noir)

This morning's commute was hellish. I tripped on my way in to the bathroom and knew the day would not be good. I finished my business there and looked for clothes to wear in the murky darkness of the room. I just had to hope everything coordinated. I stumbled from the bedroom bleary eyed and momentarily blinded by the bright light of day only to find no coffee in the coffee pot. Sometimes the small person makes some, sometimes she doesn't. Evidently this was a doesn't day. I took a quick glance at the clothes I had grabbed in the dark. Good, things matched. Hearing odd noises, I opened the utility room door to an avalanche of fur bodies. Crikey, it never looks like that many of them any other time. I was greeted by meows and purrs and soft fur rubbing my ankles. They don't make coffee, either. They sneered and muttered something about not having thumbs. Crapola. I decided that I was going to have to make the coffee myself. I poured in the water, measured the grounds, hit that special button, and then the waiting began. I heard an odd noise outside and quickly went to investigate. It looked like the county had finally started repaving the main road to fix the repaving they did last year. It took them six months and when the road was finished, it worse than it was before they started. Maybe this time they would get it right. The roar, the bang and the beep of road machinery would be my background music today. I went back in to check the coffee pot, but still no luck. I had to find something to take my mind off the nonexistent coffee, so I opened the email and was greeted by responses to a dilemma put forth to my beady group the day before. Somehow the topic went from my request for advice to homemade tortillas. Damn, that made me hungry but there were no homemade tortillas in the house and no good substitute. It was a good thing the coffee was ready so I didn't have to start looking for bad things to eat. There would have been hell to pay if that had happened. But back to the coffee. It looked good enough to drink. It was dark and rich, just the way I like it. All it needed was a dollop of amaretto cream and it would be killer. Ah, that first sip was good. It was worth the wait, even if it was cheap. I settled in to read more emails and do some investigating on the world wide web, but the browser was slow. I wondered if it was connected to the road work outside, but that thought would have to wait until later, until after the coffee and I were through with our business for the day.

Birthdays Chez Nous

When a birthday is celebrated in our house, it's not just one day. Oh no, dear friends, the birthday goes on for weeks. We celebrated Ariel's birthday here at home on Thursday, with a cake made by Emmie and presents. Then we celebrated again on Saturday when Emmie came to spend the night and brought a present. There was also more cake. Then we celebrated again yesterday at the in-laws with more presents and, of course, more cake. But wait, there's more! Next weekend we go to my parents' house for more birthday cake and more presents! Yes my beadlings, birthdays go on for weeks at our house! And as there really isn't much else happening here, I'm off for some research, some beading and some errands later. So I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and I hope today isn't to much like a Monday!

This was just too funny not to add!

Live Passionately!

Live Passionately is such a cool web site, I couldn't help but share it with y'all. Sorry guys, but it's geared strictly toward women. I don't usually go for the affirmation pep talks, but I like this site. I absolutely love the waterfall picture, but the entire site is lovely and the suggestions are wonderful. And we all need a boost now and then, n'est-ce pas? Adieu mes amis!

Friday? Really?

I measured the days this week by when Ariel's birthday fell. A skewed calendar, but it worked. So in our part of the world, yesterday was a national holiday. But she had a wonderful day, which is all that matters.

I've been slogging away on this pink and gold piece and I have begun to hate it. Yes, I hate it. The execution is not such that it should have taken five weeks. I had certain things on the movie screen in my brain that just did not pan out in real beads. I hate it because I have spent five weeks doing mostly unbeading. Sheesh. I am so ready to be working on something else, but I'm almost finished. I'm down to nothing but the clasp. And no, I'm sorry, no pictures until this fall. Oh, and the Fly Pen is kind of slowing me down, so I'm pretty sure it will be Ariel's when school starts next month. I am not used to taking the time to print, and it doesn't pick up all of my shorthand. So it's back to multi-colored pens and big, thick binders for me. It's time to stock up again.

So, that's all for today. No imaginative insights, no thoughtful musings on life or creativity. My brain is an empty vessel today. In fact when I sneeze, it rings like a bell! HAH! Go forth and bead.

Just Beading

That's all. I'm just beading. Actually, I spent yesterday baby-sitting. I picked the wrong day for that, but it's okay. Ariel had her friend Emmie over, and Emmie's little brother comes along. He's a handful, but he's cute as a bug.

T-man is away on a tank installation. He won't be back until tomorrow night. My house is pretty darned quiet without him here. And Thursday is Ariel's birthday -- the big one-one. Yep, she's one step closer to being a teenager. Ain't life grand!

Calling All Crafters!

Vickie Howell, well-known Austinite of Knitty Gritty fame, is looking for a few good crafters! Check out the blog and see if this is something you'd like to do. Just think, your name in print in books sold around the world. Now what could be better than that on a Saturday afternoon? Funny you should ask. Even if you don't knit, even if you have never watched a single episode of VH-1's Behind the Music, watch "Behind the Knitter". I haven't laughed so hard in quite a while! Have a groovy weekend.

No Energy Today

It sucks when I hit these lows. I've had a slightly stressful week, and I suppose it has finally caught up with me. I'm going to try to bead, but right now I can barely keep my eyes open. Maybe a catnap is in order. We'll call it a "power nap" so it doesn't make me sound lazy, okay? Of course, it doesn't help that T-man woke me up at 5:00 this morning! I'll survive, I just need a snooze and then I can pick up that needle and thread and take off again.


FYI, these are not pictures of any of my kitties, but they are public domain photos from Wikimedia Commons.

I use quite a few of their photos and clip art. I'll try to come up with some beady pearls of wisdom for you tomorrow. Egad beadlings, tomorrow if Friday! Where did my week go?? Here's a deep thought for today:

Creativity is the greatest expression of liberty.
Bryant H. McGill

I'm outta here. Just keep on beadin' on!

Resin Anyone?

I have a new fascination. I want to make things with resin. There is only one problem with that. Okay, there may be two or three problems. It cannot be done indoors, I'll need to wear a respirator (pesky migraines) and it works best in temperatures of no more than 75°. Sheesh, I'll have to wait until November! In the meantime, you can see what I'm talking about when I say "resin". I'm not talking about bottle cap jewelry, no no! I'm looking at a much more involved process. Of course, I won't discount the bottle cap thing entirely. Jennifer Perkins of Naughty Secretary's Club has done a how-to video for one of her best sellers and there are a ton of tutorials on YouTube and various other locations in the World Wide Web. I am itching to try this. T-man thinks it's funny, simply because he knows how impatient I can be. I also found Resin Obsession, which has EVERYTHING I would ever need for making resin jewelry. I think the name says it all.

But, I guess I will wait until the weather cools considerably before I make my first foray into resin. *sigh*

Happy Birthday To Me!

Yep, it's that time again. Nope, I won't tell how many. Let's just say I've seen a lot of things happen around the world. I share my birthday (not year) with Sylvester Stallone, who paints! Yessir, the man's an artist. And other than baseball stuff, nothing really important happened on the day I was born!



So today I am being lazy and coddled and I plan to enjoy every minute of it. See you later, beadlings!

Happy 4th Of July

Well, I Do Declare!

Guess what? It has been publicly suggested, by someone who lurks about but never comments, that I have deserted you in my embrace of B.W.O. Yep, yep, yep. Simply because I choose not to bore you with detailed descriptions of every breath I take, every move I make and the other various and sundry details of my daily existence, it has been hinted at that I have deserted you, that I have let you down, that I have shirked my responsibility as a blogger. How's that for a slap in the face from behind the back? Sheesh.



I started the base of the pendant for the pink/gold piece last night. Hopefully, the end result will match the vision. I'll try to finish it today or tomorrow and get a picture. We'll see what happens. I also bought one of those table top photo studios. T-man was pretty impressed with it. He's no slouch when it comes to photography. He used to do the most wonderful black and white photos, which he developed himself. I'd like to able to make a darkroom for him someday. Maybe I'll put it right next to his lampwork studio. Seriously though, he is still discussing building a studio for us next year or the year after. I can see it now -- the back part of the property is a huge garden with the pool sticking out of the center, the dog yard and the chicken coops on one side next to the metal workshop and the studio on the other. Oh goodness, mind the tomatoes as you walk on back! And don't trip over the cataloupe!

Maybe stepping stones would be a good idea.