Inspiration Abounds

Today is another weird Central Texas winter day. The sun is shining, it's warm, and I've been walking around the yard. I found bits and pieces of STUFF around T-man's shop. In a couple of weeks, I'm going to have a PLAY DAY with my clay and my resin and bits and pieces of things that are not necessarily beady. Maybe I'll put together some objects made with metal pieces (and metal-looking pieces) that can become jewelry. By the way, I love the whole Steampunk genre and wish I had more time and resources to delve into it on a bigger scale. In a couple of weeks I'm attending a function through my alumni association, billed as:

. . . an eclectic talk by popular Trinity professor Mike Kearl. Entitled The Futures of Times Past: Retro-Futurism and the Retreat of the Golden Age from the Future to the Past, Professor Kearl's multimedia presentation examines both past utopian visions of the present and contemporary depictions of dys-utopian futures. It develops how these trends underlie the rise of retro-futurism, steam punk, and apocalyptic chic in the arts.

T-man says it's right up my alley. But I digress . . . .

There I was last night, beading along, mango mojito at my side, when I decided I did not like the tension of the piece I was working on, plus I thought I could somehow make it look better or more refined or something. So I took it apart, unbeaded it. Yep, that's what happened, true story. Damn, it's a good thing I've got a small stockpile of samples to send off. However, I must finish two seed bead projects (you saw part of one of them the other day) and get them in the mail by the end of February. As long as I have days like this, it won't be difficult. Days like this are full of inspiration.

I'm off. I'm going to run by and visit Gaye for a bit, then come back to put a pot of pasta sauce on the stove and then bead my fingers to the bone! Yep, bead to the bone! (oh, that is a very bad play on words)

Mission Accomplished

Hah! Take that, computer spies.

You know, you would think people could make better use of their knowledge. Virus scan tonight! No mercy!

Argh

That's not an imitation of a swarthy pirate, that's frustration speaking. I am seriously considering the ramifications of throwing this computer through the window. Yeah, yeah, common sense wins out --- new window, new computer, new bird bath. But I just want you to know that it took five minutes to delete an email this morning! I'm going to run an spy ware killer here in a few minutes and see if that helps.

Oh, and cynicism abounds here today so I'm not much fun to talk to, either! This too shall pass.

It is such a blindingly beautiful day that I may take the beads outside to work. Of course, I may come back inside blinded by the flash of the Swarovski! Ah, such a small price to pay!

Bead it! Go on, scram!

I Made A List

Actually, I made a general list with deadlines. I'm sure there will be other tiny things that go in between the lines. I've actually already crossed one thing off. Yay! And I always use a red pen to cross things off, because then I can see PROGRESS. I must also put the deadlines into the calendar just in case the list gets MISPLACED! And yes, I've done that plenty of times. I've learned now. I've also added the deadlines in red. Yes, I like red pens. I also like purple, and green, and blue, and turquoise . . . . Basically, I love pens. I love them almost as much as I love beads! Ask my family. Oh, and this is just deadlines for February with one in March (so far).

Today is filled with beads. Fortunately they are not spilled beads needing o be picked up. There is not much else going on Chez Buchle. It's warmer, the sun is shining, birds are singing -- well, you know the drill. So I guess it's off to work for me!

February 28^th and March 1^st I'll be helping Carol Wille with her booth at the San Antonio Bead Market, which will be at the Live Oak Civic Center. I happen to have it on good authority that there will be some vintage acrylic flower and leaf beads on hand. Yum!

Brrrrr!

It got f#@@#ng cold last night! And then the wind howled for a while. And then it got a little colder. But alas poor Ariel, she had to go to school! Poor baby wanted a late start at the very least, but no go. It is a full school day. And it is still very breezy and very chilly out.

Today's deadlines are met! Woo hoo! Celebrate! Now the day is free for me to bead and meet the next BIG deadline. When did my life become a series of deadlines? I thought I gave that up years ago: deadlines, meetings, more deadlines, meetings that interfered with deadlines. Well, I no longer have all the meetings -- the cats refuse to attend. Anyway, here is one of the latest projects that have the next deadline:
You can see why I've had to force myself to work on it. Then again, maybe you cannot. The other High Priestesses of the Goddess of Beading probably know. Whatever. I'm just about done now. And I have another right on its heels with much cooler, soothing (to me) colors. I'll post pics of all unknown projects when the time is right. I don't want to totally lose that element of surprise, you know. Plus, while watching TV with Ariel yesterday afternoon, I had a sudden inspiration which is now in the sketch pad. We'll see if I can graph it without losing the details. And yes, I'll share it later. You must be patient!

Falling . . . .

Temperatures, not me. It's 10:30 now. When I took Bella out at 8:00, the temps were in the low 60s. Now it's 45. By the time T-man gets hom, we should be in a small ice age.

And yes, I still want to go live in Alpine, where it snows every year.

What?

Low temps? Freezing rain? Ice? Here?


Well, it is almost February after all and that is our coldest month. I guess it's just time. So with this in mind, today's musings will be very short as I have driving to do and I hate being out in the cold. I want to leave and get back in the shortest time possible. I plan to come home, send some emails and then do some beadwork (imagine that). Mind you, this is what I PLAN to do. Life has a way of interfering.

Question: if you have the opportunity to be home during nasty weather (assuming most of you don't work from home like I do), do you create or do you vegetate? Inquiring minds would like to know.

The Best Of Both Worlds!

Chocolate shoes!

Rainy Days And Mondays . . . .

This is the view from my back yard. Yuck, yucky, yuck. I need sunshine, kids, lots and lots of sunshine.



Apparently, so does Kitty. Who knew?









Well, in my little world, Monday has been designated Computer Day. Which begs to question, what the hell were the past five days??? Anyway, the patterns are all typed and the last three are being printed. Yeah! Then there are some things to be emailed for Seminar 2010. Then I'm really wanting to open the Etsy store again, so I'll need some new photos. But wait! That isn't computer stuff, that's photography stuff! Bwahahahaha! That's right! Photography, away from the computer . . . . .


until it's time to edit the pics. *sigh* But I've got some great items to put in there and I'm sorry, beadlings, the web site updates are going to have to wait until I get that new computer. I'm not going to fight with Front Page and the computer at the same time. You would have to come visit me in one of those special health care facilities where I would not be allowed to have needles or scissors and all my food would be eaten with a spoon if I had to fight both of those at once.

I'm off. But you already knew that, right?

Friday Woes

Let's start with this. We live in the county just southwest of Austin. This does not bode well for anyone in Texas:



Ariel has the flu and is still home, but she's feeling much better today. I've got a jury summons shortly, and I've got a ton of work to do here in a very short time. I also spent most of yesterday taking my mom to the oncology clinic, where they were running half an hour late. *sigh* On top of it all, I spent most of the week in a drug induced fog! If it's not one thing, it's another.

Beady/artsy/work question for the day: What are you working on/creating/sorting/doing? For instance, I know that when Cat has not typing her fingers to the bone this week, she has been going through her UFOs and clearing them out one way or another. So share, we're nosy, we want to know what's going on over there. Hold it up so I can see better please. There ya go. Looks good.

We Made History

We have a new president today. That means lots of changes. Ariel told me that she's not interested in politics at the tender age of 11. I explained to her how important those politics are to her way of life. She might have digested that tidbit. One can never be totally sure with a tween.

Well, I fought with the computer until 7:30 last night and I WON!! Apparently I have not yet killed it, but I've got many things to type, so we'll see. Would you like a peek at some of the new things? Well, okay. This is the Retro series of bracelets:Aqua and peach, how atomic can you get? If I can find some good avocado green combos you better look out.
This is Sunset on the Beach:


This is Tropical Blend:


This is the biz card sleeve I carry. It's called Elegance:


Hmm, lots of spirals there. Would you call that a recurring theme? Well, that's just a taste of what I'm sending off to Tracey and what I'm keeping here. And as soon as I have a computer that I don't have to wrestle, they will go on my website! Yes to those of you who have asked, the website will be selling patterns and kits as soon as I get a new computer.

I'm off. Beads are calling. Enjoy the day.

It's Dolly Parton's Birthday!

I have always admired Dolly Parton. I love her songs, and I love her acting. I also love that she has always followed her dreams and that she has always been upfront about her looks (no pun intended). An honest, open person is truly admirable.

Today I plan to push this computer to its limits. I have lots of photos to crop and save, and documents to put together and save, and then I must be able to send them all through cyberspace. Send up a little prayer to the goddess of electronic things for me. And on top of all the computer woes, my back is spasming like you wouldn't believe. That means (cue the funky music) working with muscle relaxants and pain killers! On a side note, I'm beading a rather psychedelic, retro looking piece right now so I guess beading with pharmaceuticals is rather apropos.

It's time for lunch, and I've also got a full plate of work. Until tomorrow, my beadlings!

Guess What Happened?

I fell. Yep, Thursday afternoon I, for some unknown reason, decided it was the perfect time to do the splits in the hallway. One foot went straight out in front and the other didn't. Then I decided that twisting to avoid the splits would be in order. Boy, was I wrong. Then Bella decided that maybe I needed help in the way of circling me and licking my face. Go ahead and laugh. I know it made a funny picture. In homage to Kath, I used a few choice words on my way down, a couple of prayers when I hit, and a few more choice words when I tried to get up. I hurt myself badly enough that I had to call T-man to leave work and take me to the friendly South Austin ER, where I was given a lovely parting gift in my butt cheek and told there was no need for x-rays, just rest and happy pills. And "what didn't you hurt" is a much shorter list, believe me. When I am a bit more lucid (you have a very small window right here before the pills kick in), I will spend more time in front of the keyboard. For now, I'm going to go put my feet up and go through some instructions and patterns for Tracey. I hope you have a great weekend. With the aid of modern pharmaceuticals, I know I will! HAH!

Thursday? What Happened To Tuesday?

Crikey! It's already near the end of the week and I feel like I missed the first half! I did not get much beading done yesterday. The shaded piece is being done in colors I really don't like (personally) so I'm almost having to force myself to play with it. It's gorgeous, it's just not the color for me. It is, however, the asbolutely best color for a lot of you ou there. Then my cedar allergies kicked my butt yesterday and I ended up taking a *gasp* nap! Oh my stars, I feel so middle-aged.

Don't laugh, but I'm trying to get some sort of daily schedule going here, at home, where I work. It's part of my ORGANIZATION intention for 2009. It's been a while since I adhered to any type of schedule. For the past many years I've just been flying by the seat of my pants on a daily basis. Well, no more! I'm a changing woman!

I leave you this morning with a wonderful thought: destress with chocolate. Mmmmm. Works for me!

Walk Please?

I got the computer to actually see the photos! And then it actually uploaded one! Will wonders never cease? I cannot believe the marvels of modern technology. *snort* In looking at terriers on the web, I'm thinking she's not a Yorkie or a Poo. I believe she is a Norfolk/Norwich terrier. The biggest difference between the two is that one has ears that flop down and the other has ears that stand up. Bella has one of each. Besides, she is WAY too big to be a Yorkie.



I'll try to take a picture of the necklace later.

Much To Do

So I deleted some unused applications and things are the teensiest bit faster today. I'll do some more tomorrow. I tried posting some more pictures from the diskette, but the computer still wants to format it. *sigh*

I'm working on a teaching proposal sample that has a lot of shading (as in very subtle shading) and I have discovered that I cannot work on it at night. Even with the spectrum bulbs in the over-shoulder-lamp I have a very difficult time seeing which shade is which. Damn, I hate getting older. But it sure beats the alternative.

It was bitterly cold last night, as in 21 degrees or so. It's a gorgeous, sunny day but it's still pretty cold out so I built a nice, big fire in the fireplace. I'm going to open the blinds and work on the shading while Bella and I try to stay warm. Maybe I'll fix a cup of tea. I'd love to leave you with profound words of wisdom or a thought-provoking topic, but I just can't come up with anything today. So bead it! That's right, beadlings. I said it. Just bead it!!

Deadlines

Would you believe I just got two new deadlines? Nothing fruitful happens until 2010, but that's okay.

I have a Facebook page now. I would give you the direct link, but that would take another 30 minutes of the hard drive grinding away and waiting, waiting, waiting for the page to materialize in order to snatch the link. Just search for me by name or by email address for now. I'll make a link eventually. I've got other new and interesting links to add to the blog, but it's such a pain in the ass right now. I'd really like to work on the web site, I can't go to My Space. The computer locks up when I try. In fact, it locks up when I try a lot of things. But it's free. I really need for someone to keep reminding me of that. I know, I should quite my grousing. At least nothing locks up when I bead, so I'm going to do that now.

This Is A Test

I cannot see my color banner behind my header on this freaking computer. Can you see it? I'd like to know. It's the autumn colors behind all the print (just like on the web site). So I thought I'd pop a couple of old pictures in. Let me know if you can/can't see them.

Apologies For Lack Of Pics, Inspiration, And Other Musings

I apologize. There are no pictures of the new necklace. My loaner computer will not open my photo diskettes (I have an older Mavica). It just wants to try to format them! And the computer doesn't have enough virtual memory for the scanner. On the upside, the computer is free and it lets me connect to the outside world. However, I'm still at a standstill as far as everything else goes. T-man suggested that I fill up some diskettes and then take them to his office to load them onto various spots in cyber space. We'll see. I still need to update the web site but I'm very hesitant to do so. Have I mentioned that this computer is free? Okay. I'm going to attempt a My Space page today and maybe a Facebook page. We'll see how that goes.

I have taken Ariel to school, read my paper (online), scanned the red carpet fashions, had my first cup of coffee and cuddled with my pooch (who thought she was going to type with me). The sun is shining HOWEVER it is colder than . . . . . well, you know. So, on to the musings.

Yesterday, T-man pulled the last of our 2008 tomatoes off the vine. Yes, we had a ton of tomatoes last year and we probably will have just as many this year. We marked out the areas for this year's gardens (please notice the plural there). There are lovely orange marks in my back yard now. I've got the seed catalog ready to start writing the orders in so that it's ready to mail off in a couple of weeks. This year we're going to add more veggies and some herbs, and do some things a little differently. The idea is to save money at the grocery store and to make up for our very expensive eggs! Oh, but they are soooo good and they are soooo pretty (another picture I have not been able to share with you) and we get anywhere from two to five eggs per day. But based on the cost of the coop and feed, they are still very expensive eggs. We may get more hens this spring. We're definitely thinking about it.

As I mentioned, I was scanning the red carpet fashions from the past two awards shows, but I noticed that no one seemed to be wearing the Pantone Color of the Year. It's a beautiful color, don't you think? And it plays so nicely with others. My question is, how do they decide which color gets to be the Color of the Year? Have you ever looked at Pantone's color selection?? Don't forget to check out their spring fashion report while you are there. And go take a look at what Swarovski has planned for us. Inspiration abounds this morning. Hmmm.

So, I'm off the see what I can do on the computer today and maybe get some stitching in this afternoon. Stay warm, wherever you are.

New Necklace Finished In Record Time

Well, I did what I said I would and made a new necklace. I finished it last night and would give you a picture, but T-man has unplugged the scanner and my fat butt does not fit in the space where the plug and outlet live. I've lost some weight, but not enough to fit in there yet.

The necklace was based on an article by Tina Koyama (love her stuff) in the August-September 2008 issue of Beadwork magazine called "Earthy Collage Necklace". Mine has lots of goodies from Carol Wille, some beads from Heather Powers, and some beads from Pam Way. There are also some nifty seed beads and some vintage West German beads included. In making it, there are definitely some things that veered from Tina's instructions and there are definitely things I would do differently. Ariel has already asked for one of her own when I get some more chain.

Anyway, as soon as the scanner gets plugged in, I'll put a picture up. Maybe today, maybe tomorrow. In the meantime, T-man has the day off so I'll go see what he wants to do with the remainder of the day.

Definitions II

Ariel got the cutest game for Christmas to be played on the Wii. It's called "My Sims", and basically you move into a town, name it, meet the mayor, and then suddenly become the architect, interior designer, grounds keeper and PR person for the town. During play, you get tips and one of the tips is to "build something nice for yourself -- you deserve it".

T-man made me promise years ago that I would make something nifty for myself at least once a year, something that wasn't a sample or a proposal. It had to be something just for me, not for sale and not necessarily to be reproduced. Sometimes I use my own design, and sometimes I use someone else's (like my Scheherazade necklace designed by Liz Smith or my Laura McCabe Dahlia Locket.
Now in doing this, am I being selfish, especially when I design something I don't intend to share?

Anyway, today I think I'll make something quick and easy, just for me. I'll share pics later. Later, kids!

Definitions

First, in case you were not aware, Texas is in the midst of a drought. It has been very, very dry this last year and very, very warm. Today, for instance, will get up into the 70s with lots of sunshine. Very nice, isn't it? Ah, but it has a very dark side. Because of this freakish weather, the cedar trees (blue berry mountain juniper) are doing their happy dance. All of the weather forecasts are promising a hellish "cedar fever" season. Ugh. There are few things I am more allergic to than cedar trees and they flourish in this area. And to top it all off, there is a little rhino virus going around which has made its way through Chez Buchle so that Ariel missed her first day back to school and T-man is struggling to spend the entire day at work. Me? Oh, I had it for New Year's. On New Year's Eve, I was in bed by 8:30 after having taken my cold and sinus medicine. I'm such a party animal.

Anyway, I thought I'd throw a topic out there before I get away from the computer for the day. What is the difference between art and craft? Better yet, what is the difference between fine art and fine craft? Is it merely the difference between utility and decor? But what if something encompasses both utility and aesthetics? How would it be classified then? Is it the difference between using technical skill or ability to achieve an end and creating something tangible imbued with your spirituality meant only to stir the senses? But again, both can exist in the same object. So where is the line between art and craft drawn and does it matter anywhere other than on an application to a juried fine arts show? (just for instance) AND has that line begun to blur?

Talk amongst yourselves. I believe today I will stitch and I'll be back tomorrow!

New Year, New Intentions, New Goals

Hello there. It's been a while, hasn't it? Well, my little hiatus gave me time to get a lot of things done that would have otherwise fallen by the wayside. But, I have been so utterly bored at times! I didn't realize how much I depend on my computer until I didn't have it to rely on. ACK! It truly is my lifeline to the outside world.

So, new year means new beginnings, right? I don't like to make resolutions. They're so . . . resolute. I like the way Barbe put it: INTENTIONS. My biggest intention for this coming year is ORGANIZATION. I believe that if things are organized, that the rest of it will just fall neatly into place. Organization is the path to health, wealth and happiness Chez Buchle this year, and by golly we are going to become organized if I have to beat every one of them on a daily basis! (On the upside, the others here in the house have eagerly taken to organization without dire threats from yours truly.) In fact, Natalie is here today taking away more items from her room so that it can morph into my new studio. O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!

So there you have it: my intention for 2009, which will make room for other, smaller intentions. I've read that if you do something for 90 days it becomes a habit that is difficult to break, so I'm giving it all I've got! And on that note, what are your intentions for this new year?

I've missed you all, but I'm back!!

Happy New Year

(You can link back to Wiki Media Commons by clicking on the pic.)

It's a brand new day, in a brand new month, in a brand new year. I've got lots of plans, lots of things to accomplish and my only problem is that I lost quite a bit of my momentum when the computer died. I've got to reamp fast! I'm using a loaner that's quite a bit slower than the machine we had so it's taking some getting used to, but I will muddle through. I've yet to find my list of cyber things to do, but I know it's in this little pile on the desk. I've got the new calendar all ready in the agenda, I just need to find my colored pens and highlighters (there's something about old school "write-it-down" scheduling that helps me remember things more easily). Next week Ariel goes back to school and T-man goes back to work. I love having them home, but I'm ready for my peace and quiet at the same time. It looks like I just need to get some things into strategic placement and get those motors revving and I'll be off with a bang!

I hope you had a wonderful year and hope this new one proves to be even better!