Aching For Lime Green

Please notice the double entendre in the title! HAH! I was doing my usual surf this morning and it suddenly occurred to me that I wanted something lime green. I've had two patterns sitting, waiting to be executed, both using lime green with some other nifty accents. I've got some pattern samples finished except for the clasps. I suppose it's time to start stitching.

I've set things up in the living room in anticipation of recuperation time. Wire and chain work over there, seed beads next to the couch. There are a few things that I'll still need out of the bead room. As I start organizing a little more I'll add them to the work stations. I'm just trying to make sure everything is at the ready when the time comes. I also plan to have at least one project that can travel to the hospital with me.

I find myself wanting to learn some new things -- metal etching, wire work, chain maille. Why? I can't stop learning. I'm just wired that way I guess.

Did anyone win any of the giveaways this week? My goodness, it was awesome to see so many at one time. Dontcha just love it? Keep searching. If you find one that I haven't seen, let me know so I can post it.

13 days and counting!

What? Another Giveaway??

You betcha! My friend Heather is having a giveaway. Hop on over!

Just a drive by for now. I'll be back later with a real blog post. In the meantime, go sign up for these freebies! I expect to see your posts on all of them, beadlings.

And Yet ANOTHER Giveaway!

Yep, your cup runneth over this week. Have you seen Jennifer Cameron's blog Glass Addictions? Well, Jennifer is having a giveaway and she is giving away some of her gorgeous beads. Get on over there and compete with me, because I REALLY want those earrings!

More later. Going to see the bone wizard today. 16 days.

Keep Checking Those Giveaway Links

Here's another one for you, but you better act quick. This one ends at midnight Tuesday. Or would that be Wednesday? Either way, you have just a little over 24 hours. La Bella Joya is giving away a gorgeous beaded bracelet and all you have to do is comment and offer advice. Hop on over and check it out! Me? I've commented and I'm going to bed soon! ¡Hasta mañana en la mañana, beadlings!

Are You Checking For Giveaways?

Giveaway alert! Go visit Lorelei to see what's happening today. Note that in the title of her post she says "No. 1". Hmmm. What could that mean? I think we should keep checking back! Oh, look! There on the right. She has a SCHEDULE!

Today is chock full of stuff to do HOWEVER it is all being done inside the house! Yep, no Erday here today. It's just plain old Monday. Too bad I can't say the same for the rest of the week. 17 days and counting. (I've decided to bead my cane!) Keep on beading on, beadlings!

Cool Link

It's not really beady, but it's pretty cool: 50 Things Everyone Should Know How To Do. I'm still reading!

I'll have new bead/jewelry/art links later in the week. Enjoy your Sunday. Are you keeping up with the giveaways? Better go check!

You're Back!

You're all back! All my followers are back! Woot!! How nice to see you all again!

No new stuff here. SSDD. T-man is going to pull some stuff out of the "studio" for me to have on hand as I gear up for d-day (or s-day if you prefer). This weekend will be spent doing family stuff, very low key. Remember, the choice word for the next week is R-E-L-A-X.

Have a beady weekend.

What's Going On?

I notice that my followers have all disappeared. From what I can tell, you must now go into your Google dashboard and add my blog manually. We might have to start again from scratch. It kind of irks me, but what is a girl to do? So, if you don't mind, please go back in and add Bead-Mused to your list of followed blogs.

August 12^th gets closer and closer, and in the meantime I'm supposed to RELAX. Yeah, right. So what did I do Tuesday afternoon? I fell again, right down onto both knees. I tripped (over what, I have no idea) and down I went. I bruised my wrist, my foot, my knees and, of course, wrenched the back a bit. Do you know what pain does to your blood pressure? That's right, kids. It makes your blood pressure soar, and so do pain killers. What a quandary. So, the word for the week is R-E-L-A-X.

I suppose some of you might say "But T, doesn't beading relax you?" HAH! Okay, maybe it does. Sometimes it does. On occasion, it has been know to relax me and that's all I will admit at this point. I'll think about it.

Must Do

Photo by Lisa Stegall
Two things I must do today. I must start beading the color option samples for Autumn Blooms and I must do my physical therapy exercises. The first entails hunting down those beads I had picked for the two options and the second entails sweat, pain and tears. Both will probably result in a bit of frustration. What I really, really want to do is sit and read, but if I don't use these muscles (both the beading and the thighs), no progress will be made on either front. So, I'm off to hunt down some bits of glass and then set up my little gym. I'll have updates tomorrow. Bead on, beadlings!

Birthday Girl

I cannot believe she's twelve. It seems like just yesterday we were rushing to the doctor's office and then over to the hospital to help her into the world one month early. At that point, she had been trying her best for the previous two months to make her grand entrance. The impatience has not changed one little bit!



Apparently, there is a shiny purple bicycle being picked up and sleep-over planned for the day. I understand that an order has been placed for T-man to fix hamburgers and apparently I am expected to pick up an ice-cream cake, candles, banner, chips, dip, pancake supplies, and party favors.



Happy 12^th birthday, AriRo!

Totally Not Beads Today (Well, Not Totally)

First, the heat has really been wreaking havoc with me and my schizoid body. I don't handle daily headaches well, I'm irritable and cranky and just not fun to be around. Ugh -- mean mommy. Then the cable connection just died this morning. No warning. It was there and then it was gone. We have the phone through the Internet, my computer runs off the Internet; my television is fed by the Internet and apparently so is my 12-year old. It was a rocky morning, but still salvageable.



Ariel helped me pull some things out of the soon-to-be bead studio and we set up a little work station to put together some more earrings. Everything I need to sort, assemble and finish all in one handy spot.



Then we realized that I just have to take it all down again on Friday to prepare for her birthday party. Harrumph. Grumble, grumble. Harrumph. Oh well, it's easily done.

And to top my day off, I went back to the bone doctor to tell him I've decided to let him do his thing. I will know the definite date for the first knee surgery by the end of this week, and I start "pre-hab" as soon as I call tomorrow and make the first appointment. I'm still looking at this with trepidation but I also know everything will be better by the end of the year. The thought of walking without pain is still exceedingly appealing. And instead of a lollipop, T-man got me a Blizzard. Hot day, cold ice cream! Yes!! Is there anything better than that?

Why Seed Beads?

So, Marcia had a great question today: Why seed beads? Why do we choose tiny, infuriating bits of glass as our medium?

Have you noticed that most of us who work with seed beads are not exactly known for being patient? Take note the next time you are in a group of seed bead fanatics. Take me for instance. I am hardly patient. When I want something I want it NOW. I want results immediately, yesterday even. I like easy recipes that have little prep time and almost no cook time. I speed read, skimming the pages. But I can take the time (anywhere from two hours to six weeks) to work with the tiniest beads to create something like this:



Comment: Oh my gosh, you must have really good eyes.
Response: I just use very good lighting while I work and wear my glasses.
Comment: How long does it take?
Response: Well, that depends on what I'm doing, how I'm feeling and how many mundane interruptions occur.
Comment: Wow, you must have a lot of patience!
Response: See above.

Why do I love seed beads? Have you looked at the color choices available to us today? Delicas® alone are available in almost 900 colors! That kind of boggles the mind, doesn't it? I also love the fact that I can take that little bit of glass, a needle and thread and then make the most luscious creation:



If you work with seed beads, tell us why. Why did you choose them? Why do you stay with them? Could you live without them?? Inquiring beaders would like to know!

Labors Of Love

I have had a small "to-do" list this week, each item a labor of love -- a beadwork submission, a letter of reference and a birthday gift. I'm submitting piece for a challenge that, if I win, will result in publication. Yes, it's true, I've done it. I spent several hours crafting a letter of reference for one my dearest friends (by the way, she has started blogging again). Lest you think she is searching for a new job, relax. It was just a formality for her current position. And I'm going to make a special birthday gift for a friend who was lost and has come back. We've both learned not to listen to others, but to our own hearts. I'm glad to have her back in my life. I'll have pictures of her gift AFTER she opens it. And I have completed two out of the three items! I love crossing things off the list.

Otherwise, life is a lot of "wait and see" right now, full of appointments with various doctors. Next week I'll have dates for when what gets done. Ugh. I'm not looking forward to the process, but I eagerly anticipate the results. Not exactly the changes I had in mind, but it's a "step" (ha-ha) in the right direction.

Erday A Day Early

I'll actually be out of pocket tomorrow (Erday, or Monday for the rest of you). My friend Mrs. B must be taken to the dentist's office, and I told her it would be no problem. The only "problem" is that she could not get an appointment on Friday when she really needed it! It's not a bad way to spend my birthday, and I might just do a little LBS shopping while I'm out. (That's Local Bead Shop for the uninitiated.) Or I might come home and do some on-line shopping. Mom and Dad gave me a Visa gift card for my birthday that I can spend however I so desire and I might desire more BEADS. HAH! What a concept!!

Happy Independence Day And More

Photo from Wikimedia Commons
It is 7:30 on a Saturday morning and I'm awake. I've been up since 6:00 and no, there is no fever as far as I can tell. It's just one of those mornings. The heat here has been so bad, it's just difficult to cool off. While we were shopping yesterday, our air conditioner froze up again. We came home to a house that was 92°. Cooler than 106°, yes, but it was still hot. So I Google "why does my AC keep freezing" and found Energy Boomer. Lo and behold, our fan speed was set to med-low, T-man fixes that, and the house cooled off right away. It is so nice to be married to a handy DIY guy. Today, he's checking the drain. Hopefully our freeze-up situation is fixed.

I got the rest of my birthday present from T-man yesterday. Now I can make circles. And . . .

because he said I needed one. It should make punching holes easier. Also, I've got the perfect first project:

Barbe posted this a few weeks ago and I thought it was cute in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way. I can't afford to use my cards so I should do SOMETHING with them, right? I'm glad, though, that I had "custom" designs and that my cards are a little more colorful. If nothing else, I'll have fun making the bracelet.

Have fun, stay safe, be cool! I'll be back AFTER my birthday.

Something I Cannot Bead

Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone. Mary Schmich

Here's something I cannot bead -- new knees. Nope, can't make new ones, at least not new ones that will work correctly. Then again, they would probably work better than what I have.

I had an episode yesterday. One minute my "good" knee worked just fine, the next minute I was screaming, crumpling and crying in agony because it refused to bend or to straighten out completely. What? You ask "what is the problem?" No more lateral meniscus in the "bad" knee (I knew that, but it's gotten worse) and I'm losing the lateral meniscus in the "good" knee. What? "What causes this?" No one knows what causes it, but the doctor suggested having chosen poorly in the grandparent/parent area (things tend to be hereditary) and having the audacity to age. What? "How do they fix it?" Oh, they fix it with the "S" word. You know, that word I don't like and don't really want to mention until something is definitely decided.

So today I'm going to practice a bit of denial and make something instead of researching the procedures used to replace bits of my bone with titanium. Just call me the Six Thousand Dollar Woman. *sigh* I'll look things up tomorrow, make a few phone calls and then make a decision. Fortunately, I have a job that I can take with me to hospitals, waiting rooms, etc. And the doctor swears I should be good as new in time for the grandbabies' arrival. I better be!

Here's your question of the week: Some of you know my "beading on Vicodin" story while recovering from the first knee surgery, lo those many years ago (ooooh, pretty colors!). How many of you have beaded/created while being laid up for some necessary thing that laid you up?