Creative Thoughts

This is a "skewered dragon-fae" necklace that I made for my dear friend Michelle back in July. It was a special request, right down to the beautiful blues. Michelle and I met way back when I belonged to the fantasy/medieval role playing group (the same one wherein I met the love of my life). Once upon a time, Michelle and I did not speak to each other for years, which was a very sad time for me. We have since found our way back to each other, for which I'm exceedingly grateful. It's not easy to find good friends. It's even more difficult to hold on to them. I kept forgetting to post the picture of her birthday present! Her birthday is three days after mine, and her celebration was absolutely fantastic -- it was at a CHOCOLATE AND WINE BAR in Austin! Heavenly!!

And I've been trying to take my mind off my pain. It's a little worse this time, but this knee was in worse shape. Anyway . . .

I'm looking more at fibers. I left off fibers a while back, thinking that I just didn't have time to play with them. I might be wrong. I'm still hungering to work with wire more. I feel that if I make more of my own findings, the pieces will belong to me even more so. Of course, that might make parting with them even more difficult. Then there is metal. Geez, I love copper and bronze and etching seems not so difficult to do so I really, really want to.

But I also have to consider what I've chosen to do for a living and try to work all my little desires into the time I have left over when not coaxing little bits of glass into pleasing shapes and then writing down how to exactly that for others. And I couldn't leave those infuriating bits of melted sand if you held a gun to my head. As a result of all this musing, I've also been trying to think of ways to meld a few of the "I wants" with the tiny beads. Aha! (Believe me, it's probably much more difficult for me than it sounds.)

I'm also trying to come up with little items to stock in the Etsy store that folks might like to purchase for holiday gifts, and I've made the monumental decision to offer my patterns, tutorials and kits in the Etsy store. At this point I would like to open the floor to you, beadlings, to find out what you would like to see out of my repetoire of said patterns/tutorials/kits. Just remember that I'm still not up to full steam, so it will be a trickle of goodies, not a huge flood!

Have a beadiful weekend!

Too Much To Do Tuesday

Good morning, beaders and readers! I know, I know -- I promised chicken pictures and they will get up here. Today is a rush, so there's just a bit of time for blogging.

Yesterday was spent in front of this monitor and now I have a stiff neck. Oh, yippee skippy. I have the beginnings of arthritis in my neck, so I'm told. It sucks, but I have to deal with it. A hot shower in a few minutes will work wonders. Anyway, I had to try three times to finesse a peyote pattern, which really bugs me because it's not rocket science. But for the life of me, the old brain cells just did not want to kick in. The evening was spent watching comedies and stitching on another sample bracelet. I was asleep by 10:30, which is very early for me.


Today I go visit the sleep study doctor for my follow up. Oooooo, I get to find out whether or not I'll be Darth Vader at night! Won't T-man be thrilled? Actually, I'm considering sending him for his own sleep study given the way he's been sawing logs lately.

So today, let's have a little poll. It means posting comments, kids! I love to get comments. Today's topic is creative books. The last creative books I bought Little Beaded Boxes by Julia Pretl and Creating Crystal Jewelry with Swarovski by Laura McCabe. Your question of the day is: What was the last creative book you bought? So, leave a comment with the answer PLEASE. And have a marvelous day, wherever you are and whatever you do.

SSDD?? Not Today!

No, these are not mine, but they show you what some of mine will look like. These are Cuckoo Marans chicks. They are a 200 year old breed from France, and they lay eggs that have chocolate brown shells. The eggs are also fairly large and are supposed to taste wonderful.

This is what the Rhode Island Red chicks will look like. They will be our big producers starting around September. They'll lay nice, big, brown eggs. These and the Marans will be our big layers. I also want to get some of the "Easter egg" chickens, or Ameraucanas, which lay blue or green eggs! That's the shell color, mind you. I'm not raising any Dr. Seuss chickens. And, let me tell you, T-man can't wait. The man loves his eggs! And look at these little egg cups and salt and pepper shakers I found at My Pet Chicken (yes, really). If you have quiche recipes, please start sending them! No mushrooms, no shellfish please. Everything else is A-OK!

Margot Potter (The Impatient Beader) has a new vlog about the creative process! I've missed her vlogs, and I'm so glad she got the camera working again. Go watch (it's short) and remember, the journey's the thing!

I did finish the first rendition of the newest pattern last night. I started the second one when I was way too tired, and had to pull it all out. Let's just say that by next week, I'll be itching to do something other than peyote stitch for a while! Have a wonderful weekend, beadlings!

I Made Something Yesterday

My goodness, what big beads you have! I realize Mardi Gras was last week, but just could not resist showing you this picture.

It is true that I made something yesterday, something with beads and a needle and thread. I stitched one of Deb Moffett-Hall's crystal ornaments for my mom. I stitched the Winter Birds, because my mother is a bird watcher. And I really like Deb's patterns.

Today A is home with an upset tummy (although she seems to be fine right now). It's gorgeous outside, so I'm going to open the blinds, turn on my work lights and see what comes out of the needle today. I've got a couple of things that need to get finished, so I'll probably work on them. But not until I've looked at my new books! That's right, I haven't really looked at them yet! Well, hell's bells, why am I sitting at the computer?? Why didn't you nudge me when you heard this news?

Today's quote:

The life of the creative man is lead, directed and controlled by boredom. Avoiding boredom is one of our most important purposes. Saul Steinberg

I'm off to avoid boredom!

Hellooooooo!

Wow, I feel like I've been gone for ages. It must be blog withdrawal or something. I spent a lovely morning with the Beadalicious Beading Babes in South Austin. Much hilarity and jollility was had by all. These little Friday get-togethers have become more important since I realized at the bead retreat just how much of a hermit I have become!

So, I guess you want details of the Austin Stitchers' exhibit and show, huh? Just promise to read my details first, and then go read Margot Potter's details about her trip to Tucson for the shows there. I'm so jealous! I've wanted to go for years, and her stories will make mine seem piddly, but I digress.

Okie dokie, here we go. The very first thing I did was to herniate a disc in my lower back with the very first thing I picked up to load into the car. I have a very light-weight table that I use, and as I walked out the front door with it, the wind caught it. But I didn't let go, oh no, no, no! And then I stumbled, and that was all she wrote. So I called T-man. "Can you come help me load the car?" No, he was the only person in the office at that time. "Can you meet me over there?" Sure. Well, I tried to pick up a box and carry it to the car. Oh, duh! Yeah, yeah, I know. Now it's time for A to be home from school (it's getting later and later at this point), and as she comes in I tell her how she's going to load the car for me and then help Dad set up my booth. So, off we go, only to get stuck in traffic in between two wrecks, and what should have been a 30 minute drive has taken two hours. We got there with just enough time to set up before the deadline. Everything else that weekend was a piece of cake. There was lots of schmoozing, lots of selling, lots of ooohs and aaaaahs, Donna won a ribbon with my design so people have requested more kits, I got to see some old friends and made a couple of new friends, I got some nifty new tools, I had the most wonderful chocolate cake I've ever eaten, and what was really three days of hard work was very enjoyable. There were some amazing pieces in the exhibit, as always, and I really regret not having my camera there.

Can I tell you how much I enjoyed doing a trunk show? Oh my stars, it was such a blast to have all those other designs in the booth! And extremely low stress to boot! I loved it. I want to do it again. I've discussed it with my distributor and we will probably do the same thing come May, so stay tuned! I sold out of several kits, both mine and hers, and I sold out of a few patterns. We definitely came home a little lighter. By the way, this was my 10-year anniversary with the Austin Stitchery Guild, so it was even more special to do this particular show. They are still some of my favorite people when it comes to beady things.

Some of you who were there noticed that I did this show solo, which I have never done before. Well, I usually get my dear Joyce to help me, but since she has become Regional Director for the South Central Region of the Embroiders' Guild of America, she hasn't had a lot of spare time. (I wanted to make sure I got the entire title in there, Your Majesty!) I did get a chance to give her a little something, which is pictured below. The pattern was adapted from one of Suzanne Cooper's patterns, called India. When I saw the pattern, it just seemed to have Joyce stamped all over it. The one thing I neglected to do was take my camera so I could get a picture of Joyce wearing her new goodies. Damn. Joyce does a lot to promote me and my little venture. I can never properly repay for the things she does and I wanted to do something special for her.

So, there it is. That's about all that happened. I had a good time, as always. And I'm ready to do it again, after a few days of rest. I'll be back Monday morning, bright and early. Have a great weekend, and bead your little hearts out!

Phew!

Okay beadlings, the web site is pretty much done. I've got one page that needs to be finished, but you can see the results here. Can I just state right here and right now that I really, really don't like Microsoft Front Page? Yuck. Why, back in the day when I first learned about making web pages, we had to type raw code with our little fingers! We didn't have no stinkin' shortcuts! You kids nowadays are spoiled rotten. Anyway . . .

For those of you who dream of supporting yourself solely with your art/jewelry/crafts, Margot Potter has some sage advice today. And wouldn't all you beaders love to have been this person?

I think I'll tackle this place next! Man, reinventing yourself is time consuming! Hah! But today, I've other things I must do. First off, I need a fire because it's freakishly cold outside. Then I've got orders and patterns to ship off. It's too gray to take photos today (as much as I would like to get that going). So, I'm off. Have a great weekend.

Proof of Beading

Okay, this is supposed to be a blog about beading (among other topics). You've all read my rants about not being able to do anything beady. Well, here you are.

This is one of my newest patterns, which will also be a kit come February. It is a bracelet, and now I must come up with some sort of clasp, else it will fall off the wrist! HAH! I've also picked out the next palette for the next new thingie, and my angels will be happy to know that their projects will be put in the mail tomorrow. Yes, dear readers, it has finally happened -- my ass is on fire!

I love my husband, but you all know that. One of the reasons I love him is that he supports me in my endeavors. Now, the bad news is I am going to need some outside work (and that is because we had to buy a car the month before T-man got laid off), and I've signed up for substitute teaching in A's school district. The good news is, T-man does not want it to interfere with the other things I do, so it's not something I must do every day. There is more to this story, of course.

We were driving home from the grocery store last night, and I started talking to my ADHD hubby about my seemingly ADHD tendencies. I think I've finally got this figured out -- it may not be the meds, it may just be me. You see, what I do with the beads was starting to feel too much like work again, and I don't like that feeling. I truly believe you should love your job, whatever it is, but when mine starts feeling like work, I dig my heels in and I just don't want to do it anymore. Soooo, T-man agrees with me. Then he points out that I've fallen back into that hole where I'm too concerned with making what I think the general public wants instead of making what I know to be creative and artistic. Are you with me? Once I got my mind around this idea, I got up off my duff and became productive again. And yes, it was pretty much overnight. No, the beading was not done overnight -- I picked this particular piece up and put it down so many times it would make your head spin. What occurred overnight was the change in attitude, the desire to create art and not just beaded stuff. T-man also pointed out that when I do what the universe has been trying to direct me to do for years, everything else around me falls into place in the best possible way.

Crap, it's Monday. I'm still hoping for those three day weekends. Plus there was the time change. Try explaining the why's of this to a 10-year old, and then explain why Arizona doesn't play along. *sigh* And this coming weekend I'm in Houston at the Houston Bead Society's Bead Bazaar as an employee of Yellow Dog Beads. I've got to get my hair cut, get some more groceries, figure out what clothes to pack because you never know what the weather in Houston will do. And of course, I must figure out (1) what beads to take and (2) what beads to shop for! And I understand that Beyond Beadery will be there this year!! Oh my stars, I've heard that you need sunglasses as you near the booth because of all the Swarovski sparkling in the light! More tomorrow, beady buds!

Musings on Wednesday

Hee, hee -- Pam updated her site. She did so yesterday, when the weather was exactly as she described. But this morning, the sky fell down again -- pretty near zero visibility when I took A to school. But now the sun is shining brightly, trying its best to burn a hole in the gray blanket of fog.

Today, I am finishing up new patterns that will go into new kits. I will print them out, pick out the beads, and distribute them to my lovely bead angels. Therefore, I'm trying to stay in a creative mode, which is a bit difficult with the new medication. It seems I've developed a bit of ADHD, just like T-man!! This bothers me a somewhat, because I don't want to be MORE than I can be, just ALL that I can be. And in that vein, I leave you with this quote from Bill Cosby: I said to a guy, "Tell me, what is it about cocaine that makes it so wonderful," and he said, "Because it intensifies your personality." I said, "Yes, but what if you're an asshole?"

All is Well in Beadland

I'm sitting here printing patterns to send off to the distributor, Threaded Needle Designs. And since I have to watch the printer, I thought I would make a tiny update.
I really appreciate the notes of concern. A is fine. In fact, we are all fine. I've just had days of nothing but errands, which left little time for bead business. So I decided to make a rare weekend post. I'm trying really hard to take weekends off, but you know how that goes. As I've said before, I hate it when real life interferes -- doctor's appointment for me, doctor's appointment for A then spending the rest of the day at the grocery store, the pharmacist, the auto supply store, and the office supply. Then driving to San Antonio Friday because I did not have enough zip lock bags (a BIG necessity) on hand. And believe me, it was drive there, get out, pick them up, get in, drive back. So I pretty much had three days in a row with very little time for bead related stuff. And that is what's happening in my little corner of the world. How about you?