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!

Giveaway Wednesday And Other News!

So I changed the day of the week. Look, I'm lucky if I know what year it is right now! First, Cindy at Sweet Bead Studio has a little giveaway that is right up my alley. I've really been wanting to delve into more wire work and this is perfect for a beginner when it comes to just that.

Lorelei has the final Green Girl Studios giveaway -- hearts! Yum. Go leave your comment and good luck.

Can you name these beads? If you can, you might just win some. Go help Kelley out.

And one of my favorite places, Art Bead Scene, is having a book giveaway. We all know we need more beading books, and this one is from my pal Marcia DeCoster!

Babies: Natalie was supposed to be able to hold Marshall for the first time last night. I'm waiting for an update and new pictures. Max is in the intermediate care nursery now. His next step will be to actually nurse. He's rooting and trying to tell everyone he's ready.

Knee: I'm just waiting on my therapist for today's torture session.

Beady stuff: Little feelings of creativity are surfacing. I just need to be able to sit up without becoming utterly exhausted. Here's a hint, kids, when your doctor says to take it easy he really means it. When you end up overdoing, you kind of slide bassackwards. Know what I mean? (but I would do it again in a heartbeat!)

Lots Of Words And A Few Pictures

First there is the necklace made from goodies from Carol, modeled by my darling Natalie. Just so we are clear, I don't do wire and chain work. This is made with a Vintaj bronze hook and ring clasp, two types of bronze chain, 20g wire in vintage bronze (wire wraps by yours truly), some beautiful glass rose beads (she has these in several colors!) and a flower which adorned a bracelet in a previous life (there are quite a few of these in the booth). She even has all the tools you need to create your own wearable work of art. I'll be wearing this next week at the Bead and Button show. I'm making another pair of earrings today (in addition to two pair I have already made -- pictures next week) and I'll lay out another necklace to be put together this weekend.

Changes! Okay, no changes here yet but changes in ME! Yes, me. Be prepared for what happens next. I want you to be sitting down and not have anything in your mouth. You know how I dislike pictures of myself, but here you go:

This picture was taken by Clara back in March. Yuck. That is NOT me. That woman CANNOT be me. Then we went looking at bridesmaid dresses Wednesday and Natalie shows me what she wants me to wear at the big celebration next year. Oooookaaaaay. Hmm. Add to all this a visit with the doctor yesterday and changes are going to be made. I found these Ezine articles, which I absolutely love. You would not believe what a difference it has made to just tell myself that this is going to be done and it can be done. I feel like the Not-So-Little Engine That Could. So, you'll get a new picture of me every month. What did T-man say? He said "Good. I can't wait until we can get back to doing things we used to love to do." Crap. He had that "let's go rock climbing" look in his eye. Do you think it's like riding a bicycle? And bicycles! He wants to ride bicycles! So, here I go getting back down to my fighting weight and I have until November 2010, if not sooner. And no, I won't tell you how much needs to come off. You'll just have to check the pictures each month. And you know how I love moral support, so lay it on me! And I hear you over there, wanting to know what miracle I found. Nope, no miracle and I'm not deluding myself into thinking this is going to be easy. It's going to be a lot of hard work and a totally different way of thinking.

It's apparently a holiday weekend (my days just run together, you know) so I want you all to have a nice, relaxing time and be safe! Oh, and work in some beading while you're at it!