Friday, Friday, Friday!!

It's Friday, and I do the dance of joy for those of you who count on Friday to end your week. Joy, joy, joy to you! Here are some beady links to enjoy.

Oh my stars!! It's true! Pam Way has a blog!! You must go peruse. Suzanne Cooper has posted her 100th newsletter! Way to go, Suze! Have you checked out Bead Pattern Central yet? For some extraordinary eye-candy, check out Yoshie Marubashi and Melanie Doerman. I could give you a hundred more eye-candy links, but then you might never make it back! Girlfriendology has a contest for the month of March. And what would Friday be without some shameless self-promotion?

And finally, Heather Powers put out a call on Art Bead Scene for pictures of pieces worked in herringbone with art beads. I love herringbone stitch. It is so versatile, and I have learned how to use it in so many ways. Here are just three of the pieces I've done combining herringbone with art beads:

This one is worked in regular, tubular herringbone. I bought the art bead from Jecly Romberg, but I'm not sure who made it.

This one is worked in tubular herringbone, with four different sizes of seed beads. The art bead is a dichroic glass pendant.

And this one is worked in tubular herringbone with beads inserted. The art bead came from a lampwork artist in New Mexico, whose name is somewhere in the black hole known as my studio. N named it and keeps threatening to confiscate it.

Have a great weekend!

Still Beading

A and I took a break yesterday and had lunch with my parents. Yes, I took beading to do. I'm non-stop right now. But sometimes just a change of place is relaxing. And, rather than feed you forced words and thoughts, it's back to work I go. But in the vein of not providing you with forced words and thoughts, I thought I would send you over to Blogging Without Obligation. I haven't linked before, but as I am in a beading frenzy, it kind of rang true today.

So, be off with you and do something creative. Send me pictures, postcards, good thoughts, cookies -- whichever you feel is appropriate!

Busy, Busy Bee

I'm not ignoring you. I know I promised you pictures, and they will be here later. I'm trying to get as much beading done this month as possible, since I'll be writing instructions during the entire month of April.

It's Spring Break for the school district, so A is home for the week. Her week has started with rain and thunderstorms. This does not make her happy, not to mention the fact that one of her lovely teachers gave homework to be done over Spring Break. I guarantee you she's not working this week. That kind of thing just pisses me off. It's totally unnecessary for fifth graders to have homework over their break.

Okie dokie, I hear the next round of thunderstorms coming in and I've got beads calling from the other room. There will be more tomorrow, I promise. In the meantime, I leave you with this deep thought and quote:

The merit of originality is not novelty; it is sincerity. Thomas
Carlyle

It's Friday!

Actually, it's the first Friday of the month, so that meant beading with the Beadalicious Beaders again. It was a joy, as always. I have finished the business card case and will take pictures this weekend so you can have a peak.

Here is a nice link to a French beadwork site called Les Fiches de Biloba. There is a translation button at the bottom of each page, but you don't need that for the eye candy. Don't forget to check out her blog, also (again, easily translated for reading).

I had lots of time to look through Artful Blogging the other day, and now I'm ready to explore online. I should have lots of luscious links for you next week. And I'll have some new photos of samples for my newest kits (yes, a little shameless plug for the blogger). So, have a great weekend. Stay warm and dry, and bead happy!

Ain't It Great When You Get Some?

Sleep, glorious sleep, I got some sleep! The sun is shining, the birds are singing and the wind is not howling down the chimney! I feel good!! Plus, I am mere rows from completion. All is right in my little corner of the world!!

YUCK

Today is YUCK. Today is depressing. It is windy, it is cold, and it is raining non-stop. It's not just raining; the rain is coming down sideways from the north. Yuck. Plus, I did not sleep. It was HOT last night (yes, the freakish Central Texas weather strikes again) and the wind was blowing. There is something about that noise that totally unnerves me. I would never have made it as my ancestors did, traveling across the prairie, sleeping (or not) on the prairie. It's bad enough on our modern day Texas prairie; I cannot even imagine what it would be like without buildings and cars to buffer the noise.

Look what I won! How did you win that, T?? Well, you know all those links over there to the right?? You should visit some of them. Actually, I won this from Cindy Gimbrone when she and her studio were the subject of Studio Saturdays at Art Bead Scene. I don't often win things, so you can imagine my surprise on finding out that I got the prize!

I did a stupid thing yesterday when KC came by. I offered her some of the agaves that T-man had dropped near the drive way (there were simply too many to put into pots right away). I reached to pull one out, not realizing that they are firmly rooted now, the wind gusted and I got stuck by the freaking thorns. Now my hand hurts like hell!

What are agaves? Well, if you don't live down here, they are pretty much like big, bad-assed weeds, but they make for a lovely xeriscape and they need almost no care at all. They are the family of plants whence tequila comes (good word, "whence"). You can see the thorns in this picture.


I'm almost finished with the business card case. I've got another designed and waiting in the wings. I've been a stitching maniac, sore hand and all. So, I think I'll go watch some mindless TV and stitch away. Please send some sunshine my way today! I could really use it.

Short Saturday Post

I am off to Mom and Dad's today, as baby bro and his family are in town. After four weeks of "we'll be there this weekend" they finally made it. If it wasn't due to bad weather, it was due to colds and flu! The little nephews are four and three now, and we make it a point to try to visit whenever they come down from Dallas.

I've got a new link in the blogs (thanks to Margot. It's Girlfriendology and it has a TON of good stuff for all you girlfriends. Of course, one of the first things I saw was the link (and I should say LINKS) to all the fantastic shopping sites.

I had a great time with the Beadalicious Beaders yesterday, as always. There was great show and tell as just about everyone had something to pass around. I got a lot of beading done, too! I'm taking the project with me today. I am just about to where I was when I made the horrendous mistake that necessitated deconstruction! Have a great weekend!