Rain, Rain, Rain, Rain, Rain

Of course it's raining. Duh. We gave Bella a bath last night. Now she can go out and get her pretty blond hair muddy. Sheesh. We have had a lot of rain overnight. Taking the girls to school this morning I drove over a low water crossing that the water was just starting to cover. Fortunately it's not a running stream with any force. It's just a dip in the road, but I'm thinking we may have to use a different route tomorrow morning.

Here is a very cool link that I came across thanks to Suzanne Cooper. I agree with Suzanne's observation that beaders have been doing all of these for years, so we're a step ahead of the trend.

Lorelei is hosting the FIFTH Green Girl Studios giveaway. Hurry over and leave your comment to be entered.

And now I must be off. I'm moving on to the next teaching sample. Yes, pictures will be posted as soon as allowed. I had a bit of frustration yesterday. I thought I had the perfect ending for a piece I had been working on. I originally designed it as a bracelet and had just the right amount of supplies, but it would have been too similar to something that Kim Stathis had designed and I really hate stepping on the toes of other designers and teachers so it became a necklace. Unfortunately, I was eight little beads short of finishing the embellishment. On the upside, this one is not due until January so I have time to get to my favorite area Swarovsk pusher, Mica Jewelry and Beads in San Antonio. Today is a gemstone and seed bead kind of day in red, rosy red fading to paler shades. I know. It's totally unlike me, right? It's almost as unusual as orange! And on that note I leave you. Keep on beading on, beadlings!

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!

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!

So This is Christmas

Okay, I've finally got a bit of Christmas spirit. Pam wanted to know if I had gotten it from a bottle. *snicker* Not yet, but I am spending Christmas Eve where I am not very wanted and don't really want to be, so it may well come from a bottle that afternoon and into that night. I'll try to be good, but I'm not promising anything. Oh, the things we do for love. Pass the spiked nog, please. My recipe for egg nog calls for egg nog (duh), cinnamon, Cool Whip (or comparable whipped topping) and Bicardi black or gold label rum. Put everything in the glass/punch bowl to taste. Yum!!! But not yet -- we'll have the first cups Sunday night, then Monday night, then Tuesday night. And then we'll have it again New Year's morning, but probably without the rum.

Hey, guess what? I slept last night. I realize it was from sheer exhaustion, but I did sleep. T-man had to leave at 2:30 this morning to be in Plano by 7:00. For you non-Texans, that's driving from just south of Austin up to just north of Dallas. And he got there just before 7:00 as planned. I vaguely remember him leaving. He should be home about the same time as A. I would have gone with him, but I had already promised to eat lunch with A at school. She was honored for her scholastic performance this past six weeks. She was very happy that I was there. She's going to be in junior high next year. Hard to believe, isn't it? (That was directed to all the adopted aunties in her life!)

We're putting the tree up tonight, but no one knows that yet. Tomorrow night, we want to take A to look at lights she hasn't seen since she was just a year old --- 37^th Street in Austin and the Trail of Lights at Zilker Park. We used to walk to the Trail of Lights from our old house in Austin when N was in grade school and A was just a sprout. It should be fun.

I have my first big beady income to-do for 2008 already planned. See? Making plans for changes is already working. So, first there was getting up earlier. The next change on the list is to become more active and work with my army of doctors to get all this excess weight off me one way or another. I'm stopping short of liposuction, but if I thought it would work without being in horrendous pain and the insurance company would pay for it, I'd do it. My third 2008 lifestyle change will be listed tomorrow morning (and maybe a couple more). Remember -- changes, not resolutions! There's a rumor that if you do something for 90 days it becomes part of your lifestyle. Three months doesn't seem that long in the great scheme of things, and that's how I have to look at it -- it's not that long in the great scheme of things and I'll be a better, healthier, happier person for it.

Have I mentioned that I have some of the best friends a person could ask for? The other High Priestesses of the Temple of the Goddess of Beading have arranged for me to attend the 2008 Texas Bead Retreat. This will be the very first time I've been able to go. This is a picture of us taken this past April. By the way, those tumblers are full of Cosmos. Never again, never again, never again. My Bead Angels are flexing their fingers, ready for more work regarding that first beady income to-do. I'll get a picture of them next time we are all together. I'm already planning our first pot-luck bead class for 2008, which T-man will be teaching. And Pam and I have some things we'll be working on very soon.

Go check out Art Bead Scene's 12 Days of Beading. It's great, with quite a few links for wonderfully beady things. Don't forget Suzanne Cooper's Countdown to Christmas. And tomorrow will be Margot Potter's last installment of Ornament Thursday, with lots of eye candy.

Tomorrow is cookie baking day. Just imagine my children when they get home, greeted by the smell of freshly baked cookies (mmmmmm) and the sight of mom covered in flour and drinking wine straight from the bottle (Oh MOM!). Did you know that Costco sells this giant box of Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix? It makes 18 dozen cookies, I kid you not. Sorry, no homemade cookies here, except for the Tollhouse cookies. I leave all that to my youngest sister who proudly shows off her baking skills every Christmas. I will take my homemade lemon curd pie to Mom's, though. So tune in tomorrow beadlings (and others) for more items for change, maybe a picture of the tree, and other various and sundry STUFF that makes my world go round!

Blah Humbug

Crikey, it is such a nasty day here on the prairie. *sigh* Sometimes I think I would be happy living in Hawaii, where the sun shines almost every day. Then I remember things that occur in Hawaii, like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and hurricanes. Nope. I guess I'll just stay here for a few more years.

I do not like this time of year. I used to like it, when I was younger and had a sense of wonder. But now it's just too stressful, too commercial. I detest going into the stores right now. There was a story on one of the local news channels about how this year we seemed to move from Halloween straight into Christmas, with no Thanksgiving. Did you notice? There wasn't much said about Thanksgiving itself, and little was said about Thanksgiving sales (what happened on Black Friday?). I totally understand why craft stores start putting Christmas items out in July, but the grocery and hardware stores?? That started in September!! And the stress, oh my stars, the stress is just horrendous. T-mas is already feeling it, which makes me worry about him. It's not just monetary stress, either. There is the stress of which house do we go to on which day, traveling when we want to stay home, putting up with things we'd much rather not, what should we get for whom, etc. And I'm a bit sad that Thanksgiving was just glossed over. I appreciate that day, even if it is solely an American holiday. It reminds me that I should be thankful for all that I have, like a good husband and wonderful children, my supportive family, a good house, food to eat, loving friends. If we could channel some of the appreciation for what we have, rather than the commercialism of the season (which grows longer by the year), back into Christmas maybe it wouldn't be so depressing for so many people. By the way, A pointed out to me that we could make presents for everyone this year and boy, is she ready to get started! She may have an idea there.

So, on this dreary, wet, cold, dismal day during this overly commercialized, stressful time of year, I leave you with some tasty links.

Melanie at Earthenwood Studios has this great ornament in her Etsy shop. She has several "queen" ornaments, so there is probably one for each of us! She also has a wonderful step-by-step post on her blog of how the ornaments are made.

Heather Powers has free gift tags with her original art on her Humblebeads blog.

Suzanne Cooper has some holiday freebies on her site. And free box templates which are just the right size for jewelry here. A few bright spots in this horribly dreary day. I'll post more as I find them. I hope you are having a good day, wherever you are.

Beadful Things

Well kids, today I would like to send you out into the World Wide Web. If you are going to be home this weekend, maybe you would like something new to bead or something new to read. Maybe you would like some mindless entertainment that doesn't involve grown men chasing a leather ball. And maybe you just want to look at some pretty pictures. I'm going to try to keep these links as bead/jewelry oriented as possible, but I might slip up here and there.

Live in the middle of nowhere? Want to take classes from nationally known teachers without the hotel fees? Go to Beaducation for their online classes (Laura McCabe! Lisa Niven Kelly!). Some of the classes are even free!

Want some eye candy? Want some fun? Suzanne Cooper's newsletters are full of both. Be sure to check out her Jump Start Classroom if you are new to bead weaving. Suzanne has some of the best instructions I've ever seen. And by all means check out Suzanne's vast listings of links.

Bead Pattern Central is the place to go for advanced bead weaving patterns (Laura McCabe again!). Yes, I have purchased from them. And if you prefer kits, visit Beads East.

Need color inspiration? Margie Deeb has it. Check out her Muse (which you can listen to as a pod cast), her patterns, her books, everything.

Need a smile?

Would you like to play a game?

That should keep you busy for a couple of hours! Have a wonderful weekend, whatever you do, and stay safe and WARM. By the way, the only place I found for camping in Texas that did not have rain in the forecast has SNOW. We are seriously considering it. After all, it's just one evening and one night, and the high the next day will have any icy roads thawed early. SNOW, yes I said SNOW in Texas! So much better than rain. I'll let you know next week.