Jewelry, Art and Life

The Road to Tucson

2012-01-23T06:26:00.000-08:00

Today is all about getting ready for Tucson! So was yesterday, and so will the rest of this week, in fact... I have a to-do list as long as my arm, but I am so excited to get on that plane on February 1 and jet off to sunny Tucson, Arizona for the bead shows!

Yesterday, in a fit of optimism, I went to Target and bought a couple of new shirts and a new pair of pants that actually fit me. In trying to plan my wardrobe for the trip, I discovered that I do not own a single pair of nice-looking pants that actually fit me anymore.

I've already picked out what jewelry I'm going to wear - at least I've got my priorities straight, right? I've been stitching away on this bead embroidered collar, and I'm down to the last 2 inches or so!

While I was shopping at Target, I found a lovely, warm, oversize lavender sweater wrap that will look just perfect with this!

This is a piece that I started years ago, back before I got pregnant with Colden. I think I may have actually started it during the early part of the pregnancy after the exhaustion went away but before the nausea stopped. I put it down and then just couldn't find the "oomph" to pick it up again until just recently. Now it's part of my goal for 2012 to finish beading all six brass embroidery collar blanks in my stash.

I had no idea where to start with the bead embroidery between the vintage Lucite cabs, which is probably why it sat in my UFO drawer for so very long. But since I've been having so much fun making those beaded mandalas lately, I decide to make "mini mandalas" between each of the cabs.

So far, so good, although I'm not 100% pleased with the color palette. It's a little more monochromatic than I had originally planned.

Once I get the embroidery done, I get to do the yummy part: glue it to the brass embroidery blank and stitch it to the Ultrasuede backing. Then the fringing, and I should be good to go before February 1! One collar down, one killer piece of beaded jewelry to wear in Tucson!

Copyright Rant Follow-Up: Copyright vs. Patent

2012-01-21T06:53:00.000-08:00

So, it seems in the Crazy Copyright Cake War that was going on yesterday, there was some confusion between a copyright and a patent. I feel it is very important to clarify between the two, since this seems to be the source of the conflict.

As defined by the U.S. Patent Office:

"A patent for an invention is the grant of a property right to the inventor, issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Generally, the term of a new patent is 20 years from the date on which the application for the patent was filed in the United States or, in special cases, from the date an earlier related application was filed, subject to the payment of maintenance fees. U.S. patent grants are effective only within the United States, U.S. territories, and U.S. possessions. Under certain circumstances, patent term extensions or adjustments may be available.

"The right conferred by the patent grant is, in the language of the statute and of the grant itself, “the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling” the invention in the United States or “importing” the invention into the United States. What is granted is not the right to make, use, offer for sale, sell or import, but the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling or importing the invention. Once a patent is issued, the patentee must enforce the patent without aid of the USPTO.

"There are three types of patents:

"1) Utility patents may be granted to anyone who invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof;
2) Design patents may be granted to anyone who invents a new, original, and ornamental design for an article of manufacture; and
3) Plant patents may be granted to anyone who invents or discovers and asexually reproduces any distinct and new variety of plant."

To clarify the matter further, yes, you can patent a design. However, there is more information on what is and is not acceptable for a design patent:

"Improper Subject Matter for Design Patents
A design for an article of manufacture that is dictated primarily by the function of the article lacks ornamentality and is not proper statutory subject matter under 35 U.S.C. 171. Specifically, if at the time the design was created, there was no unique or distinctive shape or appearance to the article not dictated by the function that it performs, the design lacks ornamentality and is not proper subject matter. In addition, 35 U.S.C. 171 requires that a design to be patentable must be “original.” Clearly a design that simulates a well-known or naturally occurring object or person is not original as required by the statute. Furthermore, subject matter that could be considered offensive to any race, religion, sex, ethnic group, or nationality is not proper subject matter for a design patent application (35 U.S.C. 171 and 37 CFR § 1.3)."

Now, I'm no attorney, but I take that to mean that since finger cuffs like this have been around for centuries, you can't file a patent on them and prevent someone else from making them. (You can't patent a pendant that hangs from a chain, because they have been around for thousands of years.) In this case, you might be able to patent a particular hinge joint on the finger cuffs, if it was deemed new and useful, but not the finger cuff itself, since these types of cuffs have been around for hundreds to years.

Copyright, on the other hand, is a very different sort of animal. A copyright would cover, say, the instructions for creating such a finger cuff and prevent someone from using those directions and then claiming that they were their own. However, a copyright does not prevent someone from making as many of these objects as they please.

You can take a beading stitch like peyote stitch, write and illustrate your own directions, and copyright those so that you have the exclusive rights to that particular set of directions. However, you have not earned the exclusive right to use peyote stitch and forbid all others to do so, as would be the case with a patent.

Does that make sense to everyone?

So there it is. If this person who claims to be suing Mikki thinks that she has a patent on beaded rings that cover more than one part of the finger, she's most likely mistaken. Either someone was asleep at the patent office that day, or this person is confusing the difference between patent and copyright, which are two entirely different things.

The bottom line is this: copying someone's work is just bad for everyone. That said, I do believe that more than one person can come up with the same design. There are lots of talented beaders out there, and you know what they say about great minds and all that.

What bothers me the most about all of this is the zeal with which Mikki has been attacked. Does the person who threatened to sue her REALLY think that she is going to earn fame, fortune and a mansion in Palm Beach by patenting beaded finger cuffs? (Which she couldn't do, anyway!) If she does, well, good luck to her. Otherwise, this just seems way too mean-spirited to be of any merit to anyone.

And I think that's what a lot of this comes down to. Sure, there are things that you can do with a copyrighted pattern or design, as Sig rightly pointed out on my last post. But, really, is that an ethical or moral thing to do? Just because it's legal doesn't mean that it's right. We're all people trying to earn a living doing something we love, and we should be making an extra effort not to step on toes and to be respectful to each other and our craft.

Now. That's all done, and Colden and I are off to a play date this morning!

STOP THE MADNESS!

2012-01-20T10:45:00.000-08:00

Really, is there a full moon? Or some planet in retrograde somewhere? Something is seriously screwed up in BeadLand this week, and I'm about to out a copyright-violating Etsy seller, so here we go, SOPA notwithstanding.

Yesterday, one of my wonderful friends on Facebook mentioned that this Etsy seller, Areva, was downloading free tutorials from some very well-known and well-respected bead artists and SELLING them in her Etsy shop!

At first, I was like, for real? Am I really seeing this? She wants $5 for a tutorial you can download for free on Sabine Lippert's website? Then I looked a little closer and, lo and behold!, she was charging $5 a pop for two of my free tutorials that I published when I was over at About.com!

Now, I don't own the copyright to those tutorials. But The New York Times does. After mulling over this for a few seconds, I promptly sent this thief messages that said I was the designer of those projects and the copyright owner was The New York Times and that they had been notified that she was violating their copyright.

And then this morning, lo and behold!, they were gone! Poof!

To the copyright thieves everywhere: do you really think we're this stupid? Do you really think that we're not going to find out if you try to sell our free tutorials in your Etsy shop?

The Sisterhood/Brotherhood of the Designing Beaders is stronger than you might imagine. When you mess with one of us, you mess with ALL of us, so take heed! If we find out that you are violating copyright, or just doing things are unethical and not very nice, we will take you down.

So, in the middle of all this craziness over this person who thinks she can sell free patterns in her Etsy shop and get away with it, my dear friend Carol Dean Sharpe finds THIS on YouTube:

And I think more than a few of us threw up in our mouths a little when we saw this and heard what this clearly uninformed person had to say about copyright.

When I watched this, the first thing I thought was, "Are you kidding me, lady? Have you EVER tried to make a living as an artist selling your OWN designs and not just riding the backs of more talented artists than yourself?"

Did this person ever wonder why large companies and corporations hire entire teams of intellectual property lawyers to defend against copyright theft?

Then this afternoon, to add the icing to the Crazy Copyright Theft Cake, Mikki Ferrugiaro has been informed that she can't release the tutorial for her gorgeous Finger Armor design because there is someone out there who thinks that she can PATENT all beadwoven rings that cover more than one part of the finger. And apparently, this person has a very well-paid (and potentially unscrupulous) attorney who is suing Mikki. (Head on over to Mikki's blog and scroll down to see her gorgeous Finger Armor.)

Oh, but then it gets even better - this person also asked Mikki if she could share how she created the hinges in her Finger Armor design so they could be included in HER instructions.

Now, come on. You can't make this shit up.

So, here's my take on this whole thing:

If you didn't sketch it out, sit up for hours beading it while breaking needles, bleeding and missing out on much-needed sleep until all hours of the night, then sit down and write out the seventeen-page tutorial complete with illustrations that made you sweat more blood, you have no right to sell it.

There's a REASON why those companies have attorneys to protect their intellectual property interests. They spend a lot of time and money developing these things, and it's the same for independent artists, but without all 2,500 middle men between the CEO and the person who rings you up at the checkout.

And the independent artists might not have a whole team of high-priced corporate lawyers, but their rights are the same as the rights of the corporation. (Remember that whole corporations-are-people thing? Yeah, well, people are people, too! And we all have intellectual property rights!)

So even if the independent artist DOESN'T have all this legal firepower at their behest, it's still just not a very nice thing to do when you copy someone's work and sell it as your own. Remember when you were in grade school? If you looked over at your neighbor's math test and started copying their answers, then got caught, wouldn't you have just died of embarrassment? Well, it's the same thing now that we're all (supposedly) grown-ups. You gotta play nice.

My sister, a college English professor, routinely flunks students who she catches plagiarizing. And it's not just "kids" either. She's caught adults (who supposedly know better - one of them was a MINISTER, for cryin' out loud!) who think they can take someone's work and thoughts and vision and pass it off as their own.

Now, I don't think it's ILLEGAL to copy someone else's essay and turn it in to your college professor. But that violates academic standards for pretty much every college and university in the United States. And probably Europe, too. And if you get caught doing it, it's grounds to be kicked out of that school.

Note that last line: And if you get caught doing it, it's grounds to be kicked out of that school.

So, anyone who's thinking that "in these tough economic times" it's perfectly okay to take those designs that you see in magazines and on the Internet and copy them and sell them as your own should take note: if you get caught (and you will get caught), not only will you be publicly embarrassed and humiliated, but you will get kicked out of BeadLand for good.

Birthday Boy

2012-01-18T06:58:00.000-08:00

The days are just slipping past me, here. January is more than half over. In just two weeks, I fly to Tucson for three nights for the gem and mineral (and bead!) shows. And my little boy turned four on Sunday!

We had a nice play date with some of his friends from preschool, and then Oma and Opa came over on his birthday to celebrate with us. He was hilarious as he opened his presents, which included some new wooden trains from the Thomas the Train collection and a brand-new Radio Flyer tricycle from Oma and Opa!

After a dinner of deer meat (Colden's request), vegetable stew and homemade bread, we had birthday cake. Colden made sure that we all wore our birthday hats, and he thoroughly enjoyed it when we sang to him.

Later, Colden and I were hamming it up for the camera and Tom snapped this picture of the two of us cuddling in a living room armchair.

Trying to get myself and Colden prepared for my trip to Tucson in two weeks. I'm so excited about the bead shows and the shopping and getting to meet so many of my beading heroines, but I'm a little worried about how Colden will deal with my absence again. I'm putting a positive spin on the trip, telling Colden that he gets to spend all this time with Daddy while I'm away and that I'll be bringing back some beautiful rocks and crystals just for him. I hope it works this time!

I'm also looking forward to getting some sleep while I'm away. The trip out to Tucson is going to be hellish - including a four-hour layover at the Las Vegas airport - because I won't land in Tucson until 11:10 p.m. AZ time, which is what, 2:00 a.m. East coast time? Bleagh. But sleeping around here has been difficult at best lately. Colden still insists on getting into bed with us at 1:00 a.m. every night, waking us up after only a couple of hours of sleep. And then he thrashes around in bed, kicking and hitting and pulling on my hair. What usually happens is that I end up abandoning ship and going to sleep in HIS empty bed until he wakes up around 5:30 and crawls in there with me.

Last night was particularly bad. Colden was restless, and we had some bad wind storms with gusts over 50 mph rattling our 80+ year old house. When I did fall asleep, I was having tornado nightmares. I'm writing this blog this morning in hopes that it will get my writing brain moving again, but so far, it doesn't feel so good...

Oh, well. Maybe a couple of other inspirational blogs before I get down to the other work I need to do today!

Michelle Mach's Snowflake Challenge Revealed!

2012-01-15T06:57:00.000-08:00

I'm late to the party as always, and I'm not quite finished with my challenge piece yet, but here's what I'm doing with those gorgeous ceramic pieces by Chinook Jewelry:

I wanted to do some beadweaving (obviously), but it was a challenge for me to figure out how to suspend these gorgeous elements. What I finally did was use circular peyote and netting to create a star centerpiece, and then I started stitching a beaded chain.

Originally, I thought I was doing a chevron chain for the beaded chain. But at 3 a.m. as I was trying to get back to sleep, I realized that I wasn't doing chevron - I was actually doing a triangular version of right-angle weave! How did that happen? I don't know, but let's just say I'm thinking about right-angle weave in my sleep lately. (More on that in a future Beading Daily blog!)

Of course, I'll post a better picture of the completed piece once I finish it. But for today, we've got lots of birthday celebrating to do with my little four-year-old! How time flies! It's been quite an adventure since Tom and I embarked on this journey called parenthood, and I wouldn't trade a second of it for anything!

So, if you're having a nice, lazy Sunday morning, grab a cup of coffee or tea and check out the rest of the participants in Michelle Mach's Snowflake Blog Hop!

Alice (Alice Dreaming)
Chris (beadjewelry.net)
Christa (Adventures of One Beady Woman)
Crystal (Here Bead Dragons)
Cynthia (Cynth's Blog)
Dawn (Morning Glory Beading)
Donetta (Simply Gorgeous)
Erin A.
Jennifer (JenniferJW)
Jennifer (Jewelry, Art and Life)
Kari W.
Kate (We Can Make That at Home)
Kay (Palm Coast Art)
Linda (Lindy's Designs)
Lisa C. (A Bead a Day)
Lisa (Inspired Adornments)
Mary (MLH Designs)
Michelle (Beads & Books)
Michelle B.
Millie (AMM Jewelry)
Norma (Moonlit Fantasies)
Pam (The Crazier Sister)
Rebecca J.
Renetha (Lamplight Crafts)
Rosemarie (Gem Rose Designs)
Shannon (Falling into the Sky)
Susan (Bead Inspired)
Therese (Therese's Treasures)
Therese (Domestic Goddess Enterprises)

Gorgeous stuff! Happy Beading, everybody!

The Office

2012-01-13T07:51:00.000-08:00

Ever since the basement was wrecked in the spring floods, we've been pondering what to do about my office. Truthfully, I was not keen on the idea of working down there all winter. Unless the heat is cranked up, it's chilly down there, and I really didn't want us to spend the money on fuel oil just so I could work down there. But Tom didn't want my office in the living room anymore.

Once I made the fuel oil argument, however, he agreed that it would be much better for me to make a corner office in the living room.

So today, once the bills were paid and the dust settled, I went on over to Amazon and bought a new desk and matching bookcase. Hooray! The only thing I love more than buying new office supplies is buying new office furniture, so this was a real treat for me.

Tom's big treat will come when the new furniture actually arrives and I can clear up the clutter and get re-organized in the living room.

Hmmm...Do I need some new file boxes and a new desk set?

Why, yes, I think I do... Off to Staples this weekend for some new office supplies!

Night Owl

2012-01-12T11:52:00.000-08:00

Back before I had Colden, I used to be a night owl. I would stay up into the wee hours of the morning after Tom went to sleep, beading and watching movies and sketching. I was always like that, even when I was a kid. If I went to bed before eleven p.m., it was an early night. Even when I owned the shop, we didn't open until ten in the morning, so I could easily sleep in until eight or nine after a long night of beading and art-making.

Since I had Colden, however, things have been different. Obviously, when you have a newborn, you sleep when you can. And then when Colden started with his crazy sleeping-waking patterns, I had to continue to sleep whenever I could. I found myself so exhausted at the end of the day that I couldn't stay awake past nine, even if I tried.

Lately, though, I've found that I start to get my creative juices going after dinner - which, of course, conflicts with other things like bath time and bed time and what precious little time I get to spend alone with Tom these days.

I'd love to find a way to get back into the swing of things and be able to work late into the night. But Tom gets up and is out the door around six every morning; Colden needs to be dressed, fed and ready to head out the door by eight-thirty. There's no way I can stay awake until two and then be up at six to get Colden ready.

But night time is always when I feel like I come alive. It's when my fingers and my beads all seem to be able to come together and the work and the designs just flow... One day, I'll be able to get back into my night time groove. Just not now. I just need to find a way to make my groove work during the day.

Present

2012-01-10T13:18:00.000-08:00

Tonight, Tom and I are starting a four-week parenting class at Colden's preschool, given by his teacher. We've heard wonderful things about this class and we've been looking forward to taking it for several months now, but it's going to be a hard thing for us. Since it meets on a week night, this means that Colden has to spend the entire afternoon and most of the evening at Oma and Opa's house - a long time for a four-year-old to be away from home. And Tom and I are used to being in bed by nine p.m. lately, since we're still dealing with the middle-of-the-night wakings.

What makes me a little sad today is that this morning, I was totally not present at all during our morning routine. I was thinking about how much work I had to get done, my projects, my new camera lens, Colden's birthday this weekend, the bills...and before I knew it, Opa was here and it was time to get Colden dressed and out the door.

Normally, it wouldn't be a big deal, but that means it'll be twelve hours before I see my little boy again, and then he's going to have to go straight to bed (as are we) if we expect to be awake and ready to go on time the next morning.

Why does it seem like time moves so fast lately? The cousins were here for seconds; I turned around twice, and suddenly Colden is four years old and in preschool. I'm preparing for my upcoming trip to the Tucson gem and mineral shows, which will probably zip past at the speed of light...

Sometimes it seems like the only time I can slow things down is if I sit down with Colden and do something with him, or if I sit with my beads while he's playing with his trains or his crayons. Even my work days just seem to zip past me while I'm not paying attention lately.

If I could slow down time, or even back it up to this morning's breakfast routine, I would have spent more time with Colden instead of worrying about the dishes and the day's agenda and my deadlines. I'll always have deadlines. But my little boy is growing up right before my eyes.

Sad

2012-01-09T07:03:00.000-08:00

It's a little sad without the cousins around anymore. Colden has talked about them every day since they left, and last night as we were doing bedtime, he just spontaneously started singing "Manamana" while Daddy was reading to him.

Putting together the gingerbread house on Christmas Eve...

Hamming it up at The Wild Center with Kinsey...

Reading Thomas the Train with Kady...

My sister and I didn't have cousins growing up, so we never had this kind of friendship, and I love watching how the girls and Colden have become friends.

I've spent the last few days looking for some plane tickets for later this summer so we can go out to Reno and visit them. It's been six years since we've been out there, so I think we're overdue for a trip, and I think Colden would have such a great time seeing the horses and the mountains out there.

Cold morning today. Not nearly as cold as it should be, but cold enough that we've had the wood stove going 24/7 for the last week. Some gentle snow falling today, and I'm hoping for more so that we can actually go sledding this winter! We're nearly halfway through January, which means that usually, we'd be planning our maple sugaring work for next month. But since we haven't had much of a freeze this winter, we're worried that we won't get much. Anyone who says that global climate change isn't happening is, in my honest opinion, obviously out of touch with what's going on in the world around them. But that's a whole other rant for another blog...

Mandalas

2012-01-04T12:39:00.000-08:00

So, I mentioned earlier that I recently bought a copy of Wendy Ellsworth's amazing book about beading and spirituality, and I got totally hung up on the first project of beaded mandalas. Here are my first two efforts:

I knew which colors I wanted to use for the first (purple and orange) mandala, but couldn't get to it right away because of the holiday madness going on around here. But I sat down with my nieces one morning (which is a whole other blog post) and taught them how to do bead embroidery by making mandalas with them.

As I was stitching away on this one, I got to the chapter all about color, with Wendy's discussion about color and chakras at the end of the chapter. Which, of course, inspired me all over again to make a second mandala, this time in greens, maybe to help facilitate my healing in the coming weeks.

I started small with these mandalas, using a 2-inch square of Nicole's Bead Backing, and trying to limit myself to no more than four colors of beads.

Stitching away at these, I did notice a sense of relaxation, and a feeling of things starting to come together. I felt a little sad at the end when I finished the edging around each one, like maybe I wasn't ready to stop stitching just yet. These feelings have inspired me to start on a new, larger mandala at some point in the near future.

For now, I think I may have bit off more than I can chew in the beading department. I'm trying to keep up with my earring-a-day challenge over on Beading Daily, working towards my goals of completing one large bead embroidered collar every eight weeks or so, working my way through Rachel Nelson-Smith's Bead Riffs, and now wanting to work on these beaded mandalas.

I have to say, Wendy's book has definitely inspired me and made me stop to think about how I feel while I'm beading. I'm eager to continue exploring these feelings and to continue reading her book... But for now, back to the beads and the blogging before our farewell dinner with Kathy, Kevin, Kinsey and Kady tonight.

Bead Porn

2012-01-03T05:33:00.000-08:00

Whenever I make one of these big, honkin' bead-embroidered collars (or cuffs), a few of my non-beading friends refer to them as "Bead Porn". And maybe that's what they are. A little over the top, but totally wearable, and so much fun to make!

I haven't finished one of these since 2008 when I had Colden. There was just no time! But since Colden is nearly four now (I can't believe it!) and he's in preschool and I'm working full-time again, I managed to squeeze in some beading time. And now I'm completely hooked.

So one of my goals for 2012 is to finish the other six blank brass embroidery collar forms that I have sitting on my dining room table. I've already got one of them started from back in 2007 - I had to set it aside when the nausea from the pregnancy got so bad that I couldn't sit up for very long - so I'll be working on that one this week.

First day back to work for me since the holidays, and Kathy and Kevin and the girls go home on Thursday. It feels like they just got here! And while I'm sad to see everyone go back to Reno, I'm craving a return to our usual routine.

My Word for 2012: Grace

2012-01-02T06:28:00.000-08:00

I saw that my beady friend Jill Wiseman doesn't do New Year's resolutions, and I think that's smart. What she does instead, which I think is even smarter, is to pick a word for the year. She chose the word "Joy".

So on New Year's Eve, as I was closing my eyes and getting ready for sleep, I thought about what word I wanted to choose for this coming year. As I relaxed, the word "Grace" immediately popped into my head, so I looked it up to get a clearer definition. This is what I found:

"Grace: noun, \'gras\
1. unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration and sanctification
2. a virtue coming from God
3. a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine Grace"

After reading that very first definition, I knew this was my word for 2012. In 2011, my life changed in many wonderful ways, and I was utterly humbled and grateful for all of it. For 2012, I feel as though I'm ready to start exploring a more spiritual path as an artist, and this is going to be how I do it...

So many more things I want to write about today! But, I don't want to blow them all at once. For starters, I don't want to cram it all in to one blog post. One day at a time...

Beaded Laughter Blog

2011-12-31T07:09:00.000-08:00

Okay, so one of the reasons why I love the online community of beaders and bead artists so much is...this. Bead artist Sylvie Elise Landsdowne, who makes amazing and brightly colored lampwork glass beads, has been horsing around making hunky inspirational posters for those artists who are frantically preparing for the Tucson shows coming up in less than a month.

They started out just as a little joke between her and artist Jill Wiseman, another insanely talented beadweaving artist, and now it's just taken on a life of its own! Check out Sylvie's new blog, Beaded Laughter...

And check out this morning's blog post with my favorite hunk-a, Robert Downey Jr...

Habit

2011-12-29T06:26:00.000-08:00

I must be getting old, because I feel as though I've become quite a creature of habit. For breakfast every morning for the last several months (except during my little bout of cranky gallbladder syndrome), I cook a bowl of oatmeal with dried cranberries and toasted pecans and a cup of hot chocolate. (Made with milk, not water.) It's turned into a morning ritual of sorts, as I stir and pour while Colden eats his eggs or muffins or whatever he has requested for breakfast.

So this morning, with Tom home from work and me trying to get functional with dried-up sinuses, an aching lower back and a pending migraine, I found myself getting quite testy when I saw that Tom had left one of our ginormous house plants in the sink to be watered and drain, and that he had left all of the cooking utensils from his and Colden's breakfast scattered all over the stove and counter.

I grumbled to myself about messing with my morning ritual, but felt instantly better when Tom and Colden came into the kitchen with the huge airplane that Tom had built for Colden with the Tinker Toys from Santa.

Many more things I want/need to write about in the last few days, but it'll have to wait until later... Off to get our family picture taken today, and then dinner out with Kathy and Kevin!

Christmas

2011-12-28T06:12:00.000-08:00

Christmas was pure magic at our house. Colden was so thrilled to see that Santa came, and he took his time opening all of his presents - almost a full hour! It was just so much fun to watch him and see his reaction as he realized what each one was. He was totally thrilled with his Thomas, Hiro and Spencer toy trains, so we may have to complete his set for his birthday in a couple of weeks.

We've been spending every day over at Oma and Opa's house with the cousins, and while I think Colden is having a blast playing with his Reno relatives, I think he's starting to feel a little overwhelmed. Maybe time for a little break for him this morning.

The office is closed this whole week until January 3rd. And while I'm loving the time off from deadlines, not writing every day is sort of driving me buggy. I keep trying to make a little time to do some writing or some beading, and it's just not happening. If we go over to Oma's house this morning, maybe I'll bring some beading with me.

That said, the other night I was browsing beading books on Amazon, and I stumbled across this volume by Wendy Ellsworth, one of the bead artists who got me inspired to start on this path. I've always loved and admired her work, her use of color and her flawless techniques, and I was absolutely thrilled to see that she has written a book about the connection between spirituality and beading! I was even more thrilled to see that it was available for download on my Kindle app, so I had it in seconds.

I finished the first chapter last night after everyone else had gone to sleep, and now I want to start stitching a mandala. After starting up with massage therapy and acupuncture this year to treat all those lovely digestive issues, 99% of which are probably from stress, I feel so strongly like I need to find my spiritual center again.

I had to force myself to put the book down last night, because I desperately needed some sleep, but I'll be picking it up again today. My only gripe is that there aren't any color pictures, but I'll get over it. Wendy's writing is easy to read and fascinating when she talks about the long history of beads as they have been used for spiritual purposes throughout human history. I think what appeals to me the most is that she's talking about spirituality - not religion - and cosmology as she takes you through each chapter and project. There are meditation exercises and beautiful beading projects for both beginner and advanced beaders. All I have to say is, Wow. This is such an amazing book.

So, before I start stitching on a mandala today or tomorrow, I need to get the breakfast dishes cleaned up, take a shower and get Colden and I dressed, and then clean off my work table. I've also got to run some errands in Lake Placid before we pick up Tom from work this afternoon... At this rate, I'll need a vacation from my vacation!

Finished?

2011-12-21T17:59:00.000-08:00

This is the first "big" piece of bead embroidery that I've attempted since finding out that I was pregnant in 2007. It was supposed to be my entry into the December Etsy Beadweavers' Challenge with the theme of "Arabesque", but I just couldn't make the deadline.

So this afternoon when I found myself pretty much done with deadlines until January, I decided to pick it up and start stitching on it again. Lo and behold, the bead embroidery just sort of stitched itself, including some very unexpected embellishment with pearls.

And then...just when I thought I was finished...I had the "good" idea to embellish the cabochon bezels with pearls. Oh, wow. More embellishment...more pearls...totally yummy!

So, now I've got about a zillion more pearls to stitch on to this puppy. Will I have it finished for Christmas? Probably not. For New Year's? Very possibly. Will I list it in my Etsy shop? Highly unlikely.

Handmade ceramic cabochons by Lisa Peters Art. Stitched on a piece of wonderful, thick, powder blue Nicole's Bead Backing.

Thankful

2011-12-20T14:35:00.000-08:00

I think we've got these holidays totally mixed up. Around Thanksgiving, I don't usually feel that "thankful" sort of thing that everyone says you should. I just feel mostly annoyed at the barrage of ads and sales and other nonsense that gets people lined up outside big box stores at midnight and pepper-spraying each other for video game consoles.

No, I start to get thankful around Christmas. When people seem to be focused on buying, buying, buying and more, more, more, I start to think about what I already have.

First of all, I have a wonderful family. Tom and Colden are more than I could ever have hoped for, and while things certainly haven't been easy these last few years, they have been more rewarding than I could ever have dreamed. Second of all, we have a beautiful home, Moose, the chickens and our gardens - they all go into making this place special. I'm thankful that we have a warm, bright home and that Tom and I have the resources and the ability to maintain it.

This year, I'm particularly thankful to have my health relatively intact after a tough year of doctor's visits and uncertainties. I'm thankful that I have the resources to address problems when they arise.

I'm thankful that I have a job that I love more than I could ever have imagined, with a team of co-workers who are truly delightful and talented, and who make me laugh out loud when I read their emails.

Lastly, I'm thankful for the healthy food in our cabinets and freezer, and our access to healthy, nourishing food. So many others are forced to go without, and with every meal, I am thankful that we have never suffered from hunger in this house.

What I'll be most thankful for this year is that we are going to have a wonderful holiday at our house, and we didn't have to spend a ton of money to do it.

Manhattan, Day 2

2011-12-07T04:48:00.000-08:00

The next morning, we ate breakfast and then headed back into the city to meet up with Lisa Peters of Lisa Peters Art. I've been buying Lisa's cabs and beads for a couple of years now, and I swear, she puts some kind of highly addictive drug in her clay. Every time she lists her items on Etsy, I end up buying more. And more. And...you get the idea.

The first thing Lisa did was hand me a little package with my latest order in it. Yowza! These cabs and connectors were just gorgeous! This was already off to a good start!

We walked up to Beads on Fifth, where I had purchased and printed out a couple of special deal coupons - buy a certificate for $20 and redeem it for $40 at the store. Fantastic!

Beads on Fifth was small, but packed with beads, findings, charms and tools.

Lisa and I did a little creative collaborating...

And then we got down to the business of buying beads!

So much fun! Lisa even took a quick pic of me, Min Ping and Min Yee as we were browsing the trays and trays and trays of beads and findings.

Next up, we went to York Beads, where I nearly lost my mind just after walking in the door. All the colors, all the shapes, all the sparkle! It was almost too much!

Min Yee took my picture in front of the Wall O' Czech Seed Beads. I hadn't seen this many beads since I left my house on Saturday...

The only thing about is that you have to buy in quantity. They don't sell just a strand of daggers - you gotta buy the whole hank of daggers! Not necessarily a bad thing, but it meant that I could only get one hank of daggers, one hank of glowing copper drops and one hank of green lustered mushrooms. But considering I also picked up three new colors of 13/0 charlottes, some excellent Picasso-marbled tube beads and a strand of marbled green tribal curved daggers, I think I did pretty well.

After that, Min Ping and Min Yee went off to find lunch, but Lisa and I were just hungry for more beads. We went into Phoenix Beads, where we browsed but didn't buy, and City Beads, which was a very impressive shop, indeed. I found a few Swarovski crystal components that I need for projects for The Book, a strand of textured glass coin pearls, and a small package of metallicized plastic beads.

Lisa was totally smitten with a package of beads that looked like dice, so I helped her pick out a few little goodies to go with it for a special gift for her grandmother. (Can't wait to see that one!)

Then we wandered into the Toho store. And wow. The selection of components there was just unreal! I picked up more than a few beautiful items to bead around and to incorporate into beaded chains, as well as a set of beautiful gold wire mesh roses. (I've been lusting after those roses for a long, long time, and this seemed as good a time as any to give in!)

After we met up with the Mins again, we had some time to kill before our train back to NJ, so Lisa suggested we go into MJ Trimmings. Once again, total sensory overload combined with the deepest relief that I had left my credit card at home.

To get the full idea of what it's like in MJ Trimmings, imagine 20 foot high walls, stacked to the ceiling with boxes and boxes of buttons. All sorts of buttons. Toggles, shank buttons, painted, metal, glass, crystal...the place sparkled like sunshine! In the next room were nailheads, rhinestones and walls and walls of ribbons, lace and decorative edgings and trim.

Lisa came up to me as I was picking out a few buttons and told me that I had to see these amazing metal sequins - and I did. Oh, wow. I picked out three packages of them to take back with me.

By this time, I was totally exhausted, overwhelmed and excited all at the same time. We said goodbye to Lisa and went back to the train.

In a way, I'm glad that I don't live closer to Manhattan. I'd be in there all the time to buy beads! On the other hand, for me, the city is a place that is full of energy, excitement and inspiration, and I think I need to go back there maybe more than once a year!

Manhattan, Day 1

2011-12-06T06:13:00.000-08:00

So, my first morning in New Jersey with my friends, we decided to make the trek back into New York City and visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

I hadn't been to the Met in many, many years. Probably like ten years since my last visit - and for a place that has always provided me with inspiration and relaxation, that's ten years too long! I had wanted to go for a visit last fall when I was down in NYC for the About.com Guide event, but just couldn't make it in that weekend.

We hopped on a late morning train into NYC and then navigated the subway. I joked with Min Yee that I was too out of shape to keep up with her. It was all I could do to keep her bobbing pony tail in my sight as she raced up and down the streets of Manhattan toward the museum!

So, there I am in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art with Min Ping. I was so excited to go in there and see everything! I'd been having dreams about this place, and as soon as we got past the crowded entrance hall, it was amazing.

Almost the first thing we saw was this case full of ancient Egyptian beads. It still boggles my mind how these tiny, carefully and skillfully crafted bits of sand, stone and glass have survived for thousands and thousands of years.

Stunning, aren't they?

Then we decided to go spend some time in the Asian arts wing. We spent a couple of hours admiring the insanely beautiful and quiet art of China, Japan, Tibet and India. The sculptures and statues of the Buddha in all his many forms were very inspiring and soothing for me.

Here is Min Yee, hugging a post of Nan wood in the beautiful Chinese courtyard installation.

And I totally fell in love with these doors, leading into the interior of a traditional Chinese house. They just looked so soothing and inviting with the warm wood, the carved-out lattice work and the light falling gently onto the stone floor beneath our feet.

There were a series of lattice work windows all around the installation, and we got the idea of translating them into beading patterns for netting and right-angle weave - perfect for all those new Twin seed beads I just got from Sparkle Spot Bead Shop! (In all my free time, right? But these should work up quickly, so maybe I'll at least have the basics down before Christmas!)

Then we took a photo of this intricate carved rosewood roof on the way up to the galleries with the art of Bhutan and Tibet. The light was poor, and flash photography isn't allowed in the galleries, so this was the best we could do with my little Nikon point-n-shoot.

The craftsmanship of these types of installations just thrills me. I can imagine the craftsman at work, lying on his back, looking up at his work, patiently carving out each figure and pattern from the wood.

There were more things that we saw, but unfortunately, photography wasn't allowed. I can only say that I finally got to see the famous Met Nativity Scene live, in person and up close and it was as every bit as amazing as I had expected it to be; I found myself breathless at the sight of two 17th century Japanese kimonos that were embroidered with silk and precious metal threads; and the European decorative arts wing with all of the elaborate Baroque furniture was just as gorgeous as I remembered it.

We had long talks about the differences between Eastern and Western religious art and the differences and similarities between Chinese and Japanese art and culture.

And the sushi in the cafeteria wasn't half-bad, either!

On the way home, we took a "slight detour" (according to Min Yee, who could qualify as an Olympic marathon speed-walker) and went to see the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center. I need to figure out how to get the photo off of my phone, but we got there just as a show at Radio City Music Hall was letting out and the streets were packed with people and cars and police officers. The crowd at the Christmas tree was incredible - I don't think I've seen that many people in the same place at the same time since my first rock concert back in 1991.

I was absolutely exhausted when we got home, but a hot shower, a hot meal and some decent sleep had me recharged and ready to go the next day when we met up with Lisa Peters of Lisa Peters Art and did some serious bead shopping in the fashion district!

Friends

2011-12-01T08:33:00.000-08:00

Wow. Just wow.

I posted on Facebook about this crazy convo I received yesterday, and I was overwhelmed with the dozens of responses that I got! Truly, I am in good company when it comes to dealing with insane people who have no idea what it takes to create the type of handmade jewelry that we do.

It inspired me to get this post out on Beading Daily about How to Price Your Handmade Jewelry.

I was even more thrilled to discover that the amazing Margot Potter addressed this in her blog this morning! Way to go, Madge!

I think what thrills me the most about this whole situations was that through the power of the Internet and our collective dedication to the art of handmade, we took what could have been a very hurtful message and turned it into something positive and humorous! Way to go, Beaders!

It was one of those days where I just wanted to sit back and give a contented sigh of, "I love my job."

Happy December! I'll be packing tomorrow for my big New York City bead shopping trip! I'm planning to meet up with a couple of beading friends, spend some time wandering around New York City, and sleeping in past seven a.m. without a rambunctious four year old yanking on my hair. (Although I will miss the rambunctious four year old terribly while I'm gone.)

What's on your agenda this December?

Retrograde

2011-11-30T06:45:00.000-08:00

I awoke this morning to a convo in my Etsy shop regarding this necklace which read:

"about your necklace are you seriously charging that much !!! i saw one idetical but with jade and it was only $50 your price is ridicolous besides a kid could make this minus the edging around the pietersite"

Now, my first reaction was to think, "That's just great. You can go buy that other necklace. You must have confused my work with that which is made by child labor in a sweat shop for a dime a day. So sorry." My other reaction was to send her back a long-winded reply about the time and particular techniques involved in this piece, but I decided to do neither.

My one-word reply to this crazy person? "Whatever."

I mean, come on, seriously? Surprisingly, I was not at all offended by this insane message. First of all, I found it highly amusing that she misspelled words like "identical" and "ridiculous" but somehow managed to spell "Pietersite" correctly.

Second of all, she obviously has no clue that the "edging around the pietersite" which is the only part of my necklace that could not be done by a child is, in fact, what makes the necklace handmade and unique.

And third, if she thinks my price is too high, well, she doesn't have to buy it. I don't care if she buys it. In fact, I would prefer that she NOT buy it, because she obviously has no respect for beautiful handmade objects and would most likely not care for it properly.

But I have to wonder, what did she think I was going to say?

"Oh, my goodness! I didn't realize that I was overpricing my work! How helpful of you to drop me such a direct note to let me know that I'm heading down the road to failure because I am charging too much for my handmade work! Would you like me to knock $85 off the price for you? And can I get you some cocoa with that?"

Or maybe...

"Wow, I had no idea that this is so overpriced. Thank you so much."

Or maybe this...

"Whatever."

Which brings me to a good story from a couple years ago at my farmer's market.

It was a lovely Sunday morning, warm and breezy, and it was getting to be near the end of the market that day. This was when I was selling my fused glass pendants and jewelry, and I had a lovely selection of brand new work displayed on my black velvet pads. I was especially proud of a new set of 1 3/4" dichroic glass pendants that had just come out of the kiln, all with sterling silver bails.

That day, I was set up next to a couple of guys in their 50s who were selling some absolutely amazing handmade rustic and birch bark furniture. Like, real Adirondack Great Camp style work. Well made, with dovetail joints and the whole bit. Real luxury stuff.

A woman came along to my table, two little kids in tow. She looked over my pendants, then picked up the largest piece, which incidentally, I had also decorated with traditional henna tattoo patterns using enamel paints. She held it up in the sun and admired it, then turned it over to see the price marked on the back.

"Forty-five DOLLARS?!" she gasped. She tossed it - literally, threw it! - back down on the table and huffed off with her children.

I hadn't even had time to react when one of the gentleman next to me leaned over and said, "Attention, Wal-Mart shoppers..."

I burst out laughing at that point, because what he said was absolutely true and was something that I had learned that summer while selling my work at the farmer's market. I do not sell jewelry that has been made in a sweatshop or by child labor for pennies a day. I sell handcrafted wearable art. Not everyone is looking for my kind of jewelry, and that's fine. The reason I sell my work at farmer's markets and fine craft shows is because, yes, there are people out there who are looking for unique, well-made, handcrafted jewelry. That simple.

So, hey, I'm not going to worry too much about that message from this morning. Because I know that this necklace will go to a good home when it's time, and I'm really not going to let this insane, unappreciative person who can't spell or punctuate to save her life get to me.

But at least it was good for a few chuckles when I shared it on Facebook this morning!

Words

2011-11-21T09:28:00.000-08:00

Words are getting in the way today. I am trying like hell to finish up these blogs posts, but the words that usually come so easily seem like a distraction to me today. I can usually put Pandora radio on the iPad while I write and have background music, but today, I seem to notice every single word from the lyrics that are coming through the speakers. It's driving me mad. I need to concentrate on this, and, well, it's just not working...

Strange today that my back is hurting me down through my knees, the same way it did at the beginning of all this digestive unpleasantness, and sure enough, my stomach has gone on strike today. Nothing sits right when I eat. Going to the chiropractor this afternoon to see if that helps a bit, and then I think I should have acupuncture this Friday instead of trying to go for another two week stretch without a treatment. Damn it all...

Sunday

2011-11-20T09:00:00.000-08:00

Tom is off deer hunting today, and he called me this morning to tell me that he got the buck he had been watching since he arrived in Greene on Friday afternoon! Truthfully, I was a little worried about what would happen if he didn't get a deer. He's had such rotten luck so far this season and he missed out on his big island hunt with Rob and The Guys in October. It'll be nice for him to have venison in the freezer this winter!

Colden and I are having a lazy morning. We're both still in our pajamas, although I did actually make it into the shower to wash my hair and clean up a bit. It's a windy, overcast day today, with a sprinkling of rain. We've had breakfast (sort of) and watched The Santa Clause 2 (oy) and are hanging out in his bedroom, sort of cleaning and straightening up and sort of playing with his favorite magnetic fishing game.

Tom called me last night when I was just about to have a nervous breakdown. I had finished the last of the "chicken" strips for lunch, and Colden decided that he wanted them for dinner. (After we had come back from Oma and Opa's house, where we had mac and cheese and peas for dinner.) So in addition to the guilt I felt from eating the last of the strips and the exhaustion and aches, I had a screaming nearly-four-year-old to soothe.

After Colden finally went to sleep, Tom sent me a text message. I can't repeat it here, but it made me laugh. So we sent text messages back and forth for about half an hour before we both conked out and needed to go to sleep. I felt like my sister, who texts back and forth with her husband all day long. What's next for Tom - a Facebook account?!

Beading later. I got some ideas that I need to start working on before my deadlines completely overwhelm me and I drown.

Up the Ante.

2011-11-17T13:04:00.000-08:00

It's been years since I did any bead shopping down in New York City. The last time I went was the year before I got pregnant with Colden, and I can still remember traipsing around the fashion district with my two friends, buying beads, eating falafel from a street vendor...

I may not be able to do the street vendor falafel thing this time around, but I can certainly still shop for beads! (I'm thinking maybe some meal replacement bars from my favorite place in Willsboro will have to do instead of the falafel.) So the other day, I bought a train ticket down to Penn Station for the first weekend in December to spend some time hanging out with friends and hitting the bead shops in NYC.

Maybe it was that episode of Project Accessory where they went to the Swarovski store in Manhattan that got to me. Or maybe it's just that I haven't been away to do anything fun in a very long time. And now that I *can* have a little getaway without feeling horribly guilty over finances, I think I need to do this.

Besides, it'll give me great blogging material!

Speaking of blogging, make sure you take a few minutes and check out this blog over at the Lark Crafts site! They've asked bead artists for their recommendations for holiday book wishlists, and right now, you can read my recommendations (there are quite a few!) as well as the recommendations of my beady friend Jill Wiseman of Tapestry Beads!

Got to get back to it now...we've got a holiday weekend coming up, and I still need to get two more blog/newsletters out of my brain and on to the proof reader...

Babies

2011-11-15T11:12:00.000-08:00

In the last month, four of my friends have announced that they are pregnant. Some of them are having second and third babies; some of them are having first babies. Most of them are my age or older, which made made Tom and I have the big talk again: are we going to have a second baby?

The more I thought about it, the more I thought that at this point in my life, with our financial situation being what it is, I can either have a second baby or a career. I don't see any practical way of doing both right now. And I'm 37. I certainly don't see myself doing the round-the-clock feeding thing again when I'm 40. (As it is now, we still have to get up sometimes four times a night with Colden!)

We had always thought about having a second baby so that Colden wouldn't be an only child. Tom's mom was an only child, and she has always said that the one thing she really wanted was a sibling. I have to admit that since my mom passed away a few years ago, I've become closer to my sister. I would love for Colden to have a brother or sister that he could have that experience like Tom and I did.

But. I just don't think it's in the cards. Not right now, anyway. Maybe I'll change my mind in a year. Maybe we'll find a way to do it in a year. But for right now, we're just going to enjoy Colden, and enjoy watching him grow up, even if it makes me a little sad that he's doing it all by himself...

More NaSeeBeMo

2011-11-14T06:54:00.000-08:00

We are now at Day 14 of the month of November, and so far, I have managed to bead every single day, even if it was only for ten or fifteen minutes. Feels pretty darn good.

This is my Arabesque challenge piece for the Etsy Beadweavers' Team. I have to have this baby finished and listed in my Etsy shop before midnight on December 5. I'm pretty confident that I'll have it ready to go by then!

I'm amazed at how much I've accomplished just by breaking down this large-scale piece of bead embroidery into manageable pieces. I think to myself, okay, I'll just stitch this one line here. And then when that's done, I tell myself that I can stitch one more line before I have to get up and do something else. Then when my thread is finished, I start on another section of it.

I'm purposely keeping my threads short so that I give myself that good ol' pat on the back for accomplishing something. I love it.

I also managed to get the brass collar form for my Day of the Dead challenge covered in Ultrasuede the other day. Once I finish edging it with those tiny black seed beads using brick stitch, I'll start adding the embellishment with the beads. This is going to be interesting...I'm still trying to figure out how to add the lampwork sugar skull. It might involve some wire work and a cabochon, we'll see.

And on that note, I'm trying to plan a few days away down in NYC with some friends for some bead shopping. It's been far too long since I've been down there for a visit, and I need some time away from home to recharge my batteries. While I'm there, I think I'm going to have to hit Rockefeller Square to see all the Christmas decorations and eat some street vendor falafel. Sometimes I really miss living so close to the city, but I can't imagine living anywhere else but here.

Foggy

2011-11-11T10:00:00.000-08:00

The last couple of days, I've felt like I've been in a total brain fog, which is not a good thing for a writer/blogger. My attention jumps from piece to piece as I'm writing. I probably shouldn't have sixteen pieces open at once in my word processor, but there it is.

I did, however, manage to finish two more pieces from Bead Riffs last night and get started on another one!

I have been just itching to make those lovely little Nightingale earrings. The idea of stitching together all those tiny, shiny little Swarovski rounds just tickled me! Once the pieces were finished, I was genuinely happy with my color choice of Crystal Copper for these earrings. I seem to be gravitating towards copper and warm brown tones lately, and these will go nicely with a number of sweaters and shirts I have for winter.

The only mishap occurred when I tried to attach the earrings to the fancy sterling ear wires that I got for the project. (They were similar to the ones pictured in the book, and not the sterling round hoops you see in the picture.) I went to gently open the bottom loop of the second ear wire to add the finished earring and the loop broke right off! Considering what I paid for them, I was a little annoyed, but decided that they look just as nice on the round hoops. Unfortunately, those round hoops are NOT comfortable for me to wear, so I'm probably going to find another pair of fancy ear wires for these.

Then I started in on Drop Me Off in Harlem, another 3-dimensional right-angle weave project that I was fascinated with making.

It's truly a stunning pendant, and it came together so easily! I stitched up both bases in just over an hour, and the embellishment itself only took me another hour or so. Stitching it together took no time at all, and now all I need is a chain for it!

Similar to the Night In Tunisia necklace, the real shape of this piece didn't come together until the last step when I was stitching the bases together. But it felt wonderful in my fingers as the curves and angles came out, and I'm also pleased with my color choice of a permanent-galvanized rose gold seed bead from Beyond Beadery.

The only thing that really gave me problems was figuring out how to attach the rose montees to the top of the peyote bumps during the embellishment. I always felt like there was too much thread showing, and trying to keep those little crystals from flipping over before I could make the second and third thread passes was a challenge, too. Which leads me to....

The beginnings of 'Round Midnight! The color of this piece in the book is metallic silver, but I wanted to do something bright and cheery. I got these permanent silver-lined fuchsia from Beyond Beadery at Bead Fest a few years ago, and I've had the size 15s in this color for so long that I can't remember where I got them. (Beadin' Path? Whimbeads? I have no idea.)

If I want to master the art of adding montees to peyote bumps, this is going to be the piece that does it. I've got to add 12 montees to 12 peyote bumps. Three down, nine to go...

I really want to dive in to some of the larger and more complex pieces in the book, but I'm afraid those are going to have to wait until 2012. >sigh< I've got three big beading deadlines coming up in December, and even with NaSeeBeMo, I'll have to put off anything else until after Colden's birthday in January.

For now, though, I'm really thrilled with all the little sparkly pieces from Bead Riffs that are making their way into my jewelry box!

Sparklies

2011-11-07T14:42:00.000-08:00

They're here! They're here! They're here!

I have been a very patient beader these last few weeks, and now it's paid off! I can't jump in and start Rondo or Dolled Up just yet since I don't have everything for those projects, but I can get started on some of those smaller pendants and rings - beaded rings! (Which will be great to go with my newly manicured fingernails.)

NaSeeBeMo

2011-11-05T14:52:00.000-07:00

Maybe you've heard of National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo - it's an event where writers are encouraged to write every single day during the month of November, with the idea that at the end of 30 days, you'll have a first draft of a novel, or pretty darn close to it.

One of my beading friends on Facebook, a very talented beader named Dulcey Heller, mused about what would happen if there were National Seed Beading Month in November. What a great idea! Beaders being encouraged to bead every single day for an entire 30 days!

All too often, at the end (or at the beginning) of my days, my beading gets pushed aside to do other things. I decided to pick on the NaSeeBeMo idea because I feel like I'm ready to get back into large-scale beading projects, and I just need some impetus to do it. Giving myself the encouragement to bead every single day for a whole month is something that I really need right now.

So far, we're five days into November, and I am happy to report that I have picked up my beads every single day for five days. I've made good progress on my Etsy Beadweavers' challenge piece (which is due on December 5th, yikes!) and I've made progress on a couple other pieces that were sitting on my work table.

Even if I only bead for five or ten minutes, it feels good to hold that needle in my fingers.

We'll see what the rest of NaSeeBeMo brings...!!!

Decisions, Decisions...

2011-11-04T17:26:00.000-07:00

So, I got the order of brass bead embroidery collars from Designer's Findings the other day, so now I'm all set to start my project for The Hole Bead Shop!

...or so I thought...

My first thought was to make a collar covered in Ultrasuede (no bead embroidery actually on the collar) and then just fringe and embellish the hell out of it. But when I checked my Ultrasuede supply, I found that I didn't have enough black to do it. I had a large piece of the off-white, but I didn't want to use that because it seems to get dirty pretty easily on a big project like this. I had a very cool deep red/orange that would look fabulous, but without the black... Meh.

Fortunately, I am expecting a new order of Ultrasuede any second now. Which, translated into shipping times to rural areas like this, means sometime between now and the 17th of November.

So, I have a choice. Do I hold off on working on this collar until I get the Ultrasuede and go ahead with my original plan? OR do I just say to heck with it and do a bead embroidered front?

I'm thinking that I will probably stick with my original plan. I don't want the bead embroidery to take away from the lush and lavish fringe and embellishment that I have planned. And truthfully, I don't know if I'll have the time to do a full-on bead embroidered panel for the front. (I'm already working on a big Arabesque bead embroidered piece for my Etsy Beadweavers' Challenge this month so I don't get kicked off THAT team.)

I went into town today and had lunch with a friend, and it was a fabulous time. I miss having grown-up talk like that during the day. And I didn't even have any digestive issues with the lunch, either! Huzzah! Followed that up with a great acupuncture appointment, and came home to a hot meal of homemade Indian food, thanks to the spousal unit.

Tomorrow morning, I have to be at the lab bright and early when they open to get that last set of blood tests that the acupuncturist wanted. (Have I mentioned she is also a fabulous M.D.?) Then I think some Beading in Public at Starbucks before I have a manicure... And don't laugh. It's been two years since my last manicure, and I need to do something girly for myself this weekend.

Trying Times

2011-11-04T07:40:00.000-07:00

We had a potty training meltdown this morning.

What is going on?!

Colden wouldn't get on the potty to poop. He ran away from me every time I tried to get him in the bathroom. I finally got him on the potty, and then he wanted to read every single book he owns. I couldn't get him off the potty. When I tried to get him off, he started screaming and just went limp so that I couldn't pick him up. I finally relented, and we wound up getting over to Oma and Opa's house at ten o clock in the morning.

Of course, the whole time this was going on, I was thinking about all the things I had to do today: the work, the writing, the beading, the photographs, the appointment for acupuncture... And I could feel myself just getting more and more stressed out. I had to walk away from Colden while he was sitting on the potty just to get myself together.

And then I start thinking that I must be doing something wrong. Is Colden's behavior my fault? Am I allowing him to get away with having a temper tantrum? Am I "enabling" as someone once told me?

The whole thing starts to make me feel like a very inadequate mother.

On the other hand, some mornings it's HARD getting a nearly-four-year-old washed, dressed and well-fed before we get out the door all by myself. Colden is a bright, active kid. It's hard to find a balance between letting him assert himself and making sure that I can get him to do the basics all within a reasonable amount of time.

On a good note, a friend emailed me this morning and asked me to have lunch with her. And I rescheduled my acupuncture appointment for later this afternoon. That will be a very nice break for me today.

Rejection

2011-11-04T05:00:00.000-07:00

I got a rejection yesterday. I've gotten lots of rejections before, and while having your art rejected isn't fun, this particular rejection was just mean. The rejection letter said something like, "We have deemed that your work is not of sufficient quality or artistic merit for our program."

Wha?

Two of the pieces I submitted, mind you, were good enough to appear on the cover of a certain well-known beading magazine. But they were not of sufficient quality or artistic merit for their program.

My sister, who is an up-and-coming science fiction/fantasy/horror writer, called me and understood exactly what had happened. She said, "There's a difference between CONSTRUCTIVE criticism and just plain criticism."

What I experienced was the latter.

It got me so pissed off. How dare these people go so far as to insult me and my work like that? Being rejected is hard enough; but getting a MEAN rejection is just, well, mean.

I may write a response to their rejection letter and suggest that in the future they refrain from using those particular sentences when turning down candidates for their program. Why? Because nice matters.

Eggs

2011-11-02T06:40:00.000-07:00

I was cooking an egg, avocado and Swiss cheese sandwich for myself this morning, and I was looking at the egg as I cracked it into the bowl. Last month when Tom's hunting buddies came up from downstate, we used up pretty much every egg the girls laid. And then we actually had to go BUY eggs, because until Tom got the red light installed in the coop for the winter, those girls were not generous in replenishing our supply. The other morning, Colden asked for an egg for breakfast, so I opened the store-bought carton of eggs.

The egg that I cracked into the bowl for him that morning was pale, neon yellow. It looked sick. I actually felt a little sick cooking it up for Colden, knowing that it probably came from a hen that was crammed into a tiny cage so that she couldn't even stand up or move her wings, and that her beak had probably been removed, too.

It did not look like a happy egg.

This morning, I had a nice supply of eggs from our girls to use, thanks to that red light that keeps them warm and gives them some extra light when the days get short. (I could probably use some extra light, too.)

When I cracked that egg into the bowl, I noticed what a deep gold it was, how it was a thicker yolk and a thicker shell. It tasted much better than the other eggs that I cooked from the store-bought container earlier in the week. It looked better. It looked like an egg.

So here's what I'm going to take away from this experience with the eggs: Our chickens are raised with care and love and pride. We do not remove their beaks. We play with them. We pick them up and pet them. We interact with them. They get good food, lots of fresh vegetable and meat scraps, lots of fresh grass from their huge enclosure, and they get to walk and run around in the fresh air and the sun every day. They get fresh water. They get love and attention.

And in return, they give us beautiful, nutritious eggs.

If you want to do something well, do it with care and love and pride. Do it with respect and a consciousness of your actions. Do it with the understanding that everything you do will affect someone else, somewhere.

Be nice to your chickens.

Dias de los Muertos

2011-10-18T14:53:00.000-07:00

Look what was in my mailbox today! My Day of the Dead challenge kit from The Hole Bead Shop!

I was sooooo lucky to snag one of these kits - there were only ten of them! And I cannot believe what is in there. Fire polished beads, daggers, Tilas, drops, seed beads, Lucite, freshwater pearls, and this absolutely gorgeous handmade lampwork sugar skull bead!

I love that my sugar skull bead has a happy face on one eye because I usually sign my emails with a little happy face. Goofy, I know.

I can't wait to get started on this project! I have until December 10th, which means I need to do some serious beading on it. This will probably require several late nights, which may or may not work with Colden's sleep schedule.

I feel like I'm ready to start working on large-scale projects again, I just need to figure out when and how to do that. So I called Designer's Findings to order a couple of thick brass embroidery collars, and guess what? She's traveling until the 24th! I was so disappointed, I wanted to cry. That means I probably can't start working on this piece until November 1, darn it.

On the plus side, that also means I have another week or two to do some sketching and some coloring and see what other beads I have and what other beads I might need to do this project. This is gonna be something gooooood...

Swing Time!

2011-10-15T07:23:00.000-07:00

Here it is, the first few rows of Swing Time!

So, I'm getting a little impatient waiting for the order of chaton montees and rose montees that I ordered back in September, so I decided to start Swing Time, since I've got pretty much all the materials for this bracelet with the exception of the clasp and the liquid silver beads.

I knew which colors I wanted to use for the bracelet after my first acupuncture treatment - the colors came to me while I was lying there on the table, full of needles, relaxing. (I know, that doesn't sound like it's very relaxing, but really, acupuncture is very relaxing for me.)

Then I realized that it has been a very, very long time since I had to read a graph for right-angle weave. A very long time. The last time I did that was back in 2001 or 2002 and I was trying to do a double needle right-angle weave project using a graph from my old White Russian beading book.

Reading the right-angle weave graph is a bit tricky, but I'm coming up with a system for it, which I'll post here and on Beading Daily once I get it written up.

I also ordered a whole bunch of seed beads from Fox Den Beads, since she's going out of business, and I thought I could get some of the colors I needed for a few more projects. Well, that was a great idea, but since she's not restocking anything, I received my order and it was a few tubes short of some critical colors. Dang it. I'll probably order some more beads from her just to add them to my stash, and then get the rest of the colors I need/want from Whimbeads and Beyond Beadery. Darn, darn, darn.

The Hunter

2011-10-15T06:44:00.000-07:00

So, one of the things my acupuncturist suggested to me at my appointment last week was that I try the blood type diet to see if it helped ease my digestive issues. I had a few issues with that. First of all, I view any diet that is "trendy" as a sham. Atkins, South Beach - they're all a crock, as far as I'm concerned. Second, according to my blood type, I'm supposed to be eating a diet of red meat and vegetables with very little grains. I haven't had red meat since I was 15 years old. I haven't had chicken or turkey or any kind of white meat since 2003. When I told the acupuncturist about this, she said that sometimes in Chinese medicine you can substitute beets for red meat. (Don't understand that, but maybe it's the color?) Since I love beets, I thought, cool, I'll make a big kale and shredded beet salad for dinner that night.

I'm standing there shredding the beets with a hand shredder (Why didn't I use the food processor we just blew a bundle on? No idea.) and suddenly my hand slips and I neatly slice off the outer 1/8" of skin from the knuckle on my thumb. Tom took over and completed the shredding while I washed the wound and put a Band Aid on it.

Thus ended my experimentation with the blood type diet.

There's really nothing wrong with the diet that I eat - no meat, lots of fresh fruits and veggies, not a lot of processed foods (since I can't digest them anymore, anyway) and whole grains like quinoa, bulgur and kasha. Lots of beans and protein sources like tempeh, too. Low-fat dairy on the occasion that I want it like low-fat cottage cheese or hot chocolate made with 1% milk. That's about it. Of course, Colden and I bake cookies and during the summer I'm a sucker for those gourmet cupcakes from the farmer's market. But I think that overall, I eat a darn good healthy diet.

That said, I had my second acupuncture treatment yesterday and I feel great. Had a little bit of a queasy stomach the other night, but I now believe that was due to other circumstances. No more nausea after every meal, no more gagging and dry heaving... And I actually feel like cooking again!

Colden and I are going to baby sit for a friend this afternoon, so we're putting a harvest soup in the crock pot this afternoon - mixed lentils and barley with brown rice, chunked up butternut squash, celery root, carrots, chopped kale and leeks. Tomorrow night after Tom's hunting buddies have left, I'll be making a vegetarian cassoulet with tempeh, carrots, white beans, sweet potatoes, chopped kale, and a yummy buttery breadcrumb topping.

Yep. I should have done acupuncture months ago.

I'm Awake

2011-10-10T05:52:00.000-07:00

That's what the acupuncturist told me the other day. When we were talking about how my body just doesn't react well to most Western medical practices, particularly to prescription medications, she nodded and smiled and said, "Well, that's a good thing. It means that your body is still awake."

It certainly was awake the last few nights. Colden had a rough couple of nights. The first night, he would not sleep unless I was in bed with him, and even then, he would cry (with his eyes shut) and say things like, "Mommy, I wanna go an a big airplane NOW!" (The best we can figure is that he was thinking about the movie Rio and the three second clip where a big airplane touches down at the airport in Brazil.) Then the night after that, he and Daddy laid there in bed and cuddled and snuggled and laughed and laughed and laughed. Tom said something about Moose chasing a critter in the backyard, and Colden just took that and ran with it - "Moose is chasing those freaking racoons again!" Not exactly conducive to sleep, but we didn't have to get up early the next morning or anything.

We went to Canadian Thanksgiving at Rob and Jenny's last night, and the place was packed. It was so much fun! I can't remember the last time I saw so much food - or felt like eating so much! My only mistake was that I went back for thirds. After my third plate of mushroom stuffing, mashed squash, locally-raised and roasted beets and carrots, mashed potatoes and green salad, the music, noise and heat started to get to me. (It was 83 degrees yesterday!) We had to bail a little early, which was a shame because Colden was having so much fun playing with the other kids.

At one point, I heard singing and I looked down into the lounge area and saw Colden with his little friend Andrew. They were putting together a HUGE wooden train track and singing the theme to the Wonder Pets about teamwork. It was so cute and funny, I told Andrew's mom about it.

Lots of beading for today. Two deadlines: one project needs to be out the door tomorrow morning, and the other needs to be ready to post for Friday morning on Beading Daily.

And I've started another project from Bead Riffs! More on that later today once I get the camera out and ready...

The Death of Jobs

2011-10-06T12:27:00.000-07:00

One of my beading friends on Facebook posted this quote last night:

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.” Steve Jobs

And I just loved it. I had to share it again. I don't know why I was so shocked to hear about the passing of Steve Jobs. It's not like I knew him, although his company certainly affected my life. I can remember playing and working on my dad's Apple IIe computer during grammar school, learning about programming languages and learning how to use a word processor. I think we even used that thing to access the first BBS on a local college campus.

I can remember my uncle using his Mac to create those wonderful church bulletins every week. He was truly talented at desktop publishing, and he and my father had many long conversations about the pros and cons of Apple vs. IBM.

In 2008, my father sent me my first iPod, and I was hooked. Ever since I loaded most of my music collection into my iTunes, I've always said that the only way anyone is going to get that device away from me is to pry it from my cold, dead hands.

I also saw with some amusement this story from The Onion with the headline, "Last American Who Knew What the Fuck He Was Doing Dies". Sadly true, I think.

Wherever he is, I hope Steve Jobs could see Colden this morning as he played on my iPad. RiP, Mr. Jobs.

Night in Tunisia

2011-10-06T05:00:00.000-07:00

First of all, I loved this piece from the minute I saw it. But when I started picking out my colors to go with those Siam Swarovski crystals that I picked, I felt totally disheartened. I just could not find a set of colors that went together well, so I cheated a bit.

I decided to stick with those lovely hematite colored seed beads for the base, and I found some silver lined red beads that were a perfect match for the crystals. I loved the way the grey-lined 15s contrasted with both the red and hematite beads, but I just could not find a color of size 8 that I liked with these beads. So I used size 8 beads in silver lined red.

Stitching this piece together was, I thought, like magic. As I made the base with right angle weave, I couldn't get over how unstructured it looked. (I should have taken a picture.) It was loose, floppy, and just didn't sit right, no matter what I did.

Then I started filling in the little squares, and WOW! Things just tightened right up, took shape, took form... It was a beautiful thing to watch.

I loved the freedom in this piece - Rachel didn't have a specified thread path for filling in each of the little units of right angle weave, so I was free to wander through my beadwork in any way I saw fit, which was good when I was trying to squeeze my beading needle through some of those tightly-filled bead holes.

My current obsession: finding the perfect red sweater to wear with this necklace this winter. I did see a couple of beautiful jewel-toned red cocoon sweaters at the Bass outlet in Lake Placid the other day. Maybe another quick trip there with Colden this weekend...

How to Bend a Tulip Beading Needle

2011-10-05T10:45:00.000-07:00

Well, I did it. I finally figured out how to bend one of those new Tulip beading needles! I finished High Style the other day, and when I was finished, my gorgeous Tulip beading needle had a definite curve to it!

I just love this bracelet! I really should have made it one unit shorter, but as long as I don't lose any more weight, I should be okay with it. And truthfully, if I did have to tear it apart and re-stitch it together, I think I'd be okay with that. (Just can't do it right now with deadlines and some new designs floating around in my head!)

Just look at those fun little bumps! I loved them. There was just something so wonderful and soothing about stitching these. They were simple, once I got the hang of them, and I was amazed at how quick they stitched up.

And just look at how they tarnished! At first, I was disappointed that the shine of those little copper beauties faded so quickly, but then I tried it on with my favorite long copper earrings and my new favorite brown hemp wrap shirt, it looked fabulous. Really fabulous. Like, I can't believe that I made this bracelet fabulous.

I also finished Night in Tunisia, but that will be another post for tomorrow...

Why?

2011-10-03T10:34:00.000-07:00

One of my non-beading friends asked me the other day why I had decided to bead my way through Rachel Nelson-Smith's newest book, Bead Riffs.

There were a few reasons why I wanted to do this. First of all, ever since I saw Rachel's first book, Seed Bead Fusion, I've been totally captivated by her style. I love her techniques of making peyote stitch bumps on a base of right-angle weave, the way she creates bezels to capture rivolis and cabochons... I especially love the way she uses Swarovski crystals. I've never been much of a sparkly-beader kinda gal, but Rachel uses crystals in a way so that is so subtle, you really don't notice them. So when I first took a look through her book, I was just totally inspired to start stitching up every single one of these projects.

Another reason why I was motivated to stitch up all her designs was because I don't often get a chance to stitch up another artist's designs. For the last few years, I've been so busy making beadwork for inventory and working on my own designs that I just haven't had time to make up designs from someone else. That was always something that I loved to do when I first started beading and brought home a new beading book - I would make up little lists on sticky notes with all the beads I needed to buy for each project, and my hours after work were always spent sitting with Tom and watching movies and beading. I thought Rachel's designs are just so beautiful and so WEARABLE that I had to give them a try!

I've also been feeling a little stifled in my own beading designs lately as well. I'm so used to the ideas flowing easily into my sketchbook that this most recent dry spell has left me feeling a little bummed out and a little worried about if the ideas will ever come again. (Of course, on some level, I know they will, but right now, it feels like I've been hung out to dry by my Muse.) I'm hoping that getting a peek into Rachel's process and her designs will help ignite some of that inspiration in my own designs so that I can start designing my own pieces again.

So, enough of that for now. We had a fabulous weekend up here, complete with roaring fires in the wood stove to chase away the damp chill from the rain, a HUGE (60+ pound) box of assorted squash, a big pumpkin that Colden picked out all by himself, and a dinner of roasted vegetables and tempeh with a big loaf of Tom's homemade bread. If this is autumn in the Adirondacks, I say bring it on!

Good

2011-09-30T17:41:00.000-07:00

I saw this on the tire of the Jeep in front of me as I drove into Lake Placid to pick up Tom from work this afternoon. And surprisingly, after having a few days of really dark thoughts and feeling very frustrated with my latest set of digestive problems, I actually ended this day feeling pretty good.

I had a good appointment with my doctor. I am so thankful that I have her as my primary care physician. She is a wonderful, wonderful woman who is not just an excellent doctor, but also has the best bedside manner of any physician I've seen, ever. She suggested to me that I start acupuncture for my digestive issues because of its effect on the autonomous nervous system, and she was pleased when I told her that I've already started. She reassured me that this is nothing more than a gallbladder with attitude, and there's really nothing else we can do for it right now. She doesn't want to push me into surgery, and that's fine with me, because I think I'd have to be a LOT sicker than I am now to go that route.

The nice thing about my acupuncturist is that she's an M.D. She KNOWS this stuff. She knows what works and what doesn't work, and like I said yesterday, she completely understands that I just have one of those bodies that doesn't respond well to Western medicine. So, I'm feeling very optimistic about things after this last set of appointments.

On my way home from the doctor, I stopped in at the local natural foods store to find out if they had any ready-made seitan for a dish I wanted to cook for the potluck tonight, but they were all out. However, when I noticed that they now stock my friend Andrea's organic jams, I mentioned to the girl behind the counter that I knew Andrea from the farmer's markets where I used to sell my work. She asked me what kind of work, and I said beaded jewelry. She looked at me funny. "What's your name?" she asked. I told her. She said, "Oh my gosh! You're the Jennifer that Annie talks about all the time! You were supposed to be at the party yesterday!" Turns out that my friend Annie is friends with this gal, Kate, and Kate does some fabulous bead embroidery and resin jewelry! We exchanged numbers quickly because I had to get home in time for a meeting, but it just made me feel all warm inside to have met another fellow beader who totally understands the addiction as much as I do! (Also gave me a great idea for a blog post about craft junkies, which is, after all, what we really are...)

Then I cooked up another batch of Swiss chard and barley stew, and we went to the potluck Autumn Harvest Dinner at Colden's preschool. So much fun. So much food! Colden got to see his friends again, we all had a great dinner, did some socializing, and then Miss Mona (Colden's teacher) told them a story before we all left.

It's nearly bedtime. Colden is out in the garage workshop with Daddy, doing "man things". (Have no idea what those are, but they're having a good time.) It's chilly tonight, so we'll be piling up a few extra blankets.

We have fresh apples from the orchard. Tomorrow, Colden has a playdate in the morning with his friend Yossi, and Yossi's mom, Martha, and I will get to catch up with each other. Colden and I will bring freshly baked muffins with jam centers.

I have three beading projects on my table for next week. I have a job that I love, a beautiful family, and the best friends a person could ask for.

So, yeah. Life is good.

Ground

2011-09-29T10:09:00.000-07:00

So, one of the things that I have available to me through my (wonderful) new job is this health flex account. I can use it to cover medical co-pays and my dental co-pays (ginormous) and I can also use it to cover the costs for massage therapy at my chiropractor and acupuncture. If you've never had a therapeutic massage or acupuncture treatment, you have no idea how huge this is for me. For years, struggling with migraines, nothing seemed to help until I started getting regular chiropractic adjustments and therapeutic massage.

In July, I went for my first massage in nearly four years, and it was every bit as wonderful as I remembered it. But the first thing that the massage therapist said to me as we started was that I needed to get grounded - she said that she could sense my energies swinging back and forth, which was totally on the mark and a little frightening because it was as if she were reading my thoughts as I tried to relax and follow my breath.

This morning I had another much-needed massage to try to help with this lower back pain and the digestive issues I've been having since August. Both of these things have caused a lot of stress for me (and Tom and Colden, naturally) and I finally decided that while going to the doctor and following her recommendations for treatments was a good thing, I needed to do something else to get myself grounded and relaxed so that I could deal with all of this.

It was a rough morning. Colden hasn't been sleeping well for the last three nights - he's been awake about every forty-five minutes, asking for milk and juice and then yanking the crap out of my hair as he tries to go back to sleep - and Tom and I are feeling stressed out and not well-rested at all. I was late dropping Colden off at Oma and Opa's house, and feeling more than a little wound up and strung out when I got to the chiropractor's office. Well, as soon as Dawn, the massage therapist, took me into the room, she gave me a new relaxation technique to try that involved a series of counted breaths and a position holding your arms out, palms up.

After two breaths this way, I could feel the tension starting to drain from my head and my neck. A few seconds later, I remembered her recommendation to me to get myself grounded, picturing myself as a giant tree with roots going deep into the Earth, my arms and my torso being the trunk and beautiful branches reaching up to the sky. As I did this, she said quietly, "Now, imagine yourself as a tree and get grounded again."

Mind-reading? Maybe not. My sister-in-law, who has been to massage school, has said that this particular type of massage is like "reading minds" because you need to be in tune with the energies of the person you are working with. And Dawn is very, very, very good at that. She can zero in on what is hurting me or causing me distress, and she can make it go away.

So as I was lying there this morning, focusing on my breathing and relaxing each part of my body as she worked, I came to the realization that my body works a little differently than other people that I know. I'm very sensitive to Western medical treatments - if there's a side effect associated with a drug, chances are that I'll get it. I bruise easily when it comes to drawing blood, and I have a wicked gag reflex that makes things like throat cultures and routine dental work horrific for both myself and the doctor or dentist trying to perform the procedures. But what I have noticed is that my body responds to things like massage therapy, chiropractic adjustments and acupuncture, and it responds very well.

Now, I'm not poo-pooing Western medicine. It works very well in some cases. If we hadn't had the option of having a c-section when I was in labor with Colden, we both would probably have ended up being statistics. And I am deeply grateful for antibiotics for the times that Colden and I both had pneumonia. But I just wish that there were more doctors (like mine) who recommended "alternative" therapies like massage and acupuncture, or at least who wouldn't scare the crap out of patients when they ask about them.

The doctor who is the owner of the practice where I go is pretty much clueless when it comes to things like vegetarian diets, chiropractic adjustments and acupuncture, so I do my best to avoid seeing him if at all possible. But on those occasions when he is the care provider on duty and I have no other choice, I'll go to let him make sure that there's nothing seriously wrong with me (because he is a good doctor, even if his bedside manner is horrible) and then I'll work with my acupuncturist or massage therapist to come up with an alternate plan of treatment.

Maybe it's just because I'm more comfortable with a less medically aggressive treatment option. Maybe it's because 99% of my problem is that I've never been very good at handling stress. Or maybe it's because these things actually WORK. These therapies have, after all, been around for thousands of years. We can't pinpoint exactly how they work in a laboratory, but they work.

I walked out of that chiropractor's office feeling better than I've felt in WEEKS. I was relaxed, refreshed, my sore back wasn't sore anymore, my stomach wasn't rumbling or queasy, and I felt ready to tackle the rest of my day. It wasn't just my physical self that felt better, my mental state was vastly improved, too.

So, tomorrow I go back to my regular physician to talk about the next steps in figuring out what's going on with my poor digestive system and what kinds of diagnostic tests we'll do and when. But after I'm finished there, I'll be stopping at the acupuncturist's office and setting up my next series of appointments.

So this is what I learned about myself today. Funny that I never really thought about it like this before, but there it is.

Oh, and the grounding part? Dawn is right on with that. She knows her stuff, let me tell you. I think as an artist and a writer, it becomes very easy for me to get lost, off in the clouds with my thoughts or my ideas. Working online just sort of adds to that ethereal ditziness, too. I need to make more of an effort to be present in my life when I'm not dreaming up ideas or writing or dreaming about what to write next. And it won't happen overnight, but that's what I need to do. I think all artists need to make that effort to become more grounded - otherwise, we'll all become the hazy, shadowy, absent-minded artist-figures that everyone thinks we are!

More on my Bead Riffs project later. I finished the latest project, and am gearing up for something bigger now...

Night in Tunisia

2011-09-27T08:30:00.000-07:00

Okay, so why the hell did I choose Swarovski crystals in Siam?! Huh? Why?

I didn't like those milky pink crystals pictured in the project. No, I thought I would go with something different, something BOLD! Yikes. I think I own about one red sweater, and I only wear the damn thing on Valentine's Day. I have about a dozen tubes of red seed beads, compared to the hundreds of browns, greens, blues, pinks and other earth tones that I own.

So WHY did I choose Siam for this project? I thought the silver-lined red would look beautiful with the gunmetal grey seed beads. But now the problem becomes finding other colors of seed beads that look good with the red and the grey.

Colden and I scoured my seed bead collection. We took out hundreds of tubes of size 8s and 15s and spread them on the floor next to the gunmetal and the silver lined red. And I couldn't find any that I liked.

I finally settled on using some silver lined red size 8s (cop out, since they match the size 11s) and some silver-grey metallic lined 15s.

I just realized that I haven't done a single necklace from this book yet - this will be the first! If I can get it whipped up before the weekend, I just might have to go to Target and buy a red or a grey t-shirt to wear with it...

Shake Yer Groove Thang

2011-09-25T12:34:00.000-07:00

Okay, okay, the project was just called "Groove", but darn it, I couldn't get that song out of my head while I was stitching up these earrings and the ring!

The only problem I had with these was my tension. At first, I was afraid to stitch too tightly because I wasn't sure how the pattern was going to work out. But after I finished the first earring and started in on the second, I saw that I could stitch with a tight tension and it actually made it easier to add the bumps and finial beads!

I didn't like the way that the tops and bottoms collapsed in on me while I was adding the bumps around the sides, but once those bumps were stitched, the earrings had a lot more body. They worked up surprisingly fast - it was like they should have been in the "Easier Than They Look" chapter.

When I ordered the 2mm gold beads for this project, I threw in some extras because I knew that I wanted to make a matching ring. And it came out beautifully:

Yes, there was a little bit of thread showing on this project. I didn't know how else to make it go away. The project called for blue thread, but I used my green Wildfire instead, which looks just as good with the olive-green seed beads.

Fun, fun, fun! These stitched up so easily, I was genuinely surprised at how fast they went. I started them yesterday afternoon while Colden was painting and put the finishing touches on the ring this morning while I was waiting for my oatmeal to cool.

I started feeling a little panicked about how quickly these projects were working up, until I sat down to look at what's ahead of me. Reading a right-angle weave graph. Adding hundreds of bumps and rose montees as embellishment to a necklace. Joining dozens of liquid silver bead components to jump rings. And I gave myself a year to complete all of these projects? I better hope those rose montees and chaton montees come sooner rather than later so I can finish knocking off all the "little" projects in this book and get on to the big ones!

Colden has conked out for a nap, and I have a choice: do I go try to catch a quick nap, take a hot bath with a piece of chocolate and a good book, do the dishes and clean the kitchen, or go rummage through the basement and look for my 1/4" plastic tubing for the two projects that call for it?

I'm thinking that the bath and the chocolate are going to win here...

Addicted to High Style

2011-09-23T11:15:00.000-07:00

I started working on High Times last night. I couldn't stand it - that little baggie of shiny copper beads was just teasing me. They were begging me to dump them out in a little pile and start stitching with them. So after Colden went to bed, that's what I did. (The poor kid was finally feeling better, but he was totally exhausted. He ate a HUGE dinner, came into the bedroom to snuggle with me for a few minutes and just conked right out before eight.)

Once I started stitching the base, it was damn near impossible for me to stop. Seriously. There's something about the rhythm of right angle weave that just hooks me. I can feel something click in my brain and there's that rush of serotonin...almost like eating dark chocolate.

What I discovered, though, was that stitching with these 2mm copper beads was NOT like stitching with regular seed beads. I had to slide them onto the thread past the eye of the needle. The holes got stuck on the needle. And there wasn't any way to just scoop them up with the needle like I usually do with seed beads - I either had to put them on by hand or pick them up one at a time with the needle. Ack!

Then, like I said before, I don't like it when I can't picture how the piece will come together from instructions. This was the case with the start of this bracelet. I just couldn't figure it out. As I was stitching it, I felt the light bulb come on: this was a cubic right angle weave bangle bracelet! Made with metal rounds! Oh my God, it suddenly felt a lot more intimidating...

I sat down and put on 3rd Rock From the Sun, and I told myself that I would stop beading at nine o clock and go to bed. Nine came and went. Okay, I thought, I'll stop at nine-thirty. Pretty soon, I was telling myself that I would stop at ten. Finally, at ten forty-five, I had to quit. My eyes were so tired that they felt puffy and my sinuses were telling me to get some sleep. So I reluctantly put the beading aside and went to bed.

One thing I realized as I was working, though, is that I'm going to need more copper beads. Something else I don't like is when I run out of beads in the middle of a project! I can't stand it - it drives me nuts to have to put down a project right in the middle of the stitching because I've run out of beads. Darn it. And what kills me is that I thought I had way more beads than I needed for this!

I had ordered a package of 1,000 2mm copper beads. I figured that would be plenty - the instructions in the book said that the bracelet pictured used 960 beads and I only added one extra unit to make sure that the bangle would fit around my oddly enormous knuckles. I finished six bumps and I only have enough beads left to make maybe another six bumps! Even when I did the math, it came out that I should have had plenty of beads to finish this bracelet. I have no idea what happened. I know I didn't spill any on the floor, but on the other hand, I didn't count every single bead that was in the bag when I got the order last week.

Nothing to do now but wait for the rest of the beads to arrive next week.

When I looked at the bracelet this morning, I realized that the bright, shiny copper beads that I was stitching the night before had turned dark and dull overnight. I was a little disappointed at first, but then I realized that the only pair of copper earrings that I own have a dull finish. So at least the two pieces will match when I finish the bracelet...

My plan for now is to finish this bracelet, and then move on to another quick project while I wait for the rest of the beads. Maybe a pair of earrings with a matching ring over the weekend is the thing to do...

High Style

2011-09-22T19:40:00.000-07:00

I'm 2 hours into the next project, High Style, and I've realized a few things:

1. Beading with 2mm metal round beads is NOT the same as beading with size 11 seed beads. It's much harder.
2. Somehow, I've been roped into doing a cubic right angle weave bangle bracelet without realizing it.
3. I'm gonna need a lot more of these copper beads. 1,000 of them weren't enough!

Time for bed...

Two-Beat Finished!

2011-09-22T13:53:00.000-07:00

I finished it! Despite everything that was going on today... Last night, Colden didn't want anything for dinner. Not terribly unusual, he eats really well during the day, so we usually just let him nibble and then give him a snack. Sandy said that he didn't seem himself at their place yesterday, and he was acting strange while I was fixing dinner - he would suddenly just start crying and saying, "Moooommm-y!" We figured maybe he was just being needy. Then Tom got on the phone with Kathy, and Colden started crying again. This time, he came running at me, and - BLEAH! - just projectile vomited all over the floor.

We got him cleaned up and snuggled into bed with me, and he eventually started acting a little better and went to sleep. In the morning, he was acting more like himself and he asked Tom for some peanut butter crackers. Tom gave him one peanut butter cracker sandwich and some juice, and Colden came back into bed with me and threw up again.

Taking him to the dentist in Burlington didn't really seem like an option at that point, so after I got Colden cleaned up again and settled into bed, I called and canceled our appointment and then called the pediatrician. Everything checked out okay at the pediatrician, and we went home to let Colden rest and watch Diego for a while.

I took the opportunity to finish the last link in Two-Beat and attach everything together! And here it is! Yay! Second project down!

I love this bracelet. I loved making the beaded beads. I loved making the toggle and attaching it to the pieces of chain. I love the colors I picked for this bracelet - it will go with pretty much everything I have in my closet.

What I discovered while making these beaded beads was that I was really afraid of making those beaded beads with the size 15s! Like, seriously afraid. I whipped through the size 11 beaded beads with no problems, but when it came time to sit down with those teeny tiny beads...I felt like I had to fight myself to use them.

I made the clasp right after I made the first two beaded beads, thinking that it would be a good way for me to estimate the number of beads I needed for the bracelet. I also thought that maybe working with those size 15s on the clasp would limber me up for making the rest of the beaded beads...but it didn't. I still had to fight myself to sit down and make those tiny beaded beads!

As I stitched up the toggle bar with the 15s, I kept thinking to myself, "How many more of these clasps do I have to do?"

I've been looking through the projects and through my beads to see which of the projects I can start next without having to buy anything else. The other bracelet projects that call for a 7-strand 41mm silver tube clasp have me a little worried: the instructions call for me to nip off three of the loops on the clasp. Honestly, the thought of mauling a $35 silver clasp just makes me shiver. Am I going to be able to do it?

And now, I'm going for a break. I've been sick as a dog since Tuesday night, sneezing and coughing and blowing my nose... I was completely miserable last night, sinuses aching so bad I thought I was going to pass out. I think a nice hot bath and a piece of chocolate are in order for this afternoon...and I'll decide which project to tackle next!

Supplies

2011-09-20T11:34:00.000-07:00

This is what was in my post office box the other morning:

My order from Fusion Beads! Sterling and gold-filled seamless rounds, a big bag of tiny 2mm copper rounds, some Swarovski rounds, bicones and sequins, a length of chain, a clasp, two sets of ear wires... And all of this was $117?! For real?!

I was really stunned at how much all of this came to when I was placing my order. On the computer screen, it looked like a lot: all those neatly itemized little lines with the numbers and the cost. And then I realized, as I was waiting for my order to arrive, that all of these items would fit perfectly in a teeny tiny little padded envelope that was small enough to fit right into my post office box. Wowza.

So, please, no one tell my husband how much all of this cost...

The upshot is that these supplies are enough for me to make five more projects from the book: two pairs of earrings (once I get the rose montees from Rachel), a necklace, a ring and a bracelet. I can't wait to jump into them, but first I need to finish Two-Step this week.

And in other news... The Keene farmer's market was open again this week after being closed since Irene tore up the roads. This was the first time that 9N from Jay to Keene was open, and the first time that route 73 was open through Keene since the storm. Upper Jay and Keene just looked like a war zone: trees down, roads still washed out and ripped up, the remains of houses and buildings flattened and waiting to be cleaned up. A total mess. So I went and did my bit and spent some money at the farmer's market. We bought some gourmet cupcakes, jam from my friend Andrea, and I even picked up a couple of hand cut gemstone cabochons:

I just know I've got the perfect gemstone beads to accent these... So in all my spare time, I'll start stitching them up, right?

Crappy, cold, rainy, grey day here today. Bundled Colden up extra well this morning for his outdoor playtime at Miss Mona's. Barley and Swiss chard stew for dinner tonight, and hot chocolate right now to get me through the afternoon...

The Bead Soup Blog Party!

2011-09-17T12:28:00.000-07:00

And of course, here I am, late to the party as always...

My partner, Kim Hora, sent me this:

I was totally in love with these gorgeous handmade enamel rings that she sent. Kim even sent me an extra ring to play with later! I had no idea what to do with any of them, and they were certainly out of my comfort zone, even though I loved the colors. I just don't do that much with metals!

A trip to my local Michael's craft store and some new brass chain was what I needed. I came home, sat down with the chain and my headpins, and created this:

Totally NOT what I usually do, but it's still my style! I think I'm going to get a lot of wear out of this necklace - in fact, I'm wearing it right now!

I loved playing with different combinations of beads and those filigree bead caps on the headpins. That brass flower was going to get used, no matter what, I decided. I decided to save the dragonfly for another project - and besides, Colden likes to come up to my work pad (where the dragonfly currently lives), gently lift it up and make it "fly" away across the house for a little while.

Thanks so much to Lori for making this all happen! I can't imagine what kind of work goes into pulling off something like this. This is my third Bead Soup Blog Party, and I can't wait to sign up for the next one!

If you want to see all of the gorgeous designs that were made around the world in this Bead Soup Blog Party, you can find the whole list here. And make sure you drop by Lori's blog and take a look at her Bead Soup pieces - absolutely gorgeous!

And now, I go take a rest. Tom and his friend have been on the roof all day, tearing off shingles and putting on paper, and it sounds like they are starting to hammer down another layer of something. Colden and I went to Plattsburgh and ran errands, then I came home and put away all the groceries, made lunch, did the dishes, and ran to get sandwiches for the guys and the kids. And of course, I discovered that we had no frozen peas and no more sliced almonds in the freezer for tonight's dinner. Figures. So, a little rest for me before I have to get back in the car and go up to AuSable Forks and get stuff for dinner.

Starting Two-Beat

2011-09-15T09:58:00.000-07:00

I really hate it when I read a set of beading instructions and I just can't picture how the piece comes together. I really hate that. And that's how I was feeling as I read over the instructions for Two-Beat, the next project I decided to tackle. I read about making the base, adding the bumps, adding the chain...and I just could not picture how it was all supposed to come together. I looked at the picture of the finished beaded beads attached by links of chain...and I could not figure out how it was going to work.

So, I just said, to hell with it, here we go.

I started with the size 11 beads because I didn't think I wanted to attempt this with the size 15s before I knew what the hell I was doing! And sure enough, the bead came together! I was envisioning it all wrong, and it took me a grand total of about five minutes to finish this bead.

Cutting the chain took me a little longer. Believe it or not, I had a heck of a time cutting that tiny little chain into three-link sections. My huge cutters made it hard to nip off the chain at every fourth link, but I discovered a new use for my bead scoop: scooping up the tiny little bits of chain that soon littered my work surface. Yikes.

After finishing that first beaded bead, I thought I'd make the toggle clasp so that I could easily figure out how many beaded beads I would need for the bracelet. So I took out those fun plastic rings that I found at Michael's over the weekend and the size 15 seed beads and started to stitch tubular right angle weave around the ring.

Wow. It has probably been way too long since I tried to do something like this with size 15 seed beads. Or maybe it was just the Full Moon Effect making me nuts, but those first few rounds were like dental-chair torture. Beads slipping everywhere, needles stuck into fingers... Yeouch! But after I got into a rhythm, it went surprisingly fast.

For the toggle bars, I found that I could cut up my trashed (bent) beadmaking mandrels and they would make perfect bars to bead around. I really loved using those heavy duty cutters and then the sanding machine to smooth the ends out. Something satisfying about using machinery like that. Makes me feel sort of...industrial?

How many more of these toggles do I have to make? Ha! I knew this was going to be a learning experience, and so far, I've learned that I need to do more beading! I'm almost dreading making those other beaded beads with the size 15s. Sooooo tiny! What's happened to me? I never used to shy away from using those little beads!

Still waiting on my order from Fusion Beads, and this morning I went ahead and ordered all the rose montees and chaton montees that I need for every project in the book. So there's no turning back now!

Once the stuff from Fusion Beads gets here, I'll have everything I need to make High Style, Night in Tunisia, Groove (earrings and a matching ring) and Nightingale. Five projects that worked out to about twenty bucks each for materials. Not bad for handmade jewelry, eh?

Time for lunch. More beading tonight, if I can get Colden to bed at a decent hour and without too much fuss! Bedtimes have been absolute torture lately. And even when we can get him to go to sleep, he wakes up every 90 minutes and cries for milk and juice. I hope this is just a phase and that he gets through it quickly, because I need some sleep. Again.

I Remember

2011-09-11T08:57:00.000-07:00

Ten years ago, at around 8:46 in the morning, I was just getting off I-87, the Northway, at Exit 37, heading to my classes at Plattsburgh State University. That was where I first heard the report on NPR of a plane crashing into one of the World Trade Center buildings. I remember standing in line for my morning bagel and hot chocolate and watching the television with everyone else, still in disbelief, as the second plane crashed.

This morning, ten years later, and on a Sunday, I found myself getting off at Exit 37 on I-87, heading into Plattsburgh once again, but this time, with Colden in the backseat. We were heading to Target to do some last-minute preschool shopping for him. (New t-shirts and socks, since he has totally outgrown everything I bought for him last year at this time.)

It was strange being in Plattsburgh again at the same time, exactly ten years later. Target was quiet. Everyone seemed subdued. There was very little traffic this morning.

Tonight, we'll cook a big meal together and eat out on the picnic table, playing in the back yard and watching the sun go down. And we will remember.

I Believe

2011-09-10T15:56:00.000-07:00

On this, the eve of the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, I just want to share a little bit of what has been going through my head. There is a part of me that feels I should not share this with anyone, but there's another part of me, a stronger part that knows I have the courage of my convictions to support me. So here it goes.

Someone that I used to work with (and whom I still greatly admire for her dedication to her family, her intelligence and her embrace of her creative side - you know who you are!) once told me that I would make a great lawyer because I have a very strong sense of justice. That was something that made me proud. I think my father also once implied something along those lines when he told me that I was a "good kid" after expressing to him my frustration about a family disagreement when I was a teenager.

Let me explain what a strong sense of justice is to me... In this country, the Tea Party, as far as I can tell, is probably the biggest threat to our security as Americans. I feel it is a bigger threat than any religious zealot in a far-flung country, bigger than any kind of "home bred" terrorism. Why is it such a threat? Because it is tearing this country apart from within.

We have children in this country who go to bed hungry every single night. We have record unemployment rates. We have people losing their homes because of unregulated practices on Wall Street. We have an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in our country RIGHT NOW. And all the Tea Party seems to care about is cutting government spending - even if it is at the expense of our children, our compassion for one another and the future of this country.

We can withstand an attack from outside - 9/11 clearly showed that. Americans came together in a way unseen since the second World War. It was an amazing and moving experience for me to live through that in my small community in the North Country. But how much longer can we allow the politicians to put their own self-interests (as well as the special interests who line their pockets) ahead of what is best for our nation as a whole? Do we really need to listen to our elected leaders talk about how PRAYER will solve everything? Hey, even the Islamic extremists don't rely on prayer alone. No, they've seen how powerful the use of guns and bombs and hijacked airplanes can be when you want to accomplish something. (Note that I am not condoning or sanctioning violence of any sort at any time. I just want to establish the difference between taking concrete action and simply sitting around, looking at the sky and waiting for something to happen.)

When someone tells me that they want to eliminate an "entitlement" program like Medicare or Social Security, I start to see red. Entitlement is a bad word now? You can be damn sure that if I pay into Social Security for my entire working life (and I started working when I was 16, just so you know) I sure as hell feel like I'm "entitled" to draw on that money if and when I decided to retire!

When the GOP presidential candidates start talking about eliminating Medicare and Social Security, I cringe. We do not live in a "welfare state", as many believe. Far from it. I have worked hard my entire adult life, and I continue to do so. But I also understand that there are many, many people in this country who have not had the same opportunities that I have had, regardless of all this nonsense talk of "equality" that the politicians like to spew at you. Should we just ignore the folks who were not born to wealthy parents? Are their lives not worth the same as mine? Do they have less of a right to peace of mind and well-being? And most importantly, should our government be responsible for assisting its citizens in becoming productive members of society if they can't do it on their own?

When Michelle Bachman starts to talk gibberish about dismantling the Department of Education, I cringe. My husband and I are going to send our son to public school. What happens to the population when there is no government mandate to educate them? Do we simply accept our fall from one of the most literate, educated countries in the world because no one in the government cares enough to make sure that we educate our children? What happens to the economy when you are faced with an entire citizenry of uneducated workers who are barely qualified to run a cash register because they lack basic math skills? How is slashing education budgets going to HELP our economy?

So here is where I think the Tea Party got it wrong. I would challenge any of them to go live in a country - say, sub-Saharan Africa - where there are NO government services. No clean water. No sewer system. No public roads. No public health care for the very poor or the elderly. No government unemployment insurance. Go live there for ten years. See what your life is like. And then after you've experienced how the other 90% of the world lives, only then can you be allowed to come back into America where we have a government that provides all these things that you take for granted every single day of your miserable lives.

And speaking of "equality" back there - why do the politicians seem to think that if all men are created equal, some of them should shoulder more of the tax burden than others? How does that make any sense at all? If we are all equal in the eyes of the government, then we should all pay an equal share of taxes. My husband and I work damn hard. And we pay nearly 34% of our income in taxes. Why does Joe Q. Millionaire only have to pay 3% or 4% of his income in taxes? Because he earns more money? What kind of weird political logic is that? If cutting the taxes of the fabulously wealthy creates more jobs, why are we still seeing record unemployment in this country? Doesn't anybody else see these things as totally outrageous and inherently unjust? (Note: I did not use the word "fair". Life is not fair. I understand that. What I am concerned with here is a sense of JUSTICE. We are talking right and wrong here, people. That's the difference between your parents telling you that life isn't always fair because you didn't make the cheerleading squad and a murderer walking free because of a lack of evidence, which, sadly, I have personal experience of.)

So here is what I suggest. We need to change the way our system works. We need to get rid of the special interests. Lobbying by special interests to the American government should become, as of this very second, illegal. If anyone is caught lobbying to an elected representative in the United States government, they are sent to jail for the rest of their lives. Sure, we designed the lobbying program to ensure that things were done "fairly" - but what we have created is a system that is UNJUST, where the corporation with the most money wins and the rest of us can go to hell and eat rice gruel while our children starve and their minds wither because we have no government that can provide services and jobs for its citizens. Is it really right that the huge corporations with the best lawyers and the most money to buy their politicians get all the perks? Is that really what America is all about?

I'd like to think not.

If the Tea Party wants to vent their anger about something, how about they vent their anger towards the illegal wars that we have been entrenched in since 2001. How about they vent their anger about the FACT that corporations receive multi-billion dollar bailouts while there are MILLIONS of children in this country who go to bed hungry every single fucking night. Yeah, I'm pretty outraged about that. How about they vent their anger about the fact that there are people in this country, the most prosperous country in the entire fucking WORLD, who are dying of appendicitis and pneumonia because they can't afford to see a doctor? How about they get angry about THAT? What would a world like that look like?

Back in the day, the politicians, the GOP, even, were most concerned with providing social services to the poor and the elderly; protecting the environment; and ensuring that no one in this country went hungry. What happened to those days? Have we coddled our politicians so much, made them so powerful, that they really don't care about the people that they are elected to govern?

Now, after reading this, you might just want to dismiss me as just another uneducated liberal. Go ahead. But in thirty years, when you are ready to quit working and spend some time with your family and friends during the last years of your life and you find that your government-ensured safety net is GONE...don't come crying to me. Because I care about this country. I care about its citizens. I care about making sure that no one goes without food, or without an education or clean water or decent health care. If that makes me a liberal or (God forbid!) a socialist or whatever the fuck label you want to slap on me, I can live with that. Because no matter what else you call me, I am, above all else, a decent human being.

I can only hope that there are few of those left in Washington, D.C., too.

Politicians

2011-09-09T04:27:00.000-07:00

A little political "humor" from my husband last night:

A woman goes to have her hair cut at the local barbershop. When she asks the barber how much for the cut, he says, "Oh, no. I'm doing this as a community service. You're the best florist in town and you do your job so well, this hair cut is free." The woman thanks him profusely and goes home. The next morning, the barber comes to his shop and finds a thank-you card and a dozen roses.

Then a local police officer comes in for a hair cut. When he asks how much for the cut, the barber tells him, "Oh, no charge for you, sir. I'm doing this as a service to the community. You do so much to keep our community safe, so this hair cut is on the house." The police officer thanks him and goes home. The next morning, the barber arrives at his shop and finds a thank-you card and a dozen donuts.

That day, a local Congressman arrives for a hair cut. Once again, when he asks the price of the hair cut, the barber tells him, "Oh, no, this cut is on the house. You do so much to serve our country, I'm doing this as a community service." The Congressman shakes his hand, thanks him, and leaves.

The next morning, the barber arrives at his shop and finds a dozen Congressman lined up for free hair cuts.

First Project Done!

2011-09-08T11:24:00.000-07:00

I finally finished the database with all the beads and findings that I'm going to need for these projects, and dang! I found a source for the rose montees and the chaton montees - Rachel's own website! I tallied up how many I would need - including enough for all the versions of the Five-Piece Band rings and a few extras in case I lose a couple - and it's going to be a hefty investment for me. Instead, I think I'm just going to buy them in batches - all the rose montees first, and then the chaton montees later. I also just placed an order from Fusion Beads for all of the earring project supplies and one set of necklace supplies.

And there are more projects that I can make right now, like the Two-Beat bracelet, and maybe even the Something Cool bracelet. (Although I'm not too sure about the Something Cool bracelet - I have some drop beads, but they don't look as drop-y as the beads that Rachel uses in that bracelet.)

At first, I thought I was going to make each project from the book in the exact same colors as they were pictured. Then I started thinking, no, maybe this is a way for me to experiment with my own sense of color while working on Rachel's projects and designs. While some of them will be made exactly as she has them pictured, I think I am going to inject my own color sense into as many of them as I can, using the beads that I already have. (Because I hate choosing bead colors on the computer!)

The first project that I finished this morning were here Sassy earrings. What better place to start? They were inspired by Sarah Vaughan, a fellow Jersey girl, and I just happened to have all of the seed beads handy to make them, including those yummy matte avocado size 15s:

They are made with Rachel's signature "bumps", similar to those in her Ootheca beadwork, and they were a lot more difficult to do than I remember!

These were interesting because of the change in sizes going from a 5x5 bump to a 3x3.

This is what the base looked like before I added all those widdle bumps!

So, now I'm off! More work to do, including a long-overdue stitch workshop for Beading Daily, and I have to go choose some colors for my next project or two... I've got some gorgeous vintage brass chain that would be perfect for the next bracelet I attempt!

And in case you missed my previous post, I'm giving away a copy of Rachel Nelson-Smith's Bead Riffs - check out the blog post, leave a comment (or two or three) and I'll pick a winner next week!

Rachel Nelson-Smith's Bead Riffs - and a Giveaway!

2011-09-06T06:42:00.001-07:00

Okay, so first off, I just want to say: this book is a masterpiece. Being a musician myself, I totally related to how Rachel drew comparisons between music (in her case, jazz) and the art and craft of beadweaving. I loved the way she used names from her favorite jazz standards as names for her beaded creations. I loved the way she used Swarovski crystals - instead of over-the-top bling (which isn't necessarily a bad thing, just something I'm not personally fond of) she uses them as accents, undertones to the rich colors of seed beads that take center stage.

The materials that Rachel chooses for these projects are relatively easy to find, too. For most of the projects, you probably have the necessary seed beads and findings already in your stash. (The only things I really need to purchase are the rose montees and the chaton montees.) Seed beads in various colors? Check. Loads of Swarovski bicones? Check. Loads of Swarovski Rivolis? Double check. I'm pretty much ready to roll!

The book itself is visually striking. Lark does such an amazing job of layouts and photographs and formatting, you will want to read this book over and over.

And speaking of reading this book over and over...

After the first look-through, I felt this desire to make every single project in it. And I've been watching the movie "Julie/Julia" a lot lately. So why not, I thought, bead my way through every project in this book and blog about it? Rachel is such a pioneer in creative beadweaving that it would be an amazing learning experience to actually make all 23 projects in this book. I realized what a truly brilliant artist Rachel was while I was working my way through a series of kits for the projects in her first book, Seed Bead Fusion. If I worked my way through every project in this book, I would learn a heck of a lot.

So I'm going to do it. The first thing that I did was to set up a database that had a list of all the materials needed for each project and sources for them. (And if anyone has a good source for those rose montees and chaton montees, please share!)

Rondo Neckpiece from Rachel Nelson-Smith's Bead Riffs. If anyone has a good online source for those sparkly rose montees, PLEASE share it with me!

I'm giving myself a year to complete all the projects, which I think should be plenty of time, considering everything else that needs to get done on a daily basis around here. That breaks down to two projects per month, approximately. For some of the more intricate projects, I'll probably have to multi-task and work on more than one project at a time. We'll see how that works out!

At any rate, in my haste to get my copy of Rachel's new book, I wound up with two copies of Seed Bead Riffs. Guess what that means? I'm giving one of them away! Here ya go: leave a comment on this post, along with an email where I can contact you. Tell me what you love the most about beads and beadweaving, and on Monday, September 12, I'll randomly pick a winner. If you want more than once chance to win, spread the love: share this link on Facebook, Twitter or your own blog and come back and leave a comment telling me where you shared it with the link.

Have you ever enjoyed a good beading challenge? What kind of project was it? How did you do?

Irene

2011-09-02T12:02:00.000-07:00

The damage from this hurricane was devastating. I still can't believe it, even though I've seen the pictures on Facebook and heard from my friends who sustained major damages to their homes and businesses. The AuSable River, which runs in a valley about half a mile down the hill from our house, rose to its highest level on record: 19 feet. Flood stage is around 7 feet. Folks who made it through our crazy spring flooding with little or no damage were completely taken by surprise during this storm. There are still parts of our area that do not have electricity, and many people are running short on water and food. There are National Guard units working with the Army Corps of Engineers, the DOT and the DEC to stabilize and repair roads that were washed away by the floodwaters and to clean up the fuel oil and heating fuel that were spilled when fuel tanks were ripped away from homes and torn up by the river.

Tom and I drove on the bridge that crosses the AuSable River over on Stickney Bridge Road and saw the roof of a vehicle smashed up against the trees on the river banks. I've seen toilets, fuel tanks, tires, bicycles, shovels, mattresses and television sets among the debris along the river banks.

Our community library in Upper Jay was completely demolished. Because it was so close to the river, the flood waters got into the building and destroyed over 50% of their collection of books, along with all of their computers and most of the historical records kept by the library. At my favorite local bakery in Upper Jay, the entire front of the building was torn off and the owner's 12-day-old car was picked up and smashed against his home. Two antique stores in Upper Jay were completely destroyed by the flood, and one of them had a huge tree fall down through the center of the building. The Land of Make Believe, the first theme park in the United States by artist Arto Monaco, was completely washed away and no longer exists. In nearby Keene, that town is still cut off from the rest of the world because the roads have just been washed away by the flood waters.

I think what bothers me the most about all of this is that the businesses that were damaged were all locally-owned businesses. We're not talking about major conglomerates like Lowe's or Sears or Starbucks, where there are deep corporate pockets to repair damages and get business going again. Most of these businesses depend on locals and summer visitors, and with the Labor Day weekend coming up and most of the roads around here still closed, I don't know how they are going to be able to survive this without some serious help.

The community response to the floods has been overwhelming, and that's one of the things that I love about living in a small community like this. There are food stations set up for people who can't cook meals anymore because of the flood, and the local building supply company is offering a discount on all supplies for Irene-related damage. Gotta love the North Country...

Bead Soup Blog Party

2011-08-25T12:33:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm at it again: I signed up and am participating in the latest Bead Soup Blog Party! I got my beads from my partner the other day, and this is what she sent me:

My wonderful swap partner sent me this amazing mix of gemstone and natural shell beads, a toggle clasp, some fun brass filigree findings, a brass dragonfly (which Colden immediately fell in love with) and one of her handmade enamel rings! It's such a cool assortment, I don't know where to start! So many ideas, so little time... But the reveal is still a few weeks away, so I have a few weekends to get something made with this lovely stuff.

My beading projects seem to have gotten completely out of control lately. I realized at the beginning of this week that my Beading For a Cure project is due on MONDAY, so that means some serious bead-haulin' butt this weekend. And of course, I ran out of green Wildfire...

Lately I feel as though my head is about to pop. I can only take so much with all the crazy stories in the news and what's going on in Washington with all of our elected representatives acting like a bunch of immature, selfish children. There are things that I'd like to say here, but I'll refrain out of fear that my rants may become overly venomous. Instead, I've been turning my attention towards my blogging for Beading Daily and my beading projects and trying to spread some positive vibes and creative joy in the world. I'll leave the venom for another day.

This should be a good weekend to get caught up on beading. Some of those computer models show hurricane Irene passing directly over the Adirondacks. The National Weather Service is warning people to take their boats out of Lake Champlain this weekend ahead of the predicted 70 mph winds and heavy rain and flooding. Like we need more flooding...

Meeting the Universe Halfway

2011-08-14T05:34:00.000-07:00

So, I'm going to steal this one from my sister:

There was a devout man who prayed to God every day to let him win the lottery. Every day, he prayed, "Please, God, let me win the lottery this week." And the weeks passed, and still the man didn't win the lottery. Finally, one day, while he was praying, he heard a voice: "This is God. I hear you. But meet me halfway on this one - buy a lottery ticket!"

I sort of got one of those "meet me halfway" messages a couple of weeks ago, just a few days after reading my sister's blog post with this little story. It kind of hit me on the head, and I thought, okay, the Universe is trying to tell me something. So off I go!

The result of me trying to meet the Universe halfway on this one was a set of amazing photographs of some of my favorite pieces of beaded jewelry that I've made over the last six years. As I was looking through my collection to see which pieces I wanted to have photographed, I realized that I don't have any really spectacular knock-out pieces of beadwork for myself anymore! It seems that I've sold pretty much every beautiful piece of beaded jewelry that I've made in the last five years. I've decided from now on, I won't be automatically selling every single piece of beadwork that I make. I need to keep something for myself, don't I?

That said, the photograph above was taken by Sherwood Lake, husband of the fabulous Nancy Dale of NEDBeads. She and her husband kindly offered their professional photography services to help me meet the Universe halfway on this one, and I couldn't have been more pleased with the results!

I'm feeling strangely motivated this weekend. While we're going to be doing lots of family stuff - farmer's market and playground - I'm taking a few minutes this morning to get a jump on my week. Something about meeting the Universe halfway...

Night

2011-07-31T18:46:00.000-07:00

Before I had Colden, I used to stay up late to work and bead. I would easily stay up until 2 or 3 in the morning, watching movies, beading, writing and just letting myself be creative. Of course, the next day I was almost always able to sleep in - no getting up multiple times each night to change diapers and get milk and juice. And tonight, even though my back is hurting and my body is telling me that it is now time to get some rest, my brain just won't turn off. Tom and Colden are curled up and asleep on the bed in Colden's room, and I need to get to sleep because I have a jillion things to do in the morning, but my brain is trying to pull me into the living room where that big beading project is sitting on my table... Something to do with an imminent deadline, I think.

Let's just cross our collective fingers that my back is better in the morning. I was actually well enough this morning to go to Plattsburgh with Tom and Colden, and then after dinner I managed a walk around the backyard a few times. Of course, there were a couple of times when I missed a step or tried to walk up or down the little hill when I felt that awful twinge, but there was no way I could have done that on Friday!

Oh, well. Uploaded 100 photos of Colden to Flickr. Maybe I'll go set up another set and then get some sleep...

Catching Up

2011-07-30T17:24:00.000-07:00

So, despite yesterday's inability to walk or move my legs without intense pain, I managed to get around a little better today. I also decided that I needed to cook something decent for myself for dinner tonight while Tom was out with Colden, so I chopped up a zucchini and a tomato and made a baked zucchini boat with some brown rice. It was the first "real" food that I've been able to eat all week without pain and nausea, and it tasted so good! (We're hoping that we can determine on Monday if this is either one heck of a nasty stomach virus or a real honest-to-goodness gallbladder attack. Yuck.)

When I went out to the herb garden, I saw that my beloved thyme plant has been completely overrun with garlic chives and oregano. I'll have to do something about that. My first thought was that I wanted to buy a thyme plant and keep it in the house all year, the way we do with the parsley and the rosemary. There's just something I love about fresh thyme - it seems so exotic and comforting, all at once. I love fresh leaves of rosemary and thyme when they've been chopped up and thrown in with a pot of chickpea soup in the fall. It's just a taste that I can wrap around myself when it gets cold like a big, thick wooly blanket.

And yesterday, in desperation for something to do, I decided to try out the Kindle app for PC. Wow. I'm starting to become addicted to downloading books now. And here I am, the person who swore she would never get any kind of eReader. (We won't talk about my new iPad that is due to arrive on Tuesday or Wednesday next week.) I've been adding Kindle books to my Amazon wishlist, and I've got about 60 of them on there now. Being able to download a book in about three seconds to my laptop or my iPad is going to be as close to instant gratification as I can get! Oy, this could get expensive...

I went to the doctor Thursday morning to get checked out, since it was going on four days since I had been able to eat without feeling overwhelmingly nauseous. It was an odd visit. First of all, I couldn't see my regular doctor because I didn't have an appointment. So I got to see the owner of the practice who, while he is a very good doctor, is somewhat socially dysfunctional. While I was waiting in the exam room, I realized that they had left the door wide open. I didn't bother to close it, but while I was waiting, I heard him talking to one of the nurses about another patient who had just been given an i.v. infusion of something. Suddenly, I heard him say, "Oh, shit!" That just couldn't be good.

Then he comes in and starts to talk to me, and when he listens to my heart, he looks down at my toes and says, "Oh, wow, nice toe nails. I love purple nail polish." So, okay, what would YOU have said to that? I was like, um, okay, dude, just don't tell me you're wearing a thong or anything and we'll be okay. Then when we were discussing my symptoms and talking about what lab tests he wanted to run, he asked if there was any chance I could be pregnant. No, I told him, there is no chance that I am pregnant. "Well, we're going to do a pregnancy test anyway, just because I don't trust women." Okay. Now, I must have given him the hairy eyeball and but good, because a few seconds later he stammers, "Oh, well, I don't trust men, either." So, okay, dude, is there anyone that you DO trust?

Like I said, this is the reason that this guy is not my regular doctor. He's actually a brilliant physician in his specialty, but he's a social moron. No bedside manner. If he had been required to take one of those human-interaction classes that they now require of med students, he would have flunked out for sure.

But the good news is that he's not terribly worried about anything, he thinks this might just be one of those things that my body needs to kick off all by itself, so I'm just trying to humor it and take it easy. (Which isn't so easy when Colden pretty much relies on me for EVERYTHING from potty training to diaper changing to pajama time and meals.)

I can hear Tom and Colden in Colden's room right now, eating ice cream cones and watching "How to Train Your Dragon". Last night they did bedtime without me while I tried to stay comfortable in bed and get some rest, and when Tom cuddled up with Colden, the two of them started giggling like it was a slumber party. It made me a little sad that I couldn't be in there reading to Colden.

Truthfully, I have no idea what happened to my back. The only thing I can think is that it has something to do with me picking up Colden (who now weighs around 44 lbs and is about the size of your average 5 or 6 year old) and giving him piggyback rides. All I know is that after I got home from the chiropractor yesterday, I had to lie on the floor for a few hours with the ice pack on my back and that walking was so painful that it made me want to laugh. ('Cause I'd never had back pain like this before, and I didn't know what else to do.)

So. Tomorrow is Sunday. I hope to have a few pictures up of some of the work I've been doing the last few weeks. And I hope that I will be able to get outside (or at least onto the back porch) and enjoy some more of the summer while it lasts...

Vent

2011-07-21T08:33:00.000-07:00

Maybe it's the heat. Maybe it's the heat and the fact that the air conditioner fell out of the window yesterday and cracked into two pieces in the side yard. Maybe it's the fact that Lake Placid (and Jay and Wilmington) have been overrun by the amazingly physically fit who will be competing in Sunday's Ironman triathlon.

This year, it seems like the bicyclists who are training along the race route are either dumber or more arrogant than they've ever been. And it seems to really be getting to the locals. There are have been complaints by local town supervisors about gaggles of bicyclists hanging out in the middle of the road at major intersections. I have seen them riding four and five across the road, which is not only illegal, it's stupid. And this morning, I saw the bicyclist to take the cake. This guy was riding down the hill in front of our house which is a two-lane road and a major route between Plattsburgh, Vermont, Montreal and Lake Placid. But he was riding down in the middle of the lane, with four cars puttering along behind him. Really. Way to take yourself out of the gene pool, man.

I don't understand why people get so hyped up over Ironman. I know it's only once a year, but it seems to be inconvenient for way longer than that. We locals have to deal with the arrogant bicyclists who don't follow the rules of the road for way longer than just one day. Not that every bicyclist is arrogant, but these folks either don't know or don't care about safe cycling when it comes to riding your bike on narrow, rural roads that aren't always in the best of shape. I worry when Tom takes the motorcycle to and from work, because the bicyclists seem particularly aggressive towards bikers. Not cool.

That said, I'm sitting in Starbucks this morning, trying to get motivated and stay cool because I know that if I go home, I'll just sit there and sweat and not be very productive at all. But this place is packed. I can't remember the last time I saw so many people in here. (This is definitely way busier than I've ever seen it in the winter, even during the holidays.) I might just grab my smoothie and head home for some peace and quiet. It'll be hot, but at least I'll have a cool drink.

Stuck

2011-06-20T10:44:00.000-07:00

I'm just not feeling it lately. The beads, that is. I see status updates from my beading designer friends who are just awash in ideas (and time), and I start to feel a little worried. I know that dry spells are always part of the creative process - you just can't be tuned in all the time, every day - but I feel like this latest dry spell is lasting waaaaay too long for my tastes.

That said, I took a little break after receiving a fabulous order of gemstone beads from Lima beads and made myself two pairs of earrings from Marcia DeCoster's book Beaded Opulence:

I got the cubic zirconia teardrops from Lima Beads, too. (I'd been waiting for them to come back in stock over at Artbeads, and they finally just disappeared altogether from that website! Ack!) I love the black and fuchsia pair - it makes me want to take Tom out for dinner so that I can dress up.

We had a fabulous day for Father's Day yesterday. We all went to the Keene farmers' market for opening day, and Colden loved the kites from the kite festival and seeing all the dogs. I loved catching up with the friends I'd made the last few years, and we came home with way too much food - French breakfast radishes, homemade organic berry jam and gourmet cupcakes. Colden fell asleep in the car on the way home and let me tuck him into bed when we got back, so Tom and I had a quiet lunch and then we started cooking for dinner with his folks. Dinner was fun (again, way too much food!) and then we had a relatively uneventful evening as I put Colden to bed.

So this morning it was back to work (which isn't a bad thing, ha ha ha!) and in a little while I'll take a break and start throwing together some dinner.

I keep thinking about this huge ammonite necklace that I saw at the farmers' market yesterday. It was made by one of my favorite local silversmiths, a woman from St. Regis Falls. I bought a bracelet and a pair of earrings from her yesterday, but I might have to go back and get that necklace next week... It was at "old" silver prices, too, before all this madness with price increases...

How Long Has it Been?!

2011-06-17T12:03:00.000-07:00

It has been a really, really long time since I worked in an office setting with more than one person. I'm becoming painfully aware of that fact this week as I try to keep up with my deadlines and not drive my new co-workers completely bonkers.

I'm absolutely in love with my new job right now. I get to write - which I've always been good at and enjoyed - and I get to write about beads. I can't decide which part is better, the beading or the writing!

Yesterday I had my appointment to re-check the cysts that they found on my remaining ovary 6 weeks ago. The good news is that the two huge fluid-filled cysts have totally disappeared and the remaining dermoid is still too tiny to really worry about. The bad news is that because I'm still having weird symptoms with the dizzies, arm pain, jaw trembling and other junk, it's time to go to the neurologist to rule out things like MS.

One thing that I did yesterday was to see my massage therapist. It's been way too long since I had a massage, and anyone who tells you that things like massage therapy, chiropractic adjustments and acupuncture don't work has obviously never tried any of them. The massage was wonderful - I left feeling refreshed and optimistic, and my other symptoms seemed to have eased up today. So I'm going to try to schedule a monthly massage and see if that gives me some relief, while I continue the chiropractic and acupuncture treatments.

The weather has been really weird this spring, too, and I feel like that's been throwing me a bit off balance as well. We had snow for what seemed like four months straight. Then it was freezing cold and rainy and damp for another month. Then for the entire months of April and May, it just rained - and rained and rained and rained. We had flooding like we haven't seen in over 20 years. Our basement (and my office) were completely trashed. And we have never had a problem with water in our basement. Ever. Now we're swinging back and forth between boiling hot temperatures in the 80s and 90s one day with dramatic drops back down into the 50s and 60s the next day. It's like my body can't figure out what to do next.

Maybe that's why the massage therapist recommended to me that I try to stay grounded yesterday. At one point before she started the actual massage, she was doing some energy/body work with me. At one point when she was down near my feet, I found my thoughts swinging violently back and forth between two extremes. It was sort of weird, but I just went with it and let my mind go where it wanted to go. After my mind had sort of quieted down a few minutes later, she said to me, "Are you feeling a little more balanced now? I felt your energy swinging back and forth between your left and right sides there for a few minutes." Totally weird. I hadn't spoken a single word during that time, instead allowing my mind to just go where it wanted to go and observing it. But somehow she had sensed that my thoughts were swinging back and forth between one extreme and the other. Sort of cool in a freaky kinda way.

Yoga tonight after dinner, and maybe a walk through the backyard with Colden and his little red wagon.

Blog, Take 2

2011-06-13T10:43:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I tried to do my blog over on my newly-designed website, VanBeads.com. And unfortunately, I got slammed with so much spam it made my head swim! Oy! What is with those spammers?! Do they really think that there are people out there dumb enough to fall for those "Check out this website where you can marry a millionaire" links? Double oy.

So, what I've decided to do is move my person blog back to this site and I'll maintain the blog on the Vanbeads site with stories about my work.

What have I been up to since December? Yikes, more than any one person should have to recap in the space of one blog post! I've been busy. New job, new projects, and we're almost ready to start a new farmers' market season. We're now almost halfway through June, and I can't believe that it's been a year since I did any markets or shows. I know there is probably no way that I will be prepared to set up shop at the first Keene Valley farmers' market on Sunday, so Colden and I may just head over there as buyers and peruse the vendors, visit with friends, and enjoy the sunshine. (If the sun decides to come back out!)

For now, I have other blogging and writing to do. Spent the morning working on two beading projects that just didn't turn out. That's the nicest way I can think of to say it. They just didn't turn out. The good thing is that I can take that Fireline and stretch it out and reuse it for something else that hopefully WILL work out.

Back to it!

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Beads

2010-12-13T14:09:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I'm gonna try again for a shot at the Sisterhood of the Traveling Beads! The box has so far traveled to Vermont, Utah, Texas, Maine, New York, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Virginia, and I would love to have this box sent back to New York so I can have a crack at it!

The box was conceived by bead artist Heather Powers, who cleaned off her work table one day and came up with the idea of sending this box of beads on a trip around the country to see how long she could keep it going.

I've watched the box travel all around the country through Facebook and the blogs of the other artists.

If you want a crack at the box, you can leave a comment on the blog post of the current holder of the box, Cindy Wimmer of Sweet Bead Studio.

Wish me luck!

The Tree is Up!

2010-12-12T13:23:00.000-08:00

Colden had a massive meltdown around lunchtime and was totally uninterested in anything like food. He kept crying about "putting up my Christmas Tree", and we finally gave in, stopped trying to clean the house in preparation for putting up the Christmas tree, and just put up the Christmas tree...

I think it's the biggest tree we've ever had since we moved in together back in - yikes! - 2000. And Colden had so much fun decorating it with us this year - and then knocking down the candy garland, and shaking the branches so he could see the ornaments bobbing about precariously... Tom even took the little piece he had to nip off the top and stuck it in a vase so that Colden could have a "Christmas tree" right in his bedroom! Too funny!

Another Big Giveaway from SandFibers!

2010-12-06T08:19:00.000-08:00

Oooo, check it out - Carol Dean is having another big giveaway to celebrate her (well-deserved) 2,000th sale on Etsy!

It's so easy - just leave a comment on the blog post, and she'll pick someone at random using her trusty random number generator to win a $100 gift certificate! Do you have any idea how many beading patterns that will get you?! A lot. Believe me.

Or maybe you'd rather have a custom-made peyote stitch cuff? Carol's workmanship is truly incredible. Her color sense is impeccable, and her stitching is immaculate.

I was the lucky recipient of a lovely herringbone lariat of hers a few months ago, made with some satiny Delica beads, and it's a piece I wear as often as I can because it's just so well-made and so easy to throw on with pretty much anything.

What have you got to lose? Leave a comment on her blog! And while you're at it, post it on Facebook and Twitter it, and you'll get two more chances to win! Oh, yeah, and you can blog about it, too, just like I'm doing! ;-)

A Strange and Wonderful Day...

2010-12-03T17:05:00.000-08:00

The Universe seems to be pointing me in a very distinct direction today. I don't want to spill all the beans, but it seems like things might just be happening for a reason...

And on that note, in my blog post from earlier today, I mentioned something about a new project, and here it is: The Messy Beaders' Club!

That photo I posted on Facebook of my messy bead table really hit a nerve - it seems that hobbyists and professionals alike all have issues with messy work areas!

My favorite comment on the photo came from Jill Wiseman of Tapestry Beads. She wrote, "Oh, Jen, this makes me love you."

And the idea for the blog and the Facebook page came from Diane Hyde of Designer's Findings, who coined the name "The Messy Beaders' Club" and gave me the idea to start a blog about messiness, organization and creativity.

So, there it is. Check out the blog at the link above, and submit a picture of your messy beading space so you can be featured on the blog!

Embrace the chaos!

Friday Again?! Already?!

2010-12-03T09:05:00.000-08:00

I have no idea where the days are going lately... They just seem to slip right by me without any warning. All I know is that I wake up (usually sandwiched between Tom and Colden with Moose sprawled out on our toes) and get breakfast for me and Colden, and then BOOM! It's bedtime! Where do those hours GO?!

So, the first thing I want to share are these AMAZING beaded beads, called Blooming Beads, designed by my buddy Carol Dean Sharpe of Sand Fibers. She originally designed these for a birthday project for another beader, and then lucky for us, she decided to write up the directions. You can purchase the tutorial for these through her Etsy shop by clicking on the picture. She's got "Volume One" in the title of the tutorial, which makes me think - dear God, there are going to be MORE variations on these?!

They are so much fun to make - once you get the basic idea, they go fast. I found myself sitting at the dining room table one evening while Colden was sick, exhausted and really craving sleep, but I had my Blooming Bead on my work tray and I kept telling myself, "Just one more petal...just one more petal..." I had to force myself to put them away for a few days while I get through this last show tomorrow at Keene Central School and then get caught up on the other beading that I need to get done!

And this is what my work table in the living room looks like these days. Am I in project overload? Definitely. Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily. I posted this pic on Facebook yesterday, much to the delight of my beading friends, and one of them gave me an idea which I will bring to fruition this afternoon after I get my work done... Stay tuned!

Boogers and Beads

2010-11-30T06:13:00.000-08:00

Yup, that's where I've been for the last week. Boogers and beads, but mostly boogers...

It started on Thursday morning when Colden woke up with a fever of 103 and a runny nose. We took him to the pediatrician who didn't see anything obviously wrong with him, and we decided to cancel Thanksgiving with Tom's folks to let Colden rest. (I also woke up feeling pretty crappy that day with a runny nose and a sore throat, so I needed some rest, too.)

The next morning, Colden's fever hit 104.7 and I panicked. Sandy came over and held Colden and let him sleep while I packed a bag and we got ready to go back to the pediatrician.

The next few days are just a blur in my memory - trips to the pediatrician, my fever climbing and my sore throat getting worse and worse, and our frustration at the pediatricians' refusal to give us an antibiotic for Colden because they kept insisting that what he had was viral.

Finally, yesterday, I woke up with my throat so sore and swollen that I couldn't really swallow. I took some Motrin to take care of the pain and went to the walk-in clinic where I'd been a few times to have someone check me out and give me an antibiotic - I was sure that this was another round of strep throat, which I have had before, and which I seem to get when I'm under a lot of stress.

They tried several times to get a throat culture from me, but every time that swab went near the back of my throat, I threw up. I finally told the p.a. to just give me an antibiotic and send me home, because I was tired of the torture. She looked at me like I was five, shook her head and said, "I can't do that because that's just not good medicine." I nearly jumped off the exam table and strangled her with her own pony tail.

"Oh, but it's good medicine to let me go home with an untreated strep infection?" I countered.

"Well, if it is strep, then we need to quarantine you for 24 hours. You won't be able to go to work -"

"That's fine, because I work from home."

She said that she needed to go talk to her supervisor, the doctor who owned the practice. He's a bit of a horse's ass himself, but that's another story for another time.

I heard them conversing outside and then she came back into the room and told me that I had a few options, one of which was giving me an antibiotic without a throat culture.

"Give me the antibiotic," I said again. She sighed and sat down to write me out a prescription for Amoxicillan which I promptly took to the nearest pharmacy and had filled.

Later that afternoon, I sat down in the exam room with Tom and Colden and the pediatrician and told the pediatrician that we wanted an antibiotic for Colden and we were done waiting for the fever to go down. She FINALLY relented and gave us a prescription for Zithromax.

Now, as a former pharmacy technician, I understand the concerns with antibiotic-resistant infections and superbugs. But this, I think, is ridiculous. We've gone from giving antibiotics out like they were candy to restricting their use like they're controlled substances. Why is it impossible to find a happy medium here?

After just two doses of the antibiotics, the swelling in my throat went away, and I could eat and feel normal again. After just one dose of Colden's antibiotics, his fever broke. Coincidence? Maybe. But we probably could have had a much better weekend if the pediatrician had just given us the damn antibiotic on Saturday instead of making us wait all weekend.

Okay, getting off my soap box now.

Tomorrow, beady stuff, I promise!

Survived the Weekend and Back in the Game!

2010-11-22T06:21:00.000-08:00

Tom left for his annual hunting trip downstate on Friday, leaving me along with the kiddo for the weekend. I managed to get all my work done on Friday and I got EIGHT - EIGHT!!! - new peyote beading patterns finished and published on the site. I was on a roll, and it felt great.

We spent Saturday running around in the morning, and then I taught a beading class in the afternoon while Colden took a nap at Oma and Opa's house. Then we had pizza for dinner with Oma and Opa.

While I was reading Colden his bedtime stories, I noticed a strange sound - kind of like the sound that the furnace made last weekend when we discovered that it wasn't working properly. Sure enough, I went downstairs after Colden was asleep and found that it had stopped working again. It was trying to turn itself on, but wasn't igniting properly. So, since I couldn't remember where Tom had hit it with the wooden board to make it start working again, I shut it off at the switch like he told me to and just waited for him to come home.

He arrived home a little earlier than he had planned, mainly because he wanted to see if he could get the thing working again so that we might have hot water intermittently until we could get the replacement part. He did manage to get it working again, but we have to keep an eye on it and as soon as we hear it making that noise, we have to shut it down for a while. Hoping we can get that replacement part sooner rather than later!

His hunting trip, however, was a great success, and he came home with his deer tags filled for the year. He was thrilled, and was even able to leave some venison behind with his friends as a thank-you for hosting him this weekend. I had to help him hoist one of the deer up in the garage yesterday afternoon, something I have to admit I never thought I'd find myself doing. But the good thing is that he now has enough venison to make sausage and jerky, and some really great tender cuts for roasts with is parents. And Colden, of course, looooooves those tender cuts of venison.

Tom took the day off today so that he could butcher and package the venison, so that means that I get to go to Starbucks and edit my newsletter, and that's where I am right now. Peppermint hot chocolate, egg white and feta cheese wrap, Jimmy Eat World, and the view of Main Street from the front window. I'm in heaven, and back in the game!

Aaaaand I'm also having another great sale in my ArtFire shop - 30% off your total purchase by using the code HOHOHO30 at chcekout. That includes my newest piece, the Glamour and Goth beadwoven necklace, with a handmade ceramic cabochon by Marsha Hedrick and those funky onyx gemstone drops! The coupon code is good until December 15, because that's the last date I can guarantee shipping in time for Christmas, and you can use the code more than once.

Shop now for best selection - I have two holiday shows coming up in December and then I won't have any new inventory back in stock until January!

Poor little man...

2010-11-17T13:31:00.000-08:00

My little boy was not in a good mood this morning. Everything that he tried to do ended with him in tears, and I could not figure out what was wrong. I finally abandoned my plans to do anything and just gave him my 100% undivided attention all afternoon, and he fell asleep on the bed with me while I was reading to him, just before Tom was going to take him to Plattsburgh.

Before Tom left for Plattsburgh (to get a replacement key for the car, which we lost back in July around the time I had the miscarriage), he asked if there was anything I wanted him to bring back. Considering all the b.s. we've been dealing with in the last 24 hours - health insurance company denying the claim from the hospital again, the ineptitude of the hospital billing department and claims manager, and the medical collection agency that called us on behalf of the hospital last night - I suggested something, ANYTHING, with chocolate.

So while I still have a chance, I'm stitching away on these tiny little beaded bezels for the typewriter keys for my beadpunk piece. I'm sorry to say that these two pieces have been sitting half-finished on my work table for far too long, and now that I can finally see the light at the end of the beading tunnel, I'm going to finish them in the next few days!

I Don't Know What it Is...

2010-11-17T05:43:00.001-08:00

I don't know if it's the cold rain that started last night, the volume of work I need to do this week and next, the gray, sunless morning, the early nights, or the mounting medical bills and the idiots at the billing department at Adirondack Medical Center who decide to send us straight to collection without sending us a bill.

Whatever it is, it is really ruining my mood today. I think today is going to be a day to get as much beading done as possible, maybe some blogging and article writing, and basically doing whatever I can to divert my attention from the feeling that we're drowning.

I'm very much looking forward to yoga class tonight.

How to Train Your Dragon

2010-11-16T20:07:00.000-08:00

This is, without a doubt, my new all-time favorite scene from a movie. And in particular, my new favorite movie.

To me, this is a movie about trusting yourself and earning the trust of others. It's about knowing who you are and using that knowledge to the fullest. It's about following your heart and doing the right thing.

And mostly, it's a story about a boy and his dragon.

More than once, Tom and I have watched this movie with Colden, and then turned to each other and sighed and said, "Don't you wish that dragons were real?"

Beautiful Cabochons by Marsha Hedrick of Amazing Porcelain

2010-11-15T08:56:00.000-08:00

Marsha Hedrick really picked the right name for her business: Amazing Porcelain. I finished another piece using one of her beautiful cabochons this time:

I chose the blue and gold cabochon because I don't work with blue very often, and I wanted to see what I could do with it. I was also interested in beading around the cabochon because of it's unusual shape - definitely not your everyday round or oval cabochon!

The fringe and the strap were a bit of a challenge for me. As I wrote previously, my original plan to attach the piece of a brass collar covered in leather didn't work when I discovered that I didn't have the right color of leather and that I lacked the necessary glover's needles for stitching through leather. (The glover's needles have since arrived and worked perfectly for finishing the leather collar!)

I decided to use a variation of flat spiral for the strap, using Czech fire polished beads and some inverted onyx drops from a project I made years ago. The fringe repeats the colors of the cab and uses more of those onyx drops. I tried the piece on and found that the fringe hangs wonderfully from the strap and the cabochon, and the strap is so comfortable to wear that I almost forgot I was wearing it!

The cabochon itself is truly a miniature work of art from Marsha. I love it. It's thin and lightweight, but substantial. The raised texture on it feels wonderful to the touch, and the colors are true and vibrant.

Marsha has some of this style available as slides for beaded and kumihimo ropes, and she'll have some available soon as cabochons. She also has them in red and gold, and has a set available with some of her yummy porcelain cones. Check out her website for all the options, including some other beautiful art nouveau styles of slides and cones!

If I'm Too Busy to Blog...

2010-11-14T11:08:00.000-08:00

Then that's a good thing, right? It means I'm doing what I love to do - beading, writing directions, photographing tutorials, making beading pattern graphics or chasing after Colden, or going to playgroups and play dates or cooking...

In case anyone has been following the adventures of the first Best Little Bead Box, we are now taking applications for the second round of The Best Little Bead Box! You can find the application on the blog by clicking on the tab at the top of the page. Applications should be sent to both me at vanbeads@yahoo.com and Carol Dean Sharpe at sandfibers@yahoo.com. You also have the option of including a picture of your very best beadwork.

The applications are all due by December 1, and the announcement of the next 12 beaders will be made on December 15. The next round of the box will start sometime after New Year's and last for 12 weeks.

A big thank-you so far to everyone who is supporting our little project!

Beadwork Exhibit at the North Country Cultural Center for the Arts

2010-11-11T08:39:00.001-08:00

I just finished taking over 200 photographs of some of the most amazing beadwork I have ever seen in my entire life. Many of the pieces I've seen in advertisements, online and in books, and it was an incredible experience to be so close to them.

The colors and the forms and the beads were enough to take my breath away. I loved seeing the pieces by Sherry Serafini, Jeannette Cook, Carol Cypher, Robin Atkins, Melissa Grakowsky, Laura McCabe, Suzanne Golden, Jean Campbell, Diane Fitzgerald, Kelly Angeley, Huib Peterson, Carol Perrenoud...

I've seen this piece by Carol Perrenoud for many years, and I think it's one of the first pieces of beadwork I saw that really inspired me to learn how to stitch. It's made with size 20 and 22 seed beads, and the beaded fringe really resembles twisted cotton cord.

It's the kind of beadwork that makes part of me want to go home and just stitch for the rest of the day and the other part of me wants to curl up under the bed and whimper at my lack of talent.

How Time Flies...

2010-11-09T13:43:00.000-08:00

What was all that stuff about Saturdays and Sundays being days of rest? Ha! Not in my world!

Saturday was full of our usual stuff - housecleaning, cooking, running errands. We were invited to an appetizer party at our friends' new house, so I made a HUGE batch of hummus and we brought along some crackers, carrot and zucchini sticks. We met a lot of cool new people, and got to catch up with some others that we hadn't seen in a long, long time. Colden had a great time playing with some of the other kids, and when we saw him getting cranky around 9, we decided to call it a night. Which was smart, considering that I had to get up early the next morning, and we had that daylight-savings-time thing to consider, too.

Tom woke up on Sunday morning in a full-blown panic. "It's 7:30! You have to get out of here by 8:15!" I asked him if he had set the clocks back before we went to bed, and since he hadn't, we got to relax a little bit.

I came into the kitchen after I got dressed and found my little dude sitting on the kitchen counter, eating an egg sandwich and drinking from a big boy cup! He looked so grown up!

I spent Sunday morning at the annual Hanukkah bazaar up at the temple in Plattsburgh, and it was so much fun. I made some new friends, got to catch up with folks I haven't seen in months, and brought home some yummy lavender salt scrub. It made my hands feel so nice that I actually bought some new nail polish and cutesy, sparkling little flower decals!

Who am I, anyway?!

On the beading side of things, I have FINALLY finished the last two projects for Marsha Hedricks! I wish I could show them to you now, but we've had nothing but rain, snow and sleet for the past 48 hours, and I can't get any decent photographs. The sun is supposed to come out tomorrow for a peek - we'll see what I can do then.

Tonight, I talked to a very old and very dear friend on the phone for a few minutes before The Toddler dragged me away. I miss her so much, I decided that after I finish whatever else I need to do for the evening (blogging, etc.), I am going to set aside all my other work and start on a necklace for her. It features a pendant of Frieda Kahlo that I got from Andrew Thornton. It should be a good necklace.

Plan B

2010-11-04T09:26:00.000-07:00

So, here is the start of Plan B for the cabochon by Marsha Hedrick:

I found these awesome onyx upside-down drops that I used a few years ago on a piece I donated to the local PBS station's art auction and thought that they would just look perfect with this handmade porcelain cab. I was right, eh? And I found the perfect shades of turquoise and gold to go with the colors in the cab. I can't help but feel like it's a little bit Goth, a little bit Art Nouveau.

I've got the rest of the beads for the strap laid out in little piles, but I have been having the worst time getting that strap started! I've had about six false starts, fraught with split thread, cracked seed beads, and difficulties with tension in getting the beads to lie just right. I've got another idea in my head for how to execute this strap, I just need to find some time to do it.

And here's the other Plan B:

These turquoise pencil-shaped beads that I got at the Syracuse Gem & Mineral show last summer have been floating around with my "current projects" for a year and a half now, and when I realized that the leather-covered collar was just NOT going to work for the cabochon, my mind instinctively went to this strand of beads. I've also got some turquoise scarab beads leftover from a project I did five or six years ago that have been languishing in a plastic bag in one of my bead cabinets - and they shall languish no more!

Last night, I thought I'd start edging the collar with brick stitch and seed beads and discovered the reason why I don't usually use real leather. (I usually use Sensuede, Ultrasuede or another type of synthetic suede fabric.) When I tried to push my size 12 beading needle through one piece of the leather, it went right into my finger and up underneath my fingernail. If I hadn't been so worried about waking up Colden, I would have screamed in pain. That HURTS.

Hence, my first-ever order to Shipwreck beads this morning included a package of Glover's needles, which are super-sharp, triangle-tipped needles that are designed especially for stitching through leather.

So the turquoise collar is going to be put on hold until I get those needles, because I'm not into self-torture. Not even for my beads!

And on that note, I have to get back to work... Colden is at Oma and Opa's today, and I am trying to get as many patterns, tutorials and articles published on the About.com site as I possibly can before Sunday and my new Starbucks-on-a-Sunday-morning ritual!

Sometimes, Designing is HARD.

2010-11-03T15:46:00.000-07:00

Seriously. There are times when I sit down to write or design a pattern, and it feels like my brain is just a total blank.

Like tonight, for instance.

I had a wonderful morning, but a very trying afternoon that included several joyful utterances of the sentence, "Mommy, I made a BIIIIIIIIIIIG mess!" So when Tom came home and Colden decided to grab a handful of my hair and yank on it for the umpteenth time, I was ordered to take my laptop and go to Starbucks so that I could work and decompress for a while.

But once I got here, I found that working was harder than I had thought it was going to be. Armed with my list of about fourteen articles and hubs that I could publish and put together for the site this week, I found my attention drifting and wandering... I thought I'd catch up on emails to "warm up". Then I thought maybe I'd try to design some Christmas and Hanukkah and winter holiday patterns.

But nothing seems to be flowing right now. I got two bracelet designs finished, and I can publish those tomorrow.

I got one beading stitch tutorial done for tubular netting, to go in the beaded ropes hub and set of articles that I want to publish.

I started writing my review of Jean Campbell's new book. But that stalled when I realized that I could just not find the right words.

It's just not working tonight.

So what I'll probably end up doing is knocking off a couple of blog posts and editing a set of photos or two and then heading home to do the real work tomorrow while Colden is at Oma's house for the day. And then maybe some more on Friday, and maybe some more on Sunday when I come back to Starbucks for my Sunday morning ritual.

Meanwhile, I'm getting into some good old John Mayer. Whatever you might say about John Mayer, I love his voice and his tunes are catchy.

Price Increases

2010-11-02T11:18:00.000-07:00

Nobody likes 'em, and it seems that everywhere you turn, the price of things is going up, and sadly, that's the case with my Venus Necklace as well.

I went to place an order for some more pearls from my usual source and found that the price of these pearls is now three times what they were when I ordered my last batch earlier this year!

So, unfortunately, I have ONE of these necklaces left in my inventory right now at $95. After this one is gone, the price is going to go up to $115 to cover the cost of the pearls. You can find this piece in my ArtFire Shop by clicking on the picture, and everything in my store ships for free via Priority Mail.

Tomorrow: pictures of the ceramic cabochon that I posted yesterday. I spent all evening covering a brass collar in turquoise leather only to discover that it was the wrong shade and clashed terribly with the turquoise in the cabochon. On top of that, I didn't have nearly enough of the light turquoise blue seed beads to put an edging on the collar. But as I was laying in bed trying to fall asleep (which shouldn't have been that difficult, seeing as I was completely exhausted), I came up with a better design idea that involves a whole bunch of these cool upside-down teardrops in black onyx that I've had for several years. I won't have much time to work on the piece tonight, but maybe tomorrow...

Oh, and the brass collar that I covered in turquoise leather? Turns out that it's a perfect match for the gorgeous turquoise pencil-shaped stick beads that I bought in Syracuse last summer! So there's another project half done!

Well, This Just Sucks.

2010-11-01T12:37:00.001-07:00

I just found out that there is going to be a major contemporary bead art exhibit that opens this Friday at the North Country Cultural Center for the Arts in Plattsburgh, a mere forty five minutes from my home. This is probably the first time that beadwork of this caliber and by so many major artists is going to be shown in the North Country, and I would love to go to the opening and check it out, take some photos and do a writeup for the About.com site.

Unfortunately for me, I also just found out that the show organizer is someone who is so highly toxic to me that I can't stand even the thought of being in the same room with her again, even for just a few minutes. She has said some incredibly hurtful and demeaning things to me in the past, and when we were business partners together in Plattsburgh, she threatened me with legal action and financial ruin when I left the partnership, at her request.

Part of me is saying, well, come on, now, you're a big girl - just go up there, take some photos, and get on with it. The other part of me is saying, forget it - it's not worth the stress of seeing this person again, and there's always the option of taking a quiet Saturday morning or mid-week trip to the gallery to see the exhibition when no one will be around except for me and my camera.

So, that'll give me something to chew on for the next few days.

In the meantime, just in case I do decide to go to the opening, I'll need something beaded and fabulous to wear. So my goal is to have this beaded cab finished and attached to a leather collar before Friday afternoon. Can I do it? Stay tuned!

What I'm Reading This Week

2010-10-30T10:39:00.000-07:00

When we were at the library last weekend, I stumbled upon a few books for Colden by Ezra Jack Keats, whose work I remember from when I was a kid and just learning to read.

I told the librarian how I had forgotten how much I loved reading these books when I was kid, and how excited I was to introduce them to my son. She asked me if I'd read this biography about Keats, written several years after his death. She said that it was actually written for middle-schoolers, but that it was a great read, and she was right.

This is the story of Ezra's life, written from interviews and essays that he left behind, and I enjoyed reading about the life of this wonderful artist, from his upbringing in Brooklyn, N.Y. to the time he spent painting in Paris to his first paying job as an artist for a comic book company.

I don't think I ever realized what an important children's author he was - I just loved reading his books. So now I get the fun in introducing my own son to his books. I think maybe "The Snowy Day" will be our next bedtime story as we head into winter!

Winter

2010-10-30T10:17:00.000-07:00

It's the day before Halloween, and earlier this week, it was in the high 70s - warm enough that I had windows and doors open and was spotted wearing a tank top with my cargo pants while Colden and I ran around the backyard in the autumn sunshine.

Today, though, it's cold. It was raining in Jay when I left for Lake Placid, and as I approached Whiteface, I saw that it was capped with snow. There's snow on the ground in Lake Placid, and most of the rooftops are covered, too. The cars sitting idle at the gas station have snow collected at the base of their windshields.

So, it's winter.

And while some people might despair that the warm weather is gone for another seven or eight months, I'm actually okay with that. Yes, I love the warm mornings and the smell of the breeze coming through the windows in the house, but I also love the cold. I love the warmth of a fire in the wood stove. I love a steaming hot bowl of butternut squash and apple soup, and I love the feeling of snuggling down under a fleece blanket at night.

I think I actually need the cold. I don't feel complete without it. I've been to warmer climates during the winter months - places like Houston and Los Angeles - and it's always left me feeling off-balance until I get home to where it's cold.

Some days, I feel like I wrap that cold around me like a cocoon to comfort me. It gives me a reason to spend time with family and friends. It gives me inspiration to find color in the grey, rainy afternoons.

And when it snows, well, that's just magic. Seeing the world on a bright, sunny winter morning after a snowstorm is just pure magic.

I don't think I could live in a place without being able to really see the changing seasons. Being able to watch the world changing around me gives me a real sense of place, and it makes me feel like I'm really a part of this Earth.

Another Beaded Rope!

2010-10-29T09:34:00.000-07:00

I finished another piece, but not so happy with the photographs...

This is another one of Marsha Hedrick's new designs. This dragonfly slide is lightweight, but substantial enough to hold the necklace together. And it works perfectly for the right angle weave rope that I stitched for it - it felt like a soft mesh necklace when I tried it on to check the length.

These slides by Marsha come in other colors - check out Marsha's website for more options.

As with Marsha's other pieces, I was once again truly impressed with the quality of the workmanship. The piece was well-sculpted and lightweight. It hangs perfectly on the beaded rope that I made for it, and it looks fabulous when worn.

I'm working on finishing up the last rope that uses a triangle-shaped slide and cones - maybe this weekend I'll have it done.

As I stitch up each rope, I'm photographing tutorials that will eventually go on the About.com site as part of a big hub about beaded ropes and how to make them.

And, of course, I'll have this one listed in my ArtFire shop soon!

The First Part of the Secret - Revealed!

2010-10-27T16:22:00.000-07:00

I finished the first of the beaded ropes!

Porcelain artist Marsha Hedricks contacted me a couple of weeks ago and asked if I'd be interested in seeing some of her newest designs. I've loved Marsha's work ever since I saw her adorable little snow babies beads at Beadin' Path, and I jumped at the chance to design and create a series of beaded ropes with her newest components.

Marsha's work is truly extraordinary - her pieces are so thin and lightweight, but extremely durable. Her colors are beautiful (and easy to match with my seed beads!), and the textures of these pieces make them just a delight to hold in your hand.

I chose to do beadwoven ropes with her pieces, but they'll work just as well if you like to do kumihimo.

There are so many things about these pieces that I like - but the thing that I like the best is that there are holes in the cones so that you can wire-wrap your pieces instead of just gluing them on. I've never had a very good experience when it comes to gluing jewelry components together, and I always prefer to use wrapped loops when it comes to assembling pieces. With these cones, you can stitch the beadwork (or kumihimo) to an eyepin and then pull the eyepin through the hole in the cone to fasten it with a wrapped loop! I think that makes for a much better constructed piece of jewelry.

This is the first of four pieces I've designed using her components - three beaded ropes, and a leather collar that showcases an incredible porcelain cabochon!

You can see all of Marsha's newest slides and cones in her online store, Amazing Porcelain, and you can read her blog at Marsha's Porcelain Art.

She's got more new designs coming in the next few weeks!

And if you like this piece, you can find it in my ArtFire shop by clicking on the picture.

Work

2010-10-24T08:21:00.000-07:00

Work is what I'm doing this morning, mostly to the soundtrack of my favorite tunes by Jimmy Eat World. This is one of my new faves.

I'm kickin' ass and takin' names. Got a new set of graphics done. They're not sparkling, but they are a hell of a lot better than what I've been able to do in the past. I'm working on editing my newsletter, editing my user paths and landing page and other site maintenance stuff, and gathering thoughts for some new articles.

Oh, yeah, baby. I'm in the zone.

This is what solitude does for me, and I enjoy it.

Revel in the Solitude

2010-10-24T06:09:00.000-07:00

That's what I'm doing this morning. Safely ensconced at Starbucks in Lake Placid with my peppermint hot chocolate, and I treated myself to an egg white wrap for breakfast.

I was the only car on the road for most of my drive through Wilmington Notch. It is dark and grey and cold and raining this morning. It's exactly what a Sunday morning in the Adirondacks should be in late October. I saw one car at one of the parking areas near some trailheads, and I thought about the person who parked their car there and then trekked off into the forest there. I know there are a couple of lean-tos up the trail, and I wondered if that person was alone in the lean-to, if they had spent the night there, and if they were feeling the same wonderful feeling of solitude that I felt.

A lot on my mind this morning before I get down to work. I have a tutorial to write and publish, and then some site maintenance to do, and then a newsletter to edit before tomorrow morning.

I started working on a piece last night that I will be auctioning off to help raise money for Andrew Thornton's medical bills. While I am amazed and encouraged by the huge outpouring that has occurred since Andrew announced his diagnosis a few weeks ago, I'm still so sad and disheartened by the fact that this kind of thing is still necessary in this country. We still have no public option for health care, and that means that an independent artist like Andrew has to rely on the good hearts of so many people for his medical care. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I would gladly pay extra taxes to make sure that people like Andrew have access to decent health care in this country.

Last night, I finished the first beaded rope for the projects I'm working on for Marsha Hedrick. I stayed up way past my bedtime working on it, because I just felt the piece pulling me towards finishing it. It's been over a week since I started it, and I was really worried that I was going to run out of seed beads before I finished it. I was torn between going to bed and getting some much-needed sleep or finishing the piece - lucky for me, Colden let me sleep for about two hours before he woke up and needed a diaper change.

And so that made me think about one thing that's been on my mind lately, how I worry about Colden growing up with a crazy artist for a mother. Mothers aren't supposed to play their music too loud in the car when they're alone, or get up at 2 a.m. to sketch out design ideas before they disappear...

I want to raise my son to be happy, creative, well-adjusted. I want him to have the confidence in himself to pursue in life what is going to make him happy. I want him to have a good set of values and morals to guide him. I want him to delight in diversity and marvel at everything the world has to offer.

It's a pretty big job.

The Only Thing Good About Today...

2010-10-23T19:11:00.001-07:00

...is that I'm going to Starbucks tomorrow morning. No, okay, the sushi I had for dinner was pretty good, too, except that Tom forgot to order my sweet potato tempura roll and instead got me some kind of slimy pickled vegetable roll which wasn't bad, but it wasn't my sweet potato tempura roll.

I'm nearly finished with the first beaded rope for the projects I'm working on for Marsha Hedrick. Colden looked at it last night and said, "Oh! Mommy's making a big, green worm!" and then he wanted to hug and kiss the worm while I was working on it. Which was adorable at first, but then wasn't so adorable when I couldn't tug the worm out of his hands...

No energy tonight. Colden had a fever the last two nights, and it was all I could do to keep him comfortable. The Motrin helped, and the pediatrician said that it was probably viral since the fever disappeared during the day. They also told us that they have seen lots of weird viruses, colds and flu going around, and it's not even the end of October yet. Still on the fence about getting Colden his flu shot, we'll have to talk about that tomorrow...

Focus

2010-10-21T11:27:00.001-07:00

It's what I need to do today, and I'm having a hard time doing it. I had absolutely nothing photographed for publishing today, so I stitched frantically this morning and for part of this afternoon, finishing two new Tila bead projects. Colden was an hour late going to Oma and Opa's house because everybody slept late this morning. (Which wasn't really a bad thing because Colden was up pretty much all night last night, and the little sleep that I did get was when I was curled up in bed with him.)

So now it's about 2:30 in the afternoon. The sun has been playing hide and seek all day. (Which has wreaked havoc on my photographs.) The wood stove has the house at a comfy 72 degrees, and I can see the snow flurries coming down outside.

I'm in the middle of resizing and upload photos, writing out materials lists, and trying to get the needle crafts newsletter edited. I'll try to get the blogging done this evening, and maybe get a few tutorials and maybe a few quick articles up this evening, too. But it's going to be another looooooong night...

I also had an idea for a piece I want to make and auction off to help raise money for Andrew Thornton. Andrew is an artist and writer who was recently diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, and since he is without medical insurance, beaders and jewelry artists are banding together to help him cover the costs of his medical bills. I may start it tonight after Colden goes to sleep... The focal point will be this bead that I bought from him back in August as part of my retail therapy binge after the miscarriage...

I'm hoping that I can turn it into something good for someone else.

We Have a Winner!

2010-10-19T05:21:00.000-07:00

Thank you so much to everyone who followed my blog over the last few days. I'm really, really thrilled to announce that not only do I have 100 followers now, I also have some cool prizes to give away!

First, I have a surprise for Beki Haley of Whimbeads - she was my 100th follower, so she gets a special runner-up surprise.

So, I ran my trusty random number generator and came up with number 76:

And that number 76 corresponded to Eva Maria Keiser!

So congratulations to both Beki and Eva!

And I have to apologize for the delay in getting this post up. I had an extraordinarily long day yesterday, which is going to result in another long day today while I get caught up on (ew) housework.

The Last Flower of Summer

2010-10-18T17:33:00.001-07:00

...is what Tom presented me with when he came back inside from feeding the chickens this afternoon. This was the last hollyhock from the plant next to the house. He came back inside a few minutes later with some of the seeds, and he's going to plant them all around the house so that maybe next year, we have some more of these beautiful blooms.

The colors in this flower just make me want to bead! Light pinks and greens... It's not even winter yet, and I'm already dreaming about spring...

We Have....

2010-10-18T12:21:00.000-07:00

A new washing machine! The day that Tom was installing the new dishwasher, we heard a horrible noise and smelled smoke coming from the kitchen closet where we keep the washing machine. Sure enough, our old washing machine decided to give up the ghost the same day that we got the dishwasher going.

So with Tom working those 10 hour days (insane), we managed to save up enough money for a new set of snow tires for the Matrix (which we will need when he has to commute into Lake Placid at 6:15 a.m. all winter) and on Saturday, we went up to Plattsburgh and picked out a new washing machine. It wasn't a hard choice - the one we got was the only one in our price range.

We did manage to set aside twenty bucks and went out to lunch that day, too. It had been a long, long time since the two of us sat down to lunch together in a restaurant. I think the last time we sat down and ate a meal at a restaurant, just the two of us, was my birthday in 2009. Yeah. Something like that.

It was a good day. We got to talk about everything that's going on - the stress, work, the house, Colden - and it felt like we started to re-connect a little bit.

Of course, as relieved as I am that we actually have all the major appliances in the house functioning again, this means that if there's a load of laundry sitting around, I actually have to DO it during the day. At least Colden likes to help!

Tubular Right Angle Weave...

2010-10-17T14:56:00.000-07:00

It is NOT for the weak!

I'm about 5 1/2 inches in on an 18" beaded right angle weave rope for a top-secret project for a designer/artist friend of mine. I wanted to do a series of beaded ropes for this project, because I love beaded ropes and I haven't made nearly enough of them lately. But you know what? I am still trying to figure out what made me think that doing an 18" tubular right angle weave rope would be a good thing.

It started out as something fun: ooo, a new challenge! Then it was like, holy crap, this is taking a long time. Now it's like, I am determined NOT to let this thing beat me! I WILL prevail! Yes, I will! I'm going to finish this rope!

Of course, I might take a break and do a nice and quick and easy Dutch Spiral rope for one of the other projects just to give myself a break. Too much more of this round and round stuff with the right angle weave and I'm going to lose my mind.

Anyway, lots of great new stuff up for this week: another Tila bead project, some beaded maple leaves, some charted patterns for fall (and a few for Christmas and Hanukkah, too!) and who knows what else... Might even start my series of articles on photographing your beadwork.

As of this posting, I have 95 followers! Wa-hoo! 5 more, and someone is going to win a free embellished beaded rope necklace from me... I'm really excited about this!

Want to Win an Embellished Rope Necklace?

2010-10-15T05:42:00.000-07:00

Nancy Dale of NEDBeads (and now of the wonderful new blog, Bead Mavens) did a giveaway not too long ago on her blog, and I hope she forgives me, but I am now going to do something similar!

It's been a long time since I did a giveaway on my blog, and now that things have sort of settled down with my life, I think it's time for another one.

So, here's my giveaway:

As of this post, I now have 75 followers on my blog. When I get to 100 followers, I will randomly choose one of those lucky followers to receive a custom-made embellished beaded rope necklace. You can choose the colors, the beads, the length, and the clasp.

I'm going to set the deadline for October 31 at midnight EST. If I hit 100 followers before that date, I'll do the drawing (via random number generator) the day after I hit 100 followers. This way, the winner will receive the necklace in time for the holidays - wouldn't it make a great holiday gift for yourself or for someone very, very special?

PLEASE make sure that when you follow my blog, you check your profile so that it includes a valid email address - I need to know how to contact you!

And remember, I still have that ArtFire coupon special going until October 31 as well - 25% off every item in my shop if you use the coupon code WELCOMEARTFIRE. That includes finished jewelry, beading kits and beading tutorials!

My New ArtFire Store

2010-10-14T19:13:00.001-07:00

In all the craziness that has been going on this month, I have completely forgotten to write about my new shop on ArtFire! I had an ArtFire shop for about a year back in 2008 and for part of 2009, but then decided to close it down. After some of the "improvements" that they have been making over at Etsy (things like messing with the sales tax, which has been proving to be a complete nightmare for those of us who live in New York state where the tax rates change depending on your street address), and after seeing the special deal on ArtFire (flat fee, $5.95 a month for life, no commission fees, no listing fees!), I thought what the heck, I'm going to give it a try again.

So I transferred all my items over to my new ArtFire shop - you can find it at http://www.vanbeads.artfire.com. And while I'm still working on finalizing my edits to my items and re-arranging my shop, I did manage to create a coupon code, good on any item in my ArtFire shop until October 31, 2010.

Use the code WELCOMEARTFIRE and get 25% off any and every item in my shop!

That includes this fun bead embroidered cuff bracelet. One of my favorites, I called it "Green Meadows", and it's one of a series of embroidered cuffs I created over the winter. (I've got lots more in production right now, I just need to get to them!)

So, if you've had your eye on a piece on my shop and have been waiting for an opportune time, this is it! The coupon code only lasts until October 31, 2010, so you still have about two weeks to take advantage of it.

I'll also be listing some new items in my ArtFire shop early next week. I've got several bracelets, three necklaces made with stoneware donuts, and three new bead embellished ropes. I have been one busy beader!

A Better Photo

2010-10-12T15:54:00.000-07:00

So, even if it is a tad washed out, this is a much better photo of the same piece that I posted earlier.

I bought these three copper fired stoneware donuts from Kristie Roeder of Artisan Clay. I had absolutely no idea what to do with them, but I loved the colors and I loved the feel of them - soft, satiny and extremely light. I had two smaller donuts and one larger donut, and I wound up giving one of the smaller donuts to a friend of mine. I had no idea what to do with it until I found myself stitching peyote bails for other beaded necklaces this summer - I realized that I could just stitch a piece of shaped peyote and string a beaded rope through it!

I made the twisted herringbone rope with a technique I learned from a kit/design by Leslie Frazier. It is super-easy to start, makes a wonderful, twisty rope, and really works up quickly. (If you're stitching in the right direction, that is - but more on that later!)

I'll be working this into a tutorial for the About.com site later this week - as soon as I can find a time to sit down and wrap my head around writing out the directions for all fifteen steps. Yowza. It's really an easy project, I just wanted to break it down into manageable steps for someone who might feel a little intimidated by odd count peyote.

Freezing cold here again tonight. Tom just let the dog out, Colden conked out at 5:30 after skipping his nap this afternoon, and I'm really, really, reeeeeeeeeeaaaally hoping that Tom comes back inside with an armload of wood and fires up the wood stove...

The Day That Got Away.

2010-10-10T14:04:00.000-07:00

Hey, it rhymes!

At least I can laugh a little bit about it now...

We went to Canadian Thanksgiving at Rob and Jennie's house last night. It was our second Canadian Thanksgiving since Rob and Jennie got married, and the house was packed with the usual suspects, a lot of kids, and more food than we knew what to do with. Rob was making rum and cokes for Tom, and he made them so strong that Tom had to ask me to drive home!

This morning should have been my last farmers' market of the season, but we all woke up at 7:45, and since I was supposed to be out the door by 8, it wasn't going to happen. The car wasn't packed, I hadn't eaten breakfast, and Tom needed to go to work this morning. So I made breakfast and tried to get Colden to eat (humongous fail), and then I wound up staying in my pajamas and bathrobe until, oh, noon.

I got some beading done, and then around four 'o' clock realized that I had used the wrong damn color of red seed beads. They just looked awful with the ceramic art pendant and bead that I wanted to accent. The pattern with the black cube beads looked wonderful. But the red - I have been trying to find a match for these pieces for MONTHS now. Literally. I've ordered about a dozen different shades of red seed beads. None of them look any good when I get them up close to the pendants, and since I live about a gazillion miles away from anything like a real bead store... I should have gone to Beads by Blanche last weekend when I was down in the city.

It was hard for me to tear myself away from the beading and try to get dinner together for Colden. I couldn't have cared less about eating my own dinner, but Colden was just having one of those days where the kid would *not* eat, and it drives me nuts.

So then I've got a load of writing and editing and photo editing and graphic making to get caught up on, and Tom goes and just lays down on the bed with Colden. Now, I know that Tom gets tired too at the end of the day, but you've got to ENGAGE that kid of ours. And then Tom gets frustrated when Colden doesn't WANT to sit in front of the t.v. for more than ten minutes. Argh.

And then I uploaded the pictures I took this morning for my newest project - a peyote stitch bail with a beaded rope - and the pictures are TERRIBLE. I think it's the lighting in my new corner, and I need to do something about it.

I mean, is this a shitty picture or WHAT?! And it's the lighting. My lighting in this new corner sucks, and I need to improve it. I used to have this great overhead light with three daylight light bulbs in it, plus the huge picture window that overlooked the mountains that just let the sunlight in... And while I love the new corner, it still needs a little tweaking. The colors of this copper stoneware donut from Artisan Clay are so rich and so subtle - and this photo just sucks all the life out of it.

Anyway. That's enough for now. I've got a little more writing to do, and then I'd like to get a little sleep before Colden wakes up at 2 a.m. again.

Vet appointment with Moose tomorrow. It's been nearly five months since his last round of bloodwork, so we've got our fingers crossed that the Imuran (chemo drug) and the prednisone are doing the trick and keeping his platelets at a normal level.

What I'm really looking forward to is a little alone time in the car with Moose and a little cup of peppermint hot chocolate from Starbucks...

The Best Little Bead Box

2010-10-07T07:49:00.000-07:00

This is the exciting project that I've been meaning to write about on my blog since it started last week! I can't believe that it's taken me this long to get around to it, but here it is: The Best Little Bead Box.

Carol Dean Sharpe contacted me with the idea for putting together a box similar to the one that is currently circulating called The Sisterhood of the Traveling Beads, but this one is going for a good cause: Beads of Courage, a program that uses beads to help children who are dealing with serious illnesses and their families.

This is how it works: Carol, myself, and some other extremely generous sponsors all donated a large quantity of beads that were put into a box - and the box weighed in at 11 lbs! Then we chose a list of 12 beaders, most of whom are well known bead artists, some of whom are not as well known but who are no less talented and respected. Then Carol set up a schedule, and sent off the box to the first recipient, Marcia DeCoster.

This is just some of what I donated for the first box: a few ceramic faces by Diane Briegleb, some brass embroidery blanks from Designer's Findings, gemstone beads, fibers, vintage Lucite, vintage seed beads, and some other goodies that I've collected over the years...

When Marcia received the box, she took out some of the wonderful beads inside and replaced them with some beads from her own stash. The idea is to leave the box bigger and richer than it was when it was received. Then Marcia will send the box on to the next person, and so on until the box is finally returned to Carol at the end of December.

Once Carol receives the box at the end of December, we will be auctioning off the contents in packages of 1 lb. All the money raised from these auctions will be donated to Beads of Courage to help them continue their work.

You can follow The Best Little Bead Box project on the blog, The Best Little Bead Box. You can also "Like" our page on Facebook, The Best Little Bead Box on Facebook.

Because of the incredible generosity of our sponsors, we are going to be able to do a second box sometime after January of 2011. And we've received even MORE interest in donating beads to the project, so we may even do a third box after that!

So make sure you follow the blog to see where the box travels next, and we'll let everyone know when the auctions are ready to go so that you can have a chance to bid on some of the amazing beads that will be collected in this box and help us raise money for an equally amazing cause!