Back to Beads

It has been a rough week. There were a couple of toxic episodes and then yesterday I strained my back when I picked up one of the Darling Granddaughters. They had been to the county fair and stopped in for a quick visit before returning home. How I wish I could have gone with them to the fair! I would so have loved to have seen their encounters with rabbits and pigs and who knows what else. Their reactions would have been so pure since the girls are only four and not-quite-two years old. {sigh}

I don't say these things to cultivate your pity. I want to put anyone who reads my words on notice: Enjoy what you have, revel in your opportunities, make the most of your health and vitality!

And now, having said that, let me show you what I've managed to accomplish these past several days. First off is a little ornament. Silk tie scraps pieced onto a foundation and then embellished just a bit:

The foundation had been cut some years ago; I only just came across it in my search for something else. I have an opportunity to put some of my little things out for sale in the not too distant future so I'm happy to have found a project I could finish off so easily.

The next piece is a bit of bead embroidery I'm doing as an experiment. I found a picture of a pair of Major Mitchell's cockatoos and thought it would be fun to use them as inspiration for a small beaded piece. I've long admired the heavily beaded embroideries of people like Larkin Jean Van Horn and Robin Atkins but have never been able to go that far with beads myself. I'm hoping to get a lot closer with a series of pieces based on pictures of parrots. We shall see.

I tried out several sizes and formats before settling on this one. If I keep to the original plan it will finish at 2.25" x 3.25", slightly smaller than a standard ATC. I've allowed an extra inch for finishing purposes so it could end up being an ATC afterall. You may be able to see the yellow basting thread I'm using to keep my beads within the proscribed area. I have no idea where I'm going with this - I'm stitching it intuitively. I'm actually sort of stuck at the moment. In my opinion the pale pink beads need something next to them to make them pop out more. I just haven't figured out what.

And now I have to go lay down again...

A Very Pink Post

I have been remiss in not pointing out the fact that you can now put your name in the hat for this year's Pink Artists Drawing. For every $10 you donate your name will be entered twice! The drawing will be held on October 15. The big prize, of course, is the Pink Artists' Quilt which you can see here. But there have been many additional pieces of art created so there can be many other winners as well. Check out the Prize Wheel goodies here.

You may recall that I made this needlebook for the Prize Wheel.

Yes, it could be yours for only a $10 donation! And you can easily donate through Paypal or by sending a money order directly to Monica (who will then see that the funds get forwarded to the Susan G. Komen Foundation). All the information you need can be found in the left sidebar of Monica's blog. She's even installed a Paypal button to make donating easy-peasy. :- ) Go on now- click over there right now, before you get distracted!

Good Help is Hard to Find

I had planned to get back here before this but have had unexpected interruptions. Ain't that always the way? Not that there's a lot to report...

The new dishwasher doesn't seem to be bothering me. Hurray! We have discovered a slight problem however. The control panel sticks out far enough that we can't open the drawer in the base cabinet that butts up against the cabinet that houses the dishwasher. (The drawer is in the corner of the right angle formed by the two cabinets.) You have to open the dishwasher door to get the drawer open. We're hoping the technician can just bump the dishwasher further into its' cabinet to eliminate the problem. We'll find out on Tuesday.

I did manage to finish up the Priority Quilt:

Then I had to go to the store to get an envelope to ship it in. I thought I had one on hand but it turned out to be too small. Once I finally got the quilt into the envelope it took me three days to get someone from this house to take it to the Post Office for me! As close as we are to the Post Office you wouldn't think it would be such a chore. {sheesh!} But after suffering the trip to the store I wasn't about to take on the Post Office.

This is what I ended up doing along the bottom edge of the quilt:

I have been playing with a couple of ideas for new projects since finishing this little quilt. It's too early to say anything about either of them yet. One or neither may see the light of day. Only time will tell.

I have to confess to setting myself up for further distraction too. While I was at the store I came across this and had to buy a copy:

So far I'm thoroughly enjoying it. :- )

Good & Bad

I figured I'd better check in this morning while I'm still in good enough shape to do so. We are having a new dishwasher installed this afternoon and there's no telling what that's going to do to me. Hopefully it won't be a big deal. Unfortunately, experience has taught me to expect otherwise.

About 10 days ago our old dishwasher, the one that came with the house when we moved in, leaked and flooded the kitchen floor. I've never been happy with that machine - it's hard to load and never did a very good job getting the dishes clean in my opinion - so my Dear Husband said we could just replace it rather than repair it. Woohoo! He went out and found a floor model last Saturday. Although it may have off-gassed some sitting on the showroom floor it has never, to my knowledge, been run. Once all that hot water hits the new plastics or vinyl or whatever in the interior of the machine I'm sure there will be fumes released into my otherwise safe environment. But today it will be the fragrances that the installation technicians carry in on their persons that is my main concern. I didn't know they were coming early enough to be able to ask them to forego any colognes, aftershaves, strongly scented deodorants, etc. so it will be a crap shoot. Let's just say I'm not likely to come out the winner.

So until next time, whenever that may be, let me show you the bit of progress I have made in the last day or two. Yes, I think I'm finally satiated on novels for the time being! I picked up needle and thread and started beading the background of this Priority Quilt:

Hopefully you can click on the picture to get a little bigger version to look at. Here's a detail shot just in case:

There are tiny purple seed beads in the purple areas around the heart. I haven't figured out what I'm going to do in the lower section of the quilt yet.

Ami has put out a call for Priority Quilts so she can take 1,000 of them to the big quilt show in Houston in October. I really want to get this done, registered, and sent off to her so it can be part of that group. If I thought I had it in me I would try to do another one to go with it but I think that might be unrealistic.

I'm also just about ready to move around some books. I may even bite the bullet and get rid of a few. {gasp!} I need to make room on my shelves for the binders of the books I've had taken apart and for my collection of studio journals. Currently my shelves are full of books I can't look at without making myself ill. Where's the sense in that?! I figure I'll be better off with ready access to the binders and journals (instead of tripping over them stacked around the perimeter of the room on the floor) than the tomes that I can't even open.

Because the journals I use are spiral bound once I get them on a shelf they're all going to look the same. No spines with titles, no real color differentiation. So yesterday I spent some time cutting up old business cards and wrapping them with colorful folder labels to make these tags to hang from the tops of the spirals on my journals. I think this will work.

I like the way they look like tassels hanging from the journals. I could really get carried away and decorate the hanging loops with beads too! :- )

Not So Hot

The temperatures have come down to what is normal for this area at this time of year. It's very pleasant most of the time. Gets pretty warm and humid in the late afternoons, but the mornings have felt wonderfully cool lately. Amazing what a 20* drop in temperatures will do! That hasn't helped me to be more productive however. In fact, I've all but declared myself on a reading vacation. I've been spending my time in Regency England the last several days. I may spend more time there before I try applying my nose to the proverbial grindstone again. I guess I'm hoping that if I indulge myself, reading all I want for a week or so, my enthusiasm for stitching will return. We shall see.

I've also had another run-in with toxins. I was foolhardy enough to venture into my local used book store in search of reading material one day this week.

This place used to be one of my favorite haunts. They moved to a new location and refurbished their new digs maybe a year ago. Well, the new carpet and maybe the paints and varnishes they used on the walls and shelves are still too toxic for me.

The next day my local bead shop had a one day sale and I had to go check that out.

I just bought on spec, not for any specific project. I was trying to flesh out my stash with various sizes and shapes. I have everything from size 15 seeds to 4x4 cubes here. And wouldn't I just LOVE to go to Portland for the Bead Fest?!! You betcha.

Unfortunately, those two outings in quick succession nearly did me in. Not physically so much as mentally or emotionally. There were physical symptoms but it was the depression that really took me down. (No pun intended.) I'm still trying to get up out of that pit. Hiding out in lighthearted romance novels is a pretty safe place for me to be at the moment.

To those whose blogs I regularly read and comment on - if you're reading my blog as well - I'd just like to say that I'll be back one day soon (I hope) to catch up on all that you've been doing. Right now I just can't handle the energy and enthusiasm and productivity that I so admire in others. Sometimes reading about your activities inspires me to get up off my butt and get busy myself. Other times, like now, it just depresses me further.

Time to look for a new book...