We only had one day of rain, but the rain was beautiful and the days since have been gloriously cool. The dogs are loving the temperatures, and my son has been out playing every day. He has a bow and arrow that he loves to shoot and is an accurate shot, so he has been practicing all week.

I finally finished up a couple of necklaces and a couple of bracelets finished, this one is 6/0 square clear, silver lined beads with 10/0 square clear with silver lined beads for trim. The fringe is glass and crystal beads with 11/0 clear with silver lining seed beads.  I like doing these but I really prefer using 11/0 triangle beads for ribbon peyote stitched necklaces. I think they lay perfect and add such a cool texture.  These beads aren't bad though, they are fast and lay pretty cool.  I made a couple of bracelets out of 11/0 seed beads and one out of 6/0 seeds. I think the larger beads are just not as pretty as the smaller beads, but they do work up so fast, I guess I can't complain. 

The last classes that I taught we started off with 6/0 seeds and  worked one ribbon necklace then I taught a round peyote pouch with peyote ribbon for the necklace. I had the students work with a round plastic bead that was equivalent to an 8/0 and I decided that we wouldn't waste time on that project going to a smaller bead, only one of the students really wanted to learn the stitch anyway, sooooooo, we went right into the matching bracelet for the first necklace in a 10/0 seed bead, with trim that matched. It wasn't  a great thing I am afraid. 

My director asked me to submit my Fall schedule and  syllabus, and I am hesitant to commit. We have discussed having a class for Floral Design that is not just a home use class but an actual accredited course. I was asked to organize the whole course... which I could do, given a budget, given a guarantee that we will actually commit to the course, given that the college will  dedicate classrooms with the necessary equipment and necessary support.  *sigh* I haven't gotten very far with the course. I can't find anyone that is willing to commit to teaching or support, I can't find anyone that is willing to take a chance on the college committing classroom, budget, anything...  One wants to wait on the other, and the college wants me to do this on my own time.  I don't mind so much if it means that I will gain something in the end, Seriously, I don't want to be such a mercenary about this whole thing, but it is a job. It is my livelihood, I am after all a widowed mother and  I need to have income and if I am working on something that has taken many hours so far and come to nothing... I could have worked on jewelry or quilts or something else and made some money off it...  or I could get a real job, as right now is the time, there are hundreds of jobs open and I decide to teach? ****sigh****
Anyone have some advice?

Sorry for the ranting and raving, just it seems that I am kind of at a crisis.  I feel that I am kind of lost right now.

I have been working a lot lately, just have been negligent in writing. I had hoped that having a way to share my work would be relaxing... ha! I have finished at the college for the semester... I have two workshops coming up this Summer, but really, I just want to be done. I went to the doctor today and he is going to do surgery on my eyes over the next month so maybe by the end of Summer... I'll be able to see again!  For all my whining, I am really ready to have it done. It is getting harder and harder to work.

So here is a picture of one of the necklaces I taught this semester, I'm adding more fringe to it. It was difficult to find the beads that I wanted in the amount that I wanted.... since I didn't know the class size until the day before the class... soooooo, I used these since there were tons I could 
 purchase locally. I had a couple of students that were dissapointed that the beads weren't going to be exactly the same as the picture in the brochure. So, I suppose a disclaimer would be appropriate from here on. 

I have also been working on a necklace that is 6/0 square beads, clear with silver lining. I kind of like the square beads, though I adore 11/0 triangle beads more than anything else I think! 


OOOOOOOOOO! (squealing like a little girl looking at Justin Bieber)  We have had rain all day!!!! It started in the night really, I probably would have slept through it but the dogs kept running in wanting to be reassured that everything was fine, no booger bear was coming for them.  They were so funny, but not in that haha sort of way... more in that hmmmmm sort of way when you are tired and want to sleep but they were just goofy.  So the temperature has been low and it has been a blessing since we have been over 100 already. My yard is lapping up every drop since I haven't watered the grass in maybe a year? We are rationing water, which means we are down to watering only 2 hours per week, with some fines involved if you get caught watering on off times (or using a water sprinkler).  I, however have been pretty good about sticking to my no water policy. I will only water trees, since you have to have a couple of trees in your yard... I refuse to allow them to dry up. I have lost 4 rose bushes, 4 shrubs, and all my potted plants with exception of the crazy poinsettia from Christmastime. For whatever reason, it has new leaves sprouting

Off to bed with me now! I am sleepy, or my eyes are just really tired... oh the torturous things they do at the Ophthalmologist's office :{

Spring is here!!! Well, nearly Summer for us here in the Desert Southwest. The temperature was up in the mid-90s yesterday, but today.... we are looking for cooler temperatures (75) and the possibility of rain!!!   Rain is really welcome here, as we have been in a severe drought for a long time. Really long time I should say.  I would like to add that some people like the idea of living in a place that has blue skies everyday and perfect (well, nearly perfect) temperatures... well,.. I like that part as well, it is fun to be able to go out without worrying about whether you will be caught in a downpour or if the temperatures will plummet and you will be frozen. The problem with the weather being near perfect (and I do realize that Winter freezing temps and Summer boiling temps aside) is that you forget to appreciate the warmth and calm... and you also forget that water is a precious thing.
We here in the Western part of Texas are in what some would say is a desperate  situation.  It is. One of the lakes that we use for water is at 17% and the other larger lake is at 0.4%.... yep... that is a 0 before the decimal point. I haven't been out there to see it, I know it is a wasteland and I can't bear to look at it. The other smaller lake is not unusual to be so dry, it does that all the time, When it is full, it is full, when it is dry.... it is very dry.  So we are relying on underground sources to keep us wet. We can only use water outside for 2 hours per week, which will keep the trees alive, but I personally don't think it will help any of the shrubs at all... There is no washing cars, no filling pools, there is no allowing kids to play in sprinklers... One town has drilled wells to allow the city pool to be filled, another really small town has had their pool filled by well water for a long time, and I remember how cold it was, like jumping into a bath filled with ice cubes. brrrrrrr.

This type of weather does lend itself to anyone who likes to paint. My favorite time to take oils out is in the late Spring or early Summer... I love that you can paint outside with no interference from the weather, and that the oils will dry quickly and you can finish a painting really fast. I love that the sun is totally at your command. I love that it is bright and lovely and full of life this time of year.  We have a family of House Finches living directly next to our front door. The little alcove is perfect for them to stay out of the sun and wind and with the exception of my family, they have no one to bother them. I am going to paint them today... the four surviving babies and the Mom and Dad. The sun is bright, the wind is fairly calm, and I am aching to paint, I haven't had a chance to get out the oil paints for a long time... I have been preoccupied with fabric paints and sewing and jewelry making for so long... well, I want to paint so bad I can almost taste the paint... do you know that feeling? That feeling when you smell oil paint, you can almost taste how it is, how smooth and silky and how it glides across the surface, how wonderful it is?  No...maybe that is just me. I taste stuff when I think about it, and when I get near oil paint it is probably like what a connoisseur of fine wine feels by just smelling a  Domaine Romanée-Conti.  Just knowing that the experience will take you to a blissful place and make you almost heady.
Well, I am off ... I'll post a pic maybe of the finished product. 

Busy as a beaver

I now know where that term came from... "Busy as a beaver". When you are spending all your time working on your house, you kind of forget everything else and work night and day getting the job done...
Well, I haven't been working on the house anymore but I have been working non-stop for the past two months. I have neglected a lot in my life that I swore I wouldn't take for granted, But you know how it is.
I had a booth in the Scottish-Irish Faire in Midland, Texas this past weekend, and it seems that this is the one faire that takes me the longest to prepare for. I suppose that it is closest to me that I attend and I want everything to be perfect... I also feel like... well, it is close so I can take everything that I have for the booth... ugh! I need to seriously get myself together if I am to have another booth there. I took three tents, 4 tables( I rented 4 more), fabric for all the walls of the tents, tablecloths for all the tables and I had tons of display items... probably half of what I took was unnecessary. One of the tents was unusable... two of the braces popped when two friends helped us set it up. I am not sure how it happened but it was going to be unstable if we tried to use it so we did without it.
As it turned out, I could have used one less table, as I sold enough to take it down anyway... and I really didn't need the extra space as much as I thought I did. I used a different clothes rack than I normally do to hang head garlands on... it worked so much better than my old chrome racks and though I know it is the same size, seems that it didn't take up as much room. My son and the dogs had their own space, which is now essential to us. The boy is getting where he wants time on his own, and the dogs are just big and lazy and need the room to lay about. Elka didn't get to stay in the arena long, she is not trained yet and is too much for me to handle. Mac... he lays right in the middle of it all...
I had a lot of problems, mostly on my own account ( I forgot the ladder which was essential  from hanging lights to putting up the walls of the tents.
I sold enough to make myself happy, but not enough to convince me that it is worth the effort... If I take so much time and effort into the way the booth looks, I am losing time that I could be working on jewelry or boxes, or head garlands... I am sure that I didn't have enough dog collars or dog jackets, but I will try again to organize myself.
All in all, I saw a lot of friends, listened to a lot of great music, and did a little shopping of my own, so I guess I am happy with the outcome of the weekend...
 Maybe I will forget how tired I am and sign up for another round of festivals... maybe.

No snow, but a holiday

Today is MLKjr day, and there is no school, the college is closed, we are all being lazy here. A front is going to move through in a bit and it will bring with it lots of strong winds, so we have battened down all the loose stuff outside and hope that it doesn't bring a dust storm. There were a lot of wildfires all around us this past year. Thousands of acres burned, fences, houses, livestock gone. That coupled with the severe drought we have been in, makes the perfect environment for the dust to come in full force with any front, from any direction, today it happens to be from the North.

This is a picture from a friend taken from the air in November, one of our memorable days recently. I can't describe the way it looks from the ground, I haven't been able to take a picture that really shows what it looks like. My mother has a photo from when she was a child, back in the Panhandle of Texas. The photo of course is in black and white, so it is very dramatic, the front of the weather pattern is accentuated by a very tall very ominous cloud of dust that is literally black. She said that she remembered them being very dark, almost black. Here it looks like a very dark reddish brown, and it is kind of scary.


So I am finishing up a pendant (which now that I look at it in the picture, I see some real problems that I missed), that has been just waiting around for me to have a few minutes to work on, and maybe finish the necklace that goes with it.  The Gee's Bend is still waiting...


 Later on today, after we have had lunch and maybe read a bit, I am going to tackle the workroom. It has been long in coming, and I am a messy person when I work on anything...

I will not post a picture of the rest of the room, it is just way too messy... but will try to get it back into shape while I have a quiet day.

messy worktable

messy shelves

 OK, it is really messy, and I don't apologize about it, I am just really a mess. When I start working with beads, It is if I am in the Twilight Zone and I lose all time and space, and I really don't mind that. Sometimes I have to set the alarm to go get my son or to do some other task. Sometimes a friend will call to remind me! Yes, it is that bad!  When I work on metal, it is worse. On the desk there is a bunch of little pieces that I am working on, they are links in a bracelet and matching necklace that are just a mess until you get them put together, and I just thought about it,.. I could put them together as I work and it wouldn't be so sloppy... but you know? I kind of like to be able to put components together and move them around and see which one I like better as the focal point, So I probably won't change the way I work, at least not anytime soon!
wor

Back when it was a nursery

This room used to be the nursery... well, before that it was my husband's office. He whined a lot when I moved out all the furniture and his collectables and deemed it the nursery. He really whined a lot, but he loved every minute of it. He would bring his family and friends in to see the way it was progressing, just as he would show off my ever growing tummy and say..."see? This is what I did! "... haha, he really loved finally being a Dad.  When our little bundle of joy arrived, he was even more proud, he would take him everywhere, and for the next 6 years, the two of them were pretty much inseparable.  I joked that the only reason that my husband took our son anywhere was because the little one was a "Babe Magnet". My husband didn't argue! Girls used to flock to see him and want to coo over him and touch his little dimpled hands and dimpled cheeks. What a kid. My husband capitalized on this at every chance as well. He really enjoyed the girls being around and giving the attention. He and I were well passed the jealousy thing and I never minded that he got a lot of attention!

I really miss that. My son really misses that. We are kind of adrift now, and I am not sure we will ever find a calm port, but I think that time heals, and someday... who knows.

Enough sadness for the day. Time to cook lunch and tackle the "room".

You know, I had plans of when the kids were older they would move into the bigger room and I would turn the nursery back into an office.

Life, and all that comes with it

I started my Gee's Bend bracelet and didn't get very far. My sister called and then my son came in frozen and it was suppertime and then... movie time. Well, I didn't get back to it, instead I started something that I can do mindlessly while I am on the phone or 'watching' a movie...another project for my class, I think that it is easy enough for a beginner, 6/0 seed bead with 11/0 trim and varied glass beads for decoration... The glass bead is part of the clasp.  I like doing this kind of beadwork. I sit by the pool and watch my son and his friends play and make bracelets one after another. This necklace is 22 inches without the clasp. It is kind of rough, but I was holding the phone with one shoulder.

Usually I do three or four different necklaces of one style that I am going to teach, one with the beads that the class will use, one piece with smaller beads that will show a more delicate look, and then one with something totally different like triangles, just to show you can use the same pattern as something different. The first is usually just a quick project that I think about and just do, Sometimes I actually sit down and sketch out whatever it is that I am going to teach, but really, I usually just do whatever pops into my mind, then sketch it out and label it. Kind of backwards I suppose, but really this is how I work.  I don't like to feel constrained to one design, if I don't like what I am working on (unless it is something specifically asked for) I will just change in midstream and do what feels or looks right. Not many times have I changed what I am working on after it is finished.

Well the snow is all melted (except the snowmen and a few drifts  and in the back of my truck) the official count was 10 inches, but it may have been a bit more at our house, it is hard to measure when it comes down the way it did. I'm hoping for another snow day, but doubt it will come anytime soon. Think we already got our share, plus,  this winter. This is selfish of me I know, I like having my son home, and I like the opportunity to bead or paint if I want to. The idea of not going anywhere is really nice, but then life catches up and you have to emerge from the den and get on with worldly duties.

The Gee's Bend will wait another day, because I really want to make it exactly the way it was designed, not how I might change it... and I will have to sit down and look at the instructions and diagram of "blocks". It looks like fun, and while I don't use tile beads often, these are really pretty. I prefer to work in 11/0 and 15/0 seeds and 11/0 triangles. I love the look of the triangles in  flat ribbons of peyote stitch. I don't use them to weave, but I think they would look really cool probably. I am really stingy with all the triangles that I get and haven't tried yet.  I am stingy because we don't have a good bead outlet near where I live and have to buy when I go to Dallas or order on line, which I prefer buying while I can see the beads... like fabric, I want to fondle it before I buy it :)

Snow!!!

Snow day today!!! Yipee!!! Wooohoooooo!!!  We had a front move into the area last night and brought the most beautiful big flakes our way!!!  It hasn't let up at all today, and we have about 6 inches so far! I suppose my overwhelming joy is baffling to some, but you see, I live in the desert Southwest so this white stuff isn't all that normal for us... especially since we had a white Christmas, something that isn't very common here and happens every 10-20 years.
Sooo, I have stew on the stove and hot chocolate for the 9 year old that got to come home early from school ( I know that is baffling as well, we don't have school normally when it snows) and I am about to start on a new bead project as I am just finishing up some of the pillowtops for my "Tooth Fairy" pillows. I won't do any stitching or beadwork on them today, and I think the paint is pretty much done and I am itching to do a new project anyway!!!

I bought a Gee's Bend Cuff bracelet kit at the Beadfest in Arlington, Tx in October and haven't had the time to sit down and start on it yet. I started to work on it the last of November when i went to Alpine, Tx for the Artwalk ( I always take a project or three to work on when I travel), but decided to put it away until I was snowed in or something and could do the project all at once. Well we had wonderful snow on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day but I was a little busy with my daughter and grandson visiting and my son and bestest friend here, and I didn't want to be really selfish and hide away working on beads (well, part of me wanted to)... 

I wasn't expecting to have another chance to be shut in the house for a while, but the schools have cancelled extracurricular activities this evening, the colleges have cancelled evening classes, a lot of businesses are shutting down (ha, another baffling idea for anyone who lives where there is snow), so we are officially snowed in! 

So here goes, this is going to be fun!

Bead Soup Blog Party

This is a link to the Bead Soup Blog Party.
What a neat idea... you send the few required items (beads and findings) and receive similar items, then you  photograph the items and then make something out of them and photograph that and share on your blog. What could be more fun? getting some beads in the mail and you can create something special!! 

<a href="http://lorianderson-beadsoupblogparty.blogspot.com/2011/09/prepare-for-5th-bead-soup-blog-party.html"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v466/limamikealpha/BSBP-Mar-2012-1.jpg"  alt="Bead Soup Blog Party" width="150" height="254" /></a>