Made It!

There's a little cat in my life with a very big meow! He can squawk unlike any kitty on the planet. I call him Rick the Relentless. Last night he was determined to prove me right. If he wasn't yelling in my face, he walking around my head, stepping on my hair as he crossed my pillow. When none of them would work, he'd leap onto my body from the tall dresser.

I didn't get much sleep. My challenge today has been staying awake.

At first, I thought I'd do the things I usually do on Monday. I gave it my best effort. I got the deposits ready to go to the bank. I paid bills, wrote the grocery list, finished laundry, then completely ran out of steam.

Lunch didn't improve the situation, so I gave up. I decided the only thing left for me to do was take the day off.

I've watched a couple of movies, messed with digital jigsaw puzzles, baked (and consumed) Pumpkin Spice Bread, and wandered around Pinterest.

Is 6:42 too early for bed? Nah, I'm tired.

Hopefully, the cat will let me sleep.

Brought To You

by the letter...

Quilling, as seen in the letter "C" to the left, is a paper art form. Paper strips are formed into coils then glued together to create an image. This art form was used during the Renaissance to decorate religious items and book covers. During the 18th century it was a popular pastime for ladies of leisure.

Today quilling is enjoying a revival.

I love typography. Artist Sabeena Karnick of Mumbai, India has created a beautiful typography inspired alphabet using quilling for her letter forms. Here is a link to her work.

It's quite wonderful!

Sunday/Funday

What could be better? Take two beaders, add a lazy Sunday afternoon, a sunny work space, a shop full of beads, stir them all together with a big dollop of Mel Brooks quotes to make a great day!

Claire started out to make a ring, then her RAW square became too big. Instead of stopping, she kept adding beads...

...until she'd made this! Her too big square is on its way to becoming a pendant.

This is a first! I'd never made a beaded ring before. The faceted topaz centerpiece refused to be anything else, so I played along...

...even with a few false starts!*

After finishing the ring I made a lovely pendant to match.

Three and a half hours flew by quickly! I felt renewed, and inspired. It's wonderful to spend time with someone who speaks bead, has a wacky sense of humor, and is filled with ideas.

Thank you for Sunday, Claire... I really needed it! Let's do it again soon. Does this Sunday work for you?

*a bead fairy gasped when I started chopping.

Beading Circle

On Thursday afternoons the table in the classroom is open to anyone who would like to come in. We work on projects, get advice, share finished pieces, and chat about beads, life, future projects, or anything that comes up.

I've made a short video of the group, and the projects we worked on.

Whirlwind!

Last week was something else! Bizzy, busy.

I was so bushed that last night I went to bed at 7:30. This morning I was rumbled awake at 8:30 by the garbage truck in front of my house. I'm still moving slowly.

A recap of last week.

Sunday:: Finalized, and emailed newsletter announcing the trunk show. Anyone who needs to send out large batches of emails can't go wrong with verticalresponse.com in my opinion. The site has some marvelous features, and is very, very affordable.

Monday:: Taught a wire bracelet class to three very enthusiastic students. We had a grand time. I also ran my weekly errands... bank, post office, printer, and grocery store.

Tuesday:: Worked at the shop, and taught a wire wrap class that evening. I got home at 9:30.

Wednesday:: Ordered seed beads, and stringing material. I treated myself to a class with Claire, and learned how to seed bead bezel a Swarovski Rivoli. It was nearly 10:00 before I went home.

Thursday:: The first Beading Circle started at 2:00. Lorie came in for a refresher on the clasp I'd taught her in the wire working class on Tuesday. Louise, Theresa, and I worked on finishing our Rivoli bezels. Theresa's daughter Amanda came along with her mom. She found the new book on beaded rings, and made two adorable little crystal/seed bead rings for her little girls. Claire dazzled us all with some pieces she'd brought with her, and worked on a project while she was there.

This week... I'll bring cookies!

Friday:: Guy arrived for the trunk show at 12:30! We chatted for nearly an hour, then decided setting up for the following day's activity might not be a bad idea. We started at 2:00, and worked until 6:30.

Saturday:: The trunk show took off like a rocket!! We had customers waiting for the shop to open. There were several times that it was impossible to fit one more person into the sunroom to shop.

I had the opportunity to see what was being purchased, and let me tell you... there are going to be some really cool projects happening in the weeks to come.

My favorite items were the smallest and the largest! There were 2mm seed pearls. Guy explained that it had taken them seven days of shopping in Hong Kong to gather the selection he'd brought.

In case you missed them, I bought a nice selection for the shop.

The largest items they brought were resin beads. They were in the 20-24mm size range. I was particularly attracted to the black and white pieces. There were two strands of striped ovals that I really loved! I loved them so much that when I was helping Guy set up for the show Friday night, I placed them at the bottom of the heap.

They were still there when we were breaking down, so guess what I got! Yeah, I know, grow up Carol :D

J-Me arrived for the show around 1:30 and brought some more things with her. She had metalized charlottes, Soft Flex wire, and their new pave' crystal balls. I made certain to load up on them.

....and peacock beads!

They're wonderful. I purchased bags of loose peacock beads, and strands. If you missed the show, you'll be able to see these beauties. In the days to come, I'll post some projects featuring them.

Saturday night:: We started breaking the show down shortly after 5:00. I shopped for the store for a couple of hours, and we headed to my house for a dinner of pizza, and salad.

After dinner we entertained ourselves with a silly game we've invented. I don't have a TV. Instead, I have a 24" iMac in my living room. We'd each take a turn choosing a song to search for on youtube.com. We're all in the same age group, so it was fun finding videos of the music we grew up with. We'd reminisce about what we were doing at the time the songs were popular, or when they came out. It was a great way to get to know one another better.

The only song we didn't find on youtube was one of Guy's choices. It was by a reggae group from San Francisco known as The Toyes. The song was 'The Lucky Sperm Club.' We found it on Lastfm. Here it is.

This week is going to be a little quieter, but not by much!

Color

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower." Albert Camus*

The changing of the season, especially the transition from summer to autumn, seems to bring color to the forefront of my thoughts. This autumn has been particularly beautiful here in southern Oregon. We've had chilly nights followed by warm, sun-filled days. The sky has been intensely blue, contrasting the glorious spectrum of orange, russet, and gold.

My thoughts about color lead me to the Pantone site where I spent time looking at the colors forecast for Autumn 2010, and Spring 2011.

I found it interesting when viewing the two palettes how similar they are.  How refreshing to have colors that will work in more than one season.  I'm also enchanted by the names given to each color.  Some of them make sense, and in the case of the autumn colors for this year, some make me hungry.




In the next few days I'm going to print these two images, and take a tour around the shop looking for beads, and findings that will work with these new color trends. It will be fun to see what I can come up with... yes, I'll be sharing.



*one of my favorite quotes about autumn. I remember it whenever I see a spectacular tree.

Dancing

Since 'Dancing' is an important part of our name, I thought I'd share one of my all time favorite dancing videos.



Happy Friday!

...and if all goes according to plan there will be a project posted tomorrow.

Finding Frogs

Working with beads has changed the way I look at the world around me. It seems that the little details are what catch my eye, things out of place, or shaped differently immediately grab my attention.

Recently, I was at my least favorite place on the planet... the grocery store. My sweetie was headed for the bottle return outside while I helped his mom, who's a spry 96 year old, round up a grocery cart. Once she was situated, I went back to hang out with my guy.

As I was walking toward the bottle return area, something caught my eye on the ground about six feet in front of me. There on the black top, surrounded by huge humans, more asphalt, and cars was a tiny, bright green frog. It was no bigger than a quarter, and it was hopping straight towards me.

Without hesitating I picked it up, and cupped it in my hand. I took my little passenger over to show to Jeff.

We were both amazed that the frog was where it was. The building is in the center of a huge parking lot, devoid of trees, shrubs, or any sort of greenery. We surmised the frog must have come in with someone's bottles. How the frog had avoided being stepped on or run over seemed nothing short of miraculous.

Jeff declared it was the frog's lucky day. He left his bag of bottles for someone else to redeem, and we trekked across the parking lot to deposit the frog in a safer place.

So, what does finding a frog in the middle of a parking lot have to do with beads?

Give me a minute...

How about this... if you look, I mean really look, you'll find amazing things in unusual places. Sometimes it's a shell, or a rock, sometimes it's a bit of inspiration. Other times it's a special person, or a wonderful moment. We're surrounded by so much beauty, and wonder, I think you have to work too hard to not find frogs.

Who wants to work that hard?

It's Tuesday and I Don't Have Much

This morning my computer screen is as daunting as an empty sheet of paper. I want to write. I know once I begin, I'll find something to write about, but the ideas... they're not coming.

*waiting*

Nope, still not there. Perhaps taking the easy route might be the best thing to do today. I'll post some pictures.

This is himself... Rick the Cat.  He was determined to help out as the Czech seed beads were being processed.  Since seed beads love to run away, his task was holding them down.  He did a great job!

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Last night I received an email from Claire Kimble, one of the instructors at the shop. She'd attached a couple of pictures. The piece above is a herringbone bracelet with a little moon face she purchased on one of her first visits to the new store.

Isn't it amazing? I love her color choices.

Thank you, Claire for letting me share your beautiful creation.  Oh, and by the way, Claire will be teaching this technique on Wednesday, October 27th.  There are still a couple of spaces available.

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One of my favorite time killers (besides playing Bejeweled on Facebook) is stumbling. The stumble button up on my toolbar can get quite a work out depending on how much I need to check out.

I found the picture above while stumbling one night, and had to save it. That's my kind of crustacean! I have no idea if the image was Photoshopped, or if there is a creature as colorful as the one pictured. I'm going to opt for the latter, as it makes my heart happy. Mother Nature has a spectacular sense of humor, and whimsy.

Hmmm, looking at that picture again, and then looking at what I'm wearing today, the crustacean and I have something in common... we haven't met a color we won't wear!

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Last night I felt like goofing around in Photoshop. I'd come across the quote I used, and was struck by how very true it is! I hear all the time "I'm just not creative." "I don't have a creative bone in my body."

We're all creative. Some of us just won't trust it's real.

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Looks like I did have a topic after all... Color and creativity... and it only took until 3:30 to realize it!

Funday

...or day three of the NaBloPoMo challenge.

Is there really any day of the week that's nicer? No really, think about it. You've worked hard all week, you've gotten chores done, and errands taken care of, and now it's Sunday. I don't know about you, but this is the best day of the week for me. I kick back, relax, and find something fun to do... like write a post, and share some thoughts.

Yesterday, my dear friend Theresa spent the afternoon with me at the shop. Her husband, and son had surprised her (kinda) on her birthday by giving her an amazing ivory and black dragonfly lampwork bead by Kim Wertz. They thoughtfully included two accent beads.

Theresa came in for some "inspiration" as she put it. I was only too happy to play with her, and toss in my 2¢ now and then. She made an amazingly sweet and feminine necklace and a pair of wonderful earrings.

We agreed, the copper was just the ticket to bring out the warmer tones in the lampworked beads, and the little touches of ivory organza ribbon were like gossamer wings. She designed the necklace to be assymetrical, a touch that really added to the piece's charm.

While Theresa played, I sat at the table relabeling tubes of seed beads found in yet another box. My task went so much faster with a companion.

Today is turning into a lovely one. Jeff and I are going to take a drive into the mountains so I can take some pictures of autumn leaves. The leaves are changing here in the valley, so I'm sure the dogwoods and vine maples at a higher elevation are likely ablaze. My battery is charging, and I've rounded up all my cards.

So, what are you doing today?

Boxes

Despite my best efforts before opening, I'm still going through boxes, and boxes, and boxes, and... I'm sure you get the idea. There's a whole lotta stuff left to do, and put into the shop.

When I opened the box that contained the sterling charms I'd purchased several years ago, I was delighted. Immediately, I was off to find my tools, and grab some wire.

The earrings perfectly describe how much I love my kitty. Rikki has been my best cat friend for 12 years. He's full of personality, and is one of the bright spots in my day. I don't kiss him on the lips, despite what the charms say. He's far too successful a hunter for me to even think about it. Lizards, rats, birds, big bugs... ewsh... could explain the breath.

Anyway, he's a Tuxedo Cat, so the black and white paw print lampwork beads were perfect. I added 4mm Olivine Swarovski crystals because the color reminded me of his amazing eyes. Inverted sterling silver bead caps added a decorative touch, and stabilized the lampwork beads on the wire.

Then I had to make a pendant from the other two charms. I stacked one on top of the other.  The top one reads "Fly High!"  The bottom one says "The Sky is the Limit."  The way I've been feeling lately, I think it should say "the stars are the limit."

I tried wearing it on a neckwire, but it was a bit too much with the earrings, so it's now on the keyring for the register keys.  It won't always live there, but it seemed like a good place for it.

Taking the pictures was fun!  There are grapevines behind the classroom, and they're just loaded with grapes.  I got a nice picture, and I got to eat some yummy grapes.

Well, so much for playing with things I've found in boxes.  There are oodles of tubed seed beads to re-tag, but I can't help wondering what I'm going to find next.

Manifesting

Yesterday morning, I declared to whatever is out there listening, that I needed a quiet day because it was high time for me to get the last cabinet filled. There was also an order of findings that had floated around for a month that kept dribbling headpins all over the place.

I got what I asked for... a very quiet day. There were three sales, all of them occurred before 1:30. Not a huge day monetarily, but certainly a successful day of manifesting, and getting things done. It was so much fun (no, I'm not being sarcastic) that I worked until 9:30 just to finish as much as possible.

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Now that it's October, it really feels like autumn to me. This morning I had an email from NaBloPoMo. It's a social network on NING for people willing to blog every day for a month. I've taken the challenge a couple of times, and I've decided to take the challenge again this month.

Every month has a theme, and this month's theme appealed to me because it's pretty true to the way life has been going lately. The theme for October is "Play."

I hope you'll join me as I play my way through this month... it should be fun!