Happy Halloween!

Where's my Treat?

I Heart Macro - A Killing Frost and Pixie Marie

The symbol of HoPe after a killing frost.

It's still there!

Pixie doesn't like Halloween!

She's doing it to me again!

I Heart Macro!

So the little Army continues to Grow

My little army of snow people continues to grow.

We have all kinds of snow people.

They aren't all perfect either!

We have snow people of different colors.

We have special needs snow people.

We have a true community almost ready to go to Beads of Courage for the children who will be in the hospital during the holidays.

I've even made a couple of snow people for my Esty store

This little guy doesn't even have a name, but he'd sure like a forever home.

Remember, he won't melt!

This is Alicia, a true fashionista!

You can find here HERE.

Remember, no matter the time of year, 

Beads of Courage can always use your beads!

Well, that's all for now!

See you tomorrow for I Heart Macro Sunday!

If you liked what you saw today, why don't you become a follower?

You might enjoy it!!

Three Beautiful Things This Week

Three Beautiful Things This Week was inspired by a wonderful blog that Clare writes called Three Beautiful Things. Everyday, Clare writes about 3 Beautiful Things that happen each day in her life. It's a wonderful blog! I can only hope to imitate her in a very small way.

1) Damnit!  Jenny has shingles!  They are very painful, too.  I know that this isn't a beautiful thing, but I sure do admire my daughter even more.  I admire her strength and courage.  I admire her ability to endure.  I admire her tenacity in the face of great difficulty.  She's quite a woman!

2)  Nick has been sick, too!  Is this a beautiful thing?  No, it's not, but I admire his strength and courage, too.  He continues to be a strength to both Jenny and me.  What a wonderful son!

3)  Pixie makes me smile everyday.  She's decided that she likes to cuddle now.  It doesn't seem to matter where I am or what I am doing.  I turn around, and I find a head in my hand.  I smell something rank, and I hear a sigh, then I find someone cuddled next to me.  I'll be sitting down on the couch, and suddenly I have very little room because Pixie is cuddled next to me.  Yes, she makes me smile.  I am very grateful!

Weekly Photo Challenge - Opportunity

When this

becomes this...

I have the opportunity to spend an afternoon outside on a cool autumn's day

raking, blowing the leaves to the curb, and giving the lawn a final season's mow.

I have the opportunity to breathe the fresh air of the cool day.

I have the opportunity to spend time listening to the geese honk as they fly away for the winter.

I have the opportunity to burn extra calories with the mild exercise.

I have the opportunity to feel autumn as the wind blows through my hair.

I have the opportunity to smell autumn as the I smell a fire lit in a nearby fireplace.

I have the opportunity to taste autumn in a crisp apple that I eat on a break.

I have the opportunity to see the squirrels as they carry away the acorns to their hidden treasure spots.

I have the opportunity to hear autumn as I walk through the crunchy leaves that fell into my yard.

Opportunity

o-p-p-o-r-t-u-n-i-t-y

Opportunity

Getting Ready for Winter

So, I made this drop spindle...

I found the instructions HERE. 

Why you ask?

Well, I'm not sure spinning yarn is really something I want to learn.

I've watched YouTube videos, and I'm just not sure.

So, I made this drop spindle for about $2.

Not much of an investment at this point.

When will I use it?

Soon, when it gets colder.

Spinning looks like fun, and it certainly is interesting.

I'm fascinated that a spinner can take roving and turn that roving into yarn.

I also learned a new term when it comes to spinning...plying.

That sounds interesting, too.

So, one goal for winter.

Try out spinning.

Stay tuned.

I also dyed a little bit of cheesecloth yesterday.

Why you ask?

I plan to learn more about felting, particularly nuno felting.

I've never tried it, but it looks very physical and an interesting way to express oneself in fiber.  

Using only small amounts of roving, a felter works the fibers through the cheesecloth or any porous fiber.

Silk is supposed to be the best, but before I try silk, I'm trying cheesecloth.

Stay tuned.  I've very excited about this!

As it gets colder, I will be trying my hand at nuno felting.

So what are you doing that's new?

Is this a part of your creative growth?

Let's hear all about it!

I Just Have to Brag about this, I mean Blog about this...

If you've read any of my posts on Facebook lately, you've seen me say,

"I think this is the most beautiful bead I've ever made,"

and it's true!

I really do think that this is the most beautiful bead I've ever made!

Every time I look at it,

I love it even more.

It's in my Etsy store.

You can see it here.

Maybe, you'll love it, too!

We're Home!

I'd love to say that the bead show was an overwhelming success, but I can't.

It was, however, successful.

I was able to pay my fees for this show and for the spring show.

Both sales and attendance were down, but the sales I made were big ones.

I didn't see my usual customers there.

I don't know why, but they weren't there, or they didn't stop by.

That's okay.

I made some new friends, too.

The time spent at the show was enjoyable!

I guess you can't ask for much more than that.

So, onto some new and better things.

Today, I begin an online class with Stephanie Lee.

I also hope to make a drop spindle and dye some cheesecloth so that I can learn how to nuno felt.  I also have two more shows coming up.  They are smaller, but they are profitable, usually.  We'll see what the economy does.

So, talk to you tomorrow.

I might just take a nap right now.

I Heart Macro - Memories

I Heart Macro - Memories!

Soon, we autumn will only be a memory!

But before it leaves,

(pardon the bad pun), 

here are some memories.

Wild growth

Floral Skeletons

Brown Eyed Susans

Weedy Flowers

Memories!

Slow Day at the Bead Show

Yes, there were people there, shopping.

Yes, they were buying.

However, sales were slow and the buyers were spending their hard earned cash in a very frugal way.

The people who spent money were seen gathering around the imported beads which were very inexpensive.

I can't blame them.

I only wish they would see the handmade work by the artisans who were showing their wears.

Well, tomorrow is another day!

Good night!

Three Beautiful Things This Week

Three Beautiful Things This Week was inspired by a wonderful blog that Clare writes called Three Beautiful Things. Everyday, Clare writes about 3 Beautiful Things that happen each day in her life. It's a wonderful blog! I can only hope to imitate her in a very small way.

1) Well, it's not as perfect as we would like, but Jenny's cancer has stabilized.  Her MSpike is .2.  That means that 99.8 % of her body does not have any cancer in it.  That is a blessing!

2)  The third printer works like a charm!  I've taken back two printers because they didn't work.  I've decided to be assertive when it comes to technology.  I'm not sorry I took back the other two printers!  This one does work!  So far!

3) The work for the show is done.  I'm ready to go!  That is another blessing!  I can breathe again instead of stress!  Life is full of little blessings!

Weekly Photo Challenge - Potential

I love the way these two colors go together.

They were an experiment in color.

I never thought I'd like them together.

Now that they are melded into a bead,

I see the potential in trying unexpected blends of colors in beads.

Potential

p-o-t-e-n-t-i-a-l

Potential

Yahoooo!!! I'm almost ready for the show!

So, if you're going to be in the Hopkins, Minnesota, area this Saturday or Sunday,

come to the 

Twin Cities Bead Bazaar!

I'm looking forward to it!

I'm looking forward to being there!

Come and meet the artists and get your Xmas shopping done early!

Inspired by Marcy Lamberson - Again

After reading Marcy's blog post about her snow folk, 

I was inspired to begin making my own little army of snow people for Beads of Courage.

Oh, you can read Marcy's post HERE.

As you know,

Beads of Courage is about helping children cope with serious illnesses through the use of beads.

The Snow Folk will be made for children who must be in the hospital during the holidays.

I'm just beginning to develop a small army of snow people.

You will see in my army,

regular snow people,

special needs snow people,

and

snow people of different colors.

So, without further ado,

here is my mini army soon to be mailed off to Beads of Courage.

So, are you going to be making snow folk for Beads of Courage!

The will truly be appreciated if you do!

I'm off.  The torch and kiln await!

Why I didn't blog today

I don't miss many days of blogging, but today I did.  It turns out I got a nasty virus on my laptop computer.  It's the computer with all the photos.  No, photo today either.  I only wish I had taken a screen shot of the legitimate looking window that popped up on my screen last night.  It said that Microsoft had detected 254 things wrong with my computer, including video hardware.  Did I want to send a report to Microsoft?  That should have made me suspicious, but it didn't.  I pressed the button to send the report to Microsoft.  You can guess it.  I enabled the virus. 

My laptop is now in the shop.  I'm hoping to have it by the end of the day, but I'm not sure.  The tech was having a hard time getting rid of the virus.  She said it might have sent my credit card information to the "theives" who sent me the virus.  She said she might have to wipe my computer clean.  I'm sick about this!
She's going to back some things up for me, but I don't know what I will have to loose. 

The window sure looked legitimate.  I don't even click on emails from friends that say, "You'll  really enjoy this video."  I don't click on any email links any more.  In spite of my virus protection, and I have two very good programs running, I still got a virus!  I suppose it's like washing your hands faithfully during the day.  Your odds of getting a cold are decreased, however, you can still get a cold.

I''m crabby and tired now.  I think I'll stop writing.  Hope your day was better than mine.
Maybe I'll see you tomorrow.

I Heart Macro! What is it?

I heart macro!

Some of these are easy,

and some are not.

Let's see how well you do.

Easy!

It's Pixie Marie!

A little bit tougher.

It's a lucet with a cord I'm making!

This is easy.

My IPhone!

No, it's not spaghetti!

It's a bundle of yarn I have to untangle.

I'm not tell you this one!

What do you think it is?

I Heart macro!

Weekly Photo Challenge - Comfort

Now that the weather is cooling off,

It's time for some comfort!

This is how I made it.

I chopped up one onion and threw it in a pan with a bit of butter.

To that I added a bunch of fresh tomatoes that I chopped up.

My neighbor had too many tomatoes!

Lucky me!

I put the flame on low and let the tomatoes and onion simmer.  Then,

in another pan, I browned 1 pound of hamburger and when it was browned I drained it to get rid of as much fat as possible.

I added that to the simmer tomato and onion mixture.

Then I added some corn and peas.

I cooked this mixture until it just looked like good

COMFORT

food.

Nummy!

comfort

c-o-m-f-o-r-t

comfort

Three Beautiful Things This Week

Three Beautiful Things This Week was inspired by a wonderful blog that Clare writes called Three Beautiful Things. Everyday, Clare writes about 3 Beautiful Things that happen each day in her life. It's a wonderful blog! I can only hope to imitate her in a very small way.

1)  It's unbelievable, but I had the air conditioning running for 4 days this week!  It was so warm, that I had to turn it on!  We've had a beautiful Indian Summer!   I know that fall is around the corner, but you just can't beat the weather we've had so far!

2) Jenny and I had a great visit last weekend!  We did a lot of fun things.  I truly enjoyed her visit!

3) Pixie is feeling much better!  She's being naughty again trying to steal my food and hog the bed and couch!  Looks like things are getting back to normal!  Whew!  All in all, it's been a good week!

Just for Fun! And Pixie is much, much better now!

Just for fun!

 Found this on Facebook yesterday, several times!

All I can Say is Poor Pixie!

Yesterday, I took Pixie to the vet for her annual teeth cleaning.

All went well.

When I went to pick her up,

I noticed she wouldn't lay down in the car.

She was also yelping.

They told me she might have a little bloody discharge from her mouth.

Imagine my surprise when we got home, and I found blood on the couch and on her leg.

Luckily,

the vet was still open, so I took her back.

The gouge required 12 stitches to close.

We don't know what happened.

I know that no one tried to hurt her.

Most likely, she was thrashing in her cage when she was coming out of the anesthetic.

No one saw the injury when we left.

I didn't notice it either.

I'm just glad that she's okay.

Here are her pictures.

That injury took 12 stitches to close.

Poor Pixie was so out of it that she couldn't keep her head up to breathe.

I had to lift her head up to keep her breathing.

The
 pillow helped to keep her head up when I wasn't with her.

Poor Pixie!!!

She's feeling better now!

I'm glad!

Just a bit of Eye Candy

I hope you enjoy this!

This is one of my favorite pieces.  I made the beads using polymer clay!  It's so much fun to wear.

I made this necklace in Sara Sally LaGrand's class at the Bead and Button show two years ago.

Love it!

I just wanted to use up some supplies I had.  I think this necklace turned out very nicely!

I made this necklace to honor my daughter who has multiple myeloma.

The red stands for all the healthy blood cells she has in her body now.

I made this necklace as part of a challenge for a blog.  I ended up keeping it.

I really like it!

I hope you enjoyed the show!  Now, I just have to figure out where the pink reflection came from.  I think it was my bright pink shirt!  I have to shoot these again!  

Oh, well!

Ten Reasons to Become a Fairy Princess!

When I was a child, I wanted to become a fairy princess.  I read all stories of princesses.  I danced in the flowers.  I jumped as high as I could to try to fly.  I had faith!   I knew that one day, I would become a fairy princess.  Fast forward to the day after my birthday.  Even though I didn't become a fairy princess when I was a child, I've decided, I STILL want to become a fairy princess.   Why?  Well...


 1) If you're a fairy princess and you don't get your way, all you have to do is wave your wand, and you get what you want!

2) It just makes you smile when you know you're a fairy princess!

3) Becoming a fairy princess means you can use your wings to fly away when you need a vacation.  Who needs Calgon?

4) When you put on weight, you don't have to worry about it.  Wait!  If you're a fairy princess, you won't gain weight!

5) Fairy princesses always look pretty!  When you look at yourself in the mirror in the morning, you never wonder who that person is that's looking back at you.  You just smile because you see your tiara.  (Yes, if you are a fairy princess, when you wake up, your hair looks great and your tiara hasn't moved all night!)

6) Fairy princesses are always smiling.  Even if you have food caught in your teeth, no one sees it.  Remember, you are a fairy princess!

7) Fairy princesses sleep well at night, that is, unless there is a pea or a speck of dust under their mattress.
Even a speck of dust will wake up a fairy princess.  So if dust wakes you up, and you're a fairy princess, just wave your wand and the dust is gone.

8) A fairy princess can make beads like no one else!  Colors blend.  Implosions pop!  A fairy princesses' beads are always beautiful!

9) When a fairy princess wears jewelry, it's never too big or too small.  A fairy princess' jewelry is just the right size and shape.  Her jewelry is made of the most beautiful lampwork beads that she made.  Fairy princesses love their jewelry!

10) A fairy princess' shoes are always beautiful and comfortable!  A fairy princess never goes anywhere without the right shoes. 

I don't know about you, but these are my top ten reasons for still wanting to become a fairy princess.  What are your reasons for becoming a fairy princess?

I Heart Macro! Birthday Treat and a Bug

I Heart Macro!

Happy birthday to Me!!!

My favorite gluten free birthday treat:

Strawberry Ice Cream with almonds.

 

Last of the season grasshopper!

I heart Macro!

Weekly Photo Challenge - Sunset

Sunset

s-u-n-s-e-t

Sunset

Three Beautiful Things This Week

Three Beautiful Things This Week was inspired by a wonderful blog that Clare writes called Three Beautiful Things. Everyday, Clare writes about 3 Beautiful Things that happen each day in her life. It's a wonderful blog! I can only hope to imitate her in a very small way.

1)  It's been a very busy week.  I'm getting ready for a show in two weeks.  It's amazing how many ways I can multi task when the pressure is on!  I'm pleased with the results!

2)  Jenny has come home for the first time in ages!  I'm thrilled that she's feeling well enough to do this again.  I know it's still hard on her physically, but she's come a long way!  Her health is improving!  I am thrilled.

3)  Pixie has been guarding her couch with the kitties home.  She feels that her couch is only hers.  Of course, the kitties don't care.  The look at her and walk away.  I think that Walter is playing hard to get!  He loves Pixie, but he wants to be top cat!

The Lucet and an Idea. Let me know what you think, please.

I'm getting ready for a show in two weeks, so

rather than stress about it,

I pulled out my lucet today and made cords.

I made some of these cords today.

Some, I had made earlier.

Using different fibers, you make different kinds of cords.

As a personal taste,

I have found that I like to wear my lucet cords in groups.

I used thinner yarns to make these cords.

This group of cords looks very dainty when worn.

 This is my favorite grouping of cords!  I wear these frequently rather than a scarf or necklace.

I made this cord using leather.  I added my special bead to the cord!

These are some of the cords from the collage.  Put them together and you have a nice scarf to wear.

All right.  You get the picture.

Now, here's my idea.

I would like to raise funds to donate to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation.

I would like to sell these cords for $5 with 100% of the funds going to the MMRF.

Now here are my questions

1) Do you think these cords would be something people might like to purchase?

2) Do you think $5 per cord is reasonable?

Please let me know what you think. 

I would like to find some way to help raise monies to help eradicate this cancer.

There has been so much research done in the 7 years since my husband died from this disease.

New medications have become available, and Jenny is benefiting from them.

I'd like to help somehow.

Let me know what you think.

This is very important to me.

Thank you.

Bead Soup - Take 2! Huh? What?

I joined a Bead Soup exchange on Lampworketc.

This is a different exchange from the one that Lori Anderson hosts.

First of all, there is no blog hop.

Second, after the components of the "soup" are sent to each partner,

that partner makes a piece of jewelry and sends it back as a gift to the original sender.

Does that make sense?

I hope so.

I think it's going to be fun!

I know that my "soup" is on the way.

So, today, I decided that I had better get everything finished and get my "soup" on its way to my 

"Soup" Partner, Sue.

So, here's what I've put together.  I started out with a very big mix.

 

I pulled everything out of drawers that I thought would go with the skull key I made.

You can see the skull in the middle of this enormous soup!

I also made some spacer beads and some wavy discs.

Here's how I narrowed the first bit of soup beads.

I decided that this would be the basic "stock" from which I would work.

I knew I needed some colors to make the darker colors POP.

I seasoned the soup with some pink toned pearls, some red textured lentils, some silver colored spacers, and some black beads.

I seasoned the soup with some small metalic discs.

I liked the look.

 I changed the seasoning a bit.  I took out the discs and added some bicone shaped red beads.

That made the mix a bit more spicy.

 

Then I found the final ingredients for the mix.  I spacers and some more black beads.

For fun, I added some dice beads!

Now, that should be fun!

I can hardly wait to see what Sue sends me!

The challenge will be on!