Meme

Feel free to play along..this is one of those lists....mark the things you've done in bold:

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band.
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain (not a big one.)
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped )
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community.
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo's David
41. Sung kareoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone's life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a lawsuit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day
101. Seen more than 5 movies in one day
102. Spent a night in jail
103. Ridden a unicycle
104. Slept on the floor
105. Passed out drunk
106. Cheated a railroad company
107. Lied about my age
108. Been South of the Equator
109. Been baptized
110. Been to Japan


Meanwhile, the holiday crafting is going along nicely, and I've started the December BJP page, but not gotten too far on it. Next week, however, I've got a bit more time to spend on it.

November BJP and other work

Well, I finished the November page, my expression of my feelings on the November election! I'm so glad we'll be getting a different focus in our government. Also included is a beaded cord bracelet I'll finish up shortly. I love the combo of the turquoise size 8's and the cranberry 15's, and the texture of this sort of bead cord invites stroking. Also included, a pic of a pair of green wool toe-up socks. I've been on a knitting jag lately and am working on my third pair of wool socks. There's nothing like having warm feet in the winter!

Bosque del Apache

Cranes in flight.


Fall in the bosque.


Jake, birdwatching.


Geese in flight.


See the bald eagle in the snag?


Cranes feeding.


Cranes in flight.


Fall in the bosque.


Group of cranes.


My son Jake and I went out to the Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge. He needed a break from the grind of studying and the Bosque is near his college and a wonderful place to go and unwind. We saw countless ducks and geese and hundreds of cranes, one roadrunner and one bald eagle. All in all it was a marvelous New Mexico afternoon, the air was cool and crisp, the sky bright and mostly cloudless and the scenery absolutely amazing. My pics are all from my little old canon elf. There were many professional looking cameras with enormous lenses out there that made me think it may be getting time to start thinking about a more sophisticated camera, but what I have is good enough for now.

YES! We Can!

Hooray for America! In celebration, I went to my Kuler and made a little color swatch reflecting how I feel about the day and the times. Check out Kuler, (Mary Tafoya introduced me to this site!) it's the dandiest thing for making color swatches to download to your Creative Suite or Photoshop. You can upload a picture of whatever you like to play with and create swatches. It's the best tool I've found so far for playing with color combinations.

Bead Retreat

A turtle and a horse that I got from Sally and stuffed and sewed together, ready for beading.



Some of Sally's stuffed leather critters, ready for her to bead



Rita's gorgeous loomed rose montee bracelet.



Some of my experimental polymer clay pieces, technique taught by Jan Jones



Mary's hands at work.



Loomed Bracelet, technique taught by Rita Sova--kit provided by Rita (thanks Rita!).



One of Sally's leather animal blanks that I bought from her and am stuffing and will bead later.



A gorgeous pair of Sally Ingrams' Diagonal Weave Earrings



My attempt at Vietnamese Button weaving, technique taught by Sally Ingram.



Mary is making these cool bottlecap earrings!


Over the weekend, I was lucky to be a part of an annual bead retreat that I've been attending for a decade. We met in Santa Fe this year and a dozen of us (plus several husbands, with varying degrees of interest in the goings-on) met, dined, beaded, played with polymer clay and buttons, shopped and all-in-all had a wonderful time. As usual, my roommate was Mary Tafoya, an extraordinary beader and artist. We also got to spend time with Sally Ingram, who makes the most gorgeous beaded critters, and who is one of the few living beaders who works in the Ho Chunk style diagonal weave and makes beautiful ceremonial hair wraps as well as long, gorgeous earrings, Sally taught us in interesting techniques for weaving or twining buttons into patterns for things like coasters, baskets and ornaments, a technique done by the Vietnamese. Many of the beaders got this right away, I struggled with it but am sure I can do it when Sally can give me a diagram of the thread path (hint, hint, :-) ). Rita Sova taught us a new technique for the Versa Loom, a bracelet with strands incorporated into it, that I love. She showed off the gorgeous loomed bracelet done with rose montees on the Versa Loom. I've already put in an order for some of the montees, so I can try and make one. Jan Jones taught us how to make neat wood grain looking polymer clay pins and showed us techniques incorporating paint and poly clay that end up with a cool crackle looking finish. Mary taught us how to make our own earwires from sterling silver wire, with several little cool variations! (will try to get a pic of some and add later!) Mary turned me onto MSNBC news, especially Rachel Maddow, who I think is fantastic! It was a wonderful weekend, and already I'm looking forward to next year!

October BJP

Wow! I finished my October piece in plenty of time, even though I've been working on a lot of other things. I named her the harvest goddess. The face cab is one I made last year, and I've been sticking to my vow of using my bead soup. I think I may have enough soup to last all year!

New finished objects

Besides working on my BJP, I've been doing some custom work. Nice to know that people are still willing to spend some cash on bling. I just finished a double strand 20 inch gold bead cord necklace and 8 inch herringbone gold triangle bead bracelet set for a doctor I work with. She's willing to pay what I ask and I try to charge what my time and supplies are worth without making the cost too outrageous (cause I want her to come back for more...hehe) Anyway, I think they turned out nice!

The Politics Test

Well, I took the Politics test, and as I suspected:

You are a Social Liberal (78% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (26% permissive) You are best described as a: Strong Democrat Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also : The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

who'd a thunk it?

September BJP Finished

I'm a terrile hoarder, I have to admit. One of my goals this year on the BJP is to use my old hoards of bead soup from various projects and spills that I've kept because "I'll get to them later and sort them out". I'm ashamed to think how old some of these little vials and baggies of beads are. So, I've decided to use at LEAST 80% old beads in each of my BJP pages this year. Should be fun. For the September page, I decided to try and just do a free form piece with no preconceived ideas of where I'd be going with it. Again, it was fun, and flowed fairly well. Meanwhile I'm working on several custom pieces and dong some knitting.

September Progress

I've been working on tons of things and have just now gotten started on my Sept. BJP, but I think it'll go quickly. Meanwhile, I'm posting pics of some of my recent knitting and beadwork. I've been making a lot of strung bracelets with crystals lately, and then the little deerskin rosary pouches are very popular, too. The knitted dishcloth has an owl worked into it-the design isn't too easy to see in the pic, but it looks good in real life.
Can't wait to see all the work that's being done.
Cheers,
Sarah

Gearing Up

Getting myself psyched up for the start of the new BJP, I've been doing some small beading projects to sell. Tons of cheap and cheerful headpin earrings, strung bracelets, and a lot of bead storage organizing to freshen up in my mind what it is that I have to work with (my beadstash is shamefully large and I'm trying to use more than I buy, otherwise, someday when I die my son will be left with all those beads to get rid of). The weather took a cool turn and my thoughts turned to knitting. I've made several of Amy Singer's Everlasting Bagstopper bags in the past, but I wanted to try one with a knitted in handle. The above pic is my first attempt and I like it a lot. Another (same color) is on the needles right now. I've recently joined Ravelry, and the bag is my first project. I haven't had time to really explore much of Ravelry yet, but it's an amazing site, with tons of free projects and links to wonderful patterns. Anyone who knits or crochets or does other fiber crafts should check it out!

Deb's Stethoscope

I just finished a commissioned piece. It's stethoscope beadwork, which is done frequently here in the Southwest. This stethoscope has a name on the crosspiece so I beaded the two 'arms' and the top of the main tubing. I like the look, two celtic knots and a yin/yang. Now on to a little pair of Kokopelli earrings that someone requested.....

Etsy Beadweavers Street Team Challenge

Lots of interesting pieces of beadwork are up for the vote for the July Challenge. Go, look and VOTE. I know which one was MY favorite!

Front Page on Etsy

Ooooh, cool. I got one of my pieces on Etsy's front page, thanks to one of the many Etsy Beadweaver's Street team members, who apparently put this Treasury together. It caused me to have quite the jump in hits on the piece shown. The Treasury was in honor of Canada Day, featuring red and white items. my piece is actually the first! Happy Canada Day everyone!

Eva's Ipod case

Well, I have a friend who wanted a case after she saw mine, but she wanted it in black and with red 'bling'. OK, no problem, I had some nice black pigskin left over from a large project and went with that. Not as easy or fun to sew as the braintanned deerhide, but it was OK. This time I reinforced the cutout areas with some machine stitching (embroidery stitches as suggested by Heidi would have been way too labor intensive on this pigskin, and I didn't want beads or heaviness around the edge of the cogwheel area. I think it's getting more like what I'm aiming for, so this is officially prototype #2. Next one might even be good enough to sell on my Etsy site.

IPOD Nano Case

I worked on a prototype and ended up not liking it (I thought an asymmetrical flap would look good but it didn't). Worked on a second prototype and it's more to my liking, but I still haven't gotten the holes for the screen and click wheel quite right. Next one should be good enough to offer on Etsy, I'm thinking. I also might make some kits, what the heck. I plan to keep this second prototype, and bead embroider an apple logo on the front flap. I left a hole in the bottom seam for the earbud plug, but didn't leave a hole for the charger/download plug-could have, just opted not to, as I figure it's easy enough to take the Nano out of it's case when downloading/charging.

Tagged for a meme

Oy! I got tagged by MaryT! I'll play, but I'm not going to tag anyone else....everyone who wants to play, feel free to claim a tag from me. :-)

What was I doing 10 years ago?
gah! much has changed, much is the same:

working as a nurse in an ER,

raising and homeschooling a quiet, bright 13 yr old,

beading,

wearing MUCH smaller clothes


What are 5 things on my to-do list for today?

Make a pouch for my new ipod nano....LOVE the tech stuff!

hang with my kiddo (home for college break for another week),

maybe snap a pic of said pouch....

transfer more music to said nano

make salmon and salad for supper


Snacks I enjoy….

lately, steamed apples with cinnamon and nutmeg, no sugar

onion bagels!

strawberries, just plain



Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

quit work

spread the money around

TRAVEL

buy a big house in the pacific NW, and one in NM, and split my time between them



Places I have lived:

Maryland

Northern New Mexico

Arkansas



Jobs I have had:

migrant tree planter

med/surg nurse

nursing home nurse

long term care psych nurse

ER nurse



Bloggers I’m tagging for this meme….

Anyone who wants to play....

May BJP

I chose to use a Frida Kahlo stamp that my friend Mary gave me a few years ago as the center of the page. I love the freedom and intensity of Frida's work and admire her greatly, so I thought ending the year with a tribute to one of my favorite woman artists was fitting. The lizards surrounding her are wireworked, a technique I learned from Lisa DeFehr's book (out of print now, but a gem if you can find it: "Bead Sculpture Bugs and Dancing Frogs"). The beaded flower is a first for me, just five brickstiched petals reinforced with thin wire and then wired to a central bead. I like it because you can bend the petals in different ways. There are a few milagros scattered around, to continue the Mexican theme.

April BJP

Shortly after my last post, our dear long time companion dog, Keisha died at the age of 14. She had been blind for several years and was going deaf, and her main joy was to lay near a person and get petted, but she had been failing fairly rapidly in the last couple of months, eating less and just sort of visibly shrinking away. She never failed to wag her tail and seem happy to be around her people until the very end and she is missed. April's BJP page incorporates her latest vaccination tag surrounded by the rainbow colors to signify her journey on ahead. I spun up a bit of her long soft hair to surround the beads, the beadwork is fairly minimalist, but that was what I had in me. I moped around for a couple of weeks with a hole in my heart, and last week went to a local shelter and brought home a lovely 4 year old labrador lady who is helping me heal. Farewell Keisha, welcome home Rosa....

MarchBJP

My March piece was an exercise in discipline. I finished the fairly large peyote piece, a pattern I've done before both in peyote and as a large embroidered piece (on my vest). This one, I had started long ago and stopped working on because I just wasn't happy with the way the dragon wasn't 'popping'. The background color was too neutral, and too close to some of the colors I'd chosen for the body. Ah well, I love dragons, and March, to me, is a very dragonlike month, with high winds and strange changes in weather. So I finished it, and here it is: March Dragons! Now for April! Not bad, I'll get started before the week is over and I think I have a fairly good idea of what I'm going to be doing.
Cheers all,
Sarah

Finally February

Wheee! Finally finished with my February BJP page. This one is called "make me one with everything". I had some Buddha cabs I wanted to incorporate in the piece and kept thinking of that old silly joke about Buddha at the hot dog stand. Well, that's sort of the way I am with the spiritual world, irreverent sometimes, but attentive. Anyway, I'm pleased enough with the page...don't think it's my best work but it reflects the way this year is starting out for me....scattered but happy....
Cheers,
Sarah

Grand Canyon Trip

My son is home on spring break and wanted to take a quick road trip to the Grand Canyon. We drove 8 hours to Az., got a decent motel room and spent the night, then spent most of the next day exploring the Grand Canyon Rim Trail, then drove 8 hours home! Definitely just a tiny experience of the enormous park, and I think the Park deserves a much longer visit some day. Next time I think I'd choose to go in February, there were already a LOT of people in the park and I tend to like going to such places in off peak times. I had a cold and didn't feel like spending a second night in a motel, and he has work he'd like to get done over the rest of the break. The trip was a bit gruelling, but way fun! Grand Canyon is beautiful! I'd never been there before, and I think I'll plan on going back at some point. We saw a condor! Now, tomorrow, back to beading!

Progress, and some cool beadwork

Well, although I have no beads affixed for either February or March's page yet, the ideas for both are firming up and I am pretty certain I can have them finished by or near the end of March. Meanwhile, if anyone wants to see some neat beadwork and vote for a favorite, the Etsy Beadweaver's Street Team Monthly challenge is up and ready for your votes. I don't have anything in the challenge but I do love a lot of the entries. Check it out here.
Cheers,
Sarah

January BJP finally done!

Well, it's been another busy month, with one thing and another grabbing for my attention. January's BJP page started out with an idea in mind: "finding the center" and I had a cool recycled fan cover from inside a computer to use as the centerpiece. Nice, but the page continued to resist and even at times repel me....until I finally let go and played with hearts! hehe....must have something to do with my life in general, but we won't get into that here. Anyway, the final title is "It's not always ABOUT the center." Let's give props to the heart, which is NOT centrally located, I think, either in the body, nor in the mind. No bracelet this month either....too much else on my plate.
February's page is begging me to start it, but I have some contracted things to do first. Tomorrow will be time enough to start.
Cheers all...from what I've seen the work continues wonderfully!
Sarah