Unboxing Contemporary Geometric Beadwork, Volume II

I made a really dorky video today of me unboxing Kate McKinnon's new book, Contemporary Geometric Beadwork, Volume II. The DORKY part was me tripping over my words, not realizing the range of the camera on my computer (some of the unboxing bits are off camera.)  AND, I forgot to include that Kate added very cute hedgehog eraser to my package.  These little guys come in handy (an eraser, not a hedgehog) for breaking a misplaced bead.  

Hedgehog and Pink Macaroon erasers/bead breakers

Check out the video: 

My nephews who bug me all the time to post more on my blog had better leave a comment!!!

Cleaning/Organizing/Thinking about LIFE

This is the first day I've had to clean and organize since the holidays!  When I work on bunches of projects at the same time I am terrible about cleaning up after myself.

So that means a marathon day of picking up after myself.  It means immersing myself in the beady-ness of life, where the bits and pieces have a home and fit neatly in their home.  Which is different than life in general, right?  

On this MLK Jr. holiday I've been mindful of who he was and the legacy he left.  

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

Speak up when things are messed up!  

We are called to walk gently on our planet; to love one another; to put away all that divides us.  And of course, to pick up our messes.    

Welcome Back

New Year, New Commitment.  If I'm going to be a blogger I need to write!  Okay, I was busy, a couple of kids got married and one had a baby, but hey, everyone's busy.  No excuses!  I did create some very cool things while I was out of contact with the blogosphere.  I don't have the greatest pictures, but I made six bridesmaid necklaces for one of our weddings.
Here's a progression:

These are the beads.

This is how I separated them.

And this is how they turned out.  Super cute and the girls loved them!  Thought they were from Nordstrom!

We also did a remodel on our home, I'll share pictures at a later date.  Right now I'm getting myself fired up and starting a new Contemporary Geometric Beadwork necklace http://beadmobile.wordpress.com  I appreciate good design and lovely instructions.  Kate McKinnon and her minions administer both in large doses.  My studio/bead room is a disaster so last night I just picked up what I needed to start beading and headed downstairs to my favorite chair and lovely table and fabulous ott light and started beading.  I'll save the mess in the bead room for another day.  It will wait. 

There is a zen moment in beading when the rhythm of the beads clicking into place stabilizes your brain and somehow brings you peace.  I need to know there is an attainable peace available now.  Peace, friends!

Dayle

Memories of the Lilac City

I grew up in Spokane.  Spokane is the Lilac City.  They have a Lilac Parade and a Jr. Lilac Parade.  I marched in the parade in junior high, joyfully trying to play my clarinet while marching.  The parade is probably in late May.  There is also a fabulous run called Bloomsday that I've run a couple of times (been there, done that, got the tee shirt).
The lilacs don't bloom until May in Spokane, but here in Portland, they are in full bloom NOW!  The smell takes me back home. Love it!  We planted this one the year my brother died, 2006.  I was surprised that it bloomed in the spring and again in late August, early September.  I thanked Doug for that gift of the twice blooming lilac.  Well I later found out this is a variety that blooms twice a year!  Who knew?  I still think of Doug and Spokane and what a gift growing up there was and is.

Blown away!

I'm totally blown away that the bracelet I made (see previous posts) was posted by Kate on facebook today AND linked to another blog.  I LOVE the beading community.  You "meet" people that you'll probably never meet in real-life... but the support and the connections are pretty cool.  I discovered Christina's blog and low and behold my piece was featured earlier this week.  Christina is one of the team of folks I've been blogging about who was a part of the amazing book: Contemporary Geometric Beadwork.  The www is a connector that I'm appreciating today.
I'm also appreciating that today is Thursday which is my Friday AND we leftovers for dinner and a nice red wine.  Life's pretty good.  And I'm kind of giddy!

Gratitude

Fortune Teller, Chicken (taken with iPhone 5)

I sent this Fortune Teller bangle off for a little vacay in AZ, to be photographed by  Kate McKinnon (Contemporary Geometric Beadwork).  So much gratitude for the beading community and Kate's willingness to share the wealth of knowledge along the way.  I'm experimenting with some new shapes based on her ideas.  I'm just playing and allowing the beads to lead the way.  So far, so good.
We had a HUGE downpour in PDX today.  So much so, I felt that it would be beneficial to run from my office, out into the rain to turn my car around so it could get doused on both side.  A Portland car wash!  After the deluge, sun, beautiful sun.  Oh how I long to be in a sunny place... sandy beach, warm toes.  Maybe an umbrella in a DRINK not over my head.  So there ya go.  Another day in the life.  Gotta head back to work tonight... hopefully more beading later.

Bead-mazing

I was pretty lousy in geometry... just didn't really click for me when I was 14.  Maybe if my teacher would have suggested a practical use for geometry, like quilting or beading I may have done a little better (but probably not.)
My latest beady adventure has taken me deep into the world of Contemporary Geometric Beadwork. It's the first volume of amazing beadwork designs by Kate and friends.  I've been exploring these shapes and designs for a few months.  I finished this piece called "Fortuneteller"... it looks like those fortune tellers we all made in fourth grade.  This was no easy task for me (again the geometry thing.) But with persistence AND taking things apart a couple of times... I finally finished this piece.  The colors remind of a watermelon and I have the perfect spring top to wear this with...  another benefit of creating your own jewelry!
I haven't been much of a blogger lately.  Life is routine and extremely busy.  I'm longing for sunshine. We had a day or two of sun over the weekend.... such not enough!  Can't control that...  But can enjoy beading and creating cool stuff!!

Seeing Christmas Stars

It was my intention to create a sky-scape of stars for Christmas but the weeks got away from me and my beading time got all shrunk.  I managed to finish this ONE today.  Hopefully I'll remember to start making some stars next summer or even in the spring.   They are so cute and just the perfect size.  I'll have a bit of beady time this week and I plan to go over Kate's Contemporary Geometrics that she so kindly offered on an early PDF.  These pieces are really a challenge and I'm so up to it!  Will try to be more faithful to the blog in 2013!

While He Was Out!!

Peter and I spent an extended weekend in Texas where my nephew was married.  While we were gone, I had my designer friend re-do his man room, formerly known as number three kid's room.  I've had lots of ideas and have wanted to do a makeover so he'd have his own space for a long time... like 4 years!  I just could not get it going.  Well, you get a designer type involved and the ideas flow all over the place.  He loves his motorcycles (Yamaha, Kawasaki, Suzuki) and his books.  I thought he'd like a place to read and contemplate rides.  Everything was done while we were in Texas and he was soooooo surprised when he saw it for the first time yesterday.  Notice his keys are still in his hand!  This was fun, partly because he's a bit critical of the OMG moments on HGTV.  So this is Peter's OMG moment (which was really a "Holy Crap" moment).

Holy Crap!!!

Here's what's cool in my World

I've been beading away and life's busy (what else is new, right?)  I've been working on this amazingly cool zig zag bangle.  Very fun to create, lots and lots of beads!  I'm digging the results... it's looking kind of Christmas-y so I may play with that when I add the bells and whistles...hmmm bells... gotta think about that.  One of my beady heroes created the pattern: Kate McKinnon (not the one from SNL, but the cool Kate).  Another of my beading heroes, Jean Power who created this pattern (caldera bangle), this star pattern and much more, has asked to put my caldera on her fb page.  That is VERY COOL!! Thanks for the shout out, Jean!  These are things beady dreams are made of.  Makes me wish I was one of those who could quit the day job and bead, bead, bead all day long.  I really could do this all day. It's a passion, an expression, certainly a distraction and an attraction at the same time.  Love my beads!  Love my bead-y peeps.  Also, tonight I love my president and hope he's good for four more years.  Go Barack and Michelle!

Nothin' Better: Beads/Pandora

Does it get any better than that?  Clean house, day off, beads and pandora... oh and sunshine!  Last night we went to "Last Thursday" on Alberta in PDX.  A friend suggested we wait in line... no matter how long it was... to get ice cream at Salt and Straw.  Well that line wasn't THAT long (15 minutes).  I got the salt and carmel ripple with hot fudge!  Are you freaking kidding me?  That was the best EVER!  This is hand made ice cream... deeeeelish! Yum!  Here's what my face did when I taste it!!

Yummy!  Keep pdx weird so I can have ice cream like this!

Kinda Diggin This

Okay, I'm a bit obsessed with Photoshop Elements.  I just got home from and work and I'm going to do another free webinar. Here's something that I played around with... took out Peter's wrinkles, did a couple of effects.  I think it looks cool.  This just happens to be what's on my desktop right now.  Sorry for repeating (three-peating) our bike ride.  It was a fun day to remember!  At some time I'm hoping to create digital scrapbooks with these photos.  Not the ones you that are pre-formatted but something I create and have printed.  It's kind of graphic design for dummies:)
Portland has been gloriously mild... no rain, no wind... occasional smoke from fires a couple hundred miles away.  September is the absolute best time to be in PDX.

Peter and Makenna on our bike ride.

Playing around with Photoshop

Makenna on our bike ride last week.

I just downloaded a trial version of Photoshop Elements 11 and look what I did in 10 minutes!  Pretty cool!  I think I may have to buy this one.  This newest version just came out and it's so easy to use.  Much more intuitive than PSE 8, which I've been so lazy about learning.  With some quick results I think this will give me some motivation and ease the frustration.  I know it's not great... but it's a first try.  Also beading away these days.  You'll soon see some really cool stuff here.

Biking the Springwater

Peter and I took our granddaughter biking on the Springwater Trail this weekend.  Peter's always on the lookout for sweet blackberries.  They weren't as abundant as they a were a few weeks ago, but we all loved them.  We ran into some folks with their dog and they told us the dog enjoyed the berries, too. We all know not to eat the berries on the low branches, right?  Some dogs eat the berries, some dogs just pee on 'em.  Fun day!
In the beading sphere, I'm working away on some stuff.  Life is pretty darn good right now:)

Bleached My Toms!

I thought I'd really get a kick out of wearing HOT PINK Toms but they were REALLY bright!  A little too bright.  And I just wasn't wearing them. So I bleached 'em today.  Just spray bleach-y water on them and dried them with the hairdryer.  Now they are a softer, hot pink.  Still bright, just a bit muted and a little rougher.  I think they turned out swell.
I wish days off were really days off and not laundry/cleaning days.  What would a REAL day off look like? Hmmm, I'll have to think about that!  I did manage to spend time with the iPad today and downloaded a killer app: puzzlejuice.  It's a hybrid of spelltower and tetris... LOVE both of those games.  So I did manage to pay some bills, do some laundry, clean up a closet, bathroom and kitchen and play a new game... guess that's a day off!

The formerly VERY pink Toms... now a quieter version that I'll enjoy!

Learning Photoshop (Elements)

I've been trying to learn Photoshop Elements for a few YEARS!  I somehow get stuck or my interest wanes and I just don't keep up.  Last week I attended a free webinar on Photoship Elements 10 (I have 8, I think).  Well, I got fired up!  So tonight I'm attending another FREE webinar.  I'm not pitching out any money yet... I don't think I should buy PSE 10 until I KNOW I'll use it!  Although I do really like that I can get PSE 10 as an app on my iMac (or possibly find a cheaper way to upgrade).  I have so many pictures that I'm not doing much with.  I'm hoping for some inspiration tonight. I'd like to create some cool and inspirational digital scrap books... not just the ones with pictures and text, but something that'll jump off the page!  I so wish there was this kind of technology when I was a kid and could absorb information with less difficulty.  Here's to 60 years of life and learning!

Mardi Gras Cone

Still into creating these cool shapes from the book about to be published: Contemporary Geometric Beadwork.  This one is a cone. It was a great way to study that shape and gain an understanding of increasing and decreasing this pattern. When I sit and bead and feel my being restored.  Sundays ZAP my energy... these beady moments keep me sane.

Okay, it reminds me of the "sorting hat" from the Harry Potter movies... but it's very cool!

More, More, More...

Yeah, Baby... I've been a beading maniac while on my bloggy break.
Check out these "Urchins"... pattern by Marcia DeCoster.  I made this one while we were spending some time in Sunriver, OR.  Which, by the way is a gorgeous place: biking, hiking, bonding with family, drinking a glass of wine.  We had a grand time on Memorial weekend (way last May!).  Even taught friends to bead while we were there.  Hope you're still beading, Nancy and Nat!  Check out the pics and I'll be back tomorrow, promise.  In the meantime, we've got a couple of grandkids to take to Spaghetti Factory... maybe we'll get lucky and be seated in the TROLLY!

Caldera Bangle

Sorry I haven't been keeping up on the blog... no excuses... summer, turning 60, whatever.  I'm back now.  I thought for two minutes about posting something amazing about being 60, entering a new decade and all that.  But I've been busy making some very cool beady pieces and I want to announce it far and near (mostly near) that I finally finished this piece:  "Caldera Bangle"

I know... pretty cool, huh?  The design is by Jean Power from a book about to be published by Jean and Kate McKinnon.  These women are amazingly talented, edgy and adventuresome souls.  This piece took me a while to bead.  Each beaded piece I create has a kind of internal timeline.  I can look at this and remember what was doing at the time.  I turned 60 on the red and blue triangle!  I watched both the RNC and the DNC while beading this.  I KNOW I had to rip out a BUNCH of beads during the Romney/Ryan show.  They just do not get the REAL LIVES of REAL people!  I finished this last night right before President Obama was introduced.  I wanted to give the man my full attention.  I'm so glad I put down the beads... I would've had a beady mess... what with the tears and all.  WOW!  So proud to be an American... I mean that in the best possible way.  

So the Caldera Bangle is finished!  I experimented with color, texture, light... very fun.  Some combinations of beads work better than others.  To be expected. 

I leave you with another pic of Caldera and I'll be blogging like crazy in the days to come!

BLhahahahaNDIE

AAACK... I can't believe I did this!  I'm really, really blonde!  Platinum blonde, white blonde, fake blonde!  Very hip, blonde?  Well, it was on my bucket list: go really, really blonde!  I hope this new color doesn't make me look really, really old!  As I look forward to my 60th birthday in a few months, I'm glad to check another box on the been-there-done-that side of the list.  I'll enjoy it while it's here, but don't think I have to do this again.
Getting ready to head over to Spokane for wine tasting this Mother's Day weekend.  Who among us Spokanites would have ever thought you'd use the city of Spokane in the same sentence with wine tasting?  We're doing the limo thing.  Jill's in-laws, Jill, me, my mom... three generations, pretty cool.  I'm looking forward to seeing how my dad is doing, too.  Still trying to keep up the blogging... I've kind've become a slacker-blogger.  Life is good and getting better all the time!  NO blonde jokes, please.

Be there, done that Blonde