Beading Basics

I'm a wanna-be beader,  mostly I buy beads, and use them by sewing them onto my quilts. I finally read the magazines and books I've been collecting and actually bought some of the tools I needed to make some jewelry for myself.  Boy do these ever make a big difference.  Wish I had bought them back when I first started trying to make stuff.  Yes, the right tools really do make the job easier. 

Buying all the components from Fire Mountain Gems and Beads big selection, and then putting them together is pretty easy for a beginner like me.  I liked the expressions on these probably supposed to be Buddha faces.

Two pairs of moonstone earrings, haven't decided which are my favorite, but I'm enjoying wearing them and nothing has fallen apart yet.

Post-Halloween

Some pictures to wrap up the doings around Halloween this past weekend.

My son Alex fulfilled his dream and got to be a gorilla! He lucked into borrowing a really awesome costume from a buddy. He was really sweaty afterwards, but he said it was totally fun to freak people out at school. His friend went as a wounded Napoleon, he even had made his own jacket, but I didn't get a picture of it unfortunately. I made a necklace out of the super coolio pendant I bought from Sacred Suzie, it really turned out nicely. I used a twisted hank of coordinating fibers that I'd bought at PIQF. It was comfy to wear, like a mini-scarf!Then on Saturday night, I arrived back home after a steering-wheel-gripping drive through a horrible rainstorm from the CQFA meeting to the power just coming back on. Just in time for me to finish my costume (finally!) for the party we were invited to. With about two minutes to spare I got it done, it turned out to be a long vest with chiffon on the bottom down to the floor, really floaty and fun, I wore it over a sparkly black dress that I already had thrifted. But the rain just got worse and worse, so the only pics I got were these that I took of myself in the car. I didn't want my camera to get wet and we had to walk through an absolute downpour while I tried to hold up my costume from the river running down the middle of the street and not let my fabulous hat get too soaked. Sheesh! Well at least you get to see my crazy green hair and makeup. Doesn't green eyeshadow make a great blusher??

It was a super fun party, the power even went out for a while (luckily there were lots o' candles going), we got to eat great yummies and have unusual and tasty mixed drinks and talk politics with people we'd just met! Wheee, it was fun! Can you tell I haven't been to a grown-up party in a while???

And no pumpkin photos because we've been very lame-o and haven't carved them yet!!! More on that later....

Pins and Earrings

I thought you might like to see one of the few things I purchased on our trip to Sedona, Arizona. A blue moon face pin from Robert Shields (yes Dara you read that right). Not from his big old store, but from a small cubby in a gigantic artist consignment shop called The Art Mart. I buy faces all the time, with some future use in mind, but this is already a pin, so perhaps I'll actually wear it?!
And I felt the need for yet another pair of hoopy silver earrings which I got at the same place, but from a different artist. The ear wires are way too short though, I'm used to a bit more length sticking out when they are in my ear. Hopefully I won't lose them right away.
And then I received a couple of pairs of earrings in the mail recently, one from Susan who is in the Exquisite Corpse group with me. These are very lightweight wood and I love the shape of the earring. Thanks Susan!
And then Adrienne sent me these lovely hoops which I have a perfect outfit to wear them with. Thanks Adrienne!

Smorgasboard

Here's a smorgasboard catch-up of photos from "lately":
First up, a necklace given to me by Lunaea, she got it by mistake and thought it looked like the art I make. Thanks Lunaea, I'm enjoying wearing it very much. I am not enjoying sleeping in it however, oops, won't make that mistake again!

The challenge: How many centers of Newman O's Mint Chocolate (Oreo look-a-likes) can one stack? Twelve was the answer. Yes, he was able to eat the whole thing at once. (wow!).
And yes all the chocolate cookie parts got snarfed up too.
As you can see we are quickly running out of things to do this summer.
Thank Goddess it is August!

I had a few minutes on my own last week so I dashed into the Bead Nook in Felton and found a watch to bead into a bracelet or key fob. A recycled glass pendant in red. A red glass etched marble from China. And some bone beads fashioned into dice. Cool stuff huh?

Then I toddled down a couple stores to Luminous Threads and snapped up some sale fabrics. A really unique Egyptian print, a Buddha collage print (this one felt more respectful than some others I 've seen), a stripey/blocky print, and two colorways of a stretched-polka-dot-ish print.
It is so nice to have these two stores close together, and nearby too. If only there was a used bookstore and a music store too. Nope, gotta drive 15 more minutes for that to Santa Cruz.