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New Product Review – WildFire


I received a sample from Beadalon today of their new beading thread product, WildFire. It’s their competitive version of Fireline, but instead of being plucked from the fishing department, this thread was produced specifically for the bead weaving market.

At first I was skeptical that it was necessary or would be much different from Fireline.… Read More

Caution: Week of work ahead


Something terrible is going to happen this coming weekend. It’s so terrible, it makes me want to run screaming through the house to jump in bed and hide under the covers. So horrific, I can’t even imagine what the aftermath will look like.… Read More

Days are flying by

Looking at the calendar is increasingly confusing. I could swear we’re barely half way through the year, and yet Christmas is only 3 months away. Yup, that’s right. 3 months. Crazy talk!! I’m winding down on 2008 projects and winding up on preparing for 2009 ones.… Read More

Worker bee


Today’s beading efforts produced part of a Ring Around the Rosie bracelet in bright, happy colors. I did the first circle in our class last night and everyone gave the bold color combo a thumbs up. My mother, however, said “It’s so ugly.… Read More

Patience is a virtue

I got news today on my Big Secret Project – and the news is that I need to wait a little longer for news. Okay, I can do that.

I worked until the wee hours of the morning on this project – it’s a new sample for my Elegant Options bracelet.… Read More

There’s a lovely hint of fall in the air today. I did a triple-take as I was walking past the thermostat in the house earlier – it was showing that it was 77 degrees in the house and we normally keep it set on 79 in the summer.… Read More

Hurricane Ike visited, and all I got was some lousy wind

Not a single drop of rain in Austin. Not. One. Drop. To laugh or to cry, that is the question!

I’m dead tired tonight from my sleepless overnight vigil with the TV. Happily, my class this afternoon was full of life and silly fun to keep me going, and then I unexpectedly got to have dinner with my brother’s family and my mother.… Read More

How can I sleep?

I’m mesmerized by the TV coverage of the the hurricane tonight and it’s so hard to tear myself away from it. I’m supposed to be getting my things together for Saturday’s afternoon class, as well as Sunday night’s class too and all I can do is stare at the TV.… Read More

Poor little Winston

Mr. Winston had a day at the beauty shop yesterday (groomer) and came back looking particularly fine and more cool. All that hair makes a boy overheated in Texas, don’tcha know. If you’ve been reading the blog since the beginning, you know that the first time we took Winnie to the groomer, it was quite an event.… Read More

Stubborn

A day of can’ts, shouldn’ts, won’t works, oh no you didn’ts (oh yes, I did!) from dawn to dusk today, from multiple fronts. I hate days like this.

On the other hand, if I’d listened to all the naysayers four years ago, I’d still be working 8am to 5pm in corporate cubicle land.… Read More

Watching that darned hurricane

It’s pretty odd to be several hundred miles inland of the Texas coast, but yet still needing to make some hurricane preparations. Ike is predicted to possibly come through the Austin area while still strong enough to be throwing 70mph winds, and up to 10 inches of rain Saturday.… Read More

So close, but yet so far

I’ll admit it straight up. I didn’t paint on Saturday like I planned. And I didn’t do much of anything on Sunday but laze around and read and watch TV. But some days you need the break, right?

Monday I bounced out of bead at the crack of 11am and got down to business right away.… Read More

One of these is not like the other

So I’ve had two different people email me today, both claiming responsibility for the comment that was written about my blog. Now if that’s not funny, I don’t know what is!

Today’s already been very productive – a trip to the post office, a stop by a local bead store, and a Home Depot fix (although they were out of the planter Mom wanted.)… Read More

Interesting Day

People bemuse me. There are so many folks out in the world who make it their life’s work to dwell in anger and misery, and to dole out the same to anyone who crosses their path. Who wants to live like that?… Read More

How much change is enough?

I finished working on a project tonight that turned out absolutely gorgeous, if I do say so myself. I’m conflicted, though, on whether it’s something I can submit for the national shows as a class proposal. It was inspired by another beader’s published work, so the big question is – how much do I need to change it to make it my own design?… Read More

They don’t believe me


It took a full day of sleeping and lazing around the house Monday, but I think I’m finally sufficiently recovered from Sunday afternoon’s bead class. The amount of cleaning that had to go on prior to having company was daunting – but now that it’s all shiny and pretty, we’re going to make a concerted effort to keep it that way.… Read More

Hang on Gulf Coast, hang on…

The news about Gustav is getting more worrisome by the hour. It’s exploded from a tropical storm to a Catagory 4 hurricane in just 24 hours. I’m glad to see people taking the evacuation orders seriously – it takes a long time to get that many folks out of harm’s way and time is running out.… Read More

Of course


It’s been at least a few weeks since I had a technology meltdown so I guess I was due. One moment I was on the computer, checking email. I stopped and had dinner before I returned to the computer to respond to my emails, and when I did, I discovered the monitor had died.… Read More