wire work

I have been reading A Charming Exchange. Which is inspiring!! I saw these little links in that book and tried them this evening! Not bad for the first attempt!

Excited about crafting with Lisa (aka an old cow)

I am so excited that Lisa and I are going to get a chance to craft together again!! It has been such a long time. You see several long years ago Lisa moved from Oz aka Kansas to Michigan to get married, of all things! So I have severe Lisa deprevation. She is going to come to Kansas this Thanksgiving... and I will get to see her. I have made arrangements to go to a "Junk bracelet" class on Friday afternoon after Thanksgiving. We will have a blast!
This is what we are going to make! I think it will be fun.

Grtting back to it!

I am getting back to making some jewelry. Life has slowed down some and I have reorganized my stash of beads, wire, and stuff. I started by making a couple bracelets from crystals for Nancy to give her sisters for Christmas. Now I am working on a bracelet for Lisa for her birthday, which was yesterday, but I won't see her until after Thanksgiving. I'm also going to make a bracelet for PEO auction. That is on the agenda for this weekend. These are pretty basic but they are getting me back into beading. And that's what is really important. The pink and green one is just one I made the blue and green is for Nancy's sister. It is colored like the last one I made for her to sell at the last PEO auction. I didn't have the dragonfly spacers. But I think it will be just fine, for a crystal bracelet.

Just a strung project.
Cindy is looking for another class for us to take. I want to do about anything as far as learning something new.

The last few weeks have been BUSY

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These last few weeks have been extremely busy! Teemu was here for a month from Finland! What a great "kid". He is 28 now! It has been 9 years since he lived with us! But we still love him, very much. We went to Branson for a weekend while he was here. It was so much fun! We went to the Legends show. It was fun. We tasted lots of wines at the wineries there. There were quite good. We really enjoyed the Branson Landing.





I put my hands on Donnie Osmond's hand prints.

I would have wet my panties over that if I would have done it when I was 14 years old! It was fun.












I have also accrued new beads and findings. I've gotten 3 packages from Lima Beads!!! Such pretty beads. I also love the copper findings and beads. Several Vintaj charms, bead caps, etc.

Then there has been work. I have been busy running around SEK with work. I wish the NHs would get a clue...

Well it has been a long time again. I have been really busy with my "kids". I want to spend every minute that I can with Teemu, while he is here. There will be some more creating in the next few weeks.

Day job interferes with fun

Work interferes way too much with the fun stuff in life! I have been out of town much with work and thus away from my beading stuff. I guess I could have taken it with me but that is way too much work and I don't really get anything done. However, I will take it with me next week. I won't be near any shopping!
I have been reading a great book. The Shack. I would recommend it to anyone, especially if you wanted to deepen your relationship with Jesus. I have another couple books on the back burner to read when I finish this one.
I have cleaned out most of my kitchen cabinets. They were disgraceful! I threw away stuff from 2003!! I said they were disgraceful.
We also have a distinguished visitor here for a while. In 1999 we had a great kid from Finland. He has come back to visit a few times and is here now! I am hoping to teach him how to bead! I hope he wants to learn. It is such a great outlet for me. I want to share it.
No pictures this go round!

Kansas Bracelet

I'm working on a bracelet to send to PJ's mother in Belgium. I think she is having a hard time sending her son half way around the world! What mother wouldn't. So I thought if I made her something from Kansas then she could be "closer" to him here.
Here is the work in progress. Each of the charms is something Kansas like. The sunflower on the far side, the Kansas quarter with the buffalo, a beaded head of wheat, a cowboy boot, and a map charm. The map has the seal of the state of Kansas on one side and the cut out of Chanute on the other side, with a listing of Neosho County Community College. Then I cut out a small Kansas and overlaid it on the map.

dry spell

I have had a creative dry spell the last few weeks. I must change that fact! I am sooooooo stressed that I need to create something. The last few weeks all I have created is a headache!! I finished up the spice bracelet tonight. Hope that will break the dry spell!! I think it turned out pretty well. I have a couple ideas that I really need to work on. I am wanting to make a Kansas bracelet for our international student's mother. I have some great ideas.... I hope they will translate into something cool!

Long time since last post

What a couple of weeks it has been for me! We got our new international student. What a great kid! He seems wise beyond his years. Smart, funny, and sweet, what more could you want in a kid? Traits most American kids lack. Yesterday he told us that he made the soccer team at NCCC, Today he told me that he scored higher that anyone else in his english class on the exam...including the American kids! Over the Labor day weekend we went to Wichita to help Pat and Larry with some honey dos. Mark got alot of things done for them. I cooked! We took one evening off to go bowling... I can't tell you when the last time was I had been bowling! We had a lot of fun!!! But have felt it in every joint since then. I could hardly walk at work on Tuesday.... I am beginning to feel better. Just in time to clean my house! Those have been my creative outlets this week. Pain, Cooking and Cleaning! This weekend I am planning on doing some wire twisting. Cindy sent me a beautiful ring that she made for me. I have worn it twice. I will post a picture later. The pictures are "my guys"!

My helper

I just wanted to share a picture of my wonderful computer helper! I guess it's better than when he lays across both wrists while I am using the keyboard!

I disturbed him with the camera!! Sorry Larry.

Larry is my cat! He likes me best... just my luck! Mark found him about 10 years ago locked in a garage. Larry was all ears and feet with LONG legs. I knew he would be a BIG cat. His big ears were full of ear mites! yuck! We got rid of the mites. I think he is still growing! Larry weighs in at about 22 pounds! But don't forget what a little guy he is!

finished with the blue bracelet

Well I finished with the blue free form peyote bracelet tonight! I think it looks pretty good. But why wouldn't I think that? My blood is on that bracelet. But it is really fun to see how it comes together, the gold loops were a surprise. I thought I would use white but the gold just seemed right. Then I thought I had more blue beads, but couldn't find what I was looking for so I made do with what I could find. The closure bead looks like it would have been the inspiration for the whole piece but is really was a last thought. I was going to use the big faceted blue bead as the closure but the other one seemed right again. Mark said he thought the blue closure was the first bead I chose. Jokes on him!! ~~~ It's always fun what happens. more pictures to follow....
The closure bead that looks like it was the inspiration but nooooooooo. I liked the blue #6s....
Kinda fuzzy, but I am happy with the loop closure!

Where does inspiration come from, a MUSE??

I have such a hard time with inspiration! Who doesn't? Where does inspiration come from? I wonder where the "really" creative people get their inspiration...a muse? Where can one get a muse? What form does the muse take? This is what I could find on muses... the kind that weren't a band from England, who probably don't play my kind of music. Here is what I found http://www.pantheon.org/.

I guess muses don't hang around my dining room. They might even avoid Kansas. Because I am lacking major inspiration right now! Everything I do seems a little boring. Especially when I look at the blogs of others.... Oh well I shall keep looking. Back to my day job.......

first day

I want to be more creative!! I want to create more pretty things! I have been working on a blue beaded bracelet. I wanted it to be more free form than it has turned out, but that's OK.
This is my work space for right now. I actually have a sun room that I use for a studio but it is in disrepair right now! I need to make some order there but where to start??!!
The blue beaded bracelet. I like it better in real life that in pictures!

This is my corner stash of stuff to use to make beaded and wire jewelery.

Wanda, the assistant that lays under my feet while I create! She wonders why I step on her when she is under my feet, go figure!

I guess what I really want is to be creative in an organized space....is it possible?