On a Personal Note

Last night my dear Mom passed away. You may remember her breaking a hip in May and recovering enough to attend my daughter's wedding, have a party with many of her closest friends and look forward to a move to San Diego. She had a great time these last few months at what she loved best, being social. She counted many many of her neighbors as close friends and was thought of kindly by all.

She loved to come read this blog when she was well and looked forward to it again. But her body was no longer willing and she passed peacefully and quickly knowing that she was loved and cared about by many.

Love you dear sweet Mom, miss you, but happily sending you on your way.

What's in a name?

Yesterday I finished this!




This? yes, this, because so far it is unamed and has no other reference.



There are those who's naming is brilliant. Jean Campbell just named her piece 'Lilium' (same retreat by the way, more soon)



and Rachel's names are always intriguing, Ootheca, H. Liliripes.....

This needs a fitting name. I sometimes invite my husband into the the name game. He named Terracita, La Boquita and most recently Ripplestiltsken so perhaps I should ask him his thoughts on this.



A word or two more about the retreat. Next March 12 - 14 San Francisco, Beading by the Bay! Artists, Marcia DeCoster, Jean Campbell, Maggie Meister. Brought to you by the promoter of Hooked on Wire, Susan Kazarian. Website, project and registration details coming soon.

The redo

Given that I sell kits from my designs, I often contemplate how to give those who buy my kits the best product I can. I changed my packaging to present your beads to you in a Tiffany like gift box.



I changed my directions to give you a pdf on a cd with a pretty label so you can always find a second set if you're first is lost or damaged. And I made a pretty label for the front of this Tiffany like gift box.

Occassionally I am confronted with my past, as in this case where my photography skills were clearly lacking. So today I took the time to redo this photograph of Rings of Saturn from this


to this

I think my photography skills have improved! And for the truly observant, I also changed up the bottom embellishment, I like this version better.

Since a big part of blogging is pretty pictures, it was really hard not to edit this post to take out the bad picture.....

May Grey, June Gloom, July ?

Seems the greyness of San Diego morning has continued through July. I'm used to waking up to a beautiful sunrise, but not so, the majority of this month the thick marine layer extends the ten miles inland where I live and mornings are still and grey.


Now I love my weather, really could have considered it a career perhaps, and I have to take my weather drama anywhere I can get it when living in San Diego, but this greyness is getting old.


It's such a tease, because I love the occassional rainy day or week, whipping wind and the ensuing coziness, but we don't ever get that in the summer, never, we just get this tease of a grey start to the day which will burn off to brilliant cloudless sunshine. This is a sunrise from a previous time reflected in the port hole on the front of my house.

My friend Holli is getting married on a boat in San Diego bay tomorrow evening. I guess there are those times that you can 100% count on that it won't rain is a good thing. I bet she thinks so.

Travel

I love to travel, since I was little I've always been called by the excitement of faraway places. My Dad traveled for work and I was always fascinated and excited by his stories, an armchair adventurer, I seldom had the opportunity to travel. When I met Mark I was fortunate to meet my travel match, both of us will get on a plane or a train or in the car at the drop of a hat.

But given my current life I sometimes need to curb my appetite for the next adventure. At the risk of filling every single moment with travel, I occassionally need to remember to stay home. And such is the case this September. I'm traveling each weekend between Oct 1st and Nov 20th, but still when contemplating a September trip to Bead Creative in New Hampshire I was so tempted. Cathi has opened a huge new store with a fabulous classroom. Her enthusisasm for the beads is infectious and New England in the fall, well a favorite destination. Mark's good sense prevailed however, and I'll wait until next Spring to see her store.

So in the meantime I am contenting myself with the memories of trips past. I have been fortunate enough to have done a lot of travel. Enough that I think a travelogue will become a weekly feature of the blog.

Here is a picture of one of the hauntingly beautiful trees in Savannah Georgia.















A perched bird on a trip to Palm Springs, Ca


















Mark relaxing on a Costa Rican beach



















A tranquil scene in Brugge, Belgium

















A piece I completed for our host Carol on a Tahitian sailing vacation
























The ultimate Tahitian bungalows in Rangiroa

I do have a bit of travel planned, Beadfest in Pennsylvania in August, another Santa Cruz wedding and perhaps a trip to beautiful Sedona Arizona in September.....

February Lady Sweater

When I don't bead I knit. I've actually been knitting for much longer, since I was ten in fact. I remember my first green and white stockinette stitch scarf which rolled on the sides because I didn't know any better, but I was still so proud.

Despite knowing how to cable, make lace, knit fair aisle, and having made many garments including socks, I still don't consider myself much of a technical knitter. Mostly because the whole gauge yarn substition thing, all that math, still escapes me.

But with FLS I have an advantage, 4 friends (and about 8,000 other knitters) who have gone before me and paved the way, and whose sweaters I've tried on and whose gauge I've trusted, so I boldly cast this one without a gauge swatch.

Isn't it a pretty purple? Louisa Harding, Grace Hand-dyed, 50% merino 50% silk



And the sweet little stitch markers which I put together with some enamel charms from the Bead Monkey in Minneapolis.



Gail, Susan and Judy are done and Val is almost done, so I am waaaaay behind. But I have a goal to finish this by the 4th weekend in September. I'll keep you posted. I like to get up really early and go find a quiet spot to knit awhile, I think I'll go do that.

Under the Mast

After some angst yesterday I sat down and beaded this



And I love it's simple elegance. It has an art deco feel. I should know that if I ask my husband for input, less is more will always be his response. So although I thought I might drop some dangles off the bottom or embellish the bail, I decided to stand by his insistence that it was done.

Oh, and for inquiring minds it's peyote stitch. Ok, it started as right angle weave. I find raw to be a good fabric base to peyote up off of. I often like to prove to folks that I can indeed stitch things in other then right angle weave.

Under the Mast? Tucked behind the crystal is a personal affirmation, a note to myself which will never be seen, but I know is there. When I explained this concept, my sailor husband said 'oh like when you put a coin under the mast for good luck' Naming is not usually my strong suit, but I'm happy with this unusual name and the conversations it will start.