Seattle

We decided to come a day early before out Alaskan cruise gets underway. We chose a hotel near the waterfront with a little bit of luxury, Hotel 1000 for the curious. It's a nicely appointed room with a city view and a peek of a water view.

It turned out to be a relaxing evening started off with an in room glass of wine followed by a Waterfront dinner at Elliots, known for their excellent seafood.

The oysters were perfect!






We followed that up with a trip to Molly Moons for Ice Cream. I was introduced to Molly Moons on my last trip to Seattle a few weeks back and decided an encore was in order.

Daughter Casey, stylist and part time Starbucks Barista collects Starbucks gift cards and given my frequent travels I'm designated to add to the collection. Well completely by accident I scored a card from the original first Starbucks At Pikes Market. An accident because I didn't know that bit of history, it's just the one we happened upon after dinner.







and our walk home yielded this Seattle Art Museum photo - my first granddaughter's name is Sam, so it's perfect.







It's been a grand time so far, and next we board the Westerdam and set sail for Juneau.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Dream Keeper Vessel Ring

I'm excited about this design....can you tell! The dream keeper vessel ring which has a shrink plastic personalized dream inside. But really I think it might also be called the bff ring, as it can so easily be both personalized and gifted.

This one is destined for one of my bff's, and there have been a few before this one and more to follow. It's really doable, a great place to mix up and test out color combinations and it's pretty darn wearable. Two together are even better.

The colors in this one are personal, having been inspired by an outfit that Tracy Stanley wore on our last Seattle visit.



She was all pretty in white and sparkly grey with a small white Coach purse....oh yeah this one is Tracy's, mailed off today.

Susan has a similar coloration, unlike Janice's which is all turquoise and gold.

I debuted the class at the Beading Frenzy and I'll be teaching it in Germany this year and again at Lisa's City Beads in December and then who knows, maybe a kit. Do you have a BFF or several who would love this ring? I know I have quite a few more to make!

Julie and Julia

or Cynthia and Marcia!

Have a look at Cynthia's new blog....and her idea to bead her way through Beaded Opulence while blogging in Julie Julia style.

Click here to be transported to Adventures in Beaded Opulence and read the story.



I've known Cyn since my early beading days at Beads and Beyond in Seattle where Cyn and friend Julz often took my classes and never failed to delight me with their sense of humor and kindness.

This year at Bead and Button, Cyn agreed to pose with Little Hoot, but not before giving him a 'hairdo'!



It is going to be great fun to see the book unfold piece by piece, thanks Cyn, for taking this wonderful idea and making it come true!

Images I love

I know we've covered this....a lot.....lately, but I am still enamored of the way I can create visual reference boards. I've added the Pinterest application to my iphone and ipad which means pinning anytime. And I've added a Pinterest link on my sidebar so you can go have a look at the images I find moving. Just click on the Pinterest logo to the right and you'll be transported to my visual library.

Last night I spent a few minutes adding a Places I've traveled board. This is sunset on the Thames river in London.



I'm not near complete, having done a lot of Europe, some of Tahiti, only a couple of my favorite U.S. cities, but it's still an amazing visual list of places I've been and for that I am so grateful.

And just this week I will get to add Juneau, Ketchikan and Sitka to that visual list. Today is for finishing up last minute things that need doing and tomorrow is for packing and then we're off! First an overnight stay in downtown Seattle in a luxury hotel ( one of my favorite things....wasted on Mark, but that's ok I'll enjoy it enough for both of us) and then onto Holland America's Westerdam on Saturday. I've traveled Holland America before, although not this ship and I found it to be an excellent cruise line, with nice accommodations, lovely food, and an all around nice experience. Throw in a favorite bead store owner and some really nice beaders, and all the beautiful Alaskan scenery and I think it's going to be grand!

Towers are up!

Yesterday was the completion of the Bougainville tower project! The bougainvilleas were cut loose of the wide trellis they had been growing on and freed of their pots. The holes were lined with amended soil and the branches were fed up through the towers and tipped into place. We're hoping their growth will be fast now they are in the ground. We can't wait to see their beautiful flowers spill out of the top of these structures.



In a couple of weeks the custom gate should be installed in that opening, adding another artistic dimension. This yard will continue to be on going project as we hope to add citrus trees where the pepper trees were taken out. And then there is maintenance.....I spent my 15 minutes this morning, trimming off dead branches of the pygmy date palms, trimming up the edges of the ground cover and eliminating weeds.

Color Inspiration is everywhere

Well especially on Pinterest which at the moment is capturing my attention. I created a board for color inspiration, but now see that categorizing my color inspiration might be a better choice, blue greens, purple reds hot pinks, greens and bronzes....

I searched on beaded jewelry and found my very own Carousel on someones color inspiration board.



It was on a board with this excellent color inspiration photo



A google image of The Monarch Butterfly Dress — Luly Yang

I also created a Santa Cruz board with images and memories from my life there.

But back to color. Very soon I will get serious about creating the projects for my second book, and I want to have a very informed color story. But since I'm fickle, or I might say easily influenced, I change my mind about what strikes me as an excellent color combination on a moments notice. Add to that the translation from web photo to actual bead colors and it is not always what you expected. On top of that is proportion which I learned from Margie Deeb is a very important element to pay attention to. So I will continue to put some color boards together and sit with them for awhile, picking out my favorites and then picking out the beads.

Another reason for the importance of this task is symbols. Rachel taught me about symbols and symbol libraries in Adobe Illustrator.



My plan is to make several symbol libraries with the colors and shapes of beads I will draw with. There will be size 15's, 11's and 8's in all the colors I plan to use, then crystals, and pearls and fancy stones and pendants. Bonnie just graciously showed me how to draw a Swarovski pendant. Adding to an already built symbol library is just a touch tedious so I would like to have a really good reference to start with,which means knowing my colors. The other huge benefit of symbols, click on a symbol (bead) and replace it with another across the entire drawing with one keystroke. The bead used to be bronze and now you've made a purple sample....change the bronze symbol to the purple symbol and you're done!

I'm beginning to love what I'm able to do with Adobe Illustrator which is significant given that three weeks ago I wasn't sure I was up to the task of learning it and now I'm eager for each new tidbit. And fortunately I have any number of beaders who have gone before me and are willing to share. I'm grateful to each of them!

Pinterest

I'd been hearing the term Pinterest here and there, but it sometimes takes me awhile to tune in. When Heather Powers invited me last week I decided to have a closer look. Being a highly visual person, much more so then a word person, I think of this as a visual twitter. I can organize all the images that really speak to me in categories, all with links back to the source should I want to visit it again.



I can pin any photo I like and it also gives me links to websites and blogs and other pinterest members who are putting together their own pins. I'm intrigued. Above are the few photos I've pinned, and categorized for home, color inspiration, artisitic destinations.

I look forward to spending some more time developing the color inspiration board and travel board. Next year is our 25th wedding anniversary (really? how is that possible?) and we want to plan something special. I think this could be just the place to seek out some beautiful spots and catalog them for contemplation.