Can't believe how quickly the day goes by. The day just goes too darned fast for me. I ended up sleeping much more than I usually do. When I do that, I just want to bop myself on the head because the entire day has basically and truthfully gone to waste.

We finally had a really delicious dinner tonight. The entire process to make this incredibly simple recipe is minutes but you have to put all ingredients together, mix it well then pour it into a very well put together heavy duty aluminum foil, carefully put the seams together and fold it in accordion style, but in a back and forth motion... I do this with 2 very over sized Reynolds® Heavy Duty Aluminum Foil side by side and make sure it will become leak proof which isn't always easy to do... then one large piece that I stretch out to about 2' long and finally another piece about 2' long that I stretch out. I then put the briskets on the foil inside of a large roasting pan... In my case I used 6lbs of brisket and then added the marinade. I folded everything to make it leak proof and air tight. Put it in the ice box overnight and then the following day (Tuesday) I put it in the oven for 5 hours at 275° and then for 1 more hour at 350° When it was completed, I let it cool down but didn't undo the aluminum foil. When it was cool enough, I put it back into the ice box and then today removed it from the ice box and took one of the brisket and cut it very thinly and laid it on new aluminum foil on a baking sheet and then used BBQ sauce over the brisket pieces. I put the baking sheet into the oven for oh about 30 minutes, removed it and felt it could use BBQ Sauce on the other side.... so I turned the other side over and did the same thing then put it back into the oven for oh about 20 minutes. We had that with Baked potatoes that was outside on the grill and mixed vegetables. It was absolutely delicious! What I love about this very particular brisket recipe is that there is no fat at all. I normally do not like brisket at all. But when I had this many, many years ago I couldn't believe it was pretty much fat free. It falls off and the brisket itself stays nicely put and doesn't come apart at all. It was a really nice dinner. Even our fussy eater loved it! I used a vacuum sealer for the other brisket, labeled it and put it into one of the freezers inside the garage.

I have been contemplating various ways of doing my Polka Dot Fatbook project. I have to figure out how to stiffen scrim. I have never worked with scrim before. I just know I have to stiffen the scrim in order for what I have in mind to succeed. The Scrim is going to be used on one side of the page and the original page you look at when you open or turn your page will be with completely different things. I cannot wait to post the pictures. I will post them May 30th or very shortly afterwards. It's the very first fatbook project I will ever have done. I am also doing a recipe swap with Cloth, Paper & Scissors Magazine. I forgot I had some things that are entirely kitchen related and will use those as "floaters"... I will of course take pictures of them when I'm done with it. To explain floaters for those who may not know what it is because I didn't know what floater meant until I read the entire article... You can make recipe card swaps by doing whatever you want on your post card size index card or your regular size index card... you then write down the recipe of your choice... after you feel it's almost completed, you then instead of using laminate, you use vinyl. I rarely, if ever step foot in Wal-Mart. But this time I did and decided to check the craft area only to be surprised at the vast collection of items they have for just about everything you can imagine. They had lots of clear vinyl in many different thickness. I of course picked the thinest vinyl I could get... it is wrinkled but you can very easily put a towel over the vinyl and take your iron and go over it and it will come out looking like glass. You sew the vinyl which the article explains isn't entirely easy to do, but gives you tips how to do that... and you slip inside the vinyl that hasn't been sewn, charms, buttons or what have you. I desperately want to join that swap! I just don't know if I can join because I am no longer subscribed to the magazine. I am waiting to subscribe to it. I'm just going to send it in in hopes they'll accept it even though I'm not subscribed to CPS magazine at this time. I was subscribed to it and still love it! If you like unique arts, Quilting Arts Magazine and Cloth, Paper & Scissors Magazines are *the* magazines to get! I am more inspired by each issue that comes to me. I love it! I am a confessed Magazine-aholic. I subscribe to Bead & Button Magazine, BeadWork Magazine at this time. I still grab Art Doll Quarterly Magazine every time a new issue comes out. I also like to get Belle Armoire ~ Art to Wear, Ornament (I love this magazine), Art Jewelry (I don't always get this), and I also love "The Crafts Report" magazine which has not been available since January 2007. I've been looking everywhere for it. Barnes & Nobles as well as Borders keep telling me they haven't had it since January. I hope they haven't stopped issues of it. It's extremely informative and it helps me gain more confidence should I ever decide to sell my art work. I make the world's worse sales person. I am so bad at it that I am happiest when I just give and my payment is seeing the person smile from ear to ear and their t hank you is my payment. That's all I need. But with this art medium I'm in now, it is cost prohibitive and in order for me to attend bead weaving or loom classes or even going to Gem Faires, Bead Fest which is coming up soon... the classes they offer is $275... Personally I can't afford it. So I'm just going to have to continue to practice my techniques until they are done correctly then if I have the courage to, I will try to sell them. I bought less than a gram of Delica seed beads which I fell in love with and the darn thing cost me close to $16.00! It's not cheap. I have to focus on getting more TOHO seed beads. I really like TOHO's. They produce a gorgeous draped effect for some techniques. I especially think they look grandiose on some loomwoven bead work. TOHO's are of course Japanese seed beads. They are not yet widely known like the Miyuki's and Delica's are known. A real quick lesson for those who don't know the difference... Delica seed beads are the bling blings for most of us bead weavers and those of us who do loomwoven work. They are cylinder shaped seed beads. Now Miyuki's are not cylinder shaped. They are very beautiful as well and come in shorter lengths and more round. The TOHO's are round and thicker and very beautiful as well. I will have to put the different beads on an index card and post it so those who are new can refer to it and see the differences. I used to buy lots of Czech seed beads by the hank. Czech seed beads come in every single color you can possibly imagine... they are very irregular in its shape... they are not uniform in size. Some of them are cut with a slant, some with a larger hole, some with real tiny clogged hole... they are not uniform but that's perfectly OK! They are terrific beads for one of many things. I wouldn't use Delicas on say my Goddess form art dolls. The Delicas are just too expensive for things like that and should be used for what I call fine art or art you know will end up costing more money... I personally don't think Delicas drape anywhere near as nicely or as elegant as Miyuki's do. TOHO's are slowly gaining momentum. I cannot wait for the AIKO seed beads to come out! They are really gorgeous and right now cost prohibitive for most bead weavers. If you are new to beading, just practice with Czechs and then work your way up to Miyuki's, etc.

I'm going to scan what I'm going to use for my Polka Dot Fatbook. I will leave the items I'm using directly on each side of the pages excluded. I don't want to be unfair to others who are also in this swap. I just cannot wait till I receive my swap back. It will be so interesting to see what other's have done for their polka dot ideas. I was inspired by two things... but the scrim which I am letting you know is one thing I'm using was entirely up to me. I just have to figure out how on earth I can stiffen it and then apply it to the paper without it ruining the paper. I had hoped the paper would have been heavier but it isn't.

I am currently very interested in learning more about bead crocheting ropes. From what I've been reading, I'm gathering it isn't at all difficult to learn. The one drawback is the thread I need to use is very expensive. What I'm going to do is use C-Lon 18-ply cord. If you have ever done Micro Macrame work before, then you'll see how thin the 18-ply cord is and the colors they come in are gorgeous! I think they are the best bet for bead crocheting. But to say that really is quite premature for me. I need to practice with different threads to determine which works best. There was a project in one of my beading magazines and the project was beading around crazy straws. I didn't even know the crazy straws were still made! I remember my daughters absolutely loved them when they were much younger.

I have been buying more lampwork focal beads lately and I purchased lampwork spacer beads. I have been trying to find lampwork artists who focus more on lampwork spacer beads so I can use them in finger-weaving bracelets and necklaces. For those who aren't familiar with finger weaving can learn more about it at Robin Atkins website. She is a very sweet wonderful woman with talents that's beyond my scope! Her brother, Thom Atkins is also quite the artist himself. You can go to www.robinatkins.com. You can learn a lot more about bead embroidery if this should interest you. You of course can read about her fabulous travels in search for beads (what else?!!!) lol! You can review her books and I have all of her books and love them all. I have read her books numerous times. Her latest and newest book is called "Beaded Treasures" Finger Woven Bracelets, Necklaces, Tassels & Straps. I love the book. I do not get paid or any such thing for mentioning this. You can order directly from Robin by sending her a check. I had lots of problems ordering the book from Borders and from Barnes & Nobles. So I ended up buying this book from her like I bought the rest of them from her. I will take pictures of the Polka Dot stuff completely in it's new form and also will post the doll I'm working on so you can see how I work. I have no clue if others do the same thing I do.... but yes it's more work and takes time. It took me a month and half to figure out just how I want the doll done. The doll will be a series which I won't name for a while. It's going to take me quite a while to complete the entire series.

I will be posting more frequently. When I have headaches, they are usually quite rough which explains why I haven't posted as much. But I'll post more frequently and of course with much shorter posts. :-)