Hi there!! Can't believe it's the end of the weekend already. Kiersten left this morning with a good friend of hers to vacation. I'm sure she's having a great time! Nicole starts school tomorrow where she will complete 1.5 credits. She will be finished in November and then she'll start college hopefully in the spring of 2008.
It's so nice having the entire house to ourselves without the phone ringing off the hook, the strobe lights flashing like crazy... it's been a very nice and QUIET day today! We went out Friday to meet with friends that my husband hasn't seen in 28 years. What a reunion! Seemed like old days! Except they have 4 children and we have 2 and of course we are all much older now! LOL! We'll most likely go down to Florida this winter because I particularly want to go to a very specific Island that's almost unheard of... we have a lot of friends in Florida so it'll be the perfect time for us to just take off for a while. Right now we cannot do that with Marc working all the OT he's been working. Kiersten has no car and I have to take her places. So going away for us is just not an option right now. Hopefully she'll have her car eventually and she can take herself places once more!

On Tuesday I went to a class to learn how to make Byzantine bracelet. It looked real easy but actually making the bracelet was a whole different story. I had a lot of fun in this class. The instructor has been teaching wire techniques over 40+ years. She is excellent. I am not fond of wire wrapping jewelry. I only want to learn this so I can make a bracelet for Nicole. She likes this kind of stuff. So why not surprise her with something different than beaded work when the holidays come around. She will only wear silver. The piece I'm making is for me. When it is completed hopefully this week... I'll drop it off at the beading store and throw it into the tumbler and put it away so Nicole cannot see it. I found a great online source where I can purchase uncut SS coil for a lot cheaper than what I paid for it. I bought 50 6mm SS jumprings (cut) for a whopping $11.50. I needed 2.5 bags so ended up buying 3 bags of them. I wasn't too happy having to spend that kind of money. At least that was the first and last time I've learned my lesson. I wish I looked at the jumprings the day I signed up for the class. I didn't and that of course will burn me every time. It was a 2.5 hour class for $40 so it all does add up. You know my terrible addiction with books... I of course had to get a book...

If you haven't gotten Heidi Kummli & Sherry Serafini's book "The Art of Bead Embroidery" Technique, Design & Inspiration... I highly recommend it! It is FANTASTIC. They have covered absolutely everything. It's one of those must have books in your library! Just don't let your husband see this!!! Every time my husband learns I got a new book... blah blah blah.... I'll tell him to go golfing and we're even! It always works! But seriously, my addiction with books on this subject is really insane! LOL! It is a book I truly recommend for anyone who is into bead embroidery! It is FABULOUS!

I just spent time writing a review on Amazon and then clicked submit... they wiped it out because you have to personally purchase the book from them in order to write a review I guess. I'll write a review here...

The book is from Astounding to Stunning...
I have been attracted to Heidi & Sherry's work for years. I can never get enough of the jaw dropping work they do with their own projects! I have many, many books on bead embroidery. Of all the books I have, I always had questions that I still couldn't find answers to... In this book, every question you have will be answered! If you have a question and it isn't answered, I would be very surprised! The colors to pictures in the book are absolutely fantastic! The book of course starts out with a foreword, then Sherry & Heidi's introduction and author's note. Chapter One is based on Technique... Starts out with Tools to stitches, foundation, lining, backing, adhesives, finishing to fringes... Each person has their own page of how they do stitches, etc...
Chapter Two is based on Design and it includes Inspiration, design, color & Texture. Chapter Three is based on Projects. There are 12 Projects that are from Vintage Button Belt Buckle to Ancient Spirals Collar.... Then in Chapter Four is based on Inspiration and then their gallery of their breathtaking work. I'll tell ya... there are absolutely no secrets left behind as far as this fantastic book is concerned. They give it all and more. They are obviously very generous with everything they know about their art. It's a book well worth having! It will become the one and only Real & True Bead Embroiders Bible! It sure is mine!
It is a very well thought out book, very well designed and very well put together.

Tomorrow (Monday) I will focus working on my embroidery piece... I think I'm going to focus on the face first then the hands & feet because I need to use size 15° for the flesh. Then I'll just bead wherever it takes me. It's very difficult to bead this piece when it gets dark. I can only work on this piece during the daylight hours. I am not happy at all with any of the tracing papers available out there. The only tracing paper I was able to find was Saral® Wax Free Transfer paper sampler. They are the absolute worse tracing papers I've ever come across. I remember in the old days when we were still using typewriters we used carbon paper between original and copy papers and it worked like magic. The package the papers came in states it's great for decorative & tole painting, quilting, etc... I traced the copyright free design using White transfer paper. You can only see the image without the light hitting it. When you look at it away from light, you can't see anything. I use my OTT-Lite for everything. The OTT-Lite just doesn't see the traces well at all. I cannot bead when it's dark. I'm blind enough as it is and don't want to have more of a mess with my eyes if I start beading in the dark. This project will just have to be done during the day in natural sunlight without OTT-LITE even though OTT-LITE is supposed to act like natural sunlight... I just don't understand why it doesn't work with this specific trace... It works with absolutely everything else!

If you get Heidi & Sherry's book, please let me know if you like it. I would love to know. There will be pictures up this week of my very belated June project up... I'll take pictures of it tomorrow outside so you can see how light the trace is on Hoffman's quilt fabric. I wonder if anyone else who does bead embroidery has this problem and if so, what solution do you have for such problems? Pictures will be up soon....

Have a FABULOUS week! Let's hope we have a week of 90's and not another 102° plus this week!