PLEASE just let me bead!

Hello there! Hope all is well with you all! As I have mentioned in my previous post... I have been extremely busy this entire summer and have not been able to bead. When I try to work on my BJP (JUNE), I can only work on it for a very short time. About 45 minutes or not even that long. Someone or something will walk in and then I must stop what I'm doing. It's very frustrating. Sunday was the very first day I have stayed home the entire day. I was just so exhausted and kept dozing off the entire day. I decided to just not push myself and do what I love doing which is of course beading!... I decided to just take it easy the entire day. It's really nice to have one of those days where you can just do absolutely nothing and be real lazy. That was the day I had yesterday.

When I have been able to work on my BJP (June), I've become quite frustrated with it at times because the tracing that I did, appears to be disappearing. What I will do later on today is use a chalk marker and try my best at finding whatever hints of trace I can see and go over that. I thought of putting the wax-free tracing paper back onto the fabric and then trace over it again... when I did that a few days ago, the face was a ways off from the actual drawing. So if I trace over this... it's going to really mess up the work. I'll just have to do the best I can and find the lightest hints of trace I can and go over that. It's the best that I can do. The face was the very first thing I started on and realize it's the hardest to do. I wanted to remove a line of beads that I have at the neck area.... the neck area I have two rows of beads that were done horizontally. I want to remove the 2nd row because it just doesn't look good... problem is if I remove the 2nd row of beads, it might very well mess up the first row of beads and the vertical rows around the face... It's my first bead embroidery piece I've ever done. I think the hands and feet will also be just as difficult. I wanted to try to give the face a slight shadowing... but cannot figure out how that's done. The face I'm doing is not the front view but a side view.

If anyone has any tips, that would be much appreciated!

I took a class August 7 and learned how to do Byzantine chain... I had fun with that.... since I've been so unbelievably busy, I haven't had a chance to sit down and finish it. It's a very easy thing to make... so it shouldn't take me long to finish it at all.

On August 18, I finally took a class I've been wanting to take for quite some time... I finally learned how to make woven treasure bracelets. The drawback with this very particular art is that it can be outrageously expensive to do. This is *the* class that made me decide that we have got to make our own lampwork beads. I purchased 32 lampwork beads (8mm - 10mm)... I experienced a huge sticker shock once I learned what it cost... but I needed that to make the woven bracelet. I not only needed that... I needed another set of glass beads, I purchased gorgeous chalcedony faceted glass beads (8mm) and bought quite a bit of spacer beads and lots of Swarovski bicone crystals (4mm). That turned out to be my most expensive purchase just to make a bracelet.

When I came home I was quite excited and wanted to show Marc & the girls what I've done thus far in class... I thought I showed them all of the lampwork beads I purchased. I was ready to get back to work on it the following day.... this is something I could bring with me on the road and when waiting for one of the girls, I could work on this... but I couldn't find the beads... Marc & I literally stripped the master bedroom apart, our large walk-in closet which is basically a room in itself... and I ended up going into the bonus room and tearing through everything to find the lampwork beads. We couldn't find it anywhere. I was in tears! They weren't cheap and the thought of calling the store and asking the gal to make 32 more of the same thing as best as she can was not sitting well with me... I couldn't see spending that much money again... well... I finally gave in after looking for the beads 4 days... I called and a very dear friend, Becky didn't even let me say, "Hi Becky!" How are you.... she just said Oh... you left your lampwork beads here! Oh my Goddess.... I could feel my heart burst! I was numb! I couldn't believe I left them behind. My heart was truly thumping.... I told her that I was about to ask the owner's daughter to make me another 32 set of lampwork beads... I'm so relieved I didn't have to go that route! Marc & I went to the store on Saturday and of course us bead addicts can't leave such stores without buying more beads and whatnot! Marc came into the store just when I was about to make the purchases... all I could think of was drats.... how am I going to get myself out of this one.... Becky looked at me and said her husband hovers over her just as well.... I wanted to tell her to leave things behind and I'll get them another time but Marc was watching me and making me nervous! I just kept telling him... honey... I'll be right out... Just put the AC on and when I'm in the car it'll be nice and cool... but that didn't work... I just looked at him and he knew what I was thinking and I knew what he was thinking and he just said ok, go ahead! lol! Do you have that problem? I don't care what Marc buys... he's into golf major time and this is not a cheap sport... I'm constantly purchasing him golf shirts, shorts, etc and he'll take care of clubs and whatnot... I don't care what it costs just so as long as we take care of the bills, taxes, etc... but when it comes to me making purchases, then it's a completely different story. Grrrrrr! He really makes me nervous when he hovers over me when I'm at the cashiers. Eventually he'll just tell me to slow down because I've got enough beads and don't need anymore.... he doesn't understand! I don't expect him to understand.... but oh well... he'll just have to put up with me!

I am in hopes that later on today when we wake up, there won't be any surprises. If there aren't any... I'm staying home and will be working on my BJP (June) piece. I do know it will come out beautifully even though it's the very first bead embroidery piece I've done. I will most likely take breaks in between and work on the woven treasure bracelet. (Thanks to Robin Atkins for making this such a popular thing with so many of us!!!) If you aren't familiar with this... you can go here to learn more about it. It's real easy to make!....
This book cannot be purchased at your local bookstore. You might be able to purchase this book at your bead store or directly through Robin. I buy directly from Robin because I usually end up purchasing her rings. The rings are great for a lot of beaded arts. Speaking of the rings, Swarovski now has their Cosmic rings out. They are quite expensive. Most distributors only sell them individually. I found one distributor who sells them by two's. They are great for that extra special beaded project that will be in the artist collection or in a private collection.

I will be going to one class just to keep the instructor busy! The instructor is a terrific gal and anything you learn from her, you *know* your piece is going to be super special. I truly wish she would consider sending her work to several magazines... it's that good! Hopefully she'll consider it one of these days and hopefully sooner than later. I thoroughly enjoy her presence and we do have a real good time. It's only a Tuesday evening class that's a couple of hours.... So I'll go to that one and then there will be no more classes for me for quite a long time. I want to focus entirely on catching up on my BJP projects. I have 4 months worth of work to catch up on. I won't be able to catch up on any of my work if I continue to take classes I'm interested in. The classes will always be around another time... but this project is much too important for me to miss. It's quite special for me to be part of this project. The project I'm involved with is at this site and you can learn a lot more about it...


It's been a while since I've posted, hence for the long post. I'm truly hoping things will slow down this month and I won't have to do so much driving around. I know the next two weeks will be quite busy in terms of driving around... there's no other choice... oh well! That's not a problem! Life goes on and so do we all!!! Be happy!