Jewelry and Clay and Crocheting, Oh my!!

I've been a busy bee. Here's a pic of my workspace tonight.

I have been working on my first scrabble tile pendants, which are curing near thetop of the blue board. Here's a closer pic of them:

I made the mistake of putting them in a bag after they'd only been drying for 24 hours and some of them stuck together a bit. Not good. I think they need about 3 days to cure corectly! All I have to do now is order the bails to go on the backs of them and we have pendants. :)

I've also been playing with Clay this week and not much to show you there because I need to wait til there is some daylight before I take a picture of a project I used some clay roses in. They are useful for all sorts of things but hard to make small. My 9 year old daughter is extremely enthused about the clay and has been doing a bit of clay work every day. I taught her to make roses and now I need to watch some more tutorials so I have more to show her. :)

Jewelry wise, I've been busy tonight. I took a class on making triple stranded  necklaces. We did not get time to finish the project before the store closed, so I ended up making the last strand here at home, then as I was trying it on, one of my other strands had a crimp bead fail, so I had some work to do. It just goes to shoe what happens when I rush. (that or maybe I was just having issues because my hands were hurting a lot tonight. Bad fibro night.) The necklace is made of silver wire and silver plated findings, freshwater pearls (in white, pink, black and cream,) crystal and hematite. The only pearls on it that are not natural are the very large ones on the outside, and that was becaue they were the only beads we could find that were large enough to suit what class syllabus called for. So those pearls are glass.

Here are a couple of pictures of the necklace in progress:

Had to add a picture of the clasp even though it's a bit sepia toned here. I was playing with camera settings.

Anyway, putting the whole thing up on Etsy in a day or two here when the sun is good. :)

As for the crocheting, I am almost in the final stages of the Sara shawl, with maybe 2-4 rows left before I will edge it and bead it. I can't wait to finish it!  The Michaela scarf is nearly done too, with just a 1/2 of a side of beading to do and then it's done! :)

Hope life is good for all of you out there.

Wrinkles making me happy!?

I knew the day was coming when I would look in the mirror and see my first wrinkle. I am 39, so generally when I look in the mirror my face is very smooth. I take good care of it because I am allergic to sunlight, so it does not get a lot of sun damage or exposure.

Then last night I was getting ready to go off to the Silent Auction for my older daughter's school. She was standing in the bathroom joking with me and I smiled at her in the mirror, Suddenly I had tiny crow's feet! I was delighted! This was not the reaction I had expected to finding my first real wrinkle, but what a happy way to welcome aging.

My daughter was amazed when I pointed them out to her. She thought I would be upset and I said "No no Honey! These are happy lines! They mean I smile a lot!" So anyway, If I am going to have a line on my face I'll take those any day over a frown line. I actually treasure the crow's feet on the faces of people I love.

Speaking of smiling, there's been a bit of that around here this week. Daughter got an award at school today for her talent with academics and her sketching. She was thrilled.

Family is calming down and things seems better all the way around than they did 2 weeks ago.

I've been crafting. I spent last night playing with Fimo clay, trying to make tiny rose beads to go on some of my jewelry creations and was only partially successful. I see potential there. I did make a funny heart with Fimo last night that made it onto a bracelet/earring set I crafted using some of my hand rolled paper beads and some czech crystal and freshwater pearls. I named it "I left my Heart in the Garden" since the paper beads were named "Pink Peony" and the other charm on the bracelet is a silver ladybug. I added a couple more charms since these pics were taken, just to balance the bracelety out a bit more.

I have it up for sale now in my etsy shop. I am on Showcase for bracelets all day today, so thought I'd offer a deal for the 2 as a set.

I hope you are all having a great Memorial Day weekend.

Back in the saddle (so to speak)

It's been an adventurous two weeks. My family has been going through some stuff, coming to terms with the fibromyalgia and the sleep disorder, and also there's been some tussling and strife over my daughter. I think we've ironed it out. Sometimes the knots and bumps in the road a family takes are the hardest to iron out, so the last week hasn't been easy.  On the bright side I think we're doing better for it. Funnily enough, I think there is as much change to get used to for my family as I come out of my fibro funk and begin to reinvent my life despite the illness, as there was getting used to the illness in the first place.

This week I am doing double showcases on Etsy.com for my crocheted items. This has lit a fire under my behind to get 2 of my shawls up, photo'd and DONE. Here they are. :)

So there has been lots of crafting going on over here. I have also taken a few more jewelry making classes and I am starting to get good at wire wrapping. I've been doing some of that with turquoise, which I don't have a good picture of yet, and some more earrings and memory wire bracelets.

 I am torn now between wanting to make jewelry and wanting to crochet and am finding myself now combinging the two. I have 2 projects coming up now that I've taught myself to bead. I am liking this juxtaposition!

Ok, so today did not start too well. I got up with the baby and had one of those terrible, skull crushing sinus headaches that was so bad I could not keep my eyes open. I ended up putting baby in her rolling chair with come cheerios to munch on, putting one hand on the chair and peeking at her intermittently through squinty eyes while I waited for either the excedrine, the caffeine and or the sinus pressure medicine to kick in. Throughout this, there was a guy right outside with a chainsaw trimming a GIANT tree we have in front of the house. The noise was not helping, but the tree looks really good now, and potentially we could build a 2 story treehouse in it.

I was rescued by my mother in law who had just come in from her knitting class, and she sent me up to bed with ice packs to put on my sinuses. It worked! I'd never done that before. Anyway, I was able to get back up after 2 hours, drive to get my older child and start watching the baby again. Crisis averted.

Spent this evening watching The King's Speech, which  is essentially a story about courage.  It was very good. I sat through the entire movie, stringing some very tricky little ribbon through the Michaela scarf that I keep talking about.  The project is now at about 90% completion and I have a sneak peak photo.

It's hard to see the sparkle of the moonlight mohair yarn in this pic and it does not show the laciness of the ribbon well, but gives an idea of the stage we are in the process. :)

Hope you all are out there happily crafting, or sleeping at this hour.

Spent this afternoon with my older daughter teaching her how to make beaded bracelets on elastic cords with crimp beads. She made me a beautiful purple and black one for mother's day. I think she enjoyed the extra time and attention, and I loved the time with just her.

Tonight we went and had great sushi and frozen yogurt, then we hit the bookstore. I got a great book that has quite a bit on wire wrapping copper and crocheting with beads.  ( can't remember the name of the book now!!)  Going to get off of the computer a bit earlier tonight and play around a bit with my new beads and findings, may even finish a project!!

Hope you all enjoyed your sunday (or monday depending on where you are. ) :)

I haven't posted in a few days! It's been a very busy week over here. On top of my normal Mommy duties I have had a teething baby, and have been doing some crafting as time permits. I've been taking some Jewelry classes over at Michael's Craft Stores and also getting my shawls and scarves squared away. I finally got my dress dummy so I've been able to determine what needs more yarn and what's ready for other stuff, like beading, ribbon, etc.

Michael's has been doing crafting classes again finally after a 3 year break in their classes. All this time they've limited it to wilton cake decorating. Finally they are branching out again. I am the sole student in the beading class so am enjoying the one on one time with the very nice instructor.

This week I took a wire wrapping class that left me with lots of inspiration as to how to use my funny paper beads on earrings and pendants. Next month the class is on how to make memory wire bracelets. Here are some pics from my first wire wrapping efforts at this week's class:

Anyway, it's fun, and I am starting now to develop a huge fondness for copper wrapped jewelry (the ones above are silver or gold wrapped) because I love copper, and I think it's very neat that you can recycle electrical wire to make something beautiful.

The beading all ties to the crochet as well because I am getting more and more interested in adding beaded embellishments to my crochet projects (not on items for babies!!!!) and I have to get used to working with beads again.

Family is being ever more supportive as they understand my sleep disorder and my fibromyalgia better. It's easing the stress in the house and making us all generally happier. This is sometimes not an easy hurdle for fibro patients to get over, but I am finally starting to get there.

My family is happy to see me doing some art/crafting that makes me light up inside and brings some joy to my life. Fibro patients go through a phase where they can give up on everything, and I am leaving it finally.

It's so important to do things that bring joy to us and express our feelings, be they good or bad. If you're creative those feelings can come out in an artistic format.  So often we're all so concerned about our everyday pressures and stress that we forget or neglect to make that time for ourselves. It's important, even if it's only 20 minutes a day. Do something that makes you feel great.

It nourishes the soul and well being. I've had my creativity stuck in a bottle for 20 years and am enjoying surprising myself, and my family by what I am seeing flowing out. I hope I'm teaching my daughters to create too.

If you're not taking this time for yourself, to do something that gives you joy and peace, find it. Force the time if you have to. Life is way too short!!!

We are having fun over here this evening drinking Mojitos and getting the easter baskets ready for the little ones. Yesterday I stuffed eggs and there was  nothing left for the golden egg so I was up until 5 am making a beaded bracelet to go in  there. It turned out pretty cute and easter-ish looking.

Nothing fun and crafty to say in here tonight. I just hope you all have a wonderful Easter, or any other day you may be having this weekend. Most of all I hope that you have family close to you and that you are enjoying time with them!

Purple bag done!

So yesterday I started messing with some purple yarn and came out of it at the end with a ice 6 inch tall drawstring bag, that I hand beaded with some pretty iridescent japanese seed beads. I'd never beaded a crocheted item before so it was all new to me. It actually came out looking pretty good!

Anyway, it was a practice run for the beading I would like to do on the exploratory shawl. So now that beading should look very nice. :)

Spent the rest of my evening stuffing easter eggs for Sunday.  We have a big party here with the whole family and eat lots of yummy stuff, and watch all of the cute kids run around all over trying to find their eggs while the adults drink mimosas. I ended up making a hemp bracelet to go inside of the golden egg, because I did not have a 5 dollar bill,  which was what I thought would go well in there.


I also got my sewing dummy today so now I can finally progress on a couple of projects that have been at a full stop :) I think this weekend is going to be fun!

I wish you all a Happy Easter!

Hemp and Beads

I went to a fun class last night given by Michael's. Apparently, their stores in our area have had all of their classes (escept for the Wilton cake decorating) cancelled for the last 3 years, so they are trying to restart their class program. They are a mess. The flyers do not state that you have to sign up at the register BEFORE the day of the class in order to go to it.  The end result of this is that classes are getting cancelled and people have been showing up to find out there is no class. As a result nobody was getting the class syllabus either, so the items needed for the class were not being bought in advance which would have put a serious crimp in their crimping class (among other things).

Finally one of their instructors called me on the phone yesterday and told me I was her only sign up. I told her about the problem with the flyer and it was like the lights came on. They're going to fix that. In return I was able to have the hemp beading class last night as a sole student (something Michaels does not allow the instructors to do) and had a good time.  Here's a pic of one of the bracelets I made.

The instructor also changed the class for next week to something else, because I told her I wanted the wire wrapping class instead. I'm excited. I have a bunch ideas about how to use the wire wrapping with some of my paper beads in combination with glass. We'll see how it goes next week.

Tonight I am working on a marled purple yarn bag with an aubergine purple top that I am going to try to bead with glass seed beads. I'll put up some pics if it looks good. It's like my second shot at the same pattern the red bag was from, so am working out the kinks here.

Hope all is well for all of you and your families out there tonight!

Red Bag

This week has been a little bit hectic because I have only had 50% of the help I usually have with the girls, so they've been absorbing my crafting time. The littlest one, Rowan, got her second tooth last night. I swear, it came out overnight because she did not have it the day before. It must have hurt, because she kept me up most of the night!

Anyway, before she woke up I did get a little bit done. I made this red bag from a pattern I got from http://crochet-mania.blogspot.com/2008/04/blog-post_30.html . I changed the pattern a bit and added a shell pattern on the top that is slightly different, with a contrasting lace frill. Then I added a couple of beads on the front. I haven't decided whether I like the beads there or not, but it was a handy little bag and easy to put together!

I left the background on pic 2 here a bit darker so you can see the white trim a bit better.
This project took roughly 2 hours to do, and it would have been shorter if I hadn't have been watching House at the same time. :)

Funny Friday

Today has been sort of odd. It started with my husband actually having the day off, because every other week he gets a 3 day weekend. I've been walking around all day thinking it's Saturday!

I had said at the beginning of this blog that I was also going to talk about having fibromyalgia and it's associated conditions, and living life day to day with those illnesses. It's therapeutic for me to write about it, and it's also helpful for others who have some of these problems to know they're not alone.

Well, anyway, that said, I went to my Sleep Doctor today in La Jolla. He's got fancy credentials and seems to know what he's doing. He'd been having me wear this monitoring bracelet for 2 weeks so he could see my awake/asleep hours, plus movement so he could diagnose me. He said that the data (and he showed it to me as well) shows very clearly that I have a genetic disorder called Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome. What this means is that somewhere in my teen years, my hypothalamus decided to quit developing, and my circadian rhythm is set for me to be awake most of the night and sleep for parts of the day. I had kind of already known this because he'd told me on my first visit it was what he suspected I have.

So what's the bad news of this for me? I have 2 daughters one 8, the other 9 months. The 9 month old needs her mommy early in the morning after mommy has had about 1-3 hours of sleep. I've been stressing out big time because either I've been on serious sleep deprivation and trying to stay awake to keep track of her, or worrying and feeling guilty because her grandparents were keeping an eye on her early in the morning. In the past when I've tried to tell them that I don't go to sleep at 4am by choice, I have gotten lectured about how if I just try I could turn my hours around they'd be fixed in a snap, told I  am neglecting my child (who gets all of my waking time by the way) etc. It's causing stress. My poor husband is coming home after I've had the baby all day and can't understand why I need a 3 hour nap. We've been talking a lot today and I think he's starting to figure out thnat this really is a disability. In fact Social Security defines it as one that can be completely disabling.

The big curve ball,that upset me today was that the doctor has prescribed light box therapy, wherein I sit in front of this special light for an hour every morning when I wake up. This is supposed to help the hypothalamus reset to a more normal cycle. I am not sure how I am going to be able to do this while chasing around a very high maintenance 9 month old baby girl, unless I enlist more help from grandparents who may or may not be present depending on what's on the schedule that day.

The Doc told me that if the light box does not work there is no other therapy whatsoever to help. At first I thought he was lying to push me harder to be serious about using the box, but then I looked at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_sleep_phase_syndrome and what he was saying is true.  A large percentage of patients get no results from the light box, some get a little bit, but almost all revert back to their night schedules after a short time. So anyway, I was not happy this afternoon because this is a problem I really want fixed, not just for me but for my whoile family because everyone in the house is impacted by it.

 The Doctor also went so far as to tell me to quit doing everything but taking care of my family. He wants me to stop crocheting, crafting, blogging, etc. That won't happen. :) I get joy from this stuff and we all need passion and joy in our lives.

So anyway, working through this with my husband today.

On the crafting side I have made a photographic light box today to use to take pics of items for sale so they look professional. I haven't tested it yet. I have also been working on the Sara Like Tiara shawl, which eases my spirit for some reason. I've been doing some silly little blue booties too, just because I never have. ;)

Thanks for reading my whining this evening. Lots of people have it worse than I do, but this is a problem that has caused lots of stress and grief in my life and I want it fixed!

Exploratory shawl finished!

I finally finished the shawl I was working on as a model of the one I am sending to a friend. I like this pattern overall but I think it could use a bit of bling around the edges. The yarn is Lion's Amazing, in Ruby. That yarn was easy to work with and striped very well, is soft, but is a little bit expensive.

I have my 8 year old modeling it here because the only other model available at this moment is her 66 year old grandfather (we call him Pops) and this would just not look right on him at all!!! :) So anyway, the shawl would not be quite as big on a full sized person. It is actually a "shawlette" pattern that I made bigger.

Eventually I'll model this on my sewing dummy that I just got for my birthday, and stick it on Etsy, but the edging may be beaded at that point.

Beads done!

So, yesterday I finally got all of that first batch of beads done, photographed and up in the Etsy store. (See the link in the left column if you want to see the store.)

It was my birthday and I was happily up til 4 am getting the camera shots just right so you can see the actual colors on the beads. I need to work on making the lines a bit more precise on the beads so I did another batch today which is currently drying in the garage. I am naming one of those "Peach Mojito" which is sort of funny because my husband came home and made me a mint mojito and I had never had one before.

My next bead experiment will be round beads, and barbell shaped beads, which I used to make back in the day.

Anyway, here are  few shots of the completed beads from yesterday.

Mod Podge

I decided that the acrylic spray I used on my paper beads yesterday did not look good enough so I painted them with mod podge, which is sort of like elmer's glue. The stuff dried quickly and has given the beads a more lacquered look, which is what I was aiming for. Now I need to find a clear acrylic spray to go on top of that is glossy and I think I have the whole process nailed down. I'll take some pics of each new color of finished bead once I do that.  It might be a couple of days.

Tomorrow is my birthday so not sure how much I'll blog. It may be Black Angus (never been in there, but a thoughtful person gave me a gift card) or Sushi night. Then this weekend we are having a big combined birthday party for me and my Auntie, whose birthday is the day after mine.  Our parties are big, but tame. We usually have 6 or 7 kids running around and about 15 adults. If we are doing an extended family party we go up to about 30 people or so.

We're doing a "family favorites" party, so we are all making signature type dishes. I am making these baked beans that are loaded with bacon and kielbasa. There is probably more meat in them than there are beans. They're a heartstopper, but delicious. I usually only make them about once a year. My husband is making me a Carrot cake. Yes, he's that awesome. He'll actually bake for me. He makes a good cake too! Am I the only one who thinks that a man who cooks is sexy? :)

I may not post any crafting pics this weekend, but may put up some food pics if they look interesting.

As to the crocheting, I am to the point with my prototype shawl that I can pretty much just sit now and repeat the same 2 rows over and over. I am loving the pattern because I could use so many different variations of yarn with it and would look great. More pics to come with that too. Unfortunately the colors I am working with at the moment look more like fall because I am working on projects for people in Australia where it IS fall. My next iteration will look more springy.

More Beads and some shawl

Today I made beads by myself, as the daughter was behind due to having to go and pose in a pink dress at Picture People with her 9 month old little sister. She liked everything about it except for the pink part. She is absolutely NOT a girly girl. I was not unhappy about the solitary beadmaking. It's sort of like pulling weeds in the backyard, it gives you quiet time to reflect.

I went out and invested in some clear, spray on acrylic which has greatly sped up the process, and I notice that my bead rolling has improved, but I need to work on some other forms. The spherical paper beads intrigue me.

So anyway, I made bright yellow with bits of green peeking in here and there, green with bits of watermelon pink, brown with red and turquoise, and violet of  course. That's my favorite color but I think they are the blandest of the bunch tonight. I'll put up some pics tomorrow after the varnish dries.

My Fibromyalgia is keeping me nice and awake again like it's 3 in the afternoon, so I am about to pick up the Sara Like Tiara Shawl, practice shawl and work on it for a bit. Here's a pic of it in progress so far. I think it needs a bit of soft mohair woven in and a little bit of  sparkle, but I am still loving this yarn which is  Lion's Amazing in Ruby.

I get to take off the annoying wristwatch I have been wearing for two weeks after tomorrow, and turn it into the sleep clinic on Monday. Maybe they'll finally figure out what, if anything they can do to put me on daytime hours so I can spend more time with my baby girl. In the meanwhile I'm going to suck up the quiet time here and enjoy having the silence to create. :)

Beads and quality time after Disney trip

I spent this evening with my bright but slightly neglected 8 year old daughter, making paper beads. She's so excited that I have an Etsy store and I am trying to both give her some of my time, and teach her a skill that would enable her to sell a product in the store and make some money if she wants to, since she is dying to do that!

I had not made these beads since I was about 18 years old or so, so had to take my time figuring out how to do them, all over again. I had seen a cover of a Sunset magazine this month that inspired me with it's vivid greens and ruby grapefruit, so I hauled that downstairs along with about 4 old Better Homes and Gardens magazines.

Daughter and I thumbed through and cut out pages that had colors that appealed to us. Then I either cut the pages into very long, tapering triangles, or straight strips. My daughter wanted to start with the red strips which were cut to be tapering beads, so I patiently showed her how to rub a gluestick on the end of the paper strip, and wrap the paper around a toothpick, using enough continuous pressure to make a tight bead. She got a bit frustrated but I was proud of her for calming down and really trying to make it work. She made some very nice beads!

Here are a few of our unvarnished beads before stringing:

At this point daughter had to go to bed, so I strung the beads and hung them in clever fashion. I then painstakingly did their first coat of varnish, with a tiny bottle of clear nail polish that I had. Next time I will definitely be using a different product!!! :)

Here is a picture of the stringed beads after their first coat of varnish:

I'll probably repeat this fun and see if I can streamline it a bit! I love seeing color come to life in a new way and I have jewelry making friends who might like a few of these. I'm also considering doing some polymer beads too when I can afford the materials!
As to the crochet projects: I am firmly into the Michaela scarf which is looking very pretty with the larger hook size, but have run out of one of the yarns I need to keep going.

I started the prototype shawl for my "Sara Like Tiara" Shawl and am finding the project interesting, but need to find a way to incorporate a bit of sparkle for the elegant lady it's being made for.

I'm also working on the Gryphon blanket, but once again, waiting on a chocolate yarn I've ordered from Lori's Yarns in Alpine, California. Baby Gryphon is one week old today, so I have a bit of leeway there.

Will post pictures of all 3 projects as I work through them!

Spending the day today getting ready to take my two girls to Disneyland!!!!! I am excited because the last time we went I was pregnant, so I could not go on any of the rides with my 8 year old, Sydney.
This time I have 9 month old Rowan, but bunches of other family members there so we can take turns watching her. This is our first big trip together as a family since we hurriedly drove across the US in 2008. That trip was not so fun. Before that we had a wonderful trip with all of these people to Prague in the Czech Republic.

On the creative side of things, I am trying to decide which project to bring to work on. It may be the Sara Like Tiara shawl, or the very purple Michaela Scarf. (See above pic) The scarf is too stiff so I need to pull out the yarn and rework with a larger hook. Silk mohair should NOT be stiff. :)

I'm also hoping to find sopme funny trinkets or beads at Disneyland for another project I have been considering, but not holding my breath. Their stores have a very limited spectrum of merchandise!

Fabulous earrings

I got 2 amazing pairs of earrings in the mail today from a friend in Australia, who has a jewelry making business that specializes in lovely Tensha beads, like these. I could not believe how much more gorgeous these were in person! I highly recommend her shop, Eartopia! which is at http://www.facebook.com/Eartopia

New blanket is up in the etsy shop

This is the blanket I've been whining about for 2 weeks now. Still not sure how to get this to post up pics straight to the blog, but getting there.

Women's History Month- contribution by Juliet Marillier

"We stand on our mothers’ shoulders


When Gillian invited me to post here as part of Women’s History Month, I immediately thought about the different ways in which men and women pass down their legacies to future generations. I touched on that in a scene from my novel Heart’s Blood. Here, secular scribe Caitrin, employed to sort and translate family documents, is taking time to look at some garments stored in an old chest.


The library held the ink and parchment records set down by men. But that was only half the story. Women talked to their daughters and granddaughters, weaving memories. If no living women remained, one might still learn something from what they had left behind: a garden planted in a certain pattern, a precious possession set away with careful hands, a gravestone for a beloved pet. And clothing. I did not know who had owned these gowns, these delicate undergarments, but perhaps they had something to tell me."

I thought that this particular article by Juliet Marillier had some things to say about creative families, and families in general, so was apt.  If you have not read her books, you're missing out.  You can find out more about those at: http://www.julietmarillier.com/   to read the continuation of this article the link is: http://gillpolack.livejournal.com/786322.html