The Crymson Flower

New Website

2007-07-02T20:21:00.000-05:00

It's finished, It's live!!! I'm soooo excited! Tonight I did some finishing touches, although I'm sure they aren't the last touches, to my website. www.crymsonflower.com. Mom and I have been working on it for months now, and I'm so excited that it's ready to be used regularly.

The new site has a blog built into it, so that means this will be my last blogger blog. Everyone who has me linked or bookmarked please change your links. I'm not deleting this blog b/c I did not upload the last two years of posts to the new site. So if ever you feel the need to read my old babblings this is the place to look.

other than that I'll see you on the new site!

my mermaid

2007-06-30T21:05:00.001-05:00

She's something a bit different from my usual wire and bead combos, but I was having the hardest time getting inspired to work today. I've been making leaves for the last two days that left me in a funk. The copper and sterling silver wire used in the mermaid was from the big order I mentioned a couple weeks ago. I've been playing with it in small doses slowly working it into flowers. Today I started curling some wire and it turned into her. I love her! She's pretty big, maybe about 7inches tall. She used up a lot of the sterling I had, but she's well worth it. Her tail is mostly turquoise with some coral, lapis chips mixed in. And her fin at the bottom are pieces of shell. I wanted her hair to be very funky and to really stand out from her more earthy toned tail. It's bright red, one cut seed beads, with some copper thrown in for sparkle. I also gave her a bit of a perm. The face was a little bit of a struggle to decide to use it or not. The wild hair almost doesn't quite fit with the peaceful face, but I imagine even the most wild of mermaids need to relax at some point. I have yet to name her, but will let you know when I find something acceptable.

a value???

2007-06-28T12:15:00.000-05:00

I've made the decision to submit Jamaican Sun to the Peoria Art Guild's Member's Exhibit. It was a hard decision to make, b/c Strawberry Plant is also very important to me. The best advice I was given on how to choose was by the curator of the event and she told me to pick my favorite....and she shrugged when I said they're both my favorites! Not that I feel the need to explain myself, but I feel that right now Jamaican Sun represents my more current work. So I now have two dilemmas... the first is although the piece is not for sale I have to mark a value on it. To me that's easy...it's priceless. I wouldn't sell it for any amount of money.
So then I started to try and think how much I would charge someone else if they wanted me to make them a bouquet... still not very easy. I found a number I wouldn't want to go under, that seemed fair. It's lower than what I'd put on mine but bouquets are very personal and would require a lot of one on one to make sure it's just right for the person....but this has digressed b/c the Exhibit doesn't want the value of a bouquet I'd make for someone else, it wants the value of Jamaican Sun.
Next I try another route to come up with a value...how much is a fresh flower wedding bouquet, and how much for the freeze drying/preservation so that the bouquet will last forever. I talked to a girl I know that was married a year and a half ago. Got a number $120 (2dozen roses), and she even was nice enough to describe my bouquet to her florist, and without seeing it got another number, $75. I did a good search and found that fresh flower bouquets can range from $60-500, with the average being between $80-150. Another google search found that freeze drying a bouquet would cost roughly $150. The high end of the average bouquet plus preservation is too low a number for Jamaican Sun, to me at least.
My final attempt to rationalize this decision was to look at what other people are pricing their flowers at. I found this girl's website www.naturesbeadedreflection.com I'd never seen this site until just this week. It's a really good site, her flowers are amazing, and priced for amazing work. Her prices make my prices seem cheap. Is my work equivalent to hers...I'm not really thinking so, but I don't think I'm far behind.
I guess I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around finding value. It's depends on how you think of this...is it art? that alone hikes the price up. Or is it craft and if so then maybe it shouldn't be in the gallery. Do you think business wise...what would someone or even I pay for this service? Or is it just some number that sounds good when it rolls off the tongue? Who makes these rules up and where do I fit in?

greens are out and about

2007-06-28T09:07:00.000-05:00

Last night for dinner Miranda and I went out for breakfast! I love breakfast food, and Chris is not such a huge fan. So we never have breakfast food other than sugar coated cereal in the house. It was soooo good, eggs, bacon, and hotcakes. =0) probably not too healthy but well worth a few calories.
Also after the encouragement to finish a few flowers completely, I dug out my green beads. Miranda helped string them onto wire, and I completed three large leaves, and have enough beads strung for another two leaves. I have two small bouquets that need lacing, and need a few smaller leaves. After that I'll have a couple more things to add to my completely finished pile! While playing with greens I found some colors that I hadn't seen in a while. And they clicked with an idea that I've been toying with for months. So I snuck in a couple small sparkly green leaves for the new project. I'm liking they way they look! This will be a large project, and I think I'm ready for another big one. I have lots of ideas for it, I just need to weed through them to see what is feasible.

Success!

2007-06-25T21:11:00.000-05:00

I just now flipped through the 500 plus photos I took of only like 6 pieces and I think I actually got some good ones. I'm not much of a photographer, in fact my philosophy on taking pictures is take as many as possible b/c that will increase the chances of getting at least one good one. So as soon as I get some computer time I should be able to go through the pics more thoroughly and put them in templates and upload. That will be a long day, and I'm hoping it'll happen some time this week.

Here's some pics of my latest and greatest. Well at least a flower that I'm very excited about. I started it last week, and finished it up over the weekend. It doesn't have leaves yet b/c I'm trying to decide whether it should stand alone or if I should come up with some smaller flowers and make it a bouquet.

I have a hard time photographing yellows. They tend to blow out the pic. I really love this flower though. I used the green dichroic glass rectangles I got from the B+B show, and the light green bugles were also purchased there. I finished lacing this puppy up so really it's just down to leaves or bouquet.... I'll have to sleep on it.

patience

2007-06-25T10:42:00.000-05:00

Although I have no pics to share I was very busy with my beads this weekend. I finished up the flower part of a flower I started last weekend. I finished up the flower of a brand new flower. And I made petals for 3 more flowers. I also worked on attempting to photograph my older finished pieces for the new site. With the Peoria Art Guild Member's Show fast approaching I'm wanting the new site to go live soon. So I had planned on taking pics Saturday morning and then putting them in templates Sunday and uploading. Well...mother nature had other plans. It rained all day and night Friday, and Saturday was so cloudy and muggy that everything stayed wet all day long. It rained again a bit early Sunday morning, so it didn't start to dry off enough to take photos until early afternoon Sunday. I took a bunch of pics, but I haven't sorted through them yet. We also bought a wireless router so that I can do my pics for the website upstairs so Chris won't have to stop recording, but we're going to probably have to patiently wait until Jed can come set everything up for us.

I do have lots to share, so I'm hoping tonight I'll take some more photos and be able to soon. I'm going to have to dig out my greens and crank out some leaves. I have several bouquets (small ones) lined up and I'm anxious to call them done. I'm really hoping that I'll enjoy working with the greens, b/c I have some really fun ideas and now I have the time to start on them. They all involve LOTS of leaves!

First Night of Summer

2007-06-22T14:00:00.001-05:00

Last night was the official first night of summer, although I think summer started a couple weeks ago when temps starting hitting the 90s. Last night was also our first really BIG storm in our house. It took a while for it to roll in, we'd been hearing distant thunder for a couple hours before the real storm actually hit. Around 10 at night it was full blast, so before we went to bed we stood on the deck and watched the lightning show. The sky was tinted red and the trees were all blowing in different directions. The lightning would strike and each rain drop would reflect the light of the lightning so that it looked as if it were raining thousands of diamonds. It was really amazing. I love storms. I remember as a kid staying up late every time there was a storm. My head was glued to my window that was under the bed and I would watch the lighting come closer and closer and then go farther and farther away. I loved when it would just barely rain in the window, and the sound of wet tires on the road when cars drove by. Last night I fell sound asleep to the sound of thunder and rain hitting the windows. I woke up once in the night around 4 to more thunder.
It's supposed to rain all weekend. Hopefully we'll get some more good storms.

ramble

2007-06-20T06:53:00.000-05:00

I got my orders when we returned from camping this weekend. The short story of camping was that it was in a really beautiful area of Illinois. We were in Savanna right on the Mississippi River. And it was HOT! Summer is definitely here. But we had a good time, we didn't do much, just hung around the campsite. Played frisbee and catch, I beaded a few flowers, and he worked on his music. Saturday afternoon it started to pour and thunder, and by early evening we decided to call it quits early. So when we got home I found my orders waiting for me.

I haven't taken any photos of my orders yet, but I was thrilled and nervous to get them. I immediately started playing with the wire. I bought an assortment of sizes of both sterling silver and copper wires. I think I need to place one more order just to get all the sizes I really do need, I just didn't realize I'd need them until I started to play. I also got my sheet metal and saw. The saw blades are tiny! I'm a little more nervous to start playing around with this. I think I need a little more of a game plan than what I have right now.

I did lots of beading over the weekend and so I hope to get to taking pics soon. As of now there aren't any huge plans for the weekend, so I think I'm going to spend some time retaking photos of my work for the new blog/website. I also want to work on some ideas I had with the wire.

which one?

2007-06-14T08:14:00.000-05:00

I received the application to the Member's Exhibit at the Peoria Art Guild. It's not really an application, because I submit one piece and it will be displayed. The Leo in me was a little disappointed that there won't be a jury at the exhibit, but at least this will be some exposure. The exhibit runs July 13th through Aug 25. I also can choose whether I want the piece to be up for sale or not. But that is a whole nother problem of pricing!
So now I have the hard choice of picking one piece. I've narrowed it down to three, all of which I've shown on here before.

Jamaican Sun, this was my wedding bouquet and is featured in the Your Work Gallery in this year's June issue of Bead and Button. This of course would not be up for sale.

Strawberry Pot, this is another one of my favorite pieces. I love this piece and could never sell it. It won third place in a bead contest at a local bead shop near Chicago.

Two Palms, is the newest piece of the two. It's different than my normal work, but I think it is a lot of fun. This piece I would sell, although I haven't a clue for how much. It took forever to make all that water.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

I've done it!

2007-06-13T15:43:00.000-05:00

Yep, that's right. After going to the Bead and Button show I was very excited, very inspired, and very ambitious. I sat down on my Mom's laptop that night and placed two orders to two different companies. I bought the general beginning tools needed for both wire work and small scale metal smithing. And I bought some sterling and copper wire, and copper and brass sheet metal. Earlier in the week I had bought a book about metalsmithing jewelry. No, I will not be making jewelry that I know of but I will be working in a similar scale. I have lots of ideas for oxidizing the metals and heating them to get different patinas. That's why I picked copper and brass, that and they're the cheapest to start off with. I really want to play with these new materials and incorporate them into my work. It'll be fun experimenting and learning new skills. I can't wait to see what I come up with. But first I must patiently wait by the door until they are delivered.

This weekend Chris and I are going to escape some craziness and go camping at the Mississippi Palisades State Park. My friend Pratt recommended it to us so we're really excited to get away just the two of us. He's bringing his guitar to play with and I'm bringing beads. I know it probably won't be the easiest thing beading while camping, but I'm going to try. If it doesn't work I recently borrowed a ton of books from Miranda that I'd like to read. I've fallen way behind on the list of books I wanted to read by the end of the year! We have plans to do a lot of hiking and a lot of relaxing. I can't wait!

Bead and Button Show 2007

2007-06-11T09:51:00.000-05:00

I can't believe I've waited this long to write a post about B+B!!! I've been busy though, playing with my goodies and this morning was a bit hairy for a while. But that's how life goes I guess. Mom and I left early to drive to Milwaukee, and got there before the doors opened. There was a pretty good crowd waiting for the doors to open and looking at the contestants and winners of the Bead Dreams contest. If you have never been to the B+B show before it is huge. Here are some pics of what you seen the second you walk through the double doors. Huge isn't even the right word, it's bigger than huge. Mom and I spent our first two hours in two rows of the show. We hadn't even made it to the center of the room yet! After two hours we took a lunch break and made a new game plan to step up our pace. =0) but really we both did the majority of our shopping during those first two hours.

It wasn't too terribly crowded this year which was nice. When we went in 2004 I remember the room being very hot and having to really weave through people to get to booths or even down the isles. There were wonderful walls of sparkling Swarovski crystals, here's a pic of one from the Beyond Beadery booth. the pic didn't turn out any where near as cool as it looked with all the lights reflection on the thousands of crystals hanging on the wall.
One of my favorite booths was Osiris beads. I have them linked on my blog and I bought a lot from her in 04 at the B+B show. Her selection of Czech seed beads as tripled! She had TONS of hanks in every size. 8s through 15's. I couldn't believe the amount of 15's she had. And I've never seen 15s in hank form. Unfortunately I don't use wire thin enough for 15's, but I did buy some hanks of 13s and my standard 11s. It's really hard not to go crazy when you see walls of beads like this. This was just one corner of they're huge booth. She easily had 6 walls FULL of hanks of seed beads just like this. I kept grabbing hanks and then putting them back, I had to keep reminding my self to grab the most unusual ones because I can always buy standard reds and blues through the Internet.

Ok, now for the good stuff....the bounty! Here are the pics of both Mom and my purchases...

This is Mom's pile. She did really well. She really wanted to get some unusual stuff and to get enough stuff for a couple bracelet projects. I think she ended up with ideas for several projects. There's some silver in there, the red stones to the left are carnelian from Africa, lampwork from a couple different artists. The purple round looking stones are star cut rough ruby. That was really our prize and we both got some.

Here is my pile of the seed beads and the bit of wire I got. The 13's are Charlotte's and they are the copper, bronze, black hanks on the left. The rest are random colors that caught my eye and are size 11. The seed beads in tubes came from Out on a Whim. I enjoyed they're stuff a lot and will order from them again in the future.

And here is my pile of treasures. I found some face cabs from Earthenwood Studio that I just loved. I can't wait to play around with them. The darker one is already talking to me, so I think I know where I'll go with that one. The string of shell on the left and the green dichroic glass I already have plans for as well. The others are cabs and my string of the ruby's. You can also see a closer up pic of the rubys. I was trying to show the star cut in them. When light hits them directly it will reflect back in a star shape. If you enlarge the pic you can kinda see it in the bottom stones.

the plan

2007-06-07T21:11:00.000-05:00

Here are some not so great photos of Miranda's flowers. I took them in her dark apartment during wine night, so the flash kinda blew out some of the pinks. These were fun flowers to make, I hadn't worked with pink a lot and I think these came out with a lot of personality. I actually wrapped these two flowers separate, they are too very individual flowers that I had a hard time fitting together. Although I do really like how they look together. The center of the daisy are pearls, and the center of the lily are copper seed beads... a new favorite item of mine. They were for Miranda's birthday and I hope she enjoys them.

Today after work I head up to my folk's house. Traffic will be horrendous more so than usual b/c they've closed down a main drag of road about a half hour from home. So after 3.25 hours of driving I'll have to sit in another 45min of traffic instead of being home in 15min. blah. BUT tomorrow morning Mom and I will be heading to the Bead and Button show in Milwaukee. That's only about an hour drive from Mom's, so we'll arrive with lots of energy, and leave like zombies!!! It'll be great! I've printed out the layout of the vendor's and highlighted the ones I definitely want to hit. (I'm going in more prepared that I ever expected)

Here's my list of things I want to look for while there....its a little ambitious =0)

Check out three booths to be possible new seed bead suppliers...WhimBeads, Beyond Beadery, and Fusion Beads. has anyone ever ordered from them before??
Look for a vendor/buy sterling and copper wire in various sizes...also possibly a few wire tools
drool over Rings n Things goodies
Wander over to the Bead Dreams contestants and see the Lone Beader's work on display, as well as the rest of the artists
I want to find some unique polymer clay face cabs
Check out Dora Schubert's and Ellen Black's lampwork
see as many other booths and beads as possible!!! does anyone have any suggestions as to vendor's that are a must see that are not on my list?

I will post pics of the show and any goodies I buy next week. Have a great weekend!

trying to be mommy

2007-06-07T21:04:00.000-05:00

Another pic of Willow from yesterday, it's a bit blurry, but you can see the eggs under her. She was protecting them from me and the camera. She puffed up real big and slowly swayed from side to side. Although she'll still let me pet her etc. She gets real defensive when Chris is near by....she'll open her wings and make funny squaking sounds.

motherhood?

2007-06-07T06:35:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I've shown a pic of Willow. She's had quite an exciting week. Monday we came home from work to find that Willow has laid an egg! In fact as of this morning she has two. They are not fertile eggs b/c she doesn't know any other cockatiels. So I guess I'm the poppa. ;0) Here is a picture of her playing mother to her two little eggs.

a sign???

2007-06-06T07:10:00.000-05:00

For some reason work made me grouchy yesterday, this doesn't really surprise me b/c it's not hard to do sometimes. Especially when it is a perfect spring day outside and you know it's one of the last ones until next year. So when I left work I had the plan to go home and bead in order to lift my spirits.
We get home and I remember I'm really low on wire, so suck it up and decide to brave the traffic and drive up to the craft store. I picked up a basket b/c I had every intention of stocking up on wire, and I strolled into the floral section. To my complete dismay the wire that I buy is gone. Not just sold out, but there's not even a section for it any more. They have a new kind of wire there now, in various sizes, but it's all green. I grabbed a roll of it for leaves, and headed to craft store number two. Craft store number two is closer to me but they don't normally carry the gauge I like to use. No luck here either. I know so you're all just thinking well go home and google it, sucks to pay shipping but thats life. The base wire I use is cheap, I know, but I have worked with it for so long that I know how it feels and I've learned how to manipulate it. There isn't a brand name on this paddle wire, the only thing I know about it is that it is made in China.
In a last ditch effort I went to the hardware store and asked if they had 24gauge steel wire. I was escorted to the section for hanging pictures, and shown some wire. It's definitely 24gauge, but doesn't seem as stiff as my made in China wire. Tired, and even more grouchy I bought 24 and 22 gauge spools, and headed home. Chris cheered me up, we went out for dinner, and then watched Deadliest Catch.
Now I'm stuck, I can either troubleshoot a new wire and see if it is up to par. If not I'll have to find another replacement. OR forget this style all together and dive head first into my new, definitely more expensive, but oh the possiblities ideas I've had lately. Is this a sign to upgrade my work and focus on the new stuff 100%. Or is it a sign to give up the ideas of art fairs that have been the other thought flowing through my head lately. I guess I could take either sign, I'm just not sure which one I'm brave enough to do.

weekend

2007-06-05T07:32:00.000-05:00

This weekend was a lot of fun. Saturday morning Mom and Dad drove down to see the house, and I think they really liked it. They hadn't seen it since right after we closed and were helping us rip out carpet. If you saw the place then and now, you'd barely believe it. I guess I hadn't really thought of it until they came down, and I know that we've been busy, but we really accomplished a lot. It's weird to say that b/c there are still so many more, really kinda big projects that we want to do. But to keep from going crazy we've decided to take a few weeks off from working on the house.

Chris has been really into writing music lately, and I picked up my beads again this weekend. As of yesterday I have the petals done for three and a half new flowers. I've been really distracted lately and it's mostly due to my flowers. I have plans, and I'm hoping I'll have time to work on them. I'm hoping even more that my plans are actually feesible and I'll end up with some really awesome flowers. Thats all I'm going to say now until I am able to place a few orders and get to experimenting.

The Junction City Art Fair was a fun one to go to. It was fun to know all the artists are from around the area. It was not very big, only 50 artist. It took Mom and me only an hour to walk through the entire thing. We saw a girl making jewelry that was selling really well. Her stuff was wirework and gemstones, very pretty. We also saw an amazing glass artist, he was fun to talk to and had some really amazing vases and paperweights. I'm thinking I need to look at a calendar and see if I can make it up to Chicago to check out some more art fairs this summer and fall.

Big Sky in Illinois

2007-06-02T08:45:00.001-05:00

About a year ago I went to Big Sky Country to see my cousin get married, and came back wondering why IL didn't have anywhere close to the Big Skyness MT has. It's amazing, as soon as you step off the airplane and look at the sky, the first sound outta your mouth is "awwwwwww." The sky is huge and goes on forever. Even when its cloudy it seems huge. It really didn't make immediate sense to me because IL is relatively flat, and where I am it's mostly corn and soybean fields. You would think with out the mountains the sky here would seem infinite. I discussed this with another cousin from IL who came to see the wedding and we decided that the mountains must provide a scale to the sky, b/c we know the mountains are gigantic, and we can climb/touch them. The sky obviously is much higher than the mountains and so that must be what gives Big Sky Country its effect.
Last night we went to go visit a friend of ours that recently moved to their first house. But they moved out in the middle of no where IL. About half way there we were joking that they must have become farmers, b/c that is all that was around us for miles. I looked up and there was the Big Sky that was so abundant in MT. It was beautiful and rare around here. It went away when we reached our friends house, I think mostly b/c the trees were hiding it. But it is nice to know that I can find it here in my part of the world.

Art Fair

2007-06-01T07:12:00.000-05:00

This weekend is the Junction City art fair here in Peoria. It's a really small fair consisting of 50 artists that live within a 100 mile radius of Peoria. Mom and Dad are coming down to see the house tomorrow, and then Mom and I are going to check out the fair. We're going to scope it out to see if my flowers would fit in. If life follows the right path I think this would be a good fair to start with, small and local. After the fair we're going back to our place for a cookout dinner and hanging out.

In a week I'll be headin up North to go to the Bead and Button show. We keep trying to formulate a plan so that we'll look for everything we want to look for. And that we won't forget anything. But I have a feeling once we walk in the doors we're going to loose all sense of organization and just dive head in. What ever happens I'm looking forward to it.

Tuesday I got in a bit of beading. Chris and I watched Casino Royal, the first Bond movie I've ever watched. I liked it ok, it was kinda like I thought a Bond movie would be like. It was just nice to watch a semi new movie again. Anyway I made up some funky petals, I'm not real sure what they'll turn into yet, but the color combo is a lot of fun.

Random update

2007-05-29T07:03:00.000-05:00

Here is one more photo of Chicago from two weeks ago. This was taken from the BP Bridge it is not the full sky line but it's still pretty cool. This is actually about 6 photos and then Mom went into photoshop and lined them all up for me.

And this photo is from last weekend when we finally got up to see Jon and Theresa's new apartment. It had been over 7 months since we'd last spent time with them, so we had a lot to catch up on. Their apartment was awesome and we had a lot of fun. These were the beer samplers we ordered from Brass Brewery. Their beers were really very good. The AnyTime Amber and the Hunter's Wheat were my favs.

This weekend was a much needed holiday weekend that we spent at home. June is just around the corner and looking back on the past 6 months or even year its been quite a roller coaster. This weekend we worked on the house a lot, and even though there's still a ton to do I feel like we accomplished the big things that had been bugging us for a while. The new chandelier is up, and though we had to do it twice it was definitely worth the trouble. Pictures are up so the place looks nice and cozy. Saturday we went to Bloomington and got some fun shelves, and checked out the Dude's new place. We cleaned out the guest room so our weekend guests have space to sleep. New sheets and quilt finally made it on the bed. I found time to bead! I actually made time to bead b/c I have been working on flowers for Miranda and her birthday was this weekend, so that got finished. I stripped the wood on the stairs to start the process to make it match the railing. and some how I found time to knock two movies off the list with Miranda.
As crazy as life has been lately, I feel now that the important things, the big things are done for now. And I hope we have more time to relax, or at least for me to bead!
I do plan on stealing Miranda's flowers back temporarily to get a few photos to post.

gardens

2007-05-22T20:22:00.000-05:00

Tonight was a glorious night of gardening. It's amazing how giddy i was leaving work just to go home and work outside. And I worked. Chris came out and helped me move some hosta around, and dug some holes.
This is the rock garden in my front yard. It's a big rock garden, it's actually most of my front yard. The black rock are big lava rocks that are super sharp to touch. The green in between them is sedum and hens and chicks growing around the rock. I really like this look and to help the sedum along tonight i put 2 and a half bags of top soil inbetween all the rocks. I also planted some different sedums amoung the rocks too for some variation.
This garden was the one that I worked on last Monday. This entire area was over grown something or other, it was quite a job to remove it. And really there's more to the right that still needs to be dug out. I also laid the brick out, not all that well, but it works. The orange is a poppy, the purple is a relative of sage, behind that is a coneflower, some brown eyed susans, and a columbine.
This garden is under the deck, so its shady. We did this one today. The rock is more lava rock, but i'm not sure if it's real. It goes down several inches making it a pain to dig in. We planted two astilbees, a bleeding heart, phlox, and transplanted some hosta.

And this was my reward after all our hard work. mmmmmmmm

Chicago and the Art Institute

2007-05-16T21:40:00.000-05:00

Friday morning we left for Chicago around 9ish. It has been years since I've gone into the city. I'm not sure why, maybe b/c I'm not comfortable driving in the city, especially now that I'm use to silly Peoria traffic. But thats a dumb excuse. It doesn't matter, b/c although I don't go into the city a lot, I still do love it. I'll always be a Chicago fan.

Here is the approaching Chicago skyline. We left late enough that traffic really didn't get bad until we were downtown. And even that was just normal city traffic. We found out the hard way that Washington St. was closed. So we took Monroe to Michigan Ave. instead. Monroe was very narrow and very stop and go. Here is a shot looking up at one of the many tall shiny buildings in the city. Here is the front of the Chicago Institute of Art. The flags hanging are advertising the exhibit we saw. I should have really zoomed out so you could see the steps coming up to the front doors. It is really a grand building, from the outside and inside.

These guys are my favorites. Here is one of the two bronze lions that stand guard in front of the Art Institute. Whenever a Chicago sports team makes the playoffs they often wear uniforms to support the team. I believe just this past winter they had on Bear's helmets.

Inside the Art Institute was amazing. It's just room after room of original works of art. And all different sorts of art, Asian art wing had lots of statues and sculptures, the African wing looked interesting too. We quickly walked through a hall that had lots of suits of armor, chain mail, and swords. We spent some time in the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist collection. We saw numerous paintings by Monet. I have never really enjoyed his work, the prints just all seem the same to me, but after really looking at the originals in person I really liked it. I still like his tree paintings more than the waterlily ones he's so famous for. We also saw Georges Seurat's Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, and many others. We walked through many rooms and found that each room was new with new pieces. The place is so big and so easy to get lost, but very awe inspiring as well.

The exhibit itself was very busy. Lots of people in little rooms, makes for lots of heat. Despite that and the very full benches it was a very interesting exhibit. If ever anyone goes to the special exhibit, it's definitely worth the extra 6 bucks to get the headphones. That way you don't have to fight to read the plaques over everyone else's heads.
Ambroise Vollard was an art collector and dealer of the Avant-Garde. So every piece we saw in the exhibit had at one time or another been in his hands or his collection. We actually got to see a wide variety of different artists. We learned about his relationships with the artists, and which ones trusted him and and which didn't like him at all. Cezanne and Renoir had friendships with Vollard, while Gauguin, distrusted him. We saw pieces by Van Gogh, Picasso, the artists mentioned before, and many others that the names didn't stick with me. The was the first time I'd really seen Renior and Picasso paintings and sculpture. My favorite Renior was On the Terrace, and his sculptures. Picasso was really interesting to see, I like how his style of cubism correlates with the lines in peoples faces. It was very different from the rest of the work in the exhibit. My fav of his on display was the Old Guitarist. It also mentioned something I thought was kinda funny, a comment Picasso had made. Vollard by this time was a rich man, and a famous art dealer, many artists painted his portrait to get on his good side. While Picasso painted Vollard's portrait he made the comment, that the most beautiful woman didn't have as many pictures painted of her as Vollard did. He may of had a point, many of the painting in the exhibit were portraits of Vollard.
There were not too many Van Gogh paintings here, Vollard dealt with Van Gogh early in his career, and Van Gogh paintings really didn't start selling until after Van Gogh died. Van Gogh is my favorite, I love his tree paintings, particularly his Olive Trees. I really enjoy the colors he uses and how you can see the strong paint strokes. You can almost see his mood based on the strokes. Some times they are very calculated and each stroke is perfect, and others it was almost like he was angry and frustrated b/c the strokes are everywhere and deep.
Anyway, I highly recommend any exhibit or excuse to visit the Art Institute. It's an awesome experience.

Millennium Park

2007-05-15T21:36:00.000-05:00

Our first stop in Chicago last Friday was Millennium Park. It is right next store to the Art Institute and I had not been there since they first started construction. Chicago has a lot of famous old art and architecture around the city, well Millennium park is filled with new art and architecture and really it's just as cool. The piece I wanted to see the most is the one I always here about, Cloud Gate, or more commonly called, the Bean. Actually I don't know where I first heard it called the bean but I'm not sure how common that is in Chicago! Doesn't matter b/c Cloud Gate is very very cool. It's huge with a 12ft high arch in the middle you can walk through. It's made of highly polished stainless steal plates that are forged together seamlessly by a British artist named Anish Kapoor. This is his first public outdoor piece on display in the US. I think what I really find most fascinating is that he was inspired by liquid mercury, and thinking about that while looking at your reflection and the reflection of the city, it's really amazing. I took a lot of reflection pictures of Cloud Gate, and here are a few of them...

City sky line reflections in the Bean. I had another cooler one of these but some how I deleted it, I'll have to get it off my computer at home.

Here we are taking pictures of ourselves in the bean. You can see that the bean gets quite dirty, I had heard at one time that several times a day people have to come and clean it off. All the kids there just loved putting their little hands all over it.

The next stop we made was to see the Jay Pritzker Pavilion. Now this was really cool, just looking at it made me want to see a concert here. Theres a really elaborate design of metal around the stage and then steel pipes criss cross over the stadium all the way over the grassy area. And from these pipes dozens of speakers are hanging down. The dude was here about a year ago and a jazz band was rehearsing, he said the sound system was really cool. This is where the Grant Park Music Festival takes place as well as other free concerts.

From here we walked over the BP Bridge. Really it's kinda hard to take pictures of this, but if you follow the link there is a better over head pic. And after that we walked through the Lurie Garden. Here b/c the temps haven't gotten too hot yet, tulips were still blooming, and lots of other pretty flowers were showing off their colors. By this time we were getting hungry and anxious to see the Art Institute. On our walk to Bennigans we stopped by one final place in the park, The Crown Fountain. This is really an interesting piece. It consists of two glass brick towers that are fountains. There is a constant flow of water coming down on all sides of the towers. The towers stand maybe 50ft apart, and on the sides facing each other are faces of Chicago citizens projected on a LED screen. These faces are animated and wink at each other and smile. Every now and then they'll close their eyes and pucker their lips as if to blow, and water will actually come out where their lips are puckered. This piece was designed by Spanish artist, Jaume Plensa. What I like most about this is the faces. They are all Chicago residents, to me, this is really cool. And means a lot that people actually living in the city are apart of a now famous piece of art.

who do i sound like?

2007-05-15T07:20:00.000-05:00

Mom's going to get a kick out of this.... so this weekend for our annual Mother's day tradition Mom and I brought Gram out to the house and we went to a few nurseries to pick up some pretty flowers. Now that I have a yard I can plant in it took a bit longer b/c I got to buy a bunch of flowers too. After that I went and raided Mom's yard. She had split up her daffodil bulbs, so I took a bunch of those. And then we split some brown eyed susans, and cone flowers, and I took a columbine.
Well Peoria I about 10degrees hotter than Chicagoland. and when then flowers were out of the ground for the day yesterday they looked kinda sad. Right after work I headed up to the hardware store and bought a shovel, loppers, rake, and some other yard tools. Got home and went to work. Of course it wasn't just a matter of sticking the flowers into the ground, I had to clear out the garden where I wanted to put them. So I cut down a small spindly tree, dug out a bunch of weird mystery bulb that resembles grass, and some sedum. Of course while digging out these plants I'm encountering rocks, and odd chunks of metal in the dirt. I find myself sitting in the middle of the now semi bare garden on my butt going thru the dirt pulling out roots and rocks.
I get up and realize I need to add some soil to my now sunken garden, so back out to the hardware store for three bags of top soil. By now its 730 at night, so we stop and grab a sandwich to bring home for dinner. I pour three bags of soil into my garden, quickly plant up the susans, coneflower, poppy, sage, and columbine. Do a watering of my new flower bed plus the annuals I'd planted Sunday night, and the rest of the perennials that need to be planted later this week. By the time I finish it is well past dark, I think Chris said 830. I ate my sandwich and basically passed out.
I knew I enjoyed gardening, but I didn't ever think I had it in me like Gram does. She enjoys her gardening so much. We worry about her constantly, but she has to garden. I guess I learned from a pro.
I have lots of pictures from Friday's trip into the city. I just haven't had time to put them on the computer and resize. I will get them up soon.

holding back

2007-05-11T07:45:00.000-05:00

I made it to Chicago in just over 4 hours yesterday. Cripes, it should really be a 3-3.5 hour trip, but if you live near a major city you know there are two seasons regarding traffic....winter and construction seasons. It's really bad when they overlap!
Last night was a night of wine and chatting. Catching up, showing off beads and art pieces. Seeing all the new things around the house, and finally relaxing on the deck until way past dark. I got to see what we have so far for the banner to my new blog. I'm very very excited about it. It looks amazing, and just what I had pictured.
But really what I'm holding back on is this....This week while surfing some new blogs I found Robin Atkins blog, Bead Lust. Robin is a amazing bead artist that has written at least one book and her work is often featured in magazines and books. She has organized a bead journal project. The basic idea is that you bead embroider a piece for your personal bead journal, and you do one piece a month. To me that sounds like a huge challenge. I have done bead embroidery and really enjoyed it. I've even been recently getting the itch to do some lately (probably why this sounds so intriguing to me.) But this would be a huge commitment. Bead embroidery with me is usually planned out, at least to more of an extent than flowers. I've put some thought into joining this group and seeing what I come up with, but I'm afraid that if I do one of two things will happen... I will actually commit and finish the challenge, but I will no longer have time to make flowers and take my flowers in the direction I've been planning to take them for the past 6 months. or I will find it too demanding and will end up dropping out of the project or even worse, both. So I think I choose my flowers, and an experimental mode that I have planned out. I am hoping to maybe start my small embroidery project b/c it is already semi planned. I definitely have enough in my head to keep my beady hands busy.
In an hour we leave for the city to see the Cézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde exhibit. Should be fun and fill with inspiration!!

upon a busy weekend

2007-05-09T07:49:00.000-05:00

The weather is getting warmer and we are already well into May, its the season for more trips up to Chicago and more plans over the weekends. Early May has always been a time I head home, Mom's birthday falls in early May but I never seem to get up there until mother's day weekend. So tomorrow after work I'll drive up for a three day weekend with the family. To celebrate the birthday this year we're taking a trip into Chicago and visiting the Chicago Art Institute. There is an exhibit there called Cézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde, that we plan on checking out. About five years ago we went down to the Art Institute and saw the Van Gogh exhibit, it was amazing. They give you headphones that tell the history of the painter or the painting. So I'm very excited to see this exhibit. It is the last weekend they are having it, so we got very lucky. After the exhibit we'll probably have lunch and then I want to wander over and see Millennium Park. I haven't seen it since it has been finished, but when I worked at the Arboretum we would take trips down and look at the trees. Apparently my boss had helped select the trees to plant in a least a section of the park. And then we would go down there and treat some older trees. I'm really excited to check out the Art on display there. Cloud Gate looks amazing and I can't wait to see it in person.
Saturday Grandma will come over and we'll visit some local plant and flower shops. I want to get some perennials for our yard, and Grandma has to get her fix on annuals. After that I'm hoping we'll spend the rest of the day on Mom's deck, looking at her wire work and playing with beads. We also have to get in some time to work on the website...its been a while since I've mentioned it, but it's in the works.
The following weekend we come back up to Chicago to see Chris' folks, and then go visit Jon and Theresa. It has been months and months since we've seen them, so I'm very excited to finally have planned a trip. Things are picking up and getting busy, and I'm excited for it all!

beads are back

2007-05-07T06:22:00.000-05:00

Thursday and Friday of last week I started to organize and unpack the bead room! I still have a long way to go, mostly b/c a lot of the boxes are filled with books, both bead and non bead related. But the book shelf they were on at the apartment was falling apart, so we need to get a new one soon. But I did dig out my beads and put them in an accessible place. I also dug out my stock of flowers and set them out to inspire and remind me of what I have. I took a photo of the flowers to the right, I finished these in March, right before things got crazy with house stuff. The center of the yellow flower is actually a rhinestone from an old pin. You can't tell from the pic, but it is very sparkly.

Saturday morning Chris and I painted, we did touch ups in the living room and on the dreaded red wall. In the afternoon, I took a drive out to Bloomington to meet Shelley and check out her bead store The Bead Parlor. And man was I impressed. First of all it's a great set up, in downtown Bloomington. Just a fun layout to the store, but her selection is different. It's really hard to find a store that sells different things. She doesn't have a ton of stuff, but she has different stuff. Some very higher end gemstones, fancy vintage Swarovski crystals, silver beads from Thailand, real lampwork, wonderful displays of finished pieces. She had some really awesome buttons, and even the glass beads you can buy individually were some really different shapes. She had a kinda small seed bead section, although she did say her dream was to line a whole wall with them. Her colors were different so I picked up a few tubes. What was really cool was that she had size 15's! The dark red and black seeds are 15s. And the copper and silver tubes are real copper and sterling silver seed beads!!! I couldn't resist, so I called mom to see if she'd want some and go halves with me. They are amazing! I just love holding even just the tube, its a great weight. Mom wants to try and make the pattern for the bangle Shelley had published in the magazine. After holding the tube for a while I came up with a really fun idea for the silver beads too. That would definitely require more silver beads! And some sterling silver wire...oooh the possibilities! Anyway, I was very impressed by this small bead shop, and inspired. I went home that night and made my first flower in over a month! I really enjoyed meeting Shelly, she loved my bouquet and showed it off for me to others in her store. Then she even photographed it and will put the pic on her website along with my email. I really do look forward to visiting again.
Sunday was a work day, we painted all day. Well, Chris was hit by the music bug, he got lucky and ran out of paint and he was having so much fun writing music that he worked on it all night! I painted the kitchen and the last wall in the dining area. Yeay! painting is mostly done, at least for now. Miranda came over that evening for dinner and wine. We were supposed to watch a movie from our list, but ended up watching Spider Man 2 and then some tv. Oh yeah, we have cable again! and internet. We're now officially connected to the world.

B+B

2007-05-02T08:29:00.000-05:00

I'm in, it's in, my wedding bouquet, Jamaican Sun is on page 36 of the June issue of Bead and Button!!!! This is the first time anything I've beaded has been published!!! It's really a good issue to be in too. It's the issue that comes out right before the B+B show, and so they have a list of advertisers that will be in their bead marketplace and what booth numbers they have. It's taking all my self restraint not to look up each vendor to decide if I need to stop by their booth! Oh, did I mention Mom and I are going to the B+B show this year???

I'm really excited about it. We went in 2004 and it was a ton of fun. Very overwhelming, as there are tons of booths, everything is worthy of staring at for a while. They have vendors that sell every kind of bead under the moon, and they also have artists there that display and sell their work. One of the articles in this issue talks about the work of a couple ladies..., Dora and Elizabeth. Their work is absolutely amazing and I'm excited to say they have a booth at the show. I will definitely be stopping by that one. I would LOVE to have one of their rings or bangles.

A couple weeks ago I received my first email from having Jamaican Sun in the mag... it was from a lady named Shelley who is from Bloomington which is only about 45min from me. She designed the metal bangle seen on the top right of the cover page. How cool to be in contact with other beaders in the area! She has a bead shop in Bloomington called the Bead Parlor, that looks really cute. She sells precious metal seed beads!!! I've never seen that before, that's really amazing. I'm hoping to get up there and meet her and see her shop sometime soon.

Back to my bouquet... it is pictured in the Your Work Gallery in the mag along with several other interesting pieces. I was a little disappointed that they didn't include the name of my piece, but it was an editorial decision made by B+B, and it is their mag. What I did think was really cool, was that the first time my work has ever been published it is also published with the The Divas made by the Lone Beader. She occasionally comments on my blog, and I follow her's daily. I love her work am humbled that my work would be displayed in the same section as hers. What's even more interesting is that last year I bought two bangles from a lampwork artist named Kerry that I really admire. I never have done that before, randomly emailing someone and buying their work, but I was extremely happy with what she's come up with. Since then her work and style have evolved into more jewelry and modern bead look. I follow her blog off and on, but was pleasantly surprised to see that her necklace, Silver Lining, also appears in the your work gallery.

With all this talk about the B+B show and excitement of being in the magazine, I can't wait to get my hands on my beads again. I think organizing the new bead room is starting to get higher on the list!

back to school

2007-04-30T15:27:00.000-05:00

Friday was the day of Chris' seminar....I don't think I've mentioned it before. But months ago back when we were planning the wedding a professor from Western Illinois University that Chris keeps in contact with asked him to give a talk to the Bio students. We postponed it due to wedding stress...and who'd have thought it landed right in the middle of moving stress!
So Friday we took an official government vehicle and drove to Macomb. It was kinda weird going back, I'd been back before to visit Jed, but I hadn't walked campus since graduation. It was a beautiful day, so we walked up to the Union and I bought a new hoodie. Then down to Waggnor hall. It was really weird going in to the hall, but then more natural once I was in the lecture room. Kinda funny how natural it was to sit in those tiny little desks listening to a lecture.
Chris did great! I am so proud of him! His talk went for about 40min and there was time for QandA. He joked and people laughed, he explained very complicated topics extremely well. And he had the guts to do it all! He talked about work mostly, the two different projects he'd worked on here. And then he went into a little bit of the tips and tricks he used to get a job. And if someone wanted to come and work at the lab, how to go about it.
After the talk we went to lunch with a few professors. One was the professor I did my honors research, and the other was the prof that Chris keeps in contact with. It was pretty cool b/c in reality of all my teachers I learned the most from those two people. It was even more fun to not have the student teacher relationship there anymore and I got to see that they were in fact people. and had senses of humor! It was really fun to sit around and talk research, and a the differences between researching at a college and researching in a gov facility. I know sounds completely dorky, but hey we're science nerds. I think our professors were really happy that we landed jobs doing what they taught us. I know I'm happy about it, b/c when they were teaching me I was thinking that's what I wanna do.
After lunch we briefly stopped by Jed's room to say hey and pick up some of his stuff. Then back home. Later that night we met up with the Tanners at BWW to celebrate, and enjoy some beer's in the beer garden.
The rest of the weekend was spent finishing unpacking the kitchen. We've gotten to the point where we need to find a piece of furniture to store my pans...so we did a lot of shopping around. We cleaned out the apartment and wiped it down really good. Yesterday we turned in the keys so that is officially done. The house is coming together really wonderfully. We're discussing furniture now, and we need to finish up painting. But we'll get to it all sooner or later.

mom was right

2007-04-26T12:27:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was another one of those mom was right days, although I haven't told her yet. =) After the whole shower rod ordeal I had called her to vent, and for probably the fifth time she stressed to me that things will seem so much better once the kitchen was unpacked. And that I need to make unpacking and organizing the kitchen a priority. So yesterday after work we headed to the apartment to pack up the remaining kitchen stuff (although we still had to leave some behind). And once we got home I immediately started on the kitchen. I cut out contact paper for the cabinets that I had the stuff to fill. And I unpacked our plates and most of our glasses. I unpacked all the food we had in boxes. We don't have very many cabinets so unpacking and organizing has taken some thought. But I feel that right now I have a game plan. I really probably only finished maybe a third of the kitchen, but i really felt great. Like such an accomplishment, and like we can live a bit more normally now.

It's funny but the plates and glasses looked so pretty all organized and clean in their cabinets. Tonight I will work on it some more and I hope to finish up the kitchen by the end of the weekend. I also hope to start cooking real food again. For a week now we've been doing take out and fast food, and my stomach is done with it. I'm craving some veggies and a grilled chicken breast.

oh, and this morning I took my first shower in our house, and it was wonderful. I'm soooo very glad we decided to retile the shower area. And the new shower head feels great. I do need to get that curtain sewn up, I feel like anyone out back can see way more than I want them too!

a skill

2007-04-25T08:45:00.000-05:00

there is a skill out there, that many people have. to me it is almost an art, to see something and know what to do and what tool to use to put something together. or maybe it is genetic, a handy gene? either way, Chris and I don't have it. After a wonderful break from working on the house Monday, yesterday we went back to it. Straight after work we went to a few stores to pick up some new items for the house...ie a shower curtain, something for the window in the shower, and a new garbage can. We have yet to shower in our new bathroom, b/c of the tile drying and now it's b/c we don't have a curtain up. That was my mission for yesterday.
someone thought a window in the shower area was a good idea, that someone was probably the same person that thought gluing paper to a wall is smart too. so for now to protect the not so water proof window I'll be making a mini shower curtain to cover it. Now while I'm showering I'm not a big fan of actually touching the curtains, they tend to stick to wet skin. My genius idea was to get one of those curtain rods that curve to give the showerie more room. i thought it was brilliant!
so last night i get out my handy phillips head, tape measure, pencil and level. Assemble the rod as instructed, mark out spots to drill into the wall to mount the now level rod. b/c where we want the rod does not have stud behind it I'm supposed to use mounter thingys (possibly called mollys, but were different than any other "molly" I'd seen before). I followed the instructions exactly, I could not for the life of me get that damn molly to drill into the wall. I had a started hole going, but the molly is twice the size of the started hole, it is plastic and would twist instead of drilling into the wall. Frustrated and tired and mad beyond belief (keep in mind I'm balancing on the edge of a tub while performing my handy skills) i had Chris try... no luck...he hooks it into his drill...damn piece of plastic would not screw into the wall. This should not be this hard...how is this hard. all i want to do is put up a shower rod so I can hang my new curtain and take a shower!
I think what is more frustrating than anything else is that I know this wouldn't be a problem for someone with the skill. the handy gene. I know lots of people with it. I even know that with time, practice, a book, and the right tools, I could at least have more handy skill than I have now. But I think that was just the last straw, I packed up all the parts of the rod, went out in the pouring rain and returned my brilliant rod. I exchanged for a cheaper no frills rod. But I did get my curtain hung....mission accomplished.

on another note, it was sure nice to see our first lightning storm from the house. Had we not been exhausted we would have stayed up to watch the light show. Instead we went to bed, and woke up at least 4 times in the night to thunder, and the should of rain smashing against the windows. But if we're not going to sleep well...I'd rather not sleep well with a storm.

House flowers

2007-04-22T12:00:00.000-05:00

Last night was our first night at the house. We still can't shower there b/c of the new tile, so while Chris was off at the apartment showering I went outside to check out my flowers. The top pic is of some sort of fancy Narcissus plant. Its a bit too small to be a daffodil, plus all the daffodils are done right now. I only have a few of these blooms that survived the freeze a week ago.
The mystery plants that were coming up by the Narcissus are looking like they are some sort of Hosta. I have a lot of these, and I think I need to move a lot around. Some are too close to the grass line and may not last another mowing! I guess I need to think about some rearranging.

These next two photos are of another mystery plant that I still am not sure what it is. I have probably 5 or 6 of them around the yard and some even have buds on them. It'll be a real surprise when they bloom. Anyone have any thoughts as to what this is?
and this last pic is one of the very few apple blossoms that made it thru the freeze. The pear trees look awful with all their blossoms black and shriveled. The apple looks a bit better with some flowers here and there.

House

2007-04-22T11:49:00.000-05:00

Ok so here is a quick post to do a quick recap of the million things that have been completed during our long weekend. The tile in the bathroom is done. We can now actually officially say that the whole bathtub area was redone, b/c they had to replace all the walls with the correct backerboard. And b/c well, we pulled out most of the wall with the tile. Friday we painted and painted and painted. Two coats are on all the walls in the living room. The dining room is mostly done, with the exception of one wall. Kitchen still needs paint. and we might put a third coat of red on just because.
Jed had come down Friday, and Saturday we moved almost all of our stuff to the house. It was a lot of work and we couldn't have done it with out Jed. He and Chris are pictured above enjoying our first meal at the house, that Chris cooked on the grill. mmmmm, steaks! The top pic is of me enjoying the new railing. It's so pretty.
Today I feel lazy but Chris has already started unpacking. The second pic below is what our basement looks like right now. yep that's all our crap! We need to weed thru all that to unpack. Ugh!

boxes everywhere

2007-04-18T09:00:00.000-05:00

After work yesterday we stopped by another hardware store and picked up a few things we needed for the house this weekend. And then Chris went to the house to sand, and I stayed at the apartment and packed. Probably about a third of our stuff is already at the house. I packed up maybe another third of it last night. We have boxes everywhere!
We took tomorrow and Friday off of work b/c the tile guys are coming to work in the bathroom. While they work, we plan on painting. While there are plenty of other projects to do, I think it'd be easiest to paint without all our crap in the way. So... we need to touch up the ceiling paint in the living room and then paint the ceilings in the dining area and kitchen. That's really not too huge a job, so once thats done we're going to start painting the walls. If I can get the living room walls done by the end of Friday I'll be happy! And really I don't think that'll be too hard to accomplish. In fact...we might be able to do that Thurs, and then work on the rest Friday. Either way, we were hoping to get as much painting done as possible so that beginning Saturday we can start the big move into the house. This is sorta weather dependent, but so far it's supposed to be beautiful this weekend so here's hoping we'll be sleeping in the house in less than a week. =0)

update

2007-04-16T11:09:00.000-05:00

Another busy weekend under our belts. This one was much better b/c now we're seeing some real results. Thursday the carpet guy's buddy (long story) came and finished up the carpet. I really like it, nice and fluffy and squishy. It's putting up a ton of fuzz though. We bought a bagless vacuum this weekend and vacuumed the carpet. We had to empty the canister at least 5 times.
Friday night we went out and bought the tile for the tub/shower. We picked out a beige stone looking tile. It will be very natural looking, w/o any fancy design. I was kinda going for the natural spa feel. Plus the stone look will hide more grossness....not that we're gross or anything. Then we went to a friends for a pizza party. We had a lot of fun, and stayed out later than we should. Which is really only 11:30, but we had to be up early, and we've been real tired lately with all the work going on.
Saturday morning the railing guy came and finished the railing. It looks wonderful. Better than I ever thought it would look. So now with the carpet and railing in we moved the couch into place. It's starting to look like a home. I've picked out the wall colors for the living room, and kitchen. We're going to go buy those tonight. While the railing guy was working away Chris and I hung out in the tub and pulled out tile. This is not a fun job. I thought it wouldn't be bad b/c we didn't have to worry about being careful about the wall behind. (Thank god b/c that wall was coming with the tiles like it or not) Tile is extremely sharp, and about half the time likes to crack into pieces. When the tile cracks the glazed part that shows, splinters and sends millions of tiny shards of glaze porcelain into your hands. Not too fun, but this was the one project we've done that was finished in a short amount of time.
Yesterday, we bought paint equipment, and paint for the ceilings. I'm not sure what possessed me to want to paint the ceilings. They were already white. They did have some icky texture to them that this fresh paint kinda hides so that's a good thing. But for the record painting the ceilings blows!
Spring showed her lovely face again yesterday which spurred some bead interest in me. Unfortunately, I probably won't have time to play at all for another couple weeks. But the next time I can play I'll have my own bead room!!!!

no beads just house

2007-04-11T07:13:00.000-05:00

house, house, house, house, house

That's all that's going on right now. Every day if we take the day off of work or right after work we're at the house, or buying something for the house. Most every conversation we have is house related. All phone calls are house related. For the last two weeks straight we've had at least one person coming over to look at or do something to the house. Most days we don't get home from the house until bedtime. We've neglected laundry and groceries b/c we're too tired. Needless to say my beads haven't been out of the closet lately.

If you don't want to hear about the house then stop reading now, b/c here's the lengthy two week update. Two weekends ago, the family came up to rip up carpet. It was a long, dirty, exhausting Saturday. That Sunday Jed and I scraped cement off the walls where the paneling used to be. The following Monday our laminate flooring was installed. We had it put in the front foyer, kitchen, and dining room. It looks absolutely amazing. They put it all in except the quarter round. So Chris and I need to get our hands on a saw and finishing nail gun, in order to get the completed look. After the floor guys left we got busy patching the holes in the dry wall left by the cement holding up the mirrors on the mirrored wall, and the cement from the paneling. We did two coats of drywall compound with sanding inbetween. And this is the day I got sick. I'm still not sure if it was allergies from all the dust, especially drywall dust, or if I really had a cold. But I was sick for most of last week.
Tuesday I really felt like crap, Chris had a stomach bug and stayed home. I toughed out work and then met up with the plumber at the house. He didn't stick around long. Just tightened a clamp, so we never did see the damn thing leak again. Now I just don't go look to see if it's leaking, b/c it never will do it in front of the plumber. After that we went home and I was sick for the rest of the night. Right now I can't remember what we were doing last Wednesday and Thursday. I'm sure it consisted of going to Home Depot, and then Lowes, and then trying Menards, and then back to Home Depot. In fact at I know at least one of those days was. B/c we were out looking for chandeliers sometime last week. Oh that's right b/c we went out and bought a ladder. And we were out pricing different kinds of wood for the railing.
Last Friday we left work early to buy the wood for the railing. Now that was an adventure. I don't know why we're not coordinated enough to just buy lumber, I guess we're not hardware store people. We had decided on Oak, mainly b/c a sales guy at Menards explained the benefits of using a harder wood. He said that if the railing is in an area where you might bump into it a lot that a soft wood might become loose faster than a hard wood. I know me and I bump into stuff all the time. I'm sure I'll knock into the railing every time I bring laundry up the stairs. So we decided on oak. I'm really happy with the choice too b/c it looks great stained!!! ok so we started buying at Lowes b/c they had the longer baluster pieces and hardware our handyman told us to buy. But they didn't have enough of the newl pieces. We knew HD was about a buck cheaper a piece so we headed over there to get the rest of the lumber. We get there and buy the rest of the lumber plus staining materials, no problem. We are loading up the truck and realize that the handrails and shoe rails aren't lining up. In fact instead of 2 12ft pieces each, we have four different size pieces of lumber and none of them are 12 ft. Go back into HD they don't have any 12ft pieces. We return the hand and shoe rails, and head back up to Lowes, pick up the last two hand and shoe rails and head home. It took us 3 hours to buy lumber, talk about insane. And now that part of the railing is in we probably would have been fine with the rails from HD.
Saturday we got to the house by 930 or so and got started. Chris started sanding the lumber for the railing and I began ripping down wallpaper. Wallpaper, that's a whole nother post. I can go on and on about how wrong it is to glue anything to a wall. All day he sanded and I scraped while we listened to music. With the exception of a break to have dinner with the Tanners we were at the house working until 9 at night. Sunday (Easter) morning we went to the grocery store out of desperation. Then back to the house. Chris finished sanding and I started applying the first coat of stain to the wood. Oh, so pretty. I love the color it turned. Perfect choice! But it took a lot longer than we expected. (a lesson we're learning repeatedly, everything takes longer than expected) Pratt stopped by to see the house and to pick up her flower. She sounded really happy with it. I hope the b/f likes it! By late afternoon we finished staining, and then we both worked on finishing the wallpaper. It's a messy job and we wanted it down before the carpet was put in. We were at the house until 730 that night. I was sooo sore I could barely lift my arm. Somehow I wasn't too tired though, so Miranda came over to watch another movie, Silence of the Lambs, from our list. I think we've seen 5 out of 100 on the list.
We took Monday off b/c carpet was coming. And it came, but we found out that it's a two day job to install it. And that he refused to lay the carpet in the living room b/c the railing wasn't installed yet. Of all the contractors working for HD we got the perfectionist. and b/c of this it will look wonderful once it's completed but also b/c of this we had to ask our handyman to come early to install the shoerail so we can get the carpet in. Right now the carpet is laid down and all the seams are together. It just needs to be stretched and tacked down. He'll be back Thursday to finish. After carpet guy left, Chris patched up the wallpaper wall. It just needs to be sanded now.
Yesterday we were at the house after work until 7 or so, for the railing guy. He installed the newls and the shoe rail. It looks great and will be wonderful once it's all in. I painted some foam boards with some different colors to try and decide colors to paint the walls in the house. Today the couch comes, kinda a crappy day b/c its pouring outside. Tomorrow we took the day off b/c the carpet guys coming to finish up. We'll probably apply a coat of polyurethane to the lumber that's not installed yet. Friday we have a party to go to so it'll be nice for a break. Saturday the handyman is coming to finish the railing. and really that's about as far as my brain will take me right now. Next week will be busy too. We're having the tile put in next week. I should start painting. And we'll be moving in sometime in the next two weeks. Once the carpet is in we'll be able to move bigger things into the house.
That's pretty much it. If anyone's been wondering why I haven't written or called that's what I've been doing. I'm not avoiding anyone I've just been really busy.

allergies?

2007-04-05T07:19:00.000-05:00

If these are allergies I'm experiencing they are by far the worst case I've ever had. Towards the end of the day Monday it hit me like a ton of bricks. I could barely breath I was so congested and my throat hurt, and I was coughing. We blamed the three days of nonstop dust we inhaled. Tuesday I felt worse, I poped an allergy pill that I had to sign my life away to buy. I was a walking zombie all day. Do allergies make you sore and achy? or maybe thats due to the work from the weekend? I don't know. I do know everyone else seems to be suffering from allergies right now too. I have never ever had allergies make me feel this crappy for this long. blah....

sore

2007-04-02T06:54:00.000-05:00

I'm actually not as sore as I was last night. This weekend was brutal, all my muscles ached, and most of my joints were stiff. This weekend was a big work on the house weekend. Friday night Jed came down and we went out for a friends birthday. This was the fun catching up time. Saturday was when the work came in. The three of us were up at the house by late morning ripping up carpet. Around noon my parents got into town. At first they walked in and we were thinking that there wasn't much left...haha. Ripping up the carpet was the easy part. Those darn tack strips were a pain. Then the stairs were a whole different kind of pain. Dad, Mom, and me all worked on the stairs for ever. The carpet was stapled to the stairs, there had to be at least fifty staples per stair. The staples were sharp, the angles were hard, and the top it off the staples and carpet kept pulling the moulding on the stairs off. Turns out we have really nice oak stairs! Who knew! too bad we already paid for the carpet that goes over them. oh well, it'll be a covered little secret.
After 4-5hours of ripping up carpet, tearing down the mirrors and paneling off the wall, we went for lunch. After lunch we were beat so we headed up to the apartment. Mom has just started to get interested in wire wrapping and metal clay. While going through my stuff I had made a pile for her of beads, wire, and books/magazines. Mom and I spent a while bead chatting and dreaming of different things that could and need to be made. I love having someone else into this stuff with me.
Sunday was another house day. Jed ended up staying and helping us sand off all the glue left on the wall from the paneling. It took all day, and my arm could barely move by the end of it. Now we just have to patch/fill all the holes where the panelling to wall with it. I know paneling was big in the 70's but I don't' get how anyone thought it looked good. ugh. Same with textured paint. My knuckles are raw from rubbing the sand particles in the paint on the wall while sanding.

First Blooms

2007-03-28T22:17:00.000-05:00

This was a very quick and refreshing project. Every spring I get inspired to make a spring bouquet. Normally the one I envision is the same each year. It's roughly about five flowers each a different species and a new color. A red tulip, orange lily, yellow daffodil, blue butterfly, etc. I've been thinking about that bouquet for a few years now, but for some reason my hands never actually want to make it.

This spring I was missing crocuses. In fact even right now I still haven't seen a crocus this spring. They are always the first flower I'd see in the spring. I remember as a kid, and in Chicagoland we'd have an odd few days in February where the weather would warm up to the 60's, and then it would drop back cold and freezing for a few more weeks. Well the warm spurt would stimulate those darn crocuses to come up. Sometimes they'd even be blooming through the snow! They are a simple flower but very beautiful.

Daffodils are another fav of mine, as well as an early bloomer. Every year while working at the Morton Arboretum I was always bummed that I was at school when Daffodil Glade would be in full bloom. I've seen the glade in the summer after the flowers are long gone, and can only imagine how stunning it would be to see a carpet of yellow bellow the ancient oak trees.

A couple weeks ago my hands needed something to do, so I picked up some violet beads. A few days later I picked up some yellow beads and you can see the results. It's not a very big piece, in fact the flowers are a lot smaller than what I normally make. The glass basket in the pic below is sitting on a beer coaster, so that might give some idea as to the size. The glass basket actually came from my grandma a few years ago. I have no idea how old it is or where she got it. I'm just happy I found a good use for it.

I have finally completed a spring bouquet. I'm really happy with it. I realize it's mostly just me seeing the imperfections, and most are those were due to the speed I was working at. I really don't think I'd change it in anyway. These flowers practically made themselves, so they are meant to be the way they are.

numero uno

2007-03-27T20:20:00.000-05:00

Here is the first flower of this bunch that I've finished. I actually had it in my stash, I think it was originally supposed to be apart of some wedding decorations. Either that or it was one of my football watching flowers. It doesn't really matter b/c now its fully laced, and the leaves are completely finished. I like this one. It's bright and cheery.

It's official

2007-03-27T08:25:00.000-05:00

As of yesterday around 5pm, we are now official home owners. We can do what we want to our house! I'm not entirely sure when we'll start, definitely this weekend if not before. Sunday we started packing what we're not using around the house. We filled up a ton of boxes and it feels like we didn't even dent our load! I think tonight we'll start bringing things over and stacking them in the basement. Then we're going to set up a game plan for what we want/need to get done before the official move in.
After we closed yesterday we went up to the house to hang out and celebrate. The seller happened to be going next store and stopped by to chat. We talked about what she did to the house when she first moved in. And what we want to do to it. She told us that the trees in the back are two pear tree and an apple. And that deer come up from the woods and eat the fruit in the summer. There is also a well maintained garden on the back of the lot. A neighbor guy LOVES to garden and maintains it. I guess he also shares what is grown back there. I would love to get my hands dirty and garden too, but I'm just not sure if I'd have time this year anyway. And if I did have time I think I'd like to work on landscaping rather than veggie garden.
This weekend I spent a lot of time beading. I finished a flower and a small project. I finished the beading portion of a small bouquet and a larger flower...these just need to be laced and wrapped. My only problem is that I haven't taken any pics! I'm not entirely sure when I'll have time to take them, but I'm going to try for some quick snaps today before we head over to the house. So keep checking back this week b/c I have some very fun and colorful flowers to show.

Spring

2007-03-23T15:17:00.000-05:00

Dare I say it but Spring may have finally arrived. We had fresh warm storms blow through yesterday evening, and again last night. Then it poured most of the morning. It's supposed to rain/storm on and off all weekend. Normally rain this time of year is really glum and blah. The last couple days I've really enjoyed it. The thrill of hearing thunder in the distance. The refreshing smell of clean air right after it stops raining. Thank goodness we haven't had any flooding problems, several of our friends have had major floods. These warm spring rains are bringing the green back to the grass, and washing away the salt residues from winter. I'm anxious for leaves to show up, although I did notice some daffodils along the side of the road with buds!
Spring is showing up in other forms too. My cousin had her baby this week. Congrats to them and welcome to the world little Avani Moon. Another friend of ours is counting the days to meet her son. Even Willow (our bird) is growing in fresh new feathers. Poor thing, when feathers grow in they are covered in keratin and are very sharp and painful. Every time she trys to preen she cries in pain.
For Chris and I cabin fever has hit full force. All we talk about is wanting to go work on the house, or be outside playing catch. The warm weather has spiked urges for margaritas and mexican beer. It has me thinking of cool mornings on the deck with a good book or a pile of beads.

Manly enough?

2007-03-22T21:08:00.000-05:00

Here is a flower I made for a friend of mine. She wants to give it to her b/f for an anniversary gift...do you think it's manly enough? Chris says you really can't make a "manly" flower, but he's always liked the ones I've made him. So I hope her b/f likes this one.

brief update

2007-03-22T09:03:00.001-05:00

Last night I was told I need to update my blog....so here it goes. So far this week we haven't done a ton of house stuff. I have a feeling that's going to be changing starting today. We have the reinspection this afternoon and we're trying to find a handyman/carpenter that will install a new railing up the stair to our house. It's too small a job for a lot of contracters this time of year, and yet too big a job for Chris and I to handle. We've found one guy that is a farmer and he said he can do it but he'd have to do it next weekend. If this all plays through, we'll end up spending our entire weekend sanding, treating, staining, and protecting lots of lumber. The rest of the guys I'm waiting for them to call me back.
So far this week any spare minute I had I worked on flowers. Our coffee table is currently taken over with them. Most are laced up and I started on some leaves last night. They'll need to laced and then wrapped. It feels so good to actually be finishing flowers that it just makes me want to keep finishing! Which is a good thing b/c it's hard for me to get into the finishing mood.
A big sorry to Pratt b/c I still haven't taken a photo of your flower. I will soon, I promise. well thats about all for now. Pics of Pratt's flower coming soon!

Bring on the Green

2007-03-19T07:05:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone had a fun and safe St. Patrick's Day. Ours wasn't as eventful as the past two years, but we still had fun. Friday we left work early and met with friends at Kelleher's, an Irish bar/restaurant. I really enjoy this place, even though we've had iffy luck with service. There's a local brewery next store that makes really good beer, but we didn't visit them this weekend. After some beer and fun we split up to run errands and do our own things. Chris and I went and bought the carpet and flooring for the new house. That was exciting! One thing scratched off the list. That evening plans changed and so Miranda came over frosties in hand and we watched movie number our second movie from our 100 top movies list. It was Jaws, she'd never seen it. It's been one of my favorite movies since my parents let me watch a "scary" movie. I really enjoyed the Manchurian Candidate as well. Very creepy! I'd never seen it or the remake, but from what it sounds like the remake was more hollywoodized and not any where near as creepy as the original. Wednesday we plan on watch Beauty and the Beast.
Saturday morning we put in the making of Jaws dvd and had that on most of the morning. Jed came down and helped us pick up and move some furniture. I cleaned up the apartment, and did a few other errands. Other than that we enjoyed a relaxing day hanging out with the dude.
Sunday I slept in and sometimes you really just need to sleep in. It felt really great. Jed left in the early afternoon and we waited for Chris' parents to come down for the afternoon. While waiting, I decided to pick up my beads for a bit. A few days ago I'd started a small bouquet project and so I worked on that a bit. And then I finished up a flower that a friend of mine had requested. And then I just started getting ideas for all new kinds of flowers! I had been thinking that beads would be getting put away pretty soon. Once we close on the house most of my time is going to be devoted to working on it. But I don't think I'll actually be able to put the beads away! Too much inspiration hits me every time I pick them up. Inspiration is a weird thing, and it really shouldn't be messed with. So when it hits I listen and do as it says. Right now its saying you better find time to work on some flowers. In the course of Sunday before and after the visit from the in laws I came up with three flowers/bouquets all needing leaves now. Some still need lacing although I did lace for two hours last night. And one bouquet idea needing to get beaded all together. So I guess I'm going to working with green a lot soon. Must make leaves, must make leaves!

beautiful day

2007-03-14T07:46:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was the third or fourth day in a row of wonderful weather. The highs reached the low 70's and there was a nice warm spring breeze. We were driving home from work with the windows down, and the weather reminded me of college. Had it been a day like that 4 years ago, we'd have possibly skipped class, and we'd have spent the whole afternoon sitting on the front porch of a house that should be structurally condemned, drinking beers, cracking jokes at each other, or telling stories that we'd already heard five times. Not much reminds me of college, and fewer things bring back real fun memories. Not that I didn't enjoy it, just that it was a time that I worked very hard, and spent more time working than playing. But days spent on the porch of that house were always good days. and I was happy to be reminded of those times.
Today is another nice wonderful spring day, but it'll be the last for a while. A cold front is coming in tonight, which means we might get a good storm, but it definitely means it'll be cold tomorrow and through the weekend. I'm ready for spring and warm weather.

On a side note, I've updated the links on the side bar. If you're using IE I do know that the links are uneven under my map. I've done something to the html, and I can't figure out what. =/

the final

2007-03-13T06:12:00.000-05:00

Here is the last of the flowers that I finished up a couple weeks ago. I've posted a pic of this one before too, but now its laced and has leaves. This one is really hard to photograph. The two rows of blue petals are actually two completely different blues. The outer petals are an aqua blue and the middle petals are satin finish more of a true blue.

Now I have a single red lily a friend asked for that is pretty much done. Just needs the leaves to be laced. And I'm mostly finished with a gerber daisy that I started about a year ago. The only problem with the daisy is that I can't decide on the center. I have three centers made, actually four! But I like parts of each but nothing seems to be just right yet.

Over the busy weekend I also started up a very small spring bouquet. I'm hoping some time after work or maybe over the weekend I'll have some time to work on it some more.

Happy Place

2007-03-09T11:24:00.000-06:00

Today we got a good dose of a negative attitude in our lives. It happened in the morning and has proceeded thus far to make it a really long drawn out unhappy day. It's hard to believe what goes on in people's minds, but I am not them so I should not judge. I do think on days like today it's good to look at the good things in life. I'm posting a few pics I took from cdart's page of Montana and one of Jamaica. Sometime's it's nice to be reminded of the beautiful places in the world. And these two are the two most beautiful places I've been. Negril, Jamaica
Chris and I hiking up a mountain in Montana
Lick Lake, Montana
The old apple orchard up a montain in Montana, where Clover was married.

Vino night

2007-03-08T06:07:00.000-06:00

Once a week Miranda and I get together to drink wine and watch prime time TV. Lately, this has pretty much been the only TV I've been watching, but I've come to realize that sometimes you really just need some mindless entertainment and good company to relieve the stress of the day. Recently, she purchased a book entitled 101 things to do before you die. It has many outrageous suggestions such as get arrested, or participate in a threesome. There are also more doable things on the list such as, invent your own cocktail, or bungee jump. There is also a list of movies that should be seen as well as books that should be read. It's kinda a weird list of movies and books, many are present that you don't normally see in the top 100. So we have decided to use Entertainment Weekly's 100 Greatest Movies of all Time instead. We've made up a few rules, such as wine must be consumed during the movie, and all movies must be seen, with the exception that if both of us have seen the movie and can't stand to watch it again then we can pass. The Manchurian Candidate is the first movie we plan on watching on Sunday night. The plan was for her to start a blog so that we can discuss the movies as we go. If and when this blog gets created I'll post a link to it.

I've posted a pic of this flower over a month ago. And wow it was a really crappy photo. I have added another layer of petals to it and accented the center stone, and added greenery. It's all laced up and finished. It's a heavy flower but it's a nice weight. Here are some much better photos of it finished up...

another one

2007-03-06T17:47:00.000-06:00

I've had these lilies sitting in my stash for over a year now. I just now finally laced them up and made some leaves. Lilies are fun to make b/c they come in so many colors anyway, its fun to get creative and come up with some different looks.

lets try this again....tropical pop

2007-03-05T18:09:00.000-06:00

tropical pop

2007-03-04T12:44:00.001-06:00

Here's the first bouquet that I finished last week. It's the only one that I haven't posted pics of before. I really like this one, it screams hot, tropical islands. Right now I could really use a nice hot, humid, beautiful island. For now I'll have to find it in this bouquet.

I have pics now of the other three finished pieces. I'll post them as the week progresses. Unfortunately, I haven't been in the mood to bead all weekend. We've been shopping for flooring and carpet and furniture.

we got it!

2007-03-03T09:13:00.000-06:00

We bought a house!!! yeay! We signed the papers for an accepted offer yesterday around lunch time. Thursday night was quite a trip. It all happened really fast, over a period of a three hours. It was a like a real blown up version of Ebay and you were dealing with a lot more $$$. But we agreed on a price and we close on March 26. Pretty much what that means is that I will be preoccupied with house stuff for the next few months. I'm really excited to work on the house but it'll be a lot of work. We want to recarpet and refloor the entire first floor. There is a single wall that is of course by the stairs so its bigger than the others and it is wallpapered with probably the same paper that was put there when they built the house. So that'll be a major chore to get down b/c it's really plastered on there. There is also a wall that someone thought would be a good idea to mirror.(very 70s look) So I really want the mirrors taken down. And then of course paint. Of course we can't actually do anything until after we close, so there will be a mad dash of work to be done in late March and thru mid April. I think we'll actually move late April. The house needs to pass inspections and what not, but I'm sure it will. =0) I'll have plenty of space to plant flowers and maybe if I get real inspired a few veggies too. The back faces south so they'll get lots of sun. AND I'll get my bead room.
Last night we went out with buddies to go celebrate. Old man winter has come back for the weekend, but we plan on going up to a hardware store to get some ideas on how to paint the house. After that I have a feeling we'll be house bound so I'll have lots of time to take some pics. And if I can get really inspired or at least focus my thoughts I'll have time to play with beads. better do it now b/c this spring I won't get much done.

taste of spring

2007-03-01T15:18:00.000-06:00

This morning at 1am both Chris and I awoke to the first thunderstorm of the year. Supposedly it was a pretty good one, I heard there was hail and lots of lighting. I almost instantly fell back asleep and missed it. I love a good thunderstorm and I'm really excited for spring to come. We went out to lunch today and it was beautiful outside. Nice warm breeze, temp was around 50F, sun was shining, birds were out, just gorgeous out there. Now I'm looking out my lab window and the clouds are rolling back in, and the temp is falling again. They're calling for snow tomorrow and Saturday. Hopefully it won't be too awful outside, I want some sunshine so I can get some good photos of my flowers to post. It has definitely been a doozy of a winter. Lots of snow and freezing weather. The days are getting longer and I can feel cabin fever rising in me. I'm very excited that daylight savings is earlier this year and only a couple weeks away. I think I'm more excited about spring flowers. I've been thinking a lot about them lately and if I get some time this weekend will see if I come up with any. I'm definitely ready to put the greens away and take out my color.
In other news...things are looking good on the house hunt. We still really like one in particular, and with one more look at it this evening...we will be discussing the next step. Oh man, you won't believe it though. If we get this house Chris has already said he wants his guitars in the basement....that leaves me an entire bedroom for my beads. My very own studio!!! I've never even allowed my self to dream up that possibility. I've been thinking about it for a week now and still can't come up with any decent ideas of how to arrange or store my stuff that would be convenient. I just always stacked it in the closet. I'm totally stumped about the whole room, how to arrange and store, how to paint and decorate. Lots to think about!

new stuff

2007-02-27T07:20:00.000-06:00

Sunday the mood hit me again to pick up the greens. I made the last few leaves that needed to be finished. Then laced and laced and laced. By the end of the day I had two finished bouquets and two finished single flowers. Most are ones that have already been posted just not in the truely finished form. It's amazing how much better they look with leaves and all laced. We'll see if I can capture that in some photos. I'm guessing I won't have time to play with my camera until the weekend.

weird week

2007-02-23T15:39:00.000-06:00

It's just been a weird week. I can't explain it. Mostly due to work, in many ways due to work. I wrote out a huge blog about it and then thought it's probably better to keep that off the net. I made a very big discovery this week. It puts us leaps and bounds further than we were just last week. One moment I'm real excited, because this sorta stuff is rare in research, but then drama happens and it's like what the heck happened?
House stuff seems to be at a stand still right now. We've found one we like, the more we think about it the more we like it. But we want to look at a few more to make sure we're choosing the right one. Well there's really not a few more out there right now. We're hoping warm weather might bring more out, but so far no luck. and weather is supposed to get crummy this weekend.
No, beading has been done. The dining room table is still covered in green beads from me making leaves last weekend. I have two more to make and then I'll have two finished bouquets and two finished flowers.

busy weekend

2007-02-19T10:19:00.000-06:00

This was a long weekend filled with running around and lots of house shopping. Friday night was a fun night with Chris. Together we cooked up a wonderful scallop and shrimp pasta dish, with bread sticks and a salad. We got lazy for dessert and had drumsticks. Saturday is when the running around started. We went out to the outdoor mall just to get out of the house. After the snow days we had earlier last week, I was getting major cabin fever. We did a lot of browsing and looking around. Then we decided to brew up a batch of beer to be ready for St. Patricks day. We wanted to get a light colored beer so that we'd be able to dye it green, but the kind we wanted wasn't' at our liquor store. So we tried something else. It smells wonderful, but it's definitely more red than we were wanting, so I'm not sure we'll get green beer.
Yesterday and today are house hunting filled days. It's kinda fun looking at houses and trying to picture ourselves there. What stories we'll create in those walls. But then we found two houses that we liked....except he likes one and I like another. It's not that we don't like the others it's just we look at different parts of the house with more importance. Truely if we were to combine the two of them it would be our perfect house. But we can't and now we're at a point where a lot of thinking needs to be done. We are going out this afternoon to look a 4 more, so maybe something perfect will show up then.
At down times I've been beading leaves. I have enough made to finish one bouquet and two individual flowers. I want to make a few more and then its just the little touches to finish them up.

Two Palms

2007-02-14T15:34:00.000-06:00

The second big snow storm of the winter smashed into us Monday night. We got around 8inches of snow and winds gusting up to 40mph. The wicked weather lasted all night Monday, and all day into Tuesday and into the night. The called off work yesterday b/c of the weather. And they called off work today b/c of treacherous travelling conditions. Two days off is a beaders dream come true! We stayed home and I beaded ALL day yesterday. My "bam " project pictured in the post below in a million different pieces is now finished. I finished it early today and call it "Two Palms."
I'm not real sure where the inspiration for this came from. I know I was at work one day and couldn't get beads outta my head. I'd always wanted to try the corralling technique and have been trying to think of a way to incorporate it into a flower. Well I came up with this, although there really aren't any flowers here. I've always liked water, its always moving and its a challenge to paint or in my case bead! I feel the same about a flame. I thought corralling could at least be tried to see if it has that effect. I think I got more of a waterfall effect than an island in the sea, but I still like it.
I played with a little bit of shading in the corralling as well, giving the closer to land parts shorter spikier corals in a lighter color. I was going for waves breaking on the beach colors. The longer ones are more deep sea colors, rich blues and turquoise.
The land of this piece is actually clay, the trees and water are all attached to clay that has now hardened. In order to hide the clay and give a more beach/sand like effect I took seed beads and glued them one by one to the clay. I know....now this took all the patience I could muster to finish this. But I did it, and possibly ruined a pair of tweezers in the process! I threw in a couple shells to for effect. I like the way it turned out. The bead soup I made for it is perfect sand and some of the beads give a slight sparkle.
series. I'd thought how cool it would be to have a palm tree coming out of a really fun Originally this piece was supposed to be apart of my bar waremargarita glass! Well then I realized that would make for a very tall piece! So it is actually sitting in votive candle holder, its simple so that it doesn't take away from the piece but has a nice sturdy base so it won't tip over. This really is a big piece and is difficult to photograph. None of these pictures give it justice.
The piece is approximately 9inches tall and 5inches wide in diameter. The soda can gives some idea how tall this is. Again the photos don't even begin to capture how touchable this is. It really is a fun piece and I'm more proud of it the more I look at it. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with it. I guess when we buy a house I need to have an island themed room so I can display it.

chicken and beer dance

2007-02-12T06:35:00.000-06:00

This weekend we made the trip south kinda by St. Louis to a Chicken and Beer dance. Really it's a fund raiser for a group down there that our friend's brother-in-law is a part of. To us it meant 20 bucks a head for all the chicken and beer you want for a night. And it meant we got to see a bunch of friends we hadn't seen since July. It was a really great time. Food was good, company was great, beer was well beer and did the job, the band sucked. Ok I should actually say the singer sucked, they picked pretty good songs, and played fairly well most of the time. But man that guy couldn't sing! One point during the night they played Crazy Train, and we just kinda rolled our eyes. Well later on toward the end of the night, we over heard people talking to the band asking to go up there and play. When Chris walked in the room our group of friends (who have never heard him play) heckled the band a bit and told them to let Chris go up and play. They were really good sports and let Chris go up and they played Crazy Train again. And Chris did awesome....he went into the Randy Rhoads solo and it was amazing. He played parts that he had never gotten right before, and he hadn't played Crazy Train in forever, plus after a night of drinking. I guess he was in a zone, but he always does well when he's up on stage. It's like something kicks in and as nervous as he gets about it he always has fun with it. Anyway I recorded the whole song on my camera and wanted to put it up here, but I have no clue how to go about it. Just take my word for it....it rocked!

Before we left for our trip I had been working on my Bam project. I beaded up some leaves and started brainstorming on how to put everything together. I realize I haven't told anyone what it really is yet. I think it's b/c this is one of those projects that I'm more self conscious about. On Friday I had convinced myself that the whole thing was a dumb idea and almost gave it up. That was a moment of weakness, and I got over it. Last night I laid out all the parts of my project on the table.

well at least these are the beaded parts. There are more. Can you guess what this could be turning into?

I think it looks pretty obscure so it could be difficult to guess. I'm still not going to say though...mostly b/c I'm still feeling a little self conscious. I did start putting the pieces together last night and there is not much beading left to be done. Maybe another day or nights worth of corralling. And then only one last thing to figure out. I'll take another photo some time this week and that'll show a more complete picture.

Reality

2007-02-09T08:41:00.000-06:00

Slowly reality is settling in on me. I knew I was being extremely ambitious wanting to apply to art shows to sell my flowers this year. It's just been something that's been in my head now for so long, this year seemed like a good time to act on it. But application deadlines are April 1st. I still have tons of flowers to make and photograph. I need to build a booth and photograph that...with no end in this cold weather in sight that seems impossible now. Then I would need to send in the photos and have them turned into slides. Finally I could then send them in with an application. With the house hunting project looming over us, this year is apparently not the year for art shows for me. I think I'm finally ok with that, I've been kinda bummed the last couple days as the reality of it all was sinking in.

I do want to clarify what I was looking for in selling at the art shows. I've always enjoyed art shows, I love going and drooling over other peoples work. I think it would be fun to attend one or two a year and meet other art lovers. Even if they don't buy anything, it's nice to talk to people that appreciate what goes into a piece. I do not intend on quitting my day job and this becoming a full time gig. I don't even expect to make a profit. I just want to see if I enjoy it and have the experience of it.

I'm not throwing in the towel though. I am changing the goal to having a website up and going by mid to the end of summer. I want to take up the owner of a bead store in Long Grove, she said she would display a bouquet along with a business card. And this means I'll have lots of time to do this the right way. I want to do some experimenting with more details in the flowers. Including shading and finer details in the centers. I have lots of ideas and am excited to work on them. Just last night I had a brain storm for another big bouquet, and ideas for two new barware projects. Then I got to looking at all my stuff that's half finished, so I spent the evening finishing the purple flower pictured below. It now has it's third layer of petals and some fine beading around the center. I then laced up the petals. All it needs now are some leaves. Tonight I plan on working on lacing up another few flowers I had put together for a bouquet. That way amongst my piles I actually have some finished flowers! minus the leaves, but they never get made until I know exactly how they will be paired with another flower.

The "bam" project mentioned over a month ago has also been taken back out. It's over half way finished so I intend on spending time on that soon and finishing that up. Most of the tedious parts of that are done....now it's just experimenting on how to put it all together.

6 weird things

2007-02-08T09:06:00.000-06:00

I have been tagged by Naturträne to post "6 weird things about me".

Originally the rules are: Each person who gets tagged needs to write a blog post telling 6 weird things about themselves... as well as clearly state the rules. After you state your 6 weird things, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that says "you're tagged" in their comments and tell them to read your blog for information as to what it means.

I'm not usually into these things but this one sounded fun. I'm not gonna "tag" anyone b/c most people have already gotten this. Those who have not I just lurk on their pages.

1) One of my favorite smells is the smell of a tomato plant's leaves.
2) If I had to choose between a beach or a moutain get away...I would almost always choose the mountains.
3) I have only been to 3 concerts in my life.
4) I am always always always cold.
5) My favorite color is green....and yet I always put off making leaves to my flowers till the very last minute.
6) I'm going to a Beer and Chicken dance this weekend. (this isn't really wierd, but it sounds funny)

My throw

2007-02-06T06:44:00.000-06:00

Here are some pics of my finished throw. I really love it! The colors are wonderful, it has so many different textures that it'll never get boring. It did end up sorta heavy but I think that all crocheted throws end up heavy, and this is not heavier than one of those. After sewing in all the ends I went around the entire throw and gave it a border of two rows of double crochet. The edges aren't perfect, but I wasn't aspiring to perfect. Plus I think this may stretch over time, so perfection wouldn't last long. The finished dimensions are approximately 61inches by 53inches. A great size to snuggle up in, b/c its big enough for me to fit under!
It took a ton of yarn to complete it. Way more than I ever anticipated. And I was a horrible judge so toward the end I was getting frustrated running out of yarn and having to stop and go to the store...so I bought a ton of it, and now I have a ton of left overs. There are 8 different colored squares, and two of which use two different yarns to achieve that color.
The pattern is completely random. The part I enjoyed most was piecing the squares together and taking it apart and piecing them together in a different way. The one real bummer about this is that it probably can never really be washed. If I absolutely had to I'd have to take it to the cleaners and bribe them not to ruin it. Of all the different yarns used I think only one was machine washable. And with all the reds used I can see them easily bleeding into the nice contrasting white squares.

It really feels great to have finished such a big project...and it's the biggest project I have finished that wasn't bead related. And even then I've never beaded a throw! I've been taking that good feeling and doing some lacing to the flowers I have laying around. Lacing is boring work, but essential, so I only get maybe a flower a day done. Then I go onto other things like looking at houses with Chris. ;)

even more frigid

2007-02-05T08:50:00.000-06:00

Forecasters are saying that today will be the coldest day of the year! I believe it, in fact I'd say it's been colder than it has in the last couple years. As I was scraping my car this morning, around 8am (I decided to come in an hour later than usual) it was minus 5 degrees with out the wind chill. brrrrrrrrrr. Last night we put all the beer and waters on the balcony to keep cold but would have to bring them in after an hour or so b/c they kept freezing.
This weekend was a fun weekend. Jed came Friday night and I cooked dinner. We went up to BWW for a drink and to celebrate a friends birthday. We didn't stay late and came home to hang out and watch bad TV. Saturday was really the fun day. I cooked up all the dips and things that needed to be made before the big game. Then in the afternoon the three of us went and saw Pans Labyrinth . Excellent movie! It's completely in Spanish so you have to read the subtitles, but there's really not a ton of dialogue so that didn't bother me. It's definitely not a kids movie, and can get pretty intense at parts. It's up for 6 Oscar nominations and deserves them all. After we got home the guys put in the video game Shadow of the Colossus. I've been known to play a few video games now and then. This one I really enjoy watching people play but gets too intense for me to do. It's really a cool game, the main concept is that there at 16 colossus's and you have to find different ways to climb up these huge beasts and kill them in order to save the girl. It's really not as hokey as it sounds. But what makes this game different from the rest are the really amazing graphics and the music. The music is extremely epic and you find yourself being pulled in by it and completely engrossed in the game. If there's a sound track to this game we'd get it! Anyway while they battled in video game land I worked on my throw. And FINISHED IT!! yeay! all the ends are sewn in. I put two layers of double crochet around the entire throw for a border. This week I'll take measurements and photos to share.
Yesterday we cleaned in preparation of guests. We didn't have too many people over. Not near as many as last year. But we ended up with quite a selection of yummy foods. The game ended as most everyone knows, and everyone left fairly quickly.
Now the week has started and things are going slowly. They'll speed up here soon. We're busy most every night after work. We've spoken to a realtor, and she's sent me about 50 listings of houses in the area. Chris and I need to go through them together. We're going to try and take our time on this. I'm feeling a pushing and rushing but I think it's wiser to breathe and think about this. Hopefully I'll be able to do this and get enough flowers done to participate in a show this year.

Frigid

2007-02-02T15:09:00.000-06:00

It is beyond cold outside, it's the artic! It's supposed to stay cold and be cold all weekend and into next week. The predicted high temperature for Monday is 7! brrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
This is superbowl weekend, and so we'll be having a few people over for the game. Not as many as last year, I didn't want to deal with the stress and planning of that big of a group. Just some local friends, and Jed is coming for the weekend. He'll be up tonight to join us at BWW with friends. Tomorrow we'll clean and do a little cooking. Sunday is the game. Not sure if I'll have much time to do anything crafty.

just call me "El"

2007-01-31T07:26:00.000-06:00

Our el Presidente was in Peoria yesterday, and everyone seemed to be really excited about it. Even those who are skeptical of his decisions. Apparently he came to town to give a speech to Caterpillar employees in East Peoria. He arrived at Peoria international airport around 9ish, and apparently they stopped by a local family owned restaurant for toast and coffee before proceeding to East Peoria and the Caterpillar plant. The whole thing seemed kinda odd to me. My lab faces South which looks down on I74, the interstate that would transport El to East Peoria. I looked out around 10ish and noticed there were cops at the over pass blocking traffic to East bound 74 ramps. There was also a plow parked on the shoulder of the highway. I look again around 1130 or so (during the actual speech, that I didn't listen to, I was working) and the cops and plow were gone. After lunch I glance out the window and the plow is back, traffic is blocked and not even a minute later a slew of police vehicles, white vans and two limos drive by. Probably something of 10-15 vehicles long. I thought "adios" to El and then thought, that was pretty cool to actually see a president drive by.
This morning I read El's speech transcript and kinda wished I'd have heard it. I guess more to give it a fair chance, since he did deliver it so close.
In other news...Chris and I have an appointment to talk with our landlord/realtor about possibly looking into buying a home or at least finding something bigger. The appointment is tomorrow after work.

bead shopping

2007-01-28T20:02:00.000-06:00

This weekend I was up at my parents visiting and hanging out. There really wasn't much of an agenda so it turned out to be a relaxing weekend. Saturday Mom went out bumming around. I wanted to go to a local bead shop to look for some round disc shaped beads to inspire some flowers. We ended up going to three different shops, because none of them really had what I was looking for. Here's a pic of the goodies I picked up. I'm very excited about some of them, but was a little disappointed by one of the shops we stopped by. They're selection has gone way down hill.

As promised ages ago here are some pics of the flowers I've been working on. These were both made last weekend, during the Bears Saints game. They are a little different style than I normally do, but I had a lot of fun with them. Hence, the bead shop shopping, I needed more materials. Both of these flowers have a lot more detailed center, which I love. And they have more petal layers. They have a wonderful weight to them and really they just make me smile. The blue one is perfect. I'm not going to mess with anything except making some leaves to go with it.
The darker photo is actually a purple flower. The top petals are done using beads with a satin finish, so when I use a flash the whole photo becomes completely blown out. I really like this one but I think I'm going to do some tweaks. The center bead is a stone and I want to put some size 13 seeds around it to make it pop and also to show that there are dagger beads around it too. Then I want to add a third layer of petals to this flower too. It'll be quite big when that's all done, but I think it'll really be stunning.

I spent a lot of time working on my throw this weekend. It is finally all sewn together. I started the process of sewing in loose ends of each square. I might have gotten about half way done with that. This morning I made a row of double crochet all the way around the entire throw. It'll need at least one more row, but at least that process is started. And I know it really didn't take me too long. Realistically only a few more hours of work left with it!

Strawberry

2007-01-28T19:41:00.000-06:00

This is about as close up of a strawberry I could get and keep it in focus. You can't really see that it's brick stitched, you'll have to take my word for it. They were fun to make...I enjoyed shading with the different reds and pinks.

4 left

2007-01-26T06:24:00.000-06:00

I was able to work on the throw a bit last night. I got all the squares except 4 sewn together. I really tried to finish, but my eyes weren't staying open and I was starting to get sloppy. Soooo, I pinned them together and packed it up. It's going up to Chicago with me. I couldn't just leave it, I'd be thinking about it all weekend. It won't take long to finish, and I'm sure Mom would like to see it. I'm really excited to accomplish something so early in the year. It's a good feeling.
For some reason we were really tired last night, so we went to bed fairly early. As a result we woke up about an hour early and were wide awake. Into work we can at 6am! I've never been here that early before and the place is dead. But really kinda felt good was being outside that early. It was cold and dark and quiet, but the air felt clean and crisp. A lot of people, including me, have been talking about how we're ready for spring and warmer weather. Mornings like this make me enjoy the cold now and then.

desparate to finish

2007-01-25T10:13:00.000-06:00

This week I've felt the need to finish something. I have three projects going and the one closest to being finished is my throw. For the last couple days after work I've been working diligently on finishing up the throw. Tuesday I managed to crochet the last of the squares needed to fill in all the empty space. Last night Wine night was at my place so while we watched Sopranos and drank our yummy wine, "Rabid Red," I started sewing pieces together again. I was up late working on it, and got to a point that if I spend one more night really working at it then all the pieces should be together. After that I only need to sew in the ends and crochet around the outside of the throw. Then I'll be able to curl up under my new blanket while I work on some flowers!
Not sure if I'll be able to work on it tonight though. I have things around the house to do then I gotta pack, because I'm headin up the Chicago to see Mom and Dad. I'm excited, its been a while. We don't have much for plans just to hang out. Maybe go shoppin.

day dreaming

2007-01-23T12:02:00.000-06:00

How is it that as soon as I get to work my mind immediately goes to beads. I'm thinking about new and different kinds of centers. What could I use, and where could I get them. I'm thinking what my plan is for the night meaning what to work on. The coralling or some leaves or some more petals. I'm thinking about a potential set up for a booth and how soon I need to be working on that. But then I realize I'm jumping the gun and that I really need to finish some of the flowers that I've started. So that means lacing and making leaves...lots of leaves. After that photos after that a booth. Then my mind wanders back to day dreaming about how the website should look. Thats right, I didn't mention it before. I've purchased a domain name for a website. Oh yeah, I now own a little slice of the internet. I think it's exciting. So I'm trying to come up with a good idea for a logo so that it can be on the website and some business cards. Again things that don't really need to be started now, but I can't help thinking about them.
I discovered this weekend that I need to harden my skin a little bit to comments. I know that I was going to get them. I read the B+B forum now and then and read about people getting really upset at comments about their work. ie...."I could make that," Or "I could buy that at walmart for half that price." Well I got something similar to once I buy a flower what would I do with it? It came from a friend and it was not intended to be harsh, it was intended to be practcal. I'm a very practical person too. He is also not an art person. So definitely not in my target audience. and yet it still stung a little. hmmmmmmmmm, I guess maybe i need to have my brother up for a weekend to harden my skin. =0)

sun night

2007-01-21T19:55:00.000-06:00

I didn't get as much beading done as I anticipated. It was fun Saturday I went to a used book sale with Miranda at the Lakeview museum. They had a small bird show there, so we got to check out several different kinds of owls, a turkey vulture, a crow, and a black squirrel. They were all injured animals that have been saved and are recuperating.
Today went by fast. This morning we picked up the place and watched the movie Scoop. It's a Woody Allen film, and I really enjoyed it. The Bears game started at 2 and Chris invited the guys over to watch the game. I sat in the back and beaded. I wasn't able to finish as many flowers as last week, but I also worked on bigger ones. I was doing more experimenting with colors which takes longer and sometimes I end up with duds. The real exciting part was the game. and just in case you live outside the States THE BEARS ARE GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL!!!!! If you were anywhere in the vicinity of the Timberlane apartments, you'd know about it. Chris made sure of it! Two weeks from now is the SuperBowl and that should prove to be a really crazy game.
I know I promised photos of the new flowers. I tried to take some of last weeks new ones, this weeks new ones, as well as a close up of a strawberry requested by Nina. But the lighting in my apartment is too dark. And the sun has already gone down for the day. I'll try and take some during the week, but it'll only work if we get home early.

couple more

2007-01-18T11:17:00.000-06:00

these are the two I'm most proud of, these and jamaican sun

gallery pics

2007-01-18T11:13:00.000-06:00

note:I'm not the computer person I pretend to be so alignment of the pics seems a bit beyond me right now. =/

a little bit of everything

2007-01-18T10:12:00.000-06:00

This is a post that has been meaning to go up for several days now. =0) The weekend ended well. Monday we bottled up our beer, unfortunately it doesn't look like our filtering method really clarified the beer. Oh well, we'll just have to pour it in glasses and leave the last swig in the bottle. So far it looks good though, a really nice amber color. We still have to wait 2 weeks to taste test. Now we're throwing around the idea of making a batch in time for St. Patty's day. We're even thinking about making it green, but we'll see if we have time.
I didn't finish any more flowers since the last post. But I feel good about making the petals for 13 flowers all in one weekend. Plus I really had a blast. I'm hoping to work on some more this weekend. I have been coraling still, and am about half way done with that. I am running out of blue thread, so I'm going to have to make it up to the store soon...or switch to white. I do intend on taking some photos of the newest beaded developments, but I haven't gotten to it this week. Maybe at the end of this weekend.
Also, I haven't totally put away my throw. I picked it up last Friday night, and then realized I had run out of yet another yarn. I picked up another skien this week, so I should be able to pick that up again soon.
I have finally figured out the reason some of my links in my gallery have been broken. It's a bunch of computer wonders Mom explained to me last night. So I will upload them now and hopefully this will fix our glitch in the matrix.

Da Bears!

2007-01-14T20:37:00.000-06:00

This weekend has been all about watchin football and beading flowers. As most people know NFL playoffs are well underway. Yesterday we watch two games that turned out to be really great battles. And today our neighbor and his fiance came over to watch the Bears go into overtime against the Seahawks. After a very intense game the Bears won it with a field goal. During the game today Chris requested a flower in Bears colors. It's pictured above, I really like it. The blue is Montana blue which is my fav. I gave the flower to Chris so he can take it to work and put it with the rest of his Bears memorabilia.
So I'm going to go ahead and put this out there.... I'm going to try and apply to a couple art fairs this year and try and sell some of my flowers. I've been thinking about the idea for a long time, but life has always been too busy. Chris has been encouraging me to do this for a long time, and with my bouquet being published in B+B this summer I figure this would be a good time. So as long as I don't overwhelm myself about details I think I'm gonna do it. I don't have unrealistic expectations, like making any career changes. I just think this would be a fun way to share my flowers with other people. And maybe it'll pay for some of the beads I buy! This weekend I set the goal of timing myself to see how long it takes me to make some of my flowers. this is what my dining room table/studio looks like...
I opened up two boxes of beads plus my travel case. The two boxes held my reds, and then my oranges and yellows. My travel case is a wonderful mixture of favorites. Then I also got the box of beads I ordered last week. =0) I was in heaven. Ideas were just coming to me. I beaded ALL afternoon yesterday, and made the petals only for 6 flowers. At the end of the night I still had three or four ideas for other flowers. So today I picked up the beads again, and the ideas and color combos just kept coming. And this was only for the colors red, orange, and yellow. Today I finished petals for 7 flowers and I have ideas for several more. The photo shows all the new petals that were made...unassembled, and the assembled ones are my stock flowers that have been laying around for the past year or so. I have a really great stock, so it should be fun assembling them all to get ready to sell.
Tomorrow is Martin Luther King Jr.'s B-day so we have off work. We need to bottle the beer we started brewing last week and get that stored away. We also need to do some chores around the house. We should probably discuss our plans if we want to move and where we want to look. But really I have a feeling I'll find myself plopped in my "studio" making fun flowers. =0)

Beads and Brewin

2007-01-07T16:33:00.000-06:00

Remember back about a month or so ago and I was hit with a "Bam" of inspiration? Well since I'm giving my throw a break right now I picked up my beads and started on the project. Does this remind you of anything? Probably not...but thats ok. It's still in the early stages. This technique is called coraling, and I've seen it done in jewelry. I've never been much of a fan to wear it but I think it would be perfect for some other ideas. I love how chaotic it can look when you group bunches together. It's been a while since I've picked up my needle and thread so it has taken me a while to get in a groove. Even now that I'm sorta in one it's taking longer than I first thought it would. I have a lot more to make.
A few years ago I had bought Chris a beer brewing kit. We made a batch that turned out really good. Well for christmas we got Chris' father the same thing and this resparked our interest in brewing. Today we decided to start a batch a brewin. I forgot how good the smell of fresh steeping hops is. Our whole apartment smells great right now. It's a beautiful amber color, the name of this brew is Amber Cerveza. Here are some photo's of Chris stirring the fresh wort.

2007-01-06T17:58:00.000-06:00

This was one of my christmas gifts this year. I love it! It's a Swarovski crystal figurine. I have a small collection of some different animals, but this is the first I've gotten that has the colored crystal. I just love the colors of this fish. They are sorta similar to my throw. I think it would be fun to make a fish similar to this with beads.
Today Chris and I made a trip to downtown Peoria to check out the Peoria Art Guild. They have a gallery there that is up for the public as well as exhibits of different artists from around the country. The Peoria Art Guild sponsers the art fair that I get so excited about every year. Today I became a member so that I'll get updates on what kinds of exhibits are being displayed as well as I can get discounts from their gallery, and on their classes. They have a PMC class that looks like it could be fun to try out.
This weekend has been a me and Chris weekend. We've turned down offers to hang out with friends to spend some time together. Right now he's napping to the football game =0) I've decided to give myself a break from my throw. I gave into the temptation to play with beads. I've come a long way in what I'm working on. I'm hoping to have some photos up tomorrow.

progress report

2007-01-04T18:30:00.000-06:00

its slow going but it'll be worth it. Unfortuantely I'm still short some squares so I'm going to have to dig out my hooks again and crochet some up.

numb

2007-01-04T09:47:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year!!! 4 days late =0)

New Year's Eve we had friends over and had a really great time. Chris and I are both feeling better with the exception of an occasional cough and sneeze. We had a ton of food, and really just hung around the apartment playing board games and making fun of eachother. We were up until 4 something in the morning. Consequently we slept most of New Years Day away.
Tuesday we were up and rearing to go. Jed left by noon, so Chris and I went out to lunch and then headed to the book store to browse. I enjoyed looking at some books that would help me achieve some of the goals I've set. When we got home we popped in a movie and I worked on my throw. It's come quite a long ways. I like to think that I'm almost done, mostly b/c my beads are calling to me everyday. Really there's a lot involved in the finishing process of the throw, and I've put so much time and energy into it I want to finish it right. Soon I will post progress pics so that you can see how far I've gotten.
Today I went to the dentist and my mouth is totally numb. I feel like a bad guy from one of the batman movies, the one where only one side of his face works. I'm counting the hours until it wears off.

Portraits of Willow

2006-12-29T07:50:00.000-06:00

Check out these fun pics Mom took of Willow over the weekend...

taking a shower

after the shower

goals

2006-12-29T07:29:00.000-06:00

It's that time of year again, the last few days of a crazy year. All the news casts feature some sort of look back over the year, whether is celebrity hookups or the top images of the year. Looking back on my year 2006, it was probably the busiest year in a long while. We threw a superbowl party, I've been sick enough to stay home from work 3 separtate times, I finished my wedding bouquet after two separate designs, we went to Montana to go to my cousin's wedding, Augustfest was a two week extravaganza, I planned the wedding and trip to Jamaica and we went, I planned and threw our celebration party, I've read from cover to cover 6 new books. That's really not bad for a year, considering three of the listed were goals to do during the year.
I like the idea of setting goals for an upcoming year. Techinically, it's pretty much the same thing as resolutions. To me "New Years Resolutions," are almost expected to be broken. Most peoples are broken. People like to make outrageous or unatainable resolutions such as quiting smoking cold turkey when the smoke three packs a day for the last decade. The word goal to me is more personal in nature, and if I fall off the path or fail I can always pick it back up again. I'm more likely to try again too b/c it is a personal goal for me.
Last year I set four primary goals, and I accomplished three. Not bad, and the one that wasn't accomplished is put at the top of this years list. This year I set 4 primary goals, as well as some smaller or "in addition to" ones. I have a good feeling about them, and am hoping 2007 will be as productive and full of good memories as 2006.

fighting it off

2006-12-28T08:13:00.000-06:00

I can't remember the last time I was sick over the holidays. yeesh, and I'm still trying to fight this thing off. I'm feeling tons better during the day, but at night I feel awful. Its almost impossible to sleep with the both of us coughing. Chris went to the doctor yesterday and got some antibiotics. Hopefully they're strong enough to wipe out his infection. I'm relying on my good ole immune system to help me out, although I did take some of his cough syrup last night. It didn't seem to do much.
It was pretty frustrating over the long weekend. I really didn't feel well enough to do much work on my throw. I had such high hopes to get a huge chunk finished, and I didn't get much done at all. I crocheted a few more squares, today after work I need to run out and see if I can find one more skien of a certain kind of yarn. The last time I saw it for sale it was on clearence, and not by the rest of the yarn. Hopefully they'll still have some laying around.

achy

2006-12-26T09:13:00.000-06:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend filled with friends, family, and fun. We had a very busy one, and enjoyed every minute...despite both Chris and I fighting off horrible colds. Unfortunately, we're losing the battles with these colds and sound like a couple of smokers with asthma. We're definitely ready to go home and sleep in our own bed, and try to get better before this weekend, when we're supposed to have people over.

Festivus

2006-12-24T09:16:00.000-06:00

Happy Festivus to all the Sienfeld fans out there! here's the story if you haven't seen the episode.
"Many Christmas's ago, Frank Costanza went to buy a doll for George. There was only one doll left and when he reached for it, so did another man. After struggling for the doll, he thought there could be another way. The doll was destroyed, but out of that, a new holiday was born. It was called Festivus. A Festivus for the rest-iv-us.."
ok we don't really celebrate festivus, but I can't say that we realy celebrate the traditional christmas either. All I can definitely say is that we do get together as a family and have fun, which to us is celebrating.
Happy Festivus or any other holiday you celebrate. Enjoy it!

Bam!

2006-12-20T10:24:00.000-06:00

I've been hit!
This morning I'm making a list of things to work on today at work, and my mind starts to wander... thats normal for my brain to wander a little. Lately its been wandering and thinking about the throw. Which is good b/c thats what I want to be working on...but today it wanders to beads. I tried to push the thoughts away and concentrate on today's activities. And then it hit me like a train....2 really great ideas for beading projects. I was hit so hard I actually had to sketch them out, and I'm not a sketcher. I did the best I could and wrote notes to go with. I'm really excited, but torn now between the throw and these ideas. They aren't big projects, but have a technique I've never done before. So it could take some time to learn. I guess I'll be bringing more beads home than orginally planned.

week before

2006-12-20T07:41:00.000-06:00

how is it that the week before a holiday or a long weekend is always a long drawn out week? I don't get it, but that always seems to be the way it works out. Christmas is fast approaching, and I'm excited but at the say time weary. It'll be a long weekend, probably not sleeping well. I'm already worried that I might be fighting off a cold. It'll be fun though, Mom and Dad got a brand new fancy big screen tv that we'll get to try out. Gram will be up, and Jed will be around. We invited a cousin over Saturday. I really genuinely enjoy spending time with the family so I'm looking forward to that.
I'm hoping to get another good chunk of my throw finished. Whether its making more squares or sewing more together. Thats my goal for the weekend. I also plan on bringing some beads with. Mostly just in case we see Chris' cousin Emma. She's only like 7ish, and has become my new pen pal. In my last letter she asked to see my beads. =0) who am I to say no to that request!

me and the bird

2006-12-17T18:26:00.000-06:00

It's been a long time since I've had any extended amount of alone time, and Willow made sure that I didn't feel too alone. Chris had tickets to today's Bears games against the Tampa Bay Buccaniers. It turned out to me a very exciting game, ending in over time with the Bears scoring a field goal. I'm sure his buddies and him had a great time!
Yesterday I spent the day making christmas candies that turned out excellent. Very rich and sweet, but I'll bring them to the Tanner's Holiday gift exchange and the leftovers to my parents this weekend.
Today I spent half the day with Willow on me and insiting on chewing on either my lips, ears, or the neck of my shirt. While she did that I crocheted more squares to my throw. And the other half of the day was spent sewing the squares together. I now have enough squares together to wrap up my feet! The more I work on this the more excited I get.

must keep busy

2006-12-15T08:12:00.000-06:00

Lately all I've been thinking about is keeping my hands busy. Flowers I could be making, pieces of my throw that I could be sewing together, and repeat. I've been troublshooting a piece of equipment at work for the last two weeks, and have had down time between calls to tech services and waiting for new pieces to arrive. I've found myself day dreaming new ideas, mostly ones on new ways to construct petals. I've tried to sketch them, but lets face it thats never been my strong suit. I've actually come up with an idea that I tried out a few days back and I think I like the way it looks. So, it'll be fun to see what I can come up with using it.
Right now my living room floor looks like this...
I know it's not the best pic, but this is my whole floor right now. It's the throw I started crocheting two years ago. I didn't have any patterns for granny squares and always loved the look of crazy quilts. So I went to the store and bought a bunch of yarn in a bunch of different textures. Mom tried to explain to me the different weights of the yarns could make this an uneven or at least hard to do idea. And she right I've put all the pieces I've done together and I get what she was saying, but I love this anyway. With the heavier yarns I double crocheted to lighten it up, and a one I single crochet to make it heavier. The White Sox throw I have it laid out on is a template for size.

This pic shows the colors a little better and the different textures of the yarns. It is so soft to touch, I just can't stop running my hands over it. I'm really thrilled that I still love it after two years. I'm determined to finish it now. This weekend Chris is heading up to Chicago to go to a Bears' game. While he's gone I'm going to spend some more time sewing the pieces together and then making the remaining squares to finish it up. That's pretty ambitious b/c I also wanted to do some xmas cooking, but we'll see what gets done.

Cobalt Stars

2006-12-10T19:17:00.000-06:00

Here it is, my newest piece. I started it a week before we left for Jamaica. I've always had the idea to use barware as vases, I've always liked the way different wine glasses look. I also used an idea from Mom's garden. She has a strawberry pot planted with sedum. Sedum is a flowering ground cover that spreads like crazy and can look really pretty. Well I've always loved the way it drapes and falls out of the strawberry pot. So I used the idea of drapeing and made up my own fanciful sedum and put it in an old wine glass from Grandma. Cobalt Stars is what I came up with.
I like it because I wanted a sort of messy unorganized look. When plants grow they tangle and knot. So I filled this glass up full of tons of leaves and kind of just them tangle themselves.

xmasy mood

2006-12-10T15:20:00.000-06:00

surprisingly enough I was actually in a semi christmasy mood yesterday. so I thought I'd share a pic of our tree this year. It took a few days for it to get a decent shape back, but I think it's a really great tree. We've acutally had it for almost two weeks.
going with the mood I braved some crowds and traffic and did a little shopping. Chris was off helping a buddy move, so I had time to myself. I was lucky to have gone early. My last stop was the post office and it was so backed up you couldn't even pull into the parking lot. I decided to skip that and just go monday.
once I got home I took advantage of the alone time and put in some girly/chris won't watch it with me movies. while I watched them I finished some online shopping and also finished my wine glass flowers. I'll take some pics today and gettem up soon.

Moods

2006-12-07T08:45:00.000-06:00

Your Mood Ring is Yellow

Imaginative

Wondering

Thoughts

Peaceful

Mood Ring Generator

I've been in a multitude of moods lately. I've been going from extremely pissed off, to upset that I've been so mad, to giddy, all in the last week and a half. November didn't end very well, and I think this week I've been trying to figure out everything out. I've been taking vitamins the last couple days and trying to be more conscious about what I'm eating. Hopefully that will help restore some balance in me.
Over the weekend I did put the wine glass flowers together. Unfortunately, I think it looks a little thin. Which means I need to crank out a few more leaves. I also went and burned my finger pretty nasty while roasting a turkey for dinner, so I couldn't get myself to make those leaves. (for those of you that haven't made them, it's hard on the fingers!) Unsure of what to work on next I played around with trying some poinsetta petals, but was not satisfied.
I then figured it might be a good idea to go in a different direction. I dug under my bed and pulled out my throw that I mentioned before. I set up the squares to make a corner and started sewing them together. The good news is...I still LOVE it! and hopefully that'll keep me inspired to finish it. The bad news is...it might take me forever to sew all the squares together.
Really I haven't gotten anything accomplished, but I did get to work on my stuff. And that made me happy. Right now the plans for this weekend are that Chris is busy and I may or maynot be. That leaves the option to crank out some leaves or to sew some more squares. I guess I just have to wait and see what mood I'm in.

snow day

2006-12-01T13:03:00.000-06:00

I haven't had a snow day since the first grade! Well winter is officially here. The we had wonderful fall temperatures in the 60's all week until Tuesday night. Wednesday morning we woke up and it was freezing out and raining the whole day. Then that night the rain decided to freeze and so a nice layer of ice covered EVERYTHING. I had to chisel the ice to get into my car.
Yesterday everyone talked about "the big snow storm" coming. And how they're predicting 14inches, "maybe work will be cancelled." It was definitely some storm that hit us. I woke up at 1am and it was still sleeting hard against the windows. 3am all I could hear was the wind. Alarm goes off and all the schools are closed. Our cars are buried in snow...we went back to bed. Around 730 the dentist called and canceled our appointments, so we call work and it's closed! We have the day off. I think virtually all of Peoria is shut down. It's hard to tell how much snow we actually got because it drifted so much with the wind. But my guess is we got close to a foot of snow. It's crazy looking with the drifting. The front of some people's cars are completely covered with snow. They'll have to be dug out.
Luckily we had done our grocery shopping earlier this week. I bought stuff for a big turkey dinner, that I'll cook tomorrow. And stuff to bake cookies. This morning I baked fresh ranger cookies from scratch. MMMMMMMMM, I had forgotten how good they are. The rest of my day I plan to relax and hang out with Chris. Right now our neighbor is over b/c no one is brave enough to drive anywhere. So we're just here watching movies. Maybe I'll finally have time to bead!
oh and the last pic is of the snow on our balcony and how we're using it to keep our beers cold. the drift on the balcony comes up to our knees.

...

2006-11-27T15:54:00.000-06:00

Getting the living room mess sorted out, putting away what we can and moving the rest to storage or corners in the apt. Getting the money together to take in to the bank. Making room for the Xmas tree. Doing thank you cards

ugh! I just can't get away from lists. and this isn't even the whole list, just what we want to attempt to get started tonight. At least I got some relax and just be time over the weekend. It really was in there inbetween the shopping and driving.

good news on the beading front... only a few more leaves to go to finish my wine glass flowers. I'm excited to finish a new piece, unfortunately I probably won't be able to work on it until the weekend.

Happy Turkey Day

2006-11-23T10:53:00.001-06:00

time travel?

2006-11-22T08:58:00.000-06:00

Could it be possible to slow down time by slowing down life? This past year has been nothing but one list after another. As soon as one thing was scratched off I was on to the next thing. Not that I didn't have fun or enjoy time during this process, but I think I've forgotten how to relax and shut my brain off. It hasn't even been a week after the reception and I'm already thinking what's next. And how to tackle the next obsticle. By the end of the night I had already forgotten about getting my bouquet in B+B b/c I was thinking of what to do next. =/ So I got to thinking maybe if I forced myself to just chill out before starting what ever needs to get started and just be. Be with my husband, be with my family, be with Willow, or my beads. Get lost in a good book, or even learn to just be with myself. I may not be able to actually slow down time, but hopefully I'd be able to see my life.

whoooo hoooo

2006-11-21T08:49:00.000-06:00

Whatta week so far! I guess I have lots to be thankful for this year! So here are my two new bits of great news...

The Dude had an interview for an intership in Bloomington for over the summer and was accepted. So he'll be close by this summer, and its a great opportunity for him.

And my exciting news is that I just heard back from Bead and Button and they would like me to send them Jamaican Sun, my wedding bouquet, for them to photograph. Then they'll schedule a date for it to be published in the "Show Your Work" section of Bead and Button magazine! I'm dancing on walls over here. This definitly inspires me to get working on some of my other ideas I've been harboring lately. I'll have to be more persistant and definitely schedule some real beading time soon.

Incredible

2006-11-20T09:59:00.000-06:00

Saturday night was a night to remember. It was an incredible night with 110 of our closest friends and family. And it is also a night that I am glad is over.
We got up into Chicago Friday afternoon and split up to go to our separate families. With all the friends and family coming in we had to split up to see everyone we wanted to see. Clover and Tom had flown in that afternoon, and Casey arrived by train that evening. A group of 10 of us from Mom's side of the family all went out for Chinese food. It was a ton of fun to swap stories of travels with Clover and Tom. And to hear about Casey's plans to go back to New Zealand. We are such a fun bunch and its a bummer we all live so far apart. I do think we make up for it when we all get together. Even with this dinner I didn't get a chance to catch up with them like I wanted.
Saturday was possibly the longest morning ever. All I could do was worry that something was going to mess up. Or be broken. We got to the hotel in Lombard at 3 and we had the nicest room I'd ever been in. We had a jacuzzi in the room and mirrors on the ceiling that had lights behind them so it looked like stars on the ceiling. It was really more tactful than just straight mirrored ceilings. Chris' family had a preparty in the conference room that quite a few people took advantage of. Chris and I and my family all went to the banquet hall at 5. We all immediately went to work with the last minute decorating. Shells were placed around the candles on each table. Extra cameras were placed on assigned tables. Pictures were fixed on the poster boards. Wine glass charms were put on all the wine glasses. After all the freaking out I did, we had everything done in 20minutes! haha, well I was glad.
Then people started to show up. This part was hectic, b/c people were actually in line to talk and hug me! It was fun to see everyone all dressed up. I think people really enjoyed looking at the poster boards of pictures. I had a million compliments on my bouquet and Chris' boutonniere. Several people even scratched my itch to try and sell them.
It turned out to be an amazing party. The dance floor was almost never empty. I was out there for nearly every song. Jed danced with me and said I was a disgusting ball of sweat, after looking at pictures he may have been right. I think my dress is destroyed, I know the train was black from the dance floor. But really the most amazing part was how far so many people came to celebrate with us. Literally people came from clear across the country. Not only that but with every person I saw there is a memory attributed to them. Childhood friends, high school buddies, college parties, growing up lessons, arguments with siblings and cousins, new friends from a new city. Someone from every chapter of our lives was there, for both of us. And I don't think very many people can say that of their receptions. We're two very lucky and in love people. Thanks to anyone that came, and I hope everyone had a great time. B/c I had a blast.
We will be slowly putting up pictures from the festivities on our website . My dearest friend Theresa also graciously took many pictures from the night and has them posted on her Reesezpiecies.com.

what day is it?

2006-11-16T09:49:00.000-06:00

I knew that the holidays were fast approaching and I knew that it would come and take me by surprise. but I guess I'm still surprised! I thought it was kinda wierd hearing that people were putting up xmas trees already, then this morning while watching the news nearly every commercial had xmas music. and there was even a story on the news about last minute xmas shopping! Then it really dawned on me....Thanksgiving is in a week!
I really love Thanksgiving. It's my all time favorite holiday. All we do is sit around the table, hang out and cook, play skipbo with Gram, and eat! It's the best! Funny thing is, although I've been in my own little world lately, I'm still very much in the xmas mood. I'm excited to put up a tree this year, and to decorate the apartment. I'm excited to christmas shop and be surrounded by rich reds, greens, and golds. It's the only time of year I actually enjoy the cold and snow. I even went through my cookbook the other day to think about what cookies and candies to attempt to make this year. I have all kinds of new kitchen equipment from gifts that I want to try out. =)
Last night was the third night in a row of crappy cold rain. Chris and I went out to dinner and then came home and stayed home for the night. He rented a movie he's been wanting to see, and I had no interest in it. soooo, I took the hottest bath ever. Then went to the bedroom and beaded. I finished two more leaves and then made the petals for seven more flowers. I only need a few more leaves and to figure out a center for the flowers and the making process will be done. Then assembly will begin! it feels good to get the creative juices flowing again.

What am I workin on?

2006-11-14T21:15:00.000-06:00

Its not the best picture, but I wanted to put something up. I've actually been able to pick up my beads yesterday and today! yeay! These leaves are slow going, they use a ton of beads and take forever b/c of all the wrapping. But it'll be worth it in the end.
Tonight I beaded while my husband lay next to me on the couch and Willow ate cracker crumbs from our coffee table. It was a very relaxing wonderful night to spend at home. After a relaxing night, and a fairly good day at work I'm starting to really look forward to Saturday's festivities.
Not to say I've ever dreaded it, but its overwhelming for me to plan such a big event. And then to be the center of attention the majority of the night is just icing on the cake. We have a lot of family and friends coming, from in and out of town. We're lucky to have such a large amount of people that care about us, and it'll be fun to celebrate with them. =0)

Questions to ponder

2006-11-13T15:24:00.000-06:00

Do you have goals for your art?

Do you envision new pieces in advance, or do they come to mind spontaneously?

Can you envision your work in a certain place, such as an art gallery, museum, or library?

And, is there a certain piece that you are working towards creating someday?

I took these from the Lone Beader's blog. Not sure they can entirely apply to me b/c I don't create often enough (in my opinion) to reach the goal's that I'd set for myself. and I'm also back and forth on whether I refer to my flowers and arrangments as "art."

I have goals for my hobby and the "art" that comes from it. I'm not sure how realistic they are for my personality. But that is something I'm going to have to discover for myself with time. and probably trial and error! =0)

I come up with my ideas ahead of time almost all the time. I find it difficult to sit down and just make a random flower. I need to have a plan or color in mind before I start. Although they rarely turn out to be what I first envisioned. I'm ok with this b/c its part of the process. and it's fun b/c it adds some excitement.

I really can't see my stuff displayed somewhere fancy like a museum or anything. Not that I'd say no if someone wanted to. but my stuff doesn't strike me as museum worthy.

I have "big" projects that I envision and it can take me over a year to actually do it. The strawberry plant (link on the right) took a year of planning and designing. The pineapple was an idea I had years before I found the perfect beads to use for the fruit. Now they are my favorite pieces and I think thats b/c I didn't force it. I just let it happen when it was ready.

Thanks Lone Beader for stimulating my thoughts in this area. It'd been a while since I'd let my mind go there. =0)

fidgety hands

2006-11-11T08:02:00.000-06:00

The drive up to my parents house yesterday wasn't too bad, we listened to inflames and rock and roll the whole way up. We had to make sure that there was nothing depressing on the radio b/c the weather was so blah. It misted rain the entire 3 hour drive and at points was a steady pour. So that made it easy for my mind to wander...
I think my hands are getting fidgety. All I want to do is work on something and I'm afraid I'm getting to a point that I'll be so excited to do something I won't be able to choose from all the things I feel like working on. The drive up here had me coming up with more ideas than I had before and even made me realize that I'm sorta in the mood to pick up my crochet hook again. I have this half finished throw that I started during a beading slump about a year and a half ago that I would love to finish. so here's my list so I don't forget...

finish my crazy crochet throw
figure out beaded grape vine
finish up cat tails
work on blue flower wine glass flowers
corona stein arrangement
I have a massive idea in the making of an underwater in fresh water scene but this is a huge project that will take me a long time to completely plan out
I've seen a lady's website and she makes unbelieveable beaded dolls. I've always thought they would be fun to try. For some reason during the drive the urge to pick up bead embroidery hit. So dolls would be a fun thing to play with.
I'm slowly collecting pictures and papers to make a scrapbook for our wedding story

Thats a rather large list for me, and usually a bad idea b/c I will get overwhelmed and not be able to decide what will make me happiest to work on. But I think at this point I'm just desparate to do something creative. I was hoping to work on something tomorrow, but I have a feeling the majority of the day will be spent doing a much needed cleaning of the apartment.