A Long Day

State of Brain: tired

Today I have been hard at work adding gift certificates to my main website. Don't look for it just yet. I didn't get it finished. Tomorrow, as Scarlet O'Hara was wont to say, is another day.

I look out of my PigPen windows and see the gentle grey of evening and there is a gentle breeze moving the limbs of the trees. It's warm without being muggy and it has rained so the dust has settled. A great time for a walk.

Except my DS (Darling Sister) is still at work and won't be home for a couple of hours. That's after my bedtime. DS is my younger sister and she is my caregiver. I am a lucky woman!

I've read some of the other blogs of some of the other CP (Crazy People) eagerly awaiting Sept. 1st. Will there be any let up of this anticipation? Will we go through this at the end of every month - just waiting for the next month's challenge? Will we still be energized at the end of this Project? Or, will we be exhausted and needing smelling salts as we fall supine onto our fainting couches?

Well, I am ready to stitch some beads to my nightie accidentally. Let's go.

No, I haven't got my 'stuff' organized. Right now my tools are in 2 different places and the tool and I want right now, of course, is in the other location. I am taking a class in wirework in September at the Toronto Oasis Bead Show so, I can't remember why, I've already divvied up my 'stuff.'

I need to get some - well, a lot - of paper filed away just so I can see my workbench/desk. Then, hopefully, my mind will rest. Until September 1st. Three more get ups. ooooooooooooh

Glass0

Edit Edit Edit

Today's Brain: Fuzzy

I made a buncha booboos yesterday. Poor ole Pam Truog graciously made changes to my account for which I am grateful. I promised to do better and, one day later, I seem to be managing.

But, in yesterday's post about http://baublebabble.wordpress.com/ I said I'd be using that blog to run my mouth and pictures re: bjp08. What I meant was that I would be over there with my early pictures until we can post them here. Does that make sense?

I've been sketching a LOT and am r'aring to get going. It might be helpful to organize my raw materials: the threads, wires, needles, pliers, rings, things, and even fliers. Oh, and somewhere in there I should review my stash of beads.

Is it any wonder that today's state of mind is fuzzy. My workroom, lovingly called the 'PigPen' is a Disaster Zone and my living room is a Construction Zone.

I think I'd best get busy tidying my PigPen - well, just a wee bit - and rearranging furniture so that when my floor man comes in, he can get to the end of the living room that needs doing.

Notes to Self: Bauble Babble

Hiya, everybody. I was just at my other blog; http://baublebabble.wordpress.com making a couple of new entries in Apprenticeship of Niki Tasha. Niki is a person who has applied to immigrate to Canada and asked to be an apprentice - long distance ! - to learn designing and beading techniques while she waits for the wheels of governments to roll.
Well, the apprenticeship is at the other blog. I have several categories over there and that's where I will be posting stuff relevent to my beading challenge journey. So, if you are at all interested, and of course I hope you are, jump over there and look at what I've got going.
I am eager to improve what I've got so all critiques will be received with the utmost good cheer. If I don't know what to fix, it's a pretty sure bet it won't get fixed.
I've begun making friends at andmorebjp08. Today I visited briefly with Diane from Puyallup, WA. We found we have travelled to each other's side of our shared continent. That's kinda neat.
At least that's what I think. Glass0

Beads Patterns Theme

Hiya, everybody. I read some of the greetings of fellow designers, artisans and felt terribly out of the loop.
What will my theme be? Do I need a theme? Can I wing it?
Well, inspiration comes from the oddest places. I was struck like lightning while sitting in the cancer clinic's waiting room (my sister, not me, and all seems well).
Jewellery of course!! I make and sell my own designs of jewellery.So that is my theme. The patterns will depend on the technique I'll be using.
Fortunately my sketches - made last night after we got home and before I could forget - are such that I can do stumpwork and beaded cross stitch or other stitch with beads, stringing, bead weaving, wirework. Lots of scope in just those few sketches.

Stumpwork - a style of embroidery popular in the 1800's. It is a raised embroidery technique where parts of the embroidery, like butterfly wings or strawberries, are embroidered on a wire framework and attached for a 3D affect.

People living in Australia have a stumpworking genius among them: Jane Nicholas. She has written several books on Stumpwork Embroidery and they are still available at Amazon.com. And her work is beautiful. Her artwork is well photographed and certainly helpful when figuring out how to do the stitches. Her instructions and artwork are detailed and moderately easy if you are a fairly competent embroiderer. Those of us who were born with a needle and thread in our hand will have no trouble following her instructions. You can design your own stumpwork pictures and use the elements Jane has given instructions for.

So, ladies and gentlemen, I now have my theme, and even some of the techniques I want to use. The patterns will come in the nick of time: especially as now I am so much more relaxed.
Take a look at my shops: http://www.lampworkandbeads.com and http://www.glass0beads.etsy.com and when you have some free (!?!) time, visit my other blog: http://baublebabble.wordpress.com and add your comments and observations.