It's a banner of a day today

Happy Halloween!  I'm of the firm belief that our house is haunted, so I will not be able to post the blog about Karen that I wanted to.  Sorry, Karen!

It started this morning at 6:15 when Steve's alarm went off.  I said, "Wow - it's really cold in here!"  Steve checked the thermostat, and it said it was 66, which is what it's supposed to be at 6:15 in the morning.  I had a niggling feeling, though, so I took a closer look. Sure enough, "HEAT" was flashing, which is a bad thing.  The same thing happened in May, so I knew we'd have to call someone in.  We weren't happy with the place who had been servicing the furnace, so I hopped on Angie's List and found someone else.  I called and left a message, then I got ready for the day, about 2 hours earlier than I normally do.

The repair guy came around 12:30 or so, and while he was working, there was a BOOM.  Yes, a boom.  Not an earth-shattering kaboom like Marvin the Martian always expects, but it was startling nonetheless.  The guy said nothing, so I called down to make sure he wasn't dead.  He wasn't.  Whew!  But there was a smoke cloud, and he was coughing.  He washed up and continued his diagnosing.

I occupied myself today working on the computer.  I printed out tutorials for tomorrow's class, I sent some e-mails, and did various other computerish things.  That is, I was working until my computer stopped working.  It froze, and I mean FROZE.  Holding the power button down for 10 seconds (or even 30) doesn't turn it off like it's supposed to, so right now I have it unplugged, waiting for the battery to discharge.  Theoretically I could take the battery out, but I can't find it, and I can't find information online as to where it is.  Steve looked, and I looked (on my iPad, lest you think I'm lying about the computer being frozen).  Le sigh.

The repair guy was able to fix the furnace, but he needed someone to bring him a part.  While we waited, I talked to him (his name is Rick, not "repair guy").  He mentioned the explosion - that's a scary word - and I asked if the soot went just "this way" and gestured towards me like I was facing the furnace.  He said, "No, it went everywhere."  I went downstairs, and... it went almost everywhere.  All of my show stuff is covered in soot, and Steve's model railroad layout has quite a bit of soot quite a ways back.  That's going to take a lot of cleaning.

THEN... While Rick and Scott (the part-bringer guy, and no, they're not Rick Scott from Florida) were finishing up, I started typing this blog on my iPad.  I finished with the repairman, and when I came back, my post was gone, so I had to try to remember what I typed.  Fortunately I didn't get very far.

By the time they were finished, it was after four.  I didn't want to eat lunch because I didn't know when I'd be needed, so I just ate pretzels to stave off my acid reflux (at Steve's suggestion).  It's too late to nap, so I'm awake all day like a normal person.  It kinda sucks, but I'm pleased with how much I got done until my computer froze.

So, that's been my day today.  It's had some good points, such as chatting with my mother and Xuron Abby on the phone (as well as chatting with Steve on Facebook during his lunch break), and right now Fe is sitting on my desk purring.  But in general, it's been a frustrating, expensive day, and I would like the ghosts to move along to someone else's house for a while.

Barring more catastrophes, I'll be bringing you all the wonder that is Karen on Tuesday.  I hope you all have a good weekend and don't get too much snow.  There have been dustings in the area, but it shouldn't amount to much or stick for very long.

Frisco just walked by.  I don't know where he's been all day.  I hope he wasn't hiding in the basement and is now covered in soot.  He's black, so I can't tell, and he won't let me pet him to check.  I think he's under the bed now.

Terry's Treasures in King George, Virginia

I mentioned a while ago that I was going to teach a few classes while I was on vacation.  Now that we're back and all my ducks are in a row, I'm ready to show you some of the pictures I took!  There will be more at the end of the week as I talk more about my friend Karen and what she does.

The bead store is called Terry's Treasures, and it's located in King George, Virginia.  It was a bit of a drive from Springfield, Virginia, but I found the store with no problem thanks to their signage:

That blue building across the street is an antique mall.  I wish I could have gone in there!

The store itself is really cute on the outside:

And on the inside, it just kept going and going and going!

This is part of the front room.  Wait... What's that on the right side of that picture?

It's a salad bar full of beads, complete with sneeze guard!  I love it!

Here's another few looks at the front room (it's huge):

They sell finished jewelry, too!

There are findings in the center displays.  There's so much to look at, and the prices are great!  I couldn't help but pick up a pack of snap clasps.  :)

Let's go into the back rooms.  Here are more displays with finished jewelry:

On one wall in this room was a huge selection of kits:

I like how this is arranged.  You can see the finished piece and take a kit from behind the card!

Here's the little room off of the back room:

There was a trunk show, and in my quick peek in there I found a few gorgeous purple strands.  I snatched them up, of course!

After my classes were done, we snapped a few pictures of me with a few of the "girls":

That's KT, Terry, me, and Aubrey.  They were all fun to be around, and they knew their stuff!  During my classes my students were discussing beads they wanted for the class project or for another one of my designs, and the perfect beads came right to them!

I had two students in each of my classes, Debbie and Karen:

 

Remember I'll be blogging more about Karen on Friday.  :)

For the first class, we did peyote tubes of a Jack O' Lantern for earrings, and since they both have iPads, I showed them how they can use knitCompanion to speed up reading charts.  (See my first blog post about it here.)  The second class was a bracelet from my Ever-Evolving Spiral design.

We had a good time all day, and I was so glad I went!  My only regret is that I didn't have a lot of free time to look in all the nooks and crannies of the store.  There are so many different kinds of beads and findings and kits and much, much more.  If you're in Virginia, I highly recommend checking them out, even if you have to drive a bit to get there!

For more information, check out their website.

Thanks for letting me invade your store for the day, Terry!

Upcoming classes near and far

It's been quite a while since my last post.  Since then, I was a vendor at the Milwaukee Bead Show (hosted by Knot Just Beads), Steve and I went on vacation, I taught a few classes at Terry's Treasures (while on vacation), and I've been recovering from the vacation.  Every day I've been thinking, "I really need to blog," but then a nap happened, and it didn't get done.  But today I'm putting my foot down - no nap until the blog is published!

In the next few weeks I'll show you pictures from our vacation (along with some scrapbook pages), the classes at Terry's Treasures, the Terry's Treasures store and employees, what my friend Karen has been up to, and more.  Now that I'm back "on my feet" I'll try to post every Tuesday and Friday.

Right after we got home I found out what classes I'm teaching at Knot Just Beads in November and December and which classes got accepted for the 2015 Bead&Button Show.  I'm excited to share them with you, and I hope you can join me for one or more of the classes!

Knot Just Beads classes

The Ever-Evolving Spiral
Saturday, November 1, 2014
2:00p - 4:00p

I've blogged about this design a lot and will again in the future, as I just finished another "shaggy" bracelet and will be discussing my color choices.  In case you've missed it, you can check out a few of the blogs here, here, and here.

This is a fun design because of all the different options in color and thickness.  This class will cover the "standard" Ever-Evolving Spiral bracelet which morphs from thin to thickest and back to thin as shown in this picture:

For more information and to register, check out the Knot Just Beads classes page or call 414-771-8360.


Christmas Tree Key
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
10:30a - 12:30p

This class is for Christmas Tree "Tubed Key" design:

We'll go over how to read a peyote chart and how to add the embellishments for the ornaments, the nubs on top and bottom of the tube, and the strip so the tube won't turn on the key.  Although the bail isn't shown, we'll cover that, too.  The large key as shown above will be included in the class fee, and I'll have other keys available for purchase, including the adorable mini keys that make cute earrings.

For more information and to register, check out the Knot Just Beads classes page or call 414-771-8360.

Bead&Button Show classes

I'm thrilled that I have two Bead&Button Show classes next year!  Please help me get the word out so I can fill all of my seats!  Registration for the classes won't open until January, so check back here for links when the class site is open.

SDN15 - Intertwined Pyramids
Saturday, June 6, 2015
9:00a - 5:00p (with 2 hour break)

This class will teach the basic SDN15 triangle and how to modify it to make this chunky bracelet:

I'll also be throwing in instructions on making earrings and a few other things.  I know a full day class is expensive, and I'll be looking for ways to make it more than worthwhile.  I'm thinking up kit colors now, so if there's a particular color you'd like me to consider, let me know!  So far I have the gray shown above, a teal, and a red with black.


Quadrille
Sunday, June 7, 2015
9:00a - noon

I've blogged about Quadrille before.  It's a bracelet and earrings, and I last posted about the latest pair of earrings.  The technique is a modified Right Angle Weave, and it uses seed beads to hide that pesky Super Duo hole-to-hole thread.

I love the lacy look of this design and am looking forward to sharing the technique with my students!  I have four colorways available, and they can be seen in this blog post.

I have a confession...

Last week I showed you the Ever-Evolving Spiral necklace I made that perfectly matched one of my tops.  If you missed it, you can read about it here or take a peek at this picture:

The colors are great, and it's a great length, right?  Well, the colors are great, but... I'm a fraud!  It was not a great length!

When I was stitching the necklace, I measured a number of times until I reached what I thought was the middle.  Then I figured out how many more teal sections were needed and laid the beads out for them.  Then I stitched until the end and didn't measure when it was all done.  I did test it on my neck, and it seemed fine, but after I added the clasp and wove in the thread, it was too short.  It fit, but it was too tight.

My husband said, "Do you have more of those snap clasps?" then suggested what I was already thinking - add an extender.  I grabbed beading wire, another snap clasp, some clear 6/0 (or so) beads, a few crimp beads, and my trusty Xuron 4 in 1 crimper tool.  In no time at all, I had an extender:

It's a little over 2" long.  Here's how it looks on the necklace:

Of course, this will only work with necklaces that have the same size snap clasp.  Since it's behind the neck, it wouldn't matter if the clasps were different colors.

It wasn't uncomfortable like I thought it would be, but I decided to take apart one end of the necklace and add a few inches to it.  I'll keep the extender around in case I want the necklace a touch longer or if I screw up in my measuring again.  In its spare time it can be a necklace for my turtle:

No, I didn't forget about the tongue twister I promised you.  It's coming.  I'm hoping to have a final project to show you first.

Perfectly matched Ever-Evolving Spiral

I hope you're not sick of the Ever-Evolving Spiral I keep blogging about.  I'm not!  I'm playing with colors and the different thicknesses, and I don't think I can ever get bored of it.

Recently I bought a whole bunch of beads to match a top that needed the perfect jewelry, but that turned out to be more difficult than I thought it was going to be.  I'll show you that and give you a new tongue twister on Tuesday.

I got so frustrated with that project that I thought I'd take a shot at matching another top of mine that needed a necklace:

The sleeves are really long, so I don't need a bracelet.  The neckline is a V, but it's not very deep, so I wanted something that would be thin.  I decided to stitch an Ever-Evolving Spiral using just the first thickness.

I went searching for beads to match, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had the perfect gray, purple, and blue-green/teal/whatever it is (let's call it teal).  I didn't have a good pink for the little spots of it on the top, but that's okay.

Here's the resulting necklace:

I didn't have the perfect color for the core, but a lavender does the job nicely.  Most of the spirals have purple in them, but after every ten I put a splash of the teal.  I got lucky with both the purple and teal beads, finding them in the last few months at various bead society events.

Okay, so we know it's a pretty necklace, but how does it match the top?

Wait, is the necklace there or isn't it?  :)

And here it is on me:

I think it's a great accessory - it complements the top but doesn't overpower the neckline.  I think it'll be versatile, too.  I'm wearing a solid lavender sweater today with a round scoopy neckline.  I'm going to wear the necklace even though there are those spots of teal.

Well, we have my mother's dog while they're on vacation, and she's making noises at me.  I don't know what she wants (it's probably water - I really wish she'd drink on her own), and she's blocking my screen, so I should go.  Come back Tuesday to see that color dilemma and how I solved it!

Jack O' Lantern tube earrings

Last week I posted about two upcoming events: the Milwaukee Bead Show and classes I'm teaching at Terry's Treasures in King George, Virginia. If you missed that post and would like all the details, click here.

Today I sat down and made a pair of earrings for a class sample.  It was my first time stitching holiday tubes without putting them around a key, and I think they make very cute earrings!

You don't have to rub your eyes... the orange used in the earrings is brighter than the orange used in the pendant key I showed you last week.  I made these earrings using the brighter orange so I'd have samples of both opaque and transparent.

Here's a full-blown Tubed Key, or Not Tubed Key necklace with a Jack O' Lantern pendant using the transparent orange beads:

The difference is really striking.  The transparent orange is all laid back, saying, "Yo, this is what Halloween is all about, man."  The bright orange says, "HALLOWEEN IS COMING!!  I'M SO EXCITED!"

Ahem.  Sorry for all the screaming.

I'm glad I made these earrings and not just because I wanted a class sample and a sample of the bright orange.  While I stitched I made notes of things I want to make sure I don't forget to say in class.  I now don't have to try to remember how long the thread should be, how long the tail thread should be, and all sorts of things.  I'm all set for class!

Trying a new sample organization method

With every jewelry design I develop I have to make samples.  Sometimes there's just one or two, but for some designs there are many samples when I'm playing with color, size, and types of beads.  Some samples I put out for sale at craft/art shows, some of them I wear, and most of them go out at bead shows (such as the Milwaukee Bead Show that's coming up on October 5th).  Some of them never go out, but I want to keep them separate from other jewelry in case I need them.  Over the last few years, I've amassed quite a number of pieces of jewelry that I have to keep track of!

Here is what I've been keeping the samples in:

This box was supposed to be for samples that shouldn't be sold.  This next picture shows a stackable box of samples that could be sold:

And stamped dominoes were stored in a plastic bag:

As you can see, it's a jumbled mess.  That's not even all of it, either, because I had some pieces on my desk and in baggies fresh from Bead&Button Show class jurying.

A few months ago, Michaels had a 50% off scrapbook storage sale, and I picked up another handy-dandy tote with sixteen photo boxes:

Yesterday I finally sat down with this box, my samples, some blank address labels, and a pen and got everything sorted:

Some boxes have just one design, but some house more than one.  Here's a closer look at some of the boxes:

My handwriting isn't the best, so if it works out, then I'll type up labels to make it look prettier.

Here's one of the boxes close up:

There's a lot in this one.  Others have just a few pieces.

The downside to this system is that it's a lot bulkier than the old "system".  It has to be carried separately instead of tossed into a bin or something.  I also can't have anyone but Steve help me put things away, and I'll have to work to maintain it.  However, I think it'll be so much easier for me to find things as I'm putting them out on the table (or looking for something to wear).  I do need to go through and tag items that should have a tag but don't, but this is a good start.

If you have a lot of jewelry to sell and want to keep the designs separate, keep this system in mind.  Even if you don't sell, if you have a lot of jewelry that you've made for yourself, I could see using a box like this to separate colors or types.