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.