Ramblings

Hello again!

Well it's been fairly quiet around here... extremely HOT though... the past weekend we have been hovering around 105 and HUMID. UGH. But we are starting to cool a bit now.. only in the low 90s.. still humid but more bearable.

I've mostly been trying to finish up projects that have been laying around for a while so I can feel good about creating something NEW!  So this week I have been able to finish up a third Nefertiti necklace, two wrap bracelets, a pair of earrings for the shop, and I've been working on my chain maille bracelet. I LOVE this bracelet!!! It's the Dragon Scale technique.. I have about 8-9 hours in it already and it's a little over half finished! Definitely have a great respect for the medieval armorers!! This is about 1/4 finished in this picture.

Since we were off work yesterday, we decided to go for a hike. The DuPont State Forest is only about an hour away from us. We recently started going there after living so close for all these years! It's a beautiful place with miles and miles of trails... hopefully one day I can say I've seen it all!! (maybe?)

 David and our 'children' on top of the smaller mountain, at a trail crossing. I really need to have my camera out all the time on these hikes! This entire area was rock with patches of low growing evergreen and tall grasses, and then here and there were some stubby pine trees. It was very cool and odd looking at the same time. The rock is worn smooth from hikers, mountain bikers and weather. Beautiful views of the surrounding mountains as well! We met some mountain bikers at the top and they asked us to snap a pic of them and then returned the favor! It's nice because we rarely have pictures of the two of us together on these hikes!

 This is coming off the rock and heading back into the tree line..

 Beautiful ferns were everywhere.. it was cool but still slightly humid down in the trees....

 The mountain laurel is still in full bloom and just beautiful!!

And there's our trail!! I simply love the MapMyRun app!!!

So that's how I've been spending my time these days, well, that and running and working out! My weight loss has slowed down with just running so I've started adding in strength training to build muscle and burn more fat!

Thanks for following my little blog :) I love reading when people post in the comments! It makes me feel loved ;)  I am going to try to kick it up and post more often!

Have a great day!!!

Greetings!!

Today starts a portion of my weekend! I'm off work tomorrow and then back at the cafe on Saturday. Then off again on Sunday!

Today was my Bead Store day! I love working at Obsessions!  I helped a lady that had never stitched with beads create a beautiful tennis bracelet today using seed beads and 6mm crystals. She was so pleased with it she bought more supplies to make another one at home. I really love being able to share knowledge with people and see their joy when they 'get it' with a pattern or technique.

I'm working on finalizing what I get to teach in February at the store.. one of the options is going to be a Start here, Finish at home project but it's one I LOVE and hope people won't be intimidated by it.

I have several projects on my table to finish up and few repairs to do and even a couple custom jobs I MUST get started on soon! But the other week I woke up around 3 am from a beading dream... yes, I dream about beads.... I sketched out my idea quickly and went back to sleep.. If I don't do that then it's gone by morning...
 So.. this is my inspiration:

I have always admired the Uffington Horse in Britain. I'd love to travel there and actually SEE it one day... Maybe if I sell enough jewelry... eventually...
Here is what I have sketched up and started beading on for making a cuff  :)   I don't think this one will be for sale though ;)

The horse is beaded in a matte bone seed bead and then I'm doing swirls of a matte green.. the celtic knots will be done in a brown iris charlotte for a little bit of pop and sparkle. I'm really geeked to FINALLY be doing a beaded cuff AND to make it using Uffy as inspiration! :D

Where do you find your inspiration to create?????

Decisions and the Great Egg Hunt

Hello Everyone!
It's been a few days I know.. I was just really enjoying those beach pictures!! And I've been a little busy keeping the assorted farm critters dry this past weekend. UGH. Rain is all well and good but we really don't need quite so much every day!
However, today was quite lovely and reached 66* F. Yay! Too bad I spent most of it at work indoors... there are some things I miss about working at barns.
Thanks to the rain, I feel I'm missing something ... ah yes, the eggs. I have 3 flocks of chickens, one stays in a smallish dog lot, one is free ranging but stays very close to their coop next to the barn, and the third and largest flock has a coop near my garden area and they free range the property. Which has been fine. Until last week. They decided that the old abandoned house next door looked like a lovely place to find some winter bugs and oddities... so yeah. Thanks for that! Now I get to spend what little daylight hours I have snooping around an abandoned house (that is rather creepy) on someone else's property, looking for hidden eggs. YAY ME.
It looks like I'll be spending some hard earned cash on fencing in the Spring. I would like to do it NOW but I am also on a vehicle hunt... but that's a story for another blog day....

So in the past week I've had a few choices come up jobwise and I'm trying to reach a few decisions... so I'm considering and planning and should have something finalized this week.... I'll keep you posted! Lots of thinking going on over here... can you smell the smoke??

Bead-wise... Lots going on there as well! I've been working on my Beading Babes projects.. I LOVE both projects..... but this month I've seriously had some mental issues with both of them! The necklace I just love and was SO looking forward to finishing it... just couldn't figure out what my issue was, took the instructions to the bead shop, sat down and looked at them and noticed for the FIRST TIME that I totally missed a Step! Really?!? So... I really WANT to finish this one but since I've already taken it apart twice I think I'm going to set it aside for a few days and let my brain rest with this pattern....

I did finish the second project for the Babes.... and was also disappointed!! But this time I DID read the pattern correctly.. LOVE the beads I chose... just somehow it's about 1.5 inches TOO SMALL! Not really sure what happened except that I probably used too much tension.. it's just what I do!

So, after that small disappointment I bent my mind to something totally different and did my first official chain maille piece! I simply LOVE it!!!

Tomorrow promises to be a looooooooooooong day: work at the cafe at 9:30 - 2:00 then off to the bead shop until 6:00 and then our final obedience class with the pups! We are going to do a test of some sort tomorrow.. I'm sorry to say that I am totally blanking on the name of it! It involves your pup obeying some basic commands and then there is a portion where you get to leave the room for a set time and your dog stays with the handler and has to behave. Ok.. so I THINK both of ours will do fine with that... but still.. it's a test... like in school... and even though we have been studying hard I still stress out over tests!!   

but hey.... I'm just happy that they are SO much better behaved and I actually enjoy walking them again!

So, until next time.. everyone have a happy Wednesday and I'll catch up with you again soon!!!