Cactus from Quartzsite AZ are doing well

Beading with the Beady-Eyed Bunch was wonderful today. It was wonderful of Peggy to host the Vernal Equinox beading group. Very very good to see everyone and laugh and enjoy each other's company. Very good. It has been too long.

It is going to take me some time to sort out the pictures to post here but I wanted to post these this evening. Last year in June Deb, Bob, and I harvested cactus off of the AZ desert. We planted them in the window at work in July and I hadn't seen them since I left the unit in the middle of August. Today I found two of the pots at Peggy's - they were all grown up and having babies of their own!

This picture is from last July when we were planting - these are all Paper Cactus and Pine Cone Cactus:


And a close up:


Here they are all moved into Peggy's home and growing happily:



Safe travels and safety to Drew - he is off to Haiti tomorrow as a pastor.
Best wishes and prayers to Phyllis as she will have surgery on Monday.
Safe travels to Madeleine as she left from our beading group to travel to IL to take care of family business.

Preparing for the Beady-Eyed Bunch Celebration of the Vernal Equinox

We are all heading to Peggy's house in Indianapolis tomorrow for the first annual celebration of the vernal equinox that occurs at 13:32 tomorrow! Beads will be beaded, gossip will be shared, food will be consumed...and - yes - pictures will be taken! I am taking 2 batteries with me just in case.
I will take this necklace with me for 'show and tell' - there will be a lot of show and tell! I did this just for the Beady-Eyed Bunch gathering. It is another very easy one but only really looks good in size 8's. I tried it in size 11's and it was just.....'wonky' is the only word that comes to mind.


A heart for my Beady-Eyed Friends!
And some close ups in case someone wants a better look:



Now for the really new design! I finally broke down and have started a Cellini spiral - it is just a variation of a peyote tube, even count, but with different sized beads. I have wanted to learn this for quite some time but never had the motivation - so I started it now so I could show off! No - I didn't put the colors and beads together - puhlease, that's not my talent at all! I bought a kit from FusionBeads.com - it would take me years to put all of this together. I started it last night, not sure if I have done it correctly, only time and more beads will tell. Here is everything on the little traveling beading tray I will be taking with me tomorrow:

And here is a close up of the critter itself - I have about 11 rounds done at this point:

Peggy is making Tiramisu and Vicki is bringing Buffalo Wing Dip...Awesome!

Mom and Sydney's new pal, Tinkerbelle

Tinker seems to be settling right in. A few skirmishes as she and Sydney sort out who does what in the pack. Tinker has taken to remaining on the 'high ground'! It is safer that way when she has finally gotten on Sydney's last nerve.



Mom said Tinker was sharing a secret with her! I wonder what it was?!


Hmmmm, I guess it was the day for secrets but I was the only one who wasn't in on it. Tinker - you are a little troublemaker!


Tink likes to hang out in the ivy for some reason - maybe it slows Sydney down.


Sydney is taking a bit of a breather....it's hard work keeping up with a one-year old puppy!


Most of my pictures look like this - the two dogs speeding by. One chases the other then the game reverses and all I get is noses and tails!


Once again - thank you, Judy! All is going well. You done good.

Beady-Eyed Bunch! Simple peyote stitch bracelet

Yet more beading....


A very very simple peyote bracelet. It was a free pattern from FusionBeads.com at one point. It is very very simple and uses size 8 Delica beads which are very big. At least much bigger than we are used to working with.

Did I mention how simple this one is? I bought several colors of the size 8 Delicas and when those are gone I don't think there will be another one of these from me! If you are looking for a simple bracelet that looks very good - this is the one.

The clasp is just a button from Joann Frabrics and a loop. Getting the button to mesh with the loop on the uneven end can be a little tricky so I am showing how I put it on.

For the Beady-Eyed Bunch

Back to beading!

I became fascinated with tourquoise/gray and making minor changes in thread and beads each time. Could I get more boring?!

Happy Hatch-day, Bubba!

Bubba the Bird is 17 years old this month! He has been munching on cantelope, honey-dew melon, red grapes, and pineapple this evening.
For those of you who have never had the opportunity to meet him (and give him belly scratches like his friend, Cecily, does) - Bubba is a Dusky Conure. His ancesters were from the Amazon Basin. Bubba, however, is from Indianapolis. He is as well-traveled as any bird and has lived in Indiana, Montana, Nevada, and Georgia, and visited all of the states inbetween! He has a travel cage and a spot up high in the extended cab of my pick up truck where he can see out and greet everyone. Bandit, a Parrotlet, r.i.p., had the other side. If left alone, even for a few minutes, they found that they could whistle over some visitors to talk to them until I came back! Parrots love an audience!

Why is he peeping out from between two pieces of paper? Dusky Conures like to 'burrow' - in their natural habitat some of them live inside abandoned termite mounds. I put down two sheets of unprinted newspaper so he can have his own little domain inside a paper termite mound!