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!

Tinkerbelle

Thanks to my friend, Judy, Miss Tinkerbelle has come to live with Mom and Sydney. Tinker is a 1 year old Yorkie girl, Sydney is an 11 year old Cairn Terrier (a Toto dog), Mom is.....Leader of the Pack!
This is a picture of the pack looking out the front window...a nice sunny place to watch the neighborhood and also take a little snooze in the sun if all is quiet.



Like all one year old puppies, Tinker is 'full speed ahead'! It is hard to sneak up on her and get a picture. This is the only one I was able to get. I wanted to be a 'before' picture before she goes to the groomer.




Welcome, Tinkerbelle - Tinker is on the left in this picutre. Judy made sure you have the very best of homes! Thank you, Judy!

Mini looking for Rocky

Doesn't it figure..... Here is Mini, looking for Rocky


And where is our Little Prince? Hiding from Mini!


And here is my work environment today. I always aspire to be neat and tidy. A place for everything and everything in it's place. Sadly, I don't think it is ever to be. I get everything organized, then a sort of residential implosion occurs, and everything jumps right back into chaos. I can hear my mother now.....'you're not going anywhere until you clean up your room, young lady.....'! Little brother, though, very organized, very neat, little neat handwriting - you can actually read his handwriting, looks like typing or something. Everything on his desk is all lined up neatly - I swear he uses a level to line up his notes. I just don't get it!

Some assembly required - happy birthday, Cecily!

My friend Karen, a jewelry artist, taught me how to knot pearls many years ago. And re-taught me every time I forgot how to do it - very patient lady she is. Most of those who bead with me know that I don't have a comfortable sense of color and form. So I solved that problem - I just knotted a whole bunch of pearl strands, put end tips on them and sent them to Cecily to make her own darned pearl necklace! Cecily and Karen are artists, I just like to make things. So - the 'some assembly required' pearl necklace was born.

With any luck, Cecily will send me a picture of herself, wearing what she has created! (Hint, hint, Cecily!)

First.....you knot up a whole mess of pearl strands That is kind of like frying up a whole mess of mushrooms or catching a mess of fish. 'Mess' is a unit of measurement here in Southern Indiana!


Then you try to make it easy for someone to assemble several of these strands into a necklace. So the pre-made clasp and end tips are born:

You have had the foresight to use bead-tips that can be easily bent around the finding and you purchase little tiny chain nose pliers to go in the package. I can't imagine someone not having chain nose pliers but one never knows.

You put it all in a box and ship it off.....Cecily got her box today and we 'met' on Skype while she opened it and the assembly process was explained! Ta-Da!
Karen taught me to knot pearls as she does - using the simplest of tools:

Just a tweezers, pearl silk cord that has been stretched for 24 hours, and pearls. That's all there is to it. Unfortunately, if you make a mistake it can't be 'undone'. You have to cut the whole strand apart, stretch more silk, and start again. Knotting is very tedious but sure does require attention - it is almost like meditation.
There you have it - Cecily's birthday present is my poor attempt to mimic one of Karen's beautiful necklaces. My idea is that quantity might beat quality! If anyone can make it work, Cecily can.
In case you are interested, Karen is the 'real deal' artist. She does her own designing, cuts her own stones, and does her own gold work. If I can get her permission I can post some pictures of her booth and work some day!
Meanwhile, I can't wait to see what Cec comes up with!

Visiting Cardinal

Not the priest, not the St. Louis, but the Hoosier Cardinal! I looked out the window and saw this fellow sitting in my nieghbor's tree. These pictures were taken from my living room window and through a window screen. Not bad for shaky hands! Of course, the 'fix picture' option in Photobucket helped a little.



Do you suppose he was scouting out a new home for his lady?



From the look on his face I would think that his lady has told him to go out and find a better nest than last year!

He ain't happy, as we would say in Southern Indiana. But he sure is a purty boy!