Bunny Kisses on my Knee
For some reason Thor thinks my knee needs cleaning. He is currently focusing like mad on licking every square inch of it. Now my pants have one damp knee. Bunnies are so strange, yet adorable.
He seems to have moved on to just hanging out on the couch and leaving me little cocoa puffs. Never mind. He decided to clean up after himself.
I tried something new craft-wise for my Mom and Betty's birthdays.
They both like purple, so they got little purple and gold beaded boxes. The technique and basic pattern came from Julia S. Pretl's book Little Beaded Boxes (Please click on the book name to check out her lovely webpage. She has some neat patterns that I want to buy and try someday that are not in her book.)
They are entirely peyote stitched. The sides are the same circular technique as those amulet pouches. This one went to my Mom. It has feet and a little lid pull that are faceted amethyst beads.
This one is Betty's Box. I had a hell of a time getting the camera to cooperate with me. The colors are sort of ok, but I played with it before posting it quite a bit. The gold is a darker shade than the prior box, plus it has a metallic purple and translucent bright purple with a creamy colored actual gold filled bead as the stripe color. The feet and lid pull are purple fiber optic beads.
If you want to see more pictures of each, take a look at my Craftster Gallery
Other than learning the beginnings of 3-D technique, I picked up a few other things along the way. The clear beads chewed through thread. I use Silamide, which is a pre waxed twisted nylon. Plus I wax a lot as I go too - it still didn't make a difference. The first box didn't have any of those translucent beads and it didn't break once. I bought some fireline to try for the next time, and to use when I make one for myself out of size 15 Delicas. (smaller beads). I also found needles in high tension formed projects tend to warp out a lot faster than regular flat or circular endeavors. My old needle now looks like a piece of discarded wire from a wire wrapping project. Usually they just get a pleasant curve that helps pick up the beads.
The original pattern called for two different shades of blue, and black as the lines. I wanted something that stood out more, so I added another color and changed the lines. I like how they turned out. Believe it or not, I still really don't care for purple.
Prior to the boxes, I made Christmas gifts for a ton of family and friends. It took a while to post them, since the set for my Mom was part of her birthday gift.
It's winter in Alaska. I see enough snow and ice outside. People ended up getting snowflakes in some of their favorite colors. Maybe during the summer I'll make some that look more snowy.
Again lots of purples in there. I have so many friends who like purple. I need to get back into red tones.
These patterns came from Sandra D. Halpenny's book Beaded Lace Snowflake Ornaments If you think these are as mindblowingly awesome as I did, check out the link to her store. She has another book (ebook only format) as well as downloadable patterns that aren't in the printed book. All of which I am just DYING for.
They are actually bead netting. I have never, ever, been able to do bead netting properly before trying these! They were a ton of fun, each flake was a quick little project too. I also learned how to stiffen them so they keep their shape like starched crochet projects.
At the moment I'm putting together a Delica sample set of size 11s. I found a kit for this on etsy from The Bead Drawer. Now I will be able to figure out what they look like on a string rather than in a vial or baggie when I buy them. Trust me, that was starting to drive me nuts when I was looking for colors to create my own pattern variations. I bought a couple of other kits, so I can look at the corresponding seed beads and smaller ones too. It makes my ODC happy. Plus having a set of them in a binder will really be handy, since people at work keep asking me if I will make them a something.
I haven't made progress on my Massivly Huge TW Cross Stitch Dragon since before I went to Katie's. Christmas happened and I felt so horrible from a couple of different infusions along with getting a couple of colds during the normally good two weeks between infusions. I'm sort of on beads for a little bit now. I will go back to it soon, I think.
Since Ron, my old boss, passed away on New Year's Day we are getting a new guy sometime soon. I'm sort of anxious about that. There are rumors that he's a real hard case from the public sector. I don't want to focus so much on it, since who knows how anything goes until he gets there? I still have that little back part of my mind worrying- yeah I don't take time off like everyone else I work with - BUT they do have on file that I have a chronic illness. I DO have a lot of medical stuff that eats up sick leave. I DO have a lot of days when I probably shouldn't be at work but am anyway. I have liability written all over me. He can't do anything to fire me without cause; however, he can make my life a total fucking hell... I've read about people with chronic illnesses pretty much getting bullied out of their jobs (ie training goes to others, not them. They get assigned all of the worst of the worst when no one else does- etc.) I don't know.
We have been really busy at work over the past couple of weeks. I need a vacation. I really want a huge chunk of time off to do something fun. I don't know if that will happen.
As is, Chris and I are taking a long weekend (leaving Wednesday night after work, coming home on Sunday) and going to Anchorage! That will be excellent. The best part: Fur Rondy will be in full swing, AND that Saturday is the start of the Iditarod - in downtown Anchorage!!! So I'm really psyched. I have always wanted to go during this time but never made it! I really can't wait! There is so much going on, fur auctions, sales, a Native Arts craft fair, dancing, plays, music, entertainment, EVERYTHING! I'll have to take pictures or get Chris to do so.
Joe is nice enough to come by to feed and c
Thor was sitting on the couch next to me, decided to start clean a rear leg, then tumbled over down towards the back rest since he was on a slight slant. Rolling bunnies are hilarious, and he looked embarrassed. Now he is concentrating on digging at all of the blankets to move them into some sort of palatial bunny estate.
Now I need to motivate myself to get dressed and go to the store. Thor needs more food, I need stuff for the week, and it's nice to get out. Chris is doing fine, he managed to get OT doing snow removal this weekend which made him happy. He's just really busy.
He seems to have moved on to just hanging out on the couch and leaving me little cocoa puffs. Never mind. He decided to clean up after himself.
I tried something new craft-wise for my Mom and Betty's birthdays.
They both like purple, so they got little purple and gold beaded boxes. The technique and basic pattern came from Julia S. Pretl's book Little Beaded Boxes (Please click on the book name to check out her lovely webpage. She has some neat patterns that I want to buy and try someday that are not in her book.)
They are entirely peyote stitched. The sides are the same circular technique as those amulet pouches. This one went to my Mom. It has feet and a little lid pull that are faceted amethyst beads.
This one is Betty's Box. I had a hell of a time getting the camera to cooperate with me. The colors are sort of ok, but I played with it before posting it quite a bit. The gold is a darker shade than the prior box, plus it has a metallic purple and translucent bright purple with a creamy colored actual gold filled bead as the stripe color. The feet and lid pull are purple fiber optic beads.
If you want to see more pictures of each, take a look at my Craftster Gallery
Other than learning the beginnings of 3-D technique, I picked up a few other things along the way. The clear beads chewed through thread. I use Silamide, which is a pre waxed twisted nylon. Plus I wax a lot as I go too - it still didn't make a difference. The first box didn't have any of those translucent beads and it didn't break once. I bought some fireline to try for the next time, and to use when I make one for myself out of size 15 Delicas. (smaller beads). I also found needles in high tension formed projects tend to warp out a lot faster than regular flat or circular endeavors. My old needle now looks like a piece of discarded wire from a wire wrapping project. Usually they just get a pleasant curve that helps pick up the beads.
The original pattern called for two different shades of blue, and black as the lines. I wanted something that stood out more, so I added another color and changed the lines. I like how they turned out. Believe it or not, I still really don't care for purple.
Prior to the boxes, I made Christmas gifts for a ton of family and friends. It took a while to post them, since the set for my Mom was part of her birthday gift.
It's winter in Alaska. I see enough snow and ice outside. People ended up getting snowflakes in some of their favorite colors. Maybe during the summer I'll make some that look more snowy.
Again lots of purples in there. I have so many friends who like purple. I need to get back into red tones.
These patterns came from Sandra D. Halpenny's book Beaded Lace Snowflake Ornaments If you think these are as mindblowingly awesome as I did, check out the link to her store. She has another book (ebook only format) as well as downloadable patterns that aren't in the printed book. All of which I am just DYING for.
They are actually bead netting. I have never, ever, been able to do bead netting properly before trying these! They were a ton of fun, each flake was a quick little project too. I also learned how to stiffen them so they keep their shape like starched crochet projects.
At the moment I'm putting together a Delica sample set of size 11s. I found a kit for this on etsy from The Bead Drawer. Now I will be able to figure out what they look like on a string rather than in a vial or baggie when I buy them. Trust me, that was starting to drive me nuts when I was looking for colors to create my own pattern variations. I bought a couple of other kits, so I can look at the corresponding seed beads and smaller ones too. It makes my ODC happy. Plus having a set of them in a binder will really be handy, since people at work keep asking me if I will make them a something.
I haven't made progress on my Massivly Huge TW Cross Stitch Dragon since before I went to Katie's. Christmas happened and I felt so horrible from a couple of different infusions along with getting a couple of colds during the normally good two weeks between infusions. I'm sort of on beads for a little bit now. I will go back to it soon, I think.
Since Ron, my old boss, passed away on New Year's Day we are getting a new guy sometime soon. I'm sort of anxious about that. There are rumors that he's a real hard case from the public sector. I don't want to focus so much on it, since who knows how anything goes until he gets there? I still have that little back part of my mind worrying- yeah I don't take time off like everyone else I work with - BUT they do have on file that I have a chronic illness. I DO have a lot of medical stuff that eats up sick leave. I DO have a lot of days when I probably shouldn't be at work but am anyway. I have liability written all over me. He can't do anything to fire me without cause; however, he can make my life a total fucking hell... I've read about people with chronic illnesses pretty much getting bullied out of their jobs (ie training goes to others, not them. They get assigned all of the worst of the worst when no one else does- etc.) I don't know.
We have been really busy at work over the past couple of weeks. I need a vacation. I really want a huge chunk of time off to do something fun. I don't know if that will happen.
As is, Chris and I are taking a long weekend (leaving Wednesday night after work, coming home on Sunday) and going to Anchorage! That will be excellent. The best part: Fur Rondy will be in full swing, AND that Saturday is the start of the Iditarod - in downtown Anchorage!!! So I'm really psyched. I have always wanted to go during this time but never made it! I really can't wait! There is so much going on, fur auctions, sales, a Native Arts craft fair, dancing, plays, music, entertainment, EVERYTHING! I'll have to take pictures or get Chris to do so.
Joe is nice enough to come by to feed and c
Thor was sitting on the couch next to me, decided to start clean a rear leg, then tumbled over down towards the back rest since he was on a slight slant. Rolling bunnies are hilarious, and he looked embarrassed. Now he is concentrating on digging at all of the blankets to move them into some sort of palatial bunny estate.
Now I need to motivate myself to get dressed and go to the store. Thor needs more food, I need stuff for the week, and it's nice to get out. Chris is doing fine, he managed to get OT doing snow removal this weekend which made him happy. He's just really busy.