Crymson Flower

warm spot

2009-01-04T23:26:00Z

Here are our two little beasties doing what they do best...hogging up the warmest places in the house. This time they both curled up on the heat vent behind the curtains in the front room. At least they were sharing the good spot and not arguing over it! They hung out here for a little bit until they spotted Chris and I laying on the couch. Then they upgraded to lay on us and became our little space heaters!

finished boxes

2009-01-02T12:05:00Z

So far I’ve accomplished a lot in 2009...I spent yesterday constructing and finishing my boxes! woo hoo! I think they turned out pretty good considering my lack of experience. Although they are no where near perfect or in some places flush! But they will work for what they are made for and that is a display.

Earlier this week we measured and cut out the pieces from plywood. I wasn’t great at following the lines so Chris did most of the cutting. Yesterday I spent the day measuring what needed to be trimmed off. Assembling the boxes, sanding, and painting. It sounds like it could happen quicker than it does. It took most of the day!
I learned that I would not make a good carpenter. There’s a lot of measuring and needing to be perfect in cuts and angles. That really didn’t appeal to me while I was making the boxes. But I could definitely understand that that meticulous work would be immensely rewarding when the project is finished. I’m proud of my boxes I couldn’t imagine how happy I’d be if I’d constructed a rocking chair or something fancy! Metalwork has a lot of perfectionism in it too. I greatly appreciate that skill but my taste is more of the rough, natural, non-perfect pieces.

I painted the finished boxes chocolate brown and they’ll stack on top of each other as shown in the picture below. The pepsi can is for scale.

I have a lot of other things on my list of how to display my flowers. I’m not sure what all I’ll get to because I’m starting to get into the beading mood again. I don’t want to fight that when it comes and I have some fun ideas coming to me. I also need to take some pics of some flowers I finished a while back. I’ve just now put them into their finished settings so they are ready to enter the gallery.
This weekend we head to the Dude’s to play video games on his brand new TV. We’re going to get a batch of beer brewing, and he’s going to make us some sushi. mmmmmm, sushi. =0)

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T13:57:00Z

Good bye ‘08 and hello ‘09!!! I can’t believe it’s over, the last two months have been a whirlwind and have just flown by. We spent last night with friends that we don’t get to see very often. It was a blast. Nobody went overly crazy and so we were all just having a good time. As for plans/intentions/resolutions for the new year, depending how you think of it I either don’t have very many or I have a ton. I have a lot of plans and goals I’ve set up. Probably too many to handle and not go a little nutty. But after a couple days of pondering what to take out I couldn’t take anything out. So I’m going to attempt them all and do my best at each one while I’m doing it. Enjoy each person as much as I can while I’m with them. Really..that’s the best I can ask of myself anyway.
We successfully cut out the pieces of the boxes the other day. No fingers were lost and everything looks good. Today we have off so I’m going to assemble the boxes, sand, and paint them. I’m also planning on playing some old school nintendo with my hubby. We downloaded the old fun games from the NES and the SNES and have been having fun with them.

a post merry xmas

2008-12-30T13:53:01Z

I hope everyone had a very wonderful holiday. We were out of town for a week and I spent very limited time on a computer...hence the lack of blogs. Santa was very good to us this year, we got a new laptop...the macbook pro!!!! It’s glorious! My current laptop is about 6 years old and slowing dieing. I still need to transfer everything over but right now I’m enjoying a clean fresh new computer, and relearning Mac’s OS.

This was also a very productive week with the family. Before we left I cut my fabric to fit as table clothes on two tables. Then last Tuesday we dug out my Mom’s sewing machine and she and Gram taught me how to sew on the machine! I had originally thought I’d hand sew the hem, which would have taken forever! So I’m glad to have learned the sewing machine, it’s not quite as frightening now! I made a large table cloth for a 6 foot table and the cloth reaches the floor on 3 sides. Then I made two table cloths for a 3foot square table. One is a wonderful red and the second is lace which will go on top of the red.
I did do a little beading. Not as much as I could have but it was vacation. What I did accomplish was pick out color combos for two significant flowers that I’d been thinking about for a month now. So far I’m happy with the color combos. This can be the most important decision in the entire creation. I can have a flower on hold for months b/c of color indecisiveness. I’m excited to have a couple of quite evenings in the bead room playing with these color combinations.

This week I’m putting on my imaginary tool belt and Chris and I are going to make some boxes out of wood. These will serve as a display for some finished flowers. Yesterday we measured and marked the wood. Today I’ll set up an area in the garage and hopefully will cut with our new saw. It’s sorta scary since neither of us have really used a circular saw before but it shouldn’t be too bad. I’m excited to try new things!

covered in ice

2008-12-19T14:13:00Z

This morning we woke up to the world covered in ice. About three quarters an inch of ice is covering everything outside. We wake up early and when we first peaked outside it was silent completely silent except for the slight creaking of ice on limbs. We stared at the TV for about an hour waiting for school closings and calling work every now and then to find out they’ve closed work for the day.

Now I have an extra day to catch up on everything I’ve been behind on. I’m going to package up my christmas packages. They will still get to their destinations late but at least they’re ready to go to the post office. I’m going to bake some bread to hand out to friends and family. And I’m going to work on some beading. Maybe not all today I do have all weekend. But now I definitely don’t feel so rushed. In fact I even went outside and took some pictures of a world of ice. You can click on them for larger pics.

Although we didn’t get snow the ice and the planning of just staying in the house has put me in the Christmas mood. Chicago area got 10inches of snow, so we’ll definitely have a white Christmas this year. It sounded like the storm system is heading East today and that another system is coming next week. Be careful on the roads and enjoy our winter weather!

Treasure Hunting

2008-12-17T15:18:00Z

We had a great time over the weekend. We were busy, out shopping and facing holiday traffic and sales on Saturday. I’m a little over half done. I still need to pick up some things for 3 or 4 people. I’m waiting for the weather and roads to become tolerable again to risk driving around. Apparently the town is low on funds b/c they are barely plowing and salting.

On Sunday we went to take Gram to breakfast and then go treasure hunting in her basement. My grandma used to have her own drape making basement. The basement is set up with two huge working tables for laying out the drapes and pinning. Then there are three ancient sewing machines. The old timey kind that are made of iron and make a ton of noise. She hasn’t made drapes in years but still has lots of old fabric goodies laying around. Huge bolts of fabric that were were unused or extra from past orders. Fabric for drapes comes on bigger bolts than that at Jo-Ann Fabrics....I’m talking a 5 foot tall roll of fabric. Granted some of the patterns are a little dated, but I managed to walk away with about 6 rolls. It was great fun picking through them all and hearing any stories associated with them. I plan to make some table clothes out of the fabrics. I need to do some measuring and cutting then I’ll take it home with me over the holidays to sew a hem on. I also want to try and cut strips of the fabrics of similar colors and crochet a rug from them. This was Mom’s idea and she said we’d try it out over the holiday too. I also have a chair in the bead room that the seat needs to be recovered. I’m going to use one of the fabrics for that as well. Lots and lots to do and work on. We found a quilt my grandma started working on a few years back. She quilted squares with a rose pattern and then embroidered an outline of the fancy fabrics with nice beads. It’s really beautiful. We’re in the process of brain storming ways to finish the project. She spent a lot of time and really enjoyed the project. I think she would like it finished.

This Christmas is going to be all about sewing. I don’t know much about it. I can take a needle and thread and make two pieces of fabric stay together. But I haven’t the foggiest about names of stitches and when to do which one. I’ll bring some beads home as well (mostly b/c I have a color combo that’s burning to be used in a fancy flower!), but next week will be all about sewing and family.

newest bangle

2008-12-12T15:43:00Z

I’d been thinking about making myself a nice sterling silver bracelet most of autumn. I couldn’t find the perfect focal for a while...then working the wire. Finally I came up with this and then it was too small. I don’t make jewelry very often and my natural instinct is to make everything too small. So last year when I made myself a bracelet I fought that impulse and ended up w/ one that was too big. I finally finished a version that fits! It’s still small, and I should have used a gauge smaller (thicker) wire for the mandrel and clasp. But it still stays on fine and makes me happy.

girls weekend

2008-12-11T20:32:01Z

This weekend I head up to Chicago to spend the weekend shopping with Mom. It won’t be entirely girls b/c Dad will be there but I’m sure he’ll steer clear of our Christmas shopping, chatting, wine drinking plannings. It finally hit me this week how quickly Christmas is approaching. I’m still battling off my cold from Thanksgiving and getting sick really makes you lose sense of time. But I have a list of people I need to shop for with no one crossed off yet. So we’ll be busy and apparently have some busy plans on Saturday. Last night we even threw around the idea of on Sunday going down to visit Gram. We’ll take her to lunch and then I want to go through her old fabrics. I want to see is I can use some as table cloths and maybe get some inspiration.
Chris is very excited to have a bachelor weekend. Big plans include eating bad for you food, watching movies, christmas shopping, playing games and working on music. =0)
Tonight we are making a kitty city from boxes we got in at work. It’ll be a good Christmas gift for the kitties.

too warm for snow

2008-12-09T20:22:00Z

It’s been a drippy dark glum couple of days outside. Too warm for snow but pretty chilly in the rain. The rain melted away all our snow and we are back to muddy decemberness. It hasn’t started bothering me yet...maybe b/c I know we’re bound to have more snow sooner or later.
Last night I was very restless though and finally left the house. I wasn’t in the mood to bead, watch tv, shop, or do anything really. After bumming around Hobby lobby I drove up to Barnes and Noble. I treated myself to a hot chocolate from Starbucks and then curled up on the floor and looked through their art section. Then I curled up in one of their chairs and read a magazine. It was nice. I didn’t get anything done per se but I did finally relax.

Gift to the Gods

2008-12-04T17:47:00Z

About half way through the creation of this bouquet I made the comment that this was something that could have been seen as an offering to ancient gods. And at that time I had the image of a young girl on her wedding day placing her handmade wedding bouquet on an alter as an offering to the Greek goddess Athena. It is an honorable present and a wish seeking luck and love in her new marriage.

The beginnings of this bouquet started last spring. I was contacted about a potential commission and the colors requested were gold, silver, and white. These were colors that had never occurred to me to be brought together to compliment each other. I immediately thought about the heavy metal seed beads that I love and have been using to accent other flowers. How amazing would it be to have flowers using these metallic colors made with those real metals? The two larger lilies with the silver tips use sterling silver metal seed beads, the gold beads in the center are gold colored metal beads. The other lilies came later and all accent each other well.

I finished the bouquet by wrapping the stems with satin ribbon and leaving trailing sheer ribbons. It will make a wonderful wedding bouquet and when it’s not walking down the aisle it looks stunning in the golden glass chalice.

where’d the week go?

2008-12-03T20:08:00Z

I can’t believe a week flew by already! Thanksgiving turned out great. Everyone came down safely and mingled and ate and drank. We cooked a wonderful feast. The turkey came out great! I highly recommend brining turkeys, it gave lots of flavor and was extremely moist. We had tons of desserts, went through almost all the beer, took down 5 bottles of wine! We watched football, played wii, chatted, joked. It was just a really great time. It was really fun cooking for everyone, I think it was mostly stress free b/c everyone helped and gave advice. I think everyone helped/hinted/advised in some way which is pretty cool b/c that means everyone contributed. It is a great memory for the first Thanksgiving we hosted. I’d definitely be up for it again.

Sunday we had our first snow...it was supposed to be a major storm but we only got 4-5inches over 12hours or so. It was a very pretty peaceful first snow. Light small flakes that took a long time to accumulate. We had gone to the video store and rented some classic war/western movies recommended to us by our parents. So we watched ole timey movies, Kelly’s Heroes, Magnificent 7, Where Eagles Dare, and Run Silent Run Deep. We’ve really been enjoying these older movies and plan to watch the Great Escape and maybe some others soon.

I felt like I had been fighting off a cold last week...well it hit full force this week. I’ve been home sick most of this week with a horrible cold. It seems lots of people have been sick lately. I managed to make it a half day at work today. Ugh, how frustrating. I think it’s starting to go away...my figures are crossed.

And finally I want to send a HUGE THANKS to BeadExplorer. I had a wonderful surprise in my mailbox last week...I received a package full of goodies. She sent fresh wonderful tea bags from Sylt. A couple of chocolate Santas that we are saving for when we put up our Christmas decorations. And what I’m most excited about is a mini hand knit sock embellished with beads. Go to BE’s site for a good pic...my pictures didn’t turn out. It is a lily of the valley pattern and I couldn’t capture the details of the knitting but it’s really amazing. She embellished with beads and added a keyring. I’m very hard on my keys so I’m too scared to have it with my keys. Right now I have precious beads in it on my work table in the bead room. Thank you BE!!!!

Turkeys Turkeys eveywhere!

2008-11-26T17:50:00Z

Check out all the turkeys we have in the house right now! And today Mom and Dad will bring their evil turkey down to join my two evil turkeys. We bought a 22lb bird last weekend frozen and Orion and Mira weren’t quite sure what to think of it. They are both 11lb kitties so good thing that bird is already under wraps b/c I think it would have the upper hand against these two!

We’ll have a total of 9 people for thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. As of right now the house is spotless, at least until the cats wake up from their naps. The turkey is bringing in 2gallons of salt water spiced with garlic, lemon, thyme, parsley, sage, rosemary, black peppercorns, and maple syrup. hmmmmm, and then we didn’t have a pot big enough for it all. So it is sitting in our Ale Pale that we ferment our beer in. So add in some beer flavors and I have a feeling it will be one tasty bird!

Hope everyone has a wonderful thanksgiving, eat lots and enjoy!

Harvest Lily

2008-11-25T15:41:01Z

Harvest Lily is perfect for this time of year and it’s creation just sort of happened. I was completely inspired to wrap wire one day. I didn’t have a project that needed it in mind so I just started wrapping. Then these wonderful harvest colors popped out of my collection and begged to be put together. I used the wrapped wire to accent around the petals. The dead branches was an idea that spurred off of my halloween project, Pale Moon. I really liked the way they looked but they didn’t quite work in Pale Moon, but they looked great with this lily. Harvest Lily is permanently planted in the bottom half of a wine bottle. The edges are sanded down smooth and the green color accents the oranges wonderfully.

After the leaves dry up and fall off, when the branches are nothing but dead sticks in the air, the harvest lily blooms to it’s greatest potential.

Maroon’s Light

2008-11-24T01:00:00Z

What a crazy exciting weekend it’s been! After a long crazy week at work we had a nice relaxing Friday evening just the two of us. We knew we’d be busy this weekend and wanted to rest up. Saturday we cleaned house and played mariokart for a while before heading out to the Art Guild. Do you remember a month and a half ago I said I donated a framed beaded flower to the Art Guild? Chris and I met up w/ some friends to go to the auction. I’d never been to an auction before but this one was a little different. It was a dutch auction. Which means the prices go down. So the the art is hung on the walls. And they set a price and you have ten minutes to go pick the piece that you want. If more than one person wants the same piece then there will be a bid off. After the ten minutes the prices go down a little and you have another ten minutes to get the pieces you want.
I’m very excited to say that Maroon’s Light was sold very early in the auction. I was so thrilled! It was my first major sell! All the proceeds go to the Art Guild, but it’s still very exciting. And gives me a huge inspiration to try art shows again this year.
Today we left around 6am to drive w/ friends down to St. Louis to watch the Bears play the Rams. It was my first Bears game and a ton of fun. There were a ton of other Bear fans there, all dressed up in our gear. We yelled and cheered and screamed pretty much the entire first half. And by half time we were up 24 to 3. The second half wasn’t quite as exciting but it was still a really great time. We didn’t get home until after 6 tonight. Now I’m exhausted and ready for bed. Turkey day is this week… love turkey day! And more new pieces will be posted soon!!!

Amongst the Ordinary

2008-11-22T00:31:00Z

Here is the first of my recently completed projects. It stands about 14 inches tall and is planted in a round wooden container about 6 inches in diameter.
The flower can be found deep in a forest, an exotic and bizarre forest, the kind only seen in Burton or Tolkien films and books. It grows on the forest floor in the rare openings created by a recently fallen tree, and sprouts up amongst the ordinary lilies and leaves.

I doodled this flower after watching Big Fish with Miranda this summer. I always like the part where he takes the short cut through the haunted forest where people go in and never come out. And that is because they find the town of Spectre and tend to stay in town. I thought this was a fictional enough flower to belong in this haunted forest, maybe even picked and cherished by the people of Spectre.