Meet Velesa

aka She-Devil!
We are cat sitting for Mom and Dad while they vacation in southern IL checking out the state parks and wineries. Chris says we must be cat people if the number of cats in the house out number us. I’ll give him that. Velesa, yes named for the dinosaur, is an old kitty. We got her the year Jurassic Park came out on video. She was jumping around like a raptor and so she got her name. She’s half Siamese and half Persian, so that explains the long hair and her vocal qualities.
All these years she’s been the only cat in Mom and Dad’s house. She’d never even been in the same house as another cat until we got Orion. And that didn’t go over too well. Last November we watched her and she was not a happy camper but she did ok. This time around she wants nothing to do with me. She’s kept separate from Orion and Mira, and since they have each other they leave her alone. But if I go in the room with her she lets me know how upset she is. Chris went in to feed her last night and she became her lovey dovey self. He brushed her for a bit, she ate in front of him while he rubbed her. So at least she likes someone in the house. The picture is one Mom took and caught her yawning. It’s pretty much the same look that she’s been giving me the last couple days while hissing except her eyes are open! She’s actually a very pretty cat, she just misses Mom and Dad.

Here’s the next flower I uploaded…. Just Beginning. I showed it a couple months ago when I was fist making petals for it. I think it finished up really great. I’m loving the layers of petals. This is also the first flower I’ve given a bud.

so good you can eat ‘em

Time is flying by and I have more bouquets to show off.  These are not part of a series or anything, they just all happend to get named for fruit/berries.  BE asked how I’ve been coming up with the names.  Mostly I just say what the colors remind me of…unless it is a bigger project.  The bigger pieces tend to have an inspiration that picks the colors and styles.  When I finished with this huge batch I was sitting on the deck with Chris and we brainstormed up the names to all but three pieces.  And even those have found names now.

First up is Blueberry.  These are flowers I made a couple years ago.  The blues in them really glow together with the purples.  They were originally made to become apart of my first large bouquet piece.  That never happened b/c life took over, but the flowers themselves are still quite wonderful.

Watermellon is the next yummy bouquet.  And what else would pinks and greens bring to the mind.  This is a small simple bouquet that really reminds me of summer.  Hot days equal smaller flowers and yet just as pretty as the large lush ones found in spring.

The last one for the day is one of the bouquets I had a hard time naming.  Tutti Fruity is what I came up with, totally corny and yet it works.  This bouquet looks great paired with Horizon.  The colors are similar and together they blend so well its like a large bouquet piece. 

April Nights, Horizon, Candy

It’s a chilly spring morning, but the only morning of the weekend that rain is not in the forecast.  I was hoping to get the squashes planted outside this weekend even though the weather man says its supposed to get dangerously close to freezing over night in a couple days.  But if they don’t get in the ground they’ll die from lack of space.  I think I will risk the weather and see what happens.  Its just to pretty outside not to be doing something out there for part of the day.

Since it’s so chilly now I thought I’d add a few more flowers to the gallery.  First is April Nights, these flowers were all made this year.  They were inspired by the purples I had pulled out while trying to design a different flower.  I didn’t have luck with that but this came out of it. 

Another bouquet that I’ve added is Horizon.  This uses a combination of older and newer flowers.  I love the combining the bright colors.  They remind me of all inclusive vacation resorts, or islands, or tropical drinks.  This one in particular reminded me of the horizon right around dawn.  Pinks, oranges, and then the light peeking thru….  maybe it could be the horizon on an all inclusive resort sipping a tropical drink! 

And this last flower is sort of a new design.  It’s called Cotton Candy, and the pinks really do sparkle nicely.  This flower is permanently planted in a small wooden box.  B/c it is permanently planted it’s apart of the table bouquet section in my gallery.  I have a couple more of these to show soon.  They are perfect for a splash of color on your desk or on a book shelf. 

Peridot plus 2

Some times a girl just needs some wine, and some days she just needs a beer. Monday was a wine night, Chris and I polished off one of the few remaining Owl Creek wines. Yesterday was a beer night. I worked late, didn’t feel like cooking, its been a wacky week so we went to BWW for wings and tall beers. Nothing special or flavorful…just a nice 23oz glass of beer while sitting outside on a nice spring day. It was glorious!

I also worked on uploading some pictures of new bouquets! This is Peridot Blossom. I really love this flower and it gets a lot of attention. Even BE spotted it when it was pictured in the piles on my assembly line. Something about the colors just glow and really the pictures don’t give the sparkle this flower emits justice. The fun yellowy green sparkly beads were a real treasure to find, and I wish I had bought more. They are a 3cut bead of yellow-green glass and lined in pink to give the unusual color. If the gemstone peridot were a plant this is what the flower would look like.

I’ve also uploaded two more flower bouquets. Sherbet and Mermaid’s garden. Click the links to see the hand bouquets in the Gallery.

Funny thing, the assembly line was filled with petals of flowers that have been around for years and never finished. Each of the pieces I posted today are new flowers made this year. Oh well, I have plenty more coming that use lots of older petals and look just as good. =)

all leafed out

I’m here, I just haven’t blog in a while. I caught a cold or allergies or something weird last week and haven’t had any extra energy even to blog! I’m better now, but Chris is starting to catch what I had. =/ I really thought I was suffering from allergies. The news keeps saying how tree pollen is extremely high right now, and I couldn’t stop sneezing! The trees are all blooming now or about to burst into bloom. My fruit trees are white with buds. Lots of small shrubs have tiny leaves on them as well. My hosta are finally coming up, so now I can see them to transplant them. About half of the fern I planted last week has little fiddles coming up. It’s exciting that everything is turning green. And its been warm enough to leave windows open and air out the house. It’s been making the kitty’s very hyper as well. The seedlings I planted a few weeks ago are doing well. The eggplant finally sprouted, but it is tiny and no where ready to go outside. So I learned tomato and eggplant need lots more time to sprout and grow. All the squashes are desperate to get outside, they really need need it. I had planned on planting them this weekend, but its supposed to get down to the 40s early next week! yikes.
Outdoor plants are the only ones all leafed out. Over the weekend I camped out on the couch in the living room surrounded by green beads. I made leaves to finish the 16 bouquets that were on my assembly line. Then finished the construction on them all. Yesterday I took pictures of them plus a couple more that hadn’t seen a camera yet. Tonight I’ll work on the computer and start uploading.
Tomorrow night both Grey’s Anatomy and LOST returns. So get excited

bald for charity

Yesterday was every girl’s dream…it was a wonderful, warm, sunny spring day.  We left work early to shave my husband’s head and then we worked in the yard. 

A little over a month ago my cousin set up a fundraiser through St. Baldrick’s for cancer research.  He committed to shaving his head and both Chris and I thought it was a great idea.  Chris was excited to join in, I procrastinated a bit and then ended up talking myself out of it.  My cousin’s date to shave his head is Saturday, and the original plan was Chris would do it on this day too.  But since yesterday was so nice we did it on the deck outside.  Chris is hoping to raise an additional $500 to add to what my cousin has already. 

St. Baldrick’s began as a casual conversation between friends and has exploded into the world’s biggest volunteer-driven fundraising program for childhood cancer! In eight years, events have taken place in 18 countries and 46 US states, raising over $34 million, and shaving more than 46,000 heads.

Even though St. Baldrick’s is primarily funding children’s cancer research, research is research.  Coming from someone in the science research field all research feeds into more research and basically acts as stepping stones for the next scientist.  So any research going toward cancer will help all cancer patients.

Here are some fun before and after pics.  He’s been bald for approximately 27 hours and he seems to be enjoying it.  It’s amazing how different his head feels, even laying down to sleep last night felt different.  And now and then when we’re driving with the windows down he gets a chill.  He’s been getting compliments on the new look, and seems to be enjoying how it looks himself.  I don’t mind it either.  It was completely worth it and for a good cause.

sneak peak

Not a whole lot to report on bead and garden wise for the last week or so. Some family stuff came up that took up most of the weekend. The dude came up and we hung out, mostly playing video games or beading and homework. I’ve been working on leaves again. I think I need 5 more leaves and I’ll be done for a while. That shouldn’t take very long to do, then I can make up some centers and work on assembly. Basically that means all the piles in the last post I talked about have shifted to different spots on the assembly line. The plans for the week are to continue working on leaves and finishing flowers. I hope to do this today and tomorrow. By the end of the week the weather is supposed to get wonderful, sunny, and warm. I’m hoping to get back into the yard and plant some fern, and maybe lay some brick edging around the garden.
While working on that I’m thinking about my next bouquet piece that I’ve mentioned before. Here is a sneak peak. Funny that I found the glass it will be planted in before I’ve made the bouquet. But it goes perfectly with the theme. I’m really excited about this one. If it turns out the way I’m envisioning it’ll be up there with Jamaican Sun and Oktoberfest!

piles and piles

I thought I would give you an idea of the amount of piles I have in the bead room right now. Last week I spent a lot of time working in there trying to get about a quarter of my unfinished petals a home and bouquet to belong to. Now that 1/4 to 1/3 of petals are sitting in piles in different stages along the assembly line of completion.

The first pic is the pile of unfinished petals that have not proceeded along the assembly line yet. Yes it looks like a lot, and yeah it really is a lot. But in reality I normally have a bigger pile than this. The reason its smaller than usual is b/c I’ve been doing more bouquet recently and less single flowers. Bouquets seem to get completed faster.

Next stop in the line are the flowers that I have the idea and concept for but still need some color beads added to them before they can go to the leaf pile. Either they need a center, or another layer of petals. I have the colors all picked out and next to them. I even have the plan for how I want to make everything. I just need to sit and make the last pieces. From here they would go on top of the desk. I forgot to snap a pic of the top of the desk, it has about 8-10 flowers on it waiting for leaves. Leaves was the last thing I was working on so the desk is covered in green beads and petals wanting foliage.

This is me holding a handful of finished flowers. They are laced, have leaves, and fully constructed. You can’t really tell but I’m holding flowers for 6 separate pieces. Some of them can’t be seen b/c they are lower or on the other side of the flowers shown. While this pile is smaller than the first pile it is roughly the same size as the other piles. So my goal is to double the size of the this pile. If I do that then I should have another 17 pieces to add to the gallery soon. Before they can be added I must get to work, and after that I have to set up the photo tent again. So many steps!!! =0)

Unfortunately there won’t be much beading for the rest of the week and into the weekend. Some family stuff came up and we’ll be busy. But during down times I’ll be planning out my next bouquet piece…preview pic to come soon.  As well as plotting out the next time to get into the bead room and the garden! 

weekend

We need a weekend from our weekend.  We were just as productive Sunday as we were Saturday.  We ran errands most of the morning, which included buying what we needed for the day…aka beer and paint!  Then we started our day, we painted the guest bedroom a very light misty green.  It looks kinda blue, a pretty blue though so its doable.  Between coats we were back in the yard.  We pulled up some brush and honeysuckle that was looking very shabby and dug up those stumps.  Then we went back out front and put some stump killer on the left over shrub stumps.  After that we were beat.  We had a couple beers, sat on the deck for a while, then brought it inside and watched mystery science theater until we were falling asleep. 

This was a small break from making flowers.  I did wrap up a couple on Saturday morning before the work started, other than that we were too busy.  I plan on getting back in there tonight if my brain is still functioning.  The good news…I think I have a fun idea for my next bouquet piece!!!  =0)  I hope to post pics soon.

before/after

Yesterday was the big day…the day I’ve been rambling about for the past two weeks.  The weather was perfect, chilly in the 50s and then warming up to 60, especially in the sun.  We started before 10am, started by doing the easy stuff.  We picked out all the leaves out of the rock.  Sounds easy, and it is, but that rock is super sharp.  I guess I shouldn’t complain, a lot of the sedum and hens and chicks I planted last year came back this probably from the leaves protection from the winter.
Then we dug out the ugly sedum that lined the top of the rock garden.  You can kinda see it on the other side of the low growing cedar.  These have grown way to big for this space, and neither Chris or I liked them.  I was thinking I’d have to replace them with something, and coleus was the plan until I thought of something that was a perennial.  But now we’re both thinking it doesn’t really need anything there.  I will get some more creeping sedum and hens and chicks to go in the rock. 
So far we’d only worked maybe an hour.  Next came the big part, ripping out the shrubs along the house.  I’m pretty sure these were planted when the house was built.  So they are 30 year old shrubs about as tall as I am.  There are four plants in the area next to the garage, and three up behind the tree.    The bunch of shrubs by the garage were slowly dieing, you can see the brown patches in the pic.  Both bunches had completely out grown the areas they were planted.  Our walkways were cut in half b/c of them.  We spent the rest of the day cutting them down, and then digging up the stumps and cutting down the stumps. 
You can see how it looks now, you can actually see the brick!  Mom asked me if it looked empty, and I really don’t think it does.  That must really mean I didn’t like what was in there!!!  In May I’ll transplant some hosta, and fern into both areas.  It’ll be a nice fern garden that won’t take over the entire front yard.  Today I’m sore, and definitely not moving as fast as yesterday.  We do plan on doing some more work, although neither one us know how much.