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.

needing color

Here’s another pic I took last summer. I have no idea what kind of flower it is, I took it in my neighbors garden, but I think it was growing outside the veggie beds so it could be a wild flower of some sort. I like it though, its different and it gives life a splash of color! It rained pretty good on Monday and its supposed to rain again today. You can see the effects slowly appearing, the grass is turning greener, buds are swelling on the trees, the sun feels a little warmer. I even noticed some of the sedum in my front yard greening up!

Last night I laced up another handful of flowers. I had intended on working on leaves, but I was in the lacing mood so I went with it. Tonight I do intend on locking myself in the bead room to make leaves or construct what I have already. That’s the plan anyway, we’ll see what actually happens.

seedlings

Here’s a pic of the seedlings. Most are doing really well. Everything has sprouted except the columbine flowers and the egg plant. I’m a bit bummed about the egg plant b/c I was really looking forward to trying that out. So if they don’t work this time around I might try again in a week or two. The squashes are taking off, and the tomatoes look very happy. The coleus are still really small little guys, but they’re growing and I’m excited to have a bunch. For lack of a better idea I’m going to put a bunch of them in the front yard.

M gave me the challenge of finishing a quarter of my pile of unfinished flowers before picking up more colors and making more unfinished flowers. At first she said half, but I finagled it down to a quarter. So every night this week I’ve been lacing flowers and I think I’m close to having a quarter of them laced. I might be just under, but its a guess-timate, so close enough. A couple more flowers to lace, and a handful of more leaves are on the agenda for the rest of the week. Then this weekend we’re dedicating to house stuff. I have paint colors picked out for the guest bedroom. And I’m going to start cleaning up and then ripping out the front yard. It’ll look worse before it gets better I’m sure, but I’m excited. Hopefully it won’t rain!

kitten attack

They look all cute and playful here, kitties playing in, on, and around the box. This weekend my seedlings had they’re first kitten attack! Saturday morning I went downstairs to check on the baby seedlings. They have been planted for a week now and most have sprouted. The damage wasn’t too bad, three kitty footprints through the plastic and into the soil. I think the culprit was surprised to be somewhere they hadn’t been before (and knew they shouldn’t be), so they didn’t hang around up there for long. There was no digging and nothing was knocked over. Surprisingly no seedlings were squished, the zucchinis got the brunt of the weight and they’re big seedlings anyway so I’m not worried.
This was a nice weekend. We intended to be more productive than we actually were. But we did watch some movies and I worked on some flowers. I made enough leaves for 4 bouquets, and laced up those flowers plus 3 more single flowers. Sometime during the week I’ll do some construction and make a few more leaves and I’ll have a whole nother batch to show off.

lollygaggers

Apparently it is the week before the official start of baseball season.  I’ve noticed some pre-season games on the tube but what I’ve really noticed is that they’re showing all the good baseball movies on TV this week.  After finding out that both Chris and CP hadn’t seen Bull Durham before, there was no discussion to be had….that’s what we watched tonight.  Bull Durham is probably my favorite baseball movie, although there are some close runner ups… Field of Dreams, the Sandlot, and even Major League.  Still even with all those and more baseball movies out there, Bull Durham tops the cake.  It has the best and most quotes and one liners out of all the movies.  Kevin Costner, Tim Robbins, and Susan Surandon are hilarious and full of chemistry.  Best of all the main character is the catcher.  I played softball for maybe 10 years, and most of those I was a catcher.  Not that I could totally relate to Kevin Costner, but I did think a lot of the same things about my crazy pitchers.  At one point I think I even called one of them “Meat” a couple times, the reference was lost on them, but thats ok.  We also tended to be Lollygaggers, and that part in the movie always makes me smile.

Skip: You guys. You lollygag the ball around the infield. You lollygag your way down to first. You lollygag in and out of the dugout. You know what that makes you? Larry!
Larry: Lollygaggers!
Skip: Lollygaggers.

I don’t watch a lot of baseball any more, I used to have the W. Sox on in college while I studied.  Now we watch when we catch them on.  This year I’m really hoping to go up to Chicago to catch a game.  Doesn’t matter if they’re no good, it’s fun to just hang out at the ball park.

Dzogchen

Some of you may or may not know that Chris has a gift with the guitar. He’s been in numerous bands, but ever since we’ve moved away from Chicago he’s had a solo band. Some may have heard his The Ash and the Red project, some pretty heavy metal by my standards and very technical. Lately his interests have changed, the idea of simplicity in the notes but not in the sound has intrigued him and ultimately he has created a new project out of it.

Dzogchen pronounced “zo-jen,” is the name of the new band. Dzogchen is a term from Tibetan Buddhism that fits very well with this meditative zen metal. Songs are shorter, but have the same powerful intensity to them that is very much Chris’s style. They seem to flow naturally from him with ideas popping into his head constantly, but best of all he’s having fun. And that truly shows in these songs. The songs can be heard on his myspace page, http://www.myspace.com/thedzogchen keep in mind the software for myspace is not the greatest. If it interests you send him an email and he sends out cd’s for free.