http://www.crymsonflower.com/index.php/blog/index/ en amy@activecore.org Copyright 2009 2009-01-05T00:26:00-06:00 http://www.crymsonflower.com/index.php/site/warm_spot/ http://www.crymsonflower.com/index.php/site/warm_spot/#When:23:26:00Z 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!  2009-01-04T23:26:00-06:00 http://www.crymsonflower.com/index.php/site/finished_boxes/ http://www.crymsonflower.com/index.php/site/finished_boxes/#When:12:05:00Z 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) 2009-01-02T12:05:00-06:00 http://www.crymsonflower.com/index.php/site/happy_new_year/ http://www.crymsonflower.com/index.php/site/happy_new_year/#When:13:57:00Z 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. 2009-01-01T13:57:00-06:00 http://www.crymsonflower.com/index.php/site/a_post_merry_xmas/ http://www.crymsonflower.com/index.php/site/a_post_merry_xmas/#When:13:53:01Z 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! 2008-12-30T13:53:01-06:00 http://www.crymsonflower.com/index.php/site/covered_in_ice/ http://www.crymsonflower.com/index.php/site/covered_in_ice/#When:14:13:00Z 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! 2008-12-19T14:13:00-06:00 http://www.crymsonflower.com/index.php/site/treasure_hunting/ http://www.crymsonflower.com/index.php/site/treasure_hunting/#When:15:18:00Z 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. 2008-12-17T15:18:00-06:00 http://www.crymsonflower.com/index.php/site/newest_bangle/ http://www.crymsonflower.com/index.php/site/newest_bangle/#When:15:43:00Z 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. 2008-12-12T15:43:00-06:00 http://www.crymsonflower.com/index.php/site/girls_weekend/ http://www.crymsonflower.com/index.php/site/girls_weekend/#When:20:32:01Z 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.  2008-12-11T20:32:01-06:00 http://www.crymsonflower.com/index.php/site/too_warm_for_snow/ http://www.crymsonflower.com/index.php/site/too_warm_for_snow/#When:20:22:00Z 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. 2008-12-09T20:22:00-06:00 http://www.crymsonflower.com/index.php/site/gift_to_the_gods/ http://www.crymsonflower.com/index.php/site/gift_to_the_gods/#When:17:47:00Z 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. 2008-12-04T17:47:00-06:00