She Made~She Made, March Edition

Therese and I are at it again :-)  Each month, I have thoroughly enjoyed "She Made~She Made", even when my my mind is a blank about how to use the beads.  This month, it was my pick.  I chose really beautiful components made by Lesley Watt and some lava beads. I knew I would find a use for the components.  I had NO IDEA I was going to use the lava beads with them!  But that is how the beads rolled.  Quite a surprise! 

First, I made these earrings.  Cynthia worked with me a bit on my wire wrapping recently, and while there is a touch of wonk going on, they have a great vibe!  The Bug snatched these up and put them on and declared BiG LoVe for them.  So I know somebody likes them :-) 





(Lesley Watt components, lava beads, red brass wire)













Next, I made a necklace with another Lesley Watt component and more lava beads.  I got some gorgeous twisted bugles recently that have an antique brass look to them.  I used them and some matte black seed beads.  I really like how this necklace turned out.  Initially, I was going to fill each triangle with a lava bead, but opted to let them remain open.  It turned out better that way. 

Next, I dug into my supplies and rediscovered a lava bead my brother gave me.  I began working on this the night he gave it to me, ran into trouble and saved it for another time.  This was the time.  I might re-work it yet again, but here it is for now.  I decided to fill those lava holes with size 15 seed beads and picasso 3 cut rounds. 

 

(and here is a photo of the backside that I didn't realize was blurry but I am not taking another one [editor's choice] )

And for my final She~She March Act...I really wanted to bead around the lava.  So...I did :-)  

Thanks so much for taking the time to look at what Therese and I make on our She Made~She Made Challenges.  I don't want to wish my stash away, but I really do look forward to running out.  Then I know it will be time to see Therese again :-D

Now go outside and build a snowman.  It is Springtime!  Enjoy it! 

Thursday's Thing*

 

Electric City Roasting Company.

Not a day goes by without it.  

Great Bean!  

What is in your cup each day?

*Appreciate what you have.  Want for less...unless it is beads or music.

Patti...Oh Patti!

Look at this beauty that is now mine, compliments of Patti Vanderbloemen! (click on her name to see her Etsy shop.  I assure you, it is all as beautiful as it looks!)   Earthy.  Two-tone.  Jasper. Copper that looks rich and velvety.  Jasper. Those rolled copper beads!  Jasper.  "S" swirls.  Jasper.  I am a deep admirer of wirework and metal work and am in awe of people who can make it look beautiful.  Patti, in my opinion, is as good as they come when it comes to working that wire.  If you could only touch this.....


She made more.  More!  As if the necklace wasn't more than enough. 

I love the feel of this substantial bracelet on my arm.  More jasper and copper :-D

And she sent MORE.  Not one, but two pair of earrings!!!  I LOVE EARRINGS!  One with Jasper and one without.  They are fun to wear.  The jaspers have such great Swing!  and I love a Swingin' Earring!

How I got so lucky, I am not so sure yet.  I know this, though:  Patti is kind and generous.  She is funny and has a tender heart.  She sent in 75+ bracelets to the Global Genes 7000Bracelets for Hope campaign.  That is a seriously Big Heart!!!  And...She is a very talented jewelry designer.  Very Talented.  Once I was able to touch her work, I realized just how deep her talent runs. 
These pieces were part of an effort to heal.  Patti recently lost a beloved four-legged friend.  And I can truly feel warmth and comfort in these pieces when I wear them.  They feel protective and loving and they feel like Something Substantial. 

I offered to swap with Patti.  If you want to see what I made her, please go over to her Blog.  It was such a pleasure to send pieces and receive pieces from someone I so deeply admire. 

Thank You doesn't seem like it is enough to say, but I will anyway :-) 
THANK YOU PATTI!  It is a pleasure getting to know you.  Can't wait to hug you tight someday. 

Thursday's Thing*

This is what 44 years of Love looks like. 
Beautiful in the Eye of the Beholder. 

He has had one full face transplant, and a half one (eye and mouth) a few years after that.  Mom did the first full transplant.  When it came time again, she told me to do it.  She was angry that I pulled off the original one and also half the one she painstakingly sewed on.  He has had a tracheotomy, ear surgery, and spine surgery.  He has open wounds all over his body because I pulled off each and every terry cloth loop that was on him, which weakened his skin.  I didn't mean to do that or tear off his face twice.  I was put in my room to nap and I wasn't a napper.  So this is what I did to pass the time quietly.  Now that I am writing this all out, I am wondering about the "Love" aspect.  Seems in my younger days,  my love was a bit sadist.  Thankfully, I grew out of that stage and showed him a more proper Love. 

When I was preparing to move away from home to Colorado, it was suggested that he was too weak to make the trip.  Me and Orangy, separated?!  NEVER.  So Mom knitted a ski suit for him, more to keep his bits and pieces in place rather than for warmth.  Orangy drove with me countless times between Colorado and New Jersey.  He always sat in the front passenger seat with his seat belt on.  I know he is the reason why the officer in Iowa only gave me a warning.  He smiled big when he saw Orangy, gave me a fatherly talkin' to, a written warning, and told me it was time for me to pull over for the night and that there was a Super 8 coming up in Grinnell.  I took his advice.  When I checked in at the front desk, the clerk told me the only room available was the Honeymoon Suite.  Didn't know Super 8s had such a room.  I told her I would take it.  She asked if I had a Honey in the car to share the room with.  I told her I did.  When I walked by her desk with my bags, I waved Orangy in front of her and said, "My Honey."  She insisted that he simply wouldn't do and once I saw the honeymoon suite I would know why and then handed me a card.  On it was the number for a local pizza joint.  She said they deliver and that the delivery boy would be someone I would want to have stay in the honeymoon suite with me.  !!!  Yikes! Damn if I wasn't hungry and too tired to go out.  So I called, had it delivered, and found him to be cute and of age and then some, but not THAT cute.  The next morning, the clerk was still there and said with a wink and a smile, "So...how was that pizza last night?"  I told her it was the best darn pizza I ever ate and when I pass through again, I will certainly call for more.  As for the honeymoon suite...it was a normal Super 8 room...with wall to wall mirrors and mirrors on the ceiling!!! 

When I graduated college, I went to Alaska for a few weeks then to Europe for 6 weeks.  I debated about bringing Orangy.  He was so fragile.  I left him at my house when I was in Alaska,  but wasn't sure I wanted to leave him home all those weeks I was in Europe.  I went round and round in my head and then finally said it out loud to a few people.  They all told me I was nuts and that he couldn't handle the backpacking I would be doing.  So I left him home.  For years and years, decades actually, I have this reoccurring dream that I took him with me and when I toured Versailles, I found bits and pieces of him in every room of the palace. 

 

When the BirdMan and I moved in together, Orangy still slept with me like he always did.  The BirdMan let if go for the first two years, then he gently said it was time to give up the bear.  It was a sad night for me the first time I put him on the nightstand.  I miss having him in the crook of my arm.  I slept that way for 27 years.  

Now that I beadweave, I thought of weaving him some protective clothing.  Or maybe a suit of armor out of chain maille.  He still wears his knitted suit my Mom made for him. But I wanted to show him au natural here.  

When I die, he will be cremated with me.  He was with me from the day I was born and he will be with me when I go.  No one in the family appreciates him like I do.  

He is my Orangy and I love him. 

*Appreciate what you have.  Want for less...unless it is beads or music.

She Made~She Made Bead Pick for March

Therese gave me these beads:

.

Funky Lava Beads
     and
Gorgeous beads made by Lesley Watt of TheaToo

We can use anywhere from one to all of Lesley's beads for this challenge.

Please stop back on Tuesday,  March  26th  to see what we made with this month's selection.  My mind is currently blank.  I hope it doesn't stay that way for too long :-)

Thursday's Thing*

If you are looking for A Time To Stitch 3 sign ups, please click here.  Sign ups end today. 



This week,
Thursday's Thing*
is my well traveled, constant companion.

My Brother gave me this knife for my 18th birthday.  I remember it was my 18th only because I remember the first thing I carved with it.  My lover's initials...in my leg.  I am not a cutter, not then and not now.  I just didn't believe that this little knife was all that sharp.  I figured it would just scratch the initials into the side of my calf and when I woke up in the morning, it would be gone.  I was so wrong.  From the knee to the ankle was a Big "JRE" on my leg.  It wasn't until I reached the end of the last letter that the first letter started to bleed.  It was then I realized 2 things.  One~this knife was sharp!  Two~I was screwed.  So screwed.  The first reason I was screwed was because I was going to the orthopedic surgeon in a few days.  He would see it and so would my Mom.  The second way I was screwed was because my boyfriend's initials were "FG", NOT "JRE".  I had a boyfriend whom I was trying to leave, and a lover I wanted to have as my only one.  "FG" and I were complicatedly tangled together but I didn't want to be.  I wanted out.  And "JRE" came along and was more to my liking.  So there he was, carved on my leg.  It was the end of October.  I could only hope that the pants I wore would cover up the carving so that "FG" wouldn't see it.  So pants and knee-high socks prevented the Angry Man Rage "FG" flew into when parents we not around.  He never saw.  I eventually untangled myself from him.  It wasn't pretty, but neither were we. 

This knife has been the majority of the States, including Alaska.  It has been to 6 European nations.  It has been to Canada.  It has spent a few hours in Juarez, Mexico.  It has gone to football games and hockey games.  It has backpacked through the Rockies many times and through the Alps once.  It commuted to NYC with me for 6 months. It has opened many bottles of red, red wine.  It has lived in a lot of different houses and purses and backpacks and cars.  Like any good Swiss Army knife, it dutifully lost its toothpick within the first month.  But the tweezers remain and are the most used item on this baby. 

The day I lost it, my heart sank.  I realized I lost it, retraced my steps and could not find it.  I looked for it every single day for 2 months.  I finally gave up.  I was going to buy a new one.  But my heart wasn't in it (I know, I know, it is just a knife!) and I kept putting it off.  Not long after I gave up, I was at my parents' bungalow in NJ.  I was standing in the driveway and popped my trunk to take my suitcase out and THERE IT WAS, in the little gully where the trunk door and body of the car meet!!!  I had opened and closed that trunk almost every day during those months it was missing.  How I didn't see it, I will never know.  But it was back.  This was pre-kids.  It may have even been pre-Birdman.  So it was another lifetime ago.  But since its recovery, it has always been accounted for when I leave the house and when I return. 

My Swiss Army :-D



*Appreciate what you have.  Want for less...unless it is beads or music.

A Time to Stitch 3 : Sign up March 1-7

Time to Stitch 3 is upon us.
Sign ups are March 1-7th.
The Hop is April 20th.
The Hostesses are the same, but what is asked of the Hoppers has changed just a tad.

For this Challenge:

You choose One (or more) of the following Flat Stitches ~ Brick, Ladder, or Square

                                            AND

One (or more) of the following Spiral Stitches ~ Russian Spiral, Cellini Spiral, or African Helix. 

So you will choose at least One Flat and One Spiral for the Hop.

Whatever you get done by Hop Day, please show us.  It is a challenge.  It doesn't need to be a finished project.  And there doesn't need to be any pressure.  It's just beads, after all :-D

Please sign up here or at Therese's blog.  And please be sure we have your name, blog address, and e-mail.


We really look forward to these Time to Stitch hops because you guys make it easy and fun to put together :-)  Thanks for that.  We appreciate it!


Below are suggested tutorials, but let us know if you find better ones. 







Brick, as well as Ladder (by Beads East) ~two in one.  Whew!

Square Stitch (by Potomac bead Company)

Now for the SSSpppiiirrraaalllsss  ( i am a little nervous...i know not of spirals) ~


Russian Spiral (by Off The Beaded Path)

 Cellini Spiral (by Jewelry Supply)

African Helix (by Auntie's Beads)