Rock you like a hurricane.

So, the magazine price structure changed at work from half cover to 50 cents an issue. This is good news in that customers are purchasing magazines like crazy, and multiple people will have had the chance to enjoy them before they end up in the dumpster/recycler (depending what store you're working at). This is bad news for me because it means I'm bringing magazines home.

There was an old copy of Bead & Button that I picked up, and I noticed in one of the ads that there is a store called Bead Palace in Greenwood, on Madison Avenue.

Wait for it...

I went to Bead Palace yesterday. It was my day off, I'd just had my sixth eye exam in as many months, stopped at Luna on the way home to get the new Decemberists CD, and decided that it would be a good time to keep on truckin' to the bead store. And that's exactly what I did, and it's where I found this lovely amber pendant. It's strung on some 19 strand wire with some silver spacers, reddish-brown glass beads from India, and some yellowy-brown beads that are made of horn. Yes, horn. Stop judging.

Of course I was compelled to wear it to work today, as it's all shiny and new and I'm like a magpie when it comes to things that are shiny and new. Boy howdy, I don't think I've ever gotten so many compliments from complete strangers as I did today. One very nice customer with a heavy German accent commented on it, and I smiled and thanked her. She then asked, "Are you a scorpion?" So I replied that I wasn't, and when my brain finally processed her question, she had already moved along and I couldn't tell her that I'm actually a goat. So much of my witty repartee really only happens in my head.

It's difficult to tell in these photos just how large the pendant is, so Freeman decided to take over the Vanna White duties while I was taking a few snapshots...

(The last photo was taken just before he completely lost his shit and pulled a Sean Penn on me.)

My project and why it isn't

Remember that beautiful burgundy alpaca sweater I picked up thrift a few years ago? The one someone had already felted on accident? The one I was going to make into a bag for Jen? The one I then decided would make a really cool pair of slippers for me? The one that is obviously still here with nothing done to it? I got it out and decided what I was going to do...needle felting (like embroidery, but no sewing, just intricately felting w/ a barbed needle) and then make a bag for whoever. Only I can't find the barbed needles needed to needle felt. I may have to order them online. So even though I don't have a project, I have been attempting one...sort of.

Covetous Beads

These are the beads that Jen wanted to buy at St. Theresa's. There were 3 similar strands. 1 strand was quite exquisite and was clearly marked $125. I believe it had some silver attached to it as well. These and the 3rd strand seemed to be marked $25, a bargain in comparison. Unfortunately, it turned out that they were ALL $125... *gasp*. So these were reluctantly returned to the sales lady.

Off to the library again

I have another two books on hold at the library, both of them to do with beading. God forbid that I should use Google to self-diagnose (never, EVER Google "spider bites"), but I'm beginning to think that I'm crossing the line into OCD behavior.

I must add, though, that the IMCPL has a pretty good variety of books on arts and crafts, and I'm too cheap to shop at Borders.

I'm hoping to have some photos to post later on.

Um, yeah

I am a lazy bastard *hangs head in shame*

Projects for a mechanically imposed lazy Saturday

An aerial shot of the bracelet with the red Swarovski crystals and strawberry charms. Pardon the cat-induced scratches on the dining room table.

Because the truck took a monumental crap and died last night on the way home, I was stuck in the house by myself for most of the afternoon. There's nothing like forced immobility to let loose the creative juices, right? So I made a couple of bracelets, one of which also has matching earrings.

A shot of the bracelet and earrings resting on my new bead board. The blue-green beads are some sort of primitive looking frosted irregular glass that I found at St. Teresa's Textile Trove in Cincinnati last Saturday.

A close-up shot of the danglies at the end of the bracelet (which are composed of glass beads, Swarovski bicone crystals, and hematite stars).

I really don't know what I'm doing with this...

...yet.

I'm tired of having art and craft supplies, an overabundance of ideas, and absolutely no follow-through whatsoever. So, with shame being the powerful motivator that it is, I'm going to muddle through creating this page with the end result of having a place to post (at least) one thing I've created each week.

Perhaps this can be an outlet for the Thursday night SnB get-togethers as well. Someplace to post our progress for one another.

Bear with me, as I am decidedly analog at best.