Second Kumihimo Bracelet

I really like this one. The long focal in the middle has blues and greens swirled around the length of the bead.

I found a nice mixture of beads that range from light blue to a darker blue with pinks and peridot colors that seem to compliment the focal bead.

I used a secure lobster claw clasp to finish the bracelet.

I have one more to share with you soon.

B

Flight from Boston to San Francisco

Our flight to CA was uneventful and from Boston to Iowa (I know because the pilot told us so) we were above a thick layer of clouds. This is the view from my seat.

A word of caution when picking seats on an airline. Do NOT choose the row behind the exit row. They get extra room for the exit but YOU loose it. I've squeezed in smaller spaces in misaligned church pews!

I did take my Kumihimo ready to make a bracelet (though I found out later they let someone on with knitting needles.)

Because our ride to Logan Express had to be early we had several hours to kill at the airport. So, I pulled out my Kumihimo project. Drew lots of attention. "What is that?", "My that looks complicated" etc. Very interesting. I finished about 1/4 of the bracelet during that time period which was good since I had NO room to do any on the plane. If I had dropped any beads they would have been goners. The lady in the third seat with us took off her shoe and had to have the flight attendant help her to retrieve it.

Anyhow, the trip was good. I discovered that you get a l-o-n-g sunset going west. The plane really tries to catch up with the sun but doesn't quite make it.

I took several pictures of the sunset but the plane was not oriented just the way I would have liked it for a picture but for going to SFO - just right.






B

Violet and Black Kumihimo Bracelet

This is one of the Kumihimo bracelets I made while on vacation at Thanksgiving time. I showed a picture of it unfinished in a previous post.

I found a nice sterling silver square toggle with some cute flowers as decoration to use for the clasp.

It gives it a nice finish I think.

I still have a bit of problem with the color though it doesn't look blue anyhow as my first pictures did. The colors are black and light violet. Actually, it is a pretty good color, at least on my monitor.

I have two more bracelets to show soon.

B

Up, up and Away!

We are off.... to California!


My son's birthday, a grandson's and granddaughter's birthdays are all in December. (Makes for interesting Holiday planning) Anyhow, we were invited to help celebrate this year and of course we said OK!


So, today we are on a flight to SFO. San Francisco. Only with a my raincoat - no boot, winter coat, scarf and gloves. Makes airplane traveling easier with out all those trappings. When you go in a car, you can always just throw those things in the back seat.


However, since it is a 6 hour flight, I'm disappointed not to be able to take some of my jewelery supplies with me. I've been told they frown on such things as wire cutters and pliers. Almost impossible to make something with out those items.

So, I'll be taking my Kumihimo disk, loaded with beads and bobbins. They are all plastic and the bobbins should keep the beads secure. My other, very real fear, is having little seed beads all over aisle. How embarrassing would that be?


So, I may be not posting for awhile as we enjoy our trip and family.

B

Blog side bar

I'm sure you all look up and down the right side bar of my blog. I just added a widget that allows you to send email wishes for the Holidays to soldiers in the service. It has been around last year, I believe but it certainly bears repeating. You can choose from several different designs and send to one or more soldiers. You do not get a choice of who the email will be sent to but it really doesn't matter.

I also have a link to my second selling web site, 1000 Markets. It is just getting off the ground (both 1000 Markets and my store too) so check back at other times too. (My guess, for me, after the first of the year when, I hope, I'll have more time.)

I also have a list of some other blogs that I frequent, in case you might like them too. I haven't checked out the Closet Cooking blog lately but if you are looking for something different (but not exotic or hard to make) you'll find it there.

Also, The Beading Gems Journal where you can pick up some of the most interesting information on jewelry and lots of other things.

I've added our Co-Pastor's blog "More than Sunday" also. Pastor Johnny's blog has some great posts you'll be sure to enjoy.

I found a widget that allows you to do a search of the blog. I even use that when I'm looking for a post to reference.

Take some time, when you have ready the current post, to see what else is on my blog.

B

Chia Pets and being remembered.

Every once in awhile I get really silly. I've had this cold that has been hanging on for about 3 weeks. And I'm blaming the silliness on the cold. I was going to get my hair cut this morning and heard the Chia Pet commercial. Now for the silly part. When else do you hear about Chia Pets except at the Holiday time? The ads seem to come out in full force. (Much like the recent politial ads)

You know they must sell or they would not keep on with the yearly sales pitch. They have expanded. You can find almost anything in a Chia Pet. See Shrek above?

Here is the original commercial (Thanks to YouTube)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzY7qQFij_M

Now wouldn't it be great to have been the person to discover Chia Pets? (I told you I am feeling silly) Aside from the profit, would you like to be remembered for making Chia Pets? Well, that much money would be hard to set aside but would you?

What would you want to be remembered for?

B

Lexie's request

I subscribe to Lexie's Caring Bridge web site updates. I received an update this morning with a simple request from Lexie. (She does not ask for much!)

Here is her request written by her Mom, Alice Williams:

"We are doing well, and Lexie is getting very excited about the upcoming Holiday, as you can see by her choice of backgrounds here- !!! She has a request, if you have a minute- Lexie would like to get a message from someone in every state between now and Christmas Day !!! Could anyone who lives anywhere write her, and ask your friends who live in obscure states to leave her a message ??? I know this a challenge, but she rarely asks for much, so this must feel important to her !!!
Thanks everyone-
PEACE, MY DEAR FRIENDS !!! "

You can read the whole post at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/lexiewilliams.

You can go to the site and leave a message for her. She has quite a few already but one from every state - not sure.

Thanks to you all. Remember how lucky we are to be healthy.

B

Science with a Mission

It has been awhile since I posted about Science with a Mission. SMI, for short, is a non-profit organization founded by Alynne MacLean.

In developing countries, many people never see the inside of a hospital or clinic. As a result, people often die from preventable diseases due to not being diagnosed. Currently, the majority of tests to diagnosis diseases require expensive equipment, electricity, trained technicians, etc. all of which are often unavailable in many parts of developing countries. SMI's tests do not require electricity or expensive equipment so they can be used in remote areas. They can also be used in mass screenings.

Alynne is one of many Christians who live out their faith. She has a Doctorate in Chemistry and in the year 2000 quit her job as a chemist at Biogen, Inc. to start Science with a Mission. The local lore (which I believe) has Alynne living on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches until she was able to take a small salary to cover her expenses. I could go on about her many accomplishments but you can read some at her web site at http://sciencewithamission.org/.

And my personal favorite entitled "Be A Pencil". You can read it here http://tinyurl.com/6etobj.

Anyhow, as a means of helping Alynne and Science with a Mission, I have designed a bracelet that I sell for a $25 donation. (50% goes to SMI) See picture above

You can purchase the bracelet on my web site http://www.bevsjewelry.com/b915smi.html

Suggestion: they make great Christmas gifts. (Win - Win)

B

Romanov Chain Maille

Awhile ago I mentioned that one of the reasons I liked the Byzantine pattern of Chain Maille was that it was so versatile and you could make many different patterns from the basic Byzantine segment.

Well, here is another example. (The one I showed was Olivia - on Nov 7) By just joining the segments in a different way you can come up with the one shown here. It is usually called the Romanov pattern.

To make it a little more fancy, I added Hematite beads in the center.

Many other variations exist. I have one with cobalt beads and one made with different size rings and on it goes.

Which do you prefer the Olivia or Romanov?

B

Vacation Kumihimo bracelet

We got back from a week on Cape Cod on Saturday. We had a great time with many relatives joining us for Thanksgiving. Five from NH, two from NJ, four from MA, two from VT and one from MD. The usual gathering - rounds of Pinochle, jig saw puzzles with my youngest grandson. (The one who doesn't take "no" for an answer) The older grandson was more interested in the adult card games and is slowly learning how to play Pinochle. He'll be a "Carlson" yet. We also had several games of "Oh, Hell"and interesting round of Balderdash late Friday night. Plus lots of food!

My husband and I arrived on Saturday and had several days before the others came. So, I had some time to make some jewelry. Not having much in the way of Internet access, it took me until Wednesday to find out I had an order for 7 Lexie Bracelets. Yay! Fortunately, that is one of the things I was working on, until I ran out of daisy spacers. (They are on order) So I started some Kumihimo bracelets. It is impossible to bring everything you need to make jewelry, so, they are not finished but I thought I'd share what is finished. The "mixture" of seed beads in the first bracelet seems to pick up the colors in the focal bead.

The second one is black and violet. Now (my excuse and I'm sticking to it) is that I didn't have much other than my camera with me to take pictures. That is the coffee table in our little house in the background. The worst picture is the only one that shows the color as violet. All the others came out black and blue. Got to work on that when it is finally finished with a clasp and all.

Sorry for the poor pictures but that's the way it is right now. I hope the daisys come tomorrow so I can get busy on the Lexie bracelets and the last show of this season on Saturday. (Homepsun Treasures in North Easton, MA)

I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving too.

B