Getting ready for a trip

Well I did it, all of the cards and journals for the August- October pages of my Bead Journal Project are finished. The picture is of my first 5 journals side by side. I like the fuzzy hair like quality of the strings for the tags. If you would like to see more photos of these go to my BJP Blog.

I my November photos printed and my page ready to go but don't think that I will start it for the time being. In less than 3 weeks I will be leaving for a long trip to spend time with my family and I can work on that while I am traveling. I need to get the house organized and cleaned, paperwork finished, packing done, bead work ready to go and Christmas cards much more ready to go. I will be shipping stuff to both my In-Laws and my Folks so I have clothes to wear and things to do. I need to have all of the stuff I need for my next 3 projects and any other projects I want to work on ready to go.

It has finally gotten more fall like here and we even had some much needed rain. I have been sleeping restlessly and had some headaches so I haven't been as productive or as focused as I would have liked. I have only been on the treadmill 1 in the last 2 1/2 weeks but now that it is nicer outside I have gone for several long (1 1/4- 1 3/4 hr) walks from home. I have been going in the gym for pilates since I am not to the point where I could do that on my own yet. I am down 10 lbs since I started the exercise and changes to my diet. It is slow going but it is going.

Wayne is doing well and it is actually cooling down there as well. He aced his PRT (physical readiness test). He has lost around 20+ lbs and I really don't think he need to lose near that much. I am sure that some of that will come back once he is no longer working out quite so much and actually drinking and eating his more regular diet. He has been cleaning his office and dealing with an influx of mice as the weather turns cooler.

No phone call from Swarovski today so I am guessing I didn't make it as a finalist. I think it would be nice if they at least e-mailed everyone so you knew for sure. I guess no trip to Tuscon this year. Note: Got and e-mail Oct 31 and did not make it as a finalist.

Progress and an Invitation

I have had several nights of restlessness this past week but it doesn't seem to have adversely effected my beading since on Monday I finished my October page and Thursday I finished August. I now need to work on the cards and journals for August, September and October. I haven't spent much time on the computer so I am even more behind on my e-mails and other things but am very glad that I am caught up on my pages. I found a place that I could hang the three chains together and so tried it out. I haven't decided if the months will go across or down yet but with 5 done across worked better for photographing at this point. I took photos of both the fronts and backs. On the backs you can see that June and July have cards in their pockets, they will all get a card for their pocket, eventually.
As the holidays approach and my holiday traveling approaches even faster I would like to extend an invitation to my readers who are not already on my mailing list for Christmas cards, if you would like to be added to my list please e-mail me (akpbear@hotmail.com). My one stipulation is that I only send out cards if I get them back from you regularly. Most years I make my own cards which takes time and I love sharing them with my family and friends but I need to know that you care enough to reply. When you e-mail me I will need your name and address. I am doing collage cards this year and have quite a few collages started and need to keep at them if I am going to get them done.

I have a class on Monday afternoon, it will be my first time teaching my Crystal Stocking class. I am looking forward to it. I am expecting it may be challenging for some people since Right Angle Weave (RAW) often is. I do it with one needle instead of two because it seems easier to me and if I have 2 needles I tend to stab myself 10x as much (go figure).

The photo above is from the Indian Museum in DC. I really loved this woven wall and thought it was really fascinating that they used pipes and sheet metal to weave the wall. One of the many inspiring things I saw on our long weekend in DC before Wayne left.

I have gotten some more e-mails and calls from Wayne lately so he is at least a tiny bit less busy. He even had time to call me on my birthday which was nice. I got several calls on Saturday so I was not alone. I went to Colleen and her families for supper and had a great time.

The Red Sox have won one game and lost one game in the 7 game series for American League Championship. Tonight is game 3 so I will watch that in a bit while doing more beading.

Speaking of beading, I know what else so I speak of. I have fallen into a serious bead vortex this last week. I have both October and August's pages clambering for attention and have been spending most of my time beading going back and forth between the two. Both are coming right along and I am sure both will get finished by the end of the month with out too much trouble.

An eventful week.

Last week on Wednesday I took a personality test, it will be combined with a telephone consultation to help me figure out how I can best use my personality to sell my bead work. I am hoping this will help me figure out how to support my habit. I am an Expressive, Early Starting, Methodical INFP (Introversion, Intuition, Feeling, Perceiving) I am sure that anyone who knows me well would not be at all surprised. There were only a few minor things that came across as slightly stronger in one direction than I would have thought but that could just be how I perceived the questions or those kind of questions where I was having to pick something that for me was kind of middle of the two answers available.

It was a good week for Red Sox Baseball. We made it successfully through our first round in the post season, beating the Angels 3 games in a row. We will start the next round against the Cleavland Indians on Friday night.

Since I was watching lots of baseball I also go a fair amount of beading done. I like watching movies etc while I am beading. Sometimes I listen to music instead. My studio in this house is in what would be the Breakfast nook. That puts me right off the living room so that I can use the big screen TV and the main stereo which is pretty cool. It seemed like a good idea since Wayne was going to be gone so much of our first year in the house. With him gone it sort of looks like a tornado swept through since I have piles here and there of supplies for projects and projects in process. Will have to clear up the clutter before I head out for the holidays, mostly that will mean taking stuff back upstairs to my craft storage room.

Haven't heard much from Wayne in the last week+. He has been super busy with deployment awards (?) and visitors on top of an already busy schedule. I don't get many e-mails or phone calls when he is this busy but it just reminds me how lucky I am to get the ones I get considering where he is at.

I finally finished one of my projects from the classes I took at Bead Fest. I finished my Spiked Spiral Bracelet that Lisa Niven Kelly taught. I don't do a lot of wire work but I love how it turned out. I still haven't finished my other class project but probably will eventually. I learned how to do Russian Leaves and I mostly took it to learn the technique so am not worried about finishing the project.

OMG!!! I Made It!!!!

I am so excited I keep wanting to do the Happy Dance!! I just got an e-mail today and my Flower Trellis piece made it into Bead International!!!! 240 pieces were entered although I can't remember how many pieces they were excepting. This piece has done very well. I made it to wear to the first Swarovski Design contest where I ended up getting 3rd place in the amateur division. It was a finalist in Bead Dreams 2006 and got invited to a series of show in Japan (and got into the show book for one of those) and now Bead International.


The show doesn't start until next May but I need to send it in for photos really soon and then again in May. Hopefully we will be able to go to the show's opening reception. It is Ohio so we would combine it with a trip to visit Wayne's folks in Louisville. It will depend on Wayne's schedule as he starts to get ready to join the real world.

The Exercise Goddess

Here you can see my first 3 finished pages of my BJP. August isn't done yet but June, July and September are. When I am finished with all of my pages I will have 3 chains each of which have 4 pages. I haven't decided yet if I will want the pages to go in order across or down or if I will want them mixed up. I don't have to decide that for many months yet. I find it interesting how each page looks and feels so different and yet they all strongly resonate who I am. They speak of who I am, where I am at creatively, and what I love. If you want to get an idea of where I am headed with this project go to my Artistic Kreations and Passions Bead Journal Project section of my website and check out the photo albums for the different months. I have the inspiration photos for the upcoming months there. I still need to make the card and journal for September but managed to finish the page on time and am quite happy with that.

The title of my post is the Exercise Goddess. Today is officially 2 months of exercising and while I didn't lose any weight this month I have made leaps and bounds on my cadio abilities. The last 2 Saturdays I kicked up my Saturday treadmill time to 75 min. I have been focusing on challenging myself with increasing the incline that I can do. I started out straight and level. My first 75 minute session was also my first day of an elevation gain over 500 ft (~525ft) The following Wednesday I beat that in a 45 min session with 540 ft. This past Saturday I blew my previous best out of the water getting 729 ft. WOW! It is a challenge and I will keep working on challenging myself. By the time Wayne gets home I should be in much better shape for hiking.

Poor Wayne he called to talk to me, he has got his 2nd snuffly sneezy cold since he has been gone. I am guessing a bit of it is not getting enough sleep there for a bit but it is also really dry and dusty and I am sure there are other things including just lots of people around all of the time. Luckily he gets better quickly so I am sure he will be all good in a few days.