Flowers Come to Life

I took about 2 weeks off from walking due to being sick and bad weather but started again on Monday. I walked 15 miles this week, not sure if I will walk tomorrow or not.

I spent this week working on my February BJP page. I should be able to finish it today or tomorrow depending on how fast the next bit goes. Then it is time to get back to my Pond piece for a bit. I am really excited how my BJP page is turning out. I am adding a post to my blog on it today and after I get it finished and more photos taken I will update it again. I included some of my "Treasures" to the piece and will add a few to next months page as well. Read about my "Treasures" on my BJP blog.

The photos are of my 3-D Iris that will be going on my Pond piece. I used some of my many Iris photos as inspiration and after an initial trial attempt that didn't quite work, I reworked my "pattern" a bit and ended up with this. I used wired along the edges of the petals for shaping and the brown in the upper photos is the electrical tape that I used to wrap around the all of the wires. A bit of peyote and a green seed bead mix and I had a stem.

The Iris petals are made with RAW (right angle weave) using seed beads and 3mm crystals. I love the challenge of trying to figure out how to do something once I decide I want something. I have learned a lot of new things by saying this is what I want to have now how do I make that happen. After I finish my Feb. BJP in the next day or so I will see about getting back to work on my pond piece and see what I can get started.

Wayne's folks are coming for a visit next weekend and I also need to spend some time getting the house in order. Need to do some cleaning and organizing that need to be done anyway. I also have a request for Gumbo so I need to get out my recipe and do some shopping. Can't blame them for that request, although our gumbo varies some every time we (I) make it, with out a doubt it is some of the best I have had except when we visited New Orleans.

Wayne has been busy doing car maintenance, he will be doing more this weekend. He also wants to get the Integra some stuff so that he can take it onto a race track. The man is a complete car nut. His hobbies are more expensive than mine I will have to say. He can't give me too hard a time for buying beads when he is going to be spending more on parts for his car and track time isn't exactly cheap either but it makes him happy and that is what life is all about, finding things that make you happy.

A Visit to the Pond

I was looking at what I had accomplished this year with beading and realized that most of my energy had gone into my Bead Journal Project pieces and I hadn't worked on any other larger pieces that might be appropriate for the Bead Dreams contest this year. I do like the challenge of making pieces for the contests and it is a thrill to get into them. This year Bead Dreams has added a category for Crystal Jewelry and since I am probably not going to enter Swarovski's Design contest this year and I have lots of Crystals since I enjoy lots of bling I thought I would see what I could come up with for that.

After some brain storming sessions with Wayne and a lot of trying to figure out how in the world to do some of it the Pond Necklace was born. Still very much in the idea and design mode I still have things I need to figure out how to do. These photos are just showing some of the very basic idea. All of the water will be made of crystal circles and there will be lily pads and flowers. I am also working on making an Iris out of seed beads and crystals.

The piece needs to be finished, photographed and entered by April 4th which means that I need to get my act in gear and get going on it. It will be a challenge to keep my BJP pages mostly on track and get this project finished. I think that my cards and journals for the pages will be late but hopefully I can keep the pages mostly on time.

Wayne is mostly better health wise and has spent most of this weekend 3+days out in the garage working on all kinds of things on the car. I get called out once in a while to help by stepping on the brakes or whatever else he needs. I so could not do all of this car stuff myself.

I have managed to catch the ickiness Wayne had but so far it is not near as bad as his was. It is slowing me down but hasn't completely laid me to waste like it did to him.

Life is a Layer Cake

Here is a hint of what I have been doing creatively lately. It is funny, as far as I feel behind in everything else I have kept up on my BJP pages and have February well in hand. Now, if I could just catch up on the rest of life.

I spent time taking photos of my November - January pages and got them organized on the computer. I updated my "Artistic Kreations and Passions" website, updated the photo albums in the Bead Journal Project section of my website and updated the my Web Gallery that you can access through my website (It has most of the photos I have taken of my BJP pages and is a cool way to look at them.)

I need to take the time to update my BJP blog and will try to start getting the last few months written up in the next few days but we will see.

Wayne has managed to get the Flu and is home today. He is all feverish and feeling pretty bad so we are both hoping I will manage not to catch it. Usually if he catches something I will since his immune system is stronger than mine.

I am slowly trying to figure out a routine that works for me. With Wayne home it changes things up. So far I have managed to get back into walking, the route I take is just over 5 miles and takes around 1 1/2 hours to do. The plan is 4-5 times a week. Since I started working on getting healthier in August (6 months ago) I have lost 15 lbs. I can't say I can really tell the difference and I still don't think exercise makes me feel any more energetic but I am sure it is making me healthier.

With Wayne home we are starting to talk about what is next for us. He officially retires from the Navy on 01 January, 2009. Terminal leave etc, should take us into October so hopefully next fall will see us starting our post-military life. We have spent time taking about what some our options are and trying to figure out some of our priorities. We really don't have a place we definitely want to end up. I am sure it will be a lot of figuring things out and researching to be able to compare different options based on taxes, recreational opportunities, and long term cost of living etc, etc, etc..

I still have plenty of catching up to do but part of that is house work and organizing so it will happen when I get to it, other things are slowly getting marked off on my to-do list.