Do you ever get that feeling

Do you ever get that feeling, that deep inside your heart feeling, that you know what's supposed to happen next?

I had that feeling today. I have no idea about what will happen, or if things will happen the way that I want, but I think it's worth pursuing. The last time this happened, I found my current job, one which I enjoy immensely. This time it's a bigger plunge, but one that I really want.

Progress Updates....

I stitched on two pieces this week - my long neglected Watergarden and La Epoche Nouveau. I had a cleaning/organizing spree in my stash box a couple of weeks ago, and sorted out all of the pieces that I was working on. I ran across Watergarden, and am really enjoying stitching on it again. Epoche is going to be *sparkly*. I'm trying to complete one area at a time before moving on to the next, so I've added some of the beads, and it really is going to be a spectacular piece. I'm so glad I'm working on it again.

Sometimes you just need a reminder

I took a walk yesterday, and came across this group of ducks and geese playing in the river near where I live. I took a couple of pictures to remind me of why I live in Canada during the winter. The return of the ducks and geese are a nice reminder that it will also soon be spring here.

I also found that a couple of the beads that I made last weekend go perfectly with the ornament I made this weekend. I hadn't really planned it that way - it just happened that the blues and purples went together perfectly. I need to add a tassle and some cording, to completely finish the ornament, but I'm pretty happy about how it all matches at the moment. (For the record, the beads are sitting on the stainless steel mandrel that was used to make them, and the two clear bits underneath are the ends of glass rods - it wouldn't sit properly otherwise)

From the comment files Faith Ann asked how long it takes to make each bead. On average, I'd say it takes me between 5 and 20 minutes. The bigger time comsumption is getting beads that look good thought. Bead making is a very fickle hobby at times - the bead can only be so warm or so cold, and what you're putting on the bead needs to be at the right temperature or it doesn't stick and the amount of glass you put into a press to get a pressed bead needs to be just right or the bead doesn't turn out. I'd say I toss at least one out of every 3 beads because it's cracked, or the design is smeared beyond recognition or something else has happened to the bead.

It's Christmas Ornaments SAL weekend

I did "finish" my Christmas ornament late this week for the Christmas Ornament SAL It's from the 2006 JCS Ornament issue. Instead of the recommnded colours, I used Vikki Clayton "Orb" and Waterliles "Amethyst".

A week of the blahs....

It's been an exceptionally dull week here, and I wish I had more to show for it. I didn't really stitch all week, except for a little bit on Monday, so this week's updates might be kind of sparse.

I didn't really do much else either - my Monday dance classes were cancelled because of the public holiday here, Tuesday I had a meeting and couldn't make volleyball, Wednesday we didn't have Dodgeball (our team had a bye). I did make it to a drop in dance class on Thursday, which was good. It was nice to get some exercise - I hit the gym a little bit on Monday, but not as much as if I was just going on my own.

I'm going to chalk this up to it being the end of February - it's almost light again here, and I find that having more sunlight makes all of the difference. We live in mostly darkness throughout much of December and January, and it's nice to see the return of daylight.

I do have a couple of things to do this weekend - I'm about half way through making beads for a commission that I took a couple of weeks ago, and will try and finish that up this weekend. I also have to get a couple of things in the mail including my biscornu for the exchange over at the Robin's Nest, so a trip to the post office is in order.

Have a great weekend everyone - hope it's warm and sunny where you are.

Gift made it

I made this for Carol in a blog draw, and she let me know today that it finally got there. It took longer than I thought, so I'm glad that it finally made it.

5 Questions Answered

It's been a long day - I made some changes in my life a couple of months ago, and I got word tonight that a couple of people aren't very happy with it. It's tough, because I heard this through a third person, and neither of the people who I suspect aren't very happy have discussed this with me. It's a volunteer thing, and although I have made a commitment to the volunteer group, I need to balance volunteer things with a full time job, a ton of extra stuff, and having a life. I'll fully admit I made the decision in the best interest of me, but since the volunteer gig is only really paid in personal satisfaction, I think I get the right to do that. So I'm here, with some great music and a glass of wine, trying to think about other things.

On to the other things.... The 5 questions were:

1) How did you get into beadmaking? In a round about way, it started with a trip to China a couple of years ago. There was a lady in our group who was really into hand-made beads, and spent a lot of time showing people her jewellery. After I got back, I decided I was taking a class at the local college of art. At the time, it was supposed to be a glass blowing class, but the glass beadmaking class and the glass bead making class were next to each other in the catalogue, so I took the beadmaking class. From moment one I was hooked - I knew that this was something that I would persue for a long time.

2) Post a picture of your most favourite bead? This is my all time favorite bead. I've tried this technique since, and it's never quite turned out the same since. (Kudos go to Larry Brickman for teaching me the technique)

3) What supplies do you need to make beads? The beads are glass, and the glass comes in pre-coloured rods, so you need the colours you're going to work with. You also need steel rods which have been dipped in a clay-like substance (called bead release), and a torch to melt glass. If you're getting fancy, there's all sorts of add ons - ground glass pre-mixed in different colours (frit), sparkly glass (goldstone or adventurine), small slices of cane (murini) and other bits to make the glass look good.

4)Dream project relating to beads? I'd love to be as good as any one of the people I admire - (Melanie Moertel, Anastasia, Leah Fairbanks, and a select couple of others).

5) If I could be anywhere right now, where would I be? I fell in love with the idea of owning a winery in New Zealand a couple of years ago - if the stars aligned, I'd own a bead studio/winery there.

Great questions - thanks for asking!

I've been tagged

I was tagged by Karen to complete this. The rules on her blog are explained as follows.

Five Questions.. and Five Things...

For the first part, 5 Questions - my dear readers can ask me five questions--either in comments or feel free to email them if you'd prefer. I'll answer them in the blog as soon as time allows.

For the second, Five Things About Me:

Here are the rules:
1. Get tagged.
2. List five things that have not been revealed on your blog.
3. Tag five others.

Five things that haven't been revealed on the blog:

1) I was born about 500 metres from where I now live - literally. If I lived on the other side of the block, I could see the hospital.
2) I lived for a couple of years in the Caribbean. I think quite a few people know this, but I don't think I ever blogged about it.
3) I'm half way through making the beads for the commission that I'm currently working on.
4) I drive a Jetta, which I spent about 18 months shopping for.
5) I celebrated Chinese New Year on Saturday with friends at a chinese restaurant - we all ordered a dish and had a wonderful feast. (It's something I was meaning to blog about, but hadn't got around to yet).

I think I'm going to pass on tagging other people (it's the benefit of being the blog owner!), but if you're interested in using the meme, please go ahead.

Movie List

I shamelessly stole this from WhizGidget: I guess I do have a life (or maybe not) as I've only seen 66 of the movies. Of the movies that I have seen, I do own a remarkable number of them (anything in a capital X).

It's been said that allegedly if you've seen over 85 movies you have no life. I have my own opinion about that, but now is not the time. Mark the ones you've seen. There are 239 films on this list. Copy this list, go to your own blog, paste it in and put x's by the ones that you have seen. Add them up, change the header adding your number, and post it.


(x) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(X) Grease
(X) Pirates of the Caribbean
(X) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest
( ) Boondock Saints
( ) Fight Club
( ) Starsky and Hutch
(x) Neverending Story
( ) Blazing Saddles
( ) Airplane
(X) The Princess Bride
( ) AnchorMan
(x) Napoleon Dynamite
( ) Labyrinth
( ) Saw
( ) Saw II
( ) White Noise
( ) White Oleander
( ) Anger Management
( ) 50 First Dates
( ) The Princess Diaries
( ) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
( ) Scream
( ) Scream 2
( ) Scream 3
( ) Scary Movie
( ) Scary Movie 2
( ) Scary Movie 3
( ) Scary Movie 4
(X) American Pie
(x) American Pie 2
(x) American Wedding
( ) American Pie Band Camp
(X) Harry Potter 1
(X) Harry Potter 2
(X) Harry Potter 3
(X) Harry Potter 4
( ) Resident Evil 1
( ) Resident Evil 2
(x) The Wedding Singer
( ) Little Black Book
( ) The Village
( ) Lilo & Stitch
(x) Finding Nemo
(x) Finding Neverland
( ) Signs
( ) The Grinch
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
( ) White Chicks
( ) Butterfly Effect
( ) 13 Going on 30
( ) I, Robot
( ) Robots
(x) Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
( ) Universal Soldier
( ) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
(x) Along Came Polly
( ) Deep Impact
( ) KingPin
(X) Never Been Kissed
( ) Meet The Parents
( ) Meet the Fockers
( ) Eight Crazy Nights
( ) Joe Dirt
(x) King Kong
( ) A Cinderella Story
( ) The Terminal
( ) The Lizzie McGuire Movie
( ) Passport to Paris
( ) Dumb & Dumber
( ) Dumber & Dumberer
( ) Final Destination
( ) Final Destination 2
( ) Final Destination 3
( ) Halloween
( ) The Ring
( ) The Ring 2
( ) Surviving Christmas
( ) Flubber
( ) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
( ) Practical Magic
(X) Chicago
( ) Ghost Ship
( ) From Hell
( ) Hellboy
( ) Secret Window
(x) I Am Sam
( ) The Whole Nine Yards
( ) The Whole Ten Yards
( ) The Day After Tomorrow
( ) Child's Play
( ) Seed of Chucky
( ) Bride of Chucky
( ) Ten Things I Hate About You
(x) Just Married
( ) Gothika
( ) Nightmare on Elm Street
(x) Sixteen Candles
( ) Remember the Titans
( ) Coach Carter
( ) The Grudge
( ) The Grudge 2
(x) The Mask
( ) Son Of The Mask
(x) Bad Boys
(x) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
( ) Lucky Number Sleven
(X) Ocean's Eleven
(x) Ocean's Twelve
(x) Bourne Identity
( ) Bourne Supremecy
( ) Lone Star
( ) Bedazzled
( ) Predator I
( ) Predator II
( ) The Fog
( ) Ice Age
( ) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
( ) Curious George
(x) Independence Day
( ) Cujo
( ) A Bronx Tale
( ) Darkness Falls
( ) Christine
( ) E.T.
( ) Children of the Corn
( ) My Bosses Daughter
(x) Maid in Manhattan
( ) War of the Worlds
( ) Rush Hour
( ) Rush Hour 2
( ) Best Bet
( ) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
( ) She's All That
( ) Calendar Girls
(x) Sideways
(x) Mars Attacks
( ) Event Horizon
(X) Ever After
(x) Wizard of Oz
(X) Forrest Gump
( ) Big Trouble in Little China
( ) The Terminator
( ) The Terminator 2
( ) The Terminator 3
(x) X-Men
(x) X-2
( ) X3
(x) Spider-Man
( ) Spider-Man 2
( ) Sky High
( ) Jeepers Creepers
( ) Jeepers Creepers 2
( ) Catch Me If You Can
(x) The Little Mermaid
( ) Freaky Friday
( ) Reign of Fire
( ) The Skulls
( ) Cruel Intentions
( ) Cruel Intentions 2
( ) The Hot Chick
(X) Shrek
(X) Shrek 2
( ) Swimfan
(x) Miracle on 34th street
( ) Old School
( ) The Notebook
( ) K-Pax
( ) Krippendorf's Tribe
( ) A Walk to Remember
( ) Ice Castles
( ) Boogeyman
(x) The 40-year-old Virgin
(X) Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
(X) Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
(X) Lord of the Rings: Return Of the King
(x) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
(x) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(x) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
( ) Base-ketball
( ) Hostel
( ) Waiting for Guffman
( ) House of 1000 Corpses
( ) Devils Rejects
( ) Elf
( ) Highlander
( ) Mothman Prophecies
(x) American History X
( ) Three
( ) The Jacket
( ) Kung Fu Hustle
( ) Shaolin Soccer
( ) Night Watch
(X) Monsters Inc.
(x) Titanic
(x) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
( ) Shaun Of the Dead
( ) Willard
( ) High Tension
( ) Club Dread
( ) Hulk
( ) Dawn Of the Dead
( ) Hook
(X) Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
( ) 28 days later
( ) Orgazmo
( ) Phantasm
( ) Waterworld
( ) Kill Bill Vol. 1
( ) Kill Bill Vol. 2
( ) Mortal Kombat
( ) Wolf Creek
( ) Kingdom of Heaven
( ) the Hills Have Eyes
( ) I Spit on Your Grave
( ) The Last House on the Left
( ) Re-Animator
( ) Army of Darkness
(x) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
( ) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
( ) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(x) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(x) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(x) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
( ) Ewoks: Caravan Of Courage
( ) Ewoks: The Battle For Endor
(X) The Matrix
(X) The Matrix: Reloaded
(X) The Matrix: Revolutions
( ) Animatrix
( ) Evil Dead
( ) Evil Dead 2
(x) Team America: World Police
( ) Red Dragon
( ) Silence of the Lambs
( ) Hannibal

Sunday Updates

It seems like I've designated Sunday as my update day, and here are the two from this week. I restarted "Le Epoque Noveau" from Dimples Designs. I was not happy with how the old version was turning out, and figured that since I was spening that much time with it, it was better to be happy with the finished product. This is going to be *so* sparkly - there's a ton of beads to go on, and most of the unstitched space will have beads cover it eventually.

The other update is Pyra - I love how she's coming out. She's going to be really sparkly as well.

I went to my LNS this weekend to pick up the extra bits for exchanges that I'm working on. I'm currently in the biscornu exchange at the Robin's Nest, the mystery exchange at the Robin's Nest and the Mystery Exchange at the Rotation Stitchers BB.

I haven't really done that much else this weekend - it's a long holiday weekend here, and I fully intend on doing as little as possible! I was feeling poorly last week, and am trying to get better fast. We're having some coverage issues at work, and I can't really get time off at the moment, so I'm trying to look after myself.

Today's SBQ and Pay-it-Forward update

First of all - thanks for all of the kind comments on the beads - they're one of my favorite styles, and I love that beach glass look that they have.

As for Pay-it-Forward's - I will now admit to having 3 spaces open in my PIF. I wasn't sure how much time/energy/effort I would have, and so reserved the PIF spaces for a while. I've completed the first two, so will open back up the PIF's to the next three people who email me at caycay @ shaw . ca (take out spaces). Pay-it-forwards are random gifts that I think the recipient would like, and so may be beads, stitching, or other crafty whims. I also ask that if you receive a pay-it-forward that you do something nice for the world - whether it's hosting your own PIF, or by giving of your time, talent or other gifts.

It's been forever since I've done one of these, so here it goes:

Do you like to buy “chartpacks” that include charms, buttons, and/or beads or do you prefer to gather all materials yourself?

I have bought quite a few chartpacks, and will buy them especially if there are things that I can't find anywhere else. I love Jeannette Douglas and Victoria Sampler charts, and buying the chartpacks is much easier than trying to find all of the accessories later.

PIF #2 made it.....

I got word from Michelle that the second of my PIF's made it. Michelle got a set of beads, as I saw from her blog that she had bought loose beads before. I also knew Michelle loved Mirabilia's, so I tried to make something reminiscent of Mill Hill treasures, as I figured that would be her style.

I also got a custom order this week based on this set of beads! So I'll be making quite a few more of these in the future.

Progress Updates....

I have 2 progress updates this week - I worked on both Alhambra and Pyra this week. I did end up taking Pyra apart and re-starting her. I guess it's hard to have much enthusiasm for something when you don't really like what you've done, so I thought it was best to restart.

I keep forgetting

I keep meaning to blog about one of my Christmas presents. It's a cat shaped soap that I received from a very well meaning person, but I'm suspecting that the gift fell a little short of it's mark.

The cat-shaped soap is supposed to magically "grow hair", or at least that's what the box says. So I unwrap the soap, and put it in a dish to watch what happens. I'm not expecting great things, but I thought I should at least give this a chance.

The cat shaped soap doesn't really grow hair as much as collect dust. You can see some little fuzzies along the side of the cat in the picture, but it's all dust. Nothing resembling hair. I guess it was worth the trial - at least now I know there is no way of magically growing hair.

Ouch....

I decided to head up to the dance studio after work yesterday to make up a class I'd missed. The class I was attending was "flex and tone" and it was a bit of cardio and a bit of stretching, and overall a fantastic workout. So much so that I definitley definitley feel it today - my shoulders, biceps, abs and just about every other muscle is screaming!

It's snowed quite a bit here - more than I remember snowing last winter. We've had so many people move to the city for work, and not all of them know how to drive in the snow and ice that we get. There's been a lot of traffic accidents, and it's probably going to get worse than get better.

It's cold and snowy....

Winter has finally hit here - we've had such a mild winter this year, except for the part I missed because I was out of the country. It's been snowing for two days, and it's actually cool in my condo tonight, so I guess it must be winter.

Some friends and I went to the ballet tonight - the ballet company here had collaborated with Joni Mitchell to produce a ballet set to her music. It was wonderfully done, and we all really enjoyed it. The choreographer really enjoys showcasing athletic movement, which looks fantastic, but I'm sure requires a lot of strength to dance too.

The week in review....

A couple of things have happened in the last week that I thought worthy of mention here, and today seemed like a good day to do it.

- Harry Potter VII is out on pre-order. The lovely people at Amazon sent me two emails to let me know. I am excited - it's been a fantastic series so far, and I'm excited (and a bit sad) to see the end of the series. I discovered the first book 5 years ago on a flight to Vegas - it was so good that I couldn't put the book down, and picked up the next book for the return flight home. I suspect that I won't pre-order through an on-line source this time, as you had to pay for guaranteed shipping on the day of the release for book 6. There were several places around town with boxes of the book on the first day, and so I'll probably just pick one up when it gets released.

- The hockey game. I was so distracted by expense report woman at the hockey game that I forgot to write anything about the game itself. I honestly think it was one of the best games that I've been to - the first 2 goals were only 15 seconds apart (both for our team), the third goal was disallowed, the other team got 2 goals, we got 4 more goals and then a goal that didn't count. Oh - and 4 or 5 guys got thrown out of the game for fighting. How much better can hockey get - an 8 goal game, couple of contraversial calls and some fights. It was a marvelous game.

- Sunday Dinner - I went out to dinner with a friend on Sunday, and it was lovely. I'm sure it was heretic somewhere to go to dinner on Superbowl Sunday, but it was the only day the two of us could get together, and I wanted to catch up with him while he was in town. I paid the bill, and I realized that I've been calculating tip wrong for the last 6 months! Our Goods and Services Tax decreased from 7 to 6 percent in July, and I'd been so used to just doubling the GST to arrive at 14% that it hadn't occurred to me that the double of 6% is now only 12%. Fortunatley I added a bit more to the bill, but I'll have to remember to add a bit more when I tip from now on.

The Alhambra Update

This is what I got done on Alhambra this week - I'm hoping to finish up the last little bit of the top left section today, and then I'm completely done with the top third of the design.

So I'm at the hockey game...

I'm at the hockey game last night and my buddy and I are sitting next to a family of four - mom, dad and two kids. All is good until the second intermission, when mom starts to pull out her expense report, and proceeds to fill in the details. The guy I was with and I were both completely aghast - It's *Friday* night, you have tickets to a professional sporting event, you're spending quality time with your family and you have some need to do paperwork in the middle of it? I know people in this city love to claim to be "busy", but I think doing your expense report at the hockey game takes that to new lows.

In other news, I love the new non-smoking bylaw here. We're likely one of the last cities in North America to go smoke free, and last night was the first time I've been to a bar since the non-smoking bylaw was passed. It's fantastic! I love coming home and not needing a shower because I smell like the inside of an ashtray. I can actually enjoy a pint with friends now.

It's almost the weekend...

Tomorrow is Friday, and for that I'm so grateful! It's been a long week, and there's no end of it in sight. I thought this would all get better after year end and audit and whatever else were done, but it seems to stretch out forever.

I booked my vacation this week! It's something I've wanted to do for a long time, and I'm very excited about it. I've been dealing with a semi-non-responsive (or very busy) travel agent this week to try and get the whole thing booked and get an early booking discount. I still have to get a plane ticket and a couple of nights hotel and a few other things, but the basics are booked.

Oh - and I'm headed to the hockey game tomorrow - Go Flames Go!!