Awards and Progress

Glenda was kind enough to nominate me for the "Brillante Blogger Award", which I appreciate. I do love reading lots of other blogs, and I think most of those that I read have already been nominated, so I won't name any additional blogs at this time. I received this award from another reader as well, but can't for the life of me find their comment to acknowledge them. I do appreciate all of the readers and comments though!



In other news, I finished one Pay it Forward gift last night, and am hoping to have the other one done by the weekend. I also finished decorating one additional bag for the Purses for Africa group. It's slow progress some days, but at least there's progress!

Egyptian Garden Update

This weekend was the annual fruit and vegetable sale at the local historical park, and I have to admit that I went a bit overboard. I picked up some pears, peaches, oranges, strawberries, green beans, chard, watermelon and red and yellow peppers! It was a welcome treat, as I was away last week and hadn't had a chance to get many vegetables.

I managed to get a bit more time in on Egyptian Garden - its coming along well, and I'm really enjoying working on it.

And the winner is .....

Congratulations Susan! You're the winner of the buttons - send me your address (caycay at shaw dot ca) and I will send the buttons out to you!

I also received the Candy Exchange back from the lampworking website I read. The exchange was to create beads that were inspired by candy. I sent 5 little gummy bears, plus gummy beard candy and received the following in exchange:

I love great hotels....

The one I'm at this week has glasses of wine and beer after work and cookies and milk before bedtime.....

I'll draw for blog candy on Friday, so please add your comments to the previous post if you'd like to be considered.

Progress and Blog Candy

I was busy this week finishing up two purses for a charity project. They have people to knit and crochet, but often get items that need a bit of help to make them special. I put beads on two bags this week - the blue one has little glass buttons that I made and the purple/brown one has a couple of things from my bead stash on it.

I ended up with a few of the green and blue buttons left over and thought I'd offer them up as blog candy this week. I haven't done much blog candy this year because I've been behind on gifts that I promised, and need to get them caught up. But since the buttons are finished, and aren't really much of a gift until they're put on something, I thought I'd offer them as blog candy.

If you'd like to receive the buttons, please leave a comment on this post, and I'll draw from all of the comments on Friday night. It doesn't matter if you're a regular visitor or this is your first viewing of my blog, all comments will be entered.

On the buttons - they are 100% glass, and would prefer to kept away from kids and pets. The do have quite a large shank on them, and so are perfect for attaching to something with some depth - a biscornu or knitted/felted bag, for example.

China 2005 - Part 5 - Conclusion

Here's the last lot - thanks to everyone who's left comments saying that they enjoyed the pictures - it was a great trip - and I enjoyed taking them.

I'm planning on putting blog candy up tomorrow, so stay tuned. I haven't this year, largely because I've been busy, and I should have been working on a couple of gift that I haven't yet got done. But I have something (super-cute) that isn't really gift worthy on it's own, so I thought I'd put it up for blog candy......

China 2004 - Part 4 - Beijing and Great Wall

China 2004 - Part 3 - Xian and Beijing

China - Part 2

Memories of China - Day 1

I visited China in September 2004, Almost 4 years to the day before the Olympics. All of the Olympic coverage has brought back a ton of memories. China was such a different place to visit - it was becoming modern at such a rapid pace, and you could see construction in almost every form as we traveled throughout the country. I remember how quickly foreign things became familiar too - when we first received green tea - with it's loose leaves floating in a clear, tall glass, it seemed very odd, but by the end of the trip was normal.

More Olympic Stitching

I've been stitching a lot lately - largely because there's so much Olympics on. I figured I'd try a rotation in order to get a bit of work in on a couple of pieces that have been too long ignored... So, without further ado, here's Twilight of the Tsars (Dimple's Designs)

LEN Update

I managed a bit more progress on La Epoche Nouveau (Dimples Designs). I started this back in 2000, and then restarted it a couple of years ago. I'm much happier with it now, and am glad to be making some progress on it again.

9 weeks until the next hockey season...

But still 15 more days of Olympics.

I realized I'd posted the wrong progress pic on Egyptian Garden, so here is the latest version. I've also got a picture of my two latest bags to raise money for African AIDS relief. Someone else has knitted the bags, but I had been given the bags to "decorate" as the plain bags were a little less than interesting. All of the bags that I've been given have been challenges - slightly off colours, or with lots of colour, like these ones. It's very challenging to pick decorations that enhance the bags without being way too much.

Egyptian Garden Update

I worked a bit on Egyptian Garden this weekend - here is my progress...

How people find my blog....

Thanks for all of the comments on Pyra - I've started to make the glass fringe for the end of the pouch, and should have pictures up shortly.

I also went to the glass studio for the first time in a long time yesterday - mostly to complete the beads for a couple of purses which will be eventually sold to benefit African AIDS relief. They have several people knitting or crocheting purses, but some need a bit of sparkle to add to them, so I've volunteered to "accessorize" some of the purses with beads and stitching.

I'm always amazed at how people find my blog - here are a couple of the recent searches that have directed people here:

- soccer slider beads
- Star Wars beads
- house necklace
- St. Petersburg bead stitch
- The little watchmaker
- Twilight button blog candy