Excited!

I'd heard about a new bakery near where I lived that was planning to create and sell proper french macarons. As you can see, they do make them, and more than a few accompanied me on the way home today. Macarons are by far the fussiest cookies I've ever come across - for the shells, you need to stir dry ingredients into a meringue, pipe out little circles, let the whole thing set up, give the cookie sheet a good bang on the counter and then bake the cookies. Hopefully, if you've done everything right, and there's not too much humidity, you get glossy little cookies with a little ridge at the bottom. After creating the filling and sandwiching the cookies together, you have macarons. I've created quite a few batches of macarons, and only one really worked out the way it was supposed to. They are my favourite cookie, however, and so I'm glad that that I found them.

Gardening

Apparently I'm a much better gardener when I go on holidays and ignore the houseplants. My Christmas cactus is flowering for the second time this year. More pictures from vacation shortly....

Wow - long time!

I didn't mean for a month to go by with no posts - it's been a long time. At any rate, I'm currently working on the March edition of the BJP. I also got some torch time in recently, and came up with these fibula - style pins with the lampwork beads. They're made out of copper wire and lampwork beads, and I'll donate them to assist African grandmothers who are supporting themselves and their grandchildren. Fibula pins do best on loosely woven or knitted material, so they'll be perfect for adding to the knitted scarves and shawls that the other ladies are making.

Ootheca Bracelet Progress

Here's the finish of side 1, plus a little over half of side 2 done. The other picture shows how the two sides will sit together when done. There will be small crystals to bind the two sides together, and I'm looking forward to seeing it all come together. I like the look, as it doesn't "look" like a bracelet that's made out of seed beads, even though it's entirely beads. The project is from "Seed Bead Fusion" by Rachel Nelson-Smith. I used a transparent blue with a luster finish for the darker colour and a colour-lined medium blue for the lighter colour.

The original January BJP

I found this picture when I was cleaning out my photos the other day - this was the "too busy" version of the January Bead Journal Project. It had dimensional flowers, buttons, a few pressed glass beads and who knows what else on it. I liked the colour scheme, but ended up being much happier with my finished product instead.

Ort Jar - Totally Useless Stitch-a-long

This is the end result of January's work - mostly lights from St. Petes, with a few other odds and ends thrown in.

Motivated

After spending most of the month of January sick, I'm starting to have more energy, and more motivation to get things done. I've been working on these socks for a while - they're in Indigo Rose's "Rhapsody" colourway, which I fell in love with the moment I saw it at the knitting store.

New Project

I picked up my "Ootheca Cuff" this weekend. When finished, there will be two sides, which will be joined by hundreds of tiny crystals. Right now, I'm about 2/3 the way through side one. In all, there will be 29 rows of little bumps, and the second side will have bumps alternating with the first, so that each hole will be filled. I love the way that this is coming togther, just wish that it didn't take so long to bead!

Bead Journal Project - February

I finished the February Bead Journal Project piece, which I'm pretty happy with. I think it looks like detail from a belly dancer's costume. On this project, I'm working through a colour wheel, which means this month's colour is pink. I didn't really know what I would bead about, but I was inspired by parallel bugle beads arranged in a wave shape that I'd seen somewhere along the way in looking at other BJP member's blogs.

I'm also taking the opportunity to use up little bits of beads in my collection - ones that wouldn't be suitable for loomwork or peyote stitch, or that I don't have enough of to make a whole piece out of. The pink beads on the top are certainly some of those - I know that they were purchased when I worked at the bead store (which was ...well... close to 20 years ago). They're a little smaller than the size 10's usually available, and I only have a few colours. They were perfect for the pink on this piece though, and so joined some delicas, bugles and four pressed glass coins that I picked up in New York in the fall.

I learned a few things along the way this month. I wish I'd extended the beading just a bit further out, so you wouldn't see so much background fabric around the edges. I also wish I'd taken into account how much time seed stitch takes, especially when it's that close together. The top and bottom of this piece took quite a while to do, but I love the result.

More St. Pete's

St. Petersburg Progress

Here's White Nights in St. Petersburg by Chatelaine. I'm about 2/3 the way through part 4, and hope to have that complete by the end of the month.

Lampwork bubbles

I finally got some torch time in over the last few weeks, and spent some time practicing hollows. These are the results - I love hollow beads for how the light reflects and how delicate they look.

Bead Journal Project 2010 - January

I chose to make covered buttons for the Bead Journal Project. I wanted something that was not going to take forever to bead, but something that was substantial and would feel "finished" at the end of each month. For January, I started with white, which I thought represented the ideas of "new" and "hope". I used 3 vintage buttons for the centre of the design, and surrounded them with seed beads, which fade from white into grey. I learned a lot beading this design - both about the round space that I was beading and about covering a surface entirely in beads. The first version had all sorts of small flowers and miscellaneous bits on it that I was planning to bead around - much too fidly and intricate. In the end, I decided that none of it was right, and re-beaded to the design that you see here. The design, to me, represents all that has just begun or is about to begin this year - new job, new places to visit and new people to connect with.

Projects

I promised updates, so without further ado, here's a WIP of Cirque de Carreaux, and some new lampwork I am working on.

It's been ages...

I have lots to share, including new beads, new cross-stitch progress. For now, I also wanted to share the address of the Bead Journal Project blog, where bead journalers will be sharing their progress. It can be found here: http://bjp3.blogspot.com/

Christmas Ornaments

I just got word that two of my ornaments were received, and I received one today. I made the entirely beaded one, and the bell-pull style, and received the "PEACE" ornament. For those of you who read the Wagon, the entirely beaded ornament was the one I wrote a post about a few months back, asking if people wanted/would appreciate a beaded ornament. I described the ornament as a hot-pink tie-fighter, and don't think the description is that far off.

Still Here...

It's been a busy month, but there's not a lot that's blogworthy. I finished three ornaments for the TWBB Ornament exchange, and will post pictures when I can. I also got a chance to make some beads, and will post pictures later.

Winner!

I drew names early this morning, and the winner is Heather! Congrats to Heather, I know she'll come up with something fantastic to use the beads for.

Finished.

Blogtoberfest has come to an end, and it's been a great way to remember to post often. Thanks to everyone for joining in, including those people who are new to following my blog.

I'll draw for the beads later tonight - thanks to everyone for entering. I can't wait to see what the winner makes!

I also have finished jewellery to share - this is two new bracelets and one new necklace out of mostly my own lampwork beads, plus some crystals and some purchased pearls and other beads. I wanted the pink necklace to be somewhat funky and un-matching, similar to a purple necklace I own.

Consolidated.

Sitting with my iPhone, which contains my electronic boarding pass, with my baggage claim stub attached to the back. What a far cry from paper tickets. I remember the bundled of parr that it used to take to get there and back again. Last night's concert (U2) was awesome and I can't wait to see them next year!