Notes to Self ~ Pet Peeves April 6 2009

We all have them: pet peeves. Sometimes it’s really puny stuff that we should learn to ignore:  like being upset when somebody borrows something and doesn’t return it from where they got it ~ or sits at your desk and moves stuff but doesn’t put it back as they found it.
Today I have 2 pet [...]

Notes to Self – Press Kits

PART 1
We are a group of people trying to sell handmade custom items: I make glass bead artisan jewellery. And we have little money to splash around. Our office location is often in the back bedroom, on the kitchen table, or in our basements. We all need ideas that cost little or no money  and [...]

Notes to Self – The Great FLOOD

We were sitting after dinner when my sister and I heard rushing water. We knew it wasn’t the dishwasher; it has a completely different sound. And it couldn’t be our washing machine: it’s too far away to hear it and we weren’t doing a laundry. And it couldn’t be a water feature:  we don’t have [...]

Notes to Self – All Life Must Cease …

All life, as I know it,  must cease until my bathroom is repaired.
Last evening, while I was doing some research on the ‘net, I heard running water. And my sister heard running water at the same time. We walked down the hall to the bathroom, and what did we see?!
We had a water feature. A [...]

Notes to Self: A New Direction

Well, I did vent some hot air in my last Notes to Self: Bead Journal Project. I felt better after doing it, so the venting did some good. I still don’t apologize for the bombardment. If anything, I am grateful for the individuals who challenged the worthiness of my September bracelet submission.
 Why?
It made my brain [...]

Notes to Self – Bead Journal Project

I’m about to step onto my soapbox and get mouthy. You are forewarned.
I signed up for a year long challenge: Bead Journal Project 2008-2009. Each month of the year you make something that has beads in it. The size and style and methods are my own decisions to make. The only  rule is that beads [...]

Notes to Self – The Art of Gift Giving

We have no money. And Christmas is fast approaching. Already Christmas decorations are appearing in the shopping malls and Halloween hasn’t arrived yet. Every thing you see appears to be so ‘commercial.’
To avoid getting the wrong gift, gift certificates and gift cards are available at many stores, both in the ‘real world’ and in cyberspace. [...]

Notes to Self – #12 – Serendipity and Patience

Okay! In all my ‘creative’ posts I advocate Patience. In  all my blogs I say Patience is the hardest thing to do and Serendipity is masked as a booboo.
Well, I really do wish I would follow my own advice. It is so tiresome to discover what I thought was completely a lost cause turns into [...]

Notes to Self – #10 – I’m EXCITED – Does it Show?

All last week I’ve been jumpy with excitement: like a kid waiting for Santa Claus. I had butterflies in residence in my tummy. All I could think about was the wirework class, an all-day one, on Thursday next.
I got to bed late – well, early this morning really. And I slept for almost 10 hours. [...]

Notes to Self – #11 – Flourishing Seeds of Doubt

We have all been great artists at one time in our life. Then we were told we were doing it wrong and gradually we came to believe we weren’t artists at all. It’s such a waste of good raw talent. Because we as tiny human beings didn’t know what we can and cannot do, we [...]

Notes to Self – 8 – Bead Embroidery

You love to stitch on some kind of ground fabric with a needle and some type of thread or wire. Me, too. You get instant sparkle and another dimension added to your work. And that spells INTERESTING.
Are you an old hand at bead embroidery? Or are you just starting out? Either way, you salivate over [...]

Notes to Self # 7- Crimp Beads and Components

Confessions of a Control Freak.
I am excited about this find. Anything I can do without depending on somebody else is good in my books. And, since I like to bead in the evenings when the shops are closed, it’s good to learn how to make as many findings and components as possible.
Well! Here’s a lady [...]

Notes to Self – #6 – Agony and Ecstasy

Hiya. Today is the 1st day of September. Tomorrow the kidlets get back to school. It’s something all students feel for the 1st week. It isn’t until the 2nd week that reality sets in and they remember they hate school.
For me, the 1st day of September means a new topic in the Bead Journal Project. [...]

Notes to Self – #5 – Updates

I had a lovely email from Niki.Tasha waiting in my inbox this morning. She has a niece who had an accident a month or so ago and she has had complications in healing. The family is surrounding her and, I am sure, applying quanitities of love and affection and prayers. And because of the downturn [...]

Note to Self 4 – Bead Journal Project

Hiya. I am really sorry that I can’t remember the person on whose website I discovered the Bead Journal Project. But, happy I am for having discovered it.
This will be the 2nd year for the Project and the 07-08 participants are just finishing up their works.
And the rest of us who are waiting to start [...]

Note to Self 3 – Beading Popularity

Well, you know last week my sister and I attended the first annual summer gathering for the members of the OCC (Ontario Crafts Council). It was held at the president’s farm on the Niagara Escarpment.  I learned how easy bead making looks when a professional glass bead maker does it.
Well, you know I learned more [...]

Note to Self 2 – Fire Mountain Resource

Another great download about beading from Fire Mountain Gems.  It has some history and some how-tos about beading and has something in it for beginners and seasoned beaders.
http://www.firemountaingems.com/beading_information/beading_resources.asp?docid=BEADMAKERSHANDBOOK
 
I neither work for nor receive compensation from Fire Mountain Gems.  This link to Fire Mountain is for the convenience of the reader only.

Notes to Self – 1

There’s nothing important really in this post.  I have been waging a battle with my design program and so far it’s winning.  So far I have had to diagram my own circular Peyote diagrams and they are rustic.  Just because it’s now done and attached to Niki.Tasha #12 doesn’t mean I’m going to let it [...]