... and getting hotter!

I have no idea where Baby Bette is running off to, but she's trying to drag my newest project along for the ride!  Something tells me she's got the heart of a magpie....  The ideas overflow and I cannot bead quickly enough...

Remember - preorder swag goes only to those whose book is ordered and paid for by January 31st.  I should be sending them out by the end of February, and I am just so excited for everyone to hold it, see it, devour it....*sigh*  I hope you all have cameras!  I'm dying to see what you make after reading it!

Happy Beadsday!

Country Girl

I love driving around Southern Ontario - our landscape varies so beautifully.  Fields, cities, rivers, meadows, forest.... I love ALL of it!  I enjoyed a wonderful time driving to/from Toronto and spending a gigglicious evening with my 9 year old niece, E.  You have just GOTTA love a little girl who, when offered to go anywhere she chooses for dinner with her (admittedly indulgent) aunt, picks Japanese every time! *G*  Not only that, she chose her school reward this past summer to be learning to bead from me; just like her older cousins did in previous years.  I have such a cool crop of young people in my family...love 'em all to bits!

Sunday was a great country drive on highways and byways and various laneways....the de-icing sprayers were out working hard before the predicted snowstorm.    The sky was gloriously blue as I sped home, but you could see the snow clouds gathering thickly on the horizon - beautiful!

I spent a fabulously fun day peeking and poking through someone else's beadwork and stash and filling up with happy and inspiration and all things good.  There is nothing more positive and uplifting than someone sharing their work with you.  Seeing their colours, the way they envision connections, hearing what they were thinking while the design came together... I think I need both more time AND more beads! *G*

Happy Beadsday!

Red Hot

A wonderful side effect of the acupuncture I enjoyed in Tucson is that I can finally feel cold!  It has literally been years since I could wear a sweater, enjoy a curl up in a comforter or wear a scarf with an outfit.  I don't know the specifics of it, but I know my energies are getting stronger and healthier and in better balance daily, because I can FEEL it.  I'm cuddled into sweatpants right now, revelling in the warmth for a delightful change.  Even after weeks of the cold, wet weather we've experienced it is STILL a novelty to enjoy the sensation of warmth as welcome, rather than burdensome.  I may even have to buy a winter coat!....well, not yet.  Maybe next year, after I get some more acupuncture!  I'm so amazed the results continue to develop.  Larry Gatti of Tucson Community Acupuncture - you rock!  Heck, I don't even mind your first name anymore <inside joke - if you get it, no explanation needed; if you don't, just think about it.....>; you could be called ANYTHING and I'd still seek you out.

In keeping with my renewed physical being, it seems appropriate that the work springing to life at the moment is a hot red number, ably modelled by my mini-friend, Baby Bette.  BB is having fun dancing about with the work in progress and I'll have to close her in a drawer if I'm to get any more work done!

Happy Beadsday!

Growing

Illustration by John Tenniel for
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll

I can feel the new life, new inspiration, new hope growing within me.  My mind and muscles are expanding and finding new ways of working.  Perception is altering and the byways and footpaths of creativity have never looked more inviting.  How appropriate for a New Year!

Volume I of Contemporary Geometric Beadwork is off at the printers, and it's time to get on with packaging, sorting, planning, etc. and a host of other duties involved with getting the books from the printer to YOU, you beautiful world of beaders!

Thank goodness for Kate McKinnon, who has generously shared her hard-earned knowledge and expertise with me about the fine-points of self-publishing, etc.  There is so very much I simply never considered, that now seems so clear I think I must have had blinders on earlier in the process.

Volume II is already working up and looks FABULOUS; new works, new ideas, new structures plus variations of everything you'll learn in Volume I; the universe has opened her treasure chest of possibility and there's no locking it back up now that we've found the key!

Happy Beadsday!

Looks like...

A beautiful sky today with fluffer-nutter clouds and clear, limitless blue.  I am so full of joy - our book has gone to the printer!  The plates are being prepared, there is a little more colour-proofing, etc., and before you know it, your post carrier will be bringing you YOUR book!

All orders finalized before the end of January will STILL be given immediate access to our pre-release treats on our Book Blog, as well as the goodies that will be sent with the book.

The generous sharing of talents by a multitude of beaders and more around the world has really been a tremendous inspiration and lesson for me.  Too many to mention have shared their finished work, asked perceptive questions that forwarded the efforts to explore and offered different perspectives that gave clearer illumination to any number of concepts.

I am grateful to you all and so blessed to have gotten to know you.

Thanks for a wonderful journey; I can see many byways, turns and wanders leading far into the future...

Happy Beadsday!