A slow start to the day

After sleeping in a bit for the first time in days, here I sit with Oscar and a coffee (which I had the forethought to program an automatic start last night). I actually should be heading north to Everett to find more fabric in order to create replacement vaulting pad covers as well as a few other things. It's another refreshingly cool morning, however, and Oscar is nice and warm. And I'm attempting to "upgrade" to the new version of Internet Explorer. Eek. Fortunately, I seem to have figured out how to get most of what I used before back, but what were they thinking with these defaults? This does not bode well for the next version of Windows.


In other news, I may even be able to finish this poor neglected necklace today or tomorrow. It will consist of river agate, fossil coral, B.C. jade and seed beads in pearl and olive tones. I'm making my first attempt at creating some beaded beads for this one. I may end up usng those for something else if it looks strange when put together, but we'll just have to see.

Hubby has also very kindly cleared the dining room table so that I may block the lace scarf and shawl this week. These were finished several months ago and have been waiting for house projects to come to a lull.

Well, the fire alarm just chirped a couple of times -- it seems to be going through batteries more quickly than Daylight Savings Time changes. Hmm....

Here we are again

Well, here we are again -- the random ramblings sort of rambled away and disappeared, didn't they? Life has ben very interesting for the past year-and-a-bit.

Let's see... In May, hubby and I did our 5-year wedding anniversary cruise. We had rough seas in the open ocean, as you can see from the photo. We had a fantastic time, and we're both looking forward to doing it again when we don't have raging colds!

In June, the property where I was boarding Dancer and Tes was sold, so I moved the horses and followed Andrea to her new temporary place. (It's temporary because she will be moving elsewhere sometime this fall.) We all worked our tails off to get the new place ready in late June and early July. Then hubby and I helped our friends with the Pirates of Puget Sound at the Tall Ships Festival for the July 4 weekend.

However, my feet didn't stop hurting after all of that. The pain was bad enough that I actually went to the doctor for the first time since I went to the doctor to ask about the arthritis in my hands in 1997 or so, and he laughed me out of the office. After x-rays and much hemming and hawing, they finally decided that I have osteoarthritis in my feet! So I've been trying to be good and take vitamins, but they make me ill (literally), so we're still working on that.

I'm still working at Ben Franklin, with my own company and with the horses. However, I decided earlier this year that retail management wasn't for me, and that I would much rather concentrate on my business matters and on the vaulting team. The head coach Andrea will be moving elsewhere this fall, which means I needed to step up and start coaching the team between her visits! Fortunately, I also have coaching help from the previous team captain, Cortney, and the current team veteran, Sarah, both of whom are fabulous, invaluable young ladies. (Boy, that makes me sound like an old lady, but it sure feels like it some days!) The whole team is fantastic, and I'm endlessly proud to be in it with each and every one of them.

So we'll still be talking about all the things we didn't before, but hopefully on a more regular basis. Lots of photos to share, and many more to come.

It also looks like Blogspot has added a few more features, and I now have an Etsy shop and a Facebook profile, as well as a few more things, so hang on tight while I figure out how to get those linked as well!

A blog post about...a...blog...post...

Yeah, well, not much going on, really. We had yet more snow on the weekend of April 19th. It's killing all my May flowers! (By the way, that's a shot of the snow the morning of the 20th out my office window at home.)

However, Ben Franklin now has a blog, and yours truly is one of many contributors as the Bead/Jewelry Dept. head and representative. You can see it here: http://benfranklinmonroe.blogspot.com/

(Stay tuned for my post there on the $200 necklace I'm making for under $50! Once the necklace is finished, of course.)

Happy crafting!

(almost) April (snow) Showers

Well, we're so out of touch with things that we completely missed Earth Hour (seen on blogs such as And She Knits, Too and Smoking Hot Needles).

However, we have snow. Lots of snow. This is the Northwest, not the Great White North -- what gives?!

We've been making do with half an inch of snow here and there, and with people not knowing how to drive when it's falling from the sky (it's just fluffy rain, people!) and then I braved the full inch or so of snow, ice and slush down our hill Saturday morning. (We live 800 ft. above sea level, which isn't that big a deal for most of the country, but when the rest of the Puget Sound area is at or below sea level, and 800 ft. is actually high enough to change some cooking/baking directions, and having broken my primary hand in a snow-related car accident 6 years ago, spending 4 months on pain killers that I should have had anti-psychotic chasers for... "Brave" is a pretty good description for going out in that.)

This morning, we woke to several inches...


This is a potted Imperial maple outside the office window that had just started to bud, and then the BBQ on the other side, whose snow has joined with the railing's snow.

I'm thinking some shoveling will be in order, assuming we actually end up going anywhere...

...since the car is certainly blocked in. (While the Honda Insight hybrids are excellent in snow and ice, due to their heavy batteries and narrow tires, the low frame profile rather prohibits getting through snow, as it often high-centers on the snow between tire tracks.) Nope, it's a truck day if we head out to vaulting today.

Also notice the walkway lights, and how one of them is all but buried.

On the bright side, hubby and I will be planning bathtub tiles with brown paper, and I might manage to get some jewelry made. (New porcelain beads came in at work. Check 'em out!)

What? March already?? Since when?

I'm not sure time is flying by so much as getting washed away with the Spring rains. Although there was that 1 hour lost a weekend or 2 ago that some of us are still reeling from.

Since the last post, life has been happening. MIL has safely flown home to the wintry wilds of Ontario, where they have been attacked by snowstorm after snowstorm. (You can read all about them in the blogs from The Yarn Harlot and And She Knits, Too.) I have been unofficially -- yet officially, somehow -- been made bead/jewelry department head and soon-to-be department manager at the Monroe Ben Franklin (an idea which is both exciting and terrifying at the same time).

Best of all, I've been finishing some projects in my dwindling spare time. Aside from web site stuff for clients (which has been taking chunk of time here and there), here are some photos of the more fun-to-share things.

First of all, we have jewelry!

These are some simple chain weaves. The one on the left is a helm chain in gunmetal, silver and copper. (Some also call it a wedding knot, among other things; I'm not sure propriety allows me to share one of my students' names for it after struggling for a couple of hours.) The gold one on the right is the necklace I made for my mother's wedding. (Still waiting for wedding photos, too.)


Here we have one of the simplest pairings I've done so far. This is the product of 4 cheap, stretchy bracelets we received at the store. I cut them apart and restrung them on heavier stretchy cord to make a choker and bracelet. Love these things! Customers love them, too, but we don't seem to have gotten any more in the latest shipment, much to the jealousy of many.


Also since the last post, I had the opportunity to take a class and make this ruffled bracelet. It's all seed beads in greens, ambers and coppers. Somewhat time consuming, but the result is cute, and I just love that button! I swear it's going to end up on costumes.


Here's another chainmail necklace featuring a pendant found in the depths of my manager's office when they were cleaning it out to prepare for expansion. She sent several treasures down and told us to go home with them. Oh, oh, twist my arm. *grin*


This is the piece of which I'm proudest -- the leaf and pearl necklace. I spent the better part of a day on this one, but it's one of my favorites. Freshwater pearls, copper sead beads and a moss agate carved leaf.



And now for the knitted items, mostly socks or sock-like.

Finally! A photo of the No Tears-based sock, based on a pattern from Elizabeth Zimmerman. Lots of fun to make and wear.


Here are the gorgeously soft merino wool socks I had so much help with. The only thing is that the turquoise colored the bottom of my foot after the first day of wearing them. Time will tell.


Lastly, the Cortney legwarmers. Cortney is a fun, fantastic 18yo young woman I know from the barn. She is the vaulting team captain, a skilled vaulter and rider, a hard worker, but she has one of the hardest home lives to grow up having. She has become a stellar person despite her home surroundings, so I have a hard time not doing anything to help keep her cheerful and bright (not that she needs much of my help -- she has a deep well of happiness fed by horses, sunshine and her away-from-home surrogate mother, Andrea the barn owner). When she asked for legwarmers in a long list of bright pastels (to go with her new and very-80s tiger print spandex), I went on the hunt and found a closeout ombre from Knit Picks in a nylon-acrylic blend -- easy to wash and should be pretty durable. Not to mention, this is SO SOFT. I am such a Knit Picks fan these days.



Well, that's it from la-la land these days. Is it too late to do New Year's Resolutions to get better about updating the blog?