Today is the greatest...not!

I sat at work today, lips hurting. I was depressed that I couldn't eat...it was like getting my wisdom teeth pulled all over again, except that it was a mechanical problem with my jaw opening. Now, it's just that the corners of my mouth are cracked and the skin around my lips are dry, any change in position upsets the balance and it HURTS! By mid afternoon, I'd come to the conclusion that I needed to do what all those parents tell their kids not to do..."If you keep making that face, your face is going to freeze like that!" I tried to keep my mouth frozen and slightly ajar so that I could attempt to stick food in it...though the best I got was a fork, with no food on it, cuz that's as big an opening as I was able to make. So...think happy thoughts...think happy thoughts...
Works in progress:
rosebud, iris arrangement
Works to start:
painting my room purple, gold/topaz curtains or perhaps Roman shades, a couple of bags, a tulip arrangement, finding the right paint effect for my dining room, sunflowers...the list goes on with each passing day.

My favorite dumplings...

I finally figured out that what may have been causing my allergic reaction were my favorite dumplings...My lips swelled up again last week...when I head eaten the dumplings...and yesterday, after a week of decreased swelling, they were swelling up again. What did I eat on Wednesday? For breakfast I had red bean buns, which I'd been eating periodically last week but had been fine. For lunch, I had chicken and stuffing, and I'd been fine when I had that for dinner on Sunday. And of course there were brownies with marshmallow but I'd been eating that on Sunday as well. And for dinner...the dumplings. There is something wrong with this batch anyways, but it's still sad since they were my favorite brand.

Iris -- It's killing me!

This is Donna Dickt's iris pattern. This is made using jet lined ruby beads from York and regular yellow from Shipwreck. This is part of a 3 iris arrangement and while making some parts last night, I jabbed my self in the finger unintentionally. Really, the wire got caught in my finger. And since this wasn't the first time something like this has happened and I do have a thick layer of skin on my fingers, I didn't quite notice what was going on so that wire made a nice little hole in my index finger. Typing is a bit of a pain right now since the hole is in the pad of my finger and that's where my finger hits on the key board so I'm using my nails right now. It's a new way of typing. Think I should get a tetnus shot?

Rosebud sleeves

So this little piece of lacing work is for the sleeves of Rosebud. I didn't like the sleeves and thought it could've been more feminine. I gotta tell ya though, this piece has given me such a headache. You drop a stitch and you're screwed! But...I'm making peace with it and I'll probably be the only one who can tell I messed up, and only if I look really closely!

Callas and pictures

My callas!

This is for those of you who may be reading this and ask "What in the heck are beaded flowers?" The short answer is...beads strung on wire and bent into various petal and leaf shapes, then assembled into a flower. I am especially proud of these calla lilies because I designed this pattern. There are various beaded calla lily patterns out there but I've never been happy with any of them. After a year of creative influence from the amazing beading ladies down in Charlottesville, VA and our great leader Donna Dickt who actually lives up here by me in Northern VA, this is the result. It's my first flower pattern!

Let the blogging begin!

Okay, so I'm looking around for someplace to call my blogging home. I need some place to display the madness that comes out of my head...the designs, and one day the finished products. My interests lie in beads and yarn. With the beads, I make beaded flowers. With the yarn, I knit. I have crocheted but am now primarily a knitter. One day, I want to start knitting with beads to combine my two passions.
My current New Year's resolution is to finish up some unfinished projects. I have a tendancy to start stuff and move away from it. I also have such a large stash of beads and I really need to use it up. So...this is where it's all going to come out.