too much!

It's been a long week. I went and visited with a good friend over the weekend. It was good and bad. Good that I got to see him. Bad that I had to leave him.
I came back to work, busy busy work. Lots and lots of sql work and I'm now a little more comfortable with databases. I still can't completely wrap my head around mashing different database tables together using different combinations to extract the info you want.
And advising a friend who was feeling internal turmoil. It just enforces my view that life is that much easier if we can all learn to be honest with ourselves and our loved ones and if we can accept that life isn't quite what you would like it to be.

Carnations

I keep making carnations. That's what happens when it's time for spring, and this year, spring has come early! Really! It's mid February and it was 60 degrees out! At least these carnations go pretty quickly. Melissa and Reshma got theirs over the weekend. Dorrie should have hers mailed out this weekend.

Happy Spring!

Spring is coming a little early this year. Every year, close friends receive a flower and this year, it's the carnation. Beads are light ruby luster from shipwreck and dyed olive sol/gel from york.

Beaded forsythia and the purple wall

Last picture for now. When I had painted the room, I realized the forsythia would look amazing against the walls, and I was right. Was originally going to use this vase for Oriental Poppies...but hey, I haven't planted them yet and so I had an empty vase. Doesn't look too bad with the yellow. Very striking colors in here. So...I guess after I make my 2 dozen forsythia for the living room, I may have to make another half dozen for this room...or maybe I"ll just make a dozen and have them in here, but what will I do with the two containers I was going to pot my forsythia in?

Painting the room - After

And here is my room after the paint job and some furniture movement. Pretty clean lines...well mostly. The orchid on the right hand side is real. The branches of forsythia on the dresser are beaded. That side of the room feels very zen, I just can't quite capture it in the picture.

Painting the room - Before

That was my room before I started painting. The walls were a light peach color. I could finally get rid of the curtains that I hated. They were a sheer white eyelet pattern and I really didn't like the eyelet pattern.

Time to paint...

I went to Home Depot and bought a gallon of paint. Behr in Freesia Purple. I'll be doing some painting on Saturday...should be an interesting experience. It's supposed to be warm. I need to keep busy and keep occupied.
Feeling slightly better than yesterday. Stupid friend apologized.

And all the rest...

The reaction broke out again...as you can see by my food log below. I wish I knew what caused it but I'm suspecting maybe MSG (as in the food additive, not Madison Square Garden). I have some possible symptoms and it'd explain why I had reactions this last week only after I'd eaten meals where I didn't actually prepare the food. But from what I've read so far, different people have different effects and they can range, even within one person depending on various conditions. These include quantity and physical condition...so I guess even from if you're healthy or sick or even what time of the cycle you're in if you're a woman. Great. It should be fun trying to figure out what it is. At least the doctor prescribed some steroids and gave me some prescription allergy medicine and some antibiotics in case the area around my lips started getting infected.

Forsythia!

Beaded forsythia. The left branch I just finished. Now I have 2 branches...22 to go...sigh. Donna has an urn with 60 something branches, I'm not making that many but I do want a couple of dozen for the fireplace...and then maybe another half dozen once I get my room painted.

The first finished sweater

So this was the first sweater I made and put together. I had Dorrie and Melissa take a picture of this while I was up in Ithaca. Yes, you can see my bra through it as I'm modeling it. As you can see, the sleeves are a bit long. The rest actually doesn't look too bad, it could just be the artist being overly critical. Anyways, it teaches me to measure before I do anything. And I think with a little bit of stretching, the hole for my head gets bigger. Ithaca was a fun trip. Cornell beat SLU(T) 1-0 with a goal late in the third. My allergy which was getting better got worse that day. I did eat a lot of chocolate and got a chocolate milkshake from Hershey though.

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.