So many hobbies!

Cabochons

I've been feeling the urge to bead lately and I've had a few ideas for new pieces.  To that end, I've been ordering some cabochons online.  These were the first ordered:

A gorgeous petoskey with beautiful definition.

This petoskey has less clear definition but is still lovely.

And finally, a small agate slab.  This one is smaller than I was expecting, a little more than an inch long, but has great banding.

I'm finally using the ice cream maker I bought for my birthday quite a few years ago.  Last night I made a thick, chocolate custard which spent the next 24 hours in the fridge getting cold.  Here's where it is right now:

When it's done, it's going to be a fantastic, rich Chocolate Peanut Butter ice cream.  I've already sampled some (of course) and it's wonderful.  This is an only-on-occasion ice cream since it has 6 egg yolks and 2 cups of cream plus the PB I'll add in just a couple of minutes.   Some friends are coming over tomorrow after work to help me eat it.  I can't wait!

More sewing

 

Some fun everyday napkins.  And more time spend on quilt squares.  I'm up to 200 sewn and trimmed.  Frankly, the trimming part is rather tedious.  Now I'm starting to think of how I can transform a wall in my condo into a design wall, and which wall will be the lucky winner of said transformation.  Currently drawing a blank.

 

I took this and a second necklace to the Ann Arbor Art Center today to put in the gift shop.  I'd be very happy to see someone walking around town wearing one of my pieces.

I'm searching for the perfect butternut squash soup recipe.  Anyone have a favorite they'd like to share?  Please.

Finally, garden pics

 

Not too shabby for the front of a condo.  The pots on the right and left hold green beans; the bed on the right two kinds of tomatoes; the bed on the left more beans, grape tomatoes, cucumbers and miniature cantelope.  The long narrow pot in front has the carrots.  (They don't seem to have germinated very well.)  And, of course, the two potato boxes at the back.  To the left of the garden are four more pots that have my Purple Viking potatoes.  See:

 

Baby 'tato plants!  Okay, here's my question:  These five sprouts are all coming from the same piece of potato, do I cut off all but one or do I let them all grow?  The pot they're in is about 18" across.

I bought more raw fiber (I know, I know but I couldn't resist!), this time Polwarth.  I'm in love with Polwarth's crimp.  Even after scouring, the crimp is still gorgeous:

 

How could I resist such gorgeous wool?  And it's sooooo soft, too.

 

I've gotten back into bead embroidery again.  I love to see pictures of other people's studios so I thought I'd show you a shot of mine.  I've been happily working on a variety of projects besides beading:  spinning, making oodles of strawberry jam  (ooo, I need to post a pic...), crochet and the gardening.  I'm even going to finish (finally) the theater book I learned to make months ago in a class.  I've been having fun.  Here's my latest finished piece:

 

It's supposed to be hot and humid this weekend so I expect I'll be holed up inside with the air conditioning, only venturing out in the early morning or after the sun goes down.  I really don't like hot and sweaty.  On the plus side, escaping the heat means more time spent working on projects so, bonus.  What will you be doing this weekend?

Vacations and projects rock!

Man I love spending time with my family.  I had such a good time up north.  It was relaxing, I had time to work on several projects, spent time with my nephews and sister... it was all good.  Our cottage is on a lake so I got to see the lake in all her glory.  And, naturally, I forgot my camera.  I decided I need to put together a bag that I grab whenever I walk out the door that has some essentials that I don't want to leave the house without:  camera, journal, thumb drive, pens, double-stick tape, iPod, ear buds, calendar.  This means I'm going to need to buy a small camera that is easy to tuck into a pocket.  I'll give you an update later on how that's going.

 

I started Shawl that Jazz on Wednesday and I haven't been able to put it down.  I've got about 10 inches of it knit already.  The yarn I dyed myself the week before and I'm almost done with the first skein.  If it looks like I'm not going to have enough to knit the border, I plan on dying a third skein in just brown and black.  I'm really enjoying this pattern.  It's pretty clever.  She uses short rows to shape the shawl and once the body is completed, you pick up those inactive stiches and knit the border.  It's pretty cool.

When I was able to put the shawl down, I did some bead embroidery for the first time in months and months.  I was able to complete the beading on one piece that I'd been stalled on since the last time I beaded:

 

Sorry about the glare; I waited too long to take the picture and had to use the flash.  Eventually, this will be sewn to a backing, some kind of fringe will be attached and a cord and the necklace will be sold (hopefully) on Etsy.  I also started a new piece that's not complete yet:

 

The cabochon at the top is turquoise from China (I love ebay!) and the bottom piece is a piece of shell I picked up off the beach on Sanibel Island.  My mom wondered why I'd pick up broken shells but these pieces are too beautiful not to save.  This picture is really crappy.  I'll post it again once I've finished the beading.

Gotta go to bed.  I'll tell you more later.

A sneak peak...

of my new bead embroidery piece.  You won't be seeing much more until it's done as I like to keep these things under wraps until they're done.

Isn't that face cabochon wonderful?!  I wish I had a lot more but when I bought it there were only two and I grabbed them both.  I have one more to play with.  Beading was what I was into before spinning and knitting.  I did it pretty much exclusively for 2 or 3 years before I got burned out.  It took me quite a while to actually sit down and start this new piece but now that I have, I'm really enjoying myself.  I will say this will be a necklace when it's completed and that I'll be selling it on my Etsy store.  I haven't given up the dream of working, at least part-time, for myself, creating and selling my own artwork.  I've gotten quite a few compliments on my other bead embroidery pieces so I have hopes my current and future pieces will sell. 

Just in case you were worried I'd given up spinning, here's predrafted roving from this weekend's dyeing.  Bead embroidery I find stimulating - spinning calms and relaxes me.  I like to spin before I go to bed.

Bead embroidery

This was another night of a little bit of knitting (still not done with that 2nd sock) and a little bit of spinning (more Cormo) but nothing exciting to show.  So, I'm shamelessly showing off some of the bead embroidery I've done in the past couple of years.  Beading and bead embroidery were my last obsession.  I suspect that I might have been a magpie in a former life since I'm seem to be attracted to bright, shiney and colorful things.  Hence my attraction to beads.  All that lovely saturated color.  Yum! We have a great bead store in town that offers classes that rival the top beading conventions.  My inspiration for bead embroidery was Sheri Serafini.  Visit her website here and you'll see why. 

I wanted to thank the folks who left me comments about my theory.  I'm convinced now that I get better sleep on those nights when I've done some spinning.  I don't mean that it helps me fall asleep.  I've never had any problems with that (thank goodness!) but once I am asleep, I sleep deeply all through the night.  I'll often wake up in the morning and find I'm in the same position I was in when I fell asleep.  Good sleep is a wonderful thing!