November Preview

It has been kind of an insane month so far and I have done no beading except while I taught 2 classes at Bead Boutique my LBS. I have not been good about my exercise program in the last 2 weeks although I have done some pilates. I will have to see if I can't get better once I get on the road.

Here is the start of my page but nary a bead in sight, actually some of them have been shipped off to my first stop on my trip. It is interesting trying to pick out all of the beads I think I may want for the next couple of months before I have added one bead to the piece. I think it would be even harder if I was doing the intuitive pieces where I just put down one bead and go with the flow. At least I can look at the photos and decide I need this color or might want this bead etc.

I have all of the pages for the rest of the months at this point so if you would like to see them go to the Bead Journal part of my website and check out the photo albums for the upcoming months. It will give you an idea of where my journey is headed. I have updated a few other things on my website as well including adding a section for the collages that I have been making to turn in to greeting cards.

I will try to post updates as I go and will try to include photos if I can. The really good news is that Wayne should be home very soon after I get back from my trip. I expect January to be a wonderful month.

Journals, Keeping Track of the Journey

Here there are 3 months of journals all worked on at the same time. I also made the cards for these months at the same time. Since I will be traveling for 1/2 of Nov and all of Dec and hopefully getting a husband back sometime in January I have a feeling that my next 3 journals may likewise get worked on as a group. I will take my camera along so I will have during photos although it will be interesting to see how easy or hard it is to keep up on the blogs while I am traveling. The writing shouldn't be hard I am just not sure about the photos. will see how it works out when the time goes. I am learning new tricks on the Mac and with it my tags are a good place to try new things.

August Finished

It had it's own pace to get finished and has provided me with many hours of enjoyment and contemplation. It is my perfect place to sit and be quiet.

This page is my most dimensional month and is fun to touch and you can move the plant around a little bit. Maybe someday I will be lucky enough to have a porch something like this one where I can sit out and just be.

October Finished

It was quite the Bead Vortex that I fell into, even in a week with several nighs where I was tossing and turning I still managed to get both October and August's pages done.

It is interesting how things turned out with October's page. I had several ideas that changed and the look definitely changed as I went. With all of my pages having photos taken outside you are now beginning to see a bit of the effect of the change of seasons with October's page. The page feels much like Fall feels to me , earthy with rich colors and a sense of calm.

My original idea with wrap around the edge leaves got scrapped and so did it's follow on idea and the original leaves that I made for this page will show up somewhere else in a project I am sure. I am so glad that I used the Russian leaves from my class at Bead Fest and then made more to go with them. They had the right amount of detail and were not so heavy as to weigh down the look of the page.

Growth Happens

On Tuesday last week I had a body wrap done at The Studio the gym I have been going to . For the wrap they put a series of heating pads around your body and then your job is to relax for the first 30 min. Then Gail comes in and gives you a hand and foot massage, mmmmm... wonderful. It makes a nice treat and the heat helps relax you and burns a lot of calories etc.




As I was laying there relaxing in the dim room with the soft music my plants from August's page decided that they were ready to grow and that the idea of a trellis that I had been toying with was a really good idea. That afternoon and evening I made 2 trellis and got them attached and since these photos were taken some growing has definitely been happening. With both August and October's pages clambering for my attention I have sort of fallen into a bead vortex and have fallen a bit behind in blogging and e-mails. Beading is more fun anyway, for those I owe e-nails to I promise I will do my best to eventually catch up on them.

Fall Is So Natural

This months page has come so naturally to me, it has been almost easy and quick to do. It is quickly nearing completion. For those who read about my September page you might remember me mentioning a vine that I was thinking of using made with Herringbone stitch, somehow it decided that it wanted to be around October's page instead. I combined the couple of pieces that I had made for that and the piece I had started for my Fall leaves class at Bead Fest and added to them until I had enough to go around the page as the border. It was then tacked onto the front and when the piece is done it will be tacked onto the back as well.

For all that this piece has been relatively fast and felt very natural it has undergone some significant changes in ideas. I was going to use beaded leaves and wrap them around the edges of the piece but when I tried this I realized that the leaves became unidentifiable as leaves once they were wrapped around the edge.

The next idea was to just set them around the edge on the front as a border but then I thought the edge might need something and since my "vines where on my table they said try us and what do you know I really liked how they looked. After joining my sections together and adding to them I played with the peyote leaves that I had already made and they just didn't feel quite right, too heavy for the piece. The Russian leaves that I had made for the Fall Leaves class however were more delicate looking so I made more of them playing with size and colors and decided they were perfect. (the pictures with the leaves will be in the next post.)

I do like the idea of some pieces that are made separately and then can be added because it is so easy to play with ideas that way and I know that all of the pieces that don't get used on the page they were made for might just show up somewhere else. Who knew when I took the class in August that I wouldn't end up making the class project but use the pieces on a BJP page. I took the class to learn the technique so am quite pleased that the pieces are ending up on an "Angie" piece instead of a copy of the teacher's piece.

Thanks to those of you who left your opinion on whether or not to bead the fallen leaf. It was unanimous to not bead it, I know I just have to trust my own instinct which was saying not to bead it.

Fall Harvest

I had a lot of fun at Bead Boutique teaching and spending some time beading at the end of September and while I was there I bought all of the cords and most of the berries for this page.
I really like the very earthy feel this page has. I wasn't sure if I would lose that once I started adding more beads to it.

This page feels right on a different level than some of the other pages have. I find that each page has me thinking and feeling different things. I am thinking of naming my pages for this year "Nature's Moods."

I am not sure what I want to do with the leaf that looks like it floated down and landed on my page. Part of me is tempted to leave it unbeaded so that it keeps that just landed on the page look. I am looking for opinions, as Wayne knows I take opinions and then may ignore them but I like them since they make me think.