Vacation - Las Vegas

I am suppose to be doing laundry and starting to pack!
I wanted to share the calendar so you can keep track of our trip.
Just like being there, right?

I will be without my computer this trip. The last time many of the free access to Internet sites were pay for. The trip before there were several casinos that had areas where there was free wireless service. I was surprised that they still had service, but were asking about $10 a day.
When we stay at Harrah's owned property, we have Diamond status that allows us to go to a lounge where there are free drinks, snacks, and computers. I can check email and that is about it.
We are suppose to be getting a TV at Caesars. It is to be shipped to our home. If it is to arrive in FL before us, I think it will have to be shipped to Jessica's address and wait for us to arrive.
Oh, just a comment on my newest bead project. It is a bracelet with Swaroski crystal squares about 1/2 inch. They are open in the center. I am linking them with 15/0 gold glass beads. The link is 6 beads wide in Peyote and about a two inch length. I am zipping the Peyote to form the ring. I have two crystals put together and working on the second Peyote ring. I would like it if the crystals would stay on an angle rather than just a side so I will have some work to do here. I will not finish before returning from Las Vegas in early September. Of course then it will be a 10 day mad house of packing for Florida and our visit on the way with Stacy and Bryan.
Wish me luck, cross your fingers, and anything else that may help me come back with as much money as I leave with. See I did not say so I win...staying even would be just fine, right!?

Grammy Beads Final Edition!

Today is the day. Today I finish the Grammy's Beads Project!

The Black and White are already with Candy, my sister-in-law. The Red are mine. The White and Silver are for Betsy. The Yellow and Bronze are for Wendy. Last, but not least, the Yellow and Blue are for Stacy. This has been a true labor of love. I only hope that Mother knows the joy the beads have given me in the gifts I have been able to give to the family members.

Today I was also able to deliver Amy's bracelet. It is the shiny Green and Green. I am so glad she liked it. I will send the White Bracelet and White earrings to Kim and Betsy as I will not see them before we leave for Florida. I will have to send the two Yellow bracelets and the Yellow earrings to Hannah and Madison and Wendy. I do not expect to be able to see them before we leave.

I will deliver the Red Bracelet and the Yellow and Blue earrings to Kelly and Stacy respectively. We are planning a couple day visit with Stacy and Bryan in Charlotte and will see Kelly there, too.

The final delivery will be the other Red bracelet to Jessica and the other Green bracelet to Jayda, when we get home to Florida.

What fun this has been. I hope that the beads will always be a reminder to each of us who owns them to be just a little bit like the Beautiful Lady who originally bought them, my Mother.

The Rest of the Story

Mother would have loved this story. She had such a keen sense of humor and would have gotten such a laugh when I ran out of beads on the second green bracelet. The first was made with 15/0's and I had planned to do the same with the second one. When there was about an inch and a half to finish, I had run out of beads on my work pad and started looking for the vial of green. I sure did find it...empty. I am not certain why but there were less beads in the green vial and thus I could not complete the bracelet. I cut it up and then separated all the beads and started again with another size 11 bead in a green. It took three starts and a bit of chagrin when I thought it still would be too short but fortunately it worked and is now complete. The black and white is with Heather. The rest will be with their respective granddaughter or great granddaughter in a short time.

Heathers Bracelet

The final chapter will be the earrings...wish me luck. The wires are ordered and should be in soon. I am leaving for Vegas in a week so perhaps the earrings will have to wait. For sure they will.

I just remembered that I would be seeing a dear friend from California while I am in Las Vegas. She will need a bracelet with a flamingo on it!

Where Oh Where???

Well I really have been busy working on the bracelets. Although they are not going as fast as I thought they would. I did give the first one to Heather. It was the black and white. She is Grammy's youngest granddaughter. I was trying to do the math and I cannot figure out if she was born the April before Mother died. She would have been one day less than a month old then when Mother died. I could tell she was touched by the story and the bracelet.
Speaking of being touched. I told a little about the Grammy Beads on a Yahoo Group I belong to called Beaddreamz. The response from the lovely ladies associated with this group was amazing. It gave me many other viewpoints and made me very happy I started this project and especially blogged about it. They commented mostly on the Group forum. However, some of the members commented at the bottom of the blog itself.
I have 4 bracelets done and the other 4 underway.

(Click on the picture for a better look!)
I ordered Sterling Silver lever backed earring wires today so I can attempt to make earrings for the additional 5 that I wanted to have a Grammy Beads item.
The next decision is how to make the earrings. I could try making a bead with beads. Or I could try to make a flower with the beads. I saw a pattern in a Bead and Button magazine where there were hoops made with beads using about 3 or four different sizes. You may or may not know, that would be a challenge for me as I own basically two sizes of beads. There are 15/0 and 11/0. There are six packages of triangles that Jessica bought for me...maybe they would work. There are also several odd large beads, that I bought, that are vintage and would not probably be enough of any given color to match.
You now get the gist of the next hurdle. I have never made a pair of earrings before. So the work begins. You do know that I probably do not want any two pair alike, right?
The bracelets will be white and rainbow clear, white and black (Heathers), red and same color transparent red, red and orange lined red, lime green and lime green, lime green and transparent rainbow purple, yellow and tortoise shell brown, and yellow and transparent blue. The first named color is the Grammy Beads the second color is the smaller bead I had.

The "Grammy Beads"

This promises to be a rather long story.

On May 9, 1982 my Mother, Esther Gordon Deible, died. It was a very sad time in my life. It so happened that the 9th was Mothers' Day. To know my mother was to know the ultimate in motherhood. She was the champion of her two children, me and my brother. She would never have allowed herself to die on such a momentous day. Somehow I have reconciled that God picked the perfect mother to take. Was I the perfect daughter? No.

Very shortly after her death, my father wanted me to get her clothes out of the house. Although he did not say so I am certain they were painful to see.

My Mother was perhaps the most beautifully dressed lady of her time in our small town. She loved fancy clothes and dressed to the nines for her bridge club every month.

Many of her clothes were embellished in some way or another. Her wedding dress was a beautiful pink with a floral design in seed beads. I did not realize that until recently when I was cleaning out my parents house after my Dad's death. (If you read an earlier post on the cleaning of the attic you remember!) I ran across a picture of her wedding day without the corsage on her dress and sure enough there was the seed bead embroidery. Over the years I remember needlepoint pockets added to dresses. My mother had the dresses made and she had made the needle point. She was very accomplished in knitting and needlepoint. She also bought several sweaters and dresses that had intricate bead embroidery on them. When my sister-in-law and I are shopping and see "fancy clothes" we always comment on how Mother would have loved them.

Okay what about the "grammy beads"?

To all 7 of my Mothers grandchildren she was Grammy. That was like taking Mother to the second power. She adored all her grandchildren. My daughter chronicled grammy in her blog as well as my Father when he died in March. March 6th and March 7th. http://jessicamae3.blogspot.com/2008_03_01_archive.html

The Beads! What about the darn beads?

Right the beads. Well after cleaning the attic at my Fathers and removing all the trash and treasures, his wife, Phyllis asked when I was going to do the closets? And drawers? You see when Dad married her he did not want change so aside from my Mothers clothes and jewelry everything else was more or less exactly as it had been in 1982.

I started on the closets and drawers a few days after completing the attic and again it was a treasure of family history. There were thousands of slides from 1955 onward. There were linens with stains and broken items, so much of the work included throwing away over 50 years of trash. In the drawers there were lots of pictures and also old old should have been thrown away years ago clothing.

In a drawer in my brothers room there was a small manila envelope and within were 6 glass vials. Two of the vials were empty...in the other 4 were seed beads.

I do not remember my Mother ever embroidering with them so I do not know what happened to the beads from the two empty vials. In the four were red, lime green, yellow, and white beads. They are old and not as uniformed as I use. However they are about to become bracelets for all of Grammys living female relatives. That would be my Sister-in-law, me, my three daughter-in-laws and two daughters, my three nieces, and my three granddaughters. That is 13 of us. To make the beads go that far I am doing my favorite Russian Spiral and adding some 15/0 beads to the 11 or 10's that I found of Mothers.

Beginning of the "Grammy Bracelets". There will have to be a minor adjustment. I think now that the Grammy Beads will not "stretch" to make more than 8 or nine bracelets. I fear that it will limit those who will ultimately get one. Time will tell.

I am going to give the first one tomorrow. I decided it was time to release this draft to my blog. Smile!

Thanks Mother, I guess you knew that someday I would be a seed bead addict.

Red Hot Hot Hot!!!

Red Hot is what I think when I see my new Freeform Peyote Bracelet. It is finished!

I was not happy with the look of the center as it was very harsh looking. Well I strung some of the shinny delicas and then twisted them around the coral. I felt just fine about it then. It was a simple solution. I wish I had a better close up photograph to show some of the details.

I just may have a better close up of any of my pictures after Wed. Well maybe it will take some time. I am getting a new camera on Wednesday, but it will take some time for me to read the book and learn what I can. However I am cheating a little. It is a camera like my daughter Jessica's, so I look forward to her teaching me everything she knows about her camera as soon as we get back to Florida!

Seeing Red Update

No not finished yet. However it is definitely progressing. I still do not feel like it has enough happening on the one end. The other side is feeling more complete. What do you think??

I See RED

Oh yes you have guessed it. Something in Red is taking shape. I started a Red Freeform Peyote bracelet. It is in the early stages. There is no stone or cab in this one. I have just started doing some embellishing. Time to share!

It is in 5 shades of red. The center is red coral. At least that is what I think it is. I got it in a bag of vintage beads a couple of months ago. I want to add some more of it but not sure yet where or if it is enough. Lots of work left to be done. I love the Reds, hope you do too!

Check back in a day or so and see if I got it finished...I am really at it often.