Off Topic- Attic

I have been doing very little beading recently and so I thought to show what I have been doing.

The picture does not seem to want to load so I will try to add it later. However I can still whine about all the hours I have spent filling a 10 cubic yard dumpster. The majority of the items were from my Fathers attic but the rest was from the closets and drawers and hutch in the house. I am certain I could fill another 4 cubic yard dumpster, too.
Harv has helped during most of the work and that means all the up and down steps. It is hard to believe how much has been stored and ignored for over 50 years. So much of what is there is photos and I am giving most of them to Jessica to scrapbook with or ignore or to pitch. She is the historian for the family so it is just her job, right? I wish I could easily send down lots of things...I still may. She better clean her closets as I can fill them for her.
That is only fair when she did that tag me thing. Right?
My parents have scads of pictures that no one is going to be able to identify. Identify all the people on the back of photos, so your kids know whether to discard them or hang on to them. Gee, I hope I start to take my own advise. I have always been good at telling others what to do. No, I do not listen to myself or anyone else for that matter.
I am selling some items online. My Ebay seller name is vegasnut.
That tells volumes about me too. We will be making our semiannual visit August 21 through September 2. Love Las Vegas. Especially when I win.

Darn we just realized we had forgotten our oldest grandson's birthday on the 28th. Happy Birthday Brandon.

Hugs to all!

I Have Been Tagged!

Name 5 Things I do for myself:

1.Read Novels daily.

2. Seed Bead almost daily.

3. Go to lunch with family and friends.

4. Surf the Net often.

5. Gambling

Name 5 kind things I do for others.(friends, children and partner)

1. Communicate with my children.

2. Blog.

3. Listen to their problems.

4. Make dinner.

5. Tell them I love them, or is that for me?

Name 5 kind things I have done for strangers.

1. Told a clerk when she gave me change for $50. when I had paid with $20.

2. Discovered a student was being abused and turn it in. She claims I saved her life.

3. I made a bracelet for someone my daughter writes to in her wedding colors.

4. Tell strangers when I admire their clothing, jewelry or hair style choices.

5. I guess I am pretty selfish as I cannot think of a 5th good deed.

Name 5 hobbies I have.

1. Seed Beading

2. Ebay buying and selling

3. Reading

4. Photography ( with an over the hill camera)

5 Crocheting

Tag you are it...everyone who reads my blog and writes one of their own. Leave me a comment when you have finished yours so I can read it!

The Verdict -Toggle!

The toggle instead of the pearl or the button won and a friend, Barb suggested it. However Jessica's suggestion of the pearl was a close second...it would have taken an hour or more less time. I also made it two sizes...Jessica may let me borrow it at times.

Decisions Decisions

Well I am working on something new, for me...how strange it is all new to me. My niece gave me a watch face. Did I utter sometime recently, "I do not want to do watches?" I did not but I had to try something and it did/did not work. You be the judge. I am now deciding what to use to fasten the darn thing so the weight of the watch does not pull the strap too badly. Let me know which to use the button with several blue beads clustered at the four button holes...or the pale green pearl from old earrings of my mothers? With a couple of loops attached within the strap and not at the end? What do you think?


Have been working in my Dad's attic for a week and it should be cleaned out tomorrow finally. I nearly filled a 10 cubic yard dumpster. With a lot of help from Harv, did I fail to mention that. He is the best. Not too much time for beading. I have washed all the dishes and other none chipped or broken items and plan to put most in a garage sale in the near future. Only a few things for me or the kids...we all have too much of our own things. Hope you ask if you need something kids. If you happen to read this.

Summer tomorrow!

Could 4th of July be far behind? Finished a Red, White and Blue bracelet to show in a group I belong to. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/seedbeadersters/messages I love seeing all the projects others do and submit to the photo section. I keep plugging along.

African Helix in size 15/0 beads with a blue bead and stars as button and a loop of red and white wrapped in blue beads. It is for me. I have been busy with gifts and this has been on the back burner. The stars were gift beads from my Niece and Sister-in-law, Amy and Candy. Thank you both. They gave me some other beads that are going to find themselves in projects soon.
I am in the process of cleaning out my Father's attic. He died in March and the attic has been waiting for 50 years to be organized. I really think that he refused to allow anyone to discard anything in that time. "Just put it in the attic, someone may need it." Wrong!
Need to fortify myself with some coffee, look at my beads, and then head back to the ATTIC!

Good Morning!

Well it is a good morning. I finished an easy Russian Spiral bracelet this morning. On top of finishing it, I had no problems at all with it. I remark on that as it is not always the case. Truth is I always seem to encounter some glitch with every project. I think, however, the ones that I have made for Jessica seem to have the most serious and numerous problems.

This particular bracelet is for Mary. A belated birthday present. We usually go out for lunch for each others birthdays and that is it. I was in Fl for hers and forgot the day completely. Rotten friend that I am it was forever until I did remember and sent an email good wish to her. This is just a "little something" to show I wanted to remember the day...

We will still go to lunch to celebrate our birthdays. We have a kayak day planned for next week and I am certain we will plan the lunch date then! Mary lives on a delightful lake and owns two kayaks. I love to join her for a kayak adventure.

Time for coffee!

Accidents Happen--Lesson Number ???

Someone must have told. Jessica knew that I was making a bracelet with the darn triangular beads she bought me. Well I thought she bought for me. Now that I think about it, she got them for me to make something for her. She is such a good daughter that she did not even tell me what to make. Hope she likes it!

Now for the rest of the story. I decided to make a toggle for the closure. I started by trying to make a zippered peyote toggle with both the blue and triangular beads. That is not something that was going to work for me. Maybe if I knew more I would have known what to do. The different size and shape was going to make the toggle a freeform mess that would not have looked like a toggle. So I decided to try something else. I did a tubular peyote with the round beads and accented the ends with the triangular. It was so darn cute, I attached it to the end of the bracelet. It was about a half inch from finished, so I could make adjustments for the length before it was finished. It would have had a loop of beads and be a beautiful creation. Well the toggle could not have been cuter or more perfect. I was finishing off all the loose threads and there was one on the toggle that I snipped when it was all knotted. I was using these great scissors that cut fireline so well.
I learned lesson number ??? do not cut too close to the toggle as you could accidentally cut a thread you do not want to cut. Hm mm. I cut and looked and wondered why the work looked loose at one point. I put a needle under the thread in question and it was cut. I did not cry...wanted to. I scrapped the toggle. New problems surfaced immediately. I had knotted several threads in the last inch or so of the bracelet. I had to cut off all that and then take off enough beads to keep about 3 inches of the original bracelet. I now had enough loose thread to add a new length of thread. I worked the bracelet from each end and added a sterling clasp and that is what you just saw in the pictures above.
Being self taught in most of what I do leaves lots of room for improvement. However each project I do, I learn a little something new. Most importantly I love every bit of it. Below is a quick pic of the bezels I made today for a freeform in blacks, gray, and crystal seeds I cannot wait to get started on.
Tomorrow I promise to do the laundry and weed some before playing beads!

Seed Bead Heaven

Shh! Tell no one. I am beading before I have the PA house in order. I am unable to stop myself, so I have started a bracelet. I do not know if it will ultimately be a gift or one I keep for me.

Do not tell Jessica that the triangular beads were haunting me. I simply had to try them in a Russian Spiral bracelet. It is really her fault that I have not gotten everything done in the house before I got a beading project started. In fact I would not own a triangular bead as I was resisting buying them as I needed to use what I owned and did not want to try anything new for awhile. I did not even like the looks of them...until I tried them this morning. It is all I can do not to sit down and finish this bracelet and start another. Then find triangular in as many colors as possible. Darn.

Hope you are doing something, right now, that you enjoy as much as I enjoy beading!

Beading Backburner

Just wanted to talk a minute. We are getting organized to head back to PA for a few months. It is not something I am looking forward to, but need to take care of the property there and maybe list it For Sale. Want it???

Getting ready to leave here, as well as trying to plan what I need for PA and for our August two week trip to Vegas, is turning into a chore. I take things out of the closet and then put them back. We are leaving on Tuesday and heading for a casino in NC and then to visit Dick and Nancy Paul in the NC mountains. They are dear friends from our Dog Showing days. We met them nearly 30 years ago. Time flies!

Plan on arriving in PA about Thursday. We have doctor and dentist appointments in PA as our Drs. are there still.

I will be without computer connections until a week or so from when we leave. This may be the last post until about the 17th of June.

I have packed my beading supplies. I do not want to be distracted when I have so darn much to do to pack and clean to get ready for the trip. I cannot bead while riding in the car although I have thought about it. I have concluded that maybe I will have to revert back to crocheting while traveling. I do not bead crochet yet...I say yet as I am sure it is a matter of time. I would like to master patterns of beading before trying to combine it with crocheting...

Time to go to the pool and Harv is complaining because he thought I was diligently working inside while he worked outside. He does not consider this meaningful work. I should not have told him I was having fun.

Thread the Needle!

This is an article that I just read and wanted to share. The Comments on this blog are as informative as the blog itself. http://tinyurl.com/5gkwsv


My first bracelets. The top one is from the kit I bought from Jenny and she taught me how to do it. The pink/silver and red/black are my designs. They are all done in Russian Spiral.

The pink is with the same pattern doubled twice for the bead. The Red was made for a friend. It has my first attempt at a zippered peyote slide.

Primitive beginnings.

Today is a birthday party for my granddaughter Jayda at my house. I need to give my house a little attention.

Just a Little Something

I love giving gifts. What a great compulsion that allows you to do what you have to do and then gift it to friends and relatives. They can hardly say NO as it is just a little something. They can always regift it, right?

The bracelet is a African Helix in shiny 11/0 black and white Toho beads. The findings are silver plated French Wire and Sterling Heart and Toggle. The Sterling Flamingo is a signature that enhances several of my pieces. Thanks to Jessicamae3 for that helpful suggestion. I used Fireline 8# as the thread. I like using the fireline as it snugs up a little better on this pattern. I like the feel of an African Helix done with NYMO better, but it is much harder to work with. Snugging so much seems to separate and weaken the fibers of the NYMO.

Off to read.

Cheap Beads Rant

Did I mention to avoid cheap beads? Oh yes, indeed! I started a project and realized that I was into a container of beads that I purchased on my initial bead buying adventure. Did I know anything? No? Do I still know anything? Well perhaps a few things. Miyukis Delicas ToHos Czechs and Chinese Beads and probably many more I have yet to learn about. Do not use Chinese made beads if you can avoid them. Some areas you have slim pickens, I know.


When it comes to seed beads there are so many in a container in a store you cannot visually see the uniformity or lack there of until you start to use them. Wow. Back to my project I started last night. A black and white African Helix bracelet for my niece, Kelly. Good thing there are thousands of beads in the container as I have to pick each bead and the majority are a mess. They are so pretty, black and shiney. Yes, they are Made in China beads. I am going to pick out the good ones and then throw the rest away when I finish this bracelet. Or maybe I will cut the inch off, discard the whole darn thing and go buy a Miyuki black bead and start over.


The idea of starting a new bracelet makes me hesitate. Starting an African Helix is a little cumbersome. Trying to hold the starting ring of beads in place, thread the five beads on the Fireline and then fishing the needle through between the correct beads and snugging it up seems to take 3 hands no matter how experienced you may be. Do not lose heart it you are just learning this pattern. It takes a little concentration to get started. The pattern though is simple and besides you only have to run the Fireline through the beads once.


A note on Fireline. I learned about it on a Yahoo Group called Seedbeaders 101. It is not a real talkie type of Group but within the archives there is lots to learn. Fireline is a fishing line and it comes in pound (lb.) of test strength. There is 40 lb. down to 4 lb. and probably many more. I bought 8 lb. as it was the lowest I could find at the local WalMart. It has worked well even with 15/0 beads. However a pattern that would require many passes through the beads would not work with 8 lb. I am in search of 4 lb. and figure when I return to PA, where the fishermen are after tiny trout instead of FL big fish, I will find the lower pound Fireline.




French Wire, Thread Heaven, NYMO, Fireline and Beewax


I started beading with NYMO which comes in alphabetical sizes. "A" being the smallest and "D" much stronger, larger. There is probably larger than "D" but I have not seen it. It is a Nylon blend. It does best with a "Thread Heaven" Bees Wax thread protector/conditioner. The nylon is several strands and it will separate and catch on dry hands. The protector will help. I did read somewhere not to use Thread Heaven if you use the Thread doubled instead of single in a project. I have not done anything on a doubled thread so what do I know.


Wow. I sure sound like a know it all when I reread this. I am a beginner! Off to Bead!