The trouble with toggles

I have the worst trouble with toggles. Really, I do. It seems like the bar is always to long and/or the ring is too small. Well, unless the bar is too short and the ring is too big. This happens nearly as frequently.

You see, I made this bracelet over the weekend. The design was inspired by Charlene's 1-2-3 bracelet. I like the bracelet, and may wear it.


I really made the bracelet so I could make the toggle. In my head, it worked out perfectly. There was a square toggle ring to connecting to a bar with cubezoidal ends.


I stitched and attached and well, the flingin-flangin bar was too flingin-flangin long and I had to mush the ring to get it through at all. Stupid toggles. There really is no happy medium for me.



In other news, I worked on my husbeast's halloween costume. He is going as Poseidon, God of the seas. I'm going as Medusa. More on this story later...

I also very nearly bought a lobster costume for the cat beast. Pretty sure Marvin would not have a approved.

I'm still out here...somewhere...

Work has been absolutely nuts lately! I've quite literally been burning the midnight oil...seriously I was up til 1145 last night working on this:


This is an Autocad drawing of an area of our marsh. These take between 2-3 hours to complete, depending on whether the contour drawing program decides to work correctly(it didn't yesterday) and keep track of 30 large pieces of earthmoving equipment, and who is in them, and what they did, are doing, and will be doing tomorrow. And keep our dirt moving far enough ahead of the planters...and make sure the surveyors are on track. And play with the cat-beast.

I take pride in creating these drawings. I really think they are beautiful when they are done. :)


I have spent a moment here and there doing crafty things. For example, I made another necklace for a co-worker, in the colors of his football team. And then I wire-wrapped a shark's tooth and applied it to a necklace for our superintentant whilst doing laundry the other day.

I also made one of two Cubeys from a kit by Charlene over at More than Somewhat. She does awesome beadwork, let me tell you!

I have also scrounged up a few moments here and there to start sewing things together and making a few of these


They will eventually meet up with their friends and become a quilt. Hand piecing gives me a small sense of pride. This one I plan to do mostly by hand. Hand cut, hand pieced, hand quilted. I think it will be handy :) And the corners may not match up exactly. I think that is more due to cutting than sewing, though.



Also, I heart Hallowe'en fabrics with spiders with googly eyes. Especially if the fabric includes glitter.


Really, I am a sucker for glitter and spiders. They were in my centerpieces at my wedding last Hallowe'en.


And on the tables


I think one or two ended up in my grandma's hair by the end of the evening:)

Marvelous Marvin

Mr Spyder and I have accidentally adopted a cat-beast who may or may not acknowledge the name Marvin.



It all started while looking for new work boots. My dear husband needed a new pair of boots, as the steel toes were showing through his. We started out close to where we stay, but alas! the shoe store was closed on Sunday. We then made our way up the road to the craft store, where I picked up a few beads for a commissioned hemp necklace. Mr Spyder then asked if Famous Footwear would have anything. I said, "not likely, but we can go in." "Ok" he said. Didn't really even have to do much looking before he realised that this was not the type of store where he would find boots to comfort his feet.

We then Yallowpages.com'd Red Wing Shoes from the handy cell phone device. He called the first one, and it was closed. He called the second one! And it was closed. He called the thrid one! And it was open until 4. Sweet! So we began our journey. We punched in the address into the GPS. We drove, and it took us straight to an NJTA maintenance facility? Maybe we took a wrong turn...No! The GPS says that after we pull over, the store should be right under this bridge in the middle of that creek!

Ok take 2. We used the GPS's Points of Interest Search Nearby function. We then began our adventure again. After we entered the housing deveopment, we probably should have turned back. We did evenually turn back after the GPS told us our destination was at the end of a cul de sac. Unless the guy was selling them out of his garage, not likely.

After careful consideration, we decided to call the store directly and ask for the address. So we gave it one more go, and boots or no boots, this was it. Apparently Wayne NJ must be enormous, as there were 5 miles between address 1 and 2, and 6 miles between 2 and 3 in completely different directions.

We found the Red Wing Store! Hurrah! Mr Spyder got his boots, and I decided that after our ordeal, we needed to go see kitties. We walked next door to Petsmart. There were extra kitties that day, as it was adoption day! Yay! So in we went, and after meeting several kitties, I knew we were taking one home. I think Mr Spyder realised it after one special guy stuck out his little arm and politely tapped him asking for snuggles and petting. As soon as the lady took him out of his cage and placed him in my arms, it was love (not so much for him, he was more interested in exploring PetSmart) We filled out all the paperwork, then went cat supply shopping, then came back and picked up our Marvelous Marvin, giant cat-beast. He really is ginourmous. And not particularly flabby, hes like a little boulder, with fur, and night crazies :)

We took him back to our little apartment/room/place and he proceeded to explore everything, from under the bed, to on top of the (off) stove(a squirt bottle IS on the shopping list!) I opened the cabinet above the stove hood to grab some lunch stuff for today and he jumped on top of the hood then promptly slid back off. He is also fascinated by things like toilets flushing, bathtubs, sinks, closets, air conditioners, windows, counters, hemp, quilt pieces, twist ties(he found it under the bed and had to be bribed with 3 cat toys to get it from him) Also, just like my dearly departed Missy, has a strange liking for Doritos. I don't feed Doritos to cats regularly, but after he decided to stick his head in the bowl and lick one, it seemed like I should give it to him.

Jewelry Swap Update!

As many of you know, I participated in a jewelry swap over at Beadativity

I was paired up with Kelly, and I sent her the following questions in order to see what she liked, and I then created a piece based on her answers.

Okay, here are the answers...
The Basics:
1. Would you prefer a bracelet, necklace, earrings, or other?
I like necklaces the best.
1.b If necklace, choker, collarbone, big giant thing that can wrap several times, lariat? If choker, neck size?
I would like a lariat.

2. Are there any colors you prefer?
My favorite colors are blues and greens.
2.b any colors you hate?
I don't have any colors I hate.
3. Any metals you prefer?
I like silver and copper the best.
3.b any metals you hate?
I don't hate any metals, but I don't wear gold very often.

A little more difficult:
1. Big and bold, sleek and sophisticated, light and airy, ebby and flowy?
I like stuff that is ebby and flowy, and kind of organic.
2. Everyday casual? Work Wear? Night life? Pajama Friendly?
Definitely everyday casual! I rarely dress up.

The fun stuff:
1. With which famous beader/jeweller do you most identify, in a jewelry sort of way? I really like Kerry Bogert's stuff. It's so fun and whimsical!
2. The best movie type is...?
This probably sounds silly, but I really like kids movies... Harry Potter, Disney, Pixar, anything fun that takes me away from the stresses of daily life for a little while.
3. The infamous hot dog necklace of Etsy was: Quirky? Gross? Practical? A conversation starter? Other?
Quirky and funky.
4. Is it possible to ever pair red and green and not think Christmas?
Hmmm... tough one. It may be possible if other colors are included or if the textures are right, but I think I would usually think of Christmas.
5. Winter, spring, summer, fall?
FALL!!!!!!!

From her answers, I knew I was going to work in blues, greens, and greys, and I had the perfect focal. It's this vintage(?) blue-y grey flowery thingie that I got at Beadwildered Women in Nyack, NY.



I also used some acrylic leaves from Pat Catan's in Monroeville, PA, evil silver peanut beads that I blogged about previously from Beyond Beads North in Spokane...as you can see, this piece was well travelled before it was even started...little did I know... :)

As soon as I heard lariat, I knew I was going to try my hand at Kumihimo braiding. I bought a little foam disk from Walmart that came as part of a friendship bracelet kit, and used a couple Bullet Sinkers from the fishing aisle as center weights. I strung green AB beads, silver peanut beads, blue-grey triangles, and teal-lined clear seed beads on 6-lb fireline, wrapped each around a spool and went to Kumihimo town.

After I'd got the chain finished, how to end it...I beaded a toggle loop, initially thinking of going that route, then embellished that with more peanuts and a leaf. I threaded the other end of the chain through that then added fringe to the other end, and the flower, and some crystals, and a few drops, and more leaves, and...


And then what happened?

Then I couldn't stop myself. Inspired by Laura McCabe's Grape Leaf Earrings, I made some matching earrings...


Then I lovingly packed everything up and Fedexed it to Kelly. Except that I wrote down the wrong house number. (insert expetives here and there as necessary). About a week after the piece was supposed to have arrived, it came back to my hotel. It had gone from New Jersey to Florida back to New Jersey...and so I sent it back to Florida, double checking the address, and tracking it and crossing my fingers and hoping that it made it! And it did. And it likes its new home :)


And this is the piece I created for her. Which she likes, so I'm incredibly happy. Kelly, it was awesome to make this piece for you and I hope you enjoy it for ages to come!

Cabin Stairs

yeah-I suck at remembering Thursdays. But, hopefully tomorrow, or even later tonight I plan to post again...about the jewelry swap over at Beadativity. There is a LOT to tell about that one, let me tell you...It deserves its very own post.

Anyhoot-Todays It's-Friday-but-i'm-still-calling-it- Thursday From the Vault is a quilt. This was, I think the second quilt I made. I was a security guard, and it was the middle of summer, so I wasn't doing my homework and had PLENTY of time to do things and do my paperwork, make my rounds, etc...

I used hunter green, kelly green, pale pea green and what can only be described as duckweed. The pattern is a combination of log cabin and tumbling blocks, with a leftover kindof random border.


Being that this was the first complicated design I ever did, of course nothig really stayed square, but I am immensely proud of myself.


Anyway, I cut all my pieces in the shack and stitched them at home. Then my ginormous quilt top sat finished in a box for ages. One day, about 4 or 5 years later, my dearest darling mother decided to quilt it, which was super awesome of her. Now it lives on my bed, and is soft, and cozy, and wonderful, and a whole bunch of green :)

Blast and Damn

I forgot to take pictures of Kelly's piece for the jewelry swap. I packed it up and sealed the box, taped it shut and brought it with me to work so I would remember to ship it later. Then I realised I don't have friggin photos. Hopefully she will post a picture or two on her blog, (and maybe let me borrow one so I can talk about the creation process. Since noone likes a picture-less blog, here is some blurry bead soup!


I used these silver peanut beads for the first time, and all the friggin silver came off on my hands. I wasn't even using a really bead-fondle-y technique. Bah! Stupid peanuts...Well, now they're silver lined...More on that after she gets ner piece. I didn't even realize the problem until I was past the point of no return. Pass the word to our fellow beaders, peanut beads =/= finish-fast >:-(

Lucky

Luke Luck likes lakes.
Luke's duck likes lakes.
Luke Luck licks lakes.
Luck's duck licks lakes.

Duck takes licks in lakes Luke Luck likes.
Luke Luck takes licks in lakes duck likes.
Fox in Socks

It's Thursday and I remembered to blog! On one of my many leg-bead buying trips to the beadstore while making my wedding spiders, I saw these blue and copper-ish beads sitting in a bowl. I swear Beadwildered Women in Nyack, NY knows when I'm coming and they put out tastey little bowls of wonderful because they know I will need them in my stash...Seriously, could you resist?

I then had to pick up the tube of coppery triangles to go with them, as well as the blue crystal bicones. I made the spacers and the beaded ropes using the triangles and herringbone weave.


I didn't want to do the entire necklace in herringbone, so into my UFO heap they went until one day, in a beading magazine, I found these spiral wire components and made one. Then I giggled gleefully, and made more. I linked everything together with more wire, some blue rounds, a few more of those bicones, added a handmade toggle, and this little guy graduated from the UFO heap to the finished box. Very few pieces that go into that heap ever make it back out alive, so he was lucky, very lucky :)