The Bead Nest

The Bead Nest is what my husband has called the spot where I sit to bead. I have a beautiful cabinet to store my beads in that I designed & DH built for me.

I have spent the last few days sorting beads & getting them in the new flippy containers I bought back in July & I am finally done. (where I get my flippies)

Before

After
The Bead Nest

I use an old TV tray to bead on & have 2 OttLites, one either side of me when I bead. Notice, there are no more tubes or baggies of beads. I do need some bigger storage for the cabs & stuff but it is sorted for now. I have 'deep storage' for extra beads of the ones in the flippies, in my messy studio. The studio is next in line for a re-organize & what better time than winter to do that.

We are surrounded by snow here at the beach, this is a picture of our place that my DH took yesterday morning & more snow is falling as I write this Brrrrrrrrrr

This little guy is an Anna's Hummingbird, one of several that come to the feeders I keep out all year for them but especially in winter when there really is no food for them. He is perched on the Christmas lights on the front porch near the feeder. I have feeders on the front porch & the back deck, as the males are very territorial, they sit nearby & chase other males & the females away from the feeders.

A little bit more

I have got my first 2 pages attached to the ultra suede, they still need to be edged but that can wait for another day...

I am happy with how these look now, the stack stitch really frames them nicely while hiding the edge of the fabric

I am waiting on some more ultra suede in different colours. Ya gotta love E-Bay, eh?

BJP pages to share

I have got 3 of my 'The Women in my life' BJP pages finished....

And yes, I did change my mind again about my pages but hey that's a Woman's Prerogative, isn't it? I decided that as lovely as the Nancy Doll is, it was bigger than I wanted & I was also finding beading on a stuffed form harder than it used to be due to some issues with my wrist.

My pages are oval 5" x 33/4" & backed with fusible Pellon interfacing & will be mounted on leather.

My plan is to match the face with the month of birth but some months have more than one birthday so as my Sisters & my dear Mother come first, the rest will fill in the gaps..

Here is September - This is Nancy, my oldest sister & you can read more about her if you scroll down a few posts or click on the link above.

This is October & Katy, my granddaughter.. Katy turned 18 last August & is living in Darwin, NT Australia. She is the youngest of my only daughter's 2 girls. Katy shares August with her Mother, so Elizabeth with be my August face, which is only fitting & right..

December is Isabell, my youngest sister, who celebrates 55 on the 17th of this month. She has 3 sons & 5 grandchildren. Her & her DH own a motel down home in New Zealand, so if you are heading down to New Plymouth in Taranaki, NZ, be sure to stop by & say hi.

I still have to do November's page & I am waiting on my girlfriend to bring me a picture so that I can get hers started..

Meanwhile I am working at getting my pages attached to the leather or Ultra Suede which I am using to display them..

Long time no post..

I have been battling with a bit of depression, not something I enjoy. So rather than subject my bloggy friends to my daily woes, I have been reading but keeping myself mostly to myself.

I am finally beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel and it's not a train but bright shiny beads twinkling in the light of my Ott-Lite.

Last week my DH read in the paper that a bead shop in Nehalem (down the Oregon Coast about 1 & 1/2 hours south of us) was going out of business with all stock at 50% off. So on Black Friday, we headed south in the wind & rain to that little bead shop & I loaded up on sparkly beads, which as we all know, lift your spirits more than almost anything..

Crossing the Megler Bridge from Washington to Oregon in the wind & rain. Astoria sits beneath the hills that you can see in the distance & that bit that sticks straight up, is the top of the bridge where the ships pass below - Yep we drive right up that thing!

These are the sparklies I got, they are size 11 cuts except for the reds (12s) & the oilslick purples on the right (9s) I also got some turquoise beads, some lovely blue pearls & some metal nailheads. The little Swarovski flower sew-ons are from a couple of E-Bay buys that I just had to have..

I've been Tagged...

I haven't been very active on here lately but today, I got a message from Charlene to say that I'd been tagged with one of those blog memes where you share random facts about yourself and then tag your friends. So I thought I'd better get on here..

Here are the rules:

1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blog.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

So without further ado, here are some facts about me:

1. I put butter or Margarine on my french fries because I really, really, really dislike ketchup except in occasionally in cooking to flavor sauce.

2. I met my husband on line, when I was living in Paraguay, down in South America & he was up in WA. USA - which is where I live these days.

3. I recently discovered that I like oatmeal & have oats for breakfast every day, yum..

4. I am a volunteer at both our local school & the Boys & Girls Club, helping children with literacy problems.

5. I was born at 7 am on the 7th day of the 7th month & my sun, moon & rising stars are all in Cancer - yeah I'm a bit weird & a bit phsicadelic as well.

6. I only have half an index finger on my right hand - how weird is that?

7. I can use the hula hoop in both directions ;P

As for the 7 soon to be tagged, here they are:

Cynjon
Helaine
Jos
Judi

Katie

Melissa

Victoria

Apple, Date, Pecan loaf

This is my Mum's Date loaf recipe - just one of the delicious treats you would find in her cake tins..

2 cups dates
2 level tspns baking soda
2 cups boiling water
2 tblspns butter
1 1/4 cups sugar

3 heaped cups flour
2 tspns baking powder

Chop the dates & pour over 2 cups boiling water, add baking soda, butter & sugar.

Mix well

Add flour & baking pwder (already mixed)

Bake 45 mins at 350 - Makes 2 loafs

This is best left a few days before eating if you can wait that long LOL I like it spread with a healthy butter substitute..

I changed the ingredients a little & I admit I have a dandy wee electric machine to chop my fruits & nuts but here's what I did..

I added dried apples & used about 1 - 1 1/2 cups of chopped apple - this was too soft to use in my nifty chopper so used a knife & the old fashioned chopping board method. I put them on the stove with a little water - enough so that the apple absorbed the water & became nice & plump & there was no water left.

I also added about a cup of finely chopped pecans.

I replaced the butter with olive oil

I only used 2/3 cup of sugar

I used whole wheat flour not white

What you get is a healthy treat loaded with MUFAs

I started making my own bread again earlier this year & found a recipe on line for making Sourdough & my 'bug' has been going for 7 or 8 months now - it took me a couple of trys to get it going right so don't be discouraged if your first attempt doesn't work, just roll up your sleeves & try again..

I use the basic white - for bread- flour but use 1/2 white & 1/2 rye flour for my bread & add NO sugar & only 1 tspn of salt & of course I use olive oil instead of butter. I also sprout about a half a cup of either wheat berries or rye berries to add at the same time I add the sourdough mix to the flour. I start the sprouts a couple of days before I do my bread making so that they are just at the soft stage where the leaves are forming & YUMMMMMM..

Joe snapped a pic the other day while I was kneading my bread so I'll share it with you.

Sunday update

Update on Nancydoll

She's getting there & still smiling thru all the poking she's getting in the process. I gave her a crystal (2mm) ear-ring to add a bit of BLING.

As I bead this doll, I have my sister much in my thoughts.. Nancy used to be a hair stylist & does Ballroom Dancing & she made her own costumes for that. She is a very accomplished Woman & always looks good. She power walks to keep fit & her dancing also helps to keep her slim & flexible

She is on extended holiday near Perth, in Western Australia, helping her DIL out with the children, while Phil (my nephew) gets settled in a new job out in a mining town a million miles from nowhere...