Do you like my beads

March 30 - Sorry for the lack of posts. I've been busy, busy, busy. I've got a quick picture for you of what I made in class this weekend. I finished it up tonight and posted it on FB. But FB isn't working correctly tonight and my friend Jayne can't see the picture there. So here is with a promise for a longer post soon.

And because I can't help myself; I always see the flaws: You can see on the bottom that the knitting is not so good. That's where I started and was learning where to put the next row. But by the time I got to the other end, which is on the top of this picture, I was much neater! The next bracelet will be better!

Good night!

March 1 - I guess it's time for another update!

Last week I tried to make some beads and found myself back upstairs within minutes of beginning. I was fumbling around with a hot rod of glass and a tool in the same hand when the rod slipped down between my finger and OUCH! I got burned! I couldn't even finish the bead I was working on and it was the first bead of the session. I tried to continue but I couldn't let my hand get close to the flame without it burning even more so I gave up and spent the night soaking my fingers in a glass of ice water!

I'm better now as long as I keep the burns covered. I made beads on Friday and Sunday this weekend. So I have some pictures for you all . . . yes, bead pictures!! Here you go:

The ones on the left are rather big for me and uncharacteristic. I'm thinking I can improve on them. The ones on the right are smaller and more my style. The loose bead in the right picture is my take on an orbit bead that my friend Jayne makes. I add more orbits and dots. It also holds promise. There are lots of things I like about it so I'm looking forward to exploring that in the days to come.

We were super busy this weekend. We saw an awesome hockey game on Saturday. The Admirals beat the Wolves in a tight game that was really exciting. It was the best game we saw all year. And I have an Ana-approved picture to post! She's a tough critic and there aren't many photos that are to her liking.

How cool is this photo? I love it, she's okay with it. Like I said, she's a tough critic.

Oh, we also got an exciting item this weekend. For some reason DH Don had some money burning a hole in his pocket so he went to Target this Sunday and got us a Wii! Yes, we are now one of the Wii crowd. We bowled yesterday had a good time. Today Ana and Don went out shopping to get a second controller. The game comes with only one controller so we can't play baseball or tennis together. I wonder how much a controller costs? Plus I wouldn't be surprised if they don't come strolling in with a Wii Fit, too. Don really wants it; I know it won't be long before we have one. We'll see . . .

Until next time . . . Ciao!

February 15th: I thought I would beat Peter to the update this week! Ha, Peter; you didn't even had to ask!

We had an super busy weekend which started with my nephew Thomas' birthday. He turned 8 and I can hardly believe it. It sure seems like they are getting older faster than I did when I was a kid. I have this really awesome picture of him blowing out his candles!

That's my sister Beverly behind Thomas. Isn't it a cool picture? We had a nice time at my brother George's house. Our Ana got to meet most of my family.

Sunday we went to breakfast with our neighbors, then to Kenosha Expo (that was a bust) and then to Jelly Belly because they were having a sale. Kenosha Expo was much smaller than other years and there was nothing there that we were interested in . . . a waste of time. Jelly Belly was good. DH Don got a boat load of jelly beans that he's getting addicted to! He can't pass the bowl without grabbing a handful. Sunday afternoon we headed up to Milwaukee for a Admirals Ice Hockey game. The Admirals lost but it was still fun to watch.

I wanted to post some pictures of Ana, but the pictures I have don't meet with her approval. I have to take more of them so that there will be one that she thinks she looks good enough to post here! I promise to start hauling around my camera with me more often.

Today we had a meeting at the high school because Ana wants to participate in track. We got all the forms and listened to the coaches tell us all the rules. Now we have to fill out a mountain of paperwork and send in a check and she should be set to run! Luckily we have until March 8 before it's all due. We don't want to wait until then, but we still have plenty of time to get it all done.

I'm off to bed. It's late, I'm tired and DH Don is snoring behind me. Later!

February 10th: One good thing about updating my website is reconnecting with people. Peter is happy about the updates and has already called me out for not keeping up with it! I've also found cyber-friend Mary! She was let go from her job which also happens to be where DH Don works. I only had her work email and so she disappeared from my cyber-circle. Luckily she sent me an email from her home address so now I have her back!

I need to put an email link somewhere at the top of this page to make it easier for you all to email me. I miss the comment section that was on the blog format I used. But the spam that attacked my blog was too much for me to continue with the blog site.

We've just gotten around 12" of snow in the past 24 hours. The roads are in great winter driving condition now but yesterday was a bit dicey! Kenosha is really good at cleaning up the streets and getting things back to normal. I think people need to realize just how quickly we're back to speeding down the road like normal after a snow storm. It's amazing how fast the storm is just a memory.

I pulled out the cloud dome, background sheet and macro lens tonight. What does this all mean? It means I have a couple of bead pictures! It's been so long since I've taken a bead picture that I wasn't sure how good I would do. I've decided to just go with the flow tonight and that means that I'm not retaking the pictures even though I noticed a cat hair from Zoe in one picture and how dusty the other bead is from rolling around at the bottom of my purse for a week. I'll just move into taking pictures slowly and hope the quality improves as I get more practice. Please be kind if you make any comments about my picture taking skills!

Things are going very well with our Ana. She's been lots of fun and we really enjoy her quirky sense of humor. She brings more laughter into the house. I like that.

Okay, Peter! Consider this update done! Have a good week everyone!

Still Wednesday, January 27th: Here's what we did today: Ana and Anna at the pool.

Wednesday, January 27 - It's been way too long since I've been here. To be honest, I'm not sure I remember everything to update my website anymore! But since you are reading this I must have figured it out!

Beads have been produced less than what I would like in the last year. It's seems that times are also bad in the bead business, at least for me. I've been making a few here and there. But I'm happy with them and have been giving them as gifts.

Lots of stuff has happened in the past year. My cousin Margret said I last updated back in May of 2009. Wow, how time flies. I really liked the blog format but I didn't like the spammers who attacked my comments. It was hard to keep up with deleting all the links there were putting in the comments and I didn't have the expertise to figure out how to stop them from getting into my comments in the first place. The blog format is officially gone for now. Unless I find one I'm happier with, I'll be updating the old-fashioned way for now!

Since lots of stuff is new, I thought I throw a picture here of one of the cutest new "things." It's my nephew Logan who belongs to my brother Mathew and his wife Tiffany! He's being held by Aunt Mary and I just think he's the cutest baby. Plus he's a very, very good baby who never cries!

I told you he was cute! I love this picture - they both look great. It was taken at our family Christmas party back in December.

The second new thing I have to tell you about is our German exchange student who arrived at our house on Saturday. Ana is 16 and will be going school at the same school as my nieces Anna and April. She starts school on Monday, February 1st. I took Monday-Wednesday off from work to get her settled in and get her all set up at school. This is why I have some time this morning to update my website. We were able to get all the leg work done on Monday and Teusday so today were are sleeping in. She's sleeping in better than me!! I wish I could sleep later but I was up at 7:30 a.m. Sigh!! Here she is getting into our car when we picked her up on Saturday.

I'm about done writing for now. I'm going to have to figure out how to post this . . . and I think it may take a while. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I don't get too frustrated. Bye!