I finished two entries for the Haute Couture Beadwork challenge. It was a lot of fun and hope to do it again next year. The first image is my "Masculine" cuff, Jack wasn't thrilled with it, he said it was not like anything I had ever done..too plain I guess, but we both like the second cuff, although it was going to be a necklace in the beginning, but it had a mind of its own and became a cuff instead. I am going to try to download the two fashion pictures that I used as my muse for the two cuffs.

At last I am back to Beading. Had to get busy and finish up some barrettes for the Gallery. A customer in Maryland was in and ask for more barrettes and I finally was able to get some done and emailed her the photos. It may be to late for her, but at least I am back to beading. Now to get my Journals up to date. Both boys have been on my mind almost constantly, I think they are prodding me to get their pages done. Anyway, I will post the photos of the barrettes here now.

The show at the Gallery this month is titled "Serendipity". Kathy Little, Ingrid McKinstry, Elizabeth Peterson and myself are the contributors of art work for this show. These are the three pieces that I entered into the show. The triptic is in acrylics and collage, the northern lights picture I painted in oils and the butterfly picture is an altered book.

Yesterday was a crazy day at work. The first couple into the Gallery in the morning, hurried through looking quickly around and then told me that they had to hurry off to catch the Ferry, but that they would probably be my last customer of the day when they returned. I didn't think too much about it, but did notice that they did not return by closing time. I was in the process of turning off the lights when I heard a knock on the door, and there they were. I invited them in and they said they pretty much knew what they wanted, they would just need a few minutes to decide between two things. Well it turned out the two things they were trying to decide between were two of my beaded necklaces. They finally made their decision and as we were finishing up the sale, the Lady told me that she was a writer and wanted a special piece to wear to her readings. Wow, did I feel special. Her name is Emily Cooper and her book that will be coming out soon is called "Queen of the Lost", the story of Lucy Holcombe Pickens. A fact-based fiction on her life as the "Queen of the Confederacy". A woman who charmed important peoples of the day, but ignored the human tragedies that would continue for more than 100 years. (This information was included on her card that she so graciously gave me.)I look forward to reading her book when it becomes available here. They were a very lovely couple, it would be nice to have a chance to visit with them again sometime.Now, here is an interesting "Serendipitous" fact...the original designer of this necklace, (with some slight variations on my part) is Suzanne Cooper....wouldn't it be something if Emily and Suzanne were related.

I am so far behind now with my bead journals, I haven't done anything since May. I am going to have to work really hard to catch up, hope I can do it. The rain has finally let up here, over 30 days straight of rain........then 3 days of sunshine and now its really foggy this evening, I suppose it will rain tomorrow. But it is supposed to be nice again the first of the week. I sure hope so, because we haven't had much of a summer so far and Fall is fast approaching. As a matter of fact it is only three weeks away from the Burning Basket for Equinox. This year the basket will be named "Imagine". I am looking forward to working on it again, but it seems to have come so soon. I did manage to get a small 5x7 picture painted for the Watercolor show next month, and am working on a Triptic for the Invitational show titled "Serendipity" that is also being held at the Gallery. The Triptic will be a mixed media piece, along the lines of an altered canvas.

I so enjoyed all of the Grandchildren, they all got along so well the whole time we were there, it was just great. They are so much fun to be around. They all enjoyed wading in the water and the two oldest boys enjoyed their boogie boarding. The girls were so silly and so much fun. The little boys stayed on the go from daylight until dark. We went for long walks to see the seals that had hauled up on the beach quite aways away from where we were staying, but it was such a nice walk. Our wonderful Daughter-in-law brought goody bags for everyone with all kinds of fun things in them, as you can see from the silly picture of the girls. What a wonderful time we had.

Well, its the 21st of August already. The month of June was terrible the first half. So much stress and worry, but we have moved on from that now. The last half of June was wonderful. Against my better judgement, I went to Oregon to see our Children and Family. I hated leaving Jack, but he pushed until I finally agreed to go. Once I was there, I was so happy that I agreed to go. I really didn't realize just how stressed I was. What a wonderful week that was. I missed seeing our oldest Granddaughter, her husband and our beautiful Great Granddaughter, and our Nephew John, but those that were there were such a blessing. How much I miss them.