Hooray! I have finished the eagle piece. In the beginning I knew that I wanted to use the eagle as my focal point because when my Son was up here visiting we went out to the Spit and spent quite some time photographing the hundreds of Eagles that were out there. Bill shot some really great photos that day, and my Hubby suggested using the Texas flag as the background (since thats where Bill lives with his beautiful family) which worked out great. It was really hard to bead around it(when attaching it to the backpack) since I was using a pre-made backpack,and because the pocket was irregular, but its done at last. And I finished one of my tiny squares for the bead quilt that Jeanette Shanigan takes to the Bead and Button Show each year and they auction them off for Breast Cancer. I will post the squares as soon as I finish the second one. It was such a pleasure to bead on a softer material. I love bead embroidery, but sometimes I think I try to sabotage myself with my choice of background materials. Oh well, moving on. Now to find a box, package up the backpack and get it sent off to our Son.

I am now almost finished with the backpack. I have the eagle piece glued down and have beaded around three sides. My poor old fingers are a mess right now. I split my thumb when I missed my mark and slid the leather needle across it. Bled like the dickens. Two of my fingers on my right hand are also shredded on the ends. Even typing is painful at this time. Boo Hoo, poor me!! Anyway, I hope to have the backpack done by tomorrow, sore fingers or not.
I took some time this evening and visited other blogs by beaders. Wow! What an inspirational trip that was. So many wonderful beaders out there. Makes me feel silly. Its so amazing to see what other people are doing. Its also kind of depressing. The other beaders blog about the classes they give and attend and all the wonderful places they go and buy beads, and the great "Bead Gatherings and sales" that they can drive to.
I love where I live, but sometimes living in such a small town so far from the lower 48 can be a real bummer. For more than one reason of course. Besides being so far away from The Beading World, we are also far far away from our great family. Well, Boo Hoo again. I'm sure on a pity trip....so much for that!! I will post a FINISHED picture of the backpack later. Back to my "Blog Crawl".

So, I have signed up for the Bead Journal again this year, although I still need to finish a couple of squares for last year and get it all put together. But I didn't want to miss out on this year. I will be working smaller pieces this year, and I guess that's ok. Since way before Christmas I have been working on a beaded piece to put on a backpack for my Son. I fell so far behind this last year, what with my husbands illness and close call with death, but he is doing well and life is getting much more settled..some days better than others, but I am moving forward. I have also been working on the "Little Dresses for Africa" project and have almost a dozen dresses done. I hope to get them mailed off by next week. What a wonderful project. The little dresses are being sent to many countries, including the U.S. It is so nice to have projects lined up, makes life easier in some ways. Anyway, back to the backpack. Now that the image is completed, I still have to attach it to the backpack and do the beaded border all around. It will be so good to get it completed and sent off to him. Then I will get on to the other beading that is waiting. Besides the Journal pages, I am participating in a show at the Gallery in August and have to have at least six pieces done for that. Ideas have been swirling in my little brain, but I only have one piece started. I will post more later. I'm off to a birthday party for my boss Irene today, then the rest of the week is mine...I hope. More later.

It's Christmas Eve, and 3 degrees warm outside. We are having a very quiet Christmas this year, just the two of us. What a year this has been. I thank God that I am not celebrating Christmas alone. What a close call we had. It would be so wonderful to be with the family, and to be able to see our newest Great Granddaughter, but we will just have to settle for pictures. My hearts desire is that our Children and Grandchildren will have a bright New Year, full of love and happiness. That extends to our extended family also. What can be in store for the world in the coming year...I wish I knew. But in the meantime, I will just play with my beads, fabric and paints. God has a plan for every life....I'm still waiting to find out what plan he has for me..or who knows, maybe the plan has been in play all along. Merry Christmas to friends and family, and may the New Year be all you hope for.

Well, winter is officially here, snow, ice, wind, yuk!!!!However, I have been catching up with my Bead Journal pages. I will post the new ones as soon as I photograph them. Its overcast and gloomy here today, and so is my mood I'm afraid. I have been working on some Apron's for the Gallery, with matching pot holders. I'm not sure why, but everyone seemed to think these would be great to have. Time will tell I guess. Well, back to work, and I will post photos soon.I am going to post another of my watercolors today. I have sold three so far...watercolor is very very painful for me. I love the forgiveness of oilpaints, but I will keep trying with the watercolors again for awhile.

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.