Pirates!

This month's challenge theme at beadswap-usa.com is Pirate in honour of Talk Like a Pirate Day on September 19th.

This was too much fun to pass up. As I thought about it I pictured reds, blacks and metals. This is what I came up with - a necklace and a pair of earrings.

I'm working on another set of earrings as well - an idea in polymer clay that may or may not work out since it's my first foray into this medium, but I'll post a picture either way when it's done.  Until then, aaaaaaaaar matey!

Death of a laptop

Nothing makes posting a blog harder than your computer dying and that's what mine has gone and done. In May it started acting glitchy and I was a bit concerned. I mean, nice machine though it was it was 5 years old and owed me nothing. 5 years is a long life for a laptop and 1 1/2 years ago it had a fairly extensive overhaul. In June it finally gave up the ghost and refused to start up anymore. Three months later (we couldn't afford to get it looked at in June) it has been determined that it is good and dead. Thankfully I will be able to retrieve my data off the hard drive.

In a couple of weeks I'll be able to get a new computer (yay!) and until then I have an hour or so when I can get on a computer every day (the joy of a geek household that's down to only 1 computer).

I promised back in May to post pictures of what I've been up to, but all of my pictures were on the laptop. Tomorrow hubby is going to rescan all of my jewelry for me so I can prove that I really do something with all those beads I buy.

Since going silent I have joined a wonderful site - www.beadswap-usa.com where I have found a fabulous group of people of like mind. If you like beads and especially if you like trading them with others and getting surprises that challenge your creativity this is the site for you.

BeadSwap USA has a monthly theme challenge (and a color challenge, too) and September's challenge is "Pirate" in honour of Talk Like a Pirate Day (Sept 19th). I'm currently pondering this - thinking about reds, blacks, gunmetal and leather. Hmmmmm. Must go scribble some designs.

Back to the bead board

It has been months since I've worked on anything to do with jewelry or beads because of the challenges my eyes and my migraines have been giving me. I find I really miss it.


Last weekend I attended Minwaashin Lodge's annual Women's Gathering and, as always, I left it inspired. The classes always prod me creatively and I've drawn a couple of new designs I'll be working on over the next few days. Both are near and dear to my heart and give me the opportunity to work out my feelings about some things.

Beading is like therapy for me - I get to express myself and I feel such a relief when I take the time to create something.