Grandma Marilyn’s

It has been quite a while since I last wrote. A lot has gone on.  Let me forewarn you.  This is going to be a long entry.

I finished cleaning up the old house and turned it in for the deposit and got the whole amount of my deposit back. I was excited about that. I have been unpacking and getting the house into order (still a lot to go).

I was also trying to come up with an idea on how to make the 3 strand spiral bracelet I was supposed to make for my Beading Fanatics swap due on May 5. It had to have some type of beads in between the spirals. Oh, yes, and it could not have any metal in it as my swap partner was allergic to all metals. I kept coming up with ideas but none of them seemed to work. Either I didn’t have the right color or size of beads. I went to Hobby Lobby and found some really cute gem flowers to use in between the spirals and some seed beads to match. Got home and the colors of the seed beads and flowers clashed and the seed beads were absolutely horrid….were not uniform in size at all….very cheaply made. Back to the drawing board. Ok, she liked wine colors or soft colors. I couldn’t find any wine colors in my stash. I asked her what she meant by soft colors and she said pastels. Now, that I could handle. I love working with pastels. But, what was I going to use between the spirals? I did a search of what I could find of my stash and found some 4mm cube beads that I had gotten at the Parker’s Trade Show. I looked through them and found beads to match all the colors except the pastel yellow and orange. I finally took out some of my gold Miyuki 4mm cubes to use. I did not get a chance to start it though because I got sick.

I have something called Diverticulitis. I was sick with it for a week and decided I needed to see the doctor for some antibiotics. Well, I got antibiotics alright. I was placed in the hospital the Friday before Mother’s Day. I was getting intervienous antibotics for 3 days. I didn’t get out of the hospital til Monday. Needless to say, I didn’t get much done that week except to lie around and sleep. I still had to take antibiotics in pill form for 3 more days. I was supposed to be going to see my Dad the following Sunday and wasn’t sure I would be able to go until Thursday when the doctor gave me permission to travel by train to Illinois. While in the hospital, I did manage to get about 1/2 an inch of one strand done on the bracelet. I just couldn’t think straight and couldn’t get the spirals to work right. The nurses were very interested in my beading and that I worked with such small beads. They had hoped to see the finished product before I went home and I was sorry to have to disappoint them.My daughter came up on Friday evening and we spent all day Saturday cleaning up the house for while I was gone as I hadn’t been able to clean it for 2 weeks. You know, the usual….washing clothes, cleaning the kitchen, sweeping the whole downstairs. I was also packing everything I thought I would need on the trip. You know the important stuff….beading supplies. LOL We left Saturday evening about 10 pm and got to my daughters house at 2 am….after a quick visit to the local (to Angel’s house) Walmart to get a wall plug for my cellphone since I couldn’t find the one at the house….now which box did that get packed in?My train left at 7 am so I had to be at the train station by 6 am. That meant I had to get up at 5am….yuck. Oh well, Angel got me to the train station on time and I was ready and waiting for the train when it arrived. I had gotten a lower level ticket so I climbed into my seat at the front of the car. I slept Sunday morning away. Then from about 11 am until 5 pm Sunday and periodically on Monday morning, I worked on my swap bracelet. I got it almost done. I still needed 1/2 of the 3rd strand, the non-metallic connectors, and the non-metallic clasp for the bracelet to be completed. I had an idea for the connectors and figured I would use a peyote toggle and loop for the clasp. During the time I was working on this bracelet, I had a lot of interest from the other riders on the train. I showed them a couple of pieces that I had made and what I had completed of my swap bracelet. I also showed them the pieces that I had received in other swaps. This really excited them. I had a beautiful green and gold necklace and bracelet set that I had received from Andrea Cobb in India that a couple of the ladies wanted to buy but I had to tell them no as this had been specially made for me. I passed out business cards for my work and also for my Dad’s new website I am building for him with leatherwork.Well, the train arrived almost 3 hours late. We went out to get something to eat at one of the local restaurants in Virginia, IL and then went to Dad’s house. I have been having a good visit with my Dad.On Monday, I rested and visited with my Dad and nephew the rest of the day.Tuesday was Dad’s birthday which was the reason for me being here. I visited with Dad and brainstormed his website and Grandma Marilyn’s index page to include his site during the day. That evening, we went to Jacksonville to the Ponderosa for dinner. It was a very pleasant meal with my Dad, myself, my sister and her family. Daughter called that night to let me know that she couldn’t get into any of our sites. I had given her one of my domains and a blog for Christmas.Wednesday, Dad had a doctor appointment so I took my beadwork with me to work on. Well, the gremlins struck again. I had forgotten my thread so could not work on it so I brainstormed the verbage for my Dad’s site while I waited for him. When I got home, I worked on the computer during the day answering emails and trying to create Dad’s website. Had to call my host and find out why my site had been down since Monday and was told the server my sites were on was down with a problem that they had never experienced before. I sent a complaint letter to complaint department as that was my business site. That night, we went over to my sister’s house for a barbecue for her boyfriend’s birthday. Later that evening, I got out my beading again and finished the last strand of the bracelet. Now I needed to work on the peyote connectors. It seemed I could not get it to work. I kept having to tear it apart. Finally around midnight, I was getting it right. I created the first connector and instead of leaving it round, I flattened it and whip stitched the sides and put a stitch in the middle to hold it down. I was so excited. I was on my way finally. I put 2 beads on the needle that had been threaded onto the tail of the spiral, put it through 2 of the beads on the connector, added 2 more beads and wove it through the spiral to finish off. I did this for all 3 spirals and it looked so cool. Next, I worked on the second connector and when I held them up together, the second one was too short. I went back and did some counting and instead of starting with 12 beads as I had originally planned, I had used 14 in the first one. I thought, oh well, I will use the other for the toggle….nice solution. So, I did the second connector again. This time it was perfect. I connected the 3 spiral strands to the second connector the same way I did with the first one. I wove some new thread through the first connector and made a loop for the toggle. Next, I wove some more thread through the other connector, added 6 beads, wove through 2 beads on toggle, went back through the 6 beads and wove back into connector. Went to check the size of the bracelet and it was too large…..even for me. Ok, back to the drawing board. What do I do now? First, I take off the 6 beads and the toggle. Then I thought of just taking off 4 of the beads but that would have still left it too large. Light goes on. I will use a button. I looked through my stash of buttons to use with my beading and can only find a gray pearl button. It looks good with the colors in the bracelet so I sew the button onto the second connector. Eureka! The bracelet is just right. Now I want to come up with something a little extra for her because I am running so late. I thought of earrings but she is allergic to metal so that is out. Then I thought of a little ring but have to come up with an idea for it. Will work on that later.

Thursday, I now had my site back up and working. So I worked on Dad’s site. I uploaded the partial pages that I had created so I could see what they looked like. Still have to get pictures up for the site and a few other things. Made notes about what is still needed for the site. That night, I cook breaded pork chops and fried potatoes for my Dad for supper. That is one of his favorite meals so I try to cook them for him as often as I can when I come up. After supper worked on computer some more.

Friday, I created an inventory of all the crystals I had on hand already so I would know what colors of Wonderdome Cocktail rings I could create with them. We went to see my Aunt Dorothy who is in a nursing home down the road. She has alheimers. She didn’t recognize me at first but once they told her who I was, she asked me where my brown hair went. I think she was thinking about me as a young girl. We went out for supper that evening at the local restaurant. Then I brainstormed the ring I wanted to make for Bobbye.

Saturday, on of my mother’s and my old friends came over to visit for a couple of hours. I did my figuring and chose the color of rings I would make.  I plan to make various colors of the Wonderdome ring that I mentioned before. I planned to work on them the next day. I cooked hamburger steaks and fried potatoes for my Dad. I spent the day bidding on crystals from my favorite. I also emailed Bobbye that her bracelet is done and I will get pictures of it and send it out next week.

Sunday, my Dad, sister and I went to Springfield. Dad and Chrissy had an appointment to get new IDs for a resort they belong to. I took my kits with me to work on as the meeting was in a hotel and I thought I could get some people interested in my work and maybe pass out some business cards. I had it all planned out. Then the gremlin struck again. I had forgotten my needles. I couldn’t work on my kits. I was so upset with myself. So I just sat and watched TV until my Dad came down and let me know we could go. I had to go to JoAnn’s Fabrics and Michaels before I went home. Joann’s didn’t really have very much to offer bead-wise. I found out why when I got to Michaels. I have never seen so many bead items together. It was fantastic. I bought some Stretch Magic and another kind of stretch thread and some big eyed needles to use with them. Then Dad took my sister and I to Old Country Buffet for lunch before we came home. I tried to make a stretch ring but have to practice. I am still brainstorming how I want Bobbye’s ring to look. I tried one way but want to try a couple of other ways. I need to practice the band and finishing it off so that it doesn’t fall apart. I will get it though, you watch and see.

The rest of this week has been spent working on Dad’s website and getting pictures of the stamps that he has so that I can display them for the customers. This has been really difficult as Dad has some stamps that are discontinued and are not even online. I guess I will have him make me some samples so that I can copy them to a file and separate for the stamps page on his site.

I did add a bracelet to my Etsy page.  It is a beautiful Caribbean Blue Woven Bracelet created from a design by Ruby Fische.  I just love this bracelet.  The colors just sparkle and shine.  Your eyes are drawn to it.  See for yourself.

Oh, today, my Dad took me to Springfield and bought me the most beautiful 1999 Green Buick Park Avenue with only 74,101 miles on it. I will be paying him back but I am so excited. Now I need to go to Springfield and cash in my ticket as I forgot to take it with me this morning. Then on Friday, I will be traveling back to Freer via Wynnewood, OK where my friend lives. I will spend Friday night with her and then go down to San Antonio the next morning where I will visit with daughter and grandchildren for a couple of hours. Then I will complete my trip home that night. My hubby will sure be glad to see me home. I can’t wait for him to see our new car.

I will post pictures of the bracelet and new car in the near future.

Until next time, happy beading.

Tags: beadwork, binghamleatherworks, bracelet, Grandma Marilyn's, ruby fische, wonderdome ring

This entry was posted by GrandmaMarilyn on Wednesday, May 28th, 2008 at 9:26 pm and is filed under Beading, Life in General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.