Thing-a-day.com

I can’t believe TAD is almost over already! It’s gone by so quickly. As someone else said, it is so nice to be able to look back on your day and see that yes, you WERE productive! Even if you weren’t acutely aware of it at the time.

Today I was antsing to play with the beads I used yesterday, and the other order I placed arrived in the mail so I had that as well. I’m not totally done, but a work in progress is part of my thing today. I want to add a strand of strung beads above the chain.  I LOVE these beads, not sure why, but they have apparently found a way to firmly entrench themselves into my heart and I want more, more, more! You can’t see on the pics so well, but the clear beads (Czech fire polished, faceted) have a bright shiny bronze lining. They add a bit of sparkle to the more earthy colored squares and ovals.

The link is hard to see, the sun was shining so brightly (sorrry, Sarah!) so here’s a close up. Still a bit of glare/too much contrast.

My other thing is cooking. It is something new so I say it counts Butternut squash soup/bisque with a horseradish cream. Heavy cream, whipped, with some horseradish and a dash of curry. Recipes are from my ‘Soup Bible’.

Pretty cranberry pearls, with a matching flower.

Shirley

I can’t believe I haven’t totally skipped a day. Granted, I don’t like using cooking as my ‘thing’ since I have to cook no matter what, but sometimes it’s just a little more/extra/different than normal so in my head, that rationalizes it a tad.

Today’s Thing is for my son’s school fund raiser. They have an ice cream social where you go, eat ice cream (woohoo!), listen to the kidlets sing some songs and bid on baskets put together by all the different classes. His class (1st grade) is making a few small baskets so you can bid with a 1 dollar ticket instead of a 5 dollar ticket. These will be part of a small basket. Hopefully they’ll rake in a couple of bucks I’m including a candle as well, maybe a bookmark (I just remembered the mom asked if I could make a matching bookmark…eeek!). Any ideas for a name? Crappy photo, too dark outside for the clothesline

Too tired to care. BUT apparently TAD is addictive b/c I just could not totally let go. So I sat down and made this bracelet. Not exactly what I wanted, but it was a bit off the beaten path for me. I fell in love with the rectangle links and have been waiting to use them, just not sure this is the use they were meant for. However, I can buy more in the future. If I remember.

I wanted a somewhat random look w/the beads, but sort of screwed that up when I wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing. Since they links were wire wrapped, I couldn’t just take them apart without ruining the entire link so I just left it. I suppose some patterns occur in natural randomness, don’t they? Two similar beads side by side aren’t really a big problem in the grand plan of life. I’ll take that any day if it means The Baby will sleep through the night. And not tease me with a good nap here and there.

So here is my fatigue pattern. Enjoy :)  Sorry for the poor photo.

Another glass pendant with matching earrings. I should have taken a photo from another angle, because the piece I used is slag glass and it looks almost like malachite. Faith and begorra! Wouldn’t that be a fine thing to be wearin’ on St. Paddy’s Day?

I started a memory wire bracelet yesterday. These things are so darned hard to photograph. (If you want to see what a finished one looks like, go back to my second post.) I string a base course of crow or tile beads onto the memory wire and then bead over top of that.

Spring mixed with chocolate brown!

And my son working with me this morning…

Shirley

I think the relief of ‘FRIDAY!’ is residual from my own days at school and work. Saturdays aren’t that much of a change around here, The Baby will still make me get up much earlier than I’d like, but at least the pressure of getting the First Grader off to school on time properly clothed, fed and presentable will be alleviated. We can sit around in our jammies and pick our toes all day if we so desire, although I admit we have yet to spend a day quite like that.

Anyway, I had to grab the morning nap to hurriedly throw together a ‘thing’ for today. It’s a simple stranded bracelet with some super cheap blue glass beads I got off ebay a few years ago. The brownish ones are Czech fire polished rounds with a blue coating that you can’t see very well. But occasionally it hits the light just so and you see a nice dark almost metallic blue. I bought these 2 Christmases ago for a project and this month I’ve used up most of the left overs. They are quickly becoming one of my favorite versatile beads.

You need a little rain to create the things I love best about Spring!

Shirley

I made a bracelet out of some laser-etched leather. The etchings are from one of my illustrations.

I cut the leather in a swirly asymmetical fashion, and added one of my rose hair decorations to attach the two sides.

I tried to make a knot/friendship bracelet today and it didn’t turn out very well.  In fact, I stopped after nine or ten rows.  I used to make them a lot when I was a kid, but I guess I need some practice!  I had the perfect color combo of brick red, brown, and cream.  And the pattern was pretty neat too.  Maybe I’ll try a different pattern later.

I love this color. And the blue is a nice distraction from all the green

Shirley

Title: Family circle
Description: Mixed metals charm bracelet with three couples–representing my parents and grandparents–and in the center is my heart
Inspiration: Today is Family Day in Ontario

Today I made this bracelet and earrings for my shop on etsy. I also painted my gate. I should of taken a picture of myself all covered in paint. It seems like I spend 1-1/2 painting and another hour getting all the paint off of myself. Most messy painter in the world, that’s me! LOL

Wow, I skipped alot of days!
On Day 12, I baked some cupcakes. They looked so pretty, with pink frosting and sparkles, but they didn’t taste so good, oh well. I’ll try a different recipe next time. I did take pictures of them, but my old memory card decided to die on me, so they’re gone.
Ok, so in no particular order, because I can’t remember when I did what, here’s the rest of my Things, with photographic evidence.

I finished crocheting the bag on the right. The one on the left is almost finished, too.
That is a piece of a fabric I’ll be using to line my colorful crochet bag. As you may have guessed, many Sharpies were harmed in the process.

I did some minor changes to some jewelry I’d made recently. The necklace on the left can now be worn as a bracelet, too. And this purple one had the straps changed.

I also made this cute pink bangle.
And lastly, I fused plastic bags! It was my first attempt, and it’s not too shabby! Now, what willI make with them?? Hmmmmm…

Another beadwoven bracelet. I started this actually about 2 days ago. The previous bracelet that I was working in is practically done. The only thing left for my previous bracelet is to buy the tube bar clasp to finish it off and get the correct size. So there wasn’t anything else I could do with that once and started this one. I had actually started a bracelet with these beads a few weeks ago but the tension was nice right and it looked horrible. Now I’ll be done with this one in a few days and all will be left is the clasp again. I have to wait to get money before I can buy the clasps for these bracelets.

When I bought these beads I thought they were a whole different color. I’m slowly getting used to the dark bronze purple iris colored beads. I really wanted a warm reddish golden bronze color.

I wasn’t sure I’d have something visible to post today. I skipped my normal crafty time when The Baby took his nap this morning and did some much needed home-maker type stuff. Laundry, dishes, etc. Scrubbed my bathroom sink and the toilet. I really should have done the shower as well but hey, let’s not get overly ambitious. Poor Daddy would have come home from work and left again, thinking he was in the wrong house.

But I do have a date planned this afternoon with the First Grader, hence my rush to get other things done. We do this occasionally, but we are long overdue. Daddy and The Baby went with us on Hooky day, so today it’s just us. We are going to see Spiderwick, grab some food and maybe hit a store or two. Hey, there’s an AC Moore right next to the theater! Hmmmm…
So we’ll go meet Daddy at work when his shift is done, give him The Baby and we’ll take off for our grand adventure.

Anyway…back to my thing. The Baby actually went BACK TO SLEEP after he woke up from his early morning nap. This is a rare occurrence. It took it as a sign from above that I should sift through the pile of beads and findings that are covering one end of the dining room table. And voila. I found some glass discs onto which I had already looped a headpin. Grabbed some chain, a handful of brass dangles and circles and jump rings and here you go.

Green blooms, with a touch of purple.

Shirley

Well, I thought I had totally flaked out yesterday. But then I remembered that I DID throw together a couple more valentine cards for local folks, and I made a super quick birthday card and FINALLY got my mom’s package out. Somehow yesterday went by faster and was more exhausting than it had reason to be. I started to make an official ‘thing’ last night but I just threw in the towel. So I did it this morning and it is my thing today. However, the idea was there last night, hence the Valentine’s Day theme.

It’s a bracelet, and it’s a bit off the beaten path that I usually follow, but I like it. It needs a little tweaking i.e. the heart needs to dangle better, but voila. Here you go.

First, before I get into the glass, here’s the start of a bracelet.

My plans from my gigantic glass haul from Gabbert Cullet included tumbling some of it. These pieces tumbled for about a day and a half (part of that time quite inefficiently, because I didn’t realize I hadn’t gotten the drum lid on tight enough, and all the water had leaked out). It’s way cooler IRL than it is in the photo. That piece at the top of the photo is a beautiful chartreuse color. That funky half-red, half-clear piece is a part of a basket handle, where the clear glass handle is affixed to the colored basket.

I’ve included a close up of the red striped piece, because it is so darned cool.

I can’t wait to start incorporating these into jewelry.

I created some patterns out of my illustrations to be interpreted on leather bracelets. For this particular pattern, I used this illustration. See it large.