Ok -- so this is NOT working!!

Aquarium testing

I'm giving this my best shot --- I am going to try to add a picture here..........

this is my contribution for the Beaded Aquarium piece.
It's a bit whimsical -- not quite like anything else anyone else mentioned.

I envisioned a piece to make you smile --- a tire that had been hooked by a fisherman.

Viola !

The beaded tire, complete with hook, line and old fishing pole.

Focus....... focus.........

I'm not ready to go back and work on Pegasus.
I have a couple of BJP's finished.
I'm working on a gift for Colleen for her birthday or Christmas -- whichever I am finished first for.
There is some material calling my name.

I started another BJP panel the other night. That has been good to occupy my need.
But in the process, I had to search out some beads.
Good god.
I have an enormous amount of beads.
I have LOTS of blue beads.......... too many BLUE beads.
Must get more yellow.
Must have more cream and rust.
yeah.......... that's the ticket.

Too much going on, too little time

I have too many irons in the fire.
Right now I am 2 months behind in my BJP project.
I became disenchanted with my pegasus and haven't finished it.

I am almost through with my little piece for the Breast Cancer fundraiser aquarium project.
There is material literally screaming at me to begin work on.
The felting tools keep whispering to me.

And then there is that darned face mask that I committed to.
Sheesh.

September Vacation

The trip was to California.
Colleen's family is interesting to say the least. AND famous !
But it was fun in a twisted sort of way.
Spirit Airlines is SO off my radar for EVER ! Colleen booked the flights -- not with them anymore !! Arrived at the airport and found out that there is a charge of 10 bucks a bag for luggage. That was 30 bucks blown.
You have to pay for anything other than tap water.
And you can only pay with debit or credit card !
No cash allowed.
OH ! And no barf bags -- did I mention that I had had a mild case of food poisoning for the 2 days prior to this trip ???
We had a three hour lay over in Detroit.. The terminal area we were in was minute and only had 2 choices for something to eat.
I ate a piece of toast and drank Sprite (still feeling pukey).
Hated the flight back -- shorter layover in Detroit -- but still hate Spirit and will not fly them again!
Got to LAX and argued over the vehicle -- Colleen won -- we ended up witha crossover SUV. She was good about it -- this ended up being the right one for us later in the week.
Gas in Calif is obscene!

Colleen's family was different.
Kinda weird being around quasi famous folks.

Her nephews are phenomenal. Tremendous.
On to see more of her family. We stayed in this small cabin/camp place. Could have worked had we had more time. But I don't fish -- but it was quite nice.
After we finished the rest of the family stuff we were on our own
We drove to Manzanar... The Japanese Relocation camp in the Mojave desert where we actually met a Japanese gentleman who was there to look around. We had a chat and it was quite moving really. Manzanar is not one of our prouder moments as Americans.
The gentleman was suprised when we answered how we knew about it.
This isn't something that is really discussed in school.
If you didn't know it was there, you would blow right by it on the highway.
I took a gazillion pictures -- all of what I could access.
California has finally started refurbishing what is left and making it more visitor friendly. Everyone should see it.
http://www.nps.gov/manz/ for more infoHimself and I argued about it afterward. Concentration camp -- no doubt about it -- they may have thought they were doing the right thing -- at the time.
But label it what it was !

We then headed off to Bodie California... a Ghost mining town -- way cool. Dirt road to the middle of the top of nowhere. I have tons of pictures!
We saw ELKs !
We then went over Tioga Pass.
Can you say terrified??
I was curled into the fetal position on the back seat. He was in same position in the FRONT seat. He got out once to take a picture and scared me to death. The drive and views are awesome.
It goes up to around 11,000 feet elevation and is quite scary at a few places.
The sights of the Sierra Mountains are unlike anything you would see !
We went into Yosemite valley and they were doing controlled burns of a few meadows and it was too smokey to enjoy so we drove on.
I loved Bridleveil Falls -- and have some pictures -- but it was hampered by the drought.

THIS was a surprise to me: I had NO idea we were coming down the coast.
I had whined about not getting to do anything I wanted -- and Colleen surprised me with the ocean!
We drove to Monterey CA and shopped for an a few hours and walked along the rocky shores. We then drove the '17 mile' drive which was just breath taking in its beauty.
We drove down highway 1 back to LA.
We ate and stayed in Big Sur. We saw Pfeiffer beach which was beautiful.
As we were going down the road we saw a pullover to observe the elephant seals in and out of the water. Out of the car we went. Snapping pictures like crazy.

A few miles down the road and we got to Hearst Castle where we saw the herds of the Hearst Zebras mixed in a field of cattle -- how odd.
On more and as we crossed the hills on the ocean side, we stopped for lunch.
I left my purse at a restaurant and we had to backtrack to get it -- nothing missing and I offered a reward but they wouldn't take it.
More later.

BJP pages

I have a couple done.
I just haven't been able to get them photographed and up.
I will.
I promise that to myself.

My iPod is being cranky

After the client gave the entire team (across the nation) iPod shuffles -- I was hooked and went out and got the 80 gig one.
I normally love it.
Today it is being cranky.
I may have to restore the darned thing.
argh.

oh well

Nice 4th

We had a great day.
The weather really didn' t cooperate, but still we had a good day out.
Drove down Old Rt 40 and stopped at a roadside BBQ -- "Uncle Dewey's".
BBQ chicken was the best.
The hushpuppies were different than anything I had had before -- LOADED with pepper.
Ick.
But the Sweet Potato Pie was wonderful.
We wandered and wandered.
Exploring and looking.
Found some really great places to go back to for photo shoots -- the weather was just not cooperating.

Stopped at a couple of road side farmer's markets: fresh tomatoes, corn, beautiful yellow squash, watermellon.

Got home -- we napped while Colleen fixed dinner.
After the dishes, we all retired to the living room.
Me to bead and they are finishing up watching MI3.
I got bored.
Besides, I have to hit the shower and hit the bed.
ICK -- work tomorrow.

Fireworks have been haphazard -- threat of rain, mostly cloudy and up to Philly and down to Baltimore there are tornado warnings.
I suspect we'll get storms during the night.

Still working onward and upward on my project.
Can't wait to start this one also.
I worked on the major one tonight until I just couldn't anymore.
Can't wait to be done with it.
I have hit the wall with it -- tired of looking at it, tired of touching it, just must finish.

so I posted an entire comment and blogspot ATE it.
probably a good thing

It's been a rough week

Traveled to and from Baltimore on Monday.
Phone calls at work are non stop.
Temp starts tomorrow -- what a freakout that was today.
I ditched the doctors appt tonight. Just didn't want to stay in Philly to catch the late train home.
My eyes are really bothering me, but I MUST work on my BFAC tonight.
So, perhaps I need to sign off now !

Still finishing up other things

I'm still finishing up working on the BFAC. Looks like that will take about another week or so.
Kinda getting tired of the same colors over and over.
Tried something newish this year.

I can't wait to start this journal project -- so many ideas swirling.

Tonight my left knee is SCREAMING -- hurts so bad. Not sure what set it off -- the rain maybe?
all I know is that I would kill for a muscle relaxer.

So many projects, so little time

I'm still working on my BFAC project. I get about 2 hours at night to work on it.
Once I get the main items finished, I think I can do the small handwork on the train -- that won't involve beads and the rockin' n rollin' of the rails !

I have another project to finish.
Then I must start these.
Wild thing is, I have the idea for the first two months -- just have to get started.

I know I have one day off from work this month -- that will give me about 5 hours to work and I can make significant headway.

We went to the quilt show last weekend and I bought only a small stash of material.
One quasi-large project -- well, medium sized !

Rainy Days and Sundays

It's been a weird rainy day today.
Kinda chilly.
We did breakfast out... then came home to different chores etc.
Vacummed, dust mopped, dusted -- all the fun stuff.
The builder is coming on Tuesday to see the list of things that we have for corrections. I want everything to look nice.

I've spent the rest of the day as follows:
* making arrangements to pick up my Buffett tickets for the A.C. concert (wheeeeee !!)
* making spaghetti sauce
* working on my BFAC project.

Can't start the Bead Journal project completely until next weekend when we go to the Quilt show.
Need some "stuff"

The Journey Begins

And never ends.