Hey!!!! Happy New Year Everyone!
Guess what my most wonderful husband got me for Christmas!!! Yup! A new camera!!! And not just any camera - it's a camera that a) I can use; b) can take pictures of beads and c) is sexy sweet!!!
So I went to That Bead Lady in Newmarket (Ontario) and shopped for beads at discount prices!!!! Here are a few pictures of some of the beads I got! Check out the new cubes - aren't they cute? I'm going to enjoy some wonderful herringbone with those!
My goal for 2010 is to learn how to learn how to use my camera and you all get to benefit from that!!! I'm going to have so much fun playing with this camera, reshooting some old beadwork and posting it on my blog!
Cheers, Denise

Cool eh?

Mary over at serious beader showed this and I thought I would play. I thought it would be fun to play with it too!

I have been beading, only I can't seem to find my daughter's camera to take pictures. I think I need a camera of my own, that would be easier for me. Then when I want to take pictures, I'm not searching for my daughter's camera - which at any given time, can be in a dozen places in the house.

One of the other things I've done, is to do some chain mail! That is too cool! Thanks to Marilyn Gardiner, I have now gotten my coins on a bracelet! I'll take a picture of it soon too, I promise. My friend and I met up with her at the Ottawa Glass Bead Artists show here in town last weekend and I chose a kit, and she showed me some tips and I finished it last week!

I've also been playing with Herringbone, thanks to Jean Power's blog - I am loving this! Scroll down to her red herrringbone rope necklaces. This blog is very inspiring!

Pictures soon, I promise!

Inspired by Autumn

This necklace is my attempt to try and capture the beautiful colours of fall that I enjoy every fall here in Ottawa.  It’s amazing really, but Ottawa is one of the best places to see the full gamett of autumn colours. Those spicy reds, yellows and oranges are framed with the stable greens and browns that capture me every fall.  I love those warm russets and bright reds.  So I tried to capture it here.  I am sitting on the tree branches with this one, so let me know what you think.  I can see me wearing it with black or perhaps the orange sweaters I have.

  

Bead Journal Project!

Promoting the Bead Journal Project for Year 3

Last year we found that the best way to get the word out about the bjp was to mention it on your blog. Whether you're continuing or not, if you can let readers of your blog know that the project is continuing, it will be greatly appreciated.Important info:The Bead Journal Project starts in January, 2010.Registration starts October 15, 2009 at beadjournalproject.com/reg.htm.

No experience is necessary! The goal is to create one visual journal piece a month for a year that includes beads.Participants work can be seen at beadjournalproject.com/bjp.htm


Are you playing? I'm thinking seriously about it, not sure what I want to do though,
because I really liked working in a theme (I know, not done yet, but working on it!)

So, are you ready to bead? Are you?

Hey, Time for the blog!

Would you believe me if I told you that I have been beading, only I managed in my infinite rush to put my beading in the hands of those who needed, requested or were the receiver that I did not take any pictures? Curses!!!

I bead embroidered a dolphin for a friend who is being operated on for breast cancer. I wanted to provide her with a smile and I think I did that. It is a fully beaded teeny beanie baby that came out from McD's just recently and I started beading it in light blue, crystal white and clear beads before I became aware that light blue/turquoise was her favourite colour. Good luck? Serendipity? Knowledge tucked in the back of my brain? Who knows why it was this way, but then who knows why we work so mysteriously sometimes? She loves the dolphin and my prayers, happy thoughts and healing vibes all go with her next week.

Then I beaded two herringbone bracelets. They were for a bride and a groom. Both herringbone, but very different. As a matter of fact, if you weren't a beader, or you didn't recognize the versatility of herringbone, you wouldn't know they were from the same stitch. This, my daughter pointed out to the happy couple was a good metaphor for their lives together - how they could be so different, and yet the same. Cool eh? There is hope for pictures!

And then I beaded a pair of earrings for my sister - the mother of the bride. She loves that I can do this and loves going to the bead store to pick beads and then says things like - Can you do that?
The earrings were perfect for her dress and she looked wonderful!

I am inspired by two trees in the neighborhood that have started to turn colours and I am beading a bracelet in those fall colours. Pictures to come soon!!

Cheers, Denise

Goddess Pages Update

Here are 7 of 8 Goddess pages.  The eighth is in the works, it just needs it’s border before it can be photographed.  Then I’ll be able to add them to the BJP website.  My daughter took the pictures outside in the garden – she had an eye for picture taking and it only gets better with practice.

I haven’t decided if I’m going to do this again in 2010. I haven’t got an idea for a theme or a inspiration yet.  I would really like to display last years pages and the idea for that just isn’t happening, probably cause it’s kinda boring bead work.  So I might find another way to display them!

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The Love Birds

Here are some pictures of the BFAC - for all about beads. It's being mailed out today - the deadline I squeaked to!

It's a great project and I really enjoyed it! I had very little time because I took over someone elses beads, so the beading is simple but I like how it turned out.

Cheers, Denise

Hi everyone! It's way past time for some pictures and some beaded journal updates. I am behind, I do know that but I'm getting back on track and that is a good thing! I want to introduce you to three pages, can't remember which ones I've posted lately, I probably could have scrolled through to see but I'm posting anyway.




This is Amaterasu and she is all about Beauty and the Sun. She helps crops grow. The green is a rice paddy.

This is Damara and she guides and helps children. Can you see the baby's face? Click on it to make it bigger, and you might just see. And yes for all those who know how not fond of pick I am, I did use it - Damara called for it!

Pele is Divine Passion and hearts true desire. She is a volcano. Those are crystals at the top which made them hard to photograph.

I used my daughter's camera and I thought I could get better pictures but I don't actually know the settings very well so I think I'll either have to learn or I'll go back to the other camera.

Cheers, Denise

Holding Pattern

I haven't been very creative lately. I feel like a plane that is circling, waiting rather impatiently and hoping that I can land before I run out of fuel. That fuel is patience. Every fiber in me knows I have to be patient and yet ready to act if all things go well. If they don't, I need to be pragmatic and move forward in another direction.
So that's what I am doing and it's not easy since I'm a move forward, take action kind of person. I think this is the hardest thing for me to do and I'm trying really hard to be cognizant of the lessons I'm being shown!!


Bring it on, I'm ready!!


To Be Patient!


and there's the irony.

First Camping Trip of the Year!!!

These pictures are not our trailer but pictures of another trailer, same model. We are starting the camping season!!!

Our big dog, three children and of course my darling husband and I go every year for the last 3 to Bon Echo Provincial Park.

http://www.ontarioparks.com/ENGLISH/bone.html

It is a beautiful, inspiring place full of ghosts that painted and wrote and created! The history of Bon Echo is full of artistic inspiration. The famous Group of Seven used paint there. Walt Whitman wrote there.

I love starting my summer there!!

Towards 2020

Hi all,
I've just finished the conference. There is nothing quite like being the hostess to 400 people from across the country. It truly was a huge, exhausting gift.
So, no bead work, not mixed media art. Just the art of doing a job well and enjoying the presence of so many people whose lives have been focused on making the lives of children and youth better in Canada.
I'm over-absorbed.
I'm so very sleepy.
I'm exhilarated.

Cheers, Denise

What's new?

My beaded juggling balls are up for auction! These fun balls are part of the Beading For a Cure project that I did last year. I am very proud of these balls - they feel really good in the hand and I think they would also be fun to have in a bowl on the coffee table - people would definitely pick them up and play with them! Check out the link. http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/beadingforacure

In other news. I've been volunteering for the conference Towards 2020 Canada's commitment to children and youth. This has been a great opportunity for me to be involved with some wonderful people to create a conference that brings together people whose focus is on the future of our country from an important perspective. I am really looking forward to the day of the conference because the plan is to create a new future for our children that involves them and helps them to be the best people they can be. Here's a link and there are still spaces available!

http://towards2020.ca/

I also sewed together a quilt. See, I have all this material and I wanted to actually enjoy it. So I pulled out the oranges and orange alikes, and I all the teal blues, blues and such and cut up the squares.

It's not finished - I want to back it with some flannel and no stuffing. So I cut the flannel but I didn't measure twice - arghhhh!!! I have more work to do!

Here are the pictures though, and more will be forthcoming when I finish it. Here's a hint, think spring green rickrack.

I will have some beading to show you in the next few days too. My darling husband will be back from Australia tonight! I wonder how jetlaged he'll be after a 2o odd hour flight!
Cheers, Denise

My new, ambitious but ever so interesting project

Hi Everyone!! Oh, my this picture situation has taken on a life of it's own! I don't quite know what's new with Blogger, but it's duplicated somethings and won't let me delete others!
So, having said that, let's get on with the show!
Here is my new project! I have decided to build myself a tree. I had been collecting wire for a while and had purchased a scrap piece of copper. My dear husband had brought home wire for me also. It was all in my art room waiting for me. Then I saw this http://speediebeadie.blogspot.com/2009/01/ice-things.html . Dot is an amazing bead artist and she got my juices flowing. I went down to my art room and got out the wire.

I started bending and twirling and before I knew it, I was making a tree!

Then I wanted branches and so I got out more wire.

After I felt like I had enough branches, I started wrapping it in polyfill. The material in the background I dyed for the tree.

Here it is, all wrapped up and tied with string. I did change this picture in the right direction but blogger or picasa switched it back. Sorry about that.
Here is the tree wrapped in felt. Next is the material. Watch for more progress shots of the tree, I've ordered the beads - that was neat! I'll show you to them as they come in!

This is my oldest daughter, smirking at me. It seemed to stick to blogger too.

My Goddess Pages are up to date

This is Amaterasu. She is about beauty and light. She looked into a mirror and saw her true beauty. The green on the bottom represents the rice paddies. Amaterasu had hidden in a cave but the rice paddies missed her light so the other Goddess's gathered around to get her to come back out.

This is Rhiannon. She represents manifesting your clear intentions into reality. She is in a forest and she sometimes rides a white horse or transforms into one.
Truth be told, I don't think I did that great a job with her, but I left her the way she is.

This is all 4 pages to date. I've just started on Jan. I promise myself that as long as I start the page in the month that it is for, I'm doing alright. Now that I have finished 4 of them, I feel like I've got this project under control. I am still debating whether I should finish the edges of the 3 pages I've just done. It really does seem to make a difference, doesn't it?

Some Pictures For You

Here is a picture of my family ring that my husband and children presented to me at the Rain Forest Cafe when we were at Animal Kingdom. It is a beautiful channel set ring with two saphires, an emerald, a diamond and an aquamarine. I was very surprized!! It's so perfect for me!

Here is a picture of my December page for the Beaded Journal Project. It is the Goddess Sedna, and it is to represent the ocean. I did really well in my oceanography course and wanted to celebrate it. Sedna actually has whales and dolphins coming out of her fingers but I didn't have whale and dolphin beads. She also had seaweed hair in another depiction, so I decided to focus on that.

Inaugration Day

I just wanted to mark this day on my blog, because as I listened to President Obama give his inaugural speech, I was given a gift of hope, I was given a chance to embrace my global community and given a reminder to rise to the challenge of being the best person I could be.
I am in a position of flux because I have finished school and I am looking for my place in employment. His empowering speech was an opportunity to reflect on where I can take my education and what I can do to become the best person I can be.

Thank-you President Obama.

A Few Pictures of our Holiday

Hi!

Here are a few pictures of our holiday’s.  Haley, my middle daughter got a new camera for Christmas.  She was in picture mode – taking over 2000 pictures!  Needless to say, many of them are the same, similar or just plain weird.

Here we are, getting ready for out airboat ride.  We had a great time here, taking the boat out to a fresh water lake and river to see the alligators and the birds.  We also had a chance to see a cypress bayou with orchid buds growing in the trees.  The spanish moss is amazing!

 

The alligators were so calm in their natural environment.

We had a wonderful dinner at the Rainforest Cafe.  The family surprized me with a wonderful gift to celebrate my completion of university!  They made me a card and Drew gave me a family ring.  It’s absolutely beautiful!  I’m a very fortunate woman! 

I’ll show you a picture of it when it gets back from the store – where it’s being sized right now. My family stones are emerald, two blue sapphires, a diamond and a blue topaz.  It makes for a very beautiful ring!

Cheers, Denise

Cyber Fyber

http://cyberfyberonlineatcs.blogspot.com/

http://cyberfyberexhibitjournal.blogspot.com/

Susan Lenz has done an amazing job. She has created an exhibit that spans the globe! Many of us who participated in atc's, postcards or even bigger pieces are aware that the exhibit starts tomorrow.

I want to thank Susan for allowing me to participate and to invite people to go and visit the links above to see some of the wonderful art that is being displayed.

Cheers, Denise

Happy New Year!

Hi Everyone!
I'm back!!
I finished school!!! I am so happy to have finished after 8 years. My final term was amazing and I really enjoyed the classes I took. I am going to look for work now. Well, now that I am finished it's time!
I will go to convocation in June with my family and have a party I think, to thank everyone who was so supportive during the long process!
For now, as I look for work, and care for my family, I am going to get some beadwork completed and start a bead project that has been brewing. Stay in touch for that.
I was away for the holidays. We all went to Florida - to Disney and Universal Studios. We played hard and my middle daughter - Haley, took a ton of pictures. I'll post some in the next few days.
Cheers! Denise