Inspiration Wednesday

Just two quick Links to explore today. I have been trying to get all my work completed so that I can take Thursday and Friday off.

However, I am very inspired by both of these sites with many, many wonderfully inspirational things to see. First off this site which has many quilted and appliqued items to gawk at.


Japanese Quilting Crafts

And then I happened by this site which has some amazing applique work. I would love to know where these people find their textiles. Maybe I haven't spent enough time hanging out at my local Fabricland, but if you've been to one, you'll know it's pretty much run of the mill stuff in there. But it's all we have in our area. This applique site has alot of cute felt/fabric combinations. Take a look around by randomly clicking links such as the sold section.


Japanese Applique

Took a bite out of August.....

I took a look back over this month at the things I've accomplished and at the events that took place and I think I am justified at saying this August will now be known as the "month of the teeth". This morning, I hope, is the last chapter in the teeth book for a while.

Lina was scheduled to have the last four of eight teeth filled this morning. Knowing how I feel about going to the dentist, I hardly even mentioned it this weekend. This morning I watched her for signs that she was feeling stressed about it and honestly, I thought she was doing fine. By the time we got to the office I noticed she was getting a little clingy, by the time she was shown to the chair, she didn't want me to leave. I suggested nitros. I actually thought she had had it the last time, but it turns out she hadn't (I learned this after her appointment). So I stayed with her. Let me just say that watching my 6 year old get 4 fillings was like reliving nightmares from childhood, except in this case I was the one who was supposed to lie and tell her it was OK and it would be over before she knew it. The moment the drill touched her molar she flinched. The dentist asked her if it hurt and she said yes, so they gave her another needle. When they went in again, she flinched again, another needle. I think all told she had 5. Watching all this was not made any easier by the fact that after the 2nd filling her body started to tense. She held her hands behind her back and she crossed her legs and clenched her toes tight. They asked me if they should continue, I asked her if she wanted to finish watching the movie, she said yes. I thought it would be even harder to bring her in to get two more done if they stopped now so I said they should keep going. I let Lina hold both my hands and squeeze. We got through it OK, but I think we are both a little scarred. So now she has 8 of her teeth filled. I had scheduled the morning off work because I had learned the last time that she is very tired afterwards. So we went home and I let her snuggle up on the couch to watch TV.

I dropped her off at daycamp at about 1:00. Lina was complaining that her mouth was still asleep. She and I had to have a little heart to heart about her choice of words with the dentist. I said "Lina, you told the dentist that it hurt, so she gave you another needle" "It did hurt!" she said. "Lina, you then told the dentist that it hurt again." "It did hurt!" she said. "That's fine Lina, but did it hurt or was it uncomfortable?" "It was uncomfortable" she says. "Lina" I say exasperated "the dentist gave you a needle thinking it hurt, she probably gave you more needles than you needed because she thought you were in pain, getting a filling is always uncomfortable, needles aren't going to help that" "Oh!" she said. "Lina, your mouth is going to be asleep for a few hours yet". She has also informed me that she finds it uncomfortable to chew and that maybe she should have soft things to eat for a while. Like pudding. It was at that point that I turned into nagging mommy and told her that if she didn't start to think of caring for her teeth then these appointments at the dentist would be a little more frequent. How do you tell a kid that they really do have the ability to make a difference at this age? I was scared senseless into caring for mine. I remember my mom having to physically rip me out of the door at home and force me into the car, I did everything I could NOT to go to the dentist. This dentist of Lina's is so nice, she tells her how proud she is, she get's high fives from Lina as Lina leaves the room. Lina gets to choose a treasure from the treasure box, not to mention being able to watch Finding Nemo in the TV during her session with the dentist.

Well, I don't know who is more tired or crabby from this event. I think we are both just glad it is over. Please let September be the month of good weather and easy days.

Oh yah, stupid me, it looks like hubby and I will be sending Lina to a new school next week. Why did I think next month was going to be easy?

And the Tooth Faerie nearly dies a quick death...

I don't know how my mom did it. I mean, she managed to raise me without killing any of my childhood heros.

Two days ago Lina lost her second tooth. She was mighty pleased as this one had been loose for a long time. So she dutifully put it under her pillow. But not before making a really big deal about first putting it into an empty jewellery box and then putting that into an envelope marked "For the Tooth Fairy". This being Monday after a race weekend we all went to bed pretty early. I lay down in my bed to read a little, having already placed two loonies ($2) on the edge of my night table. I thought I'd read a bit just to make sure she was asleep and then I'd sneak into Lina's room to do the tooth faerie thing. But wouldn't you know it? I fell asleep about 5 times while trying to get into a new book and finally turned out the light and drifted off.

The next morning Hubby let the cat in and I picked him up and put him in Lina's bed. Fester, our Siamese cat (I'll save the story behind his name for another day), is extremely vocal. It only took seconds for him to snuggle in with Lina and I left thinking she'd be awake and ready for breakfast shortly.

It was while folding laundry downstairs that I noticed the change sitting on the shelf above the washer that I suddenly thought CRAP!!! panicked and rushed upstairs, snatched the money off my night table and walked into Lina's room. There she was sitting in the middle of her bed, open jewellery box in her hands, discarded envelope sitting in her lap and tears streaming down her face. "She didn't come" she whispered while convulsing silently. Trying to hide the disgust I felt with myself, I went in for a consoling hug while slipping my hand under her pillow and depositing the $2. I asked her - "Did you look everywhere? I'm sure that she was here Lina." It took a bit of convincing but Lina looked under her pillow and found the money. She stopped crying and started to look thoughtful. Here it comes, I thought. In one fell swoop I've just killed the tooth faerie.

Then miraculously, she looks at me and says, "Maybe she's too small to open the jewellery box", followed by "Maybe she got scared away at the last minute?" I added a few more possibilities to her list and then left her room before I got down on my knees and confessed.

She told me on the way to day camp that she had figured out that the tooth faerie was looking for her tooth in her frog purse which is what she had used to put her last tooth under her pillow. "It has to be that Mom! Because when I looked for my purse this morning it wasn't where I had left it, it was laying on the floor opened." (I could have told her that it looks like a bomb exploded in her room and nothing was where it actually should be, but it helped my cause so I shut up) "I think she looked in there and couldn't find it. Tonight I am going to put my frog purse under my pillow; she'll be able to open that won't she?" Yep, I said, Good idea Lina.

Before I went to sleep last night I went into my craft room, found some pink paper and wrote in tiny letters "thanks" and took the tooth, placed the note into the purse and put it back under Lina's sleeping head.

This morning, when Hubby woke Lina up and she hopped into my room, bounced into my bed and showed me the little note. "That's pretty special that she wrote me the note Mom. I don't think she does that for anyone else. I'm pretty lucky eh? I think I'll take it with me to day camp and show everyone." The world was set a-right once again.

She's probably the only kid I know who gets personal letters from Santa, the Easter Bunny and now the Tooth Faerie.

And critics wonder why there is a trend amongst parents to have lavish birth day parties for our kids, spending hundreds of dollars, hosting theme parties and such. Don't they get it? It's to thank our kids for letting us off easy. It's guilt man! It's guilt. It's how we make ourselves feel better after almost screwing up our kid's belief in the stupid tooth faerie. Man, this birthday is going to be a doozie.

Forget it!

OK. Take my last post and cross out all reference to being able to be crafty during race weekends. IT AIN'T GOING TO HAPPEN! EVER!

First of all, I made this silly promise that our stuff would be packed and ready to go by 9:00 am Friday morning. I made the deadline, pretty much, I guess we left at 9:18am not bad really. But in order to prove Jody wrong and be ready by 9:00, I was unable to get my felt and embroidery thread in order. So all I had when I left was a sketchbook and some crochet work. And I could have worked on the crochet work in the truck but I was fighting the edge off a hangover that wasn't listening to me tell it that I didn't have the energy for a hangover. Note to self - don't pack with a glass (or two, or... ) of wine.

That said the weekend went pretty well. Except for the monsoon on Friday night. Holy cow! I know we really needed rain but did we need a years' worth in one blow? We went in to Bowmanville to pick up a turkey (yep we actually cooked a 12 lb tukey in a motorcycle pit) and the rain came down. Instant flood. in the 15 seconds we spent running to our truck (I at least had a tinfoil roasting pan to hold over my head, hmmm human lightning rod) we were soaked through. We waited out most of the rest of the storm at a Kelsey's restaurant. If you've never been to a motorcycle race then you may not know that it is not a pleasant place to in a rain storm, or on a windy day for that matter. There is just no real place to go to get out of the weather, unless you want to seal yourself into a motorcyle trailer until the weather passes, which could mean hours. By the time we got back to the track, our canopies were fairly buckled and there we enough water in them to take a proper bath. Jody and hubby used a couple of sticks and pushed the water out. Instant bath, really, it was a Kodak moment with Lina and Kayla laughing and screaching and pointing at Jody while he stood there dripping, water pooling around his feet.

Saturday's weather was an improvement even though it only improved in that there was little rain. Hubby spent the day dealing with engine trouble, finally diagnosed as a bent valve. Seems to be a habit in our pit. He and Jody changed out the engine at least three times, finally they took the top end off one engine and the bottom end off another and that seemed to hold together. Jody did well and was top five in both of his heat races. Hubby did not make it through his first heat race and those continued problems kept him from getting out in his second heat race. But the evening ended well with 8 or 9 of us enjoying roast turkey for dinner. We cooked garbage can turkey for the second time, first time at a race though. It was a hit! You should have seen the looks and peoples faces as they walked by sniffing "Is that TURKEY?" Yah - we cooked it in a garbage can behind the motorcycle tent!

Sunday was a scorcher. Man was it hot! During the first final of the day, Hubby's shifter broke, it was a site to see watching him reached down and pull on the shifter by hand forcing him to go round the track using only 3rd and 4th gear. Jody was out of that race due to a flat rear tire - thank goodness it wasn't in turn five, he might have been badly injured. Second race of the day saw Jody win second place after his battle with Michelle Roby (see picture link below). I am not sure how hubby did in that race, there were 4 classes running at the same time and it is quite hard to figure out who is who. I'll have to wait for the results to be posted on the VRRA website.

I spent my time volunteering as a runner (taking gridsheets to race control, the announcer, timing and scoring, the pre-grid, the starting line and posting gridsheets for the racers, picking up results and assisting registration enter them into the computer), cooking all the meals for our pit, entertaining Lina and acting as a rooky grease monkey for Jody and Hubby as they handled the weekends mechanical emergencies. I spent 75% of my weekend on our Honda 50 running here there and everywhere.

And here is a link to a few photos from the vintage race. Hubby is number 602, he is riding a CB350 (don't know the actually age of the machine - built sometime in the early 70s though - "give or take five years on either side" - um forgive me, that's a vintage racer joke) Isn't he handsome in his race togs? You should see him on his 954, yum!
http://www.pbase.com/don_empey_photography/image/48016514
http://www.pbase.com/don_empey_photography/image/48018276

Here is Jody (riding a CB350 as well) plate number 692 and the number 1 plate holder Michelle Roby battling it out - they had blast during their last race When I got back to the pits Jody was all a glow, laughing and giving his play by play of the battle.
http://www.pbase.com/don_empey_photography/image/48018278

Last race of the season is here at home in North Bay. I am looking forward to being able to sleep in my own bed for that race. Jody's bike was leaking a bit of gas in the bike trailer on the way down and our air mattress was pretty much right on that spot. Even though I put plastic down under the mattress, every time I shifted I got a faint wiff of fumes. Healthy eh?

Oh and since this was our last camping race of the year, I have to say, after racing together for 2 years, the five of us (Lina, me, hubby, Jody and his daughter) know WAY to much about each other. Both the trailer and the pits are very intimate (cute way of saying there is no privacy). I've seen Jody in his underwear - way too often, Kayla and Lina know that grown men fart every morning in bed, and I don't think twice about putting my bra on under my shirt while starting the bar-b-que to cook breakfast. In fact, if I think about it, I've seen way too many racers in their underwear. I mean this is VINTAGE racing, even though we are in our 30s, there are a hell of a lot of VINTAGE men racing these machines, and many of them look like they've givin up on keeping fit if you know what I mean. I 'll have to give my head a shake, it is starting to feel normal to stand there talking to someone who is NOT your husband while he scratches his butt wearing nothing but his skivvies.

I am going to miss these weekends when racing is over for the year.

Back to Racing

I'm trying to get my brain around our next race this weekend. It always seems like such a lost opportunity to me. I mean 4 hours either way in the truck and plenty of time sitting in camp chairs not occupied by other tasks. I could have soooo much crafty stuff made if I could only get organized for these things. Can you believe I spend most of my time making sure everyone else is organized?

I am vowing to do it differently this time. I am trying to get more creative stuff together for Lina. Jody's daughter is coming too, she's 13. I am hoping that if Lina can be more creatively occupied then maybe I can too.

I've been really inspired by what I have seen on Flickr in the last 24 hours of surfing. Can you believe I went through all 66 pages of pictures under the tag "felt". I highly recommend it if you have the time. I've found a few people there that I'd like to mention.

Bella Dia (of course!)
Forest Prints
Planeta Hilda (yah huh!)
Wol & Zo
Andreia Lopes (lovely skinny dollies)
Busy Maggie
flutterby
tumtumom
Okaggi (Kraf-o-la)
intastella
Lizette Greco (an awsome collaboration between a mom and her kids if I ever saw one)
Good Egg

There are a lot more people to see and get to know through that tag but these are a few that caught my eye.

The tag "craft" results in 224 pages. Give me a while and I'll post some of those too.

Hopefully before I leave work today, I'll figure out what it is I want to work on this weekend. After spending this lunch hour browsing so many cute things I'm thinking I would really like to make some sort of stuffy but who knows.

Back next week!

Up and coming

Today as I held onto the steering wheel with one hand while rolling a knot on the end of a thread for Lina who was making finger puppets in the back seat while on the way to daycamp, I realized as I took a moment to get the van back into my own lane that Lina is following in my footsteps. You never know these things when you are pregnant. Since meeting my husband, I always thought I would have three boys - and they would all live in the garage with him and I wouldn't even get a momma's boy that would want to bake cookies with me. But I had a girl. And she likes to make things.

I had to pull the van over to the side of the road at one point and show her how to measure the felt more accurately so the finger puppet would be a little more snug on her finger. Then I had to waggle my finger at her and say "Lina! I can't drive and help you make finger puppets at the same time! What am I going to say to the police officer when we get pulled over? Sorry officer, I was sitting in the backseat measuring yarn for our finger puppet's hair while driving with my feet, I'm usually much better at multi-tasking?" She giggled, and then announced as I pulled back onto the road that she had learned to tie off the thread herself - Phew. I'm glad. I was about to merge onto the highway.

But on the flip side. Lina is pretty well balanced between both my husband's and my hobbies at this point. Her big Christmas gift from us this year was a brand new 2005 Honda 50 dirt bike. And she will ride it for hours around our yard and around the pits at the motorcycle races we attend. And she likes to hang out with Daddy in his garage too, albeit she is usually drawing little chalk figures of Daddy and Jody on the garage floor. But I must say I am pretty happy to have someone to pass on my love of making things to.

Now I have to get used to the fact that until she gets her first job, I have to learn to share my special supply stashes with her. Ugggh!

Inspiration Wednesday

Here, let this inspire you. If checking out this amazing little photograph album doesn't make you want to rush out and start re-examining your mundane world, I don't know what will. A little chuckle to start the day.


Hustle

Damn. I love creative people!

Thanks to eendar for the link.

Musings on a year gone by.

So I guess today is an anniversary of sorts. One year ago today I started this blog. So as I sit here at work reflecting on what I guess was a year of growing, learning and adapting to this type of online life, I am also thinking about where it will go from here.

I have, during the past year, realized with wide-eyed-wonder that I honestly feel that this online record of my doings could be more private than a written journal - a slap in the face to the notion that the WWW is in every respect public domain. I forced myself to make this blog public. Just because I needed to ensure that I thought about what I wrote and how I wrote it. I wanted to learn from it, and I have, but not necessarily what I thought I would.

I have returned to previous posts in order to put a date to certain events that have occurred. I have referred to my previous posts to find links that I posted for safe keeping. I have reread my entire blog once just to see who it is that I am online. I have started to notice that I do indeed have some sort of a personal style. I have also realized that I rarely post about what truly troubles me, what truly scares me and what truly hurts me, nor do I speak about personal feelings when those feelings are raw. I have also realized that even though I feel that my online life is more private than a written journal may be, I am not fool enough to think that using my blog in that way would, if read by anyone in my family or by my friends, be taken in the context in which it was meant. That said, when I stumbled into blogging, I must have known somehow that I was never going to be writing about my private life or feelings, because I can say that looking back there is very little on my blog that I couldn't have a family member or friend read. Funny then, that I go out of my way to make sure that I don't encourage people I know to stop by here. As the people I already know have never understood who I need to be, I don’t feel the need to share with them the inner workings of a person they already don’t understand.

All in all, blogging has made me realize that I need to be part of a community. Of all the things I have learned from blogging THAT is my reluctant acknowledgement to myself.

I always did feel somewhat on the fringe of every social situation. Don’t get me wrong. I can socialize with the best of ‘em. And I do. It’s just that in all my life I have never met anyone like myself. I do not have any friends who ache to create, and that saddens me, makes me feel lost at times.

I don’t mean to say that I don’t have talented and wonderful friends, I do, my husband among them. It’s just that I know of no one that I can sit down and talk to about how wonderful I feel sitting in a cramped ‘craft room’ up til all hours of the night threading little beads the size of dust particles onto wire the thickness of sewing thread, or unknotting a myriad of colourful yarns as I knit a swatch for perhaps the 20th time just to see how a group of colours ‘plays’ with each other, or for that matter how I feel that I am not alone in this world when I react to the “eureka” moment of a stranger when she blogs about how satisfied she felt when she finally got that zipper to sit right after making a million pouches, or better yet, how I feel when I turn on my computer in the morning to catch up on my regular reads and discover that one of my favourite bloggers has finished that difficult sweater she has been sweating over and I jump for joy with her, I have no one to share THAT feeling with.

Except you, the person who has found your way here and might even decide to return here and may even care about what happens here. ‘Cause you understand, you do it too. And I guess that in your own way, you find the same solace here, online, that I do. Inside, I’ve known it and now, after a year, I can say that I acknowledge it. And that I am actually OK with that. I sought it out and I am not so miserable about it anymore. Because, after reflecting on what blogging is to me, I can say, it is my muse. I have a presence here, I can BE here. Like minded people come to visit once and a while and sometimes they even drop me a line. And because of this blog, I create. This has been one of the most creative years of my life and my blog is the driving force.

They have a life of their own now, my creativity and my blog (their dependence on one another notwithstanding). I find I look around me in the mornings to find things I have created, things I want to make or things to inspire me – just to feed my blog. Or is it my creativity? Like I said, it is my driving force and I don’t want it to die.

Happy anniversary blog and creative continuity alike! I hope you are both here to stay.

Knit-A-Dress-A-Day

I was at a place called the Wacky Bookshop on Wednesday and I found this book and had to buy it. I think that's because I thought just owning it might answer that urge down in any knitter's or for that matter any crafter's soul to work on projects that are quickly completed. The nerve of Joan Rattner, the author of this book, for even suggesting that one could possibly knit a dress in one day.


Knit-A-Dress-A-Day

Well here she is using what she terms as JUMBO JET Knitting Needles. I could complete a blanket in a day using those gargantuan needles! The images in this book are this poor by the way. They look like they were printed from old photocopies. Oh and times have changed. Maybe back in 1968 when the book was written you could complete one of these dresses in a day, but not many people now-a-days can say that they have 6 hours to devote to one single project which is the time she estimates it takes to complete one of these projects. However, it might be good a good distraction for the cottage on a rainy day.

Author- Joan Rattner

So here is a dress I actually like. I like the matching socks too. I may consider making this for Lina for the fall.

Funky Outfit

This dress isn't so bad either.

Trio

But what was the author thinking here? This is labelled the "Rich Boy Sweather" I think a rich boy could afford better. The hat, well, it's huge! Anyway there are quite a few dresses to laugh at in here.

What was she thinking?

Update

I feel like I've been away for eons. I hardly ever post on weekends, this weekend was no exception. I was away in Temagami visiting my 93 year old Grandmother who's health is failing. I also stopped by to see my Great Aunt June who is in her mid 80s,who I have not seen in 10 years. She lives in North Carolina and I have not been to my cottage (close by her cottage) in that long.

Monday my daughter had the first four of eight fillings she requires. It tired both of us out. I must say she did so well. Better than me at that age!

Tuesday I had an apointment with an in-take worker to start (or continue?) the process of having Lina assessed for learning "differences" (I just love political correctness - don't you?). It was a four hour ordeal and I had to answer such questions as did I use street drugs during my pregnancy, when did Lina first sit up, when did she first start talking, etc. In any case. I was pretty satisfied with the in-take worker and the meeting as a whole. Sometimes, I feel that I'm making more of this than I should, it's obvious to everyone that she is very intelligent. I hear it all the time... "she'll find her way, at some point she'll just blossom"..., "I don't think anything is wrong with her, you guys just are expecting too much from her"..., "She is so smart, how could there be anything wrong".. The comments go on. In fact my mother-in-law told me the other day (I had informed her of my meeting with the in-take worker only because she would find out some day and I didn't want to be accused of keeping "important information about her grandchild" away from her), that maybe it was Hubby and I that were causing the problems because we were teaching her at night and she was overwelmed by everything. No. I don't think so.

Anyway, by the time I finished that meeting there was little reason to go to work. I mean - I'd have to drive 1/2 hour just to work for an hour. I worked on crafts instead.

Then Tuesday night there was a beauty of a storm. Visual sighting of a tornado and all (not by me). When we returned to the office yesterday morning we were without internet connection.

So now we are all up and running again and I was finally able to get my complete Bead-It! project scanned. Phew.

Maybe if I get inspired tomorrow I'll get an Inspiration Wednesday post up too.

Leaves of Change - Bead It! Challenge

Not quite a tutorial yet, but here are some of the scans of the progression of this object.

Challenge: Created something using beads challenged by the theme "Leaves of Change"
Background info: The theme idea came from the theme for an upcoming Guiding event (Girl Guides). I thought it would allow many different interpretations.
Outcome: This is a gypsy purse. It is sometimes known as a Tulip Purse because of it's shape and the way it resembles a tulip when it is opened. I don't know the origin of the pattern or name, however from what I gather it is a variation of a miser purse. These small purses were ingenious little items that had some sort of security built into their design. This little purse has a leather tong that is threaded in and out of each petal of the purse (there are 4) and when the tong is pulled the contents of the little purse cannot come out. The tong can be fastened to a belt. It is constructed of deer hide ( I LOVE leather!) and is edged in ivory colour seed beads.


Gyspy Purse

Gypsy Purse Open Front

Gypsy Purse Open Inside

Beading Leaf

Leaf Detail


You can see how little it is here. I thought it was rather clever to make a "change purse" with a leaves on it. "Leaves of change?" ha ha.... I must have been in a sarcastic mood the day I finally decided on how to interpret this challenge.

Embellished Gyspy Purse


Here is the finished purse. Click on it to view it in a larger form. It is rather simple but I think it has a little charm.

Finished Leaves of Change Challenge


Now onto the next challenge. August's theme is "Free Spirit". If anyone wishes to interpret this theme, let me know. The guidelines are here.

Bead-It! August

Well, I am just about done last months challenge, I will be able to post pictures (and maybe even a tutorial) on Monday if all goes well. For those who may not have noticed, I only post on weekdays, unless I am especially obsessed on a weekend.

So the theme I am proposing for August is "Free Spirit". Of course, this challenge is meant as a discipline project for me but I would welcome anyone's interpretation of this theme. Email me at riarug (at) hotmail (dot) com to give me a head's up if you challenge yourself to create under this theme as well. The guidelines are here.

Happy beading!

Inspiration Wednesday

I know, I know. It's Thursday. But I had these two sites lined up to post yesterday and I just couldn't get them up.

I was really inspired by My Little Mochi's post on Tuesday providing a link to Karsten Kastanje and her forrest creature creations. My mom makes little faeries from wooden beads and silk flower petals and I have to send her that link. So when I happened across Brown Betty I thought I just had to keep the address for future reference. It is a beautiful site with plenty of wonderful little creations. You MUST check out the tea cozies. The mole and the sheep are my favs.

Brown Betty

Madam Nya has an interesting site devoted to these wonderful embroidered buttons. It is well worth the time to visit and check out the minature works of art. Go to the pendants page and scroll down to the flower pendants. So lovely. I wish the pictures were better.

madamnya

I want to ride.

I must be getting bitten by the bug. Yesterday, with Lina staying over once again at my mom's (I think Lina's moving out), I rode my little borrowed motorcycle to work. At lunch, I ate out and then got on the bike and rode around town for a while, just because. After work, knowing that Lina wanted to stay at Grandma's for "just one more night? - please?", I took my time and even considered passing the turn off to my road and continuing on down the highway for a few miles.

This morning, I even suggested I might be up to doubling Lina on my bike (she's been riding with Hubby). The thing is I just want to ride. What's happening to me? I even drove out to the Waltonian last night to meet my husband after my meeting (Girl Guides).

Maybe I am just being cheap, after all, I can ride about 400 km for under $10 on the bike and my van costs me $80 - 90/week. Maybe it might be the fact that Jody will be taking his bike back soon and I will be forced to share Hubby's bike if I want to ride.

I have even caught myself weighing buying a digital camera vs. getting a loan for a used bike. At 35 years of age I am starting to wonder if I am living out some sort of repressed teenage fantasy of living in Chinatown above a take out joint, riding my bike everywhere, wearing odd clothing, shopping at second hand stores, listening to music no one has ever heard of, hanging out with all sorts of odd people, being known as the "weird chick on the bike". Wait - I think I already fit most of that description. If I could only earn the title of "artist" I could die happy.

I do not however live in Chinatown (sigh) I live in the country and although it's not as cool, it has its own rewards - especially if your husband listens to Metallica.

Leaves of Change - sneak peak

Ultimately I have no excuses, but this had been a busy month. However, I only have a bit more to go on my Bead-It! Challenge. I won't give away the nature of the finised product, however, this is the last part I need to complete. This is my second try. Originally, I had started to bead embroider a silk maple leaf, however the edges were not finished so it started to fray. Not only that but the leaf with all the beading didn't look like it could stand up to the weight. So even though I would have been finished I started this part over. I removed the plastic vains from the back of the leaf and tacked it onto some finely woven cotton cloth. I then outlined it and filled it in with the beads.


Beaded Leaf1

I am eager to see it all together.

Beaded Leaf2

Illustration Friday

This week's Illustration Friday's theme is Ageing (yes this the Canadian spelling of that word). This is a pencil crayon study I did last year of x-rays of arthritic hands.


Ageing

It isn't dead yet.

Dispite thinking Nervousness may have died a final death, it seems that the Board and more specifically James/mysundown15 has been working his butt off to tro to get it up and working again. My hats off to you all. Here is the link where updates should be posted.

http://www.freewebs.com/nervousness_temp/