Friday. February 8th. Day 9 of the crit sit from hell. Stay tuned.
I went outside for the first time in like a week today. This is a shot of one of he pansies that monte planted a while back. Still hanging in there. Life goes on around me.
Maybe because I’ve been dabbling with beads to make earrings and bracelets, I remembered the other day that I brought home a bunch of sea glass from our trip to the Abacos in 2009. But I couldn’t remember where I stowed it. I guess you can find sea glass along the shore of many beaches. But, I had heard ahead of time that there are certain stretches of beach in the Abacos that are covered with it. It’s kind of sad to think that this is all trash – bottles broken up by the tides over many years. But for some reason the currents deposit a treasure trove of it along the islands.
Well, I found my stash! Can’t wait to go back for more.
Yesterday afternoon I was pulled into a critical situation with a client (aka a “crit sit”). This usually means 24/7 phone calls with a dozen or more people from all corners of the planet to diagnose what caused a problem in a client’s IT environment, and then fix it. So it’s been a long day or two… and will be a long weekend.
But…. look what Monte made me today! 🙂
I really don’t intend to re-purpose this blog to be a beading blog, but since it is a photoblog showing various moments from my day…. and since I’ve been thinking about and doing a lot of beading lately..this is what you get. 🙂
This is a pair that I made today, inspired by this pin on pinterest. The noteworthy thing about this pair is that they are my first attempt at making a wrapped loop at the top of the headpin. A little rough, but I’ve got plenty of time to practice.
These are a few shots of the Full Wolf Moon from last night, shot from Nirvana. It’s challenging to get a photo of a full moon, with a point and shoot camera, from a boat. 🙂 But it was beautiful!
Since the water is too cold, noone will be taking the usual photo-from-a-distance of the boats on the raftup. This one from the cockpit will have to serve. Port to starboard: Zen, Nirvana & Sapphire.
I bought some turquoise stones and some brown round beads a while back. This morning I pulled out my bead box and strung together this bracelet and earrings.
I have lots to learn about making jewelry. My loops are basic and unornate. My strung beads are looser than I would like. But I’m having fun learning!
Now, if i could just learn how to photograph them properly…. 🙂
As for my post yesterday, my friend had the best possible case during her surgery last night, according to her doctors. Thanks for your prayers. Now fingers crossed for good news from the lab next week.
We’re off to the lake this afternoon. Have a good one!
We rafted up tonight with Kurt & Wally, on Zen, and Rory & Greg on Sapphire. We were all anchored up before sunset. So we amused ourselves by feeding the seagulls that were flying around the cove. These birds must be migratory, because they are not here when the weather warms up.
Well, we started with one or two flying around. Kurt was tossing them pieces of bread. Before long it was starting to look like a remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds.
This is one of the shots I captured as they were swooping down to pick up the tidbits.
A dear friend gave me this lovely tatted thumb rosary the last time we saw each other. It reminds me of her each time I see it. This morning she let me know that her doctors found a potentially cancerous mass yesterday and have scheduled her for surgery today.
I know that is a lot for a person to learn about and process in a terribly short time. But she’s in good hands. Prayers are on the way, girlfriend!
I am up most mornings very early. I like to sit down and drink my coffee while tending to my email, blogging, pinning, etc, before the day’s grind begins. Monte gave me this antique candle holder for Christmas. It sits next to my morning chair now. I love the glow of candlelight…
Tonight the sky is clear in Austin. The gibbous moon and Jupiter appear closer tonight than they will until the year 2026. So, I went outside tonight with my Canon PowerShot D-10 and tried a number of settings – stopping up/down, increasing shutter speed, etc, etc. This is the shot.
Gratuitous side note: As I was drafting this blog post, I was thinking about the fact that Jupiter and the moon will be closer tonight than they will for another decade or so… and for whatever reason a song popped into my head: Closer to Fine by the Indigo Girls, from their album with the same name, 1989. Don’t know why, but there it is. I love this song, as much as I did when I heard it two dozen years ago. Here’s the youtube link for you to enjoy, too. If you like this, then just listen to the entire album, it’s fantastic. Heck, listen to all the Indigo Girls’ songs. Great vocals, great harmony, great acoustic sound. A little factoid for you… the year after this album came out, the Indigo Girls were up for Best New Artist in the Grammy Awards, but lost out to… (wait for it) Milli Vanilli. Sad, but true.
Monte, Julie and I hit the lake today. It was a nice day, no wind to speak of, but sunny – temps in the low 70s. We motored to Arky South, anchored and played rummy for a bit.
Dinner at Chuy’s.
A new Downton Abbey episode tonight.
Good day, indeed.
I finished yet another pinterest-inspired project today: a board for hanging my jewelry. The inspiration pin can be found here.
Wanna make one, too? Read on.
I bought an inexpensive corkboard, about 18″ x 24″ or so, from IKEA. For future reference, you should note the thickness of the board material (not the frame part, but the field part of the bulletin board). You may need to trim the screws that come with the drawer pull hardware, like I did. The thickness of my board material was 1/4″. When the screws were screwed all the way into the hardware, there was 3/4″ of an inch showing. Which meant I would have to cut off 1/2″ from each screw (with a hacksaw) so that they would fit my board. You’ll either have to do that, or look for screws that are the right length.
Then I bought some miscellaneous drawer pulls. I also picked out some hooks and small chain and some push pins. Yes. This would have been less expensive if I had this stuff laying around already…
Then picked out some fabric and ribbon from Joanne’s.
Cut and hem the non-selvage edges of the material big enough to wrap around the bulletin board leaving several inches.
Sew on ribbon to add some accents.
Put the fabric you’ve just sewn aside. Now using an awl, poke holes in the corkboard where the screws for where you want each piece of hardware to go.
Using a drill, with a drill bit no bigger in diameter than the fasteners for the drawer pulls, drill all the way through the corkboard and its backing board. My corkboard had a thin, fiber board backing. So, when I drilled through it, it sort of made a hole with rough, fuzzy edges. After I drilled each hole I scraped away the debris from the front and back of the board around each hole.
It’s a good idea to do a dry run and screw the hardware to the board, to make sure the holes are all in the right places. If not, make adjustments, then take the hardware off again.
Now it’s time to wrap the board in fabric. I did this using a stapler, into the back of the board. Wrap the fabric tight, working your way around the board.
Again, using an awl through each pre-drilled hole in the back of the board, poke a hole through the fabric on the front. Be careful not to snag your material. This will allow the screws to go through the fabric without twisting it or tearing it. Then, place the screws into each hole, through the back of the corkboard, using a screwdriver to turn the screws through the holes you’ve just pierced into the fabric.
Now you just need to place the hardware over the screws and tighten them down.
I added some chain fastened with push pins on either end – more space to hang earrings.
Voila!
We attended the graduation of my cousin’s son, Zach, who graduated from Air Force basic training today – an honor grad. He is starting in the footsteps of his father, but I’m sure he will craft his own way. He is now a U.S. Air Force Airman, and is on his way to great things. It was really nice to be a part of the huge contingent that came to support him.
Congrats, Zach!
Sheila365 