Tax Man Commeth

.... or, I'd rather be beading ....

OK, it's time to clear the decks (ummm, my bead table) as the Tax man commeth and I've not yet sorted a year's worth of receipts. Be warned - grumpy/grouchy will be my nature til it's done.

Beading is my pleasure, but it's also my business and the IRS does require me to keep records. However they have nothing to say about procrastination. Every year I vow I'll not let it all pile up til the last possible moment. Every year nothing changes and I'm in the exact same spot - nothing gets done as the year goes along. They seem to have pills for everything today - where's the one for procrastination?

Off I go to to replace the beads on my work table with piles of paper.

Three Loves

# 1 -Beading:

I just spent a couple of days with two delightful gals, Amy & Susan, from the Phoenix area. They needed a girl's road trip and came down for some studio time in Tombstone. As sometimes happens, the student/teacher relationship got thrown out the window and ideas flowed non-stop. This creative, free flowing of ideas and possibilities is what I thoroughly enjoy about the beading community. I came away with an idea for a bracelet using the African "sequins" that I'm going to have to try out as soon as I can steal a moment to put it to good use. Now I can't wait to put the chaos back onto my studio work surface and see where this idea leads.

#2 - Cooking:

Bagna Cauda
I've royally stunk up the house tonight as I did the prep for tomorrow's night dinner with my 2 Sister's & their men. Oh my.... chopped two whole heads of garlic, added 2 cans of anchovies and it's all simmering in butter & olive oil. My Piemontese Italian heritage is front and center with this dinner. I can hear my Father saying, "NO dipping the bread in!" Guess I'd better get out my stretchy pants as I know I'll need the extra room for dinner tomorrow.

This dinner also gave me the chance to indulge my liking for vintage kitchen implements. I needed something to put the Bagna Cauda in on the table and keep it warm. The only warmer I found in several thrift stores was this Chrome Fire King Fondue pot. Now I'm in real trouble as I don't think I have a place in my smallish adobe to store it. I was planning on getting something ugly and cheap enough to re-donate when I was done with it. This is too good a find to put back out for someone else.

#3 - Gardening:

All I've grown myself is a beautiful dark red Amaryllis which is happily blooming on my window sill. I still miss having a house full of houseplants.

Tomatoes ready for outside planting .... in February! This year I've gotten to enjoy my gardening vicariously. My companion brought heirloom tomato seeds with him and has been carefully nurturing them inside under my beading Ott lights. They are beautiful, healthy, sturdy plants that went into the planting barrels yesterday. We hope to be able to enjoy ripe tomatoes from these plants before we head back to New Hampshire. Sometimes it's very nice to be able to enjoy the fruits of someone else's labor.

Get Creative with: heshi/sequins/old records

These African "beads" just fascinated me. I'm told that they are made from old vinyl records. The strands by themselves are interesting and, in their own way, decorative, hang- on-the-wall pieces. After sorting through the piles at several Gem Show booths, I figured out that the stripped ones were fairly rare. I bought a couple of strands and then became intrigued as to their possibility as bead embroidery sequins. So I went back and bought more strands. I kept thinking that they would be such an earthy contrast to the glitzy normal sequins. Now I have more than I might possibly use in several lifetimes. Just like all my other beads!

OK, here's the deal ......

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I'm going to do a Blog Giveaway

of 2 small packets of mixed disks in return for ideas of how you would use them. Just make a comment with your ideas on this blog post.

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#1 - will be to the commenter with the most

interesting or unusual use for these things.

Totally my opinion/choice.

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#2 - will be to a randomly selected commenter on my blog.

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Time frame will be from now to Noon (AZ time) Monday, Feb. 22, 2010.

Just remember that I will need a way to get in touch with you if you post anonymously.

International commentors are OK, but it might take awhile to reach you if you win.

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I'll post the results sometime on Monday afternoon, Feb 22nd.

If I have no acknowledgement from you with your mailing address, I'll pick the next person in line on Tuesday.

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I need to share out some of this stuff I collected at the Tucson Gem Shows ... hopefully I'll also get some ideas that I wouldn't have thought of for using these things. It's also a way to let people know that I've joined Networked Blogs, which is on my sidebar and also available to Facebook friends.

Tucson Gem shows - last day 4

Tuesday was my last trip to Tucson, mainly for general supplies and gifts for some of my female family members. My feet are tired and I'm in complete sensory overload.

Every year I seem to come home with something that is pure impulse and haven't a clue what I'll ever do with them. When I put the newest ones away I fondle the buys from past years. Maybe some beads are just meant to be, looked at, played with, admired and put back away for another year. This time it was a couple of strands of the newest Chinese faceted crystals. I was told that these are handmade cane beads that are then machine faceted. The colors are rather unusual and very few of them are the same. They were just so different and happily colored that I couldn't resist. I can see summer earrings made with these - perhaps.

I need to try and get some good photos of my partner, Ken's, crystal flags though. He fell in love with the 3-4mm crystal faceted roundels at the shows and did a bead crocheted American flag to slide over a fringe on his motorcycle vest. Oh my, you can see it from across the room. He's been playing with flag and military designs in 10-14 around that are perfect as Biker regalia (can you call it that?), zipper pulls or key chains. I'm hoping I can get him to publish some of the designs on www.bead-patterns.com, both in BCED and PDF formats.

I'm sure there are things I'll wish I had gotten or stocked up on. Even with a list of needs, it's hard to stay focused with so many beautiful and different things from all over the world. I guess there is always next year.

Chains - chains, and more chains ...... I think we are going to see a lot more chains in bead stores and incorporated in with bead work this year. There were a lot of booths with fascinating and different inventories of chains. More than I have ever seen before.