Antidote to SAD - Buttterflies

While we don't get the snow and extreme cold of other parts of the country, Seattle's winters can be chilly and grey.  And damp!  No surprise - this is Seattle after all.  But it can get old.  That's when I love to visit the butterfly garden at the Science Center.   Last week two friends and I grabbed our cameras, shed our jackets, and spent a good hour or so in the tropical warmth. 

The butterflies were particularly active, filling the air with eddies of colorful wings.  Others posed for their cameos; each one more beautiful than the next.  I was struck once again by the diversity of colors and patterns.  Makes me want to pull out my beads and start playing with color. 

not great for the butterfly, but the tattered edges have great texture

the butterflies loved her squid cap, and kept circling it while she tried to take photos.

A little dream of Spring.  

Girls Rule, Especially at Geek Girl Con

This weekend I took a side trip out of the regular world into the wonderful, amazing, zany world of Geek Girl Con.  A world of games, science, imagination and fun where women took center stage for a change. 

Panels ran the gamut from sneak peaks and hosted play for upcoming games, to in-depth looks at the demographics of various genres fan bases and their actual representation therein, to DIY science and art projects, to a panel on building realistic fake languages and hardcore STEM panels such as Droid Building 101: Build Your Own Astromech and Build Your Own 2G Phone With that last one, the first 20 participants participated in the workshop, everyone else was welcome to simply listen in. 

For myself, I ended up skipping most of the hardcore panels this time and settled into a schedule of make-and-takes and games, including a group story building workshop. 

Saturday opened with a little Betrayal at Baldur's Gate

Betrayal at Baldur's Gate starts as a territory exploration game.  You and your fellow explorers build the board a tile at a time, gathering loot, battling monsters and uncovering periodic mysteries as you go.  Until the game suddenly turns into a pitched battle or adventure game, where your party must learn to work together to defeat the threat.  Worse, it may turn out that one of your party members is a betrayer, in which case you must defeat them to win the game. 

The designers at Avalon Hill have written 50 different scenarios for the second half of the game - circumstances within the game determine which one you will face.  As far as I could tell, every table in the room was faced with a different scenario, which makes for great replay value. 

I was the only one at our table who hadn't played the earlier version, Betrayal at House on the Hill (totally non-D&D). We encountered a pve (player vs environment) scenario.  We lost spectacularly, but it was still a lot of fun.   If you're a long-time D&D fan, the game has the right feel.  If you've never played D&D before, it's a fun adventure game (according to tablemates who fell into this category).

D&D Dinosaur Races with the Adventurers' League

My appetite whetted for some real D&D, I stuck around to play a new adventure from Wizard's of the Coasts'  Tombs of Annihilation.  Wizard's hosted a hands-on game.  Totally unexpected, they gave each of us participating a dice bag with dice.  At the end of the game, they surprised us again with free minies - we each received a random 4pack!   

Sunday, I joined the local branch of the Adventurer's League for another scenario.  My fellow players were a mom who'd never played before and a passel of tween girls who'd played for the first time the day before.  This time we got to go to the Dinosaur Races!  Complete with cool maps and minis perched on dinosaurs. 

I've also learned there are sort of two different organized, drop-in D&D groups around here - the Adventurers' League and Pathfinders.  I'm such a geek!

But enough gaming, I did attend a few panels, too.

The Force is Female panel speakers

My favorite thing, hands down, about all of the panels I attended?  The speakers were predominantly women, unlike most other cons I've attended where at best there's a token female panelist.

a photo from a PAX 2017 panel for comparison

Back to the GeekGirl panel, I fear that I didn't stay through the full talk.  I discovered I was no where near a hard-core enough fan.  I hadn't watched any of the auxiliary series they referenced and couldn't begin to match their level of analysis of the source base as they referred to characters and scenarios with which I am wholly unfamiliar.   

Even still, much of what they said resonated with me.  One of the panelists also happened to be an engineer.  She noted that in one scene (I think from Rogue One), there's a call for engineers and a bunch of guys come running.  Her question, 'Where are the women engineers?'  I had noticed this too; that while the new movies were getting better about female leads, they still had a long way to go including women in bit roles outside of female stereotypes. 

Speaking of Star Wars, I happened upon these wandering the halls:

Daleks and Droids wandering the halls

And I learned a few new crafting techniques, including a great one for making quick, inexpensive masks.

My mask is lower left, but other participants let me photograph theirs

My mask, at the lower left, is unpainted.  The woman who made the black one in the upper left corner designed hers to fit over her glasses!  How cool is that?  These were all made using tinfoil and masking tape, that's all except for the paint.  

Moro and San from Princess Mononoke

I'd say at least half of the attendees showed up in costume.  Many were of their favorite characters, like this fantastic duo from Princess Mononoke, but just as many were their own original designs.  I  wish I'd taken a photo of the member of the Women's Badminton Protection League, dressed in slightly steampunk, but very proper Victorian attire complete with a spiked badmitton racket and shuttlecock 'grenade'.  Instead, I was focused on taking a photo of the band playing just outside the windows.

Band busking just outside the conference center

Equally cool were the men who attended the con.  Men of all ages; fathers, brothers, sons, boyfriends and friends of women.  Having a blast.  I'd say the male to female ratio was the opposite of other cons I've attended such as PAX.  A refreshing change.  The con also seemed much more relaxed.   I kept finding myself wishing my sister and her boys were in Seattle - there were so many panels and workshops that seemed perfect for one or another of them. 

A Women's Weekend

waiting for the bus - with a party atmosphere

Saturday:  Womxns' March, Seattle

My weekend was a celebration of women.  On Saturday, Joe and I attended the incredible Womxns' March here in Seattle.  It seemed like the march was all anyone talked about in the week beforehand.  The local coffee shops were abuzz with who was going, who was meeting whom, who was knitting hats for whom.  I'd swear that in our neighborhood, it was more anticipated than Christmas.

The morning of, we headed down to El Diablo early, to find it almost empty.  We watched as one group of pink-hatted women after another dashed in, grabbed coffees, and dashed back out.  We also watched the metro buses gliding through the neighborhood packed with pink hats and signs.

the group behind us in line for the bus

We'd planned to meet friends at the coffee shop, then head over to the first stop on the 4 route about 10am.  We could see the corner, and the 40-50 people waiting there from our window seat, so we decided to head over way early.  As we waited, we watched the line grow, then shrink (then grow again) as people bailed to grab an Uber or other transport.  What was really neat was everyone worked to fill their vehicles to capacity, grabbing other people from the line. You'd hear the call, "we have one more space" and someone else would hop out of line and join them.

When we finally bailed, we did the same and brought a new friend from line with us, walking to another friends where her husband had arranged an adhoc carpool, piling ten of us into two vehicles (plus the 2 drivers).  Good thing too; the bus arrived as we were pulling out, and it was already so full that it didn't even stop where we'd been waiting.

the start of the march, before the skies cleared

On the drive to Judkins Park (the starting point of the route), every bus stop we passed was filled with pink-hatted, smiling women (and a fair number of pink-hatted men, too).  Truth is, we never actually made it to the park - by about eight blocks out it was obvious we'd have to go the rest of the way on foot.

Abandoning our drivers with many thanks, we walked another couple of blocks before the crowds simply got too thick to get any closer.  We ended up at 20th and Jackson.  Turns out none of our group had remembered to download a map of the route onto our phones.  So I asked one of the very nice policewomen for assistance and discovered that we'd accidentally found the actual starting line for the march - with a Native American group lined up right behind the police on bicycles.

inside the long river of people with blue skies overhead

YES!!!

Despite watching the start of the march, it took another 40 minutes before we made it out of the first intersection, and another 20 before we'd traversed another block.  There were so many people filtering in from so many intersections that it took forever to move more than 2-3 steps at a time.  But that was okay, because everyone was smiling, everyone was simply so happy to be there, to see the amazing turn out. And it was fun to read everyone's signs.

The signs ran the gamut of causes.  Many I believed in wholeheartedly, some were simply not my causes, and a few I didn't agree with at all.  But that's okay, because it was all about free speech and solidarity. Being able to speak one's truths and knowing you're not alone. That's why I was there.  After last year's brutal election cycle, many have been left fearful and hurting.  I wanted to be there simply because it seemed right to stand up and say 'I care, I'm paying attention, and you're not alone'.


One of my favorites was a hand-drawn sign carried by a little girl, maybe 5-6 years old riding on her dad's shoulders.  Her sign read 'Make America Kind Again'.  A goal I can definitely get behind.  It was fun walking with our little group of six women, three teenaged girls and two men.  Even when it was tricky keeping us all together in the crowds. Thank you Joe, for walking with me, and for sending the text last week, asking if I wanted to go on this particular 'date'.  Thanks Jen, for sending the text 'Come to our house now', and for organizing the impromptu carpool.  And thank you Spencer for playing chauffeur.

From Judkins Park to the Seattle Center, the full route was 3.6 miles long.  Based upon aerial photos I saw afterwards, we filled the entire route!  The first people were arriving at the Seattle Center before the last marchers had left Judkins Park.  Estimates this morning say there were as many as 175,000 people.  It was an incredible feeling to be part of such a crowd.  A peaceful, happy, smiling group of people from so many diverse backgrounds, coming together to participate as a community.

Thank you Seattle Bicycle Police!

Arriving at the Seattle Center felt a little anti-climatic.  My feet were sore, and I was ready to be off of them.  But at the same time, I was riding high on the energy of the event.  It was so powerfully positive.

Even the amazing bicycle police along the route were smiling, and wished us well along the way.  I want to sing out many praises for the women and men of the police force - thank you for being there, thank you for supporting the constitution, the 1st amendment, and your fellow citizens.

a few more signs I saw on the march

Seedbeaders!  (about half of the roomful)

Seedbeaders Sunday

And if the march wasn't enough to make me smile, Sunday was Seedbeaders.  This was the first time I'd managed to make it in about a year - I don't think I attended a single meeting in 2016.  Walking in the door, it was like old-home week, with so many friends I hadn't seen in ages.

Jennifer Porter talks about Random RAW

January's the month where everyone is asked to bring ideas for mini-workshops they're willing to teach at the monthly meetings through the year.  All of the meeting projects are free - members donating their talents to the rest of the membership.  I am so very impressed by the talent and generosity of everyone in this group.

This month, Jennifer Porter was teaching her version of embellished, random right angle weave.  One of my besties, Jennifer and I have a similar vibe (and tend to inspire each other) with our work as we're both drawn to freeform bead weaving.  (If you're wondering why her name sounds familiar, she is one of the featured artists in Explorations). 

Jennifer let me snap this picture of her talking about random right angle weave, and then a couple pictures of her work.  I'm including my best photo below (definitely not a studio setting - so the photos not as good as I'd like).

Cherry Trees in Fall by Jennifer Porter

A bright cherry on the Sunday goodness - it turns about a dozen of us from Seedbeaders had attended the march, and we all had different stories and highlights to tell.  I'll admit, I'm still buzzing from my wonderful, incredible women's weekend.

Good thing, too, because next up on my to do list today is State taxes for Skunk Hill Studio.  Yippee! 

Cataloging UFOs

A recent email got me thinking about UFOs.  Those UnFinished Objects that collect in drawers and clutter up the work space.   Being that time of year, it got me to thinking about resolutions - new and old, and what I want (and hope) to accomplish this year. 

Sorting through some of my UFOs I realized that there are a number of reasons why different projects fell to the wayside.  I'm coming to think that the more I understand WHY a particular project got set aside, the better chance I have of determining which, if any might ever reach the coveted "Completed" state.

So I started cataloging my Reasons why particular projects end up as UFOs.  Here's my list to date:


Too Many Ideas, Too Little Time
 It's a fact: the larger a project is, the longer it takes to complete.  Not just in terms of the hours spent working on that particular project.  But also because of the times when the long-term project gets set aside in favor of smaller, quicker projects. 

The word "Done" has such a nice ring.  Done!  Bingo! Hurray!  There are some words that are just such fun to say.  That likely explains why I have more snowflakes than any other single beaded project.  They are incredibly fast - how many bead weaving projects can you finish in under an hour, and each one be unique?  So, big projects get interspersed with smaller ones, making the larger projects take even longer.

I've also found that the more time I've already invested in a project, the more risk adverse I become.  The worry about "what if I screw it up" that barely registers these days when stitching a beaded cuff, rears its head on a regular basis when working on my latest sculptural endeavors.  Bead sketching can help with this - doing little sample pieces to work out how I might move forward.

The best solution I've found is to set a concrete deadline for completion, and a reason for that deadline.  The deadline must be far enough in the future that I can reasonably finish the project.  And I need a reason for the deadline because my creative side is like a little kid, and will do it's best to find wiggle room and extensions.  Saying I want to finish it by September isn't enough.  Saying I want to finish by September so I can photograph it for a blog hop or submissions for "X" show.  Even simply telling people it will be done by a specific date is a much stronger motivator, because now someone is expecting it besides myself.


Lost without a Map
Here, I started out with a grand idea, but partway in, the project morphed into something I don't recognize.  Good, bad, it's almost impossible to tell because it simply ISN'T what I expected.  And I therefore have no clue where to go next.  Into the box it goes.  I think this is one of the most common reasons freeform beadweaving projects get left behind. 

That's okay, sometimes projects simply need time to gel.  From my own experience, my Rattlesnake Necklace is a prime example.  I'd originally designed it as a choker, but somehow the length got away from me, and it was way, way too long.  What to do?  I liked the colors, I liked the stitching, but I had no idea what to do with it.  It was several years before I thought of finishing it as a sort of Western-kerchief style choker instead.  The key is to remember to pull it out every once in a while, and keep noodling on the question "what could it be?"  (It also helped that I decided to finish this piece for a blog hop).


Too Ugly to Live
This is the second most-common reason freeform beadweaving projects get left in the dust.  The big question is whether the poor dear is simply stuck in the dreaded Ugly Duckling stage or if it has truly deadly flaws.  A cool-down period may be in order before I can make that determination.

Put it away until the disgust has faded to something more akin to pity, then pull it back out. To evaluate it's potential rebirth, I first look at the piece's stitching - is it structurally sound?  If the stitching is a mess, then it's likely toast.  Stitching is sound?  Then how's the color balance?  A quick way to play with color is to take a photo (a white or light colored background works best), print it off my computer,  then draw over the top.  Quick simple lines will do, with markers, colored pencils, crayons - whatever I have to hand.  The goal here is to play with ways to improve the color balance.

If both the stitching and color seem good, and the pieces simply seems awkward, that's a really good sign it's in the Ugly Duckling stage and I simply need to keep stitching. 


Bored Now
For me, projects that require a lot of repeats are most likely to fall into this category.  It's one of the reasons I veer away from many traditional bead weaving projects.  I get bored and I start improvising to liven things up (often with 'interesting' results) or it gets shoved into a drawer for "later".

Personally, the best way for me to work through this particular problem is to have a rock-solid, clear-cut reason for wanting to finish the project.  "I am making this as ThisYear's birthday gift for my Mom" or "I will wear it at the formal dinner on our September Cruise with my 1940s-style dress" are much more compelling reasons than "it's beautiful and I'd love to make it".  The 'it's beautiful' might get me started, but is likely to leave me stranded mid-stream as boredom sets in. 


Got It!
This is a sort of variation on the Bored Now theme, but is a little different.  When I looked at my motivation for starting these projects, I find that my true goal was simply to master a technique or determine whether something was simply possible.  Once I have the answer (either way), there's little motivation to continue.

Almost ten years ago now, I took a workshop with the artist David Chatt.  He had two Large tables covered with beading samples, mostly unfinished pieces, and explained that they were his 'sketchbook'.  They were where he worked out ideas and problems, and kept the results as quick reminders and references.  These days, I have my own 'beaded sketchbook'.  It's not as extensive as his, and I have a feeling I'm far more likely to poach from my sketchbook than he tended to be, but that's okay.  Every artists' sketchbook is entirely their own. 

One thing I have found is that it's very freeing to realize that not all beaded objects are meant to be completed.  Some are simply meant to answer a question.  Little sketches, doodles and thoughts. 



So there's my UFO Roster
Now I'm curious. 

• How many of these resonate with you?  
• Do you have UFOs that fall into other categories that should be added to the list?  What are your categories?
• Which types of UFOs are you most likely to complete, eventually?  
• What do you think of the sketchbook idea?  Do you have UFOs that are really sketches; never intended to become completed objects?  
• What would you think of joining a crafter's UFO Support Group?  A group where we challenge each other to identify, and complete one UFO at a time on a regular basis.  Say one UFO every two months?

I'd love to hear from you!  

Adapting Traditions to Christmas Present

As a child, December was filled with holiday baking.  Come December 1st, we began baking cookies.  Mom directed the baking, but my siblings and I all played our part; mixing dough, 'spritzing' cookies onto the baking sheets from the cookie press, adding sprinkles (lots and lots of sprinkles), rolling and cutting out.  We made spritz and pfeffernusse, chocolate chip and oatmeal, macaroons and almond spice cookies, and more.  

My memory says we baked almost every evening leading up to Christmas - dozens and dozens of cookies, amid lots of laughter, great smells, snitched cookies and family camaraderie.  In those moments, everything seemed just as it ought.  And then, right before Christmas, we'd package up plate after plate of cookies and take them to our teachers and all of our neighbors.  That became another event; parading up and down our street delivering Christmas goodies. 

As a newly married adult, I tried to continue the tradition.  I baked loads of cookies and delivered them to friends and neighbors.  That continued for several years, but each year it got a little harder, until finally it became a sort of hit-or-miss thing, whether I'd make cookies that year.  It simply wasn't as fun, making the cookies by myself.  Too much alone time.  Through all these years, I continued to collect cookie cutters.  I've come to realize that they were tangible reminders of some of my very best childhood memories.   And so the cookie cutters piled up - each one a little promise of magical fun, just waiting for their chance.

And then a couple of years ago, I hit upon the perfect solution:  The Cookie Decorating Party!  Instead of the loneliness of solitary baking.  I invite my friends to come and share the adventure.  When they're done, they have a plate (or 2 or 3) of decorated cookies to take home with them.  At this point, it's become our own annual tradition. 

The week before the party is spent making sure the house is fully decorated, and the day before I make up lots and LOTS of sugar cookie and gingerbread cookie dough, then stick it in the freezer wrapped in waxed paper.  The day of, we put all of the extensions in our dining room table, and set up an extra card table in the living room by the Christmas tree, swathing both tables in vinyl table cloths.  Then pull out my entire collection.

We encourage everyone to bring a rolling pin and baking sheets, but we have everything else.  And for the day, my house is filled with laughter and cheer, amazing creativity and camraderie.  This year, many wonderful cookies were made, including if I remember correctly, a 'Sharkaroo' (what happens when you combine a shark and kangaroo cutout), several pairs of Christmas pliers (our youngest guest at 9 years old thought the pliers where 'the best'), and a tray of water molecules in the shape of mickey heads, along with the rest of the more 'traditional' Christmas gingerbread men and sundry.

On party day, I normally don't do any cookie making myself.  I'm far too busy visiting and making sure everyone else has what they need.  It's such fun to watch, I just want to drink it all in!  But afterwards, I continue baking and decorating, using the 'leftover' dough.  And it's fun, because I can relive memories from the party, steal some of my friends best ideas (yes, that whale cookie cutter makes a fine llama if you turn it on it's side), and it feels like Christmas. 

I never seem to remember to pull out my camera while the party's in full swing.  But here are a few pics I caught towards the end.

The aftermath of lots of cookie decorating fun

I swear I offered her a chair.  Such detailed designs!

A friends cookies - notice the plaid!  Drawn with food-safe markers

Carrie, my Ornament Swap partner from last year, sent me these as a surprise

My 'Aloha' cookies - playing with the cutters

Turns out the palm tree is one of those designs that just doesn't work as a cookie - every single trunk fell off it's palms.  So I turned the palms into a "wave".  I'm definitely better with beads - my decorating skills are best described as 'enthusiastic'.  But it's such fun (rather on par with finger painting)  :)

Decorating my 'after party' cookies

This year I bought really soft squirt bottles for the frosting, and that worked quite well.  Except I need to make the frosting a little thicker next time.  Some of the colors, the black in particular, were a bit too runny. 


It's funny.  Everyone kept thanking me for holding the party, but I really felt like I should keep thanking them.  Because they came and joined in on the spirit of fun.  And they make one of my favorite holiday traditions come back to life in an entirely new and wonderful way. 

So Merry Christmas everyone! 

I hope that your days are filled with traditions new, old or adapted, that bring you joy and laughter this holiday season. 

Advent Calendars, a Favorite Holiday Tradition

my hand-painted advent calendar

December 1st marks the start of my Christmas season.  Time to pull out the Advent Calendar.  When we were children, Mom would buy the cardboard calendars with little doors, some had candy, the one I remember most simply had the Christmas story told over 24 days.  As a childless adult, I'd abandoned the tradition until I happened upon the tree-shaped calendar with little boxes I wrote about back in 2013.  I love trying to find fun, new ways to fill each day; ways to awaken my holiday spirit.

The boxes are small, a little over an inch square, so it's kind of tricky finding things that will fit.  I had a great time searching Pinterest for ideas. Some of my favorites:

 *  Krista's Christmas Countdown Activities
 *  Coffee Cups & Crayon's Random Acts of Kindness calendar. 
 *  Idealist Mom - lots of ideas for fun little activities and do it yourself advent calendars. 

All of these blogs have free printables, (and several have links to their Etsy stores).  But one of my favorite pins - a nicely written compilation of the nativity story - didn't link to a current site. So I decided to make my own version - a set of little "books", and while I was at it, I decided to make a separate set for Clement Clarke Moore's, The Night Before Christmas. 

And in the spirit of Christmas, I thought I would share.

I saved the designs in three separate PDF files:

Nativity Story, Page 1

Nativity Story, Page 2

Night Before Christmas

If you'd like the original Illustrator files so you can do your own editing, let me know and I'll send you a link.





I then trimmed the pages into separate strips

Trimming the pages into separate strips

Then folded the strips into thirds, making sure my first fold fell between the two text blocks, and my second between the text block and the little number (the numbers help me keep the finished books in their proper sequence).

Folding the strip into thirds

Check to make sure all three sections are the same width.  I'd forgotten to trim the left-most edge for several of strips.  So I had to do that next.  The simplest way to mark where to trim is to fold the two ends in towards the center and mark the overhanging edge.

Marking the left edge so I can trim it away.

Next I accordion-folded the left and center sections.

accordion folding the first two sections

I finished the book by wrapping the 'cover' backwards around the book, then gluing it in place.

Wrap the cover around the other 'pages' and glue in place

And that's all there is too it!   You can use this folding technique for all sorts of little projects.  The great part is you only need to print on one side of the page to create a little book and cover.

Finished 'books'.  I used a gold marker to cover any white showing on the covers

I also put together a couple of pages for my Cricut Cutter. 

Want to play with this design?  Here's the link

Here's a link for a full page of ornament-style tags. 

I try to fit as much onto each page as possible.  The chinese-lantern shaped ornaments should be free, whether or not you have a Cricut Access subscription.  The rest might cost something to cut if you don't already have a subscription.  (I renewed my subscription for the holidays, and will cancel in January, because it's really nice to be able to use the stock designs for faster holiday crafting.  I designed the page layouts for 8 1/2 x 11" cardstock (I used white index paper from Office Depot). 

Notice the text in the first file?  It's really fun watching the machine write.  In this case, I used Faber-Castell Pitt Fine Art pens in black and sepia.  They fit perfectly in the machine. 

Cricut 'drawing' Christmas designs on paper

Once I removed the cut designs from the mat, I decorated them with glitter paper, cut snowflakes, and twine.

Decorated ornament tags

And finally it was time to stuff the calendar boxes.  I start with any date-specific activities (picking out our Christmas tree, cookie decorating party, etc.) and then fill boxes from there.  Almost every box had at least two little things in it. 

Last night we opened the first box - it had the start of the Nativity story, and a question ornament "What is your favorite Holiday tradition?".  That started a fun conversation about Christmases past.

And I'll finish this post with two questions.   Do you do any crazy holiday crafting - what sort?  What's your favorite holiday tradition?

Happy Holidays!

New Classes at Fusion Beads this Summer

I'm teaching two new classes at Fusion Beads this summer.  In July, I'll be sharing my spin on more freeform bead embroidery with my Happy Fish.  These little guys, my newest additions to my underwater menagerie of beaded fish friends, were inspired by Robin Atkin's Bead Journal Project.  I needed a theme I'd enjoy working with for a year, and smiling fish fit the bill. 

And in August, I'll focus on the techniques I used to create my Nautillus Flower Cuff, from Explorations. 

Sign-ups for Summer workshops begins this Thursday, April 14th.

If you're planning to visit Seattle this summer, definitely check out their classes catalog. They have one of the best, most varied schedules you'll see outside of a major beading conference. 

Dear Dali - It's nice to meet you!

I love Dahlias! Funny thing is, I'd never even heard of Dahlias before moving to Seattle, but I quickly fell in love with the bright, big, spiky blooms and their extravagant colors.  Gladiolas may be the 'official' August birth flower, but I've decided to trade them in for Dahlias.  Done!

Last month, I'd decided my next Happy Fish would feature flowers.  Fast forward to September and I'd still made no significant progress.  Nothing seemed right.  Then I spied these beauties for sale at a corner grocery on the first day of the bead retreat.  I walked by them three times before deciding I had to have them.  They reminded me of the quinacridone pigments which make up some of my favorite red, orange and violet paints.  Such rich, luscious color!  The Dahlias' color and the shapes of their petals inspired my newest Happy Fish.

I call her Dali.... 

Dali's under-sketch with artist pens

Here she is in all her finery, happily posing for the camera