Halloween Snowflakes

I'd originally intended to create a bead-embroidered piece with leaves for Sarah's Sequintastic Blog Hop using the lovely Fall palette of sequins I got from Cartwright's Sequins. But I got a late start as yesterday was the first time I've picked up a beading needle in three weeks. I woke up with songs from The Nightmare Before Christmas running through my head and they wouldn't go away.

The full set to date, working with four colors of beads and three colors of sequins

So I broke down, bought the sound track and spent the day listening to it while making Halloween Snowflakes. It took a little bit to get into it - the first couple I made look pretty much like snowflakes with a weird color scheme. They're the ones at the top of this picture.

Then it clicked, and I started making flower stars that would fit right into Dia del Muerto. I really like the effect from stacking the sequins - smaller black on top of lime green and purple. Very festive.

I will definitely be wearing these earrings!

I'd purchased a bunch of lampworked bats beads last year, but never got around to using them.   A couple finally made their debut in this pair of earrings that I will definitely wear.

My sequin entry is pretty light, but I had such fun playing with them and this color scheme! I am definitely making more, and am seriously considering putting together a couple of Halloween Snowflake kits for my Etsy shop.

And a funny aside - when I went searching for a link to the movie, I discovered that Nightmare Before Christmas came out the month after we were married. Way to make me feel old!

And on a dark cold night, under full moonlight, 
he flies into the fog like a vulture in the sky!
And they call him, Sandy... Clawssss...! - Jack Skellington

Make sure to check out the other participants in Sequintastic September - I know that's where I'm going next.  

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Rest, Relaxation and Inspiration

DCL's Fantasy, docked at Castaway Cay

Slowly regaining my bearings after two wonderful weeks at sea on the Disney Cruise Lines Fantasy, sailing through the warm blue waters of the Caribbean.  This was our first time on Disney's new, larger ships and I have to say it was sweet.  I especially loved the new adults-only deck areas. 

Rather than giving you a potentially boring blow by blow of our vacation, I thought I'd take a slightly different approach and share some of the inspiration I found on board.  Unlike other cruise lines, the Disney ships are designed by Imagineers, the same people who design the theme parks and attractions.  In my opinion, it really shows. 

All four ships were designed as "modern classics"; the Fantasy's interior design draws heavily from Art Nouveau.  Everywhere I went, I was awed by their attention to detail and their ability to tell a story.  Time and again, I was reminded of the City and Guilds' Design course I took with Gail Harker years ago - where we looked at all the different ways we might interpret and use a single source of inspiration.    I thought I'd share two of my favorites.

Roses used as a design element in the Royal Court restaurant

First up, the Royal Court restaurant.  It's overarching theme is Disney princesses, with several stunning mosaics depicting the ballroom scenes from their movies.  Cinderella running down the stairs, the feast from Sleeping Beauty, the ball at the end of Beauty and the Beast; you get the picture.  All done in tiny glass tiles.  That's the art, and it is truly beautiful.

But what brought me back to the restaurant before breakfast one morning were all of the different ways they used Roses.  My collage shows a few of these, including the pillars that sweep into tree-like light-canopies overhead, and the carpets and tile underfoot.  Beauty's roses crest each pillar, which are topped in turn by rose bushes which also hide the main light fixtures for the room.   Most of the room is done in muted shades of ecru and cream, reminding me of castle walls, except for the flooring coverings.  Tile paths led through the restaurant, with rich red and gold carpets to either side.  I'm particularly fond of the bramble vines, though the densely packed rosebuds create a gorgeous red-carpet effect. 

It was really funny, because the waitstaff got a kick out of watching me run around taking pictures of carpeting and they started pointing things out, making sure I didn't miss any of the other details, including Cinderella's carriages embossed white-on-white on the plates, and the symbols for each of the princesses - rose, slipper, etc - carved into the backs of each chair. 

FYI, there are three main dining rooms - doing some quick math each can accommodate six hundred plus guests at any one seating.  But they never felt cavernous, or over-crowded. 

It's funny how you think you've taken so many photos, but you get home and discover that you're missing some of the most basic?  Well, I don't have any pictures of the whole, three-story atrium.  Just lots and lots of detail shots of all the different ways they used peacock feathers in the space.

The top right photo is of the atrium's central carpet.  It's every bit as detailed (and as large) as a full-scale wall mural.  If you look, you can see a few people in the picture for scale.  To me, it looks like a jewelry design waiting to happen.

Around the edges of the atrium, below the second floor balconies, the flooring switches to tile, reinterpreting the feather design yet again.  There's a set of broad stairs that sweeps up to the second floor of the atrium.  At the top of those stairs, three peacock feathers sweep out to fill the landing, with smaller blue-on-blue feathers in the background (bottom middle and left in my collage).  If you look closely, you'll note that even the railing carries the design.   The top two photos to the left of my collage are from the carpeting in the cafe area on the atrium's second floor.  The gold band helps delineates the walkway from the seating areas. 

I didn't do any beading on the trip, but I did do a little sketching. 

sketching while lounging on a deck chair around the Satellite Falls pool

Joe grabbed a shot of me painting my sketch in the atrium's cafe

And since it was a vacation, here a a couple of random shots:

One mural from the Royal Court restaurant.   I love all the details!

St Maarteen was one of our prettiest ports of call

An amazing sunrise over the water

my attempt to take a panoramic, just a little earlier the same sunrise

They say it's 7 years good luck to kiss a stingray

It wouldn't be a Disney Cruise without the characters

Capt. Jack Sparrow staggered, wandered down the beach at Disney's private island, so of course I had to grab a shot with him.  Not my best shot - but Captain Jack's looking good.  :)  Joe spent part of each morning journaling at the bar up on the pool deck.  We got to check out the kids' clubs during one of their open houses.  Boy does it look like it would be fun to be a kid!  And Joe heading back to the ship after we toured Costa Maya, Mexico. 

And now we're home.  Can I just say that Seattle seems positively cold in comparison?   It seems that we've jumped straight from Summer into Autumn.  I'm teaching my Fancy Fish at Fusion Beads this coming Sunday.  Last I checked, there's still a couple of spots if you're in town and interested.  Also need to finish up a little something for Sarah's Sequintastic September this Saturday.  Oh, and I've decided to rearrange my studio - I spent the morning moving furniture and tubs of fabric.

Hi ho, hi ho..... Just wish I could whistle as well as they do. 

Twenty Years, Floods and my Etsy Shop

Twenty years ago today, we were down to the wire.  Exactly one week until our wedding, less than that until our families arrived from out of town.  We were living in mid-Missouri then, and while we weren't directly affected by the flooding of '93, Columbia had a brief stint as an island as the waters covered all major access points to the city - including the interstate.  But by September 4th, the roads were clear - family and friends flying into Kansas City would be able to make it. 

What we didn't know until some time after the wedding was that some of our guests were caught in another sort of flood on their way to the church.  Not being football fans ourselves, we'd failed to note that we were marrying on the same weekend as the Mizzou homecoming game.  The Tigers won - a miracle in that time period - sending a parade of people carrying the goal post through downtown, right past the front doors of the church.  What's a little more celebration on your big day, right? 

We'd decided to marry in Columbia, rather than either of our home towns because it was our home.  The home we were making with each other.  And I wanted to share my new home with my family, who lived half a country away in California.  It must have worked - while Joe and I now live in Seattle, the rest of my immediate family is happily ensconced in.... you guessed it, Columbia! 

Fast forward a few years and next Wednesday, Joe and I will celebrate our twentieth anniversary. It's funny, because it truly doesn't seem that long.  And it's wonderful, because he's still my very best friend and I'd marry him today if we weren't already married.  But since we are married, we've decided to simply go on a trip and have fun together. 

Preparing for the trip, we both agreed that we're going to unplug - no phones, no emails, no conference calls with work.  Why is it so much easier to contemplate that for him than for myself?  I could catch up on my blogging, a sad little voice inside my head cries out.  I could read my friends blogs for a change.  But for much of the time, we'll be out of cell-phone and internet range anyways.  Unplugging really does make sense for so many reasons. 

What about my Etsy shop?  I won't be around to answer convos or ship packages.  My best friend who has covered shipping for me in the past will be gone the same time, too.   I debated putting my shop on vacation mode.  I debated deactivating all of my listings except for my PDF automatic downloads.  Instead, I've decided to leave it live for the duration, with a note saying that I will ship any physical orders (kits, beads, jewelry) after I return - so expect packages of that sort to ship on the 23-24th.  Then I decided to add an 'only while I'm gone' listing for the PDF tutorial for my Winter Blues freeform peyote bracelet.  I've listed ten copies - any leftover when I get back will simply disappear.

I've also added a coupon code.  Use HAPPYANNIVERSARY - for free domestic shipping on orders over $20.00 as my way of saying thank you for waiting for your package while we're off celebrating twenty years (and girding ourselves for the next 20).

And for those of you who have made through this post - here's a look at a much younger us:

Bye for now! See you real soon....

Birthday Adventures

Have I mentioned recently that I love where I live?  Seattle Summers in particular.  And since I have a summer birthday, I always feel like I should take advantage of the amazing weather and do something outdoorsy.  Something different, or at least different from what I normally do.  

Last year Joe and I played hooky in Seattle, one memorable year Joe even surprised me with a hot-air balloon ride.  This year was one of those happy, lucky years when my birthday fell on a Saturday.  This past Saturday to be exact. 

But recently, Joe's been absolutely swamped at work and traveling almost nonstop.  Case in point - last week he flew down to San Jose on Monday, back to Seattle on Wednesday, up to Toronto on Thursday and back home late Friday night to be here for my birthday (yesterday evening he flew out to Calgary).  So I knew I wanted to do something fun, but I also knew that it would have to be something easy.  And then the perfect little adventure fell into my inbox in the form of a Living Social trip!

The caption read "River Tubing and Beer Garden Cookout".  Hmm...  maybe, maybe not.  But the fine print was more interesting - 'Imagine taking a tubing trip down a scenic river in the German countryside, and at the end of your journey, relaxing at an authentic beer garden. Turns out you don't have to fly 5,000 miles to enjoy the vibe, simply sign on for this adventure: a river-tubing trip and cookout in Leavenworth.'  Oh and it included round-trip transportation from Seattle!

So my Saturday went something like this:

Start the day with a trip to El Diablo's, our favorite coffee shop.  Warren added a special side of whipped cream to my Mexican hot chocolate, complete with sprinkles and marichino cherry.  Yeah Warren!

Then a quick city-bus ride to meet the Living Social group, and a longer bus ride (in a really nice bus) out to Leavenworth.  The bus ride itself made the trip worthwhile.  We hit a really bad patch of construction traffic, but it was easy to ignore. Chelsea, our intrepid tour guide, led us in several rounds of trivia while the driver negotiated through the traffic with impressive patience. We might even have won the trivia game if I hadn't been a scaredy cat in the 'Final Jeopardy' round.  No living social cup-cozies for us!  :-)

Scenery along I-90 through the Cascades

stock photo from Living Social

The river was prettier than this, but I didn't want to chance my iPhone in the river with me, so I don't have any photos of my own.  Good call as it turns out because just after we pushed off we went through a nice set of ripples, with dips and waves over our heads.  Wet, wet, wet!!!!  I heard that earlier in the year, the ripples are true rapids, but for our trip they were just enough to cause some excitement. 

The river was filled with people in rafts and inner tubes, or simply wading in the shallows and the atmosphere was just so happy and festive. We were each given two frisbees to act as 'paddles' to help us steer where we wanted to go, but Joe lost one of his in the ripples.  So he acted as oarsman for both of our tubes while I lounged and enjoyed the scenery.  Yeah Joe!  (I did pitch in a few times).

We'd never been to Leavenworth before and all I can say is the scenery is gorgeous - pine trees and rugged rock outcroppings with meadows interspersed here and there.  We even saw a fawn grazing. 

One of the streets of Leavenworth - note the mountains in the background!

After the river, Joe and I ditched the beer garden pretty quick to go exploring.  The town is touristy and filled with cars.  We ducked into exactly two shops - to score chocolate for me and ice cream for us both.  At Schocolat, they offered us a pre-packaged assortment of their most-popular flavors, or we could select our own.  I opted for the later and when I was done making my selections, I asked if mine bore any resemblance to their assortment.  The young man helping us simply shook his head. 

My birthday chocolates from Joe

Wandering over to the park across from the ice cream parlor, we were just in time for a concert on the lawn, where we enjoyed German folk music until it was time to reboard our bus. 

I think the accordion player was the model for the painted cutout at left

heading up the hill to the bus

Back on the bus, Chelsea offered a choice of five movies for the trip back (Leavenworth is about 2 1/2 hours from Seattle without traffic).  The hands-down winner was "Sixteen Candles".  I hadn't seen the movie since I was a teenager myself, and Joe and I both laughed our way through it.  And before we knew it, we were back in Seattle, thus ending out little birthday adventure. 

This was a first time for us, doing a day-tour bus trip from home and I have to say that we were both really impressed.

Considering we're already about a third of the way into August, I thought it was about time I got myself back in gear and wrote a new blog post.  Time keeps flying by taking the summer along with it.  I'm stunned that it's already August - how about you?

So, what have I been up to lately?  Mainly putting together class proposals for 2014, creating samples to go with the proposals and enjoying family visits.  I mailed my submissions on Thursday and family left yesterday.  Now it's time to keep my fingers crossed.  And time to catch up on my blogging - both reading and writing.

Truth is, it's a little frustrating from a blogging perspective because I've put together a number of new projects (or at least totally new sample pieces) for my class submissions, but I'm trying to keep the particulars under wraps until I hear back.  Something I've definitely learned about myself - I'm not good at keeping things quiet.  That's probably part of why I've been so mum lately - fearing that I'd be unable to keep my mouth shut.  See, even now I'm having trouble! 

My classes from the Fusion Beads schedule

What I can share is the photos of my classes from Fusion Bead's Fall class schedule.  This time around, I'm teaching:

Fancy Fish, Sunday September 29th

 This will be my first workshop for the Fancy Fish and I really can't wait. 

Snowflakes, Saturday, December 7th 

Just in time for last minute holiday gifts, but the truth is I find myself using this pattern throughout the year in any number of different ways. 

Signups start this coming Thursday, August 15th at 10:00am. 

Fish Are Friends Reveal and Blog Hop

Today's the day for the Fish are Friends Blog Hop.  Thank you to all the members of my Design Team, and to everyone else who participated in this challenge and hop.  The goal again was to use my Fancy Fish tutorial, or another favorite fish pattern to create wonderful new creations.

Without further ado - here's the Official Fish Friends list:

 Francie Broadie - FAB Custom Jewelry

 Shirley Moore - Beads and Bread
 Bobbie Rafferty - Beadsong Jewelry
 Tanya Goodwin - A Work in Progress
 Cynthia Machata - Antiquity Travelers

Kathy Jo - KJ's Beadacious Beads

Therese Frank - Therese's Treasures

Nancy Sopp - AlaskanNancy 

Alison Oman

Amy Severino - Amybeads

Hostess: Karen Williams - Baublicious

 

Acrylic puffed oval beads as cores for fish bodies

For my own entry, I wanted to do something different.  You've already seen my Fancy Fish.  Some new, larger core beads seemed like a great place to start.  The photo at left shows one of the larger beads in comparison to the standard sized core beads I use.

Then a friend asked if I could stitch a Lionfish.    I didn't want to try to go for photo realism, but Lionfish and Scorpionfish are such fun with their spikes and plumes.  So I decided to take artistic license, lots of artistic license, and see where it took me.

My new fish is an extrapolation from my original pattern - you won't find the exact instructions for it in my PDF, but rather it is an outgrowth of the pattern.  I stitched two fish, but I think I may save the second and try submitting it to some magazines.  

My latest, very Fancy Fish - isn't her topknot fun?

Fish in Process

My New fish with one of my Blue fish

Oh, and later this week, I'll be hosting a giveaway here on my blog for some core beads for Fancy Fish. 

Alison Oman's Three Fish Friends

A couple of the participants in my Fish Are Friends Challenge and Blog Hop don't currently have their own blogs, so I'm hosting them here as guest posts. Here's Alison Oman talking about her interpretations of the design:

Three Fancy Fish by Alison Oman with peyote stitch bodies

Another view of the Fancy Fish by Alison Oman

This has been an adventure for me!! Not only am I an avid loom weaver, I'm REALLY left handed, soooooo the RAW has been quite a challenge for me....in fact, I'll admit the two fish I've done so far I cheated and did peyote for the body.

However, my photography skills are really awful - I have a point and shoot camera and the colors and beads just all meld together.

My daughter is the camera aficionado and she has had fun walking around the back yard with these three fish.

I've had such a great response from the fish and as the local art gallery is having a show called "Fish" in July I'm working on a piece that is inspired by your fish designs.

-Alison