First visit to Washington, DC

Sorry to have left you for a couple of months, folks! October/November/December are the busiest months of my year...I've been swamped and am just now coming up for air...

I thought I would catch up a bit by telling you a bit about my first trip to Washington, DC. I volunteer for a charitable organization which is head-quartered in the US. Normally our Fall fund-raising Gala is held in Raleigh, NC, which is "home base" but this year we branched out a bit and the Gala was held in Washington.

We were fortunate to have the beautiful JW Marriott right on Pennsylvania Ave as our host hotel.

We arrived the Thursday prior to the Saturday event, and got right to the sightseeing!

The beautiful National Theatre, which you can see in the background of the picture above, was the site of the Gala...so convenient!

We had purchased tickets prior to our visit for the Night Lights Tour; we had been told it was pretty to see the monuments at night, and as the timing of the tour was good for us, we went for it. I would definitely recommend the tour. Our guide was knowledgeable, and it was great to get to all the monuments easily, and know what we wanted to get back to see again. My only quibble is that we have one friend who has a disability which means he is unable to walk long distances....the tour was difficult for him, and this was not mentioned in the description. If you are considering going, the tour requires having the ability to walk at least a mile at a fairly quick pace. Not for seniors. 

Here's my favorites: Martin Luther King Memorial...as a teenager in the '60's, really affecting and imposing. The picture doesn't begin to show you the scope of the monument, which is really well done. 

The Korean War Memorial: really, really eery in the dark...and that engraved wall is just amazing. It is pictures of many of the participants in the war....doctors, infantry, nurses, etc. The "field" is set up to look as though the troupe is working through a battlefield dressed just as they would have been for battle...and you feel as though you are right in the middle of it:

Here we are at the White House! Mr and Mrs Obama did NOT come out to say Hi....

but at another time, there WAS this: *

We were able also to get out to Mount Vernon, George Washington's birthplace, and thoroughly enjoyed that tour of Mount Vernon, Old Town Alexandria, and Arlington Nat Cemetery. Again, though~not for someone who is not able to walk considerable distances. 

Mount Vernon, from the entrance: 

Slave burial ground:

Old Towne Alexandria: (each is 8 ft wide)

Robert E. Lee's home:

Christ Church in Alexandria; gravesite in the churchyard damaged by Union soldiers bullets:

Plaque in the church:

Kennedy graves and eternal flame at Arlington National Cemetery:

And then, of course....the Gala, which was wonderful!

Our Gala VIP group photo....you may recognize my boss on the far right....:-)

Sure hope to have an opportunity to visit again and see some of what we missed! Washington was beautiful.....

*Yes, of course it's photoshopped :-)...but what fun...I've gotten a lot of mileage out of that fun little souvenir. 

Beadwork Beaded Bead Contest Update....

Well, I have had a great six months....??....playing with, constructing, and admiring the Beaded Beads Beadwork Magazine has offered us in pattern, as a part of their celebrations for their 15th Anniversary. It seemed like a match made in heaven! A cool design contest, using my favourite loves, beaded beads! Unfortunately....now that all the rules have been posted, it has become apparent that the contest is only open to US readers. It did not say that in the rules, but the time limitations imposed would exclude other than US peeps. :-(

But....I had great fun doing these, and will definitely use some of them again in other projects. The beads I've already created I had a design for, and will likely put that together after I get back from my trip to Washington DC this next week.

In the meantime, there's no point in waiting if I'm not going to enter....so...here are my beaded beads!

The little beaded stars are a component of the first bead, and I plan to use them in my design as well. 

Good luck to all the contest participants!! 

Pantone Bead Swap Fall 2012

Well, after waiting about a week for a bright day to do photographs, apparently, it ain't gonna happen! It is quite lovely out...warm for this time of the year, and with that ethereal fog that quiets everything and makes it seem so "soft" out. But it's not too great for picture-taking where detail is needed!

So...onward, with an Ott Lite; I apologize in advance for the greyed colors.

Here are the swap items I sent Kelley Hagerty-Fogle (Kelley has received her swap, but does not have a blog):

And here is what I received in return; I was spoiled rotten! Focals, gemstones, enamelled beads, pearls, crystals, fun beads...what a beautiful assortment! Thanks so much Kelley!

I am going to have a fantastic time playing with these! 

Pantone Fall 2012 Bead Swap

Well, I spent the day today getting my goodies together for the Pantone Bead Swap Fall 2012. I had tons of fun participating in this one in the Spring, with my wonderful partner Silvia Sernicola but I had not planned on participating in the Fall version, as I'm kind of swamped right now....well, you know how that goes!

So...here are my goodies all set to go to my partner for this season, Kelley Hagerty-Fogle; I don't think Kelley has a blog to link to, but I'm looking forward to sending these off to her.

As they were sitting on my worktable during the organization process today, I spied some wonderful  colour combinations I would not have thought of, but will certainly be investigating now....

like Ultramarine Green/Bright Chartreuse/Olympian Blue, which is FAB!! in the beads...and of course Honey Gold/Pink Flambe/Tangerine Tango, which is a given...and French Roast/Pink Flambe is yummy...and ...and....

Kelley, hope you enjoy your package!

PS When Kelley receives her goodies, I will post a non-tease picture of what she received. :-)

Beading Babes Project 6 Reveal

Well, nothing ventured nothing gained, right?? Right?? So immediately upon completion of my BSBP necklace project, I dived into the projects for Beading Babes 6th edition!

Karyn Healey-White at Releases by Rufydoof mentors a group of seed beaders who work together on defined projects over approximately a 2-month period. The projects are chosen in advance by Karyn. We have a Facebook page where comments and help can be found as everyone works along, and it's another great stretch for your skills as a beader! 

I started out with the Retro Daisies project, which was taken from Bead & Button April 2012. This is one of the few times I have NOT read the instructions through to the end. As I was a bit pressed for time, I just gathered the needed supplies and jumped right in. Don't do that. I did realize that the bracelet was very delicate as I was working on it, and looked quite short...but I anticipated the designer coming up with some amazing closure at the end that solved that problem and extended the length of the bracelet. Or not. Nope. No extending closure. Just one very, very short (ie, 5") bracelet. Back to the instructions...nope; hadn't made any errors, and I actually had used beads that were a bit larger than those called for in the instructions. 

*sigh*

Consensus is...

1. The instructions are wrong and the beads called for should be size 15 Japanese one-cuts, which are a lot larger than the size 15 czech charlottes called for. I used size 13 czech charlottes, which should be larger than required. 

2. The instructions are wrong and the repeats need to be increased. 

In any case, this did certainly stretch my beading skills, which is a good thing! As the instructions had you end each of the threads as you worked on the bracelet, there was no way to add to it from where I left off....even if the charlottes WOULD accept more thread than was already in there, which I guarantee you they would not have! 

You'll be surprised to hear, I did NOT throw it against a wall! Instead, I created a closure with loops at each end; the loops go over the flower at each end of the (original) bracelet and attach to an extension which duplicates about 1" of the original pattern. This adds about 1 1/2" to the size of the bracelet, making it wearable at least by a small human being. I think it worked out quite nicely. 

You will notice there is one lone different color flower on the bracelet. Yes, that's on purpose. If you check this link to my charity, the National Inclusion Project you will see their logo. This bracelet is my ode to Inclusion, in the style of the National Inclusion Project. 

In this picture, you can see the design of the closure I created, to the left. It consists of a 1.5" strip of the trellis base, with a loop on each end which goes over the flower at each end of the original bracelet...and I've added another flower to the closure as well. 

BTW, I love the little flowers created for this project, and will definitely be using those again in some manner! 

The second project I am working on still and thoroughly enjoying....it's very Zen. It is a bead embroidery cuff project from Sherry Sarafini, published in Beadwork Jan 2011, called Ripple Effect. 

After much searching of websites, I finally found some cabochons I loved from Glass Art Cabochons and am using this one to build my bracelet. 

The cabochon is a little larger than the one Sherry used for hers, but so far so good. It is not finished, but here's progress so far!

Mini-vacation!

I was so thrilled this last weekend, to have 4! 4!! days off in a row...on a weekend! So I decided to make a quick trip down to Buffalo, do a bit of much-needed clothes shopping, and just have 2 days to myself. No cooking....no dog walking...no housecleaning...no laundry..nothing to do except have some fun.

So here I am....on the little "porch" of my hotel room, looking down at the atrium/pool area:

(sorry for the quality, these were all taken with my phone). This is a little deceptive...the atrium area was nice to look onto from the porch, and very relaxing, especially when the kids in the pool went to bed. I only fell off the broken chair on the porch twice! And I hadn't had a thing to drink except a lemonade....

This picture of the room makes it look quite nice...but in fact the hotel hallways and the elevators were FILTHY, and I would never stay there again. The Millenium at Walden Galleria, no names mentioned of course. Don't go there....

OTOH, lunch the next day at Johnny Rocket's was good and fun! Wish I'd been quick enough to get their performance of "Respect!" on video! But I enjoyed it nonetheless. 

Loved my mini-holiday! The first in several years.....

Jill Wiseman and Carol Dean Sharpe

I have been absolutely DYING for JIll Wiseman's "Beautiful Beaded Ropes" to reach it's production date...and it's ready!

AND....if you want this book as badly as I do to add to your Lark Master Beader collection....run over to Sandfiber's blog and add your comment for a chance to win it. Don't miss this one!