Rocks and Bags

I had a fabulous weekend. My daughter Ruth came home from UofI to get a homework project done. Right after the semester is done she is off on a Geology field trip to Nevada. They're going to be mapping some place or other for 3 weeks-and learning more geology stuff. The whole thing sounds incredibly exciting to me, and I wish I could go. Anyway, she had to make a Jacobs Staff. Not having a workshop hidden away in her dorm room, she came home to use Dads.

Judging by the finished project, I'd say a Jacob Staff is a walking stick with tape on it. She said it's used for measuring and there's a slot for her compass. I'll take her word for it.

Ruth brought the last two necklaces I made for her home so I could take pics. Remember a couple weeks ago I'd said something about using one of the rocks she'd left on the bathroom windowsill to make a necklace for her? Well, she loves it. The rock is a piece of coal. I made a silver wire cage for it, and strung some seed beads, some Swarovski crystals, and black Czech fire polish crystals. Here it is:



Last Christmas I made a tiger themed necklace for Ruth. She is the biggest cat lover I know. Especially the big cats. I wanted an African theme. I found the tiger head pendant first, then spent the next two years looking for two tiger beads to go with, collecting other beads for it as I searched. I finally found these 2 at Wonders Of The World Beads at the Flour Mill in Spokane, WA last fall. They are PERFECT! Couldn't have found a closer match to what I had in my head. There's a bit of amber, glass, some black carved wooden beads, carved bone, dalmatian jasper (looked leopardy to me!), and of course I HAD to put some spiral rope in there cos I love doing spiral rope. I am quite proud of this piece. The most important thing, though, is that Ruth LOVES it.


I got what I consider an early Mothers Day present too. Darling hubby bought me a Honeycrisp apple tree. Honeycrisp is my favorite apple. They taste very much like the apples that grew on the ancient tree in the backyard of the house I grew up in. My new tree is very small, so it will be a few years before I get any apples, but that's okay. My little tree is beautiful.

Darling hubby also helped me reclaim the last flower bed. Before the yarn shop, my house had beautiful flower beds all the way around it. But when I started working full-time-plus (cos if you own your own business, you work waaaay more than 40 hrs. a week) my flower beds went to the weeds. I just didn't have the time to keep them up. So the grass and the weeds invaded and took over. Last year I started the arduous project of taking them back. I worked on the front yard bed first. It goes all the way across the front of the house, so it's a long one. With me having a weak back, it took awhile. I had to work on it a little at a time, but by the time the summer was over, it was once again a flower bed, complete with beauty bark, and my back was much stronger.

I then started on the back yard, but didn't get much done before winter set in. I was not looking forward to the work of reclaiming this one because it was a mighty jungle. But hubby pitched in on Sunday and we got the whole thing done in one afternoon. He got me 28 bags of beauty bark and we barked the whole place. It looks SO wonderful! Here's a picture of the finished project. On Sunday morning this was chest high in weeds! After Mothers Day I can start planting flowers. Woot!


You'll notice that ugly bit of corner of the deck there. It's going away. The deck was built on a foundation of untreated wood that is now rotting . The summer project is to tear it down and rebuild it properly. I do not know what hubby was thinking when he used untreated wood.

The next 3 photos are some bead knitted amulet bags I've made. I found the photos on hubby's computer this morning. I'd completely forgotten I made these. All 3 were sold in a little shop in Colville, WA.

First is Little Loops. The pattern is the basic bag from Bead Knitted Pendant Bags by Theresa Williams. I used coral colored thread and satin finish red beads.


Next is the triangle bag from FiberSpace patterns. I loved this one. It was hard to let it go to be sold. Light blue thread and pearl blue beads.


This is the Summer Odyssey pattern from Baglady Press. They sell this pattern as a kit. It was also published in Interweave Knits magazine several years ago. I used black thread and ab/clear beads with an ecru lining. I found the antique button in my button box, a large box which I inherited from a neighbors grandmother. That neighbor is old enough to be my grandmother, so I can't imagine how old the buttons must be.


Today is Tuesday, so it's bead group day. Hurray! I'm taking two projects. The yahoo bead group project of the month is bead crochet rope. I am determined to learn this because the result is so luscious. Bead crochet rope has an organic feel to it that is very sensual. It's extremely flexible and makes wonderful jewelry.

If you want to see what I mean, visit this place: Ruby's Beadwork
and this place: Bead Crochet.Com
and this place: Beaddust.com

I'm taking a spiral netting project too, just in case I get frustrated with the crochet and wish to toss it aside for awhile.

Rumor has it that my daughter Sarah is driving up from Moscow to be there. She has a definite case of senioritis. It's the last finals week, graduation is next Saturday. I don't know how she can stand it! LOL!

Have a great day!