Another Hand of Catch Up

I can not believe how BUSY I've been lately. Someone, please! Stop the ride! I wanna get off.

Our yard sale was a resounding success. Even though we got rained on a bit. I didn't make as much money as I had hoped (Niece Stacy got the lions share of the take since she sold the most stuff), but I did get rid of all the computer crap that was inhabiting the house. HURRAY!!!! That alone made the weekend worth it. Most of it I gave away to a gal whose boss could make good use of it. I could not believe how much of it we had. Or maybe I should say Sweet Hubby had. My goodness! Boxes and boxes of it. Old hard drives, power supplies, cases, cards of various types (just how many sound cards can a person use?), memory chips, monitors, and cables. Cables of every design and type. Miles and miles of computer cables. Daughter Ruth said it was like living in a computer museum when she saw what we had. Who uses 5 1/4 disks anymore? Got rid of it all! Some went to the dump to be recycled too (that was the first truck load).

I also managed to sell my old Sony Mavica camera, my old sewing machine, and one of Sweet Hubby's bicycles that he didn't use any more, as well as various odds and ends like dishes, glassware, etc. It feels so good to get it all out.

Now I've got space for more yarn. Nah, just kidding! Ha ha!

Here's a pic I took during the sale. Nephew Tyler, who is over 6 feet tall, was challenged by his cousins to prove he could fit in this dog crate. And darn if he did!


I have to admit, I was sorely tempted to leave him locked in there. LOL!

At the end of the sale we had leftovers. We got lucky too. A gal from the local Catholic church asked if we'd be willing to donate it to their youth group for a big sale they're having next weekend if she hauled it away. Well, let me see, her-hauling it away, or St. Vinnies-we have to haul it away. She won. So she came with a pick up truck, 3 young fellas, and they hauled all that stuff away for us. I gave her the 6 boxes of cross stitch patterns left over from my store too. I was tired of seeing them there in my storage shed-laughing at me.

Besides working on yard sale stuff, I've also been getting my entries ready for the fair. I finished the necklace I was making with one of my beaded beads. To be honest, I finished it 3 times. The first two times I didn't like the results. They just weren't right. Some of my ideas are not good ones. On Monday I took it apart and redid it the 3rd time. Finally! I got something I liked. I've named this piece (click on the pic to embiggen)

Smokey Barbecue

What can I say? That's what came to mind when it was done. Admittedly, I was hungry at the time, but it works. There's smoke swirling in those saucy porcelain beads, and the transparent ab/smoke colored seed beads I used help with the idea.


I made the toggle clasp from scratch, in peyote stitch. I really like how it turned out. It fits the necklace well.


I also did some small changes to this necklace which is a combination of Russian spiral and Biva Nepal chain.



I actually made this about 3 years or so ago, but I was never quite happy with it. Now I am. I learned a long time ago that if I'm not happy with something I made, fix it until I am.

Detail of the Biva Nepal Chain part.


Dark purple bugles and silver lined light topaz seed beads, with some round gold beads and a couple purple lampworked beads for embellishment.

This is the Russian Spiral part, which I used for the focal point.


I finally finished this cross stitch I started eons ago (I may have even blogged about it). After I got it matted and framed it looked pretty good-to me anyway.

Sorry about the reflection in the glass. It was hard to figure out a way to photograph it because the glass was freshly polished.

Yesterday I finished up getting all the entries ready, then hauled them to the fair grounds. I have a total of 18 entries including the 3 items above. I also entered the fir cone lace shawl, beaded lace fingerless mitts, Mexican Waters Lattice socks, the green cabled mitts I made my daughter for Christmas, the "Red Flame" crochet rope, a few more jewelry items, the photo of the butterfly eye, and the bridal bouquet I made with the french beaded flowers.

My daughter Ruth entered something for the first time. She finished these fingerless gloves the night before, so I talked her into entering them, along with her Trilobite hat-which I've just realized I never took a pic of it.

She used a Berroco Socks Metallic sock yarn that has a thin strand of metallic in it. The sparkle doesn't show in the picture.


I just love the little cabled rib in the cuffs.


Now, last, but not least, more tomatoes from my little vines on the deck. Yum!


Hopefully, life will slow down for a little bit. Ruth went back to school last night and summer is starting to wind down. The trees are already changing color, getting ready for autumn. Summer just isn't long enough for me, even if it is busy.

Have a great day.