A Thanksgiving Card from My Son and his Squad

My son is center front, standing. His sergeant is the one crouching. Hope you and yours had a Happy Thanksgiving.

My Soldier

If you say a grace at Thanksgiving, and you're inclined to remember the ones over in Iraq, Afghanistan and other places far from home when you do, I'm one of the moms who thanks you for keeping them in mind.

I've Become a Bead Fanatic

You may remember a post I did awhile back, where I talked about my "beading frenzy". And you may not, but I'll talk about the subject anyway. I've continued beading and I've been putting my stuff up on a Flickr page. There are pieces I haven't photographed and put up, but a major portion of it is online. I don't have a piece of styrofoam large enough anymore to hang all my stuff upon. I bought 6 necklace racks with 8 arms each and those have at least one necklace per arm and many have two or three (I've sorted the necklaces on them by colors, so the ones with the colors I have the most of are nearly full).

If you're curious about the names of the pieces, they're all cities. If you're not curious, I hope you skipped this entire paragraph. In some cases the name of the city has some relation to the stone used - even if it's really a stretch. In other cases, it's just a city that popped into my head as I looked at the finished work.

I have a specific way of finishing all my new stuff so I can use most pieces as badge lanyards or eyeglass chains or necklaces, depending on what I need for the day. If you don't know what a badge lanyard is, you'll have to go to the Flickr site and see what I mean.

If you do happen to visit the site and have any comments or maybe suggestions about designs I could do, let me know - you can leave comments here or there. This is a heck of a lot of fun *and* it's the kind of mindless busy-work (at least after I figure out the design I want to make) that helps distract me from any anxious thoughts I have about, oh, say my daughter driving 400+ miles in the middle of the night to come home for Thanksgiving, or my son being over in Iraq. When the noise in my head gets too loud, I just start stringing beads.

I also created a very simple webpage about my stuff that links to the Flickr site. I'm seriously considering putting together a storefront site. I've written the county for my DBA, I have the paperwork for a business license and I'm trying to figure out how to get a tax ID so I can buy my supplies wholesale. Buying beads at the quantity I've been is pretty pricy at retail. I've found several web sites (some were referrals from other beaders I happened to get replies from on Making Light) and some I just stumbled across via Google. I get better prices online, but I don't know if I could get even better ones if I could buy wholesale. Will have to wait and see. Or, if you know, tell me!

It's Highly Embellished Christmas Sweater Time Again!

Yep, soon it will be December, and I'll be bringing my Christmas sweaters out. I just got a new one from eBay (new to me, in good shape though). I've looked around online and there's a real dearth of Christmas sweaters out there that live up to my standards. To wit:

1. Lots of detail, eye-watering detail, medieval tapestry detail
2. Gold or silver thread - the thing needs to glow with metallic thread-y goodness
3. Beads and sequins are good things
4. Colors should be rich and bright, not necessarily complementary, either
5. Textures are important, I'm not crazy about anything printed, it should be appliquéd or embroidered on to the sweater
6. Buttons, I want a cardigan style, not pullover, and the buttons should be part of the composition of the overall design
7. Sleeves. I'm seeing some nice vests, but I don't want a vest, I want a sweater.

One of our local stations started broadcasting all Christmas music Friday afternoon at 3 Pacific. Pretty soon they'll be starting in August. 'Tis the season, indeed. Now if the temperature would just fall a bit so I don't end up feeling like I'm in a sauna when I wear my sweaters...

LOL Cubicle?

These didn’t really happen. They’re a complete work of fiction inspired by the LOLCat phenomenon…mostly…maybe…

• I’m in your cube reprogramming your speed-dial/removing your call-forward/stealing your headset/breaking the “kick-stand” in back so you have to either wall-mount or replace your phone
• I’m in your cube “borrowing”/changing the height settings/spilling some unidentifiable and smelly liquid on your chair
• I’m in your cube taking your trash-can and putting my broken one in its place
• I’m in your cube “borrowing” your cute pens and multi colored (the company only provides yellow ones) post-it’s
• I’m in your cube after hours calling my boyfriend in [some foreign country] and talking with him for several hours
• I’m in your cube sneezing on your monitor and smearing the saliva around with my hand
• I’m in your cube using your printer and forgetting the last page of the printout of my second mortgage application paperwork with a lot of personal information on it
  
• I’m in your cube doodling on the work surface with your black Sharpie pen
  
• I’m in your cube “borrowing” the markers and eraser from your dry-erase board, since you have colors I can't find in the supply cabinet
  

Anyone else have a contribution?