would you like to see something?

I have good news for those of you who read my last post.  Matthew's blood work came back with  no problems!  Yea!  Now we're just waiting for word on his ultrasound.  Praying that turns out ok too.  The confusing part is, if those two things are normal, what could possibly be causing the blood in the urine?  It will be interesting to hear what the final diagnosis is.  But, first we have to get good results on the ultrasound.  Keep those prayers and good thoughts coming for my little guy!!!  (And thank you so much to those of you who have already been doing that for us.)

As for the book, I've got 3 projects completed and ready to send out.  I was working on a 4th, but it just wasn't coming together smoothly, and we are going to scrap the idea.  I'm going to brainstorm some other ideas.  In the meantime I beaded something just because I wanted to, and I thought it would be perfect for this month's Bead Journal Project.  As you may know, my projects each month are to learn at least one new beadweaving stitch and make something pretty with it.  This month was a little different.  I didn't take an idea of a basic stitch and create my own thing around it.  For this month I think I may have created a new method of my very own.  At least I've never heard of or seen it done this way.

I was just playing around, letting my subconscious take over.  I had an inkling of an idea on making something with lots of fringe.  So if I had a lot of fringe, I would need a base to make the fringe come off, right?  I thought about just a string of beads as the core, and I also thought about a narrow square stitch band.  My fingers didn't do either of those.  I don't even know how to explain what I did.  The core twists and curves throughout the core, sometimes peeking out, sometimes staying hidden, while the beads just mix and mingle all around it.  And there is no fringe in the final piece.  Funny how that works.

After I finished it I reflected on it for a while.  The only word that came to mind was "abundance".  This bracelet looked to me like a cornucopia of beady yumminess.  Then it made me think of all the abundant things I have in my life, despite hiccups and struggles that I sometimes tell you about.  I have an abundance of love.  I have an abundance of joy.  I have an abundance of blessings in my life.  Therefore, this bracelet is called "Abundance".  I would have loved to make a necklace, but that would have taken about a gazillion beads which I just don't have.  Here are two pics of my bracelet...

Abundance

You can click for a larger view.  I just love the mixture of colors, textures, shapes and sizes.  It just makes me feel happy when I look at it.

So there you have it.  I finally have something done that you can actually look at and isn't book related.  I hope you like it!

Say some prayers, light a candle, have good thoughts...whatever it is that you do.

I've been pretty worried about my son, Matthew.  He went to the pediatrician on August 1st for a routine physical for football, some booster shots and an asthma check up.  And he peed in a cup.  I got a call from the doctor's office that they did a paper strip test and it showed positive for microscopic blood in his urine.  They had us go to the lab for a better test, and it came back with the same results.  They want to find out if he's got any kidney disease or abnormalities that would be causing the blood.  We had to go yesterday to get 3 vials of blood drawn for a blood work up.  I am happy to report that I got a call from the doctor's office today and those tests came back fine.  He had one more test this afternoon.  He had an ultrasound of his kidneys and bladder.  Of course the ultrasound tech won't tell you squat, so we have to wait until next week to hear anything about the results of that test.  He's concerned.  Questions like, "will they have to cut me ope?" and "what if I die?" don't make me a very happy mommy. 

So, whatever it is that you do to get out the good juju, please do it for my little guy, Matthew.  He's such a good kid and deserves good vibes.

At the same time, Jeff got laid off again on Thursday.  The fortunate thing was that he worked just long enough for our insurance to kick in on August 1st to help pay for all these tests.  Bad thing is, our savings won't hold out much longer.  Put out some good juju for my big guy, too.  We need him to get back to work quickly.  The jobs are coming in through the union quicker now than they were 6 months ago, which is a very good thing.  I get nervous when I hear talk about a double-dip recession and worry that the work will dry up again.

Please keep my family in your thoughts.  Thank you.

Close to My Heart Online Scrapbooking

I discovered something really cool!  Online scrapbooking!  No tools to buy, paper and stickers and products to store...NO MESS!!!  I found it through my good friend Beth A. (click here to see more on her website), who is a Close to My Heart representative.  I've got a ton of photos on my computer, and last year when my desk top died I lost sooooo many photos and I was devastated.  This is going to be a fantastic way for me to get my photos into books.  All you do is upload your photos (everything is taken through for you step by step), choose a paper pack of already coordinated papers (there's a ton), choose a layout, and then start making your pages.  It's so easy because it's all drag and drop and click here and there to change colors, embellishments like ribbons, brads, hinges, buttons, etc, stickers and tags, edit text blocks and titles...voila!  You have professional looking scrapbook pages. 

This month they are giving away a free jpg file which includes 2 high resolution files of each page for you to print on your own, and one low resolution file that you can share on the net.  All you have to do is create an account and start playing.  Give it a try!  It's a lot of fun to see everything come together.  And what else is nice is that you can change paper colors and patterns with just a click, and if you don't like it you can undo it.  Unlike real scrapbooking where you have to cut up lots of paper, decide you don't like this or that, and then you've wasted stuff.  No glue.  No tape.  No paper scraps.  No crooked cropping.  Here are the two pages I made first.  Now, I did this when I didn't know to click on the different pull downs to access different embellishments and things, so it is just a little plain, but I love it and Matthew loves it (he picked out the paper pack).  Except I realized after I did it that I made a typo.  Figures, huh?  Here's my layout of Matthew's 11th birthday this year.  You can click on it for a larger view.

You can order prints of the 12x12 pages and have them mailed to you also.  That's what I'm trying to talk hubby into letting me do.  I really want to get caught up on my scrapbooking and this makes that task fun and so much less daunting.  I've made 2 more layouts, but I can't show you those since I don't have jpg's of them.  If Jeff let's me order some then I will show those to you also.  I'm getting better with a little practice.

So if you would like to learn more about Studio J, contact Beth A. here through her website. 

Gifts From My Children

I wanted to post pics of the beautiful gifts my kids made me for Mother's Day this year.  I know.  I'm a little slow and Mother's Day seems like ages ago already, but I've had a rough week and am just now getting around to it.  First, Matthew (11, 5th grade) made me a most beautiful little woven tapestry.  I was very impressed with it because he made it nice and even throughout.  I remember doing these when I was in grade school, and it was difficult to keep the tension right and they would usually cinch in through the middle.  It can happen that way when looming too.  But Matthew did a wonderful job!  I'm going to put it in a frame and hang it for everyone to see.  Thank you, Precious!

Sara (9, 3rd grade) also did some weaving, but it was a little different.  I have never seen this idea before, and I thought it was a great idea.  It made a super gift!  They used cups for weaving.  They cut the cup from top to about 1/2" from the bottom all the way around to make the warp strips.  Then she weaved up the cup and made a terrific little vase that now sits on my table next to my computer.  She even added beads for her bead-addicted mama.  Thank you so much, Punkin!  Here is Sara's vase:

Also, Matthew was sooooo proud of himself for his state report, a very large project, that he wanted me to put it on my blog, too.  Matthew chose the state of Nebraska.  That's where his daddy comes from, and we lived there for a short time too.  Did you know that Kool-Aid was invented in Nebraska?  Did you know that the University of Nebraska leads the nation in the number of All Americans?  (65)  Did you know that there are approximately 40,000 farms in Nebraska?   Holy mackerel!  Anyways, he now knows tons of stuff about Nebraska.  He worked very hard on his project, and he is very proud of his work.  He's got pics of the state flower, tree and bird, a Nebraska football player (his favorite pic), some Kool-Aid, and a map in addition to his facts pages.  There is also a written report that goes with it.  Here's his display...

He's hoping for a great grade.  Matthew has made a deal with his Dad this year.  If he makes Principal's List (all A's or all A's and 1 B) all year, then he will get to buy Gears of War 3 for his X-Box 360 the day it comes out in September instead of having to wait until Christmas.  So far, Matthew has had straight A's all year.  It looks like he will reach his goal as this last quarter he is getting all A's and 1 B.  I'm so proud of him for all his hard work!

Ok, gang.  That's about all I have for today.  I am working hard on some new designs.  I finished a set this morning, but I am going to wait to post it until I have a similar set done with the beads I ordered earlier this week.  It is for my June BJP.  I'm very excited about it, and I think the set turned out beautiful.  It's shades of pink.  Love it!

Hope you are all having a fabulous week.

All in the Family (and some beady things too!)

What is more wholesome and family-oriented than little league baseball on a spring evening with families all around rooting on the kids playing the all American game?  Nothing in my book.  It's about as good as it gets.  Just some highlights from Monday's game.  Matthew pitched a great game, as usual.  He doesn't have the strongest arm and fastest pitch yet, but he is very accurate and gets them swinging and missing.  Sara plays 2nd base and when Matthew isn't pitching he plays Short Stop.  So the batter hits the ball - a pop fly - and Sara catches it for an out!  Then she is quick enough to realize the kid on 2nd ran on the pop fly so she turned and threw it to Matthew who ran over to cover the bag.  He caught it and made the out at 2nd for a double play by the Criswell kids!  woohoo!

As the game was winding down, the other team had the last at bat.  We were already ahead by 6 or 7 runs, so there was no way we could lose the game.  In our league at this level you can't score more than 5 runs in an inning to prevent anyone from getting completely crushed and dominated.  So even if the other team scored all 5 of their runs, we'd still win.  So Jeff, my DH and the kids' coach, decided to have some fun out there.  He switched everyone's positions and told them where they were going to play.  All but Sara.  She asked where she was going.  He said, "You're pitching!"  She had a serious heart attack and you could hear her panicked scream, "Noooooo!" in the bleachers.  He whispered to her, put one hand on her shoulders and one hand on her chest (which he said later her heart was racing like crazy) and gave her his vote of confidence in his calming daddy way.  So she went up to the mound and gave her first warm up pitch. (Mind you, she's never ever pitched before.)  It went straight down the pike!!!!  Let me tell you, once those kids got up there to bat she really held her own.  I think we have another pitcher in the family.  With some practice I think next year she's going to be pitching and striking a whole lot of boys out.  We were so proud!  So much fun, let me tell you.

We also got their baseball photos on Monday.  Here is Sara (9) and Matthew (11)...

And this next photo is pretty special.  It has 3 generations of Criswell's participating in Little League.  Jeff is the head coach, my fil is an assistant coach, and our two kids...grandpa, daddy and little ones.  How neat is that?!?

I'm so proud of my family, and I love them all so very much!

On to beady things to give you an update.  I worked on a new necklace for two days, thought it was a horribly ugly monstrosity and ripped it apart and resorted the beads today.  Started working on another new stitch, once again inspired by Mandy over at Beads for Brains: 365.  Maybe will have something new to show in a few days.

Also, I am going to formally start promoting myself as a teacher and work on getting together some small groups to teach stitches and techniques to in my home maybe once a month.  Won't that be fun?!  If you live in the Phoenix Metro area and want to take some very affordable classes and make your own beautiful custom jewelry, please contact me.  If you haven't beaded before, don't be afraid...I'll make it very understandable and enjoyable!  For those of you who have done some beading, maybe you'll learn a new thing or two and have some good company for a girl's afternoon.  If you know people who live in my area, please pass along the word.  I will provide a kit in their color choice to include beads, clasp, etc., a set of written instructions to take home and a link to a private youtube video showing how to finish off the clasp if they don't get to that point by the end of class.  All that for a mere $25!!!!  A screaming deal!!!!!  So please help me out and spread the word.  I would really appreciate some help in the blog world network...remember...sunny Phoenix!  (Actually I'm in Scottsdale, but easy access from anywhere in the Valley.)

I hope everyone is having a very happy week!  Getting kind of bored and lonely all day here by myself...drop me a line!

Inspiration

I like to put a little clip art picture to start off my blog that is related to my post.  I Google the topic I'm looking for then click on "images".  Sometimes the pics are right on and I have a hard time choosing.  But if you Google "inspiration" and click "images", you get some pretty weird things.  So I finally found this artist sitting with what looks to me like muses watching over, and I thought it was perfect.  This week my muse is named Mandy.  Do you all know Mandy from over at Beads for Brains: 365?  She is very committed to her goal, let me tell you.  You'll have to go to her blog and check her out.  She's learning and practicing a new stitch every day for a year!  And I thought my goal of one stitch per month for the year was pretty good.  She does some pretty interesting things.  One day last week (can't remember which) she did the Oglala stitch.  I really loved the look of it so I created a necklace using the tutorial she gave a link for then making my own variation and pattern based on that.

My mil thinks it's my best one yet.  I think she's a little biased because she likes ruffles sooooo much!  I'm going to make her one too, but that will come sometime later...have to go buy more beads.  Darn.  I don't have a name for it.  Some people don't care to name their things, and that's ok too, but I feel like my creations should be named just like other things you love...kids, fur babies, dollies, whatever.  So help me come up with a name for this.  I used 6/0 black seed beads for the core then 11/0's in silver, black and some kind of maybe antique silver?  Don't know what it's called because the store where I buy them just puts numbers on the labels.  No color names...see?  Things should have names.  Makes it easier to identify.  That's the way I roll anyways.  Ok, here it is.

What do you think?

Remember on Saturday when I posted what a great day I had?  Well, I did have a perfect day except I have to tell you about Matthew.  He was not feeling well all day.  He has asthma (which is hard for a kid who loves to play sports) and he was really struggling to breathe all day long.  During the day I gave him a breathing treatment.  Didn't get any better.  Then I had him use his rescue inhaler several times...Didn't get any better.  (He has two inhalers.  One is a rescue inhaler when you're having a bad attack and need quick relief.  Then there's the regular inhaler that is a slower acting and not as strong I guess.)  I had him using the rescue inhaler over the regular inhaler.  But throughout the day I was really worried about him.  Being a weekend, and by this time it was night time, the pediatrician isn't in and the urgent care clinics are closed.  Jeff doesn't like anyone going to the doctor unless there is a limb missing.  I told him enough times how worried I was and I guess he got worried too because he ended up taking Matthew to the emergency room Saturday night.

His breathing was so poor that he didn't have to wait for anyone in the E.R.  They rushed him right in to see a doctor.  That's how you know it was bad.  When they rush you through instead of making you wait for 2 1/2 hours just to get into a little curtained room.  They gave him 2 breathing treatments.  The doctor said that the breathing treatment medicine vials we were using were past their shelf life and ineffective.  I didn't know they had a shelf life!  No wonder it didn't help him.  Then on top of that he said the rescue inhaler was empty!!!  (it made the little swoosh sound and stuff so I thought it was fine.)  omg, I felt so bad.  It was all my fault.  But I had no idea the rescue inhaler I had been giving him was out!  Good news is about an hour and a half later he came home, breathing much better and feeling hungry.

The other scary part is that we took him to the emergency room without any insurance.  Since Jeff had been off work for 5 months, our insurance ran out.  The bill is going to be terrible, I know.  But I think I'm going to try to get Jeff to call the billing department and ask them if they can cut any slack on any of the fees.  I've heard of people doing that and that it can work.  Keeping fingers crossed.  Our insurance will kick back in next month, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that no one else gets sick or hurt.

Ok, gang.  That's all the news I have for today.  I'm working on another necklace like this one in some different colors, then I'm going to make one for my mil in some bright colors and a little longer.  That's what's on my plate.  Oh!  and my 3 orders from Artbeads.com finally shipped on Friday (after FIVE days of waiting to be picked in the warehouse).  Maybe that will come tomorrow too.  I love getting packages in the mail!!!

Baseball

I have 4" of rope left to go, so I have nothing beady to show you today.  But I wanted to show off my kids at their baseball game this past Monday night.  Sara came up to the plate, and got straight down to business...she doesn't mess around!  Jeff has her first in the lineup because over all the boys on the team she's the most consistent hitter.  So, here's Sara!

And Matthew pitched a fabulous game!!!  He pitched 4 innings, 8 strike outs and only allowed 1 run.  Way to go Matthew!  I just put a sampling of his pitching and strikes on this video...but in the first few seconds you'll see Sara playing 2nd base backing up her big brother. 

New Beads

I kept my word to myself this time.  I didn't start playing with clay until I finished nearly 4" on my rope.  I've only got about 12 or so more inches to go!  Yea!  But as soon as I put the rope away, out came the clay.  My daughter Sara spent the night at my mil's house last night so it was just me and Matthew hanging out in the kitchen.  He was playing X-Box (as usual) and I was getting ready to play with clay.  I asked him if he wanted to help me, and he jumped right up ready to go.  He's always game!

I got this idea from Marie over at Art From My Heart.  Man, is she awesome!  She sent me a link to a cane that was made by stacking extruded squares on top of each other to form a pattern.  I pulled up my Bead Creator Pro program and decided to play around with making patterns.  Here are the steps Matthew and I took to make some new beads...

First, we decided on three colors:  white, red and light blue.  I wanted to bring light, medium and dark tones to hopefully give some contrast in the finished cane.  I think it's really hard to extrude clay.  We worked and worked and worked the clay both with the noodle bender (that's what my dh calls the pasta machine) and with our hands.  The blue was exceptionally hard to work with.  Maybe it was a stale block or something.  We put that clay through the bender at least 20 times, snaked it, mashed it.  We put it in the Stim Pak (that's what Matthew calls the extruder.  A Stim Pak is a thing that you use to heal yourself in the X-Box game Fallout...lol...always about the video games with him.)  Anyways we put the blue in the Stim Pak at least 3 times, couldn't get it to budge and started the conditioning process again and again.  And that was with us putting it with the plunger side on the table, my hands around the barrel pushing down and Matthew's hands on top of mine pushing down.  It would. not. go.  My hands were hurting!  I had him laughing so hard because I put the clay in his armpit to try to get it warm.  It was kinda funny.  I did finally manage to get it through, but I actually worked up a sweat working that Stim Pak!!!

Once we got all the clay extruded and cut to (sort of) even lengths, we started stacking.  Here's what it looked like to start off with:

I put it in the fridge for a while and then took it out to stretch and pull.  I took it in my bedroom, layed in bed, watched t.v. and stretched the cane in the dark.  It was easy to do with it being square.  After I stretched it, I cut it into 4 even pieces and stacked it again...

Ok, so maybe my squares didn't stay exactly square, but I thought it would add "character" to the cane. lol  Do you buy that?  I let it rest for a few minutes and stretched it out again.  Then I cut 4 more pieces and stacked again...

If you look at the stripes on the outside I do think I did a pretty good job keeping it straight.  And you can see how intricate the inside is getting.  One more time of stretching and pulling and this is what I got...

As interesting as the inside is, I liked the outside even more.  I let it rest for the night, but as I was laying in bed I had images swirling through my head on just how I was going to use this cane.  I really like it.  I think Matthew and I did a good job!  This morning I cut the cane into beads.  I poked holes in them, some of them length-wise and some of them sideways.  I'm going to alternate the beads going across and then up/down for a necklace with some rounds in matching colors in between.  Here are the final beads...

I made 18 of them...10 going long ways and 8 going up/down.  I goofed on one and made it a little shorter than the others, and one I started to drop and as I caught it I mushed the end a little.  I'll just put those in the back. :)  Do you like our striped beads? 

Also, I posted this pretty quick after my last post, so if you didn't see my leaf headpins I made scroll down to see those.

Up All Night

Had an anxiety attack, and when that happens it takes my body a VERY long time to get back to normal.  Therefore, I didn't sleep a wink.  But you know what that meant?  An all night clay-fest!!! 

I got some molds in the mail, but I wasn't altogether happy with them.  It was partly my fault.  I didn't look at my measuring tape to see exactly how big they were going to be.  I wanted BIG.  Sadly, 25mm isn't really all that big.  And one mold was so tiny I know I'll never use it.  But also, one that was big has a floral pattern in it and the pattern is very shallow so it doesn't give the best impression.  Bummer!  I decided to make my own molds.  I dug and searched and hunted for any cabs I had and larger beads with an interesting shape, got out my mud clay and made me some molds.  I don't know why I didn't think of that before I spent the $27, but it was because I didn't know to make a mold from the clay itself.  'doh!

I played around with some colors, some translucent, some mud, some glitter and some powder pigment.  How can you go wrong with all that???  Making cabs, I discovered, will take some time to learn the nuances of; but I think I came up with some interesting things.  After baking some I sanded and buffed and some I didn't.  I coated them all in Diamond Glaze.  The only problem with that is that it left some eeny weeny bubbles.  Bummer again!  Could be my cheap paint brush too though.  Ok.  Here's what I made in my all night party of moi...

These were made from my mud from my canes the other day.

This I used some kind of brownish color, gold and a hint of red.

This was made with slivers of my cane from the other day covering a base of clay.

For these I used translucent and raspberry and glitter and threw them in an ice bath after baking.

These were interesting.  I used a translucent light blue, a royal blue and some blue pigment powder.  When I mixed them there were large streaks throughout.  After baking it looked solid blue.  But after sanding and buffing, some little details came through that I think are kind of cool.  Love the color!!!

This was made with a lot of translucent white and a little blue.  I threw it in an ice bath after baking.

There you have it!  My party for the night.  I am pretty happy with what I created, and my mind is already working out what I'm going to make with these babies.  I'm thinking the pink ones will be first up!  Oh, I forgot to say...don't pay any attention to the edges.  I didn't quite get the hang of nice clean edges, but it won't really matter anyhow because they'll be covered up with beads.

BASEBALL HIGHLIGHT!

Watch Matthew's great at-bat from last night's game.  We won, btw, 13-3.  Go Bulls!

Weekend of Grab Bag Blog Stuff

Happy weekend everyone!  It's been a very busy weekend for me.  Our house is VERY noisy!  ick.  But it's all been for a very good cause.  Tomorrow is my son Matthew's 11th birthday!  He had a couple of his buddies from school spend the night, and he's had a great little party.  He doesn't like cake, so he requested pie.  He wanted dutch apple and cherry, but his friends like pumpkin.  Over $20 for those dang pies!!!  Would have been so much cheaper to get a Betty Crocker cake mix, but these are the things we do for our babies, right?  Of course he got the 2 new video games he wanted for his X Box, and they are playing those right now...right next to me.  ugh.  I'm sooooo happy he's having a good time, but I have to admit that I'm watching the clock waiting for the party to be over.  Happy Birthday Precious!!!!!!!  (lol.  I'm not supposed to call him that in public, but you all can keep a secret, right?  :)

Next up.  O M G ! ! !  You all need to head on over to Happy Mango Beads and see the absolutely incredible giveaway they are having!!!!  I'm only telling you this out of courtesy because those beads are MINE!!!  lol.  Actually...they are giving away FOUR sets of this bead package, so I'll share with you.

Finally, I made a few things the past few days that I thought I'd show you.  Remember the forest green RAW bracelet I made about a week ago?  Well, I made one just like it in a royal purple that I think is really pretty.  Here's a pic.

I was going to make a ring with one of these really cool 9mm gaspeite beads I got, but the dang wire wouldn't fit through the hole!  Let down.  I wondered what I would do with those beads, and then I remembered these really pretty antique copper celtic heart beads I had leftover from a previous project.  I thought they would go really well together, so I made a pair of earrings with them.

Ok, kids!  That's all I got for today.  I'll see what I can come up with next and post again soon.

A Giveaway, a YouTube Debut and more!!!

Hello, all!  This is a miscellaneous catch-all post, so take a deep breath and here we go!

Andrew Thornton is having a great giveaway that you should really check out.  It is a $75 gift certificate to The Bead Chest!  How awesome is that?  All you have to do is leave Andrew a comment on his page to be entered to win this great prize.  I really really want to win, but if I don't I hope one of you do!  Also, he has recently undergone surgery for cancer, and the bead community has really rallied around him. 

To help alleviate his mounting medical bills for his treatment, many bead artists have been auctioning off some things with proceeds going to Andrew for his expenses.  Please take the time to read through the posts and see what is being offered.  He writes a fabulous blog anyways, so you might want to become a follower so you can stay tuned to read his great posts.  Visit him at The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton.

Next, I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my Artbeads.com order that shipped this past Saturday.  What is taking the mail sooooo long?  How come the bills come quick, but play things take so damned long?  Speaking of Artbeads, I have been authorized to give the readers of my blog an early bird Thanksgiving coupon code that won't be made available to everyone else until after Thanksgiving.  You can receive 20% off orders of $60 or more by typing the coupon code ZZ-THANKSGIVING-SALE at checkout.  If you have not shopped at Artbeads, I very highly recommend them.  They are simply awesome!!!  So, what are you waiting for?  Go shop!!!

Next, my son Matthew has made his YouTube debut.  Now you have to understand.  Our family just isn't right.  Or who knows?  Maybe we're "righter" than we know.  Maybe there's lots of families out there like us who don't tell anyone because they think they're the only ones.  Ok I'll say it.  Body functions are funny.  There.  Now the secret is out.  Matthew is 10, and not very big, but his burps have the BEST sound!  I laugh every time he does it.  So we set out on a project this past week, and we finally finished it tonight and put it live on YouTube.  Go check out Matthew.  And don't think less of us because we're gross....click for "Mega Burp Medly by Matthew".

Finally, I have a total of 10 bead embroidery instructional videos up so far.  If you haven't seen them yet, please check them out on my Videojug pages.  I can make money by visitors coming, so you might pick up a tip or two by visiting, and I'll get credit for you stopping by.  You don't even have to click any ads I found out.  Simply show up.  All you need to do when you get there is click on the tab that says Pages, and then click on a few pages to see what I've demonstrated and written about.  For those of you who have already visited, I really appreciate your time.  I hope you will be able to go back again sometime!  I am going to do about 20-25 videos on bead embroidery stitches and techniques (give or take).  Once I have that finished up I am going to do a small series on making a cuff bracelet.  Then probably one on how to do the square stitch and follow a pattern.  And probably a couple on what I know so far about working with wire.  It's been a lot of fun, and even though I haven't been beading too much, I have been very busy with this and enjoying it very much.

Thanks for stopping by, and I'll write again soon!

I'm a Lucky Mom

I am so lucky to have 4 of the most beautiful, intelligent and healthy kids on the planet.  I am blessed.  It is amazing to me how 4 kids growing up with the same parents in the same home can all be so completely different.  My oldest son, Tyler, is 19 (omg...i can't believe he's going to be 20 in July!!!) and he lives with his girlfriend Michelle and her family.  Both of them came over Friday night for dinner and I got the pleasure of having all 4 of my kids under one roof!  It was the first time I've seen Ty and Michelle since Christmas.  It gets crazy, hectic and definitely funny, and I enjoyed every minute of it.  Tyler has lost weight and is looking kinda pale...he needs to stop being nocturnal.  And he needs a razor. lol  Sara is my youngest...you've seen pics of her before...Matthew is next, then Samantha is my older daughter and then there's Tyler.  I was going to say how well they get along together, but I realized I'd be a liar.  Sami and Sara don't get along so well.  But I bet when they're older and the age difference doesn't matter as much they'll be good friends.  So, I just wanted to share my happy weekend moment when I got to be with ALL my kids.

Tyler and his sweetheart girlfriend, Michelle

And, yes, I am working on another bracelet!  Of course!  It's coming together pretty quickly so I should have it done in the next day or so.  Is anyone getting tired of seeing my bracelets?  I hope you all had a great weekend, too!