Beady Gift for my Mother in Law

My mil has always been a really big supporter and encourager of my bead work.  I've been beading for quite a few years now, and I never made her anything.  The other day I showed her the black and silver Oglala necklace and she completely looooooooooooved it (click here if you want to go back and check it out).  I should have known she would...she adores ruffles!  If it's got ruffles, she's a-likin' it.  Now, she has really liked a lot of my other work in the past, but none of them totally clicked in my head as thinking she would wear it.  But as soon as she saw the Oglala, it just hit me that this is what I needed to make for her...I wanted to make for her.

I told her I wanted to make her one, and we discussed color and length.  She likes bright colors, with teal being her favorite, and she likes her necklaces to hang longer.  We decided it needed to be at least 30 inches.  I went bead shopping yesterday at a little shop not too far from my house.  For the core I chose a 6/0 in a metallic iris finish.  Depending on the light they change from purple to green to gold.  I chose in 11/0 a transparent lined teal, a matte purple (really pretty shade...it's hard to find gorgeous purples), a cranberry tinted goldish metallic and I had on hand some cranberry colored beads.

The color that is used the most and goes throughout the necklace is the teal.  I used almost the whole tube of those.  The next color was cranberry/rose-ish gold to give it some sparkle (my new favorite word this week) and kick.  The large ruffle down the middle/front is the purple and there is just a wee hint of the cranberries.  I so wish the camera picked up the colors better.  They are really really pretty. 

I originally told her it would take a while to finish, being that it is so long and that I was in the middle of another project.  But I was a little bored of the project on my table, so I switched over to hers.  I started yesterday afternoon, worked for quite a few hours, went to bed, woke up at 4:30 a.m. and worked quite a few more hours.  I went back to bed and worked on it throughout the rest of the day.  Between yesterday afternoon and this evening when I finished it I guess I have about 11 hours into it.  Not bad...I've been told I'm a fast beader.

So I called her up and told her I finished it and I wanted to bring it over to give to her.  I had such butterflies and knots in my stomach.  I soooo wanted her to like it.  I told her she had to be honest with me about it.  I showed it to her and she said she did like it a lot. (whew!)  She said it was a good choice I made to put that rosy metallic in there, otherwise the colors might have been too flat.  (whew, again!)  She went to her room and pulled out a top that she's going to wear with it.  It is almost the exact same shade of purple as the beads in the necklace!  It looks like it was meant to be together from the very beginning.  If I had actually planned it to go with that top I don't know that I could have done as well.  (whew, again!!!)

Here are some pics.  Maybe I'll get a pic or two of her wearing it sometime to put up to show.  It kind of looks like a little knot or tie in the back.  Since it's large enough to slip over the head and didn't need a clasp, I wanted to make it a little more interesting than just a circle.  The two ends curled in a bit, so with the string at each end I backed up about an inch, tied the string in four knots, glued the knot, weaved the threads back through the beads and back out again, tied it in four knots and glued it again, then tucked in the threads and snipped them.  Hoping it will hold well enough!  But I thought that little tie thing in the back would add a little more interest than just tying the very ends together.  What do you think?

You can always click on the pics for a larger view.

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!!!