More Than A Mattress

That's what I told the person who's been supplying me with foam for my upholstery projects when he asked how well I did at the little show at the bead store today.

Pictures of booths are always lame, aren't they, especially when you can see the shadow of the photographer.

I'm told that people had Display Envy for the spinner stand I used for my kits. Whatever I did last year didn't work at all, and apart from punching holes in the zipper baggies (hole punches are made for paper, not plastic, and they decidedly do not work on plastic. They indent it), it worked really well.

The day didn't start off terribly well while setting up the tent/gazebo: I heard a loud noise and saw that while three out of the four of us were holding the support vertically, the person across from me was holding it horizontally, and had SNAPPED two of the struts. I wasn't thrilled exactly. Not even slightly, actually.

Then when I was holding the broken ends together so that she could tape them, one of the ends of the sharp, torn metal slipped and tore a hole in my finger.

Luckily the puddle of blood (I'm barely exaggerating) was under one of my tables, and I was gauzed and disinfected and taped up pretty quickly. It's ugly, but it doesn't really hurt.

After that, the day went off without a hitch. The weather was gorgeous (unlike the tundra of last year), I sold mostly kits, but a few finished pieces as well, AND I swapped a necklace for some lampwork, so I'm altogether pretty happy, if a little sore and tired.

I think my more than a mattress may be enough to buy a new sofa.

Enough Already WIth The Upholstery

This is the leg-painting station. If you look very carefully, someone inside is unimpressed, studiously Not Looking.

Yup, a matching ottoman.

 And after all that, I still have fabric left over, so Amy has a bag.

 With pockets on the outside and pockets on the inside and temporary straps until John weaves straps to match. That means including pink (which scares him).

 I also had the weirdest luck, winning three door prizes at the lampworkers' show - actually I won four times, but they refused to give me a fourth prize. In general I never win prizes, so this was rather odd. I was advised to buy lottery tickets fifthwith, but apparently I'm not so good at taking advice because I didn't.

If you're local, I've been instructed to let you know about Lady Bug Beads' Bead Art this weekend, at which I will have a booth. You should come!

[Edited to add eye candy]

My score from Glass Galore: mostly purchases, some door prizes.

 I know, right? Gorgeous!

 And even the door prize was from one of the artists from whom I purchased.

Can I Just Say (Pet Peeve Alert)

... how much I hate websites with sound (unless it's, y'know, YouTube)?

There's nothing that will cause me to close a page faster than some random sound, be it elevator music, seventies metal or jungle sounds, and it completely harshes my mellow.

Like this morning. Coffee in hand, drinking in eye candy, and someone's blog threw insect noises at me. Actually they were kind of alarming, because they faded in out of nowhere.

Now I'm wide awake, ready to use the electric drill, or clean litter-boxes, or contemplate working out or something equally jarring.

I HATE NOISE ON THE INTERWEBS.

No More Chairs

I think I'm winding down with the home decor, not so much because there's nothing left to do (I hate the stupid lace curtains in my bedroom), but because I don't adore doing it above all else, and that's what I was doing above all else and it's enough already.

Basically.

I have been knitting, and eve though I've been ripping out, I've also been making progress, but it's just a mass of variegated green, nothing much to show for the effort.

Beading though, yields more to show.

I saw a picture of a not terribly attractive beaded collar that had an interesting edging, so I started stitching, thinking it would make a fairly pretty narrow bracelet.

Then I made another because I thought it might be fun to join them.

I quite like it, but I think the effect would be more interesting with less interesting twin beads (without iridescence and partial transparency), but I really couldn't spend too much time, as I was preparing for Tuesday's class.

The class is for these earrings, and as so often happens, even though I did photograph every step, I changed my mind about a few small details, so I needed to make (and photograph) them again.

 As usual, I made variations.

Smaller earrings with drops.

 A necklace using chatons (the faceted coloured things in the middle of each medallion) in a variety of colours.

 It turned out really well, especially with the rivoli in the centre, my favourite colour, Volcano which of course I was unable to photograph well. It has more pink and more yellow and blue than you might think and I haven't decided whether I'll keep it or not.

As Good As New

The upholstery isn't perfect, but it's pretty good, and it's a whole lot better than the faded mess previously inhabiting my living room.

 And yes, the colour is pretty true to life. It's so weird that it's utterly irresistible to me. And I have a very large amount left over, some of which will become another ottoman, and then I'll have to get creative with the rest.

Bags are pretty obvious.

I saw a blog somewhere in which the construction of fabric boxes is detailed. I think that might be fun, though I'm not sure exactly how useful they may be, although how could an attractive container not be useful?

I kinda want a jacket in this fabric, but that's a little odd, isn't it? To match your furniture? I mean, this is not the Sound of Music, not even close.

This sewing thing has been cutting into my beading time, but I managed to make beaded rondelle spacers anyway.

 In two sizes.

They're kind of inspired by the rhinestone-studded metal spacer beads sold by all sorts of bead suppliers. A bit bigger though.

Not Idle

I made one class sample as I was writing the instructions for tomorrow.

 And then another to check them.
 
I saw a picture of something that looked nothing like this.
 
So I made a couple of these but I might like the one above better.

Which I joined, except no picture, and even this one doesn't display all that well. I guess it's an idea in progress.

Needless to say (but I guess I'm saying it anyway) I didn't make much progress on the upholstery front. Guess I know what I'm doing after teaching tomorrow night!

Some People Suck

For longer than I can remember, I've been subscribing to A Word A Day. I always like it, and I often love it, but sometimes I want to marry it (no, not really, I'm being metaphorical and sophomoric here). Like today.

The theme of the week is "Whose What?" which covers possessives. Today's word is Crow's feet, illustrated by this photo:
 
Click the photo. It'll take you to the original. You should look at it.

I have Thoughts, primarily, "WHY?", as well as a few others:

1. I'd like to play the Grammar Police on TV.
2. Failing that, may I just point and snicker?
3. I want to be a High Fullutant, if I'm not one already. It sounds like it might be fun.
4. I resemble a half a dozen or so of those other things too. I think I could be a Loud Mouth Woman.
5. A number of people I respect and esteem are are some of those things too.
6. I wonder if Abuse of Apostrophes is purely the domain of the narrow-minded?
7. Do you have to be stupid to be hateful? (Unfortunately I think I know the answer).
8. Do no Republicans heart the devil? How can you tell?
9. Do all Democrats heart the devil or only some?
10. Who has the time for this?
11. Who has the energy for all that hate?
12. So what happens if they don't? (Repent etc.) Will there be a movie? Actually, I think there was one already: The Rapture

Homebody

My daughter's new kitten.

This is a horrible picture of what I fell hard and fast for. Super-saturated superwash blue-faced leicester.

Yum yum yum.

I covered my sofa.

The iPad takes crappy pictures indoors, doesn't it? I'm quite pleased with the fit (there's a zipper at the back left) which is good and snug, though one of the cushions is a little slack. If I'm being perfectly honest, I may not ever get to it. At this time, I can live with that thought.

I don't usually do floral, but I loved the colours on this, and the blend of textures (shiny, velvety, satiny by colour) and it's way prettier than what I have been using to prop up my head when I read in bed, so  even my bedroom has something new in the sewn home furnishings department, and if I could figure out while I'm at the store how much fabric I really need for curtains, but more importantly, where on earth to find a curtain rod that will span fifteen feet, I would have matching curtains. Except for the one small fact that these pillows represent the end of the bolt.

 Still, with the power vested in me by the interwebs and my various computing devices, I'm pretty sure I could find some more if I put my mind to it.

Meanwhile I've been preparing for Tuesday's class.

 And started another upholstery project.

 At first I thought I'd do the same thing as for the sofa (essentially a slipcover), but it turns out that the feet unscrew, and I'm not averse to the use of the staple gun, so this might in fact be Real Upholstery.

The chair has faded horribly. You can see the original darker green of the cushion on the floor behind the chair which is now an insipid dead algae colour.

 Change is good, right? Extreme change is extremely good, right?

Two branches of the same store have two patterns with the same colours, and I bought lots because more is better and I'll need to look for another piece of ottoman-sized wood because I'll have to do something with all the left-overs.

I think I hope I'll stop obsessing about home decor because even though covering furniture with not terribly pricey fabric isn't bankrupting me, I have all sorts of stash for all sorts of other projects ALREADY IN MY HOUSE, and I really should be attending to that.

Once the chair and the ottoman and a few throw pillows (lots of leftovers projected) are done. Did I mention I'd need a new sofa to match the new fabric? The old one is a remnant of the division of jointly acquired furniture from the divorce lo these many years ago and I never liked it anyway, so I slip-covered it in fabric that made it bearable, but now I've reached my limit on grubenschnitzel, baby, and it's time for a new one in the not-too-distant future.

And now it's time for me to catch up to the rest of the world with Breaking Bad. I'm only on the first season.