Girls Just Wanna, Y'Know, Have Fun

And while it may not be fun for everyone, sitting down with an inspiring lampworked bead and my not inconsiderable seed bead stash, working through a couple of false starts until I finally find my groove really is fun for me.

This bead was made by Lori Lochner and although I really wanted a greener look (i.e. not quite so yellow), it turns out that size 5 triangle beads don't come in quite the right shade of green (they're either too emerald or too grey with no useful middle ground), so I went with golden, and I'm not dissatisfied, especially as the spiralling fringe beads and seed beads balance the colour actuality more than its depiction above.

For the curious and reverse engineers among those of you who stopped to read this far, this is a variation on my Nubbles design, using drop beads (I think these must be bigger than 4x6, but the tag at my local bead store didn't actually say) in a diagonal fashion.

I don't have quite enough remaining drop beads for symmetry and besides, the big mamoo already on the rope precludes same, so the other slightly-less-than-half of the necklace is more or less an open question at this point, one which I shall ponder as I (finally) paint the rest of my living room today.

Love the long weekend thing, I do.

Monday night I'm having people over for dinner, then menu for which (and this is not unusual) I somehow felt the need to constrain by a theme inspired by a favourite recipe for vichyssoise for which you see no link since it's an actual paper recipe book (most of what I make nowadays comes from epicurious.com), and which funnily enough, I have since rejected in favour of cold beet borscht since weather forecasts put highs close to 90 and I think a nice cold, clearish soup so much more refreshing than a rich creamy carb-laden one, not that I have anything against carbs; in fact quite the contrary: I love them quite sincerely, but we'll have enough without them this time.

On the menu: gravlax (I've always wanted to try it) with batter bread (lots of rye flour since the colour contrast will be so pretty), the aforementioned borscht, paella, some sort of salad, perhaps something antipasta-like, and Swedish liquorice pudding in phyllo-pignola cups (unless for some reason those don't work, in which case we'll have phyllo-pignola crunchy topping). Probably.

But first, the painting.