Day Thirty-Three -- Everything In It's Right Place

Today was pretty cool. We went to have lunch at Coco’s with some of the clients that Rob works with, and then we went to Harbor Freight! There, I bought 5 storage containers. Four of them are for at home bead storage and one for travel. I am very excited to start organizing my beads with them. The boxes each have 24 smaller boxes inside that hold the same amount, plus a little more, as a bead tube that I’ve been having problems with. Now that I’ve pretty much filled them up, I want to get some more. They are so neat, and I mean that both ways. They’re cool and they’re tidy! If I were just to get more for my seed beads, I’d say I need 2 more, 3 at the most. But I’m seriously considering them for most of my other beads as well, except for the ones where the quantities are just so low. Now I feel like I’m going to actually have a nice organized stash that will make it easier for me to use my supplies.

After a quick trip to Joann’s, we went to Starbucks where they were playing old Ozzy-led Black Sabbath. It was awesome. It also makes me want to go buy some. Rob said he’ll probably just get it off the Play Store on his tablet. Once we got back home, I’ve spent the rest of the night putting beads in my new containers as well as watching some old, and I mean OLD, Doctor Who episodes and  also some Avatar: The Last Airbender episodes. Tomorrow is going to be a work day, or at least most of it will be if I decide to go back to Harbor Freight tomorrow for more storage boxes. That place is really neat! Geez, I use “neat” a lot. Maybe one day I’ll do a blog with pictures once I have everything organized. I can’t wait for that day. I’m gonna be SOOOO productive!

Day Twenty-Five -- Games People Play.

Today was awesome! It was raining, and hard, but I got to go out anyway because My friend Kristine picked me up to go to her house where I was able to actually get some work done! Even being short some beads, I was able to get some from her. Two of the bracelets I made in one day! Less than one day actually, less than 5 hours, and that’s including breaks! Now I feel back in the swing of things and I can’t wait to make more stuff.

Later this evening, I had to put my beads away, but for good reason. Kristine’s husband Dennis made two big piles of crazy nachos and some awesome, cheesy (in a good way) rice. Rob started feeling better so he came to join us. So did a few more friends. Actually, Rob was second to the last of everyone who came.

After dinner was when the fun really began. Kristen had brought a card game called Cards against Humanity. OMG I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard and I’m not the only one who felt this way. This game was so wrong and yet so fun. Though I recommend that before playing it, you think long and hard about which people you play with. It’s not for the faint of heart or the easily insulted. Don’t play with people who tend to get butt hurt over the smallest thing. With the right group of people though, you could have fun until you pass out.

As fun as tonight was, I go to bed excited for TOMORROW WE RIDE!!!

…to the bead store. It’s a different one this time though. One I’ve also never been to before called the Creative Castle I believe, and I hear it has an even bigger and better selection than The San Gabriel Bead Company. Of course I’m going with my new favorite bead shopping companions, Kristine and Liz. I’m going to try not to go into a bead frenzy, or bead coma, or whatever bad thing that happens when one is around too many beads.

What am I saying? There’s no such thing as being around too many beads. 

Day Twenty -- Stop me if you think that you've heard this one before

So despite being knocked off my ass by the bead show yesterday… we went again today (I'm mayor now lol). I didn't buy anything there but a (outrageously tiny) brownie, a girl’s gotta eat sometime, but I did get to check out a Precious Metal Clay demonstration. It’s a lot less complicated than I thought and I can’t wait to get elbow deep in that stuff! Figuratively of course for there is no way that I can afford being actually elbow deep in it. I know Rob is very interested in it as well. I also noticed a few things that I didn't notice yesterday and I got a lot of cards and put my name down on a couple mailing lists.

After the bead show, we went to San Gabriel Bead Company which I had never been to before. Unfortunately, we got there around 20 minutes before closing so I didn't get the chance to peruse the merchandise like I would have liked to, but I did get nine tubes of seed beads. If I had more money, I would probably need a back brace to carry it all. Nah, I’m a bit more frugal than that, but I would've loved to get more colors. The beads look like a very good quality, (I haven’t opened them yet but the tubes are clear and they look excellent). I can’t wait to work with them. I’ll probably start tomorrow. It’ll give me something to do while Rob is at the doctor’s office. I really want to get back in the swing of things and I think my recent purchases are just the things I need to do it. I can’t wait. But then, I said that before didn't I? I should quit before I get too redundant.

Crap, I realized that I forgot to take pics of stuff I bought yesterday. Okay, here's one of SOME of it, taken on the fly.

Ooh! Shiny!!  ...wait, that's my other blog.

Day Nineteen -- No TV Party Tonight...

Today was an awesome day and I got some really great supplies. It was made more fun by my awesome companions Kristine and Liz. I totally forgot my list of things that I wanted to look out for but I know that at least a few of the things I got were things I wanted to get. I’m thinking I might wait until tomorrow to post pictures of the stuff I got. I’m so wiped out I can barely type. So yeah, today’s blog, a wee little one. I even took a nap a few sentences ago (naps are hardly ever a good idea for me). Tomorrow, I’ll be a lot more alert to write a nice entry. I’m not even going to mention this fiasco of a blog on Facebook.

Sad as it is though, it took a really great day to tire me out this much. Oh, and a bit of back pain.

Maybe tomorrow I'll even explain why I'm going to bed with "TV Party Tonight" by Black Flag stuck in my head.

Day Fourteen -- Maybe tomorrow...

Wow, I almost completely forgot to do my blog post today. I’m not surprised though. I’ve been out of it all day. This fog has certainly put a damper on my creativity. I have all these beads sitting in front of me and they just weren't speaking to me. My Fire Mountain Gem’s catalog came in the mail today (and, unfortunately, not the beads I recently bought online. I can’t wait until they get here!) So I was going to relax on the bed and do a bit of “window” shopping; basically marking things that I would consider buying. I thought it would be good for inspiration as well. Too bad I decided to take a pain pill for my back shortly before because it totally. knocked. me. out! That didn't help my foggy brain situation at all. I just haven’t been myself today and I don’t like it! On top of that, I feel a bit nauseous tonight. Yeck! I haven’t had coffee in a few days so tomorrow, I’m going to make a nice strong cup and see if that helps any. The cold also makes doing things rather difficult and I can’t wait for it to warm up here. Not hot though, I’m not down for that either. I don’t mind a slight chill in the air, just don’t freeze my butt off. Thank you. I wish I had an electric blanket.

Rob is feeling better which is good. He still has a bit of abdominal pain but he’s getting there. I’ve been giving him Powerade and chicken broth. He’s been recuperating in bed, fiddling with his Nexus 7 all day. Tomorrow, he gets to start eating solids. Bland solids. Woo Hoo!

I’m going to go to bed early tonight and pretend this day didn't happen. Okay, most of this day because there is one thing that happened today that was so awesome, but I’m not going to talk about that yet. I’ll just say that some people totally ROCK!  Maybe tomorrow, I can come back into my body and actually feel like a real person.  

Day Eight -- More Beads Please...

I’ve spent much of today looking through bead patterns, thinking about the next thing I want to make. In other words, I’ve now chosen about 20 or so that I want to make and haven’t started any of them yet… and that’s just for the ones that I’m pretty positive that I have all the supplies for. I’ve decided that I don’t have nearly enough beads… Likely story you might say, but it’s true, considering all the things I want to make and finding out each time that I don’t have all the beads I need to make it. It would be so much easier if there were any good LBS’s around. That’s Local Bead Store for you lay people. There are great stores in Downtown LA and I hear there are a couple good ones in Santa Clarita. But I wish there was at least ONE that I could go to any day, on the spur of the moment to pick up specific beads for any particular project.

As for shopping online for beads, the only problem there is that there is so much that it’s hard to choose from and I don’t get to see anything in person. Another big problem is that I want to get the best prices so I spend too much time comparing sometimes. One thing that pisses me off is every time a bead show rolls around, I don’t have enough money to bother attending them. There is a bead show coming on the weekend of the 18^th through 20^th this month and right now I do have a nice little bit of money (and hoping to get a little bit more before then). I won’t be breaking any banks but I should be able to get a few things to supplement my stash.   I’m very excited because I think it's been a couple of years since I’ve been to one. Well, at least it seems like a couple years. I’m not all that sure as my memory isn’t the best when it comes to dates. I just have to keep any emergencies or stupid, non-bead-related purchases at bay in the meantime. Fingers crossed. 

Since I like adding photos to my blog, here's one that was sort of an accident. It was the day I was taking pics of the hat I made. I saw a cat that I wanted to take a picture of so I zoomed in to get a good shot of it. Afterwards, I turn the lens back to myself for more hat pictures and forgot to zoom out again.

I decided to play around with the colors and stuff and this is the result.