Crystal Explosion

I am totally excited about the necklace I learned to make last night. The very talented and nearly perfect Katherine Flynn (http://www.beejewelry.ca/) of Bumblebee Jewelry, who teaches the Bead Crazy courses for the Toronto District School Board night school sessions (http://www.tdsb.on.ca/ -see "community programs"), was making up the kits for this necklace at our Bead Crazy Intermediate class the other night and as soon as I saw it, I knew I had to learn how to make it. She very generously agreed to let me attend the Advanced class on Thursday night where she was going to be teaching the pattern, plus she sold me the kit on Tuesday so I had a chance to start putting the pieces together on Wed night. It's a very beautiful pattern and lends itself to a lot of variations. Katherine made the necklace in the photo - it's made using two colours of Swarovski bicone crystals and based on a Fire Mountain Gems Collection pattern.

As soon as I have a chance to finish mine (the pattern is somewhat time consuming to make, as you have to put the majority of the crystals on either headpins or eyepins and make loops for each one, then join all the loops together - it's not hard, it's just fiddly), I'll post a photo. It looks quite different than the one Katherine made, as the bead kit I fell in love with had five different colours of crystals, not just two.

Gee, I wonder if they'll have any crystals for sale at the Bead Fair tomorrow??

Bead Fair

Just throwing in a little plug for the Toronto Bead Society's Bead Fair, taking place this weekend at the Metro Central YMCA downtown at 20 Grosvenor (just west of Yonge, between Wellesley and College, an easy walk from either subway station).

If you've never been to this event, I can tell you that it is a great place to go if you (a) love beads and (b) love to shop. There will be over 50 friendly vendors offering all sorts of beading-related products - it's a great way to see a lot of things you might need, all in one place - one stop shopping, you can't bead it. (I know, I couldn't resist.)

You can read all about it on their website - http://www.torontobeadsociety.org/web/index.php. This year, there are also classes available, some of which are already sold out and all of which are very reasonably priced and look quite interesting.

I'll be working the snack bar on Saturday morning (since my dear friend Stephanie Dixon - a.k.a. The Dixon Chick - signed up to be the Volunteer Coordinator for the TBS, I seem to be "volunteering" at several events these days - the good news is, it's a lot of fun), so do come by and say hello.

Downloading sunflowers

I have finally downloaded my photos from France. I've only been procrastinating about it since I go back at the beginning of August. No big deal, that's only 3 months ago. I copied them onto my hard drive but didn't erase them from the memory card, so now I have the photos saved in two places. There are 683 in total, which now need to be sorted into folders and labelled, but that can wait. The next step will be to hook up the external hard drive I bought a couple of weeks ago and do a backup of all my files, preferably in advance of disconnecting my computer when I move at the end of the month. I'm hoping that no files will be lost or equipment damaged in the transition. It seems to me that the last time I moved, I just unplugged my computer at the old place and plugged it in at the new place, piece of cake. But that was over four years ago and I've added a lot of stuff, especially photos, to my hard drive since then and I don't want to lose anything.



Check out these sunflowers, aren't they amazing? The field stretched out to the horizon, as far as the eye could see.

Vote "Yes" for Change

It appears that history is in the making today, as the United States of America elects a new president. It's exciting to watch the colours on the map fill in in either red or blue and try to figure out what the difference is between electoral votes and popular vote, and Senate seats vs. House of Representatives - it's like a whole different language for us Canucks. A heck of a lot more exciting than watching Stephen Harper get re-elected 3 weeks ago here.

I feel ready myself for a change. It's time to do things differently. I can't change other people or the world in general, I can only change myself. I can only stand up and say, I take responsibility for my own actions and choose to go forward as of today and tomorrow in a different direction. I'd like my words to match my actions and I vow to do my best to make that happen. I am human and I will make mistakes but hopefully I will learn from those mistakes, whether it takes days or weeks or, in some cases, years to learn and accept the reality.

Kate has this picture on her website tonight and I love it:

I wish President-Elect Obama all the very best in the next four years and I pray to God he lives safely through that term in office. It will be interesting to watch what happens next. I am hopeful for all of us.

Daylight Savings Time

Did you remember to change your clocks back? My little Carly thought I needed reminding, isn't she a clever girl?

It's always a weird time of year, once again getting used to waking up and driving to work in the dark, driving home again in the dark. At least we'll be spared the rush hour driving into those right in your eyes October sunsets (at least until it starts again in April) and for the next few days at least, we Ontarians will apparently be spared the need for the winter coat, as we are scheduled to enjoy temperatures in the 15 to 20 degree territory, very balmy and above seasonal for this time of year.

The weirdness continues as everyone is eagerly/anxiously watching to see what happens with the US election tomorrow. Of course, we Canadians are just so proud of our boys from Quebec who managed to punk Sarah Palin - take that, Ashton Kutcher!

Just to make things feel even stranger than usual, the price of gas is dropping again tonight by more than 6 cents to 85 cents a litre, what is up with that? Did the oil companies get together at their weekly price fixing brunch and decide they really don't need all those exorbitant profits they've been making off us for the past few months/years and decide to give us a break on the price for a change? According to my personal records (I've been tracking my car expenses on an Excel spreadsheet for the past couple of years, geeky eh?), we paid 88.5 cents a litre in February 2007 but we haven't paid 85 cents or less since December 2006, can you believe it? I'm going to fill up, even though I only need half a tank, just to get that number on this year's spreadsheet. :)

Ah yes, Hallowe'en might be over for another year but life is full of weird and wonderful things every day...you just never know what the next day will bring but an extra hour of sleep now and again is always a good thing!

Dia de los Muertos

In Mexico, where I will be exactly two months from now, today is the Day of the Dead. It is a day to remember friends and relatives who have died. It is also my dad's birthday, so I'm thinking of him especially today.

Here's a picture of him with his parents:



And one of my other grandparents:


They all look so happy in these photos, I'm glad to have them to remember them by.

Bead Crazy

I have been remiss in posting photos of what we have been learning in my Bead Crazy - Intermediate class.

Last week, we made a choker out of a honeycomb pattern crafted with bugle beads.

The week before that, it was wire wrapped earrings.

This past week, we made a bracelet called "Crystal Waves". It's a very simple pattern, very quick and easy, with a very pretty result, and I'm looking forward to experimenting with different types of beads.