The Clock is Ticking Down

In less than 36 hours, the movers will have arrived and the process of shifting the 104+ boxes I have filled so far and all my furniture and worldly possessions, not to mention my two furry companions, will have begun, so I will be signing off for now. Sooner or later, I will have to unplug my computer and pack up my beading supplies, although so far, I have put off doing both. Hopefully I will have them unpacked and ready for use as soon as possible on the other end, but in the meantime, I won't be able to blog.

All of a sudden, I feel I am definitely running out of time and wondering how everything will get packed and ready by 8:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, but I'm sure it will somehow get done. It might mean a little bit of sleeplessness tomorrow night, but we'll see. And I have a feeling that the last few boxes will be a little less organized and more of a free-for-all, just get it in a box! sort of scenario. Wish me luck!!

Chain Maille

This week's bead class focused on chain maille [or chain mail, depending on your preference. But if I spell it that way, it always makes me think of those chain letters we used to get as kids - "send a copy of this letter to 10 friends or the roof of your house will fall in!" At least nowadays, you can just hit the "delete" button when you get those emails. :) ]

The pattern has the not very interesting title of "European 4 in 1". No doubt because the four outside rings are held together by one centre ring. Very original. But the pattern is quite nice when it's finished.

Counting Down

I'm counting down the days.

It's 3 more sleeps until my birthday (cake, anyone?), 4 more sleeps until I move (really tired from waking up in the middle of the night with my brain busy rearranging furniture) and only a month until Christmas!! Which I will be spending in Calgary with my family, very much excited about that!!

Here's a picture of some of the assorted Christmas goodies that I have made:

Key Day

I'm very excited - I picked up the keys to my new place today. I am officially in possession. Took over the first load of stuff, which included toilet paper, cleaning supplies, a bag of cat food, a new frying pan, 2 lamps and a bath mat. Okay, it may not seem like an entirely logical collection of stuff, but...I always take toilet paper to a new place because what if you get there and there isn't any? That's also where cleaning supplies come in handy, because you don't want to use the new washroom until you're sure it's clean. I went shopping at Walmart today to get shelf paper and passed by the cookware section, picked up a new frying pan because I've been abusing the old one with an SOS pad and now the non-stick finish is all pock-marked, so sooner or later, I'll need the new one. I bought the bag of cat food the other day, because there don't seem to be too many Petsmart locations around this city so I thought I should get a bag while I was in the neighborhood, because it might be a while before I'm back that way. The lamps were in case there weren't any lightbulbs in the overhead lamps but there were, so I didn't really need them. I took the bath mat because I have two full bathrooms at my old place and I was packing up one of them a few weeks ago and put the mat in the box that had the toilet paper in it, since it was the first box I filled. So you see, there is logic in there...sort of.

Shaggy Drops

I've been making bracelets out of these shaggy drop beads. They are sold by Unicorn Beads and I just love the colour combinations. The bead itself is a funny shape, it's narrow where the hole is and then a round blobbed shape (how's that for a professional description, eh?) But the finished product is really cool, it just feels neat in your hand or on your arm, the way the beads dangle.

One Week To Go

I am moving in a week's time. I've had two months to prepare and back then, it seemed like a long time ago. Now there are only 7 packing days left and I only have one more room left to finish, which is entirely doable. I've packed more than 80 boxes and thank goodness, I'm just about done.

Of course, I'm leaving my beading supplies to pack last. Some of my collection is already tidied up and tucked into boxes and bags, ready to be moved to the new place. But a lot of it is still out and being used. Up to now, my process has been that I pack for an hour or two, then sit down to rest my back, either at the computer or with a beading project. It seems to be a good system - while I'm packing, my subconscious is designing and playing with colours and bead choices, so that when I go back to the beads, I'm ready to create something.

One thing about packing, you just never know when you're going to turn up a bit of buried treasure, usually in a box or a cupboard you haven't opened in a while. Today I found a couple of divided trays that I used to use when I sold Mary Kay products, with all sorts of little compartments that will be perfect to hold beads or toggles or headpins or whatever I want. They're a pretty pink colour and made out of a very sturdy plastic, with a clear lid so you can see inside easily, about 8.5 x 14 inches in size and about 1.5 inches deep. I had completely forgotten about them. I opened a box that been tucked away under a chair in a corner of the room for quite a while now, and there they were. I can't wait to put something into them.

Quantum of Solace

Guess what I did tonight? I joined the many who have seen the new James Bond flick. It has only been playing for a week and already it has made over $300 million in box office. My friend Anna treated me for my birthday. She had a tough time waiting a whole week to go, she wanted to go on opening day but she very kindly agreed to wait and go with me this week. I quite enjoyed it, very much like "Casino Royale" - you barely have time to catch your breath in between action sequences and I found myself jumping in my seat and/or gasping out loud from shock a couple of times. That's not even counting the times Daniel Craig appeared without his shirt or even better, in a tuxedo. ;)