I Wish It Would Rain

Thanks for stopping by Freebird's Nest.  I hope that you are all hydrating, staying in the shade and enjoying as much AC as you can.  Todays temps were around 98 degrees and the heat index was 105!!!  Needless to say I stayed inside and played with my beads.  I know, I know it was a sacrifice but you know, somebody had to do it!  LOL

This week over at Every Inchie Monday the theme was Yellow.  My inchie this week came to me while driving to work.  I do spend some time driving so my mind goes to all the things I see.  So my first thought was trying to make the green lights before they turn yellow.  Yellow! So that was my inspiration for this weeks inchie. 

In this inchie I used 5 colors of Delicas.  This is not quite the round stop lights we usually see, this is an inchie stop light, so the colors are diamond shaped!  I do like it for the most part, I am not happy that there were a few white beads that were not even.  But oh well. 

Also this week over at 2x2x2 the theme is Rain.  Man I could use some rain right now.  Arkansas rain is so different then Illinois rain.  I really miss Illinois rain.  I always love to sit out and watch it rain, many times even playing it the rain.  Summer rain was always the best! 

Here in Arkansas it is sooo different.  When it rains it seems to bring fog and more HEAT in the summer.  In the winter it just makes everything slipperyier!  Also after it rains here the humidity flys up and my asthma goes into over drive!  Blek! 

But, one thing I love about rain no matter where I am is "Singin in the Rain".  I adore Gene Kelly and this movie.  One of my all time favorites.  As a kid I wanted so badly to dance with him.  But since that never happened I watch the movie any chance I get.  And so when this theme came up I automatically knew what the twinchie would be. Check this out.

Isn't he just awesome?  Well, I know that he inspired many a dancer and he inspired my twinchie this week.  I hope that you like it. 

That is all I can handle for this week as it is way to hot to do more than watch Gene Kelly.  Don't forget to fly on over to EIM and 2x2x2 to check out the awesome art over there.  Also if you feel the urge to join us, act on it.  We would love to see what you can come up with!

Have a blessed, creative and hydrated week!

Energy Inchie and some fun food

Hiya everyone, thanks for stopping by and checking out my blog today.  This week over at Every Inchie Monday the theme is Energy.  I had an immediate idea for this one.  My first thought was something that came from my visits back to my home town. 

I left Illinois to move here to Arkansas in 2001.  I did not to go back to Illinois until 2009, in those 8 years wind farms started popping up all over the area where I am from.  I was so mesmerized by them.  I had trouble driving because I just could not stop watching them. 

Every time we have gone back I have just enjoyed looking at them.  I know if I saw them every day I would probably think that they were ugly.  But just to know that they are as big as they are and help out like they do is really awesome. 

Here are a couple of pictures my daughter took while we were driving.  Aren't they cool?  Well I think so, and now when we go back to Illinois and I see the wind farms I get really excited because that means we are getting close to our destination and we can get out of the car!  LOL

So with that, here is my inchie.   I used 6 colors of delicas.  I hope that you like it.

 Also this week I decided to bead up some more of my patterns.  These are all Kawaii inspired patterns.  I think they are cute and will be modifying them some so that I can sell the patterns in my shop later on. 

This is Peanut Butter and Jelly (for the non-Americans that is Jam).  They are not done, I did not put the loops on them yet.  This pattern makes me wish that I could still wear earrings.  Aren't they cute? 
I also made some popsicles. 

The original pattern was the purple one (I know it looks blue but it is purple).  I realized that this pattern was too big for an earring so I redesigned the pattern to fit the pink one and it is more the size of earrings so I was happy with that.  I will still use the purple one for a pendant.  These are just 2 of the 5 expressions that I designed.  Each pattern is just 3 colors of delicas.  I think they are so much fun.

My daughter then had a great idea that I should design one with a bite out of it.  Why didn't I think about that?  LOL  Well this is what I came up with.

This one is 4 colors, and I added tears since someone bit into her.  I can't wait to get to making all the sets.  I think when i sell the sets that I will have one pattern of all 3, that way you can have a pendant, and either earring style, or both if you want. 


Well that is all I have for this week, Don't forget to fly on over to EIM and check out all the energy that is going on over there.  Have a blessed and creative week everybody. 

Hit the Squirel on the Nose

Hiya everyone and thanks for stopping by, I appreciate it.  I hope that you are all staying cool.  It is super hot and humid here in Arkansas, and the summer has yet to really kick in. Even though it is halfway thru July!  Can you believe it?  Where have the last 2 months gone?  If you find them let me know so I can get them back, lol.

Over at Every Inchie Monday the theme is Nose.  This one was an interesting theme.  I don't particularly like my nose; I don't know many who do though; lol.  I had to have surgery on my nose back in 2001 to straighten out the deviated septum.  The Dr swore to me that it would fix my breathing problems.  So along with this surgery he did some other bits and pieces to make the airways more open.  After 2 weeks of having my nose packed with gauze and being in so much pain the Dr took the packing out.  I thought my eyes were going to pop out of my head from the suction.  Luckily, I still have both eyes, lol.  But the Dr gave me strict instructions to not touch my nose so it will heal.  Within a few hours my nose started inching and without thinking about it I rubbed my nose.  The sound of my septum breaking again was pretty awful.  Mostly because I was not going to go back to the Dr and have him do that to me again.  ARG! 

For those people who get "nose jobs" on purpose, I feel you might be a glutton for punishment.   Worse part is, the surgery was unnecessary.  I still have breathing issues and I still had to have a CPAP machine for my sleep apnea. 

But now for my inchie, I thought about doing a clown nose but, ya know, clowns!  Not everyone likes them and I knew that I was not going to get it to look like a clown in an inch so I went with my 2nd thought.  A Nose icon of sorts. Looking at the nose straight on.  I hope you like it. 

 

Also this week over at 2x2x2 the them is Squirrel.  I know that many people; my Mom included; hate squirrels.  My Mom loves her birds and hates that the squirrels eat the bird food.  But for me I will always love squirrels for the simple fact that when my daughter was a toddler she adored the squirrels in our yard. 

An elderly neighbor used to set corn cobs out in our yard on a tree for the squirrels so that he could watch them.  Fav loved seeing the squirrels run in the yard.  So much so that I started to set sunflower seeds on our porch so that they would come on there for her to see.  She would get so excited that she would bang on the screen door and scream "Quirleys!" 

Of course, the squirrels would run away in fear.  But not for long, they figured out that she was not a threat and they would set there and eat as she giggled and squealed at them.  It was so sweet to see her excitement. 

For this twinchie I used 11 colors of delicas and went with a grey squirrel eating an acorn. The acorn is a bit hard to see but I still like it.  Hope you like it as well.  

Also, I wanted to end this post with a beading tip.  Many times we do things in our crafting and don't think about them being a tip someone might be able to use.  This is one of them I believe.  Sometimes you have a pattern with alot of colors in it, like my squirrel.  Keeping track of all the colors and how much you need and when you really need them is always an issue.  The program that I use for my patterns is BeadTool.  This program tells you how many beads you will need, which is a very important thing.  But, knowing when you need them during the process of beading is something you have to figure out yourself.  I figured out a way to do that that helps me to know when to get beads out and ready to be used and when to put them away when I am done with that color.  Check this out.

This picture might be a bit hard to see but on one side of the pattern I have a "+" symbol.  The other side of the pattern I have a "-" symbol.  What this does is tell me when a color is starting to be used, ("+" side), and when I am done with that color ("-" side).  This is a good thing to know especially when there is alot of colors, and a small area to bead on.  Also if a color isn't going to be needed until later in the pattern there is not a need to put them out and possibly spilling them. 

I hope that made sense.  It was alot of words to explain a simple idea, lol. I hope this will help someone when they are working with many colors in a pattern (I have a pattern that has 65 colors in it so there can be alot to keep track of)

Lastly, don't forget to fly on over to EIM and 2x2x2 to check out all the great artwork over there, and have a blessed and beady day.

Fourth of July and a lot of Yarns to tell about

Hope that everyone in America had a great 4th of July!  Happy birthday America!  For the rest of you I hope that you had a great 4th of July as well. LOL.  Mine was great, me and my kids went up to Illinois to see my family.  We had a "family" birthday.  Since we can't all be together for each birthday my brother had a great idea to celebrate all the birthdays on one day.  It was great!  Seeing all the family and hanging out with them.  We all had so much fun that no one took pictures!!!  WHAT!

Wellll except for this picture of the cake!  Yea I know, forget the family but take pictures of the cake!  I know I an horrible but when you check out the cake you will so understand!

 

 Isn't this cool!  This was the cake topper, there was also a sheet cake to go along with it.  But this was the centerpiece.  Everyone had their names printed on the leaves of the cake.  The cardinals represents my Moms favorite birds.  This cake design gives me alot of beady ideas!  Not to mention that it tasted amazing!

Now to the beady things.  This week I worked on a triangle beaded piece.  I did finish it but I have yet to take pictures of that.  The triangle is a design from Anabel27. 

I also worked on another 100 inch necklace; it is actually 98 inches but that is the closest I could get.  I really like this one.  This necklace has 4mm rounds,One beads,6mm seeds, Hematite bugles, casillica diamond shaped beads, gemstone cube beads, Diablo beads, 8mm beads.  I also made a bracelet using the same beads to match.  These are so much fun to make but there is alot of math going into them. I think that is why I like them so much though.

Also this week over at Every Inchie Monday the theme is Yarn.  Living with 2 cats this was my first thought.  Cats and yarn go so well together.  LOL  Maybe too well.  This inchie uses 4 colors of delicas.  I like how it came out. 

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for leaving comments.  I always enjoy reading them.  Don't forget to fly on over to EIM to check out all the yarn inchies over there.