Pay It Forward

I was browsing blogs today and came across this on Arline's page and I just had to join in.

The first three people who comment on my blog will receive something handmade from me, if you will also post it on your blog and pass it on. The rules are as follows:
I will send a handmade gift (something beaded or created with metal) to the first 3 people who leave a Comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange (and email me their mailing address), and who make the same pledge on their own blogs. I don't know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward meaning you will do the same for three people who comment on your blog.

Trilly

More Silliness

Wow, it has been awhile since I have had time to get on my blog. In some ways it is wonderful because my life has been busy, yet so fun and challenging. On the creative end, I have been venturing into PMC and polymer clay and have had so much fun playing with it all. Combining it with Mike's glass work was the fun project this weekend in addition to working on a chain mail bra/halter top that I am making.

In other happenings, I was invited to join a student dance troupe and I am so excited. I have my first tribal belly dance performance at the end of April and practicing for that is also taking a lot of time. One really cool thing that just occurred to me this weekend is that I can combine my love of beads and metal jewelry with my love of dancing, in terms of costumes. I just made some hair falls that included a bunch of different red yarns that I have been beading and braiding. And then I am tying that in with my BJP. I do not exactly know how it will look yet, but my April piece is going to attempt to express the love and freedom of belly dance.

Now for the silliness....Arline tagged me to reveal 7 random things about myself on my blog. Then I can tag 5 others to do the same. So here are my 7:
1. My favorite food is cheese....all cheese. I love cheese :)
2. I love Porsches and used to race them on Autocross courses and weekends at road courses around the eastern part of the country.
3. Books are a passion of mine and I always carry one with me and generally am in the middle of reading a couple at a time. I also prefer to watch tv while reading a book.
4. I dislike donuts.
5. I collect elephant and gargoyle pieces, but I prefer to find and adopt pieces that have something broken or imperfect, as they need love too.
6. I can't stand grocery shopping, but I love cooking.
7. My favorite ride at Epcot is Mission: Space.

Well that's all I have time for this morning. I have to get some more pics posted of my next couple months BJP pieces and will try to get that done this week. Bye for now.

Trilly

Silliness

I was wondering the BJP pages and everyone's lastest posts and pictures and came across this link on Sue's blog (sewingmagpie) about your aristocratic name, and just had to go play.

You may now address me as

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Countess-Palatine Lisa the Intransigent of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrnd- robwllllantysiliogogogoch Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

I just had to laugh as that is about the gibberish I have been generating today as I try to get reports out :)

Have a wonderful day, many laughs and all the wonder you can perceive.

Trilly

Happy New Year

It is January 28th, I am sitting at my desk in my new office and still trying to get sorted out since the move over the holidays. So much has happened in the last month, I just felt like writing about it before I can even think about what comes next. The first was I had a wonderful christmas. It was spent with Mike and my mom, and it was the first christmas in a long time where I was relaxed and had a wonderful time. Christmas has generally brought some challenging memories up and had long been missing any sense of joy and wonder for me.

This year was different as I chose to look at it as just a celebration of joy for all I had in my life and as the end of another year, on the brink of a bright new year. I loved seeing the lights everywhere, loved picking out items for those I loved and making gifts for those I share so much of my time with every day. I think the biggest change was that I had fun through it all instead of stressing about what I had to do, when, how, etc.

New Year's Eve was especially magical as well. Mike proposed and gave me a beautiful ring. I am so very happy and feeling so very blessed for having him in my life. We are still really wrapped up with the house renovation for this upcoming year and are thinking sometime next year for the wedding.

On the beading front, I am just finishing up an order for necklaces for Valentine's and just getting back into my BJP pages. I can see them in my mind, just have to schedule time to devote to them. I have been busy also taking a few classes and had a lot of fun at a polymer clay class I took a couple weeks ago. It was so fun and even playful, like being a child with playdough :) and I loved the couple pendants I did. I also just took a class in Viking Knit and absolutely loved the end result. I will post a pic in the next day or two.

I find myself liking so many different styles and techniques, I can't seem to settle with one I want to do in particular, so I kind of go back and forth.....but I am getting much better at completing the project I start and practicing new techniques I learn in order to keep some retention. I have really discovered a love for chain maille. I just did a dragon scale bracelet in copper and wow, I love it. I am also finding that I love mixing copper and silver and have many ideas in my head. Now I just need to find time to create them :)

That's about all that is new for now. Back to work so I can get home and play.

Trilly

Christmas Gifts

It has been awhile since I was here but it is a busy time of year at work and I have been busy trying to get gifts done for all the ladies at work. I recently took a class in these beautiful crystal hearts and decided to give them for gifts. I also wanted to do them in everyone's favorite colors. If you click on the pictures you can see them up close. I had so much fun making them after I got the hang of it. I am planning on getting back to my BJP during the holidays. I am sure looking forward to the days off work. Two short weeks in a row is just heavenly.

I also wanted to wish my friends and fellow beaders the most happy of holidays. I have loved sharing this space and this project with you all.

Trilly

October Completed

Well I did something different this month. It is as sparse as last months is full. I did it in the course of a night. We had gone over to a friends new house to help them move some stuff around and hang pictures. Well as it doesn't take four to do that, I sat back and offered input while beading my leaf. I really did not intend to just outline the leaf, but as I sat there looking at the beautiful material and the pretty metallic beads I had, I just started. I finished the outline then added the veins and stopped there for the night. I fully intended to do more the next day, but when I looked at it the next night, I couldn't make myself attach another bead. It just spoke to me with its simplicity, its simple beauty and I decided to honor that. My life feels so cluttered with my job and everything else I do, I really love the simple nature of the single falling leaf. Autumn has always been one of my favorite seasons and the colors in October are so inspiring, it now just seems so fitting. Life is change, death and rebirth, again and again. Fall never feels sad to me, rather it feels like a clearing of space for something new to come, just around the corner.

September Completed

I finished September up finally last night. I found myself struggling to get this one completed. I had set the goal for myself of trying different colors and stitches and I found it slow going at times. Plus I started the piece with the multi-colored melted glass piece in the middle. That was created by taking a pile of glass seed beads and simply slumping them in the kiln. We were not sure what they would do, but my boyfriend was playing and when it came out, I really liked it. So I decided to use it as a focal piece for this page.

It was a little extra challenging as I usually have a plan in mind when I start and I had none, so I just followed Robin's advice and put on bead down after another. I reached a point about midway through when I had the lower left done and the bead blob in the middle and it was such a contract between the chaos of the melted beads and the nice lines of the bottom left corner that it started me thinking about making order out of chaos. Of course then it lead to me thinking about my life and job and that is pretty much what I do, I attempt to find some order in the chaos that surrounds me and make som sense of it. At work, I work with soils and the earth and I am always tring to take a natural, organic site and make it work for a building or structure....imposing a form of order on the ever changing ground.

So with those thoughts, I started working a structure around the center piece....no real thought in mind, just wanting some nice curved shapes. Just after I was at this point, I joined some fellow beaders for a bead night, hanging out together working on our own projects, enjoying the company and companionship. Well I was working on this piece and a friend of mine, and fellow BJP member, looked at my piece and said what an interesting heart in the middle of the piece. Now up to that time, I had not even decided what was up or down yet, and rotating it around, the heart jumped out at me. I just had to laugh a little at this time, cause as I have previously said, hearts are not my favorite shape, yet here was another, and this one coming from my subconscious. Well I looked at it and just loved it. Amazing how this project has opened my heart in so many ways and to have a heart be the center figure in a piece about order and chaos....the bridge between them I would say, just made me feel so good.

It took me a couple weeks to finish it from that point, but I finally did it last night. I am so very pleased with this piece and I just sat there grinning. I am now really looking forward to starting the next month tonite :)

Trilly