2 days and counting

I picked my sister Rosanne up at the airport this afternoon. Cricket and I were so happy to see her. That means we only have two days to go before we leave the Port of New Orleans on Bead Cruise 2009. Friday, Heather will be here in time for lunch. We are going to my favorite Chinese Resturuant. Cricket always stows away in Rosanne's suit case. He never misses an opportunity to try and go along. Thanks everyone for the well wishes on our next adventure on the high seas. My camera is ready for those Kodak moments I will be sharing. Bon voyage is a French phrase borrowed into English meaning, literally, "good journey", and usually translated as meaning "have a good trip"

I have been dying to show off these earrings. They are a perfect match for one of the shirts I am taking on the bead cruise. The shirt is festive and so are the earrings. The design is by humblebeads and is featured in Feb 09 Trends magazine. It's that time. The final week before Bead Cruise 2009. I am ready for my one drink a year. A pina colada with a little umbrella on top. A little treat to start out our adventure with. Heather has a little story she shared on her blog about on last adventure on Costa Maya. We swear every year we are going to sing Karaoke. One thing I am not going to do again is kiss sting ray. It is suppose to bring you good luck or so the story was told as he held that creature in my face. Yes I kissed the String Ray. I think the sting ray kept the good luck!

Vintage Button

Yesterday at our Bead Society Meeting we learned how to make this lovely fan wrapped bracelet. The supply list called for size #1 bugles. I used size #5 twist Matte Khaki Iris which really fanned out nicely. The bugles were purchased from Bead Stuff. The button I used was a gift from my friend Judith that she sent in care package after Katrina (2005). I have this uncanny ability to remember where all my beads were purchased or who they were gifted by. Now if I could just remember my pin number and where I put my glasses!!

Back-up Back-up Back-up

Thursday night I plugged in my firelite external hard-drive to retrieve a file. My old Dell computer grunted and groan and refused to recognize the hardware. Panic set in as I realized I had at least two computer worth of patterns and pictures stored on this external hard-drive. My next thought were of how many times I threatened to toss my computer in the swimming pool over the last five years. At least this time it wasn't the computer's fault. I got up Friday morning on a mission to find a computer store who could rescue my files from within that small metal box. I spent half the morning driving around trying to find the computer shop I knew was down the road from my house with out success. I should have gotten out the Big Yellow Book and let my fingers do the walking before I did all that driving around! Thanks to Computer Insights I now have a 120 gig rocketfish external drive with all my files inside along with warning that I should get a back-up for my back-up. I really want a new computer. The HP Smart Touch is on my wishlist.

Illuminated Manuscript Bead

I love the Illuminated Manuscript bead by Humblebeads. The bracelet was crocheted using size 8/0 one cut bronze metallic seed beads.The filigree bead caps were the perfect accents for this Renaissance inspired letter bead. The design on the back is a lily pattern. I will wear this reversible bracelet often. Thank you Heather for the wonderful gift.

What Jewelry Not To Wear

Beadinggem wrote a blog post about the TLC show "What not to Wear" I enjoyed her rendition with the twist on jewelry. In her post she showed model Natasha Poly wearing an over abundance of jewelry. This seemed like the perfect time to show off my model Miss Aimee (she loves my beadwork) Daughters are great that way! The look on her face seems to say "Oh you think this is too much?" She is sporting 7 cuffs and bracelets on one arm. The second arm has about six bracelets and around her neck there are 2 lariats, 2 collars and host of other pieces just hanging around. Isn't she beautiful!!