Sunday, January 8, 2012

Full recovery

I'm back! Full force...watch out world...the beady spirits have found me once again. Thank goodness! For the first time in weeks I'm feeling compelled to sit and bead and design and pick colorways. I spent one full night cleaning the bead room - I made great headway, but there's still a long way to go. At least we can now move around in there again, and I cleared off 14 beading trays that had been covering every inch of horizontal surface!! There's definitely going to be a  bead garage sale in the future and I've already started setting things aside for that as I go along.

Tonight I've been working on colorways for my new kit/class Reversible Star Shine. I'm totally loving how this one works up and all the design options for it. Necklace, bracelet, earrings, ring...no problem!

The 2012 season is basically here. I think I'm well rested and potentially well-prepared. Time will tell! But here's what's coming up in case you aren't aware:

Texas Bead Retreat, Temple, TX - Jan. 19-22  The retreat is sold out. I'll be teaching one class and have kits available.

Tuesday, January 10th - class registration goes live for the Bead & Button Show where I'll be teaching a record 11 classes, and have a booth with kits. Here's the link to my classes:
Jill's Classes
Good luck getting your first choices!!

I'm teaching in Tucson at the Best Bead Show for the first time this year in addition to having a booth. Registration is open for those four class now at:
http://www.bestbeadshow.com/BestBeadShowClasses/BestBeadShowClasses.aspx

And in early March, I'll be setting sail on the Bead Cruise! I'm so excited for my first cruise. More info at:
http://memorycruisin.com/beadcruise.php?page=ship

In late March I am totally thrilled to be heading to Seattle to teach at Quiltworks:
http://www.quiltworksnw.com/cartgenie/prodList.asp?scat=392

There's more in April (a trip to Pittsburg!) and May (Detroit!) and then June rolls around and it's Milwaukee, of course... Poor Winston is going to go back to sleeping on top of my unpacked suitcases between trips again, isn't he???

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Guilty fingers

Mom asked me tonight if I was ever going to start beading again. I told her I hoped so.

Post Book Syndrome (PBS) is still holding me in it's nasty little grasp. I had started beading something that I still believe will grow up into a fine national class project a few days ago, but I haven't touched it now...well...since my last blog post about the darned Swarovski pearl organization.

This happens to me at least once a year, and usually around this time. My brain goes on hiatus. My fingers go on strike. I sit and read books and watch stupid tv and sleep a lot. I hear some people call this "taking time off." But around here, it worries folks because in general I never stop. Ever.

And it's actually an inconvenient time to close down the Jill Machine because all of 2012 is shimmering in the near future and demanding new projects. I'm trying to remind myself that this is kind of like a computer rebooting. You've got to power it down for it to reset all the systems. Then when you power it back up again it works like a charm again.