Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Not as planned

Sunday evening we had my brother's family over for dinner and little kid hijinks which culminated in a bath for the little ones in Mom's oversized bathtub, playing with the inflatable boat we purchased for them on the cruise. Is there anything cuter than little naked kiddos running through the house with glee? You'll understand why there are no photos...

Monday night we had massive thunderstorms blow through overnight and the MOMENT it hit, our electricity went out. Wouldn't normally have been a big deal except in typical Jill style, I had left an editing job to the last minute and now I had no light to read! Enter modern day technology to save the day! I spent three hours finishing up by iPhone Flashlight application.

Not a lot exciting going on right now. Making kits to take with me to Seattle on Thursday. I have some instruction tweaking to do on Wednesday and printing to do. Packing. I'm hoping to carve out some beading time in the evenings while I'm there because I have several designs burning in my brain, dying to come out.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Remembering a friend

I woke today to some very sad news for those of us in the Texas region. One of our beloved beading sisters, Janie Warnick, passed away on Thursday after battling cancer. I met Janie about 7 or 8 years ago at the Shreveport Bead Retreat. She was tiny in stature, but huge in heart and personality. She made me feel right at home at my first retreat, and we became fast friends trading silly stories and barbs. Over the years we laughed until my ribs hurt over things like her annual efforts to launch herself into the absurdly high beds at the retreat hotel, and her insistence that she would be a perfect assassin because who would suspect a tiny old grandma would be a stealthy killer?

Janie was the kind of generous woman who would literally give you the beads off her tray because you said you liked the color. She loved to share her beading knowledge, and you can find some of her free tutorials here. She called one of her beading discoveries "The Gift", but in truth, Janie was the true gift. I will miss her lively banter and sparkling eyes full of mischief always. She's one of those people I would never have met were it not for the way our beading world crosses generations and I am grateful, lucky, and enriched to have known her. Farewell, my dear friend.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Cleaning up after myself

I am a strange mix of a fool for organization, order, and cleanliness, and a slovenly whirlwind of a pigsty. I love having a specified place for everything, but the truth is that I have many more things (beads) than places. The other truth of my life is that while I like to put things away when I am done with them, I am never done! Which means I end up with stuff everywhere. And it builds up until I either have a strange 3am cleaning fit, or someone comes to the house.

In this case, we've got company coming. My niece and nephew, who are now almost 5 and 3 and can find the coolest stuff to get into any place, any time, are coming to visit on Sunday. So that means Saturday is whirling dervish clean up day. If it can't be put behind a closed door, it needs to be put up high. Our seed bead racks get covered with a blanket in the "out of sight, out of mind" principle. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But those kiddos are always worth the effort. I'm smiling just thinking about them coming through the front door!

Wish me luck!

My own worst enemy

I am SO guilty of making things too hard. For instance - wanna know why I haven't blogged in a really long time?
  • Because I have too much to say and it's going to take too long to say it all and then it's going to be the world's longest blog post and no one will read it anyway
  • Because everyone else's blogs always include a photo every post and I don't and that means I suck so I might as well quit
  • Because I don't have time. Um. Pinterest? Facebook? Napping? Reading? I'm sure those don't take any time from my life at ALL.

I have come to realize the error of my ways. And I'm back. Daily. Maybe just a quick soundbite some days, but I'll be here. And I'll take my time catching up on things like The Book, The Cruise, The Cool New Projects. I hope some of you are still out there to listen to me!

And as a present for waiting so patiently for me, I present to you...the cover of my book, which will debut Sept. 4th.