February BJP Finished!!

I am so excited to finally have this one completed. I had a few glitches, mostly in my own mind. I am still not thrilled with the end result, I tried to get too creative on this one and it backfired on me. I had originally wanted to do much more with it, but I am satisfied for now. One thing i am really unhappy about is the back of the "doors" I had planned on covering them somehow with fabric, which I may end up doing yet. I tried several different ways of doing it, and none seemed to work for me. That's why you can still see the outline of letters on the backs of the doors. For now this is how its going to be!

Here is the latest 3-D Ultrasound of baby Bun. Isnt it amazing? Nothing much is different with Jess and her baby. She is still on bed rest. She went to a specialist last week and they are optimistic. Seems as though the little "Bun" has some kidney issues they are watching as well as being in a hurry to meet all of us. Jess is 27 1/2 weeks now and the Dr's hope she waits to deliver until 32 weeks or more. That would be the best thing for Bun. Meanwhile, poor Jess is getting restless just laying around with all of us family bugging her! We all are taking turns cooking, cleaning and helping Jess keep her sanity while Mike is at work. Keep your fingers crossed for them!

May BJP is DONE!!

Well! After a month (or more) of teasing you about my May BJP, I can finally show the end result! I wanted to do this page about my beautiful daughter Jessica and her pregnancy. This pregnancy so far, has been a difficult one with many trials and tribulations. I know in the end, it will all be worthwhile, but its been tough on Jess and Mike and the extended family as well! I don't want to go into too many details here, but Jess is at the 26 week mark and on bed rest. Little baby Bun thinks he needs to come into this world to early, and we want him to stay put for another 6 weeks or so! We are all doing our parts with keeping Jess company while Mike is at work, doing housework and cooking too. That's what families do when the going gets rough right?

So now about the page for May! I wanted to test myself a bit on this one. I wanted to learn how to set a cab in beads, so I set both a "Bun" cab face as well as one to represent Jess. Then the problem was how to sew it onto my page. I also wanted to use a color I don't normally use a lot of - purple! Jess has always had the nickname "J of the B" since she was a little girl. When she asked what the "B" stood for, either her dad or I said "butterflies" so I wanted to represent this in her page as well. I looked through my stash of beads and found these really pretty butterflies in purple and the color palette was born! I wanted the background to be soft and unobtrusive, so I picked this palest of gray color and for drama, selected the dark oily purple tones in the leaves and flowers. I used a dark grape for the vines, and some swarovski crystal flowers for some sparkle. The only time I strayed from this color palette, was when I used the baby blue around the bun cab (because hes a boy after all) and to represent Jess's beautiful auburn hair. The quote at the bottom reads "Mothers and daughters are closest, when daughters become mothers" Very fitting, dont you think?

Update, Elvis and a WOW!

What do all 3 of these things have to do with each other? Why, beads of course! I have been plugging away at my Starry Starry Night tapestry. I have 8,000 beads into it now. It is so slow going because there aren't any big groups of any one color. Its so easy to make a mistake and believe me, I have made more than a few. Its no easy task ripping out 94 beads in a row! Yikes! I have also done a pattern of Elvis for Suzanne Wester for sale at beadcoop. I don't have any updates of my latest BJP as it is still a secret for my daughter Jess. Stay tuned though, its coming right along!

Now for the WOW! I rarely am impressed enough by a business to brag about it, but cannot deny the service I recently got from Terri at Foxden. I ran out of a crucial color for my May BJP. It was a size 15 Japanese bead called Dusty Orchid. I went to the Foxden on Friday at 12:52 pm and placed a small order of size 15's. Would you believe they were in my mailbox the NEXT day? I was in shock! Her prices are great and she carries all the sizes of Delicas along with other types of beads including a mouth-watering selection of little size 15's. They all come in fliptops too, which I love. As I said before, WOW! Thanks Terri Ann! Check out their site for some beauties!