Sale has started!

My etsy store sale has begun!! Buy any one item in the store and get another item of equal or lesser value for half price! Just put JET in the notes to seller box and wait until I send you an updated invoice before paying. The sale lasts until 6pm July 2, 2007.

I also have a special sale for my faithful blog readers: buy the Hand-beaded evening purse and get up to four free pieces of jewelry (maximum value $100)! To get this secret sale, put JET BLOG in the notes to seller box and wait for me to send you an updated invoice before paying.

I am adding new items even now and hope to have everything added by tonight. Happy shopping!!!

Good Friday

We went to Mississauga today to have yummy hot cross buns :) They were delicious as always :) We'll spend the weekend here because otherwise the Easter Bunny may not know where we are on Sunday.

I spent quite a bit of time updating the photos in my etsy store. I felt that they were too washed out and greyed, so I played around with some of the settings. I was able to lighten the background while brightening the earrings themselves. I think the pictures have a lot more colour now and they pop more against the light background. I'd encourage you to have a look :)

I'm still working on this one grey purse at home - I'm using a purse frame and body that I got from Value Village and putting new fabric over it. I'm at the point where I'm gluing parts of the fabric on the body and clamping the fabric down. I work on it whenever I go downstairs. I am being commissioned to do another purse as well; I'm really excited about that one. It'll have seed bead fringes with faceted amethyst rondelles (very small sparkly amethyst) at the bottom of each fringe. Doesn't it sound decadent?

I have a few more purse ideas. I'm going to try to get them made as well; tomorrow I hope to go and get some fabric for one of them. I'm thinking of entering them in this competition thingy. I don't know that I'd get anything out of it, but it might be worth entering.

Lots of excitement around here

We pick up our new car (with snow tires) on Thursday!!!! We're both very excited. I made arrangements for the insurance, so that's all set up. We've got the parking space for the old car, and everything is falling into place. Yay :)

I ended up buying more semiprecious beads. Some of the freshwater pearl beads are on sale at Michaels so I picked up some of those. Then I went to my favourite semiprecious bead store and bought stuff. Probably too much stuff, I know. :) But I won't be going out for bead stuff for a while now.

I also fixed up the purse I'd made last fall; I am going to try to sell it. It is a beautiful purse and I think I could get some money for it. I'll list it (as well as a couple pairs of earrings - I fixed up all of my earrings to be the same size) tomorrow. While I hope someone will buy my stuff, I don't want to get my hopes up too high. The extra money would be nice, and it would also be nice to get rid of some of the stuff that I've made as well as the stuff that I will be making.

Getting ready to go away

You know how when you go away for a while, you like to come home to a clean house? Well, I do :) I'm going to spend a couple of days at Ian's parent's house, and then I'll be off to Edmonton to spend some time with my family and friends there. Ian will stay at his parent's house until I come back. So we'll be gone for a little over a week, and after all that traveling, I will want to come home to a clean house.

Unfortunately, our place isn't cleaning itself... and even though you might think that I would spend time picking up or cleaning while I'm off work, well, I don't :) I was working on my purse, which consumed a lot of my time, but even before that I wasn't really cleaning. Ever. So we spent some time yesterday and today cleaning - tomorrow we'll finish it off so that we can just pack on Friday.

Speaking of work, I've decided that even if I go back (which I don't think I will), I won't go back to work for my previous manager. It is just too stressful to work for him, and I don't want to spend whatever time I have left working for someone who is not the right manager for me. That means that if I go back I won't be working at my previous job - but I think that's ok. If I ever go back to work, I'll just find another job :)

Holiday party

We went to my company holiday party tonight. You can see pictures of Ian and I before we left for the party here. Aren't my shoes awesome? My feet hurt quite a lot by the time we were done, though. Still, they look fantastic :) I also spent quite a bit of time on my makeup - I'm quite happy with the way it turned out, too. I felt very pretty, and I think I looked pretty, too.

The party was held at RIM Park instead of Bingemans, where it was held last year. There were two main giant rooms where tables were set up. One was a gymnasium with a gym floor and the other was a fieldhouse with a plywood floor. There were a number of smaller rooms upstairs as well. They were nicer than the big rooms, but our friends were in the fieldhouse. That was fine; the plywood was easier to walk on than the gym floor :)

One thing that I especially liked about the venue this year was that the tables were round and set up for eight people and there was space to walk around the tables. Last year, there were long rows of tables and the chairs were very close together. If you wanted to get up, you disturbed 15 people to get out, so having space to walk this year was great. The other thing that I liked about this venue was that there was slightly more network coverage than at the venue last year, so I could more easily find my friends.

The dinner started about a half-hour late. Bingemans still catered the dinner. Unfortunately, that meant that the food was made over at Bingemans and brought to the site so it was a little less tasty than last year. The desserts were ok. Both of us ate too much, of course :)

After dinner there were the usual speeches exhorting the company's success over the last year (yes, we were very successful). The tables near us played some drinking games; whenever any of our main products were named, they took a drink. I don't know how many complimentary bottles of wine they ended up going through (there are a lot of products, and many of them were mentioned at least once), but it was a lot. The company did provide a taxi to anyone who wanted one; as long as the person can legibly write their name on the chit, they could have a free cab ride, and the taxis started showing up at the door at 10pm. Every employee attending also had to sign a waiver saying that they wouldn't drive if they'd been drinking.

When the speeches ended, the dancing began. The music was pretty loud, as usual, and so we decided to leave. As we were on our way out, we met up with some other friends of ours and chatted for a while. I wish I'd known they were there earlier as it would have been nice to sit with them, too - there was room at our table. Oh well, maybe next year. There was one other friend that I'd hoped to see there, but I didn't. I think she was planning on going - I hope she managed to make it, and that she had fun.

Overall, it was fun. The people who knew about the purse thought it looked great and that my shoes were awesome. The people who didn't know about the purse only thought my shoes were awesome :) Some people didn't recognize me because my hair is short and darker than it used to be and I was wearing contacts instead of glasses. I used this to my advantage to not talk to the people I saw that I didn't want to talk to :)

Finished!

I have finally finished the purse. I was supposed to curl for Ian today, but skipped it to finish the purse - a good thing, because the party is tomorrow. I didn't want to be working on it tomorrow, as I wanted to spend the day relaxing or getting ready and not rushing with the purse.

I'm mostly pleased with the way it turned out, as it still looks like I thought it would in my head. I like the chain I used - I think that it modernizes the purse a bit, and prevents it from looking too old. I'm also very pleased with the beadwork, as I think it looks fantastic (especially for someone who's never done this before). If I were to do it again, I would make the lining neater as it looks a bit messy near the top. Also, I'm not thrilled with the way that the zipper went in. I think I should have lined the fabric on the zipper strip with buckram instead of plain interfacing to give it more stiffness - I relied on the shape of the purse to force the zipper into the correct shape, but it didn't work perfectly. I'm not taking it out and redoing it, of course - I'm finished :)

Overall, I like the purse, and I'll be happy to wear it with me tomorrow. Yes, I am going to the party, if only to show off this purse :)

You can see the final pictures here.

Game night

We went to a friend's house to play some games tonight. It was a lot of fun - we got to see some people at work that we like to spend time with :) When we weren't poking fun and laughing at each other, we played Taboo and Alhambra.

We divided up into girls against guys for Taboo, but unfortunately the girls lost by quite a large margin. Listening to people trying to guess the right answer is always funny :) I wish that there were new cards for Taboo, though, as some of the cards are firmly rooted in the late 80s. It doesn't diminish too much from the fun, but some of the things are pretty archaic. Alhambra was also fun - Ian and I had played before, but no one else had. It has quite a fast-moving pace, but still takes a reasonable time to play.

I also put parts of my purse together today. The lining is done, the spacer pieces are added to the zippers, and I've stiffened (with stitch-witchery and buckram) and basted the beaded pieces together. So now I just have to sew the beaded pieces together, make the tabs for the chain, sew the tabs and zipper in, and sew in the lining. I hope to finish tomorrow. The best part is that the purse looks exactly like it did in my head. I'm so pleased with it.

More about my purse, and a little about my work

I am so tired of beading :) I'm almost finished the piece that connects the two side pieces - I underestimated the amount of time that it would take to sew the beads on to that piece. Then again, I've been changing that piece as I go, making it a little wider in some places to make it smoother. I think that it's actually a bit too long on each side; if so, then I'll have to take out some beads.

If I go back to work in the new year, I wouldn't be going back until mid-February at the earliest. The insurance company wants to wait until after I see the oncologist on February 2 before making a decision whether or not to go back. I've been hearing that people are saying I'll be back in January, which isn't true. So now you know - February at the earliest. Maybe never.

Home again

Ian is doing very well and we were able to come home to Waterloo today. He's still limping and hobbling around a bit, but he is definitely healing up well. He sees the surgeon on Wednesday for follow-up and to have his stitches removed.

I'm glad to be home. Even though I had everything I needed to work on my purse in Mississauga, I like having all of my own stuff around me. Speaking of the purse, it's going well. I'm working on the band that separates the two sides. I am about 80% finished that (I hope to finish it tomorrow), and then I'll work on assembling the purse. The plan is to finish it for Friday for the Holiday party.

Part of me really wants to go to the party (after all, I get to dress up :) and part of me doesn't want to go. I don't really know that I'll ever be going back to work - I'm not at all ready to do it right now, and I am beginning to wonder if I'll ever be ready - and while I want to see a lot of people that will be there, I'm nervous and hesitant about seeing some others. I had an email conversation with my manager's boss yesterday that reinforced my thinking that if I do go back, I wouldn't want to return to my previous department. So it might be weird to see people who are expecting me to go back there. I'm also hearing that things kinda suck all over the place there, and so I don't know if I could find a place that would be good for me anywhere there.

As I say, I'm not at all ready to go back right now, so I might be blowing things out of proportion - maybe I'll feel differently after the holidays. Of course this all might be moot anyways because my doctors might not let me go back :)

Ian's recovery (and my purse)

Ian is recovering very well. He doesn't need any painkillers and claims that his knee isn't bothering him at all! The knee is stiff and a bit swollen, of course, but Ian is well. The dressing will stay on until Saturday at about 6pm (48 hours or so after it was put on). We'll stay overnight on Saturday, just to make sure that everything is ok, and we expect to be home Sunday afternoon.

While I'm keeping Ian company I have been working on my purse. I finished the second side!!!! It did take a lot less time to do, even though I did end up re-doing a few parts. I'm quite happy with it. Next, I'll do the gusset or side band piece that will connect the front and back pieces that I've done. I also want to strengthen the beaded pieces and to protect the threads. I've got some heavy interfacing and some stitch-witchery and buckram. I'll bead some test pieces so that I can see which (if either) solution will give me the results I want without melting the threads. The beads are glass and so shouldn't melt - I hope :)

You can see more pictures of my purse here.

Well-fit, and my purse

I had my first Well-fit session today. It was much like any other workout, except that I had someone telling me whether or not I was doing things correctly :) They've started me out slowly, which is good - for the weights, a max of 15 reps at light weight of any one exercise. As it was, I was still exhausted at the end of the session. I had a bit of a headache beforehand that turned into a slight migraine after that.

Before I had a big nap, we went to Home Hardware to find chain for my purse. I decided that I wanted a chain handle. I need about 13" for the handle, but they only cut in foot-long increments. I must have looked quite strange, buying two feet of each of three types of chain at Home Hardware - especially because it was clear that I didn't need even two feet, and that I wasn't buying them as samples :)

Curling and my purse

We saw the final of the curling tournament today. It was pretty good - a close game, for sure, although the game had been pretty well decided by the 6th end. One thing that I didn't like was that people really treated it like a hockey game by yelling at the players. Sigh. We had started out sitting on one side of the arena because they'd told us that we wouldn't get good visibility on the other side. However, after the first end, we decided that the visibility would be fine - and there were fewer people on that side, so Ian wouldn't be crushed by this big guy's water bottle.

I spent part of the rest of the day working on my purse. I've finished the silver-only bands already - I can do each band in about 40 minutes, which is pretty fast. You can see the purse, as always, here. My technique has improved, and I don't have to figure out all the angles again (they'll be the same as the first one), so I think this second side will take less time to do. After that, I'll have to do the band and then put it all together. That's good, because I have less than two weeks to finish it :)

A little curling, pain, and beading

We watched some more curling today. It looked like there were several groups of kids there watching Gushue play - they had tambourines, of all things, and were making quite a bit of noise. We sat as far away from them as possible :) We actually only watched part of one draw today, because we were much too tired to watch any more. It's important that Ian not get sick in the next week because of his surgery, and when he gets cold (as when he sits in a cold arena), he's more prone to being sick. So we took it easy today.

Unfortunately, I was too tired to even curl tonight :( This is because I was up last night with pain. In fact, I've been experiencing a lot more pain lately. They'd told me that as the treatment started to work, I might experience more pain. This is exactly what seems to be happening - the pain is much like it was before I got it under control. My knees are also hurting right now, which may be a consequence of the new coffee table and the laptops' position on it. Finally, I also have a spot on the back of my left thigh that is hurting in a similar way to my sternum. I hope that this new pain decreases soon.

I finished the first side of the purse!!! You can see the pictures here. I'm really, really pleased with it; it looks exactly like I thought it would (which is always a pleasant treat). I think that the purse will look really good. The two sides will be attached to a band in the middle that will give the purse some depth, so now I just have to bead the other side of the purse and that middle band.

Servicing my car

I took the car in to get the other headlight fixed. I guess they're really only good for 52000 kms of driving - who knew? There have been some personnel changes over there, and the service person I knew is no longer there. Instead, there are these new people.... and for the first time since I've been taking my car there, I felt talked down to because I am female. It was something in the tones of their voices they used - I didn't like it. Ian has dealt with the people and he says that they're fine. I think I don't like it there anymore.

At the end of the service, they also weren't forthcoming in getting me an invoice. The car is still under warranty, so the light-bulb change was free. I like to have the invoices for my records, and they just wanted to send me on my way without anything. They offered to mail me the invoice, but I waited for them to print it up.

We're hoping to get a hybrid car in the next few months - I think I'm glad that I'm not going to get a car from this dealership.

On a more positive note, I did some more work on my purse - I'm doing the black background beading now. It's only taking me about 2 hours to do each band, which isn't too bad. There's hope that I'll finish the purse before the party :) There's a new picture here.

Oh yeah, and if you like Scrabble and want to see something HILARIOUS (and I haven't sent this to you), take a look at this.

Bettie Page (and more about my purse)

We watched The Notorious Bettie Page tonight. I'd wanted to see it while it was in the theatre; it's a dramatization of Bettie Page's pinup years. She seems to have been a study in contrasts. The movie portrays her as very innocent up until the end, when she seemed to realize the impact of the photos she'd posed for and the movies she'd starred in, and yet these photos and movies were not really all that innocent. She was an icon of the 50s for her pinup work. Her fetish and nude shots made her an icon, too, albeit more of an underground one. It's hard not to feel a bit sad for her, in a way - she just seemed so naive, and so unhappy. I'm sure there's a comment to be made here about women's history, but I'm not the one to make it :). I really enjoyed this movie, and I'd recommend it to anyone who was interested in the histories of iconic women of the 20th century. There is some full-frontal female nudity and sexual (fetish) situations, so this is definitely a movie for adults.

I finished the vertical sections of the purse I'm making; you can see the picture here. I had to take it with the flash, so you can get an idea of how it'll sparkle. I ended up redoing the single rows of beads, as I decided that it didn't look as good as it could. I'm much happier with it now. I am pretty tired of beading, though - and I'm not even finished the one side :)

My beaded purse

As you know, I've been working on a purse for the company Christmas party (or Holiday party, as it's officially called). Registration for the party on December 15 opened today, and I heard that there are only 2700 spots open (it's a big company) so I registered right away. This means that I have to finish this here purse :)

I've actually started doing the beading now after a couple of false starts. I'd originally thought that I could trace the design onto the fabric and sew the beads on that way. However, my fabric is a bit light, and it kept shifting in the frame (not to mention that the lines I'd traced onto the fabric weren't straight). Also, the technique I was using to sew the horizontal beads on was causing the beads to slant, which wasn't attractive. So I needed to think of something else.

I ended up putting interfacing onto the back of the fabric, which helps a lot. I also put the design on tissue paper and I'm stitching through that. It should tear away pretty easily, I think. I'm also using a different technique to sew the horizontal beads onto the fabric, and it looks a lot better. The work is tedious, but I can listen to the tv while I do it. You can see photos of my work-in-progress here, and I'll update this as I do more stuff. I'm quite pleased with the progress so far, and I think it'll look great once it's done.

Busy day

Ian got home very late last night. I'd expected him home around dinnertime, but I guess they were delayed. It's good to have him home. It's been a busy day today. It's municipal voting day here in Ontario. We both voted this afternoon, of course :)

I had my young women's support group tonight. I'm so glad that I have this group - there are people there that understand what I'm thinking and feeling. There are things I can't comfortably say to anyone who's not experiencing what I am. I know people try to understand and to help, and I'm very, very grateful for that, but it's not quite the same as receiving comfort from people who have metastatic cancer or some other terminal illness.

On a more positive note, I've figured out a pattern for my beaded purse. I think I have enough beads to do this, and I think it'll be nice. I've chosen a simple striped pattern. I've also been playing with different types of bead layouts, and I think I know how I'm going to sew the beads. I hope it turns out ok :)

We'll spend the rest of the evening watching the election results come in :)

Craft news

I finished knitting the sweater I was working on. Yay! Now I just have to block it, sew it together, and knit around the neck. That hasn't taken too long.

So since I'm (almost) between projects, and since I've got a Christmas party to attend in a month, and since I don't have a purse that I like, I've decided to create a bead-embellished purse. By which I mean that I will cover the entire fabric of the purse (which I'll also make) with beads. The fact that I've never done this or that I don't really know what I'm doing does not deter me in the slightest :) I'm going to do a red and silver plaid pattern on a black background using bugle beads. Wish me luck :)