I busted my butt!

Well, actually, I only bruised it (I think). Don't ask me how, but I managed to fall off of the seat of a rowing machine today and land coccyx-first on the metal track part of the rowing machine. Needless to say, it hurt. A lot. Thank goodness for ice and a trainer who knows when to push me to keep going and when to let me hold a bag of frozen corn to my butt and cry like a little girl.

I usually do great with rowing, too, and I've never had anything like that happen before. As I was lying on the ground gasping for air, I saw a biog blob of string on the track, and it didn't look like anything that would have come off of me, so I suspect that it was something that got caught up in the machine and caused the wheels to slow or skip while my body kept moving.

And that was my day. How was yours?

(PS: Green and teal bracelet is coming along great)

Selling off some beads!

To help further my goals of less clutter and more belly dance workshops, I'm listing beads in my Etsy shop! Two new lots so far, but more coming throughout the week, so keep your eye on the Beads section of my store.

I'll be listing more lampwork and other focals, some Czech glass and whatever other miscellaneous stuff I find that I'm not planning to use any time soon. I might also work on migrating more jewelry over from my old website to the Etsy shop.

Artbeads.com Bead IQ Trivia Sweepstakes!

Artbeads is currently running a fun sweepstakes with an optional Bead IQ Quiz! Until September 16th, you can enter by following this link, taking the quiz if you want, and then entering your information for the prize drawing. One lucky winner will receive a prize package including $150 worth of beads and supplies and a $100 Artbeads.com gift certificate. Pretty sweet!

I got an 8 out of 10 on the quiz. What's your score?

(Yes, I am still an Artbeads.com blog partner, no, I am not getting any sort of kickback for promoting the contest)

Teal isn't green

When people tease me about only wearing green, I remind them of the numerous teal items in my wardrobe, and half the time they say that doesn't count, because teal is blue-green. But my opinion is that teal is its own separate color, with greenish tones, which looks good with some shades of green. But it is not green.

I mention this because I am beading in teal right now. I intended to bead in green, but my green beads were too similar to each other, which means I need to go dig through my stash again for better greens. So I'm working with teal instead. Of course, the teal is going into a reversible bracelet, the other side of which will be green (when I find the right greens), so when all is said and done, I will have a new green bracelet.

But it will also be teal.

Which is not green.

Sparkly and complete

At last, it's done! I finished my 2011 Layne's Legacy -- Beading For A Cure necklace in the nick of time. I put the finishing touches on Sunday night, and it needed to be photographed and postmarked by today. Wow, was that cutting it close!

I decided to finish it out with a spiral rope, broken up by a few simple strung sections to use more of the larger beads (I actually hadn't used any of the pearls yet, after all). And I found the perfect button to use as a clasp, a pretty Czech glass one that almost matches the Crystal Golden Shadow rivolis.

As I neared completion of this necklace, I realized it didn't have a name. The wavy lines of the rivoli section reminded me of all the undulations we've been doing in belly dance class lately, so I felt it needed a dance-inspired name. Undulation doesn't sound very pretty, and naming it after one of my favorite Tribal Fusion dancers wouldn't work, since it is definitely not tribal. So instead I took my inspiration from a book I was reading with lots of vintage belly dance photographs, and named it Salome's Dance. Not that I think the original Salome wore anything like this, and not that I'm certain that she performed something akin to belly dance -- but a lot of early 20th century belly dancers and actresses portrayed Salome draped in gorgeous beads and pearls and chiffon, and this certainly fits that image. So there you have it.

Now to bead something GREEN!