And then there's Cockatoo

Here are the three main colors I'll be working with for the Spring/Summer 2012 Color Report.  From left to right we have Driftwood, Sweet Lilac, and Sodalite Blue.  

A visit from the Snot Monster at the beginning of the month followed by a 10 day migraine cluster have left me woefully behind on my projects so I haven't had time to photograph the project I'm working on.  I'm using Driftwood, with Sweet Lilac as the secondary color, and accents of Cabaret, a deep rich fuchsia.  I'm making a slightly modified version of Beki Haley's "Twinkle, Twinkle" necklace.  If you click on the link it will take you to Beki's kit page and that will give you an idea of what I'm making.  


This link will take you to the Pantone website where you can see all the Spring/Summer 2012 colors and take a brief color survey.

I've always said that I like and can work with all colors.  Not true.  I don't think I'll ever be able to work with Cockatoo.  I absolutely hate this color.  Hate it!  In my mind this is the color of sickness and fear.

When I was 4-6 years old my Mom was in and out of hospitals having all sorts of scary, hush-hush, and mysterious surgeries.  My brother and I would come home from school and she would just be gone.  One of my Grandmother's widowed sisters would be there to take care of us; my Dad would come home late from work every night after visiting hours were over and then spend most of the weekends at the hospital, but we would never allowed to visit her.  Even after she came home we weren't allowed to see her, the bedroom door was always closed.  And every time she came home from the hospital she would have all these plastic bedside accessories;  a small water pitcher, soap box, toothbrush holder, etc. and they were this exact color.  

I find my own reaction completely astonishing; four decades later and I still can't look at this color without getting upset.
  

On A Journey

This is just a quick post to let everyone know that I finally split this blog into two;  one devoted mostly to beading, and the other to my journey as a belly dancer.  Please give it a look see:  SaraBeth's Belly Dance Journey.

I was in a hurry to get the new blog up and running so I'll be tweaking it every now and then, whenever I find the time to play.  I've also decided to keep the same name for this, my beading blog, since there will be some cross posting and mainly because I like it.

I've started my next round of color report project for Spring/Summer 2012 and will be talking more about that later in the week after I've got myself caught up on a few things here and there.

What's In A Name

A rose by any other would name would smell as sweet, right?  Of course it would.  But this isn't about roses, this is about splitting my belly dancing bead blog into two separate blogs in preparation for the changes that are to come in both my beading and belly dance life.  

I'm going to keep the name "SaraBeth's Belly Dancing Bead Blog" for the beady part of my life simply because I like it, but I do need a few suggestions for the belly dance blog.  So don't be shy!  Speak up and throw a few ideas at me!

 

I'm still going strong with my 365 Days of Dance practice and I have something new and exciting planned for my 365 Days of ??? in 2012.  There will also be some interesting and fun things happening in my belly dance life very soon.  

I recently came to the conclusion that having my life speeding along at Mach 1 was no longer acceptable, so I've decided to rev things up a bit by remodeling the house.  I'll be temporarily giving up my bead closet for a bigger and better one, storing my stash in different parts of the house, and doing most of my beading for the upcoming Spring/Summer 2012 color report in the kitchen.  That, in turn, means we'll be eating lots of take-out and delivery on TV trays in the living room.

It's possible that I may be completely, totally, and utterly insane by December.
 

Margie Is Doing A BOGO

Beautiful lampwork brooch by Kristy Nijenkamp

My bad!  I forgot to mention in my Sept. 7th post that Margie is doing a BOGO with the most recent color report.  

When you buy a copy of the Fall/Winter 2011 report she'll send you a link to a free copy of the very first ever color report, Fall/Winter 2008.  But hurry because this is for a limited time only.

Click here for the link to her website.

Seeing The World Through Indigo Eyes

A few weeks ago Jennifer VanBenschoten asked the artist panel for her "Beading Daily Blog" the following question;  "What are your favorite colors to work with?  What are you least favorite colors to work with?"  You can read my answer, as well as what other bead artists had to say by clicking on the link above. 

Any combination of purples, violets, greens, yellows, and golds have always been, and will probably always be my all time favorite, and I've always found palettes that are sophisticated, bold, elegant, or sensual to be the most exciting for me to work with;  something magical, like this:

Have you ever heard the expression that motherhood changes everything?  Trust me on this, it does, and in ways that you can't imagine if you don't have children.  Color preference was something I definitely never considered, but after my daughter was born the range of color combinations that I liked started to include subdued, romantic, delicate hues, like this:

Same colors, different moods.  


I love that having a daughter named Indigo has helped me to see everything, not just color, in an entirely new way.    

I'm seeing the world through Indigo eyes.


And before I close this post I must tell you that the "Fall/Winter 2011 Color Report" by Margie Deeb is now available for purchase on her website.  Take a look at the necklace I made for Deep Teal on page 11.  I'm really pleased with the way that it turned out since blues and browns is one of my favorite color combinations.  After you're done admiring my necklace take a look at Jamie Hogsett's interpretation of Deep Teal on page 18.  She created an amazing 2-strand asymmetrical beaded bead necklace in Deep Teal, Ember Glow, and Quarry.  

August Went Whoosh!

Does anybody know what happened to August?  I seem to have missed most of it, which is highly unusual for me because this month has always appeared to be one boring, sweltering hot day after another.  


Thank goodness we've had all sorts of doctor's appointments to liven things up.

My daughter developed a nasty, scary infection in the blocked tear duct of her right eye which resulted in my having to put drops in her eye and convince her to drink some horrible "bubblegum" flavored liquid antibiotic three times a day.  The drops were easy enough, I put those into her eye while she was sleeping.  The neon pink obnoxious smelling antibiotic was a different story.  I tasted the stuff and it was truly disgusting so I can't blame her for not wanting to drink it.  

And, the doctor wanted to keep a close watch on the infection to make sure it didn't spread into the eye itself which meant taking her for quick trips to his office every 2 days in the 110+ heat.


And I'm getting ready for corrective eye surgery, internal contact lenses, next month and that has involved my own round of eye related appointments.  


So, all this means that there were several afternoons when I simply didn't want to do anything, let alone 30 minutes of dancing.  I almost convinced myself that I was absolutely raving, batty, crazy for even thinking about it.  Crazy I may be, but I'm also persistent.  It was a listless, dull practice with a heavy dose of "I couldn't care less.", but at least I did it.  


I'm still devoting the rest of this month to getting caught up on some neglected crochet projects and I have yet to buy a new camera.  I'm just not in the mood to deal with pushy sales people right now.

Another Sneak Peek

My color report projects are done, done done!  Yipee!!!  I love doing these bi-annual reports but I was getting a bit tired of being in my self imposed bead cave.  

So here is a sneak peek at one of the pieces I made using "Deep Teal."  I apologize for the quality of the picture, my camera has gone kaput on me so I had to make do with the document scanner.  This bracelet is gorgeous, if I do say so myself.  All of those 6mm indicolite crystals and green Swarovski pearls sparkle and glow so much prettier in person.  This is my "Dancing Light Crystal Cuff" from the Dec. '05/Jan. '06 issue of Beadwork magazine.

Now that this bead frenzy is over I plan on devoting much of August to finishing up the 4 or 5 crochet projects that I've been neglecting and a bit of fun beading for myself.  

When I used to work for Beyond Beadery I would make large, elaborate, super sparkly jewelry to wear with the fabulous beaded velvet burnout shawls that Betcey got me hooked on and skirts made from vintage saris.  So now that I'm a work at home Mom I feel like my jewelry wardrobe could use some simpler, more every day types of things to wear.  I'll also be on the look out for a new camera. 

Namaste!

P.S.  Betcey isn't responsible for my addiction to clothing made from vintage sari skirts.  I did that all by myself.