xmas preview

Thought I would post a couple spoilers... yeah no i just wanted to take another crack at posting pics :)Sneak peak at a certain something I made for someone blonde

A Poppy Bob special :)


a new pattern that I'm hoping turns out like I want otherwise I'm going to owe a certain crochet buddy a new handmade item



Still in the works obviously... I'm hoping it will get done in time for Poppy Bob to take it home....

That's all of the handmade goods for now... I really wanted to do more but there has not been enough time... you may see a few things pop up here before the big day but only if i have time...

Work Work Work Pt2

Finals are here! I'm excited and stressed out at the exact same time... I made it and can focus on other things like christmas and not caring about school... but life would make sure that I didn't have a moments rest... I've just managed to replace one workload of worries with another... to demonstrate let me give you a glimpse of my xmas project list....
cabled gloves
knitted hat
tardis gloves
cabled hat
tiny puppy
knitted monkey
socks

The list progresses from there... and actually it is really nice cause the knitting doesn't stress me out the due date does... I wish I had known about some of this stuff a couple months back because then it would all be done by now... but in true beka form I couldn't make up my own mind about what i wanted to do when so here i am pretending that i've got it all under control... what i wouldn't give for a set of magical elves to do my bidding....

To a different subject... I joined a knitting group here... bunch of ladies that meet at aromas... and although they are all very very nice i'm starting to get the feeling that I am one of the more normal among them.... which is really strange given my scifi/comic book streak... although it could be that they are very normal and i'm just not used to that kind of person? I don't know whatever it is i'm a little baffled... oh and they are all obsessed with pintrest... i mean don't get me wrong pintrest is nice for inspiration but its very annoying otherwise because people do not consistently link their pics to the original pattern/instructions... but i'm starting to wonder if it is a generational thing cause even though i'm not that much younger than some of these women you would think they never blog surfed or even tried googling some of this stuff...

Work Work Work

Lately I've felt like a need to find a hole to crawl in to shield me from the world... there is so much stress with school and life that sometimes i don't know how to tune it out... but I have managed to keep up with almost everything and I'm quickly approaching the time of year I have been dreading since August... signing up for next semester... I don't want to think about next semester... I don't even want to live in next semester... the good news is that I will only be taking three to four classes next semester (plus a lab) and they all land on MWF.... the bad news is I'm taking classes next semester and they make for some long days on Mon and Wed.... life seemed so much simpler when I worked retail... I went to work... I did the job... I collected a paycheck... but I know I need to finish this so off I go to register for classes that will cause me more stress next year....

On a different note... my bday is coming... I'm turning 25 and somehow that doesn't really bother me... see it's not the numbers that bother me... it's the feeling like life is passing me by and i'm missing all the best parts... I'm 25 and I haven't graduated school not even once... I have a husband who is the most amazing man I've ever met but have still managed to fail and giving him a family.... oh and I've got this weird body that sometimes decides it doesn't want to cooperate.... But I know my life is good... it's hard work but it's a good life

ok done being nostalgic... life is good and school is hard that's the bottom line... the rest just falls in all over the board... but maybe someday i'll get better at juggling it all lol

School Daze

I'm back in school... and I'm exhausted all the time... i mean literally I go to class I come home and all I want to do is sleep.... but I can't sleep because I have homework and housework that is just piling up all around me.... although it probably does not help that I get up at the crack of dawn now when Joel gets up.... I can't really help it I have tried sleeping in but all I do is toss and turn until I finally get up... so I have given up and now I just get out of bed and do what I can until I can go to school...
Oh and I've gone back to drinking coffee every day... which isn't quite as hard on my stomach as I thought it would be... although I am improvising an espresso at the moment to make my own lattes... I am looking into an actual espresso machine but it will have to wait until my spare change isn't required for important things...
I am enjoying school and my classes and seeing people on a regular basis I am just.... so tired... all around tired thus the complaining.... oh well I carry on...

school

School stinks... just when I thought it couldn't get more complicated it did... see my CLEP scores got send but only 2/3 of them... yay so I get to spend my afternoon trying to fix their stuff... again... grrr... good thing I'm already hiding out in my house...

Hubby update

I've been running on a hormone high for about three days so this may be a bit more gush than I normally do but here goes... So Joel started his job on monday and by tuesday he came home in a suit with his badge holder and I couldn't have been more proud when he walked in that door he looked so professional and attractive (despite the fact that his suit is a little too big lol) I just couldn't believe that The Lord had blessed me with such a man.... but that's beside the point... like I said... hormone high... anyways Joel seems to be enjoying his job... he leaves early in the morning and comes back before 5pm which is nice for me... now if we could just start adding a paycheck to that equation and this would be amazing lol... I got registered for classes last week but so far have only been able to get two.... grr but I've got a couple irons in the fire that should get me at least two more... and i'm hoping to get an override from whoever is teaching physiology of exercise.... but we will see... so I guess pray for Joel to continue well in his job... and pray that I can get more classes... life... yay

House! Part 2

We have a house! for real this time there is a house and it is all ours... or so says the signed paperwork... the apartment is beautiful... I'll add pics when I get all my stuff moved in... It has two bedrooms, a perfect kitchen with all new appliances, a giant living space, two giant bathrooms, and a dining room, plus a full sized washer and dryer... am I in heaven? why yes I am... One downside to everything... we have to give the pets away... but the Lord seems to be providing for that... I have an incredible woman that emailed me about Alice the bunny yesterday... she supposedly has a garden with a play area for her to run around in so I will probably go see for myself today or tomorrow... Justin Maynard is helping us move all of our stuff which is amazing of him... and we plan to have it at least most moved by today or monday... but for now i'm starving so i'm off to my local coffee shop (which is INCREDIBLE by the way) :)

House!

Yay I have a house... well sort of... I found an apartment that is gorgeous... It's a two bedroom at park place city center and we are just waiting for them to put our application through and if all goes well we will move in on sat yay!

housing update

Housing update....

Just pulled up to the first house I was supposed to see with the relator.... I'm not living here.... the neighborhood could be worse but the house itself looks aweful... it's technically a townhouse but the outside is run down and the whole entire block looks like it needs someone to turn a firehose on it and just spray it all down to get it clean... I'll go see the inside but it would have to be one heck of a house for me to put an application in... and she said she had two applications already.... yeah... right... no one in their right mind would live here for the price they are asking.... i could go live in my old apartment in Chesapeake and Joel could drive to work and we would probably save money and it would be nicer... lol

So to sum up first house is a big fat NO!

Keep you posted...

Moving... Again

We are moving.... again.... It seems like every time I turn around I'm packing boxes... I hate moving I always feel really disorganized and scattered... which I realize is my normal state of being but it irks me because I have to become organized and unscattered which is not my strong suite and I don't have any idea where to begin.... but it happens... little by little... all i can say is I'm not looking forward to doing this with little people in our house and all their little accoutrements.... but on the bright side we shouldn't be moving for a while again so that's exciting....

Today I'm trying to get myself together enough to have most of the house ready for when I leave... which is killing me... slowly killing me lol... I know this is what I signed up for but moving without my husband is crap.... and I'm totally over it lol

Ok enough of the pity party I get into annapolis on may 3rd and then we will be down into newport news by may 15th so if ppl want to know where we are that is all i have set in stone lol...

No Pressure...

So a week or more ago I decided I was gonna get my act together and sell stuff on Etsy.... except here's the problem... I hate pressure... even if it's from myself... if someone tells me to do something (except for my lovely husband) I almost always run in the exact opposite direction...and what do you know this project is no different... I mean seriously I even have Leslie's bday present from two months ago still sitting in my living room and that's gotta be finished by the end of the month when I leave but have i worked on it? of course not... that would be giving into the man.... the point is that for the few weeks I have not touched my jewelery supplies... well uless you count my new shield bracelet which by the way turned out smashingly well...


The bracelet is buttons i found on etsy and hemp... I'm considering trying it with different buttons since this came out so well but this one was just to satisfy one of my random crafting cravings...I've also been crocheting cute little dudes like this....



He's husky out of one of my new books... it took me time to adjust the yarn size to the pattern but i finally figured it out...

The point of this rant is simple... pressure gets to me easily... even pressure I put on myself... so it may be a week or it may be three months before I get stuff out there... but it's cool people support me either way

Home Alone.... Again

Well Joel left for a week in the field yesterday and he will be gone till next week sometime... which you know should make me really sad and stuff but all I can be is jealous cause I know they do lots of boring stuff in the field but I also happen to know that they get to shoot really cool guns.... which is just not fair...

Couple days ago Joel told me that by the end of the trip he would prob be rank first or second in his class... which is really cool... except it does nothing more for us than bragging rights... but I am proud of him anyways and I stick my tongue out at the army.... I mean you would think that they would be trolling places like this looking for good leaders to put in the fleet... I mean force? unit? brigade? oh well I may not know the correct army term but I'm learning fast.... I've already converted some of my lingo like "base" to "post" although my brain still sometimes has to take a minute to translate things... the other day a woman asked me if I lived on or off post and it took me a couple seconds to realize what she was asking me... I could almost see my brain cells scrambling around the insides of my head looking for the "navy to army" translation dictionary.... but back to the main point... you would think that the army would have scouts at these bases looking for capable leaders... I know that the program evaluates their leadership skills and abilities... no for real they get evaluated from time to time and get a score... the army purposefully rotates these boys through a schedule of leading the unit so that they can evaluate their leadership skills.... but then what? give them a score and say "good job son"... there has got to be a better plan than that at work.... or not who knows....

By the way my blog should get more pictures and things soon because I bought myself a nice little camera.... Joel gave me money from our tax refund to get a really nice one... so I got online and started looking and after about an hour i gave up and called Erin.... lol she patiently took me through what I probably wanted and what to look for which was really cool of her... so fairly soon you should be seeing pics of my house and my town... and some of my newer projects... although I've been toying with the idea of starting up a "beadingmonkey" blog where I can exclusively put up my crafts and things... I'm just not sure how much I wanna mix my personal life with my "business life" so i'm thinking about separating the two... but that's at least another week or two off and there will be a post here once i've gotten up the courage to get it up....

Goals

So I've decided to quit hiding behind "it's not quite ready" and get some stuff up on etsy... so here are my goals for the next month or so....

1. Produce jewelry nice enough to sell
2. Take pictures and post on etsy
3. Do not get distracted by other projects
4. Do not get discouraged when people do not buy them
5. Continue to pretend like I can design and that I've got the talent to pull this off
6. Persevere to the end even if it does not come out like I envision

Pray please because I am my own worst critic and I have never felt like my stuff was ready but i'm never gonna know till I get it out there and see how people respond to it.... so just pray that I can persevere till I get some stuff on there...

Coming Home

The Lord is faithful... that is what I have been reminded of constantly for the last two weeks.... The Lord is forever faithful to His children.... Not only did I see the Lord take care of a family that is very near and dear to my heart these last two weeks but I watched him take care of me in all the daily things... and He was gracious enough to keep me healthy so that I could have the pleasure to serve them... the Lord seems to have made it his personal mission to remind me that He is always faithful to us and I always love seeing it... many thanks to all the people who helped me this week and gave us a place to stay and just made my life easier in general.... Love you all...

This week

This week I am back in Annapolis for a bit of time... I'm here helping some very very good friends of mine while they are caring for a dying family member... Grandmama is very sick and will soon join her Lord in heaven but for now she is here with us... So early this week my friend Leslie and I made the 16 hour drive out to Annapolis to care for the family... By the grace of God I have stayed fairly healthy this week... I had a small instance on Thur night where the toilet and I got friendly but other than that i've been ok which has been a blessing because I'm not sure if I could get it all done otherwise... but the point is pray for this family... watching a loved one die is hard at any age and this whole family is taking it very very hard... and I don't believe anyone was prepared for what they have gone through in the past few days... so lots of prayer for all of them and if you wouldn't mind slip one in for me too... because to be honest watching someone go through all of this is terrible too... Thanks to all :)

Here comes the train

It's a good thing that I don't actually get to bed at a decent time these days because between my neighbor and the train that rumbles past my house and likes to blair his horn I would never sleep... I mean I sleep like the dead when I'm with Joel... In fact I've got a working theory that I catch up on all the sleep I lose during the week when he comes home on the weekends... but it's not like i'm sleeping when the train comes around at 10pm or when my neighbor comes home from work at 2am so I guess it's all good lol...

Enough complaining though... This week I've been back into the incredible land of jewelry... I discovered a place called Artfire.com which is not all that exciting if you've ever sniffed around Etsy.com but I have found that artfire is an incredible resource for craft supplies... I ordered colored wire there and am experimenting in jewelry land... so far I have cranked out three different bracelets that I am wearing around to see if the wire holds up as well as I'm hoping it will... the wire is actually aluminum which means its slightly more malleable than the stuff I normally work with... and by slightly I mean a lot... But it seems to be doing well so far and I'm not careful with my jewelry so...

I also found a website that lists a lot of different chain maille weaves... the site is extensive but the directions are difficult so I'm exploring the internet for better options... but I figure I can start with some basic weaves and see how they hold up then get more elaborate to set me apart from other crafters... but the switch has been nice... it made me remember why I loved jewelry and why I got into it... it's a good activity for an ADD person like me... good results quickly lol

I will try to post some stuff soon and if there are things ppl want let me know then you can test my materials for me :) I am always looking for new guinea pigs...

Quick list of prayers....

That the Lord would direct us on where we need to be as far as a church goes...

That the car would either fix itself or I will be able to find a mechanic that doesn't give me the run around....

That my W2s will not get lost in the giant pit of life sucking that is gymboree...

That Joel will be safe in the field and me while i'm traveling this week...

Thanks all love you all

Samples Part 2

Ok so sorry about the two separate postings but you wouldn't believe how hard it is to post more than one pic on here... i had worked on the last posting for about an hour and i got to my last two pics and managed to delete them so i just figured they would have their own posting... so this is the post to show you my two favorite pieces

This fairy was my first attempt at a fairy.... it is one of my favorite pieces cause all the colors came together perfectly and the whole thing just popped nicely.... you probably can't see it but i did this technique with both of the fairy's wings where I faded the color as i worked inward and it ended up looking awesome...


This design is my all time favorite... I found it at Urbanthreads and fell in love... the only thing that I think i will change on my own is the color... I mean don't get me wrong I love the color I used but I think I will also do a version with a red iridescent thread as well...






ok you've seen the stuff reviews please! I need all the feedback and inspiration and ideas I can get!

Samples : )

Real quick I thought I would post some samples of my work so that you guys could see where I was coming from and the rut that I'm stuck in...

The first sample is just a fun little hedgehog that I found somewhere... I thought he was really fun and lovable so I whipped him out... he is a patch done on white fabric so all you have to do is peel the back off and iron him on... in the pick he is against a black background for contrast....



The next pic was my attempt at a rose pattern... the pattern itself was actually very pretty and elaborate but I managed to screw up the stitching so it ended up like this.... this sample was done on purple fabric and would have become a patch if I had managed to pull it off...


The next sample is my attempt at a chidren's design... now admittedly I killed this design the minute i put it on black fabric... i think my thought was the colors would really pop that way... but in general i'm not a huge fan but to be fair I am always my own worst critic so help me out... is it childish and fun enough? This design is also a patch mostly cause I wanted it to be really easy for the moms to get my designs on their kids clothes...

Ok... next one is my "monster latte" lol see what I did there? with the joke? cause he's a monster and he's holding a latte... ok i'm done anyways I believe I found this guy at Urbanthreads.com which has become one of my new best friends... i did him on black because i found this awesome pastel purple color and i wanted it to show but i feel like i killed the design yet again so.... but in general is he cute? is he the kind of thing I should be investing in?






Next comes my purple fairy... Now this was a second attempt at a fairy the first one I did was extremely colorful and bright and I went with different tones on this one and it may have come out muted.... interestingly enough this is one of the only designs that I wonder if I should have put onto black fabric... this design and the next one were both created as patches to test how well they would work and wash on clothes before I began selling them... they have stayed really nice so far....

What I'm up to...

So I haven't posted in like two months but they were busy months and this is why my diary died out when I was a little kid... anyways so there is plenty going on in my life at the moment and by plenty i mean I'm stuck in the house all the time in a little backwoods hamlet that is two hours from any type of civilization.... but still i like it here it's cute and pretty most days I like having the time on my hands... Right now I've been working on several different craft venues... mostly cause my rampant ADD will not allow me to just focus on one... I'm turning out lots of little embroidered iron on patches which is a whole lot of fun but murder on my eyes... but that's why God created reading glasses lol... I bought myself an itty bitty sewing machine and and slowly working through a couple fabric projects... I've got a couple set of crocheted gloves in the works.... and various other yarn projects that haven't quite made it beyond conceptualization....

But this week oooh this week is cooking... I have discovered a treasure trove of dairy free recipes at the Whole Foods website which I am really excited to try along with several other recipes that are not as dairy free but that's ok cause their not really for me anyways... the only problem I'm coming across is that for most of the week I'm all alone in my house and I mean I can put away some food when I want to but I'm finding that when I'm alone I really don't eat as much... Now on the weekends when Joel comes home food disappears faster than I can replace it.... I think it is all the extra training he is doing... or maybe it's just that he has to eat at the mess hall during the week... but I don't remember him putting away this much food on a regular basis...

Anyways the point is that cooking is my project this week... But I was hoping people would leave me ideas for other projects either here or on my facebook... the projects can be anything from patches to jewelry to crocheted things... i just need.... inspiration... so that's the cry for help... inspiration!