BEADING, ANYONE?

Hi,
It's a clear and cool Monday night after a rain storm this morning.  Another rain storm on the way.  A little wet for San Diego!

Been doing a bit of beading.  My sister, Heather, took me to take a class with a friend of hers in Oceanside a couple of days ago, http://www.oceanskybeads.com/.  The shop folks were soooo nice, lovely selection of beads and we had a great class from Dee Layden.  The class was on finishing, so I took 4 unfinished projects and she showed me how to finish them.  Here's one:



The Carnelian disc is from a necklace that broke in the early '90's.  I had been saving it to use in something new and it finally found a home almost  2 decades later. The root beer colored beads with the gold swirls were purchased in a tourist shop in Old Town San Diego, which inexplicably had a basket of beautiful beads by the cash register for 15 cents each.  What a deal!

Here are a couple of others.  The Juzu beads are going to a friend tomorrow.  (Buddhist prayer beads, we hold them when we chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo as an aid to concentration.  Also, I think they're fun to make.)  Here's some info:   http://sgi-usa.org/newmembers/resources/thealtar/prayerbeads.php



The blue and silver necklace is a Turkish crochet rope technique I learned from Utube.  Never know what you'll find on Utube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DipRVonvYM8



I also took along to the class a pretty green peyote stitch bracelet I had received from a friend and then caught on a doorknob and broke.  Rod Layden repaired it for me.  His artistic work is amazingly beautiful, and the repair is undetectable.  Great afternoon, all in all.

Nate has been with me this weekend.  Pizza as usual.  Fun as usual.  Love bug as usual.   We stopped by Geppetto's, a really awesome toy store. http://www.geppettostoys.com/  They had this thing like a sidewalk sled that transfers the kids wiggles into forward motion.  It was really cool, but I did not have an extra $70.  So I told Nate that we would not buy it today because I did not have enough money right now.  Tonight I was changing purses and found a dime in the bottom of one.  He saw that and said,  "Gramma, that's good, you found some money.  Now we can buy the toy."  If you go to their web site check out the ugly dolls.  When my knitting turns out looking out like that, I rip it and start over!   LOL  They not only do not rip it, they charge crazy prices for it!  I must be getting old.

Apparently a local feral tom cat came in the cat door into the living room while we were all, even Lilo, in the bedroom watching the Olympics tonight .  She loves the Olympics, thank you very much, and my lap stays still a nice long time for her to snuggle. She roots for Canada, so she was happy with the ice dancing result tonight.  The tom sprayed the living room to annoy Lilo.  Lilo is not the only one annoyed.  Anyone know of a deterrent?  Anyone know of a clean up method?  I'm not even sure exactly where it is.  The whole room smells, but it is the worst near the kitty door.  Yuck!  Let's see if it is still so bad in the morning.  Let's hope it airs out.

Lilo is helping me post and she sez goodnight!

Julie

• Location: at home in San Diego
• Mood: chipper
• Music:Nestor Torres, Talk to me

A scarf for Zee, back story, beads

Hi,
My friend Zee was in the hospital, so I knit her a silly lime green scarf in an easy lace stitch.  Hope it cheers her up.

Here's the free pattern.

Easy lacy scarf
Cast on an even number of stitches and knit 1 row.  (I used 22)
Row 1: K2, *K2tog, YO. Repeat from * to last 2 stitches,  K2. Don't forget the last YO before the final K2.
Repeat Row 1 to desired length.  If you work loosely, it will go faster.
Knit 1 row and bind off in knit.

Then I made a couple more since they are fun to make, like potato chips, you can't make just one.  Here's a picture of one of them, a skinny one made with 12 stitches. 



Can you see the pink miniature roses blooming behind?  They are just starting this year.
I strung a necklace to wear on the cruise this afternoon.







I had a massage the other day and my massage therapist, Wendy, was talking about my back issues.  I told her this story.

Around 2000 there was a weekend Buddhist study conference in the San Francisco Bay area.  Dan and I signed up and bought our airline tickets using some coupons we got when an earlier flight messed up.  The week before the trip, I hurt my back by reaching deep into the bottom shelf of the refrigerator to pull out a big bowl of homemade ravioli for a party.  As I dropped the ravioli into boiling water to finish them, my back was popping and extreeeemely painful.  I went to the Chiro twice before the trip and he did his best, but my back was really messed up.  I was walking so funny everyone was asking me what happened.  I got tired of the ravioli story, so I started telling them it was the work of my new 26 year old Brazilian lover.  Ha!

We packed for the trip and were waiting for the taxi to take us to the airport when I figured out I had forgotten to cook the salmon I bought for dinner the night before.  So, I quickly seared the salmon on the grill pan and put it into buns with lettuce and tartar sauce.  I zippy bagged them, dropped them into my carry on and dashed out to catch the cab. 

The bay area was fogged in and our flight was delayed.  I knitted and did not mind the wait, as we would not be late for the conference.  We were traveling the day before to allow us time to enjoy the trip.   We ate the salmon for lunch and everyone asked us where to get one like it.  Better than airport food.   We finally were put on a flight to LA, with the idea we would transfer to a flight to Oakland from LA.  Sorry, homemade.  But SAn Francisco was still fogged in.  A couple flights were going thru to Oakland and the airlines offered me a bunch of freeebie coupons if I would give up my seat for some folks who just had to be there today.  Ok, we're in no hurry.  After an hour they did the same with the next flight, more coupons.   Dinner time came and the airline sent us to Wolfgang Puck's on their dime.  We eventually got to Oakland later that evening, on time for our conference the next day.

Meanwhile, my back is still out.  It was difficult attending the conference and sitting on the hard chairs for an hour at a time.  So another attendee, a Chinese lady named Ellen, asked me if she could help.  She did some kind of body work for a living, I did not recognize the name of the practice.  She asked me to lie down on the carpeted floor of the lobby.  I feared the hotel would object, but she said we would be done before they noticed.  She chanted Nam Myoho Renge Kyo three times in unison with me to get us synched up.  Then she walked around me looking intently.  From time to time she would stop and poke my shoulder, or hip, or back.  Not a big movement like a chiro adjustment, just a nudge.  Then she said I could get up.  I was astounded.  My back was fine.  I enjoyed the rest of the conference.  I asked her for her card, since I wanted to see her again.  It would be worth the flight.  She refused.  She said if she gave me her card, I would be her client and she would have to charge me.  Since this was a freeebie she could not give me her card.  She had some strange logic.  She had a big problem with spiders in her house.  She was constantly being bit by spiders, but she would not spray.  She had decided they were her reincarnated ancestors who had done such bad things they had to come back as spiders, so she could not kill them.  This is not standard Buddhist doctrine.  Her Buddhist leaders tried to convince her to do something about them, but she was adamant.

When I got back to San Diego, I kept my Monday appointment with my chiro and he was amazed.  My back was perfect.   He wanted her card so he could fly to Oakland and take a master class from her.  He was astounded that she had refused to give it to me.  A couple of years later I heard from a mutual friend that she had died of cancer.  I will always remember her body work. 

Good night,

Julie

• Location:home
• Mood: hungry
• Music:SGI Video