Tut time

Yup, that's been the focus of my day! I've drawn a bunch of diagrams, and written a couple of pages. It was a good day's work; I'm pleased with my progress so far. If I keep this pace up, I'll have it finished quite soon. When I write, I like to keep at it until I finish; I get my momentum going, and I like to keep it going. I've always been one to finish things well before their deadlines.

This one is a self-imposed deadline; the editors at Bead and Button told me to work at my own pace. Little do they know that my pace is a fast one; it's just the way I am. I was that annoying kid in elementary school who started researching my reports the day they were assigned, and had them ready to turn in several days before they were due.

I love to start things, and once I start, I like to keep going.

If I've been so busy . . .

. . . then why can't I think of anything to write about?

I should have oodles of things to say, but my brain is just not working. Monday, my son and I picked up a van load of horse manure for the raised garden bed, and we got it all in there and raked before the rain hit. We've now had two days of on and off rain, so it's all nice and wet. The bed is draining beautifully; not a puddle in sight. Once things dry out a little, I'll get it topped up with dirt, and then I can plant my seeds.

I've made a new bead filigree bracelet, Caribbean Sea, and the wonderful folks at Bead and Button want to use it in their magazine. So I'll be hard at work writing up the directions over the next few days. I kept detailed notes while I was making it, as I knew I wanted to write a tutorial for it (if the magazine didn't want it, I was going to put the tutorial in my Etsy!) so now it's just a matter of writing it up and drawing diagrams. I drew one diagram this morning after I got the email from Bead and Button saying that they wanted to use it; but I've spent the rest of the day running errands, so that's as far as I got on that.

Hmmm. Maybe I'll be more interesting tomorrow.

Garden update

Well, it looks like two of our trees aren't going to make it. I was watering today (and building up the water wells around the trees with turned over turf; I just can't seem to let the shovel alone!) and two of them have still not shown any signs of buds or leaves. All the rest have leafed out nicely, so I'm beginning to think that those two are just not going to make it. Oh, well. We'll replace them next year.

Tomorrow morning my son and I are going to drive over to my parent's house and pick up a load of aged horse manure for the raised bed. I bribed him with the opportunity to drive over the hill; he hasn't been on that road yet, and it should be interesting. It's a good road, but rather steep in places, and very curvy. He'll be taking it slower than most, so if you're stuck behind a gold mini-van tomorrow, cut us a break, okay? He'll pull over and let you go by when it's safe to do so.

Little boxes

I ordered 50 little boxes so that I could get my beads that came in annoying zip lock baggies into the nice rectangular plastic boxes that make the beads easy to store and see. I'll bet you can guess what's coming!

Yup, I have more than 50 little baggies of beads stashed in my "needs to be sorted" drawer. But at least now I have 50 fewer baggies of beads!

I found some really cool beads that I'd forgotten about. That's one of the best things about sorting things out; finding stuff. I've already started using some of them. I'll order more little boxes and get the rest sorted soon.

Wonder what else I've got in there?

Drawing diagrams

Yup, my eyes are crossing. I have a real respect for people who draw bead weaving diagrams; they are not easy! But I've made a good start on my beaded bead tutorial; I've drawn the first ten diagrams. That's about it for one sitting; I need a break! So I'm aging some brass beads; that's a good no-brainer thing to do.

Erm, except for the part where I dumped an entire strand on the floor.

Oh, well.