Some Fish Tales

Now that I can sit for more than a few minutes at the computer, I hope to catch up on posting AND reading blogs...I have missed it more than you will ever know.

We have a Challenge/Swap ongoing at Beaddreamz- beaded fish! It has caught on like nothing else and folks are making lots of fish in all different sorts of shapes and sizes.

Here are my two offerings, so far! The BFAC took all my beady and sitting effort, but it is done and now I get to play!

I see many, many more of these fish. They do take longer to make the embellished ones, but those hold their shape so much better than the peyote-only fish bodies.

Maybe I won't even have to get the tree decorations out, and as the tree is pre-lit, can just hang all my fishies and some beaded dolls on it this year.

Being a grown-up is SO much fun!

Happy Creating! Click on the pic to see it full size..

Whew!

Lots of snow, lots of great times with family, plenty of good food, and a whole sh#tload of snow! To me, that is the recipe for a perfect Winter Holiday!

But yes, I did bead- a bit.

Here is a pair of earrings I made to go with the Holiday Donut- that went to a friend who fell in love with it, and whose birthday is generally ignored by her family(Dec 28- she gets 'Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday' all in the same sentence!).

Here is a few photo of the early snowfall- we ended up with 8-12 inches, depending on which side of the house you walk.

May the Love in your Life ever grow, your thread remain free of knots,

your beads sorted, your Muse happy, and your tree always upright!

Best of the Season to you all!

Santa's and Mrs. Santa's belly buttons...

These turned out to be alot of fun!

Susan Elliot of http://playswithneedles.blogspot.com/

showed these made with circular pretzels and milk chocolate

kisses the other day. I was intrigued, and as I wanted to

make alot of small food gifties for principals, etc, they seemed

just the ticket!

I liked the idea of trying it with the Hugs- the white

chocolate striped kisses. Here they are, ready to go

into the oven. Had to lower the temperature from

350 to 300 degrees, but still baked them for 3 minutes.

These I call Mrs. Santa's bellybuttons- they are the

peppermint striped flavor, and really appreciated the

lower 300 degree temp for baking- also chopped off

30 seconds of baking time, for a total of 2.5 minutes

for these pretties.

Don't they look yummy??!!Just try making them

and NOT eating a few...

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Breaking with 'The Big T'

Most folks don't even give this a thought...the Big 'T', or Tradition,

rules many holidays in our lives. Indeed, Tradition rules

much of most aspects of our lives. We go to certain restaurants, visit

certain relatives (and avoid others), etc, etc, all without thinking

of whether we really enjoy any of it.

I am tossing Tradition out this year, at least as far as

decorating my tree with the things I want to see on it for a month.

If my two daughters want the traditional decorations, they will have

to drag them out of their boxes in the spare room and put them on

when they come to visit.

What a relief it is to not even THINK about hauling all that mess out!

There were bits and bobs of unfinished pendants, pendants I would

ever wear, beaded dolls (including my Fish!), as well as some

honest-to-goodness beaded ornaments or ornaments with beaded

covers- all these are going onto the tree.

Everything on the tree this year is something I made, and will be fun

to look at in the softly glowing lights of an evening.

I wonder if anyone else will be inspired to toss some Traditions out

the window, and begin one of their own??

You may notice doubles of some of the photos- I tried to get Blogspot

to not turn some sideways, but gave up, and it is a pain to remove the old!

As always, click on any photo to make it full-size.

Happy Holidays, Everyone!