Bead Soup Mailed

I mailed my Bead Soup to Kimberly last Friday.  According to the USPS tracking system, it arrived in Grand Rapids today.  It still has a little under 200 miles to go.  Because this is Presidents' Day, the Post Office is not open to the public and  there won't be any mail deliveries—but the trucks still roll.  I hope Kimberly receives her package tomorrow!

Kimberly is a very talented designer, whose tutorials have been published in polymer clay magazines a number of times.  Here are the links to her blog and other sites:

http://www.kimisjewelryandgifts.blogspot.com/

http://www.kimis-jewelry-from-the-heart.artfire.com/

http://www.kidalski.etsy.com/

http://www.kimisdesigns.etsy.com/

http://www.Facebook.com/Kimisjewelryandgifts

http://www.Facebook.com/Kimisdesigns

http://www.Pinterest.com/Kidalski

http://www.Twitter.com/Kidalski

http://www.Flickr.com/photos/Kidalski

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My Bead Soup Blog Party Partner

Lori was very sick with the flu, which caused the Bead Soup Blog Party dates to shift forward a little bit--but now I know that my BSBP partner is Kimberly Idalski from Michigan.  Kimberly and I have emailed a few times and we find that we have quite a few things in common, especially the colors and types of beads that we like.  
    
We both love to work in polymer clay.  From what I've seen of Kimberly's polymer clay work, she's quite a bit more advanced than I am.  Kimberly's work and tutorials have been published!  In fact, she's about to be published again!  Looks like I'll have to stop wasting time on housework and spend more time on polymer clay!
     
I also learned that Kimberly likes to mix polymer clay beads with crystals and pearls in her jewelry pieces, which is something that I frequently do.  I like to combine texture and sheen along with some sparkle. 
      
Another thing we have in common is our pets.  We've both been known as "the Bird Lady" because of our pet birds.  Kimberly still has her parrots, but I'm sad to say that all of my parakeets and cockatiels have gone to the Rainbow Bridge.  We both have dogs, although hers are MUCH bigger than my little Yorkies.
     
We've agreed to mail our Bead Soup packages by the end of this week, as Kimberly had a request from a magazine to submit her work for publication, which interrupted her Bead Soup preparation.  That was fine with me because it gave me time to make a few beaded beads to add into my Bead Soup.  We have plenty of time because we're in the 3rd Reveal.  We'll have almost two months before we have to post photos of what we create with our Bead Soups.
     
I know you'd like to see a picture of what I'm sending to Kimberly, but that's against the rules.  What I CAN do is post a disguised photo of the Bead Soup that I've put together.  
     

I've edited my photo so that it's black and white--after all, I don't want to give away the colors.  Then I used "solerization," which takes away all the detail.  

I JOINED the 7th BEAD SOUP BLOG PARTY!

A couple of years ago I started following Lori Anderson's Pretty Things blog at www.prettythingsblog.com.  Lori is a very special person and a woman of many talents.  She's an artist, who creates beautiful jewelry, as well as an author.  And her hair is pink!  I love that pink hair! 

I've been hearing about Lori's annual Bead Soup Blog Parties, and they sounded like so much fun that this past Sunday, just before the deadline, I signed up for the "7th Bead Soup Blog Party."      

This is a link to Lori's page explaining how it all works:
http://lorianderson-beadsoupblogparty.blogspot.com/p/what-is-bead-soup-blog-party.html

My name is on the list, so now I'm official.  Lori will pair me up with another beader and we'll send each other a package of "quality" beads.  I'm not allowed to give any details yet, but today I bought a fun clasp and a some beads that I love.  I still need to find a special focal bead--or maybe I'll make one.

I'll be learning who my partner is in a couple of days.  Then I'll mail my package of beads to my partner by February 10.  

After that, the real fun begins.  First, we all post a photo on our blogs of the wonderful beads that we receive.  Next, we each create a piece of jewelry from our new beads.  Finally, we each post a photo of our finished pieces on our "reveal" date.

That's what makes it a party!  We hop around to all the other blogs to see what everyone has created.

Thanks for all the work you do, Lori.  Organizing this swap and hop is a huge job!

"MICROSOFT" SCAM PHONE CALL

This morning I received a call from 510-943-3040.  The caller was a man who called me by name and claimed to be from Microsoft.  His South Asian accent was so thick I had a hard time understanding him, but I finally figured out that he was telling me that my computer was sending error and warning messages. 
  
I asked him if he was selling something, but he said he was not a telemarketer.  He told me to go to my computer.
  
I immediately suspected a scam, but I was curious, so I went along with him.  I had no intention of letting him get access to my computer, though.  He asked me about my Microsoft button.  I don't have one on my computer, but I knew what he was talking about.  He insisted that I had a Microsoft button on the lower left corner of my keyboard, next to the Fn button.  I insisted that I didn't have one.  He seemed to be getting a bit exasperated and then asked if I had a Mac.  When I told him I did not, he went back to insisting that I have a Microsoft button.  Then he hung up on me.
  
I looked at the caller ID and found the phone number; instead of a name there was a long numeric code.  I also saw that this number called me twice yesterday.  I tried to call the number from my cell phone, but got a recorded message saying that my call cannot be completed as dialed.  I have hunch that this is on a relay, where the call originates overseas, but comes up as a U.S. number.
  
So I spent the next hour trying to do a reverse phone number lookup.  The reverse-lookup sites all seem to want you to pay for information, but I finally found an article that helped:  http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505143_162-28648080/reverse-cell-phone-lookup-service-is-free-and-simple/
  
In that article was a link to PhoneLookup.com, where I looked up the number.  The result was that the number is an "unpublished" "landline" in "Freemont, CA."  
http://www.phonelookup.com/1/510-943-3040
  
There's a link there to another site that charges a fee for the name.  Not gonna do it.
  
What made the search worthwhile was the comment by Anonymous, dated September 26, 2012: 
   

"Caller has S. Asian accent...Pretend to be from Microsoft, offering to fix 'error' messages on computer. Ask user to allow for remote computer access."
  

This is exactly what I suspected. 
  

While I was writing this blog my phone rang.  There was nobody on the line when my husband answered.  Sure enough, the caller ID reads 510-943-3040!  This jerk isn't giving up.
  

My next step was to contact my telephone provider, which is Comcast.  The service rep told me that this is definitely harrassment.  He said that if we get another call from that number we should dial *57 immediately and that will track the call.  After that I should call the local police and report this harrassment.  Finally I can block that phone number by using *60.  Those numbers are for Comcast and I assume that they would be different codes for other telephone providers.
  

If you get any calls from this guy/phone number, contact your telphone provider and they will tell you what to do. 
  

Let's put this guy out of business.

WINTER HANDS & PEARL KNOTTING

Today the temperature never rose higher than 39 degrees Fahrenheit at my house in Vermont, and we saw snow on the upper ski slopes of Pico Mountain.  Word just came in that Killington opens tomorrow for skiing!  Tonight we expect our first frost of the season, even though we're still experiencing the peak foliage of mid-October.
    
The night-time temperatures have been chilly enough to cause the heat in our house to kick over for the past couple of weeks and I've had the heat on in my car a bunch of times.  Already I'm noticing that my hands are drying out and my cuticles are hardening and cracking.
    
For those of us who work with silk thread when knotting pearls, dry hands can be a big problem.  The dried up cuticles and skin can catch on the thread and damage it while we're working.  This is also a problem for anyone who handles yarns, threads, and delicate fabrics.  In addition, for those who do scrapbooking or work in offices, paper can suck the moisture out of your hands, not to mention the paper cuts that can also catch on and shred your silk thread.
    
I've already started to use hand lotion a couple of times during the day and always before I go to bed at night, because it's easier to keep the skin from drying out than it is to fix it once it has been damaged.  But that's probably not a surprise to anyone.
    
There are two problems that I think many of us miss.
    
First, going outside in the cold without gloves or mittens can be very drying to your hands.  We usually think of the heat as the culprit, but cold can do damage, too, especially when there is wind.  I don't even want to mention the winter F-word (frostbite).
    
Second, driving your car can dry your hands out!  Why?  Because when we turn on our car heaters, we often aim the hot airstream straight at our hands to keep them warm as they grip that cold steering wheel.  Even when we divert the airstream away from our hands, we're in a confined space with the heater running—meaning that passengers are also getting dried out hands.
    
The solution is the same in both cases. Wear gloves or mittens when you go outside and when you're in the car.  Even better, apply hand lotion under the gloves and mittens.  When going outside, be careful to use hand lotion that has little to no water content because the water can freeze and damage your skin—yes, I'm aware of the concept of using hand lotion to trap the moisture into your skin, but not when you're outside in below-freezing temperatures.  Avoid using face lotion with water when you're outside in the winter, too.  Ask me about the time I went skiing with the wrong lotion on my face.  The next day I had quarter-sized, dry, red splotches all over my face.  It wasn't pretty and it hurt.
    
I know that fingerless gloves and fingerless mittens are popular, but they leave those fingertips and cuticles exposed.  I've decided that I'm going to wear my fingerless gloves over my driving gloves.
    
I'm hoping that if I'm careful to protect my cuticles from dryness then my nails won't dry up and crumble again this winter.  Maybe I'm expecting too much.  Time will tell.
    
So, what can you do if you've already got parched hands and cuticles and they're catching on your thread/yarn/fabric?  Gently smooth the rough cuticles with a fine emery board.  Don't scrub.  Then apply a grease-free hand lotion so that you don't stain your work. 
    
Save the vaseline and other greasy lotions for bedtime—and wear cotton gloves to keep the lotion on your skin and away from everything else.

9/11, NEVER FORGET

Today is September 11, 2012 and it is the 11th anniversary of the attacks on the Twin Towers in NY, the Pentagon, and crash of a plane in Shanksville, PA.
   
I guess we all remember what we were doing that day.  It was a gorgeous fall day, just like today in the Northeast--cool and crisp with the most beautiful blue sky.  Maybe that similarity is helping me to remember so much of that day.
   
I was in Boston, observing Christine, one of the trainers in my department at the state agency I worked for.  Shortly before 9 AM we were interrupted by Andy, an attorney from another department, who told us that a plane had crashed into one of the World Trade Center buildings--we all thought it was a small plane.  We went into the other room where they had a television with very poor reception and muffled audio.  We watched for a minute and then went back to the class.
   
A few minutes later Andy came back to the classroom with a very grim look on his face.  Another plane had struck the second tower and they now knew that both planes were commercial airliners.  The realization struck us all at the same time.  This was deliberate.  It's so hard to explain my reaction.  I literally couldn't process what was happening.  We went back to the television, but the reception was so bad that we were having a hard time seeing or hearing what was happening.  Suddenly, we realized that the first tower was collapsing; a short while later, the second tower went down.  One thing we were able to hear was that over 50,000 people worked in those buildings.  We didn't know if any of them had escaped.  That thought was paralyzing.
   
I checked my email and found a message from my fiance (now husband) who lived in Manhattan and worked in New Jersey.  The message was one sentence.  He had seen the second tower fall from his office.  At least I knew he was safe. 
   
Word came down from the Governor that all state offices were closing and we were to leave work immediately.  My car keys were in my office at Copley Place on the other side of Boston, and my car was in the garage below the building.  I had to take the subway back to my office from the classroom.  Everyone on the subway was nervous and sharing everything we knew with the other passengers, even though we were all strangers.  On a normal day we wouldn't even have made eye contact.  We had no idea  if there would be more attacks.  I had a hard time getting into my office because people were leaving the building in droves.  I saw a co-worker who told me that the Pentagon had also been attacked.  Copley Place is located between the two tallest buildings in Boston, the Hancock Building and the Prudential Building.  It struck me that those buildings might also be targets.
   
I truly felt a huge relief when I got myself out of the city.  Where did I go?  JoAnne's Fabrics.  I kid you not.  I was driving by the store and on a whim I pulled in.  I spent about an hour in the store and being in a craft store made me feel better.  I guess that makes sense.  Beading, painting, sewing, etc. always help to calm me.  After that I went to see my mother and finally I went home.
   
I spent the entire night watching the coverage on television--literally the entire night.  I didn't sleep; I watched until dawn and finally fell asleep in my chair. 
   
What a horrible time that was.  We should never let our memories become dulled to the pain and horror of that day or we will let down our guard and leave ourselves open to another attack.  We should never forget the innocent people in the towers and on the planes who lost their lives.  We should never forget the Pentagon employees who lost their lives, both military and civilian.  We should never forget the police officers and firefighters who entered those burning buildings with the intent of saving people and gave their lives instead.  We should never forget those brave civilians who stormed the cockpit of the plane that crashed in PA--the plane that was intended to crash into the Capitol Building.
   
Two years ago I stitched a bracelet of the Manhattan Skyline, including the Twin Towers.  I completed it while I watched a 9/11 documentary in 2010.  You can see the post and photos of my bracelet here.
   
Although I had completed the main part of the cuff, I needed some Charlottes to create the picot edge.  I finally found those Charlottes this past summer.  I finished the edging on my bracelet today while I watched the 9/11 coverage.  I think that was appropriate.
   
For those of you who don't know, a Charlotte is a very tiny seed bead, usually size 13/0.  It would be designated as a round seed bead, but because it has one section that is flattened, it is called a Charlotte.  That flattened spot reflects light and helps the Charlottes to glitter.
   

This is the completed cuff bracelet with the picot edging.  

© Copyright 2012 Linda's Art Barn. All rights reserved.

Pinterest and Inspiration

As an artist, I see inspiration everywhere.  Unfortunately, I have a terrible memory.  If I don't "write it down" I don't remember "it."  Sometimes "it" is a beautiful combination of colors; sometimes "it" is a shape.  Other times "it" can be an idea that is triggered by something I see.

This was an experiment on a paper towel, based on a kids' craft that I Repinned.  I liked the results and I'll probably try this technique on a tote bag.  The original post is from http://hellogiggles.com/diy-sharpie-tie-die. 

    
When I find inspiration in a magazine or newspaper, I cut it out or simply save the publication.  Then I forget where I put it, or even worse, I forget that I saved anything at all.
    
Frequently I see things online that I want to remember.  For years I saved websites to my Favorites.  But there was no visual and the name of the website often was meaningless to me when I'd go back to look through the list.  I spent way too much time opening links to see if I could figure out why the heck I had saved them.
    
I tried creating files with website addresses organized in titled sections.  That was a little better, but still no visuals.  Even when I knew why I saved the link, I'd frequently open the link and still not be able to find the item I wanted.
    
Saving websites on my desktop was helpful for a short while, until my desktop was too full to add even one more link.  Then I discovered that I could make a folder where I could place links with a common theme.  The next thing I knew I had subfolders and things were out of control again.
    
I wanted to copy photos and paste them into files with the links to the corresponding websites, but there's the copyright issue, not to mention how much time and computer space it would take.
    
I'd often wished that there was an easy way to save not only the links, but a visual that would identify what was so enticing about that site.
    
And then there was Pinterest.  My friend Gale told me about it.  She offered to send me an invitation.  I replied that I was drowning in newsletters, Facebook, online Groups for painting, polymer clay, and jewelry-making.  I didn't have room in my schedule for one more online social site.  So I ignored Pinterest for a few months.
    
I don't even remember why I finally broke down and looked at Pinterest.  Oh!!! the color palettes, gorgeous photographs, cute animals, recipes, knitting, crocheting, jewelry, polymer clay, fashion, and tons of tutorials.  It was delicious!  I spent hours linking all over the place, but it didn't take me long to figure it out:  Pinterest is the ultimate way to organize my online inspirations!  
    
Simply put, Pinterest is a giant bulletin board system.  When you become a member you get your own page, where you can create your own bulletin Boards and give them descriptive names.  Then you can "Repin" items through the homepage or through somebody else's bulletin Board into one of your own Boards.  If you're not sure you want to Repin an item to one of your bulletin Boards, you can "Like" it.  You can also "Follow" a particular person's page or an individual Board.  Pinterest is extremely user-friendly. 
    
You can even "Pin" something directly from almost anywhere online, including things from your own website or your blog.  Then other people can Repin your Pins.  It can be that easy.
    
Of course, nothing is ever truly as simple as it seems.  There are some "Pinterest manners" to mind.  Amy Lynn Andrews of Blogging with Amy has written "The Ultimate List of Pinterest Tips."  Even though I've been using Pinterest for several months, I found that Amy's blog had some really great information.  Every Pinterest member should read it. 
    
Here's the link to my Pinterest page:   http://pinterest.com/lindasartbarn/
    
As of today, I have created 36 Boards, 991 Pins, and 113Likes.  I LOVE Pinterest!
    
If you want to join Pinterest, you can go to http://pinterest.com/ and request an invitation, or you can ask me to send you an invitation.