Baublicious

So Long and Thanks for all the Fish

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Williams) — Thu, 20 May 2021 19:34:00 +0000

Thank You!

I'm not sure if anyone will even see this post, it's been so long since I wrote on my blog. But before I close things down, I wanted to write and say thank you for helping support me as a blogger, a beader, an author and a beading-pattern designer, and as a person. It was great fun!

Esty Store Closed - and Free Tutorial Offer

This month, I'm finally putting the finishing touches on closing my beading business, Skunk Hill Studio. My Etsy store has been on vacation for a while now, but I put it on vacation without saying anything. So I wanted to make an offer - if there's a beading pattern of mine that you wanted, but hadn't yet purchased, let me know between now and June 1st and I'll send you a link to download a free copy.

If you want to take advantage of this please make sure I have a way to send it to you - email is easiest for me.

New (maybe) Blog Project Idea

I am playing around with ideas for a new blog - one that I've fiddled with for the past few years. I'm trying to decide if it's two weird of a weird mash, as it focuses on my interests of traveling, traveling super light (think travel backpacks and capsule wardrobes), travel sketching, and living (and traveling) with autoimmune conditions. I'd planned to make a go of it last year, right as everything started shutting down. My idea is to start with stories of past travels, and travel planning, while waiting for things to open back up. Part of me says I waited too long - I should have started last year as planned, and I'm frankly second-guessing myself like crazy. Sigh! So right now I'll simply say, if you're interested, drop me a line and I'll let you know where you can check it out.

One Week 100 People Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Williams) — Mon, 08 Apr 2019 16:13:00 +0000

I've already spent more time sketching this year than I have in the past several years combined. In December urban-sketcher and instructor extraordinaire, Liz Steel, announced that she was going to host a new run through of her 12-week Foundations Sketching course. I'd purchased the course several years ago, but only made it through the first four or so weeks, working on my own. This run through was perfectly timed! I love that she has both indoor and outdoor suggestions for each week. Her prompts meant that even when I was feeling my worst, I was still sketching.

My everyday backpack, with Inktense pencils

another everyday item, following Liz's prompts to explore drawing visual texture

exploring different ways to suggest or detail visual texture

an extremely fast, 'while waiting for the bus', sketch

But you'll note there aren't any people in my drawings. I hate sketching people! I feel really uncomfortable, I don't do it well, especially faces, and it simply feels awkward. When I do draw people in a scene, they tend to end up looking like this.

notice something missing? Yeah, me too.

I've decided to challenge myself by participating in Liz Steel's One Week One Hundred People challenge. (Yikes!) To make it easier, I'm starting out with a pocket-sized moleskine and a pen. As I get more comfortable, maybe I'll add watercolors, but for now it's just pen & ink.

I got a little jump start waiting for a concert to begin last night. Turns out the music wasn't really to our taste, but I like my little sketches (except for the guy I tried to draw in profile - faces are sooo hard!)

quick, quick sketches

One hundred people sketches, here I go! And to keep myself honest, I think I'll post them on a daily basis to my Instagram feed to help hold myself accountable. Ready, set, go....

Anyone else joining in? If you're already participating in the challenge, or thinking about doing so, I'd love to hear from you!

Snow Day: Seattle Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Williams) — Sun, 10 Feb 2019 01:30:00 +0000

I missed last Sunday's snow. Joe and I were back in the Midwest, visiting family and experiencing the 'Polar Vortex'. Between flight cancellations on Monday, and a delayed flight on Tuesday, we didn't make it home until the wee hours of Wednesday morning. Our taxi made it up the hill without much issue, but I really wasn't sure we'd make it across the lake of ice otherwise known as the sidewalk separating us from our front steps. I was more than a little tempted to abandon my suitcase on the front verge. If Joe hadn't given me 'the look', I likely would have left it there to be dealt with in the morning.

Happily, I managed to chip away and finish removing the ice flow by mid-afternoon Thursday. Just in time for Seattle Snow 2.0 - my first snow of the year!

The joys of a corner lot!

I shoveled a couple of times yesterday, but most of the snow fell overnight, so I did a little clearning at o'dark thirty this morning. The joys of a corner lot!

But our house sure looked pretty with the snow

Only took a little persuading to get Joe to go for a walk with me

Anyone want a ride?

Queen Anne Avenue's in pretty good shape

El Diablo - open for business!

At the end of our walk, we stopped in at El Diablo's to get Joe a latte, and to see who else was out and about. Quite a few of our friends, as it turned out. After hanging out there for a couple of hours, we headed back home. Joe finished shoveling our walk, and took care of a couple of neighbors for good measure, while I built a snow woman.

My snow woman, ready for the ball

Some of the snow packed really easily, other layers didn't want to pack at all - you could really tell that it fell at different times, and different temperatures. But I was able to find enough of the sticky snow to make it work.

I loaned her my scarf for a final photo before heading inside

Good fun in the snow! Though I wonder how I'll be feeling about the white stuff by the end of the week:

it may get old before the week is out!

Right now my hands are toast from all the shoveling. I'm hoping that they will recover enough so I can use some of these snow days for Beading, or at least Crafting! We'll see how it goes.... In the meantime, it seems like a good time to do some KonMari sorting. I've started piling clothing on the guest bed. Oh my!

Antidote to SAD - Buttterflies

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Williams) — Fri, 18 Jan 2019 03:16:00 +0000

While we don't get the snow and extreme cold of other parts of the country, Seattle's winters can be chilly and grey. And damp! No surprise - this is Seattle after all. But it can get old. That's when I love to visit the butterfly garden at the Science Center. Last week two friends and I grabbed our cameras, shed our jackets, and spent a good hour or so in the tropical warmth.

The butterflies were particularly active, filling the air with eddies of colorful wings. Others posed for their cameos; each one more beautiful than the next. I was struck once again by the diversity of colors and patterns. Makes me want to pull out my beads and start playing with color.

not great for the butterfly, but the tattered edges have great texture

the butterflies loved her squid cap, and kept circling it while she tried to take photos.

A little dream of Spring.

Growing Where I’m Planted

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Williams) — Sat, 05 Jan 2019 01:42:00 +0000

decorating the front of my 2019 sketch journal

I don’t generally make New Year’s resolutions, but some years I do gravitate towards a word or phrase that helps to sum up my hopes and intentions for the coming year. Somewhere between Christmas and New Years, I found myself ruminating on the word “Grow”. It's been quite some time since I feel that I've grown, creatively, and it's time. I have an equally strong desire to focus on what I already have, and what I’ve neglected or forgotten.

Our culture places so much emphasis on new growth - new artistic endeavors, new art supplies, new clothing - will create a new, better you. Part of me is certain that if I 'just buy this one more sweater, my entire wardrobe will suddenly click'. These beads (paper, pens, watercolors, acrylics, fabrics, etc.) are sooo pretty; I must buy them! I know I’ll use them! No matter that they're likely to be lost in my stash shortly after I get them home. Same with online courses I've signed up for over the years (most often on watercolors and urban sketching).

Moving my studio back into my home last fall, I realized just how overwhelming all of this wonderful stuff can become. And how much of my time is spent simply curating, organizing, and trying to keep it all neat enough so that I can find things.

My goal for this year is to turn my attention away from the new ‘bright and shinies’ to focus on all of the wonderful collections, opportunities, and yes, friendships, that I already have. To grow where I'm planted and what are the ways in which I wish to grow. Looking to the resources I already have, rather than what I might add.

One of the hardest parts will be determining what is clutter - the weeds in my particular garden. Not all of the art media I've tried over the years are really my cup of tea. That doesn't mean that giving up the related tools and supplies is easy. I might need them one day. Maybe? (Okay, maybe not).

Sort of corollary to this whole process, I’ve also embarked on a repeat of last year’s elimination diet. Through the fall, and especially over the holidays, I relaxed my diet too much, and started paying the price with autoimmune flares. To combat this, on January 2nd, I cut processed sugar, all grains and gluten, caffeine, and a whole host of other things out of my diet. My plan is to stick with the strictest version for 2-3 weeks, then slowly start retesting other foods. Yesterday was the Day of the Terrible Headache. Today is the Day of Swollen Joints. I expect a few more days of misery as I go through the detox stage, but am looking forward to that day, sometime next week, when I wake up without brain fog and pain, with energy to spare.

But I’m not waiting until then to get started on growing where I’m planted. While my fingers are too swollen to do much creative work, I can type, I can visit with friends, I can sort through papers, make lists of things I used to like to do, and start rooting through my supplies to see what I have to work with, and I can dream.

Not a bad way to start the New Year.

More Ornaments Mini-Reveal

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Williams) — Fri, 21 Dec 2018 14:30:00 +0000

In one of those 'best laid plans' sort of things, Sunday's Blog Hop didn't quite go according to plan. A couple of packages were delayed, and not everyone's ornaments were featured. What this means is we get to go again!

whimsical Log Cabin Santas stitched up by Jane Knaub

JJ's presents within a present

Jane Knaub sent Mandi a Log Cabin Santa. A fun quilted cone that can be used as ornaments or bottle toppers, like the ones shown above. In a fun note, Jane wrote "I had seen the Santa made from a Log Cabin Quilt Square at a recent quilt guild meeting and I found the pattern online. However, it was in Italian. So good old Google translated it."

Meanwhile, JJ Jacob's fused glass ornament got missed in the initial reveal. JJ creates delightfully playful, fused glass ornaments, often creating a new design each year. She even teaches classes on how to make your own fused glass ornaments! Swing by her blog to see more of her designs.

Margo Lynn's package to me was another of those that took the adventurous route. But oh was it worth the wait! Inside I found the cutest miniature stocking, a beautiful card and two extra little gifts. Thank you Margo Lynn!

Stocking and Stocking shadows!

It's been terribly grey here the past week, something that I truly realized as I tried to photograph the stocking. To make it worse, I think all of my photography skills have flown out the window (perhaps Santa will catch and return them when he swings by next week). Margo Lynn knit the stocking from this lovely gold, glittery thread that's really, really hard to do justice with my current (lack of) skills. And something funny - I didn't even notice the purple bugle beads along the top edge until I had it under bright light to photograph. Remember what I said about how grey it is here?

Then I had to find its new home. First, I hung it on our Christmas tree.

Hanging from the tree

It looked nice there, but I wanted to put it somewhere a little more prominent. I have a thing for stockings. The stocking I still use was made for me by my grandmother, who passed away when I was seven. I still remember opening gifts at her house, that last Christmas with her.

old and new stockings hanging together

So I decided to hang Margo Lynn's stocking with my grandmother's. Oh, and I filled the little guy with a handful of treats, and am allowing myself one a day. There's just enough to make it from now until Christmas, so long as I don't get greedy!

Margo Lynn also sent:

Two lotion bars - one for myself and one for my friend who acted as my mail drop

A lovely letterpress card. The buildings feel like they're embossed

sneak peak of Carrie's ornament, in process

Carrie's package was another one that took the scenic route to its destination. And the two of them agreed to both open their packages on Wednesday. Carrie wrote a fantastic guest post on what she made for Therese, with wonderful process photos of her design/creation process, over on Therese's blog. Definitely head over and check it out.

Happy Holidays, and Merry Christmas!

And Happy Solstice, the days will be growing longer again after today!

2018 Ornament Swap Reveal

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Williams) — Sun, 16 Dec 2018 08:10:00 +0000

Today's the day to see all of the lovely ornaments everyone made in this year's Swap Hop!

Margo Lynn and Karen Williams

Carrie Johnson and Therese Frank

Jasvanti Patel and Becky Clay

Jane Knaub and Mandi Bugatti

Sherry Eagle and Amy Severino

Judy J Jacobs and Judy Deshaies

Adrienne Hendrickson and Francie Broadie

Cyndi Nason and Karen Williams

I'll update the list with direct links to everyone's posts as soon as I have my morning tea. I'm on the West Coast, so it won't be first thing for my East Coast friends.

In order to make the numbers match, I was fortunate enough to pair up with two swap partners, Margo Lynn and Cyndi Nason. Originally, I thought I might create a bead embroidered ornament for each of them, but nothing quite worked out the way I wanted it to. In the end, I decided to combine two of my favorite beading patterns into a new design. Not what I'd envisioned, but better than what was coming from my other attempts. It did feel good to be beading again!

Snowflakes and Lantern Beads for Cyndi and Margo Lynn

paper-cut luminary with LED candle

I used the same pattern variations for both of their main ornaments, varying the color palettes to hopefully suit each. For Cyndi's, I added in a pair of earrings, while I added in an extra snowflake ornament for Margo Lynn.

Cyndi wrote that her "ornament is going on a chain and being worn with my Christmas shirt to our Christmas Dinner/Square Dance this coming Tues. (then back on the tree). I'm figuring out where it can go, so it can be displayed year round." Yeah, she liked it!

And because paper is my second love, I also sent each of them a snowflake luminary, and made little pillow boxes to hold their ornaments.

In return, Cyndi sent a gorgeous seed-beaded ornament created with Delica's in rich Christmas tones. Between a late mailing and my travels, I just received her ornament today. It definitely brightened a very, very grey day.

Cyndi's ornament complete with decorative hanger

after trying it on the tree, I instead hung it in the archway to our dining room

I immediately hung it on our tree, but decided I wanted to give it more prominence. It's now hanging from the center of the pine roping decorating the archway between our dining and living rooms. So lovely!

Margo Lynn's ornament hasn't made it quite yet, but I'll add photos as soon at it arrives!

2018 Ornament Exchange - Adrienne Hendrickson

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Williams) — Sun, 16 Dec 2018 08:05:00 +0000

Adrienne's freeform bead embroidery ornament

Adrienne Hendricks made this lovely ornament for Francie Broadie.

When I asked about her inspiration, Adrienne wrote back, "Francie said that she liked bright colors and sea life. There is no pattern, it’s just bead embroidery using one of Brenda Miller’s painted ladies cabs, a small piece of Shibori silk ribbon, some pearls and an assortment of beads."

Reading her email, I found myself wanting to put her 'just' in quotes or italics. There's definitely no just about this original design as far as I'm concerned!

In return, Adrienne wrote that she received:

Two adorable little ornaments
A cute flamingo card (very appropriate since I’m in Florida)
Candy!

And sent this picture:


Adrienne's exchange package from Francie (who knew there were Christmas peeps?)

When I asked about the little tree, Adrienne responded "The tree is beaded, from seed beads and those Czech 2-hole triangle beads. I can’t tell how it’s made; it may be done with wire as opposed to thread to hold the 3D shape. The Santa is a cork with a knitted hat and scarf. Right now they are living on my desk as we don’t have our tree up, not sure how the 7 month old puppy is going to react to it."

A closeup of the two ornaments

Want to see what everyone else made? Here's the full participant list:

Margo Lynn and Karen Williams

Carrie Johnson and Therese Frank

Jasvanti Patel and Becky Clay

Jane Knaub and Mandi Bugatti

Sherry Eagle and Amy Severino

Judy J Jacobs and Judy Deshaies

Adrienne Hendrickson and Francie Broadie

Cyndi Nason and Karen Williams

2018 Ornament Exchange - Jane Knaub

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Williams) — Sun, 16 Dec 2018 08:03:00 +0000

Jane couldn't wait to display her ornaments from Mandy!

The day after Thanksgiving, I received an email from Jane Knaub. It was short and sweet: "Here are pics of the beautiful ornaments I received from Mandy Bugatti. She sent 2 ornaments and a pair of earrings." Along with two photos.

Aren't these candle earrings delightful?

I wrote back, curious about the size of the ornaments, and commented that I loved her display. I was quite impressed that she had already decorated, while I was still recovering from my turkey coma. Turns out Jane "went out and bought a special table-top tree and then bought some other little balls to put on it. Probably won’t decorate till next weekend." so that she'd have a place to display Mandy's ornaments immediately!

Jane's new display tree for Mandy's ornaments

Want to see what Jane made for Mandi? Here's the full participant list - hop on over to Mandi's blog and see:

Margo Lynn and Karen Williams

Carrie Johnson and Therese Frank

Jasvanti Patel and Becky Clay

Jane Knaub and Mandi Bugatti

Sherry Eagle and Amy Severino

Judy J Jacobs and Judy Deshaies

Adrienne Hendrickson and Francie Broadie

Cyndi Nason and Karen Williams

2018 Ornament Exchange - Becky Clay

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Williams) — Sun, 16 Dec 2018 08:02:00 +0000

Victorian Santa #5

Becky Clay writes "I made the Victorian Santa #5 pattern by Linda Farber, which can be obtained from bead-patterns.com, for Jasvanti Patel. There are a series of five faces in patterns and I love the shading in the beard that makes it sparkle."

love how his cheeks glow in this photo!

Searching the site, I wasn't able to find that particular pattern, but did come across Linda Farber's delightful Pierre Noel Pin or Ornament, part of Bead-Patterns Magazine, Issue 8. I did find the pattern on the Sova-Enterprises site, but have never ordered from them, so I have no personal experience working with them, good or bad.

Want to see what Jasvanti made for Becky? Here's the full participant list - hop on over to Jasvanti's blog and see:

Margo Lynn and Karen Williams

Carrie Johnson and Therese Frank

Jasvanti Patel and Becky Clay

Jane Knaub and Mandi Bugatti

Sherry Eagle and Amy Severino

Judy J Jacobs and Judy Deshaies

Adrienne Hendrickson and Francie Broadie

Cyndi Nason and Karen Williams

2018 Ornament Hop - Judy Deshaies

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Williams) — Sun, 16 Dec 2018 08:01:00 +0000

Judy writes: "I sent my partner, JJ Jacobs, a blue and silver icicle ornament with Swarovski Crystal highlights. She told me she doesn’t have a tree, but decorates plants, etc around her home with ornaments.

"I remade it twice, trying to get the tension tighter so the swirls would be closer together. The first time I used size 8 silver metal beads for the core, but the large holes made the structure too floppy. I redid it with regular Miyuki seed beads and it was better. I made up the design, just using spirals with an increasing number of beads to achieve the shape.

"My great granddaughter loved that ornament, so she took it home and I made another one for the swap."

JJ's ornament for Judy

In exchange, JJ made one of her lovely fused glass ornaments for Judy. A bright stack of Christmas packages.

Here's the full participant list - hop on over to Judy's blog and see:

Margo Lynn and Karen Williams

Carrie Johnson and Therese Frank

Jasvanti Patel and Becky Clay

Jane Knaub and Mandi Bugatti

Sherry Eagle and Amy Severino

Judy J Jacobs and Judy Deshaies

Adrienne Hendrickson and Francie Broadie

Cyndi Nason and Karen Williams

Thanksgiving Baking Experiments - GlutenFree & EggFree

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Williams) — Wed, 21 Nov 2018 20:19:00 +0000

Thanksgiving = Food + Family & Friends

I don't know about you, but there are a number of recipes that I only eat around the holidays. Foods I look forward to year-round. One of my personal favorites is Old Colony Gingerbread. The recipe comes from the 1965 Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery, Volume 5.

1965 Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery & Old Colony Gingerbread

Last weekend, I decided to try remake it to fit with my current dietary restrictions. Old Colony Gingerbread 2.0 used gluten-free oat flour, coconut oil in place of the shortening, and substituted allspice for the nutmeg. I also increased the baking powder by 1 tsp. to offset the lack of gluten for rising.

The results tasted great. Good texture, too. But either the egg or the coconut oil were too much for my system and it was an epic fail from a health perspective. The fun of food sensitivities!

So yesterday, I decided to try again. This time, my goal was a gluten-free, egg-free, and coconut-free version. Since eggs are typically used as a binder to keep the finished baked item from falling apart, I decided to try a trick that I learned from a Depression-era Spice Cake recipe. That recipe is completely vegan - no eggs or butter. I kept the butter for my gingerbread. The secret ingredient? Raisin water! I think that the pectin from the raisins substitutes for both the gluten, and for the binder that the egg usually provides.

Gingerbread Version 3.0

The result was a little heavier than the original recipe, but not by much. The cut gingerbread held together well on the plate, and the flavor was spot on. Served some to visiting friends without telling them it was an altered recipe and they both went back for seconds.

My Gluten-Free, Egg-Free Gingerbread Recipe (Version 3.0)

1 c. Distilled water
3/4 c. Raisins

1 c plus 2 tablespoons gluten-free oat flour
2 1/4 tsp. Baking powder
1 tsp. Ground Ginger
1 tsp. Ground Cinnamon
1/4 tsp. Allspice
1/4 tsp salt

1/3 c. Butter
1/4 tsp. Baking soda
1/3 c. Firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/3 c. Dark molasses (mix of Grandma’s original & Brer Rabbit)

Put raisins and the water into a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, allowing the water to boil gently or simmer, and continue to cook, partly covered for 15 to 20 minutes.

After 15-20 minutes, the raisins should start looking kind of pale, and the water will have a dark, tea-color. Pour the raisins and their water through a strainer set over a measuring cup. Keep 1/2 cup water. (The raisins and any extra water can be discarded.) If using, add the instant coffee to the raisin water. Add butter and baking soda and stir until dissolved. Then add sugar and molasses to the raisin water/coffee/butter mixture.

Pour batter into lightly buttered and floured 9” square pan. It will be quite runny - that's expected. Bake in preheated moderate oven (350F) for 25-30 minutes. You can use a toothpick to check if it's done. Serve warm or cool.

Fresh out of the oven, and already half-gone!

Notes

There are no actual raisins in the gingerbread, just the water they were boiled in. The gingerbread has no discernible raisin flavor, and there are no raisin 'lumps' to bother the raisin-haters in your family.

I did not grease the pan before pouring in the gingerbread batter. It was easy to serve, even piping hot, with very little sticking.

While oats are naturally gluten free, oat flour may be contaminated with gluten if it's milled in a factory that also processes wheat and other grains. If gluten is an issue, make sure that you use oat flour that specifically states Gluten Free. I couldn't find any locally (visited 3 grocery stores) and ended up ordering from Amazon. I think it's really cool that Gluten Free Prairie is basically a family visit, created because one of their family members is Celiac. And that the packaging states that the flour is also glyphosate free.

The Gingerbread 3.0 has a shorter bake time than the original recipe. I would definitely recommend the toothpick test at 25 minutes baking time.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Holiday Ornament Exchange List

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Williams) — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 15:51:00 +0000

Last week I sent out emails with all of the pairings for this year's Holiday Ornament Exchange. Hopefully everyone has already heard from their trading partners. If not, please let me know asap so I can see what I can do to help.

Here's the full list of participants:

Margo Lynn and Karen Williams

Carrie Johnson and Therese Frank

Jasvanti Patel and Becky Clay

Jane Knaub and Mandi Bugatti

Sherry Eagle and Amy Severino

Judy J Jacobs and Judy Deshaies

Adrienne Hendrickson and Francie Broadie

Cyndi Nason and Karen Williams

On other fronts, I had a busy, crazy, wonderful, chaotic, extended weekend with the visit of my brother and his family. Only managed to snap one picture of his whole crew.

settling in to watch Miyazaki's Spirited Away

They've all headed home, and the house is way too quiet now - so it's time for me to put on some fun music and start working on ornaments.

Last Day to Sign up for the Holiday Ornament Exchange

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Williams) — Wed, 31 Oct 2018 15:53:00 +0000

Today's the last day to sign up for this year's Holiday Ornament Exchange and Swap Hop. Tomorrow I'll be pairing everyone up and the real fun - getting to know our swap partners and creating ornaments will get under way.

Want to sign up? ~~Here's the link~~. Signups now closed for 2018.

You can find more information about the Ornament Exchange in my earlier post, here.

Want to see what people have made previous years? Check out these posts:

2015 Ornament Exchange

2014 Ornament Exchange organized by Sally Russick. I'm afraid Sally's links no longer work, but almost all of the others lead directly to posts about the Ornament Exchange so you can see what was made.

2013 Ornament Exchange - also organized by Sally Russick. Her blog is still there, but I couldn't find the ornament post. Again, most of the rest of the links lead directly to the participant's 2013 ornaments.

Cricut Crafting - Spiderweb Window Cling

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Williams) — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 16:50:00 +0000

Earlier this week, I decided I wanted to add a little friend to the windows of my front door to celebrate one of my favorite holidays.

Both the spider and the web were stock images from Cricut, but I thought I'd share how I put it all together in Design Space, and how I made sure it would fit the window. I'm using Design Space on my iPad, so it may look a little different for those who primarily use the program on their laptops.

1. Measure your window! My diagram ended up on a tiny scrap of paper (see the paper clip for reference). It's not super-detailed, but has enough information to work from.

Measurements don't need to be complex

2. Build your window in Design Space. To get my half circle, I started with a 4" circle (it's an easy size for positioning purposes) and a square, then used the Slice tool.

Slice your circle in half. My circle is 4" wide to make it easier to position.

Cutting out the bottom center edge

For the next step, I enlarged by half circle to full size, then added another circle with a 4.5" diameter to cut out that little half circle at the center bottom. While I was able to use the "Align Center Vertical" tool, I used the gridlines to make sure that I lined up the horizontal center of my bottom circle with the bottom edge of my half circle. Then used the Slice Tool again.

Slicing the individual panes

I used three 1" wide rectangles to slice the individual window panes. I rotated the side spokes 45 degrees. And I had my window!

One note about Design Space - all four shapes are considered a single shape in the program. This is great when you're designing, but can be a pain if you're like me and like to reposition for printing to conserve materials. It's also a little bit of problem in this case because it's too wide for a 24" mat. To get around this, I made three additional copies of my window, then used the Hide Contour Tool, keeping only one pane in each copy.

Both panels were a little large - folds give me the exact size

3. Test your window design. At this point, I tested my window shape, cutting the two leftmost panels out of regular typing paper. (Since the design is a mirror image, I only needed to test two panels. it turned out both panels were a little too 'fat'. With the cutouts placed in the window, I folded them along the window panes to give me the exact size I needed. Then it was simple enough to measure my fold and shave a little off each pane using rectangles of the exact width I needed, and the Slice tool.

Once I had my window, I saved the file as "Front Window Blank". This way I won't have to recreate these steps when I want to create a new design. Now it's time to make the Spiderweb window cling!

4. First thing - Use Save As to change the name of your working file. I named mine "Front Door Spiderweb Window Cling" - boring, but descriptive.

Spiderweb Testing

Searching for 'spider' and 'web', I pulled down several images from Cricut Access, then enlarged them and tried them out on my window shapes, using the Slice tool again. Turns out, not all spider webs translate well when cut into four separate panes. And not all spiders look good on all webs.

Final design images selected.

I ended up pulling the spider and web from two separate designs, as shown above. The web is #M3F76E, Web Banner and the spider was from Spider Web Rosette, #M74C7E2B.

Before I moved on to window cling, I cut the full design out of copy paper, just to make sure it looked the way I thought it would. Sometimes the translation from screen to paper doesn't work as well as I expect. This time, it worked great, to it was time to cut the design out of window cling.

Here's where I do something maybe a little weird. I have wasting material, especially plastics where both cost and environmental concerns come into play. So I try to make as much use of the material as I can.

Weeded Cutting mat

After rotating and fitting the webs onto my mat, I did a quick search to find some additional Halloween images that I thought would work well as window clings, and used them to fill in the extra space. Even still, there was a fair bit of waste material after weeding. But I love having the little 'bonus' clings.

I shared the final cutting file on my Cricut Profile, but the software no longer has an easy way to share a direct URL. If I can figure out how to do it, I'll add the URL in later.

Happy Halloween!

Join me for a Handmade Ornament Exchange and 'Swap Hop'

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Williams) — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 16:35:00 +0000

This week's cold, foggy mornings have me in the mood for holiday crafting. Too many ideas running through my head, but this morning, I'm focusing on Ornaments. More specifically - a Holiday Ornament Exchange where participants create a handmade ornament, and then exchange them with a trading partner. One of my favorite holiday activities, it's been several years since I felt capable of participating. This year; this year I'm totally up for the fun! Want to join in?

Since seeing what everyone made is half the fun, we're going to celebrate with a Swap Hop Reveal Party - a blog hop - at the end. You don't even have to have a blog. As long as you can email me photos and text, I'll make sure you're included in the hop. And if you do have a blog - make sure to include its address, so we can all visit!

How to Join
Sign ups are open through Halloween, October 31st. Once I know who's participating, I'll send out emails on Friday, November 2nd letting you know who your trading partner is. You'll then be responsible for trading emails and exchanging postal addresses. Then it's time to make your ornament!

I've created a nifty form to use for signups (Signups now closed for 2018). If that doesn't work for some reason, email me, including your name, email address and blog URL, if you have one. Also let me know if you're from outside the US, and if you're inside the US, if you'd be willing to ship internationally.

The Ornaments
The ornaments must be handmade by you. That's the only requirement. They could be beaded, stitched, painted, made of glass, cloth, wood, paper - whatever medium you love. They don't need to include seed beads, though they certainly could. Most simply, they should be something you'd love to receive.

Blog Hop and Reveal, Sunday, December 16th
On the reveal day, post a photo (or photos) of what you made and the ornament you received. Include a paragraph or two about both pieces.

Associated Dates:

Signups through Halloween, October 31st

Swap Partners assigned Friday, November 2nd

Mailing Deadline: All packages must be mailed by Friday, November 30th

Swap Hop Reveal Party, Sunday, December 16th

If you're a guest blogger - to be featured on my blog - I will need your photos by Thursday, December 13th so that I'll have time to put together your post. Make sure to take pictures of what you make and what you receive, and include a paragraph or two (or more). It's fun the learn about why you chose to make that particular ornament, your process, the swap, your swap partner - whatever you'd like to share. Don't worry, I'll remind you as the time grows nearer.

Hope to hear from you!

Zeno’s Dichotomy Paradox and the Never-Ending Studio Re-Org

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Williams) — Sun, 21 Oct 2018 21:09:00 +0000

bye bye studio - thanks for the memories!

2018 has been a year of huge changes for me. The most recent - I’ve moved my studio back home. For the past ten years I’ve rented an amazing space in an old warehouse building. With 15’ ceilings, and 10’ tall windows along the east wall, it was a fantastic place to work. Unfortunately, with changes to the various bus routes, it kept effectively getting further and further away from home, to the point that getting there involved walking a little over a mile, and two bus rides. The entire commute could take well over an hour, each way, depending upon time of day. And anything I wanted to bring to or from the studio had to be schlepped in my backpack.

I refused to give up the studio last year. Packing while I was dealing with my health issues would have been awful, and giving the studio up would have felt like a sign of defeat. This year, I’m doing a lot better physically (so long as I stick with my strict diet). But I still wasn’t going to the studio, except for ‘foraging trips’ to collect supplies to bring home for my next project.

This summer, I decided it was time to simply move the studio home.

Guest bedroom closet, freshly painted & ready to load

Which was easier said than done. I’d had the studio space for ten years. It was almost half the size of our two-bedroom house. My plan was to spend the last two weeks in August reworking our guest bedroom so that it could do double duty as a studio as well, earmarking the guest bedroom closet as my craft storage space. In preparation, I emptied the closet, repainted and splurged on new craft-supply organization system through BestCraftsOrganizer.com.

Unfortunately, shipping took a lot longer than expected due to storms and power outages and who knows what craziness, so the system wasn’t here yet before moving day, let alone installed and ready to use.

waiting for storage furniture to arrive

Moving day, everything that came home got piled into my living room and dining room. The next day our two young nieces came for a very welcome, but unplanned visit. So everything got stuffed into the closet willy-nilly using the storage that was already there. Our nieces headed home just in time for us to head out for our 25th anniversary trip. And I willfully ignored the hoarders disaster that was my home.

On the plus side, Best Craft Organizers was willing to work with me, and they held my order at their warehouse until we got home from our trip, so I didn't have to worry about the boxes arriving while we were gone.

my new storage system

Fast forward to the end of September, I’m back from my trip and the craft organizers arrived - 12 big boxes that once again filled my living room. To get them set up, I had to empty the front bedroom closet, and find room to store everything inside. Yikes!

Then it was build the new furniture, and modify the old closet storage system. That only took a day. But I’m still working on sorting and organizing the supplies back into the closet. Which is where I got stuck in Zeno’s Dichotomy Paradox. Every day I sort through several more boxes. And the number of boxes waiting to be sorted doesn’t seem to diminish. As I go through each box, most things get sorted into the new drawers and storage systems. Some of it is earmarked for giveaway. But far too many things get set aside on the guest bed for further sorting, or because I simply wasn’t sure what to do with it. At the end of each day, the guest bedroom looks like the aftermath of an explosion, although the closet remains neatly organized.

See? The closet is looking fine, but the bedroom was a disaster!

We’re now speeding through October, and if I can stay focused this weekend, I think I can make it through the last big hurdle to the studio change over - sorting through four (plus) tubs of fabric. At the most, I have room for three of the tubs - two large and the smaller square. They will live under the guest bed. The extra fabric will either need to be given away, turned into something immediately, or moved to my storage unit.

the closet is almost together

It’s time to get this done so I can get back to actually crafting! Oh, and did I mention that my nieces may be back next weekend? And my brother and his whole family will definitely be coming to visit the first week of November? Yeah, it’s definitely time to finish this.

Wish me luck!

Happy Birthday Pop Up Card

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Williams) — Thu, 23 Aug 2018 14:16:00 +0000

my work surface during the 'play' stage

Last week, I decided to make a birthday card for a friend who shares the same birthday as mine. I knew I had to use the pop-up mechanism I learned at Cricut Mountain Make-a-thon for the interior.

pop-up mechanism installed - ready for the pop-out card

When I got to this stage, I realized I wasn't quite sure how to measure where to attach the pop-out accordion at left to the mechanism at right to make it all work. I knew I had to glue top-right and bottom-left, but how far out from the center did I need to go? Since we didn't receive written instructions from the class, I popped over to search Youtube, where I found a great, 7-minute video of the whole process (placing the pop-out accordion shows up at 5:40). Thank you Srushti Patil!

I embossed the background squares before adding the lettering

I kept "Enjoy the Little Things", because it makes me smile. And I liked how the embossed backgrounds echoed that theme.

But what to do with the front? I decided to recreate one of Cricut Design Space's projects, Tiny Birthday Banners, with a couple of modifications. I used a different font for the letterin, and changed the pennants a little. Hot glue guns and I don't generally get along, so I added a little fold-over flap to the top of each banner, which made it super easy to attach them to the banner string.

Ready to attach the banners to the card, I discovered I didn't plan the stages of work well at all. I had to carefully unstick the edges of the inner liner paper (the sky blue) so that I could tape and glue down the ends of the two strings underneath. Oops!

Despite that, I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. Too bad I forgot to take a 'clean' picture of it! Instead, you get this close-up with the scissors. That's definitely the way things seem to roll for me these days.

Finished card, ready to mail.

Want the links to these projects? I've shared the links on my Cricut Profile page. You'll find this card, and a full Happy Birthday banner I had to make afterwards. Cricut's new interface doesn't currently allow me to link the projects directly from my blog - my only options for sharing are Pinterest and Facebook - they don't give me a link option. If I have time, I may give them a call later today and ask for help. In the meantime, my profile is a work around.

I also plan to post a project that's simply as many miniature pennants as can fit arranged on an 8.5 x 11" page. This one's for people like me who a) Hate to waste paper and b) May like having extra pennants hanging around, ready for that unexpected party. Unfortunately, Cricut requires me to add a photo of my own of the project before I can post that to my profile. Right now all of the pennants are tucked away in the closet of the guest bedroom where my niece is fast asleep, so any new photos will have to wait. :)

But hey, two blog posts in a single month! I may be on a roll.

Cheers!

Summer Camp Fun (aka Cricut Mountain Make-a-thon)

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Williams) — Wed, 08 Aug 2018 16:45:00 +0000

Love my new collection of pins! (the bag was mine)

Last week I went to summer camp, also known as Cricut Mountain Make-a-thon. Three jam-packed days of creativity, new friends, and so much fun! I've always loved summer camp - swimming, hiking, s'mores over a campfire, and my favorite - arts and crafts. Cricut's Mountain Make-a-thon definitely delivered on the last.

While it was announced back in May, I didn't decide to sign up until mid-July. I really, really wanted to do something fun, because this summer has been filled with a number of not fun things, like deciding I need to let go of my studio outside the home (and figure out what to do with everything that's lived there for the past ten years!) Signing up so late, a number of the classes were already full, but I easily managed to fill my schedule.

My biggest goal - to test drive Cricut's new Maker. With it's expandable set of tools, it's designed to cut everything from fabric (with the rotary cutter blade) to chipboard and balsa wood (using the knife blade), as well as the normal suspects (paper, vinyl, etc.) that their Explore Air cuts so beautifully. Over half of the classes I took were hands-on, using the Maker, and I got to watch it cut fabric, interfacing, fusible batting, felt, chipboard, paper, vinyl, iron-on and even crepe paper, as well as use the new scoring wheels to create a super-sized rosette.

I started out with a card-making class - couldn't pass up the chance to learn a new-to-me pop-up mechanism.

Add caption

Debbie O'Neal had designed on over-the-top card complete with pink flamingos, pineapples and a colorful toucan. I stuck with dead-simple to make it easier to focus on how the pop-up works. It's going to be such fun creating designs that work with this!

We cut 4mm chipboard and patterned vinyl to create this cute banner

In "Cuts Like a Knife" I learned the knife blade doesn't try to cut all the way through thick materials in one fell swoop. Instead, it makes multiple, very-precise passes. It took fifteen passes to cut the 4mm chipboard shown above. In the edge-on shot, I tried to show both the thickness of the chipboard, and how cleanly it cut.

Sample projects from "It Cuts Like a Knife" class

I spent the first day literally running from class to class, and discovered that there was no 'passing period'. If the schedule said Class A ends at 10:30 and Class B starts at the same time, they mean exactly that. It meant I was a little late to several classes, because I had something like five classes all lined up, back-to-back. Oops! Back in my hotel room that evening, I rearranged my schedule for the next day to give myself a little more breathing room.

First up on Day Two? Audrey Fixation's Amazing Zipper class.

Day Two - The Amazing Zippered bag

In an hour and a half, I cut out the fabrics, interfacing and fusible batting (using the cutting wheel), and FINISHED the phone case - including my first zipper in probably ten years. Cutting, ironing, and stitching, done! Wow.

I finished a several projects on Day Two - I took this photo that evening as evidence

My biggest surprise of the Make-a-Thon was how much I loved their newest line of Easy-Presses.

The newest Easy Press, in three sizes, from the Cricut website

Going into the conference, I thought I'd only want one if I really got into iron-on designs. Cricut cleverly had several projects, including some universal make-and-takes, that used the different sizes of Easy Press. We also used them in the sewing classes to press fabrics. They are so neat! My 10-15 year old iron had taken a fatal fall from my ironing board just before I left. This left me in a vulnerable position, where I was way too susceptible to the lure of the bright-and-shiny. Can you guess where this is going? Yep, the smallest press followed me home, really. We'll see how much I love it once I've used it a bit more at home. At the very least, it's base design makes it much less likely to plummet from my ironing board. :)

One of the classes I exchanged into was Lia Griffith's "Magical Crepe Paper Flowers". I was waitlisted, but luckily a few someones didn't show up, so there was room.

Lia Griffith's crepe paper flower bouquets on the left, my bloom on the right

In just an hour, I made this Iris/Tulip hybrid (it looks more like an iris to me, but I think it's supposed to be a fancy tulip). I could have used a little more time to blend the pan pastels, but I definitely got the picture. This was another dangerous, dangerous class! I'm now the proud owner of a signed copy of Lia's latest book, Crepe Paper Flowers. I can't wait to try out some of her other designs. Even better? If you have a Maker, the book includes a download code to cut all of the pattern pieces.

Breakfast time friends

Each morning started with a lovely buffet breakfast, usually followed by a general session. This was a great time to meet others who love to create as much (or more) as I do. Including Dewana, the admin for the Cricut Design Space Facebook Group, and a number of her friends from that group. Such a creative group!

In each corner of the main ballroom, the Cricut Team set up themed Design-scapes for a little extra inspiration. My favorite was the child's bedroom. Chock full of ideas. Love the animal appliques, and how they turned one into a stuffed animal!

Cricut Design Team's "Child's Bedroom"

Cricut Design Team's "Wine & Cheese" dinner theme

They had a selfie 'scavenger hunt' in order to earn the pins I showed earlier, hence my mug at bottom left. And every day, we received another goodie bag, from Michaels, Joann's and Cricut!

Conference Freebies in addition to class supplies.

Cricut also gave us all of the images and fonts used in the various classes, whether or not you actually took the class. So I can try out Anna Griffin's scoring wheel designs at some later date. The biggest challenge, was fitting everything into my small carry-on sized suitcase and the tote bag from above. Especially since we received the Bright Pad as a parting gift at the end of the last day. (It's not small!)

Can you tell I had fun? I've been home a week now, and I'm still jazzed by all the possibilities. Just need to finish moving the studio home, and then I'll have time to create....

Finding my Way Back to Me

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Williams) — Mon, 09 Jul 2018 17:14:00 +0000

It's been so long since my last blog post! As my desire to blog has slowly returned, I've debated whether I should try to revive my poor, neglected Baublicious, or whether I should simply start fresh with a whole new blog. In the end, I decided there have been enough endings and transitions in my life this year, I'm not ready for another.

That elimination diet I mentioned in my last post, back in January? The one that was supposed to last 30 days? Well, I ended up having to stick with it well into April, continuing to refine and eliminate additional foods until I could find a stable spot for my body to start healing. The good news is it has worked. My health has improved significantly in so many, many ways. Even areas that I simply took for granted as 'the way things are', like seasonal allergies, haven't been as bad as previous years.

The only fly in the ointment is I can't stay on my very restricted diet forever, and I'm still having significant troubles reintroducing foods. Yep, I'm still in stuck in the reintroduction phase - it's slow going. I still have bad days, when my body decides to reject the latest food reintroduction. Thankfully, the bad days are interspersed amongst the much more frequent good ones. The bad days help me remember just why I embarked on this journey in the first place.

The good news is that for the first time in forever, my mind keeps turning to creative endeavors not because I feel like I 'have to' or 'ought to' do them, but because I truly want to. At the same time, I feel like I'm relearning how to be creative. Rebuilding my creative muscles and stamina. Last month I focused on daily sketching. I signed up for a 30 day "Find Your Flow" workshop with Karen Abend, and committed to drawing for at least a half hour every day through the month of June. My biggest challenge was giving myself permission to create wonky, imperfect, and often incomplete sketches, and simply enjoy the process. So far so good!

This happened to coincide with an invitation from my mother-in-law to join her on an Alaskan cruise earlier this month. So I have plenty to blog about! I just need to retrain myself to put blogging into my routine. For so long, it's taken all of my focus simply to accomplish the must-dos on my daily lists. It feels amazing to have energy enough to reach out for creativity, for friendship, to find my way back to the me that makes me smile. Makes me feel like dancing!

Two Down, Two to Go

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Williams) — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 02:48:00 +0000

This is a totally non-bead related, non-artsy post, fair warning.

Health-wise, the past few years have been a bit of a roller coaster as I've dealt with a series of auto-immune issues. Things flared up again big time this past fall, to the point that I could barely breath during the day and only slept in 10-15 minute increments before waking up choking. Really not good!

This fall I got to visit with a whole slew of specialists, including an otolaryngologist who sent me to another specialist to verify that my hearing hadn't actually been damaged (it hadn't thank goodness!), and gave me referrals for environmental allergy testing as well as a sleep study. But he discouraged me from being tested for food allergies. I believe his concern was that in the state I was then, the results would say I was sensitive to everything.

Instead, he suggested that I cut out specific foods to see if my symptoms would improve, and suggested that I do an elimination diet, what he called the "Gold Standard" to let my system heal, and then slowly reintroduce 'suspect' foods while keeping a food journal to track sensitivities and reactions.

With the holidays fast approaching, I decided to put it off until the day after New Year's. January 2nd, I jumped in with both feet - cutting out everything that I seemed to cause problems, and a few extras that I was told to cut, just to be thorough. Check out my "No Fun" list of all the foods I'm currently avoiding - isn't it fun? (Not!) This is supposed to go on for a full four weeks before I start the reintroduction process. Weeee!

Here's what I've learned so far.

Week One: Cutting caffeine, sugar and wheat out of one's diet all at once is truly no fun. In fact, it was pretty darned awful. Crushing headaches, joint pain, fevers, nausea, other things best not to mention; if my energy levels hadn't been pretty good, I would have thought I'd caught the flu. But the good news, is if you do it all at once, then when it's done it's done. I don't think I could have gone through that multiple times.

Week Two was more of a mental challenge. I don't love to cook, and this diet pretty much insures that I have to cook every meal at home because it seems that almost everything prepackaged includes something I'm avoiding. Even luncheon meats - if it's not added sugars, it's garlic powder (my one cheat is a little bit of bacon). Figuring out how to make large batches of food that still taste good as leftovers with my limited ingredient list when I'm sick of cooking - yep, that was my challenge. Mostly, I was grumpy at all the things I can't eat right now.

Early in the week I also dealt with some energy issues. I'd head out to walk to the bus and find myself extremely light-headed, and my legs wobbly. Finally figured out that I needed more starchy carbs in my diet - I'd better not develop a sensitivity to sweet potatoes, because they are currently my best friend. Once I figured that out, I was even able to make it through a light work out at the gym on Sunday for the first time in months. Baby steps - I keep reminding myself.

Otherwise, I am seeing a definite improvement in many of my ongoing symptoms. Yippee!

from Practical Paleo by Dianne Sanfilippo

Now, I'm heading into Week Three.

Week One I put together a meal plan. Week Two, I kept telling myself to put one together, but never actually did because I was too busy being grumpy. Week Three, I'm determined to make a real meal plan and try out at least three new recipes. I'm debating a recipe for Broc-Cauli Chowder from Practical Paleo by Diane Sanfilippo. Would it really taste good? Especially without the garlic? Maybe I'd be safer with the Butternut Sage soup on the next page? Hmmm...

Either way, I need a new blender, so I've been researching options. Hoping not to spend too much, and I want something really, really easy to clean. I hated our old blender (dead now for ten plus years); the glass container was too big and heavy, and soooo difficult to clean. This time around I think I'm looking at a personal blender. Lighter weight, and easier to clean. Hopefully it will also work reasonably well. Keeping my fingers crossed. I'm also thinking about buying a hand-crank spiralizer. Zucchini noodles may be in my future.

I fear that's where all of my extra bandwidth has gone, these first two weeks of 2018. I am wide open to recipe suggestions; if you have a favorite recipe that fits (or can be made to fit) my limitations, I'd love to see it. I'd also love to hear your experiences if you've done a similar elimination diet in the past (or are doing one right now). Even with my nutritionist's recommendations, I really feel like I'm making this up as I go.

A White Christmas & a Boxing Day Surprise

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Williams) — Tue, 26 Dec 2017 21:26:00 +0000

Had to take a 'housie' - it looked so cute all decorated in snow

Who says wishes never come true?

Yesterday morning, we woke to a Winter Wonderland; the world outside our door decorated with a liberal coating of snow. And it hadn't stopped snowing; there was more softly drifting through the chilly air like party confetti. Snow Day!!!!

This being Seattle - we weren’t sure how long it would last. By some accounts this was Seattle's eighth White Christmas since 1909! Which is how we found ourselves wandering the neighborhood in the early morning light, drinking in the sights. Pre-coffee, pre-presents, predawn, just us and the snow.

wandering the neighborhood in the half-light before dawn

Cherry trees limned with snow

It was a wet, heavy snow and I love how it highlighted all the little tree branches.

These are photos of some cherry trees. The snow made it easy to see the variations in branching patterns between different tree species. Even the littlest branches of the cherry trees provided nice stark, dark lines of contrast. That’s likely the reason they were also my most successful tree photos.

What an amazing way to start Christmas morning! And sure enough, by late afternoon, the snow had begun to melt. Today, there's still snow on the ground, but it's gone from all of the trees.

Snow equals Snowflakes!

In celebration of our first Snow Day in forever, our first White Christmas in even longer, and as a little gift for Boxing Day, I'm putting together a free bonus snowflake tutorial for anyone who has ever purchased my Snowflakes and Stars tutorial, or one of my snowflake kits. This includes people who have taken one of my Snowflake workshops.

How do you receive your copy? Simply let me know where and when you purchased the tutorial (to the best of your memory). On New Year's day, I'll send you instructions for the snowflake pictured in my earlier post, Hoping for Snow, (and below). It's a 'decorated' version of my basic snowflake. Make sure you include an email address, or some way to contact you! If you send me a picture of one of the snowflakes you made, I may include a little extra bonus. Yep, a little bribery because I'd love to see your work. :)

Don't have the original pattern? Purchase it between now and New Years, and I'll send you the bonus instructions, too.


I'll send out instructions for this beaded snowflake on New Years

(Speaking of snowflakes, if there are friends who have a Cricut cutter and would like me to share how I made the paper ornaments, let me know. They were really easy; the snowflakes are stock images that I combined with a circle frame).

Happy Boxing Day!

Hoping for Snow

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Williams) — Sun, 24 Dec 2017 20:37:00 +0000

There’s potential for snow in the forecast, both today and tomorrow. Like always, it’s still uncertain; everything has to go just right (or just wrong depending upon your perspective) for it to snow in Seattle. Today, there’s a chance that by mid-afternoon, the fluffy white stuff might grace our skies and leave a light dusting all around. The original inspiration for glitter! If it doesn’t snow this afternoon, there’s a renewed chance of snow tomorrow. In either case, no real accumulation is expected.

If it does snow, it will be our first white Christmas since 2008. That year was definitely a case of too much of a good thing. It started snowing mid-December and didn’t stop until December 24th. Over a week straight of snow! Pretty much unheard of here. I only want an inch or two; a little extra decoration for the holidays, that disappears in time for the Tuesday commute.

And so I’m dreaming of a White Christmas, while sitting at my local coffee shop in front of the (gas) fireplace enjoying the quiet magic of Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas to all of my friends who celebrate the holiday. In the immortal words of Irving Berlin:

May your Christmas be merry and bright,

and may all your Christmases be white.

Girls Rule, Especially at Geek Girl Con

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Williams) — Wed, 04 Oct 2017 17:48:00 +0000

This weekend I took a side trip out of the regular world into the wonderful, amazing, zany world of Geek Girl Con. A world of games, science, imagination and fun where women took center stage for a change.

Panels ran the gamut from sneak peaks and hosted play for upcoming games, to in-depth looks at the demographics of various genres fan bases and their actual representation therein, to DIY science and art projects, to a panel on building realistic fake languages and hardcore STEM panels such as Droid Building 101: Build Your Own Astromech and Build Your Own 2G Phone With that last one, the first 20 participants participated in the workshop, everyone else was welcome to simply listen in.

For myself, I ended up skipping most of the hardcore panels this time and settled into a schedule of make-and-takes and games, including a group story building workshop.

Saturday opened with a little Betrayal at Baldur's Gate

Betrayal at Baldur's Gate starts as a territory exploration game. You and your fellow explorers build the board a tile at a time, gathering loot, battling monsters and uncovering periodic mysteries as you go. Until the game suddenly turns into a pitched battle or adventure game, where your party must learn to work together to defeat the threat. Worse, it may turn out that one of your party members is a betrayer, in which case you must defeat them to win the game.

The designers at Avalon Hill have written 50 different scenarios for the second half of the game - circumstances within the game determine which one you will face. As far as I could tell, every table in the room was faced with a different scenario, which makes for great replay value.

I was the only one at our table who hadn't played the earlier version, Betrayal at House on the Hill (totally non-D&D). We encountered a pve (player vs environment) scenario. We lost spectacularly, but it was still a lot of fun. If you're a long-time D&D fan, the game has the right feel. If you've never played D&D before, it's a fun adventure game (according to tablemates who fell into this category).

D&D Dinosaur Races with the Adventurers' League

My appetite whetted for some real D&D, I stuck around to play a new adventure from Wizard's of the Coasts' Tombs of Annihilation. Wizard's hosted a hands-on game. Totally unexpected, they gave each of us participating a dice bag with dice. At the end of the game, they surprised us again with free minies - we each received a random 4pack!

Sunday, I joined the local branch of the Adventurer's League for another scenario. My fellow players were a mom who'd never played before and a passel of tween girls who'd played for the first time the day before. This time we got to go to the Dinosaur Races! Complete with cool maps and minis perched on dinosaurs.

I've also learned there are sort of two different organized, drop-in D&D groups around here - the Adventurers' League and Pathfinders. I'm such a geek!

But enough gaming, I did attend a few panels, too.

The Force is Female panel speakers

My favorite thing, hands down, about all of the panels I attended? The speakers were predominantly women, unlike most other cons I've attended where at best there's a token female panelist.

a photo from a PAX 2017 panel for comparison

Back to the GeekGirl panel, I fear that I didn't stay through the full talk. I discovered I was no where near a hard-core enough fan. I hadn't watched any of the auxiliary series they referenced and couldn't begin to match their level of analysis of the source base as they referred to characters and scenarios with which I am wholly unfamiliar.

Even still, much of what they said resonated with me. One of the panelists also happened to be an engineer. She noted that in one scene (I think from Rogue One), there's a call for engineers and a bunch of guys come running. Her question, 'Where are the women engineers?' I had noticed this too; that while the new movies were getting better about female leads, they still had a long way to go including women in bit roles outside of female stereotypes.

Speaking of Star Wars, I happened upon these wandering the halls:

Daleks and Droids wandering the halls

And I learned a few new crafting techniques, including a great one for making quick, inexpensive masks.

My mask is lower left, but other participants let me photograph theirs

My mask, at the lower left, is unpainted. The woman who made the black one in the upper left corner designed hers to fit over her glasses! How cool is that? These were all made using tinfoil and masking tape, that's all except for the paint.

Moro and San from Princess Mononoke

I'd say at least half of the attendees showed up in costume. Many were of their favorite characters, like this fantastic duo from Princess Mononoke, but just as many were their own original designs. I wish I'd taken a photo of the member of the Women's Badminton Protection League, dressed in slightly steampunk, but very proper Victorian attire complete with a spiked badmitton racket and shuttlecock 'grenade'. Instead, I was focused on taking a photo of the band playing just outside the windows.

Band busking just outside the conference center

Equally cool were the men who attended the con. Men of all ages; fathers, brothers, sons, boyfriends and friends of women. Having a blast. I'd say the male to female ratio was the opposite of other cons I've attended such as PAX. A refreshing change. The con also seemed much more relaxed. I kept finding myself wishing my sister and her boys were in Seattle - there were so many panels and workshops that seemed perfect for one or another of them.

Then End of An Era - Saying Goodbye to Fusion Bead's Seattle Store

noreply@blogger.com (Karen Williams) — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 01:12:00 +0000

After hours at Fusion Beads

Times, they are a'changing; last month I learned that Fusion Beads would be closing their Seattle store. The end is almost here now; their final day will be this Saturday, September 30th.

Talking with Mari, the founder and owner of Fusion Beads, it sounds like more and more customers, including locals, are simply shopping online, rather than visiting the store. (The online store is going strong).

I remember discovering Fusion Beads soon after moving to Seattle in 2001. I was simply a hobbyist beader at that point, and I'd never seen anything like it. The colors, the beads, the possibilities. I took my first ever 'beading' class there, on beginner wire wrapping. I still have the bracelet I made in that class.

Somewhere along the way, I began teaching for them - freeform peyote, my random right angle weave lacework cuffs, snowflakes, and every sort of fish design I came up with - in their fabulous classrooms. I'm not even sure quite when I started, maybe 2011, maybe a little earlier? I know that it's been at least five years, and that it's been a huge part of my life and my social community during that time. As well as an amazing source for inspiration, and beads (did I mention beads?)

I stopped by Saturday and snapped a bunch of pictures, after the store closed for the day, which is why there are no people in my photos. Because it's busy when it's open; everything in the store is half off, with deeper discounts for some items. The walls are looking a little bare, but there's still so many amazing things, so much inspiration. So many amazing, talented women working there.

Clearance items (last ofs) for 75% in these cardboard bins

still lots of beads hiding in their little white cubbies

Need any size 15s? Still plenty of those left as of Saturday night!

I have to say that from my perspective, Mari has really been handling the closing process with class. A couple of weeks ago, I received an email from Trish, the store manager, offering all of their instructors first crack at the classroom tools and supplies before they went on sale for the general public. I don't do a lot of metal working, but when I do I kind of make do in terms of tools. I couldn't pass up the opportunity - I now have a real set of metal working tools.

My new-to-me tools!

But one of the coolest things Mari did was move their anniversary party up a little bit so that the store staff could participate, and included all of the instructors in the invitation list for a sunset cruise along Lake Union and Lake Washington. Once last chance to glam up and hang out with the gang.

Sunset over the arboretum

A peak-a-boo view of Mt. Rainier from Lake Washington


Downtown Seattle from Lake Union - my camera had a little trouble with this night shot

a photo with our 'captain' while waiting to set sail

Thank you Mari, for creating the go-to place in Seattle for beads, for encouraging me to experiment and grow as an artist in the medium, for so many wonderful memories. I will definitely be visiting you online!

Do you have favorite memories of the Seattle store, or a class there? If yes, please share below - I'd love to hear!