Snow Business

Look quick! It's melting already, darn it! I love snow! I just love how the world looks so different when covered in a white blanket. I love the hush that happens when everything is muffled. Here it doesn't snow often and usually melts really fast. This is early for us though. Normally we don't get any snow (except on the mountains) until January or February. Just a couple of centimetres caused all kinds of highjinks this morning with traffic. Remind me again why I don't work for a living?

I got these treasures in the mail yesterday from my friend Cathy at That Bead Lady in Ontario. I wanted to try out the new C-Lon cord which comes in lovely colours and is heavy enough to be used for micro-macrame. A nicer version of Mastex. Anyway, since it was going to cost her more to send it than usual because it's fat, I thought I'd make it worthwhile and order some more stuff. What? Of course I need more stuff! Since I used up some of my cube beads while teaching the Wild Beaded Bag class, I thought I'd get a few new ones. Cathy has some new smaller cubes in now, so I got a couple of those too. Plus some copper crimps and some sterling crimp covers to try out. Not pictured is the new packet of size 12 beading needles which I go through quickly with some of the bead classes. They last me until they are completely bent out of shape but Some People went through 3 or more of them for one project! Yikes! I'm not naming names but they need to learn to be a bit more aware of how hard they are pulling so as not to break the eye. BTW, does this look like $60 worth of stuff to you — well, minus the $9 postage? Thought not.

Anyway I think I like the C-Lon cord. It certainly comes in pretty colours and they match the C-Lon thread (a Nymo substitute) in case that's important in a piece. These are my current fave colours, except for black which I already have in Mastex. Wonder when I'll ever find time to try it out? The potential project list just keeps getting longer and longer. So how do people run out of ideas anyway? Never happens to me.

Another item to cross off the To-Do list is my submission for the bead swap due on Thursday. Just have to write it up now. This is Russian netting in a snowflake design. Appropriate, huh? The snow I mean. I used some unusual black Czech seed beads with a white stripe, white pearl seed beads, and some silver-lined crystal seed beads. I got the interesting bars for the clasp out of my stash. Now I wish I remembered where they came from! One end of the tube is open and you kind of slide a row of your beadwork into the slit on the side and then close the flap to keep them in. It was exactly the right length too. I added the split rings and lobster claw clasp which made the bracelet just long enough to go around my teensy wrist. I can't do it up without help though! It's quite dramatic with such contrasting colours even though the silver beads on the edge don't show up as well as I'd hoped. I didn't want to use galvanized beads however for fear the finish would rub off and I didn't have a darker silver-lined. The ends were a bit tricky to work in the two-needle netting but I fudged it and added more reinforcing thread. Hopefully it won't wear through too quickly at the clasp bars.

Well it's my turn with health problems. I'm having trouble with my right ear since last evening. It clogged up completely and now my tinnitus noise is really loud and I can't hear very much at all out of that ear. I don't think it's ear wax or anything like that. Don't know what's up and my doctor's office keeps having a busy signal on their phone. It makes me feel dizzy and queasy because I think it's affecting my balance so maybe it's my inner ear? But I don't think I've had any infections lately. Anyway it's really annoying! If it doesn't go away by tomorrow I'll make a doc's appointment. I've got to teach tomorrow night which won't be easy if I can't hear properly. Yuck! If it's not one thing it's another, eh? WHAT? Now I know why some people with tinnitus commit suicide.