July 16, 2007

a Summer's Eve

Last Saturday a friend called, asking if I wanted to go to The Hillsboro Balloon Festival. I thought about all I had planned on doing and just said yes. I'm very glad I did as it turned out to be an almost perfect Summer's evening.... comfortable temperatures, no bugs, small town carnival atmosphere, and fun things to look at and do.

We walked from the center of town down to Grimes Field in time to watch the Hot Air Balloons set up. It was an opportunity to see them up close.

Here they are laying out the hot air envelopes.




With 9 balloons being inflated on the field, it was an unusual and beautiful sight.



They used large fans to start getting the balloon inflated. Then they lit off the propane burner to finish filling the balloon with hot air. We could get as close to them as we wanted to .... close enough that if you weren't careful, you could singe the hair off of your head!



The baskets were placed on the ground sideways and gradually went upright as more and more of each balloon was filled.





...and the first balloon starts up!










There it goes, right over our heads.











.

It was a beautiful sight to watch them quietly go up and slowly drift over the tree tops.


We ate junk food, laughed, and played at the booths... though I drew the line at buying a piece of the field for the "cow flop bingo" or going on any of the rides that were high up and spinning! We went back into town for dinner and afterwards came back, found a perfect close parking spot and took a blanket to the field. A piece of ground was found against a fence so we could lean back and watch fireworks. For a smallish NH Town, the fireworks were some of the best I've ever seen. So ended an absolutely splendid Summer's evening.

July 15, 2007

Summer Tomcats

My summer tomcats are back. They come in, get what they want and leave. This is my son's cat, Harley, trying to tell me to make a decent lap, quit with the computer typing and pay attention to him! That look says it all. With my traveling, I don't have any pets of my own and have to borrow. I'm lucky that in both places, I have two cats and a dog that have chosen to spend time with me.

June Bead Journal Update

June is Done, finally!
OK, my June page is as done as it will get until I finish July's page. My idea is to back each one, add a picot edge and join the picots to make a 12 piece, horizontal strip. To find out if that is going to work, I need at least 2 beaded pages finished.



The base beadwork is done and I've added the New Mexico twig to the surface. That works well as I needed a place to put my Quipu-like knotted strings.




I used a finger weaving technique with Mastexx cording to go around the twig. I think that I'll use my C-Lon cording on any future pieces as the Mastexx was very slippery and I had a hard time holding a decent tension.





Here I'm adding some of the treasures that I collected during the trip from AZ to NH. I also wanted to pick up more of the yellow-orange color to help balance the piece.





This is what it looks like with the knotted strings of memories. Some of those memories of June are in the colors, others in the stash beads or fetishes, and some in the beads (petrified wood) that I bought along the way.


I've been having a couple of conversations with myself ..... No, not crazy, just eccentric! One; I'm wondering why the overall color scheme came out so dark. The trip was all light, bright sunshine and the vistas were light colored mountains, rocks and fields. This one is still unanswered.

I did come to one conclusion... My June page is very complicated with many layers and textures. As designed, my July page will be very simple, flat , with a few bright primary colors. It finally dawned on me that when writing you might have a lot to say one time and maybe only a couple of words the next time. I need to quit thinking about how the completed journal will look like, let each month just be what it will be, and wait til the end to see if I like the full twelve piece journal.

July 12, 2007

Bead Journal Update

Life Happens

I'm still not finished with June's page because life got in the way of my beading. I've developed a case of hives that just won't go away. That led to pulling my bedroom completely apart as my first thoughts were bug bites of some sort - you know....fleas, bedbugs? Once that was done I had the bright idea that it would be a good time to really finish the bedroom - so everything was moved out and I've been putting up trim boards, patching, sanding and will now get to painting.

One thing I'm not happy with is the single orange bead holding the right side of the upper walking stick emblem down. I want to remove it, but I also know it was the first bead I stitched down. If I clip it, how do I stabilize things so the rest of the beginning stitches also don't come undone? So, I vacillate and still don't know what I'll end up doing. Oh, yes... the twig will come back and be beaded somehow to the surface when I'm done.

BUGS - July Bead Journal page

I have thought out my July page.... what else but "bugs"! A tribute to all of summer's small flying, biting things and my own recent bug episode. I've always done more of a freeform type of bead embroidery and this time I want to try coloring within the lines. I'm not sure yet if I'll use the yellow or red bug. When I'm ready to start beading, I'll print the bug design on my backing and stabilize the ink with a spray fixative. I haven't decided yet what to do with the background.... just make it a solid printed color or applique a fabric back.

Meanwhile, the medical profession is still scratching their collective heads over what is causing my hives... now going on 3 weeks.