January BJP Page

I finally finished my January page. (No you didn't miss one,
I still don't have December done).

This page came about as a real journal entry. In January two women made my family miserable so I thought I'd put it down in beads.

One of the women who made us miserable is my son's principal where he is interning as a teacher in San Diego. He teaches both science and math which is supposedly a much sought after skill. His principal liked him well enough at first and wanted him to try for getting known as a star teacher (any teachers out there will know more than me about this but I understand less than 10% of teachers get this). But, they had a run-in when my son didn't want to kick one of his students out for not trying and being a problem. (I guess a lot of the kids are problems in this school and that's why they come to it in the first place). He was against it because the boy had started shaping up and was now doing his work on time and participating in the class - in other words he'd turned around and my son wanted to give him a chance. Well, the principal didn't and said with his parents being well-educated they could take him elsewhere. My son doesn't believe in helping one kid less because his parents are better supposedly in some way - a kid who needs help is a kid who needs help. Then my son didn't watch the Presidential inauguration with the students which he found out later the principal wanted and when she questioned him on it he said he would think it's a momentous day when race doesn't make the day momentous anymore. So, he will be finding a new job next year. That one person can kick him out of the intern-teacher's program. His student's love him, by the way because he IS fair to them. So his being a great beginning teacher doesn't count if politics becomes involved.

The second woman was a family friend from Italy (currently lives in Vegas)who was visiting my daughter and her family. To make a long story short here, the woman's daughter jumped on the family dog and grabbed him around the throat while he was chewing a bone. The little girl either got nipped or scratched (the girl says scratched) on the face and had a few bleeding spots. My daughter stopped the bleeding right away but several hours later the mom wanted her daughter to go to the emergency room where she demanded a plastic surgeon even though the doctor on duty said no stitches were needed. The next day they went from my daughter's home to their own. And then a call came that the dog was to be picked up for quarantine. It turns out (by the animal control's own admission) that the mom wanted the dog killed not just quarantined even though under these circumstances the usual thing is to quarantine a dog at his own home. Well the dog was taken for 10 days, no rabies showed up and he went home (they would not kill him no matter that the mom was calling all day every day for them to do that). The reason this was a really big deal is the dog belongs to my grandson who has anxiety problems and ADHD and more and the girl's mom knew all this. She turned on my daughter's family as even now she is trying to sue them and this after they sponsored her husband to become an American, helped them buy a car, and so much more.

Well, I decided to make a page depicting the two women who caused so much heartache. January's page was to be red so I skipped December for the time being and went for January. I was certainly "seeing red"! My granddaughter had the molds and polyclay for the faces so we made them when I was visiting. The red beads for the hair were a gift from my oldest sister as were the short bugle beads. The 18 ought beads I got with a gift certificate my daughter gave me a couple of years ago so I was able to keep up my use of gifted beads. For once I didn't cover the fabric completely. It just didn't seem to need it. I felt like it was the right color and had the right design to go with the mood of the piece. I'd told my sister I felt like making them like voodoo dolls but she said to just blow them to the wind rather than hold onto them and their hurt so I added all the little swirls for that.

This is probably the most direct journaling I've done so far in the project. It just made sense to do it. Now what to do for December in red-orange? Hmm...

Roses

I thought I'd share the first rose of the season from my garden with all of you. My daughter and her family gave me this rose bush about four years ago. I struggle with the rabbits, grasshoppers, aphids, crickets, alkaline dirt, wind and a too hot sun to keep this bush going. I am always thrilled to see it bloom.

Getting Busy

I'm getting back to trying to do a little of
everything.

I am still working on my BJP page. Nothing like being so far behind and then deciding to add size 18 beads to the piece! I love those teensy tiny little things though and love it when I can add them to something.

I tried to do the inchies for the week. The theme this week at Inchy by Inch was to use triple embossing as the technique for the squares. First, I didn't know what triple embossing was so I googled it and found the explanation here . I ran into a small problem when I tried to make my inchies though as my heat gun quit on me while I was just partway through the process. Living outside of town, I won't be replacing it in the immediate future so this week's inchies just went out the window. Sorry everyone. To see some pretty ones go to the link above.

I am also working on my kitchen still. I started by painting it yellow as you can see here in this post. I have since finished the painting. I've bought new rugs I'll put down when everything is done. I am now painting my utensil rack for the wall. I painted it for my dad over 15 years ago and so am now making it match my canisters. I've got it sanded and base-coated with white. The canisters have a transparent glaze on them so I will do the same with my rack. I want it to really match so I am doing my best to use the same techniques even if my piece is wood rather than ceramic. I'll be sure to post the finished picture with the canisters so you can all see how I do.

Besides working on a pair of socks, that's about
where I stand at present. I wonder if I'm forgetting to do something....

New Post!

Hi everyone. I am finally back to beading. I don't have a lot done but I have started. This is January's page and I won't tell you what it means to me until it's done. Just wanted to let you know I am back at it and will try to make my way around to see what everyone else is doing now too.

Beading

I haven't done anything with my BJP pages since seeing tiny beads has been too difficult but I have been helping my grandkids work on a project I bought for them from Herrschner's (and I do not recommend their products anymore as I would have 30 years ago - they've gone too cheap) a year or so ago. Even with large pony beads the project was bigger for them than I expected so during visits with them I have pulled it out and we've worked together on it. With Easter coming up, I am really trying to get them to finish them this year so they can hang on the wall.

Out of three granddaughters one may actually develop a love for beading over time. I don't think the other two will but who knows so I'll keep introducing beads in some form over their growing up years and see where we end up.