We Give Our Loved Ones Back To God

We give our loved ones back to God.

And just as He first gave them to us

and did not lose them in the giving,

so we have not lost them

to Him...

For life is eternal,

love is immortal,

death is only a horizon...

and a horizen is nothing

but the limit

of our earthly sight.

Heavy Heart

I have some heart ache today. Last night my grandmother passed away. It was her time, and she passed with no pain, but I am still on the verge of tears when I think about her. She is a good woman who will be missed greatly. Most of my pain, I must admit, I am feeling for my grandfather. He has spent so many years at my grandmothers side, that I worry what his loss will bring for him. For the last two years he has devoted almost every waking hour to her, sitting by her, even when she wouldn't recognize him, he was there. I hope that his strength, and the love of his family will hopefully see him through this most painful time. I wish I had a picture of Grandma to post. She was such a beautiful woman.

On somewhat of a lighter note, I have been working non stop on this blankity-blanken mask. I am making great progress(I hope to get some photos soon, and maybe even post them), but I fear that it still will not be done on time. I am now starting to feel the pressure building behind the deadlines that are coming up shortly after the mask. The project that I have for Beading for a Cure is due back by June 15Th, and I will admit that I still don't know what I am going to make. I figure that will be easy to do as long as I start by June 1st. And then I get to start my Pink Ribbon Turtle ! I at least have the fabric picked out for that. Now I just need more beads! (my husband would argue that with me...)LOL!

Speaking of more beads, Red Fox Beads opened this week. You can check out this short video that the owner Shelia Reisinger made of the store. She is staring out well, and with some beady support, she will expand in time. I was there on opening morning, and she already had a few customers in, and even I couldn't resist buying something (I don't have much self restraint when it comes to beads).

Panic!

April 11Th and my mask is no where near done! I am in a panic at the moment because my beaded mask for the Behind the Mask Challenge is not nearly close enough to being done to make me feel very good right now. It took me until January to come up with a feasible idea, and I have been working steadily on it, but it is not coming along like I dream it should be. I guess there is still a slight chance I might be able to pull it all together, if I give up sleeping, and driving my family taxi. I told Brian that if he would put his life on pause, and take over my duties (children, house, car, etc.) and if I also gave up sleeping, and glued myself to my chair, I might be able to do it...but I don't think any of that is plausible. I will keep beading, and trying, and panicing...until....it is time to start the next challenge so I don't fall behind on that one too. Why is there never enough time? Well, maybe because I am sitting here at my computer, reading e-mails, and forums, and posting on my blog...oh my, the guilt is tremendous.

I have been exploring the world of BeadBugle.com . William Johnson has asked me whether I might be interested in writing for them. I had never heard of Bead Bugle before, but he tells me they have been around for 11 years, and somewhere near 40,000 readers. That's a lot of people. I am still exploring what other people have been writing about, and giving this a lot of thought. I think it will be a lot of fun, but I haven't actually come up with what I might write about. I have never really been a writer, but there is a first time for everything. I'm writing here aren't I?

On another note, I have been out beading with the girls. Shelia has told us that May 13Th her new bead store will open. Red Fox Beads. It will be in her house for now, until she gets a good customer base, and can afford to move to a regular retail establishment. I'm happy for her, I have always thought that Freeland is a good area for a bead store. I am a bit upset though because seed beads are not on her list of must carries yet. Why can no one except Bead Haven carry my beads? I hate driving out there...ah, well, I guess that's my problem though. Maybe she will be pressured by the general beady public to carry them, and they will want to take classes and such, and she will give in to the pressure...a girl can dream, cant she?

Love Squared Revealed

Last night Monica Magnuss posted the photos of the pink artist project. The doll has been named Love Squared and is approximately 40 inches tall. Now that Monica has finished constructing her, she is going to start her journey to Art Doll Quarterly, and then will be auctioned off. All of the proceeds will go to the Susan G. Komen foundation to help with breast cancer research.
I cant believe how beautiful she is. Monica did a fabulous job creating her. And a big round of applause for all of the people who donated their time, and their craft to help with such worthwhile cause. Cancer affects so many people, the only way we can fight such a disease is together.
I dedicate my squares (one is featured here, on the right side, silver beads with a pink ribbon) to my step-grandmother, Evelyn Kitchen, who was lucky enough to win her fight with breast cancer not once, but twice. I hope that my efforts, and everyone else's, will help make the chances of surviving cancer even just a little bit easier for everyone.

Pink Ribbon Turtles

This is a picture of the Pink Ribbon Turtle for 2007 made by Jena Tuntas. For the past three years Jena has been raising money for the American Cancer Society to help with breast cancer research. I found Jena through an article written by Beadwork Magazine about her project. She has been making these beaded turtles, raffling them off and donating the proceeds for 3 years now.

Well, I don't know how much you know about me, but I have a slight obsession with turtles. I saw this article written about Jena, and I knew I had to check it out, so I looked up her website http://www.atawhisper.com/. Jena makes the MOST beautiful turtles Ive seen in a long time, and I thought to myself, "hey, I want to bead turtles too!", and what a worthy cause. I wrote Jena an e-mail, and told her I would like to help her out, would she consider expanding her one-woman vigil? She was very receptive to the idea, and was happy to include me, and possibly more people who might want to contribute to this cause. So, my question is to the rest of you good beaders out there, would you like to help with the Pink Ribbon Turtles? If you might consider donating your time and efforts you can find out more about this years "Pink Ribbon Turtles 4Q" that Jena and I are trying to coordinate.

Bead Quilt Squares

This weekend I decided to sit down and finish up my squares for Jeannette Shanigans Bead Quilt. This years theme is "Life is beautiful like the rose, but beware of thorns". You can see the rest of the squares she has received so far by visiting http://shanigansbeadshenanigans.com/BCQuilt.html . The deadline to have your squares to her is April 1st, then she will construct the quilt, and donate it to Bead Artists against Breast Cancer . I think its great that so many people want to contribute to such a worthwhile cause. Too many families are affected by cancer of all kinds. I am glad that even though I don't have the money to donate to things like this, that I can use my talents to help.

In case you don't know, March is National Colorectal Cancer Research month, and speaking of good cancer research donations, the auctions for Beading for a Cure are underway now and will continue through May 4Th. Try to take some time and check out the eye candy that all of these fabulous artists have donated to help raise funds for colorectal cancer research.

Pink Artist Squares

I finished my Pink Artist squares and got them all mailed off on time (whew). In case you don't know, the Pink Artist project is being organized by Monica Magness at http://girl-gone-thread-wild.blogspot.com . She is collecting 2X2 inch art squares to cover a doll and blanket which will be sent to Art Doll Quarterly, and then auctioned off with all proceeds going to the Susan G. Komen Foundation and breast cancer research. Feel free to click on the link to the right with the pink artist on it and find out more about it. Some fabulous squares were donated!

The two squares up top are the two that I sent. The first one I made was the pink ribbon. Funny, I don't really like pink much, but I have an awful lot of pink beads. The second square holds the initials of my step-grandmother Evelyn May Kitchen who was a two time breast cancer survivor. She was in my thoughts while working on these squares. I'm glad I can contribute to such a worthy cause.