beads and biscochitos.

creative fuel. ready to finish.

bead olympics.

feats of pattern, texture and fabric. ha ha! enjoying some 2024 Paris olympics while relaxing after work. nice.

ride and race prep.

rest: long running miles and many pelotons, followed by audiobooks, olympics, friends, drinks, cooking, time with roo, maggie, LZ, a long drive coming up, and liking my new job. a good summer.

could use some new beads for the dark pattern and a trip santa fe. maybe a quick drive with roo or stop through before the coloradoride with dad and pete.

me-n-mom.

just heard from some friends we made while in uzbekistan, ralph and marti. not only was the time with mom great, but these two were delightful and brought joy to the time. ralph just sent a pic of me and mom. might be my favorite one of all time. thanks, ralph, and more love to mom.

also you can see the whole iKat fabric rolled out. you have to look a bit but you can see how i am beading over the weave.

uzbek + me.

this project is great. i get to think about the time in uzbekistan with my mom and be creative now. idk if the fabric is better with beads. it can certainly stand on it’s own without my embellishment. but the joy of working on it makes it great. thanks, mom, for the best trip.

the best of besties.

christy is the best of the best. we’ve been friends since college and this year, we’ve had many reasons and time to get together, more than usual. special. she just left teaching, and was an inspiring and accomplished professional. now she will pursue new things. can hardly wait to see how she’ll succeed in new ways. because that’s what christy does.

this weekend she had a party, and i was lucky enough to go. her friends and family came, and we had drinks and coffee and cake and laughs. also i got to run the Incline. basically it’s steep.

bright. ikat. varied.

have been listening to A Walk in the Park this weekend on audible, and beading. it’s a story about two guys having a crazy adventure in the Grand Canyon. decided some brights along the tines in the fabric weave was a good choice. i like it.

she's started.

placed the first beads. straight lines makes it easy. seems like that might be the best way to honor the print…have wondered if it might add interest to do some horizontal fillings though. right now the fabric is leading the way. wondering if i can find a way to add my perspective alongside it.

the first bead is the hardest one.

picked a fabric, have the beads, even added “creative time, 1 hour” to a to-do list. i’ll start tonight, and watch a show. got a great list of recommendations for audio books from colleagues, once i finish A Walk in the Park, about a guy who survives an adventure in the Grand Canyon.

the silk road.

getting to see cotton growing in the fields, then transformed into beautiful fabrics was an inspiration. what will i do with the pieces we brought home?

the trip of a lifetime.

mom and i took the trip of a lifetime to Uzbekistan. people, cities, food, mosques, history. the place was magic, but the time with mom was even more magical. how lucky are we!

go easier.

at first i was making this harder than it actually is, and it took time to see that the pattern is just a honeycomb. honestly. if you look above, you can see where i was trying to outline all the things and it was a struggle. doesn’t have to be that difficult. i think the yellow will be great. not sure how i’ll fill the middle or sides but that will come.

watching The Mandalorian, pelotons, runs, cooking…and of course working on this. good slow time. Madonna this week. like a prayer.

laurie's shoe.

i have two running besties. laurie and michelle. made a piece with michelle’s shoe tread a bit ago. started with laurie’s, but it was more complicated and i got stuck creatively. because there are diamonds and triangles and those are hard. back to it, have reconsidered and hope i have a path forward this time around.

basically this is an imprint of laurie’s shoe tread, one which had miles and miles of running together on it. so it is meaningful to me.

side by side.

all right. here’s the plan next to the final product.

finishing touches. great memories.

will add everyone’s favorite song in beads but can’t find the beads. like friendship bracelets. and will use the show bracelets as the side hangars.

fan forward.

working on the iconic fan from the Eras tour opening. designed three types of panels - matte beads for bright color panels, shiny beads for lighter, more dimensional panels to recede, and fabric for air and lightness. doing this to try and recreate the billowy nature of the fans. i like it.

this weekend is the Super Bowl and should be fun to watch. Taylor might try to fly back from Tokyo to be there. fun to follow. snow this weekend.

4 people and one fan.

this one is going fast. LZ looks great. have beads to decorate his outfit and will add those later. working on the iconic opening fan used at the Eras tour opening. on the fan, i’m alternating shiny and matte, hoping to give it more depth and yet retain the bright appearance.

The Best Day of My Life

idea: celebrate what LZ said, and i agree, was one of the Best Days of Our Lives. The Eras Tour in Denver on July 14, 2023. selected some pics of us, and made stickers, printed, laid them out on the canvas. the fans at the opening were iconic, wanted those in the background. the pics below show the steps from pics, to eliminating pics, to cutting out figures, placing them, and preparing to sew.

excited about this one. it will be fun to take this stocking out years from now and remember the preparations, the outfits, and the event - which we are still talking about.

ruth and maggie were in Las Vegas, coming home from being at Gram’s airbnb in St. George. thought they were flying home. i surprised them at the airport and took them them to see the Eras tour at Allegiant instead. epic.

LZ and I coordinated outfits, LZ in custom denim and me in a denim dress for the Denver show.

she's close. lions win. it's negative eleven.

yay me. just a few squares remain. will come close to finishing today. should i pull out the beads because they do not look good…or let them stay as a reminder of the creative struggle…thinking the latter.

it’s negative eleven and stuck inside. and the Lions won a playoff game for the first time in 32 years. LZ is happy. he’s been a Lions fan since he became aware of the NFL, age 5 maybe. way to be a superfan, LZ, and for sticking with your team!